Gym Therapy

This wasn't the best weekend for me- I felt pretty blue and found it almost impossible to concentrate on my studies. Finally I decided to take myself to the gym- supposedly that helps with depression, especially when you go regularly. I decided to just do what I felt capable of doing. I ended up doing 3 miles on the treadmill in about an hour. I will be very sore tomorrow but it was worth it. If I can get myself to do 30 minutes a day, I'll be happy. I've already been lifting a 10 lb weight every other day for a few weeks now, so I know I've built up a little muscle by now in my arms and torso.

Both yesterday and today I got about 80 grams of protein by eating fat-free yogurt, my high-protein soup, quinoa, lentils and pepitas in addition to my other foods like fruit and salad. I had a Trader Joe's protein shake yesterday and have one more left. I've been taking MSM and the B-Complex vitamins (which I swear give me gas!!!)- I hope all of that is good hair therapy. By December maybe I'll have filled in the thinning areas.

Off to the Gym I Go

I was inspired to return to the gym when I saw at the end of the day that I'd eaten too few calories, not nearly enough protein, too many carbs, and hardly any fats. I thought, what do I have in the house that I can eat to make up this deficit? I ate a salmon patty with feta cheese and broccoli, and even added olive oil but was still low in the same areas. I thought about making an eggbeater's omelette but it was getting late and I didn't want to go to bed after eating. At first I thought I should work out and then eat- like somehow that would make up for eating so late! Then I though, why not? I've been looking for some motivation to get back to the gym, so I went to the gym and bought a protein shake, which I drank before the workout. Maybe I should have drank it afterwards, but I don't know these things and am not sure I really care. In the end, I got my protein and calories in, plus a 45-minute workout at a 19 minutes per mile pace, with some variation of the incline from 0% to 5%. I noticed that despite my weeks off, I haven't lost a step in my workout abilities, and I now recover more quickly during the cooldown, achieving a slower heart rate more quickly than I used to. I'll sleep well tonight!

Calories 1,397 Carbs 154 Fat 21 Protein 101

I Love Sushi

Today went pretty well. I didn't have a smoothie; instead I started the day with watermelon and my brown rice salad, along with the other half of yesterday's avocado. For a snack I had a little fruit salad of watermelon, honeydew, strawberries and cherries. Lunch was Campbell's lentil soup. I didn't do much today; in fact, the day was very relaxing and non-demanding. However, by 8 pm I was read to work out. I had different sneakers and they fit me well enough to not aggravate the large blisters I still have from my previous workouts. I did 40 minutes on the treadmill, completing 1.95 miles. My goal when I work out is to do a little bit better than I did the previous time. This could be through increasing the incline a little more, increasing the speed, working out a little longer, etc. Today my goal was to walk a little further, so I didn't stick to the 2.5 mph suggested by the trainer; I hovered around 3.0 mph. Having my new earphones really helped; I considered doing more than 40 minutes because the music was so good, but I still needed to have time to eat. I decided to have nigiri sushi again. So now it's after 11 pm. I didn't mean to eat so late but if I had skipped dinner, I would have had only about 1/2 the day's calorie requirement.

I had joined Weight Watchers earlier this year (and since quit, of course) but I kept my membership to their e-tools website. I've been using it to enter my foods these past couple of weeks. At my current weight I'm supposed to eat 37 points worth of food a day, but today I only had 18.5, and I used up 3 points (or 4, I can't figure it out) when I worked out. This means that I ended the day with about 15 points. NOT GOOD! I will have to make up for this deficit over the upcoming week. Besides the 37 points a day, I get an extra 35 points a week. I didn't use those points last week. I can see already that I am probably going to have the same problem I usually have when I eat healthfully; my appetite lowers so much that I don't get enough calories and could end up losing weight too quickly (yeah, boo hoo, right?) But losing weight too quickly is not healthy. I'll just have to take this one day at a time, I guess!