Belinda's WL Diary

170.7 lbs this morning; just 0.7 pounds away from the halfway point in my weight loss goal :D

I had a really good jog this morning: 20 minutes straight. I think 4 MPH turns out to be ideal for me to jog the longest, so I'll be sticking to that for a while. When I get up to 30 minutes straight, I'll begin steadily increasing the speed. I switched from taking two Osteo Biflex in the mornings to one in the morning and one at night to have more constant relief from my hips and knees hurting. The jogging was kind of brutal on my hips in the mornings, but they don't feel so bad today.

So it looks like I was awake 23 times last night :( Not too great. Maybe I just need to do something to wear my ass out right before bed so that I'm too exhausted to move. The medicine my doctor gave me does help me get to sleep faster, and despite tossing and turning, I always fall right back asleep after getting in another comfortable spot again.

The Celexa is really helping out with my mood as well. I'm not snappy at my husband over every little thing, I'm not obessing over everything in the house being in place and perfectly clean, and I'm motivated to get up and go work out instead of getting an extra hour or two of sleep. However, yesterday we went to a cookout at my MiL's and everything tasted gross to me. I brought a bag of my favorite chips (Baked BBQ Lay's) and they tasted gross. My go-to cookout drink, Diet Coke, tasted gross. Even the bratwurst with ketchup tasted gross. Obviously something is going on there. But none of those foods were particularly sweet; I can still drink a protein shake without it tasting weird to me and it's vanilla flavored. The OJ I'm drinking daily to boost my vitamin C intake for the fall/winter is still disgusting :p

But I'm also on a couple of medicines for this sinus infection and fluid on my ears, so it could be one of those doing it (thankfully I only have two days of one medicine left to go and about two weeks left on the other). I've noticed the past year or so I've been having problems with fluid on my ears anytime something's up with my sinuses. I go back to my doctor in November so I'm going to bring that up.

All in all, I'll be so relieved when I get my supplements and medicines worked out so that I'm feeling as good as I can: rested, energized, and an overall sense of well-being.
 
Newport Aquarium

Here are some pics from our trip to Cincinnati a couple weeks ago. Lots of walking (and awesome fish and animals) in the Newport Aquarium :)
 
Wow Belinda! Look at you go! You've been doing some serious work since I've been MIA. Watching those pounds come off must be so motivating for you. Keep up the great work!

Sorry to hear you're having sinus issues. I used to have issues too, but a few years ago it just cleared up on it's own and hasn't been back. Weird! I wouldn't be surprised if your meds is to blame for all those foods and drinks tasting weird. Hopefully that'll get back to normal for you once they're out of your system.

Great pictures! I really liked the sea turtle (I have a huge soft spot for those guys!) and the octopus. Very unique looking creatures! If you ever make it up to New England you should definitely check out our aquarium. They just renovated the giant tank they have in the middle. The glass is all new and the corals have been redone so it's so much nicer for photography. :)
 
Thanks Mandy. But I've been at a standstill for the past few days and hovering at 171. Which makes no sense because I haven't been taking in nearly as many calories as before. With all the food tasting weird, I haven't really wanted to eat some of my favorite foods. Thankfully I only have one more day of antibiotics and one more week of the steriod left.
 
Had the first truly rough night last night since my doctor prescribed me the stuff to help me sleep. At one point I woke up and stayed wide awake and tossed and turned for an hour. So I felt like shit when my alarm went off this morning. I was half-tempted to just stay home and clean instead of going to the gym, but I stepped on the scale and decided I'm sick, sick, SICK of seeing the number 171. Because I wasn't feeling too great during yesterday's workout (cut it off five minutes early), I made sure to get in more calories this morning than I did yesterday morning.

Note to self: get a squirt water bottle for the gym; uncapping a bottle while jogging is tricky...

EDIT: Was pretty proud of myself at the gym today. I did jog with two goals in mind: to go at least one mile AND fifteen minutes nonstop. I reached the mile goal first, then kept going until the time ticked over fifteen minutes. I started at 4.5 MPH this time, instead of just doing 4, and was even able to up the speed to 4.7 :D I'm going to keep playing around and pushing myself--to see what I'm capable of. When I slim down a bit more, I'd like to start looking into Yoga to help relax in the evenings. Right now I've just been hitting up the treadmill in the mornings for 30 minutes, 4 days a week (when my daughter's at school), leaving the rest of the day to piddle around the house. It gets boring and I obviously need some at-home outlet for restless energy as well.
 
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I am so exhausted :( Been awake since 4:30 this morning. I tried to go to the gym but left after fifteen minutes because I just wasn't feeling it. I got to jogging and my throat started hurting from breathing in and out. It was too uncomfortable to keep up. But to make up for leaving early, I did come home and push-mow the yard which took well over an hour. My back is hurting a bit, but I haven't had any Aleve today, either.

I actually ate fast food yesterday for the first time in over two weeks. I thought it would be sooooo delicious (I used to be an avid lover of McDonald's cheese), but it tasted like cardboard, yuck. I think I'm finally beating back that part of me that loves fast food, which is great--another step to making healthy eating choices.

The weight scale is about to drive me mad; it simply won't move away from 171--I was 170.9 this morning :( But I'm looking at my Fitbit account and in the last month (Aug 20 to today) I've lost 6.8 lbs so that's 1.7 lbs lost per week on average. I will be so freakin' happy when I finally get past 170. That's my halfway mark and I'm looking forward to celebrating with a new pair of pants :D
 
So close! That is so frustrating I'm sure. But 1.7 avg/week is a good pace! You will get past the evil 171 soon!

It's great that the "treat" you gave yourself tasted horrible, means you will be less likely to want it in the future. I find homemade burgers, or even from an actual restaurant, taste way better and are way better for you and MUCH more filling too. I tend to buy the packs of frozen burgers but thinking next time I will try making my own with ground beef and see how they turn out.

New jeans sound like an awesome idea! You will get there, just keep doing what you are doing, or possibly switch up your workouts a bit if you have been doing the same stuff.
 
Thanks for stopping by, icychic. Yeah, I didn't realize just how disgusting fast food is. I used to eat it constantly but now that I've been eating "real", home-cooked meals more often, fast food is like...cardboard. As for the pants, I've bought a single pair since starting to lose the weight back in March--but that was just a pair to aspire to fit into and they're still too tight :p . ALL my other pants are loose now and it's mildly annoying when I happen to forget a belt. My shirts are also bigger; but I still have a ways to go and don't want to buy a bulk of clothes. A pair of jeans here and there as I go along will be awesome as far as seeing the progress.
 
I understand not wanting to buy a while me wardrobe just yet. Jeans are a great idea but I suggest if you can try getting 1-2 good fitting tops too, nothing overly expensive just better fitting.

You will get past the evil 171 soon! Just keep pushing yourself and eating right.
 
170.5 this morning. Just 1/2 lb away from my halfway mark (Will I ever get there?).

I'm especially proud of that because we ate at Texas Roadhouse yesterday evening and I ordered a 10 oz ribeye, side salad, and LOADED mashed potatoes. Granted, I ordered my steak medium and it was a little more red than I'd like so I didn't even eat half of it. But, ERMAHGERD, those potatoes were awesome.

I think it may be about time to start putting the Bowflex to use on the weekends. I go to the gym to jog Monday-Thursday so I need something to do Friday-Sunday as well. Not to mention I'm not sure if I'll be renewing my membership there in October. It's just time consuming to switch out everything on the Bowflex for various exercises.
 
I was strongly tempted to be lazy today, but we went and walked the three mile trail at the park today. It was nice to be able to enjoy a walk instead of keeping in the mindset that it's just exercise. Even my daughter really enjoyed it; in the past she's just wanted to relax in the stroller, but she walked for almost a mile herself while exploring and playing with Zer0. Anyway, here are some cool pics from our walk today.
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168.5
:party:

Yay!! I woke up to the awesome surprise of not only having met the halfway point towards my overall weight loss goal, but surpassing it by 1 1/2 lbs as well :D I can't express how exciting this is. This also means a pair of new pants!! I'm going to drag my hubby out of bed (eventually) and head over to the mall today.

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That is so awesome Belinda! Congrats on the halfway mark :) And hurray for new pants!!

Keep it up, you will hit your target in no time!
 
Thanks, icychic. I felt so accomplished when trying on pants today and buying a smaller pair. I even bought a smaller shirt, so today was pretty awesome. A new outfit to celebrate the halfway mark.

Took my daughter to the park to play today, did a lot of walking just following her around and showing her how to use some of the playground equipment. Also walked from several shops while looking for clothes today. Only a little over 6,000 steps was tracked but it feels like more. Tonight I've started doing the 20-minute workout on the Bowflex and my arms are sore already (and we're going to be rolling on some paint in a hallway tonight :( ). Most of the exercises were done on 30 lbs resistance with the exception of the leg presses (160 lbs for that but I feel I could have done more). The workout calls to do one day on and one day off, so tomorrow I'll just be hitting up jogging on the treadmill. As I'm sitting here typing this, Saryna went in to the workout room, sat on the Bowflex bench, grabbed the handles, and started counting out her reps. She got all the way up to thirty lol

If we finish painting the back hall tonight, that just leaves the kitchen, dining, laundry and master bath rooms left. I'm so excited to see it all a nice, clean color and be done with it and be able to spend that time on other things.
 
169.3 this morning :(

Can't say I'm surprised; yesterday I ate a huge A1 baked potato from Spuds n Stuff and then came home and ate again. I went to the wellness center this morning and jogged for a mile at 4.7 MPH then walked the rest at 3.5 MPH until I got to twenty minutes. I just couldn't keep up after this weekend's break so I'm hoping tomorrow will be better. But I've just been in a funk without my phone (sold it in prep for the Note 3) and my usual playlist of songs--everything on my iPod is old and not very conducive to working out. I have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week and Monday of next week left in my gym membership. I'm not sure if I want to go month-to-month after that or just stick to the Bowflex until we buy another treadmill. Speaking of which, since I'm not sore like I anticipated and I only spent 20 minutes on the treadmill, I'm going to go ahead and do another 20-minute Bowflex workout this morning to make up for not sticking it out a full thirty minutes.

EDIT: In addition to the jogging/walking and Bowflex workout this morning, also did the usual walk around our neighborhood. This time we found a snake. My husband walked right past it, and my dog sniffed it and walked past it as well. But I freaked out and told Chris to kill it. It was HUGE, almost as long as my four-year-old is tall as you can see in the picture. And I live right in the middle of our town in a subdivision so I didn't expect to see snakes this big around here.

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Back down and then some at 167.5 this morning which is pretty awesome. I had a SuperSonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger and tots yesterday XP but because I splurged on that, that was all I ended up eating. My daughter had a nightmare at about 2 AM and got in bed with us and didn't fall back asleep for quite some time. So I ended up waking up late and won't be going to the gym today. I'll still be doing the Bowflex workout this morning and try to walk some today; either when my husband gets home this evening or after I pick my daughter up from school.
 
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My weight keeps fluctuating! Yesterday I had a lot more water than I'd normally drink and weighed in at 169.2. I was super thirsty for some reason yesterday and drank a whole bottle before bed. I'm getting ready to head to the wellness center this morning to jog then I'm going to come home and do the 20-minute Bowflex workout. Those routines haven't made me sore yet, despite the fact that my muscles tremble somewhat when I do them. Maybe I need to up the reps? I don't want to use too much weight; my goal is to tone up, not build muscle mass. I'm tired of these flabby upper arms and belly.
 
You are doing great! Don't worry about the day to day scale measurements, take a proper look once a week to see your progress from the last week since as you saw weight fluctuates a lot depending on what you eat and drink in a day. Don't let the scale discourage you!

It's good you aren't feeling sore, and I understand not wanting to build too much muscle. I'm the same, I want to lose inches and tone up, not gain huge muscles. With that said, you need to build some muscle to tone up nicely so if the weight is low enough you could try upping it a tad and see how that goes, otherwise upping the reps should help.

You are doing great!
 
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