Defining My Plan!

As of today, I weigh 219.4 pounds.  My goal weight is somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 – not unreasonable for a woman of my age and bone structure.  That’s a total of about 80 pounds I have to lose.

If I can manage to do this at a rate of a pound and a half a week, I should be able to do this in just over a year – just in time for my 50th birthday.  What does this mean?  It means it’s time for me to get serious; no more playing around or fluffing off.

In order to succeed, I’m going to log my food and my workouts every day using MyFitnessPal (www.myfitnesspal.com), and stay within the calorie limits that the system has set for me.  I do like this program, because it takes into account any extra calories I burn during my logged activities, and adds them to my daily allotment  Of course, I have the option to not use them, in which case, I should be able to see faster results.

I’m also going to start over again with the #5kin100days program, which means I’ll do a walk/jog session 3 times per week.  In addition, I’ve picked up a couple of beginning yoga DVDs, and plan to start working on these three days per week, on non-wogging days.  My seventh day (typically Saturday) will be an active rest day, incorporating house cleaning, shopping, and other household necessities.  This way, I should be able to build a habit of healthy activity, which in turn will lead to a healthier lifestyle.

I know that rewards are key to success in anything.  For every seven successful days, I will reward myself with a new trashy novel (I really like vampire stories!).  For every thirty days, I’ll treat myself to a massage…

There will be rewards for weight lost, too – for every 10% of my body weight that I drop, I will give myself a “lazy” day – one where I get to just sit and read, or be otherwise inactive, all day.  When I get halfway to my goal weight, I will get a new Kindle (had a first-gen, but it died several months ago – best. invention. ever!).  And, of course, the reward for reaching my goal will be a new wardrobe to wear while on my Hawaii 5-0!

Tomorrow Is A Brand-New Day (1)…

I’ve been in a funk for just over a week now…  Not sure what caused it – most likely just another random acyclical shift in the chemically imbalanced miasma that is my brain.  At any rate, I’ve not felt worthy of doing things to take care of myself, like exercising and eating healthfully.

I think I’m finally coming out of it, though – starting to feel more like making an effort again, so I’ve decided it’s time to get back on track with #7daychip and #5kin100days.  Tomorrow is Day 1 of my #7daychip, and I’ll start back to the 5K program on Sunday, as tomorrow must be devoted to housecleaning, which has been somewhat neglected lately, as well…

So, tomorrow morning, I’m going to “pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again” with a weight and measurement check-in.  It’s time to stop feeling sorry for myself…

Reactions To A Heavy Day…

I’m sure everyone’s had those days when, despite your best efforts at sticking to your eating and exercise plans, you get up and find that the numbers on the scale have gone up instead of down.

For me, those are the hardest days – I start to wonder if I’m ever going to succeed, which then turns into, “Why should I bother any more?”  Particularly in light of the fact that I am about to head out for a weekend of adventures that will involve limited options for healthy eating.

At this point, I’m really struggling with ensuring that I do what’s necessary to have healthy choices available, and take the time and effort to keep up with tracking what I put in.  Right now, it is all too tempting to take the easy road, and just go off the wagon for the weekend…

I won’t have a problem staying active; there is going to be much geocaching and running involved in the competition we’re participating in…  It is, as always, the eating side of the equation that is a problem for me.

I’d love to know what others feel about “heavy” days, and how they react and persevere…

Adjusting My Strategy…

After a rough couple of weeks that pretty much derailed my healthy eating and workout plans, I find it’s time to rethink my strategy for achieving my goals when work gets in the way (as it’s bound to do from time to time)…

The exercise part is easy…  I’ve got a JumpSnap (https://www.jumpsnap.com/) that I’m going to put in my backpack, for those times when I end up at a customer site on an emergency visit.  Quite often, these types of visits offer a fair amount of time where I’m simply waiting for part of a fix to complete – I can do five or ten minutes at a time of jumping rope, marching or jogging in place, and stretching here and there during these periods.

I also came to realize that I need to approach my #5kin100days program a bit differently…  Instead of automatically moving from one session to the next because I’m “supposed to”, I’m going to repeat the workouts until my metrics (heart rate and recovery time) indicate that I’m ready.  Sure, I won’t be done in the 100 days, but I’ll be much happier with myself and with running in general.  I actually started the program again from the beginning, and found that, with this new plan in mind, I was able to push myself that much harder – I managed to go over 1.75 miles in 35 minutes (after subtracting the time spent stretching).  I find I’m also looking forward to seeing myself better that on the next go-round!

The hard part is planning that will allow me to maintain my healthy eating in the event of an unexpected all-night server rebuild – in many cases, there are limited options available when dinner time rolls around, and my healthy lunch has already been eaten.  Sure, I can carry a selection of healthy snacks on these excursions, but those will only carry me so far…  I’m open to suggestions, of course!

What do you do when you find that life’s unexpected events derail all of your careful planning, and the only options for a satisfying meal feature either fast-food or completely decimating your stash of good-for-you snacks?

First Ever Fitbloggin’ Local Meetup – Norcal Edition!

Today, I had the great pleasure of attending the first-ever Fitbloggin’ Local meetup of Northern California health and fitness bloggers, hosted by Susan (@foodiemcbody) of foodfoodbodybody.  Not only did she invite us all into her beautiful home; she also organized a wonderful agenda of activities for us all.

We started off with an easy hike at Redwood Regional Park, which was just a short drive from the venue of our gathering.  We walked about two miles on the West Ridge Trail.  It was an easy hike, and we all were able to spend some time chatting and getting to know one another.

By the time we got back to the house, we were all ready for lunch (or, at least, I sure was!).  Fortunately, everyone who came brought something tasty and healthy to share – we had quite the feast!

A host of fresh fruits and veggies, with an assortment of dips…  Cakes, pies, and cookies made with healthy ingredients…  Grilled sausages…  A wonderful vegan pasta salad and a tasty barley salad…  For the most part, I’m not sure who brought what, but it was all totally YUM!!!  I made my shrimp ceviche, which seemed to go over very well – I brought home just enough for a nice lunch tomorrow!

After lunch, Danica, from Danica’s Daily, gave an awesome presentation on “Taking Your Blog To The Next Level.”  I picked up some good pointers that I hope to start implementing here soon.  I actually recorded the presentation, but still need to review it and get her permission to post, before I can share it here.

We finished up our afternoon with an introductory session of Nia, which seems to be a fusion of a number of disciplines including yoga, tai chi, and martial arts with dance.  Terre Pruitt, the instructor, was quite good at leading us through what turned out to be a very free-form session.  It was at once intense and relaxing, and I’d love to try it again!

I had a great time, and I’m really looking forward to taking part in more of these meetups – hey, anyone, would you be up for a hike followed by some wine tasting, perhaps?

Many thanks again to Susan for putting this together for us!!

Got Hope?

I saw this bumper sticker on a car on my way to work this morning, and it got me thinking...

I know that something like this typically has religious overtimes, but what is to preclude its application to other aspects of life, too?  I mean, if you have no hope achieving a goal, then you're most likely not going to work very hard to get there, right?

I think that this has beena big gotcha for me for a very long time...  I have had people telling me I would never amount to anything for most of my life.  After hearing it long enough, it became difficult for me to believe otherwise.

More recently, though, I have been able to make changes for the better in my life.  I'm beginning to believe that I can succeed in achieving my goals, as long as I focus on small steps and small successes.

I think that losing the weight and getting fit is probably the most difficult task I have ever set for myself, at least from my point of view...  but now, I am starting to feel that I can do this...   yes, there is hope for me yet.

Posting A Loss For The First Time In A While…

So I’ve been slowly bouncing upwards over the past few weeks again, which is why I haven’t been updating my progress page – I’ve been somewhat ashamed of myself…

Of course, it’s really tough to get in a workout when you leave the house at 7 am, and don’t get home until nearly 8 pm…  Fortunately, I’ve gotten the last bits of that project kicked out, and hope to be looking at a more normal schedule that will let me get onto the treadmill more regularly – yes, treadmill – it was nearly 100 degrees where I live today.  In fact, I only just opened up the windows again within the last half hour (it’s after midnight now).

I have to say, I’ve also been being a bad #fitblogger…  I haven’t been taking the time to post updates here.  I’ve had some good ideas hit me, but usually when I’ve gone to bed for the night, or when I’m driving to work – not the most conducive times to write a blog entry, right?  I did note down some of the ideas I had, but they’ve since lost relevance…

I’m really excited for the #fitblog meetup next weekend, though – it will really be great to meet some of the successful bloggers in my area.  I’m hoping that they will rub off on me to some extent…    At the very least, it will help restore my enthusiasm for the journey, I think!