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05/05/10

282.5 lbs

Honestly, I don't remember what came after the point so I'm splitting it down the middle and calling it a .5.  Don't hold it against me.

Do you know what today is?  If you said Cinco de Mayo, you're wrong.  I mean, you're right, but you're wrong. 

Today is Love Another Blogger Day.  (<==for me anyway)

Last night I was catching up on my blog reading and came across two blogs that are kinda opposite ends of the spectrum.  One had a success and one had a fail.  In the universe of diet karma, these seem to cancel each other out, but in fact, I believe the success happened so it could be an encouragement to the one that failed.

Here's blog #1  It's All About The Walls.  This is my friend Amanda who has been sitting at a plateau for weeks.  In her blog she maps out how things coulda gone wrong and she coulda thrown in the towel and quit.  She didn't, she just waited, albeit not so patiently, and finally, the scale moved and moved in the right direction.  YEA Amanda!  What a break through moment!  If you're a habitual dieter as I have been in the past, you'll know that plateaus SUCK EGGS.  So, finally pushing through one (and by 2 pounds even!) is like nothing short of a miracle.

Then there's blog #2 It's just Me, Drazil & Sheniqua.....This is my new friend "Me".  Well, actually, there's a trio rolled into one here I think of her as Drazil most of the time.  Anyway.  Reportedly, there's been a scale buster  in Drazilland and that is never fun.  Not seeing a scale move is one thing, but to see it move in the wrong direction is another.  This is a hard working girl who's busted her "patootie" to get where she is and even has rewarded herself with a tummy-tuck at the end of it all.  And now, after a month of little life things, there's some gain-age on the homefront.  I don't know how much, but really, is there any gain-age that makes us happy on the scales? 



If you watch The Biggest Loser and follow the tweets like #TBL or #BiggestLoser, then you're bound to know about all the insane crying that happens when the show is on. Now kids, if you don't know this by now, I am not one to really appreciate any emotional display other than snarkiness or ranting. However, that damn show has brought me to near hysterics for three weeks in a row!!!! I've been trying to figure out why because I haven't been sad OR happy when the waterworks have begun. I figured it out last night.

I am touched by the genuine feelings these contestants are sharing. Now, I'm not tearing when they're tearing. Actually, when someone else cries on TV, I get a little annoyed. I'm tearing at the stories, the triumphs, the struggles, the overall genuine real humanity of a weightloss battle. Well, that's what's going on here. A little genuine dose of reality in the bloggin world.

My bloggin heart really loves these ladies and all the blogs that I stalk or read occasionally.  I think that those of us who have good days are here to encourage those of us who don't have good days.  I am willing to bet that for every bad day, there's a good day to match it and that's where we should get our strength, encouragement, motivation, and overall warm fuzzies. 

Amanda, meet Drazil.  Drazil, meet Amanda.  You two need each other right now.  And we all need you!

There.  I've done my good deed for the day.

-jafg

Calorie Girl

05/04/10


283.4 lbs

I have to get on an airplane next Wednesday morning and I'm hoping to break into the 70's by then. I was really hoping for a solid 275 lbs, but I don't know if that's still doable now. We'll keep trying.

Sit back and relax. This is gonna be a long one.

Ok, so I've not been a healthy feeling JAFG the past few days. I even missed work yesterday which means I missed HHH class last night. I am all sadfaced about missing my workout last night. When I go back on Wednesday it’ll feel like starting from day 1 again. I hate that. I am planning on working out tonight. I need to stay in the habit.

I did go to workout on Friday which gave me a great sense of accomplishment. Go Me! I actually got in 70 work-out minutes. It felt great.

I had every intention of working out over the weekend, but I just wasn't up for anything requiring me to be outside of the abode. I felt all ick. The only reason I went out Sunday was because I was gonna have to start sharing cat food with Kitty and I'm pretty sure he'd see me starve and wither first. Saturday I added a plant to my patio garden and didn't do pretty much anything else.

Oh, I did order pizza. I got two medium thin crust pizzas actually (Domino's had a 2-pizza-2-topping-5.99-each special). It could be considered 4 pizzas because I got each half with a different 2-topping combination. Genius, really. I don't know why I haven't thought about this before.

Pizza one: One half pepperoni and mushroom (which, if you haven't learned by now, is my favorite), one half ham and pineapple (something I haven't tried since I was a kid and thought I'd try it again...now I remember why I haven't tried it since I was a kid), both sides with bell pepper. Pizza two: One half mushroom and black olives, one half spinach and feta, both sides with onion and white sauce. Yes, that's order craziness, but I placed the order online to cut out some of the possibility of mayhem. I'm sure someone somewhere in the process thought I must be high. I assure you I was not.

Now, before you start thinking that I had a pizza pig-out fest, I ate on that for two days. That's like 3 meals. One dinner, one breakfast and one lunch. Yom.

On Sunday I went to the grocery. I got all sorts of mad healthy foods. I almost bought a half a pound cake. Which still weighed at least a pound. You know the ones with the hole in the middle of them? Yeah, I had it in my basket. I was super craving on something that tasted like it was from the naughty list. Ever get those cravings? (That's a rhetorical question.)

Then I saw these "day old bakery" bran muffins and thought, "hmmm, perhaps I should be a little more responsible with my splurging and save some money". So I placed the pound cake back on the table and meandered over to the bran muffins. There were 4 in the carton. I read the nutrition label and turns out each muffin has almost 500 calories. Each. Each! W. T. H. This is supposed to be a healthy alternative. My breakfast from Panera last week had fewer calories than that. And it had cheese in it! So, pass on the bran muffin.

What I opted for was a little 12 ounce size cup filled with mini cookies with m&ms. Also, I got one 1.74 oz package of peanut m&ms. I had the cookies Sunday night and the peanut m&ms last night. All this is logged in my myfitnesspal food diary. With the pizza. Also, I did not exercise this weekend. And I stayed home from work yesterday. And I still managed to drop poundage.

So, I have to tell you about a dinner I had last night. (I am SO looking forward to the leftovers tonight). I even took a picture of the recipe card so you could all share in this feast of goodness.

I had garlic-lime chicken fajitas. Yum yum yum yum Yum! Greatest thing about it, no prepackaged anything which means you control all the salt and stuff that goes in it. I varied this by adding mushrooms to the onion mix and went easy on the peppers) and cooking spinach on the side (just sautéed in some water). Also, I used non-fat Greek yogurt as a condiment. Have I said Yum, yet? I had one chicken breast in two fajita wraps and added the spinach to the fajita (just cooked it on its own, didn’t want to lose that “spinach” flavor). McCormack has a “spice pack” where all the spices are measured out for you. I found mine (completely by accident) at Publix. If you don’t have a Publix, don’t worry, the recipe tells you the exact measurements of each spice. You should go out right now and try this.

I must say, being off the exercise routine and still watching what I ate was a great life lesson for me. I even had little splurges and delivery and as long as I kept everything in check, I felt like a real person eating real food. I mean, I’m not eating diet food. I’m eating healthy food, lean meats, lots of veg, watching calories. The healthful food isn’t all that much of a change. But, I’ve never been a calorie girl.

I’m not obsessive, just health conscious. I now know that a vodka/soda beverage is way better than a long island iced tea when I’m out. Things like that really make a difference!



-jafg

Fiesta Siesta

04/30/10

284.6 lbs

Yesterday will probably show up tomorrow. Grr.

Firstly, thank you all for your encouragement yesterday!  I know I'm a snarky little blogger, but I do have sincere moments and this is one of them.  I really appreciate you folks taking time to send me comment love.  I smiled when I read each one of them and they really did warm my heart.

As you know I had a brown food day yesterday.  I went out with SAG last night.  After that fried food lunch, I had a fried food dinner.  And drinks.   As in a half a bottle of wine and then a few vodka beverages for dessert.  I begrudgingly filled out my food diary on myfitnesspal.com (which is the greatest thing since sliced bread...and that's not a paid encorsement for either myfitnesspal or sliced bread) and after completing the entry for the day it told me I had consumed 3,364 calories.  HO. LY. CRAP.  I was also told that "If every day were like today... You'd weigh 291.7 lbs in 5 weeks".  Isn't that a not so gentle reminder of why I don't eat like that.

So, today's a new day.  I didn't exercise at all yesterday 'cept for a  20 minute walk around the work 'hood.  I have logged everything I've eaten today and haven't drank nearly enough water.  I even put down in my exercise diary (another reason to love myfitnesspal) that I'm exercising tonight.  At Concierge Gym.  That means no shorts, the elliptical, the circuit machines (if anyone know what they're officially called, please let me know cause I'm not sure circuit is right) and Rage Against The Machine. 

I've commited to a dinner menu and the day's allowed snacks and cannot deviate from it or else I risk blowing my calories today like yesterday.  Well, maybe not as bad as yesterday.  But I would lose my deficit.  I had mexican today for lunch. 

I am SO sleepy right now.  I hope I have the energy to do my necessary workout.  Otherwise, today's gonna suck eggs.



-jafg

WARNING: Disapointment Ahead

04/29/10

284.2 lbs

I blew it today.  I had a FRIED lunch.  Chicken, Fries, and a buscuit.  I feel kinda bad about it.  It was a conscious decision too.  I was meeting one of my friends out for lunch for his birthday (he turned 24; isn't that cute?).  He's a kid that used to work with me and we hit it off.  He's really a sweetie pie.  He's getting married to his little girlfriend next year.  So Cute! Ok.  It was his birthday on Tuesday and so me and the pregnant girl (who actually used to babysit him!) from work were meeting him at a place of his choice.  It's the place his future in-laws own.  They specialize in what I like to call "brown food".  You know, the kind where everything you order shows up in various shades of brown cause it's all fried?  Yeah, one of those places. 

Well, I decided as soon as we parked that I was going to eat anything I wanted.  I don't know why.  I don't know where the thought came from. I wasn't feeling down, deprived, or even devious.  And I had even taken a 20 minute walk this morning!  But somewhere inside snapped and made me order a fried chicken basket. Damnit.  I felt bad as soon as I ordered.  As I was eating and enjoying every fried bite I was feeling so guilty.  I drank my unsweet tea and dipped my fries and chickens into "house dipping sauce" and ranch dressing.  And not the light kind either.  It was so good.  I feel so bad. 

I've got plans tonight and don't know if I have time to get sweaty and clean again before having to leave at 6:45. 

I'm sure gonna try though. 

-jafg

Giddy Up

04/28/2010

284.2 lbs

I feel a difference in my clothes.  I got all excited because I found these workout shorts I bought at the end of last year to sleep in.  I brought them with me to BFF's house over New Year's and totally left them in the suitcase.  I used that suitcase for the SAG Birthday Bash trip and found the shorts!  They totally fit differently too!  They don't "hug" my jiggle in the middle if you know what I mean.  I totally heart them.  I wore them Monday to workout at HHH class.  It was great.  I'm totally morphing into one of those gym people.  Isn't it great?

I got home last night and thought, "I need some sort of activity".  So, I changed and immediately went to Concierge Gym.  When I got there, it was inhabited by three guys and two girls.  Eh. I can do this.  I really prefer to be the only one there and then let people come in.  I always feel like all eyes are on me when I walk into a room involving fitness.  I mean, come on.  You know you look at who walks through the door and you know, no matter how small or fleeting it might be, there's always a quick assessment of the person.  Well, anyway.  I just hate walking in to a room with workout people.  So, I did it anyway.

I walk with great determination up to my fave elliptical machine and get ready/prepped to start on it.  I'm plugging in my earbuds to my Droid and set the Pandora station to my fave workout one "Rage Against The Machine"  You gotta get that station.  All you have to do is select Rage Against the Machine.  It plays some great stuff if it's what you're into...If you don't have Pandora, you should totally get it.  There's have an app for that on the Droid and for the iPhone. Or iPod Touch.

Ok, I have the music playing, I am getting on the machine and setting my pace, level, stride, and other settings (I run on Manual).  I usually hit about 68-73 strides per minute.  Sometimes it goes faster when Nine Inch Nails plays...but there's no telling when that'll come into rotation.  Now, you may not think that's very much, but for this JAFG it's a freakin sprint.  I usually do this for 20 minutes.  The last 2 minutes usually kill me.  Or make me think it's killing me anyway.  Once I'm done with that, I hit the circuit machines (or resistance or weights or whatever those toture devices are called) for 30 minutes.  That's my full workout when I'm not hitting HHH class.  Back to the music.  I am getting on the machine and I begin to increase my strides.  I am wearing my newly found shorts again (becuase I can).  The more I increase speed, the more these damn shorts are riding up between my always touching thighs.  I'd like to make this more glamorized, but there's nothing attractive about it. 

Concierge Gym is not the biggest area and the machines sit right up against the wall.  The mirrored wall.  So while I'm trying to pretend that I don't have some funky new triangle cut shorts on, I can see in the mirror exactly what I look like from the front.  And that's with the front of the elliptical in between me and the mirror.  Horror upon horrors.  Imagine what I must look like from the back!!!

So, I am casually reaching down and pulling my shorts out of the crevice of my thighs.  It's not the easiest thing to do while on this machine.  I am trying to adjust my stride, my speed, all sorts of things so these damn things don't ride up on me.  I'm no longer being subtle now.  I can't go the pace I want to go because I keep having to stop and adjust the shorts.  I know I'm gonna be some water cooler joke somewhere because I almost fell one time trying to rescue them from the thighs.  Finally, I got the pace down to 48-55 strides per minute and the feet positioned in the right place and was holding my head in the right position.  The riding stopped.  Yahoo!

So I'm a little disappointed with this slower pace.  It's not what I'm used to doing.  I figured that I would increase my level from the 5 I normally go to 14 which is as high as it would go.  I think, in the world of ellipticals, this would be knee-breaking, but my machine is super duper easy and even the level 14 doesn't kill me like the level 3 does on some other ones.  I love that machine, though.  I can do a quicker pace and really feel like I'm accomplishing something since my muscles don't feel like they are going to burn through my skin like acid the instant I get started.  This machine actually lets me move a little bit before that kicks in.

I decided to double my time from 20 to 40 minutes. I also decided to skip the weight machines since I was wearing the shorts.

One wardrobe malfunction was enough.




-jafg

Tales of the Come-Back Kid. Again.

04/27/10

285.6 lbs

Overall, this is pretty good.  However, when I tell you that Scale said on Saturday that I had made it to 283.8 (I checked it twice) and then yesterday said I was at 287.2 you see there's not much room for excitment or sadness.  Still, I'll take this as a victory.

Look, I figured up the caloric intake of the adult beverages consumed for this birthday bash and it totals 1688 calories.  I am so cursing right now. As my ramblings have indicated in my previous posts, I am not such a healthfully minded chica on the morning after a night of partaking.  That leads to Bacon.  And lots of other things off of the breakfast buffet at the hotel like grits, potatoes, cheese, bacon, waffle, bacon, cheese danish, bacon.  And a poached egg.  And french fries and a frosty (both small) from Wendy's on the way home. Nice.  I did have a healthy dinner.  It's my lowfat version of a tuna melt with an egg.  It's actually very good and some other time, I will share it with you.

I signed up for myfitnesspal.com, which I heart a lot and would love to add you as a buddy if anyone's interested but I don't know how that works, and I am SO not registering any of my weekend debauchery. 

I was smart and took yesterday off.  I knew that I wouldn't be fully recovered.  Getting old does this to a girl.  There was a time that 3 hours sleep between "gigs" seemed totally doable.  Now I need two days to recover from blow-out bashes like this.  At least I know my limits.  Anyway.  I took yesterday off.  I had some bacon left over from when BFF and Her Hubbie visited that I had shoved into the freezer.  Well, I sliced some of that off, scrambled me two eggs and had a slice of kraft 2% american cheese on it.  Then I had two pieces of peanut butter toast for snacks.  I had my tuna melt for lunch and a porkchop and a half of sweet potato for dinner.  I slept most of the day but what I did do (which I didn't want to do) was exercise.

YEA ME!  I went to HHH class.  Can I just say that I thought I was going to die?  I know I've said that before, but, like, this time, I was really wondering what would happen if I collapsed of a heart attack in the middle of the session.  That would be so embarrassing. 

While I was contemplating coronary issues, I also noticed that I was bouncing a lot more than I first did.  Perhaps I was so worn out because I was pushing a little harder this time.  Perhaps.  I don't know for sure, though.  I was also thinking I really can't miss my Saturday workout.  I will HAVE to make time for a workout when on trips, otherwise, it'll feel like starting over again when I get back to class.  I hate feeling like I'm starting over again.

I uploaded my pics from the trip to FB (my real world FB account, not the JAFG account) and had a pleasant surprise....aside from having kept all my clothes intact over the trip, I was also looking thinner!


-jafg

Day Trippin'

04/22/10

285.0 lbs

One more down...

I don't know where you are, but it's a B-E-A-utiful day here in Smaller Southern City.  Happy Earth Day!  Go recycle something like the carbs you ate at lunch.....use them as fuel for a walk outside or something.

I'm heading on a big 3-0 birthday bash trip this weekend.  Not mine...I'm older than that.  SAG is turning 30.  Awesome!  It should be fun.  There's like 10 of us piling into three rooms.  How very spring break of us, right? 

However, what I don't want happening is a reversal on the scale front.  I'm gonna have to figure out how to keep being healthy while we're partaking of an adult beverage or two.  And noshing on food.  Wish me lucks!

There's been a threat of a hot tub night.  Good Lawd.  How am I gonna get out of that one?

-jafg