31 January 2009

Entrecard Top Droppers

These are the top droppers for the month of January:

My Gypsy Goods
Alteredevents
Better Spines
Health Eagle
Laane on the World
Losing It, Getting Fit
Paul's Health Blog
Medical Technology
Health by Dratiffarid
Skip Ratt's Mountain Bike Blog

Thank you all very much for dropping so regularly. The best part about this is that most of these blogs have become some of my favorite reads. Entrecard is great for so many reasons.

Okay, I think I love it....

My template that is. After I made the header last night I realized that I hated that template. I wanted something that was uniquely me. I searched for a template that had all the elements I wanted and then went on to customize it. I love it and it's not like anything else out there. Wow, I totally amaze me sometimes :)

Let's review

This week was an experiment. I needed to get a baseline so to speak on my food and activity levels. I didn't really do anything out of the ordinary but I kept track of everything.

First, let's finish out the week:

Thursday
Consumed: 1870
Burned: 2027

Friday:
Consumed: 2065
Burned: 2038

For the week we have:

Consumed: 13,365
Burned: 14,677

Deficit: 1,312

Start weight: 181.5 lbs
Today's weight: 182.0 lbs

Start fat %: 38.0
Today's fat %: 37.5

Evidently I did not have a large enough deficit to lose even 1/2 a pound this week. In fact, the numbers on the scale went up. Note: I don't put a lot of faith in the numbers on the scale. I weighed myself every morning this week and there was as much as a 2.5 lb difference day to day. I know that I cannot lose or gain 2.5 lbs overnight so I don't put a lot of weight in the scale numbers. I use them strictly as a basic yardstick. The scale does show a 1/2 lb gain from last week and that could be due to the fact that I haven't been getting enough water in. I try but I just don't have a routine so it's hard.

I do like the fat % and I'll explain why. I know I've lost something this week. My pants fit just ever so slightly better. It's not a huge difference and I'm sure it wouldn't show up in any measurements, but it's there. I can also see that my arms are slimming down and muscles are starting to pop out on my legs. That's no doubt from all those freaking lunges and plyo jumps. UGH!!!! It is happening.

So I believe these numbers and to me they make perfect sense. I've dropped a little bit of body fat but gained some muscle hence no real change in the scale. 1/2 a pound I'm not that concerned about because that could be due to anything. I believe I'm on the right track and I'm going to stay here for the month of February.

Today is kind of my 'free' day. I'm not going to go crazy I'm just going to allow myself a little bit of leeway. Tomorrow, Feb 1, starts the serious business. For the month of February my goals are as follows:

  1. Weigh, measure, and record everything I eat. I've been estimating this past week.
  2. Burn 2300 cals a day
  3. Do that by working out 2x a day and not sitting at the computer so much
  4. Eat between 1600-1800 cals a day
  5. Do strength training 4x a week
  6. Do cardio 7 days a week - this can be hiking, working in the garden, etc.
I think that's it. I'll add more on if I think of anything else. February is a short month and it's kind of the lead up to spring. It's a good month to focus on myself and doing what I want to do. Also, with my new job the schedule will be pretty flexible so I should have no excuse for not doing all this. I have the time, I have the structure, and I have the drive. What more do I need?

30 January 2009

Look up, look up

I made a new header! I'm squealing like a little girl and dancing around my room here. I am soooo excited by this..... I did it all by myself... Well, okay, technically I had help from a program but I did it......

29 January 2009

Time to catch things up

Okay, I have a lot of catching up to do here, but first I want to talk about my exercise experiment today. I went to school and got home around 10:15. I immediately changed and went to workout. I worked out hard. I mean hard. It was great. I think I'm on to something here. I'm going to get up in the morning and do the elliptical or bike for 30-45 minutes, then do my strength training when I come home. I think this will work out well. So that's going to be my plan for the next week or so, see how it goes.

Now the numbers. I have not had time to really calculate these and I've been avoiding doing it. I knew it wasn't going to be great. But I forced myself to sit down and do it tonight. So here it goes:
Sunday:
Consumed: 1850
Burned: 2250

Monday:
Consumed: 1750
Burned: 2100

Tuesday:
Consumed: 1830
Burned: 1980

Wednesday:
Consumed: 2200
Burned: 2100

Do you see a trend here? My calories consumed slowly increase and the calories burned slowly go down. Hmmmm..... Also, I'm not burning as much as I would like to. This was the first week though and I wanted to get an idea of what was going on. Also, in some really good news, I got a job!! Woo Hoo!! Now my schedule will normalize and I'll be able to set a schedule for workouts. I'm very happy. With this week and with a new job. So now I'm off.

Trying something new

I may have mentioned that I'm currently unemployed :( but for my teaching degree I go to a high school 4 mornings a week. What I've been doing is getting up at 4:30, working out at 5, and then getting ready and going to school. What I've noticed is that while the 5 am workout is hard I work much harder a little later in the morning. Yesterday I didn't have to go to school so I didn't work out until 10. It was great!! I pushed hard and could really go the extra mile. Definitely one of the best workouts I've had in a while. So I've decided to try something new. Today I get out of school at 9:30. I'm saving my workout until I get home. I got up at 4:30 but I could just feel my body wasn't awake and ready to go hard. So I'm going to do it this way. I think it will be a lot better. I used to work out in the afternoon/evenings and really liked it. Maybe it's time to go back to that???

27 January 2009

I can see how this is going to go

There probably won't be much posting here on Mondays and Tuesdays. On those days I go to the high school in the morning and grad school at night. The few hours in between are spent doing school work. So on those days I'll be scarce. I will get on tomorrow and update all the numbers. I don't know what they are so I'm looking forward to seeing them. Now, I have to relax and go to bed. I'm tired.

26 January 2009

Observations

I'm studying to become a high school teacher and because of this have to spend time in a classroom. I am in a biology and a human physiology class. I was sitting in the classes today and I noticed that there were very few students who are overweight. In the human phys class there is only 1 girl. In biology there are 2. That's pretty good. As I walk around the school there are some overweight kids, and some kids who are just large, but by far normal sized are the norm. Interesting. I just thought I'd share that because I'm watching Oprah with the overweight teens.

25 January 2009

This is going to get ugly

Okay, I've decided to get really geeky with the numbers. I know I've said it before and then chickened out. Well, not this time. As boring as it will be for anyone who may read this, I have to post the numbers to make it public and keep me accountable. So you can skip these posts, I won't be offended :)

Okay, so I'm kind of using yesterday as a start point just because I need to start somewhere. I took weight, body fat, etc. I also took pictures but I'm not that brave yet. I figure I'll post them after I've lost some just for comparison. So the numbers, {{sigh}}
Weight: 181.5 (this is the highest I've been in 10 years)
BodyFat; 38% (Hello!!!!! I'm carrying 69 lbs of fat around. Please!!!)

So on Saturday or Sundays I will post the weakly numbers (that is not a spelling error). I've also started using the BodyBugg again. I have some goals and I'll share them now.

I'm aiming for going to burn at least 2500 cals a day. That wasn't too hard when I was working and on my feet all day. Now it will be a bit tougher. I'll definitely have to work at it.

I'm aiming for going to eat 1600-1800 calories a day. That is very reasonable for me. In that range I am satisfied but not stuffed.

Did you see what I did in those 2 statements. I built in a way out. I have got to stop doing that. I will do these things every single day. Okay, back to what I was saying.

When I eat 1600-1800 cals and burn 2500 cals that leaves me with a deficit of 700-900 cals a day. That will result in a 1-1.5 lb weight loss a week. That is extremely reasonable. I actually want to lose 10 lbs by the end of February. That's 5 weeks or 2 lbs per week. I can up my activity to 2700-2800 cals a day. That would result in a 1000 cal deficit which would result in about 2 lbs per week. It's not that hard to do, I just need not to sit here at the computer so much.

Okay, there you have it. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Oh, I forgot to include how I did yesterday. Well, it shook down like this:

Burned: 2200 cals
Eaten: 1800 cals
Deficit: 400 cals

Not bad but I've got nowhere to go but up. Or down. Whatever........

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...