Hitting a snag

It seems that I have hit a snag in my wanting to live a healthier lifestyle and that I have reverted back to the same habits I had once I started this life style choice.

I have A LOT of bad habits when it comes to dieting, which I don't even like to call it that because I'm not just dieting I'm trying to make some serious changes in my life. My spouse and I recently bought a house that needed some work done to it before it is able to be moved into and with being there long days we have started to eat out, and by eating out I mean the heavy fat crap that is served at most places when you just want something quick to eat so you can get back to work. Since we have bought the house I have been stuck in a rut and just keep going round and round with my bad habits. I had steered off chocolate for a couple weeks (and I work in an office where several people have candy jars on their desk!) but this week and some of last week I find myself raiding their candy jars telling myself it's only a little piece of candy, but that little piece of candy becomes the size of a king sized candy bar in no time.

I do keep a food diary and I have read on several weight loss blogs such as Get Fit Slowly and Weight Loss Journal and they talk about the importance of keeping a journal as well as my Dr. which I do keep a journal on thedailyplate.com which is a free service that allows you to keep a journal of your daily food intake and gives you the amount of calories to consume in a day to ensure that you loose 2 lbs per wk. Which since we bought this house has been very depressing and I'm finding it harder to get back on track now. My spouse is wonderful and tries to help me get back on track but I have been finding it harder this time around than when I first started. I crave foods high in fat and I want chocolate like crazy. One good thing about getting the house is that I have been more active, painting, going up and down a ladder, carrying things in and out which has helped in not actually gaining any weight.

I am hoping that since we now have a refrigerator in the house we will go back to cooking more, I also need to get a new pedometer since I broke mine and I did go on a 45 min walk this morning. I have my fingers crossed and hope to get back on track soon otherwise I'm going to have to change my blog name!!

Weight Loss Around the World

As many of us Americans know we are by far the most obese country in the world, although other countries are now starting to have problems of their own. We now have a new epidemic with childhood obesity, and I wonder how do other countries react to weight problems. I decided to look at countries that are on the same level of economic development as our own, and I came across How the Swiss Do It and they have a 70% success rate of individuals not only loosing weight but keeping it off (which is the biggest challenge), while in America we have a 5% success rate. Just looking at the figures one can easily tell who has the better weight loss program.

When you read over the article you see that these people have a 2 week hospital stay where their calories are reduced and they are to start an exercise regiment. They do this along with cognitive therapy, and art therapy. The cognitive therapy helps individuals get to the root of why they are over eating in the first place. I think this is a brilliant idea, when I get stressed out I want to eat, when I get depressed I want to eat and I'm a worrier so I am stressed all the time, this type of therapy would be a benefit to learn better habits and other ways of venting stress.

Mayo Clinic and researchers in Norway, Mexico and Australia have taken another approach which is a surgical procedure that is less invasive than bariatric surgery. It's a device that stimulates nerves in the stomach to make a person feel full, this procedure is reversible and have not yet been approved for actual use.

I like the way that the swiss do it, the only problem is most of these countries the health care is provided for by the government, so even with health insurance in America this kind of treatment would be very costly and that is if insurance even covers it. I plan to write a letter to my Dr. and asking her what she thinks of it.

My Yoga Myth Busted!

Years ago when I heard people talk about Yoga I just thought it was for stretching, meditation and I didn't think it was a really good workout or a good source of exercise. I was completely wrong, I asked my Dr. how she felt about Yoga and she said she loved it (this is a woman that I have been seeing as my Dr since I was a child and this woman even when pregnant didn't look fat)

I decided to go ahead and give Yoga a try, I mean I am out of shape I need to be more flexible and I just need to get moving. My boyfriend has been helping me through this transition and we are working together on better habits, so this morning was our second day in a row of Yoga Zone weight loss for beginners (photo shown) and I am so sore. I was sweating, and my whole body just aches. I did so some stretching last night before going to bed since I read "Cleared to Run" on Get Fit Slowly and it discusses the importance of stretching. I will make sure that I stretch again before I go to bed, and see how I feel in the morning and do another day of Yoga

2nd week of eating healthy, but first post

Like I said on my about me section I just recently found out that I am pre-diabetic and if I don't make some dramatic changes in my life I'm going to go to the point of no return.

I decided on Sunday 7/15/08 that I was going to start making changes in my life. I stumbled across this website called The Daily Plate. This is a free service (unless you want to go gold) that once you fill out a profile it will tell you your estimated BMI score, needless to say mine wasn't very good. This site will also tell you about how many calories you should eat to loose 2lbs per wk. They also have a daily journals where you can log your food and they calculate the calories, fat, carbs, etc. and take that off your daily calorie intake and you know how many calories you have left and can plan meals around that.

So I started entering my food and my first day I was over my calories and fat, just entering in what I ate and having it added up for me showed me how much I was going over. This allowed me to plan my day and meals better. My first week doing this I didn't do anymore exercise than I normally do I just changed my eating and I lost 2.6 lbs in the first week. But I should let you know that I work on a campus and run errands throughout the day so I walk at least 2 miles per day so with the walking and the eating right I was able to loose weight.

I have gone through various health and fitness blogs to see what other suggest and I ran across this article on No.Calories Needed and I also found an interesting article on Weight loss Ladder that talks about 4 excuses not to exercise and ways to get over them. I have read other articles on their sites that I have liked and signed up for both blogs. I also like to read Get Fit Slowly but I think he is in a more advanced state of fitness than I am. Running 16 miles!!! just thinking of that makes my body hurt.