Whoopdee!

New blog!

Well for starters, I'm a 24 year old, 5'9, (well, 5'8.75, but that sounds dumb) 180 lb woman. I've been interested in CRON for months, lurking on blogs and reading articles, but have finally gotten up the courage to plunge in. The first step was signing up for www.sparkpeople.com, which introduced me to the reality of counting calories. Before depression and the weight-causing drugs, and before hormonal birth control, I could eat any and all I wanted and hang around 130 lbs, so I am guessing that's about my set-point. A few weeks ago I stepped on the scale at the Dr's office and saw a number I had never seen before. Until recently, my highest weight ever had been in the 160's. But over the past year, with the aforementioned drugs, I have slowly and steadily put on over 40 lbs, with no sign of an upper-limit plateau, and I was terrified. To make things worse, I am ALWAYS sick. Always the first one down, always the last to recover. Migraines, chronic sinus problems, flus, colds, stomach viruses. You name it, I've probably had it a dozen times. And I'm SO TIRED ALL THE TIME. It's terrible. I can sleep for 12 hours and wake up hardly able to drag myself out of bed.

I decided that it had to stop. I signed up for sparkpeople, and it gives me a calorie range of 1200-1550. I'm still going over that by a bit, averaging around 1650 a day over the course of the last week. But I've already made some huge changes. I am mostly vegetarian, though I will eat seafood, and I was suffering from fat-vegetarian syndrome. Pasta and cheese, bread and cheese, cous-cous and cheese...I was actually getting a good percentage of fat, but my carbs were sky-high and my protein VERY low. So now I am eating much better...lots of green things, a fair amount of dairy and tuna and almonds, etc. But it's hard to figure out how MUCH I should be eating. I am very tall, but I have a lot of fat to burn. I'm not sure about the life-extension stuff. I just want to feel better, and lose this weight without yo-yo dieting.

I am taking this slow, because I'm a little scared of it. It seems impossible that I could really lose all this weight and not be exhausted and hungry all the time. I'm frightened of becoming obsessive and lapsing into bad eating-disordered habits of the past. I'm afraid that it will ruin my metabolism and I'll end up having to eat only 800 cals a day just to avoid weight gain. Most of all I'm scared that it won't work. I'm worried about a lot of things, but all the blogs give me hope. You can't all be wrong! You all sound so together and happy and fit.

SO.

I bought a food scale today. Had a minor panic-attack at the store, but walked out with it anyhow. I am not ready for the CRON-o-meter though I know it is just a matter of time. Sparkpeople gives me a general breakdown of my most important nutrients. I'm certainly not at 100% but I am edging closer as I figure out what to eat and when.

Alcohol is the big one for me. I love to drink. My boyfriend and I brew beer. I adore wine and port and a good aged whiskey. I've been cutting way back. But it's hard. I don't know how sustainable it is, but I WANT this CRON magic so badly I am willing to sacrifice a bit for it.

Another big issue is exercise. I am sedentary by nature. I love to read and watch movies and surf the internet. I hate to move. I do bike and walk everywhere I go, but my "everywhere" is about a 3 mile radius so it's not that much. I am hoping to work in more exercise, but right now I'm taking it one step at a time, and my first step is figuring out the food.

I have no idea how many calories I should be eating. Right now, at about 1650, I am not very hungry though my cravings are still strong. I don't know if I am losing weight...I'm waiting for a scale I ordered to arrive. I think I'm already feeling a bit better from the increase in protein, decrease in carbs. Here's my food for today so far:

Breakfast:
Barbara's Bakery Shredded Oats, 1 serving
Dannon Activa Yogurt low fat blueberry, 1 serving
Milk, 2%, 0.25 cup

Lunch:
A big salad made of the following:

1 hardboiled egg
Kraft Light Done Right Salad Dressing, Zesty Italian, 2 Tbspn
cous cous, .25 cup
Flax Seed Meal (ground flax), 1 tbsp
Arugula, 2 cups
Kraft 2% cheddar block cheese, 1 oz
Beets, boiled, 75 grams
Cucumber (with peel), 75 grams
Green Peppers (bell peppers), 28 grams
Custom Food Onions, raw, 75 grams

Snack:
1 orange
3 cups herbal tea
1 cup black tea
0.25 cup 2% milk
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp honey
10 almonds

As you can see, there's still a lot of room for work. I haven't quite kicked the sweet-tooth, and I'm using some prepared foods. But I'm learning. Dinner should be:

450 grams of kale, steamed in water

And a little "bake" made of
1 serving morningstar veggie crumbles
1 oz 2% cheddar
1 plum tomato
Green Peppers (bell peppers), 20 grams
Onions, raw, 75 grams (cooked in one tbsp evoo)
Cremini mushrooms 45 grams
.25 cup All Whites Egg Whites with White Cheddar (grr, I meant to get plain but grabbed the wrong carton.)

Which will bring me to right about 1400

How does that sound? I also have some beautiful port, and I am thinking of indulging in a glass of that tonight, since it's St. Patty's day, after all.

Anyway, thanks for reading! It is great to be here.

PS: The bake turned out to seem HUGE so I am only eating 1/2 of it and will save the other 1/2 till tomorrow. Which I guess means I need to crunch some numbers or something. But WOW is the port tasty!