April 29th - Back to Tracking

Today was great! I got up and did my workout DESPITE not getting that much sleep. If I'm going to go out and drink I need to get up and workout.

I was really busy with work so I didn't have much time to think about food. You wouldn't believe how much work this swine flu is causing me. I've had tons of emails about it and I had to check up on everyone to make sure they haven't gotten sick. Plus I'm starting a new show while finishing an old show WHILE trying to enjoy my last days in Mexico.

I've been trying to mix up my strength routines. I just hate doing them and they never get my heart rate up. So today I did supersets and between them I did 5 minutes of cardio. It was great. Not boring at all. I've stopped doing 'New Rules of Lifting for Women'. I know people love it and at first I thought I did too but I just don't think I'm burning enough calories or gaining muscle. Plus the rest time between sets just killed me. TWO minutes of doing nothing! I stopped about 6 weeks ago. Since then I've been doing the workouts in Tom Venuto's new book ' The Body Fat Solution'. They are supersets and a little different than NRLFW. His new book is really good and I'm working on writing something up about it. Stay tuned!

I recently bought a food scale at Walmart. It's a big ugly green scale that is not electronic but I figure it's better than nothing. And better late than never. I have definitely been over estimating my food.

Hope everyone has a great day!

April 28th - Back to Tracking

YIKES is all I can say about yesterday.

My excuse? It was someone's birthday. Someone I don't even really like all that much. I had cake (only once luckily, there were 2 cakes), 5 drinks, Indian food, and tacos after going out. Ugh. Usually I have a lot of fun and so I justify it in that way. I didn't even have fun last night. I ate the tacos because a boy I have a crush on wasn't paying attention to me. I was hungry but it was 2am. I didn't need tacos. I hate admitting this. But I need to keep myself honest.

Here's the damage:

April 27th, Back to Tracking

Yesterday was a good day. I had a good run in the morning and I didn't feel like eating all day long. I just remembered my friend gave me some more of the Mexican candy she bought the day before. I didn't track that. So it was probably 60 more calories. I only had a little.

Hopefully today will also be a good day!

My Week and Swine Flu

As you know I'm working in Mexico. Which is ALL over the news right now! I'm in Cancun and now that there have been cases that came from Cancun everyone back in LA is freaking out about us coming home. We're shunned from the office! If we go back we have to work from home. It's pretty crazy. I'm not really worried about it but it is weird. I'm more worried about not being able to get out of Mexico in a few weeks.

I feel like there's not much I can do to prevent it. The locals I work with do kiss me when they get to work. That's how they do things here. I feel like we shouldn't just stop doing that! But at the same time this flu thing could be bad. I keep thinking if this happened a month ago we would forsure need a doctor to check out everyone on the crew because EVERYONE was sick with these symptoms. I think it's totally blown out of proportion in the states. Yes, people in Mexico City have died, a lot of them, but no one in the states has and it's just spreading panic.


Back to tracking.....
I only tracked 4 out of the past 7 days. We had the last few days of shooting and our wrap party! Then yesterday I went to Playa Del Carmen. It was soooo nice to get away. We some great local food and some drinks. It was a really fun time and definitely worth the extra calories. We walked ALOT. I worked out in the morning so even though I went over my calories I feel good about it.


This is what we had in front of our faces at lunch! It was amazing though. They use natural sugar and cocunut to make most of these candies. Soooo delicious and sooo Mexican.

I haven't felt very motivated lately but I'm hanging in there. I'm trying to staying to about 1400 calories on my good days. I'm definitely not losing weight yet. At this point I'm really happy not to gain but I would REALLY like to lose, I hate feeling like this. I'm having so much fun here in Mexico right now that I don't want to not do things because I'm afraid of the number of calories I'm consuming. So I'm still doing things and eating out but trying to take it easy whenever I possibly can. This week is busy but I'm doing some sort of exercise for an hour every day. I have to! I must keep moving.

Thanks for listening!! I'll be back to talk about my new heart rate monitor!

Days 10 & 11 -Back to tracking

DAY 10



DAY 11



Days 10 and 11 weren't horrible. Lately I've just had such bad cravings though. Tonight I'm going crazy! I ate my dinner and I just want more. I've eaten a couple more things even though I shouldn't. I drank enough water today. I don't know what's wrong with me! I just feel like I need food!! I was hoping that writing would help but so far it hasn't. I still want to eat.

I'm not doing resistance training this week, just cardio. I had a final to take this morning so I got up at 6am, did a 30 min HIIT workout, and took my final. It was great. I just wanted to snack all day long!!! I did a good job of resisting at moments but right now I'm having a hard time.

Days 8 & 9 - Back to Tracking

Day 8



Good day eating wise. I drank more than I should have at night BUT I didn't eat at all after dinner. Only had some drinks. No drunk binging. I know, sad that this is an accomplishment for me.

Day 9



No drinking. Eating was good except that I had a lot of thai food too late in the day. It was good and light though. I was really tired from the night before but was still able to control my eating.

Day 7 - Back to Tracking / Livestrong - The Daily Plate

Day 7 was a great day. I went to the bar and did not have any drinks! I still had fun. I didn't need the alcohol. I had a good workout and walked to the mall after work for some more exercise.

I've been getting a sore throat but usually it goes away after a day. It hurt yesterday when I went to bed and still hurts this morning. I really hope it doesn't turn into anything. EVERYONE has gotten sick and passed it around but I've been lucky.

Today I hope to be another great day. I bought some more tops at the mall yesterday - ones that are slimming but hide my new gut. On Friday nights we always go to the bar and drink a lot because it's ladies night and drinks are free. I'm already putting 4 drinks into my calorie allotment but I'm really hoping not to drink that much. I think I need to get some rest. This is our last week of shooting the TV show and I know it'll be busy. I don't want to be sick!

I've gotten some questions about where I track my calories. I track at Livestrong. It used to be the Daily Plate and the best tracking site that I've used. I've tried out a bunch but this one is easy to read, they have just about EVERY food in their database, they have a great online community, etc. It's just very user friendly and you don't have to be a gold member to utilize it. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Day 6 - Back to tracking

Day 6 was a good day! I only ate around 1400 calories and I felt good. I made a good effort to move more. I even did step ups on a chair during commercials while watching LOST.

I tried to wear my heart rate monitor but I noticed by the end of the day that it had stopped. I was mad because I wore it all day, moved a lot, and then didn't have the numbers. At least I know I moved more. Today I will do the same!

Day 5 - Back to tracking

So I decided to get on the scale today in the gym. I had my clothes on but my weight was 145!! Yikes. I honestly don't know if I've ever been this heavy. Or I take that back...when I first moved to Los Angeles after going to school in Chicago I was barely moving, I was not watching what I was eating, and I wasn't working out. I was probably around 140 then. This is tough for me. Especially because I still have a month to go in Mexico!

I didn't wear my heart rate monitor yesterday. I will today.

Day 4 - Back to tracking...

Day 4 turned out to be not so good. I need to get out of Mexico! I drink too much here. I didn't work out because I was tired in the morning and had to get some homework done. I was only going to have two glasses of wine at the bar and call it a night. Instead I had two glasses of wine and 3 shots of tequila. BAD!!!!! No more tequila. I had a fun time and we were celebrating our next job in a NEW city but that was not needed. Then of course it was late and I was hungry. My friend made me a quesadilla in her room, i got back to my room and wanted to continue eating! What is wrong with me?!

The good news is that it looks like from here I'm heading to DC. That will be such a welcome change from Cancun. I'm ready to move on from here. I have had a fun time but 6 months here, living in a hotel, is too much.

I'm trying to take today off and not go down to the office. I need some long, hard, good gym time. That is forsure.

Days 2 & 3 - Back to Tracking

DAY 2



There were a lot of calories from alcohol included in this number. Overall it was a good day though. I didn't eat anything when I was drinking, that's usually my downfall and when I get into the most trouble.

I tracked my calories burned through out the day but I didn't burn as many! Only 873 in 12 hours. I did strength training that morning and thought I moved as much as the day before. I guess it didn't make a difference since I burned 967 yesterday.

DAY 3



Today was a good day. I went to the breakfast buffet in the hotel but only got one plate and tracked everything I ate. This kept me full right through lunch. I didn't work out today or track my calories burned through out the day. That's what I get for staying out till 3am and drinking the night before. But at least I kept my calories consumed pretty low, despite sneaking some Easter candy.

DAY 1 - BACK TO TRACKING

I was successful yesterday! I felt really good. I backed into my day by tracking my alcohol calories first. I stuck to my goal and felt amazing this morning! I had a good workout and felt much less bloated.

As much as I want to not be a calorie counter all my life I think that I just might be. I tried it for 4 months and gained 4 inches. I need something to help me keep track of what I'm eating. I don't know how other people do it. I haven't noticed anyone else gaining as much weight as I have and they definitely don't eat as healthy as I have been eating.

Waist: 31
Hips: 36.5

Yesterday I burned a total of 967 calories in 12 hours. Today I need to beat that number. I did a strength workout today and that is supposed to create a bigger after burn. We'll see if that happens today.

It's time to come clean....

I have gained a lot of weight in Mexico. I don't have a scale so I'm not sure how much but the following numbers speak for themselves.

The first numbers are before I started the One Big Meal challenge. The second set is after I finished. The third set is where I am now. YIKES!!!!!!!


I have gained FOUR INCHES in my waist!! Almost 4 in my hips!!!! I am so embarrassed! Seeing the numbers like this is a huge wakeup call. I've HATED how I feel and look lately. I gain all my weight in my stomach and I hate wearing a bathing suit or even clothes that are somewhat tight. My stomach just hangs over.

I thought it was impossible to track my calories because I don't cook my own food a lot of the time. I'm LIVING in a hotel! But that cannot be my excuse any longer. If I continue with this job I might be living on the road for 6 more months and I need to adapt and not gain weight. I've had guy issues the past couple of weeks and that has also aided in my huge weight gain. Again, NOT a good excuse. No more excuses!

So I'm going to blog every day. Right now I would much rather be reading a book by the ocean before going to work but today I am blogging. I had a bad night last night where I drank too much and binged. I'm not proud of it and I need to do something drastic. I'm going to blog every day and report back my tracked calories. I don't know what else to do. I need to get it under control. I know I need to cut alcohol out but I'm not going to yet. I'm going to include those calories in my overall calories for the day. I'm not quite sure how many calories I should be eating because I can't weigh myself to figure it out but probably about 1500. I'm going to eat around that number. I think if I stay below 2000 most days that'll help.

Now in all seriousness I'm not sure why I've gained so much weight. I make very healthy eating choices most of the time. I get made fun of every day for it! I think it's the alcohol and my lack of movement. I sit really still during the day and I know that's been a huge problem. I work out almost every day but if I'm sedentary all day it's not going to make much difference.

Starting today I'm going to track how many calories I'm burning from 8:45am - 8:45pm and try every day to beat it. I'll be wearing my heart rate monitor.

Ok, deep breath. This will be hard. No doubt about it. I'm surrounded by people I work with and people on vacation who eat and drink a lot. I NEED to do this though.

Thanks for listening to my confessions! I do feel a little better.