Diets, Food and Everyday Life!

YAY! 12 weeks today. I am so excited this means the the chances of me miscarrying are now greatly reduced. I am feeling a lot lot more energy and my house is starting to get super clean again. I just couldn’t keep up with it while I was so tired. I don’t honestly think I have ever been that tired ever.

But now that is all behind me I am looking forward to starting to look pregnant and not just fat. I just bought my first maternity clothes this weekend and I love them! And I am going to start exercising at least every day for 30 min. That way I stay as fit as possible.

I jumped on the scale this morning and I was 159, which is down a pound from Friday. The week I found out I was pregnant I weighed 157 so I am still only up 2 pounds in 12 weeks! I am hoping to only gain 15-20 pounds during pregnancy considering I was/am overweight to begin with that is a good weight to gain.

This is me and my mom right before our first 5K that we ran on Wed night.

Me, My Mom and Pipper our friend from running class.

Hello all!

I had a great run on Sunday it was beautiful, just absolutely breathtaking.  We ran the actual trail we are going to run for our upcoming 5 mile race.  Did I happen to mention this is both of our first organized run and it’s a 5 MILE not kilometer and it’s a freaking crazy trail!

The trail, called crooked lake trail, runs throughout the woods it’s a very hilly dirt trail. When we were running the trail on Sunday it was still icy and snowy in spots.  But it didn’t matter when I was running up and down those hills giving it all I had not getting out of breath, or at least as out of breath as I would have a few months ago, and feeling the sting of the cold wind whip across my face I felt euphoric. I was a runner.  This once just an exercise idea has turned into a hobbie almost a love.

To celebrate in true HotHarmony fashion I celebrated this fantastic acomplishment by going to the running store.  There I did something everyone should do and get properly fitted for a pair of running shoes. What they do is have you take off your shoes and stand in front of them so they can look at your arches and see how tall they are, I have short arches. Then they have you walk up and down the shop with your pant legs pulled up so they can see if  your ankles roll and if they do do they roll toward the inside or out.  Mine roll toward the inside, so I got these spiffy super comfortable stability shoes from Asics GT-2130.

I got to talk to Emily last night(my best friend since I was 19). When I speak with her it’s like therapy to me, we are almost one in the same we have many of the same problems especially with food and family. So I expressed my frustration in my weight loss progress, the only saving grace for me is that I can go on like this for years (dieting and not going anywhere). But she brought something to light that I often forget.

I am impatient, I want to get married and I was just divorced two years ago. I want to have babies and I am only 25, and most of all right now I want to weigh 120 lbs. Well like the rest of my life I need to learn that things will happen and I will loose the weight if I stick to it and just keep on living. Not just living but living my life to the fullest and that means eating healthy whole foods and exercising. So instead of being impatient I need to take stock of what has happened in my life and look at the whole picture. This week I am down a pound from my gain last week. 156.4, so that means since I started this journey in October I am down 7 pounds. woot!

Exercise log for yesterday, i’m still feeling kind of fatigued so I didn’t get in a full hour but any progress is some progress and I did run for 15 minutes in a row yesterday. My heals have been hurting me latley I think this is because I have not been properly fitted for running shoes and I have just started to put some real miles in.

I am going to the running store on Sunday with my mom to be properly fitted for some kick ass running shoes!

So D and I weigh in on Friday mornings, this week I have been kickin butt (besides the one really bad day) and I got on the scale and it read 155.2! This means I am down a pound from last week! WOOT!

Celebrate with me by leaving a comment and let me know how much you lost this weekend.

This week my 30 day challenge is going great so far!

• Monday I ended up with 1,490 Calories eaten, and burned 292 at Pilates
• Tuesday I ended up eating 1,500 Calories
• Wensday I ended up eating 1,710 Calories, and burned doing 378 bootcamp
• Thursday I ended today eating 1,700 Calories, and burned 372 running outside

My legs are killing me after two days in a row of serious lower body work out, I think tomorrow I will pick up the 10lbs weights and do some serious upper body workout.  Sunday I have a scheduled run with my mom, 5 Miles in a local metro park.

D and I’s anniversary was on Wensday and we will be celebrating with some seriously expensive food and fun times on Saturday.  It’s going to be a good time so I’m going to choose something very special on the menu and eat it slowly and enjoy it.  On Sunday will be the 5 mile run but also Chinese buffet which is not as bad as it sounds ( I really don’t like Chinese food) however our Chinese buffet has all you can eat sushi!

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Pilates.

“Pilates called his method Contrology, because he believed his method uses the mind to control the muscles.^[3] The program focuses on the core postural muscles which help keep the body balanced and which are essential to providing support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, and aim to strengthen the deep torso muscles.” Wiki

So to fill in my New Years Resolution, to take a class, I went down to the Taylor Recreation center Monday night with my friend Nicole to drop in on the Pilates class. I was not quite sure what to expect this being my first fitness class ever and my first Pilates class on top of it all. However when the class was over I was surprised.

I didn’t really like Pilates, I expected more from it. Not only did I not break a sweat at all but I almost started laughing at some of the names of movements. For example, at one point we were sitting on the floor with legs out straight in front of us. The band wrapped around our hands and we were instructed to make a swooping motion toward our pinky toe like we were “sawing it off.” So there I was trying not to laugh as the instructor repeats over and over again “center and saw, center and saw.”

Needless to say I didn’t sign up for the 8 week class. I am still looking for something.

So Friday I totally had a big eat day. I was really discouraged blowing the whole 30 days being in control of my eating out the window. But when I got up on Saturday morning I decided that now more than ever I need to rebound well. I mean the Pistons would like to just go out and win every game they play but when they lose they still go out and play the next game. I need to have that attitude.

So Saturday morning by the time I woke up I had a million excused including:

• I had a headache (couldn’t have been the drinks on Friday night)
• The Snow was starting
• It was cold outside
• It was Saturday

But I got up cleaned the house and got dressed to go to the gym, normally I work out at home on the treadmill. I worked out on the Elliptical machine for 30 minutes (354 calories) and then went to my favorite middle eastern restaurant and ordered a sandwich and big salad for D and I to have for dinner. I ended the day at 1600 which was good.

Sunday I got up and totally forgot about daylight savings for about an hour until my mom called and asked me where I was. We were going to meet at a metro park by her house and do our first 5 mile run. Well I said I would finish breakfast and be on my way, but we decided to run on an indoor track instead. I have been increasing the time that I spend running on my treadmill but I have never run outside or not on the treadmill, so I had no idea how it would be. It was great! I ran 5 miles in just under 60 minutes and then walked the track for the next 15 while my mom finished up. Now I am getting more and more excited about the upcoming trail run.

This is something I think everyone deals with, you know except those lucky lucky people who love to exercise and find time to do it all the time (lol). Here are my top tips on Finding Time To Exercise.

1. Early to rise, late to bed.
The early to rise part of this was never my best moment, but it sure works for my mom so if you can stand to get out of bed an hour earlier then do it. The morning is an ideal time to work out.

For me it’s the flip side I am a night person. My time limit on working out is 10:30 at night. After that is too late but I would do an hour on the treadmill at 10:30 with no problem. And this has been brought up recently in the USNews Blog on Fitness post about Excercise Before Bed? Go For it. In this article

Shawn Youngstedt, a researcher in the department of exercise science at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, who has studied the question. He says it’s a common assumption that working out too close to bedtime impairs sleep, but that the evidence suggests otherwise.

for more of this article click here. So if the night time is your time to shine I say rock it out.

2.Fidget all day long!
Remember that every movement counts as exercise. According to a Mayo Clinic study done in 2005 people who were more fidgety burned on average 350 more calories a day than people who sit still. If you could create a deficit of 350 calories a day for the next year you would loose 36lbs by March 4th 2009. For me that would put me almost at goal.

So how do you fidget? Listen to your favorite music during the day and dance a little in your chair. Stand and pace when on the phone with someone instead of sitting down. Bounce your leg whenever you think about it, and think it more often. Take the stairs, or just stand up and lap around your cube or living room once in a while.

3. The Television Workout!
This is my all time favorite, what you will need is some hand weights or soup cans for weights and your tennis/ workout shoes.

Step One: Find your favorite TV show, can’t be pre-recorded we need commercials.
Step Two: First commercial break, get up and march in place think fast we want to get your blood moving. Keep marching the whole commercial break, then watch the show. Now during the upcoming commercials breaks alternate between upper body and lower body movements. I like to get mine from Shape.com.

4. The Final Straw Breaker!
I might be stealing from Nike here but “just do it.” If you are serious you know these things and you will make time. Use your babies as weights and lift the baby, use your kids as motivations and go outside to play tag or set a reminder in your outlook box for 30 and every 30 minutes throughout the day get up walk around or fidget. Just move more and you will loose more!

So I decided that I am going to be having a 30 day challenge. This challenge starts today and ends on April 3. Each day I must eat 1400 calories plus any exercise calories I use during exercise for 30 days in a row.

Today I ate a total of 1,698 Calories
And I ran worked out on the treadmill for 63 minutes= 432 Calories.

Woo hoo, now I only have 29 days to go!

My race is on April 26th it’s five miles and I don’t want to be the last person to cross the finish line.