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!