Weigh-in Wednesday

Hohum. I almost thought about skipping this post today. But then I remembered why I am even blogging about my weight loss, or lack of this week. I am writing about it here to keep me accountable, so I will write about it even when I don't have good news. Oh, well, I suppose its good news as long as I am not gaining, right? So being the same as last week would be okay, I guess. I'd definitely rather stay put than gain, but the whole point of this is to see the scale move downward, so I'm not totally happy.

I know why I haven't lost any weight this past week. I wasn't doing a stellar job of tracking my calories, for one. I baked yesterday and it doesn't matter what diet you are on, eating four or five (I lost track!) freshly baked zucchini bread muffins isn't good. Sure I did great at breakfast and even lunch, getting into my salad for lunch habit, but then I went and ruined it all at dinner. I think I need to work on consistency throughout the day.

As for working out, I am still doing it. Last week was sort of a maintenance week on the P90X thingy, so the workouts were less intense and then we went up to the lake on Friday and I didn't workout on the weekend. Well, I held onto the tube behind the boat, but that's doesn't exactly count. I'm still trying to take it really easy on the running so I only did it once last week. I am sort of looking forward to school starting because then I know we'll be around here more and I can stick with my workout plans even through the weekend. Until then I just gotta keep on keeping on though. I'm feeling good and the waistbands on my pants keep getting loser and loser, so I know something is going well.

I think I'm going to start giving myself goals for the week ahead, just little things I want to try and work on. This next week I want to do the following:

1. Take my vitamins everyday. I forget so easily but I want this to become my habit.
2. Count my calories throughout the whole day at least 5 days this next week. I know we're going camping on the weekend which will be my non-count days.

So there's my accountability. How about you, how are you doing?

Weigh-in Wednesday

Well, as I finished the last of my toast and most of my latte this morning, I realized that I had neglected to weigh myself. I think the ideal time is right when you wake up, before you eat and after you use the bathroom. Unfortunately, the only thing on my mind when I wake up is, "Coffee", so I usually forget to weigh myself. I didn't want to do it, but I know that I needed to set out a starting weight, in black and white, as part of my motivation to keep on keeping it simple. So, I dutifully went to my bathroom, pulled out the scale and stepped on it right after I finished eating and pulling on my workout clothes (those don't weigh as much as "normal" clothes, I think.) I wasn't exactly surprised at what I saw on the scale. Its the same weight that my body has kind of 'hung around' for a while now. I knew it wouldn't be less than that and I was grateful it wasn't more than that--this not running things has made me kind of nervous of that possibility.

So, the scale said: 170 lbs.

Which means I have about 20-25 lbs to lose. That seems like so much. If I want to lose it by my birthday, I need to lose about 1.5 lbs a week, which also seems like a lot. I'm not decided if that's going to be my goal date or if I should just plan on keeping it up until I hit my goal, regardless of when that is.

For exercise I have been doing the P90X Lean program. And since I haven't gotten in one full week without interruption, I am declaring this week, my official week #1 of that. I guess my routine changes based on what week I'm on, so I figured I better stick with it in order to get the best results out of it. I intend on doing this until I can run. This week is my 5th week since I last ran, but after doing some jumping around for my P90x workout yesterday, my leg is a little sore (nothing like it was) so I may wait a few more weeks just to be safe. The thing I don't like about doing all P90X is that I have no idea how many calories I am burning. AT least with running/walking I know an estimate of how many calories/mile I burn, but with this I am totally in the dark. I keep telling myself that doing something is better than nothing, and I figure if I'm working out for an hour or more each day, its definitely something.

As for my calorie counting, I can't say I've hit my goal. I'm pretty good at keeping on track all though the day, but once dinner hits, I seem to go astray. I try to count up the calories my dinners are but sometimes its hard to figure out recipes, or in my case since so many of my meals are made up as I go, non-recipes. So I try and eat just a small portion of meat, lots of veggies and call it good. But not having a specific total calorie count for the day leaves me feeling unsure. The past few nights have been rough too--teaching VBS has given me some anxiety and tired me out, both of which make me comfort eat--which doesn't keep me on track either. So, I need to crank it down a notch and get more specific/strict, for at least a majority of the week.

Monday Randomness

Today is the day that I get things figured out for the week ahead of me. I finalize the menu plan, the grocery list(s), do the errands, and basically recover from the weekend and start a new week. It's actually one of my favorite days, as I don't usually plan anything extra, so it tends to be pretty productive. And with that intent of being productive, I don't want to spend a ton of time drafting a huge, thought-out blog post, so I leave you with randomness, which is where my brain is right now anyways...

• My shin hurts. My right one, specifically. I'm afraid I may have overdone it somewhere along the way of my 1/2 marathon training. My shins are quite temper mental--if I increase incline, distance, time, intensity, etc too quickly, they get whiny. So, I will be taking it easy on the running this week (translation: no running, just walking) which I hate to do. I mean its a good thing I still have a month, but then again, I only have a month! Please pray that my shin heals quickly, I will be.
• I made two new things yesterday: Rhubarb compote & rhubarb muffins. Both are yummy. Especially when you use the compote in the muffins, like Shauna does in her fabulous recipe here. Super yummy.
• My girls are done with school on Friday, but before that they have Fun Day today and then the youngest has  field trip tomorrow, both of which I'm helping with. I like helping with their school stuff, its one of the biggest perks of my "job". I hope they realize how lucky they are to have their Mamma at their school as much as I am!
• I started P90X today. I am borrowing the discs from my folks. I wanted something different to shake up my workouts a bit, and I love a challenge. I also love watching a workout video as opposed to trying to follow moves out of a book. I must be somewhat of a visual learner. Anyway, I'm not doing the classic program, but the lean one. It's got less of the upper body weight training and more cardio. Not that it is suppose to be any easier, I just don't need to spend three or four hours each week pumping up my arms. Today was a workout called core synergenics (or something like that) and even though it was tough, I actually enjoyed it. I'm going to just take a day at a time because I don't want to do too much and get injured (more) and not be able to run, so we'll see.
• We watched the movie, "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" this weekend. The girls and Erik liked it. I thought it was a bit weird. I like more of the traditional animation, I think.
• I don't remember how I found this blog, "This Blessed Life", originally, but I am really interested in the journey she's been documenting towards "clean" eating, especially after watching "Food Inc." She's blogging about two foods each month that she's been able to replace the chemical-laden store bought kind with a homemade, chemical-free kind. It's fascinating to me and I've already found several recipes I'd love to try. That's one of the biggest benefits I've seen from going gluten-free, as well, is the amounts of processed foods bought in my house has drastically decreased and I've started to make a whole lot more things from scratch. It makes me very grateful I have the time to cook things from scratch. (Thank you God for my awesome job!)
• Kind of along the same thread as clean eating, I want to ask you, how much do you know about what you put on your face or skin? A good friend, and my Mary Kay consultant, pointed this article from the Dr. Oz show out to me, all about the hidden dangers of beauty. I will be changing a few of my beauty products for sure after reading this. It's not just about what we put in our bodies, but also about what we put on it!

Okay, that's enough rambling. I'm off to help second graders play games, as long as the rain stops! Stop, rain, stop, if just for this afternoon!