Weekends

I slept in until 9am today, which is much later than I normally do on the weekends. I got up and immediately started straightening up the apartment. Dan suggested I make breakfast before we get to cleaning, so I tried out a new recipe, a spinach and broccoli quiche. It turned out really well and there was enough for tomorrow morning as well. Dan took care of the bathroom while I cleaned the kitchen. Then I disassembled Christmas while Dan mopped the floors. We finished up around 1pm and then remembered we still had the drawers for our bed to put together. Dan got to work on them while I practiced my crochet and entertained him (in my opinion I am pretty damn entertaining). He finished up the drawers around 3:30pm.

We are very productive around the house on the weekends and it is the main reason why we can't find time for the gym. We clean all morning and work on projects in the afternoon and then we're both ready for a good nap or a little bit of relaxation. I suppose if we were to clean more during the week we would have more time on the weekend - but after work and the gym and making dinner we only really have an hour and a half or so to enjoy ourselves before we go to sleep. So. We still need to figure out how to fit in a workout before the gym closes (5pm).

To make sure I still work out today I am going to do the wii fit in a bit and I'm going to walk to the movie theatre tonight to meet Bernadette. All we have to do tomorrow is grocery shop and laundry, so hopefully the gym visit will be more feasible.

I'm sure everyone deals with this on the weekends. The answer is to probably go immediately to the gym in the morning and then to do the housework afterwards. It makes sense... but will we actually do it? No idea.

Quick One.

Just a little exercise update. Last night I did 20 minutes of aerobics (hula hoop and step) and then I did 10 minutes of yoga. I have hit my three days/week goal! Now to work out on the weekends... I still need to figure out how to get the motivation to go tomorrow morning. sigh.

Also, I lost 4.2 pounds this week! Being back in the habit feels good.

Work party today. I successfully avoided cake. It didn't even look good. That feels nice.

resolutions, etc.

As of this Sunday, I have done the following:

Had three bottles (or 9 glasses) of water each day.

Eaten from at least 5 of my healthy categories per day.

Made one new recipe (chicken strogonoff). One of my non-weight loss resolutions is to make a new recipe every week, so that I'm cooking more in general and also trying new things.

Picked up some yarn, a hook, and a book and started teaching myself to crochet. This is another non-weight loss related resolution. So far I find it very relaxing and it has taken my mind off night time snacking, which is the goal.

Avoided dairy and splenda.

Done some form of exercise every day. My resolution was to go to the gym five times a week, but our dear friend and dog walker is not available to help us for the next three weeks. The good news is that she'll be working in my department for the next three weeks, so I imagine I'll be able to have lunch with her daily! Woo hoo! But I digress... We don't want to leave the dogs home for 12+ hours a day (seems cruel) so we are being creative and exercising at home three days a week. So we'll be pushing to go to the gym twice on the weekends for now.

Last night Dan and I were both exhausted from our rather epic gym workout on Tuesday. His back hurt, my knees hurt - we are both babies, but getting back into cardio takes time. Instead of exercising, we watched this horribly created (therefore amazing) show called "Ghost Adventures." If you can find this show, watch it. The ghost hunters names are "Zack, Nick and Aaron," and they use intimidation and goading to get the ghosts to appear. The narration is ridiculously stupid and they are constantly yelling at each other for making too much noise or "running away from ghosts." Anyway, that kept us pretty busy last night.

Dan got up this morning and did wii boxing. I stretched for 5 minutes and did 10 minutes of strength training. I will be doing wii yoga tonight before bed. With wii yoga on Monday and a gym visit on Tuesday, that will put me at my three days per week goal.

Eat A Variety of Healthy Foods

I have putting any foods that fall into the "healthy" food category in bold. Here are the variety of foods I'd like to eat every day.

Fruit (especially berries for their antioxidant powers)

Vegetables (especially tomatoes)

Spinach (has it's own category for how amazing it is)

Yogurt

Whole Grains (especially oats)

Beans

Nuts/Seeds

I am pretty good about getting in berries, tomatoes, whole grains, and yogurt. The category that gives me the most trouble is nuts, because I have a tendency to overdo them.

Many of the other foods I eat are low fat/low calorie, but I'm not as worried about getting in meat and soy right now. To me those foods are supplements to my diet. Non essential. Filler. Yes, meat is filler. My husband is probably shaking his head right now.

A Rolling Stone...

I'm still getting into the swing of things, but already I feel like I've gotten a semblance of control back. And it feels damn good.

Last night Dan and I were feeling too sick/stressed out to go to the gym. Our three nights during the week is very nice because it allows for us to take any two nights off that we want. Anyway, we made dinner and rested up and then before bed I did 30 minutes wii fit yoga. It helped stretch me out and I worked up a tiny bit of sweat.

I've been feeling pretty tense at work lately, so to combat that I did 15 minutes of stretching this morning. I also did 15 minutes of weight lifting, because I'd like to add it into my routine three days of week. I really liked working out this morning. It cleared my head and woke me up and I felt much more prepared for the day ahead. I think I'm going to try to stretch every day when I get up from now on and try to keep the weight training in the morning too. That way my gym time can be strictly cardiovascular and I don't have to deal with the meat heads in the weight room.

And speaking of the gym, the plan is to go tonight, tomorrow and Thursday. We typically do 30 minutes on the elliptical and then walk home (which takes between 10-15 minutes).

Again, it scares me a bit to be diving into a schedule where I wake up and exercise, come home and exercise, and exercise on the weekends. There is this fear of devoting all my time away from work to getting healthy. But I need to push past this fear and just do it, because I know if I can get into the habit I am going to feel a billion times healthier. And it will no longer feel like time lost, but rather weight lost. And that is the damn point.

Taking 2010 By Storm

One Year Later...

I had lost 40 pounds the last time I updated this lovely blog. And over the course of the past year I went slightly down and then back up, and up... and up. And one year later I can say that I've managed to keep 25 of those pounds off of my body. Which is not great (I made no forward progress). But it is not bad either (I am not totally back at square one).

There are a lot of things in my life that are constantly in flux (career, friendships, life goals, maturity, Blackbird, etc). And that is fine. Things work out well for a while and then something slips away and you have to work to pick the reins up again. Which is where I feel like I am right now in many respects. But I have found that it is easier to focus on all these different things when I am living healthy. Because my brain is clearer. I feel more focused and motivated. I'm not worried about why my clothes don't fit.

For the past year I've felt (very irrationally) afraid that if I wasn't careful I would let my healthy lifestyle take over my life. Having a full time job doesn't leave a lot of free time and it is a bit overwhelming to use up your free time at the gym. And looking back on the past year I've realized that I've spent even more time feeling afraid that I have no control over myself and a general sadness about being unhealthy. And if I have to fear losing my free time to being healthy so that I don't have to fear dying because I'm unhealthy - well, that seems like a good trade to me.

All these things boiled down add up to many reasons why it is a great time to get healthy. And here are some more...

I feel less stressed when I exercise on a regular basis.

Dairy makes me feel sick. I don't want to eat it anymore.

I want to fit into smaller clothing and not have to worry about my pants fitting in the morning.

I want to feel like I am in control of my feelings - and this means controlling emotional eating.

What does this mean? I'm going to be harder on myself because this time I mean business. My friend Holly talks about "tough love," and quite frankly this is exactly the mind set I have to take. To see results I need to make changes and I need to make them now. I need to take myself seriously.

So. Lifestyle change. Here is the plan....

1. Eat a variety of 7 healthy foods per day. I was doing this in September and October and it felt great. The categories/foods are: Beans, Nuts, Berries, Oats/Whole Grains, Spinach, Yogurt, and veggies. I do count spinach and veggies as separate categories, as while spinach is a powerful food I don't want it to be the only vegetable I eat per day. Getting nuts and beans in every day can be difficult, so instead I may have two servings of berries, etc. But the goal will be to get in 7 different types of these very healthy foods.

2. Go to the gym 5 x per week. This is something Dan and I have been trying to do and I know the hold up is me. I can find an excuse at least once per week as to why we shouldn't go. I am my own worst enemy in this situation, especially when I have a lovely husband who will go to the gym with me. So.

3. Goodbye dairy and splenda. I am not ready to say goodbye %100 to fried foods and pastries - especially when I know how to count them (points wise) and I don't eat them very often. And limiting too many things will make this feel like a diet, which I absolutely do not want. But I gorge on dairy on the weekends and it makes me feel sick every time. I can't control myself with it, so it's time to get rid of it. And as for splenda - I keep hearing horrible things about sweeteners from the doctors at the hospital. I would like to try and cut it out. And thinking about it - I put it in my coffee, I have at least one diet soda per day, and it sweetens the lemonade that Dan and I drink. I just use way too much of it. The hardest part of this will definitely be the lemonade, as it is what I drink at home, but...

4. Drink more water. This was one of the few goals I made when I started dieting that I have really stuck with. I have found that while I drink a lot of water at work, however, I barely drink any water when I am at home. So I am going to replace my lemonade drinking with good old fashioned water. Sounds boring. Probably will be boring. But also better for me in the long run.

The best laid plans of mice and men.

I had a great week... and then we hit tech. And let me tell you, tech was DISASTEROUS. Not in terms of actual tech, just in terms of eating and exercising and even getting sleep. And then opening happened and I had a lot of people in town.... fast forward to this Tuesday when I was finally able to make a good decision and not over eat.

I'm scared to go back to weight watchers, but i have to. This would be a vicious cycle to get into. So I had a bad week, a good week, and then a bad week. Whatever. I can get started again. I'm already back to healthy breakfasts and lunches.

So here is the plan... wii fit on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (Thursday and Fridays are work days and show days and too busy right now). I also just need to go back to the same eating plan I've been following and I will be fine. I feel the motivation, I'm getting married in less than 5 months! I can do it.