A Plush Size Diva's Weightloss Journey

Happy Sunday!

2010-11-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

Well didn't make it to the gym this morning as I planned. I will blame it on the extra hour we have been given back...yep sounds like a good excuse to me!!! I did however get up and take a walk to both K-Mart and Walgreens so that was bout 2 miles all together. I actually need to track that because I take that walk frequently on the weekends.

Anywho..today I decided I would take a couple hours and research new products and review some of the blogs that I belong to. One of the things I'm really interested in getting is another arm band. I never really got to post about the Body Bug band that I had which I ended up sending back because not only did I pay a pretty penny for it, in order to really benefit from it you have to pay for a subscription to keep up with recording your steps and all that so no thank you...sent that back! I'm also in need of some new work out clothes! I've lost pounds but the inches I've lost is crazy. I unfortunately am derrier and thigh heavy so it's hard to find pants that fit that won't gap in the back and anything with an elastic waist is a no no because they just fall down! So I need pants with draw strings so I'm on a mission to find those by the end of the week.

I also need to get a serious food plan in order. Last week I was all over the place which is not good. I ate the right things, well for the most part cause I won't lie I had a vanilla cone and fries from McDonalds...smh...yeah doesn't help that it's right across the street from my job!!! Anyway...I did have very good fruit and veggie intake as well as water but my timing of eating is all out of whack because of my work hours. So today I will map out what I plan to eat for the week and hopefully stick to it.

Off subject....It's NFL Sunday!!!! Any and everybody who knows me knows I am a born and raised, diehard Pittsburgh Steeler fan! We have the Monday night game this week but today I have my eye on the Dolphin and Ravens game. We are currently tied with the dreaded Raven's for 1st place and while I am not a fan of the Dolphins...Imma need them to show out today and beat them birds!!! lol.

Peace and Blessings and enjoy the rest of your day!

Plushy!

Day #1 - Kill Me Now!

2010-11-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

Wooooo saaaaaaaa! lol. I just came from walking almost 4 miles and I think I found a new set of muscles and they hurt like hell!!! Right under my cheeks and around my upper thighs...smh!

I'm too tired to really do anything else tonight so Day#2 is a new day and I will embrace it as another challenging day.

Peace and Blessings!

I fell down and I keep getting up!!!

2010-10-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

Okkkk!!! Here we go again! I been on a serious exercise hiatus for a few months because of my back and left knee*sigh*, however I have still managed to lose another 16lbs since April and as of this past Thursday I had lost another 3lbs making my weight lost a total of 28lbs since April with a few gains of 2 or 3lbs here and there.

Tomorrow I will start a 60 day Holiday Challenge that my job is having so from November 1st thru December 31st, I'm on it! I along with my team of 4 will be on serious work out mode as well as a brief fast and of course healthy eating. I'll be updating on the weekends and may post pics here and there of my results, something I was suppose to do last time but didn't get a chance to. My goal for the 60 days is to get my tolerance back up and get my metabolism kicked in so that I can lose weight and tone at the same time.

I will keep you posted!!!

Peace and Blessing!!!

Back on track I go!

2010-04-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back! After a very long hiatus due to some ~~personal~~ issues in my life, I am finally able to get back on track. The last two months have been very hectic, nerve racking and I can even say scary for me and my family but I'm glad to say all is well and things are getting back to normal.

Sooo...despite all of what I've been through, I have managed to dropped another 14lbs as well as several inches. Sometime this week I will have an accurate number for lbs and inches lost. I will be entering a 16wk program at the gym that will include a personal trainer, a meal plan that I will pretty much be able to make up based on the thing I can eat and need to incorporate to aide in my weight loss. It will also include meetings with a nutritionist as well as a frequent check ins with my own personal doctor. I decided that this was an opportunity for me to get back on track with a little help and this will give both me and my co-worker some motivation and allow us to keep each other motivated.

I have much more to share but I just wanted to jot this down before I turn in for the night.

Peace and Blessings...

Hurt So Good!

2010-01-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

Ok so yeah I was all excited about getting back into working out and all that good stuff but I’d seem to forgotten how much it hurts when you start incorporating new things. For instance, I decided it was time for me to incorporate the elliptical machine into my work out but after yesterday maybe not! I went to Sears yesterday and did a test run of the machines. You would have thought I was there to buy a car! lol. The guy was really nice though and he agreed that the only way I would know which one was for me is if I tried them, so that’s what I did. Now the actual machine that I want is a NordiTrack but it’s like $900 and well I can’t afford that right now so Sears has a very similar model so that’s the one I tried first. My intention was just to have him show me all the bells and whistles on how the thing works and all that good stuff. He did but he also had something else in mind…I was going to stay on it for 15mins to really see how hit work. Ha! no problem because it was moving just as smooth and easy as could be until he decided to change the settings…OMG! 15 minutes felt like an hour! When I got off that thing my knees, calves and even my butt were screaming “WHYYYYY!”

Anyway, it didn’t come with me yesterday but it will arrive on February 2nd, Oh happy joy! After I got home and got through the complaining of pain, it dawned on me that the areas that were hurting me most are the areas that I need to pinpoint and work on and then I was happy again! I know it’s going to take me some time to get use to but if it helps me reach my goal a little quicker, hey I’m game. I also purchased my new sneakers yesterday via NikeID.com. I am a Nike-aholic! Specifically Nike Shoxs. These are the only shoes besides a nice loafer or heel that I will spend over $100 for, however most times I never do because I do believe in sales, coupons and hook ups, I’m not ashamed! lol. I went on NikeID.com for the first pair. I love this site because you can make your shoes the way you want them. So I have no black sneakers so my intention was to find a pair I liked and make them all black. Well found them but as I started playing with them I added one of my favorite colors which is pink and came up with these:

Personalized them with my birth year

I love them and cannot wait to get them. Now I have to go buy a few pink tanks and tshirts! Gotta match you know! I love Shox because not only are they comfortable but they are very durable for people of my size. Unlike Reebox which I like some of theirs sneakers too, Shox gives me a lot of arch support that a lot of sneaker dont all ready have and you end up having to purchase arch supports. I will say one thing though, they are not the sneakers to wear when doing the treadmill or elliptical, they are more like a performance shoe for walking, jogging and running. So with that said, I got another pair that I actually had before but in a different color. I like them a lot because again they are very comfortable and they give me the suppor that I need. I got these from FootLocker for $69.00...well $59.00 because I had a $10.00 off coupon...hehe!

I also got a jump rope, a pedometer, which I'm going to discuss in a future update because I paid a pretty penny for ths one but I feel it was worth it. I also ordered The Firm's Kettlebell workout which was recommended to me by a friend. i found it on Amazon for half the price she said she paid so I was happy.

That's it for my fitness purchases until March. I promised myself I was not going to be one of those people that went out and spent hundreds of dollars on things that I know I will never use. It's hard though and I never thought shopping for exercise equipment and accessories could be so fun but I really did enjoy it. So on to the weigh-in for this week. I did it earlier in the week because I couldn't take it! I have a pair of jeans that I couldn't fit and I refused to get rid of them because I paid heavily for them. Most of the jeans I am wearing now are about to hit donation bag because they are either saggy in the thigh, behind or waist area which is great! but that means I have to go shopping for new clothes and I'm not ready to do that just yet. Anyway long story short, I lost another 7lbs bringing me down to 240...ha! I don't know how many inches I've lost but I'm going to assume by my pants it's been significant because I need belts! I'm going to go to the lady that does my alterations and have her do my measurements and I'll post those in a later update as well.

I did have some interesting food changes this week also but right now I have a test to take and some homework to finish for class, so I'll post about it tomorrow.

Ciao for now!

Plushy

Happy MLK Day!

2010-01-18T14:48:00.001-08:00

Well like many of you I had the day off today in observance of Martin Luther King's birthday. I had plenty to do of course, the main thing being getting up and working out and it was not easy trust me. I am in so much pain! but that goes with the territory I guess. I only did walking today because that's all I could stand to do but tomorrow is another day!

So before I get started, let me just give a quick shout out to my friend Mike who has really been keeping up with me as we are both battling the bulge. He has lost 10lbs in 2 weeks so far! Way to go Mike! This weekend was a bit challenging for me because I really didn't feel well and I also started winter semester last week so between work, not feeling well and homework, I kind of fell off track this weekend. I decided that I am not going to beat myself up when things like this happen, just pick up and move on to tomorrow! I did however keep up with my eating and water intake. I do have to get better at writing everything down though so I will be sorting through my many journals that I collect and decide which one I will use as a food diary. This is what I ate over the weekend:

Saturday

Breakfast: Oatmeal w/a banana, ½ of a wheat English muffin with strawberry jam, 4oz glass of orange juice

Snack: 6 granny smith apple slices, 4 strawberries and 3 cut pieces of sharp cheddar cheese

Lunch: Tuna fish salad(mayo, egg, onion, chopped celery, shredded carrot and bowtie pasta), 6 Ritz crackers, 80z bottle of Crystal Light lemonade

Dinner: Panko crusted chicken, garlic butter rice, succotash (corn and baby lima beans)

Snack: Small bag of popcorn seasoned with pepper and garlic powder

I was actually satisfied with what I ate because I wasn’t feeling well. I also drank a gallon and a half of water and goodness did my bladder let me know! Lol

Sunday

Not too much of an appetite but I did manage to eat.

Breakfast: 2 eggs with spinach, tomato, and onion with shredded Swiss, ½ of wheat English muffin with honey butter, 2 cups of ginger tea

Lunch: Spinach salad (baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, shredded carrot, red onion w/ 2 tablespoons of Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing), 1 slice of foccacia(stuck it under the broiler to get crusty) 80z bottle of Crystal Light Ice Tea

Dinner: I had the rest of the salad from lunch and baked some Tilapia which I also breaded with panko crumbs and squeezed some lemon over it. I also made a dressing with lemon juice, olive oil, a little apple cider vinegar and seasoned it with some salt and pepper and a little red chili pepper flakes and it was very good!

Snack: 6 gingersnaps and a cup of lemon sherbet (210 calories!)

You will probably see salad a lot when I discuss what I’ve eaten because it is something that I really enjoy, always have even as a child. I cannot digest iceberg lettuce, so I use baby spinach a lot or mixed greens. I also use panko bread crumbs a lot to bread chicken breast or fish. It is a Japanese type bread crumb that is very light but crunchy and with you put it together with seasonings it is very good!

Being that I love to eat and I love food, I’m forever picking up new recipes at the grocery stores and of course online. I love going to Target so yesterday as I’m walking past the produce area, I stopped at the spindle full of recipe cards and started picking out the ones that I wanted to try. One of the things I love is pasta! I know I know…I shouldn’t be eating it but again it’s one of those things that I will have to slowly pull away from so for now I do eat it in moderation. I found a recipe using whole wheat fettuccini with an alfredo sauce. Now in my head I’m saying “uh uh!” but as I’m looking at the picture, it looks so good! So my next experiment will be with whole wheat pasta. Now I’ve gotten mixed reviews on it most of which were positive, the ones that didn’t like it, I think that they just didn’t know how to make it or cooked it too long but we shall see!

This week is going to be the week that I venture out for new sneakers, free weights, toning bands and a jump rope. Speaking of jump rope, I forgot how much fun it is! As a child I loved to jump rope. I think my mother brought me and my sisters a new one every month and then of course there was double dutch *sigh* those were the days. I probably would fall on my behind trying to double dutch right about now but some say once you have it you never forget how to, sort of like riding a bike. Ha! Maybe I’ll try one of these days.

So that was my weekend in a nutshell! Oh one more thing before I forget, I had a lot of people asking me how do you leave comments after each post. If you look to the very bottom click on the “post” link. It will direct you to a page to subscribe to my page and each time I update, it will automatically send you an email to let you know.

I hope you all have a great week and I look forward to sharing with you throughout this week.

Until next time…Peace and many blessings!

Plushy

Welcome!

2010-01-16T14:01:00.000-08:00

I know it's now January 16th, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! It's a new year and a new decade! Time to really put up or shhhhh! be quiet! lol.

This year I decided to be different and not make any resolutions like so many of us have and do. I wanted this year to be about changes and reaching the goals that I know I can handle, follow thru on and achieve within the year. One of my main goals is to lose weight and not just lose weight, but develope a healthy lifestyle that both me and my family could agree on and keep up with. I think anyone who has ever attempted to lose weight would agree that it's not as easy as some people may think. Everyone does not lose weight the same way or in the same areas so what may work for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. Weightloss can also be quite expensive I have come to find out over the past 20yrs so I decided that I will not only blog about my weightloss but I will also include reviews on various gyms, equipment, foods and workout gear. I have also come to find out that when you involve your family and/or friends to your journey, it makes it so much more enjoyable and easier to get through.

The first thing I/We decided to do was to make a list of foods and divide them into three different catergories. First catergory is Foods I cannot live without, then Foods I Love and then Foods I Enjoy. I got this idea from Jillian Michaels and you do this to determine what foods you must get rid of and what foods you can make adjustments or substitute. After looking at the lists, I think we are going to be just fine because there are so many things on our lists that we like that we really do not have to make any big changes. I was thankful to see that both my kids had a variety of vegetables and fruits that they like because that of course will be a big part of our meals. The only vegetable across the board that we all dislike is beets!!! lol...so as much as I hear they are good for you, WE don't like them! The next thing we are working on is making up meal and exercise plans. Like so many of us, we have busy schedules and if I/We are going to be successful at this, we MUST have a plan in place. Of course we have other things to consider and work out but in the meantime we're getting started and I will keep updated on my progress.

The Weigh In

Ok...so last Saturday, which was January 9th, I did a much dreaded weigh-in which I hadn't been weighed since my last Dr's appointment which was October 5, 2009. One of the things I have never been afraid of is sharing my weight so I will tell you all now that in October I weighed ...268lbs and I have pretty much been between that and 250 for about 5 years now. Yeah, that's alot! especially on a woman that is 5'4. Now my issue is that I was always told that I should weigh between 135 and 155 for my height, however I am not a small framed chick and never have been. I have finally met a doctor that agreed with me that those weights are not for me nor anyone that shares the same race or cultural makeup as me. With that said, I have come to a realistic goal of getting to 200lbs by the end of the year. Now if I make it past that GREAT! but realistically for me and what I have going on with my illness, that is my goal for right now. Back to the weigh-in! So again I haven't been weighed since October so it's now January and I need to know where I'm at so I can track my loss. I got on the scale last week and my mouth hit the floor! I actually lost 20lbs!!! That's excellent! Well maybe. My weight has a tendacy to flucuate up and down because of my illness and the medication that I am on so I know that my biggest struggle is going to be getting my metabolism on the right track because right now it tends to be sluggish. Anyway, I will take the 247 and work with it.

I have great support from my family, co-workers and friends so I'm ready for this journey and I hope that I can help someone else along the way.

Until next time....Peace and many blessings to you!

Plushy aka Rach