I did it!

Time for a Monday morning status update and a new challenge!

Exercise Status
I came pretty close to not making it last night. I almost didn't do the aerobics. I had been reading, and it was later than I wanted. BUT I DID IT ANYWAY.

My exercise from last week looks like this:
Monday: lazy
Tuesday: lazy
Wednesday: 10 minute aerobics
Thursday: 35 minute walk
Friday: lazy/ exhausted
Saturday: 1 hour walk
Sunday: 20 minute aerobics (doubled up to make up for Friday)

Therefore! Success!! +10 dollars! 30 total now. Wooo. 2 more weeks!

Anyway, challenge for this week: Keep it up!

I don't know how busy I will be later in the week (no one plans these things specifically until they actually happen) so for now I will say exercise the equivalent of 6 single servings (10 minute aerobics/ half an hour walks).

Motivation Status


 Medium to high.

I weighed myself again on Saturday (I think) and afterwards I wanted to throw the scale off my balcony. Perhaps I should have.

My weight has gone up again, despite all my exercising.

Despite is perhaps not the right word. It's gone up because of my exercising. I am gaining muscle weight, which is, in the end, a good thing. But right now, it just makes the numbers go up infuriatingly. So how is it that the numbers on the scale are in fact acting as motivation instead of demotivation? I am very near a number I absolutely do not want to cross. In fact, I am so near to it that I am worried I have crossed it when I wasn't paying attention. Not happy! So, my way of refuting this is to press on with the exercise until the muscles are built and reinforced so that they can start eating the pounds instead of making it look like I ate them.

Food Status


I actually made a meal plan this week. I finally got some dry erase markers so I can write on my whiteboard, and thus I made it easier to write down what the meals we have on hand are. I went grocery shopping and spent more than I should have, though most of the cost was concentrated on the proteins (as is the usual). So when I'm buying a whole weeks worth of meals and restocking some essentials (frozen chicken, for example) things get a bit pricey. But it's alright, we have other food that we will eat next week, and I wont need to go shopping again until August.

The meal plan looks pretty tasty, and I'm excited to cook and eat it all. It's also not carb dependent in any way, I can make Jon the carbs and just leave them off of my plate. The carbs I have are also, for the most part (pasta excepted) healthy noms. Even the pasta isn't so bad, it's Eating Right's Veggie Pasta, which gives you a full serving of vegetables. So, I've been eating pretty well. Now if the weight would please just step off already.

On a related note, I have learned an absolute horror of dieting. Or rather I have deduced one from my own experience. Unless you choose to permanently change your diet to whatever it is (which is unwise for most diets, since they eliminate at least one food group and therefore deprive your body of nutrients), they are basically useless. You will gain back more than you lost, and end up weighing more in the end because of the diet you didnt keep.

I had a stable weight once. Then I went on diets. Now I weigh far more than I would have otherwise, because my body forgot how to balance itself. I'm not sure how to bring it back, though I am betting that the exercise will help more than a little bit. This whole thing has been quite a learning experience so far. I'm glad I decided to blog about it. 


Walking and good eating ahead!


We get our dining room table on Tuesday (finally, yay for surfaces!)


ALSO I TURN 23 ON SATURDAY WHAT IS THIS I AM OLD.


UPDATE: I just signed up for MyPlate - Livestrong.com's weight loss app/ web service. It's free (the app was $2.99 or free if you don't want the cloud connectivity). There's a badge for blogs but it's too wide to fit on here. I'm hoping that the daily reminder to actually do the tracking will help me monitor caloric/ nutrient intake. The reminder might get me going on the exercise front too!

Challenge Adjustments

My week did not go as planned. But instead of forfeiting another 10 dollars when I really did/ really plan to get a lot of exercise in, I am reassigning the challenges posed on Monday.

Original Challenge:


Walk 2 miles, 3 times.

New Challenge:


Walk for an hour and a half total. Do 10 minute aerobic exercise 3 times.

I have noticed that on my walks up at Lake Chabot, after about half a mile, I lose good GPS signal and Zombies, Run! get's confused about how far I've gone. Therefore any distances are incredibly unreliable. I know about where the mile line is on the trail now, so I will measure distance that way. But that is also not perfectly reliable, and so I have decided to rely more on time. I will always go for at least half an hour (because thats as long as the Zombies missions are) on long days I will go for an hour. 

Lake Chabot on Thursday night

So, I have managed to go once this week, last night. It was a pretty nice walk. I enjoyed it, though I wish I had been able to muster up the motivation to go more this week. I had originally intended to go Monday, then I intended to go Tuesday, then Wednesday.... it didn't happen until Thursday. But! I did exercise Wednesday night.

Forever ago, Kira recommended 10 minute workouts on Netflix. I did the Yoga one a few times back in January and enjoyed it. I hadn't really returned to them since. I decided on Wednesday, because there were things going on and I didn't have enough time to go on a walk, that I should try another of those 10 minute programs. I set up the 10 minute Carb Crush or whatever it's called. It's a set of fast paced aerobic workouts designed to burn calories, particularly those from carbs (though I think that part's nonsense). It was a good workout. I was coated in sweat and tired afterwards. A good result for only 10 minutes. It wasn't a whole lot of effort (like going out and walking can sometimes be) and I feel I got about the same (maybe a bit less) out of it. I may also eventually be able to turn that into strength training.

And so, after realizing that going walking 3 times a week was a bit ambitious, I figured out a better plan. Most of my exercise has successfully occurred later in the week. Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays tend to be days I have no motivation to go exercise, because I have to spend all that motivation on chores or work. However, later in the week, I have motivation to spare. So, I have decided to make Monday and Tuesday my break days. The other days I will distribute walking and 10 minute aerobics, depending on how busy I am on any given week. This week I know I will have a lot of free time Saturday and Sunday, and so I have planned to go on a long walk Saturday, and to fill in all the other days with aerobics. If I manage it all, I have still succeeded for the week and I get the 10 dollars.

I have started rethinking what I will spend the money on. I read somewhere a few days ago (another blog I think) that a good way to keep yourself motivated to exercise is to reward yourself with workout clothes or items. When I reach $50, I will go buy some light training weights and a workout shirt. The goal after that will be new running shoes. Every 5 weeks of successful workout, I will give myself something to make my workouts more successful. I hope this will work!

This Week's Challenge!

I know I am posting a bit early this week, but I have discovered a few things and I would really like to keep the motivation wagon moving. The more I write here, the more accountable I am when the wheels stop.

Motivation Status

Firstly, I did weigh myself on Friday. The results were that I have in fact gained back again all of what I lost in January and February, plus interest. I knew that would be the case. I was dismayed, but not surprised.

Age 18, 145ish soaking wet

I also discovered that one of the best motivators for me is going to be looking at pictures of myself from years ago. The only problem here being is that I have never actually felt skinny. I don't actually look particularly skinny in any of these pictures, but I know now that I was actually right around what I should weigh. I just wasn't fit, so it sort of doesn't look it. 

Clearly I have been the weight I want to be before in my adult life. Sure, I was still a bit chubby here and there, but I have quite literally ALWAYS had a belly. Ever since 8th grade, when I was shocked into body image consciousness. However, I think that with the right effort, I can lose the weight and the belly, I just need to do the right exercise.

From October 2006(?) at 135ish

I'm in the back, in the magenta. May 2007. My hips are tiny!

Exercise Status

Last week I went on 2 walks. 1 on Sunday, and another on Friday. I also went swimming on Wednesday. So I succeeded in exercising 3 times last week. 10 dollars for me (20 in all, I'm getting better!) Total I walked 3 and a half miles.

I absolutely love walking out by the lake. It's calm, quiet and usually populated with families, other runners/ walkers or people out fishing. Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves, and there aren't any shadowy hideaways for would-be bad guys. I feel safe there when going by myself.

Zombies. Run! has been a true godsend. It's the entire reason I have the motivation to go out and walk. My options in the evening/ afternoon have become: sit around, be lazy and play on the computer, or the xbox for 4 hours, or, go out and play Zombies for a while and also achieve your exercise. Zombies, being two birds with one stone, often wins. This is a good thing.

I hope to start seeing results soon, but I think I have a lot of muscle to build first. I have already noticed that walking is easier. It used to be quite difficult for me to walk long distances at any sort of reasonable pace, but now I can keep up with Jon. I've also learned that most girl pants and girl shoes are simply not meant to be moved in, just by comparison of my speed depending on what I'm wearing. I have a way easier time going speedily if I'm wearing running shorts and shoes, than if I'm in skinny jeans and Toms. 

In terms of the belly I referenced earlier, the plan at the moment is to focus on the walking until results start happening. I will worry about ab exercise at another point.

Food Status

Not much has changed since last week (though we did go grocery shopping on Friday), but it's only Monday. I have however, begun a detox.

I saw a thing on pinterest that was a recipe for super detox juice recommended by Jillian Michaels. I'm not following the recipe exactly, but I did get the jist. It's just water really. But simultaneously, it's more than water. I have a 32 ounce Gatorade bottle filled with the juice of a quarter lemon and cold water, with a tea bag of Detox tea, with dandelion leaf. I actually really like the tea. It's a very subtle flavor, but it's sweet, spicy and interesting with the lemon. The original recipe also calls for a bit of cranberry juice, but since I don't need the juicy temptation sitting around the house, I decided to leave it out. I drink 2 of these bottles a day, getting 64 ounces of water. Supposedly after a week it's supposed to have kicked out 5 pounds of water weight. I doubt this, but it is a great way to get lots of water and it does seem to be helping me somehow. It's been keeping me from getting quite as hungry at odd times. Actually, over the past couple days that I've been doing this, I've been finding myself wanting to drink MORE than the 64 ounces. For example, right now, it's 12:30p and I have just about finished my first 32 ounces. I will probably finish the next 32 before I leave work this afternoon, and then I will need more water for my walk this evening. I will drink ALL the waters!

I'll let you know later this week (or next) about how this holds up and how the rest of the eating goes.

This Week's Challenge

This week, I will exercise 3 times again, probably mostly by walking. My goal is 6 miles, which means three 45 minute walks. I get 10 bucks if I do this.

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!