Week 2 (a little late) (July 19-25)

This really should have been posted Thursday/Friday, but I got distracted, and was hemming and hawing about whether I was going to weigh in Thursday or Friday going forward. I decided to stick with Thursdays, for consistency sake, and I like having a drink after work on Thursdays haha

My Weigh in results Last week (7/26/12): -1.0, 204.4, which is going in the right direction :) I had a good week, I'm not going to deny that. With Friday being an overindulgence, I picked it right back up Saturday and was on track for the rest of the week :)
In terms of my goals:

• Work out 4 times a week (classifying a workout to be at least 300 calories burnt)Arbitrary goal is 2000 calories a week
   -I Worked out Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, with lighter walks on Thursday and Wednesday. Overall I burnt 2957 calories, woo hoo!
  
  Track everything, pretrack when possible, to help keep me within my daily range
  -Very focused on this, feel my tracking was very accurate.
  
  Limit my drinking to twice a week.
  -Saturday and Tuesday nights, only!
  
  Limit "treats"to two times a week
  I honestly don't think I had a real treat this week, besides the candy at the movies on that Friday night.

So all in all, week two was a success. I will be posting Week 3 on time so I can post the pics of my results haha

This week has been pretty on so far. I had a baby shower on Saturday, which I ate more than I should have, but  got in a great workout Friday night, and a video Saturday morning. I took a rest day on Sunday, not because I "should have". but I was sore, and tired, and needed to relax for once :)

I got a great run in last night. By great I mean I burnt a lot of calories, but during the fact, it sucked. a lot. I got home tonight and was hungry, tired, and had talked myself out of my workout. But I went anyways, got a second wind after I ate  some yogurt, and had a pretty good workout. Just shows, that what they say is true, you never regret a workout :)

Meal plan for the rest of the week:
Lunches-
Wednesday homemade curry chicken salad on a flatbread,
Thursday- :LO stacked veggie enchilada
Friday: Eat out, I'm thinking buffalo chicken salad
Dinner-
Wednesday- Jalapeno Popper chicken
Thursday- roasted sausage, pepper and potatoes
Friday-burgers

Happy Tuesday :)

Monday Monday

To some it up, I'm hopeful :)

Friday night M and I went to see the new Batman movie (which was fantastic btw). We went late, after I babysat, and I'm sad to say that I wasn't soo great... Like 900 in the hole not so great. At least the movie was good :)

I woke up Saturday, and instead of just saying "eff it" and letting my weight loss get away from me again, I focused on rectifying my mistakes.

-I got a run in on Saturday. It sucked, hard, but I got through it, and enjoyed the nice weather :). I also ate healthy for my meals (sub 500 calorie pita sandwich for lunch, and homemade pizza for dinner. of which I only had 2 slices), and kept my self to 2.5 beers when I got home that night.
-Sunday I obviously went hiking (see yesterdays post), and burnt 920 calories. I did eat a bit rough (I was starving,  and there was cookies tempting me), but I managed to reign in the crazy and eat a rather filling and healthy dinner.

Overall, I feel good. In control, etc etc. I worked out again tonight, and have tracked everything I've eaten for the past 2 weeks. I have a plan, and I'm sticking to it, and feeling good about it :)

Plan for week
	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	workout
Monday	overnight oats	buffalo chix calzone, carrots and celery	spankopita burgers with homemade potato chips	Cardio Max Workout
Tuesday	overnight oats	sweet potato black bean chili	“Fried Chicken” with veggies	Strength/cardio workout
Wednesday	overnight oats	sweet potato black bean chili	Angel Hair zucchini and pasta	walk/rest day
Thursday	overnight oats	sweet potato black bean chili	Chicken Paninis  with veggies	Walk/rest day
Friday	overnight oats	Out for Lunch	“apps” and beer night!	gym
Saturday		Curry Chicken Salad Sandwiches	Chicken Sausages	run
Sunday			@ parents	Gym Workout

My Version of Sunday Funday

Ok, this was technically Saturday.

Perfect Day for A Hike, even if it's solo

#accomplished

in 92 Minutes!

I look more refreshed than sweaty, but trust me that was not the case

He was made I didn't bring him with me hiking. Not even looking at me right now :)

Not too shabby :-)

Week One (July 12-18)

Complete! I said I have eight weeks till I go to Cali, and I'm sticking with that promise. (what, you thought I'd skimp out on this personal challenge like I have every other one recently? haha)
Check out my page for a recap, but to give you a visual:

 

 Considering I tracked everything I could, then I think those results aren't too shabby :)


I did gain today, (205.4) but I slightly expected it with Tuesday and Friday being super over, and getting back into really working out again. It's ok, I know if I keep it up, I'll lose :)

The concert was a lot of fun, but all the next day I had a blocked ear, which was annoying. And I was exhausted from being up so late. But I ate/drank more than I should have, so I forced myself to do a video Wednesday night, which is a step in the right direction:)

I have a quiet weekend ahead. M is committed to seeing the new Batman no matter what, and I'm babysitting both nights at least a little bit, so we gotta make that work. It'll be a light drinking weekend, which will be good for me. Lots of cleaning, organizing (I hope), and workouts. It's supposed to be beautiful so I hope to get at least one run in, and a good strength/cardio workout like I got last Sunday. I really do think that getting those weekend workouts in make all the difference, and helps me set the tone for the week. I was sore Monday/Tuesday, but focused on staying on plan and committing, which is something that's been lacking lately! Honestly, I'm sitting here tonight, watching The Dark Knight with a lovely glass of syrah (which albiet is my second), and I have no cravings. I made a delicious dinner (skinny taste's sausage zucchini boats, made with only one sausage and a TON of veggies) and am just really content. I took a day off today from exercise, but I did take a long walk with a friend at lunch to get some exercise in (and make the wine worth while)

Hopefully, this motivation continues on :)

Goals

I am 8 weeks away from my California trip! I haven't talked about it much (I haven't thought  about it too much, to be honest! Once we booked our flight/hotels, I stopped planning hehe) but I'm so excited. I remember this time last year, when M and I first started to talk about it, I was hoping to be at goal by the time we went.

That obviously hasn't happened :) I didn't really track last week, considering I was probably drinking the majority of my calories in Orange juice, haha. But I still maintained, and felt good about my efforts, for the most part. I was sick after all :)

But going forward I'm back on track, for real (I know, how many times have I said that). I have motivation. I want to look healthy and skinnier for the wedding, and our trip. I want to be able to be on track and feeling good so it's easier for me to make smart decisions and not blow my progress further.

And I want to be a comfortable 14 in whatever dress I buy :)

My arbitrary goal is to be down 10 by the time we go. I think 10 pounds in 8 weeks is reasonable, especially since lately I haven't really been trying haha. But more importantly, I want to try, so at least I can know I gave it my all to get back on track.

So For the next 8 weeks (we leave September 7), I will:

• Work out 4 times a week (classifying a workout to be at least 300 calories burnt) (So far this week I've worked out twice, with one more planned. But since I'm recovering I'll give myself a break)
• Track everything
• Limit my drinking to twice a week. This week I drank Friday and Tuesday (tomorrow)
• Limit "treats"to two times a week

I'll check in once a week to keep track of my progress :)

Rituals

So I'm better. It took three days of sitting at home reading watching Pretty Little Liars and other trashy television, but I made a full recovery, and by Friday felt almost back to normal. I took a walk on Friday at lunch but other than that laid low, recovered etc etc.

Sunday I wore my gym clothes to babysitting and after buying new headphones, hit the gym for the first time in ages. I did a lot of reflection while there, and realized how much I miss that gym (I miss the one near my old work even more!). I miss my Sunday workouts that I used to treat as a ritual. I'd go to church, come home, change, and head out. I'd start with stretching, and then head into the weight room. I'd spend between 20-30 minutes in my little corner (for some reason there was rarely people in the weight room on Sundays, especially in football season). From there I would either do some mat work, work on some weight machines, or head straight into cardio. Always the same, rarely did I vary from this basic routine, and I'd always leave feeling so accomplished and happy.

Back when I was good at losing and  staying on track, I valued these workouts so much. It really was when I started to try other things, or rush through them that I stopped liking my workouts, and it became more of a hassle. I need to start getting back into that jive again. My new gym isn't as  big (it's in a community center, but right up the street so very convenient), so it's not as good for my "ritual" (there's very little space in the weight room, and no stretching area), but it's so close to my house, I can make do, you know?

Anyways, I had a great workout. It reminded me how much I love strength training and spending time with free weights. It always makes me feel so strong, and gets me in the mood to have a good cardio session afterwards. I am making a conscious effort going forward to get more strength training in, if for no other reason than it will keep me from being so sore the next day! I had one of those ease into my chair and sigh days, I was so sore!

And yet, I still managed to get out there today and not only walk, but run. Who am I? :-) It was a walk run for sure (2 minutes on, 2 minutes off), and there were a lot of hills I unabashedly walked, but it was a great workout, and I ended up burning 567 calories, which is 367 more than I had planned on :)

Tomorrow night M and I are heading to Jacob Wirth's (german food/beer bar) for dinner (and splitting some apps), and then heading to a concert  downtown. We're seeing The Hold Steady, who I've seen before and loved, it was seriously one of my favorite concerts. I'm also guessing with how sore my legs are, it will be a well deserved day off :)

Happy Monday :)

guess whaaat?

I gots bronchitis

*coughing fit*

Bright side? I have a doctor's note excusing me for 3 days, and a zpack. The down side? This is my life for at least today and tomorrow

movies, orange juice and lying on my couch

This will have to wait

A Case of the Sickness

So I obviously didn't post this week haha. It was a crazy week. This was my first "quarter end" at my new job, which was pretty crazed but I think overall I did pretty well. (which is positive).

Basically it meant that both before the day off, and after the day off was a mad scramble. I came home from work Monday night and was just a lump on my couch. Thankfully M was understanding :)


Our Fourth was fun, after work on the third, I took a nice walk with my friend to see the tallships (which was a fail, we saw them from the distance but not up close haha), and then meet up with some other friends for a happy hour at Howl at the Moon. It was fun, I was just so drained from work that I didn't make it out very late :-/ I'm getting elderly haha. The next day I sucked it up and got a nice 500 calorie workout in, and then  one of M's friends was having a cookout, so we headed over there. It was a lot of fun, and I could tell the boys were happy M was there, which was really nice to see :) One of our friends just had a baby, and she was so adorable.

It's funny, because I hear from people that holding babies/being around them gives you baby fever. I think I spend too much time baby sitting because she was a total cutie, and I could have held her forever, but I was definitely ok with not having kids afterwards. I'm just not ready for that responsibility haha.It was still nice to go and see everyone we don't get to see a lot :)

We rounded out the night with my parents cookout, which was nice and I could tell my mom appreciated us coming over. It was so weird having a night off mid week, because I was so exhausted by the end of the day, and there was no real relief. I kind of liked it though, it was nice to have a mini break.


So I had these big plans to work out Thursday and Friday, and get a good run in, be all awesome. And then I started to develop chest tightness Thursday. So I took the night to rest, you know be smart. And then Friday it was even worse. So my weekend has been a whole lotta nothing. Except for coughing, I'm doing a lot of coughing. I did drink a little bit last night, which I probably shouldn't have (but I was feeling better last night!) but today I was just as bad, so I'm taking it easy tonight. Lots of mucinex, orange juice, and some nyquill in my future. I'm hoping to shake this by the end of the weekend, and can get back to working out on Monday. It really sucks, because it's not like a head cold or anything where I feel shitty, it's more I'll be fine, and then have a coughing fit. Or even better stand up, and realize that I can't breathe and get all lightheaded. So working out wouldn't be too smart.

I promise to get back on a schedule next week, and actually post :)