More Weights, Less Cardio

I'm here and I'm listening to happy songs today! No really, I am. I am in a good mood. I swear. This melancholy had to end at some point right?

Things are good. I took the day off from working out because rest is important. Rest! This goes back to my all or nothing mentality, but I have a hard time with rest days. I'm always afraid one will turn into two and on and on until one day, suddenly, it's been three years since I've been to the gym and I have gained 200 pounds. Yes realistically I know that's not going to happen, but still.

The one thing I've been hitting really hard this week is weights, actually Body Pump classes to be specific. I normally focus a bit more on cardio, but from everything I've been reading lately, it appears I need to chill on the cardio bunny side of myself and try to hit weights 2-3 times a week hard, and do shorter, harder cardio intervals. If I go to Body Pump tomorrow morning, I will have done weights three times this week, and I can't remember the last time I did that. I work out consistently, but I just dread weights so I do them once, maybe MAYBE twice a week. I think the main problem is I don't feel like I burn a ton of calories when I lift weights, so somehow I think that kind of workout isn't "good enough."

I know now that is old-fashioned mentality and chronic cardio can lead to inflammation (something this arthritis-suffering girl doesn't need any more of) and over-use injuries (also do not need). So I'm chilling on the running (will still go to kickboxing because I LOVE it and why should I stop doing something I love?) and am doing more weights. It should be interesting to see my progress because I know I'll be burning less calories a week than I typically do and that sort of freaks the number-crunching, calorie-counting side of me out, but I think it's worth a shot to see what happens.

Aside from that, all is well in my little world. I'm looking forward to the season premiere of Grey's tonight. My sister is coming over and we are ordering in Thai food and watching it together, so that should be some nice bonding time. I plan to get tofu in peanut sauce with broccoli and of course will only eat a proper portion size thank you very much. Oh and no wine because tomorrow is a friend's birthday and we are going to Octoberfest. Yikes. I will be successful though. You can count on that!

TTFN!

Seventeen Weeks

Okay I'm not going to give up here. I just can't. But I AM starting a new project - details will follow soon, but I'm keeping it under wraps while I get it up and running. While I've been working on that though, it's made me realize that I do like writing here about my weight and about my fitness. It's GOOD, really good, for me to have this outlet. Because I want to talk about things!

For instance, I know this is way old news, but I really, really miss Jillian's radio show.

And, I'm really excited for the Biggest Loser to come back.

And, this is not really weight loss/fitness related, but what the hell was Heidi thinking with that performance during Miss Universe. Child please.

So let's see, what else? I weighed 176.6 this morning. Shocker. I have pretty much weighed between 175-180 for the entirety of 2009. Looking back at my records, I was at 171 for a week in January, probably when I was hitting South Beach Phase 1 pretty hard, but that obviously didn't last. Clearly my body is happy at this weight. I believe it's called a set point, right? It's a place where I'm just happy to settle.

Well I think I don't want to settle here any more. I'd really like to just push through and lose this last 15 lbs. You know it's funny, for so long, I think forever really, I've had this goal weight of 140. I think I got it from WW weight range charts or something way back when. But honestly, I don't think that's realistic for me right now. But 160 definitely is. It's so close. I mean it is so close. But so far away.

I've mentioned before that I have this weird barrier with getting below 170. Every time I'm successful losing weight, that is the point at which something clicks, and I just kind of quit trying. I get comfortable. And I bump up a couple five pounds, and then suddenly I'm back at this set point.

I think it's really time for me to get past that though. I'm going to Mexico in 17 weeks, on Dec. 17, and I really want to be at 160 for that trip. That works out to roughly 1 lb a week if I start today. That should be so do-able right? I'm not trying to rock a bikini. I'm not trying to be a supermodel. I'm just trying to set a goal and stick to it the best way I know how.

So right now, as of today, I am seriously off to the races. I'm going to be cutting way back on my wine and sugar intake. These "discretionary" calories are killing me, especially on weekends! And I think they are contributing to my continual psoriasis/arthritis flare-ups. I'm also going to take Self's advice and shoot for 350 min. of exercise a week. That is a LOT of exercise but I think I can handle it. 60 minutes x 5 days a week is 300. So I just need to up it to six days or try to do an extra ten minutes of cardio each day and I'll be there.

So here I go, I am back, and back with a vengeance! 160's here I come!

Boxing and Babies

I am becoming sort of a kickboxing snob. I'm certainly not the best in the class and I'm still sucking wind most of the time, but I guess I'm sort of a regular now, so it annoys me when shit goes wrong. Or what I perceive to be wrong. Like when the instructor decides to go off on a tangent instead of sticking to the basic routine. A crappy tangent. A tangent that sucks. Stick to the choreography woman! I mean, they've designed it that way for a reason. 

I guess I should try to be flexible and just enjoy my workout, but today I burned almost 100 less calories than I do in a normal class and that just bugs. Anyway, sorry I just had to vent about that. I am really trying not to get annoyed by stupid things like this, but if I say it "out loud" here, then at least it's out there and I can set it free instead of sitting here on my couch fuming about it. 

In other news I had my yearly gyno appointment today, well that was fun. Ugh. I actually appreciate the fact that my doc tries to distract me by just chatting the whole time she is performing the exam, but it just seems weird to be talking about vacations and stuff while her hands are all up in my lady business. I like her a lot though, and it makes me feel good to know I have someone I can trust to go to when I do decide to start trying for a baby. We talked about it some, and just feel like I have so much to think about. I know that it is definitely going to have to be a planned endeavor because I have to be off of the medicine I'm on for my arthritis for at least 3 months before I start trying, and then of course I have to get my IUD removed as well. So even if I wanted to start today, it'd be September before we could actually do anything about it. And I'm definitely not ready to start today. But I have to say, I can feel my clock tickin' a bit. 

It's just so scary to think about getting pregnant. And having a baby. I want it, but it terrifies me. Will I ever not be terrified? I don't know. There's still plenty of time, so I'm not going to worry about it right now if I can help it, but it is definitely crossing my mind more and more often.

Alright I am going to get in bed. Tomorrow morning I'm definitely having a green smoothie - I swapped it for oatmeal this morning and couldn't believe how much I missed it. Nighty night everyone.  

Rockin' and Rollin' and What Not

Well, it's Day 3 and I'm feeling like blogging about what's going on with me is helping, so I'm just going to keep it up. I don't know how many people are even still out there reading, but I guess this is mostly just for me anyway. If you are out there, hi! 

Today I'm up early, for me anyway, mostly because I woke up about five times last night itching my hands like crazy. My hands are both swollen, itchy, and if this is anything like the last ten years, some of my fingers will probably swell so much they crack, and in other places I'll scratch the skin right off of my hands, usually while I'm asleep. I know it sounds gross but it isn't that bad, I'm not skinless or anything. This is just another product of my psoriasis, which I've had since I was 18. Since I have psoriatic arthritis too I'm on an injection that is supposed to help both, but every once in a while I get flare-ups like this. It usually happens when I've been traveling, when the weather gets hot, or when I'm too hot when I sleep. I have no idea why, maybe dehydration, but I hate it. Itching is the worst. It drives me absolutely insane. 

Anyway, so there's that to deal with, but other than that I am feeling good. I made some amazing choices at dinner, and while I did have two bites of chocolate cake and two chocolate covered strawberries, I am absolutely fine with that. Because people, look at the things I encountered, but did NOT eat yesterday.

tortilla chips

chilled queso

cheesecake bites

warm Italian bread

wine

three types of pasta

gelato

I mean really? Really? That is a lot of delicious food that I did not eat. But I woke up this morning feeling springy (springy? yes I just used springy) instead of with a massive food hangover, and that feels great. 

After dinner last night I came home to find that my DVR was not recording the Biggest Loser season finale, and I was pissed, but come to find out the show was on for three freaking hours, so I got to see the last hour. I wish I would have gotten to see more of the transformations, but I'm glad I saw the final three anyway. I'm actually kind of bummed Helen won, I thought it kind of sucked that she stayed and let her daughter go home. But hopefully they worked that out between the two of them and there won't be any resentment or anything like that. And hopefully the money will go toward something positive. Tara looked amazing of course, she is hot. And Mike, he's so cute. But I have to say he looked totally uncomfortable in his hipster pants. I don't think he was quite ready for that. 

Jillian and Helen are supposed to be on the Today Show this morning, so I'm hoping they come on before I leave for kickboxing. I just love Jillian. 

Aight, that's it for me. Have a wonderful day!