Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Update!

Blogging is just too difficult with my busy life.

I had forgotten I even still had this account, then I logged in today :)

Well....fortunately I have good news to share!

I weigh 127 lbs now! I fit into clothes I haven't been able to wear for years.


After the big office move, my life was pretty much turned upside down and I TOTALLY fell off the wagon for about 3 months. I ate terrible and didn't excercise one bit. I think I got back up to about 148+ lbs.

Then I read this book called "Skinny Bitch" back in March and was so moved by it that I became a full-time vegetarian, part-time vegan. I also started counting calories again which seems to be the only way for me to visualize what I'm actually eating. Wow! Being a vegetarian really helped me see how many nutrients I was missing out on by focusing so much on protein. I eat SO much fresh fruit and veggies now. I also really have gotten away from the processed foods I was eating before like protein bars, protein shakes, frozen meals etc. The bars I eat when I'm in a hurry are Lara bars (or something similar, there's alot of local California brands too). My protein comes mainly from soy products like tofu. I also try to eat beans and almonds for protein.

Then about in May I started trying to get back into exercising. By that time I hadn't done any sort of physical activity for longer than 5 minutes for 4 months. The weather was gorgeous, so I decided to start walking on my lunch breaks. Then I started jogging on my lunch breaks. Now I run about 6-7 miles a week and walk on all the days I don't run. It's great! Before I was really self conscience about running in public (I work downtown so there's people everywhere). Because I HATE it when guys are like checking me out. It doesn't bother me as much now. And I feel so good when I get back to work! Now my new goal is to take the Pilates class once a week.

Anyways, I probably will not be keeping this blog up regularly but I wanted to give everyone an update.

Keep up the good work!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Day 35

I’m Back

Okay I’m back in the game. After a much needed rest over the weekend. I made it to the gym yesterday morning and did my cardio for 45 minutes. Then this morning I made it to the gym again and worked out my legs. Woo hoo! And guess how much I weigh now? 139! I lost 5 pounds! That’s a total of 6 pounds :)

While I was really depressed and did not make it to the gym for like 5 WHOLE days…at least I did not falter on my diet. It was tough. Because my husband went to do a job about 4 hours away over the weekend and took the car. So I was depressed and stranded in the house and alone for like 2 ½ days. (we live in the middle of nowhere so I couldn’t even walk anywhere).

I have never been so tired IN MY LIFE. I am exhausted from the move, physically and mentally. My legs ache everyday.

Seeing as I'm so stressed and that it's that special time of year where there are candies, pies and chocolates EVERYWHERE...I'm going to give myself a 1/2 cheat day today and tomorrow. I'm going to continue to eat my healthy food as planned, but I can have a few bites or pieces of the goodies.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Day 30

Tuesday’s Intake:
BW: whole wheat toast with fat free cottage cheese
AW: Protein powder w/ water
S: grilled tofu, ½ cucumber, tomatoes, vinaigrette
L: Kashi Go Lean cereal, light soy milk, protein w/ water, broccoli/carrots w/ ICBINB spray
S: blueberries, fat free cottage cheese, cinnamon, 1 oz. almonds
D: Frozen diet meal: creamed spinach and chicken

Yesterday’s Intake:
B: whole wheat toast with fat free cottage cheese
S: grilled tofu, ½ cucumber, tomatoes, vinaigrette, ½ avocado
S: protein w/ water, grapefruit w/ Splenda
D: Regular Sized Jamba Juice (strawberries, soy milk, ice, protein powder), beans w/ Calorie Free BBQ sauce

Rolling with the Punches:
It seems like life is just really beating me up lately. I’m just so stressed out about the office move, I’ve been working my BUTT off every day at work physically and mentally…I just am numb. Every morning I wake up I feel like I’m walking back in the ring again, ready to get slugged in the stomach over and over with one thing after another all day. I skipped the gym Wednesday and today because of this and I missed church last night. My life was stressful enough before this move; I was always running around running errands on my lunch breaks and heading straight to church after work…that is normal. But now I’ve just been pushed over the edge.

What’s the WORST part is I am doing about 95% of the packing/sorting/dumping/recycling work for the office move. For about 15 minutes total each day other employees have helped me out. That’s it. I’m an office manager, not a hard laborer. This is not my forte. I’m not used to have to lift heavy boxes and bins up and down flights of stairs and up and down 12 foot ladders. I’m exhausted. Every inch of me. I realize I’m the office manager and that’s why I’m the one who’s taking on most of this. But I certainly did not think that with 5 business days before the move I would STILL be the only one getting stuff together for the move, I thought everyone would be working on it by now. There is this one girl in the office who has told everyone: “I’m not lifting one box for this move, it’s not in my job description”. It makes me sick.

I’m expected to get all this move stuff done AND my normal job at the same time. I’m the receptionist so I’ve been carrying around my cordless phone answering all incoming phone calls at the same time I’m doing all of this! I’ve also been handling changing our address with all of our vendors, canceling/changing contracts, interviewing moving companies, researching storage units, meeting with the new landlord and getting all the bugs in the lease worked out, transferring phone lines….IT’S TOO MUCH.

Yesterday someone came up to me about a list that needs to be compiled of the companies we will be sending our “We’re Moving” postcards too. The way she was talking to me was as if I had absolutely nothing else to do but work on that one project. She’s like “We need to stop dragging our feet on this, this needs to be done by Friday”…I’m like, there are about five two-day projects I need to have done by Friday! I can’t do them all! How dare she say that I was dragging my feet! I’ve been working my butt off!!!!

I’ve also had a lot of personal business to attend to which has been using up my lunch breaks: DMV, changing my auto insurance, hair cut, grocery shopping, getting my windshield fixed, etc. So I don’t even get a real lunch break. This is what happened yesterday so I basically didn’t eat lunch and just scarfed down my afternoon snack instead. Then I was so hungry and tired after work, I went to Jamba Juice. I get home and I have 10 minutes to change for church. I told my husband I didn’t want to go I was too tired. I’m sure he didn’t intend to be mean, but he said something like “I’m tired too and I’m going, my work (he’s a roofer) is always hard and I still go.” It made me SO mad and hurt. So then he goes without me and I ate some beans because I was too tired to prepare anything. Then I went in bed and I couldn’t sleep. My body was exhausted but my mind just kept going and going: worrying, planning, thinking. Maybe it was because I’ve been having one of those 5-hour Energy shots about 3 times a week now so that I can have the energy to get everything done.

I just need a rest. I need to cry. I need to stop being belittled and underappreciated by everyone in my life.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Day 28

Yesterday’s Intake:
BW: whole wheat toast with fat free cottage cheese
AW: Protein powder w/ water
S: grilled tofu, ½ cucumber, tomatoes, vinaigrette, ½ avocado
L: ½ sweet potato, chicken, broccoli/carrots
S: protein w/ water + grapefruit w/ Splenda
D: Kashi Go Lean protein bar

Calorie Math:
Except for Sunday, I seem to be on track with my goal of 1400ish calories a day. Friday, which was a typical day for me, I ate 1420 calories. My cheat day was 2090, which I think is just fine for a cheat day. Sunday continues to be a struggle for me, I never have time to eat enough! Sunday I had 1090 calories, and that was even when I remembered to bring a snack! Yesterday I forgot to ask my hubby to heat up my meal, so when I got home I had 10 minutes to spare and nothing to eat. So I just grabbed the Kashi bar…not great but better than nothing.

Worked with Trainer Today:
Today the trainer at the gym who has offered to help me out went over my Tuesday workouts. He took me over to the “scary” side of the gym that I never have ventured to yet…the free weights area. The area where all the big bodybuilding guys are and small little blonde girls like me are a rare sight. I’ve always been intimidated. But it was nice having the trainer with me to tell me how to use everything and all.

Now I just hope I remember which machines to do and how to do them.
Lets see, first I start with the pulldown machine thing:


Then I do regular bicep curls:


Then I do this seated rowing machine that looks kind of like this:
Then I go back to the free weights and do hammer curls:



Then I do this big machine that I couldn't find a photo of.
Then I do this:


Then I do the bicep machine but only with one arm at a time:


So that's what I'm going to be doing on Tuesdays, my biceps, shoulders and back. I hope I don't make a fool of myself!
I'm going to weigh myself tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Day 27

We just watched a movie with Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz...talk about thinspo they looked great! And Salma really has some curves too.


Friday’s Intake:
BW: whole wheat toast with fat free cottage cheese
AW: Protein powder w/ waterS: grilled tofu, tomatoes, vinaigrette, broccoli/carrot + blueberries
L: whole wheat pita, grilled chicken, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppercinis, black olives, low fat tzatziki sauce
S: protein w/ water
D: stir fried tofu, broccoli, carrots + baked sweet potato w/ ICBINB spray and cinnamon

Saturday’s Intake (Cheat Day):
B: 1.5 pancakes (made with egg whites and light soy milk), Sugar Free syrup, 2 slices turkey bacon.
S: 2 chocolate wafers, 2 pieces chocolate
L: Chips and salsa, green salad with: lettuce, grilled chicken, sunflower seeds, vinaigrette + tamalito
S: Non fat sugar free child’s size frozen yogurt, Kashi bar, 1 slice Dutch bread, 2 pieces chocolate
D: small portion macaroni and cheese, protein w/ water, 1 glass champagne

Sunday’s Intake:
B: Whole wheat toast w/ fat free cottage cheese + 5 olives
L: 16 oz. Jamba Juice (soy milk, ice, strawberries, protein powder)
S: Kashi Go Lean bar
D: small piece lean steak (carne asada), 5 olives, grapefruit w/ Splenda

Hello Monday:
Here I am ready to hit this week out of the park! I started the week off with 45 minutes cardio…woo hoo! And now I’m ready to tackle my 4 meetings today. It’s going to be a busy day I can tell. This morning on the treadmill I had another day where I wanted to keep jogging even when the 45 minutes came. It feels good having energy :)

I woke up and went to the gym today despite my hubby discouraging me AGAIN saying “It’s too windy and stormy outside, I don’t want you to get in a wreck”. He was being discouraging yesterday too, but in a nice way I guess. I’ve been wanting to go to this tea parlor for MONTHS and we never have gotten around to going. I love English tea…scones w/ Devonshire and jam, tea cookies, cold sandwiches…yummy! Well he wanted to take me there Sunday and I told him that was very nice but I will only be able to have the tea because I’m on my diet. He asked me over and over that morning: “Can’t you make an exception this morning?”. I know that if I start making “exceptions” I will never stop. I already have my cheat day and that’s enough.

Am I eating too little or too much? I would like to add up my calories for the last three days on fitday.com….I’m curious to see. I’ve got to weigh myself this Wednesday…4 week mark…I BETTER have a loss!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Day 24

I want to be able to walk on the beach without grabbing a towel.

Yesterday’s Intake:

BW: whole wheat toast with fat free cottage cheese
B: Protein powder w/ water
S: grilled tofu, ½ cucumber, tomatoes, vinaigrette
L: Kashi Go Lean cereal, light soy milk, protein w/ water, broccoli/carrots w/ ICBINB spray
S: Fat free cottage cheese + blueberries + 1 oz. almonds
D: asparagus and tofu baked with vinaigrette

I’m Pooped:
I am so exhausted today! And I’m so happy it is Friday so that I can rest tomorrow and Sunday. I have been working SO hard at work. We are moving offices December 30th so for the past two days I have been cleaning/packing/recycling our offices’ attic, today I should be done finally. Anyways, we have a huge office and I have been going up and down two flights of stairs carrying heavy bins full of recycle and trash to the parking lot outside and lifting and sorting heavy boxes in the attic….all day yesterday and all day today. This has been a workout in itself!

Then last night I watched a movie with my hubby and didn’t get to sleep until about 10pm. I SO did not want to get up today. Usually by the time I get to the gym and get on the treadmill to start my cardio, I’ve woken up by then…not today! Today I was still tired throughout the whole workout. I really really had to kick myself in the butt to do my cardio at my normal level. But I did! :)

Trainer’s Tips:
Okay so the trainer that has been giving me tips told me that it’s preferable that I do the “pushing” exercises and “pulling” exercises not only separate but on different days. (see yesterday’s blog) What this pretty much means is that I should only focus on two-three muscles a day to work on, vs. upper body one day and lower body the next. Which basically means: I need to do more days of strength training than just two.

He generously offered to spend some time with me next week and show me what he does with the women he trains. He was telling me about a woman he is training right now. He said she started out 4 weeks ago with “cottage cheese thighs” and now after just 4 weeks she has really really transformed her legs.

My gym offers five 25 minute training sessions for $99. I was wondering if I should take advantage of that (since it’s only 25 minutes I could go during my lunch and just do cardio in the mornings) and get a routine that will really help me get results. But should I if the trainers already offering to show me stuff for free? I don’t want to be like taking advantage of him.

What do you girls think?

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Day 23

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Great athletes with great bodies. So jealous.

Yesterday’s Intake:
B: Protein powder w/ water
S: grilled tofu, ½ cucumber, tomatoes, vinaigrette, ½ avocado
L: sweet potato w/ ICBINB spray and cinnamon, chicken, broccoli
S: Protein powder w/ water + grapefruit w/ Splenda
D: Smart Ones frozen meal: chicken and green beans

Upper Body Workout:
A trainer was nice enough to help me out again today with my upper body workout. He’s always helping me out when he passes by and sees that I need an adjustment. He suggested that when working my upper body, to do all the “pulling” exercises together then do all the “pushing” exercises together, not mix and match. So I started with the pulling machine (don’t know actual name) that works my back and biceps. Then I went to the bicep machine then back to the pulling machine then more biceps. Then I started the “pushing” machines that work pecs and triceps and when back and forth between them. Well I’m not sure if I was doing it 100% the right way, but I sure felt like I fatigued my muscles more J Then I did abs.

I hope I’m doing enough weight training. I do cardio 3 times a week and weight training only 2 times a week. I don’t know.

Reduced Intake:
I better have a loss of at least 2 lbs. come next Wednesday!!! I’ve been eating about 1400 calories lately. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lost just one pound over 2 weeks again. I think I’ll cry or scream.