Week 5 - Day 7 and The End of 5 Week Challenge

Well. Fuck.

That's pretty much all there is to say.

I stepped on the scale this morning to find my weight only .4 lbs less than my starting point... I think I need to just NOT weigh myself anymore. Here's the breakdown...

End of 5 Week Challenge:

• Weight: 197.4lbs (.4lbs loss after all is said and done. Fail.)
• Chest: 39" (1 inch loss)
• Waist at bellybutton: 34"(3 inch loss)
• Hips: 45" (1 inch loss - I think I may have measured incorrectly last week)
• Arms (flexing): 13" (no loss)
• Thighs: 26" (1 inch loss)

My goal weight at the end of this was 188lbs - a couple weeks ago I had gotten down to 194 and was hopeful. Even if I was at 194 this morning that is less than a pound a week for weight loss and that is pretty disappointing. I am trying really hard to focus on the inches lost instead of the epic fail the scale is displaying.

I think basically what this all boils down to is: I'm one of those people that has to exercise in order to really be able to lose weight and most of this past 5 weeks I have done very little of that. It just makes me want to cry... this time last year I thought for sure I'd be at least SOMEWHAT closer to my eventual goal weight. I thought I'd at least be down to 180 or even 185. I'm a little disgusted with myself.

I think another thing I need to really do is stop eating fast food. Period. Friday or Saturday out at the bar, wanna splurge on some mozzarella sticks or nachos? Sure. Taco Bell every Monday and Wendy's every Friday for lunch? No way. I just need to start taking a packed lunch to work on those days so I can still join my co-workers for lunch just without eating the terrible-for-me food.

Tonight I'm going out for my husband's birthday and I'm going to allow myself to eat and drink whatever I want to avoid breaking down and giving in to my stress and low self-esteem by allowing myself to smoke. I think maybe quitting is more important right now than anything else. That doesn't mean I'm giving up calorie counting for the whole week or anything... and I actually already calculated out what (at the moment) I want to eat and drink tonight and am going to post stats with those totals now.. I'll edit tomorrow if need be.

I really need to sit down and write out some realistic goals for myself and get focused. I think that will help me to stay focused on other things in my life right now too.

Day 7:

• total calories/points: 1,617 / 38 - I've only eaten oatmeal and a little pita pizza today and I'm not feeling especially hungry so my calories so far are pretty much nonexistent which is the only reason my projected calorie count for the day is so low. 
• no workout
• NO SMOKING
• going to bed whenever the hubby is done celebrating
• $? - it's his birthday, I'm not putting a cap on what we spend for this evening.

Week 5 - Days 5 and 6

I've gotten really off-track about working out. Getting sick kind of puts you in a nose-dive on the motivation plane... next week I'm hoping to get back in gear!

I'm starting to really worry that I'm not going to be anywhere near my goal weight come my weigh-in on Saturday. :(  I'm going to try really really hard to not feel guilty about that and let it ruin everything for me...

Day 5:

• total calories/points: 1600 / 36 - I just have to say I'm really starting to kind of hate WW.. the points system makes NO sense to me. Like I felt like I did REALLY excellent this day. Lots of fruits and veggies, lots of healthy fats, lots of protein... and yet, somehow even though I only consumed 1600 calories I went over my point allowance for the day by 3. WTF. 
• no workout... of course. Story of my life.
• 0 cigarettes
• 11pm bedtime
• $12 spent on dinner/starbucks

Day 6:

• total calories/points: 2120/55 - I used all my flex and activity points this week. First week I've done that, I think. The wine I drank killed me on intake. But that's okay. I had a blast playing Cranium with a group of friends. 
• no workout, per say... but I did spend about 2 hours purging my closets and kind of running around like a mad woman. That has to count for something. 
• 1/2 a cigarette which was gross and made me cough all night. Yuck. 12 days + one half of a cigarette still equals success to me. I'm proud. Of this one thing at least.
• 2am bedtime - had to stay up to get that Season 1 finale of Mad Men in! lol
• $12 on dinner

 

Week 5 - Days 3 and 4

I've been a loaf about posting regularly, I know. And I know I've said this already... but we're in busy season at work and sometimes when work is over the last thing I want to do is sit on the computer and write out a post.

Day 3:

• total calories/points: 1'526 / 30
• I did NOT make to the gym... I feel like I did post about this...or I started to... maybe? I started feeling really run-down in the afternoon at work. I think perhaps Strep took more out of me than I realized. I got home and put my jammies on. I decided better to get all-the-way better than to go to the gym, feel like I need to push myself, and then feel completely and totally sick all over again.
• 0 cigarettes - the end of yesterday was incredibly stressful for me and I wanted to smoke SO BAD.. but I didn't. And I'm really proud of that. 10 days now. 
• 9:30pm bedtime. You read that right. I was really really run-down...
• $3 spent on lunch. God bless bean burritos and their cheapiness. 

Day 4:

• total calories/points: 1'800 / 37 - I've had an Eating Day today. I've been really really hungry all day. Even being super busy at work could not effectively distract me from my stomach screaming at me to feed it. The worst part? I felt really guilty for not working out...
• no workout... yeah, I know, I just said that pretty much - but I had to do Stacy a favor and keep her kiddo for a couple hours and I'm totally happy about being able to do that for her. Plus this gave me another day to kind of test out my "recovery". 
• 0 cigarettes / 1 beer - I spent some time at my mom's tonight and it was really hard not to smoke. I really really wanted to. Instead I just decided to leave a little earlier than I intended. I couldn't be tempted any more. I just kept trying to remember how awful it would make me feel and how yucky I would smell. It kind of works. Sometimes. 
• going to bed in just a few mins... 11pm bedtime
• $4 on lunch

Today I wanted to eat everything... ALL THE THINGS. I tried to stick to fruits and veggies after getting home from work, but still had to sneak some cheese and crackers at my mom's to settle the savage beast that was my belly.

The other thing about today is... I felt fat. When I took a shower earlier this evening and I felt like my belly looked really really flabby whereas before I got sick I felt like it was starting to finally FINALLY tone up a bit. Just another thing to add to my gym motivation.

Btw - I think I'm moving into a "obsessed with weight lifting" phase... so be prepared to read a lot about that in the weeks to come... and perhaps another Challenge... stay tuned.

Week 5 - Day 2

Super Bowl!

Well, we couldn't make it to any of the parties this year, but we certainly haven't scrimped on any of the overeating.. lord. lol

Had some Olive Garden for lunch which was super delicious and really amazing after so many days of so not enough food. I did pretty well since I only ate half of my entree and brought the rest home to enjoy for lunch one day this week.

So here are the stats:

Day 2:

• total calories/points: 2'500 / 50 - I'm totally okay with this since I've eaten pretty much not at all this week. Get that metabolism going again!! And get into the gym tomorrow evening!
• no workout, but did walk around the mall for about 2 hours - figure I burned maybe 200 calories. Maybe. lol
• 0 cigarettes - woo!!!
• $15 on lunch
• shooting for 11:30pm bedtime 

I'm actually really nervous about going back to work tomorrow after being out so long - I just hope I'm not as behind as I'm afraid I will be. I WILL workout tomorrow whether or not I make it to the gym.. if that means going over to Mom and Dad's at 8pm to use Dad's weight bench then so be it, but I'm definitely continuing this weight training I started last week with the crazy awesome results I saw yesterday with my measurements. That definitely made me feel SUPER good about myself - plus I'm comfortably fitting into almost all of my size 16's now and I want to keep that trend going! While at the mall today I went into American Eagle to look around and Mike asked me, "Why do you come in here when you can't really fit anything?" and I said, "Because in a couple months I WILL be able to." That was a great feeling - being confident that I can keep up with this and reach my goals one step at a time!

Week 5 - Day 1

(wrote this yesterday... never posted...)

End of Week 4 Body Stats:

• Weight: 195lbs - I'll talk about this a little more in a moment...
• Wasit at belly button: 34"... THIRTY-FOUR INCHES!! I shit you not, folks. I shit you not. In case you're not picking up on the excitement... that's 2 and a fricken quarter inches!!! You know what else is super duper exciting? My "natural" waist? 32 inches. When I was 17 it was 29... only 3 inches away. That's pretty amazing and mind-blowing.
• Hips: 44" ...that's 1 1/4 inches!!!! 

 So, as you can probably tell... I'm pretty excited about those measurements. For serious. But now.. the weight issue. This is why the scale has never been my friend. The only time I ever used to weigh myself was either the one or two times a year I had to go to the doctor and they make you step on a scale... or like once a month at the gym, randomly, just out of morbid curiosity. I'm a super tall person... I'm 5'10", so that number is always disappointing to a certain extent because "skinny" for me is still like 150 or 160lbs... which would be considered over-weight for the average sized person.

The other thing is, before I got sick this week, I began some serious weight training. That pound might be muscle gain - which would be amazing. And I'm obviously doing something right to have lost so many inches this week. This makes me really excited to do full measurements again next Saturday with hopes that by Monday I'll be almost 100% and able to get into the gym at least 3 or 4 times during the week.

Now for some stats:

Day 1:

• total calories/points: 1'719 / 37  -- I was actually hungry enough to eat a full day's worth of food.
• no workout, but did actually get off the couch!
• 0 cigarettes - officially ONE WEEK smoke free!!!
• 1:30am bedtime
• $0 spent

Well, I made it through the bulk of the weekend without smoking. I'm pretty proud of myself. I have to say, the actually acts I don't miss.. the way it kind of defined a part of my personality, who I am/was, I miss a lot. Even though smoking is definitely NOT cool sometimes it definitely made me feel like I was cool. I think I'm going to be one of those people that not a day goes by where I don't think about having a cigarette. I guess we'll see. If I can get through the next couple weeks, great. My biggest challenge will be getting through the Spring, though. When the weather gets warm I smoke more just to have an excuse to be outside. Wish me luck!

Week 4 - the rest of the days...

The basic recap of my sick days and then end of my week were this:

I did not consume more than 1'000 calories or 25 points per day. I did not work out. I did not do much more than sit on my couch and watch the BBC version of Skins for 3 days.. with a couple of random movies thrown in. For those of you who read and might not know me on the book of faces: I started running a high fever in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday, continued running that fever into Thursday accompanied with the rawest/sorest throat ever known to man to the point where I could hardly swallow my own saliva (I'm so pretty) and went to the doctor where she informed me that "Oh GEEZ - yeah, you have really bad strep", gave me an rx for some hardcore antibiotics, and send me along my way.

...here's where my Mental Illness kicks in a little bit... so I just flat out haven't really been that hungry for the last 3-4 days, and even when I am I'm limited to, like, soup because my throat hurts so bad the thought of eating or drinking anything other than luke-warm or hot liquid is like HELL to me... I did manage to be able to eat some kung pao shrimp the other night after popping 3 ibuprofen for the pain/swelling... but so I've eaten like non-existent calories for 3 days now... and I find myself yesterday when I WAS actually hungry freaking out about breaking that 1'000 calorie mark because I hadn't been doing anything but sitting like a lump and I still wanted to be able to post that I'd lost SOMETHING this week... and I was thinking oh, yeah, totally, I will TOTALLY lose weight this week... but then the other kind of nuts thing is that even only eating like 800-900 calories a day, once I actually reach that mark I feel incredibly full and can't imagine eating ever again. Plus on any given normal day I wake up pretty hungry in the mornings - I'm a big breakfast person - but even today I am just... not hungry. I'm also one of those people that usually gets a migraine if I just don't eat, but that hasn't happened once this week either.

Sorry that was kind of confusing and weird rant... let's blame the sickness. I guess the bottom line is - I was starting to kind of freak out about eating MORE THAN 1'000 CALORIES! That's crazy talk. I love food. Y'know, when it's not making me feel like I'd rather have a lion tear out my throat than swallow chewed solid food for fear of the scraping pain it causes. But yeah. Here's hoping I'm back to normal in the next couple days. I was hoping today would be that day since I've now been on my antibiotics for almost 48 hours. Maybe tomorrow, but unfortunately I don't think I'll be attending any Super Bowl activities. *sigh*

Week 5 post coming up shortly...

Week 4 - Days 3 and 4

I probably should have known I was coming down with something when my calorie count for Sunday was only 990... and then again when Monday night and all day Tuesday I just couldn't get warm. I had on an undershirt and 2 sweaters and I was still FREEZING. Sure enough after barely being able to sleep despite feeling completely run down and exhausted and going to bed at 10pm... I woke up at 1am with a fever of 102.7 and my throat so sore and lymph nodes so swollen I could barely swallow.

I've been nothing but a pitiful, sick lump on the couch today... well, half in my bed, and then half on the couch... I'm really upset because today was supposed to be my workout day, but obviously with a pretty insistent fever and major body aches I won't be doing much other than continuing to be a lump for the remainder of today and probably most of tomorrow too. This is the major thing that sucks about having daycare/school-aged children... they bring home all those tiny yucky germs from all the other kids they're around all day.

So here are my two days worth of stats..

Day 3:

• total calories/points: 1'987 / 35  -- I think I was somehow subconsciously making up for my measly intake on Sunday
• 45 minutes of weightlifting - guestimating about 350 calories burned. 
• 0 cigarettes
• 11pm bedtime
• $5 spent on lunch

Day 4:

• total calories/points: 1'600 / 33
• no workout
• 0 cigarettes / 1 alcoholic drink
• 10pm bedtime
• $6 spent on lunch

I want it to be known that today marks 4 days of no smoking. Before I realized I was coming down with the freaking flu I went to meet up with a friend of mine at a local bar - had one beer, no cigarettes. And the smell hanging on my clothes when I came home made me want to puke... now, I'm not promising anything, but that one night at a bar where everyone was smoking and I didn't makes me feel confident that I can kick this habit. Now, I have to get Mike to quit too... this is what happened last year about this time - quit smoking for two months, he didn't, and by my birthday in April I gave in and totally started smoking again. Maybe this time I can hold strong.

...even just typing this about smoking makes me feeling like I'm gonna throw up... that might have something to do with my current illness though...

And now, for some mac'n'cheese cause that's the only thing I can imagine being able to stomach.. some Mad Men... and bed.

Week 4 - Day 2

I was pretty much not hungry at all yesterday.. as the stats will now show...

Day 2:

• total calories/points: 990 / 23 - the only full meal I ate was dinner.. the rest was just small snacks.
• no workout - my legs were KILLING me from my workout Saturday. This is a good sign!
• 0 cigarettes
• 11pm bedtime
• $0 spent

I'm not really in the mood to delve into anything else right now - so short post for today!

Week 4 - Day 1

Yesterday's post...

I was too busy having too much fun with my friend Stacy to be bothered to update my blog lol. I don't know that a single Saturday (since the first) since I started this Challenge have I actually updated on my week starts.

End of Week 3 Body Stats:

• Weight: 194lbs - I have a theory on this... and that is (TMI coming guys, watch out!) I'm on my period this weekend and it's KILLING me and I'm 98% sure that is why my weight has not dropped at all this week. I am going to re-weigh on Wednesday (should be over by then) and see if there's any difference.
• Waist at belly button: 36.25" - another quarter inch!
• Hips: (I've been regularly measuring my hips weekly, but haven't been posting this number mostly because there has been very little fluctuation... until NOW) 45.25"!!!!

I feel like the fact that I've "shrunk" so much in my measurements attests to the fact that my weight number is a bit incorrect... anyhoo - like I said, re-weigh on Wednesday and see how it looks then.

I drank more than I realized Friday night and woke up a bit fuzzy-headed and with a bit of a headache.. not full-blown hangover, but close enough to be aggravating. I got up, ate some cereal, had some orange juice, popped a bunch of vitamin B complex , and settled in to catch up on FB. Well, my buddy Adam had posted an article from Men's Health magazine on my wall all about fitness... and how everything we're told is pretty much a lie. LIFE RUINER! So I read the article.. which is awesome... and then I'm all pumped to go lift some weights like I'm a BAMF... so I did. And let me tell you: BEST HANGOVER CURE EVER.  I felt amazing after working out! Plus it was excellent start to Week 4, get right on it right out of the gate. This is a good set-up for the rest of my week.

I also did muuuuuuch better on my eating Saturday. *whew*



Day 1:

• total calories/points: 1600 / 28 - FYI, for this week I'm upping my daily calories to 1800 since I feel confident that I'm back into a good workout routine. 
• 45 minute workout, mostly weight lifting, avg HR 160 - guessing between 300-400 calories burned
• 3 cigarettes / 1 alcoholic drink
• 2am bedtime - stayed up reading... nerd
• $6 on Chipotle for dinner

Week 3 - Days 5, 6 and the spaghetti squash experiment!

Real quick, let me just throw out some stats for yesterday..

Day 5:

• total calories/points: 1718 / 30 - I splurged a bit at lunch yesterday and went to Cici's Pizza. It sure was delicious, and I was still plenty full come dinner time, so I just had an almond bar for a snack around 8pm which helped stay within my calorie range. 
• played some Wii dance with James for about 15 mintues - not much, but better than nothing.
• 0 cigarettes!
• 10:30pm bedtime - I was hoping real hard for a snow day, but even though the snow came I still had to get my butt to work in the morning so it was a good thing I hit the hay early.
• $7 spent on lunch

Unfortunately even though I went to bed pretty early, I was up most of the night because my kiddo started running a fever and was in my room every 2 hours for almost the entire night. He's still running fever now, poor thing. :(  I just hope we can all get some good rest tonight so nobody else ends up sick!

So for dinner tonight I made some little steaks with shrimp, mashed potatoes (the only vegetable Mike will eat) and some spaghetti squash to act kind of like a pasta to go with the shrimp. I don't think I cooked it long enough. It was.. crunchy. Which would have been great if I was going for more of a "squashy" thing rather than a "pasta" thing. Also the taste is a little nutty for me - I'm a big fan of zucchini and yellow squash, but I found this to be more of like a butternut or acorn type squash, of which I am not a big fan of. I think I'll probably try this again and cook it a bit longer, just to give it a fair shot. Also maybe I'll pair it with some chicken or fish filets next time instead of steak and shrimp.

I really wanted to hit the gym today, but we got some bad weather through last night and I pretty much just wanted to get home from work before the roads re-froze - then I was thinking I'd just do one of my workout dvds, or some Wii dance (which is my new most favorite thing ever, in case you hadn't noticed) but now I'm starting to feel super run-down and a little feverish myself. UGH! No fun. I really don't want to get sick right now, I really want to stay on track with my exercise since I'm doing so so well with my diet and have made such awesome progress during this 5 Week Challenge! As much as I am/was looking forward to going out at some point this weekend, I think I may just be taking it easy at home and shooting for a trip to the gym on Saturday to give myself a little boost for week 4.

Okay, now some stats for today..

Day 6:

• total calories/points: 1394 / 20  - this is so far, but I am so full of dinner right now I can't imagine that I'm going to want eat much of anything else tonight. I may have some herbal tea later but that is 0 calories, and hopefully that will stave off and creeping hunger that might start lurking around bedtime. 
• no workout - will probably do some crunches before bed
• 0 cigarettes - !!
• planning on 11pm bedtime
• $0 spent - lunched at home

I'm really really excited to weigh-in on Saturday - I really hope my good results have continued through this week! My biggest hope for this challenge is to finally come down to those size 16 jeans comfortably. I'm still in my 18s most days even though they're way too big just because the 16's are still just the tiniest bit too small to be comfortable. I'm really starting to be able to tell the difference in the way I look now and it's really motivating!

Week 3 - Day 4

Quit update for yesterday...

Day 4:

• total calories/points: 1803 / 32 - I was just really rundown and tired last night and all I wanted to do was eat, so I just kind of let myself snack as much as I wanted and I'm really surprised I only went over my calorie count by 100. I'm really not worried about it since I'm getting back on track with exercise this week, plus I didn't go over my points at all.
• no workout - recovery from my 2 hour stint Monday evening. 
• 3 cigarettes
• 11pm bedtime - man, I was SO tired. I didn't not sleep well Monday night at ALL.
• $0 spent - lunched at home.

Week 3 - Days 2 and 3 BACK ON TRACK!!

Woo!! God DAMN I feel good! I just finished 2 hours of choreographed dancing and even threw some crunches in there at the end - aside from the amazing cardio, I worked the shit out of my arms... I'm gonna be super sore tomorrow and it's gonna feel GREAT! I can't wait!

Okay, so yesterday I didn't really do much of anything except watch football and not eat.. oddly enough. I went to the grocery store and as I was getting ready to leave I realized I was STARVING so I picked up this "Taste of Asia" stir fry stuff.. and it was AMAZING. Plus it came with brown rice so along with that, the veggies and white-meat chicken = supa healthy meal! Even though I ate the entire thing... which is meant for 2 dinners.. lol but you'll see that it affected my daily calorie count very little... on to the stats!

Day 2:

• total calories/points: 1415 / 33 - OH! I almost forgot to tell you guys - now that I've lost 4 pounds into this Challenge, my daily points went down to 33. Still 49 flex points for each week, though. Even though I already used most of those... lol
• no workout, lots of recovering from the 3 hour Wii dance extravaganza.. 
• 2 cigarettes
• 11pm bedtime
• $0 spent - groceries don't count

Day 3:

• total calories/points: 1489 / 24 (so far, although I don't think I'll be eating anything else tonight since it's almost bedtime) So, I know I said at the beginning of this that I wasn't going to count fruit/veggie calories, but I have been anyway because I like to include the fiber/protein content to see if I'm reaching my daily goals on those.. that's why sometimes I'll have a high calorie number, but a low points number, and vice versa. 
• 2 hours of dancing plus about 60 reps of 3 different ab exercises - according to Discovery Health (which factors in weight) I burned 1195 calories. According to my heart rate monitor I burned like 2200... soooo, I think that makes it pretty clear that my HR monitor SUCKS at counting calories accurately. BUT it regularly give me almost exactly twice what I would actually be burning, so maybe I can go with that then.
• 0 cigarettes - getting there... slowly.. but getting there. 
• shooting for 11pm bedtime
• $3 spent on lunch - I think I've got about $60 left in "fun" money until the 31st. Not bad at all.

I've been seriously considering no longer counting calories burned - mainly because I want to exercise because it makes me feel good and keeps me healthy, not just because I'm striving for some magical "burned" amount. Also I think sometimes it has a tendency to make me want to eat more even if I'm not hungry just because I can, 'cause I have "room" or whatever. I need to think on that a little more. 

My goal this "work" week is to get to the gym AT LEAST once to lift weights.

Week 3 - Day 1, Progress and "splurge" days!

End of Week 2 body stats:

• Weight: 194lbs - that's 2 more pounds!!!
• Waist at belly button: 36.5" - no change, but that's okay.

 Day 1:

• total calories/points: 2478 / 60 points - this leaves me with 20 flex points for the week. These party snacks/dinners are screwing me over lol - plus it probably didn't help that part of those meals was Domino's pizza. I feel like I've really done an excellent job with keeping my alcohol intake in control - only drinking 3 or 4 beers on a Friday or Saturday night and maybe 1 or 2 during the random weeknight outing. This kind of additional calorie intake I can totally handle and plan for.
• played various Wii dance games for about 3 hours with few breaks - I think overall I probably burned about 500 calories, if not more - I was sweating my ass off! My toe survived quite well and I see no reason why I can't get back to my gym routine this week. I underestimate on my activity tracker with WW just because I was too busy having fun to pay attention to the exact amount of time I was dancing - adding 20 activity points to my weekly flex points bank. 
• only smoked 5 cigarettes which is pretty flippin' amazing for being in a party-like atmosphere with other smokers.
• 2am bedtime
• $8 spent to chip-in for pizza

I'm really proud of this 2 pound per week progress I'm making - I'm already starting to see subtle differences in my body, especially looking at pictures of myself. Last week there were several moments of feeling like I just wanted to eat whatever the hell I wanted all day every day - but I didn't, and I gave myself Saturday to be a "splurge" day. I think knowing I can have that one or two days a week where I don't count calories until the very end of the day (instead of as-I-go) really helps me keep myself under control during those "fuck it" moments. I'm really excited to get back into the gym this week, and even if I don't have the time to make it to the gym, having the knowledge that I can successfully do some cardio at home with my toe makes me feel really good and motivated.

Once I get back into a regular workout routine I'll have to adjust my calorie-intake some. I'll try bumping up to 1800, and if I'm still struggling with strong hunger, 1900. 1700 was the number I shot for in order to maintain weight-loss without regular exercise and so far it is working brilliantly and I'm really proud of myself for that.

Overall I'm feeling really good about these last 2 weeks and good about myself. The steady progress I've been making certainly is motivating!

Week 2 - Days 5, 6, and 7... the f*ck-it week

First and foremost let me apologize for not keeping up with my blog, like, AT ALL this week. Work has been uber uber busy and I've been just so exhausted and/or stressed out when I get home that all I want to do is go to bed or get the hell out of my house and do something fun... which then makes me immediately regret not just going straight to bed.

I started feeling like crap at work on Thursday - mainly because my father-in-law was kind enough to get sick and then continue to come to work and share his germs with the office. With the help of almost-overdosing on Shaklee vitamins and lots and lots of water (drank around 160oz Thurs) I think I managed to keep my immune system strong.

All week this last week I just felt like saying "fuck it" and eating all kinds of junk and be a big lazy lump.. I'm not sure what kept me from actually doing it, but I definitely was lacking on motivation. I think a big part of it was in the beginning of this week I just felt starving all the time and really started hating the WW points system. I think I'll do a lot better with it once I get back on a regular workout routine since I'll have activity points I can use. Speaking of working out - the last 2 days I've started doing crunches in the evenings just to do SOMETHING. My toe is pretty much all better now and I definitely am going to force myself to hit the gym next week. I think I'll just feel so much better all around if I do. 

I don't really want to go through 3 days of stats - but I'll just let it be known that I did not break my calories/points at all the last 3 days. And I'll go ahead and give you stats for yesterday...

Day 7:

• total calories/points: 1614 / 32 - that's including 3 beers! I had a super late lunch yesterday so I never really got hungry for dinner which left me with room to do some drinking.
• no workout
• I've been bad about cigarettes the last couple days - ie: I've been smoking.. but still not a whole lot. Had 4 last night
• 1am bedtime
• $10 spent on drinks

Week 2 - Day 4

**Note: I wrote this last night but then just never posted it lol**

Stats - Day 4:

• total calories/points: 1551 / 28 - excellent day for calorie counting!
• no workout, though Mike and I played a LOT of Wii... and some of the more "physical" games, so at least I moved around a bit.
• 0 cigarettes - that's 2 days smoke-free!! I really wanted one this evening though... like more than I think I've ever wanted to smoke ever. I think it was mainly because I was bored and I didn't want to overeat. Isn't that awful? 
• $0 spent - ate lunch at home. *fist pump*

I've been having some trouble with hunger this week. I think it may be a side effect of eating SOOOO MUCH Friday and Saturday night.

I had a little bit of a crying breakdown on my poor husband Tues. night about his eating habits and general health and he's agreed to really start following me on this get-healthy journey -- I hope that's true, and I hope he does. I'm kind of having a hard enough time keeping myself on it, I really need him to do the work for himself instead of depending on me to just tell him what to do all the time.

I stumbled across a blog through a Yahoo! article yesterday and it's a pretty inspirational story. Check it out if you're interested: Ben Does Life

Week 2 - Day 2 & 3... getting behind on posts again

I'm sorry I'm getting so behind on posts - this should catch me up since this is for yesterday AND today.

I'm not really in the mood for talking to I'm just going to straight to the stats...

Day 3:

• total calories/points: 1657 / 36 points - used 2 more of my weekly points leaving me with 5. -.-
• played some dance on the Wii
• 2 cigarettes
• 11:30pm bedtime
• $0 spent

Day 4:

• total calories/points: 1567 / 34 points - used all my points to a T.. and I'm STARVING. But I'm not gonna eat anything at 10pm. Not happening. Big breakfast in the morning. 
• had to work late and the sky is spitting ice.. so.. no gym for me tonight. 
• 0 cigarettes... so far... might have one here in a second..
• planning to go to bed at 11pm
• $4 spent on lunch

Week 1 - Day 7 and Weight Watchers

Well, folks. I did it. I broke down and joined Weight Watchers online. They were running a 3 month special - I figure that will be enough time for me to get used to the new points system and be able to keep up with it on my own. I'm actually really excited about it!

I will probably still count calories along with points... maybe forever lol. I'd like to say "just until I'm comfortable with the points-system", but I like knowing my calorie-count. Also with the way the new Points Plus works I need to know the fat/carb/protein/fiber content of everything I'm eating, and the calorie counter I use will be excellent for that especially when it comes to creating meals and stuff.

OKAY! SO! Technically since I chose my weigh-in day to be Saturday (tomorrow, eee!! I'm really excited to see how I've done this week!) WW is counting this passed week (Jan. 8th - tomorrow) as my first week - which is excellent since this is Week 1 for the 5 Week Challenge. I'll start posting points along with calories starting tomorrow, since it will be a big pain in the butt to go back through the whole week and reenter all my foods into the WW site.

Here are stats for tonight... which... aren't very good lol. I DEFINITELY took the term "splurge" day to heart...

Day 7:

• total calories: 2417 *cringe* I know.. it's really bad. That's all my regular/flex calories plus 158. It was the Papa Johns at 12am. A good friend went through a break-up earlier in the evening so I stopped by to talk and have some drinks... and we were both starving... and sometimes Papa Johns happens. I'm not proud. lol
• no workout
• 5 cigarettes
• 2am bedtime - would have been earlier but it seemed like a brilliant idea to play 30 mins of Bioshock 2 after I got home. 
• $40 spent from monthly fund - $60 left for the month

 

Week 1 - Days 5 and 6

I've gotten WAY behind - I know it, I'm sorry.

Let's stick to the nitty-gritty first...

Day 5:

• total calories: 1573 - and let me tell you I was STARVING when I went to bed.. this was the day that most of my calories consisted of fruits and veggies and, yes, I counted those even though I originally said I wasn't gonna... the number if I didn't include those? 1300. Which I guess is okay since I'm not really working out... but I'm not really trying to make this an everyday occurrence. 
• no workout
• 2 cigarettes
• 10pm bedtime- GO ME!
• $0 spent - ate at home for lunch

Day 6:

• total calories: 1711, leaving 559 flex calories for the week.
• no workout
• like... 9 cigarettes
• 12:30 am bedtime - not "go me"...
• $4 spent - last of the money's for the pay period

Now to get back on track... 

Week 1 - Day 4 Last Night's Post

My husband confiscated the computer last night to look up video game stuff so I was not able to put up my post.

First and foremost: I have to say I'm really proud of myself for being SO much better about housework the last couple weeks. Since our NYE party I've kept the main floor of the house in excellent condition and have even managed to get the upstairs vacuumed once or twice. At some point this week/weekend I want to hit Target and get a dry-erase board for the kitchen so I can have my household to-do's right there where I'll see it every day. Also - I'm almost completely caught up on my laundry which is a feat within itself. Go me! Okay, now stats...

Day 4:

• total calories: 1706 which leaves 570 flex calories for the week.
• no workout but I DID take down all the Christmas stuff which involved dragging boxes around and running up and down the stairs... well... as much "running" as one can do with a broken toe. Heh. 
• 3 cigarettes... boo.
• 11pm bedtime - yeah!
• $3 on lunch - I have, I think, like $7 left in cash til pay day.. not really sure how that happened other than I must have spent money on something I forgot about. I should invest in a tiny notepad for my purse to keep track of these things. 

I really want to get Mike into this whole "get healthy" kick - so I think I'm going to start tracking his calories for him just so at the end of a week I can put it in his face and say, "SEE?!" He is a bit of a short-boy... and probably eats like someone who is 6'4" and doesn't like exercise, like, at all. It's a treacherous combination. I would prefer he not have a heart attack and die at 40. But that's just me. 

One thing that's really going to suck about this 5 weeks and getting my exercise in - on top of having the retarded toe, it's the beginning of the busy season at work so getting out of the office by 4:30pm to hit the gym before picking James up from daycare isn't always going to work. I will most likely have to just suck it up and go in the evenings on those days.. which is what I used to do back in the day anyway. I just feel like it's better to be able to get it done and out of the way before dinner and bedtime stuff with James. Oh well!

Week 1 - Day 3

So, I watched this episode of My So-Called Life last night and one of the characters mentioned eating cookie dough raw and now I've been totally craving it!! So bad... lol I'm just glad I didn't have to hit the grocery store today otherwise I may have broken down and bought some. *tisk tisk*

We went to dinner at Old Country Buffett *vomit* tonight for Mike's dad's birthday.. I had baked fish filet and a salad, a tiny piece of carrot cake for desert, and a tiny serving of soft serve. It was all awful. I'll tell you what: Golden Corral is like a fucking five star restaurant compared to Old Country Buffet. True. Fact. We also had Taco Bell for lunch today - but I stuck with just a 7-layer burrito and taco. Good stuff. I do love Taco Bell... it's such a guilty pleasure.

So! In spite of all that.. check this out:

Day 3

• total calories: 1653 - WOO!
• no workout - thinking maybe I need to give my toe some more time so I don't eff it up real bad and cause like permanent nerve damage to my poor foot. Might at least do an ab workout or something tomorrow.
• 4 cigarettes at my mom's... bad influence. I need to just up and quit like my cousin Maury has done - and I can honestly say she was in WAY DEEPER than I am. lol Maybe that's not quite an accurate assessment since I can't seem to give up my 15 cigarettes a WEEK... ugh.
• going to bed as soon as I finish writing this - 11pm! Gonna shoot to actually get out of bed when my alarm goes off in the morning.
• $4 for lunch off what was left on my rebate card from AT&T so nothing out of my weekly cash fund, and nothing for dinner since it was the in-law's treat. Good deal there. 

I'm really proud of myself on my calories the last couple days - I've been trying to eat really healthy foods (even out and about) and have kept TONS of fruit for snacks and that is really helping me stay super full during the day. Without the workouts I can really feel my energy lagging, so I'm really trying to motivate to get on-track even with my toe injury... that feels so dumb to say. "I can't workout because I slammed my baby toe just walking around my house." -.-

My poor husband is sick and I'm just going to hope and pray and OD on vitamins until it passes... and, with a little luck, not catch those tiny yucky germs. Yes I just made a Yo Gaba Gaba reference. DON'T JUDGE ME.

Goal for tomorrow: start a new book. We have no Netflix dvds right now and there's nothing good on tv this week until Gray's on Thursday so there's no excuse for me to not pick something up and get back on the reading band-wagon. *thumbs up*

ps
You readers out there need to update me on your 5 Week Challenge statuses! How's it going? :)