Temptations

It's very interesting to see how often I am confronted with temptations to stray from my healthy path (that I've been on for 2 whole days and don't want to blow. Again). I had to go to a dinner meeting for work last night. I figured that I wouldn't eat much while I was there and would wait to have dinner until I got home, but when I realized the meeting was going to stretch out to a couple of hours, I knew I had to eat at least some of the dinner. I passed on the bread basket, the giant pile of rice on my dinner plate, and the berry shortcake dessert. I did eat a salad, a salmon filet, and wilted spinach*.

I actually made a grab for the bread initially without even thinking. I believe that's what they call mindless eating.

It's tough to keep up a healthy eating plan when life interferes. When I have strict control over all of my meals and snacks and can take the time to cook, it's easy to stay on the right path. Socializing or working late or any other little glitch in the plan can really mess up the eating goals.

This time last week I would have eaten all of those high-carb, sugary dishes with relish. I have determined that I need a little restriction with regard to my eating or I just go hog wild. Jason even commented recently on my lack of self-control, and you know it's bad if he notices. Usually I'm just his partner in crime with regard to eating tasty treats, but he knows I'm happier when I'm exercising, eating well, and not gaining weight. And in order for me to do that, I have to impose restrictions on myself. Otherwise I can TOTALLY justify eating ice cream every day.

*Although I have issues with cooked spinach (penicillin allergy plus creamed spinach equals trauma for the REST OF YOUR LIFE). There is a fine line between wilted and cooked. Some of that spinach stayed on the plate.

Here We Go Again

In an effort to dejunkify my system, I started Phase 1 of South Beach again yesterday. It reminded me that, oh right, I like vegetables. Particularly this, touted as the best broccoli ever. Jason and his sister agree that it's an apt description. I have an egg, sausage and mushroom breakfast casserole to see me through a week of breakfasts, and a series of yummy-sounding meals lined up for the rest of the days.

Maybe it's all in my head, but I feel better already.

Also, my body is finally well and I went swimming this morning. And now I am very, very sore. I feel like such a weakling. By my last few laps, I could barely get my arms out of the water. So this is what muscle atrophy feels like.

However, my Y is doing a swim-a-thon this Saturday and I signed up to swim for an hour. I donated $10 per half hour to swim and I can get donations from other people. The money is going to the Y's Financial Assistance Fund, which provides assistance for programs and services to those who can't afford it. Since the Y is on the edge of a semi-ghetto neighborhood, there are a lot of after-school programs and such to help kids. So if any of you who know me in real life would like to donate, let me know. You can donate either per lap or a flat amount.

Why Does My Body Hate Me So SO Much?

Saturday night I got a headache. It continued through the night and all day yesterday. I came home early from church to lay like a lump on the loveseat. I went out with Jason and his sister for an excursion to take pictures at the state capital, but after about 30 minutes outside walking around, I felt kind of sway-ey and like maybe I might possibly throw up if I didn't sit down really, really soon.

Despite that, I packed my workout bag last night and set my alarm for 6 AM.

At 6 AM, I woke up and my head still hurt. A lot. So I slept for another hour and a half and then finally dragged myself into work where I sat at my desk for a few hours, willing my head not to explode all over my computer and nice new desk lamp. Finally, I came home, grabbed my two-month old prescription for migraine pills and headed for CVS. I had tried over-the-counter remedies, but nothing worked. Usually I can take 3 Excedrin and come out an hour or so later, feeling a little spacey from the caffeine, but mostly headache-free.

I think my migraines are getting worse. I took my prescription pill and went to bed with an ice pack on my head. Two hours later, I woke up with just a little residual aching. I took another pill for good measure. The residual aching is still there, but I don't feel like I'm going to die and/or throw up, so that's a plus.

The point of all of this is, no, I did not go swimming this morning. I'll try again tomorrow.

Plans

Oh, hello there. I've been writing a lot more lately on my other blog because, frankly, there's not much going on in my fitness/weight loss/health world.

That mysterious pain I noted a couple of weeks ago? Cracked rib. At least I'm pretty sure that's what it was since when I described to several people they said that's what it sounded like. So, basically, when I had the flu I coughed so hard that I broke a bone. I didn't bother going to the doctor because they would have just charged me money for an appointment and an x-ray and then said, "Yep. Cracked rib." and maybe have given me prescription pain pills. However, I discovered Alleve and that has made all the difference. This week has been 100 times better than last week, although the last couple of nights the rib has been hurting a bit more again. I blame friends who make me laugh.

If it's still feeling better, I'm going to try to go swimming on Monday. Then Tuesday. Then I'm going to a conference out of town and staying at a nice hotel with a fitness room so maybe I'll go walk on the treadmill or something. If I'm not completely fried from 8 hours of seminars. I'll take my sneakers and my workout clothes and make a valiant effort.

I have been listening to some of my fitness/healthy eating podcasts to try and get motivated and I think "Yes! So true! Absolutely right! Protein! More vegetables!" Then I go eat some ice cream. (Although, I would like to note that the chocolate raspberry ice cream, aka my arch nemesis, is gone now and will only be making occasional appearances in our house in the future).

Seriously, though, we're to the point where all my clothes are getting tight and I hate it. I much preferred it when the jeans were getting loose than that feeling of the fabric straining across my thighs. It's been very frustrating to feel like I can't exercise and do anything about it.

OK, yes, I could have been eating better. I could have been doing SOMEthing. Whatever. This is my blog.

Eating Healthier

This weekend, I sat down with my favorite recipe websites and figured out exactly what we would be having to eat for dinner this week. I thought about the ingredients I already had in the freezer and the pantry and looked up recipes according to those ingredients. I made a list of the main dishes and side dishes and will make whatever ones complement one another the best. Then I went to the grocery store with only about 10 items on my list and now I feel like I have a plan.

I figure this will be much better than my plan of the last few weeks, which has consisted of first, being too sick to care about food, then being too sick to cook food, then having no plan and getting take out every night. Not effective for the healthy eating.

The other part of my plan WAS going to be me getting back in the pool this morning. Sidelined again with some mysterious side/shoulder pain. It started a little over a week ago and aches pretty constantly, then stabs me aggressively whenever I move my arm or my back or my whole torso in certain ways. Or cough or laugh or sneeze. I hiccuped last night and thought I was going to die. A friend speculated last night that maybe I cracked a rib from coughing so hard when I was sick a couple of weeks ago. Jason thinks maybe I pulled a muscle. It's been over a week and it's not getting better. In fact, last night was probably the worst yet as I searched for a comfortable position to fall asleep. I finally contorted my arms and legs just so and it didn't ache anymore. If only I could figure out how to sit at my desk like that.

Anyway, I think I'll wait a couple of more days and if it's still not better, I'll go to the doctor In the meantime, I KNOW I have gained weight - I can feel it and see it - and not being able to do anything about it is driving me nuts.

Meh

I kind of don't care right now. I don't ENJOY the fact that my pants feel a bit tighter and I don't feel as good as I would if I was exercising regularly and eating right, but I'm having a hard time working up the appropriate level of dissatisfaction with myself. Jason pointed out to me last night that even though I can't exercise right now, I could still eat well. Then I asked him how his running program was going and that was the end of the conversation. He has this groovy new watch that will keep track of his running stats and a couple of weekends ago he figured out how to use it, but he hasn't actually gone for a run yet.

However, we're both coughing a lot, though. I was actually hoping to swim last week. And then I was hoping to swim this week. But since walking up two flights of stairs sends me into paroxysms of coughing, working out just isn't happening.

So I could be eating better and at least momentarily staving off weight gain. But like I said above, I'm having a really hard time caring right now. I'm enjoying having a couple Girl Scout cookies with my lunch and eating my fresh-baked cranberry bread.

Yeah, I know, another whiny post about my lack of motivation. I promise as soon as this cough goes away I will be back on the bandwagon. One of the perks of exercising regularly is after I slog through 90 laps, I don't really want to eat a bunch of crap to negate my awesome workout. Funny how that happens.