So far so good

Just a quick check-in. The past two days have went well food wise. I have kept my calories under control and have brought fruits and veggies back into play. I have drank a minimum 84 ounces of water (after I finish off my 20 bottle on the way to work and 2 qts at work I stop keeping track). I found my hardest time is right when I get home from work. While I am here at work I only have so much food to eat but by the time I get home I am really ready for some dinner and I have an entire kitchen of food in front of me. Last night when I got home I finished off some rice in the fridge and Monday evening I had some croutons with ranch dressing and some pepperoni while making our pizzas. I did write it down in my book and counted the calories so it wasn't so bad, I just don't like the feeling. I would like to only eat food when I am sitting down for a meal. It is way to easy to blow 500 calories just snacking on stuff here and there.

I will have two tests this week. The first will be tonight and tomorrow night - I work at the Ear. It is sooooooo easy to grab some fries and pop them in my mouth but.I.must.resist. I plan on having a pulled pork sandwich with some coleslaw for dinner. Not extremely healthy, but one of the best options at a place that serves only fair food. Tomorrow I will have a turkey sausage with peppers and onions and some slaw. My second test will come on Saturday. I will be attending my grandma's 75th birthday party (a pot luck - and my family doesn't eat healthy!) and then on to my sis-in-law's graduation party! I do have a plan! For the pot-luck I am going to find a casserole that is very low cal and can be a main dish. I will eat this and maybe a bite or two of a couple other things if anything looks even remotely low cal (green beans, etc.). I will take my jug of water with me so I can stay away from the pop. At the graduation party I will allow myself to snack on veggies - but no pizza, appetizers or cake. Also, drinking only water and if my calories allow, possibly a Mich Ultra or MGD 64. If my calories are very low, I may allow myself a glass of wine. So that's my plan and I'm stickin' to it.

What happened?

I know, it has been forever. I don't know what happened to me. I was doing so well the beginning and middle of last year, then, stopped. I worked and worked before our vacation and then just half-assed it from then on. I would do good for a week then stray. I have to get back into this. I decided to start blogging again. That was when I had most of my success. It isn't really the blogging that helped me of course, but it doesn't hurt either. I am starting up my spreadsheets again that haven't been updated since October. I am tracking my weight on here again, and if you notice, that number has gone up considerably. I have gained more than 15 pounds since vacation. That is just ridiculous. I am slowly creeping up on the 200 pound mark and I have vowed never to hit that again. 15 pounds is a lot to gain in just three and a half months. So, back on it, as of this morning. I have my notebook next to me and I am going to write down everything that goes in my mouth - no exceptions. I feel like crap, I am tired, and my clothes are tight. Everything will change (again) right now.

Day 2

When my alarm went off at 4:50 this morning I groaned and hit the snooze. Ten minutes later it went off again, once again I hit the snooze. I laid there for about a minute and a half, arguing with myself about whether I should get up and hit the treadmill or not. I went to bed fully dressed for my workout - HRM and everything - to make it an easier decision. After my 90 seconds of arguing I decided that an extra half hour of sleep would not make me any less tired that I already was so I might as well get up and do it. I did just that. After letting the dogs out, I strapped my iPod onto my arm and got on the dreadmill. I didn't make it all the way through the first three minute run, I allowed myself to stop for 10 seconds a little over half way through - it was only 5:10 in the morning after all. I was, however, determined to run the entire 3 minutes on the second set so I slowed the pace down from 6 mph to 5.5. This most definitely helped because I made it through. Maybe when I do my third session on Saturday I will do both at 5.7 mph and see how that goes. I am okay with going slow, I am not doing this for speed - yet. Either way, after working 12+ hours yesterday and not even getting home until 10, I still got my fat rear end out of bed this morning and did my training. 5k race, here I come.

Today was my first official weekly weigh in. 181.6 was the number on the scale, not too bad since just two days ago it was 183. Let's hope next Thursday is in the 170's again. That would be great! This weekend will be fairly easy to stay on track, with the only real challenge being dinner on Saturday night. We are going out to celebrate J's dad's birthday and we think it might be Smokey Bones. I heart Smokey Bones! They have the absolute best ribs ever! I am debating on whether or not I should get the them though. I will check out their website to see what healthier options they have, but honestly, even things I think are healthy probably won't be because of how they prepare things. I do plan on running Saturday morning, and since I will eat very well for breakfast and lunch, I should be able to have 1/2 rack of ribs and a salad or steamed veggies with no problem.

That is all for now, I probably won't be back until Monday unless something post-worthy comes along.

On the right track

So far so good on the 5k training. I did week 3, session 1 last night even though it was raining outside and I really wanted to run at the park with my hubby and dog AND I had a slight headache that got worse as I ran. I still did it. Oh boy can I tell it has been a while since I have last worked out. The plan for yesterday was 5 minute warm up followed by two sets of - run 90 second, walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes - then a 5 minute cool down. I started with week 3 because it sounds pretty easy and like a good starter point for me. The 90 second runs weren't bad, but honestly, I couldn't do the 3 minutes. I stopped for about 10 seconds in the middle of each one. That is completely pathetic. But, I guess I did it and I should be happy about that. I plan to run tomorrow morning and then again on Saturday. Tomorrow morning is really gonna suck because I hate getting up and working out right away. I have no energy and it is twice as hard. Hopefully it will quit raining and be nice on Saturday so J and I can run together.

I ate pretty well yesterday - nothing bad but it seemed like I ate a lot. I have been so hungry lately and it never seems like I am full or even satisfied. After every meal I just want to keep eating. I don't know what is going on. Yesterday I had: a granola bar, some grapes, a little bit of left over pot roast, a toasted sandwich thin bun with some smart balance butter, a yogurt, a banana, a turkey burger, romaine salad, three stalks of asparagus, some green beans, a fit and active ice cream sandwich and some frozen grapes (yummy!). I am not sure of exact calories for yesterday but I would estimate around 1300, not really too bad for all that food that I had. When I look at it, I think I made good choices. I had some fat free dairy, whole grains for fiber, fruits and veggies, protein and carbs.

On another note, Happy Texan is giving away a care package from Pom. Apparently Pom has come out with some iced coffees that, according to Kelly, are wonderful. I REALLY want to win these, and the sauce she is giving away, so please, do not click here.

Good bye for today!

Fresh Start

It has been quite some time since I last blogged. Vacation went VERY well, we all had a great time. On the weight loss side of things - it is not going so well. I have been slipping and getting into bad habits again. I have not been blogging and not been honest with myself and this HAS. TO. STOP. I am picking it up again today, making good decisions and goals for myself. I'm not mad at myself for the past few months, but I am not getting where I would like to be by doing what I am doing either. This morning I opened up some of my older spreadsheets where I logged in my weight. I was at 208 at the beginning of the year - this morning I was 183 - I have only lost 25 pounds in 9 months. That is pretty good, but I thought I would be farther by now. I noticed that in June I was at 185 - so in 3 months I have only netted a 2 pound loss - that is pathetic. I also did not reach either of my goals set for vacation. Not the end of the world, and I am not upset and giving up; I am just going to start new and get back into it. Today is the day.

I have a couple goals for myself. My first goal is exercise. This is probably the worst area for me lately. I can't remember the last time I worked out. I think I did a 5k session once since vacation, maybe. I am getting back into the 5k training, starting with week 2 tonight. I will do 3 sessions per week and will end the training on 11/22, just in time for the turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning. I am going to run this 5k. And, since I have now put it in black and white on the Internet, I absolutely must do it.

My second goal is regarding weight. My ultimate goal weight is about 150 - a very healthy weight for me. I would really like to reach this number by my next vacation. J and I will be going on vacation with our best friends, the extremely fit Molody's, in June of next year. The exact week hasn't been decided yet, so I am using June 17 as my goal date. That is about 32 pounds to lose in 37 weeks. This number is very obtainable, even with the holidays. There is no reason I can't reach this goal and I am determined to do it. I am going to do a weekly post with my weight updated each Thursday, beginning with this Thursday.

Well that is all for today, hopefully I will get more into blogging again as I get back into the groove of all of this.

Finally

For the past few days, Roscoe has been waking me up at 4 am, rather than waiting until 5:20 when my alarm goes off. I am okay with this because he is waking me up because he has to go outside and doesn't want to go in his kennel. I am very happy that I don't have to clean his kennel out and that he is learning to signal us to go out, however not so happy that I get up at 4 am, let him out, head back to bed about 10 minutes later only to lay there for an hour, finally drift off to sleep, only for my alarm to go off 10 minutes after. So last night it hit me. I planned on running after work. I got home, let the dogs out, played a little fetch with Roscoe and J called. He wanted to go to the store. I decided that I didn't feel like cooking dinner, so we decided to head to the store and out for dinner. That meant no running. I couldn't run last night because the music wasn't ready and tonight we are going to observe an obedience class. I was supposed to start my c25k training last week but "something came up" every day and I didn't start it. I was determined to start on week 2 this week. So back to my epiphany. I thought to myself, since I am up at 4 am and don't go back to sleep, why not jump on the treadmill then? I really prefer running after work because it seems to be a little easier when I am not tired, but that just hasn't been happening. So I did it. I went to bed last night with my heart rate monitor and sports bra on, my workout pants, HR watch, socks and shoes on the floor by my bed. When Roscoe woke up at 3:50 this morning I got up, grabbed my stuff, threw my robe on and let him out. Of course, I fought myself on whether or not I really wanted to go into the workout room at that un-Godly hour, but I forced myself to do it. It really wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, I was sweating profusely, and I burned 300 calories in about 26 minutes, but once I got going, it felt good. After I was finished I went outside, stretched, wiped the sweat off and laid back down for another 35 minutes. Of course I didn't actually fall asleep until the alarm was about to go off, but still. I forgot how much I missed working out. I still hate doing it, but I can't deny how good it makes me feel. My last bout with exercise was 17 days ago, at the WOW ride. That is ridiculous! So now I just have to keep going.

Weekend Recap

I had a very good weekend, not only food wise but it was a fun one too. Saturday we had one of my favs, beer butt chicken. We also took little Roscoe to the dog park to play with the other dogs. We put him in the "under 25 pound" side first and I think he was a bit bored until someone brought their 4 month old boxer over, they played and played. It was pretty funny. Then we took him down to the beach area where he romped around with the big dogs. He definitely kept up with them. Then, he slept the rest of the night. I really wish Haylie got along with other dogs, she would love that park. Yesterday we took both dogs on a little walk at Mill Creek Park. It was a very nice "family" weekend for us. On Wednesday we are going to check out an obedience class that we are thinking about taking him to after vacation. It starts in October.

On another note I found this website that I have started to follow. Right now she is doing a giveaway for a weight-loss supplement. She has great healthy ideas for those of us on a budget and I have a few things on my list to try. One of the things I already tried and will be doing a post on, maybe this afternoon, is a granola. More to come on that.