Whoa…

Man, you guys! I have not been on here in SO long! It’s just that I have been SO busy.  What, with Lars, and working, and all the running and exercise I have been doing, I just can’t keep up. Oh, wait, that’s not me – that’s Becky doing all of the working out – I get so confused!

The rest is true and I HAVE been exercising some.  I have my stationary bike and when I ride it, I ride about 5 miles.  I was doing it every day, sometimes twice!  I am getting back into it.  In fact, when I am done typing here I will get on and ride tonight too. 

As of this moment, I do not have my stats.  I will get them back up tomorrow though.  Let’s see, I have not been keeping track of my food.  I know I should but honestly, I feel I am doing ok.  I am being conscious of every single thing I eat and drink.  There are some days I do a bad job and make up for it doing a great job the next few days.  I have to say, it felt horrible keeping tack and going over my idea of an ideal calorie count.  I don’t want to be THAT hard on myself.  I am still working on this though.  In fact, people have said I look like I have lost some, although I don’t feel like it.  We will see tomorrow when I weight myself. 

I miss you, blog.  I really do.  It feels good to have a place to go and let out what I am feeling about how I look.  It also keeps me in check. 

Becky, I think the girl sold the treadmill! I wish I had gotten it, actually.

OH, so this couch to 5k thing. I too was always envious of runners.  I thought they were so cool with their little ponytails and cute running shoes.  So, I thought I would do it. In fact, I was using the exact same program Becky mentioned using.  I am a damn fool to think that was a good idea. It was HORRIBLE for me.    I did the first session; which was supposed to be 5 minute warm up walking (brisk), then alternating 60 seconds of jobbing with 90 seconds of walking until you reach a total of 20 minutes. Yeah, I got the 5 minute brisk walk down ok and then did, what felt like, running until I felt like it had been longer than my 60 second limit only to see that it had been 37 seconds.  I can’t even run for the full 60 seconds without feeling like I am dying.  I MAY try it again, I have not decided totally against it but I really don’t see it happening.  Chris even told me he would buy me a new laptop if I worked all the up to the 3 mile mark.  Yeah, not worth it.  Not worth it at all. Hot damn, it sucked.

Part of me says to keep going, you can do it.  Then the other 99% of me is laughing like a batshit crazy person saying, “are you effing mad, woman?”.  It really is not for everyone. 

My main problem is I get this severe pain when I walk (or run) for more than 10 minutes or so.  It is on the outer side of my calf.  Almost like a shin splint I guess, but on the side rather than the front.  It gets so bad I have to stop sometimes.  I almost had to call for a ride the other night.  I don’t get this when I ride the bike, so that is the numero uno reason I am thinking I may just not even give the running thing another think. 

ok – if I am going to ride tonight I need to get my ass on the bike and pedal.  So – I WILL be on here again very soon.

**Update: I rode the bike!
5.86 miles
301 - 546 calories (420)
Depending on how you figure it.
The bike said 301
Based on my weight and average speed the internet said 346 - 546 so I have no clue
Livestrong.com says i burn approximately 15 calories per minute equaling 420. That is in the middle so I will go with that. Plus it is easier to figure out with that method.

Procrastinating from studying

Okay, I have a test this afternoon at 2pm. It's in my linear algebra class. I should probably be reviewing right now, but I really don't want to. So I'll waste a little more time before starting research and studying. Blech. Can't wait for the class phase of grad school to be over so I quit getting interrupted by having to go to class.

*****

Stats:
SW: 260
CW: 247

Total loss: -13 lbs
1st goal loss: -26 lbs

*****

So I went down another notch on my belt this morning. Go me! The scale was very nice to me, with continued loss. My website says that my trendline for weight loss is at 252 (it smoothes out the fluctuations). I'm halfway to my 1st goal, though, which is pretty cool. Hopefully, I'll be able to get out and do the jogging thing again tonight. This cold has been kicking my butt. I feel fine for most of the day until about the middle of the afternoon, then I get a pounding headache that sticks around until bedtime. Makes it really hard to exercise, and I don't think I can get out of bed at 5am to do it (especially not since Patrick no longer gets up at that time). Sleep is too nice. Plus, you are supposed to make sure that you get adequate sleep (all the time) when you are losing weight, so, there ya go.

I really like the website that I use to count calories. There are apps that do it, other websites, other programs, that I'm sure are just as good, if not better sometimes. I just like the fact that I have somewhere to keep track of all this, rather than just my head. It's so easy to go over the allotted cals for a day without even realizing it. And I mean significantly go over. My goal is 1600 per day, as I'm sure I've mentioned (repeatedly) before. That gives me about 400 each for breakfast and lunch, 100 or 200 for snacks, then about 600 for dinner/desert. Sounds just about right. But that amount goes quickly when you buy a Cadbury egg (170 cals), then have a bag of Sun Chips (170 cals also), an apple, 8 oz of carrots, and then three slices of cheese. That right there totals up to be about 600, maybe a little over. Snacking like that, especially the chocolate, while eating healthy meals, puts me over 2100 for the day. Normally, that's not bad (which makes me feel better about if and when I ever get to a maintenance diet), but when you are trying to lose weight and not really able to exercise yet, it's kinda frustrating.

So counting calories has made me aware of two things: the calories in food, especially my favorites, and food choices. In the above example, I could either eat a Cadbury egg (love them!) or 8 oz of carrots (which is kind of a lot; measure it out) and an apple and feel pretty full. Now I know what my mom was talking about when she kept harping on empty calories (thank goodness for *diet* Dr. Pepper). I want to be able to eat more, not less, so I am starting to choose the things that have less calories. Yes, this should be an obvious choice, but sometimes it's hard to make.

Food choice is a recurring thing with me. I say that I'm on a diet and that I want to lose weight, yadda yadda, but when it comes down to it, I have to wonder how serious I am about it. If I am serious about it, that means that I need to start making "food sacrifices", at least until I have some serious weight loss under my belt, so to speak. For example, every Friday night is fast food night at our house (no judging), although with a 6-year-old and 2-year-old, it might be more accurate to call it McDonald's night. It's Friday, pay day, beginning of the weekend, so we celebrate. And I partake. I've moved myself down from (way back when) a double quarter with cheese (no onions), super-sized, with a Dr. Pepper. I shudder to think of eating that now. First I dropped the super-sized. Fairly easy to do, although if you replace the super-size part with a Drumstick (ice-cream cone) for dessert, you really aren't gaining that much. Recently, I've talked myself down to just the quarter-pounder, not the double. I mean, really, who needs a 1/2 pound of meat in one meal? Not me. Now, I need to move myself down further (cause it
s really hard to stop going - I love McDonald's). Maybe that can be my goal for this Friday (and beyond, of course). Instead of a #3, get a double cheeseburger. It doesn't save me much, only about 60-75 cals, but it's a start in the right direction.

I love fast food. I love going out to eat, but I almost can't do that anymore. Most meals at restaurants, especially the yummy ones, are about 1600 in *one sitting*! maybe that can be a splurge thing. Even though I'm dieting, I want to still be able to enjoy food. Otherwise I would eat rabbit food all day, every day.

Okay, to sum up: down 13 pounds, halfway to my goal. Looking for new, low cal lunch recipes (under 400 total). I'll stop rambling and obsessing about food, although if you have any suggestions for lunches, let me know!

Go me, go me!

D2W1 down!

Okay, so I've finally exercised again. Day 2, week 1 of the Couch-to-5K, done! I took Lexie with me and man, she was not impressed. She was ready to quit halfway through. Looks like I will be "training" her at the same time! Lazy dog. Well, what do you expect from someone who lays around all day because there's no one to play with! And she'd be a better jogging pal if she didn't want to stop and sniff everything as we went by!

The past two days haven't been that great, food-wise, but I blame the fact that I've had a monster sinus headache. That's why I didn't do the exercise yesterday. In fact, I went to bed before 8 pm. No way I was even walking with my head pounding. I almost tried to put it off again today (I've got laundry threatening to eat my couch if I don't fold it), but if I put it off, there'd always be another excuse. So just do it already and shut up about it! I'm glad I did, although I think I prefer to exercise in the morning, not the evening. When I did this (not sure what to call it still) Saturday morning, I had a *lot* of energy all morning, more so than usual. If I can convince myself to get up at 5 in the morning during the week, maybe it'd be possile.

Okay, baby steps. Let's work our way up to that torture.

So stats. My scale was very nice to me yesterday.

SW: 260
CW: (2/22) 249
Total Loss: -11
1st goal: -26 lbs (10% of body weight)

I'm sure it is fluctuations, but, hey, it's better than nothing!

As for my other mini-goals, I've been averaging 3 DDPs a day. Could be better, but that also means I've been drinking a lot of water during the day. I think I'm pretty close to hitting my daily goal of 64 oz every day. I've also cut waaay down on coffee (I think I already mentioned that previously; what happened to re-reading previous posts, Becky?). I have two (big) mugs a day, and that's it.

Okay, now I need to be good and go fold laundry. It really is taking over my living room. And if I'm busy folding laundry while I watch TV, that means I don't have hands free to eat. :)

BTW - does anyone (besides my brother) have Just Dance or Just Dance Kids? Opinions?

I'm so sore :(

So I started the jogging thing (Couch-to-5K) on Saturday. It was not that hard. It was 25 minutes of exercise total, including the warm-up walk. The only irritating part about it was that I took my dog and she did not behave. Oh, well. She'll learn. :) Oh, I also found 6 bucks at the end of my street! Go me! Day 2 of week 1 (D2W1) is today. I think I'm going to have to do it tonight after the little one is in bed. I just can't get out of bed at 5am to exercise.

Edit: Okay, I looked back over previous posts. I should always do that before posting on here. A little update info:

SW: 260
CW: 257
Change: -3 lbs (not much, but I'll take it)

Mini-goal #!: 64 oz of water per day and no more than 3 DDP. Maybe I should change that to 2. I've been doing well on this last week, but that's also because I didn't have any in the house. Now that I have some, I'll use my will power. :)

***

I am so sore today though! Not only from the jogging/walking/unaccustomed exercise, but yesterday Patrick and I decided to work out in the yard. After I fixed the mower, he mowed the lawn and I messed around with the flowerbeds. I pulled up and reseated 30 0r 40 of the stones blocking out the beds (I've had a total brain fart and can't think of what they are called), which kinda sucks when they are buried so their tops are even with the ground. I pulled weeds and pruned and planted (in pots). My back and legs were getting shaky by the time I was finished with it. Granted, it was better that sitting inside on my butt doing nothing or taking a nap, or whatever. Gotta do whatever I can to stay as active as I can. When the weather gets better (as in, no more chance for freezes), I have another project that is going to help me exercise and tone. :) We have pitiful amounts of grass in our backyard, so we lose a lot of dirt to erosion. We are going to get some dirt to put in the backyard, as well as mixing in grass seed so that we can hopefully convince some grass to grow. I have to put temporary fencing up around the area that our dog will be able to stay in, because you can't walk on the seed until it sprouts. Yay exercise. Ugh. I'm already dreading it, but at the same time I want to get started. There's something very satisfactory about manual labor outdoors that accomplishes something.

So, I went to the Haagens' for a party on Saturday. It was great seeing everyone and hanging, and I spent most of my time outside talking. And smoking. And I was called on it, several times. I haven't totally given up on the no-smoking thing, but it seems to have put on hiatus for a moment. My husband is smoking again, too, and we are back up to where we were in November. We did well for a little bit, but now it's back like nothing's changed. And I'm back to where I was, where I cough when I take my first breath in the morning, I sometimes wheeze when i breath, and I stink again. I can point fingers and say, well, it was this person or that person or that situation, but ultimately I started up again because I'm a social smoker and I like to do it. And believe me, I'm kicking myself in the ass for it. It's true, I'm the only one who can beat me and make me give up. Grrr. This is not good. I'll talk to Patrick and see if we can't pick another day and try again. This is why I try not to bandy it about when I've decided to give up smoking - because so far it's always been temporary.

Hello? I'm back...

Wow, we haven't posted on this for a while. I wonder how the Biggest Loser competition is going for Lisa...

Well, motivation has reared it's head again. I have up weeks and down weeks. Right now, I seem to be in an up week. I stepped on the scale and it was 258. 258! Yikes. That's not good at all. So I've been very good about entering in my calorie information into my website each day and trying not to go over my allotment. I don't think I've hit it yet (1600 a day), but I've been under 2000 every day since Monday, so yay me! Baby steps. I still consider it a mostly good day when I don't go over 2000. My "usual" non-diet caloric intake seems to be about 2300-2500 on average. Sad, isn't it?

I also found a new website that I think I'm going to try. I've always been kinda envious of runners. I think it sounds like a great way to exercise, especially when you are out in the country and the weather's nice. Someone suggested this website: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml. It's for a couch-to-5K program. Now, I've just noticed there's an app, so it's possible that I'm the last one to know about it, but that's okay. For any who might be behind the times with me, this is a 5-6 week program, longer if you need it, with suggestions on how to work your way up to running/jogging a 5K (3 miles). It's three days a week, 30-40 minutes a day, and sounds imminently doable. So I'm going to start this weekend and we'll see how it goes. I just have to find... er, make the time to do it.

I'm still looking for a treadmill also. I want one of the space-saver ones that folds up, that way I can put it up when I'm not using it. Without fail, it seems, between 9 and 10 when I'm watching TV, I think that I could totally be exercising. Now, I don't know if that's merely the guilt talking, because I'm sitting on my butt watching TV/doing homework, or if I really am motivated. We'll have to see. Lisa, is the lady at your work still selling her treadmill?

I've also been cutting down on coffee, which is a big deal for me. I generally drink about a pot a day (it's half-caf), but now I'm down to 2-3 cups in the morning and then water. A benefit of being short on funds at the moment is that we've run out of cokes at my house, so I'm drinking unsweet ice tea and water all the time during the day and night. When I go to the store this weekend, I'll get more DDP, but will I be able to restrict myself to 2 a day? I'm just fine at restricting my daughter to 2 cokes a day.

So, faithful reader, I guess the only thing that I can say is that I'm trying and have been for the past three days. If I can do it, then I could lose 20 lbs by my birthday (April 29th). Now 20 lbs doesn't seem like that much, but it's more than I've lost for a long time. So we'll see. Does that sound defeatist and pessimistic?

:)
~Becky

Lazy ass Lisa

Yup.  I have been lazy and have not posted on here.  I am working on a lot of things and this just got lost in the shuffle.  But, here I am!

We are doing Biggest Loser at work so I need to get my ass in gear and work hard.  I have not been keeping track of things on Fitday but I have been watching what I eat.  The good news is I have not gained anything back – the bad news is I have not lost.  However, I have been up and down with what I have been eating.  I have good days; lose a little.  I have bad days; gain a little.  I also have been getting up later so not walking as much as I was.

This weekend all of that is changing. I will have more good days and will be working more on being more active. 

Guess what I ordered!!  Amazon.com is sending me a desk cycle thingie! Yay! This thingie goes under my desk and has pedals on it so I can work my legs, like on a bike, all day while at my desk! How exciting is that!?! (Ok, not very – for you – but very for me!)

What else I will do to get active has not come to me yet but I am sure it will :O)

Stupid pizza commercials

So, I've done fairly okay for the last two days. I was on track yesterday, had a healthy breakfast (like always), leftover chicken for lunch, and then locked myself out of my damn house with my kids. We went down to Farmer's Branch to hang out with family until I could go get the house key from Patrick. Anyone who has ever been in that situation with screaming, yelling, hungry kids and managed to keep from getting fast food? Well, kudos to you. It takes a stronger person than I.

Actually, the fast food wasn't the problem. It was what I ordered from Whataburger that was the problem. Instead of getting something like a kid's meal (which actually would have been a good amount of food), I got a bacon cheeseburger. Yummy. 800 cals for the sandwich, though (on a side note: the Sourdough Jack from Jack-in-the-Box, about 700 calories. It's about half the size of the burger I had yesterday. This means I can never, ever eat at Jack-in-the-Box again).

I'm going back to using my website I prefer, about.caloriecount.com (takes some getting used to, but pretty cool). I track all of my food intake, as well as all the calories I expend during the day. It's very important to keep track of what you eat because you don't realize how many calories you actually take in. My goal is right at 1600 (1599 to be precise). Yesterday, I was at 2350. The only good thing I can say about yesterday is that, because I was so tired and I was at someone else's house, I didn't snack at all last night. So yay. Go me.

Today was better, but I still had more than I needed. I've finished the day at about 1850, and I've been pretty healthy all day. I've had 2 apples and spinach and mushrooms and fish and all sorts of good things.

However. The whole point of this blog: stupid pizza commercials. I'm hungry. I don't have any calories left for today and i'm hungry. I want to eat something. It can be healthy, that's fine. I just want something. Now is the time that all the food commercials come on, as well, and kudos to the advertising guys - all the food looks fantastic. I need to find some meals that are more filling - or snacks, for that matter - without being heavy in fats or carbs. No empty calories, thank you very much.

So mostly, right now, I'm trying to keep my hands busy, because if not...


Okay, let's take this in a different direction instead of talking about food. I had a thought yesterday morning. I pride myself on being a stubborn person. I revel in my stubbornness. No one in my family can out-stubborn me (at least, that's what I tell myself). Apparently, I'm not stubborn, though. I'm just pig-headed. There's a difference. When you are pig-headed, you just refuse to do something just because (your parents told you it was for your own good, for example, so you dig in your heels). Stubbornness means that you fight through and don't let anything beat you. I am letting myself beat me. I have to self-control, I realize that. But if I want to be stubborn, not pig-headed, I have to stop letting myself lose to... myself. I have to be strong and make myself do things I don't want to do (take a walk, eat healthy, not snack). I can be stronger than this. I am a stubborn person, I can do this. I am woman, hear me roar!!

Okay, so that was maybe a little over the top. Maybe I need my own soundtrack constantly playing, with inspiring music (like Eye of the Tiger). That could be cool.