This will be short and sweet.

Mr. Tanita and I are getting along again. I got on the scale this morning at it read 195.6. That means I lost 2.4 pounds this week. Yay! Now I just need to keep the scale moving in the down direction and I will be a happy girl.

My triathlon training starts on Sunday, so I think its safe to assume that all the working out will keep Mr. Tanita and I in good shape.

I went shopping yesterday and bought loads of fresh fruits and veggies so on that point, I am good. I need to go to the regular market today and get the rest of my things. I need some fish, frozen veggies, light ww bread, etc.

I'm pretty tired and busy these days. With school, the house buying, my family, and everything else going on, I haven't had the opportunity to post every day like I should be. But please be aware that I am watching my food and exercising a bit. It's the weekend so the real challenge is upon me.

I hope you are all doing well. I am gonna go respond to some of your blog posts now.

Have a good day!

-Irene aka FitHungryGurl

People, I have to say it.     I AM SICK OF WINTER!

Actually, I've been sick of winter for the past 3-4 years. I am so done with snow and high temps under 50 degrees. If I have to be unemployed, I would at least like to be outside, enjoying the fresh air, running or playing in the park with Olivia.

But instead, I am stuck inside.

Boooo!

Speaking of running, February 7th is the day I officially start training for the Iron Girl triathlon. It takes place on August 7th and I have already registered for it. I'm giving myself 6 months to get my running and swimming up to par. The problem? I'm not sure if my hip is up to it. I haven't seen the orthopedic surgeon as of yet, however, the medicine my GP gave me seems to have taken the pain away. It's an anti-inflammatory usually given to arthritis patients. I don't know if the problem has been solved and I won't until my first run. This scares me. But, I am going to take it one step at a time.

Even though my main tri for the year will be the Iron Girl, I am planning on doing the Town of Islip tri in Long Island on June 6th and the Danskin tri in Sandy Hook, NJ on September 11/12th. Unfortunately, they did not schedule a Trek Woman tri in NY this year.

I am focused on the Iron Girl however, because I have a personal record I want to beat. My goal is to take 39 minutes off last year's time. It's important to me to do better. I have something to prove to myself. That means 6 minutes off my swimming, 20 minutes off my run, and 13 minutes off the bike. Last year I was hurt, so my run was a job. If I hadn't cut the bottom of my feet,  could have finished the race 10 minutes faster than I did. But no worries. This is a new year and I have learned from my mistakes. I didn't give the triathlon the respect it was due, but this year, I am competing against myself. I will do better.

Other than the triathlons, I am planning on doing five 5K races this year. The first, being the JFK Run on the Runway race on April 18th. Again, my goal is to beat last year's time. It's a fantastic race at JFK Airport with planes flying overhead. The course is flat and the only problem I had last year was the wind. Holy Moly, there was some intense wind on the return loop. But it was loads of fun and I am hoping to have a new personal record.

Another reason I am sick of the winter...I could have been bike training already. But no....too much ice on the roads, too much freezing wind. Argh! I am so ready to get outdoors, my skin is itching.

Hello and good morning friends. It was a terribly exhausting weekend - house cleaning, 2 baby showers, and an incident with my SIL whom I will NEVER speak to again. I need a break, but I don't have the time. Gotta catch up on school work.

In the meantime, I am not creating any kind of plan for this week. I am starting the month at 198 pounds. Only 2 pounds lighter than on January 1st. Oh well, it is what it is. I am going to try to get back in the hang of things. All I want to do is exercise every day. If I can accomplish that this week, I will be very happy.

I haven't blogged all week.

If you know anything about me, if I'm not blogging, I'm not doing well.

I think the months of improper sleep patterns have caught up to me. I've been so damned tired this week I spent most of it on the couch. I've only worked out for 45 minutes and my eating was a joke. I ran out of healthy veggies so I've been eating whatever is left in the house. Money is really tight right now so I couldn't justify buying stuff.

And last night Aunt Flow came to town.

Because of all that I've gained 2.4 pounds, now weighing in at 198 pounds. Ugh! Not good. This month has been a struggle, maybe I should just write it off. I do have 2 parties this weekend that I am sure are not going to help my eating.

I'm not giving up. Not at all. I just need to rest, eat right, and exercise more. If only it were that easy.

That's all I've got right now.

-Irene aka FitHungryGurl (mostly hungry these days)

How are you all doing?

“…Our beliefs seem reasonable to us,and so we believe them with confidence. We walk about the world with confidence that things really are the way they appear to us. We judge some people to be ‘good’ and some to be ‘bad’. We make decisions, react to people, go our way in life,without seriously questioning the thinking that largely determines how we live,without questioning the implications of our thinking.

Though we don’t realize it, our egocentric tendencies […] play a dominant role in our thinking. We lack the skills and the motivation to notice how self-centered and prejudiced we are, how often we stereotype others, how frequently we irrationally dismiss ideas simply because we don’t want to change our behavior or our comfortable way of looking at things.”

This quote is from "Critical Thinking" by Paul and Elder which I am reading for my Survey class. It is a powerful statement of the ignorance we live in as individuals. I felt it was worth posting because one of my goals for 2010 is to get rid of my judgemental side. I need to become aware of my thinking. I need to change my thinking. I want to be free of the poison in my mind. I want to be mentally healthy.

Now, on to the show...

This week's challenge was IMPOSSIBLE. I was only able to do 250 lunges 2 days. The rest of the week, I did as many as  I could.. I tried. I really did. But my thigh muscles were on FIRE.They begged and pleaded for me to stop and I did all I could to keep myself in the game. In the end, I did 668 lunges in 7 days, which averages over 95 lunges per day. Not a good showing, but whatever. I'm not superwoman damn it!!!

I did my crunches almost every day, totaling 600 this week. Not too shabby. My cardio was not great. I am not doing well with this elliptical machine. I need to run. I need to run badly. I miss it so much. Now that I've got the referral to the orthopedic surgeon, I'm hoping her will find out what is wrong with my hip and we can work on solving that issue.

Now, the numbers...

Mr. Tanita was still reeling from my eating last weekend. This morning he said I weighed 195.6 pounds. That's exactly the same I weighed last week - a ZERO POUND LOSS. Well, at least it's not a gain. I will kick ass this weekend to make up for last weekend's fiasco.

Next week's goals:

1 - I am doing the push-up challenge starting today.

2 - Since the push-ups are only done 3 days per week, I am adding a "100 minutes of cardio" challenge on the days I don't do the push-ups.

3 - Food: I'm gonna challenge myself to cook without adding fat - no butter, margarine, or oil - all week.

That's all I've got now. Have a successful week everyone!

-Irene aka FitHungryGurl

I know I chose this challenge, however I must say that I absolutely hate lunges. Why? Because they H-U-R-T! My legs are killing me due to doing all my lunges yesterday, yet I am still supposed to do another 250 lunges today. I was nuts when I decided to do this. I honestly thought they would be easier. In addition, I did 100 crunches and only 10 minutes of cardio. I really got get better with being consistent with the cardio.

Last night I made a stir fry using Italian sausage, beets, mushrooms, scallions, and escarole. It was delicious. The spiciness of the sausage, plus the bitterness of the escarole and the sweetness of the beets was a terrific combination and low in calories.

Today I am sending out resumes, desperately trying to find a job before we close on our house, which seems like it may be next month. Since I cannot seem to find a position in education, I've been reduced to looking for an administrative job. Whatever to pay the bills at this point. I really hope I find something in the next couple of weeks. The lack of an income is beginning to stress me out and I don't like stress.

I don't have much more to add right now. I have a lot of things on my mind, including school, fidninf childcare for Olivia, and planning her birthday party. I just need to remember to breathe.

Later people!

-Irene aka FitHungryGurl

Someone forgot to tell Saturday and Sunday to cooperate. Seriously, those bitches have got to get on the wagon already. They made my eating all whacked out even though I gave it my all with what I was given.

During the day, I was okay. I ate reasonably and drank nothing but water. But in the evening I met friends at a Latin restaurant called Sofrito and my hard work went down the drain. Honesty, could I really be expected to not eat (I had already had dinner at home to avoid being hungry) when the food looked amazing? Really? Eat and drink I did...the food was delish and I didn't regret my food intake too much at the time.

The next morning however, I felt like poop. I had that kind of dazed feeling you get after you've had just a little too much to drink. Also, I was starving. I couldn't satisfy my hunger for some reason. So I ate, and ate, and ate. Of course, since I was home I could control what I was eating and tried to keep it reasonable. But my stomach began to rumble. It did not appreciate what I had done to it. Some time on Sunday afternoon, it evacuated its contents violently and I felt all better.

I got on the scale Monday morning to see how much damage I had done - hmmm - only 1 pound higher than my weigh-in on Friday. I could happily live with that. I had expected it to say 3-4 pounds and I was going to cry. But 1 pound I can deal with.

The Lunge It Forward Challenge
Saturday I was able to do over 100 lunges, but that was all. I only did 10 minutes of cardio, which was a disappointment.

Sunday, I decided to give my body a rest. My ass, legs, and back hurt something fierce and after looking at the calendar, I realized I had worked out 9 days straight. Woah, what? Eeek. It was break time so I sat back and watched TV at the rain fell down.

Monday, after waking feeling refreshed and less sore, I decided to attack those the challenge head on. By 8:30am I had done all 250 lunges. Woohoo! It's the first time during the week that I could complete the entire required amount. On top of that I did 100 crunches. No cardio, but that's ok.

No new healthy foods this weekend. Eh, what can I say? I screwed up. But I went shopping yesterday and I fully prepared for the next three days. Tonight I am going to try some radicchio. I am not even sure what it is or how to cook it. yet, I bought some and I gonna try it out. I also bought some swiss chard. Again, not sure how to cook them, probably like all the other greens. But since this life is an adventure, I figure just by it and work it out later. No point in being afraid of food. If I don't like it, I don't have to buy it again.Surprisingly, I've almost run out of new foods to try. I never realized how many options I've already eaten. I found it difficult to grab new things while shopping. Made me proud and sad at the same time. Obviously, I have an adventurous spirit, but that also means that I am nearing the end of my food rope. Isn't there anything else out there?

I have a dr.'s appt. today. Hopefully he will either find out what is wrong with my hip, or he will send me to a specialist who can. Let's hope. I need to start running again really soon. There are a bunch of races adn 3 triathlons I am signed up for this year. If I can't run, I can't do them.

Here's to hoping for the best.

Question - How are you planning on moving forward with your health this week?

-Irene aka FitHungryGurl

Yesterday's challenge results kind of sucked.

Let's see...I was able to do only 118 lunges. They are a lot harder than I remember; in addition, my daughter just insisted on sitting underneath me like the root of a tree which made the lunges absolutely impossible to do. My new food of the day was Quinoa. I made an asian inspired dinner last night so I paired it with broiled fish and szechuan green beans. It was light and pretty darn good. Because I cooked the quinoa in chicken broth and lemon juice, it had a lot of flavor. This meal has about 400 calories.

On the other side, I was able to do my 100 crunches, but only 10 minutes of cardio. By the time the evening came my entire body hurt, but in a good way. Today I will try to do better.

It's the weekend so here goes the challenge of eating right on Saturday and Sunday again. I am gonna rock this weekend by making the right choices. Weekends will not beat me damn it!

Question: How are you gonna rock the weekend?

-Irene aka FitHungryGurl

This morning I am feeling strong, confident, and full of energy! Oh, this is what being healthy feels like? Ah, well thank you sir, may I have another.

And now for the true test of my hard work. This morning Mr. Tanita said I weigh 195.6 pounds. That means I've lost 1.4 pounds this week. I am quiet pleased with that. This means I only have 10.6 pounds to lose to get to 185 pounds by my birthday which is in 8 weeks. I can easily lose 1.325 pounds per week over the next few weeks.

In addition, I've changed my weight goal to a more immediate one. Besides being 185 by March 11, I am really concentrating on milestones. The larger one is getting to a healthy BMI which means I need to weigh 174 pounds. I'm hoping to get there by Memorial Day.But let's get to March first.

This past week was insane challenge-wise. Again, I must reiterate that I did 1,750 crunches in 7 days. THAT'S CRAZY! But that's the meaning of a challenge - pushing yourself to ridiculous limits. And I love love love it!

Lunges and Crunches and Cardio,
 oh my! I started my own challenge and I am going to kick its ass. This coming week is going to be another go get 'em one for me. I am working hard to whittle down my middle. Daily requirements: Crnches = 100, Lunges = 250, Cardio = 30 minutes. Anything on top of that is a bonus. I think I might actualy go to the gym on Monday or Wednesday to take the cardio kickboxing class. I haven't been to the gym in months.

For food, its all about healthy ingredients I've never had before, so I'm gonna try some bulgar, quinoa and/or barley. Maybe I'll throw in some dried prunes and swiss chard in for good measure.

It's going to be an exciting week!

Question: How are you kicking things up this week?

-Irene aka FitHungryGurl

Good morning!

Since Seth is not able to create a challenge for this week, I decided to create one. If you would like to join in, please feel free to let me know.

The last challenge was two-fold - part exercise, part food - so in keeping with that tradition we're doing that again.

This week's exercise concentration is on the lower body - we will be doing lunges. Below is a good video displaying a variety of the basic lunges you can do. The goal for each day is 250 (125 per leg). They can be any of the lunges shown in the video, or even some more advanced ones (with weights) if you want. It doesn't matter as long as you feel the burn at the end.



The food portion of this challenge will be an adventure. Every day, for the next 7 days, we will try a new healthy ingredient. It can be anything from tofu, to beets, to flax. The point of this is to increase the amount of healthy go to products.

See. Not so complicated, but not too easy.

I will post a brief blog post every day for those who want to check in. So, who's with me?