CNN

Sometimes I read the weight loss stories on CNN's website. Here's a really good one:

Tracey Wygal weighed 295 pounds before starting a "clean diet," keeping a food journal and exercising.

Hardly a day that goes by that you won't find Tracey Wygal working out at the gym.

The 30-year-old middle-school teacher does cardio exercise, strength trains and follows what she calls a "clean diet."

That's quite a change for a woman who tipped the scales eight years ago at 295 pounds.

Wygal first started gaining weight in her early teens. A fast-food diet and little to no exercise helped her pack on the pounds, and her weight ballooned to over 200 pounds.

"It was my first year out of college, and that number, along with being diagnosed as morbidly obese, was very frightening," remembers Wygal. "I went to several doctors, trying to get them to prescribe a weight-loss pill."

But none of her doctors would give her the quick fix she was looking for. Instead, a physician handed her a 1,600-calorie-a-day diet and told her to start moving.

Read Complete Story. Be sure to read the "Fact Box" in the left margin of the page which recaps how she did it.

Finally got up Nerve to Weigh Myself

I finally stepped on the scale today after avoiding it for several months. The good news is that I did not gain weight over the holidays. The bad news is that I am still just shy of 150 lbs. I weigh 148 lbs. I'd really like to be 140. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy with the way I look and my jeans fit me. That's really the important thing. The only reason I want to get below 140 is to help me in my quest to run faster in my 10k races!

Here's my formula for weight management:

I use the Calorie Needs Calculator to find my Basal Metabolic Rate. That's my base level of calorie needs per day.

Then figure out how many calories I've burned in workouts using Caloriesperhour.com. I only count REAL workouts like biking and running, not walking the dog or doing the dishes.

Add the above two numbers together. That's how many calories I allow myself to eat that day in order to maintain my weight. I write everything I eat down in a small notebook. That works for me. It leaves me a little hungry sometimes, like between lunch and dinner, or between bedtime and breakfast. This is doable, and worth the effort because I don't want to gain all my weight back.

If I want to lose weight, I only add HALF the number of calories I burn to my base calories. That leaves me really hungry alot. I did this in the summer of 2006, and got down to 134 (from 144). It took me 6 months of being really hungry alot to lose 10 pounds.

I’m revising the above paragraph. When I am working out about 1 hour per day, cutting the calories burned via exercise in half is fine, because that leaves me with a deficit of about 300 calories per day. That’s just right for losing 1 pound of fat every week or two. But, sometimes I work out 2-3 hours in a given day, and that formula will leave me with a huge calorie deficit. (That explains why I was always so hungry when I lost weight in 2006). So, what I’ll do is add my base calories to my calories burned, then subtract 300 calories to get my goal for the day.

I eat roughly according to the South Beach diet. Limited healthy carbs, lean meats, lots of veggies, healthy oils such as nuts, olive oil, etc. I avoid sugary crappy foods. The only time I eat pure carbs is during or after my workouts.

I try to make sure I eat at least 100 grams of protein per day. I like Whey Powder smoothies to supplement my lean protein intake, because I don't like fish and chicken all that much (I prefer the fattening meats like hamburgers and BBQ pork). Whey shakes are just 100 calories for 21 grams of quality protein. The best tasting brand is ON (Optimum Nutrition) Gold Whey powder. You can buy it at GNC, Vitamin Shoppe. Best price is Vitacost.com.

Ways to count calories: Nutrition labels, The Calorie Counter, Restaurant Websites, and this Book.

I'm in a crabby mood right now because I've decided to try an lose those 10 pounds to get back under 140 lbs....and I'm starving hungry!

Time for a cup of hot tea. That's what I have when I'm starving hungry while awaiting the next meal.

Here's a page from my calorie counting journal...click image to enlarge:

Getting Past a Weight Loss Plateau with Burn The Fat

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Huge Milestone in my Diet Journey

I successfully navigated my way through the fattening fall feasts of 2007.

I did not eat any butterfingers at Halloween. I did eat a few carefully chosen candy bars from my 13 year old daughter's candy stash. I selected things that were chocolate, but not so yummy that I couldn't stop eatting them. Like Nestle's Crunch bars. Those are the lamest chocolate bars ever!

I ate alot on Thanksgiving and on Christmas day. Maybe even on New Years. But the days in between I was good. I did not pig out for two months straight like I have in the past.

My jeans still fit me well. I still haven't weighed myself. I'm guessing I weigh between 145 and 150.

But all this good news is not even the huge milestone. The big milestone is that I have been under incredible stress in my life in the past couple of months. I have not turned to food to relieve my stress. I guess five years of consistent effort, five years of falling down and picking myself back up, five years of watching what I eat, has finally equated to a fundamental change in the basic way that I behave toward food.

If I can do it, you can to. Believe in yourself.

The Butterfingers are Calling my name - but I am not listening!

It's Halloween night and the trick-or-treaters are ringing the doorbell. In the hallway is a big bowl full of candy. Butterfingers, Take 5, Baby Ruth, Sixlets, and Kit Kats. MMmmmm - I love chocolate!

I did eat two pieces earlier in the evening before dinner. But I am resisting the temptation now. It's hard. Very hard. But I will not cave to to the Butterfinger Bar.

I don't know how much I weigh right now, but my jeans fit, so I'm good.

PS...I'm drinking alot of tea this evening. I drink hot tea, with 1/2 packet of equal and a bit of skim milk, to help resist temptation.

Keeping at it 4Ever

Sorry for the broken record theme on this blog, but it's just the plain hard truth. I am constantly working hard to not gain weight. I have to "Be Hungry" sometimes. Not all the time, just sometimes. I have to make wise food choices, and tailor my calorie intake to how much exercise I am doing. (That's the nice thing about exercise, it allows me to eat more :-)

I still haven't weighed myself in a while. I'm not obsessed with the scale anymore. I am using how my jeans fit as a guide to how I am doing, and they fit okay. I wear a size 10. I'm happy with that. I don't need to lose weight - I just need to keep from gaining it, and as I said, it's hard.

There have been times in the past year where I stopped trying for several weeks, and very quickly put on 5-10 pounds. There was even one time where I had been working hard to control myself for a week, then stepped on the scale and weighed 150. I thought to myself "The hell with it, I'm sick of fighting this endless battle. I give up." Thankfully, I reconsidered and did not give up.

Anyway, I live in constant fear that I will once again end up being obese. And I really hated being obese. It sucked. It is worth the hard work to stay where I am, which is about 145.

If this is Fat, I'll take it!

Sheesh - I can't believe people are saying that Britney Spears looked fat at the MTV awards. Link to image. Sure, she had a lousy performance, but she does not look fat. Her figure looks like a normal female body to me, very attractive. If that is fat, I'd take it in a second!

PS: I haven't weighed myself in a while. Last time I did was a few weeks ago, and I weighed 145. I'm trying to just go by how my jeans fit, rather than obsessing over daily weigh-ins. I still struggle on a daily basis with controlling my eating.

Headline: Your best friend could be making you fat

Wow - this headline really is a sad day for overweight people. I had a tough enough time dealing with all my own negative feelings and bad treatment by others when I was overweight. This study can only make things worse for people suffering from obesity. If you know someone who is dealing with weight issues - hug them and love them and support them and hope that some day they will overcome it. Please don't reject them.

Your best friend could be making you fat

WASHINGTON - Could your best friend make you fat?

Researchers who have studied ?networks? of obesity think so: they found that if someone?s friend becomes obese, that person?s chances of becoming obese increase by more than half.

Siblings and spouses also have an influence, although a reduced one ? people whose siblings became obese were themselves 40 percent more likely to grow obese, while people whose spouses became obese were 37 percent more likely to. ...

click to read full article on MSNBC

Be Hungry

Be Hungry. I heard that advice recently, and am trying hard to follow it.

When I first started my teaching job last fall, I spent quite a bit of time with the man who subbed for my classes before I arrived on the scene. His name was Harold, and he was a veteran teacher visiting from Texas. He was a good guy and gave me alot of advice. I wish he could have been my mentor?maybe I would have made it through my first year of teaching without burning out! (Harold went home after Thanksgiving, and I really missed him).

Anyway, one day we were sitting in the teacher?s lounge, and another teacher came in and walked over to the snack machine. This other teacher was on the hefty side, and said ?Man, I?m hungry? while he selected a candy bar. Then he walked out of the lounge.

Harold, who was extremely lean, turned to me and said ?Be Hungry?. That?s how I stay lean, I let myself be hungry.

I repeat ?Be Hungry? inside my head when I am hungry and want to eat more food than I need.

I say alot of crazy things in my head. I hope nobody ever reads my mind!

BOT = back on track

Today I weighed 147. Yeah, I am back on track. I was looking at old photos of myself, and I like the way I looked in July 2006, 1 year ago. I looked up in my old diet journal, and I weighted 137 at that time. So, that is my goal, to get to 137. In Sept 2006, I weighted 132, and I looked too thin in photos from that time frame, so I don't want to go less than 137.

Here's my plan for the rest of my life:

Ideal weight: 137
Starting to worry: 145
Panic: 150

I wanted to say a note about using laxatives, since I get quite a lot of comments about that. When I pig out, I am eating poor foods such as refined carbs. I am not eating fruits, veggies, or fiber-rich foods. So, I get constipated and feel bloated and gross. So, for me, using Phillips Milk of Magnesia at these times seems to make sense. It clears out all the junk that is in my gut and I feel alot better. I would not recommend using a pill laxative. Philips MOM is very gentle, and since it tastes so gross, you won't want to use it very often.

One more note about this: I tried Dannon Activa yogurt, which advertises that it will help maintain regularity. It really does work. I have not gotten constipated since eating one pack of this stuff per day. I wish I could find the same thing in a supplement (pill), since I don't really want the extra 100 calories in the yogurt. If I do find such a thing, I'll post. There are so many "probiotic" supplements out there, and none of them quite match the live cultures in the Dannon Activa, so I don't know what to do.