Month: August 2016

2.8 Pounds

I had a great weekend and am far from ready to be back at work today.  My stepkids were home, and they were excited to tell us about their first few days of school.  Then I weighed in Saturday morning to a 2.8 pound loss!  Yessss!

I was proud to show them that my workout log is filled in each day of this month so far.  My goal is to finish the month with each day filled out with some sort of workout.  I’ve been adding more weights and more variety.

I used to be really into running, but it fell by the wayside while we were preparing to close on the house and then with moving, packing, unpacking, setting up the house, etc.  Oh, and getting lazy, if I am entirely honest here.  It’s been at least seven months.  I know getting back into it is going to be painful and humiliating, and my ego is going to take quite a beating, but my goal this week is to get at least one run under my belt.  It can be just five minutes, but I want at least one running workout on my log this week.

I’m still in a state of amazement that I’m back on track and not screwing up every time I turn around, like I have been for so long.  To keep up my motivation, I’m going to make a list today of weight loss rewards, something small but meaningful to me for each 10 pounds, all the way down to my goal weight.

I’ve been in a much better mood since I started working out and losing weight, too.  I just feel more in control and hopeful and happy.  It must show to others, too, because my fiance and the kids and I had a beautifully peaceful, fun weekend, a lot of laughing, a lot of snuggling, a lot of “I love you” ‘s.

In stark contrast, when we dropped the kids off yesterday evening in Hickville, Psycho stormed out of the house as we were leaving, a pissy, tight-lipped expression on her face.  She radiated hostility and negativity, like a dark, bitter cloud hovering above her glowering head.  I almost feel sorry for her sometimes.  Almost.  She chooses to be how she is, and the only one who can change that is her. The ones I truly feel sorry for are the kids, who have to live with that.

Morning Workout, Baby

Who woke up at 6 AM today for a morning workout?  Me, believe it or not!  I barely believe it.  I haven’t done a morning workout in a long, long time.  Even when I set the alarm last night, I seriously doubted I would get out of bed.  Resetting the alarm seemed much more likely.

Instead, when the alarm went off, I reminded myself how proud I would be if I got up and worked out, and how disappointed I’d be if I reset the alarm and went back to sleep.  I reminded myself that it’s all about how much I want this.

I got up and worked out in our fitness room, which is still one of my favorite parts of our new house. I love having a place to shut the door and just focus on my workout.  I used to work out in the living room or our spare bedroom at our old place, and especially when the kids were home, I felt like I was always in someone’s way.

I had promised one of the kids that the workout log would be filled in for each day this month so far when they are home again, and I will be able to keep that promise and will make sure to point it out. I’ve worked out every day this month, no excuses.  Now I just need to keep it up.

Yesterday I had to attend a luncheon for work.  Resisting the food was easy (the garbage on my plate was not edible), but a tempting slice of delectable-looking cheesecake sat in front of me, waiting for me through the entire meal as I picked at, scraped at, and pushed around the Playdough-textured chicken imposter before tossing down my fork and giving up.

“I didn’t eat much lunch,” I started to rationalize.  I can eat my cheesecake.

“Yeah, at about 500 calories, minimum,” the New Me, the me who has been working out and logging food, argued.  Not worth it!

I slid the dessert plate closer to me and toyed with my spoon.  I took 3 small bites, and it was quite good, but I pushed it away and sipped my unsweet tea the rest of the event instead.  I love cheesecake and could have easily finished my entire piece, plus my neighbor’s slice, but I made myself stop. That was a huge success for me.

Tomorrow morning, we will see how much all of this has paid off when I weigh in for the week.  It’s great to be excited about weigh-in instead of dreading how much I have gained since last time.

No Soda Day

A friend of mine and I decided to declare today No Soda Day (or No Pop Day, since that is what she calls it!)  I had hot tea with my breakfast and brought unsweet tea with me to work to get me through the day.  It’s hard to break a long-time habit, but I’m determined to make it to the end of the day with no soda.  And without strangling anyone in soda-withdrawal rage.  I can’t promise anything, though.

My legs are wobbly today from the leg workout I did last night.  I’m still in the stage of having to make myself workout, and I struggle not to watch the clock and wish the workout was over already, but I know that will change as I get stronger and fitter.

Yesterday my fiance and I went to our kids’ school orientations, which were timed just as inconveniently as humanly possible, right smack at lunch time, when we have an hour drive each way to Hickville, home of the most inbred population in the world.

By the time we finished there, it was well after 2, and we still hadn’t eaten lunch.  My fiance asked the dangerous question: “Where do you want to stop for lunch?”

AAAAAAAH!  Eating out is a huge trigger for me.  I panicked and wanted to shriek for him to just drive straight home, and I’d eat there.  Instead I told him I wanted to stay on my diet, so he suggested a place with a salad bar.  I am so proud of both us!  We both got the salad bar, and I even ordered unsweet tea instead of soda.

I don’t want to break this streak I’m on.  I know I don’t look any different yet, but I feel very different. I want to keep making myself proud.

Another Loss!

I weighed in yesterday to a 2.4 pound loss!  I’m so happy to see losses on the scale again.  To be honest, I expected more, with cutting back on soda and working out each day.  But I’m still thrilled to be moving in the right direction.

Yesterday was the first deadline for my TKO Challenge, and I hit the goal dead on the nose: 5 pounds in 3 weeks for the Kickstarter round.  So I am officially starting the first 5-week round now, with a deadline of September 3, to lose 10 more pounds.

My workout for today is done (upper body strength training), and I’m sure I will barely be able to move my arms tomorrow.  After that, my fiance and I went to the grocery store together, and as we were piling everything up at the register, he laughed and said, “Wait a minute!  All this stuff is healthy.”  It was true: we had bought all kinds of fruit, and I stocked up on unsweet tea to take to my office.  Quite a difference from what we used to buy.

Yesterday I spent nearly 2 hours cleaning the house, after my cardio workout.  I didn’t intend for it be such a huge project, but as I vacuumed, I thought, “Hey, why not rotate the living room rug?”, which involved moving furtniture, which turned into sweeping where the furniture usually sits, cleaning where the rug usually is, vacuuming all the furniture (why not give these vacuum cleaner attachments a workout?) and all sorts of other brilliant ideas.  Oh well, I’m sure it was a great calorie burn, and now the house is insanely clean, so score!

Nervous

A glittery butterfly, just because I love butterflies…and things that sparkle!

I’m actually nervous for my weigh-in tomorrow morning.  I’ve worked hard this week: I’ve exercised each day, logged my food too.  I’ve resisted sweet snacks, eating out, extra servings of soda, and even my jokester fiance’s offer of ordering pizza one evening as soon as I returned home, sweaty and triumpant, from the gym.  (He laughed at the killer look I shot him, then told me he was only kidding. Har har!)

I really hope it all pays off.  It will be very discouraging if it doesn’t.  After months and months of spinning my wheels, I finally caught some traction and hopefully made some progress this week.

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I could have sworn the pants I am wearing today felt looser in the waist when I put them on.  I’ve only lost 3 pounds so far, so I doubt that’s really made a significant difference in the way my clothes fit just yet, but either way, it felt good to wonder if they are looser, rather than groan about them being uncomfortably tight!

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