Same same

Well my weight is the same as last Friday (well, down 0.1 pounds lol). Okay. This has felt a bit like turning an aircraft carrier in terms of getting my good habits back, but I am getting there. I went to the kettlebell gym again last night and did a great workout. I have a solid plan for getting food prep manageable and I am interviewing another potential cleaning lady Monday.

Have a great long weekend!

It's been a week

Work has been busy, life has been crazy. having said that, I'm back at the kettlebell gym and food is largely on track. I've just been too busy - or too cranky! - to post.

But I'm still here, and doing ok despite this week's best efforts.

Logging it

Good morning.

I am taking tomorrow off and we are headed to the beach as soon as T gets home from work. Yay!! Since I won't be here tomorrow, I logged this morning's weigh in for the week. 153.6 - down 1.6 pounds from last Friday. I won't make my goal of being back under 150 by the end of the month, but God laughs when we set deadlines. I am headed in the right direction, feeling much better, and am okay with where I am.

Take care.

A work in progress

It's scary how easy it is to return to old habits. I've been dealing with some major stressors - one is a work issue (mostly resolved I think) and the other is a crappy insurance/ incorrectly submitted medical bill issue. I left work yesterday VERY upset. I called T and asked if he wanted anything from the grocery on the way home. So I stopped and got a soda and 2 boxes of TGIF appetizers. After dinner I made a couple of each for each of us. Then he had to go back into work and I finished both boxes. It was scary.

This morning I woke up at 3:33 very shaken. I asked myself what I could do to "take back my power." I made the medical billing thing my top priority this morning. I sent what additional info I had to the patient advocate gal I'm working with. (What does it say about our system that companies hire other companies to deal with medical claim issues for their employees to salvage productive work time?). I then got every bill I've paid so far this year and sent them over to our reimbursement group. It's like an FSA, but the company will pay after you've spent $500 out of pocket (up to $2000). I submitted $528 for the year so far, so if I do get hit with this, at least I will be able to get reimbursed.

Still frustrating, but at least I know I won't get slapped with a big medical bill out of the blue. Or if I do I can be reimbursed for it.

I am trying hard to reclaim my peace and focus.I sent a note to Ellie at the gym saying I would see her Tuesday. No, I haven't been to the kettlebell gym since we got back. I have been using my kettlebell at home and going to Anytime Fitness though. But I need that extra bit to push me, so I set myself up to be accountable to someone for going next week.

Have a good day!

Turning the aircraft carrier

For whatever reason, getting back into the groove has been so hard. I am trying to be patient with myself, making consistent, positive baby steps back to where I was. It's not a race, every improvement is improvement, and it's okay.

I need that on a repeat loop in my brain until it all gets back into place.  I am frustrated with myself, and trying hard not to be. Boy, isn't that a fun cycle to be in!

I control my choices

I have several stressors right now. T and I are having work stress, and I am struggling to get back into my ore holiday groove. This weekend I told myself I just needed to do a 15 minute kettlebell workout, which I did. I felt better! Food wasn't totally on point, but its getting there. I did another 15 minute workout this morning. the dog was upset I was closed off in the guest room and peed on the floor to show her consternation. UGH!  Oh well, I cleaned it up and moved on. I am heading to the gym in a few minutes for my lunch break.

Breakfast this week is baked corn tortillas with refried beans, and egg, and a little chorizo for flavor.
Lunches are baked catfish, 14/ small potato and cold veggie salad.
Snacks are boiled egg and a string cheese.
Dinners vary.

Have a good week.

Time to get out of the river

Happy Friday. The title refers to the river of "denial" of course - lol. Seriously though, I popped up 1.5 before I left, then had a crazy week once back, then had to go on a business trip. I got on the scale today to a total of 5.6 pound gain - I'm sitting at 155.2.

So yeah, ugh - and it's funny, but I can feel even that little bit in my clothes. Workouts haven't been great this week, but food has been dialed back down and I am back at the gym. Not sure if I'll get below 150 in 2 weeks, but I will do my best!

Have a good weekend - here's to not going anywhere! Yay!

Weekend Recap, and ... What's next

As my mom wrote my cousin "We didn't slap anyone!" Yeah, people who haven't bothered to see Alma in a decade or more (I'm talking grandkids, not distant kin) came out of the woodwork to see each other and enjoy a free feed. Ugh. We made an appearance and left. I enjoyed the pool at the hotel - highlight of the trip.

Got on the scale this morning - up a pound from Friday. No bueno. Time to find my routine.

I've been thinking about what I want to accomplish (fitness wise) the rest of the year. Here's what I'm thinking.

Goals:

Get back to where I was on the scale (by end of August)
Under 140 (end of year)
Under 20% body fat (end of year?)
Pull up ???
Begin training squat and bench press (begin before end of year)

Not sure how it will develop - I haven't even gotten back to the gym yet. T's work schedule is insane. I'm doing everything at the house and that includes cutting the grass. I'm exhausted. But this is just temporary.

Take care.

Tough week

This has been a tough week. T's work schedule has been insane, my work has been stressful. Mom and I are driving to Georgia tomorrow, returning Sunday. I've been handling everything at home because T simply hasn't had any time at home to help out. Not his fault, just the reality this week.

I haven't managed the stress as well as I could have, but it is what it is. I gained 2.6 pounds while on vacation. Totally not a bit deal at all, I just really want to get back into my routine. Next week promises to be crazy. Working at home Monday, then to Atlanta a couple of days for a business trip. I'm trying to be smart and set us up for success.

Tonight's dinner is prepped and ready to pop into the oven when I get home. There are a couple of meals of leftovers for T while I am gone. I've hired our pet sitter to come feed critters since his work schedule is so bananas - so that's off his plate.

I'm hiring a cleaning person to do a deep clean Monday - that will help me feel better about the house. I'm planning an easy dinner Monday with plenty of leftovers for Tuesday. We'll go out Wednesday, T will cook Thursday, and I have an easy meal planned for next Friday. Then I will have a glorious weekend at home!

Take care.

I'm back

We are home safe, back at work. We have not unpacked - we dumped everything out of the car and onto the back porch! LOL This week is as hectic as can be, but I'm trying to get back into a routine. Anyway, busy day but I wanted you to know that we made it home safely after a nice trip!

Take care.

When the going gets tough

Mom had to put her dog Lulu down yesterday. It was hard. I've had a tough couple of days and I won't lie, I have done a bit of emotional eating. I also did a bit of beating myself up about it (like that ever helps!).

This morning I weighed myself (scale was up 2 pounds) and moved on. I fixed breakfast, packed lunch and snacks, put meat for dinner in the crock pot. I'm going to the gym at lunch (I did HIIT yesterday, I'll do 2.5 miles on the elliptical at lunch today), then I'll go to the kettlebell gym after work. Then I'll go home and have a yummy dinner (Korean beef bowl with plenty of veggies and a mix of rice & cauli rice), and chill on the couch with my husband for a bit.

I'm okay, this happens, it's what comes next that matters. And whether I'm this side of the 150 mark or the other when I get up Friday morning, no one but me is going to know, because no one else would notice 1-2 pounds.

Take care of yourself today.

Today was the day

TGIF and hurray for autopilot y'all. I lost 2 pounds this week, and I now weight 149.6 - my lowest weight since before I started tracking in October of 2001.

I'm getting close!

My initial goal is 140 - and I will go from there.

Have a great weekend!!!

I leave you with this: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2QiasaYdr0&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2rD8xC81_KaHJkOZpYnS4qBfUIWkmz4c66vHRIhu15waibsG8XYV3o30Q

Still trucking along

Good morning!

Life and work have been bananas this week and I haven't had time to sit down and write. It's been nuts. Fine, just too much to do.

To answer a question in the comments: Sparkpeople has a weekly summary chart on the page:

You can tell I hadn't started yet. It fills in raw numbers, but it's pretty easy to back into the percentages with all the numbers neatly in one place.

Having explained all that, my plans to meticulously track this week have been completely derailed. Tuesday I had to work off a loaner laptop and ... blah blah excuse excuse. But since I had planned up front and had done some basic prep Sunday (including making a list of what needed to be prepped each evening), my food plan has been on auto pilot.

Also, I fly out a week from tomorrow for our annual medieval camping in Pennsylvania trip and I haven't even started to pack. Y'all, I need a break!!

Take care.

You do you

BTW, T made it home safely last night. I slept like I had been given a sleeping pill. It was great.

One of the cool side benefits of getting older is that you care less about what other people think. Last night I (for the second time in my life) rocked a sports bra style workout top at the gym. Sure my midsection still has fluff (no 6 pack here!) and my belly (which was mostly covered by shorts) has stretch marks from pregnancy, but my back is really starting to look good and wearing it made me feel strong. And a tad weird.

Doing things my own way has spilled over into other aspects of my life, including nutrition. This week I have meticulously weighed and measured so I could know what (and how much) food I was putting in my body, and how I felt as a result. This is an idea that had been rolling around in my head, but was reinforced by a podcast I listened to.

Are you a podcast person? I'm not but my husband is and Ben Greenfield is a long time favorite. An episode on optimal diet we listened to recently (okay, my husband made me listen to in his car! lol) really resonated with me. Ben's premise (backed by research) is that for all that we are alike, the spectrum of differences is greater than we think. Our ancestors adapted to different diets in different parts of the world, meaning that we are better adapted to eating a certain way. We're pretty amazing and can run on most anything for fuel, but we work better on some.

As I get closer to my goal, I am trying to hone in on what foods fuel performance and good health as well as help me lose the last of the weight. I picked a fairly standard starting point:

Macros Based on The Zone (1)	% Of Total
30% Protein	30%
40% Carbohydrate	40%
30% Fat	30%

I pretty consistently went under on the carbs and over on the protein. I felt pretty good, but my overall calorie consumption was on the low side and I felt hungry some.

Yesterday:

I am going to change the targets for the upcoming week and see how that goes. I'll work on that this weekend and let you know what I come up with. 

If you are curious, here's everything I ate yesterday (pretty typical):

The result: I'm at 151.6 pounds this morning - "only" down 0.9 pounds from last week, but a new low! So yay!

Have an awesome weekend!

Interesting

So far this little experiment has been interesting. Yesterday I worked at home so I could be more flexible with my snacks. I had a cup of coffee with 2 prunes and peanut butter in the afternoon. Two prunes have 11 grams of carbs. So 2 little prunes make a difference in my bottom line carb consumption, but I don't feel like they are "bad."

I picked the ratios I did simply because they were a place to start. If I use my actual consumption, I think that carb number would be lower than the initial target, and I will adjust accordingly since so far I feel pretty good - not overly hungry and pretty steady energy levels. I may also up my lean protein portions at mealtimes - I started with 4 oz. but I'm having to use protein shakes to get that number higher.

Very little movement on the scale, but I feel good and I plan to keep going!

Have a good day.

Better

So here's yesterday:

Better across the board, still low on calories. I wasn't hungry though. That was the difference between 1) eating a more typical meal v. store bought veggie lasagna and 2) rye wasa & hummus for 2 snacks v. boiled egg.

While I say I wasn't hungry, I was also feeling a bit anxious. Could be some stress going on right now, could be T being out of town, could be tracking my food so closely. I keep reminding myself it's an experiment and I can change it up as needed.

Lots of stressful stuff right now - drama in my hobby (ugh!), mom's dog not doing well, ex MIL going in for a heart catheritization (I have no idea how to spell that word). Is it Friday yet? Oh, and totally not packed for vacation!

Take care and I'll try to do the same, okay?

Day 1, and bra confession

When I was overweight, I wore cheap sports bras all the time. This kind:

I probably have a billion with the elastic worn out (and I've tossed a billion more!). I wore them ALL THE TIME. To "work out" (which wasn't very strenuous), to work, where ever I was going and whatever I was wearing. Yes, it totally gave me a uniboob and no it wasn't flattering. It was comfortable and I didn't care. And at roughly $3 a bra.... whatever, right?

Only sometime along the way I started to care. So I dug through my old clothes and found a couple of bras that worked until I lost more weight. The ones I have that are the correct size are either no longer comfortable or worn out.

The 2 I bought at Kohl's are Warner brand, underwire, with enough "padding" that nipples won't show through at work, but not overly padded or push up. (Why do you need that much padding in a C cup anyway?). For workouts I am using some of the same cheap sports bras, only racerback. I do have a couple of more heavy duty ones, but since I walk, use the elliptical, or lift weights as my primary forms of exercise, there isn't much in the way of high impact exercise going on so they work fine so far. But yeah, a good bra is so worth it.

Here is where I ended up at the end of the day yesterday:

I wasn't particularly hungry, but I left a lot (especially protein) on the table. Let's see how today goes!

Take care.

Good weekend

Good morning and happy Monday! LOL

I hope you had a nice weekend, whatever you did. We went to the beach and had an awesome time! I was down to one non sports bra that fit, so I ponied up and bought a couple of new ones at Kohl's. $60 for 2 bras - yikes! But they fit well and are a good brand and they should last, plus they should fit for the rest of my weight loss unless I lose a bunch (more) in the cup. And I picked up a couple of tops for work at the thrift shop that I didn't need but I like.

It was good to go, and it's good to be home. Did okay with food - scale was up 0.2 pounds this morning - so flat for the weekend. i did a bunch of food prep and so now the work begins.

T headed out for Atlanta this morning for his training class. It's going to be weird to be by myself all week!

For breakfast I made a (sort of) chicken and rice casserole - 4 oz. chicken, 1/2 c rice, 1/2 steamed broccoli, sauteed onion, bell pepper, and celery. It's tasty but a bit on the dry side. Lunch is a portion of Aldi vegetable lasagna and a salad (left over from last night). Dinner is from Food cart style chicken salad (so yummy!), and snacks are 2 T hummus with a wasa cracker (snack at 10 and then this afternoon). I added a boiled egg onto the afternoon snack to help balance macros.

I've entered what I know and I am low on protein for sure, I will need to make a protein shake for dessert this evening.

So we'll see how my little experiment goes. Here's what I set as an initial target:

Total Calories/Day	1,500
Macros Based on The Zone (1)	% Of Total	Grams/Day
30% Protein	30%	113
40% Carbohydrate	40%	150
30% Fat	30%	50

Have a good day!

Time to walk the talk

Y'all, I am now stuck at 152-ish. I've been (slightly) up the past 2 weeks. It's not that my eating is bad or out of control, it's just enough that I'm not seeing results. The closer you get to goal, the harder it is to lose. Easy to write, but a tough reality to live! Lol

I really, really, really want to see 149.9 before I leave to vacation 3 weeks from today. Two weeks ago I was at 151.7 - this morning I was 152.5. UGH!!!!! I want it so bad I can taste it, but do I want it enough to do the work?

The test starts now.

Breakfast this morning: 1/3 c leftover hash browns, 1 egg, 2 oz mexican seasoned ground beef, 1/8 c shredded cheddar.

Outline

Okie dokie, so I put together a rough outline of meals for next week based around proteins, I've determined that my stores are open tomorrow (or I can go early Friday - maybe better), and outlined minimum food prep that needs to happen Sunday when I get home. I've been tracking my food this week (a little high in fats & low in protein) and my meal plans are plug-n-play (protein + carb + veggies + fats), so I can adjust ingredients as needed to hit goals.

I'm excited!

I hope you have an enjoyable holiday. Take care.