The Big Bet

Business as usual...

2011-12-16T23:51:00.000-08:00

There's nothing new to report. I've been doing really well with the diet. I've taken breakfast and lunch to work all week and I've eaten less than 1400 calories each day.

Tomorrow I will run 3 miles and start ramping up for the half marathon in February.

Off to a good start...

2011-12-14T23:04:00.000-08:00

Today was a pretty good day. I brought both my breakfast and lunch to work, instead of eating the food provided in the cafeteria with an untold amount of calories. I had fruit and cottage cheese for a snack.

Food Log: ~1400 calories.

I made it...

2011-12-13T22:30:00.000-08:00

So I really am glad that I went to the gym, because I completely talked myself out of it until I had remembered that I had already blogged that I was going to go to the gym.

Todays Log: ~1650 calories and 1hour of Cardio to burn 500-600 calories:

Net ~1200 calories

So many excuses...

2011-12-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

It's the end of my work day, I'm slightly hungry, it's cold outside and I have Christmas shopping to do... I almost used all those reasons to talk myself out of going to the gym. But since I blogged earlier that I was going to go today, I suppose I'll have.

I'm sure I'll be happy that I did and it'll get me back into the habit of going after work.

And off to the gym I am...

For Real this time...

2011-12-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

Ok... So I didn't really start when I said I would... But this time is for real because I started this morning. Well last night to be honest. I went to the grocery store and I bought healthy foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner this week. I also cooked a healthy dinner last night.

And today, even though it's cold and rainy outside and I'd much rather just go home after work, I'm going to the gym. I just realized my next half marathon is less than 2 months away! I want to try to get a personal record with this half marathon. That shouldn't be to hard because I've always taken an easy run/walk pace while doing my half marathons, however my knee still isn't 100% normal after my full marathon. Today I'll test it out at the gym. My plan is to run the pace that I want to run during the race for 2 miles and then build from there to 13 miles.

Wish me luck!

Ummm....well...

2011-12-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

So... I can't say that I really made any changes yet. I worked late yesterday and today, so I skipped the gym. It's always hard for me to start going back to the gym after I've been gone for a while, but once I get going I really stick to it.

Anyway, I know for sure I'm running this Saturday. Besides the Thanksgiving 5k, it'll be the first time I've really run since my Marathon and I'm really looking forward to it.

I just have to get through Friday by making healthy choices....

Back...Again

2011-12-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I last blogged. My team didn't win the competition but we came in 7 out of 42. I did, however, beat the coworker that I had a side bet against. During the competiton I ended up losing 17lbs.

After my trip to Hawaii that imediately followed the competition I gained about 5lbs back. But for the most part I remained the same weight for most of the year. I ran my first full marathon in October... but quickly after the marathon I started gaining the weight back.

So here I am in December weighing exactly what I weighed in January when I started the competition... I know... What a bummer.

Anyway, I'm not going to let that discourage me. My goal is to achieve and MAINTAIN a healthier eating lifestyle and I'm starting right here, right now.

Vegetables are good!

2011-02-20T20:42:00.001-08:00

I'm back blogging again. I didn't blog Friday night because I went to the All-Star Rookie Challenge in LA. I didn't pig out on my diet either! For dinner I had a 6oz portion of Ahi Tuna and sauteed spinach. Saturday I woke up and went to the gym and ran some errands. Later that night I had dinner for a friends 40th birthday. I ate another small meal. It was a meat stuffed chille pepper with a side of vegetables. Lastly, today for dinner I made a taco salad (minus the nachos). So as you can see, since I started the Low Carb diet I have been doing a good job of eating vegetables. I've actually reached my goal of 8 meals with vegetables.

Daily Journal:
Friday:
I ate about 1300 calories. No exercise on Friday because I went to the game.

Saturday:
I ate about 1400 calories. I burned 530 on the elliptical machine, Stair Master and Treadmill. I also did a full body resistance training workout.

Sunday:
I ate about 1500 calories today.

Xtend Again

2011-02-17T22:32:00.000-08:00

I went to the Xtend Barre class today and it was slightly less difficult then the first time I went. I think it was just because the instructor didn't demand as much from the class as my first instructor did. I think I'll just have to find a class that works with my schedule and that has an instructor who really pushes the class.

Daily Journal:
I burned about 300 calories in the Xtend Barre class and I ate about 1400 calories.

Back In the Gym

2011-02-16T22:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't been to the gym since last Friday... Boy it feels like a really long time. I just did my normal elliptical machine workout, nothing interesting there. The most interesting thing, dietarily speaking, is that I sauteed vegetables for dinner. I had asparagus, squash, mushrooms and red onions. I'll bring the leftovers to work tomorrow for lunch tomorrow. I'm making good progress on my goal to eat more vegetables.

Daily Journal:
I ate about 1500 calories today and burned 630 at the gym.

The Weekly Weigh-In

2011-02-15T22:39:00.001-08:00

Today my team weighed in and our week 5 results were awesome. My team had a combined weight loss of 14.9 lbs this week. That is the most that we have lost since the first week. All together my team has lost 54.3 lbs since the beginning of the competition. I had a big loss this week too. I lost almost 4lbs. That brings me to a 5.84% total weight loss. I'm just a little over 1/3 of the way to my goal of losing 15% during the competition.

My boyfriend also had a big weight loss this week. He lost 4.1 lbs for a total weight loss of 4.45% of his starting weight. Since I'm at 5.84% I'm still beating him. Yay!

As for how well the co-worker I'm competing with is doing, I'll have to wait until the end of the week when everyone's results are posted. However I'm guess that I'm slightly ahead of her.

Daily Journal:

Today I made some progress towards my weekly goals of eating vegetables for 8 means. I ate a salad for lunch and had spinach and mushrooms with my dinner. I've also greatly reduced the amount of carbs I consume. I ate about 1600 calories. I didn't go to the gym today because my car is in the autoshop.

Weekly Goals

2011-02-14T21:34:00.000-08:00

It's Monday and on Mondays I like to examine how I did on the goals I set in the previous week. I only had one goal last week and I failed big time. I was supposed to eat vegetables for 8 meals. I probably had vegetables as the main side dish for only 2 meals. So at the end of last week I tried to think of a way to force myself to eat vegetables, so I decided to do a low carb meal plan. From now on I will try to consume only small amounts of rice and white bread and other starchy foods. My diet will primarily consist of lean protein and high fiber vegetables.

Daily Journal:

I ate about 1400 calories today. I skipped them gym to go out to dinner, however I played some lively games on the kinect, which probably burned about 100 calories.

I'm Back

2011-02-13T20:18:00.000-08:00

I'm back blogging again, after my one day hiatus from the blog. I was out camping, for the first time yesterday, and didn't have a computer to blog. There isn't much to tell about my diet during yesterday or today, except to tell you that I ate maybe 200-400 calories more than I had been consuming because I was on a mini vacation. I know that one or two days of heavy eating will not ruin your diet as long as you don't let it go to far. I'll be back to exercising and monitoring what I eat tomorrow.

The New Yoga

2011-02-11T23:46:00.000-08:00

Xtend Barre and Pure Barre are two names given to the newest workout craze. It's a combination of ballet, Pilates and strength training. I gave it a try today and unlike Yoga I actually found this class to be difficult. Because this class incorporates ballet moves, it gets the heart rate pumping which makes for a great cardio workout. On top of that, small repetitive movements are made with and without weights to exhaust your major muscle groups and even muscles that you didn't know existed (I know I'll be super sore tomorrow). A lot of the moves consisted of squatting, curtsys, leg extensions, standing on your toes and doing squats, curtsys and leg extensions. And if you haven't tried it before, standing on your toes and doing several sets of squats is really difficult. I always enjoy workouts that push my body to the max. I couldn't keep up with the instructor on a lot of the moves, and wanting to be able to keep up is the reason I'm excited to do this class again. Xtend Barre is my favorite new workout.

Daily Journal:
I ate about 1500 calories and burned about 300 in the Xtend Barre class.

The Results Are In

2011-02-11T00:26:00.000-08:00

Teh Results from Week 4 of the competition are in and my team has dropped down to 16th place out of 41 teams. We have lost a combined total of 18.97% whereas the top team has lost 37%. All the other teams in the top 10 have lost around 25%... My team seriously needs to step it up in order to win the competition. And If I want to win the individual competition I think I need to step it up too. I may give a modified low carb diet a try. I'll have carbs for breakfast and then the rest of the day I'll do low carb. I'll start it next week to see how I feel to make sure that I have enough energy to work out and that I do not feel hungry or crave carbs later in the day.

Daily Journal:
I ate about 1500 calories. I had to do a short workout today because I went out with friends after work. I burned 200 calories on the StairMaster and the treadmill. I did 20 minutes of lower body resistance training.

No More Slacking!

2011-02-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

I must admit it... I've been slacking a bit on my workouts... I know you saying to yourself... "but I have been reading your blog every day and I see that you have been burning between 650 and 700 calories doing cardio 5 to 6 times a week... How can you be slacking off?" Well, it's because I started cutting out the resistance training... When I'm tired after work I muster up all the energy I can to force myself to go to the gym...Then after I finish the first half hour program on the elliptical machine, I again talk myself into doing another half hour of cardio. After all of that, sometimes I just can't convince myself to do resistance training. Even though I know that building muscle makes your metabolism rise because muscle burns more calories than fat. Believe me, I know all the of the benefits...but I still cut it out of my workout when I'm tired. I decided that I would stop slacking and do resistance training every time that I workout, just like I did when I started this competition. I started today with a half hour of upper body weights.

Daily Journal:
I ate 1645 calories today. I put in an hour on the elliptical machine, which burned 660 calories and I finished with a half hour of upper body resistance training.

The Weekly Weigh-In

2011-02-08T22:58:00.000-08:00

Today was the weekly weigh in and my team did not do so well. Three of the five members on my team actually gained weight. The most gained was 1.2 lbs and the least was .2lbs. However I am happy to say that I lost close to 1 lb. I don't really believe that my team actually gained weight... I think people drank and ate a lot of food during Superbowl. Alcohol and salty foods tend to make you retain water. Knowing this I weighed myself Sunday morning before the Superbowl and then Monday morning. After the Superbowl my weight had swung up 4 lbs. To get back to my normally weight for the weigh in, I knew that I had to sweat out the water that I was retaining, so I worked out Monday night. When I weighed myself on Tuesday morning, I felt like I still had extra water weight because I weighed .5lbs more than I had been weighing the whole week. And I didn't eat nearly enough to gain half a pound in one day. In the end... the Superbowl festivities wrecked my teams weigh-in this week. However it just means that next Tuesday we will have a really good week, because two weeks of weight loss should show-up.

Daily Journal:
I ate about 1650 calories today and I did not work out because I have a cold. However I did play Kinect for half an hour or so.

Weejky Goals

2011-02-07T21:27:00.000-08:00

Last week, my primary goal was to eat vegetables with 8 of my lunches and dinners for the week. And as always, I had a goal of exercising 5-6 times during the week. Well, I exerised 6 times last week and I ate an average of 1450 calories per day. As for eating vegetables as the primary side dish for 8 of my meals last week.... I didn't quite accomplish that. I only had vegetables as the main side dish on about 4 of my meals. So this week, my goal is the same: to eat vegetables as the main side dish for 8 of my meals.

Daily Journal:
I ate 1350 calories and burned 700 at the gym.

Superbowl Sunday

2011-02-07T02:21:00.000-08:00

It's the Superbowl, so I knew in advance that there would be plenty of food and tasty treats at my boyfriends sister's house, where I watched the game. Becaause of this I started my day with exercise. I also ate a very light breakfast and saved all my calories for food during the big game. So how did I do you ask, I'm not quite sure how many calories I ate. I do know I didn't eat very many chips or other snack items. I filled up on lean proteins and vegetables. However I did enjoy 2 cookies and a very small piece of cake. I'm guessing I had about 1700-1800 calories for the whole day, which wasn't too bad.

Daily Journal:
I ate about 1750 calories and burned 330 on the elliptical.

Weight Loss Winners!

2011-02-05T22:00:00.001-08:00

Today's Weight Loss Winner is actress Sara Rue. The television actress and newest Jenny Craig spokesperson lost over 50 lbs within a year on the Jenny Craig system. Besides eating smaller portions, she incorporated exercise into her lifestyle to lose weight. Sara shrank to a size 6, down from size 14. She continues to use the Jenny Craig system to maintain her weight.

Daily Journal:

Today I ate about 1350 calories. That includes the 370 calories in popcorn that I had at the movie theater today. I don't believe in cutting out foods, rather I believe that a person can eat anything as long as the portion sizes are small and all daily food intake falls within a reasonable calorie range.

I burned 760 calories doing the treadmill and StairMaster.

Something New

2011-02-04T21:55:00.000-08:00

Today is normally, Weight Loss Winners day, however I'm not at home using my computer and I don't have much time. So instead of choosing a Weight Loss Winner today I'll do that tomorrow. Today I'll let you know that I took a step in making sure that my back stays healthy. I tried Acupuncture for the first time. I was expecting to have a bunch of needles stuck into my back, however the acupuncturist probably only put 5 into my back. She focused them on my lower back, where I normally have pain. She put a couple of needles in my legs and in my feet. When she inserted the needles, only once did I feel anything, it felt like a light prick. Afterwards I felt refreshed and my back felt good too. I'll have to go a few more times before my back is completely back to normal.

Daily Journal:

I ate about 1330 calories and burned 300 on the elliptical and the treadmill.

Progress Indicators

2011-02-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

Besides the scale reading a lower number, I can tell that I'm getting in better shape by my performance in the gym. Last week when I first started doing the StairMaster it was extremely difficult and I could barely get through a 20 minute session without stopping several times. However I've noticed that this week it was a lot easier and I only had to a break once. I've also noticed that I have to increase the resistance on the elliptical machine in order to feel as if I'm getting the same workout as before. I really enjoy the knowing that I'm getting in better shape. I feel stronger, and I can tell that I have more endurance.

Daily Journal:
I ate 1320 calories today. I burned 575 calories on the StairMaster, elliptical, and treadmill. I didn't do any resistance training today...in fact I haven't done any all week. I'll have to remember to do it tomorrow.

A New Habit

2011-02-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

Today I had a long day at work. However I still made time for the gym. I didn't work out yesterday, so it was important for me to work out today. Over the past year, anytime I had a long work day, I'd skip the gym. I want to make a new habit of at least squeezing in half an hour of cardio even on those days where I work a long day.

Daily Journal:
Today I ate about 1100 calories. I know that 1100 is a little low. I had a small breakfast because I had an early meeting. At the gym, I burned 440 calories on the elliptical and treadmill.

The Weekly Weigh-In

2011-02-01T20:55:00.001-08:00

Today was the weigh-in for week 3 of the competition. My team had pretty good results. This week we lost a combined total of 9.7lbs. I myself lost over 2 lbs. My teams loss of 9.7 lbs translates to a 4.6% combined percentage of weight loss for my team. In total my team has lost 39.10 lbs. That is a combined total of 18.87% of our total weight.

I'm also happy to say that I have lost 3.53% of my starting weight. The other woman on my team has lost 3.35%. She started off losing more than me, but I've since surpassed her. I have to continue to work hard to stay ahead.

In the competition I have with my a female coworker, I only have results through week 2 of the competition and she is just .3% ahead of me. However I believe after the week 3 results are computed I'll be ahead.

Daily Journal:
I ate around 1500 calories today. I didn't exercise because I had dinner with friends tonight. I couldn't sneak away to exercise at lunch because I was supporting meetings.

Weekly Goals

2011-01-31T22:37:00.000-08:00

It's Monday, and that means that it's time to evaluate last weeks goals and to set new goals for this week.

Last week's goals were:

1. Eat between 1200-1400 calories
2. Exercise 5-6 times a week
3. Try 2 new workouts
4. Eat a home cooked dinner at least 4 times

This week, like the previous week, I accomplished all my goals except eating between 1200-1400 calories a day. However Tuesday of last week I decided that I should eat around 1500 calories. I read on several different websites that eating too few calories would slow your metabolism down. They all said to eat at least 1200 calories, I figured if 1200 was the bear minimum then to be on the safe side I would eat 1500. So after I set my new goal of 1500 calories a day, I mostly stuck to it. There were several days that I went over...

That brings us to this week which I plan to use focus on eating 1500 calories. I'll still go to the gym 5-6 times a week, eat at least 4 home cooked meals and try new exercises. But I really want to be able to eat between 1400-1500 calories and be satisfied. This means I'll have to eat more of the foods which are low in calories and filling...meaning... I have to eat more fiber rich vegetables. Since I started this new way of eating I haven't eaten many vegetables. I've added fruit to my diet. But I haven't really made eating vegetables a habit. Most of my dinners and lunches have consisted of a meat item paired with rice. So my goal this week is to eat a serving of vegetables with at least 8 of my lunches and dinners.

Daily Journal:

I ate 1450 calories today. I scorched 700 calories while doing the elliptical machine and running on the treadmill.

P.S. I actually did the at home workout yesterday after my blog. I did about 45 minutes to an hour of lunges, push ups, crunches, leg lifts and so on.