Sprinting with the Pack

Well I thought last night that I had bone spurs in my left heel but I'm thinking this morning that it's just bruised.  After work last night Snackers and I went to the hospital to visit our friend who had surgery on Monday and I stood in her room for a long time on chunky platform shoes.  The shoes have been in my closet for years but I just recently started wearing them again and according to the Wii balance board I put too much of my weight on my heels when I stand.  When I woke up this morning my heel was still really sore but it feels like bruise-type pain today and when I put my chunky shoes on to take the dog out it just got worse leading me to the conclusion that the shoes are the culprit.  That's good news because bruises heal faster and are a lot less complicated than bone spurs and it explains why my feet felt better after doing sprints in my sneakers last night - the sneakers gave me the extra support I needed and they're like Shape-Ups so they took the weight off my heel for awhile.

Sprinting last night was extra fun because, after watching Vladdy pace the living room for the better part of an hour in boredom, Snackers decided to join us.  He and I took turns sprinting up and down the grass with Vladdy so that he could get extra exercise by wearing us both out.  We didn't really wear him out, even with my 20 sprints and Snackers running him the whole length of the block and back several times but it did help and when we came in he laid down and went right to sleep on his pillow.  We've been able to leave him out of his kennel now for the second full night and it's been nice.  He's finally starting to learn to chew only on his toys and not to harass the cats ... as much.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
4 mini-steak tacos
4 tbsps coffee ice cream
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,207



Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Walking: 4 + miles (6,388 steps)

Fresh & Easy

So we have this little supermarket chain here in Vegas called Fresh & Easy.  I saw some in southern California when we were there visiting family too so they're probably pretty big but I had never heard of them before moving to Nevada.  The stores are usually small but they carry a lot of organic products and healthy-type items.  Some of their groceries are expensive, depending on what you're buying, and some of them are very reasonably priced.  For example: an ahi tuna steak is about $11 for a pound which is a lot more than you would pay at some other places like Smith's or the Korean grocery store we found in Vegas' China town.  But then they have their own line of frozen dinners that are very similar to Healthy Choice meals but average about a dollar less in price.

Yesterday I posted a Healthy Choice lunch but it was actually a Fresh & Easy lunch, squash ravioli with julienned veggies in a carrot sauce.  It was really good and it was nice to try something different because I've gone through all of the Healthy Choice meals now at least once or twice.  In addition to their frozen meals they have prepared, pre-packaged meals on a back wall that are a bit more up-scale and larger portions.  For dinner last night I had pork loin with pumpkin couscous in apricot sauce with asparagus on the side.  It was exceptionally delicious so if you have a Fresh & Easy in your area and you're looking to mix things up from the usual frozen meals I highly suggest checking them out.  The pre-packaged meals are a bit more expensive, usually around $5-$6 each but they are also bigger portions; what I call "dinner portions" and their frozen lunches are around $2 each and are the exact same size as the small Healthy Choice lunches.

Now if Vegas would just open an Aldi so I can get my staple items dirt cheap!  I love Aldi.  For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a mid-west grocery chain that I shopped at all the time when I lived in Chicago.  They don't have shelves, they just drag pallets of food right out onto the floor and let the shopper open up boxes to get the items out.  You can pick up empty boxes off pallets as you shop or bring your own shopping bags with you because they don't have bags except the reusable ones that you have to buy.  You have to bag your own groceries and the whole experience is very informal but the savings that it generates are fantastic!  You can get cans of Campbell's soup for $0.20 and a gallon of milk (their cold foods are the exception to the pallet rule, of course) for $1.00.  It's a really great concept that more chains should explore.





Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 bowl apple cranberry granola & milk
1 frozen lunch
2 fish tacos on corn tortillas
1 cup lime rice
4 tbsps coffee ice cream
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,227




Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Sprints: 20 - My heel hurt too bad to even walk around the house without limping tonight (bone spurs I think) but I didn't want to wuss out so I figured, since tomorrow night is 1 mile walk and 20 sprints, and because sprinting puts pressure more on the balls of my feet, that I would do my sprints tonight and walk four miles tomorrow - bone spurs be damned.  My heel actually felt better after sprinting ... though I can't seem to find a logical explanation for that.  The fronts of my thighs are TIGHT though, probably because I didn't warm up with a 1-mile walk first like I usually do.  Oh well, anything shy of being in a wheel chair tomorrow, I will walk four miles if I have to use Vladdy as a cane to do it.

For the Love of Tacos

I love fish tacos.  A well made fish taco with lettuce, cilantro, lime juice, and pico is easily one of my most favorite foods ever.  I admit, I prefer freshly cooked ahi tuna over the salmon I had last night but it is also about twice the price.  Either way, they are an amazing, delicious, and (if prepared well) exceptionally healthy meal.

First, you take your fresh tuna steak and you sprinkle it heavily with salt and pepper, maybe a little paprika or chili powder if you like but I think even just salt and pepper and the natural flavor of the fish is fantastic.  Then you preheat just 1 - 2 Tbsps of EVOO in a super hot pan and cook for about 3 - 4 minutes on each side depending on how thick the steaks are and whether or not you like them slightly rare in the middle like I do.

Next you warm your tortillas a little in the foreman grill while your fish rests for about 5 minutes to seal in the juices before cutting.  To compile you just toss some fish, chopped romaine lettuce, full sprigs of cilantro, and a spoonful of homemade pico on top.  Finally, squeeze a lime wedge over the whole thing and enjoy.  Sorry I didn't get pictures ... they were just too tasty.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 Fresh & Easy meal
>>Pork loin slices w/apricot sauce (AWESOME!)
>>pumpkin couscous
>>asparagus
1/2 serving coffee ice cream
---------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,138





Activity:
4 flights of stairs
100 push-ups
200 crunches

Said it All

So I pretty much said everything in my post earlier this morning that I wanted to say today but I couldn't wait until tonight to post it and if I keep it in edit more for adding food it un-publishes from the blog so this is basically just my food and activity list for the day.

Oh ... and one more thing.  TWO-TWENTY-NINE!!!



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Quaker apple cranberry granola bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
2 grilled salmon tacos
1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup lime rice
1 serving coffee ice cream
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,327




Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Walking: 1 mile (3,000 some odd steps)
Sprints: 10

Couldn't Weight #33

229!!!!!!  TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY FREAKIN' NINE!!!!  One of you lovely wonderful readers challenged me to be out of the 230's by July 4th and I FREAKIN DID IT!  FOUR AND A HALF POUNDS!!!  Ok we all know one of those was water weight from last week but still THAT'S THE MOST I'VE LOST IN A WEEK IN OVER 3 MONTHS!!!

My brother is my hero ... seriously.  How many of you know big brother's who will sit and read the ramblings of their little sister's weight-loss blog every day offering encouragement and suggestions and motivation and praise and sometimes even a little bit of hiney kickin' when needed?  How many full time computer programmers, husbands, and daddies take time out of every day to let their little sister know that they care and want her to succeed and are watching her progress.

My own mother stopped reading the blog months ago unless I call her up and give her a guilt trip but here my brother has been every single day since the first week I started writing.  I am one really lucky little sister.  I really feel like he has carried me through some of the hardest parts of this journey so far and I think we can all agree that his suggestions and ideas have been spot on every time.

Thanks Bubbers.  Seriously.  I have a lot of people to be thankful for - all of my blog readers and Snackers and friends - but I am thankful for you most of all.  Your support has helped me completely change my life.  Ok I better stop before I start to cry.

TWO-TWENTY NINE POINT ZERO = FIFTY EIGHT POUNDS LOST!!!!  Did I mention I lost 4.5 pounds this week?  *big stupid cheshire grin*

Kickin' My Ass

Remember those doubts I was having about whether or not this three-week plan was potent enough to do any good?  So week one felt really easy, not much muscle soreness, hence the doubts.  Week two has been a whole different story!  My whole body feels just a little sore but really tired - not in a sleepy kind of way but in a muscle fatigue way.  I honestly wasn't sure I was going to make it through my three-miles last night because my legs just felt like lead and they got heavier and heavier with every step.

But I'm not complaining because that just means PROGRESS!!  I like progress, progress feels good.  We went to a breakfast buffet this morning ... I don't know what I was thinking.  It's kind of our tradition to go to breakfast on Sunday morning but we're trying to be cheap so the price tag enticed us to the buffet and I'm not feeling good about it.  I'm pretty much going to have to pinch calories all day to compensate because the eggs benedict was so good I had seconds and I really shouldn't have.  That's the problem with buffets ... if you want seconds you just have seconds.  Grrr.




Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 cup mixed steamed veggies
1 cup mixed fruit
2 eggs benedict
1 portabella and spinach dinner
1 slice garlic bread
--------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,396




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Swimming: Visited our friends, with Vladdy and put him and their puppy in the pool several times.  Good fun but not much exercise.

The Next 3-Week Plan

So I am nearing the end of week 2 on my 3-week plan and I think it worked out really well!  Having a set schedule of things to do each day has really helped keep me on track with staying active and motivated, but knowing it was for a 3-week stint has also helped prevent boredom or frustration (excepting the minor reconsiderations last week).  I would like to prepare another 3-week plan but mix it up a little bit to prevent me from getting bored like I did before which ultimately led to slothfulness and opened the door for me to rationalize sub-par physical activity in an attempt to pass it off as "exercise".

So, that said, I would like to open the floor to suggestions for the next 3-week plan with some guidelines:

• Planned activity Monday through Saturday with Sunday open to doing whatever I can get Snackers to do with me, since it's his only day off of the week.
• I would like to continue to incorporate walking and sprinting in the next plan because I am still planning on doing the marathon in December, and because it is good for Vladdy to get out and spend that time being active with me.
• I would like a rotational schedule, like the one I have now, where different body parts are being utilized on different days to account for fatigue and to provide a more "total body" experience.
• Ideally, whatever I do has to be something that I can do for free because we will probably start moving next week or the following week and we're pinching every penny we can within reason.
• Bear in mind it is now well over 100 degrees on a daily basis between dawn and dusk here in Vegas so outdoor activities have to be something that I can do after the sun goes down.
• I am open to trying pretty much anything new, especially if it's fun AND gets me moving, as long as it doesn't cost money (i.e. rollerblading would be great but I can't afford a pair of blades and pads right now).
• Only one Monday through Saturday plan is needed and then I will repeat that plan for 3 weeks, then mix it up again or possibly come back to the original plan for the following 3 weeks.
• As much as I would LOVE to do laps, our pools are small, generally extremely crowded, and odd shaped so they're not conducive to exercise. :(
• Activities should take approximately 1 hour to complete because any more time than that is not going to be easy with moving, studying, and working.

Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1/2 cup apple cranberry granola
2 cod fillets w/malt vinegar
1 serving fries
1/2 cup cole slaw
2 glasses of pomegranate flavored green tea (50 calories each!)
4 Tbsps coffee ice cream
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,165




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Walking/Shopping: Snackers and I hit RC Willey today, then a furniture consignment store, then LuvSac in the mall, and then groceries.  We didn't buy anything other than groceries, we're just price shopping and comparing at this point because we're hoping to throw some of our furniture away when we move instead of lunking it around because it's total crap anyway.
Walking: 3 miles (6,893 steps), did circles around the dog park
Packing/Cleaning: We packed up all of our wine and cocktail glasses, our extra dishes, and our coat closet/sporting goods.

Cellulite and Tonic

No, the title of this post is not the next hottest cocktail in Los Angeles.
It is two separate and totally unrelated subjects that I would like to discuss in today's post.

Now all of this daily exercise has me burning through clean clothes like crazy and I haven't done laundry in awhile so when I got home last night after sprints I ended up digging to the bottom of a drawer for some pants and came across a pair of extremely short shorts that I used to wear to swim before I got a proper fat-girl bathing suit so I put them on.  They're really loose, which is awesome, but even better is I noticed in the mirror that my legs have lost a LOT of cellulite.  Seriously, even when I was relatively skinny in my younger years I had major cellulite issues on my legs because I never really did much to work them on a regular basis but if I had been taking before and after pictures of them even I wouldn't believe they were the same legs.  The backs of my thighs look a lot more toned than they ever have, though admittedly they're still to big.  So the secret to killing cellulite is walking/sprinting.  Cellulite lotions don't work, I've tried several including the one from Avon and they're just a waste of money in my opinion.

I may or may not have mentioned in a previous post that tonic water (like you get at the store for 60 cents to mix with Vodka or scotch) has quinine in it.  My dad, as a diabetic, has major issues with leg cramps and charlie horses and doctors sell quinine tablets as a remedy but they run around $80 a tablet.  A friend of my mom's told him to use tonic water because it has quinine in it and it is insanely cheaper, and it only takes a swallow to work.  To his surprise it DID work so he passed the info on to me when I was having bad charlie horse problems in the middle of the night from poor circulation due to being so fat.  I'm tellin' ya'll right here and now, IT WORKS!  In fact, one night I was having killer cramps (of the female nature) and Snackers asked me if I wanted some tonic and I said "it doesn't work for cramps" and he said "How do you know?  Have you tried it?".  Huh ... well no, actually I haven't.  So I took a swig and within 3 - 5 minutes my cramps were gone and stayed gone the rest of the night.  So I have one bottle of DIET tonic water (yeah, it comes in diet) in my fridge that I've had for over a year.  It doesn't go bad but I haven't used it in awhile so after sprints last night when I started to cramp up I thought "I wonder if it is too old to work".  Nope!  Took a gulp, went to bed and slept GREAT (aside from the sore and swollen ankle).  My legs feel great this morning.  I could run 20 more sprints even!!!  Get some, try it, it's worth it's weight in gold for people who are active, women who have cramps, or people with poor circulation.  I bet it would work on growing pains for kids too.  It's also called "soda water" for some brands but it's the same stuff.





Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 cup leftover noodle-roni (lunch)
1 foot long chicken sub (dinner)
>>the usual
1 Quaker apple cranberry granola bar (after workout snack)
------------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,297




Activity:
5 flights of stairs
200 crunches
100 push ups
Cleaning: cleaned the bathroom and then took a bath in it.  I love doing that!
Chasing Vladdy in circles all around the outside of the apartment building because he got out without a leash on and then thought it was a great game to run from me for 10 minutes.

Counting Down

Well it is now Thursday and every day that passes brings me one day closer to closing on this house, I hope.  If the underwriter will finish up her task this week then we could be doing our final walk-through of the house next Monday or Tuesday and signing paperwork on Wednesday or Thursday.  I honestly can't wait to turn Vladdy loose in a back yard for the first time and see how he reacts to it.

Last night's walk was fairly uneventful though it seems like the dog-training gods were trying to tell me something because Vladdy encountered every counterproductive distraction imaginable from other dogs to chicken bones on the ground to un-mothered babies running up to pet him.  My hands are killing me today, a lot more than my legs and hips are that's for sure.



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Quaker Apple Cranberry granola bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
2 grilled chicken breasts
2/3 cup Noodle-Roni
---------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,157





Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Swimming: Snackers and I hit the pool for an hour or so after work to beat the heat.  It was pretty packed though so we didn't do much swimming, just found a spot on kind of drifted around in it.
Walking: 1 mile (plus walking to and from the pool)
Sprints: 20 sprints.  I was going to try to do more but Vladdy tripped me on the third sprint and I rolled my ankle.  It didn't seem to bad so I figured I could "walk it off" but by the 20th it was starting to throb so I figured it would be best to come home and elevate it.

Added Benefits

So with the electronic cigarette I can pretty much smoke anywhere because it just emits vapor and it doesn't stink like actual cigarette smoke, in fact I think it smells kind of good but the scent is so faint that it's gone immediately.  I discovered that this created both a benefit and a concern for me yesterday.  First, I found myself sitting at my desk pretty much puffing away every 20 minutes so I made a promise that I would only allow myself two short smoke breaks with it just like I do with the real deal and that worked.  But the benefit is that I realized, since I'm not going outside to smoke on my 10 minute breaks, that I could do something more productive during that time.

So yesterday during my first 10 minute break I did 50 of my push-ups next to my desk, used the ladies room, and refilled my water glass.  During my second 10 minute break I did 100 of my crunches next to my desk and then the ladies room and water refill.  During lunch I did the last 50 push-ups and 100 crunches so that, after work, I had already done everything I needed to get done exercise wise and had a butt load of brand new time to study!!!  I managed to get four chapters read and completed an assignment for one of my classes that isn't due until Friday!  WOOT!  Now I only have one chapter left to read, two assignments left to complete, and class participation for the rest of the week which means, if I have a productive day today like I did yesterday I should be able to get some packing done.

Snackers and I went after work and picked up some moving boxes that were free on craigslist.  They are surprisingly good quality boxes and they're filled with paper for wrapping dishes and glass in so that is a major score!  I think I'm going to start with the closet in my office because there is a lot of stuff in there that can probably just go in the trash and then once it's cleaned out I can stack the packed boxes in there out of the way.  We're getting close to closing this house deal and we're getting anxious to have it over and done with.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 chicken sub (lunch)
>>the usual
1 tuna sandwich (dinner)
>>EVOO mayo, mustard, onions
1 Quaker apple/cranberry granola bar (post workout snack)
-----------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,112



Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Packing/Cleaning: packed up everything in my office except what I need for work
Walking: 3 miles (6,300 steps exactly!) w/Vladdy

Voodoo Magick

So yesterday during work I called the smoke shop where we got the electronic cigarette to see if they would replace it; no sense driving back up there if the answer is going to be no right?  The woman said "Bring it in to my shop and I will show you that it works" and I said "So you're basically saying that I just don't know what I'm doing" and she said "Yes".  I couldn't help but laugh but I didn't think there was any chance in hell we were going to take that thing back and she was going to show us some step that we missed or something we did wrong ... oh well.

So we went up there after work, we took the e-cig out of the bag and set it on the counter.  She pulled the filter off of it and looked inside, then looked at two other filters and then said "show me".  Ummmm ok so I picked up a filter, popped it on the e-cig and sucked on it.  The little light came on, as it had been, so I pointed that out as I was dragging and then when I exhaled steam came out of my mouth.  I shit you not someone should have gotten my reaction on camera.  It DID NOT work Sunday night or even when I tried it again on Monday morning.  It had just been sitting in a brown paper bag doing nothing all day.  The woman from the store didn't do anything other than pull the filter off and have me put it back on and there isn't a trick to putting these things on they just pop on like a pen cap.

I must have freaked because she started laughing at my expression alone and Snackers' expression was PRICELESS!  You'd think we were on an episode of Mindfreak or something because we both just stared at it trying to figure out how she made it work just by touching it.  I've combed it thoroughly, no little buttons or switches or secret whatevers.  I'm floored ... but the good news is it works and it's not a half bad substitute.  Way better than tobacco tea. *turns green* lol  It's actually very similar to smoking a hookah.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1/2 leftover flank steak (lunch)
1 cup leftover chicken & herb rice (lunch)
2 hot dogs
>>mustard, onions, sauerkraut
---------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,387





Activity:
6 flights of stairs
100 push-ups
200 crunches

Weigh in #32

Ummm + 1 lb?  Gotta be muscle right?

In the interest of discussing more weight-loss related content I wanted to talk about something that I learned about in my psychology class a few months ago called Associative Behavior Disorder.  We're probably all a lot more familiar with associative behavior than we think; we've heard of Pavlov's dogs that salivated at the sound of a bell because he had taught them to associate the bell with being fed.  We see this in our own pets all the time right?  My cats come running when they hear food being poured into their bowls because they have associated the sound with the fact that they are being fed and my dog gets excited whenever I pick up her leash because she has associated that with going for a walk.

Humans can display associative behavior as well such as feeling like we need to drink when we go to a bar or night club.  Associative behavior can become a disorder or addiction when we lose the ability to control behaviors that we have associated with certain events or circumstances.  The party girl who goes to a bar every night and drinks until she throws up and passes out might be a good example of an associative alcoholic; or the mom with OCD who feels the uncontrollable need to flip a light switch thirteen times any time she has a "bad thought" would be classified as having an associative disorder.  Unfortunately for us, because we are social creatures, we can develop social addictions or, in other words, associative addictions that are based on social environments or specific individuals.

This brings us back to weight-loss and gain.  I am an associative eater.  This is why, when I am single, I tend to lose weight without trying and when I am in a relationship I tend to gain.  I associate eating, especially binge or over eating, with specific atmospheres such as family parties, hanging out with friends, or going to a restaurant.  When I am single my daily food intake generally consists of a granola bar; maybe an avocado smushed up all over a bagel with some lemon juice, salt and pepper; and a cup of coffee.  Of course add copious amounts of soda to that because I've not been single since I quit soda so when I was single I was drinking it constantly which was undoubtedly slowing my weight loss.  But the point is, I am not a natural food addict or over-eater when I am by myself ... just like the party girl who probably doesn't drink at all when she's alone but always ends up passed out in a bathroom when she goes out with friends.

I firmly believe that this could be a significant aspect of why my calorie levels have become so low and why so many of you are both concerned about and confused by that.  I've vowed to you that I am not intentionally on a low calorie diet but the intelligent person wonders how an obese woman can suddenly adjust, unintentionally, to 800 calories per day unless she is intentionally "starving herself".  I get it, it's unusual - yet true.  The biggest change that I have actually made in my current lifestyle is the change in my associative behavior through counting and monitoring food intake.  When I started to monitor food I started to simultaneously force myself to change my associative behavior.  In other words:

• I can fix a sandwich for Snackers without having to fix one for myself when I'm not even hungry
• I can go to a full-service restaurant without feeling like I need to order an appetizer, soda, margarita, and dessert.
• I can go to my mom's house without raiding her cupboards for the home-baked goods she keeps for guests.
• I can go to a friend's BBQ without trying one of everything - or two, or three, or four.
• I can have a conversation with someone who's eating without feeling the need to eat also.
• I can spend hours on my computer without a box of crackers or a bag of mini-donuts in my face (oh yeah, computer time was a big time eating trigger for me!)
• I can watch food shows without feeling like I have to eat something (yes because feeling like I have to join Adam Richmond on his quest for the ultimate food challenge on Man vs. Food used to make me feel like I needed to eat something the size of a basketball during every episode).
• I can say "no thanks" when Snackers offers to make us both an ice cream cone and STILL sit with him to watch TV while he eats it!!!!  Like, OMG! (no, I don't normally talk like that, I borrowed it for dramatic effect).

Once I changed the "need" to eat in those trigger situations the "food problem" changed.  Food really isn't all that great (most of it).  9 times out of 10 I eat something and then think "why did I do that?  It wasn't even that good".  Some people just love food and it all tastes amazing and those people are not in my shoes.  Sometimes I am still tempted by watching Snackers eat something and I steal a bite or share it with him but it never seems to taste as good as I remember.  Food isn't fun for me anymore and I'm starting to realize it was never about flavor (with some exceptions).  Once I started to curb or change that associative behavior the desire to over eat went with it, hence the super-low daily caloric intakes AND the insistence that I am not actually trying to starve myself, I promise!





Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
Remainder of my reuben sandwich from yesterday (lunch)
5 oz grilled sirloin
1/2 cup herb & garlic rice
------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 922



Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Walking: 1 + mile (2,600-ish steps)
Sprinting: 10 sprints from one end of the dog park to the other

Happy Dad's Day

Around 9:30 p.m. last night I got a bug to get something done so I took all the stacks and boxes and folders full of paperwork that I have accumulated over the last 5-7 years and I sat down and went through it all.  I put everything organized in folders, shredded tons of stuff and threw a bunch of non-sensitive stuff away.  After that I fixed the leg on the coffee table, and packed a few boxes of books.  I didn't get last night's post submitted until now because I went to bed around 2 a.m. this morning, slept in till 11 a.m. and then Snackers and I left the house as soon as we got up and have been running around town ever since.

First we had some movie tickets for an 11:40 matinee but we woke up so late that we wanted to eat first so we went to the casino/movie theater to trade the tickets in for a later show.  That was some considerable walking because you have to go through the whole casino to get to the movies.  Then we went to breakfast, then we took the dogs to the dog park but there was LITERALLY no one there so we had to run around and entertain the dogs ourselves which was fun ... it gave us a glimpse of what it will be like to have our own yard to spend time with our dogs in.  After that we dropped the doggies off and went to the smoke shop where I finally gave in and bought a smokeless cigarette.  I've been wanting one for years and I kept complaining about the cost but they're only $25 now and I easily spend that much on normal cigarettes in a single month so it just didn't make sense not to get one.  Plus if I can quit real smokes I'll be able to improve my lung capacity for exercising because that is holding me back BIG TIME.

Then we stopped into a book store next door to the smoke shop and browsed around in there for awhile, then came home again to print off a coupon for free popcorn for the movies later.  We've had a full day already!  We've got a lead on some free moving boxes from craigslist so we can start packing.  The appraisal came back on the house for $2k more than we're paying for it which is awesome so now we're in the underwriting process and should be signing papers around the 27th of this month if all goes well.

Update: Stupid electronic cigarette has been charging for the recommended five hours and nothing happens when I puff on it.  The light at the end lights up but no vapor comes out.  Going to have to call the smoke shop tomorrow and see if they'll replace it with a functioning one or give me my money back.  That blows.





Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 reuben sandwich (lunch)
>>w/ a pickle spear
>>1/2 pickled green tomato (AWSOME!)
1 "weight loss water" (odd)
1 small popcorn, no butter
1/4 reuben sandwich (dinner)
---------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 976



Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Walking/Playing/Shopping: We were in and out all day today, running around, going places and just all out having a fun father's day.  Spent time with our fur babies, and had fun.

Narcoleptic Moments

SATURDAY'S POST, POSTED LATE: The strangest thing happened to me yesterday, three times.  First I was sitting at my computer hard at work on a financial audit for the new boss, I was just plugging away at it and then all of a sudden like a light switch it was like someone just turned off my energy.  SNAP!  I suddenly felt like I was going to fall asleep at my computer almost instantly and completely without control.  I had slept pretty well the night before and I had consumed my coffee and I hadn't been feeling tired at all just minutes before and yet all of a sudden I could barely keep my eyes open and I felt like I was awake but already half asleep.  You know that groggy, post-morning feeling we all get sometimes when we're woken up before we're ready to wake up and your body is threatening to go back to sleep?  It was kind of like that but extremely powerful and hit me instantly.

I am not usually the type to fall asleep or even get tired at my desk, especially working on audits because I love that kind of work and, if anything, it usually keeps me mentally stimulated and entertained.  I fought with it for about a minute, tops, and realized I was going to lose and fall asleep during work (something I've never ever done before in my life) if I didn't do something drastic so I got up and chugged a huge glass of ice cold water as fast as I could.  The water gave me a brain freeze which woke me up and then I was fine, all grogginess gone, like the whole thing had never happened.

Then last night we were at the dog park and I am sitting on a retaining wall watching the dogs play and chatting with a friend and it happened again.  BAM!  Instantly almost passed out and I had to lean forward and brace myself on my knees to keep from falling over.  I didn't feel dizzy or anything like I was going to pass out in the medical sense, but I felt like I was going to just spontaneously fall asleep and there wasn't going to be anything I could do to stop it so I stood up and walked around until it passed.  Once it passed I was wide awake and felt perfectly normal.

Then again last night after the park around 9 p.m. while I was studying it happened again and the third time I actually did fall asleep.  But usually I am not the type to go right to sleep, I lay in bed waiting to get tired or if I'm doing something and can't sleep yet I get gradually more tired and can fight it for awhile until I finish whatever I'm doing but not last night.  One minute I felt fine and I was reading a chapter on Enterprise Systems and the next minute I was waking up to the sound of Snackers talking to me and I don't even remember falling asleep or feeling like I was going to fall asleep.  I slept great last night, through the night, like a log and feel totally refreshed and wonderful this morning but that kind of scares me because I've been super uber tired before and that kind of narcoleptic experience has never ever happened to me before.



Food:
8 glasses of water
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
1/2 serving leftover manicotti (lunch)
Appetizer sampler (dinner)
>>5 pot stickers
>>2 cheese sticks
>>4 shrimp
>>2 oz calamari
1/2 serving tirimisu
---------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 982



Activity:
8 flights of stairs
Walking: 3 miles (6,231 steps)
Cleaning/Packing: (see today's post later tonight for details)

Re-Evaluation?

I'm starting to question whether or not my three week plan is vigorous enough.  After the first mile and 10 sprints I was breathing so hard I felt like I was going to pass out on Monday night but come Tuesday morning I felt perfectly fine, no soreness, no tension, not even a little bit of muscle fatigue.  I thought for sure that the 100 push-ups and 200 crunches the following day would whoop me but I woke up the next morning feeling totally normal.  Then, as I was carrying Vladdy home I thought "ok, now for sure I am going to feel this in the morning" but I felt great yesterday.  Last night after the mile and 20 sprints I sat down to study for an hour and a half and everything was sore when I got up to go to bed so I completely expected to still be sore this morning but I feel fine.

Now I have a conundrum.  I think that we can all agree that when it comes to building muscle and toning it is necessary to work out until you're sore because soreness means that muscle fibers have broken down and can be replaced by new, stronger muscle.  But if my primary goal right now is just to shed the pounds should I be working out until I am sore every night or would it be best to stay the course so that I am never too sore to exercise on a daily basis?  I just don't know but when I am doing my program I feel like I'm getting a work out and yet, the next morning I feel like maybe I've been taking it easy.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 serving salad w/vinegar
1 serving manicotti
2 slices garlic bread
1 fruit2o
1 drumstick
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,111





Activity:
5 flights of stairs
100 Push-ups
200 Sit-ups

IT Classes Week One

So a quick recap of last night's events: I spoke to the vet yesterday and Vladdy's test results came back negative so she thinks that his health problems are the result of stress.  I can see that, the little dude whines or cries constantly whether he's locked up in his kennel or out in the living room, or even on a walk with me.  He seems to never relax which I was hoping was just a puppy thing and he would grow out of it but he seems to be getting worse with age because his constant stress and "at attention" attitude are leading to more destructive or undesirable behavior as he gets bigger.  It's clear that he's not getting enough daily exercise but he's not mentally stimulated enough by just walking with me so we're going to have to invest a lot more time, as a team, in training and teaching him to keep him intellectually challenged.

Yesterday we picked up a cheap clicker for a dollar and worked with him on laying down in a certain spot in the living room for gradually extended periods of time.  This A) mentally stimulates him because he is learning and B) rewards him for relaxing so that, hopefully, he'll start to enjoy it and do it more often.

After a brief session of that we took him to the dog park and let him go crazy and blow off steam but he drank INSANE amounts of water while there, so much that his tummy was grossly extended and we were pretty worried about it.  When we got home he still hadn't eliminated the water so I took him for a walk hoping to inspire a tinkle and get my remaining 2 miles done at the same time.  After a mile and a half he laid down and wouldn't get up, probably a combination of being just dog tired and obviously way too hot.  I ended up carrying him a quarter of a mile home and he's doing great this morning but had a marathon tinkle at 5 am.  It had to be 2 or 3 cups worth of fluid, easily.

Now on to IT classes.  They started on Monday but my school has been having website issues since Sunday night which threw everyone for a bit of a loop.  The school has been very good about maintaining contact with the students through it though, including 3 update emails and a courtesy call from my academic counselor.  I was able to get my participation in on Tuesday, though I would have preferred to do it on Monday, but I still have plenty of time left in the week to get it all completed on time barring another issue.  According to this morning's email the issues are fixed and the professors are cutting everyone some slack on timing to make up for it.  The class seems to be an extremely basic level so far, more or less defining common computer and technology terms such as Information Technology versus Information Systems.  It's been fun so far though because some of the terms are for systems or products that I am already familiar with but didn't know the precise term for them so I am learning something that I can even apply at work already after just a few days.  It feels good to finally be out of gen-eds and into my major.

Last night on the way to the dog park Snackers pinched my knee with his hand in the car and said "wow, I couldn't ever do that before" and I said "Because my leg was too fat?" and he said "yeah!" lol.  Then he tugged on my jeans and said "look, they're even loose enough that I can pinch and tug on them, wow!".  I have a very, very good man. :)





Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice lunch
3 Ahi Tacos
>>w/ homemade slaw
1 drumstick
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,072

My Bad, I know: I forgot to eat breakfast and before I knew it lunch time had arrived so I had my usual, figuring I'd have a snack before dinner to get my calories up but then I got stuck on the phone until almost 6 p.m. for work and by then Snackers was hungry and ready for dinner.  I ate an extra taco (serving size is supposed to just be two) and felt full to the gills so I thought "I'll have something small in an hour or two".  Then I went out to work out, came in and drank a bunch of water, ate a drumstick, and then whammo ... it was bed time.



Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Walking: 1 mile (2,100 steps)
Sprinting: 20 - Did 4, then 3, then 5, and then 5 more with 40-breath rests in between sets.  POOPED I TELL YA!!!

One-Oh-Seven

The news announced that today will be the hottest day of the year thus far at 107 degrees.  Wee.  It was 102 yesterday so a full five degree jump overnight.  Snackers is off work today and I am trying to talk him into taking the dog for a walk or something to exercise him because he is acting like a crazy lunatic but I slept in too late to take him before work (and it felt awesome).

My arms aren't nearly as sore as I expected them to be after 100 push ups yesterday.  Even more surprising was that I did the first 50 push ups during lunch yesterday and had to take two or three little pauses just to get them done but then I did the last 50 last night after work and breezed right through them.  I was even starting to worry that I was doing them wrong because I hit 25 without a struggle so I picked my feet up and balanced on my knees (yes I do girl push-ups for now).

I get to walk 3 miles tonight and I am really hoping it cools off significantly when the sun goes down or I'll be drenched in sweat before I even make it to the parking lot.  It's not just hot either, it's muggy.  I hate muggy weather.



Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 slider & 1/2 a corn dog (Snackers' leftovers)
1 serving swiss chicken dinner (from comfort food diet cookbook)
-------------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 808



Activity:
2 flights of stairs
Walking: Laps around the inside of the dog park enclosure - 1 mile
Walking: Laps around the outside of my apartment complex - 1.5 miles and then things got interesting.  Vladdy laid down in the middle of the road and refused to get up.  He was panting really hard so I picked him up and put him over my shoulders with his butt on one shoulder, his front paws over the other shoulder and his tummy behind my neck and I carried him just over a quarter of a mile home, up the stairs and into the bath tub for a cool (just below room temp) bath to cool him down.  He weighs just over 36 lbs now so I am not going to sweat that last quarter of a mile.  I think it's safe to say that between walking too and from the car and the running around and playing I did with him at the park that weren't included in my mile count, plus carrying a 36 lb dog a quarter of a mile, I'm sure I broke even at the very least.  He's doing fine now, he laid down in the bath for a minute and then when we dried him off he drank some water, laid down in his kennel and started to chew on his bone so I think he'll be ok but I'm pooped!!!

PICTURE DAY!

Nov. 2010 (Start)

Jun. 2011 (Current)

So obviously, with only a 4 lb loss in the last month (bleh!) there isn't much of a difference between last month's pic (not shown) and this month's pic but I figured out why there weren't any little holes of light around my waist in last month's pic: I had my elbows turned in at my waist.  The same thing happened this morning and I made Snackers take another picture with my arms held out a little so we can actually see what's going on with my waist.

I think it's crazy how different my progress pics look between my desktop and my laptop computers though.  On my desktop I look a lot shorter and fatter in all of my pictures than I do on my laptop and I can't help but wonder which version is more accurate.  I wish I could somehow show you what I mean, maybe if I take a screenshot of my pics as seen on my desktop and send it to my laptop to upload ... I dunno.  It's a trip though.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/4 of a chicken quesadilla
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 foot long chicken sub
>> the usual
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 974



Activity:
6 flights of stairs (1 flight while carrying a 30 lb bag of cat food)
Push-ups: 100 (did 50 during lunch and 50 right after work)
Sit-ups: 200 (did 100 during lunch and 100 right after work)
Walking/Shopping:  Not far, just went to Wal-Mart for cat food and coffee creamer, PetCo for dog food, and Borders and Barnes & Noble to browse books on de-stressing techniques for dogs.  We didn't buy anything at the book stores, just read a few different snippets from several books to get some ideas.  Yeah, we cheated.  It's funny, I never liked "window" shopping or shopping in general until I started trying to save money while living in Las Vegas and now it seems like we go shopping without buying anything at least once a week just for something to do.

Three-Week Plan

At the suggestion of my brother I have decided to set up an exercise routine with precise plans for each day of the week and I am going to follow it for the next three weeks and then see where I'm at.  I'm actually writing this post on Sunday night, instead of waiting until Monday morning like I usually do (I'll add my weigh-in comments tomorrow) because I want to put this down and make a commitment to it before I weigh-in tomorrow, regardless of what the weigh-in results are.  I'm tired of "winging it" every day and either doing what I feel like doing or trying to force myself to do something.  But I am a "planner".  I usually do really well when I create a plan and commit to it; under those circumstances even when I don't want to do something I tend to have a higher drive to do it anyway when it's part of a clearly formulated plan.

Also because my brother, who is a very smart guy, suggested it as a method for getting over this bloomin' slump I've been in so good or bad results tomorrow ... I'm gonna give it a shot.  I will admit though, my self-doubt is coming back because I've been so negative and lax lately that there is this tiny part of me that is afraid I won't stick to the program.  I need to mute that part ... or drown it maybe?  So here's the plan.

Week One:
Monday: Walk 1 - 2 miles & do 10 sprints
Tuesday: 100 push-ups & 200 crunches
Wednesday: Walk 3 miles
Thursday: Walk 1 mile & do 20 sprints
Friday: 100 push-ups & 200 crunches
Saturday: Walk 3 miles
Sunday: Rest

Weeks Two & Three:
Rinse, lather, and repeat.





Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 cup salad
>>w/fat free balsamic
3 bites of rice (didn't heat it enough)
6 asparagus spears
1/2 serving homemade chicken nachos
>>chips, chicken, cheese, jalapenos, pico de gallo
1 glass blush wine
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,007



Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Walking: 2,642 steps (just over 1.25 miles)
Sprints: 10 (2 sets of 5 back-to-back)

Couldn't Weight #31

Notice the play on words in the subject ... oh yeah.  I have a post all prepped for today that will be posted tonight with food and activity logs but I just couldn't wait until tonight to share the news.

232.5!  That's -1.5 lbs.  It's not huge but it's bigger than I've been putting up and I am STOKED!!!!  Wahoo!

So Cute

So a wonderful friend of mine who has also been losing weight and is farther ahead in the process than I am has blessed me, several times, with adorable clothes that she has gotten too skinny for but they fit me perfectly.  YAY!  So I guess you could say her loss is my gain and hopefully when I get to the point where I've lost so much that my fat clothes literally won't stay up anymore (and believe me, I'm close to that point) I will be able to pass them on to someone else who is also losing.  I couldn't wait to try the clothes on and there were several shirts but the one shown here was my favorite with the jeens, which I adore!

As soon as I put these on I was in love with how they fit and how they looked on me, so I had to take a picture.  Of course it's already way too hot outside for this outfit but I will be wearing the jeans with other tops and I will save the top for the fall and hope it shrinks as I do. :)

As for my own clothes, I ended up throwing away my biggest pair of fat pants because they were on their last leg anyway.  They were gray cargo capri's from Kohl's and they are the pants that literally slid off of me when I stood up from my desk a month or so ago (click here to read the post about it).  On top of that, however, I have a pair of denim, a pair of black, and a pair of brown capri's that are getting too loose to wear comfortably.  I can still pass them off around the house or to run errands but they're so big on me that they don't feel flattering.  That's kind of bittersweet actually.  I also have two or three different shirts in my drawer that I won't even pull out and wear anymore because they used to feel slimming and now they just feel frumpy.




Food:
7 glasses of water
2 cups of coffee w/creamer
2 egg-substitute tacos
>>egg substitute, onion, green pepper, salsa
2 oz low-fat cottage cheese
1 serving spanish rice with veggies
8 oz prickly pear lemonade
1 cup mixed green salad
>>w/low fat vinaigrette
1 cup white rice
8 spears grilled asparagus
1 small lemon bar
-------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,120



Activity:
6 flights of stairs
Walking: Browsing another nursery (trees not babies) - 2,580 steps (rounded down)
Walking: Errands/shopping - 1,890 steps (rounded down)
Walking: Living room walking - 2,000 steps (exact)
Total: 6,470 steps aka just over 3.2 miles

A Bad Night

So Vladdy and Piper both had some pretty runny number two's at the dog park last night but Piper seemed to be ok once she got it out.  Vladdy, on the other hand, had a very bad night.  He woke us up around 1 a.m. obviously desperate to go out so I took him and it was clear that his tummy was still working him over.  I gave him a couple little syringes full of Pepto and put him back to bed.  At 5 a.m. he woke us up again to the sound of him vomiting in his kennel so I took him out and the result was still unpleasant.  I gave him two more syringes of Pepto, kept him in the living room with me, and laid down on the couch so Snackers could get some sleep because he worked nights all week.  At around 6 a.m. Vladdy started indicating another vomit was on the way so I got him outside and down the stairs just in time.

He went potty again and I noticed that it looked awfully red so I think there's blood in it.  Not good.  I brought him back up and used a piece of tissue to blot his hiney and, yep, blood.  So I collected a stool sample in an old pill bottle and it looks like we're probably going to have to visit the vet today.

The upside is after about 6:30 he laid down on the floor next to me and the two of us fell asleep.  Aside from brief disturbances from Kody using us to play leap-frog and a yappy Chiweeny outside, we were out until Snackers woke us up as he was leaving for work at 8:00.  It's now 9:00 and I just fed him a very small breakfast and a teeny bit of water which he ate with his usual voracity so I am hoping that's a good sign and that maybe it's not anything serious.  If he keeps it down I'll feel a lot better.

In addition to dog problems, though, I slept like crap.  I had the A/C on, the fan in the bedroom on full blast, and was still waking up drenched in sweat yet shivering.  Snackers was freezing too and he kept stealing the blanket but I just couldn't seem to get comfortable.  With the blanket I felt like I was sweltering, without it I was freezing violently.  Night sweats suck.  Perimenopause sucks.



Food:
10 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 fiber one bar
1/2 grilled chicken and swiss on sourdough (lunch)

1 order fries
1/2 grilled chicken sandwich (dinner)
----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 946








Activity:
8 flights of stairs
Walking: 3.2 miles (6,300 steps) Vladdy was too sick to walk and Snackers took the house key with him on accident tonight so I couldn't leave and lock the door behind me.  But I wasn't about to wuss out so I returned to the old faithful method of walking in place in the living room.  It's not ideal but at least I gotter done.

Sprinting for Saddlebags

Ladies, this post is for you since most men don't have saddlebags.  They can be the absolute hardest part of the body to work out and lose weight on right?  Well I think I've discovered a major secret to targeting them: sprinting, but not just normal sprinting, sprinting where you stop and change directions as fast as you can.  If you need an example, watch athletes work out on ESPN, they do this all the time and there is definitely something to it.

Yesterday morning my knee hurt, thankfully by mid-day it was fine but my saddlebags are still a little bit sore even this morning, as are my butt muscles.  I've done a lot of walking in the last 8 months and these muscles have never felt quite like they did yesterday and today which tells me that it wasn't the walking on Wednesday night that got to them, it was the sprints that I did at the park during the walk - or maybe a combination of the two.

So if you're struggling with your hiney and saddlebags, give this a try.  It's a calorie torcher and I guarantee you'll feel it the next day.



Food:
9 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1 Sushi Dinner
>>1 skinny tuna roll
>>1 skinny yellowtail roll
>>1 skinny scallop roll
>>1/2 lobster roll
1 serving vanilla ice cream
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,097




Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Shopping: Furniture browsing, nursery browsing (plants, not babies)
Dog Park: Pretty much just walked around and tried to stand as much as possible because my glutes are still really sore
Walking: I SWORE I would do 3 miles and I did just over 3 (6,387 steps) between shopping, the dog park, and walking around the parking lot at home.

Blow Out

Five miles around the neighborhood is a lot different than five miles on a treadmill or walking in place in my living room!  Up hills, down hills, on and off of curbs, tripping over the dog, correcting him, and making him sit at every road crossing.  I started to get so tired on the way home last night that I was stumbling here and there because I wasn't picking my feet up quite high enough to cover the little slopes of the sidewalk and now, this morning, there's a blow out (figuratively speaking).

My left knee, the one that was giving me problems all winter but then stopped acting up after awhile, is killing me this morning.  I think that is just a testament to my suspicions that I've been passing off mediocre exercise as actual workouts and that is probably why I've not really lost any significant weight.  The little light bulb over my head went on.  I told myself when I started this "as you lose weight you will have to increase your exercise to compensate for carrying fewer pounds so that you don't stall" and yet ... I did what almost everyone does; I started to take it easy instead of working harder.

Vladdy is pretty tired today too.  He climbed the stairs this morning very slowly but he still tried to lunge at Piper any time he got within three feet of her so I am sure he's not in any real pain, just tired.  I have to admit, it is really nice walking late at night like that when there is no one out and the evening is relatively cool.  I was a little bit afraid at first but the streets around here are well lit and I was walking in really nice, expensive neighborhoods so after a few blocks it was easy to relax and just enjoy the walk.  Vladdy was on guard pretty much the entire time though.  He barked at a plastic bag caught on a telephone pole, our shadows casting off a retaining wall, a cockroach on the sidewalk, and a police car patrolling the neighborhood rec-center.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 Healthy Choice Lunch
1 steak gyro (better)
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 858



Activity:
7 flights of stairs
50 push ups
50 crunches
playing/wrestling w/vladdy.

My saddlebags and hips were so sore today I could barely walk without waddling so I decided to work my arms and core today instead of walking ... but I was active and I did break a sweat.

Chicken Pizza

This was dinner last night and it was a whole lot yummier than it looks.  It was a whole wheat Flatout with marinara, part skim mozzarella cheese, cilantro, olives, half of a baked chicken breast, and onions on it.  I probably could have even gotten away with drizzling a little bit of balsamic vinegar on it but it was pretty tasty as-was.  But here is my assessment of the Flatout product.  It's more like a pita than I guess I thought it would be and I just put everything on it and baked it so it did not come out with the texture of a pizza crust at all ... I mean I guess it did if you like soft crust pizzas but I prefer crust that actually holds up the toppings and doesn't fold when you pick it up.  Now I read an online tip last night after dinner that said the way to remedy that is to put the Flatout in the oven for about 8-10 minutes with just a little bit of EVOO and some garlic powder on it, then take it out, put toppings on it, and put it back in the oven.  They're only 100 calories each if you get the whole grain which is JUST AWESOME in my opinion but when I made taco pie the other night (from the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook) I discovered a very quick and easy recipe for a Latino style flatbread that would also work just as well as the flatouts as a pizza crust and is less than half the calories so I think, next time, I'll take the extra 10 minutes to whip that up instead.

All-in-all, however, this is an exceptionally filling and relatively low-cal meal.  Here's the break-down:
1 Flatout = 100 calories
4 Tbsps marinara = 35 calories
1/2 cup part-skim mozzarella = 130 calories
1/2 baked chicken breast = 100 calories
1 oz sliced black olives = 25 calories
1/4 cup diced onion = 16 calories
healthy sprinkle of chopped cilantro = Freebie
-------------------------------
Total: 406 calories

Now technically this is more than enough food to be 2 servings but since everyone has been giving me crap for eating 800 - 900 calories per day I ate a whole one by myself and I felt stuffed to the freakin' gills so that probably won't ever happen again.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 serving low-fat salsa flavored crackers
1 serving leftover taco pie (the last of it)
1 homemade chicken pita (not very tasty)
-----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 821 (I tried to eat more, I did but I just felt too full!)



Activity:

1. 5 flights of stairs
2. Walking: 5.25 miles (10,648 steps)!!!!!  I took Vladdy, we left at 9 p.m. when Snackers left for his night jobs and we headed for a nearby park at an extremely brisk walk but we took the long way there and then we also took the long way home, also at a fast walk.  We walked in the door at just past 11 p.m. so that's 2 solid hours of non-stop physical activity tonight.  I'm so proud of me right now!
3. Sprinting: Once at the park Vladdy and I did 20 sprints fom one end of the park's grassy stretch to the other.  Of course I would lose my breath but instead of just standing or sitting to rest I would walk the length of the park at a medium pace once and then do two or three more sprints.  I noticed that I was actually able to do more laps back-to-back without running out of breath the more of them I did.  

(Note: No jogging, why?  A friend and blog reader told me that it is not good to run/jog large breed dogs that have a reputation for hip and joint problems until they are at least 1.5 years old because that is the crucial development period for their bones when the added stress can cause problems.  Since we were at the vet anyway a few weeks ago I asked her about that (because I've been wanting to jog with Vladdy but have avoided it to err on the side of caution) and she confirmed but made the exception that it is natural for a puppy to want to run and play and it's important for muscle development so it is ok to let him run in small amounts as long as it is on softer surfaces like grass or sand.  Hence the walking on the way to the park and the sprinting in the grass once we got there.)

Woke Up Sore

Yep ... that's how you know that you've been slacking and trying to pass moderate activity as a work out.  When you wake up sore one morning and realize it's been awhile since your body has been sore.  I slept like a lump of hematite last night, no joke.  Went to bed around 10 pm and was out cold throughout the entire night.  I didn't wake up to potty, look at the clock, move the dog, or even steal the covers back from Snackers.  I was just out, solid, down for the count ... I may have even been snoring.  Why?  Because I did some real, legitimate exercise last night at the dog park and it felt groovy.  My legs are sore, especially on the insides of my thighs which I think is from all the fast stopping and turning while sprinting that I was doing with Vladdy.  I'm certain that stopping and changing directions like that has to build some kind of muscle because it takes a lot of effort to stop a forward momentum and change it.  Football players do that during practice so there must be a good reason for it, I enjoy doing it because I feel all athletic and cool, and Vladdy loves it when I do that because it makes running more of a game for him.

Now for the bad news.  His legs are sore today, specifically his back legs.  He stood up to exit his kennel this morning when I took him out and as he went to stretch he whimpered and sat down very quickly.  I got him to his feet and we went downstairs to let him potty but he had a hell of a time coming back up the stairs.  I think it happened when a big German Shepard rolled him a few times and one of the times he got bowled over and yelped.  The other dog was being awfully bully-ish and whoever owned it wasn't doing anything so I stepped in with the Cesar Milan shhht and touch and surprisingly it worked!  After the third or fourth time the other dog stopped stalking Vladdy and went off to play with bigger dogs but I think Vladdy should have tonight off to recover, plus I have to do a 15 slide PowerPoint Presentation on Zion National Park for my geology final that I want to get done early so that I can have the rest of the week to work on my 66 question math final.  Go figure ... a perfectly good excuse to rationalize slothfulness.  Yay (sarcasm).




Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 serving leftover taco pie (lunch)
1 serving homemade chicken pizza on wheat flatouts
>>chicken, marinara, part-skim mozzarella
>>olive, onion, cilantro, tomatoes
>>1/2 of a skinless chicken breast, baked and cubed
1 100 calorie snack pack
--------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,219



Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Cooked dinner
Nothing: It is now 10:44 p.m., Snackers is at his night jobs, I need to take Vladdy out but I have spent the whole night working on my stupid powerpoint final (it's done and submitted) and I am freakin' exhausted.  I'm having a hard time staying awake long enough to even type this post.  G'night.

30th Weigh-In

Another half-pound.  I guess it's still a loss and a victory but at this rate I'll still be over 200 lbs come Christmas.  Something has GOT to give.  I mean ... I'm doing and posting daily activity but maybe all these trips to the dog park aren't actually as active as they feel.  I like to run around, literally RUN around, in the grass with Vladdy because he likes to chase me and he gets all excited when I turn fast and make him turn with me.  But I can't sustain that kind of activity for more than just a few minutes at a time before I am gasping for air so maybe I think I'm being just as active by running around in short spurts as I would be if I were walking for long distances but maybe that's not true.  Maybe light, extended workouts were better for burn.  *sigh*

I want to be happy about a loss this morning, I really do, but I am so tired of these little teeny tiny, piddly ante losses!  And I can tell that you are all getting sick of them too because thread comments have dropped to almost nothing in the last few weeks and page hits are down dramatically as well which means I'm not as interesting as I used to be.  That's no surprise; it's far less motivating to watch a fat chick whittle off a half-pound per week and you're all thinking the same thing I'm thinking ... the inch worm on my weight loss counter is starting to look really appropriate.  I'm getting sick of this.  I felt better, slept better, and had higher excitement and motivation levels when I was losing 2-3 lbs per week, not to mention less stress, and I just need to get off my bulbous ass and do it.

Somewhere something broke and I went back to my old mentality of thinking "oh I can skip exercise tonight, it's not that big of a deal" but yes, it is that big of a deal and I just need to break out of this funk.  I keep telling myself that but when push comes to shove and I'm sitting on a recliner thinking about going for a walk I somehow almost always end up making the wrong decision.  It's tough love time guys.  You've been supportive, you've been encouraging, you've been sympathetic but I started this blog because I needed to be accountable to someone other than myself because I knew that, eventually, I would let myself off easy.  Don't hold back people, this is when I need you the most.

Give it to me straight.  Boo, throw popcorn and rotten tomatoes, tell me how disappointed you are in me ... something, anything.  I need someone to challenge me and challenge me big time because it is when someone tells me "you can't do it" that my stubborn attitude kicks in and I do whatever it takes to prove them wrong.  I perform best under pressure and lately there just hasn't been any pressure to succeed, especially not from myself.  This is not ok!  It is not ok that I'm stalling out and crawling along.  I am FAR FROM THERE and it is not ok that I am subconsciously accepting an accumulative 50 lb loss as success when I still have 99 lbs to go.  I can't allow myself to be happy with "close enough" ... I'm nowhere near close enough.  Now I need to hear that from you!





Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 cup of Kona Coffee (not sure what's in it but it was tasty)
1/2 serving sunflower seeds
1 serving taco pie (lunch)
1 chicken fajita pita
--------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 984



Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Walking: Walked the dogs to the dog park from softball (about 1/2 a mile)
Sprinting: Sprinted with Vladdy again tonight at the park but this time I didn't settle for sprinting until I just ran out of breath.  I really got into it.  At one point Vladdy took off with the ball in his mouth and I chased him full speed around the tables full of people, through the gazebo and around the watering station before finally cornering him behind a poop-station where we went side-to-side a few times until I finally outsmarted him and got the ball away.  I also sprinted around in the grass with him four or five times with three or four laps each time, doing fast stops and turns to keep him from running in front of me (almost slid and fell on my ass once and he bit me on the ass once which was an interesting experience) and then finally stopped when he got tired and laid down.  Of course I didn't tire him out single handedly, I had help from a Weimaraner, a boxer, and a German Shepard in between sprints while I caught my breath.  I truly, deep down, actually feel good about the level of exercise I got tonight even if I can't count the sprinting in my 15 mile goal for the week.

At The Lake

So this morning we got up and hit the lake with both dogs.  After watching Vladdy plunge into the water Piper walked bravely out to about ankle-depth and then decided it still sucked.  But we were out there for several hours and had a really great time.  The wind was blowing pretty solidly so I was able to get some fairly significant swimming in just by going against the waves.  I can tell I'm going to be sun burned but I drank water, not wine, this time so I don't think I'm dehydrated.

I'd let to do something else physical later this evening when the heat of the day has passed but it would be more fun if I could talk Snackers into joining me.  I don't know what to expect tomorrow.  I've done really good but my weigh-ins have just been so-so for a long time now and I feel like I'm kind of starting to lose faith in myself as a result.



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 chicago dog (breakfast, bad I know)
1 foot long chicken sub (lunch)
>>the usual, no mayo no cheese
1 serving taco pie (dinner)
>>minus the sour cream
-----------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,291



Activity
4 flights of stairs
Swimming: Went to the lake with the dogs again
Playing: Went to the dog park with the dogs again.  Played chase with Vladdy until I couldn't breathe anymore.

...And Taking Names

Well this morning I decided to lay in bed for 20 minutes after I woke up because Vladdy saw me stir and decided that I wasn't getting out of bed fast enough so he needed to help by barking at me.  Oh hell no!  So I ignored him completely ... maybe I'll get lucky and he'll think I'm deaf so barking is pointless.  When he finally gave up and laid down I left the room but still didn't pay any attention to him and, of course, he started throwing another tantrum but he gave up, again, and eventually got to go outside and have breakfast.

I've done two math assignments, spent an hour at work, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and folded a load of laundry this morning.  Then I sat down to check email and noticed that my car insurance went up $150 all of sudden for no reason.  WHAT?!  So I called Progressive to kick some A.  As it turns out I had called for a home insurance QUOTE last week to compare rates on two of the homes that we were looking at (the one we put an offer on and another one) and the stupid agent that I talked to actually misspelled my name on the quote, thus entering me into my existing policy as a second person but their system couldn't find driving history on "shadow-me" so they jacked my rate.  I mean really?  How do you do a home insurance quote and add a second driver to an auto-insurance policy on accident?  Well we got that cleared up but oy vey right?

So now Snackers is at work and I'm debating whether I should put together a grocery list or wait until Snackers comes home so that he can contribute to the menu for the week.  Huh, just got a random "wtf?" text from him ... I don't think it was meant for me but it means he's probably having a lousy day :(.  Poor Snackers.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 doughnut (shush, it's been forever since I've had one)
1 chicken/veggie burrito
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,007



Activity:
5 flights of stairs
Grocery shopping
Cleaning
Not much else. :(  I am so irritated with myself!!!!!
**Just kidding!  After posting this I took Vladdy out, tied his leash to Piper's collar, grabbed his favorite rope toy and ran the length of the block and back with him chasing and dragging Pips in tow.  Wooh! I feel good!

The Waiting Game

Ok ... we have an escrow number on the house, I've confirmed with the lender and the Realtor that they have everything from me that they need and the appraisal has been ordered so now ... it's time to play the waiting game.  This sucks major duck bubbles.  I am not a patient person anyway and this has to be the absolute worst kind of waiting I have ever experienced in my life.  I've moved before.  I've been excited to move before.  But this is a whole new level of excitement, anticipation, anxiety, and tension.  I've had a perma-headache for three days, I feel like I'm going to start hyperventilating at any minute and when I do my heart is going to pop out of my nose.  We're watching all of these home improvement shows on the DIY network and they help because they give me something to focus on and provide ideas but they also make me even more anxious and excited to move.  Is it July yet?

I'm going to explode.



Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 healthy choice lunch
2 bratwursts w/bun
>>sauerkraut and mustard
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1,007



Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Play: Dog park again

The Size of a Puppy

Remember this picture?  This was me holding Vladdy at town square a little over a month ago when he got so tired that he pretty much passed out in my arms and started snoring.  Pay very careful attention to how small he is and how comfortably his little body curls up in my arms.  Look at the length of his nose and the breadth of his paws and the diameter of his ears and then ....

LOOK AT HIM NOW!  This was taken today, same dog, same position, even the same shirt (yes I do change my clothes, that was purely a coincidence).  Look at how much farther apart my arms are spread in order to accommodate his long body.  Notice how in the first pic his face is about half the length of my forearm and in the new pic it's about as long as my forearm?  Now ... even more disturbingly ... notice his paws are the same freakin' size in both pictures?!  And call me crazy but I think his ears look the same too.  So good news is he's growing into his extremities and will be less awkward looking but bad news is he's still got a LOT of growing to do.  Something tells me that by this time next month I won't be able to hold him like that at all, let alone get a picture of it.

So I'm actually not the only member of my little family trying to loose weight.  Two of my fur kids were put on diets a few weeks ago when we realized that their new younger siblings were having a negative affect on their weight.  Piper and Casper, who have always been able to free feed and stay at healthy weights had both started to pack on the pounds after we got Kody and Vladdy so we had to put them on a feeding schedule to monitor their intake and keep them from getting into the kitten/puppy food.  I am proud to say that Piper has lost 2.5 lbs and Casper has lost 1.  Yay kids!




Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1/2 serving sunflower seeds
1 leftover burger minus the bun
>>w/sauerkraut, mustard, and balsamic
Homemade baked chicken
>>2 legs, 1 thigh
2 home made truffles
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 929



Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Playing: Went to the dog park again, walked/ran around with the dogs
Gave the dogs a bath: I don't know how many calories this burns but I'm sure it's significant enough to list because it is EXHAUSTING!  Piper is a wiley little shit and Vladdy is just pure muscle and neither of one of them makes it easy on me.

The Walk

LONG ASS POST ALERT but it's worth reading.  Funny, cool content!

So last night I decided to take just Vladdy for a walk and leave Piper home.  She was disappointed, I could tell but when she's around Vladdy's attention span goes completely out the window and all he wants to focus on is chewing on her ... plus I can't really take the firm hand with Vladdy that I need to when I have Piper because she's a very good dog and doesn't really understand why he's not so good.  When it's the three of us he tends to get neurotic and then I tend to get frustrated and then Piper tends to get confused and insecure and it's just not good so she stayed home.

Before I left I hopped on Google and mapped out a route that I had never taken before because I wanted a change of scenery and I wanted to make sure that I got at least 3 miles done.  So I headed out and it didn't start well ... Vladdy dropped a squat of the second kind in the parking lot right outside our building.  He's really good about not doing that in the house but he's not yet figured out that not every portion of "outside" is appropriate for pottying.  So luckily we were right next to the dumpster so I grabbed a subway bag and picked it up and then we headed out.  Much to my chagrin he popped a second squat of the second kind on the sidewalk about half-a-block away!!!  I didn't have a bag with me because I should mention that Snackers had taken him out about 30 minutes before we left which was also about 45 minutes after he ate dinner so I really wasn't expecting him to potty on the walk at all ... at least, not that kind of potty.  So I found a large flat rock and a pine cone and I scraped it all off the sidewalk and threw it into the bushes and then wiped up what was left with a palm leaf that was hanging over someone's retaining wall and off we went.  Cars driving by were probably rolling with laughter!

At last we reached the point where my planned route took us on a new path through a gated community that allegedly came out on our street but several blocks down the road from our house.  The gate was open when I went in so I figured I wouldn't have any trouble getting back out.  Nope.  I got to the outlet and the gate was chained and padlocked shut so I went back the way I had come only to find that gate closed also!!!  I walked the fence for a long time looking for an opening in the bars to squeeze through but to no avail and then waited awhile for a car to come along and open the gate but also to no avail.  I knocked on the door of a house right next to the gate to see if the owner would give me the gate code but the old woman shouted through the door "I don't open my door for nobody after dark" so I apologized and left.  I finally laid down on the ground and slid under the gate, then guided Vladdy between the bars because he was just barely skinny enough to fit ... thank goodness!  Well after all of that I wasn't about to go all the way around the main roads because that would have been an additional 3 - 4 miles and we were already exhausted so I headed back the way we'd come.

Now bear in mind this was a training walk so I kept doing a sharp about-face every time I could tell that Vladdy was paying more attention to our surroundings than he was to me.  This is the trick that my friend Tia taught me that she used to teach her dog who is a GOD among off-leash walkers.  Now I've been doing this with Vladdy on our walks but it has always seemed like it would never pay off but EUREKA he figured it out tonight!  All of a sudden I went to do a turn and he immediately turned with me!  It was so seamless that I thought he'd slipped his collar and turned around to find him next to my ankle, looking up at me.  I FREAKED OUT!  I started shrieking GOOD DOGGY and petting him vigorously and then he flopped over on his back in a clear display of glee and started kicking all four feet in the air with his lips flopped back in a big ol' doggy grin as I rubbed his tummy.  People driving by (because yes, we were on a main road) probably thought I'd lost my mind.  When I started to walk he jumped up and was actually looking up at me as we walked.  HOLY GREEN GODDESS ON A CRACKER BATMAN!!!  HE WAS LOOKING TO ME FOR CUES ... HE WAS PAYING ATTENTION TO SMEEEEEEE!!!!  I did four or five more turns and he was on my ankles like a 4H horse on a calf!!!  So we had another moment of good doggy shrieking and belly rubbing and paw kicking and then when he got up he grabbed his leash in his mouth and started trotting along next to me all excited that he'd finally figured it out!  I was able to loop the leash around my neck and not hold it with my hands for about a block and then puppy-brain took over and he lost all focus.

After that it was touch and go on the way home where some turns were instant and sometimes he wasn't paying attention but all in all it was a huge success!  Of course I had forgotten my phone and it was way past dark because my 3.4 mile walk had turned into an hour and 45 minutes so I ran into Snackers on my way home who was out looking for me.  He's so awesome!  He was all worried and irritated and said "you didn't take any ID, no phone ... something could have happened to you and I would have never known".  Isn't that precious?  It reminds me of my mommy!  Of course I reminded him that both my number and his number are on Vladdy's tags so if something had happened to me/us I'm sure the authorities would have given that number a try in the absence of other identification/contact info but still, he had a great point.  My bad, and it makes me feel good that he cared enough to be worried and to even get in the car and come looking for me.  Most guys wouldn't have worried like that until it had been several hours and probably past bed time.  Hell, at least one of my ex's probably would have waited until he got home from work the following day and I still wasn't home before he would have started to worry.  It feels good to be loved.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice Lunch
1 home made grill burger
>>1 lean beef patty
>>2 slices sour dough
>>4 tbsps saurkraut
>>1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 chocolate truffles
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 855




Activity:
4 flights of stairs
Jogging/Playing: Took the dogs to the Bark Park again and ran around with them but then the wind picked up and all of the other dogs left so then it was boring and we left too
Walking: Left the park and went to the District to walk around the cobbled streets.  Not sure on the distance but it was a short walk because we got a late start (after 9 p.m.) and the sidewalks were pretty much rolled up.