The Herb Lady

So, last week I decided that I needed a good multi-vitamin, not just the grocery store One-A-Day or Flintstone Complete, or whatever. Yesterday I went to the Herb Lady. That's the actual name of the store, tee-hee. It's very hippy-dippy. The store smelled like incense, and there was chanting coming from a radio. Anyway, I bought EVE, a multi-vitamin for women and chromimum picolate for sugar cravings.

Today, I took them and was completely bouncing off the wall. And my pee turned fluorescent green. I'm supposed to take the multi 3x a day, but I think that once works pretty well.

So here is the workout log for this week so far...

Monday

• Morning- I went to the gym and did Cardio Coach vol. 1 Revised on the Elliptical. I forgot what a great workout this is. 46 min. with extra warm up and stretching.
• Evening- I did about 30 min. of Tracy Stahle's Sweatfest kickboxing. This was a frustrating session for two reasons. 1) I was at my 2nd job. I get a paid dinner break, but I'm "on-call", and this time my session was interrupted 3 separate times. You have never seen someone scramble to change clothes so quickly! Finally, I just gave up. 2) The drills are good, but they are also very very long and monotonous. Tracy has poor kickboxing form, and by the 32nd jab cross jab, you just don't want to see it any more. Plus, it's hard to figure out if she's doing a side kick or a roundhouse kick, because her form is so bad.

Tuesday

• Afternoon- I took a 50 min. walk. It was very windy, but nice.
• Evening- I kicked some serious butt. I did both sections of Coffey's 30 Minutes to Fitness, and was WIPED out afterwards. 66 minutes.

Wednesday

• Afternoon- Cardio Coach vol. 2 on the Elliptical at the gym. 55 min. with extra warm up and stretching.
• Evening- Kickmax 49 minutes. I did the warm up through the combos, a little of the legwork and the cool down. I was at work again, but this time I had no interruptions. Yay.

This weekend I'm going out of town. My future mother-in-law is getting married. Yes, it sounds weird. Anyway, I'm a little peeved that when I finally get back on the exercise track, it gets derailed by life. Yes, I'm going to try to workout while I'm in St. Louis. No, I'm not going to get in as much as I want to.

What Have I Been Doing?

Not too much. My evening job hours changed, and I'm working a lot more...therefore I'm working out a lot less. :( I've also been dealing with some family-related stress that made my diet take a nose-dive straight into the bottom of the sugar bowl. So this is kind of the relapse of the relapse. Or something.

As for my workout and diet log... well, I seem to be working out about 3 to 4 days a week, and eating protein for breakfast (and loads of sugar and calories for the rest of the day). So I'm not quite back at square one, but close enough for disco. Guess this means I'm not going to lose 5 lbs before Thanksgiving. Oh well. The more I tell myself it's not about losing weight, the more weight I don't lose. I think maybe I should just be honest.

Hell yeah, I want to lose 10, uh, 15, uh, 20 pounds!! I want to prance around in my skinny jeans again, and put away the fat clothes. I'd settle for pulling out the medium sized clothes. And yes, I have three wardrobes. And two of them seem to last a damn long time, because they've been in storage for over a year now. My fiancee is skinny. Even my dog is skinny. I want to be a matching set. Ok, I feel better now.

On the good side, I've got new pictures of my puppy. He's about 10 1/2 months old now.

Just Logging In

Slowly but surely, I'm getting back on track. I bumped my eating plan all the way back to Step 1 (protein with breakfast), and am working on a good workout schedule.

Sat: Workout- none, Eating- protein w/breakfast, but lots of calories and sugar.

Sun: Workout- none, Eating- same as Sat.

Mon: Workout- Ch/Ba from the 4 Day Split. 30 min walking dog. Eating- Same as Sun.

Tues: Workout- Bootcamp/Bi/Tri from the 4 Day Split. I actually threw up from all of that up and down movement (a first for me!). I'd say that it was because I was working so hard, but I was doing some serious modifications, and watching my heart rate during Bootcamp. Eating- a little better.

The next week is going to be tough to get my workouts in...I'm pulling extra hours at my part time job to cover for a co-worker.

Sigh. Shake Head. Now Listen to the Sinus Saga

Other than a couple of walks with the dog, I haven't exercised at all this week or part of last week. And the eating, well, it's been horrible. Normally I'd be all disappointed in myself, etc (well, just see my last post!), but here's the deal.

I'm sick. On Monday night I didn't get any sleep because every time I went to lie down, I had stabbing pains in my ear, my jaw, and my teeth. Tuesday I made an appointment with the doctor (since it started as an earache) for Wednesday. Tuesday night I didn't get any sleep, because now, in addition to lying down, I also had pains when sitting down. For what it's worth, I did do a lot of laundry, and I have a clean kitchen. Wednesday morning I cancelled my doctor's appointment and went to the dentist instead. And guess what.

It wasn't a tooth problem. Yippee...no root canal for me. So then I had to make another doctor appointment. Apparently, it's an incredibly packed sinus infection. I can't believe sinus stuff can hurt so much. So I'm on antibiotics and Mucinex, but I'm still in a lot of pain. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being it hurts so much I want to throw up, then cut out one half of my face so it doesn't hurt any more, I was at an 8/9, and now I'm at a bearable (but not happy) 5 with spikes into 6 and 7. And I've gotten about 4 hours of sleep, so I'm sounding kind of lucid again.

But I think my fall from workout/eating well grace since last Wed (or was it Thursday?) has been because I've been having some sinus issues that have been getting progressively worse. So it's time to regroup. Again. Sigh. Shake head. At least it wasn't a root canal.

Log 10/24

Tuesday's workout:

• 50 min walk (lunchtime)...this one was especially nice. The sun was shining, and I wasn't staring at the minutes on my watch.
  
• 30 minutes weights- I was short on time last night, so I put in Coffey's new Cardio/Sculpt, and just did the sculpt and only did one round for everything, not two. Then abs. I'm feeling a little sore today, so I think it did it's job.

Tuesday's food: Really good. Calories were on the low range, I got lots of veggies in, and my sugar was 98.1 grams, the lowest so far.

All in all, it was a good day.

Beans and Rice Report and Log

Sunday workout: none. I was supposed to start my new Cathe rotation, but by the time I got home from work and made my dinners for the week, I was exhausted. Drop down drag out tired. So I did nothing.

Sunday eating: fair. I had relatively few calories, even for not working out, but a lot of sugar (134.2 grams).

Monday workout: none. It was an effort to even move. Tired, achy, bloated, whiny...uh oh. It's that time of the month again. I'm bummed that my new Cathe rotation has gone all to hell.

Monday food: fair. Actually, about the same as Sunday. Low calories, high sugar (137.2 grams).

But today is a new day. I have already walked, and I will do some weight work tonight, even if it isn't from my new Cathe videos. Yesterday I received my new Coffey videos in the mail, so I might pop one of those in.

I've noticed that since I've started restricting sugar that I haven't had any major break-outs. I usually only get them once a month, but they are really bad when I do get them.

A note on the Beans and Rice Recipe. I made it on Sunday, and it's nice. It's a little bland (but, hey, it's beans and rice), but it tastes brighter than my other recipe. It looks really festive, too. I love the red bell pepper. So this one is a winner and goes into my recipe book.

I've Got New Videos

First off, the log

Friday workout: 35 minutes of step (LowMax, no blasts)

Friday food: very good. Under 100 g of sugar for the first time. Calories were also good. Having a medium breakfast, a large lunch and a smallish dinner seems to work pretty good for me.

Saturday workout: nothing

Saturday food: good until the fiance and I went out for dinner. My actual order of grilled chicken and shrimp was fairly healthy, but I chowed on the tortilla chips. Calories were on my high end, especially considering that I didn't work out.

Ok, now for the good stuff. I got my videos on Friday, and I've been previewing and working on making up weight sheets, and I start my new Cathe rotation today. It is going to look something like this:

Sunday: Disc A, Workout 1 High Intensity Step plus Ch/Ba weights
Monday: Disc A, Workout 2 Low Intensity Step plus Shoulders/Calves/Core weights
Tues: Disc B, Workout 4 Bootcamp Cardio plus Bis and Tris weights
Wed: Disc B, Workout 3 Cardio Kickbox plus Legs and Core weights
Thurs: Recovery day- walk, Budokon Beginning workout, yoga video etc.
Fri: Workout 1 HIS
Sat: Workout 2 LIS
Sun: Workout 4 BCC
Mon: Workout 3 CKB

and so forth. Thursday will almost always be a recovery day for me. I might vary up the cardio, especially with two step days in a row, but I will keep to the weight schedule.

I will probably have to modify the cardio quite a bit at first, and I KNOW I won't be at the weight levels that Cathe is. I'm not worried about it, though. It just means that I have room to improve.

Checking In

Wednesday workout:
Walk- 45 min (lunch...and it rained)
Weights- 68 min: The same weights as usual, Cathe's Cardio and Weights Compound and Heavy Wts premix

Bento's 10 min Solution legs and stretch

Wednesday's eating: pretty good. Only 105 g sugar, the lowest total yet. Calories were good also.

Thursday workout: nothing. zilch, zip, nada. Hey, it's my designated recovery day. And it's been raining all day. Actually, I wanted to do the Budokon Beginning workout again. It's perfect for a recovery day- under 30 minutes, yoga and light cardio, but I just didn't get to it.

Thursday's eating: Oh, I've been bad. Ok, not that bad overall, but even though the calories were within my range, I would have liked to see them lower, considering that I didn't work out at all today. But my sugars! They are at 151.8 g, which is pretty high. I actually started out pretty good. I don't have too much that is a straight sugar snack in my house anymore, but at my second job, between the twizzlers and the caramel corn...look out!

My new Cathes are almost here! I will have to go home during lunch tomorrow to do some previewing. I've worked up a new rotation--a four-day split, imagine that. It should start this Sunday.

Same Old, Same Old

Food: Yesterday's eating was very good...in my calorie range, although on the high side, and less sugar intake than Monday. I hate to admit it, but the food diary thing really works. It's just that I get bored with it so quickly. And when I actually eat something that I don't know the calorie count for it drives me crazy. But it works.

Exercise: Exercise was good too.
Walk- 40 min (lunchtime)
Step- 40 min of Cathe's StepBlast.
I think I actually only did about 35 minutes of StepBlast. The other 5, I had the DVD on pause while gasping for breath. It makes me sad that I can't make it all the way through the step combos on this one. It will get better, though.

Another exercise note...my Cathe DVDs are being shipping. Right now they are in transit from Horsham, PA to, well, probably Ohio and then on to Lenexa, KS where they can be distributed to me. UPS Tracking is a dangerous thing, sometimes.

The Dreaded Food Diary

Doesn't this picture of Amy Bento look great? I thinking about getting a poster of it to put up in my workout area. She looks strong.

Yesterday I started my food log again. I'm a member of myfooddiary.com, but I needed a notepad that I can carry around with me all day. Plus, I wanted to move on to Step 2 of breaking my sugar addiction, and that includes documenting how I feel physically and emotionally along with what I ate. I couldn't find a food diary that worked with what I'm trying to do, so I ended up making my own. It's 7.25 x 5 inch book comb bound on the top. I made all of the sheets for the month, and then put in a weekly diet tracker to add up the totals for the week. It's pretty sweet, but I'm already thinking of changes I can make for next month. Usually, I stick with these for about a week and then it drives me crazy so I quit. This one is pretty low maintenance, though, so hopefully I will at least be able to stick with it until the end of the month.

Yesterday's workout:

Walk- 40 minutes (lunchtime)
Weights- Cathe's Cardio & Weights, Cpd & Heavy weights premix, plus combo one of the step (about 5-7 min)
Bento's 10 Min Solution Butt Blaster (did I mention how much I hate that title), and Stretch.

I upped the weights on the heavy weights on everything but the chest work, but still modified the ab work, although not as much.

And because of the food log, my eating was really good. A calorie count within my target range (which is 1600-1900 cal, depending on amount of exercise). The only downside was that it was a little too much sugar, which I totally blame on the brownie that somehow forced its way down my throat. Until now, the sugar intake has been the best thing about my diet. I slowly weaned myself down to one 20 oz Pepsi a day, and this week I've cut myself down to 12 oz of Pepsi. I'll probably stay here for a while. I think I was at the 20 oz for about three or four weeks. The ultimate goal is to cut it out completely, but since it's my biggest and longest addiction, I'm trying to go slow.

Why are Weekends So Hard?

First off, the workout log:

Thursday, 10/11: 45 min walk
30 min of interval step (Cathe's IMAX 2)
Friday, 10/12: nothing
Saturday, 10/13: nothing
Sunday, 10/14: nothing

Arrrgh. It is so hard to keep up my workout schedule on the weekends. I think I have so much time, and then something always comes up. This weekend it was looking after my 3 year old nephew while my sister was out of town. He's a little cutie, and I only babysat from after work on Fri. to Sat. evening, but it just threw me totally out of whack. When I dropped him off on Sat. and came back home, I was just too tired to do the workout I wanted to do. So instead of doing something easier, didn't do anything.

Then today. I knew I only had until 5pm to get my workout done. I had to be at work at my 2nd job at 5:30 until midnight. But after grocery shopping, cooking and some minimal cleaning, that was it. I just wanted to plant my ass on the sofa and watch some television. At least I got my meals cooked for the week. But I'm still angry that I took 3 days off from working out. One day is great! Two days are good, as long as they aren't consecutive. But three days in a row? It's really hard to get back into a workout routine after three days off, believe me.

Now, about the eating. It was...okay. Getting better, I guess. I got a free 30 day supply of this stuff called Satiatrim. You're supposed to drink it before meals, and it will help you feel full etc. It doesn't have a lot of sugar (and it was free), so I decided to give it a try. Since my problem times are afternoons and evenings, I decided to just drink it in the afternoons and evenings to make it stretch. I tried the vanilla on Friday. It tastes a little bit like Slimfast, but better. There is a super chalky residue aftertaste, so I ended up drinking about 20 ounces of water with it. I had it with lunch (about 2pm) and I felt extremely full afterwards. I didn't have any on Saturday. Today, I tried the berry-flavored kind. It was okay--not as good as the vanilla--and with the same residue taste. This time I drank it in the afternoon when I was rummaging for snacks. It killed any desire for snacks, but it did not give me that full feeling. I will be giving a running commentary on this later.

Log and Still More on the Cookies

Here's the workout log for yesterday:

Cathe's Cardio and Weights- Compound and Heavy Wts premix
Cathe's Low Impact Step- just the warm-up
Bento's 10 Minute Solution Trouble Zones!- Butt and Thigh Blaster; Stretch

Today is supposed to be a recovery-type day, but I'm feeling pretty good, and since I had two days off on the weekend, I think I'm going to do some extra step.

Note on the Cpd and Heavy Wts premix: I did all of the pyramid push up side raise thingies without modifications! Yay. Road back to fitness, I'm travellin' on. I am still modifying some of the ab work, especially those walking soldier planks at the very end. Ugh.

The whole eating thing was fair...I had a few too many of those oatmeal cookies. I've decided that they're not too bad, I just had to get over the fact that they didn't have the same taste or texture as oatmeal cookies. Maybe they should be called bean cookies, or something. I think I'll make another batch, this time with the cinnamon oatmeal.

Oatmeal Cookie Report

Last night I made the oatmeal cookie/bean recipe, and, well...it didn't suck. But it wasn't great. The batter, though, was great. So great, in fact, that I ate part of the batter, and gave the cookies to a co-worker. So now I halved my supply of oatmeal, and now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of it.

Other than the oatmeal cookie batter orgy, my eating was fair yesterday. My fault, I was running late and left half of my lunch on the counter, so all I had for lunch was celery and low-fat ranch dressing...and peanut m&ms. I was hungry after lunch, I was hungry when I got home. And I was cranky that the cookies didn't turn out as well as I wanted to. Sigh.

Workout: I walked 45 min at lunch time, and in the evening I tried out the Budokon workout (see below). I wanted to do something a little more intense, but that workout has been gathering dust for a couple of weeks now, so I guilted myself into doing it.