Rae610’s BodyBlog

…so I won’t eat any chocolate today.  

I am going in to work a little late today because I have allergy testing.  So, I only have to make it 5 hours to avoid the two desks right next to mine with candy bowls!  Someone posted to one of my previous blogs to put some nuts next to my new fruit bowl on my desk.  Today, I am bringing lots of fruit with me to work, along with macadamias, cashews, and almonds.

I really hate this time of year.  Holiday weight gain completely begins the beginning of October when everyone eats candy!  

My plan - when I decide I want chocolate, I am going to eat grapes.  I ate some yesterday when I had a sweets craving, and it worked.  

Tonight I am going to step class, then doing legs afterwards.

Yowza!!!

I just got back from my Body Pump class at Gold’s.  I haven’t really lifted weights in probably 2 or 3 months.  I hyper-extended my knee, and I was too afraid of making it worse.  I work with a lot of people who are in health care (I do IT for health care) and they all cautioned me not to make it worse… or surgery!  So, I’ve wussed out the last few months.  I have to say, it felt awesome to lift again!!!  

Tomorrow morning I am going golfing with a friend.  It looks like it will be a balmy 60 deg F.  This is nice compared to the 40’s and 50’s we’ve been having!  I will probably be so sore from lifting today that I won’t do very well on the course.  Oh well, it’s just for fun!  We’ll probably get carts.  When I golf in my league or by myself, I walk since it is awesome exercise.  But, not everyone likes to walk.

After I’m done golfing, I haven’t decided what I will do yet.  Maybe I’ll take some time and veg out.  Oh yah, I weighed in at Weight Watchers today.  I am exactly the same.  I worked my ass off this week, but I thik it just evened out all the crap I ate last weekend.  (I had ice cream and pizza.  My two favorites.)  This week, I am going to work my ass off and eat very well.  It’s so tough because the two girls who sit RIGHT next to me have candy jars on their desks.  I need to just forget they are there.  I should start a fruit bowl on my desk.  Oooooooooh, yes!!!  I will put enough fruit in there for the entire week.  Yup Yup Yup!  Apples, Bananas, Grapes, what else?  I don’t like oranges… they take too much work to eat.  I LOVE IT!!!

Wow!  I haven’t been here in almost two months!  I guess things have been crazier than I thought.  Let’s see….

First of all, I’ve started going to Weight Watchers meetings again.  I quit going a long time ago about 6 months after I made lifetime.  I was working on my Master’s degree and just couldn’t fit ONE MORE thing in my schedule.  Well, now I’m back.  I am a lifetime member, so I only have to go once a month, but I am planning to go each Friday at lunch at least until the rest of the year.  I promised that to my sister who is also doing WW and needs support.

I successfully started running again.  I had bunion surgery on both feet last winter.  I quit running in 2004 because the pain was getting way too bad and I was constantly in pain.  Now, with my new feet, new prescription orthotics, and new running shoes, I am finally able to run again.  Right now, I am running about 11 minute miles which is faster than I ever have been.  Before my bunion surgery, I couldn’t run an entire mile without walking, so I was at about 13-14 minute miles.  I am excited to do my first 5k next spring!  The quickest I’ve ever run one is 36 minutes.  I think I just might be able to break 30 minutes!!!

I also decided to invest in a decent road bike.  I love doing triathlons and want to start doing more.  I told my BF that the ultimate goal would be to complete an Iron Man when I’m 40.  That gives me 10 years to train!  I guess I would be happy with completing a 1/2 IM, but the full would be awesome!  Anyway, I am going to get myself a good pair of bike shoes now.  I can wear them to spin class (which I absolutely LOVE).  I am going to wait til the Christmas specials start and get my bike then.  I am so thankful for my BF, who is a former at ecompetitive biker.  He has taught me so much on what to look for in a bike!

What else????  Oh, when I was on the treadmill yesterday, I had to keep hiking up my sweat pants.  They haven’t done that in a really long time!  That makes me feel awesome!!!

I had to change my profile pic to this one.  First, I love my boobs in this pic.  Second, I want to know what you think of my arms.  This pic shows how I am beginning to have some great definition in my arms/shoulders.  Yesterday while I was between reps while doing lunges on the smith machine, I started to try and do a pull up ("try" being the keyword here.)  My friend told me my shoulders and arms look "manly" with this disgusted look on her face.  I just said, "I know, isn’t it awesome!!"  She was over by the smith machine talking my ear off about how she wants to get a great a$$, but I couldn’t get her to do any squats or lunges with me!  Oh well.  I like the way my arms are starting to loook!!!

I took my one week progress pics on Sunday.  I wasn’t all that clean this weekend since I had a few too many Miller Lites.  Even with that, I still noticed a difference in my abs.  I’m not quite comfortable posting progress pics just yet, but I am happy with seeing progress after just one week.  I’ve been logging my diet in eTools on WeightWatchers.com and realized that I have been waaaaaayyyy overeating.  With all the treats I’ve been eating lately, it’s been more that double my necessary calories.  YUCK!  So, after I cut our most of the treats last week, voila!  I see results.  Imagine that…

This week, I am again focusing on eating clean.  I had one cookie today.   I did 10 minutes on the stepmill, legs, then 20 min on the treadmill. Tomorrow, I am going to a Korean restaraunt for my friend’s birthday.  I’ve never been there, so I have no idea if they will have anything vegetarian there.  I don’t really know what Korean food is!  Any thoughts???  Wednesday is spinning, arms and back.  Thursday I am going to a baseball game and will probably have one or two beers.    The rest of the week, I am planning for super clean eating!  Yay abs!

What a day.  I got my oil changed on Sunday night after I dealt with a flat tire.  I needed new tires and an oil change, so I attempted to get it done in one shot!  What’s open Sunday nights?  Wal Mart.  Never. Again.  I have oil all over my garage floor, all over my condo parking lot, and probably all over my parking lot at work.  Apparently the boys at Wally World don’t know how to make sure an oil filter is properly installed.  I am just glad my engine didn’t seize.  My low oil pressure light never came on.  By the time I got home from work and saw the mess that my car made, I had no oil left in my car!!!  My boyfriend was nice enough to deal with it for me so I could go to spinning class.  After he tightened the oil filter and added some generic oil from the auto store across the street, he drove over to Walmart, had them put new oil in the car, and got me a refund.  

This just reaffirms that I can’t count on anyone to do things right.  Always always double check everyone’s work.  I’ve had things like this happen to me too many times in my life.  It just sucks because you trust people to be good at what you pay them to do!  It’s not possible to double check everyone’s work!

My diet was OK today.  I was starving all day.  I ended up having a smidge of ice cream.  I figured it in my calories, so I’m OK there.  I would like to have a rice krispie treat on Friday, so I am going to figure that in too.  Only two treats in one week is awesome compared to how I have been lately - two treats a day!!!  Slow and steady….  I don’t want to cut out my favorite things entirely because that has backfired on me in the past.  

Tomorrow- what’s for tomorrow?  Let’s see.  I have a Dr. appt and need to have light anesthesia, so I doubt I’ll get anything in tomorrow.  Maybe, if I feel up to it, I will walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes.  I think I’ll play tomorrow by ear.  But, I’m off to plan my menu for the rest of the week!

Halloween is 91 days away.  This is probably my favorite holiday.  Why?  I get to dress anyway I want to and not have anyone make snide or rude comments.  Yeah, I like to show it off.  So what???

So, I my long-term goal, in 91 days, I would like to have visible evidence of abs.  I know this is going to take a lot of work on my diet.  I’m on day 2 of clean eating, and I’m doing good.  I just need to keep my motivation!!!

It’s not like I totally jumped off the bandwagon, but my diet has been pretty lax the past few weeks.  I am lactose intolerant, but apparently my tolerance is a lot higher now.  I had a bit of ice cream a few weeks ago, and I didn’t get sick at all.  I am worried that ice cream will be one more thing to worry about.  But my boyfriend has some in the house, and I’ve been able to completely ignore it thus far.

I planned out my diet for tomorrow.  I am going to try to plan it out a week in advance.  I eat mostly by cravings, so it is going to take some readjusting. I have my training planned out for the month of August, so that was a great step forward.

I took a picture of my abs this morning.  I am going to take a picture again next Monday after one week of clean eating.  I really need to focus on smaller goals right now.  I keep trying to re-vamp my entire lifestyle, but that gets overwhelming and I give up.  So, right now, I am focusing on eating clean this week.

It seems like there is so much to deal with this time of year.  I guess there is always a "this time of year."  I have so many parties/cookouts to go to in August.  I live in WI, and everyone tries to cram so much in their schedule before Labor Day.  September is a month that could be another month of summer, or it’s a brisk, fall month.

Another thing I am dealing with is my boyfriend.  He always asks me if I want some of what he is eating.  Of course I do!  I got snippy with him over the weekend when he asked me if I wanted some of his gummy bears.  That was the last straw.  I asked him, "What part of my desire to lose weight don’t you understand?"  He thought gummy bears would be OK.  I tried explaining that I don’t need any unnecessary calories.  He does that with pizza (my favorite), chocolate, etc.  I told him not to ask me anymore and I will tell him if I want something.  He thought he was just being nice by offering.  It seems to be working though since he had pizza today and didn’t ask me if I wanted any.

I also explained to him that I think the reason a lot of women gain weight when they are in a relationship is because they are trying to keep up with their guy.  If I said yes to everything he ate, I’d be huge!! I tried explaining that I cannot eat as much as he does, or the same foods he does. 

Well, I have my plan for tomorrow that I will follow. 

For the very first time in my life, I craved healthy food yesterday.  HOLY CRAP! I was craving cottage cheese like crazy.  Today, it is tomatoes.  I’ve eaten 3 tomatoes already today.  I have 2 more left and I’m trying to decide whether or not I should eat them or save them til tomorrow.  It’s strange how your taste buds change as you grow.  When I was a child, I used to eat tomatoes like they were apples right out of my Grandma’s garden.  Then I went though about 25 years of despising them.  Now, in the last two months, I am back to eating them like apples. 

I still need to work on my dark chocolate habit though….