The Final Fifteen Pounds

Obsessed. I feel too obsessed. Too obsessed. I think the word obsessed already implies the word too in it! I am tracking data and I enjoy that part of this process. My smart scale tells my phone how much I weigh and a bunch of other stuff like BMI. I am the lowest weight I've been in my non-teen life right now, 178.5. And that's good. And I'm am grateful.  But I'm not down to my goal yet. In fact, I'm not exactly sure what my goal weight is. I'm not even sure if I need to know what that number is... My BMI is sitting at 25.5 and my smart phone colors that as orange to let me know that this number needs improving. To have what is considered a "normal" BMI should be under 25.  These are just numbers that are somewhat helpful.  But my belly still hangs over my belt. Not like it used to. But there it is. That's the measure I am looking to change. I want a flatish belly. Ish.  I want to look down and visually see my belt buckle. I remember being able to...

One of the ways weight loss derailleurs get us, is that we don't think it through. Our belly is thinking. Not our minds. Or possibly our worries are blurring our focus.  Focus: I wanna weigh 173. This week: What I did well - ate more apples. Didn't eat candy or doughnuts. What I didn't do well - drank 1/2 a soda every weekday. Hoping that getting back on green smoothies will take that craving away from me. So I'm noticing something. I'm battling a huge headache everyday. I don't realize it's there until my aggravation has built up to the point where every little tap on a desk is bugging me. I believe the headache is allergy related. The rains in Texas have been unrelenting this year. So Spring is powerful.  This has caught me by surprise.  Here's my plan for coping with the daily headache. Reduce caffeine intake.  Eat inflammation reducing foods.  Obviously the soda has to go. Whole foods become primary. Processed foods need to fade...

Wow. Tuesday... Good day. Took a day I wasn't too thrilled about doing due to a sleepless night and turned it oh so nice. #TLAP Teach Like a Pirate So Monday night, I planned and "attended" the #TLAP Twitter chat. If you haven't done a chat before, TLAP ( Teach Like a Pirate ) is a great one to get you started. It starts at 8 PM central on Monday nights (I'll let you work out the other zones). I came out of the chat with two ideas. Keep my students active. And get them to generate questions. My mind was buzzing (hey, maybe why I couldn't sleep). But those two ideas activity + questioning = engagement. Around the World (my classroom) Here's the basic review lesson we did. Put vocab words up all over the room. Students go around the room to each word and ask a partner a question. The partner tries to answer. BUT THEN the partner who answered gets to ask another question about the same word. I like this because that second question drives the qu...

Isn't nice to have a plan to do something to improve your life that you actually follow through with? I did that today. Here's how it worked. If you read yesterday's post, you know that I came up with a plan to make it through the Sunday church feast in such a way that I wouldn't undo all of the hard work from the week.  Here's how it worked. I walked into the community center and fixed my eyes upon the salad. The salad was the target. Then I noticed a huge bowl of fruit at the dessert table. The plan began to form in my mind. The food I need to eat was there. While I was waiting to eat, I drank a full glass of iced herbal tea. BTW, I keep telling myself to do this. I've been trying to start this habit for weeks. I just keep forgetting. So I started to talk about it and write about. Today I remembered! And that's how things often work for me. Keep saying it until you make it happen and it does.  So I grabbed my plate, and skipped the fried offerings....

Yesterday, after days of struggle, I got back on the weight loss plan!  You might be saying, "Yesterday? That's not much to go on."  I disagree. It's a lot to go on.  Here's why. Remember, I have already lost 40 pounds. I do know how to do this. I have maintained a 188 pound or less weight for a year.  I haven't experienced a day where I actually followed the food plan for a long, long time.  And what made me realize it, was writing things down. Writing it here.  I expect to stay on this now for the long haul. Instead of having long stretches of wobbles and bobbles, I'm looking at miles and miles of being on my game with occasional side trips. Here's how I got back on the horse: I had a plan. Everyday, I look at my plan and say to myself, "What did I do well?" Everyday, I also say, "What can I do better?" Wrote about it every day. Worked at keeping a food log.  Easy to meet exercise goals. ...

I got this idea from Brian Tracy...  1. What did I do well? Wrote daily. Exercised. 2. How can I improve? Really pay attention to what I'm eating. Turn up the vigilance. When I really blow chunks one day, go overboard the next day to pull it back together. Write down the food daily until I hit five in a row. One reason this is rough is that I'm trying to do a lot all at once. I really get that it is probably best to focus on one thing at a time. The exercise is easy to get right because even if you mess up the food part, it's pretty easy to get in 10 minutes of exercise. In fact, it gets easier and easier to make it happen. So this week, I'm going to pay close attention to my caffeine intake, particularly in the form of coffee. To help with this, I didn't buy any coffee for the house. We are out of it at home. My hypothesis is that coffee is making me feel hungry even when I'm not. Today, I started with black tea instead of coffee. That reduce...

620 calories is a lot in one sandwich. (Jack in the Box Grilled Breakfast Sandwich) Just looked it up on myfitnesspal. So, my routine needs tweaking. I need to do something different with coffee. Coffee makes me feel hungry. After I drink a second cup, I always feel like I need some protein. My plan is to start cutting back. Here's how. I'll buy coffee that has 1/2 the caffeine. I like the Community coffee with chicory in it. I'll order 1/2 caf at Java Jacks (my coffee house of choice). Let's see if that reduces my cravings for protein. On another note. Yesterday, went home and exercised for 45 minutes on the bouncer. Yes, I know it's a funny image when you think about 52 year old man bouncing up and down on a minitrampoline in a leotard. Just kidding about the leotard. On a positive note, the scale said 186 this AM. Did well on the dinner front last night. One dinner only. Goal for tomorrow: no snacking on 620 calorie sandwiches from fast fo...