Ideas on Accountability and Sugar

Omgee Dollies,

I have been trying on this video for like the last two weeks. Time, work, failed movie application, and other stuff got in my way. Anywhooos hopefully it gives you some ideas. Again not for everyone, but just a looksy into what worked for me and how it could work for you.

By the way my sugar journey is going steadily. Had a bad day the other day. With a handful of M&Ms…okay okay TWO handfuls of M&Ms…but tomorrow is another day! No excuses! Just do it.

xoxo,
Bianca

P.S. Was using a different movie application to create video…there is some weird jumpy movements in there. Have no idea how that happened =/

 

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Just a thought.

Date: August 26th

Evening my beautiful dollies,

I have been kind of lacking on these blogs. Mostly because I have been a little bad in my work outs and eating. Last week was a real funk since my evening workouts were just not cutting it. So then I moved back into my morning workouts. That was so much better and I am back on it.

My food organization was very lacking as well. I was not pigging out or anything, but I wasn’t doing the best I could. Which then that lead me to not want to write to you because I didn’t want to be preaching while I was doing something else. Then this weekend it clicked, after reading a couple of blogs, that this is a constant path. This is something I want to point out in this entry. IT NEVER ENDS.

The fact that now I have lost 80lbs does not mean that I am able to go back to eating McDonalds for lunch, or chocolate cakes for desserts. I think that is something I want to get out to everyone who is trying or considering to loose weight. There is no temporary fix. If you really want to change, your eating habits have to change and they will change and stay like that forever. In order to keep the figure I have worked for, I have to continue eating healthy. The great thing, Dollies, is that after many battles with temptation and thinking I was depraving myself because I was not allowed to eat that tamale or that piece of bread. The AWESOME thing, is that once I won and my eating habits changed, it is so EASY to be good and so hard to be bad. Lol.

Seriously! So my being “bad” was, of course related to sugar and carbs, having this little bag of chocolate chip mini cookies. Six of them and before I ate them I checked on the nutrition list. I made sure it was not more than 10g of sugar, I made sure it was low calorie (170<–not that great but better than other options), I checked the fat which was low, and of course it was organic. Hahahaha. My friend laughed at me when I told him. He was still not happy with the fact I ate them, but he said “look at you..that is what you binge on now. A small bag of low sugar, low fat, mini chocolate chip cookies, and then you feel super bad about it.” It was funny because at the beginning it used to be you know, a taco from Taco Bell, then maybe a little cheeseburger from McDonalds, with a heavy fat and sugar dessert.

Yet, the fact is that I am still human and I still make mistakes and that is normal. It is not o.k. because once you make it ok it is easier to repeat it. Yet, it is normal. I will try not to hide it from you again because I don’t want you to think I am this super human who never messes up. I do. They are just not as drastic anymore and you too will one day get there, if you are willing to put the work into it now.

Much love dollies…gonna do some major catching up, but will post them once a day.

xoxo,

Bianca.

Veggies vs. fruit

Well here I am…being good. I packed veggies instead of fruit. That helps me not having temptation in front of me. Yet I can feel the urge to have the mango sitting right next to me. (packed it for someone else)

My evil: SUGAR!!!!

Phew….Hi Dollies.

Just finished up a long entry so will try to keep this nice and short. I went ahead and plugged in my foods and numbers on MyFitnessPlan. As I already knew, sugar every day was in the RED. Let’s take a looksy:

 

 

Now as you can see by the beautiful red numbers I went over a lot of things. Now when I began loosing weight this would of been horrible. Well not the end of the world, but you get what I am saying. Things are a little different now since I know I am eating healthy foods and also I am weight training a lot more.

Exemptions:

Protein:  Yes. It is at -22 but I am also doing a lot of weight training. I need that protein. Most of that protein is being taken directly via shakes and bars. Which are made of the broken down whey protein, after work outs. Which goes straight to my muscles.

Fiber: It fills you up. I am not concerned about it.

Fats: Doing awesome!!! Honestly cutting fat was the easiest thing for me to do in this transformation. Once I stopped ALL fast food activity that dwindled to nothing.

NOT GOOD :

Carbs: A little concerned considering that my Fiber is high. Yet, if you notice (with the exception of my bar) most of them are coming from my fruit. Which leads me to be ok with it…kind of. lol.

Sugar: Way off my target. -57. That is a lot. *sighs* It must be handled.

 

My weakness: FRUITS.   << click for article on Fruits

Fruits are good for you, but not in large quantities. Especially if you are trying to loose weight. Once your body has had enough of the glucose, found in fruits, all the extra is converted into fat by your liver. For ME now that I am at the point that I am trying to convert fat into muscle, my fruit intake should be at 2 servings. Enough to keep my glucose levels normal and some for my liver. I do not need it becoming fat. I must tackle that.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/expert.q.a/08/28/fruit.weightloss.jampolis/index.html

Step 1: Now on this day I only had three fruits, but most days I am at 5-6. My goal will be to limit myself to one fruit a day. Why one fruit? It will make my MIND powerful enough to get over the “need” of fruit, or preferably the SUGAR in fruit. I will replace essential vitamins via vegetables. Always go extreme! That way when I do fail…I will fail with 2 servings instead of 3 or 4.

Step 2: Replace fruit with vegggies. *sigh* It must be done.

Step 3: White sugar has to be reduced to 2tsp. This is my ONE. (Just like tortillas in my carb category.) My coffee needs to taste semi good and I need coffee. If it doesn’t I will fail completely. 3 tsps is too much. I will limit it to two tsp. and buy the good sugar.

Step 4: My nugo bar seems to have a lot of sugar. 13g. I am not going to throw the box away since I just purchased it. The step will be that any new bars can only contain 10g of sugar or less. Bars are always high protein and low fat, focused (for me).

My biggest battle here will be fruit. I love it and containing it to one serving will be hard. Keep posted for my updates!

xoxo,

Dollies.

 

Dealing with the Foodnemy

Hello Dollies,

Well its been about a week since I wrote about finding your true foodnemy. Your foodnemy should be that one that you are always struggling for. The one you are always craving. So for you it might be desserts, fast food, pasta, bread, pizza, Mexican food, etc.

We are not going to just deal with one food, but we are going to deal with the whole enchilada. So let’s pick your foodnemy! In what category does your foodnemy fall in?:

Sugar:

• desserts
• a lot of fruits
• a lot of yogurts
• candy
• chocolate
• fruit juices
• sweet breads
• jelly, etc.

Fats:

• fast food
• hamburgers
• pizza
• fries
• anything cooked in a lot of oil
• butter
• a lot of cheese
• deep fried foods, etc.

Carbs:

• bread
• pizza
• hamburgers
• hot dogs
• pan dulce
• tamales
• pupusas
• pitas
• Nan bread
• pastas
• rice (any kind), etc
• tortillas

Now it is pretty hard to eliminate ALL it because there is a little bit of carbs, sugar, and fat in almost everything. We are though going to cancel almost everything that is not really necessary. So I will lead with my example and it will be up to you to draw your lines, but again HONESTY with yourself (if you dont have an accountability partner this will be essential).

In the past: Carbs was one of the first things cut off for me. Not all of them since a lot of other things have healthy carbs such as: apples, peanut butter, sugar, vegetables, fruits, etc. I didn’t cut those out of my diet. What I cut out was the first thing that pops in your head when you hear carbs: anything grain based. No pitas, no Nan bread, no pastas, no rice, no pizza, etc.

This will be the greatest battle! This will be the battle where your willpower will win over your stomach, MIND, and your habits. It is going to be HARD! No doubt about it dollies. It will NOT be easy. You will fail a lot of times, but with every fail you will learn and you will get stronger. (Side note: The failures should start minimizing as weeks pass though!) To the point where that weakness means nothing.

Ways to deal with it:

• Pick the ONE: Pick one thing you will keep. I kept tortillas but limited myself to ONE or TWO a day…NO MORE. Not every day either!!! I would maybe eat it 3-4 times a week. No MORE! I also limited them to 100 calories for both of them. If you are going to keep bread…then it is one slice or two, no more. And it can not be bad food. Like don’t pick pizza for your one exemption. Or hot dogs. Make a smart choice.
• Wait it out: Wait out that craving for as long as you need to. Distract yourself with movement or even television.
• Do not think about it: Do not be over thinking the food. Distract your MIND. It is only your mind that is making you want that food. Nothing else. If you are hungry eat healthy and fill yourself to get rid of that excuse. Who has the power? You or your Mind?
• Replace: Eat other foods to replace that mouth craving. Grab a bunch of carrots. Eat them slowly.
• Out and About: Battle that craving. When you are out and about with friends someone is going to have that food. There is going to be your greatest challenge. Battle it. Inside its going to be a fight between your MIND and your WILL power. FIGHT and WIN!

Failure?

It is going to happen. When it does happen, first try to stop yourself after the first bite. After that first bite the battle is not lost. You can still win. Push it away from you and be done with it. Realize that you do not need to finish it just because you had one bite. If you eat all of it or multiple times, you will have to take some time aside and really think about it. WHAT you did, WHY you did it, HOW were you feeling before and after, and HOW you will not fail again. Learn and move on. Try your 200% the next day. Each day that passes your failures should be less and less, if they are not…you are cheating yourself. KEEP TRACK OF IT!

Yes, you can do it. To this day I do not eat anything with bread. Little by little I was able to start eating rice and other flour made foods, but nothing with bread. Which cuts out a lot of unhealthy foods for me. I am being HONEST with you. Bread does not have the same power it used to. I can see a hamburger, a donut, a loaf of hot steamy bread, pan dulce, tamales, cakes, cookies, and pass them on. Without any real desire to eat them. The only thing that my mind is still holding on to is pizza. Every time I see that or smell it, it is a battle between my MIND and the NEW me. Most of the time, I win. FIGHT and WIN! Not without any real effort though.

So dollies let the battle begin…I am on your side and cheering you on! Read “My evil: Sugar” to follow my example of giving up a lot of sugar.

Thanks for reading Dollies.

xoxo,

Bianca

IMPORTANT: Never just cancel sugar, fat, and carbs out of your diet. They are an important part of your diet. 

Video: Motivation

Hola Dollies,

Phew…it is super late, but I finally got my first video done! Yay. It took me a couple of tries, but I finished one. Any recommendations on where I can learn how to edit my video in a more smooth manner do let me know! Keep your eyes open for part 2!

So this video is just a little insight into what made me succeed so far and how it works. Very general, but it gets to the main idea. I will post up another video on some ideas to help out any others that are in kind of the same situation as I am. Where you are in need of someone else being your partner in this weight lost journey.

Do give me some feedback on how the videos can improve or how I can make them more watchable if they are not already! Any feedback is greatly appreciated. This is my first go around at this video blog, so hopefully it goes well.

xoxo,

Bianca

Size 6 is here!!!

Dolllliiiiiiieeeeeeeeeesssssssss,

I had weighed myself a couple weeks ago and I was at 141.6. Now I have been yo-yoing back and forth between 137-140, but never passing 140. When I saw that I was almost 2lbs over that I was so upset at myself. I got over it and focused on my food since I knew there lay the problem.

This past week I went shopping for a dress. Knowing that I had gained two pounds lead me to stay in my size 8-10 range. Its never really been stable since my body had been changing so much, but I knew one of those two would work. I was trying a black strapless dress at size 8. It looked good. Then I asked my friend to bring this other green dress I had been looking at. Well he ends up bringing me a different dress. I shrugged my shoulders and tried it on, size 8. It looked good..not too bad. Yet, there seem to be some excess fabric hanging around. So, out of just curiosity I told him to bring me the 6. I try it on and OoooooMmmmmGeeeeee! It fit…that beautiful green dress fit PERFECTLY. Now it didn’t really hit me there and then. I was just happy. I couldn’t believe it. So of course I got that dress and the black one in a size 6.

Now I honestly did not realize the hugeness of that until after dinner and my friend was walking me to my car. In my head the little thought crept up…”a size 6″ (A little note about me: I am very good at minimizing good events and things.) My little brain then said to me “celebrate!!!” I hit my friend on the shoulder and yell out “This is my first size 6 EVER!!! Eeevvvvaaaahhh!” He laughs and congratulates me. Offers to buy me a drink, but unfortunately the bar is closed. No matter, I was so happy after that. Keeping in mind the great accomplishment: I had never in my life owned a size 6. Never.

So here I am CELEBRATING it. At times I think “oh people are going to think I am very narcissist”, but I am not celebrating out of vanity. I am celebrating out of pure just amazement and the great accomplishment that represents. I used to wear size 20 even 22 at one point and now I am in the single digits. I never celebrated sizes 16, 14, 12, 10, or 8. That was not fair to myself. I won’t make that mistake again.

My body has changed so much it is really hard to see back and think that I was ever that big. *SMILES* Anyways. I am so happy even right now, three days later. The thought of that dress makes smiles so much and I just wanted to share with you.

Kisses Dollies and don’t forget to celebrate your victories!!!! No matter how small they seem.

xoxo,

Bianca

P.S. Just uploaded some pics on FB of the “Old Me”. Check them out: http://www.facebook.com/powerfulbeauty Like my page too please!

My Fitness Pal Website and App

Early Morning Dollies,

I just had a very long day of work and really sleepy so I do apologize if my blog is not up to the grammar rules and all that. Will revise and fix once I get some free time. I wanted to get this post out due to my post a couple of days ago. I had mentioned I would begin taking pics to let you know my meals and all that. I was going to do this through the social media of FB, but unfortunately FB app does not handle FB pages yet. So it became rather a time consuming task.

Then I was thinking how can I keep track of my food and allow you to see it? MyFitnessPal popped into my head. I wasn’t going to speak of this app until later on when I began talking about calorie intake, but we can start now.

MyFitnessPal is an awesome app and website. You basically just type in the food you eat and it not only counts up your calories, but breaks them down into how much protein, sugar, fat, sodium, carbs, etc you have had in the day. Example:

When you set up your account they will ask you how much weight you want to loose. Then the account will be set up with the amount of calories you should eat in order to obtain that wright by a specific date. Please try not to rush into that yet. I mean I didn’t and I really think that helped me keep constant. The fact that I didn’t try to do all these different things at once in regards to my diet. I began with dealing with my carbs problem first. One battle at a time.

So I wanted to share this app with you now because this is how I will be keeping track of my foods since the picture thing didn’t work out as great. I will still post pics up via twitter…but if you want the break down you can check it out via MyFitnessPal. This is also a great website because you can make friends with people and add another thing/person that will keep you accountable. (Which is the topic I will be dealing in the video I am working on =) )

I haven’t been keeping track of my foods for a long time now…but I used to live via this app when I began working on my calorie intake. So if you want to get a peek into that please feel free to do so! I don’t remember specifically when I began using it, but it seems I became pretty stable on it on after December 16th of 2011. Here is the link for that: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/BiancaXbound?date=2011-12-16

For my current challenge just click on this and it will take me to my daily tracking of food: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/BiancaXbound

If you do sign up add me as a friend! Click on pic!

So tired dollies, but wanted to get this out to you. Night Night

xoxo,

Bianca

P.S. the bound is basically that…I was bound to that fitness app and bound to becoming what I really wanted, a thinner, healthier me.

P.S.S. Super cool thing about the app is that you can actually just scan the barcode of the food you are eating and the app will read it. Makes it faster to write in food.

The ONE

Hello my Dollies,

The first topic: Food! Food is going to be the key. A person can work out as much as possible and even loose some weight, but if the eating habits don’t change, neither will the body, not permanently at least.

Now when I truly made the choice to change who I was, body and mind, I knew exercise was going to be part of it. So I began that right away with cardio. Along with the cardio I was told to cut out an essential food group, carbs, or to be more specific BREAD. Yes, bread.

Now my life coach is the one that made this choice for me and told me I was no longer allowed to have this food. Yet, I also knew that carbs were not friendly to my body. In Korea, as I am sure most of Asia, rice is superly duperly important. They eat rice ALL the time. No, I am not exaggerating. ALL the freaking time.

• Breakfast: Rice with seaweed.
• Lunch: Rice with side dishes
• Dinner: Rice with side dishes and soup.
• Dessert: Rice cakes or rice bread or something with rice.

Rice, Rice, Rice….of course I quickly adapted this life style and quickly gained 10lbs of pure rice. So imagine my horror when I was told I could no longer eat it. I was taken back, surprised, in shock. I honestly did not believe I was going to be able to do it.

I mean really take one moment to think of ALL the things that are a type of bread or have bread:

• hamburgers
• hot dogs
• cakes
• cupcakes
• loaf of bread
• churros
• tortas
• nan bread
• pizza
• conchas, lord I could go on.

I had to say goodbye to all these things and many more. At that time I think I also cut out pasta and cut my intake of rice to like 5%. The following couple of months were the hardest months in my whole diet change experience. There were many failures, but a lot more successes.

Do it Yourselves:

So my little dollies. The cold hard fact is that you will have to change your diet. Yet, I also know that for us, hearing that is like the end of the world. Therefore I am not going to deprive you of everything. We will begin the change small, but BIG.

One thing to note: Our eating habits have been created since we were babuies and its going to take time and patience to change such an ingrained habit. So start small and it will make a true difference.

Now for this to really work, Dollies, you must be honest to yourselves. Have integrity and keep it real. Don’t lie and say spinach is your favorite pound adding food. Really take a look back at your eating habits and figure it out.

Here is an idea:

• For one week take a picture of everything you eat (or write it down).
• Do not limit yourself or make yourself eat healthier. Just go on your normal day and “snap” “snap”.
• Use social media to keep you accountable.
• At the end of the week lay them out.
• For each one write down the top five or three ingredients of that meal or snack.
• There in front your pretty little eyes will be your pound adding friend.
• It will pop up constantly whether it be carbs, bread, sugar, chocolate, candy, alcohol, or fried foods. It will be there over and over again.
• Pick your top three foodnemy (food enemy).
• Out of those three, choose the one that makes your mouth water.
• This last step is the most important: On that day, make the choice that you are more important than that chocolate, that sugar, that piece of bread, that slice of cheese, that 10th beer and cut it out of your diet.

I know that having someone point out your weakness is easier than you figuring it out yourself, but it will make you stronger. I have never done this, but this is what I came up with when I tried to recreate what my coach did for me.

I think I will do it with you! No, I WILL do it with you. Starting tomorrow I will begin taking pics of my foods and posting them on FB and Twitter to keep me accountable. Then in a week we can all share our one food and begin the journey.

Starting tomorrow, dollies, begin taking pics and in a week I will have another post on how to deal with the constant craving of wanting that one food you swore off. Oh and before you run away scared…when I mean stop eating I do mean stop eating it in general. That doesn’t mean that when you have been a super duper good eater, that you can’t reward yourself with a slim thin slice of ____ fill in the blank.

xoxo,

Bianca

A New Beginning

Well the tittle is corny enough, but here is a little info on me and the direction of this blog. *enjoy*

All my life I have been overweight. I moved to South Korea in Sept of 2010 to “teach” English to Korean students. Halfway through my year I met someone that changed my life, a friend. We will call him my life coach because that is really what he has become.

As of February 2011:

In February of last year I made the choice to change. Change a style of eating, working out, thinking, and being. Not only was I going for the body, but the mind. Big expectations, I know.

A year and a half later my size has gone from 220lbs to 140lbs.

As of now:

To date I have lost 80lbs and have set a goal to loose 5 to 10 more. The change has obviously been dramatic not only to me, but to many of my friends. Questions have been asked and I have given a general idea, but precision is necessary.

I will share my:

• change of diet
• change of work out routine
• conscious eating
• change of thinking

You will also be getting information on additional things that have helped me make this great change. Such as:

• supplements
• workout routines
• specific food requirements

At the end I just wish to inspire and give information to anyone who wishes to begin their own journey into creating what they truly desire and wish for. I stand here telling you it is possible, if you really desire it.

xoxo, Bianca

P.S. Any specific things you would like to hear about just let me know my little dollies.