Kari’s Blog

After missing my lunchtime workout yesterday, I was so determined to get a workout in today!  I didn’t know how I was going to do it, I have meetings from 10am-4pm at another building, and we’re busy after work….and I had a 6am meeting this morning so I couldn’t do it early.  I thought about it, and then I realized that the building where my last meeting will end, has a gym in it!!  So I brought my backpack w/workout clothes & ipod, and when my last meeting is over I’m heading straight to the gym to work out for an hour before I catch the train home!

I feel really good that I’m going to get the exercise in, and even better that I didn’t give up on the problem, but found a way to “MAKE IT WORK”, as my favorite Project Runway man Tim Gunn would say.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!  I won’t be online this afternoon due to the meetings, but I will catch up on blogs tomorrow!

Really not much to report today, but I wanted to drop in & blog so I don’t get out of the habit!  It’s been a busy day at work, and I don’t think I’ve had enough water, but I’ll be sure to get a few large glasses at home before bed!   I had a meeting with an auditor at work today that ran over into my lunch hour, so I wasn’t able to go to the gym at lunch even though I’d brought all my workout clothes & everything. Grrr!   Tomorrow I will DEFINITELY, auditor or no auditor!

That’s right, success!!  It was a hard week, with some ups & downs and a lot of challenges, but at the end of it all I’m down 2.5 lbs!  Sure, some of that is due to Mr. TOM taking his leave, but still, I worked hard for it!

This week is crazy with work, getting the condo all finalized, etc.  I might not update as regularly in the next few weeks but I WILL commit to coming on at least on my weigh-in day, at minimum.  Probably more often than that, but not likely to be daily for a while…..

In spite of all the big changes going on with our move, etc, I am definitely going to find time to keep my exercising up.  After slacking in October and realizing how hard it is to get back into it, I don’t want to let that habit go again!  Plus….my mom & I have an appointment on Dec 2nd to order my wedding dress and hey, if I can lose a few more lbs by then, all the better!

Weekends are so hard!  It’s a fact.  Lots of running around town on errands, cleaning house, etc, and after all that junk of course I feel entitled to treat myself to a sinful meal!  This weekend my goal is to workout on Saturday AND Sunday, and to stay in my calorie range.  I can do it if I put my mind to it and think of it as part of my new healthy habits and not ‘depriving’ myself.  Positive thoughts, positive thoughts!!  My weigh-in is Monday so I’m hoping to be able to move my slider into the 130’s again!

Non-weight-related…we made an offer on another condo!  I think it’s going to be finalized this weekend and hopefully this time the inspection will go much more smoothly.  I love this place even more than the last one, so I know it was meant to be that the first offer didn’t go through.   It will be a little stressful going through the whole process of the loan and closing etc this close to the holidays, but it will be worth it!

We got together last night with a few friends to watch election results (we’re kind of political nerds like that…), and I knew that we’d all be having some wine, so the new, pre-planning ahead me journalled all of my food and added in two glasses of red wine, still keeping within range.  I ate a healthy, filling dinner at about 5:30 (which is earlier than normal for me…which might have contributed to the issue I’ll bring up later!), and we headed over to the friend’s house to start our evening.  We were having a great time, and I actually only had one glass of wine and then felt like I didn’t need any more (90 calories saved, thankyouverymuch!!), but around 10pm everyone else decided they were hungry for pizza.  Now I normally go to bed around 9:30 or 10:00, so this was alraedy getting close to my bedtime and I really didn’t want to be eating, but of course the majority ruled and two cheese pizzas arrived soon.  I resisted until about 11pm, and then I couldn’t stand it…I had to have a piece!!  They came from a local organic pizza place up the street, so they weren’t soaked in grease or anything, but still.  It wasn’t in my plan!

Even though I hadn’t planned for it, the good news is that since I skipped a glass of wine, and got in some EXTRA exercise earlier in the evening (I accidentally showed up for a haircut appointment 1/2 hour early, so rather than sit around & read a magazine while waiting, I went for a 1/2 hour walk around the neighborhood!), I managed to stay within my range even with the pizza!  The 1/2 hour unplanned walk was in addition to the 1/2 hour I’d logged earlier in the day on the exercise bike, so it was a definite bonus.  Plus I got to enjoy the gorgeous fall colors before all the leaves are off the trees and in the gutters.

I hope you all have a good day - I plan to stay 100% ON PLAN and power through this week so that my first post-TOM weigh-in will be a positive one!

I made it through yesterday and stayed 100% on my plan and achieved all my goals!!  Even though it’s a tiny baby step on the way back to where I want to be, it feels great! 

Thanks to my buddies for all the supportive comments on my blog yesterday, I really do appreciate it!!  I will try to come clean with all my ups and downs so I can get support when I need it and give it back when others need it too.

Today I’m on track with my eating, and I have plans to work out on the exercise bike at lunchtime.  So far so good!  Baby steps, baby steps.  If I can make it though today on plan that will be two in a row!  Woohoo!

Well, it was a good weekend, as far as fun & excitement go!  Saturday was spent with family & friends, and going to the home opener game for the Blazers - (who WON in a thrilling 4th quarter comeback!) - and Sunday was lay around the house, get laundry & chores done kinda day, which was perfect since the weather outside was frightful!

However, I did NOT stick to my diet plan this weekend.  I let the bad weather discourage me from getting outside and going for runs.  DF & I did walk to the store & back on Sunday morning (about 1.5 mi roundtrip), so there was a *little* exercise in there, but not what I had planned.

I’ve realized looking back on some of my past blogs that even when I’m accountable and come on here and admit my slip-ups, sometimes I’m not exactly honest about my feelings about them.  I think I whitewash things a bit because I want to be positive and I think that it what will get me back on track (which is true, I suppose), but I’m wondering if ignoring the negative emotions inside is really a good thing or not.  So I’ll try to be more honest in these blogs about how my ups & downs really impact me.  It might not be the most uplifiting or entertaining read all the time, but at least when I go back to look at how I’m doing, I’ll see the true picture.

As for the slip-ups this weekend, they really put me in a foul mood.  It didn’t help that I’m pre-TOM right now and probably a few pounds ‘overstated’ on my true weight, but when I stepped on the scale Sunday and saw 140 I had a minor freak out.  I’ve been so solidly in the 130’s for so long after all my hard work….it was just depressing. I know I have to acknowledge that it’s my own actions and failures to follow through on things like exercising this weekend that got me here, but that didn’t make it any easier to face.  It’s difficult to realize that after I had such a positive summer with SO much exercise, SO much motivation, and SO much progress, that I’ve let myself slip back to this point and now I have to RE-do all that hard work just to get back to where I was only two months ago. 

But it has to be done.  I want to feel the way I felt this summer again, not the way I feel now!  I’m using the Sparkpeople site more regularly again (that really worked for me this summer), but I’m not as enthusiastic about it as I was.  Hopefully I’ll get “sparked” by motivation again and be on my way to success.  It did give me an idea to set a new “fast break” goal, which is a small goal that you go after for 14 days in a row - the idea being if you can accomplish this it will re-build your confidence and help you power on through.  My goal is to get at least 2 servings of veggies each day for the next 14 days.  I’ll add that to my accountability reports here!

I don’t want anyone to think that I’m going to turn into a negative Nancy here and never celebrate the good things anymore, but that’s not it.  I just think I need to be more open about acknowledging the bad things and how I feel about them so that I can see them in context and compare them to the goods.

In GOOD news - I got myself out of bed this morning at 5am and did 30 minutes on the treadmill!  AND, I’m 100% on plan for today.  Small successes, but I’ll take them!

Well, I’ll come out & say it - I blew my calorie range yesterday!!  It was a bad day - we got the inspection report back on our condo and there were so many issues (the electrical & plumbing weren’t up to code, for starters), that we decided to not buy this condo but wait for another, even better one to come along!  It was a hard choice, because we really loved this place and the location was SO perfect, and we were already going full-steam ahead with preparations to move into it - finding a renter for our house, selling a bunch of our furniture, etc.  But it was the right thing to do.

We met up with some friends after work though, and I let my mourning for the condo translate into a cheeseburger & fries.   It was good but it wasn’t worth it!!  Luckily I did get my planned exercise in, and today I will be doing an EXTRA exercise session plus staying at the low-end of my calorie range to get things back under control.  Fingers crossed that I’ll still be able to show a loss on weigh-in day!!

I am having a hard time getting back into my exercise routine.  Between the cold weather, work craziness and the busy times with the house rental/condo purchase, it’s been a challenge to say the least.  I know I can’t let these obstacles overcome me though!  I need to power through and find a way to make my exercise a priority again.  There’s always the option of getting up earlier or staying up later, I just haven’t forced myself to do it.

It’s the middle of the week, so I still have time to get my three workouts in before Saturday!!  I make this promise:  I will ride the exercise bike before I go to bed this evening, for a minimum of 30 minutes, AND I will get up and go for a run on the treadmill tomorrow morning.  So by this time tomorrow I’ll be 2/3 of the way to my exercise goal for this week!

I’m happy that it’s the first of the month….starting a new month always feels like a new beginning, somehow.  Like when I work out tonight I’ll be able to say “I’ve worked out EVERY day this month!  100% success!!”  LOL   It’s silly I know, but it’s one of those little mind-games that really works for me!

My other goals I have met consistently this week - I’ve been drinking all my water, bringing my lunch, and getting enough sleep.  Once I conquer the exercise beast I’ll be set!