I am so tired, but in a good way

My kids are at camp (mornings only) this week, so, even though I have a billion things I need to do, I decided to use the time to exercise.  Mostly walking, with a little couch-to-5K sprinkled in.  Because my schedule is constantly changing, I've decided I have to plan out my exercise in advance for each week.  So, this week is walking and walking and walking and a little running.

Next week, I hope to be able to do some classes at the Y.

Eating has been pretty good.  I have decided to eat veggie wraps for lunch, until I get tired of them.  The veggies come from my garden or the farmer's market, so they are full of flavor.  I sautee onions and squash in butter, mix them with fresh cucumber and tomato, goat cheese, and I put everything on a couple of Trader Joe's low carb tortillas.  Yummy.

I did go out with friends last night, going out for pizza with friends on Thursday night, and out to lunch at Panera on Saturday.  So, that is not all that good.  Also, my husband made brownies last night.

I would love, love, love to be in the 134's on the scale on Sunday.  We'll see.  I'm going to do my strength training before we head for the pool.

Weekly Weigh-In

So, yesterday I weighed in at 136.6.  And my period was over.  So, there we go, I guess it's time to change my ticker from 135.2 to 136.6. 

I decided that I needed to take my eating and exercise a lot more seriously.  I'm not sure there is any way to lose weight without being at least a tiny bit hungry.  Otherwise, how would I have a calorie deficit?  So, I started doing that today.  I'm not counting calories formally, but I am paying close attention to what I eat and not getting as full.  And I'm kicking the exercise into high gear, as in 1-2 hours a day, 5-7 days a week, until I reach my goal. 

My goal is to get down to 125 by August 1st and then maintain.  Based on past experience, I believe that I can do this. 

Sometimes I do wonder why I care so much.  Everywhere I look, I see people who are much larger than me.  I wear a freaking size small in most clothes, occasionally an extra small, and more occasionally a medium.  I am a size I would never have believed I could have gotten down to at certain points in my life.  Still, I'm a little thick and a little wide, and I really wish my tummy would shrink. 

I know someone in real life who has started a blog.  She is 2 inches taller than me, and her goal weight is not far from my highest weight.  It just kind of puts things in perspective. 

I have another friend who has a completely flat stomach with well-defined ab muscles.  I know I will never get there.  I have neither the motivation, nor, I think, the genetics to get my body fat down that low. 

But what I really need to do is to stop comparing myself to other people. 

Sunday Weigh-In

Today, with my period starting, I weighed 135.8.  That's okay.  It's not great, but I'm not upset about it.  I don't appear to be either gaining or losing weight right now.  Just fairly stable.  Stable is okay.  Gaining is bad. 

This is really a new experience for me, starting at a relatively low weight and working down to a lower one.  The two times in my life I've lost weight I was a lot fatter to begin with. 

I broke my vow, which was to keep my clothes budget tied to my weight and not to buy clothes until I've reached my geal.  I bought clothes, some pretty summer clothes at summer sales online that I hope to enjoy wearing.  I bought dresses and skirts.  I hope they'll help me to feel good about myself.  I want to enjoy the body I have, even if it is 10 pounsd more than the one I want. 

I've also found that the BEST way to lose weight is to buy some clothes you really love.  It never fails.  At that point, I will lose weight and then my beautiful clothes will look baggy.  Oh, well. 

The good news is that my kids' end-of-year programs are over, and things should settle down a little, and I should be able to get into a better routine.  I'm hoping to take some classes at the Y.  I just need to put them on my calendar and GO.  I'm interested in Zumba, line dancing, yoga, pilates, and spinning (although the spinning classes tend to fill up).  

I did have a fun 30 minutes of roller blading one day, while my son biked. I would have loved to have kept going, but he was done.  After I took a fall, I realized that I need knee pads before I try it again!  My scrapes have healed fine, but I'm over 30, and hurting my knee is a lot bigger of a deal than it was when I was, say, 12. 

The Couch to 5K is not going well at all. Ugh.  I could do it if I weren't so overloaded, but I think for now, I need something a little more exciting and different from what I'm used to. 

Once again, I would love to see the OTHER side of 135 next week. 

A Binge

I went on a terrible binge yesterday, which honestly is fairly unusual for me.  My problem is normally too much grazing and occasional overeating. 

Last night, after driving through Friday evening traffic to take my son to a dress rehearsal for his dance recital, we waited around there for over an hour until he was finished, and then I drove him home through Friday evening traffic.  By the time I got there, I was HUNGRY.  I ate 4 slices of (homemade) pizza, admittedly they were small slices, had 3-4 glasses of wine, and a very generous serving of Oreo ice cream.  I don't even want to know how many calories I consumed. 

Yesterday was also emotional because it was my younger son's last day of preschool, and it just marks the passage of time.  I'm both happy and sad not to have a toddler around anymore. 

I am tired and cranky, and my period is starting.  I am wishing that I had gotten the hormonal IUD instead of the copper one so that I wouldn't have this monthly insanity.  Pre Menstrual Psychosis.  It's not pretty. 

Weekly Weigh In

I weighed in this morning at 135.6.  I was less than thrilled.  Well, I'll just hope to be on the other side of 135 next week.  I need to do better on exercise.  Next week is going to be hectic, and then it should start to slow down (I hope?). 

I've gotten back to staying up late and getting up late, and I really do believe that my 45-minute-to-an-hour walk each morning is a key to success. 

If I keep losing weight at this rate, I will be finished in something like 5-10 months.  Which would be okay if I had 50 pounds to lose, but I think it's a little extreme for 10 pounds.  I think I need to step things up, especially with the exercise! 

Tried out My 15's

I went up to 15-pound dumbells for most of my strength training exercises.  I was using 12's and didn't expect the 15's to be so hard.  But they were. 

I could do tons of reps of chest flies with the 12's.  With the 15's, I only did 8.  I wonder if I did multiple sets, if increasing weight would be a little easier.  I might want to think about that before I try 20's in a few months. 

The strange this is that, because the heaviest weight I had was 12, I was using it for nearly all of my exercises (except for the lateral raise, which I can barely do with 8's).  When I first started strength training years ago, doing the overhead press with 5's was painful.  Now, I look back on that and think, what they heck was wrong with me? 

Anyway, now my overhead press is the same weight as my bicep curl, and it was actually easier to increase weight on the overhead press than it was to increase the bicep curl.  Very, very weird. 

I have not been doing much lower body exercise.  My lower body is pretty muscular just from life, thanks to my freak genetics that cause me to build muscle easily.  (My parents and sister are the same way.)  I think it would good, as far as my weight loss goals, to add in some squats and lunges next time.  Nothing excessive that would take me much longer, just something to round things out and work my lower body too. 

So, a happy day.  I also randomly weighed in mid-afternoon and came up with a weight of 134.4.  I'm really hoping my Sunday morning weight is something close to that! 

How many sets?

I confess, like the author of the blog post I'm about to link to, I only do one set of strength training.  After reading the article and the comments, I have to conclude that one is better than none!  Read it here:  Cranky Fitness: Strength Training: Multiple Sets or Just One.

This About.com article, for what it's worth, says that for converting body fat into muscle, one set is probably fine, especially for beginners. 

Like the Cranky Fitness blogger, I don't really care how strong I get, I just want to look good and be healthy.

UPDATED:  I found this little gem from the Mayo Clinic, stating that for most people, only one set is needed!  I think I'll believe this guy and enjoy my one-set lifestyle! 

Sunday Weigh-In

Well, I weighed in today 135.2, which is good, although I would have loved for it to be just a tad on the other side of 135, but, still, that's less than last week, albeit slightly, so I will definitely take it. 

I didn't have the best week, exercise-wise.  I didn't do any more C25K, because of weather and a bit of upset stomach.  I also didn't do enough walking because I had a lot to do and didn't get up in time.  I really had to force myself do my strength training on Friday.  I'm glad I have the exercise bike because that is kind of my last resort, and I used it a couple of times this week.  I like the bike, I just don't think I get as good of a workout on it as I do by running or even walking. 

I definitely do notice a difference in my body, and I think it's just from picking up my strength training again these past few months.  My husband was scratching my back (and unexpectedly had to remove a tick) and said I was skinny.  That is not really true, but definitely some of that fat has converted to muscle. 

I need to pick up some neoprene 15-pound dumbells.  (I do most of my exercises at 12, and those are really too easy again.)  

Well, this week is a new week.  I've got 10 pounds to go, and I'd love for them to be gone in 10 weeks. 

Gardening and Health

I am an obsessed vegetable gardener.  It's a good hobby for me because a lot of my other hobbies don't involve much movement.  Playing video games, crocheting, knitting, scrapbooking are all very sedentary hobbies.  At least reading and learning Spanish can be done at the same time as exercise.  I can read while I ride my stationary bike, and I can listen to Spanish podcasts or music or read audio books while walking. 

Gardening, however, is a pretty good physical activity on its own.  There is a lot of walking around the yard and carrying things.  I frequently have to lift compost.  And then there is a lot of bending and squatting.  It's not the most intense activity I can think of to do, but it sure burns a lot more calories than sitting on my butt and blogging. 

It also makes me eat a lot more vegetables because the vegetables from my garden taste fresh and alive.  I'm making an effort to buy more local produce for things I don't grow or don't have at the moment, but it just doesn't compare to a vegetable that is fresh picked and carried by hand into the kitchen, as opposed to picked a few days ago and sent on a truck a few miles.  Or a few hundred miles.  Or a few thousand miles. 

My favorite things to grow in the garden are tomatoes.  Homegrown tomatoes are to die for.  And peppers.  And cucumbers.  And lettuce, spinach, and arugula.  After growing my own salad greens, I can hardly stand the stuff in the grocery store or in restaurants.  And the radishes--oh, the radishes.   And then there are green beans, eggplants, and garlic.  And peas.  And tomatillos for making my own salsa!  And herbs--parsely, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, cilantro. 

I'm not a gardening evangelist.  I don't think gardening is for everyone.  Not everyone likes it, and that's perfectly okay.  But I think delicious, fresh vegetables are something that can really help a person to lose weight, whether they are from the backyard or from the farmer's market. 

So Maybe I Won't Get a Milkshake

I got an advertisement for Chick-Fil-A's banana pudding milkshade.  It sounded awesome.  I wanted some!  I clicked on it and checked the calorie count, so that I could be an informed eater.  I was rather disappointed to learn that the size small milkshake has 780 calories in it!  Yikes!  That's nearly half the calories that I, as a small woman trynig to lose weight, should even eat in a day.

It is really too bad that they don't sell an extra small size, because I might enjoy about half of that for a special afternoon snack one day.  I suppose I could buy a small milkshake, bring it home, and share it with both of my children, and then it would be a somewhat reasonable desert, at about 230 calories each.  I actually might do that because I think it would be a good learning experience for them, in regards to nutrition and the appropriate amount of calories for a snack/desert.  They may rebel against me one day when they're older and fatten up by drinking big milkshakes, but if they start to gain weight, at least they'll know why. 

This is also why I no longer buy mixed drinks, unless I can get a sugar free, low calorie version.  Margaritas frequently have 700 calories in them.  Scarier still, there's no fat--all the calories come from alcohol and sugar.  (The skinny margarita at Abuelo's is pretty good).  My body can't take that many calories at once from just a drink.  And it's not like I could drink a milkshake or a margarita as a meal and actually feel full.  The milkshake would be somewhat filling--the margarita not at all.

To Buy Clothes or Not

I'm struggling right now, trying to decide if I should buy any new clothes or not.  With about 10 pounds to lose, I will be at least one size smaller, and in some clothes possibly 2 sizes smaller.  This makes my life complicated.  I'm feeling good about myself and am wanting to buy some pretty summery clothes.  

I already wear the smallest size in certain stores/brands that tend to run big or do not carry small sizes.  In Land's End, I wear an XS, and even that is kind of baggy.  They do not have XXS.  At JC Penny, I wear a size Small T-shirt.  They do not have size XS in "misses."  It's the same with the JC Penny shorts I wear.  So, with the 10 pounds off, my current clothes will be a little baggy, and I won't be able to buy smaller sizes in some of the brands that I like.  

It's very weird to me.  As I've said before, if/when I lose these 10 pounds, I will still be a healthy woman with meat (fat and muscle) on my bones--it's only because I'm so short that I am getting into these tiny sizes.   And it's only because America keeps getting fatter that the sizes keep getting more inflated. 

I'm too curvy really to buy junior sizes, nor do I want to dress too much like a teenager at my age.  

Do I buy clothes now?  The more I think about it, it's probably not a good idea.  I've got enough T-shirts, shorts, capis, and skirts to get me through the summer.  I have a couple of cute dresses.  But I don't want to buy anything now and have it hang off me after I finish my weight loss, or otherwise fit oddly.  I bought a lovely paisley dress a couple of years ago in a size 8.  I couldn't believe I was a size 8 again!  Wow!  And now that dress is too big.  I'm only keeping it in case I get pregnant again one day. 

I also don't want to buy anything in anticipation of it fitting and then find that it doesn't.  It's very difficult to predict exactly what shape one will be after a weight loss.

Unfortunately, I can't pick the part of my body to lose weight from.  If I could, I'd probably wish all 10 pounds to come off my abdomen!