5 Lost and 5 Gained

Weigh in- 145.

Did another great jump-rope workout today. The only problem with the at-work workout is that you get pretty sweaty. Luckily I thought ahead and brought an extra shirt, just in case. So I'll be changing before I leave the office.

I'm kind of upset that just one or two days of eating poorly can swing you back to your original weight after so much work. I'm hoping that this time it will take less time to get to 140, and that I can break that mark. I knew this was going to be a difficult time of year. At least I lost 5 pounds before I gained 5 back. I could have just gained 5 and been at 150! I have 6 days before the New Year. I really want to get down to 140 again. I think I can do it in a healthy way if I work out a little every day and don't eat like crap this weekend.

Let me tell you why I gained so much back yesterday. Nate and I made this incredible cheese dip with ground pork and some ground sausage. We put velveeta cheese in it, and chopped up onions, peppers, garlic and scallions. It's not great for you, but on top of that it's so delicious that I can't stop eating it. So I had sooo much dip yesterday. That was my lunch. Then I made lobster and brussel sprouts for dinner. My special brussel sprouts with parmesian cheese. I have been crocheting in between meals though, and that keeps my hands busy. Plus, it's too big of a pain in the butt to eat chips or cookies and then go wash your hands off after every bite so you don't get crumbs on the yarn.

Plans for this weekend.

Food: I need to go home tonight and plan the lunches. I'm not sure what we have in the fridge, but I certainly don't have any money after Christmas to buy any extra groceries. I might still have tofu. Uh oh. I think I was supposed to eat that a few days ago. It's probably bad.

Exercise: Tomorrow- tennis, maybe another walk on the beach, Sunday- aerobic house cleaning.

Great Quick Workout and Check-in

So I have said many times that I would jumprope for my workout and truthfully today is the first day I actually did it on my own. Ananda and I did one minute intervals after playing tennis last week, but today I did 2 minute intervals. I found a great timer online http://timberfrog.com/countdown/ It lets you set the timer for whatever you want and plays an annoying alarm when time's done. So I set it for 2 min, jumped rope, set it again, did situps, set it again, jumped rope and then did as many pushups as I could do. For an 8 minute workout, it was pretty exhausting. The second round of jumping rope was hard. I'm going to try to do another round in an hour.

So for my check in, unfortunately the scale read 145 again this morning, even though Ananda and I did an hour long walk last night. On Monday the transmission on my car died and I ended up drinking a lot of beer and then snacking on a lot of Christmas cookies that Nate's mom sent. I ate a lot of cookies. It sucks that one day can backtrack you that far. I had a really bad day yesterday, I got an estimate for the transmission (1800-2800) and then some work my dentist did on my front tooth fell off. Luckily it's not too visible because the dentist's office is closed for the holiday! I decided not to drink and get all depressed though. Instead Ananda and I went for a walk and then Nate and I watched the movie step-brothers which I thought was pretty darn funny. I felt much better afterwards. A hell of a lot better than I would have if I had drank instead of taking care of myself. I am going to do my best these next couple of days. Gizmo gets neutered on Friday which means he has to stay at the vet's office over night. With the holidays and all of the depressing news I need to make sure that I take care of myself or I have the tendency to get really depressed. I'm glad that I can look forward to Myia coming out and it will be nice when my car is fixed!

For the holidays- remember to appreciate all of the little things.

My husband, my puppies, nice weather here in Hawaii, good health, loving family, great friends.

Blogging Instead of Eating

I don't need that candy or cookies! I don't need them. Man, I want them though. Avoid, Avoid, Avoid!

Difficult Week Coming

I woke up this morning and weighed 142. That's fine, I tried really hard not to get back up to 145. I did okay this weekend. Played tennis with Ananda Saturday morning and did a strength training workout at home. I tried to keep filling my glass with water and tea so I wouldn't be tempted to drink wine or beer. I did have some wine, but only a small glass.

This week is going to be a challenge. Because it's Christmas week, there are not kickboxing classes. I need to come up with my own workout ideas. Hopefully Ananda will be able to do something this evening, if not I will be headed to the tennis wall on my own. I need to keep my scheduled workout days, I know this from past experience.
The other reason this week is going to be a challenge is that the kids are out of school. That means I have a lot of paper/desk work to do, which means I will be thinking more about food. It won't be too bad if the staff doesn't bring too much snack foods, then I will still just eat what I pack. The there's Christmas Eve and Christmas which traditionally for me always focus around food. I'm going to have to work extra hard this year to make sure that I fill the day with something other than snacking. Hopefully I'll have the energy to do my annual pre-dawn run on Christmas morning. Waking up at 4am on Christmas has so far been a habit I have been unable to break, so last year I went for a run. It was awesome to be out that early on Christmas morning. Then Nate can sleep in.
This week I would like to see the scale dip below 140. I think I can get it to do that. It will mean that I have truly changed my set point.

This week: Tonight- tennis, tomorrow- jump rope at school/work, Wednesday- off, Thursday- morning run/walk, Friday-jump rope, Saturday- tennis in the morning.

Food goal for this week: I started to read the Best Life Diet book. I do like the idea of not eating 2 hours before bed. I am going to work on that goal this week and continue to drink tea, which by the way, has been very helpful.

So Far, So Good

Played some tennis with Ananda this morning, ate eggs and a half of a bagel for breakfast. For lunch Nate asked for some pasta with a butter sauce, so I made some for him and put less butter sauce on mine and added some tofu that I fried. Yum. Not extremely healthy, but better than my normal Saturday lunch. Dinner is chicken with mixed frozen veggies. The challenge for today is the beer that Bobby will most likely have at his place when we stop by there later. Maybe I need to bring a drink for myself....

Met my goal!

This week I did really well. I have to give myself a pat on the back. I had a 3-day training at the beginning of the week, but luckily the DOE no longer budgets for lunch at our trainings. Trainings used to mean buffet style lunch. We had to either go buy lunch down the road or bring, so I decided to bring my lunch. There was only a few other people who brought, so we got to talking and one of my co-workers was talking about getting healthier so I suggested we walk for lunch the following day. Nate and I also planned out our dinners.
I had kickboxing on Monday, and it was one of the most exhausting workouts I've ever done. Literally pouring sweat off of my forehead. I didn't exercise Tuesday and Wednesday, but then I had an incredibly exhausting kickboxing workout on Thursday again. We were doing pushups and situps, kicking, punching and then in between we were rotating onto this pilates type machine that you lay on and do pushups or pullups. On Tuesday I weighed 142 and this morning I weighed 140. I'm motivated to plan for the weekend so I don't backslide. I really need to do some kind of workout over the weekend, a run or speed walk or something. Unfortunately, there is no kickboxing classes next week due to the holidays, so I'm going to have to make sure I plan in exercise. After that Myia will be here and hopefully she will motivate me to get off my ass a few extra times and I will break the 140 mark.
I think one of the things that really helped me this last week was the one extra workout I did on Sunday. Before then I was just kind of maintaining- working out hard, but eating too much. I went for a run on Sunday and did some pushups at my turnaround point. I think it helped keep my metabolism up and I was able to lose just a little. So my goal for this weekend is to get in that extra workout again.

When I get home I need to plan out the meals for the weekend. I think it would be smart to stop at a store on the way home and get lunch meat or something.
Workouts- Tomorrow tennis, Sunday- hiking or running.

Fighting to conquer Sunday

My struggles with the weekend continue. I didn't do so bad yesterday earlier in the day. I had one egg, mixed in some salsa and had half of a bagel with it. For lunch I followed my plan- tuna melt with healthier modifications. Then we headed out to the dog park and on the way home we hit the grocery store. And we bought chips. Damn it. If they're not in the house I can't eat them. But in the house they were. Bobby was on his way over to get the rest of his stuff, (he was supposed to move out on the 1st) and I had to talk to him about charging him rent since it is now the 14th of December. So I had a glass of wine and while I was drinking wine I started making brownies. Because we have brownie mix. I also had 3 beers. At least I stopped with the drinking, had a glass of iced tea with dinner. And dinner was good- I made roast pork with a salad on the side. I gave Nate most of the leftover rice, but I had to have a bite. Then Nate served out some cheesecake ice cream. Wow, to write all of that down makes me feel awful. Half a bag of chips, 3 beers, 2 glasses of wine, 2 brownies and a huge bowl of cheesecake (Ben and Jerry's) ice cream.
This morning it was sunny out by 9am, and since Ananda didn't wake up to play tennis, I went for a run. It felt really good. I ran pretty fast down past Kailua Beach, then I did some half-pushups on a bench and some tricep dips on same bench. I walked and jogged back since my knee was twinging a little. Then when I got back I practiced some punches and kicks since I'm trying not to be a big loser in kickboxing class. I actually made a good choice for lunch, and now I'm bored.
This is the point where I usually start eating something terribly bad for me. I am not going to do that today. I'm going to have to do something so I'm not bored anymore.

Deja Vu

Here we are again, it's Friday, this morning I stepped on the scale and it read 143. Awesome, but again, the weekend is looming. Nate and I already have dinner planned and it's a solid healthy dinner.
So, tomorrow. 1 egg with Salsa for breakfast (or half a bagel)
Instant oatmeal for snack at 10
Lunch- tuna fish on half a bagel (with mustard instead of mayo)
snack- chips and salsa
Dinner- planned out on fridge, I don't remember what it was

Sunday- 1 egg with Salsa for breakfast (or half a bagel) for breakfast
snack- instant grits
Lunch- Peanut butter and honey or jelly sandwich
snack- frozen veggies
Dinner- again, already planned on the fridge.

Alcohol- limit two two glasses/bottles per night with glass of water in between.

Exercise- tennis in the morning if it's not raining. Perhaps a run?

Goal- to weigh 143 or less on Monday

Make Substitutions

Along the lines of substituting healthier food into your diet rather than starving yourself, I found this really great article on Web MD called "Thin Foods." It talks about healthy foods that actually have the tendency to help people lose weight. None of them are "magic" foods, you need to supplement eating these foods with exercise and continue to work on portion control. Some of the tips I knew about already- like eating eggs for breakfast instead of cereal. I have 2 eggs for breakfast every morning. When I told my doctor this a while ago, she took my blood levels because she was worried about cholesterol, but my levels were more than fine. Two eggs fills me up for a long time in the morning. I usually have to remind myself to eat my first snack at 10am because I'm not feeling hungry yet. Another idea is to throw in some salsa or something spicy in the eggs (I want to start trying that this week). One of the tips was to eat more spicy food. I did not know that caffeine is NOT the ingredient in green tea that helps you lose weight. Apparently it's the antioxidants called catechins. I always thought the antioxidants were just a bonus. There is a lot more great food ideas on there, but this week I am going to add just two to my diet and try to make them a part of my healthy living. Later I would like to start adding beans to my diet, buying different kinds of nuts (pecans, walnuts) and possibly experimenting with tofu.

This week:
Eggs for breakfast, but add salsa.
Green tea after my dinner in the evening.

Tonight- kickboxing, tomorrow- I might take the day off, Saturday morning- tennis.

website: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/15-foods-to-help-you-lose

Feeling Stronger, Weighing the Same

Went to kickboxing class again last night. Before I went to the class I watched a youtube video for some inspiration. This is pretty crazy, the guy moves so fast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8YYZGvKM-8
The class was fun, I always feel bad for whoever partners up with me. They have to show me how to hold the pads so no one gets hurt. I'm getting better pretty fast, but it's a little frustrating knowing that you might be holding up the other person's workout. Luckily it's not all sparring, a lot of it is also individual technique work or situps, pushups etc, so they still get a crazy workout for the most part. I think I need to actually practice the moves outside of class in front of the mirror, but it's not the same when you're not punching a bag or a pad.

Feeling very sore today, but weighing in at 145. I seem to need maybe one more thing during the week exercise wise. And less ice cream, but come on, what's more realistic.

Plan for the week- Today- Jump rope or Tennis, Wednesday- off, Thursday- Kickboxing class, Friday- off (maybe jump rope if I'm not too sore), Saturday- Tennis and/or Hike

Goal- 144. I just need that one pound to go!

Oh Saturday!

Saturday, why would you do this to me? You tempt me with your time to sleep in and your alcohol and abundant meals of high fat deliciousness.

So Saturday did not go as well as planned. I have to say the planning of lunch on Friday was a huge success, I got home from work, made dinner and mixed some tuna fish for the next day. Saturday morning Ananda didn't wake up in time for tennis, so I gave myself a pass instead of sticking to my plan. Then I had some sausage with my eggs. Not too horrible, but again, not sticking to the plan. Then lunch was perfect because I had planned ahead. I had a half of a bagel with tuna fish and cheddar cheese melt. I used mustard instead of mayonnaise. After lunch however, things went horribly wrong. Our neighbors had planned on a Thanksgiving dinner get together since our first attempt got rained out. So I made my foldovers and brussel sprouts and pigged out with my neighbors at the barbecue area. I also had a beer and several glasses of wine.
Sunday I felt slightly nauseous and out of it, which translated into eating more than normal at breakfast. I had chili and chips for lunch, and then for dinner we had crab legs that we had in our freezer and rice and asparagus. Not too bad of a dinner except for the butter we dipped the crab in. And I had another glass of wine. Oh, and a huge bowl of Ben and Jerry's ice cream with chocolate sauce. Oops.
Today started out much better. I weighed in at just a smidgeon under 145. Damn weekends. I ate my usual two eggs, had a banana for a snack, half of a ham sandwich with mustard for lunch, and I just ate a healthy version of the instant oatmeal. Great filling snack actually. Tonight the plan for dinner is steak, leftover brussel sprouts from Saturday, and potatoes. After that I have kickboxing.

The Weekend

I'm writing now at the end of my workday before I go home because this is the time of the week that I start to backslide. I weighed in at 143 this morning Woohoo! which is great and two pounds down from where I started (145). However, I can't celebrate too early. The weekend is when I struggle the most. Usually it starts with wine or a few beers on Friday night because, well, it's Friday night and that's what you do right? Then Saturday mornings I usually get up early and eat a good breakfast before I play tennis with Ananda, but then after that... Well, it gets ugly. For some reason weekend lunches are huge. And fatty. Or greasy. And delicious. This is what I am going to avoid this weekend. I want the scale to read 143 or less on Monday. Usually I will get to 143 and then Monday we're back to 145. This has happened for several weeks in a row now.
My plan to conquer the weekend weight gain:

Tonight- A glass of wine is acceptable, it is Friday after all. However, I'm going to combat it with my water bottle. I used to have a rule that I had to pound a glass of water in between each alcoholic drink. Surprisingly, or I guess not really surprisingly when you think about it, I drink very little alcohol because I'm full. And I feel so much better in the morning.

Lunch tomorrow- tuna fish. Maybe if I plan it out now, I will not be thinking about all of the wonderful other things I could be eating. In fact, I am going to wip up the tuna fish with mustard tonight so it's ready for me tomorrow.

In fact I should plan out my whole day's worth of food when I go home tonight. I should decide what my snack will be around 10, what my lunch will be, snack again and dinner. If I plan it while I'm not hungry maybe I will be better off. I'll post this weekend if this is succesful or not.

Exercise- hopefully Ananda will be up to tennis tomorrow, I know she's been really busy. If not, I'll hit the wall later along with 20 pushups on the court and one round of jump roping.

Sunday- I'll plan my food tomorrow night or tonight if I am up to it. I will either hike with Nate or take the dogs on a long walk.

I need to plan ahead and get over this plateau, it's driving me nuts and I don't want to give up. Kickboxing has really helped, but today I'm sore so it makes me want to just lay down. Having the dogs helps too because I go home and immediately take them for a walk instead of sitting in front of the tv. Okay, I will check in later. Here's to seeing 143 or lower on the scale Monday morning!

Brussel Sprouts Recipe

Not 100% sure how healthy this recipe is, I'm sure I could look it up, but it's a great way to eat Brussel Sprouts, which for some reason, my husband decided we needed to have. Okay.

What you need:
Couple tablespoons of olive oil.
Brussel Sprouts- halved or quartered (Can use frozen sprouts, they just come out as a softer end product, which is frankly also quite tasty.)
Parmesian cheese- 1/4 cup, or to your taste
Balsamic Vinegar- 1 to 2 tablespoons
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Cut brussel sprouts into halves or quarters. (Halves for smaller sprouts, big sprouts you can quarter.)

2. Add some olive oil to a frying pan on medium heat.

3. Add brussel sprouts and cover the pan. I try to get the flat sides to touch the bottom so I get a crispy touch to it, but if you're in a hurry you can just toss them in. Also, be careful when adding them to hot oil, they tend to have a lot of water in them and you will get a lot of oil spraying if it's too hot.

4. Set your timer to three minutes and don't touch! Let them sit, they will get crispy on one side and when they sit long enough the unstick themselves from the bottom of the pan.

5. Take the top off and stir, or do what I like to do, and leave the top on and shake them up. Then leave them for another minute or two. I've found this last round is not as important as the first. I have done less time and had a little less done sprouts or I've left them on for a lot longer and gotten softer sprouts. This part is up to your taste.

6. Sprinkle the parmesian cheese on. This is from a recipe I found online. I also like to add smoked Gouda cheese.

7. My husband thought the original recipe was bland so he suggested adding balsamic vinegar. I thought that it sounded gross, but he has a really good feel for what spices or flavors to add to something. I threw on some vinegar the second time around and Voila! Delicious!

8. Salt and pepper to taste.

Keep in mind that the measurements are just a guesstimate. I tend to throw things together and hope they will work. I always taste throughout the process and my measurements often change depending on how I feel and the freshness of the products I'm using.

Making Better Choices

I'm at that point when I try to start losing weight where I make some changes and don't see any weight loss immediately. I think it has to be the most frustrating thing. Usually this is the point where I quit making weight loss a priority and start sliding back into my unhealthy eating habits. I'm glad that Myia, Arin and her friends are blogging right now too, because it reminds me to keep going. I'm not the only one out there who struggles or has a hard time. If I keep it up and continue to make more changes, my pants will fit better and I can go down another size. That is my long term goal. I was so close last time I lost weight to getting down to what I believe is my ideal weight and size, but I got comfortable, paddling season was over, and here I am gaining weight. I vow never to get back up to 175 again. In fact, I vow never to get to 145 again, once I get these last 10-15 off soon.
Now that Bobby is moving out, I'm hoping there's enough space to jump rope in that bedroom. That is a quick exercise that truly kicks your ass in a few minutes. And there is a lot of different moves you can do once you get back into it. I think between that and kickboxing I can do it. I need to build up the endurance and muscles. In a week or two I should be dropping weight much faster. The kickboxing instructor is not joke, you get scolded all the time. But he shows you how to do things right. I feel like Karate Kid when I'm in there. He makes you feel like you want to do it right. I do way more pushups and situps in there than I would do on my own. I go until my arms are like jelly. It's great and man do I work up a crazy sweat. I have to figure out what to do with my hair. It's too short for a pony tail, but head bands tend to fly off the back of my head. Not very tough. I usually wear bandannas to work out, but I just feel like it wouldn't be welcome in there. Any other ideas out there for short hair?
As for dinner I actually made some good choices last night. I ate some of the white rice, but only a very small portion, so I could have the taste ot it. I drank a glass of ice tea with dinner. I have gotten into making large jugs of hot tea and letting it cool, then having some with ice in a glass. Nate doesn't like sweetener, so I just add some to my own glass, he goes without. We've been buying tea from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, they have some really tasty teas. The regular old Lipton Apple flavored tea was really tasty as a tea and so was the peach flavored tea I made. I try to all of my homely stuff at the same time. I boil the water for tea and start dinner cooking while I was dishes. I can usually get a sinkful done while I'm waiting for things to boil or sit in the oven. If I multi-task right I can do dinner, dishes and make tea in an hour and a half max. Sometimes I can even throw a load of wash in there while I'm at it. Once dinner's on the table, I'm usually worthless and don't get off the couch except to walk my doggies.

Working Out, But Eating Trash

So I went to Kickboxing class last night. That's right, I paid my good money to have the right to punch and kick for an hour. It is a very fun class. Last night there was a lot of jumping rope, pushups and some kind of pushup-kick out-roll around move that made me feel very tough. We do a lot of situps and actually got to kick the punching bags. Makes you feel very tough at the time and very sore the next day. However, it's not enough. I really need to evaluate my dinner time intake. I have been able to get a handle on my workday snacking. I pack my lunch, including snacks, and have been eating very well actually through the workday. However, the weekends and dinner time are really screwing me up. For instance, at this moment, I am drinking a beer. I am making a commitment that it is my last for tonight, but man, just one beer is such a waste of precious calories. I could have had a bowl of ice cream instead! So now I guess I have to avoid the ice cream later as well. So this week my goal needs to be watching my dinner/evening time calorie intake. I can certainly do without the beer and the ice cream.

Kickboxing Kicked my A$$

Wow, so I went to the Kickboxing class I talked about the other day. It is in Kaneohe, at the Smith Tae Kwon Do center. They let me try the class out for free to see if it would be something I am interested in. I can see why. It is pretty tough. It was cool though. It's not like a cardio-kickboxing class where you're dancing around kicking and punching towards yourself in the mirror. You split up with a partner for the whole class and you wear boxing gloves and punch the pads your partner has. It was a great workout, you do both the punching and the holding of the pads and you take turns. We did a ton of kicks, and you actually get to kick and punch hard. It's amazing the difference between punching the air and landing a punch on one of those pads. So I think I'm going to pay the money and take this class twice a week. If I don't lose weight after I start taking this class it definitely means I'm eating too much. The class was two days ago and I am so incredibly sore. My hips are in major pain, but it's the good pain that you feel after you haven't used a muscle for a while and now you've woken it up. You also do a lot of sit ups in this class. And pushups. I'm curious to see what the next class is going to be like. I think there are two things I really dislike about this kind of class. Well, it really boils down to one thing: Sweat. Sweat in your gloves that you keep taking off and then when you put your hands back in, you feel all your sweat in there. The other thing is you actually grab your partner around the neck, swing them around and do kicks on the pad. This means you have to touch your partner's sweaty neck and get real close to their sweaty head. Gross. I tried not to think about it and once you get going you don't really notice it, but still, gross.

My partner kept telling me to stop "fencing" I think I was doing the cardio kickboxing punches where you kind of leap around and dance and fully extend your arm. Of course you're supposed to really scrunch up and protect your head from your partner. And you want to punch quick and pull it back to protect your head again. It'll take some practice to change that.

I am not really seeing any results and I'm sure I didn't lose any weight. I did the class Wed night, played tennis Thursday morning, but then it was Thanksgiving so I ate all day while I waited for dinner and then ate a ton of turkey and pie and brussel sprouts. Then we drank wine and went in my friend Mike's hot tub. It was a great day, but now I am sore from Wednesday's class and feeling fat.

Here's to sticking with my pre-New Year's Goals!

This week: Today- use new jump rope and at least jump for 5 minutes. Tennis tomorrow morning. Hopefully a hike on Sat or Sun. Monday- kickboxing class, Tuesday- tennis, Wednesday- NOTHING, Thursday- kickboxing class, Friday- NOTHING again.

Oh and start training for the Great Aloha Run soon. Have to start the walking distances now.

New Weight Loss Goal

Weight- 145. Yuck!

Goal- 140 by January 1st.

Alright, it's time for a pre-New Year's Goal. Hopefully I can lose a few pounds before the New Year rolls around so my New Year resolution doesn't have to focus on losing weight like it usually does. I know that the ten pounds that I've put on recently have to do with several factors. One, not blogging. For some reason this tends to keep me on track. I think it has to do with reflecting on my progress or lack thereof. Two, eating too much carbs. I can predict with great certainty that when I let myself eat a lot of carbs, I start to backslide into worse eating habits. There are many reasons that this is true, you can read my past blogs to find out why. Three, I am not involved in a sport that is truly calling me to be active. Tennis is a lot of fun, but I'm not that great, Ananda and I can only play twice a week, and there's no one telling me what to do (a coach) so sometimes I get lazy. So it hasn't been enough. So that's a clue to some of the things I need to change in order to reach a 5 pound weight loss goal by new year. It was 10 pounds- my goal, but then I lost sight of it and to say I will lose 10 pounds in a month is a little too much. If I happen to lose 10, then that's fantastic, but I'm going for at least 5 right now. That's a little over a pound a week for the next four weeks.

Here's my plan:
Diet- I have been researching tofu recipes, not necessarily because I think tofu is that much better for you, but because when I get interested in something new, I tend to think ahead more about my grocery list, which helps me plan ahead, which in the long run will help me lose weight. I know what foods help me lose weight, and which ones are bad for me. That's no secret to me. I just need to plan ahead in order to eat the right amounts. I also want to start looking at tuna fish recipes for lunch. Not with mayonnaise obviously. I actually haven't had mayonnaise in a really long time.
Diet goal for this week then is more tofu, more tuna, less white rice. Try to eat mostly turkey on Thursday for Thanksgiving.

Exercise- Keep up with Tennis Tuesdays and Saturdays with Ananda. However, I have finally started saving up for a martial arts class. I'm getting excited about starting. I am going to go try out a kick-boxing class in Kaneohe on Wednesday. They let you try it for free to see if it's right for you. They also have a Tae Kwon Do class that I want to try out before I decide. I would love to do Tae Kwon Do, but they expect three days a week from you, where kickboxing, you only are expected to go twice a week. I would like to keep playing tennis and I also don't want to get so busy that Nate and I don't have time to spend together. So I will probably go for kickboxing. Once I get to know people over there and get used to going, I may decide to change later on anyway.
Exercise goal for this week- Tennis tonight, Kickboxing tomorrow night, walk on Thursday after eating Turkey, Saturday tennis, and hopefully Nate and I will hike on Saturday or Sunday.

Check in- I should be able to check in to my goals on Sundays and Mondays to update on the weight loss.

Feel free to leave your own pre-New Year's goals!

Cleopatra the Counseling Cockroach

Just a funny story that happened to me the other day. So, I work at a school on an air force base. My office is an upstairs teacher's lounge. This is normally a great thing- it's a huge space, it's air conditioned, it has it's own bathroom. The biggest drawback is that it is a teacher's lounge, which means that every staff member has a key to its door and teacher's will come in to use the bathroom.
In my bathroom there lives a large B52 cockroach that I have seen several times, but since for some reason they terrify me, I have not been able to bring myself to kill it. Whenever it moves, it scares the bejesus out of me. Normally I just try to shoo it out of the bathroom before I go. I have named her Cleopatra the Counseling Cockroach since she has taken up permanent residence there.
The other day I got to my office and suddenly had to use the bathroom really badly, so I hurried in and sat down. I saw there was no TP on the roller, so I looked over to the stack of spare rolls, and there she was, right on the top roll, looking at me. Well, I had no choice, so I shook her off and put the new roll on the roller. She was on the floor of the tiny bathroom looking up at me. So I kept my eye on her while I finished my business. I stood up to pull up my pants and she came at me. I swear to god. Anyone who has encountered these things knows that if you're afraid of them, they tend to come at you. So I make this squealing noise, and throw open the door and dance out of the bathroom. I just zip up my pants and turn around to look for her and the teacher's lounge door opens. I was literally seconds away from getting caught with my pants down in my office! I was so terrified by a little bug that I didn't even consider the fact that someone might open the door! And of course Cleopatra was nowhere to be found. I pretended like I was just propping the door open and talked story with the teacher that just came in to use the bathroom. I don't even know if I flushed the toilet before I danced out. How embarrassing! Afterwards I had a good laugh because I am not usually scared of anything, but those damn bugs terrify me!

Quick Lunch Break Blog

So, today is my birthday. I did not lose the weight that I had been hoping. I know this is because I didn't really make the weight loss a priority. I allowed myself to eat junk and often. I continue to make myself lunch and have stayed consistent for breakfast. It's still that point of time between work and paddling- and then dinner and dessert. I eat a lot of calories at those times. I have consistently been tracking my calories. I got off track for a few days this week, but went back and filled in the calorie counts. I'm sure it's not as accurate as when you fill it out the same day, but this is the most consistent I have been with calorie tracking ever. I have been known to give up very quickly. I like my training log and how simple it is.
For my birthday I asked Nate for running shoes, and he got me a good pair. I also got a few pairs of really great fit-dry running shirts and shorts. I should have splurged for a bra. I will probably do that with some of my birthday money. I am going to put together a birthday hike instead of a birthday party. That way even if I eat a ton of cake, it won't matter quite as much. I'm not sure which hike I want to go on yet. I'll have to look a few up and see what looks best.
Goal for this week-
Drop back down to 138 (from 140)
Run two times in the morning.
Schedule- Tonight- paddling, Thursday- running (early morning or afternoon), Friday- paddling, Saturday- no workout, Sunday- OHCRA Championships!, Monday- paddling and running after practice, Tuesday- running (early morning or afternoon)

It's been a while

So paddling season is in full swing, which means that I don't have time for anything else, including blogging. That's why it has been so long. The season has been good, there have been some frustrating times, but all in all I feel like our team is really pulling together. We have come in second 2 times and then we came in 4th place in Kailua. We came in 3rd in Nanakuli, but that race won't count towards States points. It's been challenging, and it's been rewarding. I have sat seat 1 in 3 of our races. Because we have a different coach this year, it took us a while to get used to his coaching style. It was a lot of technique work in the beginning, which seemed really slow and boring, but in the long run it has paid off. We look pretty good anyway. I have taken to running on the beach after practice with whoever will go with me, usually Keysa, Joanna, Amber and Karen. Ananda ran a few times, but it gets really late. It's something I wish I had started doing a long time ago, running barefoot on the beach at night is freaking awesome. It's so nice and cool and somehow there is plenty of light out there to see where you're going. The best has been the few occasions when there has been a full or nearly full moon and you get a full on shadow it's so bright.
My weight goal had been to lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks, but I couldn't get my eating under control to lose the weight. It has taken me about 8 weeks to lose 3 pounds, but I guess that's not terrible. The running definitely helps me since for some reason paddling isn't enough of a cardio workout most of the time. We've been doing more sprinting recently, but it's not anywhere near the level we were doing last year.
So I want to lose those last 2 pounds by my birthday (July 16th if anyone wants to send a gift). Regatta season goes until the first weekend in August. I will try to start running more in the meantime, but when I start running again after paddling I should be able to drop a few more pounds. I would like to lose a few before the half-marathon on September 14.
I have been doing an excellent job drinking a lot of water. I have been taking my big water bottle everywhere with me and I empty it before practice and then I usually drink a ton of water during and after practice. I'm going to continue on that track.
I created a training log for myself on an excel spreadsheet that counts my paddling workouts, my runs, calculates my pace per mile and has an area for counting calories. I set it up to average everything out per month. I'm not going to worry too much about being exact on my calories, but I am going to make sure that I go back and think about the day and try to get everything on there including when I snag a couple of crackers or have a handful of chips. The other day I was very proud of myself, I avoided some emotional eating and wrote to my friends instead. The log is better for me than most I have seen that get really complicated about where you have run and what pair of shoes you were wearing and your measurements and everything. If I ever get into some more weight training or something else that I want to measure I will add it in. If anyone wants to check out my log just comment with your email address and I'll send over my template.
I also just discovered a fantastic free journal/log for both calculating how much calories you're eating and it will compare your intake with your calories burned from activities. I encourage everyone to check it out at http://my-calorie-counter.everydayhealth.com It is very easy to use if you're looking for a log.
Okay, so my new goals:
1. Add entries into the training log every day. Figure out from the log where I am taking in the most calories and where I need to change.
Next week I should have an idea where I need to cut the calories in order to drop a few pounds.
2. Run twice this week.

Pre-season

Our first pre-season paddling race was yesterday. It seemed really long, but I guess that's why they call it long distance. It was okay, it was an ironman 6 mile race starting at Ke`ehi Lagoon, out and around a buoy and back. In the boat sat Keissa, me, Debby, Ananda, Katie and Joanna steered. It was a beautiful day so we just enjoyed the paddling. We are doing the same race, same course next weekend. Hopefully it won't feel as long as this one did. I started to lose my voice towards the end, sitting in seat 2. I was pretty exhausted when I got home.
Today I went for a run. Well, I started at 12:00, in the very middle of the day so it was a little hot. I tried to do the loop from home, but only made it to Aala Dr. That's 4.76 miles (I calculated it) I ended up walking three times because it was so hot and humid. It felt good to get out and run though. Especially since practices have seemed so sluggish and slow. I have been continuing to weigh myself and I'm down to a steady 138. I've been replacing my carbs with more vegetables and protein, which helps me feel full. Unfortunately Nate bought Peanut Butter Cup flavored frozen Klondike bars. Damn they're good. I can't resist after dinner. But I think I can lose those pesky three pounds in another two weeks and then start on the 5 that I originally wanted to lose. It would be great to get to 130. Then I would just need to maintain. I think physically it would be possible to get down to 125, but I think that would involve giving up lovely things like peanut butter cup flavored Klondike bars. Who wants to live like that? Certainly not me.

Goals:
Continue bringing water bottle and lunch to work.
Attempt to not eat ice cream one night this week.
Continue replacing carbs with veggies and protein.

Monday- paddling, Tuesday- KCC strength training, Wednesday- paddling, Thursday- off, Friday- paddling, Saturday- race, Sunday- run/hike/lift.

Check in

Checked my goals from the last blog and I did really well. I brought my water to work almost every day, I did the dinner chart and worked out all the days I said I would.
I did weigh in at 138, but it's a shaky 138. I should be able to get down another pound this week.
So my goals are:
Weigh in at 137 on Friday, April 18.
Workouts:
Tonight- paddling, Saturday- paddling, Sunday- hiking or running, Monday- paddling, Tuesday- lifting/run, Wednesday- paddling, Thursday- off, Friday- paddling.

New Goals for April

It's always hard when there are big changes in your life to stick with your healthy lifestyle. I just started a new job with the DOE and as I was preparing to leave my other job, my whole healthy lifestyle fell apart. I began eating a lot of fatty food, plenty of carbs and dessert every night. These are all things that I had moved away from for a long time. One of the things that I think will help me from going too far off track is the fact that I weigh myself regularly. I noticed that I have gained 5 pounds. It's amazing how fast they pile on compared to how slowly they melt off. Anyway, 140 is not good. I need to start paying attention again. Honestly, that's the hardest part. To remember during a stressful day that healthy living is important. I bought Nate and I new lunch boxes, and have gotten back to making lunch. While mom was visiting we stopped making a weekly dinner chart, but we're getting back to that, too.
Paddling started back up yesterday, but it seems like we're going to be doing a lot of more distance type training, so we're not really getting our heart rates up too much. I'm going to have to supplement with some running in between. That's easy if I can get back into throwing on my sneakers when I walk Titus. Doing some quick sprints with him is a good quick workout and I can fit that in once or twice a day.
Today is April 3 and I would like to lose at least 2 pounds this next week. That would put me at 138 by April 11 (I'll make it a Friday to even out my week.)
I'm trying to remember to just set a simple goal for the week and to stick with it.

Goals:
Remember to bring water bottle to work every day.
No drinking (alcohol).
Weekly dinner chart.
Pack lunch every day this week.
Lose 2 lbs by April 11th.
Friday- Paddling, Saturday- Paddling, Sunday- Quick Run, Monday- Paddling, Tuesday- Paddling, Wednesday- Paddling, Thursday- Off, Friday- Paddling

Check in on April 11th.

A Day in the Life of an MIA

The day began with an early rise to meet the original MIA's at the Marimed/YWCA parking lot. It was a sign of the luck we were to face all day that Mike and Blaine headed to the wrong parking lot at first. However, they made a call, picked me up and we were on our way to the airport. Security was its same old lovely ride,
slow and awesome all the way to the other side of the metal detectors. It would have been shorter and awesome with a quick jump to Sector 1 if Mike hadn't let his special golden ticket expire.
We found our way to the plane and knocked the passengers left and right to get our three sweet, separate aisle seats. They even served us coffee on our flight. Although they ran out of their cute little coffee cups and served mine in a plastic water cup. Oh well.
On the Big Island of Hawaii we were able to locate and commandeer a vehicle. The Impala, with it's tight turning radius and state of the art music system was more than we ever dreamed of. There was room for at least three dead bodies in the trunk. Four would fit with the right positioning. We practiced our inspection skills by checking the car for scratches and dents. We then sped off down the road and immediately took a wrong turn and got lost. A quick check in with base camp had us back in the correct direction. We checked out a waterfall as we sped on by and arrived at the main office of the Wahiola program.
While I performed a quick CAFAS training the MIAs checked out the boys' house. Because the information is confidential, I will not be discussing any of their findings.
When the hard work was complete, we hit the 50s Diner for lunch. The exquisite burgers made of real cow meat were served to us after a short wait, by our moaning waiter. In the meantime we studied the "eclectic" decorum, the toy cars, the life-size manequins in 50's dress and the records pasted to the walls. After eating we all enjoyed the Betty Boop bathroom, with its crazy waiting area outside the door. Blaine has been ordered to take a shower in the Betty Boop shower next time they're on the Big Island.
I grabbed myself some coffee and then we headed up to the girls' house to inspect. Again, I will not be revealing our findings, I will not however, that I was an excellent inspector, and discovered many things. I was offered the opportunity to become an official Marimed Inspection Agent and I didn't even have to shank anyone to get the position. I was told I would receive a secret nickname. I think they forgot.
From there we toured as much of the island as we could, driving through Puna and flying by the zoo. I got to look at the Big Island Borders on our way.
Before we went to the airport to drop off our sporty Impala, we did NOT, I repeat did NOT stop by the Big Island Candy store to buy Nate a few cookies and get a few free samples.
We had a hard time returning our vehicle, because they had to check the trunk for dead bodies first, then Blaine had to reverse into a parking stall. It was all a little hectic, but we all arrived safe and sound in the end.
We passed by the airport bar, and Mike, shown here, sadly refused an alcoholic beverage. Then we were on our way back to Oahu, where the world makes more sense and there are less people living in yellow school buses.

Stress Diet, Swamp Romp, and Home-made Salsa

Haven't posted since the Aloha Run, so there are many things to talk about. First of all, the weekend after the Aloha Run, we ran the Swamp Romp in the marine corps base. I'm going to post the pictures. If you want a copy of one, please go to the following website: Printroom.com and go to the swamp romp section. Or you can click on this link. I will hopefully get my pictures developed soon and I'll post them when I do.
I just want to say that I love the swamp romp. It is the most disguisting thing ever and it hurts really, really bad and you run through really sticky mud and you run on sand and go over obstacles. It was a little over 5 miles this year. There was one point that we were running through a particularly sticky patch of mud, my feet got totally stuck and I thought to myself, this is the kind of mud that people get stuck and die in if there's no one around to get you out. Some people did a kind of fast spider crawl over the top and didn't get stuck somehow. I put my foot in and immediately was stuck and had to be pulled out. Thank god Mariya was there, I might have been stuck there forever. There were several walls that you had to pull yourself up and over, and there was a lot of swimming through disgusting mud. The pictures I believe were taken during what I though was the nastiest part of the whole thing. You could swim through the mud, but it was like a sludge. It was thick and you could feel it gathering in your shirt and pants. I think this is how Atreyu must have felt when he was leading Artax through the Swamp of Sadness. Of course Artax died, and we did not.
After the Swamp Romp I was pretty focused on my two interviews that happened to be set up for the same week, on two consecutive days. The first was for a Program Supervisor position, the second was for a DOE SBBH position. I think the first interview actually went well, and I was scheduled for a second interview. However, the second interview also went well and I was offered a position at the end of the week. I had to accept. I have wanted to work in the Department of Education for quite some time. So, I accepted the position, cancelled my second interview for the other position and began the resignation process at my present job. That was hard. I cried when I told my supervisor, when I told his supervisor, when I told the cadets, and when I told pretty much everyone else. I love this job, but it's really stressful and Nate and I can't take vacations at the same time. So, it's time to move on. While I was interviewing and stressing out about the possibility of new jobs, we were also changing banks. Central Pacific Bank has a great no minimum bank account and we wanted to change. In the meantime I bounced four transactions. Nate was not happy and I was really stressed out. It almost cost us an extra hundred dollars, but Nate went and complained to the bank and got two of our fees dropped.
So, in the meantime, I was completely stressed out, worried about getting a new job, bouncing checks and I lost two pounds. For real two pounds. I can always lose a few, but I generally gain them back pretty quickly. These have stayed off. I took advantage and have tried to eat well and have been working out 3 times a week, even if Ananda and I have gotten a little lazy and have been walking the loop.
Nate and I have actually been hiking with our lovely dog, Titus, and Nate has lost a few pounds. His shorts are all too loose. I think it's a combination of the hiking, walking Titus and the fabulous home-made food Nate and I have been creating. Nate likes to get different ingredients that we've never used before and look up a recipe. Recently we made home-made pesto with ingredients from the farmer's market, we made a spicy salsa (delicious!) and put together a guacamole that is really, really tasty. (The first time we made it, it was so salty that we had to throw it out, but the second time was incredible.) We also made meatballs and then put together a meatball sub with spaghetti sauce. I think we are both losing some weight and gaining the health benefits from our home-made food. And let me tell you, it's so tasty. And actually pretty easy, when you look up a well-written recipe online.
So, this is what is going on with me in the past few weeks. I am looking forward to paddling and have been trying out tennis. My goals are:
Monday- paddling (maybe)
Tuesday- run the loop
Wednesday- paddling (maybe)
Thursday- run the loop
Saturday- tennis at 10:30am and swim laps at 11:00am.

I would like to get back into doing pushups as well.
Oh, and I need to finish my walking stick, that I grabbed from our hike earlier today. I will take pictures. We cut down a young tree on the hike, and I'm going to sand, carve and stain the walking stick.

Great Aloha Run 08

Today was the Great Aloha Run, finally. It seems like I've been training for it forever. I was definitely starting to get burnt out on running the Lanikai loop, but none of us have taken the initiative to find another course or suggest something different. Anyway, Great Aloha Run. I woke up at 4:30am and made some eggs and coffee. I also ate half a banana in the hopes that I wouldn't cramp too bad. Hit the bathroom, no problems there, if you know what I mean. (Smooth sailing) Picked up Ananda at just after 5 and we were on our way. We listened to a little Jonathan Mendelsohn to pump us up for the race. We parked at the stadium and caught a large school bus down to the start line. People were in all sorts of moods from pumped, to tired, to irritable. I thought quietly about how badly I had to pee again, while Ananda figured out how to get the time chip onto her shoe. After she had laced it up good (spelling out Champion with the plastic connector) we arrived on Bishop. We made an immediate pit-stop to the porta-potties, which ended up being a big mistake. We ended up in the slow line at the johns with no TP. We saw several YMCA folks, but since they were going to walk and we were determined to win we said our goodbyes and headed to the start line. Unfortunately we took so long on the potty line that we were at the end of the herd to start. We saw the uniformed soldiers had already started, waving their flags. When the gun went off at 7:00am there was a general movement towards the start. Luckily the timer chips start when you cross the start line, so it didn't matter how fast we were going until we got there. We started our time at 7:07 on my watch. It was hard at first because there was a ton of walkers back at the end of the herd with us and we had to navigate around them. It's our own fault for taking so long to get there, but it was slightly annoying. We did end up running a fast first few miles. We missed the 1 mile marker and hit mile 2 at 17 minutes. We ran about a 9 minute mile until marker 6 and then the course headed out onto Kam Highway, into the sun and up the hills. We had already passed both water stations. We had to slow down because it was getting harder to keep up our pace and we wanted to finish the whole thing with a good time. We passed a few interesting people. A black guy dressed in old school red sports gear with red wrist bands did the whole race backwards. There was a few people who did not use their morning allotment of deoderant and smelled pretty bad. We ran faster to pass them. I myself used deoderant, but started to sweat buckets a few minutes into it. I was pretty soaked by the end of the race. Miles 7 and 8 in the race were definitely the hardest for me, you might call it, my windward leg. I had a brief second wind at mile 7 that didn't last very long. It was the slight uphill rise, that went on forever that did me in. After you finished the first one, there was another one not far behind it. I'm not sure if there was a mile marker for 8, if there was I missed it. We did a pretty good job of not going too fast when we got close to the stadium (there's still a lot of distance left at that point) even though that's when people started to go a lot faster. The best part is, as always, the run into the stadium. We sprinted through and hopefully there will be a fantastic picture of me crossing the finish line with a fierce, determined look on the GAR site. We ran the whole thing in 1:18:43, about a 9:40 mile. That definitely beats last year's time.
After the finish you throw your leg onto a bench so they can cut off the chip and you follow the herd towards the water, the bananas and sweet bread, and the best part- the ice cold lemonade drink they always have. Mmmm, it's so wonderful after a hard run. Then we picked up our t-shirts and wandered into the stadium where we decided that we did not much care to stay for the show. We found our way to the car, took some fabulous post-race pictures in the parking lot, and drove home, where we told everyone that we won the race. A tie in fact, because we are both so fast. Click here to look at the rest of the pictures.

And Back Again....

It's been a little while since the last blog. It's amazing how fast you start to forget about your New Year's Resolutions and start to get lazy and eat poorly again. For me I started the New Year out strong, but quickly started exercising less and less. Luckily the group running keeps me moving 3 days a week, so that's not bad, but you start to get bored doing the same thing over and over again. This past week I took a day off and it felt pretty good. The rain forced me to do the elliptical machine at the gym today and it felt excellent to do something different. I am going to go to my calendar after finishing this and schedule in a workout class next week. They usually have something worthwhile at 4pm. I can get out of work a little early once next week. The week after is the Great Aloha Run on Monday and then that very next weekend is the Swamp Romp. It's crazy that they are the same week, but it will be nice to finally run the races. It's been quite a while since I've done any distance running because the weather has been terrible. We've been able to get in the three mile run on Saturday mornings, but I think it's been three weeks (maybe more) since I did the 6. I guess I have to run 8 this weekend. Then Ananda and I have scheduled a post-run-bitch-about-work walk.
The eating hasn't gotten too bad luckily. It's partially because we don't have the extra money to eat out or get a whole lot of snacks. We have splurged on some fun expensive mushrooms and some kind of button squash that Nate really enjoys, but not as much ice cream and stuff. The superbowl party this past weekend threw me off a little, but not as badly as it could have. It was a lot of good food, but because it was just the one day that I ate that much it didn't hurt too bad. I did gain a pound.
This past week two of our friends got into a really bad car accident. One of them broke his neck and thank the lord, is still alive. The other one, who is like a brother to Nate and I broke a bunch of ribs and smashed up his face. It's crazy that something like that can happen to someone close to you. Again, I just thank God that they're alive right now. When you look at the car you wonder how that's possible. It's a reminder to live life to the fullest and appreciate every moment. Tell your family and friends you love them and don't part ways with hateful words. Think about what you really want in life and go get it.

My goals for the week:
Saturday- distance run in the morning
Sunday- hike if the weather's not crappy
Monday (or Wednesday or both)- 4:00pm class
Tuesday- group run
Thursday- group run
Saturday- short run

Weight goal- stop gaining, get back down to 135 and hold steady
Pushups- Monday and Friday

Finally seeing Results again

So, it's been a little while. I was blogging pretty regularly for a while and then, as usual, life got in the way. I think I got really burnt out at work and was starting to get sick. Whether or not I was actually sick or just feeling under the weather from being stressed out doesn't really matter. I took a few days off from running and went into maintenance mode. On Wednesday we had a really good staff meeting and I have started to get back on track at work. It's like a little switch got switched back to where it was supposed to be, because the job doesn't have to be that hard. I just have to do the work. I got a little bit of my confidence back. So the last part of my week went really well.
Nate has been asking to go hiking for the past few weekends which is awesome. It's fun to go hiking with him, he's a riot. Last weekend I twisted my ankle a little, so I walked with Helen on Tuesday evening instead of running and then ran on Thursday. I was the only one who showed up on Thursday, so it felt really difficult. I ran three miles. On Saturday morning Ananda suggested 6 miles and I said okay, we ran the first three and then I needed to walk for a little while. We walked for a little bit, and then ran the rest. I hurt bad. I think it's because I took some time off and haven't really been cross training. Anyway, I got cramps in my stomach and kept having to slow down a lot. Ananda was great, she slowed down with me, and I ended up doing all of the rest of it at a run instead of walking like I wanted to. We ended up finishing in 1:02, so it wasn't bad at all even though we walked some and I felt like I was running really slowly. Hopefully the next time I run it won't be so hard. Then we went to Pilates today, I nice stretching Pilates class.
Of all of the running, hiking and other stuff I've been doing, of course I would hurt myself walking the dog. Last night I was walking Titus, who wanted to walk fast and then we started running. I was wearing my slippers and jeans and tripped over a root and almost faceplanted. Luckily I was wearing those jeans, so I just lightly scraped my right knee. I also somehow ended up hurting both of my pinkies. I guess I must have landed weird on my hands. I had huge smears of black dirt all across my pants and on my feet and hands. Luckily Nate was there so I could laugh it off and I don't think anyone else saw me.
One of the reasons I may be seeing results on the scale this week is because it is one of those months when Nate and I have spent every penny and can't even go to the grocery store. We have food, but we have to really plan it out so we have something to eat until Friday, which is payday. We're broke because I finally paid off my car (Yay!) and we paid off the wedding loan. With those extra payments we went into our savings accounts and had to use our credit cards for Christmas. We didn't spend a whole lot, but still more than we really could afford at the time. Luckily we two less payments this upcoming months which will go toward Nate's car, the credit cards and building our savings back up. We're also going to switch banks so we don't get charged for having not enough money. The reason this has helped me see results is that I don't have the option of over eating or splurging on McDonald's or going out to eat. We have enough to eat and not much more than that.
Ananda was really cute this morning, I was telling her that I didn't have any eggs, so I had skipped breakfast (meaning I just didn't want the waffles or bagels we had) and she offered her own eggs. I assured her that Nate and I are not, in fact, going to die of starvation this week, we just don't get to eat everything we want to eat. It was very nice of her though, to try to save our lives by offering us her own food.
Ultimately this has given Nate and I the opportunity to really decide what food is important to have around and to take a look at what we eat. We planned out two entire weeks of dinner meals ahead of time and have surprisingly wonderful dinners recently. We had tomatoes with basil and mozzarella cheese with olive oil and balsamic vinagrette, and we had some salad and pasta with a pancetta sauce. So we're definitely not starving. We did make the mistake of not having enough food for Titus, but a bag of that can go on my credit card. It's not that expensive. We are really down to the wire, but it's cool how much we planned and are still in control even though it was so close. Anyway, can't wait til payday and am looking forward to see the scale drop one more pound! I was at 134 today!

January Goals

Well, this week I'm still weighing in at 135. I've been partially working on losing weight. Especially in the mornings. The issue this week has been my evenings. I've been doing well, eating breakfast, packing lunch, I've thrown in some push ups and even some situps. I hiked with Nate on Sunday, and ran yesterday. You'd think a little weight would want to come off. However, my dinner's have gone back to larger portion sizes. And yesterday, I went to McDonald's, got a salad, but then put the dressing on and ate the whole thing. Still better than any one of the hamburger meals because there's less of the saturated fats, but still a hell of a lot of calories.
The challenge has made me look at some of the little spaces of time that I could throw in some exercise during the day. I made myself do squats in the kitchen last night while dinner was cooking. It wasn't so bad. It was a pretty good way to get in some of the leg workout I've been missing out on. And it involves no preparation. I was barefoot in my pajamas with no weights. You just have to do more squats to get the workout. If I had weights I would have felt the burn sooner. I also tried out some "stand up pushups" which are just like regular pushups- straight back and tight stomach, but your pushing against the counter instead of being down on the ground. Obviously less of a workout. I had to do a lot more of those to feel any burn, but was surprised that it did get my blood pumping a little. I might do some wall sits tonight. I usually already have the timer going for whatever it is I'm making. Maybe some calf raises tonight as well. And you can always do kicks.
I wish Titus hadn't hurt his leg again (he jumped off of Nate's desk at work and hurt his leg again) because that takes away from our walks. Poor guy is always going to be hurting his legs the way he climbs up on everything and jumps down like he's a freaking mountain goat. But, he just needs rest and it'll get better. It doesn't help that he goes nuts every time Bobby walks in the door, I don't know why, but he goes completely crazy and runs around and jumps on the couches and on the beds and shakes his whole body instead of his tail. So that didn't help the healing process last night.
Anyway, my goal to weigh 134 as of Monday worked, but I only weighed 134 that morning. The scale has otherwise stayed at 135. So I don't think it counts. Of course I'll hold off on that judgment until next Monday, when the schedule was to weigh in at 133. I can still do it if I work hard starting right now. It's only Wednesday and it's not unheard of to lose 2 pounds in a week. Okay, I guess that means I should get off my rear and go do something.

The All American One Week Exercise Off

I'm starting a challenge on my Google Groups page. Here's the link:

http://groups.google.com/group/the-challenge-group

Here's the basics, but check out the site and join in!

The Center for Disease Control recommends that adults participate in moderate-intensity physical activity for 30 minutes or more on 5 or more days of the week. The American Heart Association recommends "For health benefits to the heart, lungs and circulation, perform any moderate-to-vigorous-intensity aerobic activity for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week at 50–85 percent of your maximum heart rate."

Now, seriously, how does anyone actually do all that exercise? I mean it was kind of easy when we were paddling and they basically forced you to do exercise 4 out of 5 days a week, but in real life, how do we make sure we're getting enough exercise? My biggest excuse (and probably one of yours as well) is that you don't have the time to exercise. So my challenge for this upcoming week is to find out exactly how much exercise you can fit into one week.

They say that you can break up your expected 30 minutes of exercise into 10 minute walks or you can add exercise by parking your car farther away and walking to your destination. Let's see how much that all adds up.

Details:

The challenge will start on Monday, January 14th (whenever your morning begins) and end on Sunday January 20th. You can count any exercise you can fit in until midnight your time zone.

All you have to do is keep track of how much exercise you've done for the day and BE HONEST about it. Sign in and let the group know what your daily tally is. When you sign in on Sunday to input your tally, put your daily tally and then go back and add all of them up for a total.

The winner of this challenge...... Gets their name on my Blog! At the very top! And can feel a sense of self-satisfaction! And will be the winner!

For this challenge you can count anything, but we're adding time, not exertion. You can count your trek up the stairs to work and the walk up the hill to your car. You can count the walk to the top of the hill on the way to smoke your cigarette. You can count any time you spend on pushups or squats or at the gym. Washing the dishes? Do some squats in between. Even cleaning the house can be counted as exercise if your moving your body around. The point is to challenge yourself to see if you really don't have the time, or if you're just using it as an excuse.

Good luck!

Running and Tennis

This morning Ananda and I woke up at 7am and did a good 6 mile run. I ran a little ahead and finished it in 57:53, which according to the pace calculator it was a little less than a 9:40 pace. That's good for me. Ananda did just about a 10 minute mile. Towards the end knowing she was right behind me kept me going faster. My mind kept playing tricks on me, telling me to go slower, but I told myself not to underestimate Ananda, she'll be right on my ass or passing me in a few seconds, so I had to go faster. And of course, she came in right behind me. It felt pretty good though. Let's not kid ourselves, it felt good after it was done. The beginning of the Lanikai loop felt pretty difficult. The wind has really picked up recently and you have to fight your way up the hill towards the Lanikai stone post or whatever that thing is. And then you think to yourself that the hardest part is over, but the wind tries to push you backwards on your way down the other side of the hill into Lanikai. That part was really hard for me. And the last hill was trying to take me down as well, but I kicked it's ass.
After we ran we pretended to stretch for a couple of minutes and then grabbed our new (New to us!) tennis rackets and headed out to the tennis courts with images of tennis stars in our heads. Unfortunately a lot of older people get out and play tennis early on Saturday so no courts were open. Well, maybe it was fortunate, because it gave us some time to practice our swings at the wall ball court. We did some competition on who could hit the ball more times in a row. I actually really enjoyed it. If my legs hadn't still felt like Jello I might have stayed for a while longer. We do need some work on the rackets, maybe some electrical tape or something for the handles. Although they are new (new to us!) they are from the Salvation Army and have probably been used a lot. The handle grips were disintegrating in our palms. It was kind of gross. We'll have to tape them up for the next time. I'm actually happy that I accidentally bought Junior rackets, because they weren't too heavy. I guess later when you get stronger and better you want to have a big, professional racket. Anyway, it was fun and I will have to get back out there. We've decided that once we can hit the ball back and forth a little we're going to challenge Joanna and Denby. I know Joanna has played before, and for some reason I feel like maybe Denby has to. If not, I'll have to pick her up a 3 dollar racket at Salvation Army and she can come practice with us.
The rest of the week was pretty good. I ate semi-healthy. I hit 135, but was back at 136 yesterday. If tomorrow and Monday I weigh in at 135 then I've met my goal. Otherwise I have to push back all my other weight goals. I have to get serious. I have been drinking a ton of water, and that has been good for me. It helps you sleep better, keeps you full, and definitely helps for the long runs. I've been drinking a lot of tea again. I think we'll be drinking a ton of it since Nate's New Year's Resolution is to not buy any beer. If I can keep the fridge stocked with other drinks it should help him out. I love making a big pitcher of tea for Nate, he actually drinks it unsweetened, which is strange to me, but it's cheap and you can make a ton of it. There is a Japanese green tea that is really inexpensive, so it's a great alternative. Plus you can't beat the antioxidant piece. Tea is really good for you. I have bought a whole ton of decaffeinated tea as well for the evening time. Thanks to Aunt Pat and Aunt Sara for my teapot. I use it all the time.

Weigh-in

Weighed in this morning at 135. That's my pre-holiday weight. I'm gonna see if I can keep it there and below for the next couple of days, but it wasn't very hard to get back to that weight. Ananda and I went to the gym last night with all the New Year Resolution people at the gym. We did 20 min on the treadmill and then 15 on the bike. Man, I hate the bike. It hurts my ass. After the cardio we did some pull-ups and some abs. It helped me get down to 135.
Nate and I are eating a little healthier, and it feels so much better. Eating high fat, high sugar diet makes me feel so gross. I am more awake, and I sleep better when I eat better. Plus I've been drinking more water again.

That was then, this is now

I already did a very long blog on myspace but I wanted to also post something here. It's been a long year with a lot of changes. I learned a lot about food and being healthy through hours and hours of research and reading. I went through a lot of clothes because I was so excited to lose weight that I kept buying them and kept losing more weight and buying more. Which benefited Mary for a little while then they didn't fit her because she lost so much weight.

Today is Jan 1, 2008 and it's been exactly a year since I started eating differently and I feel and look great. I am pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to run the numerous miles I ran without Mary. One, because I hate doing things alone and two she always showed up even when she didn't feel like it. There were many days we didn't feel like it. We pushed ourselves and it paid off. We have made it to a point that we would never look back. We changed physically and I know I changed who I was and who I want to be.

Last year at this time I weighted 147 pounds and today I weight 118.5. During 2008 I plan to run harder and faster, I plan to keep eating well and working out. I want to start toning my body some more and challenging myself more. I want to find a way to balance work, school and exercise. I want to run a half marathon.

I also want everyone to know that they too can reach their goals. Even though 28 pounds may be a lot for some to lose, for others it's not. I think everyone can take the steps to become who they want and look the way they want. Hold yourself to your goals and they will be accomplished.

Today Jan 1 2008

2007, a recap

First, a weigh-in. Last night's partying put me up to 137.5. That sucks, but was foreseeable. Now I need to get down to 135 by Monday. For me "getting down" to a weight means I've been there for a day or two and usually have dropped below briefly. So the scale should read below 134 briefly sometime this week for me to have really reached that goal.

Now, a look back at 2007. A great, stressful, terrifying, and rewarding year.

January, Nate's mom had been in and out of the hospital needing a liver transplant. Nate's sister provided her with a liver and for a while we weren't totally sure about either of their health. It's a dangerous surgery because both parties have to completely change how they eat and drink and live.

Also in January I went down to Boston to visit with my sister Angela, see her new baby, Akiva, and got to see all of my sisters and brothers for a full week. We drank a lot of tea, walked all around Boston, bought the bridesmaids gowns and went to a science museum. It was a great week. Also a trying week. My mother told me she wasn't coming to the wedding when she was angry to know that we all got together in Boston. Don't ask, long story. But in the end, we had an awesome time, and my mother did indeed come to the wedding.

January 1st of 2007 Myia and I made the best New Year's Resolutions I've ever made. It was the first time I made a serious decision to lose weight and get healthy. And knew that I was going to make my goals because Myia was going to kick my ass into shape.

February of 2007 I finally hit the 150 mark for my weight, ran the Great Aloha Run (that time I actually ran the whole thing), and Myia and I went on a Dead-head on the Makani Olu. A good month of hiking, and being really focused on eating and living healthy.

In March the paddling season began again, 4 practices a week. Basically when paddling season is on, you stop having a life other than paddling. But, it was a really competitive season. I had made a commitment to continue to run, but it was hard for me. Myia did a great job of keeping in running shape, but I began to slack off on running. I did start to drop a lot of weight when paddling started though. At the end of March was Nate's birthday and I bought him a huge fish-tank to house his now huge snowflake eel. He loves that thing, so it was a good investment. And the eel is still alive even to this day.

I don't know if anything happened in April and May other than paddling, running, working and wedding planning. That part of the year is a little bit of a blur.

In June the paddling races began. I was lucky enough to be a part of the racing crew and raced consistently through regatta season. Unfortunately I didn't do the half-marathon because it was on the morning of a race. I'm sad about that, I really wanted to see how we had improved from the year before. We were so much more in shape and healthy this year's paddling season! The cross-training kept me in really good condition. And of course, in June, more wedding planning. Figuring out the last details, getting my dress fitting, doing everything last minute because for some reason that is always how it works for me. I am so grateful for Myia, Ananda and Joanna for getting me through June without cracking completely. Just knowing that the wedding was coming was an incredible stress.

In July, of course, was my wedding. What an incredible month. I somehow managed to get everything together before the actual ceremony began. My family came out, unfortunately Nate's family wasn't able to make it out here for the wedding. But my family really did their best to fill in for his family. They love him. I had the OHCRA championship races a few days before the wedding and my family got to come to a race. We also won, which was really cool. Nate and I got into a huge fight the night before the race. It is the first huge fight I can remember having with him in years. Weddings are a huge stress. But in the end the wedding turned out perfect. The beach and the weather were perfect for the ceremony. The bridesmaids looked gorgeous. Nobody was too stressed out or sick. Aunt Nancy took care of Titus. The pictures came out absolutely gorgeous. And Nate and I finally got married. The ceremony was so much fun, Katrina and Andrea put together music for the ceremony, Aunt Barb and Uncle Nick got the cake (since I forgot), and Boardrider's threw together a hell of a meal with very little input from us. It was fantastic and I'll never forget that day, that week, that month.

And then, at the beginning of August, Myia finally took the biggest challenge there is and moved to a cold-assed state to finish her degree. It takes a hell of a lot of guts to move from Hawaii to where you can't even go outside cause it's so cold. And I'm incredibly proud that she's gonna finish getting her diploma because so many people just give it up after time goes by. We had a hell of a party for her, we drank a lot (well, Myia drank a lot), we had the longest Aloha Circle I've ever been a part of that included shots of Tequila and a karaoke microphone, and then Myia had the best after drinking vomiting party. She was puking, there was ukuleles and singing, we were all chatting. And then Josh had to put her in the car with a, I forgot what Kara called it, a vomet helmet or something like that. Basically a plastic bag with the handles over her ears so she wouldn't puke all over herself. I'm gonna seriously miss that girl.

So, it is left to Ananda, Denby, Joanna and I to continue to the path to healthiness on our own, without Myia telling us what to do. It has taken 6 months for us to pull our shit together on that.
Anyway, August was State races for paddling on Kauai, and we came in third, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me. We were up against some incredible teams.

I'm sure more happened in August, but I think paddling, again took most of my time. After states we immediately started training for distance season. I continued to hear that it is all training for Molokai. So we trained hard as hell, I lost some more weight, we did some awesome long-distance races. I finally found out what it's like to do a water change. Scary as hell at first, but it really pumps you up. It's so hard to pull yourself into the boat. The scenery in those races is something that I will cherish forever. You don't usually get to see that part of the island from that close in the ocean.

In the beginning of September Nathan and I switched therapist positions. I moved from Hale Huli`au to a the voyaging house, Hale Ho`ohua. It was a good move, since I was so stressed out from this very challenging family I was working with.
Also in September there were a few more distance races and then finally the long awaited Na Wahine O Ke Kai. I did a blog on it in September. It was awesome, challenging, and so worth it. I don't think I'll ever do it again.

October and November were pretty routine, we did the Halloween thing, and we did the Thanksgiving thing. Mostly we just got back to work, paid off our wedding loan, shopped at Macy's with our wedding gift cards and relaxed. I think I probably continued to run through both of those months, but I most certainly didn't do anything spectacular. I did rejoin the YMCA finally so I can go to the classes and workout when it's raining. It's worth it.

December has been a fun month, preparing for the New Year. I decided on some goals to beat before New Year and was able to run 8 miles last Saturday. I tried to maintain my weight and did for the most part until last night when I ate a million pigs in a blanket trying to stay up for the fireworks. Christmas was excellent, Nate got 9 video games with the gift card I gave him, and he gave me scuba diving lessons. He got scuba diving lessons from his parents. I can't wait. We dogsat for two dogs and although three dogs is too many, Nate and I have decided we do want another small dog this year. We're gonna keep a watch for the right puppy.

All in all it was a great year, but I'm ready for 2008. I'd love to get our finances in better check, lose another 10 pounds, get a puppy, and find another job. This year was stressful, fun but stressful, especially since Nate's mom was in and out of the hospital so many times and couldn't fly out here. Mom Sullivan will be coming to visit in March. Hopefully we'll have the Preston parents out here this summer. I want to learn how to play tennis. I'm going to learn how to scuba dive. I want to paddle regatta season, but not distance. I want to run another half-marathon. I want to visit the east coast. I want to start working on getting my license for marriage and family therapy. I want to eat tofu.

I am sure there are so many things left out, like Andrew and Cristina getting engaged and Angela getting pregnant again.
2008 is a New Year, a new start. A time to get even healthier and more in shape. Here's to 2007, a wonderful year, and to a new start today!