day 29 - I get weak

Well it was the "weak-end" so I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. Honestly, I felt so gross last night, I was pretty disgusted with myself. Friday, I was off and kept really busy. I stayed on plan, worked out, felt pretty good. Saturday and Sunday were another matter entirely. Overall, I made more good choices than bad but the bad ones included: too many tootsie rolls, garlic bread with cheese with Saturday night's dinner, leftover pizza for breakfast and popcorn and a diet coke at the movies for lunch yesterday. I plain old ate too much fat and didn't get enough fresh food into me over the weekend. On the good side, I managed to go for a walk on Sunday as well as take my vitamins and drink my water at the same time so it wasn't a total write-off. I felt quite bloated last night. Imagine how I would have felt had I not kept the water thing up.

Partly I think I felt sorry for myself for just maintaining this week. Given how sick I felt, that I was going through TOM, that we had pizza for dinner one night, how did I honestly think that I would show a loss?? Today I'm feeling stronger. I worked out this morning and ate my healthy breakfast and am nibbling at my lunch right now. The important thing for me is to learn from the mistakes I made over the weekend. I have to keep reminding myself that being sick and tired is not an excuse to over-indulge in things I know aren't good for me.

So, here it is, Monday again. Here's my latest wrap-up:
summary - week 4

• fell off the wagon slightly over the weekend
  
• ate too many fatty foods last week
  
• increased the number of miles I pedalled from a little over 25 per week to a little over 28 this week.
  
• took my vitamins every single day, even over the weekend
  
• met daily calorie intake goal, Monday to Friday
  
• met daily water intake goal 7 out of 7 days
  
• intentionally exercised 6 out of 7 days
  
• didn't show a gain or loss this week. I maintained my 14 pound loss since my restart earlier this month

On a final note, thanks to Shannin for this:

day 26 - good decisions

I am so glad that I took today off from work. We slept in a little bit this morning (until 5:30) and I took my hunny to work. When I got home, I almost had myself convinced that I was too tired to workout. Thankfully, I didn't listen to myself and I hopped on the bike anyway. I didn't break 7 miles today but I was close, 6.95.

Sticking fairly close to my regular routine this morning was a great idea (note: don't forget to pat self on back later). I left the house by 9 a.m. and was home before noon, biggest chunk of my errands completed. Lucky me, I even found a pair of boots. At this time of year, the spring shoes are popping up in the shoppes and I didn't think I'd have any luck at all. It's been my experience that men's boots are better made than women's so I picked up a pair of Spalding "Tundra" boots. They're more like a heavy sneaker with a great, grippy, sole on them. Sadly, they are no where near as good as the boots I've just worn out but they should get me through the rest of the winter. They definitely don't look as warm but I have room for extra thick wool socks in them. Hopefully, by next winter, my calves will have slimmed down a bit more and I can buy some "girlie" dress boots.

This afternoon, my plan is to get a start on my huge mountain of laundry. I'm not sure where it all comes from. I'm pretty sure that it breeds in the hamper. Whatever I get up to though, I am so happy to be off from work right now. I'm feeling better today than I have all week.

day 25 - shortening

I'm feeling a little bit better today. The headache I had yesterday would not go away. It wasn't until 8 p.m. or so last night that it went away. I can't even tell you how much ibuprofen I took yesterday. Because I've felt basically like hammered crap all week, I've decided to take a vacation day tomorrow. I'd like to go out early in the day and do all of my errands. If I can do this, I'll be able to totally crash out for the rest of the weekend.

Yesterday, I noticed that my winter boots (my beloved, almost 10 years old, waterproof, gortex, duck-hunter's boots) are starting to give up the biscuit. Tomorrow when I'm out running around, I'll have to try to find new ones. The only reason these ones have lasted as long as they have is because for about 4 winters I barely wore them.

This morning when I woke up, my head was clear and I decided to take advantage of that and work out. I got onto my bike after doing some stretching and stuff and I could feel my head filling up. I felt like I was moving very slowly but the longer I rode, the better I felt. I coughed a fair bit but I stuck with it. At the end of my interval program, I was surprised to see that I had broken the 7 mile mark again. I was sure that there was no way I could have done it but there it was, 7.08, clear as day. Nice!

My plan tomorrow is to get up at my normal time, do my workout and have breakfast, like I would if I were going into the office. When it's time to go to work though, I'll head out with my list and be home, hopefully by 1 p.m. I don't want to get too far off of my routine, I just want to have some extra time on Saturday to chill out and get rid of this weird cold thing that seems to be hanging about.

day 24 - I'd rather be in bed

This morning, I came very very close to not coming in to work. The only reason I dragged my sorry butt in was because I had a couple of meetings. My head was stuffed up and my sinuses were aching. TOM is kicking my ass too and I just felt like crap. While I sat on the edge of the bed at 4:30 a.m., contemplating whether I'd get up or not, I hear my hunny call from the other room, "there's a snow storm going on out there." Fuck. Charming. Now I have to get up. I can hear the driveway screaming my name.

I pull on my sweats and bundle up to head outside. We probably got 4 inches but it was super windy and there are huge drifts everywhere. It took me almost an hour to get the whole thing done. By the time I was finished, I was frozen but feeling a bit better. The arctic air must have partially cleared out my head or something.

The exercise was badly needed and I'm glad that I did it. Last night, I was feeling shitty, my hunny was exhausted and neither of us wanted to cook so we actually ordered a pizza. We probably shouldn't have but we did and I will admit that I very much enjoyed it. Last night I discovered that it does not take as much pizza to fill me up as it used to. This is a good thing. Because I could eat so little of it, I was able to stay on plan as far as calories go. The fat content was higher than I would have liked but the overall number wasn't bad at all.

So, right now, I'm at work and my head is gently thumping, my ears are popping, my muscles ache and I've started to cough here and there. I'd give anything to be able to go home and crawl under the comforter for a few hours. Fortunately, I'm pretty busy right now so 4:30 will get here quickly, I'm hoping anyway. The one bright light in all of this is that we're not supposed to be getting any snow for the next few days.

day 23 - is it Friday yet??

When the alarm went off this morning, I could have thrown it out the window. There was no way that it was 4:21 already!!? When I did get up and make my way to the bathroom, I couldn't believe how puffy I looked. My eyes looked like I'd been punched, without the bruising. It was not pretty!! In addition to the puffy eyes, I had cramps from hell. I would have loved to have crawled back under the covers but I didn't. The good girl in me won that battle and made me get dressed and go exercise. This week I really want to ride 35 miles on my recumbent bike.

Admittedly, I felt much better when I finished my ride. Once again, I pushed myself to break that 7 mile mark. It was just 7.03 but still, that's almost 2 miles further than I was doing just 2 weeks ago so I'm pretty pleased about that.

Today I'm really hungry. Last night I had no appetite whatsoever. I think I was just overtired and I felt lousy. I forced myself to have some chicken noodle soup just to get something into me. Right now though, my appetite has returned and I'm feeling a bit better. I'm being very careful about eating today though. I know it would be really easy to use last night as an excuse to overeat today and I'm not going to let that happen!!

day 22 - don't fear the dryer

I cannot get warm today. My little space heater here at my desk has been pumping all morning and I cannot get my hands to stay warm, no matter what I do. The funny thing is that it's no where near as cold here today as it had been over the weekend.

The weekend went pretty well. I had planned to do nothing at all and ended up getting quite a bit of stuff done around the house, not everything that needed doing but a good-sized chunk. We had a bit of snow over the weekend so I spent a couple of hours shovelling, yesterday and again this morning. I think I'm definitely getting better at it. Practice makes perfect, right?

The plan is still working. The exercise in the morning thing is still happening and I'm keeping my calories under control. Some days are more difficult than others but right now, I feel pretty good about things. Last week, on two different days, someone brought in homemade squares and left them on this little table right outside my office. I didn't really want them but I looked up their calorie/fat content anyway. It was pretty shocking and I was quite pleased with myself for walking by them.

Today, I have noticed that the pants I am wearing are a little loose in the waist. Over the weekend, while I was doing laundry, I realized that more and more of my clothes are ending up in the dryer. In the past, I would hang almost everything up because I was petrified that my clothes would shrink if I put them in the dryer. Lately, I'm not so concerned. I threw two brand new pairs of flannel pajama bottoms into the dryer without a second thought (and they still fit me when they were dry). I guess that getting over my dryer phobia is a good little NSV!

So, here it is, Monday again. Here's my latest wrap-up:
summary - week 3

• increased the number of miles I pedaled from a little over 18 per week to a little over 25 this week.
  
• took my vitamins every single day, even over the weekend
  
• met daily calorie intake goal every day
  
• met daily water intake goal 7 out of 7 days
  
• intentionally exercised 6 out of 7 days
  
• stayed on plan, even over the weekend (that's 3 in a row)
  
• showed a 2 pound loss this week, that's a total loss of 14 pounds in 3 weeks!

day 19 - chilled to the bone

I cannot get warm today. I have my warmest sweater and thickest wool socks on, my heavy cords, the whole deal, my hands have been like ice all day and the only time they warm up is when I run my hands under hot water.

Last night when I went to bed, my body ached. I felt so tired and sore and I knew that I had probably over done things with the shoveling. The cold doesn't normally get to me but it is this week. When I woke up this morning, I felt terrible. My back was sore and my joints were achy. I did a regular ride on my bike with no additional exercise. I couldn't face it. I'm pretty pleased that I got through it, I was negotiating with myself that if I missed today, I could do it tomorrow. In my heart, I knew that wouldn't likely happen so I just did it. After my ride, I did feel much better, the stiffness is gone and my back feels good. Now, if I could just thaw my hands out, I'd be doing something.

It's hard to believe that I'm facing down the barrel of another weekend already. We got half of our groceries last night. We'll do the other half tonight and I can hibernate all weekend knowing that the house is full of fresh, healthy food. I managed to find some mini tootsie rolls last night so I'm set for the next chocolate craving. I'm really excited about the prospect of a third, on plan weekend. I know I can do it!!