corduroyfirekills3's Journal

week 4

Sep 01 2009 09:22

starting weight (8/3): 136.5
week 1 (8/10): 135.5
week 2 (8/17): 134.0
week 3 (8/24): 134.5
week 4 (8/31): 134.5

Holding steady on no exercise. More running and less booze are (again) the goals I'll be focusing on this week. Had a beer last night for no reason at all. I didn't even really want it. Now I have to buy more today to replace them for my BF and i'm sitting on 120 totally totally unnecessary cals. And until I get my toosh out the door and start running some more, those are most likely cals over maintenance.

OK, that's all from me today. Have a great week!

week 3

Aug 26 2009 10:54

starting weight (8/3): 136.5
week 1 (8/10): 135.5
week 2 (8/17): 134.0
week 3 (8/24): 134.5

OK, so i know it isn't really 8/24 anymore, but Monday and yesterday I had hopped up to an unexplained 137.5. I am all about accountability, so if I had like pigged out all weekend or soemthing I would have fessed up and put it in like a big girl. However, I did not really misbehave, so I chose to wait for the mystery pounds to go back to hell (from whence they came) before I recorded the official score for the week. I am allowed to do this because I make up the rules as I go along.

I have been doing better with exercise. This week I am going to focus on continuing that trend, and eating a little better. Mostly I will focus on finding comfort/relaxation in ways other than putting sweets or booze in my body. Reading, naps, hugs, going for a run: good. Beers, nutella, ice cream, wine: temporary fixes. I can do better.

week 2

Aug 17 2009 09:32

starting weight (8/3): 136.5
week 1 (8/10): 135.5
week 2 (8/17): 134.0

This morning's weight was a bit of a surprise. I was up much higher all weekend, and then poof it was gone today! It might not stick around all week, but it was so very nice to see a number that low again. I was starting to fear that a recent change in my medicine was hampering my efforts, but now that I am out of panic/paranoia mode I realize that nope, it was sitting around all week not exercising and pigging out that was more likely to be the culprit. This is a nice boost of encouragement, and I'll try to honor it by using the momentum this week.

This week, I will not let stress become anxiety. I will find a 5k for the beginning of september or so. I will curtail my weeknight boozing. I will be reasonable about food. I will be nice to myself. I'll try to exercise.

This weekend I taught a monster of a class - 8 hours on my feet each day, talking and trying to keep my lovely students engaged. My legs ache in such a weird way after so much standing. I might do some yoga.

Jef I am sooooo jealous of your trip to Peru! Take beautiful pictures!!

week 1

Aug 10 2009 14:22

starting weight (8/3): 136.5
week 1 (8/10): 135.5

This week, I finally dragged the bf to the market for the shopping. I made soup. I said no to eating out. I, for the most part, avoided snacks. One pound came off.

So, I'm doing great.

I thought that there would be a slightly bigger initial drop from vacation being over, but that didn't happen. I'm trying not to let that get me down.

Saturday I had a frisbee tournament and basically sprinted in the 90 degree heat for 6 hours. That did a number on my body, so Sunday I was in recovery mode and just ate whatever I wanted. And drank lots and lots of water. Other than my sunburn I seem to be back to normal. I went for a run today, so this week is off to a good start!

This week the focus will be on sneaking in some weight training, and finding another 5k to sign up for.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Cordie

progress report

Aug 04 2009 19:13

starting weight (8/3): 136.5

lets see... how have i been doing?

i'll give myself a c+.

good job: severly reduced sweets. i had three pieces of the saltwater taffy i brought back to my lab (over 5 days), a snack of nutella and cookie thins during a moment of mindlessness, and 5 hersheys kisses today. over vacation i was probably having three cookies, chocolate, and one other desert-type thing each day. so that's a serious improvement.

medium job: alcohol. went out three times instead of one. ok this is probably a bad job. i'm having a gin on the rocks now, for goodness sakes! it's summer, what do you want from me?

bad job?: eating out. haven't even freaking gone to the grocery store yet. i managed to make a couple of pantry meals (beans tuna salad dressing peas on crackers is one of my favorites any time, but i prefer to have a choice), and i make each call-in meal last for dinner and the following day's lunch, but this is not cool. go to the store!

bad job: exercise. bah.

anyway, this is another week! i will focus on improving the food, since i don't really feel like not drinking, ha. i'm in the middle of planning a major transition at school/work, and a drinklypink or two when i get home helps keep my frown upside down. staying conscious of it helps me to drink 1-2 drinks instead of 3-4, or have a glass of water between each one, at least. i'll continue to do that.

more soon! wishing a good luck to you, jef9up. your challenge for this week -- give me a nickname to call you that is pronounceable ; )

<3, cordie

double-dipping

Jul 28 2009 14:35

OK, since I've been sitting here essentially just thinking about food for two hours, I think I should set down some ground rules for the beginning at least.

It is so interesting to come off of a free-for-all into a "behaving" period and notice how your body's desires change so much. When I am on a roll and eating well, I am not particularly interested in sweets, cream sauces, etc (though I always love salt, and I will never give that up)... but after I splurge on them a couple of times they build a habit of themselves and like unwelcome guests I have to force them back out. So two weeks of anything goes creates a bad girl hangover that takes deliberate effort to break out of.

However, once you get the taste out of your mouth, so to speak, the cravings go away. I just want to shout this at all the people arguing over which sugar substitute is best -- just take a week and get your body to stop needing that sweetness and your whole battle will be so much easier. But whatever, you have to experience it for yourself, I guess.

So, for my "detox" (For lack of a better name... "desugaring?" "re-goodifying?"):

For one week:
1. No "sippin booze." I have a birthday party this weekend, and I'll drink there, but i don't need to have a beer or two or three or half a bottle of wine at night just because I feel like it.

2. No sweets. Fruit in, processed sugars out. Chocolate out. Candy out. Cookies out. No exceptions. Oh, and no jam on my toast. Fruit on the side if I want.

3. Carbs under control. This is sort of easy because this is where I cut most of my calories. I still have cereal or an english muffin for breakfast, but at dinner I use veggies and beans instead of pasta to bulk up the meal.

4. Dairy under control. A serving of cheese is one ounce. Red sauce not white sauce. Butter only if it's taking the place of something worse.

5. No eating out. Not once. I'm sick of spending money I don't have on garbage food I don't need. I want to start eating fewer, more expensive meals out. Not expensive for the sake of expensive, but there are zillions of amazing restaurants in chicago that I'm missing out on because I'm chipping away at my food budget one $15 toss-away take out lunch/dinner at a time. Better for my body, my wallet, and my life-enjoyment. So that's that.

6. Follows 5... have to make food in advance to take for lunches. I'd like to make at least one soup (not chowder, though!) and one bean/veggie dish (mebbe with some whole grain in it), and have a bag of greens for making salads quickly.

7. Water, water, water. I'll get some seltzer at the store, which is perfect when I'm trying to de-sugar.

And that's that! I'll see how I'm doing on monday or tuesday and see if I need to stay the course, be more strict, or if I can ease up a bit. I'll post any big insights I have along the way.

ready

Jul 28 2009 13:01

OK, I'm here and ready for my final push down to 127. How long will it take? I don't know. I'd like to see it gone for Thanksgiving, the beginning of danger season. I'm back from vacation and up a few pounds. It was a little confusing how many because my scale said one thing last night when I first got back but read several pounds heavier when i woke up in the morning. Very suspicious. So I'm going to get a new scale battery at the drug store and not really start logging weight until next monday. I'll log food but give my body a weekish to flush out my vacation sins. mmm, sinny.

Anyway, hi! I'm here to stay for a while. Later this week I'll poke around and see if there are any challenges running, or make something up for myself. I think I need to make a few new friends, too. Jef9up seems to be the only one left around! I miss some of the old people I met last year, and wonder how everyone is doing. If you're lurking out there, say hi!

See you soon :)

Cordie

quick check in

Jul 07 2009 12:42

I've decided to come in and log for a week or so. I've been getting a little out of hand lately, and I have a couple of vacations coming up so it's a good time to remind my body what the right amount of food looks and feels like. Frisbee season is in full swing, and I've been running 5ks here and there. I would like to be lifting weights much more, but all in all I'm pretty happy. I think that after the vacations I'll definitely be ready to give the final push a try, and I certainly hope to keep running while I'm away. Maybe I'll even find a frisbee pickup game or a quick race to take part in!

swimming!

May 04 2009 22:14

So today I made it to the pool for the second time. The first time was on Saturday -- it was a gorgeous weekend day and everyone was out enjoying the weather... perfect time for sneaky old me to go to the pool when it's slow inside! I looked around for advice on how to start out again swimming when you haven't done it in a while -- for some reason the few times I tried to start up swimming again, it never occured to me that I could just rest between laps. Duhhhhhhhhhhh... so obvious. Really, I'm a smart girl -- I couldn't think of that? Anyway for some reason, I just kept trying every combination of strokes under the sun, even doing the sidestroke when I was too exhausted, to try to keep going, when I can just stop swimming, hang of the edge for 30 seconds, and start again. Brilliant!

So the first time out I did 22 laps in 35 mins, doing a crawl lap, a breaststroke lap, and then taking a short rest and starting over. Today I went at lunch time, and it was crowded so I had to share a lane with some lady. Eek. I tried to convince myself that she was busy doing her own workout and didn't have time or energy to judge me, and went about my business. Today I did 25 laps in 33 minutes (they kicked us out of the pool 2 mins before I was "done"), with the pattern crawl breast crawl breast crawl, rest. Each day I switched up one pattern so that I'd have to do two crawl laps in a row... I don't know why, but that is reaaaaallly hard for me! I'm panting like a hound dog at the end of that second lap.

Anyway, I'm definitely not winning any records yet, but a small improvement from day one to day two is good enough for me! I'll just keep making my patterns harder and taking fewer rests, and that will be enough to focus on for now!

Oh, and I have another 5k on Sunday, for Mother's Day. This time I'm running with a friend. Fun!

oh crap, now what

Apr 26 2009 12:34

the race was a ton of fun. everyone was right and i did better than my best time so far - I finished in 27:15 which came out to 8:48 miles. my goal for the summer was to finish my last race at 9 minute miles. so now i need a new goal. my ultimate goal is to stay healthy, keep running, and not get injured, so I have to figure out a way to do that and stay interested.

I think I would also like to increase the number of days I'm lifting from 2 to 3, and swim on my crosstraining days instead of using the elliptical. I ordered a swim cap and goggles, now I just have to overcome the anxiety of looking like a moron in the pool. I'm in pretty good shape, but swimming is always so much harder than I anticipate. I also get a lot of social anxiety from things where you have to jump into an unwritten but established procedure, like using the pool. I get hung up on details, like, am I supposed to shower before I go out to the pool?, am I allowed to bring things out there and if so where do I put them?, are the kickboards people's own property or there for public use?, and if they're public, are you supposed to sign them out or something?, how the heck do I even put on a swim cap?, what if all the lanes are taken?, what if I get my own lane but then the pool fills up and people are waiting?, etc, etc. I don't know anyone who uses the pool who I can ask these things. I realize it's ridiculous to let these small worries stop me from swimming, so that's why I'm determined to do it, but it's stressing me out a bit. ugh.