Day 56 - Day 59

Day 56

Zumba Time! And it was a blast. Burns (supposedly) a shit load of calories and was fun. One of the classes I can do with my daughter at the Y so that helps make it more fun as well.
Funny that actual walking/jogging don't hurt my ankles or knees but I did have some twinges while doing Zumba. I am changing up my shoes next time and hopefully that will make a difference. I really do like doing it and it would kinda suck to not be able to because I have stupid old lady joints.

Day 57/58

What I am thinking of as well deserved break days. That actually wasn't the plan...But Friday I just couldn't get motivated (Work from home evilness) and it was absolutely pouring rain. I kept waiting for a break in the rain that just didn't come and I ended up sitting there like a big ole lump. Saturday I was slightly more active with no planned exercise but my daughter, me, and the grandbaby  did a double feature at the drafthouse. Ate a huge meal and drank too much. Then ended up going to a friends house and drank a little more (oops). 

Day 59

I don't understand anything about weight loss. So I bust my ass all week and the scale never moves. I lay around for 2 days eating and drinking and barely moving and I lose 2 lbs....Whatever. Just going to keep on keepin on. Had a great day...seriously great day.
Zombies Zombies and More Zombies.
I got out and did my Zombies, Run! 5K week 1 workout 3 redo and kept up the trend of faster and longer. So that made me happy.

First Week One Workout 3: 1.8 miles, 37:53 minutes, 21:03 pace

Last Week One Workout 3: 1.95 miles, 36:42 minutes, 18:51 pace

Last but not least I did and extra .75 miles walking to my daughters house to watch the season 4 premier of The Walking Dead...
Yes
Life is now made and I can enjoy my Sundays while I wait for Doctor Who to come back in Nov/Dec.

Tip for the week: We had Daily's Frozen Lemonade (includes alcohol) to drink. One frozen pouch is considered a serving...and 10oz = 280 calories. I turned my one serving into 3 and left enough for another one or 2 in the pouch. Added perrier to about 1-2 oz of the mix at a time. Didn't get plastered, didn't drink 1000 calories, kept a glass in my hand the entire time. I was happy.

Day 49 - Day 53

Well....This is the longest I have gone without writing at least every other day. Kinda missed it but the week was hella busy.

Day 49/50

-Phone finally came on Wednesday!! I spent that night getting it all set back up. What a pain. But...I have my phone and so I am back in with my apps. 

-Took the day off. I shouldn't have. But I just didn't have it in me.  Not sure why. Lame. I did get 5000 steps in. But none of it was hard core work. 

Day 51/52

It was my daughter's 22nd birthday! I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. For the entire day. Worked, took her to lunch, worked more, picked up my middle daughter from her ride from college, went to the gym and swam laps for half an hour, then picked my mother up, then birthday party time! I was really well behaved! I had some food within reason. And a small piece of cake. Too much wine and champagne though!
It was all worth it!

Nursed a bit of a hangover. Got my steps in and did some housework. No big exercise though. 

Day 53

And she is back! Runner 5 reporting for duty!

Yup...BUT...here is the deal. I completed through week 3 of training and just didn't feel like it was time to move on. I also didn't feel like repeating week 3 would be enough. So I started over at the beginning. Back to week 1! And I am glad I did. It was good to see that I had made some (small) improvements in my time and distance since I had started. It was a good motivator! I am going to do all 3 of the weeks over again and see if it will be time to move on to week 4!

Original Week One Workout 1: 1.57 miles, 35. 32 minutes, 22:39 pace

Repeat  Week One Workout 1 : 1.91 miles, 36.05 minutes, 18:56 pace

I am still slow as dirt but yay! A difference!

October Goals:

So October started with the first week not being what I wanted it to be. But I am going to make that up through the end of the month!

So the goals are:

1) Keep bringing the alcohol levels down

2) Keep bringing the smoking down (I don't smoke at all during the day now...only a few at night)

3) Keep my food on track

4) Start strength training! OUCH

5) Make sure my work from home days include a workout!

6) Cut Splenda from my diet (usually only with 1 cup of coffee in the morning but it needs to go)

7) Seriously up my water intake

Day 36 - Day 37

Day 36

Got my minimum steps in and walked the stairs at work 2x for a total of 10 minutes. But that is about it. After that...Drive to the beach! I did go on a short walk when I got here. Just around the neighborhood. This weekend is going to kill my last week of weight loss...

Day 37

Ah...bagels. Yup. Had one for breakfast. Went out and did my Zombies, Run! 5k training though. Week 3 workout 1. Ass officially kicked. I may have to go back and redo week 2. Just not up to a 5 minute run even though it is run at your own pace/ or walk. The good news is that I got up to 2 miles! Mostly kept up my current pace. Not really getting any faster. But at least I am not slowing down. Would have been a great day if it hadn't ended with all you can eat crabs and a couple of PBR's! But when at the beach....




The rest of the weekend is just going to be bad. We already have brunch planned for saturday, ice cream...the list goes on.

As much as I am trying to get healthy the occasional beach weekend is something that, while I may alter parts of it, I won't completely shut out. The hours of crabs, and great brunches and fun with my oldest daughter and granddaughter are just something we treasure. Other than the crabs I cut my usual dose of food in half. Considering how much I did eat I am kinda grossed out about how much I was eating before! Times like this I really realize how absolutely ridiculous restaurant portions of food are. Because I am talking, and having a drink, and fun...I don't realize how much I am really eating... I recently have started cutting all restaurant portions in half before I even start eating. Once that portion is done the rest goes into a box. It is still too much food.

Ah well...
Wish me luck. I can deal with a little gain...I just don't want to get home and step on that damn scale and go WTF...

ALMOST FORGOT!!!
I have walked 50 miles since I got my fitbit! WHAT?!?!?! That is since September 3rd! I know that in August I didn't even come close to that much let alone any of the months before. What an incredible motivator the FitBit is!

Day 33

That Monday morning super excited I am gonna workout like a pro this week get up and go feeling...And I did it! Well kinda...Then I blew it.
I dragged my insomniac ass out of bed and got to the gym by 6:15. Someone explain to me all of these crazy people who are up doing the same thing?! Seriously...I got the last lane in the pool. 20 minutes of laps (and that means a lap...not only find my breath but catch it) then a lap back. Repeat.  By the time I left there were people lined up waiting.

Got to work...things were hectic and ended up not doing my stairs. I decided to do a walk instead...and...it was raining. Ding Ding...brilliant idea! Our garage is 2 levels so I walked the bottom one over and over...and over until I had done a mile.

Thinking it's a good start to the day right? Yup.
Did it end as well? NOPE!
Out to dinner. Margaritas were my enemy. Again. Last time. I missed doing my Zombies, Run! 5k. Just came on home and did nothing the rest of the night. Oh well...That is going to be my biggest hurdle. Stopping the eating out. Doing it less...but still more than I would care. No more for the rest of the week. Well...hopefully. Beach trip coming up over the weekend so I am sure we will eat out at least one night there.



Don't regret my workout! I regret not doing it!

Day 27 - Day 28

Day 27

I finished Week 1 of Zombies, Run! 5k and actually feel like I can move on to week 2! Yay!!!!
Ordered per the app to take a day off so that is what I am going to do. So I will start that on Thursday (Day 29). Went for a nice 45 minute swim with the little one after and had just a nice evening. 

Day 28

Well....not all days can be great. In fact food/exercise wise this day kinda sucked. I didn't even make my 5000 step goal on fitbit. 

The fun thing is....This was my granddaughters first ballet class... So I went to go watch her class and then well...we had to celebrate...so we went to lunch. (Damn margaritas) Food wise I had 2 rockfish tacos, NOT FRIED! WHOO HOO! only 3 chips, a couple of bites of the rice...you know the drill...but I did have 2 margaritas with everyone else there. I just have to stay home! I keep saying it....one day it will sink in.
Oh...I did decide to start doing the stairs at work. So I did once up and down the 7 floors of my building. The only exercise I got....

So my question to anyone who wants to answer today....

How do you lose weight? 

I can step on the scale every day for 6 days and it won't budge at all...come day 7 all of a sudden 3 lbs lost or gained. I would expect a daily fluctuation, however I don't even get that usually. Just there, there, there for days...then bam. Surprise! Because of this I tend to only weigh myself about once or twice a week and not obsess over an ounce here or there. 

How about you? Daily fluctuation? One big change? 

Also...would love to get some new inspiration for music to listen to while working out! Share your favorites!

Day 26

 Another revelation: I am a lot more social than I realize. Going out to dinner will end up being the death of me. So...I need to get that in order. Took the grandbabe and her mom to our local drafthouse to see Monster's University... It's a drafthouse...I had a margarita and a cheeseburger. I did ditch the bun and subbed out grilled veggies for the fries...so...that is something right?

I got in a decent move. I am not going to say workout because it was a quick 1/2 hour walk and then 40 minutes in the pool with the baby after dinner. 

Quick question/poll: Do you eat back your workout calories? I am having an issue with this at the moment since I don't use a HRM yet so I am not positive just how many calories I am burning off as well as unless I am eating a pre-made meal I am not 100% on just how many calories I am taking in. 

Leave answers in the comments! I would love to know what everyone else thinks. 

Day 25

Booze is going to be the end of me....
BUT....
I at least went at it a little differently than I normally do. I called +Kelly Cox and said lets go get dinner. But we have to walk before and after. So we put on our walking shoes and made our way through the neighborhood. We went the long way to get to the restaurant of the evening, so it was a bit over a mile and a half and then dinner and a few margaritas and an irish coffee later got back on our feet and walked home...granted....we took the short way home, but normally I would have gotten in my car and driven to the restaurant that is a little more than .5 from my house, so I feel good about that. NO MORE! Walking when I want to go anywhere in my neighborhood to eat gets a great 2 mile walk in!

This schedule thing isn't going to be easy either. I had the worst time getting up and motivated today. So far Friday and Sunday have been my laze around days....maybe I should just make that my schedule. We will see at the end of another week. Somehow or another 2 days just being a lazy putz seems to be an awful lot though....

Day 20

Guess who got a Fitbit Flex?! This girl! I just may love this thing more than anything in my life right now. Well maybe not that much but we will see. It feels good to be motivated. Really good. Having goals and being able to see them be completed or not and having no excuse for it is really a glorious thing.
Come find me on FitBit and add me as a friend if you use it as well!

Me on FitBit

Me on Runkeeper

Did a quick walk/jog before taking Emily (The 3 year old grandbaby) swimming last night. Scary thing is....these are starting to feel good! The thing I am working on now is time management and exercise. Trying to get from point a to point b mixed with c , d, e and f throughout the day isn't the easiest thing to do. I have gone from almost completely inactive to finding that I have almost zero time. We are probably swimming from 4-5 nights a week for 1-2 hours average. Great time to spend with the babe. I think in the end that is going to be the big thing I take away from this. She likes to "help" me exercise and we run around playing different games that keep us moving the entire time. I have been logging these swims as Water aerobics, water calisthenics on MyFitnessPal. The calorie burn seems a bit high...but I am not "eating back" my workout calories so I am not too concerned about it. I need to get a good waterproof HRM so I can accurately measure all of my workout calorie burns but until then...just knowing I am moving is doing me good!

On a personal note...went to my local cinema and drafthouse last night and saw This is the End. Good, raunchy fun! Splurged and had 2 margaritas... One of my goals for September is to lower my alcohol consumption. So nothing Monday, Tuesday 2 margaritas...gonna try to keep the trend to none for the next few nights.  It is mostly a matter of just keeping myself at home. And broke til the end of the week so it shouldn't be a problem!

Day 2

Yesterday I got out and got moving. It was a day off from Zombies, Run! 5k so I decided to walk and swim instead. Not an incredibly fast walk as you can see. I am slower than a turtle. But at least I got out and did it. I can only get better/faster right? I am using RunKeeper to track all walks and hopefully one day runs! (Find me there: Jessica on RunKeeper).

After the walk I went and swam laps for 25 min. KICKED MY ASS. I am in the pool every day but that is usually running around after my 3 year old granddaughter. While I am moving and getting good movement out of it...it isn't the same and making it up and down and up and down those lanes. I had long breaks in between each lap but I kept forcing myself to do just one more until I was done.

Food was Good. Stayed in the allotted calories for the day. Until...

A friend asked me to come over and drink.

Well...it would be rude to turn that down right? I did modify my normal a bit. (Quite a bit) Glass filled halfway with soda water and then margarita poured on top. I still enjoyed it...It did 2 things really: Let me be social and have a few drinks like I wanted to...and I didn't get completely wasted. Considering how these nights with my friend normally end...both of these were good! So tired this morning but not hungover and I don't feel completely useless.

I use MyFitnessPal to track my food (Find me there: Jessica on MyFitnessPal). I decided to not go with a specific diet. I know that I won't be able to keep that up for an unknown amount of time...so I am just trying to modify portions and daily intake. 

OH! And the good (and encouraging news)....Down 3 lbs!!!