Milestone!

I hit the 75 pounds lost mark and I've been on this journey for 8 months today. I've lost 65 of those pounds in the last 8 months which makes my weight loss right at 8 pounds a month. Certainly not Biggest Loser standards, but I just don't feel I could have done much more than I have. 

I do think it's time to step up my exercise to twice a day with the second time just being some kind of activity like Wii Sport or a little walk outside. Nothing formal like going to the gym, that will be my morning routine, but just something.

My knee has been bothering me the last week for some reason. I'm not sure what the deal with it is because it hadn't been bothering me for about a month and I've been babying it! I will keep you posted on that!  

Plans for the future!

Today is already starting out better than yesterday!  I'm dressed and ready for the gym waiting for Mike to get home from work! :)  I feel better already!  

I'm not sure everyone read that I cannot participate in the half marathon I wanted to do because the time limit is too short for me to consider, but I think I'm going to train on the elliptical machine for the miles that I would have walked and do some 5 and 10 k's along the way. 

I'm going to focus on the Baltimore Half Marathon in October. I honestly think that's a more realistic goal for me!  I'm going to put in the three miles today on my training schedule and then I'm going to revamp my training schedule for the half marathon in October!  I'm excited about this one because it's the last one I was training but wasn't able to do because of an injury and then just a few short weeks later my dear mother went home to be with the Lord. It will seem like I've come full circle. I should weigh about the same as I did back eight year ago too, if not a little lighter. It will almost be like a new beginning for me!

I'm having a rough start to my day. My weight is up 1.5 pounds even with exercising and eating healthy. I feel tired and sleepy, didn't go exercise yesterday, and haven't yet today. Then I got an email about the Lynchburg Half Marathon that said the time limit was 3 hours!  WHAT?  It is obviously not walker friendly. I have been doubting my ability to do the half marathon since my walk on Saturday anyway, but this actually tells me that I can't possibly do it. I'm sad and relieved at the same time about that. I do think that I could do it, but it would take me at least 4 hours. I might just do it one day to prove to myself that I can!  :)

I've also been beating myself up about my weight loss and how slow it is, but I read today about a lady in her 30's who took 18 months to lose 100 pounds. I know we each are on our own journey, but that made me feel good too that I'm not just a slow poke in my weight loss.

I've been hungry lately too which hasn't helped my mood!  I haven't been hungry at all the last eight months so this is a little surprising to me and I'm not sure what the cause of it is. Usually by now I've adjusted to less calories and I don't get hungry when I'm eating non-processed foods.

I have found a place in Lynchburg that can test for body fat percentage in a body pod. I have thought about doing it for the last few months, but I might need to do that. I think because I lift weights I burn lots of calories, but I don't want to think that if it's not true! So I might just bite the bullet and humble myself to be in a bathing suit to take this test! I think body fat percentage is important to know and this is the best way, in my area, to have this test performed.

Well, I guess I'm off to get a cup of tea and maybe some popcorn to fill this empty belly!

Progress Report

I did a 5k yesterday. My time was recorded as 59:53, but the chip and gun times are the same on the website and since I didn't think I was being timed til I crossed the start line I wasn't really going fast before I hit the start line, but still I did it under an hour (I think my official time was between 57 and 58 minutes). The course was rather difficult because it had a quarter mile incline of 75 feet! That one about did me in, but the last 2 miles I did in 36 minutes so my pace was pretty good the whole time!  :)

Today I'm really tired and I'm not sure if it's from allergies, cold, or just from yesterday's walk! I tend to beat myself up when I don't exercise, but I have to remember that I've come a long way in just under eight months. Eight months ago I was only walking about 1.8 mph and struggling to do it for 20 minutes. I'm also still over 300 pounds. I've never revealed my weight here before, but I think it's time.

November 2011 I weighed 401 pounds. That scared me. Until today I've only told that number to three people. Almost 75 pounds are gone (327 lbs.) and lots more to go. Recently, I have been comparing myself to other people and their times, but I seriously doubt most of them carry around the amount of weight that I do. I'm not saying that to brag on myself or put anyone else down, but to just remind myself how well I'm doing in this fitness journey!

Another topic I've been thinking about is resting metabolic rate and how many calories are needed to lose weight the most effectively for your body. I lift weights...I enjoy that...and I know that's good for my metabolism so for the fun of it one day I wore my heart rate monitor for 24 hours. The HRM said I'd burned over 4,000 calories during that day. That means if I eat 2000 calories I'm at a 2000 calorie deficit for the day  which means I should be losing 4 pounds a week, which I'm not!

So I then wonder if I should eat more, exercise more, eat less, exercise more, or just be happy with the weight I'm losing!  Weight loss is such a mystery!

Getting excited

Eight years I was struggling to keep my weight down after losing 160 pounds. I had already put on about half the weight I'd lost and was desperately trying to figure out how to stop the weight gain. I saw an 8k race in Virginia Beach and thought that was a nice thing to do to try to get back on track. Mike and I went and completed the race...he was far ahead of me, which was fine with me. I completed it in 1:37:00...I just went searching for my exact time and it's not listed!  Not sure what happened to our names, but we did the race...here is a picture of me after the race at my mom's house!



I think I can match my time from 8 years ago even though I'm older and heavier because I've been training. It's good to be on the downward weight lose road again!  :)

Five Months into my journey!

Today makes five months since I started on this journey. To date I've lost 57 pounds, 47 pounds since Sept. 3, 2012. I was disappointed when i woke up this morning and my weight was the same as it was last Sunday...exactly the same!  How does that happen when I've eaten well all week...I'm very honest and careful with my diet...and exercised 5 days a week training for an 8k and lifting weights! It doesn't make sense to me, but I have to trust that sooner or later the weight will come off.  

But in my disappointment I started thinking about 47 pounds in 5 months, that's and average of 9.4 pounds a month which isn't a bad thing at all!  I feel better, most days, have more energy, and feel better about myself mentally so I have to count those things as successes and move on!  I will keep doing what I'm doing because I'm enjoying it, not because of what the scale says to me!  :)

Walking to my sister's house!

I've decided that rather than just log miles I'm going to pick a destination. First will be my sister's house in Ohio!  She lives 380 miles from me so it will take me a while to get there, but I will do it...because I can!

Here is the route the Google maps has mapped out:

So far since the first of January I've logged 7.75 miles! I'm logging elliptical and treadmill miles! I'm excited for this journey. I will try to tell you about where I am on the trip as I travel. Right now I'm barely away from my backdoor so still in Madison Heights!  :)