good bloglodytes!  No, I’m not really calling you blogging cavemen, I just can’t resist a pun like that.  When they pop into my head, they just must be used.

well, I am writing to you from bed, jammie-clad, while munching on caramel corn rice cakes, sipping ginger ale, and nerding out on last season’s Dr Who with my bebe. Know what else? Save for a quick foray into the park near my house, this is exactly what I’ve been doing since I woke up this morning. lazy lazy lazy.

What I’m pretty much doing - have decided to do - is cut myself a ginormous, colossal, break. I haven’t been to a meeting in who knows how long, I have not been tracking my points, I have not refrained from the goodies that seem to always materialize at work. And this is because sometimes, there’s only so much my brain can handle at once.

As I mentioned a blog or so ago, I recently got a new job. SO exciting, so wonderful, so happy.. and while I’m getting adjusted, SO exhausting.  New people, new challenges, lots of new responsibility- I know that most of my mental exhaustion is coming from all the newness, and given a production cycle or two, I’ll be assimilated, and all the things that make my brain work overtime now will be second nature to me in another couple months.  But they’re not now. So it’s been incredibly difficult to stay on task with my weight loss.

And that’s ok! I’ve been on a few pounds- 2 or 3, nothing serious- and that’s ok too.  I’m determined not to beat myself up about it. I’ll try to minimize damage until I’m on a more even keel. I’ll go to a meeting this week and try to get myself back on track.

ALSO.. due to the excessive indulgence that was, well, November thru January, the boyfriend and I decided to take February as detox month. It hasn’t been too hard either. There have only been a couple of days, the long and stressful ones, when I thought to myself MAN, you know what I could really use right now is a glass of wine. I thought that would be the ticket to dropping 5, but it seems as though I’m doing plenty of eating to counteract whatever good the lack of booze is doing. anyway, it’s something to keep in mind- refraining from getting drinks is not THAT hard.  Maybe once I’m back on WW track I can keep up this not drinking thing.  Or at least cut way back from what was the norm. 

so ups and downs, onward and up- no, downward. yay.

YEP, the day has arrived. in exactly 6 minutes (and probably while I type this post), the Jenna years will tick into my 30s.  As I mentioned last week, I am nowhere near my goal of 30 lbs by my 30th birthday.  In fact, after a weekend of wedding revelry, I’m further away today than I was a week ago- nothing huge, it’ll be back down in a few days.  I’m a liiittle sad, I had such a grand vision of what this day would look like, and what I would look like.. I had started with taking pictures.. except the numbers weren’t really changing. I wanted to be a healthy and svelte 20 lbs lighter, but only got to about 10. 10 is good, I look and feel much better, don’t get me wrong.. but in 6 months.. well I talked about my disappointment last week.  Best not to dwell! (2 minutes left….)

so, I didn’t reach my goal, and I’m not dwelling on my disappointment, so all that’s left is full speed ahead I suppose!  I had a great session with my personal trainer this morning.. hoping to get some great skills and workouts banked in my 4-pack of sessions so I can really push myself with some tough exercises, even when I can’t afford to have a trainer telling me to. Anyway, there were some exercises he told me to do- I looked at him like he was nuts, but sure enough, I powered through. I surprised myself, and it felt good… well, it felt good when I was done. Doing it hurt like hell, quite frankly. But hey now I get to brag about it.

Also found, to my GREAT relief, that my weight watchers leader does meetings near my new office.  Very excited to get back on that horse- doing what I can online though to be honest, between the anniversary yesterday, birthday tomorrow, visitors abound, and birthday party this weekend… well Cami, I will see you next week! I may not have made it to my goal, but I definitely deserve to enjoy this week.

I’m now 30 years old. I weigh 142 lbs. I have a lot to be happy about- I mean a LOT. As I said in my first post, a combination of hard work and serendipity have resulted in an amazing life.  There’s a lot of it ahead of me, and a lot of this challenge ahead of me. And I’ll tackle both the best I know how.  And I guess I’ll leave it at that for now, until I know exactly what that’s going to mean.

oh hi.. I’m Jenna..  you may remember me from such blogs as this one.. from forever ago.  Apologies to anyone disappointed in my severe lack of posting over the last couple of months. The best I can really say is that, when push came to shove and I had to choose between real life and cyber life because, as it turns out, there are only 24 hours in a day… well, life life won out over blog life. I can’t even really apologize for it- I am a big fan of life, especially these days.  I will never neglect real life interactions in favor of online ones.  And there was a whole lot of interacting, let me tell ya!  I won’t bore you with all the ins and outs, but here are the highlights: boyfriend moving in, getting a new job (interview process explosions!), going to Arizona for one week, getting stuck in Arizona for a second week (thank you NE blizzard), the worst two weeks at my now former-job EVER, and now I have started my brand new job, which is both awesome and stressful at the same time.  I’m exhausted.  More highlights to come include traveling for a wedding this weekend, our anniversary next week, and oh yeah that thing I’ve been counting down to over the last 30 weeks… my 30th birthday…

about that… we are at 1 week. 29 down, 1 to go.. and I am nowhere, I mean NOWHERE near 29 lbs down, 1 lb to go. The best I can say about the last, say.. 3 months, is that no further damage has been done. I lost what I lost, haven’t gained back, but I haven’t lost anything since probably October. I haven’t even been to a WW meeting since Thanksgiving, just when they rolled out the new PointsPlus program.I’ve tried using the new points system and it’s frankly been a little tough. It, like everything else these days (work, family, home), has been a big adjustment.  A lot of change in a very short amount of time seems to have done me in.

It’s a little scary… I still need to lose this weight. I still have habits that need to change. I’m still not healthy. And it’s a shame that I still find myself in this position.  Perhaps a pound a week for 30 weeks was overly ambitious to the point of me burning myself out (it was definitely difficult to keep thinking of new challenges after a while- lame, I know). I am disappointed- I’m ok with not getting to 30, But I know what I’m capable of, and but I’m disappointed that I didn’t get farther along in the process than I really could have.

What this all means going forward, I haven’t entirely decided yet. Here’s what I know- I need to keep losing weight. I need to keep adjusting how I look at food. I need to keep increasing my activity level. My new job will mean a new WW meeting (I THINK my WW leader also does meetings near my new office). My new job also means there’s room in the budget for a gym membership. And a small package of personal training sessions to get me ramped up and on track again. And finally I know I want to keep this blog going. It keeps me going, keeps me accountable and on my toes.

I’m just not sure how all these things I know are going to come together- hopefully I haven’t lost everyone forever, and you’ll stick with me as I figure it all out

Hello! no, I’m not done blogging, or done losing weight.  I did end up needing to take an unexpected holiday hiatus from the blog, but the weight loss efforts continue!  Expect a new post in another day or so.

Thanks so much for writing!

apologies to anyone who reads this blog and has been experiencing a bit of WTFitude lately. I have too.  It’s happened before, it’ll happen again… Too much life at once. Between travel and my new roommate (hint… he has bad eating habits I’ve mentioned before), job craziness, visitors from out of town… and that, of course, is on top of the fact that Weight Watchers just revamped their points system for the first time in 13 years. I can’t work out at home because my floor space is occupied by stuff to be unpacked. It’s unseasonably cold - even for December - so running’s been out.  I’ve basically taken a couple weeks hiatus from the cyber life to deal with real life. It happens. I’m hoping to reboot and get back on track next week.  For now, I’m totally exhausted and doing what I can to not go too off the deep end.  I’m up a couple pounds, nothing tragic, nothing I can’t get rid of in a week or so. I just need to get my feet back under me.

Once we’re more fully settled, I did get the Biggest Loser wii game, did an initial test, excited to see how it goes working that into my routine. Also, my boyfriend moving in means more disposable income- I’ve walked by that schmancy yoga place so many times, it’d be fun to have a yoga challenge week.  For now though, my challenge is to relax, regroup, and get back on track. Sometimes it’s challenge enough to realize you’re human and forgive yourself for transgressions and bad eating decisions.  Right now is one of those times!

Hopefully more soon, if you’re still reading thanks!

apologies to anyone who reads this blog and has been experiencing a bit of WTFitude lately. I have too.  It’s happened before, it’ll happen again… Too much life at once. Between travel and my new roommate (hint… he has bad eating habits I’ve mentioned before), job craziness, visitors from out of town… and that, of course, is on top of the fact that Weight Watchers just revamped their points system for the first time in 13 years. I can’t work out at home because my floor space is occupied by stuff to be unpacked. It’s unseasonably cold - even for December - so running’s been out.  I’ve basically taken a couple weeks hiatus from the cyber life to deal with real life. It happens. I’m hoping to reboot and get back on track next week.  For now, I’m totally exhausted and doing what I can to not go too off the deep end.  I’m up a couple pounds, nothing tragic, nothing I can’t get rid of in a week or so. I just need to get my feet back under me.

Once we’re more fully settled, I did get the Biggest Loser wii game, did an initial test, excited to see how it goes working that into my routine. Also, my boyfriend moving in means more disposable income- I’ve walked by that schmancy yoga place so many times, it’d be fun to have a yoga challenge week.  For now though, my challenge is to relax, regroup, and get back on track. Sometimes it’s challenge enough to realize you’re human and forgive yourself for transgressions and bad eating decisions.  Right now is one of those times!

Hopefully more soon, if you’re still reading thanks!

yay for being short!

http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/213/23/i

best to start the post on a positive note- I wore my only pair of boot-cut jeans today, thought it would like nice with the ensemble I pieced together. Also, true to form, I was running late so I didn’t really take notice of the fact that I was swiiimmmming in these jeans.  they were totally baggy in the legs, tummy and tuuuuushy.  I wore a belt but they were still pretty much falling off me and I kept stepping on the bottoms.  I was having a quiet day so during my lunch hour I popped over to J Crew (SO dangerous having it across the street!) and got a new pair of jeans a size down. THAT was fun. My ass and these jeans were MFEO. Also got a great fall jacket on supah dupah clearance… size small, thank you VERY much.

so… I may have been overly confident when I went into that weigh in. Ok not may have.. i WAS overly confident.  went up .2. Which, quite frankly, pissed me off.  Left the meeting in a bit of a huff.  It’s not the fact that it was a +.. .2 is like a glass of water, whatever.  It’s that it wasn’t a - when I was down for most of the week.  I notice that I always start my weeks really well, and what I must be saying to myself is, “oh, I’ve done great this first 5 days, I can coast until Tuesday.”  Which is dumb. Not that I should be going “lax” at any point in the week but if I were to do so, it should be at the beginning.  I did a lot of good work last week so I’m hoping I’ll see results as I move into this week.  But for now… the plateau stretches on.  hmph. Hoping that the bad weigh in but good shopping means I’m putting on muscle. To that end….

More workin out fun this week though! I got a great dvd at my meeting a couple weeks ago: the “Next Move” disc with 5 20-min intermediate workouts. I will do one of these 5 workouts every day this week! I did the first one this morning, which was legs/butt-centric.  I really liked it, got my heart rate up, and it was a really good workout.  Also, ouch.  All that squatting and lunging with weights is gonna hurt in the morning.  Good thing I can move on to the arms workout tomorrow because my legs will be pretty much useless. Thumbs up!

I used to have arms of steel, legs/buns of steel, and it was always REALLY cheesy, the instructor, Tammy Lee I think her name was or something like that, was super chatty, had mall bangs, and the workout close were… out of hand.  This instructor, Michelle Dozois, wears a tank and yoga pants, gives simple and easy to follow instructions and doesn’t blah blah blah. I didn’t feel like a total dork when I did the workout, and that’s hard to do for a DVD. Simple and straight forward, a good workout, no muss, no fuss.

I’m starting to sound like I sell the damn thing so maybe now’s a good place to stop.

ganite all!

hey all

so it’s actually been a fun week, aided mostly by the fact that the weather has been GORGEOUS. The leaves are all amazing different colors and the temps have been amazingly forgiving, especially this weekend when it was in the 60s! ah but we are not here to talk about the weather, so enough with the pleasantries!

The reason I bring it up is that, unlike brrrrr bike week, running week was delightful.  It actually felt really good to hit the road again. I took an easy start and went out for a half hour every other day, like my book told me to- first time out I walked for 10 minutes, did 10 minutes of run/walk in 2 minute intervals, and walked for 10. I really only did that the first time out and then started to up the ante a bit, which is incidentally the opposite of what the book told me! ah well, I didn’t go nuts. 5 min warmup, 15 min intervals, 10 min cooldown, and then finally today it was 5-20-5.  I feel fine, I did some good calf and shin stretches, and, dare I preemptively say, I think I finally broke my plateau! neat.

So, yeah, cool, yay for running but what I really think made the difference is how very diligent I was in tracking my points and staying on the plan. We layed low on the weekend, stayed in and watched movies Friday and Saturday night, and I cut back on alcohol. Which segues nicely into a conversation I had with my WW leader Cami last week.  I was talking to her and my fellow members about my plateau, how frustrated I was, and bummed about how long this process takes. She told me to make a list of all the fun things I did over the last few months that involved me diverging from the plan a bit, and ask myself whether I would sacrifice those experiences to be moving the process along faster.

That Cami, she has all the good ideas and always manages to help me chin up when I get down because the fact is that, though there were of course a few splurges that I probably should or could have skipped, by and large I want to live my life and not exclude myself from cake at my stepbrother’s wedding or drinks at my friend’s engagement party. In fact saying no to those things are a great way to get off the plan all together. Saying no to everything all the time is too harsh and not realistic. This has been one of the mainstays of this whole challenge. 

SO, while the weight may not come off as quickly as I had originally hoped, it will come off, and I will have a slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

Weigh in tomorrow, think good thoughts!

hey all,my friend Helen yelled at me tonight over drinks because I did not post yesterday like I was supposed to.

busted. so right Helen! BUT, I have a TOTALLY good reason why. People, may I present to you my newest form of time wasting awesomeness:  http://ourvaluedcustomers.net. Basically boyfriend and I spent, oh, an hour scrolling through these as he read them out loud to me. We were rolling… and then before I knew it, it was well past bed time. whoops!

And sleep is particularly important because this week is… back to basics running week! As you may know, this last Sunday was the NYC Marathon - one runner of which I’ve been friends with for nearly a quarter century (ya killed it Anna J!). I don’t have any visions of marathons, but I think in honor of this momentous accomplishment by so many dedicated athletes, I’d like to do a running challenge this week. Back during my triathlon days I picked up a book called “Runner’s World Complete Book of Women’s Running” (http://tinyurl.com/2vgf3nj).  I cracked it open for the first time in (eek) two years and refreshed my memory on how to get back on that running horse.

Back during my tri days, running was by FAR the biggest challenge for me.  I was a swimmer in high school and college, the water has always been a good fit for me. And the bike was fun and challenging but never very painful aside from the occasional tired/sore muscles. Running, on the other hand, was tough on me. I suffered from shin splits which, while I know are very common, were incredibly painful.  I’m also a very slow runner. When I raced back in 08, I kept pretty decent pace, well into the middle of the pack for the swim and bike segments.  And then the running I just fell to the back. It’s possible that I overtrained, that the combination of different disciplines was too much for me. I would like to try again, as being able to just throw on some sneaks and hop out the door has its advantages over getting on my bike or heading to a gym. And assuming I can avoid injury this time, it’ll be a the increase in intensity my program needs.

The same Helen who adorably scolded me for not posting has been running as of late too- has worked up to 17 minutes of straight running. If she lived closer to me and didn’t have legs twice the length of mine I’d suggest we hit the pavement together! But for now, as my book recommends, I will be going every other day for a half hour- 10 minutes of a warm-up walk, 16 minutes of alternating running and walking (I like to go 2 min x 2 min), and then cool down walk home. already went on Tuesday, will head out again tomorrow morning, and then Saturday and Monday. Book says to rest in between so I shall. And hopefully all will go well and I will keep it up! Also throwin some pushups in to boot!

any tips for staying comfortable and more importantly SHIN SPLIT FREE do share!

as for weight… still stuck at 142. the biking helped me stay there. it’s definitely been frustrating. But the weigh in was followed by a very encouraging meeting.. but I will get into all this, as well as (dun dun dunnnn) thanksgiving prep work in another post. for now, it is bedtime! stay tuned…