So Unfair...

Pardon me for a little whine. Why is it that metabolisms are so diverse? I've been working out, I've been not eating sugar and trying to eat decently overall, and slowly the pounds will start to come off, and then inch back up again in the blink of the eye - like if I happen to eat something salty the night before. Oh heaven forbid I have some sodium! Water retention - eek!

Then there's the girl who sits a few seats down from me. She's thin, and has a nice figure. She munches throughout the day, never works out, and just now came back with some frozen custard from down the street and I guarantee it will never show up on her body. She's in her late 30's so I'm pretty sure this is the metabolism she will have for some time.

So unfair.

I Heart the Elliptical

Last night I tried out going to the gym after work to see how it felt. I really missed breaking up the middle of my day, but it was nice to leave work and not have to come back and also to not have to shower at the gym and also to be able to work out as long as I wanted without feeling crunched for time.

I went with A and she pushed me past my comfort zone, which is always good. We were ellipticalling across from one another and when I finished she said she had 5 more minutes. Then she looked at me standing there and said, "Keep going. Come on, get going!" So I did. Last night I did 50 minutes on the elliptical.

Afterwards we went over to the mat and A showed me her ab routine, which was great and painful. I was proud of myself because I kept up with her on all except for one of the exercises, where she did 15 and I did 12. Must be all those years of swimming. They kept my abs pretty strong, even under all the current flabbiness.

Then I went and ate something that probably wasn't the best, but man was it good! There's an empanada place next to the gym and everyone at work has been raving about it. So after my workout, I was ravenous (it was 9 PM by this point) and I got a Chilean (curry beef and veggies) and a Vegetarian (sweet potato, onion, cabbage and chick peas). All wrapped in a very bad, very high-carb shell. It was fantastic! Plus don't they say after you work out that you're still burning calories for awhile?

I meant to weigh myself this morning because I'm going out of town and won't be able to do my Sunday weigh-in. But this morning I stumbled around in a sleepy stupor and finished up packing and completely forgot. However, I know something good is happening.

Exhibit A - my size 16 stretch bootcut jeans are getting looser, and my size 14 relaxed fit jeans are super baggy by the end of the day. Soon I'll be able to fit back into my 14 stretch bootcuts, that, frankly, make me feel hot.

Exhibit B - my dress slacks are getting baggy again. When I bought them a couple of years ago, they fit perfectly. After losing weight last year, they were really baggy, but as I gained back some of the weight they started to fit perfectly again. So sure, I looked nice, but I would rather have looked nice in the next size down. Thay're getting baggy again and I am so happy.

Bootylicious

As I was walking to the smoothie store this afternoon for my daily fruit overdose, one of the bike messengers in Farragut Square expressed his appreciation of my bum. Actually, I think it went along the lines of "D**n, white girl! Is all that a** yours! Mm!" I had a hard time waiting to pass by him before I started laughing. Yeah, I know I'm bootylicious. Always have been, and always will be. Even when I was a size 7 way back when in the foggy recesses of my memory I still had a disproportionately large bum to contend with when shopping for clothes.

My Nana called it The Puckett (her maiden name) Butt . She had it too. My aunt has it. I have it. I really used to hate my bum a lot. My mom always told me that someday I would meet a guy who thought my bum was cute. She was right. Actually, I've met several. However, it's only recently that I've come to appreciate how to play up my little waist and big bum to their greatest advantages. Yeah, I know I still have a bunch of weight to lose. But that doesn't mean I can embrace my bootyliciousness and feel sexy in the meantime.

******

After all of my smack talk yesterday, I may end up losing the bet this week. I have to work out Monday through Thursday this week in order to get in my 4 days because I'm going to Boston Friday night and won't be back until Tuesday morning. Well, today I am feeling so, so dead. I have a headache that won't let go. I may just need to go home, curl up in front of the TV and watch the Lost season finale in my PJs, rather than heading to the gym right after work like I was thinking of doing. My smoothie fruit burst is helping me feel a little better, so we'll have to see how I feel when 7 PM rolls around.

We Won!

J came in this morning and confessed to A and me that he had lost the bet. He'd set the goal of going to the gym 5 times a week, and last week he only made it 3 times.

Wow, knocked out in the first week. I told him how I had been so tired yesterday, but I went to the gym anyway because otherwise I wouldn't get in my 4 times this week and if I lost this early in our bet, I would be a big LOSER.

As A says, "Would you like some butter for that burn?"

So J will be taking us to Thaiphoon probably next week or the week after. Our bet has started up again, with J re-setting his goal at 4 a week. I'm still at 4 and A is at 3. I think A should have to do extra push-ups or something, but we're just trying to motivate one another, not make each other do something we don't want to do.

It's very handy that I've just started going to the gym and showering at the gym every day because my shower is falling out of the wall at home. There's a big leak there that's been there for years apparently. All of the drywall has rotted away behind the tiles (they were staying up by sheer will power I guess), and the water finally started leaking down on the neighbors below, which is how all of this was discovered. A plumber will be messing about in my bathroom in the coming weeks. I'm just glad I have the gym shower as an alternative.

As for last week, I did work out 4 times, but I can't think what days. I think Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, although I'm not positive. I know I went 4 times though, and that's all that matters. I've upped my elliptical time to 45 minutes, which feels really good and kind of hurts in that great muscle achey way. I was going to start doing weights this week, but when I get to the gym all I want to do is hop on the elliptical and stride all my tension and tiredness away. Since I have to get back to work afterwards, I'm kind of restricted as to what I can do with regard to time. Next week I'll try to add on the weights.

Check In

I'm down another 1.6 pounds this week. Yay! Plus, on Friday a woman at work (who is also doing her own weight loss thing so we commiserate) told me I'm looking good and I definitely look like I'm losing. All I know right now is that I feel better, and, really, that's what I'm shooting for. Well, that and a nice bum.

I didn't measure this week because Jason was in town and I didn't feel like doing all the tape measure machinations when I could be cuddling with him. He doesn't really get the whole measuring thing. I told him last week that I had lost 3 inches and he asked, "What do you mean? Around your waist or what?" I tried to explain that I meant all over. That in itsy little increments I had managed to lose 3 inches from all over various bits of my body and that it was a good thing because it meant I was toning up some. I think the concept was lost on him, but I know that it matters and that I've lost 2.5 inches total off of my waist and hips and I'm really happy about that.

Rockin' the Walkin'

Last summer when I was studying for the Bar, I discovered that stress is a very effective exercise motivator. I broke my own personal times for my distance swimming practically every day as the Bar drew closer.

Now I'm working this job that while benign on the surface, is seething with underlying issues that I am required to deal with as the team leader. Every day there are at least 4 little fires that I have to put out, in addition to keeping an eye on supplies, making sure everything runs smoothly for lunch, and dealing with the major personality conflict issues in my room. Not to mention fending off surreptitious assaults by this person on the project who seems to be gunning for my job.

The last couple of days the gym has been my oasis. I have ellipticalled like crazy at the gym for 45 minutes, and then found excuses to run out on little errands here and there for office supplies, or to pick up dinner. I'm still wearing my pedometer and today so far I've managed over 14,000 steps (and the pedometer counts kind of slow when I am on the elliptical, so in reality it's probably closer to 16,000). Plus I'm doing mad speed and burning mad calories on the elliptical.

I figure by the time this job is over at the end of the summer, I may have a few more gray hairs, but with any luck my bum will be hot stuff.

Locker Room Etiquette

So while I'm not completely comfortable with the naked women prancing around the dressing room at the gym, I can deal with that. However, could the lady sitting on the bench that everyone uses please put a towel down in between her bum and the bench? Thank you very much.

Stats

I haven't had a chance to update my stats in a few weeks so imagine my disappointment when I weighed myself and I had only lost one pound. Boo. However, that was tempered by the fact that I've lost a little more than 3 inches in the past few weeks. Woo hoo!

Last week's workouts:
Monday - 20 minutes of weights, 20 minutes on the elliptical
Tuesday - 30 minutes on the elliptical
Wednesday - 3 mile walk
Thursday - 35 minutes on the elliptical

I was going to go to the gym yesterday, but after working 13 hours on Friday, I was just bone tired. However, the bet between me, A and J starts this week, so I'll be at the gym at least 4 times a week from now on.

Someone Ate My Entire Pie!

Because I listen to my iPod while I'm coding documents at work, I've become progressively more sick and tired of the majority of my music. I can't sit here and code in silence, though. That would drive me nuts. So last weekend I went on a podcast search and discovered the wealth of podcasts that is npr.org. Not only do they have podcasts of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, which my dad and I used to listen to while running errands on the weekends, but they have topical podcasts as well.

For instance, this morning I was listening to a medical call-in show out of Monterey, CA, and heard an interesting snippet about rimonabant, a cannabinoid blocker that supposedly helps with weight loss. That's right, cannabinoid - as in, cannabis. As in pot. (And now I've just opened myself up to all sorts of crazy google hits).

Apparently researchers noticed that when you smoke pot, you get the munchies. You don't say. I've never smoked pot myself (and I'm not just saying that in a Clinton, I never inhaled kind of way, although I have been around it and have determined that the whole "contact high" thing is not true at all), but everyone knows about the munchies. So the researchers thought, "I wonder why that happens?" because they're researchers and they get grants and things for thinking like that. They determined that we have receptors in our brains that respond to pot in a way that makes us hungry.

So they tried to figure out how to block the aptly named cannabinoid receptors and came up with rimonabant. Not only did the subjects lose weight, but they also had better cholesterol and insulin levels than people who lost the same amount of weight without rimonabant.

Of course there are side effects, and if the subjects were taken off the drug, they tended to re-gain, but I wonder if this could be a serious option for severely obese people who don't necessarily want to go the surgery route. I also wonder if the drug is taken in conjunction with a food and exercise plan, that the good habits developed would maintain the weight loss after the individual stops taking the drug.

Walkies

Saturday I bought myself a pedometer. Although there are some negative reviews on Amazon, I quite like it. For one, it keeps track of all sorts of stuff: steps, distance, calories. Two, I don't think it's that hard to use (like some reviewers thought), you just have to be willing to read through the instructions and get it set up. Three, it's teeny-tiny and clips on my waistband very easily and is not obvious at all. Well except I keep raising the hem of my shirt to show people at work because I think it's so nifty. One of my co-workers is jealous and may get one herself.

I've actually wanted a pedomenter for a long time. I like the idea of tracking my movement throughout the day to see what I'm doing, even when I'm basically sitting at a desk for 12 hours. Apparently 10,000 steps a day is a good goal for overall health. Yesterday I walked 11,600. Woo hoo.

Plus,I've been to the gym both yesterday and today. I have the sore triceps to prove it.

3x

After signing up on Tuesday, I went to the gym Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I'm wrapping up my 70-hour work week and, no, I won't be going to the gym today. Me and two of my co-workers joined this gym and we're starting a challenge. J wants to go 5 times a week, I want to go at least 4, and A wants to go 3. Whoever doesn't make their number has to take the others out to dinner. The challenge is on starting next week since we all just signed up this week.

Working out has been a great way to break up my 12-hour days. Wake up at 5:45 AM, get to work at 7 AM, go to the gym from 3:00-4:30 PM, come back and work until 8:30. Then I take the train home and fall down on the floor asleep at 10:30 or 11. No, actually I usually make it to the bed. Working out gives me that push to get through the rest of my work day doing the most mind-numbing work in the world (document review). I'm very, very glad to have a job, but I will be even gladder when I find a real job.

So far I've been doing the elliptical at the gym. My calves have been yelling at me since I started, not understanding this exertion I'm asking of them. I love the elliptical. Someday I'd really like to buy my own and be able to work out whenever and without having to traipse to the gym. Someday if I ever live somewhere for more than a few months.

My gym has a program at certain times of the day where you can have a trainer get you set up on all of the weight machines. I've done them all before, but it would be nice to get a precise program for myself and know exactly where I should be putting the seat, etc. I tried to do this Friday, but the trainer didn't stay as long as he was supposed to. I didn't know this and in my attempt to find someone to help me, I bumped into the sales rep who signed me up on Tuesday. He looked for the guy and then told me that since he was gone, that I should come back on Monday and he would personally set me up with the training manager to give me a special session. Nice!

All in all, I like the gym, except for there's no changing room for getting dressed after my shower. My co-worker A and I have discussed at length how it's great that some women are so comfortable prancing around naked, but we do not fall into that category. And she's a teeny person, so apparently this isn't just an effect of my extra poundage.

When I told Jason about the women prancing around naked in the locker room he asked, "And how can I get in on this?"

The Long Hours and the Gym

Well, I'm on my 3rd 12-hour day. I worked 10 hours Monday because I flew in from Boston, but Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have been 12 hours. I don't know if I can keep up 72 hours a week consistently, but maybe I can do a couple of 72-hour weeks, followed by one 60-hour week for a break. Who ever thought 60 hours would be a break?

I had my splurge day for May a little early. Today. It's only been about 4 days since my April splurge day and it's only the 3rd day of May! Usually with our catered lunch we get lots of different desserts and after the first few days of that I discovered it was very easy to turn my nose up at them and feel good about myself for resisting. I snagged a few of them at the end of last week and nibbled at them on my splurge day during the 24 hours between Saturday night and Sunday night. You know what I discovered? They're not all that. It was just my crazy, sugar-hyped brain that told me the kind of bland chocolate chip cookie bar was absolutely what I needed more than anything else ever in the world. Though I also had some Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mint ice cream on Saturday night and that was totally worth it.

Today at work as a little treat the staffing agency brought in a vendor who made fresh little waffle dishes and put ice cream and a myriad of toppings on them. When I first heard this would be happening I was bound and determined to not have any. But seriously, how often does this happen? Um, never. Plus, ice cream is my Achilles heel. I can resist most any sweet, but ice cream is ALWAYS a temptation. (If Baskin Robbins ever reintroduced Chocolate Raspberry Truffle I'd be a goner).

So I had a little waffle dish with two scoops of very rich chocolate ice cream, a little brownie square, bananas and chocolate sprinkles. And it was good. SO good.

But no more sugar for the month of May!

I also joined the gym on Tuesday and I worked out yesterday and today in the middle of my workday. Go me!

Comments

So I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I've changed my comments settings to only allow registered users to comment. I had a run in with a troll, and, like a dummy, I took the bait and responded to her/his criticisms. My response resulted in another nasty comment. So I just deleted the whole chain and was then criticized for not backing up my words and for only needing positive feedback because I'm so insecure.

Whatever.

Basically, I just don't like the antagonism and the meanness. I started my other blog to keep up with friends and family and just to talk about what's going on in my life. I started this blog to be accountable for my weight loss efforts. Basically, I do the best I can in my life, just like everyone, and I am just tired of trolls hiding behind the cloak of anonymity.

You can always email me if you want to make a comment, but don't want to register. But if someone is just mean for no reason, I'm not falling to that level anymore, so don't expect a reply.

Gym?

So I may be joining a gym downtown. Here's the thing: in an effort to make the original deadline on this project, the firm has upped our possible hours to 105 per week. For those of you wondering, that's 15 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Yeah, we won't be doing that. And when I say "we" I mean "I".

However, I would like to try to make 72 hours - 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. If the job does end on June 1 like they're shooting for, I need to save save save for my move back to Boston and to pay off debt and to live and such. The problem with working, say, 7 AM to 7 PM is that I'll be famished and tired when I get home and may want to punch Denise Austin's perky self, even as I feel dissatisfied with the workout she's giving me.

So this guy I work with went to check out a nearby gym this afternoon. He came back raving about the sign-up deal they have going on right now. I called the rep and set up an appointment to meet with him tomorrow.

If I join the gym my plan would be to be at work from 7 AM to 8 PM and to take an hour off at around 3 PM to go work out. Then the endorphins will keep me going until 8 PM when I will go home and collapse on my bed for a good night's sleep. Good plan, yes?

Another plus is that the gym corporation owns several clubs in Boston too so I could probably just transfer up there when I move (which is something I'll find out tomorrow). I'm excited about the possibility of getting in a regular afternoon workout and being able to mix it up and keep myself continually challenged. Plus it will get me out of this basement office for an hour a day.