Weigh Day!

Well, today was weigh in day. I was asleep when Norm told me how he did, but I think he lost 7 pounds! I weighed in a bit later and have lost 6! So we are both feeling pretty good about the diet! I think that is pretty good success, especially since on Friday we did vary a little. We are encouraged by the loss and feel stong about staying on the diet again this week. At this rate, which I am sure won't keep up, Norm would be where he wants to be at the end of the six weeks - I would still want to drop around 25 to 30 more pounds, but I would be amazed to be that close after just six weeks. But I am going to hope that the diet continues to work and that my resolve stays strong. I had a very delicious banana/vanilla shake for breakfast and finally used my immersion blender that Norm and the kids got me for my birthday in March! I really wanted one, but I guess I could survive without it! That's it for today. Have to increase my water drinking today so need to fill my bottle and get to it! Thanks for checking in!

Sunday - weigh in tomorrow!

Well, it was quite the rainy day today and we didn't feel like sitting at home. Lets begin at the beginning. Again today I slept till 8:45 - what is with that? Anyway it was too late for church, so we had breakfast of a bagel with cream cheese and a little bit of orange juice then walked the dog. When we got home we decided to go for a ride to a winery so we had to be creative with our diet. We each took a big bottle of water and we decided to take our afternoon snack with us and eat that when we got hungry and then have a mix of our lunch and dinner when we got home. We each took a yogurt, Norm took some melon and I took some raisins. We had to stop at a Wal-mart and use the bathroom because we are drinking so much water we can't wait to get to our destination. Anyway it was a good way to explore the town of Warren PA, which we have driven around many times but never ventured in to. We arrived at Flickerwood Winery and Norm had just a few tastes and then made our purchases. We then ate our snack in the parking lot before heading to a second winery - hey I forgot the name of it! Oh well, Norm had a few tastes here too and bought a couple of bottles and then we headed home. We arrived home around 4:15 and I combined the lunch and dinner options for today - so we had steak salad - basically just lettuce, cheese and steak (3 oz.) - Norms had tomatoes because he likes them - I do not! We could have a tablespoon of no-fat italian dressing - it wasn't too bad - guess we were hungry. Norm also had some peas and two slices of whole wheat bread and we both had a half cup of milk. Then we took the dog for a walk, but didn't get far as we saw our neighbors and ended up just standing around talking with them! Tonight for a snack I will have 3/4 of a cup of lowfat ice cream and Norm is having popcorn - but tomorrow is the big day - our first weigh in - we are both hoping to see a difference in the scale!! If we don't I am afraid that Norm might not stay on but you really aren't supposed to weigh till the second week so I am hoping that I can encourage him if the weigh in doesn't go well, but I think it will be okay! I guess that is all for now - see you tomorrow!

Saturday

And so, another day begins. I slept till 8:45 - can hardly believe that, but we were at the neighbors till 11 last night so I guess I needed my beauty sleep! Neither Norm nor I did too bad last night - I had about 600 calories to work with and had one lite beer, a couple small pieces of a baguette (is that even spelled right) with some light cream cheese and a few crackers with cheese. I don't know the calories for all that and I am not even going to guess. I think I did okay and am not going to worry about it because today is going to be a good one. I walked the dog and had my breakfast and am now doing a little computer time. I realized that since I have forgotten my password to the first blog (what a dummy!) that there is really no good explanation of how this diet works. So, here goes for what I remember from the other blog - Norm and I are both overweight and according to the body fat calculations we did, we are in the obese catagory! Yikes that hurts!! Anyway, we have decided that once and for all it is time to get serious about losing weight and trying to get healthier. We set up our gym equipment, nordic trac, treadmill, bowflex and some free weights, in the basement and were in the process of setting up a work out routine. I was reading through the bowflex power pro owners manual and came across an addition in the back of the manual entitled "Dr. Ellington Darden's 6 Week Fast Fat Loss - Body Leanness Program" . It sounded a lot like the rotation diet - if anyone remembers that one - with the additon of a somewhat light work out on the bowflex and a lot of water. The section begins with instructions about measuring body parts, taking your weight and figuring out your body fat percent (great way to start - gets you motivated when you see it all down on paper!). The next section talks about the bowflex exercises. The third part talkes about "eating guidelines". It begins with instructions about drinking ice cold water - the first week you need to drink 4 32 oz bottles, the second 4.5 32 oz bottles, the third 5 32 oz bottles etc, increasing each week until during week six you are drinking 6.5 32 oz bottles of water a day - that is a lot of water! I like to drink water and have not found it hard during this first week to drink it all. Norm does not like drinking water so much and has had difficulty with this part, but he is doing well. I bought some reusable water bottles at Walmart for $1 each - three for Norm because he says the water where he works tastes aweful (he works for the government so that figures) and two for me. We always have one in the refrigerator cold so that we can guzzle it when we need to! Then comes the part about the food. For weeks 1 and 2, men eat 1500 calories per day and women get 1200. Weeks 3 and 4 men get 1400 and women 1100 and for the last two weeks, men are down to 1300 and women 1000. The food choices are all right there in the book so there is no calculating necessary. It gives you three types of breakfasts - bagels with cream cheese, 4 choices of cereal, or two choices for a breakfast shake. You also are alloted some milk and orange juice depending on which breakfast you choose. For lunch you can have either a turkey sandwich - everything that goes on it is spelled out in the book, a can of soup (two choices here) with a slice of bread, or a Chefs Salad - again, ingredients and portions of each are spelled out. For dinner there are also several choices with each part spelled out - if you can read you can follow this diet! You also get an afternoon and late evening snack and that is where they cut the calories. Anyway that is the plan and I will keep blogging for the six weeks with progress reports!

Friday!

So, today is day five. For breakfast I had a shake - ingrediants, one banana, 1/2 c. each of orange juice and skim milk, two tablespoons of wheat germ, one teaspoon safflower oil and one packet of carnation instant breakfast (along with a few ice cubes) - into the food processor, out comes a shake - wish I could say it was delicious but . . .it wasn't too bad and it was filling! For lunch I had a can of chicken/rice soup and a slice of whole wheat bread. I have downed 64 ounces of water to this point of the day and am currently sipping on a diet rootbeer. This evening will be our first real challenge (of many I am sure). We are invited to the neighbors for drinks around 6. I am sure they will have some nice snacks, so we are going to forego our snacks for the day and not eat our dinner. That will give me 600 calories and Norm will have about 700 because I know he is eating his afternoon snack! We will have a drink or two and stay light on the snacks . . .and we can drink an extra water before we go to help us feel full. I am looking forward to our bowflex workout after Norm gets home. I have enjoyed the last two and am not sore as Norm decreased the weight for one of my exercises after he realized that he did not lower it after his - I could do it, but it was tough and of were my muscles sore!! But no more and our first weigh in will be Monday so I am sure we will both try to be on our best behaviour the rest of the weekend. I guess that is all for now . . .till next time - think before you eat!

So, day four - we are almost through it. And honestly, I can say it hasn't been bad - but knowing I can survive on 1200 calories makes me realize just how much I have been OVER eating all this time. I will admit - I am a little hungry off and on, but I can have as many zero calorie drinks that I want and I am drinking so much water, that I can overcome the hunger by drinking. Today I had a bagel and a half with lowfat cream cheese for breakfast. It was really good and satisfying. For lunch I had a can of chicken and rice soup and a piece of toast. I had a yogurt for afternoon break and a banana on the way home from work. For dinner I had a turkey with stuffing low-fat tv dinner - it had spicy apples with it for dessert - yummy! I really think that we are both motivated this time and if we get encouraging results Monday morning on the scale I think we will be able to stick to it for the full six weeks. That would feel really good! The only other diet plan we have been able to stay on with much success is Weight Watchers and we plan to fall back on that once we reach our targeted weight. Guess thats it for now!

Re-start!

Some how I lost my password for the other blog so I will have to begin over - how dumb of me! Oh well, day three is almost complete. Norm and I are both a bit hungry, but are feeling like we can make it! Only 39 days left!! We are not supposed to weigh ourselves until week two, but I am sure we will both weigh in on Monday - we are hoping to have lost several pounds each. We won't take measurements till the six weeks are over though, so we will have to wait and find out how that part is going. I will try to write more info tomorrow - for now I have to go clean up the kitchen - I had some tomatoes that needed to be canned, so they are now done but the clean-up remains!