Hello DOMS, my old friend

Oh yes, I am sore from yesterday's workout. It's been a while. :-)

Also, a good article on cultivating healthy habits I read yesterday. Some great tips!

Have a good day.

Tuesday

Chatted briefly with Elle - she & Brad are going to write out some details & suggestions for me. They are awesome. :-)  I did a good workout today and did some heavy lifting - some really good bench press. It felt terrific!

I wrote down last week in a book so I could give it to Elle, but I do (sometimes) track using SparkPeople, which will track my macros. So yeah, I will probably do that next week so I can see where they are.

I'm just glad to have some ideas for changing things up.

Take care.

Some possible changes

Good morning and happy Monday (Lol).

Meeting with Elle went well - she took my book home to review it with Brad (her husband, co owner and also a trainer), but things she tossed off the top of her head:

• At least 1 day lift heavier
• When I do weights at home, do snatches and not just my high volume swing workouts
• Add in an extra session or two of cardio (currently I do 3 sessions)
• Mix up my cardio more - add in the rowing machine
• Add protein - up my calories a bit

I like all of those ideas - any of them is easily doable. And yes Vickie, I agree about the macros. I will admit I don't really want to religiously count my macros, but I'm willing to build my food plan with them more in mind. At this point I'm willing to try everything she said.

To that end, today's session on the elliptical was HIIT, 23 minutes totoal, and I did a couple of sessions of going backward rather than forward. A small change but one Elle specifically mentioned since it works the muscles in a slightly different way. Anyway, wish me luck.

Take care and have a good week!

Yep, stuck

I am glad I am meeting with Elle tomorrow - my weight seems to be well and truly stuck. And I get HUNGRY when I go below 1600 or so, and I am not going to starve myself. I need to change the equation in a way other than "eat less".

It snowed here - roads are basically okay, just really pretty. AND COLD!!! :-)

Have a good weekend.

Snow!

It's supposed to start snowing this afternoon! I am at home again today for an appointment, and I'm glad since it is supposed to start snowing mid afternoon.

The house next door to us sold to an investor and is being fixed up. We are glad - the gentleman that lived there had reached a point where he couldn't take care of it (or himself we're pretty sure), so I see it as a win that he hopefully has better care and it will certainly help our property value. So yay!

My weight seems pretty well stuck between 145--147, so I am hoping I can get some good feedback from Elle.

Food so far today:
AM usual coffee & prunes (100)
Breakfast: grits with 1/2 T butter and a piece of sauteed tilapia (295)
Snack: muscle milk light (100)
Lunch: chickpea salad with extra vegetables and 1/4 c of quinoa (350)

Afternoon snack will be a boiled egg. Dinner tonight is a chicken soup recipe with sweet potato that sounds yummy.

Take care!

Still writing

Boy has the morning flown by.

I got up and went to the gym after I got T off to work. He still isn't feeling great, but a little better. Now my mom is sick as well. There's a lot of crap going around. I'm okay (knock on wood.)

I ate 3 oz of the corned beef last night, maybe 1/4 of the thousand Island and opted for baked tomatoes instead of a salad. I am working at home today so things are a bit different:

AM: 2 cups coffee with 2 T half and half, 2 prunes - 100 cal
breakfast: 1 egg, 1 oz turkey breakfast sausage, slice cheese on a slice of ancient grain bread - 280
lunch: Mediterranean tilapia quinoa bowl with okra - 335

snack: ??
Dinner: Shrimp and grits

Yesterday I didn't get in 10,000 steps and my calorie burn was lower - barely over what I ate according to the Fitbit. Hopefully I will be more active today. OTOH, I did HIIT at the gym yesterday so my calorie burn is questionable.

Take care!

Writing down all the things

Good morning. I'm on day 4 of writing down all the things. No lie, it's a bit of a hassle. Also, there is an incentive to not mindlessly nosh or take a bite if you have to write it down! And there's no point in NOT writing it down, because if I'm not honest I can't get good feedback.So yes, I have been dutifully logging - the good and not so good.

I got a lot of good quality sleep over the weekend which was a really nice change. I actually slept in a couple of mornings! I also spent A LOT of time trying to get caught up on housework. I finally put away the Christmas stuff that has been stacked on the back porch for forever. Yesterday was the warmest day of the weekend so I worked on the porch and took the dogs for a walk. I have to admit by the end of the weekend I was sick of cleaning and I just wanted to do something fun. T is sick - not the flu but a virus with very flu-like symptoms, so that stinks.

Also, I am hungry.

Here is food today:

AM: 2 cups coffee with 2 T half and half, 2 prunes - 100 cal
snack: 2/3 c greek yogurt, 70 g frozen mixed berries - 170
lunch: shrimp quinoa bowl - 325
dove dark chocolate (1) - 31
snack: 4 T hummus, baby carrots - 100
2 turkey sausage snack sticks - 90

That puts me at 1116 so far for the day.

Dinner:
extreme wellness wrap - 50
provolone - 80 per slice
corned beef - 45 per oz
thousand island 70 for half of what I made up
saurkraut
salad & dressing (70)

Not sure of how much of these things I will eat. The way I feel now the answer would be all of them and my husband's arm. LOL  I will report back.

Take care.

The beginnings of a plan

Okie dokie, took my measurements and had a LONG chat with Elle at the kettlebell gym. For the next week I am tracking all the things - exercise, food, fitbit steps etc. I am going to show my log to her next week and we are going to develop a plan. We will see how that goes. I could totally sign up for Nerd Fitness (and I might eventually), but right now I plan on taking advantage of the expertise I have already available.

If anyone is interested in me posting that log, let me know!

Next steps?

The last 10-ish pounds are feeling H-A-R-D, and I'm feeling stuck.  I've talked about counting macros, but I keep not doing it. I feel like I need help! I am seriously considering signing up for some one on one coaching through Nerd Fitness. While not cheap, I can afford it and I think it might give me some new direction, not to mention motivation and accountability - and a fresh perspective!

Hope you have a nice Valentine's Day (if that's something you celebrate), and a great weekend!

Crazy week

Sorry about disappearing - it's been a hectic week. I am adjusting to the new work area & office, although not happily. I've been feeling kinda tired - things aren't getting caught up as quickly around the house as I had hoped, but that's okay. Weirdly enough we have Monday off - I'm not going to complain!! Maybe I can catch up this weekend.

Take care.

Good weekend

Hope you had a nice weekend. I did, just not long enough! I did get darts put in my work pants - they are still a little loose, but the waist fits better in them now. they will do until capri season. :-)

Weather here is crazy. Tornadoes Thursday, snow Friday. Nuts.

I have had a slight cold - not terrible but enough that I don't feel like doing much. Hopefully I will get it kicked to the curb soon.

Have a good week!

The wrong side of the bounce

So last Thursday saw a large overnight drop in the scale, the weekend saw a large increase (and there wasn't any rhyme or reason), then a gradual slide until this morning's mysterious increase. UGH. My plan is to review the results of my hydrostatic testing with my trainer and formulate a plan to help tackle the last 5-ish pounds of fat.Hopefully I won't go insane.

Have a great weekend!

Ugh

The scale is doing that annoying bouncing thing. Ugh.

Turn the page

Yesterday was my first day in my new office. I hate it. My old office was so nice. The area around the building was so nice - woods behind so we saw deer, turkey, groundhogs, etc. It was at the end of a pretty quiet industrial park, which doesn't sounds nice but it really was. My office was big and I had 2 windows. Everyone had windows! We enjoyed getting out and walking when the weather was good.

The new office is tiny and of course there are no windows in the space at all. The cubes are worse. It's so depressing. And the area is highly developed so walking means in a busy parking lot.

And I loved the old place not just because it was so nice, but because my office was next to my boss, and we actually had adjoining offices. It made for easy conversation. At first I found him a little intimidating, but gradually we developed a terrific rapport and had an awesome working relationship. That office was the nicest work space I've ever had, and the fact that I had one of the nicest offices in the building (even though they were all pretty nice) was a symbol of the value my boss place in me and the work I did on the team.

Take care.

New clothes

Well, we've moved to the new building (a post about that later). That means business casual instead of jeans. All my slacks I bought in early December were a little too big (especially in the waist). In intend to simply take them all in, but yesterday that felt like a lot of work. I did one pair, sorted skirts so I would know what still fit, and went to Goodwill. I got a pair of pants and 5 tops for under $30. I am in 12 pants and medium tops. So that was cool. I feel better about my clothing options - or I will once I put darts in all my pant waists!

Take care.