Weekly Recap

Last week, something awesome happened.  I hit my goal weight!  However, I still have a very soft appearance around my midsection and have some excess “fluff” going on, plus my body fat is still around 34%.  A healthy average body fat for a woman is 24-31%.  So, I have a new, revised goal.  I want to get my body fat below 31%.  I’m going to start that off by readjusting my goal weight to 165.  But, if I hit 31% or less before I get to 165, then I will have hit my new goal.  I’m going to keep up my intense workout schedule as best as I can while picking up 1-2 shifts of overtime every week that I am able to. 

I had a bunch of stress on Saturday.  It all started on Thursday.  I got home from work and had a voice message from my apartment complex office asking me to drop off a copy of my renter’s insurance when I got a chance.  I forgot to do this Friday before work and had a very nasty gram stuck into my door jam when I got home Friday night that said since I had failed to turn in my proof of insurance I was now on a month-to-month rent plan.  That’s like an extra $200 a month, I can’t afford that!!!  So needless to say I had huge issues sleeping Friday night.  On top of that I had the Hill Country Half Marathon Saturday morning that I didn’t know if it was going to get canceled or we were going to have to run in pouring rain to worry about.  I had set my alarm for 5:20am but was wide awake at 4am and was obsessively thinking about it the whole time.  I changed my mind about my outfit.  I would no longer wear my costume, but I would wear my muscles & tendons leggings with a hot pink Reebok pullover with a hood, and most likely my red poncho over it all.  I got out of bed after my alarm went off and gathered all my stuff and got ready and headed to the start location.  When I arrived at the start location and checked my email, I discovered the email from Penteli Events stating the race was canceled.  So I drove home and wasted time until I could go pick up my medal, shirt and bib from the running store and then drop off my proof of insurance.

Good news, I wasn’t actually placed on that month-to-month status, it was just a blanket form letter they had sent out to everyone else.  I then ran some more errands and ate some semi-healthy homemade nachos, then laid down on the couch and proceeded to sleep for 3 solid hours.

And now let’s get started with how this week has gone!

• Saturday: I was supposed to run a half marathon, but it got canceled.  I was then going to run 13.1 on my own and “earn” my medal that I still received, but ended up exhausted and asleep on the couch all afternoon.  So, I went to the gym and did 50 minutes on the elliptical plus about an hour of strength training with my machines workout.  I have to make sure that the weight I lose is fat loss and not muscle loss…I have to do my strength training!!!

Also, Timehop had a selfie throwback for me, so I did one of those "then and now" split screens with it!  What a difference 5 years makes.  Don't you agree?

• Sunday: since I didn’t get my now virtual Halloween Half Marathon ran Saturday, I decided to get it done this day.  I slept late as I had gone to a Halloween party Saturday night and stayed longer than I had meant to waiting on the awards for best and sexiest costumes.  Sadly, I didn’t win.  And, between you and me, I think it’s a crock I didn’t win one of them.  But whatever, I digress!  I got my half marathon ran this day in the afternoon.  It was in the low 60’s so it was really nice running weather.  Not raining, but a little windy.  Perfect, really.  I just ran at a pace that felt “comfortably hard” to me which ended up being an overall pace of 11:17 per mile. 

• Monday: "You can't get the results you want without putting in the work it takes to get there."  Had a little hitch on this morning as 1) I had no idea what workout(s) I wanted to do today and 2) I didn't feel like doing anything...you know the whole "I ran a half marathon yesterday, I earned a day off" thoughts?  Yea, those were happening.  But, I pushed thru them, settled on an hour on the elliptical (did 5.15 miles) and my freestyle gym workout.  I took out the ropes and added ab tucks on the TRX straps.

• Tuesday: [mental] therapy day!  I had a nice, easy 5K run this morning!  It was originally going to be just 3 miles, but right as I hit “start” on my FitBit and my Garmin, my Bluetooth earphones died.  So, I ran the .1 of a mile from the front of my apartment complex to the base of the stairs at my building, retrieved my ear buds and put my earphones on the charger, then ran back to the front of the complex and started my run.  I’m not complaining at all.  I remember back when I first started running and I would add on an extra .1 or .2 or point-whatever to my runs whenever I could just to make that monthly mileage add up and add up!  Then, after my run, I got ready and left to park at work and do my walking pre- and post-therapy appointment.  Got in a little over 2.5 miles of walking done.

• Wednesday: I worked overtime on the night shift Tuesday night, so no workout this day.

• Thursday: worked overtime again Wednesday night, so no workout again.

• Friday: I had this day off work.  I had asked for it off because I was wanting to run a half marathon in San Antonio today (Saturday), but the feedback I got from my supervisor told me that I wouldn’t get the time off, so I didn’t register for the race and now I just have a free day off.  So I used it to catch up on some stuff.  went to the gym again, did an hour and 15 minutes on the elliptical for 6.3 miles and followed up with my machines workout. 

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I mentioned I went to a Halloween party last Saturday and that my costume didn’t win me any award.  But, even though I didn’t win an award, I did win an awesome compliment from the hostess!  She told me I looked amazing.  At first, I thought she was referring to my costume, but then I realized she was talking about my weight loss and getting into shape.  She’s not someone that doles out compliments unless they are truly warranted, so her compliment meant/means a lot that she took the time to tell me that. 

Last Saturday I also did a cheat day.  I started it all off with a cinnamon roll and a sausage, egg & cheese croissant from the donut shop.  Something that intermittent fasting and calorie counting has done for me is that when I eat, it actually keeps me satisfied and I can then go hours before I get actually hungry again.  I then made myself some nachos.  I used phyllo dough for the chips, then cooked up some lean ground turkey seasoned with my homemade taco seasoning, mashed avocado, no salt added and rinsed black beans, diced tomatoes & onions, fat free plain Greek yogurt and a little 2% shredded cheddar cheese.  They were sooooo good!  I’ve never used Greek yogurt in place of sour cream before and I have to say…I really like it!!!  It’s a little more sour than sour cream, but it’s a good swap.  That night at the party I had chips and queso, a slice of pizza and some Halloween candy.

Like last week, I spent the week making sure that Saturday’s indulgences didn’t make a negative impact on this week’s scale results.  But, I only had one day of indulgences to make up for instead of almost 3 as Sunday I was more than happy to eat more within my usual plans. 

Now let’s see how the scale looks this week.

I’m seriously doing a happy dance right now.  The whole time the last few years I’ve thought that 170 was as low as I could go without it becoming preventatively difficult to continue to lose and then ridiculously hard to maintain anything below 170.  I knew that 3 years ago I had gotten to 172.2 and maintained it without any issue, but that no matter what I did at that time, I couldn’t get any lower.  So I thought that was it and that’s why I set my goal weight to 170, not 165, or 160, or whatever.  Now, here I am, at 166.7.  I can’t believe it.  When I hit 170.2 last week and it was easy to do, I figured that my weight loss would slow to like 1…maaaaaaaaybe 2…pounds a week.  I in no way expected a 3.5 pound loss.  That’s just crazy.  So, that tells me that I am indeed NOT done losing weight.  Plus, I want to get my body fat % into the “normal” range, so that means 31% or less.  I only have 2.8% to go until I get to that normal range.  I had already decided that my weight goal would go down to 165 to start, now, I’m shooting for 160.  I’m hoping that 160 also equals 31% or less because I don’t want to lose TOO much weight, you know?  I am excited to start the maintenance phase and not have to worry about “hitting numbers” each week.

I earned the 20 pounds lost badge with FitBit.  I did also earn the badge for reaching my goal weight, but I'm going to wait until I've hit my body fat % goal before I post it.

Hill Country Halloween "Virtual" Half Marathon Race Report

This is a unique race recap in that I didn’t get to run the ACTUAL race.  It was canceled thanks to hurricane Patricia and her heavy ass rains and flooding.  I woke up at about 4am, well over an hour before my alarm was set to go off, but just couldn’t sleep.  On top of the race and anxiety over whether it would be on or canceled plus another stress item that was affecting me, I had big issues going to sleep and staying that way Saturday night.  I laid in bed for about 10 minutes after the alarm went off before getting up and getting ready.  I had gotten most of my things gathered before going to bed the night before.  Part of my anxiety when I woke up at 4am was what I was going to wear.  I didn’t really want to wear my costume because I didn’t want it to get ruined and decided on my muscle and tendon leggings and a pink running pullover, but a red poncho on top of that.  

I left my apartment just before 6am and stopped at Starbucks for my usual pre-race caffeine fix of their cold brew iced coffee…so yummy!  I then made my way to the Cedar Park Center in Cedar Park, TX where the race was to start and end.  I got there and parked.  There were about 3-4 other vehicles already there.  I then checked my email and Penteli Events had literally JUST sent out the email stating that the race was canceled.  They said that packets would be available for pickup at Rogue Running, including our race medals, later in the day.  So, my plan was to go around noon and pick up my packet then run the 13.1 on my own.

I did not run the 13.1 later the same day that the race was supposed to be.  I had all that stress and lack of sleep and ended up crashing on the couch after I got all my errands done and by the time I got up it was after 5pm and I did not want to run in the cold(ish) temp with the rain and in the dark.  That just didn’t sound fun at all.  So I opted to wait for the following day.  I headed out just before 2pm for my now virtual half marathon.  Since it was chilly, I wore a pullover on top of my shirt to keep me warm.  This meant that both my FitBit and my Garmin would be hidden from easy access view, so I opted to run strictly by feel and keep it at a comfortably hard effort.  My overall average pace was 11:17 minutes so I’m happy with that.  This was definitely nowhere near my fastest half marathon time by quite a bit at 2:27:55.  But, it is also nowhere near my slowest. 

I did not dress up in my costume to run this race as a virtual race, but I did have a little fun with what I was wearing.  I had bought some muscle and tendon leggings a while back and slipped those on over a pair of my running capris.  I ran the distance and then I slapped on my bib and took my own official race photo!  One good thing about running a race virtually is that you don’t have to wait a week or two for race photos to post…oh and then you don’t have to pay for them either.

I am really looking forward to actually running this race next year.  I’m sad that I didn’t get to run with my running buddy, Rob.  We met for the first time in person (we’d been social media friends for a few months already) at this race last year.  I am very happy that the race director and staff have made a good effort to ensure everyone got their shirts, bibs and medals even though the race was canceled.  I am very happy that there was a custom bib this year.  If you’ll remember I was extremely disappointed last year to learn that they were using generic RoadID bibs.  Last year’s shirt was fantastic.  It was an attractive design and it was tech material.  This year’s shirt is attractive but not tech material, so this is very disappointing to me.

my bib

the medal...isn't it cute?

the shirt...really wish this was tech material

As a result of this run, I earned a new FitBit badge for taking over 25,000 steps in one day!  Yay!

And here's the scrapbook page I did for this race.

 

Weekly Recap

Last week I weighed in at an “all time” low for me!  I then promptly spent the weekend indulging at the renaissance festival.  Needless to say I was at least a little nervous that I was going to show a gain come this week’s weigh in.  I went into this week with the idea that I needed to cut my calories and really push myself in my workouts.  Cutting the calories was easy.  I cut about 300+ calories out each day this week (after the weekend was over, of course).  However, I skipped the strength training that I had planned to do on Monday and opted for a little extra sleep instead.

 

• Saturday: first day of the festival.  We walked about 8 miles throughout the whole day and spent basically the whole day on our feet.

• Sunday: second day of the festival.  We walked around 7 miles this day, again standing up the majority of the day.  And my feet were killing me by the time I broke camp and headed home.

• Monday: Happy Runniversary to meeeeeeee!!!!  3 years ago I went on my first run!  I ran 5 miles this day.  Mile splits for the first 3 miles were 10:27, 10:48, 10:58, then I dropped the hammer apparently and did a 10:01.  Then ended with a 9:27!!!!  Whoa!  I felt great and my heart rate was within my target area, so I know I wasn’t pushing myself too hard.  Breathing was only slightly labored.  I could've easily kept going like that for another mile or two before slowing down a little.  I hate to say that getting hurt is a good thing (because it’s not), but I think being FORCED to not run for almost 2 months was the best thing that could've happened to my running "career."  Weird, I know.  But, I get excited about running again now and running is just way more enjoyable than it was pre-injury.  I've rediscovered the true joy of running and I couldn't be happier!  In fact, if I hadn’t been starting to chafe in a rather sensitive female area, I would have changed my route and gone 7 miles instead of 5.  And, as I mentioned, I had planned to do my Sunday funday workout after my run, but because I slept in a little bit and then had meal prep to do, I didn’t.

• Tuesday: I had training instead of regular work this day, so no therapy appointment this week.  I packed 4 boiled eggs, 8 oz of turkey lunchmeat and my celery with Greek yogurt ranch mix to eat while I was at training.  Since I brought my own food, I wasn’t going out for lunch.  Literally everyone else went out to eat for lunch.  Instead, I made my way to the workout room with the intention of walking on the treadmill.  However both of the treadmills had signs saying they were out of order so I hopped on the elliptical and set it for 45 minutes + the 5 minute cool down.  I did 3.85 miles in that time.

My original plan for this day was to go to the gym after training and do the elliptical for an hour followed by strength training.  Since I did the elliptical on my lunchbreak, I didn’t “need” to do it at the gym.  So, since I was itching to hit the pavement, I decided to do a 3 mile run after the temp cooled down a little bit in the evening.  I just decided to nix the gym in favor of going to sleep early since I picked up overtime for Wednesday night and would be getting up early to workout before work and then be awake until 6:something Thursday morning.  Besides, I only ate like 850 calories this day and was fully satisfied with that.  It was a lot of food that was a lot of volume but super low in calories (celery, baked yellow squash & zucchini).  So, anyway, I ran 3.3 miles and my splits were 10:38, 10:16, 9:40 and the final .3 was at a 10:33 pace as I had lost my steam at that point.  Haha.  Still a fantastic run.

• Wednesday: I had planned on running 8 miles this day, but I had side stitches before I even got to the 1 mile mark.  I toughed it out and sort of controlled it through a breathing technique that has worked in the past for me in getting rid of stitches.  But, it didn’t completely work this time, just kinda kept it at bay.  I stopped a couple times to stretch in an attempt to get rid of the stitches, but within a couple minutes of starting to run again, they were back.  Ugh.  So, instead of turning left so I could hit my planned 8 miles, I turned right and went home and logged 7 miles.  Still a great run even though it wasn’t an easy one.  You know what they say, even a bad run is better than no run.  But I wouldn’t call this a bad run, just an uncomfortable one, but not in the preferred method of being uncomfortable (aka: pushing myself to run faster because I’m feeling great).  It also rained on me a little bit, which ever so slightly influenced my decision to turn right instead of left, but not much.  I love running in the rain.

• Thursday: worked overtime on the night shift Wednesday, so no workout this day.

 

• Friday: I set my alarm so I’d be out of bed by 8am, thinking this would leave me enough time to hit the elliptical for an hour and then do weights for about an hour as well.  As my hour on the elliptical wrapped up, I realized I would not have time to lift weights and NOT be rushed getting ready for work.  Boooo.  So, no weights.  Ugh, this was a week of strictly cardio.  Bad Sara! 

 

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Eating was really good this week.  I did indulge and eat whatever tickled my fancy over the weekend while I was at the renaissance festival.  The rest of the week, I was really good about controlling what I ate with the exception of a couple “fun sized” candy bars on Thursday…but I was still within my 1300 calorie daily allowance even with them.  Most days I felt over full even with my reduced caloric intake because I was eating volume foods like celery and zucchini and yellow squash.  Lots of volume, not much calories.  I do need to switch up the snack of celery with ranch seasoned Greek yogurt soon, though.  Might swap it for cantaloupe.

 

As I mentioned, the only kind of exercise I did this week was cardio…wah wah.  Walking, running and the elliptical.  No strength training AT ALL.  Ugh.  I really have to not do that again next week.  Must get my strength training!  Well, with that said, let’s see what that means for the scale this week…

I wasn’t really expecting much this week.  I mostly just wanted to not show a gain as a result of the indulgence from last weekend.  So the fact that I lost weight at all makes me happy.  And then, we have to take note of the fact that I have reached my GOAL WEIGHT!!!  However, there is still a small amount of flab, jiggle, fluff, whatever you want to call it around my middle, so I'm going to try and lose another 5 lbs and then, at that point, whatever is still there will most likely be just excess skin instead of excess fat.  And I'll take care of THAT in a year or so after I've paid off other things.  Unless it just happens to resolve itself, which I *guess* could possibly happen.  But, if it doesn't, there's no shame in a tummy tuck.  The only thing I'm upset about with this week's weigh in is that after doing the math, I discovered that only .5 lb was actual fat loss.  Wah wah.  That's what I get for not doing ANY strength training this week.  That'll learn me.  Definitely need to make sure I get to the gym 2-3 days next week (on top of my Sunday-funday workout I'll be doing tomorrow).

Timehop gave me a selfie from 5 years ago before I started losing the weight and WOW what a difference about 90 lbs makes!!!

Way of Eating Update

I thought I’d take a little bit to give you guys an update on how intermittent fasting is going for me.  The short version?  AH-MAY-ZING!  Being someone that suffers from an eating disorder, let me just tell you, I actually feel IN CONTROL of my eating for the first time in I don’t even know how long.  Usually I don’t feel in control at all, that I’m completely controlled by my cravings and urges and that, to quote the Borg, I felt that “resistance is futile.”  It is a horrible feeling to feel like you are a prisoner in your own life and that you don’t have control of your own behaviors.  And this is the first time, like I said, in basically forever, that I have felt like *I* am the one in charge.  It’s such a freeing feeling and experience. 

 

I don’t do just intermittent fasting on its own, even though it is great just by itself.  I do a combination of calorie counting and low carb in conjunction with the intermittent fasting.  I have gone low carb because even the high quality breads and pastas give me horrible heartburn.  Also, they’re super high in calories and I’ve come to really love the Miracle Noodles that are made from the shirataki root and have next to no calories.  And I don’t miss bread at all.  Obviously, if I have a burger, I have bread, but it’s not much and I don’t have burgers very often, so it’s okay.  I make sure to get lots of veggies, so I am getting enough healthy carbs that are not processed.

 

With the calorie counting, I like to keep it at 1300 or below a day.  And I don’t even touch my exercise calories anymore.  I used to eat them all or mostly, but a couple months ago opted to stop doing that and wow what a difference that has made.  I’ve actually had MORE energy than ever before even though I’m eating so much less than I was previously.  If I’ve had an indulgent weekend, I cut my calories for a couple days after the weekend is over down to about 1000 to help counteract the extra calories I consumed and get myself back to level.  That’s what I’ve done this week.  I was at the renaissance festival all weekend and while I didn’t over eat, I ate what I wanted when I wanted.  So, this week I have slashed my daily calories by 100 to 500 less than my usual daily amount and I have to tell you, I haven’t been hungry at all with the less calories. 

 

Intermittent fasting is great.  Let me attempt to tell you why it’s great for me.  First, like I said, it allows me to feel in control when it comes to eating and that is HUGE for me.  It makes it super easy to say “no” to food I “shouldn’t” be eating if it’s outside of my eating window.  I don’t want to mess up the fat burning process by eating something and spiking my insulin (even a small spike is enough to kill the fasting period), so I just chug water or take a little walk to distract myself from the “hunger” or the cravings and urges and they usually go away and all is well in my little world again. 

 

I no longer stress about eating, or if I do it’s a really small stress and is easily forgotten and moved on from.  I have a huge issue with food anxiety and I fell for the trap of the whole “eat every 2-3 hours to keep your blood sugar stable” baloney.  It was/is baloney for me, anyway.  If it wasn’t baloney, I wouldn’t be able to make it through working out without eating first or when I work the overtime on the night shift, I wouldn’t be able to make it through that without feeling all jittery and gross because my blood sugar dropped.  There was a time when I was like that, but I had trained my body to be overly food dependent so my blood sugar actually would fluctuate all crazy like.  But now I’m eating in a more balanced and controlled manner, so I don’t have that problem anymore.  Also, I’m not diabetic, so my blood sugar shouldn’t fluctuate like that anyway. 

 

Overall, I am so much happier with this combination of ways of eating.  I’m losing 1-3 pounds a week on average so it’s helping me get to my goal weight so much faster, which of course makes me happier.

Weekly Recap

Last Saturday, I stepped on the scale and was happy, happy, happy to see I had dropped 2 pounds from the previous week’s weigh in.  However, I was now 1 pound away from where I got “stuck” 2 years ago (the last time I seriously committed to losing weight).  2 years ago, I could not, no matter what I tried, get below 172.2.  I was at 172.2 for over 2 months straight before something horrible happened and the wheels fell off my wagon and I lost everything I had worked so hard for.  So, I am more than nervous about how my weight loss is going to play out now that I’m so close to the stuck point I found myself at 2 years ago.  Things are different now.  I’m approaching weight loss in a completely different manner.  I think I’m a lot smarter about things this time than I was 2 years ago.  Smarter about how I’m eating that is.  I had a decent workout routine with P90X and running back then.  I guess I’m a little smarter with exercise too, now that I think of it.  I mean, my workouts are way more varied than they were back then.  I’ve got swimming, running, cycling/spinning, 4 different strength training workouts, and getting a minimum of 10,000 steps a day.

I'm going to be camping at the renaissance festival all weekend, which is why I'm posting today instead of tomorrow.  I won't be counting calories, but might still be sticking with my intermittent fasting schedule (or at least a version of it), this weekend.  I know that means I'm going to have to work extra hard next week to make sure I don't go up on the scale next week and I'm okay with that.  This weekend is all about fun and that's what is going to happen!

• Saturday: I RAN!!!!  Omg, I haven’t been this happy in forever…seriously!  I also haven’t been this emotional about running since I ran my first full marathon last December at the Dallas Marathon.  My run started off with Ellie Goulding’s song “Love Me Like You Do” playing in my ears and yes, I wanted running to love me like it does and it did not disappoint!  I ran a 5K distance for a virtual race I signed up for.  I just ran at a comfortable pace, not pushing it at all, not trying to hit any specific time.  Dude, I hadn’t ran since August 21^st…no way I’m going to push things and end up hurting myself AGAIN.  Not gonna happen.  Or, well, I’m not going to be stupid and set myself up for it on purpose, anyway.  So, needless to say, when I crossed mile 1 and my time was 11:21, I was happy with that.  Then, when I crossed mile 2 and my watch beeped 11:01, I was like “whaaaaaaaat?”  Then, I crossed mile 3 in 10:32.  WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?!?!  The final .1 of a mile was at a 10:24 pace and I am fully convinced I could have held that pace for the whole mile, if not a little faster.  I just plain felt fantastic!  I felt like I could have run forever.  I had my FitBit set to show me my heartrate and my heartrate was steady right at 145-146 the whole run.  Wow!  Usually when I run it’s in the 160’s.  I credit swimming with this improved cardio fitness.

• Sunday: I am a little sore from Saturday’s run, but I knew I would be.  It’s not too much to keep me from doing what I have scheduled for this day, workout-wise.  Now that I’m back at work this week and also now that running is back in the game, I’ve dropped swimming to just once a week.  I still will add 100 meters each week until I reach 2000 meters, which is where I’ll keep it at.  This week’s distance is 1400 meters.  Got that done in 37 minutes.  But, before I did my swim, I decided that I wanted to do more cardio than just swim, so I hit the elliptical for an hour + 5 minute cool down!  Awwwww yea!

This is Sunday, so it is, of course, FUNDAY workout time!!!!! 

• Monday: back to work today.  I had to make sure I got up early enough to get all of my working out that I wanted to do done, so I set my alarm for 6:30am.  I did a little multi-tasking while drinking my pre-run coffee.  I needed to bake the spaghetti squash for my dinners for this week, so I prepped them and stuck them in the oven for an hour.  I’m not used to getting up that early and the sun didn’t even start to come out until around 7:30.  Geez.   I ran 5 miles and it went great!  My Garmin was on crack for the first half mile and said I’d already run a mile…in 5:57 minutes.  Yea, right.  I’m not an elite, or a borderline elite, runner.  My FitBit said I did mile 1 (the whole thing) in 11:37.  That’s more like how I run.  After “mile 1” (according to the Garmin), it tracked accurately, but because it tracked mile 1 incorrectly, it said my total distance was 5.49 miles when it was actually only 5.02 miles.  Hopefully it doesn’t hiccup again.  But, if it does, that’s one reason I double up on my activity trackers!

After the run, I spent a minute uploading my data and doing the Instagram collage for it, changed my shoes and then headed to the gym for my freestyle workout.  I did everything except for the BOSU lunges and the woodchoppers on the cable machine.  I almost nixed the BOSU squats as well, but decided I really did need to do at least those, so I did.  But, really, my abs and my legs were toast.  I still had a great workout and the BOSU lunges and the woodchoppers get done in the hodge podge workout as well, so I’ll just hit those extra hard later in the week.

• Tuesday: therapy day…and that means walking!  I had a little issue with procrastination when it came to getting out of bed this day. I kept waking up during the night and the last time I got up to use the bathroom at about 5:15am, I just couldn't get back to sleep. So when the alarm went off at 6:30 I hit the snooze and didn't get up until after 7:00. As a result I was rushed when getting ready for therapy and work after I got home from the gym.  Strode my way to 5.2 miles in my 65 minutes on the elliptical.  After that, I drove to work and parked in the garage and did my pre- and post-appointment walking for a total of 2.7 miles.

• Wednesday: no procrastination allowed in getting out of bed this day!  I had the 9:30am spin class on my agenda and I wanted to get strength training done as well in this visit.  I wouldn’t have time after the spin class to get it done without being super rushed getting ready for work, so I had to do the strength pre-spin.  I did my machines workout and it took about 53 minutes.  Then I hit the spin class!  I got a bike right next to the wall mirror and I have to say I could not stop staring at myself…haha!  My arms are so not flabby, which is just fascinating to me.  And my legs are getting toned…also super fascinating.  Oh and there’s no spare tire around my midsection anymore so I like the way that part of my body looks now as well.  Also, I can watch my form better if I’m next to the mirror…haha!

• Thursday: I picked up overtime at work last night, so I didn’t get to workout this day.

• Friday: since I picked up overtime Wednesday night and couldn’t workout yesterday, I did my 8 mile run this morning.  Other than a fast mile at 10:41 and a slow mile at 11:17, all my miles were within 6 seconds of each other. Very nice.   Also, while my overall time for this run was nowhere near my fastest 8 mile time of 1:22:42 from back in May, I did discover it's actually a fairly average 8 mile time for me.  So that's great news!  I wanted to run 8 miles today because if I can run 8 then I can run 13.1...and that's important because I have a half marathon with a 3 hour time limit next Saturday.  Now I have no worries.  I was going to go to the gym for my hodge podge strength training workout, but since I worked overtime Wednesday night, I wasn’t able to pack and prep for this weekend’s trip to the renaissance festival, so I just did that after my run so I could get to the campsite early enough to still have light to set up my tent and everything.

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Since I now have to get up earlier to workout, I’ve had to adjust the times of day for my intermittent fasting periods (fasting vs “feasting”).  I’m still sticking with the 16 hours of fasting with 8 hours of “feasting.”  But, instead of waiting until noon, 1pm, or even 2pm to eat breakfast, I’m eating breakfast around 10am, or after I’ve wrapped up my workout, whichever is later.  That means I’m done eating by 6pm, which is great in my opinion.  This will only maybe be an issue for me when I work a double shift, but I’ll just have to load myself up with water to keep the “hunger” at bay (because, let’s be honest, it won’t be TRUE hunger…it will be the “hey I’m awake so I should eat” kind of hunger).

Eating went pretty dang well this week!  I had no issues with being hungry or snacky or food anxiety after the end of my “feasting” period each day.  Wednesday when I worked the double shift was a little tough but not because I was hungry, because I was so ridiculously tired.  Holy cow was I tired.  I had so much coffee that I had a horrible case of heartburn.  Ugh.  But I was fine as far as food went.  Around 4am is when I was struggling with a little hunger and the only thing that kept me out of the donuts was the heartburn I already had and knowing it would just get worse, way worse, if I caved and had a donut.  So I didn’t.  It wasn’t even that hard to resist.  Seriously.  The biggest problem was that I was awake for basically 24 hours and then I was only able to get about 4 hours of sleep, if that, thanks to the construction going on in the lot next door to my apartment complex.

Also, I’m not going to lie, I ate some Halloween candy last night at work.

I’m weighing in today, Friday, because I’m heading out of town as soon as I publish this post and will be spending the entire weekend camping at the Texas Renaissance Festival with friends!  It’s going to be a whatever I want to eat weekend, but I’m not going to go overboard.  I’m going to most likely stick with my intermittent fasting schedule and not eat before 11am and after 7pm.  There will be a post entirely dedicated to the renaissance festival weekend later next week and all the fun we had! 

So, on to this week’s weigh in…

OH. MY. GAWD.  You guys!  I busted through the “stuck point” I stalled out at during my last serious weight loss effort 2 years ago.  At that time, I could not get the scale to move below 172.2 (which, since the FitBit Aria scale weighs me in .4 lb higher than that scale, it would be 172.6 on this scale) no matter what I did.  Seriously.  No. Matter. What.  To say I was nervous coming into this week’s weigh in was an understatement.  I was so nervous I was going to step on the scale and I would be at my “stuck point” yet again and then I would so frustrated.  Any one of you that have busted through a point where you thought you would have trouble will understand my excitement and happiness with this.

To delve further into this, I, of course, did some math.  Math, it’s what’s for breakfast.  Haha.  Here’s the breakdown:

• I weighed in at 171.9 lbs with a body fat of 34%! 

• I lost 1.3 lbs and 2% body fat!

• I lost 3.9 lbs of FAT!

• I gained 2.6 lbs of MUSCLE!

I’m gonna say it again: OH. MY. GAWD.  You guys!  This is the most epic week of my weight loss adventure!  Hands down!