Totally Losing It

Well, I did it. I did my part in trying to stimulate the economy by buying something with my extra tax refund money. I got a treadmill!

Please ignore the mess to the front of it.

You can see that I didn’t finish putting the darn thing together. It’s a Pro Form cross-walker so it has arms that you can hold on to and use as though you’re walking with walking poles. They’ll have to wait until tomorrow night to get installed. Stupid thing gave me a headache. I swear the people who design the machines and the people who figure out how to build it so it can be put together by a consumer are geniuses. Evil geniuses. The manual made perfect sense to me. After I got my dad to help me!

Anyway, it got put together and now I have my own treadmill! And it’s right under a ceiling fan! I’m really excited about that.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and that you’re ready to get going with the upcoming week. I weigh-in Tuesday morning so hopefully I’ll have some more good new then!

Just wanted too check-in quickly. Things are going well food wise. I haven’t exercised after Monday’s walk so I definitely need to work on that. I’m thinking about finding a decent refurbished treadmill this weekend too. Such a big purchase makes me nervous since I’m also trying to get my finances in order (by the way, I check my credit score yesterday and it’s gone up like 200 points since this time last year!). I did just get that tax refund that everyone’s getting - maybe I should just use it to help out the economy. :} I’ll let you know if I actually do a treadmill hunt.

I want to go pick strawberries tomorrow morning. I go every year, at least 3 or 4 times before the season ends. I’m so afraid that I’m going to miss them this year. Signs have already been posted for about 3 weeks. Better get a move on!

So I’m hungry for a Fiesta Taco Salad from Taco Bell. I decide to be smart about it and go to the Taco Bell website where they have all the nutrition info for their menu. I’d like to send out a message to all other restaurants: Follow Taco Bell’s example! I really like their nutrition site.

You choose a menu item and then you can customize it to suit your dietary needs or just you taste buds. For example, I don’t eat the ground beef at TB, never have. So, I choose “Regular Style” from the “Specialties” Menu. Then, to the right, I check or uncheck the boxes next to all of the ingredients. When I’m done I click “Calculate” and then I see the damage.

The regular Fiesta Taco Salad without ground beef is a whopping 690 calories! I figured it would be high with the shell, but man…

Ok, so then I’m still hungry for the darn salad so I configure it without the little crunchy strips and without the cheese. It’s still 560 calories! I keep telling myself that if I just don’t eat the shell I’ll be fine. Personally, that’s my favorite part though! I’m not sure I could leave it on the tray and then throw it away! I’ll have to think about this.

Nope I’ll just stick to the lunch I brought from home. Good decision, right? I’m proud of myself - I didn’t just act and then feel bad about it later (which then leads to overeating on crappy foods). I think seeing the numbers right there really make a difference.

I also found a printable nutrition guide on the site. I’m going to go the websites for any of the restaurants that I normally go to, or that are in my vicinity, print out the nutrition guides and keep them in a folder in my car. I’ll put it in the glove compartment so I won’t lose it and it will always be handy.

Maybe this weekend I’ll find some links with nutritional info and put them in the sidebar so they’re handy while I’m at my desk too!

I love gadgets! I really do. Luckily I’ve found a few things that I’ll qualify as gadgets to help me with my healthier lifestyle. I only own one of the following products but as I collect more and more nifty little things, I’ll update you and let you know what I think of them.

First is the DietMinder Personal Food and Fitness Journal. I bought this when I bought my calorie counter book and Bob Harper’s “Are You Ready?”. I like being able to keep track of everything I eat. I use The Daily Plate for that online, but that’s not always convenient. Plus, I wanted to try this out because I might pick up one of these for both of my parents. I do like it that much. It has room for everything I wanted: weight, measurements, food, water, fitness, and even a small space for personal notes. Very functional and efficient. If you go to the website you can see a sample of the inside pages.

Okay, so that’s the one product that I’ve gotten for myself. So far.

This next product I just saw on a blog this morning and can’t for the life of me remember where. Sorry. But I still wanted to let you know about it. It’s Cereal On the Go. Another functional product, assuming you have a use for an on-the-go cereal holder! The best part about this product though is that you won’t need to carry a separate container to hold your milk and the spoon is included! How much more convenient can it get?

I’m definitely making note of this… I have a mom who would eat cereal for every meal of the day if my dad wouldn’t mind! Mother’s Day is right around the corner…

By the way, I found this product at several online stores but Dorm Buys has the best price that I saw.

And since I’m all about convenience this next product sounds almost too good to be true. The BioTrainer Weight Loss System. According to the website:

The BioTrainer™ is a scientifically proven medical-quality monitor that very accurately computes and stores both your physical activity and the calories you burn during all types of daily exercise routines.

The BioTrainer will help motivate you to become more active, and to stay that way. The unit has a storage capacity of 9-days and is especially useful for recording “DAILY LIFESTYLE ACTIVITY” in applications involving Obesity, Weight-Loss, Health, Fitness and Aerobic Exercise.

The price is about right too. $49.95 for the gadget alone. If you want the online tools to help track and monitor your progress the cost is more, of course. You could just go whole hog and order the one year of online monitoring and get the monitor itself for free.

I won’t be purchasing this right away, not until I do more research and find out if there are other, better products available. But this looked interesting and the price is right in my ballpark.

For now I’ll stick to my calorie book and a few online tools.

I love The Biggest Loser. And I love the trainers! They’re both eye candy and I can’t get over how much they actually seem to care about the people they work with. I bought both of Jillian Michael’s books as soon as they came out and I’ve been waiting for Bob’s!!!

I started reading it as soon as I got home from the bookstore last night. I might have kept reading until I was finished with the book if it hadn’t been for the work I needed to get done.

I can tell right now though that the first part of the book is going to be tough to get through. It’s all about finding out who we are and owning up to the issues that we have with ourselves. I know what my issues are.) Hopefully I know what they all are and I don’t have something lurking in the background just waiting to jump out at me!) Honestly, I don’t know how to deal with the issues that I have with myself. I’m not ready to share them just yet either. Maybe when I can I’ll be better prepared to deal.

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I was trying to get a meal plan together this morning so I can get my grocery shopping taken care of. I love the online tools at Jillian’s site and at SparkPeople that help to put together eating plans for the week. and how great is it that you can print out the recipes and even a shopping list? I just wish I could have a database of my own recipes that I could use like that. Does anyone know of a program like that? I’m willing to shell out some money for a good program so it doesn’t need to be freeware - I’d just like some recommendations to start with.

To get ready for tomorrow (my official start day!) I’m also going to download a few new songs from iTunes tonight and get my iPod ready. I love Madonna’s new “4 Minutes” so I know I’ll get that. I’ll have to look around and see what else I can find that’s upbeat and kind of fast. I’ll let you know what I pick out.

In the meantime, go read a book! Get Bob’s!!

I can’t figure out why the date on my first post is March 29. I just bought and set up everything this past week - the middle of April!

Unfortunately I don’t have anything very profound to say in my first post here. Or I could say fortunately… that way no one expects great things from me in the future. Keep the expectations low and you won’t be disappointed is what I always say.

Really though, I’m here to chronicle my weight loss; keep myself accountable and all that. My hope is that I’ll have something to say that’s interesting or maybe something that resonates with others struggling with weight and body issues.

My first goal here is to get a few pictures posted alongside my measurements and weight - definitely by the end of the weekend. Maybe I’ll be able to find a sidebar widget that I can use to track my progress… I’ll look around and see what I can come up with.

Until then…