Garbage That GOO!

Fruit cravings

Yesterday, I blasted into water aerobics for a really good interval style workout. Actually, the instructor wasn't doing any such thing... I just did that on my own by taking a particular move up a notch then going back down to recover, then up again. I swam too, but I was pretty wiped after the class and my knee was bothering me. I also water walked.

But all day, I was craving fruit. I normally eat 2-3 servings a day... yesterday, I ate fruit with EVERY meal! Oddly, my carbs were still in reasonable check even with all the fruit and veggies I ate and I did not bloat further like I might have thought. Instead, my weight was down.

It may have been a water issue. I was drinking plenty, but pool exercise just seems to suck the water right out of me. I drank water and green tea, close to a gallon and a half of liquids yesterday! It doesn't help that it's hot here. Maybe the cravings were just my body telling me it needed even more fluids as fruit does tend to have a lot of water content.

Sometimes a craving is a bad thing... but not always!

I literally dropped from 231.2 to 227.4 pounds overnight. Water, I know... that kind of large loss is never fat. But once I put the water losses behind me this week, further losses should be goo.

Every day is a new day

Well, last night came the realization that, if I want to meet my goal of getting under 200 pounds by January, I've got to get cracking! There's really no room for messing up or slacking off anymore. So I'm taking it a day at a time and trying to get back on track with both eating and exercise.

One of my recent strategies is less computer time. I was posting on several forums, but now am sticking to just a couple and less of those. One, less computer time means less aggravation of the chronic tendinitis in my forearms and two, it gives me more time to work on projects, chores and exercise. Oh, that doesn't mean I won't be reading blogs and commenting and stuff like that, but I'll probably be doing less of it.

Yesterday, I got in a good 90 minutes of exercise, kept the calories on target and got my water in. Unfortunately, my knee was bothering me pretty badly in water aerobics and after, and I realized that when I mess up on the eating, I also sometimes forget important supplements that help my joints out, like fish oils and glucosamine chondroitin. Oops! Well, I got those in yesterday and have had my first dose today as well.

Today, the knee is still bothering me. I thought about NOT doing my little bit of fasted cardio on the Nordic Track this morning, then I thought about my goals and got up and did it anyway. 15 minutes was perfectly do-able, even with my knee not entirely happy. I'll try and add a bit more later.

I cooked up 4 oz. lean ground meat with a pile of onion, carrot, mushrooms, cabbage and zucchini for breakfast. Next... I want a cup of green tea. And our fuzzy girl cat Sister wants some play time. Funny how the cats are ALWAYS ready to play and get some exercise. I should be like that!

Will head bump for TOY...

For those who wonder why Luna gets all the camera love, well, Luna is just THERE, she is the aggressive one of the bunch and involves herself in everything. Sister and Tablet are a bit more shy.

We refer to Sister as "royalty with a price on her head". Sister is a bit paranoid about things like assassins, paparazzi and the like. She is very loving, playful and social with us... but heads straight for the basement at top speed should anyone else come into her house! Luna and Tablet like to aggravate Sister, they can make her snarl like a bobcat!

Let’s forget this week

Seriously. I have just been all over the place. Hubby brought home chocolate from his Seattle trip... EATEN. Snacks... partook. Pizza... yep, done that too. Mexican food last night at the new place in town... which turned out to be, somewhat unfortunately, VERY GOOD! I'm not sure it's a good thing to know there is a *good* affordable restaurant around, sigh... we'll have to be careful.

And logging... ah, haven't done any of that.

Weighing... well, I have done that some and it's been quite unpleasant. As you know I skipped the unpleasant Monday weigh-in, but I think, to stay accountable and get back on track, I'll have to post this Monday's truth. Don't expect it to be a happy truth.

Exercise... what exercise? I got caught up in the US Open golf thing last week while waiting on the phone repair, so I skipped water aerobics to watch the 19 hole playoff. Wednesday, I got up, downloaded email and got involved in a discussion and lost track of the time and missed again. Today, gym bag is loaded and I am going. Period.

Feet... well, I did something I'd been procrastinating on, cleaned up the bed half of the bedroom and installed the folding bookshelves we are going to use for bedside night stands. Mind you, I bought these back at CHRISTMAS TIME! I must say, it feels good to have them in place and all the cordage taken care of around hubby's stuff so all looks neat and tidy. I did find cat fluff stuck in the grooves of the fake wood paneling walls though. Can't believe I vacuumed the WALLS!

But... naturally, my feet were again toast after a day of housework. I suspect I've got myself to blame this time, not enough icing lately, and not good healthy eating. Healthy eating helps the fight against inflammation, bad eating does the opposite. I've had one PN shake this morning, will have another before exercise and I am back taking my fish oils.

What a slump. I can't believe I've just let things go like this. I feel stressed, there is much to be done around here, task that require being on my feet. Somehow, I've got to manage, even if it is a little bit at a time. But I have to manage the exercise, at least the water aerobics if not more. And I've got to get the eating back under control. Fast.

Phone outage = eats meltdown

Well, sorry I haven't been around... our phone line went out Thursday. Called for repair immediately, set up appointment for Friday, sequestered the poor cats for hours and no one showed. Called... they said no repair order had been filed. Yeah, right.

Sigh. Set up another appointment and this time, got someone out Saturday. But for two days, no phone and therefore no internet since we are dial-up. Thank goodness for the Tracfone.

I felt rather stressed over it, since hubby was going out of town and the timing was bad. And I was stressed also because after my first session out hacking at bushes, my feet AND arms were pretty bad off. So no further gardening has gotten done and that too, is a stressor.

Anyway, I ended up waiting around for the phone guy for a long time Friday (had to miss water aerobics as my repair appointment window included that time) and got involved in watching the US Open Golf tournament. Riveting! Sitting with my feet up or on ice was good for them... but I got into an eating jag. Not a huge problem at first, because there wasn't anything junky in the house. But then, I got cravings for junk food and went and bought some. Chips, ice cream and a candy bar. All of which got eaten in a couple days. And I also overdid on dried fruits and nuts and cheese.
I was mostly back on track Sunday... but I'm not sure I want to weigh in and I may just skip it. I don't want to feel worse than I already do.

I got a lot of housework done today... but my feet are feeling it, even though much of it was actually done sitting... i.e. de-fuzzing all the assorted cat beds while I watched golf. That's a quite a job, actually, involving a lot of arm work to brush off the cat fuzz with my pet hair magnet and vacuum as needed. It's done for the present though.

Time to get jiggy with it!

It's not been a stellar week. AGAIN.

I think I've been kind of depressed and well, SULKY about my feet. Which tends to make me stray on eating. I'm back to exercise TODAY. I kept putting it off, but well, no more excuses. The excess skin of my toe blister has come off, it's time to do something. I don't know that I can be as vigorous in water aerobics as usual, I've still got arch and heel pain going when I get on my feet, but I should be able to do SOMETHING. And that's got to be better than nothing!

Yesterday, I went out to get potting mix... also bought candy bars (multiple) and CHEETOS! It's been a bad eating weekend, but yesterday was the WORST. No regular meals, not much water drinking... instead, diet soda drinking and junk food. And pizza. Nothing much truly healthy except maybe the veggies on the pizza. OTOH... I did get some yard work done. Then fell asleep later on the sofa after icing my feet.

I can do better. I WILL do better!

I do NOT want to see 225.8 pounds on my scale again!

I know most of this is water weight... but some may be fat. If I want to be at or under 200 pounds come December 31... I can't slack off now! That's the long and short of it. Whatever it takes.

So, breakfast happened, as it should, BEFORE I turned on the computer. I've been slacking on that... and I need to buckle down and start my days right.

Meal 1 = Lean ground beef, onion, carrots, asparagus, mushrooms, baby bok choy. 1 TBSP green curry sauce. (340 calories)

Meal 2 = Smoothie - herbal blueberry tea, fat free cottage cheese, Metabolic Drive PP, serving of Omega 3 Chia seeds, half cup of frozen blueberries, Carlson lemon flavor fish oil. (350 calories)

Workout = Water aerobics 1 hour, water walking 15 minutes

PW Drink = 1.5 servings whey protein, 1 serving Greens Plus Wildberry Burst (170 calories)

Meal 3 = Steel cut oats, goji berries, blueberries, flax meal, Hood Calorie Countdown, serving of Metabolic Drive PP. (417 calories)

Meal 4 = Pure Catch Sesame Chili Tilapia, asparagus, fresh tomato/onion/cheese soup (Vita-Mix recipe), half cup cherries. (489 calories)

Meal 5 = Fat-free cottage cheese, Metabolic Drive PP (strawberry), cacao nibs, almonds and a glass of Greens Plus Wildberry Burst in water... didn't feel like chopping veg. (318 calories)

Total = 2089 calories + 22 cups of water/green tea/herbal tea

Watershed

Well, some of the weekend weight gain is now off... I'm hovering slightly below 223 pounds. But that's a number that is not making me very happy after seeing the 2-teens ever so briefly! So I'm trying to rein in the eating and eat cleaner and fewer calories while my feet are recovering.

They are being slow about it. I've decided not to push this week and just keep off them as much as I can. I'll return to exercise on Monday. My body could use a break and it's telling me "OFF THE FEET NOW!" The flare-up has pain in my heels... usually the pain is located in my arches. I'm taking my fish oils, my Aleve and drinking a lot of water and icing.

I did fine with eating on Monday... so-so on Tuesday/Wednesday. OK yesterday, except I found one last PowerBar unpacking and ate that for breakfast and I got on a bit of a peanut butter eating thing last night. Calories were still firmly in line, but didn't need those extra fats.

I am clicking along today.

Meal 1 = (362 calories) smoothie (green tea, plain yogurt, protein powder, flax meal, almonds, spinach, Greens Plus wildberry burst and blueberries)

Meal 2 = (320 calories) grass fed lean ground beef with onion, carrot, mushroom, baby bok choy, spinach and green pepper and 2 TBSP red curry sauce. Also a tangelo.

Meal 3 = (420 calories) smoothie (green tea, cottage cheese, protein powder, flax meal, almonds, walnuts, spinach, cinnamon)

Meal 4 = (465 calories) Pure Catch Marinated Tilapia - Toasted Black Pepper (from Safeway), 2 cups broccoli, reduced-fat feta cheese, sesame seed, a little sesame oil, lemon juice, craisins

Meal 5 = (203 calories) a little pudding/softserve dessert with cottage cheese, coconut milk, a little grated ginger root, 1/2 serving of banana flavored protein powder and frozen strawberries whipped up in the new Vita-Mix.

Total: 1770 calories.

Why lunges are tough

I figured out the other day why doing lunges is so darned difficult.

I realized that I've NEVER done them before at any point of my entire life! No wonder it's been a struggle! It's an entire motor skill I've not used, never learned. Balance on these is really tough for me. I'm not sure I could do them at all without the assist of the TRX trainer or my fitness ball.

I'm working on it. Today, we did intervals in water aerobics and I threw myself at that, so I was wiped after. Didn't want to walk or swim. But I did take the time to get in the shallow end and practice walking lunges in the water. It's not real work for my muscles because of the water support, but it's hard balancing in the water, so I thought it would help me with that and just getting the form and motion down.

Anyway, good class, good workout.

My new 2X swimsuit (hopefully the LAST 2X) arrived yesterday. It fits! It actually looks a bit more stylish, or at least you can tell that I have an hourglass shape. Though I think the top half of the hour glass is shrinking more than the bottom half. I'm not sure how good it will be for swimming, but I expect I can live with it for the three months it will last.

I just had a smoothie of fresh pineapple, banana, coconut milk, green tea and vanilla protein powder. And spinach. Hit the spot!