Got phone calls this morning from all 3 CO jobs that I interviewed with at the beginning of the month.  And got turned down from all 3 jobs.  And then proceeded to receive 3 more job rejections this morning.

BUT this post isn’t about the negative aspects of the day or this past weekend, but to look forward to the POSITIVE aspects.

I started C25K today.  You might be doing a double take to read that considering I’ve run over 25 5Ks alone, and then tackle on 10Ks and half marathons.  You’d think I would have completed C25K with all of those runs.  But nope, I have only completed training programs for 10Ks and half marathons.  But I’m determined to start and finish C25K this time around.  Why?  Because I go to the gym 5 days a week and am tired of doing the same old thing on the elliptical, treadmill, lift a few weights, row, and bike.  So to challenge myself, 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) I will be doing C25K runs on the treadmill and slower-paced biking 20 minutes afterwards; Tuesdays and Thursdays will be 30 minutes elliptical and 30 minutes fast-paced biking/rowing, weights, etc.

C25K Day 1 — 1.89 miles @ 30 minutes  (slow and steady start as I haven’t run in almost 2 weeks)

Now off to go figure out what to eat in the next 3 hours to get to 1200 calories for the day and not go overboard on carbs (I have about 500 calories to play with and about 60 carbs left for under 150.  Story of my life as I feel like I’m this way every evening with too many calories to play with to even make MINIMUM daily intake requirements.)

Energized.  That’s how I feel after a morning workout.  Regardless of how late I stay up the night before (1 A.M.) to how early I have to get up (6:30 A.M.) (I really need to go to bed early if I have an early alarm clock), I still feel amazing after working out in the morning.  Granted it takes a lot more mentally to pull me out of bed but it is ALL worth it.

“Be not afraid of who you really are.” — Ian Axel This is the New Year

A.M. Workout:

Stationary bike, level 5 rolling hills course — 6.75 miles @ 30 minutes

RWRunStreak Day 27 — 1.05 miles @ 13 minutes

Rowing Machine, level 3 interval training — 0.65 miles @ 6 minutes

Food was as planned.  And of course very delicious.

A lot of people have been commenting on my posts recently about how impressed they are with my running streak and how they wish they could do it too.  Or how they are impressed by my schedule and how I can get everything accomplished because they want to as well.  YOU CAN DO IT! I’ll admit, the 2nd time around with this running streak was not as daunting as the first time when I was afraid of 38 consecutive days with no rest day.  Now it’s like I’m an old hat.  Same thing with scheduling and getting things done.  If you have it written down and you can physically see what you need to do then you CAN DO IT!  I have faith in you.  You just need to be able to translate what you need to do mentally onto paper (or computer) so that you can cross it off as you get things accomplished.  By physically being able to see all you’ve gotten done in the day you can feel better about how you’re spending your time.  So stop writing “I wish I could do this” and get out there AND DO IT!  (No, not pointed at one or two individuals, but to ya’ll at large)

Oh, and the cats thank you for all of your complements.  That is about as close as they get, unless they are fighting with each other.  But it is big strides from when they were both younger and laid at opposite ends of the bed.

Today’s grade: A all around!

Food: Egg omelet for breakfast, spaghetti for lunch, lean ground turkey with couscous for dinner.  Snacks included fruits, a cucumber, and tons of water.  I had a minor switch in meals because of a late dinner, but still nothing major

On-going list of things to do: started listing things on Ebay, put in a quality 5 pages for my thesis, and worked on cleaning up my room (which is a very slow process apparently)

Workout: Got to the gym at 5:30 but no one opened the doors until 5:45, which meant I lost a solid 20 minutes of my workout (when I go early mornings I have to be out by 7 since my mom is with me and has to get to work on time—the good and bad of having a gym buddy).  With the time loss something was going to be cut, I opted to do a hill training workout on the treadmill for 1.5 miles.  IT BURNED.  We’re talking ranges of 3-9 incline whenever the machine felt like it.  But 21 minutes and 1.5 miles later I shifted over for a 10 minute hill training workout on the stationary bike — noticing a hilly theme?  I usually put the level at 3, but I put it up to 6 this time and again it burned.  But it was quality for the time I had.

Overall: If today could be everyday for productivity…. That’s my only true thoughts.  I managed to easily roll out of bed when my 2nd alarm went off (I usually don’t get up to my first alarm, it’s just to let me know that I have to get up soon).  I rarely get up on my 2nd alarm, but this morning I kind of knew it was for a workout and I could spend the rest of the day for me.  I think that’s how I got out of bed this morning, at least that’s what I would like to think.  My new attitude and new chapter for my thesis also helps because it gets me going for the first few pages.  It’s not until page 9 or 10 that I start to get writer’s block.  

Also, my oh so positive news yesterday turned into not so great news today.  But I didn’t let it get the best of me, and instead of my old routine of shoving food in my face I spent the better part of the afternoon working on my thesis before crashing at some point and getting a solid 5 hour nap in before waking up to a belly wanting food (hence the late dinner).

I’m proud that, despite the bad news I got, that I didn’t go and ruin all of the good that I did today.  What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  Right?

Not as successful as I had hoped.  At least on some fronts.

Food: A++ — late breakfast, no lunch, lots of healthy snacks, a super healthy dinner, water mediocre (minimum of 72 fluid ounces consumed).  I had the opportunity of having Chinese takeout tonight, but instead I ordered chicken teriyaki and topped my delicious salad with it and it tasted awesome and I got my Chinese fix.

On-going List of things to do: started cleaning, wrote half a page of thesis, didn’t touch the stuff for Ebay

Workout: hahahahahahahaha  did not happen, waking up late didn’t help and the weather turned sour in the afternoon so I couldn’t go outside and run or bike

Overall reaction:  Got some positive things that’ll be happening in the upcoming days that I can’t go too much into as of yet, but I promise it’ll be worth the wait.  I am kind of kicking myself though for sleeping in as late as I did, but my body must have needed the rest because otherwise I wouldn’t have slept as long as I did.  Also, oatmeal bath did nothing to my hives whatsoever and of course I still haven’t found the time to change the bed sheets that are causing the hives (I have only 1 set of bed sheets, so I need to have time to change and wash them which I haven’t had).

Oh, got my haircut.  Is the style that they did (putting in some curl definer) look too unprofessional?  My mom always calls this look the wet hair look and doesn’t like how it looks.  Me, I’m not sure.  My hair style is simple: pull back in ponytail.  But, one of these days when a job appears I need to start looking a bit more professional.  Also, ignore the t-shirt and bathroom shot because obviously that isn’t professional at all, haha.

Total day grade:  A++

Food: Excellent, delicious, completely natural and unprocessed excluding the egg beaters and milk.  Breakfast — egg omelet (egg beaters, spinach, mushrooms, peppers, onions, zucchini, squash) with milk.  Lunch — yam.  Dinner — risotto cooked in my homemade chicken broth, ground turkey and onions cooked in an iron skillet, salad.  Snacks — banana, cantaloupe, apple, orange, peach, sunflower seeds.  Water — 100 fluid ounces

Workout: 1.15 miles treadmill @16:00 minutes ; 5.54 miles stationary bike @ 30:00 minutes

I didn’t push myself on the treadmill with the pace because I haven’t honestly truly run in several weeks, so I figured to go easy.  I’m going to have to slowly get back on track but right now to me it’s more about trying to get the motivation to do it all again over pushing myself for improvement from what I was.

Day recap:  Was up at 3:30 A.M. to go grocery shopping, don’t ask me why but it happened.  And of course I went to bed around midnight, so a 3.5 hour nap doesn’t bode well with my body.  Came back from the grocery store at 5 A.M. and it was a choice between going for a run outside (80 degrees NO THANK YOU) or heading to the gym.  I opted for the gym, and ended up getting in a decent workout with the time I had.  Came back, did another round of grocery shopping at Publix for all the fresh foods, settled into a few hours of Netflix, had lunch, and ended up passing out around 2:30 P.M. or so before getting up at 7 P.M..  It was a nice nap, which I think I can credit eating so well for otherwise I think I would have snacked the afternoon away.  Delicious dinner, I’m still experimenting with risotto, but I think I’m coming to terms with how much I love grains over eating processed things like spaghetti.  It’s just as filling, healthier, less additives, and less calories.

Overall, I feel confident that if I can have more days like today things will start to get better.  And my body certainly feels a lot less bloated than it has the past few weeks.  

I haven’t been honest with myself recently.  Nor with ya’ll.

I’ve been eating a lot more than I usually do.  Unhealthy things. Double servings. Sugar. Salt. You name it and I’ve eaten it.

But, I’ve logged it ALL in myfitnesspal and haven’t gone over calories.

But my body feels bad. Terrible. Processed food really does not bode well with my body and I need to realize this.

I thought I was doing well with things, but something snapped last week and I just fluttered down further and further. Animal crackers. Spaghetti. Chinese food. Potato Chips. Pretzels. Chex Mix. More animal crackers.

I think I know the tipping point—my 8th rejection in a week from jobs I applied for. It gets old the “Dear Ms. ——, We regret to inform you….”  Couple that with finals, thesis writing, and some serious stress for not having friends around to get out and hang out with and it just gets messy.

Food has always been my turning to point. I didn’t over indulge massively, but to go from eating so healthy to eating processed crap really shows in my body and makes me feel sluggish.

The bright side? I kept to running.  Only my eating habits got thrown out the window.

So tumblr peeps, this week I am making a promise to myself that I want you to help me keep—especially for those that are my friends on myfitnesspal—I WILL NOT touch animal crackers (which will be alright since there are none left in the house), potato chips, or spaghetti.

I am going back to eating my squashes, ground turkey meat, and yams. Going to load up on spinach, salads, and fruits this week.  If I have a sugar overload it’ll be because of natural sugar and not processed foods’ sugar.

SW-255

LW- 222.6

CW-223

Total Lost: 32 pounds

Up 0.4 of a pound.  My effort this week has been minimal, I’ve been up and down on eating (darn that large container of animal crackers!).  But I need to push past this.  I knew I’d have a small gain because of the stress I’ve had this week (and still having).

I had a very long text conversation with a good friend of mine yesterday which really just got me thinking about what has happened since I moved back home.  The majority of my motivation and determination was in August and early September, and then traveling set in and the daunting task of working on my thesis and other related endeavors.

I’m hoping by the end of this week I can email in my first chapter and from there I need to shift focus back to myself and my workouts.  I’ve lost just over 30 pounds in 10 months.  It’s a huge accomplishment for me because I lost it and it has remained lost and I haven’t put it back on.  This is huge, because when I was younger I’d lose 10-15 pounds and then put it all back on.  

I’ve been aware of what I’ve been putting in my mouth but haven’t been regulating it as well as I should be.  My diet needs to be my focus and concern for the month of November (ugh, great, I’m going to allow myself one cheat meal a week—can we all guess which day in November will DEFINITELY be a cheat day?).  I’m going to start looking at changes and figuring out what I can do to push past this and hopefully get to 50 pounds lost by the end of the year.  I know I’d love to see 199 on the scale on December 31st, but if I’m at 20X by that date, I will be JUST as happy as long as I’m losing.  I’m tired of staying in the same 22X zone for months at a time (well, 23X technically was first).  I’m just ready to push through the minimal weight loss and get this show on the road.  I have some big plans for 2012 that I need to be both mentally and physically prepared for (and financially, which will be the tell-all sign of if I can do what I want to do).

So here’s to a week of good eating habits and working out.  

While I’m not an expert, I do have 6 years of college experience under my belt to know a bit about how difficult it is going through the college years and wanting to be healthier.  Despite having started my fitness and weight loss journey in the 6th year of college (erhm, 3rd year post-undergraduate is probably a better term), I still know that it is a constant struggle between juggling a social life, school, work, and fitness.  But this is where you separate yourself from those that put on the weight while at school.  This is the time you get to embrace everything you’ve taken from your 3 month summer vacation and translate it into school.

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