Sunday, July 23, 2006

Back on island

So, I am back on my small little island after a plane ride of 20 hours. Well, 3 planes actually with two layovers in between and rather a lot of Starbucks Coffee. I am pretty tired still, I woke up at 3:50 am and got to bed at what would have been about 2 am so I was up for probably 22 hours straight. I cannot sleep on planes very well, so I tend to just remain awake and either read or watch movies. This morning I got up at 4:30 and went to the gym for a workout. I felt like a bit of a slacker because I ducked out a bit early so I could go to the store and buy some packaged salads for lunch this week. I also picked up a few other food items which should see me through until this weekend. Work is crazy and hectic right now, but I only have to last a couple more months and that is what is keeping me going. I am happy to be back in a routine that works for me, and hopefully I can stick with it for the next few months.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Blog Slacker

Yep, I am a complete slacker on the whole posting thing this week. I can't say that my exercise has been terribly up to par either. I have managed to get in a walk of about 2+ hours every day but that is about it. I do actually think taking it easy was a good thing for my body which was very tired. Still, next week will probably be a bit painful when I go back to the actual gym and real workouts. I don't have much to report, since I have been on vacation. I have been decent on food, and will be better next week. I have done a bit of shopping and discovered that I am now incredibly picky about clothing. I used to just grab whatever fit and go with that, but now I mull it over. I found myself in the store the other day debating whether or not something "fit into my lifestyle", I don't exactly know how I had that thought. I do know that I need clothes that I can wash and not dry clean since there are not very many good dry cleaners where I currently live. Also, I mostly buy clothes I can wear to work and into a courtroom which means relatively conservative clothing right now. If I did not work in an office which was freezing cold I would probably live in skirts and cardigans, but I do, so this trip I picked up tights hoping that I can now wear my skirts to the office and not freeze to death. Still, I am really picky because now I can be picky which is wonderful. It also reminds me why I spend so much time watching my food intake and working out because I don't want to regress backward. Anyway, vacation is almost over and then I am headed back to work for the last two months of this job before I come home permanently. I am looking forward to that homecoming but not the 20 hour trip back to my small island tomorrow and then the trip in a couple of months back the other way. Such is life.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

On the other side of the pond

Hmm, when I am not stressed, I do not eat crap. I realize that this is a truly novel concept for everyone. I am on a brief vacation in the mainlan united states, I head back across the ocean and international dateline on saturday. Thus, I am away from the constant stress of work which is a wonderful thing. This weekend I was at a wedding, and managed to simply eat the salads offered for dinner and a bite (yes one bite) of my father's risoto, and no dessert. I realize that some of my healthiness has to do with better food supplies and a different eating style than my small island, but still it is a huge difference. Exercise is another story, I am going to walk downtown in a bit and shop but I really need to go running. I am going to try and fit that in today, maybe this afternoon since it was just too cold to contemplate this morning. Tonight I may go out to dinner with people I know from my college and that means I should really try and fit in a run despite the fact I have a cut on my foot. I was forced to look at pictures of myself from this wedding, and my only thought was that I need to work out more. I can see the progress made since I started losing weight, but I can also tell that I am not happy with this weight and I need to really get motivated. This week should help me refocus, but I am also going to eat out tonight, wednesday night, and thursday night, at a minimum so I need to exercise. Oddly, I know that I will probably manage to lose weight (I always lose weight on vacation) even though that is when most people gain weight. So, I am going to use that to my advantage. I am off into town now.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The good news and the bad news

The good news is that my knee is better this morning, the bad news is that it is still not 100 percent okay. I stepped on to the treadmill this morning, walked for five minutes and began to run, at which point my right knee and the area around it instantly made it clear that this was an extremely bad idea. So, I stopped and headed for the eliptical machines. I spent about 70 minutes on the eliptical machines and had no problems at all. However, about all that I can say for the workout is that I stepped up the resistence one more notch, it was not terribly difficult. At that point, I headed back to the treadmill to give it one more shot. I then ran for 12 minutes (I slowed my pace down) and covered a distance of one mile. Not the workout I was hoping for but at least my knee felt alright after I was finished with the mile. I also snuck in 100 basic sit ups after I was finished with the cardio. Oh and by the way, seriously people, do I have a sign above my head that says “you can talk this person into taking your exercise class” ? Today, one of the instructors came up to me to tell me I should take her Thursday morning class (which is the only class I do not take at this point). Er, okay. I can’t tell if I have become a gym project (completely possible at my gym) or if I just look like someone who takes classes. I am considering it, but since I will be on a plane next Thursday and off-island for 10 days, it will have to wait for a couple of weeks. I am not that enthused about this particular instructor, I find her to be somewhat pushy and very set in her view of things. Still, I will probably end up taking the class at some point because it could be a good workout. I am currently having yet another debate with myself about switching around the order in which I eat my food to see if anything happens. Basically, I would switch my largest meal to lunch and then eat my salad for dinner. This would probably overall be a better plan, but the main issue is preparation. I would need to cook lunch the night before, or on the weekend and then reheat it at work. Not a huge issue given that a lot of nights I just reheat food anyway. I am going to stick with my current plan until I go on vacation and then reevaluate when I return and maybe rework everything. Still, my real issue today is that I really wanted to get a good run in and my body would simply not cooperate, I needed the stress relief but it was certainly a no win situation. Running would have completely aggravated my knee and then I really would not be able to work out. I logically know this, but it is still frustrating. Oh, and for the record I did wear ballet flats to work today to also aid in the leg recovery.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Oh ow

Ow, remember how I said earlier that my right knee was twinging. Well, really it is actually the back of my right knee and oh is it not happy at all. It is so unhappy that I have taken off my heels and switched to flip flops even though they are not appropriate office attire. I have no idea what I did this morning which aggravated my knee so badly (especially since I backed off the minute it started hurting). In fact, everything that we did in class was things I had done before, so there is no real explanation for the twinging and general pain. I was going to walk somewhere tonight, but I am going to put that off tonight and go home and just rest my leg. I am hoping that it will be better by tomorrow, otherwise I will have to re-evaluate the plan to run in the morning.

A holiday like any other day

Happy Independence Day! Actually July 4th was yesterday, but I was not near a computer. Yesterday was in fact a holiday from work (one of the eight holidays a year). I cannot say that the day was very different (except for the bit where I did not have to come into the office). I rolled out of bed at 4:29 am and headed out to the gym for my step aerobics/spinning class. After class I headed home and had copious amounts of coffee. Then I headed out to the malls and bought exactly one sweater before making it home at about 11:30 am. Lunch was my standard salad, since I packed up five salads for the week, no point in deviating from the eating plan. I will admit that I took a nap in the afternoon (to make up for the early morning wake up). Then, I made up my naan bread mini-pizzas for dinner, which were really excellent, and cooked up a batch of brownies for an office birthday party. I squeezed in 200 sit ups and a pilates video before heading off to bed at around 9 pm. Overall it was a very mellow day which is exactly what I wanted to have in a day off. This morning, I was back at the gym for my hip box class and now I am at work. I did have one issue this morning during class which consisted of a not so subtle inner thigh twinge/cramp in my left leg. Since I am planning on running tomorrow morning, I think I will have to take it a little easy on my afternoon workout and let my legs rest. It was not helped by the extra leg workout that my instructor added in this morning for the additional torture factor. I think my real problem is that I feel like I could always be pushing myself harder, and I have a problem realizing that sometimes I am already doing as much as my body will allow. Could I workout harder, eat a little bit cleaner (and some days a little bit less?) Yes, probably I could manage that if I tried hard. Would I go insane? Yes, I would go completely insane and my co-workers would be within their rights to kill me. So, I keep trying to remind myself that it is all about moderation. I feel I should note that the cramp has now moved to the back of my knee on the right side. This is not a good sign. So, I am just going to do sit ups tonight and skip any intensive stretching. I might lift a few weights if the motivation fairy decides to visit me, but anything with my legs is out of the question. I have no desire to get injured and then have to take time off from working out. I cannot actually imagine taking time off from working out and in order to prevent that I am trying to listen to my body and what it needs very carefully.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Somewhat squishy

I never made it to the gym this weekend, but other than that I was actually very productive which was a good thing. On Saturday I was fairly lazy, but Sunday made up for it. I managed to clean my apartment, scrub the floor with bleach, go through my clothing and get rid of items I am not longer wearing (or have never really worn), go to the grocery store, cook food for the week including the pre-packing of my salad items for the week, and go to the mall (where I did not buy anything). Sadly grocery shopping was once again far more expensive than last week, however I had forgotten that I needed to buy kitty food and litter, not to mention coffee supplies (neither of which are bought on a weekly basis). I figure that stuff added up to an extra 20 dollars that I would otherwise have saved on shopping. This week I decided to branch out a little bit in terms of cooking and try cooking with couscous and whole wheat pasta. I always find these substances a little scary because I do try to limit bread and pasta products in my diet. This is due to the fact that I love them and always eat too much and it is really tempting to just toss the pasta in butter and eat it without vegetables or other good things. However, I am giving it another shot and trying to be really careful with portion size. Also, this is a good reason to stay away from bread/grain products at work because I am eating them for dinner. So, last night I had whole wheat pasta with steak (left over from lunch) and Thai peanut sauce (left over from making salad supplies for the week). It was very yummy and fit in the plan. Tonight I am going to make couscous with roasted chicken, caramelized onions and garlic. I also bought organic naan bread (amazing to find it on island) which will be good if I actually decide to make curry this week. Otherwise I may toast it to make a mini pizza and top it with chicken and feta cheese (actually that sounds really good now I think about it). As part of my weekend prep, I roasted up a bunch of chicken thighs and legs and I am going reuse over the course of the week in a variety of dishes. I also hard boiled some eggs for salads and cleaned out my cupboards so I would have a clear sense of what food products I had in my house. Turning now to the exercise front, I am still on track (other than not going to the gym this weekend). It occurred to me this morning that my exercise schedule is a little bit insane for a normal person. This is the current plan- Mon a.m.- run 1 mile (warm up), 1 hour spin class, 20 minute leg work out with weights, 15 minutes eliptical machine (final cool down). Mon p.m.-30 or 45 minutes pilates or yoga tape, or if unmotivated 200 sit-ups. Tue a.m.-10 min. treadmill walk, 1 hour 30/30 class (30 minutes step aerobics/30 minutes spinning), 10 minutes ab workout. Tue p.m.-30 or 45 minutes pilates or yoga tape, or if unmotivated 200 sit-ups. Wed. a.m.-10 minute treadmill walk, 1 hour hipbox class, 20 minute arm workout with weights, 15 minute eliptical machine (final cooldown). Wed. p.m.-30 or 45 minutes pilates or yoga tape, or if unmotivated 200 sit-ups. Thursday a.m.-30 minute run, 10 minute walk (warm-up and cool down from run), 35 minute eliptical machine, 10 minute treadmill or step machine (final cool down) Thursday p.m-30 or 45 minutes pilates or yoga tape, or if unmotivated 200 sit-ups. Friday a.m.- run 1 mile (warm up), 1 hour spin class, 20 minute leg work out with weights, 15 minutes eliptical machine (final cool down). Friday p.m.-Free Saturday a.m.-ideally (although has not really happened yet) 30 minute run and ab work. Saturday p.m.-Free Sunday-Free day. That could potentially work out to around 10 (or more hours) of exercise every week. Not to mention the fact that most of these are hard exercise sessions. So, I think this demonstrates my current frustration with my lack of progress on the weight loss front right now. However, I know I am in pretty good shape from this routine since running an eleven minute mile is easy for me and I have really good calf muscles (even if the rest of me is somewhat squishy at the moment). However, I do look at this in amazement for two reasons. First, it demonstrates the amount of work that I do to remain a size 12 (or 10 on a good day) and second because this amount of exercise would have been unthinkable in years past. I never miss a weekday at the gym and neither do any of the other regular gym rats for that matter. Even tomorrow morning, I am getting up at 4:30 am to go the gym because (a) it is open and (b) they are still having the aerobics class. Tomorrow is July 4th here and it is a holiday so I do not have to go to work. My theory is that if I get up and go at 5 am then at least one workout for the day will be over and I do not have to worry about it or feel guilty later on in the day. All of this does prove the level of crazy which now exists in my life, but hey, at least it is healthy crazy rather than excessive eating crazy.