Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Still not easy

Okay, the holiday season is going to be difficult. I say this because the last two days have involved bad food at work and good food at home. So, this is not going to be easy given parties and so on and so forth. I briefly saw 152.5 on the scale last night, I think it was a not to be repeated fluke given my food today. On the plus side, exercise has been really excellent and I do feel like I am pushing myself there. Just not giving myself a lot to work with by eating too many bad food choices. So, must work on that, despite the fact we are having chocolate fondue at work next wednesday and I love chocolate and fruit. My goal basically is not to gain any weight over the next few weeks, everything else is a bonus. So, still plugging along as best I can for right now, and hoping that I can make each day better than the previous one. After two years, it still is not easy and that is the honest truth.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Movement

As you may have noticed, a while back I entered yet another plateau in terms of weightloss. In other words, I hit 154 and then danced around that number for a really long time. However, this morning I finally saw real movement on the scale in the correct direction. I now weight 153 lbs, hopefully it will last. I suppose it helps that I am killing myself at the gym, I have increased my running speed, the amount of weight I am lifting, and added in more ab work and core fitness. Last night, which is normally a night off, I did 45 situps, core fitness, and some other ab work. I also briefly lifted some weights. This morning was cardio and weights. This evening will involve squats, lunges, and weights (possibly with some core fitness thrown in). I am pretty much on track with my diet, a couple minor slipups yesterday but nothing which threw off my calories for the day. I am replacing my coffee with hot tea for three reasons, first there are no calories in tea, second drinking tea is supposed to be good for you, and third having a hot beverage in the morning is the only thing which prevents me from freezing to death in my office. I will actually save calories this way because I put creamer and sugar in my coffee and that makes a 50-100 calorie beverage which I do not need to be drinking. Oh, and you want to know the really annoying thing about this, my brother who told me to do all of this was absolutely right. Sigh. As a younger sibling one attempts to never admit that your older sibling is correct about anything, it is an unwritten rule. Oh well, if I start losing weight again, I guess I can live with admitting that my brother was right about something.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Day 2 and counting

So far so good. I am on Day 2 of the no coffee plan and it seems to be working out. Well, other than the fact I am absolutely freezing right now and that is despite wearing three layers of clothing on top. I do have tea in my cupboard at home so maybe I will start bringing that into work, I have not decided whether or not I am drinking tea. I am also on track with everything else as well, yogurt in the morning, a thing of applesauce when I finished working out, and last night I had an omelet instead of pasta or rice. I am hopeful that all of these minor tweaks to my diet will help jumpstart my stalled progress. I am also working very hard at not snacking at work during the day, I am pretty sure that is where I am picking up a lot of unwanted calories in my diet. In terms of exercise, I am doing pretty well and today I actually managed to run at 6.8 mph for 30 minutes. That is a pace of around 8 minutes and 40 seconds per mile which is nice. I am going to do abs and core fitness exercises tonight and maybe lift some weights. I could not lift weights this morning because I had to go pick up my cat from the people who looked after her while I was gone. So, I only had 90 minutes at the gym, not two hours. My cat by the way, is very annoyed to be home and not at the fun house where she gets lots of treats, however I am sure she will adjust to being home.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Back from Vacation

I am back at work today after a trip of about 16 hours to get back to my little tropical island from the U.S. Mainland. The mini vacation was good for me in a lot of ways, mostly getting back on track and making life decisions sort of ways. First, I have decided that I am only going to stay out here for another 6-8 months so I am now begining the job hunt in earnest. Second, I am going to use that 6 month time frame to really work on these last 30-40 lbs I cannot seem to lose right now. So, today there was no coffee because I am cutting it out of my diet for right now, and because I have been dousing my spinal cord in massive amounts of caffine everyday and that cannot be a good plan. Second, I am getting serious about my weight lifting, I actually kicked up the weights a lot this morning and was sweating like a little maniac which had to be a good thing. Third, I am cutting pasta, cereal, and rice out of my diet for right now, I end up eating a fair amount of bread at work and I do not need to add to it with meals I eat at home. I am replacing the cereal with yogurt, fruit, and egg whites in the morning and the rice and pasta with more vegetables in the evening. I have a whole bag of unopened green peas in my freezer which I really should be eating not to mention a whole container of lentils and black beans. I do not really have very much food in my house right now, I am probably going to have to go to the store at some point in the next two days so that I do not starve to death. Maybe all of these things combined will make a really difference, maybe they will not but it is at least worth a shot. So far, I do not miss the coffee which is a good start. Oh and I did not gain weight over Thanksgiving and that is always a victory.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

A brief check in

I am oddly jet lagged right now, in that today is the day before Thanksgiving but I keep thinking it is Thanksgiving because it would be where I actually live and work. Anyway, I am supposed to go workout later with my brother and then bake pies and make cranberry sauce for tomorrow. We are actually having two parties for thanksgiving tomorrow but only eating at one. Yesterday and the day before, I did actually manage to get in around a forty minute run. The weather here is much colder than I am used to back on my island and it makes working out much more difficult for some reason. I find it harder to breath and also I lack appropriate gym clothing. Running outside requires warm clothing and I just do not own any warm workout clothing. Sigh. I am off to get my hair cut and then maybe to the mall and the gym.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

On Vacation

I am finally on vacation, very exciting. Last week was incredibly hectic since I was trying to resolve everything to prepare for my time off (hence the lack of posting). Yesterday, I spent 20 hours on planes and in airports before I arrived home. Due to time changes I arrived on the same day I left my little island. It is funny, I know exactly when I enter my home state just by the way the food options change, suddenly there are more extensive salad selections, fancier coffee, and skinnier people as a result. It is really fascinating to me as a concept. Not to mention the fact there is tons more fresh food in the grocery stores. This week, I will probably be a little more mellow about working out, I am going to try and go running every morning but I am not going to worry too much beyond that especially since I will be back to the gym next week Monday. This week is all about family and relaxing and that is good enough.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Tired and off track

Let us not discuss food yesterday or today, it was bad. However, exercise was good and water consumption was very good which has been a problem over the last few weeks. I also have gotten a fair amount of actual work done today which is impressive given the fact tomorrow is a holiday and I do not want to be in the office. I am still working out and keeping the difficulty high but that is about all that can be said for my efforts this week. I will workout tomorrow and then try to pull myself together over the weekend and be back on track by next week or sooner. At least I am still trying, but I just feel tired this week.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Blah

I am singularly uninspired today, about both food and working out. I worked out, but my eating has not been good today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and it has the plus of being the last day of the work week. On the plus side, I have only had a little bit of coffee today but that does not really balance out my eating. I figure I will have a very light dinner and maybe make up for the excessive consumption during the day. I know some days are not going to be great and I just have to move on and get back on track the next day and that is my plan for tomorrow. Hopefully I will be back on track then and more inspired.

Monday, November 07, 2005

The Goodness of Glop

So, I just figured out that I will be coming into work on Friday (which is a holiday). I am not really annoyed because I was going to get up early on Friday and workout anyway. Still, it is an even better reason to get up early and go to the gym. I am once again back at the place in working out where I almost feel ill while I am working out. It will not last more than a day or two but is very common when I increase my running speed. I only went up to running at 6.6 mph and increasing my eliptical resistence by 1 but it always takes my body off guard. I will probably stick with this difficulty level for the rest of the week and then see where I am at the begining of next week. Still, according to the treadmill, I am running a 9:05 minute mile which is faster than I can really wrap my brain around at the moment. I am also cooking better food for myself at home this week, last night was beans, tomatoes, and meat stew. I will probably add peas to it tonight which will increase the vegetable content. Basically I have created what my family refers to as "glop" which is a stew that you keep adding ingredients to whenever you eat it. Good healthy stuff and that makes me happy. Not that my weight is changing mind you, but I am eating well which is half the battle.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Clean Sweep

Today was an odd workout day. Odd in the sense that it did not feel difficult in anyway. I was as sweaty at the end as normal, but just easy, almost not worth the effort. This is probably a good sign that it is time to increase the level of difficulty on all of my exercises again. I did run for 15 minutes at 6.6 mph but I did not increase the difficulty on anything else. So, tomorrow I have to increase all of my difficulty levels and that means that tomorrow will probably suck. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I did find my cell phone in my car, it is amazing what you find when you organize yourself properly. I have cleaned 3.5 rooms in my apartment and I have 1.5 rooms and a very messy closet left to clean. Basically, I managed to clean my kitchen, bathroom, living room and most of my bedroom. The kitchen looks especially good and now has canisters of beans decorating the countertop and hopefully convincing me to cook with them. I am trying to make sure that I get a better balance of food in my diet since I am once again hovering around 154 and not moving. Tonight I am going to have a stew of meat and black beans for dinner, I am hoping a clean kitchen will inspire me to cook more interesting things, we will see what happens over the next few days.

Friday, November 04, 2005

6 Day Work Weeks

I am begining to think that I will never have a Saturday where I do not have to go to work to catch up on what I can not do during the week. Sigh. Anyway, I just spent the last two hour cleaning up my work area and organizing my documents and files on the new shelving unit that I bought at K-Mart. I am very much a Type-A person at heart so clutter really makes me stressed and unhappy. I am going to spend the remainder of the weekend cleaning up my apartment as well, especially since I seem to have misplaced my cell phone either in my car or at home (at least I hope it is one of those two places). I did not work out today, although I had a decent workout yesterday morning. I might do some sit ups later, I am feeling lazy today for some reason. Also, I have had far too much coffee today so I am pretty wired right now which tends to make me try to do nine things simultaneously, never the best plan. Okay, I am off to do some more work and then head home to clean up the apartment.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Back to work

So, I am back after yesterday's holiday. I did actually workout yesterday, I got up at five a.m. and went to the gym for 2 hours and then went home and took a nap. Eventually I made it to the grocery store for a few essentials and then to Ross to get a couple more work shirts. I am always impressed at my ability to now buy really cheap clothing and look decent, yesterday I did not spend more than 20 dollars on anything and most of the shirts were under 10 dollars. Partially it is the weight loss and partially it is simply reality that regular sized clothing costs less than plus sized clothing (having comparison shopped at one point). So, I have enough clothing to now last until I go home in a couple of weeks, since I am once again having to edit my closet. I am not losing any weight but I am pretty much only wearing size 10 clothing with a couple of exceptions. Today has been a long annoying day, but on the plus side I worked out and it is the last night I have to work out at home with weights this week. I have to get back to work now and head off to court.