DIA* (Doing it all)

Aha moment!

2010-04-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

Workout: 90 minutes at the gym doing pylometric soccer conditioning exercises and elliptical.

Quick post since I'm trying to get through my mountain of reading tonight. I'm bad in having stacks of unread magazines and scores of half read books. I could take another week off to do nothing but read!

But I had to share my "news" from yesterday:

New Brooks Adrenaline GTS 9 (got last years model at a nice savings)

New orthotics to go into the shoes

New manicure (first in 10 years) complete with man hands. I also got a pedicure but my feet are just scary looking.

My other news and "aha"moment is my correlation with stress and sleep. I've had a few days this week where I've only had 6-7 hours of sleep a night. Even though I am "relaxing" and having easy days, I still feel the symptoms of stress. I have to face the fact that I am not someone who can get less than 8 hours of sleep. The more I fight it, the longer the symptoms stay around. It just sucks because I feel like an old lady going to bed so early on a week night. But the body has spoken and I'll just keep repeatedly running myself into the ground if I don't listen. I'll just need to be on the hunt for the Geritol to complete my elderly profile. Sigh!

Going to go start that reading. Geesh, 10 years ago I would be planning my weekend parties. Now I'm hoping to get through my library book before they realize it was due last Saturday. Whoops!

Relaxation what?

2010-04-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

Workout: Ran 4 miles at the gym. 112 miles down, 388 left to go.

Well today wasn't exactly a relaxation day like the doctor ordered. I dropped my daughter off at daycare, went to the tire shop for 4 new tires, went and had breakfast with my mom at our favorite restaurant, toured 3 daycare facilities (for when I have to move my daughter this summer after settling into the new job), ran my Dad's bike over to the folk's home in my car, ran 4 miles at the gym, showered, removed linens off the bed and got the washer started, ran and got my daughter from daycare, made dinner, did the bedtime routingm made my bed up with the laundered linens and then did dishes.

Got all of that?

Yes, even I know that today was a little too much too-ing and fro-ing. I need to look at my calendar for the rest of the week and plan some more down time. Otherwise, taking this week off to relax would've been wasted. I do know I have a wonderful lunch planned on Friday with my co-workers, a day in Portland (as a tourist) planned for a few hours tomorrow and I need to squeeze in a manicure using a gift certificate I received for my birthday last year. So there is some fun stuff planned but it still involves running around. I need to get at least one lazy morning or afternoon in (with possibly a nap) before the end of the week to really say that I relaxed during my time off.

Meanwhile, for anyone who is interested in running and is just getting started, this month's issue of Runner's World has a section for beginners. I just read the cover and hope to get to the issue tomorrow. Hopefully I can learn a few tips and tricks in the pages somewhere.

Boom!

2010-04-05T15:57:00.000-07:00

I've been good and taken this day of relaxation seriously. I have napped, read my library books and watched the movie "Julie/Julia". Which was pretty easy to do considering that it's a bit stormy outside. I keep hearing an occasional "BOOM" and I'm just praying that it is something falling over in my neighbor's home. Like a storage bin versus a tree or something more damaging. I'm hoping it doesn't get too much worse. I'm getting a bit tired playing 52 limb pickup in my back yard from my trees.

Meanwhile, I've been putting down and picking up my copy of "The Kind Diet" from Alicia Silverstone. It's is about the vegan diet and how becoming vegan is healthy for the planet. I have read books on the vegan diet before and this book was just another take on it. For the most part, I do eat a vegetarian diet with maybe 3-4 servings of meat per week. Mostly for taste as well as cost. I think becoming a vegan for me is more of a time issue than a taste issue. To be a vegan would require that I make more of my food than I do now. Still, I pick these books up since I do get some meal ideas and try to incorporate small changes into my daily life. I'm not exactly sure what sort of kitchen setup exists in my new job and may be eating my homemade protein bars on the drive to the office in the morning until I see if they have a microwave or a fridge. I pretty much take all of my food with me during the day and rarely eat out for lunch. Hopefully I won't have to change that.

There goes another BOOM and now a branch hit the roof. It may be a long night ahead of me!

Happy Easter!!!

2010-04-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone!

As a mom, Easter is more about getting the day prepared for my daughter. And then monitoring her throughout the day to make sure she doesn't overdose on candy! That is a full day job in itself as candy seems to come from everywhere today.

I didn't start the day off too well in the candy dept. I had a basket waiting for my daughter when she woke up. It had the quintessential chocolate bunny, a few pre-filled eggs, some Easter bunny stickers and a DVD. Then throughout the house I had a dozen plastic eggs filled with 3 jelly beans each. After a quick 3 minute hunt to find them all, I told her she could have 1 egg before breakfast. I turned my back, turned back around and saw 4 empty plastic eggs and one bouncy daughter before me! Lesson learned: take the candy away and don't let a 3 1/2 year old self-discipline herself around candy!

After church, we went back home and prepared the house for the Easter brunch. I made 2 egg and spinach quiches for my contribution to the family get together. We also had monkey bread, smoked salmon, pork tenderloin, pan dulce (Mexican sweet breads) and ham. Not exactly diet friendly but all very yummy! I ate what I could (too much monkey bread, not enough real food) and then raced off to my Sunday soccer game. The team won by 1 point but it was a rough game for me. Easter brunch food is not exactly the best pre-game meal. I just ran until I felt like I was going to hurl and then subbed off. No goals for me but I did make one lovely assist to another player who made the goal. So at least I felt like I contributed to the game.

Everyone had a great time and my family were angels as they cleaned up my kitchen while I was at the game so I didn't have a pile of dishes to come home too! I am really blessed to have such a great family!

Today was also my sister's birthday as well. As she is new to running (and still feeling the runner's high), I made her a summer running kit. (This is where I wished I snapped a photo before I wrapped the gift). Her kit included:
- Running tank and shorts
- Shoe pouch for her key and ID when she runs
- Body Glide (helps prevent chafing. A runner's necessity during hot sweaty runs!)
- Hair bands to keep hair out of the eyes
- Packet of GU

Tried and true items for use during the summer months that I thought she would need. Hopefully she keeps up the summer runs as she's doing really well!

It's the end of the day and I'm quickly posting and then will have a nice cup of tea with 1 small piece of pan dulce. I've consumed enough monkey bread and pan dulce today that I'll look like the bride of the Pillsbury Doughboy with my bloated tummy! Oh well, Easter comes once a year. right? Right?

Tomorrow begins my week off between jobs. Tomorrow's goal is to see if I can relax enough to become a couch potato for 1 day. This really will be hard for me as I know I will want to clean or work on a project. But after burning the candle at both ends for far too long, I know I'm supposed to rest. I have a copy of "Julie and Julia" from Netflix to watch. Let's see if I can actually survive a day of rest. Especially since I had a great soccer game today and have the running bug really bad! I'll either be antsy to work or a napping monster. Well see!

Mini break at the coast

2010-04-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

Friday I left with the boyfriend on a small mini-break to the coast. Thursday night I checked on the weather and saw that a bad storm was coming in. I was a little hesitant at going, but the chance to get a break and run to the coast was just too appealing. We were planning on staying at Seaside Oregon and I figured the weather wouldn't bother us too much.

Or so I thought.

I drove my little hatchback into the Cascade mountain range armed with overnight bags, spare food and my tire chains. All seemed fine until we hit the first of the high elevations (approx 1600 ft?). From that point till we hit the coast, we drove though snow, hail, sleet and a ton of rain. Needless to say, I took it slower than normal and I was glad that I did when we had to stop behind a cop car that was stopped in the middle of the road. An SUV was overturned and was on it's side in a ditch. The driver was safe but it was a good reminder not to hot dog it and speed during the crazy weather.

After getting checked in, we were both starving and had lunch at a place called Norma's Ocean Diner. What caught my eye was this statement on the outside of the restaurant: Bon Appetite through epicurious.com listing our Clam Chowder as one of Americas top ten soups. I was definitely looking for chowder on a cold stormy afternoon and this seemed like the place to get it. This chowder came with a salad topped with bay shrimp and some fresh baked bread. Yum!

We also each had a beer called Fishtale ale:

After a filling lunch, it was off to walk around the Promenade and try not to get blown out to sea.

Yep, hard to look stylish with the wind trying to knock you down. I was amazed to see people down on the beach as the sand was blowing everywhere!

I loved the chowder at Norma's so much, that I convinced the boyfriend into going back there for dinner. Also, I wanted some good fresh seafood but didn't want to dress up for it. Not when it was alternating rain/wind/hail every 5 minutes. We went back and enjoyed an appetizer of crab cocktail. The boyfriend had grilled wild Chinook salmon and I had some scallops for our mail course. Yum again!

The coastal stay of course was too short and checkout time the next morning came way too early. I admit I was nursing a red wine hangover and had to crawl to a Starbucks for a tea and scone before we headed back to Vancouver. Oh my was the drive back a bit scary! Full snow flurries in the upper elevations. No accumulation, but I did take it easy coming back and made it home safe and sound.

Health news:

I saw this cool article in the boyfriend's copy of The Globe and Mail (picked up by him on a recent trip to British Columbia). It seems that some Japanese researchers wanted to solve the puzzle of why the flu season hit during the winter months versus the summer months. They seemed to think that lack of vitamin D levels during winter months (when the sun is pretty much hidden) is why there are more cases of the flu and not during the summer months. They took a small group of school children and gave them high doses of vitamin D. The results are amazing as there was a significant reduction in the amount of flu cases in the kids. I'm posting the link and the discussing this article as I think this is an amazing discovery! Especially as a parent, anything I can do to keep my child healthy during the flu season is very helpful. I have been taking a vitamin D supplement to my regular multivitamin for a few months now and have noticed that I hardly get sick. I do get a good cold on occasion but I'm not nearly as sick as others are. I just thought it was good genes as well as diet. Here's the article if you want to have a read for yourself: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/1200-iu-of-vitamin-d-daily-may-prevent-flu/article1517109/

Right, off to get my daughter's Easter basket ready for the morning. Hopefully I will try not to eat too many of the jelly beans in the process!

Elvis has left the building!

2010-04-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

Workout: 4 miles on the treadmill at the gym. 108 miles down, 392 miles to go

Today was my last day at my old company. If you worked in the HVACR industry, you would know my former company. I have seen more furnaces, compressor pumps and test instruments than many other folks I know. I produced their massive catalog and tried to make the information be as clear and easy to read as possible to the contractor who would buy the parts and fix a broken down furnace or motor. Yet if my furnace broke down, I could take the cover off, stare at the innards and realize I didn't learn enough to fix a furnace in those 7 years working on the catalogs. In fact, I probably wouldn't even take the cover off at all. I would be picking my phone up like everyone else. I would just know how much the repairman would be marking my parts up when he fixed the thing and I would cry!

My former company was a nice place to work with a lot of friendly people to work with. But the one thing I will say about my office is that they loved to eat. For example, here is what greeted me when I walked into my department on my last day at work:

Please don't lick the screen. That's just gross.

This is the Triple Chocolate Torte from Papa Haydn in Portland. Here's the description:

Triple Chocolate Torte
Chocolate buttermilk cake in four layers filled with espresso ganache and glazed with milk chocolate ganache

I didn't taste any espresso, so our cake may have varied a little bit. Also, I'm not really a chocolate lover. If the cake was a lemon cake, I would've gobbled up 1/2 of it and fought my co-workers off for the other half. Instead, I grabbed a small sliver of cake and enjoyed it over the course of 2 hours. Yummy and delicious and probably settled any chocolate cravings I would have for a month.

There were also these bad boys:

Homemade iced Easter cookies!!!

These beautiful cookies are made by a great lady in the office who's cookies I have lusted over for years. So simple in taste but the decorating is so very pretty. She also did carrot shaped ones with orange frosting at the bottom and green tops. Just what I love!

The cookies and the cake showed up on the same day, like a sugar send off from the company. This company also has people who will whip up some baked goodies and put them out to share. There was also a monthly birthday celebration which included pies, ice cream cones, bagels with cream cheese, yogurt parfaits and cakes. We would also do a monthly "pep rally" to discuss the success of the company and until the last round of budget cuts, there would be snackies handed to the masses. I can't even tell you how bad it was at Christmas! We used to joke to new hires how much weight they would gain working at the company. There was a constant stream of yummy food and you really had to work on your willpower to say no to the ever present treats.

To see the cake and the cookies appear on my last day was a nice and fitting send off. It also makes me wonder how much weight I will lose moving to the new company. If any of course.

After saying my final farewells (which was really hard to do), I made it to the gym for a 4 mile run. Maybe it was the sugar rush or the really funny episode of "Car Talk" on my iPod that fueled me and spurred my legs into running 4 minute intervals at a rather fast (for me) pace. I felt like I needed to sprint more to get my running in as well as get some soccer style training in. I still ran for 50 minutes but more in a 4 minute run, 1 minute walk interval until my legs became jelly. Hopefully that's enough to keep me going till my Sunday game.

Tomorrow I am off to the coast for an overnighter with the boyfriend. It's supposed to storm and be ugly. Nothing is more cozy and actually relaxing than to be at the coast during a storm. Nothing more to do than relax and watch the waves crash onto the shore. Ahhhhhhhh bliss!

Oh for the love of....

2010-03-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

Workout: 4 miles on the treadmill at the gym. 104 miles run, 396 miles to go!

I don't know how this happened, but a Ms. E Harris got on the mailing list for a bunch of large sized clothing catalogs. Problem is, these catalogs have her name but my home address in the mailing inkjet. I would love to give Ms. Harris her mail but I have no idea who she is or where she lives. And I haven't received just one large clothing catalog. No, precious trees gave their live to give me the following two titles.

The first one is called "Just My Size". This is the catalog from Playtex (the bra people) for women of a larger size. Here is a sample of their sale dresses:

The SMALLEST size this dress comes in is a 1X or 16 wide. I might have a little extra wiggle room on this dress compared to my normal size 6.

The next catalog is called "Woman Within". Here's their tagline: "Comfort, fit & value for sizes 12w to 44w". Another sample dress from their new arrivals:

Now I'm not faulting the catalogers. They can only act on the address that they are given. I'm about to learn a lot more about catalog mailing lists in my new job and the function of "list hygiene". However, I'm a big "things happen for a reason" kind of person and wonder what message is getting sent to me in the fact that I am now getting two catalogs for large sized clothing. Sure I've put a few pounds back on since I hit my goal weight. I was going to start taking it easier with my exercise since I thought I was doing too much. So to then get these titles means one of two things. 1 - Don't slow down or the weight could pile back on or 2 - I really need to get my diet under control if I plan to scale back on the exercise. Considering my new job will leave me little room to exercise in the first month as I figure out a routine, I think it will have to be the diet angle. Watch the snacks and make sure I'm eating healthy meals.

Right. I'll start trying to go back to weekly food planning and trying to cut back on the snacks. Tomorrow I will contact the catalog companies to let them know of the incorrect addresses.

Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy my homemade marionberry scone with a cup of tea at 8:42 pm. Cause afterall, my good intentions start tomorrow morning and nothing is more badazz than having carbs after 7:00 pm!

Train like a girl

2010-03-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

In the wisdom which comes from the ages, I managed to pack my gym bag last night without a t-shirt. Here’s how the event unfolded:

- Need to pack bag

- Add shoes, shorts, socks, workout towel. Go to closet to grab my workout shirt (yes I iron my exercise shirts. No I don’t have a condition. Yes I can stop whenever I want to.)

- See work clothes in closet and get distracted in getting my clothes for work assembled

- Realize on the drive into work that I didn’t pack a t-shirt (and quietly swear at myself instead of out loud where my daughter can hear. Avoid prompting another discussion with my daughter called "sometimes mommy says words that only adults can say".)

Since I did not care to scare the members of the gym with the site of my workout bra, I ran to my local Tarjay for a shirt. Which was convenient since it was Wednesday and I still hadn’t made my weekly trip there.

I wanted to get a cheap shirt since I already have scores of others. But cheap shirt still required trying on 4 different kinds and swearing at nearly every one. And cursing all of the carbolicious treats I've baked lately.

Until I found this little gem.

In pink script, it reads “Train like a girl”. Why yes, I think I will!

Going to break that 100 mile running barrier today on the treadmill at the gym. Booyyaaahhhh!]

Lazy weekend

2010-03-29T14:52:00.001-07:00

I’ve been a lazy lazy person. After burning the candle at both ends for so long, I knew I needed a rest. My blog is called “Doing It All” and it really has a double meaning. One the one hand, I do want to cram everything in to a 24 hour day and not miss a thing. On the other hand, doing everything can be more than I should be handling. And as I discovered lately, without rest and some time off, my body starts to shut down.

I haven’t had a lick of exercise (other than daily walks at the office on my breaks) since last Tuesday. The focus has been on getting more sleep in my nights and after Thursday’s meditation class, a focus on getting oxygen in my lungs. Saturday included a trip to get the hairs cut and some baking in the afternoon of marionberry scones and banana bread. It was sunny outside and the grass was looking like it could need a mow. Instead I spent the afternoon inside baking treats for my daughter and I.

Even Sunday morning was a relax fest. My sister was off to run a 5K Sunday morning. I just started going to a new church and don’t feel comfortable going on my own yet. Instead, my daughter and I cuddled on the couch watching her favorite Dragon Tales shows. Then it was on to breakfast and then to framing some of her daycare artwork and hanging it on the walls.

OK, so where am I going with all of this? The rest and time off was as important to my body as getting in my runs for my mileage. I had an indoor soccer game Sunday afternoon and I was a bit nervous in how well I was going to play. I knew I was lacking any cardio for days and here I was going to play my indoor game and run all over the pitch. What I was amazed to learn was that my body did better at the game than I did at last Sunday’s game! No near charley horse in the legs. Energy enough to keep up with the fast pace of the game. No shakies after the game as I was out of fuel. And a desire to get back to my running schedule whereas before I was dreading it.

I learned that you do have to take a week off to rest on occasion. It isn’t a bad thing and you might be surprised at the results. Getting focused on XX miles a week or working out XX hours at the gym or home kinda makes you ignore the big picture. Exercise should make you feel good and keep your body healthy, not break down your body. With the rest also got some favorable results on the scale. This was a nice and necessary learning lesson.

Now after that post game euphoria, I would be ready to jump on a run tonight. However, mother nature decided to hit me twice last night. Once with a midnight call from my daughter. Another from the gusty winds outside that kept me awake thinking that the big fir trees were going to come crashing down on my house. I’ll see how I feel tonight but if I can’t run, I will always have my gym trip tomorrow.

Working towards a happy healthy body. Not an over stressed exercise machine. Hmm, wonder if I can get that into a mantra of some kind?

New beginnings

2010-03-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

First off, I am up to 99.8 miles for the year. Yes, you read that right. A mere .2 of a mile from reaching 100 miles! Of course I only realized this after I logged my miles into my log and did the math. Grr! Oh well, just makes me want to get on the treadmill and break the 100 mile barrier.

I haven't actually run since my 4.2 mile run on Tuesday. Wednesday was a rest day and Thursday I had an Introduction to Meditation class at 6:00 (part of my other project called "Operation deStress"). I realized just before bed on Wednesday that I couldn't run and then sit for 2 hours on a meditation cushion all sweaty and cramp up. Oh well. Running should be a joy, not a burden. Right? Right?

I also have some funky thing going on with my eyes. They just feel really dry and irritated. I threw away my contacts, the case and my eye makeup just in case and am sporting my Calvin Klein glasses. I've run before with glasses on and it's not fun. I guess this means I need to take another 2 days to relax without contacts. I just hope I have my legs and my lungs for my new Sunday indoor soccer team. Last week's game (my first game since November) had me huffing and puffing and about to pass out. But as soon as I was ready to exercise again, the eye thing popped up. I'm a big believer in that things happen for a reason and feel like I shouldn't fight what's thrown my way.

Meanwhile, I can announce with great fanfare that I got a new job!!!! I start my new job mid-April and the waiting for the confirmation of hire was killing me! Seriously, it was a source of a lot of my stress! Now that I've given notice at my old job and focused on relaxing more, my body has slowly rewarded me with a favorable scale reading.

So what's next you ask (cause I knew you would)? I finish my old job on April 1. I have some much needed R x R between jobs, which includes an overnight trip to the coast and some vegging at home. Then I start my new job! The new job involves project management of multiple catalogs. It's totally up my alley and an amazing opportunity!

I still plan to keep up with the running. I was going to run a 10K on April 11, but as that is at the end of my week of rest (which is kind of doctor's orders), I am going to pass on that race and focus on getting healthy. There is another 10K on April 25th that I may consider or just wait until May for races. I am signed up for (and paid up for) a 1/2 marathon in October and I have every desire to run that race. I just need to plan out a nice running schedule at home as I will probably lose my gym access during the week. Not a bad thing, just a little extra motivation to do my run after my daughter goes to bed at night. It will all work out. I am confident in that. I just need to do it in a healthy manner without burning the candle at both ends like I have been.

I'm still running!

2010-03-18T09:04:00.001-07:00

Ok, I've been bad. I haven't written, called, shown up on your doorstep. I've been busy getting my catalog out for my company and trying to survive being a mom to my 3 year old without making us both crazy. But even with that going on, I'm still running. So as of now, here are my stats:

Run 91.4 miles, 408.6 miles to go for the year. 2 more runs and I've topped 100 miles for the year!!!

I did manage to run the Portland Shamrock run on Sunday. This annual event hosts a 5K, 8K and 15K run. I ran the 5K with my sister and had a blast! I've been running on the treadmill indoors for all of my runs, so I was a little nervous about running outdoors. The run was great and I didn't even slow to a walk the entire time! I finished with a time of 35:52 which I was happy about. The race though really got my running mojo going and I am aiming for a 10K next month on April 11. I've also increased my mileage on the treadmill and knocked out 4 miles on Tuesday. Onwards and upwards!

I'm the pink girl on the left. My sister and I showed up in matching clothes and didn't even plan it!

Update

2010-01-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

Workout: 2.8 miles run on tready, 32.5 miles down, 467.5 miles to go.

Doing a run after an hour of yoga is just too much. I should've run for more mileage but I had to slow it down since I was dying! Ah well, good to know.

Fixing my stats

2010-01-20T13:38:00.000-08:00

Somehow my numbers were off. I went back and added up my runs from my running journal and I can now post:

Workout: 26.7 miles down, 473.3 miles to go.

I think I forgot to log a day. This means that I've run the equivalent of a marathon. If you can run a marathon over 3 weeks, I'm in!!!

2010-01-19T08:33:00.000-08:00

Workout: 3.2 miles run on tready. 23.3 miles down, 476.7 miles to go.

This is for Saturday's workout. I'm a little bit behind!

I didn't make it to the gym on Saturday as my daughter was feeling a bit under the weather. I managed to get her set up watching Backyardigans (bad mommy!) while I jumped on my treadmill and did week 5, mix 3 of Podrunner:Intervals. I then added a few more tunes to make it an even 3.2 miles (versus the 2.4 I would've stopped at).

I SHOULD have run yesterday to stay on schedule, but Sunday night was a train wreck. We had a bad wind storm that kept me awake almost the entire night. I finally calmed down and fell asleep at about 2:30 when my daughter woke up. I managed to get her back to sleep and then passed out till my alarm went off at 5:15. Needless to say, running on a treadmill after about 3 hours of sleep seemed like a safety hazard.

I've got my gym clothes and plan to run at the gym today. I will try to run on Wednesday as well to get back to my M/W/F schedule. We'll see.

Update

2010-01-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

Workout: 2.4 miles run on tready. 20.1 miles down, 479.9 miles to go.

Yesterday's run almost didn't happen. I was tired and really just wanted to have a quiet evening and drink a glass of red wine. But after posting on Facebook that I wasn't sure if I should run or not, I got the motivation I needed to get on the treadmill. I love my support network!

I also feel like I found my running pace. I didn't feel like I was struggling during the run portions and stepped it up during the walking portion. I still came out at the same distance, which surprised me. I though I would be another .10 of a mile more. Oh well. I should run again on Friday but I have a social evening planned. I may go off the intervals and try a 5K on the treadmill at the gym Saturday morning.

Another quick update

2010-01-12T13:38:00.000-08:00

Workout: 2.4 miles run on tready. 17.7 miles down, 482.3 miles to go.

Little by little, one foot in front of the other, I plow on!

Update

2010-01-10T21:29:00.000-08:00

Workout: 2.4 miles run on tready. 15.3 miles down, 484.7 miles to go.

Sorry for the post and dash. Crazy busy weekend filled with chores and taking Christmas decos down. I ran yesterday at home followed by a Cardioke workout on Comcast On Demand. Today I did my pylometric training from the personal training sessions plus 30 minutes on the elliptical for 90 minutes of sweat at the gym. I should run tomorrow to stay on schedule, so I'm off to bed to catch up on sleep.

Welcome the penguin

2010-01-07T21:44:00.000-08:00

Workout: 2.5 miles run on tready. 12.9 miles down, 487.1 miles to go.

See, if I knew I was only .1 away from a whole number, you betcha I would've run a little extra!

I almost didn't run after a day from hell. I don't know why, but I had a bad case of the crabbies. Everything was setting me of this afternoon. I even got a new range today that the boyfriend helped me pickup from a warehouse. Still was grumpy.

Then when I got home, my daughter had the king of all tantrums. Flailing arms and all. I'm sure she was extra tired, but still, throwing things is not acceptable in the house. After letting her scream it out, I gave her her bath, storytime and tucked her to bed. Then went to try to run out some of this crabbiness.

I also slowed down my pace, hence the shorter mileage. I was really killing myself trying to do a sub 11 minute mile but I have to build up to it. I'm great at sprinting after a soccer ball but not in going long and steady. I felt a little better slowing it down but it was hard not to see the mileage above 3 miles. Oh well, the more I run, the faster I will get and it's only the first week of January.

Going back to Couch to 5K

2010-01-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

Workout: 4 miles run on tready + stretches. 470 cal burn. 10.4 miles down, 489.6 miles to go.

I really was hoping for a good run today. Some background: I trained for the Portland marathon back in spring of 2000. I made it up to 8 miles in one run using an awesome running program called Portland Fit. I do not think of myself as a beginner when it comes to running. Therefore, I tend to get cocky on the treadmill and run a 10 minute mile. No, I take that back. I try to run a 10 minute mile. Yesterday showed me that I need to slow it down and re-build some endurance. After about 3 miles, I was done and walked more than I ran for the last mile. I'm too used to sprinting for soccer and not aiming for slow and steady.

I need to go back to a running program, like Couch to 5K and rebuild my endurance. I will be doing this using Podrunner:intervals and sticking to the program. This means my miles will go down, but I'm hoping in a few months, I'll have the miles up and be back on track. I need to rebuild my running foundation so I am not sucking air as I eek out another mile. Yesterday was not fun at all.

Thursday's run will be at home on my treadmill as I will miss the gym. The need to get a new stove is more important that my gym date. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so my daughter and I can return to running outdoors! But for now, its treadmill runs and iTunes. Oh well.

Trying Galloway method

2010-01-03T18:59:00.000-08:00

Workout: 3.2 miles (5K) run on tready + stretches and some weights. 390 cal burn. 6.4 miles down, 493.6 miles to go.

Today's workout? Meh. I stayed up late to make this:

It's a Ben 10 cake for my boyfriends son. He loves Ben 10, so I thought to surprise him. But I kinda get perfectionist when I make cakes, so I was up late trying to get it just right. Therefore, I wasn't feeling the best on the tready today. But I got my miles in.

I tried the Galloway method to running, which encourages walking breaks during the run. I ran for 3 minutes and walked for 1, which is what my body needed. And in doing so, I came out almost to the exact miles and pace that I did on Friday using Podrunner:Intervals! I hope to do a 4/1 ratio on Tuesday. For now though, rest is calling my name so I am fresh for work tomorrow.

Starting the quest for 500

2010-01-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

Workout: 3.2 miles (5K) run on tready + 45 minutes pylometric training + stretches. 560 cal burn. Booyah!!! 3.2 miles down, 496.8 miles to go.

I made it to the gym this morning for a workout to ring in the new year! I was aiming for 4 miles, but this lingering cold won't go completely away! 3.2 was where I drew the line. And I didn't have a blow-out of a New Years Eve either. The boyfriend and I went to a wedding reception at the Vancouver Hiton at 5 pm. The couple are awesome and amazing and I felt honored to help them celebrate their union. Funny enough, with a Cosmo in hand, I was discussing running with a few of the guests. I had another drink while I was there and then had to get home by 7:30.

After getting my daughter to bed, I only made it a few more hours and called it a night. I wanted to start my quest for 500 miles more than I wanted to stay up till midnight. I did celebrate the new year with a curry (Amy's Mataar Paneer) and since I didn't have naan bread, corn tortillas had to do. Mixing Indian with Mexican. Cause that's how I roll!

Hope everyone had a safe and healthy New Year's celebration!

I had

Let it snow!

2009-12-30T17:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday’s workout: Shoveling snow (20 min) + Jillian 30DS Level 1 (30 min)

Last night, we were hit with snow. About 2.5 inches of wet snow which fell in about 3 hours.

Totally unusual for the Portland area! When I left to get my daughter from her daycare, the snow was just barely sticking to the car but the roads were wet. By the time I got home, I was slip sliding away! Luckily we made it home with only 1 near miss. And my daughter only learning a new word of idiot” versus something stronger as I tried to avoid another driver. My mommy instincts must have kicked in just in the knick of time!

Since I missed my gym workout, I did some snow shoveling for a post-holiday eating workout. It was fun to do while my daughter tried to build a snowman. After 30 minutes in the snow, we were ready to come in to warm up and have dinner. It was nice to play in but I wasn’t looking forward to driving in it the next morning.

After she went to bed, I managed to plop in Jillian 30 DS Level 1 and get another workout in. I used to do 30DS on a regular basis, making it up to level 3 for days. But my strength workouts have diminished as I’ve increased the cardio. And I am still recovering from a chest cold. I was shaking at the end of the workout! My HRM showed a rate in the 140’s at the end. Definitely a workout!

I hope to get in a workout on Friday and Sunday with DD spending time in the kids club at the gym. I’m going to focus more on cardio right now to help lean out after the holidays. Meanwhile for tonight, it’s an evening off and hopefully a good nights rest to get the last of this cold out of my system. I have a wedding reception to go to tomorrow afternoon and I want to be nice and fresh to enjoy an early New Years drink before spending the evening in with my daughter. And since she’s up at the same time every morning, I don’t see myself making it till midnight knowing I’ll be up 6 hours later. I’d rather get my sleep in and then have a faboo workout at the gym!

New year's resolutions

2009-12-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

After careful contemplation (like about 5 minutes over my morning tea), I've come up with my resolutions for 2010. And funny enough, not a single one mentions losing weight! I do have an emphasis on running miles this year. I always feel better when I am on a regular running schedule. we'll see how this works.

New Year's resolutions for 2010:

1. Start running in earnest this year with a goal of a minimum of 10 miles per week (approx 500 miles for the year!).

2. Starting with the Shamrock run (in March) and continuing thru October, run at least a 5K race a month (maybe even a 1/2 marathon this year)

3. Start making a new recipe every Sunday to expand my dinner menus

4. Work on 7-8 hours of sleep a night

5. Try to have a string of fiction books to read to help me relax before bed (heeellllooooo Sookie series)

6. Try to get 1 vacation in this year with the goal of relaxing. Like an overnight trip to the coast without my daughter to just chill.

7. Start a new job. This will either be the new job I should hear about in a week or get a new one if that fails.

8. Stop saving quite so much money and use some of it to live on. The sky will not fall and I have more than enough squirreled away in case it does. I can afford to relax a little.

9. Remember to take my multivitamins daily (I've been bad this past year)

10. Get my blog updated on a regular basis. Even if it's to record my workouts.

I aimed to write down achievable goals and a few living guidelines that do not have an end point. Making concrete resolutions like lose 5 or 10 pounds makes you feel like you are under pressure to complete them. I would rather have those broken out into small monthly goals instead.

I believe I read that most people will give up on health/fitness goals in March. Isn't that sad? Here's to bucking the trend and sticking to a healthy weight/lifestyle for many years now and many years to come!

Well lookey loo!

2009-12-18T13:54:00.000-08:00

Looks like I got another reader! This means I'll actually have to start posting again.

Which I will!

After Christmas, I am going to start planning my 2010 year. Cause even numbered years ROCK!!! Especially if you put it in all caps. See how that works?

I will do a quick recap post of 2009 followed by my goals/resolutions for 2010. I like to start the new year with a game plan for the year to help me stay on track. I got a little off track this last summer and really don't want to do that again.

So I will be back after adding another layer of winter fat to my frame. Cause nothing says loving like cake balls.

Happy Holidays from DIA!

First physical training session...

2009-10-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

And I'm hooked! Every exercise I did with the trainer had a purpose. And I don't mean in losing weight or gaining muscle per say. It was on strengthening the core, the glutes and the quads. With these exercises, we're hoping to correct some of my physical issues. When I do squats, my foot starts to rotate outwards, which indicates tight muscles. My frame starts to hunc forwars from too much sitting in front of the computer. The exercises felt great and necessary. But I just feel like my alloted 3 sessions won't be nearly enough! Maybe it was due to too many exercises with not enough stretching over the years. I always seem to forget the stretching and now I'm trying to undo the damage.

I'm to repeat these exercises every other day until I see him next. This would mean Thursday and Saturday as Sunday is my next game. I'm keen on seeing how well this will improve my physique and stamina. Problem is, I should've stared these exercises a month ago in time for fall soccer. Oh well, I'll be in great form for spring. Right?

I've had a stressful day at work and ended it with a glass of red wine and 2 small chocolate chip cookies. I really didn't need the cookies. But it was one of those days that only chocolate would do to calm the frazzled nerves. If I could solve the need to snack once I got home, I would be at my goal weight without any troubles. Still working on that.

Acupuncture novice no more

2009-10-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was ready to treat myself to a deep tissue massage. While I knew the massage wouldn't be all candles and incense, I was expecting the afterglow to happen after the minor discomfort subsided. Oh was I wrong! Either due to the soccer injuries that I never attended too or the hours of sitting in front of the computer, my shoulders were a mess. The therapist got into the muscles and tried to work out the goose eggs around the shoulder blade. And my body was rewarding me with not one, but 2 major knots! I could hear the popping and gristle sounds that were coming from my back and realized that I probably needed to do this massage weeks ago. I've been waking up in the middle of the night with dead arm but I just chalked that up to sleeping wrong.

After making me almost scream for mama, the massage was completed and the acupuncture was ready to begin. I've never had acupuncture before, but I'm always game for anything once. I figured as long as I didn't see the needle go in, it was fine. All I can say is that the experience was interesting. The needle would go into the skin and honestly, I didn't really feel it. But I would feel my muscle twitch and almost grab onto the needle! Very intersting indeed!

I left the room feeling like someone had taken a baseball bat to my shoulders. It was sore and stiff. I did manage to get a gym workout in of 30 minutes on the tready (Podrunner:Intervals week 5) and 15 minutes on the elliptical. I figured the moving arms on the elliptical would keep the shoulder loose and groovy. I did finish the day with a heating pad on the shoulders for good measure.

So how did I feel today? It's amazing, but I woke up with more energy and feeling like I had a restful sleep. I've been just down and really lethargic all week, but this morning I was feeling better. And for that reason, I'm going back for another massage and acupuncture next week. Until then, I am practicing prfect posture at my desk at all times.

Food for the past 2 days has been ho-hum. Still need to get the snacking under control. Right now I'm eating an organic canned split pea soup which is kinda bland. And very thick ala Chunky soup! Let's see if that keeps me full till dinner.

Where's my walker?

2009-09-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

As part of the personal training sign-up at the gym yesterday, I was asked to raise my arms and do simple chair sits/squats. Now I've been doing yoga and aerobics classes for a good many years, so I figured I would wow the trainer with my form and endurance. Oh no, not even! Instead, the trainer starts to point out things like my feet slowly turn outwards (tight inner leg muscles?), my IT band showed tightness, my body was hunching over (common with people who work on the computer for a living) and my shoulders were showing strain from trying to keep my arms above my head. Basically, that muscle which isn't tight from over exercising is tight due to scar tissue. Yup. Where's that walker????

I thought my 3 weeks of PT was going to be a pylometrics boot camp ala Jillian. Or Bob as this PT is male. But he was talking about corrective exercises to stretch out the muscle and regain some mobility. Man, 3 training sessions won't seem enough! And I knew he was telling the truth as I can feel my body hit a flexibility wall in yoga, especially in regards to my shoulder. Too many falls from soccer left more damage than I realized.

And all that tightness is probably contributing to the 3 day tension headache I've had. You could probably bounce a quarter off my neck muscles! After the assessment, I spent the evening (after my daughter went to bed) with the boyfriend, beer and a Sounders game. But even that bit of relaxation sent me to bed with a headache. I caved and booked a deep tissue massage for tomorrow. Let's see if that helps a little.

As for my food journal, well it was a car wreck yesterday. Today is a little better, but dinner will be a salad with Boca Burger and a little feta cheese. With a cup of watermelon for dessert. It's the only way I can stay on track. Especially aftter a quick cookie break mid-afternoon today. Whoops!

Quick howdy

2009-09-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie post from my busy day. I'm currently drinking a vodka tonic, heavy on the tonic. I find tonic with quinine is good for the achey muscles and the vodka is just a guilty pleasure. My legs feel bone tired after playing my outdoor game (we won 4-0 thank you very much) and then strolling around the farmer's market getting my weekly produce with my daughter. I feel like an old lady going to bed at 9:30 on a Sunday night, but it's what my body is screaming for.

Monday is the start of a new week. I'm going to have to do my weekly food planner at work (like anyone works their first hour on a Monday anyways!) so I am prepped and ready. Pre-planning my week really helps me stay on track. Every morning always starts with a green monster and then I alternate my morning snacks with steel cut oats/apple or yogurt with mix-ins. I might be slumming it this week too with some Lean Cuisines filled out with frozen veg. My freezer is overflowing and I need to eat some of it down. I'm hoping my Tuesday I can make some split pea soup and have that for lunches for the rest of the week. The rainy weather will be conducive to soup making. Today was in the 70's and a nice autumn sunny day, so the soup pot stayed in the cupboard. But when the weather turn, I get that desire for soups and stews.

Right, the left leg is cramping up a bit. I had the banana and the quinine. Looks like sleep is the only thing left!

Yep, I fell on my head!

2009-09-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

I did my yoga class after a 2 week hiatus due to sickies (myself and my daughter). I knew today's class would be hard and I was right. My sinuses weren't fully cleared and so my balance was off. But I stuck with it even though I fought to get my poses done properly. Then came the crane pose, where you basically crouch down and then move to balance your whole body by placing your knees on the back of your elbows and don't touch the ground with your feet. I finally was able to balance in crane in my yoga class before I got sick and was hoping to do it again. Which for 10 seconds I did. And then I lost my balance and fell on my head!!! But better to fall on your head trying than not try at all. I managed to finish the class and then run on the tready for 30 minutes. I dropped back to week 4 of Podrunner:Intervals. I thought I needed a lighter run today than week 5, which is where I'm supposed to be at.

I also bit the bullet and called the trainer at the gym for pylometric training. I go in on Tuesday to sign up and then the training will start the following Tuesday. He will train me for an hour every Tuesday for 3 weeks. I'm hoping that will be enough for me to learn proper form so I can do it on my own afterwards. If I won the lottery, I would use a personal trainer all the time. Probably would help if I actually played the lottery too! But I will try to do my own thing after the 3 weeks are up. Pylometrics can be hard (ala Jillian) so I will have to make sure I watch my nutrition and especially the post-workout snacks.

Tomorrow I plan to make split pea soup (recipe from Eat Live Run http://eatliverun.com/) which is very simple and budget friendly. As well as some Guiltless Guacamole from HungryGirl. I think I have a taste for green foods lately. You would think my daily green monsters would be enough green. But I want to make veggie burritos with beans and brown rice and guac for dinner tonight and was excited to see a healthier version of guac. I can pass on the sour cream and the cheese, but I do love my avocados. Seriously, I would eat sliced avocado with a little sea salt instead of pizza. I'm hoping the HungryGirl version doesn't disappoint.

I'm off to the library to return some books and let my daughter have her weekly train table fix. I requested The Joy of Vegan Baking and it just came in. I saw a copy of a pumpkin spice loaf that would be awesome to give away as part of my Christmas baskets. No eggs or dairy yet the loaves looked nice and moist. You can use flax meal (which I have anyways for the green monsters) instead of eggs. I'll have to see how it goes. I'll definitely post if they are a hit or miss.

And I'm going out in public in my Seattle Sounders jersey. I really am a soccer nut! I've been too preoccupied with life and haven't followed them for the past few weeks. But I'm recording a game to watch tonight and I hope my jersey brings them luck. Go Sounders!!!

Spring in my step!

2009-09-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hi gang! After a week of being under the weather with a cold, I'm finally back into the land of the (almost) healthy. On top of that, I did something which took a TON of weight off my shoulders yesterday (which I can't go into on the blog). But ramping up to that as well as trying to be a mom and a working woman drained me this week.

Now that the weight is off my shoulders, my body rewarded me with a little weight off my body. Stress is a huge factor to the weight staying on my hips and I'm glad to see that my body is reacting positively now. My eating today has been stellar as well. So far, I've had:

Breakfast: Green Monster
Mid-morning snack: Plain yogurt with mix-ins
Lunch: Couscous with steamed zucchini, peas and carrots mixed in and a veggie salad with 4 tbs of homemade hummus on it. Yummy!!!

I'm also hoping to have my first yoga class in 2 weeks tomorrow. Hard to do down dog pose with a sinus headache! And hopefully a run on the treadmill afterwards.

Also, to fill you in, I had a soccer game 2 weekends ago that had me needing a walker afterwards. Even with weight training and Jillian 30 Day Shred moves, my quads were like water after my first fall game. After talking with a trainer at the gym, I am exploring pylometric training. I'm hoping to start that next week or the following week with a trainer. But I had no pain after my soccer game on Sunday like I did the week before. I'm hoping this means I'm back on track. But I missed reaching the ball (and shooting it into goal) by a fraction of a second. And that kind of stuff just makes me want to train harder so I can make the goal next time. Hey, whatever motivates you!

Here's to a happy and stress free Friday. And weekend!!!

Sickies

2009-09-18T07:54:00.001-07:00

I'm hanging low after getting side-swiped by a head cold. Feeling like absolute crud! I'm hoping I can recover enough to do my weekly yoga tomorrow. Since nothing sucks more than trying to do down dog with a sinus headache. Until then, let the recovery continue!

Workouts, motivation and goals

2009-09-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

My workout yesterday sucked rocks. I’m not lying in that I almost gave up and walked out early. Maybe I’m fighting a cold or I didn’t eat the right lunch, but I was miserable in my workouts. I started on the weight bench lying down and doing chest flys with 8 pound weights. Then I sat up (oo head rush!) and did tricep dips. Then I went and did the cable machine to hit my inner leg, outer leg and glutes. So far so good. Time for arms. I went to the chin up machine. I love this machine as it assists you to doing chin ups with a weighted platform for you to kneel on. I did one set and had my heart in my throat. I took a little rest and tried again. Heart in throat! It was bad enough to make me stop. I thought I would go to the section that is open for floor work and try some Jillian 30 Day Shred compound moves, but the area was busy. I threw in the towel and went to jump on the treadmill for my run (Podcast: Intervals Week 5 Mix 1). After 2 minutes of running, my sides were aching and I was feeling lightheaded. I gave up and slowed the pace down and upped the incline for a hill climb routine. It was all I could manage! I guess if your body doesn’t want to workout, there’s nothing you can do.

My fitness assessment went OK. Not great, just OK. I dropped my body fat percentage to 23.5%, down from 24%. It was a result, but nothing to crow about. I also discussed my absolutely sore quads (leftover from Sunday’s soccer game) with the personal trainer. He said I should be doing pylometric training and not lifting weights. And if I’m not careful , I can injure myself with the exercises. I may bite the bullet and get some PT afterall. We’ll see.

Motivation and Goals

I was looking forward to catching the season premier of Biggest Loser. I love that show and try to follow it as much as I can, but I admit that 2 hours of TV during the week doesn’t work with my busy schedule. I was hoping to make an exception yesterday, but I think I caught 20 minutes total. Thank goodness my vcr caught the entire show.

What amazed me was the one woman who lost her family in a car accident. All of her family was gone in an instant! Not only had this woman survived the grief, but she was on the show trying to improve herself. Everyone else on the show was motivated by a spouse, child, parent or other family member. This woman had no one but herself. Made me think that we all have to have someone who is there to motivate us to lose weight. When I lost all my 25 pounds the first time, I was losing weight with my ex. The marriage was crumbling, yet it felt good to try to “beat” him in the weight loss. Not the best motivation since after the divorce, the weight came back. Now I’m trying to find a new motivation and it’s harder. Yes I could say that I’m motivated for my daughter, but I can already play with her, cook her healthy meals and live to see her graduate. I need to find a new motivation now.

I also listen to Inside Out Weight Loss on the iTunes podcasts I will be talking about this show more often in future posts. The show doesn’t tell you what to eat or not to eat (check out Fat2Fit radio for that info). But instead focuses on why you should or shouldn’t eat to lose weight. One show talked about goals. That in weight loss, you can have a “toward” goal or an “away” goal. A “toward” goal is something that once you reach, the goal will be met. Losing 10 pounds for a high school reunion. Losing 4 pounds for the month of September. Not needing the extender belt on the seat on an airplane. An “away” goal is trying to prevent something by losing weight. Not wanting a heart attack by the age of 40. Not wanting to go up another pant size. “Towards” goals are more powerful than “away” goals. You have something to achieve versus something that you are running from or trying to avoid. Now if one of your “away” goals is to avoid that heart attack knowing that a lot of the people in your family have died from heart attacks, that’s a pretty powerful goal.

For weight loss, you need a combination of “toward” and “away” goals. Make your “toward” goals something that you can achieve and reward yourself when you reach it. But more importantly, have the next “toward” goal ready to slip into place. For the “away” goal, this maybe something that you want to journal about. Why is this goal and “away” goal? Something you want to avoid.? Why? What are the ramifications if you don’t do something about it? What are you gong to do about it? Again, items to consider to help you with your weight loss more than calories in/calories out.

I’m going to try for another easy night. I made ratatouille for dinner today, but I made it last night so I can heat and eat today. I’m still fighting the cold, so maybe some more downtime is what the doctor ordered. And I might get to finish the Biggest Loser premier afterall!

How to eat your food

2009-09-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

I am currently reading "The Skinny: How to Fit In Your Little Black Dress Forever" by Melissa Clark and Robin Aronson. This book is awesome as it talks about the WAY to eat your food. Melissa Clark is a food critic, which means she eats lots of yummy decadent food. All the time. And is a size 2. She shared her secrets to keeping the weight off with her bff Robin and from those talks, the book was formed.

In a nutshell, the book talks about eating your food like a food critique. Slow down and taste the food. Feel the texture, the subtle tastes, the decadence. Get the full sensory experience. And then stop eating once you have achieved the feel of that plate. Take the rest home for later or get rid of it completely. Of course there's a lot more to it than that, but it's on this concept that I wanted to expand upon.

In the book, there is a food meditation exercise that was awesome. It said to sit at a table and place 3 small raisins in front of you. Sit for a moment and just look at the raisins. Then slowly reach your hand out, pick up one raisin and focus. What do you see? Color? Texture? Your hand holding the raisin? Then slowly place the raisin in your mouth. Again, hold the raisin in your mouth and slowly bite into it. Taste the raisin taste. Feel the raisin texture in your mouth. Then do the same active meditation with the other 2 raisins, going slowly to "experience' the raisin.

Now like you, I've come home after running errands, put my purchases on the kitchen counter, and then walked to the cupboard to get a handful of cookies. Or chips, Or cereal. Something to munch on while we put stuff away. That's a far cry from tasting 1 raisin every 5 minutes but you know what? In those binges, the taste buds barely have a chance to taste the snack food on it's way to the stomach. 200 calories down the throat without even a thank you. It's the mindless snacking (or for me it's nervous energy snacking) is what makes us carry the extra weight on our hips. If we just....slowed....down...,with our eating, we may start to enjoy the taste of food more and really experience it.

But I can't take 5 minutes to eat a raisin, you scream. I have to take care of x,y,z! Well you know what? Maybe if we weren't gulping our food down faster that a soldier in the mess tent, we wouldn't have to spend as much time on the treadmill, or at the gym or in front of our closets wondering what we can wear since everything is too snug. Tosca Reno says it's all about 80% diet, 10% exercise and 10% genetics as to the way we look. And I know my exercise is definitely there. My eating on the other hand is bad. Not bad as in McDonalds super value meal bad, but as in snacking way too often. And when I realized that all the exercise I do gets lessened by the fact that I come home and stick my hand in a box of Life cereal, I just want to cry. So this is my new focus. The hows and whys of eating. We'll see if this works.

If you want to look like phlegm...

2009-09-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

Wear a flesh colored body stocking. Just sayin.

Right, fresh start (again)

2009-09-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

Wow. August was my last post? You would think I was slacking. But I had to take time to get my mental house in order. Some say that your outside appearance (baggy eyes, extra junk in tha trunk, stringy hair) is an indication of what is going on in the inside. I think that is very true. I'm making some changes, including a big change at the end of the month which will take a large load off my shoulders. Funny how I keep getting these cryptic horoscopes which talk about "taking care" of business, but clearly I wasn't. And I was getting horsewhipped for it.

Tomorrow I go in for my 1 month "check-up" since joining the gym. And I'm not lying when I say that I'm scared. I wanted to cancel REALLY badly. I know I haven't been 100% with my diet. I will be good for a few days and then whammo, face first in a plate of cookies. So getting weighed and skin pinched for the body fat assessment will be painful. But it's a way to say that I had my 1 month adjustment and now I'm geting serious. And fall soccer started too, so there is encouragement too. I'm also devouring a ton of books an info on the mental side of weight loss and to having a balanced life. I recently got my very own copy of The Secret and I'm trying to watch this once a week. I always feel so energized after watching the video. They make it look like if you put your mind to it, you can do anythig. And why not? I know I got down to my goal weight once and that I can get there again. I just have to believe in myself and pair that with some rest and relaxation.

I am going to try to post what I eat every day. I may miss a day and double post to get caught up, but I will do my best.

And what else does a girl do to get started to th right foot? Go and get her hair done! It's really something I shouldn't be paying for right now, but my hair is starting to get as frizzy as bigfoot's fur. Need a trim up to get the shaggies away. Then I will be starting out on this re-energized path looking fabulous and feeling great!

Going to Cinncy!

2009-08-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

After a weekend where I found more brownies in my mouth than I care to explain, I'm looking forward to my business trip this week. I will spend most of tomorrow flying and return on Thursday. I am a graphic designer who produces a large product catalog and am always flying out to look at potential printers. Finding a printer that can print my 1700+ page catalog is no small feat. This trip takes me to a printer about 1 1/2 hours outside of Cincinnati, Ohio and into Kentucky.

But I am looking forward to this time as this means no snacks and limited access to food other than the few meal bars I stash in my bag and the vendor meals. I need a break after constantly finding myself almost entering a new dress size due to my grazing.

What frustrating more is that I am ramping up my workouts to include some awesome weight training and that has ramped up the snacking. The little voice inside my head says that I'm probably not eating enough protein like chicken and fish. So after this trip, I will pull out the crockpot and make some salsa chicken that I can throw into tortillas. I have the chicken in the freezer, but for some reason, it hasn't learned to cook itself.

Tonight I have to rush home and pack for my trip. I am going to bring workout clothes x 2. I'm hoping I can get a run in at the gym before starting the long drive on Wednesday. And then if the plane gods are with me, I should be back in time to make my normal gym session on Thursday. Having an awesome workout on Sunday has fueled my desire to get back there ASAP.

My gym routine on Sunday included some Jillian worthy moves as well as some straight weight machines. I added some floor ab work before hitting the elliptical (didn't want to risk running as I was fighting a cold) and then finished with some stretching. My HRM said I burned almost 400 calories in the 90 minute workout. Followed by probably same caloric amount again in food. Grrr!!! Must get a hold of that pronto!

And my beloved Seattle Sounders lost to Real Salt Lake over the weekend. Double grr!!! I may have to console myself with a little red wine tonight. Just a little!

Happy birthday to me!

2009-08-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I turned 37 years old. And how did I celebrate it? With a workout at the gym using weight in the “boys” section. Honestly, my 5 ft 2 frame doesn’t fit a lot of the exercise machines on the floor and quite frankly, they are boring. Instead, I made my own little program using free weight and a little “what would Jillian do” know how.

My workout consisted of:
Shoulder press with leg lifts
Tricep dips using a bench
Static lunges with a dumbbell curl
Lat pull down
Squats on a machine
Cable pulls on inside leg, outside leg and glute kicks
Knee to chest standing raises (ab station)

I forgot to do any sort of chest fly or anterior raises. Also need some sort of pec/pushups in there. I’m still working on my routine. I also added 30 minutes on the tready for some running and hill climbing. But all of the sugary sweets I had earlier made running not fun. Just a reminder that exercising makes you want to put good fuel in your body. Really, had I realized how bad my body would feel at the gym, I would’ve stuck to 1 cookies bar and not 2.

I finished the day after my daughter was in bed with the Runners World core routine. This is killer and I admit that I can’t do them all. But I’m giving it a shot and I can feel it working. I’m only doing this on the days that I’ve already worked out since it does make me a sweaty betty. But check out this link for the exercises you can do at home: http://girlygirlsdontjog.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/the-300/

After doing the ab work (and swearing a ton), I put on Jillian’s 30 Day Shred Level 1 and transcribed all of the exercise she does with number of reps. I want to incorporate more of her workouts at the gym with the machines to make it fun and interesting. I also subscribe to Oxygen magazine and they have a fat blasting workout using weights and stability balls. I think I have enough material and saved Oxygen magazines to come up with a new workout routine every week to 2 weeks. Round that off with my cardio and an ab workout at home and I’ll be in my lean state in no time!

Tonight my boyfriend and I are going out to dinner. When he asked what kinda of food I was thinking of, I immediately said something light like sushi. After a day of birthday, my return to clean eating is back with a passion. I even want my tea with just milk and no agave nectar today. Guess a good sugar shock is all you need to get you back on track.

Fitness Assessment

2009-08-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

In a few moments, I get to leave for a fitness assessment at my new gym. I am really curious as to what the trainer will say for my weight goal. Last time I did this (in 1997), I was told my ideal weight was 120. I laughed at the time (I was probably 135) and figured it was something to achieve but that was it. But in spring of 2008, I made 120 and even saw 119 for about 5 minutes. So I know I can do it again. This time though, could they give me a lower goal to aim for? If so, I say "game on!".

I also decided that this next year (as my birthday is on Thursday) will be a year to get myself back on track, more mentally than physically. I am going to see a counselor on Wednesday to help me out with my stress levels, among other non-blog worthy things. I noticed that I get a nervous energy when I am stressed and this causes me to reach for the snacks more often than I like. As I've had a chance to review some of my life lately, I realized that I have to get a hold of the stress and stressors in my life. I also know what I need to do in regards to calming down. I have amazing books by Eckhart Tolle and Lisa Nichols. I just need to read them and use the tools that they give you to live in the Now and to strengthen your mental muscles. But to do this, I have to give myself the time to do it as well as allow myself to take some "me" time that isn't exercise or chores. And as the name of this blog showes, I kinda like to do it all and ultimately put myself on the back burner. Well I need to fix this.

I was also posting on another board how changing my eating habits to a cleaner lifestyle has really helped my body. My hair feels fuller, my nails are stronger, and I haven't seeen any acne in ages. My mid-morning snack was 1/2 cup of plain nonfat yogurt with 1/4 cup frozen blueberries and 1/2 cup Fiber 1 cereal. Delish and very filling! And it only comes out to 1.5 WW points! Can't beat those stats!

The weather is finally cooling down and I am soooooooo happy! I hope to have 1 lasagna, 1 batch of the Hungry Girl version of Fiber 1 muffins and some cookies baked this weekend. My poor oven is going to collapse from all the baking! But I'm tired of heat and eat meals, so having a nice baked meal will be refreshing. I'm hoping to give the oven a little run tonight with some grilled salmon. I'll pair that with steamed fresh green beans and some quinoa. I'll just have to see if my daughter will eat the quinoa.

I lovie yoga

2009-08-01T21:17:00.000-07:00

I got to go to my first yoga class in ages at my new gym (I love saying that!). I was a little nervous about taking my daughter to the kids club since I was expecting to have her be extra clingy and not wanting to stay. But as soon as she saw the mini-climbing gym inside, she turned to me and said "bye bye mommy". I knew I would be able to enjoy the yoga class guilt-free.

It was my kind of yoga. Enough stretch and exercise that made you sweet but still felt relaxed at the end of it. I read online somewhere that yoga was soul food for the body. And boy, are they right. My body loved the stretches and I kept thinking how much good this was doing after a week of hard cardio and weights. I even managed to do a backbend in class! Who woulda thought this 36 year old could do backbends like she did as a kid.

I had started the day with a Green Monster and a slice of wholegrain bread with Better N'Peanut Butter on it. Just enough protein and carbs to carry me through. After the class, we went back home and I grabbed a snack of plain yogurt with museli and Fiber 1 cereal on it for more protein and carbs. I proceeded to vacuum and mop the house. I figured I was already gross from class so some sweaty housework wouldn't hurt. It's yet another 90+ degree day and so I had fans a plenty going. But as soon as I served lunch for us (organic Trader Joes organic O's for DD, egg tacos with salsa for me), it was all I could do to get Sophie down for a nap before I collapsed on the couch for a nap. Boy, I needed that break!

After our mutual naps, we went to the library where I picked up a bunch of diet and nutrition books. Yes, I know I told myself to stop reading these, but before I was looking at them for a quick fix. The books I got today were more for fun. One is on sports nutrition for athletes. I wanted to get more ideas on before and after workout snacks and I'd like them to be meat-free. The other 2 were more "lifestyle" books like fitting into the little black dress or for a "woman's method to losing weight." I wanted to look at them for ideas and their pink covers attracted me like a crow to a sparkly. I do have Jillian's Making the Cut which I hadn't touched but now I need to absorb in a week as that's when it's due back. I want to get some routine ideas for when I'm at the gym next.

It's another hot evening, so besides blogging, I'm taking it easy with reading. I have my morning run tomorrow so I'll try to get to bed at a decent time tonight.

My new gym

2009-07-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today I signed up for a gym membership. I ended my last gym membership about 5-6 years ago and I've always missed it. I ended up joining 24 Hour Fitness after touring the facility and importantly, the kids club. After giving my details and getting my temporary card, I got changed and jumped on the treadmill for a quick 30 minute and 250 calorie workout. I wasn't meaning to run on the treadmill since I haven't slept well the past few nights. But I was sooooo happy to finally have a membership again that I had all the energy I needed to get a good 10 minutes of running in before changing over to hill climbing for the rest of the time. My next visit will be Saturday morning when I take Sophie to the kids club for the first time. I would love to take a class, but I may stick to the floor in case I need to be called out to calm down my daughter.

I also made a quick run to Target to load up on some notebooks for journaling (only $1 each) and some index cards for my weight training. It will take some planning, but I'm hoping to write down exercises onto the cards and then "select-a-card" for some workouts. I wants to group them into exercises like arms, shoulders, chest, abs, etc. I will pick 1-2 cards per body part and then take the "routine" with me to the gym. I now have to go through the exercise magazines I have and transcribe the workout to the cards. I also have sticky tabs so I can tag my copies of Oxygen by exercise. I love having lots of productive "me" work to do. I did notice that the gym doesn't really have a place to do any ab work on the floor, so I might be doing that at home. But a 15 minute ab routine is easy to fit into the end of the day, so it shouldn't be a problem.

The weather is a cool 99 degrees today. And boy can I tell the difference! It's still hot in my house upstairs (currently 89 degrees) so I may spend 1 more night in the basement. But the end of the heat wave is in sight!!!

And the heat goes on...

2009-07-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, it’s still hotter than hades in my neck of the woods. Exercise today was limited to a short 20 minute walk at 9 am before it got too hot to walk. It will be too hot tonight to workout. Heck, it will be too hot to exist in my hot house! At least the hot weather kills my appetite.

So I do have to make one clarification from the Saturday post. First off, this blog is to focus on my weight loss journey and working that into being a mom. I will therefore remain vague on a few details if I feel like they aren’t really needed for the “story”. Saying that, the Boyfriend and I are still together. After some communication on Sunday, I realized that my stress levels and my lack of sleep was impeding my life and pushing him away. And guess what? Probably impeding my weight loss as well. After Sunday’s convo, I decided to focus on my mental health as well as my physical health.

This means in addition to the search for a gym, I will also start journaling and taking some time for reflection at the end of the day . This will help me get some issues dealt with. I probably will discuss some of the topics I will journal on as they will make for a calmer Christa which means less nervous eating.

Saying that, it cracks me up that as soon as I decide to focus on getting more sleep, I am trying to survive the heat wave of the decade. This has physically drained me and I still have tonight to get through. With temps only reaching a low of 74 tonight, my house will be hot hot hot! I need to get enough rest for my last gym tour tomorrow at 24 Hour fitness. I don’t want to fall asleep on the machines! I have a feeling gym #3 will be the best and if so, I will walk out of 24 Hour Fitness tomorrow with a membership.

Tonight I might pull the paddling pool out for my daughter and let her splash around for a spell. I will try to dip my feet in the cool water too. The to bed for her in her AC room as I try to cool the house down. I may just collapse on the couch and set an alarm to wake me up to open the house up at 10:00. Just one more day of this heat. Just one more day!

Hot hot hot!

2009-07-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

Today is day 2 of the 100+ degree heat wave and I'm suffering! My poor older house is an oven, even with fans a plenty running. Luckily my daughter's room has a window mounted AC unit so she is cool and comfortable. I on the other hand be suffering and am taking refuge in the cooler basement. We did hang out at my parents air conditioned home for a short spell, but it was getting late and I needed to get my daughter home and bathed.

I went to my first gym today to workout in years. I used to belong to 24 Hour Fitness from about 1997-2004. I would use the weights, treadmills, classes, etc. I loved it but gave it up when my ex-husband and I got a dog. I thought why pay for a gym membership when the dog needed to be out and exercised. And although the dog is gone, I never went back to the gym. I missed it, but with a young daughter, I couldn't figure out how to make the gym and childcare work without spending a lot of money on childcare. Also there was the guilt of having my daughter all day in daycare and then putting her into a gym childcare. Too much!

As I posted earlier, I realized I could change my work hours so that 2 days a week, I leave work early and head to the gym for a workout and then get my daughter from her regular daycare. And today was my first experiment with the flex hours.

I decided to explore 3 gyms in my area: La Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness and the YMCA. Today was LA Fitness. The club was nice and clean and had everything that I was looking for. The monthly fees are higher than 24 Hour Fitness but the Kids Club is awesome. When I got there, I was able to get changed and workout before talking to someone about a membership. I immediately fell into my old routine of jumping on the weight machines first and ending with cardio. And you know what? I was bored on the machines. I think I am so used to doing Jillian 30 Day Shred or other workouts at home that I just sitting there for a pause between reps seemed excruciating! I think I will look into using more free weights in the future unless there are some exercises that I think the machine is better. This was an eye opener for me.

Really, I feel after today's experiment that I don't necessarily need a gym membership. But I do need a time to workout earlier in the day. That's really what the gym is for. If I had the time without driving clear across town and back, I would just go home to workout. So to me the membership is more about the opportunity to workout than the facility itself. Although going to a Saturday morning class will be a ton of fun. Tomorrow I tour the YMCA and then Thursday I will tour and hopefully workout at the 24 Hour Fitness. And with the AC in the gyms, I'm glad I'm at least working out there as its too hot to workout at home.

Again with the weight training, I was eager to pull out my copies of Oxygen magazine and use some of their weight routines at the gym. So this will be my challenge to myself. At the beginning of the month, I will come up with a circuit routine to take with me to the gym. It will target all the muscle groups: chest, back, abs, arms, shoulders, glutes, legs. Some months the legs will be machines. Others it will be squats with a weighted bar. I think changing it up once a month will keep my body guessing as well as make the workouts exciting. I know the first week I will be trying to perfect form and at the end of the month, I hopefully will have added some weight. And then change it up for the next month. Glad I haven't thrown away any issues of Oxygen so I can pour over them and come up with my first routine to start next week!

Meanwhile, I'm going to pray to the weather gods to take pity on us mortals and send some cool weather this way. Maybe I'll see my bed at the end of the week and say goodbye to the basement.

Beer, glorious beer!

2009-07-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

Today I went with my now ex BF to the Portland Brewfest. It was a chance to get this momma out into modern society and with young hip Portlanders. The weather was hot, which made sipping a frothy bevvy the ideal treat. The premise works with the purchase of a mug (as seen above) that you fill with local area microbrews. To get the beer, you buy tokens so the servers don't touch any money.

I had 1/2 a mug of the Rogue River Dead Guy ale (no dead guys in the beer) and a full pint of something called Blond Frog Ale (which I hoped didn't have frogs in it). Both were good, but as I'm not used to drinking full strength beer anymore, it went to my head. We headed to a gyro stand run by the local greek restaurant and grabbed some food. Ah, that's what my tummy needed!

My sister was watching my daughter while I went out, so my time was limited. Still, it was a great opportunity to get out and have fun. Unfortunately, a revelation was made by the boyfriend (which I won't go into where anyone can read it) which made me realize that I didn't want to continue with the nearly year long relationship. While I really cared for the guy, we've had some issues which I discussed in my last post. And when I realized that nothing would improve, I had the realization that I needed to focus on myself now and let him continue on with what he needed to do in his life. So far we have parted on amicable ways, but I'll admit that I'm having a rough evening. Therefore I'm going to call it a day and look forward to a nice run tomorrow and my weekly visit to the Farmers Market with my daughter.

It looks like I may be turning a new leaf next week and if so, it's a necessary step. Scary, but necessary.

Confessions, a freezer and a new start

2009-07-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

Well guys, it's been a week since my last post and I feel like I've been through the wringer. I realized that I had some divorce issues that I haven't dealt with and they raised their ugly head this week.

It all started last weekend when my boyfriend was out of town with his kids. When this happens, I really don't hear much from him as his kids do not know that he is seeing anyone. And with his divorce in the final stages, it's not something he's ready to tell them yet. We've sort of kept the relationship on the down low until the final divorce decree is made just to avoid criticism by others. However, I started to take that hesitation of going public to everyone as a sign from the BF that there was something wrong with me. Or more likely, my appearance. I have lost a lot of weight and am healthy, but felt like I wasn't thin enough in my own warped thinking. And since I couldn't discuss these feelings with him (which I've really had for a month), they were trying to poison my system.

I also have been slowly restricting my calories and increasing my exercise to the point that I've been replacing some sleep for exercise. And with all of this work, the scale wasn't budging. I was due to the docs for my annual checkup and was sure she would point to a thyroid issue or something since I was exercising and dieting a ton but the scale wasn't moving. Something had to be wrong! And on top of it, I was having problems sleeping since I couldn't get my brain to shut off. Too much was getting to me, including some unresolved issues with my ex.

When I went to my doctor's appointment, she gave my blood results a glowing report. I asked her then why am I not losing weight. As she could see, my diet was near perfect and yet I'm stuck 8 pounds over my goal weight. I was exercising and eating the same stuff I was at goal. What gives? And then she said the magical phrase: Stress can make your body hang on to weight. That's it! I was letting the stress, fears, and poisonous thinking keep me from getting the weight off. I was really shooting myself in the foot! Those words and some amazing advice from the women on my moms board made me realize how much harm and stress I was putting on myself. In essence, I had to calm down and see the person I was (calm, cool and collected) versus the crazy woman I was becoming.

And it was at that point that I realized I was starting on the path of an eating disorder. I was stressed beyond stressed. I was comparing myself to a body image that doesn't exist. I was starting to push my boyfriend away due to my own insecurities. I was focusing on every morsel of food and every scale reading. If I didn't stop it now, I could easily go down a path I shouldn't travel on. And that wouldn't only hurt me, but it would hurt my daughter as well.

Therefore, I took Wednesday off from the diet craziness and watched TV with a couple of Mike's Light Hard Lemonades. I put the scale away until my once a week weigh-in on Friday for Weight Watchers. And I made a vow to get more sleep. And you know what? My Friday weigh-in actually showed a loss. Like my body said "now that you got the lesson, I'll give you a little reward."

I also realized that I am doing way too much in the evenings during the week. My normal schedule is to get home, make dinner for my daughter and I, make lunch for the next day, get her bathed and into bed, clean up dishes, get about 1 hour of exercise in, pack my lunch for the next day, do any other necessary chores, and then hop into bed about 1 hour later than I wanted to. I just can't do that anymore and keep my sanity. So my solution is to change my work hours slightly so on Tuesday and Thursday, I can go to the gym and workout and then get my daughter from daycare. This way I can get 2 good workouts in during the week on my own time. Then when I come home, I can focus on the tasks at hand and once I put my daughter to bed, I can have a relaxing evening. No more running against the clock until I pass out in bed.

I'm so excited at this prospect (and in joining a gym) that I feel like I've received a shot of energy in my arm. I get to spend the next 3 weeks trying out 3 different gyms before settling on the one I will join. My flex hours were already approved at work. I arranged my schedule so I am picking up my daughter at the same time everyday so she won't notice a difference. It's going to work out and I'll tackle this stress level once and for all.

And the freezer? Well that was a little treat courtesy of an unexpected company bonus from my office. I got a small chest freezer which will allow me to make crockpot meals on the weekend and then freeze them into smaller 2 serving portions. This will help out my week as I won't have to make too many meals from scratch. I can heat and serve the meals I've made from scratch on the weekends when I have more time. And then spend more time with my daughter and not run around like a mad woman.

This means I feel like I'm doing a "do over" with this blog. I'm going to do it right and healthy this time, so that I can really be doing it all. Bt with a smile on my face this time around.

Wednesday's Food Journal

2009-07-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

Food journal for Wednesday:

Breakfast: Green Monster, steel cut oats sweetened with apple

Lunch: Chicken curry over Trader Joes Harvest Blend, large veggie salad
Mid-Afternoon snack: FF plain yogurt with blueberries, honey mustard pretzels
Dinner: 1/2 a sandwich thin with hummus and sliced avocado, Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup, watermelon
Snack: oatmeal cookie, glass of wine

Total Weight Watcher points = 25.5 (allowed 19)

Just blew thru yesterday. I thought my dinner was going to be 3-4 points but the avocado alone was 2 points for 1/4 avocado. Whoops! And DD is being a pill, so the red wine is medicinal. I have to get better today since I didn't feel like I was cheating but clearly I did.

Day in my life

2009-07-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

So, how does a fabulous diva of a working mom get through her workday?

Better go ask that diva. All you have is me and my crazy day which some how ends with a sleeping child and an exhausted momma at the end of it. But it’s all good. Here’s how my day goes which for the most part keeps me on the wagon:

5:45 Up and showered. If I’m feeling good, I might get up at 5:20 and grab a quick yoga workout before showering.

6:30 Get my daughter up and fed, make my Green Monster and put it in it‘s travel cup, assemble my lunch and snacks for the day in my cooler bags and head out the door.

7:30 Start work (after dropping my daughter off at daycare). Finish drinking the GM and have a cup of black tea with skim milk.

9:00 Heat up my steel cut oats and chop up the apple to sweeten it. Also add a splash of milk.

10:00 Go on a 20 minute walk with my co-workers for our morning break. As we all work on computers, we need to get up and stretch.

12:00 Lunch which usually includes a small entrée (sometimes leftovers) with a big veggie salad

2:00 Second 20 minute walk with coworkers.

3:00 Afternoon snack. May consist of yogurt and berries, hummus and multigrain crackers or a protein bar. Usually second cup of tea as well.

4:00 End of work day. I go and get my daughter and sometimes run errands (like grocery shopping) on the way home from work.

6:00 Dinner which usually includes a fruit for dessert

7:00 Bath/Bed for my daughter. Includes brushing my teeth for the day so I’m not tempted to snack afterwards.

7:45-8:45 Exercise

9:00 Make any food for tomorrow (salad or yogurt/berries)

9:30-10:00 Bedtime!

Really, from Monday thru Friday, that’s my routine. It keeps things moving like a well oiled machine. I’m so used to this routine than an unexpected day off (like Monday) kinda throws me off in regards to eating. I’m used to eating something every 2-3 hours, which works great at work and is a little more challenging at home.

Other things I do during the week is that I make a batch of steel cut oats on Sunday and then portion it out for the entire week. It’s usually 1 cup of oats to 3 cups of water. After it’s made, I put it into small containers so in the mornings, I can grab my oats and my apple and go. And the oats feel like a nice meal during the morning. Again, lunch is always something with a veggie salad. In a pinch, I will rely on a frozen meal (either I’ve made and portioned out or a frozen entrée from the store). Dinner is usually lighter than lunch since even with the workout later, I’m not really needing a lot of fuel.

My evening workouts last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. If I’m walking on the treadmill, I’ll usually do 45 minutes of hill walking or a 30 minute run. If I’m pressed on time, I’ll do a 30 minute Jillian 30 Day Shred. If I have the time, I will do a Jillian 30 DS followed by a 25 minute yoga session. Once a week I do a good 45 minute yoga/pilates session to get the muscles stretched and the core balance improved. I was dealing with a sore priformus muscle for a few weeks, and that taught me to not neglect the yoga. I have to stretch to keep things moving.

So if you are still awake after that longish post, congratulations! Now it’s getting close to my lunchtime meal, which is a chicken Korma over Trader Joes Harvest Blend and a (you guessed it) large veggie salad. Yum!

Back in the saddle again

2009-07-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

I took an unexpected break from the blog after my daughter caught a stomach bug. Let's say Sunday night was not pretty. Monday had us both laying low and trying to recover. It's interesting that when I am at work, I can keep my eating under control with portioned foods and snacks. At home though, well lets say making cookies on Sunday was not the best move. They were intended for my friend Valerie and her family who were visiting that day. But would you eat baked goods from a house with a stomach bug? No, I didn't think so either. I was stuck at home with a few dozen oatmeal raisin cookies that were very yummy.

Today wasn't a banner day for eating either. I didn't get a ton of sleep last night as everytime I heard my daughter make a peep, I was scared I would have to run bucket brigade. So 2 nights of icky sleep left me dragging today. I made a lunchtime run to Target and picked up a bag on honey mustard pretzels. Totally not in my clean eating lifestyle, but I wanted carbs and I wanted them NOW! The pretzels were consumed (but not the whole bag thank you very much!) and as soon as I came home, 2 more cookies followed in the pretzels path. Yikes!

I was really nervous to play my soccer game tonight as I could tell my tummy was fighting the bug. I did manage to eat a Healthy Choice pasta rice and beans meal for dinner to carb load and give me energy. I figured if I could eat food, I was OK. Right? Well a few minutes into the soccer game, my tummy was not feeling great and my heart was racing. I subbed often to try to see if I could make it to half time. One of my teammates gave me a Tums and the next thing I knew, I was feeling better and acting like a member of the team again. I finished the game feeling better that I had all day! I grabbed another Tums once I got home and really, I think the bug has moved on. All I can think of is that the Green Monsters I've been having have helped my immune system keep the sick buggies away. At least that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Tomorrow I am back on track with my eating and my journaling. I won't feel like I'm depriving myself of the pretzels by avoiding them as I won't need them. I like how my body was feeling last week in staying on track. And the Green Monsters are really curbing my sweet tooth so the snacking was minimal. I'm going to get back to that place tomorrow and get back on track after these few days of derailment.

Meanwhile, here are some photos from yesterday's meet up with my friend Valerie and her husband and daughter. They were on a long 3 week road trip around parts of the US and swung by Vancouver on their slow return trip to California. It was great to see them and share a pint of microbrew with them.

Sounders vs Dynamo

2009-07-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

I took a great day off to attend a Seattle Sounders game with the boyfriend. This entailed getting my ex to watch my daughter for the day while I travelled 3 hours north to Seattle and to Qwest field. The game was against the Houston Dynamo, which was interesting as I used to live in Houston for a short spell. But my heart was all with the Sounders today.

The day started at 8 am with a Green Monster and some steel cut oats. I figured I wouldn't eat again until Seattle and there wouldn't be many opportunities for salads and such. So the Green Monster got me going with 2 servings of leafy greens and a serving of fruit. I also sweetened my oats with chopped apple. Not bad to get 3 out of your recommended 5 a day by 8:00 am.

The drive up to Seattle was quick and painless. After parking the car in a lot (to the tune of $15), we walked up to Qwest field.

Once in the ballpark, it was time to hunt for lunch. My boyfriend is over 6 foot tall with minimum body fat, so he ordered fish and chips (it is Seattle afterall, so we have fish options at the concession stands).

For me, I had a simple hot dog with tons of condiments. I rarely eat real meat hot dogs as I prefer the meatless Morningstar Farms dogs. But there's something about a hot dog at a game that makes it extra tasty. I steered clear of the foot longs or the bratwursts and went with a simple dog.

Luckily, I restrained myself to 2 bottles of water and 1 Light Beer. Watching the game was awesome! The crowd was very supportive of the team and you could just feel the energy!

Some game play. What a game it was!

In the end, the game finished with a 2-1 victory to Seattle! GO SOUNDERS!!! After the game, we walked to the Pyramid Alehouse next to Safeco Field (where the Seattle Mariners play). I ordered a pint of the Curveball ale which is their summer special. The boyfriend and I shared a plate of nachoes which I chased with another 2 waters. I'm new to blogging, so I felt uncomfortable whipping out the camera to get a pic of the nachoes, but it was as guilty of a food as you can expect.

The trip back was long. Sitting in the sun drained me and I had the sleepies on the way back. Which wasn't cool as I was driving. Once we got south of Olympia, we stopped so I could get a diet soda. Bad yes, but I needed something to keep me awake and carbonation was calling my name.

Once I got home and got my daughter sorted with some dinner, I had a quick snack of 1/2 an english muffin with 1 tablespoon of homemade hummus, sliced tomato and some lettuce. And yet again, I forgot to take a photo!

It's late now and I need to grab a shower before hitting the bed. It was a long day but a good day. But I do have 1 more photo in my camera:

Aww! Matching team shirts. That's soccer geekness at it's finest!

Beano anyone?

2009-07-09T11:42:00.001-07:00

Last night I discovered that eating all of my lovely fruits and vegetables is giving me a wicked case of the bloats. My diet is now including 2 cups of spinach, 1/2 a banana, 1 apple, 2 cups of lettuce, a carrot, 2 radishes, 1/4 cup of cukes and 1/2 cup of tomato every day. And then I usually have some cooked vegetables with dinner. And all of that roughage is just killer on my stomach. I recall my father's zendo having oodles of jars of Beano around for the vegetarian diet. I'm going to have to get a bottle to try and see if that helps. It's hard to try to look fabulous when no one wants to be within 10 feet of you.

My daughter's diet is a lot more limited in the fruits and veg. I've started to mix in frozen spinach into spaghetti sauce and burritos and she gobbles up the food. I don't need her small tummy to be dealing with the bloat issues like her momma is. One day she'll join me in my salads, but for now, organic mac and cheese with frozen veggies and tuna is the meal for her!

To note a small personal victory, I love cookies. I love to eat them, to bake them, to hand them out to friends and loved ones. I usually eat 1 a day, whether homemade from the weekend or some yummy organic cat cookies from Trader Joes. Now without even trying, I realized today that I haven't had a precious cookie since Sunday. Not. A. One. And I haven't felt like I've needed one or have been going without. I hope this is a sign that my tastebuds are changing and don't need the sweetness of a cookie. In fact, I think I would prefer some fresh seasonal fruit like watermelon or strawberries to a cookie. Isn't that amazing? Maybe the changing tastebuds is all that I needed to stay on track. Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

And the wagon keeps rolling

2009-07-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

So far, I am on track with my eating. Woohooo!!!! I keep wanting to cheat a treat, but I have to remind myself that the little treats is what got me in this uncomfortable place. Therefore, the cookies have stayed in the pantry and the weight is coming off.

But first, some housekeeping...

Food journal for Tuesday, July 8:
Breakfast: Green Monster (2 cups spinach, 1 cup water, 4 ice cubes, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 tbs flax meal, 1 tsp wheat grass powder, 1/2 a banana
Mid-morning snack: steel cut oats sweetened with 1 chopped apple and a splash of skim milk
Lunch: Amazingly huge veggie salad (lettuce, radishes, carrots, cukes, tomatoes, green beans) topped with 2.5 oz of chicken and 2 tbs of Trader Joes Fat free Balsamic vinaigrette, 2 squares of dark chocolate
Mid-afternoon snack: 1/2 cup fat free plain yogurt with 1/4 cup blueberries and 1/8 cup Grape Nuts (my mid-afternoon sundae!)
Dinner: Veggie sausage in a wheat bun with mustard and sauerkraut, sliced cukes and carrots with a few sprays of Wishbone Salad spritzer, 1 cup watermelon
Snack: 2 small yogurt covered pretzels

I had to stop eating at 7:00 for some fasting blood tests this morning. Normally I have no issues not eating after 7:30 pm. But once you know you are limited, that's all you can think about! I didn't get my appointment done until 8 am this morning and by then, I could've ate my work desk! I'm so used to grazing throughout the day that going without seems hard on my body. As soon as I got into work this morning, I made my oats and sweetened it with the 1/2 a banana I normally use in my green monster.

I didn't get to exercise yesterdy as I was exhausted. I play outdoor soccer (yes, at my oldish age) and Wednesdays are usually my recovery day. The plan was to get to bed early and rest up, but I had 3 loads of laundry calling my name. Sigh. I'm hoping to get my Boot camp exercises tonight and save my running for tomorrow night when I'll have more energy.

Back on track

2009-07-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day. I managed to keep my eating in check and get a good workout it. Jillian 30 DS level 3 kicked my butt! I followed it up with a 25 minute yoga stretch which felt soooo good. I'm posting now before jumping in the shower.

Workout: 57 minutes, 162 calories burned, 151 bpm max, 92 average

Food journal:

Breakfast: Green monster* (1/2 a banana, 1 cup nonfat milk, 2 cups fresh spinach, 1 tbs peanut butter, 1 tbs flax seeds, 4 ice cubes)
Mid-morning snack: 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt, 1/4 cup blueberries, 1/8 cup Grape Nuts
Lunch: Egg white wrap (3 egg whites + peppers in a wheat tortilla), veggie salad with Trader Joes Fat free balsamic vinaigrette, 2 squares of extra dark chocolate
Midafternoon snack: cup of 3 bean salad with quinoa
Pre-dinner binge: 1/4 cup of kettle korn from farmers market
Dinner: 1/2 a cup of spaghetti sauce (organic marinara, Boca Burger crumbles, frozen spinach) on 1 oz of wheat pasta and 1 steamed zucchini, 1/2 cup watermelon

I discovered today that my green monster smoothies are too much for me. While they are OK calorie wise, they are too high on WW. So I'm going to remove the peanut butter from the smoothies to bring it down to earth. This pretty much explains why my weight has gone up. Ugh! But now that my trusty food journal is back out, it shouldn't happen again.

Goals time

2009-07-07T12:47:00.001-07:00

After waking up to another 130 pound morning, I faced the music and went back on Weight Watchers Online. I feel like I have to get my weight back down to a manageable level and then slowly go back to calorie counting. As soon as I made this decision, an offer showed up to join with a reduced monthly cost and no signup fee. Thanks goodness for the recession. Right? My goal is to take the 3 months offered, get to my goal weight, print out why food journals, and then go back to exclusively calorie counting.

Meanwhile, I've got some homework to do. Besides getting back on track with my eating, I'm following the summer bootcamp on Oh She Glows. This week's theme is goals. Specifically some short term goals for the month of July. Whenever I see these type of exercises, I don't do them since I don't have the time. Well, I have to make the time since my method clearly isn't working (I say with pant seams starting to stress from the weekend eating). Here's my exercise to do tonight:

The Summer Glow Boot Camp Goal Planner

A. Write down 3 accomplishments that you are proud of in your life. Beside each one write down how each of them made you feel. What do your accomplishments have to do with planning goals? Well, reminding ourselves of what we have achieved helps remind us that we are very capable of achieving our goals! It boosts our confidence and reminds us that we have achieved great things in the past and can do it again! :) Toot your own horn, as they say! ;)

B. Write down 3 goals that you want to achieve in the month of July. It can be anything. Some examples are: increase exercise, reduce stress, increase flexibility, try new foods, cook more, increase energy, reduce illness, tone up, drink more water, reduce muscle pain, sleep more/better, take a course, make more money, etc. Also write how they will make you feel!

C Write down ‘terminals’ for each goal. In other words, write down how you will know when the goal is completed or ended. Write a start date and a finish date if you want to get really specific.

D. Now comes the planning part. Write down what you need to do to achieve these goals! Be as specific as possible as list as many points as needed for each goal.

Weight loss is more than just exercise and diet. There's also the mental aspect which I've neglected to address. Maybe that's my missing link to getting this weight down once and for all.

Accidentally ran today

2009-07-03T22:27:00.001-07:00

Yes, the title says it all. I went on my normal 5K route along the Vancouver Waterfront. I usually run (well, there is some walking) for most of it and end up at the local park with a play structure for my daughter to play on. On my Sunday runs, there is a Farmer's Market present. But today I wasn't expecting anything. The plan was to do some long legged power walking to help stretch the priformus muscle. Then I was meeting my family at restaurant for a brunch. That was the plan since I didn't want to be all sweaty and wiffy while sitting in front of a lovely breakfast.

Honestly, that was the plan!

And then I saw this at the start of my run:

It's a vintage steam locomotive that was pulling 11 vintage passenger cars! The horn sound was amazing! I stopped so that my daughter and I could get a good look. After about 5 minutes of waiting for the train to pass by, I got nervous that I wouldn't get my route in, so I picked up the pace into a slow jog and thought I'll just keep to it. But I kept pushing myself to not walk and then next thing you know, I was on my cell to my sister and asked her to bring a bottle of perfume with her so I could spritz myself in the bathroom at the restaurant. Whoops!

The rest of the day was just busy. I did the exercises for today for the Boot Camp on OhsheGlows when I got home from the breakfast. I also had a BBQ to go to this evening and I was bringing a yummy 3 bean quinoa salad. I love quinoa salads since you can make them vegan for the most part. And since there is no meat or dairy, you don't have to worry about it spoiling if it sits out. They are picnic's answer to safe salads! My recipe came from the Whole Foods website (www.wholefoods.com). They have a bank of recipes available and you can type in the ingredient (like quinoa) for a specific recipe. I got a ton of compliments and requests for the recipe at the BBQ. And it's cheap to make too as the quinoa came from the bulk food bins at my local grocer! I wanted to make sure I had something that was healthy to eat since I knew I wouldn't be able to avoid 1 (make that 2) beers and a bit of dessert.

I'm now exhausted and hoping I can manage to get some sleep in while everyone else is shooting off fireworks.

3 days

2009-07-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

3 bloody days is all I could make on the perfect streak. 3 bloody days! Not even a full week! I used to be able to go 2 weeks without batting an eye but today I just lost it with the eating. As soon as I came home to a hot house (high was 95 today), I got caught up in the whirlwind of trying to get fans out and turned on, a soiled pair of underwear on my potty training daughter and make the evening dinner. And in the midst of all that, I popped one jelly bean to calm my nerves. And 10 jelly beans later, I realized what I did. Add to that a larger than life dinner of leftovers and my eating was up 400 calories for the day than my upper allowed limit.

I picked up a copy of the Beck Diet book and I'm really hoping this helps the mental side of losing weight. It talks about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Basically trying to deal with that voice inside your head that says things like "well, since you overate on the jelly beans, you might as well have the cookie". You know that you want to tell the voice to shut it, but it's there and it's loud. It's interesting that in only the first few pages, I'm getting things that make sense. For example, they don't use the word cheat after the early pages. It says that in using the word "cheat", it can only bring up negative feelings. Therefore, I will try to use unplanned eating as recommended since I try to plan my meals and jelly beans are never on that plan.

Today also reminded me that I need to get on top of my meal planning so that I know how much food I'm making and not get stuck with the larger than life portion I gave myself today. And with the 3 day holiday weekend, I'll have time to do just that.

Perfect Streak Day 3

2009-07-01T21:58:00.001-07:00

Again, right to the nitty gritty:

No cheat day

30 minutes of cardio: Got 40 minutes of walking in

30 minutes of strength: Did Jillian 30 DS Level 2 (probably about 10 minutes of strength in there)

5 fruits/veg: spinach (2 cups), banana, cherries, green beans, lettuce, tomato, cukes, apple

Water: Yup

Food journal:

Breakfast: green monster shake (2 cups spinach, 1 cup nonfat milk, 1/2 a banana, 1 scoop protein powder, ice cubes, flax seeds, wheat grass powder)

Snack: steel cut oats with chopped apple and a splash of milk

Lunch: Healthy Choice Mushroom pasta with 1 cup green beans, cherries

Snack: 3 squares of 71% dark chocolate, 1/2 a pack of fruit snacks

Dinner: 4 oz turkey meatloaf, 1/2 cup cauliflower mash, veggie salad, 1/2 orange, Trader Joes cat cookies

Total calories: 1,478

To stay on target with my eating was a real victory today. Usually the day after a soccer game has me ravenous. Part from the game the day before and part because I go to bed so late after a game. But today, except for a small binge on some Trader Joes Cat cookies, I did remarkably well. I usually have a mid-day snack of cottage cheese and applesauce or hummus and RyKrisp but I didn't even need it today. And I've discovered the joy of 71% dark chocolate. It's enough to keep the chocolate cravings away but bitter enough not to have me binging on it. Actually, come to think of it, my chocolate craving are non-existent. I know there was studies saying that cravings for chocolate can indicate the body craving calcium. But since I'm drinking a full cup of milk each morning now in my green monsters, I've upped my calcium considerably. Coincidence?

Now off to grab a well earned shower after letting Jillian Michaels kick my tuckus in level 2 of the 30 Day Shred.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2009-07-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

I've kinda hit the ground running with this blog. Part of the purpose of the blog is so I can document how I got down to my ideal body weight (since I know it's going to happen). And to do this, you have to well "Just do it!". I've also started the Summer Glow Boot Camp to coincide with my Perfect Streak. I'll post why I have the desire to make this all happen now. Probably doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I have a birthday coming up in a few weeks. But as my favorite saying goes: If not you, who? If not now, when?

I'm also holding off on the caffeine until after I have a dentist appointment this morning. It was all I could do to get my carcas out of bed this morning and get my daughter off to daycare. There was enough rushing around that caffiene wasn't needed. I did manage to get a green monster in this morning (1/2 banana, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 cup nonfat milk, 1 tbs flax seeds, 1 tsp Amazing Grass Wheat Grass, ice cubes, 2 cups spinach), but it was by a wing and a prayer that I made it into work on time. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to laying down on the dentist chair as some "me" time?

Perfect streak (day 1 Tuesday)

2009-07-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

OK, lets get down to the nitty gritty:

Perfect Streak Day 2 stats:
No cheat day
30 minutes of cardio: got about 120 with 2 walks and a soccer game
30 minutes of strength: nope
5 fruits/veg: Yup
64 oz of water: Yup
Food journal:

Breakfast: green monster (1 cup milk, 1 tbs PB, 1 tbs Flax seeds, 1/2 banana, 2 cups spinach)
Morning snack: 1/3 cup Steel cut oats with chopped apple and splash of milk
Lunch: Big veggie salad with lettuce, cukes, tomato, carrots, 1/2 a Boca Burger Patty, 1/2 oz feta cheese, Trader Joes Cat Cookies
Mid-afternoon snack: Applesauce and FF cottage cheese, 2 tbs hummus on a slice of Wasa cracker (salad wasn't big enough and I needed food!)
Dinner: Gardenburger on wheat bun with lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mustard, bite of Sophie's Annie's Mac and Cheese
After soccer game recovery snack: 1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt with 1 cup Kashi Go Lean crunch

I was over my daily calories, but I've been reading that you need to have something after a hard workout to get the muscles to recover. And since my leg is taking a long time to recover, I though some protein and carbs post workout might help. I was about 125 calories over, which I'm OK with considering it was a game day. Otherwise I am sticking to no food after 7:00 and I've been brushing my teeth then so I don't get tempted to snack. Scale was down to 127.5, so it's cooperating again!

Perfect streak (day 1 Monday)

2009-07-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well, my body must have listened to my threats to get in line since my eating was pretty good today. Jut a few little slips, but I stayed right in my 1400 calorie goal. And I didn't feel like I was having too hard of a time to stay on track.

So for the perfect streak, here's Day 1's stats:

No cheat day
30 minutes of cardio - did 2 20 minute walks to make a total of 40 minutes of cardio
30 minutes of strength: about to do a pilates/yoga dvd which runs about 40 minutes long
5 fruits/veg: banana, blueberries, 2 cups of spinach for smoothie, large veggie salad at lunch with lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, carrots, radishes and broccoli, apple with my oats
64 oz of water: done!
Post food journal:

Breakfast: Morning Green Monster smoothie: 2 cups spinach, 1 cup FF milk, 1 tbs flax seeds, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 tsp wheatgrass powder, 1/2 a banana

Mid-morning meal: Steel cut oats with chopped apple and splash of milk

Lunch:2 oz grilled salmon, 1/3 cup brown rice, large veggie salad with balsamic vinagrette, HungryGirl version of Fiber 1 muffin

Afternoon snack: yogurt and blueberries

Dinner: Campbells chicken noodle soup (DD's leftovers), slice of whole grain bread with 2 tbs homemade hummus, sliced tomatoes and cukes, 5 sweet potato fries

Dessert: 7 Trader Joes Cat cookies

Total calorie count: 1,435 calories (daily range is 1400-1450)

Yes, the Campbells chicken noodle soup wasn't glamorous, but it was my daughter's leftovers from the weekend. And a pet peeve of mine is to throw food away. So I paired it with an open faced hummus sandwich with tomatoes and cukes. I would've been better to not sneak some of her sweet potato fries, but a few had burnt edges and I HAD to eat them for her!

Going on a streak this week (Sunday)

2009-07-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

I am joining some other moms on a Perfect Streak Challenge. This entails being on track with your eating and your workouts.

Here are the "rules" to the perfect streak:

You must have a no cheat day AND complete at least 4 of the following 5:
1. 30 minutes cardio
2. 30 minutes strength
3. 5 servings fruits/veggies
4. post a food journal
5. drink at least 64 oz of water a day

I'm hoping this continues keeping me on track. I figured if I get my 2 20 minute walks during the workday, then if the evening goes to hell and a hand basket and I can't workout, I'm still covered. And with the green monsters, I get 2 servings of fruit and veg at the start of the day!

I added wheat grass powder to my green monster on Saturday. And I must say I wasn't a big fan of the taste. Kinda came out mediciney in taste. I think I'll try a teaspoon next as I tried the recommended tablespoon first. But later that day (I had the smoothie mid afternoon), I had some bad dizzy spells and lightheadedness. I decided to skip the wheat grass in today's smoothie just in case. I don't know if the smoothie and the dizziness were related or not, but I figured I'd wait and try it again as an experiment.

Even with the slight dizziness this morning, I took my daughter into the jogging stroller and hit the pavement for a 5K run. I wish I could say I ran the entire way, but my body was saying "oh no" when the mind wanted to run. Oh well, even with the walking, I managed to burn 454 calories from running, walking, climbing over the play equipment at the park, running through the Farmer's Market for my spinach and then returning back to the car. Not bad. Hope it offsets some of the jelly beans I found myself popping before I realized it.

Like a Phoenix Arises

2009-06-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day. After a year of surviving as a single mom to a toddler, working full time and trying to keep my weight in check, I feel like I am now ready to make it all happen. In 2 weeks, it will be exactly one year since my divorce was finalized. After losing over 25 pounds in 2007, I've managed to only allow 8 stupid pounds back onto my frame. But with little effort, the eating was kept in check today and the stress levels are pretty normal. I feel like I'm at the start of an amazing transformation and I look forward to what reality is going to show me next. After all, with the last year under my belt, I feel stronger to face what's in front of me.