Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was last Thursday and we traveled to my sister's house in Chesapeake for the holiday. Our family actually celebrated on Wednesdy because my husband had to get back here to work on Thursday! I did well with my calories and even walked a mile on the morning we celebrated Thanksgiving. I went over my calorie goal that one day by 800 calories, but I'm generally under my calories so I wasn't worried about it. 

The morning we left I weighed and was down to losing a total of 40 pounds. My body's natural rythm is to gain some pounds on the scale after a loss. That wasn't helped with the holiday in the middle, but the weight is back down to within one pound of what it was last week. I am happy with that. 

I have been on this journey so many times before and everytime I learn more things. Although I'm eating about 1500 to 1800 calories a day, I'm still not sure that's enough for my body. I have been doing a lot of research and I think I do burn a ton of calories...there is not a thing wrong with my metabolism, it's my eating that was broken and lack of movement!  I can fairly easily burn 1,000 calories on my weight lifting days. I usually spend about 90 minutes doing cardio and weight training in intervals. I find I like that and the cardio machine I like the best is the elliptical machine. It burns the most calories for me.

I recently found a website that calculates your calories burned during a day and then just subtract calories from that to know how much to eat to lose weight. According to that I should be eating way more calories than I am...I don't think I'm brave enough to eat that many, but I do think I'm going to up my caloric intake a few hundred calories. When I lost weight about 10 years ago I was very successful and ate 2200 calories a day!  People didn't believe me when I told them. Now, I'm not even sure that was enough with the exercise I was actually doing!

At my lowest weight 10 years ago (210 lbs.), I was only eating 1600 calories, but at the time I'm thinking of I was training for a triathlon so it wasn't uncommon for me to spend 3 or 4 hours in exercise...walking/running, biking, and swimming!  I probably burned that many calories in exercise so my body was not getting any fuel!  No wonder I wasn't losing anymore weight!

I want to be smart about my weight loss because I am 54 years old now and need to get this weight off and keep it off! I don't want to be skinny...I don't like skinny, actually!  LOL  I just want to be healthy! I need to remember that if 210 lbs and a size 10 dress is healthy, I need to be happy!  :)

Ten more pounds to the 50 pound mark and that will also be 1/4 of the weight I want to lose!  I will have to do what I've done three more times!  It's a breeze!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

More changes!

I was going to a birthday party today and had to pick up another family member to go. He needed to sit behind me so I scooted the seat in the car forward. Although my knees were touching the dashboard I was still comfortable and got in and out comfortably. Here's the thing that surprised me, when Mike's brother got out of the car and I put the seat back to the original position it felt too far back so I moved it closer to the steering wheel!  Also, all day I felt like I was sitting lower in the seat!  I'm sure it's all part of my changing body...even if the scale isn't chaging!  LOL

I was able to stand longer today without my knees hurting...they hurt at the end of the day, but I did much more standing than I would have done before. 

I know this sounds odd, but I have been really tired lately, but I also know that I have been doing a lot more...more cooking, baking, cleaning, etc..., so even though I'm tired I feel like I accomplish more around the house!  My house has never been cleaner!  I am doing it slowly as I have the energy, but it's making a huge difference in how I feel about the house!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Little changes...

I decided I need to start posting my progress again. I've officially lost 35.5 pounds since last year about this time, but it's been 25.5 since Sept. 3, 2012 which works out to be about 2.5 pounds a week. Not what I wished for (3 pounds a week), but a good safe weightt loss.

Now the little things I've been noticing: my seatbelt fits better, my shoes are a little looser, sitting farther from the steering wheel, and just getting around a little easier.

I've been complaining that I'm always tired, but I also know that I'm doing more. Yesterday and today I cleaned out cabinets in the kitchen. I've been baking sweets for Mike because he likes them and I've allowed  myself to eat a serving and accounted for them on my food log so I don't feel deprived.

I've been working out five days a week consistently for a few weeks now and can feel the results of my efforts on most days. I start out on the elliptical machine for 10 minutes, do weight machines and alternate with the elliptical. I started with just one minute on the elliptical between machines, but I'm not up to five minutes on the elliptical between machines.

The good news is that I'm losing weight, but the bad news is that it takes longer working out to burn as many calories!  I enjoy doing the weight machines and I know that weight lifting is what will burn more calories in the long run so I'm trying to put more time in there than on cardio.

My sister and I are already signed up for the Shamrock 8k in March so I need to start doing walking and building my stamina. I can already workout for 90 minutes, but much of that time is weight lifting so I'm not on my feet...I want to build my cardio time. My goal is to finish the 8k in less than 1.5 hours. The last time I did it I finished in 1:37 so I'd like to do it in less time than that!  I will let you know how that goes!  There is a 6k in February I'd like to do, but it's at Virginia Beach too and I'm not sure Mike will let me go over there twice in two months! :)