Down a Pound!

And I'm just about to "break a ten" - what I say when I bust through a tens spot on the scale and move down in weight (hopefully to never see those higher numbers again!) I hope to have broken it by next week. That will be stellar. STELLAR, I say. Do people still use "stellar"? Maybe I'm a dork.

The stamina. The appetite. The wonder of it all....

Here is what I've noticed now that sugar and simple carbs are mostly eliminated from my diet: my appetite still grows, but it doesn't turn me into a grizzly bear and it doesn't get so huge that I have to hurry up and eat something. this means:

I can stay away from drive thrus if only I will adjust my life schedule and take better care of my needs when the day begins. That's something I am working on. I have a tendency to make my daughter's lunch and even make my husband's lunch, but I'll skip having breakfast and skip packing anything for myself to eat before I leave for work. I have prayer time for myself and I make myself a travel mug of tea, but then I am out the door - already planning a drive thru purchase of a breakfast mc-something or BK egg-item.

Drive thru breakfast is not helping me lose any weight so, I've decided (as of yesterday) to wake up a half hour earlier than I normally would and eat breakfast and pack a snack to take to work. I like having lunch at home, so I will continue to do so.

Now, as for stamina. It could be the 17 pounds gone or it could be the things I don't eat any more, but let me tell you... I have BARELY exercised since beginning this program. I make it to my Barb days, but I have skipped every other night or day of working out. Fortunately, I expected to go through some of that behavior. I'd read up on this food changing existence before going into it and Dr. Eades warns that exercise goes kind of by the wayside for a while. ...but then it picks up again. I think I am in the picking up again phase now. Barb is really good at kicking my butt AND keeping my head on AND keeping my goals in mind.

I feel like I have gained clarity by eating this way - can you believe it? I am able to get more accomplished. I think more clearly. I function more thoroughly, too.

The most fun I am having with this is that I get to make new recipes. I'm going to share some with you next time I post...and squee about a food processor that I bought myself. I realize this makes me kind of a kitchen nerd...but, I'm totally excited.

Exercise resumes tonight. I've no idea whether Hopper will get on the T-mill with me this evening, but I'll do my 30 minutes. I feel relieved getting back on track with exercise. Here we go again!

A Mile by Sunday: DONE.

I am feeling the glory of having finished a 30 minute mile. I'd gotten to where I could do a mile in about 45 minutes a few weeks ago and then I skipped exercising entirely (for 2 weeks) so to do .75 of a mile in just over 30 minutes Wednesday and cut my time and still complete the mile TODAY is like WOAH. Words cannot describe. Or maybe they can:

I had a sucky day at work. It wasn't that the workplace wasn't comfortable and it wasn't that my coworkers were any kind of bother. Clients, prize winners and guests who came in were all pretty great. Communication, though? Kaput! It was one of those days when you question if you exist on the same planet as everybody else. I had to go over step-by-step instructions on a number of things because my brain just wouldn't ingest what other people were telling me, and I couldn't seem to express what I knew would make sense, but could only spill out of my head as a jumble of uhms and uhs because my mind was busy backtracking to make sure I was being as clear as I could. TELL ME THIS HAPPENS TO YOU.

So, when I left the office, I was mumbly and grumbly. I had to pass Pantops a.k.a ISLE OF HAZARDOUS FOOD and I was so tempted to veer off into the Taco Bell drive-up that I sought my cell phone (yes, while driving) to hold onto in case I needed to dial someone to talk me through a food-mergency.

My head talk went like this: "But, Taco Bell now is going to make me too tired to go to the gym. Heck, I'm already too tired to go to the gym. Still, if I just keep driving, I'll be home pretty soon and there's stuff already there to eat. But, maybe Burger King would be okay. I could just toss the bread and skip the fries. Ew, but then I'd have to blog it. Sigh. I'm crazy-thirsty. I'll just go through and get a drink. And maybe something little. Augh, see. I can't even JUST get a drink. Fuck it. I have Diet Pepsi at home anyway."

By the time I finished talking, I was already past the clump of fast food joints. My conversation hadn't stopped though.

"What time is it? It's only 1. Wow, I thought it was later. There's time to go to the gym. But, I have to take Hopper to horses (riding lessons) today. *a minute for clock math* So...huhm. I can't eat anything before I go to the gym or I'll get sleepy and ignore everything. But, if I go to the gym, I'll be tired taking Hopper to horses. BLAH. Okay, check it: You can go home and bring this shitty day with you and be all negative and have lunch and probably be too tired to do anything else and feel like crap because you didn't make good choices or you can go to the gym and turn this into a positive day. Even if you don't do the mile. At least go."

I was almost home. I came up on the road that leads to the gym.

"If I go now, I can get on the treadmill and maybe let go of some of this (miscommunication) crap. But, I am not doing a mile. Not today. I could barely friggin walk this morning. I'm going to be tired taking Hopper to horses. But, I can just sleep in the car while she rides. FINE. I'll do it."

Resigned to go to the gym, I turned down that road.

On the treadmill next.

"Good God. There is no way I'm going to get a mile done. It's going to take forever. How long has it been? *check timer* Three minutes. *walkwalkwalk. check time.* Five minutes. UGH! How far have I even gone? *check* Snails walk faster!"

I spent at least half a mile trying to ignore absolutely everything by watching poorly typed captions on two overhead televisions. To the right was CNN news, to the left Days of Our Lives, and I loosely followed both. I can tell you that CNN is harping on obesity because fat kids died of heat exhaustion in recent months and Brady is so going to pummel E.J. when he gets to the clearing in the forest where E.J.'s waiting for him - but Victor may know something and he just may interfere with those plans. That guy's an opportunist, Victor.

If you're still reading this, I gradually increased my speed and just kept going. I got my real energy when I was at a half mile. That's when I started telling myself (trainer-Barb-style) to walk in increments of five - I'd reach .55 miles and set my mind on getting to .60...like that. I told myself that when I got to .90 I would slow my speed down and walk a lazy tenth to the finish...and that's just what I did.

So, now I'm home. I'm tired. I have yet to eat the microwaved entree thingie I threw in when I got here, so I'm off to do that and then take Hopper to horses where I will undoubtedly fall asleep. Hallelujah!