Exercise Schmexercise

I didn't exercise on Thursday, so I did an hour's worth on Friday.

I didn't exercise on Saturday, so I did an hour's worth today. 

I sense a pattern forming...

Regardless, 30x30 was quite the challenge. And I am proud to say that I have succeeded!

Tomorrow begins 45x30 and the beginning of my weight training too. Dan and I are also planning to play football at the park, just for fun. We don't have any particular plans for lunch or dinner, but we are doing our grocery shopping for the week tomorrow. So we'll probably pick something out of the HG cookbook before we go shopping. Wow. This is truly an exciting post. 

I haven't done nearly as much snacking this weekend as I did last weekend, which is good. I did use some of my points for candy on both Friday and Sunday, though. I did get five servings of fruit on Friday, though and  I got five servings of vegetables on Sunday. So I'm feeling mostly okay with where I am this week. 

I've been finding that if I work really hard Monday through Thursday that it's easier for me to be comfortable having a treat on the weekends. I've had the control to not go over my points with my treats and in nine weeks I've only had one gain. I think I'm finding a good balance between restricting myself during the week and letting myself have a little fun on the weekends. I don't let myself have anything that people bring in to work anymore. In fact, I haven't had one treat at work since I started weight watchers, and there have been brownies, five cakes, three batches of cookies, chocolate covered fruit, deep fried cajun food, a week's worth of bagels, and an M&M dispenser. Which is an enormous amount of food for one office, in my opinion. I've never felt deprived though, because I am very good about having snacks at home that satisfy cravings and I am able to count. At any time in the house I have ice cream, chocolate covered pretzels, brownies, chocolate chips, graham crackers, and popcorn. I can have one of these things a day without "breaking the bank," and so far I've been able to just leave the other stuff alone without even thinking about it. In fact, the ice cream in my freezer has been in there for almost three weeks and the container is 3/4 full. 

So I know that was a really long rant about food, but I am really starting to feel like I have officially kicked a bad habit. It's been almost 60 days and I have kicked the majority of my bad eating habits and I've added exercise back into my daily routine. It's pretty cool. 

30x30

The 30x30 challenge has really been a big motivator for me to get outside exercising. The challenge itself has very few rules (which makes me love it even more)! Here they are:

1. Exercise 30 minutes a day for 30 days out of the month
2. If you miss a day, you can make it up by doing an hour of exercise during the week

That's it! Amazing, huh? And so easy to follow. Here is where I'm currently at with my goal:

Out of 28 days: I met my goal of 30 minutes on 22 days. I also excercised an additional 30 minutes on 6 of those 22 days as make up for the 6 days I missed. In other words? 30x28 is where I'm currently at, but I'm hoping to end the month at 30x31! Sweet.

For the month of October I'm going to beef it up to 45x30. I also plan on lifting weights 2-3 times a week starting the month of October. I also asked Dan to lift weights with me to help me stay motivated.

My weight lifting workout will consist of the following:
Free weights to work the biceps, triceps, and shoulders
Ab work (lower, middle, upper)
Leg lifts, squats (ugh), and thrusts

I will probably also throw in a little yoga for balance and stability. I really like starting and ending with some very traditional yoga poses.

I will probably also throw in a little Taebo in between reps. It's good to keep your heart rate up and I really like pretending to box.

I should note that I've been doing this work out once or twice a month for the last four or five years, but I used to do it 2-3 times a week in high school and freshman year of college. And I was toned, man. Not as toned as my Dad's calves, though. I really want to post a picture of my Dad's calves. They are giant and as hard as rocks.

I'll end with another product that I am currently loving: Trader Joes Chickenless Nuggets. They are breaded and have a pretty decent consistency. They're no McDonalds Nugget, but at 120 calories for 4 nuggets, they are a staple of my diet. I like making them with a baked potato as a side or corn on the cob. Down home and dirty, that's my style. I bet they'd be really amazing with vegetarian baked beans...

Is it lunch time yet?

I lost 4.2 pounds this week, for a total of 19.8 pounds lost! Hooray!

I just got off the phone with my dad, who said that "now you can work hard this week to lose those .2 pounds next week." Good point, dad. Good point.

Seriously, though. 20 pounds in a little over 2 months is pretty amazing.

I celebrated by purchasing 4 new tee's from Threadless, bringing my Threadless count to 21 shirts. An absurd number, to be sure, but they were having an AMAZING sale. 4 shirts for under $40? Count me in!

My Dad also introduced me to a cool way to keep track of my progress, which I'll blog about another time. It's how he keeps himself motivated and it's a pretty smart game, in my opinion.

Dan just ordered us some Ping Pong. I am having Mango Chicken with Brown Rice. Nom nom.

Clearly the excitement of this weight loss has brought me to quoting LOLZ CATS. Which is pretty damn lame.

Addictions

Good morning blog land.

Today I thought I'd write about some products I currently can't live without. Try them if you want, they are all amazing.

1. 100 Calorie Pack - Mr. Salty Chocolate Covered Pretzels. I have a real love/hate relationship with 100 Calorie Packs. Ninety percent of the time they do not taste at all like the product I'm trying to replace. The treats are usually blander, thinner, less crispy, less chocolatey, etc. But the Mr. Salty pretzels taste EXACTLY like you'd expect. They completely curb my craving for both salty and chocolatey snacks. There are also about 15 pretzels to the pack, which is a pretty good amount in my opinion.

2. Trader Joes Popped Chips. They're not baked or fried, they're popped! You can have 22 chips for 120 calories and the entire bag has 3 servings so you can indulge if you want and not break the bank. Dan and I both think they taste better than Baked Lays and they also have a nice greasy "real chip" texture to them.

3. Morning Star Steak Strips. Fake steak is delicious and can be used as a replacement in SO many recipes. Dan and I make philly cheese steak sandwiches with them, but they are also good in egg white omelets and stir frys. 12 strips are 150 calories.

4. Rainbow Salad. Rainbow salad is the greatest invention known to man! It's basically thin strips of cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, celery, and cabbage in a big salad bag. It's a good way to get in a wide variety of veggies if you don't feel like taking the time to actually cook. I like it on top of salads or in sandwiches or wraps. Here is my Rainbow Salad Wrap recipe:

1 whole grain low fat tortilla (110 calories)
1 slice of Sargentos reduced fat cheese (50 calories)
3 slices of Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Chicken (25 calories)
1 tablespoon of Hummus, any flavor you prefer (25 calories)
1/2 cup of fresh spinach
1/2 cup of rainbow salad

Spread the hummus on the wrap. Layer the deli meat and cheese along one side of the tortilla (makes for better wrapping). Put the spinach and rainbow salad and top and roll!

You can also just put the meat, cheese and spinach on first and throw it in the toaster oven! Then add the hummus and rainbow salad after it's nice and toasty. Yum!

Week 7

To start: I have a very normal, very private and very boring blog. This shall be blog number 2. Hopefully it will not be as boring as blog number 1, but so far I'd say I'm not off to a very good start.

Why a second blog? Because I want to have a place to track the progress (for better or for worse) of my goal to live healthy. I started Weight Watchers 7 weeks ago and it's time to blog about it, baby! Or at least it's time to make very lame/slightly strange comments that amuse and delight.

In the past 7 weeks I have lost 15.6 pounds. I feel pretty good about that number, as I am very close to my goal of losing 8 pounds a month. The last month was hard, as I was in tech week, it was Dan's birthday, my own birthday, Dan's parent's came to town, my parent's came to town, Dan's brother came to town and my good friend Cassie came to town. Somehow I survived it without having a huge train wreck. So now I'm hoping that as life eases up on me (and inevitably gets extremely busy again) that I'll be able to cope.

I've joined Weight Watchers several times in my past, the very first time being in 9th grade. The first time I lost any amount of weight I was too young and too full of drama to keep it off. The second time I lost weight I actually made it to my goal and held there for a year. There were several factors to my gaining it all back. My mom passed away at the end of that year and my coping mechanism became food. She was also my weight loss partner, so joining without her was extremely hard. I also had some not so nice run ins with various aunts and uncles who managed to make me feel extremely guilty over her death while also making it quite clear that the weight I'd lost made me look so much like her. There were various other reasons (a mean boyfriend, college, being in theatre, etc), but I want to stop with the excuses now and just say this. It was a hard time mentally and physically. I'm trying to get over it.

So what is different in my life now? For the first time in a very long time, I feel very put together. I am dating a man who supports my decisions, who doesn't care that I am heavy, but is 100% supportive in my weight loss goals. He has literally changed his eating and exercise habits to accomodate mine (or at least to support mine). Having a continuously supportive friend who sees how important this goal is to me has been really helpful thus far. He never makes me feel ridiculous when I stop to write in my weekly tracker or feel the need to discuss the grocery list with him 500 times a week. He is awesome.

I also have a very dear friend who is going to Weight Watchers with me! She is the first real partner I've had at Weight Watchers in the city and her own success and support has been so motivational for me! I love that I can call her up to discuss where I've eaten out, how much I've exercised, and that we have a weekly check in at the meetings. I also feel really good that I am supporting someone else. There is a lot of motivation in accountability, whether it is to the scale or another person.

Finally, it has been really helpful to me that my Dad has also started Weight Watchers. My dad is buff, tough and takes weight loss very seriously. It's fun to check in with each other over the phone and know that I have support even out of the state. It's also helpful to keep in mind that there will be another calorie obsessed person at our Thanksgiving and that each time I get to see him, he will hopefully be seeing a "thinner" me.

I have weigh in number 9 tomorrow night and I am slightly dreading the scale. I was able to follow my exercise plan (30 minutes 30 days a month) on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday and I went swimming on Sunday afternoon. Since it was the first weekend where I actually had some down time, I think I snacked a little more than normal. I stayed within my points and didn't go over my weekly points allowance, but I still feel a little nervous (for whatever reason).

Also, if anyone is interested, here are the goals I am currently tracking:

30 minutes 30 days a month - August
45 minutes 30 days a month - September
60 minutes 30 days a month - October

30 pounds by Disney World (October 8th)
50 pounds by Christmas (December 25th)