Motivational Tuesday

Well I did receive some response yesterday to the weekly weigh in post!  Hopefully we will have more response as we go along and people see how it works :-)

I will first share mine.  I weighed in yesterday morning at 161 pounds.  (this is 35 lbs from when I started this lifestyle change back in August!) My goal is to be 145 pounds in 3 months and to have my body (especially my mid-section) smaller and more toned!

Here is what we had in responses.

We have one participant who is currently 189 pounds and starting the “lifestyle change” today! 

We have a participant who is 227 pounds and has a first goal to be under 200 pounds!

We have a participant who is 238 pounds and also has a first goal to be under 200 pounds!

I am hoping that once we start hearing about how much weight people are losing it will give us all motivation to keep going!

If you have visited the blog today you may have noticed that the background has changed.  I decided to put up a Valentine’s background.  I think having a goal for Valentine’s day would be good!  Valentine’s Day is 2 days shy of being 6 weeks away.  How about setting a goal of being 10 to 15 pounds lighter by Valentine’s Day.  I think that is a very achievable goal!   How fun would it be to go on a Valentine’s date with your clothes fitting looser!!

You can do it!!

Kellie

The Weekly Posts Have Been Figured Out

Well our household is sick today so we are not getting much done today!!  So I have a little bit more time to work on this blog.

I think I have figured out what the weekly posts will be. 

Here is what I have come up with (I welcome any feedback you have on these).

Monday
- Meal Plan Monday
- Weekly Weigh In And Goals

Tuesday
   - Motivational Tuesday (sharing weigh ins and goals and other motivational tips)
   - Resourceful Tuesday (websites, points calculators, etc...)

Wednesday
   - Snack Attack 
   - Question and Answer Session

Thursday
   - Scripture blessings
   - Exercising Tips

Friday
   - Weekend Survival Tips

I have added a column to the left of the blog where I have these listed.  Each one is a link.  When you click the link it will bring up all posts related to that theme so that you can easily refer back to these as needed.

In just a few moments I will do the Tuesday posts :-)

Kellie

Menu Plan Monday

Thank you so very much for your responses today on your preferences on how to do the menu planning posts!  Suprisingly everyone that responded wanted the option of a very generic menu plan post…one post focusing on breakfast items, another one on lunch items, etc…since we all live such different lives!

So I am going to kick us off with a breakfast post for our first menu plan Monday!!  We got to get the day started off good, right?!?!

For those who are needing a quick breakfast to fix at home or grab as you are running out the door:

- Fiber One Breakfast bars – these are not only GOOD they are good for you!!!  I really feel like I am getting a good chocolate fix with one of these as well!!  I have tried several different brands and I personally like the Fiber One brand the best.  These babies are only 1 point each!!  (if you follow the 4 gram fiber cap – they are 2 points)

- Fiber One Yogurt – I haven’t tried this yogurt yet but I am sure it is really good – Hungry Girl has given it her seal of approval!!  You can have 1 container for 0 points!!  (this would also make a great snack!)  Pair it with a banana and you are still only at 1.5 points!!

- Dannon Light And Fit Yogurt – Now I did pick these up this week to try!  I am going to try them after my morning work out!  They are only 1 point per container!  Once again, pair it with a banana for a 2.5 point breakfast!

-1 Cup Honey Nut Cheerios with 1/2 cup skim milk is only 2.5 points – slice a banana and mix in it and you have a 4 point breakfast!  (If you are having to watch your carbs you may not want to choose this option).

- Quaker Simple Harvest All Natural Instant Multigrain Hot Cereal – I haven’t tried them yet but they look really good…and are only about 3 points per serving!

For those of you who may have a bit more time to fix your breakfast:

- Hungry Girl’s Choco Monkey Oatmeal – takes less than 5 minutes to prepare and is less than 3 points!

- Hungry Girl’s Egg Muffin Sandwich – can’t wait to try this one – and it is only 2 points!  All it takes is a few minutes to cook your egg white and then assemble your sandwich! (an egg mcMuffin from McDonald’s is 6.5 points!)

-Hungry Girl’s Bueno Breakfast Burrito – this looks AWESOME!!  And it is only 2 points – YUM!  Once again it only takes you about the time of scrambling an egg!

Good Fast Food Choices for Breakfast on the Go

Not easy to find good breakfast choices at restaurants…please share if you do find some good ones!!

Subway actually has some ok choices for breakfast…I have never had breakfast at Subway but I found this information online.

Cheese Sandwich on Deli Round (270 cal/9 g fat/3 g fiber/35 g carbs) 5.5 points

Cheese Breakfast Wrap (220 cal/10 g fat/8 g fiber/16 g carbs) 3.5 points

Honey Mustard Ham & Egg Breakfast Wrap (230 cal/7 g fat/8 g fiber/23 g carbs) 3.5 points

Western w/Cheese Breakfast Wrap (210 cal/16 g fat/8 g fiber/19 g carbs) 4 points

Please give feedback…was this helpful?

Kellie

How Do I Calculate My Points?

I have gotten the question a couple of times now of how do you calculate your points for a meal you are fixing.  Here is how I calculate my points:

Let’s say you want to fix spaghetti for supper.  You start off with using 1 lb of meat.  You will need to look on your container of meat to find the calories, fat and fiber (this info will vary depending on what type of meat you get).  Usually the packaging will give the counts per serving…so you will need to find the number of servings per container (assuming you have a 1 lb container) and multiply your calories, fat and fiber content by that number to get the total number for that full container of meat.

Then let’s say you use a full box of spaghetti noodles.  You will want to do the same thing with this…find the nutritional information on the box…find the magical # of servings per container on the box and multiply the calorie, fat and fiber content by that number. 

Then you would do the same thing for your sauce.

Then you would add all those numbers together to get your total number of calories, fat and fiber for your dish.  If you are going to divide your dish into 4 servings then you can divide those numbers by 4 to get your amount per serving.  Then you can calculate your points per servings.

Clear as mud??  How about I help you out!  Here is a link to an Excel file that has a calculator that I have set up for you to enter your information!  I have set it up for a recipe that has up to 8 items in the recipe!!  (the first sheet is just the simple calculator and the second sheet is the recipe calculator). Hopefully if you have more items than that you can figure out what to do from there.

Please let me know if you have any questions on the calculator!

Remember, if you are wanting points for restaurant menu items click here for a pretty extensive list of different restaurants!!

Menu Plan Question

I am trying to figure out how to post the menu plans.  I am having trouble figuring out how to do it so I thought I would ask you guys.

Here are some of the different ways it could be done…let me know what would work best for you and the majority will win (so you have to speak up if you have a preference!)

1) I could post what we are planning on having for the week.  The only problem I see with this is that it will not have my total points for the day because I don’t have all my snacks and sides figured it all the times.  Also I won’t post a recipe on my recipe blog until I have tried it and it is good…so some of the recipes may not be available at the time of the menu plan post.

2) I could post what we did the previous week.  This would allow for all of the meals to have links to recipes.  It would also have listed all the snacks and sides to show my total point value for each day (even though everyone’s point values are different…you could tweak as needed)

3) I could do generic meal plan posts…maybe one post of a bunch of breakfast recipes and another of a bunch of lunch recipes, etc…  Everyone’s lives are so different that one person may be able to cook a good breakfast while another needs a breakfast on the go, for example.

So what do you think would be the best way to do it?  Do you have any other ideas?  Let me know!

Kellie

Weekly Weigh-In and Goals

I am so excited about this blog starting and I am so excited to see such a good response to people who want to be involved!!

I am still trying to figure out what are going to be the “theme” posts each day (still open to ideas if you have any) but i know for sure that we will have a weekly weigh in post every Monday.  Please don’t jump ship if you are not comfortable with this.  It is strictly voluntary.  I will explain.

Face it.  If you want to lose weight then you really need to know how much you weigh and a goal of how much you want to lose.  You may be one who wants to keep this very private or you may be one who wants to share it with at least one person to act as an accountability partner.

I have found that it is best to only weigh yourself once a week…preferably the same time of day each week.  As women our weight is constantly fluctuating to some degree due to our monthly cycles, stress, water intake, etc…  You may find yourself getting frustrated if you try to weigh more than once a week because of  these fluctuations.

Since I am doing this post on Mondays then that may be the best day for you to weigh.  Monday mornings are my days to weigh.

As far as this post is concerned, you can simply use it as your reminder to weigh in, or you could take it a step further and share your weigh in with the group (info only, no names).  A lot of times people, especially women, can get good motivation if they hear of the success of other women.

And you only have to share with what you are comfortable sharing.  You may want to share your current weight and your target weight that you are striving to achieve.  Or you may only want to share how much weight you lost the past week.  It is strictly up to you how much you would like to share.

Also it’s a good idea to also do your body measurements at the same time this week as well.  Sometimes it seems that the weight loss may not be happening like you think…but there are changes going on in the inches…they are getting smaller! 

So the next thing to tackle is how do you share…here is what I think the best way to handle this will be…

First – if you are a subscriber to this blog and you are reading the posts through email then you just have to reply to the email with your information.  (if you are not a subscriber and would like to be just simply enter your email address in the top of the right hand column and click submit and follow the simple instructions to confirm your subscription – totally free if you are unfamiliar with blog subscriptions).   Yes I will know it is from you but I promise I will be the only one.  I will not share your name when sharing your response.

Another way you could respond with your information is to leave a comment on this blog post (if you are reading this post in Blogger).  Please know that you can leave an anonymous comment.  No one, including myself, will know your name on the comment.

On Tuesday mornings I will do a post that will list all of our weigh-ins from Monday. There will be no names mentioned on that post, just the statistics.  I have thought about this and was at first going to give the option of letting you leave your name if you wanted but I really thought that might hinder some people and I want everyone to be comfortable.  But, like I mentioned before, I really think we can be motivated if we can see the success of others so I would like to be able to encourage people to share their goals and successes!

I will tell you about my personal weight loss experience over the past 4 1/2 months.  As of the first of August 2009 I weighed in at 194 lbs.  This is the heaviest non-pregnancy weight I have ever been!  I knew something needed to be done so I got serious!  I am now at 160 lbs and 4 dress sizes smaller (went from a size 16 to a size 8)!!  I still have about 20 lbs I need to lose and am working now to really tone my body and get rid of my c-section belly!

So I am asking you now – what is your current weight and/or measurements  (if you want to share) and what is your goal you are wanting to achieve?  If you have already started your “diet” also feel free to share how many pounds you have lost so far.

Kellie

note: if you need to know how to get started with a diet then click here.

Getting Started

Hey Everyone!!  Are yall ready to start this journey of losing weight together?!?! 

Some of you may not know exactly where to start.  I will share with you how I have achieved losing 35 lbs in 4 months.  But please know that everyone is different.   What has worked for me may not work just the same for you.  But hopefully it will help you and hopefully you can have success!!

Let me first start by saying that I believe the biggest key to succeeding in losing weight is to have the right mindset!  Do not tell yourself you are on a diet – you are setting yourself up to fail from the get-go.  The word diet brings to most people minds other words like restrictions, limitations, bland food, etc…  Tell yourself that you are making a lifestyle change.  I have changed the way that I am eating…it has not only helped me to lose the weight but it is going to help me keep it off.  A diet is temporary.  You go on the diet and lose the weight and then you end the diet.  But what happens most of the time when you end the diet?  The weight starts coming back on.  Who wants to yo-yo in their weight the rest of their lives?  I know I don’t!!  So I figured if I can eat healthy to get the weight off then I continue to eat healthy to keep the weight off!

Also you need to remove the word can’t from your vocabulary!  You will not exceed with an I can’t attitude!  Just remember Phillipians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”  Christ wants you to be healthy!  You can do it!

I personally follow the weight watchers point system.  Do you have to follow that diet to be part of this group? No, of course.  There are many healthy diets out there.  You do what is comfortable with you.  But if you are lost as to what to do to follow then I will share how I follow this system and by all means follow along.  The weight watchers system looks at calories, fat and fiber.  You want to have low calories and low fat, and fiber is a big plus!  You have a daily point value.  I have already written a post on how to determine that point value.  Click here to read the post.

Once you have determined your daily point value then you need to know how to calculate the point values for food items.  Click here to go to an online calculator tool.  I personally took the formula (Points = (Calories / 50) - (Fiber * 0.2) + (Fat * 0.083)) and put it in an Excel spreadsheet so that I could have it even when I am not online.

You will need a way of journaling what you eat every day.  You can use a journal where you write it down everyday…or have a file on your computer where you type it in.  This is extremely important, especially at the beginning, so that you can know how many points you have had that day, and most importantly, how many points you have left.

Now this formula goes with the flex plan…which allows an extra 35 points per week on top of your daily point allowance.  Some people like to spread that out throughout the week so if one day they go over their point limit they can just pull from their 35 flex point bank.  The way my hubby and I have done it is we strive to stay within our daily point values on the weekdays and if we do that then we can splurge on the weekends with the flex points :-).  The important thing is that you find what works for you.

Here is a website that has some awesome information on point values for different foods, point values for restaurants, recipes, menu plans and more.  Click here to access that website. 

Speaking of restaurants…what I did when I began is went to the website above and went through the restaurant list and for restaurants that are in my area that I eat at I got me a little notebook and wrote down some of the menu items that I would order and the point values.  I keep that notebook in my purse so that when I go to these restaurants I can refer to it to know what the best menu choice would be.

I will be posting menu plans on this blog (looking at doing that on Mondays).  I will also be making posts about low point snacks, restaurant deals I have found, etc.  I have another blog where I post recipes with point values.  I will continue to post all my recipes there but will have links to specific recipes on posts on this site.  Click here to check out that blog and see some of the recipes I have already posted.

I have already gotten a suggestion to post recipes that are easy enough for people who do not cook at all to be able to fix.  I will be striving to meet that request when I can.

Please feel free to let me know of any other requests that you have that you would like to see on this blog as well.

I hope this post helps you to get started in your diet journey.  Please feel free to let me know of any questions you may have at this point and I will do my best to answer them!

Look out for weekly theme posts on different days of the week.  I am still trying to get all that figured out…hopefully we will get it all figured out soon!

Please know that this post will be under the Getting Started category on the right hand column of the blog if you need to refer to it in the future.

So – are you ready to lose weight together?!?!

Kellie