This post is written as part of a journey inspired by the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s My Healthy Weight Action Plan, an online tool geared towards helping you live a healthier life. Feel free to get caught up on previous posts: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3
This week has been very challenging for me as I have pneumonia. I finally decided I had better get my behind to the doctor and I am sure lucky that I did. No wonder I’ve been dragging, feeling a serious lack of energy and not able to kick this cold that I’ve had since around January 7th!
Here are the stats to show my progress in my “Get Healthy Challenge”:
Start Weight: 190 pounds
End of Week 1: 185 pounds
End of Week 2: 183 pounds
End of Week 3: 182 pounds
Starting BMI: 28.9
End of Week 1 BMI: 28.1
End of Week 2 BMI: 27.8
End of Week 2 BMI: 27.7
My goal is to reach a normal BMI which would be 24.9 at 164 pounds and from there, I plan to reassess.
Something that I have learned in the past few weeks is just how important being part of a supportive community is when taking on a challenge like getting healthy. This has been quite the challenge for me, but every single comment, email and text that I receive helps me to keep motivated and to continue on my path to getting healthy.
I have started to follow two “blog hops” that are related to getting healthy. I have really enjoyed being a part of these hops, visiting other blogs and reading a variety of stories. By linking up my posts in these hops and learning about other people who are engaging in a similar challenge as I am, I have felt extremely motivated and empowered.
Here are the hops if you are interested in checking them out:
The My Healthy Weight Action Plan (a FREE tool provided online through the Heart and Stroke Foundation) has continued to help me achieve my goal of healthy living. I have definitely made it a habit to track my eating on a daily basis using their handy on line tracking tool. The on line tracking sheet is a daily sheet broken down into time of day (early morning, mid morning, noon, afternoon, evening, late evening) and type of food (vegetables, fruit, meat & alternatives, milk & alternatives, grains, fat and empty calories). It is very easy to record what foods I’ve eaten under time of day and then to tally up how many servings of each food type. This habit of tracking my food intake helps to keep me accountable for what I am eating. It also allows me to look back over my day and to consider how I might change my eating habits the next day to be even healthier.
I have been playing around with what I have been eating this week by increasing my protein intake, as recommended by a new friend, City Mom. I have found that by increasing my protein intake, not only am I not feeling the need to eat as many carbs/grains, but I am also feeling fuller and satisfied longer.
Because of this new interest in protein, I have been also playing around with the My Healthy Weight Action Plan tool this week. When looking at my Healthy Eating Recommendations as suggested by the online tool, I was able to change my diet type from carbs to protein. This in turn changes the daily serving recommendations by the tool.
One thing that I did struggle with (but only slightly) was that when looking at the daily serving recommendations in the Healthy Eating Recommendations section, they are in a different order (food group wise) than when you view them in your progress tracking sheet which makes it slightly more difficult to compare serving sizes (e.g. what I have consumed vs. what is recommended).
As well, at the bottom of my tracking sheet, there is a grand total of the recommended daily servings for each food group, however because you can choose from a variety of plans (e.g. protein diet, carb diet and various daily caloric intakes), I would love the actual plan that I choose to be shown at the bottom so that as I go through my day, my eyes can easily scan to the bottom of the chart to see how close I am to my grand total for the day.
Unfortunately, this week I wasn’t very physically active. As it turns out, I actually have a real excuse as to why I have been so tired and dragging; I have pneumonia. So, until my lungs get better, I won’t be overly exerting myself physically. I may, however, try some core strength training as suggested by my friend Pampered Patty.
This Week’s Challenges:
- Exercising when I really wasn’t feeling up to it, which I learned late in the week is due to a case of pneumonia.
- Resisting some M&M treats that arrived on my doorstep. Unfortunately, I failed and broke down to having a small treat sized bag.
- I need to snack on more vegetables.
- Because I was more tired this week, I drank more coffee than I have been lately.
This Week’s Smiles:
- I did resist the urge to have more than one bag of M&Ms.
- I am starting to see visual results of my weight loss, particularly in my stomach. Yay!
- I drank hot lemon water every morning.
- I bought some boneless, skinless chicken breats and marinated them in individual servings so that on nights when the family isn’t having an MTM friendly meal, I have a healthy option!
- I ate more veggies with dinners than I have in a very long time!
- I found some delicious protein powder that I feel good about consuming.
Goals for Next Week:
- Eat more vegetables during the day.
- Rest so that I can get better and exercise.
- Repeat positive thoughts to myself when I am having difficult resisting the urge to have a treat.
- Continue to find healthy recipes.
- Continue to hunt for a protein bar that nutritional value wise, I feel good about eating for a snack.
Check out the healthier recipes I’ve found:
Brussel Sprout and Broccoli Slaw
Individual Cookie Dough Oatmeal Cake (Breakfast)
Breakfast “Grab and Go” Cookies
Biggest Loser Oatmeal Pancakes
Sweet and Sour Roasted Chickpeas
Are you trying to stay motivated in eating healthier and living a healthier lifestyle? What were your challenges and/or successes this week? Even if you are sticking to your usual routine, I’d love for you to take a moment to write me a comment. I am not kidding one little bit that the comments I receive truly do help me to keep motivated! Thank you so much for your support.
Opinions expressed belong to Multi-Testing Mommy and are NOT influenced in any way. See MTM’s Disclosure for more details.
Good for you. I wish I could motivate myself to lose a few pounds
Way to go!!! Thank you for sharing your journey and keeping me motivated
I’m so proud of you! It’s great to see your progress. I am very excited for you and I’m sure it’s starting to feel exciting to you as well. Keep up the good work.
oh no, heal those lungs first for sure! you are doing fabulous regardless!
Congrats!!!
I hope you are feeling better soon. It’s no fun being sick.
I am glad you broke down and went to the doctor and got some meds. I hope you feel better soon. And, if I had those M&Ms I would be eating them all the time – good for you for resisting.
The chicken breast idea was fantastic!
Great job! Those numbers make for great motivation 🙂 I hope that you feel better soon!
Great Job!! Great better though so you can continue your great success! I am very happy to be following your success through this journey.
doing good!!
i must get myself back on the bandwagon!!
So sorry to hear you have pneumonia! It must be going around these year, at least of my co-workers and a handful of kids in our school has had it. Rest well to heal up!
You’re still doing well, despite being sick! So, keep at it. I think you’ve set some great, reasonable goals. 🙂
WTG Congrats Amanda Im proud of ya!! Not only are you great at blogging and your writing style is fantastic, your great at being a motivator, friend, someone to laugh at I mean with and an all around great mommy.
Keep up that good work!!
Feel better. Yuck Pneumonia is not fun.
Get healthy 🙂
you are doing a great job! I just realized we started out at pretty much the same weight (I was 191.6). Keep going!
Congrats on your weight loss! Your off to a fabulous first three weeks! And I’m glad you are getting treated for pneumonia now. That’s scary! I lost 25 pounds before getting pregnant this time and I had some of the same struggles with trying to be more conscious about eating more protein and getting more veggies (I’m still better about fruit than veggies), but it gets easier as these new ideas start to become a habit. Keep it up and I hope you feel lots better soon!
Awesome, you are doing so well. Give yourself a pat on the back!
you’re doing awesome, and a big part of getting healthy is listening to your body! So good work on figuring that out and realizing something wasn’t quite right.
I’m so excited that you’re enjoying your journey.
btw – i took your lead and tried the hot water and lemon. Not first thing. but at some point in the day. I’m kind of enjoying it (even if everyone at work thought I was a little crazy!)
Wow wow!! 8 lbs that’s amazing!! You should be so very proud of yourself! I can’t believe you have pneumonia you poor thing!! How hard it must have been to start this new way of life with a huge road block! Triple proud of you! Keep up the good work & thanks for the mention!!
WTG!
I hope you’re feeling better.
Way to get back on the horse after the pneumonia!
That’s always been my biggest problem, I let every little thing that happens derail me.
I was working out and eating right, then pneumonia struck me and I reverted back to my old lifestyle again. It’s the hardest thing to do to pick yourself back up again.
Good Luck with your plan, it sounds like you have a good grasp on where you want to get to and that’s more than most can say.
Chris from Canadian Dad – visiting from SASS
Wow!I think you’ve done amazing!Working with your online tools to find the right way to go for is super. It’s good to adjust until you feel comfortable with what you are eating. So proud. Feel better soon hon! SASS
Pneumonia can really take a toll on you. Don’t give up though. Do what you feel up to doing and try to stick to healthy food. both for your goals and to help your body heal-SASS
Look at you go!!! I am feeling a bit frustrated since I am not really seeing and results on the scale. But my strength and endurance is going up. So I just need to be patient.
-SASS
Awesome, awesome, awesome!!!!! Congrats and take it easy while you get better! HUGS! I’m so happy for you!
Yay! Good for you on sticking to your goals. It sounds like you’re making great progress.
I’m sorry to hear about the pneumonia. My mom is trying to recover from a bad case just now, and it seems I’ve heard of more people than ever this year who’ve come down with it. I had bronchitis in the fall and I swear it was a month before I started to feel like myself again.
Take care!
SASS
I hope your feeling better soon. Take care of yourself
SASS
You are doing an amazing job Amanda. I’m so happy to read your results and your positive attitude even when you don’t want to. I’m having a better week as well. 😀 ((HUGS)) Keep at it love!
Good job lady! I am a total carb addict, that is definitely my weakness. So I’m really thinking about what you said about increasing protein intake. Going to try fiddling with that myself.
I also love your idea of preparing some chicken for yourself ahead of time for when the family is eating something you shouldn’t. Brilliant stuff. This is definitely another trap for me. I often end up cooking two, or even three meals (one for hubby, one for kids, one for me. Ack. Kill me please.)
– SASS
I love how you mention that you had a small bag..to me that was a huge success I dont know about your normal urges, but I would have talked myself into a whole case lol
-sass
November 12-I’m on your week 4 today and the end of my Week 1. I have lost 3 lbs. and feel very good about that. I am inspired by your posts and I plan to try out some of the recipes you recommend. I am still lax on drinking water but I am exercising. I feel so much better. Thank you. Elva Roberts
November 12-I’m on your week 4 today and the end of my Week 1. I have lost 3 lbs. and feel very good about that. I am inspired by your posts and I plan to try out some of the recipes you recommend. I am still lax on drinking water but I am exercising. I feel so much better. Thank you. Elva Roberts