Weekly Recap

So, even though I gained a pound last week and was very frustrated, I was determined to not let it get me down.  I’m not going to lie, it took the wind out of my sails and it was an EFFORT to do my workouts for Saturday and Sunday.  I procrastinated big time for both and really wasn’t motivated on Saturday but I was pissed off because some jerk off hit my car with such force to actually completely remove the paint down to the treated metal.  I mean, seriously, how are you that much of a jerk face? 

 

I’m was overtime Thursday and Friday night, so in order to make sure I hit my 5 workouts this week, I had to workout 5 days in a row!

 

• Saturday: So yea, I had negative energy to burn off so I went to the gym.  I had a great workout.  I killed the stair climber.  54 floors in less than 10 minutes!  I was toggling back and forth between speed 11 and 12 every minute.  That seriously helped me burn off a lot of that negative energy I had going on.  Then, I hit the weights and pushed myself as much as I could.  I got a little too ambitious on a couple of the exercises and had to drop the weight after a few reps.  But hey!  I tried!  That counts, right?

I hung out with my friend Heather before I went to the gym.  After we ate Mexican food, we went to Total Nutrition because she’s interested in finding a good appetite suppressant without many or, preferably, any side effects.  While we were talking to the guy about different things, I asked him about BCAAs (branch chain amino acids).  I decided I wanted to try them, but didn’t want to pay their $40 price tag.  So, after Heather went home, I went to Vitamin Shoppe and checked out what they had in BCAAs and found what looked like a good one on sale for $22, so I got it.  I took it before the gym.

 

The main reason Heather and I hung out (aside from we like to hang out and such) was to go running shoe shopping.  She’s trying to lose weight and get in better shape and she loves running and wanted to get professionally fitted for some running shoes.  They were a little more than she was expecting, so she got fitted and found a pair she loved and had the sales lady write the brand and model down so when she gets the money in a couple weeks she can go back and get them.  I think the shoes she found were the Saucony Glide 7s.  Anyway, SIDETRACKED!!!  So, I was hoping when we went that they would have Hoka One One shoes that I could take for a test run around the store.  THEY DID!  And, even better, they still had some of last season’s Cliftons in stock…and…they had them in my size!!!  They were discounted like $40+ and were a super cute color, so I bought them.

 

• Sunday: was going to do that 25 mile bike ride I was originally going to do last Sunday, but, since I procrastinated until it was well after noon, I dropped to 20 miles.  First, I had to make sure I had a spare inner tube after last Sunday’s tire skewering debacle…so that was part of my procrastination.  But only part…and a small part at that.  But, so, anyway, at about 3pm I finally headed out on my bike.  Got done around 5pm.  I forgot to take any salt tabs before heading out and while I didn’t cramp until after I got back home, the heat was really affecting me by the time I got home.  About 2 miles before I was back home, I really started feeling fatigued.  I felt like I barely pedaled into my apartment complex parking lot and to my building.  My feet were hurting and I was so fatigued.  Don’t ask me why my feet were hurting because I have no clue…but they did.  I completed the 20 miles in 1 hour and 37 minutes.  And I’m super glad I cut it down to 20 because I literally do not think I could have made that additional 5 miles without consequence.  Lesson learned.  I took the BCAAs before my ride just like I took them before the gym Saturday evening and noticed a slight increase in energy.

• Monday: Sunday I decided that I was going to go for a run Monday morning!  I was super excited to try out my new Hokas plus I had a virtual race medal burning a hole in my desk (ha!) that I needed to earn because the race period ends on the 8^th (today).  I think I signed up to run it as a 10K, but since it had been 3 weeks since I ran, I opted to bump it down to a 5K.  I figured I would be slow and have to stop and walk, but nope!  I ran the entire 3.1 miles and I ran by feel.  The first mile was in the 10:20’s and miles 2 and 3 were in the 10:50’s for an overall average of 10:46 min/mi.  I was comfortable the whole run and never felt like I was pushing myself too much.  I don’t want to get into a review of the Hokas right now, but I love them.  They are extremely comfortable and my feet felt fantastic the entire run and weren’t even remotely tired post-run.  I also ran this run in a skirt!  I had to Body Glide my inner thighs so I didn’t start a fire while I was running.  It went great!  No chafing!  But…I was so excited to go run that I couldn’t sleep.  Haha.  It took forever to go to sleep and then I couldn’t stay asleep.  I woke up like every 30 minutes.  To say I was chomping at the bit would probably be a bit of an understatement.  I again took my BCAAs and I did notice a difference this time for sure.  The energy increase was definitely noticeable.

• Tuesday: my therapist wasn’t scheduling appointments this week, so no therapy this day.  So, no walking around post-appointment to help me hit my activity goal for the day.  I decided I would go to the gym for my second visit this week on this day since I didn’t have to basically be at work (my therapist’s office is like 3 blocks from work so I park at work and walk there) by 11am so no time constraints this day.  It was also good that I didn’t have a therapy appointment because I had a migraine Monday evening and was just plain exhausted and slept until 9am this day.  But I had a kick butt workout at the gym.  I hit 56 floors on the stair climber in 10 minutes!  Woo!  Then, I started the process of upping the weight on some of the strength exercises that I haven’t upped the weight on in a while.  I’m really noticing a difference in how I feel when I take my BCAAs.  I just have way more energy, but don’t feel at all jittery or like my blood pressure was too high, or anything like that.  It just feels like natural extra energy and I really like it.  The only downside is that the BCAAs give me heartburn.  After talking with a workout fiend friend of mine, apparently that is pretty normal, so I’ll just deal with it and keep the Pepto nearby.

• Wednesday: workout #5 of 5 for the week!  It was a toss-up between going for a second bicycle ride or doing a workout DVD.  I chose to do my Amy Dixon Breathless Body tabata workout DVD!  I’d been looking forward to this workout for a couple days since I had decided on Monday that this would be the workout DVD I would do this day.  It was a GREAT workout!  I alternated between the level 1 and 2 options for the different exercises and didn’t even attempt any of the level 3 options.  This workout was so great that I decided to check out Amazon after I was done to see if I could find any more tabata workout DVDs and lo and behold Amy Dixon has Breathless Body 2 & 3 workout DVDs!  I’ll be buying those as soon as all my bills clear my bank account.  WOOT!

• Thursday: worked overtime on the night shift on Wednesday, so no workout.  I am so sore from the tabata workout from Wednesday.  All those squats it had me doing.  So my butt, my inner thighs and my quads are super sore.  Just tells me I need to do more squats, squats, squats!

 

• Friday: worked overtime on the nights shift again on Thursday, so no workout this day either.  Still pretty sore from the tabata workout.  Love it!  Can’t wait to order Amy Dixon’s other 2 tabata workout DVDs!

 

I have to say, I am now fully in the habit of working out every day that I have the opportunity and time to workout.  Not only am I fully enjoying my workouts but I am 100% looking forward to each and every one of them.  I am looking forward to pushing myself each time and seeing how much further I can take my efforts.  When it’s time to pick out what my workout DVD I’ll be doing each week, I flip through my DVD library and try to find the one that will give me the most of a challenge and will give me the biggest calorie burn!  That’s one reason I was looking on Amazon to find more tabata workouts.  They push me and give me a good burn.  I love my Bob Harper Yoga for the Warrior, but I only burned 250 calories in 60 minutes when I did it last week.  Unacceptable!  I will use it as an add on workout, but no more as a stand-alone workout.

 

But, my point when I started that last paragraph was when I woke up Wednesday and realized it was my last workout for this workout week, I got sad.  Haha!  Seriously, though, working out has become such a habit for me now that my day is no longer complete if I don’t have the opportunity to do a workout.

 

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And now on to the weigh in portion of this post.

Soooo...now we talk about how I feel about this.  Let's just say this...I had a bit of a meltdown today.  Granted, the meltdown wasn't completely about what the scale and the Omron said, that was just sort of a tipping point.  I gained 1.2 lbs this week.  Since I know I've been pushing myself with the weights during strength training sessions, I wanted to do some math.  So I figured out what last week's 29.9% body fat of last week's 190.2 lb weigh in was: 56.9 lbs.  Then I figured out what 30.1% of 191.4 was: 57.6.  The difference?  I gained .7 of a pound in fat.  Sure, I gained .5 of a pound of solid muscle, but really?  .7 of a pound of fat?!?!?!  

I had a heart to heart session with a friend online.  We talked about how I'm eating and how she eats.  She had me do a pressure test on my shin and we discovered that I'm retaining water.  So that is probably responsible for some of the weight gain.  The longer her and I talked, the calmer I became.  So, this next week I'm going to modify how I eat and see if it makes a difference.  Here's what a typical day of food will look like for me next week:

• Breakfast: 3 eggs & a protein shake

• Lunch: tilapia tacos

• Snack: fat free plain yogurt w/fruit

• Dinner: an apple

I'll take an extra apple to work with me in case I feel extra hungry, but otherwise, that will be all I'll be eating in a day.  I'm also not going to be eating my exercise calories this week.  She suggested taking water pills, but I'm not sure with my eating disorder history if that would be a good idea for me.  We'll see if I can control my water retention without using pills.

 

I’ve decided that on the first Saturday of every month I will post new measurements and new progress photos along with my weigh ins. 

 

I want to make a note about what I wrote about earlier in the week about body image issues.  I didn’t say it in that post, but I wanted to say it now.  When I look in the mirror, I don’t always see all the progress I’ve made.  I don’t always see the loss of over 10 inches off my waist.  I don’t always see that I’ve lost 80 pounds.  I don’t always see that my face is usually blessed with a smile because I don’t hate myself anymore.  A lot of times, when I look in the mirror, I still see that fat, miserable, uncomfortable girl I used to be.  I’m struggling with accepting that this is going to be a life long struggle.  Just like controlling my eating disorder is going to be a life long struggle.  When you think about the big picture like that, it’s just so overwhelming and makes you feel so small and like you’ll never be able to succeed when all you do is take 3 steps forward only to fall backward 4 steps, and repeat.  But, even though I haven’t reached the end of my weight loss journey, I want to stop myself right here and remind myself that it IS worth it.  I will be so much happier with myself, my life, my body and so much more proud of myself for sticking to it despite all my setbacks once I’ve reached my goal and changed from a loser to a maintainer.  You better believe that once I’ve reached the status of maintainer that I will be framing, side by side, (what I call) my “fat me” picture and my goal weight picture and hanging it on my “Wall of Me.”