Cedar Point 2014

So Cedar Point happened yesterday. It was the first trip ever for my kids and my first in the last couple years.

Unfortunately the hubs couldn't come with us because he had to work. The original plan was for me to meet up with my one friend and her son, but then she injured her back 2 days before we were supposed to go. I made the decision to still go with my children and Mary's friend. Yup. Me and 3 kids for my kids first trip to Cedar Point! Crazy? Nah! In the end, my friends' husband ended up coming with their son so my son had someone to hang around with. It was such an awesome day!

It actually ended up being the perfect day for Cedar Point. Rain was in the forecast and it misted for a while in the morning. This kept the crowds away, which was awesome. It eventually stopped and it was actually a bit chilly. I think the only reason we made it ALL day was because it was nice and cool and the sun wasn't beating down on us.

But, here are the lessons I learned from Cedar Point 2014

1) You sure do take a lot of steps in a day at Cedar Point!
     According to my Garmin Vivofit, I walked 23,846 steps, which equated to 10.9 miles. That is by far the most I've walked in one day since I put the vivofit on my wrist in March. --side note - that's kind of sad to me since in 2012 I would have hit that at least once a week while training for the marathon. sigh-

2) Cedar Point is one of the few times I am not focused on food! 
     We arrived right after 10 and ended up not stopping to eat lunch until about 2:15! And frankly, I had to make the effort to stop and get us some food or we would have kept going (and would have crashed hard because of it). We never did have dinner. We had snacks later, but never sat down to eat another meal (not that one was needed after that 2:15 lunch!).

3) However, even when not focusing on food, I make crappy choices when I DO eat. 
    We went to Johnny Rockets so we could sit down and rest for a little bit. I could have gotten a salad, but I got a big juicy burger. It actually wasn't even that great and I really wasn't hungry (see #2); so a pretty stupid decision.

4) My anxiety is greatly increased as an adult! 
    This is an interesting thing. I've always been a worry wort - even as a kid. My worrying has of course increased as a parent. What was interesting yesterday was that my weight caused a drastic increase in my anxiety. I was nervous about rides malfunctioning and something happening to my kids (or to me), but that increased exponentially on rides that I barely fit in. Here's what happened: I got on the Raptor (which I love) and found that I could barely get the shoulder harness down enough to secure the seat belt that buckles into it. It locked, but I felt like the only thing that was holding the harness down was the seat belt and it was stretched to the max. The entire ride I was picturing the belt coming undone and the shoulder harness flying off my shoulders. Crazy, I know.....and it made for an even scarier ride. It was too bad because that is one of my favorite rides and I didn't get to enjoy it.

Woo hoo! Robbie was measured at 52"! 

5) I already knew this, but Cedar Point is a lot more fun when you don't have to stress about fitting into rides. 
     So perhaps the real lesson here is, yes, I am that big!

6) It is exhausting to spend 12+ hours at Cedar Point and then have to drive 1.5 hours home! 
      I do not think I've stayed till closing since my parents took me (and therefore drove home). It was exhausting. Usually wouldn't have been a huge issue, but since we had my daughters' friend I had to get up around 7:30 to make sure she got up for her camp today. I have been exhausted today - even after taking a LONG nap!

7) I eat like crap when I'm exhausted. 
    Honestly, today has been worse, eating wise, than yesterday. Tomorrow's a new day and I will get back on track and still be down on Wednesday - I am motivated!

8) For whatever reason I lose my voice pretty easily as an adult!
     Mary screamed way more than I did yesterday yet I have absolutely no voice today and she's fine. I used to scream way more than I did yesterday and be fine the next day. It's weird. We'll see how long it takes for me to get my voice back.

The lessons learned are not meant to be a downer on the day. Even with all those things going on, I had a blast. I was nervous about going with 3 kids by myself, but it was great. The kids were so well behaved and the day went amazingly well. There was no fighting or bickering from anyone (maybe slightly at the very end of a LONG day).

It will be interesting to see a) how much weight I lose between now and next year when we go again (I'm hoping for 50-60 pounds) and b) how much easier I fit into the rides.

Wednesday Weigh In #7

Just a quick post to share some good news for once! :)

Today's weigh in - down 4.2lbs. That means that in 1 week I ALMOST lost everything that I had "gained" last week. I put gain in quotes because obviously I didn't gain 4.6 pounds of fat last week and I didn't lose 4.2 pounds of fat this week. Water weight can be a horrible and wonderful thing (just depends if you're gaining it or losing it!).

I am still 1.8 pounds heavier than my lowest since re-starting WW this time. I'm confident I can lose that this week, or come close.

I really think I'm not going to stress today and just enjoy myself at Cedar Point. My week will start tomorrow.

Have a good day! I know I will! :)

Staying Focused

It's Day 7 - that means tomorrow is another weigh in day. The fact that I'm willing to say it's Day 7 must also mean that I'm still on track.

I'm doing well....not perfect, but I'm doing it.

Last night my good friend texted me to see if I wanted to come help her paint at her new house. I had been asking her how I could help her, so even though I didn't necessarily feel like going I went. In the end I am so glad that I did. I knew I would be happy about it after I got there, which is part of the reason I went.

Anyway, I spent the next 2+ hours painting, and even though I was also drinking some wine, I tracked everything. Again, my tracking may not have been perfect. I didn't measure the glasses of wine; I didn't measure the peanuts that I would take from the container, but I estimated for my tracker. I earned a bunch of activity points between running on the treadmill, painting, and getting over 12000 steps (I only counted the painting and the 12000 steps - I don't count the running separately since that's why I get the steps!). I ended my day yesterday at 0. 0 daily points, 0 activity points and 0 weekly points remaining.

My goal today is to only eat the points I have - right now that means 35. If I earn some activity points that'll give me a few extra if I need them. As of right now I have what I've eaten so far today and my planned dinner in my tracker and still have 9 points left to play with. I should earn a few activity points (more if I get on my treadmill later to walk or run). I feel pretty confident that I can get through today.

I got on the scale this morning and it was down considerably from last Wednesday so I'm hopeful for tomorrow's weigh in. At this point there isn't much I could do to see a gain on the scale tomorrow morning, but I'd really like to see it down as much as it was this morning, if not more!

I may not be able to post tomorrow because I am taking the kids to Cedar Point for the first time!  I haven't quite decided how I'm going to handle tomorrow yet. One thing I know - I am going to eat what I want. I simply haven't decided if I'm just going to write off the day and start fresh Thursday or if I'm going to end up counting my points for Wednesday so I know how many points I really used. I usually figure this out after the fact. Last Saturday when I had my little splurge I didn't count it that night. I had basically made the decision that I wasn't going to count it and I was just going to get back on the next day and try not to touch my weekly points (assuming I used them all that night). But then Sunday when I got up I decided to estimate what I ate. And in the end this was a better decision because I actually hadn't used all of my weekly points. So we'll see. I'm sure I'll get lots of steps in tomorrow so that'll help as well.

Ok. That's it. Just thought I would check in with some positive posts once in a while! Fingers crossed that the scale is nice to me tomorrow!

Proud

I am calling today Day 5 even though I had a very high calorie/high point day yesterday. The reason this can still be considered day 5? I tracked everything I ate. I estimated if I had to in terms of how much of it I ate since I didn't sit there with a food scale while I was over-eating, but I still tracked it.

The good news? I still have some weekly points left for the week. I will also continue to earn activity points as well so I should be totally fine going forward. I also weighed myself this morning and I'm still down 2.2lbs from my weigh in on Wednesday.

This pic has nothing to do with what I'm writing
about, but I love it so there! :)

Also, speaking of activity points - I was actually really proud of myself yesterday because even though I was having a day where I was eating a lot, I actually got on the treadmill and ran 3 miles. I switched to 3/2 intervals since I'm thinking about trying to add distance instead of just trying to do 3.1 without stopping. Since I was doing the intervals, I was trying to run a little faster during the run intervals than I've been during the .6 mile run intervals. It was a tough workout, but I did it. I am proud because usually on a day when I know I'm going to be "bad", I take the all or nothing approach and decide not to do the workout (especially considering it's been about a week since I had been on the treadmill).

I am doing significantly better. I took a picture of my dinner on Friday because it was just so good and so healthy! Again, it reminded me of when I was taking pics for my Whole30. I couldn't have had the corn then, but other than that, it was a completely compliant meal. I need to get back to having more meals like this!

Chicken breast, corn on the cob and asparagus

So now the key is to let yesterday be yesterday and move on today. To track what I eat and stay within my points. I need to earn some activity points today and if I go over my points to only go over by the amount of activity points that I earn today (since I'm getting quite low on my weekly points). I can do this. The getting back on track right after indulging is the hard part. If I do this today I'll know that I'm back - at least for the time being!

Reluctant

I am quite reluctant to write this post.

You see, there are times when I write a post and it helps me get back on track or stay on track (like all my posts from the Whole30). But, there are times when I will write a post about how wonderful I am doing (like this one), to then completely go crazy the next day and struggle to get back on track. I'm hoping that doesn't happen after deciding to post this today.

Today is day 3. It's another day 3 of yet another attempt to get myself on track and lose this weight. Day 3 means that days 1 and 2 were relatively successful. And if I'm writing this post it means I'm either pretty confident I'll keep going or feeling uncertain of where my motivation lies.

I would say I'm feeling pretty confident today. I actually think one thing that makes me feel a little more confident about continuing on is that days 1 and 2 really weren't easy. There are lots of times when I get back on track and the first day or 2 are SO easy. I feel good, I eat well, I exercise, I do everything I'm supposed to do and I wonder why I don't do it all the time.

Yesterday and Wednesday were not those days for me. Instead I was crabby. I was feeling sorry for myself and wishing that I could just eat what I want, when I want. I also had times that I was really hungry, but didn't want to spend any more points on the day. I didn't want to start my week dipping all the way in to my weekly points like I've been doing (since you see how that ends up).

But yet I stuck to it. Yesterday was worse than Wednesday. I was crabby. I had a splitting headache after dinner (no doubt the annoyance of my daughter's softball game didn't help - frustrated with bad calls and the coach taking her out after only pitching to one person). But even with that annoyance last night I came home from her game and ate a BIG bowl of fruit with a string cheese (for a little protein), which was a total of 2 points.

In 2 days I have earned 11 activity points and as of now still have 1 of those remaining. I will earn a few more activity points today from my steps (but not much because I haven't been getting in my 10,000 steps). I have not been worrying about getting a ton of activity points because frankly I'd like to try to focus on eating less (rather than being able to still eat a ton of crap because I earned x number of activity points).

So, I don't necessarily feel GREAT about where I'm at, but that is what is making me feel good. Following me? The fact that I am not feeling like this is so easy, but yet I'm sticking with it makes me think that perhaps my motivation (for the time being at least) has returned. I have no idea how long this motivation will last - today, tomorrow, a week, a month, a year - but I will try my best to keep it going.

On another note. This is what I printed out the other day:

You probably can't really read it, but it's a training program for a half marathon! Yikes! As of right now I don't have any definite plans to do another half marathon (as in I'm not signed up for one or anything), but I have determined that I do not have an attention span to work on getting faster or better with my 5k time first. I was doing really well with getting on the treadmill every other day for a while, but then I stopped last week and haven't been on since. I think this happens because I know I can do 3.1 miles. If I take a break for a week, I can still get on the treadmill and finish 3.1 miles. However, when I'm training for a half marathon, I feel like if I miss a workout I can't just pick up where I left off - I need to get that distance in before I can move on to the next. For instance, when I was marathon training and missed the scheduled 14 mile training run I ended up doing "only" 15 the next week instead of the scheduled 17 because I didn't think jumping from 10 miles the previous week to 17 was too smart. I missed the 14 mile run because I was actually sick.

When I'm training for something I don't miss scheduled runs (if I can help it) because I don't want to mess up my training and not be ready for race day. In some ways it also helps my eating. After I get off the treadmill (or finished with a run outside), I feel really good and I don't necessarily want to negate that by putting crap in my mouth. I was most successful in my weight loss efforts in 2011 when I was working out regularly and completing several races. What got me started with my efforts that year? Training for the Cleveland Half Marathon. I was no better prepared to run that half marathon that year than I am to run one this year.

So, we'll see what happens. I think that I will start this training program on Monday and go from there. I will push myself enough, but not so hard that I get sick again. I would like to be down another 17lbs before I do another half marathon, but I'm not sure that I'm going to NOT do one just because I haven't lost all the weight. I'm going to base it on my running and whether or not I think I would finish in the time allotted, not necessarily on what the scale says! However, if I do what I need to do, there is a chance that I could be down 17lbs before I would do another half marathon - or at least pretty darn close!

OK. This post ended up being a whole lot longer than I anticipated. Thanks if you're still reading! Hopefully my next post will be able to be just as positive!

Wednesday Weigh In's 5 & 6

This isn't going to be a pretty post. Just giving you the fair warning!

Last week I kept meaning to post my weigh in because I was excited, but then I never did. I was actually down .6lbs, which was pretty amazing since the week wasn't exactly great. I focused on Monday and Tuesday and stayed within my points and ended up with an overall loss.

I had great intentions of continuing that through this week and having a nice loss on the scale.

Last week the boys went for a little trip to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. They left Wednesday after work and were going to be gone until Friday evening. I had ended up scheming to get Mary to have a sleepover at her grandma's with her cousin on Wednesday so I had the house to myself.

However, for some reason this also equates to eating and drinking for me. I had made a conscious plan to be "off" on Wednesday. I figured it was the start of my week and it was only 1 day. I figured that I could resume things Thursday and should still be able to be down with 6 good days on program.

Yea, that didn't happen. It turned out that Mary was invited to spend a 2nd night with her grandma and cousin and my eating craziness just continued as well. I have no excuses. It was stupid. And it continued through yesterday. I'm being stupid and it needs to stop.

Weighed in this morning and it was NOT pretty. Up 4.6lbs. Today's weigh in actually put me up .6 pounds from where I was when I started WW. I'm still down from starting the Whole30, but this is ridiculous.

One thing I will say is that I realized this week that this might be backlash from the steroids. I was talking to my one friend about the fact that I wasn't sleeping well at all and she asked if it was from the prednisone. I hadn't thought of it since I took my last dose, but it stays in your system for a while. I'm usually on it for months rather than weeks and the horrible side effects (like the weight gain) take longer to kick in. I always found it interesting that I wouldn't start gaining weight until I was tapering off the medication. When I realized this, I decided it was even more important to get back on track. I was determined not to let the steroids throw me off this time.

I re-read my post from the beginning of the year where I discussed my goals for this year. I only highlighted 3 goals and I'm not doing so hot with those goals. I'm not working out 3 days a week consistently; I've only lost about 7lbs towards that 50lb weight loss, and I haven't figured out how to stay accountable without being so hard on myself. I've got some work to do!

Hopefully my next post will be a little more positive.

Un-Pause

I've had my finger on the pause button of my healthy eating for a little too long now and it's time to take my finger off that silly pause button! It's time to get down to business!

Today has been a great day so far. I have dinner planned an my food through dinner already put in my food tracker and I still have 5 points left on the day. I am guessing I'll use those tonight after dinner, but perhaps not. Yes, technically you're supposed to eat your daily points every day, but given that I've been way OVER eating for several days I'm sure it won't hurt me to not eat my points today if I don't feel like it.

This pretty much sums up my life this summer. Love it!

In my last post I talked about changing my weigh in day, but then I decided not to do that. I wasn't ready yesterday to "un-pause" so I didn't want that to be the start of a new week. Today I felt determined and ready to resume counting and such, but when I stepped on the scale this morning I decided that it is possible that if I wait until Wednesday to officially weigh in I may maintain from last week or even have a loss! I know how I am  mentally and if I could manage to have even a tiny loss on the scale on Wednesday that may be just the encouragement I need. So I'm going to stick with Wednesday being my weigh in day for now. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't really matter WHEN I weigh in. If I'm motivated to do it, I do it.....and if I'm not, I don't. The sooner I realize this about myself the better. I just wish that I could figure out what causes the click when I decide that I'm ready. I wish I could figure out how to keep it going for more than a day, week, month, etc.

And this pic is just too fun not to share. Yes, that's my son!

More good news though is that I am officially off the prednisone. I took my last 10mg pill this morning. It did what it was supposed to do and calmed the inflammation that was causing worse symptoms, but I'm still not exactly where I want to be with my Crohn's. I saw my doctor today and he is putting me on another medicine in addition to the Humira so that it will hopefully continue to calm the inflammation and make it so that I don't need prednisone (since that's such a nasty medication). I am excited because I never actually went on prednisone for only 3 weeks and in those 3 weeks of being on it, I didn't gain a lot of weight. I'm not even back to my starting weight from when I started WW this time so I'm happy about that. And I'm still down 14.6 pounds from my highest weight at the start of the Whole30. So in essence, I've been maintaining my weight (within 4lbs) since completing the Whole30. I am actually really happy with that fact!

I hope everyone had a great 4th!

I feel good today and am feeling like I can do this and I just need to do it. There's nothing to say I can't indulge here and there, but I just can't do it all the time. There isn't a reason to eat the crap that I eat as often as I eat it! Hopefully this feeling will last longer than a day or two, but I'm happy that I'm not giving up. I mean really, as much as I've stopped and started, I've NEVER given up. Giving up would imply that I never re-start. I may press pause for extended periods of times, but I always brush myself off and try again. I would definitely like to stop this cycle and actually lose all this weight once and for all. The only way to do that is to keep trying and that is my goal.

Wednesday Weigh-In #4

Not good news. Up 2 pounds. Not at all surprising.

I'm struggling mentally right now though. Some times when I have a bad weigh in I can see it as a fresh start and get myself right back on track (even if that only lasts for one day). However today I'm not having that feeling. It's July 2nd and with the holiday coming up I feel like I don't want to have to think about it. I feel like I want to just do whatever I want for the next few days and get back on track after the weekend.

Then I think about how stupid that is and try to convince myself that there is no reason to not track this week. That I can easily choose one day to not track, but still track all the other days. That frankly, if I focus on using only my daily points all days but one, I could probably even lose weight this coming week.

But then I can't decide what I want to do. No matter what I choose it will be my choice. I will own it and move on. I definitely need to get my butt in gear and I need to get on the band wagon for losing this weight. However, when I'm struggling mentally I tend to do better when I just make the decision to give myself a break and then start again soon after. Sometimes if I continue to try to fight through this mental block, I end up taking that much longer to get back on track.

I am contemplating changing my weigh in day. I was thinking Wednesday was going to be a good day because it would give me 2 days after the weekend to recover from any over eating that happens on the weekend (even eating within my points range). However, what has been happening is that I don't get back on track until my week starts again on Wednesday. So now I'm thinking about making my weigh in day Sunday mornings.

The good news is that I continue to do well with the 5k training. I have gotten on the treadmill to run every other day since deciding last Wednesday to start my 5k training. I have completed 4 runs. The first 3 were half mile intervals. I completed the 5k in 50 minutes (or a little over a 5k if you go by the mileage on my vivofit). Then yesterday I changed the intervals a little and did .4/.6 mile intervals. So, I walked for .4 miles and then ran for .6 miles until the treadmill said 3.1. This took 2 minutes off my time and I finished in 48 minutes. The vivofit was actually consistent with the last run and indicated that I actually completed a distance of 3.51 miles. Like I said before, I don't know which device is more accurate, but I will continue to run until the treadmill says 3.1 because I'd rather be doing too much than not enough! I'm happy about this. No matter what happens over the next few days, I will continue to focus on my 5k training. I ran yesterday so my schedule will be to run tomorrow and Saturday. My plan is to do the same intervals I did yesterday.