Keep on keeping on

So we did really well for just about three weeks, maybe 3 1/2 with the working out.  Eating better was hit or miss but mostly better.  Then we both stopped, can't remember why though.  He worked out twice more so he's further along the list than I am so it'll be him getting to pick out the pizza.

My last day, not including Friday was back on February 12th.  He did two more days after that date although not in a row.  His last day was Feb. 18th.  Then last Friday when he got home from work he made me get up.  I said it didn't make sense to me since I knew neither of us would do anything over the weekend and I was right.  But still I got up and we worked out.

Then today after he got home he got me up again.  I really, really didn't want to get up but it's good that I did of course.  I can't say I'm glad, as he asked me if I was, but I feel good that he did it.  I'm a little sore but that's good as well.

Hopefully this means we'll get back in the swing of things again. 

One thing I am glad about though is that I didn't gain any weight in the last month.  I was fluctuating between 184 and 186 for all of those weeks of working out which was really frustrating.  Then after we stopped I actually lost 2 pounds down to 182.  Every time I weighed myself I was 182 until just over a week ago.  When I got back on I was back at 184.  On Friday I was at 184 too.  Then this morning I was at 183 even.  The others were point something but I can't remember what.

My jeans are fitting looser.  The two I wear are both size 16.  One is a skinny jean and low rise though and before I couldn't wear them without having a muffin top when standing.  Now there's no muffin top and they don't hurt to sit in.  My other pair is actually loose.  I have to wash them more often than I normally would just to firm them back up.  But I haven't lost enough to fit in my 14's yet.  That's at least another 10 pounds or so I think.  Maybe more.

Several years now into this blog and I haven't done at all what I wanted to.  That saddens me sometimes.  I was really hoping by having this I'd be more inclined to keep at it.  But obviously I haven't given up or I wouldn't continue to post from time to time about my ups and downs.  Or should I say post about the good, the bad and the ugly.

Right now I feel I'm in the good part.  My weight is at the low 180's still but I'm still not giving up.  I know I can do it.  I lost weight before back in '09.  I was down to 162 and still had more to go but I was looking pretty good and feeling even better.  So I just have to keep that in mind and continue working at it.

Powering through

So, it's been a week since we started.  I got up every morning but Friday last week to get on the elliptical and HDT on the treadmill.  I didn't get enough sleep Thursday night and just couldn't get out of bed in the morning.  So no workout Friday but I was a trooper and got up when HDT came home Saturday at 6:30am and we worked out then.  I slept in on Sunday, no work out either.

Got up this morning, although I didn't want to.  The next two days he's off so it'll be me having to convince him to do it.  Whether he's come to bed sometime before 6:30 or stayed up all night it might take some convincing.  As he said to me, he had to convince me this morning and last Thursday so now it might be my turn to convince him.  We shall see.

I had a hard time with the last 10 minutes or so today, I sooo wanted to quit.  For some reason my legs were especially tired today.  But I powered through, including the 5 minute cool down.  And I can definitely feel it as the day has gone on.  Last week my legs were more energized than tired as I worked the day away but today they're a little stiff.  And my right knee is having it's joint pain. 

I've had joint pain in my knees and ankles and my wrists and elbows my whole life.  I was checked out a few times in my earlier years and they couldn't ever tell me why.  No arthritis or anything else they could see.  When it gets bad enough I pop an ibuprofen or two and it usually goes away pretty quickly.  I'm trying not to do that today but I just may have to after all.

Anyway, been a week and I'm encouraged. 

I'm a broken record

So, yeah, I suck.  Which was the title a couple posts ago.  And the following two sentences have pretty much been the same for the last several months.

I haven't done shit with the exercising or losing.  But again at least I haven't gained anything. 

It's the only thing I have to be positive about with this whole damn weight loss game.  I've been hovering between 186 and 188 for months now.  Just 10lbs would be awesome.  But no, I suck.

UGH!

I do want to lose, not only for looks but for health as well.  I just can't seem to stay motivated and I honestly don't know why.  I hate how I look and feel but apparently that's not enough to make me stay on track.  Doesn't make sense really, you'd think that would be enough but it's just not.  Not right now anyway.

I know my blood pressure is really good though.  I went to see my neurologist to get a new prescription for my migraines and he took my blood pressure and said it was terrific.  Then I saw my ob-gyn for a checkup and renewal for birth control and had my pressure taken there as well and they too said it was perfect. 

So with a history of high blood pressure in the family that's good news, that even with being overweight my pressure is still good. 

I haven't had an overall checkup in years though. In fact my doctor's office called asking me to make an appointment for a checkup soon.  I haven't done that yet.  I guess I should just to make sure my cholesterol and everything else is good though. 

The last time I had my eyes checked the doctor said he could see that I was on the verge of high cholesterol.  It's amazing what they can find with eye exams.  But since that time I have lost some weight and started to eat healthier so hopefully that's gotten better. 

It's time for another eye appointment as well.  And shoot, it's time for another mammogram also.  Geesh, it'll just be appointment after appointment these next couple months. 

Anyway, I was really hoping to look and feel better for the vacation in a couple weeks but obviously even that wasn't a big enough motivator. 

I'd love to blame HDT since he's an enabler but I really can't.  Yes, he does enable me to skip a workout or eat dessert but just because he does that doesn't mean I can blame him.  I'm the one who ultimately makes the decision to not get off my ass or to put that brownie down my throat.  Besides there are times that he's the one that makes the decision to not have the brownie or go out for the ice cream.  Many times I leave it up to him whether we go walk Poydras and get our exercise in as well.  Sure, there're times that he says he just doesn't want to do it for whatever reason and we don't go but a lot of the time he'll say we need to go.  Yes for ourselves but even more so for Poydras, get his exercise in as well cause he needs it too.  He's not awfully overweight but he can certainly stand to lose a pound or so.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that even when he says he doesn't want to do whatever it is I'm asking us to do I can still do it just because he doesn't.  It's my choice to go along with him in not doing it.  Or go along with him in doing it when it comes to the eating of bad stuff.  It's my choice and right now I'm not making the best of choices.  It's easier to just give in and go along than be strong and resist. 

I was hoping by creating this website and writing it all down would help keep me motivated but so far not so much.  I still like having a place I can put down my goods, bads and uglies and will keep doing it because it's helpful but not in the way I thought.  Or at least, not as much as I thought it would be. 

Hmmmm, there are websites out there where you can get support from strangers, encouragement when you need it.  Maybe I'll join one of them, it may help.  Definitely food for thought.  HA!

Walks are nice, gotta keep 'em up

So, yeah, since the last post I still was doing a bunch of nothing for the most part.  But again, at least I'm not gaining.

But, a little over a week ago HDiTty and I started going for walks with Poydras in the evenings when we got home from work.  So we're at least doing that. 

And yesterday he figured out if we go up and down two of the streets that we used to just skip (we'd go in a big "circle" around the neighborhood) we'd go from .9 miles to 1.2 miles.  Or was that 1.4 miles, hmmm, now I'm not sure.  But anyway it made it over a mile and that's what counts. 

We'd also jog for a bit as well.  Usually from one street to the next (the short end of the block) or between light poles.  Poydras is a little guy so he can't handle a whole lot of running right now.  I mean he's not in the best of shape either. 

So we're all working up to longer walks and jogging more. 

Which is making me want to start counting calories again using my app.  So I guess I'll start that again.

Just a month and half before vacation so I gotta do something. 

The walking will help for when we're in Niagara Falls.  My understanding we should be able to do a lot of walking rather than having to drive to places we'd like to see.  Of course some will probably be done but not a lot it seems.  The place I've booked everyone that left a comment said it was one of the best things about it - that it's within 5 minutes walk of the falls - the attractions, shopping, etc.

It's a B&B.  I wasn't sure if I'd ever stay at one, I feel like I wouldn't be comfortable at one.  But out of all the places I looked at it had a far better ratio of positive reviews to negative.  And the negatives weren't all that negative.  So I think I'm good.  Plus the owner's speak German so I know that'll make HDT happy.  He took German in high school and still retains quite a bit of it.

I'm not sure what we'll be doing in Canada but one thing I'd like to do if possible is a corn maze.  We did that once years ago when we were there and had a blast.  This time around our friends have a 6 year old son that I believe would get a kick out of it as well.  So all this walking around the neighborhood will definitely help walking around a maze if we do that. 

I'd also like to do one of the cities walking ghost tours.  The one I'd like most to do is the bar tour.  At each stop we'd learn about the haunts and get a drink.  Sounds like a lot of fun.  And the walking will help burn off at least some of the calories from the drinks.  Heh

The Bad, The Ugly, and some of The Good

So, I haven't been by for 3 weeks.  Geesh.  And guess what I haven't done much of since then?  Yep, that's right, I haven't done much of any type of exercising.

I couldn't even give you a good reason either.  Just been lazy for the most part really.  Food has been so so as usual.  Not good but not horrible either. 

We have gone for a few bike rides though.  So at least that's something.  Granted they're not long right now, just around the neighborhood which is just slightly longer than a mile.  But last night after we got back HDiTty asked if I wanted to take Poydras for a walk and I jumped right on that so we did the same route with him.  I've been wanting to take him for a walk lately but HDT hasn't so we haven't.  So when he offers I'm not going to say no.  Or at least it'll be highly unlikely.

But I gotta say, the first bike ride last Sunday didn't go so smoothly.  Well, most of it did, just the end didn't.  We were on the home stretch when we had a little accident.  HDT's peddles are not normal peddles.  He has straps that go over the toe area so when he's on the up swing he's still using his feet and legs.  Well he decided about 6 houses from ours that he didn't want to use them anymore.  So he took his feet out and flipped the peddle.

Well I was riding right behind him.  I was gliding along, slowly catching up to him and he of course started to slow down because of no longer peddling.  Next thing I know his back wheel hits my front wheel and we lock up.  I end up falling to my right.  I tried to stop myself but it didn't work so well.  My palm got a couple scrapes that never even hurt.  But my elbow and arm?  Well that's a different story.

That's taken after it was washed thoroughly and has some neosporin on it, hence the shine.  I also skinned up my shin just below my knee.  But again, that was no big deal.

By Thursday the bruising was all around the whole elbow and up the side of the scrape.  It hurt to rest my arm on my desk to use my mouse and keyboard at work.  One of my coworkers suggested using a pillow so I brought one in on Friday.  By the afternoon I was needing it.

I took another pic yesterday evening.  One full week later:

This was right after my bath so that's why the scabs are so light in color.  It had gotten like that on Friday night also - the first time I was able to submerge in water without it hurting like a bitch.  But when it came out all soft I picked it off.  HDT was not happy with me when I told him.  But I think it actually helped.  Over night it was able to breath again and several places that had been scabbed up didn't rescab.  Last night though I didn't pick any off except what came off when I patted it dry. 

Every day, including today it's been very sensitive.  Just about every movement pulls it.  But at least yesterday and today haven't been as bad and the bruising is almost all gone and I've been able to rest it on the desk while working.

We of course have been careful on our rides since then.  Heh

The reason we haven't gone longer yet is that he's still getting used to it.  Because of the types of peddles he uses he's more on his toes than the ball of the foot.  Which makes the calves work harder.  Plus he keeps it in a strong gear so the legs get a good work out.  So by the time we're almost home his calves are burning.  Eventually we'll be going longer.

So the bike rides are part of The Good.  The other good is that although I haven't been doing much of anything I lost a little more.  When I weighed in Saturday I was down to 186.7.  I'm sure it's the exercising I had been doing that's now catching up.  So I'm hoping that by getting back into it I won't gain any from these last few weeks of doing little.  Hopefully I'll stay within a pound or so and then start loosing again.

We shall see.

Not losing is annoying

So I haven't lost any more which is really annoying.  But I'm hoping that it's due to the weight lifting and doing a resistince of 10-12 on the elliptical with an incline of 10 or more as well and building muscle because of it all.  Because my legs are looking better and my arms are looking better as well.  It's still annoying though.

The other day when we did the weights I was able to go up 5 pounds for each rep so that was really nice.  My last two where a bit of a struggle because of my left arm still being so much weaker than my right.  I was lifting my shoulder up to help raise my arm which isn't the way you should do it for the bench presses. So since that's the case the next time we go out I won't be going up in weights.  Hopefully by the next time it won't be that way though but if it is then so be it. 

When we did the shoulder presses I did the 10 and 12lbs for my reps but I decided I'd try out the 20's just to see.  The last time I tried them I couldn't even lift my arms at all which seems really pathetic but oh well.  This time around I was able to lift them but I was struggling and doing it all wrong.  HDT starts telling me to just stop, that I was going to hurt myself.  But you know, I lifted them up all the way, struggle or no I did it.  And since I couldn't even move them an inch before I'm happy.  I'll keep trying each time we're out there.  One of these times I'll be lifting them over my head smoothly even if it'll just be the one time.

Not sure when the next time will be though.  Hoping it'll be today but there's a chance we'll be cooking out with our neighbors for dinner tonight and if that happens then the weight lifting won't be.

And you know what I haven't done in forever?  The scorpion flip.  I should see if I can do the pushup part of it now.  Heh  Hell, just a pushup in general really.

I'm hurting and I like it

So, I've continued with my cardio since the last time I posted and finally got back to doing some weight lifting yesterday.  And of course today I'm nice and sore.  But I like it.  I'm definitely getting stronger. 

The first time we got out there I could barely bench press the bar all by itself (which it weighs 45lbs) 10 times.  By the 8th or so I was struggling and by the 10th I couldn't lift it back up on my own, HDT had to spot me big time.

Now it's more like a warm up.  Although I still do it 10 times I can do it quite fast now without the struggle.  Yes, it's heavy by the 10th one but I can lift it quite quick now.  So what I do is 10 at 45, 8 at 50, 6 at 55, 4 at 60 and 2 at 65.  Those last few are a struggle but I'm sure they won't be for long.  And of course he does much heavier weights.

There are other lifts we do but those are the ones I remember the most. 

Eating has still been good.  I'm not depriving myself of a desert or chips, I'm just eating less than normal.  I've gotten much better at portion control. 

What's still bad is buttered rolls though.  Take the other night for example.  I made chicken breasts, baked potatoes, green beans and rolls for dinner.  We each get 1 and 1/2 rolls.  I ate all the beans, all but two bites of the chicken (it was quite large) and about half of the potato.  But could I stop myself from the rolls?  Nope, still ate those and of course they had a decent amount of Parkay on them.  Ah well, at least I didn't finished the potato which also had a decent amount of Parkay.

But the last several times I've weighed myself I've stayed under 190.  In fact I'm down to 188 now. 

Go me!

Losing still feels good

So, it's been 10 days since I last posted.  I've finally achieved several days that I've been under 190.  Today in fact was one of those days and I'm actually surprised because the last two days have been very bad with the eating of the food.

Wednesday was apparently admin assistant's appreciation day and the managers decided on having an ice cream day.  They had chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream with a ton of different toppings to choose from along with bananas for splits and root beer for floats.  Because there were too many choices I went the easy way and decided to just have a float.  A tiny bit of rootbeer with a tiny bit of ice cream.

So I thought, ok, that really wasn't all that bad and after working out tonight I'll be just fine.  Yeah, by the time I got home I didn't want to do shit so I didn't.  We had chinese for dinner and I didn't do any exercising and then we also had lemon cake for desert. 

Then yesterday after my frozen dinner lunch I ended up having more ice cream, this time with some sprinkles of chips a'hoy cookies and oreo cookies.  Admittedly it was very little of all, basically just a taste of them.  BUT later in the afternoon when everyone else was having a 2/2:30 break of ice cream I couldn't resist and had some more chocolate in a waffle cone.  THEN we went over to his mom's to bring the canned cat food that we had for the momma cat that just had babies a week ago so no exercise once again.  AND we had Pizza Hut for dinner.  One of their 10 dollar meals with the pan pizza, breadsticks and cinnisticks.  Very, very bad.

So I fully expected to be back up above 190, even if it was only back to 191.7 or so, so when I was at 189.7 this morning I was very happy.

But then other than those two days and last Friday I've done the elliptical or treadmill (mostly elliptical) every single day so I have been exercising and mostly eating right.

HDT for whatever reason just couldn't bring himself to do weights at all last week so I didn't do any.  And his excuse this week was that he had a cold.  Which I actually understand, when you can't breathe and have no energy it's really hard to exercise.  But the week before, not only did he not weight lift he didn't do any cardio. 

I've since decided that although I won't do the lifting that requires a spotter I will still do some routines that don't require it.  Or, I'll just do the lifts at a lighter weight and do more reps.  Either way I'm bringing weights back into my routine.

I'm hoping that next week when he's feeling better he'll get back to joining me.

No excuses

So when I weighed myself this morning I was back up a pound.  But that's pretty much what I expected being on my period and all.

This weekend once again was a mix of the good and the bad.  Had some sorta bad food mixed in with the good.  Saturday we didn't work out at all but Sunday when I got up I made myself get on the elliptical right away.  I was hoping that by the time I was done HDiTty would be up and we'd go do some weight lifting.  He was up but it was already so late in the morning we actually didn't have time.

His niece's birthday party was at 2:30 and we still had to go get her gift.  So after he was out of the shower I hopped in.

After we left the party we did some shopping so by the time we got home neither of us wanted to do anything but eat dinner and relax.

Yesterday we just did cardio.  As mentioned I pretty much let him dictate when we do the weights and he didn't have the energy to do any.  But today I'm gonna try and push him to do it.  I have a headache but every time I exercise with one it goes away because of the endorphins. 

So no excuses today, we just gotta do it.

Pizza bad but oh so good

So I've been doing much better these last few days.  We've gotten some good weight lifting in and cardio.  Although last night we did have pizza for dinner when we went over to his grandma's to see about a cat. 

We're not going to be bringing the cat home. As much as I really like it the fact that it's pregnant (we think) we decided it wouldn't be a good idea.  Ah well.

Anyway I felt guilty for eating the pizza so when we got home I got on the treadmill.  I figured I'd take it easy, just a nice steady walk at 2.5 or 3.0.  Ya know, just as long as I did something exercisey.  But I ended up jogging for about a minute at one point at 6.5.  I think I could've actually gone longer if we hadn't have just eaten.  I also lifted up the incline several times to different levels along with going at 3.5 most of the time.  Except when the incline was 5 or higher, then I just went 2.5 or 3.0.  So over all I did pretty good, according to the calorie count I worked off 200 of them.  That's good for me on a treadmill.

Tonight should be a weight lifting night.  We shall see if it happens.  I tend to let HDT decide when we're doing those since most of the time I need him to spot me.  Since it doesn't take us long to do any of the weight routines I'm usually able to convince him into doing them on the days he's only so so about it.

But I wasn't able to guilt him into cardio last night even though I was right next to him on the treadmill.  I was hoping by me getting on it that he'd be compelled to push me off onto the elliptical (he doesn't care for it) but no going.  Ah well.

But it's working.  When I got on the scale this morning I was down again.  Granted not by much but it's down!!  I'm now at 190.3.  I am bound and determined to have the 90's behind me by next week if not by Sunday even.

But, my period is due next week so the bloating may kick in.  We shall see.

I'm getting stronger

So let's see what we've been up to the last couple weeks...

Weight wise I keep going up and down by a pound to a pound and a half.  Very frustrating.

But last week we incorporated weight lifting into the mix.  Which I'm liking, so that's good.  We've had a weight bench out in the garage for years but have only used it off and on.  He far more than me. 

We've only done some lifting 3 times now but I've already seen an improvement.  I use the bar by itself for the first bench press set since it's 45 lbs.  We do ten, then eight, then six of whatever we're doing all while adding weight with each set.  When we did our lifting yesterday I was able to do ten with no problem at all.  So that made me happy.

Foods been hit or miss really.  Lunches and breakfasts are still good but dinners have come and gone with the good or bad.  For the most part I think they're pretty good but we had pizza twice last week along with Chili's.  So that definitely wasn't good.  At least the Chili's was after we did a full workout on the elliptical (me) and treadmill (him).  But still.

Pretty much waisted a whole month worth of losing what I want to lose before vacation.  Not pleased.  In other words, all this exercising and eating more healthy hasn't become a habit yet.  It's still a chore.  But at least it's a chore I'm willing to keep at.

Weekend Update

So our weekend went half and half again.  I did get a good workout in on Saturday morning.  I used both the elliptical and treadmill.  I need to start doing the weights again as well.  Although I did use the 5 pounders while on the treadmill for a bit.

And because I got up at 9am and immediately worked out and wasn't particularly hungry after doing so then got ready to do some shopping I only had one meal before dinner.  That meal (lunch) was a turkey sandwich on breadthins and a 1oz bag of Doritos.  I ended up breaking down about an hour after that and eating one more bag of chips though.   But even so, with the workout and light lunch I had over 800 calories to use up with dinner.  Which I'm sure they were since it was noodle based meal.

I had Ling's Low Mien for dinner.  Which, along with the noodles, has pork, chicken, beef and shrimp along with Chinese greens.  It's oh so good but I'm sure chock full of calories.

Sunday was ok.  We had frozen fish (baked) with some tots (also baked) for our brunch.  Then HDT had to go to work from 3-6.  While he did that I ran to the store to get a couple items and since it was so nice out when I got home I decided to take Poydras for a walk.

We had a nice 40 minute walk along one of our trails where he got to see ducks, squirrels and even a frog along with several other people walking and biking along.  On our way back to the car I even picked up the pace 3 different times.  They were very short/quick jogs but still, that's better than not doing it at all.  They certainly got my heart pumping.

For dinner we had Italian beef sandwiches.  Not the best but certainly not as bad as some other foods we could have chosen since neither of us felt like cooking. 

Tonight I'm going to have to do a very quick workout before he gets home so I have enough time to clean up afterward because we're supposed to be going over to his sister's house for his nephew's birthday.  And we'll have to leave pretty much as soon as he walks in the door.

Only a so/so week.

So I've done good and bad since Monday.  Although the only day I've worked out since was Wednesday. 

As usual Tuesday was our day off although I ate well for both breakfast and lunch.  And actually dinner wasn't that bad either really.  HDT's mom made me a birthday dinner of pork roast, garlic mashed potatoes and corn.  And I was good and only had one bun.  Bread is my down fall, big time.  But I did go back a couple times for the potatoes.  Love me some garlic mashed. 

Wednesday I worked out again.  Ate well for breakfast and lunch.  And now can't for the life of me remember what we had for dinner.  Oh yeah, one of those Hormel 4 minute microwave meats (the Italian beef tips) and some fake (potato flakes) garlic mashed potatoes.  Although this time I was bad and had two rolls.  But since I did well with food over all and I worked out my calories were still under for the day even with the bread.  But then I believe (didn't put them in the counter) the couple cookies I had for desert put me over.

But as HDT points out, the calories I'm allowed by Lose It are the recommended amount to lose 2 pounds a week.  Since I didn't go over by much I'm still ok because it'd still be under my usual calories I'd eat from before we started this. 

Last night I had every intention of working out, even washed my face and put on my sports bra when I got home.  But by the time HDT got home and dinner was made and eaten I no longer had the desire to get on the treadmill, let alone the elliptical.

And today we're going over to some friends house to have a cook out and learn how to play euchre.  So there won't be any exercise today either.  But breakfast and lunch have been good as always.  At least I don't have to worry about those, during the work week anyway. 

Tomorrow I'll have to make sure I get a good workout in.  Especially because we'll be taking another friend and his family out to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner.  We're taking them out in appreciation of him helping with the kitchen floor, well mostly doing it actually.

This week my weight has pretty much held steady.  Only going up and down a little bit at a time, never even a full pound.  But what could I expect really what with the little exercise to help it out.

Losing feels good

So, I've lost 2.7 pounds in just the one week that I've been eating better and working out.  Of course, 1 or more of those pounds could just be because of normal fluctuation.  But I choose to believe that I've actually lost them.  Especially since it was 1 pound first, the next day was another and then the rest was on the 3rd day.  I've held steady since Friday.

Well, that's not quite true.  I did go up .5 pounds today but I know that's because of the very bad dessert I had yesterday and the movie theater popcorn on Saturday.  Heh

It being my birthday and all yesterday we decided to do a couple movies with going to Chili's in between on Saturday.  I still did my normal workout in the afternoon and I had a very good meal at Chili's.  I had their salmon, rice and steamed broccoli dinner.  Although it was 897 calories (almost all in the salmon of course) we had only had one other meal that day because we got up so late.  So I only went over my cals by 96 for the day with that meal.  Then of course the movie popcorn put me over more.  Not sure how much since I had the junior but I'm sure it was at least a few more hundred since I did get butter added.  But because the food I had eaten for breakfast and then the dinner was all good for me food I don't care that the cals were so high for them. 

Sunday I worked out again even though it was my birthday.  I thought about taking a day off but decided there really wasn't any reason not to so I got on the treadmill this time.  Dinner again wasn't too bad although I did have garlic mashed potatoes.  But then we went to Red Lobster for the best worst dessert ever:

This is their molten cookie lava cake.  It's a warm chocolate chip cookie filled with gooey chocolate with a scoop of ice cream on top.  This killed me with 1,070 calories.  We each had our own.  But I don't care, it was my birthday cake.

Day off

So we did take yesterday off after all.  But then, we were discussing doing so anyway.  I had printed out a workout schedule some time last week that had Wednesday being a day off, probably because of it being the middle of the week and all.  But since we have a tendency to get Papa John's take out pizza for only $7.00 on Tuesday's we decided we'd have Tuesday be our day off and the "free" day as well. 

Years ago we were going to try this Body for Life program which gave one free day to have whatever you wanted food wise and no exercise.  The concept was so you wouldn't feel deprived with not being able to eat your favorites the rest of the week.  Plus it gave you something to look forward to the rest of the week.  We did it for about 2 weeks.  I had told him I needed him to help me with the healthier dinners if we were going to do it.  But since he didn't I rebelled and we had one too many dinners that weren't as healthy as they should have been so it was abandoned.  I hate cooking.  Although nowadays it doesn't bug me as much as it used.

So, although we're not going full on Body for Life we decided we'd still do the free day.  It was good anyway because as the day wore on the back of my left knee just got worse and there was no way I'd be able to either of the machines.

Today it's not as bad though so I'll be getting back on the elliptical (at least) before we head out to see The Woman in Black with his mom.

Back on the horse

We were good finally.  I even did more than I planned in the exercise department.  Not a whole lot but still, extra.

While waiting for HDT to get home I jumped on the treadmill and did a good 10 minutes with incline of 3 at a rate of 3mph then did the 5 minute cool down.  Had just finished right when he got home.

He changed and then we proceeded to look for some paperwork he needed for his Lazik surgery.  Couldn't find it anywhere so I gave up to get on the elliptical before it got any later.  Set the timer for 12 minutes and did incline of 7 with resistance of 7 for most of the time.  And for the 5 minute cool down took it down to 5 and 5.  While I did that he got on the treadmill.  He put in a target heart rate and it put him at an incline of 4.5 at a rate of 2mph.  I think he ended up moving that around after awhile but for the most part he let the machine do its thing.

For dinner I made chicken breasts on the foreman grill, home grown sweet corn (from my step sister's farm), green beans and one dinner roll.  HDT had all that plus broccoli.  It was really good and filling.

Had about 12 or so mini pretzel twists for a snack later in the evening and HDT had a mini bag of Fritos. 

Today I'm sore.  From bowling Sunday, which we haven't done for about a year or so to working out which hasn't been done for months my legs are now killing me.  Mainly the inside and back of my legs.  And I over extended my left leg while on the treadmill so now the back of my knee hurts as well.  But at least the other pain is good pain.

My lower back hurt when I first woke up but after moving around for a bit it got better so that's good.  But we'll probably take today off, at least of a full blown work out.  I still may do a short one on the treadmill.  But we shall see.

Weekend Update - It was a mix of good and bad all weekend

So, I did bad on Saturday with the food.  I figured it'd be my last bad day and I'd start fresh on Sunday.  While I was out running around doing the shopping my lunch consisted of a personal pan pepperoni from PH and two breadsticks.  But after shopping for 3 hours and then cleaning the house right after I got home and put everything away I don't feel too bad.  I'm sure I burned a good 400-500 calories at least with all the running around I did.  I started out just before noon and didn't stop until 5:45ish.  Which included vacuuming, including the stairs, which I went up and down several times while cleaning the house.  And also dust mopping and wet mopping the new kitchen tiles.  I was exhausted when it was all said and done.  Took a nice relaxing hot bath where I sweated some more for about 30 minutes.

I also had some frozen mexican foods (2 taquitos and 3 mini chimichangas) and several buffalo style chicken bites.  But they were all baked so I know that helped some.  But that's all the food I had all day so even if they equaled the 1,100 calories I'm allowed for the day I know with the shopping and cleaning I burned a lot of that.

Oh yeah, I did have a few Schmirnoff blueberry lemonades as well.  I guess I need to find out how many calories are in those.  I don't have them very often but decided to while watching UFC with the boys.

HDT did better than I did.  He had a subway sandwich of grilled chicken, lettuce, cucumbers (he's since decided that he doesn't like those on the sandwich) and green peppers on wheat.  Not sure what else he had, if anything during the day since he was at a friend's house.  But he also had several of the same items I did during the fights.  But no alcohol for him.

Yesterday we both had a subway sandwich.  He had his with cheese added instead of the cucs and I had a turkey on wheat.  Just turkey with some pepper and salt added since I don't care for anything else on my sandwiches. 

But then, we went bowling with some friends and had pizza. It was thin but there was pepperoni and sausage. And we each had a few shots of Jager. So again, bad food mixed with some exercise but still, not the best we could do, that's for sure.

Today I've done well for my food so far.  Some turkey on fiber rich sandwich thins and pineapple for lunch.  A breakfast bar and a banana for breakfast.  We're supposed to be having chicken breasts and some sides for dinner.  As long as I make myself cook it up that's what we'll have.

We're also supposed to do the elliptical and treadmill as well tonight.  We both agreed that we'll probably start out slow, probably only doing about 20 minutes on them but we shall see.  He's working today so once he gets home we've agreed to get right on them so we get it over with.  Heh

I'm sore but happy

So, let's see.  Saturday through Tuesday I didn't do a whole lot of exercising.  Not traditional anyway.  Saturday I cleaned the house which included going up and down the basement stairs several times.  Including vacuuming said stairs.  I was sweating and breathing pretty heavily by the time I was done 2 1/2 hours later so I'd say I got a pretty good workout from that.

Sunday I was a lazy lazy lazy girl.  I literally sat on my ass from the moment I got up to the time HDT got home from work watching Lost.  Other than getting up to go to the bathroom, take Poydras out and get something to eat I didn't move off the couch and I gotta tell you it felt really good.  Besides it had been raining/storming on and off all day so it's not like I could've done much anyway.

Monday was Memorial Day and it was basically 90 degrees outside where I spent most of the day sweating profusely.  So by the time everyone was gone from our house and we were able to relax in the cool basement I so didn't feel like doing anything.  Besides, I think I sweated out a couple pounds anyway.

Tuesday after work I was planning on getting on the elliptical but we ended up going over to his grandma's house to check up on her and spend some time while his mom is out of town.  So not only did I not work out we picked up greasy pizza and breadsticks for dinner.  Yeah, that was smart.

But Wednesday I did good.  I got home from work and changed right away and did my usual elliptical, weights, elliptical routine.  But I mixed it up with the weights doing some different lifts than I've been doing.  Along with doing some burpees and the scorpion flip again which I haven't done in forever.  I also did this thing where you get in a pushup position then lower yourself into the plank position then go back up.  Did that several times.  I also used a band to wrap around my feet while sitting and doing the rowing routine for my back.  That felt good.

I'm feeling it today too so that makes me happy.  Today I'll be mowing the lawn when I get home.

I started to keep track of my food on the iphone app but that fell through once I had one too many things that I couldn't really track.  So I gotta get back to using it.  It definitely helps keep me in line.

Slowly but shirly

So I'm doing pretty darn good so far.  At least with the exercising.  I've worked out every day this week but Wednesday.  I decided to take that day off. 

I still have to get on track with the food.  That's still hit or miss on eating better or not.  Although I decided today I'd start counting the calories again using the LoseIt app on the phone.  I of course do so much better when I'm actually putting the items down than when I just try to wing it.

I'm definitely one of those people that the experts talk about when they say writing it down helps.  So I put in my yogurt for breakfast and my Special K cereal bar for my snack just now.  Most of the time I have a banana instead but we ran out of those, need to get back to the grocery store for a few items after work.  The banana is better at keeping me satisfied until lunch than the cereal bar but it's still pretty good.  If I happen to get hungry before than I have another bar and they're only 90 calories so I'm all good.

Yay me!!

So I've been doing pretty darn good these last few days.

I did a good work out Thursday evening but nothing on Friday.  But that was ok, I was still hurting a bit from Thursday.

Saturday I mowed the lawn which included bagging the grass.  When I started in on our back lawn it started to misty rain and as I continued it started to rain harder.  So I could only do a couple swipes before having to bag the grass.  I called HDT out at one point to help out a bit since the bagger's opening is wider than the bag and with it being wet now it was a lot harder to empty.  He ended up staying outside with me to finish up which as it was getting wetter and wetter and heavier and heavier I was very grateful for.

I was pretty sore and worn out from that and having done the grocery shopping earlier in the morning. 

Sunday I was still a bit sore but not too much.  A little while after having breakfast I jumped on the elliptical and did it for 15 minutes then weights then back on the elliptical for 20 minutes, actually 25 with the 5 minute cool down. 

Then later on in the afternoon we went to a few stores.  I was worn out by the end of the 2nd store but we were looking for a new electric toothbrush and neither of the first stores had exactly what we were looking for.  Still didn't find it at the 3rd store either.  The 1st had the closest but I was so wiped out by then and starving that I said I just couldn't go back.

When I weighed myself this morning I was down 1 1/2 lbs from what I've been all last week.  So I'm hoping I'm finally on the right track.  Yay!