Monday, Apr. 30 - CrossFit

Once again, I was tricked into being psyched for CrossFit's WOD (workout of the day) today. Both components were pretty straightforward:

• Run 800m (1/2 mile) (I ran a quarter-mile of this without a walk break)
• 50 double-unders (I did 25 double-under attempts instead at my trainer's suggestion)
• Run 600m  (I ran a quarter-mile of this without a walk break)
• 40 double-unders (I did 80 singles instead, again at my trainer's suggestion)
• Run 400m  (I ran this quarter-mile without a walk break)
• 30 double-unders (I did 60 singles instead - unbroken! Woo!)
• Run 200m
• 20 double-unders (I did 40 singles instead - again unbroken)

And once again all the cardio wasted me, but though it was challenging, it was doable, as proven by the fact that I was able to get in 3 quarter-mile runs without walk breaks. Completed this in 19 minutes even. 

With that, the warm-up, and 40 reverse hypers for core work, total workout time was about 35 minutes.  

Week Seven: Progress Report

No chart, no picture, and most of the week was a blur - sorry! I'm just moving on to Week 8 as far as all that goes. 

Had a lot going on this week - promised the author I edit a series for that I'd have her latest book done, and I'm still getting the hang of budgeting my time appropriately. (It always takes longer than I estimate!) So I did well up until Wednesday and then started panicking, staying up late, and caving to some pasta and sugar to get me through. 

On top of that, no sooner did I finish editing than I was off to my brother's for the weekend to watch my niece and nephew. I packed some snacks to eat, but got so tired that I ended up eating more of what they had in their house.

I guess the good news is that the book thing is only a twice-a-year gig that gets easier the more I do it, and I likely won't end it with anything other than a reboot period from now on. And I didn't gorge/splurge/binge like I used to, which is probably why I still managed to lose a pound.  

What I remember of the health summary:

Keep a food diary and maintain a low-carb, low-sugar, low-caffeine, no-artificial-sweetener, no-alcohol diet: Completely filled out 2 days' worth of daily worksheets to log my food and total all carb, caffeine, and sugar content. Partially filled out another 2 days' worth and skipped 3 days entirely.  

Be able to jog ¼ mile at a time without a walk break: Was able to do all quarter-mile intervals on my 2-mile run/walk this week (about 5 intervals total, with 2 minutes of walking in between each). Would love to work up to doing this for my 3-mile run next. No other runs this week - just one other half-hour walk. Pretty sad.    

Get to a healthier BMI – between 26 and 27: Down an eensy-weensy bit  this week: BMI is 29.3, down .1 from last week. (Starting BMI 31.2; Week 1---30.2; Week 2---30; Week 3---29.9; Week 4---30.2, Week 5---29.9, Week 6---29.4)  

Increase my physical strength: Went to CrossFit only 1 time. Blaming it on staying up late editing. Have a short week coming up (going to New Orleans Thursday morning!), but will go at least twice. 

Get up between 6:30 and 7:30 every weekday: Schedule all out of whack. Only did this 1 weekday this week.

Get to bed by 11:00 every weeknight: Nope! Only two nights, I think. 

Get an average of 7 hours of sleep every night: I got 8, 6, 9, 6.5, 5, 6, and 7. Messed-up week.   

Tuesday, Apr. 24 - CrossFit and 2-Mile Run/Walk

The WOD was to do AMRAP (as many reps as possible) in 12 minutes of:

• 30 double-unders - Still don't have these, so I got to do 15 attempts each round instead.
• 10 kettlebell swings (26# weight)

The kettlebell swings exhausted me! I'd forgotton how hard they were. Ugh. I was able to do 5 rounds of the above plus 1 extra sad little double-under attempt. 

With my warm-up, the WOD, and core (20 back extensions), total workout time was about 32 minutes. 

Also did my first (and what I did not know would be my last) run/walk for the week. All intervals were my goal of a quarter mile! My warm-up was 5 minutes of walking, the cool-down was four minutes, and the rest was intervals of .25 miles jogging @4.5 mph and 2 minutes of walking. Total time was 32 minutes to cover 2 miles.

Week Six: Progress Report

Ah, Week Six - the week I made a dent in weight loss again! Yay. Upped my Metformin (for PCOS) to 1000 mg this week and have been adjusting well.  

A few hiccups this week - Saturday night we got sushi. I thought "There's so little rice in the rolls - how bad can it be?" Well, not horrible, but almost 100 grams of carbs and 20 grams of sugar in 12 pieces ... so enough to put me over my limits. This taught me once again to look stuff up BEFORE I plan to eat it. 

And then sleep needs work again. I've been up later keeping up with a book editing deadline, but I'll be done with that (WOO-HOO!) this week. Will try to get into bed around 10:30 instead of 11 so I'm good and sleepy by 11:30 p.m.

Dammit, I need those new sneakers. Let's work this, Diana. 

Here's the rest of the health summary:

Keep a food diary and maintain a low-carb, low-sugar, low-caffeine, no-artificial-sweetener, no-alcohol diet: Continued to fill out all 7 days' worth of  daily worksheets to log my food and total all carb, caffeine, and sugar content. 

Be able to jog ¼ mile at a time without a walk break: Practiced doing two-tenths-mile intervals again this week at 4.5 mph - I made up the 4-miler I missed last week, and also did my regular 2-mile run/walk, 3-mile run/walk, and 4-mile run/walk for this week. On the 2-miler I worked in 3 quarter-mile intervals, I did 2 of them in my 3-miler, and just one of them in my 4-miler. I'll up the frequency this week. I'll probably do all quarter-mile intervals for my 2-miler, and then try to do at least 3 for the 3-miler and 2 for the 4-miler. 

Get to a healthier BMI – between 26 and 27: Good progress here - I'm down to a BMI of 29.4, down .5 from last week. (Starting BMI 31.2; Week 1---30.2; Week 2---30; Week 3---29.9; Week 4---30.2, Week 5---29.9)  

Increase my physical strength: Went to CrossFit my goal of 3 times.  

Get up between 6:30 and 7:30 every weekday: Did this 3 out of 5 weekdays. Will strive for my goal of 4 again this week.

Get to bed by 11:00 every weeknight: Maintained my goal of 4 this week. Keeping up the good work! I really need to start getting there by 10:30, though, to be able to actually be asleep by 11:30.

Get an average of 7 hours of sleep every night: I got 8, 6, 6.5, 6, 6, 9.5, and 9. Again, if I don’t fall asleep right by 11:30 then there’s no way I’ll get my 7 hours before getting up for CrossFit at 6:30. Gotta get to bed by 10:30 this week.    

Monday, Apr. 23 - Walk w/Incline

Easy workout today - just hopped on the treadmill and walked for half an hour. I played with the incline, going from flat to 5% incline and back down again in 1% increments every minute throughout the workout. Covered 1.5 miles in 30 minutes.

Sunday, Apr. 22 - 4-Mile Run/Walk

What a difference a day of rest makes! Today's run was so much easier than Friday's.

Since today's was long, I just incorporated one quarter-mile interval. Next week I'll up it for each workout.

My warm-up was 5 minutes of walking, the cool-down was four minutes, and the rest was intervals of .2 miles jogging @4.5 mph and 90 seconds of walking. Total time was 62 minutes to cover 4 miles.

Friday, Apr. 20 - CrossFit, 3-Mile Walk/Run, & Acupuncture

Sooooo tired and sore getting up for CrossFit today. Remember that, Diana, when you don't want to get up for it Monday or Tuesday - 'tis better to be able to stagger than to have to go 3 days in a row!

The WOD was very straightforward today:

• 100 double-unders - I was so glad there was a "singles" option for this. Instead of doing crappy attempts at this advanced jump roping, I opted to do 200 (beautifully executed) single jumps.
• 400-meter run (1/4 mile)
• 500-meter row
• 50 double-unders (I did 100 single jumps instead)
• 200m run
• 250m row

Loved that I didn't have to repeat anything 4 times like the rest of my week, and that when we did repeat activities, the work was cut in half. Finished in 10:50. With my warm-up and the WOD, total workout time was about 25 minutes.

Also did my second run/walk for the week and incorporated two quarter-mile intervals. My warm-up was 5 minutes of walking, the cool-down was three minutes, and the rest was intervals of either .2 or .25 miles jogging @4.8 mph and 90 seconds of walking. Total time was 45 minutes to cover 3 miles.

Between all the working out and the much-more-relaxing-by-comparison acupuncture session today, I'm gonna sleep like a rock.

Thursday, Apr. 19 - CrossFit and Bike Ride

The CrossFit WOD was 4 rounds for time:

• 15 reverse curls - I took baby steps away from this first step toward "Toes to Bar" today. For the first five of each round, I had to do knee raises instead, where you hang from the bar and raise your knees up to your chest. For the remaining 10 I did the reverse curls.
• 15 push presses - We just did these 9 days ago. I upped my weight from 45# to 50#. It was hard, but manageable.  

FOUR rounds again - UGH, again. Finished in 10:44. With warm-up, instruction, and this WOD, total workout time was about 25 minutes.

Usually I'd do a 30-minute walk today too, but with the podiatrist's advice yesterday I figure the less I walk/run, the better. I'll still be doing whatever I need to at CrossFit and my 3 training walk/runs weekly, but for the other two walking workouts I figure I can do something else aerobic in its place.

So I dusted off my bike today, and it was a beautiful day to ride. I live right by the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, so I rode over there and did 6.5 miles in about 50 minutes. It was more challenging than I remembered, too - I always forget that one way is slightly downhill to start - which means uphill to return. I was just happy I was able to get back home without any joggers and/or walkers passing me out.   

Wed., Apr. 18 - CrossFit, 2-Mile Run/Walk, and Podiatrist Appt.

The CrossFit WOD was 4 rounds for time:

• 15 burpees - Did these normally the first round, then using a bench for the remaining rounds (doing the push-up against the bench instead of going all the way down to the floor)
• 15 SDHPs (Sumo Deadlift High Pulls) - Getting a weighted barbell off the floor in a pull that really uses your triceps (YouTube video here)
• 200 m run (about 1/8 mile)

FOUR rounds - UGH. Finished in 18:57. With warm-up, instruction, WOD, and core (15 back extensions), total workout time was about 40 minutes.

Also did my first of 3 run/walks for this week and incorporated THREE quarter-mile intervals - yes! Warm-up and cool-down were five minutes each of walking, and the rest was intervals of either .2 or .25 miles jogging @4.5 mph and 90 seconds of walking. Total time was 32 minutes to cover 2 miles.

Finally, my left heel has been painful and aching for a good 2 or 3 weeks now, so I saw my podiatrist today. He thinks this project's regimen is stressing my fascia (?) bands, especially with the increased mileage I've been doing and all the high impact of some of the CrossFit exercises. I'm considering changing my routine, but not until after the Warrior Dash. In the meantime, there's quite a bit I can do - wearing my very attractive boot to bed, stretching more, and massaging/icing by rolling my arches over frozen water bottles. Hopefully that will ease some of the inflammation until I swap jogging for biking or something like that.

Week Five: Progress Report

Whew – back to where I was at the end of Week 3, weight-wise, and Week 6 is going very well, so I’ll consider Week 5 to be The End Of The Plateau. For months, hopefully … I still have a ways to go. Starting a low initial dose of Metformin Monday (for my PCOS) has helped both keep me in check and also seems to be helping me to metabolize things better.  

Last week’s “Does every little drop that enters my mouth matter?” skepticism continued just a bit into the weekend – hence the missing stars for artificial sweeteners / alcohol Saturday and Sunday. I think I’ve checked my attitude and should be good for the rest of the challenge.

I had houseguests this past weekend, which led to me staying up late one of my weeknights cleaning and not logging my food / drink all weekend. I’m pretty sure I stayed under 100g of carbs each day (though probably not Saturday) but I’m pretty sure I blew the sugar limit Saturday and Sunday. If you don’t pay attention, 15g will sneak up on you in as little as one snack.

So this week I have few distractions and a literally blank weekend ahead of me. Should be a good week to fill up the sticker chart and earn me some new sneakers!

Here's the rest of the health summary:

Keep a food diary and maintain a low-carb, low-sugar, low-caffeine, no-artificial-sweetener, no-alcohol diet: Continued to fill out daily worksheets to log my food and total all carb, caffeine, and sugar content. This is the first week I didn’t log a few days (I missed 3).

Be able to jog ¼ mile at a time without a walk break: Practiced doing two-tenths-mile intervals again this week at 4.5 mph - one 2-mile run/walk, and one 3-mile run/walk. I missed my 4-mile run/walk, but I’ll make it up in Week 6. I plan to incorporate 1 to 3 quarter-mile intervals next week for each workout. Slowly getting there!

Get to a healthier BMI – between 26 and 27: Corrected last week’s backslide and am back down to where I was at the end of Week 3 – 29.9 (Starting BMI 31.2; Week 1---30.2; Week 2---30; Week 3---29.9; Week 4---30.2) So far I’m on track to go lower this week!  

Increase my physical strength: Went to CrossFit only two (instead of 3) times this week.  

Get up between 6:30 and 7:30 every weekday: Did this only 2 out of the 5 weekdays. Will strive for my goal of 4 again this week.

Get to bed by 11:00 every weeknight: Maintained my goal of 4 this week. Keeping up the good work!

Get an average of 7 hours of sleep every night: I got 8, 6.5, 9, 6.5, 8, 7, and 6.5. Those “6.5”s could be improved by getting into bed sooner than 11. Often half an hour isn’t enough for me to read and get drowsy enough to fall asleep, and if I don’t fall asleep right by 11:30 then there’s no way I’ll get my 7 hours before getting up for CrossFit at 6:30.   

Monday, Apr. 16 - 4-Mile Run/Walk

I had a busy weekend prepping for/entertaining weekend visitors, a Saturday night party, and then another friend activity Sunday after our guests left, so my eating and exercise slid this weekend. I missed my third CrossFit workout last Friday and I also missed my long run for the week.

So I made up the long run today - a 4-mile run/walk. I did 5 minutes of walking to warm up, about 54 minutes of intervals (jogging two-tenths of a mile @ 4.5 mph, then walking for 90 seconds), and then about 3 minutes of walking cool-down. 62 minutes total.

Will post last week's progress report later today.

Saturday, Apr. 14 - Touristy Walking

My aunt and cousin visited this weekend, and our tourism has got to count for one of my workouts with all the walking we did:

• Vienna parking tower to that Metro
• Arlington National Cemetary stop to the actual ANC
• Back and forth off the ANC tourmobile stops
• Back to Metro
• Metro to Good Stuff Eatery at Capitol Hill South and back
• Smithsonian Metro to the MLK Jr. Memorial
• (Cab to Rosslyn Metro doesn't count, LOL)
• Finally, Vienna Metro walk back to the car. 

That's at least a half an hour of walking, and I'm sure it was more. If I'm feeling especially anal someday I'll look up the mileage and total it ... but I wouldn't hold my breath.  :  )  

Thurs., Apr. 12 - CrossFit + 1.5-Mile Walk + Lots of Cleaning

I have some catching up to do!

Thursday's CrossFit WOD was three rounds (for time) of:

• 400m run (1/4 mile) - did a brief walk break each round
• 20 reverse curls
• 25 push-ups - for each round, I tried to do several regular push-ups before doing the rest on my knees. 1st round I did 7 full, 2nd - 4, 3rd - 10.

Completed the WOD in 17:24. With warm-up (which included 3/8 mile of jogging) and instruction, total time for the CrossFit workout was about 40 minutes.

Later I walked an easy 1.5 miles by setting the treadmill for 3 mph and walking for 30 minutes.

And finally, we did lots of cleaning tonight preparing for houseguests - at least two hours' worth. I'm counting that as bonus exercise for today.

Wednesday, Apr. 11 - 3-Mile Run/Walk and Scale Movement!

3-mile run/walk today - 5 minutes of walking to warm up, about 40 minutes of intervals (jogging two-tenths of a mile @ 4.5 mph, then walking for two minutes), and then about 3 minutes of walking cool-down. 48 minutes total.

Forgot to throw in one or two quarter-mile intervals to increase my endurance - will do on my 4-miler later this week.

In weight loss news, the scale is moving downward again! I was so happy this morning. Unfortunately, it's probably mostly because my body is adjusting to some new medication (Metformin, to help with my PCOS). I'll spare you the details, but let's just say I have excellent motivation to steer clear of junk food and/or anything even remotely carby/sugary. Hopefully I'll continue to steadily lose weight even after my body's adjusted. 

Tuesday, Apr. 10 - CrossFit

I was psyched for CrossFit's WOD (workout of the day) today. I knew I liked doing both components and felt pretty good about my abilities:

• Box jumps - Pretty straightforward - you jump up on top of a box. Standard is 20" for women, but I wasn't quite there yet. I stacked five 45# weights instead, which was just an inch or two shorter. Last workout I only stacked three, so this was an improvement.
• Push presses - Pushing a weighted barbell up from racked at the shoulders to above the head. Last time I did 35#. This time I did 45#.

NOT psyched during the workout - it was hard, dammit! The WOD was 10 reps of each, then 9, then 8, etc., all the way down to 1. That's 55 reps of each, total. Ugh! I think my time was 9:28. 

With that, the warm-up, instruction time, and 20 back extensions for core work, total workout time was about 40 minutes.    

Week Four: Progress Report

Meh. Not a great week. Well, that's not true - it WAS a great week, and then I let myself get all pouty and whiny Friday, so I used it as an excuse to stray all the way through Sunday evening. I didn't go ballistic (no pigging out, etc.), but there's no doubt it hampered my efforts. No reward earned this week.

I'd rather not dwell on it. At the very least, it's refreshed my healthy efforts. And I'm hopeful that with the addition of some Metformin to help with my PCOS issues, my weight loss plateau will slide down again. At least my RE seems to think it will, so I'm game to try again.

Up until Friday, I did well with my sticker chart. Paying attention got me into bed by 11 most nights and it kept my sugar below 15g more often than last week. Still a good motivational tool for me. Nothing new to tweak this week, just going back to the same mentality I had before it slipped this weekend.

Here's the rest of the health summary:

Keep a food diary and maintain a low-carb, low-sugar, low-caffeine, no-artificial-sweetener, no-alcohol diet: Continued to fill out daily worksheets to log my food and total all carb, caffeine, and sugar content.

Be able to jog ¼ mile at a time without a walk break: Practiced doing two-tenths-mile intervals again this week at 4.5 mph (2 miles total), 4.8 mph (2.5 miles total), and 5 mph (3 miles total). I'm making my run/walks longer this week and keeping them slower, with longer running intervals, to try to increase my endurance and get closer to those quarter-mile intervals I'm after.  

Get to a healthier BMI – between 26 and 27: Slight backslide - up to 30.2. (Starting BMI 31.2; Week 1---30.2; Week 2---30; Week 3---29.9) I know I can improve this week! 

Increase my physical strength: Went to CrossFit three times this week.  

Get up between 6:30 and 7:30 every weekday: Did this 4 out of the 5 weekdays = met my goal for last week. Will keep the same goal for this week.

Get to bed by 11:00 every weeknight: Improved from just 1 weeknight last week to 4 this week, and the amount of sleep I got improved, too. Will be working to do the same this week.

Get an average of 7 hours of sleep every night: I got 7, 9, 7, 6.5, 6, 10, and 8.5 ... getting better!

Monday, Apr. 9 - 2-Mile Run/Walk

Eased into the week with a 2-mile run/walk - 5 minutes of walking to warm up, about 24 minutes of intervals (jogging two-tenths of a mile @ 4.5 mph, then walking for a minute), and then about 3 minutes of walking cool-down. 32 minutes total.

This week I'll be stepping up the run/walk routine by doing 2-, 3-, and 4-mile walk/runs instead of 2-, 2.5- and 3-mile walk/runs. The two-tenths-mile intervals are still challenging to me - especially after some of my CrossFit workouts - but I find they're easier to do slower (@ 4.5 mph) than faster (@ 5 mph). So I think my plan is to do all my runs at 4.5 mph this week but throw in increasing amounts of quarter-mile intervals so I can increase my endurance.

Actually psyched for CrossFit tomorrow - looks like a fun workout!

Saturday, Apr. 7 - Revenge of the Walking Lunges and 3-Mile Run/Walk

Yesterday's CrossFit workout came back to haunt me today. The muscle-up attempts were so hard that the walking lunges were like a welcome break in between. I did them deeply, fully, completely, easily ... and holy CRAP was my butt killing me today! I almost didn't want to do my run, but I figured maybe running would warm up and stretch out some of the sore muscles.

So somehow I managed my third run/walk for the week: 5 minutes of walking to warm up, 37 minutes of intervals (jogging two-tenths of a mile @ 5 mph, then walking for 90-120 seconds), and then about 3 minutes of walking cool-down. 45 minutes total. The two-tenths-mile intervals are still difficult for me, so I'm going to keep that length again this week.

Friday, April 6 - CrossFit and Walking

In CrossFit today we were to do as many reps as possible ("AMRAP") in 12 minutes of:

• 6 Muscle-Ups (or, for me, muscle-up progressions)
• 12 Walking Lunges holding a 15# plate above my head

The muscle-ups are really, really hard - too hard for me. I won't even try to explain. Here's a video. I just started on the floor on my knees and pulled myself up (killing my wrists!), using my toes to help push me up to a standing position. And from there I jumped up while pressing down on the rings, trying to stay up for more than a millisecond - that's a "jumping ring dip." The walking lunges were fine.

Did five rounds and one more psuedo-muscle-up in 12 minutes. With the WOD, warmup, instruction, and 25 glute-hamstring-somethings for core, total workout was about 35 minutes.     

Also did a walking workout at mostly 3.5 mph. Did 1.7 miles in 30 minutes.

Thursday, Apr. 5 - 2.5-Mile Run/Walk and Caulifower Crust Pizza, Take 2

Cauliflower crust pizza, Take 2! 

Tonight I'm having leftover pizza I made Monday night (see pic). This turned out really good! Instead of pizza sauce, cheese, and turkey pepperoni, this time I topped it with pesto, chicken, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and monterey jack cheese. Very, very good! I'm pretty sure I'll be making pizza every week now.

Exercise was one of my three run/walks for the week: 5 minutes of walking to warm up, 30 minutes of intervals (jogging two-tenths of a mile @ 4.8 mph, then walking for 90 seconds), and then about 3 minutes of walking cool-down. 38 minutes total.

Wednesday, Apr. 4 - CrossFit, Walk/Sprint, and Ice Cream Cake

In CrossFit today we were to do as many reps as possible ("AMRAP") in 15 minutes of:

• 10 calories' worth of rowing (on rowing machine)
• 8 burpees (torturous! Squat with your hands planted on the floor in front of you and jump your feet back into a push-up position, then chest goes down to floor, you push yourself up while jumping your feet back to the squatting position, stand up tall, then do a clapping jumping jack.)
• 6 dumbbell push-jerks (hold #15 weights on each shoulder and "push-jerk" them overhead, then down)

I was able to do only five rounds. I also did 30 ABMAT sit-ups for core work, so with that and the warm-up and the instruction/practice, my total workout was about 35 minutes.

Also did a walking workout (mostly 3.5 mph) with 20 twenty-second sprints thrown in at 6.5 mph. Did 2.1 miles in 30 minutes.

 

And in eating news, I intentionally enjoyed my niece's ice cream birthday cake tonight. It was heavenly, I must say ... dunno if it was worth the two stickers I lost for going over 100g carbs and over 15g sugar for the day, but it was pretty damn good. I probably could've managed my carbs better to stay under 100 for the day. The sugar? No ... any amount of ice cream cake would've killed the 15g limit.

 

Back to angelic behavior right now, and into tomorrow and the rest of the week ... 

Tuesday, Apr. 3 - Run/Walk

I haven't done it yet, but I'm going to run/walk two miles at 9:00 while watching the train wreck that is "Dance Moms." Just wanted to post it now so I can stay off the Internet after 9.

It should be just like last week - 5 minutes of walking to warm up, about 24 minutes of intervals (jogging two-tenths of a mile @ 4.5 mph, then walking for a minute), and then about 3 minutes of walking cool-down. 32 minutes total.

Monday, Apr. 2 - CrossFit and Walking

Today in CrossFit we did the "clean and jerk," where you deadlift the weight, flip it up to your shoulders as you squat and stand up, then do a little jump as you push the weight overhead. This video demonstrates it in seconds 20 through 40.   

I did the recommended newbie weight - 35#. We had to do 30 for time. I did mine in 7:41. I did the first ten in succession and then 5 at a time until I finished.

Core was 3 "L"-holds: Jump up and hang on an overhead bar like you're a kid at the playground. If you're awesome you lift your legs up straight to look like an "L" for the longest you can. I'm so not there yet, so my modification was to just lift my knees up to my chest as high as I could and hold it. I did 5 seconds, then 10, then 15. Ow.

Between the workout, core, warmup, and some practice instruction, total workout was about 25 minutes.

At home, I walked on my treadmill between 3 and 3.5 mph for 30 minutes - walked 1.7 miles.

Week Three - Progress Report



Sad panda didn't meet her goal. No new sneakers this week.

I'm proud of my continued efforts, but still frustrated with little weight loss. HALF a pound this week, making the total 7.5 in 3 weeks.

I have a consult with my reproductive endocrinologist (I'll just call him "baby doctor") Friday to assess all the tests we took and will ask him if he has added nutritional advice for me. In the meantime, I'll keep on keepin' on, with added attention to two areas this week: sugar and sleep.

The sticker chart (see pic) was a good motivational tool for my inner 6-year-old, and now it holds some good at-a-glance info for me to analyze. As you can see, I'm not at all consistent with getting 7 hours of sleep or keeping my sugar intake to 15g or less per day.

So here's the plan:

SLEEP: No Internet after 9:00 weeknights; 10:30 weekends. Exception: I may read it from my phone as part of my reading before bed routine, but must do it ready for sleep, from bed. Get ready for bed early (i.e, shower/wash face/pajamas between 8 and 10 p.m.). Get into bed by 10:30 p.m. on weeknights. Then, even if I read for an hour, I can still fall asleep by 11:30 and wake up at 6:30 for CrossFit or 7:30 other weekdays and get 7 or 8 hours of sleep.

SUGAR: My target is 15g, and the days I missed I only did so by 5 or so grams. I can avoid the end-of-day too-high sugar tally by using products that have less sugar and making sure to get sugar content info before I eat something instead of being surprised when it's too late.

Here's the rest of the health summary (made shorter because most of the info's in the chart now):

Keep a food diary and maintain a low-carb, low-sugar, low-caffeine, no-artificial-sweetener, no-alcohol diet: Continued to fill out daily worksheets to log my food and total all carb, caffeine, and sugar content. Improved on the caffeine front, earning stickers all days instead of just 5. Need improvement on sugar intake; will follow plan above. Kept carbs to between 50 and 100 (even had 3 days below 50!) all 7 days.    

Be able to jog ¼ mile at a time without a walk break: Practiced doing two-tenths-mile intervals this week at 4.5 mph (2 miles total), 4.8 mph (2.5 miles total), and 5 mph (3 miles total). This is almost the length I'm shooting for, and it's hard for me. I'll continue with the same interval length this week and hope it gets easier with practice.

Get to a healthier BMI – between 26 and 27: Down to 29.9. (Starting BMI 31.2; Week 1---30.2; Week 2---30) Still going down, however slowly ...  

Increase my physical strength: Went to CrossFit three times this week. Also hiked two miles - lots of hills to climb.  

Get up between 6:30 and 7:30 every weekday: Did this 3 out of the 5 weekdays = met my goal for last week, but would like to increase it to 4 this week.

Get to bed by 11:00 every weeknight: Only managed this 1 night again; will follow what's planned above to improve this. 

Get an average of 7 hours of sleep every night: I got 8.5, 6, 7, 6.5, 5.5, 6.5, and 9. Needs improvement, and the plan will help.

Sunday, Apr. 1 - 3-Mile Run/Walk and 2-Mile Hike

Otto and I took advantage of the beautiful weather today and did a short hike out near Great Falls. It took us about 50 minutes to do a fairly hilly 2 to 2.5 miles.

And - for the love of stickers - I did my third run/walk workout of the week, too: 3 miles on the treadmill in 44 minutes. Started with my usual 5 minutes of walking and also did about 3 minutes of a walking cool-down at the end. The rest was intervals of jogging two-tenths of a mile (@ 5 mph), then walking for 90 seconds. I'm finding two-tenths of a mile to be challenging, so I think I'll stick with the same interval length next week.