Juicemoogan's Blog

I just bought a beautiful Turquoise jewel coloured fitted top from Mexx that is JUST a bit too tight for me. I LOVE the colour and the cut of the top. Its gorgeous!

This top will be my new motivation - as I think in about 10 more lbs down the shirt will look fabulous!! So it will hang there and motivate me to work harder to make sure i can wear it!!

:)  Pics will come when i can fit it properly~ 

OK, This is long but worth reading for anyone who is unsure about their calorie intake and it is correct.

So in my previous blog post I mentioned i was uppiung my calories to my Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) - 15%, which is said to be an optimal level for feeding your body and losing weight at a healthy and sustainable rate. 

 If you want to find out more about this method and have many questions answered, please join this group- it has invaluable information:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

The conventional wisdom with this method is that at first, your weight will go up, but then it will come back down and continue goign down at a steady rate at a calorie intake you will be able to sustain - instead of starving your body on a low cal diet.  Now no one likes to see the scale go back up, especially after all the hard work we put in to get to where we are now.. but here is my experience thus far. When i first read about this i thought... great.. eat more ( a hungry Jess is a very crabby jess - ask my boyfriend), then i thought , wow that number seems really big, im scared to go that hight, what if i gain...  Then after my 10K I stopped pussy footing around and jumped right to my TDEE-15% cut level since completing my run. 

Here are my stats i posted in the above group on the first day of taking on the new method March 25th:

GW 160 lbs or less  

My calculated Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR) is 1722 and my Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) 2472 (MFP Calculates my BMR at 1619. So i guess i'll try to aim for a happy medium between the two. Its hard to know whats accurate because I don't do the same amount of exercise every day, some days none. But this week my total minutes counted on MFP was 605 minutes and 4089 cals burned. 

After that post i calculated my TDEE and BMR on a number of different websites and took an average. Now i am working with the following numbers:

BMR: 1645,

TDEE - 15%: 2282 

The link below is a graph of my weight through the month of April. I had gotten down to 184, then my weight crept back up to 190. Low and behold, when i started eating at my actual cut rate this week, I dropped those lbs right off the scale and am almost back to my lowest weight since MFP.

The white diamonds on the graph indicate my daily weight, the Red line indicates the statistical trend of my weights over time.  With this kind of graphing you can see the real movement of my weight, and the daily spikes and movements don't affect it too much..

Most people switch to this method after plateauing on their weight loss, but since reading about it it seems much more realistic a method. However it does take time to wrap your head around eating more to weigh less.  But im totally on that bandwagon!!

If anyone has questions:

1 - go to the group posted above 

2 - ask me!  

Before I signed up for my first 10k I had no thought in my head that I would be fundraising for it. Just that I was going to do it, and accomplish a new challenge for myself. 

Then my Boston Terrier Rescue Charity group started asking the members for new ideas for fundraising since they were being overwhelmed with new dogs from puppy mills and kill shelters and needed to raise money quickly and were frankly out of ideas for new fundraising projects. 

I proposed to them to join the race as a charity so people could fundraise on their behalf. As they were in dire straits at the moment they couldnt afford the charity registration fee, So I became their 10K run charity ambassador.  I asked all my co-workers, all my friends, everyone on facebook, would you run with me and raise pledges for Dog rescue.  

Well being the go getter that I am, I pulled together a team of 8 people who were willing to help, and willing to run! My goal for fundraising was $500. Our team has more than doubled that amount now with $1,213.00 as of this morning. We are raising the money to help provide vet care for the dogs that come into the Rescue. Many have been mistreated, or lived in a cage their whole lives as breeding dogs in a puppy mill. I'm so glad I could do this and help the charity to keep on being able to accept dogs, and not have to turn any away due to lack of funds. 

In any case, this is my first 10k. In practice I have been running about 1hr 20 minutes. I'm not a fast runner, but I get it done! I would like to increase my speed over time.  Over March I set a challenge for myself and I ran 80km over the month to train. Then at the beginning of April, my exams hit and I havent gotten much running in over the past couple of weeks. Hopefully that doesnt affect me too badly as I have still been getting my cardo and strength training in. Once this rainy cool spring weather passes, I will be out on the road running again.  Tomorrows run goes down the big main street from uptown toronto to downtown and down near the lakefront. It will be awesome to run down YONGE St. with so many people and no cars!!

 Thanks to all my motivating pals on MFP, you guys really make me want to push myself so I can also motivate you!  You all rock! Wish me luck tomorrow!!!

Just incase anyone is feeling charitable, here is our Team's Page:

http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=17427