Josamarie's Fitness Profile

Josamarie's Journal

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  Importance of support

  Last weekend wasn't a great time for my diet. Saturday started out ok, Charlie and I went to the farmer's market (I drank a protein smoothie before going) and ate a good veggie packed lunch at the Green Owl. Then Ashley came over for dinner, and things went to crap. Dinner itself wasn't horrible, a salad and fish with artichoke pesto pasta... maybe a little oil/cheese heavy for a great meal, but not awful. Things were going well and we were sitting around chatting, when Ash decides we need to make cookies. I tried telling her no about a million times, but no kind of will power can win out over that kind of determination and peer pressure. She was appalled that I don't keep butter, sugar, or milk in the house, so at least the cookies we made were a *little* bit healthier than they could have been, and I did only eat one. Still, I was disappointed in the amount of peer pressure that I experienced from a grown friend; I guess that Ashley isn't the best diet buddy because as a runner she's never really had to freak out about it... eat a cookie, run an extra mile. But with my metabolism being so off and my hormones all out of whack (not to mention my dislike of exercise), I can't afford to think like that. I guess I'll just have to chalk it up to learning experience and not agree to eat with Ash again... at least no anywhere that cookies could potentially be involved!

  Posted about 1 month ago by Josamarie

  
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  Milestones

  Had my first weigh in last week since coming back from what Elan likes to refer to as "the incident;" To my surprise, I lost 4 pounds and 1.5 inches off my waist. It's funny because it doesn't feel like a lot, and I definitely feel as fat as ever when I look in the mirror, but it is good to know that I'm making progress, even if I can't see or feel it. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely things that I notice (mostly that I don't feel like I'm dying after 90% of my workouts... I've finally discovered that there is a difference between "This is hard and I hate you" and "Please kill me now!" The basic difference is that hard may suck but it's not impossible, while it would be quite difficult to exercise at all if I were dead!). I'm looking forward to seeing more progress in the coming months (I joined a naturalistic WW style meeting that will run for 13 weeks and really get to the bottom of my weight loss resistances), and am still working hard to convince myself that the number on the scale is not the thing that matters most; what matters is how I feel inside and out. It's a work in progress, but it's progressing!

  Posted about 1 month ago by Josamarie

  
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  Back on track

  Good news is not only did I avoid having surgery, but they took me out of the cast 2 weeks early! The doctor gave me the ok to go back to the gym, as long as I'm not using my wrist while the new bone heals and hardens. Been back training with Elan for almost a week now, and I'm amazed at how quickly you loose what little you gain; when I broke my arm, we'd been working together 2 times a week for a month and while it was still tough some days, I had gotten to a point where I wasn't sore the next day. My first session with her was last Thursday, and it was Monday morning before I really felt like I could move without pulling something! Just another reminder that what you don't use, you lose, and that I'm so ready to stop losing my fight with my weight!

  Posted 2 months ago by Josamarie

  
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  Setbacks

  Working out with Elan last week, I tripped over my own clumsy feet and broke my left arm pretty badly. The pain killers that they have me on, compounded with the fact that I've gone from working out 5 days a week to zero, means I have no appetite at all. When I do eat, though, I'm not being conscious or careful. I need to get back on track with at least the eating portion of my lifestyle if I don't want this to be the thing that puts me over the line from overweight to obese. I find out on Friday if they can cast the break, which would mean I can at least do cardio while it heals, or if I'll need surgery, which would take a lot longer recovery.

  Posted 3 months ago by Josamarie

  
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  Protein overdose

  Elan has challenged me to get more protein in my diet, a real challenge for me as a mostly-vegetarian. I still eat cheese, yogurt, eggs, and occasionally fish... but short of inhaling salmon steaks on a daily basis, most of my main protein sources are also high in (good) fats and carbs. I've tried to rely less on nuts and seeds for protein in the last couple of weeks. As I said before, this has been a bit challenging. I grew up guzzling milk; when I was a kid, it was not uncommon for our family of 6 to go through 2-3 gallons of milk in a day. Since I moved back from a year-long stay in Europe (where I never drank milk) during college, however, I've developed a bit of a lactose intolerance, primarily when drinking milk straight. I love cheese and yogurt, and of course who doesn't love ice cream, but if I eat too much dairy, I always feel nauseous and ill within minutes of overindulging. Charlie doesn't tolerate milk well either, so we actually don't even keep the liquid stuff in the house, converting to almond milk instead. So when Elan suggested whey protein as an alternative to meats, I was a little leary. After quite a bit of online research and some trial and error, I found an organic product that I really like (and it's local to Madison, as a perk). I'm still struggling to lower the fat content in my diet (olive oil is my best bud, and almonds are my go-to snack), and I'm still eating a good half of my calories from carbs (whatever people say, it is almost impossible to eat a tasty, balanced meal without carbo overload... beans are a great source of protein, if you accept that they are laden with carbs, too!). I think the biggest struggle has been convincing myself how often (and how much) I need to eat. My first progress assessment last week was a big fat fail, as I gained 4 pounds after a month of what I thought was a sensible diet and more exercise than I've done in about 6 years! What a let down... the only thing that we can see is that I wasn't eating ENOUGH, a concept that is totally foreign to me. Every diet that I've been on in my life (too many to count) has dictated 1200 calories a day... it would be an understatement to say that my jaw hit the floor when I found out I should be eating closer to 2000 a day, especially now that I'm exercising more vigorously. I guess that's just the proof that I'm at the start of a journey, and I have no idea what to expect.

  Posted 4 months ago by Josamarie