Weekly Weigh-In #3

 - 1.6 pounds

Woo hoo! I'm stoked to finally see the numbers on the scale start going down. 

May 4, 2014: 180 lbs
June 30, 2014: 154.4 lbs

March 29, 2015: 164.4
April 15, 2015: 162.6
April 23, 2015: 159.2

April 29, 2015: 157.6

Day 49 - Weekly Update

Sunday - 4/26/15

It has been about five days since my last post but that's not because I fell off the wagon, it's just because I've been extremely busy.  I was so excited that I dropped 3.4 pounds this week I used it as motivation to keep going strong.

Because I was so busy this week I was only able to make it to the gym on Monday. Tuesday was a day off because I had to be at work so early and didn't get off until 6:30pm.  Wednesday I had a client in the morning so I was planning on going to the gym afterward.  My appointment took longer than expected which meant I didn't have time for the gym.  Instead, I went on a run and tried out my new water bottle and my new wireless headphones (which I love!!).

On Thursday I went for a great run in the morning because I didn't have time to go to the gym before or after work.  Friday was another day off because I had a busy work day at my office.  I FINALLY got caught up with work.  And lastly, Saturday, I decided to take the kids on a hike on Mount Tam.

I had wanted to go for a nice long hike all week.  We've been hiking the previous two weekends but each of those was only about two miles long.  This weekend I wanted to go somewhere really far from society, somewhere really beautiful and quiet, and somewhere we could go for a 4-5 mile hike which included uphill portions to get better exercise.  I looked up some trails online before going but couldn't find one that showed the distance.  I decided to just head out and explore the trails once we were out there.

We left the house around noon.  We stopped at Bordenaves to get some fresh sandwich rolls for lunch.  We then stopped at United Market for some fresh fruit (apples, strawberries, and raspberries) and some deli turkey and cheese for our sandwiches.  We arrived at Muir Woods and started our hike around 1:00pm.  I bought a trail map and picked a trail that headed up to the top of the mountain.  Mount Tam is a huge mountain so I was pretty sure we wouldn't make it to the top but that didn't stop us from trying.

We hiked for about an hour and a half taking a break for snacks halfway during our trek up the mountain.  At about the three mile mark I checked the map and found what looked like a perfect trail that would lead the way back down the hill.  The kids were a little tired and wanted to go back down the way we had came.  I on the other hand, didn't want to double back and instead wanted to take a new trail down.  I decided to take the TCC Trail I found on the map, a trail that would cut across the mountain and lead us back down the other side of the creek.  The TCC Trail looked like it was around a half mile long which would give us a little bit longer of a hike back than just doubling back and heading down.

We started on the TCC Trail and kept going.  After about thirty minutes the kids started asking to stop for a snack break again.  I just wanted to get back to the main trail that would head back which I figured we would arrive at any second.  We kept going, and going, and going.  We finally ran into some people on the trail who I was able to ask about this "TCC Trail" we thought we were on.  According to them, we weren't even on the TCC Trail yet.  They said the trail was just around the corner though.  I assured the kids the TCC Trail was short and that we would be on our way back down soon.

We finally made it to the actual TCC trail and I was stoked to finally cut across and then be back on the main trail to head down.  I figured the half mile TCC trail would take us about 15-20 minutes to cut across.  After about 45 minutes though we still hadn't made our way to the main trail.  The kids at this point were getting really hungry so as soon as we came across a bench we took advantage of the opportunity and sat down for a rest break and a snack.

I didn't want to stop for too long so after ten minutes we packed the snacks up and headed on our way.  Another twenty minutes passed and we were STILL on this TCC Trail.  At this point I was getting really stressed out.  I pulled out my phone and kept checking for a signal.  Finally, a signal came up and I was able to pull an actual trail map up.  I saw that we were on the TCC Trail and that we were getting closer to the main trail.  What I also saw was the the TCC Trail wasn't a half mile short cut but instead a THREE MILE trek.  At this point it was too late to turn around so we had no choice but to keep going.

In the end, the 4-5 mile hike I had planned on going turned out to be a 9 mile hike!!!!  I couldn't believe my 13 year old and my 7 year old hiked for 9 miles.  They are freaking rock stars and I super proud of them.

Today is Sunday and the kids and I are a little pooped.  I am not sure what we'll do today, my plan is to just play it by ear.  If it's warm enough we may go to the pool, otherwise I'll probably just grab a book and some magazines and go lay out in the sun in my backyard.

Tomorrow (Monday) I don't have any clients scheduled and instead plan on being at my office.  This is great because I can go to the gym!  I think I'll go to the office early and go to the gym in the afternoon but we'll see how that goes.

For now, I just want to enjoy the rest of the weekend with my beautiful amazing kids.

Daily Goals - Sunday 4/19/15

Monday's Goal:  Stop eating dessert - FAIL

Tuesday's Goal:  Use My Fitness Pal to keep food and exercise journal everyday. 

Wednesday's Goal:  Start doing weekly weigh-ins again every Wednesday. 

Thursday's Goal:  Join a 30-day challenge on My Fitness Pal - FAIL (couldn't find)

Friday's Goal: Get at least 30 minutes of exercise

Saturday's Goal: Hit 10k steps on my FitBit. 

Sunday (today's) Goal: Hit 10k steps and win Weekend Warrior Fitbit challenge.

4/18/15 Evening Check-In- Day #41

It's 11:15pm and I have to get to bed so I'll have to make this quick.

First, I am happy to say that I completed my goal for the day and have taken 11,857 steps which surpasses my 10k goal.  I am also happy to report that I cleaned out my car (finally).  It took a couple hours but I am so happy it's done.  By 6pm I had only walked 2,500 steps so I decided to take the kids on the walk I did yesterday and they LOVED it.  If I can wake up early enough tomorrow I want to take them to Mt Tam for a real hike.

There is a lot to do tomorrow and not enough time:

-Go for a hike
-Go to local farmer's market (9am-1pm)
-Finish housework (priority because we're having company at 4pm)
-Laundry
-Catch up on emails
-Do at least two hours of work (getting seriously behind)
-Grocery store (dinner for tomorrow night & other items)
-Lemonade stand (promised my youngest we would do this weekend)

So, looking at all of the items for tomorrow it seems pretty clear that a hike is out.  It also seems pretty clear that making it to farmer's market might be out.  I need to do housework and laundry from 9am-12pm, go to grocery store, go home to make lemonade and drop off groceries, stop by my mom's to  pick up card table, lemonade stand from 2pm-4pm, and make it home by 4:30pm when my friend and her daughter are coming over.  I agreed to babysit the daughter for the night so my friend could go to a concert with her boyfriend.  Since she will be dropping off her daughter's car seat I should be able to run errands after 4:30pm.  I guess I'll just have to see how tomorrow goes.

Lastly, I was under my calorie intake by 100 calories but only because I burned over 400 calories walking.  I ate 1500 and burned 400 leaving a net of 1,100.  According to my Fitbit I would have to have eaten under 1,100 for the day (not including the exercise) so I am over by 400 calories.  I don't see how that would be possible though since that would practically be starving myself so I am going to stick with the recommendations from My Fitness Pal.  I should be happy I am under my daily calories , that I walked over 10k steps, and that I got a major item (cleaning car) crossed off my to-do list.  All in all, today was a good day.

Going to bed now...

xoxo

P.S.  I completed my 30-day plank challenge today AND I am in the lead on the Weekend Warrior Fitbit challenge.  I made a couple friends on the Fitbit website and I challenged them to this weekend challenge.  I was losing until I went on that walk with my kids and now I am in the lead!

Daily Goals - Saturday 4/18/15

Monday's Goal:  Stop eating dessert - FAIL

Tuesday's Goal:  Use My Fitness Pal to keep food and exercise journal everyday. 

Wednesday's Goal:  Start doing weekly weigh-ins again every Wednesday. 

Thursday's Goal:  Join a 30-day challenge on My Fitness Pal - FAIL (couldn't find)

Friday's Goal: Get at least 30 minutes of exercise

Saturday (today's) Goal: Hit 10k steps on my FitBit. -This goal is not going to be easy. Today is an insanely busy day but I am determined to get the most use out of this little bugger as I can. 

Look What I Found!!

While organizing some drawers look what I found!

My old FitBit!!  I am so excited! The clip portion broke off but I got it to stick back on for now. If anything I can just take it out of the clip pouch and put it in my pocket (if wearing jeans). 

I am so excited. I'm definitely using this today. I'm mostly happy that I don't have to spend $125 buying another pedometer. I even added one in my Amazon shopping cart yesterday. 

Even if I did order one it would take a few days to get and now that I found mine, I can start using it right away. Yay!

Daily Goals- Wednesday 4/15

Monday's Goal: stop eating dessert - FAIL

Tuesday's Goal: use My Fitness Pal to keep food and exercise journal everyday. 

Wednesday (Today's) Goal: start doing weekly weigh-ins again every Wednesday. 

Weigh-In: Tuesday 4/14/15

- 0.4 lb

I am going to start tracking my food again in My Fitness Pal. When I weighed myself on 3/29 I was 164.4. Fast forward over two weeks later and I weigh 161.4. That's only 3 pounds in seventeen days. Last year I lost 15 lbs the first month. I'm not sure why I'm losing weight so much slower this go around but I have a feeling it's because I'm focused more on eating healthy than losing weight. Even though my weight loss is slower this time around, I honestly feel that this time I have a better chance of keeping the weight off. 

Breakfast today: 

Oatmeal Squares cereal w/nonfat milk, coffee, & an Alli pill. Yum. 

Monday 4/13/15 Evening Update

Yesterday basically went as expected. I went to the gym, worked out for two and a half hours, went to the grocery store, picked up my daughter, and came home. I had forgotten my friend Mary was supposed to come over to touch up my roots with some warmer colors (she cut and colored my hair two weeks ago). I was also planning to cook a nice dinner for everyone since it was Mary's birthday last week. Because of all of this I didn't get ANY work done which is a bummer but I am stoked that I had an amazing workout. I burned 601 calories on the elliptical! 

For dinner I made some chicken with brown rice and asparagus. 

Tomorrow I am working in Luas Valley all day and will not be able to go to the gym. On Wednesday I may be able to go. I know I will have time to go for a run in the morning if I drop off my kids early enough. I just don't know if I'll have time for the gym. 

It's 10:30pm and I am exhausted from my extensive workout today. I skipped dessert tonight to try and calm down these sugar cravings I've been having. The cravings started right after dinner and have been getting stronger and stronger. I tried doing some breathing exercises to calm my system down but I don't think it will help. I'm craving an apple which I don't know if that's good or bad. I really don't want to give in but I don't know how much longer I can hold out. I even tried doing some research online but most of the sites I found suggested that you give in to the cravings by eating a tiny bit of a sugary treat. I don't trust myself to only have a tiny bit so I'm going to just try to go to sleep. 

11:30pm-update

My younger daughter just woke up and woke me up. She's back to sleep now but I am feeling extremely hungry now. I didn't eat that much today and I had a huge workout so that may have something to do with it. I know I'm trying to reason with why I should give into these cravings but I've woken up several times this evening and each time the cravings are worse. I really need to get to sleep so I'm going to have a bowl of Oatmeal Squares cereal. 

11:50pm- Feeling much better. Going to sleep. Nite. 

Sunday 4/12/15

Yesterday was a good day. I woke up, had coffee and breakfast (Trader Joe's granola w/almond cereal), did yoga for an hour, straightened up the house, and had some lunch (Thai chicken spring rolls). It was such a nice day out I decided to take the kids on a hike. I packed some snacks (strawberries, green grapes, protein bars, water...) and we headed out to China Camp beach where they have several beautiful trails. China Camp isn't my favorite place to hike but it was the closest. By the time we left the house it was already 2:30p, and I didn't want to spend an hour finding another place to hike online and then driving out there.

My older daughter did not want to go hiking. She is 13 years old and all she wants to do is stray home playing on her phone or computer. She complained while getting ready and tried to bargain with me by promising to not have any more screen time got for the whole rest of the day if i let her stay home. My younger daughter is the exact opposite. She is 7 and hates staying indoors. She loves being out and about even if we're doing something boring like errands. 

It took us about ten minutes to drive to China Camp and, once there, we had a little trouble finding parking. My iPad weather app said it was 73 degrees out, a beautiful day for the beach. We found a parking spot down the road which actually worked out quite well since there was a trail two feet from our car. The first few minutes of our hike was spent making our way to the main trail. There wasn't much shade on this trail and the path was thin and rocky. My older daughter complained about the heat. I told her to just enjoy the fresh air. I also explained that the sunlight and fresh air is good for her, something that she started to realize.

Once we were  on the main path my older daughter did a 180. The path was gorgeous and shady with a fresh breeze. The plants were beautiful shades of green and there were small colorful flowers sprinkled throughout. The air was amazing! It smelled so fresh and refreshing. I stopped to take a few deep breaths of air. The kids felt it too. My older daughter went from being grumpy and quite to excited and extremely chatty. We saw some hummingbirds, a large black beetle, and every few steps we took we saw lizards darting under some bushes or leaves. My younger daughter kept trying to catch a lizard but they were too quick. 

We took a side path that led up to the top of a hill over looking the bay. There was little shade at the top of the hill so we made our way down back to the main path where we found a bench and sat down to have a snack. My older daughter and I had fresh strawberries while my younger daughter had a kid's Cliff bar called a "Z Bar".

After our snack we kept going on the trail for a little while longer before turning back and heading down. On the way back to the car the kids wanted to stop at the water and dip their feet in but we didn't have anything to dry them with and we still needed to walk the five minute hike back to the car. It's such a rocky terrain that going barefoot wasn't an option. We decided to hold off on going down to the beach  and instead decided to get frozen yogurt on our way back into town. Unfortunately, while driving back I missed top he turn and we passed the market that sells frozen yogurt. By the time I noticed we had gone too far to turn back. My older daughter wanted a Slurpee from 7-11 so that's what we did. I got a rainbow sherbert fat-free push-up pop and my younger daughter got a glazed donut. Not the healthiest treat but since we don't do this very often I figured it was fine. 

The rest of the day is not very exciting. We went to TJ-Maxx because my grandma suggested I go there to buy some canvas storage baskets. We then went to Ulta to buy some makeup but they wee closed (since it was Sunday and 6:30pm). The kids had been so good i decided to take them to Toys R Us where I let them each pick out a toy. They both opted for stuffed animals. The older one picked a German Sheppard and the younger one picked a jaguar. The last stop was Whole Foods where I bought a sirloin steak for dinner. 

At home I barbeque the sirloin steak and served it with brown rice and green peas. Dinner was excellent. After dinner I was craving sugar so I ate a Sponge Bob push-up pop and then, when that didn't satisfy my craving, I ate a bowl of cereal. By the time I was done I was stuffed, too stuffed and I regretted eating the cereal. I have been over indulging with sugar lately and the cravings have started to get stronger again. I am going to have to dial it back down of else it will probably become a problem. 

On a side note, an old friend of mine asked me for drinks next Saturday night. I've known him for over fifteen years so it should be really fun catching up. He lives 45 minutes away though so I'm not sure what his plan will be. I haven't been out in over a year so it should be fun. :)

-Marie