The Numbers Edition:
So it IS possible to be on plan a whole week!
Week In Review:: 6 Nov – 13 Nov
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Tag Archives: weekly goals
The Last Week – an update
Haven’t had much time for a proper update post this week and this one will have to be quicker than usual -
On Wednesday I weighed-in and officially lost 1.3KG my first week back from holiday and following my food guidelines again. Whoo! I am going to talk a little bit more in the next post about what happened that day, because I’ve found a pattern and I want to find a way to deal with it…
On Wednesday I also went to the physio. The good news is, the knee is not painful at all, it can take 40KG squats and I’m allowed to do some warming-up type exercises, like what you do before you run (I’ll see if Hubs can’t help me with photos of these exercises so that I can describe them properly this upcoming week. We set an appointment for two weeks and if all is still going well, I’ll be on the road to running again! Whoo!
I have the Leontien Ladies Ride coming up on 18 September, which is 70KM; last weekend I did 40+ KM to Nijmegen and back and today I did just under 40KM to Doesburg and back. I still have 4 weeks to train a bit. I’m hoping next weekend to 60 and the weekend after that maybe 70KM just to know what it feels like. I finally remembered to wear my bike shorts today – what a difference! It was beautiful the first half of my ride and I’d never been to Doesburg before so I was really pleased when I saw how freaking cute the town is! Plus there was an Elvis Presley Festival going on, and a Photography Market. Always nice when things are going on at your destination! The 2nd half it was threatening to rain AND it was a route that I’ve done many times (especially running); I wanted to be fairly close to home so I was back before dinner.
Next week the goal is to do my physio exercises at least twice and get to the gym once.
Hope everyone is ready to have a great week ahead of them!
Results since Re-Commitment
I decided last Monday to recommit (Well I decided Sunday really) and start using my Weight Watchers ProPoints program again. I committed to logging in everything regardless of the numbers and the games they play with me. I’m not an angel, but as I mentioned before, I actually enjoy and do my best every day to eat healthily and mindfully. You may notice that there is not a lot of junk (until Friday *ahem*) either. You may also notice that I get all my fruit, vegetables, dairy (a little) and good fats in, every day (until Friday *ahem*). These are the pillars in which Weight Watchers calls the Fit Formulas – hydration, calcium, fruit and vegetables, and good fats.
*I realise that not everyone likes to read food journals and on top of that mine are in Dutch, but if you have the gumption to look, I’m also going to create a little list of the food translations.
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I have to say I was already kind of annoyed Monday at the end of the day when my daily total was over my target of 29. I know that the weekly free points are there for that reason, but you have no idea how diligent I was, weighing and measuring everything, making sure I was using small amounts for flavor and not overdoing at dinner (and believe me, I WANTED to eat more of my dinner that I had made, but I did NOT). It’s really a mind game and I wish it would just stop, but… apparently Sadist-Brain is not ready to give that up yet.
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Tuesday was better at 29 points, though admittedly I was hungry when I went to bed and very hungry when I woke up Wednesday (Tuesday I did go to the gym, where I had a creepy/flattering gym-guy experience, my first ever!). Wednesday I was over 5 points, but I earned 4 with just doing my Cooper Test at lunch. Thursday I was over again at 34.5 points, but even then I am not sure if it’s correct as I kind of guessed my dinner (it was leftover homemade Indian chicken with spicy lentil sauce).
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And Friday. Well. It was a total wash. I woke up hungry and I had no plan or preparation. So I Planned to Fail.. Friday’s total is at 73.5 points.. Why? I woke up hungry, I didn’t eat enough breakfast so I got something at work… it was the day after Sint Maarten and someone had brought in candy (it’s like Halloween), so I helped myself to a Mini-Nuts. It was downhill from there really. Lunch was with my team and food was provided. Then I had the commute on the way home which was completely disrupted by an accident (so there was the stress of figuring out how I was going to get home). Oh don’t these excuses sound divine! And hey! There are two croissants in my bag! I’ll shove them down my throat! So once I was at home, hubs and the kids arrived, he was ready to cook the lean ground beef hamburgers that were on the plan and … they were still frozen. Can you imagine that someone, at some point said “Screw this, we’re getting pizza!” and then other had already logged on to the local pizza place’s website? None of which were me of course … *looks around nervously because she is a terrible liar*
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After all that I did see a change on the scale again (what’s new, updownupdownupdown) – Monday Morning was at 81.5KG, Saturday morning (even after pizza) was at 80.8KG which is a loss of 800gr or 1 3/4 pound. If you can’t get your head around metrics, it’s 178 lbs give or take.
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I did run last week and I did go to the gym once. I really wanted to go this weekend, and I thought I could go this morning early, but I had to stay home with my stepdaughter – my stepson had a swimming test that Hubs brought him to and since SD was still sleeping I couldn’t just leave her and have her wake up with no one in the house. (Wait. Does that sound like an excuse too?). I thought they would be back at 9 and they were back at 10. That means I stayed in bed until 10… the gym closes at 12 and I wasn’t exactly ready to go when I got out at 10…
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So here’s the deal for this new week (Weeks are Sat – Fri on the program)
1) Run – 15K is next Sunday. I’m crapping myself. Totally unprepared.
2) Gym – Twice
3) Yoga DVD (didn’t manage this on Thursday – was at work until 7pm)
4) Track everything
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I’ll take a Re-do for $100 Alex
Even Alex Trebek would have kicked me of his show for my behaviour last week.
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So I’m asking for a do over. All the whinging in the world is not going to get me through my life. I need to buck up and just do it. I’m talking about my health, which is directly related to my life, work, etc.
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Let’s talk about a few things then:
1) Weight Watchers – do or do NOT, but nothing in between. So I’m going to go back to point counting and logging online daily to keep track.
2) Reducing stress levels – have already discussed the working from home thing; is 99% sure to be a go. Already next week I work from home on Tuesday (dentist appointment), week after that I’ll be at home on Wednesday (dietitian appointment).
3) Exercise and Food Planning. More on that in a bit.
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Last week, despite my stress levels through the roof and the apparent lack of time for exercise I actually clocked 18KM running. Of course 9.6 of that was my race in Wageningen, but that detail doesn’t matter. 18KM is 18KM! Right? The race itself wasn’t really hard, but it wasn’t easy either. I think the most difficult parts of the race were the pitch darkness about midway through the course (my way was lit only by other runners with small head-flashlights) and the wind. It was raining and while I don’t really mind running in the rain, a lot of muddy puddles were on the course, puddles that I could not see, therefore puddles I regularly splashed in. I was cold all the way to the bone by the time I finished.
And speaking of finishing, I was 24/27 of my age group and 122/126 of all the women in the 9.6KM. Which means… I’m not very fast! If you guys have been following along though, you know I really don’t care about speed much, but lately I have the feeling that I don’t really want to be one of the last ones in anymore. I would definitely like to do this race one more time, simply to beat my time and placement. Lucky me, they have it again in April :)
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A little about point 3 above; yesterday Hubs and I made our dinner plans and shopping list again like we did a few weeks ago. I’m learning (and totally “listening” to Fran here as she is a planner and that clearly works for her) that planning is really key – well, wait, in fact I already knew that, and am a preacher of planning, but I haven’t been doing too well in that area, so it’s time to kick it up a notch again. Plan, plan, plan, plan, plan!
Dinners are planned, even already pre-cooked the meal tomorrow so I can just throw it in the oven when I arrive home. Will also premake a few other meals whilst cooking or preparing lunches/snacks for work. Lots of healthy stuff for lunches too. Am kind of looking forward to food this week!
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Exercise plans as well this week; Tomorrow running, Tuesday gym (spinning maybe?) Wednesday running (at work – I have a Cooper Test whatever that is), Thursday my yoga DVD that I received and haven’t taken out of the package yet, Friday rest, Saturday morning gym.
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I’m going to get through this. I’m going to stop thinking how unfair it all is or how much I’m struggling to lose weight. Really, maybe I’m not doing everything I possibly can. So, unfair or not (and who is to say, everyone is different), I’ve just got to move on, stop comparing myself to others and work on the only body I’m going to get in this life.
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So that’s me. A re-do commences now.
Getting Le Crap Together
Looks like I’ve finally reached the point where I’m sick enough of myself and my excuses to do something.
So, I have a plan for next week. Today is already pretty much over (not a license to eat like a person who doesn’t care about her body), we start over again tomorrow.
I have planned out our dinners. And I will plan my running and gym for next week too. Unless I am lying in the hospital on my last breath, I will be doing both this week.
If you hate food / food planning posts you can stop here and just go directly to the comments and tell me how cool I am.
Dinners Planned:
Sunday – Spaghetti with home made sauce and meatballs *we always make the sauce ourselves and the meatballs are from extra lean beef. We have a tradition of pasta on Sundays, generally when we have the kids (which is this weekend). The sauce is made up of only tomatoes, 1 TBSP of olive oil and fresh italian herbs. This is a fairly healthy dish. It’s the QUANTITY that I can shove down my gullet that gets to me every time.
Monday – couscous, turkey medallions and vegetables * this is one of my healthier go-to dishes when I need to cook. Nothing is really “bad” in this dish. For the vegetables I use red, green and yellow paprika peppers, mushrooms and red onion. This will be sautéed in 1 TBSP coconut oil. Turkey to be marinated a wee bit in some sweet-soy sauce, some chili paste, salt, pepper, garlic.
Tuesday – White fish with rice and haricots verts * usually I use tilapia or pangasius (catfish I think in English). this is covered with 1 TBSP olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper, garlic and fresh basil. All that cooked in the pan for a couple of minutes, then a tin of tomato chunks, lemon juice and a wee bit of water is poured over the fish left to simmer for a few minutes. The beans are steamed in the rice cooker with the rice.
Wednesday – chicken stir fry with rice * pretty self explanatory. We buy a bag of stir fry veg to cook this quickly. There is some sweet-soy involved, and some chili paste.
Thursday – I’m not in control of Thursday as hubs is cooking for his study partner. It will be an Indian curry. Always made to adapt to our healthy eating epicness.
Friday – I’m out with friends, hubs is on his own. We’re going to a Burger Bar and then for drinks. For me it will not be an out of control evening because of the fact that I will be in Amsterdam and still have to travel back to Arnhem in the evening. Since our train station is a complete disaster I may even need to leave the city earlier than I normally do just to make it home with alternative transport.
I WILL RUN on these days:
Tuesday
Thursday
*quite possibly Friday with some colleagues at work during the day
I WILL go to the gym on these days:
Monday
Wednesday
I have an appt with my Dietitian on Wednesday and will prepare dinner AFTER I go to the gym. I will go to the gym DIRECTLY after the appointment. Luckily I am working from home that day so there is NO EXCUSE to not go.
I don’t generally need help with my daily food planning because I tend to rotate the same things. I make sure I get my veggies in by either already including them at breakfast, having a huge salad at lunch, or snacking on them throughout the day. Fruits are also a non issue – those are also always included throughout the day. I made a shopping list that hubs so wonderfully and willingly took with him to the supermarket. I made a huge pot of Spicy Carrot and other Vegetables soup (I had some veggies that were approaching the end of their life cycle so I threw them in) and will have that during the week in the afternoon (or at lunch) instead of cup-a-soup. I am also making some Kamut and that will be added to the soup for a source of protein and bulking up.
I am making some hummus also tomorrow and will have that for my sandwich portion of the lunch this week, along with avocado and sun-dried (not in oil) or even regular tomatoes.
Basically, I’m putting it out there and I’m doing it. No more excuses. Time to get my crap together and my ass in gear.
Project 42:5
Update from last week:
These were my goals:
1) Eat well. Track Monday – Friday. (Sat – Friday no longer possible).
2) Running – 2 times
3) Get thee to the gym! Will go the evening I do not see my friend (I don’t know when that will be yet because she’s arriving tomorrow).
4) Focus on using my time alone wisely and not get lazy just because Hubs isn’t here.
How I did:
1) As you saw from my week food log, I tracked every day Mon- Fri. I was again very hungry on Wednesday and I’m not really sure why, though I did run on Tuesday evening, maybe that has something to do with it?
2) I only ran once. I really wanted to run on Thursday, but it turned out that was the day I went to see my friend who was here for only a few days. Thursday was a holiday, so it made sense to see her then, rather than try to cram in a dinner after work. I wanted to run Friday and I ended up staying up too late on Thursday. Friday evening wasn’t possible as the kids arrived and Hubs was en route back home from India.
3) Did NOT go to the gym *sigh* I am really struggling to do this. I need to decide very soon if I’m going to quit or go because otherwise I’m wasting nearly €50 a month.
4) I think I did ok here, but it was quite a challenge to do everything myself. I do not hide the fact that I am VERY spoiled; Hubs is always home before I get home from work, he does the groceries, cooks, etc. I had a few meals prepared in advance and Hubs had picked up some things at the store for me that I could cook quickly when I needed to cook. Tuesday I forced myself to run for an hour, but then I didn’t even have dinner until 10pm. Wednesday I woke up ravenous. All in all though, I tried very hard to use my time wisely. I had a few things thrown into the mix – seeing my girlfriend and eating out twice – but I feel like I did the best I could possibly do each day. Was each day stellar? No, but that’s ok.
I’m getting a bit in a cycle again and I need to break out of it. I need to make appointments with myself and KEEP those appointments. Running, gym, food, etc. I saw the scale go down and felt my jeans get looser, but I’m pretty sure I’m back up again (and yesterday’s baby shower did not help!!). I will take photos for the Jeans Project, but I’m fairly certain you will see no difference.
I want to also find another race I can do before September’s race. I feel like I’m getting a bit lazy! Now is the time to do the exact opposite! While the weather’s been fairly crap this last week it won’t stay like this forever. I want to get out on my bike, go rollerblading, hit the pool, go running. These are times I wish I did not work so far away from home. I am wasting so much time on my commute and it gets me down a little bit. I fantasize about working in the same city that I’m living in but each time I look around for jobs, there is really nothing for me.
Anyway, my plan for this week:
1) Go to the gym/ Zumba. This will happen because I have an appointment with the Dietician at the gym at 19.45 tomorrow. Then I can use the gym facilities AND go to Zumba at 21.00
2) Go to a Weight Watchers Meeting. This will be on Tuesday.
3) Running. Whenever. Morning or evening. It needs to be done. Or rather I WANT to do it.
4) Track and try a little bit harder to stay within the limits. 29 points is my daily target, it’s ok to go a few points over but not 15 points over every day. I could never expect to lose weight if I continue like this. Tracking, every day (will do Mon-Fri minimum).
5) Find another race I can do before the Dam tot damloop.
Am going to plan/prepare my food for the next couple of days at least (going to the gym and WW after work is a challenge because I’ll need to eat something on the train home) and make some carrot chickpea soup for snacks.
I feel bored, maybe it’s just a feeling today, maybe it’s something in general, but I am going to snap out of it. I control my life and my happiness and if I’m bored I’m responsible for getting out of it!
Project 42:4
What I did this past week:
1) Tracking: Tracked every day Saturday to Friday and was even sick in between and tracked what I managed to eat:
| Daily | Extra | Total | Activity | |
| Sat | 29 | 25 | 54 | |
| sun | 29 | 0.5 | 29.5 | 14 |
| mon | 25 | 25 | ||
| tues | 29 | 29 | ||
| wed | 29 | 10.5 | 39.5 | 19 |
| thur | 29 | 6.5 | 35.5 | |
| fri | 29 | 17.5 | 46.5 | |
| Totals | 199 | 60 | 259 | 33 |
| Daily x 7 | 203 | |||
| Weekly Free | 49 | |||
| Possible Total | 252 |
2) Got my “good fats” in – walnuts, avocado, linseed oil to name a few. Added my snacks back in and had a protein snack right before I left the office instead of only veggies. This actually worked a charm! I really didn’t have the hunger problems that I had the week before.
3) I don’t think I actually had any emotional eating this week at all
4) Had two really good runs – one of 10K (though I got sick the next day) and one of almost 13!
5) I did NOT make it to the gym. This is really starting to irritate me, though to be fair it’s just been really, really busy (and the new week will be no exception.
I DID weigh myself on the scale this week because I really was too curious. My result was 78.6. Which, my friends, is the lowest now that I’ve been in 6 years, and moreover, finally UNDER the 80 KG mark (and even better, under that pesky 81- 82 that was dominating my life since November). My weekend has been less than stellar so I’m not sure I am still there, but I’m not really going to weigh again for at least a couple of weeks and then I’ll also do photos again (and measurements) in my jeans.
Hubs is in India this week, one of my best friends from school is here, we have another holiday this week and I have the kids on my own on Friday night. Hubs is home Saturday and then I have another baby shower on Saturday to go to (I hosted one this past Saturday). So my goals for the week are:
1) Eat well. Track Monday – Friday. (Sat – Friday no longer possible).
2) Running – 2 times
3) Get thee to the gym! Will go the evening I do not see my friend (I don’t know when that will be yet because she’s arriving tomorrow).
4) Focus on using my time alone wisely and not get lazy just because Hubs isn’t here.
I’ve already made 2 days worth of breakfasts/lunches/ and snacks. I have leftovers from Friday for one dinner, I have dinner out with my girlfriend one night and I have salmon, rice and broccoli for another dinner planned. Of course I’ll have to get to a supermarket at some point as well.
So, that’s pretty much it. Hopefully I can catch up with everyone’s blogs at some point this week AND get to my emails and maybe even my other blog!!
Project 42:3
Oh Boy.
I don’t know how else to describe the last week.
Remember I said this:
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
I did NOT go to the gym.
I did NOT do pushups and situps.
I did NOT track the whole week (I did track some but by Wednesday my hunger got the best of me and I just ate too much and didn’t bother to track it).
I DID run on Tuesday and that was actually a very good run. I used our new heart rate monitor and kept myself at/under 149 so I was able to run continously for almost an hour (it was 56 minutes in total).
Thursday night I went out for Sushi with two friends and hubs – I was really struggling with hunger on Thursday. I ate too much but moreover I drank WAY too much. Let’s just say the end result was not pretty. It involved me crashing my bike (which, by the way I’m totally against drinking and driving and I have no idea what made me think that drinking and bicycling was ok! Lesson learned!) and wrecking my arm (though Thank God nothing is broken, including my bike) on the way home.
I’m not proud and it took me ALL of Friday to recover. Which of course means I didn’t eat well on Friday either…
Plans for the new week:
1) Track Saturday to Friday
2) 29 points per day + up to 4 extra to make sure I get good fats and that I’m not starving
3) Be aware of emotional and stress eating
4) RUNNING
5) Gym if I’m able (more holidays this week, gym may be closed when I can go).
Few things going on this week:
Some pressure at work
Visiting my friend Michael’s Grave Tuesday (anniversary of his funeral)
Holiday on Wednesday
Thurs/Fri/Sat – last minute planning and preparation for a friend’s baby shower I’m co-hosting
All I can do is the best I can do. I know if I track I’ll be OK, because I’ll be more aware of what I’m choosing to put in my mouth and WHY I’m putting it in my mouth.
And in case you are wondering, I did NOT get on the scale at all this week. I didn’t even think about it. So it’s getting better!
Something totally unrelated: I meant to take a photo a while ago for DietGirl’s Photo Gallery, just me and my DietGirl Book, and here it is:
Project 42:2
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
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
