Need Rest... In Danger of Meltdown

I don't handle being tired being well. I'll never be able to have kids, because if I get woken up, I go nut-so. So this Friday, I hit a wall. Too many 19 hour days, too much commuting and overscheduling so every minute is best used. I quit. Instead of going to the gym, I hung out with my dad and watched "The Beach." I slept in, I went over to my boyfriends and read a non-school related book. It was the best decision I ever made.

I think about Hollywood starlets who overstretch themselves for years with work, and fitness, and partying and then have nervous breakdowns. An extreme, I know, but I was evil for no reason and could just feel a Britney or a Mariah moment coming on. So relaxation. Did I miss one of my weekly workouts... yes. Did I die? No.

I'm signing up for the Self Challenge as soon as I get my next issue, which is a three-month diet and fitness plan sponsored and managed by the magazine. I'm hoping to be able to schedule workouts a little more, and monitor my food intake a little more carefully. If anyone would like to sign up with me, the link is posted below. Mostly I'm just hoping to win a vacation or some handy merchandise. We'll see.

Join with me, and tell me! I need all the motivation I can get! Join the Self Challenge with me!

Trip Down Memory Lane

I've been talking with my best friend from college, and we've been trying to arrange for her to visit me from Dallas. We've been at this distance since we graduated (almost 4 years) and have seen each other twice. It's hard. But her trip is looming now, and I'm psyched.

So with my mind full of thoughts of good old Sarah Lawrence College, I noticed that my gym has the same old elliptical machines that said friend and I used to use when we worked out together. And we were nuts. We worked out almost 5 days a week for four years, minus trips abroad.

I love these machines. I don't know if they're any different from the newer machines, but I feel like I'm working harder on them. I cranked the incline up to 20 (the highest) and dialed up the resistance (not the highest) and worked out until I felt like my butt and calf muscles would shoot sparks like fire crackers. To make the throwback complete, I found the worst magazine that I could (Cosmo, of course, is the worst magazine) and sweat away. I closed my workout with a few strength moves:

25 bicep-curls/shoulder-press combos
Weighted crunch with toe-touches (I think you'd need a photo)
Scissor Crunches
Delt Flies
Sumo Squats
Weighted Kicks

The Delt Flies were a new one today, and they'll definitely be added to my routine. Tomorrow is one hour of pure cardio. My definition of that is upping cardio to 45 minutes (yikes) and adding in 15 minutes of abs and stretching. The calendar/clock is ticking toward 05/09/2009.

The Weekend Warrior and Her Love Chub

Some people do chores on the weekend, some people relax, etc. I like to snack on the weekend. We spend most weekends snuggling away in Hidden Valley. And my boyfriend can eat, oh my, can the guy eat. I should also mention that we weigh THE SAME. I am average weight for my height. He's super-thin, but in good shape. So this weekend, with Valentine's Day hanging in the balance, we've planned to make cookies. And I love warm, out of the oven cookies, and I can't wait!

So my weekends are another area where I need to focus. I'm exercising during the week, eating pretty well, but my weekends are spent in bed studying, doing homework, and in general lovey-dovey merriment. So here's the lovey-dovey bashing plan:

I already have my hand weights in the house, so this weekend I'll bring up my yoga mat. This will equip me to do some basic strength workouts. I have also reminded my boyfriend that I need to take walks, etc., of a sizable nature. The final task (self-control in the kitchen) is sadly on me. So tonight's other mission is to peruse my diabetes cookbook and pick 2 recipes that share ingredients and that I won't binge eat. The other is to visit the Ruby Tuesday website to scope nutritional info. This is where we will be having our Valentine's dinner, and if you're laughing or cringing, you've obviously never seen the alternatives in Somerset, PA.

So here's their nutrition sheet, and I'm cringing, but I'm drooling over the avocado quesadillas...

http://www.rubytuesday.com/files/Nutrition.pdf

Working Harder, Eating More

So although the 15 years of fitness magazines that I've read have told me this time and again -- women are more prone to overcompensate for calories burned during a workout. This means cookies, this means M&M. And I had both today.

I am a stress eater, a boredom eater, and a regular old eater too. Today with no coffee, five hours in a research library, and a night class, I was running below empty. So I snacked, and here is a list of everything I ate. The truth is I will probably scare the crap out of myself as I recall all of this:

1. Chocolate diet shake
2. Banana
3. 1/2 package of Nilla Cakesters (smooshed by the way)
4. 1 cheese stick
5. 1 clementine
6. 1 ham sandwich on 9 grain bread
7. light yogurt
8. 1 clementine
9. 1 package m&ms
10. 1 bag sun chips
11. 1 lean cuisine beef hunan meal
12. 1 sugar-free pudding
13. 1/2 ham sandwich

So not the most horrific day of all time, but my guess is well over 2.000 calories, which I imagine doesn't help when you're trying to lose weight. I'm pretty sure, in fact, that it causes you to gain weight. Aren't I clever. Now all of the healthy stuff on that list I packed and carried with me. All the not so healthy things... vending machine.

So, here's my strategy for tomorrow:

Breakfast:

COFFEE!
Oatmeal with dates/almonds, orange, light yogurt

Snack:
cheesestick and blueberries

Lunch:
turkey wrap, dates, cheesestick

Dinner:
Diet shake, orange, coffee as needed (night class)

I'll see how the day goes, where I'm hungry, and where I'm dying for my drug of choice that spirals out of that glowing machine.

Well, There Goes That Goal!

To make my commuting-student life a little easier, while still being healthy, I went to the cheapest place I could think of today (Wal-Mart) to get set-up for showering at the gym after working out.

"What?" you say. "You haven't been showering this whole time?" I have to confess--NO. I had a pretty good regiment of face washing and body wipes/deodorant/perfume, but alas, I'm ready for the next step.

I bought only the essentials, i.e. a lock for the locker in which I will be storing my things while I work out, and some rubber flip flops to wear while I shower after working out. $7.97 with tax. Ouch. There goes my $5.99 goal.

So now I have spent $1.98 over my goal, but it was well worth it to avoid being smelly, getting robbed, or having foot problems from the shower. So to compensate, 198 seconds more in the gym each day. That's like 3 minutes, or one more Christina song.

What's Going into My Body

So re-examining my diet has lead to the definite conclusion that this is the major source of my weight gain. I've tried to blame other sources: insulin, thyroid, my boyfriend. But the truth is, I eat dessert at least twice a day, and I've been known to eat through pain, get to the other side, and eat again. So... target identified.

My new meal plan for the week is this:

Breakfast (quite yummy)

1 cup slow-cooked oatmeal w/ Cinnamon and one splenda
2 chopped dates
1 tbsp. slivered almonds
1 container low-sugar yogurt

Snack

1 cheese stick
1 orange

Lunch

1 Chocolate Shake
COFFEE

Dinner

Ham and Spinach Wrap
1 orange

Snack

Banana
Other small item

So this is my starter meal plan, and the convenient part is I eat breakfast at home, pack snacks, lunch and dinner, and have a little snack at night when I get home. I'm going to work on balancing the ingredients a little better... but that will take some planning this weekend. With me luck, because I freakin' love m&m's, and this campus is chalk-full of vending machines. Sigh.