Tuesday Tidbits

This little saying goes directly with a couple of the updates I have to share with you in today’s mish-mosh post.

Yesterday I was determined to put my words from Sunday’s post into action.  I checked in on my personal FB page and wrote,

Every damn day until I reach my mini goal. Keep me honest!”

Then, on my personal FB page, the one for this page, and also in a tweet, I showed this “proof”:

One reason I chose the bike instead of the elliptical was because I was inspired by Kenlie’s post where she said she’s striving to reach 12 miles in an hour next time she rides her bike.  Now of course, riding your bike outside is a lot harder than at the gym, but to make up for it, I increased my resistance to 7.  There were times during my workout where I was riding well over 12 mph, but then others where I was going slower, so I averaged 10.91 mph, which is a start.  MyFitnessPal said I’d burned 830 calories in my 35 minutes, and while I may not have burned quite that many, I was a sweaty mess when I left the gym.  #sweat pink, right?  (BTW – you’ll notice that this photo was taken at a much more flattering angle than the one I posted on my FB page the other day.  I never said I wasn’t vain :)).

I meant what I typed on FB yesterday – I plan on getting a hard workout in every single day from here on out.  I won’t hit the gym everyday (I’m guessing), but I will post a “sweatyface” pic and some sort of “proof” on my FB page everyday.  You can like my page if you want to follow along and keep me honest.

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Yesterday evening I attended a Stress Reduction class offered through Kaiser’s Mind Body program, as suggested by my therapist.  One of the main reasons I overeat/binge eat is stress, so she figured it might have some good coping skills for me to learn. The class was fine, but I really didn’t get anything new out of it.  I guess it was a good reminder of a few techniques.  One thing that I found interesting was the way that the teacher defined stress:

Stress = Demands > Resources

And it’s in finding the resources when those demands come up that is essential in managing stress.

A question that came up in the self-evaluation that we took asked about how much free time we have.  I’m sure that’s a source of stress for so many people – not having time for themselves.  If I’m honest, which I was when I answered the questionnaire, I have plenty of free time, it’s just how I choose to use it that I need to work on.  Attending the class last night from 6pm-7:45pm or so fit in nicely with my schedule.  It “used up” some of my evening, which left less idle time when I might be tempted to eat mindlessly.  And Sofi was just fine with me leaving her – I’d gotten home from the gym in plenty of time to play with her and get some of her energy out.  Which just leads me to the conclusion that I can easily go to the gym for a class on the B Days when I get out of school later or have other obligations after school.  I just need to look at attending the workout class the same way I looked at attending the Stress Reduction class – as a commitment I’ve made.

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I’m nothing if not someone who strives on competition.  Most of the time the competition is within myself to push past my previous personal best.  But I also believe that a bit of competition with other people is not a bad thing, either. It’s not about jealousy; seeing how well someone else is doing spurs me on to do my best.

Case in point, yesterday a colleague of mine told me that her daughter had finally met the weight loss requirement for Kaiser and that she’d be getting WLS within about 6 weeks.  To give you some background, this girl was totally unmotivated, using every excuse possible to avoid losing the weight.  She was also really depressed, had a back injury, and was just really negative about everything.  It’s been almost 3 years that she’s been in the bariatric program, trying to lose the weight.  When I heard that she’d finally done it, I was pleasantly surprised and happy for her.  But I was also inspired and determined to get there myself.  If she could do it, with all of the things that she had going against her – injury, depression, a bad attitude – then surely I could do it, too. Competition will keep me committed.

Because of her injury, she lost all of the weight with diet alone.  She followed a high protein diet, and just kept at it.  Now I am perfectly healthy and able to workout, so if I keep up my current pace, that will help me tremendously.  But I also need to get back to a more protein-based diet.  Lately I’ve been letting carbs creep back in.  I’m fine with the carbs that come from veggies and fruit, because I think those are important to keep my nutrition balanced.  What I need to cut back on are the carbs that come from crackers, Pop Chips, rice, etc.  I don’t want to eliminate them altogether, but I do want to avoid them, especially at dinner.

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So, after writing all of that, I’ll  leave you with this…

Tuesday sounds like a great day to me!

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