Monthly(!) Construction Update

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

The Biria Citibike

So here's hoping that tomorrow's weigh-in goes well bringing me one step closer to my near-term weight goal and my new wheels!

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