Progress

Well. 9 days into the new year and I'm actually feeling pretty good about how things are going. Could I be better? Of course! But I'm pleased with the decisions I've made. I've tried a new food already. Finished burning some of my CD's, I've created and have been sticking to a working out routine. I've been dairy free 4 out of 9 days. And gluten free 6 out of 9 days. And really it's not like I've horribly binged on everything dairy and gluten. For the dairy it was just the fact that I had a regular iced coffee instead of a soy one. The rest of the day was fine. And then today I had 2 cinnamon rolls. The icing I'm sure had milk in it, so I counted that as dairy today. Oh and then I had some chicken nuggets at dinner. And then the other day that I had gluten was the day I had a normal waffle in the morning because I was going to work out and hadn't gone to the store yet.And then stayed gluten free the rest of the day. I guess I forgot that I didn't start all these food goals until the second. So technically I'm one day off, but oh well.

The majority of the time I have made the right decisions and been gluten and dairy free. And I'm not angry or mad at myself. I knew that I was going to be easing myself into it. And I could tell today. I came home with a headache. Which I knew was from the food. So I can already tell that it's working. I just need to get that regular coffee down to once a week ;)

So my coworker the other day showed me a product on facebook that she had seen a picture of. It's called gluten-ease. And you are supposed to be able to take it before you eat gluten or casein. (Which is what I am allergic to) and it's supposed to help you digest the gluten or casein better and help your body with them. I'm pretty intrigued by it. At first I was a little leary about it. I don't want to be reliant on something to help me digest something I'm not supposed to be eating in the first place. But then I became curious and want to try it. Well mainly because I want to keep on drinking Dutch Bros :) I just can't handle a soy Iced kicker :( Not good at all!. So I'm probably going to end up getting some and trying it out. Not so I can get away with eating all the crap I was before, but if I want to get my coffee once a week, or if I'm in a social setting that I know I'm going to be served food I shouldn't be eating I can try it. I'm not willing to go soy everything. I can handle soy in my hot coffees. But not in cold. So yeah..that's just something that I saw. But it did have a warning saying it wasn't intended for people with Celiac's disease. I don't want to become dependent on something like that. But a little help now and them wouldn't hurt ;)

And the gym :) Oh I am quickly liking going the gym late at night. Like after 8 or almost 9. It's been pretty empty in there at that time. So I'm not fighting anyone over machines or anything like that. And I'm not being intimidated by what the people around me are doing. Except for the one guy running tonight. He had great form and was just going to town on that treadmill. I wasn't gonna get right next to him and start huffing and puffing haha!

So tonight it was Week one of c25k day 2. I'm seriously only running at a 3 mph pace. But I'm moving :) And its not hurting my knee still. Last night I was there and I did the strength training that I learned about when I went and had someone show me the machines. I was able to find most of them, but I can't remember what some of them are haha!! So I didn't get to do those ones. But it was good to get some strength training in. That's one of my weaker areas for sure. But having the clipboard there and writing down what I did is going to help me be accountable to it for sure! And then I'm not wandering aimlessly around the weights wondering what the heck to do. I'd forgotten how much I'd missed the machines! I'm looking forward into getting back into that for sure.

And I guess today I just started feeling a little smaller. It's been around a week now. I would think that I should be seeing some results. My stomach seems a little smaller, and either I really need to wash my jeans or they were fitting a little bit looser. Or it could be both. It's going to be interesting to keep going with the not weighing myself all year. I really want to know haha! But then again I don't really want to know. What if it was a much smaller number than I would have wanted? See I don't have any level of disappointment here. Only in the fact that I didn't do the goals. So I'm still thinking I'm going to be much better off in the process :)

Well I better get off to bed. I might be liking this night owl thing at the gym...but my body's internal clock is still waking me up too early! So yeah..it needs to act accordingly!

Wednesday weigh in week 98

Wednesday: No Excuses!!

Thursday: Massive sore throat/headcold/fever and taking Nyquil and Sudafed for the next 6 straight days.

Well that pretty much sums up my week, along with TOM. Yep. Hows that for no excuses?!? Hahahaa. Life is funny guys..so funny. I managed to go to bed without the nyquil last night but I'm still stuffy and took sudafed once today. And to top that all off my co-worker was also sick and could either one of us take a day off? Oh no. You know why? Because our teacher is serving on a jury for the next two weeks. Well this week and next week. Meaning we don't get to take time off. Haha. Good thing next week is conferences and we don't have kids. This has been the longest. week. ever. One more day with kids and then we are done. Whew. Some weeks I don't know how I get by. Oh yes I do. Coffee. :0) I was halfway good this week and had soy most of the time. I have thrown some milk in there in my iced coffees.

All in all I managed to lose 1.8 pounds this week. I mean really I'm an expert at losing and gaining the same two pounds. I mean yeah. I'm feeling quite sassy right now haha..I should really just shut my mouth and go to bed.

Well Katie officially freaked me out today in her post. She mentioned there was 11 1/2 weeks until her birthday and she was thinking of doing her virtual 5k again. Well my birthday just happens to be 3 days after hers. So my birthday is in 12 weeks roughly from today. C-R-A-P. Please Jesus I don't want to turn 33 weighing over 200 pounds. But losing 47 pounds in 12 weeks. Is that realistic? Nope. I don't think I can really justify or figure out how to lose 4 pounds a week. That's just not healthy. I really need to do a lot of reflecting soon on why I eat the way I do and what to help combat that. I'm also going to come up with a plan for going to the gym. I told a friend who is thinking of doing p90x for the 90 day challenge that I would make up my own challenge and do a 90 day thing with her. My birthday is in 82 days from today. So I wouldn't even be done with a challenge by then. But it's going to be good to come up with something. Oh geez. That makes me want to do it right now haha..But right now I need to be getting my little self in bed. I have one more day with kids this week...I can do this haha!!

At any rate. I'm getting back in the game. Mentally and physically. One of these days I'm going to make it to the water aerobics class. Which is part of the whole reason that I signed up for the gym in the first place! Haha..gotta make it happen :0)

Wednesday Weigh in week 91 snd 92

No excuse.

Oh well. So I didn't come up with any recipes. And honestly not weighing myself has really thrown off my wednesday posts.  But next week I will be having a weigh in! My no scale summer ends on Monday. And then I will be resuming my weekly weigh ins. I'm actually pretty dang proud of myself. I really only "weighed" myself once this summer. And that was while I was at the beach on a scale at the museum telling you what you weighed on all the planets. So I mean I really didn't look too long and hard at it. But what I can say is that I don't feel like I have lost anything. I'm still in the same size of clothes and nothing feels different. So it's a double edged experience. Yeah for not being addicted to the scale. Boo for not feeling like I lost anything. But I will find out for sure on MONDAY when I weigh myself. I am pretty proud of myself for not weighing in. There were a few times this summer that I actually wanted to. But I held off. And I mean it's not like I hid my scale or anything. It's in the same spot in my room that it always is. And I haven't gotten on my sister's scale, which is just out in her bathroom when I have been taking care of her dogs while she has been gone. I just simply haven't done it. It's a bit of a self discipline lesson. I mean. Once I set my mind to some things I can be as stubborn as can be. I haven't quite figured that out with food though. I cave. All. the. time.

I'm toying with the idea of joining a gym. Me who hasn't worked out in weeks. Haha..But it's really only 21.00 a month. And get this...it has a pool and a hot tub! Um. Why wouldn't I do that? Especially for that cheap a month. I would be ok with only going 3 times a week for that price. It's not bad at all. It's a little further away, but it has a water aerobics class I can do one evening a week, and then I can do weights and stuff. I think both of my coworkers are going to join too, so it will be kind of fun :0) I'm a little excited at the thought of going back to a gym. Especially with a pool and hot tub!

And I officially started my first college class ever last night. Yeah I'm a late starter considering I'm 32 and everything..but I needed it for my job, so it's a continuing education of sorts. I'm taking an Early Childhood Education class. Music and Movement. I'm basically going to use it to see if I want to go back for the whole degree...It's gonna be interesting!

Oh and Stephanie :-) if you see this. I decided to join you in the redhead movement ;)

Wednesday Weigh in Week 86

Do you ever have days where you just wake up just feeling smaller? I mean I know they are rare, and far and few in between hahaha!

But today was one of those days! I woke up and just felt different. So I grabbed my tape measurer and sure enough. My meausrements around my belly button was -1 inch! Maybe all these workouts are starting to actually do something ;) I mean I have no idea weight wise what I weigh. I'm gonna go with close to the same because my pants aren't really much looser. Or anything like that. I'm not tugging to keep my pants up or anything. But I've noticed with all the squats that my hips feel a bit better and my stomach was feeling better today :0) So I guess the patience is just waiting for the weight to come off. I have now worked out for 14 days in a row! I mean, I guess I'm not exactly eating all my workouts back, but I figure I should be seeing some sort of results by now right?

That would be my guess. As of tomorrow, I will be halfway(ish) done with my workouts for the month. That's good, cause I'm getting kind of tired of them! Haha. I have already decided what I will do differently next month. I'm not gonna try to do it all the same day. I'm going to have to break things up. I mean, in the summer I will have time to do 2 hour workouts, but not so much during the school year. There is just more going on. I want to be able to scale it down to an hour, so I can do it all in the morning and still have time to get me and the boys ready for school.

Which starts 2 weeks from today! Geesh. That summer break went fast. I thoroughly enjoyed not doing a whole lot at all! And now I have the next two weeks to get my behind in gear and get stuff done. Oh the life of a procrastinator ;)

Oh...so I did a 45 second plank today! I'm quite shocked that I'm doing this. Now granted my butt is probably too high in the air still, but I feel like my back is pretty straight? So yeah. I'm still working on that. But I'm doing it! That's halfway to the 90 seconds that it wants you to do after 30 days. So I'm feeling pretty good about being able to do 45 seconds. Even if I'm doing it "wrong" ;)

It's a non scale vicotry kind of day :0)

Wednesday weigh in week 85

Well my computer wasn't working at the time so I decided to use my phone. Needless to say this post is going to be pretty short ;-)

I have done one week of my August workout challenge. 

Yeah. 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to die. 

Either that or I might lose 10 or 15 pounds this month lol!

I think I will go for the latter. That's the goal anyway. I mean whose bright idea was it to do 200 squats all the time? 

Oh yeah. That would be me. 

Everything else seems to be going great. I'm still a little concerned that I might be doing the crunches wrong. But I have completely surprised myself with the fact that as of this morning I can do a 30 second plank. Oh. My. Goodness. That's huge! I mean who do I think I am? Hahaha. I have to repeat it tomorrow so I will see how it goes. I barely made it to 30 seconds this morning. But I knew even if I couldn't get to 90 seconds like the goal is, that I will go for as long as possible each day. 

So. I have been sweating like crazy and making sure I get my workouts in. Week one is done and now and I am on to week two. 

I found a little program that I can watermark my pictures. I got a little weirded out by a comment on a picture once and haven't posted a lot. So I might be silly copyrighting my picture but there you go. 

So this is the August workout. From Hell. Haha. That I created for myself! 

Wednesday weigh in week 83

Oh hey, looks it's WEDNESDAY and I am posting! Haha. I will have to set a reminder or something for the summer to remember to post, since I'm not weighing in.

I guess I don't really have too much to report since I only posted on Monday. I'm still plugging away with my squat challenge. I'm getting super excited about almost finishing this. Haha. And today ended up being a rest day, so I didn't have to wake up to do any squats. Tomorrow, however, I have to do 175. And really that's technically over 200 because of the double squatting! LOL! And I really prefer just to do them in the morning and my yoga, simply so they are out of the way. I had waiting on Monday to do them when we got back from the beach and it was almost 10 at night before I finished with everything. Geesh. I'm not planning on doing that again. Done, out of the way and showered. That's how I prefer to do them!

I think I'm getting antsy about not weighing in however. I reallly wanted to weigh in this morning, and that's kind of weird. Haha. I guess cheating at the beach was a bad thing. Although with the way I've been eating, I don't really want to know the last couple of days. But then again, I kind of do.

I went shopping for some shirts yesterday and came home empty handed. I didn't want to spend the money if I wasn't completely in love with the shirt. Which I suppose is good for me? I mean yeah, I'm trying to watch my money, but it's so dang hot right now, that I am looking for some more tanks and I'm not finding them. And I fall back into the mentality of 'but I am going to lose weight and I won't even be using this shirt next year.' So I walked away. I wasn't entirely happy with the shirts that I could have gotten and I didn't want to go up any bigger in size. I ended up getting some bras that were the same size even though I should have gone up a band size, but they didn't have any. So um any waist whittling exercises that work quickly anyone? Haha. 

I'm thinking for August that I'm going to come up with my own challenge. I really liked the idea of having a workout set up and just doing it. And that the squat thing was so simple. So I'm gonna go explore pinterest a bit and see if I can come up with something to do. Something that incorporates more working out, and not just squats ;) Although I am surprised that I don't actually mind them. Of course the ones with the kicks I kind of mind haha. But only cause I have to do more. And I will see what comes of 200 squats every time would do. I mean it takes me about 20 minutes to do them without an additional workout. Oy. I can see how people easily can do 2 hour workouts LOL. I just have to find a way to do it and do it in the heat. Maybe I will have to do an am/pm kind of thing. I will have to see.

So I guess I'm off to figure something out :0)

Wednesday Weigh in week 82/30 day Squat challenge week 3

I realized that when I was heading to vacation that I hadn't posted my Wednesday weigh in post AGAIN last week. This no scale thing is throwing me off. Starting to feel like a broken record. Still need to reign in the eating, but still doing the challenge ;)

30 day squat challenge is going surprisingly well! I have finished them every day! The most I have done a day is 150. Tomorrow will be 160. And to think next Tuesday will be 200! I'm almost done with the challenge and that's kind of what excites me the most. Starting it and FINISHING it! And to say that I've done 200 squats today would be something else too ;) I have noticed that my knees are feeling better. Especially going up and down stairs. I even did my squats while we were on vacation. Ok. Nothing like hiding out from 21 of your closest family members and working out ;) Plus we did a lot of walking while we were there. So I felt pretty good. And I think with doing the challenge that I was able to walk better. My knees and my legs weren't bothering me as much. And let me tell you, there were a lot of hills/stairs in this town.

I did some crazy things this week. Haha. One of them was that we went on a whale watching adventure while we were there. Now I've gone to this town so many times and I don't think I've ever gone out on the boat before. So we paid our money, got on the boat and away we went. We were told up front was the best place so obviously my friend and I went there ;) Well for an hour it was all fun. We actually saw a whale several times! And had the coolest tour guide. Well he told us that when we turned around that we up front were going to get pretty wet. Most everyone left and went to the back. Do you think we went back. Uh no. My friend and I got COMPLETELY drenched. I'm talking head to toe soaked. We screamed and laughed the whole way back. And then felt like I had gained 10 pounds because of my jeans being soaked. Needless to say we had to go back to the house to change before we went out and did anything else :0)

And then we ended up at Ripley's Believe it or not. Where believe it or not, I cheated on my no scale summer. Yeah. I'm just gonna go ahead and admit it. I could have covered the part where it said what I weighed on the earth. But I glanced over. Needless to say I weigh 90 pounds on the moon and about 12 pounds on Pluto. Which doesn't even count because it's not a planet anymore. But whatever. I do have to say I was a little disappointed. You know how you automatically start justifying in your head. Well I have to take off 2 pounds just for clothes and oh jeez, this is a heavy sweatshirt because it's only 60 degrees here and blah blah blah. And it was in the middle of the day and yada yada yada. So so far I haven't gone down a whole lot. BUT the number was lower than the last time I weighed in. So that's at least a bonus!

Needless to say, we just got back from vacation a few hours ago, and I'm not ready to go back to the real world. But I have to. I have to say I have a little fear about posting my pictures on my blog. I need to figure out a little watermark thing before I'm gonna do that, but I do want to post some soon. Goals goals goals :0)

Wednesday weigh in Week 81/30 day squat challenge week 2

Wow, I think I almost fell off the face of the earth ;)

Wednesday was super busy and I just ended up not being able to post, as well as thursday and friday, and well you get the point ;)

Still not up to par with my food. But not necessarily completely over doing it? I still don't "feel" like I look like I have lost weight however. Which is a little discouraging. But I really just need to really get into gear besides the challenge and get some workouts done.

That being said!! I finished week 2 of the 30 day squat challenge. Wow. Today I did 125 squats. And yes by the end of them, I was not squatting down all the way! Haha. But so far my legs feel good. I'm really attributing this to the yoga stretches I do afterwards. There are days that my knee feels swollen from what I am doing, but after those first 3 days of doing the squats I have yet to be sore. Which I'm surely pleased about! I mean let's be honest. Who wants to be sore after a workout? Haha

The challenge this week is going to be getting my squats in while I'm on vacation. Yes. The Beach is calling my name. Along with 20 other members of my family ;) In one house. I mean let's just all be crazy together! You agree? Sweet! We are going to be there for 4 nights. So I have 2-3 days of doing my squats while I am there. I will have one rest day. And I will probably do the one at home when we get home that last day. So really I guess that only leaves 2 days. Which I'm sure is do able. I mean what's doing 140 and 150 squats in front of your family like? Now I just have to figure out if I want to actually take my yoga mat down there, or just do my stretches on the floor ;)

But for now, my happy place is calling my name. I know because I've already started packing. And that my dear friends is a miracle in and of itself!

30 day Squat Challenge

Oy. I think sometimes I'm a little bit on the loony side. Me? Take on a 30 day squat challenge? I. HATE. squats. As in like, generally refuse to do them. So naturally as I'm dinking around pinning things on Pinterest I came across this challenge: 30 Day Squat Challenge

The thing I liked about this thing is you aren't doing the basic squat 200 times. I mean how boring is that? I like that it's 5 different kinds of squats that you do in a rotation and work your way up to 200. Ahem. I mean over 200. Because naturally you will see in 2 of those squats you add a back kick and a side kick and you have to do 2 squats to equal one rep. Sneaky little FitSugar ;) AND the fact that you have a rest day every 4th day. So you do squats for 3 days and have a rest day. Nice.

So yesterday was Day One. I lined up my yoga mat and did my favorite 20 minute yoga stretching youtube video. Not gonna lie, it's the only yoga I do, then I watched FitSugar's instruction clip on how to do a squat correctly. Now honestly to me, this was the best instruction on how to do a squat that I have seen and it helped me greatly. I'm pretty sure that if I do a squat like that every time I'm not going to hurt myself :) You can watch it in the clip on the challenge page. It's in the basic squat section.

 And then I did my 30 squats for the day. Huffing and puffing, and not sure I did it right but decided that today I'm gonna need water. Haha. And I'm not really setting a time limit on anything. It's not like I am trying to hurry these. So if it takes me an hour, it takes me an hour. The point is to do it.

So why would I take on a challenge to do something I hate? Good Question! I have no idea. Well I suppose I have a little idea. I wanted a challenge so I could complete something. And now I'm smacking my head and my poor thighs for picking this one. But I need to get myself back on track with working out and I thought a challenge would be an excellent way to do that. And I can do this pretty much anywhere. And since I am going out of town twice in July I don't have to pack anything up to take with me. (Well except for my yoga mat, I think I'm gonna take that!) And by the end of it hopefully my knees and ankles will be a bit stronger and can handle more walking or running. That's really what I was looking for, something to strengthen my knees and ankles. And then I realized today that duh, July has 31 days in it. So by the end of the month I will be ecstatically done!!

And by then maybe I will have a nice little strength training routine come up with and I will continue to do squats on a regular basis. Maybe not 200 a day? Or every other day or whatever? But who knows? Maybe I will come up with a crazy LOVE for squats.

Other than that, I am still trying to reign it in. My no scale summer is a slow go. No I still haven't weighed myself but I haven't been 100% on track either. Last weekend was a busy full of coffee weekend, and no it wasn't soy. So by Sunday morning my heart literally hurt from all the caffeine I had. Because in any of that did I mention the word decaf at all? Nope. And I have learned my lesson once again and the word decaf will roll off of my tongue once again when I order coffee.  And I am going to take July to also ween myself off of dairy and gluten once again. If I can't go completely gluten free I will at least go mostly gluten free. At least 2 meals a day. But the goal is to go completely free by the time I am back to school. It just means a lot of separate cooking.

And I have heard the best way to get rid of stiff sore muscles is to go and workout again. :0) So that's the plan. Gonna hit day two of challenge here shortly. 50 squats, here I come!

What's your favorite challenge that you have done? Exercise or food wise? I wanna know!

Wednesday Weigh in Week 67

Wow. 67 weeks. I feel like I have been doing a really great job maintaining...a place where I don't want to be. Haha. But. I plow on. Because I never know when the day that the A-ha moment will happen and it will click and fall into place. I don't think it was today, but yesterday was a beginning. :)

I finally met up with a friend and had her show me how she thinks I should be doing that two week plan that I mentioned the other day. Because in all honesty having someone else watch your form really helps you figure out how to do it. Plus I knew that I was doing some of them wrong, and that's probably what helped me hurt my back a couple of weeks ago. So basically. I round my back instead of keeping it straight. And I need to draw my shoulders back :) And there were a couple exercises we modified due to my knee. But I will get that thing strengthened darn it and get over my fear of hurting it again while doing squats or lunges. But a lot of that comes with losing weight so I don't have as much pressure on it :( See it all works together.

And I was using 5 to 10 pound weights at her house and let me tell you. I am sore today! But in a good way! I spent part of today looking around for 5 pound weights. I have 2, 3, and 10 pounds. And I think right now I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and use the 10's. I might have to not do as many reps, but I will build up to it :) I might hit up Goodwill tomorrow and see if they have any, but I'm probably not going to look much farther than that. If I can only do 3 with good form, than I'm only going to do 3, but that's 3 more than I have been doing.

I got my (second) pair of shoes for the wedding that I'm going to, and I think these ones might work! They pull a little bit when I walk but I don't think I'm going to be doing too much walking in them. And I might have to see about trying to get them to stay on my ankle more. But they fit. And they will look cute with the dress! This whole formal thing got me this time. This is a pretty nice outfit LOL!.

Wednesday Weigh in Week 66

Well the good news is my back isn't hurting anymore. After some prayer and a really good friend massaging my back for me, I'm feeling pretty good! She got several knots out of my back. I'm seriously blaming the 38 squats in one minute game I played. But I'm going to be really careful to start working on my lower back and getting my core strengthened.

Bad news: I ate 3 boxes of girl scout cookies. Well Ok. I gave the last sleeve to a friend. But I consumed way more shortbread in the last what? week and a half? Then I have all year. Good news? They are all gone :0)

Good news. I lost almost a pound. I'm pretty sure I peed it out yesterday when I spent the majority of the day in the bathroom. TMI I know. Just keeping it real.

Bad news: 2 week plan fell apart when back got hurt. Haven't really gotten back into it. I did take full advantage of the lovely weather we've been having and went for a 2 mile walk with my 9 year old brother. 2 miles in 50 minutes. Not my best time of course, but I had a small squirrely child with me. We stopped. Several times. So I haven't really kick started my routine back yet. And I need to get back on it. So much for the 12 pounds I was gonna lose ;) But it will happen!

Great news: It's almost spring break! 10 more hours of work and I'm on to a full week off!

Back troubles...

And 4 days into to my two week workout challenge....

I am sitting here with an ice pack on my back. This morning as I leaned in to get something out of the freezer and tried to stand up. Well I couldn't stand up. My back locked up and has been in pain since. I can't sit, I can hobble at most, and I can stand but it's uncomfortable. I hate how this seems to happen when I get serious about working out. I'm wondering if it's BECAUSE of some of the strength training workouts that I have just started doing. Maybe I'm doing them wrong? Or maybe it was the 38 "squats" I did in a minute yesterday at a work training that we were pretending to be like kids and see how long a minute was? We were sitting down and standing up from our chairs. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that was a squat. At any rate. I'm injured. 3 workouts and 4 days into my plan.

This wasn't my plan.I was telling my co-worker the whole list of things that I had to do today. the bank, the store, the post office, and the ups store. Not to mention the things I have to do the rest of the weekend.

Rest just wasn't in my plan. But maybe that's God's funny little way of telling me it is in my plans. I guess some of the other things will have to wait. Someone else might have to go after the bread. The ups and post office will have to wait until Monday. Unless I'm feeling amazingly better tomorrow.

Maybe it's time for that book...maybe it's time for that sermon...maybe it's time to rest...

Wednesday weigh in week 65

It's funny how a week goes by so so quicky! Happy first day of spring :0)

I've done two days of my two week little workout thing and let me tell you. Whatever 5 strength training things I did yesterday made me sore :0) So that was a good thing! Lol..but its Wednesday and I came home from work late and I have somewhere to be and already am trying to talk myself out of working out. Haha..So I think I am going to leave worship practice a little early so I can come home and get it done. And take a benadryl and go to bed. The wind is driving me absolutely crazy. And it made my ear hurt today. So yeah. Workouts are getting done, food choices could be better. But that lovely time of the month is approaching. ;)

So here I was thinking I had lost weight this week when in reality I gained it. See Sentence above previous sentence ;) But I have lost about half a pound since Monday when I started "being good" again. So THAT's good! But I hadn't realized I had actually gained almost two pounds until I looked at my weight from last week. Oh well. It just fluctuates so much it's crazy. But I am looking forward to jumpstarting getting back working out. And I haven't had dairy for the last 3 days so that's an improvement. I have been eating bread simply because I don't really know what else to have for breakfast right now. But for the most part I have backed off. And I haven't had coffee since Sunday! Oh boy. I'm gonna be breaking out the Excederine tomorrow I think! I do have a slight headache right now. But that could be due to a lot of things.

Ugh. The wind! Welcome to spring in the Tri-Cities!

Two weeks

Oh boy, I tell you what! Nothing screams extra motivation like realizing that the wedding you are going to next month is um, FORMAL! So that means I have 6 weeks. 6 weeks to lose weight before the wedding. I mean, I'm really glad I figured this out now so I have a better idea of what to wear, it just makes the entire process a little harder now trying to find a formal outfit and shoes.

Shoes. hate. me.

Literally.

I have super wide feet. I have to buy EE shoes. Do you know how hard it is to find those that actually look good on your feet? Oh and that don't cost a fortune? So I got on Zappos and found this super cute pair of shoes, and they were EE so I bought them on Saturday. I have no idea how but they got here today and they look HORRIBLE on my feet. Too long in the front but too tight on the side and squished my toes up where there would just be no way I could walk in them. Plus they looked so bad. I knew it the minute I tried them on. Luckily zappos has amazing customer service and I will be able to send them back free and try to get some new ones ordered. Thanks Zappos.

But the whole wedding thing led me to actually start this two week workout thing I found on Pinterest. It's basically 30 minutes of walking a day with 5 strength training moves. And some super lucky people lost up to 12 pounds and 22 inches doing this with a 1600 calorie a day diet. Now I haven't actually tried to count calories in a while. With not being able to eat all the foods that I am allergic to it kind of became why bother. I didn't want to know how little calories I was eating. So I don't think that's really a problem. But I should start to try to track again just so I know, but it's just complicated.

So at any rate I did my first day of the 2 week workout tonight. I finally got started right at 7:00. I procrastinated long enough. It took me right about 45 minutes and then I did my 20 minute stretching yoga video afterwards. I am really anxious to see what it does! I had mom measure me and I weighed myself this morning, so we will see what the next two weeks brings. I'm sure it will be full of me doing these workouts the wrong way. But they way I see it, if I'm doing something it's better than nothing at all right? Looking at a sheet of paper and trying to do the workout is so hard for me. I'm sure I got part of the movements right..but the other ones I might just be doomed with.

But it's a start.

I can tell you one of the things I absolutely want most with my weight loss is for my feet to shrink. I want me feet to be back at a normal size. I long and pray for the day when I don't have to buy my shoes online and pray they fit. I long to be able to walk into a store and try a pair of shoes on. Even if they were a normal "wide" width, I think I would be happy. They at least carry those in the store. I mean I can go buy running shoes from the runner's store, but I would love to be able to go try a pair of shoes on and have them fit! That is definitely one of my huge weight loss goals.

But for now...me and zappos are friends ;0)

Wednesday Weigh in Week 44

My oh my. Are we getting closer to the end of the year or what? My calendar tells me I only have 10 more weigh ins to go until the end of the year. My new goal is simple. To be under 200 pounds by then. I mean as long as I can manage 2 pounds a week I am basically there. If I have two 3 pound weeks I am golden :) This is where my last minute-ness starts to kick in and tell me to get moving. But I am moving :)

See? I manged to lose another pound :) I really don't know how? I'm thinking the apple cider vinegar pills might be helping. But at any rate! I'm taking it. So I have 23 pounds to go before the end of the year. That's a good mini goal.

I'm pretty sure when I came up with this Bloomsday goal that I wasn't thinking I would get sick right away. But here I am still sick :( I stayed home from work again today since I woke up hacking up my lung :( Needless to say the couch and my bed have been my friend today. As well as my neti pot. I think this sickness is the first time that I've actually seen liquid snot coming out of my nose. I mean it's quite amazing! TMI I know. But I'm certain it has helped me avoid a full on sinus infection. I don't quite know what's up with this cough. But it's gonna have to go!

Yesterday I started my Couch to 5k over. I was so sure I was going to be running in full on rain but by the time school ended it had cleared up a bit. It was still cold!! But rain clouds on one side of me and sunshine on the other. I had some sprinkles going on but I finished Day one! I surprisingly don't feel as out of shape as I was expecting to be. I think I'm gonna pick up pretty easily on it again. And hopefully fall into a good rhythm. I am however going to have to seriously be looking at ways to strengthen my knee. I never did do a good job at my physical therapy after my surgery when I tore my ACL/Meniscus. I don't have my full range of motion back. I don't know if it's possible. But I want to try. I need to feel like I can trust my knee and not think it's going to give out on me at any given time during my run. Any suggestions would be welcomed :0)

Today I cheated just a little in my workout. I know 3 days in and I think I'm cheating. I totally counted walking around Walmart doing my grocery shopping as my cardio for the day. But hey. I'm sick. And that was an outing! I walked around the store for almost an hour and had to put things in and take things out of the cart and car. Good grief! And then I did an arm workout video that I found on Sparkpeople's youtube page. I like that I can find a short (9 minutes!) video to watch to help me start toning up my arms. I'm not very consistent at strength training like I should. But that is one of the goals for this training plan is to add in strength. And it will probably increase as I go. I am actually weirdly looking forward to doing some yoga as one of my training days. I think it's going to help me gain some flexibility and take away some stress. And I know I'm not going to be able to do everything right away, but it will increase. And I'm only going to be doing it once a week anyway. So I am gonna start with a 20 minute thing I found on youtube. I'm impressed that Youtube has all these videos! Haha..it makes it easier to try things before purchasing them for sure!

But I have worked out for 3 days in a row! And that is helping me get back into the routine of things!!

Bloomsday Training week 1

Hmm. I wish I knew a whole lot more about blogs and I could creatively show you my new training plan for Bloomsday next year.

See I was chatting with a friend. And we were talking about a local 5k that was coming up next month, and did we want to train for it and do it. Well right now the cost of races really stops me from doing anything. I'm just broke. constantly. Ok? And we jokingly were talking about the 12k race that we have done before(Bloomsday), and saving our money for entering that one. It's pretty much a 7.46 miles fun run with a t-shirt. It kinda blows my mind sometimes to think that I have done it 4 times. What can I say besides I'm a glutton for punishment? I mean it literally takes about 2.5 hours for us to WALK it. And that's not including potty breaks.

But back to the story. I was saying that we pretty much had 30 weeks(when we were talking about it) to train for it. And well yeah, that's over half a year away. I was all gung-ho and she was hesitant. I talked about how we could start our C25K training over and then we could even train for a half marathon and then only doing 7.46 miles of that would seem like a snap! See? I can be really convincing :0)

She told me I was crazy.

I told her she could do it. And she doesn't give herself enough credit. And we could have a friend come up with a plan for us.

Ok. Let's try.

All the while I didn't know she was having this internal battle about the whole process. See she and I are very much alike. This whole year I've been trying to Finish what I start. I can do the race. Heck I've done it 4 years. But it's the whole training, and figuring out a plan, and actually sticking to it for the next 28 weeks that we can never seem to accomplish. We talk the talk, but we don't walk the walk. And so this time around it's the training and finishing the training that's going to seem like more of a success then actually finishing the race.

So I emailed a friend, and she came up with a 10 week plan for us, that was 10 weeks out from the race. So I ended up making a 28 week one to finish off getting us to that 10 week part. Starting over with C25k training and keeping up the momentum. We recruited another friend to join us, and another one following the plan in a another state and we have a plan!

So now it's game day! And of course. I'm sick. I mean it never fails does it? I come up with this amazing plan, and then I go and get sick. But since it's not in my chest yet, I still plan on doing a Walk away the pounds video here in a little while just to get me started. Man. I always say video. I started doing these when they were videos :-) Now they are DVD's but I will forever be calling them videos!

In essence the plan is to cross train and strength train on Mondays/Wednesdays; C25K (and eventually run) on Tuesdays/Thursdays/Saturdays; Stretching on Sundays; and have a complete rest day on Fridays. And then after the C25k training is done, we are going to incorporate hills on Thursdays because there is a lot of hills in this race. I thought this was genius thinking to do it the day before a complete rest day :0)

So here is a picture of the plan! It looks daunting. And yes. I did thumb tack it to my door so my entire family could see what I'm going to be doing for the next 28 weeks. I plan on highlighting or crossing off the days I have done to see what I do. I'm kind of excited!

28 weeks to go!

Wednesday Weigh in Week 26

Ok. So I amazingly pulled that one out of my hat? 4.4 pounds lost last week. I started back on my gluten free/sugar free/yeast free diet. I have kept mainly cheese in my diet just because I need some protein in my life. I went back to watching calories and I exercised every day....until Thursday.

Wednesday I did this new workout video that we have. Kettlebell training with Bob Harper. It was a half hour and you basically do squats moving the kettlebell around. I made it through--(I HATE squats). And the next day felt like I couldn't move. So I made it through Thursday. I went for a walk/run when my mom got home from work to try to loosen up. It kind of made me hurt more. I then proceeded to not work out Fri/Sat/Sun. I was getting ready to work out on Monday when I had this intense pain in my back. Like I was locked up, I could barely walk or sit and I didn't know if I was going to be able to take the boys to swim lessons. I spent most of Monday icing my back. Yesterday I felt a little better, and currently the ice pack is back on my lower back as I type.

I obviously need to work on strengthening my lower back. If I sit for too long it starts hurting. And since I need to be working out, I am gonna keep it low key for a while and stick to the Airofit and going for walks at night I think. Unless I can find some good back strengthening things I can do.

This is one of those things that would normally cause me to throw my hands up in the air and say I'm done. But I can't be! I'm halfway through the year, and nowhere near where I wanted to be. I spent 3 months cheating, and now I'm playing catch up. Week 1 of catch was great :0) Until I hurt my back :( Now I have to keep going.

I finally got an appointment made with a local doctor to figure out if I have food allergies/gluten allergies/candida. Well ok. I called yesterday and got bloodwork scheduled. But they are calling me back today to schedule the appointment. With just the perfect timing, it's hopefully going to be the day before I get my wisdom teeth out. Oh. Joy. This is going to be quite the summer. I just decided I needed to actually find out before I go still doing all of this on my own whether it's even a problem or not. So. That's my plan. I hate getting my blood drawn though :( So I'm not looking forward to that part of it.

4.4 pounds :0) That was a good week!

Finished what I started.

Major accomplishment today!! I finished my C25K program!!!

I am insanely proud of myself right now. I started this 8 weeks ago with the intention of finishing it in 8 weeks. And I did! I even made up one run this week. So I technically did 4 runs this week. But I didn't stop, I didn't quit, and I didn't make any excuses to quit or skip ahead. Scratch one thing of my list of things to do :) I loved pushing my body and seeing how far it would go, and finding out how strong I actually am :)

I figured out that my mapmyrun app drives me crazy! LOL. I need to fiddle with the settings again because this time I somehow had it set to tell me every 30 seconds all my stats. I was afraid to mess with it during my run because I didn't want it to stop recording my workout. So once again I dealt with it. I hope it's not something I have to set every time that I want to run. That will get old. I want to set it so that it comes on every 5 minutes. That way I know a good starting time after I warm up and a good cool down point after I stop running.

One of my friends immediately suggested I start training for a 10k now that my 5k training is done. I thought about it for a few minutes. But I really want to get a solid 5k done for several times before I start training for a 10k. Right now with warm up, run, cool down I am getting right at 2.35 miles. That's a 40 minute workout. I am going to do a couple of 30 minutes runs this week and then maybe on Saturday try to run a 5k and see how long it takes me. Last week doing the 12 minute runs 3 times I was able to finish 3 miles in about 53 minutes. But I also had some walking in there. I am very interested in seeing if I can push myself to run the majority of a 5k with a warm up/cool down. The part of park path that I run on to do 3 miles has this amazingly wonderful (*sarcasm*)hill that I have to run down/up. It's pretty killer for me. And I usually looked forward to walking shortly after I made it back up the hill. If I ran a 17 minute mile I am still looking at 51 minutes for 3 miles. I think my next goal would be to try to get a 5k in under 50 minutes. And then under 45 minutes. And then I think when I got to a 40-45 minute 5k that I would want to start training for a 10k. I am in no hurry really to train for things. I am enjoying taking it slow. I haven't had any injuries in doing it this way, and I am looking forward to that staying true for all of my running :)

I think the next thing I want to focus on is getting some strength training in. I did a really good job disciplining myself getting 3 runs in a week. Now I need to work on the other end of it. And do a good job getting disciplined at 2-3 days of cross-training on the bike and getting a good strength training going. All while keeping up my 3 running days too. We are on the downward end of school here, I would like to be at a really great routine by summer to keep it going while school is out. I know when winter hits that I probably won't be running outside as much so I want to be able to keep up working out and just having it be part of my routine.  My initial thought is getting one day of arms and one day of legs and then one day of both maybe? I suppose that one day of just a biking cardio is a different move than the running? I don't know. I will sit and figure it out soon. I've managed to lose 20 without toning, but if I don't start doing it now, I am just going to have lose skin. And that is something that I don't really want right now.

I am feeling very rambly right now! So I think at this point I better stop for the night or I am not going to make any sense here soon ;)