As I was holding onto the last ‘official days’ of summer, I started reading a book a friend loaned to me on Friday. It is called Summer at Tiffany! I finished it in one day. It is about two young women from the University of Iowa – and the summer they worked at Tiffany’s. Two important things to know about this – it was the summer of 1945 and they were the first women to work there.
The book is described about “a fearless summer of friendship, freedom and first love in New York City.” It is also about taking chances and life decisions. You’ll have to read the book to enjoy their adventures.
I enjoyed this book so much, I bought it for my Aunt for her birthday. My Uncle asked if it was a ‘chick’ book. It kindof is, however, it is so interesting to see who crossed their paths, the history they experienced and to see things through two young college students in a time when women were still finding their voices in the US. I sure hope that if I had lived in that era that I would’ve taken a chance like Marjorie and Marty.
I started reading the St. Chrysostom’s Churh Blog earlier this year because they had a great post on the Annual Blessing of Homes. I read this post today on celebrating the date of your name. My date is November 25th (for my given name – Catherine and all of my nicknames) – I’ll have to mark the calendar!
It got me thinking me thinking about who I was named after – my Mom, Grandmother – and I think she was named for an Aunt – but in the end we were all named after St. Catherine of Siena. Catherine was way ahead of the times – she spoke her mind and demonstrated it (she cut her hair in protest). The celebration of her day is April 29th – my Pop-Pop’s birthday – it will be easy to remember. She was a smart woman and died at a very young age – just 33. She left her mark though. I think I would like her – love her spirit – I’d like to think I’ve got a little bit of her in me!
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” ~Catherine of Siena
So what do Superman and Seinfeld have to do with my post today?
If you remember from Superman the only thing that could stop the Man of Steel was Kyrptonite (his achille’s heel). And if you are a Seinfeld fan – all I have to say is ‘Spongeworthy’ and you know what I’m talking about. But in case you don’t –
Today was my nutrionist appointment. I knew going in I had gained slightly and that during the last 6 weeks I struggled with balance – not the typical work / life balance – more of a food balance. My sugar cravings were out of control – my KYRPTONITE!!!
I opened Pandora’s box while out to dinner with my parents, niece and nephew in the middle of May. It was really the first time since Easter I had dessert (breaking my Lenten fast). And it continued on a buisness trip to Pawley’s Island, SC (in May) – I split a yummy dessert with a co-worker. I extended my trip for a girl’s weekend getaway – I stayed on course with my two meals a day – but we had dessert every night! They were yummy!! I was asked today – how did I feel after? Did I feel – ‘what the hell? – it is a vacation’ or ‘ was I upset that I went crazy?’ I was a little bit of both. I was more upset about the sugar cravings I had post my trip (which was driven by the over indulgence on my trip).
On and off for the past 6 weeks the sugar thing has been bothering me – can’t keep it under control – including opening up a jar of Speculoos Cookie Butter and eating from the jar (the only bonus only 5 grams of sugar compared to 22 grams of sugar in Nutella) 🙂
So keeping with my accountability – I went to my appointment to talk about my sugar issues and desserts being a bit out of control (I leave for vacation soon – so this was perfect timing).
So here is where Spongeworthy came into the conversation – My nutritionist started with – ‘Remember the Seinfeld episode – and I somehow knew Spongeworthy was the episode he was going to mention. 🙂 I need to think of dessert the same way – is it Spongeworthy? (Oh and it is in my file too). Thinking back on the desserts I had (including the Cookie Butter) – here is how they rate:
The Pandora’s Box Dessert – I don’t even recall what it was so making the call — Not Spongeworthy
Caramel Layer Cake (it was shared) – Spongeworthy
Raspberry Cheesecake (it was shared) — Not Spongeworthy
Toffee Cheesecake with Whipped Cream (it was shared) — Spongeworthy
Bread Pudding (not shared) — Spongeworthy
Bread Pudding (note shared – this was in Wayne, PA – work dinner) — Not Spongeworthy
Cookie Butter — Spongeworthy – but I really shouldn’t buy it anymore – that is completely in my control!!
43% Spongeworthy!! Or 50% if I remove the Cookie Butter from the equation. I have 7 weeks before my next appointment – so I will be keeping track of what desserts I consider Spongeworthy – I expect over the next few weeks – there won’t be many. And if you are one of my local friends and you see me chuckle at dinner – you will know why – I will be considering the status of the items on the dessert menu!! 🙂
This is a journey and I’m looking to foward to what I learn over the next 7 weeks.
May 2012 was a turning point in my journey – I’d finally had enough with trying to figure out why I just couldn’t lose any weight (and in fact I was continuing to gain) – I was eating right and working out. Nothing was working. I was at the end of my rope and along came a suggestion from one of my trainers to see a nutritionist.
I’ve made steady progress over the 2 years – about 2 lbs ever 6 weeks – I kept at it even though I’m an impatient person. I knew I was doing this to get healthy, feel better about myself and lets be honest look better on the outside.
Since December 2013 – I’ve been struggling with making real progress – so much so that I gained (and went over my magic number – the one I didn’t want to see again). I was frustrated with the process and with myself. Rewind to 6 weeks ago – I knew I had gotten down below that magic number and I was frustrated.
The conversation with John, my nutritionist went something like this – “John, I love seeing you every 6 weeks but this losing only 2 lbs every 6 weeks is killing me – we need to do something different.”
We spent time talking about accountability – stressing that I say I’m doing all the right things but something wasn’t clicking (I wasn’t being completely accountable). We talked about how many meals I eat per day (3) and at what times. We focused on when I eat breakfast. Normally it is late morning but there are some mornings I’m just famished. We honed in on that – discussed using a food journal – that doesn’t work for me – so we agreed if I woke up famished – I needed to send John a text with what I ate the night before to see what was causing my sugar to drop. We also discussed – do I really need 3 meals a day? At this point, I was willing to experiment to see what would work. Now please note, I am under the care of a Doctor of Nutrition (what works / doesn’t work for me – may not work for you) (and I probably woudn’t have tried this without his suggestion). With this decision to go with 2 meals a day was to see how I feel and MAKE sure I wasn’t depriving myself (one of the things John has always stressed – I need to enjoy my food and what I’m eating and deprivation isn’t part of the formula). Over the past 6 weeks I’ve experimented with the food I’m eating and the timing of what I was eating. Here is what I discovered:
Workout days I need 3 meals a day plus my pre workout protein shake (4 ozs water, 4 ozs of almond mike and 1 serving of organic whey protein powder)
On non-workout days I only need 2 meals a day- Breakfast around 10 – 11 am and Dinner around 6 – 7 pm. There are some days I need a snack. The recommendation was for me to have a hard boiled egg. My go to snack has been hummus and rice chips – the crunch helps with satisfaction.
On weekends I seem to have / need 3 meals per day (although this past weekend I only had 2 meals per day – but I ate out both days – relatively large meals too)
Drinking over 64 ozs per day – trying to get to 80 ozs per day
Workouts that worked over the last 6 weeks weren’t the typical HardBody (intense circuit training) workouts I was doing – but more along the lines of spin (and this has been sporadic), TRX, Yoga, Strictly Strength (more weights than cardio) and walking (having my fitbit with a 10K step goal has been an added incentive)
So what did I learn over this last 6 weeks? I’m listening to my body and eating when I’m hungry. And in reality – everyone is different. Some people may need 6 small meals, 3 meals / 2 snacks, etc – I think you get the picture.
For the past 2 years – I’ve learned a lot about myself – what makes me tick – if I don’t work out or get some sort of activity in (walking counts) – I truly miss it. I can tell you prior to that I knew I had to workout but it wasn’t part of who I am. I may have mis-steps and not do what I want to do on a weekly basis but I always come back to getting some sort of exercise. It helps me manage my stress and just makes me HAPPY (may not be while doing it but in the end I’m in a good mood after)! As far as what I’m eating – I’m eating when I’m hungry (most times – there are times when I stress eat) -but those times are less and less.
We are finally up to today and I’m on CLOUD 9 and HAPPY! I’m officially down 7 lbs from my last appointment – the most I’ve ever had at one of my appointments! I knew going into the appointment how much I was down – it was great seeing it on the ‘OFFICIAL’ scale – something about making it more real (and I think John was a little shocked at how muh I had lost since it has been such a struggle for me). And even better I’m down 31 lbs in 2 years! For me this is not a Sprint but a Marathon as these are life long changes I’m making – ‘Slow and Steady Wins the Race’!
Thought I’d share a little before and after photos too – you can always see the changes first in the face!
BEFORE – May 2012
AFTER – April 2014
So what am I doing or changing in the next 6 weeks – not a thing – going to keep doing what is working (and continue to learn about myself and adjust as needed)! Have a HAPPY DAY!!
I’m sure you’ve been waiting by your computer for my Step Challenge Results (using my FitBit Flex) – HA! 🙂
I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to come out. I knew I had some opportunities to get some good steps in while traveling for work in NYC (although it did rain so I did cab it to and from the train station – normally I would’ve walked). I was also doing some personal travel – so I knew I would have good days on my airport day (my return trip was after my challenge). However, I wasn’t sure about the weekend – I was staying in a hotel but I didn’t know the schedule as I was in town for a baptism.
My goal was to average 8,190 steps per day and end the week with a running total of 57,330 – achieving this was a 30% increase in my prior week.
From Sunday to Saturday – I was able to get 72,421 – I blew out my 7 day total by 15K steps and increased my activity by 64%!! Here is a view of my numbers a couple of different ways:
Total Steps: 72,241
Average: 10,345 (almost 4K steps above my prior average)
Highest Day: 11,734 (NYC)
Lowest Day: 7,037 (work from home day)
Average (when I drop the High / Low numbers): 10,730
I loved my results – very happy with them. However, I definitely had some anomalies – extra steps due to work events, travel and access to cardio machines. I don’t have a cardio machine in my house anymore. My current 7 day total is lower than the 44K. The cold weather has been a factor and so has my current work schedule – just haven’t been able to step away from my desk. I’m really glad I did this comparison when I was traveling. It showed me I can do it and it reinforces I need to schedule breaks during my work day to step away from the desk and move around. Hopefully, we’ll have a little bit of a warm-up so I can go back to doing my 1:1s with my team by walking.
How many times have you used the Ctrl+Atl+Delete to Restart your computer? I can say I’ve done it more times than I care to count (plus Task Manager to unlock the multiple windows I normally have opened) – I’m pro!
This Ctrl+Alt+Delete – Restart is a bit different. This is about me and my journey. I haven’t posted much lately on my weight loss. Quite frankly there hasn’t been much to report. So why am I writing about Ctrl+Alt+Delete – Restart today…read on…
I had an appointment with my nutritionist at the beginning of December. This appointment was an early morning appointment so I could have my metabolism test done. The good news my metabolism is still firing on lots of cylinders! 🙂 The not so good news is I had lots of CO2 in my body – so what does that mean? – I’m not burning my fuel efficiently – mainly the carbs (I’ve mentioned before I’m carb sensitive). Oh and I was up a pound. The one warning I took away from that appointment was if I’m not careful – I will gain weight back – starting a bad trend (I’ve kept that comment in the back of my mind for the past 6 wks). I wasn’t as disappointed in the 1 pound up as I was scared of the potential impact of the CO2 messing up all of my progress.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and my stress level was quite high with some deliverables at work right before going on vacation – which meant workouts suffered and my eating probably wasn’t at my best (it wasn’t awful either). Although I enjoyed my Christmas break with my family – I ended getting a bacterial infection which messed up my progress even more. The positive is – I didn’t go super carb crazy (based on feedback today) – I made some good choices. And this whole time you know I was checking the scale – and it was all over the board no matter what I did.
So the end of last week – I was up over my December appointment – I was not happy. I tried to really focus on eating the right things this weekend, while still going out and enjoying time with friends (if you can’t do that – what is the point of going out!) and getting some exercise in (a nice walk Friday night, yoga on Sat and Spin on Sunday) – mission accomplished! Or so I thought…
I got on the scale yesterday morning – not where I wanted to be – at this point I would’ve been happy with flat to December – and trust me I wasn’t there. So of course, I start trying to rationalize in my head – I have a lot going on at work this week – maybe I will move my appointment tomorrow to a couple weeks out. I know I’ll get a reminder call and I’ll have an opportunity to move it to see if I can get this under control. Then the next thought was – what if I don’t get it under control and I’m up even more – that would just completely de-motivate me. I got absorbed in a project and put it out of my mind. So I get my reminder call – and it isn’t my nutritionists assistant who calls to remind me – it was him! Now I couldn’t re-schedule – because I knew I would get grief :-). So my flip / sarcastic response was “If this job doesn’t kill me today – I’ll be there tomorrow”. We had a good laugh and I hung up.
So I was optimistic this morning when I got up – yesterday was a good day – ate the right foods, drank lots of water, no snacking and even got about a 30 minute walk in last night before I finished my project. I always jump on my scale the morning of my appointment to see how close my scale is to the ‘official’ scale – plus I know I check because I want to know what I’m getting into at my appointment. Surprise – Surprise – no movement! It was an 8:00 am appointment so no turning back now.
I’m glad I went today – it was a good appointment – we really talked through my struggles in December / early January. Discussed that being sick and the holidays do really mess things up. And the food choices I made while sick (I swear I was living on soft boiled eggs and English muffins) were not that awful (think lots of pasta – which I didn’t have any). We talked about getting me back on track – doing the things I know I need to do – focus on the protein, vegetables / salad and hydration (and the structure I need). Limit my carb intake. And really watch how full I get and when are my triggers – and what I’m doing to address it (drink coffee and if I’m still hungry – what am I selecting to eat). We also talked about how this appointment really helped and how I almost cancelled – and that his phone call probably made it so I didn’t cancel. I had the option not to get on the scale – I chose to get on the scale. As I knew – I was up 2 lbs from the beginning of December. However, I wanted to be accountable to myself and my progress whether it was what I wanted to see or not. I’m not going to beat myself up over this – another example where it isn’t all about the numbers (but most of you know I still believe that deep down). 🙂
So today was my Ctrl+Alt+Delete – Restart – instead of restarting a computer – I’m re-starting my focus – which right now it is all about giving my body the right type of fuel that I need to be more efficient.
Today was a great day! It was my first time back on a spin bike since before Christmas and I loved it!
I got sick right before Christmas and it had me down and out for awhile (and then I had some Saturday conflicts – Saturday is my normal spin day).
I got a nice surprise over Christmas – an Amazon gift card – one of my purchases (that I just ordered last week) a pair of tri-spin shoes (and no I don’t have any plans to do a triathlon – my spin instructor suggested tri-shoes since they are lighter). I had my SPD cleats put on yesterday at a local bike shop.
Aren’t they pretty?! 🙂
So the class I did today wasn’t at my normal studio. It was a benefit ride for Gearing Up (we raised $13K – WOW!). It was a 90 minute ride. I was more than a touch nervous. The longest ride I’d ever done was 60 minutes and I hadn’t been on a bike in over a month (and my cardio workouts have been minimal – with the exception of last weekend when I was in Tampa).
Our ride was an endurance ride of the ‘Lake Placid Iron Man route’ The descriptions of the route were fabulous! It was like we were there. 🙂 After we finished our first loop – I could feel my adrenaline pounding – it was AWESOME! What a RUSH! Time to start saving for that road bike!
I haven’t posted too much lately on my transformation as I was sick prior to Christmas and it took me over 2 weeks to start feeling better. I haven’t been to my HardBody workouts or SPIN classes since before Christmas. I’ve had gone to a few yoga and yogalates classes and some walks.
My brother got a FitBit Force over Christmas and he gave me his FitBit Flex (with the caveat that if the Force dies on him – I have to give the Flex back). I’ve been wanting to try the FitBit (I have an UP band by Jawbone) to see if I want to upgrade my band (I plan on doing a side by side comparison shortly).
I started using the used FitBit on January 1, 2014. I have good days and bad days. I don’t belong to a typical gym and I don’t have any real equipment in my house (although I have gotten some steps on my BOSU and I do have a manual stepper) – so to get lots of steps I’ve had to brave the cold weather. Earlier this week, I didn’t really get a lot of steps in – unless you count some of the pacing back and forth and going up and down my actual steps. 🙂
One of the things I like about the FitBit (besides the fact that is bluetooth enabled) is that it gives you a 7 day running total. My 7 day total is just under 44K or 6.3K average per day. My daily goal is 10K steps. My challenge this week is to increase my activity by 30% per day or to 8,190 steps per day. My weekly challenge goal is 57,330 steps or better by next Sunday. I’ll check in Wednesday night on my progress.
Happy New Year’s Eve! Thank you for taking the time to read my blog in 2013. It has been a great year. I’ve learned a lot – I hope you have as well. I’m looking forward to a great 2014 and continuing my journey.
I love this time of year because I get to spend extra time with my family and extended family (and friends), the great decorations (I love seeing all the light displays), extra treats and of course listening to Christmas music. This time of year is also a challenge for me to keep myself as a priority!Anyone else have this challenge? I have lots of errands (I host Christmas day with my family – I love it – but I want everything to be perfect so I go into overdrive :-)) and work/personal commitments this time of year.
Something I’ve realized over the last couple of weeks is that if my work or personal schedule get in the way of my planned workouts – I don’t have a back-up plan.
I have all the right tools to have a back-up plan – I just received this 5×7 workout – who doesn’t have 5 minutes a day? And the weather is still quite warm in NJ (I think today it might hit 60+) so I’m able to have my 1:1s with my team while I walk (I had one yesterday and we were both walking talking via our cellphones – I was told – this is such a great idea – I love that I’m not only helping myself but helping my team too!).
My personal goals for the Christmas season:
Drink 80 ozs of water per day (I have a handy pitcher that I fill up either before I got to bed or when I get up first thing in the AM). Note to self – add 1 hydration tab per one large glass (I get dehydrated pretty quickly when I workout)
Get 7.5 – 8 hours of sleep per night (super important)
Plan my day to incorporate the 5×7 workout and walking into my day (target = 10K steps per day).
Get my 3 weekly workouts each week (Hardbody, Yoga, Spin or TRX)
Add more salads to my meals (I’m good about getting veggies into lunch / dinner – I’m not as good as adding salad to the mix)
Take my vitamins
Have FUN – enjoy the extra time with family and friends this Christmas season! 🙂
Keeping up with Kate 
