Elizabeth & Sally's Biggest Loser Space

                        Starting               Ending               Total Lost

Weight              163.5                150.0                13.5 lbs.

Bust                  41.25”               40.50”               0.75”

Waist                36.25”               34.00”               2.25”

Abdomen          39.25”               37.00”               2.25”

Hips                  41.00”               39.50”               1.50”

Thighs               22.25”               20.50”               1.75”

Arms                 12.00”               11.25”               0.75

Body Fat%        33.6%               30.9%               2.7%

Body Fat #’s      54.0                  46.5                  7.5 lbs.

 

My weight is based on my scale at home at the start of the contest, the other figures are from my measurements at Curves.  My starting measurements were taken 1-12-08 and on there scale at that time I was 161.0, so my actual loss numbers (except for weight) are probably just a smidge higher.  I'm pretty happy with my resukts thus far and am more happy that this competetion has helped me to make healthier habits my normal again.  I feel this entire expeirience has helped get me back on track in putting myself first and is the jumpstart I needed to continue this life long journey.  I will most likely continue to post here even if nobody is reading anymore.  i think it'll not only help keep me on track, but if nothing else be a great tool to always refer back to old posts to see what worked for me and what didn't when I'm stuggling. 

I wish everyone that's participated in this challenge has learned as much if not more abuot themselves and a healthier lifestyle as I have.  I urge you all to continue regardless of any monetary or material prize, the best prize you can win is owning your life and being the one person who can give you your health.  You have the power, use it.

As Always,

Live Lean ~ Lizzibean

Today marks that there is only 1 week left in our Biggest Loser Challenge; I’m really quite sad about it ending, but my journey will continue long after March 11^th.   It’s been 2 full months since starting this challenge and although I’ve lost a total of 12.5 lbs. (I weighed in at 151.0 this morning) I know I have the potential to get to a healthier weight.  I’d like to get to 140 and re-asses what my goal should be, but for me 140 will be my lowest adult weight.  I know there are a lot of people out there that have had bigger obstacles to overcome and have had to lose a lot more weight than me, but I’m still happy with what I’ve done so far.  So I didn’t need to lose 100 or more pounds like some people, but that doesn’t mean it’s been any easier for me; especially trying to battle the “side affects” of PCOS and still lose weight.  I’ve battled keeping my weight manageable for the last 20 years and it’s been hard.  I used to never exercise and tried to control my weight by diet alone, I found that didn’t work.  I could eat 1000 calories a day and not drop weight, but since 2001 I’ve been getting more exercise and it’s helped.  I’ll admit I’m far from perfect in getting as much exercise as I should, but since the start of this contest I’ve been very consistent in getting at least 3 sessions of 30 minutes each week as a minimum.  And since this has become a priority in my life once again I believe I can make it stay that way.  It takes 21 days to break a bad habit or make a good one stick, and we’ve definitely made it past the 21 day mark. 

I can actually pinpoint when I let my exercise slide to the back burner.  Three years ago in January I started dating my now husband.  Up until then I had done very well and the year before I had went from 194 lbs. on 2-10-04 down to 146 on 1-19-05, that 48 lbs. 24.7% of my total body weight in just under a year.  However; I put myself and my healthy habits on the back burner and spent all my free time with my new beau instead of going to the gym, top that off with making meals that would impress my new man (and it certainly wasn’t the same way I should have been eating).  By June of 2005 I was back up to 159 and tried miserably to get on track again, although I did lose 8 lbs. in a month I slid right back into the bad habits.  My next attempt wasn’t until April on 2007 (pretty big gap in time to slack) when I weighed in at 169, but this time I was on mission to lose for our Wedding in October – yeah right.  I was so consumed with all the other details of the wedding I really didn’t do much, it took me until the end of July to lose 10 lbs., and after that I stopped keeping track again.  I’m pretty sure I was hovering at about 155 in mid August when we went to Niagara Falls (for our pre-wedding Honeymoon), but when we came back I wasn’t feeling well and ended up having Gallbladder surgery September 17^th (4 weeks before the wedding).  All the sickness that came along with that as well as the last minute stress the week of the wedding took me to about 148 on the day of the wedding.  In the next 2 months I went right back to my slacker ways and gained 15.5 lbs and I started the new year and the Biggest Loser Challenge at 163.5.  Now only 2 months later I’ve lost most of that gain and look forward to surpassing the weight I was on the day of the wedding and not let life get in the way of me taking care of myself first anymore.  You might be wondering how I know all the dates & weights I just wrote about, the truth is I kept track on and excel spreadsheet and put in formulas to calculate % off weight lost, plus charted my weekly progress verses my goals (I also have my food journals from then too).  It’s very obvious I know how to keep track of my weight and know what I need to do, I just end up getting down in weight and then slide back to same old same old.  I think with PCOS I get so frustrated working at my weight all the time that I end up giving up (at least for a while) and live fat off the hog for a while, that can’t happen anymore.  I feel so much better when I’m taking care of myself and I’m tired of losing the same weight over and over again.  I’m making a commitment to myself to continue on my Biggest Loser Journey and never again slide back and get into the fat boat anymore.  I want to be healthy & happy, I deserve it.  I’m also realistic in that I know I won’t eat every meal as the ideal healthy option, but I can’t indulge in things like fried chicken, BBQ Ribs or a big Ribeye Steak on a regular basis.  And even when I do indulge it doesn’t mean I needs to eat ½ a chicken, the whole rack of ribs or a 16+ oz. steak.  I can have a small portion of the indulgence along with a ton of veggies, salad with light dressing and a baked potato with my “fake” butter spray and light sour cream.  I truly need to retrain my mind into not thinking I have to eat just because it’s sooo good; of course it tastes good, but I’m not some starving kid in Africa that’s not going to eat again for days or weeks.  For some reason it seems like my brain just wants me to keep eating even thought I know my stomach is full or even over full.  I need to tell myself this is not my last opportunity to eat these types of foods, so I don’t scarf it down without thinking about it.

I guess in the end all I can say is I’ll continue to take this journey one day, actually one meal at a time.  

Live Lean ~ Lizzibean

Well, my weekend was just HORRIBLE as far as my eating – and the scale showed it this morning at 153.0 (up from last week).  I was doing sort of OK on Friday, but the apple pie (356 cal.) put me up & over my goal max to 1867 calories & 63 grams of fat.  Then on Saturday we went to visit my in-law’s at there new “cottage”, I tried my best to plan for eating and packed a couple apples.  And since they eat out ALL THE TIME, I knew we’d be eating out that night and also packed by light sour cream, spray butter, & light salad dressing.  I figured I could get a salad and some lean meat with baked potato, well that isn’t how things went.  They chose to eat at a bar – no salads and everything was fried except the burgers which were ½ lb., so I ordered the shrimp basket.  I knew it would be fried, but I got really lucky (sort of) as when my food came there were only 5 small shrimp and a little bit of fries (about the same as a McDonald’s small); so even though the fried food isn’t good it was a small portion.  I also ended up munching down a handful of dry roasted peanuts with a few m&m’s mixed in back at the cottage, and they had regular soda only so I drank a root beer.  After entering that days consumption into FitDay I found to be over by just a little.  Now here’s where all H E double Hockey Sticks breaks loose.  Sunday morning the MIL feeds us quiche for breakfast (she actually made 2 the day before & heated it up for breakfast), giving us each ¼ of the quiche and 2 pieces of toast.  Now I knew quiche was a bad, bad choice – but OMG this morning I found out just how bad.  That’s not the end of my naughtiness though, on our way back home my darling husband talked me into going to our favorite Chinese restaurant.  Now the past few times we’ve gotten food from there I’ve been very good in getting steamed shrimp & mixed vegetables; however during the day they have a BUFFET.  I considered my options buffet - $5.95, or steamed shrimp & veggies - $9.95; I went for the buffet and what a mistake.  I entered all the junk I ate yesterday into FitDay and found out that that quiche had as many calories as I usually eat in 1 day as well as way more fat than I typically eat in 1 day, boy was I in for a rude awakening when I saw some of the data on the Chinese food I had from the buffet too.  Did you know that 2 pork filled dumplings weighs in at 677 calories & 41 grams of fat?  Well obviously I didn’t pay for the buffet & only ate 2 dumb dumplings.  My total for yester day was 3344 calories & 184 grams of fat; I know I previously stated I wasn’t going to post daily total as I made my FitDay journal public, but since I don’t know if anybody has checked in on the FitDay journal I thought I need to post this and take full responsibility and let you guys yell at me for being such an idiot. 

There’s only 2 weeks left of the Biggest Loser Million Lb. Match Up and I did something so stupid and gained from last week when I should have been able to post a loss of at least ½ lb.  I hope Sally’s doing well and able to follow her plan closer than her partner.

Lizzibean

O.K. here’s the totals since my last report of intake:

         Calories          Fat grams

Tuesday           1096                   14        

Wednesday      1137                   54        

Thursday          1243                   31        

Friday              1290                   36        

Saturday          1166                   37

Sunday            1864                   60        

Monday            1152                   21

This is the last you’ll be seeing me post daily totals as I’ve made my FitDay journal public this is the link http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=LizzibeanK you’ll also find it on the links on the right side of the page along with the Meltin’ Family message board – great group of people, supportive in all aspects of life.

 If anyone can help guide us a bit on the spaces stuff we’d appreciate it (I’ll check the comments are this time – please bear with us), I hope nobody thinks we’re rude for “ignoring” them due to our ignorance.  Is there a Spaces for Dummies book available??  I really want to add some music.

Live Lean ~ Lizzibean