Round 7- Week 3 Weigh-in

I lost 2.4lbs last week to help me reach my weight goal

I still have perfect points for this game.

I'm determined to rock and roll during this last week of this round. I really would love to get to an even 40 lbs lost. Which would require me to lose 4lbs between now and next Wednesday.

Beyond that, I'm really focusing on preparing myself NOW for when this round ends so that I don't slip back into non-game habits and eat my way through the entire week off, only to have to spend two weeks getting myself back to where I was when the last game ended. I've been reading this book as part of my good habit for the game. And I've definitely struggled with a lot of the messages in the book.

My problem isn't when I'm on the game. When I'm on, oh man am I on. But just like that, when I'm off, oh man am I off. So the book is my precautionary measure to find new tools to keep me accountable during the time I'm not playing the game.

A few things I've learned from the book- some I'm already implementing and some I'll try after this round ends:
1. Write down the advantages to losing weight, carry them with me and read them at least twice a day. Refer to this list when I'm struggling.
2. Eat sitting down. I'm not much of a snacker, and again, being on the game really helps me keep this in check. But I do find myself every now and again standing while I eat my meals. The note I've placed on the fridge (STOP- if you're reading this while eating, go sit at the table). I laugh everytime I catch myself doing this.
3. Write down a food plan for the following day. For as long as I've been trying to lose weight, I've never actually done this. But I'm a planner. It's what I do for work. And I love to cross things off my to do list. This is one thing I've identified I'll do during the time I'm not playing the game so I can keep better track of my planned and unplanned food.
4. Stop fooling myself. Don't give myself permission to eat things for really lame reasons, especially nothing that starts with "It's okay to eat this because..." If I have to give myself a reason why it's okay to eat fill in the blank, I need to very seriously reconsider whether I should be putting it in my mouth in the first place.
5. Get back on my eating plan immediately after a slip-up. Ackowledge my slip-up, recommit myself to my food plan, draw a line, give myself credit for stopping, don't beat myself up, continue to eat normally and learn from my mistake.
5. Remember that the number on the scale is a guide to decide whether I should keep doing what I'm doing or make some changes.

For the most part, it's been helpful to get a different perspective and additional tools to help with what I'm doing with the Game. I think it can only help, even though a lot of what I've read in the book has made my eyes gloss over. I think if I can get one tiny nugget of information to walk away with, some new found knowledge, I'm better of for it.

Tomorrow I'll write a little more about how insanely the Game has taken off at my company.

PS- I can now do seven sets of the Santa Monica stairs. It feels amazing. I keep thinking, "I didn't know I was capable of ______." And seven f'n sets of those killer stairs was definitely on this list.

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Sore Sore Sore

Yesterday's workout went a little something like this:

Back squat (7x5- 95lbs)


Stability ball hamstring curls (7x5)


Box jumps (4x10- 3 risers)

*I know this seems easy, but really, I DARE you to try this at the gym the next time you go. And, Katie can attest to the fact that it's not as easy as it looks. And, remember, that it was three risers, not two, as shown here).

Push press (7x5- 50lbs)

*We didn't do as deep of a squat with this one.

Assisted pull-ups (7x5)

*My legs were actually straight...so like this machine, but a little different. This was a challenging exercise to do after the push presses. My arms were very tired.

Hanging leg raises (4x10)
What I should be doing is something that looks like this:


But I tried that once, it was really insanely hard and instead I've been doing something like this:


Bench press (7x5- 95lbs!)


Barbell bent row (7x5- 55lbs)


Russian twist (4x20- 25lb plate)


This morning I woke up and I could barely move. Like the kind of sore where I needed Steve's help taking my clothes off. On a scale of 1-10, as the day progressed, I became a solid 9. Which is equal parts fantastic and painful. I love the good kind of painful though. Knowing my body is being worked hard and discovering new muscles all the time.

Today's "easy workout" was 40-minutes on the elliptical at the gym. Even that set of my soreness. Tomorrow's the last day before weigh-in on Wednesday. As always, I'm hopeful that I will meet goal, that the scale will play nice. And that if it doesn't, that I remember that it's nothing more than a number to help me decide if I need to keep doing the same things I have been doing, or if I need to make some changes to see the number move in the direction I want it to.

Regardless, I'm grateful for another day of my body being able to move this way and for my resolve to stay strong in playing the Game with integrity and happiness.

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3.5 miles baby!

I have a secret weapon to being able to run. His name is Conan O'Brien. If you're married to me or related to me, you may be sick of my semi-obsession with Mr. O'Brien. But, hear me out.

I was devastated and pissed that NBC didn't do the honorable thing and keep him on as host of the Tonight Show after canceling Jay Leno's stupid 10pm show. I felt if they were really interested in giving him a chance, they should have given Conan time to improve his ratings without the terrible lead-in he didn't get from Jay's stupid 10pm show. Plus, anyone who had a devotion to Jay Leno (which I really don't get, the man is just not that funny), never had to adapt to life without him. They didn't have to give Conan a chance because their guy was still on TV. But no, NBC gave Jay Leno back the Tonight Show and Conan went off in style and gathered an insane and intense following of people who loudly supported him in the process. Myself included.

I will admit that while I watched Conan's version of the Tonight Show, I didn't do so regularly. I watched it every now and again, but was always entertained and laughing. So when it went off the air, I was sad (like a lot of America, I think) that I hadn't been a more loyal follower.

Well, my secret weapon is watching one of the 175 episodes of the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on the treadmill (off my iPhone) at the gym. I started this a few weeks ago as a trial...I watched the episode of the Late Show when Conan went to Finland to meet the President, the one he looks weirdly similar to:



I was so distracted by the show that I didn't realize that by the time it was done I had run nearly three miles! So when an opportunity presented itself for me to get my hands on every single episode of the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, I jumped at the opportunity. Now when I head to the gym and I know it's a cardio day, I transfer an episode from my external hard drive and then once there, I connect my iPhone to the treadmill and get to see the entire episode play out on the treadmill screen while I run!

I've also found that if I don't focus too much on the speed, I can go last much longer. In the past, I've put so much pressure on myself to run a certain speed, to look a certain way, etc. It's so exhausting to have all these expectations.

As an aside, I'm working on changing my attitude away from having expectations but instead, to setting intentions for my workouts (another thing I've learned from Mandy Ingber). Lately, my intention is set on completing the workout the best way for me- not focusing on speed or miles, but on lasting through an entire episode without walking. I know that walking wouldn't be bad, but I really really want to work on endurance and powering through that mental block I often put on myself. When one voice chimes in with wanting to walk, the stronger voice chimes in and reminds me that I can do it- I can keep running until I hear Conan closing out the show, "Bye everybody bye!"

Am I crazy? Absolutely. Do I care that this is what it takes to get me to keep running? Not even a little bit. I'm just grateful I've found something that helps me stay at it, push beyond my trash talking side and run for more than three f'n miles!

PS- As an aside, it's nearly impossible to imagine what my life was like before I started watching Glee.

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Round 7- Week 2 Weigh-in

My very funny teammate for this round of the game wrote the following when she reported her pounds, points and percentage for the week, "Thank goodness I shaved my legs, exfoliated and blew my nose prior to the weigh in...I just made it."

I know what she means. Some times you weigh in and you easily make the 1% weight loss goal. Other times, the scale just isn't on your side. I juuuust made it weighing in at my goal weight for the week. Thank god I too shaved my legs, exfoliated and blew my nose prior to weigh in ;)

What was nice about this is that instead of spending Tuesday night getting in a last chance workout at the gym and sitting it out in the steam room, I was at dinner with friends eating salad and talking about how people organize their inbox (or don't in lots of cases, I've learned). It was nice to know that I could make weight without having to work out like a crazy mofo the night before.

But I think that also happened because I'm making smarter choices throughout the week. Especially trying to not be a total ahole during my meal and day off. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying my food during those times, but, it's a little more controlled and not so my ship is going down like. I've also worked on increasing my protein intake and reducing the fat (even though it IS good for me fat) and carbs/fruits. I've been trying to eat three "regular meals" and having a protein shake or protein bar as my other two meals. This has worked out well for both convenience and weight loss as well.

As I head into week three, I'm feeling pretty great! Still LOVE the Game as much today as when I first started which is FANtastic!

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Yoga!

I've never really been one for group fitness classes. In fact, I went about 26 years before I took one. And I had no idea just how lucky I was that my first one was with Mandy Ingber. Mandy and I met through unusual circumstances- at a support group shortly after our fathers passed away. Although the support group didn't work out as I had hoped, meeting Mandy was a huge gift from the whole experience. She was teaching at YAS in Venice at the time that we became acquainted and this was just the push I needed to finally give yoga a try.

With everything going on emotionally surrounding my father's death, I figured giving yoga a try wasn't going to be a bad thing. I found that I really enjoyed yoga and I loved taking Mandy's classes. It was focused heavily on humor, patience, fun and really accepting your body as it was and for exactly what it could do in the moment. Never having done yoga before, I was a little apprehensive, but I was really happy to find that the classes were taught in such a way that you could just do whatever you could. Modified poses were always shown so if you were more advanced you could do something a little more challenging, and if you were just starting out, you never felt like you were far behind. Instead, you felt inspired and excited to work up to the more advanced poses. And Mandy had such a welcoming and fun way about her that at times, you almost forgot you were in a yoga class. Even more exciting, she even persuaded me to give her spin class a try- something I really thought I'd never do!

Spin is an entirely different beast and I wasn't sure I could hang. But with great advice from Mandy right before my first class- "Just sit in the saddle the whole time if you need to. My first time spinning I never got up out of the saddle once."- I managed to feel accomplished at the end when I not only pedaled the entire time, but managed to get out of the saddle even for a moment!

The few times that I went to Mandy's class and there was a substitute, I was disappointed that she wasn't there. I get that each teacher has their own individual style, I had just adapted so well to Mandy's. Even though I didn't go to Mandy's yoga and spin with strict regularity, I was very very bummed when she stopped teaching at YAS. Mandy has an amazing gift as a teacher and I knew from the few times I took classes with other people, that there was just no way to ever replace her. But I knew there was a reason for her absence.

Having spent the better part of the past two years creating her amazing DVD Yogalosophy (which you can buy here on Amazon or here on her website), she's slowly coming out of hiding to get back to teaching group yoga classes. I've spent the past couple of months doing her DVD and have loved getting back into yoga.

I was beyond excited when I saw Mandy was teaching a free yoga class at Lululemon in Brentwood. I signed up a few weeks in advance and despite some moments of anxiety about working out in a group setting, I walked in the door earlier today and was so happy to be taking Mandy's class. It'd been quite a while since I had seen Mandy, but as she was making the rounds, I gave her a quick hug hello and sat and took it all in.

First, let me say the place was packed! I had never been to a class at Lululemon before, but I have to imagine that this was probably one of the most attended classes they'd ever seen. I sat next to a woman who had never taken a class of Mandy's before and only happened upon Lululemon by chance- not wanting to drive all the way to Hollywood for a yoga class she often went to. All she knew was the buzz that "Jennifer Aniston's yoga instructor is teaching the class." I filled her in a little bit about Mandy's amazing gift for teaching and assured her that while it would be challenging, she'd be able to go at her own pace and just do whatever she could.

I sat back, stretched and watched Mandy work her magic around the room which was getting more and more full! Almost every single person was greeted by Mandy. As she crouched down by the top of their mat, she'd introduce herself and ask if there was anything she needed to know about their body. (As an aside, my favorite reply was the woman on the other side of me who said, "Yeah. That I'm old!"). I love this about Mandy. I know other yoga teachers do this. I get that. But again, going back to Mandy's style, it's done so warmly and instantly makes you feel glad you're in her class.

After getting everyone situated and placed just so, the class began. And it was awe-sum. Any nervousness I had was gone. Any apprehension I may have felt in the past because of my appearance and being overweight wasn't there. Because I've been working SO hard for the past year that all of that just disappeared. Plus, because I've been doing Mandy's routine on a somewhat regular basis (combined with my own weight training and hardcore cardio workouts), I could not only hang, but do almost everything in the class. The ab routine was KILLER and most people groaned their way through it. So even though that was quite challenging, it was nice to know I wasn't the only one who struggled to make it through.

It felt so great to be able to do these moves that I had never been able to do before. The energy of the group class was amazing. And as always Mandy was inspiring and funny! Her musical choices literally made people burst out laughing (Purple Rain especially). By the end of the class, I felt fantastic- strong and happy and sad that it was over. As I walked out of the class, I thanked Mandy and left with a huge smile on my face ready to finish my day.

For any of my Chicago friends and co-workers reading this, Mandy's going to be doing another free yoga class at Lululemon in Chicago. More details here. Just scroll to the bottom. I promise you, you'll be in for a huge treat and your body and mind will THANK YOU for setting aside this time. You will feel happy, inspired and strong. Don’t walk- run there!

I'm hopeful that Mandy will begin teaching more in the Los Angeles area and that we'll all get to benefit from her tremendous gift. But in the meantime, I will be satisfied with her amazing DVD. Full review to follow in the next few days!

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Round 7- Week 1 Weigh-In

Sorry for being such an ahole and not posting for a while. I know during the week between games, I made a promise to myself to post what I ate to help keep myself in check and accountable. I thought that would do the trick. Sadly, it didn't. I still need to figure out a better way to not ruin four weeks worth of work during one week off.

The week off was filled with lots of bad food and little exercise. I started off strong, but my follow-through just wasn't there. And by the end of the week, I had gained nearly 12 lbs. Yep. I know. Total ahole. And disgusting, right? I've always had this mentality of "must get it all in" right before I'm about to start a new diet. And the thing with the Game is that when you're playing the game, it takes all of that out of it. With the built in meal and day off, you don't have to line up all of your last meals; you get to still enjoy those kinds of things while playing. It's one of the reasons I enjoy the game the most.

One thing I will say is that during the week off when I was eating like an ahole, eating things like a bacon egg and cheese biscuit from McDonald's...it wasn't that good. I'm discovering that I may be craving these foods, but when I actually eat them, they're not as good as I remember or even want them to be. So I'll take that small victory and try and remember it when I'm trying to cram all the bad food in I can in a short period of time.

We started another round of the game on Wednesday, February 10th and after the shame I felt stepping on the scale, I brushed myself off, went to the grocery store to stock up on things like frozen chicken breasts, brown rice, scallops, mahi mahi, greek yogurt, hit the Farmer's Market to get fresh blueberries and bags of lettuce, got my ass back in the gym (very easily, I might add) and went about my business to get back in the game- pun intended.

Here's what I'm finding- it's easier to follow the game this time around. I got up at 555am on Tuesday to go to a spin class. Instead of feeling sleepy and blah upon waking, I was energized and excited. Spin class was easier and I was able to ride more of the hills which felt great. But the game in general this past week has been good. I don't feel like it's a struggle, although it's been quite some time since I felt that way, but it feels better. In some ways I always feel a sense of relief when I get back on game and this week was no different.

When I stepped on the scale this morning, I was very happy to see that was I was 8.6lbs lighter. Hooray. Almost making up entirely for the week off, I did feel slightly guilty that I was the week's biggest loser, but mostly grateful that my body continues to respond.

Here's to hoping better choices will be made in between games!

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Workout 2/4/10

I got in another great workout at the gym today after having a day off from the game. Weigh-in has come and gone and I took the day yesterday to stray a bit. But this morning, I got right back into the gym for a great workout.

Here's what I did:

Walking lunges (3x20)


Squat jump (3x20)


Single arm cable overhead press (3x10- 20lbs)


Crunches (3x20)


Good mornings (3x10- 45lbs)* first time I've ever done this exercise and I quite enjoyed it!


Up overs (3x30)


Squat and row (3x10- not sure of the weight, used a funky machine and added a 25 lb. weight)

Tricep overhead push (3x10- 20lbs)


Russian twists (3x30 holding an 8-lb ball)


Stair sprints (I was supposed to do 3x60 seconds, but I decided to just do three minutes and get it over with- and I was doing this behind Bill Rancic while he ran on the treadmill)

Inverted rows (3x10)


Push-ups (3x10- I did these as an incline instead of on the ground- not quite ready for that just yet!)


Crunches (3x20)


I was feeling great about my workout until a trainer came up to me and said, "I was all impressed with your workout until I saw you doing crunches." I looked at her with pretty much no expression on my face because what I really wanted to tell her to f off and leave me alone. Then she continued by saying, "Crunches really aren't that good for your back. You need to be careful." She really was a total buzz kill and I plan on complaining to someone in charge at the gym. On one hand, I sort of appreciate that she said something to me (although she's the first person in my life to comment that crunches aren't good for a person), but I think there was about one million ways she could have said that a little better.

Anyway, the workout was great. I felt great and I burned over 500 calories doing it.

As promised, here's my food log for the day:
Breakfast- 1 balance bar.
Snack- 1 banana.
Lunch- Skirt steak, white rice, plantains from Bossa Nova- 1/2 serving. Put the rest aside for Steve-o. Dinner salad and 1 coxchina- which is basically a deep fried ball of chicken and cheese. Not that great for me, for sure. Diet pepsi.
Dinner- Indian food with Steve. Paneer Makhani- cubes of cheese in a creamy tomato sauce. Garlic naan. White rice. Diet coke.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the healthiest, I'd say this was a 6. Improvement necessary.

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Week 4 Results- Game 4

I juuuust barely made goal. Which makes me even happier that I snuck in a 2nd workout last night- another 3 mile run! Go me!

So for this past round, I lost a total of 14 lbs or 5.67%. Which is great. But I must admit that I was not able to successfully manage myself the week and a half off in between the last game and this one. And the bulk of my weight loss from this game was weight that I lost in December and gained back in during that brief period of time off.

Yes, I'm happy that I lost 14 lbs, but in reality it wasn't really 14 lbs. And I'm committed to really not eating "like my ship is going down" (thanks for that nugget Katie!) between games.

With this round of the game over, and another one ready to start next Wednesday, I've put a few things into place to ensure I'm not acting like a complete ahole during the game off time.

First, starting tomorrow, at the end of each day, I'm updating my blog with what I've eaten in that day. I can say, with 100% certainty, that if I have to write my food on here, I will absolutely be mindful and think twice before I decide to shove shitty food in my mouth for six straight days! Secondly, we created a side challenge where we have to pay an extra $10 PER POUND gained from our final weigh-in today until our first weigh-in for the next game beginning on Wednesday, February 10th. I'm hopeful that both of these things will help me keep things in check. Let's hope so!

We're still waiting to get the final scores back, but it's looking very likely that we'll be the winning team. And I'm definitely in the running for being the biggest loser. I am the top loser on my individual team, but tomorrow I'll find out if I lost the most out of both teams. I'd love to win that, yet at the same time, it's not as good of a win if it wasn't weight I already lost in the last game.

I'm going to bed tonight happy and satiated. Girls night consisted of pizza, beer (three beers had me nearly wasted- on a scale of 0-10 AUDREY! I felt like I was at a 10, but in reality I was around 6), ice cream and a taste of flourless chocolate cake.

Tomorrow, it's back to the gym, and mostly back on program!

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Too Tired to Come up with a Title

Tomorrow is the final weigh-in for this 5th round of the Game. I'm anxious and excited and very much looking forward to this round being over with...I'm certain I've said that at the end of each round so far. Just as happy as I am for one round to be ending, I'm equally or even happier for another round to being- for the record.

This morning I started my day at the gym. At 555am, the alarm went off, I slowly got out of bed, got dressed, picked up the twin and by 625am I was on a spin bike at the gym. Today's class, which still is maybe the 5th spin class I've taken in my entire life, went much better than last week's. I managed to do more climbing, my ass didn't hurt as badly and I felt stronger.

I made very cautious decisions all day- eliminating as much salt as humanly possible, not eating any cheese today at any meal and getting in my water early in the day.

Tonight, instead of just bumming around on the internet, I decided to go back to the gym and get in another workout. Surprising even myself, I ran another three miles. Although my body is definitely tired, it was nice to run. The first time I looked down at my distance, it was well over a mile. Another sign that I'm getting stronger. Helping matters was that I had an episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien (when he was in Finland for an entire episode) to watch. I'm sure I looked like a fool laughing away on my own. I don't care, whatever helps!

I ended the night with a visit to the steam room and a shower. And now, if I actually make it the 10 steps to my bed without passing out...well...it'll be a frickin' miracle!

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Three Miles!

I'm very proud of myself.

These are five words I'm becoming better at not only feeling but actually saying- out loud (yes, it counts as out loud when I write it here on my blog).

After I wrapped up work (with a lot more on my to do list that I could have stayed at home to cross off), I headed off to the gym- on bike. It's a nice way to warm up for my workout and ease out of work mode and into me mode.

I locked up my bike and bounded up the stairs to find my favorite treadmill was back in action. I got my station all set up and mentally psyched myself up to attempt to run more than I ran the other day- 2.76 miles. I took one towel and covered up the screen so I wouldn't know how much I was running and turned off all the time controls so I didn't know how long I had been running for and how much longer I had to go. I put on the headphones, put my "All Workout Music" playlist on shuffle, threw my wedding rings into the water cup holder (don't tell my husband this) and off I went.

Probably 5-7 minutes into the run, I was wondering how in god's name I was going to keep running for more than 2.76 miles. I do this to myself frequently when I'm running (or probably doing anything I don't think I can do). Sometimes I have the mental strength to keep going. And sometimes I don't. I'm happy to report that tonight I did. The little trick I used tonight was to increase the speed just slightly whenever I felt like I wanted to stop. I kept the pace elevated until the feeling passed or when I needed to slow down in order to keep running. That little tactic seemed to work, because before I knew it, I had already been running for 2.18 miles.

With less than a mile to go, I felt certain that three miles was in my future tonight. I spent the last couple of laps going back and forth increasing the speed to get my HR up there and pulling back to make sure I could keep running. I let go of expectations of how fast I should be going or how quickly I should be running the three miles in or even how fast I used to be able to run three miles in. I just ran at a comfortable pace and when three miles came around, I felt great.

It's been amazing to see and feel the progress my body has been making with all the cardio, weight training and nutritious and mindful eating. I love that I can run three miles.

I know a lot of people don't like to run. For a lot of people it just doesn't feel good or isn't an exercise they really enjoy. And for the past couple of years, I felt that way the majority of the time I attempted to run. My weight made it nearly impossible to run comfortably and pleasurably (if there's such a combination!). But I powered on because the idea of running really made me happy. It reminded me of some of my happiest memories when I was in high school and while I by no means am looking to recreate my high school years, I do want to recreate that ability I had then to just put on a pair of sneakers and run out the door and run six miles effortlessly.

Maybe I won't ever get back to that, but today it sure as hell felt like it was possible!

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