Hali's Journey

[halixius]

Welcome to my log. I have a severe need for accountability because my attention span is short and I'm constantly switching interests.

 

I've tried some diet-like things before, but this time I'm trying to do it the right way. I was the same weight from middle school through college, with a little fluctuation freshman/sophomore year (-5 in school, +20 summer, -15 in school next year). Now that I'm out of school and back home I don't really have people in my life to be active with, but up until I quit last March my job was keeping me steady. I left that job and started my internship at an animal-shelter-slash-thrift-shop, which is far less demanding. With that, along with a return of sleeping troubles and other things, I've gained about 10 pounds in the past year. A week ago I was at 166.2 pounds, and this morning I was at 163.

 

My main goal is to get down to 140 and get a little more definition.

 

My Diet: Prior to this past week, highly variable and highly processed. Many skipped meals or meals that barely counted. Very few items in my cooking repertoire and a fear that no matter how long I cooked chicken for it would still be raw. Last Friday I cut out pasta, bread, food from boxes, and for the most part dairy (except a little half and half with my tea, which I have since switched to almond milk). I've been eating a lot more raw food and getting over my cooking anxiety, testing out new recipes. A couple failures, but I'm getting better and more confident. I tend to be an under-eater, even according to MFP by about 300-500, so I need to work on meeting my caloric requirements. Suggestions for calorie heavy foods that are low in saturated fat, sugar, and carbs?

 

Starting Stats: Jan. 9, 2015

Height: 5'6.5

Weight: 166.2 lbs

Waist: 35.3"

Hips: 43.5"

R Thigh: 24"

L Thigh: 25"

 

Non-fitness Goals:

Practice Spanish in DuoLingo at least 10mins every day.

Start using Mango Languages again at some point. 

Apply to more places for my second internship.

[halixius]

End of Week 1

Weight: 163

Waist: 34.75"

Hips: 42.25"

R Thigh: 24"

L Thigh: 25"

 

For food I treated myself to a guava chia seed cup from Cosi (yogurt, chia seeds, guava, strawberry, ???) and a chai latte. I had a chicken breast and a half with homemade spicy guacamole and a small spinach/tomato/cucumber salad for dinner. Throughout the day I snacked on a few mixed nuts (no peanuts), had a cup of chai tea, a slice of lemon to accustom myself to eating them, and 3/4 cup of ice cream to add on a few calories because my pantry is in real need of restocking.

 

For exercise, work was extremely slow and I was alone so I did about 10 mins of random warm-up exercises: jumping jacks, hip rotations, hip extensions, small/large arm circles, I don't remember what else. At home I did 2 circuits of the beginner's bodyweight exercises and ran up and down the stairs a few times.

 

No work tomorrow, I really want to motivate myself to go for a walk like I did yesterday. Hopefully it isn't as ridiculously icy as it was today.

[halixius]

Yesterday:

 

I did go for my walk with my dog, about 20 minutes or so until it was too cold. Looots of walking up and down stairs on sore legs, ouch, lmao I don't know if I'd consider it a real rest day. Still a bit sore today.

 

Eggs and almond flour pancakes for breakfast with a little honey, along with chai tea and almond milk. I don't even remember lunch, I think I just snacked on some (not so ripe) fruit and a handful of nuts. Went out to dinner for my friend's birthday and had a smokehouse chicken sandwich - I had looked up the menu beforehand and wow, the salads were almost as bad as all of the sandwiches and everything had about 2000g sodium. Salads were worse in a way, a ton of sugar because they make them all with candied fruit.

 

 

Today:

 

A banana and chai tea with coconut milk for breakfast. Discovered I'm not a fan of coconut milk, at least not with tea. Subway for lunch because it's the healthiest thing closest to work and I didn't have anything at home ready to go. A 6" sweet onion chicken teriyaki sub. For dinner, a seasoned chicken breast with guacamole and sauteed veggies in broth.

 

I'm planning on doing the bodyweight circuit again tonight, as much as I can. The rest of my muscles have recovered but my legs are going to be yelling at me. I need to remember to get on my Spanish learning, too. I've been doing good keeping up with it so far.

[ßean]

I'm glad to see you found yourself a challenge. I also struggle quite a bit with my diet, so it is good that you seem to be doing well with yours so far. In my next challenge, I definitely intend to include a diet component myself.  I'm also glad to see that you have chosen the beginner body weight workout as a starting point. I've been at it for about 3 months now, and although quite a bit of it has gotten easier, I still struggle more than I would like with push-ups.

 

I'll check back to see how you are doing soon, but for now, best of luck.

[halixius]

Thank you! The diet part has been a lot easier to handle than I thought. I'm taking more risks with food and discovering new things I like (and don't like) and learning how to cook, which I actually don't hate. I've found quite a few good recipes and made some up as well, so if you need any suggestions in the future, feel free to poke me for them. I'm obviously not going full paleo but I am trying to stay away from bread and the like as much as I can.

 

I'm with you on the push-ups. I think I have not so great form and it's always fun to hear my bones cracking when I do them lmao, but for now I'm going to keep at it and try to get myself right with elevated ones. Good for you for sticking with it for 3 months!

[halixius]

I did the full three circuits of the beginner's bodyweight workout today! Feeling good about that. Working on finding some good, deep stretches (especially for my legs) and wanting to implement yoga for that and/or on the in-between days. Simultaneously training my dogs not to be under my feet when I'm trying to work out.

 

Also, 8 day streak with DuoLingo, going strong.

 

Meal Plan

Breakfast: A banana and two scrambled eggs with cherry tomato halves.

 

Lunch: Turkey slices rolled up with spinach and carrot shavings, sauteed apple slices (a little olive oil, tbsp honey, pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg).

 

Snack: Salt and vinegar zucchini chips (failed, only had a couple. way too much salt and either not cooked enough or burnt.)

 

Dinner: Chicken vegetable soup. My first attempt at improvised soup with minimal direction. It came out really good!

 

Post-workout Snack: Almond Flour Microwave Bread with mashed blueberries and strawberry slices. Pic below. So, so good. Made it with coconut shavings instead of coconut flour.

 

[halixius]

Semi-lazy day today. Woke up early to let the dogs out, ate a banana and went back to bed. Ate a handful of nuts when I woke up again. Caught up on the new ep of Grimm. Went out for half-price pizza day with my mother, ate 3 slices of small pizza: 2x buffalo chicken, 1x bacon. Loaded ten 40 lb bags of wood pellets into my car, then unloaded them again at home. Thoroughly cleaned out the pellet stove and got it burning. Went for a 35 minute walk with my 1 year old pitt mix Riley. Made more of the soup from last night, extra portions so I can grab them for lunch the next couple of days. I'll eat some fruit later. My legs feel a lot better today than they did after my first workout so I think I did much better with stretching this time around.

 

I bought an artichoke but I have no idea what to do with it yet. I love spinach artichoke dip, but I don't want to get all that cheese along with it. I watched a video on how to cook them and didn't realize they were so damn complicated. I'm also curious about spaghetti squash, I've never seen it to my knowledge. I wonder if my grocery stores carry it.

[ßean]

I can't say that I have any idea what one does with an artichoke either, but best of luck to you with that one. Spaghetti squash on the other hand is absolutely delicious when done right (the first time I made it, it was very not right). It's usually pretty easy to find in just about any grocery store that I have come across, and I'm assuming since you aren't terribly far that you have most of the same chains.  The link below is what I used to prepare it the last time that I made it, and it turned out pretty well. 

 

http://www.kitchentreaty.com/how-to-cook-spaghetti-squash-two-different-ways-in-the-microwave-or-in-the-oven/

 

***I lied, the previous link I had wasn't the one I used, it was the one that is there now.***

[halixius]

I can't say that I have any idea what one does with an artichoke either, but best of luck to you with that one. Spaghetti squash on the other hand is absolutely delicious when done right (the first time I made it, it was very not right). It's usually pretty easy to find in just about any grocery store that I have come across, and I'm assuming since you aren't terribly far that you have most of the same chains.  The link below is what I used to prepare it the last time that I made it, and it turned out pretty well. 

 

http://www.kitchentreaty.com/how-to-cook-spaghetti-squash-two-different-ways-in-the-microwave-or-in-the-oven/

 

***I lied, the previous link I had wasn't the one I used, it was the one that is there now.***

 

Lmao well... getting it wrong only makes it better when you get it right, right? Thanks for the link. I'm going to check out a farmer's market near work tomorrow, but if I can't find one there I'll go to another store this weekend.

 

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Today, Overall:

I absolutely could not fall asleep last night/this morning. Usually when I shower right before bed it puts me right out, but not this time. Other than that it was a relatively stress-free day, work was slow (bad because we're not making enough money to support the shelter), gas was cheap and dinner was easy. Although, apparently I suck at estimating portions. I thought I had made 3-4 portions of soup last night but it turns out I only made two. Lunch for one day instead of the week. And tonight, I rediscovered my extreme dislike of oatmeal. Even with shredded coconut, coconut milk, strawberries, blueberries, and way too much ginger and cinnamon, it was still bland as ever. Bland and soggy. Now I have half a can of old fashioned oats that I originally bought to make hamster/rodent treats for a fundraiser and nothing to do with it.

 

Meal Plan:

Breakfast: Banana and mixed nuts on the ride to work.

Lunch: Leftover chicken vegetable soup.

Dinner: Two sunny side up eggs, butternut squash, and a small salad.

Snack: A couple spoonfuls of pathetic oatmeal.

 

Exercise:

I opted for yoga instead of the bodyweight circuit for tonight because I'm really tired. It was... an interesting experience. I've done a little yoga before but never any that had an entire exercise of contracting and releasing your anus. Ah, root chakra. I really like the meditating and imagining parts of it, though. We did a lot of that in the Spiral/wicca club I joined my freshman year of college.

 

Update on the internships: I still plan to apply for one or two more, but I have an interview with Wildlife In Crisis! Finally some good news on that front. This one doesn't pay a stipend but they do provide housing. I just need to get this done, I only have until May if I ever want to graduate without switching to the new curriculum and taking all of the new classes. In the meantime, I need to get another job because I need the money, and because this section of the shelter will be closing down-ish at the end of the month.

[Cymas]

For the old fashioned oats, you can bake them into other things. Oatmeal raisin cookies, for example, or even quick breads. Believe it or not the Quaker website has a lot of decent looking recipes on there that might give you some ideas. If you have any overripe bananas you could easily make banana oatmeal bread with brown sugar, cinnamon, maybe some nutmeg...mm, good stuff. Not really low in sugar or carbs though lol, stuff like that I'll bring in to work for karma. 

[halixius]

For the old fashioned oats, you can bake them into other things. Oatmeal raisin cookies, for example, or even quick breads. Believe it or not the Quaker website has a lot of decent looking recipes on there that might give you some ideas. If you have any overripe bananas you could easily make banana oatmeal bread with brown sugar, cinnamon, maybe some nutmeg...mm, good stuff. Not really low in sugar or carbs though lol, stuff like that I'll bring in to work for karma. 

 

Good idea. I should try to find some type of low sugar dessert to use them in, or even one where I could use up the rest of my almond flour. Oatmeal chocolate chip >>> oatmeal raisin. I've been eating all my bananas for breakfast because I don't want to wake up early enough to make something before work and I have no other grab and go breakfasty things.

 

-------------------------------------

 

Overall:

I had a few discoveries today. First, that my peanut butter is actually coconut peanut butter. I'm sure I bought it intentionally, but I completely forgot and thought it tasted weird the couple times I tried it. Second, a little bit of coconut pb on a banana is really good. And third, the produce section of Hannaford is like a whole new world, they had all kinds of different stuff. I found my spaghetti squash and also opted to try some okra, jicama, and beets (no I've never had beets before). No idea what I'll do with any of those yet. I also found a website that sends you a monthly mystery box of supposedly healthy (not paleo) snacks for pretty cheap. I'm going to try one box.

 

Meal Plan:

Breakfast: Banana with about a tbsp of coconut peanut butter.

Lunch: Half of a greek chicken wrap and 3/4 - 1cup sweet potato tots. The other half saved for tomorrow.

Dinner: Spaghetti squash and chicken caprese, light on the cheese. I put way too much cilantro in it, so I ended up having to add crushed red pepper flakes and chili powder to cover it up. Not too bad.

Snack: Cherries, blueberries, and the two strawberries I had left plus a small handful of nuts. Resisted the urge to stop for froyo.

 

Exercise:

I did three rounds of the beginner bodyweight circuit, minus the jumping jacks. I was on the second floor because irritating people were being irritating. Ten minutes of yoga to stretch out after.

 

I have an avocado pit that I have no idea what to do with. Places say you can crush it up and put it in a smoothie, but I don't have a blender or anything to crush it with. I can't plant it because it's way too cold here, plus I suck at plants. I ALMOST grew a clementine tree from a seed once, it germinated and lasted through the winter but died the next summer.

 

My interview with the CT place is Friday morning. Hopefully that'll go well. I am awful talking over the phone, I have such a hard time paying attention and then making words come out of my mouth without tripping over them.

[ßean]

I'm glad to see you are doing well with eating and working out. Your meals sound far more exciting than what I feed myself and might be making just a little bit jealous.

Assad as the interview goes, you seem to be really passionate about the field, so just approach the interview with confidence and it will come across as you speak. You're going to do great.

[halixius]

End of Week 2:

160.8 lbs     (-2.2 , -5.4)

W: 34.25"    (-0.5 , -1.05)

H: 42"          (-0.25 , -1.5)

RT: 23.75"  (-0.25 , -0.25)

LT: 24.5"     (-0.5 , -0.5)

 

I can tell that this time is different than other times. I feel confident on measurement day. I still get curious to see the day-to-day fluctuations and check the scale every couple of days, but I don't feel discouraged when the number isn't where I hoped, or when it's higher than the time before. The most important thing, though, is I'm not bored of the food. Even when I mess it up or come across something I don't like, I'm not thinking about giving up and just going for something I know will taste good. I've officially decided that this is sustainable.

 

Thought about taking a walk today, but it was dark by the time I got home and my town doesn't like street lights. I'll consider this my night of mental prep and research before my interview tomorrow morning. I'm going to wake up early, eat breakfast, maybe even dress like I'm going to a face-to-face interview to get in that state of mind. I'm sure my chances are good, summer is usually the more competitive time for internships.

 

Meal Plan

Breakfast: Two eggs sunny side up and a piece of toast with apple cherry butter I found at the farm stand.

Lunch: The other half of the greek wrap and sweet potato tots.

Dinner: Pork chop, squash and sauteed apples (syrupless). It was going to be leftover caprese from last night, but that did not make for good leftovers. :|

Snack: A serving of mixed nuts. I'll probably have some cherries and blueberries later.

[halixius]

I'm glad to see you are doing well with eating and working out. Your meals sound far more exciting than what I feed myself and might be making just a little bit jealous.

Assad as the interview goes, you seem to be really passionate about the field, so just approach the interview with confidence and it will come across as you speak. You're going to do great.

 

You're not allowed to be jealous lmao. You have everything you need right at your fingertips. Find some recipes and toss some stuff together. Other than lame food it looks like your quest is going well too!

 

My resume can speak a lot better than I can, but thank you.

[Cymas]

When I first started out I actually weighed myself every day for a month specifically so I could see when I was most likely to be fluctuating and avoid getting discouraged. I still do check probably more than I should but sometimes not seeing it budge for longer than usual makes me hit the gym that much harder. Definitely not a strategy for everyone though!

 

Good luck on the interview tomorrow, I'm sure you'll do great!

[halixius]

Crazy. Fucking. Morning. But I think the interview went well and I guess I'll be driving down to Weston CT Sunday to do an in-person. I'll write about things later tonight.

@Cymas Thanks! And yeah lmao that wouldn't work for me, I'm impatient and I get grumbly. I am not a planning person.

[halixius]

Majorly unhealthy dinner tonight. No regrets. Considering froyo for later. Anyway, brace yourselves for a long ramble/rant about today.

 

This was supposed to be my day off. The plan was to get up, make a good scrambled egg/tomato breakfast, and prepare for/have my interview and have the rest of the day to clean up around home. At 7:15 this morning I got a call from the other girl (there are only 2 of us) asking me to cover her shift. I agreed, because I'm not going to make them close for a whole Friday when they could be making sales (we didn't anyway, we made like $5 today). I had to get there early to get my morning stuff done so I could do my interview at 9am. Then, when I was getting ready, my brother asked me to drive him to work because his car is fucked up. He works in the opposite direction of mine, added 20 minutes to my commute. No time for breakfast, just had to throw on some clothes and leave. I ended up going to starbucks for the second time in my life because there was one right next to his job. Got a chai latte, berry yogurt parfait, and a turkey pesto panini to save for lunch. It was all pretty decent but too expensive for my liking.

 

So I get to work, get most of my stuff done. One of the cats has been kicking all of the litter out of his box. Another cat had the runs and was barely eating. Always a fun time. The interview was 15 minutes and she did most of the talking, I managed to speak in complete sentences without tripping over my tongue. As it turns out, the internship is a 6 month commitment, 6 days a week, 12+ hours a day. Over 72 hours a week for 6 months, unpaid. The only plus is they provide (shared) housing. That's a lot of money I won't be making, especially because that will make it really, really hard to get a job on the side. And even harder to get a job on the side and not die. I'm kind of really hoping to get one of the other internships, but of course I have to apply first. If it comes down to it, though, I'll have to take it because I'm really running out of time. I have to get my 180 hours in by May or I can't ever graduate. At least it's not far from home so I can drive up and see my pets. I'm worried about leaving my gerbils in my mother's care for 6 months... Totally not confident that she won't forget they exist.

 

The rest of work was really, really slow. The panini was pretty good even if it was cold. I spent about an hour scrubbing bird crap and feathers and food off of a big bird cage. It's really amazing some of the disgusting things people will donate to us. Used underwear??? Extremely used and caked up litter boxes????? Throw it away, people. You're not helping anyone. The amount of animal surrender calls we get, too, is really just ridiculous.

 

Oh, and for dinner I got a quesadilla and mozzarella sticks. Really, really good and gross and perfect. I bought healthier stuff for tomorrow night.

 

Anyway, in about half an hour I'm going to do my bodyweight circuit and maybe a little yoga. Now I'm going to apply for some jobs to save up money before my internship.

 

ETA: Applied to 3 jobs yay. Also got a small froyo and can't even finish it.

[halixius]

Main exercise of the day: shoveling snow. >( And 20+ more inches to come this week? I really hope by this time next year I am living on my own far away. I can deal with high 90s heat and humidity, but right now I have like 5 blankets on my bed and sometimes I'm still cold. Luckily I am a furnace when I sleep, though, so I wake up roasting. Honestly it's not even the cold I hate, it's the wind and the clothes/shoes being soaked through. And not having an AWD car.

 

Today's Meal Plan

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with tomato and a small peppermint mocha coolatta from Dunkin.

Lunch: 6" Turkey breast with spinach, tomato and honey mustard on 9 grain honey oat bread.

Dinner: Buffalo chicken. I was going to eat a salad or something but I'm not hungry yet.

Snack: Mixed nuts during the day, blueberries and cherries later. Or maybe I'll see if my nectarine isn't flavorless and crunchy like the other one.

 

I have to wake up early tomorrow so I can get out of here by 8 and head down to the center where my potential internship is. Hopefully the roads won't be too bad. Snow was supposed to stop hours ago but hasn't yet so who knows what it will look like in the morning. It'll be food on the road all day and I don't have anything I could make to pack, so we'll see how that goes. It'll be on my mother's dime so that's a plus.

 

I'm impatient to hear back from these jobs, too. I kept forgetting that today is Saturday and most people weren't working. Lmao I'm honestly amazed I've survived this long on what little I had. I quit my full time job back in April to do my first unpaid internship, which was supposed to start right away but due to problems with the school and finances (and a little bit of me forgetting things) it didn't actually start until June. Then it ended in August, and they hired me part-time (like 8-12 hours a week). I didn't want to get another job because I was hoping to land my second internship, and I was in the process of setting it up with this one place, but they kept dragging it out and then one day stopped responding completely so I was left out in the cold. I've since gone up to about 28-36 hours a week (depending on whether or not the other girl calls out, which she does often). It helps that I finished paying off my car last January and I'm only paying insurance, occasional credit card bill, food and gas. But, now it's time to really buckle down and start padding my bank account, especially if I'm going to be slaving away for 6 months with no income.

[Cymas]

You must live near me. Storm yesterday, supposed to get 20+ on Tuesday and I heard maybe more at the end of the week. And it had been such a good winter so far, aside from the antarctic temperatures not too long ago.

 

I know how you feel about the job thing; I'm job hunting too right now, though I haven't found much yet. Trying to claw my way out of retail, lol. Luck to both of us! *raises coffee mug*

[ßean]

We're supposed to be getting mountains of snow as well, but in general I've found that you native New England people like to exaggerate the severity of weather just a bit.  

[halixius]

You must live near me. Storm yesterday, supposed to get 20+ on Tuesday and I heard maybe more at the end of the week. And it had been such a good winter so far, aside from the antarctic temperatures not too long ago.

 

I know how you feel about the job thing; I'm job hunting too right now, though I haven't found much yet. Trying to claw my way out of retail, lol. Luck to both of us! *raises coffee mug*

 

Where do you live? I'm in south coast Mass. It has been really mild, I was surprised when it barely snowed all of November. Retail sucks, I hope you get out of it soon. I've been in a lot of warehouses and I swore never to go back, but it looks like I might be.

 

We're supposed to be getting mountains of snow as well, but in general I've found that you native New England people like to exaggerate the severity of weather just a bit.

 

Where are you from originally? That may be true but I also live in the back woods where the roads suck and never get plowed. We don't even have streetlights. And it is supposed to be a blizzard, so if I lose power hear that means no heat/water/cooking because everything is (stupidly) electric. I can't wait to get out of here.

[ßean]

I think the reason that I feel like everybody around me exaggerates the weather is because I work in a business that is largely centered around disaster recovery and such, so the people around me freak out at the mention of the word snow or wind. I definitely get you on the losing power side of things, my heat and cooking all require electricity too, so I'm pretty shit out of luck.

 

Oh and I grew up north of Chicago right on the Illinois/Wisconsin border.

[halixius]

Lmao ah, yeah. I can imagine that. I don't freak out I just hate it. And now it's almost like I'm stalking you because my other internship possibility is in Wisconsin.

[ßean]

Where at in Wisconsin?  Also I must warn you that Wisconsin is not necessarily the best place when you have fitness goals in mind.  But the food is so tasty, I might be tearing up thinking about it.

[halixius]

Minocqua? Looks like it's waaay up there. I'll find a way to manage. What kind of food?