Another Year Older . . . And Wiser

Yes, today is my birthday.  Thirty-one years ago today, my mother spent 24 hours trying to meet me before I decided to make my appearance.  Yesterday, I spent a wonderful time with family celebrating that and look forward to today spending it with my husband, coworkers, students and friends.  I truly feel blessed by all the people in my life.

As I look back on the past year or two, I feel that I have gained much knowledge and wisdom on how to take care of my body.  While I still feel like there is more for me to learn, I feel like the changes that I have made are not temporary but lasting.  When you truly desire to lead a healthier life, you just have to come to a realization that there are some things you have to learn to live without or find ways to make substitutions that will make it easier on you.  In my past, I would lose weight, then lose track and gain it all back.  I would make excuses as to why I should or should not do something.  My biggest one over the past few years has been, I'll wait until the summer, I'll have more time to get healthy then.  Of course, summer would come and I was more busy in the summer than I was during the school year.  I finally realized this year that I needed to stop making those excuses and make a change.  I just had to start making an effort and making my health and well being a priority.  I started working out at 5am.  I know, CRAZY!!! Right?!  Well, it has been the best change I have made this whole school year.  Now there are about 2 weeks of school left and I'm about 24lbs down since September of last year.  That is an average of 3lbs a month.  Ok, so maybe it's not as quick as I would like it to be, but I am down 24lbs and I cannot tell you how many inches.  I feel great physically and mentally.  That in itself is a huge reward.  I have so much more energy than I used to and I can move in ways that I have not moved probably since high school.  Like I said, I feel like I have so much more to learn, but this has been one great year!  I cannot wait to see what the next one brings.  I'm at 189lbs this year.  Hopefully by next year I will reach my goal of at least 165lbs.  Shooting for 155lbs, but I will be happy with 165lbs if that is as far as my body will go.

Sparkpeople.com, a FREE way to keep track

So I have been doing WW the last couple of months, which has been great.  I have seen some success with my weight loss.  However, I am not thrilled about the fact that it does cost to continue to  use the online system.  Recently, a good friend of mine told me about sparkpeople.com and how you can keep track of your calories in and out for FREE!  And there is no secret formula to figuring out numbers and such.  It's all just calories and it will also track some of the other nutrients for you.  I thought I would test it out and compare with the WW program over my spring break, and when I put the two side by side, there was not much that was different in keeping track of the diets.  I reached my limit with sparkpeople.com calories around the same time I would reach the limit of points with WW.  So if things are a bit tight for you with money, give sparkpeople.com a try.  I plan to make the switch.  Oh yes, and if you are just trying to maintain, they have that option as well.  Oh yes, and one more thing, are you pregnant?  Yes, they also have an option for pregnant woman so that you do not add all those extra pounds during pregnancy, but are making sure that you and your baby are getting what you need.  Check out BabyFit.com.  How about . . . are you a teenager?  Check out sparkteens.com.  If you sign up, you can use me as a reference: KaraBeem.  Not only do they have trackers, but there is a wealth of knowledge and thousands of new recipes that you could take advantage of.  You can even build your own recipes and it will calculate the calories for you. :)  Since I started keeping track, I've lost 6 lbs in 3 weeks.  If you do decide to join, let me know.  I would not mind having a little friendly competition as long as the goals are realistic.  I'm down 41lbs and have about 40lbs to go before I reach my ideal weight goal.  Although, I would be quite satisfied with just losing 30lbs at this point. :)

I'm in "One"derland!!!

I know it has been an incredibly long time since I have posted a blog.  As you have probably gathered from the title, I am doing great.  I mentioned a little over a month ago that I started WW.  As well as I felt like I was doing before I started up WW again, I realized that even though I was eating all very healthy foods, I was not tracking how much I was eating and limiting my portions at dinner time.  I tell you, my biggest food struggle is dinner time.  Since I started tracking food and getting back in the groove of working out, my weight started to move again.  This week while on my spring break, I took a little more initiative to get workouts done.  The nice thing about having this week off has been that I have been able to de-stress a little bit.  It has been a fantastic week aside from the colder whether that I did not expect after last week.  I have also taken some time to check out another FREE program that I wanted to share with you.  sparkpeople.com   This website is fantastic!  It helps you to calculate nutrients as well as calories.  Very similar to the WW online program, only no points, just calories.  The things that I believe gives this program a boost is their calorie burn tracker and if you want, it will give you a meal plan and a strength training routine.  That is if that is important to you.  I also enjoy the social network, articles, and recipes that they have.  If you decide to check it out, look up KaraBeem.  That is my SparkPeople name.  It is fantastic to see how many calories, carbs, protein, fats, and many other nutrients, if you choose, and be able to track how much you are taking in.  They also list many menu items from different restaurants.  I'd love to hear your opinion about this website.  I have made a commitment to do WW for another 2 months, but I am planning to transfer over to this program once that commitment is up.  Thanks for continuing to read

Starting Weight Watchers

So these last few weeks I have really felt down in the dumps.  I have really had no explanation for feeling this way.  The only thing I can figure is that I have not been working out and eating right the way I should.  I had also seemed to reach a plateau which never seamed to go away.  Then I started to reflect on my life and the times in which I was successful in my weight loss.  The common denominator was weight watchers.  So this week I have decided to start doing weight watchers.  However, what I will be doing differently is working out. In the past when I have done weight watchers I have neglected to make exercise as an important part of the weight loss, so in turn I believe that I lost a lot of muscle and not fat.  When I was at my lowest weight I remember thinking to myself, "my problem areas are still sticking out."  If I had done the workouts with the weight watchers, maybe my problem areas would have diminished more.  Anyways, so the good news is that I am back and I am happy to report that I have lost 5 lbs this week due to my efforts in keeping track of what I eat and exercising at least 3 days this week.  It is a good week thus far.  Hoping for another good week next week. :)  I think it may take me awhile to get back to working out more than 3 times a week again.  But as long as I'm getting the minimum of 3 in right now, I'm happy.

Battling illness & Finding time

So part of the reason I have not been blogging more recently has been that I have not been feeling well.  I tried working out last week and for a normal workout I nearly passed out, so I decided that until I'm feeling better, I should probably take a break.  The other issue has been finding time.  I have been working out, but finding the time to blog has been a challenge.  I think during the winter months I have been feeling a little more sluggish.  Does anyone else ever feel that way during the cold dark months?  My body just wants to go into hibernation.  I am more tired and with that I just never feel like I am able to accomplish as much as I do either in the spring or fall seasons.  If anyone has a remedy for that, I would not mind hearing it.

So I think one of the problems that I have been having with my health is that either I have caught a cold or my acid re-flux is back.  Not fun.  So, in case it is the latter, I have decided to try eating vegetarian style this month.  I may not eliminate meat all together, but I will be reducing it drastically.  When I have acid re-flux problems.  I start to have coughing fits and they just seem to get worse and worse until I do something about it.  Last time I had this problem, I found that eating grains other than processed or wheat tend to be helpful.  Avoiding any types of foods that could potentially either increase stomach acids or mucus production has been helpful.  Until I have lost the excess weight, I'm afraid that I will have to deal with this issue.  Overall, I have found a more vegetable/fruit based diet creates less acids in my stomach.  Hense the vegetarian theme for this month.  If you find that you might have similar issues to myself, please talk to your doctor about it.  Mine recommended that since I also lowered my grain intake that I take a complex vitamin B to help with my energy levels.  If you plan to change your diet in anyway it is always good to consult a Dr whether it be your general Dr or a specialist.  They know your body and it's specific needs and will be able to tell you if it will work or not.