ALIVE?!

WAIT, WHAT?!

There's a new post on this blog?? Someone must have hijacked LNDQ's blogger account (because we all know she's moved to the infinitely-better wordpress anyway) and decided to wreak some havoc on this hopping operation...

So anyway, it's been a month and 17 days since I updated last. Life got in the way. Of life. Yeah.

Buuuut, I'm almost finished my third month of work and WOOOOOT about three weeks ago, I moved right around the corner from work, so I'm no longer wasting 2+ hours of my day commuting! Which meannnnnns, I'm getting back into the swing of this whole being healthy and losing weight thing.

Two really good things about this move:

• My apartment complex has a gym that has the essentials and usage fees are included in rent.
• My roommate, aside from being sheerly amazing, is totally into working out and getting on this healthy kick for me. We've been helping each other out in the willpower department.

We started working out last week, I guess. But this week we've kicked our plan into high gear. We went to the gym on Monday and kicked each other's asses, then went to the grocery store while we were still on our health kick and made sure to get lots of healthy food. We came back with only one "unhealthy" item - Kraft macaroni and cheese. On sale for a freaking dollar a box. And that's my hangover food of choice, so we need it on hand. All the other stuff is super healthy, so that should get us in the right frame of mind.

Tuesdays are our weekly happy hours, so we were unsure how we were going to fare today. Well, we intended to get up and go to the gym at 6:15 this morning to counteract the happy hour action after work. Fail. We both slept through our alarms (AND beyond our normal wake-up times...double fail) and didn't make it. But after happy hour, we came home, I dug out my Billy Blanks Boot Camp DVD and we did that and some other exercises for about an hour. We were very proud of ourselves, but will probably hate ourselves (or Billy) in the morning.

Our plan is to alternate going to the gym and doing workout videos for a bit of variety in the routine to keep our bodies from getting into a slump and getting used to what we're doing.

I'm hoping to start updating this (as well as my regular blog) more often now. Obviously my initial goal of 20 lbs by January 1 is NOT happening. I guess the new year will provide a good catalyst for setting new goals, so I'll be back on Sunday with a weigh-in, goals and specifics of the plan!

I suck at updating this.

OK, OK, so I haven't updated this. I haven't really tracked my eating. And I haven't exercised nearly as much as I had wanted to. But in the three weeks since my last post, things haven't been all that bad.

For two weeks, I maintained that weight, which I was perfectly content with. And then this past week? Yeah, I lost another two pounds.

Starting weight: 185 lbs.

Sunday's weight: 178 lbs.

This week's change: - 2 lbs.

Total change: -7 lbs. (And if I count the first weight-loss attempt this summer, that means I'm down a total of 14 pounds since July!)

There is no doubt in my mind that the biggest cause of this weight loss is the fact that I'm at work for eight hours a day and I'm not sitting around my house, bored and snacking whenever I want.

I've only had a handful of chances to work out lately, but I'm getting it in when I can. And if that means I count our happy hour bar crawl on Tuesday night as a workout, I'm fine with it (and you should be too). I mean, we walked at least a mile, probably more. And I only had two drinks, so not too shabby.

I am starting to feel a definite difference in the way my clothes are fitting. My jeans pretty much don't fit me anymore. They fall off. I can remove them without unzipping the fly. I also just got a sweater I ordered from Gap today. It is a size medium. I need to return it because it is too big. I'm going to try a size small (WHAT?!) and see if that works.

I'm still not getting enough water in during the day, or my fruits and veggies. So I bought V8 Fusion the other day to get my extra servings of fruit/veggies. And flavored sparkling water to get more of that in (I seem to crave soda-like beverages at work for some reason, even though I don't really like soda).

So, good news overall! Still looking to get into more of a workout routine, but it'll happen! Thirteen pounds to go to reach my goal. Let's do this!

Week Two Wrap-Up & Weigh-In

It's that time of the week! Weigh-in day!

Starting weight: 185 lbs.

Today's weight: 182 lbs.

This week's change: - 2 lbs.

Total change: -3 lbs.

Progress! This week was a loss of two pounds, which I attribute to the ridiculous amount of working out that I did and my renewed focus on eating well. Hopefully I can continue to lose two pounds per week from here on out.

Weekly goals wrapup:

• My main goal for this week was my multivitamin, which I remembered five out of seven days. I think that this will get better as I start working and have more of a routine.
• Eight glasses of water? Check.
• Fruits and veggies? Could've been better.
• Varying the workouts? I did great with that. Focused on strength one day, cardio the next.
• Reducing alcohol consumption? CHECK. Two drinks total. I'm OK with that.

Setbacks: The biggest challenge this week was being away for two and a half days. I went back to my alma mater for the weekend and that of course meant eating out for every meal. I probably ate too much and didn't make the best choices, so I think that the restaurant dilemma is going to be something that plagues me for a while.

Goal for this week: Make sure to exercise daily. I start my job tomorrow and I'm concerned that since I will now be losing my gym time, I'm going to let it slip. So I am hoping to make myself go out walking/jogging every night when I get home.