Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Pokes Head Up

I may finally be on the mend. I'm still coughing a bit and for some reason I can't shake this sense of utter exhaustion, but besides that I'm feeling a zillion times better. I don't know what this plague is all about but is an absolute ass-kicker. And what is it about the plague that just makes me want to eat? There is this new Mexican place down the street from my house that is so freaking amazingly delicious and I wish I hadn't tried it. But of course I did and now all I want to do is drown myself in bean burritos. Ugh.

I attempted to hit the gym for the first time in a full week on Saturday morning before I had to go to a friend's baby shower, but I lasted a paltry 20 minutes before I had to get off and go lay on my couch. After lounging about pretty much all day Sunday and Monday, I finally managed to make it back to the gym this morning for a boot camp class, and although it was super tough and I can tell my body still isn't 100%, I was SO happy to be back. I really have made fitness a part of my life, and while it amazes me, taking more than a week off from working out really makes me crazy. I miss the movement, I miss the sweat, I miss the way my body feels when my heart rate is up and I'm sucking wind. I actually like inflicting pain on myself. :)

But, with the lack of working out over the past couple of weeks and the crappy food intake, my goals have sort of fallen by the wayside. I feel puffy and bloated and yucky. And it's not just because of the plague. I'm ready to get myself back on track on all accounts. AND, I need to take advantage of my current jobless situation while I still can, because (fingers crossed) I had an interview last week and I think it went really well. So while I'm trying not to get my hopes up, I am cautiously optimistic about potentially having a day gig to go to soon! 

So what does that mean for this week? Back to the gym, back to kickboxing and the treadmill and hopefully, even back to broccoli. I need to get my mojo back stat.  The boy had to go out of town for work so it's just me and the dogger, and I think this is the perfect time to get moving.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Check In

Hi. Just wanted to let you all know that I'm around, I've just been sick for what seems like ages and I'm just over it. I'm snotty and gross and feel like crap and it is ruining everything. Whine.

I'll be back when I have something a little more positive to say. 

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Weigh In and Goals Update

173.8. That's a loss of two pounds since two weeks ago, when I set my goals. I didn't weigh in last week because I'm a slacker and I have no excuse for it. Wasn't a good start to achieving those goals but here I am now and that's what counts right? So let's see, I'm on my way to my 5 lb loss by May 1, so goal #3 is on its way to being met. Woo to the hoo! It is SO nice to see the numbers go down on the scale for once. Maybe it was those Brussels sprouts I had last night? More on those later...

Sorry, I'm totally out of order, so now I'm going back to Goal #1, which was to work out 4-6 times a week. I just got home from kickboxing, which was my third workout this week, and I plan to hit Camp24 tomorrow and snowboard Saturday, so that will make a minimum of five workout this week.  I may even try to run Friday depending on the weather/how I feel because I woke up this morning kind of snotty and icky. I better not be getting sick because I am a pillar of freaking health. A pillar I tell you. 

Anyway. Goal #2 was stay within my calorie range 6 days a week. Eh. I don't think I've been perfect but I'm doing what I can. I'm still struggling with my alcohol intake on weekends. I swear it's just a couple of glasses of wine at a baby shower (and you KNOW I needed them) and then a couple of glasses that night, okay maybe three, but it just adds up and it's killing me. I haven't been going over by much, but I don't want to be replacing healthy food calories with alcohol calories (i.e. drunkorexic) so I'm just trying to find my balance. During the week I seem to be doing great, so I guess I'll just keep doing the best I can and one of these days I will figure it out. 

Goal #3, we've already been over, and goal #4 was to improve my form in kickboxing. LOL. For real. I am still mostly flailing about, in fact today I had a particularly bad day, but I'm blaming that on the fact that I haven't been sleeping well and I'm not feeling great today. I was just so tired and when I'm tired, I have crappy form. So we'll keep working on that.

Goal #5 was to cook, and I've been doing that! I made veggie chili for lunch yesterday and then last night I made Brussels sprouts. Hmm, how do I say this politely? I don't think I'll be buying them frequently. I roasted them with olive oil and salt and pepper and they looked quite lovely coming out of the pan, but the insides were just a little mushy for me. Maybe I didn't cook them long enough? I don't know, I'm going to try again because I have at least two servings left in my frig, so hopefully next time they will come out better. 

On today's menu:

B: Banana w/ almond butter
L: turkey sandwich, small side salad
S: spicy trail mix
D: leftover veggie chili

I guess that's it for me today. I know this was kind of a a boring post, but it's so good for me to write out updates on my goals like this. Now if I can only keep it up! I hope you all have a wonderful day. :) 

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Random Blah Blah

I have been having trouble getting motivated to write. So instead of something coherent I guess I'll just word vomit and see if anything interesting comes up. 

Yesterday I went to everyone's favorite health store and spent my whole non-existent paycheck. Ridiculous, but I hadn't been grocery shopping in a while and I've committed to locking myself in my house and eating every meal at home save a lunch date on Friday. The boy is out of town this week for a conference, so it's pretty easy for me to eat whatever I want and not have to worry about making extra for him. Typically he eats what I eat, but I always make an extra carb or side dish for him (risotto, tortillas for tacos, that kind of thing) so not having to do that is kind of fun. Actually, if I'm being honest, I haven't really cooked anything for myself. Last night for dinner I had a turkey sandwich. But I have PLANS to cook. And that's what counts. 

Anyway, while I was at Wh0le F00ds I purchased a new sweetener that I am now attempting to enjoy in my coffee. It's called XyloSweet, an all natural Xylitol sweetener. Since I'm obsessed with Jillian Michaels and have heard her recommend this on her podcast a couple of times, I decided to give it a shot. I've eliminated most artificial sweeteners from my diet, I'm off diet soda and try not to buy too much sugar free stuff (although I'm still sort of addicted to SF pudding, but I'm working on that). However, this means that lately in my coffee, I've just been using full sugar, full fat creamer and I'm here to tell you this was not a good idea. Aside from the fact that is full of crap and the calories can add up quickly, it was so sweet and delicious in the morning it was giving me cravings all day. So, I'm hopeful that trying XyloSweet will nip that in the bud and also help me get rid of cravings. 

Now I know you're probably thinking, "but aren't you just replacing one artificial sweetener with another?" And I was thinking that too, but apparently this stuff is all natural, not bleached and processed within and inch of it's life like Splenda (which I still like) and Aspartame. I don't know, I haven't done loads of research on it yet and I can't debate the merits per se, but it tastes ok in my coffee so I'm going to give it a shot. I did learn that it is toxic to dogs, so I'll be keeping it away from the dogger. 

Oh yeah I also got some Jay Robb protein powder for smoothies and man, that stuff is good. I made one yesterday with chocolate protein powder, water, and almond butter and it was freaking delish. I have been having trouble figuring out how/what to eat on Mondays when I go to kickboxing from 6:30-7:30, which is during my normal dinner hour. So yesterday I made the protein shake around 5 as a pre-workout meal, then came home and had a small turkey sandwich around 8. This seemed to work well, I was properly fueled for my workout and I think I got the right nutrients I needed afterward too.

Today I'm going to make some veggie chili around lunchtime to have for the rest of the week, and I'm going to hit the Camp24 class at 4:30. I'm thinking about staying for step afterward, I've seen some people who do that, but for some reason I'm terribly afraid of taking a step class. What if I trip over the step and fall on my face? What if I sprain my ankle? What if my thong hangs out? We'll see. 

Dinner is going to consist of leftover chicken salad and tomato soup. I guess it's a good thing it snowed last night and is freezing today, I'll get my soup fix in times two today! 

P.S. I'm watching the View, and why oh why does Lady GaGa not ever wear pants?  


Monday, March 02, 2009

New Career Path?

First, I must say hi to anyone who found me through Jess. Welcome, and make yourself at home. Wow Jess, I have to say, you sent a lot of visitors my way. I got home from a trip to the mountains last night and checked my stats and immediately became paranoid about writing a new! exciting! post so that my new visitors would want to stick around and read. After watching some old House reruns and somehow getting sucked into the Celebrity Apprentice (don't want to talk about it, it won't happen again) I decided I didn't have anything new! and exciting! to say. So I went to bed. 

Here I am this morning in the same state, so I think I'll just stick to what I usually do. Which is just babbling on about fitness and food and booze. Since I continue to toil about with no job and no hope of one in sight, I tried to go snowboarding on Friday with some girlfriends. Well, we got up to A-Basin and it was snowy and cold and windy and we took one run and turned around and came home. Not worth it. Saturday ended up being beautiful and we went to Breckenridge, along with pretty much every other person in Colorado and all the tourists too. The lift lines were long, but we had a great day and I am experiencing some wonderful delayed-onset muscle soreness today. Enough that I'm thinking I should probably just spend most of the day on the couch relaxing, even though it is supposed to be 72 today. I'm sure it'll be nice again tomorrow too. 

Also contributing to my desire to veg is the fact that I think I may be getting sick. We spent the weekend with my brother-in-law's cute little mutt of a dog and I thought my throat was hurting and ears were itching due to allergies, but I've been home for a while now and it is still happening. Boo to sickness. I can't be sick. I don't even have anywhere to call in sick to. Isn't that the whole point of getting sick? 

Tonight I'm going to see Jimmy Eat World at the Ogden, which I could not be more excited about. I love this band, loved them since high school, and even though I'm sure I'll be surrounded by way too many screaming teenagers, I am going to rock out to every song. And then I'm going to come home and make myself a cup of tea like a grown up. No booze tonight because of course this weekend was a little nutty, although I am quite proud of my food choices. My goals are still in place; I am a woman on a mission.

It's funny, we were talking with some friends this weekend about what I could do with my time since I'm having so much trouble finding a job in my field right now, and it came up that I spend a great deal of time at the gym, so why don't I think about becoming an instructor of some sort. I've thought about it a lot because I do enjoy classes and I'd really like to spend my day working with other people on their fitness. But here's the thing: I'm not a hard body. I'm not in perfect shape. And my roundhouse kicks are sort of pathetic. Somehow I think I have to be a perfect specimen of fitness in order to even think about going in that direction. 

I know logically that's mostly not true, although I'm sure there are fitness tests and what not you need to take in order to be an instructor of say, kickboxing. But in terms of what I look like, what my body fat percentage is and what size my pants are, it shouldn't really matter should it? Yes I want to lose some weight, but I am a firm believer that you can be fit and fat, so why shouldn't I be able to teach a class? Or do some personal training? Is it because I'm so vain and obsessive about my size? I've had so many issues over the years I'd be afraid of everyone judging me? Is it because I'm afraid I'd fail? 

I'm sure people have written about overweight fitness instructors somewhere. Have you ever had one? What do you think about it?