Making A Come Back - Take Two

Since my last post I've been working out pretty consistently 3 times a week for 30 minutes at the YMCA I joined in January.  So my fitness come back has stuck!

My blogging come back not so much as you can tell.  I still enjoy blogging and think it will be beneficial to continue doing it but it seems that when I put pressure on myself to blog on a regular basis I avoid it like the plague.  Not really sure what's up with that.

So, my new "plan" is to not put that pressure on myself.  I'm just going to blog when I feel like it and have the time - which is hopefully at least a couple times a week.

But again, no pressure!

To catch you all up on what's been going on I'll give you the bulleted list for high lights.

• Fitness - 30 minutes 3 times per week all cardio.  This Wednesday (15th) I will be starting the Commit to Fit program at my Y.  I'll give you more information on that soon I hope.
• Nutrition - I've been eating and drinking whatever I want pretty much.  I've been employing the everything in moderation idea without the moderation part.  Definitely need to start focusing more on my nutrition to go along with my new fitness routine.
• Weight loss - The last time I stepped on the scale I lost 0.4 of a pound.  Not even a pound but it was better than gaining and it was a tiny step in the right direction.  Obviously adding 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week is not enough to see weight loss so I really need to start focusing on my nutrition.
• Sleep - I was doing really well at sleeping for at least 8 hours every night and then I had one crazy weekend where I went out 3 nights in a row and since then my sleeping has just been all messed up.  I've been staying up to watch shows I've recorded on the DVR and/or reading books on my Kindle.  I definitely need to get back to sleeping at least 8 hours every night so I can get back into a good routine in the morning of waking up when my alarm goes off instead of hitting the snooze button repeatedly.
• School - I'm also going to class 4 days a week (1 class per day) plus an online class.  Nothing really exciting worth reporting there.  I do need to start focusing on school a bit more during the week.  I really enjoy coming home and not having to do anything but I know that's not ideal for my grades and stress level so I'll be working on that too.

Not that I'm putting any pressure on myself (you got that self?) but I hope to provide you with more information about the Commit to Fit program I am starting Wednesday, ways that I'm changing my nutrition to help aid in the weight loss, and how I'm doing on changing my study and sleep habits (once again).

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Highlights of the Last Two Weeks

It's been two weeks since my last post and I honestly don't have a reason for why it has been so long.  Sure I am busy with school and work but what blogger isn't busy with life?  I know my life doesn't revolve around blogging, or it shouldn't, but I also want to put in a decent amount of effort into it.  I can't have a "journal" of my life to look back on if I don't post right?

Moving on to the highlights of the last two weeks...

October 29th one of my friends turned 21 so she had a birthday party at a local bar.  Costumes were welcomed so it also doubled as a Halloween party I guess.  I didn't put much effort into dressing up - a plaid shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots so I guess that means I was a cowgirl?  Like I said, not much effort went into that.

I considered going out at all a success in my book.  I haven't discussed this on my blog but since a breakup a year ago I haven't been very social.  It wasn't done purposefully but when you lose touch with those people you hung out with in high school and didn't really care because you had your boyfriend when you lose the boyfriend what are you left with?  Your family and yourself.  I'm definitely working on growing from this experience and breaking out of my shell to make new friends and meet new people.

I considered going out a success because there was only one other time I have gone out since the breakup in October of 2010.  Definitely room for improvement but I have to start some where and it's OK to start small.

The other big highlight to the last two weeks would have to be that Bo, our almost 6 month old puppy, started limping.  Today I took him to the vet and discovered that his elbow joint in his right front leg didn't form properly so his bones are rubbing on each other which is painful, or will be painful.  There is a surgical option but at this time we don't really know much about it because the vet said she would go with the other option for now.  That other option is anti-inflammatory medication and some chews that will help with joint health.  Bo will deal with this for the rest of his life but will be able to live a normal life for the most part.

Going into this I was scared that something would be seriously wrong with Bo and I wasn't sure how I would be able to handle that after going through something similar with Duke roughly 6 months ago.  If you missed what happened with Duke and want the story you can start with this post here, then read this post here, followed by this post, and finally this post.  I can't really go through it again because it makes me teary eyed still.  Duke is always in my heart and he won't be forgotten.

Sorry this post took a turn to the negative side.  Back to the positives, I went out to a party to meet up with friends and Bo while not 100% is going to be OK.

Tomorrow I will be running the same route I ran at the beginning of the semester.  Mission Accomplished! is the post I wrote about the first time I ran this route.  My goal for tomorrow is to beat my previous time of 19:07.  I haven't been "training" to do this but I have been more active that I was before I ran the route at the beginning of the semester so I think I can accomplish my goal.  Wish me luck!

I've got to study for a test for tomorrow night.  My goal is to do do better on this one than I did on the first class for this semester.

Do you ever consider something small as a success simply because it's a step in the right direction?

Are your pets simply pets or are they your fur-babies and are part of the family?

My Thought Process - Coming to Terms with my Purpose for Blogging

It's been a while since I've posted something here, mainly because I've been struggling with finding my purpose for blogging and what I want to blog about.

Do I want to be a food blogger?  I don't think so.  While I would like to document recipes I try or share something really delicious that I eat I don't know that I want to be toting a camera around to be taking pictures of food all the time.  Also, I'm not going to lie but I don't eat the healthiest right now so it doesn't seem like being a food blogger is the right thing for me to do.

On that same note I don't know that I could have a blog focused on fitness.  While this aspect of my life has been improving since starting a new semester of college my workouts are nothing exciting or worth blogging entirely about.

I keep coming back to the same general feeling about what my blog is - a journal of my life.

Is this a bad thing?  No, I don't think so but I do wonder if the people that read my blog enjoy it.  When I blog I do it for me but there is a part of me that wants people to enjoy reading what I post about.

Honestly, if I could have this blog be anything I want it to be it would be a documentation of how I went from the overweight college student to the healthy, happy, young adult in the "real" world - a success story.  Ideally someone would find this and be inspired, motivated, encouraged, whatever you want to say, that they can do what I've done.  But right now I haven't been succeeding in reaching my goals so this blog is just a journal of my life and doesn't seem like it is worth the time to read.

Can this be a journal of my life?  Yes!  But I want it to be a journal of my life on the road to a healthy lifestyle.  So I guess that means I need to step it up and start doing things that are on the road to this healthy lifestyle.

Writing this out has been helpful - I have now put the thoughts in my head into an actual pattern that makes sense.  If you get nothing out of reading this that's ok with me because I got something out of writing it.

Here's what I got out it...
1. Start doing! - Instead of talking/writing about the things I need to do just do it...and then write about it.
2. It is what you make of it - My blog can be a journal of my life to a healthy lifestyle if I make it one.  By doing #1 I will be able to make this blog what I want it to be.

If you stuck around to read this whole thing, congratulations - you've reached the end!

Questions for you...

If you blog how did you decide what your purpose would be?

Ever struggle with blogging?  If so, how did you get out of that "funk"?

Ramblings In My Head

I would love to be posting the second part to my camping weekend but while at work I'm unable to upload pictures from my camera.  So here's a little something to hold you over until I get the post written up with pictures.

First of all Bo is on my mind.  He has sooo much energy lately and he's using it in the wrong way.  He's been biting my fingers, hands, and arms a lot lately.  I barely get him to let go and he's back at it again.  I've tried to hold his mouth closed and say "no bite" in a strong voice but that doesn't seem to be working.  I am open to suggestions!  I know he's just a puppy but seriously, I try to play with him using his toys that he is allowed to chew/bite on but of course he goes for my hand/arm instead of the toy I'm holding.  He does have a bone which he'll chew on it for a little bit but then seems to lose interest and is back to my hand/arm.  It's getting frustrating and makes me want to not be around him.  It's also frustrating to my brother who is home alone with him during the day so there is no escaping Bo.  My dad doesn't seem to have this problem, not sure what's different about him.  And my mom doesn't get on the floor to play with him a lot because of this problem we've been having.  There has to be a happy medium between Bo sleeping and being (as we call him) a terrorist dog.  What are you suggestions for teaching a puppy that people are not acceptable toys to chew/bite on?

Next thing on my mind is overtime.  My department is in a big collections push as a result of a big billing push.  Basically because the billing department has been told to "bill, bill, bill" for cash flow reasons, my department (credit/collections) is now being told to "collect, collect, collect".  I'm not opposed to the overtime pay, and it's not that I don't have enough work to fill my time, but it makes for long hours at the office.  Yesterday I worked 8.5 hours by only taking a half hour for my lunch break but wow was it ever a long day.  It took until 4pm to get into a rhythm on the project I was working on.  So, until 4pm the day seemed to drag by.  I put a post-it note over the time on my phone because it sits right next to my computer screen which means I constantly glance at it.  I even put papers over the clock radio that sits slightly behind me and is not in my direct line of sight.  When I can't look at the time the day goes by a little bit better.  If you follow me on Twitter you probably thought I was crazy when I posted a picture of my post-it note on my phone last week but I do it so I don't go crazy.  Do you ever have to work overtime for your job?  If so, how do you get through the long days?

And finally the last thing on my mind (but not on the bottom of the list of importance) is fitness.  I haven't been doing any sort of activity, unless you count walking around the yard so Bo goes to the bathroom.  Tonight, despite the scorching heat, I will be going for a walk.  I don't care how it gets done, with Bo and my parents, with just Bo, or alone but it will get done!  I've weighed Bo twice by holding him in my arms while on the scale, and then weighing myself alone on the scale.  While it's not the scale I usually use to weigh in and I didn't record my weight I still did not like what I saw.  Time and time again I say I'm going to kick my butt into gear to lose this excess weight but time and time again I'm not actually doing anything more than thinking about what I should be doing.  News flash to self you won't lose weight by only thinking  about what you should be doing, you need to actually do it!

There you have it, the ramblings that are going on in my head right now.  I'll be posting the second part to my camping weekend (with pictures!) soon and hopefully not too far down the road I'll be posting my Country Fest 2011 recap (with pictures!) too.

Help...Please?

If you recall earlier this month I talked about my plans with my friend Sami to bike this summer at least 1/2 times a week together and work our way up to a round trip ride to town from my house (probably about 30 miles).  If not and you would like to read about it and our first ride together you can find it here.

It's now been over a week since our ride and I haven't gone again.  I should have gone alone or asked my dad to go with me over the weekend but I didn't.

Sami and I were supposed to ride together again last Wednesday after I was done with work.  Unfortunately I was coming down with a cold so I wasn't feeling well and decided to leave work 2 hours early that day.  I cancelled our ride.

I should have ridden yesterday as I was feeling pretty good by then but I didn't.

I should ride tonight but as I mentioned in my last post (read it here) I have a lot of work to get done to finish up my speech class.  And oh by the way it's all late so not getting it done tonight (if possible) is not an option.

So, what does this all mean?  Tomorrow when Sami comes over to ride with me it's going to be hell because it's been over a week since I rode last.  Maybe this will teach me a lesson about committing to riding consistently? ;) I can hope!

I'm not going to dwell on the fact that this past week hasn't gone as I thought it would.  I am just going to look ahead and take each day as it comes and do what I can to prevent a repeat.

I still need to come up with some sort of plan for the summer.  The first ride was 8.71 miles.  I'm wondering if that was too much right away?  Obviously Sami and I want to be able to safely ride 30 miles by the end of the summer.  I've never come up with a "training" plan on my own before so I am at a complete loss of where to even begin.

Help...please?

I'm finally cool like all of you!!

It's been a long time since I've been on a bike but thanks to a friend from high school, Sami, I'll be riding a bike on a regular basis this summer.  Yesterday while at work I was working hard browsing Facebook on my phone and I came across Sami's status which she said her plan was to ride her bike at least 5 days a week this summer and lose 40 pounds by her birthday.  After leaving a comment about how she should come to my house because I would ride with her I used Facebook to get her phone number so I could text her about really following through on this idea of getting together.

The plan was hatched to meet at my house today after I was home from class.  I had mapped out some routes around my house we could try but when we were actually were ready to leave my house the plan(s) went out the window.  Who needs a plan when you can just fly by the seat of your pants?

Thanks to my free Cardiotrainer app our route was mapped as we went and it was timed.  Thanks to this awesome app I can now be cool like all of you and post mile splits and other work out information on my blog!  Yes, I was really excited when this thought crossed my mind as I was reviewing the stats from my work out.

8.71 miles in 1:00:18

Mile 1: 6:16

Mile 2: 7:20

Mile 3: 5:36

Mile 4: 6:19

Mile 5: 7:07

Mile 6: 5:57

Mile 7: 8:19

Mile 8: 7:38

Average pace 6:55 min/mi

Using this app was awesome! This app automatically pauses your work out when you stop moving, awesomesauce!  Between miles 1 and 2 there was in my terms a hill.  Was there really?  No, according to the elevation report there was only a slight change but not enough for it to really be something.  There were also other little hills along the route which you can see from the slower mile splits.  It's amazing how in a car, or even walking, I wouldn't notice these "hills" but biking boy oh boy do I notice them!  I'm sure as the summer goes on and my legs become better conditioned I won't notice them as much.

The only thing I want to change for next time is the bikes we used.  Because of my plans I thought we would be riding on the gravel roads around my house so we used the mountain bikes.  But while flying by the seat of our pants we decided to just stay on the black top roads and just do out and back trips rather than round trips.  My family has a few old road bikes so those will definitely be used next time.

Sami and I rewarded ourselves for our hard work with a piece of the cake I baked the other night.  Recipe coming soon?  As we were enjoying our reward we planned out when we could get together the next three weeks.  We're going to get together again on Wednesday the 11th, Tuesday the 17th, and Sunday the 22nd.  After that we're probably only going to be able to get together on the weekends because I will be working 8-5 Monday-Friday and she works at 6 every night.  But getting together with her on the weekends is better than not at all.  Our goal for the end of summer is to be able to ride to town and back to my house.  Based on the one route I mapped out for this goal trip it will be roughly 30 miles total.

I plan on asking my dad if he would like to ride with me a couple of times a week because lets face it, riding alone with no one to talk to is boring and I can't rely on only riding with Sami if I want to be able to ride 30 miles by the end of summer without dying.  I'm not sure when my next ride will be.  Tomorrow the weather looks amazing, 63*F and sunny, but I'm not sure riding back to back days will be a good idea.  Saturday would be my ideal day to ride, a day of rest in between rides, but the weather is looking to be less than ideal,  61*F with a few showers (30% chance of rain).  Decisions decisions.  Guess I shouldn't talk myself out of riding on Saturday, I mean I rode this afternoon and it was cold, cloudy, and windy and I did just fine.

Well that's my big news for today.  I'll be biking this summer with my new work out buddy!

Question...

Anyone interested in helping me devise a biking plan for the summer??  Leave me a comment if you are!

Until next time...

How I Got Where I Am Today & Facing the Music

I have a horrible habit that needs to be changed.  Every night I set my alarm for a decent time to wake up that will give me plenty of time to get ready for school or work and have time to eat breakfast along with anything else I might want to do before heading out the door.  And every morning I hit the snooze button repeatedly.  This morning for instance, my cell phone alarm was set for 6:50a and my iHome alarm was set for 7a so my intention was to get up at 7.  I woke up for the first alarm, and snoozed it 3 times which I had planned for.  Now between the 2nd and 3rd snooze of the cell phone alarm my iHome alarm went off meaning I should get out of bed but if not my last cell phone alarm will be my final call.  That didn't happen.  I ended up snoozing my iHome alarm until it was 7:30!!  Now by no means was I late for anything as I don't have class until 11a today but I had wanted to get up at 7 to work on reading for the class I have later in the day or preparing the speech I need to record and submit.  I've done neither :-/ From 7:30-8 I laid in bed reading blogs (they're addicting!!) and then finally at 8 I figured I needed to get out of bed.  I didn't use my morning as I had planned to but I did weigh in, something I needed to do, and write this entry, which I definitely didn't need to do this morning.

It's been 53 days since the last time I weighed myself...probably because I know I haven't been putting in the effort to lose weight and I didn't want to face the music.  I put my big girl panties on and dealt with it though.  I needed to see the damage that my lack of effort and dedication did.

A gain of only 2.2lbs in the big picture isn't THAT bad.  But to me it's bad.  When I initially made the decision to lose weight it was June of 2009 and I was at my highest weight of 179.5lbs.  I lost weight that summer, my lowest being 172lbs.  Not a huge loss but it was progress in the right direction and I was happy with it.

And then it was all downhill (or back up the hill) from there.  Another semester of college started, I gave in to the temptation of having Mountain Dew at school just because it was available to me, I was eating unhealthy food for lunch due to a large break between classes, and I wasn't exercising as much if at all.  By the end of October I was back up to 179lbs but quickly moved back in the right direction, by 11/13/09 I was back down to 175.3lbs.  But then I "fell off the wagon"...I stopped weighing in once a week so I wasn't able to see what my actions were doing to my body.  It wasn't until 1/2/10 that I stepped on the Wii Fit again and what it told me wasn't good.  I weighed 182.5lbs, a gain of 7.2lbs since 11/13/09!  A new highest weight, not something I had ever wanted to say.

My weight has been like a yo-yo since then going up and down, up and down.  Not a lot just a pound or two here and there but eventually the weight started going up more than it was going down.  I wasn't staying around the same weight any more.  First it was 184, then I found myself at 185, then 186, 187, and finally at 188 which is where I am at now.

In 2009 when I had lost some weight I didn't notice a difference in my body.  Now as I've put on some weight I've noticed a huge difference in my body.  I used to only have stretch marks on my hips, the love handles.  Now I have stretch marks there as well as my stomach on the left and right sides of my belly button just below it.  When I lay on my back my hip bones no longer stick out, there's too much fat in the way for that to happen.  I can no longer "suck it in" and make my stomach appear flat.  If I knew what would happen to my body in 2009 I would like to think I would have worked harder to keep the progress going, or at the very least not let my weight become worse than it was but of course hindsight is 20/20.

So now what??  As much as I dislike what my body has become you would think I would be out there hitting the gym or working out at home all the time, eating healthier foods, cutting out Mountain Dew but is that what I'm doing?  Honestly, no.  I try to cut Mountain Dew out and I do well during the week when I'm at work all day but with school I again am tempted to buy a bottle from the vending machine to enjoy during my 2.5 hour long class twice a week and on the weekends when I am lounging around with nothing to do but homework I think about how good one would taste so I cave and have one, or two, or three (yes I seriously did that Sunday).  I've hit the gym once in three months and haven't been back since.  Should I go today after class?  Definitely!  But I have a 3-4 minute speech I have to write and record by the end of the day so am I tempted to not work out?  For sure!  Excuses is what it is.  Do I want to lose the weight or not??  By my actions you would think no but by my feelings towards my body you would definitely think so.

So how do I get myself moving in the right direction again?  How do I get myself to commit and keep that commitment?  Tough questions...ones that I haven't found the answers to yet :(