Under Construction: June 2011

I must apologize to my many readers (all one of you) for not writing for so long. I got caught up with studying for the finance certification test I took the first week in June and then I was caught up in celebrating my new-found post-test freedom. You may have been worried that the radio silence was indicative of me tumbling off the wagon into a box of cookies, but fear not - though I did gain a bit following the post-test celebrations, I have since taken off that weight and I am down 10.6 pounds overall.

There are a few things that helped me be successful over the past month despite the test madness:

When I gained the 2 pounds after the test, I did not freak out. This was a huge accomplishment because typically I would melt down and decide that it was entirely impossible for me to lose weight and give up. Instead, this time I just about what I had been doing differently from what I was doing when I was losing steadily, and it was pretty easy: I was eating a lot of take-out instead of cooking. So, I took the simple step of restarting my pursuit of the title of Weight Watchers Casserole Queen by cooking a casserole once a week on the weekends. That way I always have something healthy at home to eat.
I also got back into the swing of working out, including doing lots of fun summer activities. I've attended a several outdoor yoga events with my friends and I've also been riding my bike a good bit, in addition to my regular yoga and running. Here's a photo of yoga in Times Square on the Summer Solstice:

At times, we were heckled, but what would New York outdoor yoga be without some heckling?

When I refocused on my weight loss this winter/spring, I set a goal for myself to lose 15 pounds by the time of my first wedding dress fitting. My first fitting should be in about 4 weeks, so over the next 4 weeks I need to lose on average 1.1 pounds a week to reach my goal. Since I began going to meetings I've lost about 0.6 pounds a week on average so this would require me to up my pace of loss slightly. That worries me a little bit but I am cautiously optimistic that I will make it as I'm now able to spend more time working out/cooking than I could over the past few months. I'm also preparing myself for the possibility that I might come close to my goal but not reach it exactly. If I lose 13 or 14 pounds, I will still be very happy with that.

Finally, I have decided that once I do lose 15 pounds, I am going to buy myself a new bike! My current bike is the 15-speed mountain bike I got when I turned 12 years old. It gets the job done but it's not that fun. I'd love to have a city bike that is a little more relaxed to ride and looks stylish. These are my current loves:

The Linus Dutchie 3