I'm Thinking ... Arby's? :(

So I slipped up and had Arby's for lunch. 1 junior roast beef and 1 medium order of curly fries with a diet soda. I could sit here and list a million excuses as to why, like being out of the house and not having time to come home and cook before work, or not having time to wait at subway, but I'm not going to. I'm still within my calorie, fat, and sodium limits for the day, so I'm going to try to keep it that way. I made myself exercise this morning, even though I definitely did NOT feel like doing it. I did 50 minutes of Turbo Jam (a kickboxing/dance type workout). I took my vitamin this morning too and my breakfast was reasonably healthy (oatmeal and diet v8 splash). Somehow I need to eat just under 200 more calories though with less than 90mg of sodium, less than 4 grams of fat, and at 10 grams of fiber. Yikes! I may not make that happen today. I will do my best though. This sodium thing is tough! I never realized how many things are loaded with sodium! It's so bad for you though... makes you bloat/retain water. I'm trying to get away from it. Well, I better get going, but here's to hoping for not too terrible of a rest of today and a much better tomorrow!

The challenge has begun

I'm in a challenge with some friends from SparkPeople.com to help us improve our health and fitness. Goals of the challenge are:

1. Water - at least 10 cups (80 ounces) everyday.
2. Fruits & Veggies - at least 5 a day.
3. Sodium - Less than 2,400 mg a day.
4. Cardio Exercise: at least 30 minutes 5 days a week.
5. Strength Training: 20 minutes 2 days a week.
6. Flexibility/Balance Work - 30 minutes a week.
7. Ab Challenge - 20 crunches 3 days a week.
8. Sleep - at least 7 hours a night.
9. Relaxation - 15 minutes 7 days a week.
10. Food Log - 7 days a week.
11. Fiber - 25-35 grams 5 days a week.
12. Nothing to eat 2 hours before bed - 5 days a week.
13. Multi-vitamin - 7 days a week.
14. Accountability - Blog 7 days a week.
15. No alcohol - NONE.
16. Recipes - Try a new recipe each week.

So far today, I've done alright. So far I've gotten 4 cups of water, 3 fruits/veggies, 8.5 hours of sleep, relaxed, logged all my food so far, taken my vitamin, am blogging right now, and I know I will not drink today.

I'm having trouble with the fiber in relation to the sodium limit though. Everything has so much sodium! I never realized it before. I had some brown rice at lunch and normally salt it like crazy, but today I didn't use any salt at all. I've already had 1,490 mg of sodium today, but only 10 grams of fiber. I'm going to try to eat an apple at work tonight, because it's the highest fiber produce with the least sodium that I can think of, but it still will only give me about 4 grams of fiber. To get to 25 grams I'm going to HAVE to use a supplement. I'm just scared at how my body might, ahem, react... Haha. The sodium and fiber are going to be a definite challenge for me, but I'm going to do my best. Well, it's time for me to go pack some dinner for work tonight. Bye!

Just Give

I decided to help out the salvation army by choosing a child in need off the Christmas tree. I picked a 12 year old boy and bought him his "dream gift": a skateboard. I also bought him a helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, and wrist guards. If I can find enough money, I'm going to try to buy him some new shoes too, which it says he badly needs. I challenge anyone who reads this to do the same thing. Hopefully we can all brighten Christmas day for a lot of children this year.

I've been donating a lot lately, I gave to the ASPCA, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Humane Society, and the Save Darfur Coalition. I could only afford to give $10 each, I hope my donation helped a little. I know if everyone would give just a little bit, it would add up to a lot of help! I also bought a t-shirt from the ASPCA. For those who don't know about just donating, if you do some of your holiday shopping through a site that donates some or all of the profit to charity, you are still helping! Consider this when you start thinking of Christmas or other holiday gifts from now on.

Finally, I don't know if I've mentioned it, but for those completely unable or unwilling to give money, you can still help in other ways. If you have time to volunteer at animal shelters, soup kitchens, food drives, etc. you are helping in a huge way! If you don't have that much time to give, but can find about 10 minutes a day, here's another way to help. The following sites are easy and FREE ways to help animals and people in need. Your daily click is funded by sponsors who give money to the charity designated by each site. Even if you don't have money, or time to volunteer, you should at least be able to find 10 minutes to click on these sites. Even 5 minutes would allow clicks on half of them. Clicking through even 1 of the sites would take less than a minute, and if you're online right now, I'm sure you have a few seconds to spare, so help out. Click today to help the following:

Hunger:
1. http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1
2. http://www.hungerfighters.com/
3. (Click the wooden toy to feed the hungry in Poland)http://www.pajacyk.pl/

Breast Cancer:
1. http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2&link=ctg_bcs_home_from_ths_home_sitenav
2. http://breastcancer.care2.com/

Children:
1. (Health)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=5&link=ctg_chs_home_from_bcs_home_sitenav
2. (Literacy)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=6&link=ctg_lit_home_from_chs_home_sitenav
3. (Children around the World)http://children.care2.com/

Animals:
1. (Shelter Animals)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_home_from_trs_home_sitenav
2. (Baby Seals in Canada)http://babyseals.care2.com/
3. (Ocean Animals)http://oceans.care2.com/
4. (Big Cats)http://bigcats.care2.com/
5. (Primates)http://primates.care2.com/
6. (Homeless Animals)http://pets.care2.com/

Earth:
1. (Rainforest)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=4&link=ctg_trs_home_from_ths_home_sitenav
2. (Rainforest)http://rainforest.care2.com/
3. (Global Warming)http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=4&link=ctg_trs_home_from_ths_home_sitenav

Miscellaneous:
1. (Violence Against Women)http://stopviolence.care2.com/
2. (Rainforest, Endangered Animals, Pollution, US Wilderness, and more)http://ecologyfund.com/ecology/_ecology.html
3. (Poverty)http://www2.povertyfighters.com/
4. (Plant a Tree in Niagara)http://www.landcareniagara.com/
5. (Click to help the poorest of the poor in Africa, Asia and Central America. Click on the red "geef gratis een gift voor een straatkind" link.)http://www.woordendaad.nl/Index.cfm?ApplicationServer=WIS


Please share these links with your friends and family. Working together, we can make a difference in the lives of many.

Green

So, along with my efforts to lose weight, I'm also working on going green. I've been pretty successful so far. It's great because not only am I helping save the planet, but I'm saving money at the same time.

Here's what I've done so far over the past several months:
-Lowered my thermostat several degrees (for winter) and I raise it in the summer. I simply bundle up in sweats in the winter and wear shorts and a tank top in the summer. Who needs to walk around in their undies in the winter??
-Installed a low-flow shower head, and an aerator on the sink in the bathroom.
-Take shorter showers.
-Always wash clothes in cold water and use a drying rack and hang clothes up to dry instead of using the dryer, whenever possible.
-Keep lights off, and installed compact fluorescent bulbs in the rooms we use the longest (kitchen and bathroom).
-Keep things unplugged so they don't waste electricity when we don't need them to.
-Got a filter for the kitchen sink so we can drink water from it instead of buying bottled water.
-Recycle! I recycle plastic bottles/milk jugs/plastic bags, and newspaper. I wish I could recycle more, but that's all our recycling center will take. I try to reuse everything else!
-Don't eat meat very often.
-Save mail envelopes and such to use for scrap paper.
-Print on recycled paper from office computers. I don't buy new computer paper.
-Purchased a Diva Cup.
-Signed up for paperless billing statements for all my credit cards and utility bills.
-Wash and reuse plastic baggies for my lunch at work.

Here's what I'd like to do soon:
-Become a vegetarian. I don't eat much meat as it is, usually just chicken. I just need to transition the rest of the way.
-Walk more, drive less. I'm moving in January and will be close enough to walk to work and ride the bus to classes. I can even walk to get groceries and such. I won't need to drive much at all!
-Stop receiving so much junk mail. It's so wasteful and annoying. I will be filling out some paperwork soon to stop a lot of it.
-Donate all my old clothes that I no longer wear to charity.

Realizations

Some things, however unfortunate, have become very clear to me, and I need to accept them if I'm ever going to accomplish anything.

1. The only person I can truly depend on is myself.
-My problems are my problems and if I lack the motivation to fix them, how can I expect anyone else to be motivated to fix MY problems. The truth is, I've always wanted a "buddy" of sorts; Someone to encourage and motivate me along the way, to check in on me and help guide me to keep going. The truth is, everyone has their own issues to deal with and I can't be so selfish as to expect someone to push aside their own personal dilemmas to help me with mine. It's just not logical and I know this.

2. I can't tackle my two biggest issues at once.
-Not 100% anyway. I've been trying to lose weight and eat healthy, while trying to spend as little as possible and get out of debt at the same time. It's difficult when my body needs fresh fruits and vegetables, whole wheat breads, lean meats, etc. and when I eat out, Subway, in order to lose weight, but my bank account needs me to stick with cheap things, like Ramen Noodles, cheap white bread, and basically whatever I can get from the food pantry, and when I eat out, Taco Bell. If you get what I'm saying, these two worlds don't mix well, not 100% anyway. I have to put my number 1 priority as my health, and do it as inexpensively as possible, but still buying all the things I need to fuel my body and improve my health. Instead of giving 50% for each and being unstable at both, I will have to give 100% to my health, and just be mindful about clipping coupons for those healthy foods, and buying on sale and such.

3. If not now, then when?
-I'm currently the heaviest and biggest I've ever been. I'm clinically obese. I pray every night for God to help me become more healthy and lose weight. What I've been so blind to, is He has given me a huge opportunity and I'm just absentmindedly letting it pass by. I'm not in school right now, not until January. I tried to go up in hours at work, but they only give me 20.5 each week. I have to see that God is giving me an opening. I have more time to focus on losing weight now than I ever will again, and I have just over 2 more months to take full advantage of this time and appreciate what a wonderful gift in disguise He has given me. I was watching a movie the other day, "Evan Almighty", and despite how silly the movie may be, I really took to heart a line said by "God" in it: "Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?".

Goal Setting/Rewards

I've decided on my short term goals, my long term goal, and my reward for when I reach my long term goal:

150lbs by 11/1/07
145 lbs by 12/1/07
140 lbs by 1/1/08
135 lbs by 2/1/08
130 lbs by 3/1/08
125 lbs by 4/1/08
*120 lbs by 5/1/08*

When I reach my long-term goal of 120 lbs, I will get a personal trainer for 3 months to help me tone up and finalize my weight loss. I can't wait!

The Plan

So here's my plan, starting this morning:
Fitness:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
Walk 1 mile (15 minutes)
Turbo Jam Cardio Party (45 minutes)
Pilates (20 minutes) or 20 crunches + 20 pushups -> Before bed
Tuesday, Thursday:
Walk 1 mile (15 minutes)
Turbo Sculpt (40 minutes)
Saturday:
Walk 2 miles (30 minutes)

Food:
Breakfast:
High fiber cereal
Skim milk
Snack:
Fruit, Veggie, Protein
Lunch:
Lean meat and cheese on whole wheat bread
Small salad
Snack:
Fruit, Veggie, Protein
Dinner:
Baked/Grilled Chicken Breast
Veggie
Brown Rice
Snack:
Fruit, Veggie, Protein