Short and Sweet

Back is better, Toe is better. I did 30 minutes on the crazy machine and my eatting has been on point this week! I have noticed this week I am not as hungry as I usually am and I am hoping this means my stomache is shrinking lol. I have not needed an after dinner snack and I have been able to skip that twice this week.
Today is Thursday and my official weigh in days are Mondays BUUUTT I weighed myself this morning and I am down 2lbs! Seeing that on the scale is enough motivation to keep me on track this weekend. This weekend, as we all know, is Labor Day and it will be extremly tough to stay on track I am sure, but I cant forget how amazing I feel right now. My cloths are becoming so loose and baggy I am contemplating having to retire some. I have had to retire clothing before but never because they were becoming too big, it has always been because they are becoming to small lol. I all around just feel great about myself and I dont want to do anything to disrupt that.

Calling all injuries

Ok! So Saturday after work I hit the high school track to start day one week one of the c25k. Turns out Ally can only run for about 40 seconds at a time lol. That is fine by me though, I am aware it will take time to build up my strength and stamina until I can run longer. I definitely felt like I was going to die, and I wish I would have pushed myself harder and longer but I know it will get better over time.

It did dawn on me on my drive home that school starts this week and I will be unable to use the track for running :-/  I will figure something out.

Sunday morning I did my Jillian Michaels DVD and had a relaxing day at the pool. Right before dinner time I dropped a trash can on my big toe and it must have hit just the right spot because two days later and it is still KILLING me!!! It seriously hurts just to have my flip flop strap rest on the spot I hit. On top of the toe issue I twisted a weird way on Sunday night and my lower back has been out ever since. I am falling apart. Thank goodness Mondays are my day to rest because with all my bruises and aches I could barley get around yesterday.

Today my back does not hurt as much and I wanted to do SOMETHING for exercise (normally Tuesday is my 45min on the crazy machine workout) but due to not wanting to injure myself further I decided 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill was acceptable.
By the end of my walk my back was hurting a lot but I still managed to burn 137 calories, so that made me happy. Not what I would have liked but better then nothing.

I ordered a new Jillian Michael's DVD and it arrived today so I am pumped, except I dont know when I will be able to try it out due to my minor injuries.

My new DVD arrived today!

Depending on how I feel tomorrow, this whole week may just be 30 minutes of walking after work. I need to do some form of exercise because not only do I look forward to my workouts but I am so afraid if I get out of the habit of exercising daily it will be difficult to get back into it.

That is all I have for today, I am really hoping by the end of the week I will be all healed up and back in full swing.  Have a great day everyone.  :-)

Doctors Apt.

Doctors Apt. yesterday was awesome. The doctor was extremely happy with me and according to her charts I have lost 28lbs since my last visit in January-ish. !!! She gave me the okay for the C25K program and said she thinks it is an excellent way to build up my muscles and stamina.
I told her I've done it by using WW and MFP and she said she has a patient who lost 120lbs using MFP. That made me super happy and excited :-)

 

The boy and I made an amazing dinner last night. I found a really cool baked broccoli recipe as well as a weight watchers pizza thing. I took a pic to share because it was DE-LICIOUS!

WW pizza panini & baked brococoli with garlic
 

 
Today after work I am going to attempt my first day of the C25K program. I am super excited and anxious to see how I do! I’ll let you know on Monday.

 

Have a great weekend everyone!  

 

Feeling good

Only two days and I am back feeling good again. I did Jillian Michaels level 3 yesterday, holey crap that woman is crazy but I cannot wait to do it again! LoL. During the video I am always grunting and begging for it to be over, as soon as we get the cool down the first thought that pops into my head is I can’t wait to do it again. That would happen to me with level 2 as well. I am a little sad that I reached level 3. I am going to look into more of Jillian’s video’s because I do like her style.

Last night while screwing around with my phone I downloaded a C25K app and decided I will start that on Saturday ;-) . I am pretty excited about it. Right now I think I can only jog for 30 seconds or so, the thought of being able to jog for one mile is insane to me. And I cant wait to look back at this post and laugh because by then I will be able to run two or three miles!

I have done the smart thing and scheduled a Doctor’s appointment for tomorrow morning and I am going to ask her some questions regarding if she thinks how I am exercising  is okay for me. I am also anxious to weigh myself on their scale and see how much I have lost since my last appointment. I was really hoping the girl on the phone would tell me they didn’t have an opening for a few weeks, I want to be as light as possible for my appointment. Oh well I know no matter what the scale says at the doctor’s office,  it will be lower then the last time I was there! J

Today’s plan is to complete the crazy machine for 45 minutes. The minimum I will allow myself is 30 minutes but then I will need to complete 15 minutes on the bike. I am feeling really good today after last night’s work out and I think the crazy machine will be okay today. My abs and shoulders are killing me (in a good way) but my quads and legs are fine, and that is what I mostly feel when doing the crazy machine. I also feel abs on the crazy machine but I don’t mind working those a bit more today.

Well that’s all that is on my mind today. I will be sure to post about my Doctors appointment as well as my first day of C25K experience!

Have a great one everybody!

This is as random as it gets people….

So yesterday was my first day back of healthy eating and hitting the gym. Although I did everything “right” I still felt blah last night. I am wondering if it will take a few days to get myself feeling great again. I really did overload this past weekend on unhealthy foods.

I want to set new fitness goals for myself but I don’t know where to start or what is even realistic. Anyone have any suggestions?

I am still only on level 2 with my Jillian Michaels DVD. I suppose I should start level 3. Also I really should set a definite date on when I would like to be able to jog down Ohio Ave without needing to take a break. Maybe that will force me to step up my jogging routine a bit. Maybe I can start extending my route and making it last longer. Fall is right around the corner so walking weather will be at its prime.

I just decided while writing this that I am going to try Jillian’s level 3 today. Also after Labor Day my work schedule is going to change a bit and Thursdays I will not be due in until 11am, so maybe I can use Thursday mornings as one of my walking/jogging mornings.

Whelp two paragraphs later and I am already feeling better about my fitness goals. LoL. But I would still appreciate feedback if anyone has any ideas or suggestions. Things that may have worked for them in the past or currently.

That’s all for now. Bye Bye.

Fatty Fail

So this past weekend the boy’s family came into town. We ate more food then anyone should ever eat!
I had planned the whole weekend out and swore if I stuck to my plan everything would be okay.
I didn’t fail miserably but I could have done so much better. I feel like shit today and I gained 6lbs this weekend.
After reading a few blog entries from some of you guys I am feeling very hopeful. I have to remember there will be good days and there will be bad days. I have to remember that all I can do is try my best and not to forget how far I have come. I cannot think that one day of bad eating is going to ruin everything. Yes I am pissed and yes I feel like shit, but tomorrow is a new day and once I am back in to my routine for a few days it will all be back to normal again.
From now until November I do not have anything planned as far as social events so there is no reason my eating should go off track again until then. I feel like I have had about 3 bad eating weekends since I started my journey in May and in my opinion that is 3 to many. I am going to work very hard to make sure from now until November I am on track 99.8% of the time.

I want to re-cap my fail so here it goes.

*Thursday everyone is getting Chinese food I will make weight watchers chicken fried rice the night before to have ready for myself on Thursday night.
      I ate my 2 cups of weight watchers rice….along with 2 chicken fingers, one boneless rib, and a bite of veggie lomain.  :-(
I will do my walk/jog or a work out video in the morning before work.
                 I did go for a walk/jog on Thursday morning. J

*Friday we are going to Boston for the day. I will not exercise on Friday.

     I did not exercise on Friday, we did a good amount of walking, including lots of stairs at Fenway Park. J

I will pack my own lunch and snacks just like I would for work to keep in the car on our trip to Boston.
          I did pack my own food and ate it while everyone else ate pizza and dunkin’ doughnuts. J
Friday night I will have a small serving of the buffalo mac and cheese my brother is making for everyone.
      I had a serving of mac and cheese alright, two big fat fat servings. Along with beer samples at the Sam Adam’s brewery in Boston, a vodka and diet at dinner, and a beer at the bar later in the night. L

*Saturday I will go to the gym for an hour in the morning.

Saturday I did not exercise, I felt exhausted on Saturday morning and could not bring myself to workout. L

Saturday’s food will be on track except for Saturday night dinner at an amazing restaurant. I will not stress about Saturday night’s meal.

Saturdays breakfast was measured and counted. Saturdays lunch I ate a chicken wrap at a restaurant. I ordered the wrap with no bacon and no mayo (mayo is disgusting anyways) and asked for no fries on the side. Saturdays nights dinner I did not worry about but I felt like I was going to be sick because I was so stuffed!

Sunday I will do my walk/jog in the morning and there is no reason Sundays food cannot be on track.

Sunday I did my walk/jog in the morning and burned 151 calories. Sundays food was measured and accounted for……unnntilll I started drinking. I had 5 beers and I did not weigh or measure my dinner of chicken and corn on the cob. I also ate 2 small slices of cake…yes two, hence the title of this post. L

I feel like shit and reading the above explains why.

Mondays suck, so tomorrow I am back on the wagon. Crazy machine gym sesh after work and measuring and counting all my food tomorrow. I know after the gym and a full day of eating right I will feel great and I CANT WAIT! Lol. I hope everyone else had a better weekend then I did as far as eating and staying on track. I had a great weekend but I am ready to be back in my routine!

Here are some pix of my trip!  :-)  

Top of the Prudential Building

Panaramic veiw of fenway from the press box!

Again? Come on?!!!?!?!

Soooo excited!!

4Lbs lost this week.  Making my total weight loss since May 24lbs. Making my total weight loss since February 2010 67Lbs! Ughhhh 24Lbs that’s like a 4yr old or something, isn’t it?!  

I knew it would be good. I worked hard this week (just like I always do) but I could just feel it all week. I knew todays weigh in was going to be good. I was hoping it would be 267-269. I just wanted so badly to break the 270’s. Boy I tell ya when I stepped on that scale and saw 266 I just about fainted. I could not believe I beat my goal by one pound…AGAIN!!!

This past week I introduced what I named the “cardio mix” into my workout. This is where I do 15 minutes on the crazy machine, 15 minutes on the bike, and 15-20 minutes on the elliptical. It is a great work out, it keeps things interesting, it makes time go by faster, and it allows me to work different muscles.

On Sunday I wanted to squeeze in a walk/jog before work and was really pushing it for time. Half way through my walk it started to rain and I do not think my HRM is water proof, needless to say I jogged much more then I walked and got in a great work out in only 25 minutes.

This weekend the boy’s family is coming in to town. We have a lot of not so great eating planned and I am already having worries about it. I have decided to make a list similar to the one I planned for my vacation last month. This way I am accountable for my actions, I can keep track of what exactly it is I planned, and I can hopefully have less anxiety about the whole thing.

I know eating for one day won’t undo all my hard work. I know life happens and you have to adapt and roll with the punches. But when I have had so much success I get high anxiety when I know my routine is going to be disrupted.  I think most people would be happy to know “oh vacation is coming up I can relax for a week and not worry about exercise or dieting” but I like it. I like eating right and working out. It makes me feel good and when I veer off track I always regret it, not because I feel guilty but because I literally feel like shit. I feel fat and lazy and just all around yucky.

                            Here is my planned lists of eating/exercise for the upcoming weekend.

*Thursday  everyone is getting Chinese food  I will make weight watchers chicken fried rice the night before to have ready for myself on Thursday night.

I will do my walk/jog or a work out video in the morning before work.

*Friday we are going to Boston for the day. I will not exercise on Friday.

I will pack my own lunch and snacks just like I would for work to keep in the car on our trip to Boston.

Friday night I will have a small serving of the buffalo mac and cheese my brother is making for everyone.

*Saturday I will go to the gym for an hour in the morning.

Saturday’s food will be on track except for Saturday night dinner at an amazing restaurant.  I will not stress about Saturday night’s meal.

Sunday I will do my walk/jog in the morning  and there is no reason Sundays food cannot be on track.

Well that is that, I will be sure to follow up with this list after the weekend.

Happy Monday everyone!

Crazy Machine Crazy-ness

Yesterday’s work out was so awesome. I only wanted to complete 45min on the crazy machine, but when I saw the girl next to me completed 60 minutes I was in awe. The first 25 minutes of my work out was so hard. I could not focus; I could not find a comfortable pace, all around it just sucked! I told myself I only have to do 30 minutes then I would move to the bike, but some how some way I made it to 35 minutes and at that point was feeling amazing. Once I reached 40 minutes I decided I was going to do 50 minutes. I completed 50 minutes and felt amazing! Once I was done I caught myself in the mirror and was proud/disgusted with how sweaty I was. My shirt was soaked. I mean soooaaakkkeedddd. I decided to take a picture to share because I was pretty proud of myself. I also burned over 400 calories although I felt like I burned 4000.

The red line shows my sweat line

418 calories booya!

I ate good yesterday and went to bed with 200 calories left in my fitness pal and 1 WW point left. My night time snack has become a slice of wheat toast with 1 table spoon of Nutella on it. I know it is not the best choice but it is just so good. And it most defiantly could be worse. I know if every day this week can be like yesterday I will be seeing 26_ on the scale come Monday, and holey shit does that seem amazing.

Today I am going to do my work out video followed by a walk/jog or my second work out video. I know last Wednesday I did both work out videos one after the other and I felt like I was going to die afterwards but it is getting pretty warm outside so I guess I will make the final decision when I leave work today.

I hope everyone is staying strong and feeling great. All you need is one good day of eating or a strong work out to give you “that feeling” back and as soon as you feel it your routine and motivation will be back stronger then ever.

Heart Rate Monitor!

I finally got a heart rate monitor! I have wanted one because I do not trust the machines at the gym to accurately tell me how many calories I have burned.  I also have no idea how many calories I burn when I do my work out videos, so it is hard to calculate those into My Fitness Pal. I have used the HRM twice now and it is pretty cool. It is very easy to read and understand. It is a little awkward to wear but I suppose I will get used to it.

Yesterday was my weekly weigh in and for some reason I knew it was going to be the same if not over by a pound or two compared to last week’s weigh in. Sure enough I was up one pound from last week.  One pound is one pound but it still pisses me off.  Although I stayed within my calorie allowance and I stuck to my work out routines I ate different things then I usually eat during the week. For instance instead of salads for lunch there were a couple days I had a wrap instead. I weighed it out, and accounted for everything but for some reason I knew it would bite me in the butt! Oh well if switching up what I am eating here and there is going to go against my body losing weight too bad. It is more important to me that I keep things interesting and switch it up a bit. Shit I am only human!  I also incorporated weights into my work outs about 3 times last week so I am wondering if that might have something to do with it as well? Who knows, I had a few changes in last weeks routine maybe it’ll just take some getting used to.

Yesterday was Monday and Mondays suck so it is now Tuesday and I am happy. I am excited to get to the gym and do 45min on the crazy machine. It is challenging and I always want to quit 15min in, but when I am done I feel amazing. My legs and feet are sore but I burn over 200 calories and I all around feel great.

Tomorrow I am thinking a Jillian Michaels DVD and a walk/jog on my favorite little route. It is only 1.3 miles but one of my goals it to jog Ohio Ave without needing a break, so I think it is time to start working on that. Plus the boy did that jog on Sunday and ran Ohio Ave without stopping. So the boy did one of my goals. I can’t let that happen.  I am hearing the humidity will be back in the area starting tomorrow so this could pose a problem but I will reassess in the morning. I am thinking since it is such a short distance I can suck it up for 25 minutes. I will just make sure to drink lots of water at work tomorrow.

That is all for now, nothing too exciting in my world, just trying to stick to my routine and stay on track. So far so good! J

My daily routine

Yesterday I did not want to go to the gym. I have some 3lb weights now and I figured if I did both my work out video’s one after the other, it would be a sufficient work out. Holey Hard. Using those weights made so much of a difference. I did not use the weights for my Billy Blanks Tae Bo video, but by the second circuit of my Jillian Michael’s DVD those 3lb weights felt like 30lbs. I got threw it though. It was difficult but I am still alive today.

One thing I like to search for on other people’s  blogs is how they are losing the weight. What exercises are they doing and what are they eating, or not eating. So I figured I would write my typical day’s food and work out routines for anyone who gave a crap.

Breakfast: Oatmeal, or ¾ cup honey nut cheerios with ½ cup fat free milk, or 2 egg white omelet with veggies and a sprinkle of low fat cheese and one cup of fruit on the side.

Lunch: Salad with 3oz chicken or 2 slices of turkey and 2 table spoons of Italian dressing, or 1 can of tuna with 2 table spoons of Italian dressing and half of a cucumber.

Snacks: Special K dark chocolate granola bar, 1 cup of fruit usually  grapes or cantaloupe, ½ a serving of reduced fat cheez-it’s or wheat thins, and I always eat a banana 30minutes before I go to the gym.

Dinner: Some sort of meat such as ground turkey, a pork chop, chicken, or steak tips with lots of veggies -usually green beans, edemame, sliced up cucumber or green peppers.  (All my meat is weighed out) Occasionaly a cup of rice or small protion of potatoe, but I try to stay away from that becoming a regular thing.

Evening snack: 3 cups popcorn that I pop myself on the stove top with vegetable oil. No salt or butter added. Or a slice of wheat toast with 1 table spoon of nutella or reduced fat peanut butter.

 At the Gym I usually do the elliptical, bike, treadmill, or cross trainer crazy machine. I will do the elliptical or cross trainer for a minimum of 30 minutes and I do the bike or treadmill for about 15-20 minutes.

I go to the gym Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursdays and Saturdays. Sundays and Fridays I will do a work out video at home or go for a walk/jog for at least 1 mile. Mondays suck so no exercise on Mondays.
Now that I have free weights and want to start doing those more I will probably trade Wednesdays at the gym for Wednesdays doing a work out video with free weights involved.
For workout videos I do Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred (currently I am on level 2) I do Billy Blanks Tae Bo cardio Boot Camp or I will surf Comcast On demand exercise for something new to try once in a while.

I use the my fitness pal app on my iphone to track calories as well as count weight watchers points. I try to stay within both programs allowance of calories/points and it has been pretty successful so far. J (20lbs lost since I started May 2012)

That’s it, that is what my days have looked like for the past two months. I am very aware of calories on foods, I look forward to my work outs, I crave fruit, water, spinach leaves, and fresh veggies. When I do have a crazy craving like pizza or Chinese food I plan it out ahead of time. I will plan more intense work out’s the day before and day after the planed meals and so far it has worked out. Since I have started being healthier I have not had too many intense cravings for “bad” foods.  And the longer I have been on this new way of life the less I crave bad things.  It defiantly gets easier with time, and I do not dread the gym anymore. The longer I have stayed on track the more it becomes “normal”. It still takes a lot of effort but it is much easier for sure. If I am feeling this way after only 2 months I cant imagine how much easier it will be in 6 months.

With alllll that said, since I did my work out video’s yesterday I will do the elliptical and bike at the gym today followed by ONE work out DVD tomorrow (most likely Jillian Michaels.)

When I am at the gym I think of all my fellow bloggers across the globe pushing themselves through their work outs each day.  The dreams we have for ourselves are achievable. The cute cloths and healthy bodies are in arms reach. We just need to stick with it and take it one day at a time.

Till next time.......