New Sneakers = New Post

Vacations are death for your workout schedule. I am currently home in NY and had the intentions for the past few weeks to run every day I was here. I don’t think I realized how different the weather was so when I got here, the running kind of went out the window. I thought about heading down to a yoga studio but… my choices were few and far between. You’d think the ONLY studio in this city would have lots of classes but they barely have any! Then I was going to head down to the YMCA this morning but my gramma and I had a date to make pie crust. Wouldn’t miss that for anything. So I’m thinking tomorrow is the day for my workouts to get back on track, especially since I will be driving all day Friday then jumping right back into work all weekend when I get home so I don’t think I’ll be working out until Monday.

Another reason I’m thinking tomorrow will be my back-on-track day is because I was lucky enough to get new running sneakers today! I haven’t had a new pair of athletic shoes since high school! I can’t believe I’ve gone that long but that just goes to show you how much, or how little rather, exercise I’ve done since then. But, to be honest, I’ve been using those sneakers for the past 2 months to train and they have been working just fine, until puppy got bored and used them as a chew toy. He didn’t do much damage but that seemed to have spurred a quick decline in the effectiveness of the soles and pieces started falling off during each walk, of only the left shoe at that. Then the pinching on the top started and I can’t even walk in them, let alone run. They were also cross trainers and much heavier than I’d like so new shoes were in order ASAP. Luckily, my momma loves me. 🙂

I just realized looking back at my last entry that it has been exactly a month since my last post. It’s so crazy to think that I have lost so much motivation in such a short period of time. I weighed myself last week and I’m slowly crawling back up the scale. Frustration doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling. Retreating back into my old habits of “forgetting” the situation and putting it off until tomorrow “when I have more time” or “when I can plan for my next workout”. I was doing so well too, with the walking and then with beginning to run. Then it got to the point where I was working my butt off but the weight didn’t budge. Calories every time. I need a dietitian’s help. I feel like I know what I’m doing but I have no clue. I cut back to 1000-1200 calories a day but they say that’s bad when you’re working out. But how am I supposed to burn off the calories when I eat 2000? I don’t have that kind of time. How do people do it? It’s overwhelming to try to research and get the answers myself. There are so many weight-loss and diet websites and books and blogs and TV shows that make you feel like you’ve got the answer and then you get out there and it’s not working. I wish it wasn’t so hard. Maybe I’m making it harder for myself. So I’m back to square one. Not feeling great at all. Feeling much worse actually since I just spent 2 months working out and nothing has shown.

I have to give myself some credit though because I have noticed a difference in my outlook on exercise and my body. I’m beginning to crave exercise and that is something I am so thankful for. But as soon as my job started and I didn’t have all the time in the world to know I could exercise whenever, things went crazy for me. Where did I get the idea that exercising in the morning before work would cause me to lose focus for the rest of the day? How crazy is that?

Slight confession, maybe. I may have issues with diving into something so whole-heartedly because I feel like I won’t be myself and/or I’m not ready to give up things I know I should give up. It’s almost like a virus that infects different parts of my life because I feel a definite sense of déjà vu. Or, in other words, the question is: what am I covering up with my fat? Answer: My stunning body, of course. And, dear God, please let that be all.

What I’ve been learning…

I left off last week talking about MyFitnessPal.com. I signed up that day and have been keeping track of what I’ve been eating, or trying to. It’s been amazing to see how many calories are in certain foods. Having the food diary before was not enough because I couldn’t see how much I was actually taking in. Tracking calories is important.

For example, here is my food diary entry from last Wednesday:

Breakfast — Kashi TLC Granola Bar
Lunch — Cheddar Cheese and Low Sodium Crackers
Dinner — Mixed Greens Salad with dried cranberries and walnuts and a balsamic vinaigrette
After dinner — 4 beers and a slice of Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Total Calories — over 2,400!! More than double what my daily intake goal is. When I read that I thought it was insane. What were the culprits? Beers and pie of course but more than anything, the cheese. I also eat a lot of cheese and sometimes can’t get enough. Since then I’ve stayed away as much as I could and didn’t buy any when we went grocery shopping. Moderation is the issue, yes, but temptation might get the best of me!

So first, thing I’ve learned, I finally have to admit cheese is really not good for me and having in the house is too big of a temptation.

A few things about MyFitnessPal.com that I’ve discovered: the recipe tool is really nice. You can add in all the ingredients of a recipe and how many servings it calls for and it will tell you the nutrition info for each serving. Very helpful. Something I don’t like is that I can’t find everything I’m looking for, which is to be expected since most of the info is entered by other members. The workouts have been easy to enter but I’m not sure exactly how close they are to being accurate. For the elliptical, they have just one entry that doesn’t say anything about speed or resistance. On the other hand, my elliptical doesn’t ask for my weight or height so I’m not sure how accurate its measurements are either. I doubt the elliptical though because it told me yesterday after being on it for 60 minutes that I burned over 1000 calories. That seems like a lot. MFP said about 570. That’s just fine with me!

Other than that, I’ve been doing pretty well. It’s nice to see how much exercising adds up and affects my day. So far, yoga hasn’t been burning many calories which I think is why I haven’t been doing much of it. I want to see the number go down on the scale before I start to tone up and that’s what I’ve always said. I’m just getting frustrated that I didn’t see it on the scale at the last weigh in. All last week I was 1-2 lbs under last week’s weight and I thought I’d be able to record that this week but during this time of the month, it makes it difficult. I have also noticed that in the past few days I haven’t eaten breakfast. I’ve been waking up late morning and jump right into working out without eating beforehand. I think that has hindered my metabolism a bit.

Second thing I’ve learned, always eat breakfast, even if it’s something very small!

Valentine’s day brought some great food all weekend and some yummy treats. I made amazing red velvet cupcakes on Saturday and I am proud to say that for the first time, I didn’t feel guilty and fat for eating a cupcake! I was really excited about that. Just thought I’d share.

Here is my recap for my workouts to add to last week:

27 Thursday : Yoga and Walked 17/10 minutes AND Elliptical 10/10
28 Friday : Yoga and Walked 10/10 (even though I was slightly under the weather. The yoga seemed to make my runny nose go away temporarily.)
29 Saturday : Walk or elliptical for 15 minutes was scheduled but I fudged on that. So…
30 Sunday : Even though today was supposed to be my off day, I made up for Saturday’s FAIL by hopping on the elliptical for 15/15.
31 Monday : Yoga and elliptical 15/15!
Feb 1 Tuesday: Walked 20/20
2 Wednesday: Yoga and I walked 30/30 (no walking was scheduled)
3 Thursday: Yoga – even though it wasn’t scheduled – but walking was scheduled and I didn’t do that.
4 Friday: I didn’t do anything (Both yoga and walking were scheduled)
5 Saturday: Yoga – even though it wasn’t scheduled – but walking was scheduled and I didn’t do that.
6 Sunday: I was supposed to do yoga but I walked for 30 minutes instead
7 Monday: I was supposed to have walked but I didn’t do anything
8 Tuesday: I did yoga and walked for 60/30!!
9 Wednesday: Walked for 20 – even though it was an off day.
10 Thursday: Elliptical 35/35. I was supposed to do yoga also but didn’t.
11 Friday: Elliptical 40/35 and yoga to make up for the previous day.
12 Saturday: Took the day off even though I was supposed to do both yoga and walk or elliptical.
13 Sunday: JZ and I took Jackson for a 90 minute walk!
14 Monday: Elliptical 40/40 – no yoga even though it was scheduled.
15 Tuesday: Elliptical 60/60.

I haven’t done anything today. I’ve been having some pain in my neck and back and feel like I should give it a rest for the day even though I really don’t want to.

But here’s the third thing I’ve learned, I can stay on the elliptical for 60 minutes! When I was working out on a regular basis a few years ago, it was so hard for me to get on the elliptical for more than 30 minutes. I’m proud of myself for sticking with this! Tomorrow starts week 4 of this. I couldn’t be happier with the way I’ve been doing this and how it’s turned out. Let’s see what this next week brings!

Happy February… a few days late!

It’s about time for an update, huh? Honestly, not to much has been going on in the past week. I have been doing well with my exercising. I need to step it up a bit though. Here’s what I’ve done:

27 Thursday : Yoga and Walked 17/10 minutes AND Elliptical 10/10
28 Friday : Yoga and Walked 10/10 (even though I was slightly under the weather. The yoga seemed to make my runny nose go away temporarily.)
29 Saturday : Walk or elliptical for 15 minutes was scheduled but I fudged on that. So…
30 Sunday : Even though today was supposed to be my off day, I made up for Saturday’s FAIL by hopping on the elliptical for 15/15.
31 Monday : Yoga and elliptical 15/15!
Feb 1 Tuesday: Walked 20/20
2 Wednesday: Yoga and I walked 30/30 (no walking was scheduled)
3 Thursday: Yoga – even though it wasn’t scheduled – but walking was scheduled and I didn’t do that.
4 Friday: I didn’t do anything (Both yoga and walking were scheduled)
5 Saturday: Yoga – even though it wasn’t scheduled – but walking was scheduled and I didn’t do that.
6 Sunday: I was supposed to do yoga but I walked for 30 minutes instead
7 Monday: I was supposed to have walked but I didn’t do anything
8 Tuesday (Today): I did yoga and walked for 60/30!!

Tomorrow is an “off” day but with the way I’ve been screwing up my schedule I really should go for a walk at least. I haven’t been on the elliptical for a while now and I’m not too happy about it. I really prefer heading outside for a walk, especially since Jackson should be walked on a regular basis and I can tell he really needs it on days we don’t go, but the elliptical is a more intense workout and I’d like to get those benefits since I don’t do any other workouts with such intensity. Now that I’ve been at this for almost 2 weeks, I feel confident enough to look into other areas of fitness that might help me. I honestly can say that I don’t feel good every day I don’t do something active and I’m excited about that. I can tell a huge difference on days when I lay around and do nothing. I have no energy to do anything and it doesn’t feel great.

FYI – Last week, I turned on Exercise On Demand from Time Warner and I found an amazing yoga routine for the abs by Denise Austin. So, I went out and bought the DVD this routine is on! Check out Yoga Body Burn here. It has a few different routines, most around 10 minutes long which is nice. Just thought I’d share!

I follow a few fitness blogs on Tumblr and I find some of my motivation there. I also have a lot of motivation to pull from with my family and my dear friend, Kaitlin. I get to see her this week for the first time since her weight loss surgery in early January. She’s already lost 40 lbs! I’m so proud of her and can’t wait to see how great she looks. She’s probably my biggest motivation. So one of the blogs I follow talks about her “My Fitness Pal”. I just set up my account and am ready to play around! Hopefully, it will help me out to get me closer to my goal by May!

I hope to update more often but it’s hard when there isn’t much going on. Just trying to stay on track with my exercising and my eating. Eating isn’t going as well as it could. Maybe this new account will help! G’night, y’all.

Baby, it’s cold outside!

How crazy is NC’s weather?! Yesterday I was sweating wearing a t-shirt and jeans and today I need a hat and gloves! Makes me happy to have my elliptical. Speaking of, I’ve been doing really well since making my calendar last week. I have done everything scheduled. Well, almost…

Thursday : Yoga and Walked 17/10 minutes AND Elliptical 10/10
Friday : Yoga and Walked 10/10 (even though I was slightly under the weather. The yoga seemed to make my runny nose go away temporarily.)
Saturday : Walk or elliptical for 15 minutes was scheduled but I fudged on that. So…
Sunday : Even though today was supposed to be my off day, I made up for Saturday’s FAIL by hopping on the elliptical for 15/15.
Monday : Yoga and elliptical 15/15!

My food blog has been going well also. I keep forgetting to take pictures of stuff but I’ve been good about keeping up with it, if only at night to post a recap of my day. I think it’s worked for me in the way I was hoping it would though. I have been more conscious about what I’m eating because it helps me to remember what I’ve had throughout the day.

I made amazing Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies last night (without the frosting). That’s one of the reasons I hopped on that elliptical last night. I decided I wasn’t going to make anything until I got a bit of exercise in. I did that today too. I decided to have a little snack between breakfast and lunch since I was hungry but didn’t really want to eat lunch and then exercise. I also wanted to exercise before I had one of those blondies! And the best part? I was down 2 lbs at today’s weigh in!

JZ is gone this week until Thursday so I’m getting back to my one person meals. Let’s see how well I can do this week. Oh I almost forgot to mention the “New Food of the Week!” This week’s food is… butternut squash! And sort of blood orange too. I’ve never cooked with either but I’ve never had the squash (that I can remember) and I have had, and love, blood orange. Not sure what I’m going to do with them just yet so I’ll have to do a little research tonight. But for now I’m going to jump in the shower then relax a bit and read. Book club is tomorrow night and I still have a little bit to go!

My “Workout” Schedule

I have been busy today! This morning I posted about The Yoga Deck, which is what I used this morning during the first yoga routine I scheduled on my new fitness calendar! Check ’em out. For today, it says, “Walk 17/10.” That means I walked 17 minutes out of my 10 minute goal. Walking is easy for me and the goal seems to be too easy but I want to make sure I stick with the times listed because if I choose to do the elliptical one day I don’t want to back track.

I have scheduled up to the end of February because my overall goal is to eventually get up to jogging/running. The plans that I’ve seen through the web and in magazines have been a bit more hurried than this one. It seems like I’m giving myself a lot of time to get up to 60 minutes of walking. And, truthfully, I can walk 60 minutes now if I decided but before I would have said, “I got this! I can walk 60 minutes every day for a month”, but that’s a hefty goal. I need some “achievements” along the way. I get into a rut thinking things aren’t changing and building up a walking routine to eventually running on a regular basis is difficult for me. I’ve tried to do it more than a handful of times but I don’t have the motivation. Hopefully, this will help me stick with it because it will seem easier than it really is! It definitely makes it easier to walk with Jackson around my neighborhood because I love exploring. Walking down streets you’ve never been down before gives you a whole new perspective on your neighborhood, good and bad. It’s nice to know where I live and I’ve been pleasantly surprised on most walks.

Having this also gives me some good time away from constantly being worried about what I eat. I know that things are not going to change just by eating healthier, even though they might change a little but I really need to incorporate the physical exercise to see the results I want.

Morning smoothie!

This morning’s smoothie is interesting… I pretty much just threw together what I had left in the fridge, minus an apple!

Midnight Smoothie (named for it’s gorgeous midnight purple color!)

1/2 cup blackberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1 small-medium carrot
1 decent sized leaf of kale, chopped, de-veined
1/2 cup Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade

Blend with EITHER 2 cups ice, 1/2 cup water (which is what I did) or I’d suggest just blending with 1 cup of ice and no water or a small amount to thin. I added the water to thin it out because it was very very thick with just the ice.

It doesn’t sound too appealing on paper but it isn’t half bad. The seeds of the blackberries are kind of getting to me though so you might want to take the extra step to put them through a sieve before adding them to the mix.

The Yoga Deck

The Yoga Deck by Olivia H. Miller is by-far the best resource I’ve found for yoga. Being familiar with poses and having done different variations of a routine, I feel more comfortable using the deck than I did before when I was just starting out so I wouldn’t recommend it for newbies to yoga. Go to classes first and get a feel for it. Plus I think I just found something to add to my rewards list. The Yoga Deck II!! I didn’t know there was one until I pulled up the Chronicle Books website. It seems to be more advanced so I’m going to go with my “15 lbs lost” mark reward.

P.S. I heart Chronicle Books. They have so much amazing stuff on their website. Plus I’m obsessed with notebooks and they have a ton! One can never have too many notebooks. I very much desire to work for them also. That would be a dream come true!

The Skinny Baker Food Blog on Tumblr!

 

Introducing…. The Skinny Baker Food Blog!

I just revamped my Tumblr account to turn it into my “food blog”! This will hopefully help me keep track of things that I eat throughout the day and give me motivation for eating healthier and cutting out some of those really bad habits I have. Just wanted to put the world out there!

Rewards=Motivation!

Something I’ve been thinking about since before starting this whole weight loss challenge is how I’m going to keep my motivation up. I have no motivation… well, that’s not true. Usually my motivation comes at the end of the day when I think back about all the bad stuff I’ve eaten throughout the day and regretting that I didn’t spend even 10 minutes doing some type of exercise. I mean I have an elliptical for goodness sake! So without going extremely crazy with this whole thing and posting pictures of models and celebrities with healthy and fit bodies that I envy all over the house, because that’s where my motivation really gets amped up, I need to find a good way for me to stick with losing weight. My overall motivation is thinking back when I was in NYC last year and how bad I felt about my body being in one the largest fashion capitals in the world and knowing that most of the clothes I can find in designer shops are 6 sizes too small for me. But it’s hard to think that far ahead when you are taking this day by day. So, I’ve decided that things need to change. First things first, a food journal is a MUST. At least for right now. I need to be able to see what it is I have been eating in order to make changes.

Here’s a list of things that may or may not surprise me about my eating habits:

1. Carbs – I feel like everything has carbs!
2. Sugar – I know I’ve cut back a lot on my sugar and I’m pretty cautious about watching for added sugar so I think I’d be surprised if I was eating more than I think I am.
3. Fruits and veggies – Even though I feel like I’m getting enough, it may not even be close.
4. Choosing “healthy” meals at restaurants – I try to but my picky side gets the best of me sometimes.

Second, motivation. As of Monday, I have 27 lbs. to lose. I’m thinking every 5 lbs. is a good goal. Coming up with the rewards are the hard part. I keep thinking about rewards involving clothing but since I’m hoping to drop around 3 sizes by the end of this, that wouldn’t be a good use of money. I always love new books but I have so many I want to read right now that I don’t think buying a new one will give me that much excitement. The only real motivations that come to mind are food related and they shouldn’t be. I’ll have to spend some time tonight on this list. I have about 6 rewards, the 6th one being my goal weight. Hmm…

Any suggestions?

 

In the meantime, here are some helpful websites I just found while researching some motivation tips! I had no idea About.com was so helpful!

Make your own food diary

Healthy Grocery List

There are a lot more that spring off of those. You’ll definitely want to check them out.

Balance, Housekeeping, and the ‘Stiletto Chef’

After last week’s “workout”, I was S-O-R-E!! So Thursday was a no-go for the workout, even the walk since Jackson tugs a bit and I could barely lift my arms. I definitely needed that workout and need to continue but Friday got away from me, then Saturday. Sunday we had friends over for the football game (Go Pack Go!) and I was slightly hungover both Saturday and Sunday so the couch was much more appealing than the yoga mat. The drinking needs to go so for the month of February, I will cut out all drinking and see where that takes me, since my weight hasn’t budged in the past 2 weeks. No gaining though, so that’s a plus. Yesterday (Monday) was a sick day. I was mostly achey with a headache and cough. Sunday I was sneezing with a headache. I hate sick days. They are such a waste! However, laying on the couch ALL day was probably the best thing for me. Today I feel back to normal, which is a relief since I am usually sick for 3 or 4 days because I don’t give my body time to heal. Today is all cough and it’s driving me nuts. At least I have some motivation to get things done around the house! My Monday to-do list will just carry over to today.

Housekeeping! — Since I’ve been slacking on my updates, let me take care of a few things here.

Food of the Week — Tilapia (yay!). JZ bought some for super cheap last night at HT and I’ve never cooked with it before. I’ve been dying to try out some of the recipes I’ve found so I’m really excited about this one.

Week Recap — I sort of just gave you a bit of a week recap above and I don’t really have one for the food. All I can say is that I’m still struggling with finding the balance I need between eating healthy at home and when we go out. Portion control of course is the second top struggle. Today I will work on menu planning for the week and maybe next week too. JZ is here until next Monday so I’ll be focusing on satisfying both our hungers in a reasonable way.

Ok, one more thing. I get regular emails from Grub Street, “Daily Food News from NYMag.com and MenuPages.com”. I signed up to get tips on great restaurants and food ideas for our second annual “Sisters’ Weekend” with, of course, my sisters, in May. I’ve gotten a lot out of it, much more than I though I would, seeing as I don’t live in NYC (physically, at least!). In Friday’s email, I came across my new favorite person, Candice Kumai, the “Stiletto Chef”. She is gorgeous, funny, and has great ideas for food on her food blog, StilettoChef.com. Plus, I am absolutely in love with her set! Her cookbook, “Pretty Delicious“, comes out in February and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to pick up a copy. Here is the link to the article: ‘Stiletto Chef’ Candice Kumai Chugs Water, Indulges With Hot Sauce. I so want her life!

Anyway, check that out. I’m off to get some lunch and tackle my to-do list. I heart motivation!