Its Been Awhile and My Newest Diet Endeavor

Do you ever get so discouraged that you would rather not talk about the issue at hand? Well, that's what's happened to me over the last few months. After my failed attempt at jolting myself out of my plateau with the Columbus Fitness Bootcamp, I just lost the motivation to keep on keepin' on with this blog. The bootcamp was amazing and really helped my stamina and built muscle I didn't know I could build, but it just didn't get me out of my rut.

So what do you do when nothing else is working? Go to the extreme! No, I'm not talking about an eating disorder... I'm talking about the South Beach diet!!!

I believe this diet has been given a bad wrap. Notorious for being one of those "low-carb diets," unlike the Atkins diet, SBD actually encourages healthy eating. It is broken in to three phases which is where the similarities to Atkins end. On the SBD in phase 1, which lasts two weeks minimum, you will cut out all bad carbs, fats and sugars by taking in alot of fresh veggies, lean meats and healthy fats such as nuts and olive and canola oils. Things you can't eat in phase 1 are fruits, sugars and starches.

The first week was a real rollercoaster for me. I wanted to eat carbs but couldn't. But that feeling went away quickly, like in the first three days. I lost eight lbs in the first week, five of them being between the fourth and fifth days of the diet. At that point, I had barely any appetite at all. That weekend I snacked on a few too many nuts and gained one pound back but hit the ground running in week two, worked out a few times and lost another four lbs. With the exception of two meals, I adhered to the diet faithfully. I had a short-term weight goal of 240 in mind and, with the success I was having, decided to stick it out another week. Today is the last day of phase 1 for me.

After losing 14 lbs in three weeks, I consider phase 1 of the South Beach diet to be a success. Phase 2 will involve slowly readjusting my body to carbs. I will be adding 1-2 servings of fruits, unprocessed starches or whole grains per day. Each week I will add another serving or two of these good carbs until I'm comfortable with the amount of carbs/complex sugars I'm taking in while still losing weight.

Wish me luck!

Candice K.
240.6 lbs

Today is the Day! Boot Camp!

I will be keeping a journal of our days at camp. Complete with the pre- and post-feelings of the day and the workouts. We are SO looking forward to this. I NEED this.

11:25 am - The girls and I are starting the Columbus Fitness Boot Camp today. We will be taking some before pictures during lunch. I am personally quite freaked out because Terra saw Desperate Housewives this weekend and they went to boot camp. I guess they had some sort of a drill sergeant... We have a personal trainer running this. I met her Tuesday. She's very nice, but she's there to push us so I hope I don't bring out the mean in her.

On the agenda for today: Chest/Back/Arms along with a timed mile run/walk/jog and counted push-ups. This will be fun b/c I totally have NO upper-body strength. I'm pretty sure my arms are fat attached directly to the bone... no muscle in there... just fat. Fat that jiggles whenever I wave, laugh or have a good idea. Doesn't take much.

I'm ready and equipped with my Tylenol Back and Body. Let's see how this goes.

Candice K.
251 lbs.
Ready to Rock and Roll... lots of rolls; belly rolls, crescent rolls... I must resist the crescent rolls.

Plateau Buster: Boot Camp

In the never-ending battle to get fit, we find ourselves spending more time and money figuring out ways to do it. I am no exception. While I have a free membership to a gym, I feel it's only right to consider that a credit I can spend on other types of health-related expenses.

After a favorable review of a program from the friend of a co-worker, several of us decided to embark upon the most frightening of all workout regimes: the boot camp. Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking. Am I crazy? Suicidal, perhaps? No, just fed up with the way things are currently going and I'm ready to take some responsibility for my current state, which is Ohio and it is technically number 17 on the State Rankings of Obese Adult Population (please see: http://calorielab.com/news/2008/07/02/fattest-states-2008/).

The camp will go from February 9 - March 7. We will be going Monday-Thursday at 6pm and Saturday at 9am for a grand total of 20 glorious gut-busting, brain-throbbing, heart-popping hours. If you are in the Columbus area, please visit: http://www.columbusfitnessbootcamp.com/index.html for more details.

So the ladies and I are pretty stoked to be doing this. We are compiling our required gear such as a mat, 5, 8, and/or 10 lb weights, RUNNING (not walking or cross-training) shoes, water bottle, etc., etc., etc. We will be hitting up Play It Again Sports in the coming weeks. We are also planning pre- and post-celebrations to give us something to look forward to. Nothing too crazy. We don't want to demolish the progress. I feel if we can enter this thing and make it all the way through, we will be ready to take on anything.

I'll keep you posted on the experience.

Candice K.

253 lbs.

A Month Older.... A Pound Heavier

I am still having issues getting out of this plateau. I've worked out 4-5 days per week for the last three weeks and sticking to the Weight Watchers diet as stringently as possible. Because of this, lots of things have been running through my head;

"I've been on a diet since I was 10"

"Should I get bariatric surgery?"

"I don't want to be this way anymore."

"Will I ever lose this weight?"



It's a rough place to be and I can either decide to quit or keep on truckin'. It is so easy to quit. I really want to get on with my life without worrying about every little thing that passes my lips. The only problem with that instant gratification is I'll just come back to this place. So I really don't have a choice.

Losing weight is the most difficult thing I've ever had to do... That's not saying much as I have led a fairly sheltered life.


But no one said it would be easy. I know that just as well as anyone.

Candice K.

252 lbs