Goodbye Gizmo

Such a sad day.  Our family loves having pets, we have four dogs and two cats.  Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our little old pug Gizmo.  Gizmo was just the funniest thing – chubby, loud snores, with the sweetest heart.  He has been in my life through many ups and downs and was always good for a snuggle on a bad day.  Gizmo started having health issues this year; he developed tumors, started having seizures, along with loss of sight and hearing.  Friday he began having multiple seizures and they became uncontrollable.  We made the tough decision to let him go, our hearts are breaking.  He would’ve been fourteen on January 1^st.  We were blessed to have him as a part of our family, we love you Gizmo.

So I did not lose any weight this week, rather gained .6 lbs back of my 2.2 lb loss last week.  Bummer dude.  I am wondering if I am accurately recording my calories. I record everything, but I don’t always measure and weigh all of the food, so this could be part of it.  Another issue could be water retention and/or the muscle I am building from exercise.  So I am going to make sure I am getting in all of my water and premeasure everything.  In addition to a laser focus on my diet, I am also going to find ways to get in more exercise, besides the three runs per week.  I think this will help out too.

Yesterday was spent at the vet with Gizmo; I had to take a sick day from work.  I spent the evening with family; it was good to get my mind off of the loss of our little guy.  Today, I’ve been pretty low-key.  Got the morning coffee and I’ve been pretty much just doing laundry and catching up on my DVR list.  This evening we went to a basketball game that our daughter was cheering.  We won, it was a great game!

I made nachos for the kids and now we’re all snuggled up watching the Sound of Music.  We might make popcorn too.  Tomorrow is getting back on track with rededication of efforts to both the eating and working out plan.

The pull of pizza

Today was a pretty good day until I got home and I am starving!  We decided to just grab a pizza for the kids because I worked so late.  I did go over my calorie goal by about 6 calories.  Not too bad.  tomorrow is weigh day and I bet that it won’t be good with all that salt and fat (it did taste amazing though). I didn’t get a chance to do workout #2 this week – so that means I getting them in on Saturday and Sunday.  

I don’t think I slept very well last night because I am so tired today.  I drank about 3 cups of coffee and one of my V8 breakfast drinks and it still didn’t help.  I do have a headache though (too much caffeine)!

 I had to work straight through my lunch, which meant no yoga.  I was bummed, but there is another one offered next week.  My year-end at the office is really ramping up, I love it, as the days go by so fast!  I am also excited as I just made plans to get my coaching certificate (professional corporate certificate).   

 We have a work Christmas party tomorrow, I am looking forward to seeing everyone and celebrating!  Hopefully I will be able to find something to eat to stay on plan.  Note to self to remember to find out menus ahead of time, this will help me plan my day.  I am planning a light breakfast and dinner.

I am ready for the weekend, being with the family, cleaning house, catching up on laundry and such.  I can’t believe that Christmas is just around the corner, I need to get to it!

I am hoping to get to work early and sneak in a run so that I don’t have to do two this weekend!  So I am off to bed early!  Have a great night!

Gym challenge

Missed a day, sorry about that.  As soon as I got off work yesterday I ran on the treadmill, also known as the dreadmill (my avid runner at the office and other blogs I follow call it that and it makes me giggle).  When I got home my hubby and I went to my cousin’s house.  We all watched the season finale of Sons of Anarchy (affectionately called SOA).  It was fantastic, gross, and I’m gonna miss it like crazy until next fall!  Another plus of hanging out with my cuzzy is we got to see his super cute blue nose pitbull, we may get to babysit for him in a few weeks!

So I had my first extended run interval – it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, although I did check the time remaining a few times during the 3-minute runs.  What is nice is running longer seems to make the time go faster – does that make sense?  I thought if I waited long enough that when I went to the office fitness center it would be quiet and without interruption…a few challenges presented themselves.

1.     I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the first two treadmills.  This shows how long it’s been since I’ve used gym equipment and/or that I’ve worked for this company for nearly 3 years and have never used the fitness center…

2.     Everybody kept coming in to use the restroom and to change.

3.     The office maintenance team was doing a deep clean and was in and out of the fitness center while I ran.  Whenever I’m around people I want to talk to them – so it was a challenge just to leave on my headphones and ignore everyone.

3.     I had to hold my phone for the workout and kept hitting the wrong button.  This kept screwing up my workout times.  I recorded the workout on my Nike app and my C25K app.  I'm frustrated because the C25K app didn't log my run miles (only the time), I don't know if it is because I was on the treadmill or bad GPS reception.  The Nike app doesn't show my full workout time - but I do like the snapshot of the intervals - you can see the ups and downs of my run/walk. It's short about .40 miles and 3 minutes, as well as about 80 calories off.

SOA was 2 hours long and I actually feel asleep on my cousin’s big comfy couch.  His wife has super snuggly blankies and I just drifted off for about 30 minutes or so.  I had a glass of wine too, that might have contributed to my sleepiness.  When we got home it was so late and I just chose to write a longer blog tonight.

The week at the office has been so busy!  Yesterday I had a diversity workshop, let’s just say it was interesting and had a couple of good takeaways.  Today we had a ton of meetings, a birthday celebration, and said goodbye to an associate that is moving to another state.  Even with the celebrations I stayed within point range.  I am feeling like I am retaining water so not a ton of hope for a loss this week, 11 days left and I am already feeling the cravings and getting a bit cranky, ha!

Tomorrow is another day full of meetings and I’m going to try to get another treadmill workout in before I leave for the day.  We are also offering yoga tomorrow at lunch, so I’m excited to go to the class!

Taunting me...

SOMEONE TELL ME TO STAY OFF THE SCALE!!!  Why do I do this to myself?  I was so happy that I was down 2.2 lbs. this weekend.  I really felt like I have been doing so well with my tracking and working out that I thought I’d take a sneak peak before Friday…not a good idea.  I am making a pact with myself that I will only weigh on Fridays, and I mean it.  I don’t need the demotivation from a bad scale day.  Also, I know that from any given day your weight can fluctuate 2-5lbs.  It could be what you ate, retaining water, that time of the month, etc.  I just have to work the plan and it will work for me.  Stepping down off my soap box…

Monday was great – I only had one meeting and was able to work on next year’s budget plans almost all day, which is a good thing because I have two budget meetings this week.  ‘Tis that time of year!  Guess what else it is time for….office treats.  Everywhere I turn is cookies, cronuts, coffee cake, cupcakes (Lord help me and give me strength).  Okay so I said I’d be honest and accountable here…

So a cupcake company place came to our work today.  They brought a fruit tray, cupcakes, coffee cake, and a cronut tray  (cronuts – from what I can tell – are a croissant mixed with a donut).  I loaded up on the fruit and then had one tiny sliver (less than a bite each) of a chocolate iced cronut and coffee cake.  I just had to have a taste!  I have wanted to know what a cronut is like forevahh.  I follow Heidi Klum on Instagram and she is always talking about cronuts.  First of all, how does she freaking look like that and eat cronuts is what I’d like to know.  Anyways – now I can say I’ve had a taste and I can let it go, for reals.  It was kind of dry, not that great.

So I was feeling pretty good about myself for navigating through the morning desserts and then, they delivered my ultimate weakness – frosted sugar cookies.  These are the most amazing sugar cookies I have ever had in my life.  I am not underestimating the pleasure I get from one of these cookies.  I took a picture to capture the sugar sweet yumminess.  However, I did not have one!  Someone even offered to split with me.  I thought about it and if I could go without it, or think about it for days on end.  I decided I could live without it (especially after I weighed myself this morning).  I even avoided it when someone came to my office with the tray, asked if I wanted one, I said no thank you, they left, backed up and came back in…are you sure?  I said stop taunting me!  I still abstained from those beautiful cookies.

The rest of the day went on without additional temptation.  I got my hair cut tonight – feels so good to have someone else wash and style your hair – a little bit of pampering goes a long way.  My aunt has done my hair for 18 years; she recently moved to Arizona and left me without a stylist.  It is like finding a new boyfriend, do I like you, am I your type…well after a few tries, I finally found someone I like and can afford.  We’ve seen each other twice now and I think it’s going to last.

When I got home I warmed up some chicken tortilla soup and made a garden salad, perfect, especially on this cold night.  My dinner was only 428 calories and I put a ton of stuff on my soup and salad.  I topped the soup with cheddar cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips (mmmm); I put Dorothy Lynch (my fave), croutons, cheddar cheese, and red onion on my salad (mmmm again)!  I am very happy, warm, and full.  Time to settle in and watch some Monday night football!

First run in the snow!

Today when we got up for our morning coffee there was about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground – it was pretty and kind of got me in the mood for Christmas.  After coffee we mad a quick stop at the store for a few necessities.

When we got home we made our plan for the day it involved a little more Christmas shopping and my run!  Today I officially finished week 2 of the couch to 5K.  I’ve run 12 miles in two weeks.  This afternoon I ran outside (wore three layers) and it was cold but beautiful.  The snow continued to come down very lightly throughout my workout.  Many of my neighbors hadn’t had a chance to shovel yet, so running was a little difficult and slowed me down just a bit.  Hubby and the doggie met me about half way – it was nice to have the company coming back for the last mile.

After church we made a quick stop at a department store.  We adopted a child for Christmas and I wanted to get her an outfit.  I found a few other presents for family and friends – so all in all a great trip.

I am nervous about week 3 of the couch to 5k training program.  The intervals will change to:

·      5 minute warm up walk

·      Two repetitions of jog 1 ½ minutes and walk 1 ½ minutes

·      Two repetitions of jog 3 minutes and walk 3 minutes

·      5 minute cool down walk

I am hoping I can run for three minutes straight!

A few things I’m proud of after these two weeks.  I’ve gotten in all of my workouts and finished all intervals the way the program is written.  I’ve stayed within my calorie range for two weeks.  Even when eating out I have figured ways to stay on plan. I have logged all nutrition, exercise, and water.  I’ve been consistently reading health articles to keep me informed and motivated.   I’ve run in 10 degree weather and through fresh snow - both of these would have been excuses to stay inside, but I haven't let the conditions stop me yet!

Changes I’m noticing – my clothes aren’t as snug, I am sleeping better, and overall my mood is happier.  I am getting a bit nervous about how I will handle PMS, coming up in a couple of weeks!

The rest of the evening is going to be quiet. Think we may begin to watch the Bonnie & Clyde three part movie series.  Have a great night!