New Blog

Hello! I just realized that some of you may be reading my blog through blogger or a feed and wanted to let you know I changed over to wordpress a few days ago. my address is still the same: www.myallnaturalweightloss.com, but that is where I can be found!

Thanks for reading!
Lorrie
The Token Fat Girl

impromptu

Thanks so much for indulging me yesterday and today with your thoughtful opinions! I've made a last minute decision to go to a figure drawing class this afternoon and I won't be home at 4 (est) to announce the winners. Instead, I will keep the comments open for the drawing until 4pm and announce the winners this evening when I get home! Good luck, I've really enjoyed reading these!

A Chance to Win a FREE banner for your blog

I'm still floundering a bit with my blogging schedule.

I want this blog to be more about me, I want to actually provide interesting information, motivation, support and ideas about weight loss and healthy living. We are all in this together, and chances are if you're stopping by you're looking for something and I want to provide it.

Over the past two years you've watched me lose weight, gain weight, post daily food entries and non at all, I've done plus size fashion remixes, I've made new recipes, I've talked about exercise classes, I've had philosophical moments about why I'm fat, I've tried a lot of diets, and I've talked about all around self-improvement.

I am and will lose weight in 2009 and want to continue sharing my story. I have the ability to leave comments on your blogs (which I don't do enough of!) and i have time and freedom to provide a truly wonderful place to stop by everyday. I don't always deliver and I haven't always been consistent.

Now, how can you get a free banner? If you would like your very own customizable banner just leave a comment with your answers and thoughts about the following questions. If you do not want a banner, you can choose a $25 gift card to amazon instead. I will stop counting the comments tomorrow at 2pm (EST) and use a random comment generator to announce the winner tomorrow by 4pm!

Here are the questions:

If you are a long-time reader what keeps you coming back to my website?

What do you like about my blog?

What do you not like about my blog (aside from web ads)?

How often would you like to see new entries? (IE: daily, twice a day, every other day etc.)

Do healthy recipes and meal ideas interest you?

Would you like more plus size fashion ideas?

Are you looking for motivation when you read my blog?

And finally, what would you like to see more of around here? Weight loss, dieting tips, exercise ideas, product reviews, network of support, reader emails, interesting articles about healthful living, motivational tools etc.

quite quick

Is it monday already? Please ignore strange ads on my blog, I'm on my way to wordpress and things might look a little weird and mixed up around here until I get there.

Anyhow, I've been wanting to talk more about the "hows" of weight loss. I've created a series of questions pinpointing why I didn't lose a lot of weight in 2008. What were those same habits that crept in continuing the cycle of fatdom? How can I break those same habits and achieve my goals this year?

I've had a sore throat every morning since Tuesday followed with dry coughing by night. Its getting really annoying and zapping precious energy that I don't have in excess to begin with. I mustered up enough energy to go to dinner (sushi) and movies (the curious case of benjamen button) on Saturday, but every morning like clockwork: sore throat, deep scratchy voice, coughing.

I'm going to the gym this morning anyway. I've got oatmeal, vitamin c and pain medicine in my system. Now, I just need a shower.

new years mix up

Happy New Years! I hope you all had a really fun time last night! We stayed in and watched movies off and on and finished up some end of the year projects including Krissie's new customized blog banner which you can view here: Questions for Dessert. I had a lot of fun making this banner for her and happy that she is liking it so much!

This is my shameless plug for my etsy where you can buy one of my customizable blog banners :) : Inspiration to go.

So, its the first day of January and I know some of us are evaluating and making new goals for this year. Calling them resolutions or goals or achievements doesn't really matter, but I've joined forces with one of my best friends Ashley to create the2009project.net where you can find all of my goals for 2009.

My list is long and ambitious for me, but I'd rather try than not try anything at all. I've started working slowly on everything today and it feels good to have a clearer pathway. Josh has created his list of "quarter year" goals, which I really like and it has helped me to break down my year long goal into smaller chunks.

I got on the scale this morning 289.0. That is up from my last weigh-in of 286.5. Obviously from a lot of holiday eating with little exercise.

Today and yesterday my little goals were to clean out the junk. For the first time in a long time I went grocery shopping and did not buy one food item that is a trigger food for me. Even something seemingly innocent like white bread was off of the list. I could eat a whole loaf with tomatoes and mayonnaise in two days. I've been taking inventory of the food in the house and getting rid of or hiding in the back of the pantry closet anything that might not be a good idea to have around such as my baking supplies.

We also got a wii fit from my mom and dad for christmas and it is really fun. It is really diligent about keeping track of the days you use the machine, your weight and bmi scores. The workouts are challenging and it keeps track of how long you use the machine. According to wii fit my age is 35, ten years my senior.

This post is all over the place because I have a lot on my mind, but I also wanted to add that my sister had the lapband surgery on Monday and she is recovering really well. She did a lot of research before having the proceedure and I'm really proud of here for taking that step, its definantly not an easy decision. I look forward to celebrating her losses with her and hearing how her habits are changing.

Its also got me thinking about my own habits and making things more non-negotiable as far as weight loss goes. When you have a proceedure like that, overeating no longer becomes an option, and eating bad foods only makes you feel worse. I want to apply those same principles to my own weight loss efforts. I guess what I'm saying is, I would like to adopt some of her new habits by making my options limited as well. Making a healthier lifestyle non-negtiable. Does that make any sense?

Is it sad that sometimes I would like to create "food allergies" or pretend like I had the surgery to avoid food pressure from other people? There aren't people that pressure me to eat, but sometimes I get insecure about publicizing healthy habits because I feel like I've been trying to do this for so long that no one even believes I will stick to anything long-term.

Which brings me to a non-resolution resolution of talking about dieting in front of people. I have been really bad and annoying about this since I admitted to having a weight problem, which is why having a blog is really good for me. What I mean is, I am always broadcasting my new diet plan and if I've lost weight that I'm starting to realize that this is in bad taste. Or is it? What do you guys think, is it annoying when you're with people and they talk about what they are or aren't eating?

I've been to dinner with people who are on various diets and eating plans and sometimes I cringe when people proclaim "I'm not eating white bread", not because they aren't eating bread, but because they feel the need to tell everyone about. And I know I've done the same thing, and I realize how helpful it is to tell people about it. I was reading a book about "rules to live by" awhile ago and one of the rules was to never talk about dieting. So, again, good to publicily talk about dieting or bad?

Also, how do you guys feel about proclaiming you're working on losing weight to the same people you've talked about losing weight to a hundred times before? Do you ever feel self-conscious that they are thinking "yeah, something new and different for you, a diet!" *insert sarcasm*

And finally to this extremely long entry, I want to work on the "hows" to my weight loss. I want to lose 110 pounds this year. Period. But, that is easy to say. But how will I do it? Tomorrow I will be back with that answer.

one is silver and the other gold

Happy Holidays my blog friends! How has the past week been for you? I'm finally putting a close to my vacation today as we head back to our home in Virginia. I was treated way too kindly over the holidays, with more gifts than I ever deserve and more food than I ever needed.

I also had an extra special treat of meeting with Krissie (and Nathan!) from Questions for Dessert this past Friday. I will admit that I had extra twinges of new-person nervousness, but as soon as we sat down I felt like I was meeting up with old friend (s). Who knew? I've been following Krissie's blog for over two years now and feel extra lucky to have gained a friendship out of blogging. And can I just say that there are a few uncanny similarities between her husband and my future husband?

(Krissie's picture! I will upload my photo when I get back home.)

And so here it is, I find myself almost at the cornerstone of the of the years biggest day for people who want to lose weight: New Years! I love New Years, I love making new goals and I love reflecting over the past year. I was just read Fat Bridesmaids blog about feeling like 2009 is going to be a big year and I couldn't agree with her more.

For me, 2008 was filled with changes and movement. There are a lot of things I did that I'm proud of such as leaving a job where things were quickly deteriorating, moving to a smaller town to open up creative doors for myself, keeping up with this blog and creating new memories.

There are things that I've learned: such as doing hard things even if I don't want to in order to get to where I need to be, that and procrastination only feels good in the moment, and making excuses for not getting to where I want to be.

There are things that I am grateful for: being able to exercise and use my body, for my decent health despite weight/food abuse (which I know that this is due to being relatively young), for Josh who endless support and encouragement is more than I ever deserve, for my family and new family for "getting me" and laughing at my silly jokes and for providing advice and an extra ear, and to my friends who regardless of miles and life changes can still be the same friends they always were.

I'll be around, I've got a lot to do before the new year. I've got some banners to mail off, some goals to get moving on and a new look for this blog!

Are you guys excited about the new year?

Still here...sorta

I'm here! I've been recording my food and whatnot, I just know I would be lying to myself if I thought I'd be able to keep this up everyday right now while everything is in overdrive.

I know I'm not alone in the busyness of the holiday and trying to squeeze in so much. I am behind on emails, phone calls, projects, gift making and wrapping-but I will get caught up!

Tonight I'm working on some top-secret christmas presents and will pretty much not be doing anything else this weekend if it doesn't involve baking and present making. I made some reindeer food tonight, erg, that stuff is addictive. I'm thinking about stashing my baking stuff at my sister in-laws house because we are just no good when it comes to not eating sweets.

How are you guys doing with the baking and eating of holiday foods? Its pretty much a given that I will enjoy a few of my holiday favorites, but I'd rather avoid the gorge and then get sick ritual that I'm known to go through.

The first Christmas after I moved to nyc, I came home to WV and practically ran to Wendy's and ate a giant hamburger+fries and some cheesecake and god knows what else. Needless to say I was so sick that I couldn't even leave the house for the weekend. Nice. I know.

Must exercise this week. That is what I'm focusing on right now.

Daily Objective: getting started, now

I started this writing a bunch of over explained nonsense :) As per usual haha. I think this is pretty self-explanatory. I love, love bloggers who record their daily food intake because I am completely nosy and curious as to what people are eating.

This is why I love blogs so much, I know a lot of people like blogs that are about someone's opinions, but I truly love the mundain little bits of every day life. The little stuff that usually goes unseen.







I finally tried out my netflixed DVD, Amy Bento: Hi-Lo Extreme Workout. I only made it to 40 minutes before I collapsed on the couch. This workout is not for the faint of heart. One of the things that appealed to me about this DVD was its advertised lack in "overly complicated moves" which was mentioned on the website and on the actual DVD.

Uh, I don't know what her definition of overly complicated moves, but I felt like I was trying to follow the energizer bunny on speed. I think my kick boxing experience helped me to keep up, but I'm really curious to see if a really fit person could have kept up better. Its not that I didn't have the stamina to do the workout, I just couldn't keep up with the crazy moves.

If there was a move that was hard, I just filled it in with kick boxing/cardio moves from my former class to keep moving.

I loved the DVD for the challenge and the great sweat that I got. As much as I love the elliptical, nothing compares to a high intensity cardio class where I'm dripping in sweat and pushing myself. To me, that is the best workout. I know I will be sore tomorrow. I'm sore now.

I also loved that you don't need a ton of room to exercise or any extra equipment.

I'll probably do another workout with Amy Bento before I find another one on netflix to rent. I'm look for a challenging kickboxing dvd that has relatively uncomplicated moves.

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Sorry for the crappy last picture, it was dark out making it really hard to get a decent shot. This was a last minute concoction of onions, green peppers and lean ground turkey (cooked on the skillet with olive oil) mixed with tomato sauce and spices (garlic, basil, cinnamon,salt, pepper etc) and sauces (worchestshire, hot sauce) and then tossed with whole wheat ziti, topped with mozzarella and baked at 400 for 25 minutes.
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I need to go to the store! We are having guests next week and I have some baking to do this weekend so I'm just getting by until then. I definantly need some fresh vegetables.

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I'm setting goals and getting more organized lately. 2009 is going to be a busy year, I have a lot that I want to accomplish and I know that the more direction I have the better off I'll be. The more organization I have the more I can get done.

I want to lose 100 lbs, (more like 150, but I'll get to the last 50 when I get there) which is a little over 8 lbs a month for a year. I don't want to set time frame goals, but I like the direction and the motivation I get from weighing in and recording my food. Non-weight related goals are coming, but basically involve exercise and eating better.

creating my own monster

I have a few things I want to blog about, but most of that will have to wait until this evening. I'm starting a blog schedule, special blogs for certain days, more public weigh-ins and food journaling mostly for my own good. :)

I went to the dentist this morning and it wasn't so bad after all. I've been harboring incredibly insane thoughts about this tooth for a year now. I went to the denist from hell in September of 2007, at the Fulton mall in Brooklyn. At the time I didn't know any better. If you've ever been to the Fulton mall in Brooklyn, you know what I mean.

Needless to say I pointed at a tooth that was bothering me, the dentist slapped a filling over it and the tooth bothered me even more ever since. I dreaded going back and then lost my insurance and then the filling broke off a day ago while eating popcorn and was wedged between two teeth.

I dreaded going this morning because of the cost without insurance, because it was a new dentist and because of the pain. In reality, I don't really enjoy going to any doctor because of my deep fear that they will blame all of my ailments on my weight.

I went to a nurse practitioner a few years ago because of an ingrown toenail (gross), she gave me an antibiotic and when it didn't heal on its own she suggested I get checked for diabetes and advised I go to counseling for diabetic treatment. Eventually she made an appointment for me to have half of the toenail removed, I did, it hurt, but then miraculously it healed. Very quickly. And I didn't have diabetes, I was just fat.

Every time I go to the doctor and they do my blood pressure they always say "I'm surprised its normal". Thanks.

Its not that I care if a doctor wants to talk about my weight, I talk about it all the time. I know the horrible effects that extra weight has on my body, but sometimes I just want to not have that fear in my head. Will they judge me because of my weight?

And this all goes back to yet another reason why being fat isn't fun. Everyday situations are much more stressful: fitting in airplane seats, going to the doctor, riding on a roller coaster...whatever it is I always play the mental game of worse case scenario.

out of the house

Hey guess what? I'm at the library right now! I'm trying my hand at doing my work outside of the house a couple of days a week to see how I like it. Working from home can be really lonely and distracting at times. My only complaint is the lack of outlets for those using laptops. Plus, I wore my gym clothes so I can get a workout in while I'm out.

I have a lot that I want to ramble about today, so there isn't a specific daily objective.

First, I need to set some goals. I know I talked about not having a date to lose weight by and thats not really what I mean. I need to set some goals to aim for because right now while I'm doing o-kay I could be doing a lot better. I know my main goal is to lose weight, but I want to be more specific and organized about my efforts.

I watched old episodes of The Biggest Loser last night and man that it was inspiring. Every time after I watch the show I want to go running and screaming down the street and have people cheer for me every time I lose weight. I know its not deemed healthy to lose that much weight alone, but they make it look so tempting.

I really loved when they showed the contestants their progress after three months at the weight loss campus. One girl improved her insulin, one guy was taken off of his blood pressure medicine and the other guy lowed his cholesterol by over 100 points. It really shows how hard our bodies work when we are overweight.

I have to go to the dentist tomorrow to take care of a filling that has fallen out of my tooth. Not looking forward to that. I had the filling put in, in Brooklyn over a year ago and it never felt right.