A few rules to live by. (week 18)

So I missed another week of blogging, because I tell you, Anatomy and Physiology stresses me out and has been keeping me very very busy. Still no excuse I know, but I try to not write just any old thing just to write something, you know? So here is what I am learning about a "life-style change".

1. Watch out for refined food. Period. Refined grains have had all the essential nutrients. Here is some of the things taken from this cookbook this kid from The Youth Summit sold to me called: Seven Secrets Cookbook: Healthy Cuisine Your Family Will Love    And basically talks about unrefined foods are better for you. For instance, unrefined plant foods (i.e. fruits and veggies) are naturally low in fat. This helps you lose weight because low-fat foods have fewer calories but you are still filled up. And if you really want to make this a great food for you make sure it has dietary fiber in it. See: According to GF's Blog about the fiber. Because lets face it, the more dietary fiber you eat, the more you poop, and what is poop (non-scientific term of course), it is the left overs of everything you consume along with some waste your body produces. If it is left over this means that your body didn't need it to begin with, so guess what! You need to get rid of it. And if you eat enough insoluble fiber.... yes there are more than one type, then you don't break it down and you carry it with you throughout your digestive tract... and it catches all the stuff you don't want in there, such as fat! And you poop that out too! The Mayo Clinic has a great article on Dietary Fiber. I know I am throwing a lot of resources at you but it would just be too much to put in one blog post. maybe I will break each one down for you.   So Back to the unrefined food is good for you. The term refined goods refers to the process of removing fiber, and nutrients from plants foods, and usually increasing the amount of fat. Now, I don't know about you but that doesn't sound good. Oil, butter, and the high percentage in fat found in meat can be to blamed and are considered refined foods. Try eating nuts, olives, and coconut oil if you must. Think about it, that 200 calorie potato that is delicious baked, becomes a 1000 calories bag of potato chips after it is cooked and fried, and preserved...aka refined people! White bread, pasta, and rice are not as fattening but should be replaced with their whole-grain counter parts. I don't know about you but whole grain bread just tastes so much better than white bread.  Just make sure you pay attention to the label. IT IS ALWAYS IMPORTANT TO READ THE FOOD LABEL! I can't stress that enough! If it says "Wheat flour" its refined. If it is unrefined it will say 100% whole wheat, or some other grain. If you see both kinds of flour listed, don't buy it. Also look for added fat in various forms like: lard, butter, margarine (poison), vegetable oil, or partially hydrogenated oil. This gets rid of almost 97% of the loaves of bread out there on your store shelf. You can control you weight just be simply cutting back refined foods!
2. Cut back on your sugar intake. Sugar isn't completely bad for you, because your body needs glucose to perform cellular respiration which produces ATP which is your body's engery source. See my previous article: Maybe I Wasn't in A Slump about the sugar thing. I have been trying not to eat anything with more than 5g of sugar per serving. I find that now when I do eat something more than that I get a sugar high and a nice headache to go along with it, your body's way of saying, "Hey! I don't like that! It's too much for me to process!" This means that it will get turned into fat because when your body doesn't use all of the sugar you put into it, whether it be in the form of carbs (yes this is a sugar) or sugar in sweets it stores it into your body's cells in the form of glycogen, mainly in the muscles and your live, and  if you have too much in the fat tissue as, you guessed it, fat! Crazy what you learn when you pay attention in Biology and Anatomy Class. How do we get rid of it? By cutting back on these things and exercising.
3. Exercising is the key to losing weight! When you exercise your body is using the ATP that your cells produced and this requires glucose and oxygen. When you use all the glycogen in your muscles and in the liver your body will start to break down the glycogen stored in your fat cells and begin burning that for fuel! So Exercise! 

I will leave it with these three points for now and just watch what you are eating! I have been watching what I have been eating and I changed little things in my activity. I park in the back of the parking lot at school so I have to walk further, I try not to eat as much, I take the stairs instead of the elevator and I have been snacking more than consuming large meals.

Yesterday I went to David's Bridal to try on my bridesmaid dress for one of my best friends wedding that will be in August of next year. Most of the other girls are smaller than me and I tried on an 18 which fit me rather well, except for that I don't want it to fit me well. I want it to be way to big next year. So here is my goal for Katy's Wedding. I plan on going from a size 18 dress, to at least a size 12 by next August of 2011 .You know what this means right? I gotta get to work on losing them inches. I know school is kinda tough right now, and I feel like I never have anytime between school and work, but I am going to have to make time. Plus I think that exercising will help me with the stress of school, because its a great stress reliever! So I am not sure what my weight will be by the time I reach my goal but I know I will be a size 12. That's still a Large but you know what, a Large is way better than an XXL.

Here are this weeks measurements and next week I will post my measurements for my waist, arms, legs, hips and such so we can keep track of that as well.

This week:
Weight: 251.4lbs
Fat: 45.2%
Water: 35.3%
Muscle: 22.2%
Cals: 1817

Last Week:
Weight: 255.2 lbs
Fat: 45.8%
Water: 34.7%
Muscle: 21.8%
Cals: 1870

Total Lost since week 1:

Weight: -24lbs
Fat:  -4.5%
Water: +3.7%
Muscle: +3.5%

24 pounds... in 18 weeks..... a little over a pound a week.... but still not what I could be losing. But don't get me wrong I am thrilled I am still losing weight! Slowly is the way to do it because you are less likely to gain it back faster, and you are reassuring yourself that you are losing fat and not water and muscle weight. Which you can see I am not, they are increasing which is how it is supposed to be!

Sooo here we go! Week 18 is at a close.

Katelyn