Snarf99’s BodyBlog

This is week two of the temp job.  I do nothing but sit on my a$$ for 8 to 10 hours a day, and eat goldfish.  I come home, have no energy, and do whatever sedentary things there are to do at night and go to bed.  
The most exercise I got since Day 1 of this job is lifting a box of folders every half hour or so.  
On Saturday, my sister and I went for a 5 mile jog, but half way through, we walked because I ate nothing but crap today and hit a sugar low.  
Let’s just say it was all over at Week 9.  Apparently I had 3 workouts that week. If I hadn’t written them down here, I never would have remembered that I did them.  Exercise seems like a long-ago memory.

Sunday night — lifted weights for 30 min.
Monday night — ran for 30 min.
On Saturday, my sister and I ran a Turkey Trot.  It was a 5K and E’s first official race.  I got the really cool T-shirt with the turkey on it, which what I really wanted most of all.  But after wearing it for a while, I decided it was too small, and gave it to E.  She deserves some memorabilia from her first race.

In terms of running, it was a good week, except that I skipped today’s long run.  E is out of town on a retreat, and I couldn’t get myself motivated today.  

Monday - I ran about 4 miles
Wednesday - half-run/ half walk for 4 miles
Thursday -  ran 4 miles with E. Thurs was an awesome run.

In terms of lifting, this was a terrible week.  I did not go to the gym even once.  
I don’t know what’s wrong.  I need to get back to my self-hypnosis CD pronto!
And now there’s an even bigger problem. I’m starting a temp job on Monday.  How does anyone run or go the gym when they work 8 hours a day?

One morning, Gregor Samsa woke up to discover he had become . . . a vegetarian!
A week ago, I saw lamb tips at the store and I got so excited. I brought them home, prepared them, and they were wonderful.  About three days later, maybe four, I ate a little more of what was left over.  After that, I couldn’t stand the sight, smell, or thought of meat or even eggs. My mom said I probably overdid it.  Too much of a good thing.  
The other night I had an egg for the first time.  I still can’t eat chicken or any kind of meat. I’ve been eating . . . cereal, cake, challah, pita, cheese, pizza and the occasional vegetable.  I feel extremely unexcited about food lately, and I’ve been eating in a very disorganized and unprepared way.
Maybe if I embraced my vegetarianism I would find some good recipes.

Week Seven was the worst week for me so far in my 12 week program. It started out with breaking that toenail, which made things painful and then I had some soreness/shooting pain in my elbow and I didn’t want to mess with it. All this helped my motivation wane.  I missed a Sunday workout, made up for it on Monday, then missed Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Did some lifting and running on Friday. My eating has been terrible, too. Just as a token example, I ate a few slices of an almond poppy seed cake the other day in place of a meal. Hmmm, nice way to starve my muscles from nutrients!

Okay, so I had a bad week.  But I’ve been reading your blogs and I’m all pumped up for Week Eight.  Week 8 is going to be a good week.

I posted some progress pics.  I know there is progress there, it’s just very subtle.  I’m going to have to tighten up on my diet if I want the next five weeks to bring in more obvious results.

In any case, I’ve decided to post a new pic every month, no matter what I see in the mirror.

I think the process of taking pictures of myself and posting them has really taught me a lot about how I actually look.  I had a different mental conception of myself prior to this exercise.

I’ve noticed soreness in my elbows, shoulders, and knees. Pretty much, every major joint in my body. Does this mean I’m trying to lift too heavy? I think I need to condition my muscles longer before I move to heavier weights. I really don’t want an injury.

Yay for Week Eight!

My sister and I got up late today and started the run around 11am.  We ran maybe four out of the six miles.  We also took a pee break at the half way point.  
I’m glad we got out and did something, but it was pretty lame.  The sun had a bad effect on E. She ended up feeling sick the rest of the day.
Week 7 was my worst week yet for training.  I did not lift on Sunday.  

Monday - lifted and ran
Friday - lifted and ran
Saturday - ran 4 out of 6 miles

I did nothing on Tues, Wed, and Thurs.  My eating habits have taken a nosedive as well.  Ever since I suddenly and inexplicably became a vegetarian, I don’t know what to eat. So I eat bread and chocolate and ice cream and almond poppyseed cake.  
Do you see the problem?  I am having a problem.

I have been so accident prone lately, it’s ridiculous.  
In the last week, I . . .
* got my thumb caught in a hole puncher, causing a blood blister
* burned my finger in the oven while making lasagna
* broke a toenail on my big toe when I dropped down, kung fu style, to look for my cat under the car
* skinned the little toe of the same foot when I tripped on some rocks while chasing my dog in a pair of sandals
* hit my head on the door of the trunk of my car when I went to take the groceries out
* woke up with some shooting pain from my left elbow to my shoulder, that makes me worry that I am lifting incorrectly.

Hey, enough is enough.  I think I’ve been anxious about finding a job, about the election, about planning and preparing my election party. Maybe my sleep schedule has been whacky. But now I want to calm down, get enough sleep, and watch my step.

It’s weird that most of my injuries have been on my left side.  I wonder if that means my right brain has been asleep lately.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been in such a pragmatic state of mind, totally left brained.

Many people have commented on the changes in me.  They say my face and upper body look leaner.  And I’ve noticed it, too.  And besides that, I can lift bigger weights than before. And I can run longer than before.  All this is good, and I don’t want to lose it.  I’m going to slide right back to where I was before if I keep slacking off.  

Today, I went to the grocery store and I got a chicken, some lamb steak tips that I couldn’t resist, salad, vegetables, low fat cheese, soy milk, and high fiber cereal.  I’m going to start recording my food again, so I can get a better handle on keeping it clean.  I was doing really good for a while, and I felt the difference.  Why is eating clean so much harder than it sounds? The results are so quick, you’d think anyone would do it. It’s not like the kind of thing where nothing happens for a year and then you get your reward. It’s pretty much effective right away. So why is it so hard to keep it up?

I haven’t posted any progress pics lately. That’s because I can’t see any progress, and I don’t want to have a bunch of pics that look the same. But today I thought about it, and I realized that it would be good to post one picture every month, even if I can’t see the change, because it’s all part of the process. I don’t like it when people change themselves behind the scenes, and we only get to see the first photo and then one a year later. I always wonder what happened in between.  So I may start posting some very mundane looking pics. Hope you all don’t mind.

It’s Week 7 of my program, and I am really starting to flake.  I missed my wts workout on Sunday, made up for it on Monday but only ran 2 miles (again) instead of 3. Then yesterday I missed a wts workout and didn’t make it up! And today is Wed, and I didn’t run.  Oh-oh.

I have come this far, six full weeks of hard work. I don’t want to squash my efforts now. In terms of food, the situation is equally dire. I stopped recording my food on Saturday and have been eating poorly. Too many really fun sources of carbs and simple sugars and also today I waited way too long to eat, ate too much, and felt really sleepy afterwards. I really dislike that when that happens!

Last night, I hosted a big fun election party, and so I spent most of the day preparing for it. And stayed up late. And of course now we have left over goodies from the party. I even baked a delicious loaf of this sweet bread with a swirl of chocolate, raisins, and walnuts. I mean, how can anyone say no to that?  It was the first time I ever baked something that required me to wait for the dough to rise.   And use a rolling pin!

Then, today, I don’t know . . . I procrastinated most of the day by doing various chores, then finally started working on a project around 5pm and kept working on it until now, midnight. So I didn’t get up in the middle to go running. Bleh.

I need to shape up.

I woke up this morning and found that something is up with my left arm. Every time I picked up my backpack to sling it over my left shoulder, I got this shooting pain at my elbow. It happened several times.

My knees are a little crickety also.  And I have a mosquito bite on my right wrist.  I’m also tired. Slept about 5 hours and then had a big exam in the morning.

After the exam, I did a low-intensity run on the treadmill followed by my usual weights routine with slightly lighter weights. I was careful to notice if anything clicked, clacked, or hurt in any way. It seemed to all be okay.  

Tomorrow is VOTING DAY. Hooray.