August 29, 2007

some updates

the diet is going okay... i went over my points a little this weekend at the two cubs games we went to. but i'm back on track now. i haven't lost any weight, 130 lbs still, but i haven't gained any either so i guess that's good.

i've been going to the gym regularly. i went to pilates yesterday and it kicked my butt. i'm very sore. i liked it though.

in other news, i bought a new phone. in case you don't go to boardix, it's a moto q. i got a rocking good deal w/ the sprint sero plan, $30/mo for unlimited texts, free night and weekend calls, 500 anytime minutes, and best of all - unlimited internet. i will have a new phone number w/ a phoenix area code and i'll send everyone a text w/ my new number when my phone comes.

jesus is approaching his 150,000 mile birthday, he's only about 275 miles away right now. unfortunately, i have just been informed by the oil changer man that i need a new clutch and a new front axle. i'm going to go get some estimates tomorrow. more than likely i'm going to have to rent a car while jesus is being fixed because jon is sans auto, which sucks b/c it will just make everything more expensive- especially b/c of that under 25 BS.

i am getting somewhat close to being done with grad school. i have 4 classes left, which is only three 8-week terms, and february 28 is my last day of class. my next term is tuesday and thursday classes again (my last double term though, thank god!) and i'm taking characteristics of students with emotional disabilities and strategies to teach students with emotional disabilities. should be interesting.

work is going well. right now i only have 8 students on my caseload, which is really low. it's nice though, because at the end of last year i had 17.

our kitchen is close to being done. we just need to finish the island- the countertops and install the cooktop. then it will be done! besides the bathrooms, the rest of the house looks pretty nice. check out my facebook pictures if you haven't done so already.

i'm coming to chicago october 5-14 during my fall intercession at work. i don't really have too many plans yet, except for the 13th- my dad's birthday and elmhurst homecoming. so if you want to hang out, let me know!

well, i'm going to relax now. thanks for reading my blog! :)

Posted by JenMagenta at 10:08 PM | Comments (3)

August 19, 2007

after a week

well, i've been counting weight watchers points for a week now, and i have been going to the gym. i have been doing well with the diet, the only difficult thing is that a few times at night i've been hungry but i had used all my points already so i couldn't eat anything. hopefully my stomach is starting to shrink, so that won't happen too much anymore.

workout update: like i said before, i've been to the gym 5 times this week. i feel pretty good. i went to two classes, yoga and aqua aerobics. the aqua class was really fun, although it was kind of awkward because i was the only person there under 60 (besides the instructor). yoga had a younger crowd, but the instructor wasn't that great. he kept correcting my positions (he actually asked me if i had ever done yoga before-- and i have taken 12-week classes at the community center)- so maybe i just suck at yoga, i'm not sure. the class was very difficult though, and he probably made us do about 3,000 downward facing dogs. my wrists were killing me by the end of class. i have also done the elliptical machine a few times and arms and abs workouts.

diet update: the diet has been going well. here is an example of what my daily food intake looks like (the number to the left of the food stands for how many points it has):

2- special k bar
4- slice of pizza
1- peaches
2- cottage cheese
7- lean cuisine panini
3- weight watchers chocolate chip cookie dough sundae
1- milk

so as you can see, it's not like i'm eating salads all day. in fact, i rarely eat salads. i'm eating normal food, i'm just basically cutting down my calorie intake. if drinks have calories, they have points too, so i only drink diet pop, water, unsweetened iced tea, and unsweetened coffee (w/ just a dab of skim milk), so i don't have to count points for my beverages in addition to my food. if i have an extra point at the end of the day i'll have a small glass of skim milk with my dessert. that is one thing that will quickly make you change your drinking habits- do you want to have a coke for 2 points or a chocolate chip granola bar for 2 points that will acutally fill you up?

on days that i exercise i get to eat 3 extra points. that is a really nice perk. i also have 35 flex points for the week. on friday we went out with some friends and i went over my 20 point limit when we ate our sushi dinner, and then we had gelato (i estimated a small cup was 10 points), but it was okay because i still had all of my flex points for the week.

so at the end of week 1, i feel less fat, and i weighed in at 130 still, but that's okay. i'll probably lose a pound next week.

my favorite low-point snacks this week were:

0- cherry coke zero
0- vanilla coke zero
2- 100 calorie popcorn bags (they are HUGE)
2- 100 calorie keebler grasshoppers
3- weight watchers frozen chocolate chip cookie dough sundaes

Posted by JenMagenta at 11:36 AM | Comments (3)

August 11, 2007

and i feel fat

i can't remember the last time i worked out. i'm not proud of it, but it's the truth. and i haven't exactly been eating healthy lately either. i keep telling myself that once i'm done w/ grad school (late february), i'm going to join a gym and start eating healthy. i make excuses for myself and say that i'm too busy w/ the house, work, and grad school to eat healthy and exercise. but i've been feeling really fat lately and i'm kind of sick of it. i only weight 130 lbs, which is not huge, but i don't have muscle definition like i used to, and i'm short so 130 lbs for me is a lot more than it would be for someone who's taller than 5'3". plus i'm a little freaked out about getting jello arms...

so i just printed my 7 day free pass to 24 hour fitness. it's about a mile away from our new house, and they have lots of stuff to offer, including aerobics, pilates, yoga, and biking classes. i'm going to go tomorrow and check it out, and if i like it i'd like to get a monthly membership (it's $19/month). we had a workout facility at our former apartment, however, i didn't go there very often b/c once i got home from work or school i just wanted to relax, not walk down to the fitness center and work out. it's like it's a mind game- i think if i go to the gym either first thing in the morning, or right after work (without stopping at home), i might actually get there.

the other battle- food. oh how i love food. fast food, desserts, anything that is totally unhealthy- i LOVE it. unfortunately, my body doesn't love it back. the only time in my life that i successfully dieted was the summer after my freshman year of college. i wanted to get rid of the unsightly freshman 15. i learned about the weight watchers points program from a girl who lived on my floor. she had used it the previous year and lost over 100 lbs. i was amazed, and decided to give it a try. i went to the weight watchers store and bought their points values books, i didn't join b/c i couldn't afford it and didn't want to go to the meetings, but she basically told me how many points i could eat. i was able to eat 20 points a day, with 35 flex points per week. the books tell you point values for food, including food from restaurants, or you can look up point values online if you know the calories, fat, and dietary fiber of the food. basically points work like this- most fruits are 1, veggies are 0, water, plain coffee, plain tea, diet drinks are all 0 points, and everything else you have to look up or figure out. a subway turkey sandwich w/ no cheese, mayo, or oil, would be 5 points. a special k bar is 2 points, etc. i got down to about 120 lbs, and because i was playing tennis almost every day, my body was looking really good too. and my pants were literally falling off. unfortunately, when i went back to school in the fall i gave up and gained most of the weight back.

anyway, the beauty of the points program is that you can eat anything you want. example- you can eat a mcdonalds big mac (15 points) and small fries (5 points), but you can pretty much just eat broccoli (0 points) for the rest of the day. so if you have cravings you can eat what you want, but you will pay the price. in the long run, you will decide to eat what will make you more full instead of what tastes good and greasy. another perk of the points program is the flex points- if you know you're going out to a yummy restaurant with your friends one night, you can save up all your flex points for that week and use them all that night and eat whatever you want. and if you exercise you can eat 3 more points each day.

here's a weight watchers points calculator if you're interested: http://www.webmilhouse.com/pointcalc.php

so anyway, starting monday i am going to try counting points again, and i'm going to check out the gym. i'll post again next weekend to let everyone know how it goes.

Posted by JenMagenta at 7:26 PM | Comments (4)