dianaschnuth

First order of business: my goals for this week. I’d said I was going to stick to the menu I’d laid out, exercise every everning, and arrive on time to work (which may not seem to fit in with the diet thing, but it really does. Trust me on this).

Menu: I did fairly well with sticking to it, considering that this was the first time since… well, ever, really, that I’d laid out such a menu an entire week in advance. I made a couple substitutions here and there, but it was usually simple stuff like swapping out ham for turkey, or making chicken wraps for dinner instead of grilled chicken with grilled peaches. On that task, I give myself an A-.

Exercise: Big steaming pile of poop. I did my PUSH workout on Monday, walked for an hour Tuesday evening, and slacked for the rest of the week. D+.

Arriving on time to work: Beat the timeclock every day. Clocked in at 8:05 one day, which is still technically on time per payroll, but I’d like to do better. Really, though, I’m pretty proud of myself. I can’t think of the last time I clocked in on time every day in a week. I give myself an A on this one.

Results: good. I weighed in at 210 when I declared my do-over, and I weighed in at 206 on both Friday and Saturday mornings. This surprised me, given that I failed to exercise as much as I’d planned.

(I weighed myself on Sunday morning, after a fun Saturday with Aaron and Amy, and I’m not going to disclose that number. I’ll just wait for my body to finish metabolizing that ice cream brownie sundae — split amongst three of us — and my chocolatini.)

Time to set myself some success measures for the coming week. Time to rework the goals I didn’t meet and tweak the ones I did. So, here they are, in no particular order:

1. Complete 60 minutes of cardio total this week
2. Drink a minimum of 64oz of water daily
3. Lights out by 11pm, no matter what

Since my plan to exercise every weekday didn’t work out so well, let’s try a different tack. I know my problem is cardio, so let’s ramp that up a little. …OK, I guess anything would be “ramping it up,” considering that I’m not really doing any cardio at all right now, even though I know I should. Aaron was kind enough to hook up the Playstation (PSX) for me, so I can play Dance Dance Revolution, so I’ll do that at least one night. I plan to go out jogging one night, as well. Maybe catch up on some of my podcasts. Maybe if I don’t listen to music, I won’t have any time reference, and I can stop worrying about how long I’ve been jogging, and whether I should try to keep going or give in and walk a little.

I have the feeling I might not have drunk enough water last week, so I’m going to actually track my water intake this coming week. According to some calculations, I should be drinking even more water per day, but I’ll stick with the standard 8 glasses for now.

I’ve been doing well with getting to work on time, so let’s tackle the other end of the routine: getting to sleep. I’ve heard so many different ways of dealing with sleep habits, I don’t know what to believe. I’ll only know when I find out what works for me. So, the first part of my attempt to establish a nightly routine is to make sure I’m in bed WITH THE LIGHTS OUT by 11pm. Not reading, not playing solitaire or Dope Wars on my Palm, but relaxing and trying to get to sleep. The next steps after this will be turning off all electronics by 10pm and establishing a nightly ritual of relaxation before bed. For now, though, we’ll just work on the actual bed time.

Four pounds down. Go me. 😀

My back is officially healed from its traumatic bedroom-painting experience, and today is officially six months since I decided to really lose weight.

WTF. *shakes head*

I’m somehow reminded of that Tubthumper song from back in the late 90s: “I get knocked down, and I get up again…” ad infinitum. Sometimes I feel like that’s my diet story this year, except I don’t really get knocked down. I just lose momentum, and stop giving a shit, but then I realize what my apathy has done and I resolve to work even harder. It’s luckily not resulted in a massive yo-yo of weight, but the yo-yo of mental fortitude is damaging enough.

My stats haven’t changed much in the past two months, apart from going back up to 210 and 35.1% bodyfat. Lost a quarter inch in my bust and neck; gained a quarter inch in my chest; gained a half inch in my lower arm; and my waist, hips, thigh and calf stayed the same. I screwed up on measuring my upper arm, because it says I gained an entire inch in the past two months, and there’s no way that can be right. My arm can’t be as big around as my neck. Can it?

I’m embarking once more on the John & Sheryl diet method, shared with me by Sheryl back in… when was it? January. Yes. Back in January. This time, though, I’m setting myself up for success by planning out my entire week of meals in advance. I have my meal plan posted to the fridge, and I intend to spend some quality time each evening preparing my meals for the following day. Protein shakes, fish, chicken, whatever needs preparing and assembling. I think that should help considerably. And when I’m done eating, I’m done eating. No more snacking after my last meal of the day, even if it seems like a healthy snack. Water will have to do.

And since my back is all healed, I’m going to continue with my PUSH workouts again. I was hesitant to do strength training or even cardio when my lower back was all fubar. Now, though, I’m ready to go for it again. Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be my PUSH workout days, and Tuesday and Thursday I’ll go jogging at Wildwood.

*checks weather.com for this week’s outlook*

OK, I might have to come up with some alternate indoor cardio for Thursday. Maybe rebounding (trampolining). But, still, that’s my plan. As always, I’ll be walking at least 30 minutes a day over my lunch. Likely 45 minutes, assuming I get to work on time and don’t have to short my lunch hour.

That’s something else. I’m going to wake up earlier (i.e. not hit the snooze) and get to work on time this week. See, I have up until eight minutes after 8am to technically be “on time” by the timeclock’s rules. I’ve been just missing that by a minute or two, usually clocking in at about 8:10am. So, I have to short my lunch by ten minutes or so in order to get my full eight hours in. This week, I’m not going to let myself be late like that. The idea is to eventually be awake early enough to at least do some morning stretches, and preferably take a walk or jog around the block. That’s not for a while, though. For now… let’s just be on time to work, shall we?

So, this week’s success will be measured by:

1. Sticking to my prescribed menu
2. Exercising every evening
3. Arriving to work on time every day

I’m also giving myself a non-food reward to look forward to: when I lose five pounds — when I reach 205 — I’m buying myself some clothes. But not until. (I’ve been addicted to mail-order catalogs this spring and summer.)

That’s the plan. And I’ll tell you what, if I don’t lose any weight (or bodyfat) this week, after setting myself up for success as best I can, I will be highly disappointed. But I think I’ll do fine.

I’ll keep you updated.