Post Vacation Blahs

I'm just coming off having nine days off of work. Nine days, with only two yoga workouts and lots of food and drink that I don't normally consume.

I'm up about 4 pounds.

More than anything, I think it's the alcohol. It makes me hold water like no one's business. A couple of days drink-free should help move some of that off.

Further on the down-side, I thought my heel would be a lot better after having time off work and not wearing shoes much or pounding on it. That didn't happen. It's sore again today as if I had never had time off.

In any event, I have about 6 months until my next vacation. I'd like to be significantly further along in this quest by then. Like, down to within ten pounds of goal weight and at least starting a running plan.

Goals this week:

1800 kcal per day

3 days yoga

3 days strength training

Really?

Here's my frustration for today:

Saturday, I got on the scale. I was happy with my weight and excited because it boded well for Sunday's official weigh in.

Sunday, I'm up a pound and a half and the exact same weight as I was the previous week. Ugh!

Today, I get on the scale and I weigh what I weighed on Saturday. AAARRRGGHHH!

I could have posted a loss. Now it looks like I accomplished nothing last week.

Diet wasn't perfect last week, but somewhat better. I did exercise 5 days in a row and no injury.

I'd really like to lose some this week. Next week is vacation and honestly, my goal will be to just maintain my weight instead of gaining five pounds like I always do.

Go Me

Worked out five days in a row. No injuries. Minimal DOMS. I think this is a PR for me in 2011.

Epiphany

For fun this morning, I input what a perfect day's eating would be according to this new plan I'm (unsuccessfully) following.

It came out to approximately 1600 calories, 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat.

When I swapped out 8 ounces of chicken breast for 8 ounces of hamburger, it still came out to less than 1800 calories.

Even swapping out a glass of milk for half a cup of ice cream kept me under 1900 calories.

I don't know why, but I was amazed. Just sticking with the plan puts me exactly where I want to be.

So, that's the goal for the next 3 days. Stick with the plan and see where my weight is come Sunday.

It's the little things

Ok. So, the diet, as usual, is not going so great. I have, however, worked out three days in a row. The best I've done in a long, long, time.

I do some very basic Sun Salutations to warm up (meaning, I skip the lunge on each side). Because I am not very strong yet, I do "knees-chest-chin" to "cobra" instead of "four post pose" to "upward facing dog". But today, "knees-chest-chin" seemed easier to do. I don't know if my body finally learned the movement or if I have gotten just a wee bit stronger. Whatever it is, it felt different in a decidedly good way today.

It's little things that give me hope.

I just realized...

... that there's less time left than I previously thought.

Yesterday I was thinking about getting new glasses. I can't go until December since my insurance will only pay for new glasses every other year. So, I thought I would talk to the optometrist about how to keep my glasses on during Volkslauf.

Right about then, my heart sunk.

In December, I'll have about ten months of training time left. Not even a whole year. And here I sit: fat, injured, and no stronger than I was six months ago.

The only way I can help my foot (short of going to the doctor and paying ridiculous amounts of money) is to lose weight. I pound those floors at work and when I'm not walking, I'm standing still on them, which is worse. Since I can't work on running with my foot like this, I need to turn my training focus to getting stronger.

I tried a new eating plan yesterday. It seemed to work really well. I didn't feel like I was starving and I came in well under 1800 calories. It goes like this:

• 5-8 oz. of protein/day
• 3 servings of dairy/day
• 3-5 servings of vegetables/day
• 2 servings of fruit/day
• 6 servings of grain (including peas and corn and beans)/day
• 6-8 glasses of water/day

I'll keep my focus on the strength training until my foot is healed and then I'll start over with running. I anticipate that I'll be able to start running by October.

Goals for this week:

• Stick to the eating plan.
• Strength train three days, walk or do yoga two days.

Seems like I do a lot of moaning...

...about how I didn't get to do this or that because this or that was wrong with me.

Maybe it's just the getting older thing that's got me down. Maybe it's that I'm paying closer attention because I'm trying to do something I've never done before and it all revolves around my body and how it's functioning.

In any event, I'm sorry for being a downer.

That said, here's this weeks update:

I was down with a migraine for three days. All those storms down south were wreaking havoc with the barometric pressure and my skull. I did discover that I eat a lot more when I'm hurting. As if that might help. And it's all sugary, caffeine-laden stuff.

I only worked out a couple times last week as I was still babying that sore calf. It seems fully healed now.

I lost all the weight I had gained last week. I didn't count my calories every day, but I did a better job of watching my portions (after the migraine was gone.) Goal is still 1500-1800 a day.

So, this weeks plan:

• Keep calories 1500-1800 per day.
• Walk or Yoga three days.
• Strength train two days.

Onward.