week 7 results

So, it was a pretty hectic week for me this past week.  I had a date with bachelor #1 on Friday, in which we went for ice cream, I had a friend up visiting on Saturday, which meant lots of alcohol (she's a bad bad influence, lol!). And THAT meant that I was hungover on Sunday and wanted to eat ALL THE THINGS. Then Monday night I had a date with bachelor #2, which was a dinner date.  

I only managed to get three workouts in this past week, because I had to be careful of my back - it's on the verge of going out on me - muscle spasms. This happens with my back every so often, so I know to be careful with it.

So.....color me stunned when I stepped on the scale this morning and managed to lost another 1.8 lbs! I would have been happy to break even this week, but I am absolutely thrilled!  

I even got my first "Have you lost weight" question today. :D

I have to go back and track a few things on WW from today, and check my measurements, so I don't have all my numbers this week.  I'll try and do those tomorrow. I have a date with bachelor #2 tonight, and a date with bachelor #1 tomorrow night. I feel so popular, lol!

Here's my abbreviated totals for the week. I'll try and come back tomorrow and update them.

Weekly Changes:
# of Workout Days: 3 (42.5 miles)
Weight lost this week: 1.8 lbs
Total weight lost: 12.8 lbs 

Happy weekend, All!  :)

week 6 results

It was a good week!  It was also a non-hungry week, which was good because it was a busy week, and I neglected to go food shopping.  I got two goals crossed off my list! 

I also did really well on the bike this week, mile-wise. It was a struggle this week and I didn't get my five workouts in. I did manage to get four in though, and I will absolutely take that, because finding the motivation to work out last night and tonight was really hard. But I did it.  I don't mind it once I've started, because I've accepted that I am going to spend 40+ minutes doing it once I've started. 

Weekly Changes:
# of Workout Days: 4 (50.67 miles)
Weight lost this week: 3.2 lbs!
Total weight lost: 11.0 lbs - put me 1 lb over on the 5% goal!
Activity Points remaining: 35/38
Weekly Points remaining: 49/49

Inches Lost (to-date, with the ones that changed this week in red): 2.0 (hips), 4.0 (thighs), 1.0 (calves), 1.0 (upper arms), 2.0 (waist) 

This week I wore a pair of work pants that I haven't worn in a long while because they were too tight. I think the last time I wore them was 2 years ago. I also retired a pair that were sort of loose to begin with, because they're completely unwearable now. I have some capris that I should pull out to see if they fit me better now. These are the fun perks, being able to wear some clothes that I haven't been able to in a while!

Goals

Lose 10 lbs (5%) "lbs to go" under 40

Lose another 10 lbs (10%) "lbs to go" under 30

Lose another 10 lbs (15%)

"lbs to go" under 20 170 for Greece in October

Lose another 10 lbs (20%)

"lbs to go" under 10Lose another  10 lbs (25%)

Weigh 150 lbs

Re-evaluate weight loss goal - am I happy or do I want to try to lose more?

Non-scale goals

Bike 25 miles - up to 13+ miles now. Halfway there!

Run 1 mile

Fit into a size 10

Run a 5k (this will be a 2014 goal, I think)

Sign up for gym membership

Buy a pair of expensive non-plus jeans

Buy an expensive pair of knee boots Guess that's about it for this week. How'd you do this week?

FMM!

"If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!"

Foodie Questions

1. Do you make grocery lists?  Only if I'm using peapod. Does that count? I hate hate hate food shopping.

2.  Do you have a routine when shopping in your favorite grocery store?  If I have to go to the store, because my order isn't worth using peapod, then I try and just hit the outer perimeter of the store. It basically has all the essentials- produce, meat/seafood, dairy, bread. I try and get in and out in under 20 minutes, usually.

3.  What is your favorite seasoning?  I don't use many seasonings when I cook, sometimes a little Jane's Crazy Mixed-Up Salt. Otherwise, I usually flavor my food with garlic, vinegar, lemon/lime or things like that.

4.  What is the healthiest food in your fridge right now?  some spinach/arugula mix, yogurt and veggies.

5.  What is the most unhealthy food in your fridge now?  I have some Brigham's Hot Fudge sauce in there. I don't even need ice cream for it - a teaspoon of the stuff, even cold, is pretty good.

6. What is the most exotic produce you've ever had? Interesting question, and I'm completely blanking out on it, sadly!  Probably something I've eaten on one of my trips. So sad I'm drawing a blank here!

7. Tell us about your favorite local restaurant.  There's this great little takeout place that just opened about six months ago in my town, Mediterranean food. They have hummus, baba ghanoush, shish kabob, etc.  So yummy!

8.  What kind of pasta do you prefer (regular, whole wheat, etc.?)  I grew up eating a lot of pasta, so I'm not a big fan of it. I rarely ever cook it, but when I do, it's just regular.

9. If you could make one food calorie-free for an entire week, which food would you choose?  This week, it'd be butterscotch brownies. I have been craving them something fierce, but there's something like two sticks of butter in the recipe.  

10.  If you had to choose would you rather give up french fries or chocolate?  Neither would bother me overly much. I'm much more into snacking on popcorn. If you took away my coffee though, I'd fall over dead.

quick post

Just a quick drive-by post to say that I hit my first goal today! I know, I shouldn't weigh myself more than once a week, but it happens.

I'm down 10.4 lbs, which was my 5% goal.  Next mini-goal is to get that bottom counter, which is at "40 lbs to go" right now, down into the 30s. I'll hit that this coming week for sure. Next big goal is my 10% mark - another 9.6 lbs to go to make that.

I think I need to change my setting on WW so that weigh-in day is on Sunday. Friday's tend to let me down when I step on the scale, but apparently I do better at watching what I eat than I thought on the weekends.

It's the little things that motivate me right now. I didn't get my workout in yesterday like I'd hoped, but I'm definitely more motivated to workout today. And to go food shopping, which I hate doing.

How'd you do this week?

week 5 results

This week was pretty good! I did well picking out my meals and managed to work out five times. Though, I will say - Wednesday's workout was a struggle, and last night I was feeling some pain when I went to bed - just some aches and tired limbs, which went away overnight. Today's my day off from exercising, but I'll be back at it tomorrow. I am hoping that next week I hit my first goal, so that's some motivation to be good!

My next mini-goal is to get the tracker way down at the bottom of my blog to read "weight to go" that's less than in the 40s. There's something a lot easier about saying I want to lose 30ish pounds compared to 40ish pounds. Even if I only say it to myself and the anonymous interwebz, lol!

I had to travel for work today, and aside from my increased caffeine intake (must have an iced coffee for a road-trip ), I did well. I had a yogurt before I got on the road, and a peach when I got to my destination. Then for lunch they brought in sandwiches, and I went with half a nice healthy turkey wrap (lots of veggies, and just a little mustard added) instead of one of the big fat sandwiches. Skipped the chips, had a diet coke to drink. Had a grilled chicken sandwich for dinner.  I'm still within my points for the day, yay!

WW lowered my daily value a point this week. Nothing major, I sometimes have one or two left over, so it shouldn't be too bad. I didn't touch my weekly points this week, and a less than half of my activity points.

I'm proud of my activity points, actually. If I hadn't had a rough Wednesday, I would have hit 40 this week! I was a point short on Wednesday because I cut my workout time by a couple of minutes.  Right now, I'm up to 35 mins/workout on my bike. When I first started, 10 minutes was a struggle! This coming week I'm upping it a mile, so will add a few more minutes to my workout time.  

Weekly Changes:
# of Workout Days: 5
Weight lost this week: 2.0 lbs
Total weight lost: 8.0 lbs
Activity Points remaining: 21/39
Weekly Points remaining: 49/49

Inches Lost (to-date, with this week's changes in red): 1.5 (hips), 4.0 (thighs),0.75 (calves), 1.0 (upper arms),1.5 (waist)

I guess that's about all for now. I still need to work on sprucing up the blog. Happy weekend!

FMM

I stumbled across this website a couple weeks ago, and thought I'd join in on the fun!

"If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!"

1.  Are you a planner, or do you prefer to see where the moment takes you?  I'm a bit of both, though I lean towards spontaneous. I hate planning things too far out, because most times by the time the date arrives, it starts to feel like an obligation, instead of something fun!

2.  How often do you blog?  Just started blogging again after a break of many years. I've been updating once or twice a week - Still working on prettying up the place, need to see if my old html skillz are there.

3.  Do you color your hair?  Oh my yes. Must. Cover. The. Grey.  I'm not happy with the color right now, I need to dye it closer to my natural color - a dark brown.

4. If you had to choose between running or riding a bike, which one would you choose?  Bike, definitely.

5.  Have you ever traveled outside of your home country?  Yes, as often as possible! Heading to Greece in October. Two years ago I went to Italy. 

6.  Do you like weddings?  Yes, as a guest. I've been a maid-of-honor in a lot of weddings, and it's much more enjoyable to just be a guest. 

7.  What is your favorite guilty pleasure on TV?  Oh, Ancient Aliens, without a doubt!  I love sitting there and mocking the show, and the guy with the crazy hair is just amusing!  It's what I watch to wind-down on Friday nights, after a long work week.

8.  Are you good at math?  I'm okay with regular math, but get into that complicated alegebra or calculus stuff, and I'm lost. 

9.  What is the last movie you watched?  I re-watched Avengers last night, and last week I saw White House Down.

10.  Share five adjectives that your friends would use to describe you.  Friendly, smart, snarky, witty, and nice.

Bonus:  Did you celebrate Independence Day?  If so, what did you do? I had last week off, so I spent two days down the Cape, and on the 4th itself, I went to a cookout at my parents' house. It was a pretty laid back day, it was nice.

week 4: results

Well, this week's mini-vacation/holiday took a bit of a toll on my weight loss. I'm down .8 lbs from last Friday, which is nice. However, I had weighed myself on Sunday, and I had been down 2.2 lbs from Friday. So the net loss wasn't that great, but at least I still lost weight, right?   I did splurge on a couple of ice cream cones while I was away, and then I had some yummy, but not so healthy, cookout foods yesterday. 

On to this week's numbers:

Weekly Changes:
# of Workout Days: 4

Weight lost this week: 0.8 lbs

Total weight lost: 6.0 lbs

Inches Lost (to-date, with this week's changes in red): 2.5 (hips), 3.0 (thighs), .75 (calves), .5 (upper arms),1 (waist and abdomen, each)

Activity Points remaining: 0/28 

Weekly Points remaining: 9/49



I'm pretty happy with the changes in my hips and thighs. It totally shows that I'm biking it. I wish my arms would go down more - that upper arm thing on the bike - well, frankly, it kills me.  For the amount of burn I feel, I would think my arms would be down more by now. 

Though I only worked out 4 times this week, I managed to get three workouts of 30+ mins. The week before I'd worked out 5 times, but actually put less time in exercising. I upped it by almost 20 mins last week. 

I have switched my plans about exercising: I was planning on doing at least 5x week, but now I'm switching it to 4 days on, 1 day off. So, some weeks I may work out five times, other weeks I will only get four in. My body, right now, can't handle more than 4 days in a row. We'll see how this new method works out.

So far, these are the changes that I've seen in a non-weight-loss way:

• My shoulders and neck are where I hold all my tension. In February I was in a bunch of pain along my right shoulder (really stressful time at work). The past week or so, it's felt a lot looser, not so tight. That's the arm thing on the bike at work!
• I fell down a flight of stairs years ago and essentially wrecked my right knee. Every now and then it goes out, and I hobble around for a few days before it feels better. Right now it feels better than it's felt in a long time. Again, that's the bike at work!
• I'm sleeping better - I think it's the exhaustion! 

I haven't noticed a change in how my clothes fit yet, but I can't wait for that day. I know i'm only down 6 lbs so far, but I'm hoping to notice a change around the 10 lb mark, at least in my pants. In fact, to motivate myself, I bought some inspiration jeans - 2 sizes smaller than what I wear right now. My goal is to be in those this fall some time. I'd like to be wearing them in time for my trip in October, but time will tell.  Right now I can pull them on, but they are nowhere close to being able to button up at the waist.  I'm just going to keep trying them on every Friday, and see what happens.

My goal is still 30 lbs down by my trip to Greece in October. It's totally doable, if I keep exercising, and can manage to lose 2 lbs a week. Wish me luck!!!