Diet Daze

Well, my weekend plans have been cancelled!  One of my friends (the social organizer one) has a cold, so we’ve postponed dinner/drinks and bowling until next weekend.  Still, those are some major calories I’ve just avoided.  It looks like I should have a diet friendly weekend.  Part of me is sad (I do enjoy cheating, of course), but I know it’s for the greater good, lol. 

I’m kind of on a roll right now, and I feel like it’s a crucial time to either finish strong or stop where I’ve stopped before.  I’m under twenty pounds left to lose, so I’m over 3/4 of the way done with this whole process.  I know for some people those last pounds are the hardest, so I should be taking every opportunity to make it not as hard as it could be.

I’m just getting sick of being on a diet.  It’s not dreadful, but it’s very confining, and sometimes I just want to go have fun without worrying so much.  Hopefully that time will be here soon.  I think what I’ll have to do on maintenance is kind of what I did when I was on WW– do really well throughout the week and then give myself some freedom on the weekends because that’s the time I really struggle. 

I should be able to eat 1800 calories a day (sedentary) to 2200 calories (moderate exercise) and maintain a weight of 145.  That’s according to the online calculators, but we’ll see how it goes, I guess.  I plan to keep exercising, but we all know how plans go sometimes.  I think I could handle 1800, though.  Actually, I would need to eat more like 1400 a day to have extra for the weekends.  Still, I think that’s doable.  Once I’m finished with MRC, they have me start counting calories.  I will, however, try to continue to eat more lean protein as I have on the diet because it really does help me stay full, and I know it helps me keep muscle. 

Anyway, I’m happy that I don’t have to fight with off plan foods tonight.  Now I’m excited for Monday’s WI!

Oh, and weight at home today:  159 (that’s down 1/2 from yesterday).  Hopefully now that I won’t have a bingey weekend, I will be low enough in the 150s at home that I won’t go back up out of them even next weekend when the dinner/drink plans reemerge.

At WI today, it showed I’ve lost 2.5 since Monday, which is a good loss.  However, when you compare it to my weight a week ago, I’ve lost 4.5 lbs. in one week, which is great.  So, I think my feeling that it’s going so slow is due in part to weighing twice a week and only seeing half of the progress at once.  Also, the previous week I sort of stalled out thanks to a horrible binge on the weekend.  This week’s weight loss was in spite of dinner out with friends (not a binge, but a fried fish sandwich and a cookie, so not too good) and a cookie incident at work.  I have dinner with the same group again tomorrow, but I’ll try to keep it as OP as possible, especially since I’m only 1/2 lb. away from 65, and I want to sign the 65 lb. board on Monday when I WI.

I also did a body fat analysis at my gym today.  According to that scale, I’ve lost 4 lbs. since my last WI (two weeks prior) and 2% body fat, which is good.  So, he said I’ve been building muscle but losing fat, which accounts for a little less showing up in pounds lost, so that could also be an explanation for sluggishness on the scale.

I had another good eating day today, and I think a big key is adding in that extra 1/2 bar after a workout because it prevents me from getting crazy hungry later.  I’m going to try to do that every day next week, and hopefully I’ll do even better than this week.

I couldn’t run today because my legs and hip flexors were killing me.  So, I did the elliptical, and then I calibrated my nike+ chip (This will be making an appearance on my “rewards” page later this weekend.) for my ipod, which, because I’m a dork and didn’t push the right button, I had to do twice, which meant I ran .5 miles and walked .25. 

Another milestone is my BMI– I’m now at 25, which is thisclose to being healthy/normal– woo hoo!  Maybe by Monday I’ll be “normal”- what a concept.  Also, today at Goodwill I found a pair of my favorite jeans that they don’t make anymore from Old Navy in a size 6!  I’m a size 8 right now, so I bought them so I would have something to try on ten pounds or so down the road.  I don’t have any size 6 jeans since I’ve never been there before, so I thought $5 was worth the investment, especially since I already know I like the style of the jeans. 

Breakfast:  cheese toast (155), egg white 920), HNS (70)— 225

snack:  1/2 bar— 80

Lunch:  bar (160), HNS (70)— 230

Dinner:  turkey burger (yummy btw 250), applesauce (50)— 300

snack:  hot cocoa HNS— 70

Total calories in:  905

Calories burned:  650

Net calories for the day:  355

weight at home:  159.5 (back as low as I ever was, and hopefully I won’t go back into the 160s again!)

MRC weight:  164.5 (down 2.5 from Monday, down 64.5 overall)

The workout today was fabulous.  On Tuesday I ran 2 miles, walked 8 min, ran 1/2 mile, walked 5 min, ran 1/2.  Tonight I ran 2 miles (20 min), walked 5 minutes, ran 1 mile (10 min).  I was running at 6.2 mph and walking at 3.8 mph.  This means that I have now run 5K– albeit not consecutively.  My “big” goal is to be able to run 3 miles or 5K straight in under 30 minutes.  My trainer says that should happen in under two weeks, so we’ll see.  Tomorrow (my third day of running for the week), I plan to try to do what I did today over again.  Next week I’ll attempt to do 25 minutes or 2.5 miles of running consecutively.  Still, I can totally see the progress, and while I still hate running and don’t like it when I’m doing it, I am getting kind of excited about it.  I’m even toying with the idea of signing up for a mini marathon.  I’m not going to jump the gun, though.  My first goal is the 3 miles straight, then my next goal will be 4 miles straight because that’s what my trainer runs, so if it’s good enough for him, then it should be good enough for me.  After that, I’ll reevaluate.

Food went well today, too.  I ate the extra 1/2 bar like they suggest, and it really helped.  I’m not hungry, and I’ll be in bed in a couple hours, and once I’m there, I’m usually safe!  Tomorrow is WI, so I’m hoping to see a good loss.  I’m down on my scale at home, so we’ll see what theirs shows.  I also have a body analysis at my gym (every two weeks we do them now), so I should have some fat % numbers to post.

Breakfast:  cheese toast (125), egg white (20), HNS (70)—  215

Lunch:  choc. wafer bar, very yummy (210), HNS (70)— 280

Dinner:  rst. beef and pepperjack sandwich (180), HNS (70)— 250

snack:  1/2 bar (80), applesauce that I skipped at dinner (50), hot cocoa HNS (70)— 200

Grand total:  945

Calories burned at workout:  600

Net calories:  345

weight at home:  161 (down 1 lb. from yesterday morning– this bodes well for WI tomorrow!)

Well, I fought a cookie today, and the cookie won– actually, he had half a friend, too, so 1.5 cookies won.  Work gets me every time.  I need to stop going in the break room, period.  There’s no reason for me to be in there, so I don’t know why I even go in.  I suppose it’s becaue I want to tempt myself in hopes that I’ll get to eat something yummy.

The workout was good today, and I’ve estimated that I burn about 150 calories during weight lifting and 450 during cardio (actually it’s probably at least 100 more, but 600 is a good low estimate, so I’d rather stay on the low end).  I *usually* take in under 1000 calories a day, so I should be losing pretty fast.  Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be, so I’m not really sure what’s going on.  I’ve been working out for a month now, and, granted, I’m improving in fitness, so I haven’t always been burning quite that much during cardio but close to it at least.  I’m wondering about the whole “starvation mode” thing.  Now, I think that excuse is overused in general, but in this case, since my calories are so low, and my calories burned are so high, I think there might be something to it.  I’m not a calculation diva when it comes to this stuff, though, so I don’t really know.  Your opinion, Laura?

I’m going to continue to post calories here so I have a better record of things.  Incidentally, I dug out my WW stuff, and I should be getting about 1200 calories a day on their plan, eating back about 250 calories for activity points (half of the points I earned), and still getting 35 flex points or 1750 extra calories somewhere in the week.  On WW I lost slowly (1-2 lbs. a week, and 3 at least when I added exercise), but the point is, I should be losing faster considering what I’m doing now.

That said, the mirror was kind to me today, so while it might not be showing up quickly on the scale, I look pretty good if I say so myself.  Even my stomach looks good.  I’m carrying a bit of pudge in the front, but side view is good, and even the front if I have underwear on, lol.  Also, you can see my ab muscles starting to come through (they, of course, would show up better without the fat, lol).  My size in clothes is starting to go down.  I can fit into 8s, but my 10s still look a bit better, so at least a couple more weeks on that.  Maybe by the middle of February I’ll be a comfortable 8.

I’m getting lots of compliments, too.  People at work kept confusing me with this other (quite skinny, probably a size 4) girl– three people separately mentioned that we were hard to tell apart anymore.  Totally astounded me.  So, I guess I need to focus on the positives, and I’m anxious for WI.  Even with the cookies, my calories weren’t terrible for the day.

Breakfast:  cheese toast (125), egg white (20– had no idea these were so low), HNS (70)— 215

Lunch:  bar (160), HNS (70)— 230

Dinner:  lunchable (330), HNS (70)—  400

snacks:  cookies (excellent, from heavenly ham, by the way– 420) other snacks (estimating at 80, probably less)—  500

Total:  1345– yikes.  Definitely more than I normally have.  Hopefully it won’t hurt me too badly.  I have another eating challenge coming up on Friday, though.  Thai food, I think– I’ve never had that, so I don’t even know what to order!

Calories burned through workout:  600— net calories:  745

weight at home:  162 (1/2 lb. lower than yesterday, but still not at 159.5, which was where I was almost two weeks ago.  It is showing a loss on the MRC scale, though, so maybe the 159.5 was just a fluke.)

Today went well.  I was on track to not even eat over my allotted food (even though I worked out hard), but then life happened.  My dog came in all snowy, shook himself on the kitchen floor, unbeknownst to me, and I followed in a minute later and totally wiped out.  I did something to my shoulder in the process, and it’s bad enough that I needed pain medicine, so I had to eat something since it was late, and my stomach was pretty empty.  I’m not a fan of the stomachache that comes along with medicating on an empty stomach.

I had an awesome workout, though– I ran two miles straight!  Actually, I ran a bit further– 20 minutes at 6.2 mph.  Then I walked for 8 minutes at 3.8, ran for 3 at 7mph, walked for 5 at 4mph, then ran for 5 at 6.5 mph.  It was a little all over the place as far as speed/time goes, but I’m still super proud of myself for running two miles.  I have NEVER done that in my life.  Even as a teenager I couldn’t do that.  So, I’m not following the C25K plan by the book as I planned to do– I guess I’m just making it up as I go along.  Still, I think I’m doing okay, and I’m going to try to repeat this workout (or at least the two miles straight part) for my next two running sessions this week and then maybe up it to 2.5 miles straight next week.  We’ll see how that goes.  I’ve been running 3 times per week and doing the elliptical twice so I don’t kill my knee or get shin splints or something.

Other workout news:  apparently I can do 10 guy pushups.  I was rather impressed with myself.  I used to be able to do about 15 when I was in tae kwon do, but after I dislocated my shoulder (ten years ago), I stopped because they hurt.  They don’t really hurt anymore– somewhat, but not like it used to.  Although I hope this shoulder thing from my fall goes away because it’s bad enough that it has me worried.  First ping pong and then a wet kitchen floor…I have such lame injury stories.

Food wise, things are pretty good.  I’m doing much better this week than last, and I’m hoping for a loss on Friday.  I stayed the same at WI on Monday, and that could be attributed to my cheat on Friday or to having just eaten breakfast and drank water right before I went in.  Either way, I’m not too worried since I should see a loss on Friday. 

Just for curiosity’s sake, I’m digging out my old WW stuff to see how many calories they would have me eating.  I’m starting to add things up and will be posting them.  Even though i’ll be following the MRC diet, I’m curious as to the calories in vs. out and how that computes.  I’m usually under 1000 calories per day and burn about 450 through cardio five times a week.  That doesn’t even count whatever I might burn doing weights for 45 minutes to an hour five times a week, but I have no idea how to figure that out.

Breakfast:  1/2 turkey and pepperjack sandwich, HNS (235)

Lunch:  bar, HNS (220)

Dinner:  2 oz. fish, cheese toast, applesauce, HNS (320)

snack:  hot cocoa HNS (90)

snack for pain meds:  cheese and crackers (140)

TOTAL:  1005

workout burned:  450 cardio, whatever in weights

weight at home:  162.5 (down 1/2 lb. from yesterday.  I seem to be hovering here…)

That’s right– I’ve been perfect for two days in a row now.  That hasn’t happened since before Thanksgiving.  I’m eating to the letter.  Of course, it’s probably helped that I haven’t worked out on these two days, so I haven’t had the hunger issue bugging me as much.

I’m even eating my vegetables and not subbing applesauce.  Whether or not this makes a difference is debatable– there’s not much of a caloric difference, but there is a carb/sugar difference.  Regardless, it is making a difference for me because in a weird way, eating my veggies (which I don’t really like) is keeping me on the straight and narrow.  I feel like “If I’ve eaten my veggies and endured that, then why would I mess it up with eating a piece of chocolate??”

So, I’m going to try to stick with this new routine and see how it goes.  I bought some lunchable things today (they were on sale for 99 cents), and I plan to use those on nights where I have to take my dinner somewhere.  They aren’t strictly on plan (few more carbs in the crackers, I think), but they’re extremely close to it– as close as you can get with convenience food.  I also got some new bars that I really like, so I’m looking forward to those tomorrow, too.  Now that I think of it, I’m just hungry, so I better get to bed, lol.

Weight at home:  162.5– down 1/2 lb. from yesterday.  This is a nice trend.  It looks like my cheat on Friday night hasn’t messed me up too much.  We’ll see how WI goes tomorrow.

Well, today went fairly well, except for an unexpected chocolate square that fell into my possession.  I figured it was fate, so I ate it.  It was a dark chocolate square by hersheys– not sure of the calories, but can’t be that high.

Other than that, things went well, and I had a killer workout tonight.  I was so proud of myself for running a mile on Tuesday that I decided to see what I could do tonight, so here’s what I did:

5 min– walk at 4 mph to warm up

10 min– run at 6.2 mph (ran just a hair over a mile)

5 min– walk at 4 mph

10 min– run at 6.2 mph

5 min– walk at 3.8 mph

5 min– run at 6.3 mph

4 min– walk at 3.something to cool down.  I kept lowering it

All in all, I burned about 430 calories and went 3.75 miles– not too shabby for just starting out, and I’m definitely proud on my running time.  In total, I actually ran for 2.5 miles, and just accomplishing the mile straight twice is a huge milestone for me.  I’m going to check out the C25K online after this and see what week this puts me in.  I am on the treadmill for about 45 minutes instead of the 30 they recommend, though, so it’s hard to tell. 

My legs are killing me.  I did some pretty heavy lifting yesterday, and they were already sore from that, so adding the running on top of that spells trouble for tomorrow.  I plan to run tomorrow, too, to make it the third running this week, but after the lunges (tomorrow is my hardest lifting workout of all) and wall sits, I’m not sure I’ll be able to, so I may end up doing the elliptical instead.  We’ll see.  I’m not going to beat myself up about it, though.  After all, it’s still exercise, and I actually tend to burn more calories in a shorter ammount of time on the elliptical than on the treadmill.  I wonder if that’s accurate.

Breakfast:  shake, HNS

snack:  one square of hershey’s special dark with cranberries, blueberries, and almonds (weird, but not bad)

Lunch:  bar, HNS

snack:  few protein soy pretzels (kind of gross, but I was hungry– probably 30 calories)

Dinner:  1/2 chicken and pepperjack sandwich, applesauce, HNS

snack:  4 red. fat crackers with .5 oz. cream cheese, hot cocoa HNS, about 1/4 bar

Now, the key will be not eating anything else before bed.  I genuinely am hungry, so it makes it a bit difficult, especially if I don’t go straight to bed.  Tomorrow is WI, so hopefully that goes okay.  I’ll let you know.

weight at home:  164– this is up, but it shouldn’t be since I’ve been pretty good.  Who knows.  I just know that I could really use a good WI day for some motivation.

Today went fairly well.  I’m still on MQ, and I’m still having hunger issues, still related to working out, I believe.  I was never hungry before, so that’s the only conclusion I can come to.

Things went wonderfully until about 5:00 pm when there was chex mix at work (work gets me every time).  I was hungry, but I had told myself I shouldn’t be hungry (only 3 hours since my bar at lunch), so I didn’t want to eat the dinner I had packed, so I instead chowed down on about 200 calories of chex mix.  Ugh.  Then I was full the rest of the night, so I didn’t even eat the dinner I had packed.  When I got home, I was hungry, so I had fish and spinach thinking it would be better for me than the half sandwich and applesauce I had packed. 

Oh well.  I still think the scale is on a downward trend.  My biggest concern is Saturday night when I have plans to go out with friends again to the same restaurant.  This time I’ll be getting a salad, though.  The pizza wasn’t even all that great.  If you just look at the calories, I should be losing weight, but it hasn’t been showing up that way at WI this week.  I am anxious to see what Friday’s WI shows, though.

Breakfast:  shake, HNS

Lunch:  bar, HNS

snack:  200 cals of chex mix

Dinner:  3 oz. baked fish, 4 oz. spinach, 3 crackers w/ cream cheese (downfall here– I was starving while I was cooking, and there they were.), HNS

snack:  hot cocoa HNS

weight at home:  163 (down 2.5 lbs. from yesterday– this is good.)

Today is my third day of being *nearly* perfect.  Tonight I had to hurry up and eat dinner before my workout, so i subbed applesauce for my veggie and had chicken deli meat, which has more sodium than the fish I’ve been eating, but I figured that was better than having an off plan snack and then eating dinner after I got home.

And, drumroll please……I ran a mile straight tonight.  I started the couch to 5K program (online) back in the middle of December and only got through the first week before I went home and sprained my MCL (my knee) playing ping pong (don’t ask).  So, I was supposed to wait six weeks before running again.  It’s been about a month, but I’ve been feeling pretty good, so I decided to give it a try tonight.  In the meantime, I’ve been doing the elliptical, so I have improved in cardio endurance, but I haven’t been running.   I can even see an improvement on the elliptical.

On with my story– I decided to start out with week one, where I left off, but it was really easy, so I bumped up the running parts from 60 seconds to 90, then to 2 minutes, etc. until I was finally at 5 minutes, and I just decided I’d shoot for running a mile, and it worked!  I was even at the end of my workout and was still able to do it.  I was running at 6.2 mph (9:40 mile), and I ran for 10:30, so it was a bit over the mile.  I probably could have kept going if I wanted to push myself, but it was close to the end of my workout, and I didn’t want to push it too much with my knee.  I’m going to do the elliptical tomorrow so I don’t do too much too quickly and then back to running for Thursday and Friday.

I must say, it was pretty exciting.  I still hate the actual running part, but the feeling of accomplishment is pretty awesome.  I don’t think I’ve EVER been able to do that in my life, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do that a month ago.  I really like being more fit aerobically.  Everyday things are easier– walking from the basement up to my 3rd floor office, for example, or today I climbed the stairs in a five story parking garage and wasn’t too out of breath at the top.  I could have talked to someone doing either of those activities, and that’s a HUGE difference from when I weighed almost 230 lbs.

All of this brings me to another point– for the first time in my life, losing weight is about more than looking good.  Don’t get me wrong, looking good is still my #1 motivator.  However, before I started dieting, I was definitely noticing how difficult certain activities had become, and that had never really been an issue for me before, either because I was so young or because I wasn’t heavy enough to make a big difference.  The health (for many reasons– wanting to have kids soon, not wanting my younger years to pass me by because I’m fat, wanting to keep up with those around me) factors are important for long term maintenance, I think.  Hopefully this exercise thing will turn into a habit. 

The personal trainer thing has definitely helped me keep showing up.  We’ve been working out for a month now– he was talking about it tonight.  I at least hope to surpass all the new years resolution people.  If I can make it until the summer when I don’t have school or work, I think I’ll be good.  At that point, it will be more of a leisure activity than something I have to squeeze in like now.  However, it’s still a big priority for me, and because I have someone to do it with (even if he is a “substitute friend”), it’s something I at least somewhat enjoy.

Okay, so the menu today (Metaquick, so not all that interesting):

Breakfast:  shake, HNS

Lunch:  bar, HNS

Dinner:  1/2 chicken sandwich: 1 oz. cheddar, 2 oz. chicken deli meat (from Aldi– cheap and yummy, we have a winner!), 1piece 45 calorie bread, 1/2 cup homemade applesauce, basically just apple puree with some cinnamon and splenda, HNS

snack at home:  hot cocoa (HNS– supposed to have a fourth one), 3 nibbles frozen choc. mint. bar (allowed since I worked out, and yummy– kind of like an after dinner mint).

weight at home:  165.5– this is lowering, but not as fast as I’d like it to since I was hoping those 7 lbs. were all water.  Oh well, I’m still motivated for tomorrow.  I need to go make my dinner plans, though, since I won’t have a chance to eat.  I guess I really need to pack dinner so I can have something to microwave between my class, my meeting, and teaching.

Today went MUCH better.  In fact, it was perfect.  I started MQ today, and I had no problems sticking to it mainly because there were so few decisions to make with respect to eating.  I also don’t have the candy issue tempting me anymore (because the candy is gone, not because I’m magically immune now).

This morning I was up 7 lbs. from yesterday morning.  I’m hoping to see a drastic drop by tomorrow morning since tomorrow is my WI day.  However, either way, I’ll go and just suck it up and deal with whatever they have to tell me.  At least I do feel better about having gotten right back on track today.  Today was totally OP, absolutely perfect.  It’s been a long long time since I’ve been able to say that.  Usually, if nothing else, I substitute fruit for my veggie, which is technically not allowed, even though I don’t think it really caused me many problems.

So, the moment of truth will come tomorrow morning.  Until then, I’m trying to chug down my water for the day.  I drink so much on MQ between HNS and shakes, etc. that I don’t get thirsty, so today I pretty much forgot to drink.  Oh well– just means I’ll be up several times during the night “flushing out fat and toxins” lol.  (Not sure I believe the hype about water, but I’ll try it at this point.)