Day 174: More Ouch

Today, I had the rest of my dreaded dental work done, and it wasn't that bad during the process. But man, the pain in my gums when the drugs started wearing off this time gave me one heck of a headache. I am very thankful for Advil this evening. Advil allowed me to make it to Zumba, which remains my favorite. :-)

Log: 

Exercise:

• Zumba with Tiffany at the Cary gym (exactly 6000 steps tonight!)
• I was supposed to do Day 7 of the 30-day Abs Challenge, but I actually completely forgot to do it. Day 8 is a rest day, so I am just flip-flopping those days and will do Day 7 tomorrow.

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: two eggs scrambled with cheese, 1/2 a cup of grits, a thin slice of homemade banana bread
• Lunch: grilled chicken thighs, roasted sweet potato, and French green beans with olive oil and porcini salt
• Dinner: steel cut oats with cinnamon and brown sugar, milk, and a medium banana (soft stuff bc my mouth huuuuuuuuurts!)
• Snacks: none

Stats:

• Steps:11,985
• Calories: 1231 consumed, 754 burned
• Weight: 190 lbs

Day 168: Half-ass Day - SO Sore!

I woke up this morning to go to barbell class, but my legs were so sore that it really felt like a mistake. I slept longer. I did some stretching. I did some more stretching at work, and then opted to skip my lunchtime walk. It's been a long time since I wimped out on exercise because of overdoing it, but today, I did. Whew. By the end of the day, I had stretched enough to at least walk some, but it was late, and I was alone with sleeping kids, so I just walked in the house--so boring, but way better than nothing.

My eating was ok today, but I could have still eaten more veggies than I did. I tried to keep the calories a bit low since I didn't do very much active. Tomorrow, I will be eating lunch out, so we'll see how that goes. At least it's a Zumba day.

One other note: my friend Meredith was talking about doing the 30-day Abs challenge, and I decided to do it again with her. I have gotten out of the habit of doing evening ab work, and I need to re-add that. It was really making a big difference in my shape and my post-C-section belly fat. So, today I started back at day one of that challenge. The big difference this time is that I can actually DO the exercises from the start, whereas the last time I had to build up to them. It was nice to have a decent leg raise on day one this time.

Log: 

Exercise:

• Day 1 of the 30-day Abs Challenge: 15 sit-ups, 5 leg raises, 5 crunches (I did 10 because 5 felt too wimpy), 10 second plank
• Walking around the living room for roughly ever

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: steel cut oats with brown sugar and cinnamon, sliced almonds, and fresh blueberries, milk, tea with milk and raw sugar
• Lunch: roasted chicken and tiny potatoes, brussels sprouts with garlic
• Dinner: turkey and havarti wrap, sliced cucumbers and carrots with honey mustard
• Snacks:two leftover bites of Kieran's peanut butter and elderberry jelly sandwich on TJ's honey whole wheat bread

Stats:

• Steps:8,045
• Calories: 1064 consumed, 0 burned
• Weight: 190 lb

Day 167: Working Through It

Today, I had to have some dental work done instead of taking a lunchtime walk. It wasn't too bad, except for the mouth numbing part and the ensuing soreness as the anesthesia wore off. Given that, and the fact that I may have overdone it at barbell class yesterday, this day was all about working through some pain. Yay for Advil!

My eating was also a little odd today because of the teeth issue. I definitely ate too many carbs and didn't eat enough vegetables. I'll do better with that tomorrow after my gums have had a chance to recover.

I won't lie--making it to Zumba tonight was a near thing. I was tired and sore, the kids were off the chain, and the couch and the Netflix and the cat and the knitting were calling my name. But I am glad I went--check out my steps before and after class:

You can't argue with that, folks.

Log: 

Exercise:

• Zumba with Tiffany at the Cary gym

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: Starbucks breakfast sandwich with egg whites and turkey bacon on a whole wheat English muffin, tea with 2% milk and raw sugar
• Lunch: 1/2 a turkey and havarti sandwich on whole wheat with organic mayo, a handful of grapes
• Dinner: the other half of the turkey sandwich and a little bit of homemade chicken noodle soup
• Snacks:a slice of whole wheat toast with almond butter and sliced banana, 1/2 a cup of 2% milk

Stats:

• Steps: 12,041
• Calories: 1359 consumed, 1050 burned
• Weight: 190 lb

Day Fifty-Four: Healing Up

My ankle and foot are 100 time better today, but I chose not to put any strain on it to avoid accidentally getting a serious injury that would be apt to de-rail me for more than just a couple of days. Today's exercise is nada again, and it's chafing! I feel like a blob moving so little!

It's raining here. It's been raining for a week, and there's no end in sight till probably next Tuesday. There's a big fat hurricane off the coast that's dumping water on my state, so much that our governor has already declared us to be in a state of emergency. My farmers market and CSA pickup are cancelled for this weekend, which means I need to find time tomorrow to get to the store before everyone goes into panic mode. I plan to spend my whole weekend cooking and holing up at home with my family.

Now, off to sit on my butt and watch TV. Again.

Log:

Exercise:

• Nothing--I am determined to get my foot healed up ASAP, so I can get back at it!

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: a piece of 9th Street Bakery's Omega-3-Seed bread with mission almond butter and half a banana, 2 cups of tea with milk and raw sugar
• Lunch: homemade applesauce, baked chicken breast, kale salad with warm cranberry vinaigrette
• Dinner: turkey chili with a little shredded cheese and a few Trader Joe's Black Bead & Quinoa chips
• Snacks:1 Mozarella Babybel

Stats:

• Steps: 4635
• Calories: 1371 consumed,  0 burned
• Weight: 196 on the home scale

Day Fifty-Three: OUCH!

I can't tell you how gratifying it was to step on the scale this morning and see a 196. I seriously thought something was wrong with the scale--I triple checked it to make sure it was tared correctly because I was so disbelieving! It's seriously motivational to see jumps like that, and not something I expected, really. So that means as of today, I have lost 15.5 lbs according to my home scale, which registered 211.5 on day one of this challenge. Now, the home scale in general measures a little lighter than the gym scale, so I am sure it's not quite as low by gym standards, but the progression is there none-the-less. Yay!

It's interesting how different I feel about my progression this time. This feels more real than any weight loss attempt I have ever had before in my life. I can see a difference in my body already, and it makes me want to see more of a difference. And, perhaps more importantly, I can FEEL a difference. I feel loads better than I did before I started. I feel more like myself than I have in many years. Here's hoping I will be physically able to continue at this pace for a long, long time. My mother and Jason continue to support and inspire me, as do many others around me.

And yet...

For all of my positivity and good feelings getting started this morning, I was de-railed today by my own clumsiness. Walking back to my car after lunch, I stepped on a wide sidewalk crack just wrong enough to trip and wrench my ankle and foot enough that, here at the end of the day, I can barely walk. I had every intention of going to Zumba class, but since I can't put all my weight on my foot, jumping and lunging onto it seems like a Very Bad Idea. I am spending the evening on the couch with ice, advil, and Outlander. It's not unpleasant, but it's certainly disappointing and not at all what I wanted from my evening. I am skipping barbell class in the morning as well in the hopes that this will be better by Friday, so I can make at least ONE Zumba class this week. *sigh*

Log:

Exercise:

• zilch, nada, nuthin' at all

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: two eggs scrambled with cheese, a piece of 9th Street Bakery's amazing Omega-3-Seed bread with homemade apple butter, 2 cups of tea with milk and raw sugar
• Lunch: Pei Wei Thai lettuce wraps (540 calories and more fat and sodium than i care to think about--that's about as good as it gets at Pei Wei)
• Dinner: baked chicken breast, kale salad with warm cranberry vinaigrette
• Snacks: N/A

Stats:

• Steps: fitbit battery died, so no idea--not enough!
• Calories: 1296 consumed,  0 burned (stupid foot!)
• Weight: 196 on the home scale