11th Sunday

Weight = 142lbs! I lost 2 more pounds!

Boooo-ya!

So I woke up early, read for homework, then in the afternoons did workouts. I noticed my back/hips started hurting on Wednesday so I eased off my workout and was able to still do well overall - no injuries! I do one minute jogging/running, and 2 mins walking, and do intervals until I can start running for longer periods of time. That works really well.

Food, well, not eating breakfast as much and not as healthy, but still seeing results.

I think that trying to fit in an appropriate workout or study session in the one hour in the morning, doesn't work as it's not enough time. I need the evenings/afternoon to work on things. So I thought, maybe alternate my morning/evening activities.

I can spend 2 days of the week waking up early to do homework, then workout in the evenings. Then spend the other 2 days waking up early to workout, then afternoons studying. Wednesday will be my break/sleep in day where I can choose whatever I feel I need, homework or workout in the evening or just rest/relax. That will work :)

Gotta keep up the workouts! Feeling tired overall but awesome that I'm making progress :)

10th Sunday

One pound! I lost one pound!

So the exercise does make a big difference. I decided to wake up early every morning to exercise. That worked, but it made me really really tired after work, so I wasn't really able to get any homework done. Plus this was a very very long, complicated and sticky work week, so I was worn out from work anyway, and physically tired. Most days I napped after work and ate out because I was too tired to cook. Wasn't the best for eating week, but the giant breakfasts were good for overall days.

In order to get some better balance with homework and workouts, I decided to wake up early and do homework while my brain was awake and fresh. Then after work, inevitably I'll be tired, but I can go for a walk or go to the gym when I'm tired. I can't necessarily do homework or think when I'm tired. I want to try that and see if I can have some weekend to myself. This weekend I spent most of it doing homework which, I'd like to avoid.

So the workouts are key. The diet is key also but not as much. I think the eating a huge breakfast will help my hunger throughout the day. Waking up early to study and eat breakfast is probably sustainable. Going to try that.

One pound :) One silly pound. Back to 144lbs for me, and overall in better shape. Gotta keep it up!

9th Sunday

Weight today, 145 lbs. *Sigh. It's annoying at this point. It's one pound more since my last weight-in. *ugh.

Husband's birthday was this week so a lot of eating out and celebrating. We went to Fogo de Chao yesterday for a meat and salad buffet. It was a ton of food and I was as good as possible but we did end up eating a lot. A bit hard to help it. Best part was the fat on their special. Oh favorites were the banana and mushroom. The polenta was great too. I actually said no to a lot of food and stopped myself from eating more.

Yesterday we also had a baby shower with lots of snacks. Before that we ate at Jolibee and a Dimsum place for brunch. That was just yesterday. A few days before that we had The Counter. Today was a big family brunch. I was as good as possible but hard not to over-indulge.

Not to be sunny optimistic, but actually, I weighed myself right after eating the big family brunch and lunch. Looking back and thinking back, I actually think overall, I am doing well comparatively. Only one pound over, and IF that if it varies a pound or two depending on the time of day, I might actually be doing good.

Anyway, I'll keep up the good fight. It' just pretty annoying that it feels like I can't make any progress. Although, truthfully the fact I didn't gain more weight is probably good with everything going on. I have to face that there will always be an occasion or temptation around every single corner every single day. Must keep to the middle path and not overindulge. Also must remember I will gain for whatever I do eat.

It's been uber stressful at work, it's that time of the month, I just started school again and I haven't had much time to exercise. How to fit it all in? *sigh. How am I going to achieve my goals?

Anyway, I think it's time for some serious solutions. I'm going to wake up early every weekday this week and work out in the mornings. I haven't touched my gym membership and it really needs to start earning it's monthly fees. Morning workouts are the only way i'll fit it in - 5:30? I think it will also help with stress relief. I'm sick of this non-progress. Every time I want to sleep in, I'll just think of growing fatter slowly and slowly, or getting thinner, slowly and slowly. Or worst, I'll think of staying the same and never really improving. I really need to ease into it because my calf pain from my strain still flares up, and I don't want to re-injure myself. Ok so one hour in the mornings every weekday - I think I can handle that. Even if I just stay home because of the monthly, I'm sure I can get some stretches or some metabolism burning. Plus maybe some "me" time will be a good way to start off the day. Add some exercises to myfitnesspal, since I don't do any really.

OK, well I have to share. Below is a picture of all the delicious food we had this weekend. I think part of developing a healthy relationship with food/exercise is respecting food and having reverence for it. At least it occurred to me and it could all be BS but I'd like to learn something from this at least. That one pound, it was probably in part due to the below.

Fogo de Chao - dishes. *salivating.

The special at Fogo de Chao. The fat was the tastiest part.

Jolibee hotdog! And pancit and fried chicken.

Shomai and Pork Spareribs with rice.

8th Sunday

So, review of the past 2 months, wow already?

So I think I've stayed the same with my weight, but my overall habits are improving I believe. I am making healthier choices overall. With menus I choose the healthier options. In shopping and eating I am consistently being "good". I don't eat as much crap, although I still do eat junk food I can't help it. The "crap" food isn't satisfying as usual, but at least I realize it and work towards healthier snacks and sides.

Bad news is my exercise is probably remiss. It's just been too busy with everything. I haven't done any gym time and we haven't gone biking or done anything active in the past 2 weeks. So now that my diet is under some control with the myfitnesspal and overall healthier mindset, I really need to focus on workouts. Although with school starting and life in the way, I'm at a loss for realistic options.

I think it might be good to start off small with the workout frequency. TWO times a week at the gym will be a good start. How i'm going to fit that in I don't know. I was debating doing early morning workouts, so I might do Tues/Thurs mornings at the gym. Maybe one morning workout and one weekend workout? That's probably a realistic reasonable and achievable goal. I'll also work on 15 mins a day walking on work breaks or lunch, and around the neighborhood.

Weekend activity? I love being lazy and I literally spent all day Sunday in my PJs on the couch. Part of my Sunday laziness was also due to a headache, but still it didn't last all day. I thought about adding a weekend workout but will try to keep goals achievable and keep it to the two above for now. That's all I'm going to try for and will recap next week. The exercise is the thing that needs work. The food has been good so far, despite the occasional fried food binges. The workouts are ambitious but a bit realistic and I'll give it a shot.

Overall I believe I've been progressing well, but I haven't weighed myself in awhile in fear of discouragement. Oh well. I've got plenty of stuff to work on and balance. Next week for sure - weight check-in.

6th Sunday

Feeling gross again. Perhaps it was the Del Taco for dinner? Perhaps it is my monthly cycle? Last week was a wash, mainly because it was my "week off" but also because it was that time. One awesome thing is that I survived and I did not take any pain killers but managed to make do the whole week.

One fabulous thing though. We went to a birthday party for a friend at a bar, and a new person I met asked me innocently enough, if I was pregnant. Holy S. I told her I was just fat, and she was like, no and she tried very sweetly to cover up and say nice things, but truth is, she thought I was pregnant. Great.

Well, so that's my week. Today we went for a long bike ride around town and loved it and really enjoyed it. I can see us doing that activity regularly and having fun with it.

So will continue the healthy lifestyle stuff. I want to add taking multivitamins daily as well as exercising 4 times a week one hour at a time. I am hoping the regular exercise won't make me overly hungry. Although the 5 servings of fruits and veggies should help cover that. Overall though I feel my increased activity has been a definitely healthy activity.

Weight, well I feel heavy and not feeling great. Goal is to stay the same or reduce my weight, ever so slowly. Below are my regular goals. Must keep this up. Also keeping the larger goal in mind and not give up.

Also alternatively, bought some skin care stuff from Philosophy brand at Macys. I think it will help the overall process. Skin care, personal care, health stuff should be good.

This coming week, family reunion time. Am hoping the family time will be a very increased healthy time and good for the body and soul. Til then :) Tah tah!

Nutrition

1 multivitamin per day

5 servings fruits & veggies

Drink 1 liter of water daily

Exercise

Stand at desk at work as long as possible

Exercise 4 times a week 1 hour each

Mind

Read 2 books this week

Personal care

New skin care products!

Heart

In the right place

Weight per Week

1 - 144 lbs

3 - 143 lbs

5 - 144 lbs

5th Sunday

So, another Sunday checking-in.

First off, am feeling good, almost great. I ate pretty well this week. The 5 servings a day had me focused on eating more healthy stuff. Although I wasn't always healthy, it's an easier focus for me to eat more good than to cut out bad. Naturally by eating more good we naturally margin out the bad.

I weighed myself on Sunday morning and was a bit sad I was 144lbs. Then I thought about it and said "eh, F it". I was doing really well for myself despite the weight. It was nice to not have the weight be the final issue, even in my heart/mind. I still felt really good about myself for all the good work I was doing. I have really been eating healthier and really been more active, even if marginally. I've been feeling better too overall, and for the first time I feel like the journey is more important than the destination so I'm sticking happily to it.

This week, nothing new to try. I'll give myself a week to continue my good eating habits, exercise when I can, slowly and stretching lots, and we'll reassess next week. I find planning helps me in my eating well and exercise, in order to have time for it or be mentally prepared to do things. I also think that since we have family gatherings coming up, and I survived mother's day eating healthy, I can do it with the family stuff too. Gotta keep the "more healthy" stuff in mind, and just keep at it and not give up.

More things regarding a healthy lifestyle. Been reading a lot and I find this exercises my brain and makes me a more interesting and lively person. Read 3 books this week which I will rate and comment on later. We've also been fixing up the house which feels really good in taking care of things that need taking care of. Been weeding stuff out too, which is also healthy in not hanging on to things we don't use. Put some pictures in frames, replaced light bulbs, have other home projects in mind and am feeling very healthy these days. Another weird thing is we wake up naturally early at like 7am on weekends, so it feels like we have more time and longer weekends which is fabulous. We get started on home projects and personal stuff earlier in the day, and it's nice. All this free time off school has helped me re balance and get working on things I didn't have time for before.

Til next time, cheerio!

4th Sunday

Start of week 4. Ok so the whole "strengthening exercises" daily and eating slowly, didn't really work. I definitely failed doing that for week 3. I ended up just eating more and the "strength" exercise didn't really motivate me. I also ended up overthinking the gaining weight thing, and ended up eating more. This week was a wash.

Inevitably I eat more when I start worrying about health and I end up gaining weight. Instead of focusing on NOT eating things, I'm going to refocus on eating good stuff. Forget the 70/30 rule. I'm going for 5 servings of fruits or veggies a day.

I almost thought of adding an exercise program, but I think my diet needs focus first. Also it will help if I only do one thing at a time. We'll see how it goes. I'll do as much "exercise" as possible but no goal.

Also I came up with a rewards system. It won't be based on weight since that has never worked. It'll be based on what I do. IF I am able to eat 5 days of 5 servings of fruits/veggies daily, I'll buy myself some clothes/accessories. Part of my motivation for living healthier is fitting into clothes I currently don't fit into. If I buy something fun for myself every time I achieve something, it's like reinforcing the goal.

Good news is - I've been drinking my water regularly and I am very comfortable with my standing desk. I still get tired and rest, but I am more fidgety and want to stand if I sit too long.

Cheers!

3rd Sunday

Hello again Sunday. New day to rethink and restart a healthier lifestyle. Overall the past 2 weeks I think I've been about 20% healthier. It's not much, but at least it's a start.

Goals

This week, I want to actively try eating slower. I did it a few times this week and it seemed to work, so I want to try it as my new thing of the week. I eat fast in general. Sometimes I'm starving and I eat too fast and feel sick afterwards. When I actively tried to slow down eating, I found I felt full and wanted to leave the rest for leftovers, no matter how yummy it was. The crazy hunger thing only lasts a little while and if I can hold out, I can avoid all the extra calories. So will actively try savoring every bite, chewing more to get all the nutrients and eating slower.

My finals are this week and thank goodness because I cannot wait to be done! It will give me more free time to work on my exercises. I don't want to force myself to the gym with a rigid schedule because it never works. I also want the option to do little exercises at home, outside for walks, or other types of workouts, not just at the gym. I want to give myself flexibility yet a specific exercise goal. I also want to work on my perspective about workouts. I don't like calling it exercise or gym time because that's limiting as well. It implies work. I think I'll call my workouts "strengthening exercises" for now. This is true. I'm working on strengthening my body's muscles and flexibility.

So now to set the goal. I think I'll work on doing 20 minutes a day of "strengthening exercises". This can be gym time. This can also be taking two 10 minute breaks throughout the day to walk during work. It might be at home stretching or going on a quick after work walk. It could be bouncing on my trampoline. 20 minutes daily is do-able, no matter what with school or not.

In order to avoid overload, I think every 4th week, no new change or updates to my healthy lifestyle. It'll be a break and a way to reflect on my current lifestyle, see what's working, so I know what to tweak and what to keep or do new. So this will be all for now.

Motivators

One other thing that got me motivated. My mom has been dieting and doing really well. She is now 122 lbs, and her goal is 115. I'm a bit competitive so I want to reduce and eat healthy so I can beat her :) Although I must NOT focus on the weight, because I have NEVER taken off weight by focusing on the weight. I've got to focus on other parts of the healthy lifestyle.

As I'm writing this looking out my window, I see our neighbors who like to smoke on their balcony a lot. Probably at least 6 or 7 times a day. The girl is gigantic. She's the loud one who likes to talk about her gynecology appointments on her cellphone on the balcony so everyone can hear. She says she has trouble quitting smoking and she just keeps gaining weight. Such an inspiration. What could happen if you don't change your ways.

Also - I started wearing a piece of jewelry to remind me to live healthier. It's like my own version of a kabbalah red string bracelet or a WWJD plastic bracelet. It's a little ornamental ring that's all viney and pretty. I suppose if you want to get sentimental or metaphorical about it, you could say it's a way to remind that living healthy will make me well rooted, help me grow and blossom beautifully. So whenever the urge to indulge in french fries or eat an entire family size bag of chips, I may just get the smaller size or opt for the healthier snack when I reach out and see my ring. It might also help me keep everything else in perspective, to avoid the overwork or the over indulgences. Finding the middle way. The goal is to get the ring to fit comfortably on my middle finger, for the middle way.

Wk 1 - Eat 70/30

Wk 2 - Standing Desk + Water

Wk 3 - Savour food and eat slowly + daily 20 minute strengthening exercises.

Weight today = 143 lbs! :) 2 lbs less than week 1.

WHEN I reach 140, I will give myself a present. Not sure what yet, but I will :)

2nd Sunday

Happy Easter All!

My 2nd Sunday post. So the past week in an attempt to eat healthy 70/30, 70 being bad and 30 being good, I think I did ok. Some days I was closer to 90/10 and some days 60/40 so maybe it evens out. One new unexpected development was the creation of a standing desk.

One of my coworkers was talking about how people who sit the majority of their day, no matter how much they exercise after work, still had raised risk of heart disease than people who stood or walked the majority of their day. It got me to start standing at my desk, typing and working standing up. It started halfway through Tuesday. At first they were making a bit of fun of me, but then I got 2 other coworkers in the office to set-up their desk to "standing" position. We recently moved our stuff temporarily for new carpet, so we had some extra boxes lying around, and we fashioned some raised monitors, keyboards and mice. Friday I was very tired and sat for half the day, but Wednesday-Thursday was standing most of the day.

It was an unexpected development. My knees and feet hurt, and I shift around a lot, but overall it's increased my energy levels and feels better. I can dance at my desk which is fun but I need to make sure no one is watching. I don't feel overly tired at the end of the day. Sometimes I lean on my arms which is probably good "exercise" too.

Anyway that's last week. I'm going to try to keep the 70/30 healthy food ratio. I'm also going to continue standing at my desk more often. On top of that, I want to buy a large water bottle and try to drink one full one every day. That will be this week's experiment. I've eaten a ton of bad stuff because of that time of the month, as well as Easter feasts :) So I'll admit, it hasn't been the best start. So we'll see how it goes.

Next week I will post my weight. I predict it won't be good, but we'll see. Next week are my finals and after that hopefully I can have more time for gym and such. Maybe I'll do a bit of exercise while watching tv now. Hum? Maybe.

Photo from http://fatpets.net/2010/fat-bunny/

Blah

First Sunday healthy living post.

I was planning on being all motivated to start a new trend of exercise or diet, but then my own body's cycle kicked in and, well, I'm out of commission until about 5 days from now. There goes my week of starting off strong in my new active and healthy lifestyle.

Since I'll be feeling pretty worn out and tired the next few days, I suppose it's a good chance to work on my will power versus my physical capabilities. For example, instead of going 100% healthy, I thought maybe I should start eating oh, 70/30. Considering that today I probably eat about 80-90% bad, I can start by slowly increasing my healthy to 30% good, 70% bad. Just bought a bunch of veggies and fruits, and this is achievable for me right now. This way, there's pressure to eat some healthy, but not all and not too drastically.

As for physical exercise, honestly I probably really can't do much until next week. Sorta nice having one thing to focus on, just the diet ratio. Maybe try one new healthy habit a week to see if that works. So how about, just try to hit the 70/30 for healthy foods, and we'll see what I can do next week. I definitely should try to get more iron in the diet as it will probably help with the energy levels.

As of this morning, 144 lbs. With my healthier lifestyle, the pounds should trim off slowly. I'm trying to focus on the healthy lifestyle over the pounds, as I've never lost weight focusing on pounds. I lose weight when I focus on healthy lifestyle. Starting off slow - blah. But I'm hoping slow and steady wins the race.

Body, Mind & Soul - Sunday

I feel gross. I feel tired. I feel fat. I am run down and burnt out. These are all feelings I've had the past few weeks. I had a milestone birthday recently, and I didn't really feel like I had the energy to enjoy it. The past few weeks have been rough.

Anyway I've been doing some reflecting and I know I am not living up to my potential.

Today we were driving home and it occurred to me I might be anemic with that time of the month coming up and the exhaustion I've been feeling. So we grabbed some In and Out burgers, I got a double double for the first time, and it was good and I was more energetic but I also felt really gross. The grease, I can feel it, but I think the iron helped.

I think I need to reflect more. I need to change what I've been doing, slowly. I didn't get like this overnight. I saw my post from last year, Naked, and I've gained 10 pounds since then.

Real change has to start with the body, then mind, then soul, and maybe skip around a bit. So this is the first post of all 3 topics. I plan on writing and reflecting more on these topics.

So I think I'll start Sunday. Sundays I will post. That's only 52 Sundays in a year. We will see. I know I'm terrible with finishing and following through. I should use the blog post as a time to reflect on what I'm doing and what I want to do. To address my mind, body and soul the way I want to. To become the person I want to be, instead of someone else.

Plus, the sun is like the beginning of things. The light and the start of life. It's our closest star. I sort of want to treat this part of the blog like that. Let's give it a shot.

Photo from Science Photo Library