Adjusted Reality

So I’ve been thinking about this one for a while, and I think this is a good month to try it.

The most challenging thing about weight loss is always finding the sweet spot.  I have no problem taking a to-do checklist, and submitting myself to the process, and then when everything is done, I should have attained my goal.  Right?  Well, of course not.  I’ve had weeks where I ate pizza, sat on the couch, and lost weight.  I’ve had weeks where I busted my ass, ate really healthy, and gained weight.  It’s not a process that always makes sense.  In fact, it usually doesn’t make much sense.

However, the one thing that I can count on is finding the sweet spot – that magical spot where I’m eating just enough to stave off starvation and feel fueled enough to go on with my day, and exercising enough to feel good after workouts, and not exhausted.  When I find this ratio, I lose weight effortlessly.  I spent so many months being able to do this without really trying and then around 170 my body decided it didn’t want to cooperate.  It took a complete reswizzling of my plan and a couple months of frustration while I figured out what to do.  I’m still not 100% sure I’m doing the right thing but each month my weight seems to be declining, and I haven’t been miserable for the most part.

I figure it would be fun to give myself a little licesnse to see what is comfortable for me.  Do I want to work out more at the price of eating more?  Would I rather control my calories a little more and be able to spend more time relaxing?  This month, we will see.

At my minimum, I am going to be eating 1300 calories per day.  If I eat only 1300 calories per day – or 9100 per week (highly unlikely), I can do my minimum workout – weights, yoga, and 3 days of cardio (one DDR day, one long run, and one 5k run).  Each 100 calories I eat on top of that equals another 7  minutes of intense cardio (DDR, interval runs), or 14 minutes of mild cardio (walking, ice skating).  So, at my normal consumption now, I’m going to add approximately 77 minutes to my cardio per week (which adds another day + a little more on another day, which is normal).  If I go crazy on the wine, cake, or wine cake, I do not need to have any fear, regret, remorse, or guilt.  I just need to move my ass for a little longer.  If I don’t feel like moving my ass vigorously, we can just go take a nice long walk.

I will be offsetting everything by a week.  This week I will be doing my normal workouts, and keeping a tally of the amount of calories I take in.  Then starting NEXT Monday I will determine how much I need to be workouting.  Should be interesting – I’ll keep you posted on how this goes!  I am also scoping out races to run at the end of the month, so that might manipulate the program a little.  By the way, this will be my last post as a 20-something…tomorrow is my birthday and I officially become ancient!

Well, it was an interesting month, this February was.

Here was the plan:

Day 1: 15 minutes arc trainer, full body strength (at gym), 30 minute treadmill run

Day 2: 60 minute outside run, yoga

Day 3:  45 minutes DDR, full body strength (at home)

Day 4: 60 minute outside run, yoga

Did I follow it?  Of course not!  Not ONE WEEK.

The first week, I pretty much stuck to it, but skipped 30 minutes of running outside in favor of DDR and did the epic walk.  The second week, I got super sick and took most of the week off.  The third week, I pretty much ran test 5ks all week increasing my pace, culminating in a really awesome time I’m happy with on race day.  Then, last week, I was nursing shin splints from the race, so I laid off the running until the weekend, when I finally ran a full 10k distance on the treadmill and walked all over creation for my birthday pub crawl.  Nope, not as planned at all.

I think  I’m ok with that.  I’m really starting to realize that exercise (or at least the extent that I do it) is really not what’s driving my weight loss.  It’s the food that I need to really watch.  I’m not going to start skipping workouts and sitting on the couch or anything, but when things don’t go according to plan, I think I can take it in stride a little bit better than I did before.  A little better, at least.

I also discovered that I really do enjoy running outside and loved running the race.  I foresee at least 2 more this spring.  I’ve earned my running muscles and though my legs do talk to me a bit more the next day when I run outside, I don’t hurt myself doing it!  The idea of maybe doing a half marathon or a marathon someday doesn’t sound quite as ludicrious as it used to.

Eat-y wise, besides this weekend (your own birthday celebrations have no calories, I declare), I seem to have been doing pretty well.  Not quite as well as January calorie-wise (I definitely ate a little more this month) but I seem to have done better at eating more fruits and veggies.  That’s something, right?  I also found that if I listen to my body, it adjusts my appetite for the level of activity I’m getting.  The week I was sick and not working out, I had to force myself to eat enough.  The next week, I was back to workouts, and hungry again.  If I was in maintenance mode, this month would be a huge success in learning how my body works.   Is it time for that yet?   I can’t wait…

Anywhoooo…  What did that translate to progress-wise?  It’s hard to tell.  I’ve been fluctuating wildly (I was 154 last week then up to 157 and down to 153 today), so I’ll let you know when my weight decides to stay put for a while!  It’s definitely lower than it was last month, so I’ll take it.  What”s up in March, the month of never ending birthdays and celebrations?  Stay tuned.

EDIT:  Oh yeah, the meditation challenge?  Yeah, I stink and tried it once and gave up.  Maybe someday…

I’m just painfully away from the internet, busy busy busy with work, and getting ready to celebrate my birthday this weekend in the midst of crazy.  But just in case you need something to get you through your day…

Happy weekending everyone.  I’ll try to post something while I’m still in my twenties…shudder…

Today, I found myself wanting to blog, and started a pretty heavy, introspective thinky post.  I realized promptly after starting it that I have neither the mental capacity nor the time or attention to devote to it today.  Still, I want to write something!  Anything!  I still feel the need, desire, and drive to share a little piece of my grey matter with the internet.  So, on the prompting of livejournal’s topic starter for the day, let me share with you my morning routine.   Definitely ONLY weekdays, weekends are much lazier and longer.

7:20 am – My alarm goes off.  Note that I don’t say that I GET UP, because I 100% of the time snooze at least once (five times).  I’m not sure WHY the alarm goes off at that particular time, but it has since I started trying to get up earlier so there it stays.

7:40am (on a good day) to 8:30am (on a lazy day) – I actually get myself out of bed and plod to the other side of the master suite to the bathroom.  During the winter, I crank on the heater on a timer so I don’t freeze to death (our bathroom gets COLD).  I then do things in this exact order – I use the bathroom, wash my hands, brush my teeth***, put in my contacts if it’s a contacts day, weigh myself, and put on deoderant.  This takes approximately 10 minutes.  Note that I shower at night – I swear I’m not just a dirty, stinky hippie.

7:50am (let’s pretend it’s a good day): I turn on the TV which defaults to the 24 hour local news channel.  We got said TV on a super going out of business closing sale for way cheap, but since it was a floor model, it came to us sans remote.  We’ve never been able to get a remote that worked for it and it’s on top of a tall dresser, so now the step ladder lives next to the tv/dresser and I am just short enough that I have to climb it to turn the TV on (since the on button is on TOP of the TV).  Then, I go back to the bedroom to my side of the bed, on the floor, where I’ve laid out my clothes the night before.  If it’s cold, I do this right in front of the portable heater plugged in on the dresser.

7:55 (still a good day): I am no longer pajamafied or nekkid, so it’s time to apply plumage and sparkle.  I apply my lipstick first so it will dry (it’s one of those all day lasting types so it takes 2 mins to fully set), then pick a necklace, bracelet, and earrings for the day.  Then, most days I decide to not fuss much with the hair and just run a brush through it – but if I do anything with it, this is the time.  By now, my lipstick has set and I put the gloss on and spray myself down with body spray.  I actually have over 10 different little bottles right now of different scents (I love the variety packs) so I rotate them each day.  Then I kiss and hug my Zliten and head out of the sanctuary into the world.  By then, I have gotten a 10 minute cycle of news including weather, traffic, and some local flavor stories.

8am – I go to the coat and shoe closet and grab either a sweater or coat (or both, depending on the weather), gloves and a scarf if it’s cold, and the shoes for the day.  I own approximately 40 pairs of shoes – and I wear at least 50% of them regularly during their appropriate season.  I love shoes!  I also have way more coats than a person needs – over a dozen of different colors and weights (and we rarely get below freezing).  I love coats!  Then, as long as the outfit passes the full length mirror test (yes, I have gone back to change occasionally), it’s on to the kitchen.

8:05am – If it’s a gym day after work, I give a quick check to make sure my gym back is packed (I always do it the night before).  If not, I grab my other bag.  I throw in an oatmeal packet for breakfast at work and a piece of fruit for a late afternoon snack, make sure my phone is in my purse, and I’m out the door by 8:10.  If I’m out the door at 8:10, I’m at work and have my cup o tea by 8:2o.

If you can’t tell, I’m all about minimizing the morning routine – I’d rather spend the extra time in bed and do everything I can the night before.  The fluctuations in time are because my job allows us to start anytime between 8-10am, and work 8 hours after we get in.  While some days I do default closer to 10am, it is much nicer to be into work in the morning earlier, when it’s quiet, and out closer to 5 so I can get my workout on and get home to eat dinner at a reasonable hour.  Running also puts me to sleep earlier so it just works out well most weeks.

Wow, over 800 words on what I do in the morning… guess I did really feel like writing something.  Wanna share?  What’s your morning routine?

***EDIT: OMG, I realized you all must think I’m a dirty, stink-breathed hippie anyway because I forgot to note that I actually BRUSH MY TEETH.  Of all the things to omit…

On Running…

An update – my time was actually 27:51 which worked out to be an 8:59/mile pace.  Overall, I am super thrilled about my performance, especially being my first race, in less-than-perfect weather, and only a week after recovering from the feverish funk of doom.  I love numbers, so let’s break it down.

I was 2oth in my age group by gender out of 66 people.

I was 49th in my age group (both genders) out of 115 people.

I was 161st overall out of 385 runners total.

If I had run the race 3 weeks later (as a 30 year old):

I would have been 14th out of 48 people in my gender/age group.

I would have been 46th out of 95 people by just age group.

I think I like the 20th in my age/gender group best so let’s just refer to that as how I did from now on, mmmmkay?  Though I could not be unhappy if I tried about how I did, it’s a bit humbling to look at who beat me.  I would have taken 8th place in the combined 50-59 age group.  That means SEVEN 50+ year olds beat me.  A 63 year old man just edged me out at a 8:56/mile pace.  I won’t even get started about the 8 year olds that came in way before me…they have a lot less to lug around – it’s so unfair!  I have to say though – the 83 year old guy that came in at just under 36 minutes…rock on dude.  I hope to still be able to run a 5k when I’m that age.

I’m targeting end of March/early April to run another one, and my goal right now is just to get a personal best.  And if a certain someone out there who said they are going to run the next one actually does enter – to beat him.  Tee hee!  I am definitely going to be working on my pacing and improving my time over improving my distances this month.

On Training -vs- Losing…

I never thought when I started this over 2 years ago, I might come to a point where losing weight and training myself for a specific athletic endeavour would not be mutually inclusive goals.  When you’re 265 lbs, you either exercise in a way which does not make you want to die, or you sit your ass on the couch.  You either fall off the wagon and consume cheeseburgers and chocolate in mass quantities, or you eat less and work on your goal of shedding some of the fat suit.  Never in your mind enters the thought of – do I want to focus on my fitness or the number on the scale – because they are absolutely one in the same.

Now, not so much.  I really noticed it in the last week or so.  I cut my cardio way down last week to practice running the 5k distance at the right pace and be rested enough by the race day.  I skipped a workout the night before and ate a little more than normal so I’d be fueled up that morning.  I celebrated pretty hard Saturday night – like a lot more calories than normal.  That pizza is definitely a calorie count killer (though worth every greasy, meaty, cheesy calorie every once in a while).  My shins are a little aggrivated after the race, so I’m taking this week easy on them as well instead of just pushing through it.

We’ll see what that does to my weight this month.  I was stoked about a new low of 154 Friday morning, but I gained over 3 lbs overnight and haven’t been able to shake them all since then.  I keep having this dilemma,  and making the decision that I am going to focus on weight loss before fitness goals – simply because it’s a finite thing (20 lbs from now, give or take a few, I’ll be done with that part of my life).  I do that for a while, it makes me unhappy, and I decide I’m going to push myself in the gym.  Then, I get super hungry, I have to eat more, I get into things like yoga and short distance running that are not efficient calorie burners.  Good for me, I know, but 20 minutes of running can burn me almost 300 calories instead of 60 doing yoga – and a 3 mile run is not a full workout, but if I push my pace like I need to do for the runs, I’m spent after it and not ready for another cardio session right away.

It’s a predicament.  It’s a pretty happy one though, compared to the alternative.  I’ll have to continue to balance both pursuits at once because while the scale dropping brings me great joy, I’ve had a taste of competitive sport again and I don’t think I’ll be the same without a goal of that type to work towards.

Other Updates…

It’s almost my birthday (observed 2-28, real date 3-3) and time to look back at my resolutions in no particular order:

1.  Wedding stuff – booked!  The next step, since it’s too early to send out invitiations (thx u delayed date to October) is a trip to Vegas after work settles down in May to make sure the accomodations are suitable.  I’m fully confident it will be awesome though.  It has to be!  And let me tell you, I am so incredibly sad about an excuse to hit up Vegas for a forced vacation.  Consider my arm – twisted.

2.  5k – ran!  Ready for the next!

3.  Doctor’s appointment…ok, time to get on this.  I just said I would SCHEDULE the appointment by my birthday so I gots just over a week to find a good doc.

4.  Something artsy fartsy creative – I do believe the necklaces I’m working on selling fit the bill.  I’d love to tackle songwriting by the end of the year especially with my small but growing audio expertise expanding, but it’s just not in the cards right now.

Did I miss anything?  Anyone ever face the training vs losing dilemma?  Wanna ridicule me for getting beat by both an 8 and a 63 year old?  Hit me up…