Sunday, November 19, 2006

I'm back!

I finally made it home to my parent's house and my parent's scale. *horror screams echo in the background* After completing a Biggest Loser workout, I made my way to my bathroom scale. I was hesitant to hop on, but a promise had been made. I climbed on and was pleasantly surprised to find the dial landing at 185lbs. That's down 2 lbs from my last personal weigh in out and 3lbs from the trainer lady's weigh in. I am thrilled! At 1st my conscience didn't believe me b/c I originally came up with 2 different #s. I tried weighing myself with the scale placed on the bathroom carpet, which gave me a significantly higher number. Closer, if not into, the 190s. However I moved it to the tile floor, which is where I got the 185 reading. Now you know that I'm paranoid, so I got on and off several times to verify that the number didn't change. Upon hearing the skepticism in my conscience's voice, I proceeded to a different scale in my parent's bathroom the following morning. To my delight it too read 185! So I feel as though this should be some sort of a milestone, as we're down 15lbs from when I 1st began August 1st.

I think that its time for another challenge. I am setting yet another 10lb weight loss challenge for myself. I am going to lose 10 more pounds by 12/31. Do you know what that means? I will be at my goal weight of 175lbs! Down 25lbs in 5 months. YAY!!!!! Now I know that you're saying, "Hey, you weren't even successful in your last 10 lb challenge." I hear ya, and I have a couple of responses. I am learning more about myself and how to exercise, so I think that some of my workouts are more effective/impactful than in the past. Plus, any loss is a success. Although I really believe that I'll be able to complete my 10 lbs in the next 5 weeks, any weight loss is something to sing about.

So before I head off for the Thanksgiving holiday, I have to address the death trap that is holiday food. My family is NOTORIOUS for having what I like to call 'the good stuff' around this time of the year. Egg nog, cookies, nuts, candy, pie, plus that delicious Thanksgiving day meal. However, I do have a plan for getting out alive. Over the next several days leading up to the holiday, I am going to do my very best to maintain my same diet. We do have healthy foods in the house, so I just have to be responsible enough to choose them. As for the holiday favorites, I think that I can successfully skip out on cookies and pies. Egg nog will be limited to 1 small glass a day, and even that will be substituted for tea where possible. The dinner itself...it is what it is. I think I'm ok with an indulgence for Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, I am going to focus on portion control and eating slowly. My goal is to enjoy the meal, but not to stuff myself. Plus plus plus, I plan to keep up my exercising throughout the week. Overall I think I'll come out a winner ;-)

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

What's happened since I last blogged? Lots of fun exercise :-)

I've had 2 more personal training sessions, completed my Biggest Loser workout video twice, and strength trained and jogged on my own. Yay for me! I can afford to do a bit better on the diet. I've done much better about sticking to my eating schedule, however, multiple team events last week left me with a few unhealthy dinners and lots of wine. As a result, I am opting out of a few of the events this week and choosing to use that time for exercise and rest instead.

Lets talk about perceptions, though. I think that I mentioned before that I never really saw myself as a fat person before. Yes, I thought of myself as 'thick', and yes I've noticed one or two bad photos. However for the most part I was really pleased with my appearance. Well I guess not completely pleased (otherwise, I would never have decided to make this change), but pleased for the most part. However, just the other day I spent time uploading pictures onto my Myspace page. As I went from one pic to the next I saw a genuinely fat person. A really pretty fat person, but there was no denying the weight in my face and body as I looked at the pics. It really made me wonder...when the hell did that happen. I mean its like I never really saw myself before. It again made me wonder if this is the ME that everyone else has been seeing all this time. A pretty but chunky girl, rather than the hot mama that I see. I guess that it just kinda strengthened my resolve to keep working at this. I want the ME in my mind's eye to match the ME on my camera. It also made me focus in on the fact that this really does have to be a complete life change. If I don't make exercise and healthy eating a regular habit from here on out, then its only a matter of time b4 the weight creeps back in. There is nothing worse that an wack chick who thinks that she's fine. I CANNOT be that girl.

I'm heading to my parent's home this weekend where I will again hop on the scale. Giving the exercise successes and the food failures, I'm kinda just expecting to break even. However a weigh in prior to Thanksgiving has got to be much better than a weigh in afterwards. I'm taking the Biggest Loser tape with me though, and I'll give you the results this weekend.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Soooooooooooo it's been more than a minute.

I'm sorry to say, that I really don't have much 'good' to report. I fell off the wagon for sure. In the last week I only exercised twice, and I did not stick to my diet. Here, let me tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:
- I bought a work out tape. Its a 90 min long DVD made by the people at NBC's The Biggest Loser. It has a warm up, a cool down, a beginners, and an advanced work out. Plus it only cost about $12. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks really good for those rainy days where you don't want to go out of the house.

- I took 2 exercise classes. Step Aerobics (60 mions) and Salsa Moves (60 mins). What's good about the classes it that they were an hour each. Since I typically work out for 30 mins at a time, then I kinda doubled up on those days. The Step class was definitely more high impact. However, since I had the instructor from hell (read: somebody needs to give this chick the definition of the word instruct as well as its synonym teach) I spent most of the class trying to figure out what the hell was going on and catch up. I like the Salsa Moves class much better b/c I knew what I was doing, but it was much more low impact that Step. Both classes did a good job of getting my heart rate up as well as working my legs, but maybe not such a good job at burning fat.

- I had my 1st personal training session. Trainer lady gave me a pedometer to measure my steps as well as some nutrition information. She also confirmed that my weightloss plan is right on target. I'm eating several meals a day. I'm eating a balance diet, which is low in fat and calories. I'm aiming to work out 6 days a week, but at least most days of the week. I'm doing both strength training and cardio. All of this is exactly what she wants me to be doing.

The Bad:
- Since I only attended the two 'average' exercise classes last week, then I didn't really get the amount of calorie burn or muscle exercise that I prefer. Something is better than nothing, but I can do much better.

- I slid right off the diet. This is my biggest detriment for the week. It started with indulging in Mexican and Chinese food the previous weekend, and went downhill from there. The biggest dissapointment that I have is that I allowed myself to snack at the office, and I didn't adhere to my outline of Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner w/2 snacks (100 calories or less) in between. Choosing healthy meals is doable when I'm in most settings (read: home or a restaurant w/a variety of healthy options as opposed to a pizza parlor). However, the snacks are the calories that slip through the cracks, but add up on you later.

- My 1st training session was really more of a health consultation than personal training. Trainer lady weighed me, took my measurements, gathered some info, and gave me some info. I felt a bit jipped. I mean its just 5 personal training session, and we didn't even exercise on one of them. Bastards!

The Ugly:
- So during my personal training session Trainer lady took my weight as well as a bunch of other measurements and came up with my % body fat. I weighed in at 188, which is one pound over my last weigh in. I'm not sure if it's b/c of my habits this last week, or simply b/c we used a different scale. Either way, that isn't what really concerned me. I was much more disturbed by the % body fat that she came up with. 32% Yowser!!!!!!!

According to About.com as well as Nutribase.com a normal % is 22 - 25%. Above average is about 25 - 29%, and above that is over weight. Now just how overweight is where the two sites differ. About.com says above 32% is the danger zone, whereas Nutribase.com says that above 35% is the danger zone.

Now I should not be surprised by this. I mean I started off with a goal weight of 175lbs as that was the max weight that my doctor recommended that I be at for my age/height. Given that I am 10 - 15lbs over that, I am clearly 'overweight'. However, it is just surprising to hear that 1/3 of your weight is fat.

Trainer lady said that losing 2% would be about 8 lbs, and therefore losing 3% would be about 12 lbs. That would bring me to my max weight of 175 lbs as well as 29%, the max in the above average range.

Its good to know that I'm on the right track with my goals and methods. I just need to make sure that my motivation and delivery stay in line with that. I'm not discouraged right now, just very very eager to get back on the wagon. The good thing about losing weight is that you can always start again, and luckily...I'm pretty much starting where I left off. I'll push through this week, and let you know how things go!