I realize I haven’t blogged on this site for nearly a month.
That doesn’t mean I had completely fallen off plan and am under the table in some chocolate induced comma. I am still maintaining despite all of the distractions lately.

It has been quite a month. First being layed off and then having family arrive on leave from the air force. They flew in on the 12th of April and so I had a house full for 3 weeks. Visiting and catching up and meeting my newest niece was fantastic. It did mean the already interrupted schedule because of no job was even more disjointed. I did manage to continue working out and running just not as much as I could have. The food brought into my house was not stuff I would usually buy and I did partake of more calories then I should have but I have been continuing to make good choices.

I am now in California for eleven wonderful days with Chari. I brought workout gear with me and plan on getting some excersize while I’m here. We went to Monterey Bay over the weekend and I had some fantastic food and I did split a piece of chocolate covered cheesecake (on a stick) with Chari but am pretty happy with my choices.

There is also a lunch interview tomorrow and hopefully soon a job offer to follow (4th interview with this company). I know once I’m back to a normal routine with a job and normal schedule the workout’s and blog’s will be more routine as well.

Last night I wanted Chips and Salsa, I had the salsa and chips were only a brief trip to the store away. But I resisted. I was not hungry, I was not bored, I was a bit stressed from working on my resume but there was no “need” for this snack.

In fact I don’t have any typical snack food in the house, except maybe a piece of fruit there isn’t anything that doesn’t need to be prepared in some way. I know I often have the thought, I will buy these “chips”, “ice cream”, “cookies”, “snack foods” and I will limit myself to one serving if I decide to have them. When everything is on track that can be done. However I know that food is an issue for me, I abuse it when I’m bored, lonely, stressed, and currently I’m stressed and depressed about being layed off.

I have come to realize that I should never buy “snack foods”, truthfully there is no need for them. There are always fruits and veggies in the house and if in fact I’m hungry one of those will sound appealing. If I’ve already had my calories for the day and I’m not hungry there is no need for a snack, even if I’m bored and it sounds good.

How is snacking taking care of myself?

Also because I resisted, I am not retaining any water from all the salty chips I did not eat last night.

I have seen this twice on other blogs this week. It is worth watching and is so telling.

Look at my yummy breakfast, yup berries and light whip cream.

Followed by a nice workout and now catching up on some chores.

I was layed off yesterday. I did not spend the evening eating my way through the fridge and therefore did not have a bunch of food guilt to get over today. I want to take care of myself while going through a very trying and difficult time of looking for a new job. The workout this morning and a breakfast that felt like a treat was a great start to the day.

Staying on course, or rather getting on course takes day after day after day dedication. Getting into a routine, making your workout a priority, getting up early to do it, or skipping evening events to fit it in. It takes determination to succeed. Once you are in the routine and get to a place that you are enjoying and actually craving the workout (Ok, I know some of you are saying,,,,ya right!) it is easier to stay on course. That is until you miss a day, or a weekend. Like I did two weekends ago when I had to work so much. Then I was completely spent for the rest of the week and even though I was actually missing the workout I was to damn tired to do it. Then Chari came to town and we were determined to both get back on track. We took a couple long walks but my gym door never opened.

And would you look at that, it has been 2.5 weeks since I worked out……HOW does that happen, oh wait I jut explained how it happened.

I even got up this morning at 4:30 to work out, but I didn’t, I drank coffee and watched the news and again didn’t open the gym door.

**********coming soon, the post about how I am back on course
(any friggen day now)*****

I managed to keep to the one day goal yesterday and did not eat out of pure exhaustion.

I didn’t manage to get up at 4:15 today however cause, well I wanted another hour of sleep.

Today’s one day goal is to work out in the evening.

I don’t have much more then that, but I did just read a fabulously written rant over on a lard off my mind that if you haven’t checked them out you should. This rant is about the assumption that if one is thinner then another they must be healthier. Check it out!

There will be no workout today. In fact when my 4:15 alarm went off and I was at my desk still from yesterday it scared the heck out of me. I have been at work since yesterday afternoon except a 90 minute window at 1:30 am to go home shower and change out of my (workout, housework, shouldn’t leave the house in fugly) sweats.

So here is today’s goal……to not eat like a sleep deprived sophomore. By the time I leave this afternoon I will have been here for 24 hours, minus said shower time. I will have been up far many more hours then that and the temptation to eat to stay awake should be hitting here very soon and will be in full force by the time I get home this evening.

That is the only goal I have the energy for, and I will be much better off if I can stick to it.

Oy this week.

So my goal for the week was to get a week under my belt (so to speak) with working out daily and tracking my food. Not just working out but getting good workouts in and not just tracking my food but staying in the goal range for calories and not eating more then I use.

Its Thursday. I have gotten up earlier every day this week and found a way to get good cardios in every morning. The plan was to focus on weights and stretching at night. Well Monday night I cleaned the carpet instead and then Tuesday I worked late, not getting home until almost 8pm. Last night I met up with Leslie and Char to discuss the Marathon training and our weight loss and fitness challenges and didn’t get home until 8:40pm. I will be working late tonight and most likely tomorrow along with possibly working both days this weekend.

It makes it difficult to get up at 4:15 if I don’t go to bed at 9pm but I feel like I’m in 8th grade going to bed so early. But even with the schedule challenges this week I have been working out and I have been tracking my food and staying in range.

I feel pretty good about it. Somehow I have managed to get everything else done on my list as well. Perhaps it is just that If I get less sleep to get more exercise I need less sleep and have more energy. Self fulfilling prophecy perhaps. But firmly planted on the track this week (including my food choices while eating out) Woo Hoo me.

I think after 6 weeks on this schedule I have figured out how to fit my early morning workout in. Get this, instead of getting up at 4:30 for the workout and not getting a good one or a complete one before needing to be in the shower at 5:30 and heading out the door at 6:15 to be at the park and ride at 6:30……..I am now getting up at 4:15

What you say…even earlier….

Here’s the deal. It takes me a little bit of time in the morning (especially at this hour) to get up and get going. This is giving me 20 minutes or so to get up, get dressed, remember how to tie my shoes and get to working out. So I am getting started about 4:30-4:35. This is giving me enough time to work out. Before I was still taking the 20 minutes or so to get mobile and by then my workout time was nearing the half way point.

So that’s the schedule this week (that it falls on the first week of daylight savings is just a cruel joke cause my body thinks its 3:15) so far two days of 4:15 and two good workouts in.

The tracking of the food is going better also. I am having dinner with Char and Leslie tomorrow to discuss the Marathon and the neglected marathon blog.

All in all getting up fifteen minutes earlier seems to be getting me on the right track….(pun fully intended)

So after a month of working a new schedule and a trip to see Chari and feeling like I was just not putting as much into it I took a page from my dear friend Char’s blog wrapping up the month, and totaled up my month, including days were all I did was 10 minutes of stretching or 20 minutes of core work.

I didn’t go so far as to add up each event separately but came up with a total of 19 hours and 15 minutes, dividing that by 29 days (of which I admit I didn’t work out each day as some of them I was out of town) I had 39minutes per day. UM, I CAN LIVE WITH THAT.

Just seeing it that way, encourages me to do even better this month!!! It also encourages me to keep running, even though I seemed to not be doing so well, the 1/2 Marathon is 269 days away.