Changes, Updates, and Planning

So I finally found that sneaky motivation that has been MIA this fall. No idea where it was, but I'm going to go with inside that thanksgiving turkey :-) Or maybe I just got tired of seeing bigger numbers on the scale. My full on recognition came on Sunday, when I was hiking. It made me realize 1. How much I missed hiking with my sisters, and 2. that I'm not done yet. I want to get fitter, healthier, thinner. I still have a ways to go, and I need to start doing better again, for real. Not just talking about it. I need to get strict again.

One thing I never understood was the mentality of "you can eat whatever you want on weight watchers". Because when I do that, I don't lose. I think WW was great for teaching me that I didn't have to starve myself, but it also taught me about making choices, and limiting indulgences to when they are actual indulgences, or treats. And not just something I eat everyday. When I was doing well on WW, I was only eating dessert 2-3 times a week. I was only drinking 2X a week, and one of those times was 1-2 beers. I would eat my hamburger topless (hehehe), without the top bun, and portion things out ahead of time, so that I wouldn't accidentally eat more than a serving size. To me, that isn't eating anything I want. That's following a plan and restricting yourself, however slightly, to make effective change.

I understand what the saying means, it was just always something that never registered with me, because to me, effective weight loss is restricting certain things, and following a plan. And that is what I'm getting back to. Portioning out food, planning ahead, limiting "treats"

So in that realm, here are some changes  I'm making:

•  To keep me accountable, I'll be posting the following:
• A weekly post on either Monday or Tuesday which will review my weekend, and plan ahead for the week!
• Recipe Reviews on either Sundays or Wednesdays
• Weighing In On Thursdays, which I will post every Thursday (with a better name)

I'm really excited for this! I'm also getting a new phone (Samsung Infuse I think?) Either next week or the week after, so the amount of pictures I post will increase. like a lot. :-)

And I have some updates as well...
-Thanksgiving was great. I combated the dreading snacking by going to see the Muppetts with my sisters. Great movie, family bonding, what more could you ask for? The food was amazing too, and we had so much left over! My mom gave us giant ham steaks (bc my dad doesn't eat turkey, so naturally she bought an entire ham) so we have been using them to go along with our breakfasts (cut up of course)

-I managed to work out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sunday's workout was a whopping 865 calories, thanks to a 2 hour hike. I felt so awesome afterwards. Oh , and guess who left her HRM at the bottom of her laundry basket. Best find ever!

- I did no shopping this weekend. Well that's a lie, I bought clothing for myself. Whoops. Now I'm onto holiday mode. And I have no freaking idea what to get anyone. But this is rare, normally I do all my shopping online this weekend, and I'm pretty much set for the holidays.

-I made an eggplant parm soup last night after dinner. From scratch (like boiled boullion to make stock). It was way more work than I had hoped for, so hopefully it's tasty! But I'm excited to have so much of it- Lunch for the week for Matt and I!

-I've updated my financial and weight loss goal pages on here, for once. I'm back to hard core budgeting (I knew November would be a wash with all the moving) and work out goals. Lets get it!

Plan for week
Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Lunch	Turkey BLT	Eggplant Parm Soup with slice of french bread>>>
Dinner	Buffalo Chicken Bites with roasted pot/veg	cheesy taco pasta	brats w/ aspara	1/4 lb burger, sweet pot fries, veggie	steak stir fry
workout	rest	1/2 cardio (elipt) and 1/2 strenght	yoga/video (morning?)	cardio (run/walk), strength	morning yoga

Happy Tuesday! Now if only my sinus issues would go away!

It Starts

So I told you I would update you on my running plan. It only took me three days... I was really hoping I'd be jumping to get on my blog the next day and say "hey guys guess what? I'm cured!". Which is why instead I thought long and hard about the state of my blog, and what I want it to be.

Because I was afraid to blog about something that didn't work out, if that makes sense. And that isn't what I want for this blog. I don't want it to be all happy successes, I want to be able to record the stuff that doesn't work out too. I want to be more honest, because out of everything, honesty is something I have a lot of trouble with in regards to losing weight.

So the run. It didn't work out great. And the most frustrating part was, I felt awesome running. Normally I start out and the first  5 minutes or so are hell, and then I reach the point where I feel ok. This time, from the get go my legs felt strong (thank you crosstraining/hiking!), my breathing was steady, I felt great.. But then after about 7 minutes I felt the side pain. It started to go away a bit as I ran, but then I took a walking break for 3 minutes,and couldn't really shake it after that.. But I definetly think stopping to walk it out hurt me more than it helped. I mean it helped initially, but once I went back to running it was 10 times worse :-/

The upside? I completed 1.5 miles. And the pain went away eventually.

But I'm not giving up. It felt so good to run, and I feel like this isn't something I can't figure out. I'm going to keep on trying, seeing if I can find different ways to work this. I am going to try and run outside next week, and come up with a game plan. I'm going to eat less this time (maybe just the apple before, and then the crackers and cheese after?), drink more before, and stretch out even better. I was able to 25 minutes on the eliptical after the run, so I feel like this isn't anything serious, just one of those annoying things that plague my life :-P

I remember last fall, when I first started to get the knee pain, and I just stopped running/working out. I would do some videos, and walk, but I didn't really give the effort I should have. Which is why my weight loss stagnated.

This time is soo different. I am still doing intense cardio, just in a different form. I'm learning to cope with the eliptical (even if I don't love it), and I've found a love of hiking. I love the feeling of working towards something, which hiking is the ultimate form of that (reaching the top!). It's also a great way to spend time with M and my sisters, and in an odd way very relaxing, because it's so quiet and peaceful out there. And, as a plus I burn crazy calories doing it.

So my lack of running hasn't been a complete wash, like it was in October. Which is a definite plus. I do feel like ever since I hit 199 my motivation to follow the plan has gone out the window. Not that I haven't been following, I have. I've been tracking, but I've done little things that I have no excuse for. They are just lazy. Like seeing pie on the counter and grabbing two small slices and eating them standing up. Or eating 2 cookies on the way to the park yesterday. Or getting a chocolate donut with  breakfast this morning (at least I tracked that one). There are others, but these are ones that sick out. And I promise you, these aren't worth it splurges. These are impulsive ones. These are me not being 100% into my weight loss.

I need to find that motivation I had this time last year. Where spending time at the gym didn't seem like such a bother, and eating a healthy meal M-F wasn't so hard.

I think a large part of it is that I hit a big milestone (199), and because of that, my next true milestone (besides hitting a new decade) will be goal weight. Which right now is 160 but I may lower to 155 (I'll post about finding a goal weight soon). And the idea of hitting goal is scary stuff, because it makes everything real. I have such a hard time admitting what I've achieved so far.\And working towards actually hitting a healthy weight is such a different thing for me. I've never been there before. It's always been to get outta the 200's, and we've entered into unchartered territory now.

I'll get there, I promise, it's just something I've had to come to terms with. But I'm ready. I'm going to own these last 40 odd pounds. I'm ready to be an athlete and be proud of what I achieve, instead of feeling I have to hide it, because the idea of me being considered athletic is just a ridiculous notion.

So to start, my plan for this week:
-Friday- Date night! It was supposed to involve a lot of drinking, but plans changed to pizza, mini golf, and a few beers at the brewery by the beach. Fabulous :-)
-Saturday-Hiking! Stir Fry for lunch, hopefully babysitting
-Sunday- Doing a video? And walking. Definetly walking.
-Workout Tuesday and Wednesday night. Take a walk on Thursday.
-pretrack GHG's, to get em in ;-)

and with that, TGIF! It's been a long week, I'm ready for Friday :-)