 Beginning: August 2001 |
Program Results |
 Now: January 2003 |
Visit Jennifer's Year One Atkins Results page.
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 2003.02.24
# of Times Exercised: 3
Current Goal: - |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
Probably one of the worst things that could to happen to me since I started on the Atkins diet has happened. I've gotten bored. Bored with the diet. Bored with the food. Bored with following the rules. Bored of the whole package. This boredom really annoys me because I -know- I will lose weight if I stick to the diet. I know it. However, since I've gotten bored of it (and I'm finally admitting that), I've lost my enthusiasm for it. It's just too much trouble to go through the extra steps to follow the diet and eat fresh, legal food.
I'm not sure what I should do now. Attempt to wade through the boredom as I have been trying to for the last couple of months...? Switch to a different diet? If yes, which one? Calorie counting as my doctor originally suggested? Do a 180 switch go from protein good, carbs bad to carbs good, protein bad? Nah... I don't like that one from the sounds of it. Weight Watchers? Maybe just try to eat only freshly prepared meals?
You see, I think one year is all I'm good for on a single type of diet - even if it is working. There is only so much energy and enthusiasm I can keep up on any one thing for an extended amount of time. Maybe, after some deliberate time away from Atkins, I can come back to it. I don't know. However, I am afraid that if I don't "DIET" I'm going to gain back all of the weight I lost. I'm also afraid that if I do "DIET", I going to continue to be bored, frustrated and only follow the program haphazardly. I don't want to do either.
Any advice would be much appreciated. In the meantime, I am officially no longer "dieting" until I figure out what it is I want to do about all of this. Bear with me as I do some research and such.
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 2003.02.10
# of Times Exercised: 3
Current Goal: 265 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
In general, I'm doing alright. It has been a tough couple of weeks with my company being bought out and causing general chaos. Not to mention the hard deadlines I'm facing for my project. I've been fighting the old bad habits I used to automatically turn to in times of stress. In particular, the urge to binge eat on comfort foods. I did allow myself to enjoy this weekend and not stress over the food issue. While I didn't over stuff and I did put down food when I was full... I still ate an awful lot of carbs.
I think, sometimes, you do have to give in a little to sooth the psychological beast. I have to admit, though, I'm a little disturbed at how much comfort I take in eating certain foods. I really want/need to transfer that comfort reflex into something else. My main problem right now is not
knowing how. How does one sublimate the need of feeling full/comforted into something else. It's something I need to think on and figure out. The sooner, the better.
Though, happily enough, despite all of the excess carbs, I am holding steady. I'm still at 274. My main goal right now is breaking the 250 mark. 24 pounds is not a lot. Not really. Not when I look at what I've already done and what I know I can do. I just need to put my mind to it.
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 2003.01.27
# of Times Exercised: 4
Current Goal: 265 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
Well, I'm back on full time and it is showing. I'm down five pounds this week. A good thing for me. I needed some good news like that. The exercise has been coming easier and my mood is elevated despite the incredibly emotional week I had last week.
Now, I am pondering the idea of Atkins hard core on Sunday through Thursday and modified Atkins on Friday and Saturday so I can go out with friends without too much worrying about food. I don't want to get back into obsessing about food. That's not healthy and what I'm going for is a healthy body with a healthy attitude about food.
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 2003.01.20
# of Times Exercised: 4
Current Goal: 275 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
Got sick. Illness kills a diet. Starting over again. |
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 2003.01.13
# of Times Exercised: 4
Current Goal: 275 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
Well, week one of the restarted diet done and I'm five pounds down. Normally, I'd be suspicious but I know a lot of it is the first week of induction which does involve some water weight loss along with everything else. It was hard to start this again. I'll admit it. Kind of tiresome, really. But, I'm sure my enthusiasm will pick up once the weight continues to drop. |
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 2003.01.06
# of Times Exercised: -
Current Goal: 275 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
As it is the first Monday of the New Year, it has the dubious honor of being the beginning point for me to start over on my diet and exercise routine. Obviously, I've been off it for a few weeks - about six weeks, actually. However, surprisingly, I haven't gained that much back. In fact, I am two pounds under the weight I was at this time last year. While I haven't lost a lot, nor have I gained and I count this as a good thing.
So, I am kick starting this off by doing the first two weeks of Atkins induction in a strict sense. This has the advantage of pushing me into the right frame of mind from the beginning which helps when my co-workers come around with chocolates and such. However, I've also started looking into the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet. This diet has the advantage of allowing reward dinners and such. I'm still reading it and investigating it to see what other people have to say about it. In the end, I may mix the two a bit. We'll see.
I've also started exercising again. The walk wasn't that hard this morning but it wasn't easy. My ankle was bothered more than my knee but neither gave out. A very good thing. I'm going to start with three times a week and work up to five times.
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 18 November 2002
# of Times Exercised: 3
Current Goal: 265 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
Status: Fried...
Number of days consectutively worked: 14 - I would just like to say... "Groo."
House: An utter disaster area. *sigh*
Number of pounds gained back: 5 - Vending machines are not a dieter's friend.
Number of movies/events missed due to work: 4 - *pout*
Number of words written in the last 7 days: 20,000+ - Go me! *faceplant*
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 11 November 2002
# of Times Exercised: 4
Current Goal: 265 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
This last week, I fell prey to the easy food over the good food. Surprisingly, I'm holding steady at 270. This week, I'm really going to try to stick to the straight and narrow. If anyone is interested, I'm up to 23,000 words on my novel. *smile* |
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 4 November 2002
# of Times Exercised: 3
Current Goal: 265 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
I'm actually rather surprised I lost any weight this week considering how I overindulged at a beach bonfire this weekend. It was my once every 9-12 month inebriation fest to remind myself of why I -don't- usually drink. Oh, my. The watermelon sized headache the next morning was a good incentive not to do that again for a long time.
As for this month, I don't know how it will go. There are two choices based on the incredible schedule it looks like I'm going to be under. First, it's crunch time at work. We have scheduled overtime work every weekend from now until Thanksgiving. Yes, folks. That's the potential of working from the 4th (today) straight through to the 27th. I'm not thrilled but such is the life of a QA Engineer.
Add to it, one ambitious author who is participating in the NaNoWriMo novel dare this year. I need to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That's just under 1700 words a day. Hard enough on its own. But adding in the crunch time and I think I'm going to be an insanely tired person by the end of the month. Or, maybe just insane. I'm not sure.
In any case, the result of this might be me either sticking to the straight and narrow on the diet in order to feel in control of something and because the Atkins program gives you a natural high... Or, I could go the lazy route and resort to fast food so I don't have to cook. I'm going to try for the former over the latter but we'll see.
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 28 October 2002
# of Times Exercised: 3
Current Goal: 265 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
Between rampant PMS and going to La Fondue as a treat on Sunday, I am not surprised at the mild weight gain. It will be down again next week. I'll make sure I'm good this week. *smile* |
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 21 October 2002
# of Times Exercised: 4
Current Goal: 265 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
Nothing too terribly earth shattering or interesting for me to mention this week about weight loss, diet or exercise. It was just kind of a blah week.
I lie. I bought a dress for Halloween. The largest size they had it in was a 20. I bought it, from a magazine, anyway. It almost fits! It's a bit tighter than I like my clothing to be but I could wear it in public without too much embarrassment. Yay, me!
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 14 October
# of Times Exercised: 4
Current Goal: 265 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
(Whoops. Forgot to update last week. My bad.)
Saturday night, after visiting with friends during the day, then dinner with other friends, I found myself with an excess of energy from an unknown source. Not one to waste such boons - plus I wasn't in a mood to write - I decided to exercise. Yes. At 9pm at night.
You see, I rediscovered an exercise tape. One I had never actually used before. It was still in the shrink wrap. It was Richard Simmons "Dance Your Pants Off" VHS tape. I must have got it because it was full of fun 80's songs. I popped it in and learned a few things.
1. I don't care what Richard Simmons says, that tape is NOT for everyone. My poor arthritic knees got a serious beating. It was very high impact even though it didn't mention that anywhere on the tape.
2. I am an uncoordinated git. My goodness, Mr. Simmons does very little in the way of instruction of the exercises in the video and says things like, "Ok, now, bat wings!" or "Time for victory arms!" without any explanation of what these movements are. I spent half the tape flailing around like a fish out of water, trying to first, figure out what the move was and second, get on rhythm with the tape.
3. My arms are really, really out of shape. Besides the knee issue, the lower workout wasn't anything. But, the arms... Ow! Ow! Ow! I need to start doing something for that ASAP.
4. I have a decent stamina. I didn't have a problem keeping up with the tape on an aerobic level. I made it through the hour without much strain breath-wise. I guess all that walking has been helping.
5. Richard Simmons has a really annoying voice. Seriously. Every time he spoke, it was like nails on a chalkboard. Plus, I found his supportive "encouragement" to be both saccharine and condescending. No, thanks. I don't need that.
Decision: Not going to use this tape again. I think I'll go find my Gilad low impact work out tape. Besides, he's much cuter than Mr. Simmons. Also, I really need to start adding weights or exercises for my arms. I can deal with not being coordinated but not being able to wave my arms around like I was supposed to without fatigue/pain was down right embarrassing.
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 30 September 2002
# of Times Exercised: 5
Current Goal: 275 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
Week 3 and a weight gain. Not terribly surprising between going to Ren Faire, not drinking enough water and PMSing like crazy. My weight will settle back down by next week after my cycle. I hope. I might continue to bobble a little, due to an impending whirlwind business trip up to Portland and back. That sort of thing always makes it difficult to eat right and drink enough water. However, once again, I prove to myself that if I stick to the straight and narrow, I lose weight. If I don't, I don't. |
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 23 September 2002
# of Times Exercised: 3
Current Goal: 265 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
I'm finding it easier to get into the low carb routine than expected. I lost 2.5 pounds this last week which brings the first two weeks of Induction to 10.5 pounds. Not bad at all. I'm going to continue on Induction for another week or so, or until I loose my willpower and start up the 20-40 carbs/day Sunday through Thursday and 40-60 carbs Friday and Saturday routinue. I'm actually going to try and hold that off on that, if I can but, we'll see. Also, I'm going to bump up the exercise from three times a week to five times a week (on average) and see how that goes. In a week or two, I'll add the weights. Hopefully, I won't hit any plateaus and I won't need to go on thermogenics again.
16 Sep to 22 Sep
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday |
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 16 September 2002
# of Times Exercised: 3
Current Goal: 275 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
So, I'm back the Atkins program. I just completed my first week of Induction and my weight loss was... *drum roll*... eight pounds! *cheer* It's just like the last time I started up Atkins. So, if I follow the same pattern as before, next week should be a fairly big week, though, not as big as this week's loss. I'm really pleased that it is working again for me from the get-go. Last week, I got an email from a reader who talked about how she's only lost 1-2 pounds per week from the beginning. Then again, she has a lot less to loose than I do.
I did exercise three times last week. While that is a good thing, I'm not going push it. My main concern is to get me back into the swing of things diet wise. THEN, I'll work more on the exercise. That said, I would like to note that I kicked much butt on my trip to the SF Zoo. I was in a pack of skinny-minny fast walking friends and I was able to keep up for almost the whole day. That's a real accomplishment for me. I remember when I couldn't do that. Now, it was only at the end of the day when I was tired and my knees were aching that I started to lag behind a little. Even then, when I realized I was lagging, I was able to force myself to catch up and keep up without too much labored breathing.
9 Sept to 15 Sept
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday |
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WEEKLY STATS
Date: 9 September 2002
# of Times Exercised: 0
Current Goal: 275 |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
I'm back and I'm starting all over again. Nothing before today counts in year two. For the rest of September, I'm going to be keeping a food/carb diary that I'll post here to help keep me honest. Back to the basics:
1. Do your best.
Stats:
I have to say, I was really indulgent on my month off from dieting. Pints of ice cream, bags of chips, cheese cake, you name it. If it had carbs in it, I ate it. Immediately, my body reacted: Tummy aches, weird body smells, fatigue, headaches and a whole host of other unpleasantness. In a way, it was almost like the way plantation owners would encourage their slaves to overindulge on their holidays so that it would be a relief to get back to work.
At the same time, there was a certain release of pressure over food. I still obsessed but it was over which goodies I would have. I'll admit, it was nice to not have to worry about what I was going to eat when. No need to plan out in advance what I could and couldn't have because it was all legal.
It'll be hard going to start over again but I think I'm ready now. My personal goal is to be under 260 by the end of the year. I will be doing in my normal 10 pound mini-goals but that is the goal I will be shooting for.
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WEEKLY STATS
Date:
# of Times Exercised:
Current Goal: |
NOTES/THOUGHTS
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