Floundering Around

I'm not really sure what to do with myself these days. As I mentioned in a past post, I'm below the goal I thought I needed to get to. I got there, went a little below, and lo and behold, I've wondered, "Should I keep going?"

Here's the thing: I feel good, I look pretty good (that's pretty much in my opinion!), I like the size of clothes I'm wearing (I've bought some new ones much to the strain of our credit card bill), and I feel like I'm in a good place.

However, as any woman does, I still notice all of those annoying jiggly bits, as they like to say in England. Pre-kids, at this weight, there would have been no fat on my belly. And yet, some remains. Can it be got rid of without completely eliminating my boobs? I'm curious.

And my thighs. Sigh. I'm a pear shape. I will always be a pear shape. I'm a smaller pear, and that makes me happy, but I do wonder if anything short of liposuction would actually make my thighs go away?

My bottom--well, it's smaller, I can tell because I took measurements when I started TurboFire, but it remains in its jiggly glory.

The thing is, I've worked really hard this winter. Darn hard. How long do I want to keep working like that?

I remember Oprah once saying on her show that there was no magic bullet for weight loss becuase if there had been, it would have been, she would have given it to everyone on her Favorite Things show ages ago!

Well, there is a "magic bullet" per se, but maybe not the one we all want. It's freaking hard work! That magic bullet is what we've been told all along: eat less, exercise more.

So how long do I want to eat less and exercise more? That's kind of where I'm at right now. Lose a little more? Maintain and continue to firm up? Trying to decide.

I know that I will always be someone who needs to track calories. I think that's just a fact of life for me. I do feel like over the course of the last year I've mastered portion control and listening to my body, especially when I'm in a situation where I can't weigh and measure my food. That has been a long time in the making. I'm OK with keeping an eye on that.

I need to avoid certain foods, probably for the longterm. Grains seem to be one of those. And, sadly, beans, which I love. Both of those foods apparently contain something that isn't so great for my digestive system, and my family who are in close proximity as a result.

I also know that I'll continue to need to get my workouts in first thing in the morning. That may be a forever thing. Maybe one day I won't have to get up at 5:30am though. One can dream.

So I'm just trying to figure it all out right now. It bugs me that I don't have a concrete goal in place because for years I've had a goal and I feel like I need one to be moving forward.

Run a 5k? Do a triathlon? Get some sort of nutrition or fitness certification? These are all things I've mulled, but come to no conclusion on. Until then I'm just keeping up with TurboFire, adding in some weight training, and eating clean.

I'll keep you updated.

I Made it Through the Cleanse!

Isn't that a song by Barry Manilow? Just kidding.

I finished my Shakeology cleanse yesterday and weighed in this morning. I knew I felt pretty good, but I had this grand plan that I wouldn't eat one single thing that wasn't on the cleanse over the course of the 3 days. That, of course, is always the plan. But it's hard when I'm making dinner, touching all sorts of food that I'm not supposed to be eating.

This time though, I was a rock. Until last night. In the last hours of the cleanse, I ate a little biscuit. WTF? Totally annoyed with myself.

The first day of cleansing is hard. I'm usually hungry and going through withdrawl and also trying to break that habit of popping stuff in my mouth here and there. The second day I'm usually in good shape. I was actually traveling for work on the second day (Wednesday), but I stayed on track. I took my Shakeology and my shaker cup and just drank it in my car before my meeting. Then after my meeting, I went to Whole Foods and made my required salad for dinner.

Did great all day yesterday, but then there was the biscuit. Ah well, progress, not perfection. I keep telling myself that.

So overall, I lost 7 pounds on the cleanse. That's pretty exciting because that takes me to yet another record low weight--post-babily speaking that is. We're getting in the range of grad school era weight now. But the 7 pounds off is a little deceiving because I had eaten a bowl of popcorn the night before. Water retention anyone? So if I go from the weight I was when we got back from England, I'm down 3.5 lbs. Still very pleased with the results.

Here is the cleanse that I followed:

Pre-breakfast: a cup of green tea
Breakfast: Shakeology with water/ice only. May add 1/2 fruit if needed.
Snack: piece of fruit
Lunch: Shakeology with water/ice only. Follow with a cup of green tea.
Snack: Shakeology with water/ice only.
Dinner: salad greens with 3 servings of veggies, 2 Tbsp salad dressing, 4oz. white meat

Drink 2-4 liters of water per day.

The hardest part for me is drinking that much water a day. But I'm always bad at that.

I woke up this morning and had...Shakeology for breakfast. I usually only drink the chocolate, but this morning I had the Greenberry flavor with almond milk and half a banana.

I'm crazy that way.

Workout of Fire 30 and Upper 20 is already in the bag. Now I'm going to go to Costco and try not to eat any samples. Hopefully all of the sample people aren't out yet!

Trigger Happy

On Monday I started a 3-day Shakeology Cleanse. It's not hard. Except when you're on Day Three and there are a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts sitting on the counter. I wrapped the box in multiple layers of Saran Wrap. I did this to keep them fresh and to keep the smell of them from making me faint.

Why are there a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts in my house? Every once in awhile when I go to Denver for meetings, like yesterday, I pick them up as a treat for Eamonn and the boys. We don't have a donut shop in the valley and if we want donuts, we have to eat nasty grocery store donuts. Needless to say, they don't even really appeal to the boys--that's saying something--so Krispy Kreme donuts are a special treat a few times a year.

Donuts are one of my trigger foods--all that sugar and fat wrapped up in a delicious little package of dough. Mmmmmm. I'm feeling woozy. My favorite donut is the sour cream cake. When I buy the boys' dozen, I usually buy just one of my favorites for me and eat in the car on the way home. Heaven on I-70.

Other trigger foods for me are tortilla chips, cheese and cookie dough. I try to only bake cookies on a cheat day or else I'm in trouble. And then of course, there's popcorn. Again, I save it for a cheat day. Surprisingly, chocolate is usually not a trigger food for me. I have noticed that if I eat milk chocolate, it seems to make me want more, but if I eat a really good quality dark chocolate, I can eat a square or two and call it good.

I'm curious. What are your trigger foods? How do you "manage" them?

Anyway, so far so good. I'm having great results with the cleanse--feeling good, lighter (mentally if not physically), and more disciplined, which is always my goal for a cleanse. I just needed to get my head back in the game.

And as a side note, I stopped into Kohl's in Denver yesterday with the intent to only buy underwear (in addition to not having a donut shop, the valley doesn't have any place to buy underwear except WalMart and I struck out there). I didn't get home until 10pm last night because I was reminded that trying on clothes and having them fit in a smaller size is very, very fun. However, I won't be wearing any of the new shorts I bought as it is snowing today. Sigh.

Post Vacation Withdrawl

I'm back. Clearly, I was gone, but as I said on my other blog, I'm becoming a little more cautious about saying on the Internet that our house is empty and all burglars in a 50 mile radius should try to break in and steal our 20 year TV or one of our cars with 200,000 miles it. They'd come flocking, I just know it.

Anyway, it's that horrid first day after vacation. You know, that one where you wonder if you even dare to get on the scale. Because let me tell you, people, although I only ate fish and chips once on this trip, I was a chocolate and ice cream eating machine. I ate one or the other, and sometimes both, every single day.

No lie.

It was gross. And good.

AND I ate a full English breakfast at least five times. Possibly more. What is a full English, you ask? It usually includes 2 eggs cooked how you like, 2 pieces of bacon (back bacon, mmmmm), 2 sausages, toast. That's the minimum. Depending on what part of the country you're in, you might also get a grilled tomato, baked beans, grilled mushrooms and fried bread.

You can go all day on that.

Not that I tried it. I never missed a meal. It's just not in my nature.

So combine the excessive eating and total lack of exercise and I was a little worried. Seriously, people, I haven't worked out since the Saturday before we left. That was April 9 to be exact. I'm dreading re-entry.

This morning, I looked at the scale. It looked at me. Did I dare get on it or was that just asking for a reason to feel suicidal all day?

I got on.

And.....

I had not gained a single pound. WTF? Why can't I be like that in real life?

Here are my thoughts though as I ponder this happy freak occurance.

First, although I wasn't exercising, I also was rarely sitting down. At home, I'm sitting on my rear working all day. On the trip, I was sitting in the car, but once we got to our destination, I was walking. Just on the go all the time.

Second, we rarely ate out for lunch. We usually picked up sandwiches and fruit (and chips!!) at a grocery store. This made for lighter eating. And I rarely got myself a bag of chips. I just mooched off everyone else, likely totalling the amount of a full bag of chips. But whatever.

Third, I took my Shakeology with me. I drank it about half of the time in the mornings that we are at Eamonn's sister's. When we were on the road and staying at hotels, I didn't drink it, but maybe that helped?

At any rate, I used this morning's success to binge on tortilla chips today.

My plan. Get back to clean eating. Start some light workouts this week and then get back on my TurboFire routine starting Sunday.

It's going to be painful. I feel nervous.