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Weekend Sabotage (and my plans for making up with my scale)

Sep 16th, 2008
by gazelle.
9 comments

One thing I didn’t write about yesterday was my crappy-ass eating over the weekend. The architect and I worked hard, but I’m not sure that justified the amount of food I ate. The scale punished me this morning, showing me number dangerously close to my “oh hell no” threshold.

Back on track today, though. I will by lying on a beach somewhere for my birthday, and although I plan on consuming my body weight in margaritas and guacamole DURING my trip, I want to wear my bikini ON my trip.

That means I have five months to drop 15 -20 pounds (I know last week, I said 10-15, but seriously – the scale was not kind this morning).

Five months. That is 3-4 pounds each month. That is more than doable.

This morning, I dug out my old WW food journals from last summer – when I lost 25 pounds in 5 months. I ate a lot of processed crap (frozen lunches, 2-pt bars, etc.), went over my points almost every day, and still lost weight.

I’m not sure I can do it that way again this time. I’ve been concentrating more on eating food – good food, even – lately, that processed food doesn’t even taste good to me. The thought of buying a Lean Cuisine makes me gag a little, actually. (Hmmm…maybe that’s a good plan. Buy a lot of frozen lunches, look at them, gag, put them away and skip lunch. The downside is I might start lunching on the Mini 3 Musketeers outside my office. The plan may need refining.)

I am participating in Glam’s Muffin Melt-off, which gives me about 6 weeks to lose the first 6 pounds to get back to skinny jean weight (just in time for my 2nd anniversary). And then just under four months to lose the remaining 10-or-so (a little less than a pound a week). The only problem with that? The upcoming cookie and stuffing holiday season.

The good news? I have two 5Ks on the books – one in October & one in November (right Kris?) – that should keep me running. Also, I am seriously considering running a marathon the end of May – and with the level of fitness that I’ve lost in the past few months, I’m thinking I may have to start my training a bit earlier than I would need to if I HADN’T lost almost 3 months of running – this program recommends 27 weeks, starting with just little runs; the 18 week program that I’ll likely use starts the last week of January – just when I’ll be seeing the light at the end of the stress tunnel.

So – my plan (because I love a good plan)

September (what remains):

  1. continue to run 3x/week, with input from PT, gradually increasing run time
  2. yoga 1x/week (A – wanna hit yoga this week? Maybe Friday evening again?)
  3. crazy weights 1x/week (I’m there on Thursday – any takers?)

October

  1. Continue to run 3x/week – at this point I should be RUNNING, not run/walking
  2. Return to fantastic work-out classes
  3. Yoga 1x/week
  4. Crazy weights 1x/week
  5. I’ll be done with PT, so I can’t rely on that for my other weight training day, so gym 1x/week for my personalized quad strengthening program
  6. Run 5K on 10/19

November

Items 1-6 above, 5K on November 16 (I think); Long runs should be creeping up to 6 miles again

December

  • Repeat as before, long runs 6-8 miles
  • COOKIES ARE NOT MY FRIEND!  Not even sugar cookies in festive shapes! 
  • (Seriously – step away from the cookies.)

January

  • Don’t have a nervous breakdown.
  • Go to yoga as often as possible.
  • Go to crazy weights as often as possible.
  • Don’t stress about missing a weekday workout.
  • Go for a run already.
  • Cookies are still not your friend.

February

  • Run, run, run!
  • Yoga.
  • Weights.
  • More weights.
  • Try on bikini.
  • Go on vacation. Eat, drink & be merry.

Any suggestions? Criticisms? Advice for keeping the cookies at bay?

Help?

Sep 4th, 2008
by gazelle.
4 comments

Yesterday I got a (figurative) gold star from my physical therapist. If she handed out real gold stars, I’d be doing even better. I’m very sticker motivated.

I know have 100% range of motion. However, she worked me hard yesterday. I was too exhausted/sore to do my walk last night, and ended up skipping weights last night due to the sore. I am, however, walking tonight and yoga-ing tomorrow, so I’m only missing ONE day of cardio. Hopefully my goals will forgive me.

I am starting to get nervous about January. January is going to suck. I will mostly likely be working full-time in January, which is unfortunate, because that has traditionally been the month I needed 3-day weekends the most. Every day, another January project gets dumped on me, and then I cry a little. But only on the inside.

I do really enjoy my job. And my boss. And most of my co-workers. I love my office and I love working in a hospital, because it makes going to the doctor very easy, and sometimes I share elevators with people who’ve recently had transplants – and that’s just cool.

I am going to have to be very careful to remember to take time for myself, once January rolls around. It’s easy to get caught up in the stress of work, and before you know it you’re chowing through the bowl of fun-size candy bars, sneaking out for smoke breaks (although not at my work – we’re smoke free), skipping yoga & not having enough time to run. January, with its never-ending dark is hard enough without making time for the healthy stress relievers.

I guess it’s good that I can plan for this. When I used to work in international relief/development as a fundraiser, I couldn’t plan for the stressful times. Between December 2004 & October 2005, there were three very large disasters: the Indonesian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and a huge earthquake in Pakistan. There was no planning for that. No planning for the fact that I almost missed my own New Year’s Eve party because I was at work. No planning for the long hours and canceled vacation in the wake of the hurricane. And although we did a number of good things (more or less, but I’m not here to say bad things about former employers, no matter how deserved), and I wasn’t left dead, or homeless, or bereft, it wasn’t so much for me. Too much stress makes me go blind (no, seriously, I went blind one day at work when processing tsunami donations). I am a planner (the architect is rolling his eyes at that understatement) and I need a plan.

I don’t need it quite yet – although the next 5 weeks will be a practice run for January – but I will need something in place before the dark is really here. I need coping mechanisms and reminders to take a break, to go for a quick run, and to step away from the candy (that I don’t even really like anyway).

So, even though I’m only now slowly getting back into a cardio routine, I need to keep it going. And tell me – how do you prepare for periods of great busy? What coping mechanisms do you employ that don’t involve Parliament Lights & Peanut Butter Soy Delicious non-dairy frozen dessert (I hate, hate, hate this lactose intolerance thing)? Help a girl out (‘cause if you don’t, I’ll talk about politics some more).

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