Day 4

Some things.

Some things I am VERY excited about.

My Vibrams.

My new kettlebell.




Some things I am also excited about.

The weather warming up to 8ºC.
Yoga tonight.
Soccer tomorrow.
Soccer Saturday.
John's birthday party on Saturday.
Moving my cheat day to Saturday to accommodate the party.

Some things I am not excited about.

My weight: 131.5
My energy level: low.
The snow melting: lame.
My hair today: ridiculous.

Day 1

Here I Go Again.

Let me catch you up. Last week sucked. Mood sucked, weight loss sucked. The end.

BUT. This week is going to be awesome. I've decided.

So, I'm going to give you a quick run-down of my current stats, without dwelling on anything negative.

Weight: 132.

Body fat: 26.2%

Waist: 28"

Hips: 39"

Photos:

Definitely not my best week, but I'm chalking it up to my period and moving on.

SO. Today has been excellent thus far. Finished Born to Run, which I HIGHLY recommend. Amazing book that I found insanely inspirational and incredibly informative. Read it. You'll thank me. Oh, speaking of which, thanks to John and Blair :) You were right!

After I finished the book I went out for a run for the first time in about 3 weeks. Plus, I wore my Vibrams. I felt like I was floating. Loved every second of it.

I happened to run to the gym, so I went in for a few kettlebell swings before I ran home. Great ass, here I come.

I'm off yoga in a bit. So I can get my stretch on.

A soccer game at 11 tonight makes me a pretty happy girl.

And having an amazing husband to share my life with isn't so bad either.

Peace out world. Hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day as much as I'm enjoying mine.

Day 25

.

I'm just going to say this. I would kill for a quesadilla. Fucking Kill. Maybe not a human, but a spider, definitely. This mood + lack of weight loss = that time of the month. Wonderful.

So I'm doing my best to ignore the scale, which is about a half a pound from being run over by my car. And trying to combat my moodiness, which is probably going to scare John and the dogs into hiding.

But alas, I'm a bloated bitch at the moment, and feel completely helpless. 

Day 23

Goal Setting.

So I'm near the end of my 30 days of dieting. And I'm thinking about doing another 30. "Sadistic" is the word you're looking for. But the reality is, I still have weight to lose.

Which brings me to today's topic. Until now, my goals have been relatively vague. Reason 1 was because I didn't know what to expect from this diet. Reason 2 was because I didn't want to look like an ass if I didn't achieve anything. But I'm going in to the final week feeling confident-ish, so I'm going to set some firm goals for the rest of the week and all of the next round.

Here we go:

1. 4 Liters of water a day. By the end of the month you'll be able to set a watch to my pee schedule. Not that you would. Or should. But you'll have that option.

2. Train every day. Whether it's yoga, rock climbing, swimming, taekwondo, running, soccer, indo-boarding, or some other random task I can subject my body to, I'm going do train every day. Without exception. For at least an hour. Bam.

3. Track calories. It's not required for the diet, but I think it will help me see results. So I'm doing it. And I'm sticking to estimates to avoid becoming homicidal.

4. Achieve below 20% Body Fat. Six pack optional, but preferred.

5. Weigh below 120lb. I'll take 119.5. Or if I buy a new scale that doesn't round to the nearest 1/2 pound, I'll take 119.9.

6. 25" waist. Without sucking in... a lot.

Ambitious? Yes. Do-able? We'll find out.


FYI, I'm hoping today was my "peak" day, because I still haven't recovered from my binge day (could have been the second serving of nachos that did me in...). Last week it took until Thursday to start losing again, so we'll see if history repeats itself.

Current weight: 133.5, which means I better have a really aerobic sleep if I want to be back on track for tomorrow.

Day 21

The Day After the Day Before Yesterday.


When I decided I wanted to lose weight, I was living in San Diego, working at a hostel. My friend and I made a bet to see who could lose the most weight in a month. She won. I think I still owe her money. Oops. Anyway, it was that bet that got me on the track I needed to be on. When we started that month, almost a year ago now, I weighed 153. I started blogging at 134.5. Yesterday, I weighed in at 129.5.


I'm going to tell you something. It feels so fucking good to step back and realize how successful I've been with this journey. I can't express the pride I feel when I sit back and think, "Holy shit, I'm losing weight!" When I saw my weight yesterday, I could have cried. But instead I fist pumped and frightened the dogs. And John. Apparently it's a very intense fist pump.


I have never set a definitive goal, but I think 120 is a good place for me to stop and re-evaluate. Which means I still have another 9.5 pounds to go. And I know it won't be easy, because these last 5 pounds have felt impossible some days, but I'm ready for the challenge. More importantly, I'm excited about the prospect of success.


Weight: 129.5lb (-2.5lb)
Body Fat: 26.2% (+0.9% Skinfold measurements: Subscapula: 14; Suprailliac: 13; Bicep: 7; Triceps: 15)
Total Fat Weight: 33.9lb (+0.4lb)*
Lean Body Mass: 95.6lb (-3lb)*
Circumference: 146 inches (-3.5" ---Neck: 12.5; Upper arm: R10.5, L10.5; Waist: 28; Hips: 39.5; Upper thigh: R22.5, L22.5)


* When I measure my body fat, I use two different caliper techniques. One measures my back, waist, bicep and triceps; the other measures my waist, triceps and thigh (and is always lower than the first set). Although I do average the measurements for my own purposes, for the blog, I only use the first technique, as I have found it to be most accurate. However, last week, I accidentally calculated my fat weight and lean body mass off of the average, instead of just the first set of measurements. This led to better looking results. Which was great for motivation last week, but not accurate. This week's results were calculated after correcting my previous error. I tell you this because I know you did the math at home and it just did not add up. And because I don't want to live a lie.


So according to my measurements, I gained fat and had my appendix removed. Eh, whatever, you can't win 'em all! I'm just happy to be down a few pounds and a few inches!


"Enjoy" the pics.

And in case you were wondering, I had an AMAZING cheat day full of ice cream and nachos and beer! Hooray!

Day 19

Food for Thought.

John and I had a little too much time on our hands last night and decided to have sex. Only kidding. We're married, we don't have sex anymore. No, instead, we starting talking about calories. And we managed to work out that I consumed about 550,000 last year. That figure astounded us. Never had we thought about calorie consumption on such a large scale.

Even more shocking was how these calories broke down. Although I was vegetarian for half the year and vegan for half of that time, I still could not get below 135. Which, I might add, I had been trying to do for years. Anyway, so I got to thinking about where all my calories had come from and, big surprise, I realized what a significant role bread has played. I estimated that I consumed about 300 calories a day on bread alone. And that's a conservative number. It was probably closer to 500 most days. That means that over the course of last year, bread (not carbs, just bread)contributed between 100,000 and 180,000 calories to my total caloric consumption. That means I ate between 30 and 50 POUNDS worth of BREAD! AHHHHH!!!!

No wonder it was so hard to lose weight!

So, here's to another week completed, bread free!

Tomorrow is the big weigh in... and my cheat day! Stoked!!!

Current weight: 131.0000000000000 :)

Day 18

Over the Hump.

Lately, things have been rough. To start, I had a couple days of really bad homesickness. Plus, with my leg acting up, I haven't run in over a week. Add to that the fact that the scale was being a little bitch. Put it all together, and you have what we call a "plateau." A big, fat hump in the middle of your life. Like a Wednesday, but fatter. Wwweeedddnnneeesssdddaaayyy.

Weight loss stalled... Desire to eat everything in sight increased... Frustration multiplied... Self control out the window... Straight jacket may be required.

But yesterday, despite being a mental wreck, I got over the hump. Of course, I didn't realize that yesterday, because I was about 2 legumes shy of being a total nut job.

Today though, I see it. More importantly, I feel it.

So here's what I think got me out of my funk.

1. Water: I basically went on a water binge, and sure enough, woke up yesterday dying to pee and finally  below 132.

2. Hope: I don't even own a pair yet, but my new obsession, Vibrams, have given me hope that someday I will be able to run pain-free. And that hope is simply intoxicating.

3. Remembering that tomorrow is a new day: What I didn't mention in my blog yesterday was how awful I felt at yoga last night. Absolutely terrible. But when I left, I said to my instructor, "It's all good, because tomorrow is a new day." And sure enough, yoga this afternoon was fantastic.

Today, I feel amazing and I'm so proud of myself for sticking to my goals, dealing with my frustration and getting over the hump. I'm amped for my weekend of soccer and I can't wait for next week when I replace my runs with Taekwondo, rock climbing and swimming.

Current weight: 131.5 and STOKED for ice cream on Sunday!