Adjusted Reality

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99 Red Quix Balloons: or TMI-ville

Anyone ever feel like they’re bloated?  Like, a lot?  Not just that time of the month, or after eating a bunch of beans, but way more often?  I’ve been feeling that a lot lately.  I’m not sure if it’s something I’m eating, or if my body is out of whack, or what, but it’s pretty damned uncomfortable!  While it’s true I’ve gained a little weight, 15 lbs (and honestly SOME of it has to be muscle) shouldn’t be taking me up 2 pants sizes, and it’s not affecting me other places (I have LESS fat on my legs I think and the gals, they haven’t grown).  I definitely feel like this coat made me look like!!!

I spent some time looking at both ways to cure bloating and cleanses.  Now, I’m not in any condition or have any desire to fast or just drink lemonade all day, but what piqued my interest is the fruit and veggie cleanses out there.  Some are very detailed (time and servings), and some just give you lists (eat as much as you want of fruits and veggies, eat a few servings of whole non-wheat grains, eat one serving of fish, etc), but it sorta sounds like it might be a good idea.  My insides are feeling BLEH even without eating (much – I had a well deserved treat on Sunday) sugar.  I’m thinking start on a Sunday and carry it through Wednesday initially?  Maybe 1-2 days a week or every other week after that?

The one thing they agree upon is to do light exercise each day (walking, yoga, etc), so I probably need to forgo my silly tri prep workouts and lifting, but it’s only for a few days.

Also, if I feel great after that cleanse, I probably have some sort of food allergy or something that doesn’t agree with me.  Coffee made me bloated, so I gave it up (even decaf).  I definitely feel the same way I did before I gave up coffee.  The only significant daily change I’ve made is Go Lean w/almond mile every morning for breakfast – so I’m also going to give that up next week to see if it helps (of course, right after I found the right kind of almond milk at Costco on the cheap… and bought a case… ).

I also read up that my bacteria might be out of whack, and am going to try to get some probiotic supplements and worst case, try a colon cleanse.  I know people who have felt GREAT after them.

I’ve been really frustrated with both my weight, but more so with my freaking tummy (honestly, if I could have a flat stomach at this weight, I don’t think I’d see any reason to lose more), so I gotta try something.  Also, I’m sure if my body is out of whack in other ways, that might be making life hard in the weight loss dept.  I for sure need to get this in check before the race season.

Anyone have any experience with either cleanses or detox?  While it sounds a little extreme to me to maintain for a long time, you can get 1200+ calories in with these cleanses, it’s just all SUPER HEALTHY stuff.  I couldn’t eat that way forever, but it doesn’t trigger RED FLAGS like the other ones do.

Snow Day!

Last week, we had SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011!  Here in Austin we actually got SNOW.  That stuck on the ground.  Some of it ALL DAY.  Since we in Central Texas freak out about this, and the schools closed and the roads were way slippy, work was cancelled so we got to stay home and play in it.

I know we’re wimps, but it ended up being a fun day.  We watched TV, made snowmen, ate Panera for the first time (yummy mediteranean sammich, chicken noodle soup, and an apple – talk about healthy options), shopped around a bit (on a weekday… so decadent…).

The pictures on this post were some of our snow day pics.

Costco was even not a miserable experience!!  We had a nice bike ride (inside – and by nice, I mean I left a puddle of sweat on the console…)  and then settled on game night and pork noodle stir fry – we played Farkle and Life.  There may have been some rules involved with taking shots if the spinner landed on a certain number… but whatevs 😉

Boat Boat Boat!!!

So, we’re getting close to our cruise.  I am FREAKING out, I’m so excited.  7 days away from winter?  Yes PLEASE.  I also have made a list of everything I need to pack (still deciding on dresses for 2 of the nights), and I think I’ve pared down to 7 pairs of shoes I need.  I could easily bring about 10-12.  I know, I’m ridiculous.

I’m really looking forward to DOING this cruise.  Zliten has made it clear he’s very content to sit by the pool with a book, and that’s fine.  I am going to make use of the rock climbing wall, ice skating, in line skating, jogging track, pools, and ship activities.  Also, instead of just getting off the boat and wandering around like normal which is exciting to me for all of, oh 15 mins before we either find a bar or something, we’re doing shore excursions. I think I linked them both earlier, but one is a zip line and snorkling all day adventure, and the other is a jungle tubing excursion taking you through ruins.  I’ve done the lay about all day, drink all night thing, and I think I’m over it.  Not that there won’t be those days, but not ALL of them.

Also, I’m bringing my running shoes, because I want to run in another country.  I’m thinking Honduras.  It’s the one where we don’t have a shore excursion planned, and supposed to be the most temperate.  The logistics should be interesting though – where will I run?  How long?  I figure it will probably just be a mile in a touristy area so I’m safe, but we’ll see.  My first out-of-country run!  Woohoo!

I’m also REALLY excited because when we get back, my birthday is soon, then Zliten’s, and then it’s spring and my MOST FAVORITEST TIME in the ATX.

So yeah… how’s your week going?  Looking forward to anything?  Have any un-bloaty tips?  Cleanse stories?  I’m dying to hear them!

Errr, crap.  Been a busy week, haven’t had much time to yakity yak.  Have a few posts started but not the brainpower to finish, s0 here is one of those generic bullet points this and that type posts.  Hopefully something cooler soon!

Things of note:

-Last weekend was gorgeous and wonderful and we hit 81.  I wore shorts and sandals, went for an awesome swim Saturday, enjoyed being out in the sun, went for an amazing sunset walk Sunday.  It was like a wee taste of Spring.

-Then the smackdown came.  Tuesday, it was in the 20s, and hasn’t let up, and we may even get SNOW in the next day or 2.

-Also this morning, Austin got hit with rolling blackouts because the ground was too cold to get the reserve power flowing.  This makes last night’s 2 hour 30 min oven preheating debauchle make sense (serious, got home at 8:15, started oven then, meatloaf was done at 11.  I gave up at 10 and ate soup).

-Due to said rolling blackouts, the iguana came to work with me today (the house was in the 50s at best and we didn’t know how long she would have to go without heat).  It was nice to have an extra production assistant to help with scheduling.  Not sure why it all revolved around baths and trees and playing, but we’ll go with it…

-Eatingwise, I did pretty well.  Appetite is definitely decreased.  Shifts are occuring.  Had one day around 2000, but the rest of the days were the norm 1300-1600.  No longer trying to push protein is also working, I’m still getting enough per sparkpeople.  I’m definitely not TRYING to limit, but I don’t automatically think “I should have protein” when I eat, it’s “what do I feel like”.  Sometimes, that’s not meat, and that’s not gonna kill me.

-Workouts have been pretty good.  Friday I took off instead of working out and did my swim Saturday morning instead.  It was really nice!  We took an hour walk on Sunday, not a huge calorie burn, but good for the soul.  Monday, I attempted a timed mile (one mile warmup, one mile all out, one mile cooldown).  I set it to break my record and get under 7 minute miles, and I just couldn’t take it after half a mile.  I went back down to 9-10 min miles, rested up, and tried again and made it another quarter, and then again.  I did my 6:59 mile, but just with some rests in between.  I’ll need to work on it, my legs are not built for speed like that right now and I’m still sore!  After that, we did the crunchtime class (it’s a 30 min core class and AWESOME – it’s always tiny and it’s like getting free personal training).  Tuesday, I did a swim workout – jumpouts.  Every 50m or so I jumped out of the pool and did 10 of a different exercise – pushups, situps, and squats.  People looked at me like I was craaaaazy but it was a pretty damn good workout.

-I was all prepared to bitch about my weight but today it finally came down.  167.2.  That’s 1.2 less than last week.  I’m fighting for every ounce and it’s bouncing all over, but I’ll keep the faith.  I still can’t believe how slooooooow it’s going.  But as long as it goes in the right direction, I can’t complain.

-The way I’ve kept sane this week with all the cold and ucky?  Surfing cruise excursions and races.  I think on our vacation we’re doing this zipline/snorkle/beach excursion and the jungle float excursion.  I can’t wait!  I’m also continuing to update my race page HERE with potential ideas for 2011.

So, last week by the numbers?

Calories in: 1551 + 100 for adjustment errors = 1651

Calories out: 2800 total (approx), so 400 per day

Net calories in per day: 1251

Deficit per day: 591, or about 1.25 lbs lost.

Weight: 167.2, or about 1.2 lbs lost.

Hmmm, some weeks, it makes sense.

Next week of workouts planned/in progress:

Monday: mile time trial (30 mins), crunch time (30 mins)
Tuesday: 60 mins swimming workout (jumpouts)
Wednesday: off
Thursday: group power
Friday: bike workout (TBD), 60 mins
Weekend: one cardio workout, TBD
Weekend Day 2: off

Not sure what I will do over the weekend, I suppose it will depend on the weather.  Brick workout outside?  A class at the gym?  Another swim?  A time trial of some sort?  Only time will tell.  Hope everyone is staying warm out there.  We’re getting blasted by teens and 20’s this week (coldest in 20 years or something, apparently), but we should be back in the mid 60’s by the weekend.  SPRING PLZ!!!

It’s Friday and I haven’t put up last week’s progress post.  Oopsie daisy!  Let’s make with the reader’s digest version.

Last Week Workouts:

Monday: bike workout (60 mins)
Tuesday: group power (60 mins)
Wednesday: off
Thursday: run workout (60 mins)
Friday: swim workout (50 mins, gym was closing)
Saturday: 5k (in a gorilla suit, see below) and about 2 miles walking around downtown after
Sunday: off

Last Week’s Food:

I actually did pretty well.  No sweets, and my high calorie day on Saturday was only about 2100 calories.  It was another alcohol heavy day… but I compensated by not eating that much food.  I actually found I had a very little hangover the next day.  It seems like my metabolism is FINALLY making the shift.  Just this last week or so, I just feel… different.  Less food makes me satiated.  I’m not counting the hours between meals.  HOLY GOD I’M BACK TO BEING ABLE TO EAT LIKE A NORMAL PERSON WOOOOHOOO!!! Since I’m not training distance until the summer, that should mean I can take the next few months and perhaps maybe drop some lbs if I don’t eat like an asshole.  Maybe just like a gorilla…

Avg calories in per day: 1506 +100 for error = 1606

Avg calories out per day: 386

Avg net calories per day: 1220

Avg deficit per day: 604, or about 1.5 lbs in a week

Weight:

So how did I do?  Meh.  It was TOM.  Technically I gained 0.2 (168.4 vs 168.2 last week), but considering, I’ll call that a win.  Next week will be the real test.

Next Week (well, uh, this week):

Workouts:

Monday: 30 mins run and 7:30 crunch time
Tuesday: bike workout (fun with cadence)
Wednesday: sorting cans at the food bank for 2 hours
Thursday: 20 all out cycle, 20 hard run, 20 full body circuit
Friday: off
Saturday: swim workout
Sunday: cycle strength (maybe some day…)

Food:

I had a high calorie day of about 1900 on Wednesday, and doing my damndest not to go above 1500-1600 this weekend.  Wish me luck!

Other notes:

-We had our yelp elite party this week and work took us to the italian buffet on the same day.  Yikes.  I was able to not eat like a jerk at either, but I did have a few sweet drinks (vodka, amaretto, and lemonade) at the yelp party.  But hey, I looked ridiculous swanky.

…and so did Zliten…

…and we had fun taking silly peectures.

So, hopefully I can make some progress by the next weigh in.  For finally?  Please?  Isn’t it amazing how it takes 2 weeks to gain 5 lbs and like 2 months to lose it?  Argh!!!

…while I could chat a lot about this week, I think I’ll let the pictures and video say most of it.

Sunday, December 26:

The hat told us it was rock climbing day.  However, I looked up on the website at Main Event and they had a special for 16 bucks, it was all you can play day with mini golf, laser tag, rock climbing, bowling, pool, and shuffleboard.  Score!  We started the day with glow golf – the course was kinda lame but I did get to golf through the STARGAAAAATE!

Then we played a little pool.  I think one game took 30 mins because Zliten and I both are horribly out of practice.

Then, the main event… har har… rock climbing.  I went up about 25 beginner walls in an hour.  I tried a few more advanced ones but I do not have the grip strength.  I made up for quality with quantity though!

Then after some more pool, bowling!  Woohoo!  My hands were sooooore from climbing, I could barely grip the ball.  I never bowl under 100!

Then, some more pool and shuffleboard, and then we were hungry.  Chicken fajitas and a margarita was on the order, and then a little more boozin’ around the fire pit, and we went to bed awesomely sleepytired.  I don’t have pictures from any of that, so here is another video of me rock climbing.

Monday, December 27th:

We woke up just a little worse for wear, and had a decadent lunch of din ho (family style authentic Chinese food with the best wonton soup around).  We decided to save rollerskating for the next day (which is what the hat said), and instead engineered the hat to give us “watch all 3 lotrs in one day”.  I also devoured the two books I got for xmas (The Great Fitness Experiment and 50 1-hour triathlon workouts).  I highly suggest that everyone out there go out and pick up a copy of both (GFE for everyone, 50 workouts for anyone that wants some nifty, interesting swim/bike/run training)!

Tuesday, December 28 th:

We spent most of the day shopping, returning stuff, and generally being about town, and then later in the evening we made good on our hat pick by going to adult skate night.

Wednesday, December 29th:

The hat told us that our adventure was Cancun mexican restaurant.  It is a sketchy little taco shop in a sketchy part of town we pass occasionally on the freeway, and we figured it would be either the BEST tex mex around or the worst.  Ended up just being sorta “meh”.  After our lunch, we came home and relaxed and then headed down south for our trapeze lessons! It was so so so fun!!!  I want to go back!

I figured it would be a lot of on ground stuff and then a bit of swinging, but we warmed up, they taught us the sequence, we tried it on the low bar once, and then up we went!  We had 3 chances to do the sequence of takeoff, swing, hook your knees on the bar, swing, present to the (invisible) catcher, swing, unhook your knees and go back to your hands, and then do a back flip to the net (essentially a flyaway from the moving bar for my ex-gymnast peeps).  Then, they brought the catcher up, and we had two chances to do the sequence below.  I caught both times!  Wooo!

Zliten did the first sequence, but didn’t do the catching part.  Next time he said!  We came home, made some dinner, and it took Zliten about 4 hours to calm down, his heart was all pitter pattery and he said that whenever he closed his eyes he was falling.

Thursday, December 30th:

This was my Zliten the next day – so we kinda took it easy.  I kept joking that it was time for a run and I kept getting eye rolls.

The hat took pity on us and told us to go get pho – it was delicious and it had been 2 weeks (and normally it’s a weekly thing for us), so it was greatly appreciated.  Our new year’s eve party was imminent, and we didn’t want to have to deal with a mad rush on the day itself, so we shopped, cooked, and prepped.  A pretty chill day after quite a bit of excitement.  I even took the day off the gym.

Friday, December 31st:

The hat told us to make a movie, and it was the perfect night for it.  We both have a bunch of footage, but we haven’t started to edit it.  We spent most of the day chillin’ and getting ready for the party, but I did get to the gym.  It happened to be 30 mins before closing, which meant 20 mins to swim, so I did a 15 min time trial.  Swimming all out for 15 mins is kinda hard!  However, I was pretty impressed – I got through 1000 yards (or about 914 meters).  That’s over half a mile!  Our friends came over and cooked us dinner and helped us get ready, and then a party ensued.

This was the bottle of “that’s what she said” shots.  Anytime anyone said that, they had to take one (unless they were driving and opted out, of course).  We toasted the new year with a lot of good friends, had an awesome time, and this year did not have to walk 3-4 miles in the cold in platforms trying to get a cab!  Score!

Saturday, January 1st:

Happy hangover day!  It wasn’t too brutal to me, so we headed to our fave chinese buffet, got my fill of chicken and veggies and eggdrop soup, and commenced with the laying around all day.  No pics, of course.

Sunday, January 2nd:

It was time to prepare for getting back to reality.  Laundry was done, the house was cleaned, we put away xmas and new years decorations, and hit the gym for some bike sprints.

And here I ended it, snugged up on the couch, all sleepytired and ready for normalcy.  All in all, it was a lovely 2 week break, but I was kinda ready to get back to it.  I was a little sad that we didn’t get to more hat picks, but that’s just an excuse to break it out during the year!

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL holiday, and may those awesome times hold you over until the next great holiday in March, my birthday.  Oh wait, that’s just me.  So, I wanna know… what’s the coolest thing you did over your holiday?

Hi, my name is Quix.  And I done fucked up last weekend.

I can’t even be mad at the scale.  Or question WTF went wrong.  I know (sorta – although if you look at the numbers… still shoulda lost).

Friday night, I ate a very, very restricted amount of food calories (1000) to save room for the bar calories (500).  Priorities, people.  We went out, we had fun, it was all good (and planned for).

Saturday, we had two “going out” meals planned, brunch for a friend’s birthday at 11, and a fancypants steak dinner with other friends at 7.  We were more than a little hungover at brunch (lack of food magnifies hangover by eleventy-billion-fold), and it was the thing to do, so we ordered a mimosa.  Hair of the dog and all.  I ate my veggie burger with no mayo like a good girl (we won’t talk about the fries, but still – a planned choice.  Steak and veggies and salad for dinner instead of potato).

Herein lies the problem.  After brunch, someone shouts, “what’s next”, and we end up at our neighborhood bar which has 2 dollar mimosa happy hour that afternoon.

I don’t know if you have ever had a daytime champagne buzz all afternoon, but let me tell you – it is decadent.  You feel like a desperate housewife.  You’re on a boat.  You are Fancypants McGee with your numb nose and your giggles.  You also realize that once you sober up, you’re going to crash HARD.  And you have dinner at 7 with friends, while amenable to the happy fun, were not actually WITH YOU drinking champagne all day, so they’re not on your level and would be very very disappointed if you canceled.  So the mantra is MAINTAIN, MAINTAIN, MAINTAIN.  Which takes more champagne.

Steak dinner goes well, with a salad, a glass of wine, a petit filet and crab with spinach, and we’re having fun.  Then desert comes up and I wave it off.  First, chocolate is suggested.  Then cheesecake.  Then other things.  Finally, they settle on KEY LIME PIE.  Um, sorry, I have been craving a freaking key lime pie for about a year.  I had a bite and it was probably one of the best pieces I have ever had – cinnamon graham cracker crust, super tart lime, not super moussey… I split the fucker down the middle with Zliten.  Yes I broke my sugar fast.  Was worth it.  Don’t regret it at all.  Haven’t had any since, plan to keep it up for the majority of the year, honestly.  But that pie was amAAAzing.

Then, we return to the bar and have a few drinks with our friends who aren’t feeling it, and then we proceeded, out of our mind, to go home, continue drinking, and dancing around to bad pop all night and talking about life.  All said and done, it was about a 3000 calorie damage that day.  I know, because I made my ass go back and track it all.  I really wanted to “start again on Monday” but I made myself go own up to my awesomely fun day.

The funny thing is – each outing is at our neighborhood bar.  So we’ve been there 3 times in 24 hours.  I’d say it’s a record, but you didn’t know me in college.  It’s still pretty impressive though!  I will definitely count this on my “memorable days of 2011” list!

Every other day, I had a pretty damn good eating day, but two days of partying did make me skip my cycle strength class on Sunday, so I only got 4 workout days last week.

The scale is up, but it’s not unreasonably so, and it’s also TOM.  So I’ll freak out next week, ok?

Avg calories in per day: 1654 +100 for error = 1754.  So seriously, one crazy day can’t do THAT much.  It should equate to about maintenance without workouts (something like 1/3 lb lost).

Workouts were a little less than normal and it was weird to start off the week without a workout, but I wouldn’t call it slacking.  4 days of solid, hard workouts is less than I planned, but whatevs.

Monday: off (Yelp event and then early to bed after some good Mediterranean food)
Tuesday: 30 mins swim (30 mins IM) + 30 mins abs and legs
Wednesday: bike workout # 8 Steady as she goes – 10 mins warmup, 45 mins 75-80% heart rate (around 90-100 rpm), 5 mins cooldown (15 miles total)
Thursday: group power
Friday: run workout # 13 Out and Backs – 10  mins warmup, 11 mins “out”, 9 mins “back” , then 5 mins ou 4 mins back, short cooldown (wanted to do the full distance twice, but gym was closing)
Saturday: off
Sunday: off

All in all, it was about a 2k calorie burn.  Along with the silly dancing and walking home from the bar on Saturday, I’ll say I probably should be close to 1 lb lost this week calorie-wise.

Here’s the forward thinking plan.  No champagne days planned (but you never know) and a little workout penance for missing out last week.

Monday: bike workout (False flats – THIS WAS HARD!!! 35 mins uphill)
Tuesday: group power
Wednesday: off
Thursday: run workout (whatever I can muster – I am WIPED today, I think it’s focused on nasal breathing, which I may skip due to allergies, not sure I can do an hour of snot in, snot out)
Friday: swim workout (not sure what the next one is, I think alternating speed and technique intervals)
Saturday: Gorilla Run (yes, that is a 5k in a gorilla suit – you heard right!  Race #1 for the year!)
Sunday: cycle strength (let’s see if I make it!!!)

Official weigh in this week: 168.2 (but that was last Thursday), down 1.8 overall, 0.6 this week.  I don’t anticipate much of a loss this next week, but I’ll work toward it and maybe my body will surprise me.  I’ll letcha know.

So, I ask: when you have a crazy day out and make some food/drink choices that may not be 100% angelic, do you find you regret them, or feel like it’s worth it, and you just put in the effort elsewhere?