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?

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).

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).

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.

I’m writing off this past weekend as a “lost weekend” in regards to my diet and exercise plan. Things just didn’t go according to plan and I really slacked off. Although I did get some exercise in yesterday, but it was mostly just walking around the city (which included several stairways).

I guess the reason I’ve been slacking off is because I’m taking this last week or so in NH and “living it up” before I return to the midwest. In fact, B and I are supposed to head down to NYC for a couple days this week.

To make up for it my weekend behavior, I’m hitting the gym for an hour today.

The good news is that I took a progress picture of myself on Saturday and compared it to a couple of progress pics I took of myself in January and one in November. And… I can see a definite difference in my overall body shape, even since just January. I cannot post the pics here, as they are personal progress pics (of me not wearing very much, which I would never post.) This makes me happy because the scale is being mean once again and has indeed (as I suspected) gone back up a couple of pounds. Yes, I stepped on it yesterday. So I’m definitely building some muscle.

Well I’m off to the gym… today’s goal is to go another % higher on the treadmill incline, and a higher level on the elliptical. I’ve found for some strange reason that even when I take a couple days off from the gym, I can still push the machines to a higher level upon my return.

Later Edit:

The gym was interesting today. I forced myself - despite being tired - to go to higher levels on both the treadmill and spinning. The elliptical had to be kept down around a level 4 resistance because of my heart rate. For some reason, I haven’t made as much progress fitness-wise on that machine as I have the others. It still skyrockets my heart rate when I have it even at a moderate setting! Some guy on the elliptical next to me kept staring at me and my machine. He was cute so it was a little unnerving, but it didn’t bother me too badly. (Which is definitely a testament to how far I’ve come at the gym. Weeks ago it would have made me get off the machine or give him a dirty look). I no longer even care when someone sees me put my weight in the machines. Or when a grandpa-type next to me is running on the treadmill when I am only speed walking.

There was a middle-aged obese (but not overly so) woman who had a trainer with her. He was really putting her through a hard workout. For some odd reason she was wearing sunglasses and a jacket with a hood. Probably didn’t want to be recognized…

Anyway, I’m exhausteddddddddddddd.

One quick thing I should mention about the photos in the previous post is that I hold a lot of weight in my face. I unfortunately inherited my mom’s side of the family’s “chin”, and my face always makes me look about 20 pounds heavier in photos than I really am. Seriously. I have a double chin in photos even when I am around a 20 BMI (weigh around 125 pounds)! It sucks, but you can’t fight genes. (Well, unless you resort to plastic surgery!)

Moving on… today began with someone banging on my front door around 9am. Given the fact that I fell asleep around 6am this morning (insomnia strikes again!!), I was in no mood to answer it. Especially since I wasn’t expecting anyone. My ex-boyfriend J has a tendency to sometimes stop over without calling. (Or, he’ll call as he’s banging on the front door.) Although he’s not technically allowed in this building. (Long story that I won’t get into).

Anyway, after grumbling a bit and finally managing to stagger out of bed, I realized that I wasn’t really dressed, so I threw on some pajama bottoms and looked out the peephole in my apartment door, only to find nobody there. Apparently whoever knocked didn’t care if I answered the door or not. I looked out the window and saw the two vehicles that the maintenance men (for my building) drive. I’m not sure why they were knocking, but I figured it had something to do with the fact that they were cleaning out and painting the apartment below mine. I guess the very loud and obnoxious people below me FINALLY got evicted or moved out… yay! Thankfully the maintenance guys didn’t turn off the water again. (Earlier in the week they turned the building’s water off without notifying anyone. I had to go to the gym that day unshowered… yuck.)

So being exhausted after 3 hours of sleep, I went back to bed until about 2pm. (Hey, it’s Saturday, I’m entitled). Don’t ask me what I did last night because I will NOT confess. Let’s just say it wasn’t good. Anyway, I have felt like crap all day long physically. No gym. Barely any eating. My appetite level has plunged to nothingness. I tried to eat some waffles but after 2 bites I left it on the counter. All I’ve had today is a glass of lemon water, 2 bites of waffles and 1/2 of an apple.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and I wish I was in Tulsa already so I could go to church with my aunt and sister and cousin(s) and niece. I don’t know anyone out here in NH that would actually step foot in a church, unfortunately. I feel as though I need some family members around right now!

Speaking of which, I’m heading back to Tulsa ASAP. I’ve been working on transferring files and software to my new laptop, and I’m about 1/3 of the way done. Before leaving I need to make sure the laptop is running in tip-top shape. As soon as it is ready, I’m leaving…