Weigh-In #10

Well ... no loss this week. In fact, a small gain, 1/2 a pound. I did actually hit a new low (Sunday morning) ... right before the challenges of this week started. Sunday of course, is always hard for me. If I can't offset with exercise, I almost always go over my calories. The rest of the week was just super busy with uber activities every evening, and I wasn't feeling great (knee pain, tooth pain, headache ... just dragging).  

It was a few weeks ago, on Weigh-In #7 that I first gleefully posted the 23 pound loss on my MFP ticker. At this point, while I'm glad it is at least still there, I was REALLY hoping for a change. Come on 24, 25 ...

Weekly Weigh-In #7 (08/30) 157.1

Weekly Weigh-In #8 (09/06) 157.6

Weekly Weigh-In #9 (09/13) 156.1

Today ............................... 157.1

I don't know if I really consider this a plateau ... IS this a plateau?
I'm certainly not trying to maintain at this point. I'm not there yet!

According to my numbers, I had a weekly deficit of 4865 calories. More than enough that I SHOULD have registered a loss.  I had one day over calories (on Sunday), mostly decent days (with my 500 deficit), and one bigger deficit day (Tuesday). I have seemed to notice that unless I get in a few BIG deficit days (1000-1500 deficit) I don't seem to lose. And it seems best if those big deficit days are the ones right before weigh-in (so Wednesday and Thursday). I was really struggling these past couple days, so I'm not super surprised there wasn't a loss. The small dip to 155 during the week does give me hope though ... that is the benefit of weighing in everyday I think. I can see there ARE changes, I just need to hang onto them. On a good note, there was NO bump up to the 160s on the chart above (which is a first in a while) ... so I'll focus on the positive of that!

A friend recommended also taking the average for the week ...  here's how the averages have changed in the past several weeks.  160.1, 159.4, 158.5, 158.6 ... and last week 156.5. So THAT shows a change. *Ü*

A Bit Bruised

I know traditional bike riding, whether it be street or mountain, has inherent dangers. A helmet to protect your head is a necessity. You must watch for cars, other bikes, people and try not to wipe out, as the results could be very damaging, even if you aren't at top speed. But a stationary bike ... that's completely safe, right?

I posted a picture of what my bike looks like in a previous post (here). There are small arms extended on the sides of the seat, just to give you a different position to hold your hands while riding. As I was getting off the bike on Tuesday, I stepped over, but my right leg was still there by the bike. I then lost my balance (it was quite unexpected, I'm usually fairly coordinated) and started to topple over. Luckily/UNluckily ... my leg caught on the arm there. OUCH. I would have rather just fallen down. I know, it isn't a terrible injury, but it hurt, and it did impact my workouts yesterday a bit. I was just off.

My #2 son still wins the award for "best bruise" in our family ...

 He was doing a flip on his bike.

The bike rammed into his thigh.

Hubby is  a close contender ...

This is not really a bruise.

He ruptured his Achilles Tendon.

That wasn't a pleasant experience.

At least no one was around to witness my lovely dismount ... the bruising doesn't need to extend to my ego. I need to be more careful though ... those stationary bikes can be dangerous too!

... a little OCD

I've been trying to incorporate a little more running (ok ... jogging, my measly 5mph pace can't really be considered running) into my exercise routine. Running/Jogging is NOT my favorite exercise. Running requires me to wear shoes, I hate shoes ... I wear slippers for my elliptical and stationary bike.  But I've committed to trying to run one whole mile each day, without stopping. You read that right, a WHOLE mile. Without. Stopping. 

So ... the other day I actually went above and beyond. An additional 1/4 mile. Aren't you impressed? As I hit the 1.25 number for mileage, I figured I'd continue for just a few moments more to get a nice round number for my time.15 minutes. But then I noticed the calories ... 194. Hmmmm. I probably should keep going until that hits 200, right? A nice round number. But then the time would be an odd number, and the mileage would be even odder. WHAT TO DO??? An OCD moment. I wonder, if I just kept going, would the numbers ever line up so that all three were nice, even numbers? Or something ending in a 5 or a 0 ... you know what I mean, right? I'm not the only one ... am I?

I called it at the 15 minutes (I'll just drop those extra five seconds when I write down my numbers). I think my machine is over-estimating on the calories anyway (HRM and Fitbit were closer to 125 calories).

• Do you feel the need to finish a workout with a round number? If so, which number count is most important to you? Time, Distance or Calories ... Do you round your numbers or keep them exact?
• Weigh-In on this topic with a comment below, and post your own weighty topic for this week's Weigh In Wednesday link up.
• Check out Skinny Meg's Workout Wednesday for links to other bloggers and their workouts. Any other OCD exercisers out there?

Sunday Brunch

Hubby and I haven't gone out on a nice date for a bit.  As we didn't have duties in church today, he suggested going to Sunday Brunch. This is a very rare treat for us. We had hit the one at Little America a few times, but it was no longer being served. We thought we'd try the one at the Grand America Hotel. Here's a glimpse at the menu (here). 

The ambiance was very nice ... a small trio playing music, cloth napkins and tablecloths, good service. The food was pretty good, I stuck to the breakfast basics (some pancakes, bacon, a croissant). Hubby enjoyed the crepe station and omelet station and tried the prime rib and lamb. Neither of us are big seafood fans (especially cold), so the lobster, crab and shrimp didn't really temp us. Hubby had some cheesecake for dessert, I tried some chocolate cake, but it had a fruit filling (I don't like fruit IN anything). I did indulge in some hot chocolate with whipped cream.

Now ... when paying $45 a person, it is tempting to eat more just to attempt to get your monies worth. Today, I set all thoughts of the cost aside. I was there to enjoy the day with hubby. I didn't worry overly about calories, but I don't think I went overboard (I actually probably eat more at a simple buffet with fried chicken, mashed potatoes, rolls and soft serve ice cream!). Just for fun, hubby checked what my calories for the meal were (937 estimated) ... so 5¢ per calorie! I don't think we'll be back. The brunch at Little America was a better experience (and a tad less expensive)... I'm so sad they shut it down.

Back at home ... the children still expected to be fed (can you believe that? I wasn't hungry anymore).  We actually do a large breakfast/brunch every Sunday. Belgian waffles, bacon, hash browns. I went ahead and made it for the kidlets.  It is one of my challenges every Sunday, because I do like breakfast items!  Yum. Another Sunday tradition is Homemade Oreos (recipe is HERE on my family blog if you want it)... I guess I'll be making them tonight. I probably won't be able to resist eating them.

• Is there a particular day of the week that is consistently harder for you to keep calories in check?
• How do you handle eating out at buffets?

Magazine Musings & Paper Ponderings

As I mentioned in my Mucho Magazines post ... I'm trying to make my way through my backlog of magazines. I'm not expecting any profound words of wisdom or extraordinary insights, but as I'm reading, I often come across a tidbit or two I think I might want to remember or post here to get feedback from any of you. 

• Gummy Vitamins: I've seen the gummy vitamins in the stores and I've purchased them for my little ones, but I have wondered about the "adult" gummies. I guess I'm just not a big fan ... I'll eat the occasional fruit snacks, but I'm pretty picky (I really only like the cherry ones). I'd much rather just swallow a pill then have to chew something. And in gummy form, they might temp children. We did have an issue once where my young son consumed an entire package of vitamins (they were a "melt on your tongue" kind) ... luckily he suffered no ill effects. What do you think of the adult gummy vitamin trend? (Prevention June 2013 or online  HERE).
• Shredded Cheese: Also in the June 2013 Prevention there was a little blurb about shredded cheese (online here). Now it seems like I've heard that it's better to buy the block of cheese and shred it yourself ... that what ever is put on it to keep all the pieces from sticking together make it harder to melt evenly. This says it's not good for you either (which really isn't a stretch if you think about it, additives seldom are). Pre-shredded cheese is convenient, but I do have a handy food processor. 
• Presyncope:  Presyncope is that wooziness, when you feel like you are going to pass out (if you do actually pass out, it's called syncope.) I had issues during three of my pregnancies (2,3,4). I did pass out with #2 and was practically homebound with #4 (I just didn't dare go anywhere, I didn't want to pass out behind the wheel of a car!) Luckily my issues seemed to resolve once I had the babies. My oldest son however has troubles with this quite often, and has actually passed out a few times. We had discussed it with his doctor, with basically the same information given in this article (Prevention  February 2013 or online HERE).  
• Cool Hands: In the October 2012 Women's Health there was a little blip about a study on a "cooling glove" which would chill your hands, sending cool blood back to the heart. The results of the study indicated increased speed, lower blood pressure and inches lost. There is a specific product (Cool Point hand cooler ... not great reviews on Amazon, sounds like people expect immediate results whereas the study seemed to indicate more long run effectiveness) or you could simply carry cold water bottles.  Huh ... wonder if that works! (WH didn't have this portion online, but I Googled it and found the study HERE). 
• Food Traps: Normally, articles addressing anything food related don't relate much to me and my eating issues, but I liked this article in the September 2013 Fitness (actually reading a current magazine!) Nothing really profound or new, but just some nice reminders that relate to most everyone. If  you have a minute give it a read ...
• Love Languages: While the main focus of most of these magazines is either fitness or food related, there are other articles too. In Prevention's July 2013 there was a truncated version of Gary Chapman's Five Love Languages. This really is an interesting concept when looking at your relationships. My mother gives out the full book to couples as wedding presents. If you haven't read it, it's worth checking out.

In the local newspaper I noticed a couple of interesting articles as well ...

• Walking and Working: This was an AP article picked up by my paper and many others (when I looked online, one is HERE) discussing treadmill desks or other "moving workstations".  Very interesting.  I have tried reading while on my treadmill (but reading while on the stationary bike is easier).  I wonder how hard it is to type or do actual WORK while walking ... 
• Kid's Summer Fitness Loss:  Another article in my paper I was also able to locate online (here). Personally, I think MY kids move more in the summer than they do during the school year (I even got a Fitbit for my 14-year old to track his steps. There were some days of too much tv/video games, but many days he'd be active for hours and would beat me in steps ... which is rather hard to do!).  I'll have to gather and graph all his data and double check!

I'll probably have some similar posts in the future as I continue to work through my backlog of magazines ...

Have you read any interesting articles lately?
Do you have any thoughts on these topics?

Pin It Party

I'm ALWAYS a little late coming to the party! Email was out for ages before I finally got set up. Blogging, Facebook ... going digital (in cameras and books), I'm slow to adapt to the latest changes and trends. Pinterest had a strong presence, and I was aware of it, but didn't get sucked in until last year. But I do love Pinterest, and thought I'd participate in a Pin It Party hosted by The Lean Green Bean (here).  It's just a fun way to highlight some of your favorite posts, and to check out what other bloggers think is pin worthy.

Here are my five favorite (pin worthy?) posts ...

 Wondering About a Fitbit?

 I'm a fan of the Fitbit activity tracker.

Check out this post to read all about it and see if it's right for you.

Reaping the Rewards

Fitness is its own reward, but if you want a little extra kick back ...

Several charitable options as well.

30 Day Shred

A quick, printable overview of the exercises.

Setting a Streak

An inexpensive app to help you keep track and motivate.

Weighing in on Graphs

The same numbers (i.e. your changing weight), presented slightly different ways can look completely different. Before you get discouraged with your weight loss, remember a lot of it is how you look at it!

I've seen some handy dandy "Pin It" buttons appearing on some blogs, and if you hover over my images you can see that I've incorporated that into my blog for this post. I didn't think I'd be able to figure it out, but there was a nice tutorial HERE which helped me out. 

Are you on Pinterest?

 Do you have some pinnable posts on your blog?

Weekly Weigh-In #9

Down .9 pounds from last week. I wasn't sure it was going to happen. The dreaded "160s" reappeared Monday morning after the bad weekend (over calories both Saturday and Sunday). That was THREE pounds up from last Friday's weigh-in. Yikes!  I had a couple other "normal" days (deficit of 500) and then three days with a larger deficit, where I actually kept calorie intake down (under 2000 anyway). Total deficit for the week (according to my calculations) was 5124. I would have liked to see a whole pound, but after not losing last week, I'm just happy to see it go down at all!

My MFP ticker is showing 23 (same as two weeks ago).  I'll try to shift that this week.  Continuing to plug along.

My First 5k

Another "Throwback Thursday" post ... this picture was taken four years ago in 2009. It was a family 5k, organized by my cousin raising funds for MLD (you can read her website here.) It was a great event ... not just my little family, but my dad, brothers, their kids, all my cousins, aunts and uncles ... when I say it was a family 5k, it was a LOT of family. There was a lot of community support too.

I had never done a 5k before. I didn't do any real training. I had been walking a ton, jogging some. Hubby and the two older boys took off from the start. Yes, even pushing the two little ones in the stroller, hubby left me in the dust. #3 was on his scooter, and he was the perfect pacer for me (in fact, I probably would have stopped to walk a few times, but I didn't want to let him out of my sight).  Fairly close to the end, I came upon #1 son sitting by the side of the road. He had pushed too hard and run out of steam. He commandeered the scooter, and #3 finished jogging the race with me. #2 finished easily, at a very competitive pace for his young age (and he totally beat me!). This was a fairly casual race, no exact times, but I think I came in around 38 minutes, which is much faster than I had ever done three miles on my own. It's hard not to catch the fever and adrenaline with a bunch of people running together.

It was a really good experience. I totally wanted to do it again. I even looked up some local races and talked about it with hubby ... but it never happened. Saturdays are just busy with sports (the bigger boys play basketball, the little boys play soccer). I've got some anxiety issues with crowds and driving new places. I just didn't MAKE it happen.

So I am officially putting it on my "to do" list again ...

Treadmill Time

I know a LOT of people call it the "DREADmill" and prefer running/walking in the great outdoors. I however, am an inside exerciser ... so the treadmill is a great piece of equipment for me.  I don't have to worry about dogs, or weather, and I can go five miles and still only be one minute away from home (good for "mom" emergencies, but that does also make it easy to quit).

A treadmill was the first machine we had in J&G's gym (that and the weights). Back in the day, the gym was really just G's gym, as I (the "J" of that equation) never stepped foot in there. That all changed back in 2006 ... I started walking on the treadmill, and I walked a LOT. I'd up the incline (it went up to 14!) and I'd walk backwards (it had long arms for stabilizing). I had 30+ playlists on my ipod, to match my mood. I walked and I walked ... until one day my treadmill stopped. I had walked it into the ground.

We called a repairman, but it was not able to be fixed.  We got the HR 550i (pictured above) as a replacement.  It's been fine. It doesn't feel quite as sturdy as my original. It only has an incline up to 10 and no long arms. It does fold up to save space, which is a nice option ... but we are lucky enough to have enough room that we rarely need to do that.

I have to admit, since we added the elliptical to J&G's gym, my treadmill has been a bit neglected. As I've gotten revamped for weight-loss, I've also been jumping on the stationary bike more too... but now it's treadmill time again.  The other day, I turned on the treadmill and committed to running (jogging) a WHOLE mile without stopping. That's right, an entire mile! I did it, and I've been doing it almost daily. I'm not following any specific C25K plan or anything, but I do think that (a 5k) is the goal. I did one once, and I'd like to do one again.

Check out this link for some funny treadmill gifs ...

It's good for a little laugh *Ü*

How do you feel about the treadmill?

Check out Skinny Meg's Workout Wednesday for other bloggers ideas.

Post on your blog and share what YOU have been up to lately.

Also ... on the Runs For Cookies blog, there is a nice post with 50 Running Tips, with everything from shoes to some specific tips for treadmill time. I definitely agree with the one about having a fan blowing on you. Of course that pretty much goes for ALL my exercises down in my gym.  I thought there was some good information there.

Canker

I am quite healthy, and very thankful for that fact. One reoccurring issue I do deal with is canker and cold sores. I've suffered from them for as long as I can remember. I HATE cold sores, as they not only hurt, but they look terrible too.  At least canker sores are in the mouth and not visible ... except for that rare occasion when they form on the outer lip. I'm dealing with this currently. Now the canker is still no where near as ugly as a cold sore, it's really not that noticeable... but on the outside of the lip it's even more painful than when it's in. When my top lip connects (as lips are bound to do) it creates a suction, which is then painfully pulled apart the next time I open my mouth. This dang canker has really interfered with sleep, eating (anything salty getting in it literally makes me dance around) and even exercise. I usually have a fan blowing on me, and it gets dried out and painful. I've had to keep lip balm stocked at each exercise station (elliptical, treadmill and bike) and at various locations around the house, car and purse. And of course ... it interferes with kissing too!

I know, it's a minor complaint compared to the issues and injuries so many have to deal with. Like I said, I am very grateful for my health. I'll also be VERY happy when my mouth is back to normal!