Here we go again.

I have two doctors (long story), and both of them were holding my prescriptions hostage until I did something for them: one of them wanted me to get bloodwork done and the other wanted an in-person visit.  So I paid the ransom and the good news is I've freed all my medications.  The bad news is twofold:

First, I've gained 30 pounds since July.  This is not okay.  Second, the bloodwork came back with "elevated liver function" and much higher cholesterol levels.

I know the problem: I eat too much.  My biggest issue is breakfast.  I go to the gym every weekday morning and pass by about half a dozen fast food restaurants on my way to work.  I'm starving after going to the gym, and often (way too often) I buzz through the drive-thru for a tasty treat.  See, I really love fast food breakfast.  Any other time of day I can take or leave it, but McDonald's sausage burritos and Burger King's croissanwiches.  Man, I'm drooling just thinking about them.

But the fact of the matter is that I weigh 226 pounds.  That's a BMI of 36.6, well into the "obese" range.  My goal is to get down to 150 pounds, which is at the upper end of "normal" for someone of my height.  And hey, I might not get there, seeing as I do go to the gym so much and am a bit more on the muscular side than many women my age, but I'd like to at least look like I weigh 150 pounds.

So, long story short, I'm back on Nutrisystem again.  It helped last time - I lost 25 pounds in about three months - and this time I'm going to keep going to the gym at the same time, so maybe I'll progress at a somewhat more satisfying rate this time around.

I won't lie - I'm totally bummed about this turn of events, and I'm going to be the crabbiest of crabby for the next few weeks.  Let's hope I like the new selection of foods they've added since the last time I was on it.  The protein shakes in particular look like they'll be helpful for my post-gym commute.

An hour on the bike is hard on the butt.

Activity: Stationary bike
Time: 61min 20sec
Distance: 24 miles
Calories burned: 1155

Tired now.

meh

1. Ran on the treadmill: 2.27 miles, 40 minutes. Pain in my right calf during, and pain in the ankle later on. The machine said I burned 81 calories; MapMyRun says 174. Whatever.
   
2. Universal Soldier: Regeneration has taught me that the only colors in Russia are white and navy. What a terrible movie, but I'm not sure why I'd expect much from anything starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
   
3. I always feel so miserable after working out, no matter what I do. I don't know why that is.

Slogans and Quotes

I so need this shirt.

I was going through my Self magazines yesterday and actually jotting down things I wanted to remember and/or check out later. Like One More Mile, above. I sweat so much when exercising (or doing pretty much anything, really), that this shirt is perfect for me. One day I might even buy one.

Some quotes I particularly liked:

"You are only one workout away from a good mood."

"Sweat is fat crying."

"You won't get the ass you want by sitting on the one you have."

I've been hitting the gym regularly. One particularly awesome victory was going a full 20 minutes on the stair climber. Sure, it wasn't the fastest 20 minutes ever, but I started at level 1 and ended up pumping it up to level 7 well before the end. So there's that.

Striving for escape velocity

Gah, my muscles are killing me from yesterday: arms, abs, legs, butt - you name it, it's sore. So today I went in for my regular cardio. 20 minutes on the ArcTrainer (240 calories) followed by some messing about on the inclined treadmill. I'm not sure how long I was on it because I kept changing programs, but I know I burned 300 calories total, so it was probably in the area of 25 minutes total. I did a little running, finding a steady 4mph pace not too bad, but quickly discovering that I cannot run at 7mph. Well, I probably could in short bursts - like while tumbling down a flight of stairs.

Today's Cardio Cinema movie was Little Nicky, which I haven't see all the way through but looks basically just like every other Adam Sandler film ever made.

PT Session

Finally had another session with Jeev today. (He cancelled again yesterday.) This was definitely a full-body workout, full of running and push-ups and squats and planks. I did real push-ups and never again will I take girly push-ups for granted (though Jeev tells me we're all done with girly push-ups - more's the pity). The planks weren't normal ones either: once I was pulling on a weight with each arm, then later I was kicking each knee up to my shoulder. So it was pretty exhausting, but I made it. More importantly, I did three minutes straight on the endless ladder machine and didn't die! Which led to a strange conversation:

Me: I don't think I've ever done 3 minutes before.
Jeev: Actually, you did, a while back.
Me: Oh yeah, but I think I died.
Jeev: Yeah, you did.

Anyway, I did another two minutes later in the workout and while I was panting pretty good, I didn't die then either. Life is good.

Another conversation snippet, because it made me feel a little better about myself:

Me: Are the exercises getting harder or am I just having an off day?
Jeev: The exercises are definitely getting harder.

Grumpy

I'm feeling a bit grouchtastic this icy Monday morning. I spent the last week sick as a dog (a sick dog), with fever and runny nose and congestion so bad I felt like I was drowning. I even missed a day of work, which pretty much never happens. Saturday night was my first sleep without NyQuil since the whole debacle began.

So today I had a session scheduled with Jeev. My first time back to the gym since I got sick. I'm still not 100% but I'm no longer feverish and I really need to get back to my normal routine at some point. Anyway, I'm warming up, and about 5 after 6 I went out to my car to check my text messages. Sure enough, Jeev wrote to postpone until tomorrow. Dang it! Oh well. I used the inclined treadmill for a half hour and burned 320 calories while watching Walk the Line. So it wasn't a completely wasted effort. But it still annoyed me.