Beach brain, beached whale.

10 days on the beach
+ extremely limited physical activity
+ drinking EVERY day
+ hamburgers or hot dogs almost every day
+ or pasta with at least a stick of butter in it (not exaggerating)
+ endless platters of processed Italian meats and cheeses
= 3.5 pound gain.

That's okay. I mean, it's not really, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I had a great time on my vacation and enjoyed myself with my friends and family. I feel refreshed and sunkissed. And yes, a little bit heftier, but that's okay. I think it's the double edged sword, when people I haven't seen since pre-FF see me and tell me how good I look, I hear that as "yes!
yes you CAN have another s'more/margarita/bag of chips and onion dip." The weirdest was probably my cousin, who kept saying "I'm so happy for you, I am really so happy for you" in a sympathetic way as though I'd just battled a life threatening illness. Hmm.

Anyway, my physical activity for the week was limited with the exception of in Irish Jig at the bar, dance party to 1996 Jock Jams, several long walks on the beach, swimming in the ocean with the fear of God (thanks, Shark Week), and an intense day of competitive beach games including three legged races around the slalom, digging like crazy (before we got yelled at by the douchebags on the beach), frisbee toss, capture the flag/die in the gauntlet, and of course, sand Pictionary.

I'm going to have to start blogging my meals again to stay on track, because last night I literally ate half a pizza.

The Exercise Myth / Self Control As Muscle

Yes, the point of doing 3 posts in an afternoon is so that Katy can come back from vacation and think I've been blogging while she's been eating. Don't tell her I've actually just been eating this whole time. 

TIME had an article in the past week or two that was interesting but ultimately misleading. It posits that you end up gaining weight when you work out not because muscle weighs more than fat, but because of the "compensation effect." This means that you work out super hard, but then spend the rest of the day eating, and are probably less active for the rest of the day. Essentially, you end up with more calories in than calories out, despite a big burn of calories at one point in the day. 

What the article doesn't suggest is that people just watch out for the compensation effect. It basically says that after you go to the gym, you will get a muffin that has more calories than you just burned as a reward. Hey TIME, maybe people should work out and then not get a muffin, huh? I feel like Weight Watchers should be paying us at this point, but Weight Watchers really helps with this. 

I have seen several studies before comparing diet v. exercise v. diet & exercise. They basically end up saying that people who just exercise lose almost no weight. They also say, however, that people who only diet don't improve their body composition either--skinny fat. So...you need to do both. In my own experience - I drop pounds when I diet, even with zero exercise. I feel good after excising. And I look and feel good after doing both. 

What I found super interesting in the article though was a little tidbit about a study on self control. Researchers have found that it essentially works like a muscle - it gets tired and worn out. So if you are really controlled for several days in a row, it may be damn near impossible to keep it up by the weekend. Self control fascinates me because there are absolutely times when I want to be in shape so badly it hurts, and know that what that takes, and yet still find myself gorging on an entire fast food restaurant before breaking into houses in search of guacamole. This idea kinda lets you off the hook in terms of personal responsibility, which I don't like, but it does make a pretty good case for at least using your bonus points. 

Also, it makes me feel better about the past 3 months. I have nothing to be ashamed of...I just sprained my self control. You know...I just worked it too hard. I'm hardcore.

Oh P90X, how I've missed you.

I have yet to find P90X since my move, despite making a complete mess of my room looking for it. Former Fattie Bill Lynch (40 lbs down) was nice enough to burn me the Plyometrics DVD, and has offered to burn the rest. I am definitely going to take him up on it. A few thoughts:

• There really is something to be said for a consistency. I blogged on and on about how I was going to work so hard to bridge the transition from being a producer living in Astoria to being a student living at home in Hempstead, but I totally failed. Doing P90X took me back to the mindset I was in when I was dropping pounds by the hour. Perhaps the bigger problem for me was not that I transitioned locations or lifestyles, it was that I also tried to switch my workout up despite having figured out what worked for me. I have too little of an attention span and give up to easily to set myself loose in the gym. And its too easy not to go. With P90X, I press play, and I just do what Tony says for an hour. No wandering. No deciding after 2 sets that I'm done.
• I actually did better than I was expecting. I'm not saying it was easy, but I got through it. And I definitely wanted to die less than the first time I did it. 
• It's kinda fun?
• Triathlon in 2 weeks. From now until then, I'm going to swim, bike, or run every day, except maybe next Sunday I'll do Plyometrics again. After the triathlon, I'm going to do a full 3 month cycle of P90X. 

Well that's one way to do it.

TJ Rowe has lost 5 pounds since Wednesday. He had his tonsils out and his whole throat has been so swollen he's basically only been ingesting smoothies and muscle milk.  I'm thinking of just eating what he's eating. 

Actually now that I think about it, TJ has always scared any doctor that asked him to say "ah" by revealing the world's largest tonsils. They had to weigh 2 pounds each. So 1 pound since Wednesday is nothing you can't do on Weight Watchers, but you get to eat more. It's time to consider having any unnecessary body parts removed. Starting with my gut. 

Katy is Amazing.

Oh. Hey blog.

Before we get to where I've been, CONGRATS KATY! When I proposed the "lets get fit again" resurgence, the idea was to finally hit our goals. Leave it to The Champion to make that happen as soon as she decided she wanted to.

I'm glad you posted the screen shots, because I'm now motivated just by the drive to have those stars pop up.

Now, where have I been? Since within a day or two of me disappearing from the blog, I posted a giant entry listing how bad for me all of my favorite fast food items were, you probably could have figured out where to find me if you looked hard enough.

So, to answer Katy's question, I have been at:

• Burger King...twice
• Taco Bell
• Pizza Hut
• Roy Rogers
• A bar in Baltimore that taught me everything a nacho could be (which is a fried crunchy spoon for cheese, sour cream, beans, peppers, guac, beef and self-loathing.) And then...a few hours later...another bar in Baltimore where I was able to use said knowledge and order...a giant serving of nachos.
• Some restaurant outside of DC that served the GREATEST chicken fingers I have ever had in my entire life. They couldn't have been good for you but I don't feel bad about this decision at all.
• Oh and tonight...after I'd gotten all psyched to post about how good I was today...McDonald's. I'm not even addicted to McDonalds!

Pathetic. Oh well. I'm kinda beyond making excuses and beating myself up, but I'm glad I wrote that all down, because THAT is really how you get fat again in no time at all. Oh and I gained 2 pounds.

Sweet!

Katy seems to have proven that when you try/blog you can achieve all of your dreams. I hate it when she's right.

Again, so proud of you girl.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

!!!!!!!!

Interesting methods.

So, I wouldn't necessarily condone the way I've been eating the past few days, but it'll be pretty interesting to see how it affects my weigh in tomorrow. Basically, Thursday, Friday and Saturday I ate pretty much nothing all day (usually a result of being insanely busy at work), until about 4/5pm where I'd get my first substantial meal in, and/or binge drink.

Thursday:
11am-1pm - A couple handfuls of dry cereal, because I had no time to even find milk in my office.
5pm - lunch (I guess early dinner), wrap from Toasties- grilled chicken with assorted veggies and honey mustard in a whole wheat wrap.
6-10pm - work happy hour, including about 5 drinks and some of a quesadilla, chicken finger, etc.

Friday:
11am - grapes and blueberries at my edit session.
3pm - sushi on the train to CT. 3 pieces of avocado cucumber roll, 3 pieces of shitake mushroom roll, and 3 pieces of sweet potato/asparagus roll. Too much wasabi.
8pm - dinner with Alex's family. I had broiled tilapia with lemon, roasted salt potatoes, and steamed veggies. Oh, and bread and butter.
10pm - fat free, sugar free vanilla-raspberry swirl ice cream cone.

Saturday:
1pm - attempted to eat a grilled chicken sandwich. Disgusting. Ate half the bread with tomato, ketchup and hot sauce.
5pm - housewarming party at Kir's, including a vat of guac that I made, 3 or 4 glasses of homemade sangria, 2 slices of pizza, and other assorted chips and snacks.

Sunday:
11am - Dunkin Donuts egg white veggie flatbread, 3 of Alex's hash browns, caramel iced coffee.
12pm - Half a slice of cold leftover pizza (my fav)
4pm - Honey mustard grilled chicken snack wrap, a couple fries, and a bit of Alex's Big Mac (my first!)
9pm - Dinner at a Greek place in Alex's new hood (!!!): moussaka (OMG! such great Greek comfort food), with a side of Greek Salad, and some pita with what I think was hummus.

So yes, we moved Alex this weekend. After a year and a half, we are no longer in a long distance relationship! He lives about 2 miles away from me now :) This makes me beyond happy, and also on the diet end of things, hopefully means less indulgent weekends "because we never get to spend time together." I sweat like a wildabeast moving him in yesterday. I consider my indulgent dinner a wash with all the physical activity we got in this weekend.

SERIOUSLY BOBBY, where are you?