New Motivation!

When I started this blog, my big weight loss motivator was Burning Man. That fell through when tickets became near impossible to obtain, and well, everything sort of flopped.

Now, however, I think I have a new motivator, and this will do not only for the weight loss but also for work, making it extra good.

A trip to Hawaii has become financially viable. I will have a place to stay for free once the school year begins, which will greatly reduce overall cost of the trip. The plan (at least in my head, I do need to discuss this with Jon still) is to wait for the cheapest tickets possible, then promptly buy them, get the time off for a week and go.

This serves as a motivation for both weight loss and work because:

1) Hawaii means beach. Beach means bikini. You see the connection here with weightloss. One might be able to argue that summer in general should provide that motivation, but I'd like to point out that I live and work in San Francisco/ the Bay. The water here is cold, I am cold in the city all day, and when it is warm, I am usually inside. Sure, I go swimming every now and then, but then its only with my family/ Jon and it's at least semi private. Hawaii is much higher self-conscious stakes than that.

2) Hawaii is expensive. Not only will I need the money to shell out on airplane tickets, theres also the cost of food, travel on the island and general monetary freedom while vacationing. I'll need to do some calculations and make a reasonably sized budget. But, before I can do that, I need to keep earning money. To do that I need to work, and I need to work my full hours so I can earn as much money as possible so I can go to Hawaii and not be concerned financially. Therefore: I wanna go to Hawaii? I gotta earn it. Motivation!

So, back to our regularly scheduled fitness/ food update:

I didn't set any goals this past week, but to some extent I do feel that I met the undefined ones. Jon and I went walking last Thursday evening, just as I had said I wanted to. It was a bit more uphill than originally intended, but it was good and both Jon and I felt a bit better afterwards. Zombies. Run! is indeed excellent motivation for walks. We went again Sunday evening, to a different place that was much flatter and prettier. I think we will return there when we next go walking. I went swimming yesterday with my family. So I have been pretty good about getting in some real exercise (walking a mile or more, swimming for an hour) about every 3-4 days. It's not as awesome as it could be, but it is better than nothing and definitely better than before.

In terms of food, the tossups remain. I am generally trying to avoid sugar and carbs (or at least severely reduce consumption of both), but there are several aspects of my diet in which that doesn't work. I've had several run ins with lactose in the past week, and I think I am discovering that certain pills are more effective than others, despite the fact that I need to take them more often. I also have noted that the almond milk I love so much is sadly filled with sugar. So, as soon as I have consumed it all I will need to get the unsweetened kind and sweeten it myself with splenda. But! A good thing I have noticed is that I have started eating significantly less. On days when I am at home, I simply munch all day on whatever we have, often fruits, veggies, cheese and whole grains like oatmeal. On work days, I have breakfast before I leave home (oatmeal and almond milk or whole wheat bagel and cream cheese), a snack midmorning (goldfish), lunch of some kind, and then I don't eat again until I am home and I either make dinner, order dinner, or initiate varietal munching.

Dinner remains somewhat problematic generally speaking, but it's mostly that I am cooking or ordering for 2, and Jon eats very differently from the way I should be eating. Jon absolutely hates being hungry, and so he likes to eat big, fortifying meals that will protect him from the hunger monster later. It makes him nervous to eat little meals, and he becomes worried when he doesn't think whatever food I'm making will hold him. This is somewhat contradicted by the fact that he doesn't want me to change whatever it is I'm making just because he's worried about being hungry later. Oh, and combine this with the fact that we don't go grocery shopping enough, so there's hardly ever anything in the house that he wants to eat that is simultaneously easy for me to cook or for him to make for himself. What I really need to do is to find some meals that are light in small portions and heavy in big ones, easy to cook and good for long-term storage. I can think of one right now, chili... but I will need more than that. Ideas anyone? Preferably I'd like to stay away from any "health food" ingredients (yes, even though they are delicious), since I am also contending with the "this food is weird, I'm not really all that hungry, you eat it" tendencies of a 23-year-old male who likes normal things and looks askance at whole wheat pasta. [I love you Jon, even if you don't like whole wheat pasta]

I have not weighed myself in a week or so, despite the seeming to stick changes in both diet and exercise regimen. I will probably weigh myself tomorrow when I get up, since I have the day off and it will be something like noon.

Anyway, I'm looking for dinner ideas, if you've got 'em, send them my way!