Pyro's Page of Passions and Penchants

Current Weight: 170.5 pounds
Weight Gain: .5 pounds
TOTAL LOSS: 16.5 pounds

Calories Burned: 913 calories
Calorie Deficit: 6 weeks plus 359 calories

Considering the fact that we were out of town the entire weekend and my sister-in-law cooked like a fiend, I’m lucky I didn’t gain more weight than I did. I tried to be good, but even if you hold back on portions, there just isn’t anything low-calorie about homemade baked ziti. Sure was tasty, though! YUM!

We packed up our running gear and actually completed Week Six Day One of C25K while on vacation. I was surprised when the heart rate monitor said I burned about 20 more calories than I usually burn in a single workout, but according to Carl the neighborhood we were running in was lass flat than our own neighborhood which means we spent half the workout running uphill. I didn’t really notice the incline, but I like the 20 calorie bonus. We tried to run fairly early in the day before the heat got too high, but by the end of our workout, the temperatures were already starting to make things uncomfortable. I’m guessing we’ll opt to run indoors if the heat gets too severe this summer since neither one of us wants to drop dead from heat exhaustion. Exercise isn’t really that good for you when it endangers your life.

Today is the first day my knees have started to bother me. I’ve been pretty good about not striking the ground hard with my heel and trying to not bounce so much when I run, but my knees are a little sore today. I’m hoping it will go away, but I’m not going to take any painkillers if I can help it because I don’t want to mask the pain and ignore any potential damage I might be doing. It’s not a sharp pain but more of a dull ache and it seems to respond favorably to my rubbing right above the kneecap as I’m sitting down. If there are any experienced runners out there or any orthopedic specialists out there who might be reading this and can give me any advice, feel free to weigh in because I certainly don’t want to cause any irreversible damage to my knees in my efforts to get fit. Again, exercise isn’t beneficial if it winds up causing more harm than good. Suggestions on how to treat the symptom of pain will be less useful to me than recommendations on how to avoid the pain in the first place, however, so if your advice is to take copious amounts of ibuprofin and ignore the warnings my body is trying to give me, then thanks but no thanks.

On Friday we are slated to run for 25 minutes straight. As long as my knees don’t cause me any severe pain, I think I’m ready to do it. Wow, I can’t believe I just said that. Well, it’s true. This couch potato is ready to run… after a day’s recovery, that is. ;)

Current Weight: 170 pounds
Weight Lost: 1.5 pounds
TOTAL LOSS: 17 pounds

Calories Burned: 1174 calories
Calorie Deficit: 6 weeks plus 272 calories

I finally broke 1000 calories this week, but that’s only because we rode our bikes for 45 minutes last Sunday. Still, I’m pleased that the calorie deficit has been reduced ever so slightly. I’ve also seen continued progress on the weight loss, which is also very encouraging. I’m hoping to continue these trends even as we head into the long weekend holiday. Our C25K program is going amazingly well. This week we will have our first really long running sequence without a walking break in the middle and I’m a bit anxious to see how we will do with it. I know our fitness levels have been improving, especially Carl’s (I’m having trouble keeping up with him sometimes), but 20 minutes seems like a really long time to run non-stop. The most we’ve run non-stop so far has been 8 minutes and it doesn’t take a brilliant mathematician to figure out that 20 minutes is a LOT longer than 8 minutes. I don’t want to psych myself out too much before we actually try to run it, but this might be a make-it-or-break-it moment for me. So far we haven’t repeated any of the workout sessions and have progressed fairly smoothly from one day to the next but as much as I don’t want to ruin our perfect record I also don’t want to collapse from a heart attack either. As Adam Savage says, “Failure is always an option,” but I guarantee any failures I may experience in this endeavor should be temporary as I intend to complete this program and to continue running regularly. We already found an alternate location to run indoors on days when the weather isn’t cooperating (we’re just not dedicated enough to run outside in foul weather) and are considering when we might want to start working on the 5K210K program (right after C25K? at the end of summer? next spring?). Working out together is great and even though I don’t have enough breath to engage in conversation while we’re running, it’s much nicer exercising together than separately. The numbers from this past week do show, however, that I need to get to a fitness level where I can still engage in other forms of exercise on days when I’m not running if I’m ever going to get back to burning 1000 calories every single week. Even after ramping up the duration of our run sequences, I still can’t manage to burn 334 calories in a single workout - and believe me, I am definitely working as hard as I’m able and still have the energy to finish. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to run today since my right knee was bothering me all day yesterday, but when I woke up this morning, everything felt fine and even now I’m not feeling any pain after running today. Still, I think I’m still at a level where I’m really needing my days off for recovery, so I’m laying low and hoping that maybe the occasional extra workout activity will be enough to keep my calorie deficit from getting significantly bigger than it already is.

Calorie counting has been relatively successful, but once again, I’m starting to get tired of the same choices over and over. Of course there will be much more selection once we’re ready to start cooking at home full time but unfortunately eating out is still a very necessary part of our schedule right now. As I mentioned before, knowing the calorie content of a restaurant meal and actually being able to consume that meal without blowing your caloires are two very different things. I’m pretty sure I ate a much healthier meal at Pita Inn (where they have no nutritional information available whatsoever) than I did at Culver’s (where virtually every single menu item has nutritional information available). That’s not to say that I din’t make an effort to eat well at either restaurant, but it does make staying on target a little harder - especially when you’re craving variety. No way was I going to say “No” to Pita Inn just because they didn’t publish numbers! After eating the same choices over and over (salads, grilled chicken, brothy soups), a plate of hummus and chicken shwarma was EXACTLY what I needed, regardless of the calorie content. We’ve finally gotten around to cooking some garbanzos, so homemade hummus and some lovely grilled chicken and veggies are in my not-too-distant future! Mmm!

We finally have a plan for reorganizing our kitchen to maximize efficiency and improve our chances of being able to eat in on a more regular basis. It’s hard to cook on a tight schedule when you can’t find things, can’t reach things (more my problem than Carl’s), and have no place to put stuff while you’re working on a recipe. Maybe I’ll post a picture of how everything looks when we finally get it organized. Right now it’s all a disaster; I’m not even going to post a “Before” picture; it’s too embarrassing. Suffice to say, nobody can cook in our kitchen efficiently as it stands now, so any improvements we make will have a huge impact on us even if the changes themselves are small. We’ll keep you posted.

That’s all for now. Gotta run! (Not literally, of course; we already did that today.)

Current Weight: 171.5 pounds
Weight Lost: 2 pounds
TOTAL LOSS: 15.5 pounds

Calories Burned: 719 calories
Calorie Deficit: 6 weeks plus 446 calories

At long last the scale is starting to reflect all of our hard work! Two pounds does seem a bit much to lose at once, but considering how long I’ve been stuck in this holding pattern, I’m glad to just see weight starting to come off again. It also helps that I only took one day off from counting calories instead of two days off. I can’t do too much damage in a single day, but apparently an entire weekend is just enough time to completely undo all my work. The best part is that I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself… well, maybe a little, but nobody should get used to eating Culver’s custard on an almost daily basis so I’m just going to have to adjust. Carl has found a way to make individual-size blueberry pies using itty bitty jelly jars (I think they’re a 1/2 cup capacity) so whenever I have enough calories left (around 400) and I’m craving a really good dessert, I can enjoy homemade blueberry pie without going overboard. I’ve also given up on eating breakfast. I know conventional wisdom says you should always eat breakfast but frankly all it does is force me to eat when I’m not hungry and use up precious calories that I could be applying to a really nice lunch and dinner. If I eat 200 calories worth of breakfast, I have to make certain my other two meals are 500 calories or less - and that’s assuming I can eat only 200 calories for breakfast. Most cold cereals are at least 190 calories per minuscule serving without the milk. Add milk and a cup of coffee and even a minimal breakfast winds up costing me over 300 calories, bumping my remaining meals to 400 calories or less. I’d rather skip breakfast altogether and then eat a nice hearty lunch of around 500-600 calories (700 if we have to eat out) and still have a decent amount left for dinner and possibly dessert. I’m sorry, but I’m no longer buying the hype: Breakfast is NOT the most important meal of the day.

Our C25K is going extremely well. We’ve started Week Four and so far we’re feeling pretty good. The calories burn is significantly higher now that we’re running for longer intervals and since we even had enough energy to go for a bike ride on Sunday, I may actually make my 1000 calorie benchmark this week. I’m still waiting for the “runner’s high” to kick in; I’ve felt those endorphins before after I’ve done Spinning for a half hour or more, so maybe I’ll just have to wait until I’m actually capable of running for the entire 30 minutes without stopping. Right now I guess I’ll settle for not feeling completely wiped out and still being able to breathe by the end of our workout. I can’t say that I actually enjoy the physical act of running, but then again, I’m not especially keen on any physical activity. I do achieve a great sense of accomplishment every time we successfully finish a run, so I guess that will have to qualify as “enjoyment” for now. Maybe I will get to a point where I really do like running the way I like other activities, but at this point I’d say it is a major development that I don’t hate running and that I like it at least as much as I’ve ever liked any particular form of exercise. I especially like that Carl and I can do it together. ;)

The veggie garden is this close to getting put in. I can’t wait to start eating fresh veggies from our own garden, but I think we’re still a ways off from that. The cucumber plants are already producing small cucumbers, so hopefully in a month or so we will have fresh cucumbers and homemade pickles in the making. We missed the window for sowing lettuce outdoors, but we’re going to try growing lettuce downstairs in the basement where the temperature will stay cool enough to keep the plants from getting bitter. I think fresh homemade salads will be a fantastic way to keep our calories in check.

Current Weight: 173.5 pounds
Weight Lost: .5 pounds
TOTAL LOSS: 13.5 pounds

Calories Burned: 802 calories
Calorie Deficit: 5 weeks plus 727 calories

Despite the fact that the C25K program repeatedly kicks my a**, I’m not able to hit my 1000 calorie mark without extra exercise. This would not be a problem except that I don’t have any extra energy to exercise with on my “recovery days” - not all that surprising when you consider how the C25K program was developed. The people who designed this thing knew how much novice runners would need time off from running (and other strenuous activity) to build up their stamina and so far my body does seem to be taking well to the conditioning. Today I actually ran for 3 minutes straight. Twice. And nobody was chasing me. And I didn’t collapse in a heap at the end of our driveway when we were finished. This is HUGE, people. I honestly wasn’t even sure if I was going to get through the program today when I looked at the itinerary before we headed out this morning. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t impossible either. The calorie count for all this exertion, however is pretty disappointing: 260 calories total. If the trend of gradually diminishing calorie expenditure continues, I’ll be lucky to break 700 calories by the end of the week. That will put me at a rough 6-week deficit, which is extremely depressing but I see no way out of it. Maybe I’ll find a second wind at some point this week and be able to squeeze in some Xbox or some Spinning, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’ve finally reversed the weight trend from Gain to Loss, but the yield was considerably smaller than I’d hoped. I began tracking calories again last week and all the numbers were good, but we sort of took the weekend off and I suspect I undid a lot of the progress I made during the week last week. We’re back to our weekly routine now, so I will once again be tracking every bite that goes into my mouth. We’re also starting to attack the reorganization of our kitchen in earnest with an aggressive “catalog and containment” strategy that will hopefully help us figure out what we have and how best to store it for easy access. I wish we had thousands of dollars just sitting around so we could completely redesign our kitchen with a better cabinet configuration but we don’t, so we’ll just have to make what we have work for us.

I guess our next step towards sustainable change will be reconfiguring our daily routine once the activities associated with the current school year wind down. Of course, our summer starts ramping up right after Memorial Day with rehearsals for the Bristol Renaissance Faire followed by what will be the 25th Anniversary season (and Jezzie’s 9th - can you believe it? I can’t!), but we are both committed to not letting Faire completely derail our progress the way it did last year. We need to find a way to make fitness and Faire work together because we can’t let our fitness goals go down the drain as our summer whizzes by us in a whirlpool of lost opportunities. This year will be different from last year; we will make progress!

Current Weight: 174 pounds
Weight Lost/Gained: 0 pounds
TOTAL LOSS: 13 pounds

Calories Burned (Week 14): 251 calories
Calories Burned (Week 15): 954 calories
Calorie Deficit:        5 weeks plus 529 calories

I guess I should have figured that even brisk walking wasn’t going to burn nearly enough calories to reach my 1000 calories-a-week goal, but I really felt like I needed to get back into exercising in a gradual way because frankly I was really out of shape compared to where I was before the schedule got totally crazy. It’s amazing how quickly my fitness level plummets when I don’t exercise regularly. It takes me so long to achieve a passable fitness level in terms of stamina and strength but it only takes a week or so without exercise to go right back to being sluggish and weak. Yet another example of how unfair our bodies can be to us, I suppose. We have taken a big step towards really making exercise a part of our daily routine, however. We have started running before lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Yep, I said we were going to do it and we have now both completed Week One of C25K. I was surprised that I still managed to fall short of my 1000 calories this past week, especially considering how hard Day One was for the both of us to complete. We bit the bullet and didn’t squelch on any of our 8 60-second run sequences, but our lungs were burning by the time we got home. It certainly felt like we were burning more calories than the heart rate monitor said we were, but not only did I fail to burn over 350 calories on any given run session, the amount of calories actually decreased as the week progressed. I guess the conditioning part of the program really works since my body seems to be adjusting to the routine fairly well. I doubt that every week will culminate in not wanting to completely collapse the minute the stopwatch says we’re finished, but the results of Week One are encouraging. I can’t say that I’m converting into a Religious Runner by any stretch, but so far I don’t hate running as much I was afraid I would, and that’s saying a lot.

I blame Physical Education class for my lifelong hatred of running. Every year they made us run a mile with no training or conditioning whatsoever and recorded the time it took each of us to complete the mile. As an adult I am capable of walking a mile in about 20-25 minutes, depending on the terrain, but as a small child with decidedly shorter legs than everyone else in the class, that mile seemed endless. Add the fact that was extremely overweight and had severe allergies and asthma that made breathing even harder than it had to be under the best of circumstances and you can see how it might take me more than 30-40 minutes to finish that stupid mile. I’ve never been able to understand why they have so many different achievement levels for academic classes but when it came to Phys Ed it was always one-size-fits-all. Talk about setting a kid up for failure on a regular basis! Sadly, the feelings of perpetual failure I experienced in those Phys Ed classes have followed me throughout my life and I can only hope and pray that future generations will have the advantage of revamped programs that emphasize consistent effort and personal improvement over benchmark standards and athletic competition, but judging from the current obesity epidemic I’m guessing today’s school kids are learning to hate gym class - and by extension, all exercise - just as much as I did. So tragic!

I have not yet gotten back to recording my calorie intake again, mostly because our schedule has kept us from eating at home lately. I know there are lots of restaurants that are posting calorie counts these days, but frankly the number of restaurants that publish numbers AND have entrees that have low enough calorie counts for me to stay within my requirements is extremely low. Knowing how many calories are in a slice of Giordano’s pizza doesn’t help me stay within my limits; it just helps me feel especially guilty for every bite that goes into my mouth. As long as takeout and fast-food are still mainstays of our diet, numbers only serve to make me feel bad about wanting to eat food and that’s not any healthier than the less-than-perfect food choices I’ve been making lately. The light at the end of the tunnel has been spotted, though, so we are going to try to make a concerted effort to start recording calories again starting this week. Making certain we have healthy at-home options on the days we run together will help to reinforce the good habits; piggybacking one good habit on top of another has always been a good strategy for us. Here’s to a promising May!

Current Weight: 174 pounds
Weight Gained: 4 pounds
TOTAL LOSS: 13 pounds

Calories Burned: 786 calories
Calorie Deficit: about 4 weeks (4000 calories) plus 734 calories from previous carryover

When the insanity of work overcame me, I basically dropped all weight loss/fitness efforts in order to concentrate on getting my work done. I know some folks would say that’s no excuse, but it really is. I know there are a lot of people counting on me to finish my Will-ness Goals, but there were literally THOUSANDS of people depending on me to format and print all those worship aids for Triduum, Easter, Confirmation, and a never-ending stream of funerals. I’d estimate I formatted and printed approximately 4500 worship aids within the past few weeks. Lots of people would send out a job like that, but I did them all in-house all by myself. Considering all the stress eating I did when the photocopier broke, I’m surprised I didn’t gain more, although averaging a pound a week is a pretty alarming rate of weight gain that really needs to be reversed PRONTO.

I’ve already taken steps to increase my physical activity again - literally. Carl and I walked for 30 minutes on Monday and walked again for 30 minutes today. We’ll walk again on Friday and next week we plan on starting the Couch to 5K program (or Ease Into 5K, one or the other). Yep, we’re going to start running. I know I said before that I would never consider running unless somebody was chasing me, but I feel I will see better results and make progress a lot faster if Carl and I exercise together and this is an activity we can certainly do together. The Kinect sensor has a hard time seeing both of us at the same time, we only have one elliptical machine (which makes my knees hurt, so I won’t use it regardless), and even when we go biking, we ride in tandem and so there isn’t much interaction until we actually reach our destination; plus, cycling is hard on Carl’s wrists and he just can’t go for very long distances unless he’s on a recumbent - which he doesn’t currently own. So we’re going to try running. We don’t need a lot of expensive equipment or a gym membership and we should be able to fit in a half an hour workout during the lunch hour and still have enough time to eat a sandwich before going back to work.

We’re also getting back to eating in after a long string of rushed restaurant meals, many of which were fast food. The alternative to eating fast food was usually eating past 10:00pm after rehearsals were finished, which wasn’t a great option either. Now that things have slowed down a bit and we’re not frantically rushing to make connections, we can take a little more time to actually make a meal and eat it instead of gulping something down on our way to the next service/rehearsal/Mass/lesson/whatever.

So here’s the plan:

[1] Get back to counting calories and start recording meals faithfully again.
[2] Reset the Calories Burned and effectively add 5 weeks onto the end since the chances of me burning an extra 4734 calories over the next few days - or even weeks - is absurd.

I know I’ve fallen off the wagon many times before, but I think the important thing is that I keep climbing back on. This time is no different. I refuse to let one crazy month derail my efforts permanently. I know I’m further away from my goal than I was a couple of months ago, but I’ve lost the weight before and I know I can do it again if I really concentrate on it. Wish me luck!

I’m guessing one should never attempt a weigh-in the day after they pig out at a birthday party, but I did it anyway. It could be worse, but it isn’t good.

Current Weight: 170 pounds
Weekly Gain: 1.5 pounds
TOTAL LOSS: 17 pounds

Calories Burned: 998 calories (so close!)
Calorie Deficit (including carry-over from 2 weeks ago): 520 calories

I’ve already begun my “penance” by working out this morning, burning 440 calories in one session. I know I overdid it yesterday, but Kevin made a really yummy homemade chili for Maria’s birthday party and I just couldn’t restrain myself. Once I finished off the second bowl, there was no turning back. I also ate birthday cake, jam tartlets, apple slices with caramel, a sloppy joes sandwich, grapes, cheese cubes, “Cheesy Pickle Poofs,” and a glass of cola. Yeah, I know. I’ve never done particularly well at potlucks, especially when the food is really tasty. It’s actually one of the reasons we don’t go to all-you-can-eat salad bars like Sweet Tomatoes anymore. We think we’re eating so healthy by loading up on salad, but in reality every time we go there I overeat like crazy! All of the prepared salads, soups, salad dressings, breads, and other assorted foodstuffs are very high in salt and calories. It doesn’t take much to ratchet up the calorie intake fast. That plate of fresh veggies becomes a diet-killer the minute you put a tablespoon of salad dressing and a piece of focaccia with it. Multiply that by 2 or 3 plates - because veggies don’t have enough fat content to make you feel full, so you have to go back for more - and you’ve managed to eat an entire day’s calories in one sitting. I won’t even come near places like Old Country Buffet or Golden Corral. It’s like handing a heroin addict a box of needles and sending them into a drug den.

In spite of the decided lack of progress on the scale, I’ve had multiple compliments lately about how I’m looking slimmer these days. I guess all the working out is paying off regardless of whether or not the pounds are coming off or not. I know the ultimate goal is to raise my activity level enough to jumpstart my metabolism so I won’t have to starve myself in order to lose the weight, but there have been a few days where I just haven’t had the energy to do anything. Ironically, I think my lack of regular exercise is contributing to the malaise. I just read Nikki’s blog post about Tribal Massive and one of the phrases that struck me was Zoe’s mantra: “Show up and do the work - every day.” I think that needs to be my personal mantra, too. Even if I can only manage enough energy to burn 100 calories, the workout will still be worthwhile because it might help me get out of this physical malaise I’m in and start getting my energy up for the busy weeks ahead. I’d like to be able to come home from Faire this summer and not be so exhausted that I only get half of what I want to accomplish finished the next day. I’ve already cut my participation back to only one day a weekend instead of two; I really can’t justify cutting back any more than that and still consider myself a participant. I need to reclaim my health, and yes, weight loss is a big part of that, but I need to focus on strength and energy as well. Being skinny won’t do me any good if I have no energy and I feel weak and tired all the time. So I’m hoping that tomorrow I will be able to drag my lazy butt out of bed and start exercising even if it’s isn’t a very long session because every little bit helps. And if my jeans fit better because of it - bonus!

Just when I was all caught up, scheduling and illness conspired against me. Two steps forward, three steps back.

Current Weight: 168.5 pounds
Net Loss since last posting: 1 pound
TOTAL LOSS: 18.5 pounds

Calories Burned (Week 6): 301 calories - major FAIL
Calories Burned (Week 7): 1181 calories

Migraines, nausea, and 4 days of funerals completely derailed my exercise train in Week 6. Here I was, finally caught up with my exercise, and I didn’t even manage to get to the halfway mark. Now I am 518 calories behind, but hopefully I can make up the difference quickly enough. I’ve been able to really crank up the intensity on my last few workouts, so if I can fit at least three more super-intense workouts in this coming week, I can get back on track. Thankfully I haven’t suffered as many aches and pains from my workouts as I have in the past, making it easier to work out on consecutive days without being too tired or too sore to work out effectively. Considering how difficult it can be to fit in any kind of workout, it really helps that I no longer seem to require a day off in between every single session.

Lately I’ve had a lot of migraines, followed by a lot of nausea. Sometimes the migraines themselves cause the nausea and sometimes the medication I take to fight the migraines causes nausea. In either case, my head feels like it’s going to explode and the least amount of motion makes me fell like I’m going to hurl. This is not conducive to an effective exercise routine or a particularly healthy diet. Friday night’s dinner, for example, consisted of 10 ounces of ginger ale and 13 saltine crackers - and I’m lucky I managed to keep that down. I’ve spent a lot of time lying completely still in a dark room with a pillow over my head instead of engaging in vigorous exercise, so my weight loss progress has understandably stalled. I know I’m not the only one suffering from migraines lately; it seems this has been a really bad season for them and so many of my friends are suffering right along with me. I wish there was just one single trigger I could point to and say, “Aha! That’s what causing the headaches! Now I can avoid it!” Unfortunately, it just isn’t that simple and most of the time I have absolutely no idea what brings the headaches on. The only pattern I’ve been able to discern definitively is that the last 3 times we went to eat at Sun Shui (formerly our favorite Chinese restaurant) I get a migraine within half an hour of eating their food. I’ve come to the conclusion that they are probably using MSG, a known migraine trigger, in their food and so now we no longer eat there. I don’t know why it took two years before this pattern emerged; perhaps they’ve only started using MSG or perhaps now that I have significantly lowered my salt intake I am more susceptible to it than I was before. In any case, I ate three different items off their menu and got a migraine every time, so we’ve employed the “three strikes rule” and are searching for a new Chinese restaurant.

If I can’t get the headaches under control, I may have to consider maintenance meds, which is really a last resort tactic because most of these maintenance-type drugs are anti-convulsives with a list of possible side effects as long as your arm. If you forget to take a dose, bad things can happen and admittedly I’m not very good about not skipping doses of all the meds I’m already supposed to be taking on a regular basis. Still, I can’t keep taking time out from my life to curl into a ball and be miserable every few hours. Something has to change and I’m hoping that continued improvements in diet and exercise will do the trick. If I can’t change it, maybe something beyond my control will change (the weather, maybe?) and the situation will get better. If not... well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Happy Not-So-Fat Tuesday, y’all!

Current Weight: 169.5 pounds
Weekly Loss: 1.5 pounds
TOTAL LOSS: 17.5 pounds

Calories Burned: 1107 calories

I’m finally back under 170 pounds and I am now officially “caught up” on all those missed calories. It really feels good to be completely back on track!

Tomorrow Lent starts, so it will be easier for me to not pig out since almost everyone I know will be restraining themselves calorically as well. However, things are starting to get very busy and it will be a challenge to continue to find the time and the energy to keep working out at the high level of activity that have been engaging in. Last night, I worked out for an hour and burned 527 calories, and last Friday I burned 458 calories in only 50 minutes. While an hour doesn’t seem like a long time to exercise, the time it takes to set up, change clothes, start the hear rate monitor, and then clean up and log my workout after I’m done makes that single hour turn into almost twice that amount in terms of my overall schedule. It wouldn’t be any faster if I went to the gym: commuting, parking, changing clothes, finding a good spot in class, taking class, cleaning up, showering, and getting out of the parking lot was never less than a 2.5 - 3 hour affair when I had the Gold’s Gym membership. If anything, exercising at home has made it a lot easier even though I don’t have the space to set anything up permanently. I can literally roll out of bed, throw on my gym clothes, lay down the exercise mat, turn on the Xbox, and start working out in less time than it would take to drive to the gym. Then I can hop in my own shower and get dressed in my own bedroom and not have to stand in line for a hair dryer or worry about what horrible foot fungus I might catch if I don’t wear flip flops. Still, there are days where I feel I don’t even have enough time for a quick 30 minute workout and those are the days I’m really going to have to either [A] buckle down and make the time that day, or [B] plan ahead and schedule myself for an extra long and/or intense workout on a different day that week to make up for not being able to work out that day. As it is, I’m averaging about 3 to 4 workouts a week - roughly every other day - but that nice neat schedule may need to be tweaked. If I can just continue to stay on track with my calorie-burning goal, I will be very happy and I’m certain that with regular exercise, the pounds will come off slowly but surely.

The latest addition to our Xbox Kinect game collection is “Power Up Heroes.” This game was developed by the same company (Ubisoft) that made “Your Shape: Fitness Evolved” and “Child of Eden.” The concept is right out of a comic book: an evil entity called Malignance has distributed alien power emitters to corruptible humans in an attempt to build an army to take over the earth. His nemesis, Volta, has made the ultimate sacrifice by crash landing on the earth and giving you his power emitter which turns you into a super hero. Your job is to fight the evil minions, and ultimately Malignance himself, using a combination of super powers and hand-to-hand combat. It’s a very physical game with lots of punching, kicking, dodging, and other physical gestures that wind up giving you a pretty intense workout. I also found it very useful for working out frustrations. Sometimes you just want to hit something (or someone) and beating up virtual bad guys is always preferable to hurting an actual human being or damaging an actual object. My arms are completely worn out from last night’s gaming, but I have no regrets given the extreme satisfaction I had of literally pounding all of my frustrations with the past few days into the ground. I don’t think I’ll be doing any weight lifting in the near future, however. That will have to wait at least a couple of days. ;)

Things are finally moving in the right direction on the scale!  YAY!

Current Weight: 171 pounds
Weekly Loss: 2 pounds
TOTAL LOSS: 16 pounds

Calories Burned: 969 calories

A little short, but not by much.  If I add the 68 calories from 2 weeks ago, I'm 99 calories shy of being completely caught up, but I am keeping track of every calorie.  If I could just keep those nasty migraine headaches from springing up on me, I might have a easier time sticking to an exercise routine.  It's not an excuse, just an explanation and reassurance that I'm not just slacking off.  We bought "Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012" for the Xbox Kinect last week and it is really kicking me in the a**.  HARD.  All of the routines are a lot more intense than they were in the original game and now that I am past the beginner levels on most of the exercises, I am routinely burning 325-350 calories per workout, so I should be able to make up those missing calories pretty quickly as long as I am in any condition to workout at all.

This week is turning out to be very busy; working out on Wednesday and Thursday are out of the question since I won't even be home until after 10:00pm both nights.  By that time, all I want to do is go to bed and sleep.  The chances of me working out in the morning before going in to work are unlikely since I am not a morning person and, again, I need to be awake and functional during the late evening and as such I will try to get as much sleep in the morning as possible.  I'll be doing well to make my 1000 calories this week, never mind the extra 99 calories from the weeks I fell short.  I foresee some MAJOR workout sessions in my not-too-distant future to get myself caught up and back on track.

Part of the getting-back-on-track plan has come to fruition already: our indoor greenhouse for starting seeds is ready for me to start planting!  We were going to build something fancy that would be compact and minimize space and have all the wiring built-in to minimize cords running everywhere, etc., but time was running out and we went with quick, sturdy, and easy.  The end result does take up considerably more room than what we had originally designed and there will be cords zip-tied in place all over the structure, but our vegetables will get the head start they need to yield a harvest this summer/fall and that's more important than an economical design.  We basically put up a 2' X 4' X 6' utility shelving unit with moveable shelves and suspended some full-spectrum fluorescent shop lights across the length of the unit.  We replaced the bottoms of two of the shelves with a plastic lens like what they use in troffer lights so that there would be a physical barrier between the plants and the light fixtures themselves.  I found two years ago that if you don't have a barrier in place, your vining plants will grow overnight and wrap themselves around the bulbs.  Then you have the task of trying to separate the cucumbers from the light fixture without breaking the mercury-filled bulbs - not fun.  All of the lights are plugged into a power strip with an integrated timer so it will turn on and off automatically.  If we find the temperature in our basement is too low, we figure we can wrap the outside of the plant shelves with plastic to keep heat in, leaving the spaces where the lights are open so moisture doesn't get in and short the lights.  Once it's all up and running, I'll take a picture so everyone can see our quick and easy set-up, but first I have to get the seeds planted (hopefully this afternoon)!