No more promises!

It seems like everytime I post on here about how I'm "gonna do good this week" or "have plans to do good", I mess it up. So I guess I need to really take the name of this blog to heart. "Daily". No more promises of what I WILL do. Just...doing it. And as of today, I have one day down, and a lifetime to go.

I've been doing AWFUL lately with eating, but I really tried "today" to be good. Slacking off on utilizing people for accountability, I think, has been a big part of that. So this evening, when I kept wanting to change my plan, I texted a friend, (can I phone a friend? lol), and her swift reply got me through what I WANTED to do, and through to what I NEEDED to do. D had a rough day at school and ended up getting on red, and all I wanted to do was grab crap food and go home to put him to bed. But I kept repeating to myself "don't let his sad choices affect YOUR choices". So as soon as I texted her, we headed to the mall. I got in a 40 minute walk first. It was a bit slow as my foot is still bothering me, but we kept going. After that we stopped to eat dinner, and then completed it with another 20 minute walk before heading home. Whew!

So back to posting my food intake. Breakfast was a granola bar. My lunch was a Weight Watchers ziti meal and a banana. Afternoon snack was a tbsp of peanut butter. Dinner was CFA. I had a grilled chicken sandwich, no sauce, and a side salad with light italian dressing. This evening for a snack, I had two whole wheat tortillas with some sprays of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to end my day at 1154 calories.

Output: a total of an hour long walking. The challenge between Teresa and I restarted today since I bombed it last Thursday, so we are BACK in gear on that.

A new challenge!

And this one with someone else to keep the motivation going!

Teresa and I are starting up a new exercise challenge, which began this past Friday.

The terms: At least 20 minutes a day EVERY DAY of exercise, with 3 days a week of at least an hour. Whoever wins, gets a gift card to a sporting goods/athletes store like Luke's Locker or Run On, whatever, from the loser. Since Friday, I've done the bare minimum of 20 mins (a walk at Firewheel on Friday evening and then 2 stationary bike sessions this weekend) which means I need to get in 3 days this week of an hour. First up, getting up early tomorrow morning (Monday) to do the 45 minute 3 mile WATP to get as much done as I can. I won't have anytime tomorrow evening to do it, so will make up the rest at lunch.

I feel like I've lost a lot of motivation to get in the long walks, and I hate it. So this week, I'm going to splurge a bit, and go get a Garmin Forerunner. I got tired of using MapMyRun on my iphone since it zapped my battery if I walked more than 7-8 miles. So I'm going to get it off of that and on to my wrist! I've been doing research on which model to get, and I'm really hoping this will be just the jolt to my motivation to get me up and going the trails again! I miss those early weekend mornings of distance walking!

Food has NOT been good this weekend. We had a slumber party on Saturday evening at Beth's house and totally enjoyed (til after the fact, LOL) a junk food evening and some movies! Today was lunch at my grandma's and she had some homemade lasagna which was da bomb! But I went to the store this evening to get some healthier options and tomorrow will be back in business. D and I will be having leftover lasagna for dinner tomorrow night but I only brought home a small amount and going to be adding a big salad with Zesty Italian light and some fruit to it.

An end to the exercise challenge

So, we found out Jamie was out of the challenge, and Teresa and I made the decision to disband it with no winner. It was really getting to be a hindrance in our half training, and I know Teresa was really struggling with it. So it has come to an end. I'm pretty ambivalent about it. It was good motivation, but with my own half marathon coming up in 1.5 months, I'm already way motivated to be moving. I might rethink that opinion after it...lol but do have some other goals I want to work towards after that will likely keep me focused for quite some time.

And we have a winner!

I haven't announced this to her yet, nor have I posted it on DAM (will do that next). But as of today, Jamie has officially won the exercise challenge that she, Teresa, and I began a LONG TIME AGO (our official start date was April 6th!!!). Teresa was out a couple weeks ago, and I bombed out today. I used a half day on Wednesday, but only did 30 minutes on Thursday, so had to use that as my full day off. And today I didn't get in an hour. :( I knew that I had to do 4 miles on Sat and 7 miles on Sunday so I just couldn't motivate myself to push through it.

Jamie, you have been an AWESOME competitor in this. I'm so proud of you for sticking with it with us and rockin it!! And girl, you totally deserve the Wii Game prize considering most all of your workouts have been on the Wii!!

I will say, part of me will be kinda glad to only have to do 30 minutes on my 3 off days from walking, especially since we bump to 4 miles three days a week this weekend. Regardless, this challenge was so perfect for getting all 3 of us motivated to kick butt and take names.

Ok on to eating...it was a very light day and I struggled to get over 1200 cals. It's ok, I'll make it up tomorrow! My breakfast was peanut butter crackers. Lunch was hearty chicken noodle soup (though not really that hearty...lol) and two slices of whole grain toast with some reduced sugar jelly. No afternoon snack. Dinner was a thrown together casserole of rice, 2 chicken tenderloins diced, 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, green beans, and french fried onions on top. Yum!! For dessert, I had 1/2 a cup of mango icecream to end my day at 1212 calories.

Output: about 25 minutes of cardio dance this evening.

The Challenge is ON...

And it begins today...Teresa, Jamie, and I have a friendly little exercise challenge we will be doing for the next 6 weeks. I like this one because it doesn't involve food. I'm def not that strong food-wise right now so this is perfect, and should be easy enough to finish strong as long as I don't miss a day. I started out strong this morning by getting up and riding the bike for 30 minutes (5.1 miles!!! That's a new best for me!).

Here are the rules...

Exercise Challenge

Teresa, Brandie & Jamie

Start: Monday, April 6, 2009
End: Friday, May 15, 2009

Challenge: 45 minutes of exercise per day

Prize: Winner to get one (1) Wii Fit game of their choice from the losers

Winner: The woman with the most total days wins!

Rules:
1) 45 minutes of exercise per day
a. 20 minutes must be straight cardio
b. 25 minutes
i. Cardio, strength, yoga
ii. Split throughout the day if needed
2) Wii Fit: 20 minutes of Jogging or Step Aerobics can count as 20 minutes cardio
3) Wii Fit: All other exercise counts as full time (minute for minute) towards additional 25 minutes of exercise
4) Wii Sports: All other Wii active games (baseball, tennis, bowling, etc) can be counted as half time towards the 25 additional minutes of exercise (20 minutes on the machine = 10 minutes of exercise for the day)

I'm definitely pumped about this! And having the Go Wear Fit, its neat to see the calories burned jump after a workout, so it keeps me motivated.

Good luck, ladies!!! I'll be enjoying that new Wii game in no time...lol

90 Day Challenge and update

Today I'm starting the 90 day challenge that Beth posted on DAM yesterday. Well, she actually posted it yesterday, but I took yesterday off everything so mine begins today and I'll go a day longer.

Its already something I've tried to do from day one, but when AF is wrecking havoc, its hard to stay motivated every single day. I'm hoping this will do the trick. What a great idea!

I'm really hoping that the weather stays nice, it means we can continue to get out and walking every day. I'm definitely taking D out this evening! And now that I've done a 5K, I have NO excuse. lol

To post a progress update...I weighed in at 267.8 this morning, which means...I have 12.8 lbs til I hit the halfway mark (255 lbs)!!! And 17.8 lbs til I hit 250 and get a big night out! WOOHOO!

Week 8/4 Challenge

My personal challenge to myself this week...is to get up at 5:45 every morning and do a 30 minute walk on treadmill. I missed it this morning, blah, but I'm setting this standard for the rest of the week, it might extend to next week but we'll see...lol I really want to get in the habit of it!

So there you have it. I'll update this to let you know I made it...(thinkin positive, NOT gonna say IF I made it...lol)