this week

Hello Everyone!

This was the first week where I planned a whole bunch of cardio and a bunch of it didn't happen. Monday I did my workout at my gym (Mike was away at San Diego pride this last weekend). I thought about doing cardio Monday, but then thought no- Rhonda and I would be going down to a friend's farm on Tuesday and I really thought we'd be picking vegetables. Picking actually burns more calories than you'd think! We went berry picking on Saturday and that burned about 645 calories in 2 hours. So I thought I would wait and do cardio on Tuesday at the farm.

Well, we didn't pick anything. He just showed us around the farm, which was great, but not a workout. When I got home, though, I was so tired (it had been 90 degrees all day, very hot for me) I almost fell asleep 2x before I finally decided to just give it up and go to sleep.

Then I did my second weight workout Wednesday morning and thought that night I would walk home from working at the lab. But Rhonda showed up and told me there would be a birthday party for her mom that evening and asked if I wanted to go with her from work. So no cardio again. And on top of that, a very small piece of cake and 2 chicken strips.

So I was feeling fat, didn't sleep much and then had to go do a workout with Mike the next day. I was sluggish during the workout and don't know if that was just the sleep or a mixture of the sleep and bad food the night before.

But I finally got in some cardio! I used the arc trainer for the first time in a loooong time. I've been doing so much walking downtown to classes and walking home from the gym or classes, and now swimming too, that I haven't used a cardio machine in a long time. I wonder if there is a difference in the quality of the cardio workout when it's a machine workout or a walk or a swim...

This morning I swam for 30 min and I'll walk home from work and then I'll just have one more cardio workout to do this week. Mike said that being this far in and this being the first week where life got in the way of workouts was actually really good. Not a bad record.

So Rhonda and I are trying to switch over to organic meats to go along with our organic fruits and vegetables. In order to do that We re having to find some organic lunch meats or at least free range, grass fed. That's harder than you would think. We have tried a few organic turkey slices and they have a weird texture or weird taste (and it's not that, "Oh wait! This is what meat's supposed to taste like!" weirdness, it's just funky). So we're looking for maybe a meat CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or to find some organic turkey breasts to cook and then slice (also harder to find than you'd think).

Going to the farm was part of trying to really be aware of where our food comes from, who has contact with it, how is it grown and harvested. We have known this farmer, Richard, for a couple years now. We see him almost every Saturday, unless we're out of town. We chat with him and but organic vegetables and fruit from him. He introduces us to things we've never tried before, like Purslane (really good if you can find it) and lemon cucumbers. Seeing his farm and really having an idea of what growing requires, what a small, family farm looks like, and such, gave me a different level of respect for what our farmers bring each week.

Okay, that's all for now. Talk to you again soon!

wow! been away too long!

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while!

I've been keeping up with the nutrition and the workouts and am still going at it. No change there! I am at a total of 33 pounds lost now. Yay!

I have been reduced to 1600 calories a day and am still on the average of 400 calories/day of exercise. I've started trying some different types of exercise, like swimming. I always really enjoyed swimming, but hated getting the inevitable sunburn. Lucky for me, though, the gym I belong to has a large indoor lap pool! That's a nice bonus. I have been using it, too.

I have to be careful about the swimming, though, because it's such a huge calorie burner. One hour of swimming can burn up to about 1200 calories. If I am going to do an hour I have to add calories to that day and take away calories from another so I don't get myself back into the same issue I was having when I started this whole thing- burning so many calories that I start going into starvation mode. I have to work hard to keep the balance I need to actually lose weight.

With that in mind, I usually do about half an hour of laps (which for me is about 18 laps). I mix it up so that it's breast stroke and freestyle (slow to moderate speed) and that burns about 500-600 calories. I am trying to do that once a week, twice if I have the time. It keeps things interesting.

I realized last week that I was nervous about the reduction to 1600 calories. I had been getting sloppy with the measurements of food, adding a bit here and there. It didn't feel like rebellion, but it was. I realized after a week of saving different types of calories for a July 4th barbeque, and then eating like a pig on the 4th, that I could eat a lot less than 1600, still do the same amount of exercise with no issue on less, and then eat like a pig and stay within the guidelines for the week. That was a good realization and I started being more careful for the rest of the week. I'm not nervous anymore about that.

I am, however, sore. The way that my body is reshaping itself i have needed to start sleeping with a pillow between my knees or else i wake up sore in the middle of the night. Well, I've realized that the pillow causes it's own soreness issues. And now I have to learn new types of stretches for the psoas and periformas muscles in order to relieve some of the soreness. it's wreaking havoc on my lower back right now and so I am doing daily stretches to help relieve that.

I had photos taken the first day I worked with Mike, the 'Before' photos. Monday I had more photos taken to see the progress so far, about 1/3 through. I have to say that I was disappointed with how little progress the photos show. I feel I've made a good amount of progress so far and the photos don't show it. I can see some little changes in the photos, but overall I still just see pretty much the same picture. But I have to remind myself that the outfit for the picture is not form fitting, it's not flattering, it's just a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Other outfits I have clearly show progress. I wore a shirt the other night that didn't fit at all when this started and now (it's form-fitting) it's big enough to look kinda sloppy. I'll have to photoshop the pictures together and post them on here. Maybe at the halfway point new pictures will show more progress.

That's all I can think of for the moment. I hope you're well!