Disappointment

Well, forget every hope I had of staying on track yesterday. Instead of not snacking, I snacked all day, overate, and just couldn't stop. I felt so hungry!  Then last night I had a beer. :(

I couldn't figure out why I was so hungry all day yesterday. Then last night my throat started getting sore and I began to feel weak. I'm coming down with something. :(  I always feel like I'm starving when I'm sick. 

I woke up this morning STILL feeling sick. I'm actually still lying in bed. I want to go back to bed, but the hubs went for a run and the baby is up. I'm so jealous of his run. It's perfectly cool outside and he got to run outside by himself...heaven!  Hopefully when he gets back he'll let me just sleep. I feel like I need it. .

The roof, the roof...

...the roof is on fire. Well, not the roof, but my stove was!  Ugh. I had to eat crow yesterday. I'm always getting after my husband for leaving dish towels and pot holders on the stove. It's a bad habit and a fire safety issue.  Well yesterday, while I was cooking, I accidentally left a glass lid on a burner...AND I forgot to turn off the burner!  

The recipe I was making called for rice to be cooked for 5 minutes and then drained and added to a pan of chicken curry. I used pulled the rice off the stove to drain it and forgot to turn off the burner. Then after using the lid to drain it, I placed the lid on the lit burner while I poured the rice into the skillet. About 10 minutes later, my husband was in the other room and said he smelled plastic burning. I looked back at the stove and the lid was on fire!  I went to go grab the lid, but the handle was completely melted  and had dripped onto the burner itself which was on fire.  I grabbed a pot holder and picked the lid up from the side and placed it in the sink (disposal side). It was on fire, so I turned on the water to put it out and the glass shattered...going into the disposal. At this point the burner was still in fire, so I started pulling off the pieces and throwing them in th sink too and dousing with water.  It was all a mess. We spent the rest of the night scraping plastic off of all the metal and the hubs had to take apart the disposal to get the glass out. Lesson learned. (The hubs did feel the need to point out that I always get after him for leaving stuff on the stove. Touché.)

 

On a happier note, the baby slept in this morning until 5:52 AM and I made it to the gym!!  I managed a 2 mile run and 30 minute walk. I may attempt some yoga this afternoon while the baby naps and see if my daughter wants to do it with me!

Meals today were (will be)...bananas and peanut butter and chocolate for breakfast, left over curry and steak for lunch, and BBQ ribs, baked potatoe and corn on the cob for dinner. These are pretty hefty meals, so I'm really going to try and keep snacking to a minimum. 

My goals for the month were run 3

Times a week, and no alcohol for a week. I'm on track with both, but I'm considering extending the no alcohol to the whole month!  Yikes!  We'll see...

Murphy

Today was a rough day. It started with my  17 month old waking up in the middle of the night, and then he got up for the day at 5:00 AM. Needless to say, I've been exhausted all day. 

I spent the first part of the morning cleaning, doing laundry, ironing, putting away dishes, and feeding the kids...basically killing time until the gym daycare opened. However, by 8 the baby was exhausted. Full on, throwing himself on the floor, hissy fit exhausted. I decided to out him down for his nap early and spare the poor ladies at the daycare. 

He ended up sleeping 3 hours!  I should have woke him up after an hour and a half, but to be honest, I was enjoying the quiet time with my 8 year old. Right before he finally did wake up, my daughter asked if she could play with the neighbor kids. She gets so little time to play with the kids in the neighborhood since she spends time with her dad every other day, so I felt guilty about getting her to come home so I could go to the gym. 

Basically I was rationalizing why I shouldn't go to the gym because I was tired out of my mind.  I never did go to the gym and then on top of that, I over ate. :(

I was so hungry today!  I don't know why. The food I ate wasn't very appealing, but I just couldn't stop myself from eating. It seems I'm less hungry on days that I workout. Or maybe it's that I am allowed more calories on days I work out, so I actually get satisfied and don't feel like I'm depriving myself?  Either way, I MUST go to the gym tomorrow. That means I need to get I bed at a decent time tonight so I am not too tired to go. Nighty night!

Protein Powder

One thing I've noticed over the past few months is that I feel a lot less hungry when my Macro nutrient levels are 40/30/30 (carb, protein, fats).  However, I have a really hard time getting enough lean protein to meet this ratio, so I thought I'd try a protein powder. 

Yesterday, I finally went on the hunt for Protein powder and decided to try it. I found a GMO/soy free brand at a local health food store and bought two different flavor samples. Thank goodness I decided to just buy the samples and not spend $40+ dollars on a whole canister because it did nothing for my appetite. I was still just as hungry as I would have been if I wouldn't have had the powder. Two conclusions I came to: 1) the bulk of eating a chicken breast helps fill me up, and a protein shake doesn't hold the same bulk, and 2) chicken breasts are a lot cheaper per gram of protein than protein powder is!

I think I'll just stick to chicken breasts (or fish) and just precook them and keep them in the refrigerator to snack on and get my protein in.  Lesson learned. 

On another front, I've decided to put my scale away until August 1st!  Yesterday, I wrote about not sticking to a plan to give it time to work. This inconsistency is exacerbated by the scale and my emotional reaction to ups and downs. Well, this morning I weighed myself and it was back down. I decided to put it away while it was reading favorably and try to stick this plan out. I've tried to do this before and failed, so I'm taking the scale down to the basement to help me in resisting hopping on. 

Let's see how this goes. This morning's weight was 201.4, so we'll see where I'm at on August 1st!

Sticking To It

While I've been actively trying to lose weight for 16 months now, the only thing consistent about my plan is that it is consistently changing!  I've used this as a tool to stay motivated, but now I'm wondering if it's actually preventing me from reaching my goals. 

I haven't done any one thing long enough to give it a chance to work. For instance, I made a decision to not lift heavy and concentrate on cardio, diet, and yoga. Then today while I was in the treadmill, I found myself talking myself into heavy lifting!  I really enjoy lifting, I enjoy the sore muscles because they're a (relatively) immediate sign of doing something. When weight loss is so slow (or non existent at this point), I like feeling like I'm actually doing something. Depriving myself with no results suck. With lifting, the sore muscles let me know that I did something. 

I almost gave in and lifted.  Then I talked myself out of it. I need to give myself a month on this new plan to give it a chance. So instead, I decided to blog. ;)  I want to become more consistent...more consistent at blogging and more consistent at sticking to a plan. 

Reevaluation

I've been very good about sticking to my plan of running three times a week, and I made it to the gym four days!  (My youngest has had a low grade fever so we didn't go Friday.)  Even with all these fantastic workouts, I've GAINED 3 lbs in a week!

I've pushed myself hard this week. On Monday I ran and then did an intense lower body and ab workout. Tuesday I walked for an hour and lifted heavy weights for back and core. Wednesday I could barely move, literally, so I started out the day with 30 minutes of yoga (before the kids got up!). Then I went to the gym and did arms and swam laps. Thursday I did yoga, ran and did legs again.  Friday was a rest day and today I ran. Each day I also made it a point to walk 40 - 60 minutes with my kids (even Friday). With all that, I STILL gained. I'm so discouraged. 

My eating hasn't been the best. I made the mistake of buying nuts and animal crackers and have binged on both (mostly the animal crackers). I now know I won't be able to keep them in the house. :(

I mentally know that part of that 3 lbs is probably water weight, but I can't handle the gain. My weight just seems to keep creeping up instead of going down. I can't handle the gain mentally, even if it's just retained water, and fear that it will send me into poorer eating habits. So for now, I will be giving up on weight training. 

I read a blog regularly that is pro heavy lifting and boy does the writer look fantastic. They often say...sure you can lose weight just through cardio, but you will just be a smaller version of your flabby self (not a direct quote). At this point, I'll take the smaller version of my flabby self. It beats a larger version of myself any day. :(  So for now, I'll put the weights down and will continue with cardio. I'll also be adding yoga as I've fallen in love with it. Once I'm a smaller version, I'll then concentrate on lifting. 

So that's the game plan for now. Oh yeah, I'm adding a challenge this week too. No alcohol!  I've taken to having a glass of wine (and the obligatory snack that goes with it) every night once the kids are in bed. I need to cut this 280 calories out, so I'm challenging myself not to drink this week. I'll keep you up to date with how that goes!

Extended Stay

For the past 3 weeks we've had my in-laws from England staying with us. No, this isn't a bash my in-laws post, I actually love spending time with them. They're two of the kindest, insightful, funniest people I know. When I spend time with them I get to see where all of my husband's wonderful qualities come from!

There is a downside though, I didn't eat my best when they were here. Not their fault. I'm the one unable to say no to great food. This is the reason I don't normally keep it in the house. However, they're in their 70's, still very active for their age, but LOVE good food. My father-in-law has a sweet spot for good cheeses and my mother-in-law bakes fantastic desserts. ...and they're English, so there's always biscuits (cookies) in the house to go with tea. All things I have a hard time resisting. 

Now that I'm not working out of the house, I thought I'd be well on my way to shedding pounds and getting off this plateau. Instead, my eating has been horrible. Luckily, they like to walk, so we got in at least an hour of walking each day, which kept my weight relatively stable. 

Yesterday I got back on track with going to the gym and eating better. I did well with last month's baby step of getting 10,000 steps at least 4 days a week. This month I'm going to keep that baby step and add running at least 3 times a week. Let's hope this moves some lbs!