The Eat Smart Nutrition Scale Is Awesome!

I've finally gotten around to doing a post on that new scale I've mentioned a few times. Actually, it's not a post, it's a video, but it's in a post so it's the same thing. :0)

Please forgive the choppy editing and all-around hokeyness of the video. I'm having issues with my editing program so that's why it isn't very smooth. As for the hokeyness... it's simply because I'm hokey. No excuse there. I also had to do this in two parts because of the length.

PART 1:



PART 2:



If you'd like to learn more about this great scale and possibly get one for yourself, be sure to click the link on the right-hand side area of this blog. Or you can just click here. Readers of Healthy Low-Carb Living Blog will get a 10% discount when purchasing through my links, so you definitely ought to check it out!

July 3, 2007

Weight Loss:

My weight stayed the same today. If it follows the usual pattern I will be down again tomorrow.

OK.. today's measurements:

Chest: same
Bust: -1 1/4"
Neck: same
Arms: same
Waist: - 1/2"
Hips: - 1/4"
Thigh: same
Calves: same

So 2 inches lost in the last two weeks. A total of 35 lbs lost and 25 1/4 inches gone. My body fat, according to my scale, is now 36.5% I know the scale isn't a reliable source on body fat percentages, but it is lower than it was two weeks ago by 1%. So, by the scale, my body fat has dropped 4% since I started.


Computers:

My wonderful computer has been making lots of weird noises lately, that quite frankly, terrify me. It's also been locking up on a regular basis. So last night my husband bought a new external hard drive and we spent most of the night, and into the wee hours of the morning, getting the new hard drive partitioned and figuring out how we want to separate things.

This new hard drive is 320G, which is about twice the size of our internal. So I have moved all my photo programs, photos (which totaled a whopping 19G!!), and another couple of programs over. The other partition will be strictly for backing up the whole system, which we will do tonight after we go to bed. (It will take hours..) I'm also backing up all my irreplaceable stuff (such as photos) on to DVD's so that if, by some freak accident, something happens to the new hard drive I won't lose it all.

So, just take this as a reminder. Back up ANYTHING you cannot replace on your computer's hard drive. You will not regret it!





Photography:

I got my test scores back yesterday from my first unit. There were two tests I had to send in with my photo projects. I'm proud to announce that I got a 100% on both of them! :0)


Tuesday Words of Wisdom:

When in doubt, poke it with a stick.

OK.. back to work.

June 20, 2007

Hey Gang!

Today's weigh-in was good. Down another 1.2 lbs. I also checked my body fat % which is down to 37.5. (Ugh.. that's still so unhealthy!)At least it's moving in the right direction.

Measurements:

Chest: no change
Bust: + 1/2" (not sure what that is about)
Neck: no change
Arms: -1 1/4" total
Waist: + 1/2" (again, don't know why.. maybe retaining water?)
Hips: -3/4"
Thighs: -1 1/4" total
calves: no change

Total lbs lost as of today: 30.4
Total inches lost as of today: 23 1/4
Body Fat: 2.5%

I'm almost 1/2 way there! :0) I'll try to post some progress pictures soon.

I need to go get on the treadmill. I'll try to post again later today with something more interesting.


Wednesday's words of wisdom:

Never hold a cat and a dustbuster at the same time.

May 31st, 2007

Hey gang!

I'm looking at my fitday calender for the last couple of weeks and trying to decide which days I did my best on. I've noticed that I've consistently stayed under 800 calories on all of the days. Yesterday was a bit different from the rest though...

Calories: 744
Fat: 12
Carbs: 8
Protein: 24

Yesterday was the highest day in calories, but the lowest in fat and protein. I think I do better when I have a bit more fat and definitely more protein. I'll work towards getting more in today. I've gotten a bit lazy the last few days and slacked off on my water drinking and my exercise. I'll remedy that today.

It's been quite a while since I measured, so I thought I'd better do that. Here are the results on the scale as well:

Weight: 175.8
Body Fat: 39%

Inches lost since last measurement on 3-21-07 (If I hadn't taken a month off, these number would have been better):

Chest: - 1/2
Bust: - 1 1/2
Neck: - 1/2
Arms: + 1/2
Waist: - 1
Hips: - 1/2
Thighs: - 2
Calf: 0


So now I've lost a total of 27.2 lbs and 20 inches.

Shrinking Me

Hooray! I have finally let go of the water weight! As of this morning I'm down another 1/2 lb! While I was on the scale I measured my body fat and water percents. I have a Taylor Body Fat scale. I know this isn't as accurate as calipers, but it at least gives me an idea if I'm going in the right direction. I also measured today. So here are the results:

Body Fat: Down 3% since my first measurement in January.
Water: Up 2% since my first measurement in January.

Chest: -1
Bust: 0
Neck: + 1/2 (my neck is getting bigger???)
Arms: 0
Waist: - 1/4
Hips: - 1/4
Belly: I quit trying to measure this.. it's too hard to keep the tape in the same place
Thighs: 0
Calves: - 1/4 (x2 = 1/2)

Inches lost last week: 2
Total inches lost: 14 3/4

I haven't been doing the boot camp plans I'd talked about. It's been tough with everything going on. I'm still exercising daily, it's just the eating part I'm struggling with a bit. I'm going to try again today though. I still have the trip to Vegas coming up in about 3 weeks and I want to wear some of my old clothes while we are there!!!

Celebrate with me!

As you can see from my weight tracker, I'm down 2 more lbs! I decided I'd better take some measurements today as well. I forgot to last week, but last week was a rough one for me and I doubt I would have seen much in the way of results anyhow. So here are the numbers:

chest: 0
bust: -1/2
neck: 0
arm: +1/2 (Muscles are starting to form!)
waist: -3/4
hips: -1/4
belly: 0
thigh: -1/4
calf: 0

So my total so far are 10 1/2 inches gone! Now keep in mind I'm just measuring the right bicep, thigh and calf. So actually my loss could be greater. I'm just assuming that they are losing inches at the same rate. How weird would it be if they didn't?!?


To celebrate almost making it to the 20 lb mark (I'm not gonna bicker over a 1/2 lb), I'm buying a new quilt for my bed today. So celebrate with me - everyone go buy a new comforter or quilt! OK.. maybe that's not a good idea. You probably don't want a new one. Well, find a way to celebrate with me and then leave a comment letting me know what you did in my honor. :0P

Not much time today...

...so this post will be short. I have to play catch up with all the housework, etc. that didn't get done while I was sick.

I'm still the same on the scale.. down to the ounce! I'm used to seeing the scale bobble up and down so this has been pretty weird. My scale measures in 10ths of a lb. My weight has been EXACTLY the same, down to the 10th of an ounce, for the last 4 days. I'm not complaining or obsessing. It's just one of those things you don't see very often.




Today is my day to measure again.

So.. the results after one week are:

Neck: - 1/4

Chest: - 1/2

Bust: - 1/2

Arm - 1/4

Waist: - 1/4

Belly: - 2 (WOW!!!)

Hips: 0 (stayed the same)

Thigh: - 1/2

Calf: 0

4 1/4 inches lost! That's a total of 8 3/4 inches so far!



What progress did the scale show this week? Not much. It showed a 1 lb loss.. then held steady the rest of the week. Good thing I stuck with it and didn't let the scale frustrate me, like seems to happen to so many. Then I wouldn't have seen all these inches disappear.

I didn't get much done on the website despite my good intentions. I did spruce up the home page and added a few nice graphics to some of the others. I managed to at least get an "under construction" page put together for the links that aren't working right now. I do hope to get those pages done soon, but it may not happen today either. Thanks to all of you who have been visiting! Please do drop me a line and let me know what you think. You can leave a comment here, on my website guestbook, or e-mail me at webmaster@healthylowcarbliving.com .

I spent most of yesterday lying around trying not to be sick. In turn, those product reviews I mentioned yesterday didn't happen. Maybe I can get to them today. I'm doing much better and I hope this time it stays gone. Whatever this bug is, it seems to come and go quite a bit. I was fine on Sunday.. then sick again yesterday. Fine today. Let's hope tomorrow breaks the pattern and I'm still fine.

I'll post again later in the day if I'm able. Have a blessed day!

Tools You Can Use

Here are some of my favorite tools for weight loss....


Hidden Carb Calculator

Hidden carbs are very easy to find. All it takes is the nutrition label and a little math. Here's an example of how it works:

The Great Value Heavy Cream nutrition label says it has 50 calories, 5 grams of fat, 0 carbohydrates, and 0 grams of protein per 1 tablespoon. To see if this is accurate we simply use the following formula:



fat x 9 calories + carbs x 4 calories + protein x 4 calories = total calories per serving.



So here's how this works. Each gram of fat contains 9 calories. Each gram of carbohydrate contains 4 calories. Each gram of protein contains 4 calories. (Now you know what that little line at the bottom of the nutrition label means!) In our example above, our fat should be worked like this:



5 grams of fat x 9 calories = 45 calories.



That accounts for most of the calories in this product. But we still need to find out where the other 5 calories are coming from. So we continue on..



0 Carbohydrates x 4 calories = 0 calories.

0 Protein x 4 calories = 0 calories.


Now we have a problem. There are 5 calories unaccounted for. Most likely those are attributed to carbohydrates. So while the label says there are 0 carbs per 1 tablespoon, in all likelihood there are actually 1.25 carbs per tablespoon.



5 left over calories divided by the 4 carb calories = 1.25


How do the food industry get by with this? In most cases all they have to do is keep the serving small enough that the carb count is below 1. It could be .9 carbs and they can still list it as 0 because it isn't technically a full gram of carbs. Do you see how easy it can be to ingest more carbs that you realize? Now this isn't meant to make you paranoid about everything you eat. It's just a little tool you can use to help with those items you just aren't so sure about.


Measuring Tape

Any measuring tape will do.. but sometimes it's tough to get accurate measurements when you are doing it by yourself. Here's where I can help. Go to your local department store and look around in the sewing department. For around $1.95 you can find this little dandy:



The plastic slide moves around easily to help you find the right measurement. The red line helps you easily see the marks.



The slide on the back snaps to the end of the tape. Once you have the tape in place, simply unsnap and look at the slide! No more trying to bend over to see and worrying that you'll move the tape.













Muscle Vs. Fat

Another thing that can help you understand the importance of measurements is the following picture:




As you can see, fat takes up much more space than muscle. So the next time you feel like nothing is happening because the scale hasn't budged, remember this picture. You very well could be replacing fat with muscle.

Speaking of.. I measured today and compared to my last measurements, when I weighed around 196, I have lost a total of 4.5 inches!

I'm out of time for today.. but there are a couple of other tools I'd love to share with you tomorrow.. so check back soon!