Loser Week 3

So it is week 3, and I have lost 2.8 lbs this week for a total of 6.8 for 3 weeks. Not bad. Not quite where I want it to be (again my gaol is 2.5 a week, for a total of 10 a month) but I can't complain either, a loss is a loss.

on monday of last week I went to the library and checked out every single biggest loser book they had....



So this week was spent reading them all, cooking food from them, doing the excercise video from netflix, learning new things. :)

I started a food journal this last week, keeping track of all the food I eat in a day, which is said to help you figure out what works and what doesn't, and helps you to eat less. This week I am going to keep a more detailed one, like what time I ate, if I was still hungry that day, etc. I also want to start keeping track of my calories, but I think this will take me longer than a week to master. Baby steps though. Small changes each week.

I've learned that in order to lose weight you are supposed to take your weight and multiply it by 7 and that is the highest number of calories you should consume in a day in order to lose (although they say you should not eat less than 1200 either). I also learned that it takes 3,500 calories to create a pound, and you must burn an extra stored 3,500 to lose a pound. So in order to lose one pound a week you need to burn 500 more calories a day than you consume. Well, I want to lose 2.5 lbs a week, which is more like 1250 calories more burned than consumed! Woah momma. That means combining excercise and eating fewer calories. So my goal in the next week or two is to invest in one of those devices that you can wear that tells you how many calories you burn each day, which will help me figure out how many I should eat. Lots of work involved here..... :)

I did really well for most of this week. Monday I didn't get to go to the gym because I had to take Bourbon to a 3 hour intake assessment at OU medical center for a group therapy program that his therapist reccommended. She thinks he would benefit from being in this group with kids his own age, so we had to go sit through that all day so I didn't make it to the gym. Then tuesday I woke up sick and spent the day laying on the couch, so there wasn't any activity that day either. But by Wed. I was up and at em again. I walked wed & thursday, went to the gym wed. and did my biggest loser workout friday & saturday, and then went walking sunday.

I ate well all week long too. I really like the receipes in Jillian Michael's cookbook, and the biggest loser cookbooks, they are yummy and healthy, which makes it feel like I'm not on a diet. I even made almost all the dinners for all of us from the cookbooks this week. Listen to some of these dishes;steel-cut oats with apples & pecans, chicken sausage with poached eggs & sweet potato hash (I realized I forgot sweet potatoes, so I made it with butternut squash instead...DELICIOUS!), oatmeal chocolate chip muffins (which had dark chocolate & orange zest, sweetened with coconut milk & honey, not a bit of sugar, and sooooo good!), ham, apple & cheddar on grilled country bread, roasted pork stuffed with artichoke, feta & black olives, and beef stir-fry with broccoli & shittake mushrooms. Those were all things I ate this week, they were sooooo good! We are having mediterranean lamb burgers and fish tacos this week. It makes dieting fun. :)

But it's not so much a "diet" as a lifestyle that they are trying to stress. Eating whole foods, not processed. Avoiding "white" stuff (flour, sugar, etc) eating whole grains and healthy oils and fats. Combining the right amount of protein & carbs & fats. Did you know that when you eat carbs alone, they get digested in about 40 mins? But when you eat protein it takes it about 3 hours to be digested. And when you eat carbs with protein, it is forced to be digested at the same rate, which means you are fuller longer. Also when you ingest carbs & protein at the same time, your body naturally produces a growth hormone that increases your metabolism, causing you to burn more calories than you normally would. Fascinating stuff. So if you eat carbs, eat protein with it!You are supposed to eat a ratio of 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein each day.

I really am enjoying learning this stuff. I think it is interesting.

I am also trying to find ways to move more, get the kids to move more. I want to start doing something as a family each week that gets us out and moving; rollerskating, hiking, bowling, whatever. Something fun though, so even though it is excercise, it's fun and family time. It's a goal.


These are the books I got at the library tonight.....




the little one is a calorie counter with like over 2,000 different entries, everything you can imagine, including fast food and restaraunts. So I am going to ty to learn to track my calories each day, and then maybe the next week I can figure out how many calories I use each day, so I can make sure I am getting the right amount eaten and burned to meet my weight loss goal.

I am looking forward to another great week with a good weight loss!! :)