Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Screw You Wednesday Wedding Weigh-In

I'm giving myself some time away from weighing in while I figure out what I want to do about this whole losing weight arrangement.  I'm eating really well, I exercise 4-5 times a week with 45 minutes of cardio and calisthenics, I drink my 8 cups of water a day.  Yet, I'm not losing weight.  I'm frustrated.  I don't want to quit, but I think I'm going to take some time off from the scales before I completely lose all motivation.

I mean, seriously, I weigh almost the same now that I'm eating fruits, veggies, and healthy carbs as I did when I was eating ice cream, brownies and macaroni and cheese.

Also, my sister is in town and we are going to do fun things like go eat at yummy restaurants, shop, and drive to Canada just because.  And while I'm doing that I don't want to be beating myself up over the fact that I'm not achieving my goal.

See, that's why I've never been a goal-setter, because I want to kill myself when I don't reach my goal immediately and spectacularly.

Anyway, I'm going to go have fun, keep up my exercising, and try to keep a good, positive attitude about this.  Canada or bust!  God, I need a brownie.  And a drink.

Wednesday Wedding Weigh-In

Le Sigh. It is back to this old game--what joy!  So, let's get right down to it since I have a million errands to run and of course a WILDLY entertaining social life here in Washington that includes FRILLIONS of holiday fireworks.

Starting weight: 130.2
Current weight: 126.8
Pounds Lost: 3.4
Goal weight: 115
Time left to reach goal: 20 weeks

So, really not bad considering the massive amount of food that I put away the week that my parents were in town. I took the plunge and signed up for Nutrisystem last week since it appealed to my lazy, don't want to cook self and they were running a 2 weeks free deal.  Of course, the day the big box of food arrived I also received a coupon in the mail for 4 weeks free.  Thanks Nutrisystem.

I got started on the program on Sunday, and my goal for this week is to stick to it better.  All you have to do is incorporate fruit, veggies, and dairy/extra protein into your prepackaged meals, which sounds easy, except there seems to be something of a deficit of food in this household.  And I feel fairly confident that replacing a serving of veggies with a delicious fudgy brownie is not the intent of the program nutritionists.

So, goals for this week are to actually stick to the Nutrisystem program, get in my 4 days of running, and actually do my pushups and situps. It's surprising how easy they are to forget!  Hope you all have a great Fourth of July and your house doesn't ignite from a stray firework spark!

Wednesday Wedding Weigh-In: A Day Late, Less Than a Pound Short

Starting weight: 130.2
Current weight: 127.5
Pounds Lost: 2.7
Goal weight: 115
Time left to reach goal: 23 weeks

I apologize for my weigh-in coming a day late--I've managed to completely lose track of what day of the week it is.  Colby got back home Saturday evening and had a few days off work, so really the past 4 days just started to feel like an extended weekend.  Before I knew it, it was Wednesday and I'd already eaten my breakfast.  And let me tell you, it's humiliating enough to broadcast my weight to the entire internet, I am NOT weighing in with food in my stomach!

So, anyway, this week's weigh-in was a bit less impressive than last week, but probably a much more accurate reflection of weight lost over the week.  I'm down .3 pounds from last week, which is decent, but doesn't quite meet my goal of .5 pounds per week.  Overall I'm still well within reach of my goal since I only needed to have lost 1 pound by now, but it does make me think that I may need to change up my program a little more.  Once again, last week I did miss a running day, so I'm giving my current program one last chance before adding another day of exercise to see if that changes anything.

The other big project on the agenda this week has been getting the house somewhat presentable for visitors.  My parents are arriving for a nearly week-long visit on Wednesday, and suddenly all of these little moving-in shortcuts that we've been living with seem completely unacceptable.  So, pictures are being hung, clothes moved into the new dresser, the office is finally almost completely organized, and I've got my fingers crossed that we can get the painter here early next week to get the downstairs painted.  I'm just so looking forward to the day that we don't have a three page long list of Things to Do Around the House.  It's mostly fun, and I love that sense of accomplishment I feel when we check things of the list, but it will be really nice when there aren't weekly trips to Lowe's and Wal-Mart topping two to three hundred dollars a trip.

In far more exciting news, my big Friday night date with Lori aka RisibleGirl was ever so much fun!  I've made some fantastic friends over the internet--in fact, two of my closest friends and confidants are girls that I met online and have only spent time with in person once or twice--but it never ceases to amaze me how an internet friendship can translate so easily to a "real life" friendship.  The minute I saw Lori I already felt like I'd known her forever, and it was so bizarre to say "so nice to meet you".  Dinner was AMAZING and like a good girl I did pass on the legendary chocolate cake (which, come on, shouldn't that mean that I get to lose at least a pound just for good behavior??).  It was a truly great night after a truly sucky week of waiting for the boy to get home, and I can't wait until we can play again!

Monday, Colby and I decided to try out the train from our little town into Seattle, to test out how a commute would go for a job opportunity I was considering.   Unfortunately, once I added the bus commute to get out of downtown Seattle and to the area that the office was located the commute added up to almost 2 1/2 hours total from my doorstep to theirs, and for the salary they were offering it just wasn't feasible to continue with the interview process.  So, that was a no, but I'll tell you, if I can find a job nearer to the downtown area, the train really is a pretty nifty commuting device.  I've never lived in a city that was big enough to have public transportation, aside from city buses that you would be fairly ill-advised to step on board, so the convenience of being able to zip up to the city and avoid all of the traffic and wear and tear on my car is pretty darn nice.  The icing on the Sound Transit cake?  They actually announce "All Aboard" before they close the doors and start moving--how cool is that!

Today, Colby is back to work and it's back to life as usual for me and I should probably go get in one of my runs for this week--I'm bound and determined to hit that -.5 mark next week!

Wednesday Wedding Weigh-In: The Meltdown Version

Y'all, it has been a long and frustrating week, here at the homestead.  I'll begin by saying that none of the following paragraph has a thing to do with the weight loss segment of my blog, so if that's what you're here for, just skip down a bit, because I've got some whining and self pity to take care of first. 

It all began two weeks ago, when I received a phone call from Colby who was at a class in Kansas.  He'd been gone for a week and prior to that had been home for a few days after another week-long TDY.  In the course of the phone call, it was revealed that a really super fantastic two week trip to Europe was available and he had the opportunity to snap it up.  Of course, being the near saintly and always understanding fiance, I gave him my blessing and urged him to go enjoy Europe for two weeks--no matter that I had hardly seen him in May and wouldn't see him for all of July--go off and enjoy the old country while I stay home and unpack boxes and take care of the dogs!  Okay, maybe it didn't quite go off like that, but with a few glasses of wine between now and then, that's how I remember it.  Anyway, turns out he got screwed and they ended up going on the normal TDY to places that are not so much fun and make me quite nervous when I don't get my nightly check-in phone call.  Huh.  How bout that.  Karma's, she's a bitch, isn't she?

So, Colby got home from his Kansas TDY and the next day headed off to the great wild Yonder.  A couple of days passed until they reached their destination and that's when I got the next bit of news.  Apparently, someone, somewhere screwed up.  "What are you guys doing here?" was the welcome Colby's crew received when they arrived, "We don't need your crew, you can go home tomorrow."  Steam.  Exiting.  My Ears.  So, I expected him home on Saturday.  Yay!  There'd be no tax-free paycheck in June, but I was okay with that.  But then the powers that be interfered once more, and they decided that they would send his crew on a quick mission and THEN send him home probably on Monday.  Want to guess where Colby is not currently, at this exact moment?  Yeah, they've been back from their "mission" since Sunday evening or Monday (I've lost track), but they can't get set-up for their go-home mission.  Not only is it hard to not have him home so that we can see each other for a solid block of time before he leaves again, but it makes it hard for me to get anything done or scheduled since I have absolutely no clue when he'll be home and needing my chauffeur services.  Le Sigh.  Anyway, now that's off my chest, I feel a bit better.  And you must understand that the high drama of this situation is only being exacerbated by "that time of month", which I realized was upon me last night as I was watching America's Got Talent and sobbing after each performance, in awe of the sheer beauty of the talent displayed, or the heart-wrenching sorrow of each person sent back home.

And now, finally, we move on to the topic at hand, the weight loss challenge I have issued to myself.  When I stepped on the scale this morning, I did a little jig of happiness, but I should preface by saying that they may not be entirely reflective of weight lost in the past week.  I did a little research on the appropriate way to weigh yourself, and it seems the general consensus is immediately after waking up, after a little bathroom break, and dressed only in what God gave you.  Las week when I recorded my weight I'd had lunch a few hours earlier and was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, so it's highly likely that some of my progress this week is due to the different conditions under which I weighed myself.  Next week should be a more accurate recording, but with that said, let's get on to the numbers!

Starting weight: 130.2
Current weight: 127.8
Pounds Lost: 2.4
Goal weight: 115
Time left to reach goal: 24 weeks

When I stepped on the scale this morning, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I tried very hard to stick to my plan, but I did have a run-in with a brownie one night, and the three cartons of ice cream in my freezer called out to me another night, but all in all, I think I ate fairly well over the last week, a cup of cereal instead of an entire huge bowl, a single packet of organic macaroni and cheese instead of half a box of the processed stuff, yogurt for desserts, whole wheat goldfish or pretzels and hummus for snacks instead of delicious, heavenly, puffed Cheetos.  Also, I didn't quite meet my all of my fitness goals.  Starting my count from last Wednesday I ran a total of three times, and on the one rainy day we've had in a few weeks, I tried substituting walking up and down stairs for a run.  Let me tell you, walking up stairs is FAR more painful than any little jog around the block.  I made a total of 15 minutes of stair climbing, and just added the other 15 minutes onto my run yesterday.  Unfortunately, I'm starting to feel my shin splints coming back, so I'm taking the next couple of days off in hopes that when I run again this weekend they'll be gone.

So, there you have it, I'm pleased with my success, but hope to have a better and more accurate showing over the next week.  For now, I'm sticking with my fitness program of 30 minutes of aerobics, 60 situps, and 20 pushups 4 times a week.  Overall, I think even barring the normal weight fluctuations, and differences in weighing conditions, it's safe to say that I met my goal of .5 pounds of weight lost this week.  Does that mean I can have a cookie now?

Wednesday Wedding Weigh-In

Years ago, when I was just a wee little thing, I was literally that--a wee little thing.  Up until my freshman year in college, concerned friends and teachers would query me closely about whether I was eating enough, if I wanted a little bit of their delicious cafeteria sloppy joe, did my parents remember to feed me when I got home from school, and so on in a similar vein.  In all actuality, I wasn't even underweight, I was just a thin girl with a penchant for king sized packages of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  However, over time, I began to carry that concern of others, their fear that I may be anorexic combined with their admiration of how tiny I was, as a sort of badge.  That's what I was really good at--being thin without even trying.  I would go to movies with friends and eat entire bags of Hershey's kisses.  After the movie we would walk across the street to McDonald's and I would eat a double stack with cheese a super sized french fry, a coke and a large milkshake and then scavenge the food that my friends couldn't finish.  People were amazed--I could eat a horse and never gain a pound.  Why I would want to eat a horse is beyond me, but the point was that if I wanted to, I could and I'd still weigh right around 100 pounds.  In retrospect, that turned out to be a fairly unhealthy attitude to have toward food.

Then, suddenly, one day, without any warning whatsoever, my metabolism came to a grinding halt.  I was still eating the same way I'd grown accustomed to, my main food groups being cheetos, chocolate, EZ Cheez, and Dr. Pepper, but my body was no longer burning all the calories without even breaking a sweat.  Throughout college I modified my diet to include slightly smaller portions of the above mentioned food groups, but my Air Force PT in the morning and the miles of campus I would cover by foot each day walking (and sometimes running when I needed just a feeeeew more minutes of sleep) helped keep the worst of the weight gain at bay.

Before I knew it, I was thrust into the "real world"--a world that involved a lot more driving than walking, and believe it or not, a much less demanding work out routine in the Air Force than in ROTC.  However, I continued eating and drinking with reckless abandon.  Until... oh, this story makes my face burn with shame to this day... until The Day I Got The Mail, a day that has been etched into my memory for all eternity.  I was in the car with Colby, on my way home from a grim shopping trip where I'd realized that suddenly the size 4 jeans at the GAP were no longer getting anywhere past my knees and the smallest size I could squeeze myself into was the "curvy" 8.  As we pulled into my apartment complex I pulled over to get the mail.  I parked the car and went about my business and then, as I was climbing back into the car, there was a horrific RIIIIIIIIIIIIIP and a sudden breeze around the rear portion of my body.  I looked at Colby, completely mortified, to see if he'd noticed, and he started laughing--not unkindly, but in a way that you really can't help but laugh when the person sitting next to you has just split their seam entirely down their bum.  That was the wake up call I needed that the ever increasing clothing sizes and the reflection in the mirror just couldn't give me.  I'd never bothered much about weighing myself as it had never mattered in the past, but the next day I got myself to the fitness center, and with great trepidation I stepped on the scale.

147.

That was the number that looked back at me.  I had absolutely no idea how I had let this happen.  I had managed to carry my weight fairly well, none of my friends could believe that that was "my number", and due to the baggy pajama cut of my BDUs I had only gone up one size in pants and figured that was just due to normal weight fluctuations.  But somehow I had managed to put on over 25 pounds since graduating from college.  And that's when I started paying attention.  I looked around and realized, I'm not the smallest girl in my social circle, or even among the thinner girls.  It occurred to me that I couldn't even remember the last time someone had mentioned how small I was.  When I went home for a visit I felt like I dwarfed my mom and my sister.  I looked up my BMI and was appalled to see that I was on the outside edge of having an unhealthy amount of body fat.

Since then, I've managed to lose a fair amount of weight through semi-regular running and watching what I eat to a certain degree.  I lost the most amount of weight on the South Beach Diet and incorporating 30 minutes of running into my schedule every day.  I got down to about 125 pounds, very close to my goal weight, but I hit a wall and eventually got tired of trying.  I settled for 125--close enough.

That was about a year ago and in the past few months I've noticed some of the weight coming back--a little bit of a roll here and bit more to pinch there.  And so I've decided to jump back on the weight loss train and see what I can do to finally meet my goal.  The idea to blog my endeavors came from two different places.  First, I really admired Frema for putting herself out there and being open and honest about her own desires to lose some weight of her own as well as form a support group in the blogosphere.  Of course, now she's all pregnant and focusing more on the miracle of life than fitting into her college jeans, so well played, Frema, well played!  The second reason is that I need to be able to hold myself accountable to someone other than myself.  I'm fairly confident that if I have to check in weekly with my progress, I'll be more likely to keep up with my efforts.

Today I went out and bought the very first scale I've ever owned--I made sure it was pretty since I'll have to be looking at it fairly often.  I'm not sure when the best time to weigh yourself is, but I just hopped on to get my first measurement and I'm coming in at 130.2.  My goal is to reach 115 pounds by the week of the wedding--November 24 for those of you who don't obsessively retain every detail of my life.  That gives me 25 weeks to lose 15 pounds, and a weekly goal of .5 pounds lost per week.

I've spent the past month enjoying my last few weeks of unabashed brownie and ice cream eating, and starting tomorrow I'm implementing Wedding Weightloss Version 1.0!  I'll reassess in a month and decide if there's anything that I should change about my program, but for now I'm planning a hybrid of the eating habits I learned from South Beach, incorporating plenty of whole grains and fruits and vegetables, and the Linda Evangelista approach, more specifically: "I don't diet. I just don't eat as much as I'd like to."  (I once attempted not getting out of bed for less than $10,000 a day, but in the end that didn't work out so well.  I spent a lot of time in bed.)  For now, the fitness program will be 30 minutes of running, 60 situps, and 20 pushups 4 times a week, I'll up the ante from time to time just to keep things interesting around here.

So, to recap:

Starting weight: 130.2
Goal weight: 115
Time left to reach goal: 25 weeks

Wish me luck, and feel free to play along if you'd like, and the Wednesday Wedding Weigh-In will return... next Wednesday!