March Check In

It has obviously become really busy in my household. I'm still losing but not in the way I had planned. I did complete the squat challenge. No my butt doesn't look tiny, cute and perky, like the model on the challenge picture. I couldn't walk most of the challenge, lol, so I had to modify some days and take a few extra rest days. 

Work is going good. I've finally reached my 90 days and feel a lot more comfortable doing the job and interacting with my co-workers. However, for the last 1-2 months I've been stressing about school and finding an internship site. See, I'm basically done with grad school now I just have to do my 900hours interning and collect my diploma. This isn't so easy to coordinate when I work from 9am-6pm. So in lieu of using my lunch break to do 30 min on the treadmill at Planet Fitness I've used my lunch break ro call around to agencies to find an internship site that will fit my needs. Turns out there is only one site in the county that does fit my scheduling needs and getting a meeting with them has proven to be near impossible. 

I've been so close to living a stress free life. This whole school/work balance has really been keeping me up at night. What do I do? Do I give up school so close to graduating? Do I burn a bridge? How do I back out of work without burning a bridge? This type of wishy washy thinking is not good for my cortisol levels, thus making it not good for my already larger-than-I'd-like-it-to-be belly. 

Once I have this stuck-in-limbo situation cleared up I can restart my laser focused weight loss lifestyle. I was doing so good. Luckily, I've still been losing. Except for when I'm on my period. I always seem to gain ~3lbs. but that is to be expected. Ah the joys of being a woman. From February to March I've probably lost 5 lbs. this is not as much as I'd like but any loss is a good loss. 

I may have to do some of my pre-op tests again. I've been at this process for a year now. I would have already had the surgery done if I hadn't started working. I guess this will be my next "stress project" ha. When will I actually have time to have my surgery and RECOVER? 

Find out next time on "As the Downsizing Diva's World Turns" hehe 

Have a blessed week. 

OH, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! March 8th. 

30 Day Squat Challenge

Hi All, 

Most of us have a lot of toning to do. Each month we will focus on a different part of the body. This will help break up the hum drum of exercise, wake up our bodies and cause a little muscle confusion. No thinking or planning your exercise routine, just wake up, look at the paper, and get 'er done. Luckily most of the exercises are really just your basic calisthenics. They can be done practically anywhere with no equipment needed. Isn't it funny how we've strayed away from the basics, eating real food and doing daily calisthenics, that has worked for decades? Well, it's time to bring our sexy back dammit. Who's with me?!? 

*SQUAT CHALLENGE STARTING TOMORROW!!* 01/13/2014

This is the 30 Day Squat Challenge. Download the image and print. You can hang it on your mirror in the bedroom or bathroom or on a wall in your home that you know you will see in the morning. Better yet, you can download it to your smart phone and save it as a wallpaper or image and have it with you everywhere you go. 

RULES:

I learned a trick to doing a squat with good form.

1. Stand so that you're facing the wall and your toes touching the baseboard of the wall
2. Arms bent at a 90 degree angle at the elbows
3. Lower your butt and bend your knees like you're sitting down
4. Keep your core tight, back straight, arms bent to provide balance, and breathe going down
5. Come up slowly, exhaling. Keep your back straight, arms up, and core tight

*SQUAT CHALLENGE STARTING TOMORROW!*

Remember, this is the total number of squats for the day.
You can break them up however you'd like.
For example, Day 3=60 squats.
You can do 3 reps of 20; 6 reps of 10; or 10 reps of 6.
A rep will be considered each time you go down and come back up (see #1-5 above)
Reps should be done consecutively
(10reps in a row, rest 30-60seconds, 10 more reps, etc. continue until you have done 10 reps 6 times)

New Job-- Lunch Ideas and the Culture of Junk Food

Over the summer, I had a partial breakdown and was tired of being a broke grad-student. I emailed a resume to all the good employers in the area. Well surprise, surprise, I heard back from ONE of them. LOL Only one? It was a long interview process and I got word that I was hired right before my surgery. Woo hoo!

I've been there three weeks and so far, so good as far as the job goes. Everyone is nice and the job is super easy. Now, I have to come up with a new game plan for my diet, water intake, and exercise schedule. Also I will have to push back my surgery date until who knows when. 

My health insurance coverage will change in 2 months to company paid coverage. I really hope that there is a provision for weight loss surgery. If not, I'm not sure when would be a proper time to ask. "Hi, I just got hired 3 months ago and I'm planning on having major surgery that isn't covered. Can you add this to the policy and let me take off 2-6 weeks?" Mmm yeaaaah, not a conversation I want to take place. Even if WLS is covered by my new employer's health insurance I will probably wait a year just to get in good with my job before I take short term disability for recovery. 

Water Intake While at Work: 

I drink a bottle of water while getting dressed for work (that's 20 oz). It helps ahem, move things along, for my "morning meeting" before I leave the house. LOL. There is a nice water cooler not too far from my desk. I will bring my 22oz cute little water cup and make plans to refill it at least 3 times while at work. I'm sure the people at the office think I'm a freak because I use the bathroom a few times a day. They'll get over it, see the results, and maybe join in on my water intake crusade. Let's see, I work 9am-6 M-Th and half day of Friday. I figure my day drinking water can go something like this:

Drink 20oz. at 7am         Fill 22oz. at 9am              Refill 22oz. at 12pm             

Refill 22oz. at 3pm          Refill 22oz. at 6pm

Instead of coffee I stashed peppermint/spearmint tea and packets of Splenda at my desk. Tea and coffee also count towards your daily water intake. The tea that I chose is caffeine free. Caffeine does something crazy too my heart when I have too much. It also leeches essential goodies out of your system and is a diuretic. I'm trying to stay away from caffeine as much as possible. If you eat right and stay hydrated you won't feel like a zombie at work and need to rely on coffee to get you through the day.

Keep in mind that staying hydrated will also keep your stomach feeling full. The snack and lunch ideas below might not seem like much but if you plan your day right it should be just enough. I recommend counting out your calories and monitoring how you feel to know what's best for you and your body. 

Healthy Breakfast Ideas on a Work Day:
Boiled Egg & whole wheat (low carb) toast
Protein shake
Slim Fast Shake *I usually only have this for breakfast during the week
Oatmeal with fruit and shaved almonds
Scrambled eggs and salsa
Greek yogurt (or fat free yogurt) with fresh fruit and Splenda/Stevia/Agave to taste
Any Kasi cereal and low fat milk/almond milk/soy milk


Healthy Snack Ideas While at Work:

Sugar-free Jello (5 calories)
Greek yogurt (80 calories)
Snack serving of Almonds
Low fat string cheese stick (90 calories)
apple, banana, blueberries, strawberries
granola
Slim fast protein bar

Healthy Lunch Ideas While at Work:

Protein:
Boiled egg
Turkey breast
Hummus
Boca burger products
Canned Tuna in water (you may want to add lemon juice so you don't make the whole office smell fishy)
Chicken breast
Low-fat cheese (wrapped with low sodium deli meat)
Slim fast/protein shake

Carbs/Veggies:
Whole wheat-low calorie bread
Low-fat/low-carb whole grain pita
Baby carrots *I add S&P and fat free Italian dressing to my baby carrots
Tomatoes, cucumbers and green onion salad add oil&vinegar or fat free Italian dressing
Salad greens
Deviled eggs
Spaghetti squash
veggie soup
Any low sodium soup
Black bean and corn salad.

The first day at my new permanent site was the day of the Christmas party and Secret Santa gift exchange. I received a gift bag with King size M&Ms and King Size mini-Reese's cups. There was a spread of food and desserts like you wouldn't believe. Everyone participated in a cookie exchange. Each employee brought in about 2-3 dozens of cookies to split between everyone. Oh the temptation!

I definitely appreciate the thought that they included me in the lunch and offered baked goodies and candies. A few days later I was asked if I wanted to get "Taco Tuesday" lunch. A nearby Tex-Mex joint offers a HUGE portion (2 tacos, chips, salsa, and a drink) at a good price. Luckily the restaurant offers a healthy "power-lite" option. Clearly there is a culture of eating junk in my office. This will be hard but I'm going to politely stick to my guns. 

Goals: December 2013

I realized that I hadn't made a list of goals for December 2013 and it's already the 11th. Quite honestly, if you remember, on the 6th of December I had some complications with my tonsils. My second surgery has set me back to a liquid/soft foods diet, kept me on pain killers another 1-2 weeks, and limited my exercise while on medications. The only good thing is that because my mouth is the effected area, I can't eat. It's like having my jaw wired shut. I am losing weight but simply because I'm nearly starving myself. With all of this being said I will still try to come up with some goals for the month. 


1) Allow my surgery site to heal. --No more hemorrhaging for me, no clots, no tares, and no pains. No yelling at the kids. No eating hard, crunchy, spicy foods or soft foods that will get caught in my throat. I need to rest and not agitate the area. 

2)  Stay hydrated--My doctor's orders to keep the area from drying out.. It hurts to swallow so I still have to sip my water slowly throughout the day. I am going to shoot for the recommended 64 oz. of water daily but I may not hit it each day. This will be a hard one.

3) Consume at least 800-900 calories daily while recovering. Yes, I know this number is really low! I realized my jello and Popsicles contain about 5 calories and 50-90 calories respectively. No wonder I was feeling light headed and sleepy. My nutritionist told me that the brain needs at least 500 daily to keep the body functioning. I need to get some more protein powder or a case of SlimFast. These should be helpful in getting more calories in my body.

4) Lose 7 lbs during December 2013

5) Follow up with ENT doctor before the end of the month. Hopefully he will be satisfied with my recovery and give me the green light to resume a normal life. 

Results of November 2013 Goals

I vowed to make measurable goals at the beginning of each month and revisit them at the end of each month to hold myself accountable and see how my progress is going. In a previous post I made my first set of goals for the month of November 2013. I will now list and revisit these goals. 


Health & Weight Loss Goals for November 2013:

Daily

Drink 130 ounces of water    achieved 3 weeks out of the month, note to self, create spreadsheet or log that will allow me to record specific data regarding how many ounces taken daily OR take the time to write down what is logged in my "Water You Body" app for android phones. 

Consume at least 3 servings of vegetables  honestly I don't know if I made this goal, note to self: again, create a spreadsheet or food log that keeps track or my specific intake OR see if I can access my exact foods eaten daily in Noom app for my android phone. I don't think I can so I will need a back up.

Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night   I tried. I will add this category to my food log idea.

Eat as clean as possible    Given that I had a tonsillectomy the last week in November I basically didn't eat anything, let alone clean. Geesh looks like I have to go back to the drawing board.

Use Noom to log all meals and snacks eaten   I did keep track of my meals and calories consumed daily in Noom. It is a very helpful tool. Again, after my tonsils were taken out my world kind of stopped for a week. 

Weekly

Exercise 3 to 5 times for 30 minutes or more each session (Cardio)  yes minus week 4 of Novmeber

Exercise at least 2 times (Strength training)  I don't know. I will have to log my workouts. There is an option on my Noom phone app to log workouts. Again, I don't know if there is a way to access each day at the end of the month or if it just compiles everything into a chart. 

Dine out 1< time  definitely not. :-(

General Goals for November

Get fitted for and begin using sleep apnea machine   Didn't make it this far. I was referred to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor who advised that I have my tonsils removed because my sleep apnea is an obstructed type versus needing oxygen for brain functioning. I'm still in the process of healing and my tonsil area needed a second surgery because of clotting and not scabbing over properly. The doctor did say that this was about a 50-75% chance that it would stop my snoring. We may have to revisit the apnea machine later. 

Lose 8-10 lbs total  Duhhhh Karla. I don't even really know what my weight was when I began the goals for the month. I believe I had crept back up to 280. Yes my doctor appointment at the beginning of the month was 280. I then went down to 274 at my next visit, 270 at the end of the month. So, 280-270= 10 lbs lost in November!! This was THE ONLY goal that I can VERIFY that I met. I am mad that I had actually gained weight over the summer and ended up 4 pounds shy of what I was when I began all of this. Focusing on the positive, I am not there anymore and lost an astounding amount this month!

SUMMARY OF NOV. 2013 GOALS

I made a total of 10 goals. 

Daily Goals Achieved: 2/5 achieved 2 goals partially out of the 5 made

Weekly Goals Achieved: 1/5 achieved. 1 was partially achieved

General Monthly goals: 1/2 achieved. 1 goal was a success I actually went 3 lbs over my goal. woo