Another successful hike!

I went on a 2 hour hike today with two friends who are also trying to get in better shape. I consider myself very lucky to live in a place where you can go on a beautiful, sunny hike through the hills about 10 minutes from home in February.

I was definitely the straggler of the 3 of us -- to be expected as I'm about 80 pounds heavier than the larger of them. I was breathing hard, and I got an ache in my side for part of it, and I needed to take several short breaks to catch my breath again during the uphill portions. But I feel great afterward. We went out for a healthy lunch downtown (I had 6oz of baked mahi mahi and some wild rice, water to drink). My legs are definitely sore now but I feel energized and good.

Getting outside and being active (especially with fun friends) is such a good mood boost!

Off the Wagon (2011 Week 5 Update)

I'm up to 339.8 again, and that's after weighing myself 3 times in succession and taking the lowest number. That's up 2 pounds from last Sunday. Argh.

Excuses, excuses:
I have been sick this week with a cold. Exhausted sick. So very little physical activity (but my appetite has also been down, so I thought it wouldn't matter).
I'm in pre-cycle week so I could be retaining some water.

Another likely culprit:
My tutoring job started back up last week so I've been spending more hours on campus, and I didn't do a good job of packing a lunch to bring with me, so I was doing cafeteria food. I tracked everything I put in my mouth, and it wasn't above the calorie limit I set for myself, but it still could have set me back compared with eating mostly home cooked for the last couple weeks.

So that's frustrating. I've lost my lead on my 2 pounds per week goal. For the next week I'm going to return my colorie goal to the lose-it default for my weight, around 2300 calories. And as soon as I'm feeling 100% health-wise again I'm going to try to bump up the exercise. Also, on my last grocery trip I brought home more fruits and vegetables and salad makings so maybe that will help. I've been craving oranges so I got a huge bag of them.

Fat Girl on Her Feet All Day (2011 Week 1 Update)

I just weighed myself this morning and I'm at 348.6, a perfect 2 pound loss since January 1st. At the end of today I will only be about 1500 calories under my loseit calorie budge for the week, but I haven't been logging all the new extra calories I've been burning at work due to running around all day. I actually would have expected a greater weekly loss after all that @work exercise change but I'll take what I can get, and 2 pounds is right on target.

With all the routine change of weird shift work and the exhaustion of starting a new job (excuses, excuses), I did not go to the gym or exercise at home all week. In the coming week I'm going to be working mornings instead of nights, so I think I can change that pattern around and head to the gym for some weight lifting right after work.

I have been doing a good job on my meals, though, and mostly due to pre-planning. Last weekend I made up a big batch of vegetarian chili and it was all stacked up in the fridge ready to bring to work in my lunch. I also had bananas and apples for snacks, and tortilla chips as a treat to sprinkle on top of the chili.

There was one day last week that I packed up my lunch all carefully before leaving for work and then somehow left it at home. I had a hard day, and it was difficult to go get something elsewhere during a 1/2 hour "lunch" break at 7:30pm.

I think using those 10 minute breaks twice a day at work to get in a nutritious snack is going to be key, because otherwise I end up desperately foggy in my head and starving at the end of the day. I actually stole someone's half a donut that was left in the office at night --- wtf? Not the food I want to be putting in my body and not the impression I want to give during my first week at a new job. Eeep.

Anyway, on target with weight loss and getting by in most respects.

Greek style yogurt = YUM

Some truly healthy foods you might expect to taste blah or cardboard or tasteless, but there are others that really are surprisingly good. I went grocery shopping tonight on my way home and happened to pick up some non-fat greek-style yogurt that a friend mentioned that she liked over a year ago, and wow!

Check out this nutrition label:
Calories: 130
Total Fat: 0
Cholesterol: 5mg
Sodium: 45mg
Carb: 20mg
Sugars: 17g
Protein: 12g

I've been looking for ways to increase my protein intake, and I think this might help that goal right along. It's thick & creamy and nothing like the typical watery nonfat yogurt I'm used to. I only got one serving of it, and ate it tonight for dinner with some honey wheat pretzel sticks for dipping and some almond butter for variety. Yum.