Keep on Trucking!

Ok, what do I want to talk about today?  Make it important to you!  I've realized that I have to make exercise and healthy eating and tracking part of my day.  It doesn't matter who's around, who's going to see me, who I have to postpone time with, but I have to do it.  It has to be a priority for me.

Example, last week my mom wanted to go out for dinner.  Usually because it was my mom, I would blow off my exercise plans to be with her, because she is my mom after all, instead I told her I had to do it after I got done at the gym.  And what happened?  Nothing different, my mom and I were still able to go out to dinner and a little shopping.  The world didn't end, my mom wasn't upset and I would have still gotten my workout in (if I didn't fall asleep on the couch, but that's a whole different story...).

Making your health is priority.  I get organic produce delivered to my house because I like knowing I have it to eat, it tastes better than the stuff you get in the grocery store, and it coming to my house means I have to eat it.  There are no excuses.  It costs more money, but you know what I did?  I stopped buying soda, extra chips/pretzels and other snack foods so the money could come out of my budget and not put a crunch on the finances.

There are many things to consider in today's world, men and women all have to deal with it.  The trick is to making you and your health a priority.  Speak up for yourself, ask for what you need from friends, family members, and significant others.  You are responsible for yourself, no one can do it for you and no one should have to.  If you need an hour to yourself to get some exercise in, tell somebody, schedule it in your planner/datebook/app.  If you take an hour of time for yourself now, imagine how many years you'll have in the future with your loved ones?

Some tips from my experience....

Over the course of my journey, I've found a few things that help greatly.

1.  Get smaller bowls/plates.  When I'm having a dinner of mac and cheese (homemade and yummy), beans and rice, pasta, cereal and the occasional ice cream, putting it into a smaller bowl requires me to really decide if I'm still hungry and get seconds.  It helps limit my intake of foods instead of just heaping it onto a plate and not really paying attention to how much I'm putting on there.

2.  Invest in a reasonable-sized good lunch bag.  Something that's cute and not over-sized.  You'll save money and calories by bringing your lunch and only being able to fill a bag with what you NEED to eat for the day will mean you don't have extra snacks at work "just in case".  If you have them, if you're anything like me, you'll eat them.  So, instead of giving your willpower a workout, just have a bag that's big enough to carry you through the day.

3.  Have a mug/water bottle to drink water out of during the course of the day (at work and at home).  Being able to drink throughout the day wherever you are will help you stay hydrated, feeling full, and less tired (for cheap!!) during the day.

and my last one...
4.  Invest in your tracking.  No matter what you do, you have to track what goes in your body and what you put out during exercise.  However you want to track, paper or electronic, is important to keep up with it so you know what you're doing to yourself.  If you're like me and love your smart phone, track on there.  If you like pen and paper, get something you'll keep with you all the time.

I don't presume to know everything, but I know what helps me and keeps me on track.

In other news, I ordered a new Road ID to wear while running since I've almost been hit quite a few times.

I don't have much more to write about tonight, but was thinking about some of the things that help me.  Hope you guys have a good night!

Moving Forward

Last week, I weighed in on Saturday and still lost a pound.  I've been on a losing streak for the past 5 weeks and I'm finally feeling like I'm on the right track.  Last week, because of allergies and social engagements, I think I made it to the gym once, but I still lost weight because I still kept track of everything I put in my stomach.  That is the trick, my friends, keeping track of it all; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

One thing I do for myself however, is give myself Saturday off.  I weigh-in Saturday morning and give myself the rest of Saturday off.  It gives me a little freedom for social engagements that happen often on Saturday night (I have to stay in line Friday night...) but also gives me a break from the structure.  The one thing though is I HAVE to be back on track and logging my food in-take Sunday morning.  I have to keep that disciple.

I'm happy that I've been able to turn myself around.  Part of my being able to move forward, I think comes from hearing my mom approve of me and my (tough) choices.  I know my parents love me, that has never been a question, but hearing my mom verbalize her approval made me feel better.  I've also thought about my "aunt" a lot lately.  My Aunt Sally was a genuinely awesome woman who was taken from this Earth too early due to complications associated with breast cancer.  When my aunt died, I lost the person who was my confidante for the longest time, she died when I was in college and I feel like I have never found someone to take her role in my life.  Of course, that is entirely my fault....  Since I've identified this shortcoming, I have worked towards developing those relationships with other people in my life, not in an effort to replace her, Aunt Sally could never be replaced, but to find someone/people to become that "person" to share with, my Mom is great, but she's still my Mom.

I am happy that I have some great people in my life (parents, Dave, bffs, etc..), but I have to remember that they are there.  No woman (man) is an island, no matter what Simon and Garfunkel told you.  You can't survive on your own.  We are a social species; we want friends, loved ones, and others to be part of our lives.  Holding all of that on our own shoulders makes it too much to bear.  It is impossible to survive and thrive as a human without a "village" so here I am, remembering to make my village.

Frustration

It's been a while since I've made an update to this thing.  I think part of my problem is I was frustrated.  Frustrated with myself for not being at goal, frustrated with always having to pay attention to what I eat and never getting a break, frustrated with trying to find time to fit in exercise (and I don't even have children...), and just feeling "done" with this whole process.

But as I started to watch the weight fluctuate I guessed that this is how it probably all started in the first place, this is how I got to be almost 300 lbs to begin with, bit by bit, and apathy on my part.  It was that apathy that I was feeling again, I just didn't want to be an active member in my health anymore.  However I realized I had two choices:  be an active member in my health or die...  Ok, well maybe not that dramatic, but my quality of life was deteriorating, I could feel it.  I was lethargic, moody, not active, and no desire to be active.  That's not how I want to live.

So here I am, taking an active role again in my health and welfare.  I am planning my meals again, making sure I write EVERYTHING down, even if it's something I "shouldn't" have I'm still keeping track of it.  A new resolve has blossomed in me and away I go.  I was listening to a Jillian Michaels podcast and she talked about how if you don't take care of yourself now, you'll be paying for yourself later when you're sick.

Get Your Rear in Gear 5k

So today was my 5K, I came in 925 out of 1018 with a time of 45:16 and a pace of 14:22/mile.  This was faster than I anticipated, but that's because I had Julius of Run Maul Run with me pushing me.  He's going to be an awesome coach for his group when they start training again.  He never left even though he could have finished way faster than that.

There we are getting ready to cross the finish line (I'm in pink and Julius is in blue).  It was good to get out and participate in an organized run.  There is a lot of positive energy at these events, no one to beat but everyone to help you and support you.  I finished it, which meant I won.  Doesn't matter how fast I was going but that I finished.  

That's what this journey is all about, it's not about how fast, it's just about the process.  I'm not the fastest one out there to the finish line but I'm going to make it to that finish line some day.  

The runner's high is amazing, isn't it?  I would have never considered myself a runner until a few years ago and even then, I'm not a very consistent runner, but the gauntlet has been thrown so maybe my consistency can improve.

And hopefully with improved consistency will come improved weight loss/health.  I ran today for my mom who's a colon cancer survivor and I hope with better health I, too, can survive anything.  

Here's to putting the runner's high to good use to continue using the positive energy to moving forward.  

Time

When am I going to find the time?  I am a full time teacher, a part time grad student, a part time retail store associate and am attempting to get a direct sales position going (I've got a year).  But amongst all of this I need to have the time and energy to pay attention to what I'm eating as well as the time to get out for some exercise.  I know that if I work out I feel more energized and can do everything I need to do, when I eat better I feel better, but when am I going to be able to squeeze it all in?

Now I've been asked to take on a partial overload at school to prepare students for the state biology test, I have practicum students once a week whom I need to mentor and my house elf will be going back to work (yay and nay...lol).  With my house elf heading back to work I will then need to also shoulder my part of the house work again.

So time, when am I going to find the time and the energy to do this right?

At long last....no more excuses

I've been a procrastinating poster as of late.  I was/am frustrated with myself, I have not really progressed at all with my weight lately.  My significant other moved in and he's a big cookie/sweet eater so that's not helping matters, can I blame him??  No, I can't but I can at least ask for his help in changing our home environment so I can be more successful.

I also made some excuses, you know the ones..."I'm tired" "PMS is acting up" "I'm sick" and a variety of other excuses.  But now I don't have the option of continuing to excuse myself, two reasons:
1.  My 5K race is in 17 days....so I'm running that whether I "feel" like it or not
2.  I'm not getting anywhere standing still

I always pride myself on moving forward, but right now I'm standing still and not getting anywhere fast.  So in an effort to kick-start myself, I changed gyms.  And I'm logging, whether I like it or not.  Even on days when my food consumption is 30+ points over what it should be.  Tracking my food forces me to own the truth about my food and forces me to look at it critically.  I do not have a good relationship with food, I still think I need more than I really do, but I have yet to identify why my relationship with food is still not fixed.  I didn't have a traumatic event as a child, my parents loved me, I did well in things that I tried.  I never am the smartest person in my family or group of friends and sometimes that made me feel inferior, but since childhood I've accepted my lack of traditional brains because I know I'm good at other things.

So tonight I'm making a new playlist to take to the gym tomorrow and I've got a log for my workouts too, so here we go.  That's the nice thing about life, we can always improve it.

"Don't call it a mistake, call it an education" ~Thomas Edison

"It's never too late to be what you might have been"  ~George Eliot