Home for the Holidays

I am presently with my parents in Washington State. This has never been my 'home' as I've never resided here, however, I suppose home is truly where the heart is. Family=home. Friends=home.

I'm trying to get revved up to make some good changes at the start of the year. My knees are feeling better. I do need to be careful with them though as they aren't 100% yet. Sometimes just standing for an extended period of time can create discomfort. But, I've also not been active, trying to heal up, so now my muscles are all tight and body is feeling weak due to lack of use. I need to get set up with a new, cheap gym at the start of the year. I'm thinking Golds will probably do. They are only $15 a month. Who can beat that? The classes aren't included though which is too bad. But, I could always keep my eyes out for really good class deals via Groupon or Living Social to spice up the fitness routine every now and again.

My mom showed me a new book called the 17 Day Diet. I'm intrigued and think I might give it a try. It's not super restrictive or crazy. Just monitoring the types of foods you take in and the segments change every 17 days. The idea is to make each segment palatable. Who can't do something for 17 days, right? Also, to mix things up for your body, not maintain the same routine which allows for your body to get used to the changes. So, perhaps at the start of the year, I will start the first segment of this 17 Day Diet and see if it works for me. If the changes are ones that work with my schedule, my tastes, my motivation. ;)

Merry Christmas!

Silly knees!

I have come to the realization that I have silly knees! BTW, my goal of 5 lbs ended up being 2lbs, but you know what, I'll take it! Last week, I started a new resistance routine. It's more weight-bearing than the routine I had done before and turns out I strained by medial collateral ligaments in not only my left, but also my right knee. I have strained my right one before pretty bad early on in college. But this is the first time I've done it to my left. I feel like a freaking injury machine! A few months ago, it was shin splints and now this. I had thought the strain was minor and would go away, so I was working out this past week, not doing the resistance work, but doing walk/jog intervals and swimming. That didn't help. Probably made it worse. I'm going to remove the jogging from the mix and start icing regularly per my buddy "Dr. Run" who I consulted when I got the shin splints and sought his advice once again. He said I can still work out, but just doing more mild activities like biking, swimming, walking. I am frustrated to say the least. It seems whenever I get excited and ready to go, something physically keeps getting in my way.

I spoke with a running buddy and she suggested looking into orthotics. I do have flat feet and I've heard those can do wonderful things for people who don't have a proper gait. I guess it'll all depend on what my 'medical coverage' can do for me in that regard. I'll start inquiring tomorrow. :) Wish me luck!! I just want to heal speedily and get back to it.

Though, with these physical ailments, which are probably due in a large part to this extra weight I'm carrying, it seems like I will need to start being much more aware of what I'm eating. Not like I shouldn't have been before, but really, if I am to lose weight, my diet is of utmost importance. Normally, for me, to be motivated to eat better, I need to be working out regularly first. But, in this instance, I'll just have to find the motivation without the high intensity sweat sessions. :P Pooh...

I suppose I should set a new goal for myself. We'll go for 5 lbs by mid-January. [Of course this could be intensely hard due to the fact that I'm going to be visiting my parents for 1 week over Christmas. This means all my favorite meals!]

Goal Setting

One important thing to do when losing weight, especially if you have more than 5-10 pounds that you want to lose, like I do, is to set goals along the way. If I look at the weight I want to lose in one big chunk, it would be a bit overwhelming to even grasp. Okay, I'm not THAT huge, but I would say I've got about 30-40 that I'd like to drop. Looking at 30-40 pounds in it's entirety just seems like too much. I know this is not a goal I can accomplish overnight or even in a few months. To make the goal more palatable, I need to set mini-goals that I can construct a time-frame for that doesn't seem like it will be forever from now and will allow me to achieve successes along the way. I hadn't set a mini goal for myself in a while, so it was nice when one fell into my lap. A girlfriend of mine has a big occasion in a month and decided she'd like to lose 5 lbs by around November 22nd. That's a little under 5 weeks. To help motivate her and to get my butt moving on a goal, I told her that I'd join her. I'm excited.

I am going to do what I can to make this happen. Focus on keeping active, keeping my liquid calorie intake at bay along with making sure I have time to construct meals at home. If I don't hit the whole 5 lbs, if I at least get part of the way there, I will still be pleased, but another 5 lbs down would be superb!!!

Got my starting weight this morning. 5lbs to go!!! :-D

After a 1 Week Break From the Gym

Hola Friends!

Last week just plain sucked. I would share all the ridiculous details as it's pretty darned funny and pathetic, but nah, I think I'd rather move on. :) Let's just say that if it could have gone wrong, it probably did. On top of sucky things happening, I was also just not feeling the gym. I didn't want to go. The 'feeling sorry for myself' with all the annoyances I was running into, things getting in the way of my time allotment, and just feeling a bit under the weather all interfered. Thank goodness, I had a really nice weekend and am refreshed and ready to get back to it this week. Tonight was my first night back. I did more cardio than I usually do and one of my resistance workouts. My right foot/ankle is giving me some grief though. Silly foot/ankle. I don't really know what it's problem is. I was able to get through the workout despite the discomfort. I'm hoping whatever the kink is works itself out soon.

I plan on getting back there on Thursday and putting in another good workout!!

I am only up 1lb from my previous loss, so I'm still 4 down. I'll take that. :)

Chik Fil-A, really?

Thursday 12:25am - Today at work, the big bosses were coming in, and oftentimes when this happens we get free lunch. And I love me some free food! However, the choice for today was Chik Fil-A. As a new vegetarian and a lover of Chik Fil-A, I was thinking...what the heck do they have that isn't chicken???? And, boy I've always loved their chicken strips!!! I checked their menu out and basically every item comes with chicken, but you can special order without. My manager told the big bosses that we have 2 vegetarians in the group. I get to our meeting today to find that I have a chicken salad waiting for me....sigh.....but, I opened it up, pulled off the chicken and put it on a plate on the table for others to add to their meal. Salad actually ended up being really delicious as they have a yummy spicy dressing! Again, I wasn't crazy tempted to eat the chicken even though I knew would have been a tasty delight.

Aside from sticking to the vegetarian thing, which was not originally intended for weight loss, but has turned into a very good aid in moving in that direction, I'm still doing well. My meals are decent. Yes, we had some free food at work Monday and Tuesday and perhaps I overindulged just a little bit, but I compensated by having a salad with tofu for dinner Monday night and a very simple meatless patty Tuesday night. Also, every morning, I've been eating a good filling, but healthy breakfast. I've been hitting the gym all 5 days a week as planned and trying to be active the other days. I'm at almost 4 lbs down. :-D

I'm hoping by next week, I might be a full 5 lbs down. That would be amazing. If not, that's okay, as long as I keep constant with where I'm at.

Goodnight friends!

Day 23 as a Pescitarian i.e. vegetarian with a little fish thrown in

Hi Friends!!

I'm actually quite surprised that it's been as easy as it has been to not eat meat dishes. And in not eating meat dishes, I am far less inclined to want to eat fast food because none of them really cater to vegitarians. Beautiful!! One night last week, I was in Castleton, 30 minutes from home, just left the gym and I was starving! On my way home, I kept driving past all these fast food joints and restaurants and all my favorite bad foods were jumping into my head. BWs Spicy Garlic Wings, Chik Fil'A Chicken tenders, pizza, you name it...if I passed a restaurant, I was thinking about the yummy fare I could find there. But, I just kept on driving, came home and ate something in my kitchen.

I've been hitting the gym according to schedule, 5 days a week. I quite like spending a lot of time at the gym. This semester is a decently light one which will allow me to maintain this gym schedule at least till the end of December. Who knows what full-time school will bring? But, that will probably mean less working, so maybe I can still keep up hitting the gym as frequently.

I am 3 lbs down since starting this blog 2 weeks ago. This is good for me. I know I haven't lost any more from last week, but the maintanence aspect is thrilling. :-D

This week I had my first taste of Veggie Bacon. Pretty yummy!! A packet of frozen veggie bacon lasts forever!! If you eat one serving of 2 slices at a time, you have 9 whole servings.
I also bought some Whey Protein powder last week to make some protein shakes with. I'll have to report on how good that is. It doesn't sound very good, but perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised.

All in all, feeling really good. :-D

My Life as a House

11:00pm The title of this post is actually a movie name, and while the movie uses the title figuritively, I feel the literal meaning of this phrase applies to me today. I believe it appropriately addresses how I feel about my body right now. I have been very good for all intents and purposes this week. I ate really well, worked out and was even active on my off times. Yes, today, I had some nachos for lunch at Fiesta, which is not as healthy as my other fare, but it's not like I ate like this all week. But aside from my little indulgence, I have been making progress, just wish it felt like it. In one week, I've dropped 3 lbs. I'm going to assume this is water weight and not get too excited until either the loss is maintained, or I continue to see further dropping of weight. I do know it's only been a week, but I just wonder how long it's going to be before I don't feel like a house when I put on an outfit. I did go out during the day today, but was very mindful of my waistline and felt very self conscious. I had a nice day despite this though, thank goodness. I came home and showered to get ready to go out tonight, but I just couldn't find one single thing in my wardrobe that I felt looked nice on me. And, no, it's not that time of the month. :P I do not want to go out and buy 'fat' clothes either. I have things that fit, but you can tell I have some extra curves that ideally shouldn't be there. I don't think much would hide what I want it to. So, I'm stuck feeling like a house until enough change is made to actually see a difference. I wonder how long it will take? How many pounds before I think, "Man, I look nice. I don't have to feel self conscious in what I'm wearing today." Not every day on this journey is a happy happy joy joy day....