Re-Start

Thank you Token Fat Girl for bringing me back from the dead. Her comment reminded me that I still have this blog and thinking about weight loss again.

Okay. So I’ve moved, but not really. I’m currently staying at my parents’ house and my life has turned upside down with disarray. All of our belongings are in boxes, I’ve started to work, and we’re working on our house at the same time. This moving thing really sucks. As a result I’m eating and eating and have no idea how much I weigh, because the scale is packed away somewhere. I had tried weighing on my sister’s scale, but the number was just so large that I decided that it sucked and refused to weigh myself until I got my old scale back. Unfortunately, at the rate we’re going, that won’t be anytime soon. What was suppose to be three weeks at my parents’ has turned into two months, and I’m tired of putting my life on hold, so tomorrow I will be weighing myself using my sister’s scale.

Exercise-wise, I haven’t been doing that much better. I’ve stopped weight training all together, but I still go biking. I love it. Listening to my music and daydreaming as I wiz by breath-taking scenery. Nothing gets better than that. But I do know I should probably reintroduce strength training back into my life (yuck). I will be looking at my schedule and see where I can put it in. With everything going on, I don’t know where to start.

Moving Anxieties

I haven’t been doing anything regarding my goals: eating, procrastinating, etc. It’s been hard for me to focus on anything else outside of the fact that we might be moving soon and renting out our current house. It has caused me great anxiety, and I wonder why I ever agreed to do this. I haven’t been sleeping too well, and I’m fortunate that I have the option to take a nap with Teresa or I would be dysfunctional. Our finances will be razor thin after the move, and I can’t seem to find the time to look for work when looking for renters and researching about land lording and laws has occupied all my time.

Despite all this, I have continued to include exercise in my life. It really have become a habit, and it helps when I tell myself that it’s a stress reliever. As planned, I went hiking over the weekend, and I totally enjoyed myself.

Early Spring

Hunter brings home a weekly newsletter from his kindergarten class that gives me a brief of what they have been up to. Apparently, his class had voted that the groundhog DIDN’T see his shadow so there’ll be an early spring. It was cute, but they may be on to something because it sure feels like spring is here. The rain has stopped, the sun out, and it has been warmer. I went biking and the trails were crowded. My sister and I are also talking about doing more outside activities such as biking and hiking. Next week, if all goes well, we may go hiking with our cousins.

I’m definitely a creature of the sun, gathering all of the warm and nice days as I can and going outside whenever possible.

Challenge Success!

Sarah had challenged me to meet my exercise goal. My goal was to exercise four days last week starting Monday ending Sunday. I am happy to say that I succeeded. Here’s a rundown of my success.

Monday: Day of rest. Strange to start a challenge with a day of rest, but that’s what I did.

Tuesday: Aerobics tapes after I procrastinated and sat around for a while. I was suppose to go to my aerobics class but missed it. Before Hunter’s Thanksgiving vacation, there was a week of minimum days, which actually translated to having Hunter come to school an hour and a half early. I had gotten used to rushing Hunter out the door, then taking my time to eat breakfast and prepare myself that I had forgotten the regular routine, which was to prepare him early so that I can leave the house fifteen minutes before him.

Wednesday: Day of rest. I was supposed to go jogging with my neighbor, but his daughter and my daughter were not up for it, so it was postponed until Friday.

Thursday: Went to my aerobics class! Although, I was totally not feeling up to it since I had poor sleep for a couple of nights already. It didn’t help that there was a substitute with such a calming voice. I had to actually resist the urge to fall asleep.

Friday: Went jogging with my neighbor, but he forgot his inhaler. He needed to stop half-way through our run, so I only got 10 minutes in. It didn’t matter to me. For jogging, 10 minutes is plenty.

Saturday: Went biking with Ly.

Sunday: Went biking by myself.

Shoe Buying

With my recent bouts of Achilles’ tendonitis and plantar fasciitis, I decided to reassess my shoe situation and discovered I was long due for replacements. Even though these issues started when I was relatively inactive, I can’t help but think I will overcome them much more quickly if I bought the necessary footwear. Unfortunately, for me that means hundreds of dollars. It used to not be this way. I used to favor discount stores where I can get a pair of shoes for 40 dollars even 20 if there were a big sale, but I’ve had some bad luck with choosing the wrong shoes and getting blisters. With the inability to return shoes that looked worn, I had to spend another 40 dollars on a different pair. Not to mention the extra time it took to do that. So I’ve been going to stores where there would be someone knowledgeable to help me make decisions that I wouldn’t later regret.

The first replacements were my running shoes. For my running shoes, I decided to go to a specialty running store for the first time. Someone suggested Fleet Feet. And I must tell you, the service there was EXCELLENT. It was well worth spending regular price. The attendant created a chart for me to keep track of my shoes, size, and problems so that they can further improve their services in the future. In addition, he was crazy knowledgeable of everything I needed to know to make a good decision on my shoes. I also was allowed to run outside in them before purchasing. On top of that, I’m allowed to return within 30 days, even if I use them. That’s CRAZY!

After an obscene amount of occupying the attendant’s time with my dumb questions, I bought a pair of 7-1/2 Saucony Progrid Omni 6 Moderate Medium for one hundred dollars.

Per the attendant’s suggestion, I also bought expensive insoles made by Superfeet, so that was another 40 dollars. But those have a 60 day satisfaction guarantee, so I can return them if I want.

The second replacements were for my cross trainers. I had been using a pair of RYKA Intensity XT, which were okay.

I liked how RYKA specialized in woman’s athletic shoes and the fit is supposed to be ideal for women (thin heel and wide foot bed). Additionally, they didn’t give me blisters. However, they weren’t very good court shoes. I not only use cross trainers for aerobics and weight training, but I also used them for badminton, which required me to make quick stops. This was not the case with these shoes, where I would end up sliding halfway across the court when I had actually wanted to start heading back to the other side. Even Ly noticed this and told me to stop (as if I could). So when it came time to replace them, I decided to try another shoe. I went to Lady Foot Locker. (Can you tell that I have a weakness for woman-specific apparel?) The service there was not nearly as spectacular as at Fleet Feet. Actually, I found them to be barely knowledgeable and maybe even a little mis-informative. The attendant there suggested the Nike Shox Ballo.

They were a pair of gaudy, ugly shoes. And it wasn’t the weird heel that threw me off, but the silvery appearance of the shoe that yells, “look at me!” The attendant said that she had a pair of them and that she loved them, looking at her I can see why. She was very nice, but she screamed of teenager and I can distinctly hear the sound of “Ghetto Superstar” as her theme music.

I asked her what the difference would be between another pair of Nike Shox that was less flashy. She explained that they wouldn’t be as comfortable or supportive, because they cost less. I looked at the price and pointed out that they cost the same. She shrugged.

I ended up buy those shoes anyways, because I have a tendency to buy anything if the attendant was nice enough, but as I examined them at home, I decided that she didn’t know what she was talking about and that I WOULD exchanged them for a less flashy pair. I also decided to give them a test drive at home, while I still have them because I was still planning to buy Nike Shox, just less glamorous. So the next day, I did aerobics in them at home and I discovered that they felt uncomfortable. I took off the shoes and discovered that my feet were red on the sides. The shoes were too tight. Memories of blisters from cheap shoes came flooding back to me, so I whipped the bottom with a baby whip and I exchanged them for a totally different pair. A different lady helped me. Not so teenager-y or Ghetto Superstar-y, but not so friendly either. She kept tight-lipped with offering me any suggestions at all, and I wondered if she did so for ethical reasons, because she probably wasn’t trained to know.

I went with a pair of white New Balance 504. My sister buys this brand, because she tells me they’re made a little wider. And at 80 dollars, they were 20 dollars cheaper than the Nikes. So far I like them. I especially like how brilliantly white they are and how the reflectors twinkle up at me. I wore them to aerobics class with my white baby tee and black stretch pants, and I must tell you, I looked awesome!

The Busyness

I’ve been busy, and I’m hoping that this will be the start of some non-busy/hectic time. Ly has just finished the bathroom and although he was anxious to start another project he agreed to hold off until spring for my sake. There’s only so much chaos I can handle at a time. Teresa’s big birthday celebration has pass so there’ll be more downtime until Christmas. No, I’m not stressing about Thanksgiving. As long as our house is too small, I do not foresee hosting such an ambitious occasion. And if I were to do so, I’m sure my mother-in-law will joyfully cook everything for us.

The week of October 21 to 27th I took up a challenge with Ms. Kelly to exercise five times. Sadly, I was one day short of completing that challenge, but I’m sure it would have been far less if I hadn’t taken it up. Here’s a rundown of that week.

Sunday: This day was the Trung’s rehearsal luncheon, and we still didn’t have a working bath. We went to my parents’ house to use their shower. I totally didn’t feel like it, but I used the opportunity exercise with Charlene Prickett: Crazy for Step DVD, knowing that opportunities to exercise in the coming week would have been slight.

Monday: This was when I had caught wind of the challenge. I called up Ly and asked him to come home early so that I can exercise with Charlene Prickett’s Low Impact, High Intensity DVD again.

Tuesday: I went to a Step and Sculpt group exercise class at my gym. I liked it, and I felt it was a perfect way to get someone to check my form as I lift weights without having to pay for a personal trainer. However, I did find the class too easy. I went to the class one other time the week before, and I discovered that I was the only one bouncing about as if I was made of energy. This time I used two risers so that I can actually get a workout. I’ve never used two risers before! I was scared that I would look overly ambitious and silly to everyone else, but I did perfectly fine. I’m feeling mighty proud of this accomplishment, remembering that I use to be like everyone else in the class, struggling with only one riser. I’m pretty sure that this wasn’t only accomplished by increased fitness. It’s a lot easier to move about with less weight.

Wednesday: This was a planned day of rest.

Thursday: I asked Ly to come home early, but we ended up arguing about who’s not putting what away. So he didn’t come early as expected. If he had the decency to tell me that he would blatantly come home late (way pass the time he would come home on a normal day) I would have tried to exercise with Teresa. Although I don’t appreciate her compulsion to grab my legs as I dance about the living room, it would have been better than not exercising. Jogging with her in the jogging stroller was out of the question because of my recent bout of plantar fasciitis. And I know that a lot of moms would tell me to exercise during her nap, but it never works out. Last week when I tried to exercise while she slept, she woke up early and wouldn’t stop whining and grabbing my leg until I lied down with her until she fully woke up. Mind you, I was in a middle of a workout so my heart rate was crazy elevated. Not a good feeling to have to lie down at that state.

Friday: I went on a field trip with Hunter’s class. Hunter’s school is actually 45 minutes away at my in-law’s city. We were back from the field trip at 1:45pm, but we were also planning to go to the school carnival at 6 pm. During this waiting time, we spent it at my in-law’s where I decided to exercise. I did 30 minutes of Shape Cardio Workout: Bikini Body All Year-Round DVD and a routine with a strength band. I felt very self-conscious and guilty that I was working out at my in-laws. I was practically speeding through the routine.

Saturday: This was Trung’s wedding day. Ly went early in the morning, since he was a groom’s man, but the kids and I weren’t expected until the western-style ceremony at 4pm. I was feeding the kids breakfast and trying to plan my day so that it would include exercise, when Ly called and announced a change of plans. They had wanted Hunter, whom was one of the ring bearers, to join the wedding early. That was also when I discovered that the rental place had given Hunter shoes that were two sizes too small. So my plans were shot, seeing as how I needed to drive all around the Bay Area, searching for shoes Hunter’s size and chasing after a wedding party that was on the move.

So there’s the week of the challenge. The week after the challenge, exercise had been abysmal. I’m not jumping on opportunities to exercise as I use to, using more and more excuses not to exercise. Not good. Just the other day, we returned from a luncheon at 3pm, but I procrastinated until 5pm to exercise when normally I would exercise as soon as I returned home. I’m tired of my workout DVDs. I’m also not planning my workout as well as I used to.

Since and because of Halloween, eating has also been abysmal. I need to stop sneaking chocolate whenever I can. It doesn’t help that I had been stressing and having difficulties finding my priorities. On the day of Teresa’s birthday party, I sat at the end of my bed with my head in my hands unable to think of what my next step should be. So, I decided to watch TV and waste time instead. Now that all of the deadline stuff has passed, I’m in this unfocused stage of wandering about, not knowing what to do next. There is still non-deadline, pressing stuff to deal with, but I’m having difficulties with figuring out a plan. My weight loss efforts seemed to also wander about with everything else, and I’m having a hard time trying to figure it’s place in my life. My buying a new scale has also fuelled the confusion. It weighs heavier than my old scale by quite a bit, so I don’t want to take it seriously.

Adjusting to my New Exercise Regime

I’ve gained weight, which wasn’t surprising. None the less, it was disappointing. I was right at my target weight and it slipped away. No matter. I’m still within healthy BMI status, and I’m confident that I’ll get out of this recent binging bend. Another thing that also contributed to my recent gain was that I’ve been slacking with exercise. A part of it is because I had fallen out of it from my exercise hiatus due to illness. Then right after I recovered I had a bout of Achilles tendonitis, so I had to rearrange my routine to accommodate for that. The other part is because I’ve changed my exercise regime in general, and with every change there’s always that awkward adjustment period.

The first change actually occurred over a month ago. I decided to change aerobic exercise from 5 days to 3-5 days a week. Before, it HAD to be 5 days a week with NO excuses (except sickness or injury that is). I had decided this exercise regime in the beginning of my weight loss efforts, when losing weight was the ABSOLUTE priority. Now that I reached a healthy BMI, it doesn’t feel like such a priority anymore. The books have said that 3-5 days was what was necessary, so I decided to ABSOLUTELY do aerobic exercise 3 days a week with an optional two more days if time allowed. It felt uncomfortable doing this. I was afraid that allowing myself to exercise so little would cause me to fall out of it, but I don’t think it was the case.

The second change was my letting go of the weight machines. Much to my surprise, I recently discovered that they were NOT safer than free weights and bodyweight exercises. Go figure.

Letting go of these machines, however, has been a challenge. I found myself lost in the gym, when before I felt like an expert. I had mused to myself when personal trainers offered their services. I mean, come on, the instructions were right on the machines. Now, I’m not so sure. I went into the free weight room this weekend for the first time, and there were no instructions. Just a bunch of benches in different shapes, dumbbells, and barbells. I was stupid enough to go in there with no plan. I thought that I can make my own routine with the wealth of knowledge I had accumulated through different group exercise and DVD instructors. No such luck. For one, the lowest weight was 8 lbs. The most I’ve ever used and that all the instructors always recommended was 5-lb weights. There were barbells, but I’ve only ever tried them once before with guidance. I was concerned with hurting myself. I was also concerned with looking like a total idiot. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing, and I felt strangely watched. However, it could have also been because I was one of three girls in what I deem as No Woman’s Land. No matter I was determined to utilize what I believed was my right, so I ignored my feelings of intimidation and trudged on. I did two exercises in No Woman’s Land. The rest, I scurried back to Weight Machine Land. Not because of intimation, mind you, but because of plainly not knowing what to do. That evening I used Women's Strength Training Anatomy and exrx.net and I created a routine that I plan to use next time.

The last change I’ve made have been the hardest to implement simply because I'm having difficulty remembering to do it. I’ve decided to stretch my calves and hamstrings every day. Because my calves are extra tight, I’m prone to plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis. My recent bout of Achilles tendonitis had puzzled me because it came on when I wasn’t doing any high impact exercises at all. I realized later that I only stretch after a workout and being on exercise hiatus has also kept me from my stretching routine. This was when I decided to stretch my calves every day. I decided to also stretch my hamstrings while I’m at it. Even though they haven’t given me any problems, they are also extra tight and I’ve heard that extra tight hamstrings can result in back injures. The only problem now is figuring out a good time to do them.

The Stretching Debate

Ly and I have had an on-going argument regarding stretching. He doesn’t like it and believes it’s a waste of time. A couple of years ago, he caught wind of a study mentioned on the radio, confirming his beliefs. I, on the other hand, maintained my beliefs that stretching helps prevent injury, since experts continued to support stretching even after two years that this (supposed )study was released, having me conclude that it was a dud. Therefore, seeing Ly blatantly refuse to stretch made me feel uncomfortable and I had difficulty overcoming the fear that he will someday injure himself beyond repair because of his neglect. Paranoia? I suppose, but that’s the way I was raised, so I would bring up the topic every now and then.

One night, as we were driving home from a late dinner party, Ly and I had a heated debate regarding whether stretching was a waste of time. It was frustrating because neither side had any hard evidence so the discussion was going nowhere. Finally, Ly proposed that we research it on the Internet. I totally did not want to do it. I was tired and I had better things to do, but seeing Ly struggle with finding academic literature on the Internet was irritating. So I showed him Google Scholar and I looked through the academic search engines that I still had student access to.

We discovered that we were BOTH stupid. It turns out that stretching only significantly prevents injury when the individual is unusually inflexible (like myself), so I was somewhat wrong. It also turns out that the study that Ly heard about on the radio only examined stretching BEFORE the workout, so Ly was also somewhat wrong. In the end, I’m glad that we researched it, because it ended the debate and I no longer have the urge to nag Ly about stretching.

Here was what we discovered about stretching:

> Stretch only after warming up or after a workout.

> Stretching can improve muscle force, jump height, running speed, and range of motion.

> Stretching can decrease muscle soreness.

> Stretching can help prevent injury for “inflexible” people, but if you are of average flexibility there is limited benefits in terms of injury prevention. If you are extra-flexible, strengthening the muscle around the joint, rather than stretching, can prevent injury.

Opportunist

My out-of-town cousins are in town, and a bunch of us decided to have a picnic on the beach. Since there were others to watch the kids, I decided to go jogging. It’s always weird to do that sort of thing. While everyone else sees a get-together as an opportunity to relax and chat, I see it as an opportunity to exercise. It’s how I’ve been able to exercise as much as I do with kids and responsibilities and all.

Despite feeling uncomfortable, I’m glad I did it. It was a nice jog. There was plenty of blue peaking behind the clouds. All around me were water, hills, and city landmarks. I brought the GPS with me and played music, using its tiny speakers. As I returned to the picnic, the group cheered me on as if I was completing a marathon. With background music and all.

Badminton

I’ve been playing badminton with Ly. I like it for the most part, but it does get intimidating and boring at times. Intimidating when I know everyone else is better than me. I get afraid that I’m ruining their good time because of my inadequacy. Boring when Ly and I are just doing drills. This happens often because there aren’t a lot of people we can challenge, and Ly is just so much better than me that we can’t have a decent game against each other.

During drills Ly insists on “instructing” me, although I don’t remember ever asking him to do this. It’s annoying because he gives too much feedback and I get overwhelmed. Also I have no urge to improve my game. Ly, however, is on a constant quest to improve, and he assumes everyone else is also. The last time we went to play, a family walked into the facility as we parked our car. Ly pointed them out, saying that they were regulars but they don’t improve. I defended them, saying that some people play just to have fun. But that day we spent most of our time doing drills, and I wasn’t having fun. I found myself looking at the clock as Ly droned on about technique and so on, so this time I decided to listen. I have a lot of bad habits, but I was able to make some of the adjustments that he suggested. And you know what? It was kind of fun to see myself improve, so maybe I will listen to Ly more often. Maybe I can improve my game enough so that when we do play with others I won’t be the worst player.

Flexibility

A week and a half ago, Ly and I decided to have the kids stay at home until I return to work. Ly then offers to come home early whenever he can, so I can get my exercise in without worrying about the kids. Ever since then, he’s been able to be home around 5pm everyday. This morning he tells me he won’t be home before 6pm this whole week. Automatically, I brainstorm of what to do about exercise with kids in tow minus Ly. Ly then pointed out that when I start working I would probably be exercising that late anyways, so I might as well start now. He made a good point. When I was going to the gym after internship, I wouldn’t be eating until after 7pm and I did okay. But when it’s exercising at home, I think I’m starving myself past 6pm but that can’t be true.

Although, I didn’t see this point at the moment since we were busy arguing. Maybe I had expected him to be home early and had my schedule and mind set. And having Ly say he wouldn’t be had upset my equilibrium, so I reacted the wrong way. Whatever the reason, Ly said, “Why are you always so sensitive about this?” And that pissed me off. I didn’t think I was being sensitive about anything, and if I was he should be more understanding. Then I noticed he said “always”, so I think back to when I could have had the same reaction in the past.

Could it be that day last week when he wasn’t able to watch the kids, and I had planned to use the jogging stroller so that I can get exercise in? He had offered to take the kids to his parents’ house. I reacted kind of irate because it would have been preferable, but I was already heading out the door with Plan B. Is that what he meant? If that was the case, he was mistaking sensitively with irritation. Since he’s a fly-by-the-seat-of-his pants kind of guy, he has a hard time understanding that I’m a very rigid person that gets thrown off by the unexpected.

Either way, I should probably try to control my reactions so that we don’t get into another fight. And try to be more flexible. Starting with exercising past 6pm.

Last Day of School

Monday was the last day of school. I walked through campus, doing my familiar things and missing them because it was the last time. The last time I was going to the library, the social work building, the admin building. The last time I was going to eat in the campus café. And the last time I was going to use the campus gym. I’m going to miss the familiarity of the machines that faced the mirrors, giving me the perfect view of my belly, reminding me that I still had a ways to go. That day, I noticed that my belly was smaller. I also noticed that I could see my biceps as I did lat pulls and flys, when I couldn’t before. This made me very happy.

Monday also marked the end of my routine as I’ve known it. It may sound strange, but trying to fit exercise without school will be more challenging. With school the kids were mostly with my mother-in-law, and I went to the gym while I was on campus or after internship. Now that I’ll be home for the time being, I will have to jockey for exercise time. The kids will still be seeing my mother-in-law, but for now it will only be twice a week. My kids are wild and they stressed her out. Asking her to watch them for two days seemed too much as it is. But I need time to organize and clean the house. It really fell to the way side while I was in school. Then I need the time to look for work. It would be too challenging to do these things with the kids around (they are wild).

Exercise When Sick

I was sick a while ago, and I wonder if going on an intense 3-hour hike had been a bad idea at the time. My knee is still feeling “stiff".

I had read this article that talked about exercising when sick. It basically outlined the following.

Don’t exercise when
1. Fever or serious illness
2. Taking medication for symptoms
3. Muscle pain
4. Diarrhea or vomiting
5. Tired, dizzy, or weak
6. Persistant cough or coughing up mucus

Once sickness is gone, start exercising with half the intensity.
7-10 days after recovery you can start new exercise.

Exercise moderately when
1. Have a cold or stuffy nose
2. Cough
3. Nausea
4. Sneezing
5. Watery eyes
6. Sore throat
7. Headache
8. PMS
9. Stomach pain

So basically, I thought I was following this guideline, but after reading it closely for the second time, I realized I wasn’t.

Maybe I should go see my nurse practitioner.

I Keep Coming Back For More

I don’t know why I’m focusing on how annoying my family is lately. Maybe I’m spending way too much time with them. But lately I’ve been annoyed with my sister Jen. She’s the same one who recently commented on my snacking habit. I’ve been doing a lot of exercising with her: biking, hiking, we even try to play tennis. I enjoy her company most of the time and appreciate how motivating it is to exercise with others, but, dang, she can be annoying! She finds weakness unacceptable and when it is she likes to use pity. Yesterday, when we were hiking, she scoffed at my fear of falling. I don’t scoff at her fear of dogs and cows. Why is it so hard to imagine that I don’t like to fall on jagged rocks? And because I was more cautious at descending, she was impatient and gave me advice on how to be faster. I am nothing but patient with her out-of-shaped ass as I wait for her when ascending and every time we go biking, I lower my heart rate, so that she can keep pace. What’s worse is the pity! I cannot stand being pitied, especially from my younger sister! And when I hurted myself, she kept saying, "aww". Today we went biking and it was the same as yesterday. I have a cold, so I was having difficulty keeping pace, and she wouldn’t slow down. And when she finally realized I was far behind, she looked at me with so much pity I wanted to strangle her! Then I made the mistake of bringing up my injury I got the other day. If I have to hear her say “aww” again, I’m going to be short one sister! Why does family have to be so annoying?! Makes me not want to exercise with her anymore.

Well, at least I don’t have to see her until next weekend.

Knee Problems and Family Bugs

I’m concerned about my knee. It’s been feeling stiff ever since I went lifting on Tuesday. I’m afraid I may have injured it. Maybe I had lifted too quickly. Also on Friday, I did strength training without doing cardio for the first time ever. Although, I warmed up for 5 minutes, I’m afraid I might not have been warm enough. Maybe that injured my knee further. Today, I focused on stretching it, and I also iced it. I might do strength training tomorrow. I might not. It depends on how I feel.

For lunch, we brought one of those pre-made pizzas to my parents’ house. It only took 15 minutes to bake, but I was so hungry and there were so much tempting snacks I could have eaten. I held out okay, only eating 2 chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Although, I ate two pizzas, when I should have limited myself to one, and I would have been fine with one and a half. Ideally, I should have eaten one slice and the banana I brought with me. I find my parents’ house stressful. There’s just too much stimuli. Plus my mom’s so annoying and she was sitting right by my ear as I ate. Does she always have to yell when she talks? Does she always have to be such an airhead? It makes me want to eat more.

After I ate I went back to my sister’s room where the package for macadamia nuts were so that I can record the nutritional information. My sister had assumed that I went to eat more chocolate, speaking disbelievingly that I would “go all the back to her room for more chocolate.” Why is this so unbelievable? I hate how my family associates me with my uncontrolled snacking habits. But I didn’t bother correcting their perception. Somehow I would rather have them believe that I’m a crazy snacker than someone whom recorded her food down. My mom told me to bring the chocolate downstairs so that she can eat some, so I ended up recording the nutritional information right in front of her. Mom stated, “That’s good that you do that!” This bothered me.

Sports Watch

Yes! I did it! I recorded my calorie intake for a whole month! Today’s the first of the month, and as promised I will gift myself a prize for maintaining within my calorie range. For the month of March, I got myself a sports watch battery.

“Sports watch battery? What about the watch?” you may be asking me.

Let me explain…

Two years ago my husband received a sports watch from my sisters as a Christmas present. They bought it on sale from Sportsmart (a discount sports store), and no wonder. It didn’t work. Since it was bought on sale from a discount store, we couldn’t exchange it for one that did work. My husband and I concluded that the watch’s batteries were either dead or the watch had mechanical issues. There was a warranty, but we didn’t know if the reason it didn’t work was because of a dead battery, something that the warranty did not cover. If we had mailed it in, we would have lost money on shipping charges. I suggested that we buy a battery, but he didn’t like the idea of wasting money on a battery that might not work, if the problem was the watch itself. Additionally, my husband didn’t even like how the watch looked. He believed that it looked too feminine and preferred to not invest time or money on it. So the watch was given to me, but I couldn’t justify spending the $10 on a battery when my husband believed it was a bad idea. If I bought a battery and it didn’t work, I would get gruff about it for a long time (my husband’s a cheapskate). So there it stayed, useless in the top drawer of my dresser.

Then, last week, I finally decided to buy a battery for it. I decided to use the money I would earn through this reward system that I set up. I can do whatever I want with that money. If I decided to take that money and throw it out the window, it would be okay. So if my husband gives me any gruff, I can say that the money I spent on it was reward money and he wouldn’t be able to say anything after that.

Lucky for us all, it worked! and I get a new sports watch!

I totally adore it! Not only does it tell time, but it tells the date, has a stopwatch, has a daily alarm, has hourly chime, is water resistant up to 300 ft, and has night vision backlight. Nice. I tried it on for the first time today. I used it to time my jog and to remind me to take my meds before lunch and dinner. I also plan to use it to time my laps when I swim. I posted a picture of it up here. According to epinions.com, it could have cost somewhere between $40-80! So it was a bargain at $10.

Badminton, Indian Buffet, and Awards Earned

Last weekend I played badminton with my hubby. I didn’t even play for the whole time, and I ended up being sore for three days after! It was fun, though. The type of exercise that you look forward to. I plan to play badminton whenever my husband’s guy friends drop out and whenever my mom can take care of the kids. We’ll be playing again tomorrow.

On Tuesday, my supervisor took me out to an Indian buffet. I knew a week ahead of time, so I researched it on the Internet then took the notes with me. Indian food is truly a mystery to me, and I didn’t want to make any mistakes. Although, I felt like I was cheating on a test, pulling the notes out whenever my supervisor was distracted with the phone or whenever she went to the buffet. My supervisor, however, caught me taking notes. She must think I’m really weird. In the end, I went over my calorie range, but it was all so worth it. If there’s any consolation, I think I only ate the vegetarian dishes. Which is good for the environment. Right?

On other news… I have added an “Awards Earned” on my side bar. I will earn money the more days I stay within my calorie range. Then the first of the month, I can use that cash to buy a weight-loss related reward for myself. Even if I earn no money, I will still give myself an award for keeping track of what I eat, albeit it’s worth should not cost any money. I’ve set up an award system before which didn’t pan out. Hopefully it will work out this time.

Spring and Weight Loss

Spring is in the air, when I went biking with my sister. The hills were green and the fields were covered with yellow flowers. All kinds of people were out on the bike trails yesterday, along with some bugs that we took home with us on our clothes. My sister and I are thinking of making it a habit. It’ll probably have to wait though until she repairs her rear tire.

With the warm air and sunshine, I’m even more inclined to procrastinate on my Special Project. Although I have decided that it would be okay if my procrastinating resulted in some needed exercise.

I just weighed myself. 144.1 lbs. After two weeks of gaining, I ended up losing 4 lbs in one week. The only difference is that I’m recording my food intake. Also, 144.1 mean that I have achieved my first milestone. Normally this should be something to celebrate about, but half of me believe it’s a fluke. Additionally, I had already reached this milestone when I first started this blog. Reaching this milestone again just reminds me of how fickle weight loss is.

I'm Baaaack!

Whew! This last quarter must have been the hardest quarter I've ever had! Fortunately, my blogging before school started helped me with my writing. Normally, I would fret over every word and spend most of the time looking at a black screen. Blogging helped me practice writing with abandonment. Unfortunately, at the end of the quarter, I fizzled out and couldn’t write another word, staring at a blank screen again. It took every ounce of energy I had to squeeze out the last word in my last assignment, but now I’m free. Still feel tied down somewhere…Oh that’s right! I still have the house and kids to take care of! Well, anyway, I’m at a state where I was before I went to school. Now I’m desperately trying to regain what I had and maybe move forward a little bit more. I didn’t hit the ground running. I turned in the paper on Friday and only re-started my exercise routine yesterday. I was going to do aerobics and weight training, but I decided (in mid-aerobics) that I would only do aerobics. Maybe start weight training Wednesday or next week.

This week I have vacation from internship. Since my in-laws are going on their cruise this week, Ly and I decided to also take a vacation. We’re going to Legoland. I’m so excited. We’ll be staying at my uncle’s house, which is 2 hours away from Legoland. I still plan to exercise when I’m there. Normally, my uncle’s house is a dessert food trap. My aunt is really into baking, and, dude, she’s good! Last time was crazy! My cousin, a student at the culinary academy, brought his schoolwork to my uncle’s, chocolate truffles! This time will be different. This time, we’ll be going in the middle of the week, and my culinary cousin lives far away enough from my uncle’s to not come visiting with his latest school work. Additionally, my aunt is up here because she has to attend a funeral, so I don’t have to brave through her yummy desserts.

I did terrible!

Ly went on a business trip this week, leaving me with the kids and homework. I had planned to stay at my parents’, but it didn’t work out. Teresa was needy all week, and I couldn’t get to the packing, so I was only able to stay at my parents’ on Wednesday. For Thursday, I stayed with my in-laws. It was a royal mess in terms of eating and dieting. I just couldn’t come to grips with my schedule. Planning ahead has been difficult since I returned to school. Having Ly gone had made it nearly impossible. Twice I weaseled out of working out, and I have brought my eating habits to a new low.

God. I hate telling the world how terrible I’m doing. I want so badly to report something good again.