20 March 2010

3-20-10

Day 2 of the great photo experiment.

The day began on the elliptical:
This is actually yesterday's picture. I've unpacked a couple of boxes since then so it's not quite so messy.

Today as I was doing this I was reading my Women's Running Magazines. I have 2 that I haven't read yet and decided to read them while ellipted this morning. I used to devour magazines at an alarming rate. I would read everything, Weight Watchers, Running, Women's Running, Triathlon, Clean Eating, Fit, Women's Health, etc.. I would read them all. Last year I stopped reading them because I felt they were not helping me. I would get conflicting information from them and I felt that I wasn't sticking to anything because every time I read a magazine I'd try something new. But reading these this morning I found myself inspired and motivated. I'm thinking that magazines may provide a constant source of motivation for those times when mine lags. I found stories of women who weighed 260 lbs, lost the weight and are now personal trainers....I'm thinking it's time to go back to magazines.

Anyway, after the elliptical it was time for the world's greatest breakfast:



The way I make it is like this:

1/4 c. steel cut oatmeal
1/2 c. almond milk
1 scoop protein powder

Microwave

When done add:
1/2 container of Fage yogurt
1/2 honey with the Fage

Eat with 1/2 a fruit.

This clocks in right around 300ish calories and is absolutely perfect. I am satisfied but not stuffed. I have eaten carbs, protein, and a little fat. Perfect. And it holds me through to lunch no problem.

Okay, off to wash the car and get ready to go shopping :)

First day of spring

Yea!!! It's been so cold and rainy here that, for a change, I'm really looking forward to spring. Usually the changes in season mean only slight changes in the weather, but this year has been different. It's been very cold for a long stretch of time, very unusual for Hawaii. So, like the rest of the country, I'm definitely looking forward to spring.

So it being spring I feel like I should do something. I'm big on fresh starts and new beginnings and clean slates and all that. With it being the first day of spring I feel I definitely should start something. I'm thinking for the rest of March I will do the elliptical every morning for at least 30 minutes. Right at this point that is completely kicking my butt - that's how out of shape I have gotten. So for the next 12 days I will shoot for 30 minutes on the elliptical. That's good because I can do it in the morning or in the evening. I like it.

April is my birthday month and I think for the month of April I need to kick it up. My immediate goals are to lose 10 lbs, start running and biking again, and be in decent enough shape to do Crossfit over the summer. I don't think those goals are out of my reach but I have to get consistent with the eating and working out. I am considering looking over fat burner reviews and giving them a try. I need something to jump start my comeback.

Now though I have to go workout. One new rule I've instituted is that I can not have my killer oatmeal breakfast until after I work out. And since I crave that thing I think I may have struck gold.

19 March 2010

3-19-10 A day in my life

Most days I have these grand intentions of taking photos of all my food and posting on everything I ate and did that day.  Well, it rarely comes to fruition because at the end of the day I'm tired and the thought of writing a huge post with pictures and everything is just exhausting...so I don't. So I'm going to try it this way, I'll start a post now and update it all day long.  That way I only have to write a little bit and post a picture or two at a time. So here goes, a day in my life:

My day began with a workout.

At this point the workout room is doing double duty as the storage room for unpacked boxes. We are slowly getting them unpacked but we still have a ways to go. Luckily the elliptical is accessible and so my workout of choice at the moment.


Once I'm done with the workout I'm usually hungry and have breakfast right away.  I have found the world's greatest breakfast:

This is oatmeal with almond milk and protein powder which I top with 1/2 a container of Fage yogurt with honey. To die for. I also usually have 1/2 an apple. It is so good and filling and only 310 calories. Awesome!! After eating this I am generally good for 3-4 hours. Next up, lunch....

For lunch I've come up with this delicious wrap:

Start with Laughing Cow and hummus:

Next, I smoosh them together to make a spread:

Then I spread them on a Flat Out bread, add some turkey breast, and veggies:

Roll it up and add some Kalamata olives:

And I have just about the perfect lunch. It comes it at around 275 calories and is just awesome. It is quite filling.

For the rest of the day I forgot to photograph my food but I had some soy beans around 4 pm for a snack. Dinner was hamburger stew curry over rice and I did have a piece of cake for dessert. I figure that my whole day came in around 1700-1800 calories for the day. For every meal I was no longer hungry but not full. Even the cake didn't fill me up. So this day was definitely a success.

One step up and two steps back

Yesterday started out really badly. The scale showed a number I have not seen in at least 10 years. Ugh!!!! So I decided right then and there to get really serious about this whole thing. I worked out. Ate right all day. Tracked what I ate. Up until dinner I had eaten about 600 cals. I felt really good. I had an enchilada for dinner and was feeling very virtuous. Then my neighbor, the cake decorator, brings over a cake for us. Ugh!!! I am weak in the face of cake. Really I am. I can resist ice cream, candy, most sweets. But cake leaves me weak. Literally. And it was my absolute favorite, plain white cake with strawberry preserves...Ugh!!! Needless to say I had a piece. Or two. Felt like absolute crap and went to bed. If I keep this up I'm going to have to visit www.bestfatburners.org and buy some fat burners. I can not go on like this!!!

There are some positives from yesterday:
  • I got a workout in first thing in the morning
  • I ate really good for breakfast and lunch for only 600 calories and I wasn't hungry
  • For dinner I only had 1 enchilada
  • I managed to restrict myself to only 2 pieces of cake
  • And I stopped eating and went to bed
So the day  was not a total loss.  I will start over again today and try to do better. I will do better!!!!

18 March 2010

Take two

Things didn't go as well as I'd hoped yesterday.  I worked out in the morning and did pretty well on the eating, but I didn't get  a second workout in and I overate a bit at dinner.  Also, I ate some snacks that were completely unnecessary.  I'm torn as to what to do.  Should I look around for some weight loss products? Should I join WW again? Should I sign up for a race? I'm just not sure what will motivate me the most and get me moving. And I need to get motivated and moving....That's for sure. So, I'm going to try it again today. I'm going to go workout right now... Track my food.. and get a workout in this afternoon. The good part is I went shopping yesterday and got some good stuff to eat so there is no reason to eat crap... Here goes, take two, lights, camera, action.....

17 March 2010

And that routine starts today

We are pretty well settled into the house. There are still things that need to be put away/organized/straightened out but nothing critical. All the major components are in place and now it's a matter of details. Also, Hubby went back to work today. So I'm starting my new routine today. I have 12 days of break left and I want to spend them focusing on eating right and working out. As well as straightening up the place. So I'm going to start right here right now. I know I've said this before but for the last few months this house has taken priority. Well, we are here and I am done. I want to start running and doing triathlons again but at this weight it's impossible. I also don't want to go out in public in a bathing suit with all this cellulite hanging off my thighs. I know the best cellulite cure, I just need to do it. I'm considering joining WW again. I don't know. I know the program by heart and I'm not sure I want to get back into eating all that processed crap. Though I don't have to but I get so focused on points that I lose track of nutrition.

So today's goal:
  1. track everything I eat (I have got to get back into the habit of doing this - it works!!!)
  2. stay under 1700 calories for the day
  3. work out twice for at least 30 minutes each
  4. get bedroom and office organized
 Okay, that should be a good start.  I'm off to get my first workout in. 

16 March 2010

Need to get back into a routine

Between moving, unpacking, and spring break, I have absolutely no routine established. I don't like that. I like having a routine and having some predictability in my day. I also function better and get more done when I have a schedule. Leave me to my own devices and absolutely nothing gets done. That is not good. Those are the kind of days you have on an Outer Banks vacation when you are purposefully doing nothing.

Towards that end I got up and walked this morning. I wanted to scope out the neighborhood anyway and that seemed like a great way to do it. I walked for about an hour, I guess since I was tracking time or anything. It was nice. There is a community pool about 2 blocks away that I can't wait to try out. There is a large district park where we can take the dogs for walks. I'm very excited to get back into the routine of working out and walking the dogs and not moving :)

14 March 2010

Right, so where was I??

Oh yeah, workouts, eating right, etc... Well that all flew out the window after we met with our loan officer on Monday night. Everything finally fell into place and we were going to close on Friday!! Yikes!! While we had been waiting and preparing for this for 3 1/2 months, having less then a week to prepare made it crunch time. So as you imagine last week was completely crazy with packing and preparing to move. This weekend has been a marathon of moving and cleaning. Yesterday was a 14 hour day. Today is much better because we are out of the old house and in the new. We've actually been taking it easy today unpacking, resting, unpacking, resting, etc. It's working out just fine. We have got the living room fairly situated and the kitchen is coming together, so we are making progress. It's just slow but, since we own the house, there is no rush at all.

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...