Update: Comeback Week One

Food Journals: Week of January 7_2013

This was a “get my groove back” week, and as such, wasn’t a bad week at all. After a stretch with too few vegetables and too many holiday sweets, my goals were to have at least one vegetable a day and no candy. I think I met those goals, even though one or two days, it was only the vegetables in my Taco Soup, i.e. tomatoes and corn.

Today I weighed in for the first time since January 4. I was down 4.2 lbs. I expect that perhaps I’d eaten something salty before that first weigh-in as 4.2 lbs. in 10 days seems a little much. (But I’ll take it!)

More notes:

  • My new food to be OCD about is the Greek yogurt. I love it. Not so bad, I know, but it is more dairy than I usually have. The non-fat makes it a better option, but still probably best not to have it twice a day. (In my defense, usually those are crazy days when it is the easiest grab.)
  • Weekends continue to be my weakest days, generally because I’m “off schedule.”
  • Not enough veggies, I know, especially not enough leafy greens. But I had a lot more this past week than I have in a while.

Goals for the Week of January 14:
I will be traveling this week, and my goals is to not only stay on track, but to go meat-free the three days I am gone. I also want to work out at least five days this week.

 

 

A Great Morning Message

Quite by accident, very early this a.m., I discovered Zen Habits. And in this morning’s post, look what jumped out and spoke directly to me:

Forget about productivity and numbers. They matter not at all. If you are driven to do things to reach certain numbers (goals), you have probably lost sight of what’s important. If you are striving to be productive, you are filling your days with things just to be productive, which is a waste of a day. This day is a gift, and shouldn’t be crammed with every possible thing — spend time enjoying it and what you’re doing.

I’m thinking this is no coincidence given last night’s post: Never Been a Numbers Girl Anyway.

Another “What I Ate Wednesday” Busted!

It’s not that I don’t want to share my food logs — I really want the accountability – but today’s not sharing issues are technology related. Apparently, I can print a report from MyFitnessPal.com, but can’t save it as a pdf. Some of that is a limitation of the website, the rest is a software issue on my part.

I’ll continue to try to find an easy and inexpensive way to do this, but suffice it to say that:

  • The entire week wasn’t perfect, especially the weekend
  • After I took Sunday to cook, clean and re-focus, Monday and Tuesday have been much better

Restated from Sunday, these are my goals for this week (M-Su):

  1. No ice cream or trail mix
  2. Eat at least one vegetable every day
  3. Work out every weekday morning
  4. Do at least one day vegan

This is the best recap I can do during my lunch hour, but again, I will continue to work on saving the food log as a pdf so I can share. Whether or not you want to see it isn’t the issue, but my accountability is…

 

Week One: A Few Missteps!

My goals and progress on the past week’s goals:

  • Try a new vegetable (I chose celery, which I will try via “ants on a log.” Traci said that I could be generous with both the ants and peanut butter at first!) Did it, but only because Traci made me do it at today’s meeting. Not a bad taste, just not digging the crunch!
  • Do two elliptical days at levels two, three and four for 30 minutes above 130 spm. Did it twice, but did it two 15-minutes at a time.
  • Eat one cup of leafy greens four days this week. Didn’t quite hit the mark on this one!
  • Increase bean consumption outside of taco soup. That one either.
  • Exercise six days How about seven?! Ah, the power of a pedometer!
  • Help someone at the City who is just getting started on the program by making an extra portion of something I cook and sharing it with them. MEANT to do this…

I’m not making excuses, but it was a crazy week. Duchess, my cat, was diagnosed with cancer. I increased my gym time by another 30 minutes to get those steps up. I have a huge project at work and have been working a little later. Just not a great week for planning…

Goals for This Week

  • Do two elliptical days at levels two and three  above 130 spm for 30 minutes straight.
  • Eat one cup of leafy greens four days this week
  • Make two different dishes, including quinoa.
  • Help someone at the City who is just getting started on the program by making an extra portion of something I cook and sharing it with them

 

Twelve Week Assessment Highlights

Today I had my 12-week assessment and received some pretty amazing results. I will post the particulars later, but these are the highlights:

  • I lost nine lbs. in the past twelve weeks. Not as much as in other 12 weeks, but Ive got much less to lose these days.
  • My body fat percentage was dow n to 24%, which took me from the  ACSM  Body Composition fitness level of “Well Below Average” fitness level and the 10th percentile in my age range to the “Above Average” fitness level and 70th percentile.
  • My BMI, which is a less accurate measure, was down to the lowest percentage designated “Overweight” from “Obese Class Three.” I’m only one percentage point away from “Healthy.”

 

Week Nine Update + I’ve Lost 75 Lbs.!

It’s kind of hard to report on week nine when I haven’t yet captured last week’s report on week eight, but I’ll catch you up!

For week eight, my biggest goal (and perhaps biggest one yet) was to eat 1/2 cup of leafy greens per day. Not pureed and hidden in meatloaf, not mixed into a choco-banana smoothie. Whole leafy greens.

Fast forward to week nine. I’m happy to report that I meet that 1/2 leafy green goal, and ate several small – GASP – salads!

I weighed this a.m., and I was shocked and thrilled to see the scale at 153.2, which takes me above and beyond the 75 lbs. lost milestone. 75.6 to be exact!

Traci and I celebrated my milestone, and then set the following goals for the coming week:

  1. Lay off the sugar-free Popsicles. They sure are nice when it’s hot, but I found that when I eat them, I get headaches. At least I think it’s the popsicles. Traci said that I’ve been eating so clean that my body is probably extra sensitive to the ingredients.
  2. Continue the twice a week elliptical challenge consisting of six minutes each at levels one, two and three; 12 minutes at level four.
  3. Increase daily leafy green consumption up to 3/4 cup daily, and on two days, add beans to the mix.
  4. Increase non-carb veggies.
  5. Think of a significant way to celebrate the 75 lbs. lost milestone.

Week 2/12 Wrap Up

Today marked the start of week three of my fourth 12 weeks at Doctors Wellness Center.

To recap, my week two goals (and update):

  1. Get veggie intake up. (May truly never meet this goal fully!)
  2. Make one of my pizzas to share with others next week. (Made quiche instead of pizza; took it in this a.m.)
  3. Increase time of the elliptical to 20 minutes, level 1 and 2, at least 120 spm. (Check, actually did at least two days of 30 minutes and added level three.)

My goals for this week:

  1. Get the volume of vegetables up.
  2. One day, not training day or day after, do the following on elliptical: five minutes at level one, 10 minutes at level two, 10 minutes at level 3, five minutes at level four. All minutes should be at 120+ spm.
  3. Keep advocating.
  4. Cook something to bring to share, preferably taco soup.

Today’s weight was 160.4 for a total loss of 68.4. My personal goal for next Wednesday is to be under 160.

Make Over Your Motivation

I loved today’s post from Fitness magazine, a 30-day plan to make over your motivation! The article features four weekly plans to help you cruise toward your fitness and diet goals.

The tips that especially resonated with me include:

Write down  your goals. I do this every week on the blog, and it helps cement them in my mind and gives me a group of people to whom I’m accountable.

Get fitter with Twitter. I follow a bunch of like-minded people on Twitter, and they provide an incredible amount of support and encouragement.

Tech yourself out. My iPhone is one of my best healthy living tools! I record my meals on it, use it to motivate me and use it to research menus, recipes and exercises.

Believe in yourself. In today’s society, it’s almost easier to be unhealthy. There are plenty of people waiting for you to fail or to console you with a milkshake. Don’t let them get the best of you. Keeping your head right is one of the most important things you can do!

Do any of the steps ring true to you? Is there one on the list that you want to try? Read the article and post a comment with your thoughts. We’re all in this together!

 

Last Week + Assessment Results

Today marked the end of my third twelve weeks. It’s a different day than my usual nutrition meetings. We don’t go over my food log or set new goals; we just do weight, measurement and some tests. Before I reveal my assessment results, here’s an update on last week’s goals:

  1. Add beans to my fave quinoa pilaf. Done, and it’s quite a yummy dish. By adding the beans, I think I can use this as a meatless meal instead of just a side dish.
  2. At least twice, do the elliptical for five minutes at level 4, >120 spm. Done. Didn’t seem to have any hip or heel issues.
  3. Make pizzas and get them in the freezer. Done. Made three small pizzas – two with a veggie sauce (pureed carrots and spinach + tomato sauce) and roasted asparagus, one margherita. Made into six two-slice servings and popped in the freezer.
  4. Make a new veggie medley. Done. Green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes and red pepper.

Assessment Results

My third 12 weeks is in the books and following is a snapshot of my results:

Lbs. Lost
This 12 Weeks: 20
36 Week Total: 66

Inches Lost, Waist
This 12 Weeks: 2
36 Week Total: 7

Inches Lost, Hips
This 12 Weeks: 3.5
24 Week Total: 8

% Body Fat
Today: 37.5
September 2010: 47.9

Body Mass Index
Today: 28.9
September 2010: 40.6

What’s Next?

I’m going to start a fourth and final twelve weeks next week.  It’s technically a free week – next week, we won’t go over a food log – but I will keep one anyway.

Tough As Nails Plank Challenge: Day One

Today marks the start of the PLANKS #Fitblog Challenge.

As we are supposed to design our own plan, that we will follow for the next six weeks, here’s what I’m going to do:

  • I will work on my planks three times during the week on my non-training days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
  • Each time, I will try to increase my time by five to 10 seconds.
  • In my initial test I could hold the plank for one minute, 15 seconds.
  • My end goal is three minutes.

For more information about the challenge and planks in general, check out Life After Bagels.