No Fastfood and Killer Workouts

Hello!

So, i'd like to say that i haven't been posting because i've just been so busy kicking butt that i haven't had time but quite the opposite is the case. I haven't been focusing on eating healthy at all so there hasn't been anything to post. :(

I guess it was about the end of January that i fell off the "eating healthy wagon" and i didn't just fall off and get a few bruises. I completely forgot to tuck and roll and ended up with some broken bones. I was seriously depressed for a good 2 weeks. Depression of any sort is very unusual for me but i just couldn't shake the feeling. I had just let myself down and i was just completely and utterly disappointed in myself. I have failed at my fair share of diets but this was different. I would be sitting there and consciously telling myself "i shouldn't be eating this" or "i'm full, i should stop here" but i would just keep cramming stuff in my mouth until i was well beyond miserable. I just wanted to cry. I have never been that out of control in my life. It was a weird feeling and honestly kind of scary. I don't know what caused me to constantly binge eat but thankfully it has passed.

I was talking with my very healthy-eating conscious friend, Mat, about how upset i was with myself for continuing to fail and he pointed out that i was trying to go from nothing to SUPER HEALTHY EATER overnight. He suggested i make baby steps and slowly adjust to a healthier eating lifestyle. So, he made me promise to not eat fastfood for a month. A WHOLE month! I reluctantly agreed. Here i am 5 days later and i feel good!! I find that even when i over eat, i don't feel sluggish and just all around crappy like i did after eating fastfood.

The downfalls are that it is more expensive and more time consuming to not eat fastfood. That is true if you eat at home or eat out. I've also had to think outside the box sometimes. On my running days i definitely don't have time to cook and it is often too late to go to a restaurant but Mat pointed out that there is an CO-OP organic Market on my way home that has a hot bar so i can quickly grab something there for dinner instead of going through a drive thru somewhere. One hurdle i see in the distance is taking food over to friend's houses for TV shows. Previously we would grab KFC or Chick-fil-a but now what do we do?? For this first week we are going to take the take-n-bake pizza, Papa Murphy's, but i have no idea what to do for week two? I'll have to talk to my "food coach". haha

To go along with this new fastfoodless lifestyle, my work has started a lunch time workout group to go along with out Biggest Loser contest. So not only am i running 2 days a week but now i will be working out at least 4. I'm pretty excited to have some people to workout with. To keep me motivated and accountable. Today was just day 2 but i am already so sore i can barely walk up stairs. The lead guy really kick our butts. I like it! Bring on the burn! (Am i insane?!)

I'm excited to see how i feel after giving up fastfood for a month and increasing my workouts. Will i even be able to tell a difference? Will i ever go back to fastfood?? Will i survive the stairs?? I'll report back mid-March!

//Stacy//

P.S. Have no fear! I didn't mean i won't post again until mid-March... just meant i will review this subject again at that time. :)

2>1>0

I have been a bad (lazy), bad (okay, really lazy) person! Tomorrow would make a whole month without me blogging. Not only have I not been blogging, I have also not been tracking calories or really been working out either! Here's my story:

My week 4 started like any other week and then Tuesday came along and it all went to heck in a hand basket.

Sunday: Worked out like normal
Monday: Normal Rest Day
Tuesday: Skipped Yoga because of Lost Premiere and dinner with friends
Wednesday: Skipped working out - dinner/tasks at Parent's house
Thursday: Skipped Yoga - worked late
Friday: Skipped working out - DnD night!
Saturday: planned to skip workout to go to JC and then ended up helping the MIL all day.

After a week of my workout plans being obliterated I honestly got a little depressed. It was mostly out of my control and i knew i shouldn't have let it get me down but it did. Then I didn't feel like planning a meal plan for week 5 so i didn't and everything just went downhill from there.

Here I am at week 7, by now i should have lost about 14 pounds and instead i have lost 9.2. There is one tiny good thing that has come of this. I seem to understand health eating a little better now. Even though i haven't tracked calories or stuck to my workout schedule for 4 weeks now I have still lost week every week except one and that week i stayed the same. Here is the breakdown:

POUNDS LOST BY WEEK
Week 1 - 3.2
Week 2 - 2.2
Week 3 - 1
Week 4 - .6 (hey every little bit counts! ha!)
Week 5 - .8
Week 6 - 0
Week 7 - 1.4
TOTAL LOST 9.2

So obviously I was a lot more successful when i was tracking and working out but at least, i think, this shows that I understand healthy eating a little better than i used to.

Does this mean I'm just going to wing it from here on out? HELL NO!! I'm getting back on the wagon tomorrow. This is going to be a little different though because James has decided he wants to cook some so I wont have as much control over what i eat for dinner but i told him to keep it under 500 calories if possible. I still have full control over breakfast and lunch though.

As of yesterday my back problems have started up again because I have been skipping yoga. So i HAVE to start going again. I can not afford a chiropractor right now since we found out we OWE taxes this year!! (suck!)

As a little incentive to get back on track to lose weight we booked a cruise for May!! My goal is to lose 15 pounds by our cruise. At a realistic estimate of 2 pounds a week that should be totally obtainable! Yay! Wish me luck! /fingers crossed

Now...I know what you are thinking... "Stacy, i thought this Resolution thing wasn't suppose to be about losing weight. That was just suppose to be an added bonus". Well you are right. That is true. But let's me honest here, I was just trying to trick myself into not getting depressed if my weight loss didn't go as planned and let's face it I proved that didn't work in week 4. I shouldn't have been concerned with the fact that ALL my workouts were canceled in week 4 but I was. I woke up Friday (my weigh in day) dreading the scale and luckily I had still lost .6 pounds but I still felt like a failure because i had done so well the weeks before and i let it affect my motivation. I think that goes to show that this "healthy eating" side of this resolution thing is very much about weight loss and a little bit about being healthier in general (i.e. back issues, endurance, etc).

Speaking of Resolutions... i really need to start working on some of the other ones...

Resolution #5 - Get in Better Cario Shape

For the most part I am going to follow the points of Resolution #4 and just tag some goals on there:

• The first day I go to work and I am not out of breath with I climb the stairs will be my first small victory.
• Run 1 Mile by end of February
• Eventually jog a 5k without walking at all - 5k TBD after I kind of see my rate of progress

I guess I could have combined 4 and 5, huh?

Resolution #4 - Get Back to the Gym

James and I have had a membership to the YMCA for all of 2008 and the later half of 2009 yet we go for a few weeks and then completely neglect it. I mean we don't even pretend to go. (At least we don't try to delude ourselves, right?) To make matters worse, my work has a work out "gym" and I barely even find the motivation to go there!

DEFENSE
• The YMCA location that we live closest to is too small for the number of members they have. After 6pm it is packed and during Jan - March (when everyone is working on their New Year's resolution) it is so packed that sometimes you can't even use the equipment that you want and that is annoying. Another annoying part of the gym is the lack of parking. They always have some kid events going on and even if the workout room isn't crowded the parking lot always is. (/weh)

• My work "gym" can barely be called that. They have 2 ellipticals and 2 treadmills, 3 bikes (I hate bikes), and a few weight machines. I'm not complaining because at least it is something but it basically makes working out during my lunch break impossible because a lot of people go to lunch at 11:30 (I go at 12) and take all the equipment. Then after work everyone else gets off at 5 and I don't get off until 5:30 so once again they beat me to all the good stuff. My only chance is to workout before work but that is unlikely since currently I can barely wake up in enough time to get to work as is. ***NOTE: That may change if I am successful with Resolution number 3! ***

Okay... now that I have my excuses out of my system I can get to business. Last time I tried to start working out again I really pushed myself thinking "I am young, I can handle it!" and I ended up with a hurt back and foot and 6 trips to a Chiropractor. From that I learned that I am still young and I can should be able to take a lot but I have really neglected my body since high school. I was very athletic in high school but after I graduated I didn't keep it up. I almost always start to go to the gym and go for 2-3 weeks and then stop going. I have lost weight before because of diets but I don't think I have ever went to the gym enough to lose weight. That is sad.

So I have to start slow. Not because I am a wuss but because I have basically neglected every muscle in my body for almost 10 years. My plan is to start January as cardio only. The first few times I will just walk (at an incline) on the treadmill then I can slowly move into jogging. After I get my cardio going a little I will through weights in the mix. My goal for mixing in weights in February.

I have heard a few times that working out first thing in the morning accelerates your metabolism. Does anyone know if this is true? If it helps at all? As we all know I am NOT a morning person so if I am going to lose sleep for something it better have some hella benefits!! :)

GAMEPLAN
I don't really have much of a game plan here other then making myself actually go to the gym. Here are a few things I could think of though:

• Goal is to workout 5 days a week.
• Go very light for the first month. I've been out of shape and out of the gym for a long time now. Also with my recent semi rapid weight gain I think my heart is under more stress. January = Cardio only.
• Get more intense for February. Look to one of my fitness magazines for workout plans that mix cardio and weights.

Official Start Date: Sunday, January 10th.