Just a Normal Conversation For Us.

This was a conversation via text that I had with my close friend today. She is currently on NutriSystem and not seeing any results.

Friend: Hiii... So I'm trying your 12-8 thingy starting today. I hope it helps bc I'm not losing any weight :(

Me: Yeah! Might as well!

Friend: How's it working for you? How long til it works, do you remember?

Me: I just started it yesterday lol. I think within in a week you should drop.

Friend: Lol

Me: But it's supposed to make you less bloated, more energy, better sleep, etc.

Friend: I hope so. I'm at my wits end.

Me: I know. I don't even fit into some of my underwear anymore.

Friend: Omg, me neither. It covers only half my ass.

Me: ME TOO! Some with lace, are like tearing apart. And the other ones, if I pull them up all the way, they like, cut my ass cheek in half.

Friend: Yeah me too. Or else I'll sit and they will literally fall down under my jeans and if I pull them back then it rides down in the front giving me a frontal wedgie lol. I can't take it anymore. I can't. I'm so close to like, hiring a fucking personal trainer.

Me: I know. Me too. It's freaking scary.

Friend: It used to be so easy for me to lose weight. Now it's so hard.

Me: I know!! And we're not even 30!!!

Friend:  :(

Me: It's so pathetic! I don't understand how I got to this point. Like its not like I eat differently than the past few years.. But I'm gaining weight so fast.

Friend: Me neither. Are you on bc?

Me: The only time I lost weight was when I cut out gluten and dairy. But that's no way to live.

Friend: Fuck that.

Me: Exactly.

Friend: Seriously, the worst part about this is the uncomfortable feeling of tight clothes. Always pulling up my pants. Pulling up my underwear. Pulling down my tank tops. Pulling down my shirts. Trying to cover my back and ass when I bend down.

Me: Yes!! It's pathetic! Like I can't even wear jeans unless I have a shirt long enough to cover the tops. And forget it, my jeans don't even fit. My FAT jeans don't even fit! Everything I wear makes me uncomfortable. I just wanna wear sweats all the time!

Friend: ME TOO

Me: I just don't understand.

Friend: Me either.




And there you have it folks.. todays daily discussion.

8 Hour Diet/Intermittent Fasting

So I was doing a lot of internet googling yesterday about 3 day cleanses and things along that nature, when I saw a link to check out something called, "The 8 Hour Diet". I thought 'hmm.. 8 hours sounds a lot better than 3 days!' After checking out a few different sites, I realized this particular diet is fairly new, but has been getting a lot of press and media time. Basically the main idea here, is you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, as long as you do so within an 8 hour window, then you "fast" for 16. It doesn't matter which 8 hours of the day you choose as long as there is 16 hours in between your last meal of the day and your first meal of the next one. At first that number scared me, but if you think about it, you're asleep for 7-9 of those hours, (well, I am anyway).. then you don't eat until 4 hours after waking, and 4 hours before bed. On most days when I have to be at work at 12, I don't eat until I get there anyway. The sites also said that only 8 minutes of physical activity is needed while on the plan, and that you can choose to eat this way for 3-7 days per week. (The more days you do, the better the results).

Most people probably think, there's no way you can eat WHATEVER you want and still lose weight. They're not telling you that you get to binge for 8 hours each day.. They do recommend incorporating "power foods" into each meal or snack, like yogurt, fruit, lean meats and vegetables. I was checking out Amazon to get the Kindle version of the book because it was cheaper and started reading reviews. A lot of people had positive things to say. They lost weight, were less bloated, slept better, had more energy.. Then a lot of people said this book was a rip off of another site called leangains.com. I checked out that site as well, and they're right, it's the same idea. It's called Intermittent Fasting. This website focuses a lot more on working out as well.

While fasting AND hard training is something that doesn't appeal to me NOW, maybe if I gain more energy from doing this, that it will be something I can do in the future.

I was thinking about it before I went to sleep last night, and I woke up yesterday at 8, and started eating at 9. I had cereal, some ravioli for lunch, chips and dip for a snack, and sushi for dinner. This was all before 6. If I had stopped eating there, my calories for the day wouldn't have been so bad. But then we had some mac and cheese bites, spinach and artichoke dumplings, sweet potato fries AND I baked chocolate chip cookies. That's probably at least another 600 calories. So maybe this will help my calorie intake? I decided to have my window be from 12-8 because that's usually when I'm at work. In the 16 hour fast, you're allowed and encouraged to drink water, coffee, tea or sugar free hot cocoa made with water.. which will help. Also, that way when I get home from work, it's not like I'll be forbidden from the kitchen. I can settle down with a nice cup of tea and relax before bed.

I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I'm sure there will be some days where it will be extremely difficult. I would like to do this at least 5 days a week. A few years ago when I went on a cruise, I would eat all day long.. ice cream, pizza, buffets, and I wouldn't eat dinner because I was having too much fun with friends, walking around the ship, dancing in the club.. and I ended up LOSING weight on the cruise. Who ever says that?! Similar idea though, right?

I ended up not purchasing the book because a lot of people said it was pretty repetitive, plus I think I got the gist of it. I'm starting this today. I've been up for over an hour and I can feel my stomach start to grumble now. I brushed my teeth right after waking to turn me off from eating anything for a little while, but now I'm starting to want something. I'm going to make a cup of tea and hope that my stomach starts to eat some of my fat until 12!

Happy New Year!

And so today begins another new year. A fresh start. A clean slate.

Most of us, especially women, use this time to make promises to ourselves that we've all made every New Years Day in the past. And most of us in the past, have failed at keeping those promises. So why do we not succeed? Maybe we're being a little too hard on ourselves. Saying things like, "I'm gonna go to the gym everyday!" or "I'm going to lose 50 pounds this year!, makes it extremely easy to fail!

Things happen... Life happens.

Maybe we should be focusing on the little things, that in the end will add up to much more positive results. Try something like, "I am going to drink more water everyday." or "I will make more of an effort to plan my meals at home, instead of eating out frequently". These promises are easier to keep, and will give you results in the long run.

So with that being said, these are some of my resolutions for this year:
1. Take a probiotic every morning.
2. Wash my makeup off every night, no matter how tired I am.
3. Cook more, and bring lunch to work instead of ordering food.
4. No more sweets after breakfast.
5. Be more positive and have more patience.
6. Keep my apartment clean.
7. Be a better friend.
8. Don't spend money just because I have it.
9. Bake more often, to be creative.. not just to eat!
10. Eat more BALANCED meals.

You don't have to be perfect everyday, you just have to make an effort to be a little bit better than yesterday!

Happy New Year everyone!

Scale Surprises!

How many of you all have done this? "Oh! I lost ___ lbs, well I certainly deserve a treat!" BAD!

I shouldn't be yelling at you though, because I am extremely guilty of doing this.

I decided a few days ago that I am going to try to stay away from wheat products. I am highly allergic to grass, and since wheat is a form of grass, I figure it couldn't be good for my stomach/insides. NOTE: I am not going carb-free!! Still eating fruit, and potatoes, etc.. So far it's been 4 days. I can't really tell if I feel any differently, but I heard it takes 1-2 weeks to really feel a change. I haven't gotten on the scale in weeks because honestly, I've been feeling pretty chunky. You know that phase where all you can fit into is sweatpants or leggings, but you have to wear a really baggy shirt to hide your love handles? Yeah, that's where I'm at right now. Last night I wore jeans to my uncle's birthday party and all I wanted to do was open the button so that my FUPA could breathe. (If you don't know what a FUPA is, please look it up.)

I didn't eat too bad at the party. Had a decent amount of cheese, fruit, veggies and shrimp cocktail. Honestly, that was most of what I consumed the whole night. I drank water, and had half a piece of ice cream cake for dessert. Not terrible.

Since I've been feeling pretty pudgy, I decided I should get on the scale this morning, just to see what I'm dealing with here. The screen blinked… 168.5

Wait, what?

Down from 175?

I thought I was just imagining things. I was waiting for the scale to sprout arms and legs and start dancing. "Hahahaha, I was just kidding!"

I should be happy about this, but I'm honestly not. I don't FEEL thinner. I certainly don't look it. I have no idea how this happened. I am going to weigh myself tomorrow morning as well, just to compare.
But to get back to where I started this post… Since I was down so much today, I "rewarded" myself with Burger King. SO BAD! I need to learn how to reward myself with non food items.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a safe, fun and happy new year! Looking forward to making some changes, and being more positive!

End Of Year Review

Since we are coming close to the new year, everyone always reflects on the good and bad that has happened to them over the past 12 months.

My friend and I were talking this morning about how long we've been known each other. We met while both starting NutriSystem last November. It is now 13 months later and we are both in fact, heavier than we were last year. I'm just speaking for myself, but after NutriSystem I did Weight Watchers, then counted calories, then back on Weight Watchers.. and I've GAINED. Do you know how much of a difference I could have made in a YEAR!? I could've completely transformed my body for the better. And the opposite happened. That really, really upsets me.

This is probably the worst I've felt in a while.. physically and mentally.

I'm gonna be brutally honest about why I have such a lack of willpower and why food gives me such anxiety…

This Kind of Blows.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST CONSISTS OF NO HOLDING BACK DETAILS REGARDING AUNT FLOW, AKA THE RED RIVER, AKA THE CRIMSON WAVE. CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. GOT IT?

OK, I can't speak for all women obviously, but I get the WORST freaking PMS symptoms. For the entire week before I actually GET my period, I:

- am severely bloated to the point where I look pregnant 

- have food cravings 

- a bottomless pit stomach 

- bad skin

- either sad or mad PMS (I either cry at the drop of a hat, or snap at everyone. I feel like I alternate every month)

- awful, intense nauseating cramps where I don't know whether I want to vomit or faint.

Then when it actually comes, I have the same symptoms just not as intense. The only thing that is consistent, is the bloating. I'm talking like, 5-8 pounds extra of water. That means for every 4 weeks of the month, for 2 of them I am noticeably heavier. That's half the year. For half of every year, until I hit menopause I will look fatter than I actually am. How is that fair?!

"Make sure you drink lots of water!" Um, yeah. ALL I drink is water. 

It's horse shit! It really is. For every other fourteen days, all I want is sweatpants, carbs, a heating pad, and a blanket. How the hell am I supposed to be motivated to work out or eat healthy when I feel like that for HALF MY ADULT LIFE!? UGH!!!!!!!

End rant.

P.S. I'm not using mother nature as an excuse at all. I'm just saying it sucks bloody balls to have that added to the mix of everything. Just sayin'.

Weekend Recap and Proof That I Am Getting Old!

This weekend I ended up being really productive! On Saturday, Mike had to work all day which left me home to entertain myself. Since I can't work out still, I was trying to figure out something I could do to be active besides walk on the treadmill. Well I did some googling and youtubing and found a little ballet workout that was intended for women who just had a baby, so it was pretty low key. I was pretty excited about it, because I did ballet for a while, and on the website there were a couple of different workouts posted. This particular one was about 35 minutes long, and all you needed was a chair to act as the barre :) I was so into it, I even wore my thigh high leg warmers! I definitely thought that I looked like this:

But really I probably looked like this:

Trust me, if I had a tutu, I probably would've worn it too…

Anyway, I did about 10 minutes of the routine and then my dear friend called me. We chatted for a good half an hour and then I went back to the video. By the time I was done, I was actually sweaty and my heart rate was pretty high! (That's also because I'm severely out of shape.)

On Sunday we went to Michael's new gym to paint it before his equipment gets delivered. I painted for a few hours and that's more activity than the Sunday I was planning on having! Well, because it was freezing in the gym, I ended up hurting my back pretty bad. (I'm currently sitting here with an IcyHot patch on my back. Waaahh!) I don't know if it was just from the painting, or the painting/ballet combo I experienced this weekend. I had my physical therapist boss take a look at me and he said my back was "stuck in extension", whatever that means. So now I have to wait til I feel better to do anything else. Awesome.

After painting, we had tickets to the Greatest Chefs of Long Island at Crest Hollow Country Club. It was basically 2 huge rooms set up with different booths of all really popular restaurants. They each had one or 2 mini plates of popular items to sample. Michael had a field day, but I had a hard time because like, 75% of everything was meat. I had one salmon plate, one sushi plate, one risotto, and the rest was all dessert. Oh, you bet I sampled every dessert booth there. Salted caramel gelato = PURE ORGASMIC DELICIOUSNESS.

I was supposed to get my BodyMedia arm band delivered today and was so excited, but it never got taken off the truck and I have to wait another day or 2. Soooo, I'm treating myself to some homemade chocolate chip cookies tonight and watching the original Rudolph. Let's not forget my hot pink, floor length terrycloth robe and fuzzy leopard print blankie. Snooki would be proud.