So I’m in a challenge with 4 male co-workers to see who can run the most miles in 30 days. Before the challenge I was working out 4-5 times a week, with 3-4 days of cardio, and 3 days of weight lifting. The days that cardio and weights overlapped were usually not good for the cardio. I would do maybe 20 minutes of walking, or ellipticalling, or maybe a 10/10 split of two activities. My mentality before the challenge was really a struggle to get myself to even go. I would waste time, hem and haw, finally make it to the gym, do exactly what I had planned and then leave. 

Now? I’m desperately trying to fit in exercise whenever I can. I push myself for as long and as hard as I will go.  I make time for exercising. When I’m on the treadmill I worry I don’t have enough time to do enough miles before dinner/social events/whatever. 

It’s a very odd change and especially since it happened so quickly. I’m worried of course that when my challenge is over that I’ll revert to my old ways, but I’ve decided to join FatBridesmaid on her 40 days of Exercise challenge. Hopefully it will push me, and now that I’ve got my stamina back I’ll use those 40 days to seriously work out and not just clock in a 20 minute walk (not that there’s anything wrong with that once in a while). 

As for eating…it’s been going mostly well. Yesterday I had an egg sandwich for breakfast (Arnold Sandwich thins, 1 egg, 1 slice american cheese) and then didn’t eat until dinner because a) I was super busy running, going to see my friend Laura in a concert, and then taking my guy out for a birthday dinner and b) Birthday dinner was at a Cajun/creole restaurant and I wanted plenty of room.

I did eat past my hunger at this place. The sweet corn and crab soup was amazing as was the fluffy buttermilk biscuit that came with it.  When my entree came my hunger was pretty much over. But I ate about half. That’s when I started feeling full. But I finished the entree. And then of course coffee and dessert which I had about half of. Plus the cocktail I had with dinner (delicious–watermelon juice, club soda, simple syrup and mint. Plus rum/Scotch couldn’t tell)

But the food was amazing, and in some ways it was helpful to have a reminder of how bad I feel when I overeat. I was seriously not happy for the rest of the night. My stomach was all bloated and stretched and just hurt. Ugh. 

But today I’m back to it. Had a good breakfast, I’m feeling a salad for lunch, and then a run later tonight.

I hope you’re all doing well out there in blog land!

Yes! After weeks of hard work, and angsting, and moping, etc. etc. I posted a loss! I half pound loss but a loss none the lass. And yesterday I was down around in the 160 range so maybe next week I’ll see something even better! A girl can dream!

And despite my scale woes I know I’m going to keep this up and do it this time. Because yesterday, while reaching for something, I noticed my weight loss in my arms. Having lost a fair amount of weight before I am blessed with knowing things about my body and what it does when it sheds pounds. What tends to lose weight first and what stubbornly clings to fat no matter what (upper body for the former, booty for the latter). So when I saw my arm reach out, tense, and then a hollow appear in between the ligaments of my inner elbow I knew I’ve been doing the right thing.

No matter what the scale says. 

At the moment I’m typing this during walk breaks on my treadmill, and I’ve got more to say about exercise and running, and the whole nike challenge thing I’ve got going. But they’ll have to wait because I’ve got to run a mile in a minute.

The reality is that this morning (non-official weigh in) I’m at the same weight I was at my last official weigh-in. :\ I’m really not sure what’s going on there. I was as much as half a pound down during the week, but yesterday I had about 1500 calories (100 over goal) with a dinner of rotisserie chicken breast (no skin) and french fries. Not a great choice, but the BF wanted dinner from this chicken place and fries are the only side dish. So I nibbled away.  

The rest of the week I was right on goal or anywhere from 50 under or over. I ran or walked anywhere from 4-7 miles a day. And I haven’t lost anything? And the weeks before–I had been eating the proper calories, and was working out 5 times a week–maybe not as long or intense cardio, but at least 30 min plus weight lifting. And in 5 weeks I’ve lost 2 pounds? It just seems wrong. 

Perception though–I feel much better. I feel better about myself. When I get above a certain weight–a certain girth–I start to feel very antsy about my body image. I feel uncomfortable in my skin. Right now I feel great. My jeans fit looser especially in my thighs. When I catch a glimpse of myself in a full length mirror I feel like I look better. 

Which is right? The fact that I’ve only lost 2 pounds in five weeks? Or the fact that I feel like I’ve gotten smaller in the last 3 weeks even though technically in that time period I’ve gained weight?

The thing is I don’t know what to do. Less calories? I’ve done it before–last time I lost a significant amount of weight I did it on 1200 calories. I felt that this time I would add a few hundred calories, and just lose weight more slowly–but this seems too slow. I can’t imagine more calories would work. 

I’m going to give it another week. Just keep moving. We’ll see what tomorrow’s weigh in brings.

I guess I should amend that to “working out and being sick”. Ugh. I got in 6.25 miles yesterday. Pretty much all walking. But this morning I’m exhausted. I think a lot of it has to do with the big increase in physical activity, and the huge decrease in my ability to sleep because I’m coughing and keeping myself awake. I actually had to sleep in a different room from my BF last night because I felt awful that I was keeping him up with my constant coughing.

It’s weird because I’m not coughing at all during the day. But the second I lie down the back of my throat starts to tickle and I can’t stop. Blech. 

Fortunately it’s Friday which means I can sleep in tonight and hopefully get this poor body of mine back to tip top condition. 

It’s strange–because exercise has been such a focus for me, food has totally fallen off the radar. And I don’t mean that I’ve just started eating whatever I wanted and forgot about it. I mean I just don’t think about food that much. Maybe I’m too tired to. XD

Yesterday we had and ice cream social thing at the office and while usually that would tempt me horribly, I just had some berries and a banana with a little whipped cream to dip it in to. And even though it wasn’t on my planned menu I didn’t even sweat it for a second. I just logged the calories and moved on.

That’s been kind of nice. The downside is that I’m not really spending time cooking or coming up with meal plans that fulfill all my nutritional needs. I’m still sorely lacking in veggies. Last night I had a bowl of puffins for dinner. Eek! Hopefully with a little more time on the weekend I can get that back on track.

Whew.

7.5 miles on the treadmill yesterday.

This morning I’m a little more tired than usual and my legs are–well used. I have no idea how to describe the feeling. It’s a weird mix of tired and energized. They feel like they constantly want to move and be stretched. 

I still need to make up a bit of mileage to catch up to Brad (coworker) in this race.  But I think tonight will be mostly walking and a slower pace. I’ll still do a fair amount of miles, but just not at the same intensity. And I’ll be giving myself a ton of water, and then go to bed early. 

Food has been doing well calorie wise, but I’ve gotten lazy about cooking varied nutritional meals. Case in point–my dinner yesterday was a peanut butter jelly sandwich and a glass of milk. Yum! :9

But…not nearly enough nutrients. 

It’s hard to balance work/relationships/workout time/cooking healthy meals. 

I wish I had a shorter commute, or lived in an area where I could walk or bike to errands. 

Oh well. Tonight I’m going to try and get my running in early and have a nice dinner, and early to bed. 

Good luck out there everyone!

I hate being sick. It makes me lethargic, and I feel gross, and blech. I seem to be on the upside of this sickness fortunately. I woke up this morning with airways clear so that’s a good sign. I’ll probably be back to running tonight. 

I was really excited on my Monday run. For the first time in a while running didn’t seem like torturous work. I might be back up to 3 mile daily runs soon and that really helps with the whole weight loss thing. 

I didn’t really watch what I was eating yesterday, but on the other hand I wasn’t really all that interested in food. I may have over done it a little with the pasta at dinner, but today I’m back on track and ready to lose this weight.

I’ve got a shrimp primavera dish that I’ll probably have tonight and a light version of General Tsao’s Chicken that I’m going to try out later in the week. Mmm…

I’m glad I’ve got my pep and determination back. To heck with plateaus!

Yesterday was difficult for me. I ate two of my meals out. One I had a salad with roasted salmon on top with a raspberry vinaigrette. The only problem here was probably portion size–and I ate the whole thing. 

Dinner was a different story where I had a pint of Sam Adams Winter Lager, a burger, and fries.

Believe me, I’m paying for that as my weight is up 1.4 pounds from yesterday. I’m really starting to wonder if something is wrong. After 3 weeks of watching calories and exercising regularly, including 5 days this past week of intense long cardio and I’m down .4 pounds from the beginning. And up 2.4 pounds from 5 days ago. That just seems weird.

But. There’s nothing else to do. If I say “Oh well, I’m not losing weight I give up.” then this is all about the scale and the numbers and that’s not what I want it to be about. I want it to be about doing things that are right for my body. Exercising and eating well. And I have to keep doing them for me even if the scale isn’t going in the direction I want it to.

I’ve also been sick these past 3 days. Today I’m off from work and I’m just going to try and take care of myself. Be nice to myself. 

This will all work itself out in the end if I just do what I should be doing for my health.

I just ran 2 miles straight at 5.2 mph. And I felt like could have done more if I hadn’t run out of time! (Guests on the way!)

So who the hell cares if I lost weight or not?

I’m proud of myself.

Hooray for exercise endorphins!

I’m up AGAIN today.

How is this possible? It looks like I’m stuck on some crazy plateau. A plateau that’s increasing a little towards the end. How on earth am I putting on weight?

This really sucks. Watching calories, running 5+ miles a day and I’m gaining weight. 

I guess there’s nothing else to do but keep running, and keep watching what I eat. Maybe I’m hoarding water because I increased my cardio intensity? I have no idea.

What I worry about is that this isn’t a plateau. That I’m going to struggle this much with the next 20 pounds. That would really do a number on my motivation.

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Gain of .4 pounds this week.

I’m not sure what’s going on…really. And because I’m not sure what the issue is I don’t know how to fix it. I’ve been eating 1400-1500 calories every day aside from the last 2 when the total was closer to 1600. I’ve been doing cardio, and weight lifting at least 5 time a week, and this week I even added a ton more cardio because of the running challenge. I did 5 miles Thursday, 3 on Friday, and 5 on Saturday. You would think that I would have lost–even just half a pound. But no…I almost gained half a pound. How is that possible? I’m no where near eating an extra 1500 calories this week. And even if I had I would have burned them off.

Should I eat more calories? Less? Should I add more cardio? Let my body take a rest day? Drink more water? Get more sleep? What part of the equation am I missing here?

This is the part I hate. I hate how it’s not an exact science. How you can be doing everything right and it shows up as a gain. I’ve been doing this for 3 weeks, and all I have to show is a 2 pound loss? That just doesn’t even seem possible.

This is where I start thinking–why even bother? I could be eating crap and lying around all day and gain half a pound. 

But this time I’m not going to. I’m trying to take some cues from my clothes. My jeans definitely fit better than they did 3 weeks ago. I’m wearing a pair of my boyfriends boxers that had been getting a little tighter in the hips (he has very slim hips) but now fit comfortably. 

I feel like my body is shedding some fat and putting on some muscle. My thighs especially seem slimmer. 

Although I’ve been taking measurements on my waist and that’s been holding steady for the last 2 weeks. And yes my stomach feels bloated from whatever illness I seem to have right now. And yes maybe other parts of my body that I’m not measuring may be losing inches. 

I don’t know. I feel like I’m reaching a little bit because I need some hope to keep going. I just have to remember that if I give up nothing will ever happen.

So I’ll eat healthy today, run my 5 miles and we’ll see what happens next week. 

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