Back on the Buggg

Remember this guy? Ahhhh, my old friend, Body Bugg. Oh how I have ignored you sitting there on my nightstand for the past 1.5 months....



Time's up! I gotta get my butt back in gear. I have put back on all but 9 of the original pounds I lost. I'm feeling gross (Yes, I know that "gross" is not actually a feeling), and my clothes are a little tight and I know exactly what's to blame.

Its the little snacking bites of this...and that. And the random glasses of wine. And the "forgetting" to measure food. And the "forgetting" to log it. BUT NO MORE! The weather is getting gorgeous and I have lots of cute Spring clothes in my closet that I bought when I was 10 pounds lighter. And I'll be damned if I'm not getting into them!

No more excuses! I have taken on so many other parts of my life that I'm not satisfied with in the past few months. Everything, it seems, but my weight. That ends now. But I need your help, blog world!
I need accountability!
I need workouts that are different...and fun!
I need to not eat so much cheese!

Think wedding dress. Think wedding dress.....

Hello, is there anybody out there??

I know that I have said before that I am the WORST blogger EVER, but this time, I really mean it.

I apologize for my absence (if anyone has, in fact, noticed my absence). I started a new job a couple weeks ago and I am now working from home. One would think that this would give me more time to blog but, alas, it has been quite the opposite. My job requires quite a bit more travel than I have been used to, so I've basically been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. In suits. Don't get me wrong, I LOOOOOOOOOOVE my new job (even though it feels incredibly selfish and bizarre to be taking a new job as so many people are getting laid off). But this is, quite literally, my dream job.
On the days when I do get to actually spend a whole day working from home, I have been known to awake at 8:45, pour myself a cup of coffee, and stumble down to my office in the basement-complete with fizzy blanket and space heater. Then I maybe light a candle or two and get to work. Tough work, but someone's gotta do it, eh?

Then there's the weight/fitness/food stuff. I took my Body Bugg off a few weeks back and have been using it sporadically. I was so far under my calorie goals that it was depressing me. Ontop of that, I was having a hard time finding time to log food. I haven't been on the Evil Scale recently, but the last time I was, I was down 20 pounds. Last week was Philly Beer Week (which is Andrew's holy week) so I am SURE that is not the case right now. I must confess that I drank at least two beers a night for 9 consecutive days. Andrew did all 11 days. I still managed to squeeze in some good workouts on four of those days, which I think is mighty impressive considering hangovers and such.

The good news is that its finally nice outside, so I'm back to biking and running outside. I have two 5k's that I am training for: one in May and one as part of a relay triathalon in June. Both are for charity. I did my first official practice 5k yesterday and I need to shave about 8 minutes off my time. Totally do-able. Especially since I plan to get up to 10 miles by the end of the summer (so long as my arthritic knees cooperate). I have slacked off occasionally with my eating, but I am now offically over-informed about the calorie content of most foods so I am very much aware of when I'm "blowing it." Remind me to write a post about Andrew's cheesecake concoction. It has been the delicious cause of my "blowing it" on several occasions.

Mostly, I'm just glad it's Spring! We can finally get out and work on the garden(I mostly just get in the way, but I try) and sweep our street and BIKE and RUN and grill and eat outside! Not to mention all of the cute Spring clothes I have been acquiring... :-)
Happy Spring, everyone!

In Which I Reflect Upon the Past Three Months

(Reflection. Get it?)








My Body Bugg web subscription expired today, which means its been three months since I started this, er, journey (?). It doesn't feel like it's been that long at all, but I thought I would take this post to reflect on the changes and progress I have made.

* I've lost 18 (or so-depending on which day you ask my stupid scale) pounds. I'm pretty far off my two pounds a week goal. Instead, I have been averaging about half a pound per week, sometimes a pound. It's not much, but its really sustainable at this rate, so I will just need to suck it up and be patient. I just watched the season finale of the Biggest Loser and compared to their 75, 80, 100 plus pounds lost, 18 looks and sounds pretty measly.Of course if I had the time and the resources to work out 4 hours a day with a trainer, I would probably be pretty smokin hot in 3 months, too. But alas, I have this whole JOB thing, and HOUSE thing and all the LAME responsibilities that come with it. Then I think that if I lose 75 pounds, I would be under 100 pounds and I'm pretty sure that would leave me looking pretty nasty (i.e. anorexic)
So I guess I will have to settle for 18 pounds. Whatever.

* I've been logging all of my calories consumed on a daily basis. I started off REALLY good at this and have since gotten a little lax, I will admit. But logging my food has really made me take a hard look at my day to day choices and I have been very consistent about making good food choices. This really just required a little tweaking for me, since I already ate pretty "clean" as they say in the world of fit blogging. I get lazy about logging in a bite of something or a cracker or a tootsie roll (I MUST get these out of my office!). I think this is due in part to the fact that logging my food takes a serious amount of time and it's not all that exciting. So I kind of half ass it. I am committed to being better at this going forward. Honestly. (Note: I have cut back on the boozing A LOT and now I just save it for one night per weekend. This, according to Andrew, makes me "no fun.")

* I've been incorporating exercize as part of my daily routine. Turns out, cleaning the house from top to bottom is the caloric equivalent of walking on the treadmill for an hour, and 20 minutes of the 30 Day Shred is the same as a 10 minute run. I have tried hard to keep my workouts interesting and incorporate a mix of strength traning and cardio. But lately, I've been overdoing the cardio becuase (I'll be honest) I'm a tad bit clueless when it comes to weight training on my own at the gym (I need you, Jillian Michaels!). BUUUUT, lucky for me, my chirporactor gave me a free personal traning session at our gym (thanks Dr. Shapiro, if you're reading!) so my revised plan is to meet with the tranier and get some new moves for the New Year! I'm guessing that this will be a return to my circuit training days of Spring, 2008.

*All my jeans fit comfortably. (With the exception of the official "skinny jeans"). In fact, the ratio of things too small for me to things too big for me is shifting as I write. I gave away my firts pair of "fat pants" over Thankgiving. This in and of itself is something to be eternally grateful for (and REALLY excited about!)

In conclusion:
* Today i renewed my Body Bugg subscription for another YEAR! My goal is that a year from now I won't need to renew again.

* Change is slow but oh-so WORTH IT!

* I do not need to be a slave to the gym to reach my goal weight, there are plenty of other activities that are just as effective and a lot less boring.

* If I love and respect my body, it will love and respect me back (a BIG apology to my liver for college, and to the rest of my organs for that whole puking for 7 years nonsense).

* Its okay to indulge every once in awhile. I won't gain 5 pounds from one stinking piece of cake (unless you ask the piece of shit scale that I have now, becuase he-yes its a HE-SUCKS!)

* Moderation, balance and satisfaction are all things to be enjoyed and celebrated.

* ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

(Mostly) Totally Unrelated

Oh man I just LOOOOOVE this time of year! Last night, I caught Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (the original, with Burl Ives) on prime time TV. I was SOO excited because every year I miss it and have to rent it instead. But this year, I got to see it the way I did when I was a kid: broken up into 7 minute segments and stretched out over an hour, with butt loads of commercials in between. I sang along to all of the songs, I laughed out loud at Hermie (he's my favorite!), I was all alone on the couch... it was glorious! I think I already missed the Grinch, but I saw commericals for Frosty, so hopefully I'll be able to catch that one, too!
I am also obsessed with the 24 hour Christmas music station. The othe rnight I heard "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" for the first time this year. My grandma used to get offended when we sang it to her, but it always makes me laugh.
This weekend we are getting our tree and decorating! I can't wait to hang all of our stockings from the railing (we have one for each of us and our pets). Maybe I will go all out and bake some cookies too!

I got on the scale this morning for the first time in over a week. The good news is that I didn't gain any weight over Thanksgiving. The bad news is I didn't lose any either. I'm about 6 pounds off from my intended goal, according to my Body Bugg program. Its coming off VEEERRRRY slowly, but at least its coming off. Oh, and my body fat is down aobut 5% overall. Remember I was experimenting with taking that Milk Thistle that I read helps liver function? I've been taking it for about 8 weeks or so. I honestly don't think its had any major effects. I've dropped 16 pounds and 5% body fat, which I think is pretty average. I would expect that if the Milk Thistle was working, my body fat would be much lower, but who knows? Its not hurting anything and there aren't any negative side effects so I think I will keep taking it for a bit.
Only 3 more weeks till Christmas! Which means I need to get back on track to losing 2 pounds per week (I've been averaging about half a pound per week). I am determined to stay focused even though I'm all crazy and giddy with holiday excitement and parties and fun stuff!!
Now, if only we had some snow.... ;-)

Nibbles and Bits

I googled "nibbles" and this is what came up. Totally irrelevant. Cute, though. ->



Around this time of year, I always develop an irrational fear of my scale. Ok, so I'm pretty much afraid of my scale almost every time of the year, but at this time, its WAY worse.
Most days, I have no idea what I'm eating. Ok, thats not true either. I do, in fact, recognize the food, I just have no idea how much of it I'm eating when I'm snacking or nibbling my way through work parties, happy hours, tree trimmings and other holiday foodstivities.
Since I've started using the Body Bugg, I've cut my snacking WAYYY down. A lot of that has to do with packing my lunches and coking my own dinners and PLANNING everything I'm going to eat in a day. But when there are little tins of candies and bowls of dips and delicious treats EVERYWHERE, it gets harder and harder to remember what exactly I've had. I got so far astray over Thanksgiving, that I just gave up on logging my food entirely.
I'm back on track this week and I feel pretty good about not having completely blown my eating and exercise goals (I did get in one looooong run before dinner on Thanksgiving and I only ate one dessert the entire weekend), but I couldn't POSSIBLY tell you how much delicious Brueggers cream cheese I had for breakfast or how many gallons of gin and tonic I drank at my high school reunion, or how many potato chips and french onion dip I nibbled (seriously, who invented that combination?! its like a hart attack with a side of angioplasty! and why is it so flipping GOOD?!) after my niece's baptism.
My new goal is 6 pounds by Christmas. It was really encouraging being home and having people tell me that I looked good. But I still have a lot of work to do.
Looks like I'll be spending many romantic evenings with Jillian Michaels and the treadmil. At least after this weekend, I'll have a Christmas tree to keep me company!

I'M BAAAAACK!

WOW. I just had the most amazing weekend EVER. No joke. But it didn't have much to do with food, fitness or weight loss so I will spare you all too many of the details.

I spent all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday in a seminar that didn't end until midnight. Needless to say, I blew the whole weekend off exercise-wise. I did the best I could with my food, but we didn't have much time to eat so it ended up being mostly granola bars, fruit, some veggies, handfuls of Terra chips (LOVE these!), and pb & j sandwiches. I had a couple Naked Green Machine drinks to supplement all the fruits and veggies that I normally get but didn't this weekend. I must have done pretty well, becuase I FINALLY lost that stubborn pound and am now back to minus 14 pounds (which is where I was 2 weeks ago). So it begins again. I'm too excited for Thanksgiving to worry that the three pounds may come back and I am DEFNITELY not going to obsess about it for the 5 days a year I get to spend with my family. I'm trying EVERYTHING on that table! I'll just bump up the exercize a bit and enjoy in moderation. :-)
I'm traveling tomorrw and my HS reunion is Friday but I will try to post at least once over the weekend about my first real holiday with my Body Bugg and commitment to weight loss.
I hope everyone gives themselves a break and really, really enjoys themselves.
Yay organic, grass fed turkey and PIE! (my step mom makes the BEST pecan pie!)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

<---This is what I felt like this morning!



Its finally that time of the year when I begin to seriously debate putting my bike away for the year. This morning was FREEZING!! And they're calling for snow later this week. Even though I was born and raised in upstate New York, the mild Maryland winters and slushy Philadelphia streets have made me kind of a weather wimp. I still LOVE the snow, but I am getting soft on cold. Sorry, Syracuse.

Somehow, Andrew managed to get me out of bed this morning to go to the gym with very minimal effort. Maybe I haven't mentioned this before, but I HATE mornings. HATE. HATE. Yes, I was in fact a rower in college. Yes, I did spend the better part of my college career getting up at 4:15am. I did it out of necessity then and I guess it backfired because now, I really HATE mornings.
I think Andrew was pretty shocked when I not only got out of bed, but proceeded to put on my gym clothes and wash my face (admit it, you TOTALLY thought I was going to skip it).
I was actually surprised at me, too. Even while I was walking to the bathroom, I was thinking "do I REALLY want to be up right now?"
We biked to the gym all bundled up and I gave the treadmill the best 40 minutes that I could, given my creaking knees and tight muscles. I'm not going to lie, the run pretty much sucked. But I did it and I'm glad I did. Now when I get home tonight, I can relax and make us a nice dinner before we have to run out the door again. Maybe I'll try to make this morning work out a regular thing. But that would require us getting to bed quite a bit earlier, so we'll see.

This weekend we planted trees with our neighborhood association on Sunday and met up with some of my old college friends on Saturday (SO fun! Everyone that went to my college is awesome and hilarious!). I ended up having to explain my Body Bugg to at least 5 people, because I wore short sleeves. but I got a couple compliments on how I was looking so I felt pretty good. (I'm not sure if the Body Bugg prompted them or not, it was hard to tell).
Friday night, Andrew had some of his boys over to bottle his hard cider (and watch a TERRIBLE movie called "The Warriors") so I went to bed early-ish.

I honestly forgot to weigh myself this morning (I was so distracted with getting my butt to the gym!) so I'll do that tomorrow or Wednesday. I did a LOT of snacking this weekend (although I did keep the booze intake at a very reasonable level) so I'm a little nervous about whether or not that had any impact.

I am beyond excited to go home next week for Thanksgiving! I haven't seen my family since August! Andrew and I are bringing an organic, grass fed turkey! YUM!

I actually forgot to

Working Through the Frustration (and other tidbits of inspiration)

Get it? Pound?

So for two weeks now I have been carrying around an extra pound that I had previously lost and now (apparently) won't go away. It's probably the most annoying pound I've ever dealt with. before I started using the Body Bugg, I really only counted pounds in significant numbers, maybe 5 plus. A pound here, a pound there never really mattered that much to me. Now I'm obsessed with a pound.
Suffice it to say, I did NOT meet my Halloween goal (despite an awesome costume) and instead ended up sick in bed for 4 days. I feel like I have been back on track since I finally dragged my butt out of bed on Tuesday, but I guess two days wasn't enough to kick that pound's ass before I had to step on the scale (ugh) on Thursday. These times of not losing are really tough.
I attempted a run on Tuesday, made it about 2 miles before my chest started to burn and my nose was running profusely, then called it a night. I did what I THOUGHT was easy yoga that I found On Demand on Wednesday but was really sore afterwards (and a little dizzy). It wasn't much but it was better than nothing, I guess. Yesterday was the first day that I really had close to 100% of my energy back. I ran 4 miles on my already sore legs and called it a night. It was a nice, steady state run that took me just about 40-45 minutes. I felt 150% better afterwards but my legs were definitely NOT. I was planning on doing some Shred level 3 tonight, but I may just settle for another easy run. Or whatever I can squeeze in before game night tonight! (yes, I am in fact a total nerd). I think we're ordering pizza so I've been munching salads and veggies all day. Also, I'm having wine tonight. Because I can. (Don't worry, I won't overdo it. I made that mistake 2 weekends ago).

Sooo about this election.



Whoah. These past few days have been so overwhelming and almost surreal. I think Andrew is still in disbelief because he keeps saying "Obama WON!" I read a story that two days before she died, Barack's grandma mailed in her absentee ballot. Her vote was the last gift she gave him. I was crying like a baby reading it. When CNN announced he won, it was like the Phillies had won the World Series all over again! People cheering in the streets, honking horns, fireworks. But this time, nothing got set on fire (well done, Philly!)
It feels like a new era. It really does. Even people who didn't vote for Obama can sense it. There's this intense undercurrent of ownership and pride everywhere. John Stewart remarked that the day after the Election, he was walking down the street and a weird thing happened: eye contact. Suddenly, people were looking each other in the eye, smiling, nodding. Foreign countries are cheering for us(now maybe they won't make fun of us in their newspapers). We finally have a leader that we can be proud of (not that I wouldn't have been proud of McCain, I would have. He's a great man. Sarah Palin on the other hand...)
My only fear now is that people are going to sit back and just expect change to happen. But I think that Obama made it very clear that change doesn't just happen; we are responsible for it happening. Casting a vote for a candidate is only the first step, the follow through is the hard part. I think what is unique is that Obama has empowered voters in a way unlike any other candidate before him. He reaffirmed our belief in the idea that our votes are powerful tools, and created a sense of ownership in our communities and our country. I hope it sticks. I hope people accept the responsibility and the ownership. Because these next few years are going to be tough. We here in Philly are having our libraries closed, firehouses closed, pools and ice rinks closed, our winter plowing cut back, just to name a few. I can only imagine that it will be even worse at the federal level. But we, as citizens, need to realize that these cuts are absolutely necessary. And that we, as a community, need to take responsibility to come up with creative ways to deal with all of it. I would encourage everyone to join their local community group, civic association, neighborhood meet-up, whatever you have. Get involved. Take ownership. Be responsible for your community.

“Everybody counts, everybody deserves a chance, everybody has a responsible role to play and we all do better when we work together.” ~Bill Clinton

Et Al.

Tomorrow will be my second weigh-in and I'm nervous that I haven't lost any weight this week. I'm afraid that even as careful as I was on Saturday with all the beer and Sunday with the pizza, it will have set me back. *Enter crazy, obsessive, eating-disordered Becky* I realize that when I start thinking like this, it only results in a downward spiral, so I'm really trying to commit to staying focused while at the same time giving myself a break. I know this all requires hard work but, again, if I'm killing myself then its not sustainable and, therefore, won't last. The point is to make it LAST!

I did a second day of Level 2 of the Shred last night (which is Day 12-almost half way!) after a short run. It's definitely tougher than Level 1, especially those evil chair squats with V-flys. If I didn't like Jillian so much, I would HATE her! I have talked this DVD up to everyone I know, no joke. Jillian should be paying me to market this thing. Although, to be fair, its not a hard sell and it only costs $9.99 on Amazon.

I'm getting much faster with the counting of calories and now that I have added most of my frequent foods into the Body Bugg web system, it takes seconds to manage my food for the day. My hunger throughout the day is scattered. I usually find that I am most hungry between lunch and mid-afternoon and even when I have a snack, I'm not satisfied. I have been drinking TONS of water as well and that hasn't helped, so I know the hunger is genuine. I'm having a hard time balancing the hunger with calories. I think I usually save most of my calories for dinner, but I may rearrange to have the bulk of my calories consumed between 12-4pm. Hmm...I'll try that tomorrow and see if it works.
Right now a typical day's meals look like this:

Breakfast:
2 cups Trader Joes cheerios
1 cup skim milk
1/2 banana (or 1/2 grapefruit)

Lunch:
PB& Jelly Sandwich (or rice cakes with lite cream cheese, onions & tomatoes)
2 cups mixed green salad w/dressing (1tbsp)
apple

Snack:
1/4 cup raw almonds
Trader Joe's dried fruit bar

Dinner:
i serving of Thai curry with tofu

Actually, after looking at that, most of my calories are in the first part of the day, so maybe I need to add in a morning snack and then eat lunch later? That seems like it would be more effective.

In other stuff:
I cannot WAIT for the VP debate tomorrow night! It should be "enlightening" at least..
AAANDD Andrew and I just found about this program Farm to City (www.farmtocity.org)* Now we can get all local produce throughout the winter! Hooray! We can also get bread, cheese, eggs, milk and a whole slew of other things-ALL LOCAL and we get to PICK what we need! See? Eating local isn't as restricting as people think it is! I'm SO excited! I might have to get everyone I know into THIS too!

*I have NO idea why I can't get links to work, but its really getting annoying!