Friday, June 5, 2015

Getting Organized and Healthy

As of Monday, I started on a diet.  I have really been trying to stick to one for about 2 or 3 months now, but I wasn't very strict on myself.  I would let too many things slide.  So on Monday, I started a modified version of the Special K diet.  The Special K diet has you eat a meal product for breakfast and lunch, two snack products, and a reasonable evening meal.  There are some pretty good tasting products now, as opposed to when I tried this diet years ago. (Tasted like soggy cardboard then.)  I usually do a Protein Shake in the morning.  They have mocha flavored ones that are really good, and I feel like I'm drinking iced coffee.  Then for lunch, I will do a bowl of Special K cereal, or a meal bar.  I'm not a huge fan of the meal bar, as the texture is pretty grainy, but the chocolate flavor one is bearable when I need a meal on the run.  The snack products I usually choose are the fruit crisps and the granola bars.  They come in all kinds of flavors and the texture of those are much better.  I also try to stick with the protein versions of their products.  Then for dinner, I try to stay within 300 calories or so, depending on how many snacks I've had that day.

I am tracking everything in an app called Lose It!.  I really love this app.  You set a goal for yourself using your height, weight, and how many pounds you want to lose a week.  Then it tells you how many calories a day you can eat to accomplish this goal.  You can also track your exercise for the day, and it adds however many calories you've burned back to your daily calorie limit.  The cool part about this app is that it has a huge database of food, and you can scan the bar code on anything that's packaged. It's a great way for me to keep myself accountable for how much I am eating.

I am also doing my best to exercise.  Going to a gym is an anxiety producing event for me and it is expensive, so I opt to walk outside or use the stationary bike that we have at home.  That way I can be in the air conditioning when it's so hot or raining, plus get some TV or internet time in.  Like I don't have enough internet time. Ha.

In addition to my quest to get healthy, I am also on a quest (as always) to get more organized.  I found an awesome calendar last year.  It was peacock blue, and I loved it.  But it was an academic calendar, so I am in need of a new one. I decided to try my hand at building my own planner with a mini binder from Walmart for $5, and free printables from online.  There are a TON of free printable for pretty much anything you might need.  And most of the time they are free, or very inexpensive.  The calendar I purchased last year was over $30, so I was looking for a cute but inexpensive alternative.  I am excited about getting it done, and will post about the finished product!


2 comments:

diannanicole said...

the only bad thing about the special K diet is that you are basically eating nothing. your calorie intake (depending on the evening meal) is so low that when you take yourself off the diet you're definitely going to gain weight back. it works, though. i did it between your wedding and another wedding a month later and dropped 2 or so dress sizes. but after the wedding a lot of it came back because i was eating real food again. that being said, the peanut butter and chocolate meal bars were the ones i found most tolerable because its almost like you are eating a nutty buddy bar.

Mississippi Girl said...

Yes, I agree with you. It's a temporary fix. I am adding in fruits tho, so it's not as strict as the Special K diet wants you to be lol. I am trying to stay at 1000 calories a day. (Hard!) I am mainly trying to lose some before my sister's wedding, and because I hit a plateau. After, I plan to exercise more, and still eat healthy food, while limiting calories to 1000 until I get to my goal weight.