Lately, the workouts have been the hardest part. Not that they're physically so strenuous, just finding the time and the motivation. But I've still only skipped three workouts since I started, so I'm going to keep going strong as much as I can. And I do regret it if I forget (or fall asleep), but I won't make excuses. This weekend will be difficult, but I'm making it my goal to work out before we leave (I get off work early this afternoon), and then when we get home on Sunday, so that only puts Saturday in question. Maybe I'll try to get Chris to do some fun martial arts stuff, or maybe I'll just try to get up early and do some extra. We'll probably walk everywhere, so that should help, and maybe I can convince him to hit the pool with me. If all else fails, I'm pretty sure he packed up the Xbox, so maybe I could squeeze in an Instant Queue workout from Netflix. Who knows, there could be a workout channel, we don't have cable.

Calories have been good so far, but I know there will be a lot of temptation when we go out to eat this weekend. My policy is going to be sticking with small portions and smart choices (grilled not fried, etc). Wish me luck!

Yesterday: 90 calories Kellogg's breakfast bar. Apple slices. Campbell's chicken noodle soup. 100 calorie Oreo snack cakes. Chicken sandwich and Spongebob Mac N Cheese. I didn't want to at all, but I worked out really late and I like the workout, so I feel good about that.
My new favorite workout is Jillian Michaels Cardio Kickboxing. It's on Netflix Instant Queue, which means I can watch it (via Xbox 360) over and over again in my living room without having to have the DVD. Also, it's all cardio, which I kind of prefer, but it also has some fun kicks and punches which I can spice up with my real martial arts kicks and punches! Plus, in this one I hate Jillian way less. She works out with you the whole time, so she actually gets tired, and I like that. She's human. Oh, plus I made the fiancé do some leg throws with me afterwards. Nice ab work.
Today: 90 calories Kellogg's breakfast bar. Orange. Chicken sandwich. Pudding. Maybe making chicken curry for dinner? Lots of veggies, jasmine rice, some chicken. I'll do small portions. :)
Tomorrow: heading to New Orleans. We'll arrive late, but I'll try to at least pop in a ten minute workout or something so that I can stay in the habit. Maybe I'll go a full 30, who knows. Maybe I'll just make Chris do 30 minutes of leg throws and kicks with me or something. We can work on some martial arts drills! I'll have to work hard and guesstimate most of my calories this weekend, so if anyone has tips, please let me know!!! (I've edited my settings so that anonymous users can comment if you like, you don't have to "sign in".)

Yesterday, I skimped on calories so hard (breakfast: plain white-wheat toast, lunch: healthy choice soup) that I was allowed snack cakes (100 calorie packs of Oreo Snack Cakes are so yummy!) and milk after my workout. AND PUDDING. (It's 60 calorie pudding, so it's not amazing, but I'll be honest, I was happy to have any pudding.) I even ate at McDonald's yesterday evening (chicken nuggets and partial fries with ketchup)! Then I went home, and despite wanting to do anything but, I did 30 Day Shred. Level 2 is currently my favorite, I think.
Today, I had cereal for breakfast (rice krispies, whole milk). I had an orange (mediocre, though, Kroger was better, this Wal-Mart one leaves my mouth dry) as a snack, and I'm going to have soup again (condensed, I know, too salty) for lunch, because I'm trying to get rid of everything in my pantry before I move at the end of the month. I'll eat out for dinner again, because I'm teaching martial arts (which despite everything Chris says, is NOT a workout, it's just me telling other people to work out) in Arkansas and it's a long drive. If I can keep the calories there to a minimum, I could maybe even have another snack tonight! But I'm not pushing it. If I snack, I snack. I WILL however definitely work out.
What's missing? Extra work-outs and new food goals. Hmm... well, I can try to start Hundred Push Up Challenge again this week (if I could only remember), but my little doggie is out of town, so my running motivation is at 0. Food goals... this week I was going to give up sweets, but I'm really into these snack cakes, so that'll have to be later. Well, I'll get back to you, but I'm open to suggestion.

Don't feel so hot this weekend. Worked out Friday, did martial arts Saturday, skipped Sunday because my wisdom teeth are making my brain explode. I've kept it within calories, though, despite eating fast food twice and even going to Chili's last night and having cheesecake.

Hundred Push-Up Challenge bit the dust. I just keep forgetting! We'll see if I can start again tonight. I'm teaching a martial arts class, but I should be able to make it. We get out early tonight.

MIA no more

Ack! I haven't updated in forever!

Tuesday: Made calories and did 30 Day Shred. Was day off from Hundred Push Up Challenge.

Wednesday: Made calories easy, did 500 Calorie Burn by The Firm. It was weird and impossible to keep up with if you are not a trained dancer (or well versed in The Firm, maybe, I don't know). It was harder to figure out what was going on than to actually work out. The jury is still out on this.

Thursday: Probably did not make calories. I went to the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, and ate free deliciousness. I had a lemonade, a coke, four ribs, two catfish fillets (small), two hush puppies, some beans, and a good chunk of a funnel cake. I walked for roughly an hour, and my feet hurt, so I bailed on 30 Day Shred when I got home. I am pretending that working out for an hour on Wednesday makes up for that? Just this one time.

Friday: I forgot to eat breakfast, but accepted a Nutri-grain bar at work. It was 130 calories, and I have a 400 calorie lunch planned. (Yummy chili!) That leaves a significant portion for dinner on the way home tonight!

Okay... calories have been estimated for the past few days, and I know I went a little over today (who knew 5 layer nachos would be 440 calories! I expected 300 max) but overall I've been making healthier choices and sticking to my 30 Day Shred plan! I would be working out right now, but the fiance is playing Halo. However, this gives me time to start my Hundred Push Up Challenge! Woohoo! (And I didn't have a fruit yesterday, but I did have two today... does that count?)

Due to inexact measurements, I'm not 100% sure what my calorie intake has been for the past two days, but I feel like I can safely say it's been within 100 calories of my goal, so I'm comfortable with that. (Plus, counting too much makes me a crazypants.) Also, I had a big salad Friday night for dinner, and tonight (I still consider it Saturday at 12:45) I had a giant helping of black eyed peas, which are vegetables, green or not.
I have successfully completed 30 Day Shred every day since Tuesday, though, and all on Level 3 with minimal modifications (less every time!) I'm especially proud because the last two days I haven't even popped in the DVD until after midnight, and I feel like it takes a lot to commit to that. WOO!

Tomorrow, Hundred Push Up Challenge begins, and Fruit-A-Day week begins! Yowza!

Yesterday I stuck to the diet and I still got to have a brownie and some milk! I feel awesome about that.

So, running definitely hasn't happened all week. I'm trying to decide when the best time is to set aside from this. I hate waking up early, which makes before work difficult (I'm always late), but after work I am hungry and I just want to cook dinner. Then after dinner, I'm really full, and then somehow it is mysteriously like 10pm. I don't want to run at 10pm, it creeps me out that I'm going to get attacked by zombies or something. I don't really want to run after dark. Plus, when you're all sweaty mosquitoes like seek you out from five miles away. I also haven't started push ups. I think maybe I feel like it's too many things to start at once, so I'm going to wait until Sunday to start push ups, and then maybe after one more week of 30 Day Shred, I'll have the energy to start running. This is my theory, and I'm sticking to it. Maybe I'll even believe by the time next Sunday comes.

I definitely still did 30 Day Shred last night (even dragged Chris in with me), but it's keeping me up really late at night. I need to figure out a way to do it earlier, because apparently working out past 9:30 makes me stay up until 12:30. Not good when I need to wake up at 6:30!

So far today I've had one pop tart (210 calories) and I'm trying to decide what to do for lunch. We may be going somewhere for dinner? We're going to see Star Trek tonight. It could be a good test of willpower! Wish me luck!

Okay, I'm failing miserably at running. I'm not even trying to run. Not even putting on shoes. My alarm goes off and I turn it off and roll over and go back to sleep. I come up with every excuse imaginable. It's too early. It's too late. It's too wet. It's too dark. Pockets needs to eat right now. I need to cook right now. I have to go to Wal-Mart. I have to do 30 Day Shred.
Really, that last one is the only thinking making me think I might still be improving. I stuck to my calories yesterday (see yesterday's post) so well that I had a few calories left over at dinner and made chocolate milk instead of regular milk. As I said, I did 30 Day Shred, but I didn't run. I also didn't do push ups, because I forgot about them except for the part during 30 Day Shred when they told us to do push ups. Oops!
For today, I have eaten rice krispies (measured out, with measured milk, making me feel like a loser) for 242.5 total calories, lunch is a tuna kit, which will be less than 240 calories, because I don't use much of the mayo or any of the relish, and for dinner I think I'll make fajitas, which I'm pretty excited about. I can have two fajitas for 400 calories, and then I have 431.5 calories left for beverages or brownie!!! I've been trying to find a way to eat some brownie. We'll see if I can do that or if I decide to eat extra fajitas.
Here's the issue I discovered last night: I've never been on a diet before. I mean, I've tried to "eat healthier" before, where I substituted healthy things when I could, but there was no baseline. I'm concerned that this new calorie limiter is either going to make me so psycho that I have to measure literally everything I eat with a measuring spoon, which is super awkward and weird, especially in public, or it's going to make me crack after like a week because I can't stick to it. I've already allowed some cheat days, like my wedding shower and my rehearsal dinner, of course, and there may be a couple extras, but I'm very concerned about sticking with it vs overdoing it. I know I have to stay above 1200, so I guess I can't mess up too much, but I worry. Also, I have already decided that the honeymoon doesn't really count, and after the honeymoon I'm going to re-evaluate for a higher calorie count, probably.
Other revisions: 30 Day Shred. I definitely want to do this every day, but I'm worried about the number of calories burned. I'm considering moving to twice a day some days or maybe switching for The Firm's 500 Calorie Workout on weekends. I like variety, which is why I do the Level 3 of 30 Day Shred sometimes, even though I wasn't really ready for it core-wise. I feel like it's fair to substitute as long as it's something of equal or greater exercise value.
So that's me for today. How about you?

Moving Forward

Day 1, yesterday, I ate curry chicken for lunch (mystery amount of calories), but it was takeout, so there was too much, and I only ate half at lunch and then finished it for dinner. I drank water all day, and I resisted eating the chili cheese fries and sliders my fiance offered me (also his Dr. Pepper). When I got home from martial arts, I wanted a snack pretty badly (my brownies were calling to me), but I resisted and did 30 Day Shred instead. I did it on level 3, but I haven't actually worked my way up, so I did some (but not all!) of the modifications. I was still nice and sweaty by the end, so I feel like it was a success. I like to mix it up so that I don't know exactly what's coming next on workouts. I didn't run this morning (it's pretty soggy at my house), but I'm going to try to take the doggle for a joggle around the tennis courts this afternoon. So far today, I have eaten two pop tarts (total 420 calories) and I'm going to have vegetable soup for lunch (200 calories) and then I'm making brinner (breakfast for dinner), so I'll have to go easy on the jam and bacon, but I don't know where I'll work in a vegetable... unless the vegetables in soup count? We'll see.

Rise and Shine

This blog is to get me up off the ground and start getting healthier. Some of the things I'm doing may seem extreme at first, but I promise I've looked into what I'm doing and ran all my ideas past my Chief Health Officer, my fiancé, who is always much more concerned with my health than I am. To start off, I'm going to set some goals, and then, like New Year's, see which ones stick. How about, to start off, three exercise goals and three food goals.

Exercise goals:
1. Do 30 Day Shred every day until my wedding!
2. Re-start the Hundred Push Up Challenge, and see it through this time.
3. Go running for five minutes every morning for the next week with my doggie (who is also in weight-loss mode)!

Discussion:
The wedding is only on June 12, so that's something that should be relatively easy to finish. It's a S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goal, because it is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely, Evaluable, and Revisable. I feel comfortable with this.
I failed at the Hundred Push Up Challenge before, mostly I think because I didn't follow the directions. I didn't rest on rest days and I feel like that pushed my progress up too quickly. We'll see if this can be alleviated by following the real plan this time.
Five minutes doesn't seem like very long, but I hate running flat out and am hoping this is a start. Also, I know my little doggie could use the exercise, so I'm hoping she'll love this game!

Now, food goals:
1. Stay between 1200 and 1300 calories a day until one week before the wedding (so June 5).
2. Only drink water, milk, or 100% juice until the wedding.
3. Eat at least one vegetable every day (real vegetables, not ketchup DAD) for a week.

Discussion:
1200-1300 calories sounds like it's not very much, but at my height and weight, it's actually the amount to lose one pound a week. Hopefully, with the addition of workouts, I can actually lose two pounds a week, but I'm not weighing myself, so it doesn't matter. As for beverages, I almost only drink that stuff anyway; it's all we usually keep in the house. I'll have to be careful at fast food restaurants, especially in the drive thru, but I may just end up choking up the extra dollar fifty to buy a bottled water. I gave up carbonated beverages for Lent, and that was fine. The vegetable is going to be hard, and I won't lie, I don't know how I'm going to pull it off tomorrow. However, it's only a week, so even if it means some weird sides, I'll plan for more in the future.

Final goal: Blog my food intake and exercise regimen for the next two weeks. I may miss some days due to being away from internet access, but I'll try to make them up next time it's available.

Wish me luck, and any tips are greatly appreciated!