March 2008

So it’s looking like I’m going to leave tomorrow, late morning. Today has been extremely busy… I’ve been running around trying to get everything done!

I actually did accomplish a lot so far. The only thing left to do (other than pack, laundry, etc) is go vacuum and clean out the inside of my car. No use in doing the outside since it’s going to be raining almost the entire way back! I’ll be seeing the hot mechanic tomorrow morning for a quick check-up on my car.

No time for the gym or eating much of anything today…

If all goes according to plan, tomorrow night I’ll be in Buffalo, NY. Wednesday evening I’ll be in Indianapolis. Thursday night either Springfield or Branson, MO. (I may stop and quickly visit a friend that lives there). Friday afternoon I should be back in Tulsa.

I have my laptop all set up now so I will be updating this site and theskinnywebsite.com as usual. There are tons of places along the way that have wireless internet access, not to mention the hotel’s wireless access, so this time I’ll actually have the time to stop and update and check email regularly, which is good!

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I’m slightly hungover this morning… I didn’t eat dinner last night but had a few drinks at the bar with my friend J, who thankfully was the one driving. Way too much tequila, to be honest. I stuck to the same alcohol though the entire evening/night – Patron, which is a super nice and smooth tequila. Which is probably why I don’t feel too bad today given how much of it I drank!

So, onto my impending road trip… it is SO HARD to find decent food on the road. No matter how much I swear off McDonald’s, sometimes it is the only thing around to eat! So this time, I’m going to plan ahead and bring my own snacks and meals. My typical routine is to eat very little during the day then get a huge room service meal at night. But this time I’m going to do something a little different: mini-meals every few hours or so to keep my blood sugar levels up during the day, then a nice salad/lean protein room service meal once I’ve gotten to my destination for the night. I’ve had problems with crashing blood sugar on more than one occasion while road-tripping, and it’s not going to happen this time. (Once in Indiana, I had to pull over to the side of the road because I honestly felt like I was going to pass out).

These are the types of foods I’m going to bring to snack on: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, apples, bananas, peaches, protein bars, Kashi bars, nuts, fiber one cereal, and a few other things. For coffee, I’m bringing a few of the Starbucks Espresso drink things along.

The weather is probably going to suck the entire way back, but there isn’t much I can do about it. It’s Spring, after all, which means a lot of thunderstorms. Hopefully I won’t get sucked up in a funnel cloud as I’m passing through tornado alley.

Anyway, onto other stuff… I’m going to hit the gym this evening for what I hope to be an hour-long treadmill routine at the highest incline and fastest speed I can handle. Then B and I are going to go play a couple games of pool… it’ll be our last for a few months. I am allowing myself one drink tonight and that is IT.

ARGHGHGH I am SO sick and tired of the guy downstairs playing his bass music so loud!! I mean seriously. I’m glad I’m getting the heck out of here in a couple days…

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Another day, another set of plans to make the scale go down.

It’s time to step up to the next level of light eating and tough workouts. No more night eating, either.

B and I played pool today and he told me he’s going to miss me when I leave. He was really sad. I’m sad too because we’ve sort of become best friends, in a way. He told me he still has ‘feelings’ for me. Of course, that was after 3 shots of Patron tequila. Everyone at our pool hall thinks we are a couple, which also sucks. I’ve had to tell a few people outright that we aren’t one. Whenever there is a cute guy around us, B acts like we ARE a couple.

I’m going to confess something here: I’m still drinking alcohol almost every day. It’s bad. I try to stop, then plans come up. Everyone is drinking. I know that’s no excuse but damn, it sucks. I know it’s the #1 reason that I’m not losing scale weight.

There, I said it.

It’s definitely time to get out of here for a couple of months! When I’m in Tulsa, I don’t drink much if at all.

Anyway, I need to get ready to go back. I’m going to spend tonight and tomorrow preparing my apartment for departure and get my new laptop ready. I also have to throw a lot of stuff out. I’m not sure when I’m going to leave exactly, but it’s going to be soon. It might actually be this coming week, maybe on Wednesday. I had a wild idea to leave tonight in the middle of the night, but there are things I need to do first. Firstly, let my landlord out here know I’m going and prepay rent. Second, freeze my gym membership for the next couple months. Third, make sure my car is OK.

I don’t know though, I’m tempted to just take off… except the weather is bad over my route for the next couple of days. But I just want to get back there already. Get back to my spacious 1 1/2 bedroom apartment with its nice furniture, HD TV, nice dishes, queen sized pillow-top bed, elliptical machine, 24 hour building gym and pool, covered parking with my own spot, and sister and niece and other family members. (I didn’t mean to list family last, in fact, I miss them more than anything else!)

One good thing about living in two different places is that when you get sick of one place, you can pack up and go to the other place.

Anyway, B wants to hang out tonight. He also wants to go to our pool place tomorrow night and do Karaoke and dedicate me a song. THAT I’m not looking forward to. I probably won’t go.

In other news, there is a new person who lives below me here that has the loudest surround-sound system ever. That and probably a high-tech bass stereo. He started playing it around 9am this morning. Given the fact that I fell asleep around 5am this morning, you know I’m not very happy! I think to get revenge, I’m going to spend all night tonight moving furniture around and stomping around heavily.

Quick edit: Well, it’s now 7:45pm and guess what? I’m heading to the gym! (I already rode 5 miles on my stationary bike earlier today).

Even later edit: Geez, I need to stop updating this darn thing. Anyway, I only had 45 minutes by the time I got to my gym (found out they close at 9pm on Saturdays, not 10 like I thought) , so I decided to do the most effective workout: the elliptical, for 32 minutes. I got the machine up to level 12, up three levels from my previous high level of 9! My heart rate actually stayed in the lower 140’s. AND I didn’t sweat nearly as much. It is weird – although I went three days without using the elliptical machine, somehow I could get it on an even higher level than before and it didn’t kick my as* like it sometimes does. I could definitely feel the heightened resistance level though. At one point I was burning 11 cals per minute, which for me is REALLY good. (I still haven’t gotten up to those levels of fitness where one can burn 1000 cals per hour on the elliptical).

Anyway, I just wanted to update about my gym visit. Only 32 minutes working out, but then again, I did 25 earlier today with my bike and free weights. Tomorrow evening I will go to the gym again and do the treadmill. My goal is to get up to a 9.5% incline without it killing me.

Have I mentioned how much I love love love working out?

Well, it’s 9:16pm and I need to take a quick shower. An old friend whom I haven’t seen for a while, J (a different J than I’ve mentioned here) and I are hitting an Irish bar over the Massachusetts border. Yeah, I guess I’ll be drinking alcohol again. Oh well – I have at least 2 sober months in Tulsa ahead of me, so I’m not worried. I may as well live it up now!

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Today, I officially turned 30 1/2 years old.

Exactly 6 months ago today, I pledged to become more healthy. I also pledged to lose all this weight and get down to my best weight range, which is anywhere from 115-125ish. (Although technically I didn’t start on an official “diet and exercise program” until October 3rd or 4th.)

The good news is that in the last six months, I have improved my fitness levels immensely. Back then, I would walk down to the corner store, which is probably 500 feet (estimate) from my apartment. I would get out of breath on the way back because it is a slight uphill walk. I would be OUT OF BREATH walking 500 feet. Yep, I really let myself go in the year prior to that. For instance, before I got my car, I would take cabs EVERYWHERE or get rides from friends. I would go out drinking almost every night with friends. When I got home, I would have the alcohol munchies and eat everything in sight.

Fast-forward to now…. I can speed walk with a 8% incline and still carry on a conversation (if need be). I can do a 45 minute elliptical routine without killing myself. Walking up the hill to my apartment from Main Street (which is a good 7 minute uphill walk) actually energizes me now. In Tulsa, I would occasionally walk up 7 flights of stairs for the hell of it.

So yes, I have improved my fitness level. A lot. My resting heart rate is lower and my blood pressure has gone down! Those are very, very important goals that have been reached.

And my size… I have gone down a few pants sizes. Depending on the designer/brand, anywhere from 2-5 sizes.

But my weight… the number on the scale. Yes. That evil number. In six months, I haven’t made much progress AT ALL in that area. Six months! I constantly hear about people who lost 30 pounds in six months. Or more. Me? I’ve lost less than 15. Some days, less than 10! Lately the scale has gone up. And yes, I know I’m building muscle.

But how come I keep hearing about all these damn people LOSING weight? Back in September, I speculated that I would have lost 25 pounds by now!!! 25!!!! And I’m nowhere near that.

I am mystified. Why is it that I – a successful person who has achieved EVERY SINGLE GOAL IN HER LIFE SO FAR – have such a damn hard time getting the scale to move in the right direction? Why? This is THE ONLY GOAL I HAVE SET THAT I HAVEN’T ACHIEVED.

For example:

• Goal #1 – see the Northeast. Accomplished in August 2002.
• Goal #2 – see NYC. Accomplished in August 2002.
• Goal #3 – move out of California. Accomplished in August 2002.
• Goal #4 – drive cross-country. Accomplished in Summer 2002.
• Goal #5 – become successful on the internet. Accomplished August 2005.
• Goal #6 – quit my day job to do internet stuff full time. Accomplished in July 2006.
• Goal #7 – make a six figure salary. Accomplished in 2007.
• Goal #8 – see Seattle and Minneapolis and the northern plain states. Accomplished in Summer 2007.
• Goal #9 – become the healthiest, fittest version of myself as possible, and lose a ton of weight. Not yet accomplished.

(Note that there are smaller and more personal goals in between these that I also accomplished). I’ve also set many traffic goals for theskinnywebsite.com, all of which I’ve met and exceeded.

So how is it that someone like myself who can do almost anything she sets her mind to NOT be able to do a simple thing like lose some damn weight? Seriously. I’d like to know this.

When does the real weight loss start?

If anyone has the answer to these questions, let me know.

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Appetite, oh appetite, where has thee gone?

Today’s exciting news: Scale has gone up 1.6 pounds. But appetite has plunged to nothingness. I have a bowl of my favorite cereal (Special K protein) in front of me and can’t eat it. All of the delicious fruit I bought yesterday looks about as appetizing as wooden blocks right now. Like, a bowl of legos seem more appetizing then this bowl of cereal. Ugh.

I drank tons of water yesterday and last night but my stomach seems bloated today.

I’m dragging (literally) myself to the gym in a bit despite bad weather and bad roads. I just HAVE to work out today.

The good news is that my aches and pains are gone. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, I’m purposely overdoing the enthusiasm).

I’ll update more later.

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I have to say, Vitamin C is absolutely amazing. I will never again doubt it’s healing powers.

After my EmergenC drink earlier, I started feeling better. I drank another one in the early evening too. Right now I’m sipping on a glass of warm water spiked with one half of a lime and a whole lemon.

Right now it’s 4am and yes, I’m still up. I have insomnia again.

Earlier, I went grocery shopping and went crazy stocking up on fruits. The store I went to, Hannafords, actually had white grapefruit! Which I am so excited about! I dislike ruby red grapefruit. But I love, love LOVE the really sour white/yellow grapefruit and usually can never find them anywhere! So I grabbed several of those, plus some peaches, some extra large lemons, regular sized lemons, limes, grapes, raspberries, blueberries and bananas.

Wow. That’s a lot of fruit, especially since I already have two varieties of red apples in my fridge.

I didn’t get too many vegetables because every time I buy them, I end up wasting them. It’s bad.

I also got my favorite organic brown rice (Rice Expressions is the brand name), plus lots of other healthy stuff.

OK I’m rambling again, I really need to go to bed. But… I’m not tired. I wonder if Vitamin C is also a stimulant?

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Let’s see….

1. I still feel like crap. My neck and head are hurting so bad that I’ve been forced to take half of a narcotic painkiller (Percocet) along with some Advil.

2. I may try to go work out this evening when the Percocet wears off. I don’t know though, this neck/gland pain is ridiculous. I really, really want to go work out though… I wish I felt better.

3. As of today, I’m keeping track of everything I eat and drink in order to see my calorie totals. I need to go grocery shopping again… which is always fun.

4. Last night, B and D wanted to come over really late and bring a six-pack with them. I told them no way – I’m not drinking and I’d rather they didn’t come over with alcohol. I’m proud of myself for being firm, as usually I give in. I have to admit that I drink more than I even admit in this blog, usually. But I’ve decided to go alcohol-free AGAIN and will do anything to stick to my resolve, even if it means staying in by myself like a hermit. I have a lot of work to do anyway – lots of other websites I’m working on getting up and running.

5. Owww. My heeeeeeeeeeeeead.

6. I have a decision to make: take the other half of the Percocet and then be rendered almost useless for the next few hours, or deal with this pain and still be rendered useless for the next few hours.

7. I should explain about the pain I’m talking about… I’m one of those unlucky people who – when my body is fighting something off or are already sick – my glands are swollen horribly and it’s EXTREMELY painful. I’m serious – the pain is bad enough to make me cry if I don’t take something. It’s the glands around my neck that usually hurt – around the side and back of my neck. It causes the pain to move into my head and give me a throbbing headache. It also moves down into my shoulders, making it feel like I need a deep tissue massage. (But massages actually make the pain worse during this time, as I’ve learned from experience).

8. I just found out we are supposed to get 3-5 inches of snow here tonight into tomorrow. Nooooooo! It’s March, dammit, I’m tired of snow already.

9. Even with all this complaining and pain, I’m actually in a good mood right now. (Gotta love those percs).

I’ll update more later….

Slightly later edit:

How weird – instead of taking another painkiller for my neck/head pain, I drank an EmergenC cocktail. It has seriously gotten rid of most of the pain (or at least made it bearable).

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I am tired of complaining about not feeling well and being negative. It really doesn’t serve a purpose. So I deleted my last two posts. Instead, I’ll just reveal only the positive things: I lost a pound on the scale since yesterday.

Oh, and that my as* is shrinking by the day. As are my thighs… I finally measured them and they have gone down an additional half inch.

That’s something to cheer about.

Anyway, I’m hitting the gym tomorrow no matter how bad I feel. I always start feeling crappy when I up my gym regime. Always. But lots of vitamin C and plenty of bed rest has kept me from fully getting sick since last Nov/Dec. Although yes, I’ve complained many times SINCE then that I was coming down with something… it usually went away within a couple of days of taking it easy.

OK, off to bed with a good book once again! (Where I have been for the past several hours).

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Today is a good day so far. So far I’ve had some healthy stuff: two glasses of fresh carrot juice, one tall glass of water with an organic lemon squeezed into it, a banana and half of an apple, and some grilled chicken for lunch. (I also had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a protein shake after the gym).

Today’s gym visit had me trying a new strategy: the elliptical machine first – at which point I managed to get up to a level 9 resistance (higher than I’ve ever gone!) without going too far over my fat-burning target heart rate. I ended with the treadmill but wasn’t able to get over a 4% incline…

I will address a couple of comments about the “fat-burning heart rate” shortly. But first…

I’m starting to notice a trend at the gym. It seems like I expend most of my energy on whatever machine I start on. For instance, if I start on the treadmill, I can put the machine higher and do a great workout on it. But whatever I do afterwards is affected and I can’t go as high. So it’s either power-walking on the treadmill at an 8% incline for 30 minutes, then the elliptical afterwards at a 3 or 4. OR it’s a great elliptical workout for 30 minutes, then the treadmill at 3 or 4. I just don’t seem to have the energy to do both at higher levels. Today, for example, by the time I got onto the treadmill, my ankles and legs were hurting pretty badly. (Not sure why). When I was at a 4% incline I really was in pain (and not a good pain). So I had to cut things short.

What I am going to start doing is this: One day, I’ll use the elliptical for 45 minutes at the highest level I can sustain, then the bike for 15. The next day, I’ll do the treadmill for 45 minutes as high as I can go, then the bike for 15. That way I can focus on certain muscle groups each day. I only do the stationary bike/spinning machine for my thigh muscles anyway. I never use it for cardio. So it doesn’t matter how tired I am, I can still do it for 10 or 15 minutes after I do my “main” workout.

Now, onto comments… first off, I truly appreciate your guys’ ongoing support! I know I have a tendency to ramble on and on. So thanks for reading. A couple of people have left comments asking why I feel the need to keep my heart rate at a certain level. I thought everyone knew about the “fat burning zone” thing, but maybe not…

Basically, according to a few trainers I’ve spoken with, plus after extensive research, I’ve learned that in order to “effectively” burn the most fat, you have are supposed to train at a certain level, or “zone” (heart beats per minute during a workout). 60-65% is considered the “fat burning” zone. 80-85% is considered “high intensity cardio”. These numbers are on every single machine in my gym, so obviously it’s pretty important. Since I’m 30 years old, my “fat burning zone” is around 123 beats per minute. My “high intensity cardio zone” is up to 152 bpm.

Since I don’t want to stop burning fat [in the most efficient way] at any time during my workout, I never let my heart rate get over 152 bpm. I mainly try to stay around 130bpm or so but mostly between 130-140bpm.

Somebody claiming to be A physician left a comment on my last post telling me I am misinformed about this, but… this information is everywhere. It’s not something I made up, but it’s well-known fitness information! A search on google about “fat burning zone” will reveal millions of results with plenty of info about this.

So anyway….. today is Tuesday which means pool day. In about 20 minutes I’m going to walk the mile over to the pool hall and play a couple of games with B. I’m allowing myself 2 alcohol drinks – Mic Ultras, which are only 95 calories each. And I’m walking both ways (when I could easily drive) for the extra exercise!

Later Edit:

It’s 2am, I should be asleep but… I’m not tired. Tonight was OK – I shot a couple of good games of pool. I ended up driving to the pool hall though because it was cold and windy out. (Still winter-like here in NH). As a result I only had 1 1/2 of the Mic Ultras.

The bad news is that I feel once again like I’m coming down with a cold. I’m guzzling Vitamin C cocktails like there is no tomorrow, so hopefully that will once again do the trick.

As for the fat burning zone thing, I’m going to stick with what I’ve been doing for now. However, as much as it pains me, I’m going to keep an eye on the scale and start measuring myself again. I know for a fact that my bottom is benefiting from the exercise I’m doing because I can tell that it has gotten smaller already. (Actually, I started noticing this about 2 weeks ago and it’s becoming more obvious by the day. Seriously!) And B also commented on it tonight and said that he can tell I’m losing in that area. How nice of him to notice.

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