Weigh-In: Week 9

Current Weigh: 230lbs

Weekly Loss: +3lbs    Total Loss: -11lbs

            Too much of this...          Not enough of this!!!!

It's no surprise to me that I had quite of a gain this week.  

Last week I was surprised I lost and thought I would gain, 

it just took a little while to catch up to me!

I've been off-track the past week and a half.  It started with a very busy weekend of volunteering and celebrating my hubby's birthday.  Then it continued with a busy week and the first really beautiful, long weekend of the season.  I made poor food choices and had way more alcoholic beverages (which led to more bad food choices) than I have in a while!  

I didn't drink nearly enough water, and I also skipped many meals while being busy.

I had a ravenous 2 days of PMS where I ate everything in sight.

AND THAT'S OKAY!!!!

I did make an effort to exercise at least 30 minutes each day, more when I had the time.

And today is my day to get back on track!  Here's my motivator...

It's time for the bikini pics- hahaha!

So far, I've lost almost 2 inches off of my waist, another 2 from my hips, and an inch from each upper arm and thigh.  My under-boob has smoothed out, and so has my tummy!  

And my ankle creases are going away little by little!

I've had a mental change in goals.  I'm not hyper focused on the numbers.  Yes, my weight needs to go down.  Yes, I want to lose inches.  That's not going to happen quickly.  

My goal is to make the best choices that I can!

New Rules: 

-All days off will begin with a walk first thing in the morning.

-I will drink as much water as I possibly can each day

-I will not skip meals

-I will try to limit myself to one alcoholic beverage a week

Weigh-In: Week 8

Current Weigh: 227lbs

Weekly Loss: -2lbs    Total Loss: -14lbs

 Happy to be down this week!

Had an okay week, didn't eat as well as I could have, didn't exercise as much as I should have, but that's life!

Both tops in the pictures haven't fit me in a long, long, long time, so I was really excited to be able to wear them again!

I had a rough, busy weekend, made bad food choices and had zero time for exercise.

This week is a busy week for me, so I'm going to try my best, but I'm not going to be hard on myself if I end up having an off week and possibly a gain.

I'm going to do what I can, focus on drinking lots of water and eating as best as I can.

Allergies are kicking my butt.

This is reality.

I've eaten 2.5 bagels since Friday.

I ate way too much pizza Saturday night.

I'm a human, just like you!

And I'm still happy :)

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Weigh-In: Week 7

Current Weight: 229lbs

Weekly Loss:  -1lbs     Total Loss:  -12lbs

 

Getting there!  Little by little...

This week, I've realized just how hard I've been working and I'm even more confident that I won't sabotage myself. 

I had a great week followed by an okay weekend.  The week was awesome, workout a lot, ate GREAT, felt AMAZING!!!  Friday, I went for a 6.3 mile walk to the beach and back.  It was longer than I'm used to at this point, I usually do around 4 miles.  I felt great, I even jogged some on the return trip!

The next day, I went to yoga in the morning and it was a great class!  Very challenging, and I was able to do most of it!  Woohoo!  I was so pumped that I decided to go for a walk that afternoon, too.  BAD IDEA!!!  As soon as I got to the end of the block, my legs reminded me just how tired they still were from the walk the day before.  

I still walked a mile, very slowly, and came home with very tired legs.

My left leg already has issues from tearing my ACL and meniscus years ago, and it turns in, even more so when it's tired.  So that was frustrating.

We went out Saturday night, and I'm very proud of myself for still making good choices despite my cranky mood.

I had one beer, then a local organic iced tea with minimal sweetening.  We went to the diner, and I ordered a chicken gyro wrap with no rice or fries, but veggies on the side.  Not the healthiest, but very delicious and not as horrible as I could have been!

All in all, a good week!  Let's keep it going!!

How was your week?

Fitness Technology

Many of us, myself included, get so involved with using fitness technology.  There are so many new, fancy, fun options out there, but what do they really tell us?  Will they really improve our fitness?

My goal is to feel like this at the end of every workout!!!!

Here are my own thoughts on the topic.  One main idea: If you workout and you don't track it/use technology, IT STILL COUNTS!!!!!  I've found myself getting frustrated if my GPS stopped working mid walk, or if I forgot to turn something on, but guess what?  My body still knows it happened, so who cares about the technology!  You don't need to track it to do it and see the results!!!  I just figured out that my miles being logged via GPS were not the actual miles I've been walking, and have since fixed that problem, but took a slight mental beating.  Im over it now!  That being said...

Fitness technology use depends on the kind of person you are and what your goals are.  I know that, for me, keeping a diary of my food really holds me accountable.  There's no use in lying to yourself, so even on a bad day, writing it out makes it reality and gives me an incentive to improve the next day.  

I choose to use MyFitnessPal to track my calories and exercise.  I like the website and the app, it works for me, and it also allows me to connect with friends using the app and provide/receive encouragement and support.  I also like using it to keep track of my weight and measurements, and seeing the graphs of my progress keep me going!  I also find it gives a great calorie estimate for cardio workouts.

As far as exercising, I had been debating a few things for a while.  I use Endomondo to track my distance and times of walking, jogging, kayaking, etc.  After a workout, it gives you a plethora of information- distance, average speed, best speed, lap times, altitude changes, etc.  It estimates calories, too, but I've found that it grossly over-exagerates just how many calories you are really burning.  

 

Endomondo on the left, Polar FT4 on the right, same workout, 333 calorie difference!!!

Get with it, endomondo!

I was going back and forth about getting a FitBit.  I know a lot of people who have them, and I really liked the social aspect of being able to "compete" with your friends to achieve the most steps.  I think that this would really benefit someone who wanted to increase their daily activity.  For me, that's something I already do, and wanted something more specific to use with my "exercise" activities.

I ended up going with the Polar FT4 heart rate monitor.  I LOVE IT!!!!  It gives you a real-time look at just how much you are working yourself, and beeps whenever you are outside of the optimal heart rate zone for activity.  This has made me push myself a lot more during my walks.  I wasn't really getting the most out of them before I got the FT4.  It made me really concentrate on keeping my pace up and moving my arms to keep my heart rate where it should be.  

Do you use fitness technology?  Why?  Why not?  If so, what gadgets do you find most/least helpful? Post in the comments below!

Weigh-In: Week 6

Current Weight: 230lbs

Weekly Loss:  0lbs     Total Loss:  -11lbs

I'm completely, 100% fine with the fact that I didn't lose any pounds this week.  I didn't gain any, either!

I did lose some inches!  I only started measuring myself 2 weeks ago, something I really wish I had started in the very beginning, but better late than never!  

In the past 2 weeks, here are my inch changes!

Neck:  -.5"      Waist:  -1"      Hips:  0"      Arms:  -1"      Thighs:  -.5"      Calves:  0"

And my face!  

Here's a side-by-side from March to April!

I looked so swollen and puffy!!!  I feel so much better after these 6 weeks!

Sometimes, we get too caught up in the numbers to realize that they aren't the end-all-be-all of this journey.  I'll be posting more about this later in the week.

I also hit my fastest 5K time ever!  43:10!  Not a great time in general, but a great time for me, so WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April ended with me losing 11lbs, logging 50 miles, and feeling great!

Here are my goals for May:

So, what are your goals this month?  

Post them below, make them reasonable, 

and let's do this together!!!!