dianaschnuth

Holding steady at 209.5 pounds. This is good, really, considering that we went all ballistic on sushi and BW3 and yummy Irish food and beer during Anime Punch over the weekend of March 31st – April 2nd. I had mentioned that I would be pleasantly surprised if my weight held steady — and so I am.

Continuing to do my PUSH workouts. Still not doing cardio like I should. Walking briskly for half an hour a day.

Continuing to eat five small meals a day. Breakfast has been cold cereal or a protein shake or one of our few remaining Slim-Fast low-carb shakes. Morning snackie has usually been an apple. Lunch has usually been lettuce salad with dressing. Afternoon snackie has been almonds. Dinner has been a little evil: Dreamfields macaroni and cheese, or wraps, or something quicker than baking chicken and steaming veggies.

So, not much to report this week. No big weight losses, but no gains, either. I’m counting that as a positive thing.

Next week: Weigh and Measure for the end of Month #3. Maybe I’ll share a swimsuit photo with the internets. Who knows?

This one’s a little overdue, so I’d better get it posted before I have to write two updates at once.

I did gain one pound last week, bringing me back up to 209.5 pounds. That wasn’t unexpected, though, since Aaron was on vacation last week and we ended up going out for dinner a few times. After my Friday weigh-in, we went off to the Anime Punch anime convention, where we proceeded to eat like crap, so I’ll be pleasantly surprised if I hold steady at 209.5 for Week #12.

Exciting things for last week:

• Moved to Workout #2 on my PUSH DVD. Yay for side planks, floor dips, and other manner of bodily strain. I’ve been sticking with it, though, and can feel a bit of a difference already. Less shaking and quivering in the abs, slightly more endurance in the arms.
• Did not eat any oatmeal for breakfast all week! Huzzah! Had yummy organic Apple Cinnamon cereal or a Slim-Fast Low-Carb Meal Replacement shake or… well, I think those were my two different breakfasts all week. Still no breakfast burrito.
  [Edit: I did make myself a peanut butter protein shake for breakfast one day. I didn’t use enough PB, though, so it was a little bland.]
• Discovered almonds. OMG, Sheryl, you were so right. I can’t freakin’ stay away from the damn almonds now. I bring a baggie of them in my purse for my afternoon snack, and damned if I can’t keep my hands out of them. Good stuff.

This week, I’m focusing on lowering my calories again. I think I’ve been eating too many, perhaps. I haven’t been keeping track. I need to start doing that again.

This coming weekend, I’m hoping to get some whole wheat English muffins for breakfast. OMG, English muffins with natural peanut butter… Mmm, that sounds SO good.

Apart from that? Less than two weeks until I take new measurements and photos. (I should probably also take some measurements this week, actually.) Oh, and this time, I may just share one of my in-progress photos with the internets, as I just got myself a new swimsuit via mail-order. w00t! Size 18 Tall, black, underwire cups, pretty basic. But it’s made of this great, thick, stretchy Spandexy material that really holds my stuff in. Swear to god, I spent ten minutes just primping in front of the bathroom mirror, and that is so unlike me. And, holy crap, I didn’t have to order from the “Women’s” sizes! Sure, I still got an 18, but it was technically a Misses Long Torso, not Women’s. (The Women’s didn’t come in Long Torso.)

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for Tall / Long Torso sizes. I’m 5’10”, and I hate getting a melvin from my bathing suit.

Good news! I’m continuing my weight-loss trend. I’m down one more pound this week, to 208.5! This is my lowest weight since… *checks Excel chart* …well, since Thanksgiving. Holy crap.

Did two of my three PUSH workouts so far this week. I’ve still got today, though. Starting next week, I move on to Workout #2. Yay! I still haven’t managed to get my 100 minutes of cardio in, and I know that’s a major part of why I haven’t had quicker results. I do still walk every day for 30-40 minutes during my lunch break, although that doesn’t really count as cardio.

Last weekend, Aaron and I found the motherlode of low-carb goodies at Big Lots, so I’ve been incorporating shakes and bars into my diet. I still haven’t been getting up early enough to make that breakfast burrito that’s been calling my name (although I have managed to get to work on time two out of five days this week). So, breakfast continues to be oatmeal, because I can toss the ingredients into a Rubbermaid container, then add water and nuke at work. Morning snackie is one Slim-Fast low-carb shake. Lunch is pasta (yes, reduced-carb, but not always “low-carb,” and never that soy crap) and chicken or tuna. Afternoon snackie is a Slim-Fast low-carb meal replacement bar (and sometimes a CarboRite peanut butter cup right after my walk). Dinner is baked chicken and a salad, usually, or a couple of wraps with ham and lettuce and reduced-fat Hellmann’s (we ran out of Vegenaise).

This weekend, I’m hoping to make a pilgrimage to Claudia’s Whole Foods store to get some yummy health food. Almonds (OMG, those are hard to find with no oil in them!), whole-wheat English muffins (those would be yummy with some natural PB in the morning), crunchy natural PB (because the cheap brand of smooth PB I got last time isn’t all that), vanilla whey protein (for making my *own* shakes), Vegenaise, Annie’s Naturals salad dressings, maybe some more cold cereal, stuff like that.

Adam from Burning Twenty had a recipe early on in his podcast for an apple-flavored protein shake, so I’m hoping to get the ingredients for that this weekend. Sounds yummy.

What’s the next step? I WANT MY BREAKFAST BURRITO, GODDAMMIT! I *will* wake up early enough at least *once* this week to make myself a damn breakfast burrito. Scrambled eggs (one whole, one white), a little Colby-Jack cheese, maybe some ham, maybe a little lettuce, definitely some salsa, and a wheat tortilla. Gonna be so good. Mmm.

Apart from that, I’m looking forward to moving on to the next workout on my PUSH DVD, and I’ll try the cardio workout again. Maybe I was just in a mood the one day I tried it last week.

Next weekend is the Anime Punch convention in Columbus. I need to plan ahead for potential evil eating. Maybe I’ll bring a resistance band and do some working out in the hotel room, or maybe I’ll make a concerted effort to step up the cardio this week. No matter how I deal with it, I will NOT let this weekend screw up my progress thus far.

It occurred to me today that I never posted my weigh-and-measure from last week. So, let me throw that up here before I go do my PUSH workout for today.

I decided to count Thursday’s weight and measurements as my Week #9, instead of Saturday, because Thursday the 16th marked exactly two months on my fitness regimen. And here are the results:

Weight: 209.5 »» down three lbs from starting weight
Bust: 45.5″ »» down ½” from starting measurement
Chest (under the b00bs): 38.5″ »» down 1″
Waist: 44.5″ »» down ½”
Hips: 49.5″ »» down ½”
Neck: 14.25″ »» down 3/4″
Upper Arm: 13.5″ »» unchanged
Lower Arm: 10.5″ »» unchanged
Thigh: 26.25″ »» down ¼”
Calf: 15.75″ »» down ¼”

I still think I need to get myself a body fat monitor, though. (Maybe I’ll get one for my birthday…) These numbers still don’t really reflect the changes I’m seeing. These changes are slight, but noticeable to me. For instance, the fat on my abdomen — my gut, as it were — seems to be shrinking. I have a small pouch of empty skin beginning to form. And I’m happy about this. I’m not seeing the results I’d like… but in order to get results, I need to push myself more, and buckle down, and not coast along or do things half-assed.

I received my first PUSH DVD last Monday, and discovered that I may have underestimated myself on my fitness level. I marked myself as a beginner, and thus ended up with a first (and second) workout that involves no resistance at all, not even the resistance bands I received with the disc. The workout is relatively easy, compared to the ways I’d been challenging myself previously, although the upper body workout is challenging for me. I can see where the workout is going, though, and I’m willing to stick with it.

I’m also supposed to do 100 minutes of cardio per week, and I definitely didn’t reach that goal last week. For that matter, I only did the workout itself two of the three times I was supposed to. I’m going to work on improving both of those numbers this week.

I’ve been eating healthy, trying to stay from evening carbs, going a little heavier on the carbs for lunch. It seems to be working to keep me from afternoon hunger, especially if I eat a little smidge of my afternoon snack right when I get back from my after-lunch walk. Fools my mouth into thinking it’s had a snackie, I guess. I’ve also been keeping myself well-watered — in fact, I’m feeling a little odd without a water glass by my side right this moment. I could use a drink.

*goes upstairs and swigs out of the cold-water jug in the fridge*

As for my mood… I oscillate between being excited to lose the weight and get fit, and being depressed that I haven’t seen better results. Holding steady is certainly better than a slow gain, that’s for sure, but still. When it comes down to the moment in the morning when I know I should get out of bed and make some eggie-weggies, and maybe someday jog my ass around the block, I make the wrong decision and turn the alarm off and go back to sleep. Or, when I come home from work, I sit at the computer just a little too long and let myself get hungry before I start my evening workout, and then it’s all over. No workout, and possibly a less-than-stellar super-quick dinner.

I feel sometimes like my health and fitness is in a precarious balance. If I let myself slip, either physically or mentally, it’ll throw everything out of whack. I mean, I know I can always jump right back on, but it’s still frustrating to always need to be on guard. I feel like I’m thinking more about food now that I’m just eating to live than I did when I was living to eat.

But enough of this. My chicken is going to be done baking before my workout is done, at this rate.

I’m really not overly depressed or anything… I’m just… disappointed in myself, I guess. I expected more.

(PS – I read my diary from when I was ten years old last night. For my birthday, I got a purple jumpsuit from my best friend. It was a size 14. It didn’t fit. …Did I mention I was ten years old? And couldn’t fit into a size 14? Yeesh.)