Wednesday, April 21, 2010

This is hard

We just got back from our mini-vacation in Ruidoso, NM. I didn't eat horrendously, but I ate badly enough that I've reverted back to some old bad habits. Sodas being one of them. Another is my sweet tooth. I had been doing a great job controlling it with fruits, yogurt and SF jello, but now I'm craving (and eating) chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. I also haven't been keeping the meat at bay as much as I am wanting to. I have kept my workouts up, but the two kind of counteract each other.

Yesterday's workout was tough. Another intense, short workout with push-ups, vertical jumps, forward jumps, deep squats and then skipping. SKIPPING?! Yes, skipping. It's embarrassing how much the skipping wore me out. The thing that ticked me off the most was that it took soooooo long to get around the lap skipping. Your whole body's engaged and moving, but you're going so slow, in reality. I really just wanted to break out into a sprint to get the lap over with a couple of times, but that wouldn't really be that great for my endurance and my "trainer" (MM) probably would have made me skip the lap over anyways.

I remember a particular moment quite clearly. I was in the middle of my 5th forward jump on round four of the rotation and thought to myself, "I would be kicking ass if I was eating right." And you know what, I'm right. Why can't I just do that, then? It is always the eating that gets to me. I've had burritos for both meals today and some Reese's PB Cups for snacks, not to mention the two sodas I've had. Yuck. It's so gross when I think about what I'm putting into my body. I'm thinking that I need to get back to food-journaling again, or maybe even posting my daily meals here. Maybe then I'll think twice about what I'm eating. I hope so. I've got to get out of this bad-food-funk!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Wow...

That's all I can say. Wow. I feel great. I've had so much energy since really getting things together and changing my eating habits on Thursday of this week. I've already noticed a significant reduction in bloating and with my period nearing, that's BIG. MM even noticed a difference from last Sunday to this Sunday. Could it be? Is this the final push? I don't want to get too hopped up, but I think so.

I really thought the transition would be difficult. It hasn't been at all. I don't miss meat and I'm not really craving any of my old vices right now. I know it's early, but days 3 - 4 are normally my toughest and I'm not really facing any of those old challenges right now. Could I eat a piece of chocolate? Sure, but I'm not craving it at all. Considering the time of the month for me, I'm astounded to be able to honestly feel that way. It's amazing!

I have to keep my head on straight, though, and keep going. This is going to be a long, hard road, but I'm feeling good that I may have finally found the vehicle to get me to the end of it. What a blessing!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Getting there

Wow, April is almost half over. I'm really not sure what the outcome of this month is going to be. I've made a lot of changes, but things have still been challenging. For example, I've worked out every night this week except for tonight, my planned rest day. My eating last Friday through this Wednesday was horrible, though. It started with Chinese food and then snowballed into a DQ chocolate dipped cone, quite a bit of food, including dessert at our Sunday School class' Easter Picnic, Whoppers, sodas, donuts and some cookies. Finally, a FB post that revealed our office didn't have a great week for weigh-in and the ensuing responses (mostly a "pass the buck" game between myself and my office-mates), I decided to just shape it up already. And I have. Two CLEAN days. What do I mean by clean?

Diet: I've transitioned into a pescetarian lifestyle. My reasons for doing this are solely based on my health right now. I'm going to have a clean, veggie and seafood-filled couple of days to start. Our mini-vacation starts next week, so I'm just going to play it by ear while we're there. It's not a place known for its seafood or vegetarian fare. After that, it's clean eating until the end of May, when we're in So. Texas for family-visiting. We'll be spending time on the coast, so I'll be devouring the seafood there, but I will probably bend for some REALLY GOOD meat. For example, MM and I are planning on visiting our college town and we'll probably stop at the little BBQ joint there. It's the best not-home-grilled BBQ either of us has ever had, so I will definitely yield for some brisket. I will not, however, break my pescetarian ways for a Whataburger. It's just not worth it!

So far the lifestyle change in regards to my eating habits has been easy. I love veggies and legumes, so most of my meals have come easily. I've already developed two new recipes to replace some of our "meat" favorites. The great thing about that is that I'm able to cook MM's food as usual and mine is a twist on the original that can be prepped and cooked right along side of his. That's going to be my main goal; not create extra work for us through this lifestyle. The slightly harder part is the seafood, but I've been stocking up on some good quality frozen fare that will do.


Exercise: Early in 2009, MM started "training" me. What I mean by that is that he gave me an "approved" and "not allowed" food list and set up my workout regime. We both feel the eating changes are going to be for the best, but my workout routines were definitely lacking. We're back to that system with MM "training" me 3 - 4 days a week and I pick a lower-intensity workout on the alternating days. It has worked really well and I know I'm getting a great workout.

We have a HUGE back yard, so one of the workouts he gives me is a game of "tag". That's right, we play tag. My goal is to not be "it" when the timer goes off, usually at 20 - 25 minutes. If I'm not "it", I get to walk a few laps and then cool down. If I'm "it", I get the pleasure of sprinting a few laps or doing a push-ups until I'm at failure. Have you played "tag" as an adult? It's a great cardio activity and it's total-body. Short bursts of sprinting, turning on a dime; it's all wonderfully taxing on my body. THAT'S a great workout, if you ask me.


At this point, I'm definitely not on schedule, but I'm not giving up. I'm just going to keep at it until I get myself down to my goal. I know it's doable. Today at work I had to ignore the temptation of breakfast burritos, cookies, a mini-candy bar that was a gift from a coworker, sodas and a huge hunk of delicious-looking meat that MM grilled for himself (I had grilled eggplant, yellow squash, tomatoes and red bell peppers). I got through that without feeling like I was missing out, so I can get through hundreds of days more, if that's what it takes. I'm going to get there...one way or another.

My weigh-in this week was 194.8. My goal is to be 182.8 by the end of June. I'm sure I can make it if I keep this up. My goal reward is going to be Volume One of The Amory Wars, a comic trade book I'm dying to get!