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.

Stuck Like Chuck

What? Oh, hi! *Steps off scale*

Don’t mind me; I’m just a little obsessed distracted lately, as I come up on the three-month mark of my little journey here.

The first two months were really cool – well, cool is a relative term, as I spent most of that time trying to burn off calories in the sweltering Carolina sun. But I’d call it a successful period of time, as I learned to love walking in my neighborhood, was consistent with keeping track of everything I ate and managed to lose about thirteen pounds. I cleaned out my closet and was giddy every time I fit into something I hadn’t been able to wear over the past three years. Things were going well.

And then…screeeeeach – everything came to a grinding halt.

For the past month, I’ve remained steady at some number between 147 and 149 pounds. I have a digital scale, so I’m able to obsess note every day in my weight journal what number I am that day, down to the eighth of a pound. Or tenth? I don’t know – math is not my strong suit. For the first two weeks I was alarmed, then moved onto being amused and now I’m just confused. I know logically there’s been some fat replaced by muscle action going on. Something is shifting around in there, obviously, or I wouldn’t have been able to wear a pair of size 6’s the other day (whoo, that was fun).

I’m frustrated, but I haven’t given up. No, actually quite the opposite. If anything, I’m more determined than ever to somehow find a way past this and keep moving toward my goal. I’m more confident now with food choices and exercising is so much a part of my routine I feel weird if I miss two days in a row. I know the number on the scale isn’t the total picture. But still it’s…a little upsetting to see the same numbers day after day.

I’m going to try to kick it up a notch as far as switching up my work-outs, but if anyone has any advice, any tips, any thoughts AT ALL on this plateau subject, I’d be really appreciative if you could share.

*Tiptoes down the hall in a wide circle to avoid stepping on the scale again*

Six Week Update

More observations.

– As of this morning I’m down a little over eight pounds. Somehow I lost 2.5 pounds this week, but that’s more than the average, which has been more like 1 to 1.5 per week. I’ll TAKE. IT.

– I’ve heard for every ten pounds that goes you go down one size, give or take. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but I’m definitely back in size 10’s when before the 12’s were starting to get too tight. It’s so hard to see the small changes since you spend all your time with yourself that the clothes thing, for me anyway, is a really good indicator that shows me yes, something is actually happening.

– My rings are a lot looser and that’s been really exciting; for awhile there the wedding rings were leaving scary indentations I thought were going to be permanent.

– A couple of months ago I would’ve said we barely eat out, and whether I invoked Murphy’s Law or I just have a really twisted sense of what we do, it seems as though there’s been social eating EVERY WEEKEND since I started this. To deal with it, I’ve employed some interesting strategies: wearing clothes that start out restrictive before the meal and become downright painful if the meal becomes too large, increasing my water intake from just a lot to ridiculous, and conversationally steering people away from discussing what I am or am not eating.

– It is a special kind of torture on some of my evening walks when the breeze picks up the smell of beef cooking over a grill; it literally causes me to salivate. And on a morning walk the other day I actually smelled bacon, which was just sick and wrong.

– I’m finding I actually look forward to whatever exercise I’m doing on any particular day. My back doesn’t hurt nearly as much getting out of bed in the morning. My skin is breaking out a little from sweating so much, but you know what? REALLY not a biggie. I don’t know if it’s endorphins or what, but whatever it is, I feel really good. I don’t know why, but I’ve got back the feeling like I’m looking forward to something. I’m not quite sure what that something is, but it’s a really cool feeling to have.

Route

Neighborhood
Find more Walks in Columbia, South Carolina

Sometimes technology is so much fun!

I was screwing around with trying to figure out some details on my daily walks, i.e. how far am I walking, approximately how many calories I’m burning, etc. and came across this neato-mosquito place that let me use Google maps to plot my walk and show me the deets. I’m happy to see I’m clearing about two miles, two HILLY ASS miles, and that I was pretty much on target with the calories.

I’m not sure if any of you guys would be interested, but figured I’d share just in case.