I haven't updated in forever it seems like! I had (still have, really, as my last one is tomorrow, but it's not as bad as the first ones) finals all month. I haven't weighed in in weeks and workouts have been non-existent too :( I also injured my leg running, did I write about that? I can't remember. It hurts at the very top every time I run. I'm planning to go see my dr about it hopefully before Xmas.

I am getting back on track TODAY though, I swear. I went to the gym and did over an hour of cardio :) It felt great! I also bought "New Rules of Lifting for Women." It's intimidating, but hopefully will go well. I would really like to lose a little bit more weight before Christmas. I think I will go weigh in Thursday if I can find a meeting near my parents.

WW and running update: I gained only .8 at WW this week! I'm thrilled with that. It's probably actually more since I didn't weigh in the week before and was on plan, but whatever. I'm still below that number I never wanted to see again :)

In other news, I hurt myself running yesterday. For the past few runs I have felt a bit of pain right at the top of my leg in the front, like where it connects to the torso. It never lasted long and honestly I didn't think about it much. But yesterday it will really painful walking home, and hurt the entire rest of the day. I had hoped it would subside overnight, but it hasn't. I'm really bummed. I googled and it looked like it could be muscles called the iliopsoas- in which case I read it takes a really long time to heal, since it's basically impossible to rest it entirely. Hopefully I'm wrong. I go home in 9 days and obviously if it's still hurting then I'll go to my dr (and I might go even if it doesn't hurt anymore). Until then, while it still hurts I'm going to have to avoid running :/

A little bit off topic from my usual posts, but I just signed up to adopt a soldier stationed abroad. I'm hoping I get some info in the next few days so I can send something out in time to get there for Christmas. I went to college in a military town, and I know a good number of soldiers, so I was very glad when I heard about this organization! If anyone else wants to do it, the site is adoptaussoldier.org. I read that you can use the USPS flat rate boxes and ship very cheaply.

Oh dear, Thanksgiving. I'm not huge on a lot of Thanksgiving food, so I wasn't worried about it... I should have been. My aunt made all these little desserts- all small enough to pick at, so I did. Allllllll day. And all day today on the leftovers. Thank god I think they are gone now, but still. :( Sad face that now I doubt I'll be hitting the 40 lb lost mark this week or soon.

On the other hand, YAY for exercise! I came home on Tuesday and on Wednesday ran 30 minutes. Then today, I kept putting off the gym... putting it off more... and occasionally thinking, "Well, if I don't go today, there's always tomorrow." Bad thoughts to get into. But finally at 6:45 I got off my butt and went and it went really well. I did my 5 minute warm up, ran 32 minutes, walked 2 1/2 or 3 minutes, and then ran to finish the 5K distance (only 2 or 3 more minutes I think, although I wasn't paying attention to the time at that point.) Then did more cool down and came home!

I have to say, although at times I HATE running when I'm trying to get off the couch and to the gym or around 20 minutes into the run, I LOVE it afterward and pretty much any other time. I love telling people that I've started running, I love how I feel for the day after a good run, and sometimes even during a run when I feel really good and like a real athlete. I'm really glad that finishing C25K didn't lead to me getting lazy with it. And hopefully if it ever does, I can come look at this blog post and remember why I am doing it!

I'm happy to report I lost close to 2 lbs this week, bringing me .4 away from a 40 lb loss this year. Finally I got away from my 2 lb window I've been in since July! This was despite a mini-binge I had involving Haagen Dazs this week. I don't know if it really counts as a binge if I figure out the points and plan for them, but... either way, it's not really something I want to make a habit of (again).

I also started week 9 of c25k this week! I should graduate on Sunday. I need to decide what to do after this, because I definitely think I need to have a program to keep on target. I'm thinking maybe Hal Higdon's 8K training plan. It also incorporates some cross training, which I'd like to add in to my plan so I get more than 3 work outs a week.

This week has been good food-wise and running/exercise-wise too I guess. I finished week 8 yesterday. Just one week of 30 minute runs and I'm done with C25K! That is crazy to me! I am still not actually at a 5K distance (and won't be at the end of the week), so my first goal is going to be working up to doing that regularly. I'm also planning to transition to outside running when I'm home for the holidays (maybe when I go home for Thanksgiving even).

I really felt the need to get some activity in today, and since I ran yesterday I decided to go for a long walk along the Hudson River. There were sooo many runners out, and I was jealous of them! If I hadn't been wearing heavy clothes I might have thrown in some jogging myself, but as it was I was hot and sweaty just walking- yuck. But now I know that will be a good place to run when I figure out the logistics of running outside here (right now I don't because I don't have any pockets to put my keys in or an iPod holder).

Anyway, just a regular Sunday night update. Until next time.

I lost a lb. at weigh in today. I should be happy, but it puts me right back where I was stuck for 6 weeks, right back where I'v been pretty much since July. Ugh. Well, whatever. If I lose another lb next week then I'll be happy and hopefully never see this number ever ever again.

Ran day 2 of week 8 after the meeting today. It went well... not a lot to say about running at this point.

Long time no post. No real reason, though my schedule has been off.

Last week, I gained 2 lbs at weigh in. Definitely deserved. This week, I tracked everything. If I don't lose tomorrow, it's not due to food. I'll have to figure something out. I... am just not going to think about it anymore until I see what happens tomorrow.

Still running. I'll be doing day 2 of week 8 tomorrow, running 28 minutes. It's still kind of crazy to think I can do that! But I can. Monday's run went well and I wanted to run again today, but I'm still trying to be careful and follow the plan exactly because the last thing I want to do is get injured or burn out. I also did a lot of walking and lifting/carrying heavy things and just plain old moving this week. I felt good and full of energy.

We've been having sort of an Indian summer in NY and today was laundry day, so I ended up wearing some shorts I haven't worn in a few months. They were definitely at least a size too big, meaning I'm back in the sizes that start with 1! I can't even remember the last time that was true. I'll probably be more excited/actually believe it when I actually buy something in that size but it was still pretty cool to realize.

Another Sunday night update.

Exercise: Started week 7 of c25k. 25 minutes is hard, but doable. Obviously, since I've done it twice. I'm still not hitting 2 miles during it (barely- about .1 short). Today, I thought I would continue on until I hit the 2 mile mark, but I just couldn't do it. However, with warm up and cool down I am doing about 2.5 miles in 35 minutes, so that's still pretty good.

Food: Hasn't been fabulous this week. I haven't been tracking carefully and tonight is the second night this week I'm going to sleep STUFFED. It doesn't feel good, and I don't really know why I'm doing it :/ I'm determined to get back on track though. Hopefully with my increased running, the damage won't be too bad.

Ahh I finally broke my weight stalemate at WW this morning with a 1 lb loss. It felt good. I am now 1.2 lbs away from a some new HYC bling on the sidebar there... maybe next week!

I also completed week 6 of C25K today. It was difficult, and I had to slow down towards the end, but I finished and I know it will get better through the next week! It's pretty exciting that running a mile is now not a big deal for me and now I'm closing in on 2 miles :)

Just a quick end of the week check in. Ran week 6, day 2 of c25k this morning. No more intervals! The next 4 runs are 25 minutes, then 3 runs at 28 minutes, then graduation week- 3 30 minute runs. Hooray!

Haven't slipped up on takeout or had any binges or really even any temptations recently. I even threw out some leftover pizza a few days ago- 4 new york slices! I just hadn't wanted them and they got old and then I REALLY didn't want them. Who knew there would ever be a day I didn't want a NY slice :)

Busy week coming up.

I think I'm going to set a goal not to order food in until I go home for Thanksgiving. If I was planning well and considering portions when I order out, it wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm not. I tend to order out when I'm feeling out of control and wanting to cheat.

I haven't ordered out in a week and a half-ish... I don't exactly remember. But I wanted to tonight and resisted, so I just need to keep it under control like this.

Weigh in today... guess what... no loss! Ahhh ha ha. I looked at my log and I have not lost or gained one ounce in 5 weeks. I know for absolutely sure I was within points this week, so. Yeah. Sort of disappointing but whatever. My jeans are definitely looser the past 2 weeks, and losing a jeans size would make me happier than losing 5 pounds with no noticeable waist difference, so take that scale.

Today I ran week 5 day 3... yes, the dreaded 20 minute straight run. Well, I pretty much ran 20 minutes straight. A few minutes into the run, I hit the emergency stop button (which I've done at LEAST 6 times before this run, so it wasn't new). I was probably close to 3 minutes in, but I decided to count it as 2 and run 18 more just because I don't want to cheat. Well, I looked at the clock at 17:34 and a few seconds later... hit it again! I had probably already hit 20 minutes at that point, but I had told myself I would run to 18, so I restarted again with the intention of running one last minute. 45 seconds in, you guessed it. Emergency stop. At that point I gave up and left, haha. I'm pretty sure I figured out why I keep hitting it (not actually hitting the button, but rubbing up against the string that pulls it out which is wrapped tightly against the front bar). Hopefully I can correct next time and not deal with it anymore.

Other than that it was a fine run. The hardest thing was distracting myself from looking at the clock the whole time. Once I hit 5 minutes I was able to tell myself, "You're 1/4th done... 2 more minutes and you're half done... you're over half done" and that helped.

So, that's about it for now. I'm just going to ignore the scale and keep doing what I'm doing, because I know I'm doing the right things and someday the scale will catch up to me. Or else I'll be a size 8 and weigh 260 lbs :)

I finished day 1 of week 5 on Friday. I wasn't planning to run then, but I didn't have anything else to do, so I just decided to go for it. It went really well! So much better than any day of week 4. The walking break also seemed long- I guess week 4 served its purpose (ew). I wish the rest of the week would be the same intervals, but it's not.

I'm not much of a cook but tonight I made a really easy chicken recipe off the WW site. I just sliced thin cut chicken breasts into strips, dipped them in egg white and then bread crumbs mixed with garlic powder and reduced fat parmesan and grilled them on a foreman grill. I dipped them in fat free ranch. So good!

Weigh in today- this is the 4th week in a row I've lost nothing (and gained nothing). I don't think I can call it a plateau because I haven't been following the plan. I honestly think I would have lost something had I not eaten soo much last night, so I'm hoping that will show up next week (since I WILL be on plan this week).

I ran day 3 of week 4 C25K today. I am SO happy to be done with this week- honestly, the only thing that kept me running through the whole thing was telling myself there is no way in hell I'm going to run another day of this week. I know the running increases from here on out, but for some reason this week has just been screwing with my head and I'm glad to move on to something new. Also, hearing the podcast for it was starting to make me want to scream. Not sure if I'll start week 5 Friday or Saturday... I might take an extra day after this hellish week.

That's about it for now. I'm about to go grab a hot chocolate and get some reading done for tomorrow. I also have a job interview for next summer tomorrow afternoon; wish me luck!

This week I did really well food wise... until today! Oh my gosh, I was craving everything on earth today. Considering my eating the rest of the week, WW flex points, and work outs, I am still within my WW points for the week. Still, I don't feel great now.

I'm supposed to weigh in tomorrow. No idea if today will effect the scale or not, I guess it doesn't really matter. I still have to fight the urge to skip the meeting when I think there will be a gain or no loss, but I do fight the urge. I think in 9 months I've missed like 5 meetings... only 1 or 2 when I was in NYC. Not a bad record.

I also run day 3 of week 4 of c25k tomorrow. I will be soooooooo glad when this week is over! It's kicking my butt! I remember it doing this last time I did C25K too. I have felt great both times after I finish the run, but the next day I started dreading the next one. Well, I don't care what my brain says, I'm sticking with it this time. This also means a week from tomorrow I'll be running 20 minutes straight! Seems unlikely right now, but the program hasn't failed me yet.

Oh, I haven't updated in awhile. I've been busy and... lazy. Sorry. Also, didn't have a lot to update with. I didn't eat fantastic when I was home (but not horrible either). I missed weigh in that week, and the next week, was the same weight. So basically I'm still within .8 of where I was in July. But you know what, I'll take- better than a gain.

I feel like I've finally gotten back in control of my eating and have had a pretty good week. Hopefully I will have good news on Wednesday that I've broken free of 260! We'll see.

In fitness news, tomorrow I'll be running week 4, day 2 of C25k. Week 3, Day 3 was horrible- I had eaten poorly and not had enough water, plus wasn't feeling well. Week 4, day 1 was much better physically, but it was TOUGH! In this week, you increase your running from 8-9 minutes the first three weeks to 16 minutes this week. I barely made it through the last 5 minutes, and then only by slowing down- by the end I was only running 4.6 mph! I usually run at 5 and even that is slow. I'm not trying to win a race though, just get through it, so if I have to run slowly I'll run slowly. Hoping to be able to increase those speeds a LITTLE bit in the next 2 days though. We'll see :)

Weigh in today = up .4 lbs. I guess that's what happens when you binge for the first half of the week. I looked back through my booklet and since July 22 I've lost exactly .8 lbs. Going the right direction, but still, I'm disappointed because I know I could have done better. Ever since then I've been gaining and losing the same 2 lbs. It needs to stop now.

I did my running today, officially done with week 1 of C25k. Will do day 2 in Phoenix, as long as I can still get in my parents' gym on their membership!

OK, just to update. It is now almost 8 pm and I am officially out of points for the day. I came home from the office with 7 left, less than ever before I'm sure... had a lean cuisine and a skinny cow. Now I just need to make sure no snacking before bed.

I think I need to blog more about my eating habits since I've been feeling a little out of control lately. I've managed to contain it pretty well this week, but it's a constant struggle, especially in the hours between when I get home for the day and restaurants/the grocery store close.

I've already learned not to keep the foods I want to binge on in my apartment. But with the grocery store being a mere 3 block walk away, it's easy for me to decide I want something and be at the store buying it before I really know what's happening. I also manage to convince myself occasionally that because I have to walk to get it, it's somehow better! Obviously, though, walking 6 blocks does not make up for eating a box of brownies (my recent binge of choice).

Well, one thing I'm trying now is to eat more, earlier in the day so I'm not hungry when I get home. For instance, yesterday, I had to be in my journal office working for an hour, then class for 2 hours, then 2 more hours at the office. All I ate beforehand was breakfast (oatmeal and a WW muffin). So, I was starved when I got home and even though I ate (a lean cuisine and later some popcorn and snacks), I kept thinking about going to just buy a box of brownies and eat them all. I didn't but seriously, every night all week this is what I think about.

Anyway, today I had my oatmeal and a fiber 1 bar before class, then an hour later (around noon) got some food on the way to class, and I'll probably get some food at school before I head to the office for a little. The problem is that at this point I only have 15 points left for the day and that makes me a little panicky. I usually have 20+ when I go home for the night, and today I'll probably have just enough for dinner and no snacking. I guess that's the point though, right?

I did run my 2nd day of C25K on Sunday and it went well again. Today is day 3, and I am trying to figure out when I will have time to run it. I should have gotten up to go before class but it just didn't happen. Hopefully I will be done in the office tonight by 6 or earlier and go. Otherwise, I don't have class tomorrow, but I do have weigh in and a meeting about my A paper, and then I have to finish all of my editing on the journal article so I can go to Phoenix on Thursday (a subject for another post). It will get done in the next 2 days though.

mmm sorry, it's been awhile!

so, i went a little food crazy during PMS time and gained 2 lbs. the next week i was still a little crazy the first half of the week but got shit under control and lost 1.6. so, i'm still up .4 from the last post, but i'm under 260 so i'm happy. and i have been doing well this week so far.

this morning i hit the gym, which i've been really bad about lately. just busy with school, not feeling well, stressed out, all kinds of excuses. but i started couch to 5k again today. i did it once right after i graduated college and got to like week 6 or so before i quit. so today was week 1, day 1, and it was surprisingly easy. i remember being miserable last time on the first day and not even thinking i could finish. that wasn't the case at all today, i felt like i could have done more. but i'm going to take it slow and do it right. looking forward to day 2 on sunday :)

whew, it has been awhile. this last week went well, i lost 1.8 lbs, bringing me down into the 250s! hurray! i did just eat a big, unhealthy dinner though... bleh... i was starving! now i don't feel so great.

well, i went back to a meeting for the first time in weeks today... and i lost! a whole .2, lol. but, considering i haven't been tracking, going to meetings, or even eating particularly well, i was just hoping i didn't gain more than 5, so a loss is awesome! i am really close to 40 lbs lost too (37). that just sounds like so much to me, so i hope to get there soon and it will motivate me to keep going!

classes start tomorrow, so i will have less time to go to the gym and plan out my meals meticulously, but i'm only taking 12 credits so i won't have TOO much less time. anyway, just wanted to check in and update.

i had orientation for something today and we ended up at a pub for lunch, so i had chicken fingers. with ranch. probably not the best choice, but i was full for the rest of the day, so hopefully not too much damage.

we'll see the damage from the last month at weigh in on wednesday. ahhh- i'm scared. i was so close to 40 lbs lost and now it'll be awhile until i get there i fear. oh well- i'll get there someday. SOON.

breakfast= oatmeal, vitamuffin top (4 pts)

i went to the gym, but after about 7 minutes on the elliptical i felt like i was going to faint. i'm not sure why, i ate about 2 hours before i left and actually ate more than i did yesterday, yet i felt like i do when i don't eat enough before working out. maybe it was because i had to walk half a mile there in the heat, and then the gym itself is broiling hot? yesterday i got a machine in front of a fan, but today i couldn't. either way, i'm disappointed i didn't get more exercise in, but i'd rather not faint at the gym.

on the way home i grabbed a light caramel frappuncino and immediately felt better. a venti is only 4 points too. good to know for the future!

if it doesn't rain this afternoon, i'm thinking about going up to union square and looking at puppies at petco! i love puppies and i really REALLY want one, but i don't think it's a good time right now... still, i can't help tempting myself. (by the way, when i say puppies, i don't mean actual puppies, just a dog. i'd want one at least a year or two.) anway, it would be about a 2 mile walk round trip, which would make me feel better about this morning. however, forecast says rain, so we'll see! either way, i'm on track with my points, so no harm.

ah, finally. i haven't been able to access blogspot all night for some reason.

well, today went well. i met all my goals from yesterday. i was only able to stay on the elliptical for about 20 minutes which kind of disappointed me, but at least i went to the gym. also, it's about a mile walk roundtrip to even get to my gym, so at least i did a little more than just the 20 minutes.

by the way, my gym got all new equipment over the summer! it is very fancy now. every machine has a tv, a fan, and an ipod hookup. i didn't use any of them today, but i'm sure i will in the future.

well, i have a baked potato ready to be eaten so i'm signing off for now. same goals for tomorrow, and maybe subtract the mid-day trip to the bakery around the corner (i tracked it, but still!)

i live in new york city, and i need to lose weight.

for a little background: i am 23 and 8 months ago i was pushing 300 pounds. since then, i have joined weight watchers and lost 30+, but in the last few months, fallen off the wagon a bit. i am committed to doing this and maintaining it. i hope this blog will help be one of the tools to hold me accountable.

so, to begin:
tomorrow, i will go back to the gym.
tomorrow, i will not buy ice cream or junk food on the way home.
i will eat oatmeal and fruit for breakfast.
i will not buy ice cream at gristedes for the 3rd time this week.
i will track my points.

here we go.