Mixed Bag

If ever there was a day to skip the gym, it should be today. It is RAINING SIDEWAYS. And hard. But, being the committed exerciser that I am, I went to the gym anyway.

Actually, I really felt like I *had* to go. My plans for the day got interrupted yesterday when I stayed home with my *non-sick* daughter and I didn't make it to the gym at all. (You see, her daddy came downstairs as I was about to leave for work and said Landry had just thrown up. I decided immediately I'd work from home and keep her with me. Within 30 minutes she was jumping on the mini-tramp in my bedroom--I got suspicious--this is either going to make her blow chunks like chunks have never been blown before, or she's not sick. As it turns out, it was the latter. Apparently, Jeff was brushing her "teeth" too hard and she gagged and threw up.)

And, I blew my back-up plan, too. Plan B was to do my exercise DVD. I bought this DVD after I had Korley almost two years ago. I had seen a story about it on our local news and how people were having amazing results, so I ordered it. We were going on a beach vacation with some friends when Korley was 4 months old, so my goal was to NOT look like a fat pregnant heifer during the vacation. The DVD worked--by vacation time I only looked like a fat heifer. Seriously, it is a good DVD and I did lose inches, but the problem is that the DVD is SO. DANG. BORING!!!! The production quality is horrible--I'm pretty sure they filmed it in some sort of hotel conference room. Actually, make that motel conference room. I'm way off track now, but my point is, I couldn't bring myself to fighting through an hour of boringness.....

....not while Dancing With the Stars was on!! However, then I saw Edyta and her freakin' 12-foot-long faboulous legs and I wished I had done something yesterday. Snap!

What I DO Know....

I'm certainly no exercise and diet guru. If I were, I wouldn't need to lose in the ballpark of 40 lbs. But, I've been on plenty of exercise and diet programs in the past and here's what I know about myself. Note: these are the things I think about on the elliptical machine.....

--Speaking of the elliptical, I prefer it far more than the treadmill. I don't love it, but it's my cardio machine of choice.

--"Experts" always say you need to burn more calories than you consume. I tend to burn about 100 calories/10 min of cardio. That means that if I'm eating about 1200 calories a day, I need to do more than 120 minutes (2 hours!!) of cardio. This poses two problems....1) No way in heck am I doing more than 2 hours of cardio (in one day) and 2) I'm pretty sure I'm eating more than 1200 calories/day.

--Which brings me to my next point....something is better than nothing. I've taken a new approach with exercise *this* time. In my old work-out life, I tried to map out for the week what I would do at the gym. Usually, I would break the plan by Wednesday or Thursday, get down on myself, and forget doing anything for the rest of the week. My approach now is to do what I want. If I want to do cardio/upper body one day, fine. If I want to just do lower body one day, fine. If I just want to do 20 minutes of lunges, fine. My new philosophy is "something is better than nothing". {I can almost see personal trainers across America rolling their eyes}

--I cannot drink cokes (cokes in Texas is Coke, Diet Coke, Dr Pepper, Pepsi--anything carbonated) and lose weight. Something about carbonation *bloats* me and inhibits me from losing weight. Plus, I'd rather eat my calories than drink them.

--I'm changing my WI day to Wednesday. Monday is a stupid WI day. Who's going to lose weight after the weekend? Plus, Tessa's day is Wednesday and maybe if I change my day to her day, I'll lose as much weight as she has. ;)

--Speaking of WI, I did lose ONE pound from last Monday to this past Monday. Considering how hard I didn't work, I'll take it. Plus, if I keep this up, I'll be at my goal weight in 40 weeks.....sigh!

Good news/Bad news

Good news--I went back to the gym today. Yesssssss.....20 minutes of the elliptical and 40 minutes of upper body strength training.

Bad news--I haven't lost one itty bitty pound in two weeks.

Good news--I didn't gain any, either. Which is somewhat of an accomplishment in itself considering.....

Bad news-- since the last workout I've eaten Outback, Chili's three times, Snuffer's, Abuelo's, my body weight in sushi rolls, and a bunch of other unhealthy crap. Oh, and my Girl Scout cookies came yesterday....ugh!

Good news--I feel like I'm back on track. I was good at working out two weeks ago, not at all last week, and I liked the way I felt two weeks ago better.

I'll make this fast. Mostly because I don't have much to report, but also because Blogger has a schduled "outage" in a few minutes (side note--I hate blogger).

So, I did good with my workouts last week, and I even ate fairly well. Until Friday. I had my eyes dilated Friday they were seriously dilated to mid-morning on Saturday. I had such a headache from trying to see that the last thing I wanted to do was work out. And, the second to last thing I wanted to do was eat right. So, I went to Outback with my mom. And it was freakin' good! I continued my bad habits through the weekend, and I had out of town company staying with me on Monday night, so no working out on Monday, either. Plus, we had GNO (girls night out) with said guest Mon. night and I ate sushi. Typically, most sushi is not bad for you, but the way I like sushi it is--I also don't think it's good to eat your body weight in sushi either.

Anyway, guest is gone but my hubby is out of town now. These are all massive excuses and I realize that, but after getting the girls ready and off to school, driving, work, driving, picking up cranky girls, feeding them, doing homework, bathing them, and putting them to bed I just don't have the energy to work out.

Also, I'm getting Lasik on Friday (WOOHOO!!) and the doctor's orders are NO EXERCISE for two days post-op. So, I figure what's the point? I'll just start back everything fresh on Monday.

So, that's where I am. I'm actually looking forward to next week, getting back in the gym and getting back in our routine. I felt good last week and I feel icky this week. Ugh!

Day 2

Man, I'm mad!! I just wrote this huge long post and poured out all of my inner-thoughts about fat/exercise/dieting/etc and when I went to post it, I got some sort of completely typical Blogger error and it all disappeared! UGH!!

Anyway, in a nutshell, I worked out on Day 2. And, Tessa, no--I'm not divulging my starting weight. Not yet at least. Maybe when I've reached my *goal* I'll publish my starting weight, but not now. I will say, though, that if I were 6'8" and nine months pregnant, I'd probably be at ideal weight.

This blog is back! Not because I got thin and then fat again, but because I'm still fat (and mad!) and now going to do something about it.

Weigh-In days are Mondays. I read several weight/diet/exercise blogs and a lot of people divulge their starting weight. Not me--not gonna do it. But, I will update how many lbs I'm down from week to week.

So, for the first time in a LONG time I made my way to *the gym* today--the new gym. It's not technically new, but it was the first time I've been (even though I've been a member since August) so it's new to me. I hate being "new", especially to gyms. I like to walk in and know exactly where I'm going and what I'm doing--instead of aimlessly wandering searching for a particular machine (or locker room!). But, I went--and it was fine.

Today I just did 20 min. on the treadmill and about 30 min. of upper-body free weights. I intended to do 30 min. on the treadmill, but I was walking next to where Michael Johnson was running. This dude got on his treadmill about 8 min. into my walking and cranked his treadmill up to speed 10. Now I'm no track coach, but I don't think he really had any business going that fast. He was POUNDING the treadmill with every stride and was breathing like he had just come up from being underwater for 7 days. Anyway, after 12 minutes of this I decided that I had had enough. I know, I know--excuses, excuses. But, I was ready to get on with something else anyway. BTW, he didn't run at a 10 the whole time; after a few minutes he cranked it down to a more reasonable 8.5. :)

The only hitch came when I was going to back to the locker room to change back into my work clothes. Here's a beginner's locker room tip--memorize your locker combination BEFORE you lock all your belongings in a locker.

More tomorrow...