Going it alone... kinda...

Had a great training morning today at the gym... 1 cute boy clapped for me, as i sprinted against the rubber band in the weight room for 30 seconds... yay!! :-) and omg, that band is crazy! pull ups went ok on the first rotation, and quickly got worse on rotation #2 and by rotation #3, i just kinda hung there - i had nothing left to give by round 3! :-) i brought the kiddies with me, and they played racquetball, or as my mom calls it "the racquetball"... :-)

Starting in Feb, i'm going to move to two days of training a week, and the remaining 3 days are me vs. the treadmill and the treadmill incline... :-) time to kick up this fat burning plan as the strength training plan is pretty stable...

weigh-in tomorrow morning... hopefully i'll finally be out of the 190's!!!!!!

Return to 60 minutes

So yesterday I hit up the gym with the purpose of doing 60 minutes on the elliptical. Years ago 60 minutes was the norm for me, but over the last few years I've only been doing 30 minutes. Well yesterday I did 60 minutes burning 934 calories and going almost 6.5 miles. Not bad for doing this for the first time in probably 4 years. Was happy with the result and will continue to do 60 minutes as this will accelerate my weight loss.

Of course not all good as I got home and my dvr was dead. Cox cable is coming out today to replace it. This will be my third dvr in less than 1 year...running bad! But no DVR led to one positive thing, an early night sleep.

I think MTV might be a liar....

I weighed in this morning, but failed to take a pic of the scale, so official weigh-in will be next week. The number was 192.0, so .8 more pounds down, which is good, considering my slacker-ness last week, and cookie eating this weekend. But that is all behind me as i only ate 1270 calories today and hit up the gym after work and it was awesome! I have been watching "I used to be Fat" on MTV (yes, there is not a show on MTV that i won't watch!) and on last weeks episode, there was this kid doing the high intensity interval cardio training, and he did his sprints at 7% incline, 7.0 speed, and then did 8% and 8.0... all the way up to 10%, 10.0 speed. I thought i would try this today... and all i can say is NOT POSSIBLE!!!! My first sprint i did at 4% incline and 7.0 speed... and almost threw up while at the same time almost fell off the treadmill. So, i scaled back for my last 4 sprints to 3% incline and 7.0 speed. OH MY GOD... i almost didn't make it through my last sprint!!!!! Interestingly my results were a 253ft. climb and 1.45 miles in 30 minutes.

i will keep trying, because i cannot believe that MTV would ever lie to me, but if i ever get to even a 10% incline at 7.0 speed (i can't do anything at a 10.0 speed) i will consider that the same as meeting a leprechaun! :-)

Yo Peeps, update time

Haven't done an update in a while. This week I failed in going to the gym as good as I should have. Just went on Wednesday and then the fat devil on my shoulder convinced me to skip the gym yesterday and go home and be a couch potato. I've eaten out 3 times this week and tonight for dinner will be four. Tonight will be my 12th time eating out this year. Still below my total last year at this point of twenty. As you can see though, eating less has worked as I'm down to 205.4 which is a 5 pound drop so far.

The Gym: Giving something to yourself

So, I had a realization tonight... well, two realizations... 1) i REALLY need a vacation week where i can actually get away... so we need to plan Chicago pretty soon... 2) every night i end the day empty, after having given so much the whole day in training the new people, training the existing people with more education than experience, and answering 50 million questions for those who are endlessly incapable... so, i get to the gym exhausted, and empty with nothing left to give... except after 15 minutes into my training session or my run, i find that i have more to give, and this time it's giving to myself... and by giving to myself, i actually fill up again, and am not so empty anymore... and definitely not as exhausted i was when i walked in... and that is why i'm starting to love the gym!

In other news I'M GETTING SUCKED INTO JERSEY SHORE YET AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! i swear, after only one episode i cannot stop watching it!!! i really super hate Sammi... and Ronnie too! the new girl is actually pretty amusing... gah - i predict more hours of bad tv in my future!! :-)

Run anyone?

Hey all,

So i was thinking since we all want to get in shape and lose some lbs would any of you like to do a half marathon? There is a PF chang's half marathon on June 5th in San Diego. We have plenty of time to get ready if anybody is interested. What do you all think?

Mom and Dad's house, a hippie den?

Oh Monday... it was a rocky one... partially because I wish I was on vacay with 80% of everyone else, partially because I slept bad last night... As i left work, picked up niece-y from her bf's house, yelled at her about respecting my time, planning ahead and being responsible, I had pretty much written off the gym for the night. And then, dad called me to invite me over for dinner, as my mom had made Arroz con Pollo. I quickly agreed - nothing is better than having someone make dinner for you after work, especially when that someone is M-O-M! As i walked in the door, i was showered with puppy love, and then dad handed me a glass of wine, and i sat down to eat. And as i ate and partook in gavelling with my mom, i smelled the distinct odor of incense and noticed the mellow music. and i thought... who are these people? is this what retirement looks like - a day spa meditation center? and then i felt all of my anxiety, stress, annoyance, and dissatisfaction from today drain from me... and i suddenly felt the energy i needed to get to the gym and pound it out. THANKS MOM AND DAD... tonight was on you!!

Here's my update from this morning's weigh-in... try to ignore my sad pedicure appearance and focus on my total weightloss of 7 pounds... WOO-HOO... next week i'm hoping i'll be out of the 190's!!

Run 123

So this week I went on a couple of runs outside, which were amazing. Friday, I cut out of the office an hour early, left my stuff at the Embarcadero Club One and ran along the Embarcadero to the old light house before you get to Fort Mason and then back again. The weather was awesome and the sky beautiful, the fog started rolling into the Bay, it was a gorgeous view. To add there were again a lot of hot guys - FYI hot guys exercise outside, I guess. Run number two was on Saturday around my parents house, which as you know is very residential and kind of hilly so that was interesting from a terrain standpoint but lacked eye candy. Run number three I met Emitis on Sunday morning at the entrance to the Los Gatos Creek Trail and we ran/walked to Vasona, which was fun too, but we mostly did a lot of catching up and ended up getting coffee.
All this helped the fact that I ate a lot of rather bad food on Saturday night and Sunday night at my parent's house - that place is a calorie-fest.
Nonetheless, here are my results for the week, not bad - still managed to shave off another pound and a half!

Dog days of winter...

Hanging out this weekend with my mom's dog (ie. new daughter) Maya... last night, I sadly forgot to take her out for a potty break before we went to bed, and so at 2AM she woke me up crying for a potty trip. I trekked down the stairs with her, to the backyard, half asleep... she finally found the "spot", and then we both went back to bed. When I woke up this morning to prep for the gym, I found many muddy paw prints on the bed!!! ugh!!! so, will be washing sheets tonight, and planning ahead better on the potty breaks this evening! :-)

This week was a huge turning point for me on the weight loss challenge. I worked out SUPER hard during my three training sessions and my one individual trip, and I'm actually starting to see differences in my body shape! I think others are too, as I've had two random guys flirt with me this week and had the finance guy at work ask me if i was losing weight... woo-hoo!! I weighed in this morning, and was at 193.4... hopefully i'll maintain that for tomorrow's official weigh in/scale picture. The modified meals/eating is getting easier, the gym regularity is still tough. I made it this week on two days when i wouldn't have normally gone as i was TOTALLY exhausted, but i feel like if my trainer wasn't waiting for me on those days, i might not have gone... so, still some work to do...

Adding to my Vegas "reward" plans - 1) wear a bikini at the pool 2) wear a strapless dress for the "party" night... :-)

Week 2

So doing an update a couple of days early. I went to the gym three times this week and burned a total of 1431 calories on the elliptical. So far this week I've eaten out twice which takes my year total up to 6 times. Same time least year I had eaten out 12 times. Good start on that front. So with that my weight went up to 207.4 which means I've gained about .5lbs. No bueño!

The gym left me feeling sweaty

Went to the gym yesterday for the second time this year. Same routine as before but this time burned 481 calories. Left drenched in sweat which is status quo but I did feel good afterwards and have my bag packed for me to go tonight after work. Tomorrow is day long demo for a vendor who replied to a RFP at work so I'll be trying to stay awake for that then bowling so no gym tomorrow but back on the train on Friday. Also, weighed myself and came in at exactly 206lbs. That is almost 4.4 pounds lost in a little over a week. Still early but I like the direction this is heading. Also, still holding steady at 4 times eaten out this year.

Keep it up all, we can do this!

The Gym = Awesome Town

# of Calories consumed today = 1225, woo hoo!! back on diet track
# of people I hated today = 8
# of performance reviews I finished = 1 (3 more to go, and 3 days left to do them in!)

tonight the gym saved my sanity! had a really great work out with my trainer, and finally stopped hating everyone! the non-skinny colleen used to rely on taco-heezy for such emotional therapy, but today I went to the gym, and I actually feel better, rather than feeling full!!! :-) Additional happiness- What Not to Wear is on tonight!! woo hoo... i haven't seen this show forever!! :-)

Tomorrow's meeting schedule = 7am - 3:30pm... with no break, and three of the meetings are me presenting various slide sets which i still need to finish... thankfully, i have gym tomorrow night to help me not hate everyone again! :-)

Performance Reviews and Contracts...

... these are the three dirty words which defined my day today. The end result was no gym for me tonight, as I'm COMPLETELY exhausted combined with it being super cold outside. I spent a large portion of today reading and writing legal-eze, spent a large portion of last night writing performance reviews... so very, very tired. 3 performance reviews done, 4 more left to do... fully enveloped in level 5 procrastination on writing remaining performance reviews! I'm super grateful that tomorrow I'm back to training... I need some motivation (translation: I need someone waiting for me at the gym this week) !

Today's caloric intake = 1425, which wasn't bad considering my admin neighbor at work had a large box of Sees candy on her desk today, where the smell of chocolate drifted over my cube wall every 5 minutes. I ate none of it, I'm proud to say, and THANKFULLY she took it home tonight to her kiddies...

oh Monday...

Weekend Update with Evie Bee

I've always wanted to be on SNL, what can I say.
So here is my weight....down a pound and half, roughly, roughly. Even if I didn't drop 4 lbs like Leenie P or 3lbs just sitting around like Stewman, I FEEL really good. Leenie and I were in Santa Barbara and I decided to go for a run along the beach, which was amazing. Like I told Leenie, I haven't been that high since college, all endorphins of course, or whatever feel-good chemicals kick in when you workout. Added bonus, there were a lot of guys playing beach volleyball and then for some reason the firemen of Santa Barbara were also out and about. This made up for the fact that at my gym I have yet to see one good-looking guy, although I did see some guy resembling Milton from Office Space in a head band and a very sweaty white t-shirt today at the gym. Picture it people, picture it.

Update so far...

So I got back into town this morning from a tragic weekend at my girlfriends place. Everything was fine with her and me but the tragedy that unfolded in Tucson hit close to home. The Safeway shopping enter is about 3-4 miles from her apartment. A Safeway I have been in at least a dozen times and a shopping center we were planning on going to around 11:00 for lunch at a great sandwich shop. We left her apartment at 10:00am to go to the mall right next door and as we turn onto Ina road, we pull over as four sheriff deputies zoom by us. We thought, wow must be a bad accident up ahead. We go to the mall and left about 10:45 when we called my girlfriend's friend to see if she wanted to join us for lunch. She declined and we hung up. Two minutes later she called back and said we can't go up there as it is all blocked because of a shooting. No more details given. I then checked the Internet via my phone and saw it was Gabrielle Giffords who was shot. We were shocked as we were fans of her during the recent campaign and my girlfriend voted for her. If this took place an hour later we would have most certainly been in the middle of it as I'm sure we would have stopped by to see the congresswoman. The city is shocked and devastated to say the least. Pray for the congresswoman as she battles for her life. Mourn those who perished and praise those who saved lives.

To say the least the weight loss challenge was not much on my mind but I still did pretty good. I did eat out once on Saturday and once on Sunday but kept all portions small. This brings my year total up to 4 times eating out which is below my 10 times at this point last year. My weight is currently at 206.8. I did make my 2011 debut at the gym on Friday and proceeded to burn 474 calories in 30 minutes on the elliptical. I've set a goal of 50k calories burned on elliptical this year. Easily doable if I stay committed. I'll return tomorrow to the gym. So far so good but a long way to go.

Sunday Weigh In - Week 1

This first week of 2011 and the weight-loss challenge had some wins and some losses... but in the end, the scale showed progress in the right direction... woo hoo... onward to week #2.

Cheesecake Factory = the low cal model

I got the glorious grilled Mahi Mahi, and a side of broccoli and a side of green beans last night. After much consideration on the drive to get my hair done afterwards, I think i will not be as good with the sides next time... TWO green vegitable sides? it just felt wrong in so many ways! That is not me!! That is not even skinny me... skinny me will enjoy a green vegitable and a potato/rice/non-green colored food side! The Mahi Mahi was definately not bad...

Now I sit at the airport, my usual snacking location during all travel adventures, thinking if I wasn't superstitious about this standby list, I would probably go and have some garlic fries and a HUGE beer at Gordon Biersch... maybe that will be the plan if they don't call me for the standby list... :-)

See y'all at the weigh-in on Sunday!

Brag Post

So last night in my bowling league I bowled my 2nd career 300 game. It took me 25 years to get my first but only 15 months for my second. Awesome feeling once again especially having about 12 lanes stop bowling watching you throw your last 3 balls and cheering after each strike. Now I'd like to give partial credit to my new svelte figure because of this challenge. Dropping those 2.4lbs I feel gave me the extra energy boost I needed since I had been up since 1:00am for work stuff. Who knows when or if number 3 will happen but hopefully when it does I'll be a lot skinnier!!

Picture evidence from my phone. Blurry photo but you can see the evidence on the bottom left.

May I suggest a low cal alcoholic beverage...

Evie Bee, reading your last post made me think of a great option for you in your quest for low calorie alcoholic beverages. While I have never partaked in a low cal/carb spirit, Matt has tossed a few of these back. Enjoy!!

Waking up early and water, your new friend

So this morning I woke up at 5am and went to the gym before work, which I will say right now is definitely not going to happen every day. However, it was much quieter than the after work time of 6pm. I also wanted to share with you all that although I have had some bread and chocolate this week, I have so far refrained from drinking. Even though my boss sent me a wine and cheese basket which came to my office this week and his boss sent me a bottle of wine too!
I guess they know me well enough....
They remain on my desk, unopened. In addition, my boss was in town last night and as is custom had an expense account to burn. Trust me I thought long and hard about accepting an invitation to go drinking but at the risk of my career, I said no. Instead, I stayed at home and had some flavored water and them some herbal tea as my beverage of choice.
Water, it's delicious.....take note Matt :)
I will however have no more than 3 (low calorie) alcoholic drinks with my friend Leenie this weekend and then we are hitting that gym on Saturday together!

Let there be cookies!!

Calories consumed = 1606-400 calories burned at the gym = 1206
Hours at the gym = 1 (well, more like 50 minutes, as my legs couldn't hold up after two sets of something called "suicides"... probably a better name would be "you will cry after you do only one of these sprint/ground touching activities")

Tomorrow will be a challenging day as i'm going to Cheesecake Factory with some friends after work... what to eat, what to eat... we'll see how it goes...

Oh - other big happiness from today... due to my gym training tonight, i have enough calories left that i got to eat 8 pink and white Circus Animal cookies!!! oh, sugar, how i've missed you... :-)

Mid week update

So I weighed myself this morning full monty style (cause I don't care if my feet are cold...man up Matt..lol) and came in at a svelte 207.8lbs. Now all you out there may be wondering how did I cut this massive amount of weight in such a short time. Let me tell you my secret. I stayed home for basically 3 days except to buy mega millions (priorities people) and ate at home and ate less. No exercise besides clicking the mouse, clicking the remote control, and a few games of pool. Now all this is complete BS because this is just normal body fluctuations. I could wake up tomorrow and be over 210 again. I plan on making my 2011 gym debut either tomorrow or Friday and then next Monday start a regular workout schedule of hopefully 4-5 days a week. I won't be calorie counting like Leenie because I'll probably forget to include things and won't be accurate. However, I will post my eating out habits as I feel this is a key to me losing weight (besides exercising of course). So far through the first 4 days of the year I have eaten out a grand total of 1 time. This is really good for me. I don't plan on eating out till probably tomorrow morning for breakfast as I have to be in at work at 2:00am and will probably go out with the downtime crew from work for breakfast which is usually what happens.

Anywho, stay sexy everyone!

OMG - tonight I ran 1.5 minutes of an 8.5 minute mile...

...and felt only moderately like throwing up on the treadmill tonight! Woo-hoo, I'm on my way to an 8.5 minute mile! :-)

Calories consumed today: 1454 - 200 (burned off at the gym) = 1254
Hours exercised: 30 minute "high intensity intervals"
Hot guys spotted at the gym tonight: 1.5 (.5 guy was only hot from the back...)

I must also give kudos to the lady wearing a bow the size of her entire head, while on the stair-mill at the gym.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, hard boiled eggs in the refrigerator will make your refrigerator smell like a$$ every time you open the door... yet, only a 70 calorie snack!!

Official weight

FYI. I'm totally nude while i did this except for my socks cause my feet were cold.

Oh yeah.

So i don't have a picture of my weight so you will have to trust me:) I'm roughly 195lbs of sexiness. I'll post a picture when i buy a scale. My goal weight is 165!! In reality, i expect to be about 192 or 197 (depending on how much soda i've drunk that day) by May so you all best watch out and get to the gym.

How Did I Get Here?

So, here I am, joining the group because frankly, I am not sure how I got here. I currently am topping the scales at right around 140lbs, somewhere I haven't been in about 7-8 years. There are probably a few factors that have contributed to my current weight status....
1. My "Schedule" - or lack there of. I travel a lot for work and for fun, it is rare that I spend more than 10 days straight sleeping in my bed which means that I don't get to have much of a routine. The simple fact is that I often do not even buy groceries if I know I am going to be out of town, instead I have condiments, beer and usually some rotting fruit in the fridge.
2. Bad Habits. I've developed a few bad habits, which doesn't help me out much in the weight department. Since I work and travel and therefore eating out a lot, I am often prone to having a drink, and when you go out more than 3 nights a week, that adds up to a lot of calories, empty ones to be exact. On top of that I have always been a lover of food, usually the worse they are for you the higher they rank on my favorite food list:

- Chocolate. To be fair, I have developed a taste for dark chocolate but who I am I kidding, I'll eat anything with the word chocolate in it.
- Bread. Again, I don't discriminate, anything that has been baked will appeal to me.
- Cheese. Cheddar, Swiss, Gruyere, Edam, Blue, you name it, I will eat it......usually with my bread.
What can we conclude from this?
My ideal night is at a fondue restaurant, yes...... and that I have some bad habits to break if I want to even think about competing in this game.

So here is my goal. I would like to get down to 120lbs by the end of this competition. I have a ways to go and some new, better habits to form but look, we are all in the together, plus I really like Vegas!

Day 2 - last day of my mispent vacation

Calories consumed: 1,212
Exercise completed: 1 hour with the trainer, wanted to die after 35 minutes! Back to getting up from a chair, a car, EVERYWHERE, like an 80 year-old lady!! :-)
# of hours of therapy shopping: 2.5 - got some GREAT deals at the Gilroy outlets today, and nooooo crowds to judge me shopping in my gym clothes! :-)

Planned my lunches and work snacks for next week to keep me at 1200-ish daily calories. What I learned? Eggs only have 70 calories... helloooo new snacking food!! :-)

Day 1

Calories consumed = 1,312
Hours of Exercise = 0, but three hours of cleaning room/closet room
Hours of Bad TV Watched = 6, Real Housewives of Atlanta marathon
How do I feel? HUNGRY!!

The beginning of my dysfunctional relationship with the scale - 1/2/11

Well, here it is... my starting point. Last night, I finally took the scale out of the box, and took it for a test drive - this morning, i weigh two pounds less! :-) burning calories while i sleep!! My ideal weight is 150, so this is my goal. My plan is diet and exercise... diet = 1200 calories per day, exercise = 4.5 hours per week.

Official weight on Jan 2nd 2011

Here is my weigh-in for the weight loss challenge. My personal goal is to get to 175lbs.

2010 eating out statistics

So in 2009 I decided to keep track of how many times I eat and where I eat out at. In 2009 I ate out a staggering 399 times. Now this is an approximation and is actually probably higher as I'm sure I missed some meals and didn't count vacations where you eat out all meals usually. As I looked at this number in disgust I tried to get that number down in 2010. Well I succeeded in doing this dropping to 363 times eating out for a 9% decrease. While this is an improvement it is not what I had in mind in dropping down. My goal for 2011 is to try and get under 300 times. This will take discipline and commitment but is feasible. The biggest hurdle is trying to bring my lunch to work. Stats for 2010 below!

# of times ate out - 363

# of times ate out breakfast - 46

# of times ate out lunch - 202

# of times ate out dinner - 108

# of times ate out late night - 7

# of times ate out twice on same day - 83

# of times ate out three times on same day - 4

# of days not eating out - 89

# of times ate fast food - 122

Fast food eating out

Subway - 44

Taco Bell - 26

Qdoba - 18

Jack in the Box - 9

Filibertos - 6

Carl's Jr - 5

Del Taco - 4

Wendy's - 4

KFC - 3

El Pollo Loco - 1

Burger King -1

Here's to a better 2011!! Felíz nuevo año todos!