Fitness tracker debate.

When I first joined the gym I told myself it was a big step. It was. I changed my daily schedule to include a 5am wake-up every weekday and a whole lot more energy to get through my days. I've been tracking my calories and my general food intake and I'm seeing a difference. I'm down an acceptable 7lbs so far. Many more to go.

I motivate myself with all sorts of things. Not food. I am surprised to say I actually ENJOY exercising. Which is a big wow moment for me. I buy workout pants and socks and sneakers to make getting dressed to work more appealing. I download music. I revel in sleeping late on the weekends when I don't have to get up at the crack to fit my gym time in. 

Time for a mini-success highlight along the journey. I think my skin feels better. Tighter, firmer. Yes, I am still rocking the cellulite and the under arm jiggle. But I am also feeling firmer skin covering all that jiggle. My dude says he can already see a shifting in my upper body. I'm pretty pumped to give my tattoos a better canvas to live on.

Onto this week's internal debate: do I want a fitness tracker?





Have you used any of these? I have heard through the grapevine that the Up is a little glitchy, prone to breakage. Which stinks since I generally LOVE Jawbone product (the Jambox I have, for instance, is AMAZING!) the Fitbit devices seem promising, though with different functionality and wearability for each...

So, my questions:

-best battery life?

-best ease of syncing?

-comfort in use

-will look good over time? (Ie- no white rubber picking up gray yick all the time)

-has a sleep alarm

-easy to use interface

-can I buy it through my company (since I will get a discount that way)

My next stop on the research tour is tomfind out if I can have my health insurance pay for it. Then, Apple, tomsee if they have any such devices on their site (implying endorsement of said product.) wish me luck! Updates coming soon!

Hoping for a normal day.

Since returning home from dude's mom's house/new house we've been on a strange little roller coaster ride. We got together to unload his fancy, original, supremely heavy victrola from the car, took little lady J to dinner and had a nice, quiet night. I was eager to get home and take care of a few things of my own but was just too tired when I got home.

Little did I know it would be the last quiet for days. I woke up at some very late hour feeling ill. By late morning I'd been sick several times and learned that my dude was also sick. It was one of those rare times I've been grateful we still live separately. We spent the day texting support and checking in on each other. Nothing pretty.

We both tried getting back to work on Friday and found it... challenging. Couldn't keep much down (bananas, crackers, ginger ale... yay...) and both left early. Thought some chicken noodle soup was the order of the evening.

Just as I had the pot about ready to eat a storm started rolling in, whipping trees around like Willow Smith's hair and Shakira's gyrating hips. Howling wind and pounding rain. Didn't know if I should look out the windows or hide in a closet. And dude was just about to come home from work.

My place lost power. We both felt yucky. We packed up my pot of soup and headed to his place in the hopes of power (or at least some cool air without my wall-to-wall carpets). No power for him, either.

I got power back last night but he's still without power today. Blows. We could use a day toward normalcy. It would be restive.

So here are the things I am focusing on at the start of this week:
-dude is amazingly patient and supportive
-he makes annoying situations better
-got new, neon gym sneakers on our "power's out, let's go shopping" trip
-went back to the gym and had a good workout
-calling the trainer to set up my next appt today
-get to go back to Kabbalah Sparks tonight (I haven't been in three months! More on that another time)

Making it work.

This evening brought to you by the corny chicken dance.

Chester Chicken's here to say, don't you dare try to dress me up that way! Chicken fingers, tenders or sticks aren't for you, they make you sick! Grill me, roast me, pan-fry me crisp, serve me with salad or a lemon twist! But please, oh please, just leave alone, those goofy fingers that gots no bones.

Back to work and normal life today, good. Didn't get to grocery shop this week so I picked up a salad, some soup and some chicken fingers for lunch in the cafe at work. They were yummy, but later on it felt like I had a herd of buffalo migrating through my belly. No bueno.  No bueno burrito. I know better. It was the icing on the road trip cake of less-than-great food choices and options.

If you've read my early entries you might remember my elimination diet and that corn and cow's milk dairy are my primary food-distress culprits. That means all forms of either. Corn syrup, maltodextrin, dextrose, on and on. The milk products are easier to spot and since my trouble is mostly with casein I can still enjoy butter. I generally won't risk it with other dairy except in very planned circumstances. If you want to know more about just what happens shoot me a comment or an email and we can chat. So I knew the chicken was a bad idea. I'm sure it's got corn in it. It'll be many weeks before I make a major slip like that again. I say weeks as I being realistic. The slips are further and further apart as they seem more unpleasant each time. Why wouldn't they? I feel so good the rest of the time that my body has developed higher standards. And it takes days for all the symptoms to really clear up. Itchy skin, achy belly, buffalos.

So, I hope you're having a better belly night than I am. A bad day does not mean a bad week! Here we go go!

Not every day is amazing.

If every day started like today it would be hard to keep motivated and going to the gym.  Takes 21 days to make a habit but only three to break it, right? Well...

I spent the last three days driving 14 hours roundtrip to Wisconsin to help my dude's mom pack up the home dude grew up in, where they lived for over 30 years. It was a really good trip, we took the little lady J (my dude's daughter) and got to see all of the cousins and have lots of hugs. There were a few high tension moments but overall really good, productive. 

For me personally it was great to be there, to support his family, to keep building my relationship with his mom and sisters. But it also meant a vegetable desert, fried foods as far as the eye can see, awkward body work and poor sleep.  Coming home to sleep in my own bed and get back on the normal food train is really nice. 

Getting up this morning after our long car ride home and awesome parade of road food and pastries,  I had a hard time.  My trainer didn't show up for our appointment. I could barely hack 5 minutes in the stair climber. I did some walking on the treadmill and a good bit of cycling but trudged home feeling super tired and blah. 

Tomorrow will be better. I might need some pinterest time today. And maybe some window shopping on lucy or lululemon, too. Tomorrow will be better. Getting back in the swing.

Did you know I'm on Pinterest, too?

On Pinterest I while away the minutes (hours?) finding inspiration, motivation, food, and that sweet, tickly feeling I get from seeing and learning new things. My "Healthy" board is one of my most busy lately. Though I admit to using Pinterest a fair amount for work also and you can see my interests range fairly wide for subjects to hunt down. I don't super often pin things about my own fashion tastes or desires but I do have a "My Style" board where a few gems like this one are:

My aspirational hair.  Assymmetrical with big curls tumbling down one side... It's motivating to look at the picture occasionally since I've got a few months to go. Here's a progress shot, er, collage!

And my favorite hair product of the moment.  My boss also has very curly hair and said this stuff wasn't a great fit for her. It's amazing for me! Free hair product for me!

Anywho, I heart Pinterest and I invite you to follow my boards or live vicariously through my pins if you don't have an account yourself! http://pinterest.com/biscuit_buster Happy Pinning!

Adventures in shopping and the daily grind.

Since I joined a gym on May 20th I have gone every weekday morning at about 515am. I've been tracking my calories (which I never thought I would do) and my exercise. I am doing my best to not be "that girl" in my day to day life but I've also been pleasantly surprised by the support that I have gotten from friends, coworkers and family.

I continue to find motivation wandering through the cyber highways of pretty, pretty Pinterest and also picked up a couple of new pairs of workout pants. I've been on the hunt for a second pair of gym shoes but I am finding that if you do not fit in New Balance or Nike's concept of an athletic foot (long and narrow?) the market is a little hard to shop. I also admit to trolling Marshall's and similar stores with a rabid determination only further validated when I found that my friend M has my SAME Saucony Grids and that on Zappos they are still $75. I picked mine up for $40 at Marshall's. WIN!

The other thing I've recently embarked on (and my head is still not fully wrapped around it) is meeting with a trainer. I went in for my initial consultation and he was actually very nice. Encouraging and enthusiastic without being slimy or creepy (unlike my experience with the first sales guy, ugh!) so here I am in this meeting and suddenly I've signed up to meet once a week (not sneaky in any way, just one of those got-swept-up kinda things) and I've quadrupled my monthly gym costs. And I remind myself: this is an investment. In me. In my future. My health. My sex life! 

That first meeting made realize how very little I know and that although I've got a weighty (yes, I went there) goal I can do it. It will take time. And energy. And it's a better investment than lunches out and Starbucks.

So back to the important bit on shopping: the best pair of shoes I've found are Brooks. They are super comfy. But they are brown and seafoam green. I wear 90% black and grey when I work out. I bought them. They are on my kitchen table staring me down. I'm just not sure about the brown. What would YOU do?

 

Some things. unrelated in nature.

First, the announcement of a small victory. I burned two pounds this week! I am lucky to have access to one of those doctor-style scales at work. I confess to stepping onto the scale at the gym and being dismayed by the inaccuracy of its readout. The scale at work can show me cleanly and clearly measurements as small as a quarter pound. I am a believer of using the same scale consistently.

Second, I have a lust for one of these chairs. They come in a few different styles but, ultimately, I want a ball chair. I have noticed that my circulation is very affected by sitting in my office chair all day long. I have a life-long (bad?) habit of sitting with my legs folded beneath me. You may recall I am a mere 4'11"... my feet do not ordinarily touch the floor in most chairs. So, I can sit with my feet tucked or propped and reach all the things on my desk appropriately, or, I can lower my chair so that my feet rest comfortably on the floor and feel like a child trying to reach across my desk. My hope is that with a chair like this one, I will improve my circulation, engage my muscles more actively and also sit at a workable height at my desk. Have you tried one? Wanna tell me all about it???