New Digs

I know I have been a very bad blogger the past year or so, and not very interesting.

I'm trying to revamp myself and as part of my transformation I have move here: Mrs. Busy Girl. Hope you come see me!

OK, I'm a little irritated with Biggest Loser right now...if someone has surgery IT IS NOT Healthy for them to be walking 13 miles one day post op!...I actually have no clue how she does at weigh in yet and she is not my fav, but COME ON! Give her a fricking BYE week - she had 8 friggin pounds of salt water pumped into her. Disappointed.

BodyBugg

Because you can never have too many gadgets to keep you on task with your fitness, my husband kindly purchased me a BodyBugg for my birthday (as seen on Biggest Loser).



The armband itself is pretty cool and it can be a total boost to keep you on track for getting in your activity for the day...or a total downer if you have been sitting on your ass all day. It is suppose to track your calories burned with 90% accuracy, and I must say after using it for the past couple weeks it does seem fairly accurate. It also tracks your steps and activity time (in minutes). It does not track your heartrate nor does it have a GPS, so if you are a total nerd like me and go out for a run multiple devices must be worn.

It comes with an online program, and depending on the deal you get sometimes it is included in the price and sometimes you have to pay separate for the membership. We purchased mine through Costco which came with a 12 month membership. The armband really won't function without this program, which is a shame...because I think the online program needs some work. The program tracks your goals, steps, activity, and calories consumed (but you have to enter in the calories consumed yourself). I found entering the calories consumed really cumbersom the first time I tried it. It won't accept the food if the grams of protein, etc. don't match up with the calories. I'm sorry, tracking my food needs to be easy if I'm going to do it...and that is a big IF already. I personally think there are a lot of free food-tracking programs out there that are way easier to use.

Another downside, is sometimes the armband is a bit uncomfortable. I don't wear it to bed anymore because my arm just needs a break and I'm not doing anything then anyways...and it isn't the most attactive item to wear either and not always easy to cover up.

It is pretty cool when you plug the armband into your computer and download your activity to see the graph of your activity. There is also a display that can be purchased separately so during the day you can easily check where you are at with your activity and calories burned.

This is what I have mainly been using the BodyBugg for...purely as a motivation to keep moving...peridically checking in on my digital display to see where I am at for the day. I only go onto the online program when I need to charge my armband. As with everything else, the gadget doesn't do the work for you, you still have to put the work in.

One Hot Mess

I haven't been here in forever, other than I have been keeping up on reading my favs, just not commenting. My life has been a whirlwind the past few months and I just have nothing left in me at the end of the day to write about it. Long story short I am now working full-time (well more like full-time plus) in addition to maintaining the side business my husband and I have...and yes and raising 3 kids. It really sucks but I feel guilty about complaining because I KNOW how hard it is to even find a job for so many people right now. I should be thankful right?

The worst part is all of the weight (17 pounds) I had lost last January/February/March has come back with an 10 additional pound vengeance. Yes 27 pounds in about 3 months...really sucks. That really bums me out, but I guess it is to be expected when you sit at a high-stress job the amount of time I do then come home and have a couple glasses of wine to unwind.

So anyways, today I went to a new doctor because my old doctor sucked an blamed everything on allergies. I LOVED my new doctor, he was very awesome...and read me so easy. Within the first minute of coming into my room he said "I could tell the minute I walked in and saw you this appointment was going to be about stress." and my eyes immediately began to water up with tears. OK, but who goes to a regular doctor for stress??? I felt like I was seeing a psychologist. Seriously, he sat there and talked about every aspect of my life that is producing stress and how I can address it - he was in with me for AT LEAST an hour...even though we both knew I didn't need any medicine or any medical treatment...and I really didn't go there to talk about stress, my intention was to just do the opening exam to establish myself as a new patient in his practice. Him spending that much time with me made me feel guilty because I don't have a real problem, I'm just stressed!

Basically he boiled it down to I'm a easy going, outdoorsy kind of girl trying to force myself to live a high stress, corporate type of lifestyle - and I am never going to be happy doing that. Ugh. How did things get so upside down in my life. And how is this all so obvious to me yet I am just so wrapped up in all the day to day crap that I have been oblivious to it and let my life become this unorganized, blazing snowball of stress.

Oh and we talked about the weight thingy too and he wrote this on a prescription pad for me:

1. Don't eat real bad foods.
2. If you're not hungry, don't eat yet
3. When you are hungry, only take half of what your normal serving would be.

Kind of hilarious, huh. I don't do number 1 hardly ever (unless wine counts as a real bad food). He said eating 5 meals a day to feed your metabolism was crap and to only eat when your body really is telling you your hungry (not your head or your hubby). #3 is probably the key for me as I really don't feel like I eat very different than when I was in my 30's and easily kept my weight at a healthy level - but I probably just can't eat as much as I used to since my metabolism has probably slowed down with age - I am almost 42 you know.

Anyway, now I feel like a hot bed of emotions after that Dr. visit.

Insanity

Coming Soon.

One down, Fifty-Two to Go

Been doing a lot of this lately...

I did managed to squeeze in a race (or rather a cattle call). My Dad and I did the Wharf to Wharf 6 mile run (if you can, the crowds were crazy) on July 26 - from Santa Cruz to Capitola.

Yesterday I did my first training run - 12x400's with 90 second resting intervals. Felt good, I even pushed out a 6min mile pace on my last 400...really hard!

Only 52 more training runs to go before the California International Marathon in December.

GirlCrush

I love Jillian...bona fide girl crush. I heart Bob too, and my husband, and my kids...but currently Jillian is kicking my ass and helping me get my head in the right spot so I can be a healthier me...so she is my fave. I've been listen to her Sunday podcast, reading her book Master Your Metabolism, and have incorporated her 30 Day Shred into my workouts. So she should love me too cuz I'm helping pay for her car, house, food, etc.

You know what I like about her, is she is just so real and honest. She cuts all the crap out and calls people on their self-justifying bullshit. I haven't been plateauing the past couple months...I've been half-assing it. It's not easy losing weight, it is hard work. I'd rather sit on a floatie in the pool than run 5 miles when it is hotter than Hades. I'd rather have a glass of wine in the evening rather than my 3rd 32 ounce bottle of water...but I'm not going to get where I want to be with my health like that.

My attitude has been refreshed. I have been logging all my food since Monday on my Iphone app and keeping my calories between 1300 - 1400. Working out strong, I did my bootcamp Tuesday, ran and did 30 day shred Wednesday, another bootcamp tonight :) AND I have been drinking lots of aqua - 80 to 96 ounces a day, and keeping my sodium intake below 1,500 mg.

As a consequence I've dropped about 4 pounds this week...pretty coolio. I rock a little too.