Soooo sore

Ow, I made it to spin yesterday and wow am I in pain. Then again: Hooray! I went to spin yesterday! The funny thing is my legs aren't really sore... my butt is sore from the stupid seat and my neck and arm are sore from leaning over and supporting half my weight with my hands. Ok so I'm plenty used to the part where if you're out of shape you get sore from working out for the first couple weeks, no big deal I can handle that. But I don't like being sore because I was sitting on something uncomfortable while working out, that doesn't seem productive. The jury is still out on if I'm going to keep doing spin or not. I hear that padded bike shorts help, but I'm not sure I want to spend the money.

Does anyone know how to make the seat more comfortable for spin class?

On another note I have been eating 2 servings of fruit/veggies per day. Still eating too much junk, but I'm working on it. I'm watching a ton of the olympics, sort of helping inspire me to get in shape.

Here's to hoping you all are less in pain than me!

Winter Blues

Ahh yes, I'm back again. I can't seem to get consistency in any part of my life so it's not just the blogging. This is about the time of year where the only way I think I'm going to get out of my "dark and twisty" mind set (see Grey's Anatomy for the quote season 3 mostly) is by leaving for a vacation somewhere sunny for about a week. Of course that's not a possibility due to grad school, money, and well life, but it sounds nice. Hence my winter blues... very little sun, lots of work, not time off. So I guess instead I'll just try again, like I've been trying to restart so many times it feels stupid to say again, but here goes.

So I think I would really just like to start exercising again. That will most likely lead to weight loss on its own as well, but I just feel better if I'm exercising. That might help give me the energy winter seems to have stolen. I also would just like to stop eating a crazy amount of well crap, it's not really even food to be honest, just junk. I think I will change those into goals for the rest of the week and see how that goes before I force myself into counting calories and certain amounts of exercise and stressing myself out about it.

Goals:

1) Blog, even just once more this week

2) Go to Spin with coworkers on Thursday and work out one other time

3) Eat more than 2 servings of fruits/vegetables every day

4) Think before putting candy/chips/non-food items into my mouth

Also, thanks for the support you guys. It helps to know that other people out there are struggling too!

Time Management

I'm not sure what I want to write in this post. I just know that I have to write, so bear with me for a minute.

I failed miserably at all my goals from last week. I probably have gained some weight, but refused to weigh myself yesterday. I was stressed over a presentation last week and didn't make time to go to the grocery store so I ate out... all week. I made some good choices and some bad ones. I still haven't been to the grocery store. I went on two dates, something I haven't done in a while and my confidence is still on the low side since I haven't lost much weight. Plus it took up time.

Ah ha, I figured out what this post should be about. My awful lack of time management last week. Time management is incredibly key to weight loss. I've read about it in about a million different articles and they all say. Weight loss takes planning and it takes time. Mostly because you need to work out and buy and prepare food. I decided to let my stress and busy schedule take over last week which is why I had no success with my goals. So I need to start with at least a basic plan to help me manage what is looking like another hectic week.

Goals for this week:

1) Make a plan

2) Follow the plan (ok a little too general)

Things to incorporate into the plan:

1) Grocery run

2) At least one work out

3) Two more blogs this week

4) Calorie Counting

Let's see how it goes...

Food, food everywhere...

So here's a little story about my day today:

I made dinner last night and portioned out the extras into 3 days worth of lunches, hooray. Brought it in, put it in the communal fridge, awesome, go me. I go to heat it up in the communal kitchen today for lunch and I'm starving. I look up above the microwave and there are 3 bags of potato chips, and several chocolate chip cookies sitting in a bowl, for anyone.... I have no where to go, I have to wait for my food to heat up, and the chips are staring at me, saying eat me, eat me. I pick up a bag, look at the calories and it's 150 and I think but I'm going to want my nice glass of wine later. I put them back down, stare at the floor until my food is done and run away! Phew, crisis averted. But seriously is it necessary for there to be extraneous food everywhere for people to eat?! I vote this as a problem in our society.

*Spoiler Alert* Biggest Loser Episode 2-to remind you I just sort of say some things I'm thinking

So it's the learn how sick you are episode this week. And wow everyone is very sick. Bob is trying to stand with like 300 extra pounds and freaking out. Jillian is basically throwing up from trying to eat the food. I was surprised it got anywhere near her mouth to be honest. She's so insane about organic and healthy stuff and counting her calories, which is good, but yeah surprised. Oh my god, the white mom fell and like broke her nose or something. Crazyness. Red team gets immunity, yay!

Oh wow, i didn't realize she was terrified of water, good for her getting in there and facing it. Ok weigh-in... Hmm red team playing the game, well that's smart, but still don't you just want to keep losing weight, isn't that the point? Whatever. People are pulling pretty good numbers for week two, except poor purple team :( And the mommy sacrifices herself for the daughter, so sad. Also, she's looking pretty good, still losing weight, good for her.

All the sickness helped motivate me to do my crunches for today and my knee is starting to really feel better, not great but better, so good day!

Knee Issues

Well my knee still hurts (although a bit less) and I went to the doctor today. He said, it sound like you strained your medial collateral ligament.... I said Huh? Apparently the muscles connecting the tibia and fibia are called that. So basically there's nothign much wrong with me I just have somehow repetitively tweaked those and it hurts now. So I'm supposed to rest it, avoid stairs, and ice it at night until it goes away... really helpful. He gave me a couple knee exercises, so I guess I'll do those, but no exercising for me for a little bit, which kinda sucks.

Just wanted to update, I'm doing well with my cooking and calorie counting :)

New Year, New Start

Hi all, it's a new year!

So as many people have, I'm sure, I've recommitted to getting healthy. I got an iPod Touch for Christmas and have been using the Lose It app to keep track of my calories. So far I am a big fan. I started using it on Sunday just to test it, but have been following pretty closely since Monday. Aiming for 1350 calories a day, it says that's what I need to loose 1.5lbs per week, which seems reasonable. I started at 164.2lbs on Monday, so at that rate I would make it to 125 by mid July. Of course, I'm sure there will be many set backs, but at least I have a plan.

The other part of my plan was to start working out this week. However, I've had a bit of a set back there. My knee hurts like hell and as far as I can remember I didn't do anything to it. I thought it might just go away but it's been 3+ days now, so I have a doctor's appt tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that it's nothing too bad!

Oh I also decided to do the Pound for Pound Challenge, so you all should too, it doesn't cost anything and it helps feed people in need!

I also watched the premier of Biggest Loser last night! I'll start doing summaries again next week, but the people are really big this season. They inspire me to start before I let myself get to the point where I'm like that. Plus if they can do it, I can too!

So goals for the rest of the week:

1) Blog at least one more time

2) Keep track of alllll calories on my Lose It app

3) If the doctor gives the go ahead, exercise once

4) Continue to cook good food/bring lunch

Sounds like a good start, I also have been thinking about buying a couple workout videos for the weekend when I don't want to come all the way to the gym, so I'll look into that.

Happy New Year! and good luck with any resolutions you've made!

Getting back on the wagon

So if anyone has been watching weather forecasts for around the country they may have noticed that in Chicago for the last few days it's been ugly. Between snow, sleet, rain, and wind chills of -15 or so, it's been bad. Welcome to winter in Chicago. I knew it would happen, but man, I wished it wouldn't be quite so nasty.

Which brings me to something actually related to the topics of my blog. I got on the scale for the first time since Thanksgiving and it said 163.8... nasty. Ok, well really it's not so bad, especially considering I haven't been to the gym in weeks, I haven't cooked in weeks and I've been generally stressed out about grad school. Now I know that New Years is coming up, and generally people make New Years resolutions, but I have several misgivings about that practice.

1) Most people don't keep them.- Sad, but true. I know I've made plenty that I haven't kept, and I'm sure anyone who's reading this has at least not kept one of their resolutions.

2) Why wait?- I mean what's the big deal about the new year? Why shouldn't I decide to make the change and do it now, not tomorrow, not on the magic day in 2.5 weeks, but now? Anybody? That's what I thought.

3) It's cliche.- Not that good a reason, but I really prefer to do my own thing.

So after this little rant, the point is: I'm making the commitment. And now the room echos back... again? Yes, again. I'm not perfect. I fell off the wagon, well I'll get back on.

And on that note, just two goals for the rest of this week, start slow I say.

1) Exercise at least once- baby steps are the way to go

2) Buy groceries for next week

I'd also like to try doing push-ups and crunches everyday, but I want to set goals I can meet to give myself some confidence before Monday, so bonus points if I start doing those too.

sigh... not quite there

Good morning all,

So I promised I would check this morning to see if I made my goal of under 160 by parents showing up (this afternoon), but I got 160.8 lbs... which is good but not great. Now I'm going to spend all weekend eating yummy free food and drinking wine, so I expect that won't be amazing for my weight loss, but hey, my parents don't visit very often.

We're having a freak warm day here with all kinds of fun wind and rain to go with it, but all will be well. Plus I get to ignore Halloween (not a big costume person), so this weekend should be very good for my overall mood. Hopefully I can also avoid the candy that goes with Halloween as well, which will help with weight loss.

Good luck avoiding the candy and have a great weekend! (don't forget to change your clocks)

Weekend

Weekends are always kind of tough for me in the eating correctly department. It's hard when I don't have a strict schedule to eat good meals. Also when I'm just home doing my own thing... I have a tendency to short of eat whatever. I have yet to get a fool proof plan to counter this problem. I'm working on it. I'm thinking something along the lines of making the kitchen off limits except at determined mealtimes.... or maybe some sort of reminder note on my door or the shelf to be all "Do you really want to eat this?". Anyway, work in progress. I don't think I did too badly this weekend. I guess we shall see on the scale tomorrow morning.

Ok, on the goals front this week, not so hot. I did post 4 times (including this one). I sort of kept track of calories everyday, but just like in my head, which doesn't entirely count, so that gets a semi-check. The exercise just sort of fell off a cliff between the being kind of sick and just not caring.

So on this list for next week or this week, whatever, starting tomorrow:

1) Post 4 times again :)

2) Count calories by writing them down somewhere everyday

3) Work out at least 3 times

Well I was sick...

Turns out I made a good decision about not going to my crazy Turbo Kick class Tuesday night, because even without the workout I was sick yesterday. I had a mild fever, headache, lightheadedness for a good portion of the day. I went to work just for the mandatory group meeting portion and stopped for some food on my way home. I think my fever broke at about 7 PM, because suddenly I felt much better. I slept a lot last night and now, tada, all is well.

That said, I figure tomorrow is a good restart to working out, hopefully I can still get in 3 mild workouts by the end of the week and keep that goal. I realize this post doesn't have much of a theme, but I guess I just wanted to put that out there.

Food:

Breakfast-toast, PB, OJ=340

Lunch-yogurt parfait, potato chips=360

Dinner-wine, cheese, crackers, fruit, veggies=? 600

Total=1300

Cold/motivation

I don't live in the warmest of cities, but for the last week or so it has been unseasonably cold (we're talking lows in the 30's highs in the upper 40's). It's basically winter already and I'm cold. Plus between the weather and the (dun dun dunnnnn) swine flu, everyone is sick. This does actually have a point: I woke up feeling like I'm getting a cold. Being sick completely kills my motivation for pretty much anything. After putting up all my lofty goals yesterday, I'm now trying to decide if going to my Turbo Kick class tonight is a good or bad idea.

So this is the question, at what point during the sickness cycle is it good to work out or bad to work out? I know that Jillian Michaels had this as one of her questions a while ago and I believe her answer was something like: work out unless the sickness has moved into your chest, you have a fever, or are light headed. While I accept the premise that feeling sick shouldn't be a an excuse to blow off your workouts, I also know that generally if I rest and sleep when I feel like I'm getting sick, I can ward it off or at least make it shorter. I guess that's my dilemma, go with Jillian's advice or my own previous experience. I guess I'll just see how I feel by the end of the day.

Well, I didn't end up going... still tired and sore throat, so I will go to bed early and hope that this whole sicky thing goes away.

Also *Spoiler Alert*, Biggest Loser tonight!

So, guess what Tracy gets the power.. again. how on earth did that happen? Also, I'm very proud of Abby for not playing the temptation. So of course she's going to split all the teams up except hers, and then she has to pick one other team not to split up, so she puts what she views as the weakest team together on the black team (Daniel and Shay, also she might be trying to get on their good side-unlikely). Goes ahead to put the strongest players on her team. Pretty obvious Tracy strategy, also basically going to get her kicked off as soon as they have a chance.

Challenge was interesting... fairly predictable ending since there are only two guys on the black team. Once they get to some of the stability challenges and things they'll have a chance to win. Can't believe that Liz gave Danny her video, so super cute! I wish Dina would get up on that stupid platform block thing. I know those things are scary, I've done that, and yeah I get it, but grrr I wish she could do it! Black team is working together really well though:) Jillian is good at that.

Crazy weigh-in tonight. Tracy pulls a decent number again unfortunately. Everyone is pulling decent numbers though. Really proud of Danny... and Daniel!!! (I have a tendency to be for Jillian's team, Tracy is just helping with that fact right now) OMG SHAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, sorry, got excited :) Ok what's with all the wishywashyness about voting off tracy, they better do it.... I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!! What are they thinking?!?! I can't even, nope, ok I'm done commenting now.

Food eaten today:

Breakfast: OJ, toast, PB=340

Lunch-chicken noodle soup, potato chips, mint, oyster crackers=700

Dinner-fig newtons, cereal, hershey bar, grapes=515

Total Calories=1555

Crazyness

Well, I've had a very busy first half of this week, including rehearsals, lab, walk-throughs, organizing an open house, getting a little lab work done, moving meetings etc. This was all in the first three days of my week. Yesterday I organized a wine and cheese open house for the first years we're trying to get to join our group, which means I had wine and cheese and then was hungry when I got home, and had food and more wine. Not the best calorie day, really not sure how much I ended up eating. But back on track today!

Food I ate today:

Breakfast-toast, PB, OJ=330

Lunch-salad with chicken, beats, fruit, smartfood popcorn=440?

Snack-mints=45

Dinner-cereal, turkey, chocolate=600

Total=1415

Biggest Loser S8Ep4

Ate today:

Breakfast-cereal, OJ=300

Lunch-Ginger Chicken sandwich, chips, mint=645

Snack-apple, fig newtons=185

Dinner-toast, PB, yogurt, cheese, celery, truffle=390

Total=1520

Exercise=1 hr Turbo Kick class, I'll guess the 500 calories again

Ok, didn't realize apples had so many calories... note to self. But still good day overall. I had a bunch of little sucesses for myself. I walked past this restaurant at lunch time that I looooovvveee their biscuits and sausage gravy and got a good cosi sandwich instead. Then I really really wanted to go home and skip working out, but I stayed until my class! Go me:)

*Spoiler Alert*

Sooooo Biggest Loser tonight (I hadn't realized I forgot to do one last week, oops). Sooooo happy that Daniel won them immunity! Not sure if he was playing the game with the 0 or not... don't really care if he did, it happens. Crazy take out week, reminds me of the stuff they pull on the australia biggest loser (which I've watched some of on utube). I hate when they mess with the food, because the whole point is to help these people loose weight. I think it would be more reasonable to ask them to eat out once a day, because that makes more sense in real life too.

Also, how is Tracy losing weight without doing anything??? I guess she was just eating so much before that this restricted calories is enough? But like the poor pink team and a bunch of the other girls are working their butts off to lose like 3 pounds and she does it without working out... I guess lucky her, but she bugs me, but yay Mo :) So proud of the pink team this week!

It's raining... and I'm tired

Do rainy days make everyone lazy and grumpy or is it just me? The tired part is my own fault, so I can't complain too much. I had the last disk of Bones Season 3 last night, and kind of watched until after 1 Am to finish the season. As you may of guessed, that's way past my bedtime(10:45). I still haven't unpacked and I need to do laundry again... Things are piling up and I dont' want to do them. Sigh, when did this whole adult thing happen? Anyway as you may have guessed I didn't quite make it to the gym this morning and didn't bring anything for lunch, so I had maybe not the best food. I really need to go to the grocery store.

Food consumed today:

Breakfast-Toast and PB, OJ=330

Lunch-Chicken salad pita thing, potato chips=600?

Dinner-cereal, cheese, turkey, truffle=450

Total Calories=1380

blah

Food consumed:

breakfast-toast and PB, OJ=330

Lunch-lean cuisine, mint=335

Dinner-rice cakes, cereal, cheese, truffle=740

Total=1405

Not bad on food today.... soooo sore from the Turbo Kick last night, sigh. Hopefully making myself work out in the morning... even if I am sore. We'll see how it goes.

Laziness

I was reminded of something I already knew about myself today, and well actually it's kind of a law of physics.... a body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest stays at rest. Ok, this does apply to me. I have suddenly gotten very busy and remembered that I am much more motivated, efficient, and happy when I have a thousand things to do. Unlike when I'm lazy (hence the title) and just don't want to do anything then, even simple stuff like unpacking or cooking dinner. So now that I'm super busy, let's see how weight loss goes (ie more likely to work out).

Food today:

Breakfast-PB and toast, OJ=330

Lunch-potato chips, sushi=660

Snack-yogurt, rice cakes=150

Dinner-cereal, truffle, cheese, turkey=440

Total Calories=1580

Workout-Turbo Kick, 1 hr= I have no idea I'm guessing 500

I tried this new class that is mostly like kick boxing but with some other cardio and ab work, it was a lot of fun. I think I will continue going. Plus I work myself harder in a class than I do by myself.

Oops

Well my internet was weird last ngiht so I didn't get to do this.

Yesterday I ate

Breakfast-toast and PB, OJ=330

Lunch-pork, plum, mint=220

Snack-handisnack=100

Dinner-popcorn, handisnacks, grapes, ice cream, wine=840ish?

Total Calories=1490

And I finally realized that my emotions are all weird and I'm craving food due to PMS... duh. Also I feel like i"m getting sick, which is not good.

Free Food Temptation

So today, in the lobby outside my lab there was free food... alllll day. Talk about temptation, I was going crazy. I walk through there at least 5 times a day and grad school is full of free food. Plus in grad school it's a culture thing: you get paid no money, you must steal the free food. It's basically implanted in our brains. Resisting the urge, especially when it comes in the form of really bad for you things (pastries, chips, chocolate things...) is really hard. I did bring a supply of snacks today, so I resisted, but I had to think, free food does not mean you have to eat it, about 10 times.

So what I ate today:

Breakfast-cereal, OJ=310

lunch-pork with veggies, celery, yogurt, mint=280

Snack-rice cakes=90

Dinner-salmon, popcorn, ice cream, grapes=1000

Total Calories=1680

Well I had kind of a rough evening. My parents are still talking about moving, and it's still upsetting me a lot. Plus all my lab stuff is not working, so it was a not so good mood and I just wanted something to make me feel better. So food it was, but at least I managed to stop myself before I went completely crazy, I knew I was full and I didn't go get any more.

Biggest Loser Season 8!!!

*Spoiler Alert*

Oh my god, this season is ridiculous, everyone is sooo big, you could tell the trainers were almost just astonished. But the good thing is they all started and tried really hard. I'm so glad Daniel is back and he's such a good guy, so encouraging to everyone and really helping out his partner since she's in the same position he was last time.

Oooo, I love all the research testing. It could be really cool if they're able to give a little bit of the progress for some of it by the end of the show. It's really scary how sick these people are, I hope nothing more serious than what happened tonight happens the rest of the season.

Oh my god Jillian's crying....oh she's so sweet :) I love Jillian so much. I like all the yelling and puking and then she does the whole emotional thing too.

Well I'm sad that one of the young ones had to go home early, but she looks really good! I bet she'll do well in the finale. I also kind of feel like she was the most negative out of the group, so maybe that will help with nice group dynamics (I get frustrated with the drama). Also sooooo glad that Coach Moe made the weight he needed, hopefully Tracy can come back next week!

Food for today:

Breakfast-toast and PB, OJ=310

Lunch-cashew chicken, mint=305

Snack-yogurt, pringles=160

Dinner-small corn muffin, pork with onions, mushrooms, and oranges, ice cream, 2 handisnacks=585

Total Calories=1360

Exercise-40 min on olipticle =393 calories (or so the machine says)

I had a mental fight with my scale this morning and I WON! yay me, so I didn't weigh myself, sticking to it until Monday. Had a little issue with buying food after my fun GYN appointment at the grocery store, but I didn't eat it all and I made my new yummy orange braised pork dish, so that was exciting!

Food intake

Breakfast-cereal, OJ=350

Lunch-leftover cashew chicken, mint=285

Dinner-cheese, turkey, pringles, rice cakes, yogurt, kiwi, PB, truffle=605

Total Calories=1240

Workout-weight lifting 40 min, according to some website about 290 calories burned...I think I may have pushed a little hard lifting this morning, but it was nice to get back into it. Probably I'll be sore tomorrow, oh well, no pain no gain right?

Oh tomorrow I'll be posting my opinions of the Biggest Loser Season 8 premiere, but not an entire summary. SOOOOO excited!!