Success! And the journey begins again...

Last Sunday I did my initial weigh-in to get myself started back on my weight loss plan.  Then on Monday I started off with just the nutrition portion to get myself back on track.  I logged all of my food as well as my water intake (I use Sparkpeople, fantastic free website with trackers for nutrition, exercise, water intake, measurements and so on...plus articles, forums and more).  Oh, and in addition to the initial weigh-in I also did all my measurements this time around.

I was really good all week with my eating.  The ranges I’m supposed to stay in are:

Calories: 1490-1840

Fat: 33-72g

Carbohydrates: 168-299g

Protein: 60-161g

Calcium: 100-150 %RDA

Sodium: 0-2300mg

Fiber (total dietary): 25-35g

Consume at least 8 cups of water per day

Just FYI, these are the recommended ranges for ME based on my current weight, goal weight and amount of time over which I plan on losing weight from the Sparkpeople website.  Just because that’s a range for me and my situation doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what you should do.  If you want to know what your own ranges should be, I’d recommend registering on Sparkpeople, plugging in all your information and you can get your own customized plan.  For me, I’m hoping to lose 85 pounds by the end of the year, though that’s a pretty lofty goal and actually higher than I really should be aiming (but...but...but...I want to be tiny ASAP!  LOL).  If I can get to 65 I’ll be pretty happy with myself and that would have me averaging just over 2 pounds lost per week since there’s 30 weeks from when I started until the end of the year.

I'd love to get this Withings scale, if I could just get over the $149.95 cost!  But I'll take the weight it has showing on it :-)

Calories, fat, carbs and protein were good pretty much all week.  I’ve been under a few days on calcium and fiber...those are the hardest ones for me to hit my numbers.  The other thing that’s hard for me is the water.  Just trying to get to 6 cups a day makes me feel like I’m going to burst.  I think all week I might have had 2 days where I reached 8, all the rest were 6.  Not that I agree with the whole “8 cups a day” thing.  There’s plenty of evidence out there to show that it’s not necessary...and truly, if your urine is coming out a pale lemonade color, you’re hydrated just fine.  And this fall when my training starts to really ramp up while I train for the Disney Full Marathon in January, I’ll be getting plenty to drink with all the water and sports drinks.

Now, one thing you should realize I hadn’t added the exercise component last week.  I wanted to get comfortable back in my good eating habits first.  So when I stepped on the scale yesterday (I weigh in once per week on Sundays), I was totally floored when it showed I had lost 4.2 pounds my first week!  I figured it would be about 1.5 or maybe even 2 if I was lucky so when I saw it was 4.2, I was totally shocked.  And of course, this makes me a bit leery about week 2 since usually that’s a lower week anyway as the body adjusts to the whole weight-loss thing.  BUT-even if this 2nd week isn’t quite as stellar, the first week should make up for it ;-)

So-success for week 1!  Yesterday I added back in strength training with an upper body free weights workout (oh my arms are hollering at me about that!) and tomorrow I go back to my miles...hopefully outside but with the yucky weather we’ve been having lately I’m not going to hold my breath.  I’m actually thinking about joining a gym again.  The 21 Fitness just 2 miles down the street has been changed to a YouFit Health Club and the cost is just $10/month (or I can do $20/month and be able to take a guest every visit if I want, plus discounts on drinks and stuff)...plus there’s no contract.  I’m going to check it out this coming weekend and get DH’s input as well.  Since they just opened as YouFit, they’re running a special with only $29 down instead of their usual $49...and they’re supposed to have tons of machines so you don’t have to wait or limit your time. 

I do have a gym here in my complex, but there’s not much in it (two treadmills, one elliptical, one bike, and maybe 3 or 4 weight machines) and quite often there’s at least one cardio machine down when I go.  Plus the machines here don’t have anyplace for me to put anything, I have to wear my iPod instead of putting it in a holder on the machine (since none of them have one) and my towel, water bottle, etc just get dumped on the floor.  I know, first world problems, right?

All right, gotta go...I still have another 250 calories to consume today so it’s time for an evening snack!