Wednesday Weigh-In

Originally, I wasn't even going to weigh myself this week; it is the week before my period and usually I gain, or at the least, don't lose anything, but I was feeling lucky this morning. Ha. Stepped on the scale and had lost 0.4 lbs. Now, I'm happy that it's a loss, don't get me wrong, but for the past two weeks, I've lost less than 2 lbs combined when I have my settings at 1.5lbs/wk. What gives? I honestly think I lose better when I have cheat days, like MAJOR cheat days, where I'm so far over my calories that I don't even count. I've been so good these past few weeks, even on weekends, that I think that has screwed up my loss. This whole weight loss thing is such bullshit.

Anyways...

Weight= 193.8 lbs; BMI= 27.8 (Overweight); Body Fat= 26.65% (Acceptable)

"It's too hot outside to run"

That was what the guy who smokes outside my apartment said to me when I got back from my run this morning. I laughed, and we talked about how I'd rather run when it's warm than when there is snow on the ground. And to be honest, it was only 75 when I left; I don't really consider that "too hot" by any standards.

I ran a loop around campus which was 2.11 miles, according to mapmyrun.com. I had to stop at a few red lights, and had to pause for a bit right before I hit 2 miles to catch my breath (it was uphill, KILLER!), but for the most part, I ran the whole thing. There was a lot of dodging and weaving through people, which broke up my pace a bit, but still managed an average speed of 12.96 minute mile, which is somewhere between 4.5 (13:30 min/mile) and 5 (12 min/mile). I'll take it!

27:21 total running time. Then a 5 minute-ish cool down walk. Good start to the day!
Cheers!

This Post might be TMI, so BEWARE

I love how my period starts bearing its nasty claws almost TWO WEEKS before I actually start! Since I'm on birth control, it's easy to know when to expect early symptoms: about the end of the second row of pills, when they change from white to pink. That's when I get bloated, my stomach is sensitive to certain foods, I start getting cramps and running becomes a game of chance when it comes to being able to finish a run before I have to shit like a mad bull (pardon the expression).

So, here I am, the Friday before the week before the Wednesday that I start my period, and already, I'm dragging. Blah.

I say all of this because I decided to do my weekend run this morning, and it didn't go very well. I only did 1.5 miles at 4.5 mph. I did a total of 30 minutes, including my 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down. Plus, I was struggling towards the end. I blame my approaching friend Flo AND the fact that I did the stair machine last night--Sweet Jesus, that was a workout! I might try to work in stairs once a week now because that burns a LARGE amount of calories in a shorter amount of time. Plus, I feel the burn FOR SURE.

Anyways, this weekend needs to be super productive so time to make my smoothie, shower and GET MOVING. Cheers!

Another Weigh-In

Something very strange was happening with my stomach/gut last night and this morning, so I'm not sure how accurate this weigh-in is, but I still lost so I'll take it! The official weight this morning was 194.2lbs, which is only a 0.6lb loss from last week BUT....that marks the 40 lbs total loss since I started this journey in last June! FORTY POUNDS. (I did a whole picture post on MFP of my progress if you want to see that.)

But for this blog, I want to take a second to really think about how much 40 lbs is. When I was born, I weight 8 lbs and 6 oz. I LOST MORE THAN FOUR BABY MEs. I use a 10lb kettlebell in my workouts. I LOST FOUR OF THOSE. My boyfriend's cat is about the size of a 20 lb turkey. I LOST TWO OF STRETCH! I know these sound silly, but sometimes when you have a long weight loss journey, 40 lbs can get lost in the thoughts of "but I still look fat" and "I still have so much more to lose" or "how come when SHE loses 40 lbs, she looks like a f*&$ing model." Forty pounds is a lot. BE PROUD OF YOURSELF, ME!

Anyways, enough of that. I am proud, even though I do know I have so much more to go. And going off of that, I am starting the 100 push-up challenge today. I vow to do 100 pushups everyday for 30 days! I took some starting pictures of my arms in hopes that they will be BALLER AWESOME when I finish this! Ha.

Weight=194.2lbs; BMI= 27.86 (Overweight); Body Fat=26.65% (Acceptable)

Time to get moving for the day. Cheers!

100 PushUps Challenge

I looked into the 100 PushUp Challenge based on someone's post on MFP. But after taking the initial test and realizing that I can barely do ONE normal pushup, I decided I didn't really care to be able to do 100 "good form" pushups in a row.

Luckily, someone I follow on Tumblr also put up a 100 PushUp Challenge, but in this case, you just complete 100 pushups everyday. So throughout the day, you can break up the pushups into sets of whatever. 4 sets of 25. 5 sets of 20. 10 sets of 10. Whatever. And I can do my "girl" pushups. My arms are abysmal and I feel like they never get any smaller so this should do something...right?

Wish me luck! I plan to start after my weigh-in on Thursday (mostly because I plan to take measurements then so it will be a good start to show progress.

Let me see you run it, run it

Another weekly update on my running adventures...

I had a film at the Estes Park Film Festival on Friday so we drove up there in the afternoon; obviously, I had to have a celebratory beer...and popcorn...and chocolate. Oops. Oh well, I'll count that as my weekend cheat day since the rest of this weekend will be crazy busy and I probably won't go out anymore.

That all being said, I set my alarm for 8:30am and went to run at the gym this morning. I thought I would switch it up a bit since realizing that at 4.5 mph, it would take me almost as long to run a 5K as it would for me to walk it. So today, I ran the first mile at 5mph and then lowered to 4.5mph for the second mile. I was definitely a lot more winded after this run and was tired and ready to stop. Overall, I went about 2.50 miles in 35 minutes and 30 seconds.

So much work to do already and it's only the second week of school! I'm still trying to decide if I want to go to the Awards ceremony at Estes Park tomorrow... I have to get up and shoot for my Experimental class. Finished my thesis footage logging. Prepare for my lectures this week. ACK! What am I doing on the computer?!

*runs away*

Weigh In Day

Well, this was was actually the first week in a long time where I didn't step on the scale ONCE between weigh-ins. That made me very nervous since I had no idea what to expect this morning--and I'll tell you, I DEFINITELY wasn't expecting what I did see.

This morning official weight was 194.8lbs.... Pardon me while I get back up in to my chair. I didn't (and almost still don't) believe it. 2.8 lbs loss in a week? I'm thinking last week's weight might still have been affected my PMS or something because I ate all my calories everyday (and even more so on the weekend).

Regardless, I stepped on the scale twice and it didn't change so I'll take it as real.

With that note, I officially made my first goal, well second goal but first having to do with weight, for this school year: under 195 by Estes Park Film Festival: CHECK. I'm so FUCKING PUMPED. It gives me hope that I will be under 190 by Thanksgiving, haha. But that also means I need to put the computer down and do my workout before it gets too late--class at noon, office hours, TA class AND a baseball game today. Whew!

Weight=194.8lbs, BMI=27.95 (Overweight), BF=26.65% (Acceptable)

Cheers!

Getting There

Yesterday was a disaster in a bag as far as exercise and eating goes. I had my TA orientation so we went to Spanky's for lunch, where I had a veggie burger and a chocolate milkshake. (Hey, when the department pays, you splurge.) Then we had the department picnic at 4:30 where I ate some delicious brownies and a cheese sandwich with some potato chips.... THEN went to the bar with friends and split a quesadilla and had a beer. WOWZER. Plus, I didn't have any time to exercise so the only workout I got in was walking to and from Spanky's and the Parking Office. Booooooo.

Therefore, I knew today had to be awesome to make up for it. Got up at 9am (UHM, HOW DID I SLEEP THAT LATE!?) and got to the gym about 9:45 after putting around. I ran for 37 minutes at 4.5 mph, which was 2.75 miles. Plus the five minute warm up and cool down, it was a total of 3.25 miles AKA more than a 5K. At this pace, I would probably run a whole 5K in between 40 and 45 minutes. That's dismal, but HEY--I would be running it all.

Anyways, I need to eat breakfast since it's past 11am. Another day volunteering at the DocuWest Film Fest. Plus, I NEED to grocery shop and do laundry and do homework (WHO ASSIGNS WORK FOR THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS? bitches.) UGH.

First Thursday Weigh In!

Finally--FUCKING FINALLY. After two weeks of WANTING to weigh in on Thursdays, I finally wasn't PMSing or retaining water from a pigout the night before.

I should say that I changed my goals from losing 1lb a week to 1.5lbs a week, so my calorie intake decreased by almost 300 calories a day. Yikes! Anyways, I think it was the boost my metabolism needed because I've been working out for at least a half hour a day and lost 1.2 lbs since last week! Total weight loss while on MFP is now 10.2lbs! HOLLER. My next goal, if you recall from my goals post a while back, is to be 195 by September 16th, which is my Film Festival in Estes Park. I'm not sure if that's going to happen since that would be another 2.5 lbs in one week. NOT GONNA HAPPEN. Oh well, I'll be close and I know that hopefully I'll hit my goal by Thanksgiving of 190. (And then gain it all back when I go home for the holidays...UGH.)

Anyways, weight = 197.6lbs. BMI = 28.35 (Overweight). BF% = 26.76% (Acceptable).

Labor Day

Well, I already broke my schedule that I set for myself this weekend. HA! It was so nice outside today that I decided going to the gym would have been a sin. I went to Vet Park and decided to see if I could run 30 minutes WITHOUT the help of a treadmill. It was significantly harder, but I pushed through. Each loop at Vet's is 0.44 miles so I completed 5 loops in 30 minutes which was ~2.2 miles. Excellent. Now my plans are to eat lunch and hopefully plan a picnic dinner with my friends at Wash Park. Happy Labor Day ya'll!

Like A Machine

So I think when I don't run all the time, I have better runs. I know this isn't a new revelation, but I'm just proving it to myself again and again. Last Sunday I ran for 30 minutes straight, which was a first, so this weekend I decided to try it again. I didn't run at all during the week, just workout DVDs and elliptical and stationary bike rides. Today, I went to the gym (even though I should have run outside--gorgeous day with a 70 degree HIGH. what!). Anyways...I ran for 33:30 straight at 4.5 mph which was 2.5 miles. And it felt good. I was getting a little winded, very little, by the end, but I probably could have kept going. I'm amazed at this progress. I really do prefer slow and longer over fast and shorter....wow, that sounded so sexual. Anyways, I think this will be my regular routine for a while: workout normally during the week and do a long (ish) run on weekends. I never thought I would be able to run 3 miles straight, but I'm starting to think it's possible, at least on the treadmill. Also, my ToM starts next week and I saw a MAJOR blow up in weight this week as a result. I was at 202 lbs for FOUR DAYS IN A ROW. I knew I was bad this weekend, but NO WAY I gained 4 lbs. I started to get nervous since it stayed for so long, but then it slowly dropped: 200.6 lbs Thurs and 199.6 lbs Friday. I really want to get away from Sunday weigh-ins, but since I couldn't weigh in this Thursday, I might WI tomorrow just to see where I stand. Then WI again on Thursday and record it....if it moves. Haha. Anyways, I'm proud of myself today...which is good since I've been really down about my appearance lately. My nasty ass stomach crease and kangaroo pooch are SO ANNOYING. I work so hard and there they are, staring at me in the mirror every time I turn around like "BUT YOU STILL FAT BITCH!" Grrr.