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.