10 Pounds Down!

Whoo hoo! I am 10 pounds down today! This just a bit over a month after I started this journey. I am quite happy and feel good. I think the pumping up the exercise yesterday and drinking lots of water helped. And this while I am feeling slightly PMS-y. Which is why I didn't make it to the gym this morning. That and I have a crazy day today and there was a lot on my mind.

But, I have a plan! Tonights my night to take Thing 1 to swim team practice. Usually I sit in the waiting room and read or sew something if I need to (girl scout patches, etc). But tonight I will do a few loops up and down the staircases at the aquatic center. And I will drink lots of water. I think today I will add bits of frozen fruit to my water to make it "fancy". I've been having egg whites and veggies for breakfast, but today I think I need my comforting oatmeal with peanut butter.

Tomorrow is my big night out to a charity event with my husband. I had scheduled to get my hair cut and highlighted tomorrow. I was planning to save the highlights as a reward for the 10 pound weight loss, and what do you know I made it!

I ran!

eeWell, I knew I'd better get up and go to the gym today if I wanted to keep seeing results, since I didn't go yesterday. And I did! Even got there a bit early. My plan was to do 2 miles on the treadmill and then the weight machines I did two days ago. For some reason, I woke up early with almost a nervous energy. Anyhoo, I'm on the treadmill. I usually do between 4.0 and 4.7 alternating and adding a bit of incline here and there. And as I kept doing the 4.7 mile bursts, I thought, I can go faster.

So I ran! cranked it up to 5.7 mph! I hadn't planned it. I just did it for a minute or two at most, about 3 times. But it felt good! And the amazing thing is when you go faster, you go farther much more quickly. Doh! I'm guessing skinny people just know this. :) So I did 2.5 miles and still had time to do my weight machines. I actually found myself looking at couch to 5K info when I got home.

I've been wary about running as I had a knee injury in college, and I didn't think the pounding of running would be great. So I'll take it slow and listen to my body. But the lesson I learned is that I need to push myself, and I can push myself.

I think reading so many inspiring blogs of others who are on this weight loss journey has really helped. I see what other people are doing. People who weigh more than me. People who used to weigh more than me. Skinny people. All pushing themselves to be better.

Tomorrow will be treadmill only, so let's see how far I can go?

Slow down!

Another interesting article from the New York Times: To Cut Calories, Eat Slowly. "Those who reported eating quickly and eating until full had triple the risk of being overweight compared with others."

Tomorrow, as I do my skinny person impersonation, I will eat slowly. Can't today because I'm done eating for the day!

Desk job

This morning I read this NY Times article on how sitting all day is not good for you, even if you exercise regularly:

Not good news for those of us with desk jobs! The comments to the article are interesting. In the article, they reference the treadmill desk, which I linked to the other day! Now I don't think I'm ready to set up a treadmill desk, although the idea is intriguing! But this seems more feasible: 10 reasons to use an exercise ball as yourchair

I also think walking around while I'm on the phone could help (I work at home). Sometimes I'm on the phone and just need to listen in. So I can put the phone on mute, speakerphone even. Maybe do lunges or lift light weights? Unfortunately, most of the time I'm sitting at my computer, but I can get up periodically to move around!

This is also why those sensors like the Bodybugg or the Gowear Fit seem like a great idea. If I was more aware, I could probably get more movement into my day.

Food for thought. I did not go to the gym today. Not sure why, just felt like I needed a rest. But looking forward to the weight machines tomorrow again.

Goal for today: move around when I can while I work and drink more water!

Good workout day

I got to the gym today, 2 days in a row, whoo hoo! I did two miles on the treadmill and then some weight machines for a total of about 50 minutes at the gym. I was proud of myself and felt good when I left.

I had a good day of eating yesterday, due to all the healthy choices I surrounded myself with.

As expected, I'm pretty much back down to my Sunday weigh in weight after a day, so no harm done. Tomorrow it will be one month since I started this weight loss quest. I had told my husband that I wanted to to this, and he supported me joining the gym. He challenged me to losing 2 pounds a month for a year. Very doable! Of course I've lost more than 2 pounds. Even if I only lost 2 pounds a month, that would mean next January I would weigh 24 pounds less, and that wouldn't bad! But I hope I can way exceed that. I know I will.

I need this!

So I work out of my home. Sitting at a desk in front of a computer. And I sooo, need this treadmill desk:

http://www.treadmill-desk.com/

New week, new motivation

I had a good weekend. Yesterday was my official weigh in day, and I weighed in at 196.2 for a 7.8 pound weight loss in almost a month. Not bad. Of course today I was up a little, but I attribute that too mexican lunch out. I made good choices (OK maybe I ate a few chips), but I special ordered my dish without sauce, left the tortilla and only half the rice. Also, I hadn't exercised in a number of days, so all explainable.

But I had a weekend of good choices. And I was surrounded by girl scout cookies everywhere! I have them in my house! I helped deliver them! I helped sell them in front of a store! They were serving them after church! Just didn't touch them, so hooray for me. I wonder what year I'm going to break down and just ignore the cookies and write the girl scouts a check! I support them, but my goodness all you read about is the childhood obesity epidemic. Surely we can think of a better way to support these girls!

Didn't really have anything too junky this weekend. Got to grocery shop by myself, and bought tons of veggies. Fresh, frozen, you name it, I've got it in my house! Think I'm going to roast a bunch of them today just to have to snack on or add to meals quickly.

Today I got to the gym bright and early. Did my 3 miles on the treadmill in 40 minutes. Added some inclines and did intervals of fast and really fast (for me). Was nice and sweaty when I'm done. Tomorrow I hope to do 2 miles on the treadmill and start with some weight machines.

And I have some new short term motivation! My husband and I decided to go to a black tie optional charity event on the weekend. We never do things like this! I tried on a black cocktail dress I wore to a wedding last year. I was disappointed to see that it fits just right and is not too loose. Last week I had to go to size 14 in my pants, down from 16. I've been in 16 for a long time. But the dress fits, I don't feel like spending money on a new one, so that's what I'll wear. Motivated to work out hard this week so I look and feel my best on the weekend and I can enjoy some of the food that will be served then.

I have a busy month or two ahead of me, and I need to carefully shop so I have healthy meals in. This week I'm set and ready for what comes my way!