Struggles Of A Food Addict

Hello all! It has been a rather long time since Mike or I have written on here about our journey on our lifestyle change. So, since you may be behind a little due to us let me catch you up real quick. WE HAVE DONE NOTHING. Ok, I may be exaggerating when I say we have done nothing but in regards to a healthy lifestyle we have done the opposite. Mike and I have become frequent customers of pizza companies and fast food again along with giving in to going out to eat more frequently and all around not taking care of ourselves or monitoring what goes into our bodies. With that there of course has been consequences like all choices you make in life. For both of us because we having been fueling our bodies with crap we have had very little energy and also weakened our immune systems because we have both already been sick several times this year. I am going on my third week of a sinus infection that seems to be against all medicines and antibiotics prescribed. Speaking for myself and my consequences I can say my clothes are tighter now even though my weight is staying the same and I am not very happy about it.

I will admit there have been times where we have been proactive towards a positive lifestyle change and it usually lasts a day sometimes two. Mike and I go through the same struggle every time when we are hungry. Instead of looking for healthier options we order pizza or go get fast food and than feel guilty swearing this will be the last time and tomorrow is a new day and we will be strict. Well, tomorrow the day that we say we will begin eating healthy never comes and our struggle continues. There are times where we have been good and written out a monthly menu to follow and did pretty good at it yet despite our healthy groceries that cost us money sitting in the fridge pizza seems to be one of our biggest temptations. So, here we are not quite at square one but there again hoping this time we can do this and reach our personal goals.

There was a moment last week where I realized that I am a food addict. I was watching the show Revenge and one of the characters Stevie Grayson is a recovering alcoholic who has not touched the bottle in years. The day she had a huge argument with her ex husband and she went to her sons bar pulled out a bottle of liquor and poured herself a drink but instead of drinking it she just looked at it and struggled with whether she should drink it or not. At that moment I realized that is me not with alcohol but food. I may start out great in the morning and pack a healthy lunch for work but when work is over is when the binges begin. I could be just tired or had a rough day so I go to Walgreens and buy ice cream and a pop or a candy bar than go home and watch tv. I tell myself I wont do it today every day that I will just go home and run and get ready for the 5k but emotion overcomes me and takes over and then that's when the ice cream comes in the picture. I can honestly say that I have never smoked in my life, never done drugs and am not tempted by alcohol but food is my addiction. When all my friends went out and had a cigarette on break because they were stressed I went to the vending machine and got cookies or the nutter butter things. Food didn't just become my fuel for my body to carry on through life it became my friend, my counselor, my crutch and now finally I will admit my addiction.

So one of the first steps to dealing with a problem is admitting you have one. I have been honest with myself since last week that I have a problem and have recognized my triggers such as stress and the times I am feeling the most stressed. I can proudly say I have gone a week since I went to Walgreens or any store and bought ice cream or something bad for me.  I almost went yesterday but Mike talked me out of it so that was an accomplishment.

Instead of focusing on the past I am focusing on the future but in full realization that I do have an addiction to food and this will be a struggle until it becomes habit again. Nothing worth doing is ever easy, I have to keep chanting that in my head when sugary carbs are calling my name. This week I have 3 goals that I am determined to meet and they are :
1. Weigh myself and measure Thursday and record it in the blog that night
2. Run 3 times on the couch to 5 k program
3. Focus on eating clean foods and avoid sugary, refined carbs such as ice cream, pop, candy bars etc.

I am hoping this time I will stick to my goals because I have a lot of important events coming up but the most important one really is just life and being able to enjoy it all around. I hope you will continue to follow us and I apologize it has been way too long.

For Now,
Jocelyn

Belated Week 2 Plus Week 3 Results!

Hello all, sorry for the delay, we got bombarded with work and life as it is and by the time we got time to make a post, it was so close to weigh-in Thursday we decided to combine the weeks!  Following are the results for the past two weeks:

Jocelyn's Results

Weight Lost: 1.6 lbs

Status: Woo yeah!

Michael's Results

Weight Lost: 2.0 lbs

Status: That be some progress!

Not as fast as last years results, but we have to remember two things.  Last year we started off very strict and shot for the stars (which ultimately contributed to our downfall after 12 weeks) which made us lose weight fast, and somewhat unhealthily, up front.  Then it has been proven that after large weight loss followed by regaining of all of that lost weight can result in an even slower metabolism than when one started.  This week we are going to start focusing on what we have learned to increase our metabolism:

1. Protein and Fiber rich breakfast
2. Smaller more frequent meals, keeping the body metabolizing
3. Drinking lots of water (the colder the better), adding some metabolism boosting fruits/spices.  We will probably be using lemon because that has worked for us before
4. Lastly, anything we can think of or YOU our followers can think of, to improve the conviction we have to making our health and ultimately our lifestyles better.

Does anyone have any suggestions about metabolism boosting foods/drinks/methods that have worked for you?  We'd be very interested in learning! :)

We hope everyone is keeping warm in this crazy winter.  We both can't wait for it to be over!  We are ready for some Spring action.  

Enjoy your weekend!

Michael  and Jocelyn OUT!

Side Note: We have added two ways that you can follow/subscribe to our blog to stay on top of our story and new posts.  If you look to the right, you can subscribe to our RSS feed with your favorite RSS reader.  If email is more your preference, right below you can see "Follow us by email".  Enter your email address and click Submit and every time we post you will get a nifty email notification!

Weigh in #2 check in

Hey our friendly followers, it's Thursday our weigh in day and Mike and I are excited to share with you our results as promised however due to not remembering to charge the camera we will wait until tomorrow to post our results . This is just a quick check in to let you know we are still doing this. Until tomorrow, 

Jocelyn and mike 

Weight-In #1!! 2014!!

Well folks here we are! The end of week one in 2014!  We are off to a good start.  So let's cut to the chase :)

Jocelyn's Results

Weight Lost: 7.1lbs

Status: Ohhhhh yeah!!!

 Michael's Results

Weight Lost: 6.0lbs

Status: Awwww Yeah!!!

And there we have it :)  I'm so proud of Jocelyn and I'm glad I could knock of a few pounds myself ;) This is a motivating start to the new Lifestyle Change!  I can see the difference in where I was at the end of the last attempt and it is just kickin that much more enthusiasm into my face :)

Excellent job to Jocelyn!  Here's to the next exciting week of our new Lifestyle.

Michael OUT!

2nd Time Is The Charm...Well In This Case!

Like Jocelyn mentioned in her previous post, we are starting to incorporate newer and healthier eating habits and taking our time with those and blogging.  I think a number of things contributed to the "downfall" of Lifestyle Change For Two Please in 2013.  Biting off a bit more than we can chew is the biggest.  We attempted to post on the blog every day, restructure our eating habits, incorporate new housing chores schedules, and throw in working out all at once.  The slightest wrench in the works of our new routines ended up throwing us off completely.  I think partially we were too dependent on each other and our schedule, that we fell apart when we were thrown a curve ball that affected our dinner schedule.  The conviction wasn't 100% there and then we just enabled each other.

Noticing the faults, or as I would call learning experiences, we had over 2013 we are taking them only as a major lesson in what works and what does not work for us together.  Taking these lessons, we realize we really should be as happy with small amounts of progress as we would be making it to the end goal to keep us personally invested in our future lifestyle.  If we drop 30 pounds and have kept it off by the end of the year, that is a major success! That is 30lbs lighter than we were and 30lbs closer to our end goal.  Over 40lbs of stress on our joints gone!  The key thing being we were able to keep it off, which is the main difference between a true lifestyle change and a fad diet.

All of that being said, this is it and it's the time to make it happen! We are refreshed and renewed with brand new ideas and feeling invigorated!  Plus, I can admit that this rebound back to where I started Jan 1, 2013, has been slowly deteriorating my health, and I feel worse than I did back then.  So there is no other way but to do it :) And do it we shall! :)

Michael OUT!

Putting Out A Grease Fire

Have you ever put out a grease fire? Well, I sure haven`t and from what I hear it's not a pleasant experience and basically an out of control fire where you don`t know where to start. To put it lightly that is how I feel these days as though I am putting out a grease fire. I say this because my health and life has gotten out of control and I do not know where to begin to fix it.  I am tired all the time now, my joints ache, my back hurts and I am pretty sure I can`t run right now because I haven`t ran since September. On top of that my hair and nails are pretty brittle and my skin is not the greatest. This is all due to an out of control fire that I caused and now I don`t know where to begin to start putting it out. So, I am going back to the basics and I am taking baby steps.

Since the new year has approached I hear many people talking about their resolutions to lose weight. In order to reach their goals they turn to pills, shakes and fad diets. Than there are those who turn to exercise and over exert themselves in one to two months and reach burn out phase which eventually leads to giving up and gradual steps in gaining weight again. I say this not to depress you but because I have been there and done that over and over again. If you have been following us since last year than you will know that I have tried pretty much every trick and diet out there to lose weight. I have tried pills, teas, a lot of vitamins, shakes and than special diets. I have done detox diets, soup diets, Special K diet and also the cabbage diet. I can safely say I have probably done more diets in my life than how old I am (27) and I have failed every time. The truth of the matter is, I was not seeing the big picture. I was not facing the fact that there is no quick fix and there is no magic pill and I have no fairy Godmother that is going to wave her wand and make everything wonderful and I live happily ever after. IT JUST DOES NOT HAPPEN THAT WAY.

So, what is this big picture that I speak about you may ask? The big picture is that my weight increase and my poor health did not happen over night but instead with gradual bad habits that lead to everything being out of control. It was my decisions that lead to this and now it has to be my decision to get me out of this. Looking back I realize when I was looking for all those quick fixes I was not ready to change my life and that is what we have to do. I have to learn how to make good choices when it comes to food as well as exercise. I need to learn what moderation and portion control is and mostly I need to learn to say NO when food is looking enticing and I do not really need it. Right now I live to eat when in reality I need to eat to live.

Since last Thursday Mike and I have begun our journey towards our lifestyle change and began making small steps. We have not jumped into exercise at this moment but we are focusing on food and making healthy choices. I anticipate February to be the month that we start gradually introducing exercise again in our lives and taking advantage of the gym membership we never use. As of right now I am eating a nutritious breakfast every morning. I am making sure I keep myself fueled with protein throughout the day so I can avoid hunger and binges. I have also focused on drinking lots of water and green tea. I have simply added healthy habits in my life and subtracted several bad.

I am very excited for Thursday to come so we can begin sharing with you our weight loss and pictures! I have a feeling I have lost a couple pounds but I am not sure. I can tell you I am feeling slightly better this week and not as tired. On a side note I started my classes yesterday and am looking forward to a very good semester !

Until Thursday so long our faithful followers,
Jocelyn

We're Back! And It's Not A Dinosaur's Story

Hello all of our loyal followers! Since you will probably be the only ones still reading ;)  Happy New Year 2014!! We are here again at the start of the new year with the goal to start our Lifestyle Change over again, to learn from our mistakes the previous year, and to try new things!

There are some changes from the ol' routine this year! We are moving Weigh-In Tuesday to Weigh-In Thursday.  The next change will be in the frequency in which we will be posting.  Given our daily routines, posting every day became a bit overwhelming while trying to make many other changes in our lives.  So the plan is to post our Weigh-In post together once a week, and then post once each for both of us per week.

Over the last year we learned a lot, and proved to ourselves that we are capable of reaching our goals.  One important lesson we learned is to take our time, set reasonable short term goals and next thing we know we have reached our ultimate goals keeping ourselves excited!  We have decided that we will be happy with any progress toward our end goal by the end of the year, as long as we are successfully keeping it off.

Lastly, for those of you that enjoyed them, we will continue posting our interesting/wacky progress pics and the total loss from the previous week ;).

I hope that throughout this year we can succeed together and maybe even inspire some along the way! ;)  As always we love your participation and support!  Thanks to all of our loved ones for continuing to support us, and to our loyal followers!!

Jocelyn and Michael OUT! :)