My Path to Outer Skinniness

Hello world. It's been awhile since I've posted anything and I noticed my little blogger icon just now and thought I should probably update. So, I have pretty much epic failed my 30 day challenge. I think I went the entirety of last week without a lick of real exercise (other than one day of dragon boating) I could throw in the towel and assume that I set the bar too high. But I don't think I did. I think I just stopped trying very hard. And the thing is that since I publicly announced my challenge and was doing so well at it up until then, I thought about it every day even though I didn't always push myself to do anything. And that's better than not thinking about it at all. So I am going to start another challenge on the first of June. Anyone else in? Today I made up for lost calories burned. This morning I went to the two hour dragon boat practice and paddled through the entire practice (including 20 minutes of straight paddling with varying intensity level...

Okay, so I was avoiding posting anything lately because I've been seriously slacking on the challenge. I managed to make it 7 days...actually it was more than that and I even went to yoga the day after we got back from California. But the next day I got booted from the Dragon Boats and when I should have come home and gone to yoga or done the elliptical, I decided to have a pity party and laid on my couch all evening. Then four more days went by with no effort to exercise. Yesterday I got back on track and was able to paddle with the dragon boat team. I am in that phase of anything I do where it's been a few weeks and I feel like I should be getting better but time is my enemy. I was able to paddle through all of the drills for nearly the entire practice. I had to stop here and there to catch my breath but I really pushed myself. This is a great improvement! Especially when I had nearly two weeks away from paddling. But I got frustrated because I couldn't get my technique...

I felt skinny today. That is all.

I am sitting here enjoying my salad and I can't believe that I'm at my limit for what I can eat today already! How do people eat like this?! First of all I estimated what my intake should be by using spark people. Here's what my ranges are: Calories: 1200-1550 Carbohydrates: 163-236 Fat: 32-56 Protein: 60-127 I also used weight watchers parameters to make sure those calories are healthy ones: 6 cups of water per day 5 servings of fruits or vegetables 1 serving of milk (or other source of calcium and protein) daily vitamins So, with those daily parameters in mind, I attacked my meals today. This is what I had. Breakfast 1 slice dave's killer bread with 2 Tbsp peanut butter 330 calories, 28 carbs, 19g fat, 9g protein Lunch 4oz. chicken, 1C brown rice, 1 1/2 C Asian veggie stir fry mix (from Trader Joe's) 1060 calories, 108 carbs, 29g fat, 41g protein Snack strawberry cake square, rainbow chip frosting 380 calories, 58 carbs, 8.5g fat, 1g pr...

While we were in Los Angeles this last weekend we went to visit Paul's cousin Emily (Hi Emily!), her husband Nick, and their daughter Kate. She had asked me how the exercise was going and I told her that it was hard but I needed to stick it out. We ended up talking about all of the things we've started but quit somewhere along the way. And I started thinking about what it would be like if I'd just stuck to weight watchers or an exercise routine or any of the things I've started that would have had me looking and feeling better by now. There's a book by Malcolm Gladwell called "Outliers". Gladwell talks about a study by Anders Ericsson that shows most people that have mastered a skill have had to spend 10,000 in their life up to that point practicing and working on that skill. I've always considered this relevant to my career but I've never really related it to my weight loss goals. But now I am. If I want to not only improve and succeed at takin...

Hopefully the comments link should work properly now. I've been told that it can be problematic. Now on to the challenge and some good news! Challenge: So far my routine has been going well. I didn't get to do anything Monday because I got really busy. But I did do a bit of walking throughout my day so that was something.  Dragon Boating is getting better. Sunday's practice was BRUTAL! It was reassuring to talk to a couple of the other women on the team that said that they were also sore from the workout and they've been doing it for a very long time. I found this video that sort of shows how the paddling works. These people are fit . And they make it look really easy. I feel like the technique is starting to work for me, I just have to build up the strength to have my body keep up. I nearly paddled the whole practice yesterday. So, let me hear about your challenge! What are you doing? How is it going? Have you noticed a difference yet? Good News: I had an...

Okay, so I had a bit of a lapse and I wanted to say thank you to everyone that responded. I was having a weak moment and was feeling very discouraged with my efforts. So thank you again for all being so supportive and responsive. Here's the update on the challenge. I kind of started it early, so today makes day 5 of my 7/30 day challenge, but to keep everyone on the same page we'll make May 1st the first day. I'm sort of going easy on the eating restrictions right now. I've continued with the gluten free for the most part. I did give myself a day on Thursday for having done it for a whole week without any slip-ups. Honestly I haven't noticed any difference in my digestion or my energy with change. I'm going to give it another week or two in order to be sure that it will make no difference in my health. As far as the exercise goes, I went to the free session of Bikram's Yoga yesterday and they let me sign up for the introductory rate again. So I get a...