Day 2/7

Mood: Content

Well, its been a successful day 2 of my little 7 day challenge.

Weight Watchers Points Used: 33
Weekly Remaining: 42
Exercise: 3.52 mile run @ 11:47 pace

Today's inspiration from pinterest:

7 day challenge

Mood: Anxious

Weight: 190

Slight gain this week, which wouldn’t be a big deal if I had six more months.  Of course, as I’ve covered ad nasuem, I do not.  So, here’s what I propose to myself: the 7-day challenge.  

Over the next seven days, I will workout EVERY DAY.  This will be a challenge because the next seven days include travel days and a weekend in St. Louis with my dear friend Katie.  No matter, I will overcome.   I will also stick to my weightwatchers allocation for the week with NO exceptions. 

If she can do it, so can I.

Today is day 1. 

Weight watchers points used: 38  

Weekly points remaining: 43

Workout: 1 mile swim

See you tomorrow…

I love LA

Weight: 198

Mood: Peaceful

I finally get to spend three straight days in Los Angeles (thank you Memorial Day!).  I spent a lot of the day trying to get the house in order, since we moved in weeks ago and haven't fully unpacked.  Finally, however, I decided that it was time to go for a run.  I am very, very glad that I did.

Sometimes among the hustle and bustle of life, it is easy to forget just what a beautiful place I live in.  I started out down the palm tree-lined boulevards towards the beach.  I ran toward the mini-boardwalk at Washington boulevard and turned down the beach path towards Venice beach.  It was twilight, and the beach view was simply spectacular.  I had to turn around and veer off of the beach earlier than planned because the winds were causing a mini-sandstorm.  The detour, however, led me into a mini nature reserve which was full of plant life and little birds.  The reserve had a trail that winds along Ballona creek and eventually landed me back near my neighborhood.  It was only a three mile run and it was glorious. 

I think I'll do it again tomorrow.

Hrmph

To follow-up on yesterday's post -- I went out to dinner with colleagues instead of working out last night, and then failed to get up this morning to go for a run.  I don't know what's wrong with me!!  I understand the equation (Diet+Exercise=Skinny), so why oh why do I let the evil morning demon prevail?  This is not a rhetorical question -- I really don't know the answer.

Time is flying (and so am I)

Current Weight: 191

Mood: Anxious

Not too much to report I’m afraid.  I started traveling for work two weeks ago and have found it very difficult to eat well and exercise (so far my team seems so subside on pizza and bbq).  That said, I’ve kept my weight about steady, which is kind of impressive (considering).

With that miniscule back-pat out of the way, however, we can turn to the more relevant topic of conversations – HOW-THE-HELL-AM-I-GOING-TO-LOSE-30-POUNDS-IN-THE-NEXT-THREE-AND-A-HALF-MONTHS?!?!?!

The last two weeks just blew by.  Based on my experience with this project to-date, I can expect to spend the next 6-8 weeks with approximately the following routine:

-          Leave LA Sunday afternoon, arrive Kansas City close to midnight.  Get to hotel between 12-1

-          Work M-Th 8am-7pm, followed by team dinner  (unless I ditch to go run)

-          Fly home Thurs night, arrive LA around midnight

-          Work in LA on Friday

-          Sleep Saturday

-          Repeat

I’ll be eating all meals out Monday through Thursday, and probably most of the weekend unless I can find time to squeeze in meal planning and grocery shopping sometime over the weekend.  This definitely kicks the challenge up a notch.  I’m starting to feel a bit frightened about it – it’s a lot of weight and it will be tough to just sustain weight under my current schedule.  I’ll be happy if I can lose even just 20 pounds, but that is still a lot of work ahead.  The status quo is simply not acceptable – I still have so much arm fat!

What I need is a plan (a good one).  Its going to need to start with finding the inner strength to get up in the morning and exercise before work.  After work the whole team goes out to dinner every night, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to skip out on every dinner.  The only way to get regular exercise in will be to overcome the evil morning demon that traps me under the soft covers every morning.  This significantly easier said than done.  My morning demon is very persistent.

Food will be another hurdle.  Like it or not, group meals are a hugely important part a career in consulting.  I can’t just hermit up and eat smart ones alone in my hotel room.  I’ve been trying to order well, but even so you never quite know what you’re getting.  I will have to just trust in my weight watchers entry estimates and log EVERYTHING – no more skipping logging on weekends.  This is the home stretch baby.

I find myself thinking about what Eric says to me when I’m being difficult or unreasonable (me? never).  He’ll cock his head to the side, smile at me, and say, ‘so what you’re saying is that you want your way and you want it now?.’

That is how I feel.  I want my way: I want to lose every one of those thirty pounds and have a body that I’m proud of on my wedding day.  I also want to ‘knock it out of the park’ with the new job – put in the most hours, get the most done, put in the time at team events.  I also want to enjoy the millions of events planned this summer – weddings, bachelorette parties, showers, birthdays, etc – which will be havens for ravenous behavior.  I want all of that – and I want it now.  Sometimes it just sucks not being able to have it all.

Whew, enough whinning.  These are all first-world problems.  At the end of the day I am a healthy young woman with a great job whose parents are throwing her a big, beautiful wedding.  Now if I can only be a skinny, healthy young woman….