Weigh-In Monday #1

So this morning was the first weigh in which I promise to do every Monday no matter what. Unless I'm not near a scale. But anyway. I weighed myself this Monday knowing that I hadn't followed my diet plan all week like I should have. Being away for the weekend is difficult - there's lots of snacks, there's lots of restaurant eating, and there's rest stops full of crappy fast food to contend with...and while I made some smart choices, I made some crappy ones too. So today's result is: gained 1/2 pound. I'm not going to cry about it, but I've got to get back on the horse and do the best I can. Although, Vegas lies in my future, so maybe this week might just be one where I'm lucky to maintain...

Weekend Challenge: Climb a freaking mountain

So this weekend I was upstate in the Adirondacks with Brian, Lindsay, Kelley and friends. One of our activities was to do a 3.3 mile mountain hike to a summit at Buck Point. I was psyched at the idea of getting really good exercise but a bit worried about my stamina for this journey.

The photo is of Andreas and Kelley walking on the wooded trail. The hike itself was really pretty - we were surrounded by green tall trees, cool mountain air, and all the rocks, branches and earth you could imagine. The first few paths were okay - just winding dirt road and a hop or two over a rocky stream.

But soon enough the climb got challenging. A mountain hike means quite a bit of it is up, so there were all these steep (and not so steep) hills that needed to be ascended. My legs got tired fast, I was breathing heavily, and wondering how the heck I was going to make it even more than a mile. Brian stuck with me for most of the hike, and held my hand to help me up some of the more challenging parts of the hill, for which I am totally grateful. I was mostly telling him I hated him during the experience though.

In the end, I did not make it all the way up to the summit, I was just too darn exhausted. I told the crew to go on without me, but even when I was alone, I kept ascending at my own pace. I passed a few hikers coming down. I kept asking how much further it was to the summit, and for some reason, everyone kept saying twenty minutes. Even after I'd walk twenty minutes they'd say twenty minutes. Ugh. So in the end, I made it about three miles up. I was pleased enough - and then there was the 3 mile trek down. Six miles in a day is not bad for me - glad in the end that Brian dragged me up there and I saw how far I could go. Maybe sometime in the future I'll be thinner and able to get up the whole thing.

Health check

So there's a Wellness Fair happening at my office today, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to get a quick (and free) blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose screening.

I waited with one of my colleagues, John. They were having trouble getting the cholesterol machines working. So blood pressure first - mine was 125 over 90. Basically this means I'm a little higher than I should be, but not in a scary awful range. Just need to diet and exercise a bit which I am trying to do now.

My glucose reading was 67. This is actually pretty low - but I hadn't eaten lunch yet, so if I had, I guess I might have fallen into the normal range which is between 80 and 120.

Lastly, the cholesterol was...LOW. After all the waiting and playing around with the machine, that's what the reading said. No number, just LOW. Um, okay. I shrugged and left, figuring if it said low, it couldn't be too bad.

John came by my desk after his screening. I was on a conference call, so he wrote me a note. He said his cholesterol was 180, and there was no way that was right, so just an FYI. HA.

Ugh

Its never easy to diet because the minute you start, out of nowhere sugar and snacks just find their way to you. And normally that fazes me, but so far I'm not feeling it at all. What annoys me is that I've reached a point in my life where I have a sensitive stomach and when I start eating healthier, its first instinct is to react violently.

This is annoying.

A good part of the reason to eat healthier is to feel better, so when my stomach feels worse on healthy days, I very quickly get annoyed. I know at some point this will pass and my body will get used to it if I keep it up, but for now, I'm stuck with the struggle of the beginning and trying to deal with feeling crappy.

At least I've got a blog to complain on.

Here we go: Day #1

So it's Monday, September 21, 2009, and this is the first day of the project. I went food shopping last night and bought healthy-ish stuff and only low calorie snacky snacks, so I'll be on my way. I weighed myself this morning - so I know the starting weight. You won't see it here - nobody feels like sharing that number, so I'll only be saying how much I lose and how far I have to go to reach my goal of 75 pounds. So while I'll be posting in between, I'll be weighing myself once a week and reporting on my weight loss each Monday.

The good news is I have already found a sponsor for part of the prize - the great Norway adventure. I was telling Brian about this blog and mission on Friday, and he said, and I quote: "Jenn, if you lose even 60 pounds, I will buy your plane ticket to Norway." Whoo hoo! Does that include Business class Mr. Bishop?

Seventy-five pounds to Norway

The idea for this blog has come from several different things:

#1 - I want to lose weight. I've been heavier than I'd like to be for a long time now, and more often than not, I lose the war on trying to do something about it. So setting up a way to stick to a weight loss project seems like a pretty good plan.

#2 - I want to go to Norway. I don't know why, and I'll elaborate on this in later posts, but its something I want to do so its become the strange finish line to this project.

#3 - I read/saw Julie/Julia and I got it. While it may seem silly to cook your way through a cookbook in a year and blog about it, facts are the woman was in a rut and found a way to get herself out of it. And got a book/movie deal to boot. Need I say more?

So the challenge is - I need to lose 75 pounds. I'm not putting a time constraint on it because that would just be unhealthy. Instead, there's a big prize in the end. If I can lose 75 pounds, I get to send myself to Norway. I don't know when it will be, but in my head I'm saying I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Start date: Monday, September 21, 2009.