Non-Weigh In

Yesterday was a good day because I ran my first 10k race. It's amazing what something like that makes you feel the next day. Usually the day of all you want to do after is celebrate then take a nap. LOL. I didn't get to nap yesterday and felt the grogginess but today after a good sleep I feel.... lighter for one. I feel...happy. I feel... refreshed. I think this is the reason why I continue to do this. It's something I forget every once in a while. LOL.

I will write a full race report soon but for now, it's Monday. Let's get to it!

Measurements:

Hips: 48.15 inches (-0.35 inches)
Waist: 44 inches (-1.25 inches)
Arm: 14.75 inches (-0.25 inches)
Thigh: 26.5 inches (same)
Calf: 16.75 inches (same)

I'm happy to see that my bloated middle is no longer so bloated. This little bit of progress and the light post-race euphoria  I have right now is exactly what I needed to motivate me to keep going. It really is hard when you're stuck in a plateau or stuck in one mind set for too long. It also reminds me how important it is to have a support system to keep you moving when you're down in the dumps too. So thank you everyone who has supported me and given me nice comments either here or in facebook. LOL.

Achievement(s):

Water: I was able to finish my 64 oz water bottle about 5/7 times this week. On Friday and Sunday I didn't get to finish my water bottle. But the rest of the week I was drinking water so well I had to do the whole "Gotta pee!" dance every five minutes.

Calories: I didn't count this week but I should have because without meaning to I went out to eat about 4 times this week. 4! I ate a burrito on Monday, a huge burger and fries on Thursday, a tuna melt and more fries on Saturday and of course a pancake and omelet breakfast after the race on Sunday.

A lot of fries, a lot of cheese! It makes sense now why I had minor stomach trouble last night. I've been eating cheese sparingly for the last few months and now this. It was a little too much for my body to handle I think.

Strength Training: Very light training twice last week. My pilates kit finally came in with
2 soft weight balls
1 65 cm exercise ball (fun!)
2 resistance bands (light and medium resistance)
and 1 exercise cd.

I'm hoping to try it out this week. It should be fun.

Cardio: Not bad this week. I got some good stuff down.

Mon: -
Tues: 2 miles in 26 minutes
Wed: 2 miles in 26 minutes
Thurs: - (Belly dancing class got cancelled)
Fri: 3.8 miles in 50 minutes
Sat: 6 mile hike up a mountain
Sun: 10k race!

So my last bit of training and a good hike before the race yesterday. Not too shabby I think.

Goals:
My goals for this week are to try training for speed when I run. I'm looking up different ways to try and improve my speed. I'm tired of having slow results when I've been running the same distance for so long. I'm hoping that now that the weather is getting a little warmer I'll have more of a chance and more motivattion to get out there and do sprints. Let's see. Also I'm going to start counting calories again every other day. I don't want to do it every day because it gets boring and then I stop doing it. If I keep it to every other day and try my best to keep my calorie count down I think I'll be ok.

That's all for now. Let's have a great week!

love
-w0rld

Non-Weigh In

It's been a long week, last week. Let's start!

Measurements: 

Hips: 48.5 (+0.25) inches
Waist: 45.25 (+0.5) inches
Arm: 15 (+0.5) inches
Thigh: 26.5 (same) inches
Calf: 16.75 (+0.25) inches

So an add week. I hardly got to work out and didn't get to run much at all. To top it off I went home and we crossed the border and pretty much had an eating fest. So I'm not surprised at the gain though I'm a little upset over it. "Can't I get a break just once!" But no. No I can't. It doesn't work that way.

Achievement(s):

Water:
 I'm still using my 64 oz water bottle and it's working well for me. I'm absolutely sure this time that I drank more than 64 oz 5/7 days a week.

Calories: 
I did not count last week AT ALL. I don't know if this is the greatest idea, looking at my measurement results so I think I'll start counting again. I also forgot all about staying away from processed foods this weekend and even today I ate things that weren't anywhere near the YES list of food in Paleo.


Strength Training: 
Twice last week! That's better than many weeks before but it was mainly core work outs. Gotta keep going.

Cardio:
 I didn't get to run much at all last week and it kills me since my race is so soon.

Monday: - (recovering from Saturdays injury)
Tuesday: 2 mile run
Wednesday: 30 minute hike
Thursday: Belly dancing class
Friday: light dancing
Saturday:-
Sunday:-

So pretty much I lost steam by the weekend and didn't pick it up again. It snowed this weekend so I didn't get much of a chance to run this morning since most places weren't plowed. I'm definitely feeling the laziness right now although the snow is slowly melting. But hey an hour of shoveling snow must work for something right?

Goals:

I need to start counting again and work on eating less processed food. I didn't start out very well today so I have to get better. I also need to run at least six miles this week. That can mean running three miles one day and running 3 miles another day. Or running 2 miles three times a week. Something before the race this Sunday.

Wish me luck and good luck to you!

love
-w0rld

Non-Weigh In

Happy Monday! This weeks non-weigh in will be brief partly because I didn't calorie count and partly because it's my lunch break! LOL

So let's start!

Measurements:

Hips: 48.5 inches (-0.25 inches)

Waist: 44.75 inches (-0.5 inches)

Arm: 14.5 inches (+0.25 inches)

Thigh: 26.5 inches (+0.25 inches)

Calf: 16.5 inches (same)

So I'm happy to see that I lost a few fraction inches from my mid line but I'm wondering about the gain in arms and thighs. I don't know if that's fat or muscle. I wonder. Either way it's good progress. I just have to keep it up. I realized also that I did not post last weeks measurements during my March Weigh In but I did measure and I'm subtracting (or adding) from last week.

Achievement(s):

Water: 

I finally got off my lazy ass and brought out my 64 oz water bottle. It forced me to drink the amount of water I needed and there was less of a chance to "guesstimate" or pretend I did or didn't drink enough water. So this week I had 5/7 days with enough water in take if not more. I'm noticing also that I can really feel when I'm dehydrated so I make a point to drink more.

Calories: 

Learning about Paleo!

I did not count last week. Nor did I count the week before. I'm starting to really focus on reading my Paleo Diet book and have been very conscious of what I eat. I went to the grocery store on Friday and re-stocked on fruit, veggies, lean meat and olive oil. I'm so glad that spring is coming because I can finally start eating the fresh meals I love so much; fruit salads and spinach salads.

Strength Training: 

About twice last week I made sure to stretch and do some ab work. I really have to return to doing more arm work because I'm very lazy when it comes to my T-rex weak arms. 

Cardio: 

I actually wrote down my cardio this week. I thought I'd done nothing but when I put it all together I actually did quite a bit last week.

Monday: 1 mile run

Tuesday:-

Wednesday: 4.6 mile jog

Thursday: -

Friday: 4 mile hike

Saturday: 6.5 mile jog (and messed up my left arch)

Sunday: rest

So although I didn't do cardio every day I did finally get some good miles in. 10k here I come!

Goals: My goals this week are to work on my diet and try out more Paleo friendly dishes. I also need to spread out my running and I'm planning on trying out a belly dancing class on Thursday. Hopefully it'll happen and I can talk about it after. 

Have a great week everyone! Spring is coming!

love

-w0rld

March Weigh In!

It's a new month! I can't believe February is over. I admit last month was one of the hardest to stay up and motivated. The weather, injuries, laziness, and everything else really put up a fight.

I'm trying to find my rhythm again. But for now we have results so here goes.

March Weigh In: 218.4 lbs (-1 lbs)

One pound. One measly pound is the result I had for the month of February. You may think that this is nothing. That I simply maintained and didn't try my hardest. For me it just means that I didn't give up despite struggling. That although I wasn't as active or diet conscious as I could have been I was still able to lose SOMETHING.

After spending over two years trying to lose weight and using this blog to help me I'm learning that it is not as easy as it first seemed. Just control your food in take and stay active. Calories in vs. calories out. That's it right? It isn't. 

In reality when I get to the technical parts of it yes, being more active and burning more calories than I consume is the formula. But learning what foods are better for me, learning how to not resort to food when I'm stressed or emotional, learning that just being active doesn't help when I don't mix it up or I don't enjoy the activity... all these facts are things I'm learning more and more as I continue my journey.
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I remember a blogger a while ago stated she wasn't the type of person that can just decide to stick to a program and steadily lose weight. That they were the type to yo-yo up and down and that they accepted that about themselves. I'm realizing more and more that I have a loooong way to go to reach my goal weight. Not because I CAN'T lose the weight but because I have a lot of other things I need to work on. Things like:

I need to work on my self-discipline when it comes to food.
I need to learn that food is going to be there later.
I need to learn about portion control and to choose what foods to eat and what foods to say no to.
With exercise I need to learn to commit to something that makes me happy. I can't force myself to do an activity I don't enjoy.
I need to learn to stop giving excuses in my life and simply just do it. It's a never ending inward struggle.
I need to learn to stop comparing myself to others. This is a BIG one. I currently live in a house of very active people. It's awesome but it also doesn't help because they have the ability to be more lenient with their food, eat the same amount of food I do and not have the same consequences. I can't act or eat like they do because my body is very different from theirs.

I realized I need to start spending more time giving my full attention to my food. Yesterday morning I made a great breakfast and spent time cooking it. After I actually sat down with pen and paper, looked through every nutrition fact and did the calorie counting by hand. It's easy to just go to a computer program and guesstimate kind of what I ate and substitute one thing for another because "it's the same shit right?" So I went in and added, subtracted, multiplied and divided until I got the most accurate account for my big breakfast. How much was it? It was 853 calories. That's right, 853 calories. I of course wasn't hungry until 3 or 4pm later that day but that number was amazing.

I just have to keep going. Just keep going. Work on getting better and make each day count. Waiting to do things "tomorrow" add up and before I know it I've lost a month here and 12 days there. That goes for this blog as well. I have so many ideas for entries for this blog but before I know it the week has passed and it's Monday again.

I refuse to give up! I deserve better than a gluttonous life!

At the same time I'm also guilty of waiting "until I lose the weight" to do things.
"I'll wear pretty clothes when I'll look nicer."
"I'll date when I'm not so hideous looking."
"I'll party when I can fit in to those pants." 
"I'll go on a big adventure when I'm better."
"I don't want them to see me until I'm lighter."
 By the rate of it I'll never live my life if I wait. I'll never gain confidence if my life depends on the scale or what I ate the day before. I'm soo tired of being afraid, of being self-conscious, of low self-esteem, of worrying about what others think or how I look next to others. I don't want to have my weight be a factor when I'm looking for a job or meeting someone new. I'm tired of feeling this way.

I want this journey to be fun. It's meant to be enlightening, challenging, and rewarding. I don't want to spend my time dreading or worrying or wondering if I'll ever make it. I'm trying to find my niche. I'm trying to find what works for me. This is a life change. It'll take time before I get it right. I'm willing to invest the time.

Are you?

I'll post again in a couple of days.

Happy March!

-w0rld

Quick Non-Weigh In

My computer is in the shop so this update will be short and interesting since its coming from my phone. The week started off in a bit of shambles but got better toward the end. 


 Measurements: 
 Hips: 47.5 (-1.25 in) 
Waist: 45.5 (+0.25 in) 
Arm: 14.5 (-0.25 in) 
Thigh: 26.5 (+0.5 in) 
Calf: 16.5 (-0.5 in ) 

Now this week my measurements are all over the place. I suppose if I had taken measurements last week this would make more sense however I am happy to see a remarkable loss in the hip area which is the hardest to get rid of.


Achievement(s): Because I don't have all the data on me I'm going to have to guess on most of these but here goes.


Water: about 5/7 days.


Calories:  I was off in never land the first two days last week but I finally got back to it. Here it is.


Mon: ?
Tues: ?
Wed: 1600+
Thurs:  1795
Fri: 2035
Sat: 1925
Sun: 1795


Although I'm still unable to stay under my calorie limit I'm at least trying to stay under 2000 calories a day and over all this seemed successful.

Strength Training: I was actually able to get some arm work and some good crunches in twice last week which is better than the last couple of weeks.

Cardio: I honestly can't remember a lot of the things that I did for cardio last week but here we go

Mon: 4 mile run
Tues: ?
Wed: -
Thurs: 2 mile run
Fri: 4 mile hike and 2 mile jog
Sat: 6 mile hike
Sun: 20 minute hike

Besides Tuesday where I honestly cannot remember what I did that day the rest of the week was spent hiking with some running mixed in.


I still need to make more of an effort to run more and longer distances. I have less than a month before my 10k and I'm starting to freak out... which brings us to:

Goals: My goals this week are to run more. The weather is starting to get snowy again so I have to make more of an effort to go outside despite the cold winds, and wet and slipperiness. From there I need to make a specific chart for my water in take since most of it is just me guessing how much water I have left in my nalgene at the end of the day. From there I need to incorporate more stretching and be vigilant about my strength training.

Hiking was awesome last week and I will post new pictures when I get a chance. For now goodnight because today has been a looooooong day.

love
-w0rld

Non-Non Weigh In

I'm going to say it right now; I clocked out last week. I did not count calories. I did not notice my water in take and I did not pay attention to my activities (minus Monday where I ran 6 miles for the first time!)

Why did I clock out? Multiple reasons like:  There were two weddings, one chocolate filled holiday, a family reunion, job interviews and a snow covered week.

Does that mean that I just went crazy and binged like mad? Did I sleep all day and say "good riddance" to exercise?

NO.


I didn't get much of a chance to run last week like I had planned because it snowed and stormed a bit. Now if you've been reading this blog for a little while you will remember that I'm a Southern Californian and me and snow are rare acquaintances. I am not comfortable in it and I don't think it likes me very much.

I didn't over eat often (though I did indulge in more chocolate than I should.) And I tried to keep active despite not being able to go outside most of the week. Although I've been horrible when it comes to strength training.

Because of all the events that were happening and the bit of stress (not that much, but enough) I knew that I would go crazy worrying about every. little. thing I did or didn't do.

So to keep my sanity, I said "Not this week."

Does that mean I'm not going to count or keep track anymore? No. I'm still here. I'm back to schedule this week.

I will be counting again this week and I'm going to FINALLY start training for my 10k full force.

I want this lazy feeling to go away.

Let's make sure this week is better.

Good luck to all!

love
-w0rld

Non-Weigh In/ An epic race and familiar faces

Good Morning and Happy Monday! I've had a long eventful week, and at the same time a very lazy week. My numbers show that pretty well this morning.

Measurements:

Hips: 48.75 inches (+0.25 inches)
Waist: 45.25 inches (+0.25 inches)
Arm: 14.75 inches (same)
Thigh: 26 inches (same)
Calf: 17 inches (+0.5 inches)

I am sadly  not surprised at these numbers though I had hoped to maintain just a little more this week.

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Achievement(s): Last week was very lazy food and exercise wise and yet it was very eventful otherwise. My results show that.

Water: I drank over 50 oz of water about 4/7 days the rest of the time I drank enough but I found myself pretty dehydrated.

Calories: I stopped and re-started counting throughout the week, although I tried my best to stay away from grains and try more paleo friendly varieties. I'm trying to slowly wean myself and it's going.. well slowly.

Monday: 1690
Tuesday: 1950
Wednesday: ?
Thursday: 2038
Friday: 1958
Saturday: ?
Sunday: 1683

Although it may seem like I didn't do too badly, the type of food I was eating, and the little things I might have added the days I didn't count pretty much added up. Gotta be more accountable.

Strength Training: The main strength training I might have done is using my muscles on Monday when I finally climbed our climbing tower. It was an amazing day and I definitely felt some muscles I didn't even knew I had. Other than that, on Saturday I decided to walk over to our archery range and practice my form. Let's just say I need a lot of work but it's not bad. My arms however really felt the pull I was giving them. LOL

Cardio: Lazy, lazy week. Most of the cardio I ended up getting was part of work, and very little was on my own.

Monday: I climbed a 60 foot tower.
Tuesday: Short uphill hike
Wednesday: -
Thursday: 3 mile hike and 30 minutes of cardio dancing
Friday: 3.1 mile jog and 1.5 hours of dancing
Saturday: 1 mile hike
Sunday: 2 mile fast walk

On Monday and Tuesday I was still tight and sore from the epic hike I had the weekend before. It limited my activities tremendously. On Wednesday, although no longer sore I had grown accustomed to being lazy and didn't end up doing anything. On Thursday we ended up having our long hike we have with the kids and it felt great. On Friday I FINALLY got off my ass and decided to go for a jog. It was slow and unsteady but it was done and I was glad I did it.

On Saturday I was lazy again but got up long enough to accompany my co-worker to do some trail blazing. He would bring the big loppers and cut branches from an old hiking trail we have near our camp. My job would be to follow him and get rid of all those cut branches. After a while I developed a nice tossing form. We ended up staying out until about dusk and had to figure out how to get off the hill, without a trail, in the dark. Nice!
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On Sunday, oh Sunday, my co-workers had a race in Palm Springs. They were a relay team and it was awesome. I was not part of the relay team but I instantly assigned myself to be the cheerleader/ support group.

We got there right before 7 a.m. The start was there and there were tons and tons of people.

My co-worker who started the race was so fast I didn't get a chance to take a picture of him as he rode off so instead I took a picture of the giant troop of people going around the corner after the start. Crazy!

After the first relay tag exchange I suddenly see someone else zoom by that I recognize. "David, it's David!" An old family friend. I instantly call his wife and she's in Palm Springs too! Just around the corner from me. So I literally RUN to where she is and end up catching up with her as she helps the racers hydrate  in one of the water stations.

small world!

After running around like crazy the race ends and my co-workers won in their division! We wait and lounge in the grass while we wait to receive their first place prize. Here the overall male winner and female winner of the half marathon shake hands. What amazing people!

Although I wasn't running in this race, just being around this event, and meeting people, cheering and running in to old friends (who are an inspiration themselves) really got me pumped up. I will never regret getting off my ass and allowing myself to enter this world. I really love it. I love how happy people seem despite how tired they are. I love seeing how active people are, how healthy people look and how they bring their families with them. I love looking at all the different ages, sizes, and types of people at these events. I get a kick of their outfits and love it when they run with their baby strollers. It's amazing.

Now I have to start training so I can join in the next race; which brings us to....

Goals:  It's time to stop lazying around. I'm going to get stricter in my diet and start training for my 10k in March. I have never run that far. I want to start getting used to it and not kill myself during the race. When I talked to my old friend she reminded me of something, "It's not about the time or winning, it's about having fun and going for it." I completely agree. So I won't be worried about how fast or slow I am. I just want to run in this race and do a good job. I can do this! I have to start now... especially because I really want to do a half marathon in May. LOL

Have a great week!

love
-w0rld

Non-Weigh In

Happy Monday everyone!

I woke up this morning with incredibly tight calves and thighs and ONE sore arm oddly enough. All coming from the epic hiking adventure I had two days ago. All last week ended up being a hiking week so I'm not surprised I'm still sore days later.

Either way, let's start.

Measurement(s):

Hips: 48.5 inches (-0.5 inches)
Waist: 45 inches (-0.25 inches)
Arm: 14.75 inches (same)
Thigh: 26 inches (-0.75 inches)
Calf: 16.5 inches (-0.25 inches)

I can happily see that I managed to lose a few inch fractions throughout my body. I would hope that were the case after hiking 12 miles.  Which brings us to...
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Achievement(s): My goals last week were to simply follow through on my goals. To log everything and just commit to my current goals before trying to make new ones. I think I did ok this week:

Water: I'm sure I drank enough water 5/7 days out of the week. It's not bad.

Calories: I did much better this week but I don't think I fell under my calories more than once this week. Last night was also a catastrophe with all the Superbowl Sunday festivities.

Monday: 1720
Tuesday: 1821
Wednesday: 1786
Thursday: 2039
Friday: 1730
Saturday: 1459
Sunday: 2448

So I stayed under 2000 calories most of the week except for Thursday and Sunday. Saturday I spent the whole day on the trails so even if I wanted to over indulge on food I couldn't unless I wanted to eat leaves and rocks. (I wonder how many calories there are in sand? LOL)


Strength Training: I did random work outs 2/7 days this week. Not bad but needs to get better.

Cardio: Last week can be summed up by the word: HIKING! I hiked more than I have in a while!

Monday: 8 mile hike
Tuesday: 30 minute hike and rock climbing
Wednesday: -
Thursday: 2 mile hike
Friday: 4 mile hike and 2 mile jog
Saturday: 12 mile hike
Sunday: recover from Saturday.

So I only worked out 5 out of 7 days last week I also did more intense hiking work outs. Like I mentioned I'm still recovering from my big hike two days later. Today I actually had an epic day and ended up climbing a 60 foot tower and then learning how to swing from 30 feet in the air!

But more on that next time. He he.

-----------------

Goal(s): I'm going to try my best to start removing processed food and grains from my diet. I've been saying this for a while but now that I'm reading my Paleo book it gives me more motivation than before. From there I want to continue being accountable with my current goals.

Until next time. Have a great week!

love
-w0rld

It's Time for..February Weigh In!

It is currently still dark outside. I woke up a minute ago and inhaled deeply knowing that today was the infamous Weigh In. So I climbed to the top of my closet-desk-thing, took down my scale, stripped down and stepped on.

Time to beat the weight like I beat this mtn peak this Monday!

Here are the results:

January 2012 Weigh In: 224.6
February 1st Weigh In: 219.4


That's a loss of 5.2 lbs in one month. Looking at that number I'm incredibly pleased but I know I also have to work harder. My 'slips' in calorie counts and my procrastination with strength training need to stop. I'm serious about training so that I can run/walk a marathon and enter a triathlon this year so I have to get cracking. I also finally re-cracked open my Paleo Diet book.

It's time to get more focused.

Thank you for all your wonderful support. Let's make this month the best yet!

love
-w0rld

Non-Weigh In

Happy Monday! I hope you're weekend was awesome and your Monday tolerable. I just finished filing my taxes online and I'm completely over it. Thank goodness for direct deposit so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Now to the chase. Here are the results for last week.

Measurements:

Hips: 49 inches (same)
Waist: 45.25 inches (same)
Arm: 14.75 inches (same)
Thigh: 26.75 inches (same)
Calf: 16.75 inches (same)

So over all there wasn't much of a change. That's fine with me since I ate the worst food this weekend. It was balanced out by my awesome 5k! But nonetheless my calorie in take was so bad I'm just happy I maintained this week.

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Achievement(s):

My goals for this week were; to continue drinking up to 64 oz a day, keep a calorie count around 1520, cardio  around 3x a week and strength training 4x a week. My new goal was NOT to eat after 8pm. For the most part I kept my goals but they were pretty mediocre over all.

Water: I probably drank enough water 5/7 days.

Calories: I'm kind of disappointed in myself. I would have thought I'd get better at keeping my calorie limit with my new "Don't eat after 8pm" rule but I still need to work out the kinks.

Monday: 1471
Tuesday: 2398
Wednesday: unknown
Thursday: 1612
Friday: 2024
Saturday: 2180
Sunday: 2218

So every day for the most part I went over my calorie range and over 2000. On Wednesday I forgot to count. On the weekend I ended up doing ok until I went to L.A. to get ready for my race. I ended up eating an In N Out cheeseburger and shake. On Saturday I tried a lot of protein bar samples after the race, ate Japanese food for lunch and pizza for dinner. On Sunday I ended up grazing all day. I wasn't satisfied with anything I ate and I started doing the horrible habit of grabbing something, eating it, forgetting I snacked and doing it again. Bad, bad habits.

Strength Training: Also not too well this week. I managed to work out a bit 2/7 days. I haven't been following my training with You are Your Own Gym and I need to get back to it this week.

Cardio: This I did great on. I was able to jog some of my quickest 2 mile stretches. Here it is.

Monday: -
Tuesday: 2 mile jog
Wednesday: 4 hour hike
Thursday: 2 mile jog
Friday: stretching
Saturday: 5k race!
Sunday: random bicycle riding

All of my work outs turned out really good but out of all of that I had my 5k this Saturday! It was great and I did my best time yet.
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Goal(s): So this week was a bit off but followed with a great event. I need to get back to a daily routine. I need to make sure to follow my food and water goals. I also need to make sure I LOG them. A lot of my problems last week was that I kept forgetting to log a lot of things down, so I wasn't sure exactly how much water I drank, or the last time I did lunges. This week is just to keep it up. Keep it up.

I realized today that I live with a great group of very inspiring, athletic, happy, healthy people. I need to embrace and utilize that.  My new goal this week is to do just that; allow the people around me to inspire me and motivate me to do my best.

My main goal for this year (a part from reaching weight goal finally) is to be able to run a marathon and/or be part of a triathlon. That means training. That means commitment. That means dedication and discipline.

I know I can do this. I just have to take it one day at a time. Do any of you have any suggestions for marathons and/or triathlons.

I'm already planning on signing up for my next race this spring. There's a 10k in late March that is catching my eye. Once my tax return shows up I'll be able to sign up for it. I can't wait!

Good luck this week everyone!

love
-w0rld

Non-Weigh In/One week left before the 5k!

Happy Monday! And Happy Lunar New Year! This Monday morning turned out a bit rainy, which is perfect weather to just stay in and relax. But before I do that it's time for my "non-weigh in".

Measurements:

Hips: 49 inches (same)
Waist: 45.25 inches(+0.25 inches)
Arm: 14.75 inches (same)
Thigh: 26.75 inches (-0.25 inches)
Calf: 16.75 inches (same)

So this week it looks like I've pretty much maintained. I'm a little concerned at the 1.25 inch gain in my waist area. They say belly fat is the hardest to lose, but gain? Especially when the rest of my body seems to be going down? I don't understand but I honestly don't notice it in the mirror. Either way I have to watch out for that and just keep going.

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Achievement(s):

My goal for this week was to continue drinking 50-64 oz of water a day, stay within my 1520 calorie limit, work on my jogging to train for my race and continue strength training. Here are the results.

Water: I did ok this week. I probably completed my goal 4 out of 7 days at least. I definitely felt dehydrated a few days and started chugging, which is good.

Calories: Although I usually stay well within my calorie range I continue to give in to some sort of last minute food in the evening which ends up putting me over. If I could stop snacking after dinner that would completely fix my "overdrafts" each night. Sigh*, alas here are the results.

Monday: 1515
Tuesday: 1863
Wednesday: 2140
Thursday: 1495
Friday: 2034
Saturday: 1495
Sunday: 2492

I'm incredibly happy that I managed to stay under my calorie limit 3 of 7 days. I then went slightly over 2000 the rest of the week. Everything was ok until last night, Sunday. What happened on Sunday? It's called chocolate covered peanuts.

Strength Training: I didn't do too well this week. I might have strength trained once last week. The rest of the time I simply stretched.

Cardio: I managed to get a good amount of cardio in this week. I feel much more prepared for the race this weekend.

Monday: -
Tuesday: 4 mile hike
Wednesday: 2 mile hike and 1 mile jog
Thursday: 2 mile jog
Friday: 3 mile hike and about 4 hours of dancing :)
Saturday: 3.1 mile jog
Sunday: miscellaneous walking

I ended up doing shorter hikes during work and jogged three days out of the week. On Saturday I ended up jogging a 5k in 37 minutes! That's my best time since right before my last 5k in November. It was a really nice run and it went very smoothly. I felt like I could go on forever.~

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Goal(s): I'm going to add a new challenge seeing as my eating habits need adjusting. I'm going to not eat after dinner. In other words I'm going to give myself a food curfew. After 8pm I will stop eating. Now if I hadn't eaten dinner yet by this time then yes I'll eat dinner but that's it. Other than that I'm going to start logging my water intake. I currently don't log exactly how much water I drink and estimate on the amount of water left in my nalgene water bottle. I need to make sure I'm actually drinking the proper amounts of water. This week I'll also be continuing strength training and do some last minute jog training before race day. I don't want to get lazy and then attempt to do a long distance run right before the race. I don't want to burn myself out before it even happens.

Nervously enthrusiastic!

Now am I nervous for the 5k? YES. Realizing it's 5 days away is scary. I signed up for it on a whim and I'll be doing it alone this time. It's not a problem but I suppose the idea that I was part of a group that was running together and that there were teammates at the finish line waiting for me to join them really helped last time. This time it's all me. It'll be interesting to see how far I can go on my own. How much morale can I give myself? How far can I push myself to reach the finish line?

So am I nervous? Yes, I am. I have the tendency to worry and underestimate myself. I don't want to let myself down (if that makes any sense. LOL) I want to have a good time. Although I keep reminding myself that the timing isn't really what's important a part of me really wants to BEAT my last time. I don't know if that will happen but I'm going to try!

Good luck to all on their own journeys! Let's have a great week!

love
-w0rld

Non-Weigh In

Happy Monday everyone!

Although I spent most of the day online I didn't get a chance to make this entry until now. But I am here! And after my multiple entries yesterday I feel better about my blogging progress. So let's start.

Measurements:

Hips: 49 inches (same)
Waist: 45 inches (+1 inch)
Arm: 14.75 inches (-0.75 inch)
Thigh: 27 inches (-1 inch)
Calf: 16.75 inches (-1.25 inches)

So I'm pretty surprised at my measurement results partly because there's an added inch to my waist while at the same time there's a considerable loss in the rest of my body. Overall not a bad result for one week!
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Achievement(s):

My goals for this week were to continue drinking up to 64 oz of water a day, stay within my calorie limit of 1520 calories, do more strenuous hikes and run 4 miles in the week. This week was not that great but I still managed to complete most of my goals.

Water: I managed to drink up to 50 oz maybe 4 out of 7 days last week. I definitely felt dehydrated more often than I was comfortable.

Calories: My calorie range is 1520. I absolutely failed that this week. Here are the (non)results:

Monday: 1578
Tuesday: 1803
Wednesday: 2000+
Thursday: 2000+
Friday: 2000+
Saturday: 2352
Sunday: 1961

So in reality I started going off wagon in the middle of the week and didn't even track on Wed-Fri though I'm sure it was way over 2000 calories each day. On the weekend I mentally slapped myself and started tracking again but I still continued to "over snack" and ended up much higher than the calorie limit.

Time to try again this week.

Strength Training: 3 out of 4 days not bad although one of those days was working with the climbing wall at work which is an arm work out in of itself.

Cardio: Although I had done a hike the day before I still managed to go for a short run on Monday.

Monday: 1.3 miles
Tuesday: 2 miles
Wednesday: 3.3 mile hike
Thursday: -
Friday: 2 miles
Saturday: 6 mile hike
Sunday: 4 miles

So although I was being a lazy bum on my calorie counting I was still able to get quite a bit of cardio in.
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Goals:

The goal for this week is to continue the water in take. Try being more strict with my calories and try my hardest to keep it at 1520 calories if not lower. I need to be more accountable with strength training and I need to make sure I continue jogging. Race day is less than two weeks away (yikes!) I need to make sure that I'm ready. I don't have to be fast but I need to make sure I'm not going to hurt myself or get too winded or something.

Wish me luck and good luck this week!

love
-w0rld

Non-Weigh In

Good Afternoon and Happy Monday!

I'll be doing a quick Non-Weigh In this morning. I'll do a more thorough post either tonight or tomorrow.

Since I decided to no longer do Weekly Weigh Ins (but keep Monthly Weigh Ins) I decided to keep track a different way by body measurements. So here goes the first measurement of the season:

Hips: 49 inches
Waist: 44 inches
Arm: 15.5 inches
Thigh: 28 inches
Calf: 18 inches

Since the last time I measured a few months ago I've gained about one inch in hips, 2 inches in waist and I honestly can't remember the rest.

I'll keep tabs on my measurements weekly and post them in each check in.
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Achievement(s):
My goals for this week were to drink water, eat at a certain calorie range, do strength training 3 to 4 times a week as well as cardio 6 times a week.

Here are the results for the first week:

Water: I was able to drink between 50 to 64 oz of water 7 days. Yay! I really feel less bloated thanks to that.

Calories: My calorie range was around 1520 calories a day. I started calorie counting on Tuesday of last week and here are the results

Tues: 1440
Wed:1366
Thurs:1412
Fri: 2189
Sat: 2217
Sun:1762

I was having stomach trouble earlier in the week so you can see that my appetite was pretty suppressed, and as the weekend progressed I felt better and my appetite returned, as well as un-needed calories. We also had a Feast on Saturday to celebrate the staff return to work so I've also been eating a lot of leftovers.

This week I have to check myself and keep myself accountable.

Strength Training: I was able to do 3 out of 4 days a week

Cardio: Because I was feeling pretty horrible I didn't start cardio until Wednesday. From there I was able to move my legs until the end of the week.

Wed: 1 mile run
Thurs: 2 mile hike
Fri: 2 mile run
Sat: 4 mile run
Sun: 9 mile hike
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Goal(s):
The goals for this week are; to continue my water in take at 64 oz, continue my second week of strength training, move up to more 4 mile runs throughout the week, and more strenuous hikes this weekend. Because I don't want to wear myself out too early, and because I just finished a 9 mile hike last night I might choose to skip cardio for today.

That's all for now. I'll give a new post soon talking about my new diet plans and giving details of my awesome hike this weekend.

Until then!

-w0rld

2012 Weigh In and Plan

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone had a fantastic celebration ringing in the New Year. I had a nice time with my family. Now it's January 1st and it's time for celebrations to end and to get back to work.

I admit I've been almost completely off track this last week and a half. My few work outs here and there could not compensate for the amount of food (and the type of food) I have been consuming during the holidays. To add to that I've been completely idle, laying around the house, doing some spring cleaning, laying around some more. I've been feeling bloated and sick. So when I finally weighed myself early this morning the number on the scale didn't shock me that much (the evidence was in the mirror) but it didn't stop me from having a mini-break down and almost crying myself back to sleep as I intentionally hid back in to the covers.

Current Weight: 224.6 lbs ( +9.8 lbs in 12 days)

Binge eating doesn't begin to explain what I've been doing. But it never ceases to amaze me how I can gain such a large amount of weight in such little time. That means that I gained almost a pound a day. That's amazing. Horrible, yet truly amazing.

Well vacation and gluttony is over. In a couple of days I'm going to be heading back up the mountain and I already started my new plan and my new goals.

The Main Goal for the Year:

My main goal for this year (besides finally getting to goal weight and I'm not kidding this time) is being able to walk a marathon and (if possible) try a triathlon. That means training. That means commitment and signing up for races. That means getting on a bike (which I haven't done in years) and figuring that out again.

Well guess what I've already started! I signed up for a 5k! It's for the last weekend of January! Eeek! So I need to really start training more.

I started last week already. I probably ran 5k's every other day last week. I've been pretty slow. Since I hadn't really jogged since November I knew that was going to happen. I'm pretty confident that I'll be ok for this 5k.

From there I plan to save money and head back to Catalina Island this spring to finish the Trans Catalina trail. It's over 15 miles and it's pretty steep for most of it. So I'm also planning on hiking a ton to get prepared for the Trans Cat.

Now the main thing is food. It's always about the food. So I finally decided to buy The Paleo Diet book by Loren Cordain. I keep talking and mentioning that I want to work on my diet and Paleo has caught my attention for a long time now. Fortunately, thanks to a couple of wonderful people I've gotten more resources to learning about the diet and life changes.

To help me with my hiking I bought a local hiker guide book to get the most out of my wanderings:

and to keep me motivated I happily bought the awesome Sean Anderson's new book Transformation Road

I'm really excited about this book and hope to have a good read if not have a new inspirational tool.

I ordered all books to my address in the mountain and hopefully the books will be waiting for me when I get back to work.

Now how am I going to achieve all of this without burning out and giving up? Small steps and commitment.

The Small-yet-Big Goals

Looking back at my past successes it's always been the really small steps that have helped me out. Making small streaks and doing things where you go "a little farther" every day is what's helped me get this far. Discarding that is what's gotten me to re-gain.

So although I have these big plans I'm starting small. I'm going to focus on one thing at a time.

My first streak is going to be jogging/walking daily. I'm going to attempt to do that for a week.

Another streak is going to be finishing my 64 oz water bottle everyday. Whether I drink more water than that is fine but finishing that water bottle will be enough for now.

The last initial streak I'll try is eating less grains. If I can try to eat as little grains as possible for each meal for a week that will be enough for now.

A little goes a long way!

So that's it. I have high hopes for 2012. It all depends on how determined and disciplined I can be. This is it. I can do this! And I KNOW you can too.

Let's start the year off right.

love
-w0rld

LAST CDCC Check In

I JUST got back from my trip to the Bay Area and I jumped on the scale this morning. The number wasn't too surprising but I was hoping for better.


Current Weight: 214.8 (+2.4 lbs from last week)


So this is the last weigh in of the Challenge was 213.4 lbs which means that at the end of the challenge I actually gained 1.4 lbs. So sad but true.


Now let's look back at the rules to see what happened:


Select a caloric daily limit on which you (and I) can lose weight weekly.


I did NOT follow this AT ALL. I stopped calorie counting early in the game and never truly re-started. I attempted different food diets never finding one that really stuck with me.


Exercise a minimum of 3x a week.


This I had no problems with. I have been able (for the most part) to have some sort of activity at least 3x a week. The consistency of my work outs were varied and my commitments to a specific work out was non existent but to say I've been a couch potato would be lying. Since my weight loss journey started exercise has hardly been the problem.


Hydrate sufficiently.


This I admit was yo-yo. I would hydrate well one week. Hydrate horribly the next. You would think I could keep up with something as simple as drinking water. But looking back.. not so much.


Choose 1 (or more) books and work on your main obstacle-to-losing issue(s)


I was all over the place with this one. I would start a book here, finish a book there and never actually started reading a book and finish it in one go. I did pick up a lot of random information that will help me but never dedicated enough time to one book alone.


And of course the last rule:


Get a smaller sized dress.


Here again is the dress I picked at the beginning of the challenge:

And here it is now

Now a part from looking much more tan (how does that happen in winter months?? Oh yeah I work outside. LOL) and although I still have the bulges showing I actually look a bit more toned. And I'll happily take that. LOL


I AM planning on wearing this dress for the holidays. Once I'll accessorize it with one of my favorite belts it doesn't look that bad. What do you think?

*Ready for the Holidays!*

  
I don't think it looks that bad. *nods* It will do.




So all in all I want to thank everyone that supported me. It was a great challenge and although I fell short I don't regret joining and keeping up with everyone. I will lose the weight. I just have to keep fighting against this yo-yo battle I'm in.


This is also my 2nd year Blog-a-versity. Two years in to w0rld's FAT blog and I'm still going strong. 


I'll make a new entry talking about my blogging anniversary later this week.


Thank you everyone!


-w0rld

CDCC Check In/I'm in the Bay!

Hi Everyone!

So this week I'm going to be bumming it in the Bay Area! I got here last night and had a great time. Woke up this morning and looked at the scale..

Current Weight: 212.4 lbs (+0.8 lbs)

..and wasn't too daunted by the slight gain. Chances are the couple of "treats" I gave myself last week caught up with me. I'm pretty sure this week is going to help get rid of that.

Quick Update:

Exercise: I went on quite a few hikes last week. Four hikes with the kids, one of which was the major hike that took us to the local peak. It took me three days to get over my soreness from my new strength training routine and by the end of the week I ended up doing a less strenuous version of it so as not to pull anything.

Water: 4 out of 7 days. I definitely was not able to drink enough water most of the week but tried to make up for it by drinking tea.

Food: I didn't calorie count this week and it showed on the scale. I finished my last week for this season at work and we had to clear out the fridge for the winter. (The camp starts back up in January so I'm on "winter break") I definitely indulged in some extra food and called it my "duty" to finish my left overs. Was this smart? Absolutely not.

Support: Yes! I was finally able to go to some peoples pages and express my love and support to their blogs! I'm so glad I took the time! People are doing amazing progress.

This week is going to be interesting since I'm going to be couch surfing through out the bay area and (hopefully) walking around a lot. My lack of funds, my encouragement to use the primal form of transportation (that's called walking) and hopefully a trip or two to the trails this week will help get that number on the scale back down.

I arrived in the Bay Area last night and already had a fantastic dinner with friends (mmm Pho), a movie night, a quick flirting session at a starbucks, a twinkling gelato date in downtown Berkeley, and a late night attending a Holiday themed Rocky Horror Picture Show! This is going to be awesome!

One more week challengers! Let's make it count!

love
-w0rld

CDCC Check In

Today I woke up and reluctantly stepped on the scale. The number I got was better than I expected.

Current Weight: 211.6 lbs (-3.2 lbs from the Thanksgiving fiasco)

So not bad! I'm sure restraining myself slightly this week, losing some water weight and etc helped with this loss. I'll keep it!

Of course this number is still horrendous since the Christmas Dress Countdown Challenge ends soon and I haven't moved very far from my 213 lbs start. I still have a couple more check ins and I'm going to hit the ground running to see how much I can improve in the little time I have left. I admit I've been slacking for the last few weeks.

I finally, while gritting teeth fearing what I would see, started calorie counting. I was shocked at the number and yet it made perfect sense. The first night I calorie counted I had consumed over 3,200 calories!! It was amazing what I thought was just " a handful of this" here and "an extra granola bar won't hurt" there came up to!

You would think I would know better by now but alas there was the proof. I continued to count calories for the rest of the week minus yesterday when the internet was down again. Whether I like it or not it just proves that calorie counting really works. Sigh*

I started playing with the numbers this week and seeing how long it will take me now to return to ONEderland with a healthy weight loss. I figured that if I'm able to lose 2 lbs/wk I could be back in the 190's by January 15th.
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I finally picked up my strength training book AND finished reading it. I bought the book this summer and started reading it. However due to whatever excuse I had at the time I didn't finish it and never got to learn the different exercises for my level and therefore, I never started my strength training routine. The book is You Are Your Own Gym by Mark Lauren

It's exactly what I had been looking for at the time; a guide to having my own strength training work outs without the need of a gym since I'm never near enough to civilization to attend a gym regularly. Also most of my exercises (at least the ones that have contributed to my current weight loss) are those that I've done OUTSIDE of a gym.

I finished reading it this week and started the recommended routine for beginners yesterday. The book has an entire section with explanations of different work outs. The pictures help and it also has suggestions on how to "kick it up a notch" when that exercise gets too easy. It's very well explained and is very realistic in it's approach on how targeting a specific area in your body doesn't work, how diet is incredibly important as well and how over training and injuries are dangerous. So far I love it.

One thing though, looking at the picture for One-legged Romanian Dead Lifts you would think they're pretty easy to do. WRONG! Those kicked my a$$ this morning! LOL
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My water intake has been ok. Last night I spent the whole day driving back and forth so I didn't get much of a chance to drink water, seeing as I forgot my water bottle. By the end of the night I felt it and had to wake up in the middle of the night to down glass after glass of water.
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Aside from my new strength training routine I was able to go on a couple of short but steep hikes this week as part of class. I mentioned this hike before in last weeks weigh in. The hike is short and steep but it gives me a great work out. Mainly because I have to beat the kids to the top so I can meet them up there, I have to RUN up the steep trail. So something that would usually take me 20 minutes with a steady-slow climb I have to do in 7 minutes before the kids start climbing. Of course by the time they get up there I've had time to cool down and look calm and collected. LOL "Yeah, no big deal you guys!" LOL.
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I've been absolutely horrible at being a good support system to my fellow challengers! I'm so sorry. Everyone has been so supportive and I haven't had the chance to reply to many peoples wonderful updates but please know that I AM reading them!
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So two more check ins left. Let's do this! I'll take a picture of my dress at the end of the Challenge with a before and after. We'll see!

love
-w0rld

Weigh In

Ok so now that I have a few minutes and I'm not rushing out the door to do something I can finally do a proper weigh in.

As I suspected here it is:

Current Weight: 214.4 lbs (+ 4.8 lbs)

A little scary. I knew  I'd gained weight with the amount of cake and over all food I ate (Thanksgiving week is also birthday week since 3 or 4 of my immediate family have birthdays in the same week. Crazy) but a 5 pound  gain? Even I admit that's absolutely ridiculous. Sigh* I'm sure I could blame some part of that on the T.O.M. but not enough to justify such a large gain.

I need to work harder this week. No excuses. This gain is too scary to ignore.

Work Out Achievement(s): Like I mentioned in my CDCC check in I didn't go out too much last week except for a 2 mile walk with my mother and some crazy dancing here and there. This morning I woke up sore from paint ball yesterday.

It was the first time I went paint balling and it was exciting. Although I wasn't very good (ok maybe I got out early most of the games) it just gave me motivation to want to do it again and work on technique and most of all aim. LOL.

However the squatting, running, ducking and etc assured that I had the sorest legs this morning. My front quads my glutes and my calves are sore. My left arm is also slightly sore from holding the gun. I have to work on my arm strength.
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This morning after my weigh in I had some time before my staff meeting so I went for a quick hike up one of our short but steep trails and took a moment taking in the gorgeous scenery as I planned my action for this week.
"Ok, now that I'm up here, alone and with time to think, what am I going to do about this gain?"
"Does this make me weak? Undisciplined?"
"What can I do to reverse the damage? What workouts can I do? What food should I avoid?"

Things like that.

That hike is really nice because if I try to go up at a relatively quick pace it gets my blood pumping quickly and the view at the end of the trail is very worth it.

Goal(s):
So besides continuing my water in take and etc I'm planning on working on strength training this week. Exercises I can do in between classes in my room for a few minutes and maybe bring out my pilates video this week should help, especially if I get lazy with the cold weather. I know this happens so I want to come up with a work out routine that can't leave any excuses.

That's all for now. I leave you with a picture of the paintball group yesterday. Fun times!

-w0rld

Super Quick CDCC Check In

Hello!

On my way to go to paint ball this morning! Woo! I've never done it before and I'm excited.

Here we go!

Current Weight: unknown!

I don't have access to my scale right now so I'll weigh in tomorrow.. Due to some over eating my guess is a gain. eeek!

Water. 2/7 days were great. I could have done better the rest of the week.

Book: I was home and spent the entire time reading the Hunger Games. Great trilogy. Not much insight in weight loss.

Exercise: I walked with my mom once this week. That was nice. I also danced the night away at least twice this week and that was awesome!

Support: Although a few people got some responses from me I spent a lot of time supporting my friend and my mom so real life support! And it felt amazing!

Ok gotta go.

Love,
-w0rld

CDCC Check In

Happy weekend everyone!

I woke up this morning with a slight surprise from the scale. It's not much but it's more than I expected and I'll take it!

Current Weight: 209.6 lbs (-0.6 lbs)

Seeing as I was feeling bloated and I didn't get much exercise in I was happy to see results even if it wasn't much.

The only exercise I got was working my arms while belay-ing kids up our tower twice this week. I went on a hike once and ... that's about it.

As for water I did ok but I was definitely dehydrated more than 3 times this week. I scrounged through my car this weekend and found my 64 oz water bottle. Perfect timing! That thing is so useful and easy. All I have to do is finish that water bottle.. maybe twice and I'm set for the day.

This week I got a little crafty and I created a small poster with a list of the reasons why I'm on this weight loss journey. I'll take a picture of it this week. I posted it on my wall right across from my front door and right above my desk, so that I can see it every time I walk in to my room. Nice~

I've been looking over The Spark; not really reading it thoroughly but going through it to remind myself of good habits and give myself some motivation.


This morning I got a great treat and I went on a trail ride around the mountains surrounding my current home. This was the second time I got on a horse and I was able to survive and have a great time. Talk about an inner thigh work out! Riding a horse (or in my case a mule. LOL. ) takes some work even if the one exerting most of the energy is the animal. LOL

When I get a chance I'll take a picture of the couple of horses I've been on so far as well as the poster.

I'm going home this week and I will collect my red Christmas Challenge dress and try it on again. I haven't lost much weight but it would be a good reminder of why I'm in this challenge to have the dress with me rather than two hours away where I can forget.


Thank you for all your support. I'll spend some quality blogging time doing my part!

love
-w0rld