Guilty Pleasures

This post isn't so much about weight loss, but more about guilty pleasures as of late.  You will all probably think I'm a nerd, but I totally love the show Glee.  I'm not sure if any of you are, but I thought last night's Brittany/Britney episode rocked it.  Also, it would pretty much be a dream come true if I could ever look as amazing as Heather Morris did in her Britney outfits.  I present the following evidence to the jury:

Yowza.  All her dancing has definitely paid off.  

Anyway, I thought it was really well done and made me laugh several times.  It's totally one of those shows that I'm embarrassed to say I watch, but I can't help it.  I sang in high school choir so I can relate to the geekiness factor, and they also do some really good remixes of songs.  Please tell me I'm not alone in loving this show!

In an effort to get to know more about all of you, tell me--what's your latest guilty pleasure?

One Bite at a Time, One Decision at at Time...

Those who are friends with me on MFP (user name: sugar4becky in case you want to add me!) know that this week I've been struggling with overeating.  For the last 5 days I haven't been able to stop myself and it is SO frustrating.  As I'm eating, I KNOW that I'm eating more than I should and that it will cost me.  But I just don't stop.  I'm reminded of the bracelets that Priorfatgirl.com has that say "One bite at a time, one decision at a time..."  There is so much truth to that.  I made poor decisions this week, and I will have to pay the consequences.

First things first, let's get to the nitty gritty.  I didn't lose weight this week.  Actually, that's not true.  I was down to 153.6 around Thursday, but my bad eating habits cost me dearly and I end up this week at just about exactly what I started last week at.  What a bummer!  If you look at weeks 6-9, you can really see that my September has been less than productive weight loss wise.  I've been hanging out around the same weight for almost the entire month.  I've lost a total of 1.4 lbs this month.  Not very encouraging when I was averaging 2 lbs lost per week before that!  


However, rather than get discouraged I dove into the details a bit more.  In the last four weeks I have lost almost an inch on each thigh.  I've also lost 1.25 inches on my hips.  I've lost half an inch on my waist.  I'm still losing inches; it just isn't translating on the scale.  So, this is a nice reminder to everyone out there (including myself) that the scale doesn't always reflect what's going on with our bodies.  Track your measurements--they tell you the real story!


Even though I feel good about my progress, there is still that pesky issue of overeating that I mentioned above.  I know that on my race day I needed more calories, and I had actually planned on that.  However, yesterday I did not need the 500 calories from the homemade ice cream.  I also didn't need the second helping of potatoes.  So, I decided to do some research on how to curb overeating.  WebMD has a really nice article on this issue that I am going to quote from.  Shall we?

• Eat Slowly
• I think we all know this one.  It takes 20 minutes for our bodies to realize we are full.  By that time, we've already eaten more than we should.  Slow down and savor those flavors!
• Be Aware
• This one gets me all the time at work and when I eat while on the phone.  Pay attention!  Just yesterday I heard someone say "well that potato must have been delicious because it's not on my plate anymore, even though I don't remember eating it!"  Once again...slow down and savor those flavors!
• Make the First Bites Count
•  I shall quote the article:  "After a few bites, taste buds start to lose their sensitivity to the chemicals in food that make it taste good," she explains. Satisfying your taste buds by really savoring those first few bites may help you stop eating when you're physically comfortable.  (I'm noticing a theme here...)
• Keep Up Appearances
• Use smaller plates and smaller utensils.  The brain perceives a big plate with small portions on it to be a lack of food.  However, if you put the same size portions on a smaller late it thinks the amount is satisfactory.  This is one that I can personally attest to--it works!
• Choose Satisfying Foods
• And I don't mean ones that satisfy our sweet tooth!  These are foods that are high in fiber, protein, and/or water content.  They will be more satisfying with a lower caloric content.  Apparently there is a mathematical formula for how to find out if a food is satisfying.  No joke!  Check out the full article to see it.  

I'm going to try more diligently this week to pay attention to the food as I eat it and minimize the distractions.  Temptations will run high this week as I am constantly going to be surrounded by an abundance of junk food.  I'll be drinking a lot of water and staying away from the kitchen as much as possible.

How do you combat overeating?

10K Madness!

Post Run Glow

Post Race Photo Op!

Happy to have finished!

I can proudly say that I completed my 10K with my goal of no walking.  However, the run was not a very fun run as I had been hoping for.  Those stupid side aches I've been suffering though struck again--but this time at the 1 mile mark!  It hurt so bad but I was determined to just run through the pain and eventually it did wear off.  However, if I tried to run at my typical pace the aches would come right back so I finished the race with a higher time than normal.  Oh well!  I can only improve from here, right?  I am just excited to have completed a goal and accomplished something that a "friend" told me I wouldn't be able to do.  Sweet success!

Now that I've gotten the good news of the weekend out of the way, I have a confession.  I ate like CRAP this weekend.  I think some portion of my brain thought "Hey, you ran a big race.  You can totally pig out now and it will all be okay..."  I would like to find that portion of my brain and perform a lobotomy on it.  I totally hosed all my hard work from earlier in the week!  On Friday I weighed myself in the morning at 153.6.  Today?  156.0.  I'm going to go for a run today and hopefully that will reverse some of the damage.  I just wish I knew why I did these things to myself.  I can't wait until the day where I have complete control over food.  

This week will be a challenge as well.  My brother-in-law is in town for the week (yay!) and our family is celebrating by having lots of get-togethers.  With homemade ice cream.  And delicious food.  And large quantities of said food.  In addition to that, Lake Powell always has a delicious supply of food, so I will have to be extra diligent this week.  I also need to find a way to cram my workouts in to the already time-strapped days.  Wish me luck!  I think I can do it!

Photo Progress

Hello hello.  I've been meaning to do this for a couple of weeks now, but keep slacking.  I wanted to post some "in-between" photos of my journey for comparison.  My hubby wasn't home when I took these follow up photos so please forgive the quality--I had them on my tripod and tried to get the same angle as the ones my husband took but didn't quite get there!  However, I think they are close enough (even though there is a major lighting difference--curse the sun going down so quickly these days!).  The differences are small and you probably can't tell, but because it's me I can definitely see some areas with a change.  Let me know if you can:

Blurry arms!  Next time I'll have hubby take them...

I look angry in the second picture, but I'm not.  I swear!

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

...and I'm nervous as I can be!

Hopefully the next post you see from me is one of victory.  I'm hoping that it will be something like this:

Rather than something like this:

I'll try to post afterwards to let you know how I did!  The main goal is to try to finish the whole thing without walking.  I don't care how fast I do it in; I just want to jog the whole time.

Back to the marathon--I have to share something that I found funny/frustrating while I was registering for the race.  You fill out all your personal data (age, sex) and then at the very end you could select two extra options if you "qualified":

I stared at this forever trying to figure out why they would include this, but then I realized that they are tracking their "heavy-weight" runners.  First off, thank goodness they didn't name the female division after large animals or I think I would've had a bit of a cry.  Second, since when is 140 lbs heavy?  Now I know that runners (particularly those running marathons) are quite svelte, but you could be a very toned woman with average height and weigh 140 lbs.  Anyway, I guess I will have to embrace the Athena title since I definitely qualify!  

What are your thoughts on the Clydesdale/Athena divisions?

More about the Half Marathon...

Yesterday was kind of a teaser post!

So I have signed up for the Ogden Half Marathon.  It is in May which gives me plenty of time to prepare for the race, both mentally and physically.  One of my best friends will be running it with me which I am really thankful for.  It will be nice to have some company for the 2 hour+ run.  The race is supposed to be quite beautiful too.  It follows along the Pineview Reservoir for a while, and then drops into Ogden Canyon where you run next to the river for a long time.  Then you reach the end of the canyon and see a beautiful waterfall before finishing the race.  That sounds like my kind of race!  Hopefully the beauty will distract me from the fact that I will be running 13.1 miles.   I still can't really believe I was crazy enough to commit to this.  If you would've told me 8 weeks ago I would be signing up, I would have laughed at you.  And then maybe called the cops to get you committed. :)

Here is some of the scenery that I will be enjoying:

Ogden Canyon River

Pineview Reservoir

Ogden Canyon Waterfall

It's going to be pretty amazing!  I will just be super excited to say I did it and survived it.  Hopefully I can do the full thing without walking.  I just have to be really diligent about my training!  I'll keep you updated as I go along.  I figure this is another good goal to keep my focused on staying healthy.

I've decided that humans can do whatever they set their mind to do.  It will be difficult, it will be painful, but it can be done.  The only thing that gets in the way is our self doubt.  My goal for the remainder of this year is to work on smashing that self doubt and seeing how much I truly can accomplish.  Are you with me?

Ummmm...What Did I Just Do?

I may or may not have just signed up for the Ogden Half-Marathon.  In unrelated news, I might also be insane...

Gimme Day

All things in moderation, eh?

Yesterday was one of those days.  I've been really hungry ever since hiking Timp and couldn't seem to satisfy my belly.  I finally decided that perhaps my body was trying to tell me something and that I should eat a bit more than my standard 1200 calories per day for just one day.  So rather than a small dinner, I made up some whole-wheat pasta carbonara and ate a decent sized portion.  I haven't tallied it up yet, but I probably finished the day around 1600-1700 calories.  Definitely higher than normal, but nothing to be horribly ashamed about.  Guess what?  I finally feel like my body is satisfied.  And this morning when I did a spot check weigh-in I weighed less than I did yesterday, so obviously it wasn't damaging and it was what my body needed.  I call it a "gimme day."

Sometimes I think we get so focused on the details that we forget to listen to our bodies' needs.  Admittedly, I ate only 1180 calories on Saturday which was the day of my big hike.  I wanted to stay so close to my calorie goals for the day that I didn't listen to my body telling me it needed more to recover.  My muscles paid for it--I was much sorer than I expected and it lasted longer than expected.

I'm going to take this lesson and apply it this weekend.  I'm going to properly feed myself before my 10K and after.  I also think that improper food timing has been what is causing my pains while I run.  I'm testing that theory today with my 3.2 mile run.  I'll let you know what I find out!

I've probably mentioned this already this week...but I am REALLY nervous for my 10K.  AAHHHH!!  Sometimes I wonder why I sign myself up for this things, but then I remember that it is the races/challenges that keep my motivated to run every other day and stay in shape.  I'm going to need another challenge after this one!

Halloween

Can you believe Halloween is less than six weeks away?  Today I spent some time browsing Halloween costumes for work.  It is incredibly difficult to find a cute female costume that is appropriate for office wear!  Everything is REALLY short.  Also, I've decided the for a lot of these costumes you need to be a size 2 to pull it off.  Does anyone else find this totally frustrating?

Either way, I've got some good ideas lined up.  I am looking forward to being smaller than I was last year.  I remember shopping for a Halloween costume last year and it was rather depressing.

What are you all going to be?  Have you even thought about it yet?  Apparently I am pretty excited for the Halloween season since it's not even October yet!

Weekly Weigh In & Upcoming Trip

Here are the measurements for this week:

I am happy that I was able to finally get the scale to budge towards the end of this week.  I think that my massive hike helped out a bunch with that.  

I'm going to Lake Powell next week which means I will be in a swimsuit.  I am looking forward to going there smaller than I was last time.  Here I am just a couple of months ago:

I had just finished the wretched hike that is Hole in the Rock and was hating how out of shape I was.  I had a massive asthma attack on the way up and truly thought I might not make it down the mountain without passing out (which would've resulted in a fatal fall).  

I have a feeling this time will be much better.  :)

Also, I want to have another picture taken of me on these happy jet skis and be able to focus on the joy on my face rather than the chub on my face.  :)

Mount Timpanogos!

So I didn't get to hike Table Rock this year due to the weather, so I decided that I would try Mount Timpanogos in Utah instead.  Here are the differences in the hikes:

Elevation:  Table Rock (11,300 ft) vs. Timpanogos (11,749 ft)
Elevation Gain during Hike: Table Rock (4100 ft) vs. Timpanogos (5300 ft)
Miles Round Trip: Table Rock (11 miles) vs Timpanogos (15 miles)

All-in-all I say that Mount Timpanogos was a great replacement for my original goal of hiking Table Rock.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  Prepare yourself for picture overload:

About an hour into the trail.  The hike goes up that steep wall face and hits a meadow right under the peak of that mountain.

Sunrise!

Great view from about 1/3rd into the hike.  The trailhead is at the very bottom of the valley.

At the meadow approaching the base of Timp.

There she is!  If you look very closely you can see the tiny shelter we will end up at.

This trail is so much scarier in real life.  I don't do heights well.

At the shelter!  We made it!!

Check out the view straight down!  Eesh!

Highest I've ever climbed!

View for miles...

See the scary trail?

Another view of Emerald Lake

Happy with the hubby!

There is a yellow tent down there.  Can you find it?

Utah Lake to the left

Coming back down the hike...

Timp on the Right.

Back down at Emerald Lake

Happy at the waterfall!

Late Nights at the Office

It's been one of those weeks at the office!  You know the kind...you get into the office at 8 am and all hell breaks loose and you have to stay until 9:30 at night to get caught up.  That's happened TWICE this week.  All the issues are ones outside of my control, too!  Very strange...  In either case, as I've mentioned before I am totally a stress eater.  You may remember my post about eating an entire package of Little Caesars bread sticks on a late work night a few weeks ago.  Last night I was so very tempted to just eat away my stress.  I had some delicious food in the work fridge that a vendor had given me that would've totally satisfied my food cravings.  It also probably had somewhere around 1000+ calories in it.

Om nom nom...

Guess what?

I didn't eat it.  I managed to work till 9:30 without eating any crap food, which at my work place is a miracle!  Within my room I have easy access to Triscuits, cookies, assorted nuts, fruit roll ups, laffy taffy, M&Ms, Reese's, Almond Joys, Gummy Worms, Sour Patch Kids, etc.  The list is never-ending.

This is pretty much what several of our cabinets look like at work...

I was alone in the office and could've chowed down without shame, but I didn't.  I'm so proud that I was able to resist!  I worked through my stress by getting my inbox down to a reasonable level, rather than trying to eat it.  That's a much better solution!

On a different note, I am experiencing a rather frustrating thing.  I've been REALLY good with calories this week and with exercise (yay!).  In fact, if I were to pick a week where I felt that I had been the most diligent with following the lifestyle it would be this week.  However, the scale is not budging.  I'm not sure what is going on.  I'm going to  take my measurements tomorrow and see if those aren't moving either.  I'm hoping that it's just added muscle weight rather than no progress.  Any idea why the scale might not be moving?  For right now I am not letting it bother me too much, but I do hope that I can see signs of improvement for this week whether it's through inches lost or pounds gone.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the No Numbers Challenge for many of my blogger friends next week.  I can't believe it has been a month!  I truly see the value of ignoring the scale, especially considering how frustrated it can make us (see above!).  No matter what the numbers show next week, know that I am super impressed with your work and enthusiasm.  Great job!

The Power of Words

Lately I have been thinking of the power of words.  It is crazy to me how much pain they can inflict or how much joy that can bring.  Not only that, they have the power to control and change our behaviors.  For example, the kind words that I've received on this blog and through MFP have kept me continually motivated and truly make me feel like I am succeeding at something.  It's brought me more happiness that I thought I could find through an online community, and it has motivated me to continue going.  I know I've said this before, but you guys are awesome.  Truly.


On the flip side, my thoughtful hubby was trying to give me a compliment the other day but he ended up accidentally hurting my feelings!  I was changing clothes and he said something to the effect of "You're looking great...your underwear isn't holding on for dear life anymore!"  It was nice he noticed a difference, but man...that end comment stung.

He definitely did not mean anything mean--he was genuinely trying to say something nice.  Sadly enough, the underwear in question were actually new and purchased when I was at the highest weight and I got a fitting done to make sure they fit so I really don't think they ever looked like they were hanging on for dear life (I hope not at least!).  Truthfully, I think it was more his perception of how I looked in the underwear (knowing I was overweight and thus seeing them being too tight) rather than the reality.  Either way, it was very difficult for me to focus on the positive part of his words but I made a very strong effort to.  Why?  Because in the past I chose to look at the negative which would always make me depressed and I'd run to the freezer and grab the ice cream or purposely ditch a workout because I was feeling angry or upset.  Where's the logic in that?

I don't know why I find this funny, but I do.

In any case--it doesn't matter whether or not the underwear fit me well back then.  The point is that it does now, and he can physically see the change.  I can too.  And it is the results that make painful words less powerful.  I think that my own self esteem issues got in the way and turned a compliment into something painful.  It's a cycle I've seen before with me, and I'm trying really hard to break it.  Looking at the negative is the quickest way to fail. 
How do you stay focused on the positive?

Rewards

I've been trying to think of rewards to help celebrate the little victories along the way.  It is more difficult than I thought it might be.  I figure that after I reach my goal weight a nice beach vacation is in order (helloooooo, bikini body!).  But what about the little milestones?  10 lbs lost, 20 lbs lost, etc?

How do you reward yourself for the little stuff that adds up to the big stuff?

Weekly Weigh In

Apparently it is week 7 of this journey.  I'm not sure how that happened, but it did.  Time is flying by!  I've been at this almost 2 months!  It's starting to feel more like a regular part of my routine, which is awesome.  I'm hoping that between the blogging, logging into My Fitness Pal, and watching the progress from the blog community, this thing might actually stick!

I went for a run last night.  The goal was 5.5 miles and I mapped out my run prior to starting it.  Typically, I just run around my neighborhood until I get sufficiently lost and then try to make my way out of suburbia back to my home.  This works out well for mileage because I borrow my husband's GPS watch so I know how far I've ran. Last night, however, he was using his magic watch on a bike ride so I was forced to map out a run.  Also, because of Mr. Creeper in the neighborhood, I was sticking to main roads that are heavily trafficked.

My run sucked.  If there is such a thing as a runner's high, this was definitely a runner's low.  I must have not eaten enough before the run to give me energy to burn, because within the first mile I was feeling it.  Halfway through my stomach started revolting and I had to make a quick trip to the gas station to use the facilities.  Talk about annoying!  The gas station was the halfway point in my run, and I could've taken a different turn and cut over 2 miles off the run but I decided to push through it and just keep going.  I didn't want to disappoint myself, especially after not losing any weight after last week.

I finished it.  I walked more than I would like, but I finished the 5.5 miles in about an hour and twenty minutes.  I'm proud of myself for continuing on when I REALLY wanted to stop.  And today I feel much better.  Next time I run I am going to be sure I've properly eaten prior to my run, and had enough water.  I had only drank about 2-3 cups of water the whole day before that run and it wasn't enough to keep my hydrated.  Lesson learned!

So...it's time for the weekly weigh-in.  I really didn't want to do it this week, but I knew I couldn't just skip.  I promised honesty right at the beginning of this blog, and I'm going to stick to it.  So, without further delay I present my stats as of today:

I will be interested to see where these numbers lie in a week.  Hopefully I can make up for last week somehow and post some wicked awesome numbers next week.  Not super likely, but a girl can dream.  :)  I just want to be able to say that I did my best this week, because I find that that's where I feel the happiest with myself.  

How are you doing with your working out and eating?  What struggles have you experienced?  What moments are you proud of?

Back from Pittsburgh...

It's been a while since I've blogged!  It was a BUSY week and weekend.  I am rather proud of myself, however.  I totally kept within my calories while I was in Pittsburgh!  I couldn't believe it!  I did struggle once I got to Idaho, unfortunately.  My dad has NOTHING healthy in his house, and he also stocks up with all the delicious things that are so tempting.  I only caved to Mountain Dew and one Oreo which is way better than usual, but I still wish I would've been able to stay within my calories.  I think I averaged about 1600 per day while in Idaho, which isn't great but it isn't horrible.  The fact that it wasn't at 2500+ is progress!

I tried hiking Table Rock again this weekend.  Guess what?  It didn't happen.  Why not?  The weather again...but this time it SNOWED a foot on the mountain!  Holy cow!  It's too early for snow!  I was totally disappointed because this is the last chance I had to hike it this year, so it is a goal that I will not be accomplishing in 2010.  Sad!!  Oh well--there is nothing I can do about the weather.  It just wasn't meant to be!

What snow?...oh wait.

I definitely paid for my poor eating and lack of big workout last week--I'm up a pound this week.  I'm human so I'm trying to not get discouraged.  It's just a number and I can do better this week.  Being in my home territory and back to a normal schedule is definitely in my favor.  I can see why the Biggest Loser folks have such a hard time adjusting when they move back home!

Instead of hiking Table Rock, the family decided to go on a beautiful drive from Idaho through Wyoming.  It as gorgeous!  The fall colors are starting to turn, and we got to visit a lot of beautiful lakes.  In pictures:

Believe it not, my sister is 6 months pregnant in this pic...

As a side note...I'm a bit nervous about running outside in my neighborhood now.  I live in a really safe community, but yesterday some crazy man sexually assaulted a woman in broad daylight on one of the running paths by my home.  I can't believe it!  They still haven't caught him either...I'm not sure what I will do about running outside.  I am just going to have to stick to very main trails with no places for creepsters to hide.  It doesn't help that the sun is rising later and setting earlier.  That leaves me with limited time to run outside in daylight.

How does everyone else manage this?