Showing posts with label exercise plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise plan. Show all posts

Monday, July 14, 2014

July 14th, 2014 Not Exactly What I Planned

July 14th, 2014 Not Exactly What I Planned

I'm usually well prepared. I woke up this morning to not a single egg in the fridge. I enjoy starting my day with eggs of some kind and fruit. My breakfasts are nearly the same most mornings, with slight variations. If it's an omelet, what's inside might change. The eggs seem to keep me satisfied longer. My back up plan this morning was steel cut oats with diced apple and cinnamon. It was good, but not exactly what I planned. And that seemed to be the theme of the day.

It was mid-morning when I realized I was out of lunch items in the employee fridge, so I ran home and prepared a good lunch. On the way back I had a front end blowout just as I was pulling into a parking space at the downtown studios. My back up plan was the station remote vehicle because I couldn't use my spare. I called the tire place and made arrangements to get my car fixed tomorrow. This wasn't exactly what I planned.

I was very tired by the time I got home mid-afternoon. I decided a good nap before spinning class was a great idea. I had been looking forward to spinning class all day long, even though it will likely be the toughest workout I've endured to date. I'm genuinely excited to climb back on the cycle because I know what it does to my body. It's good. I set my excessively loud radio alarm clock for 4pm. This would be a solid hour and fifteen minute nap. I turned on the NPR Fresh Air podcast and set the sleep timer for ten minutes. I don't think I lasted three minutes. I was out and sleeping deep, as sound as I possibly could. I was sleeping well. So much so, that when the alarm started blaring (loud enough to likely be heard in adjacent apartments), I didn't budge.

With the radio volume blaring as loud as it goes, filling my entire apartment with noise, Mother Nature decided to lend a hand with a big thunderstorm...still, I peacefully slept. When I finally opened my eyes at 5:08pm, I was disoriented and frantic. The alarm had automatically shut itself off after an hour of rockin' my pad and the thunderstorm was still rolling. The immediate urgency of the weather (which I should have been covering live in-studio) and the list of warning notifications on my phone had me frantically dialing a colleague, hoping and praying she was on the air in my place. And she was. Thank goodness. At 5:11pm I sat on the side of my bed and realized there wasn't any way I could make the 5:30 pm spinning class. Had I been awake, I still wouldn't have made it to the class because I would have been on the air covering this pop up thunderstorm. I decided to pull myself together and get into the YMCA for my regular elliptical workout. I grabbed some turkey and cheese for a pre-workout snack and headed out. It was good, but not exactly what I planned.

The entire day wasn't exactly what I had planned and yet it was still a great day. I had moments of frustration. I experienced potential temptation when a co-worker generously and innocently gave me a small Italian pastry she picked up from Starbucks (I re-gifted it to the break room where it's anyone's treat--anyone but me). I now know I must get new tires tomorrow--that's an unexpected expense--slightly stressful and I had genuine disappointment in missing the spinning class. And of course the incredible stress of waking up in the middle of an unexpected summer time thunderstorm when I was supposed to be in studio and on the air covering it, instead of sleeping through it. 

Through it all, I somehow maintained the integrity of my calorie budget, had a great workout on the elliptical and enjoyed a fantastic home cooked dinner before making my way to the store for a long overdue grocery shopping trip.

I'll have my favorite eggs in the morning. I'll get tires tomorrow. I'll climb aboard the spin cycle for an intense workout tomorrow (unless Mother Nature calls me into work). It's all good. And then, as a nice punctuation to an otherwise out of sync day, this happened:

As I made my way out of the YMCA a very nice lady spoke to me. I was still firmly in the grip of an 80's music party in my head, but I could tell she was speaking to me, so I removed an ear bud. She told me she reads my blog everyday and that she's proud of me. She said that what I do was inspiring to her. She expressed how she sincerely appreciates the decision to include the meal tweets in this daily blog because she doesn't do Twitter. She told me we had a mutual friend in Cathy at the hospital. She also said she's already lost 25 pounds. I congratulated her and thanked her for the kind words, then we wished each other well as we continued on toward the parking lot. An encounter like that lights me up like hardly anything else. It inspires me even more and reconfirms that what I'm doing is important, not just to me, but to others. And that's a feeling so good, it's hard to describe. I sat in the big station vehicle for a moment, turned off Billy Idol and gathered my thoughts. This was exactly the way my day needed to go. It was perfect, really. You see...

Having steel cut oats and fruit as a backup breakfast reminded me how fortunate I am to have good food ready to go. Having a blowout at 5 mph as I pulled into a parking space at work was a blessing. If that tire had decided to give way on Highway 177 last night, it could have resulted in a tragic accident. And if I hadn't over-slept my nap and the storm wouldn't have happened, I would have been in that spinning class today and I wouldn't have met the nice lady on my way out of the Y tonight. Oh--and I forgot to mention how I ran into Andy, the spin class instructor at the grocery store. I had a wonderful conversation with him about the class and weight loss. It was perfect and had my day been aligned differently, this delightful grocery store visit wouldn't have happened.

A good or bad day isn't necessarily dependent on the things that happen, it's decided by the perspective and attitude I choose. Today was a great day even though it wasn't exactly what I planned.

Thank you for reading,
Strength,
Sean

Today's meal tweets:






Bonus Tweet: The grocery shopping trip...



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Thursday, July 10, 2014

July 10th, 2014 Go At Your Own Pace

July 10th, 2014 Go At Your Own Pace

I made it through the day without snacking in between meals. Not that, good/well planned snacks are a bad thing, they're not. I've bulked up my meals the past few days since I fell short the other day by more than 300 calories. I'm not a nutrition expert, not even close, but I've listened to enough of them to know I must feed my metabolism! Some say I should eat more than 1700 calories a day and I don't necessarily dispute their assessment, but I'll know when and if I'm ready to bump it up a little. For me, it'll come when I feel like I've raised the bar in the exercise department.

I mentioned yesterday about adding spinning classes to my exercise plan. I did many of these before, but not before hitting somewhere in the 280's, if I remember right. I recently had a conversation with one of the spin instructors at my local YMCA and he asked, "When will I see you back in my class?" I smiled and said "I've got some more weight to lose before I climb onto that seat again." To which he replied, "You can just do what you can in there at your own pace." And this was a light bulb moment for me. He's right. The seat might hurt for a few classes, sure, but my backside will strengthen up quickly and it'll not be an issue, just like it wasn't before. And why do I feel the need to stay on pace with the rest of the regulars in there?? This isn't a competition, after all. Besides, they're regulars! I was also a regular at one point, and what advice did I give to a friend trying it for the first time? "Hey, don't worry--just go at your own pace." It's high time I take the instructor's and my own advice and apply it to me. I'm really looking forward to the incredible workout I know it will provide.

I caught my reflection in a window today and it almost made me emotional in a good way. My reflection was noticeably smaller. Avoiding mirrors, reflections and pictures was a big part of the mental/emotional dynamics of the regain. As if not seeing it made it less than it was. If a family member took a picture of me at my heaviest regain point, I would go out of my way to ignore it--of course, not before reminding them to NOT post them on social media. Why? Embarrassment over the regain, of course! But I'm over that now and it feels incredibly liberating. I still request privacy and control over what pictures others share of me, but it's for different reasons. Since the epiphanies of May 15th, I'm no longer ashamed for being me. And that's bigger than any regain. I've discovered the ability to feel good about myself regardless of the reflection in the window. Still, it felt good to see a smaller me staring back today. Mainly, because it's confirmation that what I'm doing is working well. In the darkness of relapse and regain, the hopeless emotions become very deceiving, convincing us that perhaps returning to a healthy weight isn't possible; isn't an option. But it is possible and it isn't hopeless. It can certainly feel that way, but I'm living proof it isn't.

My food was really good today. Breakfast and lunch was fairly routine and I had planned to cook a nice dinner at home before a friend called asking if I could be a designated driver tonight. I drove and while he did what he was doing, I made my way to the Y for my workout, then I dined on his dime at a very nice restaurant. I'm super picky while eating out these days and for good reason. I found a nice sirloin, some asparagus and sweet potato fries. The server offered to bring bread and I replied: "Please don't, but thank you!" I also ordered the steak to be cooked without any added fat (usually butter), just a dry grill with dry seasonings. It was wonderful. The asparagus was obviously cooked with olive oil and much more than the small spray of olive oil I usually use at home. Instead of 25-35 calories worth of asparagus, it checked in at 112 calories. I will admit, it was the best asparagus I've tasted in a very long time. The sweet potato fries were fried instead of baked like I do at home, so I paired down the serving size until I was confident the 160 cal count I assigned was fairly close. It was a great meal and I feel good about my choices. "Would you like dessert tonight?" she offered. I didn't speak, I just smiled politely and lightly shook my head to indicate a pass. I'm finding incredible strength and pleasure in this new found resolve and control. It's a special kind of place where the feeling of accomplishment is desired more than the temporary high of whatever is on the dessert tray.

Today's meal tweets and a couple extra solely for the sake of amusement:








Thank you for reading,
Strength,
Sean
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