Here it is.

Prioritize exercise.

Give up beer(!), bread, and cheese. For now. Until 20 pounds are gone.

Eat a fruit and/or vegetable at every meal.

I have no room in my life for anything more complicated than that. No tracking, no counting, no bullshit. Just moving my ass and avoiding my problem foods.

How are you simplifying your diet and fitness goals?

How the hell did that happen?

On Saturday I was at the local Y with Boy.  One of the decisions Dys and I (and mostly Dys) made recently was to pony up the dough for a family membership – because Boy loves to swim, and we don’t have regular access to a pool, and because all of us could afford to be more active.  Well, speaking personally, I’ve made a couple of trips with Boy in tow, and swimming laps is reminding me just how out of shape I have been recently.  Admittedly, though, the weight room and cardio room here beat the holy hell out of what the university offers.  Holy crap.

Anyhow, while on our way out of the combatives room where Boy let out a little stress by whacking some punching bags, we saw a digital scale.  Boy was interested.

Me, I’d weighed in at the doctor’s office earlier in the week.  I’d been reasonably pleased to weigh in at what I thought my weight would be – even though I was wearing a sweatshirt and a coat to boot.  (Have I mentioned that it’s been freekin’ cold?!?)  So I figured I was probably 5 pounds lighter than that, and that was reason to be excited.

But, what the hell.  I was dressed in workout clothes, which is how I usually weigh myself for exercise purposes.  So I stepped on the scale.

After a second or two, it stopped and displayed a number.

I got off the scale and got back on.  Same number.

I made Boy get on the scale and get off.  I got back on.  Same number.

I still maintain that the Y’s scale is a little light.  But the number that it displayed was one pound higher than the weight I always considered my ideal.  What I jokingly referred to in college  as my “fighting weight” – in the days when I’d have to gain weight to get there.

I guess a ton of stress is helpful in some ways, huh?  Heh.  Who cares.  I’ll take it!!

And use it as motivation to get back into the gym.  The numbers on the scale are still happier than the image in the mirror.  Time to move some of those pounds around!

Taking note

Okay, so I’ve not been the most dedicated of people to my fitness regimen in the last … well okay – ever.

I have been keeping with some regular attempts in the last couple of weeks though, so go me.  I haven’t gone nuts, hasn’t been daily or even every other day.  I have, though, tried for a solid 80% of the time to pay better attention to the food and drink that I’ve been putting in my body, drinking more water, not eating as late (well, maybe I should say “as close to when I go to sleep”) – along those lines.

It also has to be noted though that I’ve also taken to sucking down nigh a bottle of wine per week for each of those weeks.  Granted, it’s some great wine, but still – a bit out of my norm for alcohol consumption since, uh, freshman year of college?

So imagine my giggle today to see that I’d dropped 8 pounds in the last 2 weeks between doctor’s visits?

Apparently I need more wine, more chair dancing, less stress, good food, and more FUN in my life.  Who knew?  🙂  It’s a small victory, but today, it felt bloody fantastic.  Not only was a due a little victory, but it was an affirmation of just trying to be better to myself, to actually care for myself, and seeing that pay off.

Go me.  🙂

 

Neglected Nikes

I’m actually nervous to check and see when my last post here was. So I’m skipping it. Yesterday I finally managed to post on my own blog, describing how the past month flew by without the benefit of my taking time to appreciate it and of course the diet/exercise combo was the first casualty of the time-suck.

Why is that? I’m not sure if it’s that way for everybody, but with me, if there is an interruption in my routine or God forbid more than one, something in my tiny brain breaks and all of a sudden weeks have gone by without an entry in the food journal and nary a sneaker has been laced up. With of course the irony being that when things get stressful there’s not much better you can do for yourself than exercise. File that under D is for Duh, you Doofus-assed Dummy. 

I spent the entire Summer walking the neighborhood, sweating my ass off and salivating for the days of cooler weather. I enjoyed the walks enough then to know that they’d become downright blissful in the crispy, golden October afternoons. Then October finally arrived, all hell broke loose and the number of walks I managed was…ONE. Yes, things were crazy. Yes, there were many days I honestly couldn’t fit one in. But truthfully would it have been that hard to take just even a half hour for myself and just do it? Come on. Because – full disclosure – you know I watched more than one TV show during the month.

I’m not looking over the fact that my weight has stayed the same and not crept back up – I’m very, very thankful for that, because it damn sure hasn’t been due to any effort on my part. But since today marks the beginning of a new month, I feel like it’s a good time to recommit and make a promise to myself : no matter what else is happening around me, it can all wait for a little while. I know full well it’ll be there when I get back from my soul-refreshing, brain-cleansing, life-affirming WALK.

You Gotta Have Goals

So, what are your workout goals?

1. Not being embarrassed to work out in my actual workout clothes.
2. Not being out of breath by the time I get in place/set up/ready to work out.
3. To actually work out?
4. Not requiring 12 days of rest in between workouts.
5. Not requiring a doctor’s visit, ice, heat, bandage, splint, ultrasound, or physical therapy after a workout.
6. To whine a collective total of not more than 1 hour per workout.
7. To actually work out more than once?
8. To stop swearing at the television screen.
9. To really consider the value of a swear jar before I truly commit to #8.
10. To make this list sound at least slightly more funny than true.

I know:  It’s scary how high I’m aiming here.  I know they all warn against being unrealistic, but I wasn’t sure how to go lower and still have them count as goals!

 

Tool for Accountability

For the next twelve weeks (starting this coming Sunday) I’m using Fitbook to hold myself accountable to my fitness and nutrition goals. Writing it down, and having visual indicators for my success, have worked for me in the past. I’m moving away from tracking on the computer (though I remain a fan of SparkPeople) since it has gotten to be too much of a hassle to be so very dead-on specific with every little thing.

So instead of tracking at a 100-foot level, I’m going to use Fitbook to track at a 1,000 foot level. Food items, but not precise calorie counts. Workouts, but not exact calories burned. Overall goals broken down into weekly progress checks. It’s big enough to have room for all the tracking items that are important to me, but small enough to be portable and fit into my purse. At first impression, it seems to be a handy little book.

We shall see if it effects my motivation and discipline in any way. If it does, it’s worth its weight in gold. If it doesn’t, well, I’ll keep on keepin’ on. Hopefully I’ll kick myself in the ass hard enough to see some sort of improvement by Christmas.

September’s Schedule

Ask me how well I did on 9/30. Heh. The only problem I foresee is a 6:15 AY-EM class on Saturday morning. Dedication to such an early rising has never been my forte.

Sundays
– 9:00a Yoga class, followed by cardio at home

Mondays
– 10:00a Beginner’s Zumba class, followed by total body collapse at home

Tuesdays
– 5:00p Yoga With Weights class

Wednesdays
– Cardio and weights at home after work

Thursdays
– 5:00p Yoga class

Fridays
– MY FRICKIN’ DAY OFF

Saturdays
– 6:15a Total Body Workout Class

Penance

Since my good-feeling 5k race in mid-July, I’ve run precisely four times.  Including last night.  I have been a suckish bastard.

Now, I’ve done more exercise than that – heavy pack-mule labor at work – several 10+ mile bike rides, both with Boy (somewhat leisurely) and by myself (I pushed myself fairly hard) – climbing the 5-story stairs to the water slides last weekend over and over and over – etc.  But running?  No.  Considering that I’m trying hard to work up to a running goal, that’s not good.

But I have plenty of time.  The half-marathon that is the “end goal” isn’t until April.  I have time to be a fuckup on occasion.  But it’s not helped if I’m doing vacation-eating at the same time – which is precisely what I’ve been doing.

School has started, so I have to get myself re-focused into a different routine again.  I can’t get up and go running in the mornings anymore – the park doesn’t open until 6, and Boy needs to be up and about by 6:30.  I suppose I could get up at 5 or earlier and run around my neighborhood, but there is that slightly increased chance of getting run over or, possibly, shot as a Peeping Tom or something crazy like that.  And if the hills in the park are bad, the hills in my neighborhood are even more nutso.  I’m not sure I’m quite ready for that level of challenge quite yet.

So I’m trying to re-acclimate myself to running after work, or possibly later in the evening.  It’s too bad – early morning workouts are best for me, because I tend to be a morning person.  By afternoon, I’m already feeling kinda run down and looking for reasons to avoid working out (and with a family at home, those reasons usually aren’t hard to find).  If I stop on my way home from work, I’m prolonging my workday.  Once I get home, though, getting me to leave again and go work out or run or whatever is crazy hard.  Even if it is cooler at 8 than at 6.

Yesterday’s run was in a bad time of day for me, and yes it was probably 10 degrees hotter than I’ve been used to with my morning runs.  But that’s still no excuse for me turning in my first over-40-minute time for a 3.5 mile run since June.  The reason is that I’ve been a suckass slacker.  And that part has got to change.

I will now do penance by forcing myself not to suck.  And wow, sometimes that’s hard!

Vacation Strategery

Last year around this time I wrote a post about being nervous to break my exercise routine to go on vacation for a week. Turns out my fears were justified, as not only did I break routine as planned but then also proceed to fall off the wagon in a spectacular way. As in a ten-month break. Heh heh…oops.

THIS time however, I’m not worried. The progress and changes I’ve seen in the past month and a half are more than enough to keep my motivation intact and regardless of what happens next week, I know I’ll be getting right back to good habits as soon as I get home. But me being me, I can’t help but be a leetle bit wary and so in order to quiet the voices a little I’ve come up with a couple of ways to keep myself in check while I’m gone.

1. Grocery trip – I’ll be staying with my best friend whose house has always been a second home to me. I feel more than comfortable making a quick stop to the grocery the first night I’m there and stocking up on some things I’ve been eating to keep things at least somewhat consistent. Bonus: she’s also been working at losing weight lately (15 lbs and counting – woo, Grace!) so that we’re in the same mindset for being conscious about food right now. That always helps.

2. Restaurant eating – Obviously vacation = eating out, but I’ve gotten enough practice with this to know how to deal with it: If possible, don’t wait until I’m starving. Order salad (with the dressing of course on the side) and load up on that first. Don’t act like it’s the last good meal I’m ever going to have. No mental flogging if I decide to get a Coke with a meal. There are just certain things Coke makes perfect and I’ve made my peace with that.

3. Bottled water – Have you ever tasted Florida’s water? The flavor is a unique combination of chlorine and farts and unless you’ve lived there several years and have gotten used to it, it’s a very jarring thing. I’m buying cheap bottled water before my trip and will keep a bottle with me at all times. It’s been a challenge for me to drink enough of it on weekends, so this will also be a way to try and keep track and attempt to get enough every day.

4. Walking – I don’t expect to get an official one in every day, but I’m going to try to get at least couple in throughout the week. One thing I’m keeping in mind is that I won’t be sitting at a desk all day but will be more active anyway, and shopping burns calories too! Especially back-to-school shopping with a 15-year-old, damn.

5. Scale – This is probably going to sound psycho, but I’m bringing my scale. One of the most rewarding things about this has been seeing the numbers diminish and even though it doesn’t happen every day, it’s now part of my daily routine. I don’t expect to lose weight on vacation, nor is that my goal. But I think it’ll be a small way to make me feel like I’m still in control and it will eliminate the stress of coming home and weighing in that first scary time. Okay that still sounds insane, but if I can’t share with you guys who can I share with?

6. Fuggetaboutit – You may think these things are silly; I kind of do. But none of it will cost me a whole lot of time or energy and I feel a lot better about anything when I go in with a plan. However, regardless of whether any of these things make any difference whatsoever, it’s a VACATION. I’ve waited for it for a long time, I’m really darn excited about it and my first priority is to have fun. That’s one goal I know I’ll be successful achieving.

One Month In

Today is the 30-day mark of my journey back to fitness and so it seemed like a good time to note some thoughts.

– I did some form of exercise for 30 minutes or more every day except for two. I’m pretty sure the last time I managed that was…uhh, never.
– I’m not following any sort of “diet”; all I’m doing is keeping my calorie intake to between 1300 & 1500 every day and trying to keep it balanced with a variety of fruit, veggies, protein, carbs and of course some fat. Just common sensical type stuff.
– I discovered I enjoy exercising outside a lot more than inside, and that’s saying something at this time of year – a time I usually leave the comforts of a/c only when absolutely necessary.
– Kelloggs Fiber Plus cereal and chewy bars are my new reasons for living. Seriously amazing.
– I still can’t hack oatmeal or skim milk.
– One cup of coffee in the mornings, water all the rest of the livelong day. On one occasion a Diet Coke and another day one glass of sweet tea. That’s my complete beverage report for the last month. Holy crap.
– I would rather go without mayo altogether than use anything “lite,” which is what I’ve been doing.
– Surprisingly (to me) that doesn’t apply to all things however; I’m totally fine with some lower calorie cheeses, breads, salad dressings and most shocking of all, Splenda replacing sugar in coffee. I know artificial sweeteners aren’t great but compared to other things I’ve ingested throughout my life, I’m pretty sure it’s quite alrighty.
– I confirmed what I pretty much already knew: My style of eating is I’m a grazer and not a pile-up-my-plater.
– I’ve lost a little over five pounds, which puts me at 155. I was hoping for six but after a week of being derailed with the whole thyroid debacle, I’ll take it. Damn straight I’ll take it, yee-haw!
– Physically I’m a little lighter. Emotionally I’m so much lighter I feel like a helium balloon that was accidentally let go by a sticky-fingered little kid who’s now hysterically crying and reaching for the balloon, but it’s too late because I’m already floating high above and away from the foul-smelling, steamy city and now I’m over rolling green fields dotted with sunflowers and daisies with a big goofy grin on my face and whistling Walking on Sunshine with…nevermind. Wow.

Basically I’m really really happy.