For those of you who have started with me on this blog about a month ago you know that it's original intention, aside from talking about my life in general, was to share and be accountable in a way for my health and wellness journey. Well, I am happy to announce that I have met my first goal!!!
I wanted to lose 10% of my body weight, and yesterday I was down 24 pounds from my high of 240. It wasn't until this morning that I realized it was 10 percent and I'd met my first big goal! Research shows that the health benefits of even this much weight loss are great, reducing my risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and increasing my chances for a longer and healthier life!
I met another big goal yesterday too! It is very demoralizing to weigh more than your husband, especially when he is 5 inches taller than you and no string bean himself. Well, I'm now officially 4 pounds less than my husband! It isn't much less, but it's less, and that gives me a huge psychological boost.
Another happy event happened yesterday in my weight loss world. My Wednesday night bible study group (composed of mostly women who want to lose some weight but need some motivation) has finally been motivated. Last night we formed an accountability group. We each set some personal health goals (not necessarily to do with weight, but with heading in a healthy direction) for the next week, and we are going to keep each other accountable by checking in each week. It's just another tool in my arsenal of health and wellness tools, which I find I am accumulating almost as fast as I used to accumulate pounds!
I can't tell you their goals, because what happens in study, stays in study. It's a cardinal rule so we can feel free sharing. However, my goals and life are an open book. I made three goals. One was to get to bed by midnight each night. Getting enough sleep has been scientifically proven to help in weight loss. It has to do with our nightly hormones. There are two hormones we produce called ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is the hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are deprived of sleep you produce MORE ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that tells you when to stop eating, and when you are deprived of sleep you produce LESS leptin. Also, when you are sleep-deprived your metabolism is slower. So, you do the simple math. More ghrelin + Less leptin + slower metabolism + being sleepy so more likely to make poor choices or grab quick or sugary snacks for a boost = possible big time weight gain. I've never been a big sleeper. I usually sleep about 4 or 5 hours a night. I'm also usually tired. It just seems I have so much to do and I work so late, and then I feel I need to relax so I'll watch a bit of tv, and read a bit of book and read my email and by the time I go to bed it is sometimes 2 or 2:30. I wake up at 6:30 if I wake with the alarm, but many days I'll wake up at five to go pee and my morning person body will say "well, close enough, get up!". So I decided that more sleep was going to be a crucial goal for me. I don't know if I will ever be able to sleep the recommended 7.5 hours a night every night, but I'm going to start by making that one limit for myself. Midnight to bed for me.
My second goal was to increase my liquid intake. I was drinking 3-32 ounce powerade zeros each day plus the milk in my shakes (one or two cups a day). This was over 100 ounces of no or low calorie high nutrient liquid. I had to pee a lot, but I felt good and I was hydrated. Since I've increased my protein intake and decreased my carb intake I need even more water to help process that protein. I've slowly decreased my fluid intake over the course of this eating plan, and my goal was to get back up to at least 3 - 32 oz bottles a day.
My third goal was to track every morsel of food I put in my mouth. I was a Nazi about this when I first started the eating plan. I entered everything into my program on my phone (sparkpeople.com for the droid, love it!) before I ate a bite. Lately I've been slacking a bit. My goal for this week is to track it all, every bite. My tummy is growling and complaining right now so I'm going to go start meeting my goals by tracking my breakfast. Have a great day my friends.
Blessings, Tanya
