Post-Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is over and I still have a lot of chicken leftover.  I didn't work out as much last week as I probably should have, but I DID go on Saturday.  Sunday left me with a headache that petty much knocked me out and I spent most of the day curled up in my dark bedroom miserable; even after taking headache medicine.  So that didn't happen.  Yesterday I was just being flat out lazy.  Regardless, I think I did pretty well over the weekend; checked my weight this morning and I haven't gained any more weight, which is pretty great!

So now that I'm over the post-thanksgiving what I should have dones and what I dids, there's another topic that I've just come across and wanted to write about.  That dread time of the month.  Mine's started today and while it's not really bad yet, I know in a few hours I'm probably going to be doubled over in pain.  How does one keep up motivation to work out when you're cramping badly and don't even really want to move?

I found a few articles online about maintaining your weight loss motivation during your period. Mostly the refer to resisting cravings, drinking a lot of water, and making sure to move around.  Keeping to low impact and light workouts on the worst days.  So, I'm going to try and do this... Admittedly, I'm drinking a mocha today (sweet craving), but I had it made with soy instead of whole milk.  So we'll see how this goes, if I can keep up momentum while not feeling great.

Thanksgiving

I totally meant to post about thanksgiving!  It's in a few days and holidays are one of those times where people fall off wagons and eat so much food!  Well, I have no plans for Thanksgiving this year.  Most everyone else is doing things with family or out of town.  I do have this boyfriend, though and we both will be hanging out.  I decided that I'm not doing the whole turkey thing; I'm afraid of my oven.  I found this awesome recipe for chicken breasts cooked in the crock pot with sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives, basil and onions.  Sounds delicious.  I'll make a risotto instead of mashed potatoes, and probably do a side of steamed asparagus.  Totally NON-traditional thanksgiving, but still sounds delicious. :)

For dessert, baking is totally out 'cause I'm afraid of my oven... (has to do with this lighting on fire thing about a year ago).  I might get a pumpkin pie.  No, not healthy at all... but it's Thanksgiving... one MUST have punkin pie.

Proud of myself

Despite taking the weekend off of working out (it was a VERY busy weekend), I did go workout yesterday, even though I didn't really want to.  :) Go me!  I'm proud of myself with how well I'm keeping up on working out recently.  I'm going to be working out tonight too, I'm not sure if I'll be going to the gym at work, though, because I have to take Jeff to pick up his truck sometime this evening/afternoon.  Despite that, if I have to I can go use the elliptical at the gym at home like I did yesterday.

On that note, I did find that going to the gym at work, which has way more state-of-the-art equipment  versus the gym at my apartment complex is a HUGE difference.  I always thought one elliptical was basically the same as another.  Apparently, that is NOT the case.  The ones at the work fitness center run much more smoothly, the stride is more fluid and glides better.  I presume this is because the machines are newer, more advanced technologically, and probably better maintained.  They also have a lot more options other than just the resistance.  I have also found that watching TV helps me not focus on how long I've been working out, and how much my legs hurt.  Even if i'm not listening to the TV (cause I'm usually listening to my music), just staring at something OTHER than a blank wall seems to help.

I've thought about posting pictures of myself as progress pictures.  I know it's a good idea as a way to track my progress without the constant update of my daily intake and workouts.  I'm already tracking my workouts via fitocracy and cardiotrainer on my phone.  But a picture is worth a thousand words or something like that and it will help to show actual progress to myself if anything.  My problem is, I'm a fat girl.  I hate cameras.  I look at photos of myself and am immediately demotivated by how horrible I look in them... So... We'll see how it goes.  Maybe I'll take a picture and hide it somewhere until there's some notable progress that I can see....

Plans within plans within plans...

Okay, not really that many plans, to be honest.  This weekend is Wax-A-Bear and we have a party planned to do some baking on Saturday before the event.  I'm trying to think of what I should bring to make; it should be pretty fun. A bunch of Boys in Leather making cookies, where could we go wrong?  :D  I'm going to try and not gorge myself on cookies, but I should be pretty busy baking and getting everything ready for the event.

Tonight I am going to work out after work.  It's coffee night, but I'm not sure if I'm going to go tonight.  I'm already a little tired, despite my vitamins and coffee.  I woke up kind of early this morning 'cause of my kitty. I'm actually pretty excited to work out at the gym today.  It was really nice, and my work out didn't SEEM that long... I mean, it was pretty freaking intense... I was sweating like CRAZY when i got done, but the time seemed to fly by faster than normal.  I feel very confident that if I keep going to the gym, my weight will start dropping.  When I got home after the gym yesterday I already FELT thinner. :D

Gym!

I went to the gym today!  It was pretty fun.  I like the fitness center at work; it's very nice.  The machines are very state-of-the art, and it wasn't too busy when I went after work.  I did a good 27 minutes on the elliptical at a pretty intense weight loss setting and got a wonderful cardio work out in. 

I decided for my eating habits, that I'm going to eat a small serving of my meal, then wait for 30 minutes, and if I'm still hungry, then I can get seconds.  I'm also keeping to remind myself to slowdown while I'm eating, so I don't overeat by eating too fast.

Today was a pretty good day.  My gym bag is packed with fresh clothes for tomorrow sitting next to my work laptop, ready to go for me in the morning. :) 

I feel good.

The Verdict on Ankle

No boot for me, yay!  The Dr. said that the x-rays show some calcified bits that are hanging out in the ankle, but they aren't in the areas where i'm complaining about the pain.  He suggested trying using a brace while I exercise or am walking around a lot and see if that helps.  If not, then we can try and MRI to see what's going on.

With the good news in mind and a fresh brace picked up at CVS, I'm going to go to the gym today after work and try this out.

Bad News

I went to the Dr. today for my follow-up.  My cholesterol is looking good, which is exciting!  However, I asked her about my ankle, which has been hurting me a lot lately.  So she scheduled me for some x-rays of my ankle and I got a call back later this afternoon that I have an "acute bone injury".  I'm not sure what that means exactly; I googled bone injury and mostly find information about fractures.  They recommended I see a podiatrist, so I have an appointment with one tomorrow.  

I'm worried that my "sprained" ankle was actually a "fractured" ankle and it's healed badly.  I'm worried that I'm going to have to wear a boot, or have surgery, or something.  I'm not sure, but regardless, I'm sure I'm not going to be able to work out for a while, which kind of upsets me.  So my goals are going to be very focused lately on my eating habits if that's the case. 

I also have an appointment to see a cardiologist, because of one of the tests on my blood work.  And an appointment with the gynocologist for my girly stuff.  My day seems to have been made up of making appointments...

Yesterday I managed to do a little bit of yoga after work, but the routine I was doing was much tougher than the ones I'm used to.  Jillian Michael's workouts tend to really wear me out.  I did another 15 minutes today, but that's all I could manage.

I went to bed kind of early yesterday and woke up at 7 am this morning.  I decided to try and take a nap this morning 'cause I have a sort of busy afternoon ahead of me, picking up wax-a-bear donation prizes, but the neighbor's dog keeps barking.  While I'm awake, it doesn't really bother me; but man, if I'm trying to take a nap, that dog's bark is the worst thing on the face of the planet!  I've been eating pretty healthily today and lately.  Trying to get rid of this nutrisystem stuff, and since Jeff isn't here until like Sunday, then I don't have to worry so much about cooking anything. 

Today's goal: 

1.  Don't overdo the snacks during gaming. 
2.  Resist the cupcakes Jeff left at my house. 

Sinus infection blues

My sinus infection came back.  I went back to the doctor on Wednesday and the prescribed more antibiotics and flonase to help clear out the congestion and get rid of it.  Hopefully it works this time.  I also have a lot of stuff to do this weekend for Wax-A-Bear.  My goal for today is to get back on the wagon and go work out.  It might be a light one, but something is better than nothing.

Feeling fat :(

Saw myself in the mirror today and feeling fat.  I hurt my back this weekend, and not sure how, so I haven't been working out.  I did eat poorly the past few days, so now I'm kinda kicking myself for it.  Today my back is starting to feel better; it hurts a little bit and is a bit stiff.  I'm thinking maybe some light yoga will help it out and then I can start working out tomorrow.  I'm going to try to get up early and go to the gym before work.  I'll have to stop by today and get a lock so I can lock my stuff up in a locker.

So, I did eat poorly lately but I'm going to work on getting back on track.

Goal 1:  turn in fitness center papers.
Goal 2:  IF i can manage to work out 5 x a week this month, I can buy myself Wii Fit.

PAIN!

I hurt my back Saturday night.  All i did was stretch after sitting in the chair playing Call of Cthulhu.  I felt like my back was going to charlie horse and relaxed, but afterwards it's been hurting like crazy.  I've been stretching and moving around to try and get it to release or pop or whatever it needs to do, but I'm probably going to hold on working out until it feels better.  So, for today, my goal is going to be to try and eat half of what I normally eat to reduce my portion sizes.  And to try and make my back feel better.

Sports bra twister

So I got my sports bras from Avenue.  I was really excited; I don't normally spend the extra money on getting decent sports bras because... well... I'm cheap.  but these were on sale, buy two get one free.  Figured, good deal.  Trying to get into the thing was a fucking MIRACLE.  WHY do they make it like a crazy puzzle and twister all wrapped up in one god damned undergarment?!  I was all excited about trying it out, until I tried to get it ON. 

The first thing is that it's a racer back, which is good for support.  The crappy part is that it's a racer back WITH a hook/eye closure in the back too... So how do you get it on?  I have freaking clue... unhooking the hook&eye closure only resulted in them getting all twisted up when i tried to pull it on over my head.  Hooking them and trying to put it on only resulted in getting stuck and then having to try and wiggle and squirm to get the bra in place over my boobs.  How do people DO this?! 

The really crappy part is that, well, I'm FAT.  I have rolls and fatty areas that I guess no one else has?  Which makes getting into this thing extremely difficult.  By the time I got it ON i was too pissed off and upset and exhausted to want to work out.  Now I just want to curl up in my bed and cry because I feel EXTRA worse about my weight, and I don't want to work out. 

I'm going to.  I'm sure it's just me being emotional and dramatic.  But still...  Why does this have to be so HARD? 

Cookies!

I didn't have time to workout yesterday; it was a pretty busy day.  I got home, ate some dinner real quick, then went to Ete's house to play with his kitten for a little bit before we went to coffee.  Coffee was crazy; it was our monthly meeting and I was taking notes.  Of course our meeting is similar to herding a bunch of cats and dogs, so it was pretty wild.  We got home pretty late, and by then there wasn't a chance that I wasn't going to work out.

I got some new sports bras from Avenue.  They should be delivered in the next day or two; I'm excited to try them out.  It may seem like such a little thing, but it really makes a difference.  :)

Today we're making cookies at Eric's house.  I'm going to help him make some chocolate chip ones, and then make some flax seed meal oatmeal cookies.

My goals are as follows:

1.  Work out this afternoon after work.
2.  Don't snack on too many cookies!

Go me!

I did 30 minutes on the elliptical yesterday!!  Usually I can only manage 25 minutes, but i did a full 30 yesterday!  Go me!

Today is the monthly meeting for the Boys of Leather, so I'm not sure if I'll have time to work out.  I'm going to try and make time, though.  I have to remember to stop and get cat food or my cats are going to try and EAT ME! Or not... but they do need food.  Today's goal is to work in a workout before the meeting.  My other goal is to NOT drink coffee when I go to coffee.  I'm going to try and stick with some non-sweetened tea. 

I got my Klutch Club box yesterday for the month of October.  It was super fun opening it up and figuring out what all the stuff was and trying out the new things.  I tried the mud yesterday and even though it smelled weird (like mud) it did feel kinda nice.  I got some eyeliner and it comes with a cool lid that has a build in sharpener, which is kinda awesome.  I might also look into getting some of this Good Greens stuff, they are chocolate bars with 3 servings of greens in them.  I have no idea what sorcery they use to do that, but they taste pretty good and i could always use more veggies in my diet.  The Omega-3 packets that they sent are pretty awesome too; they taste like orange stuff instead of icky fish. 

Goals for today:
1.  work out
2.  don't drink coffee!