product review: vitaminwater10, essential flavor

hey, that was fast! and i'm running out of orange-flavored beverages...

the pros: tastes much the same a regular vitamin water, which is to say, like oranges juice but wrong-- in a goodish way. 25 calories in the 20-ounce bottle. plus 5% of potassium, 250% of vitamin c and, well, a slew of other vitamins. funny paragraph on the side.

the cons: tastes pretty much the same as regular vitamin water. creepy super-sweet aftertaste, which must be a side effect of the stevia/truvia/whatever stuff they're both sweetened with. contains no juice.

so... well, yeah, i'll drink this instead of the regular stuff when i'm sick or hungover. i'm a water/seltzer gal the rest of the time. it just feels like such a WASTE to drink calories (and not get tipsy).

product review: trop50 by tropicana

having quit smoking, started exercising regularly, started taking a vitamin and cut a lot of chemicals out of my life over the past six months i managed to survive the winter without one cold. then yesterday? after a weekend in the 70s? and then a drop back to the forties? i had no voice. today is worse.

since i happened to see an ad for this trop50 business over the weekend, i hit my local wawa this morning for a 12-ounce of that and a 20-ounce vitamin water "10" (which has 10 calories per serving). (i haven't tasted that yet.)

so... the main event.

pros: tastes mostly like oj. 80 calories in a 12-ounce bottle. 19% of potassium, 50% of calcium, 150% of vitamin c and a whole slew of other vitamins.

cons: creepy super-sweet after taste. "orange juice beverage with vitamins." pulp free (= FAIL). 42% juice (= MAJOR FAIL).

basically, if i were an oj drinker-- one who needed oj to feel fulfilled by her breakfast experience, i might try to make the switch. but... i only drink it when i'm sick. so, whatever. i'll drink this when i'm losing -- seriously, did you think i was gonna go wasting 170 calories on a BEVERAGE, sick or not?-- and regular old, pulpy oj when i'm not.

later, maybe i'll blog the vw10 (haha. it looks like it's a volkswagen.) and the plain old lipton's decaf & water... all of which i have huddled around me.

post-lent, summer vacation & a plateau

1. "lenten" 15-day challenge? i completed 13 out of 15 90-minute workouts. go me?

2. we're going to florida in 6 weeks. have i mentioned what a wimp i am about HEAT?

3. i still weigh ~180 pounds, no matter what i do. just about what i weighed four years ago (wow.) when i met my husband. on the bright side, that SHOULD mean all those clothes fit again.

i know my body is fond of 180, but I'M fonder of 160. or 140. and let's face it, i secretly want to be 125. i know this is kinda a little set-point on my journey, but, DUDE. i really don't want to go to florida 180 pounds.

sooooo... 1250 calories a day. at least 7 hours of sweating per week. hope.

i've got a workout-a-day plan set up for another 15 days, starting tomorrow, and it incorporates a little non-c25k 6-week to running plan (from women's health magazine) (or, the first 1/3 of it, actually). so by the time i touch down in florida, i'll be running (NOT THAT I WILL EVEN CONSIDER RUNNING IN FLORIDA IN JUNE) and knocking out 50 sit-ups and 25 push-ups.

i'd like to think that 6 weeks could spell a drop into the 160s (and truth be told, if i actually broke my plateau, it could probably spell a drop to 160), but i think my best odds are around 174-175. not that i won't still TRY for 168. frankly, i think i'll be pretty pleased to wear my size 14 jeans and maybe even a bathing suit.

inspired by lentils

inspired by fat bridesmaid and her lentils, i've embarked on a little daily-workout vow. 90 minutes of cardio daily until holy saturday. i started on saturday and have completed 26% (ahem4workoutscoughcough) already! that means i've walked (or wogged) 16.25 miles in the past 4 days! i'll be at a marathon by the end of the week.


why, you ask, should i jump on the lenten boat with only 15 days to go?? ummm, because i weighed 183.0 on friday. YIKES. that means i'd gained about 9 pounds in two weeks EVEN THOUGH i was working out regularly.


but i've closed march on a highish note. i worked my way up to FIFTEEN push-ups and THIRTY sit-ups, which is pretty unbelievable. i can also jog just over a quarter mile straight (about 5 minutes, i think). i won't weigh in for keeps until monday (that's my system now, first monday of the month) but despite an off-day yesterday that prevented us from having our planned dinner --pizza & fries instead (yup, we suck)-- i'm down to 180.4 today, which is better.

and my calories, i count them. i don't really constrain them to a particular number, but i count. key for me is fiber & water, which i get in my delicious banana-oat muffins* and my veggie soup & small baked potato lunch.

so. that's the news. i'll update the weight stats on monday (yup, i'm holding on to hope that i won't have to bump the ticker back up to the 180s-- don't judge).

*recipe:

1 box tj's banana bread mix
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup egg whites (or two xl eggs)
1 cup oats

bake in lined muffin tin at 325 degrees for 30 minutes
makes 12 muffins at about 175 calories each

back on track. literally.

eating hasn't been spectacular lately. as for exercise... after about a week and a half of forgetting, skipping and not being able to,we got back to our floor exercises and i'm up to 15 mediocre push-ups and 27 excellent sit-ups. i'm really going to start attacking my abs, i think, since i know they can take it. ALSO, i actually WENT TO THE TRACK last night. it was a bit cold, but by my estimation, i walked1 mile (3/8th each way & 1/4 around the track) and jogged 1/4 mile (around the track). i thought i was going to die, and i felt like crap-- so bad i couldn't manage a shower for about three hours after i got home, but, goddamnit, i am BACK, BABY! i've scheduled out my increases and promised myself that when two wogs in a row involve a straight 1/2 mile of jogging, i'll go in for a deep tissue massage and a haircut.

i miss you guys, but my real life life feels easier. like... well, almost like i'm not expending energy

thanks for understanding

i think i'll keep the blog, but delete the content? maybe once a month update my fitness level and weight. i just... i can't keep letting it all hang out.

closing up shop... maybe

well. this is odd. all i could think of yesterday was shutting down this blog. i've had this problem before, with thenest.com, where i kind of... let it replace real life? and i realized yesterday that i didn't want to blog ANOTHER crisis and let my fear and anger stagnate somewhere out there while i wished for catharsis. i meant to blog my weight loss efforts and instead i blogged my life. and, well, i don't want to do this anymore.

so i think i'll delete the blog. but i'll keep the email & the screenname so i can comment.

i'm going to give it a couple days, though, before i commit. and, ummmm, i'm not giving up on losing weight. no way, baby. i'm jogging TONIGHT.