Weigh In: Week 56

   In case anyone was wondering, the magic castle last weekend was FANTASTIC.  It was so much fun.  A little pricey but a good time nonetheless.  If you ever get the chance, you should go.  The dressing up part was also fun.  Since I work in entertainment, I don't dress up.  Ever.  The most I do at work is jeans, dressed up blouse and heels.  And more often than not, I'm not even THAT dressed up.  But I'm definitely never in dresses, sparkly jewelry, and fancy hair and makeup.  And that's what I did for the magic castle.  Unfortunately no photography is allowed in the castle (which I guess is part of the mystique) so there is no photographic evidence of my fancy self.  But trust me, I was fancy.

As for my plans this weekend ..

I have just a few things on my plate.  I'm in the market for a new sofa, so I have a few stores I'm going to check out and then hopefully purchase a brand new sofa.

Hopefully.

Wanna see it?

Beautiful isn't it?  I'm a little worried it might be too big for the space but whatever.  I want it. 


Other than that, we have a housewarming/engagement party to go to tomorrow night.  Thankfully, the couple lives near us so it's close.  I'm just aching for the day I can be a home-body again.  You know, staying in on a Saturday night.  Renting some movies, cooking some dinner, just snuggling up with your favorite somebody and relaxing.  I have a few more weekends to go but I can feel it coming!

And now on to my weigh in.

Result:  +0.0

That's right.  I maintained. 

How did I get there?

1.  I know it doesn't seem like it but I did eat in a deficit.  This week I ran, on average, a -285 calorie deficit per day.  Again, not the 500 I'm aiming for, but a step up from what I did last week!  I'm hoping to do better again this coming week.

2.  I also ran.  Only 1 day.  I'm 6 weeks in on my 10k training program and I was supposed to take this week off.  I ran 1 day and then decided to give in.  I'll admit, it's a little scary to take this much time off.  I'm supposed to pick back up this weekend and a little voice inside my head is wondering if I'm actually going to start again.  Of course I will!!  I hope I will ?  Oh please God let it not be hard.

3.  I drank my water.  Good not great.  It needs work.

4.  What I ate?  I made everything and it all was gluten free and in some cases dairy free.  The menu included:  pumpkin pancakes, bacon, eggs, chicken/vegetable teriyaki with rice noodles, tacos, sushi, salad, apples, turkey, grapes, cheese, and peanut butter. oh yes and coffee.  Lots of coffee.  And some kettle chips were in there as well.  But honestly, kettle chips are ALWAYS there somewhere.  I kind of stuck to the same foods over and over this week.  I found that once I had the calorie count down, it just was easier to eat the same things so that I didn't have to keep looking things up.  Also, it just so happens I was really into all the food I made this week so win-win.
 

Weigh In: Week 55

Happy Friday everyone!!

I haven't done a real weigh-in post since August 9th.  That's almost two months!!  I've been busy.  And while I really enjoy being busy, I'm getting tired of it.

I don't know what it was about this year, but every weekend I've had since August 9th has been booked for me.

And I have another 2 weekends to go before I get a breather. 

I don't mind being busy and having things to do, but when it's one after the other after the other, it gets tiring.  Sometimes having events on the weekends are nice, it helps to make you think your weekend was longer than it really was.  Ever have that happen?  When you have a regular two day weekend off from work and for some reason, the activities you have planned make it feel like a 3-day weekend.

While those weekends are what I strive for, the opposite also can happen.  You know how it goes, you get off of work on Friday and you're so busy from that moment on.  The next thing you know, it's Monday morning, you're on your way to work and you feel as if you haven't had one second of down time?

That second scenario has been my life since August 9th. 

I'm hoping this weekend might be a little less cumbersome.  Today, I'm getting off of work early, to rush home and get ready.  And when I say ready, I mean get like ready, ready.  Like dressed up fancy ready.  So that in itself is some work.

We're getting all fancy tonight because we're going to the Magic Castle.

The Magic Castle in Los Angeles is a private club for magicians.  And the only way to go is to be invited by a member.  And once you're invited, you get really dressed up, eat a fancy dinner, and then see some crazy magic. 

My fiance's sister is taking us tonight to celebrate our engagement.  We've never been before so I'm pretty excited.  I'm sure it'll be good times.

Then on Saturday, we agreed to house sit for a friend.  You know, watch the house, take care of the dog.  It's not too much work but it does require a lot of running back and forth.  And then on Sunday, I'm hoping (HOPING), we don't have much to do.  So yes, maybe this weekend won't be too bad at all.

As for this past week ...

Weigh In:  -5.0 lbs

I didn't formally weigh in with my last post because I had just started writing again so that five pounds is since Tuesday 9/24/13.

What I did?

1.  I worked out 3 times.  I ran.  I do between 35-40 minutes 2 times a week and then a long run on Sundays.  This past week my long run took 68 minutes plus warm up and cool down.  I'd say I'm burning about 300 on my short runs and in the upper 500s for my long run.  That would work out to around 1100 calories total burned for the week.  My goal is to add in an additional 1-2 days of strength training.

2.  I ate in a deficit.  Twas not the great deficit I had in mind when I started my wedding plan but I'll take it.  I also didn't track as dutifully as I should have.  I'm still working the kinks out of getting back in the swing of tracking calories full time.  I averaged a deficit of -212 calories per day.  Next week, I'm really aiming for two things.  First and foremost, I'm going to track every day.  And secondly, I'm shooting to make my deficit closer to the 500 calorie mark.

3.  Water!  Since it's becoming cooler, it's a little harder to remember to drink my water, but I'm still in the game.  In fact, this entire year, my fiance (I really feel weird writing that.  Like I'm pretentious or something.  But honestly, it's kinda cool) and I have kept our soda intake to almost zero.  We drank a few sips of Sprite while on vacation to see if it tasted different (it did.  it was very sweet and the carbonation kind of burned my throat ... weird right?) and I believe we have had some cocktails while out that contained soda.  But other than that, our drink of choice is water or coffee or if we're feeling crazy adventurous, unsweetened iced tea.  What can I say?  We're crazy like that.  And here's another fun tip, drinking water saves you money.  When we were on vacation with my family, my parents picked up the tab one night for dinner for a bunch of us.  There were 11 people.  Everyone but us ordered soda and when my dad got the bill he commented on how he should start ordering water more because the drinks alone cost $27. 

4.  What I ate?  I've been eating a mixture of foods.  I'm still trying to come out of my vacation fog with food.  While I was gone I was not able to cook so I got used to packaged foods and eating out.  Unfortunately that practice followed us back home for a little while, however, this past week was almost perfectly normal (for me).  I made a vegan mushroom stroganoff over brown rice pasta, steak salad with roasted brussel sprouts, and I was supposed to make applesauce muffins but wouldn't you know I just couldn't get it done.  I also ate some sushi, bacon and eggs, dark chocolate, potato chips, Trader Joe's pre-packaged salads, and Reese's Pumpkins (YUM!).

Today's Menu:
B:  Bacon and Eggs + coffee
L:  Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff + pasta
D:  Magic Castle