Crossing the Finish Line

New Blog

2009-02-09T14:25:00.000-05:00

I felt the need for more control!

Visit my new blog here!

2008-08-25T14:53:00.003-04:00

Yikes.

Now it's been even LONGER since my last post.

I'm really struggling getting back on the healthy wagon. (I tumbled off into a ditch filled with comfy couches and cake!) But slowly I've been getting back on track these last few weeks.

My food consumption has been better (better not great) and I'm trying to get just 3 work outs in a week. I'll update with status as the days go by.

2008-07-01T12:51:00.003-04:00

Bento!

Okay, I love the idea of lunches that contain lots of veggies and fresh fruit and everything you need in a pretty compartmentalized box. (I like airplane food for similar reasons. Maybe not the fresh part...)

So to try and get myself to pack lunches I'm using this little bento box I received a few years ago.

On the left is a salad with romaine, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese. In the little chick container is a maple/fig salad dressing. On the right, are some whole grain wheat thins, with a little container of tuna salad made with low-fat mayo. Then a mixture of cherries and blueberries. :)

For a snack later I have a fruit and nut bar and a clementine. Breakfast was a vitamuffin top, and a yogurt smoothie.

I'm a little behind on my calorie burning goal for this on the Nike+ website, so I've added my goal ticker to the right. I've got a run tonight, tomorrow, and Thursday. The trick will be running in the morning on Thursday, because my boyfriend and I are driving up to CT for his brother's wedding this weekend.

The challenge then will be getting up early on Sat and Sun to run, and to watch my intake at the wedding.

The thing is--I kind of don't want to have to watch myself at the wedding. It's my boyfriend's brother getting married. Can't I have a piece of cake and 7 glasses of wine to celebrate? Poo.

2008-06-24T12:51:00.002-04:00

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. The 10K went really well actually. I ran the entire way, and ended up with a 1:12 finish time, which is only about 5 minutes slower than my last 10k (back when I was lighter and running more) so I felt really good about that.

I bought a Nike+ a few weeks ago and it's really pushed me to run more.

Weight-wise though I haven't really gotten anywhere in the last month or so. It took about 1 week to put on all the weight it took me 3 months to lose, and now I'm struggling to get back down again.

But I'm trying not to let the scale get me down. I'm just going to keep going with my eating and running and I'm sure to get to my goal weight at some point. :)

I have had a few nice clothing moments such as a pair of jeans that was too tight a few weeks ago fitting perfectly last weekend. And a few of my more fitted tops have more room for my upper arms now.

So just gotta keep at it.

10K

2008-05-08T13:34:00.002-04:00

Tapering! Yay! Hahaha...I'm so lazy. I love tapering. I'm paranoid that I'm going to lose muscle and put on fat in the 2 days I have off though.

And I'm giving myself some time off after the race just to give myself a break between the 10K and the training for the 10 miler.

I really just want to lose this weight already. I wish I had a chef or something that would make every meal for me. Also I wish I didn't have a job so I could work out all day.

But then I wouldn't have any money. Hmm...

Some Small Progress

2008-05-05T11:02:00.003-04:00

My weight has been creeping downward over the last month. Slowly enough that my day to day weigh ins (even week to week) don't really seem that dramatic or noteworthy.

However in the last day or so I've just felt a little bit smaller. My trouble spots don't seem as troublesome anymore. And went I went clothes shopping the other day, the size 10 skirt I picked up was just a smidge too big! (The other one fit perfectly, but still--at least one one was too big. :) )

And then I went to pull on a pair of old jeans yesterday and they were a little loose!

Again, nothing crazy or dramatic, but it's progress nonetheless.

Today I'm lifting weights, tomorrow I've got a run, and Wed I have cross training. And then rest Thursday and Friday, and my 10K on Saturday! I'm really worried about the 10K. I had a 5.5 mile run this Sunday and it was not pretty. It was a little hot out and I added in some hills and stepped up my pace so that was good. But I had to walk about a mile of it and that wasn't good.

I have a feeling the 10K is not going to be fantastic.

Oh well, as they say:

DFL > DNF > DNS

Bikini Booty

2008-04-29T13:39:00.002-04:00

Soooooooo

Beach time. I love the beach, and I plan on going to the beach a number of weekends this summer. However, I do not love bathing suits.

I'm not super freaked out about them. In fact I just bought a new bikini for this year. I think it's really cute and for the most part I like how it fits me. What I don't like is the size of my upper thighs, or the back of my hips. I'd like to lose 3-4 more pounds before my first beach weekend--memorial day.

So with my bathing suit in mind I'm really going to try and follow my training schedule for the next 3 weeks. I need to pay special attention to the weekends (when drinking and eating usually get out of control for me). I'm also going to try and get back on track for my weekly eating.

I need to start packing my lunches again for work. I also need to stop taking candy out of our new candy jar. Ugh.

This is What Always Happens

2008-04-14T13:11:00.003-04:00

Let's start with the good stuff: I ran 4 miles non-stop this weekend. It was a beautiful day and I felt very good and accomplished at the end. I also did my 50 min cross training workout on Sunday.

The bad news: My Saturday run was sloooooow. I can't seem to run any faster without pooping out though, and in a lot of ways I'd rather just finish than run + walk. (Although I have heard that at the beginning of a training bout some walking is good. Perhaps I'll have to rethink this whole thing.)

I pigged out Friday night. Lots of wine, and pretzels, and I shared a plate of nachos. Ugh.

As always, my body punishes me for even one large calorie day and I spiked up 3 pounds and am having trouble coming back down. :\

And that's what always happens. I'm doing well, losing weight, then once every other week or so I either miss a bunch of workout or have a couple big meals and I'm back where I started. I get really frustrated that even though I'm working hard the majority of the time, the minority of the time overwhelms that and I end up gaining weight.

Blech.

Nothing to do but try again. And try to moderate the times I go nuts. :B

Breakfast:
Yogurt + Granola

Lunch:
Navy Bean Soup

Dinner:

Snacks:

Exercise:

Training

2008-04-08T10:41:00.003-04:00

Sooore.

I did a basic full body weight lifting workout yesterday. Pull ups, chin ups, dips (all assisted), squats, overhead presses, chest presses, and one arm rows. My arms felt weak yesterday, and I'm pretty sore today.

I guess that's a sign that I actually worked my muscles, but I have a feeling that my run tonight might be a little uncomfortable. I think I have a 3 mile run coming--I'm going to do the 5K training program on the treadmill so some hills are thrown in. I'll probably do it at a low level though. Then I need to cook dinner and clean the bathroom. Then I think I will collapse into bed. :)

Breakfast:
Kashi Oatmeal

Lunch:
Romaine Lettuce
Cherry Tomatoes
Feta
Chicken Tender
Maple Fig Vinaigrette

Dinner:
Gnocchi
Bolognese Sauce

Snacks:
Biscotti
Sugar Free Hot Chocolate
1/2 Protein Shake after Lifting

Exercise:
10 Minute Treadmill warm up
40 minutes weight lifting.

Ugh

2008-04-04T11:34:00.003-04:00

Arg. I still don't have enough time in my day to fit in a run. By the time I had finished dinner and cleaning up it was 10. Then I got a phone call and by the time I got off it was 10:30 and too late to think about running. Grrr. I need to be able to plan these things into my day. It might mean getting up early, but that means going to bed early which is difficult with a boyfriend that stays up late because of work and school. I'm going to do my 2 mile run tonight instead. And I've got a date for tomorrow morning to go running. That will definitely get me motivated and out of the house. :)

Breakfast:
Whole Grain Bagel
Fat Free Cream Cheese
Sugar Free Hot Chocolate

Lunch:
1 cup cottage cheese
1 1/2 cup fruit salad

Dinner:
Chicken w/ Tarragon Mustard Cream Sauce
Mashed potatoes
Green Beans
Tomato/Cucumber/Feta Salad

Snacks:
Chocolate Underground Yogurt

Exercise:
None--sadly.

A Reason to Train

2008-04-03T12:42:00.002-04:00

I need a reason to work out apparently. I didn't used to, but I need it now. Aside from my training for the 10 miler last year, I haven't really been able to maintain a good work out program for more than 4-6 weeks at a time without a reason. So. I signed up for a 10K. :)

I'm running it on May 10th, so that gives me like 5 weeks to get ready. I've got my training plan all scheduled out, and tonight I'm going to run 2 miles and lift weights. Aww yeah. :D

Anyway yesterday looked like this:
Breakfast:
Multi-grain cherrios
dried berries
milk

Lunch:
1oz turkey
1oz provolone
whole grain bread
banana

Dinner:
gnocchi
homemade alfredo
parmesan squash
tomato, cucumber, feta salad

Snacks:
Chocolate Underground Yogurt
4 chocolate cookies @_@

Exercise:
None

First Day Out

2008-04-02T13:13:00.002-04:00

Yesterday went pretty well. No running because I still got home around 8PM, but I was able to resist ice cream at work. Food looked like:

B
oatmeal

L
a turkey and cheese wrap (with mustard/lettuce/hot peppers)
a banana

S
a sugar free hot chocolate
a chocolate wafer

D
Gnocchi w/Alfredo Sauce
Parmesan Squash
cucumber,tomato, and feta salad

My dinner was from Dr. Gourmet, a site designed to create meals that are nutritious and with healthy portion sizes. So even though you might look at Alfredo sauce and think--eek! (As I did at first.) It was in my calorie range. :)

Today might be a little more tough. I've eaten my cereal, and my sandwich and banana already.

I'm going to need a snack around 3-4 and I didn't bring anything. Ugh.

I also really need to work out tonight. Even if it's just something light. I need to move!

Sigh

2008-04-01T10:58:00.002-04:00

Soooo...remember when I was doing well? All gung-ho about eating well and working out? Yeah, well that all went down the crapper.

I have a huge project at work right now--I've been going in around 9am and leaving around midnight. They order dinner for us (pizza, inevitably), and I don't have time to make lunch or work out. According to my math that means...5.5 pounds gained in one month.

Yes. 5.5. I'm at 154.4 right now. It's so demoralizing to have to start over and lose that weight again, but that's what I'm here to do.

Things have slacked off a little at work (I went home at 9pm yesterday!), and I went shopping for the food I need for my meal plan. I plan on doing 3 miles when I get home tonight. April will be my month of change and renewal. A fitting spring tribute.

I remember what it was like to be 136. I felt so good--I want that feeling again.

I'm going to do it this time. For sure.

Keep on Moving

2008-03-11T10:21:00.002-04:00

I've disappeared from my blog, but that doesn't mean I've stopped working.

I'm going on a ski vacation next week, so I've been trying to increase my endurance so as to take full advantage of my time out on the slopes. I've told myself I'm going to do 3 miles a day until it's time to leave. It doesn't matter if it's running, or walking, I just need to finish them.

I've generally run 2 of the miles, and then increased the incline and walked hills for the other mile.

I've also been doing body weight exercises--push ups, sit ups, squats, etc. Nothing crazy, but enough to keep my heart rate up and feel it a little the next day.

Most importantly I've been watching what I'm eating again. I found a great website that let's you choose how many calories you want to eat a day and gives you a meal plan for the week based on it. Unlike Sparkpeople's meal plan though it's smart enough to figure out that you can use left overs for lunch and dinner and takes that into account.

It's been more cooking, but I'm getting all my fruits and veggies in, and along with more water and a multi-vitamin every day I feel great. I no longer feel fatigued in the middle of the day and I'm losing weight. :)

Since I started the meal plan, and exercising I've lost 3 pounds. 14 more to go!

Keep On Keeping On

2008-02-13T11:13:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a struggle again for me. It was icy and freezing out, and although I had more energy than I have in the last couple weeks, I still couldn't seem to drag myself on to the treadmill.

I came to the point where I was like: I'll work out tomorrow. At that thought I had to ask myself what I was exercising for, and if I thought I could make my goals by being inconsistent.

Of course the answer was no so I just changed and got on the treadmill. It was hard to start but once I got on it wasn't too bad.

Today I think I'm going to do the elliptical. I'm burning out a bit on the treadmill and I need something a little lower impact. I'll do that and some weights.

Progress

2008-02-06T15:35:00.000-05:00

So...I lost a lot of weight a long time ago. I topped out a little over 200 pounds, and bottomed out around 135. When I got to 135 I thought to myself: "I will never gain the weight back so I never have to lose weight again."

Fast forward 2 years and I'm really struggling to get rid of these last 10-15 pounds again. How was I able to do it the first time? Why am I yo-yoing so much this time around?

I'm still keeping a spreadsheet of my weigh ins, and while the overall trend is downward it's frustratingly slow and erratic. According to the regression line I'll lose 5 pounds in about 4 months. :\

All of this is just slightly frustrating and makes going to the gym 5 days a week seem futile and tiring.

I really need to change my mindset. I need to just get the job done because I know it needs to be done. I'm making dinner for me and my boyfriend tonight. I will still exercise. I'll exercise at the gym tomorrow in order to lift weights.

I hope this funk goes away.

Starting Again (Again)

2008-01-21T14:49:00.000-05:00

I went ahead and reposted my stats, as well as rewriting my profile.

I've been at this for about 2 years now, and although I'm 10 pounds down from where I started I'm still 18 pounds away from my final goal. So I'm trying to start fresh and really conquer this goal. I ran 10 miles last year I should be able to lose 10 pounds and keep it off.

My trouble I think is consistency. In the short term my problem is being a consistent healthy eater. In the long term my problem is being a consistent exerciser.

In terms of eating I'm fantastic during the week. I don't really drink, save maybe a glass of wine with dinner one night of the week. I don't eat out during the week, except maybe one lunch out with coworkers. I usually bring my lunch and healthy snacks, and I usually cook pretty healthy dinners. (Example, I made a nice shrimp and veggie stir fry last week, and I made a great black bean soup this week.)

However, weekends are a different story. On the weekend I tend to drink more, either at home with friends who come over or out at a bar. I tend to go out to eat more on weekends as well, and there's a chance that my boyfriend and I will order in.

I need to get a handle on my eating on the weekends. I don't think it's feasible that I be perfect on the weekends--but I can't make it a Fri-Sun night free for all either. If I just picked one day to drink and/or eat more than I normally would I think that would be fine. It's just sticking to that that's the hard part. :\

Exercise wise I need to find a way to keep myself from reverting back to a slug after I hit a plateau or if I hit a little bit of burn out. At the moment I'm working out 5 days a week--3 days of just cardio, and 2 days of cardio and weights. For cardio I usually run 5k, although on days when I'm feeling tired I'll walk hills for 30 minutes, and then do the elliptical for 15-20 minutes. I'll be able to keep this up for a month or two. At the end of that time what usually happens is that I maybe hit a weight plateau and I get frustrated that I'm doing all this work for nothing. Or I just hit a day when I think to myself: "Why am I leaving my nice, fun, cozy house to go sweat and be exhausted for 50 minutes? I'm going to stay home just for today."

And then I don't go back to the gym for 3 months.

I think if either of those things happen, instead of just stopping all together I need to rework my gym schedule, either lighten up the schedule to allow myself some healing time (maybe only 3 times a week, instead of 5), or change the type of exercise I do so I'm not as bored or something.

But it has to be a plan I come up with in advance, because once I get to the point of not going to the gym it's hard to even think of strategies to try and go back.

For the rest of the month I'm going to work on being consistent. I'm going to really pay attention to weekends and try to rein myself in on Sunday. I'm going to make sure I'm going to the gym at least 4 of the 5 days planned.

I really want to reach my goal this year.

2008

2008-01-07T09:31:00.000-05:00

Okay. So. No posting for a while. Which, strangely enough, coincides with the holiday free for all I participated in. In reality it wasn't too bad--I still exercised and paid attention to my food choice the majority of the time. But the minority of the time lead me to put on 3 pounds. (Yes, I really went nuts the times I allowed myself to.)

I've used the New Year as an excuse to get back on track, but without the hoopla that I usually attach to the beginning of a year. I've created a new exercise program--mostly just to add weight lifting in. And I'm watching what I'm eating--but mostly in terms of just making healthy choices. I haven't been calorie counting or anything.

We'll see how this goes--I check in with the scale everyday. If I don't see some progress after a month perhaps I'll add calorie counting back in.

Yikes!

2007-11-26T13:32:00.000-05:00

Urgh. Because of a family emergency, and moving, and holidays I haven't been posting in this blog faithfully.

And just like at other points in time when I don't update faithfully I'm not losing any weight. In fact aside from 2 pounds, I've put on all the weight I lost while I was training for my 10 miler.

Sigh.

But you know every day is new and a chance to start again.

So I'm logging my food, I worked out for 50 minutes on the elliptical this morning. I plan on working out again tomorrow morning, having a small meal (consisting entirely of Thanksgiving leftovers, but I'll make sure it's small), and getting a good nights sleep. After I've finished of all the leftovers (hopefully will not take too long as I'm forcing my boyfriend to help. :3) I'll make a meal plan or at least general guidelines and go shopping.

I really really need to start lifting weights again. Really. I also need to step up the intensity of my cardio work outs a bit. Maybe not for every work out, but at least 2-3 hard calorie burning workouts and then 2-3 maintenance work outs a week will be good.

I also need to make sure I don't fling myself face first into a a pumpkin pie for the rest of December. We'll see how that goes.

Here we go again!

After the Finish Line

2007-10-09T12:53:00.000-04:00

Soooo....now what? Heh.

I'm thinking more and more about how to keep myself on track now that my race it over. There's always the option to sign up for other races, and I'm definitely thinking about that.

At the moment however my first priority is to clean up my eating. While training, before my long runs, I got back in the habit of eating refined carbs for fuel and I want to scale back on that a lot. I need to get more vegetables back into my diet DESPERATELY. I really need to start taking my multi-vitamin more regularly. I also need to keep up with drinking more water. I drank a ton during training and I really noticed the difference in how I felt.

My second goal is to do more weight lifting. It used to be such a habit--I would go four times a week and alternate upper and lower body weights. I didn't have a lot, but I had some muscle definition. Now you can only really see my muscles in my biceps and thighs.

Third goal is to keep up the cardio endurance that I gained from the 10 miler. Before this training I had never done more than a 10K in my life. However, I definitely lost the ability to do a 10K and had to regain that and more in order to make the 10 miler. I don't want to have to go through the regaining process again. If I just run 3-4 times a week, mostly 3-4 miles with maybe a 5 mile long run on the weekend I think I can maintain this level of endurance for a long time. I would however like to add some speed to my plodding pace. So maybe one of those running days turn it into a "sprint/walk" workout where I do half a mile at 6mph half a mile at 3.5.

Those look like good goals. However in order not to burn myself out trying to juggle all of this at once I think this week I will concentrate on the following:

--take multi-vitamin every day
--run 3 times this week (At least 3 miles)
--only one serving of refined carbs per day

If I get through this week I'll add a few things in next week. :)

10 Miles Later

2007-10-07T23:09:00.000-04:00

I did it! :D

Yay me!

The day did not start well, unfortunately. My boyfriend stayed over that night so he could drive me to the metro the next morning. I went to bed early and woke up around 5 to have breakfast. I went back to bed to sleep until 7. Fortunately for me I didn't really go back to sleep because my second alarm didn't go off! I was just resting and when I looked at the clock it was 7:10--the time I wanted to leave the house! So I ran around like crazy getting ready and woke my boyfriend. We got out of the house around 7:20--a land speed record. But I was still a little worried that I wouldn't get there in time. Fortunately I made it with 20 minutes to spare--but at that point all the nerves of the race day + the nerves of being late + the warm up runs had raised my heart rate to a crazy rate. I checked my heart rate monitor around 5 minutes before the start canon was fired and it was at 211! I've never seen anything that high before.

I tried to lower my heart rate with some deep breaths, but I only got it down to around 185 before the start of the race. As a point of reference usually when I start my training runs my HR is around 110. At the end of a run I'm usually around 190.

My heart rate never really recovered, and it was a really hot humid October day. Plus, they ran out of water halfway through the course. Boo. I ran for the first 8 miles or so, but I just couldn't go further than that. I walked most of mile 8 and about half of mile nine. And miles 6-8 were UGLY. I was just barely running.

But I did it! And I have a cool finishers medal, and the knowledge that I set a goal for myself that I worked towards and attained. Yay me. :D The cool thing is that I was never really out of breath--it was mostly the extreme heat, and towards the end my shoulders and legs were tightening up. But I can tell I have really good cardiovascular endurance now.

I'm thinking of doing a few more 10 milers, but I think 10Ks are more my style. I'm not sure I'll ever move on to half/full marathons. But who knows. :)

I'll take a picture of my finisher's medal tomorrow. :D

Miles to go Before I Sleep

2007-10-06T21:53:00.001-04:00

Almost. My 10 miler is tomorrow. :)

I've trained, and I just ate a bunch of pasta, and now I'm going to drink a ton of water and go to bed.

I'm really excited for this and I know I'm going to finish and accomplish my goal. I'll see you on the flip side!

Almost Done

2007-09-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

I'm coming up on the end of my 10 miler training. This weekend will be my last long long run before the race. (I'll do 6 miles next Saturday.)

I did my 8 mile run this past Sunday and now that that distance is behind me I really feel like I will be able to finish this race running. :) Since Sunday though I haven't been running according to my schedule. Something strange is up with my left knee. I think it's healing from whatever damage I did to it while running in the wrong shoes, but it's still a bit tight and sore. No real pains like before but I'm being cautious of over using is before the race.

Today I'm just going to run 3 miles on the treadmill I think. Friday is a rest day, and then Saturday I'll so some easy paced cross training. Hopefully I'll be ready for another 8 mile run on Sunday. :)

Then tapering. Yay! I've been looking forward to that for a while. XD

After the race I'm going to take a couple days of rest and then just do some 2 mile runs to be nice and easy on my body. Then I think I'm going to stick to 3-4 mile runs during the week, mixed with a lot more cross training and weight lifting. That should keep me in shape for the winter. :)

Huh

2007-09-05T13:46:00.000-04:00

My body is very weird. I was kind of despairing of ever losing any weight during my training period for the 10 miler. I was just bouncing up and down between 148 and 150. Yesterday I was 149. Today? 147! Still you'd think I'd have lost more than 3-4 pounds during these last 2 months. I'm creating pretty large caloric deficits even with a couple extra days of drinking or eating thrown in.

However, I then looked at my body fat percentage. When I started this I was 151 pounds, and 32% body fat. I'm now 147 pounds and 29% body fat.

That means when I started I was 102.68 pounds of muscle/bone/organs/water/etc. and 48.32 pounds of fat. (Eew! Heh.) Now I'm 104.37 pounds of muscle, etc. and 42.63 pounds of fat (much better!)

So I've lost almost 6 pounds of fat, and gained almost 2 pounds of (hopefully) muscle. In two months! Yay me!

And I also took a couple pictures and compared them to pictures I took before I started. There's a huge difference in how my body looks. Especially the views from the side and behind. I'm getting smaller! Even if there hasn't been a dramatic change on the scale. :)

Yesterday was a TERRIBLE 4 mile run. It was just really hard, and I was worrying over my left knee even though there wasn't any pain. Awful awful awful. My right hip was sore, I developed a cramp. 4 miles! That's not even half way through my 10 miler! And it was much harder than my 6 mile run two weeks ago. I'm going to baby myself a bit the next few days. A few extra carbs before my run, more sleep, more stretching, ice, some walking thrown into the mix with my running. (I will walk my 2 mile training run tonight.) And HOPEFULLY I'll be ready for my 7 mile long run on Saturday.

Wish me luck!

Yeeeeees!

2007-08-29T19:47:00.000-04:00

(Haha...how's that for bi-polar blog titles?)

So I went to my local Pacer's after work today to get my new shoes. The guy helping me had me walk barefoot and then jog slowly in order to watch my feet. He told me that my left foot turns in slightly when I run. He gave me some shoes with better arch support and they do feel a lot better on my feetsies. :D

I'm hoping that's the cause of my knee issue and that with a bit of rest, my better shoes and maybe paying a bit more attention to my gait when I run this can all be cleared up. Yay!

I'm just going to walk 2 miles today. Nice easy pace. Then lots of icing.

Hooray for new shoes!

Noooooo!

2007-08-29T12:45:00.000-04:00

Ahh!

I went on my four mile run yesterday, and RIGHT after 3 miles a spasm of pain went through my left knee. :(

I had had a couple twinges in earlier runs. Always my left knee, but never anything bad, and it never hurt when I walked. It only happened in a few runs (not all of them) and always went away after a stride or two. I just figured I was striking the ground wrong or something.

But when it hurt this time it hurt enough that I had to stop running. After walking a bit the pain went away and I tried running again. And it happened again. :\

So I iced the knee last night. It feels fine today but I'm going to be cautious. It's a light running day thank goodness, so I'm only going to walk the two miles. After my workout I'm going to the running store and buying new running shoes. I'm also going to stop lifting lower body weights. I'm still going to try for my 5 mile run on Sunday, but if it happens again I'm going to the doctor.

I hope that it's nothing serious. After all this training I'll be very dissapointed if I can't run in my 10 miler. :(

10K

2007-08-27T10:56:00.000-04:00

So yesterday--just a random Sunday--I ran a 10K for fun. Not even for fun, for training. Training for a race that is longer than a 10K!

It took me 1:16 to run 6 miles--factor in my warm up and cool down walks and I did more than a 10K. Afterwards my left leg was protesting a little so I took some extra time to stretch and an advil. I slept like a rock. This morning I feel much better, but I made sure to eat a banana so I'd be getting in my proper electrolytes.

Today is a rest day from cardio, but I will be lifting weights. I also want to clean up my apartment a bit. Tomorrow is a 4 mile run. I think after my 4 miles I will go ahead and buy my new running shoes. Fancy!

Then this weekend I'm hoping to get to the beach for labor day--5 mile long run there. Should be a nice relaxing weekend. :)

Pushing

2007-08-23T11:00:00.001-04:00

Ahhh....Yesterday was tough in terms of pushing myself to work out. I kept putting it off and putting it off. Finally I dragged myself onto the treadmill (it was too dark to run outside after I got back from work) and did my workout. A little warm up--then a 2 mile walk at 1.5 incline--and then a little cool down. Some stretching, and done.

It was a very easy workout, but I think it helped a lot of my soreness.

I've got another 3.5 mile run today, Friday is a rest day, and then I think I'm going to do my long run on Saturday. Cross training Sunday. I think my long runs are better after a rest day then after a cross training day.

6 miles.

I had a weird experience last night. I was driving from my parent's house to my place. I looked at the trip odometer and decided to see how far 10 miles would take me. First I looked for the 5 mile marker, to get a sense of how far my last long run was. When you run a loop, or out and back from a starting point it really messes up your sense of distance. In a straight line 5 miles is FAR. As I kept driving and driving and the numbers turned over slowly I was really amazed at how far I was able to run. And TEN miles is twice the distance!

What's strange though is that during my training after the 4 mile long run I reached a point where I'm like: "Oh well, what's one more mile added on top of that?" When 3 miles were my long run I never thought 5 miles would be possible. Now I'm thinking 6 miles won't be that bad.

I must be out of my mind. :3

Training and Soreness

2007-08-22T12:50:00.000-04:00

I did a 3.5 mile run yesterday. I beat my best 3.5 mile pace by 30 seconds a mile! It was tough, and I really had to push through it, but I made it.

It was a bit of a miracle that I made it out there at all. Here in DC it's been unseasonably cold the last few days. We've had a ton of cloud cover, and non-stop drizzling. It was supposed to rain and even thunderstorm in spots last night, but I checked the radar, didn't see any T-storms and headed out.

I feel all hard-core and like a "real" runner when I run in bad weather. Kind of dorky, but true. So I think that thought helped buoy me along.

For the first time though I've gotten pretty sore after a run. My back aches a little, and my butt and hips are definitely more sore. I even did an extra stretching session after my shower to try to loosen up the kinks. They're still here today although not as bad.

I've got two miles to cover today, but I think I'm going to do them according to my HRM though. Just do a "normal" work out, for 2 miles. That may mean a mix of jogging and walking. What I don't want to do is do so many hard runs where I'm always pushing myself that I burn out before the race.

So my plan is: easy workout today, mid-tempo workout tomorrow, easy cross training on Sat, and then a very easy long run on Sunday. Like a 13 minute mile pace. Sunday is 6 miles so I'm going to need to slow down just to get it done without walking.

It's really hard for me to slow down though. I'm so competitive, even with myself that if I don't constantly beat my own times I feel bad. If I slow down--even for a long run--I feel bad. I need to remember that I want my muscles to build--not eat themselves because I'm constantly pushing them.

This race has been a mixed blessing, because I certainly wouldn't be doing this much running if I didn't have the race coming up, but I also feel like I should have registered earlier, and begun training earlier. As it is I think I'm going to finish the race in more than 2 hours. Which, obviously is not terrible, but I feel like I'm really pushing myself to get there. If I had more time maybe I could have built a better base and maybe I would be having a slightly easier time adding on distance.

I don't know.

I really hope I can get through 6 miles without walking. That would be great. And I'd really feel like I had a shot at finishing 10 miles in October.

Chug chug chugging along!

2007-08-20T16:56:00.000-04:00

Been a while since I've updated here hasn't it? But not because I've been doing poorly. In fact things are swimming along quite nicely! My 26th birthday was Aug 11th and I did my first 5 mile training run that morning! I went to my parent's beach house for the weekend, and actually woke up early to go on my run Sat morning. Still, I overindulged at my party (and with cake and chinese the next week) so I'm holding steady at 150.

I think some of that is water weight though as I'm supposed to start my period in a couple days. So after that's all over I'm hoping I'll be back at 147.

This weekend I've got a 6 mile training run to go on. Eee! My longest run yet. I'm really really hoping I can run the whole thing. I think around 7 miles I might need to take a couple walking breaks, but we shall see. If I do 6 miles, I will be very excited. :)

I'm thinking about going dry until my race. The problem is that I've got 2 weddings in the middle and it will be difficult to pull that off. We shall see. I'm going to have to be really careful in order to plan in my long runs as well. It's so hard when long runs are on the weekend--but when I'm not traveling that really is the best time. Argh.

Bad Day

2007-08-07T14:07:00.000-04:00

Ahhh! After doing so well all weekend today is awful! I wanted to get up early this morning to run, but I was so tired I just hit the alarm and turned it off. I don't even remember doing it!

So now because it's so disgusting out and there's a heat advisory and it's like 100 degrees I'm going to have to run my 3 miles on the treadmill. Ahhh!

AND I missed breakfast. So I had a pretty good lunch--a mango salsa wrap with avocado. But I ate the chips it came with. Still not terrible for 700 calories.

BUT THEN we had leftover cookies and I just couldn't resist. I had one whole chocolate chunk cookie and half of a brownie. Now I'm at 1370 for the day. Aaaiieee! So...only like 200 calories for dinner. And I'm going to a concert tonight. I don't even know if I'm going to have time for dinner. But I don't want to drink beer for dinner either.

Oh Allison. You were doing so well. Get back on track!

Week 2

2007-08-06T09:46:00.000-04:00

Well, it's week 2 of my 10 week-10 miler training. (Also I think I miscounted and am missing a week somewhere. I'll have to look for it later.)

Yesterday was one of the toughest runs of my life. 4 miles, and something like 52 minutes. My heart rate monitor says I burned 760 calories (But only 23% of that was fat. Huh.) Not sure I believe that, but based on feeling alone I might.

I consciously tried to hydrate and eat filling carbs before I went out for my run. Part of the problem I'm sure was the 90 degree weather. But when I hit the third mile I was done. I dragged myself through that fourth mile but I just didn't want to give up. I really wanted to finish the fourth mile running to prove to myself that I could do it. My pace was ridiculously slow that last mile. But I did finish. And I did run (trudge) the whole way.

This Saturday I have to run 5 miles as my long run. Five! I'm already doubting that I'll be able to run the entire way. I'll have to see what happens after my weekday runs. If I'm feeling strong after Thursday I may attempt it--if not I may run the first three miles, walk half a mile, run half a mile, and repeat. For the next couple weeks though 5 miles is the most I need to run, so that will help. The fifth week though I have to run 4 miles as my regular workout! Eep!

Also I will be at the beach this weekend celebrating my birthday. :) So I'm going to have to plan in exactly when these long runs will occur. I'm thinking I may try it Saturday morning because I have a feeling Saturday will be the late night out drinking.

So, a number of challenges ahead, but hopefully I'll be able to face them. On the weight loss front I've lost a bit of weight which is good, and some fat. Surprisingly, although I'm excited to lose weight, at the moment it's all about running and whether or not I'm going to make this 10 miler. The weight is just kind of icing on the cake.

Mmm...cake. :D

Yikes

2007-08-03T13:10:00.000-04:00

So, already a tricky week for me. I missed Wednesday's run because I had an engagement party to go to. Yesterday's run was TERRIBLE. I didn't lose much time off of Tuesday's time, but it was VERY hot, I didn't fuel up properly, and I didn't drink enough water. This resulted in my DRAGGING my tired butt up and down the trail to get my 3 miles in. Awful.

Tonight is supposed to be a rest night, and I'm going out to a going-away party for someone in DC. And I wanted to pick up a couple dresses at the mall. (I am running low on cute dresses.) BUT because I didn't work out Wednesday my training is all messed up. I was thinking I could walk 2 miles tonight, but that would mean doing cardio on Saturday and then doing my long run on Sunday. So no rest before my long run.

And next weekend I'm going to the beach for my birthday and it's going to be very difficult to get my long run in especially considering I'll probably be up late at a bar or on the beach. Plus any drinking I do will mess my long run up. Ahh...

I need to plan.

Making Plans

2007-08-01T15:16:00.000-04:00

I'm good at making plans, but not always so good at following through. The idea was to get up this morning to run 2 miles. I knew I had something after work tonight so I was trying to shoehorn in as much as I could.

Of course I went to sleep late last night (1 am) and was in no mood to get up at 6:30 this morning. So I slept in and missed my run AND didn't have time to pack lunch. So I bought half a sandwich and soup at Au Bon Pain. Almost a full days worth of salt and 700 calories! And tonight I'm going to a happy hour AND a place that serves delicious Mexian food and margaritas by the pitcher.

I was going to try and just go to the happy hour and miss the dinner, but I'm getting the idea from the higher ups that that is not a good plan. So now I'm going to have to not drink at happy hour, and try to navigate the land mine that is one of the coolest Mexican restaurants in DC.

No nachos at the table. One "on the rocks" margarita. (I checked--they have less calories than the frozen ones.) Order Chicken Fajitas. One tortilla, one scoop of sour cream. No guacamole, no beans (have no idea how they cook them--but probably with lard), half cup of rice.

Get a to go box and take the rest home for lunch tomorrow.

Then when I get home 2 miles.

Hopefully I can stick with THIS plan.

Training

2007-07-31T16:17:00.000-04:00

Week 7!

I'm not being very good about updating this daily am I? Ah well. For me it's the weeks that are becoming important because of my training. So I'm starting the final 10 week training leading up to my 10 mile run now. After the 10 mile run I have a 2 week recovery training program designed not to let me sit around and eat chocolate because I ran 10 miles and deserve it. :3

I have added my mile tracker off to the right. Now you guys can spy on me and see how much I run everyday and how long it takes. Yesterday was just a 4 mile walk. Today, I go running.

Eating has been leashed in and is somewhat under control. I have a goal for myself to stay within my 1250-1550 calorie range 6 or 7 days a week for 8 weeks. What I need to get control of now is what happens on that 7th day. I wanted one free day a week so I wouldn't feel constantly under pressure to eat perfectly. But I went to a wedding this weekend and so made the wedding day my free day. I went nuts! SO much alcohol. That was the real issue. I didn't really have anything for breakfast or lunch (too busy getting ready and driving over to the wedding) but when the cocktail hour came around I had beer, vodka tonics, diet coke and vodka, baileys (poured into coffee) and then more vodka tonic later. Plus the salad, bread, filet mignon, mashed potatoes, green beans, cake, and later at a diner a grilled cheese sandwich. I haven't gone through to figure out how many calories that was, but I assume over 2,000 maybe even to 3,000.

So my new goal for this coming week is to stay in my calorie range 6 of 7 days and on the 7th day not exceed 2,000 calories. I think I can do that.

Week 6!

2007-07-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

Wow...Week 5 just blew past didn't it? I'm still truckin' on in my 20 week training challenge, but halfway through week 5 I modified the schedule to add more running I'm starting to freak out that there are only 3 months left until my race and I'm not running the majority of the time. So now I'm running for about and hour: run 5 minutes, walk 5 minutes. As the weeks progress I'll try to add running, reduce walking and increase time.

I will have to force myself to only do that 2-3 times a week. The other 2-3 times I will cross train or walk only.

Then when I hit 10 weeks before the race I will switch into a more traditional training schedule for a 10 miler. (Long runs on Sundays, etc.) 10 weeks to the race is August 5th though so I only have two weeks left to really get into training shape. Ahhhh.

Aside from 2 pounds last week I'm not losing or gaining weight either. I need to sort out my eating still. Bah.

Training

2007-07-12T17:25:00.001-04:00

Week Foooooour.

Already going better than week three. After that terrible workout on Sunday I had a really good workout on Tuesday. I really needed that rest day I think.

I worked out yesterday morning as well, half walking half running for 40 minutes. Something like 3.5 miles. So pretty good.

I feel like I'm holding myself back a bit walking though. Which in some ways is good because isn't it better to feel like you could always give a bit more, instead of pushing yourself to death each workout? This way I don't burn out and I look forward to each new workout because of the possibility that maybe I can run a little more this time.

In one month though if I'm not running more than I'm walking I'm going to have to ditch the heart rate monitoring I think.

Anyway, working out tonight but cross training on the elliptical. Food is still not totally under control. I did well yesterday except for ice cream that was brought into the office. *sigh* I didn't really have a chance to eat dinner though so I guess calorically that made up for it--but I really need to get a handle on eating at regular intervals and eating food that will nourish me and fuel my body properly. Not eating a cup of ice cream at work, and then blowing past dinner. Argh!

Training

2007-07-08T16:59:00.000-04:00

Finished Week 3 with a somewhat disappointing workout. The heat and perhaps some slight dehydration combined to cause a marked rise in my heart rate. This resulted in a long workout done at a crawl, with a headache imminent, and a tired mind and body.

Which is why I was so pleased today to find that Elastic Waist wrote a little shout out to me a few days ago. I just checked my stats for the blog and there has been a strange increase in traffic in the past few days. When I looked where they came from they were all from Elastic Waist.

I've been to that site many times before--primarily to read "Body of Work" by Anne, who I find touching and witty--but I'm still not sure how they even knew I existed.

Regardless, It was just the kind of lift I needed after today's work out. On Tuesday I start week 4 of my training regime--Monday is a rest day that I'm really looking forward to.

Important lessons from today: workout in the early morning hours to avoid the heat, REMEMBER TO DRINK PLENTY OF WATER ALL DAY, and finally...a workout, even a bad one, is still a workout be proud. :)

10 Miler Training

2007-07-06T10:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's workout went pretty well. I did something like 4.6 miles in 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Yes, I'm still going pretty slowly. But hey, that's a lot of time and miles. Soon I will be running for the whole hour and not falling over dead afterwards. That's all I'm waiting for. :D

And, just as important, today is the first day in a while that I've felt slim again. I didn't drop ten pounds over night of course. It's mostly mental, but I like that phantom skinny feeling. I get it when I'm taking care of myself, and running and eating well. Ha. Maybe it's just a healthy feeling. :3 But my lower tummy bulge is going down. My tummy is almost perfectly flat again! Of course that's not where I keep my extra weight *stares at lower body*

Ah well. All in good time. I would love to be 5 pounds lighter by my birthday though. It gives me a little more than a month to do it.

I think today I'm going my "hard" run. Then Saturday I'm going to go for a morning and evening workout. We'll see how that works out.

10 Miler Training

2007-07-02T14:29:00.000-04:00

We're starting week 3 of my 20 week training plan today. I'm more than 1/7 done! Ha! And I haven't missed one day of running yet. I'm losing a little weight (2 pounds since this started), but I think I could be losing more if I just paid a little more attention to my food intake.

I'm starting to feel stronger though, and better about myself in general which is most of the reason that I started training for this run in the first place.

I do want to get back to eating a little better though...I'm going to have to pick up some stuff from the store and plan out a meal plan. And start making a lot of food on the weekends to eat during the week. The time thing is what seems to get to me most, especially since I'm spending a lot more time working out.

10 Miler Training

2007-06-27T11:11:00.000-04:00

Things are still going well. The only downside so far for me has been food. I just can't seem to be consistent with it. I'm great during most of the week, but then there's always something--this week it was two days in Orlando for work with catered everything and seemingly mandatory happy hours. Last week it was a friend's house party BBQ, the week before that it was a bachelorette party.

I need to stop making excuses and take charge of what I put in my mouth. No one is making me eat like a crazed monkey at these events. I just feel like I have permission because everyone else is.

The good news is exercise which has been both a regular fixture of my week, and also getting better each day.

I tried to calculate my max heart rate, but the experiment was kind of a wash. It says to run up a hill as fast as you can 3 times, but my left knee--while painless in all other situations--seems to freak out when I try to run very fast up a hill. I was able to run somewhat quickly though, to the point where I couldn't talk for breathing, and my heart rate was about 192. Huh. So I guess I am average after all. And my heart rate just elevates during exercise because I haven't done it in a while.

Fortunately my regular exercise is already causing my heart rate to fall. Where I needed to basically crawl to keep my heart rate at my "light" levels last week, this week I was able to walk a normal pace. I even ran a bit during my "moderate" workouts. And I broke into a trot just to see where my heart rate would be and I kept it steady around 155 as long as there were no hills. So I might be able to run the entire "heavy" workout. If not this week, then probably for sure next week.

Very exciting. :) I think my plan is to buy some new running shoes this week. Tonight is going to be interesting. I'm supposed to go to a happy hour, but I also need to do 50 min of cardio. I may make today my day off, and do my 40 minute cardio tomorrow, and 50 minutes on Friday.

I think I'm going to the beach this weekend too. That will be a perfect time to try and not only workout while I'm away, but also try not to eat the entire beach. :)

10 Miler Training

2007-06-21T13:22:00.000-04:00

Okay, enough with the numbers since I rarely post everyday.

Things seem to be going pretty well. One thing I really want to do is find my actual max HR--not the one given by 220-age. This will require running up hills for 10 minutes to totally kill myself--then right before my heart explodes...that's my max HR! Hahaha...okay maybe not exactly, but that's the gist of it.

I still think that the normal max HR is off by at least 20 beats for me. Either that or I'm in terrible shape. Except I took the "fitness test" and it told my I was on the high side of moderate shape. (Only 1 more point to be in GOOD shape--my short term goal). So I'm thinking it's my max heart rate that is keeping my training zones so low. I'm going to test my max HR tomorrow. We'll see. I hope that I have a higher max HR--my workouts mostly consist of fast walking. I really need to start running soon. I jogged today, but my HR was around 176 the whole time. 22 beats higher than the high end of my training zone.

I've still been doing all of my workouts though, and eating has been pretty good. I did just snarf down half of a cream filled donut in a craze of hunger, but I logged it into sparkpeople and I'll just take it into account.

10 Mile Training (2)

2007-06-19T10:18:00.000-04:00

Woke up early today and did my hour of cardio. :D Now I'm done for the day!

So, I have my HRM, yes? And I have my program that is designed to maximize my fitness level--but I feel like I'm not working out as hard as I would without it. And I can't decide if that's a good thing or not. Today I did a normal workout, but it was basically walking at a moderately brisk pace. Otherwise my heart rate would go out of the "moderate" zone (132-148). My muscles are not really tired, although during the workout I worked up a bit of a sweat and felt like I was working a little.

It's just not the full out running that I'm used to. But on the other hand I get burnt out quickly when I'm running. Not at the time, I just can't keep up running 50 minutes every day for a month without burning out physically and mentally. Maybe by starting off with this somewhat moderate workout, but by doing it a lot (50 minutes 5 days a week + 2 weight lifting routines) I'll gradually build endurance in slow but steady way.

I also went shopping yesterday--I'm excited by my purchases. :D Tonight I'm going to cut up all my veggies and put them away in containers for quick additions to dinners and salads. And I think I will bake my chicken tonight too.

The one thing I've kind of forgotten was fruit. I have some frozen berries though, and I think that will tide me over.

Tonight I think I will have some baked chicken, half of a sweet potato, and a salad.

Yum. :)

10 Mile Training (1)

2007-06-18T11:21:00.000-04:00

I can't keep up with the numbering anymore. :3 Unfortunately, I'm not being consistent about posting here. I haven't been doing too badly while I've been away, but I haven't been great either. I'm holding steady at 150 now, but I was at like 147 at my lowest.

One thing that might help is that I've started training for my 10 mile run in October. And even more exciting (for a techie-geek like me) is that I've purchased a heart rate monitor to help me reach my goals. I've got a program all set up for me that I've decided to follow for the first 8 weeks, and then I'm going to switch to doing a 10 mile training program 10 weeks before the race.

I'm not really looking to be competitive in this race--but I do want to run the whole thing if possible.

Today is a weight lifting day, I'm going to be doing lower body weights and stretching.

Food isn't as huge a deal to me right now, because most of my energy is on training now, not losing weight. But I still want to clean up my eating habits a little bit, especially when it comes to the weekends and alcohol.

I'm going shopping today as well my list looks like:

whole wheat bagels
wasa rye crisps
plain low fat yogurt
shrimp
chicken breasts
tuna (in olive oil)
6 eggs
beans
brown rice
sweet potato
romaine lettuce
spinach
avocado
cherry tomatoes
canned tomatoes
sweet peppers
olives
feta cheese
shredded 2% cheddar
cucumbers
milk
crystal light (raspberry ice)
shampoo
sour cream
salsa

I think that will keep me going for a while.

Day 159

2007-06-01T09:49:00.000-04:00

I think I did the math right. Whatever...

I'm back!

Back and better than before! (Maybe)

My vacation went swimingly. We went to all the big attractions and some of the smaller ones, we walked, we talked, and we ate and drank wine. :) It wasn't exactly restful as we had to catch trains, and we walked EVERYWHERE but it was really fun. :D

On the food/exercise/weight front...well starting with weight it's stayed pretty much exactly the same. It's hard to tell for sure because I started my period almost the minute that we landed (no joke), but today, 2 days later, I'm at 149. So I'll probably lose another half pound and then I'm at 148.5. What I was when I left.

The walking every must have really helped because I ate sooooo much at dinner. We were usually pretty good at breakfast and lunch...getting fruit and cheese and such from markets. But then dinner we'd go all out and get local food and wine. Mmmm...

I feel like my legs are stronger now though so after a couple days of rest I'm going to start running again, and then start training for my 10 miler. :)

I'll post my training schedule soon. :)

130

2007-05-09T17:46:00.000-04:00

No updates; long time.

Etc etc.

I won't bore you with my excuses, but things have actually been going pretty well. I'm under 150 still, 148.4 to be exact. So I probably will make my goal to be 148 comfortably by vacation time.

I'm moving my body, not a ton, not to excess, but I'm doing it regularly and for at least 30 minutes.

I'm doing okay with food. Calories are fine, but there's my usual issue of not enough veggies. Plenty of lean protein and whole grain carbs though.

The big news though: DA DA DA DAAAAAAH: I'm signed up for a 10 miler. :)

I have a training schedule all figured out. My 20 week countdown starts June 3rd. So June 3rd I'm going to start a 10 week 10K program. And then after that I will immediately start a 10 mile program. My goal is to finish with out walking. Even if it's a painfully slow trot.

Until June 3rd I will be gently exercising. Cardio and weights and stretching. A nice long warm up period basically for the 2.5 months of working out I have planned.

My vacation will be right before June 3rd. So that works out really well for me. Plus I'll be walking all over the place with a backpack on. (Although I'll be eating all kinds of yummy French and Italian meals...mmm.)

I'm really looking forward to this challenge. I think I really needed something to motivate me to really get back in top form.

*excited*

122

2007-05-01T12:40:00.000-04:00

Ehhh...my caring has pretty much gone out the window. Which isn't to say I've given up or anything (although it also means I'm not marching determinedly towards my goal), I'm just very distracted right now.

Last weekend I was in NY at formal with my boyfriend. It was fun. It was also lazy and full of pizza and alcohol. In a couple weeks I'll be in Europe. That's going to be awesome and I'm so excited for it, but it's going to cost a lot of money and I'm trying to figure out my budget and such right now.

I return from Europe on Wed--that Friday I have a bachelorette party. Which will be fun, but full of food and alcohol and also potentially expensive. The next Friday I have a bridal shower AND bachelorette party which require more presents, and plane tickets. Which I will smother with food and alcohol. The NEXT Friday I'm going to Philadelphia for a house party which will include--you guessed it: food and alcohol.

So basically I'm going to be spending a ton of money in the next few months, and there will be plenty of food and alcohol for me to drown my sorrows. At the moment I'm still eating well but exercise has fallen by the wayside.

I'm going to try and get some exercise in to lose a few pounds for europe. If I can be comfortably at 148 when I leave I'll be happy.

This morning I was at 151, but my period will start today or tomorrow so that's inflated.

We'll see.

117

2007-04-26T12:22:00.000-04:00

No update yesterday. My weight was down 1.5 pounds or something, but I had wine with dinner so I think it was just dehydration. It's back up to 149 again now.

I'm really not worried about my weight in numbers right now, which is odd becuase I'm almost always worried about the scale. I'm plotting my weight every day via excel though and my progression is clearly downward. As long as I make my goal one of these days I'll be happy. It doesn't have to be tomorrow.

I have a couple very busy days up ahead but I'm going to try and watch what I'm eating and work out today and tomorrow. I might not make my work out on Saturday, but starting Sunday I'm going to ramp up my workouts a bit. Add back in weight lifting (I think my knee is feeling good enough for light weights) and maybe add another 20 minutes of cardio or something.

I find making goals hard now because I'm going on vacation May 16th and while I don't plan on going hog wild over in Europe, regular activites will be suspended and I think it will be harder to lose weight.

We'll see.

115

2007-04-24T10:48:00.000-04:00

Up .2 pounds. My stomach deflated a little based on my measurement though, so maybe it's water, or a bit of muscle from my regular exercise.

I guess I never mentioned. The URL for this blog comes from the fact that I use a piece of string to keep my waist measurement. I wrap it around my middle, and when it overlaps by about an inch I snip the end off. It lets me know if I'm gaining or losing, but without the numbers which can be helpful in keeping the right mindset.

Not too worried about the number on the scale at the moment. I'm feeling good and that's the most important thing to me right now.

Yesterday for dinner I ended up eating a TON of edamame and some steel-cut oats. The edamame was a bit of mindless eating. I have a tub of it in my fridge and I just kept snacking! Before I knew it 2/3 of the portion were gone! When I put it in Sparkpeople though the damage wasn't too bad. Those suckers have a LOT of protein! I mean I knew soy was a good protein source, but I had no idea what the ratio was.

I also bought steel-cut oats on my last trip to the grocery store. They're supposed to be better for you than "rolled" oats (the kind that quaker sells that's all flat and circular). Steel-cut oats look like little cylinders. They look and taste very different than the oats that you usually see. I kind of like it though. I added some raisins and honey to the party in my mouth. :D The great thing about them is they have way more fiber than regular oats and they kept my really full for a very long time. The only downside is they take much longer to cook. I've got 2 more cooked portions waiting in the fridge though. I figure I'll zap them in the microwave to make "quick cooking" oats. :3

Today I brought some more of the oats for my breakfast. I've got some cottage cheese and fruit for lunch. I'm ona cottage cheese and fruit rampage. I can get very into one meal for a very long time, and I'm stuck on cottage cheese right now. I don't know why, but I love it. Anyway. I'm going to do 20 min of walking today. Then I need to tidy up a bit, and my boyfriend's coming over for dinner. I'm thinking of making gambas al ajillo (made it once before and it was amazing!), mashed sweet potatoes, and roasted asparagus. Looks good to me!

114

2007-04-23T15:21:00.000-04:00

Things are still going well. Working out again finally. Eating is under control. I put on half a pound in the last day, but I was extra hungry yesterday. I'm not sure what prompted that but I was drinking a lot of liquid and nibbling a bit. Maybe the weight will go down again tonight. The good thing is that I'm still under 150. Yay! I've been under it for a few weeks now. I think it might be time to step it up again so I can get to 145. My plan right now is to start working out with more intensity next Sunday. I'll be gone this coming weekend, and my vacation will be in 2 weeks from that point.

So I think a nice 2 week build up for muscle and cardio will be good for all the backpacking we'll be doing. :)

So far today I've had cottage cheese and fruit. I've got a Luna bar for a snack later. Dinner...not sure. I've got some chicken breasts I could cook. I also have shrimp I bought yesterday for very cheap! But I might save that to make for my boyfriend on Tuesday. Ehh. I'll think about it.

111

2007-04-20T15:04:00.000-04:00

Everything is going swimmingly again. I'm not not just squeaking under 150 but settled comfortably beneath it again. I'm assuming some of that is water weight because I don't FEEL substantially smaller. (ie. My clothes seem to fit the same--although would I really notice the loss of one pound?) Whatever it is I'm content.

I'm going to do a light workout today. Traditionally Friday is one of my days off from the gym, but I realized that in order to workout 21 days in April I'm going to have to work out for the rest of the month.

I'm going to try to go light on my usual off days. Just 20 minutes of walking. I don't want to burn out and completely give up. I can feel myself sliding into the mindset of: "But walking really doesn't burn many calories. I have to go all out, at all times! YAR!" Yes, I'm a pirate.

That's a dangerous mindset, and one I hope to avoid. I always burn out when things start that way.

So anyway, when I get home I'm making my udon soup, with a hard boiled egg, chicken breast, and snow peas. I'm excited. I will add some fresh minced parsely to the fun. It will be delicious. That will turn out to be... 370 calories. Which will make my total for today something like 900.

I'll come up with a snack to have in there. Maybe some of the mango I picked up. A yogurt? Hmm... I have some walnuts and cheese I may have before my walk and then my soup after. And then mango for dessert. Mmm. That all sounds delicious.

Okay, back to work.

Check Me Out!

2007-04-19T11:52:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention that I weighed myself after getting home on my scale yesterday. I'm still squeaking in around 149.6 I think my boyfriend's scale is messed up.

Also I've added my sparkspeople food and fitness tracker to my Facts portlet on the right. I'm trying to be more accountable about what I eat and how much I exercise. I figure I'll be motivated to keep it up to date if more people know about it.

Food & Fitness Tracker

110

2007-04-19T10:53:00.000-04:00

The good thing about the fitness challenge that's going on right now is that it forces me to make exercise a priority. It forces me to make time--any time--to work out.

Yesterday was a good example of that as I had about 1:45 after getting home to get to my boyfriend's house to go to a concert. In that time I needed to: workout, shower, get ready to go out, make dinner, and eat. I managed to do everything I needed to, although it required some planning before hand.

The only difference in my meal plan yesterday, was that I didn't have time for a snack or to cut up the veggies for my chicken and peppers. Instead I made a chicken sandwich out of toasted whole wheat bread, low fat laughing cow cheese and thinly sliced chicken. It was SO good.

My problem with chicken is that I'm deathly afraid of undercooking it, so I almost always overcook it, and overcooked chicken is about as tasty as a salted shoe. Yesterday it came out perfectly though. Cooked all the way through, but still moist and juicy. Yuuuuum. And I cooked 3 at the same time. Tonight I will cut up my peppers. Tomorrow I'm going to make an Udon soup with chicken breast, hard boiled egg, and snow peas. Yum yum yum.

Oh man. I put my calories into sparkpeople and it turns out I only at 1,024 calories yesterday. And the vast majority was brownie and beer. Eeep!!!

I've really got to figure my food thing out.

Tonight I will probably run again as opposed to elliptical. I just want to get back into a good groove with running, and then I'll start switching it up.

I feel so much better when I'm exercising. I also feel more slim and fit than I have in the last couple weeks. I wish I could bottle this feeling and sprinkle it on when I want to shove cake in my face or lie around watching TV for weeks on end. Hmm.

109

2007-04-18T15:12:00.000-04:00

Hmm. Weighed in at the boyfriend's place this morning and it said 152. Usually this scale is lighter by about 3 pounds than mine, but I find it hard to believe that I put on 5+ pounds in 2 days. I'm not even close to my period yet.

Maybe it's my almost month of non-exercise catching up with me. Or the two light beers I had at the baseball game last night. We'll see.

Not tomorrow though because I totally forgot that I'm going to a concert tonight with my boyfriend. Fortunately it's not until late so I can get in a workout before I leave.

Skipped breakfast today. Yar. And lunch was just cottage cheese and mandarin oranges. (I've been going through a phase where I love cottage cheese mixed with fruit. I'm not sure why.) I then had two mini brownies that my office was giving out. Ahh! I wish people would stop bringing things to work! I needed a snack and I was going to buy a protein bar, but then they were giving out free brownies. I caved. Ah well. They're tiny brownies. Imagine a regular sived brownie cut in 4 pieces. That's about the sizes. And I had two, so that's like half a brownie. I guess it's not awful.

I've got some chicken breasts defrosting in my fridge so I think I'm going to bake them, and then toss with julliened red and yellow peppers. Toss that with a mixture of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey, and dijon mustard. YUM. One of my favorite dishes.

That will probably be way too few calories even with the brownies. I'll see what else is hanging around the house and make a snack before I head off to the concert so I won't drink too much.

Workout later will be 45 minutes of interval elliptical. Or maybe 30 minutes of interval elliptical and 15 minutes of interval running. I'll see how I feel when I get to the gym.

Update

2007-04-17T17:32:00.000-04:00

Argh! I couldn't resist. I had 2 slices of medium cheese pizza. According to sparkpeople this is something like 350 calories. So I'm skipping my cottage cheese and mandarin oranges. Instead I've had my almonds as a snack. So I'm pretty much at the same level.

I'm still going to be stuck with beer and hot dogs as dinner though. What would you eat if you were having dinner at a ball game?

108

2007-04-17T11:19:00.000-04:00

Still sneaking in under the 150 mark. I'm sure it's because I've lost muscle though so I can't be surprised if I bob up above it. I ESPECIALLY can't avoid exercise as a way to stay below 150. That's just dumb and I should stop playing head games with myself.

I worked out last night--3 miles in about 37 minutes. Nothing spectacular, and I probably could have done a bit more, but it was late. I meant (once again) to work out this morning. I'm going to a baseball game tonight so working out will be impossible. Crap. I can't seem to get myself out of bed in the morning for working out. I want to though. I think it's going to fit into my lifestyle a lot better. I've got to figure it out.

Food yesterday was eh. I did well until I had 2 bowls of cereal for dinner. Oh well. It was whole grain stuff so I won't worry about it.

I brought some stuff for breakfast and lunch today, and I have a bag of almonds as a snack. But there's a pizza lunch for the team I'm on at work and my boss made a point to say to everyone that he wanted us there. Argh. Going to the pizza lunch and not having pizza is going to be difficult. I may just have one slice of cheese.

Food would look like:

Sugar free hot chocolate 60
banana 80
pizza 210
cottage cheese 90
mandarin oranges 80
almonds 200

720 until dinner which leaves 480-780 calories for dinner. Which will probably consist of hot dogs and beer. Way to kick off a re commitment to fitness: pizza, hot dogs, and beer.

I'm working out tomorrow no matter what. The food thing will figure itself out if I can just get back into some serious exercise. At least 3 miles each time. Bah.

104

2007-04-13T12:00:00.000-04:00

Well hello!

Long time no see eh?

Things have been...going. Food has been okay, but a little on the high side. Exercise has been okay, but a little on the low side. The result of which has been a 1 pound gain in about 2 weeks.

I'm still under 150, but probably not for long.

So I'm recommiting. Starting today I'm eating less, and moving more and more vigorously.

I want to be about 5 pounds lighter when I leave for Europe in a month. I can do it. It will just take work.

I'm going to do some work, then come back here and plan.

95

2007-04-04T16:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday went pretty well. There's very little to say about it actually as I stayed at work SUPER late working on a project. Then my boyfriend called to ask me over to watch a movie, so I went home to shower and eat and then over to his place. Something like 1300 calories consumed, and rest day from gym.

Today I'm already at 830 calories and I haven't had my snack yet! I was going to snack and then go to the gym, but I think now I'm going to just go to the gym and eat when I get back. I dunno. We'll see how hungry I am.

Tonight is intervals on the treadmill.

94

2007-04-03T13:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday went well. 1300 calories and 35 minutes of interval elliptical. I actually meant to eat a bit more. I think this time around I want to stick closer to 1500 calories than 1200. It might mean slower weight loss, but it might also help my weekend free for alls. Maybe I won't fee quite so deprived if I have a few hundred extra calories during the week.

Today I've had kashi oatmeal, and I've got a couple mini wheat bagels, apples, carrots and light laughing cow cheese for lunch/snacks. Tonight is a night off, and the tomorrow I'm going to do running intervals.

Also I'm down a bit more today. I don't quite understand why this is happening. My legs definitely don't look as toned as they did a few weeks ago. But I'm also supposed to start my period soon. Weird. I don't understand my body. I guess I have to take care of it anyway though. :3

91-93

2007-04-02T11:59:00.000-04:00

Hmm.

I'm down 2.3 pounds from Friday morning. Not sure how this happened as I didn't exercise as much as I said I was going to, and eating was...not awful, but not clean and healthy either.

My guess? I'm losing muscle. Bah. After 2 weeks of not working out I guess I couldn't expect much more. The odd thing is though that my waist measurement went down. Perhaps with the muscle went some water weight.

Oh well. With a brand new month (and beach invites coming in already O_o) I'm back in the saddle. I'm going to throw out a bunch of old food from my fridge, and stock it with healthy alternatives. I'm in another exercise challenge this month. But an easier one, designed not to burn me out, and just to get my used to being back in the gym on a regular basis again.

I'm going to make my goal this year if it's the last thing I do. :3

88-90

2007-03-30T15:27:00.000-04:00

Oh dear.

I don't know where my motivation has gone. Perhaps it's outside enjoying the fine spring weather we've been having while I slave away at my desk job.

My eating has been odd. It hasn't been awful in terms of calories (although there have been a few days when I was closer to 2000 than 1200), but the food I'm eating has certainly been suspect. Bagels? Cupcakes? Lasagna swimming in cheese? Yup, Yes, Seconds please!

And this might not be awful if I had maybe worked out while I was at it. But alas, I have not. I went running Sunday, and haven't lifted a finger since.

Today I've tried to turn this ship around. I've had Kashi oatmeal for breakfast, a sugar free hot chocolate as a snack, and a lean cuisine (butternut squash ravioli) for lunch. 150+60+250 = 460

I'm going to a concert after work where I'll probably have a couple light beers (200).

660 before dinner. Not sure what it will be, but I will attempt not to throw myself face first into a pie.

I doubt I will have time to workout tonight but we'll see how it goes. Tomorrow is a different story. I'm going to get my hair done at 11:15, change, go to the gym, workout for an hour, come home, shower, plan shopping list, go shopping for food + laundry deterget, do laundry, clean, hopefully be done with all of that by 6--at which point I'm going over to my boyfriends house for a little gathering to watch the Georgetown game. Afterwards I may go meet a friend at a bar in DC for a fundraiser she's doing. Depends on how late the game goes I guess and how I feel.

Sunday I'm going to spend cutting up veggies/cooking so that I'm prepared with good healthy food for the week. I'm also going to do a cardio work out for 1 hour.

(20 minute running, 40 min elliptical for each workout.)

Only 1.1 pounds to get back in the 140s!

87

2007-03-27T16:26:00.000-04:00

I am falling apart in my old age. I didn't work out yesterday. I did something to my left thigh. (My left leg is probably just going to fall off one of these days. Good riddance!)

I've done this same thing once before. I'm not sure what it is but basically when I pull my leg upwards (as when walking, etc) the muscle feels like it's pulling in an unnatural way. Like it's pulling off the bone or something. I can't describe it. It's a bit painful but only when I do that specific motion. Also it's very short lived.

Today I feel fine. But of course today I'm busy and am because it's Tuesday and it's usually my day off.

I need to get back to exercising. I'm going to put on weight I can feel it. I'm going to start out reasonably slow. Interval running or elliptical. I'll focus on eating better. Just for a couple weeks. Then I'll slowly raise the intensity.

Bah.

86

2007-03-26T10:41:00.000-04:00

I'm back! Goodness, this is the longest break I've had in my blogging here. I got back Friday from my training trip and have just been relaxing since then.

But now I'm back in the game. I didn't put on much weight, but if you'll remember (by looking below at my chart) I had spiked back up from my low of 146.8. I was at 149.8 when I left for my trip, and I came back at 151. I'm really greatful for the small gain though. It could have been much much worse. The food there was really bad and the training was boring enough that the food was just something different to do. So you didn't want to miss out. (Even if it wasn't that great.)

My goal of course is to get back into the 140s. I worked out yesterday, and then I packed oatmeal for breakfast today, plus brown rice and ma po tofu (with broccoli) for lunch. Then I'll go home, change and head to the gym. Dinner will probably be a turkey and cheese sandwich on a mini whole wheat bagel, plus an apple and a glass of milk. That only comes to slightly over 1000 calories, so maybe a second mini turkey sandwich.

At the gym I'm going to do the elliptical for 40 minutes and run for 20.

I'm going to focus on cardio for the next little while because my knee is still messed up when I put a lot of extra weight on it.

I'm thinking of trying to do my cardio in the mornings. I wonder if you can become a morning person?

Also my new obsession? Bento boxes. I can't even remember how I ran across them, but I spent much of my week at training looking at this site. I'm excited by the prospect of making small, but filling lunches that just aren't the same old same old. I'm going to have to eat through this batch of groceries, and then make a list of new things to try. :) Mostly I love the fact that her lunches are so colorful. So many fresh fruits and veggies. That's what I really want to try. Even if I don't have stir-fried noodles or whatever, I can pack something like a sandwich and add tons of new things on the side.

And I do want to try those filled buns she made!

75

2007-03-15T10:04:00.000-04:00

Agh! I knew if I skipped my workout yesterday I'd put on a ton of weight!

Hahahaha...no just kidding. 98% kidding. :3 I feel great with an extra day off and I'm better prepared to go out and workout today. Today is weights and light cardio so it should be a good workout to ease myself back in. I feel like I was close to burning out there.

As for my weight...I just dropped out of the sky right after my period so I'm assuming that a lot of it was water weight that I've restored by drinking a ton more water lately (and not sweating out as much of it since I had 2 days off in a row--something I haven't done in a month or so now). So I'm not to freaked by the sudden gain. I'd like to go down a bit going into Monday, just because I'm really worried about the training trip. Breakfast and Lunch are going to be provided by the facilities so I don't know what they are, and dinner is going to be eaten out every night.

Plus I think I am going to Philly on Sat. So lots of drinking out and eating there too.

Here is my initial plan:

Tonight: Happy hour. Eat 6 pieces of sushi and tops 2 drinks (both mixed with diet soda) Go home around 8. Go to the gym around 8:30-9. Do 30 minutes elliptical, weight session.

Tomorrow: Birthday Party. Go home, walk 30 minutes treadmill. Go to party around 10:30. Drink at most 2 drinks, mixed with diet soda.

Saturday: Wake up earlier. Go to gym. 60 minutes cardio. Go to lunch w/ parents. Order salad w/ dressing on the side. Go to Philly with boyfriend. Eat half of whatever I get for dinner. Drink at most 2 drinks mixed w/ diet soda.

Sunday: Eat half of breakfast and lunch. No drinks with calories. Come home in the evening. Do cardio (no minutes, just go and do what I can). Pack for training trip.

Monday: Leave house around 7:00. Take a granola bar or other snack to eat RIGHT before I get to the classroom. Eat half of every lunch while on trip. Only go out to the bar twice.

Okay. I have a plan. I'm still worried about the training trip though. We're expected to be very social and network a lot and almost all of these networking events revolve around booze. Maybe I'll just buy diet cokes. To have something to drink, but without the calories.

74

2007-03-14T17:10:00.000-04:00

Ehhhh....There's nothing bad about these past few days. But there's nothing really great about them either. I'm on the high side of my calories each day. I'm not making great food choices, and my workouts have been eh.

Even though I had yesterday off part of me wants to take today too.

Instead I think I'm going to...GASP. Do an easy cardio day. Hahaha. Even saying it strikes fear into my heart. Once I lose some weight I just want to workout harder so my weight keeps dropping. Taking an easy cardio day just seems like an awful idea and tomorrow I'm going to be 500 pounds. :B But I think I need to. My body is very tired lately.

And hungry. I didn't bring anything for breakfast because I was at my boyfriend's yesterday. So I had a chocolate soymilk and a thing of cheese/peanut butter crackers. (200+240) I didn't get hungry for lunch until around 3 when I had a chicken ceaser salad (240+100+150+5+120). So I'm already at 1055 for the day. Which leaves 145 if I want to have 1200 calories or 495 if I want to have 1550 calories. Looks like I'm going to be on the high side of my calories again.

Argh.

I'm so tired.

And I have a happy hour tomorrow at Cafe Asia, then a birthday party on Friday night at a martini bar in DC, then I've been invited to a St. Patty's day party on Saturday in Philly, plus my parents come back to DC this week and I'm sure they're going to want to go out and eat somewhere. Plus then I have a training for one week in Deleware.

AHHHH!!!

I'm going to go above 150 again I just know it. I'm really going to have to plan so that doesn't happen. So nervous.

73

2007-03-13T15:30:00.000-04:00

So tired today. I think I really need to start sleeping more. And my legs are really tight. Maybe I'll do some yoga tonight before I go over to the boyfriends.

Yesterday was really tough. I was excited about getting so low, but then there was a charity bake sale at work. I was determined not to get anything, but when people started coming around to our cubicles I felt a little bad about not participating. So I bought 1 small brownie and 1 chocolate oat cookie thing. Then when I got home I decided to have a bowl of pasta to help fuel my run. So it was just plain pasta with olive oil and peans and spinach and a sprinkle of fresh grated parmeggiano reggiano on top. I ate it and felt that I was still hungry. Now my first serving was already something like 1.5 cups of pasta. I figured I'd go back and just finish off the pasta. That would have been another 1.5 cups. 3 cups of pasta for 600 calories!

I was thinking to myself: "You know you did so well on the scale why don't you not eat this extra serving. You really don't want to go over your calories today. It will take your entire workout just to burn off dinner, etc." But I overrode all of those suggestions and put the leftovers in the microwave. While it was heating up I though "You probably just need to drink water and wait for your stomach to catch up to your brain." So I made a deal with myself. If I drank water and waited 20 minutes and I was still hungry I could have the pasta. So I took it out of the microwave, put it back in the freezer and got myself a glass of water.

And of course 20 minutes later my brain caught up and I was stuffed.

Crisis averted.

My workout was pretty crap too. I ran about 25 minutes and walked 25 minutes, but it was a struggle. My weights didn't seem right either.

I think I'm burning out a little and am getting tired. I think even though I like the treadmill I'm going ot switch some of my workouts to the bike.

I was up half a pound this morning, but I expected my huge losses couldn't continue, so I'm not too worried about it.

I put on a skirt this morning that fit last summer and now it's super loose. I know I'm going in the right direction.

69-72

2007-03-12T10:40:00.000-04:00

Woah.

I've lost 6.2 pounds in 8 days. I'm not sure how it happened. I'm assuming most of it is water weight or something from my period. But whatever it is I'm grateful! I feel like all of the hard work that was going unnoticed last month all finally paid off at once. :)

There are three great things about being 146.8 now. 1) My pants fit way better. :D 2) I weigh in at the gym on a doctor's scale (unofficially--to see how much sweat I lose before and after a workout) I used to have to move the big weight to 150, but now I just need to move it to 100! and 3) I'm over halfway to my goal!!

I'm going to try my hardest not to mess this up now. I have St. Patricks day this weekend, my parents are getting back from Australia, and then I'm going to be on a training trip for a week. Training trips are notorious for the bad (tasty, but bad for you) food, and the social drinking after. I'm brining my workout clothes, and I'm going to be very strict about drinking and eating. Hopefully when I get back I will be at the same weight, if not lower.

The weekend was acutally pretty good in terms of both calories and workouts. Friday was the worst day where I traded food for alcohol. But not too much.

I bought a bunch of healthy food yesterday to help my plan, and I will be going to the gym tonight.

Woo!

68

2007-03-08T11:40:00.000-05:00

Woo! Weigh in chart time. :D

One week later and my chart is still going down. My big plan for this weekend is to do really well with working out and eating. You can see my weigh in spikes up every 7 days and if I could even just keep my weight constant over the weekend and then lose those 2 pounds during the week I could be 148 next week. :O

Of course it maybe doesn't help that I just had a donut for breakfast today. :B It was free breakfast at work today and I haven't gone grocery shopping yet so I didn't have my usual breakfast with me. Lunch...I may have a sub or a salad or something. Not sure.

Dinner I have left over pasta from yesterday. And then today is my weights workout.

Yesterday was great. Had 1206 calories, ran 3 miles @ 5.8 with a .25 warm up and cool down. Then did 30 minutes on the elliptical. 70 minutes working out total.

I can do this! I have a happy hour next Thursday, and then St. Patricks day, and then March 19-24 I'm out of town for a training trip for work. Those are the hurdles I'm going to need to plan for in the upcoming weeks. I can't let them derail my progress! I'm getting close to the 140! I think 145 will be my next short term goal once I reach 149. :)

ETA: My coworkers wanted to go out to lunch and invited me. I said yes and then found out they wanted to go to McDonalds. I was angsting over what choice I should make but in the end I made the right one. I got the kids chicken mcnugget happy meal (4pcs) and the apple dippers (they forgot my carmel sauce) and a light lemonade. In total it was: 170+35+5 A 210 meal that actuall has left me satisfied! I'm at 460 for the day and I may have a light snack before I go home and have my pasta: 450 So I'll be at 1000 after dinner. Then I can have a post-workout snack and my day will be perfect! Yipee!

67

2007-03-07T14:02:00.000-05:00

Hmph. I didn't realize Bertucci's doesn't post it's nutritional info online. I went there for dinner with the BF yesterday and I thought I did great. I got a side salad with chicken (dressing on the side) and a cup of Minestrone soup for dinner. I did however eat 2 bread rolls. I figured if the bread rolls were only 200 each I could still be okay for calories. But who knows now.

Ah well.

Yesterday was the day off from the gym.

Today has been bad because I didn't have any food from home since I was at the BF's. So today I've had a sugar free hot chocolate and a piece of left over pizza from a meeting. :B

360 calories.

Tonight. I'm not sure. Maybe pasta with spinach and peas and a little olive oil and parmesan. That sounds pretty good. :D

And the gym tonight. It's cardio night so I'm going to go all out.

I feel very bloated today, probably from the bread yesterday and the period weight. Probably a good thing I couldn't weigh in this morning. But now I'm missing a day for my chart. Boo! Oh well.

I think tonight after the gym and after I do some cleaning I'm going to sit down and come up with a weekly menu and grocery list. I'm also going to try and not drink this weekend.

I need something to get me into the 140s for good!

66

2007-03-06T11:37:00.000-05:00

Aghhhhh! My uterus!

And that's all you need to know about that. :P

I find my weigh in chart totally facinating. I love that I can see the overall trend more clearly with my little moving average, and I like watching the linear regression point to some new lower weight for my final weigh in. (Which occurs May 16th, the day I leave for Europe. :D)

Of course that "final" weigh in is not "final" at all. May 16th was just a nice date in the future to try and lose weight by. I will keep going until I hit 135.

This morning I put a nice lower number in, and given that I haven't started my period yet (just the cramps) I assume that I will lose a couple more pounds this week.

I've had a kashi blueberry waffle this morning with sugar free hot chocolate.

I brought some brown rice, palak paneer with peas for lunch.

I'm meeting up with my boyfriend to help him buy a suit after work, so I'm not sure what dinner will be yet. But we'll see.

Today is my day off from the gym and my arms are nicely sore. Then back to the gym on Wed!

Just gotta keep moving. I'll get there. :)

Oh! I forgot to mention these things when they happened: I saw a new low body fat number on Friday. 28%! It came up over the weekend a bit, but still that's pretty cool.

On Thursday I wore my size 8 jeans. :D Unfortunately I like my jeans a little loose, so I may have to retire them until I lose 3-4 more pounds. But they fit now.

Okay, back to work.

62-64

2007-03-05T17:52:00.000-05:00

Weekend was one good day one bad day, and my weight is up 3 pounds. You can see in my graph that I have a spike every 7 days or so. If only I could hermit myself away for a weekend and not do anything social that involved food and/or drink.

Ah well. I'm having fun, so I don't care. The overall trend is still downward.

Plus, I'm scheduled to have my period in 1-2 days so I'm sure some of it is just pre-period bloat.

Today I've been pretty good. I didn't have time for breakfast so I had a subway sub: turkey ham and cheese, with lettuce, olives, and hot peppers. I allowed myself to have cheese if I didn't make it a combo. So I came back to the office and just had water with my sandwich. A pretty good lunch for about 350 calories. I've had a cup of coffee since.

So bad on nutrients, good on calories. Bah. I need to go grocery shopping and somehow come up with a meal plan for myself that involves very little time, and hassle.

Gym going was actually decent over the weekend so at least something is moving in the right direction! I ran on Sat morning and walked yesterday. Tonight I'm headed to the gym to do some walking, some elliptical and my weights routine.

For dinner...I'm not sure. Maybe some rice and beans. Maybe an egg sandwich. Maybe some Indian food. I'll figure it out.

Just gotta keep chugging along.

61

2007-03-02T13:12:00.000-05:00

Hmm. Well, if I were to post my weigh in chart there would be a big dip in it today. The problem though is that I weighed in on my boyfriend's scale and his isn't exactly the same as mine. However I weighed in on his scale on Wed morning at 151.5 I weighed in on my scale Thursday morning at 151.8. Then this morning on this scale at 149.5

I put my weigh in at 149.8 because I figured that might be a bit more realistic. We'll see when I weigh in tomorrow. :)

Also on Thursday I saw a new low on my body fat. 28%. The body fat I think is very error prone, and has a wide margin of error, but the numbers are moving down to numbers I haven't seen before so even if the 28 isn't exactly right at least I'm moving in the right direction.

I took yesterday off from the gym because I had worked out from Sat-Wed and I was getting over worked. The February challenge was good because it motivated me to log in a ton of miles, but towards the end I was doing more miles than I usually did all at once and I got burnt out. So yesterday was off, today is my usual off day, tomorrow I'm going to have to HUSTLE to try to get a workout in. I'm going to the UConn game at noon on Sat so I'm going to have to go to the gym around 9:30-10:30, dress/get ready 10:30-11 The taxi is leaving at 11 so we can get on the metro. Then metro into DC, watch the game, then go out into the city for a pub crawl.

This will all be a fun time. I can't help but think though, that every time I'm doing well and losing weight some kind of "excuse" comes up where I drink and eat more than I want. But I hardly think of these things as excuses--or things I want to exclude from my life. My boyfriend's birthday party, the dinner I took him out to, a basketball game and pub crawl with our friends. This is how I like to spend my time and things I want to do.

I'll just have to be careful on Saturday to both have fun, but also keep the larger goal in mind.

60

2007-03-01T14:44:00.000-05:00

So here we are. 2 months into it. (Although that's not true, I've been doing this for 5 months, but I started recounting at the New Year just for a change of pace.)

Since January I've lost maybe 3 pounds. It's a little disheartening, but I'm not going to turn this into a pity party today.

Because today is the start of a new challenge. I'm competing against Amy, and Marriana in a competition that takes calories and exercise minutes into account. Basically the goal is to not go over your max calories, and to gain points by doing minutes of cardio exercise.

Maybe I just need to keep a better eye on my calories. I haven't been inputing into SP for a while. While I think I'm pretty good at eyeballing portions now, maybe I've not been taking everything into account. It's possible.

Below is my weigh in chart since Jan 23. The red line is my moving average, and the pink line is the linear regression.

The line way below it was my goal line. Sigh. I really thought I was being realistic when I wanted to lose 15 pounds in 4 months. Apparently not.

58-59

2007-02-28T12:55:00.000-05:00

Not much to report lately. I'm doing well, but not, but yet I am.

I feel like I'm working hard and I wish I could see results faster, and then when i do see results not take that as an invitation to go out and eat and drink my face off.

The lowest number I've seen in the past...almost 9 months is 150. Right now I'm at 151.5. I'm not sure why in the last month where I've ran 60 miles and been eating well despite a few little slips here and there I've lost 1 pound.

BUT on the good side when I checked my body fat yesterday I was at 28.5 That's the lowest number I've seen ever! I was bouncing around 30-31 for a long time and then this big dip came yesterday (I wasn't able to weigh in on the weekend). So that's pretty good.

I have an excel spreadsheet that I use to keep track of my weight, and although the trend is downward it says based on my rate of weight loss TODAY it would take until the end of the year to lose 10 pounds.

Sigh.

Well. Nothing to do but move forward. Better to keep trying and get to my goal in 10 months than give up and gain weight. Right?

Right.

54-57

2007-02-26T16:01:00.000-05:00

Hmm.

Not much to report. Eating got out of whack a bit on Saturday. I didn't flig myself face first into a cake, but I wasn't eating full meals either. I would just get hungry and graze for a little bit, and then stop. And then get hungry, graze, stop. I never felt like I stuffed myself, but I wasn't really paying attention to calories either. I worked out on Saturday, 3.75 miles, but Sunday was my boyfriend's birthday and I wasn't able to work out, plus I took him out for a super nice dinner (cost me muchos muchos pennies) and I wanted to be free to eat whatever I wanted. Which I did. :) The nice thing about fancy restaurants is that they always give you totally reasonable portions of food. But I did drink about half a bottle of wine, and a few pieces of bread. And dessert. Mmmm. So amazing.

My scale is at my house, and I tend to spend weekends with the boyfriend so I'm not sure yet what kind of damage I have done. I put on a pound or so on Thursday, but I had done my weight lifting so maybe that's gone, or maybe I've put on a bit more weight because of dinner last night.

We'll see. I'm not too bent out of shape about it. I'm trying to realize that this is my life and I need to be free to do the things I like sometimes even if it means my weight loss is slowed down. As long as it doesn't turn into a weight gain I'm winning in the long run.

Speaking of running, I have 5 more miles to complete my 60 in Feb! I go into the gym tonight and on Wed, so I should be more than able to get to my goal. :)

Today I had an egg and cheese sandwich on wheat bread with a glass of orange juice, and a huge salad with vinegar instead of dressing. Yummy! I have a Luna bar for a pre gym snack and I'm not sure about dinner. Maybe some beans and rice tortillas.

53

2007-02-22T15:45:00.000-05:00

A pretty good day yesterday. After I got home I ended up eating a couple dates, a few nuts and a couple cubes of cheese. Then I sent to the gym and did 6.25 miles. Came home and had a banana, some grapefruit juice, carrots with hummus, and a piece of bread. Not too shabby.

Today I've already way up on my calories and I don't even feel I've eaten that much. I had my oatmeal, and then made the mistake of buying chocolate milk. I've been super hungry and thirsty since yesterday and this morning I though chocolate milk would really hit the spot. So I went to the cafe and bought a little box. Well in that box were 2 servings, each with 180 calories. So I thought: no problem I will only drink half.

Yeah right.

I had half in the morning and drank the other half in the afternoon. That's 360 calories right there. So then I made another salad for lunch today. So yummy. And I had 3 stuffed grape leaves. Now I'm drinking water and I have a Luna bar for right before the gym.

All that will put me at 1275 without dinner! I need to start planning meals ahead of time.

So I need to go to the gym again tonight--running and weights. When I get back I think I'll just have a little snack thing. 2 Wasa crisps + laughing cow light = 100 calories. Then bed.

I need to lose just 1 pound and I'll be a happy camper. I weighed in at 151 this morning so 1 pound will but me back at 150.

We'll see!

52

2007-02-21T14:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was good. I still took the day off the gym even though I had such a light weekend. My apartment was a mess so I took that time to clean up a ton. And I still have more to do! Mostly laundry and the floors.

Today though I'm back in the gym. I'm going to have to put in a really solid day to catch up with Amy who is 1.5 miles ahead of me now. I had oatmeal for lunch and a yummy salad I made with spinach, a bit of romaine, kidney beans, broccoli, feta, carrots, and half a tomato. I drizzled on a bit of oil and a TON of vinegar and a touch of salt et viola!

I may have put on a bit too much cheese, but it couldn't have been more than two servings. So probably 200 calories. Plus 90 for the beans, and say 100 for the oil. The rest probably only comes up to 75 calories. So 465. + 150 oatmeal. I'm at 615. I'm going to have a yogurt (60) as a snack, and then a luna bar before the gym (180).

So 855. Which leaves 350 for dinner. Well 350 - 695. My range is 1200-1550, but I always shoot for the bottom of the range so that if I go over I don't go out of the range. :B

Gym tonight is all cardio. I'm just going to hang out on the treadmill for a while.

48-51

2007-02-20T10:57:00.000-05:00

Well, here I am. After my weekend of debauchery.

I drowned myself in wine, and pasta at Maggiano's on Saturday, and then drank my self stupid until Sunday, then got up ate leftovers and way too much pineapple juice.

I didn't work out.

My stomach was very upset with me yesterday, and I gained 2 pounds.

Honestly, I don't care. It was one of the most fun weekends of my life. This can't be about food and working out all the time. I have to have a life in there somewhere. I had a great time with great friends and that's all there is to it.

I'll get rid of these two pounds this week and hopefully be below 150 by March. :)

Today is the start of that quest. I'm eating oatmeal, and lean cuisine. Dinner will be salmon and spinach salad. I might do a mile or two tonight even though it's a night off just because I didn't do anything this weekend.

But I also need to desperately clean my apartment. We'll see if I have time for both.

47

2007-02-16T11:41:00.000-05:00

Good day yesterday. I did 4 miles on the treadmill and ate exactly 1200 calories. I needed to add a few more veggies in there, but I'll work on that today.

Today I'm having oatmeal and Lean Cuisine (surprise!) and when I get home I think a bowl of spinach and salmon maybe with a few croutons and mushrooms.

Then starts the weekend of temptation. Everyone is coming down tonight and I'm sure they're going to start drinking as soon as they get here. I'm going to see if I can hold of on the crazy drinking until tomorrow. Maybe only have one beer, and nurse it all night long.

I'm also going to see if I can get just 2 miles in tonight before everyone gets here. My plan is to go home, go to the salon, come home, run 2 miles, shower, eat, head over to the boy's house. I think that will work out. We'll see.

Tomorrow I'm going to go back to my place, do a quick workout, shower, then head back to the boy's place.

I'm going to try to eat really well during the first half of Saturday, because I"m sure we're going to be out drinking all day long Sat, and that will turn into bad food choices later.

Blech. I don't like that this has made me obsessive about friends coming to visit. But I feel so protective of the pounds I've lost now because they were so hard. Maybe once I'm back at my goal weight and I've maintained it for a while I can loosen up a bit. :B

46

2007-02-15T12:48:00.000-05:00

Whew.

VDay was navigated with ease. :)

The dinner went off pretty well except that when I added the sour cream to the roasted red peppers, it made the sauce cold. Hmph. Next time I guess I'll just zap it in the microwave before spooning it onto the pasta.

I ate exactly what I said I was going to, minus the fact that the scallops were cooked in butter and I added a few dark chocolate chips to my panna cotta. (The panna cotta came out SOOOOO well by the way!) Considering I was at 1368 without those two items I was probably around 1500. Very good! That's actually within my weight loss range. :D

The dinner was a mini fiasco in that my road was not really plowed out at all and there was nowhere to park to get into my building. :\ Our parking lot was a lake of snow and ice, and a poor VW Bug got stuck in it. I ended up parking basically in the middle of the street, and my boyfriend parked right in front of me. I decided to just eat at my place and then go over to his place to watch the movie. At least that way we weren't parked illegally and would be able to get our cars out in the morning.

Aside from that it all went well and the boy brought me some really pretty flowers. :) Over at his place we played with his new Wii for a bit. (That burns calories right? LOL. Maybe if we weren't playing bowling. :B) Then we watched Flags of our Fathers and went to bed.

No working out as you might be able to see. There honestly just wasn't time. I was trying to wake up early to go to the gym, but by 7AM they hadn't even paved the road so I couldn't get my car out. I ended up going into work at 11AM because I was having serious issues driving (and since our client is a government agency we got to partake in their 2 hours delay). By the time I got home I had 10 minutes until the boy came over.

Ah well.

Today will be different! *flexes muscles* I've had my oatmeal, I'm going to have a lean cuisine and cottage cheese, and then I'm off to the gym tonight. I'm going to put in a good solid workout, because of missing yesterday, and the fact that I have a packed weekend. Also because I think my muscles are ready to do some work!

Actually I may do that running at home now that I think about it. Depends if I can park my car or not. Hmm.

45

2007-02-14T11:41:00.000-05:00

*chagrined*

Well, never let me say that my weight doesn't fluctuate downward. It's as though the weight loss fairies were watching my blog, and then giggled to themselves: Hee! Let's make her look stupid!

I lost more than 2 pounds between yesterday morning and this morning.

And honestly, I couldn't even tell you what I ate yesterday! This is just further evidence that our bodies cannot be predicted and that I should just keep doing good things and eventually something will happen.

Let me start at the beginning. First my office closed early yesterday because of snow. This was great of course, because who wants to be at work (not me), but bad because I had a planned breakfast, didn't have a chance to eat lunch, and didn't make it home until 4pm. So when I got home I was hungry, but it wasn't time for dinner. So I just started snacking. Let me see if I can recreate what I had.

First I ate half of one of the left over fish tacos I had (I threw out the rest--they didn't reheat very well) (300) a little bit of rice and black beans (250) 4oz of dark chocolate (160) one chocolate glazed donut (200) one slice of pumpernickle with peanut butter (200) 2 servings of pita chips (250) 1 serving hummus (50) one glass of grapefruit juice (130)

1690.

Well, that's not the trainwreck I thought it was--still under 2000. But over my SP limit of 1550 by 140. Eh.

See what happens when I don't have a plan?

Also I wasn't able to work out this morning like I was hoping becuase they hadn't plowed my street until much later in the day. So some how I need to get in a few miles today. Not sure how that's going to happen since the BF is coming over at 6:30 for VDay dinner. We'll see.

Also VDay dinner (which I'm making) will be a fun little land mine. I'm making bruschetta with tomato basil topping. A fettucini with scallops and roasted red pepper sauce. And I made raspberry panna cotta yesterday. The panna cotta itself will have like 500 calories I'm sure. It's basically cream (and 1% milk!).

I will just need to really watch my portions.

And this weekend is going to be a huge drunking food eating mess. Like 20 people are coming down for the weekend to celebrate 3 birthdays.

I'm doomed!

I don't want to put that weight back on...it took forever to leave!

44

2007-02-13T13:45:00.000-05:00

Well, the good news is that I lost 1 of those 2 pounds I put on. The bad news? There's still one pound left! It will probably take me the rest of the week to get that one pound off, and then because it's my boyfriend's birthday and there will be much drinking and eating I will put on 2 pounds.

Okay. Okay. Stop. Trying to see the good side of things. Trying not to focus on the numbers on the scale. *breathes*

My workout went pretty well yesterday. I have messed up my knee so I've dropped all knee focused load bearing weights (squats, lunges, etc). Just upper body, abs, adduction and abduction. I did 3.5 miles at 4.0 with hills to keep my heart rate in cardio range.

My eating was stellar if I do say so myself! I need to add a few more veggies in but 3 servings isn't awful.

Today is a rest day from the gym. I've had oatmeal and a lean cuisine (I always have the spa classics ones--only the salmon basil and lemon chicken.). I know I should have more variety in my diet--the problem is these are convenience foods so when I don't make my lunch, or I wake up late I can grab a packet of oatmeal and a lean cuisine, toss them in my bag and be out the door.

I should really start making my lunch and getting more sleep so I can wake up and have a good breakfast at home.

Anyway. Not much to report today.

43 - Food Log

2007-02-13T00:37:00.000-05:00

I was very proud of my eating today so I had to post. :B

41-43

2007-02-12T10:07:00.000-05:00

Sigh.

Sometimes I really just want to give up. I really do.

I've been doing well with the 60 in Feb competition. I've really pushed myself not only to do the minimum and workout everyday I'm scheduled to, but to surpass myself during those gym sessions. (This is not counting Sunday, where I was only able to do 2 miles.) Most of the time I've been doing 4+ miles, and I think my endurance is coming along as well. I'm doing a lot of running @ 6.0, a lot of walking at 4.0.

And this morning I was up 2 pounds from Sunday morning.

I know that the body has natural fluctuations, but what I don't understand is why my body only seems to fluctuate UP. Never down. There's never a day I get on the scale and I'm like: Wow! I lost 2 pounds in a day! Only to see the next day that I gained it back. My MO seems to be: lose weight very slowly over the week (losing by increments of .2), and then in one day, gain 2 pounds. Then start the week over again. So that in a month it looks like I haven't gone anywhere.

I did go to a Mexican restaurant with my sisters yesterday. I did have too many tortilla chips, and I did order fish tacos. But I only ate one taco! The other two are waiting in the fridge. I also had half a donut for dessert that my sister brought for me. But only half! The rest of the day I only had my pasta dish: (300) some nuts (100) and a piece of bread (100). Even if dinner was 1000 calories I was only at 1500.

I hope this is just salt from the tortilla chips. I'm so demoralized, and frustrated.

I just don't see what the point is of ALL this work if in the end it means nothing! My waist measurement doesn't seem to be changing either. :\

The only thing is that my upper body is looking a littler better. My shoulders and my arms are slimming out a bit. I always lose weight from the top down: shoulders/arms then stomach then finally hips and butt. Hopefully this is some kind of sign of progress and I'm not just deluding myself because I'm desperate.

Anyway. Food was great over the weekend, except yesterday, and I did 5 miles on Sat, 2 on Sun.

Today I'm eating oatmeal then lean cuisine then cottage cheese. Today is weightlifting at the gym. I'm going to try and get a few miles in there as well considering I'm going to have a packed schedule this week.

Nothing to do but start all over again this week.

40

2007-02-09T10:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a good day as well. The gym was much more modest, but food went fine even after the carb overload debacle in the morning. I had a bit of cheese and nuts, and a quesadilla (low carb tortilla, part skim mozarella) before my work out and my pasta e fagioli after. 1383 for the day.

The workout was more weights related. I still managed to get in 3.89 miles on to my total though. 23.89 for the month so far!

Today is my day off from the gym, but I'm thinking of maybe adding just an easy mile into my day. Just a bit of "active recovery" if you will. :B We'll see.

So far I've had my oatmeal packet, and I think I'm going to get a turkey and hummus sandwich for lunch. Dinner...probably going to be more pasta e fagioli (I made a huge batch as you can see! 3 servings left!)

I worked late yesterday, so I never made it to the grocery store, I'll need to do that this weekend, but probably not tonight. I may make a shopping list post later. I'm having trouble coming up with a game plan for food lately.

No change in weight today, but inexplicably I feel thinner. My pants feel a bit more loose and I just feel good. The feeling is enough to keep me going. I can practically feel my size 8 jeans on me! Yippee!

39

2007-02-08T15:56:00.000-05:00

Lalalala!

A good day yesterday. I haven't seen too many of them lately so I'm celebrating this one like crazy.

Food was pretty good--I ate all that stuff I listed out which was nutritious and filling I like to think. After my workout I had my pasta e fagioli, and a sugar free pudding cup. Sparkspeople tells me that all of that food was a little over 1300 calories. Spot on!

It was the exercise where I really shined though. :D I wasn't sure what I was going to do yesterday, but after my .25 mile warm up I really pushed myself and finished out 6 miles! I did a 10k! On just a normal workday. For some reason this impresses me. :B

So that's really got me pumped for today.

Food was very bad today--not in terms of calories, but in terms of nutrients. I mentioned that I really need to go grocery shopping (which I will do today), but this morning there was just nothing left. I took a packet of oatmeal for breakfast (good), but when lunch rolled around I just had a leftover wheat bagel and cream cheese (nothing but carbs today). Calorie wise this puts me a bit over 600 at the moment. I'll have a little snack, and then head off to the gym. After gym and shower I will skip my merry way to the grocery store.

I'm down .4 pounds today. Not bad!

38

2007-02-07T17:51:00.000-05:00

Oops. Almost forgot to post today.

I've been super busy at work which is both good and bad. Good in that food is basically forgotten, and I just eat what I bring in from home. Today that was: oatmeal, 4 wasa rye crisps with peanut butter, cottage cheese, pear, pecans, raisins, 3 cubes of cheddar. Believe it or not that gets me up to 850 calories already. I'm just going to have my left over pasta e fagioli when I get home.

The bad news is that of course I'm tired. But I must go to the gym tonight! Amy did some serious catching up yesterday so I'm going to have to put in a good solid day at the gym so she doesn't get ahead! I'm at 13.75 and I believe she's at 12.74.

Today is a heavy cardio day so I think I'm just going to spend as much time on the treadmill as I can. Maybe add in 20 minutes of the bike. We'll see.

I put on .5 pounds today. Not sure how that happened. I didn't work out yesterday but I only had 1300 calories. I just started my period though, so maybe my body is being funny.

Bah. Oh and I desperately need to go grocery shopping. Maybe I'll plan that out tomorrow.

37

2007-02-06T16:22:00.000-05:00

Gosh.

So this morning I lost 2 of those three pounds I put on in one day. But what about that third pound?! There's no way I ate 5500 calories in one day. (Assuming a BMR of 2000, that means 2000+3500 to put on a pound of fat in one day). So how did this happen? And why? And how can I stop it from happening again?

Granted, I'm still waiting for my period. It's probably starting tomorrow. So that explains some of it. But I wish I could be losing weight considering all the working out I'm doing.

Boo.

I've got 10.75 miles racked up so far. Today is a day off from the gym, and I had to eat out with my co-workers (yes--had to). I didn't do too badly, I ordered california fish tacos. They came in tiny corn tortillas--probably 5in in diameter. Mango salsa, grilled catfish, feta cheese and baby greens. And seriously. They were tiny. What wasn't tiny was the serving of black beans and rice that came with them. And that I ate.

Oh well. I didn't have breakfast and it's kept me full all day.

I'll probably have some pasta e fagioli leftovers that I made when I get home, and a pear or something later.

Should be a good day.

Not sure if I'm going to make it under 150 for Feb 14th though. I have 8 days to lose 4 pounds. Depending on my period it's a possibility, but I kind of doubt it. Ah well I'll just have to make the next goal to get back on track!

33-36

2007-02-05T11:05:00.000-05:00

Hmm.

I had a number of good days, but a couple of bad ones as well.

Firday was a full day meeting for work--I didn't have breakfast, and the company provided lunch and dinner. Neither was particularly healthy although I tried to make good choices with what I had. I filled half of my plate with salad, and chose a piece of salmon for protein. (Unfortunately I also had some pesto and pasta, and 2 bites of dessert. Then it was on to happy hours where I had 3 drinks (all mixed with diet soda), and then on to dinner where I had 3 more drinks and a chicken breast with sweet potato.

Not awful, but a lot of drink and food.

Sat was nearly perfect with food and exercise. One beer out at the bar and that was it.

Sun was a disaster. Pizza, spinach and artichoke dip, and beer. Oh my.

I do have 10.75 miles completed in my 60 in Feb though. So at least exercise is going well. I just need to get a handle on eating.

I had worked my way down to 153.4 as of sun morning. This morning I weighed in at 156.6. In one day I put on over 3 pounds. I figure a lot is bloat from the bad food and alcohol I had yesterday. Plus I'm supposed to start my period on Wed. So I'm sure it's mostly water.

But it's bad enough to scare me into compliance this week.

Bah.

32

2007-02-01T11:12:00.000-05:00

Still on track, chugging along. I did my 7/3 running yesterday, plus a bit more walking and 30 minutes on the bike. Burned 490, and did my little weights. Forgot abduction and adduction though so I will need to do those tonight.

I did only eat my packed lunch for dinner, along with a mug of chai tea before bed. So 1435 for the day.

Today I've had my oatmeal, I've got a lean cuisine for lunch, and then a pria bar for a pregym snack.

This month I'm really hoping to be prepared and follow through on my plans. No random food choices. I will research each place I usually go to eat, and come up with a list of possibilities. (The boyfriend and I eat at Einstein's, Chesapeake Bagel, and Silver Diner a lot during the weekend mornings. So that's a good start.)

As a good incentive, Amy (walkingthewalk on LiveJournal) and I are battling it out in a winner take all exercise competition!!! >:O

Okay, maybe not that hard core, but we're competing to see who can walk/jog the most miles in February. We both have a personal goal of 60 miles for the month of Feb, but the winner will just be who get's the most miles total. The winner gets a little something from the--non winner.

I think this will be good for me as I'm very competative, and it's really the push I need to keep my butt in the gym on a consistant basis.

In that vein, I will be going to the gym tonight. Now usually today is a light cardio day, and a heavy weight day. But in order to get my 3 miles in (my goal of 60 miles is based on doing 3 miles for every scheduled gym day in Feb) I will split my walking. So 30 minutes of walking before weights, and then a nice 30 minute walk after. I'll be doing my walking at 3.5 and 3.7 so actually I'll have a little more than three miles.

Perfect!

Day 31

2007-01-31T13:41:00.000-05:00

Well, the universe doesn't want me to lose weight.

That or I have no will power. So I made my lunch yesterday, and this morning I had my oatmeal for breakfast. Then when lunch rolled around I learned we were having a work lunch. The brought in these box lunches and my boss wanted my team to eat together. I felt dumb bringing my own lunch, so I decided to go ahead and have a box lunch with the team.

I had a ham and swiss sandwich on rye bread with mustard, a tiny fruit salad (1/4 cup), the same size pasta salad (not a mayo dressing, and had veggies), and a water. OH AND A BROWNIE THE SIZE OF MY HEAD. Sigh. I should have just ignored the brownie, but I feel awkward when people are like: oh it's so good you should try it.

Maybe I should fake an allergy to sugar.

So with that now I'm at 1000 calories. ALREADY. So if I have my little protein bar before the gym I'll be at 1110. Leaving...90 calories for dinner. Which obviously I'm not going to do. I think I'm going to have my packed lunch for dinner which will leave me at 325+1110= 1435.

Which of course is fine, but that's IF I stick to the meal plan.

I hope I'm not hungry tonight. Maybe I'll go to bed early.

Gym is heavy cardio today. Running @ 6.0 and I think bike today instead of arctrainer. I don't want my muscles to get accustomed to my work out.

Also little weight day.

27-30

2007-01-31T00:08:00.000-05:00

Well, I haven't been at my office for the past couple days (I went to training at a different office and didn't have my laptop.) so no updates.

Things have been going better lately. I've scared myself back into working out and eating well. My body is very odd. I will eat well and exercise for a while, lose weight, etc. Then if I take some time off, maybe make some poor food choices, maybe exercise sporadically, I don't put on much weight. Maybe 1-2 pounds.

But THEN. I'm like, okay let's get this under control and lose the rest of this weight. So I start eating better and exercising more--and I put on a bunch of weight! I was at 152 last week. Trying to ramp up to get under 150 before Feb 14th, I started eating 1200-1300 calories and working out a bunch. Yesterday I was at 155! How did I put on 3 pounds in a week?

My body hates me.

What I think it is is a bunch of water weight from the weight lifting. This happens every time I "gear up" for a serious weight loss attempt. But unfortunately this water likes to cling because I had serious issues trying to get rid of it last time it happened. Who knows.

I'm not sure I can lose 5 pounds in 14 days, but I'm going to give it my darndest try. Even if I don't make it (I really doubt I will, considering 1 pounds a week seems to be my average when I'm really trying.) at least I will be that much closer to my goal. :)

In that spirit, Sunday, yesterday and today have been good despite pizza for lunch yesterday (they brought it in for training). I just adjusted my dinner calories and had a huge spinach salad with low fat vinaigrette. A little cheese, a little grilled shrimp, and viola! A very big meal for only 200 calories. :)

Instead of running yesterday I did 40 minutes of cardio walking. I told the treadmill I wanted to walk @ 3.7, and it raised and lowered the elevation to keep my heart rate at 156. I burned around 300 calories with that. Then I went into my big lifting routine. I now also have a little lifting routine. The day before big lifting I do ab work, and adduction abduction exercises. I think part of my knee problem stems from redoing my weight lifting program and dropping a lot of the leg exercises. I thought that running would mostly take care of my legs, with squats and lunges to supplement. But I need more exercises that support the knee because now I think they're disproportionately weak.

Today was the day off from the gym. Tomorrow is a big cardio day and a little weight day. Did I mention I started running again? Instead of trying to get to 30 minutes @ 5.7 I've skipped to 30 min @ 6.0. I started on sunday with (7 min running 2 6.0--3 minutes walking @ 3.7) repeat 2 more times.

So I'll do that and some arc trainer and then little weights.

i've also packed my lunch for tomorrow, and I plan on having oatmeal for breakfast. Dinner I'm not sure of yet. I have a ton of spinach though so maybe something with that. Pasta, spinach, pine nuts, and feta? Mmm...sounds pretty good. Or maybe pear, feta, and pasta w/ balsamic vinegar. I love that. :D

26

2007-01-26T11:31:00.000-05:00

Bah! Off track before I even managed to get back on!

I think readiness is the watch word. "Be Prepared" the motto. Or something.

Things went well until after work. I was invited to the "going away" party for a friend. Really it was a happy hour celebrating his new job, thrown by his co-workers. In order to make it to that on time I wasn't able to work out. And although I worked one beer into my calories, what I did not work out was the hundreds of calories in nachos that I consumed, nor the margerita that my boyfriend got me at the next bar. (And the tortilla chips I had there.)

I don't want to totally cut off my social life, a big part of which is still happy hours and the bar scene. But I also want to lose weight. I need to figure out how those two things can work together.

Today has been just as bad. Because I stayed over at my boyfriend's place I wasn't able to pack my breakfast or lunch. Starving by 10am I had a bagel w/ cream cheese and a sugar free hot chocolate.

Today is traditionally my day off from the gym, but I may end up going if I have time just because this has been such a bad week. I think I'm supposed to go to the movies though so I'm not sure how that's going to work out. I'm going to have a turkey sandwich for lunch and plenty of water.

Not sure about dinner, but I have some left over shrimp. Maybe I'll grill them and add them to a salad.

Saturday I need to get my butt back in gear. I'm going to hit the gym and hit it hard. 1 hour cardio. I'm going to try and take some time to make a weekly meal plan. Or at least some guidelines based on what I have in the house right now.

I can still do this. Even one bad day won't stop me from getting to my goal. I just have to make sure it stays at one day.

24-25

2007-01-25T10:36:00.000-05:00

Good day yesterday. I followed the eating plan at work, then went to the gym and did 1 mile of running (taking it easy on the knee), then 30 minutes of arcTrainer, and then a series of ab exercises, and a few abduction, and adduction exercises.

I went home and then made a pretty tasty pasta dish. I sauteed some brocolli and shrimp together with chili flake and garlic (and 1 tbsp olive oil). At the end of cooking I added 1/4 cup of chicken stock and let that reduce down to make a slightly saucy consitency. I tossed that with half a cup of pasta, and threw in some feta cheese. Yummy!

Later I was feeling peckish, so I had a cottage cheese cup, some grapes, and a few walnuts. All told I had 1476 calories for the day, and burned a little more than 400.

Today I was going to try and get up early to go to the gym because I have a happy hour I wanted to go to for a friend. That didn't happen though because I had trouble going to sleep and I only ended up with 5 hrs sleep before my alarm went off. Bah.

So now I have to figure out where I'm going to put in my weight lifting. I think either way I'm going to need to lay off squats for a few more days and I'll only lift upper body stuff. My knee feels great this morning, but I can tell it's not 100%. It feels off--but it doesn't hurt. So I just need to take it easy for another week and then I can start lifting lower body again.

Everything is going well! I've already lost weight from where I started so I just need to keep this up. :)

20-23

2007-01-23T10:31:00.000-05:00

I think I'm fat again. It only took like a week.

I just don't care about eating when I can't workout.

The good news is though that my knee feels 99% mended. I'm resting today, and then I'll start working out tomorrow. I'm going to keep it pretty light on the first day. Maybe no running and just elliptical, and some ab weights. Just to test the water, and see how my knee does the next day. I just have to remember to do plenty of stretching and warmup.

Yesterday I had an egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (on whole wheat), a ceaser salad, and then some left over pasta with beans and tomato sauce. It doesn't look awful, but I'm sure it was closer to 2000 calories, than 1500. Bleh.

I have a couple goals to keep me going.

First I'm not going to announce a weigh in until I get below 150. I'm not posting what I weigh on this blog unless the numbers start with 149. I'm so mad for going above it again.

Then by Valentine's day (Feb 14th - 22 days - 3weeks + 1 day) I would like to be 149.

By March 7th, I would like to be 146.

By March 28th, I would like to be 144.

By April 18th, I would like to be 140.

By May 16th, I would like to be 138.

I think that's a reasonable weight loss schedule. It's only about 1 pound a week. In total it's 16 weeks until May 15th. And I have about 14 pounds to get to 138. (Depending on what I weigh today--it might even be 15 or 16.)

I can do this. I can stick with this until May. I can follow through and lose the weight. I just need to do it.

To reafirm my plan:

Workout 4-5 days a week. (Every other week take one extra day of just for stretching, centering, and rest.) Eat slightly more than the 1200 calories I was doing before. Between 1300 and 1400, but make sure the calories are better--more fruits and veggies. Lift weights twice a week. Heavy cardio 2-3 times a week. Light cardio 2 times a week.

Get more sleep. Continue cleaning a little every day. Alcohol will be limited to: Superbowl Sunday, Boyfriend's Birthday. (Ooh alliteration)

Today, to get started, I will do a quick once over cleaning of the house, take out the trash, and finish laundry. Go to the store and pick up: milk, eggs, wheat bread, blueberries, oatmeal, salmon, feta cheese, lean cuisines, splenda.

Tonight I will make my lunch. I will go to sleep somewhat early today, and wake up tomorrow, have a cup of chai tea with breakfast. After work I will go to the gym. After the gym I will have dinner, relax, make lunch, sleep, and then start the whole thing over again the next day.

Good, I like having a plan.

19

2007-01-19T15:37:00.000-05:00

Woe.

Yesterday was fine eating. Had my oatmeal, my lean cuisine, my pria bar, and then for dinner, a salad, quesadilla and milk. 1250. Very good.

No exercise. Very bad. My knee is almost totally better today I feel though. I'm going to rest it this weekend and start working out again Monday. If it feels bad Tuesday I'm going to the doctor.

Sigh.

So to console myself today I've had a burrito the size of my head. It was delicious, but it had cheese and sour cream (even though I said no cheese). Not a ton, because I watched her make it in the back. But maybe 2 tbsp of sour cream, and 1/4 cup of cheese. Lot of veggies, but also at least a cup of white rice, half a cup of beans, and 1/2 a chicken breast. Plus a huge tortilla. I estimate 800 calories just for the burrito.

I didn't have breakfast though and I haven't had anything else all day. (The good thing is it was filling.) If I go home and just have another salad for dinner I should be okay.

I wish my knee was better. If you're not exercising out there and your body is healthy go! Do it! take advantage! I regret any healthy days I didn't use. Because now I'm desperate to work out, but I just can't.

18

2007-01-18T11:06:00.000-05:00

Total crap day yesterday.

Food was fine, except for an incident with my whole grain wheat thins and peanut butter late at night. I was around 1000 calrories when that happened so I'm sure I ended up around 1400 not terrible.

What was terrible was my knee. It REALLY started hurting yesterday. Like I was having trouble walking on it at one point. So no exercise. ARGH. I'm getting really frustrated. I can lose weight right now, I know it, but I HAVE to exercise. My boyfriend is telling me to go to a doctor.

Oh course, this morning my knee feels great. Better than it ever has. Stupid knee.

I doubt I'm going to lose anything this week. And what ith brownies yesterday and peanut butter today I'm probably going to put weight on.

Sigh.

17

2007-01-17T11:57:00.000-05:00

Good day yesterday.

Ate:
Oatmeal
Lean Cuisine
Pria Bar
Pork Tenderloin
Broccoli + Cauliflower
cheese
walnuts
milk
whole grain wheat thins
AAAAAND
two mini brownies. :\

Ah well. They were small but full of butter so I estimate 350-400 for both.

Which puts me at 1450-1500 for the day. Inside my range, but it probably would have been better to swap out the brownie for another fruit and veggie.

I also worked out yesteday. My knee is tender this morning, but it was great after working out so I'm going to do it again. Just got to remember to give plenty of time to a warm up and stretching

I took it pretty easy yesterday--5 min warm up (7 min @ 5.7 then 3 minutes @ 3.7) * 3. Then a 2.5 min run 2.5 min walk. Then a 5 min cool down. Then 30 min on elliptical. I burned 600+ calories. I'll be doing the same today, and then on thursday I think I'll bike 15 min, elliptical 15 minutes to switch it up and do my weights.

Just gotta get a groove going here.

16

2007-01-16T11:39:00.000-05:00

I have nothing really new to report. I'm in a funk because of my knee. I think part of it is that--OMG I'm getting old. Why is my knee hurting now? After 3 years of running you'd think I'd be getting stronger and better at it. More resiliant. Instead I'm just breaking down and I'm at a loss (yes, I'm being a little dramatic--humor me. :B)

Today is the start of a new day. I'm not going to think about the past, or how I'm 2 weeks late on my exercise resolution. Instead I'm just starting over. My knee still twinges, but I'm going to workout on it. I will take anti-inflammatories first, and ice it after.

I will eat my oatmeal, my lean cuisine, and my pria bar. When I get home I will have my roasted pork tenderloin and my broccoli and cauliflower. And maybe a pear, gorgonzola, and spinach salad (got to make sure I'm eating enough calories there).

T think I'm going to post about my path to this point to remind myself why I'm doing this and how I've done it before and I shouldn't give up.

13-15

2007-01-15T14:11:00.000-05:00

This sucks.

My knee is still not better. It's better than it was, but it still hurts and it's still swollen. Bah. I'm resting today, because Monday is my day off--but then I'm going to go bike and elliptical on Tuesday. I reaaaaaally want to be able to run. :\

Food was okay, but not great this weekend. Alcohol was the real issue. The food was fine (Except yesterday when I had 2 tuna sandwiches for dinner. Bah.) I'm thinking I may need to give up alcohol for a little bit. Sad, but true.

Today since I'm not working out I will finish cleaning up my apartment. I will bag up the clothes I weeded out of my closet, I'll do laundry, and the floors. If I have time I will organize my bookshelf and toss hair/skin products that I don't use. Then my aprtment will be spotless. All I have to do then is come up with a daily quick plan that will keep my place neat during the week, so that on the weekends I just need to do some scrubbing and the place will be totally clean.

Then I need to go to target and get some frames, get 2 posters framed, and a new desk chair. That will need to wait until I have some extra money.

Food today is fine, and I'm going to roast a pork loin for dinner and save the left overs for the rest of this week.

I'm so frustrated that I haven't been able to attack my workouts. I'm getting so close to the lower 140s. That's all I want right now.