Walk for Your Lives

I walked today. That is my victory. It was only 30 minutes and it wasn't very fast. But I did it. I'm starting to get more sleep, but I'm still working on that too.
On a more fun note, let me just suggest the movie "Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day". It's a very charming movie with some great substance. I watched it on the treadmill a few weeks ago.
Right now I'm watching "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" for the tenth time. I gotta send back the Netflix movies and get some more!
My throat is starting to feel sore. It better be allergies!

Climbing Back On...

I admit that it was overly ambitious of me to start a fitness program with such a young baby. Setbacks are inevitable even without that variable. And sleep deprivation is a difficult foe.
At the moment I am completely unmotivated to eat right. But, having said that, I know that I'm not going to feel that way forever.
I feel more motivation to exercise than I did a week ago, which is a good sign. Exercise always makes me feel better, whether or not I'm losing weight.
The other issue is that I'm not feeling especially motivated by visions of a slimmer me. Except when I go clothes shopping (which I've done a few times in the last month). When nothing looks good on me, that stinks. But exhaustion trumps all these feelings with a general "I'm too tired to care" mentality. Which also explains my choices in wardrobe of late. As much as I know I should care more about what I'm wearing, I just don't.
So, the focus right now is on getting more sleep. Once I feel like I'm back in a good routine on that front, then on to the exercise. From there, it's back to food journaling and making better food choices. Which is always the most difficult for me. But, it's best not to dwell on the difficult things in life, we just have to suck it up, right? Just do it! (As the Nike ads and President Kimball used to say.) And as my mom always says- Onward and Upward!

Stealing Candy from a Baby (well, children really)

Easter candy is stupid! Well, no, it's not the Easter candy's fault. But it's so tempting! I completely derailed yesterday. It just kept taunting me. "We're delicous! You know you want to eat us! The baby didn't cry when you ate chocolate yesterday! We're chocolate and you must have us!"
And those Peeps! Staring at me with their beady little eyes!!!!
"No!" I screamed "You belong to my children! I won't eat you!!" But I did.
Well, not the Peeps, cause I don't really like them that much, but the chocolates. I did eat some (several) of those. Then it was on to the chocolate chips because I felt bad about stealing candy from children. (Even though, technically I paid for it. See how easy it is to justify?)
At some point I became strong enough to realize I had no self-control so I threw out the chocolate chips so they wouldn't tempt me anymore.
And today I went and bought some low-cal treats because behavior modification is nearly impossible for me. (Must. Have. Treats.)
So I did better today.
And I've continued to exercise despite my food screw-ups.
I will prevail!

Intervals with Pierce Brosnan

Well, I only got 4 workouts in last week. Plus we had a birthday (read cake) and Easter (read chocolate). So needless to say, my expectations for the scale were pretty low (or high if you're talking about how much weight I expected to gain). But, lo and behold! It said 177.4!
So instead of tempting fate and checking it again, I decided to go with it and let it motivate me for this week!
This week's goals are:
1) 5 workouts - 37 min or more each
2) 2000 calories- recorded each day
3) Take vitamins every day (doctor's orders so I should probably do it)
I wonder if the weight loss is partly because of the training method I tried this week. A friend recommended it and I've heard before that it's a great method.
Basically all you do is speed up and slow down in short intervals. Supposedly getting your body going to make the short bursts of speed makes your body work extra hard. Even more so than just getting to a faster pace and staying at it.
The other cool thing is that if you're only doing it for a short time, you can usually go faster than you would otherwise. Like today, I went up to 5.0 miles an hour (= 12 min. mile pace). I used to go at that speed a lot when I was in better shape. But since I'm just starting out I was afraid to try it. It wasn't bad at all for two minutes.
Oh- one thing I forgot to mention. If you want to try this training method, it's important that you be really well warmed up first or you might pull something. I fast walked for 20 minutes first. On a warmer day it probably wouldn't have taken so long (also, the more in shape I get, the less warm up time I need for interval training).
I also finished watching Mamma Mia on the treadmill this morning. Nothing like a musical with fast-paced songs to get you going! Just don't forget your earplugs for the Pierce Brosnan singing parts. Ouch! It sorta seems like he's trying to put a cowboy twang in his singing. Maybe he thinks it sounds more soulful. Either that or he's just streining so hard to hit the notes he's not paying any attention to how he's pronouncing things. You'd think that someone British wouldn't have to work on pronounciation at all in singing though. Weird. And painful. But he's still fairly attractive for an old guy.

A Mulligan Day

This day blew! I want a do-over!

Severe sleep deprivation,
A faucet repair gone horribly awry,
A very fussy baby,
A bunch of homework to help finish,
Laundry I didn't even get to,
No time (or energy) for exercise,
No time for fun tonight- helping with the faucet until 10:15pm,
My husband's computer night,
Did I mention exhausted?

Okay, the pity party is over. Here's what was good about today-
Didn't overeat (this was quite an accomplishment for me),
Faucet did get completed,
Homework got completed,
Kids did not come home with lice,
Got to take a short nap this evening,
Managed to make dinner (simple though it was),
Got a little organizing done in the girls' room,
Didn't fall asleep at the wheel while driving

I guess it wasn't a complete loss. But I still am counting on tomorrow being better! Hoping anyway...

Enjoying the Journey!

It occured to me today that I don't have to stress about losing weight right now. Yes, I'm going to keep working on it. Yes, I'm going to keep on writing down what I eat. I'm going to keep eating the right number of calories for weight loss to occur. And I'm going to keep working out and trying to push myself to go faster and work out harder.

But, here's the thing. There's no time limit. There's no one to please but myself. There's nothing to stress about. I think I tend to get really impatient and stressed out about dieting. But there's just no need. That's one of the reasons I called this blog 'Naomi's Journey to Fitness' after all. It is a journey, not an instant change. And honestly, working on losing is much easier than maintaining.

So I'm going to focus more on direction than on speed. I'm going to accept myself how I am now, and I'm going to keep getting better. I'm going to enjoy my journey to fitness!

Reboot!

I've decided to simplify things for myself by restarting my plan.
My weeks will now begin on Monday instead of Tuesday. (I only started on Tues before because I didn't feel like waiting to start)
I'm going to do a weekly weigh in only. It's a little less discouraging (usually) because there's less of the up and down stuff.
And other than every Monday, I will just post when I feel like it. It might be every day, but I need the flexibilty to skip a day sometimes due to family needs and logistics. I'll still be reporting how I did during the previous week each Monday too, so I still get the accountability.

So, goals for this week are:
1) Eat 2000 calories or less per day
2) Record what I eat
3) Exercise 5x week for 35 minutes or more

Today was a pretty good day for food. (Still need more variety). And I had a great workout- 45 minutes, 3 miles.

That's all for now- tomorrow's post should be more interesting! :)

Oh yea, I almost forgot!
Today's Weight - 179

Day 12 - Even Dieting is Spiritual

I've struggled a bit today with eating. I eat too many carbs and too much dairy right now. I need to learn to like veggies more and give them more priority. And I just need to eat more variety in general. I get lazy sometimes and just keep eating the same stuff. Time to get out the cookbooks!
I've been thinking about how all things are spritual. Even dieting is spiritual. Well, dieting is the wrong word, but you know what I mean. Following a healthy eating and exercising plan. It's about self-mastery. It's about overcoming the natural man. The natural man would like to pork out on sweets all the time because they taste good. And because they're numbing. But, unfortunately, like all numbing substances, they numb you from the Spirit too.
The Spirit can actually tell you what to eat, if you listen. Clearly God wants us to feed our bodies well and take good care of them. Why else would He have given us the Word of Wisdom?
So, as my own willpower is starting to wane (already), I'm going to lean on God's power.

Forgot to weigh myself this morning. Walked and jogged for 30 minutes. Kept food journal

Day 11 - Exercise is Your Friend!

I knew I should have posted before I went out for the evening. Oh well, even though it's technically Saturday, I'm posting about Friday.
I had a great workout today. I walked and jogged for 37 minutes. Of that, 12 minutes was jogging. I'm amazed how quickly my body is getting used to jogging again. It helped that I had a day of rest yesterday. I always have my best workouts after a day of rest.
One thing I really love about exercising is that you can always push yourself to new limits. You can increase your speed, your time, your weights, etc. For me, it keeps working out interesting. Training for a race is another way to keep me interested in my workout because it feels more focused that way. There's a goal to be reached. I'm hoping to participate in a half-marathon next year.
The funny thing is that when I was younger I used to hate running (really exercise of any kind). I even got a 'C' in P.E. because I wouldn't even try to run the mile. Now exercise is something I look forward to (on most days). And definitely something I enjoy once I get going. Who knew?

Today's Weight - 178.6

Day 10 - Which Would You Rather Eat?

They look like different amounts don't they? But they're both just a serving (1 cup to be precise). The moral of the story is of course- eat on small dishes and trick your brain!

Tonight I ate on a salad plate. (Mainly because the dinner plates were all dirty- I can admit that publicly since I have a new baby still) I know I ate less at dinner tonight than I usually do of this particular dish, but guess what? I was still full at the end of the meal. (Instead of stuffed like usual)

I actually watched a show where they did a study on this phenomenon. Even when people were given the option to eat as much as they wanted from a buffet and go back for seconds etc.- the people with the small plates still ate less than the people with the big plates!

Eat on small plates = eat less food. Ya gotta love the no-brainers!

Speaking of no brain- I didn't make time for exercise today- whoops! So now I'm going to have to make sure to fit in a workout on Saturday so I can hit my quota. I still kept track of my calories though.

Today's Weight - 179

Day 9 - Keep Your Eyes on the Prize!

I went to a clothing store to return some shoes tonight. There were so many cute clothes there! I decided that I defintely need to have a good shopping trip after I've lost ten pounds. It's so fun to shop for clothes when you are feeling better about your body. Plus, the more I go and try on clothes, the more it motivates me to keep on my program. I've experienced the fun of being able to buy clothes in increasingly small sizes and it rocks! So much more fun and lasting than eating junk food! Okay, I'll get off the soapbox now.

I kept the food log today and stayed pretty close to the calorie budget. I also walked and jogged on the treadmill for 35 min. My body is getting more and more used to the movement so it's starting to feel better.

Today's Weight - 178.8