Keeping my Chin Up...

Here I am with another exciting edition of my blog. Hopefully I can keep it down to just one of my various personalities speaking out today. Just kidding. Yesterday's post about my "voices" in my head was super fun and I just think it's important for us to pay attention to the crap we tell ourselves all day long.

Today I wanted to start off by saying thank you to Sean for the very kind mention in his blog the other day. I have been so inspired by his story. I've started giving his blog out to patients who need a little motivation. If you don't read his blog, and I find it hard to believe that anyone out here in bloggerville doesn't, you HAVE to now. He recommends reading from the beginning and I totally agree. I've almost got it all read now. A-Maz-Ing.

Also to Christine for saying I inspired her on a post this week. How kind. She is so nice and has been helpful to me. Knowing that I might have helped her feels great. If you don't read her. Start. And I agree with Shane, who is relatively new to all this that we're here to help each other. To inspire each other. And so many of you do that for me. He must have read my mind because just today I started a list of quotes which have been speaking to me. Some from blogs, others not. I'm planning a post on those at some point.

Yesterday, I ended with the yelling coach inside me stating that I'd bought myself a two-a-day. And I woke up this morning, determined to do it. I noticed on my log that my exercise numbers while still good, were down from where they were. Part of that is due to the "elbow incident". I realized I haven't done a push up in a week. Hummph. This morning I woke up and was soooo tired. Mainly because I was up all night with various interruptions.

I went to bed late, I was hyper for some reason. Maybe because I didn't exercise yesterday? Tsk. Tsk. Power was out for about an hour. It's hot here. Did I mention that? PLUS the beep beep beep of the battery backup on our various electronic devices. This is what happens when you marry a computer geek. (And thank goodness I did! I loves me some TIVO and what not. Love you hunny)

Then it started with the, "Mommy I had a bad dream." Over and Over again one or the other of my daughters (4 and 6) were in my room. Until the last week, they had been crawling into our bed uninvited. Then they had been sneaking in and sleeping on the floor. We're trying to get them used to sleeping in their own beds again before school next week. They did great until...vacation and then illnesses which led to the lapse. Tonight we had a long talk about sleeping like big girls. Parenting is just plain hard.

Anyway, so I woke up and trotted, okay dragged, up the stairs to my bike. I rode nearly 7 miles on one of the harder programs. Felt so good. I hadn't ridden since last week. I was sweaty. Really sweaty. I stopped there knowing I had an appointment with the trainer at noon and did my stretching. Legs just now recovered from that massive meany leg workout with the trainer on Thursday.

Breakfast was a Jimmy Dean d'lite sandwich. I was running late post-no sleep. They're pretty good if you haven't tried them. Only 260 cals 8g fat. That and my coffee and I was good. Had a snack on the way to the gym, string cheese and big ole Sooner cup filled with water. Yumm. Good idea to hydrate prior to training. My trainer kicks my butt. He'd better. That's what I pay him for.

Son joined me again this time. His last one before school. He'll be getting plenty of workouts with football. Has 2 hour workouts before school every day! He's in 7th grade. This is Texas people. Football aint for sissies. I'm so proud of him for wanting to do that. I didn't do sports, girls didn't as much way back in my day. I'm old. None of my cousins played ball. Pretty much running was punishment. I would've rather gotten spanked.

The trainer had an upper body and ab/core day planned today. Yippee. Fun. After my elliptical warm up, I was ready to go. So the first thing he says is,"Today we'll start with chin ups" Ha ha ha ha! I know, right? Ha ha ha.... See it's still funny. And he said it without grinning. He's good. I have not even attempted a chin up since 5th grade when they make you do those for that damned president fitness whatever the hell. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it then either.

So he walks over to this giant machine contraption, which btw I'm almost too short to climb up on. I must have been looking at him like he was from Mars or other much hotter place, because he told me to, "just give it a try." Then he hit me with the motivational, "Come on, Ann. You can do this. Think of all the other things you've done that you never thought you could." Oh. All right. You had me at "Come on."

So I, yes me the fat over 40 woman, climb up on this thing and then proceed to FREAKIN DO FIFTEEN CHIN UPS!!! Oh hell yeah! In fact, young and buff jock-type dude couldn't use the machine because I WAS ON IT. Take that.

Granted, it is a counter balance weight pulley thingy which my physics major husband could explain way better than me. BUT. I. Did. It. He had the weight set on 85 pounds the first set. This means I was actually lifting 132 pounds of my weight. Wow. AND. I just realized, just now, that that is what I'll feel like doing one when I'm over a 100 pounds lighter and almost to goal. Wow, again.

So here's how the rest of the workout rounded out:
First Circuit: Rotating through each one 3 times each
1) Chin ups: 15, 15, 12
2) Dips (like reverse push ups?): 15, 15, 12
3) Military shoulder press, 30#: 15, 15, 12
4) V-ups or supine jackknifes with 7.5 pound weight: 20 x3

Second Circuit:Rotating through each one twice
5) Bicep burnouts: Yep as bad as it sounds. 30# weight x 10, 20# weight x10, 10# weight x20. It burns. Apparently this is supposed to "cut my muscle" or give me more cut or...well it's supposed to be good. It better be.
6)Close grip chest press: 30 pound bar, x20
7)Bench leg raises holding the 30# bar x20
8)Shoulder rotations: 7.5# weight and hold it through complete backstroke, like swimming x10 each arm

Last circuit:
1)Ball situps: 4# medicine ball, sit up, holding ball, throw it and catch at top x20
2) Standing rows with bands red and green together: 40 reps x 2

Yep. It was hard, but how powerful do I feel saying I did all that? Lunch was the ham sandwich wrap I had packed this am and another string cheese. Then, left over tomato salad from night before and a new treat, Motts flavored applesauce with fiber. I love love the cran-raspberry I had today, only 60 cals. AND the pomegranate is super good also. Lunch topped out at 508 cals, which is more than usual, but I burned over 600 during my workout.

Dinner was pasta cooked by our nanny. She's Italian, what can I say. I had 1 cup whole wheat spaghetti, 1/2 cup sauce and some steamed veggies. Also finished up the zucchini from Sunday. I was stuffed after and I am still full, even though talking about all this food got me thinking of snacks just now. (Not gonna happen. Forget about it) My calories finished at 1379, minus the 882 I burned working out today. Awesome.

Tomorrow is my official weigh in day. I'm hoping to see a loss and should assuming the scale trends the way it has been. I plan a C25K run tomorrow. Starting week 7, that's 25 min runs, no walking. I added some new, "angry running" music so I am looking forward to it even if I have to use the treadmill this time. No childcare in the am. For some reason people frown on you leaving your kids alone at 6 am. Who knew? I haven't done a long run on the treadmill. We'll see how it goes. Never know till I try, right?

So what have you done lately that has made you feel strong and powerful, physically or mentally? Any new fitness goals on the horizon? Tried anything new lately?

I hear weird people.....

Today was a pretty good day. For a Monday. I woke up later than I wanted and in no mood to exercise. None. Zero. Nada. Zip. Well, you get the idea. So, I didn't. Nice, right? I was in a great mood. I had a smile on my face. I was tired, but not overly. I think I had a little rebellious moment where I was like, "I don't have to. You can't make me." I swear there's a four year old living in my brain!

I went to work with the idea that I would work out at lunch. Go to the gym. You know, the whole nine yards. Didn't happen. Why? Well...I could say it was because I ran late in clinic, 'cause I did. I could say it was because I had a migraine, 'cause I did. But, Really I think the 4 year old struck again. I swear I heard, "Nanny nanny boo boo!" in my brain about 1:30pm when it was clear there was no time for the gym.

We had some storm systems move through this afternoon. Of course we got no rain and no relief from the hideous heat. I also have a barometer in my brain. I knew at least 1 hour prior to the grunting of the National Weather Service notice on the radio that storms were in the area. I had a migraine. Big one. Which gave me an excuse not to exercise this evening. Can't swim if there are storms in the area, right?

While I didn't succeed on the exercise front, I did pretty well for food. Look at the crapola that made it's way into the office:






That's right. Birthday Cake. Two kinds of cupcakes. Fruit pizza cookie thing. Brownies. I didn't even take a picture of the enchiladas and fajitas and tortilla chips and dips that came in at lunch. Unbelievable. But, what's more unbelievable is that I DIDN'T WANT ANY OF IT. None. Wasn't even tempted. Didn't take one bite. Ha! Take that bratty 4 year old in my head.

At 1:30pm when I realized I wasn't making it to the gym, seeing as how I see my first afternoon patient at 2:15pm, I decided to run to Wal Mart for that 1 thing I didn't get at Target for back to school on Sunday.(Grrr! Stupid school supply lists) I drank a large glass of water in the car on the way. I ate my yogurt for snack about 12, but I was starting to get hungry. What to do? I decided that it was hot. No I mean REALLY hot. Freakin 17th day in a ROW OVER A HUNDRED DEGREES, BTW.... it is ridiculous and I really need to find out exactly where to file my complaint. I mean COME ON!!! Our pool is like 93 degrees. I can't even cool off. I can't WAIT to see the electric bill for this month. Stupid weather guy has it stupid over 100 stupid degrees for the next stupid 7 days and he THINKS WE'LL break a RECORD before the end of the summer. He says with a stupid grin on his stupid face. Ahhhhhhhh! Holy Crap!

Sorry....deep breaths....sigh...count to 10...remind myself the weather guy doesn't control the weather.....let it go....anger management....Well, He doesn't have to be so Damned HAPPY about it.......

Fine. I'm fine now.

Anyway. So I was a little warm after my trek to Wal-Mart and I realized that my fav frozen yogurt shop is just down the block. Cue light bulb over my head. I went in and had my sugar-free, fat-free, strawberry-banana with fresh berries on top-243 calories and happy cooled off me. Smile.

Late afternoon I ate my oatmeal muffin for snack, 112 calories. Then by the end of the day, migraine returns. Cue nausea. Thanks, cause I don't need to be pigging out and I don't plan on exercising now. Day's over, right? So a small bowl of soup and small salad=362 calories, with grapes for dessert=60 calories. Wraps up my day at 1,115 calories. 96 ounces of water. No exercise.

"Guess what football fanatic? It's TWO A DAY season! AND that bratty kid in your head just bought you one for tomorrow. Now go to bed so I can beat the heck outta you in the am." Says the evil screaming, scary coach in my brain. Somewhere there's a place where a normal combo of the two live. I hope. Sure is crowded in there. Oh well.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who hears voices like this in their head. Please. Seriously.....you hear it too, right?

Weekends Are Never Long Enough!

Well, here we are. Another Monday. Yippee. Sorry if I sound less than excited, but I just feel like there's never enough time and too much to do. Always. I am in a good mood, well...for a Monday.

We had a good weekend overall. On the diet front, I did well having maintained according to the scale. This in itself is a victory as I have a tendency to creep up a little every week and spend the next few trying to get it back down. I'm pretty proud of that, especially since I had a few, shall we say, indiscretions?

Friday night I was tired and we decided to have pizza for dinner. My son took off for his camping trip and so it was my husband, me and the girls. I chose the thin crust veggies only, light on the cheese. It was tasty. I had a slip and poured a small glass of Coke from the 2 liter bottle left from my daughter's birthday party last weekend. I drank 1/2, realized it was flat and not worth the calories or the guilt and promptly threw it out. Then I went o the fridge and proceeded to dump the rest of the 2L. Smile. I've said before I am an addict. I wasn't kidding.

Saturday am, I woke up, made beds, fixed breakfast, did dishes and then the girls and I headed off to the farmer's market. I got some yummy tasties. Including some sweet potato butter which I've never seen before, but sounds like it will be great on my light wheat toast. It has only 20 calories per tablespoon, which beats the heck out of most jellies and such.



I got zucchini, okra, tomatoes, and fresh black eyed peas. Well, what'd you expect? This is Texas people. I also got a small loaf of whole wheat cranberry-raisin-walnut bread which we all shared yesterday with our breakfast. Yummy toasted.

I spent a little time tending and watering our little garden. Look at all the yummies we have starting to ripen.








I harvested our first watermelon and cut it up for us all to enjoy. It was tasty.

Then, Saturday afternoon, my wonderful hubbie watched the girls so I could take my Mom out for an afternoon of shopping and the movie. We did find some cool stuff on sale, including 3 pairs of shoes for me. Score! We went to see the action flick, "The Expendables" which has basically every action star ever. It was awesome, if you like that sort of thing, which we do. Anything where stuff gets blown up is my kind of movie.

The theater is a fancy place with a full bar and restaurant. Here's where I got into a bit of trouble. I ordered a drink, just one. I also ordered the steak sandwich I had planned, and I only ate 1/2 as planned. BUT, I also ate 1/2 an order of the homemade potato chips. Oops. Plus I shared 1/2 a piece of chocolate cake. I have to say it was most tasty. The good news is I didn't eat anything the rest of the day, I was way too full. It amazes me how a few months ago I could have put away twice that amount of food and kept on eating. Then Saturday night I went for a swim and swam 1000meters, plus did my crunches. Overall I still came in under my calories. Although clearly they weren't all the quality calories I usually shoot for.

I am still proud that I ate less than I would've in the past and stopped when I was full. Then I went home and did my workout even though I was tired and would've rather went to bed. AND, I didn't eat any more, only drank water where in the past I would've eaten dinner just because it was time to eat whether or not I was actually hungry.

Yesterday, I took the girls to get their back to school stuff. Clothes, back packs, lunch boxes, etc, etc. I can't believe school starts next week. And the whirlwind begins! Between school, boy scouts, Tae Kwon Do and football, our lives get pretty crazy. I am excited and nervous to see how my new lifestyle fares, but I am confident that I've made the right changes to my diet and attitude. They really are the kind I can live with forever. That feels so good to say and know it is true.

The weekend wrapped up with a yummy meal I prepared from Biz's site. It was greek chicken gyros and homemade whole wheat pita bread. As a side, I sauteed the zuccini, okra and onions with garlic, salt and pepper. I fried a little of the okra, too, but I ate only 3 pieces. I left that for the kiddos.

Then this morning I found out that my daughter had taken this picture of me while I was cooking.

Just when you start to feel pretty good about how you're doing on this journey to looking and feeling better, reality slaps you in the face. Is that really what they see when they look up at Mommy? Oh, Boy. Yet, I refuse to let myself enter the spiral of self pity and self doubt that has always waited for me in the past. This is why for me success can sometimes be a bad thing. I start to feel like I'm doing so well and that leads to letting go of being diligent on my diet and exercise. This in turn leads to less success or even weight gain and then comes the death spiral leading to me giving up all together and feeling like a failure. Well not this time!

This time I refuse to take the bait. Yes, I am still fat, but my arms were bigger 3 months ago. Yes, I don't like how I look yet, but I am closer today than I was in March when I set off down this path for good. I refuse to feel sorry for myself. I refuse to wallow in self pity when I know I've found the only way out. Eat right, Move more. That's it. I have the key. I know the secret password. And NO ONE can take the success I've had or the success yet to come from me. The only one who can do that is me and I will not let ME get in the way of my success. Not ever again.

How was your weekend? Have you had any similar set backs lately, realizing that even though you've come so far there is still a long way to go? How do you handle it when the road ahead seems so long and daunting?

Friday. Sigh...week finally over.

Well, my elbow is much better today. I can actually move it now. But, this morning was a different story.

I got up, or I should say WOKE up at 6am like usual. I laid there awake, like I had been for an hour, taking inventory of my aches and pains. Lets see: arm hurts, hand hurts, elbow hurts from injection yesterday. Both legs hurt, both feet hurt. Left arm is ok. No headache. Then, I tried to decide if I should chance working out. I knew I couldn't do walking or running-legs too sore from yesterday and the elbow hanging down and swinging-no go. Then I thought about biking. I think my legs actually giggled at the thought. They're like, "Yeah right, go ahead and give it a try, see where it gets ya." Then I thought, maybe a swim, but again with the sore arm and legs.

I opted not to exercise. I was having a war with myself. I really WANTED to, but I knew if I tried I was going to be hurting big time. There is no shame in a rest day, right? Instead of working out, I got up and read blogs, wrote a post, and caught up on all my work. Turned out great actually because I knew I wouldn't have time to catch up at lunch.

Speaking of lunch....went to lunch with a friend today. It's rare I have time to do this, so it was nice. She is going through a divorce and needed some support. It was a nice visit. We ate at a new place in town that has all kinds of burgers. I picked it knowing that they'd have some good choices. I had the turkey burger on whole wheat bun w/ mustard.

I only ate 1/2 the bun thought. I finished up the other 1/2 burger and toppings with my fork. Less mess that way anyway. No cheese, of course.Lately, I generally forgo the cheese. I used to love the greasy cheesy burger, but now I realize it's so much more fat and calories. And, all you end up tasting is the cheese. The turkey was fab! It was seasoned w/ fresh herbs and moist. We shared a basket of sweet potato fries, but I only ate 6-7 of them, they were long and crunchy. YUMMY! I had a small side salad, dressing on the side of course and I left about 1/2 as it was too big. Overall I calculated I had 350 calories which isn't bad for a lunch out and I was stuffed.

This afternoon a drug rep brought strawberry cheesecake and shortcake for the office. I loves me some cheesecake. But, it's a no no. TOOOO much fat. Instead, I took the strawberry shortcake and just pulled the strawberries out, minimizing the whip cream so that I had pretty much plain strawberries. I threw the cake and cream in the trash. Score one for healthy choices.

My arm is much better and I think I'll go home to the pool for a swim. Too damn hot here in Texas to do anything but swim or sit in the AC. If you have a working one. We've had power outages and I know so many who've had trouble with theirs. We had to have a minor repair on 2 of our units this summer. I think the heat is making people crazy. There were 4 accidents and broken down cars my husband encountered yesterday on his hour long drive which was 50% longer. It's the heat. Makes people nutso.

Tomorrow I'm taking my Mom shopping and to a movie at the Gold Class cinema for her birthday, which was yesterday. If you haven't been to one and have one in your area, you really need to! It has recliners-big ones, cushy chairs, full restaurant and bar service. They'll even bring you a pillow or warm blanket if you get cold. It really is first class. Cue me the martini. I know alcohol, bad for the diet, but sometimes I just want some refreshments, catch my drift? They have a great house salad and other relatively decent choices. AND they show the calories of most of their food. Nice.

Hope each of you is looking forward to a good weekend. Hope you're planning ahead for possible pitfalls. Planning ahead gives you the one up on the raging beast "CRAVINGS".

OUCH! That hurt.

Wednesday turned out pretty nicely. I am so amazed at how much better my moods are lately. I don't know if it's all the exercise or eating healthy, but I have such a more positive outlook on my life. And that's a big deal for me. I've struggled with depression since my teen years. It runs in my family. But, now I actually wake up with a smile on my face. Huh. Something else to ponder.

Anyway, Wednesday I got up and rode my bike(my stationary) 7.5 miles. Then I did my one armed push ups girlie style, well...I did ONE real one. Damn that's hard. Eating was good.

Yesterday, I didn't work out in the morning knowing I would be training with the trainer at lunch. Usually, I would do cardio in the am, but my legs were still sore from my long run on Tuesday and biking Wednesday am. I knew better. And, as much as the Trainer costs, I want to maximize that workout every time. My son joined me for my session. Can I just say how cool it is to workout with your kid? I don't remember ever doing that with my Mom. Dad was just generally yelling at me to go walk so I wouldn't be so fat. After my son said, "Mom that was fun, can I come next week?" You bet, little dude.

The workout was rough, I have to say. We did legs since my elbow is still screwed up. I warmed up with 15min on the elliptical. Usually it would be 30-45, but I ran late from the office. Doctor's life is all I can say. After that here's what the trainer had us do:
1) Weighted squats: 18#bar and red bands-2 sets of 25
2) Leg presses: I did 80#, 2 sets of 25
2)Side step squats w/ red band on our feet-Not sure how many. We walked across the gym and back
3)Hamstring lifts:30#, 2 sets of 20 each leg
4)Bosu crunches: 2 sets of 30
5) Bosu lunges: One foot on the bosu you forward lunge then backward- 20 each leg
6) Not sure what these are called but they hurt: Put your foot in this harness thing attached to cable w/ weight. Stand on 1 leg while kicking the other w/ the weight. Ouch. 20 each leg
7)Superman lifts (Or what I call Wonder Woman lifts): Stand on the evil contraption where your feet are up on a platform ,there's a padded bar at your hips, hang up side down from the waist and lift your torso up and down with arms over head, 2 sets of 20
8)Weighted reverse lunge: 2 sets 25 with 75# weight on the shoulders
9)The worstest of the worstest, Calf busters: walk down flight of stairs. ON the way up stand w/ heels hanging off the stair. Lift heels 10 times. Once w/ heel straight, then heel pointed out, then heel pointed in. Do this all the way up the flight of stairs. OMG. It hurts. Feels like the worst charlie horse ever. But, I did it.

Food yesterday was pretty good. Came in at around 1400 cals, but with the 600 I burned at lunch, my net cals were 800. I ate more than usual at lunch yesterday. I was hot and hungry after that workout. I stopped at the frozen yogurt place and had my strawberry-banana yogurt w/ berries which was 225 cals, then I had 2 string cheese for protein 160 cals. Then I had 2 afternoon snacks of fruit and lots and lots of water.

I drink so much water and I cannot believe how much I love the stuff. I always used to think I didn't like it. BS. I just liked the coke I drank better. Now I'm the complete opposite. I'd much rather have cold water than anything. I drink at least 4 32oz glasses each day, sometimes more. There are days where I'm not as much in the mood. Those days I just take a break and say, "Ok, time to chug." Usually this is when I notice myself start to feel grumpy, tired, hungry when I shouldn't be, or especially if I feel I'm getting a migraine. Can you believe my migraines are probably 1/2 what they were a few months ago? The only time I've had them this summer is when a front moves through. I used to get them every few days. Bright light is one of my triggers and I live in North Texas so bad combo.

Yesterday wrapped up with me getting a shot in my elbow. OUCH! Oh. My. God. I'll be a lot more sensitive to patients when I give these from now on. Elbow is a painful shot compared to larger joints like knees or shoulders. I tried to figure out a way to give it to myself, but it's my right elbow and I figured that was a bad idea, right? So a friend of mine whose an Ortho did it. Ack! I was fine once the numbing medicine kicked in and I thought, wow that's better. Then it wore off during the drive home. By the time I got home I couldn't really move my arm or hand. Not good since I'm right handed.

Luckily, my nanny (god bless her) had started dinner. I couldn't chop anything or open the oven door, so my son helped me by preparing the fish I wanted to bake while I gave instructions. He loves to cook and enjoys learning. He's the "grub master" for his patrol this weekend on his big camp out and he is so excited. He'll be shopping for them on a budget and cooking the food. They're going to Slippery Falls up in Oklahoma, southeast. Should be a blast if it weren't for the heat, but they'll spend most of their time in the cold streams and falls.

Anyway...all I did last night was lay around with an ice pack. I didn't sleep too well. But, if I can get back to my workouts, it'll all be worth it. I miss my push ups. I'm really good at them. It makes me feel so strong and athletic (yeah 217 pounds of athlete. Guess I could play woman's NFL. I'd love that. Had a patient once who did that, but I digress..) There have been several times where people, both men and women, have said "wow you're working out hard." I just got the app for the iPhone called 100 pushups. They have one that's 200 situps, I want to get that next. But, I can't start that until the elbow is better, maybe next week.

So, without even realizing it I've set some fitness goals. ME. I HAVE FITNESS GOALS. Hard to imagine. But, I'm excited. I want to be able to run a 5K. The whole thing. I'm not ready yet, but I'm trying. I want to be able to do 200 sit ups and 100 push ups. And I want to do P90X all the way through. I've been looking at getting it on ebay. Have any of you done it? Did you like it? Was it worth the money? I know I can't do chin ups yet, but I know you can use a band.

What are your fitness goals? I've never had them before. It's always been about the scale. Always. I really like changing the focus from my eating and the numbers on the scale to fitness. It's a total change for me and I think it's doing me some good mentally. I'm not thinking about weighing all day. What about you?

How much water do you drink? Have you noticed positive changes in you since you started down this road? I'm talking about non weight loss or size changes, like me with my mood and migraines. I think it's very interesting that I'm having this shift in my thinking from the numbers on the scale to the other stuff. After all, the numbers won't go down forever and I am realizing that when my focus is on the healthy stuff, the numbers reflect that anyway.

Have a super Friday! I'm going out to lunch with a friend today, a rare treat! But, I have a plan. I'll share more later.

You Can Wish in One Hand ......

In dedication to our friend Jack Sh*t I've been working on this song. After his bloggers need to be creative post yesterday, I thought I'd finish it up. So if it sucks, blame him.



When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
If all you do is stand and wish
Dreams WON'T come true

It takes work and sacrifice
To make weight loss dreams come out nice
Your weight won't drop a single pound
Unless you try

Scales are unkind
They bring to those who overeat
The sad fulfillment of
Their secret snacking

If you track and if you move
Your hard work will see you through
When you do the things you should
Weight loss dreams come true

Wednesday Weigh-in

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty good day. Monday at lunch I had planned to go to the gym. Alas, I didn't get to because of work and kids. So, Monday night I swam 500meters and did poolside crunches. Skipping once again the push ups because of my stupid elbow. And it's the right one. Bummer.

But, yesterday I took advantage of my husband working from home and was able to go for a run outside. He works an hour away so I'm usually home with the kids in the mornings until my nanny arrives around 8am. Yesterday he was home because he had to take our son to pick up his schedule at school and do various back to school stuff.

Running is soooo awesome. It's hard. It hurts. I sweat. I want to stop every time part of the way through. But it feels so good when I keep going and push myself and finish. I did the Week 6 day 3 of C25K yesterday. That's 5min warm up walk, 25 minute run, then 5 minute coll down. That's right I RAN FOR TWENTY FIVE MINUTES!!!! Never ever ever ever ever have I done that before and I felt so freakin proud.



Here's the trail behind my house yesterday am. So peaceful.



After my run and stretching, I was starved and thirsty. Since hubbie was home, I whipped up some scrambled egg whites with onion, bell pepper, tomatoes and onions with a little canadian bacon. I had a small serving with 2 pieces of light wheat toast sprayed with Parkay spray. One the side I had a small serving of my homemade fruit salad. I love having a variety of foods, especially in the morning. Makes me feel like I have my own personal breakfast buffet. Total was 303 cals, including my coffee with the light creamer.


Lunch was string cheese, and a banana which I ate on the go since I had to run and pick up my son, take him home, run back to his school to straighten out the confusion on whether I'd already paid for his school supplies (which I had), then run back to the office. The afternoon was busy so I missed my snacks and I'd only had the 265 calories at lunch. So by 5:00pm I was starving, my stomach was growling. I mean this was WAY beyond a "rumbly in my tumbly" like Pooh Bear gets. This was, I wanted to eat my desk, full on hunger roaring.

Luckily, I pack my little bag of snacks every day.

Sometimes I just eat the various things as my lunch, others they become my snacks. Sometimes I don't eat them all, but this way I always, always have healthy alternative foods because there are always, ALWAYS bad choices available in the office. Yesterday alone we had bagels, cookies, and some kind of fruit mini danish brought in. You'd think people would bring healthy stuff to doctors, but they don't.

Yesterday I had packed more fruit salad and an apple. I ate the fruit salad at my desk while I finished up the paperwork (or more accurately computer work since I do all electronic charts). Then on the way home I drank a big ole 32 ounces of ice water as I do every day and had the apple. I've found that drinking water and having a snack on the way home stops me from being overly hungry when I walk in the door and either grabbing the first thing I see to eat or "tasting" everything I'm cooking.

Last night's dinner was tacos made from the taco salad left overs from Sunday.


I had 3 along with 7 baked Tostitos and Salsa and this wrapped up dinner at 573 calories. Meals and snacks came in at total 1441 calories for the day. With my run burning 406, my net was 1034. Pretty good overall.

This am I got up and rode my bike 7.5 miles. I picked one of the harder rides and maybe the day after a long run isn't the time to do that? My legs were burning! After I did crunches on my balance ball. Still unable to do push-ups, I thought I'd be Miss Warrior Girl and try one armed ones. Ok, soooo not ready to do that. I did one. Which I find amazing. Then I did TEN girlie ONE ARMED PUSH UPs. Take that skinny bitches.

The weigh in this am was good. I lost .2 pounds which doesn't sound like much except that I posted an early weigh-in on Friday showing a loss of 2.4 sooooo my total loss this week is 2.6 pounds! Yeah! Especially considering the birthday party pitfalls I faced this week AND out of town guests. Yeah me! I am only 5.6 pounds from my first goal of 212pounds, which is the lowest weight I've weighed in the last 10 years.

How's your week going? How do you handle snacks? Do you even eat them? If so what? I've found snacks are absolutely essential. In fact, it's time for one now. Gotta go work! Have a great Wednesday!