dianaschnuth

I didn’t write a diet update last week, mainly because I gained a pound and a half from that damn Chinese buffet right before I wrote my last update, and didn’t manage to lose it right away. In fact, I was solidly stuck at 206.5 for… *checking Excel chart* …exactly a week. Then I dropped half a pound and stayed at 206 even until this morning, when I dropped another half pound. My official week-ending weight is 206, though.

Someday I’ll reach my five-pound mini-goal, and I’ll get to buy myself some new autumn clothes. *sigh* It bothers me that I still fit into last year’s new autumn clothes, though. I’d planned on being so much less fat by now. At least I’m not more fat, I guess.

I’ve been better at doing cardio for these past two weeks, although I’m still doing much less than I should. The Kickboxing I workout from PUSH is excellent, focusing on proper form and working up through the 30-minute workout to a final sequence of moves. I also enjoy the trainer’s positive attitude, which is pleasant and upbeat without making me want to strangle myself.

I’ve also been doing much better on weekends. Usually, I gain anywhere between half a pound and a pound and a half over a weekend. For the past two weekends, I’ve stayed completely steady after the weekend, and I attribute that to being more reasonable at restaurants. We’ve stayed away from my mortal weight-loss enemy, the Happy Rose Buffet, and I’ve employed lots of standard diet tactics, like putting half of an entree into a to-go container right off the bat or ordering from the appetizer section of the menu.

For this week, I’m planning to add another day of exercise to the fray. For the last two weeks, I’ve been doing kickboxing one day of the week, and that’s it. Not including my daily walk, of course. I’m planning to add a day of PUSH strength training back into the mix, and hopefully build up to where I should be. I also need to suspend my PUSH account temporarily, because I’m nearly three months behind on my DVDs.

It’s frustrating to be losing so slowly, but I *am* losing. I’ve learned my lesson about bingeing on weekends, and I know that continued exercise will help me keep losing weight. I may not reach the weight goal I wanted to reach by Thanksgiving, but I’ll keep going, anyway.

To all of you who scoffed at my intention to go jogging: you were right.

However… despite that, I still managed to lose 2½ pounds. That brought me down to 205 even. w00t!

Last week saw the return of the DietOrganizer program for Palm OS. Monday was kind of a shocker for me, as I just ate how I would normally eat, evening binge and all, and the calories just kept piling on. My little carb meter was in the red, and my overview said I’d eaten 600 calories more than I should have. Damn. After that reawakening, I was much more careful about my portion sizes and my foods in general. Let’s hear it for an electronic conscience.

Now, I *had* said that I would allow myself to buy some cool new clothes when I hit 205, buuuut… I think I’m going to wait until I’ve proven to myself that I can *stay* there. If I’m still 205 or lower by this coming Saturday, then maybe I’ll go on a little mini-shopping-spree. (See, I weighed myself on Sunday morning, after a day of Indian and Chinese food, and I’d gained a pound and a half just from that. I’m counting on losing that buffet weight pretty quickly, though, but I forgot to weigh myself this morning to check my progress.)

For this week, I’m continuing to track my food intake, and adding one more element: exercise. I haven’t done my PUSH workouts in much too long. This evening, I tried to step up to the next DVD, just for something different, and it was way too much for me. I’m going to have to go back to the last workout I was on before I slacked off, and continue with that one this week. No shame in that. I’m still exercising.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve also restarted my podcast. I’m hoping that this will force me to focus on my eating and fitness habits (which is the reason why I originally started the podcast in the first place). Can’t go being a hypocrite, after all.

It’s slow going. I keep falling off the horse… but as long as I get back on, I’m OK. As long as the number on the scale is creeping downward instead of upward, I’m winning.

I’m gonna be all right.

It’s true, what Erin told me: anime conventions are not conducive to dieting. Even so, in the past two weeks (I didn’t weigh last weekend, due to Otakon), I managed to keep my weight gain to only one pound. I weigh 207.5 lbs as of yesterday morning.

I didn’t walk every day during my vacation. I didn’t use the fitness center at the Marriott. I haven’t done my PUSH workout for the past two weeks. I did, however, walk a shitload at Otakon. I wish my pedometer hadn’t busted its beltclip the day before, and that the battery on Aaron’s pedometer hadn’t been dead, so I could have counted my steps while I was there.

So, considering that I’ve been eating out much more than usual and exercising much less than usual over the past two weeks, I’m… well, I’m never *pleased* about gaining weight, but I’m glad it wasn’t any more than a pound.

I got out of the habit of making myself a weekly menu, after only two weeks of menu-ing. I’m not making myself one for this week, either, but I’m planning the return of the Palm IIIc and DietOrganizer. I need to do a reality check and make sure my “normal” diet isn’t going crazy with too many calories. I haven’t been tracking anything, carbs or calories, and have instead just been watching portion sizes and eating frequently and yadda yadda yadda.

This week is also going to see the return of cardio. I know, you’re scoffing at me. Or shaking your head. Or rolling your eyes. But give me a chance here. I’m planning to go out and jog for just ONE day this week. Just to remind myself that it won’t kill me. And because it’s fucking nice outside.

This week is just basically the get-back-on-the-wagon week. I’m pretty pleased with the way I looked in Erin’s Otakon photos, surprisingly enough, but I’ve been *feeling* jiggly and unfit. Nasty upper arm jiggle, nasty thigh fat, nasty spare tire, just nasty in general. I know it has a lot to do with my level of activity, and I’m going to fix that this week. That’s the goal, anyway.

*deep breath*

I’m tired of being all talk and no action. WTF. This is seriously annoying. I am GOING to do this, and I am NOT going to lose heart halfway through the week and get distracted and opt not to exercise in favor of websurfing or designing or podcasting or whatever. My health comes FIRST, goddammit. I owe it to myself.

Considering my god-awful diet weekend with Aaron and Amy, and my lack of exercise this past week, only going up half a pound isn’t unreasonable. I’m now officially at 206.5 lbs. I’m still ahead of the game: I’ve lost 3½ pounds in two weeks. I’m OK with that. Gotta keep things rolling.

To review: for this week, I had been planning to do 60 minutes of cardio, drink a crapload of water, and get to bed by 11pm.

Cardio: Total bust. I only exercised once this week (besides my daily lunch walk, which I don’t even really count anymore), and that was to do a PUSH workout on Monday. I totally dropped the ball for the rest of the week. WTF.

Water: Good to go. I kept track for the first few weekdays, then realized that I was doing fine and stopped counting the tally-marks by my water glass. I easily drink at least 64 oz of water a day without even trying. To get up over 100 oz would be more of a challenge for me.

Bedtime: Improved. I didn’t get to bed by 11pm every night, but I did most nights. On the nights I didn’t, I at least made an effort to chill out by 11pm, and get to bed as soon as possible after that.

This week is going to be interesting. I’m on vacation, and Aaron’s on vacation. Otakon starts on Friday, and we’re driving out to Baltimore on Thursday. I know I need to set myself up for success and all that, but I really don’t know what kinds of goals to set for myself. I didn’t make myself a menu for the week, mainly because I don’t know what we’ll be doing, and it’s a lot easier for me to plan my meals when I’m on a rigid schedule, being at work. Helps to break up the day.

So, my goals for this week are to continue to eat five smaller meals a day, instead of the two large ones I’ll be tempted to eat instead; to exercise at least three days, one of those days being in the hotel at Otakon; and to continue to walk for an hour every day (at least Monday through Wednesday — I don’t know how conducive downtown Baltimore would be to a walk, especially at the weird times I won’t be in the con). I might switch up my times, like exercising in the afternoon and walking with Aaron after the sun goes down in the evening. Might make things easier for a vacation-week lifestyle. 🙂 Maybe the Marriott Inner Harbor has a weight room or something.

*checks website*

Looks like they do have a Fitness Center. Now I have to figure out how in the hell I’m going to get up early enough to actually use it. Oh, and they have an indoor pool, whirlpool, and sauna, too. There’s no way I’m going to manage to get Aaron in that sauna, though. 🙂

OK, so let’s amend #2 on my list: I’m going to use the Fitness Center at least once during my stay in Baltimore. I can do this.

*psyches self up*

Note to self: bring workout clothes and swanky new black swimsuit.

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. 😀