Jenn's Zen

:: Insert head-smack here ::

I know how to do this, really, I’ve done it before. How could I forget the drinking water part?

To be perfectly honest I’m not much of a beverage girl. We have coffee in the morning, but if Jeremy didn’t want it I wouldn’t make it. As a kid I had milk or water with meals, but now I don’t. I don’t crave milk, juice or soda. I drink diet soda instead of grabbing a handful of cookies. And I often forget about water altogether. One of the things I often forgot in the first weeks of working out at the gym was my water bottle. After paying over $1 a bottle for water whenever that happened I quickly caught on to remembering my Sigg bottle. At home I rarely have a glass of water. At the nanny family’s house I’m more apt to keep a cup of ice water around (not sure why it’s easier there).

I do know however that in order to get the pounds off the scale (and my thighs) I’ve got to drink a decent to significant amount of water. For me the important time is after dinner. I usually want to munch something while hanging out in front of the TV. If I drink 2-3 glasses of water between 8-11pm I see a difference on the scale. No lie. This of course is in addition to working out and tracking my calories.

It makes sense, it’s just something I tend to forget. So I’m here to remind you, just add water. 

I have a love/hate relationship with my scale. I love when it shows numbers I want to see and I hate it when it doesn’t show me the numbers I want to see. I am addicted to my scale. For two years I have weighed myself at least once a day (in the morning, after I’ve peed, if you must know) and I think that proves I’m a little crazy. I’ve considered not weighing for a month, based on the whole, “it takes 28 days to change/break your habit”. So far I’ve been wildly unsuccessful at not weighing. How else will I know if I’m progressing? How will I know if I’m eating right? And I know all the answers to those questions, “go by how you feel” “go by how your clothes fit”, blah, blah, blah…

Today is a perfect example of why I should take a scale break. I weighed first thing this morning, as per above and the scale produced a lovely number, I was thrilled. Oh happy day the new plan is working. Then I showered, dried off, blew my hair dry and just before I got dressed I wanted to see that beautiful (confirming) number again. The second time around the number was increased by 1.5. *sigh* seriously?  Where did my fabulous number go? I had seen the second number several times. There is nothing magical about the second number. Hm… maybe that means there’s nothing magical about the first number either. And why should how I feel be dictated by a number?

Then I saw this quote and it made me think that my days on the scale may be numbered (no pun intended)

“Balance is what you find when you step off the scale”

After a couple days of my new plan I emailed the trainer at the gym and verified the numbers I was using. He promptly replied back that I needed to add calories. Did I hear you correctly!? Are you sure? So, I did. The revised plan:

2100 calories on “rest” days

2400 calories on workout days, workouts ~500 calories, 5 days out of seven

This takes alot of trust on my part. Trust isn’t exactly my strong suit (stop laughing!) and 2400 calories sounds like, feels like and is more calories than it seems like should work. We’ll see.

A new plan, not in any way related to the New Deal.

2000 calories a day, 500 calorie workouts at least five times a week. This for twelve weeks.

Food is fuel.

Work-out #1 is complete, looking forward to workout #2 tomorrow. 

Strong, healthy girls! (By the way this what I tell our daughter when she asks why we go to the gym, “Because we need to be strong, healthy girls”)

This is my way of staying accountable, by announcing to the web that I’m going back on the food diary wagon.  Tomorrow morning I’m getting up early and heading to Lifetime Fitness to get my metabolic numbers so I’ll know how many calories my body needs.  Then I will be able to calculate how much I can eat and how much I need to work out in order to lose weight.  This is part of what I did before that worked so well.  In my opinion it’s the scientific, non-sexy way to lose weight.  It requires math (thank goodness for spreadsheets) and honesty, but like I said it worked last time.

I’m halfway to my original goal, ok, maybe more like three-fifths.  Still, I’ve got a ways to go.  Even though I’m extremely proud of my results thus far I knew I wasn’t going to be happy with myself if I settled.  So here’s to not settling!  Here’s to not being afraid of swimsuit season!  Here’s to being a strong healthy woman (and an example to our daughter).

Oh! did I mention I’ve committed to a 5K in May.  Yikes!

Am I the only person who sometimes feels bad for the husband who is depicted as clumsily taking care of his own children?  This week in the comic strip For Better For Worse the mother has been out of town and dad has been home taking care of the children.  As per the stereotype of this situation he doesn’t know the routine or where anything is located in the house.  If I side with this guy do I have to turn in my neighborhood mommy card? Am I siding with the enemy?

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