Getting back into the swing of things.

I have been doing really well about updating my food log this week. I haven't been doing so well with my food choices (in regards to healthy qualities) as you can plainly see but I am making no excuses and giving no reasons as to why I ate what I did. That is irrelevant because it is what it is. I made the decisions to put those foods into my body and I can't un-eat them.

But at least I'm not hiding from my food choices. I am recording what I am eating and that is at least a place to start, you know?

I have also been trying to really watch my portion sizes. I don't need large portions to feel full or satisfied.

Oh and I am working on drinking more water because I completely fell away from that while we were on vacation. I put the notice back on my computer at work, so a pop-up now reminds me to take a drink every 10 minutes. That really helps me remember to drink, particularly because I get so busy at work that I often don't think to stop and make sure I am staying hydrated.

And I have started exercising again. I did some strength training on Sunday and tonight I went for a 30 min. 1:1 (run:walk) with A. I decided to take it easy, which is why we went 1:1. We did have to take a few breaks because we took the dogs with us and we had to clean up a few doggie messes and also give them some water. Boy, were they whipped at the end! They are out of shape. I probably could have kept going but I didn't want to push it with the dogs. Plus, it's probably better to ease back into exercising. When we returned from our run, I did a couple strength moves and then stretched.

Slowly, I am getting back into reading the various health blogs that I follow, so that's inspiring.

And now to revisit my goals! I am going to reorganize them a little.

Goals Achieved!
Run a mile in 12 min. or less. 11:43 on 9/20!

Goals
Run 2 miles without stopping.
Take part in a 5K.
Do a set of 35 push-ups. (Current best - 20)
Do a set of 35 burpees. (Current best - 18)
Whittle my waist - get my waist measurement under 26 inches (currently 27) and my belly measurement under 31 inches (currently 33.5).
Get my body fat percentage under 25%. (Currently 28%)
Become more flexible - be able to do side and middle splits.
Lose 5 lb. (Currently 149.8)

Return from my month-long hiatus

On July 12 I posted that I would be scarce for a few days... somehow that turned into a month. I was so busy in that month.

My husband's (A) birthday was July 11th, so we celebrated his birthday that weekend and my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and niece came to visit and stayed over at our house. We also hosted a party to celebrate A's birthday.

The next weekend A and I decided to pull up the carpeting in our living room and dining room and put down wood laminate flooring. That was quite the project and took much longer than anticipated! Things are still not put entirely to rights but for about 5 days our couch, chaise lounge and treadmill lived in the kitchen.

Somehow in that time I started and finished two baby quilts and worked on some garb for A and I for Pennsic.

The weekend of July 25, I had a baby shower to attend on both Friday AND Saturday. (Both mommies-to-be loved the baby quilts.)

And then A and I left for Pennsic on July 31st and only just returned home last night at about 10 p.m.

Whew! It has been exhausting. And within all that I had to deal with the disappointment of not getting a job that I really wanted and losing my great-aunt.

I suppose that was all a very long explanation as to why my eating and exercise habits have totally slipped over the last month. I haven't gone for a run since before we put the new floor down and my eating hasn't been that great.

I know that I have gained weight and I am sure that my measurements are up. I am also pretty sure I am dehydrated. I know that doesn't help. I have been trying to drink a lot of water today but I know I need more. Even though I know I have gained weight and I'm not a huge fan of the belly pooch getting a little bigger, I am still fairly happy with what I see in the mirror. I still have abs! Still... something needs to be done to reverse the weight gain and build the fitness levels.

Things are going to change.

I AM going to start keeping a food log again. I'll make a post for the coming week tomorrow and update it each day. Keep me honest!

I AM going to start exercising again. At least 4 days this coming week!

I AM going to start running again. I am going to start up the Jeff Galloway 5K training program again. I think I am going to start with week 8.

Oh, and I did check meetup.com for a running group near me but wasn't able to find one in my town. Bummer!

Summer Glow Boot Camp

I am a little late to the party with this one but I am jumping in! This boot camp isn't focusing on changing your measurements or lowering your wait. The point of it is health and finding your inner and outer glow through treating your body right. I am down with that! It's all about being positive.

Holly was posting about the Summer Glo Boot Camp on her blog, Holly on the Run, and I had to check it out. So I trotted on over to Oh She Glows and was hooked after reading all about the boot camp. I couldn't resist something so body positive!

I do have some catching up to do, so expect to see some challenge-related posts this weekend.

I added a SGBC widget to my sidebar, so click on that if you're interested in it! (Somehow I messed up my Daily Mile widget in the process. Despite copying over the html text for the DM widget and replacing it, I can't seem to get it fixed. Silly widgets!)

In other news, I was very surprised this morning when I took my weight and measurements. My weight was down (nearly a pound) and so were almost all of my measurements. I was surprised by this because I haven't been eating very well this week (Did anyone notice I never posted a Food Log post? I haven't been keeping track of my eating at all. Oops.) and I only got in maye 2 workouts this week. Maybe my body needed the rest?

I've also decided to go with the Jeff Galloway training program to help me train to run a 5K. I think it suits me better. I am going to jump in at week 9, so I'll be doing 3 miles tomorrow. I'm not intimidated. I know I can do it.

Surprise!

You know how I was worried about how all my snacking, stress, bloating and lack of exercise would affect my weight and measurements this morning? Okay, I wasn't really worried but I admitted that it was entirely possible. Well, I am happy to report that it totally didn't and I maintained this week. Woohoo!

I'm still feeling a little bloated and my eating had been kind of out of whack but... sometimes you just can't stress about things. There is already too much stress in life!

Tomorrow morning my husband and I are taking off until Sunday night. We're off to celebrate my step-grandparent's 50th anniverary and will be out of town having fun with the family. I am going to swim in my aunt's pool as much as possible! I love swimming and playing in the pool.

See you Sunday night!

Weight, measurements and being body positive

Today was my official weight and measurement day.

My weight was pretty much maintained. I was down 0.2 pounds, which is very little obviously. I am fine with this. I'd like to see my weight go down a little bit but only because that will likely mean I am nearing some of my other goals. Or at least I hope that's what it would mean! However, if I am able to make my other goals without losing any weight, I'll be just as happy.

But for some reason my scale said my body fat percentage is up. Well, I'd like to see that go down!

My bust, natural waist and hip measurements were all the same but my belly measurement is down 3/4 an inch! Getting close to that goal!

Tomorrow I am going to goal test and see if I can't run a mile and also see how many push-ups and burpees I can do in a set. Saturdays are going to be goal test days (when possible).

Saturday is also farmer's market day! Love that!

I am feeling pretty body positive lately. I do still have to fight some old demons that want to poison my thinking against myself. But I am done with that kind of thinking. I am trying to banish it and though it haunts me, it is doing so less and less. I have noticed lately that I am starting to have some pretty good definition in my abs and also that my legs are looking pretty darn good. In light of that, you should check out Operation Beautiful over at Healthy Tipping Point! It's inspiring. Read all the wonderful notes from Caitlin's readers.

Food Log
Breakfast
About 2 whole wheat strawberry muffins (they were two I rescued from the Gage mauling but they were no longer quite... whole)
1 slice wheat bread with peanut butter

Snack
low-fat string cheese

Lunch
(We had a cookout at work.)
1 hamburger on a bun w/ lettuce and ketchup
small scoop of pasta salad
3 crackers with cheese and pepperoni
2 small handfuls corn chips with taco dip
1 piece Earthquake Cake

Snack
low-fat string cheese

Dinner
1 2/3 slices heartburner pizza (pepperoni w/ hot sauce)

Dessert
4 small handfuls dark chocolate covered raisins

Whoops, that may have been too many chocolate covered raisins...

I best get back to making doggie collars for my etsy shop!

Correlation between lack of sleep, stress and weight gain/loss?

I didn't have time to post yesterday's results last night, so here they are now!

My weight was exactly the same yesterday morning (Which is weird because I would have thought that it would have gone down a little after a day of good hydration and eating that was mostly on the mark... but no. Oh well. Maybe it was a true weight gain and not water weight? I mean, I don't think I ate THAT much but I suppose it's possible.) so that means that my sparkpeople plan didn't change at all. 1200-1550 calories, 240 calories burned from exercise. I did go over on my calories again - thank you, pie! I was at 1633 calories. I did burn 235 calories though in the morning doing The FIRM's Cardio Express video. (I couldn't get On Demand to work for some reason. I had wanted to do Jillian Michael's No More Fat Zones but nooooo...)

I was actually expecting the workout to be harder than it was. I remember it being harder but it really wasn't that hard this time. Hmmm.... Maybe I am just that much more awesome.

Oh, one thing I wanted to mention. I know that they say that it is normal for a person's weight to fluctuate a few pounds even day to day. I've noticed that this is true for me if I'm not tracking my calories. My weight does tend to fluctuate up and down a bit then. However, if I am tracking, my weight hardly fluctuates at all. It pretty much stays relatively the same or only moves very little and then every once in a while it will drop (if I am staying on target) and even that movement is usually small. I'm not sure what that means, it's just an observation.

One thing I have noticed lately is that I feel, and feel like I look, very bloated. Perhaps that's just weight gain since my weight is back up a little. I don't know. I feel like my belly looks puffy, more than just a couple pounds weight gain would account for. And I wonder, can lack of sleep or stress make you retain water/be bloated? I know they say both of those things have a big effect on efforts to lose weight but I don't know what that effect is. I have a feeling it is different for every person. I really wonder sometimes if that is playing a part in all of this for me. I know I should get more sleep. 6 hours isn't really enough. I have been trying to go to bed earlier but I just seem to have trouble actually falling asleep and staying asleep. Which is probably due to stress... I am currently extremely stressed. And there isn't a whole lot I can do about it. I mean, I am stressed due to work. I am looking for a new job but I can't make someone else hire me, so I am stuck there for the time being. So yeah, I am sleeping 6 to 6 1/2 hours a night and I am super stressed. If nothing else, both of those things greatly effect my will power and ability to make myself stay focused.

Which leads me to this morning... I got a little more sleep than normal today because my alarm got turned off somehow. I woke up at 5:45 instead of 5:20, so I decided not to workout this morning. I'll just workout on Saturday instead. No big deal. Man, it was nice to sleep that extra time though. I reset my alarm and made sure to turn it on and then slept until 6:20.

My weight was 145 today, so I am down a little bit but not much really. Usually I lose faster than that after the weekend, so that seems odd but oh well. My sparkpeople plan is still the same. 1200-1550 calories consumed. 240 to be burned. Obviously I didn't burn any today but I will make up for that and I have consumed more than my calorie range, again. (1882) Mostly because my co-worker brought in stuffed loaf for us to try today. More calories in that than the salad I had brought but I wanted to try it.

A health conscious me

So, as many of you know, I am fairly health conscious. I try to eat right. I am trying to improve my fitness. I want to be more toned. I want to be able to run a 5K. I want to lose a little bit of weight. I am going to start tracking my workouts, weight and calories here. A public forum to keep myself accountable and all that.

Lately I manage to exercise about 5 days a week for at least 30 min. Usually longer. That's a pretty good place to start. I have been getting up and exercising before work, which is working out weel for me. I then get in my 5 days of exercise a week and have the weekends off. I know I should probably try and get in some workouts on the weekends but we are so busy. It's nice to not have to worry about it since I have already exercised 5 out of the 7 days of the week. I have a treadmill and I use that fairly often. I am trying to complete the Couch 2 5K workouts. I am on week 5. I've done day 1 of that week but haven't worked up the courage to tackle day 2. I also have various workout videos (I've been doing a lot of Jillian Michael's videos lately), hand weights, an exercise ball and do some CrossFit here and there.

I also count calories and try to drink at least 64 ounces of water a day.

I have been using sparkpeople.com to track my calories, water intake and exercise. It works decently well. I've been changing my goal weight, my time line and my exercise goals to see what effect that has on the plan it gives me. I think it will be interesting to see how that changes. I plan on inputting my weight daily and seeing how that changes things. Just as an experiment.

Right now my current goal is to be 140 by July 4. We are going to the beach that weekend! Woo! I would actually like to be 140 by the last weekend of this month but sparkpeople didn't like that as a goal date because it would mean needing to lose over 2 pounds a week because my weight was high this morning thanks to weekend eating and not drinking enough water.

So this morning my weight was 145.8, 27% body fat according to the scale. So I've input into sparkpeople that my goal weight is 140 and I want to reach it by 7/4. I've also input that I plan to burn 1200 calories a week. To this sparkpeople says: I should be consuming 1200-1550 calories a day.

So far today I have had 52 ounces of water, so I should have no problem hitting 64 ounces. My calories are at 1764, which is, obviously, over their recommended range. I have also burned 400 calories, which is over the 240 I needed to burn today per their dividing up of the 1200 calories per week.

So basically I am just playing with sparkpeople to amuse myself but it is helping me keep on task and it will be interesting to see how things change.

For my workout today, I:

3 min. warm up
3 min run (5 mph)
1 min. walk (3mph)
repeat for 30 min. (I'm not sure how many repetitions this is but I do know that 30 min. was 2 min. into my last running interval, so I just ran those 2 min. and did my cool down.)
5 min. cool down

And then I did:
10 burpees
10 air squats
10 sit ups
10 push ups
10 box jumps

And then I stretched. So doing 3/1 intervals is harder than 2/1 intervals definitely. I kind of feel like I need longer to recover than that 1 min. but, hey, it's making my push myself and my body. I think I went 2.64 miles in that time, including the warm up and cool down. I am proud of myself for sticking with the running because it really is pretty difficult for me. But I think I am doing well. I am going to attempt the week 5, day 2 workout for C25K on Wednesday I think. Maybe on Friday I'll try running a mile. See if I can't do it in under 12 minutes.

I really need to devise some concrete, non-weight related goals. I have some in mind. I need to just sit down and hash them out. Then I will post them.

Tonight I made some healthy banana-strawberry oat muffins for grab-and-go breakfasts. They are cooling right now. I can't wait to try them in the morning. Since I have been getting up early to exercise, it's been harder to find the time to eat at home. I have been but it makes me very rushed. If I had something already prepared that I could just grab, that would make it so much easier. I have made banana oat muffins in the past and really liked them, so I think I will really like these.