Greek Island Countdown

my work out last night was awesome. 30 minute elliptical, intense upper body strength training, but a lot of abs and thighs too. i thought i really pushed myself to the limit with my arms. surpisingly i don't feel as sore as i thought i would. i wonder if that means i didn't do enough?

we ended up ordering pizza last night but i only had 1 and 1/2 pieces and a pear for dessert so i still kept my calories around 1600. it's great to be able to indulge myself in good food, not be hungry and still be healthy!

today i had my usual: branflakes for breakfast, sandwich and yogurt for lunch. oh i did have two white chocolate chip cookies from a bake sale, but it was for a good cause! they were raising money for a holiday party for kids with AIDS in the hospital. now i'm at starbucks caffeinating myself and studying for the next 6 hours!

i think i might skip the strength training tonight and go for a run, which i haven't done it a while. we'll see if i can do 4 miles!

peace.
 
awakening said:
it's great to be able to indulge myself in good food, not be hungry and still be healthy!
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We have a winnah! :)
 
stingo said:
We have a winnah! :)
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sometimes i wonder why i couldn't have been doing this all along...
i think i have this impulse to get to my goals as quickly as possible and if i don't see immediate results i get completely deflated and angry at myself

having patience and realizing that it will take a long time to reach my ultimate fitness goals is totally dependent on accepting myself as i am right now, no matter how "imperfect" i see myself. if i totally hate myself the way i am then i'm on this highly focused crusade to be perfect and effect immediate change. but that just sets me up for failure, because i obviously can't be perfect all the time.

so that's a long way to say thanks for noticing!
 
awakening said:
my work out last night was awesome. 30 minute elliptical, intense upper body strength training, but a lot of abs and thighs too. i thought i really pushed myself to the limit with my arms. surpisingly i don't feel as sore as i thought i would. i wonder if that means i didn't do enough?
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Well there are some days when you have really great workouts - you feel like you can do anything, and you succeed. Remember those days when you have less than stellar workouts (through no fault of your own).
 
ended up doing the elliptical for 30 min tonight with some light yoga and pilates afterwards, nothing too intense.
i ate more than i needed to today (1740 calories), so i feel a little bloated. i did something really stupid and bought a bag of soy chips while i was picking up stuff at the store for dinner and i ate the whole bag on the way home (350 calories!). i exercised when i got home though and didn't go out of control later so it could have been worse.
just have to be extra careful tomorrow.
i meant to get on the treadmill today, but i think i'm a little intimidated about starting to run again. not sure why.
what i'd like to do tomorrow is go running FIRST thing (try to do 4 miles), then go out and do my holiday shopping. i haven't done a morning run in a while, so we'll see how that goes...
 
awakening said:
i meant to get on the treadmill today, but i think i'm a little intimidated about starting to run again. not sure why.
what i'd like to do tomorrow is go running FIRST thing (try to do 4 miles), then go out and do my holiday shopping. i haven't done a morning run in a while, so we'll see how that goes...
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Isn't it funny how when you're away from something you once were very successful at, you get intimidated by it again?! I'm at the same place as you are with the running. I'm scared to get on the tread again even though I just spend my entire summer training for running races! ha! oh the dreaded psychology of it all~!
 
awakening said:
having patience and realizing that it will take a long time to reach my ultimate fitness goals is totally dependent on accepting myself as i am right now, no matter how "imperfect" i see myself. if i totally hate myself the way i am then i'm on this highly focused crusade to be perfect and effect immediate change. but that just sets me up for failure, because i obviously can't be perfect all the time.
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Wow, you just totally hit this right on:) Thank you for posting that. I think a lot of us would benefit from reading that statement.
 
thanks for all the support guys!

sparrow- i'm so glad what i said about perfection makes sense to someone else! being a perfectionist has definitely been a powerful force in my life, for both the good and the bad :)

i flaked out and didn't get on the treadmill as planned on saturday morning. instead i took the day off from exercising since i had done 4 out of the 5 weekdays. i did get a lot of holiday shopping done which was a big relief because i have exams coming up and won't have any time to do that stuff when it gets closer.

i did manage to pull myself out of bed this morning and ran on the treadmill for 35 minutes. it was a huge shock. i could only run at 6.7 mph (which is a 8:57 minute mile), and i only ran 3.9 miles total. what that means to me is that i have a lot of work to do to get back in shape. it's really AMAZING to me that your running potential can change so much in 4 months. and i don't even feel that different or out of shape. i don't even know if i WANT to be running 7 miles a day anymore, though. it takes so long and it was so bad for my feet, they were always aching and getting blisters. i think i might try to do things with shorter distances, like HIIT and using the incline function on the treadmill. See what I can push myself to do within that 35 minute time. that would be cool if one day i ran 5 miles in 35 minutes!

weighed 114.5 this morning, but i'm starting to feel that urge to overeat since i'm losing a little weight. but i have to remember that a lot of that is water weight and if i overeat, i'm going to GAIN weight. (it was good to put that in writing, i think)
 
just a quick note, cuz i need to SLEEP
114 today after exercise!
ate a lot (1750) due to 2 big cookies (yuch)
cardio was awesome- 10 minutes elliptical, 20 minutes HIIT (6.5 2 min, 7.5 1 min)
taking off from exercise tomorrow because i have so much WORK, but i'm promising myself to get back to it for wed, thurs, fri
g'nite all!
 
weighed 113.5 today when i got home from school! taking the day off from exercise has been nice, feels good to let my muscles heal and hopefully i'll be all refreshed for a good workout tomorrow. i managed to keep my calories down to 1300 today since i didn't exercise.

here's what i ate:
Breakfast: bran flakes 100
milk 40

Lunch: wheat bread 2 slices 120
turkey 75
cheese 100
pear 100
carrots 25
flaxseed chips 250

Dinner: rice 140
thai basil chicken 250
edamame 30
dessert: apple 70
 
Derwyddon said:
Have you ever considered eating smaller more frequent meals?
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people have mentioned that to me before. i eat my breakfast at 6:45 am, then by 10:30, I usally have my yogurt, and then at 12, i eat my sandwich, at 3 i'll eat my piece of fruit. then dinner is usually at 8. so i guess by spreading out my lunch, i usually do eat smaller frequent "meals" . sometimes, my schedule at school doesn't permit that because i'll only have a break at noon, and i'd be in a situation where it wouldn't be appropriate to eat anything at 10 or 3. but i try to spread it out if i can. the problem is that sometimes i'm so hungry at 10 that i'll eat my whole lunch. but if i do that, i'll usually eat a small snack on my way home at 5 to tide me over until dinner. do you think there's something else i could try that would be along the lines of frequent smaller meals?
 
so yesterday could have been a complete disaster, but i definitely salvaged the day (yay!). here's what happened:

i decided i wasn't eating enough breakfast since i'm so hungry by 10, so i forced myself to eat 2 bowls of branflakes (280 cals). then when i got to school, my classmate offered me a piece of homemade pumpkin bread, which i just couldn't refuse (200 cals?). then i ended up eating my lunch at noon (sandwich 300 cals) and some flaxseed chips (250 cals), so i was already up to a 1000 calories by noon!!! i had to go to the mall to buy a birthday present for my best friend and it took so much longer than i thought. i didn't get ANY school work done. i had promised my sister that i would go to her dance performance at 7, so i had to grab dinner on the way over. i made a healthy choice though and just ate a crispy chicken caesar salad at McD's with a touch a dressing and no croutons. So that was only 350 cals. i had planned to go to the gym when i got home, but it was already 9 pm and bedtime is 10pm for me so i blew it off. the good thing was that i only ate a pear for dessert and ended up with 1475 calories! i definitely thought the pumpkin bread screwed everything up, but it really didn't. phew! i was 113.5 again when i woke up this morning.

i'm upset that i didnt have time for the gym yesterday or tuesday, but i'm really psyched for my cardio and weight training tonight. i am promising myself i'll make time for it even though i'm really behind with my school work. it'll just have to wait!

something cool is starting to happen with my diet as well. so for the first 8 days that i've been keeping track of my calories, i've kept them around 1600, but for the last two days i've started to cut back (tuesday was 1300 and yesteray was 1475), and I can't even finish my lunch today. I think cutting back on calories slowly (instead of going straight to 1000-1200 like i used to) is really working so much better! i was so doubtful of that advice before...
here's what i've eaten today (and i feel stuffed!)
breakfast- bran flakes (100)
milk (40)
lunch- carrots (25)
yogurt (120)
grapenuts (80)
pear (100)

i brought a instant soup with me, but i'm not even hungry for it. maybe i'll it'll hit me later? i'm kind of in shock though because i dont' think i've ever been full on 480 calories by 1 pm...not complaining though!

promising to write tonight after i go to the gym...which will hopefully insure that i'll actually go.

peace!
 
i stayed full all through the afternoon yesterday! when i got home, i went to the gym and dragged myself through 20 minutes of HIIT (alternating between 6.7 and 7.3 mph, a minute or two each). i was so wiped after that i could only run another 10 minutes at 6.7 mph, but still ended up averaging 6.9 overall. burned 320 calories.
for dinner, we ordered chinese food, which isn't the healthiest, but i got fried tofu with vegetables. i had only eaten 480 up until then, so even if i ate 750, which is hopefully an overestimate, i still ended up at 1230 for the day.
it definitely paid off because i weighed 112.5 this morning!

so far this morning, i've eaten similar to yesterday:
breakfast- bran flakes and milk (140)
lunch- yogurt, grape nuts, and a pear (300)

i have a feeling i'll get hungry again soon though. i'm studying at starbucks and i was just looking at their nutritional information. it's abysmal! a bagel is 440 calories! eek! i'll probably just get a drip coffee later to tide me over until dinner.

yay friday!
 
i ended up getting a bagel and cream cheese (which cost me a hefty 530 calories), but i think it's good to have energy for my workout later. i just don't want to lose the progress i've made!

so far i'm up to 980 calories today. i wonder if i can go back up to 1600 calories without gaining weight since i cut back in the last couple days???
metabolism is so tricky!
 
apparently the answer to my last question is YES!
i had pasta and beef en daube for dinner, which i estimated was 650 calories
i watched a movie and ate some microwave popcorn which was 350 calories
so the whole day was ~2000, but i used the elliptical for 30 minutes and did 30 minutes of strength training, so i probably burned 400. but...

i was still 112.5 when i woke up this morning! i'm happy about this, but over the past 4 months i've sometimes weighed 112.5 without really dieting, but then would always gain it back in the next day or two, indicating that it was just water weight. the fact that i've stayed 112.5 for 2 days is cool, but i won't be convinced that i'm really losing unless i stay at 112.5 for at least a week (or even better, continue to lose!). some of my clothes do fit better already! i guess my ultimate goal is to be 105.

so far today:
breakfast- bran flakes + milk, apple, 210
lunch- everything bagel with light veggie cream cheese 360 (seems low, but that's according to panera bread website)

i'm going out to a thai restaurant with my best friend for her birthday tonight, and i want to be able to enjoy that, so i'm going to try to run 5 miles (in 45 minutes) at the gym.
 
aghhh! i'm really frustrated with myself. i was too cocky.
weighed 116 this morning :(
saturday i ate 1620 calories
sunday i ate 1750
and i haven't exercised since friday! why did i do that??????
well it's monday, so i guess i can start fresh. i WILL get to the gym tonight. and i will not eat more than 1400 calories
I PROMISE this to myself.
 
these last 10 days have been a rollercoaster. i had a big final exam yesterday and i really let my health fall by the wayside. but sometimes that's what you've got to do to get stuff done, i guess. i got a 96% on my test, so at least it was worth the sacrifice!

luckily i'm still 115.5 even after many days of pizza, popcorn, and no vegetables. i didn't really lose anything before the holidays, but i guess that's okay. i'm just going to try and maintain over xmas break and not worry too much about it. i want to have fun. be REASONABLE, that's my motto.

i'm off to my future mother-in-law's (who is awesome!)...she even has a treadmill, so i'm going to try and run a lot. i'm also going to bring my 5 lb weights and do a lot of strength training. i have 12 days with nothing to do except relax, exercise, read, and spend time with my fiance and his family. i know that might not sound like a great vacation, but it's always a lot of fun. hope you all have a merry christmas and a happy new year!

peace
 
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