Back on the Wagon

Today was day two back in the gym! Yesterday I walked 1.9 miles and ran 0.1 miles. Today I did weight training. I love weight training. I'm good at it. My lungs don't feel like they are about to collapse and my heart doesn't feel like it's beating out of my chest when I lift weights. Occasionally my limbs feel like they may fall off, but the feeling is short lived.

I'm eating fairly well... I've been trying to steer clear of HFCS and CS. I am sure they sneak in ways I don't think of, but I know I am eating drastically less of them. July is feeling like a really long month because I have not had any Mexican food. August 1st I think I may have to go to Los Compadres! I definitely have been eating a new age breakfast. I have 1/2 sprouted grain English  muffin with 1 ounce of raw cheese toasted. If you have never tried sprouted grain bread I highly recommend it.

In fact these English muffins are going to be the first of my Friday Favorites.
You'll find it in the freezer section. I like the Food for Life brand personally. These pictures are from the Food for Life website. There is no flour in these! It's all sprouted grains. You can microwave them but I found them a little chewy when warmed up that way. They are much better toasted. You can try it like I do, with some raw cheese, try peanut butter, or top it with an egg! (I'll talk about raw cheese next week.)

 

Today's question: Have you eaten sprouted grain breads before? Yes? What did you think? Any tasty suggestions?



 

 

Guest Post!!

Seeing as I am doing pathetic right now, I feel like we all need some real inspiration.
I met Megan when she was a sophomore in high school. I was the new youth ministry intern and the youth minister took us to one of the high school's softball games. Both Megan and her sister were playing, Megan being the pitcher, and a really good pitcher too. That was just over 10 years ago! She has since grown into a beautiful woman (not that she wasn't always beautiful).Today she is my guest blogger!! So without further adieu...

My journey began in October of 2012. I have always struggled with my weight and always had excuses. While shopping with a friend at Bed Bath and Beyond we both ended up walking out with a scale. I weighed myself that afternoon and was shocked by the number... I immediately went and signed up for weight watchers on line. Then I did nothing else until December.  I don't know exactly what clicked but something did... I started tracking my food, weighing once a week, cutting out sodas, and what I have found to be the biggest part of my success, exercising! Fast forward to 6 months and 2 weeks into my weight loss journey and I am at -50 lbs. I have been blessed by friends and co workers that are willing to exercise and encourage me.  There are days where it is difficult but I have to remind myself that it took me 26 years to put the weight on and it will not disappear in a year.  I have mini goals and big goals. I also made a "Weight Loss Bucket List" of things I want to do throughout my journey or by the end of my journey.  Next goal is -75 lb total by end of September and -100 lb loss by end of December. I have found that rewarding myself is something that works for me. I have also had to make myself first and not let work and other distractions keep me from bettering myself.

End of October 2012

Beginning of June 2013 (Down 43 pounds)

July 2013 (50 pounds down!!)

What an inspiration!

Where's the Wagon?

I've fallen so far off the wagon I'm not sure I can find it! I can feel it too. I feel horrible. I miss my energy! I think I'll be starting back at square one. The key IS to start again though, right?

Grad school is on hold for now, just looking for a job. There are no papers to be written, no projects to do....just calls to made and emails sent, all of which can't take place till at least 8:00 am. No excuses!

I'm really excited about tomorrow's post! I have someone very special that has written her story. I can't wait to share it with y'all! She's such an inspiration!

Okay, tomorrow I will share that AND what I did at the gym...because I AM going to the gym tomorrow!

Thanks Beth for sharing this with me!



So here I go....yet again!


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It's Just Blisters

I have been off track the last couple of days. I have 2 blisters, one on each heel. I know where one came from, last Sunday when I had on too low of socks. I have no idea where the other one came from. It's like I woke up with it. I finally went to the store today and got some special blister band aids. Hopefully, I will get back on track tomorrow. Other than not going to the gym, I have been eating out more too this week. This grad school class leaves little time for anything else and pretty much fries my brain. (Hence the lack of blogging.) The time I am not in class, driving to and from class, or reading and writing papers, I want to do NOTHING.....except sleep. I am procrastinating today. My professor gave us the day off so we would have time to write our really big paper that the rough draft is due Sunday night. So I spent the day doing everything but working on it.

At least I am still on track with my no Mexican food and no HFCS/CS. That's something, right?

Oh, I forgot to tell you I weighed Monday and had a 1.8 pound loss. I wanted at least 2 but I'll take what I can get. I am sure this Monday will not look pretty.

Today's question: What little ailments keep you sidelined?

Sunday 5K

I was up at 5:00 this morning and walking by 6:00. I have decided that Sundays I'm going to take the route of Sherry's Run. It starts just a few blocks from my house. I didn't do too bad, all things considered. First, my socks. They were cushiony but too low cut. I ended up getting a blister where my shoe rubbed. Thankfully I thought to bring an extra pair of socks, which I did in case of rain. A little past half way I ended up changing socks. I also ended up walking in grass and climbing a guardrail which didn't help my time any either. I think I have all that worked out now though and I have a starting point. The hill was torture but I made it. It just gets steeper towards the top I think. I may have ran 10 seconds of it. That really wasn't my goal today though. All the same, I can't imaging ever running the whole thing without walking. It feels like I'll never get there! In the end I did 3.2 miles.

Yesterday I did weights. I did some calf work on the leg press. Hopefully by strengthening them they'll stop burning!

I really hope I can complete day one of my training this week but I know that doing something is better than doing nothing. Tomorrow is weigh day too. Surely I've lost something...right?

This week will be particularly stressful at school. I will try to blog everyday, but they may be short!

Today's question: How much water do you drink a day?


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Pathetic

Had I started this blog earlier this morning, before I went to the gym, I would have told you that today was the day I would complete day 1. I had breakfast, a sprouted English muffin with 1/2 pay of unsalted butter and water, before 5:30 and didn't start my workout until 6:30. I felt pretty good. I was dreading it, but I always do.

I warmed up for 5 minutes, did my first 1 minute run and felt great! It was easy. My legs weren't tired and I could breathe. I just knew I was going to complete day 1 as intended.
Well it all went downhill from there. I skipped # 4, only did the last 30 seconds of #5, and then skipped #6,7,8. My calf burned like crazy and I just plain didn't feel good. I walked pretty much the entire 2nd half! PATHETIC!! The only good news is that my breakfast and timing kept me from hurting under my ribs.

I really thought resting yesterday would have helped me. Instead, I feel like I'm starting over.

This last grad class was a bad idea. It's insane. I have no idea how I ever learned to read. I was already scared to teach kids to read, now I'm terrified!

Compound a bad morning with a stressful afternoon and being completely overwhelmed and you get a bad evening meal. I may have very well negated all the calories I burned this week. I guess I'll see Monday if I did.

It's 7:40 and I think I'm just going to bed.

Today's question: How do you recover from a bad day?

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A Day of Rest

I have been to the gym every day since last Monday. That's 10 days in a row... so I took today off. It's a rainy, gloomy day anyway.

Yesterday I did a little better on the Couch to 5K but I still didn't do all of day 1. I walked through run #5 and ended up walking 30 seconds of runs 6 and 7. My right calf just burned, not to mention I couldn't breathe. I'll keep doing day one until I actually complete day one as it's intended.

I also went grocery shopping yesterday. Goal: Buy nothing with high fructose corn syrup or corn syrup in it. CHECK! I even bought ice cream! I love ice cream but finding it without HFCS or CS, that wasn't easy. One word...Breyers. I know it is full of sugar and still not particularly good for me, but if I'm going to eat ice cream I might as well get the good stuff. Heinz Natural Ketchup is made with sugar instead of HFCS. Pretty much everything else I bought didn't have any sugar in it at all. The almond milk has cane sugar in it, I think.

Lunch today (of hamburgers, baked beans, and potato wedges) had no HFCS in anything. YAY!!! You can eat normal food without it, you just have to look for it.

Tomorrow it's back to school and back to the gym. Maybe tomorrow will be my day to finally complete day 1!  We shall see. I am so close!

Today's question: Do you read food labels normally? If you do, what are you looking for?

I'm Still Here!

WHEW!!!!! Yesterday was my first day of class. I am taking a 2 1/2 week intensive class for grad school. It's a whole semester jammed into 13 days. I had to read 2 chapters and write papers on each. This will be a nightly thing, plus other papers and readings. I just have to survive for 2 1/2 weeks.

Okay, so what's been going on...

Sunday I fulfilled my goal of walking 5K at 3.0 mph. It felt really slow, but I made this goal 6 weeks ago when I couldn't walk 5 minutes without my heart hurting. I didn't even break a sweat. The bottom of my foot did hurt, but it was topical, something was making it raw.

Monday I started my Couch to 5K training. I went with the run 1 minute/walk 1 1/2 minutes 8 times. Before yesterday I had only run for 20 seconds. Of the 8 runs I ran 6 of them. I know that wasn't the ultimate goal, but it is twice as much as I had done before and for 3 times as long each interval. I'm happy with that! I skipped run s #4 and #6 and just kept walking through them. One thing I noticed was that I burned 243 calories and I found myself resisting temptations because I didn't want to negate those hard earned calories!

Today was not a run day so I did arm and leg weights. My arms are so weak!!

My challenges this month are not buying any HFCS or CS, drinking 2 1/2 liters of water a day, eat NO Mexican food and to do a Couch to 5K training program. So far, so good! 

I know several people are joining me in a couple of these. Let me know how it's going! If you don't think you can do a whole month, try a week!

Today's question: When you exercise is it normally a chore, or an escape? (I found that today it was an escape from reading and papers.)