Weigh In --BREAKTHROUGH!!

Hello Everyone,

So the last time I left off in a slightly better mood with more determination than I'd had all summer.

I admit that when I went back to the field (after raiding Trader Joe's for my weeks worth of food.. that was a pretty penny lol) I still wasn't sure if what I was doing was right. I ate a LOT of bread and cheese which I've mentioned before as my nemesis and although we did hike quite a bit most of the week I just DIDN'T feel any progress going on.

My pants fit the same as before and my breath was labored like before...

So you could imagine my surprise when I stepped on the scale this morning and found this:

Current Weight: 221 lbs (I finally lost some pounds again but best of all this weight means that I FINALLY REACHED THE 30 lbs LOST MARK!!!) wooop!


Now of course this also means that in the whole up and down of it all I was only able to lose 2 lbs the month of July but right now that sounds wonderful . This is what I needed to get myself up again. A little progress that means a lot. :)

Work Out Achievements: So I mentioned in my last post that I was going to attempt to work out in my tent every night after work.

Well after the first couple of nights I stopped doing it. We hiked up to our work site in the morning and hiked back at the end of the day and that (besides the general, "climb through a fallen tree" and "pick up a bucket full of soil back and forth") was all the exercise I got a day.

I'm guessing those hikes actually did work ... and I like to think my positive thinking was also a factor.. LOL

Goal(s): This week I'll be celebrating my birthday in Vegas with one of my friends. I will try to NOT eat too much junk and not take in too many empty calories that I like to call booze. (I'm not a big drinker anyway but Hey! It's my birthday!) lol

My actual birthday is actually next Tuesday but I'll be in the field for the actual day so... yeah...

other than that I'm going to take advantage of the beautiful Las Vegas strip and walk the hell out of it. LOL.

When I get the chance I'll post the pics of my hikes through the Yosemite National Forest (not the Park) and Mono Lake that I did the days right after my last post.

Have fun everyone and Thank You. Thank you for reading this. Thank you for supporting me. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement and simply showing me you're there. It really, really, really, REALLY helps (really.. LOL)

love
-w0rld

(Attempting to) Getting Back on Track/Weigh In

Hello~

So I think the last time I left off with a major confession of my "falling off the wagon" and my multiple promises to get "back on the horse" and "back in the game." (Yes.. those are a lot of little metaphors aren't they? But hey who doesn't love a little visualization right? Right!)

So let's start with my current Weigh In:

Current Weight: 225 lbs (Yes it looks like I'm still stuck in the 220's but due to my horrid eating habits in the last few weeks I think that's ok)

Work Out Achievement(s): Last week my crew and I had a lot of fun (NOT!) in the summer sun hiking from plot to plot and in the weekend we moved to a whole new campsite and area where we have to hike for a little less than an hour to get to our work site.

The view is unbelievable:

and the hike is definitely going to help. I'm sure of it!

Other than that, today I decided to stay in civilization to get some needed internet time in but to also get some gym tme in:

I went to the gym and worked out like mad at cardio. So much so that 10 minutes in I was already not only covered in sweat but dripping in it too. I think that's a good sign.

To treat myself at a job well done I decided to dress up today too. :)

I am currently wearing a "little black dress" with my cool "bling" summer sandals with my hair down in perfect riglets. hehehe.. It might not be a completely new look.. but my white legs are getting some time out of my heavy pants, my hair is getting some bouncy sun time and I don't know.. I'm feeling "pretty". LOL LOL LOL Which is something I think I need since most of the time I look like this:


yeah.. I know.. bleh
All in all I know I have to work harder in to getting out of this weight slump (and probably plateau) but I don't think I have to guilt trip myself and make myself miserable to get back in to it. I can struggle to get back "in the game" with a smile on my face thank you very much.

Goal(s): I decided I need more specific goals than "work out more" and "stop eating so much junk". So I decided to restart my "no juices" streak. I broke it a few weeks ago and have been drinking Lipton green tea bottles (you know the sweet ones from the 7-11.. yeah those ones)
And also I think I have to start working on working out for 15 minutes minimum inside my tent (the tent I use for work is f-ing huge! I could pretty much stand in it and slightly bend my head.. not to mention I can lay flat in any angle possible and still not hit the other side of the tent.. sweet right? I thought so) to make up for whatever I'm not doing when I'm in the field.

The Spark has great and simple 10 minute combination work outs I could try out. The best part about that is that they're user friendly and most of the workouts don't require any extra equipment besides your body. LOL

So those are my goals for the week(s). Wish me luck everyone. And I hope everyone is having a nice and cool summer!~

-w0rld

Why haven't I posted anything lately?

Does the phrase "falling off the wagon" mean anything to you?

Well yes I admit right now that the last... month or so.. I've been binging, vegging, and lying to myself about how I've been treating myself. (yes, yes there were two "myself"s in the same sentence. So sue me grammar police~)

It's been starting to show. And it's been worrying me (ok.. I'm getting freaked out). Health issues that I had ignored in my new found euphoria over my weight loss success, and the energy and etc that came with it, have come back and with it came decreased momentum, increased physical pain, and fear. Yes I said fear.

Let me Explain:

Every time I've come back from work and camping I kept telling myself that I should treat myself. Except instead of having a candy bar one day, or even an In N Out burger I started binging on fast food daily. I was eating cake, ice cream, and juices.

It got worse as time went by and the last week I was at work I had taken some of that stuff to work with me. Which means I was eating junk at work. Sigh*

Breads and cheeses are my nemesis..


That's ALl breads and cheese combinations (think about it, there are TONS of combinations!!)
And these last few weeks I've been starting my old bad habits and relationships with those combinations again.

I knew what I was doing and I kept doing it... *shakes head* and the worse part about all this is that I think I know WHY I did it:

I had read a ton of other peoples blogs and talked to people who had gone through weight loss journeys and I kept hearing about how "hard" it was to lose the weight. How "challenging" it was to keep it up and how "long" it took them to do it.

The thing was that so far the weight loss I've experienced hasn't felt hard at all. Challenging yes, but it was mental not really physical... I kept doing the math about how much weight I thought I should be losing vs. the rate of weight I had been losing.. and I was 'ahead of schedule' I guess you could say..

This should have made me ecstatic right? Wrong. I felt cheated. I felt like I was doing it wrong. Why was I losing so much weight so quickly? Was it unhealthy? Why did it feel so easy?

I know. I know. This is ridiculous.

But subconsciously (or unconsciously... can someone tell me the difference?) I guess I started sabotaging myself. Eating things I shouldn't. Eating too much. Breaking my rules and breaking my "streaks".

I didn't really think it was going to affect me too much besides maybe regaining a few pounds..

.. but then my skin condition started acting up again. Think of a feeling of continuous pain in different parts of your body. Infections, allergic reactions, low circulation causing discomfort, etc etc... These things that have haunted me for years due to my weight (which had become dormant in the last few months due to my weight loss and increased activity) sprang up again.
It was horrible. Horrible!

It scared me. Made me realize what I have been doing to myself.

I realized I hadn't gone to the gym (and actually worked out) since early June. I realized that making excuses for not working out while working in NV because "I'm too tired" was making me lazy. I realized I was fucking up. Period.

I hadn't been able to log on to Sparkpeople and keep track of my food and so I have no idea what my calorie intake has been in the last month. And I still haven't figured out how much I should be eating now that I'm at a new weight.

I was slipping and falling off the wagon.

I need to dust myself off and get back on.

I will be going back to work tomorrow morning. Which means no internet access for atleast 8 days.

I will try my hardest to use those days to get back on track. I brought my copy of The Spark with me this time.


It helped me get pumped and motivated before. Maybe it will help me again.

Wish me luck good people.

I'm definitely going to need it. *bites nails*

love
-w0rld

The amazingness of clothes shopping.

I hate shopping. Period.

Nothing ever fits. Everything that does looks like shit or like an old lady went on a rampage.

If it does fit and looks good it costs an arm and a leg.

It's horrible.


And yet recently I find myself slightly less loathsome towards the experience.

I'm curious.

"Hmmm.. my pants are super loose. I wonder *hesitates* I wonder if this size will fit me.. and if it doesn't how tight is it? Can I fit in to this later if I lose enough by December, by Fall, by next month"

And then I find myself inside a Target fitting room, barefoot and trying to ignore the slight stuffy smell, trying out this size in shirt, pant, and/or dress, that I wouldn't even think about before.

This morning was one of those days.

I got a size 18 pants. (I've been a size 20-22 for 5 years btw) I try them on. They fit.

I look at the price tag. I look at my image. I think of the pants I'm wearing that day, currently laying on a chair, super wrinkly. They don't fit anymore, and if it wasn't for my super awesome belt they would fall on the floor as I walked.

So long story short I buy the pants.


This has happened to me three times in the last two months.

It's nice for the ego boost. It's bad for the wallet. It's a good thing I'm super picky about clothes or else my car would be full of random clothes I'll never use.(Remember I'm living out of my car right now.. yeah.. also not a good idea)

I don't know what I should do, but I don't regret my purchases so far. I need those pants for work and I'll be completely pleased when I don't have to worry about uncomforatable fitting pants when I'm trying to climb over a fallen tree or something.

Rock on.

I wish you all a well fitted, wallet filling, super fantastic 4th of July!

love,
-w0rld

It's July!

It's July and I managed to weigh myself this morning (I had already weighed myself for this week but since it's the beginning of a new month I weighed myself again).

Interestingly enough the scale read:

223 lbs

That's a nice number I think. lol.

So I will start this new month at 223 lbs and I will Not get distracted as I work for my short term goal of:

"Be 215 lbs by my birthday!!"

(My b-day is in the middle of August so I have a month and a half to lose 8-10 lbs. That sounds a little reasonable to me, doesn't it?)

I can do this! We can do this!

Love,

-w0rld

Update time! & Weigh In

Hello~

So it's been a little while and I've finally gotten time to update this fabulous blog.

When I last left it I was home getting ready for my brothers wedding and binging on junk food every single night.

We're talking pizza, burgers, potato wedges, meat, cake and chocolate covered strawberries. I didn't go to the gym ONCE the entire week I was home and when I was returning to work I promised myself to work hard to work off the weight I KNEW I must have gained the week before.

So now that I was finally weigh myself, I'm pretty satisfied though not thrilled with my results:

Current Weight: 225 lbs (pretty much the same weight from a couple of weeks ago)

Work Out Achievement(s): So after the celebration time I went back to Nevada and started working again. I had bought myself desperately-needed-new hiking boots and boy did I use them.

I actually went jogging (yes I said jogging) once along the road near our campsite.

--Music really does make a difference and I am more and more grateful for my little mp3 player.. but I need more music. I need to rebuild my Itunes music collection. I feel empty ever since my comp crashed... but maybe my plea for people to give me their music should be at another blog.. but in case I don't get to that I'm just going to drop it in: I need MUSIC! I like EVERYTHING! Help Me!!... lol--

Anyway I jogged the area since this was a new campsite and we also were only going to be there for half the week. I was able to take a couple of pictures along the way.


This is one pic of the road I was following while I jogged/explored the area around our campsite. Pretty nice right?

I jogged/powerwalked for thirty minutes. I didn't realize how far I had gone until I decided to power walk back and the return trip took me 45 minutes. I felt a little proud of myself I admit. LOL

After that the other big exertion I had was this awesome hike/climb me and a few other co-workers ended up doing. We drove to the edge of this mountain side to view this great peak. After taking some pictures and talking about the plant life on the other side, we got the idea to go over there and climb up a side of the peak.

I huffed and puffed the whole way but I made it! I was very proud of myself.



This is the view of the peak we were going to. We decided to go to the other side


When I finally made it to the top of the other side I asked someone to take a picture of me tired and winded but happy.

I pretty much thought I had done a good job at making up for my earlier binge.

Goal(s): So now that I know I've been maintaining my weight yet not losing weight I think it's time I worked harder and stepped it up a notch. I think that means I have to re-calculate my calorie intake and start refining my work out schedule. I knew this was going to happen. Everything didn't seem TOO hard once I started losing the pounds. I guess you could say I'm worried I've reached another plateau. It freaken sucks to reach a plateau.

Anyway wish me luck friends and I leave you with one of my recent favorite pictures of me and my family during my lil brothers lil wedding:



smile~

We can do it!

-w0rld

Pictures!

So I promised I'd show off pictures of my current adventures in the middle of nowhere Nevada.

I never really thought much about what Nevada looked like and I was happily surprised by what I saw:

This is the beginning of my hike last Saturday


The day was overcast and slightly rainy. It was a little cold and wet. I thought the trail would just continue to be a road and I could simply follow it to wherever it took me, but I quickly found out that the road soon ended and I had to simply find a spot to walk on that wouldn't trample the knee high grass and continued to follow the trees.

Yes that's me with my tons of layers.. It's kind of weird to be wearing gloves, beanies and long johns in the middle of June but that's what happened. The week had started out warm and sunny and as the week progressed it got cloudier and colder. By the end of the week all the layers I usually reserved for the night I was wearing during the day as well. The whole reason I was able to go on this hike was because the area we were working at was raining and making us miserable. Good thing camp wasn't raining quite so hard yet..

The area I was at was near this awesome creek


which ran along my own made trail. Since I had been working in the desert all spring I kept staring at this wonderful source of water, so close to camp. I kept walking off toward the small bank and dipping my fingers in the cold water. I almost felt like jumping in. I think I might have if it wasn't so shallow. Yes I know it was cold but let me tell ya when you aren't near a shower everything looks appealing.

My boss had told me to stay on the right side of the creek. I wasn't really planning to get lost so I paid attention to him. I was happy to do so. There was a lot of little things to see.



On the other side was a burn site where the trees were literally standing charcoal and the ground below me was literally cushioned with old ash.. It was amazing. I didn't realize that lupins grew so well and amazingly around burn sites as well as some other plants that were out there. If you touched the branches of the trees you would come back with a hand full of blash ash.



After a bit I decided to climb up this hill and get a good look of the whole area

that was the area I had already walked and this one:


is the area I didn't get to.

It really is quite an amazing place. I stayed on that hill until my personal body heat cooled and I saw that a new set of storm clouds were forming and coming over. Once I saw that I climbed down and headed back to camp.

The last picture was the picture I talked about in my last post where I was really surprised at the person I saw in the image:


What do you think?

That's the start of an adventure you guys.

Have fun!

-w0rld