Week 8

Overview:
The week started out with a whimper. It didn’t end with one, but it certainly wasn’t a bang, either. I did ok workout-wise, but I haven’t been vigilant with eating, either. This week I haven’t experienced a gain, rather a complete holding steady, scale-wise. I feel like this week has been nothing but treading water. I’ve come out of this week with the knowledge that I need to be much more careful with my eating. I need to put my foot down when it comes to preparing food at home, meaning that if I don’t fully agree with what my boyfriend is preparing, to actually make something else, even if I’m exceptionally tired and want to veg on the couch.

A friend recently put it all in perspective: it’s easier to reduce your calories by 500 per day than it is to do that much more in a workout EVERY day. That’s a pretty hardcore hour-long workout! Yes, it would be easier to eat less. I have to accept that, which up to now I have been in denial about, and trying to avoid. I think this week is showing me that I can no longer avoid eating less.

So on to last week…

Exercise Recap:

Mon 2/21: Light workout, walked for 1 hour, nothing strenuous as I was recovering from a sore quad muscle. Tried a special eliptical (you can modify the stride to be from stair-stepping to really extended), not sure I liked it, too wierd, didn’t like the controlled movement, then switched to 20 minutes on the treadmill. Maybe 400 calories?
Tues 2/22: Took the night off. Very sore, even moreso than previous few days. Actually I should say I was hurt, not sore. There’s a difference.
Weds 2/23: Still suffering unhappy leg muscle, so I did a light workout, upper body weights and 20 minutes on the treadmill, nothing strenuous. I’m guessing 450 calories? Note: started my new upper body weight routine tonight! Hello testosterone room!
Thurs 2/24: Took the night off, wanted to make sure I was healed. Considered a fast run at the gym, decided to leave it for Friday night.
Fri 2/25: Cardio. 1 hour on the treadmill. Missing the full energy I thought I should have.
Sat 2/26: 1 hr, 50 minute walk first thing: 770 calories followed by an evening gym workout – 1 hour treadmill cardio, 450 calories. Total: 1230 calories! However, it left my muscles super fatigued.
Sun 2/27: 1 hour cardio on the treadmill. Didn’t do as much running as I wanted due to a lot of preexisting muscle fatigue. Looking into how to prevent that better this coming week.(Iron Chef’s secret ingredient: Skipjack Tuna).

Food. About that.

(please note that I wrote this several days ago, so the food-denial I mentioned above you can clearly see below).

Went out for dinner early in the week. Felt super tired either from not enough sleep and/or having a possible virus, low-grade. I had 2 days of dizziness and inner ear issues, but I never felt sick. It caught up with me and I really thought to myself “screw it” but at least didn’t eat anything horribly bad. And I kept my portion size reasonable. I did have a glass of wine that night, and it felt fabulous. Like usual, if I do splurge, and I do occasionally, it is never horrible, and never something I can’t bounce back from quickly [editor’s note: can you TASTE the denial?]

I continue to be on a mission to eat more vegetables with dinner, even to the point of making them in addition to my boyfriend’s cooking, when he cooks. I need to figure out a mechanism to exercise just a little bit more outside of the gym [see above!]. Unless I wake up earlier (NOT going to happen for this non-morning gal) to go for a walk, I probably won’t get much. Work doesn’t really allow for it, and anyway, I don’t really want to walk around an industrial park area where there’s nothing but cars and truck exhaust! The weekends I’ll just have to really seriously walk, maybe around the neighborhood, go for an hour walk at a local park, PLUS the gym, and/or go snowshoeing or hiking. Weekends are when I have the extra time to really do stuff!

That’s all to report, other than the fact that i’m getting really tired of my every day lunches. I think I got bored with the cheese I had this week, and I didn’t have many sandwiches, and I really like those. Instead I had leftovers (lentils & braised lamb shanks, or leftover restaurant chicken). I did start eating carrot sticks with my apple, which was great, I’ll be eating 2 carrots a day in addition to 1 apple, 2 ounces of full-fat cheddar, and 1 to 1 1/2 servings of nuts. Then my main lunch item, either a sandwich or leftovers, and possibly a luna bar or similar in late afternoon. It’s the s-a-m-e thing every day M-F, week to week.

Lately I have fallen back into being too tired/lazy to make breakfast. I haven’t been having my shake or oatmeal and just starting off snacking at 10-10:30 with the apple/carrot mixture. It’s been working ok so far, but I should probably start having the shake again, as cold as it makes me! It will be easier in summer, that’s for sure! [Editor’s note: I have been experiencing much higher levels of hunger and dissatisfaction with what I’m eating by not having breakfast. I have already gone back to making breakfast this week, and it’s working better].

Going Forward

Ok, back to current day & reality. I am still experiencing muscle fatigue, much more than I feel I should have. I’ll be researching that a little this week and seeing what I can do to improve this. I don’t know that my workouts will be improving much until this is resolved. Check in next week for the next installment…