Looking Good

Things are looking up at the moment. I'm really looking forward to my holiday, I'm still feeling good about my long walk the other day, and yesterday morning I weighed myself and I've lost 0.5 kgs. I'm so happy! I know it's not a huge amount of weight, but to finally see the graph going down instead of up is a huge boost. I'm using an app called Weight Diary Free. It's pretty basic, but it has everything I want: a pretty graph, and a satisfying green arrow next to every entry showing I've lost weight. (Well, that's the plan, anyway.) Tonight I think I'll have a look at the full version and see if I want to upgrade.
Keeping it short today because I want to go out for a walk in the rest of my lunch break.

Midweek Ramblings

I'm tired again today, but as The Husbandy One pointed out this morning, it's a different kind of tired to normal. It's more of a 'I walked a really long way yesterday and now my body needs a little bit of time out' sort of tired. Because I did walk a really long way yesterday: 3.42 km! I thought perhaps I'd have to catch a tram back from finding the elephants to where I normally get on public transport, but I walked all the way back. I'm proud of myself. I find that after I do a goodly work out, I feel a bit less anxious, more centred and content. I'm certainly not a zen master or anything! But it goes a little way to helping.

I thought I'd weigh myself this morning.
Hm!
I thought, surely with the exercise I've been doing lately, perhaps I've lost a little weight? No, not only have I not lost weight, but I've put on 0.8 kgs. It was a blow, but then I reminded myself: you're in this game to become healthier and fitter, not to try and force a number on a scale to change. You've been doing great things lately, so feel good about those!
Speaking of achieving things, I haven't had the time or energy (or the money, really) to reward myself for the milestones I've reached for the Baby Elephant Walk challenge. And I've realised: it's not really that important to me right now. I'm really focussed on planning what I'm going to do next, rather than looking back on what I've already done. I found some more potentially useful websites yesterday, but I'll talk more about those later.

In Other Ramblings ...

Meanwhile, I threatened promised to talk about food recently. I think my diet is mostly pretty good these days.
Sorry for the interruption, but gosh I hate the word 'diet'. I want to use it in a neutral way to describe what I eat, but it's not a neutral word. It implies a lot of things I don't want to be associated with, like deprivation, restriction and extremism. I want to come up with a new term that describes what I eat/drink in a way that feels good for me. Now back to your regular programme...
As I was saying, I think my eating is mostly pretty good. There's definitely room for improvement, though. I can feel a bullet point list coming on!

Things I'm doing well on:
* healthy, filling breakfasts on workdays
* eating enough fruit
* drinking at least 1.5 litres of water a day
* cut back alcohol consumption to 1 or 2 drinks a week. I've been known not to drink alcohol at all on a Friday or Saturday night now! *gasp!*
* saying no to food when I'm not hungry; not eating too much just to finish off a meal when I'm already satisfied
* I (still) don't drink soft drink, or eat donuts, biscuits or chips. I just don't really like these things anymore.

Things I'm still working on / only do sometimes:
* eating a healthy, balanced lunch
* having a milo instead of a chocolate bar in response to sweet cravings at work in the afternoons
* cutting back on coffee. It's just so good!
* eating a home-cooked, healthy dinner - I'd say I'm at about 90% on this one.
* eating and drinking enough/appropriately when exercising.

Things I'm not doing so good on:
* not eating enough vegetables - I usually only eat veges at dinner time.
* giving in to cravings, and eating too much and/or unhealthy snacks when I get home from work
* unbalanced eating on the weekends - i.e. a huge breakfast and then very little throughout the day, plus not that healthy either.
* dessert. Too much and too unhealthy!

I don't have time to analyse all this right now. More in future posts.

Wednesday Things

Things are chugging along pretty standardly this week.
I went for a walk at lunchtime on Monday. This time I tried just walking around the block that my building's on, so I didn't have the annoyance of waiting to cross the road. Each lap took about 8 mins (I did 2). There're some downhill and uphill bits. It's not perfect - there were still tons of people on the streets, meaning I couldn't go too fast and I had to look out not to run into anyone. But's an option, at least. I'm still finding that, by the time I finish work, I'm completely exhausted, so going for a walk at lunchtime is pretty much my only option.

I'm still trying to find an app for recording my exercise, that I'm happy with. Most of the ones I've seen seem to be to guide you through a workout. But what I'm looking for is one that you can log exercise you have done and refer back to it later. I downloaded one last night which I thought would be good. It calculates the calories you burned, and it has a calendar that has a big green tick every day that you exercised to your goals. The only problem is - you can't go back into it to see what exercise you did, how many repeats, etc. All you can see is the tick. Which is nice, but not really helpful. I'd need to have a second app/spreadsheet/etc to record the details, and the minute you duplicate, the fun goes out the window. So, even though I spent $1.99 on the app, I probably won't use it. I just wish I could write my own app, or say to the developers, "just add this and it'll be perfect for me" and they would actually listen.

*sighs*

OK, enough whingeing. Copying from inspired by one of my favourite blogs, I'm going to list all the things I'm looking forward to:

♥ having 4 days off over Easter!
♥ finishing some of my craft projects!
♥ building up my energy so I can exercise more, have more energy, etc!
♥ seeing my friends at various events in the next few months!
♥ spending a night away in the country next month!
♥ washing my hair! (yeah, I'm kinda sad like that)
♥ watching my favourite TV show which starts in just under half an hour!
♥ doing my arm toning while watching my favourite TV show!
♥ eating my chocolate portion after my toning!
♥ the weekend and sleeping in!
♥ trying out my new hama beads kit on the weekend!

I could go on and on, and that's actually pretty cool. (What I'll do when I retire??) I checked in this morning and things are looking all right! Since the start of March, I've lost:

weight: -0.6kgs
chest: -1.6cm
waist: -0.5cm
hips: -2cm
thigh: -4cm

Wow! Yes, the weight is not really that much, but the measurements are more important, and they're all lower! Very exciting! Sometimes I get so frustrated that it's not happening faster, it's not happening now, but I know I have to be patient. Seeing results makes me encouraged to continue.

Statistics Time!

Cos I know how much we all love statistics!
I weighed and measured myself this morning - expecting disappointing results, I have to admit. Here's a summary:
Weight: -0.4 kgs (since 1st Feb)
Measurements (average): +1.5 cm (since 28th December)
Blood Pressure: -8 points (measured last weekend; as compared to 7th Jan)

A bit of a mixed bag really, but overall a pleasant surprise. I had assumed that I would have put on weight - I'm feeling so fat and bloated at the moment. I'm very pleased that my blood pressure has dropped each time I've measured it. I suppose I'm less stressed, now that I think about it. I'm settling into my new job, and been doing meditation/relaxation a couple of times a week. I don't get anxious as often as I used to in recent times.

Meanwhile ...

Going to wear my new pedometer all day today and see what it says. Very determined to resist the lure of the intertubes and go for a walk this weekend. Unfortunately it's raining heavily and looks to be that way most of the day today. I got a worksheet which you can use to convert other types of exercise into steps for the programme, so at least I can do some indoors exercise and it'll still count!
Meanwhile, I'm in a de-cluttering/organising kind of mood, so I'm going to work on transferring some of my old posts over from my old blog to here today.

Break Time!

I've had a little break from everything - from work, from my food diary ... and from blogging too, it seems! So, a big update today. Things went really well over Christmas. I'm really proud of myself. I didn't once eat so much that I felt sick. I made sure I ate salad/veges at every meal as well as unhealthy stuff. I didn't drink too much.

(Well, I guess that depends on your definition of 'too much'. Enough to make me feel sick? Or enough to make me say things I shouldn't have? ..... )

Up until Christmas, things were not going too well exercise-wise. I was just too busy. Though running around the shops may have done some good, as B noted the other day that I look smaller from the back. Nice! That made me feel confident enough to weigh myself this morning and sadly, the scales and tape measure tell a different tale. Every measurement is higher! I've put on 1.2kgs since I last weighed myself in early November. I didn't have my last set of measurements to hand this morning, but I think they've gone up, too. More's the pity. But on the bright side, I put on less than 2kgs over the Christmas period! Last year I put on over 5kgs, and it took me all year to get them off again, so it's a win, really. Plus I don't feel terrible about myself like I did last year, either.

Not To Mention ...

Just before Christmas, Boy decided that we should have a blood pressure machine. Last time I went to the Doctor, my blood pressure was astronomical, though I'd been exercising right before I went to see him, so it could have been slightly skewed. (More than slightly!) I'd been a bit worried ever since, but not too much because of the skewed results. So then we bought the blood pressure monitor, which is made by a very reputable company that make ones for real-and-proper doctors as well. We took it home and measured ourselves straight away. Cos we love our new toys!
Well, it's still astronomical. Ahem.

So I have decided to Take Steps. Namely - 1) start putting an effort into exercising again (but building up slowly so I don't bust a vein); and 2) really making an effort to decrease my stress levels by meditating regularly.
And I have meditated every day since then. I find it really daunting, I just always get this idea in my head that I'm bad at it. So I've started with 1 minute per day. I don't time myself. In fact I do it in bed right before I go to sleep. And I find it helps me get off to sleep better. Some extremely stressful things have happened in the last few days, and I think it's helped me cope a bit better, in conjunction with the exercise. Now is time for me! I deserve it!
I'm also working on a list of goals for 2012, but I'll talk about that next time.

In Related News ...

Boy gave me what I wished for, for Christmas - the Zumba for Kinect game!



I've played it once so far and really enjoyed it. I can see myself playing it regularly - hopefully! I love dancing, and that's what this game is all about! I can't review it yet - 25 minutes of playing the most basic tutorials doesn't really give it justice - but we'll see.
Boy and I have been watching a lot of music videos lately to fill in time (while doing knitting or something like that, in my case) and I've been getting an urge to jump up and try to copy the dance moves! But I feel a bit daft and silly doing that, so I haven't ... yet!

Beauty Blather

Not much to say right now - could my obsession be waning? I'm really trying to save money at the moment, so I'm trying to cut back on the impulse purchases. I got an email just before Christmas from the Lust Have It mob, saying there will be no beauty box for January (and no charge). I was so disappointed I almost signed up with 'I Love This Box' (even lamer name!) as I heard some good reviews. But I've resisted so far! I'm not saying I'll resist much longer!
Writing up my beauty products inventory (see links in sidebar) has had another consequence that I didn't intend - it's made me realise how many things I have that are reaaaaalllly old. So I determined that I would throw away 5 items - and yesterday I did it! I sometimes have a tendency to hoarding, so this was in the Good Thing category.

And Finally ...

I'm absolutely obsessed with my new iPod Touch and all the apps I can get for it. In the last few days, I got a To-Do List, and one that I can use to track my exercise, weight and blood pressure (not actually measure them, just record them! ehehhe) and pretty much anything else I can customise into it. But I think my favourite one is LaoTzuLite, with wise quotes. I like to bring up a random quote every morning. Here's today's:

Health is the greatest possession.
Contentment is the greatest treasure.
Confidence is the greatest friend.
Non-being is the greatest joy.

Failure

Well, I'm a complete and utter failure. As mentioned in my last post - I didn't have time to get a frozen yoghurt this week, so instead I decided that, if I could get at least 80% on my tracker and stick to my exercise schedule for the rest of this week, I could buy myself a treat from Etsy. Well, I couldn't even stick to it for one day! I failed on the first day! There were tim tams at work, so I had a couple instead of fruit for morning tea, fail no. 1. Then for afternoon tea I had a couple more, fail no. 2. I'd been having terrible cravings for meat all day, so at the supermarket I bought a can of lite Spam and ended up eating most of it, fail no. 3. Then I was feeling tired and it was hot and muggy, so I didn't do my weights routine as per my schedule, fail no. 4. Then after dinner, when Boy handed me some chocolate, I just took it and ate it without thinking about it, fail no. 5.
Weighed myself this morning, and I'd actually put on weight. Complete and utter fail! I'm so disappointed in myself. Caught sight of myself in the mirror in the elevator this morning and nearly burst into tears. What can I do to fix this situation? In order to have any possible chance whatsoever of redeeming myself, I have to:

1. Have no dessert for the rest of the week.
2. No work biscuits at all.
3. Drink 2 litres water every day.
4. I feel like there should be more, but I can't think of anything.

I'm unwilling to make any blanket statements about exercise - even though I have tomorrow off work (so I'll be away from the biscuits!), I'll probably be busy all day. And busy most of Sunday, if not all day. So far this week, I've just felt so tired and lethargic. But on the way to work this morning, had to walk the long way round the building, and was just starting to enjoy the walk and enjoy the feeling of my legs moving ... and then I had to go into work and sit on my butt for the next 4 hours. Just as I was starting to feel good about myself and my body for the first time in weeks, I had to go straight inside and sit still in the stuffy office air until I feel all sleepy instead. So unbelievably frustrating. But what's the point complaining, really - millions of people around the world are in the same boat. You just have to find a way to solve the problem, that suits your situation.

For example: so many sources say: you have to exercise in the morning! Well, I can't. I start work too early. My body and brain don't start working until later in the morning. (Thankfully the first few tasks I have to do in the morning are pretty mindless, otherwise I'd be in trouble!) But I was listening to Motivation to Move podcast a little while back, and he had some advice on the matter - you should tailor your routines to fit your own life and situation. Otherwise it won't happen! It doesn't matter what time of day you exercise, as long as you do it. Then, once you have the healthy habits established and you're starting to see results, you can start to tweak things from there. I was quite relieved when I heard that. I get so disheartened when I hear sources saying, "you have to do this, and you have to do that", and it's literally impossible to fit it into my life (not even just making excuses, it's logistically impossible). So it's good to hear someone say, "it's OK". And I guess that's the thing really, isn't it. No matter how many mistakes you've made in the past, you can always try again. Try something different. As long as you're doing something.

Measurements Monday

Weighed myself and took my measurements this morning. The last few days I'd been feeling thinner. B even noted that I looked thinner when I mentioned it to her. So I thought, heck, it's been about a month since I last did it, I'll just see what they are.
My weight is exactly the same as it was 3 weeks ago. To the decimal point. How can it be exactly the same? It seems like a bizarre coincidence. I'm a little freaked out by that. Not by the fact that it hasn't gone down so much, but by the fact that the number is exactly the same. (I have to admit, I was a little discouraged.) So I took my measurements as well to see what was going on there. The last time I measured myself was about 2 months ago, so I'm comparing to that. Well, that was a nice surprise! All my measurements are down: chest -1.5cm, waist & hips -1cm each, and thigh -0.25cm. I thought I'd been feeling thinner!

Meanwhile ...

My Weekly Focus last week was to make up an exercise schedule and try it out. Look for the strengths and weaknesses. And they're plain to see. Strengths: sticking to the schedule early in the week (when I have more motivation). Weaknesses: exercising after I get home at night, and exercising on the weekends. Now I have to decide if I want to change the schedule to fit in with those weaknesses, or try to change myself to eliminate those weaknesses. I'll have a think about it.

In Other News...

In my discussion last week, I decided that I wanted to try giving meditation a serious go. Every day. That seemed very daunting, but starting off with 30 seconds seemed very do-able. Then increasing to 60 seconds when I feel comfortable with that. Then seeing how I go. For the next 3 weeks. So I've done 30-60 seconds (I don't time it exactly) every day since last Friday. Well, that's only 3 days so far, but you know! I do it in bed at night before going to sleep. Somehow I wonder if that's cheating in a way, as I'm not actually putting aside special time to do it. Probably as the time gets longer I'll change that. Some sessions are harder than others. Perhaps I'll talk about why that is later at some point. Right now I'm going to get some breakfast!

Temptation

We've had biscuits here for morning tea two days in a row! Argh! Yesterday I had 5. Today, I put 4 on my plate, but I only felt like eating 3. That's pretty cool. Then a bit later on I felt a little peckish again, instead of eating the last biscuit on the plate, I just had a cup of green coffee. Maybe I'll eat the biscuit after lunch. Speaking of green coffee, I'm down to my last sachet. I can't decide whether to buy more. It's a 'special' one that you can only get from the chemist, which supposedly is an appetite suppressant (... weight-loss aid ... ancient Asian wisdom updated for today's busy woman ... blah, blah ... ) I've gotten used to having something on hand to drink if I get hungry after morning tea, but it's not lunch time yet. The green coffee's been good for that because it's easy to prepare: you just dump the sachet in the cup. And, unlike tea, I can use the same mug from my morning coffee and it won't taste funny, so there's less washing up. I also like the taste, which makes me care not as much whether it actually has the properties it claims. Recently I saw that Nescafe now has a green coffee drink which you can buy at the supermarket. I didn't buy any because I thought it was snortingly expensive, but I got to try some when I was at Mum's house. I didn't like the taste as much as the one I've been drinking. I don't remember the exact prices, but I think the chemist one is actually about the same price, perhaps even less (ironically). So I might pick some up next time I go to the chemist (I'm not going to make a special trip though, not in this weather!).

Went to weigh myself this morning, because I was feeling pretty good about everything, and was curious as well, and the batteries in my scales have run out! Durnit! I'll have to get Boy to get some new ones.

Oh, it's been so cold lately!! I'm starting to think of it as S.I.C. (So Insanely Cold :) ). My normal plan of walking part of the way home after work is completely out the window this week. Monday I didn't do any exercise. I just came home and curled up on the couch. Yesterday I unwrapped my new yoga mat and and did my yoga DVD. The mat isn't as good as the old one - it's thicker, but not as 'grippy' on my feet so they slide a bit when I'm in a wide stance; also it kinda stretches when I'm in a wide stance as well. I nearly fell over a couple of times because of it. Oh well, what can you expect for $15 K-Mart crap? :O I wasn't very enthusiastic and I didn't do all of the moves, but I still felt much better afterwards. More relaxed and stretchy, and my hip didn't hurt, and when I bent over I could touch my toes straight away instead of having to work up to it. (Or 'down' to it, actually ;) ) So ... yoga, yeah! Every time I do yoga, it reminds me of why I should do it more often. Tonight I want to do my strength-training session though. I did it last week for the first time in ages, and I felt pretty good afterwards. Sore, but good! I'm sick of feeling weak and not being able to lift as much at work. So I'm going to do the training again, and again, and again! :)

This post was transferred from calorieking.com.au

Worries

Weighed myself yesterday morning and I was about the same as I was a few weeks ago. (Actually put on 0.1kg.) Ho hum.
The other night I was worried I wouldn't be able to lose enough weight in time for N's wedding to be happy with myself. I kept worrying whether I'd look silly in the outfit I want to wear. Then I felt bad for thinking that way because I'm trying to get beyond that. I was looking online for pictures to help me design the outfit, and all of them were of slim women, which doesn't really help me out with how the outfit would look on me. It was all a bit frustrating.

Meanwhile ...

I'd like to exercise more but lately I'm always so tired and I just don't feel like it. Seems I hardly ever end up doing the things I enjoy doing, let alone exercising. (Even trying to make exercise into something I enjoy doing hasn't been working lately!) I spent an obscene amount of money on some special hiking sneakers about a month ago, and I haven't used them yet even once. Boy says to save them for proper hiking walks, not every day use. But with winter coming on and my motivation at an all time low, when will that happen?? I have two pairs of walking sneakers and they're both getting really clapped out. The ones from Athlete's Foot are nearly 3 years old now and they're still ok, but they rub against my heels because the padding has worn away. I also bought another pair with velcro so they'd be quick and easy to put on at lunchtime, etc. They've lasted a while, but they were pretty cheap and the velcro keeps coming undone now while I'm walking and it's a bit annoying.. But I just can't justify buying new shoes! I'm a bit wierd about that. I guess I just can't convince myself that I'll use them enough to justify the cost. Which is daft really because I walk at least 4 times a week! So I should stop being a wally and just buy some!

Also ...

I'm proud to say I got 90% in my Tracker yesterday! How cool is that? The only meal I didn't eat healthy was dessert (I had apple pie). And I drank 5 glasses of water, which is a pretty good start, I think.

This post was transferred from calorieking.com.au

Inspiration and Sundries

Yesterday I had a very good day! I got 80% on my chart. I ate healthy for every meal except dessert, and exercised. Which is good, cos the weekend was absolutely shocking. Need to be more aware of what I'm doing on the weekends!

I weighed myself on Friday though and I've put on 0.4kgs in the last month. Though I've lost 2cms from my waist. How does that work?! That's what I'd like to know!

Once a week I get an email from Spark.com and a few weeks ago the title was, "the one exercise that will make you lose weight". (Or something like that.) So of course I eagerly clicked on it! And it says the best exercise is one that you enjoy, so you're more likely to keep doing it over the long term. And that's true. For over a year, I kept telling myself I 'should' exercise every day. I 'should' do my weights routine twice a week, and I 'should' do my yoga DVD once a week and blah blah. I thought if I wrote up a timetable it would help, but it didn't! It made things worse! Plus I felt guilty because I didn't do yoga every Wednesday, weights every second Tuesday and alternating Friday, etc. etc. It was driving me nuts. So I threw the timetable in the bin. Well, I kinda did that because I was sick for about 6 weeks as well and didn't feel like exercising at all. When I started to get better, I started feeling like I wanted to exercise again, but I knew this timetable thing wasn't going to work! So the last few weeks I've just been doing what I felt like, when I felt like. Last night I felt like dancing so I did - for nearly an hour! That was great. I wonder what I'll feel like doing tomorrow.



Greens: 80%.


This post was transferred from calorieking.com.au