Changing Me: 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)