Hello, dear old friend

As we are now in the depth of the holiday season and the first draft of my thesis is due almost immediately after the first of the year, I've become reacquainted with an old friend.

Hi Stress.  How are you?  Long time no see!

Stress.  We used to be in a love/hate relationship.  In a way I loved stress because it meant that things were going on in my life.  Sure, I wasn't handling them in the best of ways, but stuff to be stressed about meant that I wasn't sitting at home being bored at least.  Of course I hated Stress too though.  With Stress brought headaches, pimples, sleepless nights and occasional tears.

What I need to keep in mind during Stress's current visit now, is that Stress likes to put a damper on weight loss.  Yup.  Stress evidently likes to slow down metabolism (or something!) and causes your body to not want to loss weight.  Kind of like a comfort, I guess?  I don't know...

What I do know is that I've got to find some ways to de-stress besides my exercise.  While yes, I do view my jogging (yup, I'm officially a jogger now!) as my "me time," I have a feeling its not going to be enough in the coming months.

I do know one thing for sure though.  I'm not going to retreat back to my old ways of dealing with stress!  Well, then again maybe one glass of white wine won't hurt me!!

I hope you guys will help keep me sane!

What I'm Thankful For

I've had a really bad week in terms of everything besides my health project.  I got turned down for yet another job, money is tighter than ever before in my life, I'm not going home for Thanksgiving and I just started to lose hope.

But it was because of a phone call from a friend that I realized the one thing I have to be thankful for...and that's for you.  My friends and family who are currently reading this.

You are the ones who have kept me going.  Not only through this time of getting healthy, but for this entire past year.  When I wanted to do nothing else but lay in bed, you were the ones who got me out of it.  When I wanted to just wallow in my self pity, you guys pretty much smacked me out of it.  I've talked to you on the phone when I'm feeling down, and you've seen me at my worst.

You've inspired me and pushed me on.

So to you guys reading this...

Thank you.  I'm eternally grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving

Coming soon to a movie theater near you

As I mentioned before, the holidays are rapidly approaching and with them comes one of my favorite past times for this time of year... MOVIES!

It's at this time of year that both mega-blockbusters and Oscar hopefuls are released to the masses in hopes of snagging a few holiday bucks and catching the critics' eyes.  With these movies also comes the audience with what everyone knows to be the movie theater's biggest money maker and rip off:  the snacks.

Everyone has noticed, but over the years the popcorn tubs and cups for soft drinks have become steadily bigger and bigger and with that comes more and more calories.  Everyone knows this and everyone chooses to ignore it.  I used to be one of them, but no longer!  I mean, most people take in MORE than their daily allotted calories during the course of one movie!  And we wonder why American's have an obesity problem!

Take for instance a large tub of popcorn.  Care to take a guess as to how many calories are in that bucket?  Approximately 1500.  Nachos?  1100.  A large soda?  500.  The average box of candy?  450.

That's outrageous!  Considering how many movies I usually see during the holiday season, that's just not going to happen!  Even with saving up calories and working out an extra half hour...  It's just too much!  So instead, I'm going to be a sneaker-inner.  Yup, I'm going prepared with my extra large purse loaded down with some healthy choices.  Rather than popcorn, I'm bringing a single serving of pita chips (130 calories).  Rather than candy, bringing another favorite for this time of year, a clementine!  (45 calories)  I will grab a fountain soda, (because who can pass up a fountain soda) but of course I'll make it a diet.  But you could even bring a bottle of water.  Even if I were to splurge and bring two bags of pita chips, this whole snack amounts to 305 calories!  Amazing, right?  And its not like I'm swapping flavor.  I'm just leaving behind the unneeded sugar, fat and calories.

Anyway, I'm off to pack my bag of snacks for tonight's screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One.  Hope to see some of you there.

But first, I run!

'Tis the Season...

With the holidays rapidly approaching I'm starting to get worried and realize that I need to devise a strategy.  Everyone knows that the holidays are when almost everyone packs on a few pounds.  Be it from a few too many helpings of stuffing on Thanksgiving, to the holiday parties thrown by friends, or the oodles and oodles of chocolate that arrive at work, temptations are everywhere this time of year!

Something that I've learned about myself during my process is that I don't typically crave sweets.  I'm more of a savory gal.  However, this is completely reversed come Christmas time.  Jason and I made a trip to the local Rite-Aid tonight and were greeted by the lovely Christmas aisle stocked full of chocolately goodness in the shape of Santas, Bells and Christmas trees.  I was strong during Halloween and was able to completely avoid the candy aisle, however the lure of Mint M & Ms was just too hard to resist.  Those are my favorite treats at this time of year, and they can be incredibly hard to find.  But there they were, staring me in the face.  In a moment of weakness, I bought them.

After breaking into them as soon as I got home I came to my realization that a strategy was indeed needed.  I'm doing incredibly well on my journey thus far (25 pounds lost as of today's weigh-in) and I don't want to completely derail that.  BUT... I don't want to completely deprive myself either this holiday season.  So, I've decided that moderation is going to be my key.

I'm not going to beat myself up over having bought this bag of M & Ms.  However, I am going to make sure that they aren't gone in a matter of days.  My goal is make these last a while.  A cookie or two won't kill me, but 4 or 5 aren't going to happen.  One piece of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving is totally doable.  But seconds or thirds?  Um, no...

I'm just going to keep on doing what I've been doing, but making adjustments as I need to to accommodate for these extra goodies.   I think if I just remember that moderation is my friend, all should be good this holiday season.  Here's to hoping I will hit the 40 pound mark by New Year's Eve!!

Dear Arm Muscles I forgot I had...

Dear Dormant Arm Muscles,

Guess what dear sorry, sad, flabby arms?  Starting tonight you are going to be getting 6 minutes of time devoted just to you each night!  Why, you might ask?

Because I just invested in a Shake Weight!

I know, I know... I mercilessly mocked those ridiculous commercials.  I mean, who can help it?  Watching those women hold a phallic weight and shaking it in their faces.  But I care not for the mock-worthiness of this product.  I just care about finally doing something to make you look more presentable!  The rest of the body has fallen in line.  It's your turn my dear friends!

Have no worries, my dear arms.  I have no desire to make you look like the scary woman in the training video.  I just want to make you look less like beached albino whales swinging from side to side along side my torso!

So, take care dear arms and enjoy the (hopeful) transformation.

Catch you on the flip (and more toned) side.

Sincerely,

Maia

I'm All Shook Up!

Wow, so today was my weigh in day and I have to say I was pretty shocked about what I saw, and in a good way!

4 pounds lost!  That's like what some people are seeing on The Biggest Loser every week!

I'm not going to lie, it's a welcome number after last week's less than a pound debacle.  But, I'm assuming that number had to be that low for me to get this big one.  The reason I wasn't really expecting this big of a loss this week is because I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear this past weekend in DC.  I met up with my family, and as pretty much everyone knows when family visits are involved, so are bad food choices.  While I didn't go completely overboard this weekend (as I might have done even just three months ago), I did allow myself some extra treats such as a turkey burger and sweet potato fries (split order with my Mom), a belgian waffle, a gyro with regular fries and a lot of brie and pita chips.  Maybe it was the massive amount of walking/standing we did pre and post the rally, who knows!  Maybe my body just needed a shake up from my regular routine.

I had read on other weight loss blogs that sometimes our body gets too used to our regular routine while losing weight and that sometimes you have to purposefully change things up in order to see big results.  Some of the changes include eating slight more or slightly less calories than you normally do in a day (check!), change up the type of food you are eating, (check!) and change up your work out routine (check!).

I think the bigger weight loss this week might also have to do with the fact that when I got back to the city I was so scared of not seeing a loss due to the bad food, that I kicked my butt and was extra careful.  Maybe it was one or the other or a combination of both.  Who knows!  Who really completely understands this mysterious thing called weight loss?

On a side note, I've been walking the Central Park Reservoir at night lately.  Not late, 7ish.  It's quite a sight to behold.  I strongly recommend anyone who lives in New York to take this walk at night at least once.  Once you get past the idea that someone could possibly jump out of the bushes and attack you, it's lovely!