Week 16 - Plateau land

Well, the inevitable happened - I had my first weight gain today. Granted, it was only 0.2 lbs, but it makes me a little sad that after 15 weeks of losses, it's my first weight speed bump. However, I did lose 4.5 inches in the last month. :)

So as it stands, in 16 weeks, I've lost 22.2 lbs and lost 25.75 inches. I've lost 9.5" off my waist, 5" off my hips, 5.25" off my thighs, 2" off my bust & 4" off my arms. I'm thrilled with how much I've shrunk, but I do have a long way to go. This is the part that I need to focus on. Yes, I've lost a lot, but I still have 48.2 lbs to lose to hit my goal. I'm only 1/3 of the way on my loss part of the journey.

I'm hoping that I've gotten the tail end of this cold gone and I can get really focused again. Granted, I have a move coming up in the next week and a half and I have to focus on packing and getting the apartment cleaned up while having my mom visit and getting preschool stuff ready for the kids. I'm determined not to let life get me down.

I am a runner!

So the inevitable has happened. I've become a runner. I may be a slow runner, but I am a runner, nevertheless. :) I've been running intervals over the last 4 months and today, I decided to try and run slower and longer and not necessarily faster. I slowed down to 5.0 mph and managed to run 15 mins straight. The longest before was about 8 mins, so I was stoked! After that, I ran 3:1 intervals for 3 sets, then dropped to 2:1 for a while, then 1:1 until I hit 37 mins total. It was tough, but do I think I pushed myself as hard as I could? Probably not. What?!? Well, if I'm being completely honest, I could have probably run longer than 15 mins, but I stopped and started intervals because that is what is comfortable. I also got blisters around 30 mins, so that also didn't help, but I did have to start speeding up some of the intervals because it was the only thing that would boost the endorphin levels to get me past the pain threshold.

Either way, I am proud of my progress. 4 months ago, I don't think I could even comprehend the patience it takes to run at least 37 mins in a run. I was tired just running 5 mins out of a 35 min treadmill session. I'm excited to see what happens when I can afford to replace my running shoes. Without those blisters and with better running performance, I bet I can really get moving! I was tempted to try for a 10K tonight, but decided to stop before I made hamburger out of my feet. ;) Oh, and when I'm on the treadmill, I probably spend only 1 entire minute hanging on to the treadmill - I'm a hands of runner. :) It feels good to hurt through my core from the effort to run.

I'm looking forward to getting more runs in and getting stronger and building a stronger cardiovascular system. I think once I can re-establish more whole-food eating with more fruits, veggies and whole grains, I'll definitely jump-start the weight loss again and be on my way to a tiny me. :)

Week 15 - Managing

I'm tired, frustrated and in high need of a kick-butt workout. I was down 0.8 lbs this week, despite hardly working out - had a 5 day break because of a cold. I ate quite a bit and felt generally quite blah. I've managed to step up the workouts by at least having them the last few days, but I am not in the game mentally.

Problem 1 - AF/TOM/the Crimson tide...whatever you call it, it's visiting after a 4.25 month absence (thank you Seasonale!). I'm feeling sluggish, tired, grumpy and unmotivated. Thankfully, I decided to wash my bedding or I'd most likely be in bed instead of in my workout clothes blogging. I need to get to my workout in a few minutes, but thought I'd post before I forgot about this week's post.

Problem 2 - The humid, gray weather. We've had some sun, but nothing that lasts very long and my SAD seems to be continuing on into the summer. UGH! It was beautiful yesterday afternoon when I went for a short trail run, and it was clear last night when I was stargazing through the sky light above our bed at 3:30 (Thanks Noah).

Problem 3 - The lingering cold. I'm still a little stuffy & runny nosed, but nothing compared to last week or the week before.

So hopefully as the week goes on, I'll feel a bit better and feel more motivated. I'm in a mental slump and just don't feel like food journaling and working out. I still do it, but it doesn't hold as much of the positive nature that it did before camp started. Granted, the slow-down in my weight loss is probably part of that - something that reigning in the stress eating and fattening, higher calorie stuff I've been eating more of would help out with. I'm just grateful I'm under 50 lbs left to goal weight. I've lost 22.4 of the 70.4 lbs I needed to lose. So 48 lbs left. I only have to do what I've done about 2 more times. That makes it seem more doable.

Well, enough talk, I better get to my workout!

Week 14 - That's more like it

I lost another 2 lbs this week for a total of 21.4 in the last 14 weeks. :) I'm really curious to see what my measurements are next week since it seems like I suddenly got skinnier in the last week.

Definitely glad to have my mojo back after being sick. That cold seemed to sap my will power and made me crave sugar like nothing else. Thankfully I'm back in control and only have 2 days left of camp food. As long as I keep my workouts up, I should be in a good spot through the week.

Back to my mountain of laundry and my coffee. I'm hoping the clouds burn off and the sun comes out soon. The kids haven't been the best listeners today, so I'm going to get off the computer for a while and see if that helps. :)