The Shame Squad

Yesterday in yoga we did deer pose.  Doesn't that sound nice?  And sweet?  And like Bambi? Awwwww. WELL IT ISN'T.  Try doing this, and then bending all the way forward over your front knee until your head touches the floor, and then holding it for four minutes. Nope. So that was 120 calories burned, bringing the total up to 520, with 2980 to go.  Actually, I'm going to give myself 5 calories burned for getting in and out of my coworker's car, even though there were two child seats in the back.  Plus, I totally stuck the landing. I excel at Car Gymnastics. Lunch was weirdness, also known as "what happens when you go to Whole Foods without a plan." Soooo... watermelon, sushi, and cheesecake.  (Yesterday was National Cheesecake Day, so I bought one for everyone to share.)  Dinner was healthy nachos (baked tortilla chips, fat free bean dip, fat free cheese), followed by a tablespoon of chocolate chips.  I also drank a lot of wat...

Today I'm going to start out with what I'm thankful for, and that is KITTIES!  Specifically, our big fat cat, Fitch, and our medium soft cat, Roxy. Hi, I'm Fitch.  Despite being 10 years old, I'm still learning how to meow. Besides getting orange fur on everything, I like to sleep in the window and take naps with Alyssa. Hi, I'm Roxy.  My hobbies include rolling around in the empty bath tub, climbing around in boxes and closets, and biting people.  CHOMP! I spent part of my afternoon Sunday volunteering at Friends of Homeless Animal s, as a "cat snuggler."  That may sound sad, but it is actually very fun.  The cats live in a cattery, so they aren't in cages.  They have lots of beds and toys and people to play with them--yay!  My favorite is Chocolate Chip , who is a very sweet and loving, not to mention a cute chocolate colored cat. Okay, on to food.  Lunch was a huge green salad with 2 teaspoons of olive oil, and a cup of rice...

Today was weigh-in day.  Verdict?  3.4 pounds lost this week, with 24 pounds to go! "Marvelous work, dear." Things are a little challenging right now, which makes being healthy difficult. I know that "things are challenging" is vague, so I encourage you to come up with hilarious scenarios in your mind.  Maybe I lost my most expensive Kate Middleton doll and/or tiara (okay, I actually only have one of each).  Maybe I discovered that chia seeds make you grow an extra toe and I can't squeeze my feet in my favorite high heel wedges.   Maybe I'm pretty upset that Michael Phelps is kind of phoning it in so far during the Olympics.   The reason doesn't really matter--what matters is managing stress in a way that's healthy, because there is always going to be stress. Oh Kate, you are so kind for offering. So this week I'm focusing on mental well-being.  To help with that, I have yoga, massage, and volunteering lined up for the week.  I...

Hey, so guess what I earned?! The Shame Badge! Why?  Well, I have sucked at the following: exercise (ZERO!), planning (none!), drinking water (less than 6 glasses a day!), and being marginally happy (uuuuuugh!).  Eating has actually been okay-ish.  Thursday I had a salad with spinach, chicken, tomatoes, corn, figs, and goat cheese.  Plus 2 small slices of foccacia.  Dinner was 8 Chick-fil-a nuggets, and a fruit cup. Today's lunch was another salad, half a breadstick, and a cup of minestrone soup.  I also had a tiny slice of ice cream cake at a goodbye party for a coworker.  Dinner was a veggie samosa, chana masala (chickpeas) with raita and a little bit of rice. Why have you forsaken us?!  You're supposed to earn the HEALTHY badges! Yeah, I know.  I KNOW.  You know who else would be disappointed? Yup.  So, new plan (clearly, CLEARLY, I am not burning 3,500 calories this week through exercise) which I will ...

Wednesday was an improvement--not great, but an improvement.  Calorie burning was w alking outside (hey, thanks for not being a million degrees, weather), which burned 100 calories. Calories Left: 2925 (Well, then.  That looks terrifying.) "I'm pretty sure that if I can play ping pong in a dress, you can  do a little more cardio, dear." Food was disaster-y, but not in the way you'd think.  Unhappy Alyssa tends to overeat or undereat.  Today was undereating.  Breakfast/Lunch consisted of water, grapes, and a mint.  (See, I told you: disaster-y.)  But it was a really DELICIOUS mint. Dinner was better: miso soup with soy and seaweed, lettuce with just a little ginger dressing, California rolls, 2 pieces of shrimp tempura and a few bites of chicken katsu.  Plus some water and a cup of milk. I'm hot like wasabi when I bust rhymes.

So I'm mad.  I'm mad because I didn't exercise yesterday, and instead spent way too much time at my desk, at meetings, and being upset about Things I Should Just Get Over.  And I could have gotten up at any time and gone for a walk, which would have had the added bonus of improving my mood, but I didn't.  I worked late, then came home in a bad mood, looked at the internet, and went to bed.  And I could have come home and done some yoga and calmed down, but I didn't. Yesterday: 1, Alyssa: 0 We are not amused. Breakfast was water.  I really wasn't hungry.  Lunch was a Completely Unoriginal repeat of the day before--2 ounces of chicken, 2 cups of tomatoes, 1 ounce of goat cheese, 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips.  Plus more water.  Dinner was a hastily prepared 7 layer dip that only had 4 layers: fat free beans, queso blanco, tomatoes, and cilantro. (The other layers were contempt, shame, and sarcasm.)  More water.  Then half a cho...

First, what you're really interested in: how the calorie burning went. Exercise Bike-210 calories Treadmill-40 calories (this was my cool down from the bike, because my butt hurt) Yoga-125 calories Weights-30 calories Post-dinner treadmill-70 calories Total for the day? 475.  Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuck it, Shame Squad! This is trikonasana pose.  Try it.  It isn't fun. Breakfast was one cup of milk and one cup of blueberries.  I shamed myself in to eating the lunch I brought (3 ounces of grilled chicken, 1 ounce of goat cheese, 2 cups of tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips) even though I wanted...anything besides what I packed.  Even though when I actually ate it, it was tasty. Dinner was 3 ounces of pork sausage (shout out to Lothar!), a cup of potatoes cooked in one teaspoon of olive oil, 1 ounce of cheese, and a half of an apple. This is Lothar, our butcher.  He is awesome. You can buy his delicious ribs, sausages, etc. at the Purcellvill...

Writing this blog has been really helpful.  Many of my goals (Measure all the food!  Drink all the water! Etc!) have become second nature as a result.  But there's still the freaking cardio problem. So this week, I bought a Coach purse, and I'm not letting myself use it until I burn 3500 calories doing exercise. Kate has spoken. Why 3,500 calories?  That's the equivalent of a pound.  At first, my plan was to make it my prize for losing 5 pounds, but I know I'll eventually get there.  My more immediate problem is that I haven't made exercising a routine.  So starting today, I'm giving myself one week to burn a pound's worth of calories.  Wish me luck! Okay, so on to yesterday.  It started out well with grilled chicken, tomatoes, mozzarella, and pesto.  Okay, and half of a big cookie.  Then I went to a Lia Sophia show at Virginia's house (dangerous, because I want lots of stuff in the new catalog--I suspect that there is an i...

Today was weigh-in day, and... I lost 2.4 pounds.  Yay for controlled weight loss! Yesterday I spent the morning with one of my pretend friends, Ann Hathaway.  (Also real friends Brent and Brooke.) I bet she does a lot of cardio. I was a little worried when they started checking bags at the movie theater, because I had contraband apples, whole wheat bread, and water in my bag.  But the nice theater manager didn't seem to care about my outside food and drink, because I didn't have explosives.  I get the whole "movie theaters make money from their concessions" thing, but look, Regal Cinemas: when you start selling non-crap food, I would be happy to pay $5 for a piece of fruit from you.  I did have about a cup of popcorn, but with no butter, and I went all Spanish-inquisition on the concessions worker about how they made it. (Props to him--he was very knowledgeable.) Tell me how you make your popcorn! Late lunch was at the wine kitchen, where...

Since Brent and Brooke were in town, I took Friday off of work (thanks for the excuse for the day off, guys!).  We had a late breakfast at Eggspectation, where we made lots of egg-related puns, and I ate very healthy.  I had a hard boiled egg (Andrew-protein!), some Canadian bacon in honor of Beckie's birthday (Andrew-more protein!), some roasted tomatoes, some fruit, and a piece of whole wheat toast with a suggestion of jelly. The door handles at Eggspectation.  They are eggceptionally precious. Then we went to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum, where I did not partake in any astronaut food, but where we did see Astronaut Tom Jones  (not to be confused with singer Tom Jones ).  We also went to the Leesburg Outlets, so I got lots of walking in (8,000 steps!), plus I did 10 minutes on the treadmill in the morning. I think I'll pass on the astronaut food. Snack time was a quarter cup of hummus, half an apple, one ounce of pretzels, and water.  H...

This morning I had planned to stop at Whole Foods to pick up some yummy weird cheese for breakfast, and some tomatoes to go with my lunch.  But thanks to my good friends at VDOT (great job making Fairfax County Parkway one lane during rush hour!) that didn't happen.  I got to Whole Foods around 11:30 after some meetings, and there was no yummy weird cheese.  Apparently, it is flown in from a distant planet on the wings of unicorns every time there is a harvest moon (okay, it's really imported from France weekly).  But my point is, they were out, and I was wearing really uncomfortable heels, and my cheese decision making skills were at an all time low. Where's my cheese, dammit? So I ended up with some cute little goat cheeses that are 1 ounce each (measuring, people!), a thing of tomatoes, and some olive oil.  I did my best to estimate 2 teaspoons.  (Note to self: bring a teaspoon to work.)  Then I had 3 more ounces of pork chop, a tablespoon of ...

Today went so well that it deserves a little of the Duchess of Cambridge up in here. It began with little weird protein cheese (Andrew--protein!) and four glasses of water.  Lunch was 3 ounces of a pork chop (Protein! Measuring!), a cup of blueberries (More Measuring!), and a salad that was 3 1/2 cups of veggies with 2 teaspoons of lemon olive oil (OMG All the Measuring!).  And finally, a tablespoon of chocolate chips (will there be no end to the measuring?!?!?). I think having these cat measuring cups would help me do more measuring. Then I went to the work gym to walk on the treadmill, but they were all taken.  It was a true first world problem.  So I did 1.5 miles on the elliptical in about 10 minutes, which the elliptical said burned 16 calories. And then I did 2 miles on the exercise bike for 10 minutes, which the bike said burned 82 calories.  So I think the bike and the elliptical are drunk.  But all I drank was 4 more glasses of water....

I did some awesome planning today, which made no difference!  None at all!  I took my workout gear, and my healthy lunch and breakfast with me, then got sidetracked by crazy people doing crazy things. Truth. I did manage to drink 4 glasses of water at work, and I finally got around to eating about 3ish, when I had 3 ounces of ham and a cup of watermelon.  Around 6ish I had a tablespoon of chocolate chips.  My healthy salad and weird little cheese stayed in the fridge because I was so stressed that I wasn't hungry. By the time I got home, I was majorly hungry, and I didn't feel like cooking.  So we went to the Mexican place by our house.  I had 2 more glasses of water, as well as chips (whole grains), guacamole and salsa (veggies), and shrimp (Andrew--protein!) with black beans (Andrew--protein!), pineapple (fruit), and rice (I'm only human).  Then Chris and I split a small piece of tres leches cake, which I thought was a nice alternative to drin...

Breakfast was another of the mystery delicious weird little cheese things.  (Andrew--protein!)  I also had 2 glasses of water. Lunch was 3 ounces of ham (Andrew--protein!) which I know because I measured it. I also had one cup of tomatoes with 2 tsp of lemon olive oil, 1 cup of blueberries, and 1 tablespoon of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Plus 4 glasses of water.  Hooray for measuring! I also successfully avoided the second Food Gauntlet of the week when pizza, juice, and lots of dessert appeared in the break room. Exhibit A Exhibit B Dinner tonight was yummy homemade healthy pizza.  We got a whole wheat crust from the farmer's market, added sauce and skim mozzarella cheese, and then on my side I had veggies (banana peppers, tomatoes, olives, red pepper, jalapenos).  We also had salad (lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, carrots) with low fat dressing.  Then I had a Snackwells 130 calorie pack of caramel popcorn.  And 3 more glasses of...

Sunday went fairly well! Breakfast was a hard boiled egg, a cup of watermelon, and four glasses of water.  I had measured out a half cup of blueberries too, but I wasn't really hungry once I ate the other food, so I put them back in the fridge.  Success!  Then, I needed a few things from the grocery store, so I walked there.   30 minutes of cardio , people!  More success! Lunch was at my mom and dad's to celebrate Amy's birthday.  Look at this rainbow-licious plate!   I had watermelon, blueberries, green beans, yellow and red tomatoes, ham, two glasses of water and only about three bites of mac and cheese.  My mom also cut me a really small piece of ice cream cake, that was also only about three bites.  I successfully avoided the butter and biscuits.  I do have to say that I'm fortunate that both my parents/family and my future in-laws are very supportive about my healthy eating. :) Speaking of future in-laws, we went to Joyce...

Well, I weigh 2.4 pounds more than I did last week.  Sadly, this isn't a surprise.  So now I'm up to 29.8 pounds that I want to lose. If I'm being honest about What Went Wrong, it is: 1) I'm being really lame with the cardio .  I set time aside for it at work, but then I forget my shoes.  And I'm not doing cardio in a pair of cork wedges, no matter how cute they are. 2) I'm not recording everything I eat.  After I write my blog entry, Chris will bust out with the cheese and crackers.  And I will eat some of it, because, well, it is cheese. 3) I'm not really measuring how much of something I'm eating.  When I finally got around to measuring the olive oil I was using, it was more like 2 tablespoons instead of 2 teaspoons.  Whoops. 4) If I have a hard day at work, I'm using it as an excuse to eat whatever I want.  Like yesterday's entire bottle of dessert wine.  (To be fair, it was Bastille Day.  "Allons enfants de la Patri...

Today started out at the Farmer's Market, where there was a new vendor.  A cheese  vendor.  Which was next to the wine vendor.  So look, if having wine and cheese at 10:30 a.m. is wrong, I don't wanna be right.  We stocked up on meat from Lothar, lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, pesto, salad dressing, whole wheat bread and pizza crust, and, ya know, cheese and wine. I did pretty well for lunch--black bean soup, and a salad with grilled shrimp, figs, and spinach at Magnolia's at the Mill.  We will not discuss the bread situation. Dinner was some yummy pork chops on the grill, tomatoes with pesto and mozzarella cheese, and rice-a-roni.  Now I'm eating chocolate chips and drinking wine.  Look, it's Saturday. To summarize: Planning? Yes Water? 6 glasses Cardio? I wore my pedometer today, and between the market and going to the mall, I think I got a lot of steps in.  But I left it at Ann Taylor.  Damn. I didn't do horrible today, b...