I went run-- jogging... I went jogging this morning.

My friend, L, invited me to come along for her early (early) morning jog. I hesitated not only because of the ungodly wake-up time, but also because I stopped running due to a knee injury. But L promised she keeps a slow pace.

So, pretending I'm hardcore, I went to bed last night after my cardio work-out and woke up this morning to another. L and I met up at Kennedy Park, and I have to admit it was totally worth it! First off, the jogging path is now covered in mulch (used to be asphalt) so it was really easy on the ol' knees. No sign of pain after the 5K. And then BONUS! It was a gorgeous dawn and we got to watch the sun rising over the bay (I know it was so romantic, I thought about proposing to L).

In any case, it feels great to have my daily workout out of the way for the day and especially to know I can still run-- or at least, jog. For about 15 years I would really pride myself on my runs. Ever since the 6th grade (no, for real) when I got the Most Improved award and the MVP on the cross country team! Like I had something to prove to my slimmer 12-year old self. Running was the only sport I could really commit to and I was hardcore. I would run every day and in any weather. Most of my runs ended with me gasping for air, like the world's supply was running out and someone had punched me in the gut. I was totally addicted to the high. Until my knee started to act up from overuse. I had to find new work outs, especially those that were easier on my knees.

The positive thing is what I learned: those types of workouts, (you know the ones; where you can't talk while working out, let alone BREATHE at the end), aren't necessarily the most beneficial to fat burning. Slower, more controlled exercise is the best way to burn fat. The elliptical is great, but can get old. So it's good to have spinning, kickboxing, and now I have jogging... again. :)

Big Brother is watching.

No, literally, my big brother.

Here's what J had to say (copying and pasting):
"You never posted on what happend during happy hour you are a bad blogger you can't keep your readers wondering what happend"

(I know, his lack of punctuation drives me nuts too-- but anyway...)

What J really wants to know is if I'd drank...

I did. But there is more to the story:

I left to Happy Hour with only 4 of my 5 daily meals under my belt. I was planning to be out for an hour or two and come back home to my last late meal, probably a quick protein shake before going to bed. Then, the night turned into a much longer night than I'd anticipated and without my car, I couldn't leave. I was fading fast. I still had 300 calories to spare. And I also hadn't had my weekly cheat at that point. My options were to eat fried bar food, or get a drink. I went with a vodka tonic, the lowest calorie, least sugary, least carby drink I could think of (a quick look up on my HTC Evo confirmed it). It was the only alcohol I consumed that week-- HECK, this whole month.

So I feel okay about it. During Phase 1, there is a bit more leniency than in the later phases. I need to learn how to handle these types of events and prepare better for them in the future.

Third week's results: Karina -6 / BF -3.5

Yessss!! I am past the halfway mark to the first goal. That's right, only 4 more pounds to go. And the Rabbit sleeps (and by "sleeps" I mean, eats cheeseburgers and french fries).

It's amazing how much more manageable losing 35 pounds is when you break it up into smaller goals and focus on that. Although losing 35 pounds seems like a big feat, 10 pounds is doable. It doesn't intimidate the crap out of me.

I am really excited to reach this first goal, and I can be there by February if I keep eating right and working out every day.

Please help keep me in line by reading and commenting on my blog. You guys have no idea how helpful it has been already. xoxo

I. Hate. Math.

And dieting/exercise involves lots of math. It's not just the calorie-counting either. It's the number of daily meals. The fiber grams, protein grams, fat grams, sodium content, sugar. The heart rate formula. Cups of water. The number of reps, sets. The body fat percentage... The pounds on the scale. I'm always seeing numbers, and it really never ends. And it's probably the part of dieting that makes it so dreadful for me.

But I will do lots of math for about 6 months until I reach goal. Maybe I'll even get good at math (!!). And then I can take it a bit easier.

In the meantime, you'll see lots of numbers here (and surely, any of my math involved will be speckled with lots of errors)...

Let's start with the number 1500...
5 meals a day. 300 calories per meal.

People have been asking, so here it is-- an example of my daily menu:

MEAL 1: (aka breakfast) Steel-cut oats with cinnamon and a touch of honey. (I should be having more protein in this meal, but unless I am having eggs-- which i get sick of every morning-- I find it hard to. Greek yogurt (one that is low in sugar and high in protein) might be okay, I have been meaning to check with my broth--errr, nutritionist).

MEAL 2: half a whole wheat pita with protein (Boar's Head low-sodium turkey from the deli is best) and I stuff it with any veggies that fit... spinach, broccoli sprouts, etc. Mustard too. Yum.
To make it to 300 calories, I also get a handful of veggies on the side. I like baby carrots-- easy to eat and I love the crunch.

MEAL 3: grilled chicken breast and half a sweet potato. Side of steamed broccoli.

MEAL 4: Protein Shake: if I am having it after a work out, whey protein, add carbs (i.e. a banana). If I'm having it as a last meal before bed, Casein, mixed with flaxseed oil.

MEAL 5: Salad and tuna (canned in water): My favorite salad contents are spinach, lettuce, beets, garbanzo beans, edamame (soy beans)... Sky's the limit on veggies-- just don't overdo it on the high-calorie veggies, spec legumes like garbanzo and soy beans. Add 2 tablespoons of homemade dressing (you can also replace the olive oil with flaxseed oil).

I also drink a gallon of water a day. I keep a gallon container at my desk at work to monitor my intake. The only other liquid I consume is TEA. Lots of green tea. I try to drink it between every meal.

My daily menu changes, of course, I try to keep it varied because I do get sick of foods easily. I try to keep fats separate from carbs, but every meal should have protein.

And that's pretty much it-- For Phase 1, that is... More on the number of phases to come... Yay Math!

Is it Happy Hour if you're not...happy?

So I'm going to Happy Hour with my friends tonight. I can't give up a social life just because I'm dieting...

It's gonna be tough not to drink. Not sure how to handle. Will holding a glass full of water avoid questions? I could tell them I'm preggers...

Any other suggestions (other than giving up my social life?)

No rest for the weary.

Thursday was another nutty day... Aside from work, I had plans to run to the gym during lunch and then I was supposed to do dinner at my mom's (don't worry she's not a food-pushing mom, she is great-- totally caters to dietary needs deliciously). In any case, my mom cancels at like 11am. I should've still gone to the gym during lunch but instead I procrastinate and think, "well, i can just hit the gym after work now."

3pm rolls around. Mom calls. Reinstates dinner plans. Have not gone to the gym yet. And work is insane (hence my miserably short posts). But I can do everything! I tell myself. I rushed out of work at 7 and to the gym for a 45-minute cardio workout. Then rushed to my mom's and had a sweaty dinner. Home to shower and to bed. Phew!

i'm really proud for squeezing workouts in every day, even when it would be easier to just say fuck it.

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
Robert Collier

Sleep, eat, work, eat, gym, eat...

Seems like that's my entire life these days. Not much time for much else. It's not just the eating either, it's the food preparation and the clean-up, too. Really exhausting. Feeling kinda blah these days. I need some scale encouragement. And some sleep... and when I wake up, more food... eat! eat! eat!

Second week's results: Karina -4.5 / BF -7

Sorry for the break, guys... had the long weekend off. Back to blogging and with a halfway mark update...

Both BF and I have 5.5 pounds to reach our respective first goals... BUT (BIG but(t)-- no pun intended) BF is shedding the pounds not only much faster, but also much more easily.

While I've kept to a very stringent routine of health foods and a daily workout routine, I've seen him eat ribs, drink beer, and work out a total of three times to my 10. Maybe there's a method to his madness... HA!

But, don't fret, Dear Reader! While he has the numerical advantage, I do feel like I've got quite a bit more discipline. You see, dear reader, we are like The Tortoise and the Hare... He thinks he's got this in the bag and is taking liberties he shouldn't be.

Upon the start of the race, the hare quickly leaves the beautiful tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through. When he awakes, however, he finds that his beautiful competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him.

Today, while the hare, errr, BF is going to a wine tasting, I will be at the gym. And while I woke up early this morning to cook my chicken and make my salad, BF did not.

Here is to perseverance!!

Official Rules.

Below are the rules that my super smart lawyer BF wrote up for our competition. I'm glad he revised the weight milestones. The weight really is coming off so much faster on him and I am doing everything I can to keep up, to no avail.

Anyway, here are the rules... so fun:

1. K and BF, hereinafter "the competitors,"
wishing to be bound by these terms and conditions, have entered into
this binding agreement.

2. Terms: Arbiter: rules in cases of disputes between the parties.
Weigh-in: designated time at which weight will be measured. Weight
loss milestone: a designated weight loss point that the competitors
have agreed entails a cash prize. Payout weight: when a weigh-in
results in one of the competitors acheiving a weight loss milestone,
that will constitute a payout weight.

3. The designated arbiter will be J.

4. Weigh-ins will take place Tuesdays and Saturdays first thing in the
morning. In the event of a weight loss milestone being recorded, the
competitor claiming the weight loss milestone will be weighed three
times. The average of the three weigh ins is the official weight of
that day. An unofficial weight will never be considered a weight loss
milestone and will never constitute the basis for a payout weight.

5. Weight loss milestones are set at 10, 22, and 35 pounds for Karina.
Weight loss milestones are set at 12.5, 28.75, and 43.75 pounds for
Bart.

6. Payout weights will payout on the order of: first milestone: $100,
second milestone: $200, third milestone: $500. Competitors need not
acheive one milestone to be eligible for a subsequent milestone. In
other words, a competitor could lose the first milestone, win the
second milestone, and lose the third milestone. Or the competitor
could lose the first two milestones but still win the third milestone.

7. In the event of a challenge, the arbiter's decisions are final.

First week's results: Karina -3.5 / BF -4.5

Today is the first full week scale report. I am down by 3.5 and BF is down by 4.5.
Overall, it went pretty well, although there are things I could definitely improve on...

Here are the things I need to keep doing:
- Eating clean meals with high protein and brown carbs or good fats.
- Drinking a gallon of water a day.
- Drinking green tea.
- Staying away from alcohol.
- Working out every day.

Here are the things I need to work on:
- Eating a full 300 calories per meal. Sometimes it's hard to eat all 300.
- Eating 5 times a day. On several days, I have been one meal short.
- Taking ALL my vitamins-- I forget!!
- Getting down on myself if I'm not losing the weight as fast as BF.
- No chocolate cake. Regardless of how fudgy and delicious it is.

On the downside, the first week of any diet is the most successful in terms of pounds lost, so I won't see this number again. But, on the upside, I am really getting into the swing of things and I will only continue to improve the error of my ways moving forward, which will be very big success.

Weekend Report

Overall, weekend dieting went well. I did exactly as I planned: I avoided alcohol at all costs, I ate 5 meals a day, and even had a full gallon of water yesterday. I also went to the gym and had a really hard workout.

I did somehow manage to gain one pound over the weekend. But I really did behave, so it might just be a weight fluctuation. As of now, the bf is in the lead and it's looking like he'll get to ten before me. Ugh. It's especially upsetting because not only do I not agree with his diet (which allows limitless calories of any type of food found in the paleolithic era) but also, he's not even following it precisely!! Unless they had diet coke, rum, and other such delicious beverages thousands of years back... Basically what really gets to me is, that if he were to truly behave, then he'd be losing even more weight.

But in any case, I can't focus on that.

I gotta focus on how tight my jeans are. And oh boy, are they tight... I'm wearing the only jeans left that fit-- and I'm using that term loosely..... wondering how many people would notice if I just unsnapped my jeans......

Tomorrow BF and I have our first official weeklong weight in. I will update you on total pounds lost on tomorrow's blog.

TGIF ...or is it?

During the workweek, it's easy to get into a routine of waking up, going to the gym, eating every 3 hours or so, and constantly drinking water and green tea...

But when the weekend strikes, things change. You sleep in, you make plans with friends, you lose track of time... It's much, much harder to plan a meal when you are out and about. Which is good when you're tying to distract yourself from food, but this diet is centered around eating small meals frequently. So, needless to say, I'm trying to plan for the weekend ahead to avoid making mistakes.

Tomorrow during the day, my bf and I are going to visit his parents-- because it's a long drive, regardless of how long we are there, there is going to be at least one meal involved. Maybe two. So I gotta pack easy food-- a turkey wrap, some finger-friendly veggies.... And of course, water. I drink a gallon of water a day, so packing water is essential.

Weekend nights suck even more... Going to a friend's party tomorrow and I cannot drink a drop of alcohol (big sigh) or have any of the food provided. And packing food for that is impossible-- or just really socially awkward. So, I have to make time before the party to eat a filling meal and I will definitely take a giant water bottle in one of my giant purses. I'll pack some emergency nuts (unsalted and raw) for the ride home, but only eat them if we're there too long and I'm having hunger pains.

In any case, this is what my social life will be fore the next 6 months and you can imagine why watching a movie at home or gardening becomes so appealing. Keep it close to the food and water supplies.

I will let you know how it goes... have a good weekend everyone!

MUST...work........out............

So here I am, it's after 9pm and I am stuck at the office... But I WILL go work out now. I will! And I will blog about it so that if any of you ask me tomorrow, I can say, YES! I DID work out yesterday.

Even if it's a quick weights routine.

My work out plan you ask? A total of 7 weekly sessions separated into 4 sessions of cardio and 3 sessions of weights.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday: CARDIO! (Always a mix, but I like... kickboxing, spinning, the elliptical, and an occasional run if my knee is up to it.)

Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday: WEIGHTS! (Alternate lower body and upper body. Weights are a GREAT way to speed up your metabolism and tone up-- I always hear women stupidly say, "But I don't want to be muscular!" Trust me, you will know if this is happening.)

I've never had a problem working out, really have been doing it all my life, usually my issue will be lack of time (or lack of better planning). But now I really cannot afford to miss a single session and will have to plan viciously to get them all in.

It's also more enjoyable when I do something different every day, so it doesn't get boring (and also I am toning different muscle groups every day). It's just so easy to quickly fall out of love with a routine workout.

And yes, dear reader, I am slowly overcoming yesterday's cake catastrophe and I'm actually using it as motivation to eat clean (4 PRISTINE meals down today, and one to go) and also, to go work out. Which I will do...... NOW!!

I Fudged Up. That's Fudge with a capital F.

No, I literally Fudged up. It was my boss's birthday and she loves chocolate (doesn't everyone?!). So I got her my favorite: fudge-y chocolate cake. And yeah, I cracked.

The thing about chocolate is, it doesn't matter if I'm hungry or not, I ALWAYS want chocolate. Not sure where my resolve went. Maybe it was this morning...

Flashback to 10 hours earlier...
I know you're not supposed to, but I like to weigh myself every morning. So I woke up and immediately got on the scale and saw that I lost half a pound... Yay! Normally reason for celebration-- until my boyfriend followed my lead and got on the scale too: 3.5 pounds down for him.

W

T

F

Seriously?! I know there are a lot of factors involved with weighing oneself (and understand that's why you do it once a week) but AAHHHHH!!!!!!

Anyway, so I've been all BLAH! today. And it's not like eating chocolate cake is going to help me to get there any faster. But I did it. I ate it.

And now I have to get over it and move on. Sometimes I do this, I make one mistake, and suddenly, for some reason, I continue to make mistakes. Like once that mistake barrier has been broken, there's no point to be good again.

But here's my plan for tonight and I'm sticking to it: First, I'm going spinning (right now, actually). Then, I'm having a protein shake. If I am still hungry later, chicken and vegetables. End of story.

Tomorrow is a new day and I will have to remind myself how I feel right now to avoid making more mistakes.

Neither do I condemn thee: Go and sin no more.

Challenge Extended...

My boyfriend is dieting, too. And so, we decided to make it interesting:

First person to shed 10 lbs gets $100 dollars.
First person to shed a total of 25 lbs gets $200.
First person to shed a total of 35 lbs gets $500.

The first marker is what I'm focusing on: 10 El-Bees. Bring it.

Some people might think percentage loss is more fair since he's a guy and he's got more to lose, but hell, I like a good challenge.

So the question remains: What will I do with the $800 dollars?! I'd say get a new wardrobe but the exciting part about losing this weight is that I have my entire (old) wardrobe that doesn't fit waiting for me.

Maybe I should front the money and get a personal trainer now since I know I'm going to win anyway... I could get guidance from him once a week and work out the other days on my own...

Any other suggestions?

Hello, Accountability.

I'm not fat.

And that's not according to my grandma's standards or the size of the average American. That is according to the National Institute of Health. Looking at the Body Mass Index chart, I am in the "healthy range." But...

...my jeans won't button. And that's a problem. In the last couple of years, I have gained more weight than I care to admit. But in the spirit of full disclosure. thirty-five miserable pounds.

Yikes.

I am not here for affirmation that I still look okay (so please, none of that); I want something to hold me accountable. If (at least, I think) readers are tracking my process, then I won't give up. I am looking not only to share my achievements, but also to confess the error of my ways. I think that by blogging about it, FULL DISCLOSURE, I will be more successful in my quest to get those pants back on. And I hope that maybe my quest will help some of the readers, as well.

GOAL 1: shed a total of 10 pounds by January 31 (the beginning is easiest)
GOAL 2: shed a total of 30 pounds before the summer, June 22 (total of 6 months).