Ten days till vacation

And I have been sorely tempted to just say screw it and start over on New Year's. But I just can't seem to do it. Yesterday, I wanted to be totally lazy. But I found myself putting on my gym shoes and heading downstairs for some quality time on the elliptical. I decided not to count calories this week but I find myself still sticking to my eating plan and eating pretty healthy (except for the daily hot chocolate or peppermint mocha which I just can't seem to resist). And tonight, I came home, cooked a healthy dinner and packed my gym bag - even though I'm not tracking my exercise minutes this week.

Today, I also received an extra boost of willpower to get me through the next few weeks. A friend and colleague, Mana, stopped me in the hall today to tell me that she reads my blog and is so proud of what I am trying to do. We started talking about a podcast to help get me over the hump and able to finally run a 5k. Which I am oddly excited about - never thought I would be excited about something that would help improve my running. So thank you Mana for that extra incentive to stay on track!

So I'm all set for a pretty good week. I'm not deluding myself - I have holiday parties and brunches and Christmas markets to get through the next few weeks, not to mention being home for a week. But I feel like I can do this - my focus is to make healthy choices where possible but not feel guilty when I indulge. And any time the holiday stress, or work stress, or whatever, gets to me, I'm going to throw on my running shoes and enjoy some quality time in the gym.

As always, thanks to everyone for your support and constant motivation. And in case I don't get around to another post before Christmas, happy holidays everyone and I look forward to blogging with you in the new year!!!

Surviving the holidays

So I'm starting to sound like a broken record but they (whoever they are) tell me that consistency is the key to weight loss.

The last two weeks (despite the holiday) have been good. The holiday was really nice - had some friends over for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I managed to stretch my leftovers for two days, which was good because it means that I only over ate once and while the other days were high in calories, I didn't feel overstuffed.

I've lost a half pound since my weigh in two weeks ago and taken up a new workout - hot yoga. I've done it twice and it's kicked my butt both times. Note to self (and anyone thinking of trying hot yoga) do NOT eat a heavy snack too close to class time. It will make you super nauseous. I'm enjoying the class though - not only is it a good 90 minute workout, but it works muscles that I didn't know that I had.

This week I've refocused on tracking my food, counting my calories and getting my workouts in. I also want to focus on the weekends - I have a habit of extending my "cheat" day into the whole weekend. Eating crap, skipping workouts, etc. I need to really focus on not going overboard on the weekends.

My goal is to lose at least another 2 pounds before Christmas. Again, an aggressive goal but I'd rather try to lose and maintain, than give up and gain.

So wish me luck and thanks for your continued support!

Week 10 - Fell off the wagon

So this past week, one of my very best friends, Tara, came to visit Chicago for the first time. We spent 4 fabulous days walking all over Chicago - exploring the Mag Mile, shopping, walking Rumble all over my neighborhood, cruising Millennium Park, freaking ourselves out at the top of Sears tower and dancing the night away at Kingston Mines. We also ate our fair share of everything Chi-town had to offer, including hot Italian beef, deep dish pizza, BBQ ribs and pub grub.

Add to that a few pounds of water weight and the scale told me today that I am up a horrific 4 pounds. And while I'm sad that I have a little more work to do to get to where I was two weeks ago, it was worth every bite. I really believe that a healthy lifestyle should be flexible - the important thing is getting back on track.

And that I did this week. I went over my calories yesterday but it was all home cooked, healthy meals. Today I was back in the gym - cardio and weights. I may go a little over my calories again today but not by much. So, when you fall off the wagon, it's all about dusting yourself off and getting back on.

I know that the holidays are just around the corner. My work has a challenge to everyone to NOT gain the average 5 pounds that most Americans put on every holiday season. I would like to think that, instead of maintaining my current weight, I can not only lose the weight I put back on, but a little more by year end. I would love to head home 10 pounds lighter - keep your fingers crossed and those words of encouragement coming!

And as always, thanks for your support!

Week 8 - no clue

So I haven't had a chance to weigh myself yet but I'm having such a good week I wanted to get it all down.

This morning, I went down to the gym to do my workout and before I knew it, I had run for 13 minutes straight! Now, this may not seem like a lot, but for me, this is huge progress. The most I've ever run is 20 minutes and that took me forever to recover from! I've been running on average 5 minute stretches but today it just felt good so I kept going. I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow but it gives me a benchmark to work from.

The weight lifting is also going really well. I lift two times a week and focus mainly on upper body and core. I want to add a third day when I focus purely on lower body but I'm not there yet.

As for food, that is still going well. This week I'm trying something new from cookinglight.com. They give you one shopping list which you can use to make 5 different dinners. I'm focusing on vegetarian this week - no particular reason except the recipes looked really good. I've made three of the recipes so far this week and each has been great! And they are a great mix of healthy carbs, protein and veggies. It has been difficult to get my daily fiber now that all the great summer produce is gone but several of the sparkpeople.com members gave me some great tips which I've started to incorporate.

So focus for this week. I have another big workout on Thursday and I want to try and add another big cardio session this weekend. I've been sticking to about 1600 calories a day, my fiber is good, so I guess my food focus this week will be to get my 8 glasses of water a day and to keep my sodium low.

As always, thanks to everyone for your support and wish me luck!

PS: I did reward myself last week with a super cute haircut. Yay me!

Week 7 - down 6 pounds!!!

YAYYYYYY!! I couldn't believe my eyes - I just passed my first goal. And even better, I decided today to see what difference my workout clothes made. Who knew they weighed 1.5 pounds??? But don't read this and think I'm cheating - I'm down 6 pounds with my workout clothes on but that means that I actually weigh 152.5, which puts me that much closer to my goal.

So enough rambling. I'm excited but I can't get off track now. I've been doing really well this week tracking my food and excersing. I bumped up my weight training to two sessions this week and moved my workouts back to the morning to make sure I didn't skip.

So what's on tap for this week? I need to increase my fiber, continue to track my food and try to increase my cardio.

And my reward for hitting my first goal??? I had originally bought a coupon to get a mani, pedi and haircut which I planned to use for my first reward but the salon can't get my in until middle of December so I giving myself a mini reward tomorrow in the form of an updated haircut.

Four more pounds to go until my next reward - facial! Wish me luck.

And as always, thanks to everyone for your support and motivation!!

Week 6 - no clue

So I haven't had a chance to weigh in yet this week but I was feeling like I was getting off track and I figured blogging might help. I wasn't feeling well this weekend and have in general just feeling blah. blah blah blah :-)

So what am I going to do to fix this? First, I made a big ol pot of low fat turkey chili - pair with a salad and it makes great to go lunches or late dinner.

Tonight Rumble and I went for a nice long walk and tomorrow I get back in the gym. I started weight training last week - just one day a week so far. I had sparkpeople.com develop a weight lifting plan for me and I added some core moves from Shape. Tomorrow is my day to lift so that should help me feel more like myself.

Despite feeling blah, the healthy eating continues to get easier. I'm starting to eat within my calorie range more and eating a more balanced diet. Trying to eat more veggies and less carbs. I don't want to get rid of carbs all together but right now they make up a big portion of my diet and I want to scale that back.

And Nicole - I may try to scale back my dairy as well. I tend to eat a lot of cheese/milk so good advice.

And thanks to everyone for your continued support!

Week 5 - up 1/2 pound

I was devastated, embarrassed and disappointed. And then I got over it. It happens - I went way overboard at the apple orchard on Sunday and figured that would hurt my weigh in today.

I did make some good choices this week though. Last night, some of my neighbors had a pizza party. I talked to the hostess and brought my own pasta. I also split dessert with another friend at the party so decent choices. Having my friends support though was huge - not a single person tried to get me to eat the pizza and everyone supported my efforts!

I also noticed that making healthy choices is getting easier. Today at lunch, I avoided the heavy cream soups and ate the low fat beef and barley. So little by little, living healthy is becoming more natural.

This week I want to continue focusing on tracking my food and my workouts. The weather is sapping my energy so I've been slacking on my cardio but I need to suck it up and start to step up the intensity. I'm hitting the gym tomorrow afternoon and finally adding weights to my routine.

So despite gaining half a pound, I'm not going to fall off track or make excuses. YAY ME

Week 4 - Down 1/2 pound

So that is 4 pounds in my first month - not too shabby! And to think I didn't want to weigh in today. First, I had too much beer and Mexican food this past weekend. Second, I feel like I am retaining about 20 pounds of water. But after a decent workout this morning, I decided to suck it up, pull up my (slightly smaller) big girl panties and just get on that scale. YAY ME!

So other than the beer and over-indulging over the weekend, last week was a pretty decent week. I worked out consistently and tracked my food. I've also gone 10 days without soda which is huge!!

This week I am continuing to focus on working out and tracking my food. I'm also going to try and not go crazy over the weekend, which is my weak point. One day is fine, but I really don't need to go crazy Friday through Sunday. I also need to start adding in weight training, at least once next week.

On an inspirational note, one of the women at my work just reached a weight loss of 101 pounds! So very happy/proud of her and whenever I think of getting up, I remind myself of what she has accomplished and it helps me to keep going.

Thanks again to everyone for your words of encouragement and it's time to start Month 2!

Week 3 - no loss no gain

I was hopeful when I weighed in this morning and was a little surprised to see that my weight had moved not an ounce. So I weighed myself again. The 15 seconds hadn't helped - still weighed the same as last week.

And after a few minutes, I decided that I am completely OK with that. My clothes feel looser, I'm gaining muscle and I have so much more energy. I'm eating right, working out and feeling good. So there scale - take that!

This week is already off to a good start. I hiked with Rum again on Sunday, a good 3.5 miles in about 90 minutes. And last night, when I thought about skipping my workout this morning, I remembered the numerous people who have come up to me lately and commented on how they are following this blog and how proud they are of me for taking this journey. I never realized how accountable I would feel by doing this but it worked and I packed my bag and was at the gym by 7am this morning. Did a solid 45 mins on the elliptical and took the stairs (most of the time) at work today. Calves will hurt tomorrow but again, I'm okay with that.

So focus for this week is to continue my workouts, tracking my food and trying to stick within my calorie range. I'm also tracking how many days in a row I can go without soda. Today is day 2 and I'm definitely feeling the crave. Didn't realize how hard giving up my diet pepsi would be.

And I will not let this week's weigh in get me down! Here's to a great weigh in next week.

Week 2 - Down another 1.5 pounds

So that is 3.5 pounds in a little over two weeks - YAY! The vacation weight is gone, now comes the hard part.

Last week was another mixed week but it's all about baby steps, right? After the long hike on Sunday, I ran on Tuesday and Thursday and walked Rumble on the off days. So decent work outs.

I also ate more at home and tried to make healthier choices when eating out. Even split an entree and appetizer with Jen when out for dinner on Friday. AND refused to eat all the beer battered cheese curds at the game on Sunday - just a taste and then no more.

This week is going to be more difficult and I'm going to have to focus to keep up my momentum. I went to the gym this morning, packed my lunch and ate leftovers for dinner. I also started tracking my food/calories again which always helps. Going to try and go for another hike or long walk this weekend, depending on the weather.

So down 3.5 pounds, 1.5 till my first reward. I've already pretty much given up soda - just the occassional pop with lunch.

I'll think I will go ahead and make my salon appointment - that should help keep me focused on the next 1.5 pounds. Keep your fingers crossed!

Week 1 - Down 2 pounds!

So I know that recent weight always comes off quickly but it was still great to see that scale drop two pounds! Despite such a fun weekend, I still was relatively good, or at least better than I had been. ;-)

I also got in a few good workouts last week. I ran Tuesday and Thursday, and walked and danced my butt off on Friday. My diet was just ok. I took my lunch most days and splurged a bit Thursday - Saturday but only 1 or two meals a day which really seemed to help.

This week is off to a great start! Yesterday, instead of going to a picnic where I was sure to pig out, I packed a decent lunch and headed up north and had my own picnic with Rumble and Chain O'Lakes Forest Preserve. After lunch, we went for a 90 minute, 3.2 mile hike which was amazing! The hikes here are so different than where I went on my trip. No mountains to start, but there were some decent hills and beautiful meadows and wildflowers.

Today I stuck to my eating plan and my goal is get up early and work out tomorrow morning. Wish me luck and as always, thanks for the support!

Time to get back on track!

So my trip was fantastic - one of the most amazing things I have done to date! And on that trip, I made a deal with myself that it was time to get back on track towards being healthy. I'm 33 years old - too old to keep making excuses for why I am overweight and out of shape. And I had such a great time blogging for my trip and really felt accountable, even though I wasn't sure if anyone was going to read it.

So I've decided to blog about my next big adventure - getting healthy. Each week, and sometimes more often if needed, I will write a blog about the good and not so good things I've done that week to get healthy. I will also post periodic pictures so you can follow my progress.

Starting today. I weighed myself at work and I am currently resting at 160.5 pounds. Last December, right before I went home for Christmas, I was down to 149.5 pounds. So I've pretty much gained 11 pounds in the last 8-9 months, I've gained 11 pounds. Not as bad as it could have been but definitely disappointing.

So what have I done so far to get back on track. On Saturday, I went to the farmer's market and the grocery store and stocked up on healthy foods. I've been cooking more and am planning on bringing my lunch most of this week. I went back to the gym this morning. This weekend, I also set some goals for myself and assigned a small reward to each goal. For every 5 pounds I lose, I get some sort of spa treatment. I also have to give up sodas and caffeine. At 20 pounds, I get new outfits.

So wish me luck! And feel to cheer me on, give me support and sometimes, when I need it, feel free to smack me around a little. I will definitely need all the support I can get!