Monday, December 31, 2012

Fifty pounds gone!

Today is the last day of 2012 and I hit my fifty pounds lost mark today. I'm actually surprised that I hit it because on Christmas morning I was 3 pounds away then the day after Christmas my weight went up 2 pounds!  YIKES I started drinking water like crazy and got right back on my 'clean' eating. Now, I'm not a clean eating fanatic! I eat mostly unprocessed foods, but I did allow my favorite Christmas cookies (just at the last one today!). My weight usually fluctuates up and down. I will have a loss and then the weight goes up a couple of pounds for two or three days before it comes back down. Well, I was technically at 48.8 pounds lost yesterday so I didn't expect the scale to be down again this morning, but when I woke up and the scale was right at 50 pounds lost I was excited!

I will have someone take pictures of me (not my husband, he is camera illiterate, but I still love him!) and I'll take measurements to post. I'm not sure I am going to post my actual weight, but we will see!  I will get all that done today or tomorrow!

I wanted to have a reward for my fifty pound weight loss and thought about getting a body fat caliper, but that would only be used once in a while and I feel might be a waste of money. I did some research and there is a little Pod type body fat machine at a local college that costs $30.00 to get your body fat tested and other than the hydrostatic this is the most accurate body fat tester. I think the best part is I can go back in a year and have it done again for just $15.00.  So I will call after the new year and see if I can set up an appointment for that.

So, that leaves me with a reward for myself. I want new shoes...I know technically that is a need, but I don't actually NEED them yet, but since I'm seriously into my exercise I want to make sure I have good shoes so I think I'm going to get these:


New Balance 770v3, Green with White & Grey

I have plans to do several 'races' this year. I just do them for fun and to challenge myself. I am never a serious contender because I'm too slow, but I'm faster than the person sitting on the couch!  :)

The first race I'm already signed up for is the Shamrock 8k (4.98 miles) at Virginia Beach. I did this race in 2005 and had planned to do it the next year because Mike and I liked it so much, but my mom passed away that year and that was just the end of my motivation for a while. So, this year I'm doing it again. I hope I can beat my time of 1:37 from last time, but I'll be a little heavier than I was last time, although I will have been training more so it will all be a wash for pros and cons. I would like to do it under 1:30, but just to finish would be great!

My second goal is to do a half marathon in October in Baltimore. That was the last race I was signed up for before I seriously began to gain weight. I was injured for this race and couldn't participate in it which made me sad...it was just a two weeks after this race that my mom passed away.

Those are my solid goals for 2013. I am going to try to do a half marathon in my town in August...that might be pushing my limits as far as time to get ready, but it's in my mind. The other is the 10 miler in Lynchburg in September. That's a hard course in my mind because of the hills, but I have some friends who are doing it so it might be a fun thing to do. I know if nothing else I can always count on my husband to do it with me and stay with me if I want him to!  :)

I think I've decided that my theme for this year is going to be: "Because I can!" Several years ago I had an F150 with four wheel drive and we happened to have a bad winter according to Virginia standards and my motto that year when my husband would ask why I wanted to go somewhere in this weather was, "Because I can!" Well, I have a healthy body other than too much weight. There are many people with thin bodies that can't exercise so I am blessed to be able to exercise at my weight so my theme this year is, "Because I can!" What is yours going to be?

Well, that is my post for today. I will get the measurements and photos up soon!

Adding photos. I don't have any good before pictures. I do have one, but I have to scan it and don't want to right now, but the first face photo is of me 2 years ago and the other is today. Not much difference!  :(  But I carry most of my weight in my lower body so I guess I won't see it in my face much yet!


Here is a face and side shot of me at 50 pounds lost.




Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Wicked Wednesday!

It's wicked because I had to workout hard today to counter the eating I did yesterday!  Seriously, I know I didn't eat as much as I would have in the past, but it was more than I needed, that's for sure!  I work up with a sugar hangover from all the cookies I ate!  LOL I've divided all the leftover macaroni and cheese and scalloped potatoes into containers for Mike to take with him to work this week so I don't have to look at them anymore! We are having vegetable bean soup for lunch and pork roast with cabbage and carrots tonight for supper!  The scale was honest (even though I didn't like it this morning) and I will just have to keep working hard to get that gain off and move on to my 50 pound goal!  :)

While I was working out my heart rate monitor went whacko a couple of times saying my heart rate was over 200 when I knew it wasn't (I'd have been huffing and puffing and gasping for breath if that were the case!) so I adjusted the monitor and it would go back to normal. It wasn't until it happened a second time that I wondered if it was because the band around my chest was getting too loose and moving around too much!  When I got home I shortened the band by TWO inches! LOL I don't think I'll have a problem with my heart rate now!  ;)

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Measurements

I'm not sure I'm ready to share my measurements just yet, but I am ready to share my inches lost!

Right Bicep - 2.375"
Right Leg - 4.375"
Waist - 5.5"
Hips - 5.125"
Total inches lost - 17.375
Weight Loss - 42 pounds


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

More changes...

Because I can't remember if I've mentioned this one thing before I'm going to mention it again, but my seat belt is a lot easier to get around me and I used to have to lean to the left to get the seat belt on and now I can fit my hand in right beside me to hook it.

The other thing I have been doing for a while, but just realized it yesterday. I used to have my desk chair the chair set on the highest setting because it was hard for me to get up. When I would get up from the chair I would have to put a hand on the window sill and desk to help push myself up. Yesterday I was typing something and decided to lower the chair to make the angle to see the screen easier, then I forgot it was lower and got up WITHOUT pushing myself up!

I need to keep remembering little things like that which aren't scale related because the scale doesn't show the whole picture!

On another note. I believe I'm going to get a caliper to calculate my body fat percentage. When I lost weight about 10 years ago my body fat percentage was 21.6%, but I weighed 210 pounds so I thought that I was still really fat! I won't let that happen again. 

For those who don't know here is a chart to compare!  I was in the "Fitness" range and was upset that I wasn't below 21% BFP! I need to remember that the scale doesn't tell the whole story!

 Ideal Body Fat Percentage Chart1 Ideal Body Fat Percentage Chart: How Lean Should You Be?

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Another pound!

I've officially lost 42 pounds!  I'm getting there! I know that I want to buy 50 pounds of food and take it to our church's food pantry, but as for a reward for myself I'm not sure yet. A massage sounds good, but I'm a little paranoid of someone touching my body at this weight still. I have been thinking about getting shellac nails so maybe that will be my reward! I have been buying so much stuff for cooking that I feel a little guilty buying a reward for weight loss!  LOL

I've made a decision to switch from LiveStrong.com to MyFitnessPal.com for my weight loss entries. The main reason is that I've connected with several people on facebook who use that and on LiveStrong I kind of felt alone. There are blogs that are more relevant to my situation on MFP so I'm going to start posing my food and workouts there.

I considered getting a Fitbit that everyone is talking about, but after reading reviews of Fitbit vs. Polar FT4 heart rate monitor I've decided I already have the best tool so I'm not going to waste my money buying something else! I would like to have a caliper to get my body fat percentage, but they aren't that expensive so I might get one of those this week.

I do know I need to measure myself soon! I had measurements taken when I started last year, but the trainer has them and hasn't gotten them to me yet. I should have gotten them when she did them, but I didn't!

I've also decided to eat my workout calories. In the past I've stuck to a caloric intake and not added calories to compensate for my workouts. I'm working out so much that I feel I need to compensate a little bit, plus everything I'm reading now tells me that I need to do that.

There are some cool tools out there to find your basal metabolic rate and total energy expenditure. Here is a link to my favorite one. Once you add your information by turning the wheels your BMR will be on that top which is what your body's organs need just to function. The body number is the amount of calories your body needs to do all your activities. Take that TEE number and subtract 500 calories to lose 1 pound a week or 1000 calories to lose 2 pounds a week. Anything over that is too much, but honestly, my TEE is so high that I'd have to eat a horse, literally, to eat all my calories!  Anyone who says that dieting and gaining weight messes up your metabolism doesn't know my body!  I burn calories like a freight train...I can't imagine how many calories I used to eat!  YIKES

Anyway, here is the website to calculate your metabolic rate: Energy Expenditure Calculator

Monday, December 3, 2012

Finally!

I went to visit my sister over Thanksgiving and I logged all my food, and yes, I was honest about it. Thanksgiving Day I went over my calories by about 1,000 (which is actually really easy to do!  Wonder how many calories I was eating before!  YIKES), but I walked a mile so that brought the damage down to about 800 calories. Still not bad and I didn't hate myself for doing it. It was a holiday, I enjoyed my day, and I went right back to it the next day!

The problem? On the trip I gained 4 pounds!  Seriously?  How does a body do that?  Well, today, two weeks after the trip to Chesapeake, I finally showed a loss again! I have officially lost 41 pounds now! Nine more to go to my one quarter goal!  :)

Today I tried a new routine for my weight training. I love to lift weights so I've been reading about it and I know that I won't gain so much muscle that I will turn into Mr. Olympic so I decided to lift more weight with less reps. I felt like I had a harder/better workout than normal...although, I feel like I was working out hard before too. At least I sweated more!  LOL

I need to find some kind of log to record my exercises and the weight I'm using because I won't remember them at all!  LOL

I had a weird thing happen to me at the gym the other day. I wear a heart rate monitor to keep track of my heart rate and calculate my calories burned. Well, I was just going to walk and I put the treadmill on 3% incline to get more benefit from my walk. Well, the heart rate monitor said my heart rate was over 200!  Impossible! I would have been lying on the floor gasping if that were the case. So I ignored it. It kept saying that to the point that I lowered the incline on the treadmill, but kept my pace (which is slow, but still moving!  LOL) The heart rate monitor continued to say my heart rate was over 200 so I adjusted it on my body and that did the trick!  My heart rate was in the 130's, which is exactly where it should be, so I knew I wasn't going to die!