Take Away My Caffeine So I Stop Typing

I have lost four pounds of water weight overnight.  I knew that was part of the issue, but I wouldn't have guessed it would be that much!  I'm not going to lie, seeing that new, lower number on the scale made me feel really good today. 
I downloaded a new app on my iPhone yesterday, called My Fitness Pal, and for the most part, it's pretty awesome!  I entered in my information about my weight, age, goal weight and my activity.  It gave me an allowance of calories per day and an estimate of how long it would take me to lose 5 pounds.  Everything I eat I enter into the program, mostly everything is already pre-loaded, a lot of the brands I eat are already pre-calculated with all the nutrition info I could ever need.  It is a really good tool, in that it makes me aware of the ratio of fats to protein to carbs that I am eating, and I get a breakdown of all the nutrients in comparison to recommended daily consumption.  I'll admit, I don't keep track of how much sodium, potassium etc to eat daily, and for someone with heart disease in the family, I should be watching these things more closely.  This program is good for that.  I also like that it adjusts calories needed/allowed for excercise done.  For instance, I did two sessions of cardio yesterday, equating to 298 calories burned, so the program allwed me 298 calories from food for the day.  In the end, I had 234 calories to spare, so it was easy to see that if I hadn't done all the work, those calories would have kept me at a stand-still with my weight loss.  I am taking it with a grain of salt though, and just using it as a rough guideline, considering it didn't give me any extra calorie allotment today, and I did a great strenth workout.  The body needs more calories on the heavier trained days than it does for cardio.  My main purpose for getting the program was not to become obsessive about calories, but it is helping me assess where the weak points in my diet are, and it's keepig me accountable and making me think about everything I'm putting in my mouth.  FYI, if you don't have an iPhone, you can use this app on-line, and it's free.
Today was a lot harder to get out of bed, and I credit it to two reasons.  One, that I slept soooo good last night from the fresh air and exercise, and it felt good to finally sleep so restfully that I wanted to keep sleeping.  Two, I still have a mental block when it comes to strength training.  I never want to do it.  But I did today.  I told myself that I will never get the physique I want without doing strength training.  During my session, I noticed myself just going through the motions, and then I thought about what I want the muscle being worked (at the time it was my bicep) to look like, and that made me really push myself.  I went to failure on a few sets, and really trashed my muscles.  And while I felt like a bit of a whimp for only doing three moves, I really pushed myself on those three, and made the workout count.  Having a plan in place will really benefit me in the long run.
My knees are feeling so much better today, as if they are healing not just from the past weekend, but from the past few weeks of issues.  I am being careful so as not to re-insult them, but now that I'm not running, it is tempting to train them with weights.  I miss the feeling of deadlifts, and I feel triumphant when I make it through three full sets of walking lunges.  In the long run, I know I have to strengthen them in order to protect my knees from everyday life. 
I'm happy to say that my sugar cravings have disappeared really quickly this time.  I can always count on the South Beach Diet to kill my sugar cravings, that's why it's hard for me to think of switching to another program.  I did however, order the book I referred to in my blog a few posts ago, Think and Grow Thin by Charles D'Angelo, a fatty-turned-personal trainer.  I don't know what the premise is, other than the focus on getting over your mental roadblocks in order to lose weight, but there are some really impressive before and after photos on his website, and nearly all the 500-some reviews of the book on Amazon were 4 and 5 stars.  I should have that waiting in my mailbox for me when I get home tonight, so I am excited to get started reading that.  I'm always open to any new tools that help me toward my goal, and right now I'm in the right mindset.
I have discovered I am allergic to the sun.  It is a mild allergy, I get an itchy rash over my neck and chest whenever I am in the sun for more than a few minutes.  It is really annoying, but quite common.  It is something I will either have to learn to live with, or move to Seattle.  Which, I wouldn't mind one bit.  It seems the fates are conspiring against my dream to look good in a tank top in the summer.  If it's not fat making me look bad, it's a red rash.  Isn't that just Murphy's Law?  The whole five years I spent in Vegas, where there is sun 300 days a year, I was fine.  Now that I'm in a place where sun and warmth are more rare, I develop and alergy?  I have found the humor in it. 
One last thing on my mind today is my gray hair.  I started going gray at 23 years, and have colored my hair off and on ever since.  The past few times my roots started to show I was trying to decide whether or not to color, or just leave it go natural.  I am interested to see how it looks, and once I discovered that mine are actually a shiny silver instead of a flat gray, I decided I am going to take the plunge and let the silvers shine for a while to see what I think.  Right now, since it's just the roots, I think it looks a little punk rock, and I am all about that! 
That brings me to the end of my babbles about what is on my mind today. 
Hope you are enjoying a lovely spring day where ever you are reading from!

Comments

  1. I would be interested to know the app (online.) Inspiring thoughts...(the book ;) can ONLY help! *Take stock...you know, I do. :) You're all about the physical/tangibles. Both, ARE "important," in ANY journey. ;) :)

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    1. The site is at myfitnesspal.com. The book was OK, but didn't really fire me up. I will send it to you if you wish, just let me know. :)

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  2. Oh, and...I, STILL love strength training... ;p *You're just better/have more fun, w/ cardio.

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    1. I have plenty of muscle to train, I am just lazy. It takes so much energy, and being that I work out at 5am, I am not in abundance of energy!! Just have to suck it up if I want to progress.

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