EMERALDWARE's SparkPeople Blog

Busting that plateau

Sun, 9 Dec 2012 11:00:40 EST

So, it's a little discouraging to read my more recent blog posts about how my progress has slowed to a halt (and I've even gained back a pound or two). Perhaps this isn't technically a plateau in the sense that I'm eating well and working out and still not losing weight, since honestly I haven't been that great at eating well and losing weight during the last few weeks. However, I suppose you can say that my motivation is what plateaued. So, it's time for me to make a concerted effort to reve...

Amazing breakthrough

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 10:55:56 EST

So, I've found something WONDERFUL that I wish I had known about years ago.

Diva Den Studios.

It's an awesome women-only gym that has tons to toning and cardio classes everyday, specializing in zumba, cardio dance, and even some more sassy classes like "Look Better Naked' and cardio pole. Yeah, maybe those last two aren't for everybody, but I am so excited.

Whereas I normally have to fight myself just to get 10 minutes of exercise in, now with this gym I'm hav...

Motivation

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:31:30 EST

So yesterday was a tough day. I had planned to workout after getting home in the evening, going grocery shopping to stock up on healthy foods (our fridge is getting pretty bare) and really getting back on the right food. I did not, however, plan to work a 14.5 hour shift at my job which threw my plans in disarray (not to mention the pizza they provided for everybody to make up for the fact that we were working until 10pm).

So, yesterday was a failure. I'm sure it's largely to blame...

Fallen off the wagon (multiple times). How to get back on?

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 11:37:43 EST

So, the past month or so has been a bit of a mess. My healthy eating habits have become the exception rather than the norm. Exercising is completely MIA. I'm not even consistently spinning the SparkPoints wheel anymore (which I had prided myself on extreme consistency on).

Now, every week when I reflect on this I inevitably tell myself "okay, today is the day I get back on the wagon. I will be better this week", and honestly it never gets any better.

Have I been missing ...

All or nothing

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:48:59 EST

So I was asked to blog about the last time I allowed my "all or nothing" mentality to derail my weight loss efforts. That's easy: it was last week. Up until then I thought I was a bit of a rockstar of healthy eating and regular exercise and I kept ramping up the intensity, flying high on my own ego. Then, it all came to a crashing halt over the period of 4-5 days.

This last week, I had to work a ton of overtime (about 10 hours each weekday with some hours last Saturday as well). I ...

If weight didn't exist

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:00:19 EST

If the concept of "weight" had never been defined and scales didn't exist, how would we measure our personal fitness? I can think of several ways that I would use to measure my progress if I wasn't able to simply step on a scale and see one number to assign value to all my fitness efforts with.

I would consider myself healthy if I could run a 5k; when I say run, I mean run (rather than run-jog). I consider run-jog to be an important step in my progression, but not an end in and of ...

Healthy Eating Challenge: week 2

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:37:18 EST

So, for those of you who don't know I have been a member of Sparkpeople before using another account. I've been back for about 3 months now and so far I have lost 11 pounds. Not the fasted progress, but progress nonetheless! Anyways, I've probably been less excited that the weight loss numbers than I have in another area of my life that I've improved: my motivation and consistency. Never before have I signed up for a 4 week challenge of any type and actually stuck to it. I am currently on wee...

Today's Visualization

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 11:18:41 EST

So, as part of my SparkCoach program today I was tasked with imagining what I want my life to be like in 10 years, as well as imagine a conversation with myself 10 years ago. So, here goes.

In 10 years, it'll be the year 2022 and I will be 36 years old. I would be back living in the Bay Area of California, near my family and some of my friends (assuming they don't move away by then). I will be living with my husband John, recently celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary, in a s...

Moderation

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:06:06 EST

Sometimes it feels powerful to be completely gung ho and focused towards a goal. If that goal were a finish line at a race and you were just seconds away from crossing it, I'd say go ahead and go all out. Spend every last bit of energy you've got because in very short order you'll be able to slow down and relax. I think most people are capable to pushing themselves for these small periods of time.

However, with weight loss efforts (which for me will take months before I reach my go...

Reframing my mistakes

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:40:41 EST

This week was a bit rough. After a couple of months of stellar progress on my weight loss, I hit a snag this last week that caused me to jump back up in the scales. No, I doubt this is new "muscle weight". I have been strength training but unfortunately that isn't it this time. It's simple blowing off exercise and eating way too much junk over the weekend.

However, instead of letting myself get down on all this, I need to find a way to reframe it so I can use these mistakes to lear...

Stress!!

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:02:15 EST

So I've ALMOST hit the 10 pounds lost mark, and I find I've really lost some motivation to reach my goals. I don't drink water as regularly (as if that wasn't the easiest goal I could reach); I've been missing a lot of my C25K workouts and my bootcamp workouts lately, I can't even say I've squeezed in 10 minute bouts of exercise some days!

I'm really not sure what the problem it. Sometimes I just get hit with a wave of apathy (it's happened before, and that's usually the downfall o...

My reasons for weight loss

Tue, 4 Sep 2012 00:41:25 EST

I have a lot of reasons that I want to lose weight. I could go on about "looking after my health" and "wanting to live longer", but as a young person I am fully cognizant of the fact that being old and in poor health are still just abstractions in my mind rather than potential realities I have to prepare for. The reasons for weight loss that really weigh on my mind are as follows.

1. I want to succeed at something that is hard. I am naturally the kind of person who starts things an...

Near miss!

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:39:06 EST

So I'm currently in my first week of the 28 day Bootcamp program here at Sparkpeople. Today was my first almost-miss of my daily workout. With houseguests over, I feel a little less at liberty to use the TV (located in the living room) to run my bootcamp videos and Jillian Michael's 30 day shred dvd. I almost said "forget it!" and went to bed without exercising, but I just got this nagging feeling that I NEEDED to exercise. So, I ended up heading out the apartment gym and ran the SP bootcamp ...

Ways to step forward when you've taken a step back

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:33:27 EST

- If I overeat, I should still log my food for the day to keep myself accountable, rather than just trying to forget it happened and "start over" the next day. Also, try eating properly portioned meals for the rest of the day to get reset to "normal", rather than trying to starve myself to make the day balance out. I need to train myself to adjust to a new normal in eating, not have to deal with the rollercoaster of overeating and then starving myself.

-If I miss a workout, I will ...

Healthy snacks!

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 13:20:00 EST

Oh, and because I almost forgot to do my Sparkcoach assignment from yesterday, I will do it now! Here is my top 10 list for healthy snacks to munch on. Feel free to comment with your own favorites!

1. 1 cup carrots with 1/4 cup hummus
2. 15 multigrain Wheat thins
3. 1 serving nonfat/lowfat yogurt
4. 1 oz shelled walnut halves
5. 1/3 cup Craisins
6. 1 Luna Bar (any flavor)
7. 1 package of apple slices (Subway)
8. 1 banana
9. 1 cup of grapes

Checking in with Emeraldware

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:27:26 EST

So, I've been eating as healthy as I've ever been this week and I'm FINALLY getting to the point where working out is becoming a habit that I can rely on. Not only that, but my workouts are becoming more intense, whereas they used to just consist of leisurely walks around the block that likely didn't burn much calories (although I can't knock those leisurely walks because they are likely what helped me create the habit in the first place).

Now, on my Sunday weigh-in, I find that I ...

Progress

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 09:16:29 EST

So in the month or so I've been on Sparkpeople, I have lost weight although it's not every week that I see progress on the scale. However, I know there are more ways than one to measure progress.

* Working out: I have started to expect some kind of workout everyday, and it is becoming a real habit. There are some days when I can only squeeze in 2 10-minute walks during my break at work, and although this probably doesn't burn a ton of calories it's important because at least it kee...

Quick meal ideas

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 12:24:13 EST

So, SparkCoach prompted me to type out some quick meal ideas that I can make using the "plate method", so lets see if I can crank out three before it's time to head out for breakfast!

BREAKFAST: 1 serving of oatmeal, 1 oz of chopped nuts, 1 banana, 1 cup of berries and a cup of milk (to either drink or cook the oats in)

LUNCH: 1 serving of brown rice, 1 serving of fat free refried beans, a cup of chopped red peppers and chopped zucchini, topped with a little bit of chees...

Fessing up to some challenges

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:06:26 EST

So, I am fast concluding what I consider to be the first "real" week of my SP experience (I signed up a while ago, but this is the first week that I've really focused on goals and tracking). I'm starting to realize some serious patterns that I need to address:

First of all, I've been trying to squeeze jogging 3 times a week into my schedule. I have a tendency to put this off to the last moment so I end up doing all my jogging on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I would be much better...

First post!

Sat, 4 Aug 2012 11:51:34 EST

So this is my first post in my SP career. Yay! I really want blog-posting to be a habit I stick to, so send me good thoughts and I will do my best to stick with it.

My biggest challenge right now in my new weight loss journey is the fact that I am planning on doing a career switch into the baking and pastry business, which means I'm doing a lot of practice baking of various sweets. Now, I know what I SHOULD do: make one baking project each weekend and try one serving just to taste-...