Trying To Find The Road Not Taken

Saturday my super cool sister in law came down and presented at our house, a Body Shop at Home party. Kelly and I were the hosts. We decided to do the “Spa Day” theme, which means basically, we get to soak our feet, try on body butters, lotions, a little make up and chill out and relax.

It was much needed after recovering from this whole back issue. I was worried my back wouldn’t be in good enough shape to participate but I was pretty mobile. We had a lot of great laughs, played around with products and ate some delicious food.

As host I was able to clean up on quite a bit of products, so when it all comes in I’ll take a pic. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not a real “girlie-girl” but this stuff is good quality and makes your skin feel wonderful, and who can say no to that. Now if only our place had some incredible hot tub. Next home…

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted. By the way, Happy New Years everyone.

Post Christmas, I took off the 28th of December through January 1st. Woohoo! 5 days off. On Day #2 I bent down to pick up a very heavy grocery bag and twisted to put it in the cart and herniated a disk in my back.

I freaked out, because I’ve had this happen before and know what it entails. I managed to get to the car and assess whether or not I could drive home. I made it home went inside and laid down on the floor. 5 days I spent horizontal. I probably would have went to a doctor on Monday, but I figured with the holiday the next day, just getting some well needed rest would do the job. Read the rest of this entry »

As most know, I need to lose weight and have been intermittently working on it for a while. I’ve recently started working with a nutritionist. Craig is seeing an integrative medicine doctor, who has prescribed a gluten-free diet for a month to clear his system. I’ve also been following James‘ progress over FIT, it helps keep me motivated.

I also saw my OBGYN two weeks ago. I asked her about Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, since there are quite a few of the symptoms I’ve had over my life. Some of the symptoms have gone away while others are minor in my life still. If I do have PCOS, it could explain a lot, and could also cause problems when we try to have children. I need to go have a simple blood test done to find out, which I have the paper work for.

While there I also asked her about my weight over the years. I started seeing her when I was 14, because my period came every 2 weeks for a month and half and then stopped coming for almost 3 months. They had all my paper work back to the beginning.

• 135 lbs at 14 yo
• 157 lbs at 15 yo
• 187 lbs at 19 yo

I was pretty shocked to see I had gained over 20 lbs in a year! I don’t remember much from back then, a lot was going on. I do remember my weight from 19 on.

• 173 lbs at 20 yo
• 192 lbs at 21 yo
• 205 lbs at 22 yo
• 211-215 lbs at 28 yo

I’m trying to look back now and see where things went wrong, or went right. The drop at 20 years old, I was really happy doing seminars, taking classes, exercising with Craig that summer. Then my Dad passed away and I stopped eating, again dropping weight. But a few weeks later I started at a new college, where I dormed, was massively stressed out, and didn’t think, pizza or salad, I choose pizza, chinese take out, subway, and anything else that came in the form of take out.

I’m still trying to get past being angry that I’m even here or dealing with this. Which I know is stupid and I really need to accept it, move on and start making change. Also trying to be patient, which is something I have never been very good at. I want it and I want it now. Yah I was a brat as a kid.

From the Secret and CorrieHaffly’s blog, I need to start a gratitude journal and start appreciating and accepting where I’m at, the positives that are here. I have the knowledge, a gym membership around the corner from our home, a husband who wants to eat healthy too, family that’s supportive, a job with no cafeteria to tempt or vending machines.

I wonder if I can program a “You Can Do It, Believe In Yourself” to pop up on my screen every few hours.

Back to journaling my food, making it to the gym at least 3 times a week, drinking more fluids and being positive

Tonight I went and met with my trainer. We did a slightly different work out from the last time. This time we focused more on my upper body.

• 10 minutes on elliptical
• 5 minutes on the track
• upper body free weights, 4lb weights
• machine upper body workout
• stair case x3
• upper body free weights, 4lb weights
• machine upper body workout
• crunches, sets of 15 and 20 x2
• reverse crunches set of 10 x4
• 15 minutes on crossramp

It was an intense but good work out for an hour. I’m amazed at how much clearer I feel and think afterwards. Now I just need a kick in the ass to go more regularly.

For me I keep waiting for Craig to get me motivated but right now I think it’s going to need to be the other way around.

I’m hoping next week to try skiing again and get some hiking in.

I can remember back as far as 4th grade and my Mom saying, “did you drink anything today?” when I’d get home from school, and I’d answer “no just the box of milk”.

Getting water in has always been a challenge for me. I do better when it’s ice cold and preferably some lemon or lime in it. Over at James’ FIT blog, I was reading how much water he was taking in 112 oz a day. Meanwhile if I get 16 oz in a day, that’s a good day.

He suggested 8 x 8 oz glasses of water a day plus another 8 oz per 20 lbs over weight. Doing the math that comes out to 104 oz a day for me. I need to get working. I’ve read this before, specifically on a bike forum, and I’ve also read where if you keep your water in take up, it will help your metabolic rate from dropping.

I’ve got a 32 oz Nalgene bottle at work. I’m going to try setting a timer to in the Dashboard to remind me to drink water.

Tonight was my first time going to the gym and working out with a trainer. I set a time of 7:30 to go, guaranteeing work could not throw it off, or any other unforeseen events.

I met with my trainer, we went over why I want to lose weight, what are my goals, how seriously am I taking this. It was good.

We then went and used the elliptical trainer for 15 minutes. I’ve never used one before… wow that kicks your butt and gets the heart rate up and moving pretty quick. At that point my HR was up 150-157 bpm. We then moved onto taking a jog around the track, and then onto lunges on the mats. I did pretty well, except my knees were bothering me with lunges, they always have.

Next we did squats with the physio ball, then up and down the stairs in the place. I only could do that 3 times before my legs wanted to give out.

Back to the mat, and we did free weights for the arms. Then lunges with a weight ball where I twisted holding it out front. Then crunches on one of those half a ball things. Then back down to this thing that was like an elliptical but more running style for 10 minutes, then the treadmill for 10 minutes and then we cooled off doing a walk around the track.

It was a full hour. My trainer was great and I really enjoyed the time with her and learned a bit too. She said I was really good with form, so that’s a plus. My goal is to get back there tomorrow night and continue the routine.

I’ve been half-heartedly trying to be a morning person for a while. Craig wakes up with no issues at 5am. I on the other hand would rather sleep to 10am.

I do best when a beam of sunlight is coming in a window on to my face and voila, I’m awake and feel great. Our bedroom though is dark, has one window, a slider, that opens up to the parking lot below. We don’t leave the drapes open since I don’t want to slide out of bed and say hello the entire neighborhood.

When we’ve gone camping in the past, I’m up and at it, around 4:30-5:00 am, I usually feel good after a few minutes, I typically deal with stress better through out the day. I feel well rested in the evening and I sleep very sound.  So I’m trying to figure out how to bring this into my daily life. I’ve got 4 alarms going off and I still don’t get up. There’s got to be a way!

One thing I am going to try which I haven’t so far is easing into stepping back my wake up time. I’ve been going from 7am to 5:15am, and my body is not responding well. So over this week, I’m going to try for 6:30am wake up time. And for my own record, wake up, meaning getting my bumm out of bed.

I’ll post again on Friday with a progress report.

Technorati Tags:Health, Morning Person, Sleep

Tonight I am going to the local gym to look into membership. I’ve never really thought of myself as a gym person. My body frustrates me and gets in my way these days.

Reasons for joining a gym:

-My work hours can be irregular
- Daylight is disappearing
- Can’t make the excuse of the weather
- Both treadmills at our apartment complex are broken for months now
- No room for a home gym

Goals:
- Go at least 4 times a week at first
- Bring work out clothes with me to work and go straight there after work

Technorati Tags:Health, Gym