What a fantastic week I've been having! I didn't have an overly eventful week, but I've been really motivated this week to exercise. I have done some exercise or another every day since Sunday, which to me, is great! Usually I'm not motivated to work out every day, but this week has been different. Even on the days where I haven't felt up to exercising I've broke down and done something anyway. Yesterday I even took my kids out in the stroller for a five kilometre walk. I haven't walked that far at one time since February. It was nice. I was going to take the kids for a walk again this morning, but it's really windy and I didn't want to take them out in it (not to mention my double stroller is a pain in the rear to push under optimal conditions, let alone when it's super windy).
In addition to walking and/or riding my stationary bike, I've been using my Daily Workout app pretty much daily. I love that app! It's so easy to incorporate into my daily routine. At the moment, I only do about 10 minutes of "floor" exercises (I call them floor exercises because there are a lot that are done on the floor and for lack of a better name). Each day I do two of the four main sections for five minutes each. So one day I will do five minutes of arm exercises and five minutes of leg exercises. The next day I will do five minutes of each of the ab and butt (as the app so eloquently puts it...) exercises. When I'm feeling more confident in my ability, I'll increase each exercise's time increments to 7.5 minutes and then to 10, but for now five minutes works just fine for me.
I've been eating alright this past week, though I find myself really hungry lately. I'm not sure why, maybe because of my increased activity, I don't know. I've been trying very hard to make sure that I stay within my daily calorie budget and that I don't "eat" my exercise calories. This past Tuesday I was ravenously hungry, so I did break down and "eat" my exercise calories, but I didn't eat more than my calorie budget plus the burned calories (meaning, I was still in the clear for the day). Hopefully I don't feel this way for long. It definitely makes it hard to stay on track when I'm constantly feeling hungry. I've been trying to make good food choices when I am hungry, like snacking on an apple or some cucumber slices.
Speaking of apples, I came across a very tasty and not-so-bad-for-you apple recipe on Pinterest. It's called "Apples in a Bag" (the recipe is by Paula Rhodes). It's so quick and simple to make! Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
1 medium apple
1 packet of sweetener or a spoonful of sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
Small handful of raisins, optional
Instructions
Peel or don’t peel apple, core and slice or dice. Place in freezer-quality plastic zippered bag along with remaining ingredients. Seal bag and shake well to mix ingredients. Reopen bag just a touch to vent. Microwave on High for 2 minutes – longer if you use a big apple. Carefully (it will be HOT and steamy) open bag and pour over plain or cinnamon-sugar pita chips, flour tortilla chips, oatmeal or ice cream.
Note: It is important that a freezer bag is used for this recipe. If a regular sandwich bag is used, it'll just melt and make a horrible mess in your microwave.
When I make them, I don't use the raisins and I use half a tablespoon of brown sugar, plus I just eat it on it's own (no chips or ice cream). I have tried both peeled and non-peeled apples. Because I have an issue with textures, I prefer the peeled apples because when you cook them, the apple's insides go soft (think of apple pie), but the skin remains hard and crunchy. It's just not a combination I find appealing. Once everything is combined and cooked, it's almost like you're eating apple pie or crumble, but without all the pastry. There are about 123 calories for this recipe and it's really quite filling and satisfies my sweet tooth. I actually need to pick up more apples so that when I have another sweet craving, I can make this again.
I've gotten in the terrible habit of weighing myself every day or every other day. I don't know why I've started to do this and it definitely plays tricks on my head. I don't record my weight on Lose It! every time I weigh, usually just on Monday (unless there was a pretty good loss). Since I recorded my last weight, which was 246.3, I have gone up to 247.2 and I have remained pretty constant on that number for the last few days. I'm not sure why that is. As I've said, I've been making sure to stay within my budget for the day. The only thing I can attribute the gain to is building muscle mass. I'm hoping that I can figure it out soon because not having a loss, especially when you're doing things right, is very frustrating. I also hope that when I take my measurements for the start of September that they will reflect a loss in inches to at least compensate for the lack of loss in weight.
Friday 30 August 2013
Thursday 22 August 2013
Holy macaroni, Batman!
Oh my goodness! I just got home from the most intense walk EVER - if you can call it that. I decided that it would be a good idea to go for a walk... down in the coulees... For those of you that don't know what a coulee is, it's kind of like a valley (my dictionary defines it as a "deep ravine"). I dragged Ashlee along with me for good measure.
Going down wasn't so bad, neither was walking on the path when we got to the bottom (mind you the path was flat at the bottom...). But lord have mercy, going back up was an entirely different story! I thought I was going to die. On top of having to go up a very steep incline, we brilliantly decided to do this at night. Where I live, it's pretty dark by 9 PM this time of the year. The coulee probably isn't the smartest, nor safest, place to be walking at night. People aren't so much of a threat, but wildlife sure is! We have a very high population of rattlesnakes, primarily down in the coulees, which like to venture out at night. I'm pretty sure I heard one not far off of the path. On our way back up the coulee path, I saw a snake on the path - which made me scream like a little girl and start running. Thankfully, it was just a little snake, like a garter snake or something (I'm definitely not a snake expert and I didn't get that good of a look at it). Still enough to spook me!
Darkness, snakes and bugs aside, it was a good walk. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly we were able to complete the path. We walked about 2.58 kilometres, which took us 32 minutes including a couple of breaks to catch our breath on our way up. My average pace per kilometre was 12:28, which I'm pretty happy with given that I was going up hill and stopped briefly four or so times. My heart rate monitor (I bought the Polar FT4, I'll write about it sometime) was getting cranky at me on the way up. For optimal heart health, your heart rate should be within a certain range for certain activities. Generally, when you're wearing a heart rate monitor you're doing so while performing a physical activity, so the monitor beeps at you if you're not within a certain range. My range is 126 to 165. At one point, my heart rate peaked at 189! Yikes! I'm sure running from the snake, whilst going up hill didn't help matters. Thankfully, I didn't feel like I was going to pass out or anything like that. I was a little winded, but that's to be expected. I'm also thankful that I didn't end up having an asthma attack (which has often occurred to me while going uphill).
So, in the end, would I do it again? Sure. I just wouldn't do it at night!
Going down wasn't so bad, neither was walking on the path when we got to the bottom (mind you the path was flat at the bottom...). But lord have mercy, going back up was an entirely different story! I thought I was going to die. On top of having to go up a very steep incline, we brilliantly decided to do this at night. Where I live, it's pretty dark by 9 PM this time of the year. The coulee probably isn't the smartest, nor safest, place to be walking at night. People aren't so much of a threat, but wildlife sure is! We have a very high population of rattlesnakes, primarily down in the coulees, which like to venture out at night. I'm pretty sure I heard one not far off of the path. On our way back up the coulee path, I saw a snake on the path - which made me scream like a little girl and start running. Thankfully, it was just a little snake, like a garter snake or something (I'm definitely not a snake expert and I didn't get that good of a look at it). Still enough to spook me!
Darkness, snakes and bugs aside, it was a good walk. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly we were able to complete the path. We walked about 2.58 kilometres, which took us 32 minutes including a couple of breaks to catch our breath on our way up. My average pace per kilometre was 12:28, which I'm pretty happy with given that I was going up hill and stopped briefly four or so times. My heart rate monitor (I bought the Polar FT4, I'll write about it sometime) was getting cranky at me on the way up. For optimal heart health, your heart rate should be within a certain range for certain activities. Generally, when you're wearing a heart rate monitor you're doing so while performing a physical activity, so the monitor beeps at you if you're not within a certain range. My range is 126 to 165. At one point, my heart rate peaked at 189! Yikes! I'm sure running from the snake, whilst going up hill didn't help matters. Thankfully, I didn't feel like I was going to pass out or anything like that. I was a little winded, but that's to be expected. I'm also thankful that I didn't end up having an asthma attack (which has often occurred to me while going uphill).
So, in the end, would I do it again? Sure. I just wouldn't do it at night!
Monday 19 August 2013
Keep on keeping on...
I kinda fell off the face of the planet for a bit. My in-laws came to spend a week with us, so I tried not to spend too much time off on my own - which meant not blogging for a while. I didn't want them to think me rude or too much of a hermit, so I tried to spend a lot of time with them while they were here. They went home yesterday, so everything is essentially back to normal now. However, it was a lovely visit!
I wasn't exactly on par for my eating and exercise this last week. I ate far more than I should have and exercised way less that I should, but that's alright. My father-in-law is a wonderful cook, but most of the things he makes aren't all that healthy (read smothered in margarine or sauces). When he cooks it's hard to exercise self-control because everything is so good! My husband also did a lot of barbecuing (which he is fantastic at), so the whole week was a recipe for disaster for my eating.
I'm back on track as of today. I ate within my daily budget and Ashlee and I went for a walk this evening. I'm really trying my best to see that I make it to my goal. I feel very strongly that this time it will happen! Even though last week sucked for eating and exercise, I'm still down to 246.3 pounds - which is very encouraging! One more pound to go and I'll be back to where I was the first time around and then I'll be back in business!
This past Saturday I went to work (which is in a popular women's clothing store) and I wore my favourite pair of dress pants. I don't have a mirror at home in which I can see the bottom half of my body very well. Well, when I saw how I looked in those pants in the mirrors at work, it is needless to say that I won't be wearing those pants any more (which fills me with mixed emotions of joy and sadness). The pants were just hanging on me; the butt was so saggy! When I got home I tried on some of my older, smaller dress pants to see if they would fit and lo and behold! they did! So I now have three "new" pairs of pants that I can wear. Very exciting!
On a side note, I finished my little crocheted birds. I haven't been able to give them for my nieces and nephew yet, hopefully later on this week. But here they are!
Aren't they adorable!? If you're interested in learning how to make these delightful creatures, head over to Craftsy. The class will teach you everything, so if you have absolutely no knowledge of how to crochet, that's okay! I'm excited to make more of these birds to use as gifts in the future.
I wasn't exactly on par for my eating and exercise this last week. I ate far more than I should have and exercised way less that I should, but that's alright. My father-in-law is a wonderful cook, but most of the things he makes aren't all that healthy (read smothered in margarine or sauces). When he cooks it's hard to exercise self-control because everything is so good! My husband also did a lot of barbecuing (which he is fantastic at), so the whole week was a recipe for disaster for my eating.
I'm back on track as of today. I ate within my daily budget and Ashlee and I went for a walk this evening. I'm really trying my best to see that I make it to my goal. I feel very strongly that this time it will happen! Even though last week sucked for eating and exercise, I'm still down to 246.3 pounds - which is very encouraging! One more pound to go and I'll be back to where I was the first time around and then I'll be back in business!
This past Saturday I went to work (which is in a popular women's clothing store) and I wore my favourite pair of dress pants. I don't have a mirror at home in which I can see the bottom half of my body very well. Well, when I saw how I looked in those pants in the mirrors at work, it is needless to say that I won't be wearing those pants any more (which fills me with mixed emotions of joy and sadness). The pants were just hanging on me; the butt was so saggy! When I got home I tried on some of my older, smaller dress pants to see if they would fit and lo and behold! they did! So I now have three "new" pairs of pants that I can wear. Very exciting!
On a side note, I finished my little crocheted birds. I haven't been able to give them for my nieces and nephew yet, hopefully later on this week. But here they are!
Aren't they adorable!? If you're interested in learning how to make these delightful creatures, head over to Craftsy. The class will teach you everything, so if you have absolutely no knowledge of how to crochet, that's okay! I'm excited to make more of these birds to use as gifts in the future.
Thursday 8 August 2013
Keeping busy...
I've had yet another successful week! It would seem that round two is going substantially smoother than the first time around. I've completed 4.5 weeks with only the odd day here and there where I was over my daily allotted calorie budget. I don't even feel bad about the couple times I was over my budget because I feel that I've been doing great this time! I definitely have more confidence and motivation.
I weighed in this past Monday and I had lost another 1.9 pounds. I felt the need to weigh myself again this morning and I've lost another pound since Monday. My total loss is now at 18.9 pounds. I'm getting so close to where I was before and close to my next reward milestone of 25 pounds (I really need to finish my reward chart...), which means I'll get a mani-pedi! I'm so excited! If I keep on track and continue to lose around two pounds a week, I'll reach my goal weight of 160 pounds by June 2014. I can't wait!
I've recently been thinking I should try for less than 160 pounds. I weighed 160 pounds in high school, but I didn't really have the best eating habits then, so I'm wondering if it'd be attainable to be somewhere between 140-150 pounds. For now, I think I'm going to leave my goal at 160 pounds and have a huge celebration when I make it to my goal and then go from there.
I have been keeping myself really busy as of late. Of course, my two kids keep me pretty occupied, but in addition to my kids, I have picked up a couple of hobbies. I have had a passion for beadwork and making jewelry since I was seven or eight-years-old, but I have since revived that passion and I hope to turn it into some additional income in the near future. I have been broadening my knowledge and learning new techniques in jewelry design and I love it! There are so many things that I never even thought of before, like mixing two seemingly unrelated hobbies together like beading and crocheting. The results are so neat! I've got a necklace on the go currently using the crocheting technique. Maybe I'll post a picture when it's complete. My primary knowledge sources for learning new techniques are Craftsy and Sheffield School. The Sheffield School is based out of New York City and offers an array of courses through correspondence. Once I've completed the six unit course, I'll receive a certificate in jewelry design, which I think is pretty neat. Craftsy is a website that offers many, many different crafting courses in various different fields. While the jewelry design course offered through Sheffield teaches many different techniques, the Craftsy classes each focus on a specific topic. Both are nice. Sheffield gives me the basics, which Craftsy allows me to go more in-depth into a particular technique.
Another hobby I've picked up recently is crocheting. When I was younger, I figured knitting and crocheting were old lady hobbies, but they're not! There's so many neat things you can make with crocheting! I taught myself how to crochet using YouTube! I started out by making square dishcloths. Since learning, I've made a blanket for my baby cousin and have started working on some Amigarumi stuffed birds. Here's what one of my birds looks like, though it's currently incomplete.
I have four birds that are only partially complete because I've been waiting for their eyes to come in the mail. Funny how neither WalMart nor Michaels carry the little, black plastic eyes... I ended up ordering them online, but they had to come from Hong Kong, so it took a while. I finally got them in the mail today, so I can finally complete my birds! They're going to be birthday gifts for my nieces and nephew next week.
You're probably wondering why I brought my hobbies up and how that is in anyway relevant to losing weight... Well, it is! You see, by picking up some hobbies, it keeps both my hands and my mind occupied! If I'm not just sitting around doing nothing, I don't feel the need to be doing something which usually translates into eating. If I was just watching TV or playing WoW (World of Warcraft for you non-geek folk), I would feel the need to keep my hands occupied and that usually meant I was munching on something and likely that something was unhealthy. Now that I'm working on making jewelry or crocheting, I don't watch much TV and I haven't been playing WoW at all, which means that I'm eating less and not thinking about food - unless I'm actually hungry. It's great! I plan on making most of my Christmas gifts this year - which I've already started on.
If you're trying to lose weight, have you thought about picking up or have you already picked up a hobby? What hobby has worked for you?
I weighed in this past Monday and I had lost another 1.9 pounds. I felt the need to weigh myself again this morning and I've lost another pound since Monday. My total loss is now at 18.9 pounds. I'm getting so close to where I was before and close to my next reward milestone of 25 pounds (I really need to finish my reward chart...), which means I'll get a mani-pedi! I'm so excited! If I keep on track and continue to lose around two pounds a week, I'll reach my goal weight of 160 pounds by June 2014. I can't wait!
I've recently been thinking I should try for less than 160 pounds. I weighed 160 pounds in high school, but I didn't really have the best eating habits then, so I'm wondering if it'd be attainable to be somewhere between 140-150 pounds. For now, I think I'm going to leave my goal at 160 pounds and have a huge celebration when I make it to my goal and then go from there.
I have been keeping myself really busy as of late. Of course, my two kids keep me pretty occupied, but in addition to my kids, I have picked up a couple of hobbies. I have had a passion for beadwork and making jewelry since I was seven or eight-years-old, but I have since revived that passion and I hope to turn it into some additional income in the near future. I have been broadening my knowledge and learning new techniques in jewelry design and I love it! There are so many things that I never even thought of before, like mixing two seemingly unrelated hobbies together like beading and crocheting. The results are so neat! I've got a necklace on the go currently using the crocheting technique. Maybe I'll post a picture when it's complete. My primary knowledge sources for learning new techniques are Craftsy and Sheffield School. The Sheffield School is based out of New York City and offers an array of courses through correspondence. Once I've completed the six unit course, I'll receive a certificate in jewelry design, which I think is pretty neat. Craftsy is a website that offers many, many different crafting courses in various different fields. While the jewelry design course offered through Sheffield teaches many different techniques, the Craftsy classes each focus on a specific topic. Both are nice. Sheffield gives me the basics, which Craftsy allows me to go more in-depth into a particular technique.
Another hobby I've picked up recently is crocheting. When I was younger, I figured knitting and crocheting were old lady hobbies, but they're not! There's so many neat things you can make with crocheting! I taught myself how to crochet using YouTube! I started out by making square dishcloths. Since learning, I've made a blanket for my baby cousin and have started working on some Amigarumi stuffed birds. Here's what one of my birds looks like, though it's currently incomplete.
I have four birds that are only partially complete because I've been waiting for their eyes to come in the mail. Funny how neither WalMart nor Michaels carry the little, black plastic eyes... I ended up ordering them online, but they had to come from Hong Kong, so it took a while. I finally got them in the mail today, so I can finally complete my birds! They're going to be birthday gifts for my nieces and nephew next week.
You're probably wondering why I brought my hobbies up and how that is in anyway relevant to losing weight... Well, it is! You see, by picking up some hobbies, it keeps both my hands and my mind occupied! If I'm not just sitting around doing nothing, I don't feel the need to be doing something which usually translates into eating. If I was just watching TV or playing WoW (World of Warcraft for you non-geek folk), I would feel the need to keep my hands occupied and that usually meant I was munching on something and likely that something was unhealthy. Now that I'm working on making jewelry or crocheting, I don't watch much TV and I haven't been playing WoW at all, which means that I'm eating less and not thinking about food - unless I'm actually hungry. It's great! I plan on making most of my Christmas gifts this year - which I've already started on.
If you're trying to lose weight, have you thought about picking up or have you already picked up a hobby? What hobby has worked for you?
Thursday 1 August 2013
Finally going in the right direction...
This last week and a half, I feel, has been largely successful! I ate well and within my calorie budget and I exercised regularly. I typically try to weigh in on Mondays because the LoseIt! website bases its weeks from Monday through Sunday. From July 22 to this past Monday, I lost 3.4 pounds. I think that this is fantastic! I have LoseIt! set up for me to lose two pounds a week, so additional loss, to me, is wonderful! That puts my total back up to 16 pounds - five pounds short of my original 21 pound loss from earlier in the year. I expect that I will be back at that point within two weeks. I can't wait until this coming Monday so that I can weigh in again! Isn't that silly? I can't really say I know a lot of people who are excited to weigh themselves. But I am! There are days when I just want to go weigh myself to see how I'm doing, but I stop myself because weighing daily or even every couple days can spell disaster. Only four more days...
Today, being the start of a new month (can you believe that it's already August?!), I took my measurements. I forgot to take measurements in July, so I don't know if I've improved or not since I started for a second time. The last measurements I have are from March. Unfortunately, the numbers haven't improved from March, but that's alright. Nothing can dampen my spirits right now! I never did post my March measurements, so I'll list them now (for comparison):
Upper Arm: 14 inches (left) and 15 inches (right)
Forearm: 11.5 inches (left) and 11.5 inches (right)
Upper Thigh: 28 inches (left) and 29 inches (right)
Calf: 17.5 inches (left) and 17.5 inches (right)
Hips: 50.5 inches
Waist: 43.5 inches
Chest: 41 inches
Here are my measurements as of tonight:
Upper Arm: 15 inches (left) and 15 inches (right)
Forearm: 11.5 inches (left) and 11.5 inches (right)
Upper Thigh: 29 inches (left) and 30 inches (right)
Calf: 18 inches (left) and 18 inches (right)
Hips: 51 inches
Waist: 44 inches
Chest: 40 inches
On the positive side, at least the differences are within an inch of each other and not like five...
Exercising has been going great! I'm still walking regularly and I've been trying to add additional workouts to my routine - primarily weights and floor exercises. I've been going slow with the additional workouts because I just don't have the stamina and flexibility just yet - it's a work in progress and it'll only get better and easier as I go along. Right now I'm using an iPhone app (it is available for other SmartPhones as well) called Daily Workout (there are both free and paid versions - check it out here). I upgraded to the paid version which includes more features and exercises. I'm really enjoying it. I find it easier to commit to over a workout DVD because I can customize how long I do certain routines for. I will likely use my DVDs later, when I feel I am more in shape and can handle longer workout routines.
Walking, however, is fantastic! I still walk with my friend Ashlee. She is definitely a great motivator by getting my butt out the door as well as encouraging me to give it my all every time we go. We went for a 3.79 kilometer walk tonight around one of the nearby lakes. She kept cheering me on and as such, I made my best average time (according to RunKeeper) of 11:02 per kilometer. It beat my previous best average time by four seconds. It's a great feeling when you can see that you are improving. When we first started walking, I was closer to the 13 minute mark, so there's been huge improvement! We still plan to walk the West Side Hill at the end of August, so I'm going to need all the prep and improvement I can get before then!
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