Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The art of weight loss...

Hey Everyone, 

So my last two weigh-ins have been a little disappointing. For two weeks in a row I gained weight, which is very unusual for me. However, most of the problem was what I had been eating or drinking on the Friday night before I weigh in on Saturday. 

The first week, I learned that I needed to drink a lot more water. Which I corrected and saw a difference. However, something I've always known I shouldn't do before I weigh-ins but I did anyway because it wasn't a problem until now, was drink. Eating BBQ that night didn't help either. 

Then last week, I was really good all week long doing simply filling and tracking but a major downfall of mine is sushi. Sushi is not bad for you, except when weighing in the next day. It was Friday night, my friend and a I wanted sushi, so we had it. Drinking wine didn't help the situation either. So I gained .2 pounds, which isn't a big deal but I had been doing really well all week and one night messed it up. 

Like I said in the title, the art of weight loss. I guess I should be happy that I have gotten to the point where I need to watch what I eat the day/night before I weigh in, which I am. I have come to the point in my adventure where I can't go and drink the night before I weigh in and lose weight. You can ask my roommate and friends at school, there were many times I woke up from a night of fun, hung over, and still drove to my weight watchers meeting. AND STILL LOST WEIGHT!! That is not normal. But is was really nice. And it is just not that way anymore. In fact, it was so not a problem that when I changed the day I weighed in was so I didn't have to wake up for weight watchers. 

But as I have said already, I am really not upset by this. This is really a good thing. Losing weight is not supposed to be easy. I have learned that sometimes my body needs to gain some weight, and then I lose more the next week. Also, I had been tracking my food in the same way for a while, which can be tedious in general. So my body definitely needed some type of change. So I decided to do simply filling again. But I am really doing it the right way. Because it made me nervous, what I would do was be on the simply filling setting, then change it to tracking to see how many points I used, and then change it back. What can I say? It is a little nutty... 

This week I have been doing simply filling again the right way, staying on the setting and everything. I really like it. And I know that I have lost weight. Since I am going to Amagansett tomorrow, I am going to a meeting tomorrow morning before I go. Since it is a long weekend, I am hoping it will not mess up my week too much. This is how I feel about every vacation, though. I know it will be ok. It is going to be a relaxing long weekend, which means, doing homework, working out, and being on the beach! 

Well that is it for now, 
Julia 


Friday, June 28, 2013

The Best Time of the Year

Hey Everyone,

I really didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted something. The rest of my semester went really well. This last semester was probably the best semester that I have had in college. Even though there is a part of me that is ready to be done with school, I keep reminding myself that I need to enjoy this "time" because it will soon be over and I will have to be in the "real world."

So I think that summertime is the best time of the year. Even though I am taking summer classes, generally there is no school or it is not as intense as during the school year. The weather is great! I know people complain about the DC humidity, and I'm no different, but summer would not be summer, if not for it. Time, I have time to do what I want during the summer because I am on break. I get to go to the beach, which is really the best part. Well, that and the food, obviously. I feel so lucky and blessed to live in an area with such great produce. Some of what I have been doing when I am not doing school work, working, or exercising has been going to farm stands. There is a small stand by my house and on the days that I work from home, I have walking there on my lunch breaks and buying fresh produce. And then my cousin runs a farm stand in Bethesda, that I go to on the weekends. Then, there is always Whole Foods, which is such an easy place to go and get a balance and healthy meal. It is also right by the place where I have been working out this summer. I have gotten into boxing and kickboxing with Melissa. It is a really great workout and even though I usually feel like I am dying in the middle, but I love it.

I have been doing really well on weight watchers as well. As of last week I had lost 28 pounds since I started in January. But since the last time I posted anything, I have made some big milestones that weight watchers celebrates. In no particular order, I reached the 25 pounds mark, the first 16 week mark, and I have lost 10% of my starting weight. These were all great milestones for me, but I know that I still have a lot of work to do. This summer my focus is really what this blog is about, my adventure to weight loss. I am having fun and going out with my friends but I am also going to the gym as much as possible. And staying on track with the weight watchers program.

Like I said before I really feel so blessed and lucky. I have been interning for a Maryland Delegate doing research on issues that affect Marylander's. Also, I've been taking a summer class about Maryland Politics. So I have learned more about the state as a whole. I have always felt this way but I am really lucky to have the life that I do. There are so many issues that Americans face everyday, that I don't have to worry about. I am lucky enough to have family that supports me and ensuring that I succeed without being in debt. Also, all my friends, thank you so much! You all are amazing and such a great support. Part of the reason why I have been so successful in my weight loss is because I have all of you! Though I am living a healthier life style having you all reminds me to just have fun.

I have to get to my boxing class now. I hope everyone is enjoying summer.

That's it for now,
Julia

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Loving and Suceeding in my Adventure!

Hello Everyone,

So I have had a very relaxing break. I caught up on sleep, went to different doctors appointments (I have to get my wisdom teeth taken out), I went shopping, and to my pleasant surprise I lost weight! I say pleasant because I did not think this week had gone well. For my birthday I did a Bar Crawl because after all it was St. Patrick's Day. I had a great time, and therefore,  drank all of my flex points. So this had me a bit worried for the rest of the week. Since it was Spring Break my focus was just to relax so I was not pushing myself to go to the gym. I was walking but not a very hard workout. Yesterday I was talking to my brother saying well I might gain weight tomorrow but that is ok, I won't be discouraged because when I go back to school I will be in my routine. (I go to the gym as an escape so I don't stress out about school and life in general) So right now I am very proud of myself. I am proud not just about what I lost, but because even though I was not really tracking I was eating differently and being mindful. Though I started my adventure as a diet, it is really not at all. This is a life change and a great change at that!! I have lost over 22 pounds which is a great milestone and in the next few weeks it will be 25 pounds, which is a milestone that I am sure weight watchers will celebrate with me.

More importantly, for the first time in very long time, I feel like "me" again. I was also talking to Alex about this yesterday. He agrees with me. I have not been this happy since before my mom got sick. I am not saying that the "me" I have been has been a bad person or that I am done healing from everything that has happened because I know that will never happen...but I have made changes in my life and am accepting that my life has changed. It is not necessarily a good or bad change, but it is a change.

This week is Passover so I have kind of an extended Spring Break. But I will be back in CP on Wednesday and have the rest of the semester to finish. But I am very happy and everything is really great right now.

That is really it for now. Hope you all liked the post.

Love,
Julia

Monday, March 11, 2013

Wanting Break and my Birthday to come...

Hello Everyone,

So hopefully this post will not be as depressing as last week. Even though this blog is primarily about my weight loss it is also about my life and how I am coping with everything. I have my ups and downs because that is really how grief works...and let's face it life as well. Thankfully, I have less bad days and more good days as time goes on. That is really all I can ask for.

Even thought daylight savings is messing me up. I am so happy with the weather. I love this time of year. I am literally wearing flip flops, a scarf, jeans, and a turtle neck tank top. I have a light jacket as well.

This weekend I went to weight watcher like I do every weekend and I lost .6 pounds. My total is 15.8 right now. The weight is coming off slower now but I am not discouraged.

I saw one of my friends this weekend and she had not see me since winter break and said you look like you lost 30 pounds...I wish. The point is that she noticed the change and I am noticing too. I also love my lifestyle now. I love eating healthy and working out I wish I could have learned to enjoy this earlier in my life but I am still young so its fine.

The point is weight watchers has two ways of tracking what you eat. One is called "tracking" and the other is called "simply filling." I have been doing tracking which is where all food basically has a point value. Simply filling is a system where you have power foods (vegetables, fruit, tofu, fish, chicken, sweet potatoes, and brown rice etc.) that don't have any point values. All non power foods have point values still and you have a weekly amount of points where you take use the non power food points. Also activity points help as well. I am really excited about this because I think it will help me a lot. I am still tracking everything I eat but I do like it a lot better, its easier.

This is a new thing that I am trying for the week to see if it is easier and I thought I would share.

Hope everyone is doing well and if you have nice weather enjoying it as well.

Sincerely,
Julia

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

That time in the semester....

Hello Everyone,

So instead of doing homework right now I have decided to blog and hopefully clear my mind so I can do homework. This week and today have been interesting. This week I have two papers due and they are basically my midterms. One, I have already turned in and the other is due on Friday. I also have a midterm next week. I am not sure when I am going to take it yet because my professor has decided to make it open note/book and we are to take it online. This is very nice but I still have to get it done. Hence the title.

As you may guess this is not helpful to my weight loss plan. Even though I am consistently losing weight. However, I need to use my flex points, which are fine. But for myself I would rather them last the week and I have not been doing that. In the grand scheme of things this is so not a big deal but this is something that is easy to worry about and has been on my mind.

Also, my birthday is coming up and that brings on even more challenges. I would like to eat and drink on my birthday. By eat I mean like really good cake and my birthday is St. Paddy's day so I will be having fun. However, my birthday is the start of Spring Break which then follows Passover. SO MUCH FOOD!!! I know that I just need to remember moderation and portion control so I will try. The great news is that I will be able to work out everyday so I will get activity points.

The most annoying thing is that since I am stressed I think about my mom. I don't think it helps that my birthday and passover are so close together this year either. Also, this was one of my mom's favorite time of year because it was almost my birthday, almost spring, there was a break from school, and passover. Today when I was in the library all of the sudden I starting crying. It was like a tidal of emotion and it was just from looking at my planner, being stressed, and planning for passover. It was really just because I miss her, I am also so happy, and doing everything that I want for myself therefore, she wanted for me.  (Sorry this has gotten somewhat depressing)

But anyways everything is good just the normal stresses of being in College. As I told one of my sorority sister's today...I can't wait to be on spring break so I can regroup and be able to focus on my healthy lifestyle. Hopefully my birthday and passover won't mess me up.

That is it for now.

Sincerely,
Julia

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Really Great Progress

Hey Everyone,

So I am not great at keeping up with this blog...obviously. So I apologize for that. I thought that this would be like writing on CaringBridge but its not. I am glad it isn't actually because then something would be wrong and nothing is wrong. I guess CaringBridge is similar to this just because it was an update on my mom and I was writing them. Sorry for my rambling...

Actually though my adventure to weight loss has been going very well. I have lost about 15 pounds since I started and more importantly have reach my first goal which was losing 5% of my weight. My next goal which was set today is to lose another 5% which would be 10% of my weight!! Weight Watchers has really been great and helping me with this.

I have gone down a pant size. My current jeans are really big on me and driving me crazy...which is good. I might buy a cheap pair of the size that I am now and then I have tons of jeans of the next size down so I just need to wait until I lose another 10 pounds.

I still love living in the sorority house and school is going well. I have been sick for the past week which is no fun. Also, I didn't exercise for that reason as well. But I have been exercising a lot and consistently. I am home this weekend to rest up which has been really nice.

Well, I think that is it for now. Sorry for now posting before and more regularly.

Sincerely,
Julia




Saturday, January 26, 2013

School, Living in the House, and Recruitment.

Hello Everyone,

So I am sorry that I have not posted in a while...I have actually been busy and not on break anymore. Officially as of today though I have lost 6 and 1/2 pounds since I have started Weight Watchers. I don't know if I have said how much I really like Weight Watchers. I think that it is a good system everything is online or on my phone which has been really nice. There is a scanner so it is easy to go shopping and make good choices.

Also, I have been living in the sorority house for a week and I really love it. I always thought that my best decision in College would be joining a sorority but I feel like an idiot for not moving in sooner because it really has been great.

School is also going well but I have only had 2 days of classes because school started on Wednesday and I have been sick for now a week and a half. (Not so much fun) By next week I will know what my classes are like because I will have gone to all of them by then. Some classes I only have once a week which will be nice so I am very optimistic about this semester. Once I get all of my syllabi I will organize everything which will also be great!

I really cannot talk about recruitment but it is going really well. Everyone is in a really great mood which is great because it will make the rest of the weekend and next weekend go by smoothly.

Before I moved into the house and came back to school I was really nervous about how I was going to make the right choices and handle portion size. It has not been bad at all. One of the things that I like about Weight Watchers is that I really don't have to change what I eat. I just need to be conscious about what sauces I am eating or the ounces I am eating. I have been eating lots of vegetables and less carbohydrates or controlled carbohydrates.   

Okay so that is it for now.

Sincerely,
Julia

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Exercising and Weight Watchers

So again it has been a long time since I have blogged...but that does not mean I have not been doing what I said I would be doing. I have been going to the gym almost every day. It has been great. Break has been so nice and relaxing. I have been doing the elliptical and it is getting easier and harder because I have been making it harder as it gets easier. This is my eighth day straight working out so I am pretty happy with myself and it is nice because if I don't work out  I feel weird. I know that I can keep up with this at school because it will be a stress reliever and it will be me time.

This past Saturday I went to a Weight Watchers meeting and it was really good. I really like the program so far. Also it is really convenient because everything is online or on an app so I can access it on my phone. There is also a scanner for bar-codes and I am able to scan different foods so it tells me how many points a serving size is. It is really cool because I can really eat anything I want but in moderation. I know that it is just the first week but I am going to stay with it. It will be hard once I am in living the sorority house but I will get through it.

Well I am not sure what else to say...I am feeling really great right now about everything. I know that losing weight isn't going to be easy and I am not always going to be this motivated but I will be able to read my posts in order to stay motivated.

That's it for now.

Sincerely,
Julia

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Enjoying Break

Okay. So I'm sorry everyone I've been in Colorado. I got back New Year's Eve, then went out and on New Year's Day had a brunch to go to.

Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend (Allie), did some shopping, and then went to the gym. I went to Sweet Green for lunch and had a really good salad and soup. At the gym I did 10 minutes on the treadmill, 30 minutes on the bike, and 10 minutes on the elliptical. I wanted to do more on the elliptical but I was too tired from what I had done on the bike.

Yesterday I also weighed myself and I should probably lose about 100 pounds which is very daunting so after talking to different people I have decided to set small goals for myself and reward myself as well!! One of my sorority sisters has recommended that we do Weight Watchers together. I think this is a great idea and I talked to Nancy (a very close family friend) about it last night over dinner. I'm going to go to a meeting on Saturday and get started. I feel like I need some type of plan to go by or else I won't be successful  And this is the choice that I am making.

I also had a pretty healthy dinner last night except for eating way too much chicken that was really good. The chicken was Greek style because we went to The Parthenon, which is a favorite Greek restaurant of mine. The food there is very simple and there are lots of healthy choices. The only problem is the chicken is like half of a chicken, I didn't realize this when I ordered it.  So I will learn from the mistake and order the chicken kebab instead. I also had tomato soup with beans and a Greek salad.

Today I am going to go out to lunch with Bernie and Allison. We are going to go for a walk, just hangout and enjoy break.

That is it for now.

Sincerely,
Julia