Hello Again.

Oh Hi there. I've been MIA? Yeah no kidding.

Falling off the wagon was my last post? All that stuff about getting back on track? Yeah that didn't happen.

I've been MIA because I've been on a binge. An eating binge and no gym binge.

This came about probably from my mental state from before, but also the fact that I hurt my knee (no, I have no idea how) and it has been bothering me. I went to the doctor for it, and I pretty much can't do any squats or lunges now... I get slight pain when sitting for long periods of time, and then when I get up, and sit down.

But I mean, come on. The end of my last post I was "looking forward to Christmas in NY in 3 weeks" -- yeah, we leave on Friday.

I've pretty much been eating anything and everything terrible that I possibly can, with some random occasional healthy choices in there.

I tell you what though, my mental state and energy levels are crap right now. I want to get back on track.

I knew from the beginning that the day that I gave in to temptation, or didn't go to the gym, that it was going to be hard to get back on the wagon; just because that's how it goes for me.

Since I need a new gym routine, I was thinking about waiting until next week to get back to the gym... Give my knee a little more time to heal and then I could get my new routine while I'm in NY with my brother.

And as I sit here now, at my desk, with my knee slightly tightening from sitting so long; after I've eaten an ENTIRE bag of chips and some chocolate and candy; I'm just thinking to myself, why wait? My knee needs to move, it obviously hurts when it doesn't. I need to eat some healthy food, this crap is obviously making me feel fat and uncomfortable.

Why should I sit here and destroy everything that I worked so hard for? I mean, do you really want to know what I weigh right now?! Go look at the results page! It's bad!!!

So here's my pact. My pact to finishing this post, getting out my notebook, and planning my food for the rest of the week. To healthy snacks while driving to NY and exercising everyday, except travel days (15 hours in a car on one day does not condone workout time). To getting up and moving my knee throughout the workday. To getting back to the routine that I grew to love.

I have some things to do.
XOXOXO

Falling off the Wagon... For Real this time...

Well I just noticed that I had been bloggin away but not putting in my results on the Results page. Oops. They're all updated now.

As you can see, the events occurring in my life did affect my journey, as well as Thanksgiving.

We had not one, not two, but three deaths within a span of 5 days, right before Thanksgiving. It's been difficult, but we are making it through.

I was definitely having a hard time keeping myself together after all that. As you can see, my weigh in last Monday was great, and I'm proud to say that I won all 3 of my DietBets and made about $50 on top of what I put in. So that's a win for me.

But as soon as the final weigh-in last week, I fell off, and kept on falling for days.

And this time, it was for real.

I overslept on Tuesday morning, missing spin class. So I decided to make it up by going to spin at Time Trial on Wednesday evening.

Well Tuesday night we found out about the third death, and I was up later than usual with high anxiety and emotions out the wazoo. Therefore I also overslept to go to the gym for strength training and cardio on Wednesday morning. Doh!

I did go to spin on Wednesday night, and then again on Thanksgiving morning, but continued to skip out on the gym on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Woof.

Speaking of woof, a brief intermission to tell you how much I love Home Alone and that it has to be one of my favorite Christmas movies.

Anywho, I also spent the weekend wallowing in sadness and procrastinating work around the house.

So in addition to this melancholy mood, eating my emotions, and sitting on the couch a lot, I also had not one, not two, but THREE Thanksgiving dinners. Gobble gobble gobble.

I made Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, but I made an organic turkey with an entirely gluten and dairy free meal. It came out pretty good for my first Thanksgiving dinner ever. I'm also psyched because I don't have to do meal-prep for the week now. I can just have the leftovers! Yay!!

But the other two meals were not as healthy, although just as delicious!

So that's my explanation for my giant weight gain this past week.

The good news? I'm back on track. After our third and final Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, I decided to head home earlier than Joshua so that I could do laundry, pack my gym bags, and prep my food for the next day. I even got into bed by 9pm, and was successful in starting up my routine again this morning; the start time of my warm up was 5:15am!

Eating crappy usually makes me hungry when I get back on track, and that is no different today. I am so hungry! Luckily it's my lunch time and I have some chicken and green beans waiting for me ;)

So back to it today, trying to leave the sadness behind and start looking forward to driving home for Christmas in 3 weeks!!!

Testing the Theory and Starting the Challenge

I'm not a very good blogger, and I'm also not very good at handling my emotions.

Stress took over for me this past week, and I cheated on my food. Quite a bit.

Needless to say, this week's weigh in was not good, at all.

But, let's look at it as a testing period. Testing the theory.

I made it two weeks without any mishaps; and I was successful those two weeks in my endeavors. I felt full of energy, and happy to boot.

While I was off-plan this past weekend, I felt lethargic, antsy, and just wanted to sleep away the weekend. I watched too much TV and just wasn't very happy overall.

Could it really be from the food I ate?!

Yes. It definitely is. I know it for a fact. I even went to spin class on Sunday, so you can just add right in there that I kept up with my exercise routine too!

It's all about the food. What they say, is so, absolutely true.

The easy part is the 2 hours spent in the gym. The hard part is the other 22 hours, following the nutrition plan.

Why on earth is was so easy for me those first two weeks? I don't know. Maybe I lost focus. Maybe I need to add in meditation and yoga into my routine.

It takes 21 says to make or break a habit, and I have not mastered this one yet.

Yes, I could be sitting here writing a million excuses as to why I gave into my cravings of cheese and bread, but they're no use. It doesn't matter. What's done is done, and it is time to let it go and move forward.

Transformation Challenge

Today marks #Day1 of the Transformation Challenge. What a wonderful way to let go of the wrongs I have done.

The Prep

Friday the challenge documents were released. I found that what I have been eating (as part of the plan not the crap I ate this weekend!) is what was outlined that I should still be eating. So no changes on that front.

I had been discussing with my father that my workouts were getting a little too easy for me, and we had talked about increasing my weights. When the documents were released, I noticed that I was ready to start on the Intermediate Workouts. I set forth watching all of the exercise videos to learn what I would need to do at the gym in the upcoming weeks.

Enter Anxiety.

Most of the new moves meant that I would have to move from the exercise machines, to the free-weights part of the gym floor. These kind of things REALLY get my anxiety going (not that I'm saying it's an excuse but it might have contributed to the cheese and bread from the weekend!!!).

I looked at those documents all weekend, going through the exercises in my mind and where I would do each one, how many I really HAD to do on the free-weights floor section, and how many I could get away with in the group fitness room (unused at 5am).

Saturday I got up bright and early for my morning coffee and smoothie, and put together my grocery list. Since none of my plans had changed regarding nutrition, this was very easy for me. I go to two stores: Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. I can get everything I need for one week at a time.

I left the house at 8am (trying to beat the Saturday crowds!) and I'm happy to say that I was back in my driveway by 9:30am. I was in each store for only 10 minutes, and it is a bit of a drive to get to them, so that's where all the other time went.

Total spent on food for the entire week: $80

Then as you know, I was lazy for the rest of the day because I wasn't eating right. I watched a copious amount of Once Upon a Time and read a good portion of the book series I've been reading.

Sunday I was up bright and early again - smoothie and coffee (organic mind you!). I also decided to cook my chicken thighs for the week; I already had some green beans made for my lunches so I was good to go on that. On the weekends I do the dishes in the mornings instead of the evenings, so I handled all of those so that they would be ready for when I made my smoothie that night.

I read my book and sat out on the lanai until I had to leave for spin class around 9am.

Spin class. This was my second one, but I actually really like it! I bought a small package of classes and have scheduled them out according to when I'll be in town to take them (Disney trips are coming soon!).

After spin class, Josh and I did some shopping as I wanted new Go Walks for my Disney trips.

Then we spent the afternoon watching some TV, and I eventually decided that I wanted to get all my things ready for Day 1 of the challenge.

Make smoothie, get snack and lunch ready to grab in the morning. Get together my clothes for work, clothes to workout in, and towels for the gym shower.

I was back in bed, reading my book by 8pm.

Starting the Challenge

I was up dark and early at 4:15am. I had to eat 1/4 of my smoothie at 4:30 in order to start my workout at 5. All went as planned.

I arrived at the gym a couple minutes before 5 and hyped myself up to workout on the free-weights floor section and... I did it! I didn't even go into the group fitness room.

What was awesome was that there was NOBODY on the floor when I started at 5:10 (5 minute elliptical warm-up was first!). This made it MUCH easier for me to get over my fear. Once I was set up, I wasn't worried about being in the way or being weak.

Once I was done with my final cardio session, I decided I had time to sweat out more in the sauna. It was very nice, and I hope that I have time to do it everyday.

I made it to work a couple minutes early, but decided to get in the doors and get working on my smoothie. I was hungry!!

Additional Focuses

Because I don't have anything to change with my food (other than following the plan!), I'm trying to add in a couple more aspects to help with following the plan.

First, I've set silent alarms on my FitBit. When they go off, it is time to drink a bottle of water. This has been working great thus far today, and should help when hunger strikes!

Second, I'm trying to incorporate yoga sessions everyday after work. I believe that this will help with clearing my mind, keeping my emotions in check, and maintaining my focus on my nutrition plan and overall health goals.



Cheers,
XOXOXO

Week 2 Recap and Challenges

I'm terrible at keeping up with writing in this but pretty good at taking care of myself all of a sudden.

Eating healthy and exercising has made me feel very good during the day. I have just enough energy -- not too much, not jittery, not tired or sluggish -- that gets me through the day and gets everything I need to done without feeling like "Ugh. I just don't want to right now" <-- which is what I used to say all the time.

And I don't mean things like going to the laundromat to do laundry, which I complained about on Facebook last week. THAT is a task on a Sunday evening. I mean simple things like doing dishes, cooking dinner and doing the laundry AT HOME. I used to DREAD doing those things and procrastinate them for days and days. Not anymore.

Turning all 3 of these things into habits are really helping to keep my mind focused and clear.

Everyday when I get home from work, I do all the dishes. Clean dishes mean that I have everything ready to prep any food or cook dinner.

I then start to work on dinner, which is something that usually needs to go into the oven for at least 20 minutes.

While it's in the oven, I'll start my prep for the next day's food. I make my smoothie (and rinse the Ninja afterwards for easier cleaning tomorrow), cut my apple to have with my almond butter, and portion out my chicken thigh and green beans for my lunch (both pre-cooked over the previous weekend). Now that all my food is ready for the next day, I go back to make my sides for that day's dinner (usually a vegetable that needs to be thrown in boiling water quick!) and voila. Food for the next 24 hours is done within 30 minutes.

Also, I always make my dinner foods in two servings. One for today, and one for the next day. Eating the same dinner two days in a row is very do-able (as opposed to eating the same dinner 5 days in a row or something; gets way too boring). Now my food prep for the next day is even shorter because I don't have to make dinner.

Every other day allows a little extra time in the evenings, which is enough to keep me going.

I always do laundry on the weekends, but then also always do it on Wednesdays (mid-week!). This makes sure that I always have clean WORKOUT CLOTHES. Yes, those are the most important because they are what I have the LEAST of out of my clothing attire. I always have enough clothes for work or lounging around the house, but I definitely need to make sure my workout capris and tops are clean so I don't have any excuses for not going to the gym.

Now, at this point, I have all of my food ready for the next day, and all my clothes for the next day clean. I then go through my short list of what I need for the gym.

Workout clothes - sports bra, tank top, capris, socks and undies

Work clothes - tank top, shirt, pants, and undies

Shower items - Full towel and hair towel (all other shower items are already in the bag and never leave it)

Once I get everything together, now I'm done for the night. Completely. Are there dishes in the sink? Yes. But I know I will be doing them the next day after work (this also works better because I live with a guy that dirties dishes after I go to bed). Is there laundry to be done? Probably, but I have everything I need for the next 24 so I'm not worried or doing anything last minute because of that.

Total prep for each and everyday; complete.

Some people think routines are boring. I think getting into a routine is more efficient. Because of it, I have more time to watch TV, read my book, or even get in another workout if I want to.

So a little recap of last week energy-wise -- for some reason I was very tired. I can't think of what caused this, as my sleep routines were the same and my nutrition was on point, but by Wednesday of last week I was dragging, so I had a cup of coffee after my smoothie that morning. Needless to say, it worked, because I was no longer tired or dragging the rest of the week. I was trying to only drink coffee on the weekends but one up each day during the week really isn't that bad, so I'm going to try for that now.

I've also been religiously ONLY drinking water other than the occasional coffee. It has definitely made me feel fantastic and every sip is refreshing (lots of ice please!).

I can already tell that my body is getting stronger, as the weights that I'm using on the machines are getting easier. Next week might call for an increase in weight, which I will discuss with the pros.

I tried my first spin class on Sunday and I didn't hate it, but not sure if I loved it? I liked it, that's for sure. Kind of like the elliptical, I don't love it, but I like it. It's do-able. Ironically enough, my gym added cycle zone classes at 5:45am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are my non-weight machine days. I'll start incorporating those classes tomorrow.

Challenges

Jack started a challenge group which will begin this coming Monday, August 10th. While I have not participated in one of his challenges before, my mom has and had great results. I've signed up and can't wait for it to start. I also believe it is a great way to get a taste of what the Jack Kunkel Revolutionary Nutrition program is all about. Check out the challenge website here, or the event on Facebook here.

In addition to this, I've also joined a DietBet group, just for some extra motivation and fun... and hopefully I'll win some money... yeah that was my only motivation for that. LOL