I had another really bad week, which is pretty much the standard for April, isn't it? I don't know exactly why I've not been doing well. I've maintained that four-pound gain, which frustrates me, but it was definitely my choices that made it. For the first week in a long time I didn't hit my 150-minute minimum exercise goal - I only got to 133 and that was all in the first half of the week. Then I just basically blew it.
I was in a pretty crappy mood this week and work was tougher than usual. Lots of angry people to deal with. Then I took my car in for an oil change and was told that oil was leaking all over my car - the coolant was filled with oil, as was the entire engine. Basically, to make my car safe I'd have to replace the entire engine. I've had this car since my junior year of high school and it's a '95 so it's not totally unexpected. I've also put a few hundred dollars into it recently, which is frustrating. I was really upset about losing this car, because I'm pretty broke (always!) and buying a used car is always sort of a gamble. So I was REALLY upset and I had two of my friends come over and cheer me up - but using homemade daiquiris and junk food was not the best idea. The following day I went out with my coworkers to a bar and had three drinks (over the span of three hours) and ate nearly an entire basket of onion rings by MYSELF. THEN, later that night I went out with another friend and we ate total shit at Denny's in addition to some wine... and then even later in the night (like 1 a.m.) I ate his leftovers. Faaaantastic. Seriously, I know I would do SO much better if I would just lay off the booze because I just stop caring and the second I eat something when I don't know the calorie content, I'm just done for the day.
And actually, anyway, the car dying ended up being sort of a blessing. My dad's retired now and so he spent some time looking at used cars for me. I knew I would be getting a shitty one because I can't afford to spend more than $4,000 basically. So we went to go look at one that my dad had found online, but got frustrated because even though we had called in advance about 10 minutes before going out there to look at the car, when we arrived they told us that the car was being repaired and we couldn't look at it. So we went to another dealership, and I ended up getting a *brand new* car! I was not expecting to do that AT ALL. When I told the guy my budget, he said they didn't have any used cars for under 6 grand, but that I should consider leasing a new car. They had this awesome deal that allegedly ended yesterday, where you can lease a brand new car for three years with no money down, for $200 a month, and then an option to buy at the end. And leasing it for three years and then purchasing it actually ended up being cheaper overall than just buying it new. They essentially guarantee everything, so no worrying about the history of a used car (when we got the car that died, we had to replace the transmission just a couple months after getting it)... anyway, I ended up with a 2012 Honda Civic, and I'm in love with it. Plus it gets 39 mpg, which will hopefully lead to big savings on gas. And I'll just be happy to not put any more money into the car that died.
I'll miss my shitty '95 Oldsmobile but it's hard to think about that car when I have a new one! It feels so weird because I've never had a car that wasn't just a pile of crap. I'm going to work on creating a new budget, which means that I'm going to get less fancy with my meals and where I shop. I think I'm going to stop shopping at Trader Joe's almost entirely (there are a couple things I get there that I will still buy, but typically when I go there I just feel like doing all my shopping in one place and I end up spending a fortune.) We have a super cheap grocery store here that is horrifying to shop in because it is so busy and warehouse-y, but I'm just going to have to suck it up and go there all the time now.
At any rate, I figure Earth Day is as good as ever to start a new challenge. I'm going to go up until Memorial Day weekend (May 25). I have two friends from out of town visiting that weekend, and I know they'll want to go out and drink and such, so I'm gonna give myself a little bit of a break then. I want to lose more weight before they come here because I haven't seen them since November! I think the only thing I'm going to do differently in this challenge (and I've never actually SUCCEEDED at one of my "challenges" so we'll see how this goes!) is to up my exercise to 175 minutes a week minimum instead of 150. I'd like to eventually get up to 200 minimum. I always "schedule" myself for 200 minimum but there's always one workout that I end up missing for whatever reason.
So, simple challenge rules...
Earth Day Challenge
1) No alcohol. This is the main one I haven't stuck with, which leads to not staying within my calorie range. I'll do well for a couple weeks but then I'll go out with my coworkers or something and end up not refusing the beverage. I just know that as soon as I get some booze in me, I won't do my scheduled workout, I won't feel good the next day, and I will probably overeat.
2) Stay within my calories at least 6/7 days of the week. (My other challenges involved me staying in calorie range every single day, but SparkPeople recently reduced my calories due to my weight loss, and I find that some days I am just too hungry and need to go over by a couple hundred or so.)
3) Work out 175 minutes/week.
4) Track all my food.
I started making green smoothies some mornings for breakfast and I'm really liking them. My only problem is that they're so high in sugar. I usually use 4 cups of baby spinach and then some kale (usually just a handful of leaves), one serving of frozen mixed fruit, a banana (I'm going to start using just half a banana, but I want to use at least some because it really masks the green taste) and then 100% fruit juice. I think I might start using milk or soymilk or almond milk instead, though. I never drink milk straight so it never occurs to me to buy it, but I think some plain unsweetened almond milk would be good. That would cut down on the sugar some, as I know fruit juice is basically just a ton of sugar.
I mentioned in the title of my post that I'm a little discouraged. I just keep getting pain in my feet. It feels like there is always something making my workouts ridiculously uncomfortable. Today while I did my step aerobics, I felt great exercise-wise (like, aerobically I could keep up very well) and even my achilles tendons felt ok (they're a little stiff now but didn't bug me much during the workout) but I got this fairly intense pain on top of my right foot. It feels like a tendon from my right big toe to the top of my foot. It feels totally fine NOW, walking or even jumping on it, but it was really really hurting during that workout. I'm hoping it isn't sore anytime soon. I did finish the workout and burned 530 calories, but it was sooooo unpleasant. I really didn't want to stop because I hadn't worked out since Wednesday. Sigh.
Here's my menu and workout plan for the week:
SUNDAY
Vegetable and rice burritos with quesadilla cheese
Step Aerobics, 63 minutes
MONDAY
Waldorf chicken wrap
Rest Day
TUESDAY
Spinach Mushroom Ricotta Stuffed Shells (I may have to move this because I dropped my entire jar of pasta sauce all over my kitchen today, breaking it...and don't know when I'll stop by the grocery store... fabulous)
Cardio kickbox, 25 minutes
WEDNESDAY
Leftovers
Gold's Gym Cardio Workout, 40 minutes
THURSDAY
Spicy Nutty Chicken with broccoli
Spark Cardio Workout, 30 minutes
FRIDAY
Jimmy John's vegetarian sub
Rest day
SATURDAY
Leftovers
Walk/run, 50 minutes
Total workout minutes: 208
I was in a pretty crappy mood this week and work was tougher than usual. Lots of angry people to deal with. Then I took my car in for an oil change and was told that oil was leaking all over my car - the coolant was filled with oil, as was the entire engine. Basically, to make my car safe I'd have to replace the entire engine. I've had this car since my junior year of high school and it's a '95 so it's not totally unexpected. I've also put a few hundred dollars into it recently, which is frustrating. I was really upset about losing this car, because I'm pretty broke (always!) and buying a used car is always sort of a gamble. So I was REALLY upset and I had two of my friends come over and cheer me up - but using homemade daiquiris and junk food was not the best idea. The following day I went out with my coworkers to a bar and had three drinks (over the span of three hours) and ate nearly an entire basket of onion rings by MYSELF. THEN, later that night I went out with another friend and we ate total shit at Denny's in addition to some wine... and then even later in the night (like 1 a.m.) I ate his leftovers. Faaaantastic. Seriously, I know I would do SO much better if I would just lay off the booze because I just stop caring and the second I eat something when I don't know the calorie content, I'm just done for the day.
And actually, anyway, the car dying ended up being sort of a blessing. My dad's retired now and so he spent some time looking at used cars for me. I knew I would be getting a shitty one because I can't afford to spend more than $4,000 basically. So we went to go look at one that my dad had found online, but got frustrated because even though we had called in advance about 10 minutes before going out there to look at the car, when we arrived they told us that the car was being repaired and we couldn't look at it. So we went to another dealership, and I ended up getting a *brand new* car! I was not expecting to do that AT ALL. When I told the guy my budget, he said they didn't have any used cars for under 6 grand, but that I should consider leasing a new car. They had this awesome deal that allegedly ended yesterday, where you can lease a brand new car for three years with no money down, for $200 a month, and then an option to buy at the end. And leasing it for three years and then purchasing it actually ended up being cheaper overall than just buying it new. They essentially guarantee everything, so no worrying about the history of a used car (when we got the car that died, we had to replace the transmission just a couple months after getting it)... anyway, I ended up with a 2012 Honda Civic, and I'm in love with it. Plus it gets 39 mpg, which will hopefully lead to big savings on gas. And I'll just be happy to not put any more money into the car that died.
I'll miss my shitty '95 Oldsmobile but it's hard to think about that car when I have a new one! It feels so weird because I've never had a car that wasn't just a pile of crap. I'm going to work on creating a new budget, which means that I'm going to get less fancy with my meals and where I shop. I think I'm going to stop shopping at Trader Joe's almost entirely (there are a couple things I get there that I will still buy, but typically when I go there I just feel like doing all my shopping in one place and I end up spending a fortune.) We have a super cheap grocery store here that is horrifying to shop in because it is so busy and warehouse-y, but I'm just going to have to suck it up and go there all the time now.
At any rate, I figure Earth Day is as good as ever to start a new challenge. I'm going to go up until Memorial Day weekend (May 25). I have two friends from out of town visiting that weekend, and I know they'll want to go out and drink and such, so I'm gonna give myself a little bit of a break then. I want to lose more weight before they come here because I haven't seen them since November! I think the only thing I'm going to do differently in this challenge (and I've never actually SUCCEEDED at one of my "challenges" so we'll see how this goes!) is to up my exercise to 175 minutes a week minimum instead of 150. I'd like to eventually get up to 200 minimum. I always "schedule" myself for 200 minimum but there's always one workout that I end up missing for whatever reason.
So, simple challenge rules...
Earth Day Challenge
1) No alcohol. This is the main one I haven't stuck with, which leads to not staying within my calorie range. I'll do well for a couple weeks but then I'll go out with my coworkers or something and end up not refusing the beverage. I just know that as soon as I get some booze in me, I won't do my scheduled workout, I won't feel good the next day, and I will probably overeat.
2) Stay within my calories at least 6/7 days of the week. (My other challenges involved me staying in calorie range every single day, but SparkPeople recently reduced my calories due to my weight loss, and I find that some days I am just too hungry and need to go over by a couple hundred or so.)
3) Work out 175 minutes/week.
4) Track all my food.
I started making green smoothies some mornings for breakfast and I'm really liking them. My only problem is that they're so high in sugar. I usually use 4 cups of baby spinach and then some kale (usually just a handful of leaves), one serving of frozen mixed fruit, a banana (I'm going to start using just half a banana, but I want to use at least some because it really masks the green taste) and then 100% fruit juice. I think I might start using milk or soymilk or almond milk instead, though. I never drink milk straight so it never occurs to me to buy it, but I think some plain unsweetened almond milk would be good. That would cut down on the sugar some, as I know fruit juice is basically just a ton of sugar.
I mentioned in the title of my post that I'm a little discouraged. I just keep getting pain in my feet. It feels like there is always something making my workouts ridiculously uncomfortable. Today while I did my step aerobics, I felt great exercise-wise (like, aerobically I could keep up very well) and even my achilles tendons felt ok (they're a little stiff now but didn't bug me much during the workout) but I got this fairly intense pain on top of my right foot. It feels like a tendon from my right big toe to the top of my foot. It feels totally fine NOW, walking or even jumping on it, but it was really really hurting during that workout. I'm hoping it isn't sore anytime soon. I did finish the workout and burned 530 calories, but it was sooooo unpleasant. I really didn't want to stop because I hadn't worked out since Wednesday. Sigh.
Here's my menu and workout plan for the week:
SUNDAY
Vegetable and rice burritos with quesadilla cheese
Step Aerobics, 63 minutes
MONDAY
Waldorf chicken wrap
Rest Day
TUESDAY
Spinach Mushroom Ricotta Stuffed Shells (I may have to move this because I dropped my entire jar of pasta sauce all over my kitchen today, breaking it...and don't know when I'll stop by the grocery store... fabulous)
Cardio kickbox, 25 minutes
WEDNESDAY
Leftovers
Gold's Gym Cardio Workout, 40 minutes
THURSDAY
Spicy Nutty Chicken with broccoli
Spark Cardio Workout, 30 minutes
FRIDAY
Jimmy John's vegetarian sub
Rest day
SATURDAY
Leftovers
Walk/run, 50 minutes
Total workout minutes: 208
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