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....

Gym Night #2

Hi Friends!

Today I made it to my 2nd session of the week at the gym [technically 3rd as I did workout Monday when the trainer showed me the moves]. Again, I did a resistance workout and a cardio session. This resistance workout was tough for me. More so than the other one. The move that really kicked my butt was the Single-Leg Standing Dead Lift. Very difficult to keep my balance and it makes my muscles burn!!! But, I made it through. Whew!! Last night I even went dancing. So, an additional cardio workout on top of the 5 day gym regime!

Today, I was exhausted...after getting little sleep Monday and Tuesday night, then Wednesday night going dancing till late. Today, after working out, I came home and napped for a couple of hours. It ruined my evening plans, but, I think I needed the rest. Goal for next week is to get to bed earlier most nights, except for Wednesday, of course. I plan on trying to go dancing every week if I can.

Tomorrow is an easy day workout-wise, just cardio, no strength. I think I can manage that.

I had a good breakfast and lunch today. Came home from the gym and had a few chips with salsa before my nap. I ended up sleeping through dinner and now it's too late to have a meal. Ooops. Not on purpose of course. I'll probably be starving in the morning.

All in all, a pretty good day.

First Solo Gym Session & YUM YUM Dinner!

Again, didn't sleep well last night. I woke up feeling worn out, headachey, and just not in the mood for much. I didn't have enough time for my breakfast meal of choice, so I ended up taking a packet of instant oatmeal and raspberries to work with me. [this beats the White Castle breakfast sandwich and large coke that I might have eaten before] The oatmeal and raspberries, while not unhealthy, still ended up being a pretty bad breakfast choice as it didn't even hit 200 calories and had no protein to speak of. I was a hungry girl, and as such, when presented with some nummy chocolate and peanut butter buckeyes, I indulged! Ah, cest la vie! Life goes on, right?

I had left my lunch preparation stuff for today's meal at work, so my healthy lunch was just waiting for me! And I had one snack again today instead of two. Darned lack of early rising! See, if I had a fuller breakfast and a mid-morning snack, I might not have so readily downed 4 buckeyes! Maybe I would have stopped at 2! Lesson learned. ;)

After work, I headed off to the gym to do my first workout, 35 min of cardio zone-based training on a treadmill and approximately 45 minutes of strength training. All went pretty well. The cardio workout was good, kind of boring just watching my zones, but since the times in each zone are pretty short, the change ups keep me occupied. Yes, I did feel goofy executing some of the strength moves, but not nearly as goofy as I thought I would. I think next strength session when I have to do the move that looks like a slow-mo run, I'll feel more dorky. I know I will be feeling this tomorrow!

The highlight of my workout today, was while doing by "YTA's" on a Stability Ball, this guy at a machine next to me kept saying to himself "I'm so special. I'm so special." I thought perhaps he was just singing a line to a song to himself, but when I went to do my 2nd set of that exercise, I hear him again saying the same thing. It gave me a chuckle. :) We do whatever it takes to keep ourselves going...reassuring thoughts, symbols, etc. Perhaps thinking the "I'm so special" for him wasn't enough. He might have needed to hear the words to solidify the effect. Maybe I should think of a phrase to boost my spirits and get me through my workout. Ideas?

Now, on to the best part of the day....Dinner!!!! I had this nummy nummy dinner! I didn't even know what I wanted on the way home and wasn't all that excited anticipating my meal. As I pulled up to my house, I decided I would try out my Boca Spicy Chik'n Meatless Patties. Why not? I threw two patties on my little Ultrex grill [generic George Forman] and grabbed a bag of Trader Joes organic microwavable brown rice and popped it in for 3 min. While the Patties and Rice were cooking, I cut up some romaine, tomato, and onion to make a little salad. Everything was done in under 10 min and boy was it tasty!!!! I have struck gold with these Spicy Chik'n Meatless Patties. They are soooo good!!!!

I wanted to take a picture of my dinner because it so beautifully decorated my plate, but my camera was hiding and my stomach was growling. Even better, I prepared enough of all of these items and stored them in tupperware in my fridge to have another meal tomorrow. Just a little warming in the microwave and I'm good to go! This is perfect for tomorrow as I have to be at work at 8am, then after work I go directly downtown for an evening class that gets out at 8:40pm. I don't usually have time to stop at home, but now that I have a prepared meal, I can use a campus microwave and I'm set! I couldn't have planned it better. This makes me happy!
:-D

If I can find tasty options that are relatively easy to prepare like this every night for dinner, I might not even miss the crap that I could get at a fast food joint! Plus, if I get used to making dinner for myself, perhaps spending a little more time in the kitchen on some things won't be a big deal. I can build up my kitchen tolerance. My mom would be proud. :)