01 January 2011

Breakfast

2 eggs - 4 points
Peppers, onions, garlic, salsa, clementines - 0
Oil - 2 points
Total -6 points and incredibly filling
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2011 - Here it comes ready or not.....

Last night turned out to be pretty fun.  Some friends came over and we sat in the yard and watched the crazies all around us waste their money and pop fireworks.  There were lots and lots of illegal aerials and it was really cool to watch. I would love to know how much money when up in smoke last night.  Some of those illegals are really expensive.  Oh well, just glad it wasn't my money. The dogs were a little freaked out but they got through it okay. 

The last 3 days of eating have been a little crazy. Wednesday there was beer and sausage with Tanya and Jerin.  Thursday we went out to the Oceanarium restaurant.  They had a crab buffet and it was awesome :)  Then last night we had soup and pizza before our friends came over.  So I was really high on my points all 3 days.  I had used all my Weekly points up on Thursday, luckily I had some activity points stored.  But I figured today was going to be pretty tough points wise.  Well, WW online has apparently decided that my week starts on Saturday and reset all my points.  At first I was going to change it back and protest a little, but after further consideration, I'm going to let it stand.  It doesn't really matter when my week starts, it matters that I track what I eat.  Also, I may be going to the Saturday meetings, I'm not sure yet. Plus, I love the symmetry of starting a new year with a new week and a new points balance.  Somehow that just works for me. 

So, on a lesser amount of sleep I'm trying to decide exactly what to do today.  I did not do the 10k because I knew that I would be sloooooow.  I do want to do a 10k to start the year though, so I'm probably going to head out here soon.  I've got the Garmin plugged in so I'm sure it's charged up and ready to go.  I also have some errands to run.  I want to get a desk calendar so I can just look down and see what's going on now or in the future.  I want to look at some kind of organization system for mail, bills, paperwork, etc.  I need to be more organized - that is one of my resolutions. I also need to drag my bike out and make sure it's rideable tomorrow.  I'm going riding with some friends from the gym and I'm very much looking forward to it.  So there it is, a busy day but a fabulous way to start the new year. 

31 December 2010

Plans for 2011

So I spent the morning trying to write this post that didn't sound too over the top or too ambitious or too much like a pipe dream.  After struggling with it for 2 hours I realized I was trying to write a post in a different voice, not mine. So I walked away from the post, went to workout and decided - bullshit!!!  I'm going to write what I'm thinking and feeling and screw how it sounds. So here goes....

For the past couple of years I have let things slide - things being me.  I stopped racing and training. I stopped working out for long stretches of time.  I stopped caring for myself. Well, this year I want to change all that.  So here are my goals. 

The big ones:
  • Get serious about running again
  • Start racing/doing triathlons
  • Lose some of this f(*$&%(*(#)$  weight
I also want to change some things in other parts of my life.

They are:
  • Become more organized
  • Stay on top of my work for school
  • Keep on top of the bills and financial stuff
  • Finish my thesis and apply to the PhD program
Those are about it.  Not earth shattering but that's what I want to accomplish this year.  Towards that end I'm going to come up with monthly, maybe even weekly goals to achieve the above items.

For January the goals are:
  • Run 3 days a week for 1 hour
  • Strength train 3 days a week
  • At least 1 race 
  • Stick to WW and follow the plan for the whole month
  • Organize my desk
  • Develop a system to keep on top of everything and use it
That's it.  It's really not that much but it is a start.  I have been following WW this week and am already feeling really good, I like the new program. I also need to really focus on my running.  I tried that couch to 5k thing and it starts so incredibly slow, it really doesn't work well for me.  So I need to really work on my running.   I plan to do 2 triathlons - Tinman and Na Wahine - this year.  Those are the only ones I really want to do.  In 2012 I'll do some more but for now that's it. 

I guess that's it.  It all ends today and tomorrow is a clean slate.  I love it but I need to start focusing in smaller increments.  So happy new year and see you in 2011.

30 December 2010

This will be a real challenge

I was doing really well on WW. Logging everything and staying within my points. I was very proud of myself. Then yesterday some friends visiting from the mainland stopped by. We had beer and sausage. That in and of itself is not bad but I drank 3 beers (15 points) and ate about 4 oz of sausage (12 points) and then topped it off with some candy. Yikes!!! Luckily, under the new plan, I have a lot of weekly points, so even though I over indulged last night I still have 29 points for today, 12 weekly points, plus the 17 activity points I've earned so far. I should be okay for the rest of the week - which I haven't decided if it starts on Saturday or another day....hmmmm.... The problem I have is feeling backed into a corner. I hate the feeling that I have no options and that's what having only a few points feels like. I'll just have to workout to earn more activity points. But not today, I'm just the tiniest bit hungover. Today is going to be a fairly sedentary day, devoted to school work. I need to get these tests graded and logged in before the weekend. They actually aren't due until Tuesday but I do not want to wait until the last minute. Okay, nuff said...I'm going to shower and get started...

29 December 2010

2011

Is almost here. In 2 days the new year will arrive. I love new years, new months, new weeks, new starts. It's a great way to wipe away the old and start over. It's like getting a do over. I especially like new years because you have a whole year in front of you. It's like a blank page waiting to be written on. What will you do with that page?

For me, the focus of a new year is usually personal. I can't control anyone else so I work on myself. And those things generally revolve around health and fitness. This year feels a little bit different to me. Not sure why exactly, but it does. I have been battling with my weight for all of my adult life. I began doing aerobics when I was 19 years old. In the intervening years I have done all kinds of workouts and yet I'm still overweight. Kind of crazy huh?

But this year feels different to me. I have been thinking about what I want to accomplish and not necessarily what I want the scale to say. I want to be fit, to be able to run, to eat healthy, things like that. I'm not focusing so much on the scale. Yes, I did join WW but that is much more for the support and to keep my eating on track. See, it's a vicious cycle. If I eat well I have more energy to workout, and if I workout more I need to eat well. Funny how that works.

So I have decided to establish some goals for the coming year and to develop a mission statement so to speak. I don't want to get all caught up in a number on a scale. I want to focus on the things I enjoy and that I feel good. So I'm off for a short run and hopefully to craft a mission statement as I go. As an old WW leader used to say, "what do you really want?"

28 December 2010

Day 2 was harder

So yesterday, my 1st day on WW, I was a rock star. I worked out, I ate right, I tracked, I did it. I ended the day feeling strong and thin and in control. Too bad today wasn't as good. Seriously though, day 2 is always hard for me. It's almost like my body is rebelling against the good stuff - and it may well be. I did not workout. I was hungrier than yesterday. I have a bit of a headache and I want to stuff things into my mouth. I firmly believe part of it is my kicking sugar. For about the last month or so I had been having sweets everyday, cookies, apple turnovers, chocolate, lemon bars, and ice cream. I've eaten well today so it can not be that I'm not eating enough. I think it's my body resisting change. If past experience is any indication, tomorrow should be better. I should start to feel better tomorrow. I just look up the symptoms of sugar withdrawal and they said it could last a week or two. I don't think so. I seem to remember that after the first day things get better. So I'll muddle through the rest of the night and hope for better tomorrow.

Well that was worse than I thought it would be

I knew my scale was not right. I bought it not too long ago and it worked fine in the beginning. Then the weight started creeping down. At first I thought I might actually be losing some weight, but then it got out of hand. For instance, this morning it said I weighed 166.8 lbs. Ummm....no!! If I weighed 166 I would not be busting out of my stretch shorts... But I kind of like the number and really, what is a number. Does 166 have any more meaning than 180??? Only because we give it meaning (read power). So basically I was going with the number I was getting, knowing it was wrong, but also knowing that it held pretty steady so I was probably maintaining. But joining WW yesterday made me realize I needed to know the real number. So this morning I went to a meeting and got weighed. It was worse than I thought. Much worse. I am at 191.8. Yikes!!! But that's okay. I will succeed and the only way to measure success is by having a true number to work with. So it begins. Think positive.....

27 December 2010

The first day

So I went ahead and bit the bullet this morning. I joined WW and got the monthly pass thingee they have. I get access to all the online tools plus can attend all the meetings I want in a month. I like that. But I went ahead and started the program today to see what it's like. In the old points program I was allowed 22 points per day and that was just not enough. I always went over or I ended up starving. It just did not work well for me. I think the main reason was that fruit counted as points. Veggies didn't but I like to eat a fruit with almost every meal and counting 2 points for an apple would just kill me. Anyway, under the new system fruit and veggies are zero points. I like that. And I'm allowed 29 points a day. Woo Hoo!!! Plus there are 49 extra points a week (7 a day) and you can still earn activity points. Awesome. Today I started with 29 points and I earned 6 activity points. I ate a total of 30 points, and that was only because I wanted a scoop of coleslaw with dinner. Oh, that was another thing that bugged me about the old points system. I can get a little crazy about food and points and calories and I think the old system fed my some foods are evil mindset. I would avoid things and play with the points so that I could eat the things I wanted to. That was just crazy talk. So the bottom line is I think I like the new points system and I'm going to stick to it for at least a month and see what happens. So I consider it a success so far.

Well, guess what?

A couple of weeks ago I decided to just start signing up for races in order to actually get me moving. Prior to that I had been saying that once I started running again I would sign up for races. Well, that didn't work. So I switched it around and decided to sign up before I had started running. Guess what? That worked. I've been running fairly consistently and feeling pretty good about it.

What I haven't been feeling really good about is the way I eat. I keep saying I'm going to eat right and track what I eat and I don't do it. So I decided to bite the bullet and join Weight Watchers. I keep saying that their plan promotes you eating junk because of the way the point system is calculated. Well, guess what? They changed the system. I like it from what I've seen and I decided to give it a try. The truth of the matter is, I was kidding myself. I used WW before and was wildly successful with it. It was what got me so low and started me running and doing triathlons. But then I got it into my head that it would no longer work for me if I was an "athlete." Well, guess what? Now I'm not an athlete, I'm just overweight. So I just signed up for the WW Monthly pass which allows me online access as well as meeting access. So I'm going to give it a serious go - starting today since I've only had coffee. I need to go shopping anyway so this is a perfect time to start.

So there it is. Time to change things up. I'm now off to work out..

26 December 2010

Dealing with emotions

So I've been thinking about my student who died and it's really, really sad.  I found myself thinking about her and eating an entire tin of cookies. I didn't even realize I was doing it.  Amazing the things you can do without knowing it.  Dealing with her death is going to be hard on everyone. 

Meanwhile the organizing continues.  I spent the entire day getting my desk in order and straightening papers.  I keep newspapers for the birds and I had been throwing the entire papers into a box.  Well, I sat down and went through them and threw out the ads - can't use those - and separated them into different sizes for the different cages.  It took a while but cleaning the cages tonight was a breeze. That was nice.

My laptop is starting to act up.  The keyboard is starting to not work right. It doesn't happen all the time, just intermittently, but it's not a good sign.  It might be time for a new laptop.  Maybe I'll look into a custom laptop. I really can't afford one but I may not have a choice.

Well, enough for tonight. I'm tired and have done a fair amount of blogging today. Time to go relax and get ready for bed.

A quiet Christmas

That's what it was around here.   We were supposed to visit some people on Christmas Eve but it was raining so hard here we had a little flooding going on. Since the neighbors were all gone we hung around to make sure nothing got washed away. The neighbors front area did flood a little and their girls shorts got washed under the house. But that was the extent of the damage so that's good.  More rain is expected and I can hardly wait :)

Looking back, looking forward

It's been a pretty good year.  We accomplished a lot this year, the main item being buying this house.  For that I am very thankful and grateful.  I like to look back over the year but more important is that I like to look forward. I have spent this break so far getting things ready for the new year.  I've been working out, rearranging things, and working to get things set up for a fabulous 2011.  I have been working on trying to be more organized this year.  I have a terrible habit of not dealing with things right away and that's something I want to change in the new year.  Towards that end I've been looking for things to help me keep organized, like custom rubber stamps so I can mark things that come in, like paid, file, or whatever. Anyway, I'm working on it.

Sad news

One of the students that I teach passed away last night. She was 16 years old.  She was having trouble breathing and it got bad enough that her parents took her to the ER.  The ER Doc wanted to do a scan of her throat and when she laid down on the table her esophagus collapsed and they could not revive her.  How unbelievably sad. To lose your child on Christmas.  OMG!! I can't even begin to imagine how her parents must be feeling. Talk about ruining Christmas.... It will forever be a sad time for them.

Over the holidays things like this really seem to stand out. This is supposed to be a time of joy and sharing and then something like this happens. When children are little most parents understand the importance of child safety,you look for things like child proof containers, car safety seats, child proof locks on doors and cabinets, things like that. But as children get older your safety concerns shift. Now you start thinking about the people they hang out with, drugs, alcohol, driving, etc. To lose a child from a relatively harmless breathing problem. Unbelievable. All we want to do is keep our kids safe no matter how old they are. Apparently that is just not possible.

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...