Doing the Math...

I can't set a goal without informing myself, so here I am, AGAIN, doing math.

(For someone who really doesn't like math, I sure seem to do a lot of it!)

IF I were to set a weight loss goal, I would want to lose the weight by our family reunion in July. And if I'm going to lose the weight by the end of July, I really ought to just plan to lose the weight by Seminar. =D So... my weight loss deadline would be July 15.

July 15... that gives me... about 15 weeks to lose some weight.

At 1 lb a week, that would be 15 lbs, and that would put me at approximately 115 lbs.

That would be good. I would be happy with that. I would be even happier with 110 lbs, though, so let's just aim for 110, since this is all hypothetical. Shall we? =D

So... to lose 20 lbs in 15 weeks, I will need to dispose of 70,000 calories. Wow. That's a lot of calories! Okay... so, 70,000 calories over 15 weeks is... 4666 calories a week. Let's just round that to 4700 calories per week. That means I need to somehow get rid of 671 (rounded down to 670) calories per day. On average, I burn approximately 1350 calories, just by being alive every day. The actual number is 1366.something, but I rounded down for simplicity sake. So... I burn approximately 1600 calories daily, between being alive and living a fairly sedentary life. I could easily up that number to 1800 calories a day, just by being a little more active around the house and sitting less. But for now we'll stick with 1600 calories. So.... I need to somehow rid myself of 670 (or 700, for numbers' sake) calories a day. If I eat 1200 calories a day, that takes that number down to 300. That means I need to burn 300 calories a day through exercise.

Goal: lose 20 lbs
Deadline: July 15
Calories/Week: 4700
Calories/Day: 700
BMR: 1350
Daily Calorie Expenditure: 1600
Calorie Intake/Day: 1200
Calories Burned through Exercise/Day: 300

I seem to always come up with the same answer, every time I want to lose weight. 1200 calories, burn 300 every day. I guess it's good the formula works each time, but somehow I always think it will come out differently. =D Silly me.

So... if I eat 1200 calories a day and burn 300 through exercise, it IS possible for me to lose 20 lbs by the middle of July. That's good to know.

Now, the question is... do I want to?

Exercise...

So the Aerial Dance workshop on Saturday... it was fun!! I definitely need to be in better shape to do well with it, but I enjoyed it! I enjoyed it enough that I enrolled in a beginner class, so I'll be doing that every Saturday in February. Who'd have thunk?

And... while we're on the topic of crazy things I did this weekend... I got up this morning and ran! It's been 6 months since I've run (I mean, AT ALL), but I decided just to get on and give it my best, so after a 5 minute warm up walk I started running... and didn't stop for 15 minutes! That's right... I ran 15 minutes straight (about a mile and a half) after not running at all for 6 months! Crazy! But exhilarating at the same time, so I hope I can keep up with it now that I've gotten that first dreaded run out of the way.

So... that's my weekend. I'm excited about running and doing aerial dance this month and hoping to get in better shape that way. I just need to work on my abs so I can roll up ONTO the trapeze without needing assistance by the end of the class. Ha ha! How's that for a goal?

*nervous laugh*

Well, remember how I was going to do the SP boot camp and start running? Well, last week was very busy and I didn't do either! Really, except for snowshoeing with Eliana on my back one day, I haven't done much in the way of dedicated exercise. Some stretching, and a day of DDR, but I was just plain busy last week and didn't get much of ANYTHING done! In fact, my goal for today is just to get my Christmas decorations down and put away finally. It's the middle of January for peet's sake! So... I am working on finding a time that I can consistently exercise. Obviously waking up before Ellie is not working, and I'm having a REALLY hard time finding time in the day while she's here doing it. She wants me to spend most of the day playing with her and interacting, and I haven't been able to incorporate her into my workout routine very well yet. But I'm still working on it.

On the plus side, I weighed myself and I'm down to 124.6 from 126.2, so even without counting calories (which I just can't commit to right now) and exercising I've lost a lb and a half. That's encouraging!

So... I'm working on scheduling in exercise time this week. I think that's the best place to start. After that I can really get down to the numbers, but first I just have to find the time to exercise!

Back on track!

Here I am, back on track, tracking my calories again. It's a new year and a new start and it's been a good day!

Of course, I've been starving all day, but that's just the lack of holiday junk food talking. The first day back tracking calories is always the hardest. Tomorrow will be hard, but easier than today. And if I can make it past 3 days of calorie counting, I'm golden. The it just becomes... routine. And really, I like it once it gets to be routine. I don't feel hungry, it doesn't take long for me to remember what a "normal" portion size is like, and my food scale and I become best buds again. It's great. Once I get past these first 3 days.

But the good news is that I drank a ton of water trying to curb my munchy hunger. It didn't really help with the hunger, but it kept me busy and I logged about 3 liters of water today. That's good news for someone with a pop addiction! Of course, it helps that we got a carbonator over Christmas, so I can drink fizzy water now. It helps curb the pop craving and it doesn't have any additives, extra salt, or artificial sweeteners! It's my new favorite thing.

I managed to get up this morning and do Coach Nicole's 12 minute Pilates ab workout, followed by 45 minutes on the treadmill (at 3.5 mph at 3% incline, for a 355 calorie workout), and I even tossed in 12 "real" push ups for good measure. Mostly I tossed those in to see how many sequential "real" push ups I could do. 12's the limit it seems. I'd like to build that number up. But that's not the point right now...

The point is that at the end of the day, eating 3 meals, snacking as needed to curb the hunger pangs of a belly that's been given anything it wants for a month, drinking water at every turn, and counting every calorie I put in my (not as) little (as I'd like it to be) body, I ended the day alright. Here are today's stats (with my goals in parentheses)

Calories: 1367 (1200-1550)
Fat: 29 (32-56)
Carbs: 224 (163-236)
Protein: 59 (60-127)
Fiber: 25 (25-35)

I even ate some MUFAs today, at least with breakfast and lunch. I don't know about dinner, unless whole wheat spaghetti has MUFAs in it. Hmmm....

So, I'll take it. If I can keep doing this I think I'll be on a good path to being in better shape. And I'd like to be in better shape. I'd like to be healthy, I'd like to be happy, and I'd like to look good.

Happy New Year!

Push ups

I was flipping through reading some Spark People articles when I came across this trainer's blog post about doing push ups. Curious, I gave it a try... could I do 10 "real" push ups? I know I can do 50+ girl push ups in 1 minute. But could I do 10 consecutive boy push ups?

The answer is... YES.

I just did them. Good form, even execution. I can do at least 10. I stopped there because, well, I got out of bed to do them and I really wanted to get back in bed where it was warmer and I could continue doing stuff on my computer. But I can do at least 10.

So really, I'd like to be able to do at least 2 sets of 10. Each day. It's easy enough to do, doesn't require any equipment, and doesn't take much time. I used to do them at The Ridge when I went there, so I don't see why I can't incorporate them into my routine again. I could probably get Eliana to do them with me, or at least help me count. And if I'm lucky she'll be nice enough to keep from sitting on my back!

So there's a goal. Incorporate push ups into my daily exercise routine. Work up to 2 sets of 10 push ups daily. I can do that.

Back on track!

Well, I didn't do much today. I was pretty lazy, as I didn't leave the house until late this afternoon when we went to get our flu shots. I went to dinner at Mackenzie River with a friend and by the time I left the house at 6:15 for that I hadn't done any exercise or anything. We got the thin crust Thai Pie pizza and each had a salad. I love their salad! I was good and only put about 1 T. of dressing on (though I counted it as 2 on SP just in case it was more - kind of hard to judge when you're pouring out of a little cup) even though I absolutely LOVE their dressing. Then I ate two slices of pizza. I counted it as 2 medium slices of Pizza Hut thin crust pepperoni, and I think that's fair. Pepperoni is usually some of the fattiest pizza you can get, especially from Pizza Hut, so that's what I usually count pizza as on SP. It was a great dinner out and time with a friend (without kids!) and it's so nice to be able to do that without eating a ton of calories!

So because I didn't exercise before dinner, I knew I'd have to after dinner. I couldn't go two days in a row without exercise!!! Especially not my first week back to exercising and calorie counting! So I put on a movie from hulu.com (Bring it On - a cheerleading movie with peppy music. Peppy music is always good when you're exercising!) and I got on the treadmill and walked at 3.4 mph and an incline of 3-5 for most of the movie. I walked for 90 minutes and finally got off to watch the last 15 minutes of the movie in a chair. =D I figure that was PLENTY of walking. I ended up burning 675 calories in that time, too, so I guess I got my 350 in for today! Made up for yesterday, too!

I don't know what tomorrow holds. We'll have to see how Ellie is doing with her flu shot. Last year she was pretty miserable the day after. If she's that way tomorrow we'll stay home. Otherwise we'll go to playgroup!!

Pretty sure I went over my calories tonight....

I didn't mean to, but I think I did. By maybe a hundred calories or two. Nothing too terrible, but it's 10:00 and I haven't exercised yet.

We went to Over the Tapas for dinner and split an entree and two sides. Well, we split one side, I ate one side, and Leif ate the entree (the teeny tiny entree!). He wasn't a big fan of the creamy potatoes, which I love, but I was expecting to eat only half of them when I ordered them. Instead I ended up eating a whole bowl of the cream laden potatoes, which is where a lot of my calories for the night went. Ack! I went into dinner having 900 calories or so to spare, and I guess it wasn't enough! Sigh. But it's okay. We had a GREAT night out and I got some MUFA in with my dinner. (Have I posted on MUFA yet? If not, that sentence probably sounded naughtier than it was intended, LOL!) If I haven't written a MUFA post yet, I will. I'm giving it a try. But that's beside the point.

Maybe tomorrow I'll try to get some extra exercise in. If I get myself organized I can put Ellie in the stroller and walk over to Bible study. That will be something, at least.

Oh, we did walk around downtown (we parked at Over the Tapas, ate, then walked down to T. Charbonneau's and back the other direction to the Co-op, then back to our car, so however far that is...) so I think that should count as exercise for the evening. =D Maybe I'll still do some DDR if Leif will play with me, but we're both pretty beat, so I don't know. And it IS 10:30 at night already... maybe I'll just go to bed.

Wiiiiii!

I did housework pretty much ALL day today. I don't know if that counts as exercise or not, but I'm sure I burned more calories than sitting on my bum all day! We had a girls' night tonight, so I saved up my dinner calories and decided to eat dinner there. Because 3 of the 4 of us are working on losing weight (before our 30th, 40th, and 50th birthdays this year!) most of the food was healthy. That made it a little easier tonight! It also was good that I went into the evening with about 650 calories to spare... =D

Because I hadn't done any real exercise today and I didn't think I'd have the energy to once I got home (you know how it goes...) I decided to head downstairs and play some DDR on the Wii quickly to see how many calories I could knock out in the 25 or so minutes I had to spare before I needed to leave. I got about 215 burned, which meant I only had to burn 150 when I came home. Hooray! When I got home Leif was in the hot tub, so I changed and joined him for a bit, relaxing in the warm water and talking. Then he suggested we go play DDR, so I took the opportunity to burn those last calories of the day and maintain my goal. Little did I know that we would have so much fun and play for so long.... I ended up burning a total of 550 calories playing DDR today!!

Hopefully that will encourage the scale to move!!

Fleeting moderation

I'm struggling with moderation today. Just a little here and a little there... but it all eats up calories!! I'm going to a girls' night tonight, so I might just skip dinner until I get there. I don't remember if we're having real dinner food or not, but there will be calories there for sure! I'm bringing yummy hot chocolate fixins, and I'd hate not to be able to enjoy them just because I couldn't resist eating a handful of sprinkles earlier in the day!

So... I've got 2 hours to get through without indulging before I go tonight. I need help!

(and really, I should be exercising for a good portion of one of those hours!)

Treadmill time...

Just walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes and burned 365 calories. I've got just under 300 calories left to consume today. And right now? I'm pretty tired... I think I'll make some Christmas cards, drink some hot chocolate, watch a show, clean the kitchen, then go to bed and actually get 8 hours of sleep. It'll be good.

It has started...

Last night after I wrote out my new goal I decided that it had to start THEN, not sometime in the future. So... I got up and exercised!! I burned 400 calories playing DDR on the Wii for 40 minutes. It is really quite a good way to get some exercise in!

I've been counting calories for a few days now and starting to exercise, so I decided to weigh myself this morning... and I'm at 122! I know it could be standard weight fluctuation, but it's still encouraging to see myself down 2 lbs.... it makes my holiday goal a little more manageable! Now I need to lose 7 lbs in 6 weeks!

From SparkPeople

I just got this email in my inbox and it's got some things I need to remember, so I figured I'd share...

Squeezing in Exercise

Do you feel more like a chauffeur than a parent? We all know that exercise is important for us to stay healthy, but between cooking, cleaning up, budgeting, homework help, and--oh, yeah--sleep, who has the time?

Next time you feel too busy to exercise, try squeezing it in to your schedule with these tips:

During Drive Time
Try some isometric exercises: Squeeze your glutes, contract your abs, and work your calves by raising your legs up on your toes at red lights. Park far from your destination so you have to walk farther. Arrive early to your event, if possible, to allow time for a brisk walk.

At Programs, Practices, and Games
Walk around the facility before or after the event; look for chances to combine a class or activity with those of your children. For example, take aerobics while your daughter has basketball practice at the YMCA.

While Keeping House
Shop at big stores where there'll be lots of walking; do meal prep and cleanup with a little music and dancing. Clean to music, and shun some of your labor saving devices (like remotes). When doing yard work, keep moving! Use your leg and glute muscles (instead of your back) to shovel, rake, move dirt, etc.

When doing laundry, do squats to pick up unfolded laundry from the basket, and take fitness breaks during homework time, such as stretching or jumping rope for a few minutes. (Your kids will love it too!) Become your dog's best friend--most dogs are always ready to boogie!

For Play Dates
Keep in mind the old adage that children live what they learn. If you don't want your kids to be couch potatoes, be a good example. Walk to the library for story hour; plan regular play times at the park or pool; when snow keeps you home, go play in it. By making physical activity fun, you'll lay the foundation for your kids to have healthy, active lives. What's more, you'll rediscover that activity can be fun--not just another item to check off your grown-up list!

I know that I already know this stuff, but sometimes it is just so hard to remember! I feel like I need to schedule it in, but sometimes I just need to squeeze it in even if my schedule doesn't "allow" for it. Exercise is important, and I need to make it a priority.

So far so good...

Well, I'm doing okay on calories for today. I still have about 150-200 calories to eat today, which means I can have a good snack this evening while I'm up late watching the Olympics and cleaning/organizing. I'm also just about done with my water for the day, so that's good. And I didn't get a walk in today, but we DID go for a 30 minute family bike ride tonight, complete with hills to climb! It's the first real workout (aside from hikes, I guess) in a while. My legs were tired, but it feels good to get some exercise in.

Okay... back to cleaning the kitchen / organizing the pantry. Because I really don't care about men's volleyball.

Rebellion...

Yesterday I rebelled. Completely. Totally. Ate whatever I wanted to. And today the scale shows it. Ugh. I did get my 2 liters of water in, and I didn't rebel until dinner, but then I had way too much to eat and I didn't care. Today I care.

So... today I've got to be better. I'm not anywhere close to my goal for Monday (somewhere in the 115 range, but I don't think it's going to happen) and I'm bummed about that, because this is where I always stall!

So if you think of it, pray for me today. I need motivation, consistency, and energy. I should throw myself into some projects (which is often difficult with Ellie around!) and just work hard to burn off some calories. There might be a trip to the splash park today, and I really should squeeze a walk in. I really wanted to go for a family bike ride this morning, but it appears that Leif went without us. I was really looking forward to it, too, but I don't have a bike of my own, so without him I can't ride the tandem. And I highly doubt he'll want to go for another ride today after he does a long ride this morning. So I'll settle for housework exercise and maybe a walk.

Down again

The encouragement continues today as I weigh... I'm down to 119.4 this morning! I am excited to be .at my goal for Monday already, and I hope I don't have a sudden gain to put a bump in my plans! I really, really, really want to reach my goal this time, and I'm really hoping not to stall around 115 lbs like I always seem to do.

I am getting the rest of my life in order, too, and woke up to a shiny clean kitchen this morning, which was wonderful! That makes Eliana's room and the kitchen that are clean and decluttered. I don't know if I did an hour solid of housework last night or not, but I put effort in at least and am seeing results in both areas that are encouraging! My next room to tackle is the living room, which shouldn't be hard, but there is vacuuming to be done, and then I need to mop the kitchen while I'm doing floors. It helps that I'm starting my days with devotions (and recording them at lou52.blogspot.com, which seems to be helping), and even though I missed them on my way to get out the door yesterday morning (though I did start the morning with fellowship, which was wonderful!) I did them last night before I went to bed. What a difference this is making in my attitude! I hate that I forget how powerful the Word is sometimes.

So tonight is the Bite of Bozeman and I am eating turkey leg for dinner. It's the one time of year that I get it and I'm not giving it up!! But I will be sharing it with Leif (and Ellie, who loves them!) so I should be okay not over eating on it, if I make an effort to be moderate. I'll try to eat lots of fruits and vegetables throughout the rest of the day so that I keep my calories down and nutrition up, since I know dinner won't be that nutritious.

Well, I think I'm going to call Taylor and see if she's interested in taking a walk this morning. We are planning on exercising together anyway, and it looks like it's shaping up to be a beautiful morning, so we might as well go outside!

And now for some math...

Today I am at 120 lbs. I want to be at 110 by my birthday, September 21. That means I have approximately 8 weeks to lose 10 lbs. Technically, that is a doable number. I need to lose a lb and a quarter each week to reach that goal, so I need to get cracking and work on it.

There it is. A new goal.

Weight loss schedule:
7/29 - 120.8
8/4 - 119.4
8/11 - 118.0
8/18 - 116.6
8/25 - 115.2
9/1 - 113.8
9/8 - 112.4
9/15 - 111.0
9/21 - 110.6

This is what I hope to stick with and use as a guide each week. I would like to be at or lower than these numbers at each weigh in to make my final goal. That's a loss of 1.4 lbs each week. Each lb is 3500 calories, so I need to rid myself of 4900 calories each week. That's 700 calories a day. According to a few basal metabolic rate calculators, I burn about 1320 calories a day, just by being alive. If I intake 1100 calories a day, that means I have a deficit of 220 calories. That takes me to 480 calories that I need to rid myself of. According to a couple other daily calorie expenditure calculators, I burn approximately 1600 calories with a sedentary lifestyle. That means I have about 200** calories each day that I need to burn with exercise if I'm going to lose weight according to the schedule above, and a little more if I eat more during the day.

The following exercises will burn about 200 calories, so I need to make time to fit at least one of them in a day:

• Wii, fitness mode, 200 calorie goal (**255 calorie goal)
  
• Housework, 1 hour (1:15)
  
• Backpacking, 30 minutes (10 lb load)
• Bicycling, 12 mph, 30 minutes
  
• Gardening, 1 hour (1:15)
  
• Hiking, 45 minutes (no load)
  
• Jogging, 5 mph, 30 minutes (adding a 5 minute warm up and cool down should do it.)
  
• Walking, 15 min/mile, 45 minutes (50 minutes)
  
• Weight training, 60 sec. between intervals, 30 minutes (35 minutes)
  

So there are some things I can work toward doing. And really, if I worked at housework for an hour straight each day, my house would look a whole lot better AND I would get exercise!! I guess that means I need to start setting my timer while I work, LOL! The Flylady principles come back again!

**after thinking about it I realized that I really have to burn 200 NET calories. If I burn 200 calories in an hour (such as doing housework) then I really need to burn 255, since I will burn 55 calories just by being alive, and they don't count toward my end goal. So it depends on how long it will take me to burn 200 calories.** (adjusted times are in italics)

Going for a hike today...

Nothing big, just a mom and me hike. But I need to go for a run as well, hopefully outside. I'm tempted to do it right now while Leif and Ellie are still sleeping, but I don't know...

I'm going to record my food and exercise today.

And drink my water.

It's been a couple days and I'm ready to jump into this week full force.

DDR and a hike!

Got some exercise in twice today... first I burned 400 calories on DDR. Then we went for a family hike tonight after dinner. We decided to go into town and we walked around the Fish Technology Center for a bit and then decided to hike the M. It's the first time we've hiked the M with Eliana not in a backpack and it went relatively well. We even made it all the way to the M and I didn't feel like dying along the way. That's pretty good for my first trek of the year up the M. It's usually a big wakeup call for how out of shape I am, but this time it was encouragement that I am not so terribly out of shape!!

Didn't record food today, and I'm not sure I wanted to anyway, because I ate horribly! But I'm taking baby steps and perhaps tomorrow will be a day to record. That's my goal at least.

Sweaty Day!

I did a lot of sweating today! It started with an uphill stroller pushing walk with Erika, and then some playtime outside with the girls at the Museum of the Rockies. When we came home and Eliana went down for a nap I ran/walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes, burning 350 calories! Then this evening Leif and I played DDR for about an hour or so. I know that we started with the calorie burning mode and I burned 200 calories, then we switched to a different mode and played for another half hour or so. So... not counting the last bit of DDR or the hike this morning, I burned over 550 calories from exercising today! Hooray!

Now to work on tracking my food again... Maybe that will be tomorrow's challenge.

DDR for the Wii!

Well, I had originally planned to make DDR (Dance, Dance Revolution) for the Wii an incentive prize for when I finally made it down to 110, but we saw it at Target the other day and bought it. But I have been having SO MUCH FUN with it, and that is good because....

I've been exercising!

You can put DDR into workout mode and tell it how many calories you want to burn (after inputting your weight and all that) and then it will give you different songs to "dance" to and calculate your calories based on how much you move your arms and feet! Yippee! I've burned a couple hundred calories playing with Leif already tonight and we're going to play some more once Eliana goes to bed.

I've also agreed to be a friend's running buddy (she doesn't live here, but we'll keep each other accountable for the C25K plan) so I should be getting back into that this week, too.

Recording my food? Haven't in a long time. That's bad. Weight gain? Nope, still at 117. Also bad, but good that I haven't gained any more, just been at a stand still. Still struggling to drink my water, too. Basically, I need to crack down and just not give myself any slack. But I don't want to. I know I need to, though. So that's my current struggle.

So tomorrow is Monday. We have a Mom and Me hike at 10 that should last an hour or so and is 2.5 miles. Then in the afternoon while Eliana is napping I'm going to run on the treadmill. If I'm really good I'll record my food and water, too, but I won't push my luck too far. ;) First I'll just aim to get some good exercise in.