fortuneinthefollowup.com

Where the heck has time gone?  Geez! 

I look up one day and several weeks have passed.  So not really sure where to begin with this update.  Obviously I can’t go over my daily meals and that kinda boring anyway no?  I have been trying to continue with walking and have been able  to do a few exercises.  I bought a bunch of the fresh vegies and then didn’t do so well.  Sad to say most went to waste.  Now I try real hard NOT to do that but for whatever reason, I was having some resistance coming up.  That is one of te reason I haven’t updated here either. 

One thing I have learned about myself and that is when I don’t do something, you can believe there is some sort of resistance attached.  Either that or some stuck energy of some sort.  I get locked into a pattern of NOT doing and it ends up perpetuating itself. The trick is fguring out how to get beyond that and move forward easily.  :) 

I have been doing some walking but not nearly as much as in the past,  I think that was tied up in the resistance too.  I have been on overwhelm and overload at work and lost myself to the illusion that it was all consuming.  This process is continually causing me to examine and re-examine what I am doing and thinking.  My walk numbers (though I can’t remember exacts because I didn’t write them down) have been pretty consitant to immediate reading in te mid to high 20’s. the heart rate at the 2 minute mark a couple of point below that and the 5 minute mark a couple of point lower still.  I have tried to get that first number up but for watever reason, I haven’t been able to. 

I don’t remember if I recorded the fact that I measured around my waiste to determine how much I have or haven’t lost in that very critical area.  My first measurement was at 38″  and then here recently I was down to 37 1/2″ .  That was probably mid February (?)  I may have already blogged that and if that is the case then it is all good.  If not it’s here now. 

I measured myself again on Wednesday night (03/05/08) and weighed myslef.  I weighed 140 lbs and my waiste was 36″  I am down 10-15 lbs and 2″ off the waiste!  This is HUGE!!  I have been monitoring my eating these past 2ish weeks and I am NOT dieting by any stretc of the imagination.  I haven’t been eating nearly as much processed food, no sugary foods or candy (chocolate etc…) and I am still losing.  I am really loving te baby step method.  My body is still continuing to tell me when I have eaten something it doesn’t like.  I am still starting my day with coffee and yes I do put sugar in it.  For whatever reason, my body is still good with that.  Perhaps it’s the amount…  Perhaps it is the lack of the high fructose corn syrup.  It’s all a learning and experimenting process.

This weekend I am in Arizona experiencing some awesome stuff.  None of it related to weight loss specifically.  …or is it??? :)  *winks as I smile mysteriously*

It has been about 2 weeks since I have actually posted.  Yeah, not sure what’s up with that. :)  I have been working to avoid sweets.  It has been a bit of a struggle, resisting temptation and all.  On Thursday January 31st someone here had a birthday.  Yes, there was birthday cake.  I politely declined and was informed that I *had* to have some.  She put it on my desk and walked away.  There was some fruit on the cake so I ate that, intending to toss the rest.  The I made a decision to actually eat the cake.  As an experiment I told myself. :p   It wasn’t a really heavy cake; just white cake with a whipped frosting.  It tasted pretty good…  I think it was home-made by someone else in the office.  Needless to say, I enjoyed every bite.

That is until about 30 minutes later.  All of a sudden, I had this awful taste in my mouth and I began to feel nauseous.  By the time I headed home, I was feeling bloated, sick and just awful.  All from one small piece of cake.  I would say I am done with sweets!  This experimen teither went horribly wrong or horribly right. 

In the ensuing days, I have been offered cake, candy, chocolate and ice cream and have happily declined all.  When I think about eating any of that stuff my body shudders and a huge NO!!!  appears in my minds eye.  Interesting, I still have sugar in my coffee with no problem but all other incidences of sugar or sugar products are a huge no.

I have also learned that if I forget or don’t take something with me to eat, i get snack cravings.  I have not mastered the temptation of salty, cheesy, crunchy goodness.  I have upon occasion raided the vending machines when I haven’t brought some sort of food.  These days I am mostly bringing carrotts or apples or yougurt with fruit (that would be the plain yogurt) The other thing I am doing is still making salad in a bottle. It tastes fairly green but adding lemon juice or some fruit help make it more palatable. 

I have also found that my cravings are ruled by my emotions (yeah I know most people’s are) and how my day is going.  Now that i know this, what to do about it…  Apparently I am a victim of comfort food :p 

 I am trying to make better dinner decisions and when I give in to something that is really not good for me, my body tells me.  I am coming to understand that my body seems to be controlling my diet much more than my mouth and tasts buds.  I had Taco Bell the other night and felt bloated and ill most of the night.  Guess what food I am no longer eating. 

My husband bought me a Valentines treat; a bear that says I love you (very cute- what illusion is he suffering under) and a small box of chocolates.  I said thank you for the bear but offered him the candy.  He said 1 or 2 pieces aren’t going to hurt anything.  I responded “yeah, if I want to be ill”  (Has he NOT been listening to me?!)  I put the bear on my desk at home and gave the candy away at work. 

We went out for a Valentines day dinner and I had broiled icelandic cod (yummmmmy) and baked potatoe ok I had butter and sour cream :p However I didn’t finish the potatoe.  i have been eating ONLY until I am full.  I have found if I push the envelope there, that i feel yucky for hours.  As i said my body seems to be much more in control of what I eat. 

Onward Ho!!!!

Oh and I am back to walking.  Ted and I went walking on Wednesday night.  My end of the walk numbers are as follows:

Here are my end of the walk numbers:

Immediate:28X4= 112

2min: 24X4= 96

5 min: 24X4 = 96

Thursday nights end of the walk numbers were a little weird.  They are as follows:

Here are my end of the walk numbers:

Immediate:24X4= 96

2min: 25X4= 100

5 min: 21X4 = 84

All for now

Sadly I didn’t do an update yesterday.  I got home and did a few things and fell asleep. So here I am with an update.

Thursday started as usual, you know the cup of coffee :)  I had the yogurt I prepared late morning.  It was pretty decent… A little on the sour side but all up, not bad at all.  I will definitely be having more.  Another experiment that was successful.  I am thinking perhaps some pineapple and or bananas.  We’ll see.  Was busy as usual and somehow lately more sweets are finding there way into the office.  I bought 2 chocolate bars to help someone with their kids benefit.  I gave them back to her and told her to gift them to whoever she chose.  I was quite proud of myself. 

For dinner we had steak and teriaki (sp?) vegetables.  Finally a meal at home without a lot of extra calories.  It tasted good too.  After dinner, I found sitting on my desk, my Caltrac.  I opened it to find that it needed batteries I didnt have.  *shoot*  I read the quick start guide and talked to Rick online about some of the features.  I also asked what exercise might be substituted for walking on those particularly nasty rainy days.  He suggested perhaps lunges and then when I can do them, lunges down the hall.  Of course he sent me a video link that showed the proper form.  It’s always about form with Rick.

I had intended to do some wall pushups but flat out fell asleep in my chair after listening to Armand Moran’s teleseminar.   *pouts*

Friday!  At last, it’s friday!  My coffee was extra good today.  Perhaps it is because it is friday.  I didn’t bring any food or snacks with me to work today.  I knew we were having a get together to bid farewell to a collegue who is moving forward on the next rung of making her dream of being a teacher come true.  I also knew that food was involved.  There were donuts being offered all over the office.  Sheesh!

At 9:30ish we all gathered in the conference room to a repast of lots of pastries, cookies, muffins, and donuts .  Thank goodness there was plenty of juice, some fruit and bagels with cream cheese.  I had lots of fruit and a bagel with some cream cheese.  I had Orange juice instead of the more popular Crystal Light lemonaid and Apple juice. 

I have noted something interesting in the last few days.  It has gotten easier and easier to pass up donuts.  I hardly notice them if i am passing by unless someone actually mentions them.  Now THAT is cool!  Temptation isn’t a fun thing.  I moved a lot of paperwork off my desk today, so i felt really accomplished at the end of the day.

For dinner we went out again…  Ron was planning on Taco Bell but changed his mind to Cafe Bixby. Friday means clam chowder and him being from Mass, well that’s all it took I had Liver and onions.  I haven’t had that in forever and it was extra good!  I’m not sure what they did when cooking it but the meat as so tender.  Instead of potatoes and gravy, I ordered Coleslaw. I figured less carbs and calories. 

After I got home, I did some email and relaxing.  I got up and danced for about 30 minutes just because the music was good. Since it is actually Saturday morning when I am typing this, Apparently I relaxed a little too much.  As I was sitting here last night, I got a couple of cramps in my calf muscles.  Not sure if that was just last night or if it is something of concern- I will keep an eye on it.  All for now

Started today off with a cup of coffee (what else is new?) I didn’t bring a snack, salad or anything to eat.  The sales team bought lunch.  We had Togo’s.  For me it was the turkey & cheddar along with some BBQ chips.  They also bought sodas but I didn’t have any.  Kinda sucks that we had a sales meeting and I didn’t get my usual hour to me. 

Driving home sucked!  Was horibbly rainy and wet.  I do not like to drive in the rain.  I have made myself promise to let the weather do as it wishes this year, so yeah I have stuck myself with driving in inclement weather. :/  We went out for dinner. (yes again) I had the oriental chicken salad and it was sooooo good.  I ate most of it but saved some of chicken for a salad at a later time.  :) 

We went to the store on the way home and I got some plain yogurt and frozen fruit.  Blending the two together was quite the adventure :p  To say I made a mess was putting it mildly.  My son came in and started laughing at me… how nice.   He even took a video on his phone LOL…  What a pain LOL.  I am going to take some to work tomorrow.  Should be really yummy

Did wall Pushups 3 sets of 30 eah standing a good way back from the wall.  Not much more to reportother than i really didn’t feel like doing the pushups- Did em anyway

I started today out with a nice cup of coffee, ok so what’s new! LOL  Didn’t get much sleep last night so i laiddown and tooka nap this afternoon.  I woke up in time to catch the Ellen show and finish my BSF homework.  Had hanburger patties with gravy on them, mashed potatoes and french cut green beans for dinner. 

Had a snack of turket teriyaki jerkey and some harvest cheddar sun chips after lecture while we were watching Miyah.  Tonight is an exercise night…

Squats: 3 sets of 20 each
The Plank: 3 sets of 15 secs each (arms are still shaking on every second that passes
Wall Pushups: 3 sets of 30 each standing as far from the wall as is comfortable

 I think next week I am going to go to counter push ups… we’ll see.  I didn’t go walking today because of my busy night.

I weighed myself tonight and I am at 148.  Now as I have said before, I am not sure where I started darn it!  I usually was 150-155 riding toward the high side.  I am definitely making progress though.  Some gains have deffinitely been made which is awesome! 

Rick, you are my hero

Started today with coffee at Cafe Bixby. I thought about ordering something but couldn’t think what I wanted so in the end I got nothing.  I spent most of the day chillin in front of the computer.  We were supposed to have Fish and chips (I had planned a salad instead of the chips) instead we went to Taco bell.  The best thing they had was the rice and steak bowl and nothing to drink.

Went for my walk late. Seems like the numbers are a little screwy tonight.

Immediately: 32X4=128
2Minute: 29X4= 116
5 Minute:28X4=112

I was going to do squats and planks today, but I just didn’t feel like it. :/  Am feeling lazy apparently… No Wall Pushups.  Tomorrow is another day.

I had a big salad when i got home. kale, spinach, romaine, tomatoes, and brocolli. I toipped the salad off with the beet, carrot and turnip mixture from the other night.  It tasted surprisingly good. 

I took the rest of the salad in the bowl today: The ingredients were the usual: Kale, cabbage, Romaine Lettuce, Bean Sprouts, and some gound flax seed thrown on top. Oil & lemon juice was my dressing of choice.  I took an apple as well.  At some point this morning someone brought donuts to share.  It seemed like there were boxes of Yum Yum donuts everywhere :/   God at a couple times they sounded sooooo good.  I was good and stuck with my apple and salad.  

Wasn’t too awful sore today but was horribly busy.  For somereason lately I have been feeling the desire for junk.  *sighs* I suppose it is a mind game I am playing with myself, though not a fun one.  At one point Miguel offered me candy.  I was this close *holds fingers together* to taking a piece.    Another co-worker asked if i was on a diet.  

This got me to thinking about the whole diet concept.  If you are “ON” a diet and you lose weight, doesn’t that then set you up for what happens when you go “OFF” the diet.  Equal and opposite reactions no?  I wonder if this might be why so many diets don’t work. 

For me it’s about changing my life and the way I live it by the choices I make.  That’s what is so great about Rick’s program.  It’s about incorporating small baby steps of changes into your life until you integrate them and make them part of you.  Then he moves on to the next step.  It’s like he is coaxing you out of a closet. he allows you to run back and hide for a time before he begins to coax again.  Once you become familiar and comfortable, he coaxes you a bit more.  before you know   it the closet has disappeared.

Foe dinner we went to cafe Bixby and I had a hap and asperigus omelet with a light holedaise sauce.  Instead of the potatoes I had ascoop of cottage cheese.  Was yummy

Went for a walk again tonight.  My heart rate immdeaitely after i stopped was 33 X4= 132 (slghtly low)
2 minutes after was 28X4=112
5 minutes after was 23X4= 92

Stopped at the store and bought a bunch of beats, some more Kale (was .50 a bunch!!) milk, oj and Ron wanted some Hostess cupcakes *rolls eyes*

I mixed beets with half a turnip and some carrots.  I think i added just a tad too much turnip.  I sliced the rest of it and added some salt. Now that is how to eat a raw turnip!  The taste reminds me of a raw potato.  I have beet soup or juice or whatever for tomorrow.  I did 3 sets of 20 WallPushes and npow I am off to bed. Am thinking Saturdays and Wednesdays for squats and planks.  Oh and I bought my Caltrac today!  Just waiting for it to arrive…                                                                                      

I took a salad to work today. The ingredients were the usual: Kale, cabbage, Romaine Lettuce, Bean Sprouts, and some gound flax seed thrown on top. Oil & lemon juice was my dressing of choice.

I was very busy today. It was probably good that I was :p I had a package of peanuts, which was quite the nice little treat. I received an email from Ron (my hubby) that Ted (my son) passed his high school equivalence test. This has what he has been waiting for. Now all he needs to do is complete his course work and then he is gone. I am glad for him but I am feeling quite exanimate over the whole ting. It’s a good thing there was no “comfort food” around. It would have been gone.

Got home and went out to dinner. I had Pot Roast which consisted of this super delicious beef covered in gravy (what did i say about comfort food? LOL) a baked potato with a teaspoon {appx} of sour cream and a teaspoon {appx} of butter (or other butter like substance :p) and mixed vegetables. The meal started with coffee with sugar (no cream) and a salad. I am guessing you can all guess what I topped it with LOL I couldn’t finishe the whole meal. I ate maybe 1/3 or perhaps 1/2 not sure. I only ate until I was ful. Go me!

When I got home from dinner i found an email from Rick answering the one question I had about his previous email. It is posted below. (My question is in red)

On 18/01/2008, at 10:52 AM, Becky Rhone-Nowlan wrote:

I only have 1 question which I have posted below.

If you can double the distance then test yourself at this level. Doubling my walk would put it at nearly 2 hours… Do you want me walking for that long at 80%?

Thanks.

If you have been walking briskly for an hour most nights for 3 years then you are already reasonably fit lol.

So lets test the HR for a week at 80% or so during your walk

and do the two minute 5 minute thing over say 2 weeks

if I see a falling heart rate over that time, then we can ramp it up…

Also if you feel you want to do a 2 hour walk every now and again to test yourself, be my guest but vary the pace 65% up to 80% back to 70% up to 90% etc.

Thanks for the feedback.

Don’t forget to write these HR numbers into the diary

On the comments line is ok.

Cheers

Rick

Yes, he has me filling out a goals form :p I am going to see if I can figure out a way that I can post it. maybe as a seperate page so anyone reading can see my progress.

I spent some time online, visiting with friends on Second life and checking email.
At 11:00pm I decided to go walking. I checked my HR 4 times along the route, trying to get it to the correct rate. Here are my results:
1st stop: 38 beats in a 15 sec period X 4 = 152

2nd stop: 38 beats in a 15 sec period X 4 = 152

So a little too fast on the first leg.

3rd stop: 35 beats in a 15 sec period X 4 = 140

4th stop: 35 beats in a 15 sec period X 4 = 140
80% of my max (177) is 141 so the second leg was right on target. I paid attention to how I felt as I walked so that i culd mimic it next time. It was kind of a rolling gait that seemed to work well.

At the end of the walk I immediately measured my heart rate, at 2 minutes after stopping and at 5 minutes after stopping. The reults are below:

Immediate: 36 (beats in a 15 sec time period) X 4= 144 {A little fast there at the end but not bad}
At the 2 minute mark: 34 (beats in a 15 sec time period) X 4= 136 {Not sure where I should be on this yet}

At the 5 minute mark: 28 (beats in a 15 sec time period) X 4= 112 {Not sure where I should be on this yet}

Oh and I am walking appx 2.30 miles each evening in about a 1 hour time period.

I did 3 sets of 20 Wall Pushups tonight and now I am heading for the hills… erm, the bed :p

Interesting day today.  Not all of it good. :(  I woke up with very sore legs.  I kow it’s from the squats and that it’s growing pains (so to speak)  I knew I was going to have a very long day as I had class after work so i took 3 carrots and an apple to eat at work and for dinner i grabbed a salad of Kale, Romaine, Cabbage & Bean Sprouts.  A little oil and lemon juice to top it off and I was ready to roll. 

I started my day as Ialways do, with a cup of coffee.  I had the carrots and apple spaced throughout the day.  As I was sitting at my desk, I could feel my belly resting on my lap. :( Everytime i got up I felt fat and like I was waddling.  Today was not a good day in terms of feeling good about myself. 

I know it’s a trick of the mind, a way to convince myself that in the end it won’t bbe worth the work i have put in.  I know this will sound  harsh but it’s a mind fuck designed to keep ones self fat, dumb and happy.  I had a hand full of almonds in the afternoon.  I think it’s probably good that no one brought in any goodies because today would have been a back slider if it had been available.  These are the same emotions I associate with eating and usually it is not positive things i eat when I feel like this. 

I am goiing to have to be careful now that i am home and have access to other sorts of food.  Perhaps I will fix something good and positive to snack on tonight.  Hopefully that will be enough to sooth the emotions left raw by feeling like a waddling fatso all day. 

I chomped down a few bites of salad before class since time was running short and then finished the rest when I was finished with class.  It was very interesting to say the least- and it’s photography :)  Eating all these crunchy things is making my jaw tired :p  Okay, enough for tonight

I hit the store tonight with my son. The mission was to get some fruits and veggies in the house.  For $20 we got a turnip, Romaine lettuce, Parsley, apples, bananas, brocolli, collard greens, kale, spinach, tomatoes, bean sprouts, a sweet potatoe. regular potatoes and carrots.  Quite a lovely haul for $20!  I had a nice big salad tonight and made a green shake for the morning, made of kale stems, cabbage ends :p, parsley, a little OJ and some lemon juice, a banana, and half a golden delicius apple and some water.  It tastes slightly salty other than that delicious.  Did some wall pushups, squats and some planks.