Find Sand, Insert Head

I decided on not weighing myself yesterday.  Well, sort of.  I weighed myself...but I didn't look.  I had Miguel look.  I told him if it was over 190 I didn't want to know.  He told me that it was.  Of course I had to pester him with questions.  Was it over 191?  Was it more than a pound over 189.4?  I thought you didn't want me to tell you?  I don't.  Kind of.  Anyway, he ended up telling me it was under 191 but over 190.4 pounds.  So I sort of know but I don't really know and I think not seeing those numbers myself will help keep me from getting the scale blues.

So on Thursday I finally met my c25k match with Week 6/Day 2.  The session called for two 10 minute runs with a 3 minute walk in between.  During the second run I started to feel a cramp building in the bottom of my left foot.  My calves were feeling a little crampy too but I had experienced that before.  The foot cramping scared me because I didn't want to suddenly fall.  I stopped at minute 5 and started walking.  I thought I'd have to walk the rest of the way but after 3 minutes I decided to try and complete the last 5 minutes.  I started jogging again and I was able to finish without actually cramping.  I don't know what the foot thing is about but I hope it doesn't happen again. 

Yesterday's (Friday) workout went okay.  I had a busy day and ended up only having a piece of cornbread for lunch.  I got to the gym after work and felt frustrated with myself for not planning better.  By time I finished my workout I felt shaky.  In the past I probably would have thought little food + a workout is a good thing.  Now I know better.  Darnit, why do I let this happen again and again?  Ok, I'm going to put some AccelGels in my gym bag right now (done) so at the very least when if this happens again I'll have an emergency backup plan.  My workout was fine but I knew it would have been better if I had more fuel in my system.  I decided to do the plank again and held it for 40 seconds without too much difficulty.

Another ongoing frustration is my diet.  I'm doing pretty well under day-to-day circumstances.  It's late nights and "special occasions" that are killing me.  When I stay up late I get hungry after a while and lately I've been eating a bowl of cereal.  Those are extra calories I just don't need.  Another thing is every time I eat outside of the house seems to be a "special" occasion lately, even though I know it's not really.  Most of the time I'm not even hungry, I'm just eating for the fun of it.  I need to intervene with myself.  Not sure if WW is the way to do that or not.  I like the meetings.  I just looked at the meeting schedule and, unfortunately, none of the times are an easy fit with my schedule.  I think I'll just hang on and keep doing what I'm doing but try and cut out the late night cereal and the eating for fun.  I really don't want all my hard work at the gym to go to waste.

It's Saturday and I was planning a gym visit.  Miguel is working and doesn't plan to be home until after 6:30pm.  The gym closes at 7pm so that won't work.  I can either pay a day use fee to go somewhere else or I can workout on my own.  That might be even better.  I've been wanting to hit the outdoors for a run and today is a 25 minute run.  If I do it outside I can pace myself, slow down when I need to without necessarily walking.  I can do squats, lunges and calf raises without a machine.  I think I have at least one set of free weights around for the shoulder exercises.  Otherwise I can improvise somehow.  At least I'll get it done.  Even if Miguel gets home earlier maybe I should run outside regardless, I think I'm ready.

Slow Down Sister

I declared the party over on Tuesday but in reality it just keeps on rolling.  Tuesday evening I had a mom's night out.  I planned to skip all food and only have one glass of champagne.  Didn't happen.  Yesterday (Wed) I ate so much you would have thought I was in a competition.  I went out for lunch with a friend and ate a gigantic crab quesadilla.   For dinner my mom came over and grilled steaks and I ate a 1/2 one with a 1/2 baked potato and asparagus.  Wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the butter, sour cream, crunchy fat parts of the steak, etc, etc.  Not to mention I wasn't even actually hungry yet after my big lunch.  Then, after dinner, I had a board meeting at which I planned to have no alcohol and no food.  I did skip the alcohol but I ended up eating some "bad" appetizer type food. 

Because of all of that, plus the never-ending cake, I am considering taking a pass on my weigh-in tomorrow.  I remember Weight Watchers would let you do this now and again and I think it might be in my own best interest this week.  I don't want to see a big gain and start moping around and feeling bad about myself.  If I think I can handle a gain without getting negative on myself then I'll go ahead and weigh in, but something tells me I should skip it. 

The good news is my gym routine is still firmly in place.  My days off this week were Sunday and yesterday (Wednesday) so I will need to go each day for the remainder of the week (Thur, Fri, Sat) to reach my 5x a week goal.  I am doing Week 6/Day 2 today - two 10 minute runs with a 3 minute walk between runs.  I hope that goes well.  Then on Saturday I'll have a 25 minute run.  That should be interesting.  Wish me luck!

The Party's Over

And it's a good thing too, otherwise I'd likely see a gain this week.  We had little Myra's first ever birthday party on Sunday and it was a blast!  We had SO MUCH fun with all our friends.  The only thing about those parties is you never get enough time to talk to everyone.  But I had plenty of time to eat cake!  My mom got the cake and it was way too good.  Seriously, it was good.  And I ate a lot of it.  Too much. I won't even tell you how many bites and slices I ate on Sunday and yesterday - but I gave away the last leftovers last night so thank goodness it's gone or I'd probably be standing at the refrigerator right now with a fork. 

And I didn't let 35 pounds of extra fat stop me from getting in the pool with my babies.  I had a blast playing with Marek in the too-fun kids pool and then spent some time laughing it up with Myra in the water too.  The kids had a great time, seeing their smiles and hearing them laugh was the best part of the day.  Myra massacred her cake and also went to town on one of the chocolate dipped pretzels I made. 

I started out the holiday weekend telling myself that I was in control of everything that went in my mouth.  Too bad that didn't translate into a little more self-restraint but oh well, what's done is done.  Time to move on.  And I am.

I didn't go to the gym on Saturday or Sunday, planned days off. But I did yesterday and wow!  What a difference the time off made.  I did Week 6/Day 1 on the treadmill and I am certain I could have run 25 minutes without a hitch.  It just felt so easy.  I know from experience that once I start tallying up the gym days it won't stay easy but it sure was a nice break from the tough running sessions.  I did chest and triceps and core work followed by 5 minutes on the stair climber.  The stair climber is getting a bit too easy so I upped the pace to 43 steps per minute.  I think I was doing 41.  That's probably a barely noticeable increase but since this is done after my whole workout I don't want to get too crazy.  Closed out with a nice stretching session and left feeling ready to face the world.  I had this whole scheme to eat only fruit on Monday to cleanse from all that cake.  Didn't happen.  I ate more cake, some chips...you get the idea.  Like I said, good thing the party is over and the cake is gone.

Today I have a fun day planned.  I am off work today (I planned it because I figured I'd need to recover from the party) and I'm using my last massage gift card at Sonoma Mission Inn.  I'm headed to the gym now and then there to relax, rejuvenate, renew, re-evertyhing.  I need to be extra aware with the food intake the rest of this week but I'm feeling very motivated by my 189.4 weight.  I don't want to go back into the 190's and I would like to lose the .4 and pass the 10 pounds lost mark.  Let's hope I can pull it off!!

p.s. there was THE FITTEST super hot woman at the gym yesterday that I have possibly ever seen outside of a magazine.  She must be a fitness model or a competitor or something.  This woman would need NO airbrushing for her cover of Shape.  Her waist was like barbie's (as were her breasts) and while she was tiny, every muscle showed, including all her abs.  And she had full makeup on!  She worked out in an sports bra and skin tight workout pants and man, I had a hard time not staring at her.  If she's there again I might just have to talk with her.  I am dying to know what she does with that body (i.e. modeling or competing or what). /p.s.

Really Moving Now!

One last post before the weekend gets away from me.  We are planning Myra's one year birthday party and I have a feeling I'm going to be busy,busy until then.  A quick gym report before I get to the good stuff.

Thursday I had to face the music with Week 5/Day 3, another 20 minute run.  When I got on the treadmill my stomach started growling and I realized it'd been 4 hours since I ate lunch.  Not good.  But, I had a day off on Wednesday and I did not do legs/shoulders in the days prior so I was hoping things would be better than last time, and they were.  Though it was still harder than I would have liked it wasn't a minute by minute personal hell.  I thought a lot during the run about how to describe the level of difficulty and came up with either medium-hard or 7 on a scale of 1-10.  My heart rate was fairly good, my legs ached and, well, it was the treadmill so I got bored too.  After the run I did legs & shoulders for weight training, core work and 5 minutes on the stair climber before stretching.  My entire workout was a challenge and I think it would have been a lot better if I had remembered to eat a snack!  I got irritated with myself, I don't need to be adding to the difficulty by not fueling my workouts.

On Thursday night I was lucky enough to go out with some friends for cocktails.  I needed a mom's night out.  We met up at a nice bar and I had vodka with soda water, the lowest calorie drink I can think of (besides beer that tastes like water).  I was struggling with what to eat but in the end I got a poached salmon salad with the dressing on the side. I also ate 3 pieces of fried calamari and a few french fries from what my friends ordered. All in all I think I did well.  Alcohol is always a challenge, add that to being in a restaurant and it's not easy to stay on track.

The best part though was definitely the girl talk. We all shared and listened and supported one another.  At one point I referred to myself as "plus sized" and they set me straight right away.  So I then re-qualified myself as an "xl girl".  Nope, they didn't want to let that go either, though I really am an xl right now.  Just the support, the encouragement, the positive outlook was so nice to hear.  I sometimes have a tendency to think of myself in terms of who I was years ago, and not just in reference to my body but also my personality.  I have changed.  A lot.  I am me now, and I am a good person.  Sometimes I just need to be reminded of that by some good friends and that's exactly what I got.  So thank you Monique, Erica, Laura, Deb - I'm grateful to have you gorgeous ladies in my life!

Today (Friday) I took a 1/2 day off so I was able to go to the gym only an hour or so after lunch.  I think it helped that I had eaten something recently.  I did 25 minutes on the bike, Level 5 - rocked it!  Then I did back and biceps.  My back has not hurt much lately and my abs feel a lot stronger so I decided to do one set of back extensions and see how that feels.  Doing them felt fine, we'll see if I hurt tomorrow or Sunday as a result.  After core work and the stair climber I stretched and hit the road.

Onward.  Good thing #1 - a mom in my club was giving away her old hard-tail mountain bike and I happened to be on the computer when the email went out.  Well I jumped on the chance and I am the proud new owner.  My beloved old Cannondale (pictured here) was stolen out of our garage a couple years ago (when we lived in our condo, I don't think I ever mentioned it here).  We don't know exactly when it was stolen, we just realized one day that it was gone.  I was so sad because Miguel helped me fix it up and turn it into what we called my "around town" bike.  He bought me a big cushy seat and I had a rack put on the back and a kickstand.  Well, now I have a new bike I can turn into an around town bike.  I just wish I loved it like I did my old bike.  That Cannondale was the first bike I ever purchased, I was living on the big island of Hawaii and I was getting into shape, I cried when I bought that bike because I knew it was a sign.  1995 - 200?  RIP Green Cannondale.

The other piece of good news is, it's weigh-in Friday!!  You know that means I lost or I wouldn't be acting like weigh-in Friday is a good thing.  I lost...ready for it?  TWO POUNDS!   Yippee!  I'm in the 180's with 189.4 pounds.  The hard work is continuing to pay off.  I am thisclose to the 10 pounds lost mark.  Hopefully next week but if not, that's ok too.

Well, that's it for me folks.  I'm headed into a busy weekend but hopefully I'll catch some down time to post. Not sure what my workout plans are, I hit 5x already this week so will probably take tomorrow (Sat) off.  Sunday is Myra's party so I might have to take that off (though her party is in the mid-morning/early afternoon so I might make it.  Monday is a holiday and I took Tuesday off so I know I'll get there those days at least.  I hate to start the week (Sun) with a day off so hopefully I can do Sun, Mon, Tue.

Now that's really it.  Bye for now!!  Hope you get out there and do something fun this weekend!!!

Darnit, I Want Some Chocolate!

Almost bad enough to drive to the store and buy some. I think I'll make some hot chocolate after I write this, hopefully that will fix my cravings.

So things are going well. I went to the gym on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so far this week. [So much for waiting until I finished this post, I just made my hot chocolate] On Sunday I did c25k Week 5/Day 1 and was hoping for an easy run. It was fine, but not the "easy" I was hoping for. Afterward I did my strength training routine. On Monday I rode the bike, level 5, for 25 minutes, more strength training. On Tuesday I did c25k again, Week 5/Day 2 and unfortunately it still wasn't "easy". Bummer. Not feeling so optimistic about my 20 minute run tomorrow (W5/D3) but hoping it will be, at minimum, better than last time.

Today (Wednesday) was a day off from the gym. Food wise things have been going ok. I went out to lunch on Tuesday and instead of my normal grilled salmon sandwich with soup I got a Mediterranean salad with grilled salmon. I got the dressing on the side and used just a little of it. I don't have the calorie count but I think the salad was a better choice than the soup and sandwich and I felt better about the whole thing and that's probably more important in any case. I thought I had two social events this week but they are next week so I can relax a little. I had a whole scheme though for the food I would eat, etc. Next week I can put that into motion.

We are having a party for Myra this weekend - can you believe my little sweetheart is already turning 1 year old?? [Just finished the hot chocolate and it hit the spot] Time flies by so fast it's almost scary. I am looking forward to a party for my little love and to some fun times with our friends. Hopefully I'll be too busy to eat too much. This is a holiday weekend so I am taking an extra day off to really add to the fun. I bought one of those discount daily deal massages and I'm thinking about getting it on Tuesday. Should be a nice day.

I'm planning to hit the gym tomorrow (Thursday), and either Friday or Saturday depending on how things go. Friday is good so I can take Saturday off and start the week with three days in a row of gym time, which I like. I don't want to go to the gym more than 3 days in a row if I can help it. If I go Saturday then I can work out Sunday, Monday, and would have to skip Tuesday. No, don't like that, I definitely want to go on Tuesday since I'll be off work and can spend as long as I want. Thursday and Friday it is.

Oh! That reminds me. During my first training session with Ken he had recommended situps on a decline bench. I couldn't do even one at that time. I decided to try them again the other day and I could do eight! I have since done a bit of research and going all the way down might put strain on my back so if I can't do them without going all the way down I will skip them. Man, finding ab workouts that are not a strain on your back is not easy. Since weak abs mean your back will have to fill in to get the job done I will hopefully be able to return to some of these when my abs are stronger. My virtual coach suggested crunches on the stability ball, maybe it's time to give those a try.

That's it for me. I just got some good news, nothing huge but something I'm excited about - more on that another day. Night all!