Tomorrow Is Another Day...

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #28

1) If you were a famous movie star, what types of movies would you star in?
Historical dramas, no doubt.  From the moment I fell madly in love with Gone with the Wind to my weakness for BBC costume dramas, I have dreamed of playing a beautifully dressed woman of days gone by in a film with an astronomical costume budget.  Of course, with my luck, I'd probably end up cast as the hard-luck guttersnipe dressed in dirty rags. 

2) What is a vacation you would like to take if money were no object?
This is tough, because there are so many places I want to go.  Just one of my many dreams is Paris.  I would take a first class flight direct from the East coast to Charles De Gualle airport, where I would be met by the driver of a fancy limousine who would spend the next weeks driving me everywhere I want to go.  I would spent the next week in a Frenzy of Parisian delights, then set off for a 2-3 week tour of France stopping at Giverny, Normandy, the Loire Valley, the Champagne region, and the French Riveira.  And of course staying in nothing but the finest establishments--The Ritz in Paris and a swanky castle in the Loire--and eating the creme de la creme of French culinary delights!

Um.  I'm ready to go now.

3) Did you have pets growing up?

Tinkerbelle "Belle" Kriger
July 1994 - November 2010 

4) What do you do for exercise?
Run slowly.  I really like Jillian Michaels and Insanity for building up my manly muscles. 

5) What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received as a MilSpouse?
Whatever you do, always make sure there is a bottle of wine standing by.

Popping In Before I Pop Back Out

Remember back when I said it was going to get crazy hectic in a couple of weeks what with finishing up school, hosting visitors and heading out of town?  Well, is that any excuse for being an absolutely dreadful blogger lately?

Week before last was packed with Charleston Restaurant Week (which I'm still hoping to review at some point), the birthday celebrations for the two year old I'm still trying to figure out how to kidnap without hurting anyone's feelings or any legal repercussions, finishing two weeks worth of homework, keeping up with Insanity, and a few other random social outings.  I also had a misunderstanding with my hair dresser in which the dark hair I loved somehow ended up mousy brown.  Soooo... that's fun!

Then last week, one of my oldest friends came to Charleston for the first time, so I had a great time showing her around the area and enjoying the fact that we can go ages without seeing each other and then pick up exactly where we left off.  We've been friends since meeting at the bus stop when she was in 2nd grade and I was in 3rd grade, and we're really more like sisters at this point than anything else.

I was hoping to do a more thorough recap of her visit, but since I'm once again running low on blogging time, suffice it to say, I had an amazing time and hopefully she did too!  We visited the Irvin House vineyard and the Firefly vodka distillery for tastings (muscadine wine = BLECH!), the Charleston Tea Plantation, the Angel Oak, shopped, toured, and ghost hunted our way through downtown Charleston, and certainly did our part to stimulate the local economy!

My recovery day, after she left, was spent with a 3+ hour nap and an 8+ hour night of sleep.  I'm still trying to get my energy level back as I'm leaving tomorrow for a week in Vermont and New York City, followed up by a week at home in Louisiana, followed up by a few days back in Charleston with my sister.  I'm simultaneously completely excited and completely exhausted contemplating it all.

Hopefully you'll be able to find it in your heart to forgive my spotty posting and lack of commenting for the next couple of weeks, but soon school will be over, my visitors will have deserted me, and I will once more become Google Reader's bitch.  Till then!

I'm Losing It: Week 2

Hey, these numbers look awfully familiar...

Starting Weight: 130.8

Current Weight: 128.2

Total Weight Lost: 2.6 lbs

And the really frustrating part is that this week I was actually remarkably well behaved and TRYING to shed some poundage.  Whereas those 2.6 pounds I lost last week were due to... nothing.  I blame the chocolate croissant I ate yesterday.  Worth.  It.

Oh well, I'm not giving up, just have to remember it's a process and despite the fact that I didn't see a decrease on the scale, I do feel better about myself when I'm eating better and exercising.

I'll be totally honest, I'm just too lazy to do South Beach when Colby isn't around to eat the food and help me with the cooking and cleaning.  It's a great diet if you've got the motivation or love for cooking, but I have neither.  I don't want to spend three hours a day chopping, stirring, cooking, and cleaning for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So, instead I'm going old school and calorie counting.  Obviously based on this week alone, not a terribly effective method, but I'm willing to see if it pans out with more time.  It's sort of a bastardized Weight Watchers and I have a bunch of friends who've had great success with that, so we'll see!

I used the Mifflin-St. Jeor calorie calculator as it's been identified as one of the most accurate calorie equations by the American Dietetic Association.  According to that formula, my calorie intake for weight-loss should be about 1560 per day.  I've been writing down everything I eat (an amazing way to realize just how much random crap you put in your body without even realizing it) and trying to stay around the 1400-1450 zone since aside from doing Insanity, I'm admittedly pretty sedentary.

So, we'll see what this next week brings.  I have plans to be out just about every night, so it's going to be a struggle to stay the course and hopefully a little indulgence here and there won't hurt too much.  But it's Charleston Restaurant Week, and the Triple Chocolate mousse at Social is calling my name!

I'm Losing It: Week 1

I have to make a confession.  I did not attempt to lose weight this week AT ALL.  Dealing with this recent bout of exhaustion has been... exhausting.  I think I got myself so spun up about the possibilities, that I tired and stressed myself to the point of illness.  Fortunately, the test results all came back negative, unfortunately, that means I have no idea what's wrong with me.

My doctor suggested adding Vitamin D to my lineup of supplements and that I start taking melatonin before I go to sleep at night.  Since doing both of these things, I am feeling a bit better, and starting tomorrow I vow that I will start to eat healthfully and exercise regularly once more.

So, given these circumstances, I was not looking forward to my weigh in today.  I don't feel great about myself, but I figured at worst I'd give myself a new baseline from which to start my weight loss.  Miraculously, despite lounging on the sofa 24/7, awaiting my approaching departure from this world, I somehow managed to shed a bit of weight, so it wasn't a complete waste of a week.  I wonder what the effects of stress are on raising your metabolism?!

Starting Weight: 130.8

Current Weight: 128.2

Total Weight Lost: 2.6 lbs

This next week I'll do a sort of bastardized version of of South Beach, hopefully the following week I'll be able to do the real deal.  But I have a lot of whole grain food items and fruits in the house that are perishable, and I just can't bring myself to throw away.  So, each day I'll allow myself one or two whole grain items and fruit mixed in with the vegetables, protein and dairy until I run out.  Then, depending on my progress I'll either cut back to the official phase 1 or continue on with phase 2.  I'll also get back to Insanity.  I thought about starting over completely, but instead I'm just going to start at Day 16, the day after the first fit test.

Finally, I just want to mention that I think  a woman's body and weight is a very personal thing, and by me sharing my stats here, it's not at all a judgment on anyone else's "numbers".  We all carry our weight differently, and everyone has their own goals for what they want to see on the scale and when they look in the mirror, and I hope that no one takes any offense as I record my own journey here.  I just want to feel healthier and make sure I can still fit in my clothes for at leas a few more months!

And thank you all for your support!!

I'm Losing It: Round 2

Well, life is back to normal.  Normal meaning, I am alone in my house with only two four-legged fur creatures to keep me company, and Facebook as my window to the outside world.  This week is actually pretty well packed with friends and book clubs, but it also marks my return to the always fascinating world of weight loss documentation.

I know there are few things more interesting to others than how many calories I've burned in a day, how many hours I've exercised, and how jiggly my thighs are at any given moment, so I am once more planning to chronicle my struggles against the chub here each Sunday.

Two months ago, I broke up with the South Beach diet and jetted off to Japan with every intention of getting back to my healthy eating habits when I returned home.  Except then I spent ten days eating whatever I wanted, came home to a sad, empty air condition-less house, and proceeded to eat my feelings interspersed with infrequent moments of guilt-induced vegetable ingestion.

While my mom was here, I did the food pyramid proud as she was in the first two weeks of the South Beach diet, and it was amazing how much better I felt about myself.  Then she left, I ate my weight in Reese's Peanut Butter cups, and I'm back to feeling like a fat cow.

I'm older than I used to be--funny how that works.  My metabolism is crapping out on me.  I'm carrying weight in my waist/stomach which has NEVER been a problem before.  I'm still fitting in a size 0/2 in tops and dresses and 2/4 in shorts and pants, but I have managed to put on almost 10 pounds in 2 months.  That's just gross.  Honestly, I don't understand how that's possible--I haven't been eating THAT badly and I've been exercising.  And yet, the scale doesn't lie.

So, starting tomorrow, I am rebooting my healthy eating habits with the first two weeks of South Beach, and hoping to be a bit lighter by the time Colby comes home in November. Same process as before--working out (except replacing Jillian with Insanity) and following South Beach.  I won't be "officially" starting my diet until tomorrow since I'm going to a dinner party tonight, and can't just sit there and not eat.

Current Weight: 130.8

Goal Weight: 119

I couldn't believe it when I saw that number on the scale this morning.  WHAT THE HELL??  I haven't weighed that much in years.  I'm really embarrassed and angry at myself for letting my addiction to food take over and ignoring what it is doing to my body.  Since I'd like to have this done by Colby's return, that means my weekly weight loss goal is 1.3 pounds.  Doable.  As long as I can resist the siren call of peanut butter and cheese--my two South Beach Diet weaknesses.

Ugh.  Here we go again.

Self-Imposed Exile

Things have been good lately, but so busy!  My mom has been in town for the past week and extended her trip by a few days so that we can have more lowcountry fun today and tomorrow.  I've had a great time showing her around Charleston, and we have definitely done our part to stimulate the economy as we eat, shop and tour our way through the area.

I've also started what is GOD WILLING my last masters class.  Of course, I've thought this two times previously, but I'm optimistic that this time I really do only have seven weeks of school left.  Long story here, and I will definitely be posting a very public and honest review of my school next week.  I can't do much to fix the mess of the last few months, but I can at least warn other students.  So, more to come on that, and now I'm just trying to be positive about this class and give it my best effort.

I'm still doing Insanity most mornings, though having company I've missed a couple of days.  But I'm still liking it, and I'm getting pretty close to the end of the first phase before I'll enter a "recovery week", and then jump into the last four weeks that ramp things up to a whole other level.  Yikes!

I've also been so bloody exhausted lately.  My mom and I are generally home from our daily adventures around 5 or 6, and I feel so beaten down.  It's all I can do to keep my eyes open until bed time.  I'm eating a fairly healthy diet with lots of veggies and proteins, I'm exercising regularly and getting about eight hours of sleep a night, so I'm really starting to wonder if something is wrong with me.  I have a family history of thyroid disorders, so I think in the next couple of weeks I'm going to see if I can have some tests run.

So, anyway, I haven't done much to keep up with blogging, and even my email and Facebook have been fairly neglected.  But hopefully next week, I'll be back in the saddle again and this weekend I'll be visiting some blogs to say hi.

Insanity Day 15: A Love Letter

First thing:

Staring at this man for 45 minutes a day--DOES NOT SUCK.

Second thing:

I LOVE INSANITY!!!!

It is no kidding, the toughest work out I've ever done in my life (with the possible exception of a few military related events, but... let's just not think about that).  I sweat buckets, collapse in a weak-kneed puddle at least a few times during each session, and have felt like throwing up more than once.  But I LOVE IT.

When I was just talking about starting this program, I heard a lot of terrifying things about how hard it is, and those comments very nearly put me off.  I am so glad I didn't succumb to my fears, and decided to give it a try.  I have made tons of progress in just two weeks, and with only a month and a half left in the program, I actually find myself pondering whether or not I might be able to conquer P90X.

For once, I'm not judging myself based on my weight, I'm judging myself based on how I feel.  And I feel POWERFUL.  I find myself looking forward to my workouts, and on the couple of days when I was having technology issues and couldn't do Insanity, I seriously missed it.

On Monday, I reached day 15 of the program, and it was time for my second fit test.  Every two weeks you go through eight different exercises and see how many repetitions of each you can do in one minute.  The very first day of Insanity is the baseline fit test, and after two weeks of intense plyometrics and cardio, I was ready for fit test number two to see how far I had come.

And y'all, I am PROUD of myself!  I've only skipped one day altogether, and my first week I had to shuffle a couple of the workouts around due to DVD issues, but I still managed to improve on every single exercise.

Move                         Fit Test 1          Fit Test 2

Switch Kicks                   41                    49

Power Jacks                   44                    50

Power Knees                  74                    94

Power Jumps                  35                    44

Globe Jumps                   7                     10

Suicide Jumps                13                    16

Push-up Jacks                14                    29

Low Plank Oblique          37                   56

(Note on Switch Kicks, I'm not sure if I'm counting these right.  I seem to be in the same ballpark as the DVD testers on all the other exercises, but they're blowing me out of the water on these.  The test sheet says that 2 kicks = 1 rep, so that's how I'm counting them.)

So, yeah, I'm totally hooked.  And if I could just tell you one thing about this program it's this: If you are thinking about doing it?  DO IT!  Yes, it is a challenge.  It's gonna hurt.  But it is so much fun.  And you will feel amazing about yourself when you see what you can achieve.

Dig deeper!