Third Complete Week

I've arrived at the end of week three. It's been a stressful week. Along with getting into the mental game, I've also been handed a big package of stress. But discipline has seen me through and I've had another good weigh in this week: 188.5 lbs - down another pound this week for a total loss of 9.5 pounds!! Woo hoo!

Now, I could be thinking only one pound lost!, but that's okay. Remember what I learned last week - I can't lose more than two pounds of FAT a week. So dropping my weekly weight loss to a pound indicates that my body is adjusting to the lower level of calories and, hopefully, leveling off to what will be an average of two pounds lost FAT a week.

Something else... As a woman, I need to consider my monthly cycles and the fluctuations that can occur because of them. I tend to hold water as I approach the end of my cycle and I can feel the extra water today. I've also had quite a few salty protein snacks this week; the extra sodium could also be causing me to retain water. Needless, I can feel the water and it's going to impact my weight, but by next week, it should be gone.

Bottom line: we're going for a long-term, downward sloping trend line here so as long as I'm moving down over time, that's really all that matters!

And here I am today:



Are you with me?

-- Kristin

The Mental Game

It's not enough that I have a plan for the physical aspects of losing FAT. If it were, I don't think Americans would be struggling with obesity they way they are. There is definitely a mental aspect to losing FAT and today we'll look at what it's going to take mentally to keep me on track.

When I look at my own behavior and history, the first change mentally I need to make is the realization that I'M NOT ON A DIET!! Diet indicates temporary changes, which won't work for lifelong weight management. So first change for me is this mantra:

I'm not on a diet - the changes I'm making ARE PERMANENT!

This means I need some new eating habits and routines that I'm going to be able to live with the rest of my life... I can do this.

So how do you make permanent lifestyle changes that really last?

First and foremost, you have to apply discipline: training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties. This is where tracking the food I'm eating along with total calories comes into play. Over time, I will form new habits and learn the correct amounts of food to eat, but for now, I need to consider myself in training for my new lifestyle and meticulously apply discipline in these areas until new habits take root and takeover my eating habits.

What does discipline bring forth, though? I think in this instance I'll learn to have self-control over what I put in my mouth. The ability to say "no" to that gigantic brownie and have just a small square instead. The will power to kick crappy foods out of my daily diet and eat nutritionally dense foods instead.

Finally, once self-control starts to reign in my eating habits, consistency becomes key. I think most important with this is the realization that there WILL be times when I don't eat they way I should (think holiday parties). It will be okay to waver from my new eating habits OCCASIONALLY, as long as the majority of my eating is on track - consistency!

So four mental things to focus on if I'm going to be successful at not only losing FAT, but keeping it off for the rest of my life:

1. Stop thinking about the eating changes as a diet - instead focus on making permanent changes to your eating habits.
2. Discipline will be required to evolve into the new eating machine I want to become
3. Using self-control when presented with foods that usually cause me to overeat - learning to make better choices each day
4. Consistency over the long run will have me reaching my goal and maintaining it for the rest of my days!

Okay, so I'm in the mental game now... are you?




-- Kristin

Second Complete Week

Today is the beginning of my third week and my second weigh in.

This morning I'm weighing in at 189.5 lbs - another solid loss... This time five pounds! Woo hoo! That brings my total to 8.5 lbs lost thus far.

Now, I know with what I learned this week, this is not all FAT that I've lost. Probably some water and lean body tissue, too. But I'll take it!

Since completing my body fat test, I've been focusing on what I put in my mouth, ensuring that I'm eating a protein rich diet. I've also avoided sugar, white flour and "white" food items (potatoes, rice, etc). This seems to have aided my loss this week.

Since it is the start of a new week, let's review my goal, what I've accomplished so far and what I'm hoping to do this coming week:

First my goal. Originally, I had set a goal of losing 45 pounds, but based on what I learned this week, I've reduced that to 35 pounds and will focus on ensuring I lose FAT.

Second, I've lost 8.5 pounds since beginning this journey, a solid success to my efforts. I couldn't be happier or more motivated.

Finally, I'd like to continue focusing on my food ensuring that I'm eating enough to nourish my body properly while taking off the FAT!

So here's to next week!



-- Kristin

ps - Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there... you are in my heart today!

Getting Dunked - Part 3

Today my full report from FitnessWave came and it was loaded with even more information.

The big take away from my full report was my daily caloric intake for losing weight. The report states that if I want to lose 2 pounds of fat a week, my daily caloric intake should be 1688 calories. Since kicking off Woman vs Fat, I've been targeting about 1400 calories as a max for each day, so I'm nearly 300 calories short of what my body needs.

Today I targeted eating 1688 calories - lean protein, high fiber carbs, low fat dairy - and I found I couldn't eat all the food allowed. Tomorrow, I'm going to make some selections a little higher in fat to up the calories with less volume of food and see how that goes.

It's the end of the day and I can tell by my clothes I'm smaller... and I'm not hungry!

I think I'm on to something!

Okay - so I've got my plan for the physical aspects of losing FAT... stay tuned for next time because we'll start talking about the mental and emotional sides of this battle.

Finally, I went and found an old pic of me from my youth - I'm going to use it to help me stay motivated in losing FAT!




-- Kristin

Getting Dunked - Part 2

I'm back from my dunking appointment and, boy, did I learn a lot! Thanks to Aeron at FitnessWave, I now know an accurate weight, body fat percentage, lean body mass percentage and a whole bunch more.

For now, I've only received my summary report, but by tomorrow I'll have a full report with much more data (guess I'll need a part 3, eh?).

So far, this is what I know:

Weight: 192 lbs. - my bathroom scale is several pounds heavy according to this.
Body Fat %: 37.1% - I'm carrying 71.2 lbs of fat around - twice what I should have
Lean Body Mass %: 62.9% for a total of 120.8 lbs. This is everything EXCEPT fat.

For women, 22% is used as the "ideal" - at 22% fat with 120.8 lbs of lean body mass, my ideal weight would be 154.8 lbs. That would have me targeting a weight loss of about 35 lbs... 10 pounds less than what I had set as a goal for myself.

Finally in my summary report is daily caloric intake to maintain my current weight: 2688 calories. According to Aeron, to lose FAT, I need to have a slight deficit from this - say 500 calories or so. Over time, that deficit in calories will be the key to losing fat.

Exercise is also important for maintaining lean body mass while losing fat, but food is the key and total calories is what really matters.

Stay tuned for more details once I get my full report tomorrow... don't you feel smarter already? I do...



Until tomorrow...

-- Kristin

Getting Dunked - Part 1

Since declaring my war on fat, I've decided I need to know exactly how much "fat" I'm packing all around and throughout my body. Knowing this enables me to pinpoint my caloric and exercise needs more precisely, giving me a better chance at succeeding in losing fat.

We can look in the mirror and try to gauge our body fat and we can also have skin caliper measurements taken. Neither of these methods, however, is very accurate. You see, we don't just carry our fat in the subcutaneous layer under the skin. We also carry fat deep in our abdomen around our internal organs and also throughout our muscle tissue itself. The only way to get an accurate measurement of all the fat throughout your body is to be measured in a water tank.

Luckily for me, I found a company, Fitness Wave, that has a mobile unit driving around northern California measuring people and it just so happens they'll be in San Jose tomorrow. So I've scheduled my appointment to get dunked. Follow this link for ten reasons for you to get dunked yourself!



Once I'm out of the water, I'll receive a full report along with recommendations on caloric intake based on the amount of lean body mass I have.

This type of testing works simply because the lean body mass (muscle, bone, tissue, tendons, ligaments, etc) sinks in water as it has little to no buoyancy. However, fat is very buoyant and floats in water. Thus, putting you into a tank of water and determining your water weight also enables calculating your lean and fat body mass percentages by weight.

I actually have no idea what my measurements will be tomorrow. I do live in a three story house and am constantly up and down two flights of stairs... that's got to be good for some muscle, eh? I guess tomorrow I'll know for sure.

My appointment is at 4pm PDT... stay tuned!

-- Kristin

First Complete Week

Today marks the beginning of my second week and my weigh-in for week 1.

First, the weigh-in for week 1: I did great - came in at 194.5 for a solid 3.5 lb loss for this week. I'm happy with that.... very happy, in fact.

Lastly, today is the beginning of a new week, which I think should be a time to reflect on my goal, what I've accomplished so far and what I hope to accomplish this week.

My goal is to lose 45 pounds in six months. I think that is realistic and I'm 3.5 pounds closer to that goal today. This week I'd like to accomplish seven days of tracking my eating (I missed two days last week). Tracking helps me stay cognizant of what I put in my mouth - something very important.

So there it is ... week 1. And here's a pic to mark the occasion... this was taken today ... by yours truly!



-- Kristin

The Beginning of a Plan

Well, I'm six days into my new war on FAT and so far, I'm doing pretty good. My plan for the past days has included two things:

1. Track the nutritional content of everything you put in your mouth including total calories, fat calories, sugar calories, fiber. This should bring my awareness way up of what's going in the shoot pretty quickly. I'm using Covert Bailey's Target Diet System... not really a diet at all, but a food evaluation system, which is perfect for my needs.



2. EXERCISE! Notice my battle is against FAT and not my weight. This is an important distinction. You see, it isn't all the elements of my body that make me FAT, it's just my FAT... case in point: want to lose a quick 20 lbs? Just cut off your head... get the picture? So since FAT goes away by being used as fuel in my muscles, my focus on Exercise is just that - MUSCLE. I've been walking to get some aerobic exercise, but not on a level service... I'm walking outside up and down hills, which causes you leg muscles to work harder. I'm also doing wind sprints (as much as I can) while walking - this will cause my muscles to tire more quickly, which should cause the building of more muscle cells, which will help me burn more fat in the future.

So that's the beginning of my plan... let's see where this takes me. Tomorrow morning is my first weekly weigh in... we'll see how my plan has worked this first week.

Stay tuned!

-- Kristin

Declaring War!

This morning I stepped onto my scale and found that my weight has ballooned to 198 lbs! It's not bad enough I'm unemployed, but I'm finding the lack of something to do coupled with the stress are frequently leading me to eat.

But this is it... I'm tired of being tired and "soft". I've lost a significant amount of weight three times in my life and I've always gained it back... this time I want it to be different... I want to finally win this battle.

So I've decided to declare war on my fat! Starting today it's me against my bulging pockets of accumulated excess!

No more... I'll call it woman vs fat this time... and I'm planning on winning.

And to show just how serious I am, here's my starting picture:

This picture was taken May 18, 2009.

Wish me luck or even better, join along and let's kick some FAT together.

-- Kristin