dianaschnuth

Lost a pound! I weighed in at 211 before last weekend, was at 210.5 by Wednesday, and hit 210 by yesterday morning. I’ve been weighing twice a week instead of daily, and that makes me feel a little less depressed about my weekend gains. By Wednesday, everything has evened itself back out, generally.

I’m still doing the two-steps-forward-one-step-back thing, but at least I’m losing overall. As much as I’d like to meet my short-term goals, I think it’s more important that I’m embarking back on a healthier lifestyle. No, this isn’t me trying to make up excuses for why I cheat on weekends. This is me rationalizing that I’m being more good than bad, and that’s a good start.

I’ve really been slacking on the evening exercise, although I’ve been diligently walking for at least a half hour during my lunch. And it’s been pretty freaking cold out. Damn winter. Anyway, yeah. I worked my legs one evening, and I worked my chest and upper arms one evening, but I really wasn’t into it, and didn’t maximize my workout as well as I could have. I just kind of went through the motions.

I also haven’t been very good at getting to bed early and getting up early. I’ve been consistently late to work this week — don’t worry, I won’t get in trouble or anything. I just take a 45-minute lunch to compensate. The big issue for me is that I eat breakfast at my desk instead of at home, and it throws my food schedule off by a half hour or so. Then, when I get home, I’m ready to eat my late-afternoon snack, and it ends up being an all-out dinner instead. Then I don’t do my exercise, and, well, yeah.

So, the goal for this week is Early To Bed And Early To Rise. If I can re-establish that habit, then maybe other things will fall into place. If they don’t, I’ll just work on them next.

I officially need to rethink my weekends. They are slowing me up considerably. I regularly gain at least one pound over the weekend, usually more, and I need to take steps to avoid this in the future.

This morning, I weighed in at 211. I had been at 210.5 before last weekend hit. Gained one over the weekend, lost one-half during the week. This is unacceptable.

I also need to bump up my exercise. I did Dance Dance Revolution two days this week, for 20 minutes each day. This was a good start, but I need to make myself lift weights after the 20 minutes of DDR cardio.

There’s a very narrow time period in the evening in which I feel “motivated” to exercise. I come home from work, talk to Aaron before he leaves, say goodbye to him, change out of my work clothes and into comfy clothes, feed the cat, and contemplate my dinner. If dinner will require 40 minutes in the oven, like chicken, I’ll get that started and then start my exercise routine. If it won’t take very long to make, like fish, I’ll get right into my exercise and cook it afterward. If, however, I mistime my meals and end up being hungry when I get home, and find something quick to eat instead (like last night’s yummy tortilla pizza with a wheat tortilla and low-carb pizza sauce and mushrooms and just a little cheese), then it’s equal odds whether I’ll manage to do any exercise afterward.

As for food, I’ve rediscovered lowfat cottage cheese. Mmm. I’ve also been laying off the low-carb pasta, for the most part, although I have my occasional moments of weakness when I get home from work. Apart from that, things are pretty much the same. Oatmeal or Cranapple Crunch for breakfast, an apple or cottage cheese with fruit for a morning snackie, salad with tuna or chicken for lunch, some kind of random low-carb snack for afternoon snackie (when I eat one), and meat and salad for dinner — if I’m being good, that is. If I’m not being good, I might have low-carb spaghetti with low-carb cheese sauce and a spoonful of salsa. Or tortilla pizza.

The good news, though, is that my skin fits a little differently these days. Sounds weird, but it’s true. My boobs in particular have that pinchable flap of empty skin. It isn’t obvious at first, even in the nude — but if I pinch at the skin of my boob, or of my gut, there’s a good three-quarters of an inch of totally empty skin that I can pinch and roll around between my fingers. I have to believe that’s a good sign.

My fat also feels different to me. Less dense, and more… watery? Jiggly? I’m not sure how to describe it. It feels less substantial, at any rate. That could be my imagination, or the contrast of being able to feel muscle resolidifying under the layer of fat. In any case, it’s also a weird change.

I’m not giving up. I can stick to this thing. Eventually, my mind and body will get in a mutual groove, and the weight will come pouring off. Until then, I can’t go all wonky with a giant splurge-ariffic cheat weekend again. Salads and carryout containers for me. No Happy Rose Buffet. (Duh.) I can do this.

Go me. Rrrah.

Bottom line: I didn’t quite make my goal of 209 by Valentine’s Day. If not for my ultra-depressed weekend of yummy binging, I might have made it. I ended up being only a pound and a half short of my goal, weighing in at 210.5 lbs.

Measurements as of 2/16/06:

Height: 5’10”
Weight: 210.5 –> down two pounds since 1/16/06
Bust (at maximum fullness): 45″ –> down one inch
Chest (just below bust): forgot to measure this one
Waist (one inch above navel, where my pants live): 43.75″ –> down 1.25″
Hips: 49.5″ –> down ½”
Neck: 14.5″ –> down ½”
Upper Arms: 13.25″ –> down ¼”
Lower Arms: 10.25″ –> down ¼”
Thighs: 25.5″ left / 25.75″ right –> down ½” left, ¾” right
Calves: 16.125″ –> increased one-eighth inch

Still not exercising as much as I should. Did Tae Bo Cardio on Monday (didn’t make it through the whole workout), worked my abs and chest on Tuesday, and slacked for the rest of the week. I’ve taken a 30 to 40-minute walk every day at lunchtime, though. My day feels totally incomplete without that.

My fat intake is a little elevated, and my carb intake is a little lowered. I’ve still been eating fish and chicken, staying away from burger, and eating vegenaise and other low-fat condiments and dressings. However, I’ve been eating major carbs just for breakfast, like oatmeal or my new Cranapple Crunch cereal. The rest of the day, I’ve been sticking with salad and veggies and meat.

So, that’s the long and short of it. Still eating well, still making an effort to be more active. Still coming to terms with the fact that this is taking a lot longer than I’d hoped… but still sticking with it.

This week’s report isn’t particularly good news. I started out the week on Saturday the 4th at 210. By yesterday, I was back up to 211.5 (and I gained back yet another pound during this weekend). I’m not going to make my goal of 209 by midweek, unless I do something drastic and unhealthy in the next two days.

I was still pretty gung-ho early in the week, and I did the Tae Bo Cardio workout on Monday. Tuesday, I did the Tae Bo Basic workout. The rest of the week I did absolutely bupkis. I made the mistake (apparently) of weighing myself daily this week, to track my progress toward my goal — and when I saw a complete lack thereof, I basically threw in the towel for this upcoming goal. Not what I should have done, I know, but man. I was just so freaking bummed.

Food this week was still good things, but my carb:protein:fat ratio went a little wonky a few times. As Sheryl predicted, I started getting tired of oatmeal — or maybe I’m just getting tired of the mushy-ass Quick Oats we got at a discount at Big Lots. This weekend, I ended up getting some sort of cranapple-granola cereal, so I’ll probably switch up breakfasts with that a little. We also got a new supply of real oats, so that’ll be a welcome change of pace, as well.

While we were at Claudia’s yesterday, replenishing my supply of Vegenaise and getting some breakfast cereal, we also bought some more peanut butter (because the MaraNatha brand we bought last time kind of sucks) and some more salad dressing. We got a refill of the Annie’s Naturals Artichoke Parmesan, and we got some other kind of citrusy-mangoey something-or-other. We’ll see what that’s all about later this week.

So, basically, this upcoming weight goal is a wash. I’ll still photograph myself and weigh myself and all that, but I’m really kind of bummed that I… well, I guess the root of my bumming nature is really that I do halfway OK during the week, but my weekends invariably end up being the one step back to my two steps forward.

I’m also apparently pretty easily defeated. Not that I’m totally giving up — not at all. I’m just, well… I thought that losing five pounds in five weeks would be no big thing. It’s kind of disheartening to see that it wasn’t as easy as I’d thought it would be, and that I’m so easily thrown off by a lack of instant results.

I’ll get back on it this week. Exercise and lots more water. I’m just kind of depressed about it right this moment.

I started out my week at 210.5 lbs, my weight as of Saturday the 28th. Over the course of the week, I managed to lose half a pound, but the journey there was kind of up and down.

I added some new food items to my diet this week, including Annie’s Naturals salad dressings on my salads and frozen blueberries in my oatmeal. I continued eating four meals a day, and branched out on Friday to start eating five: three full meals, two snacks.

Monday’s exercise was focusing on legs. Tuesday was Tae Bo Basic. On Wednesday, I tried something new and worked out my back. There wasn’t a very wide range of exercises I could do at home with only dumbbells, so I did ten reps each of supermans, tricep kickbacks, bent-over rows, side raises, and shoulder flys, all with my five-pound weights (except the supermans). As with my other weight workouts, I did the exercises all together with no breaks, then took a two-minute break before set #2, then a one-minute break before set #3. I really felt it the next day, so I opted to take a day off. I’m not used to my back being sore on purpose. Then, since I took a day off on Thursday, I lost my momentum and didn’t work out again on Friday.

Midweek, I weighed myself and was quite depressed to see that I’d actually gained a pound and a half. Sheryl suggested that I should measure myself, too — and I’m glad she did. Sixteen days into my new diet and exercise program, I’d lost an inch and a half from my waist, an inch and a half from my neck (?!), half an inch from my upper arms, and three-quarters of an inch from my bust. My lower body remained unchanged. But holy crap! I can definitely deal with minimal weight loss if I still lose inches.

My goal for the coming week is to ramp up the cardio. I want to shoot for two days of cardio, preferably three. I downloaded the Tae Bo Cardio workout on VCD, and from what I’ve previewed of it, I think it’s going to kick my ass. In a good way. I’ve also decreased my caloric goals for the week by about 200 calories. I’d been making my oatmeal with a little cream, and I’m going to lay off of that this week; that change alone should knock off that 200 calories a day. I’m also switching up what I’ve been eating for lunch and for dinner: more carbs for lunch (say, meat and rice), and fewer for dinner (meat and veggies or salad).

Hopefully, between the cardio and the more frequent feedings and the lower caloric intake, I should drop off some more poundage this week. Even if I keep only losing at the rate I have been, though, I should still make my goal of five pounds by Valentine’s Day.

February 16th = 2 days after Valentines Day = new pictures and new measurements. I have nine days to kick that ass.