Weighing In: 11/20

Here I am, back for another check in on the weight front.

And how am I doing:

Last Week: 194.2
This Week: 194.2

Yeah, no real change. But I shouldn't complain because I didn't gain anything. I didn't workout this work nor did I watch what I ate. There was cake and bread bowls and wine. All good, yummy stuff. But add to that not hitting the gym and I'm just happy I'm not breakin' the 200 lbs mark.

I do have a few excuses. And some good ones at that. First of all, we aren't getting a lot of sleep. My son is protesting against sleep in any shape or form. And he's choosing to vocalize his pissed off-ness in the middle of the freakin' night. We're talking like 3 hour tantrums at 1:30am. So mama ain't been happy due to lack of sleep.

Secondly, I'm taking two classes right now. One is for Mainstreaming the Special Needs Student and the other is for Computers For Educators, Level II. I need them both before February to clear my teaching credential. I may not be teaching now but I would like to have the option in my future.

Now these aren't particularly hard classes but it is a challenge to get my reading done in time for the posting and assignments due each week. So my lunch hour that was originally dedicated to the gym is now my homework time and may stay that way till the classes are finished. Bummer but my son likes the play gym so if we're both in the right mood, we'll head out to the gym near home and he'll play while I hit a machine or two.

On top of all this, physically, life ain't so grand. I pulled a second muscle, this time right in the middle of my back, Saturday night. I literally reached back then had the urge to yawn. When I yawned, POP! I felt my back go. Sucked too because I had just healed another strained muscle from reaching out to turn off the alarm. I guess I should stop reaching for things.

Along with the back issues, I'm having "lady-bit" issues, or AKA chronic yeast infections. Yes boys, you read it!

Y E A S T I N F E C T I O N!

It's disgusting and gross and very very painful. Sadly, once the cycle starts, it's hard to break. I had a mild one last month but this one pulled out all the stops so I've been staying clear of strenuous movement for the past 48 hours while the meds kicked in.

Add to all that the celebration with s'mores and hot chocolate one night and then wine and bread bowled chowder of my anniversary, I haven't been eating all that healthy either. But it was fun!

(Bolsa Chica Beach, Nov 2009)

Don't forget to check out my other page where I will be updating about my son and his sleeping issue and some cute pictures of our Halloween costumes this year.



Cheers!

Weigh-In: One Month

It has been a month since I started my new workout regime. I didn't know what I expect today when I did my weigh-in and measurements. I knew somethings had changed, like my chest area in particular, but couldn't see any other differences. So I figured I would check in today just as a stepping stone. No real expectations since it's only been a month but just doing it to mark where I started and where I am currently.

Here are my stats listed as starting/current:

Weight: 194.8/194.2 (barely a loss)

Waist: 34.75/34 (3/4 inch lost)

Hips: 45.5/45 (1/2 inch lost)

Chest: 42.5/41 (yes, a whole 1.5 inch lost)

Thigh: 25.5/25.5 (no loss)

Calf: 15.5/16.25 (3/4 inch gain)

Bicep: 13.25/13 (1/4 inch lost)

Not too bad I must say. Can't complain although I would have LOVED to have seen my weight dip a bit. I did fluctuate throughout the month but in the end came out just a tab under where I started.

As I mentioned, I did notice a change in my chest. The last time I got healthy and lost all this weight, I lost a total of 7 inches around my chest, dropping me from a 38 DD to a 34 D. And it seems to be happening again. In the first month I lost 1.5 inches in my chest. So now I feel like this...




Again, I can't complain. There are some losses and that's more than I could have hoped for.

I am being pretty good about my workout habits. I hit the gym mostly during the week at lunch. Guilt free and quick, it perks me up for the afternoon and then I'm free after work to play with my son and read for homework.

But I'm not being very good about eating or logging my food on My Food Diary and I know that is a key element to losing my weight. The moment I stop logging all together, my weight stabilizes and moves nowhere. Or I gain. And it's because I'm not being realistic about my food. I'm eating unchecked and just hoping my workouts balance it out.

I need to get back to this and stop slacking.

Alright, enjoy my little self-portrait.

Happy Friday!

Weighing In: 11/6

So I TOTALLY should be doing homework. I have 3 chapters to read and a post to write.

But I'm here....

Distracted much?

I had to come post my weigh-in.

I started my new gym routine and better eating on 10/16. That is a reference for my starting point. And here are the results since then.

10/16: 194.8 lbs
11/6: 191.2 lbs

That's a loss and I'll take it!

New measurements will be posted next week though I don't expect to see much change there. It's just too soon to tell.

I have noticed these changes:

• Energy drops: when I don't workout at lunch, I'm zonked by 1pm
• Energy boost: when I do workout, not only do I not feel tired, but I feel more awake. Sometimes that's a curse if I workout too late.
• Hip pain: I can suffer from hip pain and it's very noticeable in certain "intimate" situations. I'm like an ol' granny when it comes to gettin' busy and it's painful. But with working out, I notice that the pain is much MUCH less.
• Mood: Yes, my moods still swing like a pendulum but I notice I bounce back quicker. I hope this change continues to morph into my mood balancing completely.
• Sexy time: I feel sexier and feeling sexier isn't just good for me, but it's good for my relationship. I think my boyfriend can't complain about this one!

I'm hanging in there with the workouts and try to get in one a day at lunch throughout the week. On the weekends, if I can, I go on Saturday for a longer period of time. I do cardio first then follow with weights. By replacing my weight loss with muscle gain, I hope to keep the weight off this time.

The things I'm not proud of:

• Food abuse: I abuse food. There I said it! When I get emotional, stressed or overly tired, I eat. And the choices are usually not healthy. And when I eat poorly due to stress/emotions, it gets into my system and I struggle then with letting go.
• Cravings: I struggle with giving in. I am about 50/50 on the cravings right now. 50% of the time, I give in but the other 50% I don't. I have to give myself credit for that.
• Giving in BIG: When I do give in that other 50% of the time, I go big! I eat more than one bag of sweets then follow with a snack and possible another meal. Once I fall off track, it's like all hell has broken loose.
• Letting go: If I miss a workout, then another will follow. Once I let go....it's gone. This is a habit I'm working on breaking as we speak. I didn't workout yesterday but I plan to do it tonight. I want this cycle to be broke and to be something I'm no longer doing.

Other notes:

• Mamavation: I decided to leave the Mamavation group. It's a group program and support system but...it wasn't for me. I decided, before I got too far into it with the feelings I was having about it, to leave. But I do recommend checking it out. It might be just right for you!
• Hawt Mamas: Not long after making the decision to leave Mamavation, I got to chatting with a Twitter/mommy blogger friend. We chatted about our boys and life and working out. Then she mentioned a group she had helped start called Hawt Mamas. I had seen the hash tags on Twitter because I was following the majority of the Hawt Mamas already. So I signed up and I'm so happy I did. It's a great support system but private and small.
  
• On my other blog, Why Bother?, I put it out there that I'm taking a bit of time off from some of the things I love to do: blogging, writing for NaNoWriMo, and others. With classes starting today for me and trying to keep fit and healthy, I'm having to organize my priorities.
• That being said....I will keep up posting my weigh-ins and my check-ups. It's all my own way of being accountable while I have such a hectic schedule.
  

A Little Reassurance

The other day I posted my first Mamavation Monday post.

Since that post, I've received more than one comment/message of concern about my eating plan. Normally I'd email back and say "Now worries, I know what I'm doing. Thanks for the concern" to reassure my friends and readers that I'm good.

Instead, I've decided to lay out my actual eating plan to kind of fill in the blanks of my last post.

In my last post, this is what I listed as my food goal for the week:

Eating goal:
Log all my food M-F on My Food Diary

• Oatmeal in the morning

• Yogurt/fruit for snack

• Protein shake after gym

• Chicken, rice and veggies for dinner

Saturday and Sunday log most of the day
WATCH OUT FOR CANDY! It's for the trick or treaters!

This was my basic list of my daily staples, the things I will eat each day with little variance. This isn't the actual listing of my food I eat the whole day, just the basics.

Here is the logging I do on average the last week and the actual eating I do daily.

Breakfast

• Calories: 230-330
  

water
Oatmeal packet, banana, coffee and creamer
Egg, whole wheat toast, banana, coffee, creamer

Snack #1

• Calories 115-175

water
Yogurt, string cheese, water
Banana, yogurt, water

Lunch

• Calories 330-530

water
12 oz soymilk, 3 scoops soy protein, apple
Brown rice, veggies, chicken
Pasta salad with veggies, apple

Snack #2

• Calories 130-250

Dry roaster Almonds w/o salt added
Kashi TLC trail mix bar
apple, water

Dinner

• Calories 400-600

water
Chicken, rice, veggies
Turkey burger w/o bun, baked potato w/ salsa
pasta salad, veggies, cottage cheese

On a low calories day, without exercise, I eat roughly 1200 calories. On a big day with lots of exercise, I can eat 1800 calories or more.

I do eat back my exercise calories. If I exercise and burn 200 calories, I have an extra 200 calories available. So my daily intake can be 1400 calories.

I have a very low activity job where I sit at a desk for the majority of my day. My Food Diary takes this into consideration. When I created my account, I had to choose my daily activity level so that they could take into account the basic calories I burn typing or walking to the file cabinets.

All of this is logged, measured and calculated on My Food Diary. I'm able to log my food, see what my day looks like before choosing my next meal and I'm also able to track my body measurements and my exercise. My favorite part is that I can track my day by the percentage of my fats, proteins, and carbs. I tend to lean towards these numbers because I work best with a high protein diet.

I'm a huge, HUGE fan of My Food Diary and I've posted about it many, many, MANY, times about it because I love it so. It helped me lose the weight the first time and if I would have stuck with it, I could have kept it off. It's a major tool in my healthy living and it's working for me again. And I"m not being paid to promote it.

Here is a screen shot from my day yesterday. It wasn't a great day. I had an emotional break down in the evening so I scarfed down some peanut butter cookies and hot chocolate and my workout was low intensity. So my calorie output was low and my intake was high giving me a not so great day for eating. But it's one day. Today is a new one.

(click for larger view)

So, be assured my friends that I'm eating. And I'm eating so that I'm not hungry. The other day I was done eating but my logging on My Food Diary told me I had too few calories. So, I left the table and ran some errands and had a small snack later in the evening to make sure I was eating enough.

Thanks for the comments and emails. I appreciate the concern my original post brought about.

Cheers!

Mamavation Monday #1

Day One: October 26th

This past Friday I saw a question with a hashtag flow through my Twitter feed. Being one not to let a good question float by, I answered. Suddenly I was knee deep in the Mamavation Twitter party. Little did I know what I had stepped into until after the flurry of tweets (some of which began to piss off a few of my Twitter friends due to my constant posting) what all the fuss was about.

Turns out that there is a community of mamas working to improve their health and lifestyle through support and friends so that, in turn, their healthy ways will improve their family, too.

So....I joined up!

And today is my first check in.

What do you do??

Honestly, I have no effing clue. I'm a bit overwhelmed and kinda winging it. I hope to figure it out soon enough.

But I do know that on Mondays there is Mamavation Mondays where you link up your weekly check in post from your own blog. And on Bookieboo, a Ning community website, you also link up your post in the Mamavation Follow Along group where everyone posts their weekly plans for both food and exercise.

See what I mean about overwhelming? There is a lot of support and good information about there but there is a lot to figure out in the beginning.

So, I'll keep it goals this week simple.

Workout Goal:
M-F gym at lunch. 25 mins on machine and 10 on weights
Saturday gym in morning. 40 mins on machine and 20 mins on weights.
Sunday to rest. Maybe a swim.

**Eating goal:
Log all my food M-F on My Food Diary

• Oatmeal in the morning

• Yogurt/fruit for snack

• Protein shake after gym

• Chicken, rice and veggies for dinner

Saturday and Sunday log most of the day
WATCH OUT FOR CANDY! It's for the trick or treaters!

Other Goals:
Keep up water (4 20 oz bottles a day)
Sleep before 10pm (essential since my son has become afraid of monsters and sleep is hard to come by)
Morning stretches/mediation (optional)

Most of these items are things I've done for the past week now so I know they are attainable. It's just a matter of keeping them up.

Check them out!

**In response to some concerns and comments made about the basic daily food goals I wrote here, I posted an extended daily meal plan. I can assure you I am not starving myself nor am I struggling with how to eat healthy to ensure my weight-loss is healthy. I may not know it all but I am confident I have a pretty good basic knowledge of healthy eating.

Thoughts At The Gym

It's been a little over a week now since I signed up for LA Fitness. In that time I've gone a good numbers of times. Enough that I feel this go-round with a gym pass is worth it.

But while I'm there, my ADD takes over and I'm left with thoughts running through my mind as fast as the pedals on the elliptical I'm working on. So I though it'd be interesting to jot down a few of those gems.

If you are following me on Twitter, you may see these come up since this is where I lay out my random thoughts most often.

• My motivation to go to the gym isn't for the eye candy in the weight lifting area, but instead to look as good as some of those fit girls walking around. Someday....
• Tattoo sleeves aren't so bad on a guy (IMO), but they kinda look gross/scary on a very muscly guy....eww...
• People that get really sweaty and wipe down the machines, thanks. But to those people who get really sweaty, wipe down the machines THEN wipe their faces with the same cloth, kinda grossin' me out. That's YOUR sweat and other people's on that machine. Ew!
• Bring a TOWEL!! Lifting your shirt to wipe your face isn't that bad if you look decent under there. Then we get a peek too, which isn't so bad. But if you look like you are wearing a sweater under the tee or your packing a 12 pack in that gut, please don't lift it to wipe.
• Grunting....who is that for, anyway?
• Gotta love it when you walk into a gym and over the speaker, Powerman 5000 is playing.

For now, my plan is to workout at lunch because there is no guilt in going. I don't have to leave my son in the care of another while I hit the gym. Makes me feel like a better mommy. But I get in my "me time".

So far, it's a good plan.

Gotta Come Clean

So with the gym passes in my pocket and a fresh start ahead of me, I did what any person who is dedicated to lose the weight would do: I weighed myself.

Not only weighed myself but I also did some measuring. I needed a starting point on this new journey plus I was kinda hoping to shock myself into seeing the reality of my ways.

As it stands, today 10/16/2009, these are my stats.

Weight: 194.8 lbs
Waist: 34.75 inches
Hips: 45.5 inches
Chest: 42.5 inches
Thigh: 25.5 inches
Calf: 15.5 inches
Bicep: 13.25 inches
Body Fat %: 32.2% (measured at the gym)

There ya have it. Some nasty old facts for me. I may even take some before pictures just to keep an honest record...blah...

What I did find sad is that I'm totally for the workout and gym routine but, my eating habits suck right now. I totally know and can see yet....I don't change it. I have a Coke and some cupcakes EVERY DAY for lunch. What's with that???

Stupid sweets....