The power of determination

I'm kinda misfiring a lot here on the workouts. I didn't do yoga last night. I worked right through it. I got to bed and fast asleep by 10 last night, but I still couldn't get out of bed for my morning workout. I'm having some severe sleep issues. I should not be needing as much sleep as I'm getting and it still feels like not enough. I really can't imagine I'm still knocked back from the strep seeing as I've been symptom free for almost a week and on antibiotics for more than that.

Regardless, I'm determined to have a good weigh-in as evidenced by my extremely disciplined tracking, planning and follow-through on eating. I've been on point with that all week and feel absolutely no inkling that cart will sway me this evening. I will not be denied. Will I work out tonight? I don't know. I really want to, but given my track record this week I honestly don't know. I owe it to myself, though because it's just retarded to be working so hard on the nutrition side and be so neglectful on the activity side. So, here's to getting back on the horse. Er... elliptical.

...or not

Hopped on the elliptical and plugged away for about twenty minutes before I was feeling some serious burning in my throat that I'm not used to. I really wanted to press through it, but coming off strep, I managed to convince myself that it may be something I shouldn't ignore. I probably could have, but oh well. What's done is done. I still had the morning workout to look forward to, right? Nope! Slept in. I got in bed by 9.30 last night, probably fell asleep around 10.30 and still didn't manage to wake up refreshed and ready to go at 6.00 like I'd hoped. Lame.

Tonight is yoga, I know I'll be able to get through that no problem and it's a pretty decent workout. Tomorrow morning will be my next attempt at restarting my 30-day EA Sports Active challenge. I'm hoping a nice solid 90+ minutes of exercise tonight will help me get some rest and help me wake up early enough to get on it tomorrow.

In other news, I forgot to mention that I've finally built up enough of a well-fitting wardrobe to finally toss every single remnant of my 3X life out of the rotation. I now have a lot of stuff that needs to be donated or sold at garage sale. It's so nice to never have to wear clothes that big again. It feels incredible to wear clothing that actually fits and I'm getting used to being in a more snug top. Today, I'm rockin the argyle T. I'm also down to a size 36 pants, which is just phenomenal considering I started in a tight pair of 48s. That belt I bought in April is now either on the 4th or the 5th hole depending on what pants I'm in. *flex*

Back to working out

So the strep diet is over (I'll be done with my antibiotics on Thursday) and I'm ready to get back to working out. Last night didn't happen. I was in the lab till 7pm, so no elliptical for me. Last night I got to sleep by 10, but I still didn't manage to drag ass out of bed early enough to get back on the EA Sports Active morning workouts that I was doing so well on before. I really need to get this early-morning lack of energy thing nipped in the bud.

So, I'm committing myself to getting in an hour on the elliptical tonight. Tomorrow, I really want to get back on the 30-day challenge, so I'm going to do my best to be in bed and asleep by 10 tonight, preferably settled by 9.30 so I have some time to fall asleep. Tomorrow is also yoga, so I'm going to try my hardest to be done with work by 4.30 so I can get in half an hour on the elliptical before that.

Aside from (or in spite of) the lack of workouts, I feel like my progress from Saturday's weigh-in is pretty solid. I know it's awfully early to be making a prediction, but I think this week is going to be another big loss. With 3½ days to go, that remains to be seen. I have cart to contend with still and my track record of late isn't too hot with that. For the past 6 weeks, I've either worked through it, been home sick, or indulged very heavily in its snacky goodness. Worse than that, I've developed a habit of grabbing extra bars of chocolate and bags of reese's pieces to bring home and either devour myself or tempt my girlfriend. That has got to stop.

So here goes. I have 3 hours of work to get through, then it's time to hit the elliptical, a friend I haven't seen in a week and a half.

Back on the tracks

Quick flyby here. I have a lot of nothin to do today and I wanna get an early start. The little lady and I are taking a break after too many busy weekends in a row, so we've made plans to cook a nice little finger-food dinner for ourselves, lay around, play some games and watch some movies. I started the day with a nice meeting and WI. I lost 9.6 since that 7.0 gain 2 weeks ago. A large part of that can be attributed to the strep, but I'll take it. I'm keeping the points reasonable today (rather than my usual 15-20 weeklies in addition to my daily allotment), I'll carry this energy forward through the week, get back on the old workout wagon and ride the wave of recovery through the rest of the summer and hopefully to that 225 goal.

Good to be back. Good to see some movement on the scale in the right direction. Good to be not sick. Good to be alive.

Progress so far: 113.8 pounds

Not doing so well on my reunion tour, huh?

I guess I hadn't really anticipated how busy the holiday weekend and following week would be for me. I was hoping to get in more blog posts this week, but unfortunately, I got thumped pretty hard with strep. On Monday, I woke with a twinge in my throat and by that afternoon, I was shivering at my desk, counting the minutes until I could pile into my car, drive home and climb into bed. When I finally did just that, I first found that the summer heat, which had brought my car's interior up to well over 100° wasn't enough to make me feel comfortable. I continued to shiver the whole drive home with the windows up and the A/C off. Once home, I wrapped myself in a couple of layers, a sheet and a blanket and left the fan off. I never once broke a sweat, despite all this heat I was pumping into myself, a sure indication something was up. My girlfriend came home to find me in my pathetic state and popped a thermometer in my mouth, followed shortly thereafter by the last of our acetaminophen. My fever was 102°. My throat was as raw as can be. I refused to let that stop me from enjoying the pulled pork we'd planned. I managed to eat a small serving of dinner, but I was still feeling pretty miserable.

In fact, I was out of commission for the next several days. I would wake up each morning with a slightly lower fever from the night before, 100.5 on Tuesday morning, 102.7 that night, 99.9 Wednesday morning, then it finally broke Wednesday afternoon around the same time I had finally gotten my script filled from my doctor's appointment that morning. Oh, and I apparently have a pretty bad ear infection on the right side as well. "You don't feel that?" "No, my pounding headache, swollen, raw throat and throbbing adenoids must be distracting me."

So I've been on antibiotics for 36 hours at this point. I'm back into the land of the living. Yay for completely knocking me off my "back to working out" kick. I got a whole bunch of nothin done this week. Luckily, the lack of appetite and huge caloric demand garnered from immune defense have made up for it. I'm down... a lot. I guess we'll see tomorrow morning just how much.

Now that I'm back on my feet, I'm going to take the loss (unhealthily achieved though it may be) and run with it. I intend to get in a light workout tomorrow morning, weigh in, forgo the usual excess that is high-point Saturday and press on with a solid week. I'm determined to keep my ass in gear and I will not be denied.

Prodigal blah blah blah....

I really appreciate all the well wishes and emails encouraging me to come back. I really wish I hadn't lost so much motivation. It turned out to be a lot more than just blogging. I slipped a bit here and there on my weight loss, then wound up completely jumping ship (literally) when I went for a trip to the lake with some friends the weekend before last. Beginning two days before that and extending the entire following week, I just didn't track. I made poor choices, I got ridiculously intoxicated on that Friday, I stopped working out altogether. My mood and sleep schedule both began to go to shit and my work in the lab started to suffer as well. I know a lot of that is caused by the lack of exercise. I've come to rely on the boost it gives me and I truly missed it when I fell out of the habit.

Until then, although the losses were coming slowly, I was seeing some pretty decent progress in the way clothes fit and the way I was feeling in terms of fitness. I was actually doing really well in getting in daily workouts on both EA Sports Active (30 minutes M, Tu and Th-Sa mornings) as well as my usual elliptical workouts and Wednesday yoga. I felt really good about the progress I made on EA Sports and while I still haven't done my comprehensive review, I can tell you it's coming and it's going to be really positive. My falling off the wagon caused me to miss my final 5 workouts that would have completed the 30-day challenge, but I've hopped back on the wagon as of last Saturday and restarted the 30-day challenge yesterday. This time, I'm determined to stick with it.

The last time I fell off the wagon was in October and that time, I stopped going to the gym, I stopped going to WW meetings and I stopped tracking. When I came back to my senses, I spent a week getting my butt in gear, then went back to my meeting on November 1st and found myself up one pound. It would have been a lot more if not for the determination I'd had the week prior to reverse the damage. Last Saturday, I found myself in a similar situation. I weighed in at +7.0 for the two weeks (missed the previous week while I was at the lake), which after coming in at +1.2 at the weigh-in before that was quit a punch to the gut. That's just what I needed to see too because I've been pretty militant with my tracking since then. Even Saturday, being my usual high-point indulgence day was fairly reserved.

I won't see where I stand for another week and a half since my WW site is closed on the 4th. That's probably for the best because it gives me a full 7 days extra to take off all I've gained and try to make some forward progress on the scale. I hope I react to this bad month like I did in November. After coming off the October slump, I got on a big roll of tracking, exercising and attending meetings with renewed vigor and those efforts showed up on the scale with big losses. I know I'm slowing down and that's ok, but it'd be really nice to see another 3-4 pound loss for a few weeks. I want to go sky diving while the weather is still nice, and with almost 30 to go now, that's no small task.

I think now that I'm back on the wagon and a new month is here, now is as good a time as any to get back to blogging. I'll make every effort to get back into the habit of daily posts for this month. I'm serious when I say I couldn't do this without yall and I think this past blogless month has proven that quite well. Thanks for being there for me, everyone.