Scale Steppin' Saturday (5-22-10)

207.5 lbs

When I was a member of weight watchers, I weighed in on Saturdays.  I loved weighing in on Saturdays because a gain or a loss helped recomit to healthy eating and exercise.  I didn't want to ruin what I had worked so hard for.  And it gave me an opportunity to make an action plan for the new week. 

Because of my lack of exercise for the last few weeks and my having intermittent binges, I obviously have gained 2.5 lbs.  I normally maintain at 205 because although I usually had periods of exercising 4-5 days out of the week, I ate so many calories that the scale wouldn't budge.  I am being more conscious of my eating, but I am still not calorie counting or writing in a journal.  Bad, I know. I am going on my feelings of satiety or "pushing away from the table", as my hubby likes to say; and I am going to be in touch with my emotions if I want a bit more at meal times or if I want to snack before my "scheduled" time. 

SHORT TERM GOALS (3 MONTHS):

• Lose 10% of my weight.
• Run one 5K a month
• Bike ride once a week.

GOALS FOR THE WEEK:

• 
  
  Run 4 times for at least 20 minutes each session
• 
  
  Yoga flow 3 days
• 
  
  pack my lunches and snacks
• 
  
  maintain awareness of "why" I am eating to reduce "how" much I am eating. 
• 
  
  Blog about it.

What are your goals for the week?

A little bit of everything . . .

Today, I have a furlough day.  It means I am not allowed to work at all.  In fact, we will get in trouble if we make phone calls, send emails, etc.  Our office building is locked down for the day. 

I put the kids on the bus.  Took the toddler to daycare.  Came home and put on my workout gear.  I went back and forth on whether I should work out at home or go to the gym.  I hopped on the treadmill and did a 25 minute jog.  I walked 5 minutes as a warm up and cool down.  I jogged for 20 minutes straight on 4.5.  But the last minute, I did a sprint at 6.0 mph while listening to Black Eyed Peas.  I felt strong.  I am so happy to be back to fitness.  I didn't realize how much I missed it until today.

I got off the treadmill to check on the time for my son's concert.  Holy Crap!  It was going to go on in 10 minutes.  I put on a fleece, grabbed the camera and car keys, and jetted to his school.  I came back home after the concert and made a green monster with spinach, pumpkin, banana, almond milk, peanut butter, and honey.  Drank it while I surfed the net.  Still dressed in my workout gear. 

I went upstairs and did 31 minutes of Yoga.  Shiva Rea's Earth workout with a cooldown was great.  I missed Yoga too.  So, so much.  My arms are going to feel it tomorrow.  I have a love/hate relationship with Chaturanga, but it makes me feel strong. 

I just finished lunch.  Leftovers were combined: ground beef from last night's tacos; chopped romaine lettuce; shaved carrots; and whole wheat pasta from a few days ago.  I combined it all and warmed it up in the micro.  Yum!

Now, once Bulging Brides finishes on TV, I am grabbing my golf clubs and heading to the driving range to practice.  I have made an effort to teach the kids to golf, but haven't used my clubs in a long time.  The last time I played golf (horribly) was for my 10th wedding anniversary last year. 

I am feeling great with my eating and fitness.  If I have time when I get back, I will go for a bike ride; if this cloudy day doesn't end up in a big rain storm. 

Tomorrow, Scale Steppin' Saturday.  I will get on the scale and photograph my results for all the world to see.  It is easy to say the number, but putting the picture for all to see is scary.

If you had a full day to exercise and be active what workout or activity would you choose?

Recommitted . . .

Since I started reading Women, Food and God after the Oprah episode, I've been very conscious about my feelings around meal times or when I perceive myself as "hungry".  I've been making an effort this past week to be aware of why I am consuming food, even during preplanned meal times.  Am I hungry? bored? lonely? scared? anxious? angry? I want to be aware of my actions instead of mindlessly eating.  If I finish dinner and I am still "hungry", I ask myself if I am actually hungry for food or for something else.  The answer is always "something else".  The biggest element of hunger for me is loneliness.  A hubby that is super busy and travels or has meetings away from home in the evening times causes the most distress; while I do not snack or eat past 7:00 p.m., I do gorge at dinner or do a pre-dinner gorge when I feel anxiety about the evening; especially when I know he will be gone.  I am working toward doing other things during those vulnerable times.  I have since started reading books again.  I was an avid reader before graduate school and definitely before children.  I went to the library to pick up a couple of works of fiction.  So instead of surfing the net for hours in the evening, I am reading a book.  

I am now fully recovered from my bad cold that brought on bad asthma symptoms, which also had me sounding like present day Kathleen Turner.  My boy is recovered from his surgery.  And tomorrow, I have a mandatory day off from work to which I will be exercising and practicing my golf swing at the driving range.  This week, I've been walking with my co-worker.  We are still doing our pedometer program and are encouraging each other to go farther and challenge ourselves; we both did almost 20K steps yesterday after cleaning and organizing our office, walking outdoors, and then cleaning again.  Today, we walked before lunch and changed our route to include more stairs and hills.  Our campus is very hilly.  

I have been planning and packing my meals again.  Today, I made my green monster drink for breakfast: spinach, almond milk, banana, frozen cherries, chocolate powder, honey and peanut butter--YUM!  Mid morning snack was a whole wheat english muffin with almond butter and strawberry preserves, and a handful of cherries.  Lunch was steak (leftovers, which I never leave over) with onions over a nice big salad, and a healthy sized red grapefruit for desert (I love grapefruit).  I've been chopping up my veggies and putting them back in the crisper.  Sort of like a mini salad bar.  I will take a pic of that soon.  My afternoon snack will be a soy yogurt (I'm dairy free) with 1/2 a Luna bar. 

I bought a speedometer for my bike.  I plan to bike ride alone three times a week even if I'd exercised for the day.  I will be going back to my 5 a.m. workouts on Monday.  I miss them.  My body misses them.  It is 5K season and everyone is doing C25K.  I will be doing my customized version for the treadmill and hope to find time to go outdoors.  I will be signing up for a race in June, July, August, September, and October while the weather is desirable.  I still have to get a spinning DVD for my spin bike.  I want to get stronger to master hills on my outdoor bike. 

I finally found the remote control for my camera.  I can finally take action shots of me in my workout glory.  I am feeling great and I can't wait to share more of that with all of you.

Nurturing

 

My son had his adenoids and tonsils removed on Wednesday.  They were extremely enlarged and they interfered with his sleep, and part of me thinks it is related with his mild autism spectrum diagnosis.  I've been home since then, and have been intermittently doing chores while forcing him to drink as much fluid as he can tolerate.  There have been two days of taking care of him in the night.  Last night, he woke up at 3 a.m. and kept running to the bathroom because the antibiotic gave him a terrible stomach ache and diarrhea.

Last night, after putting all three kids to bed, I played a DVR'd episode of Oprah in which she was speaking to Geneen Roth, the author of Women Food And God.  Everything they'd discussed was something that I knew, but had completely ignored.  My eating is a reflection of my emotions; hence the title of this blog.  I have an inkling as to why, when, and how I stuff my feelings. 

These two days at home taking care of my boy and still recovering from this cold and asthma, I have eaten myself to oblivion.  I've been eating the food that he is rejecting.  He is rejecting because it physically hurts him.  I don't reject it because I am afraid for him.  I fear that I made a bad decision in choosing this procedure.  I know it can help him, and he is okay, but I am still fearful of the "what ifs" that I don't have control over. 

I dropped the baby off at daycare and I went to Target to purchase Women Food And God.  I am not usually one to fall onto a band wagon; even if it is one recommended by my idol, Oprah.  But something compelled me to go.  I also locked the episode on my DVR so I can go back to it and refer to the other women I saw featured.

There has been so many bloggers talking about their recent binges and feeling powerless over food, maybe this can help me and others to figure out what the triggers are and manage not to eat because of emotional hunger.  It can't hurt.

sick and injured

After writing about learning how to bike ride, I must confess that I fell.  Hard.  I crashed into the curb on a freezing morning, and fell over my bike, causing the pedal to scrap off a nice chunk of skin. I got a huge bruise on my left calf.  I also have bruises on my right calf and shin.  But I got back on the bike and pedaled home where I cleaned and bandaged myself.  It has been a week of recovery.  

However, I got a cold this past weekend.  Well, it seems more like the flu.  I had to body aches and chills.  I am sure I had fever.  I am now coughing and hacking my lungs.  It seems like a longer and harder recovery with my asthma.  I went to the Doc yesterday and got a new fast acting inhaler.  I am impressed by how much they've changed.  It has a dosage remaining counter.  It lasts for a year.  

I started this fitness lifestyle with the intention of getting off my asthma medication.  Colds and flues make me realize how desperately I need medication to breath.  

I haven't worked out since last week Wednesday.  I am feeling so sluggish and outta sorts.  I would love to go bike riding; especially spinning.  But the energy is not there.  

This fitness break has given me a chance to really think about my workouts.  I want to get back to running . . . consistently.  I want to train for more 5Ks.  I have one in June.  My goal is to get back to running on the treadmill and venture to running outdoors at least once a week.  I plan to run 4 days out of the week.  Do yoga.  And pushups.  Running is what sparked my interest in exercise and weightloss.  I really need to get back to basics.  And running does that for me. 

How long of a fitness break do you take when you are sick?  What do you do to get back on track with fitness after an illness or injury?