Project Me Update

I have not done an update since the 9th, so I thought it was about time. Things have been going pretty darn well. Not perfect, but then I'm not perfect.

This week has been good. I only missed 2 of my scheduled 5 Crossfit visits and 2 of my scheduled dog walks. Though in my defense, it has been raining for two days and that was why there was no dog walk. Eating has been good also. I have had sugar more than I wanted to, but it has not been out of control. The best thing that I did this week was switch my thinking. On Tuesday I got this:

And I have really gotten into it. I absolutely love planners and this one is awesome. I have scheduled all my Crossfit and dog walks in it and there is just something about having it scheduled. It becomes a given. If it's in my book it must be so. And that just makes life so much easier. I sit down every night and go over the next day, make any changes that I need to, or add anything that has come up. That information and plan for the day gets put into my head and it becomes fact. I love it. I am going to use this as a way to get my Crossfit habit back and to make sure the dogs get walked more often than not.

Tonight will be spent prepping for next week and making sure my plan is good. I am on the right track and making progress.

Energy, redux

Yesterday I never got to the point of the post, it was related to the title and picture. So I'm going to try again today.

Last week was pretty good, not perfect but acceptable. One of the things I noticed was my energy levels change. On Tuesday I had a ton of energy during the day and into the evening. Wednesday my energy levels were also pretty good. I had open house that night and was at school until almost 8:30pm. I felt pretty good though, tired but not exhausted. Thursday I also felt good. A little tired by not excessively so. I did not go to Crossfit, but I came home and walked the dogs even though I really didn't feel like it. Friday I was exhausted. I struggled to get through the day. The last half of the day I was yawning and yawning. I did not want to go to Crossfit, but I did. Then went out to dinner at the racquet club. The point, and what I noticed, is that when I do Crossfit and walk the dogs (or one or the other) I have more energy the next day. Eating right definitely helps too, but the working out and walking the dogs is huge. Energy creates energy. I can feel my energy levels increase when I workout and so that right there is enough to keep it up.

Yesterday I woke feeling pretty good and went to the partner throwdown, I'll talk more about that in a minute. I came home and was hungry. Hubby made breakfast and I showered and got dressed. It was rainy and cold so I put on some warm clothes. After breakfast I got sleepy. Really. Really. Sleepy. I ended up laying on the couch for a large part of the day watching TV and snoozing. It was so nice. Sometimes you just need a down day to rest, relax, and recharge. I did that yesterday. Last night we went out to dinner, chinese food, and then home and in to bed shortly thereafter. I really relaxing day.

The partner throw down was fun. I did not have a partner, so I paired up with another member who was also partnerless.

WOD #1:
15 min EMOM
Partner 1: 5 KB push presses then hang from bar while
Partner #2 does max jumping lunges
Every minute switch. Score is total number of jumping lunges.

REPS:  272          

WOD #2
Weight ladder
For each bar:  Deadlift 1pt; Clean 2pts; Front Squat 3pts; Thruster 4pts.
Weights started at 45# and went to 115# in 10 lb increments.
I managed to thrust the first 4 - woo hoo

SCORE: 43

WOD #3:
6 rounds for time, 10 minute time cap
10 deadlift - 115#
10 KB swings - 35#
10 burpees
Partners alternate rounds

TIME: 7:58

It was a fun time. I really enjoy these kind of things because it is the closest I will ever get to the games. It is fun to compete because that is when you really push yourself. I like it and had a really good time.

Energy

This week I have been working my way back into healthy habits. These things don't happen immediately, but I have developed a plan and determined to follow through. So I have been eating good, whole food and trying to stay under 1500 calories a day. For the most part I have been successful. I have also realized that I need to get back into the Crossfit habit. When I started Crossfit I really felt great and lost weight. Then I stopped losing weight. Then I stopped feeling great. I couldn't understand why, I was still doing Crossfit. Then I realized that I had lost the consistency. In the beginning, I loved it so much, I never missed a workout. Then I got to where I didn't love it as much and I started missing workouts. Then I started missing weeks. Once I missed almost a month. So getting back into the habit of Crossfit is part of my goal. I'm working on this by having a plan. My plan for this week played out as follows:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday - Crossfit
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday - dog walk

I ended up not doing much at all on Monday. Tuesday was good, I did Crossfit and walked the dogs. Wednesday was open house so nothing happened. Thursday I walked the dogs but decided against Crossfit as I want to get back into my routine of 3 days on 1 off, 2 on 1 off. That not only worked well for me before, but creates specific days that I go and I like that. So I skipped Thursday and went last night. I'm going today for the partner throwdown and I will go tomorrow. Then it's Monday off, and so on.

The most important thing that has happened this week is that I'm changing my mind set. Instead of thinking how tired I am after school, I'm just thinking that Crossfit is on my schedule and I have to go. That is a much better attitude. At least until I get to the point where I am excited about going every time...yeah, not there yet.... Also, I have passed up a number of sweet treats this week and I am very proud of myself. I have decided that sugar is non-negotiable. I will not be eating it and that has helped me keep away from it. I did have a piece of cake last night and it was terrible. I just don't think it's worth it. Or better yet, I will save my treats for something that is worth it and not something store bought.

Okay, have to go get ready for the partner throw down, this should be fun.

Time for a change

I have a terrible habit of getting stuck in ruts. Now don't get me wrong, I like routine, but ruts are a different story. Ruts can be harmful if you are not careful. I realized that I am in a rut and I need to shake things up. As I eluded to yesterday, last week was a train wreck. I hardly worked out, I ate like crap, I didn't walk the dogs, a complete and total train wreck. A large part of it has to do with my thought processes. I am always looking to the next thing. I can never see to focus on the present and I am looking to the future. As a result I lose sight of what's important. Also, my knee is acting and when I walk my back hurts. I know this is due to my weight. If I have any plans of not being in pain, I have to lose weight. So, in light of the train wreck that was last week and the fact that I am tired of being in pain, I am instituting a few changes.

1. Crossfit and dog walking are non-negotiable. No matter how tired/hungry/lazy/whatever I am I will do both. 
2. Eating right is non-negotiable. I will only eat good, whole foods and I will not, under any conditions, eat sugar. Sugar is completely verboten. 
3. When at work I will focus solely on work. No Facebook, no Walden, no nothing, only work. 
4. I will not beat myself up for not working on Walden work. I will work on it when I can and when I'm motivated to. If I'm not motivated to do it, I won't and I will not beat myself up about it. I will get it done. 
5. Water, water, water...I will drown in it.......

Okay, I need to start viewing things in this way and not as if I'm trying. Do or do not, there is no try. That is how I will view things. Okay, now my schedule for this week: 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday - Crossfit 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday - dog walk

Wednesday I have an open house so I will not have time to walk the dogs but I may be able to squeeze in Crossfit. 

Okay, I'm changing the way I think and I'm going to change my world. Yes!!!!

Lost my focus

I cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. For some reason, I just cannot maintain focus on different things. I try very hard to compartmentalize so that I can focus on one thing at a time, but that doesn't always work. This week it did not work at all. Let me lay out my sins:

• I only went to Crossfit twice
• I did not walk the dogs at all
• I did zero school work
• I did not pack my food two days
• I ate sweets three days (I think)
• and water was as scare as in the dessert

Now, you might ask what I did instead. What was so important that I could lose focus on the things that I have deemed IMPORTANT (in all caps)?  And I would respond nothing. I did not do anything with the time that should have been spent doing these things. I took naps, watched TV, and played games. 

LAST NIGHT'S DINNER WAS POT PIE AND NUTTER BUTTERS!!!!! Yes, I'm shouting at myself. 

Okay, time to shake it off and refocus. This week is going to be tough as we have visitors form the mainland for the week. Since it is Hubby's son, I am expecting to spend a lot of time alone. He is going to want to go out and spend as much time with him as possible. I don't blame him at all, but I can't do that. He has the week off work, I don't. So this will be a tough week in that I will be presented with a lot of situations that are not optimal. But I need to face them and deal with them. 

My focus this week is going to me moving and eating. I need to get these under control and I need to do it now. I feel like a fat, bloated whale. 

On that note, I will probably not get to Crossfit today as I need to clean house and wait for the Terminix guy. So I will use this time to my advantage and move. Once that is done I will do some school work. I have three assignments due tomorrow so I need to get working on them. Tomorrow I will go to Crossfit, finish any assignments not done, and prep food for the week. I do not expect to be perfect every time, but I do expect to try my best and I haven't been. 

Saturday to-do list

I can feel that if I do not plan accordingly today will be a very lazy day. The first week of school took it out of me and I slept for 9 hours and 25 minutes. When Hubby left for work this morning, I actually thought I would get up. Then I fell back to sleep for another hour. I woke too late to make the first Crossfit class so that means I'm going at 9 am. I can already feel that I will want to be lazy today so I need to create a to-do list to help me get at least a few things done. So, here goes:

1. Crossfit
2. Breakfast/Shower
3. Read and annotate at least 4 articles
4. Work on outline for prospectus
5. Enter grades
6. Find theoretical framework for prospectus
7. Walk dogs


That should be a good day. Not too taxing. There will be times for naps in there. Okay. I'll be back later or tomorrow to outline exactly what next week will look like. I have some plans for it.

Time for a check in

I have been back at school a week now and trying very hard to stick to my plan. Let's see how this week went.

Fitness: Goal was to Crossfit 4x and walk dogs 4x. I went to Crossfit Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and Friday. I walked the dogs. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So success with Crossfit, the dogs I'm still working on.

Food: I prepped my food on Sunday and took it every day this week. I did eat spaghetti on Monday, cornbread on Monday, and bratwurst on Thursday. But overall I would say this week was a success in the food category.

Work: Mostly successful. I did have some little things to do a couple of nights, but nothing serious.

School: This was not great. I did work on my prospectus once, and I did do some discussions, but that was it. Have to make up for that this weekend.

Finances: This was added later and I have kept on top of the finances, though not much happened this week.

I think, considering that I'm just getting things rolling, it was a good week. I have a few things that I can tweak, but overall it was good. Here is a breakdown of the numbers:

Day	Steps Taken	Calories Burned	Calories Eaten
Monday	10,473	2,015	???
Tuesday	12,183	2,053	1,279
Wednesday	7,282	1,935	1,679
Thursday	13,168	2,089	1,348
Friday	9,730	1,740	2,066
Totals	52,836	9,832	7,828

Not too shabby for a first week. I'm estimating Mondays calories eaten at ~1500. I know I logged them, but one day myfitnesspal was having trouble, that must have been the day. I'm good with this. I like to see the numbers and see how I did. The calorie burn is hard. I really want to get that up and I'm going to try this weekend. I'm going to walk on the treadmill this weekend and see if I can drive that number up. I would like to hit 2500 or 3000 a day. We shall see.

Tomorrow I will outline any changes I plan to make and get my plan set for next week. I'm feeling good. Let's keep this momentum going.

Check in

It's been a couple of days and things are going well. I started this at 204.4 and yesterday I was at 200.8. Thank God it's starting to come down, I was freaking. But I cannot relax. I cannot relax even a little until I am below 190 lbs. Then I can relax just a little, but not too much. I have joined 2 diet bets and both of them are to lose 4% of my weight by January 31. I have to get down to 196.4. Now at least I am confident I will make it.

Today was the first day back to school. What a long day. But it was good. I will adjust.

That's about it. I just wanted to pop in and keep things updated. Off to do some school work.