Garbage That GOO!

Calorie control worked!

Well, if you've been by, you've seen that I lost 1.4 pounds for the week. The change was getting my exercise in and really watching the calories. And drinking my water. It feels good.

Unfortunately, I felt so good Friday that, after water aerobics, I started my usual quarter mile swim. For once, my shoulder wasn't bothering me. Nor my knee. I was in a rhythm, so I kept swimming until I'd done a half mile. Tired after, but otherwise fine. Then I walked, slowly to cool down for a quarter mile. The swim shouldn't have been a problem, but it was.

I was EXTREMELY sore Saturday. In fact, today, Tuesday, is the first day I haven't felt sore. And though my legs were normal sore, my shoulder felt aggravated sore, not muscle sore. That's not so good. So, Saturday I rested. Sunday I managed a little Nordic Track as fasted cardio. Monday I skipped water aerobics. Oh, I wasn't so sore leg wise that I couldn't have gone, but I was worried about making my shoulder worse. It was cooler outside and I decided to do a bit of housework and yard work instead.

Today, natch, my feet were hurting. But the yard remains.

I made the decision this past week that I need help. I simply can't prune the trees that need pruning, take out assorted shrubs that are taking over, dig for edging, etc... etc... etc... myself. Oh, if I didn't have the foot and shoulder and arm and knee issues I do, I could do a lot of this and would. Shortly after we moved here, I managed to take out an entire dead tree by myself!

But right now, I can't cope. The yard got bad last year when my feet were bad off and it is only worse now. I called a landscape company. They are going to do some of the badly needed pruning and cleanup. Then they will install some things like a retaining wall where a wooden one is breaking down and some edging so we can keep the grass out of areas we don't want it. There's one little catch. $$$$

So today was cool again and overcast, so I thought maybe I could help keep costs down if I started working on some of the cleanup myself, at least with weeds and stuff. My feet are starting to feel painful. Turns out digging isn't only bad on my feet, but makes my cranky knee hurt too. I found that out after discovering some new, noxious looking, THORNY VINE.

I'm going to get my frozen water bottle and ice. Don't know about dinner... maybe pizza. THREE HOURS of yard work should've burnt a few calories.

I did better with my eating and exercise goals, but hardly perfect.

This week’s weigh-in

I figured I'd better post a short and quickie... otherwise it totally won't get done and we'll be on next week's before I know it!

The basics... Monday 7/7 I was at 230.6, last Monday I was at 228.0. Loss of 2.6 pounds! OK, almost certainly water weight. After this week though, I think I'll have dispensed with extra water and will be losing fat again.

Here's the scoop... after backsliding, I find myself in a tight position. I have the goal of being at or under 200 pounds by January 1st, 2009. Roughly 24 weeks left. And given that I now weigh, as of today, just over 227 pounds, that means I must lose over a pound a week to get there.

That means I've tightened calories up a bit further. Mondays I try to eat around maintenance calories so my body doesn't freak too much over calorie restriction. But then Wednesday and Friday (or any other day that I am doing serious exercise), I'm going for 2000 calories. Days of less exercise, 1600 calories. It's actually not all that tough to stick to when all is well and no stress. Where it's tougher is when I feel stressed or tired. Last night I was tempted to eat a bit more, while watching a bit of the Tour de France bicycle race, but then I thought about my goal and stopped at my allotted calories.

If I find my feet will let me do more, I'll bump the calories to account for it. But for now, this seems to be working. Today I stand at 227.2 pounds.

Now that I am back to good PN style eating, I sure notice the difference in how I feel and energy levels. Doesn't mean I don't crash after a hard workout, but I recover better from that.

Quickie weigh-in & bike update

OK... I'm not avoiding y'all... but the BIKE arrived yesterday!

Sitting at the computer writing a post vs. unpacking a BIG EXCITING BOX. Hmmm... the box won that battle handily. Can you blame me?

The bike, she is beautiful! Only the frame is clearly too large for me. I have not yet been successful getting on the bike. Well, I can, but only with the aid of my couch and only with the seat in the very lowest position, which probably would not be the ideal position for my legs to pedal in.

I have to take it to the bike shop anyway, as though I was able to successfully assemble most of the stuff that needed assembly with the included tools, I have not been able to connect the front brakes, a sort of essential item. So maybe they can teach me how to get on. More later... I took pix while I was unpacking.

Monday's weigh-in sucked. 230.6 pounds.

Exercise... well, I did two sessions on the Nordic Track Sunday, each lasting about fifteen minutes.

Yesterday, given I needed to stick around to receive the bike, I missed water aerobics. But I did get up early AM and skiied 20 minutes on the Nordic Track. All other exercise involved bike assembly and attempts to get on. So at least I'm starting to get back in a bit of an exercise groove. My feet hurt this morning, so I will have to ice tonight.

I had a smoothie this morning and am going to eat a Jack in the Box salad hubby brought me last night. Then it's bike shop errand time!

Last week also a bust

Well, I'm afraid I continued my backward slide last week, painful as that is to admit. I got busy preparing for a trip out of town and just didn't have time or inclination to eat properly. No exercise to speak of either, other than a little yard work. I'd meant to post that I was busy, but was so busy I never got to do it.

No logging, no real weighing and that's always a bad sign. When I don't weigh, that's when things will run out of control, there's something about seeing the number every day that helps remind me of what I'm doing and what my goals are. Not seeing it lets me hide my head in the sand.

Well, my head is out of the sand.

I've gained 4.2 pounds since my last official weigh-in.

229.2 pounds. Ugh.

It's time to get seriously back to my good habits. The old habits of skipping meals, snacking too much, not exercising and overeating obviously get me the old results. Which I don't want. For one thing, while preparing for the trip, I was up and down the basement stairs more than usual and my bad right knee was really getting painful. I can see a possible need for knee surgery in the future... and I sure don't want to be this heavy while doing that and the subsequent recovery!

So I'm going to try and make today a better day.

There is some good news though... I came home to a UPS Ship notification email for the bike I won! It should be arriving early next week.

Disciplinary action required!

OK... this Monday's weigh-in was better than last week's, but I can't say I was happy with going from 225.8 to only 225.0! I really have to do better if I'm going to meet my goal of getting under 200 pounds by the end of the year. I've got to get the exercise in and I've got to keep the eating reined in!

At least TODAY I am at a better weight of 223.2.

We ate dinner out Sunday, so that probably did affect things adversely, but still! I had been doing fairly well on the eating, most slips involved not getting veggies with a meal or something like that. I know I have not gotten enough exercise. That's been a sticky point, I just don't even feel like trying when my feet hurt, but I think I'm going to have to suck it up and get something done anyway.

I've also noticed that nights icing my feet on the couch are weak points. I'm trying to stave off the snack problem with veggies and a couple tablespoons of hummus, instead of eating cheese and/or peanut butter.

This week, so far, I've at least extended my pool workouts, and am hoping that will help. I've been good on the eating since Monday as well, no going over calories, no 10% meals, lots of liquids and today has also gone well.

I'm about to eat another meal, then go out and lop on a couple roses that I want to dig out. They are diseased looking, in a shady spot and just not doing well. They are also hard to get to to take care of, being somewhat under a tree. I figure I might as well dig while the ground is soft after the recent rains!

Meal 1 = Dover sole and assorted vegetables, pan-fried with minimal spritz of olive oil.

Meal 2 = PN Blueberry Madness smoothie

Workout = 90 minutes followed by a serving of protein powder in water

Grocery Shopping

Meal 3 = PN Apricot Yogurt smoothie with spinach

Hit my gallon of water after this point... I swear, I must sweat out tons in the pool! I admit, I was pumping it today... not only worked hard in water aerobics class, but swam a bit harder after.

Meal 4 = Ground bison and assorted veggies and hemp seed.

You can see where I was pretty spotty with exercise and 10% meals.

MUST DO BETTER! I've got to focus!

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

Weighing in Wednesday

I must admit... I usually don't leave it this late to write my weigh-in post! Procrastination at work? Not really... I actually was dedicating some time to getting some actual house work and other tasks done. You probably noticed that I did not wait to change my ticker or pounds to go button!

Anyway, the verdict was 221.6. Confirming that last week's horrendous weigh-in was *mostly* a water gain. But not entirely water. So I have some work to do to get back to my previous low of 219.6.

Truthfully, my weight has been bouncing around quite a bit since Monday. I keep having sugar cravings and sadly, have given in to some of them. Though I drew a line at buying the tempting bag of high fructose corn syrup strawberry bon-bons at the store. Those stayed at the store! But I brought home and ate two Reese's Nutrageous candy bars and a large can of Wasabi fried peas and ate them all in an evening.

Even yesterday... after eating well all day, we went to a movie. Then had a late meal out. I had a salad... and with dressing on the side which I used in a fairly minimal fashion, i.e. fork dipping. Also had a bowl of soup... but the shame was in asking my husband to buy me a cookie on a stick. I love those! I did remember to order iced tea instead of a diet soda... I'm working to ditch the habit of automatically ordering diet soda at restaurants.

All I can say is thank goodness for goals! I have a goal to reach or be under 200 pounds by the end of the year and time is passing by. So I have to get back on the wagon NOW if I mean to reach it. That means better logging and more attention to preparing proper meals and back to exercise.

Yesterday I did some house cleaning... and I realize that I need to keep up on that better. It's so easy to procrastinate, because I have the perfect excuse... i.e. "My feet hurt." And they DO. Quite a bit last night after yesterday's efforts. But the housecleaning needs to get done too. I feel better when my house is clean. You know, I keep my kitchen clean, because it's essential for me to be able to go in there and fix a meal fast. And it feels good to have a clean kitchen. But that feeling gets diminished when the rest of the house is a constant hairball.

Well, today, I will do the living room. That's where I use my TRX trainer right now and also my fitness ball. I hate putting my equipment in there when the floors are fuzzy with cat fluff drifting about.