Using PACT To Help With Weight Loss

Hello Divas!!

I have been on a roller coaster with trying to lose weight and become healthy and then falling off that bandwagon every time.

I recently tried a new app called PACT to help with my weight loss. It was recommended by a friend and I tried it out because it holds you accountable to a group of people. I did not know there was  free version so I signed up where I would have to pay if I did not complete my goals.

My friend later told me I could have signed up on a trial basis to not have to pay if I did not meet my goals but I had already made the commitment and wanted to go through with it.


So my PACT goals are to:
-log my meals for three days a week and
-log 10, 000 steps for one day a week.

I found the food goal easy because I was already logging my meals with MyFitness app. I have a Jawbone UP and that logs my steps as well and I figured I would go with one day per week because I know how difficult it is for me to get those steps.

I would have to pay $5 for every day that I miss and I gain a few cents for every day that I make the goal. The amount is determined by the people who miss their goals for the day and the amount is split among those who do make it.

Recently I have been walking about a half mile to the church near my place and then walking back for a total of a little over one mile every morning. It was easy to do this because we were on break but now that classes have started back I am not sure how many days I will be able to do this in the morning.

In any case I have that PACT app reminding me to get my goals done for the week because I really do not want to pay any money!!!

How are you keeping up with your goals?

Back On The Weight Loss Journey

Hello Divas,

So I have been on and off with my weight loss and really I have just been losing and putting on the same 5lbs for a LONG time.

This is mainly because I have not been serious with what I am doing. I will start a program and then quit in 3 days.

I will start to count my calories and stop tracking in a couple of days.

I will start to exercise and then quit in less than a week.

This year I have decided that I simply cannot be 160lbs at 5ft 3 inches. It is ridiculous and unhealthy and puts me at risk for diabetes...which runs in my family.


I have adopted a self created 1300 calorie plan...based on what I was told from a calorie tracker. Someone of my age and current weight who wants to drop a few lbs safely and who is mostly sedentary needs to eat 1300 calories a day to jump start the weight loss.

I can then move to eating 1500 as I increase my exercise levels.

To prepare myself for my healthier lifestyle I decided to go ahead and start back eating healthy along with trying to incorporate some exercise. I eat either a salad every day or a cup of fruits as a snack.

I have limited myself to eating bread only at breakfast time and I eat a smaller dinner than I used to.

I also eat 2 eggs every other day in some form or fashion. I may have scrambled eggs one day for breakfast, or 2 hardboiled eggs in my salad at lunch or use 2 eggs when I make crepes for breakfast.

I got a water bottle with a filter which contains 3 of the 8 recommended cups for the day. I make sure to drink two of the bottles every day and along with a cup when I take my vitamins plus a cup of tea I am getting about the amount of water that I need for the day.

I love grapefruits so I have started buying the canned one which I can transport better and which does not go bad.

I will be going back to work next week so I need to prepare a few meals that are portable and I can grab and take to work so that I do not end up eating out so much.

This will not only be good for my waistline but also for my budget.

Lastly I have started to do some exercise on a daily basis. I alternate days at home and days at the gym. When I go to the gym I pack in 30 minutes on the treadmill and ab machine and when I am at home I do 30 minutes with a low impact aerobics video I got off YouTube.

I am not able to exercise for a full 30 minutes without breaks yet but I realize that I need baby steps to get there and soon the weight will fall off as I get stronger.

Fell Off The Sugar Wagon

Hello Divas!

So I recently talked about how I wanted to go on a sugar detox to help with my weight issues. I started off really well and was reducing the amount of sugar that I ate....then I spent the weekend with my best friend and that all went out the window!

I am reading a book called The Perfect 10 and it mentions eating whole foods in order to balance out your hormones so that you can lose weight effectively.

The book mentions that excess sugar in our diet is one of the biggest reasons that our weight loss efforts fail. There is a lot of detail about how sugar affects your diet and how much sugar there is in foods, even in ketchup!!!

I have to start my detox all over again because once you fall of the sugar wagon you begin to crave sugar all the time. It is going to take a few days to get my tolerance back down to where I can reduce my sugar intake but I am willing to work on it not only for my weight but also because sugar affects things like:

-diabetes risk
-skin aging

and a host of other issues that affect us all daily. Wish me luck and I hope that no one offers me cheesecake in the next few days.

Starting A Sugar Detox In 2012

Hello Divas!

After trying numerous diets and failing miserably at them I decided to do a little more research into why I was not losing weight like I wanted to.

I found something in a magazine that suggested I might be addicted to sugar and that might be one of the underlying reasons (apart from not exercising enough) that I was not achieving my goals.

I used to think that I was prediabetic because I would wake up RAVENOUS. I swear I would be so hungry and irritable in the morning you would think that I had not eaten in days. Even if I ate late at night I would still wake up hungry and angry and so I would get myself tested.

I turned out not to be prediabetic...although I still have to keep a watch on it because my father and grandmother are both diabetic.

I realize that even when I do eat healthy I also indulge in high sugar foods. I would cut calories and increase the amount of fruits and vegetables..but would indulge in sweets.

Even when I went down to 1500 calories a day, part of that included a slice of cheesecake.

I was essentially sabotaging myself with the sugar because people who are addicted to sugar instantly store it as fat instead of burning it up.

I am going to go on a gradual sugar detox in 2012 and start by NOT purchasing some of the following things:

-sugar cookies (I like them frozen and will sometimes eat two after lunch)
-ice cream (sorry Ben and Jerry)
-cheesecake

These silly foods will be replaced by raspberries (which I love) and greek yogurt with sliced almonds.

I am also using only honey to sweeten my tea and I will stop drinking juice for the month of January, relying only on tea and water to hydrate.

At the end of the month I should be more sensitive to sugar and should therefore crave it less...leading to less weight gain.

I am also going to start hula hooping and doing my yoga daily. I mentioned doing those two things before but I never kept up with it. I can hula hoop while watching television, instead of lying down and not doing anything at all.

Starting a FIVE day Detox

Hello Divas!

I found this five day detox plan in an issue of a magazine I have been reading. I have been really bad about eating recently and added to NOT exercising I have put on even more weight.

I am currently at 165.3 lbs!!!!

This is nuts. My clothes can still go on me but my tummy is just so horrible that I am grossed out.

This five day detox is supposed to jump start your metabolism without leaving you hungry. It consists of 5 foods that you eat every day.

These five foods contain antioxidants and nutrients that should help speed up weight loss and they are:

1. eggs
2. spinach
3. yogurt
4. raspberries
5. almonds

There are recipes for combining those ingredients into different meals during the day so I hope it works for me and I am not bored with only five different foods.

You are not supposed to do this detox for more than five days as it is merely a jump start to better eating. I will see where I am after the five days.

Wish me luck!

Still Fighting With My Weight

Hello Divas!

I must say that I have not been consistent with any plan that I have started and as a result I keep putting on the weight that I lose.

I will be down a few days then start to go back up because I just do not stick with any one thing. I tried the reduced calorie thing and did it for about a week then I quit because I was hungry ALL THE TIME.

I tried to start P90X but since I never exercise it hurt too much on the third day so I quit that too.

I walked a mile around the lake and quit after a week.

I tried some diet pills....quit those too because they made me feel sick, or weak or did not take away my appetite like they promised. I also had some pills make me feel really crazy like I was nervous all the time.

So I am back up to my horrible 160 lbs and I do not feel good at all.

My thighs are flabby, my stomach jiggles and I feel like $%^&.

I really need some motivation to keep doing one thing because I went down to 155 on a few of my trials but then it always came back up.

And no I do not believe that 160 is my ideal weight that my body wants to be at. My body feels ugly and looks bad at this weight. My ideal weight is 140-145!!!!

I really need to find a way to stick to my weight loss program..any tips?

Tweaking My Eating Plan

Hello Divas!

It has been a while since I posted about my weight management....or really about anything at all but I am now back on track...I think.

I realize that counting calories is not working for me because I have not been able to stick to the calorie count that was suggested for me.

I also just read that generally limiting calories does not work for many people because in the back of your mind you stress about the calories you consume. This leads to increased stress and high stress leads to retention of belly fat.

So by counting my calories I was actually programming my body to store those calories as fat!!!!!

I am going to go on a modified version of the Weight Watchers plan which does not involve me counting ANYTHING.

The latest research from Weight Watchers shows natural fruits and vegetables as FREE foods. This means you can eat as much of them as you want without them counting towards your points. The other foods are the ones that you need to worry about...but I will just focus on eating CLEANER and healthier foods.

So I will be having unlimited
-strawberries
-blueberries
-cucumbers
-cherries
-apples
and other such foods!

I plan on eating a few fruits or veggies before my meal and then if I still feel hungry I will have some more.

Broke Down And Counted My Calories

Hello Divas!

I tried to go a whole week without counting calories because I thought I had this method under control. I continued with my daily weigh ins and found that by Friday I had put on 5 lbs....almost a pound a day. I fluctuated daily sometimes being down 2 lbs or up 1lb but on Friday my weigh in was at 150 lbs.

This is depressing to me and I should have been going down not up in weight. I caved in and started tracking my calories again to find out that on the days when I was not tracking I was eating well over 2000 calories!!!!

My weight loss goal is to eat abut 1500 to 1700 calories a day so eating more than 2000 was definitely causing me to gain weight instead of losing it. I am really upset at myself because I thought I was handling my weight better plus I felt like I had less of an appetite lately. I guess I will go and get some diet pills after all because I have a reunion coming up in December and I want to start off the new year NOT being fat.

I think I may do a version of the juice diet next week since I have the week off. Instead of doing only juice for the two days, I will alternate between tea and juice and then will also throw in some yogurt for the fiber so that I do not end up getting constipated. Let's see how that works before I try the diet pills.

I Have Stopped Counting Calories For One Week

Hello Divas!

Recently I have been trying to lose weight and one thing I decided to do was to track what I ate and to count my calories. I think that after doing it for a month I have a pretty good idea of my caloric intake for the day, especially since I tend to eat the same things over and over. I have decided that for the next two weeks I will no longer count my calories, but I will just continue to eat in moderation and using the same portions as when I was tracking my daily calories.

I will continue to weigh myself daily because I think that is a very important part of my weight loss journey but I will not stress over half a pound here and there like when I was counting my calories.

It is important to note that I am not cutting anything completely out of my diet as I do not believe in the total restriction method. I can still have a slice of cheesecake every now and then...I just know that I cannot eat anything else for the rest of the night because that one slice is about the entire allocation of calories for dinner.

Fruit And Vegetable Detox

Hello Divas!

I have been talking about trying different things to try to lose a little bit of weight and also get healthier.

The most recent thing I have done is to reduce my caloric intake a little bit and use a food journal. I am using FatSecret.com because they have a smartphone app that lets me scan barcodes of foods from the comfort of my home.

The site has charts that show you what you have eaten and the total number of calories and then breaks it down by:

* Fat
* Protein
* Carbohydrate
so that you can get an even better view of what you are eating. When I first began tracking what I ate I saw that I was eating about 2300 calories a day and I am only 5ft 3 inches tall. This was way too much for me and the suggested plan for my sedentary lifestyle, height and the recommended weight (130 lbs) said I should be eating about 1500 calories a day.

I have been following the suggested plan and hardly ever go over my 1500 plan and dropped 15 lbs since January.

Weigh in today was 146.3 lbs!!!!!!!

Tomorrow I will be going (or trying my best) to go on a fruit and vegetable detox for one day.

I have heard of those juice fasts but I am one of those people who needs to have solid food or I get headaches and get cranky.

I will start the morning off with a cup of green tea like I normally do and then will try to go through the rest of the day eating only fruits and vegetables so that I get the feeling of fullness but without all the 'bad' stuff.

My day should look like this if I am successful:

Breakfast
Green tea with honey
Cucumber slices (half medium cucumber)
Cherries (1 cup)

Snack 1
DanActive probiotic yogurt drink

Lunch
Edamame (1 cup)
Cucumber slices (half medium cucumber)
Strawberries with honey (1 cup, lightly drizzled)


Dinner
Green tea with honey
Activia yogurt
Edamame (1 cup)

The fruits and vegetables listed above have low caloric content so I can eat a lot of them in one day to get the feeling of fullness without even getting close to 1500 calories for the day. I know this is a bit of an extreme diet but it is a one day thing and not something that I will be doing all the time.

It will also give me more nutrients than the Lemon Master Cleanse so I feel safer doing this instead.

I lost 15 lbs Since January!!!!

Hello Divas!!!!

I weighed in at 145 lbs today which means I am DOWN 15 lbs since January. I am pleased with the results as I am now eating 1500 calories a day on average.

I am doing just 5 minutes of yoga a day and doing the hula hoop for 15 minutes and this has really played a good part in my weight loss these past few days.

This week I am going to eat without counting my calories as I think I have a pretty good handle on what I can eat for the day to stay within my count. I have one month before my birthday and would like to lose 10 lbs this week so I am going to increase my exercise a little bit and see what happens.

Taking Up Yoga For Weight Loss

Hello Divas!

I have been fighting with my weight on and off, mostly in the form of cursing it and wishing it would go down.

I have never been big on exercising as I always seem to find an excuse not to go. I started walking a mile around a track near my home, but then would get blisters on the second day and would quit until next week.

I even took up hula hooping while watching television but would quit on that after about three days.

I recently decided to try yoga because even though it is not high intensity or high impact it can help a little bit with weight loss.

I got a 5 minute routine that I do (almost) every morning and have stuck with it for the last two weeks. I plan on doing that routine every other day...which I know is not much but is still a commitment I can make. Having it every other day means that I do not freak out and hate myself if I miss a day because I can make it up the following day.

Once I have been able to do that routine every other day for two weeks then I will gradually increase the amount of time I spend on yoga.

Tomato Juice For Weight Loss?

Hello Divas!

Recently I have been thinking of trying something new to help me to lose weight. I read a recent article (well actually more than one) that said that drinking Tomato Juice helps to lose weight.

They specifically mention low sodium vegetable juice like V8 every day. Now I have been drinking V8 vegetable and fruit juice mixes but never just the plain vegetable juice so I decided to try it.

Yuck!!!

Low sodium V8 tomato juice tastes like tomato soup with not enough salt. I had to chug it down like medicine.

I guess I will have to mix the Strawberry Fusion V8 with the low sodium one to make the taste bearable.

Has anyone tried low sodium vegetable juice? Is is working?

Some great tips on Weight Loss

I found a site that had some Rapid Weight Loss Tips and Tricks that really sounded good. In some cases they were not really 'rapid' because they will take some effort.

The thing I liked about this article is that the tips seemed more realistic. One tip said to cut out sugar and you can do this by limiting the number of sugary drinks you have for the day. You don't have to wage a full out war and completely eliminate sugar...but you can have more water with meals and that will help.

Go read the post and let me know what you think.

How to Lighten Dark Underarms in a Carnival

The article on How to Lighten Dark Underarms was featured in The Carnival of Weight Management and Fitness Forum 19th edition.

It was a great honor to be listed in this carnival along with so many other interesting reads. Check out the carnival for tips not only on how to manage weight but also on other areas.

I liked:
The Flat Ab Gym Rant! posted at "Sexy at ANY Size!",

Sugar Lover OR Sugar Blues posted at Weith Kick
and
The Truth About Carbs posted at Fitness and Weight Loss.