Archive for December, 2008

To splurge or not to splurge this Christmas

Dec 23

Posted by Gina in What I Eat | 1 Comment

Why are the holidays so tough to get through without totally stuffing my face every chance I get? I’m having a real hard time this week. It all started yesterday when I had my family holiday get together. Of course there is all this wonderful food and deserts everywhere and everyone is saying “Oh what the heck, its Christmas! Have a cookie!” Ok!

So the battle has commenced inside my head.

I’m trying to figure out if I should be totally strict with myself this week and be a super woman. Or, should I be good but splurge a few times and get over it. Hmmm, the second option sounds better to me…

I certainly don’t want to justify going crazy because that’s how I got overweight in the first place. But if I make a conscious decision to splurge a bit now and then this week, all the while keeping track of ALL calories and journaling, then I think that’s fine. I think everyone should be able to splurge a bit on the holidays, especially if you plan ahead for it.

Am I just making excuses? I’ve thought it through and I don’t think so. In the past I’d just continuously stuff my face for the whole month of December and not even think about dieting till maybe February. So this time is completely different. I am planning and tracking every step of the way and making conscious choices instead of having a free-for-all.

Much better me thinks.

What are you planning to do over the holidays? Are you going to totally be good or are you planning for a few splurges?

Tags: christmas treats, lose weight during holidays

65 Reasons Why I Want to Lose Weight

Dec 14

Posted by Gina in Compulsive Overeating, Emotional Eating, Feeling Beautiful, Food Obsession, Motivation | 2 Comments

I just stumbled across this list that I wrote up months ago. At one of my Weight Watchers meetings one of the members said that when she first joined she wrote a big list of all the reasons why she wanted to lose weight – which ultimately helped motivate her into losing 50 pounds.

So I decided to write a list of my own.

Its actually quite cathartic to find this and read over it again. Its sad and invigorating all at the same time. Its sad to me because I’ve listed here so many things that should be normal to every woman and yet I still don’t experience them. But reading this list is also invigorating because it re-establishes my intense motivation to reach my goals.

I’d definitely suggest every person that wants to lose weight write their own list.

Here’s my original list of reasons why I want to lose weight and end my addiction to unhealthy food:

My new happiness and pleasure will be in what I gain from just giving up my food addiction…

feeling great about myself
loving my body
easier weight loss
dancing
fun exercise
feeling fit and in shape
looking great
fitting into really cute and sexy clothes
getting dressed up
playing with the dogs
wearing a bikini
being comfortable in a plane
feeling good in public
wearing shorts in the summer
wearing sleeveless shirts in the summer
feeling healthy and well nourished
not getting diabetes
not getting heart disease
not getting joint pain
curing my pcos (polycystic ovarian syndrome)
not being depressed all of the time
finding new friends
finding new interests
looking and feeling beautiful on my wedding day
feeling good naked
not feeling ashamed of myself
enjoying life more
having my future husband be able to pick me up
dressing up in anything I want
wearing thigh-high boots
going down a zipline on our honeymoon
riding a horse
going skating
going kayaking or canoeing
going for long hikes or walks
buying new clothes in any store
having my thoughts free
not feeling guilty all the time
not feeling depressed
not feeling ashamed
not having to hide anything
stop sweating for no reason
enjoying life
not feeling ashamed to be around others
feeling beautiful
feeling good to travel anywhere in the world
not having my issues be worn on my body
respecting myself
being a better person
being a better wife
being confident
giving away my big clothes
not feeling so alone
feeling worthy
embracing my personal development
having confidence in my abilities
being able to wear skirts or dresses
being toned and shapely
becoming my real self again
laughing and smiling more
having healthy clear smooth skin
feeling a sense of accomplishment
feeling proud of myself
finally freeing myself from this pain
having my family be proud of me

And the only thing I have to give up to get all of this…

my unhealthy eating habits

Tags: complusive overeating, Food Obsession, weight loss goals

A weekend of pizza, burgers, and lots of cheese

Dec 14

Posted by Gina in What I Eat | 1 Comment

I always seem to overdo it on the weekends. I absolutely love eating out at restaurants and every weekend I do just that. And I seem to have a big aversion to just ordering a salad. I mean, if I’m gonna have fun, I’m really gonna have fun, right?

So this weekend I had Mexican food with my Mom and Sister. I went in to the situation saying to myself I was just going to have fajitas or something relatively healthy like that. But no. They just had to have my most favorite dish in the entire world on their menu…pollo fundidos!

Now if you’re not familiar with this masterpiece of culinary creation, let me explain. You take a chicken burrito and deep fry it. Then you cover it with spicy melted cream cheese, then you top that with melted cheddar cheese. Its absolutely delicious.

But I don’t even know how many calories it has…I think its best not to know. Well, I went ahead and ordered it this weekend and enjoyed every second of it.

My philosphy for the last few months has been to be really good on the weekdays and then splurge a bit on the weekends. (Ok, maybe this weekend I splurged more than just a little bit…oops!)

So far this has worked out great for me. I’ve been able to lose 26 pounds so far and I don’t ever feel like I’m depriving myself.

While I lose weight this time around, I’m focusing on making lasting lifetime habits. This is the last time that I lose weight and I absolutely intend to keep it off for the rest of my life. So, I want everything I do to be manageble long term.

Therefore, the idea of being good during the week and then allowing myself to splurge on the weekends sounds really good to me. Its something I know that I can do long term.

So anyways, in addition to my Mexican meal of melty goodness, I also went out to dinner yesterday with my fiance. And I had a burger and fries.

Then, tonight we ordered pizza.

So now I feel like I’ve definitely had my splurges and I know now its time to settle down and eat better during the week.

Actually I eat out like that pretty much every weekend now that I think about it. So far its been fine. But if I start having a hard time losing weight then I know I’ll need to reevaluate what I’m eating on the weekends.

And no matter what day it is, I always overload my day with fruits and veggies.

Also, I’m integrating about 3 hours of walking per week into my schedule.

Ok, I think I’m ready for a nice healthy cup of green tea!

Tags: eating out at restaurants, spluring on weekends, weight loss tips

Today’s walk was oh so nice

Dec 7

Posted by Gina in Off Topic | 1 Comment

I can’t believe I’m sayin this, but I had so much fun on my walk today!

Me and my fiance try to walk about 3 hours per week. Its a little hard to do with our crazy schedules but today we decided to take a nice long walk.

We walked to a restaurant and I had a bowl of rice, chicken, lettuce, cheese, black beans, and salsa. Then we walked from there to the grocery store to pick up some fruit for this week. Then walked back home.

So in total, we walked about 70 minutes. And the weather was very pleasant – a bit cloudy and 65 degrees (We live in Phoenix, AZ)

All in all we both had such a nice time just walking and talking. Hmmm…I suppose exercise can be fun huh?

Tags: walking for exercise