Plus-Sized Pin Up

Started doing my food and exercise diary. I found that once I start writing, it won't stop flowing. It has allowed me to explore my thoughts about this process, and I feel as though I am kept accountable because I am writing everything down. For awhile, I thought I was more of an emotional eater, but I found that eating doesn't really revolve around that. The most common reason for eating is shear boredom. If I am not doing something, I feel the need to snack. And snacking is a big part of my life. I realized that I need to add in healthy snacks like apples and almond butter, almonds, carrots, etc. I also found that my overeating -- at some level anyway -- is caused by a lack of defined dinner/lunch time. My hubby varies daily on when he comes home. I need to talk to him about this.

Did pilates focused on buns and thighs this morning. Wow, wow, wow! My legs are really rubbery! It kicked my ass, and I am super excited to continue with it! We are going by the rec center tomorrow to renew my membership. Hopefully on Monday I'll get back into the swing of it.

Giving it some thought, it would be better to make mini-goals and reward myself. However, these mini-goals will be heading to one main goal: HEALTHY LIVING!

My Mini-Goals:

• Keep up with 4 week running program - daily
  
• Add in pilates twice a week
• Try to drink more water
• Keep an exercise and food diary
• (If I decide to try weight watchers, keep it up for a month to determine whether I can succeed on it)
• Cut down soda pop intake.
  

After that, shopping at Sephora!! w00t, w00t!!

I toyed with the idea of fully transposing my diary into this format, but I think it would be a HUGE undertaking. Suffice to say, I'm going to try and put the main things up here. Here's hoping and praying that I can make this lifestyle change and grab a hold of health with both hands!

I hate myself.

After maintaining since February, I realized that I put on an extra 20lbs . . . I feel so shamed. For the longest time, I had been excited that I finally got back down to a size 22. Now my size 24 pants are a little snug. On top of that, my energy level has gone down, I'm doing a lot of huffing and puffing just walking around the house, etc. It is all due to going back to couch potato status. And overeating/snacking all the time. Whenever I eat, I find myself loving the flavor of the food and justify eating long after I'm full because it "tastes good." And I find myself craving snacks when I'm NOT hungry!

This has got to stop!

Yesterday, I did pilates, did a 18 min. run/walk, and came home to a relaxing session of yoga. During the run/walk about my left hip started cramping up. The yoga helped stretch it out. Even though I felt good when I was done, my left ankle was hurting when I put pressure on it. My husband things it is a combo of bad shoes and running on pavement. Treadmill running has less stress impact than pavement.


When we get paid tomorrow, I am renewing my gym membership. After letting it lapse in August, I have been telling myself to renew it. Stepping on the scale yesterday and the huffing and puffing previously, I realized that I need to do it NOW.

My only problem is the food I eat. Yes, I love cheese, pop, crackers, etc. I have never been good at following a diet. In fact, it makes me feel depressed because I can never follow one. I guess I need to limit myself. For example, instead of two cans of pop, I'll have one. Instead of snacking on crackers, I get some apples and almond butter or carrots with a low fat dip. I think I just need to replace and moderate the bad stuff. Luckily, Mio has been helping me drink more water. My biggest issue with pop is the taste. I get bored of water really easily. Having Mio to put into a glass really helps me push the water. Any of you have the same issues with food?

Last night, I started to get excited about going back to the gym! I was listening to music samples on my phone and finding more music to put on my treadmill playlist! w00t for the small things ^_^ In addition, instead of taking my birthday and Christmas money over to Sephora, I've decided to put it toward running shoes. I talked to hubby and he is willing to save up money to blow at Sephora if I keep up with my running for a month or more! That gives me an awesome reward and incentive to keep up with it. Plus, I miss running. At first, I only started because it would help lose weight faster, but I found my body and legs really enjoying it.

I found some awesome running books on Amazon yesterday afternoon. After some searching, I was able to ILL it from a library. It is a book about a guy going from overweight couch potato to running marathons. It looked really encouraging and had a lot of good advice for beginning runners. I'm really excited and can't wait for it to come in.

I've thought about a food diary. A former co-worker used running and a food diary to lose massive amounts of weight. I've been thinking about contacting her via Facebook and asking for pointers. Has anyone had success with that? Also, have you guys kept an exercise diary? How did that work?

For curiosity's sake, I've decided to buy a couple of exercise DVDs. One of them I saw on ExerciseTV. It's the Crunch Erotocise (sp) and includes burlesque, stiletto strength, etc. The other is the Pussy Cat Dolls second video. Hey, if I don't like them, I can give them away or sell them to our local Hastings. But I thought it could be fun! Since the Crunch DVDs need a hard surface, I figured I'd set my laptop up in the kitchen and use that surface.

Anyways, I'm rambling. However, I find that I'm starting to get giddy about jumping back on the treadmill!