Tag Archives: 100Pushups

Project 42:2

Posted on by Pinky @lowfatpie
5

The Update (written Sunday 25th April, before my 6K race in Amsterdam)

 It’s actually been a great week all things considering.

 Since I decided how I am going to go about my Plan, I really have focused on it, on my health, my choices and my commitment to myself, without the pressure of having to be perfect or *having* to face the scale.

It has not been perfect.  Not far from it but not close either.  In tracking my intake on my WW program I found out two things:

My daily points are 29.  I seem to always go over 29 (that’s ok, I have 49 “free points” a week or even 7 extra a day if you split it up that way).  Striving for 29 and then failing each time was causing me stress, therefore, it’s a given I will go over and will use from my free points and completely ok (no guilt).  The second thing – I exercise enough, nearly daily,  to justify those 2 – 3 extra points a day.  In theory I should be able to have my 49 points left for the weekend to use, if I have a week without any extracurricular activities.

I wanted to hit 50 in exercise points.  That also did not happen.  I did stay active up until Friday, though Monday was officially my rest day.  Tuesday was running, pushups and sit-ups, Wednesday was cycling and Thursday I did my pushups and sit-ups.  I wanted to go to the gym two times last week and I didn’t make it.

This leads me to questioning whether I should still go to the gym.  At 48 per month it seems a bit of a waste if I only make it 4 times in that month.  This is so annoying to me and I don’t know how to make it work.  I’m actually really enjoying the gym and the Zumba classes when I go now, so I don’t want to quit, but I wish I could really make it work even though I work so far away from home and my commute is 4 hours a day.  I’m going to have to think about this.  I have an elliptical at home, it’s about 10 years old now and I’m not really using it much anymore (though it came in handy this winter when it was freezing out) and I’m thinking about getting rid of it.  There are other things going on that need to be dealt with in my apartment, namely a certain 12-year old who will be needing her own room soon, and I really won’t have room for the elliptical anymore if we have to make space for that.

I had a LOT of victories last week.  There was quite a lot of stress at work again and I didn’t give in to any of the stress through emotional eating.  Another victory was leaving food on my plate when I had enough.  Being that I am from the generation of the Clean Plate Club, this is big for me.  I tracked every single day from Monday to yesterday (though I did not fill everything in for yesterday because I was afraid the whole program would blow up – too many points over).  So even though I went over from Thursday onwards, I tracked.  This is major.  Another major victory – I actually looked at myself in the mirror and didn’t make disgusting faces at what I saw.  I felt good.  I even felt like I looked pretty hot one day.  It’s a great feeling to like yourself!

Tracking helps a lot.  It actually gives me an idea of what works and what doesn’t.  I think knowing this I can kind of stick to the same items during the week (when it’s a normal work week) and feel good that I am on track without hardly even thinking about it.  I went off plan a bit Thursday because I was invited to a special posh lunch with media from all over Europe, which was three course and included wine and coffee tastings.  I didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation; it’s not every day this happens.

So I tracked, I moved, I didn’t give in to emotional / stress eating.  No matter what the numbers, this was a successful week.

Improvement areas are:  gym, and my 100 pushups and 200 sit-ups programs.  I did not get to Day 3 of Week 1/ Week 3 yet and I’m not sure when I will.  So I think I will restart that this week.  Better to restart than give up.

Plans for the new week:

This week will be tricky for several reasons.

 1)      Concert tonight in Amsterdam, means eating out for dinner

2)      Queens’ Night/ Queens’ Day Thursday and Friday – this is a major national holiday for us.  There will be booze and food involved.  One good thing though – we have the kids this weekend which means I won’t be totally wankered on Friday, since I kind of need to be sober to be a decent parent, right? But Thursday night we will most definitely go out

3)      That certain 12-year old I mentioned earlier?  I promised to make cupcakes with her this weekend. 

What I’m going to do

1)      Running – Tuesday

2)      Gym – Wednesday

3)      Running – Friday midday or Saturday morning

4)      Gym – Sunday

 And of course get my pushups and sit-ups in this week.

Tomorrow I’ll post about my 6K run in Amsterdam!

Project 42: The Plan

Posted on by Pinky @lowfatpie
9

Weight Watchers ProPoints – 29 points per day, 49 extra per week.  (Monday’s result:  32.5 / 3.5 from extra)

Earn minimum 50 activity points per week.  (so far 9 on Sunday)

Run minimum two times per week.  (plan: Tuesday and Friday)

Gym minimum two times per week. (plan: Thursday and Saturday)

200 situps challenge – initial test Sunday 18th April: 81 situps (start with Week 3)

100 pushups challenge – initial test Sunday 18th April: 17 pushups

The Update that Wasn't

Posted on by Pinky @lowfatpie
7

I mentioned last week that the plan was that there was no real plan and that I was travelling to London in the week.

I can also tell you that I did not weigh in this morning, which was also the plan.  Maybe that’s like believing that Denial is Only a River in Egypt, but does it really matter?

On Monday we flew out, on Thursday evening we were home again, VERY late.  On Friday I had a birthday party to go to in Rotterdam. 

Did I make good choices or did I throw caution to the wind?  Well, a bit of both!

Our hotel apparently didn’t get the memo that toast and cereal as the included breakfast was kind of outdated.  Nonetheless, I can say I had nary a fry up whilst in Old Blighty.  Normally I MUST have a proper English breakfast if I’m in the UK, but I didn’t.  Not even a breakfast after having breakfast at the hotel.

So each morning we carb-loaded.  Not my favourite thing to do, but I discovered I also won’t die if I don’t have protein for breakfast.  I have been known to adamantly swear - dramatically – that I can simply not LIVE on bread alone but looks like I made it through the carb storm.

Tuesday we had pub food for lunch, did some shopping and drank beer (or lager or bitter or ale, whatever it may be called), we also walked for ages in the rain, then later met up with a friend of mine for Mexican food (which we did also in Amsterdam when she was visiting!) and cocktails.  On Wednesday we carb-loaded again but then went to Hyde Park for some jogging and afterwards ate a Giant Burger and Fries at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (the Garlic Mayo burger - major stinkage, but sooooo very tasty).  We drank beers before the concert, had a sandwich at the Royal Albert Hall and had beers afterwards.  We walked again for ages on the way back to our hotel (probably about 1½ KM before we gave up and grabbed a cab). 

So there were good choices and fat choices and I’m good with everything. 

Pub Food – I had the falafel burger and a side salad (I did not eat those chips/fries, a small victory in ChipLand!) 
pub grub

Drinking with Pride
Drinking With Pride

Today I start over again. So the plan for this week:
1) Log my points on my online WW program at least 5 days
2) Go to the gym: at least Sunday and Monday evening Zumba
3) Go to WW meeting in Amsterdam
4) Run at least twice

Hubs is at the grocery store as I type this armed with a shopping list that Mother Nature would be proud of.

100 pushups did not get done – we’ll start Week 3 tonight!

And Now for the Real Weekly Update

Posted on by Pinky @lowfatpie
1

In hindsight, especially after my whingefest, it was a good week.  So I went out and had two off days.  That’s better than a lot of other weeks I’ve had!

I did not do everything I said I was going to do.  I didn’t go to the gym for example, but I did other things.

I tracked my food and exercise on my online Weight Watchers program 5 out of 7 days.  Actually 5½ because I tracked on Thursday all the way up until I went to my Cupcake Workshop.  I could update Thursday even still, as I know exactly what I consumed the rest of that evening. (I can tell you this… it’s not pretty! I had a couple glasses of wine, 3 cupcakes, 3 glasses of champagne and all that without eating dinner, which led me to Burger King at midnight… and I don’t even LIKE BK!!).  So, whatever, it is what it is.

Drinking and bad eating always, always ALWAYS leads me to comfort eating the next day! On top of that I got only 4 hours of sleep (yes, it’s my own fault, so I’m not really complaining about it) – these are things that I KNOW for a fact trigger being off plan.  But this is life.  Unless I want to give up EVERYTHING – I can never expect to be successful after a night out like this.  I also know that I don’t have to drink to have a good time, but I LIKE to have a drink now and again and I CHOSE for that on Thursday.

Not to go too far off the subject of the update, but this week I also read The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl by Shauna Reid.  If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend you do so.  This was probably the most real Weight Loss Memoir I have ever had the pleasure of reading.  I could relate to so many things.  Not just the weight loss “journey” (I hate that word), but other things – I was really emotional at times reading it because unfortunately I relate to the low self-worth and self-esteem issues. I relate to that feeling that I don’t deserve to be happy or successful.  I even relate to thinking that people just see me as the “fat girl” and nothing else.  Shauna’s journey took her over 6 years (so there you go, it’s not a race, people) but she also lost half of her body weight (175 lbs) and actually she’s still on the journey.  That’s the point.  This is for the rest of our lives;  it’s not over just because we reach goal.   There was finally a point where she stopped with the tracking and the numbers and just intuitively worked her program.  Exercise was no longer a chore but something she enjoyed doing.  I feel like I’m a little bit at that point.  I am actually enjoying going to the gym (when I make it), bicycling (if it would stop fricking snowing), and running (when the paths aren’t thick with ice).  Every time I go out and run I feel more success than I ever felt by just counting points and seeing the scale go down. 

Anyway, back to the weekly update.  If you like numbers, here they are:

So Saturday I had 4 glasses of wine, which costs 14,5 points these days.  Normally you would not see me ever having 19,5 points for “tussendoortjes” or snacks (now my non-dutch readers can step in for their Dutch language lesson).  If you look further down, you can also see that I earned 17 exercise points.  So actually, to me, that was a good day.

Sunday was a bit high also – we made pizzas for dinner – but I went running with Hubs later on that evening, earning me 12 points.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday were just plain successful days.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  I went running again on Tuesday earning another 12 points.  Up until the end of Wednesday, you can see I still had 20,5 free points left (which may have covered the mess of Thursday evening, but probably not), plus ALL of my exercise points. 

Friday was a wreck.  I had breakfast at home.  Then I had breakfast at work.  I ate sandwiches at lunch (and not the lunch I prepared).  I had cake.  I had cheese.  Wine.  100% Anti-Weight Watchers day.

So, yeah.  The scale said I gained 200 grams.  No big deal, I know.  I have pretty much stayed the same, give or take a few 100 grams for 4 weeks.  4 weeks.  What do I do now?  I’m counting, weighing, measuring, exercising, drinking my water, eating only fruit and veg as snacks.  How can I move down the scale?  I’m OK with my weight right now.  I mean, jeez, it was absolute YONKS ago that I weighed 81.something KG.  I think I weighed even more than this when I moved to Arnhem 5+ years ago.  I’m just not sure of my game plan anymore.

So, the running thing.  That’s going really well I’m happy to say.  Including yesterday, I’ve run three times this calendar week, each time a bit more.  Yesterday was 10K!  So I think I can stop panicking now.  You can have a look, for example, on the Garmin site if you are interested in the route we ran.  The numbers are not mine,  Hubs was wearing the Garmin yesterday, but it’s pretty much the same (he’s a bit faster than me!). 

Here’s just a little Nike + peek at what I’ve been doing (if you are on Nike + you can add me “pinky_pie”)

Hubs and I also completed Week Two of the 100 Pushups program:

Pushups W2D1 Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 TOTAL
Fonzie 14 14 10 10 15 63
Pinky 9 11 8 8 15 51
             
Pushups W2D2 Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 TOTAL
Fonzie 14 16 12 12 17 71
Pinky 10 12 9 9 20 60
             
Pushups W2D3 Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 TOTAL
Fonzie  16 17 14 14 20 81
Pinky 12 13 10 10 25 70

 

My plan for this week?  I don’t have a plan really.  On Monday night we fly to London and are staying there until Thursday.  Our Favourite Band is playing a Cancer Benefit at the Royal Albert Hall.  Hello! Royal Albert Hall!  Call me a small-town girl (I am, sometimes) but this is something I could have only dreamt of had I never left the US.  But now I’m going there, to see my favourite band of all time!

So, yeah.  Monday travel, Tuesday we meet up with an old friend of mine from high school (another small-town girl living in another country), Wednesday is the gig (meeting other fans for pre-gig drinks), Thursday we have some time to just wander around a bit in London and then fly home that evening.  Friday I’m going to a surprise birthday party of a friend of mine in Rotterdam.  I do have my standard plan of “all things in moderation”  and if I can manage that I think that will be success enough. Saturday or Sunday I WILL get myself to the gym, but that’s already a new WW week…

I may also not weigh in again for a little while.  I let the scale tell me how to feel yesterday and I don’t like when I get to that point of giving a mechanical object power over me.  Maybe I just need a little break.  Not a break from doing the right thing, but a break from the statistics.  Sometimes it’s more important that I feel good because of what I’m doing, not because numbers tell me it’s ok.

Another Week Unveiled

Posted on by Pinky @lowfatpie
2

Last week, these were my goals. So how’d I do?

 This week I’d like to:
1) track at least 3 days. a FULL three days.
2) go to the gym at least twice
3) go for a run at least twice
4) see another loss on the scale next Saturday

I am proud to announce that I tracked 4½ days. It’s important that half is mentioned of course and that half would be Friday. By supper I didn’t track any further. So it’s really more like 4¾ days.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I was going to relax a little bit about the total points per day and not worry so much if I went over 29, because after all, that’s what my “free points” are for per week.

The days I tracked, these were the results:
Monday, 29 points eaten, 1 point earned (pushups)
Tuesday, 29 points eaten, 0 points earned
Wednesday, 29 points eaten, 10 points earned (9 for running, 1 for pushups)
Thursday, 48.5 points eaten (eep!), 0 points earned
Friday, 51.5 points eaten (yikes! and I just finished that food journal entry, making it a full 5 days), 0 points earned

I do not know what Saturday and Sunday were last week, that’s why this week, I’ll be logging my food ALL week. (Even Thursday when I go to a cupcake workshop, drink wine and hang out with friends…)

I did NOT technically go to the gym twice. I went last Sunday and I went today, but I was meant to go sometime during the week as well. Unfortuantely it was another stressful week and on Thursday I wasn’t feeling very well at all, which is how I ended up with all those points. Friday I stayed at home and I ended up comfort eating in the afternoon.

I did NOT go for a run at least twice. I went on Wednesday evening and I went today, but today counts as a new week. It was Wednesday evening that I think did me in; the next day I had a very rough throat and a headache and things progressed downhill the rest of the day and into Friday.

I DID see another loss on the scale. 400 whopping grams! I’ll take the loss, I’m certainly NOT complaining about it. My weight as of this morning: 81.4 KG or 179 lbs. I will be throwing a party when I finally get under that bleeding 80 mark. Of course that party will only have carrot sticks, celery and water as the available refreshments. One thing that should be noted: I am less than 5KG heavier than Hubs. He really hates this fact as we actually have the same goal weight. He’ll lose what he wants to lose probably in a month and it will take me another 6 minimum for me to get close. Hubs isn’t overweight by any means, he just prefers to be on the smaller side.

Things I learned this week:
1) It’s OK to not be totally uptight about not going over 29 points per day. And when I relaxed, I actually managed 3 days right on target.
2) It’s OK to also feel hungry. I survived the week without passing out from hunger or dying. And there is always room for a cup of tea or a coffee which will help quell the feelings.
3) If I run I need to eat more. I think I had a headache on Thursday because I didn’t eat enough on Wednesday. I should eat more when I run so I am not ravenous or headachy the next day.

Things I’m working on:
1) Hubs and I started the 100 pushups program again (we did it this summer but didn’t complete it)

Here’s the results already this week:

Pushups W1D1 Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 TOTAL
Fonzie 10 12 7 7 15 51
Pinky 6 6 4 4 10 30
             
Pushups W1D2 Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 TOTAL
Fonzie 10 12 8 8 20 58
Pinky 6 8 6 6 11 37
             
Pushups W1D3 Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 TOTAL
Fonzie  11 15 9 9 14 58
Pinky 8 10 7 7 15 47

2) I need to run MORE but at the same time stop panicking internally every time I think of this 12K we are doing on 28th of March. I figured today it will take me 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete the 12K and it HAS to be done within 1 hour and 50 minutes. That gives me 20 minutes built-in leeway.

This week I am going to:
1) Track EVERY single day. Have already tracked today, which is day 1 of the week (I have officially changed w/i again to Saturday)
2) Go to the Gym on Monday
3) Go to Zumba on Tuesday
4) Go running or do my elliptical at home on Wednesday

I was scheduled to go to WW on Tuesday but I think it’s more important right now to get to the gym 2x this week, once for Zumba. I *may* change this and switch Tuesday and Wednesday and go to Zumba on Monday… I just have to see how things go. In either case 2x to the gym!!

I’m off to use some of my exercise points on a glass or two (or three) of wine… a good reason to use some of them if you ask me!