16 Miles - Who knew I had it in me?

Yesterday was a lovely day. I got up around 8:30 and hopped on the scale. I was up 0.4 pounds from Wednesday. What? I've been going to the gym twice a day... So, I decided I'd better hit the gym hard. I did a ton of cardio and was pretty exhausted by the end. I came home and made a huge protein smoothie with blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries.

Yes, I did drink all of that. I also had my favorite bagel sammich.

Then, my sister and I headed off to Birch Run for some serious shopping. We went to Lane Byrant, Old Navy, Fossil, Coach, and Hanes. At Lane Bryant, they were having a bra sale, Buy 2, Get 2 Free. So, I now have 4 new bras. Woot. I also got a swimsuit cover up. Aaaand, I've definitely gotten smaller - I'm in their smallest size! Partay!


Then I ran into Fossil to have them take a link out of my watch because that's a bit big now, too. And after that quick stop, we headed to Old Navy so I could use my Groupon. I got a pair of shorts and some size 14 (yay!) bermudas. And I only spent about $13. Win.


After Old Navy, we stopped in Coach to oogle at purses and then I stopped in the Hanes store quickly to see if they had any thinner bathrobes since the one I have is super thick and not really great for summer. They didn't. So, we ran to Saginaw to try their JCPenney. There, I got 3 new workout shirts, 2 new workout tank tops, (I'll probably just wear them when blading or biking), a thin bathrobe, and a new bathing suit top that is super cute.


We got home around 4. I found Bailey sleeping by the window like the little baby he is, and then I decided to suit up and hit the gym again. 

I did the elliptical interval session for 30 minutes with my high at 14 and my low at 12. The guy next to me was really pushing himself, which motivated me to keep pushing myself. When I was done, I told him I was really glad he was next to me because I'm pretty sure my speed would've been much slower if he hadn't been there. He told me he keeps his resistance low so he can go so fast (he was at 4) and that he goes for 45 minutes. That's pretty solid.


After the gym, I headed to my mom's house to see if I could find any more one-piece swimsuits that I can wear to my CardioMax class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I found three, but they're a tad worn in the bum, so I'm probably going to wear shorts over them. While there, she fed me! We had shish-ka-bobs, some veggies, and my sister made Cheddar Bay biscuits like the ones at Red Lobster. She found the recipe online. They were amazing, but I only let myself have one. I probably could easily have gobbled up a dozen.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits. DELICIOUS!

Shish-ka-bobs

My plate

After dinner, I headed to meijer and bought a bike rack for my car and I was going to test it out, but instead, I went to Allyson's house to visit with her a bit since she was home for Father's Day. We caught up for a bit and then I headed out because I was tired. It was 10:15 p.m. I'm pathetic.


This morning, I got up around 9:30 a.m. and decided to try out my bike rack and go biking on the rail trail rather than going to the gym. It took me a while to load up my bike and then I drove down to the tridge. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride!

Pretty, but very, very dirty river 

Rail trail 

My beautiful bike

I biked 16 miles, so 8 miles out and 8 miles back. Here's the mile marker for proof!

Mid 8 - 8 miles from Midland

Me sporting one of my new tank tops and the mile marker in the background

The ride out was awesome and I was loving it. The ride back was a tad more rough. I was going against the wind and my knee was really acting up. Also, I only brought one water bottle and didn't eat beforehand, so I was dehydrate and hungry - an awesome duo. Thus, it took me way longer to get back than it did to get out there, but I'm glad I did it. It was way more fun than going to the gym, that's for sure.


After my bike ride, I made a strawberry banana protein smoothie and it was huge again.

While I drank this down, I video chatted with Lisa and made lunch.

Chicken Pizza

I was starving after that bike ride as I hadn't eaten yet and so I gobbled these down in about 5 minutes. Yum! Then I gathered up my laundry to head to my mom's. And that's where I am right now. As soon as I'm able to switch my laundry, I'm going to head outside and splash around swim in the pool, but right now my mom and Malena are vacuuming it so I figured I'd take this opportunity to catch you up!


Also, check out my About Me page. I updated it a little bit. I also redid my banner (if you didn't already notice). I'll be making some more small changes soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Working out in style

Sorry for the lack of posts this weekend. I was very busy watching 16 episodes of 30 Rock with my little sister doing important things. Haha, but really, I was kinda busy? I did lots of laundry and went to see Paul. Turned out to be pretty good. I recommend it, but not if you're stingy. If you are, I'd just wait until it comes out because it's not like cinematic brilliance or anything.

Paul

Anyway, if you didn't notice (because I'm sneaky and didn't really mention it), I didn't go to the gym in the morning at all last week because either knee stuff or laziness got in the way. So, I told myself I'd do better this week. But when my alarm went off this morning, I really didn't want to go. In fact, I got my butt out of bed and set my alarm back two hours. But then when I got back in bed and thought of how I would justify this decision to my thousands of readers few loyal followers, I couldn't think of one good excuse. So I got my butt out of bed and went to the gym.


Now, since you're probably wondering, I wanted to share with you what I wear to the gym because I always wonder what/why people wear what they wear to the gym.


When I first started being healthy again, I wore men's gym shorts and larger t-shirts to the gym. However, I sweat pretty profusely when I'm at the gym. So my shirts would typically be soaked through by the end of my workout. So, after reading some articles on SparkPeople about good gym clothes, I decided to look into finding "quick dry" clothes. However, being in plus sizes, this is kind of difficult (mostly because it is assumed that fat people don't work out and thus no one makes workout clothes for them). But as luck would have it, I found some great shirts at JCPenney - and they were on sale! So, I bought a lot of them.

My favorite one is the pink one. But, I also have purple and black. In addition to having quick dry shirts, I decided that I needed quick dry shorts. So, after asking people for advice on SparkPeople's message boards about good women's shorts, I went to Dick's and bought about 8 pair of Reebok shorts. I really like them because they don't bunch when I'm doing a lot of walking on the treadmill. And the XL fit just fine, so I don't have to worry about hunting through plus size fitness stuff elsewhere.


However, one of the things that you can't really see that I'm wearing is a heart rate monitor. This small albeit expensive accessory has made a huge difference in my workouts. I am able to track how many calories I've burned and how hard I'm working out. You can kind of see it on my wrist in the above picture, but here's a close-up.

It comes with a chest strap that you wear right underneath your heart. It has electrodes in it that communicate with the watch so you know when to increase your intensity and so on.


Also, I also always wear my hair up when I work out and I typically have a headband to keep my hair off my neck and face. However, it's not the most flattering look, so I didn't take my picture with it on.


Anyway, I have to go work on a presentation for my medical terminology class, but I wanted to give you guys a quick update. I also wanted to let you know that I'm going to a new gym every morning this week. I'll update you on this decision tomorrow. Yes, I know. You will be waiting with bated breath.


Any updates on your life that I've missed thanks to my laziness?

Shopping in my own closet

Today, like yesterday, I had an internal debate over whether getting out of bed was really worth my while. Was I anxious to get to work? Um, no. Anxious is definitely not the word I would choose. After all, I still had to try to figure out what the hell to do with the stupid sample I had shoved off on me by inherited from Carrie. I tried my very best, changed solvent systems, and ran the sample a few more times with worse results than before and decided to just give up and wait until Mike returned.


Then I decided to do my own work, which meant playing with dry ice. Yes, you heard me right. Work was actually fun today. I got to make my own dry ice by applying a bunch of pressure to some carbon dioxide. The end result? A brick o' fun. Since I didn't need the whole block of carbon dioxide (we use it to drop the temperature of acetone baths really low - like -60°C low), I got to throw it in the sink and turn on the water. This is what happened:

Yes, this was the most fun I had all week. I knew I got out of bed for a reason.


During lunch, I had pretty much the same thing as yesterday, but chose ham instead of turkey. It's pretty much got the same caloric and fat content. It's also super expensive, probably because it's pretty healthy. It's Healthy Ones and I typically get it at meijer.

I also had some fudge

After lunch, I played with some dry ice again and did some monotonous work exciting tasks that were required of me before cleaning the lab and heading out for the day.


After work, I went over to my Mom's house. While there, I decided to go up to my room and see if there were any clothes that fit again since I've lost weight. It's pretty much like going shopping and not having to pay for anything. Today's "purchase?" Some Old Navy khakis and my favorite old pair of American Eagle jeans. This is awesome because I need khakis to wear with my volunteer uniform, and I don't have any light wash jeans.


Anyway, my sister's home for the weekend and we were all going to go to dinner, but Malena wasn't feeling well so it was just my mom and me. We decided to go to Entre Amigos. We had some chips with guacamole to start.

And for the main part of my meal, I had a beef chimichanga and beef taco a la carte since I don't like the beans and rice that comes with a dinner meal.

After dinner, I dropped my mom off back at home so she could pack for her trip to sunshine and warmth (Texas). I headed home to finish transferring all my music files to Arthur. Woot! The only bad thing is I don't have any music from the last eight months. Awesome.


I also watched Daniel Tosh on [the] Netflix and have Star Trek playing whilst I write this. But, I have to head to bed early tonight so that I can be up early to take my mom to the airport. Afterwards, I think I'm going to head to Dick's Sporting Goods to get a power balance wristband. I'm not entirely sure if I believe that they work, but the few people I've talked to that have them really like them. Apparently they improve balance and increase range of motion. So I guess we shall see! It's my present to myself for losing 30 pounds!


Now, what are you up to this weekend? Anything fun? I think my sister and I are going to go see Paul tomorrow in addition to getting our eyebrows done. Sounds like a good day to me!

A History of my Eating Habits

So though I've shared some of my story of how I got so fat, I wanted to talk a bit more about what makes losing weight such a difficult thing for me.


I've been overweight for as long as I can remember. Yes, I do have pictures when I was skinny, but that was so long ago that I'm not sure it counts.

My brother Tristan, sister Malena, our dog Tessa, and (skinny) me

So where does it begin? Well, in addition to living a pretty sedentary life, I don't remember a time when I ate healthily. I was pretty young when I was able to tuck away entire quarter pounder meals from McDonald's. I could easily eat an entire bag of popcorn as a snack before bed in elementary school. And polishing off a bowl of ice cream would only make me want more.


As the pound crept on, I began to hate anything that required physical activity because I simply couldn't compete. I remember being mortified when we had to run a timed mile in middle school. And in the eighth grade, I clearly recall not being able to do one sit-up during a fitness test. So, instead of trying to do a sit-up, I probably just ate more.


I think I picked up all my bad eating habits in my youth. Growing up, my dad was always sick with migraines, and so we couldn't have chocolate in the house (chocolate has caffeine in it, which exacerbates headaches). But, when he was gone on business trips, my mom got us oreos - a delicious and simple pleasure for a kid. My sister, brother, and I would instantly turn into vultures the second the oreo packaging was open - we needed to eat as many oreos as possible because soon they would be gone. So, I never learned portion size.


At dinner time, my mom was always the first to finish her dinner. She said she picked up eating quickly when she was in college because she was always on the go. Well, because I was a somewhat competitive child (I blame it on middle child syndrome), I used to eat as fast as possible to beat her. So, I never learned to eat slowly.


On top of that, dinner was typically always at 6:00 p.m. And if you didn't eat then, you typically didn't eat at all. It didn't matter if you were hungry or not. So, I never learned to eat only when I was hungry.


Now, I'm not trying to blame this on my parents (especially because I know my mom reads this - love you, Mom!). Really, their eating habits were quite healthy, but I guess I just picked up some bad habits along the way, and they stuck.


But my eating habits are what make this whole journey to health a lot harder. It's difficult trying to undo 23 years of damage. I still have a hard time eating just one cookie. I still have to put a lot of effort in my portion sizes. I still have to really think about how hungry I am. But I'm making a little bit of progress everyday, and I credit a lot of it to SparkPeople.


SparkPeople.com is the website I use to track my calories - both eaten and burned off. They help me shoot for healthy ranges in terms of what I need to eat and in terms of how many calories I should be burning everyday. In fact, they'll even set up meals and exercise plans for you if you want them to. However, I like to have a little more freedom than that.

My SparkPeople home page - click to make it bigger

Another thing I'm trying to do is eat less more often during the day. Mark (my personal trainer) has really encouraged me to eat every 2-3 hours so that my blood sugar stays up and so that my body doesn't try to store what I'm eating for fear of not getting fed again. I also drink a lot of water during the day so as to shed some of that water weight.


Anyway, back to today. I don't have many pics of my food, but here are some of my portion-controlled and calorie-logged meals!

And now I must go to bed so I can be up early for the gym!


How are your eating habits? Do you struggle with anything?

A long, but amazing 22-hour day

Friday turned out to be one of the longest days ever. I was awake for 22 consecutive hours. Yikes! But, it was totally worth it! I got to see some of my closest friends and celebrate Blake's birthday with him. Here are a few pictures of some of the most wonderful people in the world.

Matt and me

Anna and me

Matt, me, Anna, and Danny (Anna typically closes her eyes in pictures - she was making sure they were open)

Me and the Birthday Boy Blake

On to some weight loss-related stuff. I have two great things to report (in list form so it's easy for you to follow along):

1. I have officially moved to the second notch in my belt
2. I only had 2 pieces of cake last night (they were very small) even though there was more sitting right in front of me - yay willpower!

Woot. And now on to some food pictures. This morning, Danny and I went and got fragels. As Danny (nor you, I'm sure) didn't know what a fragel was, I will explain it to you in Anna's terms. A fragel is the bastard child of a bagel and donut. A fragel is basically a bagel fried and then thrown in sugar and cinnamon with the cream cheese of your choice generously heaped in the middle. It looks something like this:

And yes, it is as delicious as it sounds. I enjoyed 1.5 of them this morning. After breakfast, Danny and I went to Trader Joe's and got some San Francisco sourdough bread for my mom. I also got some delicious food for myself, including sushi (of which I ate half of this afternoon), spinach pizza, gnocchi with marinara sauce, and cheese (they had smoked gouda and light Havarti - commence drooling (without guilt!) now).

Look closer - it says "Trader Joe-San" instead of Trader Joe - Oh, the hilarity!

After returning home, I napped for about two hours since I only slept about 5 hours last night and then went over to my mom's house to enjoy a lovely dinner with my mom and sister Malena who's home on Spring break (and going home tomorrow).

One of Malena's favorite meals, chicken and gravy

After dinner, I broke into the English toffee I bought my mom at Trader Joe's. I may or may not have eaten three pieces. Whoops...? Meh, it's not like I do it everyday.

Now I'm icing my knees (they really hurt from dancing all last night), and waiting for Danny to come over. He's heading back to school tomorrow, so it's my last night with a friend in Midland for I don't know how long.

Have you accomplished anything this week of which you're proud? How do you celebrate your little victories?