Day 11

Whoops, I almost totally forgot to post! It's midnight so technically it's tomorrow but I haven't gone to bed so it's still today ya dig? Me and the pedometer walked home over the Brooklyn Bridge again. It rained earlier today so it was slippery (in my not-at-all walk appropriate shoes) plus this creepy guy was following me too close and I had to give him the stink eye.

Today at work, trainers from New York Sports Club came by to try to entice us all to sign up for sessions and answer general questions. I got my body fat index measured and it was a number that would only be acceptable if I was 70+. The trainer guy (named "Flex") suggested I come in to discuss my fitness goals. I let him know that my only goal is to be skinny but he says I need to be more specific. Good point, but by then he was getting on my nerves so I went back to my desk.

On a positive note, the 2lbs that I initially lost, but then regained over the holiday, has been lost yet again. So net-net I guess. I was depressed about it at first but Husband pointed out that had I not been exercising, it could have been worse. Perspective people!

Day 10 cont...

Out of sheer laziness, I decided to whip up a little breakfast for dinner. It was so yummy and so easy that I decided to share. I actually got the recipe from a book called Clean Up Your Diet by Max Tomlinson. It emphasizes eating pure foods. Tonight's dinner included the following:

• 2 poached eggs
• roasted garlic (about 4-5 cloves)
• olive oil
• the grainiest bread you can find (toasted)
• 1 tomato (sliced)

Bear in mind, I made a few adjustments based on what I had available as well as my taste preferences. It felt nice to eat a really simple, yet filling, meal with a short ingredient list of all whole foods. I guess the toast is debatable but I used a pretty good bread with no sugars.

Day10

At work today, we were given pedometers. The basic idea was to pair up (all totally optional) and compete for a week to see who could tally the most steps. We were told it was to help bounce back after the Thanksgiving holiday... that, or it was a major hint..or a sign???

I had already planned to walk home from the Brooklyn Bridge so this worked out. At first I was afraid since it was already so dark at 5pm. But- like most things in New York, the bridge was lit up like a Christmas tree and full of people. It was actually really relaxing and helped me clear my head. I solved the problems of the world up there; at least my world. As of right now, I've logged 9,904 steps!

I did start to wonder if the car exhaust negated the benefits of the walk...

Day 9

So last night I decided to relax and pace myself... especially given the fact that I planned to work out on the early side today. Which I did. I followed the circuit shown in the picture; taken from this month's Shape magazine (Kelly Osbourne cover). There were actually 3 circuits described and I bounced around them all to create one super circuit.

Since it was around noon, the gym was quite crowded and some moves I felt downright ridiculous doing. When I work out with a trainer I don't mind looking crazy b/c obviously this crazy person is making me do crazy things. On my own, I look like the crazy one. I have to admit though-most people in the gym are so into their own thing, that no one's paying attention to anyone else. Some people like me haven't learned to focus and are paying attention to everyone else!

Another point that was driven home today was to stop counting. When I was working out with my trainer, I'd constantly be asking him how many and how many more... He of course, would tell me not to worry about it and also of course, he was right. (grrrrrrrr....) Focusing on achieving a set number in your mind prevents you from seeing how far you could really go. The circuits were for preset times of 1 minute. This caused me to fly by numbers that I would usually stop at, just because those were the numbers that I always did. Sets of 10, 12, 15, etc... Lesson learned! And it only took me 18 months!

Day 8

Ehhhh... I took it kind of easy today. My excercise consisted of a nighttime stroll with Husband. We weren't exactly power walking (in fact, there was a Starbuck's latte break in there), but walk we did.

Earlier today I had my favorite meal from Wild Ginger, a vegan place near us. I almost always order N14 the Bi-bim Bap. I don't know what that means exactly but it has rice, green & black seaweed, avocado, kimchee, chickpeas, spinach, and seitan. Oh and mango salsa. I love it, plus it's enough for two meals. It also comes with a pumpkin soup so it's pretty much the bomb.


***Update: Whoa! I feel weird... like I want to go to the gym... Hmph, I don't know if that walk did it for me. It's 10:17pm and I can't swear I won't up and go. I'm home for the night and Husband is watching boxing. SNL is a re-run and I just drank a latte so I'm kind of wired. Let's see how this plays out.

Day 7

Alright listen... we've all succumbed to a wacky craving. I never eat Wendy's but I was really craving some french fries and in general, some fat. And not "good" fat like an avocado or something.

I tried to fight it but to no avail. Don't worry, I was sufficiently punished. The downtown Brooklyn Wendy's is as delightful as it sounds.

Day 6 cont...

If you are ever in need of some alone time, head to your gym at 11pm on a national holiday devoted to eating your face off.

I am thankful for the TV hook up on the cardio machines because seriously- the only way I'm making it through this deal with the devil is the fact that I can watch Millionaire Matchmaker while I'm biking a 10k.

Day 6

Happy Turkey Day! Not sure if I will actually eat turkey since we are going over Husband's sister's house and that is typically a Caribbean feast including but not limited to the following: curried chicken, stewed chicken, jerk chicken, oxtails, plantains, sweet potatoes, etc...
Sooooo... bad diet day. And I still haven't worked out which I meant to do before we headed out so that may make for a late night but I brought it on myself. No one forced me to watch the Purina National Dog Show. Ah well...

Day 5 cont...

At work today, we were allowed to leave early so I was out by 1:30pm. This left plenty of time for working out before sundown for a change. I put in a full hour today! I was in the mood for calisthenics and brought down my yoga mat so I could do a lot of floor work. I'm getting pretty good at "keeping it moving"and making up stuff to fill those moments when I don't know what to do. *
I may be easing into the acceptance phase... Honestly, Monday and Tuesday were the hardest so far with work and everything. If** I can squeeze in the gym before dinner tomorrow, I should cruise on into the weekend.



*Jumping jacks and squats with dumbbells to overhead press are some go-to moves.
** I mean WHEN I squeeze in the gym of course!

Day 5

Just popping in to say that I'm down another pound! If you think I'm telling you how much I weigh you are out of your mind but I'm happy to report pounds lost.

Day 4

Bad news:

• Today was the cook-off
• I ate a doughnut
• I ate many many cookies
• I ate many mini cupcakes
• Guac/chips and pork taco for dinner b/c hell, why not?

Good news:

• I did drag my behind to the gym at 10pm (second night in a row)

So yeah, as I mentioned yesterday, the cook-off is serious business at my job and people brought their A game's. I didn't end up making anything after all. But it mattered not as there was plenty o'grub.

Not a whole lot to say this time around. I did not want to work out--like really, really-- did not want to work out. I was perfectly comfy watching the DWTS finale on my couch with man and dog. My saving grace was that the cardio machines downstairs have tv's so I could hook up my headphones and not miss anything. As has been the trend, once I got going, I went past 30 minutes logging a solid 45. I'm hoping the dread and loathing will give way to acceptance and then hopefully anticipation.

Day 3

Today is a textbook case of how things get tricky for me with work and all. We had a shoot today which means I had to arrive at 9am instead of my usual 10am... or 10:15 or whatever. Plus we never shoot on Monday and I found this totally jarring. Needless to say, I did not work out before work.

Halfway through the shoot, someone reminded me that we were supposed to go for after-work drinks as a department. I was then also reminded that the Thanksgiving Cook-off* is tomorrow and not Wednesday as I seemed to think. So here I sit at home slightly drunk at 8:30pm, contemplating making a lemon loaf but likely flaking out, and not at all wanting to work out. But I can't flake out on that because it's only friggin' Day 3! Wah.

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to take pictures for this blog... that'd help huh?

Good News:

• Last night for dinner we ate Crispy Skinned Salmon, grilled eggplant, and salad with cucumber, tomatoes, and shitake mushrooms.

• I woke up one pound lighter.

• In today's fruit watch I ate a pear and a banana.

• I took the stairs instead of the escalator once I got off the subway tonight.

Bad News:

• I overcooked the fish.

• Husband refused to eat (expensive) shitake mushrooms

• around 11pm last night I wolfed the last piece of pizza that we ordered over the weekend.

*This is way serious business at my job. There are prizes and scores to settle; feelings get hurt.

Update: I've done 45 minutes in the gym; 20 of which were on the stationary bike. Chelsea Handler got me through the hard times (level 15). The other 20 were comprised of a weight lifting circuit and a bit of stretching. My initial 5 minutes were spent on some stair climb-y contraption that no, was not an elliptical (I know what that is), but some kind of scissor kick thing that not even Chelsea Handler could help me with.

Day 2

Since today was Sunday I wanted to do something I was unlikely to do on a weekday. I had a few errands to run in Soho and figured walking home over the Brooklyn Bridge would definitely be 30 minutes if not more.

I went from Houston and Bowery (Whole Foods) to Greene and Spring (Space NK) to Canal and something (Pearl Paint). From there I headed to the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge on foot. I mention "on foot" because I had actually planned to take the R train from Canal Street to City Hall but 1.) the entrance was closed and 2.) I realized that I didn't have my subway pass and wasn't about to buy one when I had a perfectly good one at home. So I headed in the general direction on foot; following the signs. Anyway, this was pretty solid deposit in the Fitness Bank.

The Fitness Bank is my mental calculation of things I did during the day that counted towards my health and fitness (credits) vs. those that took away from it (debits). The extra walk before my walk helped balance out (in my mind anyway) the pumpkin doughnut I ate from Dean & Deluca while I was running around.

The Brooklyn Bridge is roughly one mile (1.13) and makes for a nice enough walk but should you do it be mindful of the following:

• on the weekend it's packed with tourists (duh)
  

• tourists aren't in a hurry

• there is construction going on at certain points so the great view I was hoping to enjoy was obstructed for quite sometime by sheet metal; giving it all the charm of a storage unit.

Once home, I calculated my total trek and was pretty happy to find that my total distance traveled was 3.2 miles. According to Google maps, this took 1 hour 4 minutes but that excludes shopping time at each place of course. I should mention that I took the stairs to the 4th floor while in Pearl Paint. That counts for something right? Fitness Bank!

Day 1

I'm smart. I know that mathematically, weight loss would result from expending more calories than I consume. I know that I should not eat a pint of ice cream in one sitting. I know that 8 out of 10 people* who have bodies I admire, work really hard for them. So I figure any defiance of this knowledge is a conscious decision to be fat. I had to ask myself:

"Self, do you choose to be fat?"

My immediate reaction was to say no, yet the choices I make daily are in direct contradiction. I had to admit that the answer was actually yes. This was a heavy leaden thunk of a fact to swallow.**

I've always been on the bigger side... which while pretty subjective, I just mean to say adjectives like: curvy, thick, and my favorite "healthy" were often used to describe me. That's all fine and well. I'm not attempting to look like a supermodel but I do aspire to be MY best self. I'd rather not develop cancer or heart disease but I'd also really like to wear leather leggings. Health is the p.c. answer for inspiration but I'm as vain as the next gal so I'm also in it for the fashion. I am a Stylist after all but that's a whole other story of mind fuckery.***

Anyway, the other week I was reminded that it takes 21 days to form a habit. I'd heard this a hundred times before but for some reason this time it bounced around my head while the person continued talking. All I really kept thinking was,

"But then what?"

What happens on the twenty-second day after your mental carrot of the magical 21 days is over? I'm great at starting something. Especially over the weekend (today is Saturday and I've started this blog). But what's going to happen next Wednesday when I don't feel like getting up? When I look at the alarm clock and realize that while I could go downstairs and work out (I have a gym in my building; I mean how lazy am I geez...), I could also sleep for another hour. Forget day twenty-two, I should name this blog day four. My goal (hope, dream, prayer) is that this blog, like my new exercise life, goes beyond 22 days.

Right now... the deal I've made with myself is that for the next 21 days I have to do SOMETHING that counts as exercise. At a minimum of 30 minutes at some point in the day. If I can't resist the snooze button in the morning--fine but that means I have to workout that evening. I figure there must be some degree of flexibility in there somewhere or I'm setting myself up for failure and disappointment. Walking (briskly) part of the way to or from work for instance, could count.

I'm logging off to go to the gym (as mentioned, it's right downstairs), but I'm already eyeing things I could do instead. Loading the dishwasher seems really important all of a sudden. This is going to be hard.



*I happen to work around a lot of models. Who, yes, are people but not like you and I! In defense of their genetic freakiness, many of them work hard to maintain their biological advantage.

**My instinct was to make a self-deprecating joke about the irony of the word "swallow" within a blog about weight loss but decided to stop picking on myself.

***Being a complicit cog in the machine of the Beauty Industrial Complex whilst opposing it can really mess with your head!