My oldest is back at school today after almost almost 3 weeks vacation. I got up, went running, and had to wake him up to get dressed and eat breakfast before it was time to leave for school. Why did he not sleep in even ONCE on his vacation? Baby dd and dh actually slept in until I woke them up at 8:30 to feed her breakfast before playgroup. Dh's first disoriented comment was that ds needed to be taken to school. Yeah, thanks hon, that's what I just got back from doing.
Ilene, another distance measuring option is a garmin forerunner. I got the 201 for Christmas and it uses gps to measure distances. It calculates pace as you're moving and then gives you the average and best pace at the end. It has a mini "map" of the route you ran too. You can even upload the information to your computer. It only works outside though because it relies on gps satellites. I've had lots of fun playing with some of its features like a "virtual training partner" you can run against.
Two days in a row of the same problem that plagued me last school year--arriving home starving and eating way beyond how hungry I actually am. Yesterday that segued from a large snack all the way thru dinner. Today it was a huge snack (2 bowls salad, one with hummus and one with feta cheese/low fat Greek dressing). I am NOT, repeat NOT, eating dinner after this. I can tell that I am full and there is no reason to keep eating.
This is frustrating. This is exactly the same pattern that led to my weight gain last year. I have been successful at maintaining in a good range since mid November, and that's what I want to keep doing.
So, once you have identified the bad habit, how do you replace it with something that will work? So far, I have tried eating a much bigger lunch and drinking water as soon as I get home. Tomorrow I'll weigh in and see if this week has been very damaging.
Elana--can you bring a piece of fruit or some yogurt or cheese (or both) to eat in the car on your way home or before you leave school? It sounds like your lunch and dinner are too far apart for you. Maybe planning to have a small snack before gettin home (when you don't have access to the whole kitchen) would tide you over until dinner.
OnlyMe is right Elana, you should try not to let yourself go more than 2.5 to 3 hours without food... no more than 4
For me this means eating at 8am, 10:30am, 12:30pm, 3pm or 3:30, then supper at 5:30 or six o'clock... and even sometimes another meal at 8pm, but I try not to eat after 6pm... What works for me also is to most of the time eat a carb portion and a protein portion at one meal... Some examples are CC and an apple, or CC and strawberries... Protein powder and strawberries... oatmeal and eggwhites... you can make a protein pancake and roll it up and have it as a snack on the way home... Hope this helps...
I had an exciting revelation this morning. I realized I am finally back losing 'virgin' pounds - meaning pounds that have been on my body untouched for 15+ years. The past 4+ months I have been losing relapse weight from the past 2 years. I thought I still had afew to go, but realized I had made a mistake, and was already 'there'. This also means my relapse was not as great as I had thought, perhaps just over 15 pounds instead of 25. Part of the discrepency arose with my old scale which was off by about 6-7 pounds, the wrong direction of course, followed by no scale at all, and unfortunately other things in my life which totally superceded any interest in my weight.
I discovered this today when I tried on some old clothes I found in a drawer that had been my indicator clothes back then, and at that time did not quite fit. Now they do. I even overshot some smaller clothes I had been saving for when I lost weight. Major pleasant surprise! I had long ago tossed my written record because of the scale inaccuracy, but did some thinking. So, yippee, I am done with the relapse weight and am into new poundage. What a relief that is. It is such a drag to have to re-lose the same pounds one has already lost with difficulty before. It took about 4 months to retrace that territory at about a pound/week.
What the scale taketh, the scale giveth back. How rare.
Other than that, the rain almost stopped today here in So.Calif. We have had alot of damage locally and many roads are still closed. Except for the nasty leak around the skylight in the bathroom, and the teeny, tiny brief water flow thru the garage, all seems well. Most thankfully my clay hill seems stable. There were 25 inches of rain measured on my patio this past week. Our average rainfall is 15 inches/year, and our historically rainiest months are yet to come.
Food and eating and exercise have been good today. Sounds like I get more gold stars. Love them shiney things!
Meg -- 'trainer training' and 'puking" in the same sentence .... sounds like my kinda fun !!
I KNEW we were sisters!!! Quick come join me today! After yesterday, I hurt in places I never have before. We learned how to give seven-minute workouts that are intended to exhaust all major muscle groups and be cardio, to boot. So it's one set each of chest, legs, back, shoulder, bis, and tris, all to failure, adding manual resistance to make it reaaaally tough. No rest between sets, move, move, interspersed with what's called 'active rest'. The 'active' part is accurate; the 'rest' part is NOT! It's a minute of some kind of cardio like squat jumps, jumping jacks, running in place, and the ones that killed me - lunge jumps. Basically jump in the air and land in a lunge position and keep jumping, alternating legs each time. I had to keep my arms out like an airplane to keep from landing on my face but managed to keep up with the youngsters.
We've been promised that today starts out with sixteen cardio stations, kind of like what I described above, and we do them all in a row, one minute at each station. And it gets better from there. You'd LOVE it, you sick pup!
Yesterday I got my textbook for the certification test, all 759 pages. You don't want to drop that sucker on your foot.
Jansan - congrats on being in virgin fat territory! Now you're really on the home stretch!
to all - time to suck down some oatmeal and PP and fly out of here. I'm really starting to feel the connection between fueling your body properly and performance over the past few days of Trainer Boot Camp (yeah, I know I'm a little slow in figuring this out ... )
Meg, that sounds exactly like the class that Robert and I teach on Wednesday nights called "Extreme Functional Fitness". Every Thursday I feel like someone has taken a sledgehammer to my knees I've resorting to doing more of a lunge-shuffle than a lunge jump. Do they have you doing explosive push-ups or explosive push-ups off a medicine ball? (wear a hockey helmet with full face guard!) Hey, at least you get to eat a little more if you're not too tired to pick up a fork
I've been on track with food an exerise. My New Years Eve pounds fell off yesterday. I still don't understand how one meal stuck with me for 11 days...but it's gone and I'm happy. I find I'm thinking about food more than I have been for a while. Bad sign, it usually leads to trouble. I like it right where I am, and there's no room for slippage. I'm at exactly the weight I was when I met my husband 28 years ago, but I'm a lot more muscular. Back then I lifted sporadically and ran manically. Now it's the other way around
Congratulations, Jansan, on making it back into "virgin poundage" Glad you haven't had the SoCal rain damage I've been reading about.
It's done nothing but rain here for the last 3 weeks. Ugh- I guess it's better than having to shovel, but if the sun doesn't come out soon, I may have to go spend 3 minutes in a tanning booth just to pretend there is some sunshine. With a towel over my head, of course.
Meg and Mel, you guys totally exhaust me, and all I'm doing is *reading* about these workouts. God only knows what would happen if I actually tried to complete one of these circuits.
Truth is, I'm envious. I'd LOVE to be able to rack up an explosive set of anything, but what I'm discovering -- by listening VERY carefully to this old bod -- is that (at least for now) I need to monitor my exercise sessions. So, whereas daily 45-minute sessions of treadmill time eventually left me wiped out, 35-minute sessions don't seem to have that effect. Likewise, a 30-minute lifting session seems to work fine; 40 minutes is too long. What I'm interested in is the looooooooong haul. When I try for longer, more intense sessions, I'd burn out by midweek. By going a little shorter and a little less intensively, I can work out all week.
Yoga tonight -- first class since before Christmas. Yipee!!
Mel, I don't know why some meals hang around for days at a time, but I do know the same thing usually happens to me, which is why I think I'm the slowest loser on the planet. Any talk of two pounds a week, or even one pound is so much hooey to me. I consider myself doing extremely well if I can lose a quarter-pound a week. Do you realize that's all of four ounces! Sigh.
Hey Jan, good going on dropping into new territory. I, too, hate to re-lose. I'm glad to hear you're out of harm's way. I've been hearing from my various California pals, and I'm very relieved to know at all are OK.
Elana, any luck with a new strategy? Sometimes, I find myself absolutely starving at about 4 p.m. For the longest time, I wouldn't eat, not wanting to "spoil" my dinner. I had the same problem you did. Now I LOVE to "spoil" my dinner because it means I eat a very small evening meal. It took some planning on my part, and it took an even bigger attitude adjustment. (I swear I can STILL hear my mother's voice telling me to "wait until dinner" -- and she's been giving St. Peter the benefit of her advice since 2000. )
Anne, I'll be interested to hear what exercise options you come up with. I think I might like to try something new, as well, but I think I've finally come up with a routine that I can fit into my day and that I'll stick to. There are days when I'd dearly love to have a pool. There are pools at the university of course, but the logistics of getting to and from in a timely manner have me stymied. All recovered from the race?
One more hour to go ... I think I can do this. I think.
Ah, Robin, that old "don't spoil your dinner" message really stuck with us didn't it? It's taken me a long time to realize what you have, a moderate, healthy snack at 4 means less dinner (and less inhalation of said dinner ). In my case it took having a DH at home who doesn't eat much at the best of times, being at home and saying "oh, I didn't have lunch til 3, I don't want dinner yet" when I'd be ravenous (and btw we have ravens here, and I understand the word completely!). Now I'll have something before I go work out or just before or after I get home from work. We seldom have dinner before 7. Fortunately I never got the "eat all evening" habit so I don't have to break it.
When I worked at Michigan State and later when I was going to Univ of WA I would use the pools a lot, but I find that here they keep the pool area and the dressing rooms cooler than I like, or else I'm just getting old. And as you say, the logistics are a nuisance. When I was a student I had plenty of time, and in Michigan we'd go at lunch. I had long hair and it stayed reasonably dry under a cap and I'd just go back to work damp But hey, I was much younger then!
Hey Pat- I did my grad work at Michigan State and swam most days at lunch or in the evening! I remember those pools well. My office was in the university museum. Did you ever wander through there?
Truth is, I'm envious. I'd LOVE to be able to rack up an explosive set of anything, but what I'm discovering -- by listening VERY carefully to this old bod -- is that (at least for now) I need to monitor my exercise sessions. So, whereas daily 45-minute sessions of treadmill time eventually left me wiped out, 35-minute sessions don't seem to have that effect. Likewise, a 30-minute lifting session seems to work fine; 40 minutes is too long. What I'm interested in is the looooooooong haul. When I try for longer, more intense sessions, I'd burn out by midweek. By going a little shorter and a little less intensively, I can work out all week.
This is me too Indy Robin (which name do you prefer?) When I was younger I could go non-stop all day with many physical activities thrown in. Not like Meg and Mel, Superwomen Extraordinaire (and Running Anne too), but very active none the less. But now that I am 60 (how in the heck did that happen???) I need to be more careful and pick my spots. I love my tennis and if I am playing in the afternoon, I dont even garden in the morning or there is no spring in my step later in the day. I also now prefer to spend my 'exercise' alotment doing long slower gardening rather than doing something that might seem unproductive such as walking. I really enjoy walking, but if I walk an hour, I cant do much more that day with as much energy as I like. In fact my favorite exercise, besides tennis, is coming to be working in the garden over the course of an entire day, doing what I want, coming in to eat, etc, and going out again. Silly as it sounds, I love to dig in the dirt and move dirt around with a shovel. Must be like clearing snow.
Today was a very pleasant exercise day, in part because it was gorgeously dry and sunny here. I played tennis in the morning, and then pruned roses most of the afternoon. Ahhhh...
I lose at a more rapid pace than Robin, about a pound/week is my fastest with my method, but I am also heavier. I still have lots of native muscle which helps, and I do love to use it in my own slow and steady way. My energy level has picked up since I have just lost this last 20 pounds, and am hoping losing even more weight will also help. We will see.
Jansan.. CONGRATULATIONS on reaching the virgin fat lands !!. it must be gorgeous to discover that you are finally past those stubborn on and off pounds. I'm sure your energy level will go up some more if you loose more... just imagine all that energy that you don't have to spend on carrying those 20 pounds around... imagine how tired you would be if you carried a weight of 20 pounds now for the entire day!
Indiana Robin... I too have the feel that only other people loose 1 or 2 lbs a week, For myself, no way. But what I do see is that it goes in spurts... like 3 weeks of absolutely no weight change, and then suddenly a week with loss. I read that it can be that if you lose weight, first the fat cells empty of fat but fill with water, and then when you loose the water the weight comes off. No idea if this is true, but I noticed the pattern in my weight loss.
Jan -- Congrats on the virgin # I love that term, ever heard it before but it makes sense...
Robin -- I too loose at a snails pace ... But I am loosing and that's what counts.
4rabit -- I fluctuate for a few weeks then drop a # or two...
Yesterday I was shopping for pants... My last pair was an 8... being in a silly mood I tried a 6 , I was looking at them on the rack and thought NO WAY , shaking my head, is this going to fit... So just for fun I brought them in with me... They FIT!! I was dumbfounded... BUT super happy ... I didn't buy the pants though, I didn't like the style...
Today I work till 12:30 then the gym ... Shower time sooo TTFN....
Wndranne - yeah it does sound fun, I hope I can manage it Its in a swimming pool - and its about 200 lengths of a pool - hoping to do it in about two hours if I can, have been training and can manage about 50 lengths in half an hour, so just need to pace myself so I can keep going for longer me thinks I'll let you know how I get on.
Had my weekly weigh in last night, and I am up a pound from last week, and i'm now 10,3 I was on 1500 calories a day and doing lots of exercise, so I was really disappointed to have gained - but it was the first time I have been on 1500, and my body wasnt ready I guess so I am now back down to 1400 a day and i'll see what happens this week, hopefully i'll either stay the same or go back down a bit, so that I can go back up to 1500 a day. It seems to be such a long process - I just want to get to a level of food which I am happy and full on and stay the same I liked 1500, but it didnt like me
just when I thought it was going my way too - I decided to just weigh myself once a week, as I was getting on the scales about 10 times day and it was really upseting me - so just when I felt like I was eating enough for me, and doing plenty of exercise and not worrying too much about what weigh I was every day, I get on the scales a week later and I have gained! Made me think either I obsess about it all the time and manage my weight or I ease up a bit and gain - will there ever be a middle ground????
And then after a nightmare night feeling down about gaining, came into work today to have a really bad review. Which to be fair I was expecting - they changed my job role into something I hate doing and I havent been doing it so its fair enough, but it just didnt help my mood I know what I have to, and thats find another job! One I enjoy!!!
I also need to find a happy medium with my weight. There is no way I want to go back to where I was, or even gain a pound but I want to eat enough for me to be happy on (which would be around 2000 cals) and not to have to weigh every second of the day!!! Is this possible do you think???
The one pound weight gain at the weekly weigh-in was probably just a temporary reaction to the change. If you weigh more than once a day, you've probably seen more fluctuation than that in a couple hours--one big glass of water will add one pound, and of course it has ZERO effect on body fat stores. Hang in there! Weight is not a perfect measure of how you're doing. If you're eating on plan and exercising, it should work itself out. I gained, no kidding, more than 5 lbs right after my marathon and I KNOW that my body fat is more or less the same as it was before--and now I'm nearly back in balance again. Now if the weight gain continues for more than a week or two, then maybe think about tweaking your plan. Sounds to me like you're doing great, especially with the job stress!
I'm going to post a 'demystifying the scale' thread this weekend or early next week, when I get some personal data for it. It was the only thing that worked for me in terms of not sweating (or celebrating) every pound, and taught me to look for patterns, very important, and not just look at one data point, sometimes not so helpful.
A bad old habit is back
.... sounds like my kinda fun 
!!
We learned how to give seven-minute workouts that are intended to exhaust all major muscle groups and be cardio, to boot. So it's one set each of chest, legs, back, shoulder, bis, and tris, all to failure, adding manual resistance to make it reaaaally tough. No rest between sets, move, move, interspersed with what's called 'active rest'. The 'active' part is accurate; the 'rest' part is NOT! It's a minute of some kind of cardio like squat jumps, jumping jacks, running in place, and the ones that killed me - lunge jumps. Basically jump in the air and land in a lunge position and keep jumping, alternating legs each time. I had to keep my arms out like an airplane to keep from landing on my face but managed to keep up with the youngsters. 
to all - time to suck down some oatmeal and PP and fly out of here. I'm really starting to feel the connection between fueling your body properly and performance over the past few days of Trainer Boot Camp (yeah, I know I'm a little slow in figuring this out ... 
) 
We will see. 
... I didn't buy the pants though, I didn't like the style... 
I was on 1500 calories a day and doing lots of exercise, so I was really disappointed to have gained - but it was the first time I have been on 1500, and my body wasnt ready I guess 
