Ah, how I love weekends. They're just so relaxed and you can sleep as late as you want and watch TV and do all that fun stuff and work is the furthest thing from your mind. Mark and I watched Pretty in Pink on TBS today. I'm a sucker for John Hughes movies. Last night, we got back from the grocery store about 11 p.m. and Mark got a call from some new friends of his to come downtown and hang out at some bar. So we went, but only for about 45 minutes. Big waste if you ask me, esp. since we spent $7 just to park.
Today we're going to grill some chicken breasts and watch movies we rented last night - 9 1/2 Weeks (I know, I know, I was curious) and Planet of the Apes (the original version). I argued with the guy behind the counter about the price, which ticked Mark off a little, but oh well. $3.99 for two old releases, especially when we have a 'buy one, get one free' coupon? Come on! They credited us 75 cents in the end, so it pays to bitch.
Finally home. Whew. Now all I've got to worry about is controlling my calories over this 3-day weekend. Sticking to a diet is SO much harder on the weekends. I just feel like celebrating whenever the clock hits 5 p.m. on Friday, and it's hard not to modify my food intake based on those feelings. It's especially hard today because I wasted a lot of my calories this morning on waffles and syrup (465 cals, including the milk!) and now I'll be hungry the rest of the evening.
All right. Gotta go research calorie counts on Chili's and Applebee's menus, so I can base tomorrow's food around that meal. Dammit, I WANT a hamburger!
Wow, I sure am busy for a Friday. I had to go to a meeting just as soon as I got in this morning and then I was hopping all around to other departments trying to get my shit together for this employee newsletter.
In diet news, I'm proud to say that I am the Queen of Resistance. Bagels were available in the morning meeting, stuffed with cream cheese and other good stuff, but I just sipped my little Diet Coke and thought fondly of the Lean Cuisine lunch I had waiting in the freezer upstairs. Seeing the weight come off - even if it's only a pound - is a real motivator. The real challenge will be this weekend, when Mark and I go out to dinner. It's going to be hard to order the Caribbean Salad at Chili's when he's having the country fried steak.
I'm not going to the gym tonight, and it feels weird. I've been every night since Sunday, so I just feel like I should go. But my muscles are aching and I can hear this little voice inside saying that I need to give it a rest. So rest it will be.
Eats:
(8/29) Dinner - 3 whole wings w/buffalo sauce ~400 cals; 1 half ear of corn on the cob with 1/2 tsp margarine ~200 cals; Snack - 1 cup fat free yogurt, 100 cals
Abs class actually didn't kick my ass tonight. Yes, I made it, yes, I did it all. I only had to rest in the middle of a set twice. (The guy next to me looked like he was going to pass out - and he was pretty muscular!) I think, even though I'm not seeing it on the scale, I'm slowly gaining some strength. I can do my regular sets on the weight machines and I'm actually not dying by the end. It's so encouraging to see progress, however small it may be.
In other news - I lost half a pound between Wednesday and Thursday. So now I'm down to 135.5. I know it's not a good idea to check the scale every day, but I can't help it - I use the one in the gym and every time I pass it on the way to the locker room, it's like I can't resist it.
In addition to my 15-minute abs class, I did 30 minutes on the bike (separated into one 10-min session and one 20-min session), a few sets of quadricep work and some shoulder work. I think my left shoulder muscles are pulled though, so I couldn't do very many on that side. I looked so retarded doing just one arm.
Eats:
Snack after gym - 1 slice bread with 1 tsp peanut butter, 165 cals; 1 cup skim milk, 90 cals.
Just got finished with lunch. Went to Wendy's again. I wanted to get the grilled chicken combo (with fries and drink) SO badly, but I ended up just getting the sandwich and a small side salad with low-fat dressing. It wasn't really that bad. OK, I still want the fries. But I checked out the Wendy's web site and found out that even a MEDIUM fry would have put the calorie count for the entire combo at around 695 calories. Not too good, especially considering this morning's Hot Pocket. I think my actual meal was about 455 calories, even with the dressing.
I will go to abs class today. Got everything right here in the office, including shorts this time. I'll report on it this evening or tomorrow morning.
Well, I didn't make it to abs class yesterday. Wait, wait. Before you laugh, let me explain why.
I had it all planned out. I was going to change into my workout clothes at work and go straight to the gym. I had packed a bag with everything - a hair band, socks, shoes, t-shirt - everything but shorts. Well, I wasn't too keen on the idea of walking around the gym in nothing but a t-shirt and underwear, so I had to go home. By the time I fought rush-hour traffic and got home, it was about 5:15, and class started at 5:30. No way would I make it, since rush-hour traffic was still clogging up the freeway.
So I went to the gym around 6:45 and did 40 minutes of cardio and about 15 of weightlifting. Did inner thighs, hamstrings, shoulders, abs and triceps. I've found that my aerobic exercises are more enjoyable if I split them between 2 machines - I did 20 on the treadmill and 20 on the bike.
But it was the strangest thing - when I got there they had a big table set out full of PIZZA. Yes, that's right. Pizza. Apparently, it was the gym's anniversary or some crap and they were having a celebration. Pizza and Gatorade. It mystifies me as to how they can justify serving pizza at a health club. And it wasn't that "lite" vegetarian stuff, either. They had the Colossus from a local pizza joint, which includes bacon, sausage and pepperoni, not to mention cheese. Man, it was torture not having any. And the worst part was that I had to use the machines right by the pizza table, so I smelled it for like 10 minutes. But I didn't give in.
I weighed myself yesterday and found that I lost 1/2 a pound between Tuesday and Wednesday. It's amazing how much your weight can fluctuate. Now if I can lose another 1/2 pound, I'll be right where I was when I started. Hopefully it'll be more. I've been really good about limiting myself to 1,500 calories and I'm staying active, so I ought to be burning 3,500 more calories than I'm taking in per week (the magic number for losing 1 pound).
Faith and begorra! The chick from the apartment complex just called. She said the maintenance supervisor would try to get to my place this afternoon but if not, definitely tomorrow. Yay!
Now I know who to call when I want something fixed.
Note the addition of a new webring at the bottom of the page.
No call from the apartment people yet. I somehow knew this would happen. I really didn't expect her to call me back. No matter. I'm going to call her myself at 2 p.m. I swear, you have to hold people's hands on stuff like this.
Eats:
1 Wendy's grilled chicken fillet w/light mayo, lettuce and tomato, 300 cals; Wendy's Caesar side salad, 255 cals.
With my 200-cal whole-wheat waffle for breakfast, it looks like I have 745 calories left for dinner and a pre-gym snack. Not too bad. I think we're having some kind of Skillet Sensations meal, and that's like 300 calories a serving. I'm kinda glad that I left that leftover Mexican lasagna on the counter at home. Last night, Mark said it tasted like those orange-colored pizzas from our old school cafeteria.
Arghh. I got up this morning really early because Mark said the doorknob on the pantry door was broken. Apparently, it had become disconnected from the little metal thing that keeps the door closed, and we couldn't open the pantry door to feed the cats. So I played with it for about 20 minutes before it finally popped open. Then after I got ready for work, I put soap in the dishwasher and pulled the knob to start it. Nothing happened. Tried again. Still nothing. Tried 20 more times. Nada.
So with the realization that both the doorknob and the dishwasher were broken, and the icemaker had been broken for 2 months, I angrily called the realty office to let them know. To my surprise, the girl on the other end was really nice. I had been talking recently to this Joel guy about the icemaker, and he had given me the line that the maintenance guys "have been really busy lately...but they'll get to it eventually." Never mind that I asked them to fix the freakin' icemaker around JULY 3 and they came twice to look at it and each time said, "Yeah, you need a new one, we'll order it." Then nothing happened.
But I digress. The girl that took my call today, Rena, sounded like she was halfway concerned about my problem. She said she would talk to the maintenance supervisor today and ask him if he had the time to fix all these things, and would call me at work to let me know what was up. I really appreciate that kind of attitude. It makes me like the realty company a lot better. It makes me less likely to just move to another place and quit paying my rent (after all, they haven't been living up to the terms of the lease).
So maybe this chick is lying. Maybe she's just a lot better at BSing people. But I plan to call her this afternoon if I haven't heard anything. I don't know why realty companies think they can treat their tenants like pets or something. Sure, we get slapped with a HUGE fine if we don't pay our rent on time, but for some reason they're not obligated to fix broken appliances promptly.
Eats:
(8/28) Dinner: frozen Mexican lasagna, 400 cals
(8/29) Breakfast: 1 whole-wheat waffle with 1/8 c maple syrup, skim milk
I gained a pound. Yuck. When I started this blog I weighed 135.5. Now, in spite of exercising like a madman and watching every little thing that I put into my mouth, I weigh 136.5. That stinks.
I guess I just need to get in gear and put more energy into my workouts. I'm usually tired when I get home from work, so putting on my shorts and t-shirt and heading to the gym is the last thing I want to do. But I do it - however, more often than not I opt to cut my workout "a little short" and either do less reps or do about 10 minutes less of cardio.
Take today, for instance. I did 50 minutes of cardio yesterday - 10 on the bike and 40 on the treadmill. Today I did 30 minutes of cardio, telling myself that I would make up for the shorter time by finally getting my ass back on the weightlifting machines.
But alas, I did far less weights than I originally intended to do. I did outer thighs, triceps and quadriceps. I'm going to do some abs in front of the TV in a few minutes. (I get so self-conscious doing crunches in the gym, mostly because I'm afraid guys are looking up my shorts.)
And for shame, today I had an enchilada for lunch. Tsk, tsk. I know these habits are keeping me from losing weight.
So far, some guy from this one e-mail address has sent me three very strange messages that contain some kind of evil virus. It's from this e-mail address at a tiny paper in Texas. They've got weird subject line names like "Miami Marathon Calendar (1)" and "HLM schedule." And the body of the e-mail says:
Hi how are you?
I send you this file in order to have your advice
See you later. Thanks
And it's got some weird-named attachment with it. Plus, after each message I get an additional message saying something like "Interscan has detected a virus in the e-mail sent to you." Apparently, the virus is named Sircam and it can delete all the files on your hard drive.
Needless to say, I haven't opened the attachments. But I did send a quick e-mail to the guy just telling him, "Hey, you have a virus, get it checked out and for God's sake QUIT SENDING ME STUFF!!!"
Just kidding. It sounded much nicer than that. But I haven't gotten any more messages since then, so I'm guessing the guy got his computer fixed. I just hope it didn't wipe out his computer's database.But hey, if you're clueless enough to open an attachment from someone you don't know, I don't feel sorry for ya.
WHY on earth do people create viruses? It's not as if you can purchase some kind of Virus-O-Matic software and with a few clicks create this thing that will infect your sworn enemy's computer. It takes time, effort and a heck of a lot of computer knowledge. Probably the work of some skinny 17-year-old loser who can't get a girlfriend.
I kicked *ss at the gym last night. When I first stepped on that treadmill I didn't envision going for any longer than 30 minutes. I had planned to do half an hour of cardio and then go downstairs to do some weightlifting. But the longer I stayed on that treadmill, the longer I ran, the longer I wanted to keep running. I think it was partly because I could see how terribly crowded it was around the weight machines. There were so many people there that everyone had to wait. I ended up staying on the treadmill for 40 MINUTES. Then I got on the bike and did another 10. It was pure torture while I was doing it, but I felt like I had accomplished a lot afterwards.
Mark went to "his" gym yesterday and only did 20 minutes on the bike and about 10 minutes of bicep work. Ha.
Well, I am officially *FLYING* to my conference now. I was going to drive to Fort Worth, but frankly I'm a little nervous about driving to a city I've never been to, alone. Plus, I've had an unnatural fear of the DFW area since about 1998, when Mark and I drove to Texas for spring break. The cars were going so fast on the freeways in Dallas that I ended up driving on the shoulder most of the time. I was so scared to merge because I figured they would slam into me.
The best part is that the ticket was only $82, roundtrip. Southwest rules!
Major coffee craving. I want a Caramel Frappuccino from that benevolent god of the coffee bean, Starbucks. But I already gave in to a craving yesterday (see the Eats section, note the inhalation of a Reese's Fast Break bar), and these fraps have like 500 calories, so I'm going to forgo one today. I'm also trying to save money (Mark spent a veritable fortune on textbooks today - goodbye, fat bank balance), and the frappuccinos are about $3.50 minimum. Oh well. Perhaps I will go home and make some sad Maxwell House coffee, adding cinnamon and vanilla for that "coffeehouse" feeling.
Today I'm going to the gym alone. What a scary thought. It's not that I'm embarrassed or anything, but I just feel better when I've got someone with me. Because, in my gym at least, about 10 people turn their heads whenever someone opens the door, I guess to see if it's their friend or whoever. But it makes me self-conscious. I feel like everyone's staring as I give my membership number to the girl, cringe at the terrible digital pic of me on her computer screen and proceed to the treadmills or the weight machines or whatever it may be.
I was going to go to the downtown location as soon as I left work, but I think maybe I'll head home and wait for rush hour traffic to die down a little before venturing out again. Get some yogurt for a snack and retrieve my towel and water bottle. I don't know why, but I feel like I HAVE to have a towel and water bottle whenever I work out. It's a pain having to lug them from machine to machine, but I hate leaving sweat on a machine for someone else to wallow in. And I like having cold refreshment right there at my fingertips, rather than trudging to the tepid-water fountain, all the while hoping no one steals your machine in the 10 seconds you're gone.
Who knew that going to the gym could be so stressful?
Eats: Weight Watchers' "Smartwich," 270 calories; about 10 grapes (calorie count so low it's not even worth mentioning)
My feelings are hurt. Ever since I put my blog on the Hot or Not list, I've been watching its rating slowly slide from somewhere in the 7-8 range all the way down to 3. Someone (or a few someones) doesn't like my site, apparently, and they're letting me know loud and clear. I have to say, this hurts. Well, not really. I write this mostly for me, so it really doesn't matter what other people think. And it's still in its early stages, so there's a lot that I want to do with it in the coming weeks.
But hey, if YOU like it, be sure and look to the left of the page, click on the "so whaddya think?" link and give me a nice rating. It would really brighten my day.
In other news, I finished my assignment and now I can work on stories for next month's magazine. Yay. I also guess I should share yesterday's eats, even though I'm slightly ashamed:
Eats:
(8/24): Dinner - 1/2 dish of Sausage & Peppers Rustica from the Olive Garden (with marinara, not cream, sauce)
(8/25): Breakfast: 1 cup custard yogurt, 190 cals; Lunch: 1/2 dish Sausage and Peppers Rustica from the Olive Garden; Snack: Fast Break candy bar; Dinner - fried shrimp, baked potato with butter & bacon bits, salad with lowfat raspberry vinaigrette
(8/26) - Breakfast: 2 slices buttermilk toast with butter (1 with jelly, too) and skim milk
Nothing else yet. Planning to eat the other sucky "Smartwich" from Weight Watchers. It's really not that bad - just so small. I'll probably have some grapes too.
Mark and I watched The Mexican on Saturday night. It wasn't really what I was expecting. Brad Pitt plays this small-time criminal guy who has to do "one last job" before the big bad crime boss sets him free. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Julia Roberts, is mad because she wasn't expecting him to do any more jobs. So he goes to Mexico to do this job (retrieve a cursed gun), and Julia Roberts goes to Las Vegas because she's mad. But James Gandolfini kidnaps her while she's in Vegas; apparently, they want to hold her as some kind of insurance that Brad Pitt will bring back the gun. So she's with James and Brad is in Mexico trying to get the gun, which gets stolen a couple of times. Will they ever be reunited? Will Julia Roberts take him back? Will Brad Pitt finally get killed by the OTHER people who want the gun?
Well, that's what the rest of the movie is for...
We also watched The Usual Suspects Sunday night. Mark owns it, but I'd never seen it. It's this really complicated crime drama kinda thing about five bad guys (Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey and others) who are rounded up about this carjacking. They're mad that the cops rounded them up, so after they get out of jail (I don't think any of them actually did it), they get revenge on some crooked cops together. After that, they are approached by a representative of this scary, mythic crime lord who wants them to blow up this ship full of people he doesn't like. The job is really dangerous. The whole movie is told in flashback, with Chazz Palminteri trying to get Kevin Spacey to piece together what happened the night they did this job. I didn't like it, mostly because you have to keep careful track of who's working for who and what everyone's name is. Otherwise, you get lost. But the ending is pretty cool, even though I had it figured out about 45 minutes before the actual ending. Not as good as Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, but definitely OK. If you're a fan of film noir (which I am, usually), rent it.
Thus endeth Jen's Movie Reviews of the Day. I swear I don't usually watch this many movies in a weekend. (We also watched The Insider on FX Sunday morning, which I really like, but I won't bother reviewing it here. If anyone wants my opinion, they can e-mail me.)
Ho hum, back to work. Mark and I went and worked out Sunday. We kind of softballed it, though - I did 35 minutes on the bike and treadmill, and we left without doing any weight training. Mark always tries to do this crap to me. As soon as we step foot in the gym, he says something like "Let's try to get out of here in 30 minutes," or "I don't want to be here any longer than an hour." Which is really silly, because that's nowhere near the time we need to put in to lose as many pounds as we want to. Frankly, I think he's dragging me down. Yesterday was Sunday, so I would have stayed for about 1 1/2 hours if Mark hadn't been rushing me. I'm kinda glad that he's decided to go work out at the North location right after work from now on. I do so much better when he's not there. I know that sounds terrible, but it's true. Mark is nowhere as serious as I am about getting in shape, and it's forcing me to adopt his attitude, which I hate.
Enough bitching. My boss told me Friday he wanted an assignment due by the end of the day Monday, but he just came in and asked if I could finish them in about 2 hours. I'll be back later.
Name: Jen Location: DFW, TX Occupation: Journalist WHY this stupid blog?: To lose the 20 pounds I've packed on since high school and to entertain you with stories about my fabulous life. Current Weight: 138 My Goal Weight: 115 Pounds to Go: 23
