Today was the final weigh in for my company's weight loss challenge. There will be another 12 weeks of workouts, but no more competition. I am quite proud of myself and my results. So proud that I may even have a friend take a picture of me in my bathing suit this weekend so I can post it here next week.
I am down 2.6 lbs from last week, bringing me to a total loss of 15.2 lbs! I know I could have lost more if I didn't bail on the workouts the last few weeks due to school and the whole schedule/stress thing. However, it would have been really easy for me to let those same factors get me to start eating like crap and gain a ton of weight back. I am really proud that I didn't let that happen.
My pants that I've worn for nearly every weigh in day are literally falling off of me now. I've lost 6 centimeters off my waist and 8 centimeters off my thigh. Eight centimeters is slightly over three inches! My thighs are smaller now then they were when I was twenty or thirty pounds lighter! They are still big, as you will see when I post the swimsuit pictures, but I am delighted that they are smaller.
Now I'm off to go to the beach all weekend! Thanks for checking in on me!
Friday, July 20, 2007
Week 12 - The Finish Line!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Is this thing on? Tap tap tap...
Wow-it's been a while since I posted. I'm sure I will make up for it soon, because in a few weeks I will have internet access at home! We've already received our DSL modem, we're just waiting for the service to be activated. Then I promise I will be a posting fool. My wonderful hubby bought me a new laptop for my birthday!!! I've been dying to use it to update y'all, but, again, still waiting for the internet at home. I have had no time to write at work due to homework and -shocker- actual work. The only reason I am writing here now is that it is 4:15 on a Friday and my work ethic has left the building.
My summer classes are still humming along. Accounting ended last week. The final that I was so worried about turned out to be easier than I thought. I got 106% (there were bonus points). That means that I got 100% or more on EVERY test, quiz, and assignment in that class. If that sounds like bragging, oh well. I am very proud of how I did. My professor gave me a recommendation to send in with my transfer application to Towson University and is trying to talk me into going into the accounting field. This weekend I'm visiting my brother who is a CPA (and lawyer-brains definitely run in my family). I'm going to get his opinion and I'm also interviewing a girl closer to my age who works for an accounting firm. No decisions yet though.
My ceramics class is still going on for one more week. As stressed out as I was a few weeks ago in this class, I'm sad that it is ending. The last two weeks everything has started to click. The good thing is that I will still have access to the studio for the rest of the summer and my professor will be there on Mondays and Wednesdays. Hopefully I will actually have some free time to take advantage of that.
My US History class started this past Monday (it's M-T-TH). My husband and I are taking it together. It is nice to see each other once again! We've barely had any time together since the summer started. He is supposed to be cheerleading me through this class since it's one of my least favorite subjects, but I actually like the class so far. Our teacher is insane. Not in a bad way-he's just full of personality, wears shorts and Crocs, talks in funny accents, and tells wacky personal stories. I was a little scared the first night but he grew on me. He's really good at getting things back on track after a tangent which is great since we have a lot of discussions in class. We have a lot of writing assignments, but I'm trying to go with the flow instead of letting that freak me out. Frequent short writing assignments are what kicked off the beginning of my academic demise. I guess this is my chance to show I'm over that.
That's all there is to say about school. As for the weight loss competition, I haven't worked out in two weeks! It feels more like two months. A lot of stress is making it's way out of my life though, so I'm going to get back on track. This week was the week 11 weigh-in. I'm up 1.6 lbs from two weeks ago (weight=194.8lbs), but that's less than I thought I gained. I'd love to lose 5lbs by the final weigh-in next Friday, but I'm not going to cry if I don't. I made the cut to continue for another 12 weeks, so I have plenty of time to lose more weight.
So now y'all know what I've been up to! Have a great weekend! I promise I'll be back with more frequent (and shorter) posts as soon as Verizon turns on my DSL.
Adios!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
The Skinny
I didn't have a chance to update this Friday with my weigh-in results because I was busy getting in a car accident. I'm fine, everyone is fine, it's just one more headache to pile onto everything else. I don't have much else to say about that except, "Sigh...."
My weigh-in went great. I'm down to 193.2 lbs, for a total loss of 14.2 lbs. I'm looking forward to hitting and passing the 15 lb mark. There are three weeks left of the original competition, and then we begin the second 12 weeks. Even though I've been missing workouts left and right, I've been eating for weight loss because this competition keeps it at the front of my mind.
My classes for summer session I are now in the home stretch. Tonight I get back my last two Accounting tests and then go home to study. The final for that class is on Thursday. I'm nervous about it because it is a school exam, i.e. our teacher didn't write it. There were a lot of sections that we quickly whizzed over, so I'm going to be upset if those are tested heavily on the final.
There are a few weeks left of my Ceramics class and I'm finally starting to like it. I still think it is stressful and an insane amount of work compared to the course length and class time, but I'm starting to make some good looking pieces. Right now I have an eighteen inch tall vase drying that starts with a 5 inch diameter heart base, expands out to about eight inches, and comes back in to 5 inches. I wanted to glaze it a dark red, but apparently reds are hard to acheive in the kiln. That whole piece was done in coil, but last night I made boxes out of slabs and they were so easy. If this whole class were done in slab, I'd want to take it every semester. As for the wheel, that's another story. The wheel and I are still not speaking. Once this class is over and most of my stuff is glazed and fired, I'll post pictures.
Over and out. It's back to work time.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Naughty, Naughty
Some people have been noticing the lack of posts this week. This was due to two factors: 1-I am very busy with my summer classes and spend most of my lunch hours doing homework instead of updating my blog, 2-I have been a naughty, naughty girl in regards to the weight-loss competition and I knew if I posted anything, I'd have to fess up. Ah well, since I am down again this week, I'll come clean.
The big badness is that I skipped my Wednesday and Friday workouts again. I know. I'm terrible. I wish I didn't like sleep so much or that I could bring back the insomnia I had a few months ago. My mornings are a mess-if I don't get up at the same insanely early time as my husband, I sleep right through the later alarm. It wasn't as much of an issue before, but with the late classes I am just so tired. Hopefully I can make it through the next few weeks without gaining weight or getting fired. My late classes end soon and the next class gets out before 9pm. I am definitely looking forward to the 2 weeks in August that I will be free of classes. Since we are too poor for a vacation, I will be drinking ice cold diet soda and watching TV on DVD. I miss TV.
Speaking of school, I have excellent news from my accounting class. Last night we got back our first full test and .....drum roll..... I had the highest grade out of both classes that my teacher teaches (over 60 students). I only got one question wrong, which was worth 1.5 points, but I got the 2 point bonus question right, so my score was 106.5 out of 106. My teacher came over during break and asked if I work in accounting (I don't). I told him I was taking the class for fun out of curiosity. When he left the room, everyone wanted to know who had gotten the highest grade (he had written the score on the front board). I was shrinking down in my seat, but the woman next to me sold me out. Then she started telling everyone that I'm so nice and I help her out all the time. It's true. She and another student have been saving me a seat between them so they can ask me questions. It makes me feel good. I love helping people.
Another warm fuzzy moment happened later in the class when I was helping the woman who blew my cover. She stopped me and said, "You should be a teacher. You're so calm and patient and the way you explain things makes them make sense." I almost started crying because my number 2 reason for finishing college is so that I can teach. The number one reason is to put my past mistakes behind me. Anyway, when she said that to me so genuinely, it made me so happy. I happy now just writing about it. Warm fuzzies!
To get back to my confession of naughtiness, I ate about 20 pounds of sugar this week. During the day I ate only healthy foods, but I ate very small amounts. One day, all I ate until 11pm was a chicken breast and a piece of cheese. That night, I hit the Neapolitan ice cream sandwiches again. I don't usually have much of a sweet tooth, but the last two weeks I've gotten into this weird pattern where I'm not hungry all day and then I want sweets at night. The good and bad thing is that I've continued to lose weight. The only negative thing is that I've been tired, but I've been tired ever since classes started. This weekend I plan on preparing several days of prepacked meals for next week. I also plan to go to kickboxing class tomorrow (for real this time).
And now for the numbers. As of today, I weigh 196.2 lbs. That's 1.2 lbs down from last week. My pants are very loose.
Have a great weekend, y'all!
Friday, June 15, 2007
Week 7: Weigh In
I almost skipped my weigh-in today. I even wore my jeans instead of the thin black pants I usually wear on Fridays, because it was a mental nose thumbing at weighing in. It's kind of hard to rebel against yourself though, so I decided to go to weigh-in at 3:30pm even though I was sure I had gained this week and even though I was wearing heavy jeans. I missed two workouts this week (Wednesday and today) so I was prepared for a gain. BUT........
I lost weight this week! Apparently my adherence to my diet made up for my lack of exercise. I lost .6lbs this week, bringing me to 197.4lbs with jeans on (so probably more like 2lbs down without them). When I looked at the scale I yelled, "What?," but I'll take the loss even if it doesn't make sense. What this means, people, is that I have officially lost 10lbs. I am pleased.
I can't wait for my kickboxing class on Sunday. Rawr!
Friday, June 8, 2007
The Coolness
In middle school, my nickname was Coolness, or sometimes The Coolness. Granted, only one friend called me that, but she wrote it all over my books, so I think it still counts. The last time I've thought about that nickname was when I was sharing some old school pictures with my husband. Today I'm thinking about it because it's official-I am The Coolness. I've just returned from my six week weigh in and I rocked the heck out of it.
When I walked up to weigh in, Damien, the head trainer who is leading this whole program, said, "When you get on that scale, I want to see 199 point something!" To which I replied that I did, too. So I got on the scale and, drum roll, please, I weighed in at 198 lbs and my body fat was down almost another full percent. After I made my way around the room to collect my high fives, I got my measurements taken. They do everything in centimeters so I won't post the detailed numbers until I get a nice little conversion chart going, but I've lost 2 inches off my waist and 2.5 inches off my thigh over the past six weeks. My total weight loss over the past six weeks is 9.4 lbs. Ah, it is good being The Coolness. Time to go home and flaunt my shrinking self in front of my husband.
Have a great weekend!
Friday, June 1, 2007
Quick Update: Weigh-In #5
I didn't post yesterday, because my boss let us leave the office early. We still don't have internet at my house, but sometimes our laptop picks up a neighbor's connection. This is going to be brief because I'm writing it with the laptop balanced on top of our cats' playhouse since that is the only place we're getting a connection. I feel oh so high tech.
The workout yesterday was ok. I made it there on time for the 9am class. I just didn't have much energy and the rest of my group was dragging too. We got a good workout, but it seemed to take forever. The highpoint was when the tiniest girl in my class was wowed by my ability to do wall squats and carry on a conversation at the same time as if it was nothing at all. Jeff told her it's because I'm 'not messing around.' Yes, I work hard at the workouts-even this week when I was barely doing anything else right.
There's no question that I've gained muscle. This week I gained almost a pound, but I lost another percent of body fat. Weight: 201.4 lbs. Body fat: 40.6%. I know the secret to losing weight while building muscle is added cardio, but I didn't do any of that this week. I walked for hours last weekend, but those were also the days I drank and ate greasy food. Next week is a new week and I know what to do.
That's all, folks. My cat is kicking me off of her house now. Happy weekend!
Friday, May 25, 2007
Bom Chicka Wow Wow!
I am so happy! The day started off with me waking up late and thinking I was going to be late for my workout, but I actually got there early and got fantastic parking. The workout was interesting, but my happiness really kicked in afterwards when I changed into my work clothes. Today I am wearing a button down shirt that a few months ago did not fit at all. Right now, it is buttoned all the way up and it is LOOSE! I had to put tape between the buttons at my chest, not because it was so tight they were pulling, but because it was so loose it was hanging open. I have never had that issue with a shirt before. I'm extra excited, because I didn't think I could button the top two buttons (I brought a camisole to wear underneath). The last time I wore it was on Easter and I could only (barely) button one button near the waist. Today, I'm all buttoned. I feel awesome!
--------(message above is from this morning)-----------
Now it's the afternoon and I'm back from my weekly weigh in. I must say, I feel like a rock star. I'm feeling so good I might even attempt to buy a pair of shorts this afternoon to wear over Memorial Day weekend. Shorts are my most feared clothing item, even worse than bathing suits. However, it's hot, they're necessary, and I'm going to try and ride the wave of self confidence into the dressing room. Hopefully it will come back out with me. I'm going to try and get some before and in progress photos to post on here soon. The internet may soon know why I fear shorts. Oh well, I'm still a rock star.
So, how much does a rock star weigh? The answer is precisely 200.6 lbs. I've lost 3.2 lbs this week and 2% body fat. My trainer did my weigh in and gave me a ton of high fives when he saw how well I did and heard the story about my shirt. I can't wait until next week. All I need to lose is one pound and I'll be back under 200 lbs. I'm definitely going to keep up the extra cardio-it helped a lot. I'm also going to stay on South Beach Phase I. My husband agreed to join me if I make all of his food, so I'll have a partner in crime.
That's all folks! Have a great extended weekend!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
She's a Maniac...
...And She's Dancing Like She's Never Danced Before.
Last night I played another hour of DDR. I was tempted to lay on the couch all night (and did for a significant portion of it), but I got up and did my workout anyway. My husband was playing on his Nintendo DS while I boogied in front of the TV and when the screen declared I had achieved my workout goal, he said, "I can't believe you actually set that for an hour and did it." He wasn't being rude, it's just that usually once I'm on the couch, that's where he sees me for the rest of the night. This whole idea of making commitments to myself and not breaking them is very new, but I like it.
After a nice night of DDR, broccoli, TV, and kitties, I got to wake up at 6:30 am to get ready to go to my real workout. I got there early and decided to pass the time by testing out the scale that reduced me to tears last Friday. I'm trying to avoid all of the extra scale hopping, but I was pretty confident that the strict diet and extra exercise had at least gotten rid of the evil .8. Boo yah! I've lost 3 lbs! (I'm not bolding that just in case I jinx Friday.) I was so excited that I ran into the gym and interrupted the early class to tell my trainer. I was so excited that I lifted heavier weights during our workout. I was so excited that I almost got stuck in the mirror after I changed because I was so busy gazing at the hotness that is I minus three. (I know I shouldn't get so caught up in a number, but I don't know how I ever got to be over 200 lbs and I am very close to being back under it.)
Our workout today was pretty standard: jumping jacks, frogs, abs, and various weight stations. We did squats on the BOSU again, which we haven't done since way back in our first workout. I am a squatting machine now, but the BOSU still made me do them extremely slowly. Trainer Jeff remembered my comment about the wall squats from Monday, so we got to do those today, too. I still can't get over how intense wall squats with a medicine ball between your knees are. I could even feel my abs getting involved and shaking today. I love this exercise, but I think I'll wait a little while before requesting it again so no one throws a dumbbell at me.
In less than an hour, it will be time for me to go home and play DDR for another hour. I'm having salad with baked chicken for dinner. You won't hear any complaints from me, because I saw hotness in the mirror this morning. I can't believe it's been almost a month since I started this whole shebang. If the program doesn't get extended and ends in two months as was planned, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I never thought I would utter these words, but I have an exercise routine.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Good News and More Good News? Or Not.
I wasn't late for my workout this morning! I left my house on time, which meant I was 25 minutes early (when I leave 10 minutes later, I end up being 15 minutes late due to the morning traffic). Luckily, everyone in my group was early today, so we were able to chat while the previous class finished up. It was cold outside this morning, so we didn't do our warm up outside. In fact, we didn't do it inside either. Normally, I'd raise an objection (especially since my first station was weight lifting), but the lack of a warm up meant one spectacular thing: NO JUMPING JACKS TODAY!
At first I thought it was my birthday, but then I remembered that isn't until July. Whatever the reason, I am so happy that we didn't have to do any fling-flanging jumping jacks today that I'm glowing. We did three stations today: weights, cardio, and abs. For weights, we did various presses that focused on chest, triceps, and shoulders. For cardio, we used the treadmill and elliptical machine. Our trainer set the treadmill to a 15% incline and let us choose the speed. I was walking slowly, but the incline definitely got my heart working. I felt really awkward on the elliptical, because my arms are a little short for this particular machine. For our ab station, we did several types of crunches, bicycles, and my favorite - dead bugs.
--- ... ---
The first part of this post was written this morning, before weigh in. Watch how my tone darkens suddenly. Be afraid. Be very afraid. First, I should mention that my antidepressants ran out a few days ago, so I'm really emotional today. Which explains why I almost started crying in front of three trainers this afternoon. I felt like I was eight years old again-sad little fat girl having an emotional breakdown. Here's what happened: I gained .8 lbs this week. I'm up to 203.8 lbs. I gained! [If I wasn't trying to keep this blog curse free, there would be a lot more sentences here.] Granted, I didn't gain 2 pounds like the scale said on Wednesday, but I expected to at least lose point something this week. I've been eating well, doing my workouts, and I did a grueling 3 hour hike on Saturday. That alone should have brought my weight down a bit. To top things off, the scale put my body fat at 43.8% whereas last week it said 43.1%. Granted, the trainers all quickly said that its measurement is so inaccurate that I should disregard it. I don't think I managed to disregard it.
There were three trainers in the room while I weighed in. One checking the numbers, one entering them in the computer, and one who had reviewed my food diary with me who just wanted to see how I did. When we looked at my food, he had nothing negative to say other than to up my protein at breakfast and he chastised me for my two nights of indulgence in chocolate soy ice cream (too much sugar). Other than that, he said I was eating really, really well. He did suggest I cut out peanut butter because it might be triggering my headaches, but my meal timing and amounts are right on. That's why he was so excited to see my weigh in numbers.
Holy poop. I was so disappointed. I can't even logic myself into feeling good about this week. Here's what the trainers tried: "Point eight pounds is nothing. You probably have that much difference in your clothes." "You're gaining muscle. You've probably lost 5 or six pounds of fat." (That's when I snarkily commented on the body fat percentage.) "Keep working at it. It will add up." And my personal favorite as far as things to say which are not helpful at all: "Don't let it get you frustrated." Right... So through all of this, my eyes were welling up with tears. However, I refuse to cry in front of people, so I held it in and my face turned bright red and I started sweating instead. No one was fooled. I had to walk outside to cool off, ignoring my trainer who was in the adjacent gym asking me to tell him how I did.
I just can't believe that I'm not losing more weight. Usually you see a nice big loss in the first week or two of a weight loss attempt and then things slow down. If it slows down from here, I'm just going to get fatter. Or not get fatter, but keep all my current fat and just keep building muscle until I am the size of a car. I already only have a handful of shirts and two pairs of pants that fit me. No one sells car sized clothes. (I only wear a size 14, but, excuse me, I'm ranting.) They always say, "You didn't put on all that weight overnight, you're not going to lose it overnight." Well, does the fact that I gained 40 lbs. practically overnight (or over a couple of months) mean that I get to lose it that quickly? I really wish it did. When I was on the South Beach Diet, I lost 22 lbs. in 9 weeks (Phase I). I'm so tempted to go back on that diet, but I know I wouldn't have enough energy to do my workouts without any carbs.
The trainers had some suggestions as far as what I could do to guarantee I lose weight next week. There's nothing tweakable in my diet, so that leaves exercise. They want me to do cardio for an hour, three times a week, on top of the circuit training sessions with the trainer. I've only fit in one extra cardio session for each of the last 2 weeks. Then they all got excited and said if I really want to see results, I should start doing an hour of cardio seven days a week on top of the sessions with the trainer. Maybe that would be a little more reasonable of a proposition for me if I worked in a gym all day, like they do. They are all nice people, and I appreciate that they are trying to help and that they didn't get uncomfortable when I looked like I was going to cry, I'm just really frustrated.
I've been overweight my entire life. I remember my aunt squeezing my "chubby thighs" when I was still in diapers. I started getting made fun of for being chubby when I entered preschool at age two and it just got worse year after year. Then, once I was too old for name calling, guys just wouldn't date me. Which led to years of irresponsible behavior and desperation. I'm just so freaking tired of this. I want to have a normal body (not huge American normal, normal normal).
By the way, the tears I managed to reign in earlier are in full force now. God, I can't wait to get back on my meds.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Woe is I
Warning-this post is going to be all over the place and might not make any sense. I have a migraine, so my brain feels like it's being shaken around in a mason jar. I have a feeling it was kicked off by a combination of not eating enough before this morning's workout, dehydration, and walking out of the dim basement into the bright sunlight. Those first two factors are all my fault. I didn't want to eat or drink much this morning because it is weigh in day. Lot of good it did me. I'm only down 1.4 lbs. this week and now I'm going to spend the rest of the day with a headache and various disturbing neurological symptoms. And I'm supposed to go see one of my favorite bands in concert tonight. Poop.
I know I shouldn't be complaining about the amount of weight I lost, especially when I know I've been building a lot of muscle, I'm just really surprised. According to my home scale, it looked like I had lost another 3-5 lbs. Granted, my home scale is crappy and varies by 2 pounds depending on where you put your feet, but I was certainly expecting to have lost at least two pounds. Yesterday I entered a few more days in Spark, and I've been averaging around 1,600 calories/day. It would take 2,500 calories/day to maintain my body weight, so the diet alone should be taking off two pounds a week. All of this exercise should put me over that, especially since I got in a few extra walks this week.
Ooh, fun, now it feels like someone is sticking an icepick in the top of my head, just to the left of my part.
OK, complaining isn't going to make me lose more weight, so I will try to be rational. I've stated before that I always have difficulty losing weight because I build muscle very quickly, but burn fat very slowly. That would be an excellent explanation for what happened this week-my weight loss was offset by an increase in muscle. After all, my hamstrings and quads have gotten much bigger and I can see my triceps in the mirror without even flexing (why have I never been She-Hulk for Halloween?).
The other issue that I'm reluctant to face is that I haven't been eating enough this week. It's hard for a fat girl to grasp the concept that she needs to eat more to lose weight, and I've been letting things slide. There were three days this week where I skipped a meal. Bad, bad, bad! That is just going to put my metabolism back in slothful fat storing mode. Add to that the fact that I've been slowly making my meals smaller and smaller, and this is a serious problem. My breakfasts are half the size that they were last week, I've cut carbs out of more meals than I should, and I've been pushing back dinner because I don't want to eat. Hmm, I think I may have just solved the fatigue mystery I wrote about a few days ago. I have to start eating more and stick to my meal schedule if I'm going to continue losing weight. That's just the way it is.
To touch upon today's workout, there were good things and bad things. The bad was that I had a reluctant mood today and I didn't sweat as much as usual. The good is that I did a push up (yes, just one, but a full "guy" push up) and I hung in there through all the ab exercises with decent form. We didn't do a lot of leg work because everyone was still sore from Wednesday. That's probably a good thing, because I'm going camping this weekend and will be doing a lot of hiking. I will also be eating s'mores and drinking beer by a campfire, but, hey, it will be my day off.
And since I like sticking this all the way at the bottom of my posts: official weight 203.0 lbs. The scale also said my body fat was 43%, but the trainer said it was probably closer to 37% since the scale measurement isn't exact. Either way, not pretty, but that's why I'm doing all of this. I ran into a coworker yesterday who said he was doing this to train for a triathlon. I said I was training for life. Then he said something about bikini season coming up. Right, bikini season. By the end of this contest in July, I'll still probably be around 180 lbs., not exactly bikini ready. But with all the skills I'm picking up, maybe next year.
Warning: once I look good in a bikini, I may never wear pants again.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Workout #3 - Did You Say Jumping Jacks?
As in workouts #1 & #2, our trainer kicked our butts again this morning. The man, he loves the jumping jacks. One of the girls in my group said, "Can you believe we used to think these were fun when we were kids?" I, for one, never thought they were fun, but I used to get in trouble for reading too much when I was a kid. I've never been the active sort except for a few months scattered here and there at the gym as an adult. I'm hoping the fact that this competition lasts 12 weeks will help me cement these new workout habits.
The good news is that I was not as sore heading into this morning's workout as I was on Wednesday. The bad news is that I was t-i-r-e-d. During all of the jumping up & down we did to warm up, I felt like my feet were full of rocks. I think I'm just not a cardio girl, because once we moved inside for the strength circuit I did a lot better. Push ups and lower ab moves are still not really working for me, but I keep trying so I'll get there someday. Hopefully it will be someday soon, because I would feel like such the rock star pounding out dozens of push ups.
Today is technically my planned day off, since I'm heading to a party tonight. So far I've eaten on target though. We went out to lunch for a coworker's farewell and I had a burger. The bun was more carbs than I'd normally eat and I put a little mayo on the burger, but nothing too bad. The reins really let go tonight because I am going to drink as much as I want. So there.
The big news today is that we had our weekly check in. They took our weight, measurements, and body fat percentage. Apparently they lied at the first meeting because they ended up using the dreaded calipers for the body fat measurements instead of the electronic gizmo you just hold. They pinched my arm, my waist, and the front of my thigh. I won't know the percentage until Monday after they do the calculations though. As for the measurements, I can't tell you much there either because they did them in centimeters. That leaves us with the magic number: weight. What did the scale say today? 204.4 lbs. I've lost 3 pounds since Monday! 1.4% of my body weight. And that's in spite of being weighed first thing Monday morning and midday today. So hoowah! (A la Al Pacino.)
How's that for ending on a good note? I don't have internet at home, so have a lovely weekend and I'll be back again on Monday posting about how my trainer kicked my butt again.
Monday, April 30, 2007
It Begins!
First things first: my poor bra is crying. Today was my first scheduled workout for the challenge. I dressed for a workout, but thought we were going to spend most of the time weighing in, getting our measurements taken, and having our body fat checked. So I didn't bother with a sports bra. Imagine my surprise when the first thing our trainer, Jeff, said after he took our weights was, "Jumping Jacks!" Excuse me, jumping jacks? Could there be anything worse for me to attempt without a sports bra? I did them of course (no black eyes, yay!), but avoided eye contact until me and the girls could regroup and collect ourselves. Ahem.
Aside from the bounceage, the jumping jacks were actually fun. I don't think I've done one in at least 10 years. You could say that was the theme of the workout today-tons of things I've never tried before or haven't done in ages. After the jumping jacks we did this exercise where you do a low squat and then jump up in the air with your arms over your head. I've heard football players do them. After some more calisthenics, we headed down to the gym where we did circuit training.
Two things made me burst out laughing: trying to do incline push ups and doing squats on a BOSU trainer*. Eventually, I switched to knee push ups, but they didn't workout much better. I was staring at my arms, but they just didn't want to move. As for the BOSU, good lord! I've never tried one before, but I always thought they'd be easy since I have good balance. I got a good leg workout just trying to stand up on the thing, let alone squat. My squats won the world record for slowness, but I think that works the muscles harder, so mission accomplished. [*A BOSU trainer looks like half an exercise ball coming up out of the floor.]
It's safe to say I got a good workout. I'm already sore, which usually doesn't happen until the day after a workout. Ibuprofen will be my friend tomorrow. Regardless, I'm really looking forward to the next workout on Wednesday. It usually takes me a week or two to get my cardiovascular performance and strength back up to normal after a long time of not working out. The more workouts I get under my belt, the easier they'll be-and the less beet-faced I'll be during the workouts.
Hmmmm, there's one other thing. We weighed in this morning to get our official starting weight. I don't know if I should take the scale to be more accurate than the one at home just because it looked expensive, but the one at home only cost $10 so I guess I should. Enough stalling-my official starting weight is 207.4 lbs. Yeesh. All the more motivation to stick with this plan, right?
"Oh my my, oh hell yes, you got to put on that party dress."
Weight Loss Progress
