Some Updates

As I imagine you've probably already guessed, the pregnancy test came back negative. Not much else to say about it except I've accepted we might not have kids and that's okay. My husband and I have discussed what that means to us and basically it means a lot of fun (big) vacations and less stress. In going through this infertility journey, I found out about Resolve: The National Infertility Association. Under their "Family Building Options" section, they have information about "living childfree". I haven't yet read through it but plan on it at some point. It's interesting that information about this option exists; but when females are raised EXPECTING to have children and it's ingrained in your head that that's what you're SUPPOSED to do and you're not NORMAL if you don't, it's nice to know it's okay to live childfree and it can actually be quite liberating. I'm not ruling out trying again at some point, but I think a break is in order. It's hard on the pockets and hard on the emotions.

We're back in our house in North Carolina and it feels great! This is where we're meant to be for sure. Unfortunately, I don't have a job yet. It gets stressful at times, but I want the next job I take to be something I can see myself doing long-term.

I started working out again. Thank goodness! It's not even about the weight or fitting into clothes anymore Who am I kidding? It's totally about the weight and fitting into clothes! But...BUT...it's also about just feeling good about myself again. I didn't feel bad about myself before, I just didn't feel energized and happy. I signed up for this program called the Whole Life Challenge that starts on May 3rd, so hopefully that'll be another kick in the butt. It'll be starting at a good time for me...just about the time I'll be starting to slack off on exercising. ;)

Until next time!

What's (Currently) Working For Me

Hello everyone!  I thought I'd check in and discuss what's going on in my fitness and wellness life right now.

I made the decision a couple of weeks ago that I'm going to workout Monday through Friday.  When trying to figure out a way to track my goal, I stumbled upon the Way of Life app.

They call it the 'ultimate habit building app'.  It's basically an app where you add goals and track them each day.  Right now all I have on there is "exercising".  I figured I'd make this easy on myself until I built up momentum so I define exercise as some kind of physical activity.  Brisk walking works.  Squats, pushups, and crunches work.  As long as it's something.  This app keeps me accountable...if I don't exercise, I have to log a big fat red X for that day.  Not fun.  It also made me realize I missed working out on Tuesdays a lot.  Why?  Because Zaxby's (casual fast food restaurant) gives a discount to employees where I work and I tended to choose that over working out.  So I made a conscious decision not to go there anymore.  Go me!  I also changed my schedule so that I eat part of my lunch at noon and then go workout at 1:00pm so I can watch The Chew while exercising.  Hey, don't hate...it's what gets me through.  :)

Thanks to my sister, I started using Lose It again.

This blog post has a pretty good review with lovely images.  I loved their app when they first started and now that they've made their website more 'social', I've rekindled my relationship with Lose It.  I've tracked my food and exercise for several weeks now and it's all thanks to their challenges.  I'm doing two right now:

1. No Miss November where you aim to log the most days between November 1 and November 30.
2. Holiday Move It & Lose It where you aim to log the most days between October 31 and January 1.

Honestly, I don't think I'd be tracking as well as I am had I not joined these challenges.  I signed up for Weight Watchers a couple of months ago and did I log?  Nope.  Not even knowing I was wasting all that money.  Give me a couple of challenges and some badges and the competitor in me comes out!  I'm kind of scared what will happen once the holidays are over and/or I get really busy.  I'm hoping I will have made tracking such a habit that I continue to do it.  Or that I've seen such great results that I continue to do it.  Only time will tell I suppose.

Unfortunately, When I weighed myself this morning I hadn't lost any weight...but nor had I gained!  I've decided to go another week with what I've been doing and if still no change, I'll mix something up in my diet/exercise routine to see if it helps.  Here it is in all its glory:

There's a two year period where I obviously wasn't using Lose It.  My starting weight was weight gain from right after my wedding when I went crazy with the food and no exercise.

Anyway, that's what's working for me.  Come join the party and be my friend on Lose It!

 

Let's Get Physical!

I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I received an email from a great friend saying, "Hey, wanna do the 30 Day Shred and Turbo Fire with me for the month of July?"  Uh, YEAH!

I've come to the conclusion that Weight Watchers is just not for me.  I just can't do the tracking thing.  I know it's important, but I just can't bring myself to do it. 

Our schedule is M, W, F 30 Day Shred, T, R, S Turbo Fire with Sundays off.  So far so good.  I missed a couple of days when we were traveling for July 4th, but I've since made them up.

Want to join us?  It's never too late!  

Keep those appointments

Well, I've done some thinking.  I have another blog where I was posting about my workout and weight loss adventures.  Except that it was boring and I didn't keep up with it.  So I've decided to just detail my "adventures" here.

First off, I joined Weight Watchers.  I've heard lots of great things about this program and I saw it first hand the first week when I lost 2 pounds.  Unfortunately, the second and third week I gained some back.  Disheartening and annoying to say the least.

I started Turbo Fire again and the first week was great; felt like I really put my all into it.  I have noticed two things with weeks 2 and 3:

1. Time management - I have a difficult time getting up in the morning to workout and on that same note, I also find it difficult to do it at the end of the day.
2. Energy - I don't have the energy in the morning to really put my all into it.  I can also say the same thing about my evening workouts.

This post was going to be much longer but I cut a bunch out.  Why?  Because I feel like I whine about this all the time.  The solution is simple!  If you want it bad enough, you'll do it.  It's all on me...no one else.  I can't complain about not feeling/looking my best when I don't put the work in.  Life isn't a cake walk...it's going to take some effort on my part.  :)

Here are the solutions I came up with for my two issues:  

1. I am making an appointment with myself at 5am.  Made my appointment this morning.  I wasn't late and I didn't cancel!  *I've officially done 3 morning workouts!*
2. Uhhhhh...the solution to this one is to get your advice.  :)  What do you do to boost your energy before a workout?  I have no energy in the morning but I can't eat a full meal right before a workout.  Banana?  Clif Bar?  Toast?

You are beautiful

Isn't it funny how one (me) feels they need to lose weight to wear workout clothes??

We struggle with this type of issue at work more often than expected...someone's working out in questionable attire (jeans, non athletic type shoes, etc.) but do we approach them?  What if they really don't have workout attire?  We definitely don't want to discourage fitness & wellness. 

A welcome retreat

Sunday afternoon I headed over to my coworker's house to do a little scrapbooking.  I had so much fun!  For one, it was the first time I'd ever sat down to scrapbook (I've had the stuff for years, just didn't know how to start) and second, it was absolutely wonderful to hang out with a peer and craft.  It was incredibly relaxing and just really good to socialize in a way that didn't involve my husband, a bar, or alcohol.  Sometimes it's just plain good to have some 'me' time. 

I'm not sure I've said anything about this here but my advisor gave me some deadlines...June 30th for a completed Results section and July 31st for a completed Discussion section.  *Side-note:  I've been thinking about moving from blogspot for a while now.  This might convince me--blogspot is saying I misspelled 'advisor'*  So I didn't meet the June 30th deadline but I'm so much further along than I was originally that I'll be okay with that.  As Dory would say, "Just keep swimming swimming swimming." 

After a recommendation from a friend, I purchased Turbo Fire.  Heard of Insanity or P90X?  It's basically another one of those programs.  It's killing me because I thought it would be here Saturday and it wasn't.  Thought it would be here today and it wasn't.  If it's not here tomorrow I'm going to rip my hair out.  I was thinking about documenting my journey with Turbo Fire with pictures and my thoughts in a blog--seems like I'd stick with it and would be able to see my progress better.  I'm tempted to create a new password protected one with just my bout with Turbo Fire, but I'm beginning to think I should just document it in this blog & password protect it here--I've been thinking about doing that for a while anyway.

At any rate, those are my three thoughts for today.  Have a good one!

Biggest Loser Spoiler Alert

Okay, so a lot can happen in tvland before next season airs, so whether or not Anna Kournikova is really taking Jillian's place (as well as the two new trainers introduced this season) is yet to be seen.

But come on...Anna Kournikova??  Geez.  It's going to take a lot of convincing for me to see her as a valid trainer.  I don't think they'll get the chance since I plan on this season being the last I watch of Biggest Loser.  I was already on my way out, but this just sealed the deal.

Without getting too ugly about someone I admittedly know very little about, seems like they just lost a lot of their female viewership.  I read in an article that by hiring her they're trying to shift focus from the measuring tape to all around wellness.  It's already very difficult for people to believe they can accomplish their weight loss goals without going on Biggest Loser...you add someone who's stick thin and that feeling is multiplied tenfold.

Anyway, I shall now disembark my soapbox and find some other weight loss show to get sucked into.  Maybe I'll create my own.

Feeling Perturbed

I'm a little annoyed right now.  I don't want to be skinny, I want to be healthy.  Part of being healthy is feeling good.  Part of feeling good is eating well. 

I began cooking from a low-fat cookbook I "stole" from our nutrition intern--it wasn't really hers, it was a cookbook left over from the registered dietician our university used to have.  I've made three recipes from this book so far:  broccoli shrimp linguine, fish stew, & beef burritos.  The beef burritos are the best so far, but they all leave a lot of be desired.

I'm just peeved that I can't find healthy food I enjoy eating (that I make myself).  I was asked this question on Saturday:  since you've lived in so many different places, what's your favorite food?  My response, "Well, I just enjoy all food in general."  For someone who enjoys food and would like to eat healthy, it's painful to not be able to find a satisfying low-cal, low-fat cookbook.  Do I need to retrain my taste buds?  Does satisfying low-cal, low-fat exist?

I also want to throw it out there that I'm contemplating the idea of going vegetarian again.  My husband will wring my neck when he reads this.  I've just started feeling really guilty again about eating meat.  We drove past a truck full of featherless chickens on the road when it was cold outside and I thought: that chicken is probably on it's way to a plant right now where it will be prepared for my consumption.  Note:  I'm not against meat eating altogether.  If I did decide to go vege again, I would be okay with consuming organic, free-range etc. animals--or meat from a deer my cousin shot.  And then I saw a commercial about over fishing.  Icing on the cake. 

Anyway, that's where I am with food right now.  Gotta love the inner conflict!  P.S.  Little known fact about me: I love tofu when it is cooked correctly. 

O'dark Thirty

C and I were up before the crack of dawn to help out with the Valley of the Lilies Half Marathon today.  For all you trivia junkies out there, "Cullowhee", the town where our beautiful WCU campus is located, means "Valley of the Lilies".

I recorded the placing of the male finishers and C recorded everyone's times with the fancy timer do-hicky as they ran across the finish line.  We had tons of fun and I hope I get to do it all again next year.

First overall homeboy was bookin' it!  Check out a blurb here.

C is convinced we're going to do the Asheville half in September.  Mainly because it's on his birthday.  If I can let my ankle heal & fit a 10K in before training would begin for a half, then I'm all for it.  Here's to new hobbies!

On your mark, get set, GO!

My place of work is going bonkers right now.  There's a half marathon scheduled for Sunday that we're co-directing and everyone's running around like crazy trying to get everything ready. 

I'm super excited because C and I are volunteering.  He'll be marking people's times as they finish and I'll be helping enter times into the database. 

I'm really just so thankful that I get to be a part of something like this.  This is the first half marathon held in our area and with 189 registrants (way more than we expected, btw), it's sure to be a successful one.

I can't say enough how much I love working where I work.  It stinks because no, I don't want to be an Administrative Assistant my entire life but I love the attitudes people have there (one of the few places people actually choose to go on campus) and the general feeling people have toward wellness.  I always feel like striving for more and if I've had a bad day (be it physically or mentally) there's always another one with loads of promise around the corner.

As my boss would say:  Make it a great day!

Portion Control

I work at a gym and one of the things you may be shocked to learn about us is that when it comes to nutrition, we're not the premier authority on the subject.

When people sign up for personal training, a lot of times part of their issue stems from poor knowledge of nutrition, and unfortunately, we are only really equipped to handle the physical part.

That being said, we've finally been able to hire Nutrition and Dietetics student interns and it has helped our facility tremendously.

Today at our staff meeting, our current intern presented a topic to us:  Portion Control...Never Diet Again!

Such a novel idea.  I'll be honest, at the beginning I thought to myself, "Yeah, yeah, what is she going to say that I don't already know."  But by a couple of slides in, I changed my tune.

She had some really good attention grabbers:  70% of all American women are either overweight or obese, Queen size beds are actually bigger now than in the 60s(?), clothes sizes are bigger now (I may wear a size 12 now but back in the day it would've been a 14 or 16), bagels nowadays are 3" bigger in size than what they used to be, etc.

I know what I'm supposed to eat or at least I thought I did.  She had some really good correctly portioned fake food as visual aids.  Really.  My salad should be that size?!  I should only have 5-6 oz of meat and that's what 3 oz looks like??

It was pretty amazing.  She also had dinnerware that was correctly portioned.  Holy moly...that's an 8 oz. cup of milk...and how big are the Taco Bell drinks that aren't even "supersized"??

I admit I was intrigued, so I went to the interwebs searching for "portion plates".  I found this one that I was about to buy on the spot:

Then my husband says, "Check out that typo."  Of course he did.  I wouldn't expect anything less.  And then I find these that would definitely do the trick:

I just would really like to consume the nutrients I should be consuming while limiting those I shouldn't.  I hate that I hardly eat any fruits or vegetables.  Cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, some cheesy pasta concoction for dinner.  I'd like to be a well-rounded nutritionista (not in the literal sense).

BUT THEN *angels sing and the heavens part* I found this:

 How cool is that?!  Portion control plates that aren't intuitively portion control.  Plus they're porcelain, plus they're dishwasher & microwave safe.  Haha!  I just think it's the best idea ever and I'm sorry I didn't come up with it.  It's called LIFE-style Portion Control Dinnerware System by Precise Portions.  Too bad it's $120 for a set of 4.  Perhaps I will be sticking to a cartoony melamine plate.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you all (y'all for you southerners).

In other news: today marks day 2 of 1.5 miles.  I'm starting to feel stronger, but my time is still a lot longer than I'd like it to be.  I have 1 mile to do on Friday, so I'm hoping to get my husband to run with me to keep my pace up.  I hate to put him through that torture though.  Was that in his vows?  I think it was.

P.S. The other thing I'm going to do is switch from soymilk to almond milk.  She was raving about almond milk and I'm getting pretty sick of soymilk.  Yay for almonds!

Another addition: Check out this video on the plates...it's pretty cheesy, but oh well. They also have a website: www.preciseportions.com

Why Precise Portions? from Rob Collins on Vimeo.

Run #2 Not So Complete

So I promised my coworker & friend (she's super cool, so I'll consider her a friend) a while ago that I would go to Zumba with her today.  I didn't think about this until this morning when it dawned on me that today is supposed to be a mile run.  Had I prepared accordingly I could've run this morning.  This evening is out of the question since I'm working on my thesis.  Let's just let that set in...working on my thesis.

Back to my story.  I go in to work this morning and I tell her sorry, gotta bail on you today.  And she says oh no no, I'm not letting you off the hook that easily.  So she tells me, do Zumba today, run tomorrow, walk Friday, and then run Saturday.  The original plan was to run today, rest Thursday, run Friday, then walk Saturday.  She was pretty convincing, so I did Zumba today.

And the reason for this post.  It is so much fun.  I know you probably hear that over and over, but really, it is.  Although, I could see it not being very much fun if you don't have a good group that likes to be silly.  And I'm not so sure it would be as much fun doing it in your living room either.

Moral of the story:  try Zumba at your local wellness facility.

Day 1 Complete

I am going to run a 5k.  Always wanted to, never have.  My wonderful brother created a training plan for me.  I started this plan today.  Run 1 mile. 

I am not a runner.  I have not run since...since...more than a year ago. 

I "ran" a mile today.  I don't know what my pace was, but I did it.  I almost passed out after I finished my final lap, but I did it.

I am proud.

I shall run 1 mile again on Wednesday.

Go Kate!

Time flies

I can't believe it's the middle of July already.  Or at least pretty close to it.  Pretty soon all the kids will be back on campus & annoying the heck out of me.  I take that back...I welcome it...I welcome the new cds the new Recreation Assistants will create so that something new will go through the speakers for once.

I lost over 6 pounds in two weeks.  I like to think I'm becoming healthier, but really, I think I'm probably just losing muscle mass from not working out & losing weight from not eating much due to fear my stomach will lash out against me.  I feel like I've had gastric bypass & can only eat portions the size of peas.

I have a renewed love of books now that we have no satellite tv.  I just finished Summer Sisters by Judy Blume.  Good!  And am now working on Knitting Under the Influence by Claire Lazebnik.  I stopped by our local bookstore this weekend & bought a book about lowering one's cholesterol, a cookbook for blondes (hilarious!), and two romance novels (I know, I know) by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.  I took one of her books with me on my honeymoon & finished it in two days, so I figured I'd try some more out.  I'm looking forward to getting credit for books I trade in & hopefully finding some new ones on my list.  My aunt got a nook for her bday...maybe C & I can split one for his bday.  :o)

I'm getting antsy...I think it's the military brat in me itching to move.  School is blah, the job is blah, all I want is to get out of Sylva.  I was hoping to do something this past weekend, but nothing got planned.  Maybe this weekend.

My book calleth.

Genes are funny things

I had bloodwork done the other day and got the results this morning. 

Good news:
Thryoid levels good 
HDLs good
LDLs good
VLDLs good

Bad news:
Total cholesterol high at 244 (>240 is considered high)
Triglycerides "borderline high" at 187 (200-499 is considered high)

At this point they're at levels that don't warrant medication, so she said to start taking a fish oil supplement, watch my diet & exercise, & recheck in 6 months.  She calculated my risk percentage based off of my age, systolic blood pressure, total chol, & HDL chol and got <1%, so I'm not real concerned about it.  I have no idea what risk we're talking about here though...heart attack?  No clue. 

So that was a big reality check.  I guess we'll see what kind of deal I can strike up with my body in the next 6 months.

Ping-Pong

I don't know if this is real, but it's hilarious nonetheless.

Food for thought

I don't know how many times over the years I've tried doing a food journal. I can also tell you the number of nutrition & exercise tracking websites I've been a member of are getting up there.

I just get a little peeved that I can't find one that I really like that gives me everything I'm looking for. Perhaps part of it is that it's just so time consuming & cumbersome to track everything. And what do you do when the site you're using doesn't have the nutrition info of what you just ate...then you have to add it manually...bleh.

I downloaded the Lose It! app on my iphone last night (free). I had downloaded it before but never used it. So I tackled it with renewed enthusiasm. Weighed myself to enter my weight, signed up for reminders, etc. To reach my goal weight (which is actually a little over zealous) by a particular date, it set my calories at 1295. Not that awful in my opinion.

Today marked my first day of food tracking.
Breakfast = 230 cals. Around 10:00am I started calculating the calories in the lunch I packed. SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE! I would've been left with only 147 calories for dinner. WHAT?! I was floored. And I thought I was packing a good lunch--turkey sandwich, two carrots, dried apricots (yes, I tried them--not sure I like the texture on the outside, but I can handle it), and I think most of the calories came from the 100 calorie Cheezit pack & the vanilla Snack Pack. But none of that mattered because...

My husband IMs me and says, "Hey, how 'bout we go to El Torito for lunch?" "Okay!" So not only did I eat a more unhealthy lunch, but I also didn't work out. :oP Needless to say, I didn't try to track my dinner.

I'll try again tomorrow.

*image from http://stolzenhaus.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/lose-it-iphone-app-wow-was-i-wasting-calories-on-junk/*

Path to 5k

I'm pretty proud of myself for doing this, hence the post.

I got up this morning (a Saturday no less!) and jogged a mile. Not at the gym; not on a treadmill; on the road. Which is kind of scary considering there's no shoulder. I'm proud that I jogged a mile on a Saturday.

My husband came with me (I don't think I would have done it without him) so I'm very thankful for that, but the mile certainly wasn't as much work for him as it was for me.

The other thing is that I looked into getting the Nike+ running thing (it's something you hook to your shoe & it 'talks' to your ipod to track your run) but all the ones I saw aren't compatible with the ipod & iphone I have. SO instead of spending lots o' moolah on getting a new ipod, I decided to try out an app (Runkeeper) on my iphone that's supposed to do the same thing. It tracks by GPS (or manually, but that's no fun) but it doesn't do a lick of good if I can't get GPS signal on my phone. That's a bummer. I'm going to try MapMyRun & see if it'll work for me. And if not, then I'll see if I can't convince someone to get me the Nike+ for my birthday or something. :o)

After we got home I made breakfast burritos (so easy & so yummy) and a smoothie made from apple juice, banana, blueberries, & raspberries.

Needless to say, I'm feeling very good today. Hope your day results in the same.

Fun at the CRC

My job position has been posted. Which means I need to reapply for my job & cross my fingers that I get it. :oP Chances are good, but one never knows. I just want benefits so I can finally go to the doctor!!

I did a cycle class today during lunch that KICKED MY BUTT. The regular instructor was out for some reason so the Associate Director of our department subbed--and she's super intense. I really did have a great workout...minus the almost passing out & throwing up part. I shall be sore tomorrow.

P.S. My stomach is so much better. Changing my diet is the best thing I've ever done. Never thought I'd get to the point where I would need to!