Relaxing, Maxing all Cool

TGIF friends!  I'm so happy it's Friday, and I don't have to think about work again until Monday night.  Score! Long weekends are the best.  I'm especially liking this one because I have the evening and tomorrow morning open to do whatever I want.  Although I am not excited about my husband being gone and him having to work tomorrow, I do like not having to worry about doing anything tonight.  No worries about dinner or entertaining my husband - I can just relax and do what I want.  It's nice.  When my husband is around I tend to get stressed about spending time with him since he is only around for a short while.  When he isn't home, I can just relax and not worry about a thing.  That may sound a bit like I don't want him around, but I do like it when he's here!


Confession

I have a confession to make!  Both yesterday and today I ate 2 Hershey's chocolate bars that have been hanging out in our freezer for s'mores.  Oops!  I fit them into my WW daily allowance and also my calories, so I don't feel guilty but just the need to come clean about it.  I polished off what we had left so now they are all gone, and I won't have to worry about eating them again!  That's not the worst 420 calories/12 WW points+ that I have consumed in my lifetime.

Weight Tracker Spreadsheet
I got this awesome weight tracker spreadsheet from The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl which I have been playing around with.  I actually took her spreadsheet and added another calculator onto it that would calculate the approximate day that I would reach my weight goal.  The goal I plugged in was 10%.  The spreadsheet was so nice to me last week and told me I would reach my goal on May 30th.  This week, after my gain, it was not so kind.  It now says I won't reach my goal until July 14th at my current pace.  Yikes!  Seeing that date makes me really know that I need to kick my weight loss into gear by sticking to my daily allowances and working out as much as possible.  Skipping a workout is just not an option!  No matter how badly I don't want to exercise, I need to get down and sweaty in order to burn those calories and lose some weight.  This spreadsheet can actually be a really good tool to keep me motivated.  I think I'm going to stick it in my Google docs so I can look at it whenever I'm needing some motivation!


Let's Get Random
I watched the season finale of Grey's Anatomy yesterday off of my DVR.  I didn't like it!  Why do they always have to kill someone off during the finale?  So many people have been killed off that show!  Plus I am totally confused with how they will start next season.  Are they just going to jump back and forth between all of the characters who are in different states?  Or are certain characters going to no longer be on the show?  Or will everyone be so traumatized from what happened in the finale that they will stay in Seattle?  I'm so confused.

I may be addicted to reading.  Everyone has their vice right?  I love reading.  I look forward to the end of the day when I can curl up with my book and just forget about everything.  That's often why I don't exercise or clean my house.  It's too hard to tear myself away from my book!  I have big reading plans tonight, but I swore up and down to myself that I will get the upstairs clean and also fit in a workout.  Originally the workout was going to be a bike ride and some weight lifting.  Now I am leaning into some Pilates and arm weight lifting.  I want to save my legs for the runs I'm planning for tomorrow and now Sunday.  Pilates is totally a great core workout, but it's also relaxing.  A great relaxing Friday workout!


Should I take more pictures?  I really love all these blogs I read where people have incorporated pictures they have taken.  While I have learned time and again that I cannot take pictures of every food I eat and tell you about it, maybe I should take more pictures of other things in my day.  That also brings me to the question of if I should join Instagram.  I'm not totally sure I understand it [or Pinterest].  And what the heck would I take pictures of?  I don't see any particularly neat sights during the day that seem photo worthy.  I'll keep thinking about this one.

With those random thoughts, I am back to reading my book and glaring at my house.  Why can't it just clean itself?!

Smiling Through the Rain

Happy happy Thursday!  I'm amazingly in a good mood today.  After spending Monday and Tuesday down in the dumps, it's nice to be in a good mood again.  It's a little weird that I am in a good mood today though because it is raining outside.  Usually my mood seems to emulate the weather.  Not this week I guess!



I'm Running Again!

Yesterday I did a 45 minute treadmill workout [this one from CNC] and it was awesome!  I did the workout as run/walk intervals on the treadmill.  It involved a lot of incline so I knew I wouldn't be able to run the whole time.  Plus I need walking intervals on the treadmill to beat my boredom.  It was freaking challenging for me anyway!  I was a sweaty mess by the end, and I felt so strong and awesome.  It was good to be running again.  I think I'm going to do the same workout today, a weight workout tomorrow, and then a 4 mile run on Saturday.  I really need to work on my running since the Ragnar Relay is coming up in August, and I want to run the heck out of my portions of the relay.

Summer Bucket List

The other day I was listing to a radio morning show, and they mentioned having a summer bucket list.  All things you want to accomplish this summer.  I like that!  I have been thinking carefully about it, and here are some things I would like to do this summer [besides losing weight and running]:

1. Go for a really long bike ride on the Wobegon Trail [Starting in St. Joe.  Maybe all the way to Avon?!  At least to Collegeville]
2. Try out Crossfit [I'd like to do this once I have gotten in a little bit better shape.  Right now I don't feel like I could survive any of it.]
3. Spend a day at the lake reading and floating
4. Have a lawn party complete with grilling, lawn games, and a campfire at night [I bought a burning permit already!]

That's all I have so far.  I don't want to put too many things on my summer bucket list because I will be pretty busy this summer with work, running, and life.

The Weekend's Coming - Ack!

I am really nervous for this weekend to come.  It's going to be fun, but there are going to be a lot of temptations.  Here is my weekend plan [I'm loving lists today]:

• Friday night - clean!  No big temptations here.  We just need to get our house clean for our visitors.
• Saturday - my SIL & BIL & their friends arrive in the evening.  B asked my BIL if they want to grill out if the weather is nice.  My BIL told B that maybe we should pick up some hot dogs for after the bar, but there will be no eating beforehand.  Um, not okay with me!  I told B that I am eating dinner before we go anywhere.  B agreed, but we'll see how long that lasts.  Everyone is planning on going to the bar and getting "ripped up", but I am not going to drink.  I think I am the most nervous about Saturday night because I know how tired and bored I get when I'm not drinking.
• Sunday - we are going to the Twins game.  I'm really not that nervous about this.  I know I can wander around by myself to find good food options.  I also won't be tempted with beer and stuff after the game because I know I need to drive us home.
• Monday - B has to leave for the week. :(  I'm also going to leave to stay the night in the cities so I don't have to get up so early for my 6am flight on Tuesday.

See... it's nerve-wracking!  I'm just going to try to do my best and remind myself that I don't want to drink.  I can't lose weight if I'm downing a million 100 calorie drinks!

With that, I need to get back to work.  My to-do list is a bit daunting yet today.  Not things I really feel like doing.  Ta-ta!

Glum & Pictureless

Hi friends.  I have been having a hard time blogging.  I have started writing two posts since the weekend, but my glumness has stopped me from posting.  I started my week of on a rough note, and I'm really trying to get myself back to a happy place.  I'll explain by starting with...

The Weigh-In
Ouch.  I'm pre-empting my weigh-in with an ouch.  It hurt.  I knew it was going to be bad since I went back to some old habits this weekend.  I swear I have a 1 step forward, 2 steps back deal going on.

This week: +1.8 lbs.
So far: -3 lbs.

I was really beating myself up yesterday after I saw this.  I keep saying I am completely on the wagon, but then I do stupid things like eat junk, drink, and not workout much.  Ugh.

Week Recap
I should recap my week last week so you know what happened.  I did okay until Thursday when we had the concert in the cities.  I ate too much junk food that night which hurt me.  I only drank 1 beer though!  That was a pat on the back moment.

Friday I had off and we joined one of B's coworkers for a little happy hour.  It turned into a drink all night fest.  I originally didn't want to do that, but then I was having so much fun that my common sense never kicked in.  Such a bad situation.

Saturday I didn't drink any beers!  I did eat junk though.  Which of course flowed right into Sunday.  It was a mess.  I'm trying really hard to dig down deep and keep going.  Sometimes it just feels hopeless.

Better News?
Sorry I'm such a downer today.  I think I'm even going to keep this post pictureless to match my dark mood.  That's sad.  Anyway, I did okay with things yesterday and today.  That's looking up right?  I ate a bit too much today, but I feel like it was balanced out with the Zumba I did.  I'm going to get back to running tomorrow evening.  If it rains [there's a chance], I am going to be stuck on my treadmill, but I will find an interval workout then to keep me entertained.  Otherwise the plan is to run two 20 minute sets with a three minute break in between.  For some reason running is really motivating me right now.  Weird.

Okay, that's all I really feel like posting today.  Maybe tomorrow I'll be in a better mood to really share.  Night!

A Weekly Lesson

Good morning!  I'm back again!  It has been a busy week as I had mentioned it would be on Monday.  It's also been an enjoyable week, so I have no complaints.  Today is actually my Friday for work since I am taking tomorrow off.  Hooray for a 3 day weekend!

Mid-Week Goal Check-In
I've been keeping my goals in the back of my mind this week to make sure I stick to them.  I'm doing pretty good.  I have worked out every day this week [biking on Monday and Wednesday and Zumba on Tuesday].  Tuesday and yesterday I had a bit of a slip-up and used all of my activity and some of my weekly points+.  I think I just had the munchies on Tuesday and the attack of the peanut butter came up!  Luckily I polished that baby off yesterday so there can no longer be any attacks.  Yesterday my husband came home and we met up with a friend for a few beers.  I had 3 - stuck to my plan there!  Unfortunately it was before dinner time, so I was pretty hungry for dinner.  I did not binge eat, but I think I ate more than I would have if I had not had the beers.  You live and learn right?  While being out with that friend I made a play-date with him for Saturday which I'm now going to cancel.  I had said I would get together and have more drinks with him on Saturday, but now I am leaning towards not drinking much for the rest of the week.  I want to earn back my weekly points+ with exercise so I'm going to do my best to not go over my daily allowance.  [That sounds so complicated if you are not familiar with Weight Watchers.  I'll do a quick WW lesson now.]


Weight Watchers Lesson
If you are not familiar with WW, here is your lesson.  Each person is given a daily points+ allowance - mine is 26.  Just like calories, every food has a points+ amount assigned to it that is based on the food's fat, carbs, fiber, and protein.  Besides your daily allowance, you are also given a weekly points+ allowance of 49.  These are extra points+ that you can play around with - you can use them whenever you want or you can just not use them at all.  My goal is to always not use them at all, but having them there to use usually makes me end up using some.  That is also what makes the WW plan so much easier for people to stick to - they are given so many options on how to make the plan work for them and their everyday lives.  Besides the daily and weekly allowances, you can earn points+ through activity points.  Activity points are the points+ you earn through working out.  Again, my goal is always to not use anything but my daily allowance, but I have been using up my activity points+ recently as well.  I also make goals for myself to earn a certain amount of activity points.  This week I would like to get up to 30 activity points+.  Totally going to happen!  Now you should be up to speed on how WW works.  Wait, I lied!  You can also choose how you use your weekly allowance and the activity points+.  I have set mine to use up the activities first before I dip into the weeklies.  So my statement above that I would like to earn back some of my weeklies through exercise just means that I will exercise, earn some activity points+, and my tracker will automatically give me back some weeklies by using those activity points+.  Now you are up to speed!


Big Plans Today
Today is the day we are joining some friends to go to a concert in the cities!  We are going to see the Cranberries, who my husband is a HUGE fan of.  I'm really looking forward to it!  I should actually be getting my butt in gear and working since we want to leave around 4ish.  I need to work and exercise before that happens.  We're planning on eating out for dinner, so I am also making big plans to have a light lunch and a hard workout.  Except I don't know what exactly that workout is going to be.  It's too windy to run or bike [plus it looks like it might rain].  I had thought about doing a kickboxing workout inside, but I'm not sure how into that I am.  I'll probably be okay with it once I start though.  I'm going to set myself a time - exactly 1 hour after I am done eating lunch I am going to pop in my P90X Kenpo workout and sweat along for an hour.  There!  It's set!

It looks like I'm out of topics to chat about.  Time to get to work!  Later gators.

Regular Sized & Speed Post

Good evening!  I'm back after a really busy time at work.  It looks like this week might turn into an equally busy week, so no guarantees on regular posting.  Sorry!  Sometimes it's just too hard to make the time when work is busy.  I need the evenings to unplug and work on other things like exercise, cleaning, or just some "me" time.  I'll try to make some more time for blogging this week since I am actually home instead of travelling, but no promises.

Last Week
I did a fabulous job with life last week!  I felt like I was able to enjoy myself, but I was also able to stick to my plan.  Here's a little recap:
Monday: exercise - check, stayed within points+ - check, 2 beers enjoyed - check :)
Tuesday: exercise - check, used a few activity points+, enjoyed an awesome Mongolian lunch and soup in a bread bowl for dinner - check
Wednesday: exercise - check, stayed within points+ - check
Thursday: exercise - HUGE check [2 hour walk!], used a couple activity points+
Friday: stayed within points+ - check
Saturday: exercise - check, used some activity points+, enjoyed 3 beers - check :)
Sunday: exercise - check, oops - didn't track, enjoyed 2 mimosas and some treats in the morning after a 5k

Can you tell how I did on my lifestyle makeover goals last week?  Fabulous!  Here's that recap:

1. Workout 6 times - Done!  I actually got 7 exercise sessions and earned 36 activity points+
2. Track & stick to plan - Done!  I didn't track yesterday but had plans to do it this morning.  After I weighed in I decided there was no point to tracking.
3. No binge drinking - Done!  I had 5 beers and 2 mimosas throughout the week, but there was absolutely no binge drinking.
4. No eating after drinking - Done!

This Week's Lifestyle Makeover Goals

I want to do an equally amazing job on my makeover goals this week.  To do that, I need to think ahead for what this week has in store for me.  

Monday through Wednesday I will be working with a coworker and most likely going out to lunch.  The town I am working in only has a Subway, McDonald's, and small cafe.  I think I am going to encourage us to go to Subway or McDonald's since those two have nutritional information and foods I can track easily.  Thursday I will be working alone and can bring my lunch.  Thursday evening the husband and I will probably be grabbing dinner on the road to a concert.  I will be able to weigh in on what we grab, so I will make sure it is something that I am able to track and has decently healthy options.  I don't plan on drinking at the concert since I'll be driving home.  Plus I find it annoying to try to move at concerts.  Friday I have off so B and I might end up going out to lunch.  No problems there since I get to help pick where we go.  Friday afternoon B has a meeting at work which will probably end in a happy hour.  That is always where trouble starts for us.  My game plan this time is to go to the happy hour, but have dinner plans in mind.  I really want to grill so I am going to push for that.  I will have no more than 3 beers at the happy hour.  Saturday I'm going to be on my own most likely for lunch or dinner since B will be golfing at some point.  We might go out that night as well.  Again, no more than 3 drinks and no eating after drinking.  If B is going to stay out later, I'll leave early on my own.  Finally, Sunday is always a bit up in the air.  We will have lunch out I'm sure since I have a hair appointment at 11am.  I'll plan on grilling something in the evening if it is nice.  I want to use our new grill as much as possible!

So those are my meal plans, but what about exercise?  I want to do at least 30 minutes of biking each evening this week.  Why biking?  My Achilles tendon is quite sore so I'm going to try to stay off of it through biking.  Thursday I'll need to go in the morning and Friday in the afternoon while B is at his meeting.  Saturday I might run a 5k.

That leaves me with the following goals:

1. Exercise at least 6 times [biking Monday-Wednesday evenings, maybe Zumba on Tuesday evening instead, bike Friday afternoon, and maybe 5k or just a run on Saturday]
2. Stay on plan and track all week
3. No binge drinking [am allowed to have some adult beverages but keep them to 3 or less]
4. No eating after drinking [unless it's dinner of course!]

Weigh-In Results This Week

I weighed in this morning!  It was good!

This week: -1.2 lbs

So far: -4.8 lbs

I filled out a little spreadsheet I have to figure out my average weekly weight loss.  I plugged in how long it would take me to reach my initial goal weight [10% loss] and my final goal weight just for fun.  With my current average weekly weight loss, I should reach my initial goal weight on May 30th.  I should reach my final goal weight on December 15th.  That's sort of exciting!  That is completely in line with my plan to reach my goal weight this year and start maintaining.  Now let's hope I can keep up with this average 1.2 pound loss each week!

A Pat on the Back

I gave myself a little pat on the back yesterday.  I ran the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and managed to run the whole thing as well as sprint to the finish.  I wasn't able to run much last week and my Achilles hurt pretty bad, so I wasn't feeling good about the 5k.  When I started running I felt okay but hot pretty quickly.  I just kept plodding along though.  It helped that I ran with a friend!  We did an awesome job and were so proud of ourselves.  That gave me the confidence to plan another 5k this weekend.  I haven't signed up yet, but I am thinking I just might.

A New Feature

I added a new feature to the blog!  It's a new page titled 365 Days on 2 Feet and can be found on the pages tab at the top of the main page.  I thought it would be a neat way to document all of the different places I get out for a run or walk while travelling.  I think it will help motivate me to get out of my hotel when I'm gone.  Maybe when I am travelling to friends' houses as well!

With that I am out for a bike ride!  Night.

Fastest Post Ever

It's Monday again!  I'm popping in super quick to say hi.  I'm having a busy evening and must find my butt in the fitness room in 20 minutes.  Hop to it!

Off Plan Weekend

As life goes, my weekend was very off plan.  I let all of my old lifestyle habits slide in and ruin my healthy[ish] week.  There was a lot of pizza and beer eaten and drunken which caused a very bloated me this morning.  On the way back from my in-laws I thought about how I would like this to be the last weekend where I imbibed too much.  It was a comforting thought.  And that is all I'm going to say about the weekend.  I'm trying to keep this super short!

Weigh-In
Here is this week's weigh-in results:

This week: -2.2 lbs.
So far: -3.6 lbs.

Okay, that's actually my weight from Friday.  I was too bloated to weigh-in today.  It's my program, so I can bend the rules when I want. :)  I am [was?] down and that's all that matters!

Lifestyle Makeover Check-in?
No check-in today!  I don't have time to get into where I went wrong.  Or maybe I'll just skip the long check-in all together and tell you I met 0 of my goals last week.  That means.... I'm repeating them this week!

1. Workout 6 times
2. Track & stick to plan
3. No binge drinking
4. No eating after drinking

And that's a quick and dirty summary of those!

This Week in a Nutshell

I'm travelling for work this week, but hell bent on sticking to my plan.  To make up for the weekend I would like to stick to my daily points+ each day and not use any weeklies.  Being realistic I know that some may sneak in, but I'm really going to try this week.

My weekend plans involve hanging out with my husband on Friday night, stopping by a birthday party on Saturday evening, and crashing at a friend's Saturday night.  We will be up bright and early Sunday morning to run the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure.  It should be fun!

And that's a wrap!

Recharging

Good evening!  Happy Hump Day!  It's been a busy week for me, but by no means a bad or stressful one.  I've been in the cities visiting with my work group.  It's been a ton of fun, but it's also good to be back home and back to reality as I know it.

Eating Out & Losing Weight
One of my biggest struggles when I am trying to lose weight is how to eat out and still stick to my points+ [or calories depending on what I am tracking at the time :)].  This week was a HUGE struggle because we had both lunch and dinner out as a group.  Lunches yesterday and today involved breadsticks and cookies for dessert.  Dinners out involved alcohol, appetizers, and dessert as well.  Holy food!  I had originally planned to skip out on the alcohol, but we all know my weakness for a good beer and peer pressure.  I had drinks both nights!  I only had dessert with dinner last night though [one small win!].  I have no regrets.  I did dip into my weekly points+ allowance, but that is what it is there for.  Now I am just trying to reorganize my week to make sure I can stay on track through the weekend.

Biggest Loser Challenge
One of my offices is doing a Biggest Loser type challenge!  They actually did this over the winter as well, but this time I am joining!  My coworker, Beth, and I are a team - Beth's Losing Her Bass.  That last part is a fun play on my last name.  We have to pay $20 to join, half of which goes to charity and the other half will go to the winner of the challenge.  I have to email my weight to an assistant at the office each Tuesday, and she will keep track of the rest.  Since my weigh-ins for my own purposes are on Mondays, I am just going to send my Monday weight to her.  She doesn't need to know that it's from a different day.  I am hoping this will keep me motivated as I start to get busy with all the spring/summer events I have going on.

Weekend Plans - Aack!
We have weekend plans again this weekend.  They make me so darn nervous!  How am I going to do this weekend?  Will I fail to stick to my points+ budget?  Will I be able to do this while visiting my in-laws?  The pressure is on!  We are headed to my in-laws for the weekend sometime on Friday.  It is my MIL's birthday, so most of my husband's siblings will be around.  I guess the plan is to bring my MIL out for drinks on Saturday evening.  There might even be cake involved this weekend.  All are bad news for me!  It's already hard enough eating healthy at my in-law's.  They don't really stock up on healthy foods.  I have even been known to bring my own food along so that I know I'll have something healthy to eat.  I think that is what I am going to do this weekend, but only bananas and oatmeal.  I don't know what else I could bring since we haven't gone grocery shopping, and I don't know what my husband has planned for the whole weekend.  I'm just hoping I can find something healthy and low points+ value to eat on Friday night, Saturday lunch, Saturday dinner, and Sunday.  I hope I'm not going to be stuck eating bananas and oatmeal for every meal!


Weigh-In
I completely realized I haven't even talked about my weigh-in on Monday!  It was a real dud!  Which I knew going in since I completely went out of my mind with food last week.  Can I blame it on stress and sickness?  No?  Darn!  I thought I would start sharing my weigh-ins each Monday just for fun.  I am feeling really self conscious about the number at the moment, so to start I'll just share the losses [and gains unfortunately].  Here goes!

This week: +3.2 lbs.
Progress so far: -1.4 lbs.


So I had a gain this week - now what?  As I already said, I knew it was coming.  That makes it a bit better. I just told myself this week I would follow my goals that I set at the beginning of the week, and do my very best to not go over those points+ this week.  And now I have to be honest that I just went back to my goals because I forgot what they all were.  Oops!  The quick refresher helped, and I am doing a pretty good job with sticking to these.  I'm also happy that at least I haven't gained back everything I lost that first week.  My progress so far is just fine.  I'm also hoping that the scale will be kind to me next Monday and show a big loss to compensate for the gain.  I can hope can't I?!

Fighting Fitness
I'm really struggling to get myself to exercise tonight.  I had originally planned on running this evening, but soon decided I didn't feel like it.  My quads are really sore from the HIIT workouts I did the last two days.  I thought that I would do some Zumba or something instead, but now I'm thinking I might just take a rest day.  I actually got 2 workouts in on Monday, so I am right on track with my 6 workout plan for the week.  Taking today off would just mean that I need to follow the rest of my planned workouts for the week.  No biggie.  I do really struggle with guilt when I decide to take a rest day though.  I feel guilty for not working out even though I am sore.  Dumb.



With that, I am going to watch my DVR and ignore that little voice in my head that is berating me for hanging out on the couch.  Night!