Kari’s Blog

I only have an hour for lunch & I want to use it to workout, so here’s a quick update of my past few days and my plan for the rest of the week!

Monday - 20 min cardio, upper-body & core strength training - DONE
Tuesday - 4.5 mile run w/dog - DONE
Wednesday - 30 min cardio, lower-body & core strength train - on my way!
Thursday - 60 minute cardio, intense stretch/yoga
Friday - rest - stretching only
Saturday - a.m: upper body & core     p.m. 60 minute cardio
Sunday - 60 minute cardio

I’ve been on track with my eating - even found healthy alternatives at a great Ethiopian cafe I tried for lunch yesterday, yum!  So I think as long as things go to plan, I will have good news come Sunday weigh-in!

My wedding dress is supposed to arrive by April 15th, and my first fitting for alterations is at the end of April.  If that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is!!!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Today I discovered a new website that I think is going to be a fun way to track my exercise & set unique goals for myself.  It’s http://exercise.lbl.gov/, and it basically is a “Run Across America” challenge.  You enter in your mileage goal for each week, then enter how many miles you complete (walking, running, or cycling), and it tracks you across the country, showing you pictures along the way of the route you’re ‘running’, notifying you when you cross a state line, etc.  I think it will be fun to say “My goal is to run across Virginia in 3 months” instead of “my goal is to run 100 miles this month”. 

You can also add partners, and it will track your progress together, so you can who’s “ahead”, and it will notify you when one of your partners ‘passes’ you on the trail, etc.  Really fun!

So I’m joined up, but I don’t have any partners yet.  If any of my buddies decide to give it a shot let me know, we can add each other & track our progress together!  You don’t have to be a runner - walking & cycling counts too!  It’s the mileage that matter, not how you do it.

Aside from that cool new motivational tool, things are going well!  I had an unhealthy dinner last night (onion rings with ranch dip at a bar during while watching the NCAA basketball games), BUT, believe it or not, I had planned for that.  I ate light all day (but was still satisfied), drank TONS of water (since I knew there would be a lot of sodium) and entered everything honestly into my tracker.  I finished the day within my calorie range!  Plus I went for a 4.5 mile run in the afternoon (before dinner), so I got my exercise in too!

I’m ready for Sunday - so I can make my FACT of losing weight come true for my Red Hottie weigh-in!

Hi buddies!  Sorry for my absence over the weekend, DF & I both came down with the flu on Sunday and were down for the count yesterday & Monday.  It was no fun at all, but we’re both feeling much better today, so things are on the mend.

You probably know, I did not see a loss last Sunday for my weigh-in.  In fact, I had a gain.  I did not feel up to exercising Friday or Saturday (I think the sickness was starting to come on), so that contributed to it, I’m sure.  BUT I’m taking things one day at a time and am on track to a perfect on-plan day, calorie & water-wise.  I am not going to exercise today, as I’m still feeling really exhausted from the last couple of days, but tomorrow if things feel more normal I will get out for a run in the sunshine. 

As for a loss this week - it’s not a plan, it’s not a hope, it’s a FACT:  I WILL be down on Sunday.  No two ways about it.  I am 100% dedicated to making that happen.  All aboard the motivation train!  Woo,wooooo! (OK, I might still be a little loopy from the sickness, pardon me!)

I took a four day weekend over the President’s Day holiday, and as part of it I took a break from my normal internet haunts….so that’s why I’ve been missing from BuddySlim for the past several days.  I ate fairly well, and went for a good run on Saturday, but haven’t exercised since.  I still feel in a slump from my “off-track” weekend two weeks ago.  I’m trying hard to focus on my motivation again and get my act together, but I’m just not feeling the inspiration I did earlier in the year. 

I hope that this is just a normal downtime in between spurts of discipline!!  I brought my gym clothes to work today and will use every ounce of willpower I have to get over to the gym at lunchtime.   I need you now, buddies…..I’m having a really hard time DOING the steps I know will get me to my goal.  I know none of you can show up in person and kick my butt into gear, but any encouragement would help now in this time of bummer-ness!!

Hi buddies…..well…..I took a bit of an unintended extended vacation from this site!!  I wasn’t able to log in while they did the upgrades during Thanksgiving week, and then being out of the habit, I never made it on last week!

The results….I gained back a pound over the holidays.  D’oh!!  I tried to stay on track, but there was a LOT of food.  I didn’t eat as much as I normally would, so I consider that a success, in spite of the 1 lb gain.

But I’m back now!!  And here’s the fantastic news:  I ordered my wedding dress this weekend!!  Now I have more motivation than ever to look my best for it.  No jiggly arms for me in that strapless affair, thankyouverymuch!! 

I’m terribly sorry for being away for so long, but it’s a new month, a new site, and a new committment for me!!  Missed you guys!

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!

I have to tell you buddies, I am really glad that I took the step to publicly post my “Thanksgiving Challenge” here…it kept me motivated through a tough weekend!   We had a pumpkin carving party last night, and people brought over SO much tempting food!!  Cookies and cheeses and candies, oh my!!  I had a few but stopped soon enough to avoid serious damage to the waistline.

HUGE THANKS to all my buddies who commented on my last blog and helped me keep my motivation for this challenge!

As far as my action steps go, here’s where I am:

I brought my lunch to work today.

I’m drinking all my water.

And I’m going to work out this evening, hell or high water!!

I’m also finally updating my weight-ticker to show my “now” weight…after those extra pounds crept back on….accountability, I’m back!

And the last change - I updated my profile photo to show me in my wedding dress. Maybe seeing this every day when I log in will be a better reminder that July 14 is going to creep up on me before I know it!!!

I just spent 15 minutes writing an entry only to have it not appear when I hit ’submit’!  D’oh!!  So here’s the condensed version.

- I had a great weekend at the coast.

- I shopped for & bought a TON of clothes (including six pairs of new shoes) - all incredible deals.

- DF & I cooked a beautiful dinner on my bday.

That’s the main points of the birthday stuff. :)  I also lost 2 lbs since last week, but looked back at my weight graph and see that I’ve been gaining & losing those same 2lbs for the past 6 weeks or so.  I’m falling in to maintenance mode when what I really need is to be focused on losing the last 10 lbs so I can feel great about ordering my wedding dress in the right size come November!!!  Help, I’m in need of motivation!!

I also (FINALLY) received my new exercise DVDs in the mail.  I rode the exercise bike for an hour this morning, so I’m going to do the stretching one tonight and the toning one tomorrow morning - I’ll let you know how it goes!

I am just absolutely amazed at the difference in my attitude, my feeling of general well-being, my motivation, etc when I’m eating well & exercising vs. when I’m not.  Even though I only took four days off from exercise (ran on Saturday, then didn’t run again until today), I felt sluggish, slow, and, well, FAT!  I’m glad I was able to get out for a run at lunch today, even though it was warmer than I expected it to be!

After completely disregarding Sparkpeople and my food log over the holiday weekend, I got back into it yesterday and logged everything in.  I ate over my range by about 100 calories, but that’s definitely closer than I got all weekend so at least I’m headed in the right direction!!  Today I’m on track to be well within my range so I guess I was just easing back in.

I’m STILL waiting to receive my “Fit to Strip” and “Stretching for Beginners” DVDs from Amazon.com.  They say they’re supposed to ship between Sep 1 & Sep 18….so it may be a few more weeks before I receive them.  Bummer.

Next week I’m going to the beach for a long weekend - Thursday through Monday.  I can’t WAIT….I wish it was TOMORROW morning that I was leaving for the beach instead of next Thursday!

Yesterday was fairly decent for getting back on track, although I’d left my water bottle at home so I had a hard time getting in all my ounces of water for the day.  I snuck out to the pub across the street during lunch to watch the World Cup semi-final w/France vs. Portugal - Vive la France!!  I had a half of a turkey sandwich & cup of tomato soup, it was pretty delicious!   I was still pretty sore from Tuesday’s race so I took the day off from exercise. 

Today I’m back in the exercise swing again - it’s going to be a Triple Exercise Day!  I rode my bike to work (1), I have a volleyball game at 6:15 (2), and I’m going to go for a short run between 5 & 6:00 before my game starts (3)!  Those two pounds are SO history this week…puh-lease.   They don’t stand a chance against my motivation and all the support of my buddies!