Day #6

This morning, I started my day off with a weigh in.  Normally, I would wait until tomorrow (Sunday) to weigh in, but I’m going to a wedding this evening and they’re serving chicken fried steak (if I remember correctly) and, of course, wedding cake.  I knew that the food would make me retain a little water which would mess with my weigh in tomorrow.  So, I opted to weigh in a day early.  Now, if you’ll recall, at the beginning of August (for my final weigh in for the fitness competition I was participating in) I weighed 172.2.  I gained some weight within the first week and a half after that due to stress and then, I just kept eating junk so I stayed away from the scale.  Last week, I decided I would start holding myself accountable again, no matter what the scale said, and start weighing myself again weekly starting September 1^st.  When I weighed in on Sunday (Sept. 1^st), I was up 6.2 lbs from the 1^st of August.  I was so disappointed in myself.  I looked at my weigh in log and noticed that it had taken me from June 1^st to August 1^st to lose my last 6 lbs...and it only took me half that time to gain it back.  I figured if I got myself back on track with my eating and my exercise…and started doing ALL my exercise…that I could re-lose that 6.2 lbs in a month or so.  When I weighed in this morning, I knew I was down some pounds.  I was just hoping for a couple pounds.  However, when I stepped on the scale, it told me I was back down to 172.2!!!   

Oh wow can you believe how happy I was/am with that number?!?!?!  I couldn’t be happier…or more surprised.  But, that just tells me that I was retaining a lot of water due to all the junk I had been eating.  There’s no other way for someone my size to lose 6 lbs in a week if it’s not mostly water weight.  So, the past few days have been 100% successful days for me and now, this whole week has been a 150% successful week because I more than surpassed my hopes for the week.

Now, so long as I can keep up the focus and dedication that I’ve had this whole week, I should be able to lose a few pounds a month until I reach my goal weight (160).  I’m not giving myself a deadline for reaching that goal weight.  I just want to do it in the healthiest way possible.  Today will be my splurge day for the weekend…however, I am really craving some fajitas, so maybe…maybe…I’ll go indulge in some fajitas tomorrow.  I just have to decide if I want to get my favorite fajitas that come with a Romano cream sauce or do I want to go and get the healthier fajitas. 

Last night's salmon was so good I licked the plate!

For breakfast today, I dug into my new option for breakfast: oatmeal!  I stopped at the store after work last night and bought some sugar free oatmeal in 2 flavors: cinnamon and maple.  I mixed the pecan chips into the oatmeal and also ate a banana.  I also added 2 stevia packets and a splash of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.  It was so good.

So, I now have 2 options for breakfast, but I’m thinking I need another option.  What I’m thinking is crustless mini quiches.  The South Beach Diet has a good recipe for this exact idea.  So, I will use that and just add different veggies.  And they’re easy to freeze into individual servings for easy portioning.

 

Before I talk about today’s run, let me tell you a little bit about yesterday’s 3 mile run before my gym workout.  I ran negative splits!!!  They weren’t dramatically negative splits, but I went a little bit faster with each mile!  That is the first time I have EVER done that!  Yesterday was a great morning for running too.  It wasn’t too hot, even though there were minimal clouds in the sky.  It was a nice, mild sunny morning.

I ran my 8 miles after procrastinating a bit and staying in bed until after 8:30 this morning.  I came up with a new route for this morning’s run.  I didn’t feel like driving to Town Lake to run there and I definitely didn’t feel like running the Heritage Loop (5.7 miles from my apartment, around the loop and back to my apartment) with boring side mileage to make up for the other 2.3 miles to add up to 8 miles.  So, I did the loop and then added a loop on the sidewalk of major streets in my little suburb.  I checked the weather, temp mid-80's, low-ish humidity.  I thought it was going to be a good run.  Ugh.  I got overheated and had to stop a few times.  I started off good with a 10:30 1st mile, but I was in the mid-12's by the time I finished the 8 miles.

Over this whole week, I ran my scheduled mileage with my usual extra 10^th’s of a mile here and there, plus a bonus 6 miles thanks to my new-for-me idea of adding a short run to my gym workout days.  Oh and let me tell you, I LOVE the feeling I have after I get done in the gym if I ran first.  I feel so much better because I accomplished so much more.  And I have a way better calorie burn on gym days now.  For instance, with my 2x4 workouts like I was doing this week, if I do only the gym I won’t burn more than 200 calories, but usually closer to only 150.  On Tuesday when I did my first run then gym workout, I burned over 500 calories.  When I did my second run then gym workout yesterday, I burned over 600 calories!!! 

I ran my goal of 5 days this week, for a total of 29.8 miles!  Not a weekly PR, but damn good mileage if I do say so myself.  Next week, with my before-the-gym miles, I have 31 miles planned.

So, before the wedding this afternoon, I had to go and ship something to my mom and then I decided it would be a good time to go to Kohl's and see if they had any bras in my size (34DD...hard to find in anything other than "full coverage").  I found one in a color I didn't mind and then decided, what the heck, and grabbed a 34D to try on as well.  Wouldn't you know it, but the 34D fit!  I'm finally out of the dreaded DD department!  Thank goodness!  I have hated being a DD cup size!  So, I check out and they don't have any paper bags (this store is in Austin, TX which has a bag ban on single use plastic bags) and I said that was okay.  So, I get out to my car, toss my new bras on the passenger seat and go to start the car.  Except that it doesn't start.  It's dead.  Great!  So, I pull out my insurance card and YAY there's a number for roadside assistance.  I give them a call and about 30 minutes later a guy shows up, hooks my car up to a charger and vroom she starts right up!  Whew!  Tomorrow I'm going to go to the parts store and have them test my battery and my alternator.  If it's the battery, I can take care of that myself.  If it's the alternator, I'll need to take it to the mechanic and rent a car while they're fixing it.  Cross your fingers for me it's just the battery.

At the wedding, they served chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, corn and yeast rolls.  I ate a little bit of each and only drank regular iced tea (no sugar for me unless it's a dessert!).  After I ate my plate of food, I was surprised to find that I was stuffed.  I started thinking about how they hadn't cut the cake yet and that I didn't mind because I didn't think I wanted any.  Wait.  What?  Me not want cake?  What is wrong with me?  I stayed for a little bit after dinner was served and they did the introduction of the family and the couple and their first dance, and then I left.

Here's the cute sundress I wore to the wedding with my ankle cowgirl boots.  Sorry, the lighting is bad.

So, today went 100% as planned…the splurge eating at the wedding was planned, so therefore I did good with my food today.  Hooray!!!  But, of course, what I ate at the wedding wasn't much of a splurge anyway considering I didn't eat a whole lot and I totally skipped the cake.  So, maybe I'll take myself to get some fajitas tomorrow after all.