When I got on the scale on Sunday, and it was 226, I was happy, but also a bit concerned. In the almost 2 yrs. that I've actively been trying to lose my weight, I have gotten to the mid to lower 220's TWICE. Once there, I've stalled, and then gained 20-30 lbs. back. I've been nibbling, nibbling, nibbling all week. This morning, after my 230 cal. breakfast, I've had THREE 100 calorie snacks(not all the same)so even before lunch, that's 530 calories. And I was hungry...thankfully after the 3 snacks after breakfast, I'm good until I eat lunch in a little bit...by eating my breakfasts and lunches a little later than normal, I can make it to dinner with just 1 snack after lunch! I just thought of something I can grab for lunch that actually would be better calorie wise than what I brought, so after that, I think I should be o.k. and not cut myself too close on calories for the rest of the day. But through all the nibbling, I've wondered if consciously or sub-consciously, I'm trying to sabotage my weight loss...if that makes any sense! YES!!! I want to leave the 200's FOREVER! But I haven't made it past the 220's the last 2 times I've been there over the past 2 yrs, so as much as I want to get past this point, all of a sudden my food cravings seem almost uncontrollable. I AM conscious of that, so maybe that is the key this time...but I keep dwelling on the fact that I wasn't successful getting past this point before, and what I can do to prevent that this time. Sorry...I'm probably rambling, but what have you guys done when you get to a point repeatedly, and can't seem to ever work your way past it? All suggestions are appreciated!
Stayed on plan yesterday....1383 calories total.
YAAYYY! I just got an email from my niece(who's just a few years younger than I am), and she wants to do the Route 66 Half-marathon with me! I think I mentioned her when I first blogged about doing(walking) the half-marathon, but this next week, she will be a 2-year breast cancer survivor, and she was the first person I thought of to maybe do this with me...not only because she and her family live just 2 hours from Tulsa, but because she's the most upbeat, encouraging person I know in spite of what she's had to endure through her cancer treatment and reconstruction process over the past 2 years. It would be great to have someone else to keep encouraging back and forth to keep going! She was going to talk to her hubby and see if he wants to do it and get back to me. They're hikers/bikers/canoers, so they're pretty conditioned already to distance and endurance, so 11 weeks would probably be more than enough for them to prepare. So when I hear back from her, I will submit the registrations, reserve the rooms, and I will be COMMITTED to doing this!
Will walk tonight after work...the sun's out, so hoping it doesn't get too hot! I'm trying to decide where I'm going to walk Saturday for my 8 mile walk/little jogs...it's been easy to put it together up to now. I may use the extended biking trail at Shelby Farms for 5 miles of it and then just do 2 rounds of Patriot Lake unless I can come up with something else.
Thanks, Kristin, for the suggestion about the Boca Chili for a healthy, lowfat chili...I do like their veggie burgers, but have never tried their chili, so will have to look for that this weekend!
Slogging: to plod (one's way) perseveringly, especially against difficulty
That's kinda' what my walk/short jogs felt like last night! Although temps were below 90, it was very humid and no breeze, so the thick air just zapped the energy. These were my Nike Plus stats after recalibrating:
So, nobody whispered in my ear last night! I was within my target range for my pace(just barely!)by 1 sec., so at least I didn't sink completely!
Monday was a "munchie" day, and my total calories for Monday show it: 1700 on the mark. I have talked about maybe raising my calories from 1500, but Monday wasn't intentional! It was mostly a lot of low cal/100 cal. snacky stuff that I had packed in my lunch bag to have a variety to choose from...seems I just kept reaching in!
I didn't make that mistake yesterday....just put a couple of snack choices in, and had one for morning snack, and one for afternoon snack. Total calories for yesterday: 1350. I don't seem to be as hungry on my walk days after I walk, so that cuts out a lot of night snacking.
Over the weekend, I finished off my last can of Jenny Craig Chili Con Carne...I love JC's chili! I volumize it by making a taco salad and pouring the chili over a bed of shredded lettuce and adding sliced jalepenos. I've been searching for a substitute and thought I'd found it when I was at Kroger's Monday night. I got a 2 serving can of Health Valley Spicy Vegetarian Chili, with 150 cal/serving, and 1g fat/serving, so I could have the whole can for 300 calories and 2g of fat, which I did for lunch yesterday. First of all...the chili wasn't spicy at all, and for me, having had a full-blooded Mexican grandmother on my dad's side, I inherited a love of spicy, hot, Mexican food, and this chili had no spice to it...it tasted like they just dumped a can of unseasoned beans in it, and it tasted like pork and beans at that! If any JC'er/former JC'er has found a suitable substitute for JC's Chili Con Carne, let me know! Even if you haven't done JC...if you have a healthy chili that you like, any suggestions would be appreciated! I know there are Turkey Chili's, but I just haven't been able to develop a taste for them.
I had another NSV yesterday. Our team of due diligence underwriters had been out of town for 2 weeks, and were back in the office yesterday before heading out again today. One of the underwriters at the other end of the office saw me and motioned for me. She said "I've only been gone 2 weeks, and you've changed!" Like I've said before...although I might be able to feel the difference in my clothes, looking in the mirror, it's just really hard for me to see much difference, so it made me feel good for someone else objectively to be able to see changes!
Today, I believe I shocked the coworkers by wearing a long straight skirt, and nice top...although I like to "dress up", I hate pulling on the hose(I have a small strip of tan between where the top of my anklet running socks end, and the bottom of my capris, so it would look funky without hose!) and wearing the heels, so even though I have a lot of skirts/dresses, I wear them very infrequently. I was able to wear this skirt last year when I got to just below where I am now, but when I tried it on a couple of months ago, there was no zipping it all the way, so I was excited to be able to be back in it comfortably this morning!
I know I've heard Tatumsmom talk on her blog over the last year or so about running into some interesting characters while running at Shelby Farms. I haven't really had that experience of seeing anything/anyone that really "stood out" to me...that was until Saturday morning when I went for my walk! I had just hit the 3/4 mile marker after coming out of the first wooded part of the trail and into the open area of Chickasaw Trail. As I'm approaching the curve in the trail, a guy comes running out from a unpaved trail area, and stops on the paved trail where I'm walking, and drops and proceeds to perform rapid push-ups right there on the hard asphalt trail. Ummm...the grass might be a little softer? I walked around him, and looked back after a little bit, and he was still going at it! There were some other gals behind me, so I don't know if he was trying to impress with his strength, or if that was just part of his regular running routine! Oh well...it takes all kinds!
Saturday morning was nice temps wise...upper 60's. Saturday I was upping my distance to 7 miles, so I did 2 times of the 2.75 mile Chickasaw trail, and 1 round of Patriot Lake. I'm working on adding in more frequent jogs with my brisk walking as my weight is coming down, so I don't know if it's the increased jogs throwing off the pacing and calibration of my Nike Plus stats, but after adding in .15 mile for the distance transitioning between trails, my Ipod said I had walked/jogged over .5 miles further in the end, so that was frustrating, and except for the total time, I felt like the other stats weren't accurate. ARGGHHH! So for my 7.32 miles calculating the old fashioned way, I averaged about 16:10/16:20 pace. The Ipod's calcs had been close to accurate within 1/10 or 2/10 of a mile up until Thursday and Saturday, so will recalibrate again to see if that makes a difference. I can deal with the low 16:00 pace considering I added another mile...the Ipod said a 15.13 pace, but in light of the distance calc being so far off, I put no trust in that, since it said I had travelled over 1/2 mile further than I actually did. I did have the voice that told me I had completed my longest workout yet...this time it was Paula Radcliffe...she is from Great Britain, and she placed 23rd in the Olympic marathon over the weekend.
Sunday, as I drove into Shelby Farms, it was packed! I forgot they were having a triathalon(swim-bike-run). Everyone was directed to park further up the road, so I wound up parking about 1/4 mile from Patriot Lake trail....they were using the parking lot as the transition area for the diff. segments of the triathalon. In my previous running days, I dated a guy that was a triathlete, and really enjoyed watching him...it amazed me then, and amazes me to this day that someone could endure 3 different activities and have the energy to finish! This one was 1/4 mile swim, 5 mile bike, and 2.5 mile run. I was tempted to forego the walk and stay around the transition area to watch, but with my 3 rounds of Patriot Lake, it gave me the perfect vantage point to observe all 3 stages...seems for each round I walked, the bulk of the pack of competitors had moved to the next stage. During the bike stage, I had to laugh....the end of the bike trail runs just along the side of one end of Patriot Lake and as I walked at that end, a girl comes flying past on the bike...constantly looking behind her. There were 3 guys in a pack just behind, and one decided he couldn't stand that she would beat him to the transition area, so he and the girl were in a real dogfight for position...guess his ego couldn't take a girl beating him! It turns out, as I was finishing my 3rd round of Patriot Lake, I saw a coworker of mine on his run segment! I told him this morning he has all my respect for the endurance to do all that and live through it! It was nice having a diversion to take up the time and occupy my attention while walking in circles!
With the 1/4 mile each way to/from my car, I walked 5.51 yesterday. With my 7.32 miles on Saturday, I walked 12.83 miles for the weekend, and for the week since last Monday, 21.67 miles. The "little piggy" is still screamin' at me, but I will just have to blister bandage and cushion it, because it isn't going to scream over me!
Eating went well. And what about the bagel? Half of it was gone by the time I left work on Friday, so it just was a little too much for me to resist! The other half I ate on Saturday.
Friday's calories...1/2 bagel included...were 1575. Saturday's calories were 1312, and yesterday's, 1450.
First thing yesterday after I got up was my WI, and I'm in a new decade! LOL...I've been taking a picture of the scale each time I enter a new decade, but even trying to copy from Photobucket, it doesn't work for me! The scale read 226, so down 5 lbs. I looked back at my food log, and it looks like I stayed somewhere between 1350 and 1500-1550 throughout the week, so staying closer toward the top of my calories rather than the bottom must be optimal for me. LOL...of course I would blame the same thing if I didn't lose a lb, too! If 3-5 lbs were to continue(highly unlikely!), I will consider upping my calories by a couple of hundred, as I would be fine with losing only 1-2 lbs a week. I like the 3-5 lbs. too, but don't want baggy skin in the end! I've upped my exercise intensity and duration, and have forgotten that I probably should eat some additional calories to compensate. Not like that will devastate me...foodie that I am! Of course 1500 is all I've known since I started JC almost 2 yrs ago, so that's a hard habit to break. I'll see how this week goes...I could come up next weekend and not lose anything....so don't want to jump the gun and up my calories based on one week.
Today is a rest day, so just babying the little toe! Calories through lunch that I just finished were 875.
I didn't get to get online over the weekend, so I have some catching up to do on Google Reader this afternoon and tomorrow! Hope everyone had a great weekend!
I believe I've talked before about the nuisance that the blister that comes up on my little toe on my right foot is! It has been calloused for the last several weeks, but over the last week or so, although it doesn't really hurt, the pressure of the callous usually lets me know it's there! Since Tuesday, I have put a blister bandage on it which has a padding effect. I took the blister bandage off last night before my shower, and as I did, a chunk of the dead skin of the callous came off with it! So, relief from some of the pressure, but I guess I will have to go through the blistering process again now that fresh skin is exposed. My little toe tends to be the most bothersome place for a blister for me...I'm an under-pronator, so when I walk, I tend to land on the outsides of my feet, and the bottom of my little toe tends to get "caught" under the toe next to it, "pinching" that skin on the bottom of my little toe. When the fresh skin is exposed, it then forms a blister. I've really been stocking up on blister block/body glide/moleskin/blister bandages to try to either prevent or alleviate the pain when the little toe blisters....I will work through one of those remedies tomorrow and hope that I can prevent a blister...tomorrow is a longer walk, and I don't want to have to cut it short! Any other suggestions if anyone's ever had a blister problem with their little toe would be appreciated! My socks are wicking, so they seem to do their job...I have very minimal blisters than what I used to have on other parts of my foot...it's just always the little toe no matter what!. LOL...the structure of my feet and toes seems different than most, so I may be the only one with the "little toe" problem. Oh...I've tried the toe spacer too, but that's really uncomfortable...as I walk, I can't seem to keep the spacer from moving more under my toe!
Last night was a little warmer than Tuesday night, but no breeze, so although temps were bearable, the sweat sure rolled! I made sure before I left work, and after I got out of my car last night at Shelby Farms that I stretched, and so I had some relief from my tight leg muscles that I had Tuesday night. I walked/jogged(the downhills and a couple of flat areas) of Chickasaw Trail and Patriot Lake Trail. And my baby, Lance, hasn't forgotten me after all! Here's what he said:
"I'm (yada, yada...I know who you are). Congratulations! You've recorded a new personal best for the mile!"
That distance seems a little wonky, so I must have lapsed back to over-striding some. LOL...please bear with my silliness about "Lance"...with no man in my life right now, it's fun to at least have one man talking to me semi-regularly!
Food went well yesterday...calories for the day: 1340
Water: 50 oz...could have done better there. I had my first 20 oz. Diet Coke of the week yesterday....a real reach for me who used to drink Diet Coke like it was water.
I came into work this morning, and boss had brought in bagels, and for those of you that live in Memphis, if you haven't tried the bagels from "City Bagel Company"(I think that's what it's called), you have to at least once! They have that crunchy crust on the outside and soft on the inside, and the Banana/Walnut is to die for! But these are HUGE bagels...and I'm guessing somewhere between 400-500 calories. Rather than eat it this morning though, I got mine, and wrapped it up, and will eat half of it tomorrow morning, and half on Sunday morning...I already had my yogurt and granola bar ready to eat, so will try to restrain myself from eating this bagel before tomorrow...it ain't easy!
...of blogging! Those brain cells are getting older every day, and it makes it harder to recall all the things I really wanted to say!
Tuesday night there were wonderful conditions for my walk/short jogs! It was only around 80 degrees, if that much, and a nice breeze. I hit the trail at 6:15 pm. For whatever reason, my leg muscles seemed so tight...picture the "Tin Man" walking, and that's how I felt! My shins and quads were really burning as I "clanked" through that first 1/2 to 3/4 mile. Finally, after about my second downhill jog around the 1 mile mark, the tightness began to disappear. I stretch afterwards, but I have to admit with it getting darker earlier, I've been skipping that the last couple of weeks or so...guess I need to make the time! Besides my downhill jogs, I've started adding in some jogs on level ground, with my "measuring stick" for now being a strip of trail that extends straight beside one of the lakes at Shelby Farms, with a steep downhill slope on the other side. I started jogging as I came into that strip from out of the trees and hit my Ipod to tell me my distance at the start. As I got to the marker halfway across the trail across the lake, I clicked for my mileage again, and I had ran .07 mile, so about 3 tics short of 1/10 of a mile...LOL! It's a start...my first goal (besides my downhill jogs) is to be able to jog across the length of the trail across that lake.
What?!? Lance isn't whispering in my ear anymore? So like a man to sweet talk 'ya just in the beginning! I really thought I had increased my average pace, and kept going back and forth through my history, but finally saw that I had a better average pace by 7 seconds on last Saturday! Just blame it on the "Tin Man" legs! Oh, well...my goal is just to try to maintain between a 15-16 minute (or a little below) walking pace as I increase my mileage over the next few weeks and months towards walking my half-marathon in November, so I've been able to do that, so that's good enough for now!
Calories on Tuesday: 1325 Water intake: 92 oz.
Yesterday(Wednesday), was a bit difficult...I had the "nibbles" all day...meals themselves were o.k...just snacking on a bunch of little things that weren't high calorie, but it all adds up. My final calories were 1592...so a somewhat controlled snack binge throughout the day! Water intake was 50 oz. I don't know if TOM's hiding in the bushes...with PCOS and being in the midst of perimenopause, I never know until he walks through the door!
Another little NSV at the end of the day yesterday....as the work day ended, I was headed back to my office and was holding the door for a girl in another area of my office that wasn't aware that I was actively working on losing weight. She said "You're really losing weight...you're looking great!" My beaming response was "I AM!" instead of the usual "I'm tryin'!" Although I may not see what others may see yet, I know I need to "own" every lb. as it slips away.
So far, so good today. I'll eat lunch in about an hour. Tonight is "walk night", so will be headed to Shelby Farms after work. It's warmer today...supposed to be in the low 90's, but I guess I don't have much room to complain since it is the middle of what is usually the hottest month in the Memphis area!
Nothing TOO exciting since yesterday....LOL...so goes my life!
Calories consumed yesterday: 1462
Water consumed: 102 oz....WOOHOO! That's more like it! Of course, the last 34 oz. bottle I finished about 30 minutes before going to bed, so I was up a couple of times during the night!
Right now, I'll take all the encouragement that I can to keep me on track and feeling like this slow journey is worth the wait! Yesterday, I had on one of those V-neck babydoll type tops with a camisole under it, and one of my coworkers said "You know, you can really tell through your neck and shoulders that they are becoming more defined and delicate." LOL...so I don't have the neck and shoulders of a linebacker anymore? I didn't say that to her, but that was something I hadn't noticed, and sure enough, when I looked in the mirror last night, my neck isn't as thick as it was, and the collarbones are beginning to show just a bit! That was the first "little victory".
Second, I was fixating on an intense craving for BBQ yesterday morning while sitting in traffic at 7am yesterday, and was planning on getting Corky's pulled pork green salad for lunch! I guess sitting in traffic for 30 minutes less than 2 miles from work was stressing me out, and BBQ is just one of my comfort foods! I talked about it in my entry yesterday. However, after I ate my oatmeal for breakfast, and some encouragement from Kristin (Thanks!), I found that I probably could do without the BBQ salad yesterday, so I got my low-fat Subway sandwich instead! If it's still nagging at me through the week, I will plan to work it into my WI day on the weekend.
Those weren't earth-shattering things, but little tests and encouragement that little by little, are building my confidence to deal with the bigger obstacles that I know are still in my way as I move forward through this long journey! Now if I can just remember them when the obstacle is standing right in front of me!
Todays calories so far: 795
Water: 34 oz. so far
Will walk (with a few little jogs sprinkled in) 4.42 miles after work. It's been drizzly all day, but thankfully the sun's shining through now!
First and most importantly, my Tennessee Titans won their first preseason football game against the St. Louis Rams Saturday night! If defense and offense can perform the same way during the regular season, this should be a good year for us! Sorry...just had to get that out of the way!
Yesterday was a good day. "Slept in", and didn't make it to Shelby Farms until almost 8am. It was a cool, overcast morning. I walked 3 rounds of Patriot Lake for 5.01 miles...didn't care about my time or pace yesterday and unplugged my Nike Plus transmitter...just wanted to enjoy the walk! For Saturday and Sunday, I walked 11.33 miles, and total for the week since last Monday was 20.17 miles. No pains to speak of...I'm still experimenting with all the various blister prevention methods to keep blistering at a minimum if at all. Yesterday used the Body Glide stick on my feet, and it worked well on some places that were tender last weekend, but have since calloused some....no further blistering.
Food went well yesterday....1380 calories total. My WI day is usually the day I will allow myself a "treat" if it will incorporate into my calories. Yesterday's was the same as last week...my California Pizza Kitchen "Pizza for One" at 450 calories. However, this morning, as I sat for 30 minutes in "first day of school" traffic, I got to craving BBQ, of all things at 7am in the morning! After I eat breakfast, I will see if it passes...if not, I may be headed to Corky's at lunch to get their BBQ salad...some of their pulled pork on a green salad. I would rather do that early in my week, so it will be "worked off" by next WI! I could try to wait until next Sunday, but this is one of those nagging cravings that I don't know if I can hold onto until next Sunday!
OH! Sure didn't want to forget this....I weighed yesterday morning(Sunday), and I'm down 3 more lbs. to 231! Hopefully next week will see a new decade!
Cooler weather moved into the Memphis area yesterday, making it very hard to go into work....it was so comfortable outside Friday when I left for work! Weatherman has this weather sticking around for a few more days, so I will enjoy it to the fullest!
From this last Tuesday on to Thursday night, I didn't get in bed before midnight, so last night was a really early night for me...I turned on the Olympics at 7pm and watched the first few minutes, but I was in my bed, and asleep before 7:30...even before it got dark! Even though it wasn't going to be hot, I wanted to be up and headed to Shelby Farms by the time it opened this morning, or shortly thereafter.
I made it to Shelby Farms probably about 30 minutes after the park opened, but the weather was oohhh so nice! Temp when I drove into the visitor center parking lot was 63. It was almost a bit chilly with one of my sleeveless tops on when I got out of my car and headed towards Chickasaw Trail, but I knew once I got moving and the sun climbed higher, I would warm up. I hit Chickasaw Trail at 6:47am, and started my Nike Plus application on my Ipod. As I hit the first 1/4 mile mark, my Nano recorded .24 miles, just like Thursday night. In fact, my Ipod pretty much matched the same measurements at the same places and times as Thursday, even when taking my "downhill jogs" into account. I was about 2/3 of the way around Chickasaw Trail when I thought I heard my name called over my Ipod...I turned around, and Bethany had just passed running the opposite direction, and turned to wave, or I probably would have thought it was Angela! I'm sure she'll agree it was a beautiful morning to be out running, walking, or just being outside! I was upping my mileage this morning, so when I finished Chickasaw, I transitioned to walk--and yes, even jog a few short times--Patriot Trails for 2 rounds. Like Thursday, if my instant feedback of my pace from my Ipod fell below 16:00, I had to speed it up, and try to keep myself at a consistent pace. When I finished, these were my Nike Plus stats:
As before, my distance includes the transition distance from one trail to another.
My average pace increased by only 21 seconds, but over an additional 1.73 miles than what I did on Thursday, I'll take it! Once again, as I hit "End Workout" on my Ipod, I heard that familiar voice again:
"Hi, I'm Lance Armstrong. Congratulations, you've just completed your longest workout yet!"
Nothing like hearing Lance in my ear after 6.3 miles! Just keep it up, guy!
Although I've been duplicating the same distance on both weekend days previously, as I'm working to build up mileage towards walking the Route66 Half-marathon in November, I will walk my mileage building up for that on Saturday, and drop back to 5 or 5.5 on Sunday, and continue my 4.42 mile two weeknights. With the weather being so beautiful, I want to really enjoy tomorrow morning's walk, so I probably will take the transmitter for the Nike Plus off my Ipod in the morning, and just enjoy the beautiful weather without worrying about how fast or how far....I will walk Patriot Lake 3 times, so I know that mileage!
Yesterday's calories ended with 1358. Today ended at 1162 calories.
...or at least that's what Lance Armstrong told me!
The weather was absolutely gorgeous tonight after work compared to what it has been. It was still humid after the rains today, but the temp of 83 and a nice breeze more than made up for the humidity!
Once again, I wanted to test the Nike Plus function of my Ipod. I followed a couple of suggestions I had found on the Nike Plus site:
When setting for calibration, first reset to the default calibration.
Shorten my stride length.
As I set off toward my 1/4 mile "test" point, I had to consciously not extend my stride out as far as I tend to normally do, and take shorter steps. When I got to the 1/4 mile mark, my Ipod said .24....cool...I can deal with .01! So I ended calibration, and walked back to the beginning of the trail. When I came back to the 1/4 mile mark again in "real-time", it again read .24. As I moved on, it gained a bit of excess mileage before the markers, but jogging down my hills may have confused the pacing/distance a bit. When I finished the 2.75 mile Chickasaw Trail, my Ipod showed 2.88, so a little over .10 difference. Something else I noticed that seemed more consistent than the last 3 times I've tested was the pacing. For the most part, my pace stayed consistent in the 15:50's, going as low as 15:36 a couple of times, and slowing to 16:0X at times. What I like about being able to determine my pace at any time, is that when it would move back above 16:00 min/mi pace, I would quicken my pace to get it back below 16:00, so it helped me to maintain a more steady brisker pace rather than a jerky slowing down/speeding up.
I walked from the Chickasaw Trail and transitioned to the Patriot Lake Trail. In the end after walking both trails, these were my Nike Plus stats:
With the transition distance from one trail to the other, that is probably pretty close to accurate, or within .10 or less. As I stated at the beginning of my blog entry, as I hit "End Workout" on my Ipod, I got this:
"Hi, I'm Lance Armstrong. Congratulations, you've set a new personal best record!"
Thank you very much, Lance!
That's over only the 4 workouts I've recorded on my Ipod since this "test" started last weekend! But last Sunday morning in the heat, my pace was 16:46, and to be able to hold a steady pace under 16:00 walking a little over the 4.42 mile distance of the two trails is a victory for me! I know that's probably laughable to you running EP'ers, but I don't care! The knees are holding up under my short jog spurts, so working toward a faster consistent pace as I lengthen my jogs will only increase, but I'm not necessarily in any hurry for that. My goal right now is to be able to increase my endurance over distance and work towards walking 13.1 miles on Novenber 16!
Ending calories today are at 1225...no Triscuit binges tonight! Everyone have a great Friday!
As I looked at the calendar this morning, I noticed it was the 7th of August. We all probably have some "landmark" time that we use as a goal for losing weight...for the past 2 years for me, it's always been losing "xx" amt of pounds by my birthday. This year, more than ever, I would like to have a set goal of weight lost by my birthday on Dec. 7. But I want to be realistic also. My "ideal" goal would be to be at 199 on my birthday...just into Onederland! Whether that is realistic or not is questionable. To get to Onederland by my birthday, I would have to lose almost 9 lbs. a month, which would be just over 2 lbs. a week. With my medication-slowed metabolism, and any other combination of factors between now and then, that would be hard to maintain consistently for the next 16 weeks. So, although that will be my ideal goal to aim for and keep me motivated to stay on plan, my more realistic goal would be 205-210...I would be more than happy to be in the 2-single digits by then!
My final calories for Tuesday were 1200 on the mark. I walked my 4.42 miles Tuesday night. Temps were around 96, but humidity was down some, so conditions were a bit more bearable than last week. Once again, I "tested" my Nike Plus software on my Ipod to see if I could get it to measure closer to accurate to the distance markings on the trail(s) I walk. I attempted to recalibrate, and set the 1st qtr. mile marker as my test distance. I walked that distance at my normal stride(if there is such a thing! ) When I got to the marker, my Nano said I had gone .27...just a bit off, so I ended the calibration. I didn't realize that distance didn't get counted into my total distance, but I didn't have time to head back to the beginning of the trail, so I just started my Nike plus record from the qtr. mile mark.
Like before, it seemed as I hit each 1/4 mile marker, my Ipod had me hitting that marker increasingly earlier than the actual marker for each 1/4 mile I walked. I noticed a bit after jogging down one of the hills, that my carry pouch that clips on my waistband had fallen off, so I had to turn back about 1/8 mile to go find and pick that up, and forgot to "Pause Workout", so by the time I got back to the place where I realized I dropped my carry pouch, the Ipod actually matched pretty closely the distance I had gone since the 1/4 mile mark...go figure...I had to retrace almost 1/4 mile for that to happen!
I let my Ipod record the rest of my 4.42 mile walk, although even though my turn-back had "slowed" my progress to match the Ipod, in the end, the Ipod still said I had finished my distance earlier than the actual distance. LOL...so I will continue to test and recalibrate...I went to the Nike Plus forum, and it had an entire thread on calibration, so I will try the tips I read there besides what's in the owner's manual. I really want to see if I can get the Ipod to read closer to actual distance marks, because as I venture off the "beaten path" to increase my distance in the weeks going forward, I would like for it to be as close to accurate as possible. I actually much rather it read slower and find that I've gone further than the Ipod says, than for it to say I've finished 6 or 7 miles when I clearly haven't!
Yesterday's calorie total wound up at 1390...and then some! Yes, after finishing my dinner last night, a little later I went on a "Triscuit" Binge! I don't know how many servings I ate...I DIDN'T polish off the whole box and there's still about half the box left...but it was more than one serving! So I will approximate that was about 400-500 calories on top of the 1390! I could kick myself...it was "mindless eating", and I let an emotion get the best of me!
That "emotion" was not really bad though! I believe I've mentioned in the past that although I'm a "girly-girl", I have loved my sports from my tomboy days as a kid! Well, I grew up in Mississippi, so even though I'm a TN Titans fan, I believe many people in MS have a soft spot for Brett Favre no matter who their favorite team is. Although I had heard it rumored over the last week places that Brett might play if the Packers didn't keep him, I honestly thought the Packers would work something out with him. I hadn't slept well on Tuesday night(lol...not because of Brett!), so instead of doing the non-walking day workout I had planned, I "planned" to go home and get in bed early. However, I kept flipping back between the NFL Network and ESPN for all the coverage on what Brett might do, and got engrossed in that! At just before 11pm Central, there was breaking news that Brett had been traded to the NY Jets! But it wasn't totally confirmed at that time, so while I watched all the commentary and speculation, out came the Triscuits box! And before I realized what I had done, it was midnight, and half the box was gone!
As you might remember, a few weeks ago, I bought my single game TN Titan tickets when they went on sale, and got 4th row seats from the field on the visitors side. Yep, one of the games I got was against the NY Jets! So probably what was considered a "so-so" game will now get a lot more interest, and I'm so looking forward to it! Although this is my first time to sit on the 'Visitor' side of the stadium, I believe with the "view" I will have of Brett Favre from my 4th row seat, I can deal with that!
Todays calories so far are 700. I have drank 34 oz. of water so far. I will walk 4.42 miles tonight (if it's not raining), and test, test again! If it's raining, I will move my walk to tomorrow after work. Either way, it's cooled down here! Thundershowers moved through early this morning, and then again a couple of hours ago, so when I went out an hour ago, my car's external temp said it was 79! I can SOooo deal with that after the horrid heat we've had!
I just thought of something I can grab for lunch that actually would be better calorie wise than what I brought, so after that, I think I should be o.k. and not cut myself too close on calories for the rest of the day. But through all the nibbling, I've wondered if consciously or sub-consciously, I'm trying to sabotage my weight loss...if that makes any sense! YES!!! I want to leave the 200's FOREVER! But I haven't made it past the 220's the last 2 times I've been there over the past 2 yrs, so as much as I want to get past this point, all of a sudden my food cravings seem almost uncontrollable. I AM conscious of that, so maybe that is the key this time...but I keep dwelling on the fact that I wasn't successful getting past this point before, and what I can do to prevent that this time. Sorry...I'm probably rambling, but what have you guys done when you get to a point repeatedly, and can't seem to ever work your way past it? All suggestions are appreciated!
I was within my target range for my pace(just barely!)by 1 sec., so at least I didn't sink completely!
It was mostly a lot of low cal/100 cal. snacky stuff that I had packed in my lunch bag to have a variety to choose from...seems I just kept reaching in!
If any JC'er/former JC'er has found a suitable substitute for JC's Chili Con Carne, let me know! Even if you haven't done JC...if you have a healthy chili that you like, any suggestions would be appreciated! I know there are Turkey Chili's, but I just haven't been able to develop a taste for them.
Oh well...it takes all kinds!
The other half I ate on Saturday. 
The scale read 226, so down 5 lbs. I looked back at my food log, and it looks like I stayed somewhere between 1350 and 1500-1550 throughout the week, so staying closer toward the top of my calories rather than the bottom must be optimal for me. LOL...of course I would blame the same thing if I didn't lose a lb, too!
