The Promised Land of Links

Up until a few months ago I was a member of a parenting forum. Long, ridiculous story short, I'm banned. Yeah. I totally cried myself to sleep with ice cream in my hand. Okay not really. I laughed. During my stay there, another member posted a thread asking about weight loss motivation and getting started. Here's an edited C/P of my response.

Ready for a link bomb? Here we go.

There are a number of apps available. I can't speak for iPhones but they're free for Android.

MyFitnessPal- which you can also use online.

Lose It!-  which you can also use online. I use this and love it as it has a barcode scanner to quickly input calories. It's accurate about 99.9% of the time.

Extrapounds isn't too bad, but I found it confusing at first and not super easy on a phone.

If you can't afford Weight Watchers you can use a neat app called WWDiary.

For just weight tracking, I use an app called Simple Weight.

ALL of these apps are free (because I'm cheap like that).

If you don't have a smartphone, you can use this site to calculate your Points Plus daily target. Remember to recalculate every so often as the points allowance changes based on your weight.

Ronis weigh has a nice online food calculator for the old points and new Points Plus values.

I've never tried this site but I do have it bookmarked. It has the Points values and calories and other nutrition facts for their recipes.

I'm a bit more simplistic. I also haven't updated mine in a while, but I do hope to soon. I'm finally moved and I have a nifty camera that I dropped a pretty penny for. 

This site was just shared with me last night so I don't know how great their recipes are, but I definitely plan to try them out at some point.

My Body Gallery will help give you an idea as to what your body MAY look like at your height and body shape depending on the weight you choose. This was eye opening for me and I go back every so often as a reminder.

Just Diet Now is nice but would be better if they had a mobile friendly version of their site. That have restaurants, that restaurants menu, and the Points Plus values and nutritional values as well as serving sizes for each menu item.

3 Fat Chicks is a nice forum for getting in touch with others struggling and who have struggled with weight loss and maintaining weight loss. I'mm not super active on there, but I do read quite a bit from there.

As for workouts, it really depends on what you're into. For me, this was a lot of trial and error. I like Zumba and have found some videos online to follow. Here are some of the users who are Zumba instructors and post for others to follow along:

Kosheban

LarissaZumbaCO

rmuzika1

GRDanceFitness

ZumbaWithTabitha

There are tons more, and they should pop up on the right side bar.

If Tae Bo is your thing, which is is mine, here's some stuff for ya

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

And of course you can always go to WalMart. I have two Tae Bo DVD's (10th anniversary Tae Bo Ultimate and the Bootcamp DVDs) and I love them.

Here are two Jillian Michaels workouts.

One

Two

I've not tried her programs so I can't say one way or the other about them.

Here's a 20 minute Insanity workout that was recorded for others (not the actual DVD).

If you use uTorrent you can download Insanity and/or P90X- but they aren't my cup of tea and you really need to invest money in equipment, which many cannot do right now.

There's also Hooping but again, not my thing, though I did look into it. The hoops are quit pricey though, so here's a tutorial on how to make your own for only about $5.

There's a hooping forum too. A quick YouTube search yielded some promising looking videos, so maybe you can check those out.

I *THINK* I got it all covered. If you have any questions, ask away! I hope somewhere in all of these links you've found something that helps you. Remember, find what works for you. Don't try a workout, think it's boring so therefore they must all suck. Try something a few times (don't give it up right away) and if it's not for you, try something else. And even though I've thrown tons of links your way doesn't mean that I didn't miss something.

Good luck, and I hope to see you on the 3FatChicks forum. 

Looking Forward to This... Again

Quick blog as I continue working on my promised blog of links galore and getting myself ready for school.
Last year I was thrilled to announce that I reached below 250. I come to you again excited to announce that I am *almost* there again.

Today I weighed myself and am at an even 257. *This* go round I have lost 18lbs. It may not seem like much but to me, it is. Most days this journey is a challenge. If you, my reader, could fully grasp the challenges I am faced with daily in regards to this journey, you, too, would understand.

However I do not want you to know. I don't want anybody to know, although there are plenty of me walking this planet. Nonetheless, I am thrilled with this update I bring to you, and for those who are going through the same struggles, I wish you nothing but the best; all the success in the world to achieve, not fail. And failure in this is the hardest thing to avoid more times than not, but it is something to *want* to avoid.

What's New With You?

I've been gone. Boo-hoo, cry me a river.

It's been a hell of a summer. Not completely shitty, just rough. I recently moved the next town over (did I talk about that before? I don't recall). Right after moving here, I broke a finger on my right hand and it fucked me to hell. Though ambidextrous, I'm primarily right handed so I've had to learn to deal with having this splint on at nearly all times, outside of showers. With that, I've had to teach myself how to rely more heavily (and primarily) on my left hand and that has been- interesting. It's been 3 weeks and my finger feels about 50% better.. Hopefully by the time I'm back in school I'll be fine. I really need to be, actually, because one of my classes is an art class and I can't just sit out.

Meanwhile I'm mostly unpacked and settled, but I'm lazy- no revelation there- and still have 3 boxes to unpack. It's ONLY three boxes- but they seem the most daunting.

I feel this move is, ultimately, for the best. We are now less than 5 minutes away from my sons school and I'll be saving myself nearly 2 gallons of gas per day that I have school. I dislike living in apartments again, although this time I'm upstairs. The lady below me is a real peach. She bitches about the noise we make no matter the hour. Short of crawling and tying my son up, she's going to hear us. I *gigglesnort* at the idea of when I start my Tae Bo Bootcamp workouts (again). I had to stop due to the broken finger but I'll be back at it with a vengeance when my finger can (finally) be splint free. She's really going to love me then!

I did fall off the wagon starting the day of the move (long story but it's quite irrelevant in my opinion) and gained about 5 lbs but got back on track and I'm happy to say that I've done quite well- though how far I have to go is still daunting in its own way.

When I initially began this journey, I was weighing in at 290. This year when I started (again), I was at 275. I am now at 260, which was my postpartum weight leaving the hospital with my infant son in hands. I hope, so badly, that I can stop failing and just succeed and maintain in weight loss. 

Now! I promised my readers an assload of links to help you all out, but with some shoddy internet (tethering from my phone) it will have to wait until I get my financial aid at the end of the month, when I can then get some reliable internet (or when I go somewhere with WiFi sometime next week or so while my son is (back) in school). It's sucked not having reliable internet. No vlogging, can't post a blog with all of those promised links, and no documentaries for me. It's very sad indeed, even if you don't think so. ;)

With that I will bring this to a close. I most certainly hope that all of you have had a wonderful summer and are ready to get back into the swing of things. I know I am!

Frustrated

I am so beyond frustrated. The batteries in my scale need to be replaced- otherwise I simply cannot trust it. The scale at my mom's tells me I've only lost 3-4lbs in the last 2 months but my clothing tells me otherwise, though not drastically. I don't know when she last replaced the batteries in that scale, if ever.


I'm worried I'm not losing, or losing adequately. I'm counting calories and staying around my budget and I work out daily.  I'm up to 1.25hrs of Tae Bo daily, which I incorporated a month ago. I'm hoping that with my scale batteries being replaced I'll get a better idea as to where I stand, and I hope it's not just a 3-4lb weight loss in the last 2 months.


I figure if that IS the case, it's incredibly disheartening and I'll want to give up, so I'll have to talk to my doctor.


I really hope my scale is a bit more reliable and my mom's scale is the one that is ultimately fucked.


Meanwhile, if you haven't been there yet, go to my VLOG! I update there too. Not all things discussed here are discussed there, and vice versa. Meanwhile, as promised in my newest blog, keep an eye out here as in the next couple of days I will be providing you all with some amazing resources covering apps for calorie counting and WWPP as well as sites for the same purposes and sites for so many other things (including free workout videos!). 


So keep an eye out for those things!


See you soon!

Over-Doing It

P90X. Insanity. Tae Bo. Running.


There are so many ways to work out, and everybody has THEIR niche. Tae Bo is mine. But something I have noticed way too much lately are the posts on my Facebook from others. Now I am all for weight loss and weight loss support, but we as a society only support these things when done in a healthy manner. 


I never thought over doing it when you work out would be deemed acceptable, yet I see it all the time. Posts about working out so hard, so long that they're throwing up, and they hold it almost as if it's a badge of honor. Why!? If you want to be healthy, fine, but do not sacrifice one aspect of health for another, more visual aspect of it.


The process of regurgitating food is a sign of illness or over-doing it. Vomiting involves the acid of the stomach to come up with the ingested foods and liquids, and in that process these gastric juices can irritate and burn the esophagus. Frequent throwing up can cause tears and burns in the esophagus and, over time, can result in an esophageal rupture. Symptoms of an esophageal rupture is pain, burning, chest pain, and difficulty breathing.


Fast breathing, fever, low blood pressure and a rapid heart rate may also occur. Other possibilities include neck pain and bubbles under the skin. According to a health article in the NY Times, treatment varies on the location of the rupture. Here's a quote:

Treatment may include:

• Administering fluids through a vein (IV)
• Administering IV antibiotics to prevent or treat infection
• Draining fluid that has collected around the lungs with a chest tube
• Mediastinoscopy to remove fluid that has collected in the area behind the breastbone and between the lungs (mediastinum)

If little or no fluid has leaked, a stent may be placed in the esophagus. This may help you avoid surgery.

Sometimes a perforation in the uppermost (neck region) part of the esophagus may heal by itself if you do not eat or drink for a period of time. In this case, you must get nutrition from another source, such as a stomach feeding tube.

Surgery is usually needed to repair a perforation in the middle or bottom portions of the esophagus. Depending on the size and location of the perforation, the leak may be treated by simple repair or by removing the esophagus.

http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/esophageal-perforation/overview.html

Learn your limits. If you are throwing up because of your workout, listen to your body and stop before you over exert yourself. If, no matter what you do, this happens, seek the advice and possible treatment from your doctor. It's great to be proud of your accomplishments in working out, but you should never be proud that you make yourself sick.