Food – The Shrinking Jeans of Thea

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August 31, 2011 By thea

Well, I didn’t quite make my goal of 2 pounds down from last week, but I am down 1 pound so I’ll take it. Overall for the challenge, I’m up a pound or two. What’s done is done, so there’s no use worrying about it. Time to move forward and make good choices THIS week.

But I’m not going to lie to you. I really, REALLY want to be back in my healthy weight range (2 pounds to go!) and start moving that little slide rule thingy over on my sidebar. It’s been sitting still for far too long.

Here are my specific goals:

  1. Dessert only once a week – Um… One time… Three times… Who’s counting, really?
  2. No snacking after 9pm – This is the one thing I’ve been able to keep up consistently over the course of the challenge. I haven’t had anything after 9pm for several weeks.
  3. Complete 7 out of 8 4 out of 5 cardio workouts a week – Nailed it! I need to get back on the bike though, and soon. I haven’t been on since by tri at the beginning of the month (it was traumatic, yo) and I have my last tri of the season in about 3.5 weeks.
  4. Follow Boot Camp plan Get in 3 strength sessions a week – I got at least two in, I know that. But I forget to keep track. BAD, GOAL SETTER!

August 24, 2011 By thea

Goals? What goals? Did I make goals?

Wait. What? I did make goals?

Well, crap.

I’ve kind of let the goals go by the wayside. Which might explain why I’ve been gaining weight since the first week of this challenge. I’m technically a non-loser, but  seem to be confused because I’ve turned that from “not trying to lose” into “actually gaining”.

I’m disappointed. But not discouraged. I know why I’m gaining. It’s like my mind, will power, and better judgement kind of checked out over the summer.

But I’m going to follow through with the mini-challenge this week and finish out this challenge with a bang. I’m going to put a one-week goal out there that I will be at 158 or below by next Wednesday. That’ll be a two pound loss. While that won’t put me quite back into my healthy range of 153-157, it’ll put me closer than I am now.

And just to refresh your (and my) memory, here’s the goals I set out for this challenge:

  1. Dessert only once a week
  2. No snacking after 9pm
  3. Complete 7 out of 8 4 out of 5 cardio workouts a week – I’m amending this one because my training schedule doesn’t have as many workouts any more.
  4. Follow Boot Camp plan Get in 3 strength sessions a week – Again, another amendment since I never really did the boot camp plan.

August 3, 2011 By thea

While I’m still carrying around the same attitude about summer as I had last week, I think it’s safe to say that I’m in a bit of a slump.

While I did lose a bit of weight this week, I’m still in a number range I don’t want to be in.

My ice cream/shake/dessert consumption has been off the charts.

My new found desire to track my food so I can properly fuel my body for triathlons has had a head on collision with my age old desire to not care about crap like that.

My cardio sessions have been cut way, way down out of pure laziness and lack of oomph.

My weight/resistance training has…well…I never really had that so I guess you can’t miss what you’ve never done.

My inner “I DON’T WANNA!!” is definitely rearing her ugly little head.

I’m going to try to knock her out this week. She’s quite the annoying one.

July 27, 2011 By thea

I’ll be the first to admit, I haven’t been very faithful to my goals and to any kind of healthy eating this summer.

Which why it isn’t too surprising that I’ve gained 5 pounds in the last month or so. That dreaded 160 is back on the scale.

But you know what? I’m cool with it. I’ve really been enjoying my summer. And I know that the weight will come off.  I just need to buckle down and stop the slippery slope. I’ll get back to where I want to be. I’m confident of that.

About the only goal I’ve kept up with is the eating after 9pm. I seemed to have kicked that one to the curb, which pleases me greatly.

We were gone on vacation last week and there was a lot of desserts. Like, every day. But they were really good, and I don’t regret it at all. Also, since we were gone, I didn’t get a few of my training swims in, but I did pretty well with my biking and running. I completed a tri on Sunday, the 24th, and I was able to take 11 minutes off my previous time so I must be something right, right??

July 13, 2011 By thea

Summer is kicking my butt, guys. Last week in particular was pretty rough food wise. Based on my confessions yesterday, it’s no surprise that the scale showed a gain this week.

I’m a good two pounds out of my goal range, but I’m not discouraged. It’s just time to get back to the program…do what I know works, eat what I know fuels me, and relax about the whole thing. My stomach has not been happy with me lately, and I can’t blame it.

I started back to food tracking several weeks ago, but I got away from it last week. I’m not coming at it from a weight loss perspective, but rather a “fuel my body for insanely long workouts” perspective. Sports nutrition has been on my mind a lot lately.

Time to work the plan, yo.

Despite my horrible eating last week, I still pretty much rocked my goals!

  1. Dessert only once a week – I think I had dessert twice, maybe 3 times. Always ice cream, but pretty sensible portions. Let’s just pretend I imagined the caramel and hot fudge, though, m’kay?
  2. No snacking after 9pm – Actually, I nailed this every night.
  3. Complete 7 out of 8 cardio workouts a week – Getting stuff in while away last week proved a little hard. I was able to get 5 of my workouts in. I think I did something every single day.
  4. Follow Boot Camp plan – This one has definitely gone by the wayside. Time is just too much of an issue these days.

June 22, 2011 By thea

I always consider the first week of a new challenge almost like the trial run. A few days in and I forget what goals I set and then I have to look back and then there’s always that unplanned whatever that throws me for a loop.

Did I do 100% on my goals? No.

Did I gain weight? Yes. (But seriously? So what. I’m out of my weight range for the first time since FEBRUARY. That’s kick ass, yo.)

Could it have been worse? Always. It could always, always be worse.

  1. Dessert only once a week – I only had two big desserts this week. We went out for ice cream once after dinner and I had a shake when we went out to eat last night.
  2. No snacking after 9pm – I never did put the gum on the end table, but I managed to only have a late snack once last week. And really, the only reason I did it was because I realized very late that I had only eaten 1300 calories for the days. That’s way low. It may sound like justification, but it’s worth breaking one goal to not starve.
  3. Complete 7 out of 8 cardio workouts a week – I got 5 1/2 of my training workouts this week. Pretty darn good…it’s getting a little harder to finagle my time with the kids around.
  4. Follow Boot Camp plan – I was able to get it done on Monday…in my own way. I didn’t do it straight thru without breaks the way it was designed, but I did it in short little bursts while I was getting dinner ready. This is going to be a tough one. Getting one cardio session in a day is hard enough. Getting a 2nd workout in might just kill me. I’m not going to change this goal, but it is admittedly the lowest on the priority list.

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.