It’s been a good two days! I’ve been eating REALLY well and working out like crazy! I got in an hour of cardio (20 on the treadmill doing the Couch to 5k, 40 on the elliptical trainer) at the gym both yesterday and today, with another planned for tomorrow and Thursday. I’ve also been bicycling, a bit. I decided it was a fabulous idea to bike to meet a friend in the rain Monday night. Oooh, never again.

Here’s why:
1. I wear glasses. Rain + glasses = not being able to really see that well.
2. Hello, getting REALLY WET. Duh.
3. Cab drivers in Chicago are total jerks. If they can swerve enough to splash you but not force you off the road, they will. And do.
4. Wet roads = no traction, which means it takes about ten times the work to get from Point A to two feet away from Point A, let alone Point B.
5. I’m really out of shape!

I repeated the ride (5 miles, round trip) again tonight in more favorable conditions, and let me tell you, friends, I’m WAY out of shape. A 2.5 mile ride should not be as hard as it has been! I’ve gone on longer rides! 7 mile rides! What is this nonsense? I do believe my bicycle’s a bit wonky, though. The front tire sort of squeaks. All the time. And I need to raise the seat, because it’s straining my knees. The knee pain is really the toughest part. If not for that, I’d be in a far better state.

As for the jogging training. It’s a three-day per week program, lasting nine weeks. Each week involves jogging a bit more and walking a bit less until you’re jogging a 5k. Well, let me just say that I am very, very out of shape. I’m on Day Two already and I feel like I need another two weeks for Week 1. So, I’ll take all the time I need. I’m struggling to get through the jogging segments right now, and I mean REALLY struggling. I don’t want to push myself too far, too fast, so, when my body gets used to the jogging in Week 1, I’ll move on. I’m not trying to meet any kooky deadlines, after all.

In other news, I made Tofu Scramble/Soyrizo hash tonight. It’s a little iffy, but I’m thinking a night in the refrigerator will cause all the lovely spicy flavors to meld and it will taste a thousand times better tomorrow and maybe not be as wet. Let’s hope!

In even cooler news, I am so getting to know my body and it is SO cool! When walking home from the the subway today, I was feeling a little shaky and suddenly started craving bananas and saltines. Yep, potassium and sodium, two of the compounds found in electrolytes. Apparently in my workout, I excreted a good deal of the two through sweat (which I certainly did enough of!). Not having eaten before my workout (bad, bad, bad!), I hadn’t really consumed enough of either nutrient through the day (the day’s food being breakfast!). So, I came home and made myself a chocolate-peanut-butter-banana shake and snatched a few roasted potato chunks out of the fridge. And felt better. Bodies are pretty freaking cool, guys.

This body is begging for sleep, though! I’ve got class tomorrow afternoon and then gym and more class! Here’s hoping this positive mood continues!

Week 1 [14 August 2007]: Start to quit smoking. The first week is supposed to be the hardest. My Quit Day is “8/14/2007 3:00:00 PM” and I am logging my progress on QuitNet.com because I like logging things, obviously. Drink 64oz of water a day.

19 August 2007: I have not been dilligent about my water, thus far. I feel as though I have been doing fairly well, but I have not been making a conscious effort. Smoking, however, I have been doing quite well on. Temptation struck multiple times, but I have remained strong! My solution has been eating clementines (yum!) and chewing on ice (my mother reminds me that chewing ice means you’re sexually frustrated. Um, YES). My biggest fear was to gain a bunch of weight when I quit smoking, but as long as I avoid snacking, I think I’ll come through okay! I know that clementines count as snacking (duh), but they fulfill all the requirements smoking did for me: something tactile (peeling) and something oral (eating, duh!). So, it’s okay.

Today is good for another reason: my best friend has signed on to try doing a 20 (well, 19, now!) week challenge with me! We are going to be goddesses of sex. C’est vrai!

If I work my tushy off, by my birthday (6 February), I could have an entirely different body. And, with all the money I’ll have saved by not smoking (currently $18), I could have a fabulous new wardrobe! So, hooray!

20 August 2007: Last night was the biggest overcoming of smokey temptation ever. I was back in an environment where I used to smoke all the time, but I didn’t! I did, however, have a third of a milkshake. My body, keeper of dairy-justice, retaliated by making me feel like trash ALL NIGHT. Okay, okay. Lesson learned!

In happier news, 174.2. Oh thank goodness. That monthly spike (and gain) scared the buhjeezus outta me! I’m back down and I feel like I have an entirely different body! There is a difference in 7-8lbs. There really, really, really is.

21 August 2007 (Wee Hours!): Today is supposedly when I start eating well. Can we talk about how unprepared I am? I have practically no food in the house and nothing cooked up. What ever will I eat? It’s really a good question. I think tomorrow may be Tofu Scramble’s maiden voyage. And God only knows what else. I have to get on making food. Eugh. Life is just so nuts right now with school and renovating the apartment. Jeez.

I found a thread on SparkPeople.com today about it being just 20 weeks until New Year’s! The whole idea was to have a whole new body and lease on life by the start of the New Year. I think it’s a lovely idea, really. The week’s challenge was to eat three servings of vegetables a day. While I’ll probably follow that challenge, too, I decided coming up with some new goals would be apt. I tend to work the best when I have some sort of plan. So, here it is! It mainly focuses on fitness because that’s my real problem–I hate exercise. But, I want to be a bicyclist and I would like to be a runner, so, here we go!

Week 1: Start to quit smoking. The first week is supposed to be the hardest. My Quit Day is “8/14/2007 3:00:00 PM” and I am logging my progress on QuitNet.com because I like logging things, obviously. Drink 64oz of water a day.
Week 2: Really crack down on eating veganism. I’ve been so lax lately and it needs to stop.
Week 3: Fitness Starts Here Week! Bike five times a week, 30-45 minutes a day. Drink 72oz of water a day.
Week 4: Couch to 5k: Week One! Drink 80oz of water a day. I’ve stepped up my water with each exercise surge.
Week 5: Couch to 5k: Week Two!
Week 6: Couch to 5k: Week Three! Start doing yoga at home: 4 days a week/30 minutes a day.
Week 7: Couch to 5k: Week Four! Continue yoga at home: 4 days a week/45 minutes a day.
Week 8: Couch to 5k: Week Five! Start strength training. Alternate yoga and strength training.
Week 9: Couch to 5k: Week Six!
Week 10: Couch to 5k: Week Seven! Start physical therapy for left foot–daily 20 minutes.
Week 11: Couch to 5k: Week Eight!
Week 12: Couch to 5k: Week Nine! Congratulations 5k Runner!
Week 13: Start running four days a week instead of three. Drink 88oz of water a day.
Week 14: Start Bikram! Drink 96oz of water a day.
Week 15: Bikram Week 2!
Week 16: Bikram Week 3! Pick up running another quarter mile a day.
Week 17: Bikram Week 4! Pick up running another quarter mile a day.
Week 18: Start running five days a week instead of four.
Week 19: Pick up running another half mile a day.
Week 20: Pick up running another half mile a day.

And, P.S. Here are my quitting stats!

1 day, 5 hours, 28 minutes and 22 seconds smoke free.

15 cigarettes not smoked.
$3.60 and 2 hours of your life saved.

Your quit date: 8/14/2007 3:00:00 PM

Those of you who are following this (…anybody…*taptaptap* Is this thing on?), will have noticed that I haven’t posted in a very, very long time. I’ve been without Internet, though I have it once more. I have also fallen entirely off the diet bandwagon. Big time.

I’m back above 180lbs. I hoped I’d never see these numbers again, aside from when with child. But, here I am again. I’m hoping a good deal of it can be attributed to my monthlies, but certainly all of it can’t be!

It’s about a month of work, completely erased. When you think of it that way, it’s pretty sad. Three weeks of eating horribly undoes a month of working my butt off. But, I guess stepping on the scale today was a wake up call.

So now I’m back and armed with a plan! I’ve got well over two weeks of exceptionally healthy and vegan meal plans worked on my nutrition tracker on SparkPeople.com. The calorie range is a bit higher than the 1,300 I was getting earlier. With these plans, I’m hitting between 1,400 and 1,500. But, they’re world healthier. I’m getting more than enough of ALL then nutrients I need (including protein and the dreaded vegan triumvirate of Vitamin B-12, iron and calcium, as well as plenty of fiber, omega-3s, Vitamins A & C and folic acid! Hooray!). Where early attempts at Veganism Meets SparkPeople were TITANIC failures in the nutrition department, I think I’ve figured out the puzzle to getting the nutrients I need, the cost being 1-200 more calories a day. That, I think, I can live with.

What else? Being far, far, far more active. I’m going to do Cool Running’s Couch-to-5K Program or hit the ellipticals three times a week to burn around 400 calories each of those days. I’m also going to bicycle about 45 minutes a day. New means of transportation, and all. It builds character. That will set me to around a whomping 4,000 calories burned a week, which certainly allows me to eat around 1,400-1,550 and not be too worried.

I’m going to have to see how my body responds to such vigorous exercise–starvation? I’ll boost my calorie count a hundred calories on days I bike and hit the gym.

That’s the revised plan. I’m planning on starting up quite soon. I’ve got a grocery list (alarmingly little money!) all worked out and am shooting to begin this nonsense Sunday.

Here we go again!

In my absense from this blog, I have been doing a great deal of happy vegan research and recipe pondering, so hopefully some very tasty things will be coming up in the future!

A bientot, mes amis!

A teeny to-do list: make a decent work out playlist, update the tags page of this blog, make up a few lists of recipes I want to try out.