TGIF Weigh In (8.30.13) : Happy Birthday to Me!

Drum roll please...

I gained 2.4 lbs. My jaw dropped and I was not a happy camper. Then I started going back through my pal. This week.... has been my best yet. I worked out, drank water, hit my calorie goals. My pizza and chinese from last weekend is still effecting me. I really don't know how I lost weight my freshman year in college with all the drinking. I guess that's the difference between an 18 year old metabolism and a 28 year old (10 years seriously!?!?). Lesson here, reign in the splurges. I get one, not a weekend.

Which brings me to my birthday! 28 and I feel better than ever. I knew today included dinner/dessert so I kept Breakfast and Lunch light and healthy. Jenny and I went dress shopping since I had a wedding to attend the next weekend. I found the perfect dress and it was a steal ($17!!). When I tried it on and looked in the mirror, I was shocked. I couldn't believe that was me and Jenny approved as well, so I know I wasn't kidding myself. For once, I saw me in the dress. Not fixating on the body parts I don't like or extra roll here or wishing I looked different. And no matter what the scale said this morning, I am in better shape physically, but more importantly, mentally. I am recognizing my mistakes and learning how to overcome them. What more can I ask for?

Well birthday dinner was at the Cheesecake Factory. Oh yeah. If you know me, you know how much I LOVE cheesecake. And it's my mom's fault. It's all she ate when she was pregnant. And yes, you damn right I had cheesecake on my birthday! 

Smores cheesecake. Every bite was amazing and guilt-free. 

Why? Because I worked my butt off, saved extra calories for it, and planned my meals accordingly for the day. I enjoyed my night out and we did some walking after as well. What do I have planned for tomorrow? A 5 mile run, healthy breakfast, and hike with my dog. My friend Vic is taking me to dinner and a comedy club. I will be keeping it healthy at dinner. He's on a healthy kick as well, so I can count on his support and I won't have to stare at or smell foods I need to avoid. Also, comedy clubs are known for 2 drink minimums, so I am already inputting into the pal 2 cocktails before the day begins. I know what I need to do tomorrow and I will do it.

Happy Birthday to me.... food is no longer in the driver seat :) 

Sunday Recap with some Tweaking

What a week. What a weekend. 

With the help of my friend Rebecca, I finally figured out why I was gaining weight. I was looking at the wrong number in myfitnesspal and actually eating too much! She also gave me a great tip on how to have a life, not derail progress and feel guilty every time I go out. Budget your weekly calories to include some cheating on the weekend. Thanks Friend!! 

I understand the concept of saving calories in order to enjoy a cheat that day, but I never thought about looking at the whole WEEK like that! So I save some calories each day and then I have this "bank" to use on the weekend as I choose. Maybe it's dinner, drinks, or brunch. The same rules still apply, I can only use what I have saved, so if I'm not diligent during the week with savings, then I'm going to gain weight if I decide to splurge. 

Sigh of relief. I feel much better about my upcoming birthday and the wedding I'm attending. I still have to exercise self control, but I can create a situation where I can enjoy some things I normally don't. It really is all about moderation. I notice that when I try to restrict myself and say I can't have this or that, that "banned" item is ALL I think about! 

With so much on my mind and kind of feeling like a slave to my diet, I indulged in pizza on Friday and chinese on Saturday. I did keep up with my workouts, which really are seeming like second nature now. I know I need to start putting more focus on the nutrition side of things. 

I've decided to switch up my weekly routine. I really like going 6 days a week, but I can't do all cardio sessions. It is burning me out. Plus I didn't realize how much walking I do with Molly. I started wearing my GPS watch, and I log about 3-4 miles/day! So multiply that by 6 days a week (no walks on daycare day), that's 18-24 miles/week. I didn't realize I was putting in that kind of mileage! No wonder I'm exhausted. 

So for workouts: 5 days of cardio and 1 lift day. Yup, lifting is back! This time I'm focusing on adding one lift day at a time till I'm consistent. 3 of the cardio days will be runs as well. I'm itching to race again when the weather cools off, so time to get back into running more regularly. I also liked doing pushups, squats, and dips before cardio. It gave me time to focus on those basic compound movements. Need to add in some planks since I also have a goal of a 2 min plank. But the plan is to do these before cardio Monday/Wednesday/Friday. I'm also scheduling these workouts in my smartphone to reinforce that I need to complete that type of workout on that day. 

Top 3 for the week:

1. Water - I'm dehydrated

2. Hitting calorie goals 

3. Getting in 1 lift this week

TGIF WEIGH IN (8.23.13)

And this week the scale shows...

Gained another pound. Seriously body? 

I was healthy this weekend. I did have panera on Tuesday, but that was within my calories. I've worked out everyday. But you know what? I am exhausted and sore and stressed. I feel like I am running on empty and need like 24 hours on that couch. 

Why am I stressed ? Its actually not primarily work. Its life! I have some upcoming events (birthday and a wedding) so I want to work extra hard to look great. I'm pushing myself in the gym and really not giving myself leeway to cheat. Stress #2 is how am I going to navigate these alcohol and food heavy events?!? 

I dont want to wreck my progress. I know how easy it is to get caught up in celebrations and forget my goals. What do fit people do on their birthday anyway? I have always done some type of dinner followed by heavy drinking. And its not like I dont want to drink. Trust me, I love a good beer or cocktail just like any other 27 year old, but I want to lose the weight more. And I know by drink 3, its like what goals?? Then the wedding. How often does one of your good friends get married? I want to enjoy the day and the people I'm traveled to see!

So in short, I've stressed myself out. And I just realized that a part of life, is living it. I want to enjoy these events so I'm going to do just that. Ill keep the days before and after according to plan and exercise on event day. Both of which are Saturdays. So I'll be planning to run in the morning. And that is that. The rest of September is major event free so I can hit it hard.

Sunday Recap (8.18.13)

This week was a struggle with getting back on track. My water, I think I hit 3 days. I did however hit all 6 days of the cardio and pushup challenge. But I had to workout on Sunday to do it since I missed Tuesday. I did have a great weekend with getting back on track and hitting my macros both Saturday and Sunday. Exercise this weekend was hiking, swimming, pilates, and dog walks. It felt good to do something different, but don't get me wrong, I'm still sore. My shoulders, butt, and abs are quite sore.

I also realized that I am halfway through my challenges for the month. I'm feeling pretty accomplished for sticking with it and not giving up. I have noticed that my push-ups are coming along and I can actually flex my pec muscles, which I think is pretty cool. I can't wait till I can do full push-ups and hoping I'll be able to accomplish this by end of the year. I think it might be possible, it's amazing how much easier they are already.

So this week's focus is nutrition. My workouts are going great and the bigger piece of the puzzle is the stuff that I put into my mouth. I'll be great for a few days then stress, tiredness, or just feeling like I need a treat derail me. This week there is no going over budget and I have plenty of food in the house. So if I want a treat, guess it's time to get creative or pop a piece of gum.

So top 3 for the week:

1. Water: Gallon a day
2. Challenges: pushups/squats/dips and cardio 6 days a week
3. Staying within 1700 calories

Hiking? Who am I?

Today I decided to be adventuresome and try a different park on Grapevine Lake. I took Molly to Murrell Park to check out the hiking trails, which is on the northern side of the lake. So when I pictured hiking trails, I was thinking it was a continuation of the trails on the southern side; which are paved with drinking fountains and benches. Joke was on me. These were dirt trails, the kind marked by signs you always missed and full of mountain bikers. 

I almost turned around because this was NOT the hike I was picturing. But I decided to go for it and hope that I didn't get lost. We hiked for about an hour and it was exactly how I pictured hiking on this trail would be. I stumbled over roots, got slapped by branches, and almost ran down by a few bikers. But I ENJOYED it! Everything was so peaceful, the temp was perfect, and it was fun to watch Molly poke around. The best discovery was this picnic area right on the lake. After a good hike, it was nice to jump in.

Molly at Grapevine Lake

Sitting on some rocks overlooking the lake.

It was one of those perfect days. Blue sky, sun shining, and a slight breeze. I could feel all the tension of the week fading away as I sat here with my dog watching boats and contemplating life. This week was rough, but I realized something important. There is no cure for the days that don't go according to plan. They happen and there's only one thing I can do. Get back on track immediately. Not try to do anything drastic like workout more or cut my calories, because I've done that in the past and it honestly just creates more stress. Just back on the plan as it is and let my body work itself out. Every day doesn't have to be perfect, but as long as the good ones outweigh the bad; I'll continue to move in the right direction. 

I also realized that I am actually living the active healthy lifestyle that I've imagined. Yup, I'm being that fit girl that I see in my head. I went hiking today, swam in a lake, and ate a healthy packed lunch at a picnic table. Is my body where I want it to be? No. But that doesn't mean I have to wait to start living a healthier life. It's actually quite the opposite, doing all these things will help get my body where I want it to be. Now the question is....What am I going to try next? :)

TGIF Weigh In (8.16.13)

Its the post I've been dreading....

I gained 0.8 Lbs this week. 

Sigh. 

I'm not surprised. I have been struggling all week to dig myself out of Sunday's indulgence. And this feeling sucks! I'm a little disappointed because I was set on hitting 10 lbs lost this Friday. And l told myself I'd get new sneakers when I did. But I can't dwell on it. I cant change what happened. All I can do is follow my healthy habits and let the rest take care of itself.

I will hit 10 next Friday and get my sneakers!

Oh sugar what you do to me!

When I think about the million dollar question, "How did I gain all this weight?", it goes back to turning to food when I'm happy, sad, angry, insert any other emotion here. Lately, I've been trying to pay attention to how food makes me feel when I eat it. 

Well whenever I eat this.....

I feel exactly like this......

I have a little taste of something sweet and all control goes out the window. I can't get enough! The frenzy ensues and then I've consumed way more than I intended. So as you know, I indulged on Sunday pretty heavily in the sweets and I have struggled ever since. I have craved sugar every.single.damn.day. It feels like I let a monster out of the cage and I'm trying to stuff that shark back in. AND ITS SO HARD! I know people that can have a splurge and then snap back the next day, but truthfully, I am not there yet. I had an ice cream cone on Tuesday and then found myself grabbing a handful of leftover candy from the weekend today. The candy went in the garbage, but I have a full unopened package of fruit by the foot that I need to find someone I can give it to. 

It was a hard decision to make, but I actually declined a social outing this weekend because I knew I would be surrounded by food and alcohol. And thinking about it just stressed me out because I NEED to get back on track. We're about halfway through the month and I want to finish strong. I'm also feeling the pressure of the 220s. Every time I get in the 220s, I get stuck and fall apart. What I am realizing is that I need to change mentally in order to move forward physically. And mentally, I needed to rack up some good days and get my willpower back to full strength. 

Upon further research, I discovered that sugar is a nasty little cycle. Eat some, then crash, crave more and eat more to achieve the same "high"....

And honestly, I have noticed the blood sugar crash. I woke up Monday feeling like I was hit by a bus. I also notice it during the afternoon depending on what I had for lunch. So it's no wonder why you gain weight. As you become more tolerant, you need to consume more. Then I looked into how to get out of this.....

Notice how these tips are just getting back to your healthy habits. Drink water, high fiber foods, exercise, and finding natural sweet sources. I learned that fruit, while a simple sugar, doesn't cause the same effects because they are also full of fiber, water, and minerals. So craving sweet? I need to find a piece of fruit. I've never had a case where I've eaten too much fruit. Even if I had 3 pieces of fruit, it is far better than cake or candy. 

I also came across a new blog called Eat + Run in the health section of US News.com. There was on article in particular that struck me as brilliant. The author talks about sugar addiction and how its origins date back to our primitive days. If you think about it, back when we spent days searching for food, our taste buds were critical to survival. Foods that tasted sweet signaled a good source of energy. Back then all our ancestors had to deal with was honey and fruit (Carbs = Energy). Foods that tasted bitter cautioned us to think twice because it could be toxic. So the ancestors that survived were the ones smart enough to consume foods that tasted sweet and avoid the bitter foods. That response has been passed down to you and you can't rely solely on it. We have easy access to food, your cravings for sweet are not because you've been energy deprived while foraging for your next meal. 

But we're not just hopeless slaves to our ancestry. The author goes on to talk about how you can re-train your taste buds and cultivate a sensitivity to sugar, needing to consume less to be satisfied. I 100% agree with this. I have noticed it myself with salt. Because high blood pressure and cholesterol run in my family, I really watch the salt content in my food. When I cook, it's with salt-free spices and pepper.  I rarely add salt to food and if I do, it's a little bit of sea salt. So when I go out, I immediately notice how salty foods are. I did notice on Sunday the instant sugar rush, but I didn't have the discipline to make the connection and stop. I'm working on that.

The best thing I learned is that there is no magical formula to "beat" sugar addiction. It's just getting back to my healthy habits ASAP and limiting myself to small infrequent indulgences. 

Here's the article in full for your reading pleasure:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/04/15/how-to-overcome-your-sugar-addiction

Sunday Recap (8.11.13)

Top 3 for the week went pretty good:

Water: 6 out of 7 days I drank a gallon

Cardio: 6 days a week completed

Pushup Challenge: 6 days completed

I was exhausted by Saturday, but satisfied with my accomplishments for the week. I even did really well following macros for the week until Sunday. 

What did I do to myself yesterday? I ate way too much food and woke up feeling like crap. My workout this morning was rough and there were about 10 different times that I really wanted to just stop. But I did this to myself and knew the quickest way to get back to normal was to struggle through it. And then it was done. I ate well all day and slowly getting back to normal. It'll take a few days to get rid of the sodium bloat, but it will go away. 

So what happened you ask? I co-hosted a baby shower. I was running around crazy Saturday and Sunday getting everything ready. Sunday morning I was up early to make some food and tasting as I went. So yeah, rice krispie sushi for breakfast. (oops) Then I arrived at the space to decorate and was starving. So started snacking on chips. Then it went downhill from there. I had a few helpings of everything, but it was a really good time. 

I realized that I should've slowed myself down and gotten in some quality food. How easy is it to eat a protein bar or protein shake? Pretty easy.  I went to a BBQ place for lunch today with a supplier and managed to just eat meat and veggies. No cobbler, potato salad, macaroni and cheese or bread. And how did I do that? Discipline. I said to myself after yesterday, you have no room for any excess. Especially since this week I will probably just digging myself out of a hole rather than losing weight this week. 

And so, Ikeep moving forward. I'll get over this hump and keep shaving off the pounds. 

Holy Macros!

You ever notice how things seem to happen right when you need them? I attended a workshop that my boot camp trainer put on. It was called "How to have your cake and eat it too".  YES! Lose weight and eat cake? Yes please! I signed up hoping to find an answer to my cravings issues. 

The topic of discussion was macro nutrients. What are Macros? Carbs, Protein, and Fat. All food is made up on some combination of the 3. We learned what role each plays: Carbs are fuel, Protein for muscle repair/growth, and Fat for vitamin absorption/temperature regulation (to put it simply). So how much of each of these do you need? Well that is dependent on your body type. The three body types are Ectomorph, Endomorph, and Mesomorph. You can look up the other two, but I ended up being an Endomorph. For an Endomorph, your ratios "starting point" is 25% Carbs/35% Protein/40% Fat. 

Then we did some math to figure out calories and macros. I won't bore you with the details, but here's what I ended up with:

Calories: 1700 

Carbs: 106g

Protein: 149g

Fat: 76g 

I really don't know how people tracked this prior to My Fitness Pal, but I am very glad that I don't have to. I've been doing good with tracking the last month, so I looked to see how I stacked up against these values. Well, my carbs were about double, I could use some more protein, and my fat needed to be tripled!!! The only thing I can say, is that I was in range with my calories (yay me!).

So what now? Well slowly work toward these numbers and see how it effects my body. Will it help the cravings and get me closer to my ideal body? I hope so! I am losing weight right now, so no need to completely abandon what I'm doing, but I want to continue progressing. And honestly, who knows if the ideal ratio for MY BODY is the above. As a runner, I highly doubt I'll go down to just 106g of carbs. You can't run a half marathon on that! And I'm starting to feel the itch to do some races ;)

Overall, I learned that this journey is really about trial and error. I am going to have to experiment to see what works for ME. Also, you can't eat shit and expect to get the body you want. Could I have a piece of cake or a few drinks? Sure. But if I want to keep progressing, that means I have to tweak my other meals that day to still hit my macros. There is no more eating with reckless abandon. I can't have drinks, an appetizer, a meal, AND dessert unless I'm ok with the consequence of that. Which is, I will spend the entire week working off that excess and getting back to where I was.

I think at the beginning, I was looking for some trick out of this and kind of felt like my cravings were controlling me. In reality, I have a choice. I can choose my moments to indulge or I can work week after week working off the weekend binge. Oh wait, I spent the first 6 months doing that!

IT GOT ME NOWHERE.

I REPEAT.. IT GOT ME NOWHERE.

Here's to taking control of my life and what goes in my mouth. Now I need to research some good sources of fat and protein.

Cravings I hate you

So this weekend I declared it was a healthy weekend. I beat my Friday naughty thoughts and decided to try My Fit Foods. I finally just gave in to the fact that I am not going to cook on Friday and looked for a healthy option.  The woman walked me through everything and I decided to try a breakfast, lunch, and dinner item. It was extremely convenient, low calorie, but the only drawback is that the meals are high in sodium. So not sure how people do their 21 day challenge and just eat their meals, but hey, to each their own. I had the lemon turkey for dinner with some truffles for dessert. Then Saturday I had the chili with some truffles. The truffles are an amazing little dessert for 180 cal! I checked the scale out of curiosity and you can see the sodium effect. Ahh well, I'll flush it out this week, but just a reminder that I do not need to eat these meals often. 

This brings us to Sunday. I had breakfast at Panera and splurged on a cinnamon crunch bagel with honey walnut cream cheese. It was like dessert and I enjoyed every bite :) 

The afternoon is when it all went downhill. I started craving a greasy burger. I'm laying on the couch just thinking about this burger and a commercial comes on for Wendy's bacon cheeseburger on a pretzel bun. I'm obsessed with pretzel bread, so my mind is immediately like I have to try this! Seriously.

Then I start looking at the calories I have left for the day and realize I could have this 650 cal burger and still end up at 1900 cal for the day. (I try to stay in the 1600-1900 range) So I did it. I had this burger and it satisfied my cravings. Guess who wasn't happy? My stomach. My insides hurt. And then the guilt came crashing down. So I started pondering about cravings. It's hard enough to eat right and exercise, but dealing with cravings? Bullshit! 

So in researching cravings, I learned a few things. Number one is that there is no one source responsible for why cravings occur. So there is NOTHING for me to blame. But thinking through my own life, I know I start craving things when I'm stressed out ( bad coping mechanism) and because it's what I've always done in certain situations. (Pizza on Friday nights, happy hours, birthdays, etc) I came across a third and it's that your body will have cravings because it's lacking something that it needs. Like how hungry and thirsty feel the same. So I found this cool little graphic:

Today, I was craving oily fatty food and what I really needed was calcium. Really? I thought about today and ehh maybe I didn't have a good calcium source. Does cream cheese count? I also had some eggs lol. I've been trying to have a mentally check myself when cravings hit to make sure I am not stress eating and I think I'll try some of these things out too. I can't say at this point that it doesn't work. 

But in going further, when you do indulge in a craving, what is an acceptable amount? It is a cheat item, cheat meal, or cheat day? I know people that do any of these three. I just hate the guilty feeling and I guess I need to think about what I find acceptable and stick with that. I can't do cheat weekends, that obviously didn't work for the first 6 months of this year. I read another article that talked about the 80/20 rule; meaning 80% of the time you are on point and then 20% you can relax. It also had a caveat that if you were trying to hit a goal, maybe consider the 90/10 rule. 

So because my goal is large, I'm thinking the 90/10. So in a week, I eat 21 meals (not counting snacks), so 10% is 2 meals. Ok so two meals a week, I can cheat. But how big is that cheat? If I go ahead and eat like 2000 calories, I've just erased all my progress. And I am not ok with that!!! Should it be 500 extra calories? 1000? I also read an article that talked about the benefits of cheat meals. One being that it prevents your body from thinking its in starvation mode and conserving every calorie you eat. The other is purely psychological so that you can feel human and enjoy life. 

If you take what I did today, between the bagel and burger, I had 1200 cal in food normally not a part of the plan. So I'm going to be on point the rest of the week and see what happens on Friday's weigh-in. 

Dear friends, what do you do? I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this one because I don't have it solved.....yet. 

Sunday Recap

Sunday, you come waaay too fast! I had a wonderful relaxing weekend. It was nice to take care of some things around the house, spend time with Molly, lay on the couch watching movies. I took naps on Saturday and Sunday too haha. I needed this quiet little weekend. 

So talking about the top 3:

Water: 6 out 7 days. 

Exercise: 6 days of cardio

Sleep: I slept well all week and I notice the difference

Well this week, I'm simplifying things. In my head, I'm super woman and I feel like I can do all these things all at once because I have made the decision to do it! Well, I'm learning that it doesn't really work that way. In reality, I need to give my body time to adjust and catch up. I have the rest of my life to keep progressing so there's no need to rush and set myself up for injury or failure. 

Top 3 are:

Water: I just think this is so important. And when I focus on water, I'm not drinking other crap.

6 days of cardio. I'm not sure what my issue is, but I'm just not feeling the weights. I think it might be me cramming too much onto my plate, so I'm going to stick with cardio and build upon that as I get stronger. 

Complete August Push-up/Dip/ Jump Squat challenge. These body weight exercises satisfy my need to have some element of strength exercise and work toward my pushups goal. Since August started on Thursday, I only had 3 days this week and I am FEELING SORE. This week is a full 6 days, it's going to be killer, but let's do this.

TGI-Weigh In Friday (8.2.13)

So I wanted to talk about an early morning win I had today. My Aunt brought breakfast this  morning before coming over for me to take her to the airport. It was really thoughtful of her and I was like hmm Ill eat when I get home! After the gym, I lay out what she got me:

I sip the coffee and realize it's a full fat mocha.(300 cal atleast!) Then the sandwich was a sausage, egg, and cheese at 400+ cal. Did I really want to consume 700 cal for breakfast? 

WELL....HELL NO!!! 

Here's what I did: 

Molly got the sausage and I threw the rest away. (You will be disowned if you tell my Aunt!!!) This is the first time I really have thrown away food and it was kinda hard. I grew up with the clean your plate and have seconds or thirds mentality. But honestly, does this meal help me in my goals? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. 

And I'd probably be hungry an hour later anyway. 

Score 1 for exercising will power!!!

So on to the weigh in. Ill be honest, I had to weigh myself 3 times because I was in disbelief.....

2.2 lbs lost!! Officially in the 220s!!! I seriously danced around while getting ready for work. All my efforts are adding up and I just have to to keep pushing forward. I'm ready to do this again next week!

And the board is updated...59 pins to go! Actually starting to like this board =)