Weigh-In Wednesday: Cutting Out Sugar

Well the scale still isn't budging and I know why.  It is because I continue to eat and drink too much, especially sweets.  I have not been doing so well at cutting pop out of my diet and when I do I replace it with sweetened tea which I love to enjoy with a sweet treat (cookies anyone?).  So for one week I am going to cut out sugar in the hopes that it will reduce my cravings for sweets.  I know this will be difficult but I am only doing it for one week to start with.  I can last one week without sweets, right?

So that is my goal for the week, no sugar!  Anyone care to join me in a sugar free week?

Weigh-In Wednesday and Buying Exercise DVD's

Wednesday is here again.  I weighed myself this morning and the scale still hasn't budged.  It is stuck at 159 lbs. But don't worry I'm not giving up and I know I still have a lot of changes to make.  But first, how did I do last week?  I did pretty well on the exercise front exercising every day (except the weekend) during LK's morning nap.  This definitely is a habit I want to continue and I feel so much better when I do it.   I drank my water pretty faithfully as well.  On the pop front I did have 3 cans of coke over the week but that is definitely better than the 7+ cans I will sometimes drink.  For this week coming up I want to work on reducing my portion sizes and eating more fruits and vegetables.

Now I mentioned previously that I typically work out using exercise videos.  This work well for me as I do not live close to a gym, the weather is Sask is pretty unpredictable and most of the year not great for working out in, and the DVD's motivate me to keep going.  If you are looking to purchase exercise DVD's I recommend checking out Collage Video.  They have so many workout videos there with short clips so you can get a feel for what you are buying.  They also have user reviews and a bar graph showing how many minutes in the video are devoted to warm-up, aerobics, toning, and stretching.  In addition Collage Video has a forum so if you are interested in a particular video you can post there asking for others opinions of it.   Before you buy a workout video be sure to check if it requires any equipment.  This is important to know as you don't want to get a video home only to discover it requires equipment  you don't have (there are many videos that don't require any equipment).  Another option for those of us who are cheap (ahem, frugal) is to check the discount bins at Walmart and other stores.  I have picked up a number of videos for only a dollar or two this way.  Some of them were not so good but others I have really liked so I think I have come out ahead.  The other place I have purchased videos is Amazon.ca.  Because Collage Video is based in the States and I am in Canada by buying from Amazon.ca I can save on shipping and customs fees.

Do you do workout videos?  Where do you typically purchase them?

Weigh-In Wednesday and Book Review: Baby Boot Camp

Well I am a little late in posting this but as I do want to be accountable I thought I better get this posted.  I am afraid that I didn't do all that well with my goals last week.  We made pizza last weekend and I ate a ton of pizza and drank coke.  We had lot's leftover so the next day I continued to eat pizza and drink coke.  So I was not suprised when I steppped on the scale today to find out that I had not lost any weight.  If I want to reach my goal I am going to have to get serious about this.  I also did not do as much activity as I would have liked.  However it is a new week and I am recommitting to my goals.  I want to drink only one coke this week and focus on drinking water.  Also I want to fit in a workout every day.  I know I can lose weight faster by focusing on diet and cutting calories but as a nursing mom I don't want to cut calories too drastically .  Also I find that exercises helps me to feel better about myself which in turn leads to me making healthier choices in what I eat. So exercise will be my main focus.  I have already worked out three days this week so I hope I can keep it up.  My favourite way to exercise (as it is most convient for me) is to use exercise DVDs.  This week I have done Kathy Smith's Power Walk for Weight Loss, the Upper Body portion of Kathy Smith's Lift Weights to Lose Weight 2, and part of Leslie Sansone's Walk Slim 4 Fast Miles.

However, I wanted to talk a little about this book I have Baby Boot Camp.  If you are new mom who wants to workout at your own pace and incorporate your baby into some of your moves this is a great book.  It has excellent pictures showing every exercise.  It is broken down into chapters by your baby's age (0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, and 9-12 months).  Each chapter has two nine minute total body strength workouts: one using your baby and your body weight, and the other using dumbells.  It also has cardio workout guidelines, tips for walking with your baby, and a chapter on stretching. I have done a number of the workouts in this book and enjoyed them.  I like the tips on using your baby so I can play with my baby while I get some activity in.This book would be a great gift for any new mom in your life.  I still like doing DVDs when I can but this book has great workout tips for when I have to workout when my baby is awake.

This post is linked to Watch My Weight Wednesday's at Angie's Healthy Living Blog.

Weigh-In Wednesday

Well today was that dreaded day to step on the scale again.  I did pretty good with drinking my water last week, but I am afraid I ate a lot this past weekend.  We had company and I like to make dessert when we have company.  But do I eat one small piece as a weekend treat.  No, I eat a large piece and go back for seconds. 

On the exercise front I didn't do a whole lot but I did try to fit some extra movement into my days.  With diet and exercise I have to work on getting that all or nothing attitude out of my head.  Small changes do add up and they are easier to maintain for the long-term.  My little guy is going to bed a little earlier now so I am going to try and do some yoga each evening after he goes to bed.  During the day I will try to fit in a walk and/or some strength exercises.

So this weeks weight is the same as last week 159 lbs.  I am just glad that number did not go up.  Hopefully I will see that number go down in the next few weeks.

For this week I am going to continue focusing on drinking my water and in addition I am going to try to cut out pop.  Over the summer I started drinking coke again and now I am drinking almost one a day.  This week I am going to try to only have one coke the entire week.  Pop has no nutritional benefit and cutting it out is a simple way to reduce your calorie intake.  Note I said a simple but not easy way.  As those of you know who have been hooked on pop it is a hard habit to break.

So that's it for this week: drink lot's of water, no pop, and add in some extra movement by doing some yoga at night, and strength exercises and walking during the day.

This post is linked to Watch My Weight Wednesday's at Angie's Healthy Living Blog.

Weigh-In Wednesday

I need to restart weigh-in Wednesdays.  While I have had an enjoyable summer I really didn't focus much on healthy eating or exercise.  I enjoyed a lot of fruit and berries but I also a lot of ice cream with them.  I did some hiking and yarrd work but I also spend a lot of time lounging around and I didn't do really any focused workouts.  Now that we are getting back into a regular routine I need to add in some healthy habits.  This week I am going to focus on adding in some small workouts (yoga, walking, some simple strength exercises) as well as drinking my water.  I want to drink at least 4 bottles of water a day.  This is such a simple thing to do but when I don't make a point of drinking water I just don't drink enough.  When I am drinking my water I do feel better and I have more energy.  So those will be my steps to work on for this week.

My current weight is 159 lbs. so my weight did not go up over the summer (but it did not go down either).  My goal is to be 150 lbs by Dec. 1 and then to maintain that weight through the holiday season.  So here's to a healthy fall season.  What healthy goals are you working on this week?

This post is linked up with Watch My Weight Wednesdays at Angie's Healthy Living Blog.

Weigh-In Wednesday and Weekly Goal

Well, I just weighed myself and I believe I am down another pound.  Today's weight 161.  That means I am just one pound short of my goal of 160 pounds, which is awesome.  I haven't been working out really though and I was hoping to tone up some more.  So I need to work on that.  Next week I will set a new weight loss goal to work toward over the summer.  The main thing I did this past little while was to focus on drinking lot's of water and I tried to not drink as much coke.  I still drink a lot of pop but it definately is less than I used to.  I do notice that I feel better on days when I drink plenty of water.

I don't really have a goal this week as I am busy getting ready for the wedding.  I guess my goal is just to stay calm and be organized and enjoy the time.

Weigh-in Wednesday and Weekly Goal

Here is my weight loss tip for the week: Breastfeed.  Seriously, I have been eating like a pig and not exercising this past week and I am still down one pound.  This weeks weight is 162 lbs. Apparently breastfeeding burns up to 500 calories a day.  So that is just one benefit to add to the many of breastfeeding.  I enjoy breastfeeding my son.  It is my time to sit and cuddle with him and I often sneak in a few minutes of reading as well.  Also I can feed him anywhere, at any time with no worry about bottles, measuring formula, or any of that.

In any case I still want to work on eating healthier.  Again this week I did not do so well with the food diary and increasing my intake of fruits and vegetables.  So again this is something I want to work on.  Along with drinking my water which I quickly slack off on if I don't keep track of it.

My other goal last week was to clean my closet area.  That did not get done.  So my goal is to do that tomorrow.  I am having company this weekend and I want them to be able to get into the closet and have a clean table to set stuff on.   Here is a "before" picture and I hope to be posting some beautiful "after" pictures tomorrow.

Yikes, what a mess!  I am amazed how quickly it gets messy.  This is just sort of a dumping ground as you come in the door.  I also store extra groceries in here and need to tidy them up. 

Weigh-In Wednesday and Weekly Goal

Its Wednesday again, time for me to post my current weight, which today is 163 lbs.  So that is down one more pound.  If you remember my goal was to be 160 lbs by my sisters wedding which is in two and a half weeks.  It is still possible for me to reach that goal but I will have to eat very well (as in healthy) between now and then.  I have been doing so-so in keeping a food diary.  I want to continue to work on that and maybe add in some of what I am feeling when I eat.  Also I said I wanted to eat more fruits and veggies.  So I think I will track in this post how many servings I am getting.  Ideally I would like to eat 7 a day but for this week I will happy if I get 5.

On the homemaking front I have been doing better on getting my morning routine done but there is still room for improvement.  This week my goal is to get the closet area by my door cleaned up and the table that is there cleaned off as well as keeping up with my daily chores.

Weigh-In Wednesday and Weekly Goal

I have decided to post my weekly goals on Wednesday now to coincide with my weigh-in.     The last weekly goals I posted a while back in this post were to keep a food diary and go through the girls summer clothes. 

It took me a while to get there but I did get the summer clothes put out and I went through their clothes a little bit.  As far as keeping a food diary it was kind of hit and miss.  I did it for a little while but then fell off track.

So for this week I want to refocus on keeping that food diary and eating more fruits and veggies.

Also I have been having a hard time staying motivated the last week.  So for my homemaking goal I am going to work on finishing my morning routine by 10:00 AM.  My morning routine consist of a number of tasks that have to be completed daily and looks something like this:

• make beds
• swish and swipe the bathroom
• start laundry
• dishes done and tidy kitchen
• sweep kitchen
• bible reading/meditation
• exercise
• feed chickens and gather eggs

When I get this done in the morning it leaves the rest of the day free for any other stuff I want to do and I feel good about getting this accomplished.  So I am really going to work on starting my day right by doing my morning routine.

Now for my weight this week : 164 lbs. That is down one more pound.  Yes!  Hopefully I can keep it off.

Well, that's it for this week.  What goals are you working on?

Weigh-In Wednesday

Well it is the dreaded Wednesday again.  My weight today is 165 lbs.  So no change from last week.  I am actually surprised that the number did not go up as again I ate too much over the weekend and since last weekend was a long weekend that meant an extra day of pigging out.  If I really want to lose weight I am going to have to watch what I eat 7 days a week not just 5 or 4.  Also no workouts to report this week.  Not good.  This is the point where I would normally probably give up.  However, I want to continue to try and make some healthy lifestyle changes.  I have been successful at reducing the amount of coke I drink but I know that it would be very easy to start drinking it daily again.  I also have been doing pretty good at drinking water, but I have to continue to track how much I am drinking because otherwise I forget to drink it.  I have said in the past I have said that I find it easier to drink my water with a straw.  Well last week my straw-topped water bottle started to leak, so I had to find an alternative.  Most water bottles have either a squirt top or a screw top you have to remove to drink and having a large glass of water around all the time isn't practical as I would probably end up spilling it.  So I rigged this up:

I just took a canning jar and poked a hole in the lid for a straw and voila my new water bottle.  This isn't an original idea I read about it somewhere (unfortunately I have no idea where or I would give credit).  I am enjoying using my new water bottle, it cost me nothing, and as it is made of glass it is probably better for me than a plastic water bottle.

Weigh-In Wednesday

Today's weight : 165.  Yeah! That is down one more pound.  I didn't do anything drastic this past week just tried to eat a little less.  I didn't do any formal workouts this past week between fighting off this cold and spending time doing yardwork.  In the summer when it is nice I like to spend a lot of time outside and I have a big yard and garden to take care of but I would still like to do 2-3 more formal workouts a week.  So I will see if I can do at least a couple of workouts this week. 

Weigh In Wednesday

We are finally having some nice weather here and I am unable to enjoy it as much as I would like because I am suffering with a cold.  I am going to hang my laundry outside today and will try to spend a little time enjoying the sunshine but first I still have my dishes to do and supper to start.

Well on to Weigh In Wednesday.  Today I weigh 166lbs. Yeah!  That is down 4 lbs from last week and down 1 lb overall.  So I did much better this week but there still is lot's of room for improvement.  I still tend to mindlessly eat so I am going to continue try to really be aware of what I am eating.

I did work out 5 of the last 7 days and will continue to try and reach that goal but admitedly I doubt I will make it this week as this cold definately has me not feeling like working out.  This week the DVD I did the most was Women's Health Train For Your Body Type.  It has a bunch of workout sections that are 10 to 15 min long and you can pick and choose which ones you want to do and customize your workout.  I found this was a good workout to ease my way back into working out but it was still challenging enough that I really felt like I had worked out.  I didn't do the cardio part much as it is high-impact and I can't really do high-impact at this point but instead did walking workouts for cardio.

Weigh-In Wednesday

Well if I didn't want to post my weight online last week, I really don't want to post it this week.  But I said I would do this so here it goes: my weight this week is 170 lbs.  That's right, I didn't lose any weight and instead gained 3 lbs.  Not exactly the result I was hoping for.  However, I am not totally surprised as I ate way too much over the weekend and most of it was junk.  But if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  So I will try to do better this week.  I am going to try to focus on being really aware of what I am eating and why I am eating it.

Also I worked out 4 of the past 7 days.  So not too bad but not great.  This week I hope to work out at least 5 of 7 days.  I generally work out with exercise DVDs.  I don't live near a gym and working out at home is much more convenient then having to go out.  Often my son is lying on the floor watching as I move around above him.  I have acquired a bit of a collection of exercise DVDs over the years so I have some variety.  You can get DVDs on nearly every type of workout (yoga, pilates, kickboxing, weight lifting, toning, bootcamp, dance etc.) and there are many different instructors with many different styles so you are sure to be able to find one that appeals to you.  It has been cold and snowy here so having an exercise DVD to work out with is much better that trying to go out in that cold. 

Weigh-In Wednesday

I can't believe I'm going to post my weight for everyone to see.  But my sister is getting married on June 26, 2010 and I would like to lose a bit more of this baby weight before then.  So to keep myself accountable I will be weighing myself on Wednesdays and posting it.  I currently weigh 167 lbs. and I would like to be below 160 lbs by the wedding.  Long term I would like to lose more than that but I am trying to make this an achievable goal and then go from there.  I am still breastfeeding so I am not planning on doing any drastic diet but just trying to make healthier food choices and eat a little less than I normally do.   I am also going to try to work out everyday even if it is only for 10 minutes.