An Extensive Update

When I started blogging at the beginning of the year, I told myself that I would use this space to chronicle my journey. That included the good, bad and in between. For awhile, I was a 'daily' blogger. Then I started having trouble finding topics to discuss, so I became an 'every other day' blogger. Then time caught up with me and I quickly became a 'once a week' blogger. Finally, the semester hit like bag a bricks and I became a 'no longer have the energy to post' blogger.

Although the semester is finally over, I still feel physically drained. It's almost as if someone has run over me with their vehicle several times and I cannot pull myself off of the pavement.

My workouts have become nonexistent in a way. If I can get myself to pull up Nike Training Club and actually workout, I know it will be a good day (or in my case, a good night since that is when I tend to workout). The only problem, I have to get myself to actually get my weights and tablet so I can workout. I am not sure why it takes me so long to "get in the mood" to workout because I know that once I am done, my mind is finally clear, I feel good and I know that I am getting back into my workout groove.

Then there comes the issue of eating. The night before Thanksgiving, I ended up catching some type of cold (or perhaps it was a sinus infection, I am not quite sure), something that hasn't happened in nearly two years. On Thanksgiving, I literally felt like I was down for the count. I stayed medicated around the clock, but food and exercise were the last things on my mind. Five days and numerous boxes of medication later (they were never full boxes, I just cleaned up my medicine cabinet) my voice decided it wanted to get weak and my nasal congestion decided it wanted to get worse. Unfortunately for me, I had two presentations back to back. One where I had to take a break from my 3 minute portion to cough as loud as I possibly could and the other where it felt like I was straining for the entire room to hear me.

My voice eventually got stronger and my nasal congestion decided to linger around for another week but during this entire ordeal, my appetite decide it wanted to leave. In the span of a week, I lost 1.2 pounds from not eating proper meals. Any other time I would have rejoiced to see that loss but I knew I was doing damage to my body because I didn't feel like eating.

I have since gained that 1.2 pounds back (plus some) which I never thought I would be happy about but I am because I finally had an appetite again.

Fast forward to today, where I have not worked out once since December began, constantly feel hungry (although it seems that I eat all day long, I must be eating the wrong things) and feel like I have no energy. Therefore, starting tomorrow evening, I am giving myself a week to get back to working out and eating properly so by the time Christmas rolls around, I am back to my old self.

I have no excuse why I can't or won't be successful this week. I have new training cables, plenty of free weights, open space and MyFitnessPal which equals a recipe for success. I owe myself this Christmas gift because I have come too far on this journey to turn around.

October Update

It is hard to believe that October has come and gone, 2013 is truly flying by. I'm here to give my October update, which probably won't be much of an update at all.

In September, I fell of the wagon...hard. It is like I lost all motivation to be on this journey. I told myself, as I always do, that October was going to be my month. October came and 28 days passed before I committed to this journey once again.

I am an emotional eater and earlier in the month it seems like everything that could be dumped on me, mainly schoolwork, was dumped on me. It is like I was buried under an avalanche of tests, projects and more! Tuesday, was the first day I have had where I could come home and actually relax (which really meant I could come home and watch QVC) but it is also the day I decided to pick up the October issue of Fitness magazine that had been sitting on my ottoman and actually complete a workout.

Not only was I impressed with the workout which featured Jeanette Jenkins, I finally figured out why celebrities want her as their personal trainer, she knows her stuff (not to mention, she re-tweeted me; talk about excited). On paper, the workout looks like a breeze, but once you get into it, it is one of the most intense workouts I have experienced from a magazine.

For the past five days my eating has actually been better. I am logging everything that I am eating or drinking and have avoided sweets. If I am craving a soda, I go with a diet one, although that is very rare. It wasn't until today that I discovered I can eat a mini piece of candy and be as satisfied as I would if I ate the entire bar.

The last 5 days have been more successful than this entire month has but that just serves as my motivation for November. I realized that I haven't updated my measurements in a while, so that and a goals for November post are currently on my list. Hopefully November will be successful in terms of weight loss, life and school work. I only have one more month in this semester and I am ready to bring it!

Burnout

burnout [noun]: the condition of someone who has become very physically and emotionally tired after doing a difficult job for a long time.

For me, the definition says it all; I am burned out. I don't know when it happened, but it did and I don't think there is any turning back now.

There are times when I like to sit back and examine my life thus far, I try not to go back too far, maybe a few years or so. In doing this, I can see how things have (or in some instances, have not changed). When I was a freshman in college my approach to life changed. I was blessed to be able to go to college and I was blessed to have a support system at home that was rooting for me.

I remember how excited I was for my classes during that first semester that I even surprised myself. I remember taking a History of Jazz class and being one of two students who constantly answered every single question asked. The more classes I began to take, the less questions I answered.

Today, as a senior in college, I have yet to answer a question in any of my classes this semester. It's not that I don't know the answers, I answer the question in my head correctly no sooner than the professor asks it, I am just too tired to do much of anything (yes, even answer a simple question).

It's the same for weight loss. I started this year on a good note. I was going to the gym, logging everyday and eating healthier. I was starting to see some real progress. Then, life started to get busy. I stopped going to the gym, even going as far as cancelling my gym membership (best decision that I made this year I believe) and I started to fall off of the wagon. I was sneaking in a little too much "cheat food" then catching myself and eating healthier again. This was a steady process; on the wagon, off the wagon, on and off until I took a break from logging for a week.

I would log one or two meals, but never my largest meal. I was eating honey buns like they were the last food on earth and I gained about 4 pounds. That next week, I worked my butt off and lost 3 of those pounds and each week following I continued to either lose a pound or a few ounces.

Then, life became busy once again and I stopped logging all together and found that it was hard to pick back up. I haven't exercised like I want to (I would have been done with C25K by now if I had stuck it out) but no matter how busy my schedule gets, there are still 24 hours in a day.

I have been logging pretty regularly for the past week. Yes, I missed one day but MyFitnessPal lets you know how many days you have been logging and today I hit my 5th day. I plan on working out again in the near future, as soon as this rain (which I absolutely love) moves on to other areas.

I don't think I will ever fully recover from being burned out. While there are things that I can do to help this recovery process, I know that if I don't keep busy, I will start reverting to my old habits; which is never good.

Right now, I can only take it a day at a time and try my hardest to take a few minutes each day for myself to do something I enjoy. I also have to look at the fact that this is just college, I haven't even begun to experience burnout in the working world.

Stressful Eating

I will never see any results if I don't go out and work for them. I start this post off with that one phrase because it is true. If I want to see any results, I have to work for them. They won't simply fall into my lap; or in this case, the weight simply won't fall off. 

This week has been my most stressful to date since the start of the semester with two exams only one day apart. I am not a strong test taker at all (like many individuals out there). I get nervous before the test, once the test is in front of me my mind tends to go blank and if the exams are timed (yes, I have one professor who is very cruel with the timing of tests) I panic when others turn their exams in because I feel that the time is dwindling down and I am not even half way done!

Now, what does that have to do with weight loss?

When I get stressed, I revert to my stressful eating habits. That means, I pick up the quickest food I can find and eat it. In this case, it only took me a week to go through a box of low fat strawberry pop-tarts. They were my weakness this week. Every time I looked, my hand was drawn to the cabinet, located the pop-tart box with ease, slid one package into my lunch bag or backpack and I was out the door. 

The next thing I knew, my hand was drawn to the shiny wrapper, I felt relief when it was opened and comfort when a piece of that strawberry pastry was in my mouth. 

I paid no attention to calories. I mean, I knew how many calories were in each pop-tart (who can really eat only one?) but I didn't let that interfere with my decision to eat them or not.

One thing I have yet to learn on this journey, is how to manage eating healthy even when stressed.

My plan this week was to get out and pick up with week three of C25K; unfortunately, that didn't happen. So, I am making that my plan for next week.

This semester will prove to be my busiest yet as a college student so there will be plenty of times when I have very little time to plan a meal ahead, have a group to meet with, phone calls to return, etc. and the temptation of picking up something fast (a.k.a. something unhealthy) will always be there hanging over my shoulder.

One way to combat that stress is to get all of my work done ahead of time (which is what I try to do) and sit down to plan my meals. I can also set time aside for myself each day no matter what is on my agenda. Or, I could continue to list things that I have already tried and sound like a broken record.

I am so close to hitting the 30 pounds lost mark that I want to be there before the end of October. In order to do that, I have to get off of my rear end and start putting some of these plans that I am coming up with in my head in motion. I know it will take a while to combat this stressful eating but with patience, endurance and the belief that I will succeed, I know that it will be possible.

On another note, this big event that I have been working on when it comes to my internship will take place next Saturday, so don't be surprised when you see a blog post dedicated to that!

Back at It

The last week was one I really didn't plan for. Actually, I am not sure how anyone can really plan their week and have everything fall into place, but if I had that ability, last week wouldn't have turned out like it did.

I took the week off from blogging, it was not my intention, but things do happen for unknown reasons. I also took a week off from C25K and accurately tracking my foods on MFP, again unplanned. But, even in this week off, I only gained a pound.

I'm not too worried about that pound because I look at what I didn't do compared to what I did do. I did a little too much snacking and not enough logging. I did a little too much sitting around and not enough moving. So for everything that I didn't do, gaining a pound is not the worse thing in the world.

This week I am slowly getting myself back on track. First with exercising more, then with logging my foods once again. I seem to have more weeks off now than I would like, but the fact that I can recommit and get back to what I was once doing, lets me know that I am still in this and not afraid to get back at it.

I suppose the 'slow and steady wins the race' saying is definitely true. Because right now I am moving slower than ever, but still keeping a steady pace and I know I will win this race.

July Recap and August Goals

It has been a while since I did a monthly reflection and since it has been a month since I started using Bob Harper's workouts, I figured it was as good a time as any to look back at the month of July and to also set some goals for August.

My goals for July were to:

• Lose 2-3 pounds
• Increase strength / pounds of weights 
• Complete at least 40 push-ups in a minute
• Lower my BMI
• Lose 3 inches overall 

Now, on to how I did with those goals:

• On June 29th (my initial weigh in for July 1st, since the 1st came in on a weekday) I weighed in at 245.5. On July 7th, I was up to 247 (I attribute that to weight training), but thankfully each week following my weight dropped.  June 13, 244.6; July 20th, 243.2; July 27th, 242. Looking at my highest weight compared to my lowest weight, I lost 5 pounds. Looking at my starting weight compared to my end weight, I lost 3.5 pounds. Either way, I reached my goal of loosing between 2 and 3 pounds. 
• I maintained using 8 pound weights through the month, which I am fine with but I would still like to increase to 10 pound weights. 
• As the DVDs in the collection progressed, the numbers of push-ups decreased With that being said, the most push-ups I completed in a minute this month was 30 (not too shabby in my opinion). 
• At the start of the month my BMI was 38.4 and at my highest weight this month it was 38.7; at the end of the month, my BMI is 37.9, so I was successful in lowering that. 
• I lost 1 inch from my bust, chest, waist, thighs and calves. If I add all of those inches together, I have lost 5 inches from my body all together.

I ended the month of July better than I thought I was going to, so I am pleased with that. But, I do want to keep this going and that means I can't slack off now.

For the month of August, my goals are to:

• Lose 4 pounds  
• Work my way up to using 10 pound weights
• Lower my BMI
• Lose 4 inches overall
• Maintain a calorie deficit each day; with the exception of Sunday
• Exercise at least 20 days out of the month 
• Maintain good eating habits for the entire month

I am hoping that I finish August the same way but I can already tell that based on my upcoming schedule it will take a lot of dedication and commitment on my part.

Biggest Loser Update

When I made the decision to end my gym membership, it was one that luckily was not made in a rush. I didn't have the time to commit to going to the gym that I did when I was in school. Therefore, the next best thing are workout DVDs. Unfortunately for me, I forgot (how silly of me) that I don't like doing the same thing over and over.

Don't get me wrong, I love my two Biggest Loser workout DVDs. When I first started Cardio Max, I was addicted; same with Power Sculpt. But now that I have been doing them for nearly two months, it is getting both repetitive and a little boring.

My body has been so tired lately. All I want to do is sleep, not workout. Again, don't get me wrong, I love to workout, just not the same repetitive motions over and over again. I had two rest days last week from the Biggest Loser workout series (on those days I did Zumba instead).

I have talked about joining another gym, which is definitely a possibility because not only is it closer, they offer discounts for college students but I do want to finish out my two Biggest Loser DVDs. When it comes to the DVDs, I only have two weeks left on Cardio Max and four weeks on Power Sculpt. I have come too far to give up on the DVDs. I have been seeing some results with the workouts but know that I will see more if I continue to push myself. I just have to give my body the time it needs to rest from all of the repetitive motions.

By saying repetitive motions, I am not implying that in a negative way. Those same repetitive motion are essentially what achieves results but the same motions can tear down muscles which need time to repair themselves.

I have tried switching up the order in which I complete the workouts. If the DVD plays in this order - warm up, 1, 2, 3, cool down; I will complete the workouts in this order - warm up, 2, 3, 1, cool down. Changing the order gives my muscles more time to warm up which helps me (section 1 feature lunges, which are my weakest point because I have injured my knees before, doing the sections out of order gives the muscles in my knees time to warm up) in the long run because I avoid an injury.

One of the biggest improvements I have noticed while completing the workouts is that my endurance is up. When I started I would often do two or three reps of an activity and then watch as everyone else completed the rest on the DVD. Now I am not only able to go longer (essentially completing more reps) but I am able to transition into the next portion without stopping for a break. This definitely comes from those repetitive motions in the workout.

So where am I?

Right now I am torn between taking a week off from the Biggest Loser to give my body time to adequately rest and substituting something like Zumba. But, I know how I am and if I take a week off from Biggest Loser, it will take me forever to get back in the swing of things.

I'm leaning more towards completing the various sections out of order (still completing them all) so that I can finish the DVDs on a strong note. That way my body is not used to the same thing and I am still getting in the workout that both my body and I deserve.