It has been quite a while since I have been able to sit down and get blogging. It's so weird, because I have actually had some people ask me, "Did I miss one?" And I just laugh and explain to them that actually I'm just getting THAT much busier as it gets closer to the wedding. Also work couldn't be busier lately.
So, I'm sure you are all dying to know. It's been a month. Has she given in to her inner fat girl yet? The wedding is right around the corner, will she fit into the dress? Well, first of all I feel I still have a great balance of eating really healthy during the day and then saving my indulgences for the evening. I still eat the same basic meals that I have talked about in previous blogs for my day time food, but as I have explained before, I really become a star in the kitchen in the late night hours.
Over the last few weeks I have come up with things like cubed apples covered in cinnamon and a packet of sweetener warmed up in the microwave. There have also been some 2% milk stirred up with some Midnight Moo (chocolate syrup from TJs) and perhaps a dabble or five of whipped cream on top. Did I mention that I am also really into making Mexican dishes at night? YUM. Just last night I made some veggie and flax seed chips that I covered in 1 tbsp bean dip (sprinkled about evenly), chipotle salsa (also sprinkled about evenly) and Mexican 2% cheeses (whatever your serving size is and maybe a sprinkle more). I started by cooking it on stove top. I sprayed my pan with some canola oil and then quickly learned that my chips were cooking at a MUCH faster speed then my cheeses. What to do? What to do? So I tossed it all off the pan and onto a plate. It was time for the microwave to finish the job. I have to say it was Mexican perfection for a white girl. I really would like to pat myself on the back for that one. OH! I can't forget to mention that I dip my chip concoction (nachos?) in light sour cream and cholula. Oh cholula, we have a secret love affair.
Side note. If you haven't tried cholula hot sauce before... Let me make a strong case for it. Spicy foods help your digestive track along. Wanna know why those pretty Japanese girls are so damn skinny. Its because they keep wasabi in their pockets like their momma taught them. Point being, cholula is spicy AND yummy. Both qualities that wasabi lacks for me. So let's connect the dots.. Spicy, tasty, VERY tasty and makes all meats taste even better. I know, I know. You are probably sold already. But here is the best part. Each 1 tsp of Cholula, or any hot sauce for that matter, is less than 5 calories per serving. Downside? All hot sauces are high in sodium, but if you monitor what goes in your garbage shoot like I do, you will know if it's ok to add some more of my girl cholula.
So, now that you know where cholula and I stand, you may be wondering how the gym and I stand. Well, I am still body bugging it up. I heart my body bugg forever and ever. I am also still addicted to the gym. However, since I have gotten very close to my goal size, I have changed my work out a bit. Here is brief review. I started out at 163 pounds in January of 2009. Today I weight 130 pounds. I have weighed 130 for probably the last 3 to 4 weeks. One might refer to this lovely phase in my program as a "plateau". I am beginning to think my body has said NO MORE. And is very specifically requesting to stay at this weight. That being said, I have begun to listen. Instead of doing so much cardio, I have been doing more weight training. I still have a bit of fat that I would like to turn into muscle, so they say that working out this way should accomplish that.
What am I doing now? First off, I only go once a day now. (I used to go to the gym twice a day. I'm a crazy, I know). When I am there, I do about 15-20 minutes cardio, a drop down from my old 30-45. I prefer the elliptical over all other machines. After that I do lots of different free weight exercises with my arms. I also use those controlled machine thingies with the weights. That's the technical term, right? I usually use these machines for my leg exercises and pull ups and other random arm stuff. After that I usually do some wall squats with a ball or maybe some sit ups on a ball. At the end I always always always stretch for a good while. If I don't my legs will feel like rocks.
Overall I feel that I have not let you guys down yet. In fact, I am hoping that at this time next year, I will still be maintaining what I have done. Dreaming big, I know. So it's about 2 months and a few days til my wedding. OHHHHHHH MY GOSH! How excited am I? Keep your fingers and toes and all other parts crossed so that I don't lose my mind. Until next time friends...
Showing posts with label gym. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gym. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Oopsie Whoopsies
Like my mother always said, "Danielle, if your head was not attached, you'd forget that too". Well, today I had one of those forgetful Dani moments that I have come to hate oh so much.
At around 12:45pm I saw it was getting close to lunch time, so I ran to go get my banana for my pre-gym snack. I practically swallowed that whole and before I knew it, it was ten minutes after 1. How did that happen? I rushed down to the parking garage, exit the building and sit frustrated at multiple lights on my way to the gym. At about 1:25 I made it to the gym. This took way too long, it should really only take me five minutes to get to the gym from work, but I digress.
So I bolt out of the parking garage of the gym and run into the bathroom/locker room area. I pull out my gym pants, sports bra, socks and tank top. Hmmm, something seems to be missing. Ah, sneakers!! I go in and I pull out a sneaker, but can't seem to find the other one. I push the sweatshirt I have in my bag around as if a sneaker might magically appear underneath it. No dice. I had only brought one sneaker with me. Who does that? After all that rushing, I forgot my damn sneaker! Ugh.
I contemplate what to do, hands on hips, tapping my toes, feeling embarrassed to have forgotten such a key part of my work out clothing. Then I could hear another woman walking around in the locker room. I sought her out and asked her how dumb I would look if I worked out in my suede brown flats and explained to her my situation. After looking at me and assessing that I was not a crazy person, she politely told me not to worry about it and to just be careful. I thanked her and decided to give it a go with my brown flats.
I walked out to the treadmill, hoping that no one would notice what was on my feet. At first it was not so bad speed walking with out sneakers, but then it suddenly became obvious that this was not going to be easy. My left food, otherwise known as my bad foot, did not like what was happening. It started to feel achy, so I decided to hold on instead of pumping my arms in case it gave out. I made it about ten minutes on the treadmill before my feet couldn't really take it any more. It really is amazing how cushioned sneakers are so that you don't feel all that pain I was feeling.
Next I decided to try the bike, which in my head seemed like it would be super easy to do, but this was also not so great. Why? Because my stupid flats kept hanging off the back of my foot while I was peddling. Not cool. I probably looked so silly to whoever was in the gym behind me. I decided that I would tough this one out for another ten minutes too and then move on to weights.
Thank goodness for the weight machines, because they, I am now convinced, are the only non-sneaker friendly things to do at the gym. I was able to do anything I wanted on these machines with out worrying about my feet. And I think I still burned enough calories to meet my goals for the day. The main thing I learned during lunch is to NEVER, ever forget my sneakers. It is a huge let down and it really puts a damper on the whole working out thing. However with my track record, I am sure I will forget something even better soon enough. After all, it is not a coincidence that Jimmy comes up with songs titled "Forgetful Dani".
At around 12:45pm I saw it was getting close to lunch time, so I ran to go get my banana for my pre-gym snack. I practically swallowed that whole and before I knew it, it was ten minutes after 1. How did that happen? I rushed down to the parking garage, exit the building and sit frustrated at multiple lights on my way to the gym. At about 1:25 I made it to the gym. This took way too long, it should really only take me five minutes to get to the gym from work, but I digress.
So I bolt out of the parking garage of the gym and run into the bathroom/locker room area. I pull out my gym pants, sports bra, socks and tank top. Hmmm, something seems to be missing. Ah, sneakers!! I go in and I pull out a sneaker, but can't seem to find the other one. I push the sweatshirt I have in my bag around as if a sneaker might magically appear underneath it. No dice. I had only brought one sneaker with me. Who does that? After all that rushing, I forgot my damn sneaker! Ugh.
I contemplate what to do, hands on hips, tapping my toes, feeling embarrassed to have forgotten such a key part of my work out clothing. Then I could hear another woman walking around in the locker room. I sought her out and asked her how dumb I would look if I worked out in my suede brown flats and explained to her my situation. After looking at me and assessing that I was not a crazy person, she politely told me not to worry about it and to just be careful. I thanked her and decided to give it a go with my brown flats.
I walked out to the treadmill, hoping that no one would notice what was on my feet. At first it was not so bad speed walking with out sneakers, but then it suddenly became obvious that this was not going to be easy. My left food, otherwise known as my bad foot, did not like what was happening. It started to feel achy, so I decided to hold on instead of pumping my arms in case it gave out. I made it about ten minutes on the treadmill before my feet couldn't really take it any more. It really is amazing how cushioned sneakers are so that you don't feel all that pain I was feeling.
Next I decided to try the bike, which in my head seemed like it would be super easy to do, but this was also not so great. Why? Because my stupid flats kept hanging off the back of my foot while I was peddling. Not cool. I probably looked so silly to whoever was in the gym behind me. I decided that I would tough this one out for another ten minutes too and then move on to weights.
Thank goodness for the weight machines, because they, I am now convinced, are the only non-sneaker friendly things to do at the gym. I was able to do anything I wanted on these machines with out worrying about my feet. And I think I still burned enough calories to meet my goals for the day. The main thing I learned during lunch is to NEVER, ever forget my sneakers. It is a huge let down and it really puts a damper on the whole working out thing. However with my track record, I am sure I will forget something even better soon enough. After all, it is not a coincidence that Jimmy comes up with songs titled "Forgetful Dani".
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Dani VS the Treadmill
This week I have been sans work out buddy for lunch, so instead of going to the park, I have been driving to my gym. Lucky for me, my gym is close by to where I work. Coincidence? I think not. (much thanks goes to miss Kelli for pointing me in the direction of said gym back in January)
Anyhow I got to the gym today and my favorite machine was already taken. It is a smaller gym, so they have about one of each specialty cardio machine and then six or seven treadmills. So as you may have guessed, I opted for the treadmill today. Now, I do not claim to be a runner by any stretch of the imagination. I believe I have stated that before, but just in case you forgot. Dani = not a runner.
Now that we have that cleared up, I get on the old treadmillrooski and decide that for this lunch break I will put in a solid 30 minutes. I get warmed up for about 3 minutes on 3.9 mph speed walking. Then I notice the man next to me glancing at what I'm doing. My first instinct was to tell nosy where he could look next, but instead I convinced myself that he was probably just jealous of how insanely good I was at speed walking and continued on.
Once my first 3 minutes of speed walking were up, I decided to see how long I could last jogging. I upped the speed to 5.3mph and felt pretty good. I was surprised at how easy it felt at first. It's weird to describe because sometimes it feels really good to jog and other times it feels plain awful. The plain awful could be described as knees aching, lungs burning(thanks years of smoking) and shins feeling a little sensitive. But the plain awful feelings come and go with this feeling of euphoria, like I can just do anything.
Through the ups and downs of the 5.3 mph jogging I tried to tell myself to not look at the time. That maybe if I didn't see it, that I would last longer. So I glanced down at the start of it all at 27 minutes left to go, then again at 23 minutes to go, and then lastly at 17 minutes left to go where I felt my arm raising to lower the speed. I swear my mind thought I could go longer, but my knees were telling a sadly different story and somehow overpowered my will to keep at that speed.
In total I lasted ten minutes at 5.3 mph and then for the duration of my time I continued to speed walk at 3.9 again. I had this feeling of satisfaction for lasting for ten minutes jogging with out stopping, followed by a feeling of disappointment that I couldn't keep going. I have decided since returning to my desk that there is really no reason to be disappointed. Although it is completely natural for me to be hard on myself, I have come a long way from only being able to jog for like 2 minutes and will continue to try to stay positive, despite my ability to find the negative in just about everything.
Anyhow I got to the gym today and my favorite machine was already taken. It is a smaller gym, so they have about one of each specialty cardio machine and then six or seven treadmills. So as you may have guessed, I opted for the treadmill today. Now, I do not claim to be a runner by any stretch of the imagination. I believe I have stated that before, but just in case you forgot. Dani = not a runner.
Now that we have that cleared up, I get on the old treadmillrooski and decide that for this lunch break I will put in a solid 30 minutes. I get warmed up for about 3 minutes on 3.9 mph speed walking. Then I notice the man next to me glancing at what I'm doing. My first instinct was to tell nosy where he could look next, but instead I convinced myself that he was probably just jealous of how insanely good I was at speed walking and continued on.
Once my first 3 minutes of speed walking were up, I decided to see how long I could last jogging. I upped the speed to 5.3mph and felt pretty good. I was surprised at how easy it felt at first. It's weird to describe because sometimes it feels really good to jog and other times it feels plain awful. The plain awful could be described as knees aching, lungs burning(thanks years of smoking) and shins feeling a little sensitive. But the plain awful feelings come and go with this feeling of euphoria, like I can just do anything.
Through the ups and downs of the 5.3 mph jogging I tried to tell myself to not look at the time. That maybe if I didn't see it, that I would last longer. So I glanced down at the start of it all at 27 minutes left to go, then again at 23 minutes to go, and then lastly at 17 minutes left to go where I felt my arm raising to lower the speed. I swear my mind thought I could go longer, but my knees were telling a sadly different story and somehow overpowered my will to keep at that speed.
In total I lasted ten minutes at 5.3 mph and then for the duration of my time I continued to speed walk at 3.9 again. I had this feeling of satisfaction for lasting for ten minutes jogging with out stopping, followed by a feeling of disappointment that I couldn't keep going. I have decided since returning to my desk that there is really no reason to be disappointed. Although it is completely natural for me to be hard on myself, I have come a long way from only being able to jog for like 2 minutes and will continue to try to stay positive, despite my ability to find the negative in just about everything.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)