OK, so I have been a monument to inefficiency and laziness for the past week. It has been Spring Break, and in the grand tradition of people everywhere, I sat on my butt the whole week and did nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Squat.

Well, I take that back. I went all through Guitar Hero II and III and got five-star ratings on every song (on easy and medium; a rock goddess I am most certainly NOT). And I watched such wonderfully mind-expanding movies as Clue and Ratatouille. And I was not entirely sedentary. I did have my hand weights and exercise ball at home, so I did actually work out at least once a day each day, lifting arms, doing squats and lunges, and doing crunches (after I would play a song on Guitar Hero, I required myself to do a set of something before I could return to the game). And I did manage to behave myself on the eating, for the most part (darned Cadbury eggs). So I did not end Spring Break on a horrible weight gain.

However, neither did I end the week on a significant loss. (Nor did I grade any of the papers I should have graded over the week.) I have successfully established that minor physical activity coupled with somewhat moderate eating is not enough for me to drop poundage. *insert shocked look here*

So, I'm trying something new for the next few weeks, hopefully for the entire month of April if it looks like it might have some success.

First of all, since I've done poorly over the months dragging my butt out of bed at 4:00 a.m. to make the long drive to the gym, I'm going to try sleeping in a whole half hour (4:30 instead of 4:00) and running through the neighborhood for at least 30 minutes each morning, then coming home to do crunches on my exercise ball before showering and heading to work. I'm hoping that the extra half hour, coupled with less frantic ablutions after my workout (usually I have to pack up all my toiletries and several outfits to take with me before I leave for the gym, as well as cram breakfast down my throat), might make my morning ritual more of a, well, actual ritual as opposed to something I do once or twice each week.

Now, I started small this morning. Very small. I am not much of a runner under the best and fittest of circumstances (I'd pretty much rather have smoldering bamboo slivers shoved under my nails), and I haven't kept my cardio up very well recently. I walked for five minutes to warm up, then ran for a minute. I repeated that until my 30 minutes were up. My goal is to gradually increase the length of time I can stand to run (those one-minute intervals seemed very long to me!) while decreasing the time I walk in between, until I can run for a full half hour without stopping. Then I can increase the time I run from them (which may mean I will need to start getting up earlier again).

This also may be helpful to me in the long run (ha ha, see what I did there?) when it comes to weight loss. Running is a much more high-impact sport than most of the other cardio I've done, and it seems that the higher impact cardio is more efficient for weight loss.

I will still go to the gym in the afternoons after school, for weightlifting and more cardio. I think weights will also help: more muscle mass=more stuff to burn calories with.

The next thing I'm trying, along with the whole running thing, is food-related. Dinner seems to be the meal of the day that has the biggest impact on my weight. Meals such as burritos and pizza are absolutely devastating to my weight, but it seems to affect my weight more when I eat those things for dinner instead of lunch. I've seen as much as a three-pound swing in my weight due to those foods eaten at dinnertime. Obviously moderation in my portions is a big part of successful weight loss, but along with my attempts at that, I am going to stop eating meals after 5:00 p.m. for a few weeks. In the afternoons I will instead start eating something small (or perhaps drinking a Slim Fast shake) as I leave work (which can be anywhere from 3:45-4:45) to give the energy to survive a gym workout. Then when I get home I will maybe have a small yogurt or a cheese stick, something small and <100 calories. I'm hoping that will be enough to keep my metabolism up in the evenings without my wanting to gnaw on my ankles from hunger.

Now, I know that not eating in the evenings is going to make me hungry. I will need some help on the willpower front. As far as the rest of the day is concerned, I will try to eat a breakfast that is filling enough to keep me going until lunch at 10:45 (I know, what kind of crazy school makes the kids eat lunch so early?). I've bought a nice big box of Shredded Wheat. If I find myself getting hungry earlier, I can bring carrots and dip like I did today (I got a really cool snack container that looks like a thermos but has a small ice pack in it instead and keeps veggies and dip cold)--I ate about a cup of carrot sticks with a little ranch dressing at around 9:15 this morning, and that kept me going. I'll try to stick to sandwiches and salads for lunch, and then bring some fruit or yogurt for a mid-afternoon snack. Then whatever I eat when I leave work, and my evening snack...I really hope this works!

So, here we go with the renewed (again) attempt at weight loss. My goal is 10 lbs in the next eight weeks (that will take me to the end of the school year). I would love to lose more than that, but hopefully 10 will be completely reasonable and will make me happily surprised when I drop more than that. I've got a long way to go, though, to get to my target weight of 150 lbs. Maybe be the end of next school year...