Weekly Construction Update

Week Ending Monday, May 2
Despite struggling to stay within my points over the past few weeks (except for this past week) at my weight-in I was down 0.8 pounds, a decrease of 9.2 pounds overall, which puts me just over my 5% weight loss goal!  I think what helped me this week was that I only had one big night out, which helped keeping me within my points.  Also, I got sick towards the end of the week, so that put a damper on any extra eating which helped, though it also caused me to cut back my activity. One note: I weighed in earlier than usual on Tuesday (around lunch time rather than dinner time) so my weigh in next week might be higher in comparison.

Moments of awesomeness this week:

• I worked out one day and earned 6 activity points.  While that's pretty low (even for being sick) I'm still proud of that since before I got sick I was super busy at work, so it's good I managed to get any APs in at all last week.
• Even though I was sick, I did not use that as an excuse to pig out on unhealthy foods.  While it's true that I wasn't cooking or watching my food as closely as usual, I did not give myself a to eat whatever I want to "feel better", as I often do.  I had extra reason to cave this time too because I still had to drag myself to work for the early shift (5am!) for much of the week.  Instead of giving myself a food break, I gave myself a study break and vegged out on the couch rather than trying to study when I felt so bad.  It wasn't exactly the best thing for  my test preparation, but at least I didn't derail my weight loss.
• I wore a skirt to work that previously was one of my "tight" skirts, that now fits just fine and might even be considered a bit on the loose side for a pencil skirt.  Yet another reason to keep up my new shop-more-frequently habit.

That's it for the week.  I'm still working on getting over my illness (I'm a sniveling coughing disgusting mess), but I'm trying to not to get distracted from my weight loss as I've had a string of really good weeks recently.  Here's hoping next week is another good week.

Weekly Construction Update

Week Ending Monday April 25
Despite having a high-stress, high-work, high-drinking week I somehow managed to lose 2 pounds at my weigh-in, leading to an overall loss of 8.4 pounds since I started going to meetings and 9.8 pounds overall. Part of the weight loss can probably be attributed to my every-other-week weight loss pattern, so I am a bit afraid that last week's bad behavior will show up on the scale this week, but I'm going to do my best to stay within my points and hopefully maintain at my weigh in this week.

Moments of awesomeness this week:

• I went shopping this week and bought a lot of really good-looking clothes, in smaller sizes than I would have a few months ago.  I am one of those rare females who actually needs to go shopping more often.  I never go shopping and when I finally do, I end up buying everything that looks halfway decent because I have no clothes.  Then when I get home I end up hating half of what I bought, and the cycle continues.  Plus, I tend to have a really hard time finding clothes that fit, partially because of my weight, partially because of my body type (big boobs & big butt).  However, I have resolved to change this, and I have been inspired by Ms. Bitchcakes.  She always tries to look her best because, as she says, "When you look good, you feel good."  Also, I think taking pride in my appearance and celebrating my new trimmer look with some new clothes will help motivate me to stay on track.  So this week I worked on practicing Sheryl's shopping techniques by shopping a little bit all the time so that I buy clothes I love instead of just buying anything when I'm in desperate need for something in particular.  Last week I hit Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, and Ann Taylor Loft and I am now the proud owner of 3 new skirts, 2 new camisoles, 2 new sweaters, 1 new button down short-sleeve black shirt, and a wrap dress!  There was one other skirt (this is it) that looked fabulous but it was just a little too small so I'm planning to go back in a few weeks when I am down a few more pounds and try it again.
• I worked out 3 days and earned 21 activity points.  I went running twice and played Dance Dance Revolution one day.  I actually had such a good time playing DDR (even though I look slightly spastic as I jump around) that I thought it might be fun to get a few more Wii exercise games.  I ordered Punch Out (which is the Wii version of the classic Nintendo game) and EA Sports Active 2.  I'll review these (and my other Wii exercise games) at some point.
• I also signed up for a race the weekend after I take my test.  (In case you don't remember, I'm taking a finance test the first weekend in June which is currently sucking all of my free time and my will to live.)  It's the New York Road Runners New York Mini 10K, which is a women-only race.  It will be my first NYRR race in over 2 years, so I'm very excited.  So far I seem to be injury free, so I am hoping by maintaining my current exercise regime of yoga and shorter running distances (6 miles or less) my IT band injury will stay at bay.

Here's hoping this week will be as good as last week.

Fitness Awesomeness

Last week my motivation started to wane a bit, likely due to only losing 1.4 pounds over the past 3 weeks.  Though the lack of large losses are understandable given my eating (see the "frito" incident from last week), I was feeling a bit down in the dumps.  So I did as Ms. Bitchcakes preaches - I focused on celebrating my recent successes in fitness.  And I've actually made a lot of progress lately

• I can now do a real chaturanga in my yoga class - this means I lowered myself to the ground in a push-up position.  I've been working on this for some time and I usually have to put my knees down as my upper-arm strength is not good enough to do this properly.  Right now I can only do a real chaturanga 3 or 4 times a class before I get too tired and have to put my knees down, but this is still a HUGE improvement as I've been working on this for over 2 years.  Here's what it looks like:

I look just like this when I do this.  Except for the perfect form and the pink-ness and the blond-ness and the perky butt-ness.*

• Today, in yoga, I managed to do a real bind.  What I did was that while I was in a lunge with my left leg forward, I weaved my left arm arm under my left leg and grabbed my right hand which was wrapped behind my back.  Basically, I was a pretzel!  Okay, well maybe not a pretzel exactly, but pretty darn pretzel-like for me.  This yogic achievement was an even bigger deal than being able to do chaturanga because this is something I NEVER thought I could do.  My shoulders are pretty tight (especially my right one) and as I previously mentioned, there is a bit of junk in my trunk, so I never thought I'd be able to get my arms around my behind to do a bind (whew that rhymed (so did that!)).  This was really exciting.
• Other cool yoga achievements lately include doing a full wheel while standing on my tip-toes (a pose I previously found completely ridiculous and unachievable), and having it feel downright easy to flip the dog (my favorite yoga pose name).

Tomorrow's my weigh-in and I've had a pretty good week so I'm cautiously optimistic.  I think part of what helped me have a good week was focusing on the progress I have made when I was feeling bummed earlier in the week.  That's why I started this blog - to motivate myself by celebrating my successes, and I feel like that worked this week.

*Photo from Yoga Journal

Recent Moments of Awesomeness

Over the last few months as I've refocused on weight loss and fitness, I've reached a few milestones, some of which were pretty surprising.

• I ran my first race since 2008 and set a new record for 5 miles.  For some background, I used be a very avid runner, and in 2008 I was training for the New York City marathon when I was sidelined by an IT band injury (here's IT Band Syndrome on Wikipedia).  It was really hard for me to move on from being a runner, but over the past 2.5 years I've gotten really into yoga.  However, I was heading down to Virginia Beach to watch my fiance run a marathon, and so I decided to try to run the 8k race.  I only trained a bit as I was afraid of messing up my IT band and I was hoping to just survive the race.  Amazingly, I managed to not only finish the race, but it was my fastest 5 mile race ever.  Here's me after the race, proudly displaying my medal which doubles as a bottle opener (the race was sponsored by Yuengling).  This race was clearly designed for me:

• Also during that weekend, I wore, for the first time, real skinny jeans.  I bought a pair of skinny jeans last spring from American Eagle that I read were good for those of us who have slightly larger-than-average derrières (I'm pretty sure these are them).  When I got them they were a tad small, but I figured if I lost a few pounds I could wear them.  Unfortunately, between work and studying I never did manage to get into them.  However, as I've been losing over the past few months, I tried them on and they fit.  It was awesome to wear a pair of jeans that I didn't have to tightroll to get into boots!
• This weekend I ran in Central Park for the first time since 2008.  Since the race in Virginia Beach went so well, I've been running 3 miles a few times a week.  I've been nervous to go run in Central Park because hill running can inflame a tight IT band and Central Park (especially the Harlem end, near where I live) is super hilly.  But on Saturday, I suited up, ran to the park, and made it through a 4 mile run with no pain.  I felt so good that I did it again today.  It was really refreshing to be back in the park, as I really haven't spent much time there since I got injured.  I didn't realize how much I missed running in the park.
• I've been trying to cook in bulk once a week so that I have a bunch of meals on hand whose points I am 100% sure about.  For a while I was trying to cook multiple times a week, but I've found that I would spend hours cooking and then eat all of the food within a day or two, or worse I wouldn't get around to doing all the cooking I planned and I would end up having to throw out the ingredients (my fiance LOVES it when I do this).  I've found that casseroles are a really good way to go for cooking in bulk, as most recipes can easily make 8-12 servings, which will keep me going for most of the week.  I've found a number of good casserole-type recipes on the Weight Watchers website.  I'll write about a recent casserole attemptin another post.
• And finally, I've been tracking super religiously.  Unfortunately, I've also been going over my points pretty often, but I'm still happy that I've been writing EVERYTHING down.  I'm hoping next week I will be able to stay under my points as I don't have any big social engagements planned, which is what typically pushes me over my points.

That's it for now, but I'm hoping to have some more awesome moments in the coming weeks.