Thin Cherry: A Weightloss Diary

Conference Week

Ruth — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:23:52 +0000

I spent Sunday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon at a conference (including staying overnight). That always runs the risks of being a nightmare for my health (overeating but also just plain getting sick), but thankfully, it went well, and I came home healthy and without tipping the scales. I also managed to keep up rather well with the No Junkfood challenge (aside from pizza Wednesday night when I was too exhausted to cook).

Sunday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Monday

30 minutes of calisthenics

Wednesday through Saturday

Exercise bike: 30 minute each day

I really need to switch off of just biking, but it’s been a crazy few weeks at work leading up to the conference that have taken most of my energy. I’ll start eying the gym again soon, I hope.

A Week of Good Choices

Ruth — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:19:19 +0000

I declared this to be a week of good choices, starting with Monday (because Sunday was pretty thoroughly not good choices. A few hours later, I was invited to join a “no junk food until Thanksgiving” group of coworkers. Good choice. And I’d already decided to avoid soda for the week (and now, until Thanksgiving), so another good one. Overall, I didn’t do outstandingly, but aside from some marshmallows Saturday night (they would go stale by Thanksgiving), I did avoid junk food, even when I was craving it.

Sunday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Monday

Exercise bike: 40 minutes

Tuesday

Mow yard: 20 minutes
Exercise bike: 10 minutes

Thursday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Friday

Exercise bike: 25 minutes
Walk: 10 minutes

Saturday

Walk: 2 miles, 30 minutes

Random Song Title

Ruth — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:52:10 +0000

Sunday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Monday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Tuesday

Walk: 2 miles, ~30 minutes

Thursday (i)

Walk/run: 2.5 miles, 28:53

Friday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Saturday (i)

Exercise bike: 50 minutes

Recovery Over

Ruth — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:36:44 +0000

Sunday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Monday

Walk: 2 miles, ~30 minutes

Tuesday

Walk: 2 miles, ~30 minutes

Thursday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Friday (i)

Elliptical: 5k, 31:12

My elliptical time is improving my leaps and bounds when I actually get myself to go for it (which happens once a week at most). I may very well reach my goal of 30 minutes by December, depending on how long it takes to work down that final minute and change.

Saturday (i)

Tennis: 1 hour

Wishing for Vacation

Ruth — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 23:41:09 +0000

I was told by the surgeon’s assistant that I wasn’t to do any hard workouts for at least a week following my last oral surgery, so I pretty much stuck with just riding my exercise bike for my exercise this week. I’m hoping this coming week I can do a few more exciting workouts–and work on my elliptical time again. I went pretty easy on Friday because I was exhausted and only just past her 1-week admonition.

Sunday

Calisthenics: 30 minutes

I’m not supposed to do heavy cardio until mid-week after my surgery, so I decided to do a variety of free weight exercises and crunches. I haven’t been doing nearly enough strength work recently, and my flabby biceps are evidence of that little problem.

Monday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Tuesday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Thursday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Friday (i)

Elliptical: 30 minutes, 2.47 miles

Saturday (i)

Tennis: 50 minutes

Posts

Ruth — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:28:13 +0000

The week started out quite pleasantly as I had Columbus Day off from work. It ended less pleasantly, as I had more oral surgery done, part one of a two-part implant process. Good thing I got in a decent amount of exercise early, since I didn’t have the balance to do anything hard thereafter (and was also told not to by my doctor).

Weight-wise, I’m seeing a very slight decline each week (less than half a pound), but it’s a start.

Monday (i)

Tennis: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Mowing: 55 minutes

Tuesday

Walk: 10 minutes
Exercise bike: 25 minutes

Wednesday (i)

Elliptical: 5k, 31:49 (new speed record for me)

Friday

Walk: 30 minutes

Saturday

Tennis: 45 minutes (played carefully due to dizziness)

Headache Zone

Ruth — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:41:33 +0000

This week was hampered by a headache throughout most of the week that grew worse and worse over. It finally broke Friday afternoon, freeing me up for some active fun over the weekend, more that I’ve gotten the past few when I’ve been extremely lazy at home.

Sunday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

My food today was mostly sugar and fats. I know this is a stupid thing to have done, but I have this bad habit of simply not thinking on Sundays. It’s as if my brain shuts off and says “sugar,” and I immediately obey. I need to work on that.

Monday

Still in the bad habit of not working out on Monday. Next week shouldn’t be a problem though, I’m scheduled for an extra round of tennis.

Tuesday

Walk: 2 miles, ~30 minutes

It was too beautiful not to get out and enjoy the weather with a walk. I’m really enjoying the sunshine and comfortable temperatures this week.

Wednesday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

I was planning on hitting the elliptical at the gym, but left my sneakers at home. Hopefully I’ll remember them tomorrow, I’m lacking in intense workouts this week.

Thurday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

Today wasn’t intense as I had an excruciating headache going on most of the afternoon and all evening. It was pretty bad.

Friday (i)

Elliptical: 30 minutes, 2.65 miles

I left work early due to a continued headache. A bit of rest as well as a lot of movement to distract myself (cleaning house, going to the gym, etc) really seemed to launch me out of it.

Saturday (i)

Tennis: 1:15

I played some of my best tennis of the summer today. It was fantastic! 25-stroke rallies, good gets to balls, etc. Definitely a fantastic workout. Even better, in the afternoon I prevented myself from being completely lazy and got out for awhile to do a bit of furniture shopping (something I’ve needed to do for years, but keep avoiding.)

Trying to Think

Ruth — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:37:27 +0000

This week was weird. I spent the entire time worrying I was getting sick, due to a lack of energy as well as a higher-than-usual temperature. I survived without succumbing, thankfully. More nutritious food choices probably would have helped though.

Sunday

I was supposed to play a double-header in softball today, but it ended up being just 1 game played in constant rain and a completely muddy and slick field. If it had been a few degrees warmer, it would have been really fun.

Lunch was fairly healthy, but dinner was Taco Bell. I’m still very much off-the-rails on my food consumption.

Monday (147.8 pounds)

Decided to take some extra time and make a good breakfast this morning. An egg with 2 slices of bacon, high fiber toast, a banana, and juice. I’ve read that egg is a very filling option for breakfast, and I would like to be a bit less hungry at lunch time than I have been recently.

Tuesday

Exercise bike: 34 minutes

I should have done something more considerable, but there’s a lot of illness going around and I was feeling woozy, so I decided to go a little easy on myself.

Wednesday

Walk: 30 minutes

My usual day to day temperature is 97.4 degrees. This evening, I was up to 98.2. I’m quite concerned I have illness coming on, so I stuck with a light workout again.

Thursday (i)

Jillian Michaels 30 day shred DVD workout 1: ~27 minutes
Additional cardio: ~3 minutes

I phoned this in a little by using 3 pound weights rather than 5s. However, I did concentrate more on form and getting every movement correct, so that counts for something as well. With my “trying not to get sick” malaise going on, 5 pounds would have been a bit too much, even though 3 was a smidge light. Hopefully this will pass soon, although I got up to a whopping 98.4 today, the highest temperature I’ve seen in years.

Saturday (i)

Tennis: 1 hour
Walk: 2 miles, 32 minutes

The walk counts as Friday’s workout. Unfortunately, I was away from home from 7 a.m. until after 11 p.m. so I truly didn’t have time to get in the workout that day. Normally I plan ahead much better than this, but my drive home took an extra 40 minutes, plus I didn’t expect the event I was attending to last nearly 5.5 hours either. It really does remind me why I shouldn’t take my day off from working out so early in the week.

101 Things, New Post Style

Ruth — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:38:03 +0000

101 things in 1001 days is like a long-term New Year’s Resolution. I participated this past 1001 days and completed 69 of 101 goals. Technically, my 1001 days didn’t end until October 3rd, but I’d created my new list and felt the drive to get started, so I ended my 1st list a couple of weeks early so I could get working on my new goals.

Two of my goals are exercise related. One is to continue my 6 days a week, 30 minutes a day exercise schedule. Building on that though, I’m also pushing myself to do at least 2 intense workouts per week. What counts as intense? Well, my husband says anything that made him vomit from doing it counts, so that includes running, tennis, most of my workout DVDs…My definition is pretty much anything that makes me work hard and usually has me trying to give up at some point. So, well, running, most of my workout DVDs, gym workouts, and gym classes. I rarely want to give up while playing tennis, but given how full-body a workout it is, as well as how long and hard I tend to play, well, I guess it counts too.

Additionally, and at least for a little while, I’m going to be less obsessed with food and weight loss. I’m hoping to be mindful of what I eat of course, but rather than fretting over every calorie, try to keep myself from eating when I’m not hungry, and steer myself towards healthier options more often. I’ve spent my entire life panicked over my weight, even before I was overweight. So for the next few weeks, I’m going to try to quit thinking about food and weight constantly. Exercise makes me feel good (and is often very fun), but obsessing over food and weight never is. I’ve even stopped weighing myself daily.

As for the new post style, I’m going to switch to a weekly post rather than every day. I realize no one reads this anyway, but I am hoping to use this as more reflective. I’ll keep a running draft and continue to record my exercise, but also more thoughts. At the end of the week, I’ll post it.

What about the weight itself? Whenever I feel the urge, I’ll weigh in. On those days, I’ll probably include it into the day’s information. I’m usually checking it about twice per week now. It’s very weird no longer being chained to that scale. I’m anxious, because often when I quit weighing myself, I would gain weight. But honestly, I’ve been gaining weight just fine while checking it recently, so I’m willing to take the chance.

Sunday (i)

Jillian Michaels 30 day shred DVD workout 1: ~27 minutes
Additional cardio: ~3 minutes

It’s been awhile since I did a Jillian workout. In part because I feel silly doing a workout DVD when I have a gym membership. But also because I’ve just been lazy recently. Work has been so stressful, and watching my weight going up made me want to just quit. So suddenly I went from doing moderately hard workouts to doing “calisthenics” or taking leisurely walks. Not that there’s anything wrong with walks, but with as much as I tend to eat and the way my body works, I’ve got to get in some real work. So I’m trying not to let my excuses get in the way from getting in a decent workout.

I’ll probably stick to workout 1 for awhile since it is the easiest. My arms are trembling from it, which I like. One thing worthwhile to note is that back in the day, I usually used 3 pound weights only occasionally moving up to 5 pound weights for specific exercises. Tonight I did the whole thing with 5 pound weights. I may be getting pretty flabby, but several years of exercise have done me at least some good.

Monday

Took today off after sleeping poorly. I was utterly exhausted and barely had the energy to fix something quick for supper let alone workout. I would like to quit taking my day off so early in the week, but it’s become quite the habit recently.

Tuesday (i)

Elliptical at gym: 5k, 32:34

One of my 101 things is to get my elliptical 5k time under 30 minutes. Last week I was at 37 minutes, this week I really pushed myself and saw a drastic improvement. I’ll admit, I nearly talked myself out of going to the gym entirely. I was feeling a bit lazy and just wanted to go home. However, it was well worth going just to know that I did push hard to get something I wanted. Plus now I can relax for most of the rest of the night with no worries. I can exercise my brain with Portal and studying a foreign language instead of trying to figure out what workout I should be doing at home.

Wednesday (145.8)

Catch: 15 minutes
Light jog & walk: 15 minutes

I would have played catch longer, but it was getting dark quickly. It’s not much of a cardio workout, but it does work on my hand-eye coordination, and my arm’s usually aching by the end. I tried some light jogging, but my stomach started feeling bad so I walked the last bit.

Thursday

Exercise bike: 30 minutes

I’ll admit, I should have done something more strenuous today, but I was kind of beat from the craziness of work. I’ll try to make up for it over the weekend or something.

Friday

Walk: 10 minutes (half carrying a really heavy stack of books)
Exercise bike: 30 minutes

I didn’t ride the exercise bike until nearly 10 o’clock due to letting myself get wrapped up in playing Portal. Tomorrow I’m hoping for a good round of tennis in the morning, weather permitting.

Saturday (i)

Tennis: 55 minutes

It was chilly and gray, and we had to stop a bit earlier than usual because it started raining on us, but I had a good round of tennis this morning. My forehand was on for the first time this year, and I even hit several pretty good serves. Tomorrow, softball double-header.

So overall, not a bad week. It was nice not being chained to my scale, but I do wish that I had pushed through work tiredness a bit more to get in some better workouts in the latter portion of the week. Something to work towards in the future, I suppose!

Favorite Things

Ruth — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:46:28 +0000

Today’s exercise:

Tennis: 75 minutes
Mow yard: 1 hour