2011 - Week 9 In Review

Week 9 has been filled with stress, sickness, and all around grunge.  I've definitely been feeling more on edge and have had a significantly limited frustration tolerance.  I'm hoping that I've passed through the low-point and am now on the up-swing.

• Exercise
• Days of Exercise: 4
• One day off was a planned skip (Thursday).  The other days off were from feeling sick and needing to take care of myself (Wednesday and Saturday).
• Individual workouts were on target with calories burned, but didn't meet weekly goal because of being sick.
• Review:  I pushed myself a bit more with some of my workouts this week.  Mostly, it was because I've been watching Damages and haven't wanted to stop mid-episode.   I think I probably pushed myself further that I should have with exercising last night.  I wouldn't be surprised if that worsened my cold.  I'm trying hard to allow myself to be sick and to not undermine my healing efforts by getting back on the elliptical before I'm ready.  As with last week, I have NOTHING to feel guilty about.  Sometimes a body gets sick and it needs to take a break.
• Goals: This next week is going to be tough.  I've tentatively canceled my training session for tomorrow because I'm still running a low fever and don't want to push myself again.  There's a chance I could get a strength-training workout in on Monday.  I'm hoping to get workouts in Monday through Wednesday.  Thursday is a possibility depending on the window of time I have between meetings.  We're flying to Boston that evening, so I'm not sure what Friday through Sunday will be like.  I'll bring my workout clothes with me, but I'm not going to stress about fitting in any cardio while I'm there.  It's a weekend getaway and it's meant to be relaxing and fun.  Kim (kimgettingslim.com) is going to be there too, so perhaps we'll motivate each other to exercise a little.

• Eating
• Days of Clean Eating:  7
• Review:  I'm really proud of myself for eating clean the whole week.  With my level of stress and frustration over the week, I could have easily given in and gorged myself on junk.  I was so tempted to order in a pizza one night and to munch away at the leftover cookies in the pantry (which smell delicious by the way), but I've kept from doing this.  My appetite has been pretty screwy with stress and sickness.
• Goals:  My plan is to eat clean through Thursday.  While in Boston, I'm hoping to continue eating clean during the day.  I'm planning to bring food with me to help with this.  The dinners are going to be cheat meals, but I want to do my best to keep them on the cleaner side.  I want to conceptualize them as more of a "refueling" rather than an "indulging" though I'm certain at least one meal is going to be more of a treat.

• Overall
• Review:  I've been under a lot of stress this week and it's had an impact on how I perceive things.  I've been feeling "less than good" but have been working hard to coach myself through this.  One thing that helped was reconnecting with a couple of friends that I hadn't spoken with in a while.  Just getting to talk through a couple things with them was really helpful with putting things into perspective.  It's funny to look at last week's goal of stress management and self-care, given the stress that hit the fan at the beginning of the week.  One unintended benefit of being sick is that I have to take care of myself.  Today has been spent sedentary on the couch without the expectation of doing anything.  It's the imposed moderation that I made reference last week. 
• Goals:  This week will prioritize getting better and having fun.  I'm looking forward to the "mandatory fun" of the weekend in Boston.  I won't be bringing anything from work, so I won't have the burden of what I "should" be doing.  I want to let go of the stressors that have been bothering me, I don't want to carry them with me to these times that are supposed to be enjoyable.

• Weight
• Starting Weight: 153.8
• Last Week's Weight: 144.1
• Today's Weight:  142.2 / 141.5
• Weight Loss (This Week):1.9 / 2.6
• Weight Loss (Total 2011): 10.2 / 12.3

Food Log:

• Meal 1
• 2 egg whites with red pepper, onion, and salsa
• 40g oatmeal with cinnamon, vanilla, and a bit of Splenda
• Meal 2
• 1oz almonds
• Light cheese
• Apple
• Meal 3
• 3oz chicken
• Tablespoon of peanut butter 
• 40g oatmeal

Exercise:  None due to sickness
Today's Weigh-In: 142.2 / 141.5