Leaving Las Vegas

So, I'm now in NYC! I flew in a few days ago and I'm staying with a fabulous friend until I move into my own apartment, which should be in about a month. I looked at a place yesterday and it is a great deal, so fingers crossed that one works out!

Okay, confession time ... I haven't been journaling regularly for about a month now. And I've been very loose with my food choices. I also haven't really been weighing myself all that often. I used a scale at my friend's apartment that I've used before and I think I am 4 lbs. heavier. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it worries me. So, I jumped onto eTools on the WW site to journal what I ate starting yesterday ... no lie 81.5 points! (That was hard to write.) I didn't even know that was humanly possible. You know what the biggest trouble makers were ... scrambled eggs that I had at a restaurant, fried calamari (obviously!), and wine. And I didn't even really like the eggs or the calamari. I don't know why I ate them. The wine, well that was totally my doing and I enjoyed it. I really need to go back to a simpler way of eating all the time and get over the feeling like I need to "eat like everybody else". I feel bad when I don't want something like fried calamari, but the person I'm with does (my dad loves it). So I agree to it and feel compelled to eat it so they won't feel awkward eating it alone. I didn't really realize I had been feeling this way. I really got into some bad habits while living with my parents. I hope living with my friend for a month won't lead to more bad habits. I knew that I was lucky I was losing the weight while living alone. I made all the choices of what came into the house. I didn't realize how hard it was to eat healthy around other people all the time. And going back to work is going to add more stress to how and when I eat. I guess that might be why I've been feeling anxious lately.

I'll be around more often as I embark on these new eating patterns and try to figure it all out.

Mini "Sprint" Triathlon

Thanks very much for all your well wishes about my new job. I am quite excited and it was great to share the good news with all of you! :) Sorry it has been a few days without me posting. I've been doing a lot of running around lately, but I have the next week pretty open, except for packing, so you'll probably get sick of me :)

So, a few Saturdays ago my mom and I did a "sprint" triathlon at the local YMCA. There were only like 20 people signed up for it, so it only took about an hour for all three events. First we did 250 yards of swimming. The weirdest thing happened to me during the third lap. I had problems breathing. Now this is weird because I have swum my whole life - my mom had my sister and I in swimming classes as 2 year olds. I never swam competitively, but I have swum laps for exercise a lot over the course of my life. And we had a pool in the backyard growing up. So it was a strange sensation to not be able to breathe. I switched from freestyle to breast stroke to make it easier to breathe. I knew my time was going to be terrible, but I sure as h*ll wasn't going to stop! I finished and was a little wobbly afterwards, but basically fine. (My mom's time was 1 minute faster than mine. But, she psyched herself out when she heard me say I had trouble breathing because she is a super strong swimmer and has been training for this (I haven't been) and could have finished with a much faster time.

The next event was the bike. We used stationary bikes. I haven't been on a bike since November, and I've never ridden for speed or time, just distance, so I didn't know how fast to go to make a good time. We biked for 2 miles. I finished in 8 minutes and 52 seconds. I could have done it faster, but I didn't want to tire myself out. Shows you how important training is! :)

The last event was running. We ran laps in a gym. It was fun because my mom and I got to run together. I realized that I could have gone faster, but I didn't want to psych my mom out, and it was fun to run with someone else. I did do a sprint of the last 1/4 of a lap to the end just for fun. It was a 1/2 mile total. It was supposed to be a mile, but they shortened it for some reason. I finished around 6 minutes, which is about right for me because I am not a sprinter and I run about an 11 or 12 minute mile.

So, the whole event was over in about an hour. We went to Einstein's Bagels afterwards for breakfast. (YUM!) The bizarre thing for me is that it was a fun way to spend a morning. I am not a very sports competitive person, so not doing well in the events didn't really phase me (my mom on the other hand had this whole goal to be able to do all 3 events in like 25 or 20 minutes. Go mom!) A year or two ago I would never have signed up for this mini-triathlon and would have considered it torture and humiliation. Now, I loved it! It is a great feeling. I hope to do more things like this in NYC, but I have to get ready for the level of competition there - ugh!

I do have a certificate, a medal and a t-shirt to commemorate my mini-triathlon. I just wish the words "Las Vegas" were more prominently displayed on the t-shirt. C'est la vie! It will still be fun to wear when I run again in Central Park!

New York, New York

Things have been a little crazy here as of late. I have great news, drum roll please ... I got the job!

I am super excited because it is with a great organization that I believe in and it is going to be a step up in responsibility, which I think I am ready for. It, hopefully, will have been worth the wait. I move back to NYC later this month and start my job a few days later. I already have a lead on an apartment that is super affordable and right near a park so I can go running!

There have been other things going on too - I went on a great hike a week ago and chatted with a woman who is going to Nepal later this year to do a 14 day hike. She is also a former professional photographer, so I'll post a link to her blog with a lot of her photos. I also did a mini-triathlon, also known as a "sprint" triathlon, with my mom. It was fun and not something I ever thought I would enjoy about a year ago! I've also had realizations about my new body while a) sitting in those tiny seats on an airplane, b) giving myself a pedicure, and c) hanging out at a hotel pool on the Las Vegas Strip. So, I have a lot to blog about this week! I'll be back tomorrow to give you a recap.

Eating to Please Someone Else

Have you ever done that? Eating to please someone else? I haven't done it in such a long time and tonight I did and it feels awful. I was out to dinner with my Dad. We were trying a new restaurant that had 2 for 1 appetizers during happy hour. I will freely admit I agreed to the fried calamari and crab quesadillas. I will own those food choices and they were both good (the quesadillas were better than the calamari, if you must know, but both were "worth it".) But I was still hungry after the appetizers. I looked on the menu for a side salad. No luck. My Dad wasn't hungry for anything else, but his idea of an "evening snack" is half a bag of Lay's potato chips, so I knew he wasn't going to go hungry tonight. So, I saw the "Lobster & Seafood Salad" on the menu and order it without dressing. When it came I knew there was a problem, but I didn't speak up. I expected a bed of lettuce and tomato with some pieces of cold lobster and other various foods from the sea on top. Instead I was faced with a "seafood salad" kinda like tuna salad or chicken salad, neither of which I like. But, I didn't know how to say "Take it back, this isn't what I thought it was." My Dad is a clean plate club eater and also doesn't like to "make a scene" at restaurants. Sending food back is definitely "making a scene" in his book. So, I ate the "seafood salad," well part of it at least. I probably had about 1/3 of it and most of the lettuce. It didn't even taste good. The whole time I was upset and "eating for show." I basically ate enough to make it look like I liked it. I even asked for a box to take the rest home! (He thinks I'm going to eat the rest for lunch tomorrow, but he isn't very observant, so I can probably throw it away without him noticing.) I'm not even sure how bad the food was for me, even though it did seem thoroughly unhealthy. I'm just upset that I ate something to please someone else. I can turn down candy, cake, and lots of other things, but tonight I just couldn't do it. I didn't want him to waste his money. If I had been paying, I probably would have sent it back. Ugh. I am mentally and physically a little ill this evening.

Have you ever eaten to please someone else?

Back to Basics

So I realized that I haven't recorded my weight since early March and I haven't been consistently counting points for just as long, if not longer. So, I recommitted to myself yesterday to start tracking my points and journaling on WW eTools every day. I used to try to fill in what I had eaten in the past on the days I could remember. This time, I decided to start fresh and just move forward. It is eye opening to say the least. I thought I was eating a little more than my points allowance, but in the past two days it has been like 10 points over each day. I know I have flex points, but still, I want to get back to a structure I can stick with. I didn't weigh-in today because I had a phone interview at the same time as the meeting (yeah! :) but I'm going next week and I think I'm going to stay for the meeting. It isn't the same as my old ones in Maryland, but I think I need the structure. All of this isn't motivated because of an uptick on the scale. (I do weigh myself periodically, I just don't record it.) It is more a desire to feel in control again. Does that make sense?