On track

This weeks been good. I’ve kept up with my workouts and my eating has been decent. I’ve been really munchy today though and I’m trying to figure out why. I ate some “empty” stuff – rice cakey things. It seems like, while they are good, I’m not getting much bang for my buck there. I think that I identified a big problem though. I think I make my meals too little and then am still hungry and snack instead of just eating a bigger meal. Example – for dinner I made stir fried bok choy, broccoli, water chestnuts and shrimp. But that’s all I made. And of course, after I was snacky and picked around in the kitchen. I think that I need to really try to eat real meals.

4.5 miles twice this week went okay. I am running slower than I used to but I’m not really that concerned about that right now. 8 miles this weekend. The race is coming up, it’s in a month. I’m thinking about running the Silver Comet 10K next weekend too.

Ice, Ice, Baby and other randomness

I wanted something sweet to eat after dinner and freezer burnt Skinny Cow popsicles weren’t going to cut it. So that left me with one lone choice – Jello. I never understand one thing about it though. That’s the speed set method. Okay, so it says to use 3/4 cup of boiling water and 1/2 cup cold water. Got that part. Then it says to add enough ice to make 1.25 cups. Now what does that mean? I took it to mean fill up the measuring cup with .75 cups of ice but if that’s the case, they should just write that and if not, I guess I’m having some watery Jello.

I lifted weights at lunch and now I don’t know if I want to go to the gym again or do nothing. Sometimes I feel like I should save my do nothing days for days when I’m really tired or have other plans or a hangover or something. So it’s either stay home, run 4.5 miles or do the elliptical. The last of which really accomplishes nothing but then I feel like I can say that I went to the gym. In any event, this is what I did at lunch:

• 5 minute warm up on bike.
• Deadlift – 2 sets; 12 reps first set at the weight of the bar (which I think is 45 pounds) plus 10 extra pounds, second set the weight of the bar plus 15 extra pounds – this time I did them straight legged and still feel like my form is off. I think I really need to have someone show me how to do this properly.
• Dumbell shoulder press – 2 sets; 12 reps.; 12 pound weight in each hand.
• Lat Pulldowns – 2 sets; 12 reps; 67.5 pounds. Woo – I used to do this at 45.
• Lunges on alternating legs – 2 sets; 12 reps per leg – 10 pound weight in each hand.
• Cruches – 2 sets; first set was 50 regular crunches, second set was 30 reverse crunches.

I’ve been cooking more lately. Which is great in all respects but one. I am constantly emptying the dishwasher and cleaning the kitchen. Everytime I turn around, there is a mess of dishes in the sink. I cook for one, sometimes two people, I can’t imagine what it’d be like to cook for a family. Of course, then I’d make the kids do the dishes.

I also discovered at about 2 in the afternoon that I’d been wearing my underwear inside out all day. My lacy thong. Who does that? Not only was it inside out and I didn’t notice in the several bathroom trips that I made in the morning, but I changed into and back out of my gym clothes and still didn’t notice!

Derailed

The weekend wasn’t so great, food wise. On Friday night, Jason and I went out to dinner at some random little bar that is near my apartment, sort of, but I’d never been in. It was weird, like stepping into a small town. It was very family oriented and sort of country. Anyway, I ordered a veggie pita with steamed veggies. It was okay. The description of the pita said it came with some sort of dressing and I asked for it without it. The waitress informed me that it was already mixed together and asked if I’d like to try it. It just seemed like an oil and vinegar type dressing, so I got it.

We left after the meal and went home and watched a movie. Yeah, I’ve become boring.

Saturday is where the diet derailment began. I had a 7 mile run scheduled. I was going to do it while Jason was sleeping but I just wasn’t in the mood. So, I waited until about 2. It started out badly. I felt super sluggish. I almost talked myself into not running the full distance many times. But I knew that if I didn’t get it over with, it’d just be there the next day and I’d be mad at myself. So I finished it. I walked up some hills but mostly I ran. I got into a zone at about Mile 4. That’s been happening lately. I used to start to feel that way at Mile 3, but for some reason now it doesn’t happen until 4. When I came back from the run, I had to get ready quickly because one of my friends and I had tickets to go to this Oyster Festival and she was coming to pick me up at 3:45. I hadn’t eaten lunch yet and wasn’t really hungry but decided, for some reason, that what I needed was a bunch of fat free ice cream. I probably ate at least 3 servings. We got to the Oysterfest and it was horribly crowded. Like push your way through the crowds, stand in line for 20 minutes to get a drink crowded. So we left and went out to dinner in the Highlands.

All was fine until the pitchers of Stella started coming and my willpower just went out the door. We went to a different bar and met up with some other people and one of my friends ordered chips and salsa which I ate a bunch of. Then Jason came to meet us out and he ordered hummus which I also ate. I had already had hummus for dinner!

All in all, it wasn’t terrible, I suppose. On a good note, I just realized that Map My Run has a Follow Streets option. I think this is the best discovery I’ve made so far in 2008.

Riddle me this

Why do running shorts always, always, always ride up? I don’t understand. I’ve tried various lengths, bought them in different sizes and no matter what I do, they ride up. So I’m that girl. The one that looks like a fool on the treadmill trying to get her shorts to fall normally. Does this happen to everyone? It’s always happened to me and that’s one reason why I’ve worn capris in all of the races that I’ve done. Well, the longer ones. You’d think that someone who invent shorts that don’t ride up. Maybe I should try a running skirt. Or maybe I’m doomed to a life of spandex.

At least I ran 4.5 miles. Bitching about my shorts in my head the whole way, but 4.5 miles anyway.

And on the eating front, add a ton of almonds and a slice of cheese to my previous list. Oh well. C’est la vie.

Cut off

I have been a bottomless pit today. So freaking hungry at work. It started innocently enough – egg beaters with a cheese and tomato slice open faced on a slice of bread. About a cup, maybe a little less, of Blueberry Kefir. But then around 10:30, the tummy rumblings started, as they normally do. And my dumb ass ate an apple. News flash, an apple is good for food cravings, when I just want something to eat, not so good when I’m actually feeling like my stomach is going to eat itself. I need to have snacks with a little fat and protein. But no. So a half hour later, I’m still famished and I my “afternoon” snack – triscuits. Then I decided I still wasn’t full so I made a protein shake. And by shake I mean putting protein powder in milk and shaking it. Mind you, this was all before lunch.

Lifted weights at lunch:
Squats on the V-squat machine – 2 sets of 12 reps. One at 50 pounds, the second at 55.
Push ups at a 45 degree angle on the Smith machine – 2 sets of 12 reps
the thing – I always forget what it’s called – it’s for your back and works your biceps too. Anyway – 2 sets of 2 reps. First at 45 pounds, second at 52.5.
Step ups – 2 sets of 12 reps. 20 pounds both sets.
An ab thing – 2 sets of 15 reps. I was supposed to do Swiss Ball Crunches but nary a Swiss Ball could be found.

So, yeah, back to eating. I stopped at Subway and got a Veggie Delite (mustard; no cheese) and apparantly Subway has all these new “healthy” chips. I tried the Flat Earth Peach Berry Mango. Damn good. And if you check out their website, you’ll see that you can print a coupon for a free big bag of chips. You’re welcome.

So, didn’t have an afternoon snack because I’d eaten them. Then I got stuck in horrible traffic. This city just falls apart if there is any sort of precipitation. It took me an hour to get home. I work 13 miles away. Had a normal dinner. More of the Mexican Pasta salad and steamed broccoli. Then I had a piece of bread with sugar free jelly.

Still kinda munchy. I need to run 4.5 miles today. No backing out like I did yesterday.

Maybe I was doing them right

My hamstrings are sore! Maybe I was doing the deadlifts correctly after all. I was reading somewhere about how a lot of women have a discrepancy between the strength of their quads and the strength of their hamstrings. I know that my quads are much stronger. In pilates class, I have a lot of trouble doing the bridges, especially on one foot. These are hamstring exercises. When I snowboard, I have a lot of trouble standing up on the board. (I mean physically getting up from strapping my boots in.) After trying to figure out forever why I had so much trouble, I summed it up again to weak hamstrings. Despite all the running I’ve done in my life, my legs really aren’t as strong as I’d like them to be. I guess the ol’ theory of “I don’t need to do legs, I run” doesn’t really cut it.

I ran 4.5 miles yesterday on the treadmill. It feels strange that I’m already more than half done with my half marathon training. I am not very confident in myself to tell the truth. I know that I’ll be able to finish, but I don’t really count on having a good time. I’ve been running 10:30 miles instead of 10 like I had done in previous races. It’s important for me to not get bogged down with time. I’m extremely competitive with myself sometimes.

Food today was good. I’ve kept it under 1800 calories.

Breakfast – Lower sugar oatmeal made with skim mixed with banana and .5 oz almonds
Snack – .5 oz almonds
Lunch – Asian veggie burger (decent) on Masada (a local bread that rocks) bread with lettuce, tomato and 1 slice part skim pepperjack; big apple; 2 hershey kisses
Snack – 1 serving triscuits with 2 tbsp hummus
Dinner – leftover Mexican Pasta salad; steamed broccoli with my favorite “sauce”. (Salsa and cottage cheese mixed together); Breyer’s 100 calorie ice cream.

I feel like I’m going to be eating that leftover Pasta Salad for the rest of my life. The recipe said it made 5-6 servings. I’ve had it three times and there is still a lot left.

Back to the grind

In 2000, when I had my first job out of college, I worked a 4-day week. I worked a ten hour day, ate lunch at my desk but had every Monday off. I hated the job, but I loved the schedule. Life would just be so much better if we always had 3-day weekends. Two days is not enough time to relax, have fun and get stuff done. Usually, getting stuff done falls to the wayside.

So, now it’s back to the grind. But the great thing about having Monday off is that today is not Monday. I went to the gym during my lunch hour. I have been doing the lifting routines from The New Rules of Lifting for Women.It definitely helps me to have a set routine and to note how heavy I lifted so I actually increase the weight. I’ve been lifting weights as part of my general workout routine for 7 years or so and I probably still lift the same amount!

This is what I did:

Deadlifts – 2 sets; 15 reps. Now, I couldn’t really do this correctly. The picture in the book shows a person with bent legs picking up the barbell from the ground and then putting it down again. It said it didn’t matter how you put it down. But I always thought a deadlift was more of a lift with a straight back where you don’t put the barbell all the way down. I need to investigate. Anyway, I did them with just the weight of the barbell with no added weight.

Alternate sets of dumbell shoulder presses and lat pulldowns – 2 sets each; 15 reps. Shoulders with a 10 pound weight in each hand; lat pulldowns at 60 pounds.

Aleternate sets of lunges and crunches – 2 sets each; 15 reps each leg per set for lunges; 30 crunches. Lunges with an 8 pound dumbell in each hand. The workout routine actually had me doing a swiss ball crunch but I couldn’t find a ball. It also only had me doing 8 reps which I thought was too easy.

I’m going to go back to the gym later tonight to do 4.5 miles. It’s still crowded from New Years and I find that even at 9 pm, sometimes all the treadmills are full. Argh.

So, say what you want about this, but I started trying to count calories. I’ve been totally underestimating what I’ve been eating by a LOT. I was inspired by Kath who talked about using a food scale. I saw one relatively cheap at Target. So I’ve always thought an apple has roughly 80 calories. I happen to have two apples in my house and when you actually weigh them one has 146 calories and one has 130. I mean, whatever, it’s an apple but I’m sure my portions of everything are way underestimated.

Oh and the Morningstar Farms Veggie Cakes (here) are sort of weird and mushy.

Happy President’s Day

I actually had the day off today which was great. I sat on my ass and did nothing. I should have gone to the gym, and I guess I still can, but I know that it’s okay to take a rest day. I am not sure when the last rest day I took was – maybe Tuesday? I guess I wasn’t completely lazy. I went to Whole Foods to drop off my recycling and bought an artichoke. I had a craving for one. Unfortunately, I had to boil it because it was so big that it didn’t fit in my steamer. It was still good though.

I made strawberry pancakes this morning for myself and Jason.
Pancakes:

3/4 cup of Hogdson Mill’s Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake Mix
3 tbsp egg whites
1 cup skim milk
about a cup of sliced strawberries
about 1.5 tsps of canola oil

Mix and ummm…pancakize.

We ate them with Sugar Free Syrup. I’m trying to cut down on my fake sugars but I just am not at the point where I feel comfortable eating real syrup, especially when I’m trying to focus on weight loss.

I kind of snacked some during the day. Nothing horrible, mostly hummus.

I made dinner too. The above mentioned artichoke which I’m too lazy to rotate the picture of!

I also made Mexican Style Pasta Salad with Beans and Corn from The PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) Vegetarian Cookbook.

My food photography definitely needs some help. I have a crapola camera and bad natural light in my apartment. Oh well.

It started out well

Yesterday started out really well. I woke up around nine and left a sleeping Jason in my bed and went on a 6 mile run. I forgot how much I enjoy running early in the morning. There is a part of me that enjoys it because I’m getting it over with and it doesn’t loom over my head for the rest of the day and there is another part that somehow feels superior. Like I’m not in bed nursing a hangover on a Saturday morning, I’m out and about and doing good things for my body.

I had some sugar free jelly on a wasa cracker before I left. It was perfect weather too. About 55 degrees. I was dressed a little too warmly however. I had on capris and a long sleeve shirt. About halfway into it, I had to roll up my sleeves. I didn’t really get into a zone until about mile 4 but it did happen. After I got home and showered (and bought Radiohead tickets!), I went to Publix and got ingredients to make pancakes for Jason. I used Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat pancake mix and put strawberries in them. We also ate two Yves Sausage patties each.

All was well until dinner time. It was Emily’s birthday and a bunch of our friends went to Einstein’s for dinner. I had a glass of wine and didn’t partake in the appetizers that Erin, Baha and Caitlyn ordered. But then we noticed there was this menu of $6 martinis. As the martinis kept coming, my healthy eating went out the door. I ordered a pretty healthy entree, a grilled tilapia sandwich on foccacia bread with a side of spinach. They brought Emily’s this huge ice cream sundae because it was her birthday and that’s where I lost it. I ate A LOT of her sundae. It only got worse from there. We went to the Brewhouse and Jason met us there after he got off work. He ordered nachos. I ate a ton of them. Ugh.

A little background

After maintaining a 30-35 pound weight loss for several years, somehow I managed to gain the Freshman 15. Except I was a Freshman nearly 15 years ago! (Wait, was I? Ugh, I’m old.) I’m not exactly sure what happened. I guess I need to go into some background history.

I lost a lot of weight by doing the South Beach Diet. I’m not exactly sure how strictly I followed it or what I was really eating but my attempts to lose more and more weight started becoming more and more disordered. This was perhaps in 2005 and I don’t remember exactly what I was doing except that I had extreme willpower in most cases. I shied far, far away from refined carbs, worked out for an hour and a half a day and thought of up every excuse in the book not to go to bars. I got small. But along with smaller clothes, I had a bunch of unwelcome side effects namely bad breath, thinning hair and lack of a period. After a while, I recognized that I was flirting with a serious problem and managed to overcome it. I gained about 5-7 pounds and felt like I was at a happy weight for myself. I ran races and still managed to eat relatively well but didn’t kill myself trying to stay away from the breadbasket.

Fast forward about two years.

Still at the same weight, give or take. I decided to sign up for a marathon. Marathon training was tough and it made me hungry. Really hungry. So I ate. And ate. And drank. At the time I was seeing this guy who drank A LOT. Although we only dated for about two months, pretty much every date centered around alcohol. At the time, I thought I was having fun. I also thought that since I was running so much, my body would be okay. And it was. For a while. It was hard to listen to my body while I was training. I was honestly hungry all the time. I decided not to weigh myself because I wanted to give my body the fuel that it needed. During the training period, I probably gained 3 pounds or so. My clothes fit okay. After the marathon, I grew completely disenchanted with running. People say that running a marathon is one of the most rewarding things you can do for yourself. I didnt ‘feel like that. I was pissed off. Pissed off that I had to walk the last five miles because of heat exhaustion and dehydration. Pissed at my time. Pissed at running.

I still worked out, but I didn’t run. I did the elliptical a lot and lifted some weights. I also did Pilates here and there. And probably ate the same amount as I used to. It was sort of like whatever toll I had taken on my body, especially with all the drinking, was catching up to me. I felt sluggish and tired all the time. I went to therapy. I was really unhappy with myself at this time.

About a month or two later, I met Jason. We started hanging out a lot and a good portion of our first dates were also centered around alcohol. We’re both shy. At least for me, drinking helped me come out of my shell and get to know him better. I think the trouble with my weight really started when I started taking the pill. Probably a month or so after I was on it, my clothes became very tight. This was also around the holidays and my office got a ton of crappy, albeit tasty food. People say that weight gain from birth control is a myth. I don’t know. I used to gain weight in my stomach. My stomach has stayed the same. My pants are just all very tight in the thighs now. I think that is hormonal.

So, for the past month, I’ve been really trying to shed this extra ten or so pounds. I signed up for a half marathon. I’m not drinking during the week except on special occasions. Jason’s trying too. He’s lost 20 or so pounds. I’ve lost and gained the same 3.

I know how to do this. I know a lot about healthy eating. I just need to practice what I preach. I need to log my food to see how much I’m honestly eating. My problem isn’t so much eating unhealthfully, rather it’s eating too much healthy food. Even though a food is good for you, eating three servings of it is not. I’m also trying to lift heavier weights and document that too. I’ve been lifting light weights for a good 6-7 years and in some areas have not increased the weight at all!

So, there you have it, non-existent reader.