Day Two

So far so good. Yesterday, I kept within my calorie limit (Though I wouldn't have if I hadn't exercised. But I ate less than I have been recently, so I see that as an improvement) The one I have set for myself on Loseit is 1,763 (I have no clue why I made it that number, I set that up months ago... perhaps I should make it a different one, but... oh well.) For exercise yesterday, I walked downhill for a mile, did karate with my friend for a half hour, then hiked back up the hill for another mile, this time practicing the things she taught me as I went. Lots of fun! So that made up for the 2,284 calories I did eat.

However, according to this useful little thing: http://providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,8922-1-5129-1,00.html I'm expending approximately 3,162 calories per day(based on my height, weight and that I put 30-60 minutes of daily exercise) and so my budget should be around 2,250 or 2,200. With that in mind, I did pretty well.

Yesterday I had 2/3 cup of granola and felt full after getting only a portion of the way through it. So today I'm trying 1/3 cup, which is the serving size on the bag. I finished it not long ago and I'm feeling quite satisfied. We'll see how long it lasts. Yesterday's portion lasted until lunchtime, but I may need a snack today, like an apple. It also helps that yesterday I ate a hard boiled egg with my portion, so I may do that again today.

I impressed myself in the morning and through to the early evening with my willpower, but then I went shopping. It seemed like every pastry, cookie, and even doughnut(which I'm not really fond of) looked amazing and wanted to hop into my cart. I'm happy to say the only food item, besides milk, that actually got in, was some trail mix. However, that trail mix has a bunch of white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and peanut butter chips that can be hazardous. So... I may be taking it back. Don't need more temptation in the house.

After I went shopping, the "munchies" attacked. They'd threatened all day, and I kept them away with more or less healthy snacks I had 2 small (about 2" by 1") home made rolls, and a slice of banana bread, that I nibbled on while I did laundry. When I got back from shopping, I polished off the tuna with veggies and crackers that I started before the event, and still wanted something to munch on. I would have just kept with water, but my willpower had been used up for the day, so I popped myself some popcorn. Oil popped popcorn is better for you than microwave because you can determine how much fattening substance goes onto the popcorn. Air pop is even better, but it's harder to get salt or anything like it, to stick. I did oil pop, and put just enough flavoring/salt to let me know it's there. Thankfully, popcorn is surprisingly low on calories for how much you can eat. 6 cups of oil popped popcorn is 330 calories. Yes, that's like a small meal. However, generally you only want to eat 2-4 cups. 2 cups is 110 calories(About the amount of calories in a medium sized apple), and 4 is 220. Not to mention  it's a whole grain snack, so I didn't feel really guilty. Except that it was getting pretty late at night...

I'm not sure if I'll post in this blog every day while I do this. I'll do my best to post weekly, if nothing else. Though the more people comment, the more I'll post.

Day One of New(More Like Refurbished) Goal

Many people would kill to get back to the size they were when they graduated from high school. I would kill to stay away from that size and weight. When I graduated in 2005, I was 5'8(and a half)" and 275 pounds. My driver license, which I got the same year I graduated, confirms the fact. I started college, and slowly, without really noticing it, I dropped down to 260, then to 250. I wasn't doing much different. I ate less because I had to at least partially fend for myself, instead of my parents buying all the food. I also had class AND work, rather than  just school. I also had somewhat of a social life, and so was out and about doing things. I didn't need food to fill up my times when I was bored.


To put it simply, I was living a healthier lifestyle. 


Now for those who are privy to nutrition and weight-loss, and especially the BMI(Body Mass Index), you would notice that my starting weight was rather... big. BMI for my height and weight during my senior year of high school was 41. That means nothing if you don't know much about BMI, so I will explain it a bit more, 18.5-24.9 is within the normal weight range for an adult. 25-29.9 is overweight. 30-34.9 is obese class one, and from 35-39.9 is obese class two. 40 and up is morbidly obese. Yeah. Not fun.


I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2009-2010, and continued to lose weight because I had a greater incentive. Bad knees. After just a few months of being a missionary, walking around, going up and down stairs,  I felt a crackle in my knees, especially when I went up stairs. Between the doctor and the physical therapist, I figured out what I needed to do. Get to a healthy weight. I fluctuated, but mostly my weight went downward whenever I stepped on the scale. 


When I returned and started college again, I took a nutrition class, and learned a great deal and did wonderfully at keeping my weight down. I got as low as 216, but was more consistently at 220. Not bad, going from 275 to 220.


I hated my major. I didn't know what to switch to, so I stewed over it. I made food for my friends and roommates, they did the same for me. Social gatherings where food was involved, and my own downfall of being a social eater, made it so I slowly gained more weight back. 230 then 240, then 245. 


I met Daniel, and we started dating. Summer came and went. Fall came and went. Daniel proposed to me and we planned for a wedding in April. The wedding came and went, and during the winter semester and  after getting married, more weight started creeping up on me, 250, 255. Then the other day I saw 260 and nearly completely freaked out. I promised myself I would NEVER get back up to 275, and yet I was right on my way to getting there.


Here I am, two months after my wedding, going steadily towards three. I started reading more articles about exercise, and remembering the things the doctor on my mission told me to do in order to lose weight. I read a few blogs about people who lost weight to encourage myself, and today I started my new goal.


Now for my goal: I want to lose 5-10 pounds per month for at least 12 months
I want to get initially to 199 and maintain that, then keep going down until I get to 160(about 24.3 on the BMI scale), and maintain that. If I don't get down to 160, I want to at least have less than 35'' as my waist circumference. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/lose_wt/risk.htm#limitations

I am currently at 257 pounds (Weighed just this morning) and can comfortably wear a size 24 jean.(which is about a 45" waistline)

The way I am going to meet my goal is to religiously  enter in what I eat onto Loseit.com (Kind of like WeightWatchers, except for free.) and exercise 5 days a week for at least a half hour, alternating between strengthening exercises (As I've recently turned 25 and I'll lose muscle if I don't keep it up) cardio (Like walking and swimming) and things for fun.
I also plan to avoid sugar as much as possible when it is in unnatural states(I put sugary snacks in a cupboard I can only reach with a chair to help me. May put the cooking sugar there too). I also plan to cut back on my salt intake by not adding salt to food, or adding very little, and avoiding using it when I cook. I also plan to use the smallest utensil and plate/bowl available for my meals. (for example, I'm currently eating a cup of spaghetti on one of the dessert plates we have, using  what my husband likes to call a "threek" which is a three pronged fork)

Support and encouragement is always welcome!

Huzzah for Life...

So much has happened in the last few months. I had insane roommates (I say that in the most endearing way.) We did a lot of crazy things. Like turn each other goth.

And turn random boys goth...

Who ended up being my boyfriend...

To working at This is the Place. My boyfriend was able to come down and help me on one of the more busy days.

And Random friends that are like siblings...

Life is good :D

Parties and Job Searching

So last night I was able to hang out with my wonderful Temple Square sisters who are in my area, it was awesome! We chatted about the 'old times' and quizzed our former AP(Assistant to the President) about what went on behind the scenes. We laughed and joked and watched a chick flick- Confessions of a Shopaholic .

We continued to laugh and joke- just enjoying each other's company until the music came on, then we all danced. I'm sure every one who knows me can imagine me dancing. I'm about twice the size of most of the girls there, so it was interesting at times, but fun. It was good to be with people who understand what it's like to be an RM since I am the only one in my apartment.

While the music was going, we looked out the window of the apartment where we were, and noticed there were blue and red flashing lights. We weren't sure what they were for, so one sister went out to discover the reason. Someone had just gotten pulled over, nothing major. That's the extent of things that happen in this town. I haven't heard of anything worse than someone getting pulled over here. Who knows- maybe I will. Considering it's a small town, in addition to being populated by LDS young adults during most of the year because of the University, I don't imagine that tons would happen.

Earlier that day, I did some major job searching. I did it online since the weather was to be desired, but I did it. I will continue to search until I either find a job, or I find one that I like. I imagine I won't have a job that I like until next semester when I'm able to get an on-campus job. Currently all of those are either filled or for some reason aren't hiring. I'm sure it will work out some way.

Directly after job hunting (That ended about 5 pm because I was hungry, tired and had a headache) I just vegged for a few hours, resting my brain, even if I wasn't resting anything else.

Today is a new day, and I'll likely go and be productive again, searching for jobs and getting homework done... and likely being distracted by friends again.

The Adventures of College Life

So in this new phase of my life I am going back to school. It's fun, and entertaining. My classes range from Creative Writing and Publishing to the History and Philosophy of Education, with Old Testament, Essential Human Nutrition and Foundations Capstone(Critical Thinking and Decision Making) in between.

I have three awesome roommates who are all from the western part of the United States.

We're all a bit insane, so it makes life wonderful! For instance, my roommate Lexi and I got an advertisement for shirt company that was having a liquidation sale. She looked at the paper and laughed, "Liquidation sale! Bring your own blender and you get it half off!!" And couldn't stop laughing.

Then another time, my friend Samantha was over, and she, Lexi and I were having a 'Homework Party'. My homework was mostly on the computer, and Sam's was mainly book and paper work. I was getting annoyed at the computer being a computer and slow- mainly the internet. As Samantha was figuring out things she said to herself, "And then I need to..."

"THINK FASTER!" I exclaimed at the computer.

Lexi started laughing. I looked at her puzzled and asked what Sam had said, they explained, and I laughed my head off, and every few minutes when it got too quiet in our homework party, someone would mention the incident and we'd all start laughing again.

Last Saturday I had my first date since my mission. It was with a guy named Chad that one of my friends is trying to hook me up with. The first thing we did was go on an adventure. That's Durtschism for we got lost. He had only been to where I am once or twice, and I'd not been here a month. Once we started seeing more cows and fields than street lights and buildings, we decided to turn around and try to find an alternative to the place we were planning on going. We decided on a place where we could do either Bowling, Miniature Golfing, etc. So we did a round of Mini Golf, followed by a play off of Air Hockey(You could say that's when he took me dancing. I didn't stand a chance. I wouldn't have gotten a point if he hadn't left himself wide open. To my defense, I blocked successfully most of the time.) Then a random game from the section of arcade games in the same area. We got prizes, I decided on a pencil and he got candy.

I'm currently doing a frantic job search. I really want a campus job, but not many people are hiring right now, and the jobs that are available I'm not qualified to do. This morning I sent in an email to the head of the Tutoring department to put a bug in his ear, letting him know that I've tutored before and would be a wonderful person to hire. We'll see if that does anything.

As I continued my job search, I decided to walk to the various places that possibly would be hiring still. Or at least, tried to. I started walking, hiking up the hill, down a street that didn't look very promising. Lots of houses, and not so many businesses. Actually, there was not a single business on that road. Confused I turned around and walked back down hill and turned left. After walking about half a block, I found a recognizable landmark and was surprised that I was in the place I ended up. I thought I was going one direction, south or something, then I realized I was going East. How does that work? Any way, now that I've been lost once, it shouldn't happen again... I hope.

Now Lexi and I are sitting on our usual place on our couch and doing random things on Facebook, and other places, and randomly she said, "We're not stalking... we're doing Genealogy!"

New New New!

That's the way it feels. Everything is new, and everything is different. I just returned from my full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Temple Square in SLC, UT. (Details about that at- sisterdurtschi.blogspot.com ) And now I'm attending one of the BYUs and enjoying life! Well, I've been enjoying life all along, but now I'm continuing things I had put on hold for a bit, like college.

Now I'm an Elementary Education Major at BYU-Idaho. I'm enjoying myself completely. Especially having fun with my roommates and being creative. I am having fun using my creativity in what I draw, cook, and write. I just need to work on when and how I do that.

I'll also try to post more often...

Mission

I've been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints to the Salt Lake City Temple Square mission, in Utah.  That being the case, I started a new blog sisterdurtschi.blogspot.com for my mission purposes.  I'll be keeping this one and updating it when I get back, but since this time next week I'll be in the Mission Training Center and won't have access to distracting things like the internet and phones.

Hopefully I'll update better when I get back!

So long my "normal blog" see you in a year and a half plus a week.