Tue. July 30

Story time! Gather 'round, children.

K, so you know how I started my last entry saying I thought I was gonna throw up? Well, I did. I'll save you all the yucky details, but I will say I don't think I've ever brought up so much in my life. I swear, every last ounce of anything in my stomach made an appearance. My best guess is that I got food poisoning from a plate of fish and chips from a restaurant I'll call Elsey's - Kay. lol. Anyway, thankfully it was a one and done kind of event, but it sorta messed up my Monday cuz I didn't want to work out too hard the next morning and risk messing up my stomach. However, that did give me time to make spinach ice cubes and turn (about) 6lbs of strawberries, 2 pints of blueberries, and a few bananas into like 4L+ of smoothie. So good. lol. And that brings us to today...

OMG, so much physical activity. I had work, walked home, walked to a local pool, swam, walked home, walked to the gym, worked out, walked home. I'm spent, but proud. Aaaaaand I was able to run at 5.8mph for 30 mins without stopping for a distance of 2.895 miles. : ) Go me!

And now, I'm lying in bed, typing this up, and trying to decide if I wanna go for a swim or a run before work tomorrow. If anything. Maybe I'll be too sore, but a swim would help with that. Hmm. Anyway, I'll see what I decide. Nighty night.

I can relate.

Sun. July 28

Except for the fact that I sorts feel like I'm gonna throw up, I'm in a pretty good mood right now.

So, I have a few pieces of good news to report...

- Firstly, I was finally able to run for a full 30 mins at 5.7mph. That was on Thursday. And then I was able to make it to the gym for a bit after work on Saturday and I did it again, but that time I was able to go from 5.8 to 6mph in the last 5 mins. And, honestly, if I hadn't been on a bit of a time crunch, I might've just continued on til I had gone a full 5K (approx. 3.1 miles). And that visit to the gym on Saturday meant that I went to the gym 5 times this week. : ) Also, I read a tip about picking a song and just doing squats for the whole duration. So, I did that today, as well as some crunches for another song duration and like 20 push ups just for fun. And some stretches. All in all, it took like 10 mins and is totally something I could/should do like every day.

- Strawberries and blueberries went on sale again. 3/$5. So, I picked up 6 thingies of strawberries and my dad picked up 3 pints of blueberries and said I could have 2. So, I'll be making a big batch of smoothies tomorrow. And a bunch of spinach ice cubes. Basically, you blend a bunch of spinach with a bit of water, pour the mixture into ice cube trays and then throw a couple into protein shakes or smoothies or whatever. I heard about that online and have wanted to try that for a while. I hope it works.

- And finally, I had a consult for laser eye surgery on Thursday. But it wasn't just for standard vision correction; it's because I have Keratoconus in my left eye. Feel free to Google it, but basically it means my cornea is thinning and distorting my vision pretty bad. I was diagnosed 5 years ago, but it's apparently gotten worse, so I decided to see if I was a candidate for having the surgery that would slow the progression and I found out that I am. I also found out that I'm starting to develop it in my right eye, but it's a much milder case. Anyway, now I just need to get the ball rolling and set a date for the surgery. I'm not too worried about it, but it's $2000/eye. At least I can claim it on my taxes.

Well, that's all for now. Really hoping to have another good week workout-wise and maybe even a little weight loss. Fingers crossed. : )

Tue. July 23

Had a pretty active day today, but more on that in a minute.

My weekend was garbage. I went swimming on Saturday, and that was it. Unfortunately, the overcrowding at Ribfest this weekend meant that the short trip I made on Thursday night was the only time I was able to go. </3 Otherwise, the 4 "proper" meals (see: lots of snacking) I had over Saturday and Sunday, 3 of them were various types of pizza. Ya, not good, and my digestive system was not happy with me either. But we move on...

So, I really wanted to try to "be good" for like a week and see if that would produce some decent results and then I could use that proof/motivation to continue eating well. So, I had stuff like a protein shake, toast, chicken salad, and stuff. I ended up having some chocolate covered almond, but not a lot. Now, I wasn't super up to date on what my weight is/was, but I think I dropped like 3lbs from a few days earlier. Not bad. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

As for workouts, I had yesterday and today off, so I had some decent time to get in a good workout. However, I tried to do my 30min run at 5.7mph and that did not happen. I ended up bouncing between 5.7 and 4.2. I gave it another shot today and ended up bouncing between 5.7 and 5.0. So, it's better, but it looks like this is where that 30min 5K time starts to get hard. I'm sure the pizza could've had something to do with it though. lol. Seriously though, it just felt like my heart couldn't take it, both times. Everything below the waist was fine (including my heel[s] cuz I had just bought insoles to deal with what I believe to be Plantar Fasciitis in my right heel), my lungs were alright-ish, but my heart just didn't seem like it could keep up. Maybe it just got lazy over the weekend. I also tried to do 15 mins on the stair climber today and could only complete 10 cuz I was feeling pretty exhausted and generally unwell. Anyway, on top of my workout, I went swimming in the evening and wore my heart rate monitor cuz I just found out I could. I only burned 395cals in an hour, but it's better than nothing.

And now, it's time for bed. I hope I have the determination to get in some time on the treadmill at home before work. *fingers crossed*

From Sat. Not great, but not too bad.

Wed. July 17

I don't really have any good news, but I don't have any bad new either.

My plan to go to the gym on Monday (since I had the day off) kinda fell through. Long story short, I fell asleep and woke up for extended periods of time twice and was just super tired and slept til 1pm. I probably still coulda gone, but I don't like being rushed in situations like that. So, I decided to clean the weights my friend gave me instead. I didn't know how many of each denomination I had, but after getting them all clean, I know that I have eight 2.5lbs, eight 5lbs, and ten 10lbs. I also have 3 short barbells and on long one. I still need to find out how much the long one weighs. But, anyway, I was able to go swimming, so I guess that's good.

And then yesterday, I could've used my treadmill before work, but again, I was just really tired and I had to do laundry and clean my room a bit. I did get to the gym after work though. I thought I'd try running at 5.6mph and see how long I could keep it up for. Well, looks like I was able to do it for the whole 30 mins and ran 2.79 miles in that time. : ) I feel like if I can just run 0.1mph quicker every week or so, I can totally run 5K in less than 30 mins in October. I really hope so.

That brings me to today. I woke up late again and was kinda thinking I'd just skip the gym again, but I don't have work til 8pm and I figured going and just doing a little something would be better than nothing. I also decided I could go to WalMart afterwards to pick up bananas and a few BDay gifts for my nephew. I used the stair climber for 30 mins as opposed to running and ended up staying at the gym for over an hour. And I'm considering just going for a leisurely jog around my complex after work, depending on how I'm feeling.

I guess that's it for now. Gonna go have a snack and get ready for work. Laterz.

Sat. July 13

I feel like I always have such good ideas on things to talk about, but I either draw a blank when it comes time to type or I just dunno how to start my thoughts.

Anyway. I feel like sometimes I'm bring really good with my food and other times, pretty bad. And this is in the same day. For example, today, breakfast was Corn Flakes with Splenda. Not bad. Lunch was cucumbers, grapes, and a homemade fruit smoothie. Really good. Dinner was steak and baked potato. Not too terrible. And then I've just been eating gummies and chocolate all night. So bad. And pretty much every day seems to be the same thing. I really dunno when I'm gonna get it together. I see friends and people on tumblr losing weight and looking good and I haven't had any decent results to share in months. Where's the drive that helped me lose 30lbs a few years ago? I'm already half way through my 20's and I'm gonna start popping babies out when I'm 30, so that only leaves me a few years to get and stay in shape before it's all gonna go to hell again. Ugh, why does bad food have to taste so good? Oh, and twice now I've heard that "if fat loss is your main goal, try to avoid fruits cuz they're high in sugar." But then all these fitblrs say that's crap; it's natural sugar and it's fine to eat. But really, I'm sure my fruit consumption is not the problem. It's definitely all the junk food.

Also, I keep meaning to a few exercises on my "rest days" or just days I can't make it to the gym. Like, just a bunch of squats and push ups and maybe some crunches to keep my fitness momentum going and so I don't go for days without working certain muscle groups. I also can't decide if I wanna have a set number to do or try to do more and more everyday. Whatever, I'll figure it out.
And lastly, I traded scales with my friend, but at one point, I had 3 scales in my house and decided to weight myself on each within seconds of each other to see how different the results would be. And they were...

House scale : Original weight
Friend's scale : 1st attempt - 0.6lbs less, 2ns attempt - same as original
My scale : Original plus 1.4lbs

Not a huge difference, but still something to consider.

Well, bedtime for me. I've got a lot of inactivity to get to tomorrow. But I have a bunch of time to be active this week. Really wanna beat my running PR of 2.74miles in 30 mins.

Wed. July 10

It's been a crazy few days.

For those of you who don't know, my hometown (Mississauga, Ontario) and the surrounding area was hit with a pretty large torrential downpour and lightning storm on Monday. 80% of my town ended up without power and lots of people had flooding in their basements. My house did lose power, but no flooding. However, one of my friends wasn't so lucky. His basement had a few inches of water throughout and he lives in the basement, along with his 2 computers, a few guitars, and a bunch of other stuff. We got what we could off the floor, but couldn't do too much clean up til the power came back,

It came back like 3 hours later and then we got to work. We cleaned up and tried to get rid of water for like 3+ hours before we had to call it a night. I helped a bit more yesterday after work and a lot more today cuz I had the day off. Crazy ass stuff. On the plus side, his mom decided to use this opportunity to purge a bunch of old stuff from the basement, so I ended up with a set of weights, a dozen mugs that match my family's current dishes, some other glassware, a few bottles of booze, and some knitted baby clothes. Score. : )

Anyway, due to the craziness, I haven't really been to the gym or been doing so great with eating, but I feel that moving damp carpets, heavy boxes, and old paint cans is probably a decent workout. And I'll be getting back into the swing of things tomorrow. And I'll be making more smoothies too. Can't wait! Oh, and my friend with the body fat percentage scale has decided to trade scales with me. It's a long story, but I didn't even bring up the idea, so I'm happy about that too. Hopefully this'll mean good things for me. : ) 

Sun. July 7

I was going through some old pics last night and got a little inspired to make a positive post.

So, the pic that started this was taken in June '12 and it was of all the weight I could lift on the Hip Adductor(sp?) machine. It was 190lbs. I can now do 265lbs, or maybe a little more, if I'm feeling up to it. I also remember when I couldn't even bench 65lbs when I started and now I'm doing 145lbs. I'm also still fairly proud of doing my first 5K in 31m30s last October and I'm really working on breaking that PR (personal record) this coming October.

I joined my current gym in mid-January '12. Unfortunately, I can't remember how much I weighed at the time, but I'd like to think I'm down a bit since I started. I know I've fluctuated... well, more than a bit, but honestly, except for the obviously high percentage of fat, I feel like I'm a pretty fit person. Like, to look at me, I doubt people would assume I'm strong or have a pretty decent cardio tolerance. Could you imagine if I actually stopped eating crap? I know several years ago, I was able to get down to like 25lbs less than what I am right now. And that was without even trying. So, I know it's possible. Now I just need to discipline to eat well and get it done. I wish I had been keeping a journal then to see exactly what I was doing. Oh well.

Ok, I think that's all for now. Maybe next time I'll have some results to report.

So much smoothie. Mixture of bananas and straw, rasp, and blueberries.

Thu. July 4

Ugh. Once again I'm drawing a blank on what to say. I guess I'll just do the standard update.

My workouts have been fairly good. Most recently, I was able to run 2.7 miles in 30mins at a speed of about 5.4mph. Unfortunately, one of my lifting gloves has gone missing. I tore my room apart looking for it, but no luck. I'll give it one more good look before I may have to bite the bullet and buy another pair.

Food has been alright-ish. I bought some strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries not too long ago and have turned them (and a couple bananas) into smoothies for the last couple days. It's made me remember how much I liked smoothies last summer. Maybe I'll start experimenting with adding veggies and make that my thing this summer. Just gotta hope for decent sales on fruit, cuz that shit's expensive. lol

Also, I was gonna give the 21 day no junk food challenge a try, but I don't even think I made it through a day. One of the things you can't have is cake, but I came home on Tuesday and there was a piece of cake leftover from Canada Day. Now, I could've said no and given it to someone else, but in my mind, that piece was MINE and I sure as hell wasn't gonna let anyone else have what's mine. Not that I can't share or anything, but everyone's got issues. I think this was a mixture of my food and possessions/trust issues. Whatever, anyway, I ate it. Too late to take it back now and it was delicious.

So, ya, that's it. Sorry it was the same old boring crap. Oh, actually, I just remembered a tried on a pair of shorts that I could just BARELY get away with wearing (as long as I wore a baggy shirt to hide my muffin top) and it was a little looser in the thighs and I think there was less muffin top. I guess that's something. Ok, guess I made a bit of a liar out of myself. lol

Laterz