I've Hit a Road Block....My body hates me...

Don't worry....not mentally. Physically.

I still haven't made it to my chiro to get my back adjusted. I'm doing okay with Advil and ice as well as a periodic massage from hubby, but I'm in need of an adjustment. My chiro's and my schedules just haven't meshed.

To add to it, I stayed home from work today. This may get TMI....so you are forewarned. The last three months, I've had some gastrointestinal issues. In August, I went to urgent care as I had some stomach pain, nausea and tiny bowel movements. The doc took an X-Ray and found that my upper large intestine was "backed up" so to speak. So I took magnesium citrate to get things moving. I did and things were okay.

Fast forward to three weeks ago. I stayed home with the same issue and also had dry heaves with it. I forgot to mention that this wakes me up during the night and I'm in the bathroom once an hour for about five hours. Hence, no sleep. And no sleep and teaching a class of 20 challenging 4th graders does not work well. I drank a lot of water and it seemed to pass.

Well, last night, it happened again. When I went to bed, my stomach felt weird...full-like, but I ignored it and went to bed. 1 AM rolls around and I'm in the bathroom. This continued until about 5 AM when I proceeded to drive to school and get things ready for a sub since I knew I wasn't going to be teaching today.

I haven't had the bathroom issues during the day today but I still have a "full" feeling in my stomach. I even looked online for colonic massage (things kneading your stomach in the pattern of your intestine to try and get things "moving"). I haven't had much luck. I go to my regular doctor on Monday for my yearly physical so I'm going to talk to her about this tomorrow.

Right now, my head is hurting too and I think it's exhaustion and my body trying to figure out what's going on. Exercise hasn't happened this week as I'm trying to figure out what's going on and my energy level hasn't been there.

So, I'm still here...I'm just hoping I can get this figured out because it's getting kinda old.

Weigh-In and Injury?

So, I kept last week's weigh-in from you.

Current weight 242.0 pounds

Thoughts: Better than where I was last week.

Injury? Last night while I was shaving my legs in the shower, I bent over and felt something "pop" in my back. It literally took my breath away. I slept a lot last night but every time I rolled over, I woke up because my back was uncomfortable (not sure hurt is the right word). I'm unfortunately not working out today because sitting and laying in different positions hurt, I can't imagine what working out could do. If it's still bothering tomorrow, I'll be making a trip to my chiropractor.

Frustrations continue...

30 DS Day #4 plus some Tae Bo

My workout is done and I feel good about it. Added in 20 additional minutes of Tae Bo in a "last chance workout" effort before my weigh in tomorrow.

Now to switch gears. Frustrated. I am a daily weigher. I don't care what the "experts" say and I know it can lead to frustration, but I have been watching my calories and working out as possible and I haven't seen much of a difference from last week's weigh-in flop. I don't know if I'm retaining water or what but I feel like a bloated whale. My stomach feels big and uncomfortable. My time of the month finished back on Monday, so I should be done with that stuff. I just feel blah in the stomach area. It sucks.

Tomorrow is weigh in and another day of a good workout. Trying to really get myself in gear. I'm going to do a Biggest Loser thing for a second. This past week's episode was a good one. As always, the person who is eliminated has a check in to see how they're doing now. This guy has done a tremendous job, losing 100 pounds (or around that) since the beginning. But, he says he works out at the gym for 1.5-2 hours in the morning, works an 8-hour day, works out again for 1 hour after work, goes home to have dinner and a little family time and then goes back one more time for 1.5-2 hours. That's 4-5 hours of working out a day!!! I just wish I had the time to do that.... For fun, I created my typical day with those hours:

3:45-Wake Up
4-5:45-Workout
7:30-3:30 Teach 4th Grade
4-5:30-Workout
5:45-7:00 Dinner/Time with hubby
7-9:00-Workout
9:30 Bedtime

Now, this doesn't include any after school meetings, appointments, grad class, etc. That is not feasible for me. Some times I wish I was a stay at home mom to our cat so I could have more time, but when hubby's in school getting his undergrad and we live solely off of my salary, that's not going to happen!

Just thought that was interesting to put into my schedule. One can dream, right?

On to Sunday!

30 DS Workout #3 Done

This is gonna be short and sweet because I'm kind of in a funk today.

Did my 30 Day Shred workout. Broke a sweat, but didn't do any more. I actually found it hard to do this workout. I felt almost lethargic, and I'm not sure why.

All I can say is TGIF tomorrow. Just hope it's a better one all around.

30 Day Shred Day #2 plus some treadmill

Now don't get too excited about that plus treadmill part! :)

Day #2 with 30DS was great. I was into it. I pushed myself (except those stupid push ups....hate those even "girl style"). I then added 10 minutes on the treadmill. I was getting all into jogging on the second lap (1/4 mile). I made it two minutes in and completely fell apart. No way that was going to continue. So I huffed it through 10 minutes (about 0.6-something miles).

My goal today was to track everything I ate. I did. The only thing I would go back and fix is access to the candy jar in our office. I consumed 3 "fun-size" Crunch bars and 4 "mini" Snickers. Okay, total side thought, but who seriously calls these fun size? What's so "fun" about them? The fact that I could probably eat an entire bag? The fun thought of a tease of a taste??? And the minis...don't even get me started on those!!!

Other that those slip ups, I'm very happy with myself today. I haven't said that in a while. I need to work on the self esteem.

Tomorrow is Wednesday which means grad class. Going to try and plan safely..... Goal tomorrow is once again to record everything I put into my mouth, good or bad. My meals are okay. It's the snacking that's killing me. Bought me some laughing cow cheese and triscuits. We'll see how that goes for a snack instead of raiding the candy jar.

By the way, we have a full size fridge once again....hopefully done buying appliances!!!! Now maybe we can get back to normal eating and living!!!!

30 Day Shred Day #1

Does it seem like I can't make up my mind when it comes to exercise? Well, last year, I gave the 30 Day Shred a try. I did AWESOME for 15 days and got bronchitis and had to quit. I never picked it up again until tonight.

Reasons I like the 30 Day Shred:
-It's fast....25 minutes and you're done
-Circuits....3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs...repeat
-Fast, powerful movements that have you sweating in no time

Reasons I question the 30 Day Shred:
-Not long enough of a workout?
-Not intense enough cardio?

I didn't do any more tonight because I have a butt load of tests and papers to check....which I'm off to do now!!!

Hoping for a longer workout tomorrow, but I did move today. That was my goal.

Tomorrow's goal: Track every bite I eat.

Weigh In......or weigh out?

This is where I have trouble. My mental journey. I don't like to face the facts. I don't like defeat.

This week has not been good. I have only worked out once. There have been other things that have gone on, but I don't need to bore you with them.

My weight is up. That's all I'm going to say. It's my fault, not anyone or anything else's fault.

It's time to go back to square one. Because that's where I am.

Today is a struggle.

I feel like I'm at confession, even though I'm not Catholic. Here it goes....forgive me, health gods, for I have sinned.

-I didn't work out yesterday.
-I got drive-thru McDonald's for breakfast....total of 600 calories....totally not worth it.
-Ate a half of a cake doughnut....again, totally not worth the calories.

I just got done with lunch and I'm already over 1000 calories. Seriously, Nicole? Are you kidding me? I choose to eat crap and then feel bad about it? This is where I need to work on the emotional weight Tara at 263andcounting.com talks about.

So, why am I doing this? Let's break it down.

1. Didn't exercise yesterday. Due to conferences, I didn't get home until 7:30 PM. I then had to finish my paper due for my grad class that had to be submitted by 11:30 PM. I finished it at 9:00 PM. By then, I was mentally exhausted and just needed down time. I feel this is justifiable.

2. Drive thru McDonalds for breakfast. I was running late this morning and didn't have time to make my normal egg on toast breakfast, so I opted for a Sausage McMuffin with egg and hashbrown. Did you know that mcmuffin is 450 calories and the hashbrown is 150 calories? In hind sight, I would have been better off to go to Subway and get one of their english muffin sandwiches. Plus, I wouldn't feel all greasy gross afterwards either. Lesson learned.

3. Ate half of a cake doughnut. So, my teammate occasionally brings in a doughnut and sets it on my desk in the morning. She does this for all three of us. So, when I arrived after eating my greasy breakfast sandwich, I see this cake doughnut with chocolate frosting sitting on my desk. I proved that I didn't have the strength to just throw it away. So, I took a bite. It was good. I proceeded to eat half of it and literally felt ill. So, I pitched it. I'm proud of myself that I was able to do that, but I should have eaten a single bite to start with.

Worst part is that even though I've done all of these things, due to my night class tonight, workouts aren't an option. Awesome. I'm sure the pounds will creep on. I know one thing though...no more McDonald's breakfast. It wasn't worth the 600 calories. I would have been better off with a quick piece of toast at home.

No one said this would be easy, but I'm using this blog as a tool for me to work through this stuff both physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Mixing it up!

In an effort to prevent boredom, I'm mixing up my workouts and holy buckets am I getting sore!!!

Tonight, I went back to my kickboxing day's from Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping and did some punches, kicks and combos. Did you realize how much of a full body workout kickboxing is? I was watching my form in the mirror and with every punch, your abs and arms are engaged. With every kick, you abs and legs are engaged. When you put it together, it's everything! I'm sure I won't be able to move in the morning. After 20 minutes of that, I added on 15 minutes on the elliptical. I didn't do more than 15 minutes though because my toes fall asleep. Still gotta figure out how to get rid of that.

Oh! and I made an awesome dinner tonight. I marinated boneless, skinless chicken breasts in Italian dressing and grilled them. Then I made grilled chicken wraps! I had multigrain wraps, spinach, shredded cheese, cut up chicken, cut up pieces of bacon and a little ranch dressing mixed in. YUMMY!!!! One wrap was super filling. I guesstimated is to be about 400 calories. This is good because my munchies got the best of me at work...hate when there are birthdays and I go in the lounge. Gotta work on will power.

Holy soreness!

So, for yesterday's workout, I decided to pull out the 'ole Billy Blanks Advanced Tae Bo from probably the 90's. It's a 50 minute DVD that has his super-burst speeds and lots of leg work. I'll admit, I had to stop a few times to catch my breath, but I made it through the whole standing workout and then part of the floor workout. I did some abs on my own and really felt pretty good. Tired, but good.

Fast forward to 6:00 AM this morning when my alarm goes off. As I take the first step out of bed, I'm pretty sure my legs felt like jiggly jello. I raised my arms to put my contacts in and it felt as if they weighed 100 pounds each! I didn't even use weights!!!

Just goes to show that I've got a lot of work to do. But I'm doing it.

As far as today goes, not sure what I'm going to do for a workout. We'll see what the weather is like this afternoon when I get home. Dancing with the Stars is on tonight!!! Go Jennifer Grey!!!!

Weigh-in

Not going to beat around the bush.

Weight 241.0 pounds. Gain of 1.2 pounds.

I didn't exercise much this week and my eating was off. The number shows it.

Time to hop back on the saddle again. Giddy-up!

I've entered a contest...

For those of you who have never visited Jen's blog, you should certainly do so. She is a success story with inspiration. I love that even though she has lost the weight and is extremely healthy, she continues to write about her struggles. Life's not perfect, but she shows how to get through it.

Yesterday, she blogged about wanting a future Prior Fat Girl to join her blog. You submit a letter, Jen narrows it down and then the readers will have the final decision.

Here's my letter:

Jen,
I am writing to you today to submit my application to become the next future “Prior Fat Girl!” The reason I want to become a Prior Fat Girl is because I want a better quality of life for my future.
I am a 28-year old Iowa girl. I’ve been married for three years to my wonderful husband. I am a fourth-grade teacher, and I am currently getting my master’s degree in Administration with hopes of becoming an elementary principal someday.
I have been fighting a losing battle again a better quality of life for most of my life. I was an obese child through high school. When I went to college, I badly wanted to get a boyfriend, so I worked out non-stop and didn’t eat anything until I felt shaky. I dropped about 40 pounds in two months, but soon figured out this wasn’t the way to do it. I met my first boyfriend after losing the weight and stopped working out and ate whatever I wanted. I soon gained those 40 pounds back and added an additional 20 pounds. My then-fiance broke off our engagement because he wasn’t attracted to me anymore. This devastated me.
I went into a massive depression for about a month and lost 20 pounds because I wouldn’t eat. I snapped out of it and decided this was my sign for a better life. I began eating better and working out consistently. I felt good and started to look good. I lost 50 pounds when I met my current husband. I continued working out and eating right, but as time progressed farther, I pushed health to the back burner.
In the five years my husband and I have been together, I have lost and gained the same 25-30 pounds. I currently sit at about 240 pounds, where you started. I need a fresh rejuvenating start. I’ve created a blog, but am afraid to write about the times I fail. I need to have that accountability. I don’t have many commenters on my blog, so I sometimes feel that what I write doesn’t matter because not many people see it.
I’m ready to begin the fight for my life. I want MY life to be something it has never been…healthy. I don’t want to be obese anymore. I don’t want to avoid shopping because I might have to go in the plus section. I want to be proud of what I look like and not just who I am on the inside. I want to be active for my one-year old nephews. I want to be healthy so that my husband and I feel comfortable trying to conceive a child. I want to be a role model for health. I would love nothing more than to have your reader’s support.
Jen, you’ve been such a strong person. I have followed your blog for almost two years and I’m so impressed with your passion for life, your strength in beliefs, and your dedication to fitness and health. You are a role model for me and for me to become a part of your blog world would mean so much to me. I want the accountability. I want the feedback (I love my husband to death, but he’s too nice to be blatantly honest sometimes!). Your readers are passionate people who are real and don’t pretend to sugarcoat things. I respect that.
I have never been a success in losing the weight and keeping it off. I would love the challenge set forth by your readers and you to succeed. I’m tired of making excuses of being busy or too tired. I’m tired of choosing to eat out rather than to make something at home. I’m tired of choosing my computer over a walk, jog, exercise, DVD, etc. I have all of the tools. I have a treadmill, elliptical, hand weights from 5 pounds to 60 pounds (my husband uses those!!), DVDs ranging from Jillian Michaels to Billy Blanks, an elementary school six blocks away with a walking trail around it. I have a husband who is physically fit and I would love nothing more than to give him a wife who is the same. He deserves it. I deserve it.
If I am selected to be a “Future Prior Fat Girl,” I vow to share my successes, my failures, and everything in between. I don’t want to let you down, and more importantly, I don’t want to let myself down anymore. I don’t want to be the girl with just the pretty face…

Sincerely,
Nicole
http://healthierlifeforme.blogspot.com/


Something inside me lit up after submitting this. I feel empowered. I appreciate those of you here who read my blog regularly and comment for me. I love that. I would love to have even more people comment and see my life as I'm trying to change it into the right health direction.

I will work out tonight. I will make good food choices. This will be the first time in almost a week that I've eaten dinner at home. I'm excited for that.

I'm still here, and I'm not about to give up. No epic fail....

Epic Fail

So, I'm upon one of the most stressful weeks of the year. Since my weigh-in on Sunday, I...

-have not worked out
-have eaten like crap
-have slept like crap
-have been nursing a head cold after my bought with the flu
-want nothing more than to be on a beach in Mexico

It's not going to get any better...here's my week:
Today: conferences until 7:00 PM
Wed: class until 9:00 PM
Thursday: get observed by our district cabinet, conferences until 5:00 PM, out to dinner with friends
Friday: Open
Saturday: 1st birthday party for the nephew...not sure how long it will last
Sunday: Open

On those open days, I have to try and squeeze in laundry, cleaning, and grad school work, not to mention working out.

I'm scared. It's weeks like these that turn into months like these. It's hard to manage time and life. Right now, I'm working on an epic fail. Stress does not do kind things to me.

Weigh-In

Good-bye 240s. Please don't EVER come back.

No workout today

Home sick with some sort of flu bug....bummer dudes. Hoping to get rested up today so we can still go to the football game tomorrow.