Break.

I've taken a leave of absence from exercise this past week. Thursday was just too busy and I was too exhausted from Thursday on Friday. Dan and I did manage to get in 4o minutes on Saturday, but Sunday I just didn't feel like it and Monday I didn't either. I got my period today, so I guess it makes sense as to why my body seemed to be rebelling against any form of movement. I've also just been feeling really out of it, which hasn't been helping my exercise motivation. But I've been eating really well every day, so I still pat myself on the back for hard work well done. It has been easy for me in the past to say, if I'm not exercising than I may as well pig out, but this week I was able to conquer that. Go me! And I also feel like I've lost weight this week, although we'll see with my period in town. He often throws off the numbers at the scales.

Thanksgiving shouldn't be too bad for my diet. I will have tomorrow morning to exercise and transit days are easy to track points. And Dan and I plan to walk every day that we're in Ohio, because it's good for me and it will get us out in the fresh air instead of laying on couches eating cookies. :)

I am so excited to go home! I can't wait to see everyone and to talk about wedding things.

10% Holla!

At my weigh in last night I lost 5.2 pounds, which puts me at a total loss of 36.8! That is some total rock star shit (thanks Dan). 

I definitely got a little too excited after our public reading of Into the Pool and inhaled 3 pieces of pizza, which left me with only 6 anytime points for the week. But whatever, I can do it! I feel good and I am starting to really feel like this is in my grasp. The next goal number is 50 pounds, which I would like to reach by around the opening of the show. Totally doable, as that is about 7 weeks away (and I would need to lose 13.2 pounds). Let's get on it, shall we?

Lately it seems too cold to exercise, whether indoors or out. But tonight Dan and I plan to hang up teasers around our neighborhood. So whether the weather is cold...

coffee solves all the worlds problems

So I've worked out 13 out of 17 days this month. Hooray for progress.

Is anyone else bitterly cold at night? Our heaters really suck so our apartment is just seeming more and more frigid every day. It is not fun at all. Granted, we still have an air conditioner in the window that needs to be removed. We need to get on that. And a space heater from the Altruists that could be moved upstairs. Last night I laid in bed shivering for an hour before I decided to take a warm bath and just get over it.

We had a productive production meeting last night (ha ha). Our reading is coming up this Thursday. I am excited and nervous about it. I hope we actually have an audience. After the meeting Ryan, Lara, Jillian and I went to Side Tracks for Musical Theatre Monday. I also invited Tony from the Altruists to meet us there. It was the first time I have gone out for drinks in a while (aka not fixed them myself) so there was a lot more bacardi in my drink than I was expecting. I had 5 points left over from the day too, so I got very drunk very fast. That is the nice thing about being on a diet; it doesn't take much! Anyway, I definitely sang Suddenly Seymour at the top of my lungs to the delight of the bartender who was laughing at me.

I am so ready to decorate my apartment for Christmas! I've already pulled out a Christmasy table setting, two Christmas plates, my one Christmas stuffed animal, and my boots from Christkindlmart. The rest of the stuff is in storage, which requires someone to help me move it (because I'm afraid of our storage area). I just want our tiny shiny trees to don our coffee table. It's ridiculous, I know.

This week has been going well. I want to keep this up!

Oui Madam!

I gained 2 pounds this week. Which I am okay with. I went out to eat twice this week (I was asked to go out, which i think is different than just going out) and both times I ordered the AMAZING chicken curry. I have been worried that I haven't been counting it correctly. Now I am pretty sure that I haven't been. :( Also, while I managed to get in four days of exercise last week, two of them were pretty lame attempts.

I am back on my game plan and I feel really good! My goal is to lose 3.6 pounds over the next two weeks so that I have reached 35 pounds by Thanksgiving. I think it is totally doable. My strategy this week is to not use my anytime points, to count out everything, to stick to my eating plan, and to be serious about exercise. Last night Dan and I took a 40 minute walk and today we are doing a 50 minute walk after dinner and then I'll also be doing my weight lifting before bed. Touche!

Yesterday went really well. I didn't use any extra points but I also felt full by the end of the night! Huzzah! I never want to believe it, but when I get in my 5 servings of fruits and vegetables during the day I do feel fuller by the end of the night. I guess it's just science. I have been having fruit with breakfast, a fruit and veggie with lunch, and loads of veggies with dinner every night. I think other than the mean chicken curry I probably did pretty well last week in terms of the healthy guidelines.

For Thanksgiving Jan is making me a lean green bean casserole, a low fat stuffing, and a low fat pumpkin/cheese cake pie. She is also making baked sweet potatoes w/out butter or brown sugar, low fat squash soup and turkey, so I think I will be in for a relatively easy Thanksgiving Day. The real trouble comes at my soon to be inlaws houses...Dan's step mom has a plan to cook us a feast in celebration of our engagement! I may ask if I can "help cook" and maybe even suggest that we start with a salad or soup. Hey, I'm allowed to do that, right? And at Dan's mom's house it should be pretty easy, as she is usually keeping an eye on her weight. Again, I may ask if I can help cook or even just flat out ask if she could do a low fat dinner.

I made our Christmas shopping list for this year and have already started to knock out some of the men in our families. We decided that all our men are getting threadless shirts, so that makes life much easier. I've already chosen a bunch of designs for everybody, so now it's just up to me and Dan to pick who will get what. Easy peasy.

I feel accomplished in other areas in my life right now as well. I found us a great designer for the postcards for our show and was able to get them ordered in time for us to have them for the reading. I've nailed out a simple program for our reading, created a button image and got all that stuff ready for Katy, and I also created teasers for the show and got them all printed up and ready to go. Sometimes it seems like I have too much on my plate, but I also really enjoy taking on these projects and seeing them all the way through. We've managed to collect 10 boxes of books for the show, too. I'm also trying to start thinking ahead as to what we'll want to be focusing on next - like finding designers IMMEDIATELY for our fourth show and beginning the search for our fifth show space. I also have to say that I love the direction our company is headed. I feel like we have a solid group of people who are focused, positive, excited, and working really hard. No more negative energy. Hooray!

Wedding planning is also going really well. I completed a checklist for my family so we know what we need to do. My Dad apparently said, "Wow, she's really got this organized." Jan said she's going to look at it and see if I'm missing anything, which was the goal of the list to begin with. And right away Dan said, "you forgot to put purchase wedding bands." So we are all thinking on our feet, which is important. I can't wait to discuss everything over Thanksgiving. I feel bad for my brothers and sister, ha ha.

Plans are Good.

I have gone to the weight watchers website to pick up some much needed inspiration. And one of the biggest things it said was to have a general plan for what you eat each week. If you go off it, fine. But at least have an idea of what each day will bring.

It also said to boost fitness, which is something I've been wanting to do anyway. And there is a "buff brides fitness challenge" that I am considering starting up. You're supposed to start it 3 months before your wedding, but I was thinking it couldn't hurt to begin now...

Anyway, here is my food plan. It's boring reading material, and I apologize.

Breakfast:
Arnold's sandwich thins
Peanut Butter
Banana

Lunch:
Monday/Wednesday:
Boca Chilli and Brown Rice
Dulce de Leche Pudding
Apple

Tuesday/Thursday/Friday:
Arnold's Sandwich Thins
Meat of some variety
Cheese of some variety
Dressing of some variety
Greens of some variety

Campbells Healthy Harvest Soup
Weight Watchers Yogurt
Apple

Snack Options:
Carrots and Hummus
Fiber One Granola Bar
Chex Mix Granola Bar
Mr. Salty Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Popped Chips

Dinner Options:
Mandarin Chicken, Brown Rice, Veggies
Meatless Chicken Nuggets, Baked Potato or fries, Veggies
Wheat Pasta w/ zucchini, squash, broccoli and cauliflower
Chicken Burgers w/ spinach and feta, fries or potatoes, veggies
"Meat"balls, potato gravy, veggies

Dessert Options:
weight watcher ice cream
skinny cow ice cream
Hungry Girl brownies w/ cool whip
Apples and peanut butter

And the all new exercise plan:

Mondays & Wednesdays: 30 minutes of weight lifting in the afternoon
Fridays: 30 minutes of weight lifting in the morning
Tuesdays & Thursdays: 45 minutes of power walking in the morning
Saturdays, Sundays - 45 minutes of power walking in the afternoon

Slowly Rolling...

Motivation is slowly but surely picking back up. Partly because I'd like to fit into new pants by Thanksgiving and partly because I'd like to be heathier in time for my wedding.

Exercising in the cold is hard. I don't know how I found the inspiration to walk every day in Minnesota, which is much colder than Chicago. Actually, that's a lie. I used to walk every night either with little Becky, Annie, my Mom or my brother. We actually "hung out" by exercising. We'd talk about our lives, what was bothering us and what we were currently enjoying. I had not one, but several walking buddies. I think it really made a difference back then.

The trouble now is that we all live just far enough away from each other to make group exercise sort of a pain. We'd have to meet at a central location, we'd have to plan time that works for everybody, or we'd have to be willing to take turns traveling to each other's neighborhoods. This sounds easy in theory, but difficult in practice.

I feel like it is normal to have exercise and dieting ebbs and flows, the goal being to get back on track over time. As I continue forward with this diet, I am beginning to notice that the more I have a daily or weekly plan, the better I do. My breakfast and lunch plan for the week has become pretty stable, and Dan and I have 5 dinner recipes that we both really like. It's just the damn exercise. Even when I plan for it in my day, it never quite happens when I think it will. A part of it is my cold apartment. It's hard to wake up and get out of a warm bed when the air in the apartment is so freezing.

So I resolve to keep at it the best that I can and right now if that means working out at night, then so be it. I'll have to change it up once rehearsals start, but I will at least have Monday and Wednesday afternoons before class. So really it's just Tuesdays that will be affected. Just one day that I will have to plan for early morning exercise, and yet it scares me to no end...

I also have trouble working out on Thursday nights lately, which I attribute to The Office and 30 Rock. I think I just need to start doing weights on Thursday nights. That's the only probable solution, because it is hard to talk myself out of watching good television. Especially when every other day of the week there is such BAD television.

I'd like to kick my exercise up a notch, but I haven't determined yet how to do this. I already feel like I don't have enough time for it in my day, so how do I add even more activity? I could go back up to 45 minute walks, which I think my body could definitely handle. I could also follow my 30 minutes of weight lifting with some version of yoga or light aerobics. Things to think about. Suggestions will always be taken seriously. :)

I ate all my any time points this week and for some reason feel like I'm going to gain this week. Even though Holly says I look smaller today. It's getting harder for me to tell the difference. Fitting in the Thanksgiving jeans would be a good step in the right direction.

Save your money for your children!

I am finally starting to feel back to normal since Tuesday. It certainly took long enough!

At weigh in last night I lost 1.4 pounds, which puts me at 33.2. My 35 pound goal is so close now I can smell it. It would be nice to hit it by Thanksgiving, so I could focus on other things before Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I've started to put together a "shopping list" of sorts for presents and things. We're tight on money this year, so we're really having to plan ahead. Not fun at all, but it's just the way it is sometimes. With the wedding coming, and the show, and all the trips we are planning over the next year...yah. It's just better to plan ahead. Seriously though. Listen to this nonsense.

November: Ohio (flying)
December: Ohio (driving)
May: Ohio (driving)
June: Minnesota (driving)
June: North Carolina (flying)
June: New York (flying)
October: Ohio (flying)
November: Ohio (don't know yet...)
November/December: Honeymoon somewhere...(flying)
December: Ohio (don't know yet..)
February: Tropical Island??? (definitely flying)

Holy Moly.

I feel hung over today. It's absurd. I think 7 hours at the Obama rally should count as my exercise for the week. I blogged about last night's experience in my other blog. If you want to read it, I can send you the link. 

What I want to say in this blog is simply that I have the strangest feeling today. I am hung over and happy...exhausted and elated. It's incredible.

The goal for today is to get hydrated and to not fall over in class. I'm going out to dinner tonight with co-workers, so Dan and I will be walking back and forth to the restaurant and that's all the exercise I'm going for today. I am looking forward to a large beer and some chicken curry at Oscar Wilde's. 

I had a good week in terms of exercise and tracking. If I gain tomorrow, it will be due to my dehydration today and my sodium laden celebration tonight. But who cares. It is a brand new Obama filled day and I want to soak it up! That being said, I'm saving points for dinner. Because it's all about the plan, right? It's all about the plan. :)

I need a nap before work. 

Early Morning Weather Report

I have begun to feel the motivation for eating perfectly on spot slip just a little bit. I think I need to switch back to Maggie at some point, because I guess that Peter just isn't doing it for me. 

That isn't to say that I haven't been counting my points, because I have been. And it isn't to say that I've been overeating, because I haven't been. I just feel a little less in control of my snacking habits right now, which has been leaving me less points at night for dinner. And having less points at night for dinner makes me dip into my anytime points, which has been something that I've been careful about doing (even though they are there for you to eat and still lose weight, I know, I know). So it's been a strange and new situation. I'm waiting to see what the difference is on the scale. Since I have been losing weight so fast every other week, I'm wondering if it's my body just genuinely needing more food - because again, the anytime points are supposed to be eaten if you want them. Every other time I enter my weight loss on the weight watchers site I get a friendly reminder that I am losing weight too fast and need to see a doctor. Yayyy! So again, maybe this need to snack more and use some of my anytime points is my body saying that it's hungry and I'm going too fast. We'll try the "listen to your body" theory this week and see what it does to the scale.

Because at the end of the day, if I'm not eating because I'm hungry then I'm eating because there is some other emotion going on. Like stress, anxiety, sadness, boredom, etc. I guess I have been feeling stressed since my doctor's appointment last week. Much more stressed than I've been in a long time. And really, two weeks ago at Weight Watchers when Peter said that dessert shouldn't be a reward, "because that's using food to celebrate, which is wrong" - that also set off something off in me that I wasn't expecting. It really pissed me off, actually. Because I think if you are able to save some of your points for the end of the day, then you should get a calculated dessert! And be proud of yourself for 1. saving those points and 2. choosing a healthier dessert! So for whatever reason I was PISSED when Peter said that. Man. I do need to switch back to Maggie. She may drive me crazy, but she never pisses me off.

Last night I had the hardest time falling asleep. I just had too many weird things running through my head. And now a list of creepy things that did not help me fall asleep:

1. A rat has found his way into our apartment. He comes through a hole in the foundation and up through where the gas pipes go out behind the stove. He is a relatively new visitor, so we have been taking corrective measures already. But I'm scared of seeing him in the kitchen when I'm here alone, or of finding him alive in a trap.

2. We watched this stupid paranormal show yesterday where this girl was possessed and if it really was "reality," then it was the scariest thing I've ever seen. If it was fake, then it was dumb. But she had claw marks all up and down her back - like the kind a rat could give you if it made it up onto your bed...

3. On our walk last night Dan and I heard what sounded like a woman either being kidnapped, raped, or hit by a car. Three other people heard it too (both in apartment buildings and both on opposite sides of the street) and came running outside to see what had happened. It sounded like the woman was screaming bloody murder. We called the cops, but we couldn't find anything up or down the street. It was just about a block away from our apartment, yay!

4. When I took the dogs out for their last potty break, there was a cop with a flashlight checking inside garbage cans and under cars. He could have been looking for anything, but seeing as how he was a block away from where we heard a woman screaming, I think he was either looking for body parts or the murder weapon.

So yeah. All those things combined equaled me having trouble sleeping. And daylights savings woke me up bright and early! I'm going to use this time to clean the bathroom, go for my walk, and go grocery shopping. 

November Exercise Chart

November 1 - 15 minute walk, 15 minute walk, 30 minute weights

November 2 - 30 minute walk

November 3 - 40 minute walk

November 4 - 7 hours at the Obama Rally - that's exercise, right?

November 5 - 10 minute walk, 10 minute walk (shut up, it counts. I was tired).

November 6 - NADA

November 7 - 30 minutes

November 8 - 15 minute walk, 25 minute weights

November 9 - 30 minute walk

November 10 - 30 minute walk

November 11 - NADA

November 12 - NADA

November 13 - 40 minute walk

November 14 - 30 minute weights

November 15 - 15 minute walk, 20 minute walk

November 16 - NADA

November 17 - 30 minute weights

November 18 - NADA

November 19 - 30 minute weights, 30 minute walk

November 20 - NADA

Novemer 21 - NADA

November 22 - 40 minute walk

November 23 - NADA

November 24 - NADA