Thursday, August 21, 2008

23.5 mile

I'm almost at Elie, MB. Ok, so this walk around the world is going to take a few hundred miles before it gets really interesting. Unless you're fascinated by Elie, Manitoba.

Didn't start the 100 pushups challenge yet. Will start this coming Monday.

I was doing good with some weight loss, but now I seem to have gone right back up to my start weight, despite eating pretty low calorie wise. It may be that I'm not eating enough on some days, though most days I still struggle to keep below 1800 calories. I think that I have to include some really vigorous exercise at least 2-3 times a week. I was doing a lot of cycling last month, but my work schedule this month really has me booked up bad, and my new job isn't as physically demanding as my old one (by a long-shot, I once walked over 20 miles in one day at the arena.)

I haven't done any yoga at all lately. I think this is a big part of my problem lately. I've been way too busy, and my house is sooo messy cause I'm rarely home to clean up. I've been kicking my ass to make a yoga area to work out in, but it just ain't happening. Must find a different solution to this problem.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Walk around the world

Ok, so I'm not really walking around the world, but after seeing a thread on MDC, I was prompted to start tracking all my walking miles on MapMyWalk and join an online walk around the world club. I've embedded my map on this site, to really push me.

In other news, been keeping up with FitDay, which is unusual for me, usually I get bored with stuff like that quickly, but they have lots of reports and lots of different ways to track progress, so even though the weight isn't falling off, I have improved my nutrition and focused a bit more on bringing my metabolism up, and that at least is giving me a sense of accomplishment.

I've lost 5 lbs in the last 2-3 weeks, which is a fantastic steady loss that is exactly what I'm aiming for. I'm giving the credit entirely to using FitDay, cause I did NOT realize just how much fat I was taking in, yeesh! I've given up snacking on bread and butter at work and that adds up to around 500 calories a day alone. I work in a restaurant (with really, really good food and a French focus, that means butter, butter, cream and buttah!) and I usually gain weight when I start a new job, trying the menu and eating all the high fat stuff available to keep going on 9-12 hour shifts. It's really helping to have a neutral observer, so to speak, that can tell me exactly what I'm taking in. I tend to fudge things a bit if I'm doing the calorie counts on my own.

I've got another crazy week at work coming up, and then should have a bit of a breather, so plan on starting the 100 pushup challenge next Friday or so. Sadly, I could not do even one good form push-up (I've always had really poor upper body strength), so will be starting the program doing girl push-ups on my knees. I plan on going through the 6 weeks doing modified push-ups, then redoing the whole 6 weeks again doing regular pushups and working my way up levels until I'm as strong as an ox!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Back in the saddle

Ok, so I've been derailed with family stuff, a crazy work schedule and the usual total body melt-down into a puddle of cold and flu germs every time I try to push myself to hard.

But I'm back on track again, which is the important thing.

What I'm doing right now is:

made a commitment to doing yoga every day for 30 days
(ok, I've done the commitment, but not the yoga, will start this week!)

made a commitment to do the 100 push-ups program
(again, commitment, but no actual push-ups yet)

Using Fit Day every day--this has been huge for me, I've been using this for 2 weeks and it's really helping me to see where I'm failing in my diet, and helping me to balance out my nutrition. I've been able to pin-point a few really problem areas (like how many calories I was really taking in from nibbling at the bread and butter at work when I'm hungry but can't eat until after meal service.)

Monday, April 14, 2008

Oh my aching butt!

Got my bike tuned up and on the road yesterday. I've cycled a total of about 4 miles since then (not much, really, I use my bike as my main form of transportation.) I'm so happy to be back on my bike, and doing some really vigorous exercise every day, but man, I really hate the transition period that my butt goes through every spring.

O and I are aiming to ride out to Folk Fest this year, a 22 mile ride, with camping equipment. We have a little under 4 months to get ready for this. I'm aiming at a minimum of 2-3 miles every day, and doing a medium length ride (5-6 miles) and a long ride (8-10 miles) once a week, or at least twice a month, to build up stamina.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Every time I think I'm getting somewhere...

Everyone at my office is sick, I mean really, really sick. My boss had pneumonia last week, the GM, AGM, head chef and most of the sous-chefs had bronchitis. I'm valiantly fighting off illness with all the herbs I'm taking, so I should probably be thankful. I'm not brutally sick, not on the couch hacking my lungs out sick.

But I'm just kind of slow, drag out, crappy, kind of sick. I'm waking up feeling crappy, stuffed up, not happy. I have no energy to exercise and a constant low fever.

Oh well, onwards and upwards and all that crap!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

184 lbs!

That's a loss of 11 lbs in 3.5 months. Pretty good (better than when I was gaining!) My pants are starting to fit me again and I'm having less trouble getting into triangle pose.

The weather is getting consistently warmer, no more -50 days, though we're probably in for at least 1 more major blizzard. Still, I'm gonna get my bike fixed this week (bought a cheap department store bike last year and the seat needs replaced already) and hopefully be out on my bike daily pretty soon.

I'm still not doing yoga on any regular basis, and this week will probably suck just the same. 4 games in a row, with scheduling and playoffs to deal with, so I'll be working killer hours again. The week after, though, I can basically take the whole week off if I want to (and could afford it), so this week I'm going to focus still on my diet, and next week will be yoga boot camp time!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Baby steps, baby steps

All these little steps I've been taking for months seem to be adding up. I'm not craving sugar non-stop. I'm not bingeing at night anymore. I'm not eating mindlessly. I'm happy with my diet at the moment. Not perfect, but I feel so much more in control of my body and I'm not having uncontrollable cravings constantly.

Nothing has been more important for me, I think, than making sure to eat every 3 hours or so, though. Not having the raging fluctuations in blood sugar is so huge for my body. I think this is probably the single most important thing to controlling all those cravings and bingeing, having stable blood sugar for the first time in years.

I'm doing well going veggie, not trying to push myself too hard. I had a piece of roast and some gravy at Easter dinner last night. It would have been rude to my aunt (who'd cooked for hours and has no idea I've decided to go veg) to have turned down what she had to offer. And I think if I'd tried to hold myself to being vegetarian, I would have gotten a bit resentful of everyone else eating meat around me. So I ate the meat, and didn't really enjoy it and I'm perfectly happy to not eat meat again for a while.

I made baked pasta for dinner, would have liked some beans in it, but O draws the line at beans and pasta (I really gotta introduce him to pasta e fagiole.) For the next month or so, my goal is going to be to eat beans or lentils at least 3 times per week, to cut back on high fat cheeses and eggs for my main protein intake, to eat 1 more serving of fruit and of vegetables every day (I'm pretty good with veggies, but don't really like fruit, I love the taste, but have some sensory issues, mainly with anything juicy, yuck!)

Exercise wise, I've been doing more stretching, 10 modified push-ups every day, some crunches and squats, and way more walking and stair climing. The stair climbing is really killing my knees, though (this is mostly at work when I don't have time to wait for the slowest elevator in the world), and I'm still not doing daily yoga. So my goal for April is to do at least 3-4 sun salutes every morning, and at least a short routine at night, and to do a full yoga routine, either my own or a dvd, at least 2 times per week. I'm also going to get a new seat for my bike this month and get out on the roads as soon as the snow melts (again, we had another blizzard this morning, ggrrrr!)

My weight really hasn't changed at all, but I'm just coming to the end of my period, so I'll wait a few days to weigh myself again and post it.