Alive And Kicking

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I’m still  here. For the last couple of days I’ve been trying to refocus and remember that it’s about the big picture, not one week, no matter how good or bad. I’m still doing fine with eating, though I sometimes wonder if it may be the issue that is keeping the weight from coming off. I spend a lot of time contemplating whether I’m eating too much or too little, too much fat, protein, carbs, sodium, or too little fruits and vegetables. I know that all calories are not created equal, and I sometimes feel uneasy about what I eat, and how much. I think that in the coming weeks I might make an appointment with a nutritionist so I can pinpoint any problems with my eating and fix them.

I know I should switch up my workout routine, but I have such a hard time doing it. I love running. It’s challenging, it’s an outlet for stress, and it makes me feel really good. I have a tendency to neglect every other exercise except for running  because it’s really the only thing I want to do. But in the next week I’ll definitely be incorporating some other activities.

I said I was going to post my weigh in on Tuesday, but I didn’t. I weighed myself that morning and it was basically the same. I still have the picture from Monday on my camera, but I just don’t feel like posting it. I’ll probably just combine it with my next weigh in and post both pictures on Monday.

I hope everyone is having a good week!

Bad Idea Monday

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Last week was very strange for me. It was the first time I had done everything I was supposed to do and didn’t see results. Blame it on my monthly visitor, blame it on stress, blame it on Tiger Woods, whatever the reason, it really threw me off. I spent the entire week feeling like I was trying to play catch up and I couldn’t do it fast enough. Or at all. Last Monday I weighed in at 197.5, up a pound from the week before. I was confident that it was purely water weight and in a couple of days I would see the loss. Apparently not. I weighed in on Friday for a challenge and was at 196.5. Down a pound.

I really tried to let it not bother me. I had a really good weekend. Went out to my dad’s house on Saturday and ate really well, small portions and no carrot cake, which is a huge weakness of mine. Sunday I went for sushi with my mom, my sister and my sister’s boyfriend. I only eat there once or twice a year so I probably overindulged a bit. Or a lot. But there’s no way it was anymore near enough to counteract all of my other days of great eating and exercising. But lo and behold, I’m up half a pound from Friday, but down half a pound from last Monday’s weigh in. Logic says that sushi has a ridiculous amount of sodium, so I’ve decided that I will weigh in again tomorrow morning to see if there’s any change.

My biggest problem with this has never been struggling with the eating or the exercising. Those things seem to come naturally once I commit. My problem is patience. I want it to happen now. So much so that I set these unrealistic goals and then I’m really disappointed and upset when I can’t meet them. My goal this week is to just relax. This isn’t some crash diet. I’m not on the Biggest Loser. This is something I want to do for the rest of my life, so I think I just need to settle in and find a happy place between killing myself to lose weight quickly and saying screw everything and gaining it all back.

I did weigh in this morning, including the scale picture, but I’m gonna hold off on posting it until tomorrow. If it’s pretty much the same I’ll just use today’s weight and then go from there. If it’s a drastic change I’ll take a new picture. Either way, my weekly weigh in post will be up tomorrow.

Thank you for the comments! I really appreciate the advice and support!

Dark Clouds

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I’m not having the greatest day/week. On Monday I had a 1lb gain, which I blamed on being in the middle of my least favorite time of the month. It’s now Friday, and I weighed in this morning for a challenge, and  I’m only down a pound from Monday. So in almost two weeks, nothing has happened? WTF?! I’ve tracked my calories every single day, and the highest was 1650 or something, but it was generally around 1400 a day. I ran four days last week, did yoga, and the 30 day shred. This week I’ve run two days so far and did the card workout I talked about in yesterday’s post.

I know there are plenty of reasons to explain this. I still feel like I’m retaining a lot of water. I’ve been exercising a lot more and that could have something to do with it. But it’s so frustrating. Last year when I was doing this I never had weeks like this. I had bad weeks of course, but there was always a reason for them. Like… the week of my birthday I gained 2 or 3 lbs because I was drinking and went out to dinner with my family twice. Or… a week I was lazy and only exercised once and didn’t eat great. I never once had a week where I was doing everything I was supposed to and saw the scale go in the opposite direction.

I think I’m even more frustrated because last year I got down to 189.5 around the end of August, and since then I’ve been hanging out in the 190’s and briefly in the 200’s. I hate the 190’s. I wanted to be out of them by the 5th or the 12th of April, but if it keeps going like this there’s no chance. I don’t know what else to do.

If there’s any silver lining here it’s that I have my eating under control. I don’t let myself do any emotional eating. So I know that as crappy as I feel about this, it’s not going to get worse because I’m trying to stuff down my feelings with junk food.

Sorry for being such a Debbie Downer today, but it definitely feels better to get this out.

I’m going for a run soon… it seems to be like therapy for me. Oh, and I joined the Daily Mile website and it makes me happy to see how many donuts and cheeseburgers I’ve burned off.

Anyways…I hope everyone has a good Friday and a great weekend!

Who You Callin Ugly?

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Hi again! I know this is crazy….two posts in one day. Wacky.

Anyways… I’ve joined a society. A super secret society. Okay, not really. It’s called the Ugly Cupcake Society (see badge at right), and I think it’s awesome. “Cupcakes” are the people who fit that ideal standard of beauty. They’re fit, tan, with perfectly highlighted and styled hair, and waxed within an inch of their life. Being an Ugly Cupcake is about being the best person you can be and not being fake or trying to be something you aren’t.

It’s a wonderful idea and if you’d like to join you can click on the badge in my sidebar. Seriously! Join!

Total Fail

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I’ve spent all day trying to think of a good April Fool’s Day post, but failed miserably. I thought about pretending I had eaten my weight in pizza and junk food or saying I woke up today weighing 15lbs more than yesterday, but I gave up. Whatevs.

I think I’m weirding people out today because so many people have pulled stuff on me that whenever anyone says something now I’m uber suspicious. Thankfully I’m pretty much home for the night and avoiding Facebook so I should be safe.

The last couple of days have been really good. I did 4 miles on Tuesday and 3 yesterday and my legs were definitely feeling it. They feel a lot better today but I’m skipping the treadmill. I’ve had shin splints before because I got excited and ran every single day so I’m really trying to pace myself. Instead I’m going to do one of my favorite workouts. It’s ridiculously simple and so easy to customize to your preferences. You take a deck of cards and assign an exercise to each suit. I usually do… Hearts=Push-ups, Diamonds=Crunches, Clubs=Lunges, Spades=Squats. You draw a card and then do the exercise however many times the card indicates. Aces equal 1 and face cards are all ten. So for example if you pull a queen of spades you would do ten squats. I usually leave the jokers in the deck too and when you pull a joker you do ten of each exercise one right after the other.

I love it because it’s a really great workout and you can make it different every time by incorporating weights or doing things like jumping jacks or burpies. So I’m off to think of something to make for dinner and then try to motivate myself enough to pull out the deck of cards.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Week 4: Weigh In

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So I’m not super psyched about this weigh in. I could tell on Friday that I wasn’t going to see a loss this week. And it’s not because I’ve done anything wrong. My eating was great, the most calories I ate in a day was 1520, and that was a day when I ran 3 miles. I exercised more than last week. It was a good week. Until I got my period on Friday. I get so bloated and have horrible cramps for days whenever my monthly visitor shows up. I’m still in the midst of it, so I knew my weigh in would suck. I would have been fine with losing nothing, but of course, I gained a pound. Whatever. I’m at 197.5. I’m sure next Monday I’ll see a substantial loss since all of this water weight will be gone, but I don’t have to be happy about it right now.

So there you go. My stupid scale.

Anyways… I remember saying something about taking “progress pictures” every four weeks. It’s been four weeks, but I don’t feel like I’ve made much progress. Yes, I’m cranky. I’ll get over it. I took pictures, because I know I would regret it if I didn’t. I regret not taking any at my highest weight because I’m about 30lbs down from that and being able to see the difference would be really motivating. So I want to be accountable and keep my word.

Yuck. Just a note… I picked those clothes because they’re tight and I’ll be able to easily see progress when I take pictures with them in the future. Not because I think they look good or flattering. I’m not that deluded. Lol. I bought that t-shirt a couple of years ago and have maybe worn it once because it never fit. I like it though. And the shorts are my gym shorts from middle school.

So there you go… my weigh in. I guess the upside of weighing in on Mondays is that they already suck, so a bad weigh in doesn’t ruin a good day. Here’s hoping the rest of the week is better! 🙂

Suck It Up, Princess

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See that picture? The one up there ^ ? That was totally me on the treadmill today. Minus the TuTu. I got on, did my usual warm-up and started running. 30 seconds into it I wanted to quit. My boobs hurt, which means it’s almost that time of the month. In normal clothing just doing normal things it doesn’t bother me at all, but even in the tightest of sports bras, any slight movement feels like someone punching me in the chest. Now, I’ve never actually had anyone punch me in the boob, but I’m sure that’s what it would feel like. Usually when I get on the treadmill, after my warm-up I run for 5 or 6 minutes and then start doing intervals. Nope. One minute and I wanted to quit. If anyone was around for me to whine to I would have sounded something like this…

“My boobs  hurt.”

“My left calf is sore”

“I don’t want to do this.”

“Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Alas, no one was around to hear me bitching, so I didn’t. Well, at least not out loud. I decided I would at least do a mile, because quitting after less than half a mile is pathetic, and I did not like the idea of having to make up the leftover two miles sometime later in the week.

Apparently around the 3/4 mile mark my boobs got the memo that it was time to put up or shut up and stopped hurting, and I did my scheduled 2.5 miles without shedding any actual tears.

In other oh so exciting news… I did level one of the 30 Day Shred yesterday. It was alright, and I’m sore today, but I don’t know if it’s for me. I’ve always found that I get bored with DVD workouts because there’s no variation. With running I can change it up however I like, but a DVD is the same every single time you do it. So we’ll see. I’ll give it another chance, but I might just stick to yoga and running for now.

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Unexpected Workout

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So, it’s lunch time and I’m standing in my kitchen making veggie wraps (yum!), when I see my neighbor’s dog go running down the back alley and out to the street. I looked at their yard and no one was outside and nobody seemed to notice him escape, so being the dog loving person that I am, I put on my flip flops and ran outside. It took me a good ten minutes to finally catch him because he apparently thought we were playing a game. I eventually had to pick him up and walk with him back to their house. He’s not huge by any means, he’s only about 8 months old, but he’s a German Shepherd and I would guess he weighs about 25-30lbs. Between carrying him and running after him I got a pretty good workout. And now I want a puppy. Lol.

My furnace was fixed yesterday afternoon, so I ended up going for a run after I watched The Biggest Loser. Nothing makes you feel lazy like watching people bigger than you ride 26.2 miles on a bike. I’m undecided about what to do for exercise today. I want to go for another run, but my right calf/shin is kind of sore, and I’m always afraid of pushing it since I’ve had shin splints before, and they were not fun. I might do yoga, it would definitely help stretch me out. If only my cat would leave me alone while I do it. Any sort of downward dog type pose and she feels the need to run under me and flop over onto her side. I guess if nothing else it’s motivation to not collapse because I would crush her.

Happy Wednesday! I definitely wrote Tuesday first. I apparently don’t know what day it is. 🙂

Hiding Under The Covers

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Brrr! Yesterday I noticed that my house was ridiculously cold, so of course, being the cold hating Canadian that I am, I just turned up the furnace a few degrees. Apparently that’s a stupid thing to do when your furnace is broken and turning it up just makes it blow cold air all night. Even though it was mostly like colder inside my house than it was outside (and remember, this is Canada, so the outside was freakin cold too), I didn’t think to go check to see if the furnace was working. I’m going to say that the cold caused temporary brain damage. That’s my story. I’m sticking to it.

Anyways, this morning my mom realized that something was wrong with the furnace. She thought it might just be the pilot light, but apparently not. Her boyfriend has stopped by a few times, and I just heard him downstairs talking to someone, and it didn’t sound all that serious. I meanwhile, am hiding under my covers because few things in life make me more cranky than being cold.

I really wanted to go for a run today, but my treadmill is in the basement, and it feels like the arctic circle down there. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if a penguin ran by being chased by a polar bear. It’s that cold.

Weigh In: Week 3

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I was not looking forward to this weigh in. Don’t get me wrong, I did everything I was supposed to this week. I tracked all of my calories, ran four times, drank a lot of water. But I felt really bloated all week. I thought I would see maybe a 1lb loss, but more likely no loss, or even a slight gain. I just felt huge. That feeling was probably because of eating more salt, but it lasted for a really long time, and I was very discouraged. However, like a good little blogger I got up this morning and weighed myself. And fortunately, I’m happy to say I was wrong! 🙂

Whoo hoo! Down another 2.5lbs to 196.5! It’s less than I was hoping for this week, but as long as I’m still losing, I’m happy.

I also took my measurements again this week, and I’m pretty happy with those results too. I take measurements on my chest, waist and hips, all of them at the biggest parts. I last took them two weeks ago, on March 8…

Chest – March 8: 39.5″ March 22: 39″ = Down .5″

Waist – March 8: 39″ March 22: 37.5″ = Down 1.5″

Hips – March 8: 44.5″ March 22: 43″ = Down 1.5″

Total Lost: 3.5″

I can live with that 🙂

I hope everyone has a great Monday!