Losing It

We have spent the last week on vacation. It has been so nice and relaxing. The problem being is that when I am on vacation the idea of watching what I eat seems to go out the window. I have been snacking on the chocolate snacks that are around. Don’t forgot the donut sticks that I just had to pick up. Oh yea and did I mention all of the pop. It is just amazing how easy it is to forget the fact that I want to loose weight.

Now the nice part is the fact that we are at the lake. I have been running around playing with the children. We go into the lake and running and chasing them in the lake is so much fun. I enjoy it. Earlier today I was chasing my son up and down the sidewalk. He would run and I would chase him, and then he would turn around and chase me. It was a lot of fun.

The biggest problem with being on vacation is the lack of sleep. We are staying up later to do things with the kids. So by the time we get to bed it is late. And then the kids don’t care that we are on vacation so they still get up early, and we have to get up early. I can’t wait to get some more sleep.

What a difference a day makes. I can’t believe it. I decided to make water be my priority. Taking the time and attention to making sure that I drank my water. It is important to me to make sure that I keep up with my water. All too often I let it go and I forget about it.

Well yesterday I concentrated on it. I am so glad that I did. I feel amazing today. Refreshed. I did not have a headache all day. I am more awake and able to focus on the world around me.

I also noticed that I did not eat as much. Instead of going back for more and more food, I stepped away and drank a glass of water. It felt good.

I also went out and played with the kids. Running around back and forth. I was tired at the end of the day but I feel amazing now. I can not believe what a difference it makes to get up and get the blood flowing and to drink my water. I feel like a new person.

In my opinion the word diet is a four letter word.  To say you are on a diet implies that you are just trying to lose a couple of pounds quickly.  You are not intending to keep off the weight, which you are just trying to fit into a dress for a special occasion or get ready for your next vacation.

Like the commercial says, diets don’t work.  Why?  Well that is simple.  First you are making changes that you don’t intend to follow through with.  For example programs like Jenny Craig, are great.  They will help you lose the weight.   But when you stop using them, you will gain.  Why?  The meals you eat while on a program like that are pre planned out for you.  They have perfect portion sizes.  When you have to do this on your own, you tend to have larger portion size.   With this you will gain the weight back.

The key to losing weight is simple - you need to make a lifestyle change.  Yes - don’t diet change your life.  Start learning how to eat better.  Start making changes that you intend to keep for the rest of your life.  These little changes will help you achieve all of your goals.

A common issue when starting a weight loss program is people jumping in head first. This makes trying to loose weight more of a battle than it needs to be. When planning on starting a diet the first thing that goes through the mind is to stop eating the bad food. Stop drinking the sugary drinks. The feeling of depriving yourself of things you enjoy becomes very evident.

The mind will not process negative words. By telling yourself you can not have something, you are just going to crave it. These feelings will make you feel as if you are missing something, and will make your diet a struggle. How to fix this - stop the negative.

Instead of telling yourself that you can not have that piece of cake, tell yourself that you can have a piece of fruit. Same thing with pop. Tell yourself that you want refreshing water. By taking away the negative and focusing on the positives, you can make it through your diet successfully with out struggle.

I love going on vacation. It is so much fun. Especially because I get a chance to spend time with my family. I am so tired from everything. I wish I could sleep.

Here is the problem. I take Zoloft for depression. So I went up stairs to go to bed and took my pill. In the process now I feel like the pill is stuck in my throat. It hurts so bad. I can breath and drink just fine, but I have a sever pain in my throat. I can’t sleep, and if this pain does not go away soon I am not sure what i am going to do.

I am already feeling drained from the lack of sleep. I know that I am going to start to get crabby next. I just wish I could get some sleep and feel rested. Instead I feel like a walking zombie!

I just don’t understand how such a little pill can cause so much pain for the past 2 hours. I just want to cry. I have tried everything that I can possibly think of, but nothing - absolutely nothing is working.

So my last resort, is to go wake up my husband and ask for some help. Hopefully that will work and I can get some sleep before I have to get up with the kids in the morning.

After much thought, I am thinking - where is the best place to start?  There are so many steps to losing weight, that it is very overwhelming.  In my experience making a ton of changes in your life at one time, will usually lead to failure.  Forgetting that you did not gain the weight over night and that the weight will not come off over night will also lead to failure.  So how can we achieve success?  How do you make the right choices?  Where do you start?

First off I would suggest reading 10% Solution  that Sparkpeople has put out.   Set realistic goals.  Remember that as you achieve these little goals, you fill feel a sense of accomplishment.  Also remember that you can always set a new goal once you have reached the current on that you are working on.

It has also been said that to create a habit you need 21 days of doing that, so create a small habit for yourself.  Focus on one thing, and work on that.  Be proud of your successes, and work hard with any failure.  The focus you place on that will help you grow and will help you succeed.

Don’t try to change too much at one time.  Remember that you are trying to start a lifestyle change.  Once you have reached your goal, then you will want to maintain it.  In order to do that you need to change your entire lifestyle.  You don’t want to go back to eating and moving the way you are now.  You want to keep up the healthy lifestyle have now set.  To do this you need to start good habits, and make the entire lifestyle change.

For me I am going to start with water.  I am going to make a conscience effort to watch what I am drinking.  I am going to limit the pop and junk and drink my water.   I suggest that you take a look at the first habit you want to create and start today.  It is never too late to start.  And if you have a bad day, don’t start over, learn, and tomorrow try extra hard!

It amazes me how much my mood and food are related.  When I am feeling good about myself, I eat better, I drink my water, basically I care.  I have noticed the days when I am having a terrible day, I eat like crap, I drink coffee, and nothing matters.  I tend to turn to the junk food.

The days I eat well, drink my water, my mood is great.  The days I eat like crap, have a ton of caffeen, my mood is terrible.  The both go hand in hand.  So the trick is to figure out how to eat good and stay in a good mood.  Something that I am not sure how to do.

I have had a bad  couple of days.  I feel like I am drained.  I feel like what does it matter.  I have noticed I am eating a ton of crap.  I am relying on coffee and pop to keep myself going.  I don’t care what I am doing.  By the middle to end of the day I am just drained.  It is a terrible feeling.

Now the trick is to figure out how to get out of this.  How I can turn my mood around.  How I start to care so that I am able to loose the weight.  I know that depression is a rough emotion to battle, but I also know that eating like crap will just add to this feeling and will just add to the issues.

So my issue…..  To change my mood and my eating habits.

Last year I was diagnosed with sleep apnea.  This was a frightening diagnosis.  I did not know much about the condition, let alone feel that I could ever be effected by it.  What I knew about sleep apnea was it was a condition that you stop breathing in the night when you are sleeping.  You could die from this condition.  I was very concerned when I found out that I was diagnosed with this condition.

After talking to my doctor I found out that I don’t stop breathing.  I have a mild form of sleep apnea.  My oxygen drops down to a dangerous level.  While I am still breathing I am never getting a good night sleep because my body is constantly waking itself up so that I can raise my oxygen level.  I was never getting a good night of sleep.

I realised that something was wrong because I was constantly tired.  I wanted to sleep more and more but never felt like I had got enough sleep.  I also was working out very hard and I just was not loosing any weight.  I just did not feel like anything was going right, and I knew that something had to be wrong.

After having a sleep study, I found out that I had sleep apnea.  Now I wear a cpap machine at night that measures the pressure of my breathing, and when it starts to drop, it forces air so that my oxygen will not drop.  It takes a couple of days to get used to wearing it, but it does make all of the difference in the world.

The best thing I ever did was go to my doctor and talk about what was going on, because now I am doing something so that I can be rested.  Also by getting a better quality of sleep, I hope that this will help my body do what it needs to do so that I can loose the weight

One of the most important things I have learned along the way with loosing weight, the most important thing is that if you don’t get a full night sleep then you will not loose the weight.  I never realised how important sleep really is.  You need it not only to function, but you will need it to help your body do what it needs.

After a full day of packing, a 4 1/2 hour car ride, and about 2 1/2 hours of trying to get settled, I did not get to bed until 1:00 a.m. or so.  My little guy got up at 5:30 this morning.  I am dragging.  This is going to be a long day.

I am hoping that when we get the kids down for a nap that I can also sneak in a nap.

After a long day, I feel I did well over all.  I was able to get my 8 glasses of water in.  I was able to stay away from caffeine, until we got in the car.  I knew that once we started traveling that it was going to be a long night so I decided to go get star bucks coffee.

I can’t believe how much caffiene is in one cafe mocha…  There is like 700 calories in one of them.  That is almost 1 days worth of calories.  You should have between 1200 and 1500 calories.  So that is almost half of your calories.

I have to say I feel very lucky because I get extra calories.  I get between 1800 and 2200 calories a day because I am still breastfeeding.   It is nice to be able to have some extra calories to play with.

So over all today did not go to bad