Plateau

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I had hit a plateau or that I thought I might have hit a plateau, well, today was weigh in day and it confirmed that I indeed have hit a plateau.

Last week I weighed in at 197.0 lbs, but the very next day I weighed in at 196.6 lbs.  I’m not exactly sure why I weighed in, perhaps the app suggested that I weigh in again, who knows, but today I am 197 again.

That’s okay because I have come this far and this is my first plateau since January, so I think I’m doing pretty good considering I have lost 66 lbs in just 24 weeks.  I’m totally fine with the plateau.

I love my body now, before I couldn’t stand looking in the mirror.  I couldn’t stand looking down and seeing a fat belly.  I couldn’t stand how fat my face was and how fat my neck was.  The chin was just so horrible.  But I couldn’t be happier with my body and my neck and my chin lol.  I just feel so happy now.

My partner suggested that we go on a walk this morning and so we did.  It wasn’t a very long walk and I was in a lot of pain.  I touched my back where the pain was because I wanted to rub it, but it was completely numb.  I mean, I could feel the pain, more like agony, but my skin and muscles were numb.  That seems to be what happens when I have back pain.

When we came home I immediately had him put a Salonpas patch on my back and knowing that it usually takes half an hour to activate, I put ice on it so that it’s like an icy hot thing lol.

So back to the plateau.  I don’t know why I am in a plateau.  I have been eating the same exact way this week that I have been eating in the last 24 weeks and I have been eating under 1400 calories per day.  I have also been going for walks more in the last couple of weeks than I have in the last 24 weeks, which is probably why I have hit a plateau because I’m probably gaining muscle, and we all know that muscle weighs more than fat.

Although this week I was eating popcorn with oil but no salt and no butter, and I was eating those Lean Gourmet meals which have a lot of sodium in them, so perhaps that might be adding to the problem.  I am out of the popcorn and I will try to eat the Smart Ones instead of the Lean Gourmet to see if that will help.

I hope next Saturday I will have some progress.  No matter what happens, I will continue eating healthy and entering all of my food into the Noom app.

Lean Gourmet vs Smart Ones

lean gourmet smart ones

I have been eating Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen dinners for lunch and dinner everyday since January 3rd or 4th 2013 and have lost a lot of weight.  The reason we started eating the Smart Ones is because we saw them at Food Maxx for only $1.88 and one of the packages had a coupon for $3 off 10, so we couldn’t resist considering they are around $5 at Albertson’s.

Diet food to me is a state of mind.  If you are eating food that you know isn’t good for you like say fried chicken, then you know you are eating crap and you end up making other bad choices because you don’t really care what you eat.  If you are buying a product that you know is a diet product, like Weight Watchers or Lean Cuisine, then you know you are eating healthy so you end up making better choices with other foods you eat.  I mean, that is just how I feel, you may not think the same way that I do.

It was that first batch of Weight Watchers Smart Ones that lead me to downloading Noom on my android phone which has helped me to lose more than 66lbs since January.  I have wanted to buy the Smart Ones, but I never could afford Albertson’s prices.  The decision to start using Noom also lead me to start eating fruits and vegetables, so it was literally a domino effect for me.  And like I said in the previous paragraph, it’s a state of mind.  I knew I was eating healthier, which lead me to eating more healthy foods and here we are.

So now it is mid June 2013 and I have to start making some choices.  The Smart Ones are going up in price.  Most of them went up to $1.98 and the rest have shot up even higher in price.  There are literally only 3 or 4 flavors that I actually like that are still $1.98, so my choices are now very limited.  When you only have 3 or 4 different choices, you become bored with your diet and end up branching out to eating well, crap.  So before I get to that point, I need to make a new plan of action.

We went to buy more Smart Ones the other day, but my partner found that right next to the Smart Ones were the Michelina’s Lean Gourmet for only .97 cents.  Holy crap!  That is cheap!  So, rather than buy 20 of the Smart Ones, we only bought 10 and 10 Lean Gourmet.

smart ones nutritional facts The Weight Watchers Smart Ones nutrition label shows you exactly how many calories you are eating.  I didn’t buy the same flavor in the Lean Gourmet that I also bought in the Smart Ones because I wanted all new flavors, so I couldn’t exactly compare the same meal.

This Smart Ones is the Lasagna Bake with Meat Sauce, which by the way is very good.  There are many things you want to look for when you read the nutritional facts when you are buying food.  The 3 most important things are calories, fat and sodium.  Although the sodium is pretty high in this particular meal, it does show up as green in the Noom app.  The fat content is fairly low and it doesn’t have any trans fats.  I didn’t take a picture of the ingredients, but the Smart Ones use wheat pasta.

lean gourmet nutritional facts

This particular Lean Gourmet is Creamy Rigatoni with Broccoli and Chicken.  I have had the Smart Ones version plenty of times over the months, and I have to say that this one from Lean Gourmet is way too salty.  I don’t know how much sodium is in the Smart Ones version, but this one is really high at 680.  It’s only 270 calories and the fat is pretty low, but the salt is (I’m assuming) what makes it yellow in Noom instead of Green.  I would assume that the regular Michelina’s meals are probably red.

The chicken in the Lean Gourmet has a different taste than the Smart Ones, they are also smaller than Smart Ones.  The Lean Gourmet chicken tastes like the chicken in Chicken Soup, very salty, the Smart Ones chicken tastes like actual chicken and isn’t too salty.

I have been eating the Lean Gourmet for lunch every day and the Smart Ones for dinner.  My partner doesn’t want to buy the Smart Ones anymore if these are a dollar cheaper, but I would personally rather have the Smart Ones because they just taste better.  The Lean Gourmet ones are an excellent price and around the same calories as the Smart Ones, but they are way too salty.  I would rather keep buying Smart Ones and pay that extra dollar even if it means I only have 3 or 4 choices.  But honestly, they only went up maybe .10 or .20 cents or more, so it’s not that much more expensive.  I have lots of choices, it just raises my grocery bill.

In my personal opinion, the Weight Watchers Smart Ones are the better deal because your sodium is lower and the taste is 10 times better and you are actually getting 1oz more food.  Quality wins over quantity.

Have I finally hit my plateau?

I have been very lucky that I have been consistent with my weight loss with Noom from January 5th until now.  In the beginning, I was losing anywhere from 3 to 4 pounds per week, but gradually slowing down to 2 or 3 pounds per week, then down to 1 1/2 to 2 pounds per week.  Of course lately it seems to be 1 to 1 1/2 pounds or less per week, but at least there was weight loss.  This week however, I don’t think there will be any weight loss at all.

Last week I was 196.6lbs and just a few days ago I was asked to weigh in and I weighed in at 196.4lbs.  Today I weighed 197lbs and I only have 2 more days before my next weigh in day, so I don’t think I’m going to make it to 194 or 195.  194.4 is my estimated weight, but I just don’t see that happening.  I mean, stranger things have happened and who knows, I might be 195, but I doubt it.  No, I think that after so many months I have finally just hit my plateau.

A plateau isn’t uncommon for people who are trying to lose weight.  What causes that?  Is it stress?  I haven’t been under too much stress.  Is it that my body has already lost 66lbs so it’s just harder to lose more weight because there isn’t a lot of fat left to lose?  Or maybe perhaps it is because I have been going for 2 or 3 mile walks a few times per week that might possibly be making me gain muscle weight.  That could actually be it.

In the past when I have hit my plateau, after so many weeks of not losing weight I start to think if I’m not losing weight, I might as well eat this food and that food because obviously the healthy foods aren’t helping me.  I might as well go back to eating the old crap that got me fat in the first place, and I end up gradually going back to my old eating habits.  Well, that just isn’t going to work for me this time because I am serious about losing this weight this time.  This time it WILL be different, I will continue eating healthy, even if that means that I will be 197 or somewhere in that vicinity for 2 months before the weight starts to come off again.  I will not let the plateau rule my life because I really want to succeed in my goals.

To be honest, I probably won’t plateau for too long, that is if I have even hit a plateau.  I still have 2 days and like I said before, stranger things have happened.  Who knows, I might end up being 195 by weigh in day, so I’m not going to start having a negative attitude about plateaus because I am not even sure that’s what will happen.

Of course negative thinking like this is a factor in halting the weight loss process.  I could be sabotaging myself by having a negative attitude.  Stress thinking and acting negatively can release a chemical in the brain called Cortisol which is actually what will put me in a plateau, so I need to stay positive because having a happy go lucky positive attitude will help me more than being a negative Nancy.

So let’s just see what happens in 2 days and I will go from there.

@Noom Week 24

week_24-1 large

This is the beginning of the 3rd week of my 2nd goal to lose weight with Noom.  I started  my first goal on January 5th, 2013 with 63lbs to lose and I lost it with 2 months to spare.  Although I did get lucky that I was 200lbs by my birthday because the weight wasn’t dropping as fast as it was in the beginning, but I think when you have a lot of fat to lose, with just a change of diet it will probably drop a lot faster in the beginning.  Now that my body is used to this new healthy lifestyle, I am not losing weight as easily.

When I started working with Noom, I wasn’t exercising as much as I should have because of my back problems.  I can make excuses all day long, but there really isn’t any excuse for not exercising.  I can do some exercises in my bedroom, on my bed, in my desk chair or standing in front of the TV or even in the hallway or kitchen, it doesn’t matter, but it’s difficult for me to do anything with Degenerative Disc Disease.  I am usually sitting on my desk chair at my desk and of course I have a ton of pain here, but when I go sit or lay on my bed, the pain goes away.

I do have a bicycle and I attempted to ride it on the bicycle trail.  I bought a pair of cycling bib shorts from Bike Nashbar and 2 shirts for cycling, and of course I have 3 shirts from Noom that wick the moisture like my other cycling shirts.  But then I had an accident on my bicycle and broke my arm, so I couldn’t go bike riding.  I bought one of those no flat tubes that’s like a solid rubber tube, but I can’t get it on my wheel and now I’ve ruined the rim AND the tire, so I’m afraid if I buy a new tube, the wires sticking out of the tire is going to pop the new tube, or I might have damaged the rim so there might be metal sticking out of the rim that might pop the new tube.  A new rim is about $30 and I’m sure a new tire is around $20 or $30.  It wouldn’t even be worth my money, I’d be better off buying a new bicycle, but I can’t afford anything, so I have no bike now.

I haven’t examined my bicycle to see if there was any damage to the front rim from the accident.  I bought the bicycle from Walmart in 2004 for $60 so it was a cheap bicycle from the start.  I have replaced about 75% of the bicycle over the years, so I have put literally hundreds of dollars into that bicycle.  The only thing original is the frame, the (I’m going to sound dumb here) the mechanism that the pedals are attached to (LOL) and the chain.  Everything else has been replaced.

Instead of cycling, I’ve been walking which is agony for my back, but I’ve been doing it a couple of times per week just to get some exercise in.  Of course by the time I get home from doing that, I am in so much pain that I just can’t stand living anymore.  Speaking of which, I am in so much pain sitting here typing this that I had to go get the ice pack and take a Vicodin.

walking workout june 14 Anyway, I’ve been trying to walk a mile, but instead of only walking a mile, I will add some distance every time I go out.  Yesterday I walked more than 3 miles.  My back was in absolute agony the entire time, but I didn’t care because I really wanted to burn some calories, which I did.  Here is that workout (left).

I went out with my black Noom shirt, my Noom water bottle and my Noom sunglasses.  I absolutely love my Noom swag lol.  I normally like to go out with my Noom backpack, but I really don’t have anything to put in it, so I don’t have much of a reason to bring it.  If I had a bicycle, I would put my Camelbak inside of it with the hose sticking out and I would clip the hose to the strap to secure it.  I could probably do that on my walk, but I like to hold the water bottle.  I really don’t need 3 liters of water on a 3 mile walk anyway.

My estimated end date isn’t until November, although the Noom weight graph says September 17th if I lose 2lbs per week.  Last week it was September 15th and I lost less than 2lbs this week so naturally the date got pushed by 2 days.  I’m really not in any hurry to be 170lbs though, so no pressure.  I feel that if it happens then it happens.  I don’t want to rush myself because I feel comfortable in my skin the way I am now, so if I lose more weight, then bonus.  The main thing is that I don’t put any pressure on myself to lose any more weight because that’s too stressful and I don’t want my brain releasing cortisol from the stress which will prevent me from losing more weight.  Although the back pain from walking might end up doing that for me.recumbent bicycleI really wish I had a bicycle, it would be so much easier to exercise because then I could sit down the entire time.  I really want a recumbent bicycle though, because then I could sit back which will REALLY be easier on my back.  That would be ideal, but those are REALLY expensive.  If and when I finally get a new bicycle, I’m going to get a beach cruiser or a hybrid.  I mainly just want a bicycle with the big handlebars that will allow me to sit straight up.  My mountain bike had me sitting forward which hurt my shoulder and back, that’s why I had to replace the handlebar with a beach cruiser handlebar.  A hybrid would be better for me than a mountain bike or a road bike (10 speed).  When I do buy a new bike, I will go to Target and get a Huffy because I know Huffy is a good brand.

Anyway, back to reality lol.  This week I weighed in at 197.0 and I still have a way to go to get down to 170lbs.  I am positive that I will eventually reach that goal by September, if not then it happens when it happens.  I will still eat healthy no matter what and I will still go for walks despite the pain until I finally get a new bicycle.

Until next week…

Too Fat for a Hat?

wearing a hat before and after

I wore baseball caps throughout my childhood and teen years, I even wore a hat when I worked in the fast food industry as a teenager and in my early 20’s. When I started to go bald, I wore a hat for two reasons, one because my skin burns easily and two because I didn’t want anyone to see that I was bald lol. I mean, I wasn’t hiding it because it’s a fact of life, but I just didn’t like it, so I would hide it.

I stopped wearing hats right after I got this hat for Christmas one year. When I saw the picture of me wearing my Christmas present and how fat I was, I resigned myself to the fact that I didn’t look good in hats anymore. Some people can pull certain looks off, and I was always able to pull off wearing a baseball cap, but I was convinced those days were gone. I would look at myself in the mirror with this and my other hats, and I just didn’t like the way I looked in them.

Today I was preparing myself to go on a walk and regretting it because it is supposed to be 102°F today. I wanted to see if I looked okay in a hat, so naturally this being the nicest and the least beat up hat that I had, I tried it on and was surprised at how loose it was. I had to adjust the velcro so it would be tighter on my thinner head. I had no idea that my head had actually shrunk that much. I looked in the mirror and I wasn’t very happy until I put on the Noom sunglasses. That’s when it all came together.

So I’m going to start wearing a hat again when I go for my walks because I am very concerned about skin cancer, especially since I burn so easily. I actually don’t think I look bad at all anymore in a hat. Even without the sunglasses, I think I look okay.

Week 23 with @Noom

week 23 profile

Today is the first day of my second week with my second goal and I have lost less than 2lbs.  I was so hoping to lose 2lbs or more.  On the last day of my first goal I was 200lbs on a Friday, two days later on Sunday, I weighed 199 and a day or two later 198.  So, to still be at 198 sucks.  If I was 198 on a Tuesday, then wouldn’t you think that by Saturday I would be 197 or 196?

I am not going to stress myself out over this because at least I lost weight this week.  I could have hit a plateau and I could still be 200lbs, or worse, so I am going to take this as a positively as I can.

My profile says that I have 0 workouts per week, and that is because I never plan a workout since I don’t have a bicycle.  My back is always in pain and if I decide I want to go for a walk then I will do it, but I don’t want to feel pressure to do it by my phone.  I have an app called Squats that is constantly beeping and reminding me to do squats, but I am always in too much pain to even get out of my chair or get out of bed, so I just ignore the reminder.  When I do go for a walk, I am in agony the entire time.

My pain:

I have not really explained the pain I feel with degenerative disc disease.  I am not a scientist or a doctor, so I can’t really know for sure that this is happening, but with degenerative disc disease, your discs are well, degenerating, they are wearing out, they are thinner than they are supposed to be so it feels like my spine bones are grinding together.  It feels like I am getting 10 shots all in the same spot all at the same time.  I also have nerve damage in my back, so I can’t feel the skin on my back, so when I am touching my back in the area that I am having pain, it’s like I am touching someone else’s skin.  I wish that it was in reverse, where I can feel the skin but not the pain in my spine, but it is what it is.

So now you know what happens when I try to take a walk.  I go out and I am fine for the first 5 minutes, but then my pain starts to come on gradually, by 20 minutes the grinding is intense.  These walks might take 30 to 40 minutes so you can only imagine how I am feeling by the time I get home.  Oh and that’s only 2 miles by the way.  It’s not really that far.  This is what my walk looks like.

walk 2013-06-08_10-45-10

This is the last walk I went on.  I went to the post office to drop off a package, and then I decided to just keep walking.  You can see where it says Oleander/Sunset, that’s where I live, where I started walking, the bottom right is the post office.  I went South to the post office, then West, then North, then East and then South to come back home.  That is a typical walk, and that is only 2.07 miles.

It’s not a lot of distance, but it’s way too much for my back to handle.  I insist on walking this far because I want to succeed.  No pain, no gain, right?  Although the pain they are referring to is from muscle tearing while you are working out, not your spine grinding, but still.

I would love to go for walks everyday and for a lot more distance than just 2 miles, but it’s just too painful, so I can only do it a couple or a few times per week.  I wish that I could fix my bicycle or buy a new one, but I just can’t afford it right now, so walking is my only cardio option for now.

I am hoping to lose more than just 1.8lbs next week, but I am not going to put pressure on myself if I don’t because I can only do so much with what I have.  Like I have said in the past, at least I haven’t hit a plateau or gone back up in weight.  Let’s see where I am at next Saturday.

Scan Your Barcodes and Save Meals with Noom

noom scanner

Did you know that with Noom, you could scan barcodes from the boxes of food that you eat?  Two people have told me that they didn’t even know you could scan the barcodes to enter the food that they eat for their meals.

Yesterday I was talking with someone on Facebook and she told me that she had no idea, so I took a screenshot like the one on the left in the image above, and told her to look at the buttons below “Add Food Item” that say Dial, Scan and Saved.  I told her that all she has to do is click Scan and the image to the right will come up.  It scans the barcode and this was the result of the barcode you see in the picture.  “Weight Watchers Smart Ones Classic Favorites Three Cheese Ziti Marinara” for 300 calories.

I have known about it since I first started using Noom because the scan button is in plain sight, so it was a no brainer to me.  That’s not meant as an insult by the way, I just see things more than most do.  I am very visual, I look at everything.  Have you seen the show The Mentalist?  I’m like that guy, I look at everything.

Did you also know that you could save your meals too?  When you enter certain items like for example, if you are making a peanut butter and jelly (or jam) sandwich, you scan the bread, the jar of peanut butter and the jar of jelly or jam, but you don’t want to have to do that every time you eat a sandwich, so after you enter all the information, click “Add to Saved Meals” at the bottom and type PB&J, so the next time you eat that, just click “Saved” at the top and find PB&J, click it and it will automatically add it for you.  It’s really that easy.

So there you have it, the barcode scanner and saving meals with Noom.  You’ve been looking at it everyday and you didn’t even notice it lol.  I hope this helps.

My new appreciation for vegetables

mixed vegetables

I ate vegetables growing up, so it’s not a new concept to me, but, I do have an issue with some vegetables which is why as an adult I didn’t eat too many.

Okay so I have always liked carrots, broccoli and cauliflower.  I hated HATED brussel sprouts with a passion.  I didn’t mind the taste, but my step father gave them a horrid nickname, so in my mind I associated them with something gross and therefore I hated them.  He called them “Monkey Balls.”  I knew that they were vegetables, but I had the image of testicles in my head, so the taste was just awful to me.  I couldn’t even look at them because all I could think was that I was eating testicles.  I ate them when I was a kid because I had experience with not being allowed to leave the table until my plate was cleaned and I didn’t want to have to be punished for not eating them, so I would grin and bear it.

Throughout my adult years I refused to buy them, I wouldn’t even look at them when grocery shopping because I still associated them with testicles, so I just never bought them.  A few years ago I decided that it was stupid that I gave him that control over me, so I bought some and steamed them and they were surprisingly good.  Because I didn’t associate them with testicles anymore, they actually had a different taste to me than what I remembered as a child.  They are actually good.

I have always had an aversion to vegetables in my adulthood which is one reason why I got so fat, because I never ate vegetables.  I actually love eating vegetables now and make sure that I get at least 2 cups of vegetables for dinner every night, and sometimes for a snack.

Take this picture for example.  I like to take several different kinds of vegetables and steam them all together and mix them in a bowl.  This bowl has broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, spinach and carrots.  I will eat the vegetables first before anything else because one of the Noom articles that I read said to eat the vegetables first, then the main course and whatever other sides.  I make it a habit of eating vegetables now and I actually love the taste.

So my old habit of eating junk is a thing of the past, and my new habit of eating healthy is my future.  I will always keep vegetables in the freezer to steam with my dinner from now on.

I Lost 63lbs with Noom for Android

weight_chart_full

Well I finally did it, I lost 63lbs with Noom for Android.  My original estimated end date was August 10th, 2013, and here I am on May 31st at my goal weight of 200.0lbs more than 2 months early.

See my weight chart?  That’s all loss, no gain, not even a plateau.  I have lost weight every week since I started on January 5th, 2013.  I honestly didn’t think I would make it by my birthday because I wasn’t exercising, but the last 2 days I decided to take walks and today I weighed in the day before my actual weigh in day and I was at exactly 200.0lbs.  I was shocked.  I mean, it could have been 200.2 or 199.8, but it was 200.0 exactly.

So now that I have lost 63lbs with Noom, I plan on continuing my weight loss journey until I have lost all of the fat.  I extended my plan so I will lose 30 more pounds which will bring my total weight loss to 93lbs.  My new estimated end date is November 23, 2013, but the graph says September 13, 2013.  Somehow in my mind I knew it would be September.

If I am going to meet this new goal, I am going to have to step it up and start exercising more.  I will have to either get my bike fixed, which I don’t want to do, I’d rather get a new bike, or start walking.  I hate walking because of the back pain I get, but it’s free so if I can’t get my bike fixed or get a new one, then walking is all I have.

If someone told me in December when I bought my Android phone from Amazon for Virgin Mobile that I would end up losing 63lbs as a result of buying the phone, I would have told them they were out of their mind, but I did and I’m glad.  So thank you Noom for making it possible for me to lose this weight.  I honestly don’t think I could have done it without the app.  I’ve tried using SparkPeople in the past, but their website is too slow on my computer and Noom is not only faster, but easier to use.

So if I could recommend a weight loss tool for anyone, it would definitely be Noom.  I mean, it took 21 weeks for me to lose 63lbs.  If I could do it, I know anyone can do it.

Here’s to another 30lbs!  Oh and Happy Birthday to me lol.  This is a wonderful birthday present I could have given to myself.

To keep up with my weight loss, visit my Noom page with weekly updates.

Exercise

may 29 walk

I have really been neglecting my exercise throughout this entire diet that I’ve been on using the Noom app on my Android phone.  I have no excuse, but I really do lol.  With my degenerative disc disease in my spine, it’s difficult to walk long distances and I don’t have a bicycle anymore since my last accident which caused me to break my arm.  So the only thing I can really do is walk, which again is hard on my back.

Yesterday I took a vicodin and went out and just walked as far as I could with my Noom swag on.  I was in pain from the minute I left the house until I came home, except the pain was excruciating by the time I came home.  But, what other options do I have?  As you can see from the picture above, I walked 2.21 miles at an average speed of 3.4 miles per hour for 39 minutes and 30 seconds and I burned a total of 263 calories.  It’s not much, but it’s the best I could do.

I hope to get a new bicycle some day, but money is always tight so it’s really difficult to save anything.  I am selling the keychains on Etsy and whatever I get from that will be saved so I can buy a bike.  Of course, I probably won’t sell very many.  I’ve only sold 1 and the profit from that was like $1.87 or something.  So yeah, I don’t expect that to help me buy a new bike.

Until I can buy a new bicycle, all I can do is walk.  It’s free, although I don’t know how free because it does come with a huge cost, and that’s back pain.

I plan on going out again today because I know I should get SOME exercise lol.