Slowly But Surely Is The Way Of It

This week I did better than last (minus that one day of Carl's Jr... it was spur of the moment and I told myself it wouldn't hurt! But it did... within a half hr of eating it, my fingers were all puffy from the sodium and i felt rotten.)

I have finally been able to see some progress again. The past few weeks the scale has told me I was losing weight, but I haven't SEEN it quite as well as this week. I bought a tape measure yesterday so I can finally track my weight loss in inches too (where it really matters!) And yes I am going to bare all and post my numbers for y'all. So here we go:

Last week I came in at 147.0 lbs. Today, I am 145.6! That is a 1.4 pound loss! I am back on track! 

Now for those measurements:

(Taken on the right side of the body, when applicable.)

Arms: 12"

Waist: 31"

Hips: 37.5"

Thighs: 23"

Calves: 15"

So there we go. I wish I would have done that in the beginning. Would have been awesome to see how many inches I have lost! But better now than ever.

That being done, tomorrow is my first 5k race!! This past week I already broke my 30 minute time goal. My new best time right now is 28:55. My run yesterday was one more speed interval workout. Today I am resting for the race tomorrow. Want my legs to be fresh! Crazy how a month ago, I couldn't break a 34 minute 5k cause of my asthma, now here I am, getting a minute faster every week! My new goal for tomorrow is to break that 28:55 obviously, but I secretly wonder if/hope that I will break 28 minutes. I might write another little blog post tomorrow, all about the race.

I am nervous that I won't meet my goal of 135 by christmas eve. Because of that I'm going to add in an extra run workout now every week. I have my 4 days of 5k training, but I'm going to try and make Thursdays (day before my weigh ins) my long run days where the goal will be 5 or 6 miles. I gotta burn more calories to lose more weight, so there we go.

In a few weeks, my husband Daniel and I might be doing this juicing "reboot" thing we heard about. There are many different plans you can do, but we wanna do the 15 day one. Basically the first 5 days you get to eat all vegitarian meals and homemade juices. Its a free plan, comes with recipes, shopping list and menu. After that 5 days, for the last 10, you just drink juices. There are a lot of health benefits to it. You detox your body, clearer skin, more energy, you can heal yourself of chronic diseases, sleep better, and obviously there will be weight loss. I'm already losing weight, so I'm doing it more for the other benefits but also, maybe it will give me the extra kick I need to meet my goal.

I am thrilled to look back and see how far I've come. I have lost 27 pounds so far, in 82 days! All your life is lived in the present. I had to stop saying "I'll start on Monday." Or "after this holiday." And start saying "NOW." You only have today. No more excuses. Everyday is a fresh start.
I think one reason people resist change in diet is they are focusing on what they will lose rather than what they will gain. Sure, I kinda missed my huge portions smothered in rich, luxurious sauces. I missed being carefree about how many calories everything was. Ignorance is bliss. But I don't miss that stuff anymore. My habits have changed. My taste buds have changed. My portion sizes have changed. And it is GOOD change. As a result of those changes, other changes happened. My waistline is smaller. I fit into clothes I never thought I would!
I gave up several times in the past and said "oh well, I'm just gonna be the fat girl my whole life. I just need to learn to love my fat body." You know... the only way you fail is if you give up. So keep fighting! Keep going! You messed up this week? Me too! Brush yourself off and try try again! We really CAN do this. For so long I kinda resigned myself to believing that to be skinny, you needed the right genes. Or it was just "luck". But it simply isn't true! Here I am... I've been chubby since 5th grade... and I'm turning into one of the skinny girls! It really is possible, I'm serious! Don't believe the lies you hear and tell yourself! It IS possible, do-able, reachable... it takes work, but boy will you reap benefits from that work! Let's kick this week's butt!

Progress pic! (Same shorts in both pics! And i was sucking it in MAJORLY in the before pic)

Here's a screenshot of my new Personal Record! (PR) :

 

And here are some pics that motivated me throughout the week:

Check out this girl's killer transformation I found!:

Metamorphosis in progress

Well I am less than thrilled with today's weigh in, but I'm not surprised. I had several cheat days last weekend and was over my calorie goal most days this week. I don't know why but it has been hard to stay on track this week. That old overeating monster is rearing its big ugly face again.
Last week's weight: 147.8
Today's: 147.0

Lost .8 pounds... not the kind of numbers I need to see in order to hit my goal. It really sucks. But I'm lucky I lost weight at all! I gotta keep my head up and look how far I've come! 25 pounds lost in 76 days! So with that, time to dust myself off, learn from my mistakes and press on. I have a big party to go to soon and I vow to stay on goal today.

Thoughts of the week:

Its all about thrift stores for me right now! I'm on my way, and some of my smaller clothes are too big now. I got like 8 new tshirts and a couple new pairs of shorts at the gooodwill store, all for like 30 bucks. That's wassup!! No way am I gonna pay for new clothes that I will probably only be able to wear for a month. I'm gonna ask for giftcards this christmas and for my birthday so that when I DO get down to my goal weight, I will treat myself to some new tiny clothes!
I will be packing up my "fat clothes" soon and storing them for next time I'm pregnant.

My bones are a lot more prominent lately. Which makes sense, but it never occured to me that that would happen. I feel bad for Hailie, she layes her head on my shoulders and I can feel my bones digging into her face! My wrists and hands are more bony, feet, knees... and I can see a lot more definition in my legs lately. Its like "Whoa, I have some muscles under there!!"
Pretty cool.

This past week I have really been doing better at strength training. I'm behind schedule for beating my sister Bella at pushups, but slow progress is still progress! I can do 3 now :D

I've started lifting weights a few times a week. I loooove feeling sore! Then I know I did a good job working out! I really wanna bulk up my upper body. I have wimpy arms. I really do. I would love some defined, "tank top" arms, so I'm going for it and getting them. Still doing lots of squats. I can do 70 now. After my challenges are over, I'm gonna focus on more weight and less reps in order to bulk up a little.

Something I wondered would happen to me is the dreaded "loose skin" that you can have after a big weight loss. I was afraid of it happening to me. The only loose skin I have is on my stomach. But the more fat I lose, the less everything sags. It really isn't very bad at all. I have stretch marks. They have faded a lot. I know I will never have a stunning, gorgeous set of 6-pack abs. I might have a 6-pack, but it will probably have loose wrinkly skin and stretch marks. But you know what? That's ok. Who cares?? They are my battle scars of pregnancy haha. Hailie is worth it all. And I would have had the stretch marks AND a big belly still if I continued to let my fear of saggy skin deter me from losing weight.

It was just another excuse. One of the many. I realized... I didn't really want to lose weight. If I really had wanted to, I would. When you really want something, you make it happen. I decided I wanted to lose weight. Where there's a will, there's a way. I figured out how much I wanted and needed to lose, figured out how much time was a reasonable amount in order to accomplish said weight loss, and commited to that goal. Weight loss takes real true commitment. When you fall down, you get back up. You stick to it like glue. Even when it sucks. And it really will. It takes real, true, hardcore commitment. And with that comes will power.

Time for a progress pic!

9/27/13, 152.4 lbs:

10/25/13, 147.0 (5.4 pounds less):

Aaaand here's a bunch Of what I

inspired me this week:

And I just though this was cute :)  

Mind Over Matter

I've been realizing more and more how weight loss is mostly a mental battle. A battle to make yourself workout. Then workout harder. Resist that second or third helping of the lasagna. Eat fruit for snacks. Eat veggies. Lean proteins. Good complex carbs. Think of food as fuel. Nourish your body instead of pleasing the palette. (Not that healthy food isn't good!)
Challenge yourself and you might see how much more you can do!
Release your strength. Stop holding yourself back. Decide to do something and just do it! Those moments when you feel like quitting are the moments that you need to push yourself harder. Raise the bar. Literally go that extra mile.

I feel back on track mentally now since a few days ago. That drive and happy excited feeling is back. I'm really doing this...! I'm over halfway to my goal!
I remember it clicking that I CAN weigh 135 lbs. I have no physical restrictions (well except asthma, but I fought through it!), no dietary restrictions like food allergies... this is my life and I'm taking control, damn it! I was choosing to weigh what I did, with every bite I took. I had been believing these lies that I couldn't do it and "its so hard to be a mom and lose weight!" Or "I guess I'm just destined to be a bigger girl!" Nope. I can be healthy. I can be fit! You know how cool it is to know that if I needed to, I could run for several miles without stopping!? (Insert zombie apocolypse reference here) Me... who just a few months ago would get winded running halfway around the block. Its a pretty cool feeling. I feel stronger. More powerful. More confident. I highly recommend it. ;)

Last week I weighed in at 149.4 lbs. And this week... come to find, I've lost a whopping 1.6 lbs! I'm 147.8 lbs! Been kicking butt! I'm surprised, there were some days where I went over my calorie goal by a couple hundred. Still though... this is so cool! These are the kind of numbers I need to be putting up in order to meet my goal on time.

Running this week has been great with my new inhaler! I feel a little nerdy using it, but hey... being able to breathe effortlessly while running is so worth it! I didn't realize how bad it was until I ran without asthma symptoms. It was amazing... it was exhilarating! I could take huge gulps of air! For once I could actually challenge my muscles! I wasn't wasting all this extra energy, heaving and using so much strenth to suck in the little air I was able to, over and over! With that, I noticed my muscles tired out faster... I was suddenly able to push myself more and didn't take it slow enough... plus i killed my hamstrings and glutes doing dumbbell deadlifts on wednesday. As a result, I wound up having to walk some parts of my runs and didn't PR right away like I'd hoped, but I have high expectations for tomorrow's run!

I also got new shoes this week! I am so excited! They are Asics again. I looove Asics. Feels like running on clouds (for me haha). And I got some really good socks. I felt absolutely zero pain in my blister zones. So that is awesome!

I'm really looking forward to the holidays! Hopefully I'll see some relatives that I haven't seen since 4th of July, right before I got serious about weight loss and I'm hoping to blow them away! They are rarely on facebook so I doubt they've seen any pics or read any of my blogs... its gonna be fun! And all the holiday pictures will be fun! I won't be cringing inside, trying to hide behind people haha.

My game plan for surviving those extra holiday calories: only allow myself to cheat on the actual holiday. (Except halloween, I won't binge on candy because I have a race two days after, and I want my body primed and fueled right!)

So Thanksgiving day: I will endulge.

Christmas eve: I will endulge in the evening because I consider this day part of Christmas. And hopefully I will have met my goal and will have some celebrating to do!

Christmas day: I will definitely endulge.

All of this won't be over once I've met my goal. I will set a new goal. Most likely it will be to get down to 125 lbs and pack on some muscle! And not to mention the fact that if I ever decide "I'm done" the weight will come back. I will obviously be able to eat more once I'm just maintaining my weight, but I can never go back to the way I used to eat. Why on earth would I want to, anyway?? I feel amazing, my self-esteem and confidence is up, everything is getting better and better!
Here's to another week of hard work paying off! Its all mind over matter!

Chuggin' along

Results are in! Last week I was 150.8 lbs and today I am 149.4!! -1.4 pounds lost! Woooohooooo I'm in the 140's!! Its been 7 years since I was here! It feels incredible! And I am surprised! 

Not sure why, but most of this week I almost felt like giving up. Been battling a lot of cravings and stuff. (See, Its not all easy and all smiles!) Like on Tuesday i seriously wanted to go get and eat an entire pepperoni pizza with the pepper flakes and parmesan. Not even kidding.

I've been trying to figure it all out. I just don't feel like counting calories and planning workouts. Its like extreme laziness or something has set in. It has become work this week. Its like its not as fun lately.
I am staying strong though. Haven't cheated at all. For some reason I felt like I wasn't gonna lose any weight this week. I think maybe because my heart wasn't in it as much? Also since I've added in some abs, pushups and squats routines I was afraid I was gonna gain a bunch of muscle, which is great, but it might not have looked good on the scale. I need to remember its NOT all about some number on a scale, but rather how I look and if I'm losing inches. Still though, I'm hoping it will all boost my metabolism enough for it not to matter, and that I'll still continue to lose more poundage.
Make no mistake about it, I'm not backing down! Just have felt a little down in the dumps the past few days.

And now I have some news: as of today I was officially diagnosed with exercise induced asthma (which I suspected for awhile now). They are pretty sure it was caused by all the secondhand cigarette smoke I'm exposed to from my mother in law. My symptoms had been getting steadily worse the past few weeks. I kept fighting through it thinking it was just cause I was pushing myself and I'm still out of shape. But, it really is asthma. Gotta go pick up an inhaler now.

Despite all of that, I had a new 5k PR this week! My new time is 31:57 haha. Yay for 15 seconds faster! But I need to shave practically 2 minutes off my time in just 3 and a half weeks if I want to meet my goal of running my 5k in 30:00 or less on November 2nd in the Run Or Dye race here in town. That's right, I'm in!! My awesome friend Hali is sponsoring me! I'm officially registered now! It is such a blessing! This will be my first official sports event I've ever participated in! I am nervous already! And I'm hoping I'll get enough race day adrenaline to get me to reaching my goal! That combined with a few puffs of Albuterol and I should be golden :D Now I just need some new running shoes. Planning to go on Monday to Fleet Feet so I'll have a couple weeks still to break them in!

Fun Fact: the Women's 5k
world record time is 14:12!!! Daaaaaang!!

I'm officially fitting into size 6 jeans now! I can't remember the last time I was this tiny! Still some chubbs to get rid of but I am closer to the finish line with every day that goes by!

Its weird to be getting skinnier. I feel so light and free and little! 3 months ago I felt trapped. Felt this heavy fat clinging to me and weighing me down. You know what I realized today?! I have lost Hailie's current weight now! Ha! That's crazy. Puts it in perspective! I was carrying that much extra weight around all the time!! But here I am. Running 5k, 4 times a week, 1300 nutrient dense calories a day and the weight is just falling off. It really is as simple as that. Takes a few minutes of simple math to figure out what your calorie numbers are and then its just science..  the weight WILL

come off! Calories in, calories out!

Here is some of what inspired me and kept me going, this past week:

Aaand here's a side by side comparison of my before and *during* ;)

A little bit about what I'm doing exactly

"In one year, what would you wish you had started, today?" "Tomorrow you will wish you would have started today." "We live our whole life in the present. We only have right now, so now is the time to start. No more procrastinating what I want for my life." -those are some of the realizations I had to come to, to start changing. I was finally ready. Before, I wanted lots of food. More than I needed. Now I want health and a fit body. This is my 3rd blog post now, I didn't realize I had so much to talk about but here we are!

Last week I out uo 152.4 on the scale. This morning I am at 150.8!!!!! Over a pound and a half lost!! Needless to say i am ecstatic!! That whole "no cheat days/meals" paid off! 

These are the kinds of numbers I need to put up in order to meet my goal. I completely expect to be in the 140's by next week and today is also another milestone... I'm officially smaller than Daniel has ever seen me! Soooo cool :)

I have found my exercise/sport that works for me. And its running. As of this week, my current 5k time is 32:12. My goal is to run it in under 30 minutes by November 2nd, which is the day of the Run Or Die 5k race at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. I haven't signed up for it yet -don't really have an extra $45 lying around (and I need new running shoes... anyone wanna sponsor me?? Haha) but even if I can't run in the race I decided I will still train to beat that 30 minute mark by that day. Currently I'm doing a speed training program. You train a min. of 4 days/week. Day one you sprint 300 meters, then walk 100 over and over for 5k. Then day 2, you just run a full 5k. Repeat day one, then repeat day 2. The next week (my current week) you sprint for 400, walk 100, next day run the full 5k and next, the sprinting again.
The sprinting intervals get longer and longer and you can go faster and faster at your 5k. So those are my current workouts but I reaaaaally need to start lifting weights. I need to work on my upper body and core strength. Gotta get me some of them 6 pack abs all the young'ins are sporting ;) (hey, I can dream!)
But really though. It would be raaaad to have a 6 pack!
I told my sister Bella that by Halloween I will beat her at pushups (currently she can do 15... and I can do... 1! Haha... told you i need to work on upper body strength.) My legs are getting shredded and I want the rest of me to match! Plus if I put on more muscle, the fat will melt away even faster... which I need if I wanna meet my Christmas Eve Goal of 135 lbs! So to kick off all of that I'm gonna do these challenges: 

I added pushups to the second one. I'll start off doing one and then +1 everyday except the rest days and by halloween i should be able to do at least 27 :)

I have been super good this week. No cheat days at all, eating super healthy, exercising as much as I should be. And last week I was under my weekly calorie goal by like 250! (From exercise, not starving myself.)

A typical day for me food-wise, is usually (plain! Not that flavored kind in packets!) oatmeal for breakfast with a splash (1/4 cup) of milk and sprinkled with cinnamon. Or a bowl of cold cereal like cheerios or total if i want a semi-junk food treat.

Few hrs later I'll have a huge green salad (typically a whole head of romaine lettuce, 4 cherry tomatoes, one serving of feta cheese, some almonds or walnuts, a few croutons -i looove croutons- and topped with some light poppyseed dressing I picked up at BigLots which only has 40 cals per serving but I always double it cause I eat a lot of lettuce and it is the bomb.com).
So that keeps me full for awhile!  Sometimes I chop some bell pepper in place of tomato. Sometimes i use both (depending on what I have) and sometimes I crumble a couple slices of bacon on it. That's right, I eat bacon. WHEN my calorie allotment allows for it and it is in moderation! I don't go bacon crazy! (I have cooked and eaten a whole pound of it before). Other days I might just have a tuna sandwich on homemade bread. Or chicken breast/mayo/cheese/mustard sandwich. The list goes on and I don't eat seconds because I'm trying to lose weight and honestly, i just don't need seconds.
My MyFitnessPal app calculates all my macronutrients and yes, I am able to get 100% of my daily recommended amounts of my essential vitamins and minerals on just 1300 calories because for the most part, I chose nutrient-dense foods.

So anyways, then I usually need a snack before dinner. Apple slices with peanut butter are a fave. Today I ate fishy crackers, even though they aren't healthy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no need for me to get discouraged. I only had a couple handfulls (really tho) and so I still stayed under my calorie limit. It is almost always fruit though, for my snack.

Dinner is usually a meat and a biiiig pile of a cooked veggies. Either 2 boneless skineless chicken breasts (you can get a huge bag of those frozen babies at Costco for like $25 bucks. Hella worth it.) Or it'll be a pork chop or one 4oz steak or turkey burger etc. And the veggie is typically squash from our garden or broccoli, spinach or green beans cause those are all my favorite. Sometimes I do steamed or sauteed bok choy or swiss chard. With a little salt OMG #nom!

Aaaand that's it. In bed by 9 usually, full night's sleep and repeat the next day with whatever variation fits into my 1300 calorie days. Last night I had a no-sugar-added banana berry smoothie cause I ran and I deserved it! But I don't usually eat back my workout calories. 

My 1300 allotment is -500 calories from what my body burns per day if I do no exercise. If I were to go for an extra long run and burn an additional 500 I might eat a couple hundred back but that's cause you don't want to have a deficit of over 1000 because it may slow your metabolism. So usually my calories are cut and I workout on top of it. My runs usually burn 400 calories +/-. Oh and unless my run ends right before a mealtime, I have a whey protein shake (chocolateeeeee!) Immediately afterwards. If you don't have a smartphone or don't want to/can't use MyFitnessPal to figure out how many calories to eat, you can go here: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ For a good BMR calculator.

I feel amazing physically. I have lost 22 lbs and it makes a difference. I now get up in the morning and my feet don't hurt from the weight! I have a lot more energy! I just have this happy feeling!
I used to not like to turn my head down cause then I would feel how big my double chin was getting. Now I do it on purpose to see if its gotten smaller. (Yeah, I'm weird).

Emotionally, I feel amazing too. I feel happy. That's the best way to describe it. I'm just tickled with my accomplishments I guess. Not in a cocky or conceited way at all, but I'm proud of what I'm doing and for the first time in years I'm getting back some confidence and self-esteem this whole weight loss thing is working for me, nothing is gonna stop me now! I am changing forever!

"Potential is worthless if it is never being developed and used"

Don't let your excuses and obstacles stop you! Challenge yourself!

Oh and I really want this shirt:

This one REALLY hit home for me:

YES.

And Its even easier for boys!:

Giiiirl, you know dats whassup!