Weight Loss – The Daily EO

The Daily EO: August 10th, 2012

For some reason as soon as I got home from our travels, I stopped running. I am not sure why. I just didn’t feel like it. Perhaps it is the anxiety that I wrote about on August 9th, 2012 or perhaps it is something else.

All during my vacation I ran every 2nd day as a minimum, and I felt pretty good about that. My diet was pretty good but there were significantly more carbohydrates than I usually eat, more diet root beer and definitely more desserts. But I didn’t weigh myself for the time I was away. I didn’t really want to know because I assumed it just creeping up every day.

So I kept running, but reaching for second desserts. So, with trepidation I stepped on our scale when I got home:

2 pounds? That’s nothing – it’s like a good pee!

Hmmm. Running does work. Running kept me in check. Tomorrow I will begin running again before I completely fall out of the habit of it. Then I can keep eating the world’s most delicious grilled cheese sandwiches ever made with 4-year-old Wisconsin cheddar (thanks Emile!)

Complete 180 degree for you here. I would like to talk about things I don’t “get”. For example, on Star Trek, I thought the Away Team was actually “A-weigh team” and wondered why they named it such. Perhaps a naval term. Or the word “puny”. I read it and thought it to be pronounced “pun-y” (like rhyming with money), and thought it meant thin and colt like (like wiry) based on the context. I didn’t know “puny” (pronounced p-u-nee spoken out loud) was the same word. It was only a couple of years ago I learned this. I wondered where AC/DC (the band) got their name, I thought it was a strange random group of letters.

August 10th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: On vacation, I was asked if I wanted to “sup”. Huh? Oh, paddleboarding. That’s a weird name. . . Hmmm. Okay, if that’s what it is called by the cool kids. 3 weeks later (today) it came to me out of the blue. Stand-Up Paddleboarding! Aha!

The Daily EO: June 28th, 2012

The first suit I ever purchased was in Victoria, BC in a beautiful cream colour, size 10. I bought it because I needed something for my MBA entrance interview at McMaster University. I purchased the suit (more than I could afford, but my BFF Lisa convinced me it was the way to go), broke up with my boyfriend (dodged a bullet there), flew to Ontario (thanks Mom), and convinced Mac I would be a good fit. I still have that suit actually, because despite it being 15 years ago, it’s classic. Not Jackie O. classic, but it wasn’t the 60s. Plus, at the time, I think it cost me 15% of my annual budget, so I can’t let go of it. And I got in, so it must be a lucky suit, anyways.

They say that clothes do not make the person, but I don’t know about that. I am woefully ignorant of fashion, do not read women’s magazines (they just try to make me feel inferior somehow, although I have considered a subscription to Chatelaine as of late), and am completely mentally handicapped in the application of makeup. But when I have made the effort to find good quality, well-fitting clothes that perfectly match the occasion, a sheen of confidence envelopes me. My 5’8″ stands tall, I walk confidently with my heels first and I want to shout “I belong here!” Wherever here may be.

Over the last three years, I have reduced from a size 14/16 (yes, I was occasionally a 16, nobody would ever believe me, and that is yet another advantage of being tall) to a size 12 (with an occasional 10). My closet is decimated. I can fit into all of my career clothes certainly, but they hang on my waist, they sag in the front, and generally go not look good. And no, a belt cannot fix ill fitting clothes. Please spread this around. I sorted through the closet a while back and created three categories: too big – donate, too big-put aside for altering, and wearable.

My professional closet – once a decent sized – now consists of 2 pairs of pants and 2 shirts suitable for interviews and three boxes of “for altering”. It just doesn’t make sense to purchase or alter clothes in potentially the wrong size. And spending the money when I don’t need to is folly. So, the alter boxes sit. So long in fact, I probably will have to re-sort them to check for fashionability again. Like I have any idea. Sigh. I am so hiring a consultant when I can afford to (Punch List addition).

But in this new life I am forging for myself, I have found confidence and a sense of power and ability to achieve more. And it flows when I put on running clothes. Often in the morning, I will rise and change immediately into workout clothes. This is two-fold – if I see someone they won’t think “Look at that unemployed bounder, she is still in her pajamas” and it is one less barrier to getting out the door for a run. It’s a public declaration of my intentions (for the cat I guess). One cannot take off work-out clothes, one must peel off sweaty work-out clothes.

And as I type this (not in my pajamas), I have in a racing back Lululemon purple top, a Running Room racing back sports bra, and Adidas Climalite black snug fitting shorts. And indeed I feel strong. And powerful. And like an athlete. And when nobody is looking, I will flex my bicep or admire the cut of muscle across my shoulder or sneak a peek at the curve of my waist to my hips. After a run or work-out, I want to stay in these stinky clothes for a while as a reminder of what I have achieved for that day.

Do clothes make the man? No, but the right ones match what you are feeling inside and help it come out.

June 28th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: I ran 4.0 km in 35 degrees Celsius (with the humidity). What potential will this racing back unleash today?

The Daily EO: May 31st, 2012

This is the last time I have to write “May” – at least for another year. My idea to purge my superstitious feelings about May is a good one, but I think that I will have to repeat and repeat many years over to truly eliminate my feelings about it. But for a first effort, I am feeling that I did okay.

One of the Maintenance May items was continuing our work from Fit April. And here are my results:

I am happy with the results – considering that I continued to enjoy life while eating right and exercising most of the time. I am down 13 pounds since I started and I am happy with that. But really pisses me off? Emile’s results are what pisses me off:

Seriously? He lost 30 pounds in 2 months. No real hiccups – just a smooth transition. Almost daily runs and some food denials, but nonetheless, he just dropped 30 pounds like it was nothing. And if it was nothing, why didn’t he do it before? Honestly, it seems unfair that men can fluctuate so easily. He looks and feels great. And if I don’t watch my back, he is going to overtake me – although he is going to start getting that gaunt look. And both are just wrong.

We have a run next weekend that we are both hoping to again best our personal bests. We’ll have to see.

May 31st, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: May in my rearview.

The Daily EO: April 30th, 2012 (Fit April Results)

Any opportunity to catalogue my life, efforts and results is interesting to me. To be able to take the chaos of life reduce it to a graph or chart makes me feel good – I have it under control. So, this is bliss for me – I’ve been waiting to write this particular entry for weeks.

It was 5 weeks ago that I decided that I needed to deal with my Shrunken Shorts Syndrome and my husband needed to look at his Ski Jump Shirt diagnosis. We committed ourselves to a month of exercise, healthy restricted calories and a 5K race at the end of it. I’ll admit, we cheated a bit – we started in the last week of March. We did consider having a binge instead, but we thought it would be too hard of a transition – and my pants were already too tight. It became a common sight to see me in workout clothes and weighting out food on our scale.

I had challenges – a bag of marshmallows disappeared quickly at a campfire one night (and even the raw ones on subsequent days). The Kitchener Food Show dessert samples slowed things. Emile faced and won numerous food challenges at work – functions with chef made cookies, pizza and butter tarts. There were days I just wanted to eat macaroni and cheese and be done with it. And sometimes we indulged, other times we held out. And we’re feeling pretty proud of ourselves.

So, if you want to a month of fitness (that will hopefully lead to another), here is my advice:

1. Be obsessive about it – every calorie gets logged, every minute of exercise, and every day you weight yourself (with a digital scale). Plan your days around food and exercise
2. Brag about it – tell everyone you know this is what you are doing, so you have to deal with social shame if you don’t follow through
3. Create an outside force – sign up for a class, a race, or target a wedding, or something to keep you focused for the short-term until your results are motivation enough.
4. Find someone more committed than you are to share the challenge – my husband fit the bill perfectly
5. Compete only with yourself. You’ll always find someone healthy, fitter, eating more wheatgrass, but who cares about them. This is about you!

And here is what we did in Fit April:

	Susan	Emile
Calories Consumed	31995	24516
Calories Burned	9008	9572
Distance Moved (km)	93.8	112.2
Fitness Minutes	1012	888

April 30th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:

Susan Loss: 10.2 lbs (Goal!) Emile Loss: 21.2 lbs (What the hell?)