Not the best week ..

Sort of like rinse, lather, repeat.
Rinse, lather, repeat.

I have decided not to buy myself cereal any more. I snacked on it too damned much this week. That and the popcorn. (Bought one box of 94% fat free ... 7 points a bag.) I am eating too many carbs at night. Just stuffing my craw for no apparent reason while watching television.

I have also only worked out four days this week, instead of the original six I should be doing. And shorter than I would have liked. So I need to work on that. My 100 days ends after Labor Day. I really need to start showing more improvement and getting off of this darned late-night binge fest.

To resolve this, hopefully:

• Don't eat past 8 p.m. (Except on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I have WW meetings.)
• Only eat food at the table in the kitchen, put away the tray table in the living room.
• If I have to consume anything while watching television, it can only be a drink.
• If I want anything to eat after 8 p.m., it can only be a drink.

Hopefully working on these behaviors will help a bit.

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

Today was the fearful monthly weigh-in and measure day.

Cough.

When these days approach I have bad dreams, and sometimes have "questionable behavior." That is, my eating behaviors. So let's start backwards.

THE UGLY

It started Friday. I was invited to a friend's military retirement party. The food buffet had the typical stuff, also some fruit and cheeses and some salad and light sandwiches. 

But the potatoes, oh, those potatoes.

Small new potatoes they were, cooked to a perfection with lovely seasoning. I couldn't get enough of them. I had three helpings. They were so good. I wasn't done in by any sort of dessert! (Surprise, surprise.)

Saturday I was doing pretty well, until about dinnertime. I had exercised my butt off for an hour, ate some kimbap for lunch, was being pretty healthy all day. Then Ken started sending me subliminal messages from his sleep (I really read his mind, I did) ... he was dreaming about eating pizza ... so I ordered some. Domino's was having this deal ... and I couldn't help myself. I had ordered three small pizzas one with regular crust with extra cheese and pepperoni for Ken. He also got an order of chicken wings. Two other one-topping pizzas were thin crust. They had light cheese and light sauce. One was extra mushroom and the other was barbecue chicken. I had also ordered a vegetable sandwich with basically no cheese. So I sat there and ate my sandwich ... and my little 10 inch mushroom pizza. Ken and I then split the barbecue pizza. Yeah ... not my finest moment. Pizza is one of my favorite food groups, you know.

Sunday I was a good girl and stayed within my points. And rode my bike.

Monday I drove to East End (30 minute drive there, one way) to sub a Weight Watchers meeting there. I had only exercised 30 minutes that day and by the time I was done with the meeting (it was 7 by this time) I was exhausted and didn't feel like cooking. We had nothing in the house, anyway. So I went to Sonic on the way home. Got two of those new hot dogs (Chicago and Baha-style). Hey, they had veggies on it! And I ate a large sweet potato tots. My dinner was 30 points. Thirty. Points.

Tuesday I was determined to work out my ass off. I reduced my point intake by 10 (to eat 20 over the day) and then I exercised another 10 points worth off. (One hour of strength and a 45 minute bike ride.) I woke up at 5 in the morning to try to accomplish this. And then I also had my full work day and did a WW meeting. Sigh.

Yesterday I tried to reduce my caloric intake again by 10 points, but that didn't work. I stayed within my 30 points. I did a sculp/cardio workout with Jillian in the morning for 30 minutes.

THE BAD

So this morning I got on the scale with a little trepidation, but I didn't think it would be all that awful. I had been exercising like I was supposed to for several weeks. I figured I would feel confident when I weighed myself. 

Not so much.

Last month, remember I had lost 2.6 pounds. This month, I gained that back plus an extra pound. When I whined at Ken, he commented that we DID eat fast food this week, more than normal. So I should attribute it to that, too.

THE GOOD

So I also measured myself. I lost a total of two inches this month. One inch of my waist and a half-inch off of each upper thigh. The rest stayed the same.

The real positive to look at is losing that inch around the waist. Sure, it probably could have been more if I was more diligent in good eating habits. I've been focusing more on making sure I get that hour for five to six days a week. 

Many of you may or may not know that losing inches around the waist is one of the hardest things to do. And I have said before I want to try to focus on losing inches than losing pounds. However the number you see at the scales is still a big motivator and hindrance. I am 16 pounds over goal weight. I need to get that off. 

I remember my first go round on this losing the weight thing five years ago. It came off fast since I was such a food nazi. I don't want to be that strict, but need to make more behavior changes. I loved being 17 pounds under the highest weight for my size. There is a 33 pound difference between when I was that weight and now. I'd like to get down to the middle of that. Just so I can fit into all those pants and dresses I have sitting in my closet!!!

So you guys know my goals! Lost that 16 pounds. And ultimately, lose another 9 inches of fat around my bust, waist and hips. My measurements right now are 39 (mid bust), 35 (natural waist), 41 (widest part of hips.) It would be nice to get each of those down by three. I think I can do it. Maybe. I did have a 27 inch waist when I was 14. (I was also 5-foot-6 at the time.) I don't plan on ever being that small ... ever. ;)

Here, piggy piggy piggy ...

Good grief. I am having a problem this week.

The food part of the Two Week Total Turnaround I have devised just is not working for me. It is the "fats" part that have done me in.

In good ole Weight Watchers tradition, we are supposed to have a couple of teaspoons of a fatty oil a day. So roughly 2 (Points Plus) points. I have been using 8-10 points a day on the "fats," and that has been a real problem for me, especially at the end of the day.

While eating the recommended ways of eating on the Two Week Turnaround, I have eaten peanut butter, avocados and almonds mostly for my "fats" and cooked occasionally with some olive oil interspersed. On average my peanut butter (I get individual packets I bring to work) are 5 points each. A couple I have tried have been 6, depending on the flavor. My 100-calorie chocolate-dusted almonds are 3 points. This actually isn't bad, because there are quite a few almonds in the little packet.

So what happens at the end of the day? Well, pretty much this: I have eaten all my points and for some reason do not feel satisfied. Then I wander into the kitchen and grab something to snack on. And before I know it I have eaten too much. In front of the television. Again. And again. ... Yet again.

Want to know how bad, world? Well, let  me just tell you. (Point of reference: I eat 30 points a day, have 49 extra points a week on program, and when I exercise I earn roughly 30 points of this a week as well.)

• Starting from last Thursday: went into 8 of my extra points, consuming more than a cup of Honey Nut Cheerios, low-fat string cheese and a WW ice cream bar.
• Friday: Didn't write down exactly what I consumed, but ate an extra 17 points.
• Saturday: Same as the day before, but from my tally I ate an extra 9 points.
• Sunday: Getting worse. Didn't write it down again, but consumed the rest of my 49 extra points. By this time I had only earned 17 points in activity, and I was about to hit this if not careful.
• Monday: This is bad, bad, BAD. Brace yourself. On top of my daily points I ate Wheat Thins crispy chips, 2 cups Honey Nut Cheerios, the rest of the Rice Crispy treats in the house (3, 2x3 inches), a grilled chicken salad from Subway, Baked Chips ... AND chicken egg rolls. (Now I had no points left at dinner because I had previously consumed a hamburger that was 11 points for lunch on top of my peanut butter and almonds that I ate during breakfast and lunch.) Total points extra I consumed Monday: 31. A WHOLE EXTRA DAY'S WORTH OF POINTS.
• Tuesday: On a roll, I just had something in my brain blow up yesterday. I had gone out to eat for grilled chicken fajitas. But an hour after I got home, I got bored and then just vacuumed up 2 slices of light bread, 2 Hebrew National 97% FF dogs, 2 cups Honey Nut Cheerios, FF cheese on my hot dogs and a random frozen burrito that was gross but I ate in anyway. An extra 17 points  here.
• Wednesday: well this day has just started and I haven't done much dent but I never have a problem on Wednesdays going into extras since I am away from the house.

Total extra points consumed: 97. Minus 49 allowed for program: 48. Minus 25 activity points earned this week so far: 23. I am going to do an hour workout when I get home tonight. Depending on how intense it is, I might be able to scrape off another 6-13 points off that pointage sitting over my head.

When you look at the allowances and exercise, you might think, "well, Tena, that's not so bad." Really, it is. I have made no gains to getting slimmer this week. In fact, I probably have canceled out that 2.6-pound loss that I had last week.

So, World, time to make some more changes. No more "fats" like Chris Freytag suggests. My brain can't handle it. Starting next week, I am reducing my daily points I consume down to 25 points. That way, in case I "go over," I have a five-point buffer. This should help. I am going to do this until my next weigh-in, which is on July 25. I will take my measurements that day as well.

Exercising at least an hour a day 5 days a week has not been a problem at all for me lately. Doing something in the morning, and then doing something when I get home in the evening seems to help a lot. And I really, really need this activity so I don't become a lard-ass again. I just want to lose 15 pounds to get a little below the weight allowance for my height. That's all I really want to do.

Had a trial run, real marathon starts tomorrow.

Ok, last post I talked about the Two Week Total Turnaround.

I am going to actually START this program tomorrow. In full force. The last couple of weeks has been what I call "practice."

Why? Holiday aside, the mail is friggin' slow. I didn't get all my components for my exercise program until yesterday. And no, I wasn't using it as an excuse to not exercise.

I would ride my bike for cardio, and also do Jillian's 30 Day Shred DVD, and I did the Cardio portion of The Total Turnaround a couple of times before getting all my ducks in a row.

I have also been practicing eating the way trainer Chris F. suggests in the book, and it is a little more difficult than I thought.

The reason ... processed food. I have to get rid of it. ALL of  it out of my house. I can't afford to have it in there. This includes healthy stuff ... like granola bars, those Weight Watchers snacks they say you can not live without ... even frozen treats.

All gotta go. So what did I do with them?

Ate em.

I still have a problem with snacking at night. Or when I get tired/stressed in the evenings I didn't exercise I eat in front of the television. And then get up and get "another" snack. Oh, wait, and another. Gotta get rid of all this processed food, you know.

So what's this girl gonna do now? Going to the farmer's co-op and getting some veggies today after work. Then go home and do my sculpt routine (I did a 30-minute cardio this morning) and make sure my house is supplied tonight with string cheese, veggies, light bread, peanut butter and some mixed nut packets. (Need some for the "fat" content the book describes, that I talked about last time.) I also need tuna packets, oranges and apples, as well as bananas.

The only frozen treat I will buy over the next couple of weeks are sugar-free popsicles. Those helped me the past couple of weeks ... until I ran out, that is.

That's my biggest problem. Letting the food run out and not restocking and letting my bad habits come back. Hubby is going out of town next week. That should be helpful. One  less distraction at home always is.

Not really a quitter, Insanity. Just frustrated with you.

So here's the thing. I never did finish Insanity. I got through the first five weeks just great. It was when that "kick up a notch" for the second segment really kicked my ass ... and then I got sick. (I've talked about this before.)

So three months after starting Insanity, I have decided to put it on the backburner. I got to the end of week eight.

The bad thing? The second month really wasn't meshing well with my exercise schedule. I cannot do an hour-long workout all at once during my workweek. I tried it for a while, and then I started dreading getting up in the morning and attempting to do any exercise at all.

When I came up with my new plan a couple of weeks ago, I figured I would be able to finish Insanity in a couple of weeks and be happy. Not really so. I got in a couple of workouts on the schedule (which were 40-45 minutes apiece) and would use other workout DVDs I liked on other days. On some days I was "lazy" I brought out the bike and ride around my neighborhood twice ... which is 12 miles. Three times this week while watching television I would sit on a stool and pump some iron while getting my dose of "The Voice" and all the fun teen soapy stuff on ABC Family.

A couple of weeks ago I discussed my new goals. I am happy to say that I have met them the past couple of weeks! (The goal I set was to work out an hour a day for at least 5 days.) Some days I did work out for more than an hour, others a little less. It all evened out in the end, I think.

The last time I weighed myself was a month ago. That week I had been sick, bloated, feeling bad and on my period. Yep, four weeks later, on period again, but after weighing myself I lost 2.6 pounds in the month. I do like that number. Indeed, I have lost more than that in a month before when I was on my first go-around doing Weight Watchers.

After that brief period of not working out for a couple of weeks, I pretty much had to start over again. Going straight back into where I left off was not a good idea. I read that if you are out of your routine for a while you need to start back up slowly to avoid injuries. That is what I have been doing.

In two weeks I plan on going back to the Insanity exercise program, but before I do that I want to try something else first. I was surfing through Prevention's Web site and found an interesting book and DVD program called the Two Week Total Body Turnaround. You can find some details on it at Amazon.com, here: http://www.amazon.com/2-Week-Total-Body-Turnaround-Jumpstarts/dp/B0044KN5IG/

I ordered it from Prevention because they let you try it for free for three weeks. And since the program itself is only two weeks, I figured, what the heck. While waiting for the program in the mail, I went to Hastings in Benton and found the book itself in the bargain bin. So for $8 I bought it and started reading the book, including the food plan they suggested. I liked the food plan because it still fits in with my Weight Watchers points, and I get a list of types of foods, the amounts and what time of day to eat them. Bascally you are eating three 400-calorie meals and two snacks. Two fruits a day, three dairy, four grain, four vegetable, three protein and three fats.

The book also encourages you to work out for an hour a day, with one day a week of "active rest." Basically you are to do 30 minutes of cardio  and 30 minutes of sculpting exercises every day. The author details plans daily, including charts on your exercise schedule, pictures of several exercises and an eating menu. Personally I am not one to look at pictures in a book and follow them that way. I need a more fluid visual reference. To complement the program, two DVDs go along with it, a cardio and a sculpting DVD. So I will use these DVDs instead of looking at the book.

The funny thing right now is, I have started the program today. However I don't have the DVDs of the program. In the book, author Chris Freytag suggests power walking for cardio, but you can substitute that for pretty much any cardio activity, such as riding a bike or swimming. As long as the heart rate goes up. As for the sculpting, I have a Jillian Michaels Get Ripped in 30 I have been using, as well as another Prevention sculpt DVD that goes with their walking program. (Wasn't a fan of that one.)

Since I have the book, I started this morning cooking an egg white scramble with cheese and a dollop of salsa, and a PPJ and banana sandwich. That was breakfast. (2 grain = bread; fruit = banana; protein = egg whites; dairy = ff cheese; fat = peanut butter.) For a mid-morning snack I ate a peach and string cheese. (Fruit and dairy). For lunch I ate turkey dogs in tortillas with two cups of green beans topped with mixed nuts. I am about to eat my second snack, my third dairy, some string cheese. And for dinner I will have my last items on the list. Starchy veg: 1/2 cup of refried beans; protein: Boca crumbles; fat: guacamole; veggies: 1 cup each of tomatoes and broccoli slaw. Basically this is my version of a taco dip. I'll either eat it plain or scoop it up with some red bell pepper.

My biggest thing is late night snacking. However, Freytag wants you to drink at least 2 liters of liquid a day. I have pretty much done that already. BUT if I am wanting to eat something, I will just make some tea and drink that. Should tide me over until the next morning!

Wish me luck! (Haha, no one reads this blog anyway. I am just throwing my thoughts out into the universe.)

All right. Better start.

Well I think I am off to a positive start this time around!
I made my goal I set for myself the first full week on the second go-round of 100 days.

As I said before, I wanted to ease myself back into exercise because of the UTI that I had the previous week, and I didn't want to overdo anything since I had not been very active at all for two weeks.

So basically I:

• Worked out four days out of seven.
• Saturday: walked 3.1 miles.
• Sunday: rode bike 6 miles
• Monday: rode bike 6 miles
• Tuesday: Did nothing. Thought about exercise, though. ;)
• Wednesday: rode bike 12 miles.

WW activity points: 20.

However I ate too much during the week. Had too many late-night cravings. However I am really working on that and am making efforts to distract myself so I don't do it.

First 100: Epic FAIL

All I have to say for the 100 days that ended at the end of May: it was a good try.
I am going to have to say those past 100 days have been a learning experiment with my personal endurance, will power and laziness.

What I accomplished:

• Doing 75% of the Insanity program.
• Keeping a blog like this and actually trying to stick to it.
• Exercising five and more days a week.
• Really learn I have to make an effort when there are time constraints.

What I learned about myself:

• I need to cut myself a break when I get sick. 
• When I am lazy, I can be REALLY lazy.
• I really do eat too much.

I didn't lose any weight during this time. I tried, though. In the end I gained weight. For several weeks I ended up getting ill, and that put a damper on my exercise efforts and motivation.
Last week I had some painful pre-period troubles. Then I traveled to see some friends in Chicago. After that I came home to severe pain for several days and an early-morning trip with Ken to the ER because I knew there was just something really wrong. Turned out I had a severe UTI. (I'm still taking meds for it.)

I still have less than two weeks left on the first go-round of the Insanity program. I am determined to finish it. Then I am going to start it all over again. However I had to ease myself back into exercise this week, because I did not want to aggravate anything. I have done activity every day since Saturday. I am hoping to get back into the swing of Insanity tomorrow. I figured I would need to feel a little crazy first.

So I am going to do this 100 days again. This time I have slightly different goals.
I have another event I am going to at the beginning of September. This next 100 days started June 1 (although I didn't start moving my ass at all until June 4) and will end on Sept. 8.

This time I will:

• Work out a minimum of five days a week. Do a DVD in the morning, and ride my bike (weather permitting) in the evening.
• Do a minimum of an hour a day, moderate to high intensity level.
• Get back into my smaller size 8 clothes. 
• Really watch my food intake and try my best not to go on stupid late-night binges.
• Cut myself a break if I injure myself or get sick again.
• Don't be a lazy ass when I just want to sit on it and not exercise.

I think these are much better, more realistic goals I am going to set for myself when I was just reaching for numbers earlier this year. I had set some unrealistic things for myself. Walking 15 miles a week? Riding my bike 30? Lose 25 pounds? I can't think of those numbers like that now. They were lofty goals, for sure, but I set them so lofty I wasn't being realistic and was setting myself up for failure. Well, it was a learning experience, that is for sure.