March 23, 2011 By thea
It felt good to get back to it. My mood has improved dramatically over the past several days, in no small part to my March race.
I feel like I’m getting myself back to the spot I was physically a few weeks ago…which has helped my desire to fuel my body…and my desire to sleep…and my desire to have some reading downtime during the day.
It’s all connected, yo.
Food – 5 Fruits and Veggies every day, and pre-packaged snacks can’t have more than 5 ingredients. I got no less than 4 servings every day, and managed to get that 5th serving in a couple of days. I did much better with the snacking this week, too…4 out of the 7 days! Let’s pretend I didn’t makeout with peanut butter and pretzels one night, m’kay?
Fitness – 30 minutes of cardio 4-5 days a week and 10-15 minutes of strength type stuff 5 days a week. I had a total of about 1.5 hours of cardio in this week, spread over 3 days and only 2 strength sessions. Better than last week but not where I want to be.
Fun/Focus – Read 1 or 2 chapters every day and get 7 hours of sleep every night. I got 5 chapters in this week, and I’m back to sleeping 7 hours EVERY NIGHT! Yay for antibiotics!!
March 9, 2011 By thea
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to say this, but I’ve had a STELLAR week. WOOHOO! That was a long time coming.
It was tough, but I just buckled down and did it. Every day I had a choice. Hell, every meal I had a choice. And I think I did pretty daggone good.
Food – 5 Fruits and Veggies every day, and pre-packaged snacks can’t have more than 5 ingredients. I had 5 F/v on 3 days, 4 F/V on 3 days, and 3 F/V on 1 day. That’s a vast improvement over my 2-a-day habit. And I did not have one single snack all week that had more than 5 ingredients!
Fitness – 30 minutes of cardio 4-5 days a week and 10-15 minutes of strength type stuff 5 days a week. I got 30 minutes of cardio in on 3 days and I got strength in on 4 days. Perfect? No. But progress!
Fun/Focus – Read 1 or 2 chapters every day and get 7 hours of sleep every night. 6 chapters read over 7 days and I got 7 hours of sleep EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. Not all of it was restful (stupid head cold), but I was in bed for 7 hours. That’s huge.
And can I just say that my partner, Jen, is amazing? We have been e-mailing every day and I just love talking things out with her. So much of this journey is about SO MUCH MORE than food and exercise, you know? It’s good to hash things out with someone!
March 2, 2011 By thea
I kind of disappeared at the end of that last challenge, didn’t I?
NOT TO BE REPEATED THIS TIME, I ASSURE YOU!
So, I’m super-duper excited for this challenge. I have an awesome partner (everybody say hi to Jen…. HI, JEN!) and we are going to tear this challenge UP!
I’M IN LOVE WITH MY CAPS LOCK TODAY!
Anyhoo, Jen and I are choosing to not focus on that pesky little number on the scale for this challenge. I’m still cruising along in Maintenance Mode and Jen has kicked her scale to the curb because she’s focusing on her overall health.
As a team, we decided we would each come up with three goals for our self: a food goal, a fitness goal, and a fun/focus goal. Of course, we each picked more than three. : P
Here’s mine: Food – 5 Fruits and Veggies every day, and pre-packaged snacks can’t have more than 5 ingredients. Fitness – 30 minutes of cardio 4-5 days a week and 10-15 minutes of strength type stuff 5 days a week.
Fun/Focus – Read 1 or 2 chapters every day and get 7 hours of sleep every night.
So there you have it! It’ll be a challenge to find pre-packaged foods with 5 ingredients or less, but I guess that’s the whole point right? I’m challenging myself to pay attention to what goes into my mouth. I already know of one cracker that only has 3, and I was a little crushed to find out that my favorite snack has 7 (I thought sure it only had 5), but that’s the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.
February 2, 2011 By thea
I never confessed it yesterday, but I had a big bout of Emotional Eating for lunch yesterday. I went to McDonald’s and ordered a Quarter Pounder with Cheese Value Meal with a side of Cinnamon Melts.
On the way home, I realized what I had just done. Instead of cramming the food down my pie hole out of frustration (does anyone else eat faster when they are mad???) I decided to own up to my decision and enjoy my food. I slowed my eating down and savored each bite.
Did I regret it later my lunch later? Oh yeah. But there was no side of guilt to go along with it. There was no depression based on what I ate. I bought, ate it, enjoyed it, and moved on.
Heck, I even still worked out instead of giving in to that brick that was in my stomach. And I worked out hard. I ran my fastest mile ever and had a PR on the 5k distance.
As I sit here and write this, the song Defying Gravity pops into my head…
Something has changed within me Something is not the same I’m through with playing by the rules Of someone else’s game Too late for second-guessing Too late to go back to sleep It’s time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!
That’s where I am now. I’ve changed. I’ve turned a corner. I feel good. I’m happy. I’m strong.
It’s been a good week, ya’ll. A very good week, indeed. I maintained at 157.
I’ll take it.
1. 10 minutes of either abs or yoga in the morning before the kids get up 3 days a week. – DID IT! 2. Run/Walk 3 days and cross-train 2-3 days a week. – 4 runs , 3 strength, in and 1 spinning in. 3. One sweet a day, at the END of the day. – Slipped up a little bit yesterday, but I hit it every other day.!
4. Limit pre-packaged foods. – I’m still struggling a little bit at night with this one, but for the most part I’m reaching for fruits and veggies during the day inistead of chips. That’s major progress.
January 12, 2011 By thea
This week has been a little rough around the edges. I’ve been sick going on 7 days now, and while I’m starting to feel better, last weekend was really, really bad.
My head felt like it had a vice grip around it. There were a couple of times that I went to walk across the room and had to stop and grab onto something because of the shooting pains I was getting in my head.
No fun.
So, my workouts were down, my eating was a little wonky, and I just generally felt blech, you know?
All that being said, I dd post a loss this week. It wasn’t as much as I was hoping for, but a loss is a loss and I’ll take it. I’m down .4 this week, which puts me at 157.6
This week will be better. It will be.
- 10 minutes of either abs or yoga in the morning before the kids get up. – I intended to write “3 days a week”, which is exactly what I did. : )
- Run/Walk 3 days and cross-train 2-3 days a week. -UGH!!! I can try to blame this on being sick, but that wasn’t all of it… I was on the treadmill twice, and that was it.
- One sweet a day, at the END of the day. – 6 out of 7 days. I did pretty good with this one!
- Limit pre-packaged foods. – I was picking fruit and veggies for snacks whenever I could.
January 5, 2011 By thea
Howdy ho, neighbors! Oh. Wait. The Holiday Hoe-down is over. Let’s try that again.
HI EVERYBODY!
I feel like I am a little late to the game because I was gone last week, so I’m just going to jump right into it.
I didn’t have access to a decent scale last week, so I’m going to use today’s weigh in as my starting point. This morning, I weighed in at 158.
This is up 1.5 pounds from 2 weeks ago. You know what? 1.5 pounds over Christmas AND New Year’s AND a road trip? I’ll take it. I just need to get back in the swing of things and start living intentionally.
My weight goal for this whole year is to stay in my healthy range of 153-157 pounds. I’ve started a new ticker (see it over there on the right?) for staying in this range in 2011. In 2010, I was able to stay in the range for 29/52 weeks. I know I can do better than that this year.
And you know what’s going to help me get there? Goals. Specific, quantifiable goals. Here’s what I have on tap for this challenge:
- 10 minutes of either abs or yoga in the morning before the kids get up.
- Run/Walk 3 days and cross-train 2-3 days a week.
- One sweet a day, at the END of the day.
- Limit pre-packaged foods.
So there you have it! 2011, my best year yet.
October 6, 2010 By thea
Evidently I smothered those 2 pounds in love and suffocated them because they have vacated the premises.
I can’t say that I miss them.
I worked really hard this week on not putting crap into my body. By no means was I perfect, but the good stuff far outweighed the bad stuff that was going in.
And you know what? I can tell that it’s making a difference in my workouts. The one day that I had a crap dinner, I had a crap run.
Coincidence? I think not.
So this week I’m continuing on making my body a priority…giving it the fuel it needs to bust out these workouts.
Less than 5 weeks to my first 10k, and I’m going to blow it out of the water.
September 29, 2010 By thea
Sometimes, my own niceness scares me.
I was so worried about that lonely little pound that I went ahead and gained another one to keep it company!
Isn’t that sweet? I thought so!
And because I’m so nice and even though there are 2 pounds to send packing, I’m not even worrying about it.
Isn’t it amazing how we can go back and forth between zen and obsessive when it comes to weight loss (or maintenance or whatever)? I gained weight this week but I’m o.k. with it.
My clothes still fit, in fact I had to tighten the belt one more notch. I feel good. I’m happy. I’m active. I’ve picked new fitness goals.
How can that be wrong?
So those two pounds can play together happily until my body decides they serve no purpose and kicks them out. All I can do is give my body the tools it needs to do it’s job.
I’m just the assistant.
And a nice one at that.
August 22, 2010 By thea
These past few weeks have wreaked havoc on my schedule, eating, drinking, sleeping, and working out.
Yes, I had a mostly great time visiting my in-laws and then playing host to my sister, her boyfriend, and all of their kids. But…
I am pretty far off track. I knew the side trip was coming, but I went a little further off the path than I intended. I’ve been eating like a fiend. I haven’t worked out since August 13th. I’ve been going to bed after midnight every night.
Alcohol.
Desserts.
Desserts.
TORTILLA CHIPS!!!
But it’s time to get back on track. It might take me a few days, but I’ll get there.
August 18, 2010 By thea
I weighed in last week from my in-laws. The scale said 154 and I was skeptical.
I was either right, or having been eating like my life depended in it.
Or both.
I weighed in this morning at 160.2. That’s up 6 pounds people. SIX POUNDS!!
I’m off track a little. I’m not on the right road to achieve my goals. But, I can still see the main road from my little detour so I just need to get back to where I’m supposed to be.
I knew last week would be tough with eating while I was on the road trip. And I was right.
I knew this week would be tough with exercise while I have house guests. And I was right.
But, I’m having a good time. And I know what I have to do. It’s just a matter of doing it.
Oh, and I’m way down with my water intake. Come to think about it, that’s probably a huge portion…I usally have 80-100 ounces a day and I’ve only gotten about 20-30 the last 2 days.
That might also explains why I wake up feeling like I have cotton in my mouth.
Changes will be made today. Oh yes they will. I have no grand statements for what the scale will say next week, but I will make changes TODAY!