Christmas cookie apocalypse prevention.

 

It's official! After 9 weeks, my medical hiatus from exercising is over. As soon as our weekly weigh-in was complete this morning, The Bestie and I hit the gym [sidebar: I only gained .4 lbs during Thanksgiving week, which I'm okay with considering how much food I consumed]. Despite my nervousness, I did 20 minutes on the elliptical. I know that's not very much, but the important part is that it was completely pain free and way more than I've been allowed to do in the last two months. What was even more surprising is I realized how much I missed working out. I'm hoping that is a good sign for my future. I've been successful on my weight loss journey so far, but I'm excited to see how things go now that I can get into a workout routine. Afterall, I'll need all the help I can get to avoid tacking on the pounds during the Christmas goodies invasion.

Now, if only my Saturday could end as great as it started. Fingers crossed for a Gamecock win tonight!

Saboteur.

It was bound to happen. Seven straight weeks of using my Wonder Twin powers for good. Unfortunately, that all changed this week.  My kryptonite? Indian food....and chinese food....and tailgating food....and pub food....and a cupcaking. Hey, what can I say? Guess I don't believe in doing anything half-assed and that includes sabotaging my diet. Go big or go home! Annnnnnd that's exactly what my scale number did :(

No worries. I'm back on track, working the program, and ready to undo the damage done this week. Splurge eating myself into hork mode, is sooooo not worth it. At least now I have increased fortitude to face the impending holiday season.

Feeling like Frankenstein.

I may have been M.I.A from the blog-o-sphere lately, but not from my journey. The last 5 weeks have been difficult but fruitful.  On September 24 I underwent surgery [No worries, everything is fine]. Never having had surgery before, I didn't realize just how extensive the recovery process would be though. I'm still not 100%, but my stamina and body are beginning to return to normal(only with many more scars).

One of the downsides of this ordeal has been the inability to go to the gym. Yes, I can't believe I actually miss working out....kinda. By next week I should be cleared for light exercise. Until then, strolling is as intense as I'm aloud.  My fear was that no gym meant no weight loss. Fortunately, this was not the case. The week before surgery I joined Weight Watchers and have been diligently following the program for 6 weeks now(thankfully, I have my Bestie as my WW co-pilot). It's great! I eat more or less what I want, just as long as I stay within my daily point allowance. And,I'm happy to report 20 pounds lost! I'm excited to see what happens once I can add exercise back into my life. Exercise means gaining activity points into my day, thus making medicinal cupcaking trips much more probable. Now, if I can only keep myself from touching the Halloween candy........ 

The wheels on the bus go round and round.

    The last two weeks have been full of life craziness. I started to feel like the wheels were coming off and that I was destined to fail this journey. But, then I heard someone say, "If you get your head on straight, your hips will follow." This really hit home with me. I took a step back and looked at how I had been approaching things. It's great that I have a goal and that I've taken many positive steps to achieve it. But, it's not enough. I keep over-analyzing, stressing, and feeling guilty about every little stumble. In other words, just another day of me being me. *insert mental outlook adjustment here*
     I now realize I need to maintain the proper frame of mind in order to be successful. The other thing I noticed was that I kinda suck at self-managing. Thankfully, I have the Bestie to help keep me on track. But, again, it's not enough. So, I decided I needed a more structured program for both my exercising and eating habits . It has helped immensely. This week, I finally feel like the wheels are back on the bus and spinning in the right direction. Of course, the evidence proving this lies in the number on the scale at my weekly weigh-in on Saturday......

Epic fail.

Not even going to try making excuses for it. This week was a total bust.

In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Cupcake, bless me bloggettes for I have sinned.....

>Only worked out twice this week (3 times if you count trekking up to the top of Williams-Brice Stadium in stiffling heat).

> Blew my diet tailgating at above mentioned stadium.

> Blew my diet again after a craptastic day at work where nothing seems to be going right.

>Went into cupcakery, purchased cupcakes for friends, did not get one for myself. You may say that this should be in the win column, but no. Due to time conflicts, never got to see said friends and box o'cupcakes got left in extremely hot car leading to cupcake carnage. Total sin.

>Completely sucked Bestie into all of this, thus using our Wonder Twin powers for evil and not good.

I'm thrilled that this week is over. I'm now working on channeling the guilt I'm feeling into motivation for the upcoming week. Tomorrow is a new day. I'm going to take the advice of Dory and "just keep swimming". This journey *will* get back on track.

Think long road, big picture.

It's been a month since this Healthier Me journey began and over the past few days this has been my internal conversation:
   Impatient Brain- "It's been a month! Why aren't things happening?! I've been working out 4 to 5 days each week and have been watching what I eat so why am I not wet suit/long board ready yet?"
    Rational Brain- "It's ONLY been a month. I've worked out 4 to 5 days each week and am eating better. Things ARE happening...in small, healthy increments. Have patience, young Padawan, and the reward will eventually be mine."

As much as I want to be farther along in this process, I realize the old expression "Rome wasn't built in a day" holds true here. I knew going into this it was going to be a long process, which is why I gave myself almost a year to accomplish what I want to do. I just need to stay the course and victory will be mine.

So, my goals for the month of September will be:
    1- Continue working out 4 to 5 days each week
    2- Watch my calorie intake daily
    3- Adopt patience as a virtue (or at least become it's foster parent for the next 10 months)

Stress eating, I own you.

So, I faced a few speed bumps this week.....

1- It was the first week back with students at school which is always exhausting. It's hard to readjust to getting up at o'dark thirty every morning and being on the go with little humans all day long.
2- Family drama reared its head. Shocker, I know!
3- Dental appointment resulted in me being told I need TWO crowns, to the tune of $622 each.

Ordinarily, my reaction to the above would be to bury myself in the land of brownies and salt & vinegar kettle potato chips (I'm fairly certain stress eating is the major contributor to my current physical status). But, rather than going over to the darkside, I used the Force (aka my Bestie's words of wisdom) to amp up my will power and avoided all snackage, except for occasional 15 calorie, sugar-free Popsicles.

In addition to thwarting the junk food monkey on my back, I managed to fit in 4 days with workouts as well as make a life changing decision that will *fingers crossed* successfully impact my journey to better health.

All things considered, I'm putting this week in the "Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner" category.

Weekend warrior.

Ok, here's the thing....weekends are sacred sleep time to me. It's the time when I try to spend as much quality time with my pillow and blanket as possible to regain some of the sleep I lose during the workweek. So, for me to literally leave my comfort zone to go to the gym, it's BIG.This weekend I did it not once, but twice! Since I wasn't able to exercise Thursday or Friday, I had to go to the gym this weekend in order to meet my 5 day workout goal for this week. So, despite every fiber of my being whining "I don't wanna go!", I went (and dragged The Bestie along with me). The good news is that I was able to increase my times on the machines as well as the amounts of weight I lifted. Don't get me wrong. I still sweat a river and huff & puffed enough to blow the third pig's house down, but without as much of a struggle as in the previous workouts. I'm taking it as a sign that I've conquered the first hurdle in making working out a routine thing for me.

On the flip side, although I experienced success with my exercising, my diet...not so much. Back-to-back meals with out of town friends were amazing and fun, but they put a crimp in my healthy eating mojo. Bottom line....carbs AND cake(in various shapes) were consumed. But, I'm okay with it. The opportunity to spend time laughing and eating with people I adore far outweighs any guilt I may feel about slipping on my diet goal. As long as I make sure it's not a regular occurrence, in the end that scale number WILL drop.

Goals for this week:
~survive the first week with kiddos back at school (7 am duty days are not my friend)
~at least 4 days of working out
~avoid pre-packaged/processed foods (as well as school cafeteria meals) for lunches

Checks in the win column.

3 days at gym.......................check
2 days at kickboxing class........ check
No junk food consumed...........check
Lower number on the scale.......check

I don't know what I am more excited about this week, staying on task and meeting my fitness/diet goals or finally getting to move on to Book 3 in the Game of Thrones series (both have been equally exhausting, haha).

It feels good to have another successful week on my journey. Next week will be my first major speed bump....going back to work. The new school year begins on Monday which means sleeping late and middle of the day workouts are no longer an option. So, my 5-day workout goal this week now includes establishing an after-work exercise plan. Que The Little Engine That Could...."I think I can. I think I can."

3-word geniuses.

Dear Nike~
        I'm just wondering, is your entire marketing division restricted to using only 3 words or are you just lucky enough for lightning to strike twice?  First, it was "Just Do It." Now, it's "Find Your Greatness." Both powerful. Both effective in helping me maintain my motivation on this journey. Well done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hEzW1WRFTg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsXRj89cWa0 -(this version made me cry)

Sincerely,
A person who will take all the help she can get to cultivate her mental toughness.

PS: Why can't I buy this slogan on a t-shirt yet?!

I'm a carrot girl.

*No worries, this isn't about the health benefits of those orange vegetables (yuck!)*

As you can tell from my blog entries, I'm one week into this new journey and it's been successful so far. I exercised 4 days this week and significantly improved my eating habits. (Haven't quite mastered stopping the brownie & ice cream cravings I get each night, but at least I'm not acting on them). My plan for this week involves 5 days of working out. Given my current bout of insomnia, I know my exercise motivation will suffer.  In order to increase my odds of being successful, I know I need to start dangling a few carrots in front of myself. First up, meet this week's goal and it's a back-to-school mani/pedi for me on Friday. I mean, all the best teachers have cute toes, right?

Wonder Twin powers...Activate!

Form of.....a Bestie that makes you drag your ass out of bed to go to the gym.

I started going back to cardio kickboxing classes yesterday and this morning I awoke to my arms saying "WTF were you thinking?!?" They felt like weights were attached to them and hurt to move. Couple that with not being able to fall sleep until 5am and you get one very cranky, unmotivated exerciser. I thought to myself, "there's no way I can go to the gym today."

Que Bestie's morning text: "We heading to the gym?" To which my reply was 160 characters of pure whining. She was sympathetic to what I was feeling (her muscles hurt too), but simply typed "C'mon. You can do this. Let's go burn this candle down." And we did. I dragged myself out of bed and met her at the gym where both of us completed our workouts.

Afterward, my muscles were still protesting a bit, but I felt energized. My mind had switched out of whining mode and into "I can do this" mode. I know this won't be the last time I need my motivation jump-started, so I'm very thankful I have a friend on this same journey who's willing to guilt, cajole, or threaten me to press on.

It's time.

Goal setting:

I'm often envious of people who can set long-range goals for themselves. If it's too far in the future, my attention span isn't going to maintain its focus long enough to achieve it. I know I need short-term missions as well.

That being said, I do have a long term goal.....Surf Camp 2013.  During a recent trip to San Diego, I spent a great deal of time sitting on the beach watching people surf and came to two conclusions. 1- Guys look really good in wetsuits. 2- I want a turn! Unfortunately, I am currently far too "seal shaped" and not even remotely close to having the strength, flexibility, or balance to catch a wave right now.

But, in order to be able to attend a surfing camp next summer, I need to start looking at the smaller picture. Taking this journey one month at a time seems the most beneficial way to do things. So, my missions for August:
         ~Establish a fitness routine (aka get off my butt and get active). Exercise a minimum three days each week.
         ~Establish a healthier diet (aka cut out the junk). Vacation time is over, time to focus on healthier eating. And yes, that means NO cupcakes!

If you blog it, change will come...

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. And, I 've got a plan!


Step 1- Become as good at following through and executing plans as I am at making them.

I've become proficient at getting a sudden surge of motivation and concocting  great life plans. The problem is these plans seem to become members of the resolution graveyard rather quickly and I'm faced with my motivation being replaced with the guilt of failing.

I figure putting things out there into the cyber universe may help up the ante on me following through on this new life journey. If I stick with it, the end result will be me flipping the script on my life and turning "I would like to" into "I will".

Next up- Goal setting.