Not Much To Share

No entries for a while - I guess I haven't had anything to say. I had an entry idea kicking around in my head a week or two ago, but I didn't have time to work on it. It was about how it seems like I get hot easier now? And I'm not sure if that's a result of starting to workout, or if I'm approaching menopause age (41, not too young), or what. And then the weather cooled down to the 50s, and I stopped getting sweaty just walking around, so that idea isn't even pertinent anymore. :)

Things are coasting along pretty well, I guess. I have been horrible with my food - eating a ton of junk that I don't need. I've kept up the exercising, though. I couldn't go to the gym on Monday, because I forgot to put socks in my gym bag (I thought I would be wearing a pair, but then I wore flats that don't require socks), and I can't workout without socks, eww, gross. But I went home and used our treadmill, which sucks so I only did 11 minutes on it, and then I finished my time on the exercise bike. So at least I did still get my heart rate up and made myself sweat. I need to find my strength for the food, though. The junk has to go.

Really, what I need to do is make myself use the Spark People site again. I haven't been doing that, because I'm so sick of recording every little thing I eat. I might need to just suck it up, though.

I also need to start working out on Tuesdays and Thursdays at home. I haven't done that at all yet. I'm kind of ashamed of myself. (And that is why going to the gym the other three days is so important.)

So that's all the diet and exercise news I have to share, and it's really not much. :) Other than that, life is going fine, I guess. Work isn't being fun, and I really think I missed my calling in life big time. I should be working as a veterinary technician, or at least working in a vet office in some capacity. Animals are my passion - what I'm doing now isn't really even an interest. So that's something to work on changing in the future. For now, though, I feel kind of stuck where I am. I keep telling myself that I'm lucky to have a job. That makes me feel better sometimes (just not on those bad days).

Okay, boring entry over. Now you probably wish I'd stayed silent. :)

Perseverance...And a Cat Story for Sarah

I have two stories for you today. The first is a story of perseverance in the face of exhaustion. The second is a cat story, brought to you by my cat, Zelda, my fiance, Jim, and Sarah's wish for "pictures of the animal-kids." :)

First up, perseverance!

I was tired yesterday. I went to bed a bit late the night before (for me), at about 10:10. I was woken up at 5:00 by Jim tromping down the stairs, and couldn't get back to sleep. You may think that roughly 6 1/2 hours of sleep (figuring I was asleep by 10:30) would be enough - you'd be wrong. I do NOT fare well on less than seven hours of sleep, and frankly I really need a complete eight to be happy and awake all day.

Anyway, I worked all day, and just felt tired and drained the whole time. I left work at 4:00 and went to the gym, and I got on the elliptical. I programmed it for my normal 30 minutes, but then my mind started working. Some of the thoughts that went through my head during the time I spent on the elliptical:

"I should have just done 20 minutes today."

"Okay, I'm 20% done. Unless I only do 20 minutes instead of 30, and then I'm really 30% done."

"I'm 40% done. Unless I only do 20 minutes, and then I'm really 60% done!"

"Okay, I passed 20 minutes. I guess I'm doing the whole 30 minutes now. Sigh."

The updates in my head actually occurred at every 10% interval, but you get the idea. I was tired, it was hard, but I pushed through and did the whole 30 minutes, plus a five minute cool down. Woo! Then I did my resistance training, and then I limped home and barely managed to stay awake until 9:00. I think I was sleeping by 9:15. :)

*****

Okay, now here is the story for Sarah.

This is my cat, Zelda:


Well, it's her face, anyway. :)

My cats all stay inside - there are a lot of dangers in the outside world, and people go tearing down the road in front of my house at 65mph+, and since I have a very large desire to not scrape my dead cats off the side of the road, they stay inside. Well, yesterday Jim had the window open in the living room, because it was a nice day. He came into the room and noticed one of the screens had popped out and was outside - and then he noticed that the reason that screen was popped out was because Zelda must have leaned on it, and fallen outside. She was outside!

As happy as he would have been to just let her go, he loves me more than he dislikes cats, so he chased her around the house for about an hour, until he finally caught her when she ran under the front porch stairs. He grabbed her through the front of the steps and brought her inside.

Silly Zelda. I hugged Jim and thanked him for catching her, and I told Zelda to keep her chubby butt away from my window screens. Here's hoping she listens to me.

Back in the Saddle

I got back to working out on Wednesday. I didn't go full speed on that day, because I was still pretty low energy from being sick, but at least I got there and got it done! Then I went back this afternoon, even though I was wishing to just go home. I'm glad I went, though. I worked out much harder, got my heart rate up about 10-15 beats more per minute, and really felt like I was accomplishing something. I worked up a good sweat, did my resistance training, and then left with that exercise high.

And the best part - while I'm working out, I just KNOW that I'm going to be successful this time. Working out is the key. :)

357 days!

Wedding Countdown!

I woke up this morning dreaming about our wedding next year. I don't remember a lot of details, but I seemed to be stressing about the food - Jim is ordering Dinosaur BBQ, but what about the people who don't like that? Shouldn't we have burgers and hot dogs to cook on the grills, too?

First, isn't it awfully damn early to be stressing about details in a wedding that is going to be about the most low key wedding ever? I mean, damn.

Second, it may be too early to stress about wedding details, especially for a wedding that is going to be very short on "wedding" and longer on "fun," but it is NOT too early to stress about making my weight goal. So I added a handy dandy little timer to my sidebar. It's going to be there to remind me of how fast that wedding date is going to come!

Today is my first day back to the gym after being sick for the last week. It's also my first day back to counting calories on SparkPeople. I was good at working out before I got sick, but I haven't been doing good with food at all! It's time for that to change. This is one weight goal I don't want to miss!

And for further inspiration, I'm posting a before picture! Eek! Jim's Dad took the following picture of me with my new car, shortly after I got it. I'm aiming to be much slimmer than this by 9/10/11! Like, 90 pounds slimmer. :)

Sidelined by the Ick

Not long after I wrote my last post, I started feeling sick, and I'm just now starting to feel good again. I hate being sick!

I think this started out as a small bout of tonsillitis. I'm not sure, since I didn't go to the doctor, but I am prone to tonsillitis because of small craters that I have in my tonsils (I call them tonsil pockets) - spit and small particles of food get stuck in the pockets, and if they don't get rinsed out, they grow bad things. I try to gargle regularly to keep this down, but it still happens.

Anyway, the throat started feeling better, and then I had to go outside to go to lunch last Thursday, and it was wet and cold and just miserable. And then after lunch I had to stand outside having a meeting about signage for a new concession stand. And while I was out there, I felt my chest tightening up, and it was all downhill since then. Friday I started out okay, but got worse and worse as the day went on. Saturday I was okay to start, but felt crappy at the end of the day. Sunday I spent completely in my PJs, and mostly in bed. I slept 14 hours Sunday night! And then yesterday I still felt like crap, so I stayed home and spent the day taking Dayquil (thanks to Jim for getting it for me) and inhaling as much steam as I could while taking a hot shower.

Today I finally feel better, yay! I'm still getting rid of some congestion, but my chest doesn't feel all tight with it anymore, and I no longer have that "sick" feeling. Thank goodness!

Of course, with all this illness over the last week, my exercising has been completely sidelined. I haven't worked out since the 3rd! I just didn't think it was a good idea to go workout when I felt so bad that just walking across the house could tire me out. :) But I'll be going back tomorrow.

I'm glad to be going back, too. My wedding is less than a year away now! It was a year from last Friday, so I'm counting down now. I have 361 days, and that's plenty of time to lose what I want to lose, but only if I do the work! And the work resumes tomorrow. :)

The State Fair Killed Me

I've been working out for three weeks at this point. Apparently, though, when you're as overweight as I am, three weeks isn't enough to make you able to walk around the New York State Fair for 3 1/2 or 4 hours without drastic consequences.

So yeah, Jim and I went to the State Fair on Sunday. We got there early (before the crowds). We walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. And sat and watched a draft horse competition (how they get six horses to work in unison on something so difficult is beyond me). And walked some more. And more. And more walking yet. We also ate inappropriate things, including one thing you can only find at a state fair - deep fried Twix bars, anyone? (My verdict - I would have rather skipped the batter and deep frying, and just eaten the Twix bar in its normal form, and I won't be repeating the experience.) But mostly we walked.

We left the fair and went to the mall for even more walking, but we were only there 45 minutes or so, I'd guess. Then we went to his parents' house and sat, and then we went home. By the time we got home, we were both wiped OUT. I actually took pillows and laid down on one of the futons and just didn't move again. When Jim got up, I asked him to bring me a blanket (it was chilly that day). He did. And then I finally did move, but only to the bedroom to watch a show on the DVR while laying in bed. I was crashed out.

I woke up yesterday feeling okay - sore, but not too bad. And then I moved the lawn. I have just over an acre, and on my riding mower it takes about an hour and a half to mow. When I got off after I finished the lawn, I was hobbling. My legs were SO SORE! Advil helped, but when they wore off, the pain came right back.

So yeah, apparently three weeks of working out does not prepare you for walking your legs off at the state fair, at least not if you're as overweight as I am. :) Lesson learned. Next year, though, that fair will be my bitch.

Also, I had that bone tired feeling after working out on Friday night, and I have it again right now (after walking halfway across campus and back once, and then all the way across and back at lunchtime). I'm wondering if my iron is low - I always have to have my blood tested twice when I donate blood, because my iron levels are low. I've only been turned away from donating for it once, but really, I should be on an iron supplement, I think. And iron gives you energy, right? Maybe I should talk to my doctor about that, hmm. In the meantime, I think I need to find iron rich foods that I can choke down without too much gagging. Any suggestions? (And yes, I do take a multi-vitamin, but apparently it doesn't give me enough iron. I should look at the vitamin aisle at Walmart - can you buy iron supplements? I bet you can. Maybe I'll get some next time I'm at the store.)

Enjoying Working Out? Me?

I haven't written in a while, but that's not out of any fear of relating bad news - I've actually been doing really well!

I'm on my third week of going to the gym three times a week, and it's going really well! I actually don't mind going, and the hour that I'm there seems to go by really quickly. I've been using the elliptical more than the treadmill - I like it a lot better. This week I added 10 minutes to the time I spend on it, so I'm up to 30 minutes at 120-130 strides per minute (I think it's per minute - it must be!), although the last couple of times I've done it, I've actually climbed up to about 134 strides. I work up a really good sweat while I'm on the machine. Yesterday by the time I was done I just wanted to go into the locker room and splash cold water on my face. I didn't, though, I just went over and did my weights.

The weights are starting to get a little easier, too. My arms were extremely weak going into this program, but they're slowly getting stronger. I could start doing two sets of 15 reps soon for most of them - all but the triceps. The strength in my triceps when I started must have been non-existent, because those are still HARD! I do 15 reps, and for the rest of the arm weights, I can do that without pausing, but on the triceps I'm resting and wishing for it to end by the time I'm on number eight. So hard! But they're slowly catching up to the rest of my arms, I guess.

The gym hours are changing starting next week, so going on Tuesdays and Thursdays won't be an option for me (they're closing at 3, and I don't get out of work until 4). I think I'm just about ready to add cardio to those two days, so since I can't do it there, I'll be having to do it at home. That's okay, though, because I have a few options there. I have our treadmill, which I hate but will do if I have to, I have Jim's exercise bike, and I finally bought the DVD of Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred. I haven't worked out to it yet, but it's there for me. Maybe I'll try it out next Tuesday. If I do, I'll let you know how it is.

Anyway, so yeah - I'm actually enjoying the gym thing. Who knew? Change is possible after 40! :)