Thursday, December 29, 2005

Salad for Breakfast

So. Christmas. My Birthday. Another Christmas. And another Christmas. And I ate pretty much nonstop. It's funny, I went to the trainer last Thursday, and he took my measurements and my bodyfat percentage. Let's just say it wasn't good. I knew it was going to be bad, but it still hurt to see those numbers. He estimated my body fat based on my scale weight and the measurements of my legs, arms, waist, neck, etc... He had a little book he used. I don't know how accurate the book is, but he estimates I'm between 38-40% body fat. Ouch. The good news is, we're working to get that off.

Anyway back to Christmas. So I had my session with the trainer on Thursday night, worked my ass off and got nice and sweaty, then got in the car to drive to Texas. We stopped for a sandwich for dinner on Thursday night, so all was good. On the road on Friday, I started the day with an Egg and Cheese biscuit from McDonald's. Blech. I never eat there. I'm morally against eating there. But guess what, eating there was my only option. Or at least that's what I told myself. Of course I could have eaten something else. And that pretty much started my week of gluttony.

There was pie, there was chocolate, chips and queso, a cheese ball, banana bread, biscuits, chocolate, chicken strips, bean burritos, and more chocolate. It wasn't pretty. And as you might imagine, the scale is showing it. But I'm back now I've had Christmas with both sides of the family and the boy's family, eaten my birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant, and I'm ready to get hardcore.

I saw the trainer tonight, and he has a plan to get me in fighting shape. Last week I brought him a detailed food journal so he could review my eating habits, and he has some suggestions. Apparently I'm doing okay on veggies, but not as good as I should be. Duh. And I snack too much in the afternoon. Duh. And I don't get enough protein. Duh. All things I knew he would say. But still its good to hear a third party say it.

So here's the plan going forward: I've got to do my weight training three times a week (including one session with the trainer). Cardio twice a week on top of that, after the weights or on a different day alone. As far as the food goes, I'll be sticking to the no sugar and no sugar substitute thing. In addition, I have to have a large salad for breakfast along with a protein shake every morning. Salad! A Salad!

The salad should have two different types of leafy greens, I'm thinking romaine and spinach. It also has to have four different types of vegetables. I'm having trouble thinking of four that I'm really going to like, especially for breakfast, but I'm going to do my best. I'm thinking cucumber, carrots, zucchini, and something else. But what else? Does anyone have any suggestions? Again, not a big fan of the crazy veggies, and I know its going to be especially difficult first thing in the morning. Maybe broccoli. Or snow peas?

If the trainer thinks it'll be good for me, then I'm going to stick to it. I'm going shopping this weekend for my veggies and protein shakes, and I'll keep you posted on how it goes. In the meantime, I'm going to try to kick some arse on my workouts and not overdo the alcohol on New Year's Eve. I'm also going to post here more often, so I'll see you all soon.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Quick Update

Hi everyone! I just got back in town last night from visiting my dad, and I just wanted to check in and let you know I'm here. Today's my birthday and with the end of this day comes the end of December indulgences. Besides New Year's Eve of course. I'll be back later this week with a full update on Christmas, my birthday, visiting the crazy state of Texas, the trainer, and everything else that's been going on. Until then, hope you all are having a fabulous December!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Hallo

I'm here. Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I have no excuse. Except that I'm so effing busy I can hardly stand it right now. There just isn't enough time. The good news is, I am dunzo with the Christmas shopping. Thank the lord. Spent waaaaay too much money but that's okay. I just like giving people stuff. What can I say? Plus I'm not very good and finding bargains. I suck at that actually. I can't wait to give the boy his gift! I won't tell you what it is here in case he reads it this (hi there boy) but I'll tell you after Christmas. It rawks!

So remember I'm writing everything down this week? OMG I am so embarrassed to give my little sheet to the trainer on Thursday. Let's just say the no-sugar thing is not really working out this week with the holidays and what not. There is so much chocolate in my office it is not even funny. And a girl can only resist so much chocolate. Also, I had holiday parties to attend on both Friday and Saturday, and I'm not going to lie, heavy drinking on Saturday may have led to a grilled cheese and a side of ranch. Damn you Denver Diner!

Workouts are going well; I'm sticking to my plan and tonight I did an hour of weights plus 25 minutes interval cardio. I'm happy about it. I feel good. I'm terrified because Thursday the trainers going to test my body fat, like he was supposed to do last week but he forgot. And I conveniently forgot to remind him. I know I should know so I can measure my progress, but I don't want to cry. Especially in front of the whole gym.

Still shooting for under 190 by the end of the year, then I'm telling you, we are going hardcore this. Who's with me?

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Writing it all down

Hello! How's it going everyone? Things are good here, just sore as all hell. I had a meeting with the trainer yesterday. Holy crap. Side lunges with a little hop. Suck my ass. And about a zillion other things he made me do. Big news is though, he's making me write down everything single thing I eat. And at what time.

It's weird because I've been doing WW online for a while now, and while sometimes it works and sometimes I'm slack about it, I've pretty much been tracking what I eat on a daily basis for over a year now. If I'm being honest with myself though, I haven't been tracking very well since I stopped losing weight in about March. I haven't been tracking well and I haven't been losing. In fact I've been gaining. Not a ton, but still gaining.

So I'm going to make a concerted effort this week to track every morsel that goes into my mouth. Meaning every little bite of cookie. Every drink. Every fry. Every chip. Every little bit. And the trainer is going to see it. He's going to see that today I had soup and salad for dinner but then I had half a chocolate chip cookie and 4 bites of the boy's macaroni. He's going to see that I'm going to two parties this weekend and I'll probably drink more than I should. He's going to see that the lack of vegetables in my diet is appalling.

It's all good though; I'm excited about it, and I think this is really going to work. I'm sort of afraid to be optimistic at this point, being so close to the holidays and with so much potential for disaster, but I just feel pretty good. I know my eating isn't spot on, but I'm working out and I'm feeling good about it. And the trainer said, and I quote, "by this summer, you'll be a lean mean machine."

Oh I hope so!!!!!!

Monday, December 12, 2005

Back from Santa Fe

So the boy and I went to Santa Fe this weekend. And pretty much ate and drank nonstop. I'm okay with it because it was my decision to have a great weekend and enjoy myself and that's exactly what I did. So remember I had gained five pounds. Well last week I lost all but two of that, which still sucked because it was a two pound gain. Then of course I went and probably gained about 30 pounds, but I'm going to try to get some of that bloat and water weight off before I step on the scale again.

The good news is, I did work out in Santa Fe. I didn't have the little book where my trainer wrote down all of my moves, but I did my best. All in all, a fabulous weekend with the boy and a couple pound gain will be worth it. Let's hope that doesn't happen anyway though. Today is serving as sort of a detox day, and I made it to the gym tonight as well. I'm feeling good and ready to kick some pre-holiday ass. I don't have any delusions about how hard these next two weeks are going to be, but I'm still going to give it a shot. If I can come out of 2005 under 190, I'll be happy. About 10 weeks ago I said I wanted to come out of 2005 at 175. Clearly that is not happening. I'm sort of ambivalent about that I guess.

Anyway, I have my next session with the trainer on Wednesday, where he's going to weigh and measure me. Great. Not looking forward to finding out my body fat percentage. It is what it is though.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Par-tay

So the holiday party season is now in full swing. Starting tomorrow with the office holiday party. Our holiday party sounds extremely exciting, but frankly I'm sort of bummed that it's just employees and we aren't bringing significant others. I mean I see these people every day. I want to show off my cute boy to them and actually enjoy some time out of the office with these people. Either way I'm sure it will still be fun. And food filled. Check it out:

We're going to a local cooking school and learning how to cook a full Italian meal. I'm not too sure on the details, but I know it includes an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. And wine. Lots of wine. But having dessert means sugar will be present. Lots of sugar. And I'm sure it will be delicious. I haven't yet decided how I'm going to approach the holiday party tomorrow. On one hand, I could say this is a once a year event and throw caution to the wind. On the other hand, I could strictly stick to my no sugar on weekdays plan and avoid dessert altogether.

But if I'm going to make this a lifestyle, I'm going to need to incorporate these kinds of events into my daily life. And I seriously doubt I'm going to be able to or even want to resist a delicious Italian dessert that I created with my own two hands. I'm not a great cook, so I'm really excited and nervous to see what I can prepare. We'll see how I feel about that tomorrow night though.

To update you on the no sugar, no sugar substitute plan; I've been doing pretty well. Not perfect, but good. Since last Thursday night when I discussed the plan with the trainer, I've had no soda, diet or otherwise. I'm pretty proud of that. I have however, had some sugar free syrup with kashi waffles (I mean I just bought these waffles and what else am I going to eat with them), one bite of cheesecake, and one cookie. Now I know this looks like I completely effed it all up, but this was all on Saturday and Sunday, days he said I could be a little more lax with myself. Today went extremely well, I was dying for a piece of chocolate after dinner but I resisted and made some cinnamon tea instead.

I also completed my assigned workouts on Saturday and tonight, even with a massive amount of soreness. After I got my blood pumping with some cardio I felt okay, but it is truly amazing what lifting weights can do to weakly muscles like mine. So I feel good about how I've done when it comes to focusing on my new plan. Like I said, I'll probably have some sugar tomorrow night at the holiday party, but after that I should be all good.

All should be well and good then right, and I should be on track for another loss this week, right? NO.

I weighed myself this morning - up a whopping FIVE pounds from my weigh-in on Friday. FIVE pounds! I know there are reasons for this. Sore muscles holding water. Period due on Thursday. Big pasta dinner Sunday night. But still. FIVE pounds! Seriously.

Hopefully I'll be able to get rid of it, but its looking like we'll see that same yo yo gain this week and I'll be right back to 190 or above, where I've been for weeks and weeks on end. Damn you five pounds. Damn you.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Trainer Day 2

I feel so great right now! Besides the lingering hacking-up-a-lung cough, I'm fabulous. I went to see the trainer tonight for free session number two, and it was great. He taught me some more weight exercises and we came up with a plan for me to stick to so that I can achieve my goals. It is as follows:

I will be attending the gym at least three times a week, focusing on the resistance training workouts he has taught me. (I'll probably try to do more, but this is the workout I'll do at LEAST three times a week).

First, I'll warm up on the treadmill for five to seven minutes.

Next comes resistance training: 2 sets of 15-20 reps, increasing weight on the second set. I'll do one exercise for each muscle group. Some of the exercises he taught me are squats on the bosu ball, simultaneous tricep pushdown and bicep curl, and bosu pushups. Everything is focused on moving multiple body parts at once and improving core strength as well. This will change up in the future, but for now it's the plan and should take around 25-30 minutes.

After resistance training I'll do 20-25 minutes of cardio interval training, alternating one minute of hardcore, but not quite puke level running or whatever my fancy is that day, and two minutes of recovery time. I'll work up to doing longer intervals of the running and shorter intervals of recovery.

Now comes the diet part. We talked about what I eat on a daily basis and he surmised what I already know: I eat too much sugar and not enough fruits and vegetables. So the first thing I'm focusing on with diet is eliminating straight sugar and artificial sweeteners from my diet. This includes all soda, even diet. It also includes the mini Hershey bar I eat almost every day after lunch. It also includes ice cream. It's going to be hard, but he said some things that really made me think. This may be a load of crap, but he said even one tablespoon of sugar raises your insulin levels so much that it can suppress your immune system for four hours. When that sugar adds up, your body is pretty much screwed, and losing weight becomes extremely difficult.

I know this is going to be hard, but he wants me to tackle this beast in manageable sections. Right now I'm going to focus on having sugar free and sugar-substitute free days three to four days a week. Right now, this should be do-able. I'm going to give it a shot. Once I can maintain this, we'll try to make more changes.

I'm excited about the things I've learned and the plans I've made. Hopefully these changes will really help me become the strong, athletic person I want to be. They'll help me prepare for the sprint triathlon I want to do next summer. And they'll help me lose some weight.

Yay!