Month-End Check-In

Ok, so I have a lot I want to say, but I'm also pretty much exhausted. Here's the highlights:

- 1/2 weight: 222.0

- 1/31 weight: 214.6

- Total loss: 7.4

Overall, I'm happy with January 2012. I'll post more tomorrow. For now, I'm going to bed. Good night, loves.

Calorie goals and other stuff

Ok, so can I just say how much I love My Fitness Pal and it's corresponding Android app? Love that I really don't have an excuse to not log my food. If I'm not on my computer or near my phone, I'm probably asleep and hopefully not eating! And once I complete my day, it tells me "if everyday were like today, you would weigh ____ in 5 weeks." That's a nice motivator to know I'm heading in the right direction.

That being said, if I don't consume at least 1200 calories a day, it yells at me. By that I mean it puts this warning in red letters that I'm starving myself and to eat more. Ok... maybe that's not exactly what it says, but that's what it feels like. So sometimes I will look at my calorie intake and see what I need to do to reach 1200 calories for today. For instance, today I only ate about 1050 calories, but I felt full. So now I'm sitting here drinking a "latte" (only 150 calories) so I could hit 1200 and not get yelled at.

So how do you feel about that? The idea of eating at least ____ number of calories a day. Now, I guess I should say that I very rarely have to MAKE myself consume enough calories. And really, if we averaged the whole week I'm sure I would be around 1300 at least. I'm sure that warning is just there to discourage people from starving themselves in the name of weight loss. I guess I shouldn't feel so paranoid that it's yelling at me lol. I'm just sensitive like that!

In other news, the laziness demons tried to get me tonight. I had to work, so I took my clothes with me so I would have no excuse not to workout. Yeah, except that about an hour into the shift my stomach started hurting. So then I started wavering whether I felt up to it or not. I had all but decided that I would just come home and workout here (suuuuuuure I would) when a co-worker asked if I was going to workout. She and I decided to do 30 minutes on the elliptical. About 10 minutes in we both thought we were going to die, but we finished. That motivated me to be excited about an ab class tomorrow and my training session on Thursday. That will take care of all but one workout this week. Oh, and I have Saturday morning off, so I'm going to try to do my Ride/Centergy combo. So there's 4! Whoot.

Alright y'all, I'm going to jump off of here and get ready for bed. Have a lovely evening!!

Ides of January...

Yes, I did just reference Shakespeare. What of it? Anyway, I have been meaning to update the blog for about a week now, but every time I sit down with collected thoughts I have about 5 minutes before I need to jump up and be somewhere else. Such is life.

Since today was the halfway point for this month, I decided to hop on the scale before updating. As of this morning I weigh.... *drum roll please*... 215.6! WHOO-HOO!!! For those of you keeping track, that is -6.4 pounds for the month and -34.2 overall! My goal was to lose 10 pounds this month, so I am right on track. [Insert happy dance]

I've done pretty well with my eating. I had a couple of high-calorie days, but not too many or too bad. I logged my food everyday, even when I had my "bad" days. I think that was part of my problem before. If I went over my calorie goal, I just wouldn't record it that day. I didn't want to admit I messed up. But let's be honest, whether I logged it or not, I still ate it. The scale kept track of it for me. Then I got in the habit of not doing it at all and stopped paying attention. Hopefully the lesson has been learned.

Hmm, I probably have more to say, but I need to start getting ready for church. It will just have to wait for now! Hope you have a wonderful week!

- Jen

P.S. I really need to update my picture on here. I'll have to see if I can't find one!

I am......

Hurting. Ouch. So Sore.

Two Smoothies today and no workout. 

Yoga: A Vent

Yup, that's about the only yoga pose I'm good at...Downward Facing Dog

It is so hard to find a Yoga DVD/program that isn't too advanced for this chick. I have been to a few yoga classes and I thoroughly enjoyed them but man oh man, I tried one out today that was supposed to be "the basics in 10 minutes" (I have a short attention span) and WOWZERS! It was NUTS. We were doing sun salutations with backwards leg thrusts and I was sitting there (in downward facing dog because I know how to do that one!) looking at the TV thinking...how in the heck am I supposed to do THAT?! and then she wanted me to just drop my body down into a low plank (holding my entire body up just two inches off the ground with just my toes and hands (my arms couldn't even touch the mat) HA! Forget about that! I laughed and said (to my TV) "sorry chica, this ain't workin' out for me" and clicked it off. Thankfully I'd done a work out before the yoga so I got it in today but holy heck. I'll be going back to my lovely yoga DVD I did yesterday. It's back from 2002 and is geared toward lower back and shoulder pain. It is very basic and lets me use a chair for some of the moves. I can do a lot of it with ease but there are a few parts that have my legs shaking so at least I can work into the moves and move on as I get steadier and a little more flexible! AND! BONUS! I was able to sleep relatively pain free last night (not sure if that was the Yoga or because I popped 500 mg of Naproxen for the headache I was having)!

Also, I've gone back to shakes for a meal...I had a tub of Lean1 leftover from when I worked at Smoothie King and did that crummy weight loss competition (which I did lose weight, but it was still crummy). Anyway, I had been given a tub of Banana Cream which wasn't being sold in stores yet, not sure if it is now since it went nation wide last year, I combined that protein powder with two tablespoons of cocoa powder, 5 ice cubes and about 2/3 cup of water and blended up a nice Chocolate Banana Cream smoothie! DELISH! For lunch I'm having some leftover buffalo chicken on a hoagie roll (bread may be my enemy but it is so yummy) and possibly some hummus. As soon as pay day rolls around I'm going to get some more veggies for me to snack on. The only veggies I have are the canned ones and those are so chock full of sodium that I can't eat them...plus, who likes to snack on hot green beans?!

Alright, I must go and actually clean my kitchen. darn dishes!

Start of Year TWO.

Bring it on Round 2!

I'll just jump right on into things:

Starting weight from 1/3/11: 211.8
Current weight (starting weight for 2012): 203.6

Yes, I did get down to 185.4 a total of 26.4 lbs lost BUT if you read past blogs. I just couldn't keep it off. I got a little depressed, didn't step on the scale for months at a time and jumped back up to the 200's. So my goal currently is to be down to 150. My close range goal is to be at 190 by my birthday which is 5 weeks away. just over 2lbs a week. My extremely close range goal is to be out of the 200's by next sunday, I'm looking for a loss of 4 lbs this week. Totally doable in the first week.

What else is new? Oh, I joined a volleyball team...we're the mamacitas (warning DO NOT google image search the name looking for "clip art" to go on our shirts, even with safe search on it brought up some raunchiness that I might need a second shower to get rid of). We practice on Saturday, games on Sunday. So that's two workouts I don't have to worry about! In light of my foot injury, my cardio is lacking but today I did as many sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks (those kinda hurt my foot) added in some kick boxing moves and then a little yoga. That will probably be my routine for days I have off. I haven't figured out what I'll do when work picks back up. I'll figure it out.

I'll post some pictures on my bio page and then I'll do one on the main page, I don't have bangs anymore, time to update!