Weigh In

Happy Monday morning!  Today is weigh in day.  I don't feel like I did nearly enough this week.  I ate things I knew I shouldn't and I ate them every day.  I will have to do better this week.  Here are my numbers...

	Beginning	Week 2
Weight	180	175
Chest	39.5	38.5
Waist	38.5	38.0
Hips	43.5	42.0
BMI	31.9	31.0

Overall I am down 5 lbs and 3 inches.  Not a big change from last week, but I am still moving in the right direction.  This week I'll be doing more weights and abs while continuing my cardio.  

I've joined a running class to help improve my outdoor running and I'l also be taking a yoga and pilates class during the week at my local YMCA.  I'm starting to enjoy my workouts and am looking forward to them rather than making excuses why not to do them.  

Last night after dinner I went for a 3 km run.  It's harder to run after you've eaten and I had to stop several times, but in the end I made it through.  Early this morning I went for a walk/jog with a friend and one of my dogs.  We did 5.6 kms.  When I got back home, another friend was just leaving for a walk and I decided to join her with both of my dogs.  We did another 5.6 kms.  So, in the last 15 hours I've done 14.2 kms of cardio!  So proud of myself :)

When I got home this morning I had a pear and a strawberry bagel.  For lunch I'll have leftovers from 2 nights ago, which was a delicious lentil chili.  Dinner tonight is at a friend's house.  Even though it's Easter, I've decided that I want to back to eating vegetarian.  When I moved 8 months ago, we switched to vegetarian for 4 months and we really liked it.  So I think I'm going to make the switch permanent.  We do have some very limited meat in our freezer, so I will use that up over the next few weeks and then that'll be it.

I read a book called The China Study which talks about all the research that has been done over the last several decades on the link to cancer and animal protein.  I recommend that you read it if you have questions about the cause of cancer and how to decrease your risk of cancer.  This is one of my motivators for a vegetarian diet.  Have you ever thought about going vegetarian?

There are so many times in a year when you can make excuses about not eating healthy.  This time of year, in particular, is Easter and of course, with Easter comes Chocolate.  After eating really well all day, I get a craving for chocolate.  2 Aero chocolate eggs later, I've eaten 280 empty calories.

But it's not only Easter.  It's Halloween, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, countless family/friend birthdays, weddings, get-togethers, the list seems to go on and on.  Excuse after excuse till you get to the point where you don't need an excuse anymore and eat junk whenever you feel like it.  As children we were reward for achievements with food.  Candy, slurpees, cake, dessert, ice cream.  When it's a habit that has been ingrained in you since a young age, it is difficult to break it.  I catch myself doing it with my own kid and then I stop myself.  "NO, you don't need to give him candy at his last swimming lesson.  No, you don't need to make him cookies when he brings home a great report card".

I want to instill the value of learning self praise and a sense of achievement through my own verbal praise to my child.  I want to break the cycle of reaching for the ice cream scoop when you feel good or down about yourself.  Food should not control us, and above all food should not be our happy or sad place.  We need to make ourselves aware of the ways that we use food to fill voids to avoid or elevate feeling in our lives.

I know I'm ranting, but in order to change you have to become self aware.  Aware of your triggers and aware of your habits.  Writing this down is my way of being self aware and the start of moving past it.

Tomorrow is a new day and the difference between your body today and a week from now is what you do over the next 7 days.

Whew!  I just finished my morning workout and I feel great!  I've started to notice that I'm not as tired throughout the day, I'm not going back to bed in the mornings after my kid leaves for school and I'm starting to notice little changes in my body.

Last night I didn't work out as planned.  I really just wanted to cuddle in bed with hubby, but I did walk the dogs for an hour first.

This morning I went for my first outside run of the season.  It is crazy how much harder it is to run outside than on a treadmill.  I ran about 3kms in about 18 minutes.  I stopped to walk 3 times, but I think that time was really good.  On days I run outside, I'm going to keep running that same loop until I can run it non-stop without trouble.  Then I 'll bump up the distance and work up to 5kms.  When you start running outside, be aware that you will probably get shin splints!  They are SOOO painful, but if you keep up the running, they do go away after a few weeks.  Ice your shins and take hot baths with epsom salts to manage the pain.

After my run I went for a 70 minute walk with my dogs and some friends.  When I got home I did a quick leg workout.  I found some videos by Tracy Anderson who has trained many rich and famous stars.  Her philosophy in training is to tone and tighten rather than build bulk.  She does this by doing movements that are not repetitive in the sense that a bicep curl is repetitive.  She does unique movements.  You can search her on you tube to find her videos if you're interested.

Off to shower and to paint!

Today was a stressful day.  I had to deal with something that has been a pain in my side for several months now and it left me in tears and very angry.  Being an emotional eater, I normally would have headed to the closest McDonalds, ordered 4 cheeseburgers, one large fry and a large McFlurry to top off my sorrow.  I didn't do that though.  Instead I got in my car and drove.  I ended up at a mall and while I know that replacing one vice with another isn't a very healthy thing to do, so I was hesitant to go binge shopping.  Instead I called a friend and we met for lunch.  I didn't overeat.  Instead I used her as a sounding board and vented my frustration.

I did go shopping afterwards but I was in a much better frame of mind and ended up spending far less than I would have if I had gone straight into stress shopping mode.  I did end up eating some chocolate today, but it was after I was calmed down.

For exercise today I will be doing an arm, leg and abs workout this evening.  Here are the links that I'll be using as inspiration for my workout tonight.
Arms
Legs
Abs

I should also mention that I did an hour of cardio at the gym last night, 30 minutes on the bike and 30 on the elliptical.  I was quite proud of myself.

This week, I hope to keep motivated and get my eating a bit more under control.  I've had something sweet to eat for the last few days and I need to get out of the habit of having junk every day.  Yes, once in a while is fine, but every day is not.

Weigh In

Yesterday, overall, was not a great day.  We had company over for brunch and while aspects of the food I made were healthy, in general it was not.  For example, I made Sweet Potato Hash, sweet potatoes are a very healthy complex carbohydrate and a great alternative to simple carbs like bread.  But paired with bacon and turkey sausage, not super healthy.  I also made muffins and while strawberries and yogurt are healthy, putting them in muffins, not so much.  I also made bacon and onion biscuits and there was nothing healthy about them.  On a positive note, I did NOT overeat.  I managed to continue with portion control at brunch and throughout the day with leftovers.  After supper though, which is my toughest time of day, I broke out the easter stash and had two Aero eggs and 2 small chocolates.  

I only got in a minimal amount of exercise when I worked for an hour, running around teaching agility to dogs.  

So today is the big day!  It's been a week since I started my 45lb journey on-line for everyone to read. I've weighed myself and measured and here are the results.  

           

	Beginning	Week 1
Weight	180	176
Chest	39.5	38.5
Waist	38.5	38.0
Hips	43.5	42.5
BMI	31.9	31.2

CHANGES: I'm down 6 lbs, I'm down 2.5 inches in my chest, waist and hips and my BMI is slowly coming down too.  While I'm still in the Obese Class 1 for BMI, if I can drop the 45 lbs and get down to my desired 135lbs, I will reach the Normal weight category.  

Overall I am very pleased with my progress this week and encouraged to keep up the work.  Thanks to everyone whose reading along on my journey.  

Saturday is a hard day to be healthy.  It's a day to relax and take a load off after a long week.  I wasn't unhealthy today, just perhaps, not as healthy as I would have liked.  I slept in a bit this morning and then I worked.  I was able to kill two birds with one stone and got in a walk with the dogs at an off-leash park while I was working.  I did not workout though.

As for food, this morning I had a yogurt cup with a 1/4 cup of Harvest Crunch.  For lunch I had a ham sandwich.  I have a sandwich maker that I LOVE to use and normally after I eat one sandwich I make a second one because the first was SOOOO good.  Today, I took the time to eat slowly and savor the sandwich and I didn't feel the need to make a second.  For snack I had 8 chocolate covered cashews from yesterday and 4 crackers with hummus.  For dinner I had an Avocado, Egg Salad Wrap, but I had mine in half a pita.  I also had a coke and rum for dessert :)  So I think I had a pretty darn good day for food!

While I didn't exercise today, I was on my feet all day long.  I finally got some of the painting done that I have wanting to get to, and I cleaned the house.

Tomorrow I have friends coming over for breakfast and then I work.  My running and leg workout will have to wait till the evening.  Maybe hubby will join me in some one-legged squats.  Something that I've noticed is that since my hubby and I have started working out regularly, my kid has shown a big interest in it too.  Sometimes in the evenings we'll all go into the basement and we'll each do a workout routine.

Bedtime now after a long day.  See you tomorrow!