Friday, November 30, 2007

No Bike For Me

Last night at the gym I thought I would shake up my routine a bit. I started with my abs (which isn't actually shaking things up - but I was really wanting to work my core muscles). After that I decided to use the bike instead of the treadmill. NEVER AGAIN. I did 20 minutes (mostly because I wasn't sure how much I would like it). I did the Alpine Pass setting on that too - since I like it on the treadmill - after 20 minutes of biking up and down hills (I covered 6.75 miles) I had burned 71 calories. 71!! That is crazy! After 20 minutes on the treadmill I usually have burned TWICE that and covered 1/6th of the distance. Furthermore, my foot fell asleep - and my lower back cramped. I also don't feel like I got my heartrate anywhere near as high. I am sure it was because I didn't have my level set high enough (I did it on 4) but since I don't know the bikes as well I didn't know what a reasonable level is for me. But - I don't know if I would want to do it at a higher level, because it was also not feeling good on my knee - and I can't imagine it would increase the calories burned that much. After the 20 minutes I switched to the treadmill to do another 25 minutes. I was with Gloria and after 10 minutes of the treadmill she decided she was done. I stopped then too - mostly because it was 9:30 and I hadn't had dinner yet... Anyway - in the 10 minutes on the treadmill I burned 83 calories - and I was doing it at a much slower pace than I normally do (3.5 miles instead of my normal 4) although I had it on a slightly higher incline (6 as opppsed to 5). I may check out the eliptical tonight to see how that compares to the bike and the treadmill. I would think that is probably the best of the three.

I ate pretty well yesterday - and stayed within the allowed calories again. My weight this morning was STILL 229. However, I will keep plugging away at this. You know, it used to be that the hard part was getting myself TO the gym, now I can get there with no problem, but I get so bored working out. Tonight, I think I may only do 10-15 minutes of aerobic and do weights instead. I haven't done any resistance in a while.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

I was bad too

My weight yesterday morning was 228.4 - which was kind of annoying because I was so good for two days in a row. 8-D But I WAS. I ate only the healthy, allowed food (sticking JUST at my calories allowed from My Plate) plus I went to the gym and burned UP 250-400 calories each of those days. Then yesterday, I spent the whole day reading (a fascinating book about polygamy) and ate pretty much NO healthy food (I had bean soup for lunch, leftover pizza for dinner and Girl Scout cookies for everything else...). I didn't go to the gym last night (I was groggy and my knee was bothering me a lot) intending to move the dining room table and do a yoga video. I didn't do that either... Sigh. I am planning on going to the gym tonight after work. I really am feeling like I need to do yoga or something. My muscles feel VERY tight and uncomfortable. I need to stretch them. I guess there are no rules saying that I can't do both the gym AND a yoga video. You know what would be cool... If I could take my yoga video TO the gym and use it in their yoga studio. I am going to ask them if I can tonight...

Anyway, My weight - unsurprisingly - was 229.0 this morning. Why is it that I respond to BAD behavior right away - but not good? I guess it all comes back to my original statement of a million years ago - You can't give up eating cold turkey.

I met with the nutritionist yesterday again. Once again, it was a very interesting meeting. She had me do an "inner child" exercise yesterday. This was because I was telling her that (even though I know it is irrational) I resent Katie's ability to say no to food if she doesn't want to eat it, and to also be able to leave food behind on her plate. I can't say my innerchild spoke to me or not - but I CAN tell you I realized that I have a very specific view of myself as a child. I was third grade or younger (probably younger - maybe even as young as Kindergarten) and it was picture day at school. I was wearing a dark green body suit with a skirt. I don't know if this was the first time I became aware of how people see me - outside of me - or if my clothes were uncomfortable - or what it was... But I do remember me noticing my "image" and not liking it. Even as a little child. How pathetic is that?! I remember feeling round - or chubby - or whatever, and knowing that I wanted to be little and lithe (although I am sure I didn't know that word at the time) like the other little girls. In retrospect I am sure I was about to go through a growth spurt and my clothes probably WERE too small, and the color ISN'T the best on me (even now) and so I wasn't my prettiest - but, for whatever reason - THAT is the vision of myself as a child that I have to this day. Too big, fat, and uncomfortable, with poor coloring. Maybe this was the point in time that I realized I wouldn't ever be a princess. I don't know how much I buy into the "inner child" concept - but I do think it is pretty telling that I remember this version of me over anything else.

So I am supposed to talk to my inner child everyday now (it is actually more of a meditation technique - which I am OK with). I don't know if chatting up my inner me will help with anything - but it doesn't cost anything to try. I am also supposed to go back to reading Intuative Eating. She wants me to clean up my scrapbook area (although she doesn't know that is what I need to do - she said to set aside an area to use for creative endeavors). There is one or two other things on my homework list - but I can't remember what it is now...

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

No restraint

The past 24 hours have been bad. Really bad. I-can't-stay-away-from-sugar bad. It started yesterday afternoon when I was running an errand and starving and away from my healthy yogurt so I got a candy bar. Then instead of going home last night to have dinner, we went to Ikea and got Ikea food for dinner--a hot dog and Swedish fish. And not just one serving of the Swedish fish. And today I've been into goodies that people left out at work--a blonde brownie, a peppermint patty, and a Take 5 bar. I'm now something like 200 calories away from my maximum calories for the day and it's only a little after 2:00! I've been doing so well the past two weeks--why mess it up now?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

139.5

And that's two full pounds down from last week for me, too! (But, shoot, I was hoping I'd catch Sarah at last -- oh, well, maybe another week!) I was at 140.0 yesterday so I had hopes for today, but I didn't know if it would happen. Getting below 140 was my next goal point. Yippee! Sarah really did steal all my lines -- I was going to grumble about having to continue to eat nothing and exercise incessantly, too. But if I keep at this until Christmas I'll be at my low point again, or at least very near it, and back into my 130-135 range.

139.5 ties my low point for the year. I also saw it at the end of Lent. So I guess viewing this as a time of suffering is somehow appropriate. ;-)

228.2

A pound up from last week - but not bad considering I COULD have been four pounds up. I didn't actually see the four pound spike this month - which is impressive considering I also ate so much on Thanksgiving...

Katie and I went to the gym last night. I am DETERMINED to re-introduce exercise as a part of my regular life. I walked for 45 minutes on the treadmill last night (again I did the Alpine Pass which has changing inclines and rates) I (according to the machine) burned 384 calories. That certainly made up for the skim peppermint mocha I had (no whip) I hope. But then we ordered pizza for dinner. Instead of getting our normal thin crust veggie, we decided on Italian sausage. I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have a veggie pizza. I guess I am completely converted. I don't know. Other than the coffee and the pizza my calories were pretty light yesterday. I had a cup of Italian wedding soup for lunch with a small piece of leftover focaccia. Breakfast was oatmeal with walnuts and cinnamon and applesauce (homemade). I didn't actually get around to any of my snacks (baby carrots and hummus and an orange) and then after dinner I had a serving (100 calories) of mini marshmallows. I think that may be my new nighttime snack. I crave sweet at night... but cookies, cakes, candy, etc are SO calorie laden for such small servings. The mini marshmallows were 2/3 of a cup - which is a LOT of little marshmallows - and they definitely don't feel quite as heavy in my tummy afterwards. All that said - I had an appalling lack of vegetables yesterday.

I am going to the gym again tonight with Gloria from work. She asked me to show her how to use the treadmill - and the eliptical. I don't like the elipticals - since my toes go dead... but maybe I should shake up my routine a little too. I think tonight I am going to do the treadmill for 20-30 minutes and then do the arm machines. Gloria got the info on the Aquasculpt class. That is a water based resistance toning class. It is Monday nights at 7:00 or 7:30. We are going to start doing that each week. I am looking forward to that. 8-)

138.4

For anyone keeping track, that's a full two pounds down from last week. I didn't believe it when that weight popped up this morning, so I reweighed myself three times, and each time it was the same. But it's also a pound lower than I was yesterday, which was the lowest I had seen all week, so I'm not sure I believe this weight. I won't be surprised or disappointed if I'm back up to 139+ tomorrow. On the other hand, that's how I felt LAST week when I weighed in at 140.4. So I guess I'll stick to my un-fun and difficult program of eating almost nothing and exercising as often as possible because it seems to be working!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Fun

Totally unrelated to anything but this is fun: I just subscribed to this magazine (Conde Nast Traveler)and they have this monthly contest. December's isn't online yet, but Peter figured it out last night. The previous months are here http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/whereareyou. Keep an eye out for December and see if you can figure it out.

P.S. I am still not exercising regularly but I am hanging tight at a gazillion pounds. My semester is over 12/13!!!!!

Yippee!

My weight was down this morning from last Tuesday. Hooray! I did have a bit of an intestinal virus on Saturday so I'm sure that didn't hurt -- but I also exercised like mad and ate within my calorie goal range every day except Thursday. I'm hoping my weight will still be down tomorrow -- we'll see!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Dieting away from home

This week is actually going a little better than I anticipated in terms of eating and exercise. I've gotten at least a little exercise every day, though yesterday I was sore (shin splints and an aching back -- the former from my Thanksgiving Day walk, as walking is always worse for me than jogging, and the latter from sleeping on an unfamiliar bed) so I just did crunches, push-ups, and stretches.

Breakfasts have been hardest to eat right, because Daniel's mother always fixes something nice for breakfast, and it's generally more caloric than cereal. Today I opted for cereal anyway, because it was just little dogs (mini sausages in biscuits) and I know there's no offense given if I opt out, but I still had to eat a small piece of danish (yum). Still, it was my lowest calorie breakfast all week.

Other meals have been OK -- we've been eating casually most meals so I can pick and choose as I like. There's been Brunswick Stew offered for many meals and that's one I fix myself, and it's surprisingly low-cal, so I've eaten that. And yesterday I completely missed lunch, picked at a little turkey during the afternoon, and then went out and ate popcorn at the movies for dinner. It's not at ALL a healthy approach to eating, but at least my calories came out about right for the day.

On Thanksgiving day I ate DOUBLE my usual number of calories and possibly even a couple hundred over that. Not so good. Good thing I couldn't weigh myself yesterday. But that's only about 1500 calories extra, which is not even a half pound if my metabolism is what it's supposed to be.

We went running the day we arrived, and on Wednesday I bounced around the house for 15 minutes. On Thursday I went for an aggressive walk (hence the shin splints, as noted above) and today I'm planning to go out for a run again. Tomorrow we're on the road so unless we get away early we'll probably miss exercise altogether, but after that we'll be home and back to our routine. I am optimistic that I will have gained only a little weight or maybe even maintained on this trip. Certainly my jeans are fitting about the same as they did when we left.

I dot a told...

Not a bad one... Just I have had a sore throat for about a week, and starting yesterday I was sniffly and today I have watery eyes AND I woke myself up snoring. I only snore when I lay on my back - which I only do when my nose is stuffed up... So, I am not sure if it is the back laying or the stuffed up part that does it. I went t o bed at 10:30 last night. On a FRIDAY night! I never do that! And then I slept until about 8:30am. I must have needed it. Actually I would probably still be sleeping - but I am cropping with Heather today and so need to get my stuff in order for that.

I didn't weigh myself. I woke up so thirsty that I drank a ton of water before I thought about weighing myself - and I really didn't want to know what with T-day food, my period and now WATER, how much I weighed.

I am now going to drink coffee, get dressed and load my car.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Not as bad as it could have been!

I entered all of my food in the Daily Plate for yesterday and my Thanksgiving dinner was "only" 1461 calories (only one glass of wine, didn't eat the mashed potatoes, no whipped cream, no appetizers, small portion of all white meat turkey) and since I had only had a couple hundred calories during the day before dinner, my overall day wasn't so terrible. And I got out for a 2.5 mile walk with Davey, which also helped.

But I don't know what the immediate damage to my weight was because I forgot to weigh myself this morning, largely because my morning started at 3:30 this morning when Connor woke up. I briefly considered hitting one of the sales, but then I remembered that I'm not crazy. That and Claire was still asleep! But by the time I was awake enough to think about weighing myself, I had already eaten breakfast (pecan pie and coffee. OK, not exactly a diet winner. But at least it was a half a piece of pie!).

1/2 pound Thanksgiving

I only gained .4 pounds between yesterday morning and today. I am not sure how that worked out - because I am still full from last night. I didn't eat during the day to save room for dinner. I woke up around 8:30 and went to church at 10. I didn't eat breakfast, but I had coffee with a little bit of egg nog in it. Then I went to the grocery store and came home and started cooking. I don't think I actually ATE anything during the day - because I am not usually hungry while I am cooking. OH! Yes - I had a few Girl Scout cookies while I was trying to decide if I should eat lunch or not. Katie then went and got Starbuck's Peppermint White Chocolate Mochas for us (skim of course). I didn't care for the white chocolate - so I only drank about 2 inches of it. I put it in the refridgerator and heated it up for this morning. I guess it is an exercise in futility to list everything I ate last night. I am glad we didn't have cheese and crackers before hand!! I had a piece of focaccia, a roll (they shared the same pat of butter), Claire's jello salad (very yummy!) carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes with goo, mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey with cranberries and (uneaten) creamed onions and mashed turnips. I tried each - but by the time I got to that side of the plate I was too full. I had three glasses of wine and then saved my pecan pie and pumpkin cheesecake for MUCH later - I did eat them before I went to bed so they could count as part of the Thanksgiving food orgy! I SERIOUSLY woke up still full and - three hours later now - am STILL full.

My period started this morning - so tomorrow in addition to having the T-day weight show up, I should have THAT extra four pounds turn up. I may not weigh myself tomorrow...

My battery on my car was dead this morning. I was just about to go back into my house to wake someone up to give me a jump when Mike came out of his house. Thank goodness. The jump did the trick. This happened a few months ago too. It was dead after work - I got a jump from the security guards. It needed it again the next morning - so I got a jump from Laura. It may have been dead one other time in that cluster - but then it was fine, until this morning... There is only one other person in today - so I have to make sure I leave when she does, just in case...

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Doomed, doomed, doomed

Check this link out: http://walking.about.com/library/cal/blthanksgivingcalories.htm You can check off the things you're likely to eat on Thanksgiving and get a calorie count, along with how far you'll have to walk to burn off the meal. I put in my usual stuff, but they didn't have everything (no pumpkin cheesecake, no glazed carrots) and my total was 2040 calories! I'll have to walk over 20 miles to burn that off.

Getting all pumpkined out!

And it's not even Thanksgiving yet! I made pumpkin muffins last night (and entered the recipe in the Daily Plate--turns out there's only 93 calories per muffin, and lots of vitamin A and iron (uses molasses). I also substituted half of the flour with whole wheat, making them even more healthy.) and had one last night and one for breakfast, then came to work and someone brought in pumpkin flan. It's only so-so IMO (a bit too pumpkiny), but when I looked it up and found out that our tiny slices only have something like 30 calories apiece, I ate it up. I have leftover canned pumpkin and plan to make pasta with pumpkin cream sauce with it. And of course I have the pumpkin cheesecake ready for tomorrow as well. And I don't even like pumpkin that much.

I'm definitely going to the gym later today so I can get in one more good workout before the long weekend. Except for walking the dog and occasional light weight lifting, I'm not likely to do much exercising over the next four days. And I *finally* activated my college i.d. as a library card and checked out three novels from the library (community college libraries are great--very little of that boring research stuff, and they get the bestsellers but don't have huge waiting lists like the public library does), so they will be tempting me to be even more lazy.

In trouble already

Yesterday I did very well -- I kept my calories exactly where I wanted them (even had room for three caramels over the course of the day) and Daniel and I went running so I got some very strong exercise. Today is off to a bad start. Daniel's mom fixed sausage and biscuits for breakfast, and with just one of each and a half glass of OJ I'm at 376 calories already. There was no skim milk so I couldn't opt out and go for cereal as I'd originally planned. Phooey. And we're supposed to go to the movies today and heaven only knows what we're going to have for lunch and dinner but it's bound to be caloric -- I'll have to eat tiny portions to keep on track! I don't know if I'll have a chance to run today or not. I suspect Daniel's not up to it, because his shins have been so problematic lately. Maybe I'll go alone, if I can find an opportunity.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Can I bank calories for Thanksgiving?

I just ate dinner and now I'm at 997 calories for the day, although it's 610 net calories after you deduct what I burned at the gym. So that means, according to the Daily Plate, that I can eat another 600+ calories today and still be on track for losing 1.5 pounds this week. And if I do that again tomorrow, I'll have 1200 calories "saved" for Thanksgiving, so in theory I could eat 2400 calories that day and STILL lose weight. And if I didn't care about losing weight this week, I could eat something like 3000 calories that day and maintain. But I don't think it works that way, at least not for me. We'll see, because I can't see eating less than 2400 calories on Thanksgiving! In fact, I think that's the equivalent of a serving of mashed potatoes and a piece of pie.



(Claire wanted me to add this smiley!)

141.5

That's two pounds down from last week. My weight loss goes in spurts -- I get stuck at the same weight for several days in a row, then suddenly it drops a pound and a half overnight. Yesterday it was even a half pound lower than today, my low point since the first Tuesday in April -- and that was even a sudden glitch, so my weight yesterday and today is effectively a low point for the year. Getting through this week will be a challenge -- we're at the Crawfords and there was a candy dish almost next to the door when we walked in, full of caramels and 3 Musketeers. I don't expect to lose weight, but it would be very satisfying if I could manage to maintain until Sunday!

Weighing in

Today I was 140.4--about two pounds down from last week, I think? I can't exactly remember last week's weight. I'm not convinced this is real weight loss, though--my weight dropped quickly in a couple of days and then very slowly over the past few days (I was 140.8, then 140.6, then 140.4 and still 140.4 today). But I did stick to the 1200 to 1300 calorie plan pretty much all week, and my net calories (according to the Daily Plate) were all within the target to lose a pound and a half a week, so it *should* be actual weight loss. We'll see in the next few weeks, if I can manage to keep my food consumption low in spite of Thanksgiving tempting me with 1500 calories in one meal, and work closed for a couple of days so no gym visits.

Don't you just hate it, though, when self-discipline actually works? Low calories, lots of exercise, no fun. It's not as if this is a surprise--it's what has always worked for me. I just wish someone would invent a diet plan that works that still involves daily pumpkin spice lattes!

Better than yesterday

But not by much. My weight this morning was 227.2. I am getting to the point where I think I just need to accept the fact that I will never again weigh 160. I don't WANT to accept that fact - but my weight seems to be stubbornly set at the same spot. Of course, I DON'T have to accept the fact that my belly shakes like Santa's bowl full of jelly. I CAN do something about that. I can do sit-ups, yoga, use the treadmill, weight equipment, etc. I need to bring my gym bag with me to work - so I can go to the Padonia Brick Bodies - or to the Reisterstown one on the way home from work. I need to get Katie committed to this so she won't get mad at me if I DON'T come straight home after work for dinner. I probably won't lose weight, because my record shows that I don't lose when I exercise anymore than when I don't exercise - but I do get marginally less blobby.

The Holidays are going to be a challenge. Actually - I am not so sure that they will be. Halloween is the biggest calorie fest for me. And I have already EATEN all of the candy (except for what I have hidden from me - out of sight is really out of mind for the most part...). The TESSCO party has been cancelled - and other than the holiday DAYS themselves food shouldn't be too much of a challenge, if I plan correctly. I think I may email Santa and discuss a focus on quality over quantity this year's stocking candy - at least for the grownups.

I also need to do the gluten free thing again. Now that I am totally slacking on it I am seeing an increase in my digestive distress. I am going through my annual purging mood. Most people want to spring clean - I want to fall gut my house. Maybe, what I will do, is actually RID my house of everything even remotely appealing foodwise and THEN, if I get cravings I will have to actually go out of the house to track down food. If my rule is that I can go out and buy snack food I have to do it via the gym.

Monday, November 19, 2007

I like the name Tabitha

I should get another cat, just so I can name it Tabitha. It would have to be black though... And I suppose it would want a litter box. Hummm. Maybe not then. Tabitha is definitely one of those names that I could probably never use on a person (not that I am going to HAVE a person) but still really like. Tibby is cute enough for a real person though.

I ate nothing but stale doughnuts, pistachio nuts and left over sushi all day yesterday. Oh! and a piece of gingerbread. I don't know who created the recipe for that gingerbread - but don't they know that it is supposed to be SPICY! I mean, come oh! GINGER! Darn wimpy American palate.

Anyway, my weight was correspondingly high this morning. 228.2. I did find myself wondering when my period is due. It seems as though it has been a while since I had it. So - maybe I can blame some of the weight on that.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

After-lunch report

According to the Daily Plate I can only eat another 83 calories today! I'd better go to the gym and burn off 400 so I can have dinner. Lunch was turkey (gross--only ate a few bites. I don't want turkey that's been swimming in watery broth), mashed potatoes (so-so--ate about 1/4 cup), stuffing (surprisingly good--I ate the whole serving), no good vegetables whatsoever so I skipped them, apple pie (ate it all) and cider. 830 calories in one meal. No wonder Americans are overweight!

I forgot to post on Tuesday

I was probably just repressing bad memories. I was 142.6 on Tuesday morning. On Tuesday evening I created a Daily Plate account. I was over my recommended calories by a few hundred that day (and that was AFTER an hour long workout!), entirely due to a pop tart and a bunch of leftover Halloween Kissables. Those calories add up fast!

Yesterday was much better and it reminded me of why I liked obsessive calorie counting. I'm "allowed" 1245 calories a day, and yesterday I hit that goal spot on, even though we went to dinner at an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet (Girl Scout fundraiser). All I could eat was a big salad, two slices of spinach alfredo pizza and a small brownie. But at least I *knew* that going into the meal so I didn't overeat.

Today is going to be another challenge--our annual pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving lunch at work. Why do school cafeterias do this? As if one Thanksgiving meal in the month isn't enough, our dining hall every year serves a whole Thanksgiving meal one week before Thanksgiving, and our department goes and eats together at this. The public schools do the same thing--a big turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes lunch a week or so before Thanksgiving. Weird. So I need to check into the calories before I go to this. At least it's dining hall food, meaning that most of it is pretty gross and badly prepared so I'm not tempted to eat a lot of it. I can't stand icky mass-produced-from-a-box stuffing.

Gym Mission

Today I am going to track down the Brick Bodies gym in Timonium and see what the facility is like. My membership allows me to use any of the Brick Bodies - and that one may be close enough that I can go on my lunch break. Julie and I were discussing this last night. I was much more effective in going to the gym when I did it on TESSCO'S time rather than mine. And - since Julie is in Hunt Valley now we were talking about going together a couple of times a week together.

Anyway, we didn't get to go to the gym last night. Julie had a work disaster at the last minute and so was stuck there. This was AFTER she had already texted me to tell me she was leaving shortly... Oh Well. I was dressed and ready to go - but ended up putting together my deck fireplace instead - and continued to clean, since there is a Stamp Camp on Saturday.

I put a chicken in the crock pot this morning for dinner tonight. Katie and I stripped the bones of the last chicken I did and froze the bags of chicken in 4 oz portions. Most of our lunch receipes call for 4 oz of chicken. We used the last bag for todays lunch - so now we will have more. Anyway - I also bought an acorn squash the other day - and fresh cranberries - so dinner tonight should be really yummy!!

My weight this morning was 226.6 - which is a relief, because I have FELT fat lately. I didn't even weigh myself yesterday because I just didn't want to know... Sigh.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

143.5

I almost typed that as 413.5 -- yikes! 143.5 is bad enough! I'm right back to where I started last week. Looking at my calorie intake for the past week, though, that's about right. My net calories (calories in minus calories burned through serious exercise) should be about 1700 per day if I want to maintain my weight, down to 1000 per day if I want to lose two pounds per week. That's for my weight and my height -- YMMV. What I really aim for is 1200 actual calories per day, which lands me 1200 to 1300 calories per day when I stick to it. Then on the days I exercise I burn about 400 extra, and on the days I don't I burn 0 extra, which averages out to about 1000 net calories per day in the course of a week. But this week my net calories were right for loss the first three days, just maintenance level one day, and high for three days. So that averages out to maintenance (though I'm not convinced I was 700 calories high those days!!), so it's kind of interesting to know that the calorie counting approach works the way it does.

But, phooey, I hope I weigh less before Thanksgiving Day!

Hooray!

I have a gym date with Amy tomorrow. Be sure to ask us how that went on Thursday.

In other news, I am holding steady on the verge of disaster. I am not happy at all with myself, and my schedule is bad right now for fitting anything in. The semester is over 12/6 though. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that. And next semester I have the early class--4:30-7 pm instead of this awful late schedule 7-9:30 pm.

Ugh

227.8 today. Nothing else to add since my post last night. Sigh.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Hanging onto the wagon by my toenails

I have been just horrible lately - but my daily planned meals for the last week or two haven't been bad. My weight this morning was an alarming 227.2 - but that is probably driven by the HORRIBLE hotel eating I have been doing all this week.

Tuesday 11/6 I had a seminar that included a boxed lunch - which wasn't that far off of what my planned lunch for the day was. The potato chips weren't part of my plan - but I ate them anyway. Wednesday I ate breakfast - but nothing else until dinner. BAD! Thursday I think I was good all day, but I really can't remember Thursday at this time. Friday breakfast was fine, Lunch was at another seminar I had to attend. I actually did really well there - I had about two bites of disgusting mac and cheese, a few bites of potatoes, green salad, with tomatos and "fresh" mozzerella, and a small piece of salmon. I didn't have dessert. Then that night was Susie's rehearsal dinner. I had the chicken with crab and a sherry sauce. It had vegetables and potatoes on the side. I ate about half of everything - and then had the rest for lunch on Saturday. Saturday night was the wedding. That was normal buffet food - beef, chicken and fish - wedding cake for dessert - which I ate for breakfast on Sunday.

Sunday was a day of a whole lot of laziness and junk food. I cut loose and ate Samoas. I had soup for lunch and I have no memory of dinner - but I was hitting the leftover Halloween candy hard. I got NO exercise. I walked about 1500 steps TOTAL all day. I took several naps and inbetween naps read a no brainer romance novel and edited wedding photos. It was an absolutely wasted day - and I was delighted to have it!

Today I am back on the wagon - so far. Days are easy for me with our planned and prepared meals. We had poached egg on toast with orange juice for breakfast, applesauce with a graham cracker for a snack, chicken rice soup with triskets for lunch, cottage cheese with salsa with tortilla chips to dip for another snack and we are having raspberry mango chicken with rice for dinner. I had a mini butterfinger here at work. Most of the good candy is gone at home - so I should be good to go for the rest of the night. I am, however, going grocery shopping after work - so I probably won't go to the gym. Sigh. I have to get back into that habit!!!!

No Restraint in my toolbox

I was almost completely unrestrained this weekend. Yesterday in particular was bad. We had company for dinner last night and I made homemade pizza -- which is really, really unhealthy the way I make it. I only ate one slice but I also drank wine (not even sure how much -- Daniel refilled me twice at least, but none of the glasses were large) and ate ozark pudding and ice cream. And all weekend I was sneaking candy from Cecilia's bag -- the kinds she has been rejecting. And the only exercise I got all weekend was my crunches and pushups on Saturday -- oh, and I tried to see how long I could go doing jumping jacks, but after 60 of them I was sick of my bra straps falling down (do gym teachers ever have boobs?) and tired so I quit. And I drank very little water all weekend long.

My weight jumped up alarmingly over the last three days -- Friday wasn't good, either -- so now I'm trying to force it back down by tomorrow but I'm not overly optimistic. I do have my gym time coming up in 40 minutes, so at least I won't be without exercise!

Friday, November 09, 2007

Still mighty quiet around here

I'm still plugging away at my diet. I've seen a few downward ticks of the scale so that's keeping me more or less enthused. I'm also tracking my weight, diet, and exercise on the Daily Plate (this is SUCH a good site) so that keeps me obsessing. I am now back down below my starting weight from the beginning of the year, and I'm just a few pounds off my low point for the year. But dieting was so much more fun the first time around, when (a) it was easy because I was nursing an enthusiastic baby and (b) it was exciting because the numbers were NEW, not numbers I saw a long time ago and let get away from me out of sheer laziness. At least I haven't had a major break in exercise in over a year, and this fall I've been more consistent about the exercise than I have been most of the Losers time, except for that month or so when Sarah and I kept a no excuses policy going so long it seemed criminal to break it. That was effective, but once we started letting it go it fell apart completely. Having an officially scheduled gym time four days a week is probably more useful to me in the long run.

I'll be very pleased once I see the other side of 140 again. I'll be even more pleased when I lose the last five pounds and get back to the 130-135 range again! I kept it there for eight of nine weeks back in 2006 and then never saw it again. Unfortunately I will have the holidays to contend with during the loss and early maintenance period -- this will be a real challenge!

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

A measly three weeks??

I feel like I've been dieting (for real) forever. I seriously thought I started this in early October, so I'd been at it at least a month. But I looked at the calendar last night and was appalled to learn that it's only been three weeks. And two days. I am seriously tired of dieting, especially when there's candy everywhere and beer in the fridge (which we've both been ignoring most of the time -- it hasn't stayed in the fridge in the past!). And don't get me started on how dull exercise is.

My weight today was the same as yesterday (woo hoo!) and I kept my calories under control all day. Today they might be a little higher, because I allowed myself one of the Williamsburg gingerbread cakes (even 10 days old, they're awesome reheated in the microwave) and those are probably a gazillion calories, but I can't tell for sure because I can't find a good count for them. 200 at least. No exercise today -- it's Wednesday!

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Weight

I was 225.6 this morning. So - up .2 pounds since yesterday -

I can't remember what I was writing here - so I am going to start all over... But since this may be a weigh in day post I am going to post it anyway.

143.5!

Hooray! It has been hovering around 146 all week despite how good I've been, and yesterday it just barely dipped to 145.5, but I drank water like mad all day yesterday and it paid off. Woo hoo! Of course this means it will be all but impossible to see a drop next week but it's nice to know all this effort has done some good.

Today I have my usual gym appointment and I'll be trying to eat well. The candy corn is all gone now, and the other candy in the house that's not in the kids' bags is in sealed packages twisted into a grocery bag in the closet, so that might be enough willpower, right? Or should I just open it up and call in the birds?

Maybe back to normal?

My schedule, that is. I've spent the last month completely focused on this DOL grant, then when I got that in last week I immediately headed off to our annual conference in DC, then came back from that to our new president's installation yesterday. The upshot of all of this is I haven't exercised in two weeks (and the two weeks before that I only got to the gym once) and haven't eaten normally at all. It's been a week since I've even been at my desk for more than a few minutes!

Today's weight was 141.2--a pound up from last week, which really isn't bad considering all of the eating and not-exercising I've been doing. I've got a gala to go to in a month and want to look good in my dress, so except for this Butterfingers I'm eating as I type this, I'm really seriously going to exercise five days a week and stick to 1300 calories a day. Really.

Monday, November 05, 2007

I'm Here!!

Sorry! It has been terrifically busy the last several days. Well - not Sunday so much - but still... Saturday Katie and I did the Christmas Bazaar at our church. We grossed just under $600, with a profit of about $400. Not bad. Today was payroll day - so I was tied up with that. I haven't actually read the blog since I posted last on Thursday or Friday or something...

I have been bad about candy - but not as bad as I have been in the past. I have definitely done the replace good calories with bad - but over the weekend I didn't even track what I was eating. Katie and I got back to our healthy menu today and I stuck with it (with a few drags of my feet off the wagon - but not a whole hearted leap off just yet). Tomorrow I have a seminar from 8am to 1pm which may or maynot include meals. I haven't determined that yet. But my lunch is packed for tomorrow and with any luck I will eat that rather than the possible junk that will be offered.

I have done NO exercise lately. None. Nada. I can't even claim hard work. The hardest thing I have done is walked back and forth to my car from our "shop" in the school gym several times. I was definitely "twitchy" on Saturday and took every opportunity to run errands. Well, I DID spend most of Halloween on my feet moving around - but that wasn't remotely hard... except for the high heels bit.

My weight - luckily - has stuck firmly in the 224-225 range. This is good compared to the 227-229 range I was seeing recently. It has, however, gone to the higher end of the range today (225.4). Hopefully it will be down tomorrow - but I am not expecting it.

Where is everybody?

I took it fairly easy over the weekend, trying to keep my calories low. On Saturday I cleaned house for several hours in a row, which has to count for something, but it wasn't serious exercise. And yesterday I paid bills, which was decidedly sedentary -- though I helped Daniel drag the rugs in and out of the garage, but that still wasn't much. Daniel did all the real labor yesterday, cleaning out over six years of acquired junk and dust, not to mention some garden supplies (like slug repellent) from the previous owners!

Today I'm trying to get back on the wagon. I exercised as usual at the gym; I had myself all psyched up to do the elliptical but then only the machines with the ski poles were open, and I hate those because the feel so unnatural. So I did the bike as usual. But it was a solid workout and I'm hoping finally to see a drop tomorrow. My weight has been moving very, very slowly. I've had trouble staying out of the candy corn the last three days, but it's been replacing healthy calories. :-(

I returned the new scale to the store. It was at best four pounds lower than the lowest reading on the scale I have, and while my scale may sometimes be flaky it has been consistently close to the doctor's office readings for the last twelve years or so, so I don't trust the self-calibration the new scale did. It also gave me a different calibration when I reset it after the first time. I don't need another flaky scale. And it was an inch too wide for the spot in our bathroom where we keep the old one, and there isn't another spot because the whole bathroom is about five square feet. Oh, well. I may try another in a different brand. And size.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Candy-eating orgy

Only not. But there's all this candy around, and I've been so busy for the past few days that it's been OK up until now. But when I got home from the gym just now I was starving, and Alexander's bag had spilled a bit onto the floor, and cleaning it up I had an urgent desire to inhale it. No, no, no! Bad, bad, bad! Candy bad. Beer good.

No, beer bad. On Wednesday I kept my calories to about 1300, including one Reese's and one little Kit Kat, and one beer. And yesterday my calories were about 1200, but about a quarter of that was a cannoli Daniel brought me home from his dinner out. Today my calorie count is under 600 through now -- I've seriously been too busy to eat -- but dinner will help me make up the other 600. But I might have room for one piece of candy or so. We found half price candy at Target today and I didn't buy anything chocolate -- just skittles and other candies the kids love. So that shouldn't be too hard to resist.

I'm still exercising regularly -- not Wednesday, except for walking with the trick or treating in the afternoon, but every other day so far this week. So I'm making new progress. And I've bought a new scale (precise to 0.2 instead of 0.5) to avoid the "147, ha, ha, no, 145" thing I saw last week.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Now THAT'S Irony!

This morning my weight was 223.8. It hasn't been that low in a while. I know, because as soon as I saw it I thought "My weight hasn't been that low in a while." Anyway - how ironic is it that after the biggest candy eating day of the year my weight drops? I guess though, when it comes right down to it I didn't eat much candy yesterday - and I usually spend the day running around considerably more than usual - THEN last night I went to bed at 10:30 and slept until 9:15 this morning. They say sleep is a key element to weight loss - maybe THAT is the piece I have been missing - you can't lose weight on 6 hours a night... Oh well. I don't see THAT changing any time soon.

Katie and I kind of ignored our diet yesterday - but I still managed to do OK on the food front - with the exception of breakfast (I had none). We had a pot luck lunch at work. I have half a piece of veggie lasagna, one chicken wing, fruit salad and green salad and a few pieces of bread with onion dip (my contribution). Dinner was a crock pot ckicken, bisquits and green beans. Candy of course for dessert.

My costume wasn't too hard to fix. I cut the waist band off just below the stitching line - and THAT made the skirt too big around the waist. Sigh. I just ran binding tape across the top and called it done then. Everyone LOVED my costume. I was definitely larger than life. I liked my apron. I want to wear it everyday. It had four big pockets in it which were very handy for trick or treating.

OK - one down, three to go in the next two months! Oh! I just found out yesterday that our work holiday party has been canceled. That isn't public news yet - so if you happen to run into anyone from TESSCO (other than me) don't mention this little tidbit. We are trying to save money - but it sucks considering that we were meeting TODAY to mail the invitations. We have already put a lot of time and effort (and money) into the event. Oh well.