Week 30

I lost 2.4lbs this week!  Hooray!

This is one of those weeks that was a little puzzling to me as to why the big loss.  Not that I’m complaining, mind you.  It just seems like I goofed up (a lot) on my eating habits this week, and I didn’t push myself as hard as I could have in my workouts.  I spent this past week trying to kick the lingering cold out of my system (felt fine, just couldn’t breathe to save my soul).  That whole not breathing thing really cuts into one’s ability to kick it at the gym.  And as is par for most who are trying to lose weight, one bad thing leads to another.  When I don’t work out as hard as I could, I also don’t eat as well as I could.  BUT (always look for the silver lining) I have noticed that I am not overeating portion-wise.  Taking smaller initial portions has become a habit for me and I do it without thinking any more.  I never rarely tell myself that I can’t go back for another portion, but getting another portion means that I have to get up, walk all the way to the kitchen and serve myself some more (laziness in action!).  While I’m debating the cost-benefits of this decision, I usually figure out that I’m not hungry any more, which means that I usually don’t overeat (even when the food choices are horrible).  I am so happy that this is falling in to place for me!  If there was one thing (not counting anything exercise related) that I wanted out of this journey it was to still be able to eat what I want without overdoing it.  I love food, a lot.  I love healthy food and junk food; fast food and home cooked meals; local cuisine and exotic fare.  I love it all and I want to eat it all.  I am a firm believer in moderation being key.  If you deprive yourself of something (say sugar for example as I’m snacking on some dark chocolate at the moment) you will probably see amazing results for a while.  But if you can’t truly give it up for the rest of your life, the results will disappear as soon as the deprivation makes its way back.  So I will set four dark chocolate kisses out on the table and close the rest of the bag back up into the freezer instead of leaving the whole bag out and chowing down without even thinking it over (such an “old Sara” thing to do).  This was one of the tricks I learned after reading Mindless Eating.  I plan on writing a separate post about this book and how I’ve applied it to my life.  I was lucky enough to see the author give a talk at a psychology conference that I attended a few years ago, and would highly recommend anyone who is interested in the science behind eating (and why we do so much of it) to purchase a copy of his book.  It’s fairly cheap on Amazon, and I’m sure you can find it in a local book store as well.  At least give it a look-over.  It’s science based, but it reads like a story and makes the research very approachable to people who are not familiar with the scientific field.

As for how the rest of my day went, well, you’ve probably noticed that this post is getting out a little later than usual.  It’s the week before spring break.  That means that I have a presentation, two tests, and a few short papers that are due this week.  It all kind of caught up with me this morning and I went into panic mode for a while.  I haven’t completely pulled my fat out of the fire just yet, but things have slowed down enough for me to squeeze in a post.  I also woke up this morning and noticed that my knee was hurting.  It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t walk on it, but it definitely hurt enough that I didn’t want to run on it.  Fortunately for me, I already had an appointment with my chiropractor for a back alignment, so  while I was there, I asked him to take a look at it.  Basically, the doctor told me that I should take it easy on the running for a while.  Because the pain was not sharp, and almost completely went away after putting a wrap on it he thinks that it is an overuse injury that should go away with time.  While this is pretty good news for my long term running career, it pretty much puts the last nail in the coffin of running the whole 5k in four weeks.  Even if I was on healthy legs, I wouldn’t have been ready to run the whole race (stupid cold knocking me out for so long).  Tomorrow I’m going to hit the gym and see how my knee takes to (my version of) speed walking with the wrap on it.  If all goes well I’ll focus in on that until my knee recovers.  I’m hoping that when I go back for my next adjustment in a month I’ll get the green light on my knee to start pushing myself on the track again.  In the mean time, I guess I’ll just focus in on losing more weight (which I’m sure has contributed to the injury even though my doctor daintily danced around that subject) and finding non-impactful ways to fit cardio back into my life.  I bet my recumbent bike in my basement has missed me. 🙂

My biggest goal for this week is to listen to my body.  I need to pay special attention to my knee, of course, but I also want to pay attention to how the rest of my body reacts (or doesn’t) to my exercise routines.  My abs training on off days last week has been a great start.  I can tell that my lower abs are being worked well, but I can also tell that my obliques need more attention.  I feel like my body has learned how to streamline some of my strength routines, so it’s probably time to either push them a little harder or switch the routines up all together.

Another goal for this week is to keep up with my abs training.  I’m headed in to week 2 and I’m off to a good start.  I’d really like to keep this habit up and add some variety and intensity to my exercise routine.

A third goal for this week is to keep drinking water.  I slipped last week and fell off the water wagon.  No use in pouting about it, but it’s time to pick myself up and try again.  Here’s to a healthy 64 oz each day!

And my last goal for this week is to focus in on the silver linings.  This week is going to be crazy busy, and I’m probably going to cry at least once, regardless of how well things go.  That’s my reaction to stress, unhealthy as it is.  If I can find some way to see something positive in whatever situation I find myself in, I’m sure things will go along much easier for me.

Only 70lbs to go!

March Exercise Routine

(Side note, I had this post titled April Exercise Routine until about half way through writing the post.  Is it spring yet??)

As promised, here is a run down of my exercises that I will be doing this month. I’ll probably refer back to this post in future posts (probably definitely about how sore my core is) and maybe this will offer someone else a little inspiration for exercises too.

Mondays

I’ll be sticking to my running routine to start with, then will work my quads, hamstrings, calves and abductors and adductors (inner and outer thighs) on the weight machines at my gym followed by stretching and cool down.

Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays

Start off with 20 minutes on my stationary bike.
Plank (Lay face down on mat, balance weight on elbows and forearms and lift body off of the floor with toes.  Keep body in a straight line from shoulders to heels.  30 seconds is 1 set)
Bicycle (Lay on back, bend knees and lift feet off floor, lift head and shoulders off the floor placing hands behind your head.  Reach elbow towards opposite knee and then switch sides.  This is one rep.) 12 reps.
Vertical Leg Crunch (Lay on back, lift head and shoulders off of mat, cross legs at the ankle and lift legs to a vertical position and then return to floor.  This is one rep.) 12 reps.
The Hundred (Lay on back, lift head and shoulders off of mat, lift legs off of mat (bend knees for “easy” hundred, keep legs straight for more difficult hundred), hold arms parallel to ground and pulse up and down while counting to 100.  This is one set)
Side Bridge (Lay on side, rest weight on elbow and forearm.  Hold body straight from shoulder to heel.  Lower hip to the mat and then raise above the straight line.  This is one rep) 12 reps on each side
Plank (30 seconds)
Bicycle Exercise (12 reps)
Vertical Leg Crunch (12 reps)
The Hundred
Side Bridge (12 reps on each side)
Plank (30 seconds)
S-T-R-E-T-C-H

Wednesdays

Again, sticking with my running routine followed by working my biceps, triceps, lower back, and shoulders

Fridays

Running routine, then work the entire body (except the abs; got to give them a little rest between days) on weight machines

Week 29

Well, I lost .4 lbs this week.  Considering that I was sick nearly all week (which means comfort foods and mini pitty parties are especially tempting) and only made it to the gym once, I’ll take it.

As I said yesterday, I was struck with the winter blah’s this past week.  Monday started off well enough, but by the time Tuesday was drawing to a close it was obvious that I had contracted a cold.  It was never a really bad cold, but it settled in on my sinuses, lungs and throat.  This cold, which is still lingering a little today, knocked me out of commission as far as the gym went for the rest of the week.  I know that it was a good decision to skip the gym while I was sick so that my body could focus on recovering from the cold, but I’m so very frustrated to be practically a whole week behind on my running program (which means that I am going to be cutting it VERY close to not being able to run my whole 5k in April).  In addition to that, breaking my routine is a very dangerous thing for me to do.  It became very evident right away that I was not feeling as well about myself as I usually do (could have been the cold, but I’m betting there was some lack of exercise factoring into my lowered mood too).  The fact that it’s winter and I have am having some pretty intense cravings to go swimming and sunbathing (with lots and lots of sunscreen; I don’t mind being pasty white if I can avoid skin cancer!) finally caught up with me and I found myself just wanting to bury my head in my covers and sleep.  So I did.  Which was probably good for my cold, but again, didn’t do much for my mood or motivation this week.

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting around moping about how much I was dreading the scale in the morning and how much I was even more dreading heading to the gym after the scale.  I knew that after being away from the gym for nearly a week it was going to be hell getting back into my routine and I just didn’t want anything to do with it.  Finally, a light went off in my head and I decided to turn my off week into motivation to re-vamp my workout routine.  True, I’ve been sticking to my running routine fairly faithfully (high five to me!), but the strength training exercises have been anything but exciting and challenging for me lately, and well, it’s become pretty obvious that it’s time to shake things up a little bit.

Usually after I complete my running on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have a little time left to hit the weight machines at my WRC (Mondays usually get leg attention, Wednesdays usually get abs and arms and Fridays I usually work the whole body because I’ve got as much time as I want).  I’ve decided to keep on with this routine (I need to make sure that I’m working my whole body on a regular basis), but my Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays need some attention too.  On these days I am going to pick a target area of muscles and focus on them for a month.  I’ll warm up with about 20 minutes on my stationary bike in the basement and then work through my exercises before taking on the rest of the day.  Since March is a brand new month and I’d really like to see my abs one day (it’s one of my hardest fitness goals after all) I am going to focus on strengthening my core!  I’ll post my workout routine as soon as I get it finalized (still doing some research on what exercises offer the best bang for the buck) and let you know how it goes.

My workout today was a little lack-luster.  Like I said earlier, I’m still a little sick (sniffles and a dry throat, but much better than I was last week) and I’ve been away for a week.  My original plan was to run 4 minutes, walk 2, run 3, walk 2, run 3, walk 2, run 2, walk 1, run 1, cool down.  However, after my first four minute jog, it became very clear that my lungs and unusually dry throat were not up for that.  I decided to walk until I was comfortable again (about 2.5 minutes) and then jog until my throat started to hurt again (about 2 minutes) and continue this pattern for the next 15 minutes.  I got about10 minutes of running in, which was less than I was hoping for, but that left a little more time for strength training and stretching at the end.  I must be weird because I absolutely love strength training.  I think I like it because, while it burns and hurts, the pain is temporary (and the soreness that comes after is SO satisfying!) whereas cardio pain discomfort lasts a lot longer.  Strength training is always a bit of a reward for me for making it through my cardio because I feel just a little bit powerful standing next to all those buff dudes while the ladies look me over while they’re sweating on their treadmills.  Maybe I can’t run with you, but I’ll bet that I can out lift you. 🙂

My goals for this week are to focus on drinking more water.  I’m still struggling with that a little, even more so after this week of “falling off the routine wagon”.  Every time I reach for a soda this week I’m going to remind myself to refill my water bottle or make some tea instead.  I’m also going to focus on making my new workouts a habit.  It’s going to be a bumpy road to start getting in the habit of working out six days each week (new habits are always rough starts with me it seems).  If I can force myself to stick to the routine for at least three weeks I should be on my way to making it a much easier habit to follow.  I’ll just take it one day at a time and see what happens.  And lastly, but certainly not least important, I am going to try to really focus in on all the positive feelings that I have before, during and after a workout each day this week.  Paying special attention to these things will help reinforce why I am doing these exercises in the short term when seeing the long run payoff isn’t always an option right away.

Only 72.4 lbs to go!