Changing my goal

My lunchtime gym (Anytime Fitness) has Life Fitness brand cardio equipment. The cool things about these is that in addition to broadcasting television, they also have videos of scenery through various national and state parks (the picture below gives you an idea). You select the difficulty, but the incline changes based on the terrain of the course you've selected.

When I first started going to the gym, my goal was to do 15 minutes. Then 20. And I've gradually ramped it up until I've been doing 30 minutes, targeting a minimum speed of 4 mph, covering 2 miles, and burning 200 calories (yes, I know the counts aren't accurate, it's just a target). That's gotten pretty easy.

For me, the purpose of even doing the elliptical is to help improve my cardio fitness (which my swing workouts do as well). So yesterday I set a new goal: speed of 5 mph, covering 2.5 miles, burning 250 calories. Previously, I was able to easily achieve my goal - usually with minutes to spare. Today my workout ran over a couple of minutes in order to hit those targets and get cooled down.

I do enjoy walking outside when the weather permits, but using the elliptical is a good way that I can quantify my targets and progress. There's enough variety in the courses, plus the machines face the windows, so that helps stave off boredom. Sure, there are times I do get bored, but not as often as you would think!

We also went to the kettlebell gym last night for a good workout. The a quick bite of dinner and by the time we got home we were both pooped!

Today I am Taking it easy - I have my swim lesson at 5, but other than that I am resting today. I've been pushing hard this week.

Take care!

Unexpected

I like structure, I like plans, I like knowing what to expect. But life doesn't always work that way!! Last night I was maybe 5 minutes from home when Jan (ex-MIL) called. She was at W-M over in Kernersville and her car battery was dead. When I got home, dinner wasn't even started because T had forgotten that he had his annual physical THEN it took forever to get a prescription filled. I used the bathroom then we jumped in the car and headed back out.

On the way we ran through the Wendy's drive through where I got a cheeseburger (without the mayo so I'm guessing a little over 500 calories), ate a couple of T's fries, and had a diet coke. We then went and jumped her car, followed her home to make sure she got there, and then T pointed out that even though there was no light bulb, her dome light was on and drawing power, which is what killed her battery. So he turned that off and then we headed home.

He prepared the fish we'd thawed for dinner (we'll eat it for lunches) while I took a shower, then we had just enough time for an episode of "Westworld" before bed. I wasn't really hungry but I wanted something crunchy, so I put 4 pork rinds in a bowl. I had 3.5 and gave a bite to the dog. LOL My dinner wasn't nearly as satisfying as what I would have eaten at home and it wasn't the "best" choice, but I didn't go overboard on calories but ate something that felt a bit comforting. And I don't eat hamburgers very often so while it wasn't the best around, it was a nice treat.

Yesterday I went to the gym at lunch and did 30 minutes of kettlebell swings followed by 20 minutes on the elliptical. I'll do 30 on the elliptical at lunch today and then after work we are meeting up at the kettlebell gym for a good workout. Dinner tonight is at a local chain called "Clean Eatz". So it will be a nice meal out while getting a really healthy meal. Win!

Have a good day, and remember "Semper Gumby" (always flexible! LOL)

All new low

As I said yesterday, these small tweaks seem to be making a difference - today I saw a new number: 167.2! I went back on my calendar to see the last time I recorded a weight this low. On 16 October 2009 I weighed 166.6 and then bounced back up. So it's been nearly a decade.

It is so weird. On the one hand, I've lost nearly 55 pounds and I feel a tremendous difference! But I can't believe I've lost that much weight because I find it hard to believe I reached a point where I had that much weight to lose! It is really strange and I don't know how to explain that disconnect, except it's there.

Anyway, yesterday I did 25 minutes on the elliptical and never did my kettlebell workout, so I am doing it today. I was really tired from the weekend last night, so I just took it easy and went to bed early. It was lovely if slightly boring. Sometimes I like boring. :-)

Take care.

Seems to be working

Operation snack reduction seems to be working. The scale is still wobbling, but it's wobbling on a downward trajectory, so I'll take it!

My next plan is to move to a lower fat plan. Nothing super radical, but just some small tweaks. for example, last night we had steak and we might have made creamed spinach to go with it, but we made sauteed spinach instead. Breakfast this week is made with roasted boneless, skinless chicken breast as opposed to something made with lean ground turkey.

My intention is to still watch the snacks. Since we ended up eating dinner later several evenings, it was easy to cut out the evening snack most nights. Mornings have varied - one day I was super hungry so I had a snack but then ate lunch later and had a smaller afternoon snack. In short, I'm trying to go by my hunger signals rather than the clock, and so far it seems to be making a difference. The reality is I have probably lost enough weight that I do need to scale back on my calories a bit.

We had a really nice weekend. I did a few things around the house and T cleaned out his chest of drawers - resulting in a massive pile of clothes to donate! Yay!

Yesterday after church we stayed and helped make lunch - our church is part of the Second Harvest food bank network, offering a food pantry on Saturdays and a free lunch on Sundays. We enjoyed it, but it meant not getting home until 2:30. So it's a serious chunk out of the weekend. But it felt good to do it.

I hope you have a good week!

S-L-O-W

Well the scale is moving downward, albeit slowly and with some fits and starts. Cutting back on snacks has been a bit of a challenge, but not impossible.

Last night I had a swim lesson. Yes, I do know how to swim but I wanted some help on my strokes. Since I can buy lessons individually at the Y, I signed up for 2 just to improve my strokes and hopefully get me back in the groove of going to the pool. T rode with me and worked out while I was in the pool, so that was nice.

Not much going on this weekend, which will be good since next weekend is a trip to Georgia.

Have a good weekend!

Meat Salad

Good morning. This is my breakfast this week. I jokingly call it "meat salad". Lol

I used Rachel Ray's faux gyro meat recipe (subbing ground turkey) and turned it into burgers. I heated & chopped it up and added it to basically the stuff you would get on a gyro (cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, tsaziki sauce). It is a gyro without the pita. The recipe calls for feta so you've got some good fats from the feta and the greek yogurt, plenty of veg, and lean protein. The veggies hold up well under the sauce so I can prep all of that in advance, which makes getting out of the house in the morning easier. Definitely my kind of breakfast!

Yesterday I went into the disaster that is my guest room and left with a huge pile of clothes to donate. The closet was pretty bare when I finished. I had 2 tubs with clothes that fit (but needed washing) and clothes that don't quite fit yet. The tub with "not yets" is in the closet and the clothes that fit are washed and put away. That was a HUGE accomplishment.

Last night was the group class at the kettlebell gym. This was the workout:

I did all the moves but I did not finish 5 rounds. But we have to start somewhere and showing up is a good place to start!

Yesterday I had my usual couple of cups of coffee and meat salad for breakfast. Lunch was leftovers (sirloin tips with peppers, onions, & mushrooms over brown rice) and dinner was a burger on one slice of sprouted grain bread with roasted vegetables. I had 2 deviled egg halves prior to working out and after supper I was wanting something sweet so I had a few bites of yogurt and a couple of nuts. We had dinner late since it was after we got home from the gym, so evening snack was very small - just those couple of bites to satisfy that sweet tooth. So a second day of snack reduction. I am definitely hungrier when I sit down for a meal, but not miserably so.

Something seems to be helping - the scale is beginning to move down. We'll see what happens when I record my weight at the end of the week.

Have a good day!

Changes

We've been working with a personal trainer at the kettlebell gym for 10 weeks and he did before and after measurements. Even though I haven't lost much weight, my measurements changed significantly - including over 2 inches lost on my waist and hips!. So obviously things are changing even if the scale is not.

I am eliminating my AM snack to try and shake things up a bit. I can tell you by lunch I've been seriously hungry! LOL

We have signed up to do small group training once a week at the kettlebell gym - cheaper than sessions with the trainer. So we'll give that a go and see how we like it. I just want to keep pushing my fitness level - I feel like it's starting to get to a good place.

Take care.

Holding steady

Sadly, I'm not holding steady at my goal weight, but I'm rocking 169.4. le sigh.

Still exercising, still tracking food.

I got nothing.

A recap

Good morning and happy Monday. LOL

Mom is doing fine. We think what happened was a combination of an undiagnosed UTI + dehydration (she was in the car & didn't drink a lot on the way up) + maybe something disagreeing with her at dinner (chicken or the egg?) = low bp. She fainted and couldn't sit up and we called 911. They got there quickly and rushed her to the little hospital in our town. They did some tests, but ultimately 3 IVs and some IV antibiotics and she was well enough to be released around 3:30 AM. (It's been a long time since I pulled an all nighter!!). I worked at home Thursday and we filled her antibiotic and she drank water and gatorade and is feeling much better. It was so scary, but I am thankful everything seems to be fine.

I'm doing okay. Weight seems to be holding steady right around 170, which is beyond frustrating! I am still tracking my food and exercising. It's cold as heck here - yuck. We made more progress in the den this weekend - arranging furniture & accessories and going through drawers etc. It feels good to be making progress - our vision is coming together!

Take care.

Back Monday

Crazy week - mom went to the emergency room Wednesday night. She's on the mend and fine, but the last couple of days have been wacko.

Take care, back Monday!

Perspective

"I didn't worry about 'how fast can I get there' and instead came to the conclusion to prioritize my health for the rest of my life. So each day was just an opportunity to be better". - Fahad, in an interview for the Nerd Fitness newsletter

So the scale was up a pound. I am bouncing a pound and a half above and below that 170 pound mark and seem stuck. I have to be honest and say that this morning my frustration level was through the roof. I'm trying to avoid knee jerk reactions "I'll just do protein shakes for one day!' and remember how far I've come and that there is no due date.

Right now my plan is to stay the course with tracking and exercise, continue to focus on real foods in the amount of 1700 calories per day. My annual physical is 4 weeks from tomorrow - if nothing has changed by then I will ask my doctor for a referral to a nutritionist.

Yesterday:

Take care.

Getting into the groove

It's funny how tracking your food seems to hard at first, but once you build a baseline it gets easier.

Here's yesterday:

You can click on the picture to get a larger version btw. I wasn't as hungry and I stayed within my target number.

The scale was down 2 pounds today, so I was back to the number I saw last Saturday? Sunday? - over a week ago in any case. It's frustrating and I'm not sure what's happening, but I really won't know if I don't record any data!

Saturday we worked at our church's food bank. Sunday we had icy conditions so we stayed home and worked around the house. We (finally) got Christmas taken down and put away. Last evening we worked a little bit more on getting the house cleaned back up (ran the Roomba, put more stuff away, cleaned bathrooms) and then watched the 1st episode of the 2nd season of "Glow" on Netflix. I'm really enjoying it. We have season 2 of "Westworld" but that felt a bit too intense.

Hitting the gym for weights at lunch since I did kettlebells on Sunday. Have a good day!

Ugh

Weight this AM: Up 1.4 pounds.

Food yesterday:

I got nothing.

Saturday food

Weight - 0.6

Saturday:

Observation: Two days in a row I was short in fiber even though I ate vegetables. I am adding in a serving of Metamucil stirred in my morning coffee and will try to incorporate more today.

Take care.

Tracking

Weight - no change.

Tracked yesterday, tracking today in Sparkpeople. I ended yesterday at 1800 calories. Over what I wanted but I was seriously super hungry and added half an avocado last night. I know where I'm starting from.

Today we volunteered at the food bank, went grocery shopping, checked out the Planet Fitness that just opened (for T, I plan to stay at the Y), and he went to go to the chiro and Costco. Then we are taking down Christmas (finally!).

Anyway, just wanted the accountability.

Take care.

Back to basics

Okay people, here is the result of my weekly weigh in for the past 5 weeks:

12/14   -0.4
12/21   -0.2
12/28   -0.0
01/04   -0.0
01/11   -0.4

So in 5 weeks I have lost 1 pound.  Yes, I could justify "But it was the holidays! Most people gain!" or I could simply acknowledge that I have continued to make tremendous progress without diligently tracking my food for quite a long stretch. But I don't know how much I eat a day. Oh, I have a general idea and since I cook at home nearly all my meals I have a good idea how much fat & salt are in them. I weigh my evening snack since things like nuts or pork rinds are very easy to underestimate. But no, I haven't been tracking. I'm going to start.

Beginning today, I'm going to record my food in Spark People. I've set a target for myself of 1700 calories per day. It feels like a number that should be enough but allow me to make progress. I will adjust as needed.

Today:

I was running late and bought breakfast. Sweet lordie check out the fat in that sandwich. Holy frijole! Well, it did have 2 slices of cheese. Also, eating out twice = not enough fiber!

Have a good weekend!!

We prioritize our priorities

I know that statement sounds redundant (or just plain stupid), but how many times have you found yourself telling someone (including yourself!) how important losing weight/ getting fit/ meditating/ doing yoga/ saving the whales/ is to you, BUT.... ?

If something is important to you, you will find the time or money or energy to participate, even if it's at a small scale. If you don't, then probably something that conflicts is MORE important. Maybe you always dreamed of starting your own business but you haven't and when you think about it, you realize that right now a stable income and benefits for your growing family is more important to you. Nothing wrong with that! Just don't tell yourself you can't - you can! But if something else is a higher priority, then figure that out instead of bashing your head against a wall. And then examine if it really is still more important or if you are just in a rut and old habits & patterns are holding you back.

I'm not saying that figuring this stuff out is easy, but if you spend the time on it, I guarantee whatever goal you are pursuing will be a much more straightforward process.

Wednesday was my work at home day. I got up and swam at the Y, I walked the dogs at lunch, and I did a short (20 minute) kettlebell workout in the afternoon. It feels so good to move my body throughout the day in small (20-30 minute) increments.

By the time I was halfway through prepping dinner I was pooped. I was also not feeling terrific and when I thought about it I realized I had seriously under eaten carbs! A few bites of oatmeal and a mini corn muffin and I felt so much better. Crazy. Anyway, I made the bi bim bap bowl and it was yummy but a bit much work for a weeknight dinner. Leftovers are my friend for the next few days - lunches are set. T is responsible for dinner tonight (yay)!

I am of two minds regarding where I am right now: the scale is still up a pound and seems "stuck" at the weight it's been for the past 3 weigh ins. So that is frustrating. OTOH, my clothes are fitting very differently, my food feels good, my exercise feels fantastic and in general I'm sleeping well and feeling great. Maybe my body is just doing some sort of other change/ adjustments and the weight loss will resume shortly? Maybe I'm over analyzing this? I dunno. Tomorrow is my "official" weigh in where I actually record the number, we'll see what happens!

Take care.

Science experiment and 15 (so far) in 19

Monday my weight popped up 2 pounds. Okay, we'd eaten lunch out and then had taco salad for dinner. I came down a pound yesterday then stayed the same today. Again, taco salad last night. The salt maybe? I dunno.  I've also been eating yogurt and a fair bit of beans. Since I am home today I decided to mix it up.

Today's food:

Protein shake pre exercise. (I swam at 6:30)
Breakfast: omelet with 2 eggs and a little sausage, cheese, and black olives.
Snack: 2 deviled egg halves made with avocado instead of mayo
Lunch: turkey meat loaf & salad
Snack: 2 deviled egg halves made with avocado instead of mayo
Dinner: bi bim bap bowl (Korean flavored ground meat & vegetables) with cauliflower rice
Snack: 100 calories of something

So watching both salt and carbs today. We'll see what happens.

I decided to make a "19 in 19" list of things I want to do thins year - not really goals per se, just things I'd like to finally "get around to." But I've had a hard time coming up with 19, so here is my list so far:

1. make tamales from scratch
2. take the dogs hiking
3. go snorkeling (done before, but its been a while!)
4. Do a 5K (ditto)
5. Make out our wills, POAs, etc. (we don't want our exes grieving in the Bahamas! LOL)
6. Register a new medieval name (don't really like the one I initially picked)
7. Do a pull up (been years)
8. Buy a new swimsuit
9. Teach a class at Pennsic (the medieval battle recreation we go to)
10. Use up my note cards (I want to send more actual real notes - not just email)
11. Cook a recipe from Vincent Price's cookbook. This is an awesome book - what haven't I done this?
12. Cook a recipe from the "City Tavern" cookbook. Ditto.
13. Host a cocktail party in our tiki theme den (when its done)!
14. Wear a dress (to the cocktail party?) note - must buy one first! Lol
15. Go white water rafting (T's been wanting to go back & I've never been).

So that's what I've got so far.

Take care.

Weekend

Our weekend was super busy!

Saturday we had a bunch of errands to run in 3 neighboring towns, so we spent a lot of time on the road. We listened to a Ben Greenfield podcast. He does a lot of stuff on health and wellness - I'm not normally a podcast person, but it was interesting! Anyway, if you are into podcasts I recommend it.

By the time we got home we were pooped, but thankfully got the grocery shopping done after dinner since Sunday was another busy one. I got up early to bake a birthday cake for my FIL (angel food), went to church, met the fam for a birthday celebration lunch at a local restaurant, then came home and knocked out a bunch of food prep. You know the weekend is busy when you set your alarm both mornings - 6:30 Saturday and 6 yesterday. Yikes!

Anyway, back at it again this week. I tried to set us up for success in the kitchen on Sunday because it's a busy couple of upcoming evenings. Monday is band practice and tonight we are planning to attend a meeting of the food ministry committee at church. We have similar but different religious backgrounds (T was going to Lutheran church and I grew up Episcopalian) and that plus moving to a new town for both of us meant we didn't have a church and with busy lives we tried a couple but nothing seemed to stick. Christmas Eve we went to church with my family down in Wilmington and T remarked that he intended to start going to church again because he really missed it. So we went this past weekend to the church we really liked and figured if we got involved in something right away that would help us commit to it. We'll see how that goes.

Scale is bouncing around (ugh) but I should show a loss this week. Exercise is good! We are having a respite from winter and I am taking advantage - yesterday I went for 2 short walks at work in addition to my kettlebell workout. Today I am going to the gym at lunch, plus walked this morning plus hopefully another short one after lunch as well. I donated blood yesterday so I didn't get to the gym at lunch. Food is fine. I made my chickpea greek salad for breakfast - the only problem is I get hungry earlier when I eat that, so I ended up having a mandarin orange plus 6 almonds to tide me over to morning snack. I need to either use it for a snack or make it larger. Which brings me to....

Food this week:

Breakfast: greek chickpea salad 
AM snack: greek yogurt
Lunch: leftovers (yesterday and today it's been lasagna soup) and a salad
Afternoon snack: mock chicken salad (yesterday and today. vegetarian, made with chickpeas) left over from last week - not planned since I already have a chickpea salad!
Dinner: Sunday was taco salad. Monday was meatloaf with mashed cauliflower and salad. Tinight is taco salad. Tomorrow is bi bim bap bowl with cauliflower rice.
Evening snack: maybe nuts, maybe pork rinds?

Okay, I think that's it for now! Take care.

Before and after (the floors)

Kitchen, with everything put back in it:

And the den, with nothing in it! (we're still working on the layout)

And here's the floors that were under the carpeting. Sadly, they were in too bad of condition to be saved, but the craftsmanship was amazing.

I hope you had a nice weekend and have a good day!

Take care!

The obstacle course of food

I was in line at the grocery yesterday behind a gal that worked there. She grabbed some candy while standing there and joked with the cashier about standing there too long and had to buy it. The cashier commiserated and said something about having to look at it all day, to which gal in line replied "I know. Have you seen all the junk food in front of the produce!" So today when I went to the grocery I actually looked, and it's true, they've created a veritable obstacle course of BOGO junk food in front of the produce. It's like a gauntlet you have to run in order to get to the bagged salad! Luckily most of that crap doesn't interest me in the least and I don't even notice it. Now those mandarin oranges on sale.....

My weight today was exactly what it was 2 Fridays ago. I would love to say I lost weight over the holidays, but I didn't gain. I lost a measly pound and a half for December, but the holidays are behind us and now its focus focus focus.

Have a good weekend!

Bye bye old underpants!

As you know, I've been going through the clothes in my guest room. I've donated the too big stuff and added new items into my wardrobe as I've gotten smaller. This has saved me a lot of money, and these are clothes I love enough to have hung on to - so I'm really enjoying wearing them!

One area that hadn't worked was underwear. I kept wearing the same ones for over 50 pounds. Seriously. On one recon mission in the guest room I found a dozen like new pair in 2 sizes down, but at that time they were still too small. Over Christmas I went shopping but wasn't able to find what I wanted in that in between size. After we got back home I thought "what the heck" and tried on the 2 sizes down. And you know they fit. Boom! A dozen new pair of underwear - for free! What a lovely Christmas surprise! Lol!

Yesterday was my kind of day. I got up and went to the Y to swim. Afterward I had a nice shower and used the sauna, then headed home to sign into work and enjoy breakfast and a second cup of coffee. After a productive morning I had homemade soup & salad for lunch then T and I took the dogs for a walk. A productive afternoon and then it was off to the kettlebell gym for a great workout with Brad. We came home to a yummy dinner in the crock pot. I gassed up my car, cleaned the kitchen and did some prep work, then we sat down to watch a little TV before going to bed. (T wasn't feeling great after the workout, so I told him to go soak in some epsom salt and I would clean the kitchen.) We took care of ourselves, enjoyed some time together, and I had a productive work day. Although I enjoy being in the office, that one day a week at home helps keep me sane!

Take care!

Reflection and resolutions

I am trying to take some time to sit down and reflect on what I accomplished in 2018 and what I want to achieve in 2019. These may be related to health, finance, hobbies, or whatever. Some I will talk about here and some not.

On the health front I have come so far I can't even believe it! Not just the weight loss (although losing 50+ pounds is pretty huge!), but making healthy eating, regular exercise, and quality sleep priorities in my life - especially the exercise. I'm exercising 5-7 days a week usually AT A GYM, doing weight training, and that doesn't count dog walks, work walks, beach walks, etc. I am rocking the exercise.

Obviously hitting goal weight is high up on my to do list for 2019, but also I want to do a pull up and start taking the dogs hiking.

I have also started putting together a "19 in 19" list of things I'd like to do this year. Some are health related (like that pull up) and others are just things I've wanted to do and haven't - like using up my note cards. I want to put more personal notes in the mail to people. I'll share the list once it's done, right now I'm up to 10 things I think.

Take care and happy new year!

Finish what you started

About halfway through 2018 I adopted the phrase "Get it over with" after reading a fantastic post with that title over at Runs for Cookies. Meaning: the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can stop worrying about getting it done!

If you are ever bored enough to read my archives, you'll see someone that lost just over 50 pounds and then proceeded to "diet" her way back up the scale and pick up some extra weight along the way. I worried about my weight for years, but due to other stressers in my life I wasn't prepared to deal with at the time, all I did was worry. Last year was the year I decided to stop trying and start doing. I knew I wouldn't get to my goal weight (and to be honest I'm not exactly sure what that number is), but I knew I could get pretty far and make significant improvements in my health.

This year my phrase is "finish what you started." It's a bit misleading - the reality is that there is no finish line in health & fitness, it's a journey of a lifetime! But what I do intend to finish is getting to goal weight. That number is probably somewhere between 140 and 150, which means I have somewhere around 20-30 pounds to lose. I lost over 50 last year, so losing half that seems pretty manageable!

I've laid a solid foundation of sleep, stress management, eating and exercise, and I've created a life where I feel comfortable addressing my feelings instead of eating them. I feel that I'm going into 2019 in a good place and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish this year!

More to come.

Take care.