Starting over

You may be able to tell that life interfered with my weight loss plans, so now I'm starting from scratch. Step one is plotting out my meals for the week,e specially as my schedule keeps changing and I need to keep myself on track. This week I'm packing my lunches and snacks on Sunday so I can just grab them and go, and I know where and what I'm eating for every evening. My newest recipe obesession is http://damndelicious.net/2014/04/09/one-pan-mexican-quinoa/. It's a little high point at 10 pts/serving, but it's tasty and super filling.

Starting: ugh, haven't weighed myself.
Goal for the week: Track every freaking bite that goes into my mouth. Don't have any wine.

2014. Another year. I'm disappointed with my lack of progress in 2013, but I started 2014 at 213.8, which is just over fifteen pounds lighter than last year. I'm back on Weight Watchers and would like to lose forty pounds before June 30, when I move again. That would put me at 170.8, ten pounds lighter than I have been since high school. Difficult? Very. Doable? Definitely.

Here's to a new start.

What I've done: purged (most) of the refrigerator. Bought some healthy snack options (ie. fruits and vegetables). Started exercising again and have a plan for this afternoon. I'm also planning on starting Insanity. Which is. . .insane, but some folks I trust told me the program is worth it. Here I go!

Something to be proud of

I have been swamped with work and keeping myself on the right track, and I wanted to wait until I had some amazing news to share. Well, I do in the weight loss sense (I hit my 10% goal last week!) but something I'm even more proud of is the decision I forced myself to make tonight.

I wanted to eat a smaller meal as I knew I had overeaten at lunch (work lunch meant high point meal, ugh). I ate something smaller that kept me within my point value and still felt like I was starving.

Instead of what I have done before, I drank some water, ate some zero-point grapes, and waited. And then changed into comfy clothes and did some stretching while watching Rizzoli and Isles. Soon, I wasn't hungry anymore.

One of my greatest challenges is the binge mentality, when I find myself blindly looking for food, any food, and lose control. Tonight I won through conscious choices. I'm so proud.

Oh, and 204.0 as of this morning. Four pounds and I'll be below 200 for the first time in almost ten years.

Progress! (when I wasn't looking)

I ran for over a mile today. I wasn't fast. It probably wasn't pretty, but I ran for 12 minutes and I managed to run for just over a mile. I went to the gym today as it was already almost noon when I decided I was ready for some exercise and murderously hot out. So I put the treadmill on 5.4 miles/hour, just over a fast walk, and jogged. And jogged. And before I knew it I was at more than a mile. And I can't wait to do it again.

I thought I wasn't getting stronger. I have yet to be able to run a full half mile while outside (which made me feel awful and like I hadn't made any progress), but I know dang well I couldn't run a mile on the treadmill when I started this. I couldn't even run for a quarter of a mile. First I need to get up to the 5K and then I'll work on speed and incline. Meanwhile, I'm going to continue training. I know I can do better!

Oh yeah, and I have only 9.4 pounds to go until I'm below 200 pounds for the first time in almost ten years. It's a pretty good feeling.

Fitness goal of the week: Run half a mile

I fell off the bandwagon pretty hard this past weekend, but I'm going to run run run in order to get over it and move on. Fitness goal of the week is to jog, not run hard core, just jog, an entire half mile this week. I think I can do it. I've managed a quarter mile in about three minutes, so aiming for a six minute half mile would be jogging at a 12-minute pace, which isn't too bad, though faster than I've been going. Come on, self! I can do it! (Will post once I've achieved success).

Trying not to be *that* girl on Facebook

So, I attempted to start running. And have kind of succeeded. I'm rather embarassingly slow, but I'm trying to get up to running a 5k by the end of August. I can almost run a quarter mile, straight, which is a HUGE accomplishment compared to when I started. So far it's all thanks to a Zombies Apocolypse running app, which has two options to choose from, running straight out or training for a 5k. The 5k one has been hugely motivational. Nothing more motivational than thinking a zombie is running behind you. Well, shuffling. Still.

The difficult part as I hit milestone (haha, milestone. and it's real miles) achievements is not becoming *that* girl we all know and dislike intensely on Facebook. You know, the one that posts every time she's going to the gym or has done something healthy, then moans if she made the wrong choice? I love love love the marathon photos and updates, but I don't need to know whenever someone has sweated. That being said, the high when you achieve a goal is something I totally get being proud of. So I'm working at milestones so I can track them and quietly celebrating as I feel my body getting into at least a little better shape. Today I averaged a just over 15-minute mile walking/jogging. Going for 14 min mile by the end of the month. Small, small steps. But real ones.

And it always helps that I hit 211.6 on Friday during my most recent weigh-in. WOOHOO! 20.4 pounds down. I may not make it to 90 pounds by the end of the year, but that's still 20.4 pounds that is no longer with me. 69.6 to go!

10 pounds down

So Weight Watchers is working. I started at 228, and despite numerous small trips for work and a two week vacation in India, I'm more than ten pounds down, and that doesn't include my weigh in tomorrow! I weighed in at 217.6 last week, and I hope to be down another pound or two this week, but we'll see. I do feel like I may turn into a vegetable, however, with the amount of fruits and vegetables I'm eating, but I'm letting myself have a bagel (and maybe a cinnamon roll) at brunch this weekend. And I'm reminding myself of all the pretty pretty clothing I'll be able to wear eventually!