Adjusted Reality

Tag: running Page 49 of 50

Things on my head, things in my head…

On September 14, 2009

Things In My Head:

So normally every Monday I post this mathematically anal and precise summary of what I did last week and what I am going to do this week. There are calories in, and calories out. To be honest, Friday it started to drive me crazy. I’m not making the progress I want anyway. 4 day workout weeks were interesting, but just not working for me as well as they used to. I’m still hanging out in that silly little 153-155 (ignoring the scale today because it is mean and way outside the norm) range I can’t shake, no matter how much the numbers say I should be moseying away from it.

So I’m going to, for at least this week, do it a little more organically. I am going to eat (mindfully) what I goddamn feel like, and focus on what my body is trying to tell me it needs. Focus on good whole foods and fruits and veggies and good proteins and fats and the like. I took the entire weekend off working out (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) minus walking pretty close to 1000 miles shopping (ok, so maybe only about 8 or so but still). When your friend asks for his birthday present to relax and not workout, you oblige. I am adopting a workout plan for this week, but only because I am racing (just a little local unofficial one) on Saturday morning.

Today: 5k easy run, weights

Tues: 5k for pace (26 minutes plzplz?) and yoga

Wednesday: DDR and weights

Thursday: 5k run with timed mile #2 (7:10 plzplz?) and yoga

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Race!

Still a pretty kick ass week, but spread out a little more, and no long run. Will resume distance next week because I really enjoy that long run, but this week it’s all about trying to prep for a PR!

Still things in my head:

So we’re in a all wedding, all the time stage of the game here at La Tete de Quix, considering in 2 weeks and 4 days I’ll be on a plane to Vegas. We are making huge strides in finalizing everything, but I still have these main things to deal with:

The reception details. The coordinator is just impossible to get ahold of and we have a lot of questions. I think it will be a pretty quick phone call because we have all the main stuff dealt with, but I feel a little ill at ease not having some of the stuff like decorations, dance floor, audio setup, and cake stuff dealt with.
Final touches on my ensemble. I need to finish figuring out my makeup and do some more trial runs. The first run I loved at first but then realized it was a little too dark for a day tropical wedding. Also, I’ve been researching how to get my hair to do what I want (beachy waves, mostly down, maybe some braids, flowers, etc). My maid of honor was going to do my hair and makeup, but she said she was nervous about getting it right, so I’m looking into doing it myself, or at least knowing EXACTLY what I want so I can enlist help getting the curling iron around the back of my head and such. Also, still kinda want some sort of tropical flower brooch possibly to go on the front of the dress. I think though… that’s it!
Reception timeline and playlist. We’re not going with a DJ or band – we’re bringing the mp3 player loaded with a playlist and getting a friend to sorta be “master of ceremonies”. So that being that, we need to spend a bunch of time downloading songs and figuring out what of the traditional things we want to do and when.

Geez, I think that’s about it. After all the things still outstanding last week, I feel much better about everything.

Finally, things ON my head:

So after doing a bunch of hair research (did I really just say hair research? heh) I found a freaking awesome little tool on the In Style site. Seriously, make sure you have an hour or two to waste and give it a click. Some highlights:

This one is actually one of my favorites. I don’t necessarily want this cut for the wedding, but it’s pretty close to that “I’ll have this look someday” picture in my head with the dark hair with red highlights, bangs, and a little longer than shoulder length. I’ll have to make sure that this one doesn’t make me look horrid if I do my normal bedhead hairdo (which, perhaps, if I looked that nice with some effort, might happen less often but let’s be honest, priority #1 in the morning is my workout, not the curling iron), but I might go for it later this year. The nice thing about hair – it grows back (and mine grows fast).

Ok, enough of that, onto wedding ideas…

Here are some of the styles that are just about almost right. The far left has braids like I was playing with, but I think I want a little more of my hair up. Middle – I can ALMOST get my hair to do that, but I can’t quite get the volume and it just doesn’t look as nice. That one would be fun too because I could probably get away with an extra flower in back. Also, if this could be my natural color, I might possibly give my left arm. Right, I like the waves at the bottom better than the one before it, but I like the top part of the other one better. Bottom – I like the curls but it needs something else to it.

I went ahead and tried their makeup generator too, and it left me looking about 10 years older. Do please ignore that part of it, but I think the flower will work. I wanted them all over my hair but I think that more than one flower/clump will be overkill. I think I want more of a “half up” type style more than what’s going on here, but I like the wispy, fresh from the beach style that’s there. For some reason, this picture screams glamour shots. Remember those? I never got them but I was always jealous of the girls who did…

Anywhoo, here’s more fun! Man, I wish I could be as cute as Zooey in her do (fourth), but I’m actually amazed I can pull of Charlize’s (third) as well as am there. Enjoy, but don’t tell your bosses where you got the idea. In fact, don’t tell mine. Have a great Monday – how’s your hair today? Should I go for that first cut? How’s your hair? What would you do with it if you could just have a stylist appear?

So Much To Say…

By Quix

On September 9, 2009

In Uncategorized

…but it’s not flowing. So it’s a FIVE RANDOM THINGS day and a short one at that.

1. I haven’t taken my measurements since July, and apparently gaining some weight also meant losing an INCH on my waist and half an inch on my bicep (which I am still deciding if that’s a good thing or a bad thing). So crazy. So even though I’m up a bit, I am still making some progress. I may not be in the normal BMI category, but I am now in the low risk hip to waist ratio (by .01! Take that, inverted triangle body!)

2. I did my best mile ever again on Monday afternoon – 7:18. If you’ll remember, my best mile time before about a month ago was 7:50 – a record I set in 8th grade. I beat that and have been whittling the time down each week – 7:35, then 7:27… now I just have 19 seconds to shave off to beat my goal of a mile under 7 minutes. I want to try to do it by the end of September. What’s NOT going as well is whittling down my 5k time. I wanted to get under 25 minute but the best I’ve run so far is 26:40. I just haven’t been able to really find the right pacing so I don’t die by the end. I’m targetting a little unofficial 5k in a week and a half so I can put myself to the test then.

3. Three weeks from tomorrow I will be getting on the plane to head to Vegas, and three weeks from Sunday we get married. It feels like there is so much left to do, but I think it’s just me freaking out. There’s not that much left to do. I mean, we just have to finalize the guest count and finalize the flowers/decorations/ceremony/music and make a playlist for the reception and get Zliten his shirt and order the favors and…geez, this isn’t making me feel better AT ALL. Moving along…

4. Work is going well so far with the new and crazy. Still a lot of unknowns but I’m feeling less like my brain is moving at the speed of molasses and operating at 2 year old level. Sad to say that I can’t talk specifics for a LONG time, but I’m really looking forward to the day when I can. I do have my hand in 3 different projects right now but I like rolling like that.

5. This week and the rest of the weekend stand to be pretty mellow, but Friday night is both the next Yelp Elite party (this time, it’s a cocktail contest!) and a good friend’s birthday. We are heading to Fogo De Chao. Yeah, that’s unlimited meat on swords you see there. I am still debating between splurging it up good or just ordering the salad/sides bar which looks super yummy too.

5b. I’d talk about my bachelorette party but I don’t have any pictures yet! Most of the pictures were taken on disposable cameras so waiting for someone to develop and scan them might take a while. Let it be known though that it was a blast! There was dancing and drinking and penis cake and lingerie gifts and great times with great girls. Oddly enough, I felt just fine the next day and I think everyone else was more hung over than I was (lots of water between shots and dancing the liquor out = ok next day).

Happy hump day! Tell me something random about your week!

Happy Monday?

By Quix

On August 31, 2009

In Uncategorized

Today is a good day. It’s Zliten’s first day at his new job, things around the office are pretty optimistic for a Monday, the weather is supposed to be under 100 all this week (and it looks like I can try running outside in the mornings again!!!), and I weigh 157.4 lbs.

Taking my cookies? Nooooo....

What? Yeah, you read that right. 2.4 lbs over the “oh shit” weight again. It was the best of weekends, it was the worst of weekends. I didn’t do too bad calorie-wise overall, but I did put down over 50 of the swimmy suckers at Red Lobster’s all you can eat shrimp fest thing. Mostly grilled, and I balanced it with a salad and steamed broccoli as my side (and only had ONE biscuit), and balanced it out with a super healthy and light dinner, but still. 1300+ calories in one meal is not good for anyone. Then, I went to go see the movie District 9. Anyone that’s seen it will realize how awesome that is – and I had no idea – those just ended up being my plans for the day knowing very little about the movie.

However, I’ll turn this into an opportunity to conquer mental madness about the scale. I got back on the thing every morning last week. Much better than gingerly putting one toe on twice a week, worrying about how it affects my mood. This, in and of itself, is a big victory, my friends. I haven’t been afraid of my skinny jeans either, and honestly, 5 lbs of fluctuation isn’t really making or breaking how hott I feel unless I let the mental shit get to me.

Another victory – after eating that big ass meal, I spent about an hour on the couch letting it settle. After that, I started getting antsy, almost like I had a bunch of caffeine. I just had to get my hiney up and do a nice long workout. Not because I felt guilty, not because it was a scheduled day to do such a thing, but because I was full of ENERGY. One super positive thing about going through half marathon training is that my body no longer shuts down after a huge meal. It goes “WHEEEE, now we have a ton of fuel, let’s go let’s go, let’s gogogogogogo!” I definitely wasn’t up for a 12 mile run or anything, but a super hard DDR 20 song course and a nice long strength set fit the bill.

So after much ado – here are the numbers.

Calories in: 1868 (1768 + 100 for “inflation”) per day.

Calories out: 483 per day.

Total deficit: 639 per day or 4473 this week.

Weight: 153.8 low weight (Wednesday), 157.4 high weight (Sunday).

So honestly – my body is just rebelling right now because it’s the end of my TOM and I typically gain weight over the course of those 5-ish days anyway, and I had a bunch of crappy food this weekend. I should normalize pretty quickly this week. I’d love to see a weight by the end of the week in the 152’s but I won’t hold my breath. Unless somehow holding my breath will help me lose weight… then I’m game.

So the plan for this week? I think I might just give the 4 workout week a try again. Since I did weights yesterday, I can’t go back to my original plan, but here is what I’m gonna try:

Sesame Street is apparently getting edgier these days...

Today: 6 mile treadmill, yoga

Tuesday: all out 5k in the morning, 15 mins arc trainer and weights at gym after work

Thursday: 15 mins cybil and weights before work, 5k with timed mile in the middle (7:30 mile, perhaps?) after work

Saturday: 60 mins DDR, yoga, home weights (yeah, this is a little ridiculous but…)

Depending on my time and the temperature, the Tu/Th workouts might rearrange but it will all get in there…

The funny thing is that when I started these in December ’08, I remember looking at the sheer amount of workout each day and freaking out. Now, I’m looking at the sheer amount of days off and freaking out. Three whole days off? What on earth to do with them? Can I resist the urge to squeeze in workouts on my days off? What if I decide to go on a bike adventure or dancing or roller skating? Is that ok? Before, I pretty much worked out and planted my ass on the couch with exhaustion the rest of the time. Now I’ve gotten used to the 6-7 day a week plan of moving a little/lot each day. I really like it. I think this is going to DEFINITELY be part of my regular maintenance plan once I’m done losing during my racing off season time. However, my body seemed to previously respond better weight loss-wise to big long marathon sessions, so I’m to give it another try this week.

The other thing that makes me curious is I was eating a LOT less back then. About 1500 average instead of my 1700+ average now. I wonder if I should cut my calories a little. I do also run and lift a bit harder now (+ calorie burn), but I’m also thinner (-calorie burn). DO WANT a pocket trainer/nutritionist that will work for hugs and tell me what to do, plz. Since I don’t have that, all I can do is give it a try and see what it does to my appetite. It looks like it will be about the same calorie burn I’m doing now. I think I’ll monitor how much EXTRA activity I’m getting outside of these 4 days as well as my appetite and let that be my guide.

Can’t think of much else to yak about, so I think I’ll just get down to it. My goal is to be a very, very good girl until Saturday night, as that is my bachelorette party and I have a feeling that (rightfully so) caution will be thrown to the wind and partying my face off. I’ve just been told a time and a place to be, and requested that we do some dancing. Other than that, it’s all a surprise! Scary fun. Bachelorette party stories? Wanna comment on my workout plan? I love me some comments!

Awesome Today!

By Quix

On August 21, 2009

In Uncategorized

I am about this happy today!

I wrote up a big long post yesterday pissing and moaning, and I decided to self censor and change my headspace. So that’s why posting has been light this week (besides being the busiest week ever). Instead, I’m going to talk about how awesome the last 24 hours has been.

Awesome Weights Workout!

So I just didn’t feel like doing weights last night. At all. When I feel like that I usually just bring out my ball and my weights and do some random strength while watching TV/in between cooking dinner/etc, and usually get a full weight workout. I decided to make it a “theme” night and do every exercise on the ball somehow. I highly recommend it! I got a great and different workout by doing silly things like lying abductors and scissor leg lifts on the ball and flinging my legs over my head almost to an assisted scorpion pose to work my back. It amused Zliten and me and it was over before I knew it.

Awesome Frozy Yogurt!

I pinched dietgirl’s amazing frozen yogurt recipe and tweaked it by somewhere between doubling/tripling the recipe. I used 0% greek yogurt, frozen tropical fruit, two tbsp powdered sugar, and 1 tbsp honey. It was both desert and breakfast today. I’d be disappointed in myself, but it’s totally (almost) healthy. I’m pretty sure the fruit at the bottom stuff of my normal greek yogurt is just about on par with a little sugar and honey, and the rest of it is just stuff I’d normally eat for breakfast. Considering trying the next batch with splenda and going to splurge on Fage or Oikos instead of Greek Gods because it has way less protein.

Awesome Run!

So I was still miffed about my close encounter with my best mile time ever, and even though it was technically my easy run day, I decided to give it another go. I ran the first mile at 5.5 (about 11 min/mile). I started the second mile at 7.5 instead of 7.0 and worked my way up 0.1 every fifteenth of a mile and it actually worked well until the end where I just went balls out the last 0.2 anyway. I finished with a time of 7:35! Best mile time ever! Wahooo! I wasn’t even completely spent and I ran my cooldown mile around 10 min/mile.

By the way – my second best time was in junior high school, I think I was about 13. I ran only one mile, at 7:50, and was between puking and passing out at the end of it. Next stop – under 7 minutes. I know I can do it. I’m not sure if I’m going to be running a 10 min/mile after it, but I think it’s possible.

Awesome in General!

I’m going to ignore that the scale said 155.2 this morning and that’s my low weight for the week so far. I’m going to ignore that our wedding is 40 some days away and there is still so much to do. I’m going to enjoy my happy day and the wonderful feeling of stress not bothering me one bit, thank you very much.

Rock on with your Fridays, and have a wonderful weekend. What do you have to feel awesome about today? I wanna hear about all the awesome!

Overcompensation?

By Quix

On August 18, 2009

In Uncategorized

Things are still about 85% cuh-ray-zee at work but wanted to check in and make sure y’all knew I wasn’t going off the grid here. Hopefully I can resume a semi-normal posting schedule soon but hey, what IS a normal posting schedule up in here? I was aiming for at least M/W/F. Oh well. I am here now, and should probably stop wasting precious words blathering about posting in my post. Oooh, recursive.

Anyhoo, a recap of last week, and what’s shaking in Quix-life this week.

Last Week Wrap Up:

Hello, dinner course on Sunday. Dont you look delicious. Hey, those are half taters and caliuflower, so dont judge me (too much).

Hey there, dinner course, you look delicious. Hey, those are half taters and caliuflower, don't judge (too much).

Last week, I ate an average of 1825 calories tracked per day. I’m going to go ahead and tack on an extra 100 per day with the nibble of this, sip of that habit I have and say 1925. This was not on accident. Iput things in my mouth such as an 800 calorie sandwich, 3 servings of potato/corn chips in ONE DAY (and with dip), a sugary alcoholic beverage or 2, and a 3 course filet and crab meal dripping with butter. So much for after-vacation repentantance, huh?

However, I increased my activity. Instead of my 417 per day I aimed to burn, I was all the way up at 742. I did 6 full workout days with at least 30 mins moderate/intense cardio on 5 of them. I did 3 full weights sessions. It was a good workout week.

1925 – 742 = 1183 calories. Oops. Considering I should be ingesting just over 2000 calories to sit on my butt all day, that might be a little too much of a deficit. 1000 calories is the absolute line, but 800 calories per day is pretty close. Before I added up the numbers, I was thinking “geez, why did I eat so much, I had a horrible week, I should have busted my butt in the gym more…etc”. It’s becoming apparent that I must have mistreated my body during half training if I feel like I’m eating too much NOW when I’m training way less. Next time I will track food but it will probably be a matter of making myself eat more healthy food than I feel like I should.

This week the goal is a little LESS food and a little LESS workouts. I’d like to bring the ratio to 750 or less also (that is, in theory, 1.5 lbs lost in a week).

The zone ratio this week – epic fail. Closest I got was 27/26/47 and the weirest ones were 6/19/63 or 12/50/38. I don’t think it’s in the cards anytime soon for me to eat 40/30/30 effortlessly, but it’s not a horrible idea to work towards it, the way I naturally eat is very carb heavy because I love my fruits and veggies and starches and think meat should be used in between bread/tortillas/etc or on top of salads, stir fries, curries, etc. I love beef jerky and turkey pepperoni as snacks, and it feels rather sinful to mow down almonds and pistachios, but I find that while I’m satisfied, I’m not satiated and want something carby with it as well. It’s all about finding a balance.

Last week’s high weight was 157.6 and last week’s lowest weight was 154.6. I’m going to start tracking both.

Non-Obsessive Fitness Related Stuff:

As for the other stuff in this here post, things have mostly resolved themselves. Zliten got his offer letter today and starts on August 31st. The salary, though not the ridiculous money he was making before, is better than expected so that’s a bonus! It is a relief and came just in time. It will suck a bit to have to wait about 1 month to get a second income coming in so the savings will take a small hit, but considering it’s temporary – I can’t complain. And we can finally work to replensh it after that!

The work stuff – while there are still fires burning, things are settling down well. Coming in at this stage of a project is actually nice because I’m more involved and can contribute to the direction, instead of just feeling like a secratary while the big boys get to play. It’s nice. It’s – as always- a work in progress I’ll have to keep vigilant about, but I think this is going to be a good learning experience here for me instead of a disaster, which my initial reaction was last week.

What Now?

This week, she is a busy one. I’m plowing through insane amounts of documents at work (trying to archive 3 years worth of stuff). I posted my second best mile time EVAR today at 8 minutes flat. I could have done it in less time (I wasn’t completely wasted after), but I miscalculated (I start slower at the beginning and then work up – so while I should have started around 8:15ish I started at 8:30 pace). Next time! Today we are going out after work for the August Yelp Elite party (organic BBQ and organic Vodka and live music? Yes plz!) and going to pop the champagne and celebrate Zliten’s jobiness.

Then – it’s all wedding all the time. 47 days until it. Yikes! We are working on registry stuff at Penney’s,

These shoes are the trifecta of awesome, just cross your fingers they work with the dress...

Target, and Amazon. You’d be surprised how hard it is to do this – I decide, “Ok, I want some luggage.” Then it takes me an hour to pick out the one piece I want and read reviews and such. Zliten during this time has added 40 things. So it’s been a long, slow process.

Sunday, I was fortunate enough to find shoes. They were cute, comfortable, and on sale. Now, I’m crossing my fingers that they match the dress and we’re solid. I also grabbed some silk flowers from the craft store and am trying to wrap my head around how I want them in my hair. I’m hoping to make them myself because they are so freaking expensive online. Clip+silk flower != 50 bucks in my world. I have a bracelet, I need a necklace and earrings, spanx, and am looking for a tropical-ish brooch possibly to go on the front of the dress. I think I’ve nixed the veil idea although I wouldn’t mind something similar/in place of it. Maybe a colored, super short veil? Maybe I go with a flower crown and do ribbons? Lots to think about, but it’s getting put together. Next month we start talking with the site and getting all that dealt with – though they assured us they do tropical themed weddings all the time so it wouldn’t be a problem. Hope that’s as easy breezy as they say it will be.

Beyond that, I’m just going to try to get through the week alive and enjoy the ride. I miss your blogs, and hope to catch up on them soon. Any wedding tips? Doing something cool this week?

Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Tag: running Page 49 of 50

Things on my head, things in my head…

So Much To Say…

Happy Monday?

Awesome Today!

Overcompensation?

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