Myspace Ads at their Best

Look what ad I got on myspace today? I love how they can target you now. I am 24, and of COURSE I am over weight and want to look anorexic like the girl in the picture. I hope CNN AND Oprah can make me look anorexic.

Let's click on the link and see where it take's me so I can get the answer.



Oh it takes me to Mary's Fat Loss Blog, with a girl who is in AUSTIN where I live and only uses google content ads as her main content. OMG. Maybe I can lose weight too, I know she can because she did it and lives in AUSTIN and has a BLOG. Oh wait, what happened to the advice from Oprah and CNN? I thought they were going to give me advice not Mary. STRANGE. I guess this was good enough. Time for me to go on the diet specifically aimed at people MY age.

Thanksgiving Update

Right before my Thanksgiving trip look what I got in the mail! Woo hoo! And no, I did not get it for free. Oh well, it is worth every cent. I tried some this morning and it was amazing.

I failed to get photos of the food at Thanksgiving but I did get pictures of me and the fam playing Rock Band. Although we were all pretty shaky at first we ended up kicking some butt towards the end!

Here you can see Mike on drums, Steven on mic, and Felipe on bass.

Here you can see me on bass (my fave), felipe on drums and steven on mic again. Steven was quite the singer.
The pups also had a lot of fun. Steven has a dog, hunter, and a huge backyard. The dogs played the entire time we were there. There was a lot of ender chasing hunter, although he probably never did catch him. haha.
Emily is not one to chase very long, but she is one to lay by family and pose for the camera ;-)

On Black Friday Mike, his mom and aunt and I went to wal-mart to check out the deals. We showed up several hours too late and discovered all the sales were over. We also got rained on pretty badly. That was Mike after walking from the front drop off to the front door.


I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did. I am looking forward to Christmas already to hang out with the whole fam again. This time it will be in Austin, which means I get to do the cooking. I am looking forward to that since I love cooking!

There was a lot of eating to be had on Thanksgiving, but I am already eating better today. I even worked out this morning. Woo hoo!

Have a great day and a marvelous weekend!

Day Before!

I am still sore. It got worse during the day. I could barely take my dogs to the bathroom because it meant going up and down stairs. hahaha. I pulled through though and actually took them though, no worries. haha. Squats and lunges are the death of me. I am excited to continue that class so that they will not be the death of me forever. haha.

And yes, I did skip the gym. I thought at first that maybe it would help stretch out the muscles, but really, I could barely walk so no way was I going to do an intense step class. I went home instead. I just watched tv and read blogs. I was in a bad mood last night, for a lame reason. I should have done laundry, packed, etc, but I did nothing. Oh well.

I would normally be hoping for a short day today since pretty much no one else is at work, but i have too much to do today. I need as much time as possible. Super lame. Oh well.

At least I get free lunch today. Sandwiches from Jersey Mikes. I really want the philly cheese steak sandwich, and I saw the calories online for it, and it is within range if I eat a mini size of it. I think I can do it. Will prob have a small dinner tonight anyway since I have a ton of errands to do tonight.

Well maybe I don't have to do the errands but I want to. I ordered stuff on Gap the other day and got it on Monday. And then realized i didn't like the sweater and then returned it yesterday and then turns out Mike didn't like it and then i realized it had 3/4 sleeves. This annoys me when it comes ot thick sweaters that are supposed to keep you warm. So I decided I needed to return it. I was hoping it would be my "thanksgiving sweater" this year but I guess I have no new sweater for the occasion. I like to have a new sweater for the occasion because it makes me feel more confident on a day that I get insecure. I get insecure because it has been awhile since I saw a bunch of the people I see on Thanksgiving and I am hoping they aren't thinking wow she gained weight, or blah blah blah. Plus a lot of photo's are usually taken, and dangit I want to look cute in them not frumpy, etc. So moral of the story no sweater yet for thanksgiving. I might go to the mall after work and see if I can exchange the sweater for something else at Gap, one that will make me happier and more confident.

If only I had not eaten all that "bad food" in the last few months. Totally not worth the feeling I am feeling right now where I feel like I have gotten no where with the weight loss goals, etc. I need to get out of this funk and just be confident. I think once I have a sweater that makes me feel good I will feel better. This all sounds super lame I know, but aunt flow is coming next week and she is already giving me back handed compliments. heh.

Any tips on ignoring the criticism you think people are saying about you on holidays? I think I grew up with people always criticizing others appearances, especially family members, so I have always been paranoid they are going to do the same to me when I am not around. I have never been that person because I know how much it hurts to be talked about. But I know not everyone is like me. Anyone else grow up in a family like this?

Luckily for me, the family I am going to see is not very critical. They are very nice and I generally never hear them saying anything negative about friends and family.

Sore

I am glad you liked my pictures. I will be working on coming up with a plan to get more into the blog. :-)

So last night I went to the gym, annoyed that I still had to do the elliptical because the achilies tendon injury thing. And then I saw it, the passes to get into the gym classes! I always think about taking them, but wimp out, due to social anxiety. ahah. But last night I was like well if I can't run, I can at least switch things up in an exercise class.

The class I took was circuit training. I have never taken one of these classes and I think I will now continue to take them. It was sooo freaking hard though. The instructor told us she was going to make us work harder this time because it was the week of Thanksgiving, etc. I wonder what normal is, because harder is freaking HARD. We had to do 2 minute intervals of different exercises. I started out doing 2 minutes of walking lunges, jump rope, power lunges, standing on this ball thing and doing upper body work, mountain climbers, butterflys, the step, running around the gym, and more. I am going to be incredibly sore later on today.

The instructor invited me to the step class she holds on Tuesdays. If I am not dying in pain I think I am going to go! Woo hoo!! I am glad I went to the class, because I think I get a MUCH better workout in those classes rather than the stupid elliptical. heh.

On a bad note, I forgot my lunch today. BOO. I carefully planned it to, logged it into calorie-count.com and everything. Boo. And I would normally just go home and eat it at lunch but I have plans to go to Gap today and exchange something I ordered online. I guess I could do that tomorrow, but I doubt it will happen and I want to make sure it happens. Perhaps I will just get a sandwich from this place right next to Gap.

On a good note, I definitely stayed within calorie range yesterday and felt great. I am motivated right now, more than usual, which is great.

I hate going to family events looking frumpy, so I am going to make sure I lose some frumpyness by the time Christmas comes! It will be worth hearing from someone, wow you look really healthy, or something like that.

Are you working out extra hard this week in preparation for Thanksgiving?

New Camera!!

I got a new camera today! It is an 8.0 mega pixel which is kinda a big deal for me. Woo hoo. I took several photos for all of you since my blog majorly lacks in the photo arena. I plan to take a lot more in the future! Also the picture of me, below, is after the gym. Will tell you a story about that tomorrow!

This is a photo of Mike being silly. I like to pretend it is his impersonation of Michael from the Office. Here is the beauty, Emily. She was not too excited about posing today, but I think this one will do :-)


Here is little Ender. Can you see why I get so upset when he gets sick. He is so freaking adorable. Plus he LOVES to pose for the camera. hahah. I will try not to post TOO many of the pups on here ;-)
I hope you enjoyed the photos. Any suggestions on what kind of pictures you would be the most interested in? Food? Progress in the weight/fitness arena? Just things I do from day to day?

3 Day Work Week!!

I am pretty excited this work week is only 3 days. I will have to use those days to exercise as much as possible because I am not sure how much I can do it once I leave for Thanksgiving. I am hoping I can convince some people in Mike's family to go on a long walk with the pups after Thanksgiving dinner.

I am going to try to go hardcore about getting back into exercise and eating better. I got down to almost under 120 a year ago, why can I not do that again? And get LOWER? I have been in standstill for about a year. Funny coming from a blog that doesn't believe in diets right? haha.

So what are your tips for cutting calories in the holidays? Just if you eat the "bad" things eat less of them?

I can do that, but I need to learn to actually eat smaller bites of them than the entire thing and lie to myself that it was actually smaller. haha.

Oh so now time for a re-cap.

On Friday night I ended up going to the gym. It was so strange because NO ONE was there. Almost creepy. It was me, some older woman and the one person who works there on Friday nights. Weird. Also I decided to try running on the treadmill again and lasted about 30 seconds before I felt pain in the achlies to heal area. I quit immediately and just went onto the elliptical. This annoys me. I think I am also supposed to do the stationary bike or something to help, but it bores me more than the elliptical. Hmmmmm. Any ideas on how to make riding the bike at the gym more fun?

On Saturday I did a lot of errands and made low fat loaded potato soup. Delicious. Mmmm. Lot's of hard work though. After that I went and watched the Master Pancake - Back to the Future. That was pretty hilarious.

We didn't get back until late from the movie so I ended up sleeping in until 10am. Crazy. I think the dogs let me sleep in that long because around 4am Emily kept barking at me to take her to the bathroom, which meant it was a real emergency for her. I took her out, in the RAIN at 4am, but fell back to sleep within seconds. haha.

On Sunday I took Teddy out to lunch for her birthday. We went to this place called Tacodeli. I really liked it, but have to admit I put too much extremely spicy salsa on it, which resulted in me not being able to taste all the real flavor in it. Afterwards we went to the mall. I ended up getting this adorable almost trench coat like jacket from Nordstroms for less than $60. I am in love with it and am dissapointed it will be in the mid 60s to low 70s all week, which means I cannot wear it. I think it needs to AT LEAST be below 65 before I can wear one. hahah. This jacket is very structured which makes it very slimming. Woo hoo! I need to make Teddy shop with me more, she always is honest about whether something makes me look frumpy or not. haha.

This week the plan:
Monday: Work, Lunch go to best buy, Gym -1 hour cardio, weights
Tuesday: work, gym - 1 hour cardio, weights
Wednesday: work, gym, pack for road trip for Thanksgiving
Thursday: drive 6 hours, eat thanksgiving dinner
Friday: go on long walk with dogs I hope
Saturday: no idea (not sure how long we are staying at Mike's brother's place)
Sunday: no idea

Planned Food Today
B: english muffin w/ pb & jelly, coffee w/ egg nog soy milk & pumpkin spice
S: nutri grain bar
L: pad thai w/ tofu
S: greek yogurt with blackberries, and pomegranates
D: perogies w/ rice and lots of veggies

45 Degrees Out? Ahh.

So I didn't write yesterday. Busy as always. It is often hard to get this in during the day. I want to start adding photo's too, not sure how I will manage that.

So the calorie count challenge turned out good, meaning I was reminded how calories add up quickly and how irritating it is to add them all into the journal. Mostly because I am doing it to be as accurate as possible, but it is ridiculously hard to be accurate, especially when you aren't making the food, and you are too lazy to add every single ingredient. If any of you do calorie counting what are your tips?

Yesterday Mike was super stressed with writing a paper, and the thought of 2 more huge ones being due in 2 weeks. So at lunch I went home and coached him into figuring out how to get a thesis. I didn't have time to make lunch so I just grabbed 2 pieces of leftover pizza in the fridge. Then I ended up getting out a little later than usual at work. And Mike needed more coaching through the paper process and told me he just got a warm roasted turkey for us to eat. So I skipped the gym because I am lame and give in to temptation. hahah.

Tonight I am going to the gym, then going home to watch tv/movies with Mike while sitting by the fireplace since it is FREEZING here. And when I say freezing, I mean supposed to get to 35 degrees tonight. Is that laughable? To me it is not.

I wore a cute dress today with black textured tights and a sweater. I was nervous to do the tights thing since it is a little out of my box. I don't think I wore any since I was under 10 years old, aside from a halloween costume this year. I got a few compliments so I guess it looks good. It is pretty flattering too, which is nice.

Lunch today is pizza with co-workers. Will make sure I do not eat more than 2.

Had a big bowl of oatmeal this morning so I will probably also be skipping my morning snack. So everything will even out.

Does anyone have fun plan this weekend?

My Weekend Plans:
Friday: night in with Mike
Saturday: Master Pancake House - Back to the Future, run at the park, try out a bunch of thanksgiving recipes.
Sunday: park with the pups (running with them), lunch or dinner with teddy for an early birthday event.

Social Obligations Make me Eat More

Wow yesterday was super high calorie/unhealthy dinner day. I didn't even want to add calories up for it, but I did. I knew it would be a ton though. The scale also knew as well.

I went to my book club meeting, which was great. The food served was baked potato soup (super fatty but heavenly), salad, roll and apple pie and wine. Wow. That dinner was probably enough calories for the whole day. Only 2 people showed up to the book club (aside from the host) and she cooked a ton of food so I felt bad and took a part in all of it. Not a good excuse but I get pretty freaked out if I think I am offending someone. Any ideas on this one?

Today was free lunch at work day. It was bbq, basically a huge buffet of it all. I could have kept it a little lighter but was lame and did not. I had some brisket, bbq beans, potato salad, sausage pieces and chocolate pudding. WOW. I will be full for a long time I am sure.

I still have a high amount of acid in my stomach though. Not sure why because I have been avoiding acid like the plague because of a massive cut on my tongue. Even the wine last night was a little tough to drink. This acid causes the gnawing hungry feeling but I can tell it is not hunger because it comes from right below the rib cage, not where it would normally come in my stomach. Hopefully I can keep level today. It basically causes me to eat when I shouldn't be eating just to make the pain subside a bit. I might need to invest in some pepcid ac or something soon.

Tonight I have kickball, our last game, and we usually go out and drink afterward, although hardly eat dinner. heh. Good thing I have been eating pretty healthy over the weekends. I usually tend to eat a LOT less on weekends for some reason. I think it's because I get so wrapped up in enjoying the things I am doing while not at work that I forget to eat. Awesome.

Alright, I need to head out.

Have a great day!

Lameness

Lame. I have a doctors appointment today. And yes, it is for the worst routine yearly visit. Awesome. Now this time come out NORMAL.

I was planning on going to the gym at lunch today since I have book club tonight, but now I have to use my doctors appointment as my "lunch". Super lame. Oh well. I will make it up this week.

I was looking at the classes my gym has on the weekends, and one includes a step class. If you remember, I used to go to a step class with my friend Andrea all the time when I lived in California. I might be brave enough to go by myself now. Not sure. But it would be more motivation than going to the gym to go on a boring elliptical. Sorry to any elliptical fans out there, but they truly bore me. If it wasn't for "This American Life" on podcast I might not be able to finish the workout. haha.

Last night I went to the gym and did 30 minutes on the elliptical and lower body weights, as planned. While doing some calf work my achilies tendon/heel starting hurting so I quit doing that. I either need to lower the weight next time or just figure out another calf exercise that actually works. Any ideas?

After the gym I went to Whole Foods because I really wanted Oikos. I seriously think it is the best greek yogurt I can find out here. I like them the most because they use the 0% kind of yogurt with a flavor. Fage does not do this, nor does chobani, or this other brand i forget the name of. If you want the flavored kind with them it is going to cost you at least 250 calories. And if you get the 0% the protein goes down significantly. But with oiko's the calories (even with flavored) are around 120 and still 13 grams of protein. Love it.

Anyway, Whole Foods is the only one who carries Oiko's around here, so i went there to stock up. I also ended up getting some other odds and ends, including vegetarian chili, lentil soup, tofu, butternut squash soup, egg whites (which cost me almost $6 ahhh!!) and some holistic dog food my dogs now require. My dogs have super sensitive stomachs due to food allergies. I have to get them hypoallergenic food or else there is blood coming out of areas where blood should not come out of. Too much info in the morning? Sorry. Well, the point, I got a ton of great food but it cost me a million bucks ($76). I blame this on my choices, and the $26 dog food and $6 egg whites.

I am NOT excited about my doctors appointment today. I wish it was already over. Or that it was at least a little less invasive. Gah. Oh well, I need to suck it up and get over it.

Also I stuck to plan yesterday. Today at book club I will be served baked potato soup. I am scared they might use chicken stock to make it but will cross my fingers it will be chicken-less. I guessed a bit on the calories in calorie-count, but at least I am counting right? I was definitely under the 1600 calorie limit, actually around 1400 because I couldn't eat my oranges yesterday bc the cut on my tounge would kill me.

Okay the plan for today:

B: english muffin w/ dark chocolate dream pb, coffee w/ egg nog soy milk and pumpkin spice
S: kashi granola bar
L: pad thai w/ tofu
S: veggies, fruit, greek yogurt
D: baked potato soup.

The Challenge

okay so Jen from Prior Fat Girl had a great post today smacking some people back into reality. We whine, we complain, say we have no idea why we are not losing weight even though we eat healthy and workout but then indulge a little more than we should.

For example, I would say yesterday was pretty healthy, but I am sure if I added all the calories it was probably very over. Actually once I list out all the food I ate I start to notice some bad trends.

Let's start with the list:
B: scrambled egg whites with vegan sausage, bell peppers, onions, 2% chedder cheese. Coffee w/ chocolate soy milk (just a little bit).
L: squash dumplings with onions and other veggies, canten, pudding. 2 mimosas.
S: english muffin w/ pb and jelly
D: 1/2 serving of chili w/ onions, jalapenos, 2% cheese.
D: cookie

Jen challenged people to actually count calories for 3 days, and I think I am going to take her up on that. I put in all the food I plan on eating today. This is without me taking certain things out bc I was over points. Currently it is as 1,582 calories for the day if I only eat the stuff I wrote down and the goal is to eat less than 1,616 and more than 1,200. This is to lose 16 lbs by March.

I really do hate food journaling though because it tends to make me eat less healthy stuff because writing every single veggie I add to things or fruit gets to be a pain in the ass. That is why I am only going to do it for a little bit. Maybe less twittering and more food journaling? haha.

I like doing it all at the begining of the day and just trying to stick on schedule with it. I think that might be the easiest. So if I decided to eat more later in the day that means I have to journal again, which is super annoying. What a gret deterent right?

Anyone else down for the challenge?

Also if you already food journal, let me know what you use. I am using calorie-count.com right now, but I know there are probably better services out there. I want one that works on my blackberry, but I have yet to find one yet.

Planned Food for the Day
B: oatmeal w/ trail mix and vanilla soy milk, coffee w/ chocolate soy milk
S: kashi pumpkin spice granola bar
L: chili
S: fage yogurt w/ honey
D: pad thai w/ tofu

Planned Workout
Elliptical 30 minutes, lower body weights

I Love Friday's

For the past few days my stomach is doing the whole raging hungry thing, except that it is not actually hungry it is just that there is too much acid in my stomach and it makes me feel like I am hungry. I had to keep repeating to myself yesterday evening that I was not actually STARVING it was just the acids in my tummy being annoying. It actually helped a bit telling myself that.

Mike and I ended up getting pizza last night. Not sure why but I was craving something that I didn't have to cook and Mike was craving pizza. We got this tasty combination with cilantro, black beans, jalapenos, onions, lettuce, sausage. Heaven. I actually ate a piece for breakfast it was SOO good.

Mike's mom got into town earlier than we expected so we all enjoyed the pizza together. The rest of the night was spent catching up on each others lives. Oh and watching Top Chef! Woo hoo. I think Stefan will win, although I like the rainbow shirt girl. Forgot her name. Do any of you watch the show?

For lunch today I am going out with a few co-workers. And then tonight I am going to an Italian place for dinner. I will do my best to keep the calories low because the scale was pretty mad at me this morning. hahah.

Alright, have a great Friday. Enjoy the nice thoughts of sleeping in tomorrow, or whatever you like most about the weekends!

We Finally Won

For the record, my kickball team FINALLY won! Wow. This was our first win, and we only have one game left, so it was relieving and GLORIOUS. haha. After the game we went to Doc's, which is a bar that has specials specifically for kickball players. hahah. I didn't do too bad, two beers and two bean and cheese tacos (my dinner).

After going out I went home and watched an hour or so of basketball because The Suns (my team) were playing the Rockets (mike's team) and it is kind of a big deal. Too bad my team lost. BOO. But I did get to watch a nice scuffle that the players had during the game. Always entertaining, even though Nash got hurt.

I got no sleep last night. I remember waking up at 4:35am and being thankful that I had another hour and a half to sleep. But then what felt like 2 seconds later my alarm was going off. BOO. I am tired. I already had 2 cups of coffee. Tonight I expect to also not get sleep. Mike's mom is coming into town and I would love to catch up for a bit tonight.

I brought a tasty lunch today and am hoping it will be warm enough to eat outside. Mike bought me some english muffin bread, it looks amazing. I am looking forward to trying that on my sandwich today, which also has reduced fat chive cream cheese, turkey and jalapenos. Mmmm.

I won't have time to workout tonight. I should have packed my gym bag and did it at lunch but I ran out of time this morning. I will probably just workout both Saturday and Sunday. Maybe workout at home? There is technically a tiny gym at my apartment complex, I might use the elliptical there. We shall see what the weekend brings. :-)

Also I got tagged by Jen from Prior Fat Girl. I am supposed to say 7 weird things about myself and then tag others. I would like to tag everyone who reads this blog, because I am guessing a lot of you who read do not comment. If you do do it, please leave me a comment and let me know and I will gladly read it!

1) I was quail man for Halloween one year, best costume I have ever worn
2) Christmas songs depress me.
3) I could eat red pepper or cayenne pepper with almost anything.
4) I am super internet nerd and can find anything for you online, if it actually exists somewhere.
5) I am allergic to chicken, tuna, wheat (to a small degree), pine, iodine, and a lot more. Those are just the ones that affect me most.
6) I am young, relatively healthy, not at a technically unhealthy weight yet I still have high cholesterol
7) I had kidney stones twice, under the age of 15.

Avocados and the Gym

So I didn't end up cleaning much last night, but I did workout. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and did upper body weights.

I am always paranoid at the gym that people are looking at me while I work out. But I think it is because I am looking at other people while I work out. And it is not to judge them, it is to get ideas on different exercises I could be doing. I am at heart a people watcher/observer so it is difficult for me not to look. Do any of you look at other people while working out? Do you keep to yourself?

My lunch today, although earlier then I expected, ended up being pretty fantastic. It is free lunch Wednesday at work, so I got a salad with beans, avocado, pico de gallo, jalapenos, and chili lime ranch dressing. And then also had a churro. Mmm.

When I was eating my salad I said something about how because I chose the healthy option for lunch I was going to have a churro, you know to break things up. Then this person says, what, you think your salad is healthy with AVOCADO and DRESSING?

Lame. Avocado's in small amounts (like in my salad) is good for you, as is dressing (in small amounts). They both contain the healthy fats. And if I am not eating meat in my salad then what is wrong with getting some healthy fats from other things? It really annoys me sometimes when people give avocado's a bad rep, because they are amazing... in moderation. Well actually they are still amazing NOT in moderation, but they are more amazing to my health in moderation. Any of you get this ever? People mistake healthy food for unhealthy food? Or maybe I just think certain things are healthy when they are not, and maybe that is why I have not lost weight while eating relatively "healthy".

For the record here are some avocado facts:
"Avocados contain oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that may help to lower cholesterol. In one study of people with moderately high cholesterol levels, individuals who ate a diet high in avocados showed clear health improvements. After seven days on the diet that included avocados, they had significant decreases in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, along with an 11% increase in health promoting HDL cholesterol.

Avocados are a good source of potassium, a mineral that helps regulate blood pressure. Adequate intake of potassium can help to guard against circulatory diseases, like high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Association has authorized a health claim that states: "Diets containing foods that are good sources of potassium and low in sodium may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke."

One cup of avocado has 23% of the Daily Value for folate, a nutrient important for heart health. To determine the relationship between folate intake and heart disease, researchers followed over 80,000 women for 14 years using dietary questionnaires. They found that women who had higher intakes of dietary folate had a 55% lower risk of having heart attacks or fatal heart disease. Another study showed that individuals who consume folate-rich diets have a much lower risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke than those who do not consume as much of this vital nutrient." - whfoods.com/avocados

Okay done with that.

Tonight is kickball. I am hoping it doesn't get canceled and that we have fun. I can't wait!!

Running Away

This day is running away from me. I ate at my desk today. I hate doing that, but sometimes it happens. Only about two or three times here though and I have been here for 6 months. Not too bad right?

I found out today that the boyfriend's mom is coming a day earlier than I thought she was. This means I need to clean the house a day sooner than I thought. That means I have to do it tonight. I think I am going to do a quick workout at the gym after work and then go home and clean up the house. Need to clean the kitchen, the clutter, and my bedroom.

Tomorrow I have kickball, which I am excited about. We haven't played in a few weeks, and it should be fun to be back at it.

Last night I ended up doing 30 minutes on the elliptical and then did a bunch of lower body weights. I am trying to up the lower weight work because it is supposed to help with the achilies tendon thing. Today it is feeling sorta stiff, so not going to say it is working yet ;-)

So on weekends I have been terrible about working out. This weekend will be harder because if I want to workout I need to go to the gym and do the ellipitcal and not go running outdoors. Lame. My gym is about 4 miles away, which is not far at all, but when I think of driving there in the middle of my saturday i just do NOT want to do it. Especially since the gym I would be going to is one I have never been to (the one closer to my house actually). Makes me nervous to go to new places like that. No idea why.

Since I have been on plan for the most part the last few weeks I have lost some weight. At least I am not at the scary level right now. I am at the gah this is annoying I can't believe I have gone nowhere over the past year and a half. But at least I am not above it right? Ehh. I would like to keep up the downward trend. Rather I am doing everything I can to keep up the downward trend.

What do you do on weekends to get yourself motivated to workout?

Planned Food for Today
B: choco waffle with dark chocolate pb, kiwi, coffee w/ egg nog soy milk and pumpkin spice (delish combo!)
S: pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip bar
L: morning star chikn tenders, cilantro ranch, string cheese
S: celery and carrots, banana chips, pretzels
D: Something quick since I have to clean all night.

The Plan for The Week

Monday: 30 minutes elliptical, lower body weights
Tuesday: 40 minutes elliptical, upper body weights
Wednesday: Kickball
Thursday: 45 minutes elliptical
Friday: Mike's Mom in town
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Run with the pups at the park.

Running with the pups while playing soccer and basketball is a LOT of fun and definitely gives you a workout. I was sprinting a lot, kicking soccer balls, beating Mike in Horse. haha. Definitely used some muscles I am not used to using. The scale liked the workout out as well. :-)

I think my bars turned out pretty wel. They are pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip bars. They are pretty healthy overall, only bad thing in them is brown sugar. Mike neglected to tell me he doesn't like oatmeal cookies though so now I get to eat them all. Maybe if they were really good he wouldnt mind the oatmeal. I think he doesnt like the texture though or something. Blah blah blah. I would take them to work, but then I am nervous no one would like them because they are healthy and are orange from the pumpkin. If they were more chocolately or something I wouldnt feel nervous, but I do now. Oh well.

I have a lot of meals planned out for this week already. I wrote a list on the fridge of all the meals we could make with the food we have in the fridge. We really need to start eating what we have and buying less.

Also this week I am supposed to be a workaholic and work long hours because we are launching something new pretty soon and I need to get things ready for it. If it makes me stay late at night I am just going to workout at lunch. I might have to shorten the times I have planned, but oh well.

Also my achilies tendon thing still hurts. This is why it is all elliptical all week. While deconstructing that house on Friday I hit the tendon with a brick and froze in pain for about 5 minutes. Now when I just touch the area it makes me cringe. Ouch. Definitely time to lay off from running. And yes, I was stupid enough to run with the dogs yesterday. It is hard to resist fun like that though.


I hope you all have a great Monday!

Tanita

I got the Tanita Scale in the mail yesterday that I ordered a little bit ago. I wanted to get one that measured my body fat percentage and water percentage in order to actually know if my scale was crazy or I was crazy.

The scale was fabulous because #1 it said I weighed one pound less than my other scale from the day before and also because it let me know that my body fat percentage (at least according to it) is not unhealthy. Yeah! 24 hour fitness last year told me I was basically obese, which is strange because I wear size small for the most part.

So for the record, the scale yesterday said 126.2 and 27% body fat. I am definitely going to work on lowering that.

This past week I have done alright. I have had some definite accomplishments.

I worked out on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and will work out today. Friday I did about 6-7 hours of the most strenuous work of my life. Maybe not the most, but it felt like it. Who knew deconstructing a house was so hard! My co-workers are not only work-aholics at the job but also when deconstructing a house. It was go-go-go the entire time. Wow.

I thought I would be more sore this weekend, but surprisingly I have recovered well. My muscles are sore in some of my upper body but overall I am just a tad stiff.

On Friday after the strenuous day I went to see Forest Gump at the Alamo Drafthouse Master Pancake style (think mystery science theater). It was a lot of fun, aside from the fact that I fell asleep during parts of it. I was DRAINED from all the physical labor during the day and couldnt help it. Oh well.

On Saturday I did a lot of shopping and then went out to a really nice restuarant with Mike. I got some coupon for $25 off, which was MUCH needed at a place like this. Mike ordered some scallops which he thought were the best he ever tasted. I am not a big fan of most seafood so I guess they were good because they weren't gross to me. They weren't fabulous by any means though, but to not be gross means it is probably fantastic to the normal person. We also ordered a nice bottle of wine, which was DELICIOUS. I ordered a pear gorgonzola salad with canided walnuts and a lemon pepper vinegarette. It was pretty good for a salad. But I know I could probably make something just as good so I wasn't all the impressed. Oh well. Mike got some meal with chicken stuffed with proscutto. It looked good, but I could not try it since I can't eat chicken. Oh well.

Today the plan is to take the dogs to the school nearby and play soccer with them for 30-45 minutes. Mike and I a generally just run up and down the field with the pups and they chase the ball. It gives us both a workout and is a lot of fun. Plus it works muscles I don't use during the week. Woo hoo. I need to wait for them to get back from their haircut appointment first though. Hopefully they don't hate us too much afterwards. :-)

I am also going to test some sides for the Christmas dinner I am making. I am doing a yam dish that my mom makes and am also trying a dessert. I am going to make pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip bars. Prob not the best thing to have in the house, but it could make for a healthy snack if I figure out a way to cut down the butter, etc. I am definitely excited for this test. I am in a huge cooking mode right now. Too bad it is too costly. Oh well.

I need to go finish up some laundry and then get on with my day. I hope you have a fabulous Sunday!

Allergies = Awful

I have the worst allergies right now. My eyes are all super dry, I feel like I am in a fog, am all achy and my throat is super sore. Fantastic. I know it is just allergies too because it feels better for a few hours and then gets incredibly worse with no rhyme or reason. When I am normal sick I am such sick the entire time. haha. I will stop whining now, but it is annoying.

Even though I felt terrible last night I went to the gym and did 30 minutes on the elliptical. I found the trick to feeling like less of a hamster. Listen to This American Life podcast while running. The stories are so riveting generally that you forget you are working out. Well not really, because I tend to push the limits when I am working out, but you quit paying attention to time as much.

Too bad last night I accidently picked the lame elliptical, the one without the arm things. Lame. haha. I did not do weights last night though. I felt gross and it sounded gross.

After the gym I went to the grocery store right next to the gym with the intention of getting a water bottle to bring with me to the gym (not the plastic crappy ones that turn into chemical water in my car). I ended up spending $40. I thought I should probably buy immune support things to help prevent my allergies from turning into an infection. I bought 2 bottles of naked juice (power c), multivitamins with extra vitamic c and a bunch of kiwi. I also bought some other random stuff that I probably should not have. Oh well.

Tomorrow I have habitat for humanity, where I will be tearing down a house with my co-workers. I was told it would be intense manual labor. I am hoping it counts as my workout.

Tonight I will be going to the gym and spending 45 minutes on the elliptical. Maybe 30, depending on how I feel.

I have no official weekend plans yet. I need to figure them out though. I want to do something fun. :-)

Have a great Thursday!

Planned Food for the Day
B: choco waffle w/ dark chocolate dream pb, w/ kiwi
S: naked juice
L: curry rice tofu concoction from firebowl
S: granola bar
D: avocado & hummus sandwich w/ swiss cheese. mmm.

Awesome

First off, how awesome was last night??????? I think it was amazing. Aside from the whole prop 8 obnoxiousness that passed. I am still really excited that America is again becoming a country I can be happy about. Some NPR stories I was listening to were really making me feel like I was stupid to believe that most people in America really are done with the whole racist thing. But this election regained my hope that America is not made up of a majority of racists. Note: i am not saying if you didn't vote for obama you are racist, just that some of the interviews on npr had a lot of people saying they were democrat and pro union all their life but couldn't vote for obama purely because he was black. that I believe is racist.

Onto another subject, I am really hoping all the rounds of things I did wrong in my first few months here will all be fixed soon because these phantom errors that show up randomly to haunt me really wear on my work esteem. Geesh.

On Friday I am volunteering with my work to help tear down some house or something for habitat for humanity. I am really excited for it and hope it will count as make up for my work out I missed yesterday. Supposedly it will be hard work, but I guess it depends on how much I try. heh.

I feel really gross today though, super allergy or like I am coming down with something. I am guessing allergy though. My throat hurts, I am sorta achy and my head hurts. Sounds like I am coming down with something right? too bad my allergies do the same thing to me. lame.

I assume it is just allergies so if I am feeling okay by the end of the day I am going to do 3 miles at the gym on an elliptical. My achilies tendon hurt most of my run last time, which was stupid to run n anyway. I don't want to be stupid again so I am going to do the elliptical.

Alright, need to head out. Have a great day :-)

The Anticipation

Today I was too busy working and glancing back and forth at the news to write. Right now I am watching the rockets game (wishing mike would turn the suns on instead), refreshing NPR.org and Cnn.com and twitter every two seconds and now writing this.

I did not workout tonight. Excuse is that it was first day of TOM and the freaking election. Just means I have to make it up this weekend. No biggie.

I am too excited about the election to write much more.

I hope you took advantage of your right to vote!!

My Twitter Account and Other Nonsense ;-)

I started a twitter account (show in the right nav bar) and I think that is what I am going to use to list what I eat and what I exercise (and how much). I think it is a good idea for me. I can update from my phone, from my Igoogle page, etc. Do any of you have a twitter account? I would love to "follow you".

I think it might be cool to instead of count calories, count the calories saved by not eating the candy and instead eating the apples, etc. Might be a good idea. Not sure I could keep it up though. But it could be fun and could create a more positive environment around calorie counting (for me).

I am going to have to figure out a plan for the gym today. Mike will not be home until pretty late so I need to go home as soon as I get off work to take the puppies out. I can either go to the gym during lunch, or go home at lunch and take the puppies out. I think I might just go home at lunch and then workout after work. That way the pups will have a bathroom break and will be okay if I head to the gym after work. Plus I won't have to be sweaty at work. That is always good right? haha.

So are any of you voting tomorrow? I voted absentee already and am excited to see how tomorrow turns out. If you haven't voted yet, go out and do it! I am so excited to be in such an important and close election. I just wish it wasn't as close it is, because of course everyone wants a landslide for the candidate they like. hah.

Also I might be signing up for a 5k in two weeks. I am not trained well enough to do WELL but I know I can definitely finish. The only problem is my achilies tendon thing. But it hardly ever hurts during the run, usually just the morning after. I guess I could always ice it like normal people would, right? haha.

Okay I need to head out.

Meal Plan for Today
B: oatmeal w/ apples and pumpkin pie spice, coffee w/ light chocolate soy milk
S: oiko's greek yogurt
L: some pseudo pad thai dish with veggies and tofu
S: carrots, granola bar
D: fajitas

Progress This Week

So far I worked out 4 times last week.

Monday: 2 miles
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wed: rest
Thurs: 4 miles
Friday: rest
Saturday: ran with the dogs and played soccer for an hour
Sunday: rest

My achilies tendon is super sore this week. I am pretty sure I tore it when I moved into my place and it has not recovered since. Probably since I refuse to actually rest it. Blah blah blah. I probably also need shoes with more support. Such a weird injury I think. I read that increasing muscles on your calves help.

My grade for exercise this week: A-
My grade for eating this week: C

I did not weigh myself the past few days, mostly because I kept forgetting to at appropriate times. But by how horrible it was trying clothes on at the mall yesterday I can assure you my eating this week apparently didn't help the situation.

Can I just say the experience was pretty terrible in the clothing region. My hair cut looks lame and makes me look un proportional in a terrible way, and i had to go up a size at some stores. bad sign. lame. lame. lame. granted it was Charlotte rouse which is made for 12 year olds, but whatever, it was pretty mortifying. Plus I had to pretend it didn't bother me much because how awkward is that for the other person who is most definitely not having that problem. Plus complaining about it is a waste of time, action is the only thing you can do to make it better.

This week is going to be all about planning. I have been told this week will be a LONG week, as in working late past 8pm probably several days this week. I am hoping it won't happen, but I am expecting the worst just in case.

I think I am going to make some meals for the up coming week pretty soon so I can be prepared in full force next week.

Here are some lunch meals I plan on making this week:
Tofu w/ udon noodles and some fun spices (not entirely sure yet of what)
Bombay Potatoes (some meal I found at Sunset Harvest)
Pinto beans w/ hummus and avocado (I got 3 for $1)

Some Dinner Ideas:
Garlic and Basil Gnocchi w/ zuchini and sqaush
Fajitas

Planned Workout this week:
Monday: 30 minutes on the elliptical (stretch out some sore muscles and hopefully relax the achilies tendon thing) lower body weights
Tuesday: 3 miles, upper body weights
Wednesday: kickball
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: rest
Saturday: Run with the dogs for 30 minutes
Sunday: rest

If I can't workout after work I am doing it during lunch. I have to get this stuff done. Working out is so much easier than eating smaller amounts. So if I excel at one section maybe some bad eating won't kill me. Or maybe it will. I think to lose weight you need to be great in both working out and eating healthy full time. I am terrible at that. blah. But I am going to get better at it. I have to. The shopping mall experience was too awful. I am NOT going up a size dammit. hahahaha.