December - Reindeer Games

This Christmas, I went in with a game plan. I was going to put a little of everything on my plate, eat what I could handle, and end it there.

I have to say that it was hard to do but I did it! Now only the scale will tell if my efforts paid off or not.

To supplement my plan, I also added a little zumba for the next few days. Zumba saves my ass whenever I get a little paranoid about something I ate. It's also a healthy alternative to cure my worries, rather than do something unhealthy like overexercise on a machine, mentally beat myself up (eaters remorse) or worse, purge. 

Dance My Ass Off

Wii dance games are great ways to work off the pounds. It's easier for me to do them because I don't do them alone. I have a 10 year old sister who loves to dance, so I play it off as a fun activity while I'm actually getting my workout on. The games that I use are:

Just Dance 2 (and soon Just Dance 3)

I burn around 130 cal for a half hour of dancing, so you do the math for 1.5 hours. That's a lot of calories burned. I love this game, it's fun, it's something I can do with my family, and it doesn't feel like exercise.

Zumba Fitness

Zumba! Zumba! Zumba!

I love to Zumba! It'll get your heart pumping, your blood racing, and some calories burning! I burn around 210 cal in one session. Holy macaroni! And once again, it doesn't feel like a workout, it's like you're in the club. I love it!

Michael Jackson The Experience

Woo!

This is one of the first dance games I got for the Wii, and let me tell you, there was a reason why MJ was so skinny when he was younger. Hus dance moves will trim the fat right off lol. I'll get back to you on the calories burned, but I'm sure it's a great amount.

December - Still going / blog edit

sooooo i'm back and smaller than ever!

but no one on here has seen my progress because I've been off the grid. Well, I plan on backtracking and editing, filling in the missing months so that you guys can sort of get my experience.

At this juncture in my journey, I have lost

80lbs

I'm posting a monthly timeline of my progress, including pictures. They'll be posted under "Progress Pics". So for a little preview, here I am in May, and here is what I look like now:

Isn't that nuts?!?! And I'm still continuing! My goal right now is 50lbs away, so i'm not stopping until victory is mine!

October - Trick and Not Treat

October was a slower month for me. But like Aesop told us, "Slow and steady wins the race". I lost 8 lbs for a total of

62lbs

Last year, I bought this and could barely fit it. It deserved a second chance too.

When I was little, October used to mean one thing: HALLOWEEN CANDY.

My favorites were Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Mini Crunch Bars. I could gobble those up all day if allowed. SO needless to say that this time around, Halloween was considered dangerous.

When I went to weigh in, my consultant Michelle gave me this Halloween Candy checklist that said all the candies that were kind of safe to eat. It also provided all the activity you could do to work of said candy. At this point, I'd rather not have to do all that for a small moment of indulgence, so I kind of avoided the candy all together.

Yes, I now possess the strength to stay away.

That's been a staple with me. With my weight loss came newfound confidence and renewed will power. My friends and co workers comment all the time about how amazing it is that I can avoid the cookie tray in the lounge, or kindly take the little treats my students give me (because they're so darn cute at times) and I quietly pass them off to someone else, or a secretly throw them out.

I don't want to have a little indulgence now and pay the price later for them.

September - Back to the Grind

September meant back to work. Summer was over!

When my co workers saw me 43lbs lighter, they went bananas! My co workers have always been supportive of my journey, and I could feel the pride coming off of my closest friends when they showed me off to the others.

Over the month of September, I lost 10.8lbs for a total of

54lbs

Going to stores and trying stuff on became one of my new hobbies. I loved picking up sizes that I didn't dare dream of looking at before. My favorite part was closing up that button, or zipper, and not having to struggle into it. I didn't have to suck in my gut and i didn't have a muffin top.

LOVE IT.

My confidence level has skyrocketed at this point, and I feel great. My co-workers ask me about tips and advice all the time, and I feel proud to be in this position.

Caught out there

Earlier in the month, I went to an Incubus concert with my friends at Jones Beach Nikon theater. We planned on going out to eat afterward, but as the concert went on we realized that it wouldn't be a possibility. I didn't bring a Jenny dinner because of our plan, so I was kicking myself when I saw their concession stand menu.

Fried Chicken Tenders

French Fries

Pretzels

Pizza

Nachos and Cheese

Hot Dogs

the less of all these evils surprisingly was the pizza. A plain hand tossed cheese pizza can range from 250 to 300 calories. With the amount of calories that I had to use from, it didn't do serious damage.

I hate getting caught without a food plan. In those cases where my plan gets screwed up, I look on my Calorie Counter app any restaurants in the area and pick the best choice for me there. If i'm stuck at T.G.I. Fridays (which seems like a nightmare in itself), I know that their soup is probably the best thing for me. Again, NOT THEIR SALAD, their soup.

August - Body Movin'

There was a lot of activity for me in August. Everyday I was doing something or going somewhere. I took these opportunities to get some sort of workout out of them.

There was so much activity for me, that for the month of August I lost 8.8lbs for a total of:

43.2lbs

At this point, i've found that my biggest method of exercise and travel was just walking. I walked everywhere. I walked to work to pick up my check. I walked to the store for any little thing. I commuted to Flushing because I enrolled in grad school. I walked my little brother and sister to the beach and we played volleyball.

Walking is one of the best additions to a daily routine. Not that "I'm walking to the bathroom down the hall" walking, but that "I'm going to walk up and down the boardwalk for 20+ blocks" kind of walking.

Water was another big help for me. All that movement made me thirsty, so I would end up guzzling H2O down on the regular.

One of my staples had become Iced Coffee from Dunkin Donuts. Before I started my journey, I loved coffee loaded with creamer and an assload of sugar. When I started Jenny, I started getting small DD Smart Iced Lattes with skim and splenda. After a while, that began to have way too much milk in there for me, so I moved onto a better choice, the Iced Coffee with skim and splenda. It's way less calories so you can drink more. It's not a huge dent in my diet and I still get my coffee.

July - Part II - The Calorie Monster

By the end of July, I had lost 11.2 lbs for a total of

34.4lbs

I feel really good in July. My BFF is schlepping me to all these bridal boutiques and conventions, and I'm having a ball because I can fit into old clothes that didn't have a chance last July. I'm going out more, and I'm feeling really good about myself.

In the picture above, we were at one of the aforementioned conventions, and they had free hypnotiq, which is a very fruity and tasty cognac. I had two small cups, not even considering the calorie value. It wasn't until I was midway through the second cup where I got curious and checked. hypnotiq is 103 calories PER OUNCE!

HOLYFUCKINGSHITOMFGWTFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

PER. OUNCE. and those cups were like 6-8oz a piece! I went berserk. Absolutely. Insane. When I got home, I Zumba'd my ASS off, and I was strictly on program for the next few days (meaning no meal on my own, no healthy outside food). Luckily I didn't gain anything from that, other than to be cautious from that point on and check the calories before I put anything in my mouth (hehe, that's what she said).

Strategy tip:

Now at this point, the Jenny dining out book has become my friggin bible. I live and survive by this little book whenever I'm not at home and unable to cook my Jenny food. I also downloaded a calorie counting app on my EVO phone, so I can track while I'm not home. I use Calorie Counter by Fatbusters as well as My Fitness Pal. Counting my calories is VERY VERY important. It's because of counting that my eyes were open to the horrors that are fast food restaurants. You have no idea how dangerous something is to weight loss until you look at the calorie count.

For example, in the past I would go to T.G.I.Fridays and order the Cajun Shrimp & Chicken Pasta, along with an appetizer, maybe some Fried Mozzarella, and I'd get a drink like the Ultimate Long Island Iced Tea. Let's add up those calories!

Cajun Shrimp & Chicken Pasta.......... 1490 calories

Fried Mozzarella.................................. 760 calories

Ultimate Long Island Iced Tea.......... 520 calories

2770 calories total

Are you seeing this?

I. Would. Eat. This.

As. One. Meal.

Heaven forbid I have a dessert! Then I'm in 3000 land! It's amazing to see, I would eat that amount of calories over the course of 2 days. Looking back when given that kind of information, it's amazing that I haven't had any serious medical problems. I should have diabetes, hypertension, something! I got very lucky, and I never want to go back to that. Ever.

July - Part I - Party in the USA

So July was a month of freedom, and not because of Independence Day.

I work at a public school, so when they have summer vacation, I do as well. At this point I've been enjoying my summer, healthy style. I went to 3 barbeques, including my own with my family at home, and I made pretty decent choices when faced with temptation.

My co worker invited me to her family 4th of july BBQ that was being held on the 2nd. When I'm invited to things like that, if I'm really close with them, I'll have no shame and bring my Jenny food with me and eat it there. However, this was my co-worker, and although we were close, we weren't THAT close (yet). So I spoke with my consultant about it and she advised me once again that my best options were to either (a) eat my jenny food beforehand and just eat a small salad, or (b) make smart choices and stick with the greens and a super small portion of an entree.

i chose b.

which was kind of easy. I ended up getting some salad with some yummy sausage on top. i brought Jenny salad dressing (luckily I did, because they had creamy dressings).

two days later on the actual 4th, my cousin invited me to her other family's barbeque in Hempstead. I made similar choices there, but it was painful trying to avoid the "other" salads (potato salad, macaroni salad, seafood salad). Those were the best things about barbeques to me in the past, but I was able to come out on top.

here's what I looked like at this point.

June - Determined

the month of June for me was a month a great success. Throughout the month, I lost 11lbs for a total of

22.8lbs

At this point I am loving the Jenny food, but I was using a pre planned menu, where they have foods already picked out for me. After a while, I started to develop favorites, and when the time came I was able to pick whatever foods I wanted. I've said over and over again that the food is great, however there were some that just didn't gel with me, like the salad kits (I absolutely LOATHE tuna/chicken/turkey salad in a can. But this is a pre-existing hatred, not Jenny's fault) or the Sesame Chicken (I also hate water chestnuts). But for the most part, I loved the food, I just wanted more of my favorites more than once a week.

I might have mentioned this before but I love love love Italian food. Jenny has sooo many different pasta dishes, including my all time favorite Chicken Fettuccine. If I could eat it for the rest of my life, I would. So lucky for me, Jenny makes it, and makes it well.

As far a temptations are concerned, I have the will and determination of a monk. Nothing can deter me from my goal!!!

so, i'm coming down with a cold. a bad one. i feel like crap. so naturally, i get my ass up and go to work!

side note: i really really REALLY wanted to call out, but i needed to fill out my time sheet. money weights more than my health at the moment.

and what do you know? this week at my job is Staff Appreciation Week, and the powers that be chose to incorporate some kind of delicious, fatty, and great smelling food into every day this week. this morning, i walked into the main office to see 50 blue and white gift bags. "how nice" i thought. i then walk past the faculty lounge, and what do i see?

bacon, eggs, potatoes, bagels, and muffins GALORE.

"how nice" i thought. can you detect the sarcasm. because it's there.

i poured myself a nice hot cup of tea with splenda, and walked out to my morning duty post.

20 minutes later, i went to my room and heated up my breakfast, which was jenny blueberry pancakes and veggie sausage. it was very good, and i'm glad i waited to eat that instead of indulging in the spread.

December edit: so here is a picture of me from around that time so we can see what i'm starting with:

Weight Loss: 10.4lbs

May - Days 7 and 8

sorry i couldn't get to a computer this weekend, i was out and about and simply did not have time. sooo day 7 was a Saturday, so i went to the Jenny center to weight in....

I lost 5.8 lbs!!!!

i was ecstatic. i didn't expect to lose that much because my monthly came, but i was pleasantly surprised.

saturday was also my BFF's engagement party. dun dun dun!!!!!!!

my counselor told me that i could either skip my jenny dinner and dessert and eat half of my meal, or eat my jenny meal and just have a salad (minus the extra crap like corn and sugary dressings). everything was okay. i ate my jenny pizza before i left to meet them in the city. we went to a restaraunt called Iguana, they had some lovely smelling spanish food. when it came time to order, i ordered a caesar salad and a glass of pinot grigio, which was allowed because i didn't have my jenny dessert.

i was fine until the food started coming out.

the smells were captivating! i thought to myself "oh god, i'm going to attack someone for their chicken taquito!". but then my salad came out, and although it wasn't a huge salad, it was enough for me. i started calming down, and i didn't give into temptation and take anything i wasn't supposed to. i did have one shrimp from my friend, but it was steamed, not fried, so that was ok.

i ended up having a second glass of wine. i don't know if it was okay or not, since i ended up missing my midday snack. i made up for it in the end, because downstairs from the restaurant was a club. i proceeded to dance my ass off until 2 am.

sunday was a horse of another color. i had a sore throat, and all my muscles ached. i had to get up, because all of the bridesmaids agreed the night before to go see the movie Bridesmaids together. i ate my jenny breakfast, which was a scramble of egg, potatoes, and ham. i brought my anytime bar and a banana for my snack, even though jenny allows us to have a small popcorn as a part of a 'meal on my own'. i chose to play it safe and bring my own stuff.

side note: go see Bridesmaids, it's HILARIOUS.

May - Day 6 - B-fast, Lunch, and Dinner

so today i'm going to give you all of it in one shot, since i haven't had a chance to get on my comp until now.

Breakfast

so my day started off with this

an oatmeal raisin breakfast bar. it was sooo good. at this point, my favorite breakfast fruit is banana. i've combined it with my cereals, my french toast, and this morning. when i first looked at the square, it looked so small, i thought i was going to inhale it in 5 seconds. surprisingly, one bite was full of so much flavor and oats, i began taking smaller bites and it took me a while to finish.

Lunch

i forgot to take the picture, but i had a beef and cheese slider with a side salad. the slider itself was the size of a white castle burger, but the patty was 5 times thicker. to "volumize" it i added some lettuce, tomato, and my allowed teaspoon of mustard (no ketchup. *sad panda*).

so after work, i had my afternoon snack, some jenny cheese curls, and then headed off to the supermarket. here is what my cart looked like mid shopping.

so many veggies.

my biggest concern was how much i was going to spend since i pay jenny around $126 a week for my jenny food. i surprisingly spent $68 on all of my fruits, veggies, and dairy for the next 2 weeks. not a bad deal, when i used to spend $68 in 2 days on food.

Dinner

so once i got home, i started cooking my 2 cups of broccoli florets. i knew i was having chicken fettuccine, and i LOVE chicken fettuccine with broccoli, so my accompanying veggie was a given. in the end, i dumped the pasta out of the microwavable tray into this container. mixed it around, and we have...

mmmm

look at how yummy that looks! i enjoyed it. so now i have to eat my evening snack and go to bed.

onto day 6......

so...i know i was supposed to take a pic of my food before i ate it, but....

my bad

yea, i completely forgot. i hope that tomorrow will be better :-) . so that empty container once held my scrumptious salisbury steak and potatoes. the carrots are my veggie that i had to have with it (2 cups to be exact). honestly, i have always loved raw carrots. cooked carrots taste like baby food to me, but raw carrots?? mmmm-mmm. i have to say though, i was pleasantly surprised with the saliabury steak, because i've had that dish a long time ago and i didn't enjoy it.

speaking of things that i didn't enjoy in the past, i had to have cottage cheese again. i paired it with a cut apple, and i have to say, it tastes best with apples. any other fruit, i wanted to gag. with a red apple, it tasted fabulous. i'm feeling a little more confident now that i can actually stomach the cottage cheese. it's such a big part of the program, i didn't want to jeopardize myself. but luckily it worked out.

for dessert, i'm going to have a cookies and cream cheesecake. i can't wait!

May - Day 5 - lunchtime

what i've eaten so far:

for breakfast, i had jenny's multi grain hoops cereal with a cup of non fat milk and a banana. around 11 i had my first snack, which was another banana and a vanilla chocolate crisp anytime bar. i love eating bananas with this bar, the combined taste is yummy.

what i'm eating now:

mmmm i am savoring this cheesy potato and fried chicken bowl!

all gone!

sidenote: in the future, i will take a picture of the food before i eat it, lol.

i had it with a side salad, and some agua. i feel really full, but not gust busting like i'm used to. i'm already feeling a difference 5 days in. i have more energy to keep up with the kids at my job (i'm a school librarian) and i just feel good. i'm excited that i've almost got my first week down.

May - Day 1 - the beginning

actually it's Day 4...wait.... *sigh* lets start from the real beginning:

I AM A FOODAHOLIC.

that's me.

i'm a 24 year old woman from Queens, NY. i come from a family that loves to cook and LOVES to eat. i have been overweight ever since i was a teen, even though i was an athlete in high school, my eating habits were poor. just god awful. i love all the stuff you shouldn't have too much of; sweets, starches, heavy cheese, fried foods....shall i go on? and when i get my hands on any of my faves, i can't eat in moderation. i feel like i have to GORGE until it's hard to breathe.

i've tried several diets over the years: weight watchers (3 times), atkins, cabbage soup, low cal and low carb. i even got a trainer for 6 months (my wallet hated me for months). each time i started a regiment, i would have moderate success(the most was 30lbs) and then i would cave and revert back to my unhealthy lifestyle. but looking back, i can tell that i was never in it 100%. the most would be around 85% because i would occasionally cheat, but i never realized until it would be too late that i was cheating myself.

around a month ago, i started to feel really self conscious about myself. i began to see myself as a 24 year old with the body of a 45 year old. i was at least 150lbs overweight, i stopped going out with my friends as often as i used to because i didn't want anyone to see me like this anymore. i didn't want to see me like this anymore. and then it happened...

my best friend got engaged.

and made me the maid of honor.

i took the role because i love my friend very much and i know she'd do anything for me, just as i'd do anything for her. anything. and one thing i know my friend wants is for me to be healthy and happy. she being a weight loss success story herself, tries to get me to make good choices when we're out. in the past, i have chosen to do the opposite, not even considering the effect it could have on her maintenance. when i realized this, i felt so selfish. i know that she would love me no matter what i looked like on her big day, but i can't help but want to look healthier and happier as her maid of honor.

so, like i do in times of despair, i talked to my mom.

she told me that my grandmother had secretly been on jenny craig for 5 weeks, and she was having great success with it. it's funny that at that point, i had felt like i had tried any and everything to lose weight, but in actuality had completely forgotten about jenny! well i decided at that moment that not only am i going to lose weight for this wedding, but i'm going to lose weight for myself, and maintain a healthy lifestyle for life.

so last saturday, may 14, i went into a jenny craig center and signed myself up for a full year membership on the Metabolic Max program. my councelor is Michelle, and i love her. she totally gets me and is a great inspiration herself.

how it works:

they gave me my weeks worth of jenny food (3 meals a day). they include a weeks supply of anytime bars, which serve as your daily vitamins, and a yummy snack for each day. they give you a 'menu' for the week, which tells you when to have what. you also have to supplement their food with your own veggies, fruits, dairy, and allowed seasonings and flavor enhancers. so while they only provide you with one snack for each day, your fruits and dairy make up for the other 2 snacks you have to have.

how it's been going:

well i've been on it for 4 days now, and their food is DELISH. i've had beef chow mein, meatloaf (a fave), cheesy enchilada, and this morning i had french toast. i hardly find myself hungry (you eat six times a day for christ sakes), and i pee all the time. yes, i drink 64 oz of water daily. i also have eaten more fruits an veggies in the past 4 days than i have all year. my only problem is the incorporation of cottage cheese every day. to be honest, cottage cheese is fucking gross. sorry for the language, but you're going to have to get used to it ;-) i have tried several things to make it edible, and it simply isn't. i just have to choke it down and bear with it.

i look at this as a road to recovery, in a way. food is an addiction to me. i find myself getting a craving here and there. it's hard because i live with other people who aren't dieting, so i can smell no-no food all around me. but i think as long as i keep looking at this as a rehabilitation of sorts, i can keep my eye on the prize and succeed. (way to sound infomercial-like -_-)

on to day 5......