Rambling, and a WIW

I know I haven’t exactly been keeping up with this blog or with my fitness at all. I always told myself that if my clothes started fitting a bit snugly that that is when I would reevaluate. WELL, here I am reevaluating. I don’t wanna buy new pants, ya know? :)

Since I clearly don’t know how to have a normal relationship with food yet (something still isn’t there in my brain), I have gone back to calorie counting on Lose It. The months that I didn’t do it were really really great, but not so great for my belly. I know how to calorie count and I know that it works for me. I’ve made my goals a little bit slower though, so I can ease back into this whole thing.

I set a mini goal for myself to work out at least twice a week. It’s definitely not much compared to how I used to be, but I want to see if I can find a good balance between health and my other hobbies. The way it was before was all health all the time, and I think I can make this work more long term if I am not so all-or-nothing.

So I did a Jillian session last night, and it sucked and I couldn’t lift my arms to shampoo my hair afterwards. But clearly I lived and it’ll get easier. I haven’t fallen all the way back yet.

I can’t promise that I will be posting regularly, but I am going to try to check in. And if I can manage weigh-ins again, that would be cool too.

WIW: 153
Previous weight: low 140s.

I am eating too much.

I am eating too many bad things.

I am not exercising as much as I’d like to be.

I am now putting away the food and putting in the Jillian.

I feel guilty for not posting here and then sort of showing up whenever I feel like it, but I guess that’s sort of the nature of where I’m at right now. I feel like I have zero free time and I have so many freelance projects that I am just overwhelmed. 

But, I did this before — I lost so much weight. I can certainly rein it back. But I just don’t want to calorie count again. Why can’t I do it without calorie counting?

Tonight, I did my first Jillian video in months.

And I totally kicked that chick’s ass.

… Sorry, what?

Oh, yeah. I must have had that backwards. WHOOPS

(so…much…muscle…shaking…)

Q:I don't have heart rate monitor and I was wondering how many calories I would burn in the Jillian videos? I know it depends on your weight and I am about 20 pounds heavier than you. Would I burn more or less if I don't phone it in?

Anonymous

Hi there! The amount of calories burned during a workout really varies from person to person. The best estimate that I can give you for one of her 30 minute videos (30 Day Shred or Ripped in 30) would probably be around 300-400 calories. If you work harder and push yourself, you will burn more. If you phone it in, you will burn less. 

Oh, hey

I went running last night. The other thing I did last night was remember how much I don’t like running! I had all of the same physical issues that I always had when running. Tight throat, cramp behind my shoulder blade, weak ankles. Despite all that though, it felt nice to work out. I haven’t worked out, really, in months. That sort of sucks.

I have been telling myself that I am maintaining, but I can feel myself slipping into some bad habits. Some old habits. Some bad relationships with food. I don’t want to calorie count again at this point in time, so I am hoping that I will be able to curb my overeating without it. I need to reverse my tendency to ignore the rational part of my brain. 

I’m not totally sure how I’m going to do that at this point.

I haven’t weighed myself lately, but I think that I am probably somewhere around 145-150. Not too far off from where I was, but I want to nip this in the bud, if I can. I guess I need to figure out what the real reason is for my weird food relationship, and try to address it. 

How have you all been?

I haven’t had much fitness news to update with, but I thought I’d pop in and mention that I just got my Lose It badge for having logged my calories every day for an entire year! GO ME!
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I haven’t had much fitness news to update with, but I thought I’d pop in and mention that I just got my Lose It badge for having logged my calories every day for an entire year! GO ME!

Q:Do you have any idea where can I get "The 30 Day Shred". I'm a new follower of yours and I read your blog and you said that that's a great way to start with the exercises. Is it for free? I don't really have the money to buy it on Amazon though. T_T

Anonymous

Hi! I’m sure there are less-than-savory means you could use to get your hands on this video. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any of them. :( It’s not free, but it’s only like $8 on Amazon or something! I dunno your life, but that’s like one lunch out for me. Is there anywhere you could cut back for a super short amount of time to scrounge up the $8?

Q:I've recently decided to lose weight. I'm at your HW, and struggling to find a good pattern. How did you start out in the beginning of your journey? Such as calorie intake, managing cravings, and most importantly working out! I find it difficult to find the perfect way to work my body without draining every ounce of energy I have. I'm not fit at all! Any tips?

Anonymous

Okay! Let me say that you have to be mentally ready and committed for this to work.  Don’t feel prepared to eat less food or eat better food? Not feeling ready to exercise regularly? Hoping that this process is going to be short?

If you said yes to any of those, you’re probably not mentally committed to losing the weight.

Going from eating excessively to eating a normal amount or a reduced calorie diet was the toughest part for me. I wanted to eat all of the things! I kept myself in check though by counting calories on LoseIt.com. If you go on the website (or any similar one, like MyFitnessPal) and enter your stats as well as your goal weight, it will calculate daily calorie intake for you.

As far as managing cravings? I didn’t, really. I allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted, but within reason! I used to get a ton of candy at a time when I would go to the convenience store. I’d get a chocolate bar, a bag of gummies, and a sweetened iced tea. That’s a ton of calories, especially because I’d eat them all together… Instead of doing that, find better options or just eat less. If I want candy now, I go for Pretzel M&Ms (150 cal/pack) or Sweet Tarts (150 cal/stick). If you need chocolate, just have a few squares or something.

Okay - working out. It’s not totally necessary for weight loss if you are really being careful about food. I like exercise though because it gives me a little bit of wiggle room in the food area. I started out by doing (and still do) Jillian Michaels videos because of how short they are. The 30 Day Shred is a good start for anyone that wants to get an awesome burn in ~25 minutes. I did that once a day for the full 30 days and continued to use her videos after that. It was awful in the beginning! I had to stop the videos multiple times to catch my breath and I felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel. I kept plugging along though, mostly because I wanted to finish the challenge of doing it for 30 days. But the results show up fast, and once they do, you can grab a hold of those and use them as your motivation instead.

Don’t give up! Get your family and friends involved. Not only for support, but to keep you accountable. Best of luck to you!

One Year

365 days ago, I made my first Tumblr weight loss post on my older weight loss blog. It consisted of measurements, a weigh in, and a food diary. No discussion about how I did, where I wanted to go, whatever. Just a bare bones fact entry. I weighed 182 pounds. A year later, today, I weigh 142. It didn’t take me the whole year to lose the weight, but it did take me a whole year to become the woman I’ve always hoped I could be, both physically and mentally.

I don’t want to wax too poetic here, cause this blog has been about FUN amidst learning and hard work. I just want to say thank you to all of you that have been around me and supporting me and inspiring me and keeping me in line. You Tumblr folks are some of the most fantastic people I have ever had the privilege of getting to know.

In case you were curious, here’s what I ate a year ago today.

breakfast: stale dry cheerios
lunch: grilled stuffed burrito (tbell) and broccoli salad
dinner: bread and butter, mahi mahi, sweet potato fries, steamed veggies
dessert: a few spoonfuls of ice cream

On that day, I also did my first 30 Day Shred! It was the start of a long and complicated relationship with Jillian Michaels.

I love you all and hope you find or have found the same success and sense of community that I did.

Routine

My life has settled into a nice routine lately. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave me with very many new things to update this blog with.

Most days I get up a bit early to take and make posts about my nails for that day. Then I go to work, where I eat my usual food, I go home, do a workout video, do my nails (yes again, I’m doing a 31 day challenge! http://chalkboardnails.tumblr.com), shower, TV, sleep.

I’m eating a few hundred cals below maintenance, so I’m seeing only very slow loss, if any at all. It’s hard to say though, I only weigh myself every few weeks.

Overall, I feel good and healthy. I am happy! I just feel weird about posting so infrequently on here now.

I love all of you and am happy to read about how much ass you have been kicking lately.

Stay amazing!