Six Months To A New Me

I didn’t make it to the gym today.  Truth be told, the last two days I’ve had a horrible backache and headache.  The headache gets bad enough to make me a little sick to my stomach.*  So the last couple days I haven’t been eating much.  So I can forgive myself for not going to the gym today.
I’m going tomorrow though, and probably ice skating in the evening.  I’m not going to fret over 90 minutes vs. 120 anymore as long as I watch what I eat.  Which I’m doing very well.  Especially (and inadvertantly) these last couple days.
*Don’t worry, if it continues through next week I absolutely plan on going to the doctor!

Eating good in the neighborhood.  Did 36 mins of cardio at the gym, burned ~350 cals.
After I lost 5 lbs in the beginning, my weight has just continued to fluctuate within that 5 lb range, but never going lower.  It’s a tad annoying, but I know if I just keep doing what I’m doing the results will come.  A. and I talked about this at length last night.  Everyone’s metabolism is different, everyone burns at a different rate, and 40 different things can affect it all.  For me, I would guess some of the medicines I take make it harder for me to lose weight.  But I can still tell I’m leaner, and most importantly I’m living healthier.  We’ll see how it all shakes out in 5 more months.  I’ve got to at least lose a little more by then, right??

Oh man.  Tonight’s workout kicked my butt, and it literally just hit me.
Or maybe it was the wine I had with dinner.
Either way, I should sleep good tonight. 30 minutes on the elliptical was not so easy after 5 days off of exercising.  And I actually did PUSHUPS at the gym, people! Granted, it was…*cough*…less than 20, but these were real, straight leg, plank position pushups.
And eating was super duper today.  I managed to avoid my sugar cravings until the very end of the day, and then just had a few bites of E.’s dessert.  Yay, willpower!

My weight went down an additional pound for the first time since I started all this nonsense.
Pie gain hasn’t hit yet I guess?  Lack of exercise led to lack of muscle?  No water retention since I flew on a plane?
Whatever.  I love it.  Still off to the gym tonight, though!

I just stepped off the scale after a 5 day hiatus from logging my food or exercising with any intensity (unless you count shopping and/or lugging a heavy suitcase) and was happily surprised to find the number hadn’t moved up much at all. Maybe a pound, tops.
Of course, that’s the opposite direction of where I want to go, but considering I threw caution utterly to the wind and ate pie pretty much every day I was back in Ohio, that’s really not that awful.  Admittedly, my meals were generally light (small portions of turkey, cocktail shrimp, sweet potatoes, baby carrots and dip–not all at once of course) and the biggest breakfast I had was a dutch apple bagel with cream cheese. 
Tomorrow my body is going to freak as I go into sugar/dessert detox.  And in the p.m. the boy and I already have a date at the gym.  So back on track…until Christmas…then I can concentrate on dropping pounds from January on.

I’m trying to get as much gym/exercise time in before I leave town.  Partly because I get a little stressed before travelling and my digestive system does not like most methods of getting from point A to point B.  (sadly, despite repeated questioning, my doctor says it is simple a product of having IBS and nothing but strong medicine can help)  The other reason is, to answer Kilax’s question, there’s not going to be much chance for exercise at home.
The good news is my folks are on something of a health/exercise kick, but that usually means a quick paced walk–probably shorter/less intense than what I am used to.  My dad does have an exercise bike in the basement which I may hop on at some point.  But for the most part it’s going to be a lot of running around visiting family and stocking up on as much clothing/grocery items as possible at the much lower prices/sales tax rates. 
Uh, I seem to have completely lost track of my point.  Which is that I hit the gym for 34 minutes on the elliptical today and it felt SO. GOOD.  I’m eating a lot of things in halves today I noticed.  Half of a cup of tea, half of a cup of cider, half of a pack of crackers.  Again, the pre-travel jitters.  I think I am one of the few people in this world that tends to actually lose weight between Thanksgiving and Christmas!

E. and I had our first joint trip to the gym today.  It was great!!  I really love the new gym.  It’s so, SO much nicer than Bally’s.  I stepped into the locker room and felt like I was at a spa.  I’m very glad we signed up when we did–during construction, so that the application fee was only $25!
I did 32 minutes on the elliptical and burned about 300 calories.  It is getting harder to get my heart rate up b/c apparently my heart is getting pretty tough!  Ate good today, too.  Right now I’m polishing off a Subway turkey sammich.
In the future, we hope to take classes (including rock climbing) and do some free weights together.  I personally want to take the intro to spinning class.  It’s nice to have a gym buddy, if for no other reason than to hold you accountable for showing up at the gym, period! (not that I need much encouragement these days…)
I kinda want to go back tomorrow at lunch time but I have a lot to do before I leave town.  Maybe I’ll run, or maybe I’ll manage to squeeze it in…Wednesday I definitely want to run since I will have NO chance to zip off to the gym!

I did not make it to the gym today, and I’m not going to have time to do so.  Which sucks.  I didn’t even make 90 minutes this week and the diet plan I am on accounts for 90 minutes of aerobic activity per week.  Of course, you can’t go back and undo your eating habits for the week if you find yourself coming up short on the exercise in the end.
I was sort of happy because despite what the scale stubbornly continues to tell me (no weight loss to everything back plus a pound or two!) I’ve noticed a tremendous amount of muscle in my legs AND my pants are actually loose.  This morning I almost got the belt buckle back on the old hole I lost so long ago.
But, I am really bummed and frustrated.  Next week will not be any better because even if I work out Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, I get on a plane Wednesday and the most I can hope for total is 90 minutes.  Harumph.  I’m trying for it though, because I really need to exercise before I get on a plane, as much for mental and digestive health as anything…

I just had the most erratic and bizarre run to date.  And I don’t even want to think about how slow I was going–my feet felt like concrete blocks until about minute 26!
And I think I figured out why.  Yesterday was one of those “crazy busy random eating all over the place just grab something when you have a chance” type of days.  I ate a lot of sugar.  A LOT of sugar.  Probably 80% of my food for the day was sugar-laden. 
This morning I woke up feeling like crap.  My whole body ached, but not in a sick way.  Just in a “blegh” way.  I knew I needed to exercise today no matter what.  But more than anything, I was reminded that filling your fuel tank with sugar does not make your engine perform so great.
I still ran for 31 minutes total.  I have no idea on the distance because I can’t seem to accurately map the route I took.  (my brain doesn’t operate too well on sugar either!) 
40 minutes on the elliptical tomorrow and I’ll hit 120 for the week.  I can do this, provided I continue to watch what I put in my fuel tank!

I REALLY wanted to run today, but looking at my schedule it is just not feasible. I went out this morning to walk my neighbor’s dog and with the right amount of bundling, it would have been a good running day for me.
So.  Tomorrow I will have to either run or go to the gym and the same goes for Saturday.  I’m a bit disappointed with this week’s efforts, especially since I was off to such a good (and exciting) start, but life happens and our time is too often not our own.  *sigh*  I think I can still make 120 minutes though, even if it means an extra long run or extra long jaunt on the elliptical at the end of the week…