Frustration

So I’m struggling this week.

I’m getting really frustrated with my scale after such a huge milestone loss last week, I’m terrified I’ll still see the 2’s tomorrow.  I have been steadily gaining weight since that last weigh-in, for no apparent reason.

First, let’s talk about what I did to get into the 100s and my week of perfection; I ate at home for an entire week straight.  I didn’t order any take out, not even a coffee at Dunkin Donuts.  I stayed within 1200-1250 calories every day, and I worked out 6 out of 7 days that week (I took one day off when I stayed home sick from work).  I managed to get in 2 workouts a day for 3 or 4 of those 6 days.  I was a machine, hell bent on perfection so I could see those 100s.

Now let’s talk about this past week.  I had 3 meals that I didn’t cook myself; Friday night I had subway (6” turkey sub with baked lays), Saturday night I had a wedding, and Sunday night in anticipation of our hurricane we ordered take out and I got a grilled chicken salad with feta cheese, oil and vinegar on the side.  Now, all this being said.  Saturday is literally the only day I went over on my calories.  I was super strict on Wednesday and Thursday last week, and yet Thursday morning I was up 1 pound, and by Friday I was up another (yep, doing your math right, back in the 200s L).  Friday I ate subway for dinner but it was well within my calorie range, and I was only at 1309 for the day (not including workout).  I worked out twice on Wednesday, and got in a workout Thursday and Friday morning.  Saturday morning I went to boot camp (which burns close to 800 calories in the hour long class), and I was very diligent all day leading up to the wedding.  I didn’t behave very well at the wedding (drank too much wine, had a second piece of cake, and had a piece of bread) but in the grand scheme of things it shouldn’t be that bad, right? Wrong, up another pound on Sunday.  I got in another hour long workout on Sunday, and although I ate takeout that night (does grilled chicken and salad really count as takeout people!?!?), again well within my calories for the day.  Monday I spent an hour on the treadmill, and was super strict with my calories, with only 1274 total for the day, not including my workout!

So, someone PLEASE PLEASE tell me what the hell is going on.  I mean, I wasn’t “perfect” last week, but with no days over 1350 plus a workout every single day, I should be seeing the scale move down, not up!! At this point, I’d be thrilled to see 198.8 again tomorrow, because at least then I wouldn’t be in the 2s, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen.  I did realize yesterday that my TOM is due within the next couple of days, and I do always tend to gain and get bloated the week before, but this is the sort of week that would normally make me want to give up.  I’ve been working so effing hard, why should one night out mean a 5 pound gain!? Eff me. 

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a few pics from the wedding (yes, they get blurrier as the night goes on, that’s the wine talking!)

 

 

Me pouting because Hubs wouldn't take a picture with me

Yay, he took a picture :)

 

The infamous cake (it was soo sliver thin I don't think a second piece really counts!?)

 

Hope you had a good weekend, and here's hoping tomorrow is better than I think it will be!!

Liebster Award

Wow I guess I must be moving up in the bloggin world...27 followers AND I got nominated for a Liebster Award by 2 different blogs!  Special thanks to Stephanie at http://wannabe-mama.blogspot.com/ and Alicia at http://truesouthernlies.blogspot.com/ for including me!




Winner, Winner! Chicken Dinner!

It looks like this award is for awesome bloggers that have under 200 fans, so this is right up my alley.  I'm not sure I can do everything on this list, but I'll sure try!

• Each Person Tagged Must Post 11 Things About Themselves
• They Must Also Answer The 11 Questions The Tagger Has Set For Them
• They Must Also Create 11 More Questions To Ask Bloggers They Have Tagged
• They Must Choose 11 Bloggers To Tag With Less Than 200 Followers
• These Lucky Bloggers Must Be Told
• There Are No Tag Backs

11 Things About Myself

1. I have a rescue cat named Luna; she has no claws but I promise she came that way!
2. I am an architect by trade, but in addition to blogging I also waitress at a diner on Sundays and make baby headbands that I sell on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePrettyCommittee)
3. I have Crohn's disease. 
4. I have 2 sisters, one older, one younger.  We're all 18 months apart.
5. I lived in NYC (Brooklyn) for 6.5 years for college and a few years after.
6. I was engaged once before I met my now husband...high school sweetheart gone wrong.
7. The hubs and I met playing softball.
8. My parents got divorced after almost 30 years of marriage; I have a pretty strained relationship with my mother for multiple reasons, but we don't talk as of right now.
9. I hate when other people's dogs jump all over me and they don't even try to help (sorry if that makes me a bitch!)
10. I  hate when people where Uggs with shorts!
11. My husband and I filmed a taping of the newlywed show this summer...our episode hasn't aired yet :).

My 11 Questions from Stephanie:
1. What is your favorite television sitcom? Friends
2. What is your favorite drink at Starbucks? Caramel Light Frappuccino
3. What are the three things you would need to not go insane on a deserted island? My phone, my husband and my purple crocodile pumps :)

4. What is your favorite season and why? Fall hands down.  I love the clothes this time of year: sweaters, boots, scarves! Add in Pumpkin flavored anything and I'm hooked!

5. What is your favorite grocery store? Don't have one...shop at Price Chopper for convenience.

6. If you could make out with any actor/actress, who would it be? Jason Statham!!

7. What is your dream ice cream flavor? Mint chocolate chip, my weakness!

8. What is your favorite cardio workout? Kickboxing, though I only do it via my Turbo Jam DVDS

9. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Australia

10. What is your favorite animal? Umm...I guess a cat since I love mine?

11. How has blogging changed your life? It's certainly kept me accountable! It's a lot harder to give up on goals when I know I have a crowd to answer to!

 

My 11 Questions from Alicia:

1. What's the favorite part of your day? After dinner, relaxing on the couch with the hubs.
2. If you were an animal, what would you be? What's with all the animal questions!? I dunno! A giraffe!?
3. Why that animal? Because they can give birth to 150 pounds standing up ;)
4. Favorite thing on TV? Right now Parenthood
5. What is your best childhood memory? Camping with my dad and my sisters
6. What did you want to be when you grew up? An Architect
7. What's your dream vacation? Australia
8. What's your favorite season? Fall (see above)
9. What's your all time favorite movie quote? "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
10. Who are 3 people you would love to have dinner with? Can be living or dead. Frank Lloyd Wright, Tori Amos, My dad's real mother (died when I was 2)
11. What's the best memory you haven't made yet? Seeing my baby for the first time

The Questions For Those I Nominated:

1. What's your favorite accessory?
2. What brand of shampoo do you use?
3. How often do you wash your hair?
4. If you could only use one makeup item, which would it be?
5. What is your favorite song to work out to?
6. What do you wish you could change about your ever day schedule?
7. What's your favorite color?
8. What's your favorite holiday?
9. How many days a week do you exercise (average) and for how long?
10. Who's your celebrity crush?
11. Up to this point, what was the best day of your life?

The Nominees Are...
Brandi at http://findingthehealthywithin.blogspot.com/
Ashleigh at http://www.life-inbloom.com/
Lauren at http://missionskinnypants.blogspot.com/
Sam at http://momonamission2bhealthy.blogspot.com/
Alisha at http://inprogressforgood.blogspot.com/
Erin at http://www.shesabigstar.com/
Paige at http://sayingnotocookies.blogspot.com/
Natty at http://longtallnatty.blogspot.com/


And...that's all I've got.  Sorry it's not 11 nominees, and sorry if you've already been nominated (and feel free to ignore this altogether if you wish)! Hope you have fun with this!

xoxo
-K

Whelp...it wasn't pretty

So last week I mentioned I was going to sign myself up for a 5k this past Saturday.  By Thursday of last week, my sort-of cold had turned into a full blown hacking cough, complete with drippy nose and sore throat (just in time for my "week of perfection", great!). 

I decided to play Saturday by ear; I ended up taking a sick day on Friday to stay home and rest all day, and didn't exercise at all (is it weird that this made me feel guilty!?).  I woke up from my NyQuil coma on Saturday feeling a bit refreshed, and felt like I was well enough to give this 5k a go.

I got there early to sign up (I was afraid to sign up earlier given my cold situation).  It was a gorgeous fall day, and actually much warmer than I anticipated.

 

I was lined up pretty early, so I had a volunteer snap a picture of me before the start.

 



 

The race started at 10am, and I found myself a little too close to the front of the pack; I'm a slow runner, so I typically like to hang towards the back so I don't get in the way of the more serious runners.  I started off strong, but I realized very quickly that I was going too fast to keep up with the stronger runners; after only about a minute I hit a hill and my pace slowed down quite a bit, to the point where I felt like everyone participating in the race had passed me.  I could see a few people running ahead, but I was basically alone!

 

Yeah remember how I said I felt well enough to run? Well my mucous coated lungs disagreed, and this freakin' hill was not helping.  And there was no end in sight.  Every time I looked up there was more and more hill.  I pushed as far as I could, but eventually I felt that if I didn't stop to walk I was probably going to pass out from lack of air, and this damn hill wasn't going anywhere.  So I walked.  And it made it that much harder to start running again.  Turns out the first 2.5 miles of this effing race were UPHILL.  Who the hell does that? And who the hell would've thought a reservoir run would be UP FREAKIN HILL? I was expecting a flat run around the water, not this shit! 

 

So yes, I walked.  I ran when I could, but I felt like it just wasn't worth it to push myself to the point of passing out when I knew my lungs were not at full capacity.  I managed to run the last half mile or so (mostly because it started going downhill at this point!) and according to my runkeeper, I pushed myself to finish with a pace close to a 9 min mile (what!?!), but all that walking cost me, and my official time wasn't pretty.  Here's the stats from my run keeper app:

(PS, 3.4 miles!? I don't know why, but I sort of believe my app, there was a lot of winding trails we ran through and it felt wayyy longer than the 3.1 I've done at home!)

My official time on active.com is 41:43, 13:26 pace, finished 65 out of 93 total, and 12th out of 18 in my age group.  I'm not exactly proud of this time or pace, but I am really proud that I pushed myself to do this even though I wasn't feeling 100%.  In the past, an illness like this would have given me an excuse to lay on the couch for weeks on end because I'd be "too sick" to exercise, and I'd be stuffing my face with comfort foods because I felt sorry for myself.  Not this time though! I'm hoping to run another 5k in a few weeks or so when my lungs are back to normal, but I'm going to be careful about my runs this week to make sure my lungs have enough time to heal.

How'd your weekend go?
xoxo
-K

 

Quickie

Just wanted to pop in quickly to share a few small pieces of (what I find) exciting news.

First, for the past 2 days in a row, I’ve had 2 separate people tell me that can tell I’m losing weight.  One was my husband (ok, maybe he doesn’t count as much) and the other was my co-worker, a guy in his early 40s that is not the most observant person I’ve ever met, so needless to say I was excited!

Sure maybe that co-worker noticed because he's part of the exercise challenge at work, but I'll take it!  We’re officially halfway through that challenge at work, and looking back at my chart, I realized that I got in at least 30 minutes of exercise for 33 of the last 35 days; I’m pretty proud of that!

 

Last, but not least, I’ve been asked to do a guest blog! Stephanie, over at www.wannabe-mama.blogspot.com is going through a similar journey, and wants me to share my story and why I want to lose weight BEFORE having a baby.  I’m going to have to take some time with this one, it’s an important story to share and I want to make sure I do it justice.  I’ll keep you posted!

xoxo

-K

Manic Mondays

It’s Monday, and it’s sort of rainy and gross, and I have this cold that I’ve been fighting off for a week, so needless to say today could have started off really badly.  To top it all off, I woke up with some serious hip pain this morning (I’ll get to that later), and didn’t feel like it was the smart thing to do to get up and run. So what did I do? I asked my hubs if he’d like to go for a long walk with me instead, and he obliged.  I got in a 40 min brisk walk before work, and I feel better for doing that, so I’ll call that a victory.

Friday night I had to babysit my niece for a few hours (side note, CUTEST. BABY. EVER….not my kid so I won’t plaster her pictures all over the internet but she’s so adorable I could eat her up!) before going to the in-laws for a family party.  We had to grab dinner on the way up to my sister’s house, and I only had a few minutes.  Instead of choosing something bad (read: McDonalds), I made my husband go to Subway.  I got myself a 6” turkey breast sandwich on wheat with baked chips and a diet coke, and I skipped the cookies so I stayed within my calories.  Not great for my sodium intake, but still a reason to celebrate small changes.

At the in-laws, we got there just in time for dessert…a giant, delicious looking Tiramisu cake, homemade by his aunt (they’re Italian).  This shit looked delicious, as in, what’s everyone else having for dessert because I’m eating that whole damn thing myself delicious.  I stared at it while everyone chatted and made coffee, and thought to myself, if I say “I can’t”, I’ll be force fed this cake.  So I took another angle, which I read recently in an article, and when I was offered a piece I said, “No thank you, I don’t WANT any”.  Amazing what a simple change in vocabulary can do.  No one gave me a hard time, no one really even noticed.  Another reason to celebrate if I do say so myself!

Saturday was good for the most part; there was a huge marathon in town, so my regular bootcamp class got canceled; I wanted to still get in a good hour long workout, so I did my advanced turbo jam dvd (cardio Kickboxing).  48 minutes later, and I’m still sore today.  Eff.  When will I stop being sore!?  Saturday night was a bit of a fail...  My hubs came home from tailgating all day, I had just gotten home from target and realized I had nothing in the house to cook.  He offered to buy me dinner, and I let him order us pizza.  I had 4 slices (the new England, square style slices, but still).

Sunday I was determined to get back on track.  Had a healthy breakfast before my shift at the diner, skipped my free meal since I knew it would be loaded with grease, and waited until I came home to have a sandwich for lunch.  Right after that, I started chatting with some (AWESOME) friends, and the subject of Onederland came up, and how freakin close I am now.  I got pretty motivated and decided at that moment that today was the day I was going to go out and run the full 5K distance of 3.1 without walking.  Guess what… I did it!

I felt pretty awesome that I managed to go the whole time, but about 2 miles in my hip started giving me some trouble.  I went to bed last night really sore, and woke up this morning feeling even worse.  I’m hoping that taking it easy today will help, because I really REALLY want to run again tomorrow to make sure my number on Wednesday reflects my hard work this week!

I’ve been holding back from signing up for that 5K I mentioned previously, which is this coming Saturday; partly because my cousin backed out on me, and partly because I was honestly afraid I’d fail and not make it.  I proved myself wrong yesterday, so I’m going to sign up today.  I deserve this, and I have to push myself to do these things or I will never change. 

Sorry for the long post today, I just wanted to give my journey a little credit here.  I’m not perfect by any means, but I am making lifestyle changes here, and my everyday choices are turning into healthier ones.  I’m so happy I decided to start blogging about this…looking back at my first month or so I was going crazy on the weekends, and now I realized after one cheat meal it’s time to get back on the wagon.  Baby steps will turn into something big for me,  I can just feel it.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, my Monday Morning outfit (sorry again for blurry camera phone image, I'm always running late in the mornings!):

Take that Monday!

xoxo
-K

Shit's about to get real up in here

Ok so I’m just going to throw it out there that I’m getting sick and tired of drama for the sake of drama.  I read a lot of other weight loss blogs because I find them super inspiring and motivational, but there are certain ones that seem to have let the popularity get to them.  When I start seeing sponsorship for McDonalds on your page, I’m done, sorry.  I know everyone’s gotta make a living, but really? You’re blogging about weight loss, you should be aware of the sponsors you take on.  I’m over the “look at me I’m skinny now” attitude, I’m over the “I’m a motivational figure” ego, and I’m over the ridiculous new outfits every week.  I’m over it. 

There I said it.

 I spend my spare time reading about other people’s journeys, their ups and downs of weight loss, because I think it helps keep me present in what I’m trying to do.  It keeps me motivated and determined to keep this lifestyle change that I started, it reminds me that no one is perfect and that we all make mistakes, and that we need to just stay focused on the ultimate goal of a healthier way of life.  I don’t need to be reminded that my husband might think I “let myself go” or told that maybe if I just got on my knees my marriage would be better.  I’m just straight out disappointed with what this has turned into, and I’m sick of the drama surrounding it, so I’m done.

I love blogs that tell it like it is.  I love to read about other women’s experiences and feelings, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I don’t even mind reading about how your sex life is affected by your journey, but when the whole tone of the blog changes over the course of a month or 2, something’s gotta give.  I’m sure I’m not the only one out there feeling this way, but I just thought I’d make it known why there’s one less follower out there.

I’ve already spent too much time and energy on this…so I'll end it with this: I’m more determined than ever to make this change happen, so here’s to a healthy, happy weekend!

Manic Mondays: Weekend Recap

Good morning lovelies! I hope you all had a good weekend! Mine was boring, but busy at the same time.  I had made a commitment to cook all 3 weekend dinners at home this time around, since I’m pretty sure that all our eating out is my biggest issue when it comes to seeing the scale move.  I usually make good choices when I go out by ordering salads and grilled chicken, but you really never can be too sure when it comes to the calorie estimate, and ultimately it’s calories in, calories out, right?

My mini-challenge went well, (see images below for dinner from Fri and Sat).

I was exhausted last night so I did leftovers from Saturday, but that’s still better than eating out!

Saturday was a big day for me…I’ve been kicking around the idea of going back to bootcamp, the same one I went to 2-3 times a week when getting in shape for my wedding.  I’ve been terrified to go back, mostly because I know how far I’ve let myself slip and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up.  Lucky for me they started doing a weekly “Beginner Bootcamp”, so I figured that was a great place to start.  An hour later I was ready to die, and 2 days later I still can’t sit on a toilet seat without yelping in pain, but it felt awesome to be back, and I don’t intend on stopping this time!  I spent the rest of the day Saturday cleaning the heck out of my house, then hubs got home from work (Yes he occasionally works Saturdays) so I cooked us dinner, then we went to see a movie (NSV here…I didn’t have ANY popcorn! I can’t remember the last time I went to a movie and didn’t eat a ridiculous amount of popcorn, so this is a proud moment).  We saw Trouble with the Curve; I really liked it and I LOVE me some JT, so it was a good night. 

 

Sunday I was up early thinking about going for a run before my morning shift at the Diner I waitress at, but my legs were so sore I couldn’t do it.  The restaurant was SUPER busy, there was some crazy soccer tournament in town so every freakin’ kid in the tri-state area and his/her angry soccer mom came in at the same time.  Needless to say it was an exhausting day, so I was ready to call it my rest day and be done with it.  But then I got home, checked in with my awesome FB group, and all those ladies were kickin some major ass all weekend, so I decided to push through and hopped on my stationary bike.  I turned on a DVR’d episode of Parenthood, and before I knew it I had done 50 minutes on the bike!  The rest of the day was boring, I grocery shopped, made/heated up dinner, and did some laundry.. and I also cleaned out my closet. 

 

I’ve got a few size 18s that I reluctantly bought last fall because I got so huge I couldn’t fit into any of my pants.  Those 18s are officially falling off me now, to the point where they just look awful if I wear them, so I decided to purge them and any other “fat” clothes I had out of my closet for good.  No hanging on “just in case” anymore, they’re out of my life and I’m never going back! I have some old 14s that I tried on last night, most of which fit me very well, but there are a few that are a little tight on my thighs, so those will hang out in the front for motivation.  It’s weird how sizes vary; I have a few size 12s that I can fit into now (those were my “skinny” jeans that I managed to squeeze into on my birthday), so it’s hard to gauge exactly where I’m at.  I may end up taking measurements on Wednesday as part of my weigh in if I have time, but we’ll see.

How did your weekend go? Any proud moments to report?

xoxo
-K