So if you're not aware, here's the thread that details what I'm trying to do:

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=26397

I'll post updates in this thread, hopefully to keep myself motivated and have a journal. Shocking...

For the three weeks I've been doing this exercise program, I've lost about 5 lbs so far. At 1400 calories, I may be too low to get my metabolism to cooperate, and the hormones also slow down one's metabolism as well. So being slightly ahead is progress, anyways.

The plan is to go for the rest of this week, then do HIIT next week and see where I am. If I haven't made gains, I think I'm going to do a full cutting routine and I can just add fat later if I need to...

At work yesterday, we went out for someone's birthday, and to Fuddrucker's of all places. If you don't know what that is, they have big greasy burgers and sides. I tried to be good by getting a buffalo burger and water. Everyone says it has less fat, but it was still a big hunk of meat, and who knows if they grill it in butter. Oh well.

Worse, I got lazy and went to Subway for dinner. And I didn't get my usual chicken breast sub (~350 calories). I got the chicken pizziola, which is ? calories but probably has lots of fat from the pepperoni. :o

Oops, right? Except that I woke up yesterday and lost two pounds. Now it could be water weight, but it's the first scale change I've seen in a few days.

Given this, I'm gonna bump my calories up to 1500-1550 and see what happens.


Also, a little more detail on my cardio workout:

-Elliptical or Treadmill (occassionally bike, but I like it less).
-Every weekday morning, about an hour after breakfast
-35 to 40 minutes at about 75-80% MHR. Average number of calories burned (according to the machines) is about 400. That should equate to a pound lost every 6 days or so, all other things being equal. Hmmm....

Another weekend... weekends are my enemy in terms of eating right. Mostly, I go back to eating big meals rather than numerous small ones. The food is not the best, either. I shared a thin crust digiorno pizza with a friend...700 calories in one sitting. Sunday was better, and I went to Costco and got some good things there. Better, there was no weight gain, probably because I was working in the yard.

As far as results, Looking at my measurements from mybodycomp.com from two weeks ago to today, I've lost 1.5" on my waist and hips, and a half inch on my shoulders, chest and thighs. None of my measurements has increased.

I've got a new digital camera on the way, so I should be able to get a few pics up...


This week I'm going to do HIIT to mix things up. The plan calls for the following:

5 min warmup
20 min HIIT with 1 min intervals
5 min cooldown

So we'll see how it goes.

Lael..........you diet's a mess!!!!!!!!! CLEAN IT UP!!!!!!!!!:spank: ..........:lol:

Haha, seriously. Between Thursday and and Saturday, I've been terrible.

But I'm on track today! Let's see, I had the following:

7am: Oatmeal
9am: HIIT (whew!)
~10am: dried apples and beef jerky
Noon: Turkey on wheat bread with a little cheddar cheese
2pm: grapes
6pm: dinner (not sure yet. Maybe chicken breast, maybe ravioli)
8pm: more grapes/dried apples, depending on calories to this point.

Multiply that by 5 and you have a week's meals. I don't switch it up too much.


Lael..........you diet's a mess!!!!!!!!! CLEAN IT UP!!!!!!!!!:spank: ..........:lol:

Haha, seriously. Between Thursday and and Saturday, I've been terrible.

But I'm on track today! Let's see, I had the following:

7am: Oatmeal
9am: HIIT (whew!)
~10am: dried apples and beef jerky
Noon: Turkey on wheat bread with a little cheddar cheese
2pm: grapes
6pm: dinner (not sure yet. Maybe chicken breast, maybe ravioli)
8pm: more grapes/dried apples, depending on calories to this point.

Multiply that by 5 and you have a week's meals. I don't switch it up too much.

Lael... I know you're trying to drop muscle as well as fat, however, that diet is not good... it looks to be extremely low on calories and you don't have nearly enough protien in there, you do want to maintain 'some' of your muscle or you won't have any shape to you.. add some egg whites or some protien powder to your first meal... second, dried fruit is NOT your friend, especially if your cutting... dried fruit, just like fruit juices, have a lot of sugars in them.. yes it's natural sugar, but it's concentrated because it's dried, and they sometimes sneak in added sugars in dried fruits and juices.... you'd be much better off having a regular apple (not dried), you're noon meal is okay, but one thing I've noticed... you're not eating any veggies.. add some green veggies, throw together a small salad w/ romain, baby spinach and some endive (or any dark green veggies) and throw some vinigar & olive oil on it... if you want to add a bit of a kick to your salad try this... mix 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil (or olive oil), 2 tablespoons lemon juice and two tablespoons apple cidar vinigar... shake it up and pour it on your salad, it's tangy and VERY good for you ;)

another thing I notices is that you're not eating enough in the afternoon (2 p.m.).. I'd move that meal closer to 3 p.m. since your next meal isn't until 6 p.m.... that and while grapes are good, they tend to be a bit high on the natural sugars, so I wouldn't have more than one serving a day if i were you... try some cottage cheese with some blueberry's (high on antioxidants) and a packet of splenda to sweeten it. you also don't seem to have any good fats (flax seed oil, olive oil, natural peanut butter, peanuts, almonds, etc.) you could throw a few almonds into the cottage cheese, I actually like a bit of natural peanut butter mixed in with cottage cheese, it really does taste good... try to get a lean protien (egg whites, chicken, turkey, whey, lean beef, lean pork, etc.) in every meal... and consider EVERY time you sit down to eat, a meal... I eat 6 meals a day... every 2.5 - 3 hours during the day... I don't call anything 'breakfast', 'lunch' or 'dinner'... they're just numbered meals to me ;)

the idea behind eating every 2.5 - 3 hours is that it keeps your matabolism reved up, if you don't eat enough or often enough your matabolism will slow down instead of speeding up... even though you want to be at a calorie deficit you don't want it to be too low or it will slow down your progress :gl:


one quick question... how much of each item did you eat? that would more accurately tell me how high your calories are... are you using fitday?

Chameleon,

Thanks for your advice. I'm a little wary about the dried fruit myself, but I do switch it up with a pear or some other piece of real fruit. I'll try doing that more often than not.

I am getting around the 1400-1500 calories I want a day, surprisingly enough. I guess I wasn't detailed enough in my description of my diet- let me be more descriptive.

Oatmeal- Oatmeal sometimes sweetened with splenda. About a cup of oatmeal in the morning.

Dried apples- They're apples. And dried. I looked to see if they had additional sugar, but it seems not. Let's say maybe an ounce of these

Beef Jerky- Original flavor (a few less carbs than teriyaki) from Costco. 1.5 oz or so.

Turkey sandwich- Roman meal wheat bread, about 3oz of lean turkey breast, about 1oz of cheddar

Grapes- red, seedless. Maybe 20 grapes in a sitting?

Dinner- 6-8oz chicken breast. I usually cook it up in a little olive oil with garlic. As a side, about 1-2oz of some kind of vegetable (canned, frozen or fresh). This one is pretty loaded, I just realized. I'll try and spread the calories the rest of the day, but it's hard because I'm eating with someone else for this meal most of the time.

I track my meals with Excel, not fitday, though I do use it to search for approximate calorie values. I tend towards about 60% carbs, 30% protein and 10% fats in a day.

Well, I'll try saying goodbye to my dried fruit. I can do carrot sticks, sneap peas or brocolli instead and avoid the sugar.

Alrighty, I've shaking up the diet here.

I got some egg substitute stuff from costco. One serving is 0g fat, 1g carb, and 6g protein. It cooks like scrambled eggs in the microwave and tastes pretty good.

So here we go:

7am: 4 servings of egg substitute, 1cup oatmeal
9am: HIIT (whew!)
10am: Whey shake (1 scoop)
12pm: Turkey sandwich
2pm: Grapes (goota have em :P)
4pm: Beef Jerky
6/7pm: Chicken breast w/side of veggies, wheat roll.

This looks good, but it's low on calories. I'm gonna work on it and get some more carbs in there, I think. This diet has 50+% of it's calories from protein, which seems a little high.

Alrighty, I've shaking up the diet here.

I got some egg substitute stuff from costco. One serving is 0g fat, 1g carb, and 6g protein. It cooks like scrambled eggs in the microwave and tastes pretty good.

So here we go:

7am: 4 servings of egg substitute, 1cup oatmeal
9am: HIIT (whew!)
10am: Whey shake (1 scoop)
12pm: Turkey sandwich
2pm: Grapes (goota have em :P)
4pm: Beef Jerky
6/7pm: Chicken breast w/side of veggies, wheat roll.


This looks good, but it's low on calories. I'm gonna work on it and get some more carbs in there, I think. This diet has 50+% of it's calories from protein, which seems a little high.


I know you don't wanna hear this but you've gotta incorporate some healthy fats into your diet!!!!!!!!! C'mon girl, if you're gonna do it, do it right!!!!!:tucool:

Trust me, I do appreciate all your advice and help. If I'm doing something wrong, I do like to know :)

Ok, so I added a banana in with the whey shake for some extra carbs, and I'll cook the chicken up with olive oil. And for dessert I'll have some walnuts. That should give me enough calories and fat for the day :)

Trust me, I do appreciate all your advice and help. If I'm doing something wrong, I do like to know :)

Ok, so I added a banana in with the whey shake for some extra carbs, and I'll cook the chicken up with olive oil. And for dessert I'll have some walnuts. That should give me enough calories and fat for the day :)

Yes, that'll help.

Well, I got exactly 1600 calories yesterday, and this morning it looks like I lost another quarter of a pound. It may be water weight, but since the scale hasn't moved at all in 4 days, I'm going to take it as a positive sign. Body fat remains at about 15%..once I lose most of the weight I want to, I plan on cutting down to a level that's comfortable.

Today is the third day this week of HIIT. I've been doing a 5 minute warmup, 20 minutes HIIT and 5 minute cooldown, but I think I'm going to try and extend the HIIT portion by 5 minutes or so for a little extra burn.

Today is the third day this week of HIIT. I've been doing a 5 minute warmup, 20 minutes HIIT and 5 minute cooldown, but I think I'm going to try and extend the HIIT portion by 5 minutes or so for a little extra burn.

In my experience with HIIT (which I've been doing off and on for about three years now), it can be more beneficial to increase than the duration of the HIIT session once your sessions are 20 minutes long.

Of course, I don't know how your HIIT routine is structured, so this may not apply. Just a piece of advice that's worked well for me in the past (and presently).

In my experience with HIIT (which I've been doing off and on for about three years now), it can be more beneficial to increase than the duration of the HIIT session once your sessions are 20 minutes long.

Of course, I don't know how your HIIT routine is structured, so this may not apply. Just a piece of advice that's worked well for me in the past (and presently).

Well, I finished it about 15 minutes ago. I've been using the elliptical, and go 5 minutes warm up, and then one minute intervals of high to low to high, etc. Last 5 minutes is cool down.

I have two more cardio workouts this week with HIIT- tomorrow I think I'll try your suggestion and increase the difficulty a notch but do 20 minutes and see how I feel.

I do my cardio workout at work in the morning right after taking care of all of the little overnight fires. Unfortunately, today I wasn't able to do it until almost 11am. I hadn't had anything to eat since my egg substitute for breakfast at 7am. Then I went ahead and tried going back to 20 minutes of HIIT, but at a notched up intensity level.

What a workout. By the end I felt completely worn out, rather than just normally tired. Immediately showered and then had a whey shake.

The higher intensity workout definitely made a bigger difference than the extra 5 minutes, though both burned an equivalent amount of calories (according to the elliptical machine).

Tonight is Subway night- I'm definitely looking forward to it. :)

What a workout. By the end I felt completely worn out, rather than just normally tired. Immediately showered and then had a whey shake.

The higher intensity workout definitely made a bigger difference than the extra 5 minutes, though both burned an equivalent amount of calories (according to the elliptical machine).

Excellent! :tu:

Excellent! :tu:

I hated that workout- it kicked my butt.

Which is why I'm doing it again today :P

Weeds really suck. That's all I'm going to say :doh:

It's funny- I can do a week of HIIT and not have a problem, and after pulling weeds and cleaning the pool for 2 hours yesterday, my right hamstring and left forearm muscles have tightened up. Oh well.

Back to low-intensity cardio this week. 40 minutes, but I'm going to possibly increase the resistance/speed on the elliptical/treadmill.

I do two body fat measurements: one using a calipers and three-point method, and the other is the tape measurement stuff at www.mybodycomp.com. The former puts me at 15% bf, the latter at 13.5%, so my guess it's somewhere in the middle(?). Because my goal is to lose weight and not necessarily reduce body fat, I'm less concerned with this measurement than others might be. Of course, I want to lose the weight in a healthy way, so keeping an eye on it is a good idea.

In any case, it's time to stretch and get to running.

I'm not sure what the hormones do to you, but according to some major health publications, somewhere near 20% is the ideal body fat percentage for women. (I personally don't favor that level - I like to hover between 16 and 18%) but 15% is very low. I think you'll have trouble meeting you goal of losing muscle mass if you are doing any weight training.

American Dietetic Association recommends that men have 15-18% body fat and women have 20-25% body fat. Healthy male athletes might be as low as 5-12% body fat, and healthy female athletes could be as low as 10-20%. (http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20020327.html)

I'm not sure what your recommended protein intake would be, and whether it would make much difference, but I am surprised to hear that you drink whey shakes. Maybe a shake made with fruit and yogurt or silken tofu would be a better idea? Are there dieticians that can help you with your specific needs?

I'm happy with my intake of about 1600 to 2000 calories with just under 25% of calories from protein. It keeps me near 120 pounds.

Are you taking progress pics? I can't help but be really curious.

Hormones work to reduce muscle mass, but it can take years to see any results. Weight gain is a common side effect. On the other hand, bones can lose density. There's a whole host of changes they create, but a lot of the growth that occurs during puberty is unchangeable, and short of risky surgery, there's no changing it.

With that in mind, my goal is not so much to conform to women's guidelines for health, because in many ways they don't apply to me. What I can do, however, is make my appearance as feminine as possible. If a lower body fat percentage does that, that's good. If higher, that's good too.

AFAIK, it doesn't really matter where the protein comes from, does it? If my macros are in line, then I should see the results I want. Carbs are a different story in terms of sugars and things, but protein is protein, right? (Now I'm starting to feel nervous about the answer)

It's funny you asked about photos- my new digital camera is waiting for me at home (I went with the Panasonic FX8 Lumix, if anyone cares). I can post up some pictures tonight to show where I am. As I said in the first post of this thread, it's going to be disappointing if you're expecting something other than what looks like a guy. I've only been taking hormones for a few weeks. But I'll post them anyways tonight, if I can and I feel brave enough to do it.

Edit: I forgot to say, feel free to PM me if you have questions. I'm well aware that it's a strange thing, so if I can clear up any misconceptions, I'm glad to do it.

I try to choose my proteins based on the types of fats that are connected to them. I try to stick to eat fewer protein sources that come with saturated fat, and choose fish and other protein sources with omega 3 fatty acids more often.

Some people believe that soy can increase your estrogen levels. If you're interested in an old, completely unscientific discussion about soy, click here (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=22036&highlight=soy).

Ok...pictures. I've hosted them on imageshack so those who choose not to view them don't have to.

As I said before, if you're expecting something other than a normal male, you will be disappointed.

Edit: Nevermind. You can PM me if you want to see these, but I'm going to take better ones and put them up. These are just bad photos.

I stepped on the scale this morning- 184. Again. My body is doing a tremendous job of shutting down my metabolism, plus whatever effects the hormones are having (if any). 5 days of cardio a week PLUS weights should have some effect on my weight, but so far all I've seen are minimal losses in BF%.

So, what to do:

1. Lower calories- I was originally aiming for 1400 calories, and seeing no improvement there, so I bumped it up to 1500/1550. And still nothing. 1300 calories a day seems extremely low, to me.

2. Raise calories- My weight loss of about 5-6 lbs over the past 4 weeks hasn't been gradual. It happened literally overnight, and I think it happened after a night where I ate too much. So 1700 calories? I have a lot of fear this will reverse the little progress I've made.

3. Increase exercise- I'm not even sure when I would do this. Perhaps on the weekend, but I tend to be working around the house anyways. Have to think on this.

4. Change exercise- I don't think this is it: Every week I've changed something in my cardio routine, and I always swap the order of the exercises I do when lifting weights.

5. Cut off a limb- The easiest way to lose 50lbs, right? ;)

Ok, so the obvious choice is #2. I'm giving myself a week at 1700 calories, starting today. Maybe I can add in some yogurt/tofu or soy, like guava suggested.

So....1700 calories. More like 1800 yesterday: oops. However, my scale this morning showed no change again, so that's good, but I have to be careful- while slipping even into a normal cutting diet is okay with me, I'm adamant against gaining back the few pounds I lost.

I swore off diet cola yesterday- while I have no idea if it has any effect on my weight, it's just another thing that is a gateway to temptation.

Any idea how many calories you used to eat? I'm approximately maintaining 115-120 pounds on a diet which averages about 1800 calories daily.

You're aiming to be about 160 pounds at 5'9"? That sounds like a pretty good goal. Personally, I don't feel a person should lower their calories more than 10 times their current body weight, or 15 times their goal weight, so for you, I'd aim to be between 1900 and 2175 calories. But, if you're happy with your current results, that's a fine plan too.

I've sworn off diet cola several times. It used to have a tendency to make me eat more brownies, so I kept putting it back in. Now, it just makes me drink more coffee. I haven't decided which is the greater evil.

Good questionabout calories- I couldn't tell you, but I would guess it was a lot more: three meals a day. Breakfast was usually a granola bar, lunch was some kind of greasy food from one of the nearby delis, dinner was often fast food, not to mention innumerable cokes, sweets and snacks. I would hazard a guess of around 2800-3000, with probably 50% carbs, 30% fats and 20% protein. It wasn't a good thing, but I never really went above 190lbs- I was just rounder.

160lbs is my goal for now. I've been eating relatively well and exercising off and on for three years, and have stepped it up the last month. At one point I was at 170lbs, but plateaued and then fell into bad eating habits during the holidays.

The calories are always taunting me: Even when I eat what I've calculated I should, I never seem to lose weight. So I'm starting low and working my way up: it may be that I'll wind up at around 2000 calories before I figure out that's a good level for weight loss.

Fortunately, I dislike coffee, so I'm safe there. But chocolate- uh oh :eek:

-L

One interesting note today- I've been switching mostly between the elliptical and treadmill for cardio, but today I went on the recumbent bike and got my butt kicked! 40 minutes only registered about 260 calories, but I was tired. I guess it works completely different muscles.

Any idea how many calories you used to eat? I'm approximately maintaining 115-120 pounds on a diet which averages about 1800 calories daily.

You're aiming to be about 160 pounds at 5'9"? That sounds like a pretty good goal. Personally, I don't feel a person should lower their calories more than 10 times their current body weight, or 15 times their goal weight, so for you, I'd aim to be between 1900 and 2175 calories. But, if you're happy with your current results, that's a fine plan too.

I've sworn off diet cola several times. It used to have a tendency to make me eat more brownies, so I kept putting it back in. Now, it just makes me drink more coffee. I haven't decided which is the greater evil.

Another lovely day-

Tonight I'm meeting my parents for dinner, which is nutritionally a nightmare, usually. So I'm planning ahead- they want to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory, which means carb city (and sodium, too, probably). Plus the pasta is usually pretty sub-par, but it's my parents: how can I say no?

So I go to their site and they have nutritional information for the meals: Holy crap- even the salads are loaded with salt. So it looks like my best bet is the Spaghetti with tomato sauce (440cal, 5g fat, 84g carbs, 16g protein). As I recall, they serve dinner with a small salad- no problem, since I can get oil and vinegar dressing. They have big loaves of sourdough bread, which I can avoid. And then they have ice cream at the end of the meal, which I can skip.

So with meal, dressing, and salad, I can get away with about 600 calories of food. Not too shabby for eating out. When I contrast this with what I would have gotten in prior days, it kind of makes me shudder: probably some kind of spaghetti with meatballs, a caesar salad, spumoni ice cream, lots of bread: I probably was eating 2000 calories in one meal. Kind of shocking.

I made it through dinner without too much pain- I admit, I had a small bite of the spumoni ice cream, but I managed to turn the rest of it away.

The weekend is nigh, though :p I tend to be a little more lax on weekends since I'm not doing any workout, so I have to watch myself.
One effect of the hormones is that they are not great for one's liver. There are a few things one can do to keep this from becoming a problem, but the main effect is that I was highly discouraged from drinking alcohol. So it's good in a way, because I don't get the calories from it if I'm not drinking... :tu:

-L

Just as I am about to leave for work this morning, one of the pipes to our sprinkler system bursts.

Joy.

Being a resourceful girl, I was able to head down to home depot and get the right parts to fix it, but it's totally screwed up my schedule and diet for today. Let me list the ways:

1. No time for a cardio workout- fortunately, I bought a treadmill for home two nights ago, so I can take care of that when I get home (any suggestions as to when I should do this as it relates to meals?)

2. I had no time to pack my normal meal foods, so I unwisely stopped at a Carl's Jr and got a BBQ Chicken Sandwich and water (370 calories, 4g fat, 47g carbs, 35g protein). The problem is that with breakfast I'm low on calories (~500 for the day), with no way to eat for another hour or so. 1200 calories for the rest of the day is not going to be easy, at least not in any way that would resemble anything clean.

3. A chipped nail and scratched up hands. :cry:

-L

Lots of work in the yard this weekend meant sunburned arms...ouch. I did an extra cardio workout last night before bed, hoping that it would help my metabolism through the night.

I step on the scale this morning. 184. No change.

:(

It seems inconceivable to me that I can be doing 6 days of cardio, 3 days of weights all the while eating ~1700 calories a day and not lose a pound- a pound of fat, a pound of muscle. I will take body fat measurements when I get home today, but I'm not encouraged. If the results are going to be similar to my last check, it's time to shake something up.

The only thing I can think to do is increase calories. But I think I'm going to do it big this time- 2500 calories is approximately a "normal" BMR for weight loss for someone my height and weight @2lbs lost a week. We'll see.

Note to self: don't resolve to eat more calories in a day and start on that resolution the same day. Goal was 2500- net was 1900, including some apples and PB at the end of the day to get fat/carbs in line with macro percentages.

Well, I guess we'll see the net effect tomorrow morning. :rolleyes:

Sometimes, you plan your meals and work out according to a spreadsheet.

And sometimes you get lucky.

The scale actually moved this morning down to 182. It may all be water weight and I'll see it come back today, but for now, I'm just happy there was some change. I'm definitely going to stay at 1900 calories for at least a few days to see if I can repeat this- although two pounds in one night is probably the exception to the rule.

I took my body fat measurements: they were unchanged at around 14-15%.

-L

1900 calories yesterday, including about 100 from some of that Essentia chocolate ice cream. Ok, it was bad to do, but someone needed to finish the little bit that was in the container so I could throw it out.

Plus, you know: chocolate.

In addition, I had a good serving of these delicious little spinach and cheese tortellini last night for dinner from Costco. A little mushroom marinara and it was pretty heavenly. 5g of fat for 6 raviolis, but no saturated fats, so that was decent.

181/182 this morning on the scale, which, even knowing it may mean nothing, makes me happy.

I think I'm gonna hit the recumbent bike today. The bike doesn't burn as many calories as either the elliptical or the treadmill, but it does work my thighs and glutes a lot more, so once a week seems like a good amount to do it.

Wow, I pushed it today and I can feel it: 40 minutes of cardio split into 5 minute increments of the opaquely named levels "4" and "5". Level 4 is a nice bike ride through slightly rough terrain. Level 5 feels like a climb up pike's peak. I can only assume level 6 is just a vertical wall.

Very strange that the demarcation affects me so much, but it does. Anyways, net calories burned were 260-something, but my hamstrings and glutes are still burning a little. Compared with over 500 calories burned on the treadmill, for instance, it seems paltry, but I know my butt will thank me later when it fits into clothes I want to wear.

1900 calories yesterday, including about 100 from some of that Essentia chocolate ice cream. Ok, it was bad to do, but someone needed to finish the little bit that was in the container so I could throw it out.

Plus, you know: chocolate.

In addition, I had a good serving of these delicious little spinach and cheese tortellini last night for dinner from Costco. A little mushroom marinara and it was pretty heavenly. 5g of fat for 6 raviolis, but no saturated fats, so that was decent.

181/182 this morning on the scale, which, even knowing it may mean nothing, makes me happy.

I think I'm gonna hit the recumbent bike today. The bike doesn't burn as many calories as either the elliptical or the treadmill, but it does work my thighs and glutes a lot more, so once a week seems like a good amount to do it.

That spinach and cheese tortellini at Costco is delish!! Good luck getting that scale to move. Whoever created the body scale should be shot IMO. I'm in a plateau myself that I can't seem to break out of - plus the addiction to chocolate....eek.

Thanks!

I figure two things will help. Number one, a better scale: The one I have was invented circa 1903, I think. It has a dial for calibration that goes out of whack every time, and it's hard to read.

Number two would be a good heart rate monitor. I try using the ones on the machines, but they tend to oscillate between a pulse rate of 21 and 204, with no common ground. I generally suspect they're not accurate, and if supposedly around 65% heart rate is ideal for fat loss, that's around where I want to be.

The scale was kind this morning: 181 and holding. Last night I went to one of my favorite places for dinner- Souplantation, which is a salad buffet kind of place. The only downside is calculating the calories afterwards, because I don't necessarily measure accurately how much I eat. On the good side, it's pretty easy to tell what's good for you there (salad) and what's not (pineapple upside-down cake).

I was tremendously busy painting last night, and by the time I finished it was past my bedtime, and I hadn't gotten my chest/triceps workout in. Oops. So I will be doing it this morning right before a cardio session.

Logged body fat at mybodycomp again today- and they totally changed their measurement process. Instead of measuring 12-15 different body parts, they've cut it down to about 5 measurements, with none of them higher on the body than the waist, and no arm or leg measurements. Kind of a bummer-not sure why they did it, except maybe to save space on their system(?)

Ok, off to work out!

Posting this day's meals, since it's a relatively normal indicator of a daily intake for me at 1900 calories:

Cals P F C Name
-------------------
120 24 0 4 Costco Egg Substitute (4 servings)
100 00 1 26 Costco sliced apples (6.5 oz)
200 30 3 15 Pacific Gold Beef Jerky (~2.5oz)
062 01 1 15 Orange
138 05 2 26 Whole wheat bread (2 slices)
095 04 8 03 Natural Peanut Butter (1 TBsp)
120 22 2 04 Whey Powder (1 serving)
140 03 4 25 Nature Valley Chewy Granola Bar (1 serving)
660 48 10 94 Subway Chicken sub 12" (wheat, lett.,bl olives, oil&vin)
130 02 2 26 Baked Lay's potato chips
109 01 1 28 Banana
---------------------
1874 140 34 266
~29% ~16% ~57%

Of course, this varies- the granola bar is a rare item, as is the banana at the end of the day- but I was low on calories.

I saw one gross thing at Subway tonight- it was the breaded chicken breast covered with cheese and marinara sauce on garlic bread. I shudder to think how bad that could be for a person...

180.5 this morning, which is hard to determine on my analog scale, but I'm giving myself the benefit of the doubt :D

By the end of the weekend, I'm hoping to be at 180, which is 1/3 of the way to my goal. I'm going to stick with 1900 calories until I stop losing weight.

On to a (kind of) late workout!

-L

Wow. After reading the description of some other transsexuals who had to deal with severe weight gain from their hormones, I don't feel so bad. One gained 11lbs in 12 days, and another 20lbs in one month. So staying pretty much pat for the first weeks may well have been ahead of the curve.

It's the weekend, which means my whole meal plan gets shot to hell. I try very hard and keep track of my calories, but being near the fridge is a terrible temptation. I will invest in some celery sticks to snack on, I think.

Next week is going to be interesting. In the interest of keeping my liver relatively healthy, I'll be cycling off hormones for the week. Supposedly hormones provide a host of psychological changes, but I haven't felt any of the "calming" effects that people speak of. I'll find out next week when/if I become a raging bi*ch.

Happy Easter everyone! :p

I dreaded getting on the scale this morning, knowing as I did that both a chocolate egg and a chocolate bunny suffered at my hands this weekend. Compounded with a delicious brunch yesterday, well, I was expecting to have removed all of my gains (losses) from the previous weeks.

181; ok, I can deal with that.

No hormones this week; we'll see how this goes. Theoretically, weight loss should be sped up, but we'll see. Maybe if I can refrain from chomping down on chocolate symbols of spring left and right, it will help.

:p
-L

Did my usual weights workout last night with Anthony Bourdain last night. As proof that he makes everything better, I'm at 180 lbs as of this morning. That's 1/3 of the way to my goal- time to celebrate.

:moon: :jumping: :guitar:

Ok, that was fun. Back to work.

I got to bed way too late last night (Elder Scrolls Oblivion is too fun!). I am very tired, but it won't affect me doing my workouts. I just need to remember to turn in early tonight.

-L

Normally in the morning I open up a little carton of Costco egg substitute stuff and have half of it. Apparently I had very little yesterday because I'm drowning in eggs today. Ugh.

Scale is at 180, although a "low" 180(?) I really need a digital scale...

-L

At 180 again today, which is no surprise- yesterday I was invited to a birthday lunch at a place called BJ's pizza, which serves deep-dish, delicious pizza swimming in grease. I had spaghetti with marinara and a small salad, instead. And then had a few bites of the dessert that they bought. Ah well.

I went a little crazy at the supermarket last night and bought some silk chocolate soy milk. It's not bad, but has lots of sugar in it, more than normal milk. I also got some light yogurt which I will incorporate today.

It was also bike day, and as I had mentioned, the "5" setting is enormously difficult for me to do. I did a HIIT session on it for 20 minutes with one minute intervals, though; the middle 10 minutes was at level 5, and I thought I was going to die. And only 200 calories burned, but my legs would tell you different.

-L

Yoplait light yogurt is yummy. 100 calories with 0 fat and 5g of protein, too. Hooray for trying new things. There's other types to try, of course, but this one is a winner (except for the stinking shape of the container).

Did a HIIT session on the elliptical today. It's convenient to do when I don't have a lot of time. The treadmill is still my favorite, because it just burns the most calories, but switching things up is a good thing.

I'm going to get an additional workout tonight- I'm putting up crown moulding in the living room. The normal stuff looks insanely difficult to work for the corners, but is cheaper than the polycarbonate stuff which uses prefabricated corner pieces (and looks nice). I'll have to think that one over.

-L

There are days when a big plate of pancakes, syrup, eggs and toast all sound great. Today wasn't one of those days, so I'm having yogurt and a trail mix bar thingee for breakfast. And no eggs, which is good, because I think I'd be sick if I ate them.

Treadmill today- I gotta do it, it's been a couple of days since I was on it.

I went with the preformed crown moulding. It looks like a cinch to hang up, but I forgot to get some caulking and wood glue, so I get to stop by Home Depot. At least there's no band saws involved.

-L

Good workout today- 530 calories on the treadmill. I've loaded that new Tool song from the new album on the iPod and have it on a constant loop. It's a good way to get rid of angst AND workout :P Considering the song is about 8 minutes long, that means it only plays about 5 times.

I am ready for the new album, though- Tool is one of my favorite bands, for certain. Not girly at all, but they play good music, so who cares? :guitar: :guitar:

What a weekend. Between hanging crown moulding, cleaning, weeding, mowing, and doing a million other little things, I could have given Bob Villa a run for his money. It all paid off on Saturday, when I had a great housewarming party. Sunday, I slept in and sat on my butt all day!

Of course, a great party also meant good-tasting-but-ultimately-taking-up-residence-on-one's-ass-foods. I tried to offset this with a little cardio yesterday, and the net result was about a half-pound gain.

This week I'm going to an in-town conference for most of the week, which means cafeteria food for lunch. This may not be as bad as it seems, but it depends on the cafeteria. Nonetheless, there will undoubtedly be no way to have a normal split for meals. Worse, I usually do my cardio at the work gym, which I won't be doing. I'm going to be doing a no-no and doing cardio and weights together on Monday and Wednesday, so we'll see how that goes.

-L

There are some days when it would be better to stay in bed. I got ready, dressed up for the conference, and made my way there.

Me: "I'm here for _____ conference"

Check-in person: "Ok, that's tomorrow. See you then."

Me: :doh: :o

So yeah, regular work today. And I left good food and workout stuff at home, so I'm SOL there, too.

It's definitely time to start getting more sleep.

-L

Quickie update: 179 this morning, following an interesting cardio/weights workout that I'll post a little later on.

Have to go back today for the conference today, and yes, it IS today. I still feel stupid about that.

Until later...

-L

The 1lb loss workout (note: not guaranteed to work for anyone, anywhere)

9pm: 40 minute treadmill run at 65% MHR
10pm: Anthony Bourdain, with apples and PB
11pm: Monday weights: 3 bicep exercises, 3 sets of 30 each. 3 shoulder exercises, 3 sets of 30 each.

What a boring conference. As I suspected, the cafeteria had some pretty bad stuff- greasy burgers and fries and the like. It also had a salad bar, so that was fine. I'm still not too happy about the lack of meal splitting, but it's only for 3 more days, so I'll survive.

-L

I'm not dead yet. I feel happy. I feeeeel happpyyyyyy.

What a conference. Pain in my ass, and it threw me off all week. I managed to do my workouts and stay away from soda, but the rest of my diet crashed and burned. I was good for some meals, but I did have Taco Hell last night. So I'm stuck at 180 again.

This week is going to be low intensity cardio, and I'm going to try and hit the weights hard. I've been doing high reps and low weight, but I'm going to switch to a 10-rep normal set just to mess things up a bit. I find I feel better and get better results when my workout varies.

-L

10pm: Anthony Bourdain, with apples and PB
I'm not sure what this means, but I googled, and aparently, he's a chef.

I went to a food festival over the weekend and saw Elizabeth Baird (http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/author.pperl?authorid=1203), Janet and Greta Podleski (http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,0_1000047975,00.html), and the Surreal Gourmet (http://www.surrealgourmet.com/). It would have been fun to talk to them, but I couldn't come up with anything to say, so I just stared dumbly at them. It's funny to be so up close to celebrities.

He is a chef, with a show called No Reservations on the travel channel. It's very entertaining, but occassionally makes me a little squeamish. He just goes to different parts of the world and tries different foods and has adventures.

And it's on NOW. So ta ta! :tucool:

I'm not sure what this means, but I googled, and aparently, he's a chef.

I went to a food festival over the weekend and saw Elizabeth Baird (http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/author.pperl?authorid=1203), Janet and Greta Podleski (http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,0_1000047975,00.html), and the Surreal Gourmet (http://www.surrealgourmet.com/). It would have been fun to talk to them, but I couldn't come up with anything to say, so I just stared dumbly at them. It's funny to be so up close to celebrities.

I'm down to 179 today. I guess I had some water weight (or who knows what).

The low intensity cardio is kind of strange. I was doing my cardio at a much higher rate than I realized- somewhere at 80%+ of my max HR. Afterwards I was totally beat. Now, I'm not as exhausted, but still tired. I'm liking it, though.

I've noticed that my strength hasn't really decreased- I'm still lifting as much as before I went on HRT (hormone replacement therapy). I just have to keep reminding myself that it's a slow process, but if I don't lose that strength, I'm a-ok with it. That's a negative side effect, to me, and my arms aren't exactly hulk sized (12.5" when not flexed).

179 again today, but stepping on the scale this morning was somewhat different, like I knew it was all going to be all right and that this weight was going to drop off. It feels good and it's put me in an extra-positive mood today. :tucool:

At 180 today- I went to Panera Bread last night and went a little overboard- I had the salad with the gorgonzola and steak and a cup of chicken noodle soup, which wasn't too bad, but I gave in and had a big soda. Gah. I have to remind myself of the saying- "A minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips."

I went to mybodycomp.com again today and apparently I haven't been on there for 15 days. That doesn't sound right, but it looks like they changed back to their old style of measurement with the 15 or so different areas rather than the smaller sample I mentioned before. So body fat percentage is still on track- hovering right under 13% or so, I'd guess.

This weekend will be a big hurdle- I've been eating poorly on the weekends when I'm not tracking my food, so I'm going to make sure I do well and get over this hurdle. Lots of yard work should help.

-L

Bleh.

I'm getting sick, so slowly that I can see it coming, but there's nothing I can do about it. I can drink gallons of OJ and take lots of preventative care, but it's going to happen no matter what.

This weekend was productive: yard work, cleaning the garage and I hooked up my home theater system. Last night I did a short, low-intensity jog to get my metabolism going for the night, but the result was that I couldn't sleep for a while afterwards.

This morning I was so out of it, I didn't even weigh myself, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to check it out.

Bleh.

I had a cold for the past couple of days, but I think I've shrugged it off. My weight stayed pretty steady around 180.

Interestingly, on Tuesday when I felt the worst I ate like crap and didn't exercise and was down on weight to 179 on Wednesday morning. I ate:

3 BBQ pork ribs & 1/4 BBQ chicken (leftovers)
3 garlic breadstciks
a nature valley granola bar
a banana
beef barley soup w/ a hunk of sourdough bread
some meatloaf

Pretty wonky. Now, I don't know if the food was the cause of the weight drop or the cold, but since I've been plateauing for about a week or two, I'm going to have to re-evaluate what I'm doing.

I didn't miss my workout yesterday or this morning, and I think the low intensity cardio is doing it's job- I've gone down from 20mm to 18mm on both thigh and abdomen samples with the calipers. (Chest has stayed at 8mm). The little page I use says that's right at 13%, which is a little lower than the 13.5 or so I was getting before. So that's good.

My arms are bugging me- they're too big and incongruous with my goal. I think my weightlifting has something to do with it- I'm going to look at doing flexibility exercises instead of weights for the next couple of weeks to see what happens.

-L

A combination of long work days and getting to bed at midnight or later for the last four days is taking it's toll. I'm tired, and unmotivated to work out. Combined with my continued plateau at about 180 and some other personal factors, I'm not feeling my best right now.

What I really need is a good night's sleep.

I've switched my workout up again- back to HIIT this week. It helps, too, because the workouts take about 2/3-3/4 as long to complete.

I also replenished my healthy food supplies. I've been lacking fresh fruit and egg whites, so my meals have been restricted to a sandwich, whey powder and whatever I could find in the vending machine.

Off to work out...

-L

Last night I weighed myself before bed. I was just at 181. This morning I was at 179. I ate a ton yesterday, which is leading me to believe I've been low on calories and it's finally caught up.

Time to eat even more, I guess.

I got a good night's sleep, which was a combination of going to bed early and hitting the snooze button a few times.

I had a great workout yesterday- I pushed myself more than usual and could really feel the difference. Later on I took a relaxing scented bath. When you're feeling down, doing things you enjoy a good way to get out of the mood, be it a relaxing bath or video games or whatever.

Feeling better today, and ready to go work out- I'm going to duplicate yesterday's. :tu:

-L

I'm completely puzzled by this plateau. The past few days, I've been eating more than normal (~2100 calories) and haven't seen a change. Workouts have been at higher levels than previously. And the scale keeps bouncing between 179 and 181. It's puzzling.

The weekend is here, and with a party on Saturday I need to be extra cautious. I'm still not drinking, which is beneficial, but there's all manner of snack foods and cake and whatever, so I'll plan accordingly.

I'm in plateau-land. At first, I just thought it was Nebraska. :lol:

I'm not really sure how I'm going to break out of it- this week I'm back to low-intensity workouts, but at a higher low intensity, if that makes sense.

I'm gonna try eating a bit less, and maybe shift my diet a bit more towards protein.

I fell off a ladder this weekend and scraped the hell out of my forearm and bruised my knee. Then I got a sunburn on my back. Finally, one of my friends thought it would be funny to start tossing these little plastic cupcake things we had (there was a birthday party) and whacked me right in the forehead, so I have a little cut above my eyebrow.

I think I'm going to just stay in bed next weekend.

-L

Very tired this morning. I was up late watching No Reservations anyways, and then I managed to waste another hour on the computer. Lack of sleep is something I need to work on- by the time the weekend comes around I wind up sleeping in until 11 or so to catch up.

The worst part of a sunburn is when it starts itching, and mine is itching pretty badly right now. I've been using aloe vera since it happened, and it doesn't seem to be peeling, but the itching is getting to me.

I've swapped out my PB sandwich with a lunchmeat one, so that should increase my protein intake a bit, and dinners are going to be more meat-oriented (God that sounds bad).

So my major sources of protein, daily, will be coming from:

egg beaters (on those mornings I don't have yogurt instead)
jerky
whey powder
lunchmeat (turkey or something)
dinner (chicken breast, most likely)

Hopefully this gets things going...

-L

Scale reported 180 this morning. The yo-yo continues- kind of. That's because I did body fat measurements for the first time in a few weeks- and I appear to have lost about 1% body fat, putting me (theoretically) somewhere near 12%.

That's kind of an interesting thing, but I'm not going to be too upset about it- although I really just want to lose weight, I'd rather have to gain fat to get a better form than lose it.

Anyways, the week continues unabated. Off to workout.

I love long weekends, just as probably everyone else does. I somehow managed to go to two barbeques as well as having some fried chicken on the beach and pizza last night for dinner.

Mr. Scale says "180 pounds".

Ok. Well, no damage done. It probably helped that I was in the ocean for a few hours wrestling with waves at the beach, plus underneath my car doing some maintenance (and learning where my clutch slave cylinder is). I'm a hands-on kind of girl.

I have two days of work this week- today and tomorrow, and then I leave Thursday for a wedding in Vegas. This is good and bad. No work is a good thing. No exercise for those days is a bad thing. Vacation is a good thing. Vegas buffets and casinos are a bad thing (usually). As long as I don't gorge on prime rib at the buffet, I should be ok, I think. And perhaps there's a gym I can go to (or I can swim around the pool). Perhaps the worst thing is the work that will be waiting for me when I return- that's going to be something I can live without.

-L

It's a rule: The day of work before a vacation will be the longest, hardest day of work in a while.

Anyone have any lucky numbers for Vegas for me?

-L

Back from Vegas- and a richer person for it. That's right, I won 20 big dollars. I guess I'm not much of a gambler.

Between the heat (~103 degrees) and walking around everywhere, I thought I would be fine despite hitting up two buffets. I guess the scale disagreed- I'm at 185, which I'm sure is partially water weight.

In a way, it's inspiring, because I know I can get down to 180, so I want to work at it.

A Vegas wedding is a very strange affair- one moment you're in the casino, and the next you're in a chapel. Very odd.

-L

These cool days in So Cal have been blessed after the heat of the desert. 3 days of cardio and 2 of weights has brought me back down to ~180lbs, so I guess I was just retaining water in a camel-like way.

Next week I'm leaving for a 2-week business trip to Hawaii. Tough life, I know, but it usually consists of 12-18 hour workdays, so I really won't be doing much other than working.

Going away really seems to take a toll on doing all the fitness stuff correctly, but I'm going to try and be good. At least there won't be any buffets to tempt me...

-L

Firmly at 180lbs, if not a slight bit less. I had about 10 m&ms last night- chocolate craving ahoy.

I just got the Deep Space 9 DVD set- it's great! I know everyone loves freaking TNG, but DS9 is my favorite. Once again, I differ from most of the population. Oh well.

-L

Back from the never-never land of Hawaii. I was 3lbs heavier than when I left- surprising considering the limited and often unhealthy diet I was forced to assume.

It's hard to get back into work when you're away, but so far, I'm trying.

-L

Still trying to get back into the swing of things: I've resolved to simply diet this week and re-start my exercise regimen next week, since I had already missed part of it.

I've spoken with my endocrinologist regarding some problems with my hormone therapy- to make a long story short, they're making me sick. So I'm on a temporary lower dose, which is good and bad thing. Good, because it should help affect my weight loss positively and not being sick is a good thing. Bad, because it's another delay in getting where I want to be. By focusing on the long-term goal, I can keep these setbacks in perspective and know that it will benefit me in the long run.

:tu:

Pet ownership is great: I woke up this morning to find that my cat had not only coughed up a big slimy hairball, but also managed to completely miss her litter box with her poo. Fantastic way to start a day.

I'm looking forward to gettting back on the wagon next week. I'm going to a BBQ on the 4th of July, so I'll have to watch it, but I have a nice long 4 day weekend.

Nobody really at work today- I think I'm gonna skip out with a few people and see Superman.

-L

Finally got back into the groove today- it was tough to force myself to pack up workout gear and bring it to work, but once I started exercising I felt better. After nearly 3 weeks of being completely away from all exercise, my weight was still 180, which is encouraging to me. I'm hoping that the time away will help bring my body off the plateau that it's been at. 4th of July wasn't too bad for me, although I did have a giant Hebrew National dinner frank- I imagine my sodium levels hit the roof.

I can't wait- Pirates of the Caribbean tonight. I loved the first movie, and this one looks to be a good sequel. And like a good pair of shoes, I love a good sequel.

First, though, I have to get some stuff done at work today. Plus my workout. The second day is usually more of a struggle than the first, but we'll see how it goes.

-L

Ugh...A/C in the office is broken today. It's just now coming on, but it was off during and after my workout. I didn't realize it until I got back into my office and started sweating. To quote George Costanza, "The shower didn't take." Hopefully I didn't offend my co-workers.

There needs to be a suggestion box somewhere for drug makers to make a pill that makes fat and sugar taste awful. They'd make a million dollars. I say this in light of eating a small scoop of chocolate ice cream last night, and then desiring the rest of the carton (but not eating it).

-L

Pirates of the Caribbean was great, though I would doubt there would be anyone as good-looking as the three main characters in the film in real life. I got in line for the movie a half-hour early on opening night and was still 75% of the way back in line. Sheesh.

I've eliminated all my weightlifting from my exercise regimen, which leaves me some time at night- I think I'm going to use the time do get in another cardio session. That will make one in the morning and one in the evening. That should help break me out of the plateau I'm in.

-L

Lack of sleep is getting to me. This entire week I haven't been able to get into bed until at least midnight, and it's slowly wearing away at me. This weekend is going to be important to recharge my batteries.

Not much to say on the weight front- two workouts a day is fine, but I haven't seen any noticable difference, so it will probably take a while before I do.

-L

It's garage sale time next weekend, which means I need to dig through my stuff to see what people will pay $.50 for. Joy. I have an old couch and chair that I need to sell, but maybe I'll put those on craigslist.

I did a caliper measurement this morning- 13.3% BF, which seems about right. I'll check again next week and see what the difference is. In the morning I've been using the "fat burn" program on the treadmill, which has intervals of increasing incline and speed. I'm curious if it's any better than my normal interval workout, and by doing the second cardio workout I don't have to sacrifice to find out. Sveet.

-L

I'm still recovering from a bad Sunday, in which I ate far too much.

On the bright side, I played tennis on saturday and helped my sister move on sunday, so I got a little extra exercise.

Nonetheless, I'm a few pounds over 180 for the first time in a while- it didn't help that I missed my morning workout yesterday due to workload. That second workout has been a lifesaver.

-L

Back to 180. The roller coaster continues. Regardless of what the scale says, doing two cardio sessions a day is leaving me with more energy and feeling better than just one. I'll try and take a body fat measurement Friday to see if there's any change.

Bizarre occurrence yesterday: I was in the supermarket, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, very low-key. There was an old man who followed me entirely around the store, not even being surreptitious about it, just kind of staring at me from behind his shopping cart. Weird. I kind of felt like staring back, but that would have just been even more strange.

-L

Took three bodyfat measurements today, and the average was about 12.5% So that's down, but it's kind of disturbing that weight loss isn't accompanying it. I'll have to think about that for a bit.

I left my workout bag (and my lunch) at home. Whoops. I think I'll be resting this weekend to repair my brain. :P

There was some heat this weekend. Yowza. I went to Disneyland, just like a good Southern Californian, and it was blazing hot. I guess some of the rides shut down due to power fluctuations, but everything I went on was fun. Space Mountain was great, and I went on Pirates of the Caribbean twice. It was fun, despite it being kid-oriented. Me and my friend went on the Buzz Lightyear ride where you ride around and shoot at targets on the walls- I got a pretty high score. Thank you, years of violent video games.

Health-wise, walking around all day in the heat probably helped, too. Which is good, because I ate an ice cream cone and had fried chicken strips for lunch/dinner. You can try to pick off the fried part, but it's only a moderately successful endeavor.

-L

Too tired lately. I either need to get more sleep or just drink a lot more caffeine :P

Dipped below 180 today for the first time in a week or so, so we'll see where this leads: probably back up to 180. It's an endless plateau, so it seems. Just gotta keep on keeping on, though.

-L

Scale was at 183 this morning, and I'm not quite sure why. I didn't eat anything out of the ordinary yesterday. I took a body fat measurement, which came out at 12.2%

Bizarre.

Now, there's certainly room for error there, but still strange. Ah well, as long as something is going down, I'm happy.

Nothing going on this weekend but chores. It should be plenty hot, so I'll be sure to slather on the sunscreen.

Have a good weekend, all!

-L

Busy, busy. I'm getting promoted at work very soon, which will be a headache but also a good challenge.

Stasis in weight, as per usual. I'm considering going semi-vegitarian for a month or so, maybe one day of non-red meat. I'll have to think about it.

An interesting look at the dichotomy that is my life: This weekend I changed the clutch slave cylinder in my car, then cleaned up and gave myself a pedicure. Pink with white flowers.

-L

179 today. Bouncy bouncy.

There have been a number of things I've cut out of my diet, but among the most helpful have been:

cheese
soda
butter (ok, not completely, but 90%)

My belief is that it's directly linked to the disparaging names that are given that have these in them: cheese thighs, butter face and soda...uh...obliques. :p

I left my workout pants at home by accident. So I'm left with the choice of going to buy some new ones, working out in my current pants (ew, no) or skipping my workout this morning. Gah. Maybe I can find some cotton plants to pick, refine and weave into a new pair of pants. :P

-L

My feet are a little sore today because I worked out barefoot last night on the treadmill. It was a low-speed, high incline program, so I thought it would be ok. But ouch!

I weighed myself last night before bed and was at 181. This morning it was at 179 again. I'm not sure what that means...

Forgot to do a BF% measurement. Tomorrow.

-L

I don't know of any proven advice for you, but it seems like you are not getting the weight loss for a while. Probably time to switch something up just to try and shake your body out of the groove it seems to be comfortable in. Your body seems to have given up fat more easily than muscle.

When I look in here I don't see a lot of details, but you're lifting three times a week, and doing a deal of cardio. I work out like that too. And I can tell you I have lost precious little muscle if any over the past couple years.

I know you will hear a lot of men fret about how easy it is to lose muscle from a bit too much cardio. But if you check with guys that do a lot of cardio, such as wh0arume, Skoorb, phillydude, etc., you don't see a lot of long muscle mass losses.

The only sure way I know to lose muscle mass is a diet with an unhealthy caloric deficit.

Thanks for posting. :) You're right, I've not lost any weight for about 2-3 months now. Rather, I've been rubberbanding between about 179-183 lbs, which can be attributed to water weight and occassional slices of pie :p

Therein is my problem. Although I have been consuming mostly "good" foods, I've been lax in tracking them for a while. I'm certain that I've had days where I've eaten <1000 calories, I'm also certain I've had a few days >2000. The last couple days I've thought about it, and I think I need to be more assiduous in tracking it. Overall, I think I've been way UNDER my daily calories, and my body is responding by holding everything it's got.

Switching up my routine hasn't shook the weight, either. For about a month I've cut out all weights and have added an evening cardio session.

The only change I've seen is a decrease in body fat. Today I've measured it at 11.9% or so. Even given deviation, this is a decrease from the near 13% I measured not too long ago. More importantly, I can see the difference in the mirror. So it hasn't been entirely negative.

So, there are areas I can improve on:

1. Tracking calories- especially protein/carb/fat breakdowns.
2. Weekends - Especially need to watch calories, and I can't count on yard/car/other work to replace cardio sessions.

Let's make those my two goals for the next month. We'll see what happens.

-L


I don't know of any proven advice for you, but it seems like you are not getting the weight loss for a while. Probably time to switch something up just to try and shake your body out of the groove it seems to be comfortable in. Your body seems to have given up fat more easily than muscle.

When I look in here I don't see a lot of details, but you're lifting three times a week, and doing a deal of cardio. I work out like that too. And I can tell you I have lost precious little muscle if any over the past couple years.

I know you will hear a lot of men fret about how easy it is to lose muscle from a bit too much cardio. But if you check with guys that do a lot of cardio, such as wh0arume, Skoorb, phillydude, etc., you don't see a lot of long muscle mass losses.

The only sure way I know to lose muscle mass is a diet with an unhealthy caloric deficit.

I went on Pirates of the Caribbean twice.

Was it the "new" Pirates with Captain Jack Sparrow?

Was it the "new" Pirates with Captain Jack Sparrow?

Yeah- well, they incorporated a few things. What I noticed was the following:

-"Mist" Davey Jones saying random things
-3 Jack Sparrow Animatronic guys at different parts of the ride. He looks so much more real than the rest of the pirates that it's kind of ridiculous
- Pirates saying things like "Tell us where Jack Sparrow is"
-Davey Jones threatening you at the end of the ride

Overall, not a complete change, but a few things. It still retains the same feeling, but I liked it the old way better.

Good weekend- got some exercise in, and relaxed.

So tired lately. I've been stepping up with my cardio sessions slowly, but each one seems harder than the last.

There will be a small break this weekend, though. I'm going camping up in the mountains. I'm bringing my bike- they have a ski lift that will take you up to a trail that you can ride down. Should be lots of fun.

-L

Well, for a week now I've been good- tracking calories and working out on weekends, and it's made no effect. I'm not discouraged, though- I'm gonna run this out for a month or so and see if there's any change.

Tomorrow is BF% check, that will give me a bit of an indication. Also, I'm starting my camping trip, so that should be relaxing, I think.

-L

What a great weekend. The weather was perfect up in the mountains, and I got to do a lot of fun stuff: mountain biking, boating and some other things. I did eat it on the mountain bike and scraped my shin up kind of badly, but it will heal. All in all, it was lots of fun, and hard to come back.

In spite of some bad food (s'mores, of course), I'm steady at 180. I did realize that I haven't done a bf% measurement since a few weeks ago, so I need to do that.

-L

It's been a good week. I went down to 178 and have managed to keep it there, despite a less-than-perfect diet. BF measurement is at 11.8%.

So what have I done to accomplish this? I changed up my workout a little. I cut out the second cardio session at nights and have replaced it with a complete upper-body workout with high-rep low-weight dumbbell work. 3 sets per exercise, with reps of 20, 16 and 12. I do about 6-7 different exercises; interestingly, I don't even break a sweat doing it, but it seems to be effective.

This weekend is payback for camping last weekend- tons of yard work await me, but I'm definitely going to keep at these workouts...

-L

Steady at 179. Been eating pretty well, including some yummy pasta sauce I made from scratch with fresh mushrooms. Yummy.

No other news at this time...

No other news at this time...

Glad to see that all is well... no news is often good news, ya know?

Very true. Between my new work responsibilities and a fairly active social life, it's sometimes hard to wind down. This past weekend I sat down and played some computer games for the first time in a while, and it was pretty good, actually. :)

I'm swapping cardio again, just for a change. I've been running on the treadmill, 25 minute HIIT training (2.5 mins warmup, 20 mins intervals, 2.5mins cooldown). I'm moving over to the elliptical, 35 minutes at a lower intensity. I think I'll give this a few weeks until I'm tired of it, then switch to something else.

I hit a low point this morning- weightwise, that is. 178 according to the scale. Obviously, I'm not about to have a party, but better to get an inaccurate measurement near the low end than at the high end.

Going for Mexican for lunch for a birthday celebration- but I promise to be good. :nod:

I guess I was good yesterday- Still at 178. I got two tacos at the restaurant and wound up just eating the lettuce, tomatoes and meat. The shells were too greasy and they were covered in cheese- my nemesis strikes again.

I did cave a little last night and ate two Milano cookies. So weak... ;)

-L

Not my best weekend- I shared some pizza when I had to come in for work on Saturday, and I ate far too much last night- I bought one of those supermarket chickens and nearly ate the whole thing.

On the good side, I cleaned my pool and consolidated more crap in my garage (It's still full of stuff from when I moved to the house in November). Soon I'll be able to fit my car in there.

Overall result was 179 lbs this morning, but I'm looking forward to a good workout this morning.

-L

Man, the last two days have been killers at work. Request after request has come into the IT department, and we're swamped. I missed my workout yesterday morning and it's not looking good for today, either. Compound the fact that I'm still staying up too late and right now I'm in a irritable mood.

I did work out last night and was especially good with my diet. Someone brought over some cookies but I kept away from them, and I had some vegetable pasta with fresh homemade sauce for dinner. Good stuff- cooking helps me to decompress after long days like yesterday and today...

-L

Sure enough, I missed my early workout yesterday- too much work!

Fortunately, my diet has been pretty good. I made far too much food for dinner, though, so I have lots of leftovers. I made a simple stir-fry with rice. It's simple to make and pretty quick as well.

You need some chicken and some vegetables- I use broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts, mushrooms and pea pods, some cooking spray (I had some mazola pure stuff with no silicone or alcohol) and some teriyaki sauce.

The chicken should be cut into small pieces, about 1" cubes or so. In a heated pan, begin searing the chicken- you want the outside to be white, not pink and not brown. Spray a larger pan or wok with the cooking spray and heat it up. Put your veggies in (they should sizzle when they hit the pan), and transfer the chicken into the larger pan. Add a /little/ teriyaki sauce, just enough to coat everything. Too much and the veggies will get soggy. Stir the mixture vigorously on high heat for about 5 minutes, then serve hot on a bed of your favorite kind of rice. Yummy! :eat:

-L

Another Friday - thank goodness for long weekends.

So I'm still at 179. I did a BF% measurement which put me right around 11.5%.

I'm finding it kind of hard to determine why nothing I'm doing is having that great of an effect on me. I'm not gaining weight, certainly, but it doesn't seem like I'm losing weight either- certainly not to the degree I was before.

It may be time for a renewal- a fall cleaning, if that makes sense. Time to recompile what I believe to be true about my diet and exercise and start fresh, be more assiduous in tracking exactly what's going in, and what's coming out.

For now, work and a workout. But after that, perhaps some recalculation...

-L

I ate terribly this weekend. Pizza, hamburgers and even some ice cream.

Sunday morning I was at 176 lbs. Monday morning: 176lbs. This morning: 176lbs.

I wonder if I'm not eating enough,normally...it's food for thought, anyways. I'm going to recalculate my calorie intake, though, and work from there.

I also got a bit of a sunburn, which is kind of sucky, but it's not too terrible...

-L

Too much sun and a bad cold has put me down for a few days, no exercise or proper eating to speak of- 20 hours of sleep alone yesterday made sure of that.

Still sleepy and a bit woozy from some medicine I took earlier, but perhaps later I can post new calorie goals and all that.

-L

Feeling much better today. Thank you Zicam.

So, recalculating my BMR gives me (taking the average of male and female calcs): 1746.61 calories. Let's multiply that by 1.5 for exercise and we get: 2620 calories.

2620 calories a day to stay the same weight, 2120 to lose ~1lb/wk, and about 1900 for 1.5 lbs.

So I think for simplicity's sake, I'll attempt 2000 calories. I have been eating far fewer than this up to this point: as few as 1200 a day (and some days with more). The only reason I can think of is my body shutting down all weight loss in response to inadequate nutrition.

Nutrition breakdown later...

-L

One thing I've been doing is eating more carbs than I would if I were truly trying to "cut"- up to 60% carbs a day. I now think this was a mistake. Rather than end-around and try to lose the weight while maintaining a certain body fat percentage, I think it will be easier to do a normal cut, and then bring my bf% up to a good point. So I'll be adding more protein in my diet.

I discovered Hebrew National 97% fat free hot dogs over the weekend. I knew about the "Reduced Fat" franks, but even those have 10g of fat. These have just 1.5g of fat and 6g of protein- pretty good! They still have 400mg of sodium, but with enough hydration, that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm looking forward to tonight- The Chargers and Raiders. I've bought some steaks for the BBQ, and will probably be making shishkabobs. Yum, and go Chargers!

-L

What a great game- well, it was kind of anticlimatic, but it's the Raiders, so who cares? ;)

New diet seems to be going well. I woke up this morning with a bit more energy than usual. Better, they put a TV in my office gym, so I don't have to pass the time by singing "I've been working on the railroad" over and over. :p

Not much to report this week. I bought a lot of food at Costco this weekend, so I'm set for meals, which is good because it stops me from going to subway or something on the way home. Now, subway isn't necessarily bad, but I think home cooking is better.

-L

I'm hovering at around 176 this week. I'm thinking that the new diet is working, but we'll see the results after a while.

Work has been a killer, though, and even now is beckoning me.

-L

Great- my alternator in my car has decided to stop working.

Why does it seem like once the warranty/pay-off period expires on products, they break?

The dealer wanted $250 after a core rebate. No thanks- I'll get one from autozone and save a hundred dollars. I'm already going to be swapping out a fuel filter, so this weekend will be one for car maintenance.

That new Mazdaspeed 3 is looking better every day ;)

A while since my last update- I'm furiously trying to get work done before I go on a 6 day vacation to New York. It's my first trip there and I'm looking forward to it, but mostly all of the unhealthy food that's there...pizza...hot dogs...bagels...mmmm

Really looking forward to my trip next week. I'm flying out late, then arriving early in the morning in New York.

If anyone has any suggestions on places to go and things to do, I'm all ears

-L

Last day of work before going on vacation. Currently I'm at 176lbs, and hopefully it won't be too detrimental to be on a trip. At the same time, I have plans not to go out of my way to be healthy- there's too much good food in the city that I'm looking forward to. And if I come back at 179 or 181, I will work out until I'm back down again.

-L

Have fun in New York! Did you plan out what all you're doing? If I had seen your earlier post I would have suggested a LOT of stuff. Oops. Aside from the stuff most everyone goes to, there's the Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Hispanic Society of America, El Museo del Barrio, Louis Armstrong House (in Queens), the Shakespeare Garden in Central Park, the Strand Book Store... Those are a few of my favorites, anyway. There's way too much to do, and you will walk your butt off, so enjoy some good food too! :D

New York is a strange place- completely alien from everything I've experienced. Tall buildings, lots of friendly, loud people, bad pavement, excellent food, cleaner-than-I-expected-subways, etc etc

It was a lot of fun, but I can't imagine living there. Living there would be as strange as living on Mars.

I walked or took the subway everywhere, and ate lots of street hot dogs and other foods. I bought fake purses and a fake watch and all sorts of overpriced knick-knacks.

Lots of fun, and the rest was necessary. Today, I'm back at work and catching up, and tomorrow I'll get back into the exercise groove.

-L

I stepped off the plane and immediately came down with a sinus infection. It really sucks- no amount of nose-blowing is helping to relieve the pressure. The worst is at night, because it wells up on one side of my face...ouch.

Definitely a very attractive mental picture I'm giving you.

178 this morning- looks like all that extra weight from NYC went away. Now I just need the bug to go away.

-L

It's been about 2 weeks since I last posted- mostly because I've been incredibly busy. Work has been taking up most of my time, and for the rest I've been working on a few writing projects. I'm still keeping on, weight is down to about 176 again- I'm thinking about maybe going to a gym: my home workout equipment is getting less appealing as time goes on.

-L

I was handing out Halloween candy last night, and around 7:45 I'm nearly out- so I hop in the car and run to the store and get two more bags and rush home: I don't want to be known as the person who gives out no/crappy candy on Halloween.

One kid shows up the rest of the night. Doh!

In other news, my co-workers love me for bringing in all my extra candy ;) And I did have one peanut butter cup, but only one.

This just in: It was delicious.

-L

I had a great workout last night, but my arms are so sore right now. I've been doing low-weight/high-rep exercises, but last night I switched to a more normal 10/8/6 repetition lift with increasingly heavy weight.

Going to see the new Borat movie tonight- it looks like it will be great. I'm pretty shocked how much attention it's gotten, but it proves my point: you have to be able to laugh at yourself.

-L

Wow- almost 3 weeks since an update. Work has been tremendously busy for me right now in my new position, and the upcoming holidays haven't helped either.

Workouts are going as planned, and I've started to slowly ramp down my intake of meat- every meal I have seems to have some kind of chicken, beef or pork, and I want to be used to a semi-vegitarian diet by the 1st of the year.

My spare time has been taken up with home improvement projects-replacing old closet and bedroom doors, painting, etc, etc. It's satisfying work and makes the house look better too.

-L

Wow- almost 3 weeks since an update. Work has been tremendously busy for me right now in my new position, and the upcoming holidays haven't helped either.

Workouts are going as planned, and I've started to slowly ramp down my intake of meat- every meal I have seems to have some kind of chicken, beef or pork, and I want to be used to a semi-vegitarian diet by the 1st of the year.

My spare time has been taken up with home improvement projects-replacing old closet and bedroom doors, painting, etc, etc. It's satisfying work and makes the house look better too.

-L

I was wondering what happened to you... glad to see you are still with us. How's progress these days? Happy with the way everything is going?

I was wondering what happened to you... glad to see you are still with us. How's progress these days? Happy with the way everything is going?

Thanks, philly.

Yes, I'm still around, and still sticking to my diet and exercise plan. This time of year it's generally just a matter of hanging on with all of the big family meals and get-togethers and hoping to come out even.

I'm ashamed to admit I bought some workout DVDs to supplement my weight lifting (tae-bo, anyone :whistle: ), but they're fun, even if they don't help.

On other fronts, things are not progressing as well. But we all have setbacks and disappointments, and have to deal with the hand we're given. I'm optimistic that in the coming months the issues I'm having will be resolved and that I can continue the journey I'm on. How's that for unspecific ;)

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, and especially my dad's apple-walnut stuffing that's made with 14 pounds of butter. :spaz: But I will be as good as one can be (except for the stuffing, and pie, and mashed potatoes...)

So the tae-bo video I got is kind of interesting. It helped me realize how uncoordinated I am, certainly, but I do manage to elevate my heart rate for a good 30-40 minutes, so it's worthwhile. Nonetheless, I'm still doing the elliptical and treadmill most of the week.

Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving- mine was good, apart from my poor cat disappearing :(

-L

I had someone buy me a small key lime pie from Trader Joe's the other day. It was appreciated, but it's not going to help my waist. I've been cutting slivers off of it when I can't resist.

Key lime- my favorite. :drool:

I love this time of year- Christmas songs on the radio, a slight chill in the air (when El Nino isn't coming in), people a little more kind...it's good stuff.

-L

I played paintball on Saturday- it was lots of fun, and what a workout. Tiring just to run around with those heavy clothes on for just a few seconds. I got shot in the leg, the boob and the collarbone- only the last left a mark.

One thing I did do was jump into a trench feet first- it was deeper than I expected, maybe 7 feet, and I landed on my heels, brusing them and twisting my left ankle. So I was hobbling around the rest of the weekend. Today isn't much better, but I do feel some improvement.

-L

My heels still hurt, but they seem to be improving. I'm walking around like I've got some kind of problem, though, garnering pitying looks from people.

My ankle does feel better, though, so that's something.

I was able to buy my Christmas tree yesterday and take it into the house, so it's not that bad. I love the smell of a real tree, and the sap a lot less :p

-L

Well, tomorrow is my 29th birthday...I think 29 is worse than 30- you realize that this is the last year of your 20's...

Age is pretty inconsequential to me- I feel the same as I did when I was 20, and I believe that as long as you take pretty good care of yourself, it's less of a factor.

-L

Happy Birthday to me. As a kid, having a birthday so close to Christmas was always lots of fun, because my parents would give me gifts for both.

As an adult, people either forget or don't have time to celebrate because they're rushing around trying to get things done. I've had a lot of lonely birthdays in the last few years, but it doesn't really get to me that much. I make my own fun.

-L

Hey, happy birthday!!!:D :claphigh: :jumping:
Enjoy! 29 can be a very good year!:D

Happy birthday.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I got through it pretty well- I went out for dinner with some friends and had seared ahi. Yum yum.

I stepped on the scale this morning and was a bit surprised to be at 172 lbs, considering that I've been gimping around with my bruised heels. Instead of doing cardio, I've just been doing some light upper body work with weights. I don't think the scale is broken, but we'll see what comes in the next few days.

I haven't been pushing myself, and that's why I fail. I do my workouts, but at the end of them, I can still function.

I'm not reaching that failure point- not even close, lately, so my workouts are not much more than a lukewarm bath when I need to have it boiling and scalding.

I need to push much harder- my body is capable of so much more.

That's my resolution for the New Year- each workout will be a battle, done until I am worn to the bone.

-L

Happy new year everyone. Back to work :(

I had a nice restful new year. Me and some friends went out to the front yard and watched the fireworks from there. It was nice and best of all, no drunken driving for our part.

Yesterday was the first of my "Do it till you can't" workouts. I did about45 minutes on the treadmill, burning a bit over 600 calories in just over 4 miles. By the time I was done I was cramping in my side a little, but I think I could have run a bit more (50-100 calories worth). So why didn't I?

Simply, I didn't want to blow myself out. It's been a while (too long) since I pushed myself really hard, and I didn't want to wake up unable to move.

That fear, it seems, was unfounded. I feel great, and I feel confident that tonight's workout will be even better. I was going through the motions for the last few months, with little enthusiasm, and I think that really stalled my weight loss. But I'm back and motivated. 165 is still my goal- that's just 8lbs from where I am right now.

-L

I haven't been pushing myself, and that's why I fail. I do my workouts, but at the end of them, I can still function.

I'm not reaching that failure point- not even close, lately, so my workouts are not much more than a lukewarm bath when I need to have it boiling and scalding.

I need to push much harder- my body is capable of so much more.

That's my resolution for the New Year- each workout will be a battle, done until I am worn to the bone.

-L
:tucool:
I think mastover once said something along the lines of "treat each workout like it's your last and you'll be amazed at the progress you make." I like to think of that before heading off to the gym, although sometimes I seem to forget. :doh:

Thanks, George, I think that's absolutely true. I guess there's a fear that I'll overtrain or burn myself out or hurt myself. I think the human body is much more resiliant than I give it credit for- it's usually the mind that is weak.

In the spirit of the new year, I'm also going to start using Fitday to record my food intake. This is public, so take a looksee if you want and feel free to criticize. I'll try and update it back through Monday, if I can remember, but at least through yesterday

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=LaelTG

-L

It's amazing how different one's diet can be when you're looking at it. The day before I started fitday, I was eating too few calories and most of that was fat. Yesterday was a much better day, nutritionally.

I've updated my avatar to Miriam Rivera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Rivera). She was featured on the show "There's Something About Miriam", and is somewhat of an inspirational story to me.

Another 600 calorie (or so the treadmill says) workout. I was very tired afterwards. I also rubbed a piece of my inner thigh pretty raw. Ouch. It should heal by my next run (Friday).

-L

Over 3,000 views for my journal- I'm flattered, especially given how poor my results have been, overall. I know some read because I'm an unusual person, and hey, that's okay- if it's interesting, more power to you folks for being curious.

I've been running all this week (Wed/Mon) to exhaustion, about 4 miles & 600 calories each time. It feels good, except for the skin I rubbed off. Tuesday I had to work on my car (headlight relay went out- only had high beams on the way home, which I'm sure endeared me to many)

Yesterday I did the old Tai-Bo workout, which is good enough to work up a sweat, but probably not worth much more than 100 calories of effort. I did that rather than run because my intake was lower than normal- 1350 calories instead of around 1600-1800.

Tonight is a run again-thankfully, there's plenty of episodes of "Scrubs" on.

-L

It's a weekend, and I usually don't update on weekends, but I thought I'd share something interesting (I think) about me. This isn't gonna be fitness related and may deal with issues that you don't agree with, so move on if you're not interested.

Today, I cleaned my car's entire intake system, from filter to intake manifold. It was about two hours work, and when I was done, my hands and face were covered with the accumulated deposits of the system. Later, I took a nice relaxing bath and scrubbed and exfoliated, did my hair, and here I am.

It was once hard for me to express my interests in things that might be considered "masculine", because that was something that I didn't even want to approach or have associated with me. After all, I'm striving towards the opposite, and knowing about cars or football isn't something that furthers that.

As usual, it's kids who put things into perspective. I was over at my cousin's house, and her son was getting ready for school, dressed up as Batman. When I asked her why this was, she said "He loves Batman. He says the other kids make fun of him, but he's worn that the whole week. Even if I stop making him wear the costume, he's still going to love it."

We are who we are; a fundamental truth that I had forgotten and was reminded of. We put labels on the things we do or are. She's a diva; he's a nerd; she's a lesbian. All labels, and all utterly meaningless, despite the connotations those things have. When we ascribe those characteristics to ourselves, it almost seems like we're trying to pigeonhole ourselves into them, either to gain the esteem of those in that group or to mentally block ourselves from considering life outside the boundaries of those groupings.

That realization- that life is infinite in it's form, that our simple groupings could not possibly hope to contain the varieties- that set me free. What your teacher told you IS correct- we are all unique snowflakes, formed of experience and environment, and no two completely alike, despite our own attempts to make it so. And the disappointment, to me, is that we often fail to look inside ourselves and find those things that make us individuals, but instead let others dictate what we should eat, watch, listen to, and love.

I think it's a miracle, this uniqueness.

It's also the reason I watch football on Sundays and work on my car. And do my nails and hair and makeup. And wear jeans or skirts, as the mood strikes me. And if you ask me why I do these things, and why not those, I have one answer for you:

This is me.

-L

I'm sick again- my nose feels like it's going to explode. I don't get sick too often, usually, but if I do it never seems to last too long.

One thing I do when I'm not feeling well is work out. It may be incorrect, but my feeling is that if you can produce an endothermic reaction in your body (that is, sweat), you can raise your body temperature enough to help kill off germs. It's the same reason I cover myself with lots of blankets when I'm sick. It always seems to work.


-L

Sure enough, I got on the treadmill and did my 4 mi/600cals while watching No Reservations, and today I feel mostly better.

I ate terribly yesterday- 2 huge meals along with a bunch of dried cherries throughout the day. once I update my fitday profile, you can see :whistle:

-L

I have been really motivated lately- another 600 calorie, 4mi run yesterday, and I'm looking forward to it tonight, too.

I've been at the upper end of my calorie range, if not exceeding it- 1800+ calories a day. It doesn't worry me too much- maintenance, for me, is somewhere in the 2500-2800 calorie range. I'm aiming for 2lbs a week loss- 1000 cal deficit. Giving myself such a big cushion is a help, except those days I don't eat enough, and then I'm way low (1300 calories).

As I run, every couple of days I like to challenge myself more- increased speed, duration or incline. I'm just not sure which one is most beneficial

-L

I'm still a ball of muscle. I'm at 12.5% body fat or so as of today, and I was 177 on the scale, which means I have 154 lbs of non-fat weight on me. (In comparison, last time I checked I was at 175 lbs and 14% body fat or so). If my aim is to decrease that muscle mass, than I need to keep my calories severely restricted- but I'm already eating only 1800 calories or so a day. However, as I've found before, if I restrict calories too much, body goes into maintenance and plateaus.

I've been doing NO lifting at this time to help prevent muscle growth from occurring, but just running seems to be doing it anyways.

Kind of frustrating, but my hope is that once I reach a certain body fat percentage, my body will switch over to burning some of that muscle.

I was pretty disappointed yesterday at the result of the Chargers game. So close...

Of course, an hour before the game, two servers at work went down, so I had to rush down there, fix them and get to my game-viewing locale asap. I almost made it, but fortunately the radio broadcast here is pretty good.

I went bowling Saturday night for the first time and did amazingly well- 45 and 79 points. I'm a terrible bowler :p

-L

I went bowling Saturday night for the first time and did amazingly well- 45 and 79 points. I'm a terrible bowler :p
That's about what I usually get. :lol: A few weeks ago, I finally figured out that I've been using the wrong fingers. :doh:

That's about what I usually get. :lol: A few weeks ago, I finally figured out that I've been using the wrong fingers. :doh:

No, I'm using the right fingers, sadly. My old technique used to be just to get the lightest ball possible and huck it down the alley as hard as I could, but that didn't work. So now I'm doing it properly, and I still suck :p

-L

I had a friend come over last night and we did the Tae-Bo workout together. It was kind of hilarious because we both were screwing up the transitions between the exercises. After she left, I did my normal Anthony Bourdain/treadmill workout, which managed to be 670 calories when it was all said and done. I probably worked off close to 1000 calories last night, and I could have done some more but it was getting late. Our bodies are so strong, and we don't challenge them as much as we should, I think.

-L

I was a bit high on calories two days ago, so yesterday I went a bit low to even it out. Today should be more stable.

I know John shaves his legs or has. I shave mine about once a week. I don't know if anyone else has considered doing it that isn't, but there is one benefit that I highly suggest- get into bed with clean sheets and freshly shaved legs: it feels incredible. To me, at least. But maybe it's just me. :p

-L

I'm getting irritated when using my calipers- it seems like I get random measurements even when taking a sample from the same place. I think I'm going to just use a tape measure and do circumference measurements from now on.

I stayed up too late last night, and I'm paying for it now *yawn* More later, maybe

-L

I had a good workout last night. About 1/3 of the way through, I got a side cramp and started thinking "Well, maybe I should just stop for tonight. After all, I've run every day this week." and other excuses. I pushed through it and finished up, doing 4miles in 38 minutes. My goal for next week will be 4 miles in 36 minutes. As the time per mile goes down, I think I'll up the distance as well, to keep my workout times consistent.

Fridays are a tough workout day for me, sometimes. As soon as I get home, I usually have a meal and by the time my workout time rolls around, I have friends who want to go somewhere and do something. While I know a day off isn't the end of the world, I still feel like there's something I could do.

I've also been considering adding a small upper body weight regimen to my workout before cardio again, maybe 2-3 exercises a night with 3 sets each. Running is great for cardio, but my upper body hardly gets any work.

-L

Stayed up too late again last night. Ah well.

I'm going to give an upper-body weight workout a try this week:

Tonight: Biceps
Tues: Shoulders
Wed: Triceps
Thurs: Chest
Fri: Back

Each night I'll do 2-3 different exercises, 3 reps each. Then I'll do my cardio. If nothing else, it's extra calories burned.

-L

That was a pretty fantastic workout last night. The weights took practically no time at all and I ran faster than I had before. The only downside is that my right heel is a little sore- probably still from the paintball injury a few weeks back. Fortunately, it's well padded in my workout shoes, so it's ok.

I'm starting to really like "Scrubs". Considering that it has reruns on on about 3-4 different channels all throughout the evening, it makes my workouts more enjoyable. Still, "No Reservations" was on last night, so that was my primary choice.

I usually have innumerable doctors appointments, most of them pretty inconclusive and depressing. Yesterday I went to get a yearly physical, and the doctor said I was in "great shape". So that was comforting, a little :nod:

-L

Ugh, I think I gave myself food poisioning last night. I had made chili and put on a little shredded cheese from a bag I had, but it had been in the fridge for a while. I felt fine until I tried to go to sleep and my mouth got all "thick" and my stomach hurt.

Nonetheless, good workout yesterday. I'm up (down?) to an 8 minute mile now for 4 miles, but I haven't noticed much difference in effort- I'll keep increasing speed until it becomes very taxing.

-L

I hate to say, but I skipped last night's workout. The previous night I had 3 hours of sleep due to being uncomfortable and when I got home, I fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up until 2am. Then I went to bed :p

I am feeling rested and better today, and I'm looking forward to resuming exercise.

-L

Another good workout last night. I did triceps and chest work on weights, then hopped on the treadmill. I finally reached my limit last night with speed increases. I went from 6.5 to 7mph. At around 510 calories I was at my limit and so I slowed down and walked to about 550.

I'm always curious if what I eat has an effect on my run. Last night I reheated some leftover chili and had a roll with it. I always let my food digest for at least an hour before working out. What if I had eaten pasta, for example, though? Would I have had the energy to finish all 4 miles?

Anyways, tonight I'll probably ratchet it down a little and complete the whole workout. Tomorrow is set aside for changing brakes and painting a room.

-L

It's amazing what a little paint can do to a room. When I moved into my house, the room that was used as a bedroom by the son of the owner had baby blue walls except for a navy wall on one side. It had red crown moulding nailed flat against the ceiling. It had red closet doors.

This weekend, I took down the doors and repainted the room. What a difference. Instead of a dated look, the room is much brighter (I painted it kind of a grey-blue/teal color). I replaced the closet doors with nice white ones and put new decorative white wallplates on the light switch and electric sockets. I think it's much improved. All that's left in my mind is to replace the bookshelf which is an old oak-stain one and the blinds, which are old and oak colored (the previous owners loved oak, I think).

My arm is very tired, though. A coat of primer and two coats of paint is hard work...but definitely worth it.

-L

I had bought some of those new curlicue low-power lightbulbs for the room I painted to replace the normal one. At first, they power on kind of low (mood lighting?), but evenutally they're very bright, and supposedly energy-efficient. Everything is bathed in white light rather than a dull yellow, too.

I went to the dentist today for a cleaning. I HATE the dentist, mostly because when I was young my old dentist's hygenist was a real witch who always found something to fault with my brushing habits. I like the way my teeth feel after the cleaning, but the polish stuff they use is awful.

Did a normal workout last night- 4 miles, 600 calories in 36 mins (and weights). I wasn't as tired as normal, but I was perspiring like I was in the desert. Good stuff.

A funny story: I'm pretty comfortable with who I am, I guess, but it still shocks some people. My big problem is shoes- I wear a women's size 13, which means I'm buying shoes online, generally (big feet, what can you do? :o ) . I was at Nordstrom's, though and saw a nice pair of strappy black heels. I ask the clerk if they have my size, and he says "Are you sure the person you're buying these for has such big feet?" So I smile and say, "Well, they're for me, so I'm pretty sure." He looks at the shoes, then me, and his face goes :eek: and he goes into the back and comes out looking a little sheepish. He apologized profusely, but I just laughed and said it was ok. The only thing that upset me was they didn't have my size. :p

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2893417/0~2376778~2372808~2372940~2376188?mediumthumbnail= Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=2376188&P=5 These are the shoes. I need some kind of foot-shrinking surgery or something.

-L

I was watching American Idol while doing my run, and there was an older gentleman who sang a song to his wife who had died of cancer a few days earlier. So I was running, sweating and crying all at the same time. It was kind of ridiculous.

I don't know why I was so emotional last night. During dinner I had put in one of my Deep Space 9 DVDs (Yes, I do enjoy a bit of Trek from time to time) and watched a particularly emotional episode, so that got me teary-eyed, too.

-L

I was watching American Idol while doing my run, and there was an older gentleman who sang a song to his wife who had died of cancer a few days earlier. So I was running, sweating and crying all at the same time. It was kind of ridiculous.

I don't know why I was so emotional last night. During dinner I had put in one of my Deep Space 9 DVDs (Yes, I do enjoy a bit of Trek from time to time) and watched a particularly emotional episode, so that got me teary-eyed, too.

-L

Excuse me if I am wrong, but are you taking female hormones???

If so, WELCOME TO WOMANHOOD!!!!!:D I feel that way all the time (but I am also pregnant, so that explains alot too)

WELCOME TO WOMANHOOD!!!!!:D I feel that way all the time (but I am also pregnant, so that explains alot too)
Yes, the hormones are crazy. I remember I went to see the doctor during my last year of university, and I told her that I was a little concerned that I was having frequent random crying episodes. She made a note of it, but didn't sound very concerned, and told me it was likely stress. A couple of months later, I finally discovered that I was three months pregnant.:doh:

At the time, they were running a very sentimental telephone commercial, and I cried every time it came on tv. :(

I hope it gets better for you Lael; that would be rough to feel like that all the time.

(Nice shoes!)

I've updated my avatar to Miriam Rivera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Rivera). She was featured on the show "There's Something About Miriam", and is somewhat of an inspirational story to me.
-L

I was wondering if that was you in your avavtar or not. I must say she is a gorgeous woman. Even as a teen she was stunning.

Excuse me if I am wrong, but are you taking female hormones???

If so, WELCOME TO WOMANHOOD!!!!!:D I feel that way all the time (but I am also pregnant, so that explains alot too)

It's funny you mention that. I was taking oral estrogens, but got sick from them, so took a break and came back and tried injectable estrogens. Same thing. The next step will be transdermals, which I'm really hoping will work. It's a lot of frustration over something so small, so I try not to worry about it too much.

I think it was just a combination of factors over the last week and the two touching shows tipped me over the edge. I'm such a sucker for things like that...I won't even tell you how much my eyes are streaming when I see Extreme Makeover Home Edition and they help some family who's lost their mom or something...shees.


Yes, the hormones are crazy. I remember I went to see the doctor during my last year of university, and I told her that I was a little concerned that I was having frequent random crying episodes. She made a note of it, but didn't sound very concerned, and told me it was likely stress. A couple of months later, I finally discovered that I was three months pregnant.

At the time, they were running a very sentimental telephone commercial, and I cried every time it came on tv.

I hope it gets better for you Lael; that would be rough to feel like that all the time.

(Nice shoes!)


Hormones are weird things, and I think even though we can replace them, we don't understand all of the effects they have. Fortunately, I'm not such a big ball of them that I can't function. There are times, though, when they get to all of us


I was wondering if that was you in your avavtar or not. I must say she is a gorgeous woman. Even as a teen she was stunning.


I think she's beautiful, and I only wish I could look that good. One day, maybe. But what I like most about her is her positive attitude and outlook on life.

-L

I did a short workout yesterday- 20 minutes, 330 calories or something. I ate less calories than usual (~1500) and didn't want to increase my deficit too much. It's also been one heck of a week at work, with everyone suddenly unable to function normally ;)

It's review time at my work, and we have to do self-evaluations. I never know how to do these: do you list all of your accomplishments and sound like a pompous ass or are you humble and minimize your contribution? There's no way to win, I think.

-L

I had a fun and productive weekend. It was a beautiful day Saturday, and I spent it out in the yard, pulling weeds and taking care of some plants. Sunday I broke down and bought some new blinds for the office I painted and hung them- they're very nice, and although they're not the plantation shutters I wanted, they still brighten the room. Then I watched the Super Bowl and did some writing.

The only downside is that I scratched my finger on one of the rosebushes and smacked my knuckles when installing the blinds, so my hands are kind of sore today.

-L

It's been a heck of a week, so far. Work has been incredibly busy; I've been working 10 hour days, coming home and eating, working out, showering and going to bed.

I'm going to try bumping my cardio to 650 calories tonight for a little extra kick. We'll see how that works out ;)

-L

Whew! What a weekend. They never seem to last long enough. I got a lot of cleaning and shopping done, and I managed to get a Nintendo Wii down at Target before they sold out. It's pretty fun, but my shoulder is sore now from swinging the controller so hard in the baseball game. I'll have to take it a little easier on the thing :)

-L

On Monday, a few people at work started "100 days of 100 situps", so I figured I'd join them. I managed to get through about 40 without a problem, then struggled through sets of 10 and 5 to about 80, then finished with 20 crunches (a legal replacement in the rules ;) ). Yesterday I did 10 sit-ups and 90 crunches. My stomach is very sore- I generally don't do any ab work at all, so this will be a good challenge. I'm hoping that by day 30 I'll be able to do 100 sit-ups without stopping. Right now, though, it's tough- I skipped yesterday's run due to the soreness.

All part of becoming a stronger person, I suppose.

-L

I'm finally recovered most of the way from the first few days of sit-ups. This has been more fun and more challenging than I imagined it would be.

I finished my taxes, and I'm getting a refund. Sadly, it's all going towards supplemental property taxes, which around here is mind-numbingly expensive. Still, I'd rather have that pay for it than my paycheck.

I keep forgetting to pull out my calipers in the morning and take a measurement. I'll tie a string around my finger and do it tomorrow.

-L

Friday and the rest of the long weekend was a hard one: sometimes work just pulls you in and won't let go. We had to patch for the upcoming daylight savings time change, and one of the patches honked up a server, so I spent 4 hours on Saturday here. Sunday was ok and yesterday our T1 connection went down. Tonight for god knows how long is a salary review meeting.

Good times!

I actually did do a calipers test on Friday- the only change was 4mm lost on my stomach (I do a three point test). I tested three times and was at 12mm down from 16 whenever I did it last, so that's a good thing. Strangely my chest and thigh measurement didn't change, but I'll take it :)

-L

I'm about halfway through week 2 of the 100-day ab challenge at my work. I'm slowly working my way up to doing full sit-ups as opposed to crunches. The first day I did 40 sit-ups, then I was too sore for the rest of the week and only did 10-15 a day. I'm back to about 30 sit-ups and crunches the rest of the way. By the end of the challenge, I'd love to be able to do 100 straight, but even if I don't finish by 100 days, I'll keep at it until I can.

I think I'm getting a little sick (again). Another cold blows it's way in, and by the time I try and prevent it (airborne, cold-eze, etc), it's too late.

-L

What a crappy weekend. I spent the whole thing sick, with a terrible headache and cough, watery eyes and runny nose. Gross. I'm feeling better, but I still have a bit of a cough.

I fell behind on my ab challenge- I have to make up 3 days of work- 300 crunches/sit-ups. I'll spread them over this week and make it up.

Checked the scale today- 175lbs. I think that, even though I'm not losing as quickly as I would like, to think that I was nearing 200 lbs not too long ago, I'm doing pretty well. 1/8 of the me then is now gone. That's quite a hunk of Lael! :p

-L

Hello again. It's been a good 2-3 weeks since I've been here, since I've been anywhere online, actually.

Aside from work, I've taken a break; a break from working out, a break from the computer, from TV, from the structure I've put into my life. I've been taking walks and spur-of-the-moment car rides, picnics and cooking recipes I haven't made the time for. And practicing on my guitar, though it hasn't helped much.

It's been refreshing, and it's made me re-evaluate the priorities I've had; A life without balance is not lived.

So I'm feeling good; we'll see how it goes from here.

-L

I'm generally off the treadmill these days. That's not to say I've stopped doing cardio- on the contrary, I've been running a lot; just outside on the streets.

We coop ourselves up all day; in classrooms and office buildings, and then in our cars home, where we stay all night before repeating it. You go to the gym, you're inside. You go to the grocery store, you're inside.

I needed to break away from that, just for a bit every day, and let a brisk breeze shock me, let the sun blind me, and let the world overwhelm me, just for a bit.

-L

I haven't posted much lately- priorities, I guess. Every moment spent here is another that could be used elsewhere to better purpose.

This past weekend I took a hike out in a nearby nature reserve- there was a field of wildflowers and hundreds of bees just swarming all around and a few lonesome trees breaking up the scenery. It was lovely.

In the real world, I've been back and forth to doctors trying to find some drogas that won't make me sick to my stomach, but after more than a year I've somewhat resigned myself to the fact that it's not looking good. Still, it doesn't really bother me as long as I'm true to myself. The rest of it is for everyone else.

-L

I haven't posted much lately- priorities, I guess. Every moment spent here is another that could be used elsewhere to better purpose.

This past weekend I took a hike out in a nearby nature reserve- there was a field of wildflowers and hundreds of bees just swarming all around and a few lonesome trees breaking up the scenery. It was lovely.

In the real world, I've been back and forth to doctors trying to find some drogas that won't make me sick to my stomach, but after more than a year I've somewhat resigned myself to the fact that it's not looking good. Still, it doesn't really bother me as long as I'm true to myself. The rest of it is for everyone else.

-L

Hi Lael... even though you haven't been posting here, I'm glad to hear all is well in your world. Stay grounded and stay focused and stay the course. Miss you! :)

Thanks, Philly. Love the oompa loompas :)

I may get back to posting here more often, and I check the site at least every few days. I'm still keeping on my diet and workouts- just different ways of doing the latter.

-L

On account of the rain yesterday, I used my treadmill for the first time in a while- it was interesting. I was running faster than I do outside, but it was much easier than previously. I think in some way similar to how free weights work ancillary muscles, the uneven surface of the road works my legs more than the flat treadmill.

In any case, it was a good workout. And I watched No Reservations while doing it, which makes it doubly good.

-L

As an added impetus to lose some weight, I've cut out everything but water after 7pm. I remember my dad doing something like this when I was younger and he lost a good 10lbs just from that, so we'll see how it works.

-L

For some reason I've been bombarded by news and stories about other transpeoples lately.

There was the City Manager who was fired when she revealed herself as a transsexual (http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/florida/news-article.aspx?storyid=80081) and the Sportswriter (http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-oldmike26apr26,0,588768,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines) who revealed herself in an article.

I guess following these events, a Bill was introduced (http://www.washblade.com/2007/4-27/news/national/10469.cfm) prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Then Friday night I happened upon a special on 20/20- "Trans Kids" (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3088298&page=1).

These kids of stories give me mixed feelings. On one hand, I worry that they're sensationalism pieces reported only to garner ratings. I understand that it is unusual to most people and they're interested. I can see that my journal has been read a lot- I'm sure most people aren't looking to see my stunning revelations about weight loss. ;) And that's OK. I want people to be interested- that means they're trying to learn. And I think that's the positive aspect of stories and reports like these- they help people understand.

Ay yi yi. I could write all day about it (I just deleted a whole chunk of text). Suffice it to say that my hope is that one day there are no stories like this; when it's an accepted thing that some small minority have to go through, but hopefully not suffer.

-L

P.S. To actually make this somewhat weight-loss related, it seems like my no-food-after-7pm plan is helping. I feel less bloated and sluggish in the morning and may have even lost a pound or so. Stay tuned.

I can see that my journal has been read a lot- I'm sure most people aren't looking to see my stunning revelations about weight loss. ;)

I only read your journal for the pictures. :rolleyes:

Seriously though... I'm sure there was a lot of prurient interest in your journal when you first joined here... but since then, I think a lot of us view you as a JSF "regular"... just another one of us, out there doing your thing, trying to make yourself better, in whatever form that might take.

Thanks, philly. I appreciate the kind words. I like to think that the common challenges we face are more important than individual ones, but that each of us can bring a different perspective to life.

Cheers to everyone, even those with more prurient interests in the journal :lol:

-L

It's a grey day here again- some people get depressed with bad weather, but I love it. Being born and raised in southern California kind of desensitizes you to near-endless sunshine, so cold days like this are a welcome respite.

I've been hovering about 172-174 pounds for the last few months, which is a minor improvement from the 177 or so I was hanging around for a while- considering the level of my workouts, I have to assume that my diet is holding me back. I need to both revamp what I'm eating and how much, and keep better track. I start off with the best intentions in trying to track my eating habits, but real life takes over and eventually I stop tracking.

Sooo...I think I'm going to come up with 3-4 daily "meal sets" that I can replicate every day that have the right macros and micros. I think that will work better for me, but we'll see.

-L

It has been pretty warm the last few days. One definite advantage to running in the evening has been the cool weather, but now it's even more important. I think I'll need to get some kind of water bottle or something that I can take running as it warms up- right now I can hydrate when I get home from the run, but soon it's going to be tough.

More home redecorating has been occurring. I had this dark blue outdoor carpet that was moldy at the edges from the sprinklers. When I tore it up- yay- it was only held down by double sided tape, not glue. Unfortunately, there was some old green paint underneath, so I spent some time scraping up paint. Eventually I want to put a nice brick veneer on the concrete base, but for now I'm just going to prime it and paint it tan and get a good area rug. Cheap and it will look nice.

-L

It cooled down a bit over the weekend, so I got some work around the house done. The patio looks nice, but despite my best efforts I murdered the grass around it with paint thinner, so that's going to be a reseeding job that needs to be done. I also repainted some walls in my house from a color called "grape leaves" (green) to a lighter yellow, which looks nice.

I also headed up to the Palomar mountain observatory... that's a fun road to drive on, and there were lots of motorcycles zooming around. It wasn't too clear, but it was nice and peaceful.

I did remember to do a body fat analysis on Friday morning- 13.5% At 175, that means I have 23lbs of fat. If I want to get down to about 11%, then that's 19 lbs. So 23-19= 4lbs of fat. I think I can do that.

-L

As a quick addendum, I think I was measuring my bf% incorrectly prior to the last time. I was grabbing a horizontal fold on my tummy rather than a vertical fold.

Regardless, it should be relatively correct, I guess. :confused:

-L

Did another BF measurement. 13.2%

In reality, weight and bf measurements don't mean anything as compared to how you look and feel. I'm feeling pretty good these days, and I think I look ok.

I really need to get on developing better meals. I keep finding myself adding too many borderline foods in despite myself. Maybe this weekend.

-L

Did another BF measurement. 13.2%

In reality, weight and bf measurements don't mean anything as compared to how you look and feel. I'm feeling pretty good these days, and I think I look ok.

-L

Congrats! pixplstnx Glad to hear all is well. :tucool:

Maybe this week, if I'm not feeling self-conscious. Oh god, I'm going to starve myself the next few days...

-L

Of course I was joking in my last post. I did get a lot of yard work done yesterday; For some reason the iceplant bank on the side of my house is a breeding ground for patches of grass.

I slathered on sunscreen and still managed to burn a little strip on the back of both of my arms as well as the top of my right foot where my sandal didn't cover. D'oh! Worse, I somehow left my garage door open all night long. Everything was okay this morning, but that was pretty boneheaded.

This week I think I'm going to do some HIIT cardio to mix things up. I bought a cheap little plastic stopwatch to use on my run outside. There's a park near my house that I like to run to, and when it's light out in the evening I enjoy going down there.

-L

It was pretty gross outside yesterday (cloudy and threatening), so I just did my HIIT on the treadmill. I think it was closer to dying than I was. I did a 20-minute session, one minute on, one minute off. What a great workout, even if it doesn't burn as many calories as my normal 40 minute run.

One thing I do love is to jump in the pool after a workout like that. It was just getting dark as I went outside, so I turned the spa on and swam in the pool for a bit to cool down. About half an hour with the jets in the spa and I went right to sleep. It was wonderful.

-L

It was just getting dark as I went outside, so I turned the spa on and swam in the pool for a bit to cool down. About half an hour with the jets in the spa and I went right to sleep. It was wonderful.

-L

OK, I officially hate you now. :(







:lol:

OK, I officially hate you now. :(

:lol:

Hah! Of course, that image excludes the 70% of the other time I'm doing something with the pool- namely, cleaning it!

-L

I took a walk to the grocery store last night rather than driving my car. It took about 15 minutes each way, which is pretty freaking good. As long as it's light out and I don't need to do major shopping, I think I'm going to do this from now on.

I got some whole wheat pasta, which I had and am not too sure about. It tasted...interesting. I also got some dried pineapple, but it was covered in sugar. I think I'll wash it off and dry it before I eat it.

I did make one naughty purchase- Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream ice cream from Ben and Jerry's. I promise not to eat the whole pint in one sitting! :D

Have a good long weekend!

-L

I did make one naughty purchase- Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream ice cream from Ben and Jerry's. I promise not to eat the whole pint in one sitting! :D

-L

:confused: :spank: :D :gl:

What a nice weekend. Long weekends are great- not only do you get an extra day off, but the following week is short, too.

I only hate half of the pint of ice cream I got, so I was a good girl. :)

I think I'm giving up on my calipers. Even when I take three measurements, they vary wildly. It's probably me, but the whole thing is not very useful. I think I'll use a tape measure instead, forget about bf% and just watch the numbers there.

-L

I need sleep. Staying up late writing + coming into work early = bad.

-L

Staying up late writing + coming into work early = bad.

Staying up late writing + not going in to work = good. :nod:

Hello all, just checking in after a long absence.

I'm still around and kicking- just have been incredibly busy with work and writing. I've got a coherent novel coming together- about 20000 words at last count.

Hope everyone is staying cool this summer, cause it is HOT here

-L

I've got a coherent novel coming together- about 20000 words at last count.

Wow... that's great. What's the genre?

Hope everyone is staying cool this summer, cause it is HOT here

Aww... that's just you. :nod::tu::dreamy:

I've got a coherent novel coming together- about 20000 words at last count.

Hope everyone is staying cool this summer, cause it is HOT here

-L

That's very cool, I didn't know you were a budding novelist. Does your career entail writing too?

Yeesh, been far too long. I've been semi-chugging away at my novel, but work has been a bear recently.

Philly,

It's a fiction novel that explores how events in our lives affect and steer us in ways we never intended.

You, sir, are a flatterer.

Jedi,

It's almost exactly the opposite; IT work, in which I'm using the logical side of my mind. I find the writing brings me into a good balance somewhere in the middle.

-L