Wednesday Weigh In and Bed Update

My first Wednesday Weigh In is here!  Today's weight is.....drum roll please.........................

240.6!

Sigh.  After bouncing around in the 239's for several days, the scale decided to hop up today.  Oh well, I know it is probably related to the high sodium foods I've snacked on over the past few days.  I'm hoping the scale will read 238 next Wednesday!

As for the bed, well, all I can say is...I'm IN LOVE with this thing!  I'll be honest, the first night was a little rough.  The mattress was pretty stiff, not at all like the floor model that we tried at the store.  The salesman told us it might take a few days to break it in and suggested we walk around on it after it arrived, which I did, but apparently it wasn't enough because I tossed and turned all night and woke up with a worse backache than I had the day before!  On day 2, I walked around on it some more before bed and slept better, and last night I did the same.  This morning I woke up well rested and pain free after 7 hours of blissful, comfortable sleep.  Ahhhhh. 

Yay for memory foam!

Adding Structure

For the past couple months I've been letting my body guide my hunger and haven't really counted calories too closely - I sort of mentally note what I've eaten and try to keep it below 2000 calories.  Much to my surprise, this approach has been quite successful!  Slowly but surely I've lost weight and for the most part I've felt pretty satisfied.  But the weight loss has been slow and I'm anxious to get into the next size down. 

A few weeks ago I decided to step up my workouts - with the triathlon approaching I don't have a moment to spare in my training.  Today I decided it was time to start formalizing my weight loss strategy as well - it could take me a couple years to get to my goal weight at this rate, and I'd like to make this triathlon as easy on myself as possible.  I'm not expecting to lose 50 pounds in 4 months, but it would be nice to take off at least 25-30. 

Starting tomorrow I'm going to start tracking my calories using Daily Plate on Livestrong.com.  I've used this website in the past and found that it's a fantastic tool for keeping track of calories, nutrients, weight and activity.  And it's FREE!  Rather than ball-parking about 2000 calories per day I'll count more closely and aim for about 1500-1800 depending on how much exercise I've gotten that day. Daily Plate gives you a daily target based on your current weight, goal weight, and time to goal.  You record your weight and as you lose weight your daily target goes down - but you get to eat more when you record your exercise!

I'll also start formalizing my weigh-ins.  Right now I weigh myself almost every day.  I know they say you're not supposed to do that, but it honestly works for me - I look forward to getting on the scale each morning and don't get discouraged if there's not a lot of downward movement.  However, I don't track my overall change in weight other than change against my starting point last October - and thus I don't have a good idea of how much I lose each week, and how my weight cycling relates to daily calorie intake and general nutrition.  So I've decided to 'officially' weigh in on Wednesdays and I'll post the updates here.

Check back this Wednesday for my first official weigh-in and a report on my first few nights with the Tempurpedic bed.

New Bed!

For years, I have suffered from upper-backaches and I usually don't sleep through the night without waking up a few times.  I've always chalked it up to having a large chest and a genetic predisposition to being a light sleeper (my mom frequently got up in the middle of the night to read because she couldn't sleep) (she also had big boobs) (that was probably TMI).  My tossing and turning isn't insomnia - I'll wake up, change position, and go right back to sleep.  Often I'm woken up because my left hand has gone numb from sleeping on it the wrong way, so I wait a few minutes til the feeling has come back and then go right back to sleep. 

A couple weeks ago I stayed at a Novotel in the UK.  Although this is a budget hotel chain, every room had a Tempurpedic mattress, and I had the best night's sleep I've had in years!  No tossing and turning and I woke up only once during the night.  My hand never went numb and my whole body felt great when I got up in the morning.  And all this in a hotel room - I never sleep well in hotels!  When I got home to my own bed (which is nice and fluffy and really quite comfortable, mind you) the backache came back and I had a hard time sleeping through the night again.

Yesterday I decided enough was enough.  We ordered a Tempurpedic mattress yesterday and it comes today!  I can't wait to try it out - the salesman warned us that it might take a couple nights to get used to, but both of us found the floor model really comfortable so I think we'll be OK.  I'll report back in a couple days with the results. 

What I Learned on the Yoga Mat Tonight

I, like many people, have a fear of failure.  The fear can be about something big (I'm afraid to change careers because I might not be good at something else) or small (I'm afraid to try hip hop dancing because I'll look silly), but either way the basic feeling is the same:  I don't think I can do it.  It might hurt.  It might be hard.  I might fail.  I might, I might, I might.  There are so many things in my life that I haven't done because I was afraid of failing.

Tonight I asked Rena to lead me through a new yoga pose, side plank.  I've seen pictures of people doing the pose, and have thought about it a number of times but have always been afraid it would be too hard for me.  And believe it or not, I've never even tried it on my own, in the privacy of my home!  That fear of failure kept me from trying.  I'm not just afraid to fail in public, I'm afraid to fail even when nobody else will know!  In my mind, I had built something as simple as a new yoga pose into something so difficult that I would need to wait until I was much fitter to even attempt it.

But tonight I thought I'd just ask, and maybe I could make a feeble attempt and see how much I could do.  Rena talked me through it slowly -first regular plank...then side plank on one knee...and when the time came to move my bottom leg I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do it.  I was really tired, my legs were shaking, and I just didn't think I could do it.  It was such a small movement - just slide my bottom leg straight and balance...I hesitated for a long moment and then a voice inside me said STOP WORRYING AND JUST DO IT!  I moved my leg out, and held a perfect side plank pose for several seconds.  And then repeated it on the other side.

This experience may seem trivial to some, but I honestly had an epiphany right there on the mat.  How many times have I hesitated in life because I was afraid to take a small step forward?  Because I thought it would hurt?  Because I thought it would be difficult physically, mentally or emotionally?  Because it was outside my comfort zone?  Because I was afraid to fail?  In that moment I saw everything that has held me back in life...and all the possibilities that lie ahead of me.  I realized that failure doesn't define me, in fact it makes me stronger.  By playing it safe, I'm missing out.  Who cares if I try something new and it doesn't work?  Does it make me less of a person?  Nope.  Just the opposite.  And the rewards of success are so much sweeter when you take a chance.  I felt so great about myself tonight for executing that pose - yes, it made me feel a bit silly for not having tried it before since I was obviously capable of handling it.  But it gave me the confidence to stop worrying about what will happen and take more chances with myself.

The yoga mat is a magical place - you never know what you'll find there.  In Rena's words, the mat is the place where you can lose yourself and find yourself and I'd have to agree!  I know I found something in myself tonight that I'll treasure for a long time - the willingness to fail.

Starbucks Pastry, Free Pizza and Smaller Clothes

Today started out well - another half pound down on the scale, bringing me to a total of 23 pounds in 21 weeks.  A pair of pants that was a bit tight on me a few weeks ago zipped up with no problem today.  And best of all, I successfully navigated the FREE PASTRIES at Starbucks this morning.  Yes - that's correct - they were giving away free pastries.  Pound cake, croissants, donuts - you name it, they tried to give me some this morning.  I said no a couple times, came close to caving in, and then ultimately walked away. 

And then I got to work.  Stress stress stress from the moment my butt hit my chair at 6:15 am.  By 10:30 I had eaten my morning snacks plus my lunch, and was under no illusions that it was anything other than stress eating.  By noon I had scarfed down a piece of pizza from the cafeteria and two cookies.  More stress.  At 3:30 I wandered past some cold pizza and scooped up two slices.  Fully aware that I was coping with food, I ate both slices in less than 5 minutes. 

Stress eating is something I've avoided pretty well over the past few months.  But today I reached a pretty high frustration level and I needed to diffuse my stress quickly - and food has NEVER let me down when it comes to that.  So while it might not have been the most constructive way to deal with things, today I made a conscious choice to use it to calm myself down enough to function. 

There was one major difference between today's stress eating and past experiences - normally if I deviated from my plan in such a huge way I'd give myself permission to eat my favorite foods for the rest of the day and start over tomorrow.  I stopped off at the grocery store on the way home and hunted around for something tasty, but nothing looked good - not even the gourmet cupcakes!  I honestly felt full and didn't really have a desire to continue eating now that I felt calm and relaxed, so I picked up some veggies and fruit for the rest of the week, treated myself to some tulips and left the store.  I hopped on the treadmill for my scheduled Couch-to-5K workout (6 minutes running, 24 minutes walking) and that was that!  I'm still not hungry for dinner because I had pizza so late in the afternoon, so I'm done eating for the day.  The scale might be up a half pound or so tomorrow morning but that's OK - the important thing is that I've regained my composure and didn't use today as an excuse to go off the rails and eat everything in sight.  I'm choosing to look at today as a success rather than a failure!

As a reward for my behavior this evening, I allowed myself to go 'shopping' in some bins of clothes that are too small.  I found a leather jacket and a cute cotton spring jacket that haven't fit since 2006 - I can just get into them right now and in 5 more pounds they'll fit perfectly.  A nice end to the day!

Yeah!

Remember that half-pound I was hoping to lose while I was away last week?  Well it finally showed up on the scale this morning and it brought a friend...I am officially down a pound from 8 days ago AND squarely in the 230's now.  Life is good.

Welcome Back, Mojo

My mojo is back!  I managed to reset myself today, by eating nutrionally balanced meals (lots of fruit & veg, lean meats, healthy fats), setting up some healthy meals for the week, watching last week's BL and getting to the gym for an awesome treadmill session.  For dinner I made myself a delicious treat (thanks Rena for the idea) - I cooked up some ground turkey with chipotle taco seasoning, then spooned it onto some romaine lettuce leaves with fresh salsa from Whole Foods and a couple slices of avocado.  Yu-huh-hum!  Unfortunately, this combo was so good that it was long gone before I remembered to take a picture.  But trust me, it was delish!

Tonight's treadmill workout felt so great - I'm up to 6 minutes running/24 walking in the Couch-to-5K program and I did my minutes tonight in two 3-minute intervals at 5mph.  I could have done more - and I REALLY wanted to - but I'm trying to stick to the program and trust the process.  Rather than add more time/mileage, next week is a holding pattern - three more workouts of 6 run/24 walk.  My goal is to be running at least 4, if not 6 minutes straight through by the end of this week.  Then I'll drop back to the 2-minute intervals when the time goes up to 8 minutes and see how it goes. I've had some trouble with my right Achilles tendon over the past few months and if I injure it again I'll be seriously heartbroken - so easy does it with each jump up in run time on this program until I see if my ankle and calf are up to it.

I've got a couple fun weeknight activities planned over the next few days - tomorrow night is a 2-hour 'plan your summer garden' class at Temple.  Can't wait for that!  I have vague ideas of what I'd like my garden to look like, but honestly I haven't the faintest clue how to get started so I'm hoping this class will give me some good ideas.  On Thursday evening I have an info session for the SheRox Triathlon, where we'll learn about the event and meet other participants.  The session is being held at a local running store and I'm hoping there will be coupons for $$ off running shoes!

OK folks, time to get ready for bed and get my head in the game for a busy week ahead.  Talk to you soon!

Mojo Gone Missing

Well I'm back from the UK but have done nothing but sleep, eat and lay around the house since I arrived!  I was hoping to be down a half-pound on Saturday morning but I was up 3 instead.  I'm inclined to think it's water retention from traveling, as my shoes and rings are tight.  I'll give it a couple days and get back on the scale.  Today I'm up early and feeling somewhat energetic so I'll be back to my routine in no time.

Rude American Steals Treadmill

Hello!  Many apologies for my long absence - the end of last week was simply crazy and I am out of town this week on business yet again.  This time I'm in London where the weather is sunny for a change.  Best of all, I have been sticking to my planned exercise schedule!  Yesterday I managed a short strength training session before work and this morning I hit the hotel treadmill (more about that in a minute).  Tomorrow I'm planning to do strength in the morning & yoga in the evening, and Friday will be another treadmill run before I catch a plane back to Philly.  I'm hoping to fit in a bonus walk somewhere but only if time allows.

I flew over Sunday night, slept on the plane and arrived Monday morning.  Went right to work and by 6pm  I was pretty tired so I had dinner at the hotel and went to bed right afterwards.  Tuesday morning I woke up early to exercise.  The hotel didn't have a gym and it was still dark outside, so I worked out in my room.  After warming up by power walking the halls and doing a few flights of stairs, I did a 20-minute routine using body weight as resistance - push ups, lunges, wall sits, crunches, etc.  Last night I transferred to a different hotel and planned to get up early this morning to hit the treadmill. 

The hotel guide stated that the gym would be open at 6am, so I left my room at 5:55 intending to beat the rush.  Alas, everyone else in the hotel had the same idea and by the time I got there all the treadmills were taken.  Disappointed, I weighed my options.  Run outside?  No - still dark and the hotel is right outside Heathrow, I'm unsure of the neighborhood.  Run up and down the halls?  No - there are fire doors about every 50 feet on each floor - I'll spend more time opening doors than running.  Skip my workout?  Hell NO!  I got up, got dressed and got down here - I'm ready to go.  OK, last options - use a different machine, or stand around and wait until a treadmill is free.  I chose to make the most of my time and hopped on an elliptical. 

More and more people arrived and soon every machine was taken.  I was watching the 4 treadmills in front of me like a hawk - ready to jump off my machine at the slightest sign of a cooldown.  The elliptical is a good workout but I get really bored on it after about 10 minutes and I really had my heart set on the treadmill.  Watching....watching....that lady is slowing down....YES!  She's picking up her towel.....crap.  Just taking a moment to check her heart rate.  Wait....that guy on the end is definitely doing a cool down....he's taking out his headphones....

Before anyone else could make a move, I pounced.  I was off that elliptical and behind that treadmill faster than you can say 'rude American'.  Much to the dismay of everyone else I claimed the treadmill for myself and jumped right into my intervals.  I could feel the frustration of a couple other people who had been waiting out the same guy - and as I looked in the mirror I could see a woman behind me staring open-mouthed in annoyance. 

The polite, don't-make-waves, don't-draw-attention-to-yourself side of me felt a twinge of guilt before I made my move.  I knew other people were waiting.  But as I looked around the room, I knew that I needed that treadmill more than anyone else there.  Rude or not, nothing was going to stand in the way of my training plan and I decided to absolve myself of guilt right then and there.  I did what I needed to do!  In fact, this morning's workout was all the sweeter because I fought for it. 

As for my eating strategy, I only have one business dinner to worry about - tonight I'll be eating with my team in Windsor (yes, that Windsor - right next to the castle) which has lots of lovely restaurants.  There will be pints of beer and probably some amazing curry.  To pre-compensate I've been eating small meals and not snacking. My hope is that I'll see at least a half-pound loss on the scale when I get back - I'm within striking distance of the 230's!

I probably won't post too much for the rest of this week but I'll leave you with some exciting news I got last Friday.  I went to the doctor for my annual physical and review of bloodwork.  It's been just over a year since I was last there and my cholesterol has gone from 225 to 201, my triglycerides have gone from 166 to 88, my resting pulse has dropped from 84 to 64 and my blood pressure has dropped to 110/70-ish.  My thyroid levels are stabilized (I went on synthetic thyroid hormone about 2 years ago) and my blood sugar was normal (diabetes runs in my family so I get that checked every year).  My doctor was so pleased and of course also congratulated me on my weight loss.  Woohoo!  It's not often that my annual checkup yields anything other than a reminder to eat less and exercise more, yada yada yada.

She did notice that my vitamin D levels were extremely low - possibly due to working all day in an office with no windows - and instructed me to take D3 supplements or get at least 15 minutes a day of direct sunlight on my face and arms.  Yet another reason to get that lunchtime walk in!

Oh, one last thing - the new Jillian Michaels show starts on June 1: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20100316nbc01

That's all I have today - I'll be back to my regular schedule on Saturday - enjoy your week!

You Spin Me Right Round

It's official, I am in love with my new cycling shoes.  Took them for a spin (ahem) tonight at Twisters.  They totally rock and now I will be shopping for coordinating geeky cycling gear.

And (pat, pat, pat) I got BOTH workouts in today - I hit the gym up before work with Terri as planned, for a grand total of 90 minutes of cardio today.  I'm tired - time to hit the showers and cozy up to watch Biggest Loser.

Training Calendar

Over the past couple weeks I've started to get a bit concerned that my triathlon training is not progressing fast enough.  With the event coming up in less than 5 months I don't have any time to mess around.   I think part of the reason I've been so haphazard about my training is that I haven't developed a schedule to follow - I have two strength training workouts plus a yoga class booked with Rena every week but that's about it.  As a result, my cardio workouts have been sporadic at best.

However, last Tuesday I started doing the conservative version of the Couch-to-5K program (I started on month 2 as the first month was for people that needed to work up to walking 30 minutes).  I completed the entire first week with no problem - having a schedule with things to check off was very motivating!  After giving it some thought, I decided to apply that concept to my overall fitness program and the result was this:

 

This is my new workout calendar - two months at a time, color coded by workout.  When March is over I'll move April up and outline May's training on the bottom.  On the bulletin board side I have the overall couch-to-5K program, some stretches and a couple 'homework' assignments from Rena.  I plan to put some motivational quotes there as well.

Here's a closeup of the calendar:

Right now I've got 3 runs, 2 swims, 3 strength, 1 yoga and 1 cycle scheduled in, plus one rest day.  Eventually I'll add another cycling workout but I think this is enough for now!!!  Actually, I'm not too sure I can keep up this schedule but I decided to shoot for the stars and adjust as needed - there will be no guilt if I'm just too tired from the day before.

This was so much fun to put together!  I wrote in my workouts from last week too, to remind myself of how much exercise I got.  The next challenge is to get both of tomorrow's workouts completed - I'm planning to meet Terri at 5:30am for a treadmill workout and then I'm going to Ken's spinning class after work.  Phew, I'm tired just thinking about it...I better make sure I've got everything packed up tonight or I'll never make it to the gym on time...

How Many Calories in a Slice of Humble Pie?

This week I accomplished a LOT in the gym!  Since Monday, I've done:

• 3 strength workouts
• 1 yoga class
• 3 treadmill workouts (days 1-3 of the Couch-to-5K program)
• 1 spin class
• 1 900-yard-long swim (that's a half-mile!)

This is a vast improvement over past weeks where I've really slacked off on the cardio on weekends.  This week seemed a bit easier - even with a lot of social and work commitments I managed to get all my planned workouts in by telling myself to stop whining about a lack of motivation and JUST DO IT already!  Turns out I can go a bit Jillian on myself if I need to.  This week included two work-related dinners out as well as a group lunch so I didn't lose any weight, but at least my workouts kept things from getting out of hand.  

My calories might have been a bit lower this week if I hadn't helped myself to a huge slice of humble pie yesterday.  Right before spin class my husband suggested I try his cycling shoes: 

Some of you might remember my opinion of cycling shoes - I believe my exact words were "I'm not wearing those stupid shoes until Kate Spade comes out with a line of cycling gear."  Normally I wouldn't have agreed to try them - I'm usually as stubborn as a mule when someone offers me unsolicited advice - but he asked me before I'd had any caffeine and I decided to give them a try.   They were a couple sizes too big but I thought I could still make them work for one class.

OMG, what a difference a pair of shoes can make!  It was so much easier to ride - no more adjusting my foot position, no more numb toes, and I got much more power out of each stroke.  Ugly or not, the shoes were a godsend and I decided within about 15 minutes that I needed my own pair.  Immediately.  I washed my humble pie down with a cup of coffee and admitted that I was wrong - now where can I get some of those shoes? 

We had a busy afternoon planned but tacked on a visit to Performance Bike in North Wales at the end of the day.  Ken was more than happy to tag along so he could shop for gadgets while I tried on  shoes.  After arriving at the store he gave me a quick orientation and some suggestions on things to look for and I started pulling boxes off the shelves.  The store was having a huge clearance event and ugly or not, I love shopping for shoes on sale so I soon had a huge pile to try on.  

After a few minutes I figured out my size (42 - sounds huge but basically it's the European equivalent of 9.5) and narrowed it down to a couple choices that fit my requirements: mountain bike shoes (easier to walk in), ski-boot-style buckle on the top strap (instead of velcro), and most importantly, less ugly than the other shoes.  Unfortunately, my first choice was out of stock in my size, and I didn't want to buy my second choice without seeing if the first one was a better fit.  We asked the front desk if they could call the other stores in the area - lo and behold, the Paoli store had one last pair in my size!  They put the shoes on hold for me and we headed off to get them before the store closed for the night.  Paoli is a 25-mile drive from North Wales so we hopped on the turnpike and turned on a Jillian Michaels podcast for entertainment.  This sparked a discussion about shoulder position during plank pose and next thing I knew we were driving past our exit...at which time the GPS informed us that we had just added 30 miles onto our drive.  Grrrr.  Stupid ugly half-price shoes.  

We eventually got there, and I tried on the shoes and decided to buy them.  Honestly, they're not THAT bad:

 

At least they are a pretty color.  I can't wait to try them out - Ken is teaching a spin class at Twisters on Tuesday night and I'm planning to go - I'll report back and let you know how it went!

Organic Lawn Care

My monthly iecycle article has been posted - this month's topic is organic lawn care.  Check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/yfvx2nl.

Keep Calm and Carry On

This afternoon I was trying to think of one sentence that sums up my weight loss efforts over the past few months, as well as my general attitude towards health and fitness. The first thing that popped into my head was a British poster from WWII: Keep Calm and Carry On.  This is one of a series of posters produced in 1939 by the Ministry of Information - the ever-practical Brits planned to use them to remind citizens to keep their wits about them in the event of a Nazi invasion.

I just love the simplicity of this statement - to me it says "OK Jill, this (doughnut, injury, forgotten gym bag, fill-in-the-blank) might not have been in your plan, but you're an intelligent, capable woman - pull yourself together and figure out how to manage your way through it."

I may never have to deal with a Nazi invasion, but anyone that has struggled with their weight knows that sometimes dieting  does feel like a battlefield.  To me, Keep Calm and Carry On seems like the perfect response to any diet challenge.  Box of Thin Mints by your office printer?  Use a printer on a different floor.  Overindulged at lunch?  Have a tiny dinner.  Injury to your Achilles tendon?  Work out in the pool.  I like this slogan so much I'm going to order a poster to put up next to my treadmill!

What statement best defines your fitness attitude?