Calorie Counting

After my 4th or 5th time of rereading Emily's journey to health, I signed up for the 7-day trial of Calorie King. I can already tell I'm going to put up the money when it expires. It's addictive, like playing one of the Dragons of Atlantis games I'm obsessed with on Facebook, but in the real world! I love all the mini-steps.

Today, I went to a cycling class, and had my weekly session with my personal trainer. That, combined with absolutely no snacking (not planned, just happened), put me at a deficit of calories when I got home! In order to reach my target, which I had previously thought was going to be difficult to stay under, I had to consume more than 2000 calories at dinner. While I'm certain I have taken in easily that amount in a binge, it didn't happen tonight. I ate a vanilla skyr (Icelandic yogurt) while I wandered around trying to figure out what I wanted, since pretty much anything was up for grabs.

I ran through everything I could think of in my head- Pizza Hut? Didn't sound unappetizing, but didn't thrill me. Something healthy, then- tofu and quinoa? Same verdict. Whole wheat pasta with some indulgent white cheddar sauce? No, way too heavy. Brownies? Actually sounded decidedly unappetizing- I never thought I'd see the day. I finally came around to the taste of a Red Baron cheese pizza. But surely this would be too much, I thought. When it comes to pizzas, I have a disturbing tendency to eat well over half in one sitting. I looked it up on Calorie King. Nope, even eating half the pizza would barely put a dent.

So I ended up eating half a pizza. I still have over 1000 calories that I am supposed to make up, but I'm just not going to. For starters, it's after 11pm now, and I am usually in bed by this point. Ideally already asleep. And, even though I am excited to proceed with this, I'm not going to kid myself into thinking that everyday is going to fall like today. I'm going to be glad to have that 1000 when the week evens out, I'd imagine.

Still, I like knowing that I can buy the extra calories with a spinning class, when I really need a treat!

I'm also noticing that now that I've eaten the pizza, I feel very heavy and slow. Not in a sick way, like I do when I binge, or eat too much pasta and cheddar sauce (still can't figure out what exactly in that combo unsettles my stomach). I probably always feel this way, and have just never noticed before. Ending on pizza psychologically feels like I didn't accomplish anything towards my weight loss and fitness goals today, when I logically know that it was just the opposite. Something to think about.

Natterings From a Recent Return Home

Snippets From Here and There....

I'm noticing that country music videos inspire me to work out. I think some of it is that I like the music, and if is an upbeat song, I want to move to the beat. But a large part of it is that I love the idea of living in Nashville for a time, and wouldn't it be fun to be one of those girls in the video? Need to have rocking abs for that...

I had this whole post ready to go on my brainwave to use DDR for some cardio work this summer, in lieu of talking my parents into shelling out $150 for a cardio machine on Craigslist. Then, disaster. I thought I brought home my whole DDR set up with me from Texas a year ago, but I can't find the PS2! I have the dance pads, the discs, even the game controller, all here. No console. This is problematic.

I am now on the 12th straight day of my food diary. This is unprecedented. And it's pretty impressive to go back and read over, as well... A lot of repeat items: tofu (sizzled in a pan a la Daily Garnish) and non-fat Greek yogurt (vanilla) are the most notable, I think.

IT IS SO NICE HAVING A KITCHEN AND FRIDGE AGAIN. Tofu every day, done up any way I want it. Chili. I have my eye on several soups. Cheese! Almond milk! Green Monsters!

Probably my proudest dinner thus far was a serving of peanut sauce tofu (a serving is the size of one fist) and a half of a Green Monster. Protein, healthy fats, fiber, SPINACH. Oh yes.

Cold Food is Good Food

I didn't get the fridge, unfortunately, but I decided that I just plain need some form of refrigeration, so I've ordered this funky electric cooler off of Amazon. It should help things last for a few days. It's pretty small, so I'm planning on prioritizing:

• Almond milk
• Emmental cheese
• Opened cans of beans
• Bulk batches of quinoa
• Opened cans of coconut milk
• And finally, overnight oats made in Tupperware

I want to get back on the Five Factor diet (affiliate link) idea. I haven't found any corn tortillas here, which is unfortunate, but I can make my standard burritos sans the tortilla, and still cover my bases. It means I won't have my olive oil for the healthy fat, but there are healthy fats in the beans and the chia, so it should still work out. And I can always eat a few almonds. Maybe if I run through this quinoa fast I might try millet as well. Emily at Daily Garnish speaks highly of it. But, when you factor in Spring Break, I'll actually only be eating in this room another two months, so I shouldn't go out buying anything else just yet!

Starting to worry that my chia might have gone bad. The last few batches of overnight oats I have made have tasted pretty sketchy, like something has spoiled, but the mixture I've been making of oats, crushed cashews, and agave syrup has been fine. I hope my chia hasn't died! It's probably really expensive to ship over here, and I didn't see any in Naturalia.

Push-ups were harder today, but still doable. Also about to go add in some ab work.

As far as actually getting out to run goes, I'm still being a weeny about it. A blog I stumbled across but can't for the life of me remember the name of collected some motivational exercise quotes from her readers, and I noted down a few:

• Pain is weakness leaving the body
• You are just one workout away from a good mood!
• Obsessed is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated
• I've never regretted a workout
• You know your limit, and this is NOT it!

Hopefully making these a mantra will get me out the door. 

Pink, Glorious Pink

My new inspiration:

I WANT THESE SO MUCH

These are the pink-and-black Vibram FiveFingers Treksport (no affiliate link here, they are just awesome). They are like my basic KSOs, but a little more specific to trail running. 

More importantly, they are pink. 

These are my new inspiration. I can't talk myself or my parents into springing for these ($100) if I'm not an avid trail runner. Therefore I must become one. Therefore I must run.

They make me SO HAPPY. I just get a total buzz from looking at them. I kept popping up to look at pictures of them during my push-up regimen today, to power me through the last few sets. Hey, whatever it takes, right?

On that note, I'm pretty proud of my push-ups today. I was still sore from last time, but I got down on the floor and pounded them out anyway. Strangely, the 4th push-up of each set was the hardest. Not the last one, not the second one, the fourth. Each time. But after the second set, the pain in my muscles went away temporarily! I think my muscles were too fatigued to even bother sending out pain signals. "Why bother, she's just going to keep doing this to us anyway. Let's save our energy...."(I imagine this in a little squeaky voice, but then, I am currently high on pink running shoes, so feel free to sidle away slowly).

First Musings on Inspiration

Starting to readjust to my circuit training, after almost two weeks back on it. I've found that getting really pumped and mentally in the game before I walk in, often through a conscious effort, helps me to really get all I can get out of the workout. Obviously, just going through the paces is a whole lot better than not going in even if I'm not bringing my A-game, but why not always bring said game? I'm paying for it, I might as well get all I can get!

Sometimes just having a really happy daydream going on works- my best workout ever came when I spent most of my time imagining winning an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Yesterday, I was fresh from starting Apolo Ohno's book Zero Regrets: Be Greater Than Yesterday. I am only about halfway through, but it is very inspiring (which seems to be rather the point). Oddly, though, what really got me going was not from a part I have reached yet. The only season of Dancing with the Stars I ever watched was the season he won, and I suddenly remembered all of the effort he put into nailing the jump in the paso double. The next thing I knew, I was pounding out lat pulldowns like nobody's business. So, good find.

I've been eating smart today. I kinda screwed around a little the past few days, but today I've been solid. Breakfast was a mix of Kashi Go Lean! and Kashi Go Lean! Crunch (regular has more fiber and protein, Crunch is tastier and has more whole grains), with skim milk and a healthy serving of chia mixed in. Lunch I had to do on the go, so I packed two slices of sharp cheddar, some reduced fat Triscuits, and a handful of almonds in a plastic baggy, all consumed with some ice water. And then dinner was a quick but tasty affair- a bowl full of quinoa, heated, with teriyaki sauce and chia. It's the first time I've tried teriyaki sauce with something other than rice, and I have to tell you, quinoa and teriyaki sauce work wonderfully together. I'm still perfecting my own teriyaki recipe, so for now I just buy bottles of it from my favorite local teriyaki restaurant. NOT the nasty stuff you can buy in glass bottles in stores. I don't know what that stuff even is, but it is not teriyaki sauce, I promise you. I don't care what the label says.

Talk to you soon! And Merry Christmas*!!



*I'm a huge Christmas person, but I have no wish to offend. So if you want a shout-out for other occasions, hit me up in the comments! I'll gladly wish y'all a Happy Hanukkah, Happy Solstice, Happy Random Government Holiday in December, Happy Stare Dramatically Off Into the Distance Day, or whatever else your heart desires (within the bounds of propriety, of course!!).