Doing Well!

I am working on getting into a regular exercise routine. Last week I worked out 5 times and 2 times this week. That averages out pretty well. I want to average 3-5 visits to the gym each week.

Making better food choices is going well enough. I have been eating oatmeal most days for breakfast and not eating too many impulse items. I have had cooked items every day for dinner and only had fast food twice (the sub shop at USI and a burger and fries from Zesto's)

I forgot to weigh or check measurements this week, so I will next Saturday. Fall Festival is coming up in a week and I am really looking forward to it!!

Motivation

Motivation!!!I am feeling pretty motivated right now and am taking advantage of that to get back in the habit of regularly making it to the gym for workouts. I'm also marking on my calendar as a visual encouragement each day that I go to the gym. I have visited the gym four time in the past five days, twice for cardio, and twice for a mix of weights, calisthenics, and cardio. A goal of mine is to do full body weight pull ups...I can only do pull ups with the machine that has a weight assistance. I've been eating mostly good. Basically I am not bringing food in the house if I know I will overeat it. I've been craving Jalapeno Crunchy Cheetos like crazy but I know I can't eat them if I don't buy any! *willpower*

Variety

I come to the realization that I hate most "diet" foods. Such as: carrot sticks and celery, fat-free mayo/salad dressings, fat-free cheese, most "meal" shakes/bars, and plain grilled chicken and fish. I have looked at everything I enjoy that is a good food choice for me and it's pretty varied: Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, olive oil, bulgur wheat, most soups and stews, sushi, hibachi/stirfry, fresh or frozen fruits, hummus...What these all seem to have in common is rich flavors and interesting textures. I basically hate boring food, which is what most "diet" food is. I need to stick with what is interesting and tastes good and is satisfying. The things to avoid are deep-fried, overly greasy or sweet, and too big of portions of anything. I feel like Ben & Jerry's is within reason as long as it's not often and not the whole pint in one sitting.

Caffeine and new stats

Caffeine...

 Everybody knows caffeine is the ultimate weight loss aid, right? It's supposed to suppress your appetite and give you more energy and rev your metabolism and whatnot according to most diet aids. Well, one day a couple of weeks ago I was given a sample of a supplement called Roxylean. It's supposed to do all of the above wonders.

	As you can see, it's basically caffeine, niacin, an herb similar to aspirin, and a bunch of herbs. The interesting part though, is what happened when I took it. I asked the store, and they confirmed that one capsule has 300mg of caffeine. A little higher that what I drink but since I have developed a raging caffeine habit since December, due to having worked third shift, I figured it would be fine.
I took one capsule and felt a strong rush of energy in about 20 minutes. I was so alert and hyper that it was irritating. I could barely sit still and it made me sweat like crazy. And all that caffeine had a wonderful diuretic effect as well.
What is important is what happened when it wore off. The caffeine buzz wore off abruptly after about 4 hours and suddenly I was ravenously hungry and had to eat immediately. I felt like that the rest of the day, no matter what I ate, I was starving again a couple hours later. And I was stupidly tired when the caffeine wore off, even though I had had a good night's sleep prior to taking Roxylean.
Now, since I have been drinking increasingly more and more caffeine since I worked third shift at Denny's, I have been hungry a lot, craving junk, and gaining weight, slow but sure. I never thought about caffeine consumption having an effect. So I did some research and found that caffeine has an effect on glucose and epinephrine. Fist, caffeine binds with a neurotransmitter called adenosine, and prevents the adenosine from doing it's normal job of making you sleepy. So you are wide awake. Less active adenosine prompts the brain to produce more epinephrine, what we know as adrenaline. So if you are constantly consuming caffeine you are having elevated adrenaline levels in your system. A side effect of this is that your cells release more glucose than normal into the bloodstream, raising your blood glucose levels. When blood glucose, or blood sugar, rises and drops suddenly, that promotes hunger pangs and craving food.
So, long story short, after researching this, I weaned myself down to 1/2 cup of coffee a day, then went off it completely from there. Except for caffeine withdrawal headaches, I have been feeling terrific. More importantly, I have easily been able to go longer between meals and I am having far less noticeable hunger pangs and almost no cravings for sweets to think of.  I have been caffeine free for 6 days now and have been drinking almost exclusively water, and I have been feeling great!

My starting stats are:               New stats as of 9/3/11:
Ankle - 9.5                             Ankle - 9
Calf - 16                                 Calf - 16
Thigh - 25.5                            Thigh - 25
Hips - 44                                 Hips - 43.5
Waist - 38                               Waist - 37
Bust - 44                                 Bust - 43
Neck - 14.5                            Neck - 14
Bicep - 13                               Bicep - 12
Wrist - 6.5                              Wrist - 6.5
Weight - 187 lbs                      Weight - 188 lbs

So as you can see I lost 5 total inches over the past couple of months and that's great! That was a really pleasant surprise.