After a positive weigh-in a couple of weeks ago, I gained 4 pounds back. I wasn't very happy about this, so I sat down and did some thinking. I was planning to use the walk home from my subway station as my daily exercise, but I hadn't been successfully consistent with it. Different things kept coming up, like my mom needing me to take the car, or needing to pick up groceries in that area. And then there were those days when I was just in a bad mood and didn't feel like it. For any readers that aren't aware of this already, I am NOT a morning person. I like to think I fake it very well with my dear friend caffeine, but generally speaking I am more of a night owl by nature. So, the thought of getting up to work out BEFORE work just seemed painful. My wakeup time was already at 6am, so getting up to work out would require 5 or 5:30. However, after gaining 4 pounds back which left me heavier than I was when I first started trying to get back on track, I decided to bite the bullet and just get up in the mornings.
There were definitely days that I didn't feel like it and really would've rather slept in, but I was able to do it consistently for a week. It also helped having my mom get up and join me. So far, I have been trying not to go too crazy. I just do 20 minutes on the elliptical, and I do crunches every other day. I'm trying to get back to exercising 6 days a week, which leaves me with one day over the weekend, and eventually I'd like to reintegrate weight training during that one day.
Well, after 5 weekdays and a day off on Saturday, I've lost 2 pounds. What's more important is I actually feel and look better. It's only been a week and 2 pounds doesn't seem like a lot, but I've already begun to notice a difference. It's really amazing how motivating it is to see the difference visually. I also keep reminding myself of where I was not too long ago, and I know for a fact that I can get back down to that size AND smaller. Like I stated in my first blog, my goal here is to be physically fit, not just hitting some abstract number. So, with some new found motivation, I feel like I'm finally ACTUALLY back on track. I have a trip to LA that I'm planning, and I'm hoping to get under 170 by then. Right now I'm at 173.4, so I feel it's completely doable if I keep this routine up. Yeah, 5:30am is painful like I thought it would be, but it feels great once I get into my rhythm and I have my music playing. That's another thing, having the right music is HUGELY important I've found.
Anyway, that's all for now. It's ten to 12 on this 4th of July night, and I need to take my behind to bed. Goodnight all, happy 4th, and I'll check in next weekend. :-)
-Jaymers
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Been a li'l while...
I'm making this blog short because I'm absolutely exhausted and in desperate need of my bed. I haven't blogged in a little while due to some physical illnesses. I won't go into details explaining what, because they're gross. But just know that everything is fine now. :-) My last weigh-in, I came in at 171.8. So I've lost a little bit more. I'm just going to continue to take things slowly. Will try to keep this thing up a little bit better. Maybe eventually I'll even post some pictures. Whoa....
G'night,
-Jaymers
G'night,
-Jaymers
Monday, June 7, 2010
End of week 1
So it's been 1 week since my last blog. According to the scale, I pretty much maintained my weight. I partly attribute this to the fact that I didn't get in as much hiking as I normally do. However, I am PMSing, (which I'm sure you all wanted to know,) so my estimate is that I've lost about a pound. My actual goal is 2 pounds per week, and I'm going to try to stick with my program to achieve that. So far, I am feeling better about the fact that I'm doing this again, because it felt really good to actually see my progress physically and feel it mentally. It's something that I'm willing to be patient about, because really this is about my health more than anything else. I'm not interested in losing 50 pounds in 3 days. Slow and steady feels more natural and more healthy, so that's what I'm sticking with. Anyway, I'm keeping this blog kinda short because I'm exhausted right now and I have to go eat dinner before it gets super late. I'll post another update next Sunday or Monday!
See ya,
Jaymers
P.S. Tomorrow is my birthday. My goal is to be where I want to be physically by my next birthday. We'll see how it goes....
See ya,
Jaymers
P.S. Tomorrow is my birthday. My goal is to be where I want to be physically by my next birthday. We'll see how it goes....
Monday, May 31, 2010
Day 1 (well, technically day 2)
Some of you reading may know that I started a weight loss program some time last year. Nothing too complicated, just diet and exercise. I was doing GREAT for a while, and dropped 22 pounds in about 5 months. I had some amazing support from some amazing people, and I'm truly grateful for that.
Well, back in November, I had a little thing called "finals" start to hit me. Not only that, but it was my last semester at college. I stopped monitoring what I was eating, and I stopped exercising. It became more important to me to make sure I finished school and passed all my classes, and I felt at the time that it was taking up too much time to use the weight loss methods I'd been using. I figured if I took a break from it for a while and got back to it later, I wouldn't fall too far behind.
After finishing school in December, the reality of post-grad life hit. Combine that with the reality of a crap California economy, and you get me sitting at home day in and day out with no car frantically applying for jobs and sending out my resume on a daily basis. There are surprisingly not a lot of people who are looking to hire someone with 3 years of salad-making experience. I won't go into a lot of detail here, because it was a very sensitive time that I don't really wish to relive, but basically I was very down and very hard on myself. That wasn't exactly the best motivation for eating well and exercising regularly. I had a few attempts to jump back into it, but they never lasted longer than a few days.
As they say, it's always darkest before the dawn. And with some serious help from my Mom, who is AWESOME by the way, I was able to get some temp work. From there, I was able to get some full time work. Life has been a lot more positive lately. I enjoy my job, I like the people I work with, and I've been feeling significantly better about myself and where my life is headed. Now that I have my positive attitude back, and a fancy shmancy new scale, I've started back on my weight loss program.
Now, the scale is a tricky thing, because unless you have a faulty scale or some issue with your floor, it's going to be completely honest with you. I wasn't monitoring what I ate, and I wasn't being physically active, so naturally, I gained a lot of the weight back that I'd lost. Not all of it, but a significant amount. So when I got my spiffy new scale and I finally weighed myself for the first time in 5 months, at first I wasn't particularly happy with what I saw. However, I wasn't surprised. After the initial reaction, I decided to designate a weigh-in day, (Sundays from now on,) and get back to my food program.
For those of you that do not know, I'd been using Livestrong.com. Its main purpose is counting calories, but it does more than that. It helps you balance out everything you're eating. So when I type in the food I eat, it not only shows me how many calories, it shows me how much fat, sugar, cholesterol, etc. as well. 9 of the 22 pounds that I lost initially were without exercise, so I know that it works well for me. Now, I live about 2 and a half miles away from the nearest subway, and for the last couple of weeks I've been walking home from the subway. It's also worth mentioning, I live in the hills, and it's primarily an uphill hike. So, that's been my exercise lately. I started back on livestrong.com yesterday, making this my second official day back on my program.
I thought it might be a good idea to blog about this process, because I feel that my chances of sticking with it might be higher now that I'm sharing it with anyone who is willing to read this. One of my best friends has been doing it too, and it just seemed like a good idea. It's really important to me to not only lose weight, but get my body physically fit, something I don't know that I've ever been. So, with this insanely long introduction to myself, I welcome you to my blog, and I thank you for taking the time to read. Or skim. Whichever you're doing. My goal is to do this blog once a week after every weigh-in so you all can read about my progress. Again, thanks for stopping by.
-Jaymers
Well, back in November, I had a little thing called "finals" start to hit me. Not only that, but it was my last semester at college. I stopped monitoring what I was eating, and I stopped exercising. It became more important to me to make sure I finished school and passed all my classes, and I felt at the time that it was taking up too much time to use the weight loss methods I'd been using. I figured if I took a break from it for a while and got back to it later, I wouldn't fall too far behind.
After finishing school in December, the reality of post-grad life hit. Combine that with the reality of a crap California economy, and you get me sitting at home day in and day out with no car frantically applying for jobs and sending out my resume on a daily basis. There are surprisingly not a lot of people who are looking to hire someone with 3 years of salad-making experience. I won't go into a lot of detail here, because it was a very sensitive time that I don't really wish to relive, but basically I was very down and very hard on myself. That wasn't exactly the best motivation for eating well and exercising regularly. I had a few attempts to jump back into it, but they never lasted longer than a few days.
As they say, it's always darkest before the dawn. And with some serious help from my Mom, who is AWESOME by the way, I was able to get some temp work. From there, I was able to get some full time work. Life has been a lot more positive lately. I enjoy my job, I like the people I work with, and I've been feeling significantly better about myself and where my life is headed. Now that I have my positive attitude back, and a fancy shmancy new scale, I've started back on my weight loss program.
Now, the scale is a tricky thing, because unless you have a faulty scale or some issue with your floor, it's going to be completely honest with you. I wasn't monitoring what I ate, and I wasn't being physically active, so naturally, I gained a lot of the weight back that I'd lost. Not all of it, but a significant amount. So when I got my spiffy new scale and I finally weighed myself for the first time in 5 months, at first I wasn't particularly happy with what I saw. However, I wasn't surprised. After the initial reaction, I decided to designate a weigh-in day, (Sundays from now on,) and get back to my food program.
For those of you that do not know, I'd been using Livestrong.com. Its main purpose is counting calories, but it does more than that. It helps you balance out everything you're eating. So when I type in the food I eat, it not only shows me how many calories, it shows me how much fat, sugar, cholesterol, etc. as well. 9 of the 22 pounds that I lost initially were without exercise, so I know that it works well for me. Now, I live about 2 and a half miles away from the nearest subway, and for the last couple of weeks I've been walking home from the subway. It's also worth mentioning, I live in the hills, and it's primarily an uphill hike. So, that's been my exercise lately. I started back on livestrong.com yesterday, making this my second official day back on my program.
I thought it might be a good idea to blog about this process, because I feel that my chances of sticking with it might be higher now that I'm sharing it with anyone who is willing to read this. One of my best friends has been doing it too, and it just seemed like a good idea. It's really important to me to not only lose weight, but get my body physically fit, something I don't know that I've ever been. So, with this insanely long introduction to myself, I welcome you to my blog, and I thank you for taking the time to read. Or skim. Whichever you're doing. My goal is to do this blog once a week after every weigh-in so you all can read about my progress. Again, thanks for stopping by.
-Jaymers
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