Day 15

Got a little off track, but not horrible. I've been at my parents' house and they never have any food that fits into my diet. All they eat is fast food and pre-made items from Costco. Anyways, I'd like to believe that once school starts next week the fact that my schedule will be much more structured I'll finally be consistent with my workouts. Not to mention I'll be spending a lot more time at my apartment, which means I'll be the one with control over what's in the fridge. I don't really have much else to say today.

Oh my new obsession is tea. I've always really liked tea, but I just raided my parents' pantry and they brought me back tea from Tahiti so needless to say I have a whole slew of options WHERE I LIVE! [Good] Tea is so damn expensive. I slowed down my tea drinking because all I could afford was the big box of value tea bags. Now I'm drinking it daily because I have so much to choose from. I'm in tea heaven. It's amazing. My post nasal drip suffering throat also thanks me. I'm supposed to be going to a tea house with a couple of my girls but I have no idea when this is actually happening.

And I just realized that despite thinking I had posted this hours ago I forgot so since I have been a busy little bee since I wrote this I have more [unrelated] information to share.

Tomorrow many of the biggest websites will be hosting a Blackout in protest of PIPA and SOPA, which would greatly impact the internet that we have grown to love. Basically it will destroy it and we could end up like wonderful countries like China and Iran who censor the internet. Google, Reddit, and other websites will have several ways to get involved and try and stop this horror from actually taking effect. PROTECT YOUR FREEDOMS! If they can censor the internet it's only a matter of time before they begin to censor other areas of our lives.

Some websites to check out:
http://www.sopastrike.com/
http://eff2.salsalabs.com/o/9042/images/stop-the-internet-blacklist.html
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Day 10

Today was a lazy day. Even though I didn't get finished with my workout until about 1:30 this afternoon I still felt like I spent most of the day doing nothing, which technically I did but it never usually feels this way. I felt like I wanted to do more but my body was tired and I could hear my shower calling me. Yeah, so I'm just starting to become OK with the idea of sweat. Honestly I've always found sweating to be embarrassing. I was always worried about getting sweat marks, even when I was doing sports. I think a lot of it had/has to do with my certain OCD tendencies that tie in with my anxiety. Today however I had worked up a really big sweat, I literally can't remember the last time I sweat that much. What is weird is that I was totally OK with it. I will admit that the walk back from the gym to my apartment I wasn't loving it so much mostly because it was making me cold, but I wasn't embarrassed by it or even really grossed out by it. It was like I suddenly had the mentally that those sweat spots on my shirt are a sign that I just did some WORK! I just kicked some ass in the gym. Judge me, stare at me, give me funny looks all you want because right now I'm doing ME. Looking back on this moment in my life it feels AWESOME.
Before I get into the boring stuff I have one other thing to mention. I seriously have no appetite during the day. It's not until around 7:00 that I'm actually wanting to eat. I'll eat breakfast and lunch and maybe throw in a snack just so I can get a sufficient amount of calories to still be healthy and even as I get closer to dinner I just put it off because nothing really sounds appealing or appealing enough for me to take the effort to make it. Then suddenly I'm rearing to go. All kinds of ideas pop into my head as to what I should make and then my appetite not just my actual hunger goes crazy! It's really inconvenient but I'm sure it's just a side effect of detoxing from all that holiday food. Anyways, on to the boring stuff.

FOOD
Breakfast: CLIF bar
Lunch: egg, baby spinach, artichoke antipasto, and sandwich thins breakfast sandwich
Snack: some fancy almond and hazelnut nougat, veggie chips
Dinner: some pan-fried tofu with spicy Asian aioli
Dessert: two strawberry, cream cheese, and honey tacos on corn tortillas, mango sorbet [so delicious!]

EXERCISE
C25K: week 2 day 3 on elliptical - kept in on level five and just upped the intensity for the jogging portions
a little arm work [emphasis on little]
ab cycle - 10 crunches, 20 row crunches, 10 leg lift crunches, 10 crunches, 10 bicycle crunches - did it twice with very minimal resting

I really need to work on my stretching habits, specifically actually stretching. As of now all I'm doing are these bedtime yoga poses. They get some pretty decent stretches in but I'm sure it would be a lot more beneficial if I could remember/get the motivation to do them at the end of my workouts.

Day 9

I would call today a success. Didn't stuff my face and got my workout in despite spending a good thirty minutes trying to convince myself it was OK to skip a day. Just as I was about to lay back down in bed I remembered that I've got four months to get this body rockin' for Coachella so I have to make every day count. WOOH! As accomplished as I feel today I am definitely skipping that hill tomorrow. It was seriously killer on my legs.

FOOD
Breakfast: strawberries and cream instant oatmeal with added strawberries
Lunch: CLIF bar, veggie chips
Dinner: pasta - canned fish, pasta shells, olive oil and a beer
Snack: the last homemade cookie from my friend that I slowly worked on all day
I was surprisingly not hungry today. Nothing really spoke to me today and said "Eat me! Eat me!" so I didn't eat it.

EXERCISE
C25K week 2, day 2
12 Minute Blitz - bonus workout on one of my pilates DVDs
15 sumo squats with bicep curls

What 200 Calories Looks Like

Seventeen Magazine 5 Week Workout Plan

This is the calendar that tells you what you need to do for each day.

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

 

For a better view click the captions under the pictures.

Day 8

Got a little off track, but I'm not beating myself over it. This is another week and I'm determined to get things rolling again.

FOOD
Breakfast: peanut butter and banana smoothie with almond milk and spinach
Lunch: Trader Joe's rice noodle soup
Dinner: steamed clams
Snack: 1/2 strawberry, cream cheese, and honey sandwhich and a cookie my friend made from scratch yesterday that I just couldn't say no to

EXERCISE
C25K: Week 2, Day 1
Elliptical: 10 minutes = 4 minutes level 5 + 1 minute level 20 on hill setting
Cosmo Monday - Yeah so turns out it's actually from Seventeen Magazine but I'm keeping the name

I'm going to start making random posts of inspirational pictures, interesting workouts, etc. This way I can have all the stuff I find organized and in one place.

Day 3

Did much better today than yesterday. I actually feel really proud. The only thing that I'm not too happy about is the fact that my room still looks like I should be on Hoarders minus the bug infestation, mold, and piles of trash.

FOOD
Breakfast: One Italian baked egg - I added a little spinach in between the tomato sauce and egg and I used a little vegan cheese [Daiya shredded mozzarella] instead of the slice of Colby they used
Lunch: shrimp salad - I marinated some leftover shrimp my parents had from New Years Eve in a lemon pepper marinade and Sriracha over night and then I put a little oil in a skillet and tossed the shrimp in with a little bit of the marinade then I threw them on a salad with some of the sauce from the pan and a little Romano Cesar dressing I got at Sprout's...it was delicious
Dinner: Green Giant cheesy rice and broccoli steamer and a slice of whole grain toast with artichoke antipasto from Trader Joe's
Snack: Disneyland popcorn that I shared
Pre-Bed: some mystery tea my grandmother gave me [she's Chinese so she just buys huge bags of tea leaves and then puts them in empty jars, sometimes they're labeled but this time I was not so lucky] and a little bit of honey to sweeten it up since I had no idea what I was brewing

EXERCISE
C25K Week 1, Day 2
15 minutes on the elliptical - four minutes at level 5 + one minute at level 20 then repeat
Cosmo Wednesday workout [I'll post the picture at the end]
3 hours walking around Disneyland

So yes I feel extremely accomplished. Didn't eat too bad and managed to control myself and I actually got more exercise in than I was expecting. And I almost managed to get his post in before it was technically day 4.

Day 2

Alright so I might have failed at multiple things yesterday including: doing my workout, sticking to the meal plan, and making a post, just to name a few. But all is not lost. I finally got my ass grocery shopping and I got myself a new toy.

It's a smoothie kit attachment for my blender! I've been putting it off for over a month because last time I went shopping I had to pick up a $50 prescription which = not being able to afford this. What's so great about it is that it's super easy to clean so now I'm about 10xs more likely to have my blender available on a regular basis because I won't be to lazy to take the 20 seconds it takes to clean the attachment + the 40 seconds it takes to clean the cup. No more jabbing myself right under the nail with the stupid blender blades as I try and stick my sponge wielding hand into the narrow depths of my regular blender. WOOT! And of course I had to test it out last night so I could experience all its amazingness. If you have an Oyster brand blender [I think any of the newish models work] it costs about $14 at Walmart. There aren't enough words to describe how excited I am about this. Now for the not so fun stuff, and I say not so fun because I did such a bad job.

Food:

CPK bread with butter* and garlic powder

tortilla crusted tilapia [2]

orange juice [2]

Starbucks peppermint white chocolate mocha [medium serving**]

Trader Joe's popcorn [handful]

Pirate's Booty

Annie Chun's Udon***

banana, mixed berry, almond milk, spinach smoothie [2]

specialty chocolate [2]

CLIF bar

Denny's Fit Slam

*I rarely use real butter so when I say butter I mean something along the lines of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter or one of those other butter substitutes.

**My dad is addicted to Starbucks so weekend mornings he gets up a little early to run down to Starbucks and bring my mom and myself stuff back. I asked for the peppermint white chocolate mocha once because it was the holiday season and that's the only reason I need, but he bought it for me two other times so I put them all in a big container and I'm rationing it out so I don't drink 500 calories at once so my portion sizes aren't based on their drink sizes but how much I put in my mug.

***I absolutely LOVE Annie Chun's. It's $2 at Trader Joe's and a little more expensive at other grocery stores. I can eat just the little bowl but if I have some extra veggies or tofu laying around I'll add it to make it a little more filling. You can also add other things like chicken or shrimp to spruce it up even more. Trader Joe's also has their own version with rice noodles that only cost 99 cents.

Exercise:

"Morning Routine" = 50 jumping jacks, 5 pushups, 20 situps, 20 mountain climbers, 30 second plank, 7 burpees - do cycle twice - I call it the morning routine because it's recommended you do it right when you wake up in the morning before your body has a chance to fully realize what you're doing, which apparently makes it easier to do.

2 hours walking around/waiting in lines at Disneyland

And of course as promised here are the daily workout pictures I said I would post.

I've recently found some other weekday-specific routines that I'll post later once I've taken a better look at them.

BAM! Day 1

This is me as of last night.

Yesterday when I weighed myself I was at 152.6 and today when I weighed myself I was at 149.9 so I'll average it out for my starting weight.

Starting Weight: 151.25

Highest Weight: 152.6

Goal Weight: 125

I used to tell myself that if I ever got to 130 I would do everything to lose those couple of pounds that kept me from getting there. But things happened at I got up to 135. I made of excuses as to why it happened and told myself that once I moved back or once I did this or that I would go back to my original weight. Of course I was lying to myself. Thanks mostly to a medication I put on and a huge lack of self esteem I continued to pack on the pounds until I leveled off at about 146. I actually made my first attempt at this blog over the summer when I first started working out but it was too little too late before I went on vacation to Hawaii and got out of my workout routine. Then I made my second attempt at getting into shape in November. That was also terrible timing. I was doing a really good job of keeping on track for the week leading up to and the week of Thanksgiving. Yes, I actually managed to keep working out despite being at my parents' and it being a holiday that is all about stuffing your face. It was the week after that ruined things. Finals were creeping up as were a number of deadlines. I abandoned everything from working out to cooking and just spent all my time in bed eating gas station food and frozen meals. I pretty much just gave up altogether until the holidays were over. Once I got back to my parents' for break there was just so much holiday food specifically tons of animal products, more specifically lots of prime rib and creamy, cheesy things. You see, I try to abide by as much of a vegan diet as possible. I don't buy red meat, poultry, or dairy products when I go grocery shopping, but I'm not hardcore so I do buy seafood and less obvious non-vegan items and I won't deny myself if I'm eating out. Everything got thrown to the wind and instead of just staying at my current weight I managed to put on six more pounds. Seriously? Six pounds in a month. That is horrible, but not fixable. I officially decided that starting today, Monday January 2, 2012 I would get my ass back into shape and stop gorging myself on whatever food gets put in front of my face. It's going to be a little harder this time because I developed some bad habits these past few weeks, but this time I won't have big holidays or tests to stop me before I even really get going. They say it takes 21 days to turn something into a habit and so far I'm one day down. Ok enough gibber jabber. 

What I Ate Today

Breakfast: mixed berry and banana smoothie with almond milk

Lunch: tortilla crusted tilapia tacos [2] and leftover wienie rolls [6]

Dinner: CPK Spaghettitini

So I strayed from my original meal plan for but it's because I decided to stay an extra night at my parents' house.

Today's Workout

C25K (Couch to 5K): Week 1 Day 1

Monday Workout: minus 25 of the reverse curls

C25K is seriously the best discovery I have made [god bless you Pinterest]. Basically it's an app for your phone that helps you build up enough endurance to run 5k in 9 weeks. It involves 3 days of walking/jogging/running a week so I was combining two weeks into one that way I would get six days of running in and I would build up my endurance quicker. I got up to week 5 day 1 before everything fell apart. The Monday workout comes from something I also found on Pinterest. I'll post the picture at the end of this. There is a workout for Monday-Thursday and then Friday you're supposed to pick one of the previous days to repeat but I decided to pick my favorite exercises and combine them for a more intense Friday workout. I'll post Monday's workout at the end of this.

Normally I won't put this much text in my posts, but today I felt I had a little more to share. I'll only be doing weigh-ins every couple of weeks because 1. weight is not as important as being fit and tones [muscle weighs more than fat] 2. I only have a $5 Ikea scale at my apartment so in order to get a more accurate reading I have to use my parents' fancy Weight Watchers scale when I visit them. Anyways, I hope the first two days of the new year haven't been to rough on you and if you're also starting your journey to weight loss, thinking of starting, or are already on your journey feel free to share your words of wisdom. If I have any I'll be sure to post them here...if I can remember. Now that I've taken up enough of your time here is the Monday workout. I'll post the other three tomorrow as well as my make-shift Friday workout.