What to do?!?

Okay, so I have lost 32 pounds. Great, grand, marvelous.

But I still have a long ways to go and don't know which diet will cut it for me. Atkins has too many eggs for my taste. (If I never have an egg again, it will too soon.)

I am thinking of designing my own diet plan of fresh foods, staying away from processed foods and sugar.

I'm Back!!

If you will notice my ticker, I am down 29 pounds from my heaviest I have ever been. Earlier this year when I went to try out for the Biggest Loser, I weighed 250. I slowly started losing weight. At the beginning of October, I weighed 237. I am now at 221---which is 16 pounds just this month alone!

I am in a Biggest Loser challenge at work that ends this Friday. I am not sure if I can win it.....but either way I am happy. I have lost weight. I am doing Atkins, which at this point is driving me bonkers. I am doing the induction phase--which includes this....



and this...


and this...


and this...


and this...


As far as beverages go, I am limited to water and...


or



Needless to say, I would kill for some fries and a chocolate shake. But, I am going to be strong until Friday (at least). It is Halloween, so I may cheat a bit after the weigh-in.

100 Days

What if we all spent 100 days working on our healthy eating and exercise habits? What if we didn't let the holidays become this blanket excuse to gorge ourselves and gain weight? Starting on September 22nd, there is 100 days until the end of the year. What if I started the year 2009 weighing under 200 pounds?

Before & After, This & That

While searching the Internet, I found this really cool tool that Prevention.com offers. A virtual weight loss simulator! You can enter in your weight, body type and looks to show a virtual model of how you look now. Then it takes your goal weight and shows what you can become.....so cool!!

Here is the Before Shelly at 234 pounds...


And here is the Skinny-Binny Shelly at my ultimate goal of 150 pounds...


It is a great motivator to see the two pictures side by side. I know that I have the potential to get to that weight again. Here is the website for any interested: Prevention Weight Loss Simulator.

I am still going strong on the eating front since Thursday. I know that may seem like only a few days, but to me it is huge. At every meal and snack, I have thought about my eating options and picked the smarter choice. I have passed over chips and salsa for steamed broccoli, french fries for salad and a Taco Bell Mexican Pizza for a Fresco Soft Taco. The more I analyzed what I was doing--simply making better choices, it reminded of a book I had seen recently.



Eat This, Not That by David Zinczenko & Matt Goulding

It is a non-diet, diet plan. I absolutely love it. I have begun hating the dreaded 4-letter d-word lately, but I knew that I needed to lose weight. Every "diet" I tried failed. So now I am not on a diet. I am making better food choices. I really like this book and can envision myself towing it in my purse for some time to come. It goes through restaurants, fast food chains and grocery stores to show you the better choices we all can make. The best part is that it feels like you are having little to no sacrifice. Some of the food swaps are actually surprising.

For example, at Subway, you can save nearly 200 calories and 20 grams of fat by swapping a tuna sub for a roast beef one.



Some of the swap options are not much better, like trading a McDonald's Grilled Chicken Sandwich for a Quarter Pounder and saving 100 calories and 2 grams of fat. But I suppose every little bit helps.