Nearing One-derland

I started up Weight Watchers again last week from a 4 month hiatus.

I gotta tell you, it's been so much easier than what I remembered. The Weight Watcher scanner app helps a LOT. Not all barcodes are in the app (my half pint of reduced fat milk wasn't in there, for example), but some things I figured wouldn't be in there actually were.

All this being said, this week I've lost 5lbs!! Which I know is not necessarily the most healthy--recommendations are 1-2lbs per week. I figure the majority of the loss is due to not drinking soda (see previous post for reasons), upping my water intake, and not eating out every day of the week. So I am prepared for not losing as much next week.

But this brings me to the title. I am nearly at one-derland. Again. Yup, I've hovered around one-derland for years. I'll get down to 190, or 196 and then I'll pop over 200 and stay there. It's almost like being over 200 is my comfort zone. I say out loud that I want to be thin. I like the way my body looks in the mirror when I'm toned; I sleep better.

So why the mental block?

I guess we'll see how it goes when I'm back in one-derland.

Cheers to positive thoughts and feelings!

Meg

Not "Doing the Dew"

Wow, it's been 4 months, eh? I've been on a bit of a hiatus, and I apologize for that.

Back in September I got a personal trainer. It's been GREAT so far. She pushes me to do things I never thought I'd be able to do. I'm currently able to bench press 15 lbs on each side of the bar (and the bar is 35lbs...so, that's 65lbs total that I'm benching!). I'm doing hammer curls and assisted pull ups and planks, and reverse sit-ups....and sooooo many other things. My weight has not gone down...but I've lost about 2% of my body fat--which is nothing to really brag about, but it's better than a kick in the pants!

Anyway, with the new year I've made some New Years Resolutions. They range from making my bed daily to saying a rosary daily, to losing 10% of my body fat. Yup, 10%. Pretty lofty goal, eh? If I attain a 10% loss, I'd still be considered obese having 28% body fat. So I still have a looooooong ways to go.

But I'm taking steps.

One thing that's really helped me: I read an article on abcnews.com that truly grossed me out. I was a fan of mountain dew. I would drink it literally every day. 20 oz at minimum. What can I say, I wanted/needed the caffeine. And the taste wasn't half bad either.

That was, until I read the article. Evidently it's a story that was way back from 2010, but the gist of it is: Pepsi's defense for stating a mouse was in a Mountain Dew (Pepsi owns Mountain Dew, btw) was that the acid in Mountain Dew would have turned the mouse gelatinous before it made it the mouth of a person. Yup. That's right. Mountain Dew can disintegrate a mouse.

GROSS, right?

That alone was enough to make me give up Mountain Dew....and all pop/soda (or coke, as ya'll in Oklahoma like to say). It made me think: if it can do that to a mouse....what the heck is it doing to my body?

Which also got me to thinking about all the other gross things I put into my body. Suddenly, McDonald's does not sound as appetizing as it once did. Or any fast food, for that matter. Or pre-packaged food. It makes me want to only eat what I grow. Only problem with that is that I live on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex. Annnnd, while it's currently unusually warm for this time of year in the DC area, I know that it won't stay like this for long and it will turn cold.

So from now on, I'm sticking to drinking 0 calorie coffee for my caffeine fix instead of doing the dew, and seriously considering what I'm putting in my body before I consume anything.

Thoughts? Comments?

Happy and healthy 2012!

Meg

Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls of Fire!

It's been a MONTH since my last post. Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle (ok, not really, but you know what I mean!).

Life has been crazy, so I'm sorry for not having updated.

First off--I started with a Personal Trainer. Let me tell you, I fully believe this is one of the best decisions I have made. I have had only had 3 sessions so far (it would have been 4, but my first session was on the day of the CRAZY east coast earthquake and was therefore cancelled), BUT I can tell you my trainer has pushed me so much further than I would have ever pushed myself. I used to give up after 20 minutes on the treadmill, doing 3.0 mph and a 3.0 grade for 15-20 minutes. I am now semi-easily doing 3.2 mph at a 4.0 grade for 20 minutes....and that's just the warm-up!

I've lost only a couple pounds so far, but I've gained confidence and muscle. It's relatively expensive, but I figure if I make the investment in myself now...in 20-30 years I won't be having to shell out oodles more money to doctors for health bills.

The only downside (aside from the expense) is the overwhelming nausea I get from it. The first training day, I had a protein shake for breakfast and then went to work out. I didn't want to go work out on an empty stomach and I have heard that you should eat protein before working out. Anyway, by the end of the workout, I went to the bathroom and hurled it all up. Won't be doing that again.

2nd training session was in the afternoon, so I decided to have a handful of almonds ~1 hour before working out. Still left feeling nauseous. But I only had 2 water breaks, so I chalked it up to not having enough water.

Yesterday, I took more water breaks, but no snack beforehand. We had to quit 5 minutes early.

I've been told that because of my thyroid issues it's going to take my body a little longer to adapt to such an intense exercise routine. I'm hoping next week everything settles down.

But on a positive note, my trainer said she can definitely see an improvement already. We're increasing weights on weight training already, and starting next week instead of walking on the treadmill, we're going to start to jog! w00t, w00t!!

This afternoon I made tabouleh. It is currently chilling in the fridge. I can't wait to take it out in an hour and go to town on it. It's sooooooo yummy (and healthy)!

Happy labor day weekend!

Meg

Date Night

My boyfriend and I are trying to eat healthier and exercise more.

We're still in an early phase where we eat out ALL the time. I don't mind that--I don't know how to cook for 2 people (let alone ONE). I came from a family of 6, so don't expect me to make food for less than 8 (yeah, that statement is probably correct). But eating out all the time has its drawbacks, too.

Anyway, point is, I'd like to find healthy options. "Why don't you just have a salad" you say? Mostly, I find salads to be lackluster, or really, when it's all said and done, it all tastes the same to me. Nothing is "entertaining" about a salad to me.

Actually come to think about it, I really find all food to be lacking in the entertainment department.

I had an amazing opportunity a couple of weeks ago to eat in Chinatown in San Francisco. I know it was an authentic restaurant because 1/2 the people in there eater were chinese....and it took a good 30 minutes for us to get our meal, so it couldn't have come straight from a bag. Can't get much more authentic than that. The person I was with exclaimed, "Isn't this GREAT!? It's probably the best Chinese food I've ever had!" To me it tasted like the chinese food I can get down the street from my apartment.

I hear all the time from fitness gurus that I should slow down when I eat, enjoy my food. But what if I sincerely just cannot find the joy in anything I eat?

I digress. My original point of this blog was to ask, what in the heck do I eat when my boyfriend and I go on a date and I'm not a fan of salads?

Meg

Sore! but in a good way

Day 5 of pull-ups and my abs are KILLING me. But wait...shouldn't my arms be sore?

Well, to be honest, my arms ARE sore, too. Just not as badly as my core. When I've been doing my reps, I've been focusing on tightening my core, too. And as a result, my core and legs seem to be getting just as good of a workout as my core.

Today I had allllll intentions of going to 11:30am yoga at work. I brought my clothes and everything. And then at 11am, I get this massive headache and feel like I'm going to puke.

I really feel lately that my body just hates me. It's rebelling. I've been seeing my chiropractor about twice a week for the past 2 weeks because my neck is so tight that I'm getting headaches. We also discovered that the muscles in my jaw is particularly tight. We're not sure which came first, the jaw issues or the neck issue, but they're feeding off each other. A massage on Monday night helped alleviate the pain quite a bit.

Anyway, back to today's headache. I had a sneaky suspicion that the headache was caused by one of two things: 1) hunger...I hadn't had a solid meal in almost 24 hours or 2) lack of caffeine. My coworkers generally go to Subway on Fridays, so I opted to eat rather than go to yoga. After about 10 minutes of eating 3/4 of a footlong and a Dr. Pepper, I felt sooooo much better.

I thought all was right with the world (and my body) and then my body rebelled and wanted to expel what I had eaten...

This weekend is probably going to be pretty busy (or tomorrow will be anyway), so my plan is to get up early and either go for a run, or do SOMETHING to work out before I start my day. That was my plan today, too, but it didn't go so well. 4:30am always comes sooooo soon.

Stay tuned for another blog about eating out!

Meg

Annnnd, I'm back!

2 month hiatus. Sorry!

My brother is engaged. Super exciting, right! Yup! His wedding date was supposed to be June of next year. Great! I can have an entire year to lose all the weight I want/need to look foxy in my bridesmaid dress.

And then...they decided to move up the date to December 10th. I'm in a tizzy! My timeline of dropping weight was halved.

Last Sunday, I decided to buy the Iron Gym's Total Upper Body Workout Bar. I've wanted one for about 6 months now but either didn't have the money or when I did have the money, couldn't find one. Target had one on Sunday so I jumped on picking one up.

It is SOOO much more of a workout than I was anticipating! Not only am I working my arms, but my core is definitely getting a workout from having to support me, as are my legs. I'm short, so I'm actually having to use a step up stool to help a little bit. But I can already tell my body is getting stronger!

Anyway, sorry I've abandoned the blog for a bit. I hope to make it a habit to blog again. :)

Meg

I really need a pedometer...

Today I spent the entire day walking around the streets of Baltimore and the grounds of Ft McHenry. And now I wonder how far I actually walked.

I've had pedometers in the past. But because of where my pants line sits, the pedometer always jabs into my skin and it hurts like something ridiculous. I'd put it on my pocket, but I've been told that that can yield inaccurate results.

I've heard that a Fitbit is the way to go. If only I could afford it now. I know it's reasonable compared to some, but it's still quite a bit.

Do you use a pedometer? If so, what do you use? Is it reasonably priced? Or do you guestimate your distance walked/run?

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Meggie