Revived Focus Needed!

Hey! It's been a little bit since I've posted last. Among the busyness of school starting back up and craziness at work, I've not been too focused on blogging. At the same time, I've had a "maintaining" summer weight-wise and the last couple weeks have been less than stellar. Good thing we started a new 12-week weight-loss challenge at work on Friday. It's given me a revived focus on getting the final 25 pounds off!

Our challenge at work is called the Fitness 500. We are teamed up as a two-man pit crew. I am teamed up with my wonderful husband! Each Pit Crew bid on their race car... creating a winning $$$ kitty for the winning Pit Crew (the crew that earned the most points during the 12 weeks).

Each individual also paid $10 entry fee to compete in the Fitness 500. That money is going to purchasing a Wii and the Wii Fit software, which will be given to the individual with the most points at the end of the 12 weeks.

Each pound lost is equal to 1 point. Each body fat % lost is equal to 5 points. Each week we have physical challenges and food challenges. If we complete the challenge we earn 5 points each (5 points for the physical challenge and 5 points for the food challenge).

We are excited about winning it all! I will try to keep you posted on how we're doing.

This is the exact thing I need to give myself another short-term focus on getting the final pounds off. It has been too easy to allow myself a bite of this or a handful of that. Yet, I wasn't yet at the final weight that I desire to be at so I shouldn't have been allowing myself the luxury of living a "maintaining" lifestyle.

So, here we go again! I've limited my fruits to apples, grapefruits and strawberries. I've limited my vegetables to lettuce, onions, celery, cucumbers and radishes. (You could also enjoy tomatoes if you like them!) And, I've limited myself to beef or chicken. Plus, lots of water... always lots of water!

Well, is it time for you to set a new short-term goal? It's easier when I know I'm being challenged by a group of accountability partners. It's also easier when I have an end date in focus. It seems much more attainable when I know it's short-term. So, if you want to join my hubby and me, go ahead and weigh yourself now, then keep track of the pounds and body fat % lost each week. Set your end date at 12 weeks from your start date and decide what your short-term food & exercise plan will be for those 12 weeks.

It's been two days for me... and I'm happy to report that I've already lost 2.6 pounds! I'll keep you posted!

Weekends hard?

How do you do when it comes to the weekend? Is it a little hard to stay focused? What is your food fettish? Are you a chocolate lover (like me)? Or, is do you crave salty snacks? Or, is it a need for ice-cream?

Well... let's see... what do you do to keep from snacking all night long, all weekend long? I'll attempt to give you a couple of ideas to help you through this weekend.

First, have something like an apple, a piece of fruit or some carrot sticks BEFORE you run to the store to buy your groceries. :) Then, when you go to the grocery store, try to look for natural foods (fruits, vegetables). If that doesn't sound good, then at least try to purchase snacks or sweets that are low fat or low sugar. I try to fill the cupboards with pretzels or low-fat wheat crackers for my kids. Sherbet is also a good alternative to ice-cream. I also try to buy things that seem good (but healthy) for my kids, yet not tempting for myself.

Then, go ahead and keep drinking your water! Get some flavored water if that will help you feel like you're treating yourself to something sweet.

Finally, if you really want to have something "off your list" of approved diet foods, then try to treat yourself with a bite or two of someone else's serving. That way they can eat the rest before you're tempted further.

Good luck! Have a great weekend... enjoy something healthy and watch a great movie!

Track Your Weight Loss Success

Tracking your weight loss is helpful to keep you focused on the plan. It can also be another form of encouragement!

I started my Excel spreadsheet in 2001 - 4 diets ago. :) I've tracked weekly weight loss (and then gain) each time until I gave up... UNTIL this time.

This past year (July 2007) I started tracking for the fourth time on a new sheet in my Excel workbook file. I have the past diet losses to compare with, which is a bit fun.

You may be wondering what should be "tracked". Well, I weigh in (and record my weight) every Friday morning. I type in this weight in one column. I then have other columns give me some calculations to show how much I've lost during the past week, how much I've lost total since I started and the average pounds lost per week. I also have two more columns - the date and the total number of weeks I've been dieting. This time I also added one more column for the total percentage of body weight I've lost so far.

My stats this week are:
55 weeks completed, 88 pounds lost total, average of 1.6 pounds lost per week, lost 34.38% of my total weight since I started.

So, go ahead... begin a new tracking system whether it's in Excel or some other format. It's just good to have that weekly date to look forward to and also great to have a record of goals met and weight loss to be able to look back at and get encouraged!

Something else to track would be inches lost... more on that another time!

Grapefruits Help with Weight Loss!

Grapefruits are beneficial to quicker weight loss in the plan I've been following this past year. During the weeks that I was very limited in what I could eat, I needed to eat 1 grapefruit per day. Of course, not being a great fan of grapefruits, I sort of got burned out from eating them every day for 7 weeks, so I then started eating other fruits instead of grapefruit. However, my total weight loss per week started to slow down and I firmly believe it was partially attributed to the lack of grapefruit in my diet.

A great benefit of adding grapefruit to your diet is that researchers believe grapefruit reduces insulin levels, which help with weight loss. A high level of insulin indicates your body is not utilizing sugar for energy and the excess sugar can be converted and stored as fat on your body. High levels of insulin can also make people feel hungry even though they just ate! Studies indicate the consumption of grapefruit helps to lower the insulin levels, allowing the body to more effectively burn energy, increase the metabolic rate, and give us the feeling of being full.

So, add 1-2 grapefruits per day to your diet plan and enjoy a quicker metabolism and less hunger pangs!

Click here for a great fat loss plan!

It is Possible to Lose Weight Without Exercising!

Have you been wanting to lose weight? Are you mostly used to Yo-Yo dieting? That's been my life for the past 30 years. I would try one diet, then another. Each time I might lose some weight, but within a short amount of time I would give up and before I knew it I would gain all the weight back plus some extra pounds.

After having four kids, it was simply easier to just blame the pregnancies. I would joke about how happy I was at the size I was. Inside, I really wasn't happy. It was just too hard to lose the weight, and much harder to keep it off.

Last year I finally decided it was time again to try losing weight... and found something to stay focused on. It's been one year now... 88 pounds lost-to-date and still losing!

I will be sharing tips and tricks that I've used to lose my weight and to help me stay focused over the long haul.

Best news is I've lost it all without doing ANY form of exercise unless you count sitting on the couch enjoying Netflix in the evening. :)

I hope you'll visit my blog again to find out more!