Step Away From the Cake

Down 1.8 lbs this week!! That is definitely success. I was hoping to just maintain since I was a little off kilter this week. I was not expecting this. But, as the quote says, success is the sum of small efforts. So even though I didn't workout as much as I wanted and I ate some things I shouldn't have, the small things that I did right worked. Awesome. I had a thought last night, I had been taking Osteo Bi-flex for about 4 months because of my horrible joints. A couple of weeks ago I ran out and I had thought I'd stop taking it - I had a reason for stopping but I can not remember it now. Anyway, I stopped. Since then I've had some aches and pains in my joints. Now I've also kicked up the workouts so the aches and pains could be from that. Or it could be a combination of the two. Hmmmm....I wonder. Maybe I should start taking it again and see if it helps. Today is going to be another busy Saturday. I'm heading to the gym this morning, I'm definitely d...

I knew this would happen and I'm trying very hard to keep things in perspective and not let them spin out of control. On Monday I hurt my foot. It's nothing new, something I've dealt with for years, but it happened and it hurt. Bad. I immediately dug out my orthotics and put them in and they are most definitely helping. But, after Tuesday's workout when I was nearly in tears from pain, I decided it would probably be wise to rest a little. Well, it has been good for my foot, but as I wrote in my last post, exercise for me is more about the mental game. My workouts serve as a reminder of exactly what I'm doing and help keep me on track food wise. Since I didn't workout Wednesday, Thursday, and today, things have been a little bit wonky. Nothing terribly serious, I just need to keep it in check. Oh right, let's not forget the absolutely killer heat and humidity we've had this week. That makes me feel like a limp noodle that does not want to move. So it...

I read a lot of articles about fitness, nutrition, weight loss, etc. I find them mostly interesting and I'm always open to learning new things. A couple of days I read an article about weight loss and how it's all about the diet. The basic argument, and I'm paraphrasing a whole lot, was that exercise is not that important and you have to focus on your diet in order to really lose weight. As I read that I was thinking about some videos I had seen a year or two ago. The trainer was trying to make the point that diet was more important then exercise and he set up a demonstration. Basically he worked out while another guy ate pizza. The pizza eater counted how many calories he ate and the guy working out then figured how long he would have to work to burn the calories off. So the pizza guy ate a slice in like 2 minutes and the exerciser calculated that he would have to work out for 20 minutes to burn it off - or something like that, you get the idea. After seeing those videos I...

Really is the key. Just keep on truckin' and things will happen. I have been keeping myself on track and it's getting easier and easier to stay there. Today I went to the gym and did a strength workout on my own. Now, I have to tell you, I am very intimidated in the gym. I am. I can do cardio on every machine they have and not think twice, but strength. Yikes!!!But I did it. I followed the program the trainer had me do last week and I just did it. So very, very proud of myself. In just a week I've gained some strength. The weights from last week were light. I didn't increase them because I thought I might be wrong. But I"m not. So next week the weight goes up.... That's all I did today though. My foot is hurting and I'm not sure why, so I decided to take it easy. I'm walking a little funny and it's starting to affect my knee. That is bad. Tomorrow I'm going to put my orthotics in my shoes. I have not worn them in months. Okay, off to log...

Before the train derails completely. Looking over the past couple of days, my calorie burn has been pretty good. Friday it was 2388, Saturday - 3016, and yesterday it was 2107. My goal is to burn 2350 a day and eat 1350 for a deficit of 1,000 calories a day which leads to 2 pounds a week. Or so. With Saturday's extreme activity levels I ended up eating more then I should, I'm sure, and yesterday I was tired. Just tired, so I took it rather easy. I did some furniture refinishing but that was about it. So today it's time to get back on track before I veer off course entirely. For this week, I want to track all my meals and hit my 2350 calorie burn everyday. That's all I'm going to focus on this week. Today is a holiday here in Hawaii so I'm going to take advantage of it. I'm going to work on my refinishing project a little, go to the gym for Zumba and do my couch to 5k workout for the day. Then it's prep for classes this week and work on the thesis....

Here is an article that tells about Weight Watchers endorsing some of McDonald's foods . When I initially read about this I thought it was no big deal since when I was on Weight Watchers I would go to McDonald's once in a while. But the more I thought about it the angrier I got. McDonald's?!?!?!? Really?!?!?!? Now granted this is happening in New Zealand and not the US, but still. (Completely off topic, Zealand is not in spell-check!!!) I have a strong dislike of politicians and government trying to regulate what we eat. New York recently banned the sale of soda over 16 oz. Stupid. There are refills and you can buy more then one. The whole idea is just ridiculous. I hate the idea of trying to regulate and think that money and effort would be much better spent on education. Instead of telling people they can't drink a 32 oz soda, show them how much sugar is in that soda. Have a list of problems associated with drinking that much sugar regularly. Education not regula...

turned out to be an awesome, activity filled day. I started the day by heading out to Zumba. I have done Zumba before and I'm not a huge fan of it, but I've never really given it a serious try. So I'm going to. I'm going to go once or twice a week and see if it grows on me. After Zumba my friend was teaching BodyPump so I decided to stay for that. So that's 2 hours of working out yesterday morning. I came home, showered, grabbed a sandwich because I was starving, and headed out to the Challenge Nation Scavenger Hunt. I met a group of friends at Gordon Biersch, we had a beer and then the race began. It was a race through downtown Honolulu and we had to find locations based on clues, and take pictures there. It was good fun. But we were running around, and I mean running, downtown Honolulu between 1-2pm, the hottest part of the day. We were sweating bullets....Afterwards, we came in 26th out of 145 teams, we sat and I had a root beer and some guava sorbet - Awesome!...