Wednesday Weigh-in: 9/30/09 and Mental Transition

Another maintain at 148.4 pounds. And round and round I still go. "Look kids...Big Ben. Parliament."

I'm not totally ready to conclude this is a plateau. For one, my newest clothes are fitting looser. This new fitness routine with Jillian is hammering my body. Food intake hasn't changed (except for adding more healthy fats to the diet), although I am much, much hungrier now. Probably because of the increased physical intensity. Maybe I need to eat more. Maybe not. For now, I'm just gonna be patient and tweak here and there and see how the body adjusts.

This calm, accepting attitude wasn't what I was feeling this morning, though. I first reacted to seeing no loss for several weeks with a great deal of frustration. A black cloud hung over me all morning.

And then I bitch slapped myself later. I'm in the goal-ish range already. Yeah, I'd like to move down to a size 8, maybe drop another 10 pounds, but I'm almost there already (there was a time last year where I was happy if I could just get to size 14). The eating and fitness regimen I've been committed to isn't going to be much different in maintenance, so it's not like I'm working harder or softer by any significant degree. It's funny how the bathroom scale can play trixsie with the head.

I'll still be pissed if there's no improvement next week, tho.

And a slothful child shall lead them...

MizFit has reminded us that tomorrow is National Health and Fitness Day. A day when we're supposed to corral the family together and be active. In the name of physical fitness and all.

For some of us, tomorrow will be no different than any other. I'm still going to get up, workout, go on several walks with the dog and the hubs. No special day here. Everyday (except Sunday) is worship.

But what about some of ya'll that haven't found that will lately to get up and move? What are you waiting for? Motivation? The arrival of the Mojo Express? The second heart attack? Like the oft-preached about Second Coming, that motivation may not arrive in time to save your fat ass soul. Tomorrow is as good as any to make a change.

Or not. In some circles, sloth is considered a positive trait, like so:




Of course, I feel like Kevin many, many times a day as well. Thank goodness there is no real HSN or I would have been in real trouble!

Wednesday Weigh-In 9/23/2009 and Zombieland

148.6. Yup. This month has been a prolonged maintenance dress rehearsal. Better results next week, I'm sure. I hope. But I'm relieved to see that prolonged fun with sensible eating and exercise hasn't cost me a gain. The future in maint'nance land is looking bright.

Per usual, tho, no regrets. This Saturday was the semi-annual Zombie Walk. And Lacey's wedding day. Luckily, her wedding was at noon and the reception at 6:30, so there was plenty of time in between to zombie worship.

Before I was zombiefied:

And after. I clean up pretty good:


The volunteer makeup artist, who also does makeup for Bloodview Haunted House (I'm lucky!), did the work. Here's a close-up of his craft:


Zombie Walk itself was a hoot, of course. The weather was perfect for the undead invasion:

And then we were off to the reception, no time to wash off the make-up. And why waste such great artwork? We had a blast at the post-nuptial party:


And then on Monday, my dog and I almost got killed by this tree branch that fell on the sidewalk in front of us. Residual zombie powers must've made us deathproof:


Lee has written about recent tree attacks on her, those close to her and others. This shit's too uncanny to be just a coincidence. The tree conspiracy is real.

Finally, we saw an advance screening of Zombieland last night. Eff'n hell-arious. Except the one actor who plays the geeky guy was channeling way to much Michael Cera in his performance. Still, it's a must see. But a warning...there are fast-moving zombies. Ick.

Wednesday Weigh-In: 9/16/09 and the Official End of Summer

Does a .2 lb loss really count as a loss? Nah, I didn't think so either. I hesitate to say that with today's scale reading of 148.4 pounds I'm in a plateau because that would imply I had been trying to lose weight. Evidence this weekend strongly suggests anything but a weight-loss state of mind.

This past Saturday, Bobzilla and I spent the night at the Riverside Drive-In (located in a skeezy little burg outside of Pittsburgh) for the annual Super Monster Rama quadruple feature picture show. This drive-in event marks the official end of summer. We stayed up practically all night watching B-grade horror movies while eating sub-par concession stand food. It was all kinds of fun, and I'm thankful that there are still drive-ins that run cool shows like this. It was like reliving our childhood/teenage years, only the backseats in these newer cars aren't conducive to drive-in horizontal action *wink wink*. Bob wrote more about this year's Monster Rama on his blog. Check it out for his review and trailers.

Sunday we were pretty much spent. After eating a nasty breakfast that we comped from the hotel (their way of saying "sorry" for charging us a room with a dirty bathroom), we trudged on back home. Too tired to cook and feeling this perverted sense of entitlement after that insulting breakfast, we ate freakishly large grilled cheese sandwiches at Melt. Some drinks that day might have also been consumed. Cider. Maybe a glass of vinho verde or two.

So, yeah, this may or may not explain the ho-hum results on the scale this morning.

Fool me once, shame on NBC. Fool me twice....

Last season was the first time I watched Biggest Loser. I quickly learned that it is the biggest, unhealthiest time waster on TV, next to America's Next Top Idol. Shameless product placement. Dubious weight loss techniques. Fourteen minutes of questionably substantive material padded out to two hours. After last season, I vowed "No More!"

I will not watch the new Biggest Loser.

I will not watch the new Biggest Loser.

I will not watch the new Biggest Loser.

I will not....

Oh shit. It's on.

BRB

Deja Frakkin' Vu

This morning I dropped a jumbo-sized bottle of mouthwash square on the same little toe I broke last month.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Wednesday Weigh-In: 9/9/09 & Reintroducing the No-Nos

With the scale reading 148.6 pounds this morning (about a pound loss), it looks like the train is moving in the right direction again. But for Jillian's workouts, I probably would have reported another maintain or gain following a 4 day holiday weekend that *may* have involved copious amounts of beer & brats, amongst other things. I mean, with 3 picnics and a festival to attend, what's a flogger to do?

Now it wasn't all just eatin' and drinkin'. We went to the local Oktoberfest, where we cheered at the wiener dog races and listened to polka bands singing happily about beer, kielbasa and babes. I "danced" with an African Drum Dance troupe and watched French Can Can dancers for the first (and last) time. We saw the new film Extract, which was about as entertaining as Office Space. We also saw Martyrs on DVD, which was quite excellent but not recommended for the squeamish.

Over the past few weeks, I've been reintroducing oil and coffee into my regular diet. I was really just too strict with omitting the olive and canola oils from my foods. Not wanting to get a chemical peel/face lift before I'm 45, and wanting to maintain proper digestive movement, I figured some healthy allowance of fats would be a good thing. It was a little hard at first, admittedly. But, I'm learning to loosen up and it's getting better. For example, my lunch today was a homemade quinoa salad made with veggies from the garden (apparently, bunnies don't like peppers), toasted almonds, balsamic vinegar, honey, a little tamari soy sauce and dijon mustard. And enough olive oil to make the whole bowl glisten. *gulp*

Also, I'm having a cup of coffee during my pre-workout walks with the dog. I gotta say, it's really helped jump start my mornings. Bad or not, I think the morning coffee is here to stay for a while.

Oh God, what's next? Sour cream? Cheese? Scandalous!

Getting back to the Jillian workout, this DVD is sweet. It's cut my workout time by about 30 minutes, but I'm still getting the core and lower body workouts that I used to devote extra time on separately. And I'm sweating bullets. Efficient! I alternate the video every other day, riding the recumbent bike on the off days.

I better fit in Jillian all I can this month, because come October, she'll be on hiatus while I play this on the bike! *squeals*:

Wednesday Weigh-In: 9/2/2009 & Getting My Ass Shredded

I picked up one of those Jillian Michaels DVDs--Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism--at the local FYE. It's on sale for $9.99, satisfying my cheapskate brain center. I'm not a JM Kool-Aid drinker, but I also read enough from other fitness bloggers to conclude that her workouts deliver a proper ass whuppin'. So I tried this workout this morning. And got my ass handed to me. It's comprised of interval training using cardio and strength training without equipment.

I did burpees for the first time. And walking planks. Walking planks are nasty mo fo's.

I never sweated so much in an hour. Or used such profanity. But I like it and will do it again like the desperate loser I am.

And this couldn't have come at a better time. I'm at 149.4 lbs. as of this morning, which means I've basically been maintaining for the last 3 weeks or so. The stationary bike's been boring me silly for the last couple of months. I tried everything from reading novels, changing workout music and even watching movies. But after finding myself watching Frost Nixon while biking and not breaking a sweat the whole time (duh!), it was time to switch things up. And not a moment too soon, because next on the DVD queue is Gandhi.