Worst New Blogger Ever

So you may have noticed I haven't been the best at blogging this week.  Yea, pretty much I suck.  I have had a few eating issues - but I have doubled my resolve.  I know that I need to step it up with my willpower.  As usual, I got really off my game when I noticed that I hadn't lost anything in a week.  I guess it was just so frustrating that I just allowed myself to slip a few times.  That is what happened last year - I noticed the scale wasn't moving so I just figured I should give up.  However, I am glad I saw that pattern starting to emerge and now I am back on the grind making sure that I don't keep up with my bad habits.  Also, I can start my walking again since some health stuff that was preventing it has pretty much cleared up.  Pretty exciting.  I know what I ate didn't do any damage to my weight loss up to now, however, I don't want to keep down the path.  I'm getting up, dusting myself off and getting back on the pony.  I'm going to do my usual routine of looking at inspirational quotes, checking out some weight loss message boards and check out pinterest for recipes that are  healthy and low in calories.

Now Playing: Averi - Empty Pages

Dinner:  Spaghetti

Trying to find balance with working/eating

So there have been a few days recently where I have had a hard time finding a balance where eating is concerned.  When I had a full day of travel (left at 7:30am returned at 11:00pm) I had to eat all meals out of the house.  Boy, I often make wrong decisions.  That is an old habit and one I intend to change.  I am going to work hard to eat healthier "on the go" and learn to pack healthy snacks in my bag so I don't get tempted by the first food that I see.

Bad Day

So I had my first bad day.  I got on the scale today to no movement.  I have been consistently under my calorie goal everyday - some days significantly.  I know that it is impossible for that to have happened.  However, I do see some changes in my clothes -- a looser fit, they look better.  It is frustrating to work hard on eating properly and then see nothing.  So today I fell off the wagon a bit.  I had fast food... twice.  It wasn't my best day; however, I knew I needed a break.  So I am at least being up front and honest - both by logging my food (for the people on my tracking site to see) and telling the three people who check my blog here.  Well, I'm back on the wagon tomorrow and its not like I had a billion extra calories.

Now Playing - watching Homeland on Showtime
Dinner - it was London Broil and a baked potato

Shad Planking - And its NOT a Recipe!

Ok.  So today is one of my favorite days of the year - Shad Planking.  See, professionally, I work in politics.  Here in Virginia, every spring the Wakefield Ruritan Club hosts a "Shad Planking".  Basically, they cook Shad on wooden planks for everyone to eat and socialize.  However, that description does not even begin to describe the event.  For the most part, it is an out and out competition to see who has the best representation for their political campaign that year.  This year, her in the Commonwealth of Virginia we have a US Senate race between two former governors - George Allen (R) and Tim Kaine (D).  Also, we are like electing a President (#teamRomney) and Congresspeople and whatnot.  So basically, the thought is to go and put up large signs and little yard signs on the road leading down to the actual event.  In prior years, we have gone days ahead and gotten locations and permission to put signs up and it is a two-day event for those of us working.  You don't sleep because you have to defend your signs and you spend hours putting up literally THOUSANDS of signs.  It's crazy.  Luckily, that won't happen for me again until next year when my boss will be running for Governor.  This year we are going to have our usual presence - including our famous Hot Dogs. The idea is that different candidates and organizations bring different things to serve -- both food and adult beverages.  You get piled with stickers and get to have a great time and talk politics with people.  So much fun.  Check out this site to see coverage on Sean Hannity's show in 2009.  Oh and my guy won that year :)

Now Playing - People speaking at the Shad Planking (totally a scheduled post)
Dinner  - Not sure - hopefully healthy!

Long days, good decisions

Tonight was rough.  I had a the biggest meeting that I was responsible for working on tonight and I have been doing bunches of stuff for it for a couple of weeks.  It wasn't going to be the best outcome, but we knew that and just wanted to mitigate our losses.  It turned out better than I had hoped (at least so far).  However, it meant another late night and me coming home starving.  I knew what I was going to have (mostly).  It was there and I just for some reason wanted fast food.  I know most of you don't know me, but that is my weakness.  I love a cheeseburger and fries or a chicken sandwich or whatever else you can get by talking to that board.  It was the first time I really considered just eating whatever I wanted in the house and just dealing with it later.  I think I am beginning to be a little put off since some of my medical issues are becoming a bit of a problem and keeping me from my walks, but I just decided today I am just going to still walk but slower and less time.  I miss it.  So at least at the end of the day, I ate my healthy dinner and called it a day.  I didn't have any unhealthy snack and I didn't hightail it to McDonalds or Wendy's.  Little victories like that keep me going - although it may seem like nothing to the normal person, to me its a big deal.

Now Playing:  Taylor Swift - Breathe
Dinner:  Grilled, bone-in pork chop, ear of corn and rice (yum!)

Importance of Logging

So, I guess it can be annoying to some - but I log everything I eat.  By log, I mean I enter it in and track my calories.  It is what keeps me on track.  I am competitive by nature, so I try to make sure I stay below my daily calorie goal of 1500 calories a day.  Surprisingly, it is pretty easy to eat that much and stay full.  Also, you realize that before logging the food you would eat is crazy.  I think back to getting a large Dr. Pepper with a meal.  That would equal a whooping 1,000 calories.  There are days (not many) when I don't eat that many calories a day, much less have a drink containing that many.  Or the fact that my favorite burrito at Taco Bell is about 846 calories.  Pair that with the taco that would come along at 142 calories.  So in one meal I would be eating over 2,000 calories.  Today, that just blows my mind.  I'm sure there will be days where I blow my calorie goal - but it seems crazy to eat like that.  It isn't really even that yummy.  I think my meals are much better tasting and allow me to eat more throughout the day and pretty much always be content.

Now Playing:  nothing - just the sound of my fan :)
Dinner:  I had a salad and chicken breast w/ Carribean Jerk marinade

What exactly are my goals?

Why am I getting healthy?  Is there a reason?  What are my goals?

These are questions that I often find me asking myself.  The first two are super easy.  Why am I getting healthy?  Well, after having some medical problems, I realized that I needed to make some big changes.  Did anyone tell me to make these changes?  Nope, not at all.  Maybe they should have - but people can be so PC these days. I figure getting some weight off will help me that's for sure.  Really, more than that I want to feel good about myself.  I am pretty outgoing and I never have a problem making friends or meeting people.  My biggest problem is myself.  I am pretty hard on myself and feel that changing and starting a healthy lifestyle will be something to help me appreciate myself.  It's really amazing how a lot of people can think so highly of you or you can have a bunch of friends, but when it comes down to liking yourself you can fall short.  In fact, I have noticed how it has effected my life.  It also has begun to make some anxiety issues that I have come to the surface more often.  For instance, I don't like crowds or big groups of people.  I know this seems crazy with my job - but its different.  It hasn't really had any effect on that.  However, I can't go to places that have a lot of people.  For instance, we have a Walmart near our house, but this afternoon I wouldn't dream of going there.  Way too many people.  I don't like going to crowded places and will avoid them in fact.  I am hoping that just improving my overall health will start changing this.

The harder question to answer is about my goals.  I don't have a "number" goal or anything like that.  I just want to be more healthy.  It's important to me to reduce my weight - but I try not to set up too big of a goal because I know that will just frustrate me because of my nature to be an overachiever.  However, I have a lot of little goals.  Right now, I want to be able to walk further than I did this week (and will be adding an additional lap to my daily walks), I want to go down a size in my pants (although I am fitting in to a size smaller than I was before already), I want to continue to make healthy food choices (despite having Chipotle for lunch today).  Furthermore, I don't think I ever want to reach a "goal".  I want to make a lifestyle change.  I love the way I feel after a nice, brisk 2 mile walk.  I am so proud that I can make myself do that - I don't need someone to do it with me or make me do it.  My highlight of this week was that I knew I had to be out one night that I needed to make sure I walked so I got up early and did that.  Seriously, I wouldn't normally have done that.  Just getting out there and doing that on my own made me so proud.  I love how it feels to make a healthy food choice instead of falling back on unhealthy food choices.  I know that I will have days where I don't eat right or I over indulge.  It's life.  But what I have learned is that one bad meal doesn't mean the end of trying.  I just log it (like I do everyday) and keep going.  Luckily, I don't usually go over my calorie limit (even if I mess up) so I don't sweat it too much.

So what are your goals?  What spurred your decision to get healthy?

Now Playing - Hey Stephen - Taylor Swift (I'm in a kick!)
Dinner - Probably a salad again.  Or a 1/2 turkey, 1/2 ground beef burger.