Measuring Monday week 8--Where did the time go again???

Where did the time fly to? And why has it been so long since I've blogged??? Some reasons are excusable, others...not so much. One reason: I've been SWAMPED. Like, more than ever. Musical rehearsals every night, music contests to play at (1 [or 2?] more coming up), daily rehearsals, teaching, Lenten services (average number of services doubled), etc... Other reason: laziness. Pathetic--I know. But I've been lazy lately because I have finally had some "me" time to myself! Alas, now I must place my nose back on that grindstone (ow). So now I'll just show weight updates and pros and cons of the week instead of complaining more.


Negative:

-- being intimidated by the gym/people at the gym
---This is normal for me. Here is an example of my problem: A few days ago, I drove past the gym slowly and counted the number of cars in front of it. If there were more than 2, I would pass on going to the gym that day. Sad, isn't it? I go to a local Anytime Fitness, and in this gym, I have yet to see anyone really overweight...it's like everyone in my hometown is fit and they just go there to keep fit (girls) or show off (guys). And yes, the guys do try to show off...at least from what I've seen. "Let's see how heavy I can make this, dude. I'll be so buff." I literally heard this conversation one day. "Dude, add another 50 lbs on there. Niiiice." *guy goes to lift weights* "AHHH--FUU---YAAAHHHH! YEAH!" He continues to do this every time he lifts the weight. Oh, so manly......... Back to everyone being fit...I feel like a fish out of water in there. Why? 1.) I don't know if I'm using all equipment properly. 2.) I am a sight not seen much in my hometown gym (big girl). 3.) When I sweat, I STINK. It's bad, people. I should get an assistant that just constantly sprays me with perfume and deodorant. 4.) Watching me trying to catch my breath after an intense interval cardio is pitiful. 5.) It's just not good. Today, I went in for a good workout. As soon as I walk in, I hop on the elliptical. Two younger girls proceed to talk very loudly right behind me. I plug in my buds to the TV and turn it up loud. I can still hear them. After 10 minutes of talking behind me, they finally head over to 2 treadmills, where they talk even louder. Isn't the gym a place to workout? If you want to socialize that much, go to Starbucks, please. I hop off the elliptical after 15 minutes, 125 calories burned. I go to the leg extension machine. A guy that is using the machine behind me sees me hop on. When I am in the middle of my reps, he stands near me and rolls his eyes at me. I think I was using the machine he wanted? Then, another younger guy kept sneaking glances at me (that I obviously saw). I wanted to turn around to the people in the gym today and say, "A big girl working out!! It's scary, isn't it?!?!" Instead, I just put my head down, turned up my music, and worked it out.

--FAST FOOD
---I got fast food again. This time, it was yesterday. I got hit by a craving for McD's fries, and I fulfilled it. Never doing that again...upset stomach-bleck!


Positive:

--Frozen mochas!
---These scrumptious delicacies from Panera are finally losing the battle against me! Last week, I had less than 4! This week, my goal is...1! I know I can do it--I've done it before (years ago). If I can do this 1 mocha this week, I will have finally COMPLETELY finished my first nutrition goal-- "cut down on frozen mochas to 1 a week". I'm so excited. I'm so stinkin' excited that if I accomplish all my goals this week, I'm buying myself the "Magic Mike" DVD. Sweet freakin' Jesus yes.

--seeing results
---Don't let this confuse you. I'm not seeing physical results. I'm seeing habit-changing results. I've been changing some habits lately. My first was: making one day this week a "no-pop" day. Sunday was the day. It was tough, but I persevered and made it through the day without a drop of pop. Due to this, I felt better Sunday. I was happy, more awake (wha?), and more energetic. I felt not so icky (if you ever drink as much pop as me, your mouth constantly feels nasty with sugar). It was a whole new experience for me, and I loved it! "No-pop day" is definitely something I will do every week!

Here are my week 8 goals:

Fitness: get to gym 3x/wk

Health: 8 hrs sleep 3x/wk

Nutrition: 1 frozen mocha/wk

Starting weight: 412
Previous weight: 404.0
Current weight: 406.2
Total weight change: +2.2
Goal: 125---2.1% of the way there

See you in half a week!

Measuring Monday week 3...+ mid-week breakthrough

I haven’t been on here in quite some time, but I thought I would update on my journey, like I said I would.

These past 2 weeks have had their ups and downs. The first week was...meh. Ok. I didn’t do that well in terms of working out or eating. 

The second week was rough. My goals for the second week were: 

--3 frozen mochas/wk

--gym 2x/wk

--7 hrs sleep 4x/wk

Negative:

-- caffeine withdrawal symptoms

--- Thursday morning, I woke up feeling like someone had physically beaten me up. I was achy, had a headache, felt exhausted, and was VERY sluggish that day. Friday was generally the same. Near the end of Friday, I kept asking my mom, “What’s wrong with me? Do I have the flu?” She had no clue. After dinner, I look at her and say, “Frozen mocha”. She immediately knew--the caffeine boost (whatever size it might be). I craved that bit of caffeine. I felt that I NEEDED that caffeine to get me through my day. When I suddenly didn’t have that source of caffeine, I turned to yet another awful drink: pop. Lots of it. It was a rough ending to a weird week.

--not pacing myself

---I have this tendency to not pace myself in terms of getting my frozen mochas and working out. I try to push it back as far as possible. For example, I'll get all my frozen mochas at the beginning of the week, and later in the week, the above symptoms happen. Same with working out. I try to work out the latest in the week I can. For example, I didn't work out this week until the last 2 days of the week that I possibly could.

Positive:

-- Getting to the gym at all

--- I went to the gym twice! Very exciting!! Those were good, solid workouts, too!

--ZZzzZZZs

---I got 7 hrs of sleep four days that week. I never thought it would make a difference, but boy, what 7 hours of good sleep can do for you!

--Controlling my frozen mochas

---Lastly, my favorite part--I only had 3 FROZEN MOCHAS!! This was a hard goal for me--I have tried to cut back on these before, but could never get below 4 a week.

This week, my attitude towards the mochas has changed. I don’t feel so dependent on them.

Here are my weekly goals:

Nutrition:

-- 2 frozen mochas/wk

Fitness:

-- gym 4x/wk

Health:

--7 hrs sleep 6x/wk

And weigh-in time:

Lots of confusion--deal with me.

Starting weight: 412

Previous weight: 404.4

WEIGHT AT BEGINNING OF WEEK: 405.8

Current weight: 404.0

WEIGHT LOSS FROM PREVIOUS WEIGHT: -.4

WEIGHT LOSS FROM BEGINNING OF WEEK: -1.8

OVERALL: Lost .4 lbs--not bad (hey--it could go up instead of down)!

Weekly goals

This is just a quick update on my weekly goals this week; from now on, this will most likely happen on Mondays, but I hadn't chosen my weekly goals as of yesterday.

Whirlwind week, I tell ya....

Exercise goal:

-- Get to gym 1 time this week (2/18-2/25)

Nutrition goal:

-- Drink only 5 frozen mochas this week (3420 cals/wk of drink will go down to 2850 cals/wk of drink)

Other goal:

-- Get 7 hours of sleep...in my BED, not on the couch 2 times this week (2/18-2/25)

Dust Yourself Off and Try Again/Measuring Monday

This past week has been somewhat of a disaster...where do I start with how much I messed up? Yikes. Well...there were SOME good points, and I know I should recognize those too.


Negative:

-- I had Wendy’s
--I have not had the 3 fast-food kings (McD’s, BK, Wendy’s) in YEARS (months for Wendy’s). All 3 places make me sick and do nothing for my health, so I simply stopped eating them. On the way home from a music event in Clyde, however, Wendy’s suddenly sounded good. I got a medium Coke and a 6 piece chicken nugget (they didn’t have 5? weird). I immediately regretted it and will NOT be going there anytime soon.

-- 6 frozen mochas from Panera
-- These delicious bad boys just keep popping up in my life; and at 570 calories each, they are NOT good for me at all, save for the caffeine kick I can get. Let’s see...570 cals x 6/wk= 3,420 cals/wk on a drink! Holy cannoli.

-- NO GYM
--To top those 3420 cals, I didn’t get to the gym...not once. Lazy much, me? Ugh yes.

--LOTS of pop
--Pop. My worst enemy. My best friend. I had so much this week, I would lose count everyday; it was well over 2 cans, I know that. And it’s not diet. I’m talking regular Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc...

Positive:

-- Realizations of progress
-- I am finally realizing how far I’ve actually come. Processed and fast foods were my life. Now, I never eat McD’s, BK, or Wendy’s. I’ve stopped eating Spaghetti-Os. I’ve cut down to nearly no mac and cheese in a box. It’s moments like this that I say, thank goodness I have given up on those. I hated going to McD’s every few days like I used to, feeling dependent on a burger, fry, and drink to make my day better. Yuck. SO glad to be away from those foods.

-- Serious talk with my mom
-- The best part about my mom going to Clyde with me was that on the way home, I had a serious chat with her about my roller coaster of weight loss I’m going through. She and I set up a schedule of working out. She promised to help me this week with some of my nutrition problems.

My problem in this journey is that I can’t do two things at once. Give me one GREAT week at the gym, working out everyday hardcore. My eating that week will be disastrous. Give me one GREAT week of eating healthfully 24/7, never putting bad foods in my body, giving up much of my pops and mochas, and I will never see the gym. If I could combine both efforts, I would probably lose more faster. BUT, this is learning process. And I am definitely learning.

Weight

Starting weight: 412
Previous weight: 402.6
Current weight: 404.4
Total weight change: + 1.8
Goal: 125

We will see how this week goes. Wish me luck!

Day 1: In Sickness and in Health

UGH. That emotion best describes how I have been feeling for the past 3 days. It all started with a slight stuffy nose, then turned to a sore throat, then turned to a severely congested nose, sore throat, and "bleck" being coughed up...I'm in the midst of day 3, taking DayQuil, and drinking lots of water. Some events I had planned had to be cancelled today because my voice is LITERALLY gone...like not there...like finito...gone...I CAN'T SPEAK! If you know me, you know that this is going to be impossible (I'm a chatter).

But that doesn't matter. Because it all starts today. Like my title says: "in sickness and in health", right? Let's do this.

I told all of you that today I would be treating this as a TRUE weight loss blog, logging in my weight, food, and exercise, along with life updates that will (usually) have something to do with my weight loss journey.

With that, let's begin...

I will first start with a weigh-in. Here goes.

Highest weight: 412 lbs (This will only be shown today--this was the highest weight I have ever recorded--3 months ago)
Starting weight: 402.6 lbs
Total weight lost: 9 lbs

There it is. In black and white. I don't like looking at it, but it is what it is.

So. *deep breath* I shall take the plunge.

My action plan: BABY STEPS. Small changes in my everyday lifestyle.

That's it for now. Keep watching for pictures, exercise logs, food logs, and thoughts on my weight loss and how it will affect my life. Thank you for following along on this long journey!

Construction

I'm not really...good...at blogging, in case you couldn't tell. This blog was SUPPOSED to be about my weight loss journey...but I haven't really done much weight loss blogging...so please excuse me while I revamp my blog...mind the construction dust...and I'll be back soon with (hopefully) a new look.

Thanks!

New Goal/Super Bowl 47 Sunday

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Annnnddd...the lights in the stadium just went off... say wha???

New goal time--my weekly goal:

Get 7 hours of sleep/day.

This is a minimum time; I would love to get more.

Along with weekly goals, I am beginning small daily goals. February is National Heart Month, so I have a calendar from my favorite Sparkpeople website. My daily goals this week include:

2/3/13-- Monitor my cholesterol intake (my iPhone food tracker keeps track of this)
2/4/13-- Get moving. Shoot for at least 30 min/day.
2/5/13-- Boost your HDL; eating foods like nuts, flaxseeds, olive oil, and fish...too bad I hate all but olive oil; in my last checkup, though, I was told all of my cholesterol was great
2/6/13-- Slow down (I'll do my best)
2/7/13-- Go nuts! I'll....not do as much of this one...
2/8/13-- Pump iron...ok...
2/9/13-- Avoid trans fats...time to read labels...


Ok, so these are some of the things I will be doing, and I will report on these later (tomorrow, Wednesday, and Friday).

Do something good for your heart this month--go for a walk, watch your intake of food, incorporate healthy eating into your lifestyle, and most importantly (in my opinion), SLOW DOWN. Enjoy life. Take time to stop and smell the roses. It's funny that this month's theme (heart health) comes when it does. Just recently, I was subbing at a middle school when (IT IS BELIEVED; HEARD THIS FROM A STUDENT WHOSE FRIEND WAS IN THE CLASSROOM) a teacher had a (possible????) heart attack. Take care of yourself. Your heart will thank you!

Stay healthy,
Morgan