Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

Back to the gym I go.

I've been slacking folks. Really slacking. I was doing so well with running about 4 times a week at the gym and doing weights. I'm not sure what happened. But don't you worry- I'm back in the game.

P.S. Does anyone else prefer running on a treadmill as opposed to outside? I think I'm the only one.

Here's what I hate about running outside:

1. Its about 100 times harder.

2. The weather isn't always ideal.

3. You feel like everyone is staring at you.

4. Its a lot harder on your joints.

5. You can't track distance, calories, incline etc as easily.

6. You can't watch T.V. to distract yourself. (My gym has a T.V. on every machine.)

7. It sucks.

Who's with me? No one? Ok, cool.

I blame...

Nate!

Ok- not really. But imagine for a minute that your garage was FULL of every candy bar and snack food imaginable. Yeah, that is what I have to live with. Nate has a vending business on the side and he keeps his stock in our garage. At first, I was cool with it. He was really serious about it and he would say, "This is not our candy. Its for the business." I was like, "Sure, no problem." Well, slowly but surely we (mostly me) started to relax a little bit. A candy bar here, a little bag of cookies there. And all of a sudden... what the hell! I've gained like a million pounds. Yep.


Needless to say, Nate will now be moving his entire stock to a hidden location. Phew. Let's try this again.

Getting back on track

The past few weeks I've been slowly losing my motivation. I haven't been thinking much about my food choices. Now I'm miserable. Maybe that word is a little dramatic, but my clothes are all tight and I have like 2 outfits that I feel comforable in right now. I currently weigh 10 lbs more than I did in December.

Up until December I was doing really well with counting calories everyday and working out 4-5 times per week. I got down to a weight that I hadn't been since I was about 16. Then I got pregnant and developed a fear of exercize. Even though I knew it was irrational, I was afraid that I would somehow hurt the baby if I worked out too hard and I didn't know exactly what "too hard" was. So I stopped working out completely and stopped counting calories as well. Then the holidays came around and I pigged out. The next thing I knew, I had gained 10 pounds and I wasn't even past the first trimester. After my miscarriage in January (which was obviously not caused by exercize) all I was left with was FAT. No baby. Just fat. Thanks.

During the first few weeks of this blog I lost about 5 pounds by counting calories and exercizing. Then I stopped counting calories and started Eating Clean. I still believe that Eating Clean is the best way to eat, but I am a person who needs some limits. Counting calories has always worked for me. It helps me to know how I'm doing all day long and it keeps me focused. I can still have some treats, but that might mean that I have to stop eating by 7 pm or so if I've used up all my calories for the day.

So I am back to counting calories, but I will be doing my best to Eat Clean (natural, unprocessed) as well. Some people think counting calories is such a pain and so restrictive, but it works. You might think you're not eating that much, but when you right it all down and add it up its a real wake-up call. So that's my plan for now.

I know how to lose weight. I've done it before. It just comes down to making sacrifices. Its hard, but I know its worth it. But its still hard. Really hard. But its worth it. (If you can't tell, this entire post has basically been a pep talk for me.) So really... I'm gonna do this. Really.

PS. This is a good website for tips and motivation: http://oxygenmag.com/index.php

Failure

Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

Matti... my hat goes off to you.

You are a much stronger woman than I am.

Let's try something new...

Ok, so I love Eating Clean and I'm doing well with choosing healthy meals, but I just can't seem to limit my treat consumption. I eat super healthy all day, then at night I feel like I NEED something like chocolate or ice cream. And it also seems like there are treats everywhere I go.

So I'm finally going to try something that was suggested to me by my friend, Matti. She swears by it and I'm sure it works. Its not going to be easy but I'm going to give it my best. All you do is just limit treats to one day a week. She chose Saturdays and that's what I'm going to do also. Nate is going to do it with me so that will make it easier. I have been treat-free for 2 days so far.

Here's a trick...

When you really want to eat junk food, and you feel like you are about to cave- just drink a TON of water until you feel so full that eating doesn't sound so good. I just discovered this today. I feel like I'm gonna explode, but at least I'm not eating junk. Man, this is hard. I just wish I could eat whatever I wanted. Is this gonna get easier? I'm not sure.

This was me about 5 minutes ago.