Garbage That GOO!

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.

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.

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!

Onwards, new DVD workout…

I'm not feeling up to tons of posting right now... getting my feet flared up meant I did a lot of sitting at the computer the past couple weeks, with the result that my chronic tendinitis in my arms is a bit flared as well! Particularly my right arm. Ugh. Pain makes it lots less fun to be typing and posting.

I did try a new workout DVD today... Power 90 by Tony Horton. (Bought off eBay to save a few $$.) It arrived right at the point I had my workout gear on... so instead of getting on the Nordic Track for some semi-fasted morning cardio, I put the DVD in the player instead. I did the Sweat 1-2 cardio workout. Well, the power yoga portion didn't go so well, I obviously need to learn those moves separately before trying to put it all together! That's OK... I have a couple new yoga DVDs to try out, so those might help me.

But the rest or the workout was simple enough, though tiring. I had to substitute non-impact moves like marching in place and side- stepping for some of the high impact moves done in the video. Very do-able, no problem. And I was able to keep pace with the DVD quite well. Moves were simple, no fancy choreography. Knee raises (w/arms), running in place, jumping jacks, fast feet, boxing, kicks, stuff like that.

Oddly... it's not my heart that was worked hard, just the muscles for doing the moves. My heart rate stayed around 58-65%... nothing much for me. What they call fat burning zone. But that's exactly what I want for semi-fasted cardio, so it worked out well. The workout was a half hour and that also is a good length for me at present.

Unfortunately... I'm not sure my feet are ready yet for being on them so much. They were hurting after. Of course, they also do that after a pool workout, just not quite as much. I may have to put the DVDs off for a bit, do more pool work and such. At any rate, I ate after and then sat down to ice my feet. I'm going to try and ice twice a day and see if that helps. Maybe even start soaking my feet in a bucket of ice water. Something has gotta get them calmed down before I go nuts! I watched the Sculpt 1-2 portion of the DVD while icing. Looks do-able... sorta. I'm guessing I am going to have some trouble with the pushups and dips.

I think, once my feet are calmer, these will be good DVDs for me.

I really, really wish the weather would improve... it's raining again. I wanted to be gardening today. Sigh.

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.