Monday Weigh In

It's that time again.  Good old Weigh In Mondays!  I love em!  Anyway, here are this week's results.

DATE       WEIGHT       BODY FAT (%)    HYDRATION (%)           BMI
5/31             138.4                28.6                       49.9                      27.0
6/13             137.2                28.2                       50.2                      26.8
6/28             133.8                27.4                       50.8                      26.1
7/5               133.8                27.2                       50.9                      26.1
7/12             130.6                26.2                       51.6                      25.6
7/19             131.0                26.2                       51.6                      25.6

As you can see, I have gained 0.4 lbs this week...which would have hurt my feelings more if I had never sneaked a peak at the scale a couple of times during the week.  I mean, 0.4 lbs is better than 1.4 lbs, right!? Definitely softens the blow.

Again, I have thought about ditching the scale and just continuing my journey.  There is no way that in the past two days I've lost 1 lb.  It's just impossible.  Anyway, the scale is stupid and definitely not my friend.  Not much else to say.

UPDATE:  Okay.  I just logged my weight into selfdietclub.com.  I looked at my weight loss for the passed month.  Self only lets you put in whole numbers so it looks like I have lost 5 lbs in one month (from 6/22-7/19).  And you know what?!!?  I think that is great!  I'm over here all doom and gloom because my weekly weight loss hasn't budged...but I have to look at the big picture and realize that I am doing really well.  I would be VERY happy if I were to lose 5 lbs in August.  I have to remember that I am doing this the right way...and that these pounds aren't coming back.  So yay to my efforts and yay to what I have done so far!!!

Goodbye, JM...Hello P57!!!

So, I know that you should always finish what you start.  That is one of those quotes up on the wall in the BL gym.  I know that it is probably not good to randomly go from one thing to another without completing something.  But, with that said, on day 23, I must say goodbye to Jillian and her 30 Day Shred.

Insert excuses here.  1) My knees...my aching knees.  All of Jillian's "plyometrics" (I think that's the word) are doing a number on my knee.  I have spent 23 days of doing jumping jacks and jump rope and plank jacks and double jumping jacks....and I just want to give my poor knee a rest (A JM commercial just came on...is it a sign that I should stick it out for the next 7 days!?!?)  Anyway...2) I'm bored.  I resent the fact that I have to do it EVERY day...and I just find the workout kind of boring at this point.  I find myself only following Anita (the beginner girl)...and not challenging myself at all.  3)  I wanna try a longer workout.  I know JM tries to put as much as possible in those 20 minutes...but I wanna see if a longer workout will be more beneficial for me.  I've lost body fat...which is awesome, but I wanna see if bigger...or longer is better.  4)  Doubling up.  I've been doing my cardio AND Shred on the same day.  It is hard to motivate myself when I know that I have to do both.  AND I find myself "phoning it in" (lol) when I have to do Shred after 63 minutes of C210K.  I wanna break things up a bit and see how that effects my workout.  5) I'm supposed to ENJOY my workout.  That's what everyone says, right?  Find something that you like.  Well, as much as I love Jillian...Shred is not my thing.  I need lower impact because of my knee...and I am longing for yoga and/pilates (which P57 in based on).  I must admit that I am not a Shredhead...but I AM very proud of my 23 days. 

So that is it.  The decision has been made.  I am not ashamed (even though I am having twinges of guilt for not finishing what I started).  I'm happy that I hung in there for as long as I did.  I will start Physique 57 on Tuesday.  I will do it 2-3 times per week...alternating with my C210K schedule.  I'm a little nervous because the last time that I tried P57, it seriously kicked my ass!  But, I think/hope that I am in a little better shape now.  I think/hope that I should be able to handle it. 

On to other things.  I did another sneak peak today...still 132.0.  Still not sure what to say about that.  I'm just going to keep up with my healthy eating and exercise.  If I can at least lose 1 lb per week, I will be at my goal weight by November (One pound a week was actually recommended by one of the calculators...it also said that I should be eating 1800 calories per day).  Slow and steady...slow and steady.

Well, I'm glad my workout is done for the day.  I made a workout schedule for the month of July to hang up in my gym.   OH!  And running is becoming sooooo much better.  I'm running in four minute intervals without any problem.  On Wednesday, I will start with 5 minutes at a time!!!  Yay for small accomplishments!

Okay.  Gotta go...today is grocery shopping day (which has become a lot more enjoyable since I've been eating healthier).  I also have to either get a playground ball or inflate the one I have...if I'm gonna start P57 on Tuesday!!!  I'm excited...this may be just the change that my body needs.  I'll report back on P57 on Tuesday!

It's About Health...NOT Weigh Loss, right!!?!?

I took a sneak peak at the scale on Friday.  I don't know what prompted me to do it...I just wanted a little preview for my Monday weigh in.  I was soooooo disappointed to see 132.0 lbs. come up on the scale!  This number didn't just make me sad...it totally confused me.  There is no way with eating the way that I had been eating for 4 days that I gained 1.4 lbs.  I hadn't done ANYTHING differently!!!  I've been working out almost daily...AND keeping my calories around 1400 calories each day.  I really don't understand.

The only thing that I can think of is that I might not be eating enough calories each day.  The last time that I lost weight, I was eating at least 1700 calories per day...most of the time it was more like 1800-1900.  And I am exercising more than I was back then.  I don't know.  I'm going to play around with some calculator and see what I should do.  It would be one thing if I was just starving all of the time, but I'm not.  I feel satisfied throughout the day.  I feel like eating more would go against the whole, eat when you are hungry thing.  Who knows...I wish that I had a nutritionist.

So, for the past couple of days (two to be exact), I have taken a break from working out.  I took Thursday off because my knee was in VERY bad shape for most of the day.  I took Friday off partially out of frustration.  I went out eat...had a little Mexican.... and had my first drink in weeks (two margaritas).  I approximated that I ate about 2100 calories yesterday.  I was hoping that this might give my metabolism a little jump start or something.

I'm happy to say that I'm back on track today...had a yummy banana and peanut butter smoothie with chocolate almond milk.  It was like a shake!!  I used a half of a frozen banana!!!  YUM!!  I'm gonna throw a couple more bananas in the freezer for this week's smoothies.

As for my frustration, I'm not sure what to do.  Part of me wants to stop weighing in and keep on doing what I'm doing.  The ups and down of what the scale has to say is no fun.  I really do think if I keep doing what I'm doing, my body will eventually change.

Then there is the control freak side of me, that wants to push myself...likes knowing the exact amount of calories I'm consuming...and enjoys the little competition that I have with myself (this side of me does not seem like the healthier of the two sides).  

So which one wins?!?!?  Where is the balance!?  What is my happy medium!?  I guess, we will see.  It will be interesting to see what the scale says on Monday.  It seems impossible that I will lose that 1.4 lbs from Friday to Monday.  And even if I do, that means that I would have lost nothing since last Monday.  AHHHHHHHH!!!!  I hate obsessing over this crap!  I KNOW it's not healthy.

Okay...that's it for today.  I need to refocus on health and not weight loss!

TRY THIS: Polar F6 Heart Rate Monitor

So, I know that there is a big discrepancy between how many calories my treadmill says that I'm burning and how many calories selfdietclub.com says I'm burning (w/the latter being more accurate).  I actually read once that treadmills and other machines are usually about 10% off in terms of calories.  I wonder why that is...

Anyway, because of this discrepancy (and because I suppose it would be a good idea to make sure that I'm working within my maximum heart rate, I want to get a Polar F6 Heart Rate Monitor. When you click on the black one on Amazon.com, the pink one comes up.  I'm not a pink girl...I definitely want a black one.

It's about $85...and definitely not in the budget.  But it is definitely on my wish list!!!

I Did It!!!!

I made my first Green Monster!!!  And it was good!  Even though everyone said that you wouldn't be able to taste the spinach at all...I was super nervous about trying it!  I am pretty amazed right now!

Here's my recipe...

• 1/2-3/4 of a banana
• 1 cup of spinach
• 1 container of Kroger Vanilla CarbMaster Yogurt
• 1/2 cup of almond milk
• 15 grams of Vega Smoothie Infusion
• 1 tsp of milled flax

And voila!!!

It ended up being super sweet...I'm assuming it was the yogurt.  It was actually a little too sweet.  The next time, I'll probably try to use Greek yogurt...either plain or vanilla.  We'll see.  Oh!  Another thing is that it was pretty low in calories...lower than the other smoothies that I have been making.  I can see myself making one of these after a workout or something.

Yesterday was my weekly grocery trip and I continued my new trend of going to Harry's.  After perusing the health food aisles of my local grocery store...I went to Life, a natural foods store around the corner from my house.  And then...Harry's.

After coming home, I promptly start bagging up my foods into serving sizes using snack bags and sandwich bags...then I cut my fruit for the next couple of days.  Afterwards, my fridge was packed...

I finally cut my watermelon and we will now have watermelon for days!!!  That whole shelf above the fruit is filled with watermelon.

The fridge has definitely come a long way from the days of being filled with only styrofoam take out containers.

Well, I'm gonna try to enjoy my day...even though I have tons to do.  Hopefully, we can try to get our save the dates out today (*fingers crossed*)