Good news...

and more good news!

First and foremost, I must say that I can't believe I've let my shoulder bother me for the past 4 months or so without doing anything about it...because the ibuprofen is doing wonders! I got in the car this morning (hadn't even taken a dose since last night at dinner time) and usually one of the manuvers that is painful is holding open the car door...I held it open and nothing! No pain! I am kicking myself for not looking into home treatment before now! Hopefully, it will continue to heal and I can leave this little episode behind me!

Then, last night I did find the Jillian Michaels dvd on OnDemand. I watched it all the way through to get an idea of what I was up against. It didn't look too hard to me! I don't have any hand weights at the house so I went rummaging through the kitchen to find something I could use and came up with 2 jars of spaghetti sauce :) Nice little improv there! I headed for the livingroom and turned it on. Holy cow! That 20 minutes was no joke! My quads were screaming just by the end of the first circuit! With some moves, I couldn't even make it all the way through to the end of the set. For someone who has been fairly inactive for the past few months, this was a killer! I was sweating and huffin' and puffin'. But, I sure felt great when I got done! It was basically a 20 minute circuit training session where you do 3 minutes of strength training (doing multiple muscles groups at once), 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs...3 circuits. Whew! I'm already dreading doing it again tonight, but I know its going to make a big difference! And to think...that was only level 1 of 3...

Lastly, I haven't been sleeping or eating that well since my whole upset in my personal life and I am proud to say that I may have actally got my whole 7 hours in last night! Yeah! Of course, I still feel exhausted, but I figure this means I'm starting to move back in the right direction! I'll probably try to take a nap after work since I'll be up late for New Year's tonight. And on that note, Happy New Year to everyone and see ya on the other side!

I'm still here!

No, I didn't give up...I went home for the holidays!

I'm from Portland, Oregon and we aren't known for our snowfall out there. So, when almost 10 inches fell in 2 days, let's just say the city pretty much came to a stand still. That's right, no plowing, no school, most businesses closed. Talk about lots of fun :( There I sat, trapped (literally) in my mother's house with her and her boyfriend for DAYS. Okay, I love my mom. I really, really do. But this was enough to drive me up the wall! And what did I do to distract myself? BAKE! Yes, I filled the house will all kinds of sweets and then, of course, ate them all :)

Here is the most shocking part of the story...I got on the scale this morning and...wait for it...no weight gain! Amazing! This is one of those miracles that you just don't question because there is no good explanation!

In my personal life, I just finished up with a very co-dependent and messy situation and despite the part of me that is obviously hurt and upset, I actually feel so much more free and energized! So, I'm throwing all that energy into ME! Yes, no more putting other people before myself! This year I will be first on my agenda!

A girlfriend of mine just started doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and said she totally loves it! Rumor has it that you can get it on Comcast OnDemand so I'm going to try to check it out tonight. This bum shoulder of mine is going to probably be a problem, but I bought a big ol' bottle of ibuprofen this afternoon and will begin ice pack treatments tonight. If that doesn't work, it'll be off to the doc I go and probably require some physical therapy. That will be a bummer!

I think that's about all from this homefront!

Weigh In Monday

Down 3 pounds this week. That is still too much, but I have a feeling it will start evening out here soon enough. My girl and I have big plans to Wii Fit ourselves to death when I'm home for the holidays. I've been slow to get my workout on...mostly because I feel like I really need to get my eating in check first. Food is my true downfall and I feel like once I've come to terms with that, the rest will be easy. I'm definitely getting there, but not quite "free" of temptation!

So, I'm down 5 pounds. I thought I'd be more excited than this. Probably because nothing feels different. Wait...I take that back. This morning when I was putting on my pants, I did notice that the waistband wasn't squeezing me to death, but I was also quite alarmed at all the excess fabric hanging around my butt. Why, God? Why must the butt and the boobs always be the first to go? It's not like I have a lot to spare here! For a "thick" girl, I've never had big tata's and there ain't a whole lotta junk in this trunk! And truth be told...now there is even less! Has anyone yet figured out how to divert fat from our thighs into our butt? Or from our upper arms into our boobs? Maybe I need to get working on that one... :) Happy Monday!

The Good and the Bad of it!

So, Thursday has kind of been my mid-week check in day with the scale. I don't want to become a crazy person that is jumping on it every 5 seconds, but I also find it hard to make it a whole week without getting an idea of where things are headed. So...this morning...down 5 pounds since I started! Which sounds great, right?! Except I only started a week and a half ago and that is WAY too much weight loss for my body type in that amount of time. Being the overly logical person that I am, this weight loss is a bad thing! I'm losing too much, too fast, which means muscle mass. Noooooooo!

Let me be honest here...I feel like I'm eating plenty. I've gotten way past the days of starving just an hour after a meal. But all this healthy food...fruits, veggies, fibery stuff...it has not freakin' calories! This isn't my fault, people! I'm eating. Eating lots. It's just not adding up to much. Everyday I say I'm going to eat more, but when I add it up at the end of the day, I'm always around 1200 - 1300 calories. And it's not enough :(

Another Challenge?

So far, I have failed miserably at the two challenges I attempted to be a part of this fall. Boo on me! But, Baby Tea Leaves is hosting yet another challenge and I'm itching to sign up! This challenge revolves around preparing for an event (say a 5k) and then hopefully weight loss will be a happy side effect! Well, here in Chicago we have the Shamrock Shuffle, which is a HUGE run that everyone kind of comes out of hibernation for. It's at the very end of March and usually FREEZING. The run is an 8k, which is totally a doable distance for me, but will still require me to put in effort to work back up to. So, sounds perfect, right?

Here's the catch...do I really want to make another running goal? I kind of have a love/hate thing going on with running. I know it's what works for losing weight. It's the one thing you can do anywhere. But, well, it sucks :) I've had some good runs in my time. You know, the ones where you look at your time or think of how easy that felt and just have to call and brag to someone...yeah, I've had a couple. Mostly though, I've dreaded my runs. Had to push myself to even finish my runs...or let's be real, to even start them! Is running really what I want to do? I'm not sure! Lucky for me, registration for the Shamrock Shuffle doesn't open until January 1st so I've got a little time to think about it. Until then, I better get on the treadmill :)

Test 1: Eating Out

Test attempted and test passed! I was showing someone around the city last night and we went out for dinner. There weren't a whole lot of vegetarian items on the list, so I was limited. Finally, the Margherita Pizza won me over. Well, it was HUGE when it came out of the kitchen and under my nose. I made a decision that I'd have 2 pieces and I didn't have any problem stopping! That was amazing. Usually, if I have a plate in front of me, I'll pick on it until its gone. Oh yeah...I also had one small piece of bread from the bread basket instead of wiping it out like I usually would!

The one bonus to being completely consumed with my current real-life drama is that it leaves no time to be consumed by food. It's great. I don't eat until I'm hungry. I stop when I'm done. I don't pick. I don't dream about what I'm going to eat later. I just plain don't anything. It's such a freeing feeling!

And the biggest news! The official weigh in was this morning and I'm down 2.2 pounds! That is actually kind of a lot for what I weigh, so I need to make sure that I'm eating enough, but I'm very happy with it. Just gotta focus on keeping it up!

Still Truckin'

Amazingly, I have not fallen off the wagon yet...I know, it's only been 5 days :) But, hey, you gotta start somewhere! And, well, I did sneak back on the scale and it was down 2.5 pounds. So, I'm feeling a little better about that previous weigh in. Of course, as I mentioned before, I've been kind of dealt a crappy hand the past couple of days and whenever I'm upset over something, it always comes through in the form of tummy problems. Having an upset stomach all the time is a great way to keep from over-eating. Yesterday I found that I didn't eat nearly enough. I'm trying to pay much closer attention today to make sure that doesn't happen again. I know not eating enough can do as much harm as eating too much!

This morning as I got ready for work, I debated packing my gym bag...I even went as far as opening my "workout clothes drawer" and looking for something to wear. But, I couldn't find my favorite pants and quickly decided I would not be working out today. Bad Girl! I still sort of hold firm to the belief that I don't want to get in over my head and get overwhelmed...so, maybe its better to get this whole food thing sorted out first! I'm actually kind of excited to "officially" weigh in on Monday and see a little progress!