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Sunday, March 31, 2013

1 Year Losses, Happy Easter, New Goals (again)

1st of all, Happy Easter.  A few things:  Peeps are the toddler equivalent of Meth, that's my theory anyway.  No peeps ever again.  Somehow we lost an egg, praying one of the dogs swiped and ate it.  Went through McDonald's drive through early and just got a diet soda and black coffee (note to self, when we run out of coffee go get some immediately because it's no fun to realize there's no coffee left at 5:30am). 

2nd of all, I've decided to start losing again.  I'm in a much better place than I was 2 months ago and I'm ready to get these last lbs off.

3rd of all, today marks 1 year since I was brave enough to take my 1st set of measurements and pictures.  I won't be posting those pics, maybe ever, not sure.  But I will share the stats (won't bore you with ALLLLL my sites, just the main ones):

3/31/12 vs 3/31/13
weight 211.6 vs 139.2
body fat 40.8% vs 24.3%
neck 14.25 vs 11.5
upper arm 15 vs 10
bust 45.75 vs 36
under bust 39 vs 31.25
waist (4/30/12) 38 vs 28
hips 47.75 vs 34.75
butt 46 vs 35.75
upper thigh 27.75 vs 21
calf 15 vs 13


Friday, March 22, 2013

My 1 year weight-loss-iversary

1 year ago today I stepped on the scale and saw 219.8.  Though I had just had a baby the end of December, concluding my pregnancy at a whopping 236 pounds, by the end of January I was down to 207.  So I had GAINED weight (again), and that 219.8 was ALL me and officially my highest non-pregnancy weight, and it put me well into the obese category.  It was a Thursday, and I truly was just sick of being overweight.  I made the decision to change that day, no waiting until Monday, or the 1st of the month.  I was tired of making excuses for myself, tired of being out of shape, tired of feeling I looked awful, tired of looking sloppy in baggy clothes trying to hide my ever-growing body.  I didn't want to be wearing maternity clothes 3 months postpartum.  I didn't want to be swiping my husband's t-shirts because mine didn't fit, and having them still be tight.  I didn't want to avoid getting on the floor to play with my kids because it was hard to get up afterwards, or be sitting on the sidelines at the park because it was too hard to play.  I didn't want to make up excuses not to get together with people because I was embarrassed of my weight.  I didn't want to grab a pair of size 18 jeans out of my closet thinking they'd be baggy and have them be too tight to even button.  I was feeling horrible about myself in just about every way possible.  And something just clicked, or snapped, depending on how you look at it.  Like, why in the heck was I allowing myself to be so miserable in a body I had full control over!?  All of a sudden I just realized how it was so ridiculous to wallow in self pity over something I could change!  So I told myself, either be one of those people who is happy being fat and come to terms with the fact that I am making myself unhealthy and almost certainly shortening my life, or. . . change!!!  I was already knowledgeable about nutrition, fitness, weight loss, lifting, you name it, just had to apply it.   And truly it was as simple as that.  Simple, though it certainly hasn't been easy! 

The scary thing is that I look back at pictures of myself at my heaviest and it really and truly shocks me!  I knew I was big, I felt big, but I didn't feel I looked as big as I was in reality.  I have kind of the exact opposite problem now -- I feel bigger than I actually look.  I will see a picture of myself and be surprised (pleasantly); I've seen my own reflection out places and TWICE thought it was someone else, someone skinny, wearing my exact same clothes and feeling irritated they looked better than me, then realizing it WAS me.  My entire life has changed over the past year, lots and lots of good ways, some not-so-good (losing this much weight is a head trip).  Losing weight doesn't solve all of your problems that's for sure, sometimes it causes new ones.  I definitely wouldn't trade back though, not for a second.

I'm literally in the best shape of my life, better than when I was a trainer.  Pictures of myself that I used to look at longingly, when I was obese, and think that I would never be that "skinny" again, I'm smaller than that now, smaller and more fit than I've ever been.  I'm stronger, I'm faster, I'm better looking (well, it's true).  I feel bad that I wasted years obese, thinking it was just the way I was now.  The best and most empowering thing I've learned in the past year is that if you want something, you freaking go get it!  This is the ONLY life we get (well, depending on if you  believe in reincarnation), and it's a damn shame to go through it not being exactly who you want to be.

My best advice, weight loss or otherwise, don't waste another SECOND being anything other than what you want to be.  Go DO IT, and go do it NOW!


Starting weight 3/22/12: 220
Current weight 3/22/13: 139 (maintaining weight flux between 137-141)

Starting BMI: 35.5
Current BMI: 22.4

Starting Body Fat%: >44%
Current Body Fat%: ~23-25%

Starting pant size: 20 solid
Current pant size: 4s, 6s, 7s, 9s (depending on brand)

Starting shirt size: XL-XXL
Current shirt size : M

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Neat-O

I found a new blog I'm in love with!  A friend of mine linked an entry over on MFP and I got hooked.  I tried a workout setup she had posted about (the goal of having a Muscular and Feminine Physique), and it was AWESOME, kicked my ass.  She posted about doing 20 mins of strength at the beginning when your strongest (makes sense), then doing MRT (Metabolic Resistance Training) so you can get your cardio without doing cardio, then following it up with a Finisher (BLOG HERE).  Here's what I did:

Strength:

Pull Up Negatives:  4 sets of 3.  2 mins rest between sets.

Cleans: 3 sets of 3: 65 lbs.  2 mins rest between sets.

High Pulls: 3 sets of 3: 65 lbs.  2 mins rest between sets.

(Panned to do 5 sets of Cleans, but I'm still new to them and struggling with form and needed to do some High Pulls instead to practice that part of the movement.)


MRT:

Incline Dumbbell Bench Presss: 25 lbs

Rear Lunge with Kettlebell: 35 lbs (1 kb)

Rolling Planks

Bent Over Barbell Row: 45 lbs

Jump Squats

All 8 reps, 15-30 seconds between exercises, 1-2 min reset between rounds, 3 rounds.  (HOLY HELL IT WAS HARD)

Finisher:

Kettlebell Swings: 25 lbs

15-20 reps on the minute, every minute, for 8 minutes.  (DEATH!!!!!!!!!)



The whole thing took exactly an hour.  It was fun, never got bored, was very challenging.  I got to keep my strength stuff, which I LOVE, but got in some cardio without doing cardio (which was AMAZING).


This is my 8th week, and I'm excited to be starting something a little different, but still be able to continue working on what I have been!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Radom updates

I'm in my 7th week of maintenance.  7th consecutive week of lifting.  Ups and downs, figuratively and literally.  Still going between 137.2 and 141.8.  Been having lots of great days, some not-so-great days.  Some days I feel really wonderful about the way I look, some days I wanna hide in baggy clothes and can't stand to look at myself in the mirror.  All pretty "normal", I'd say.

I got a wild hair and went for an outside run this past Friday.  It was cool out, a little overcast.  About a mile in the weather turned, super windy, got cold, barely made it home before it started pouring, cold cold rain.  It was a great run.  One of those where I felt like I could go forever.  Was a little disappointed I was driven home by the weather, but I made it exactly 5k, which felt pretty amazing considering I have only run a handful of times in the past months.  Boy I loathe being cold, especially being blindsided by it.  I impressed myself that I didn't start running home the second it started getting windy.  Win for me.

My lifting is going very well.  I'm progressing weekly.  Upping weights, getting stronger, working my way towards a pull up.  Still enjoying it very much.  Well, most of the time.  Last night's workout was a struggle.  I was tired and whiny and wanted to skip it, but I knew I'd regret that so I did it anyway.  Wasn't one of my best workouts, but it was sure as heck better than none at all. 

Still struggling with, and working on, not weighing so often.  I made it 2 and a half days a couple days ago.  That's a record! 

On another random note, found out I have diastatis recti.  Makes a lot of sense.  I noticed something strange months and months ago, it has gotten better since then, but nice to know what it is.  Only about a finger width (maybe tiny bit more) now.

I'm in a weird frame of mind right now and have all kinds of things I'm pondering.  Should I try and lose some more?  Eat in a small deficit daily?  Eat in a medium deficit on non-workout days and maintenance on workout days?   Try Intermittent Fasting again?  If so do I start eating later, or cut of eating earlier?  If I cut off eating earlier that may hinder my workouts that are usually at 7pm, so do I try and hold off on breakfast?  I'm usually cranky if I don't eat in the morning, would that get better eventually?  If so would it be worth it in the short term being cranky until I AM used to it?  Should I start trying to add cardio back in more often?  Or just when the mood strikes?  Will my midsection ever look decent?  Should I count calories again for a while?  Should I focus on macros again?

Another random thing, I want to start doing yoga.

See, I'm all over the place. 

Monday, March 4, 2013

Not DREADING Summer


Wow I really need to clean the mirror!
So, living in Phoenix, summer last from St. Patrick's Day until about Halloween.  That's a long ass summer.  And it's freaking hot, dry heat or not.  I've lived in Phoenix all my life, with the exception of about 6 months in Prescott as a child, and 2 semesters in Ohio when I was 19/20.  Summers here suck, there's no question about it.  It's a trade off for the really super awesome winters we have (I HATE snow, and Phoenix respects that).  Anyway, I can't even remember the last time, maybe since I was a small kid, that I wore actual summer clothes.  I have typically just kept up my jeans and t-shirts, at most some capris and jeans are a freaking death trap in the summer.  But not THIS summer.  This summer I'm dressing nice and cool.

I'm already stocking up on skirts (thift shop find in the pic, $3 Gap skirt , size SMALL, ha!  Gap you SO vanity size!) and will have to get some shorts.  It's FUN!  It feels kind of amazing!  I'm actually starting to think WOW I kind of have some decent legs, and my arms are firming up nicely.  It's such a very very weird feeling to start actually liking my body.  I've noticed a change just in the last 5 weeks that I've been lifting consistently.

No real point to this post aside from just being excited!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

5 weeks in

Ahhhh, that's better, my blog needed a facelift.  The orange was starting to annoy me.

Anyhow.  I got my 3rd workout in, for the week, yesterday -- which completed and my 5th consecutive week of lifting.  I'm really amazed at the progress I've made.  I'm for sure more fit than I've ever been in my life, and most definitely the strongest I've ever been as well.  I feel like I'm making tons of progress in that area.  I've been successfully maintaining my weight for 5 weeks as well, basically eating whatever, and not counting calories for a while now.  My diet has been decent at best, crappy at worst, so I'm venturing into some experimentation with that.  I feel really good overall, but I've noticed ebbs and flows of lethargy and just dragginess; I'm sure a lot of it has to do with drinking energy drinks and diet soda I've gotten back into drinking, hmmm, the fast food probably doesn't help either.  I'm cutting those out, and for now I'm seeing what it's like to exclude wheat.  I, personally, don't have anything against wheat, I'm not gluten intolerant or anything.  There's so much out right now about the "evils" of wheat, I just kind of want to see if there's anything to that.  I eat quite a bit of wheat on a typical day, so it was definitely missed yesterday, but it went well.  I ate a lot more veggies and some fruit, kind of just naturally, as to replace the spots where wheat would usually be.  I'm certainly not trying to do low carb right now; I still ate rice, and quite a few very starchy veggies, plus fruit.  Mainly just trying to eat more whole foods and just clean up my diet as a whole.  I'd love to be one of those clean eating fanatics!  I don't necessarily see that happening, but smalls steps right!?

Friday, March 1, 2013

WOW, MARCH!

March is kind of a big deal for me.  Last March (March 22nd to be exact) was when I started this whole thing.  I've been at this just a few weeks shy of an entire YEAR.  That's pretty huge.  This wasn't my first go around with weight loss, which has made it easier AND more difficult.  I've been very worried about regaining, as people who lose weight often are, but I'm definitely starting to feel more confident that I've made actual life changes and not just simple dropped a bunch of weight.  I have many goals aside from simply being thin (which I still don't consider myself), and I believe that helps me quite a bit.  I've decided to see a counselor to try and work through, and gain tools, to aid me in overcoming some returning bad habits and thought patterns I have.  I've successfully maintained for nearly 5 weeks now, and while for some that may seem like no big deal I've never been able to maintain after losing.  I'm either losing or gaining, or fighting with one or the other.

I did my measurements and took my official weight and body fat percentage yesterday as I do at the end of every month.  I was pretty happy with the results.  Weight stable (down 1.4 lbs from the month before), down a couple inches here and there, put on a quarter inch in my upper arms/lower shoulders area (muscle baby), down a half percent of body fat.  Pretty decent.  The only slight disappointment is that none of the inches lost were from my mid-section, which is basically the only place I feel I have any significant amount of fat left to lose.

New, and continued, focuses:  Lifting!!!  Getting stronger!  Maintenance.  Going to experiment with my diet a little bit so see how my body reacts.  My husband and I have always talked about aiming for more of a whole foods diet, which is ideal of course.  It's a difficult transition for many reasons; cost being one, food prep being another, and just overall change is HARD.  So we've decided to go at it in a sensible and slow way (hard for me, I have a hard time doing things gradually).  We decided to start by cutting out highly processed products, including wheat products and staying away from refined sugars and anything with added corn products (with the exception of the protein powders we recently bought and the protein bars we recently bought).  This isn't necessarily a permanent change as I just can't see never having bread again, but I'm interested to see if I feel any different because I do eat a lot of these types of things.  Next will be artificial sweeteners.  That one makes me cringe.  The thing is though, I know I will feel better, it's hard cutting out vices!  But I'm trying to look at it more like an experiment.  I've never attempted any kind of diet tweaks unless I was trying to lose weight, so doing it purely for health, I feel, may give me a different perspective.

Kind of a rambly, all over the place, post, but just getting my thoughts out.