Pictures: Week 23

29 lbs lost!!! 

It's Been A Rocky Road.....

For REAL.

Check out those mountains, plateaus, and valleys...

 

40 Grams

Today I woke up feeling extra motivated to eat well. Specifically, I wanted to eat less sugar- to the tune of no more than 40 grams.

I've resisted the chocolate cupboard here at work (yes, I can't believe they have one either.) today and I specifically packed food that I thought wouldn't have a whole lot of sugar.

Well, now I've just gotten done entering in everything that I ate thus far, and I'm already 18 grams over!!! Urg! There's so much sugar in our society's food.

5K: 2011 | 2012

I started training for my first 5K in March of 2011. I hadn't been running at all, and really wanted to incorporate exercise into my weight loss journey. I found a 8 week workout plan online that would take me from running 1/4 mile up to 3.1 miles.

Our race day came on May 7, 2011 and I was all too nervous. My dear friend Hope was running her first 5K right along side of me, but I knew she would pass me up right away. My goal was to finish in (prepare yourself!) under 40 minutes. Yep. I hadn't accomplished that time yet, but I thought it was possible. In fact, I hadn't even run 3.1 miles up to race day. 

I got out there on a beautiful morning and ran my heart out. I'll never forget rounding that last bend and seeing my husband out there practically jumping up and down saying "Hurry babe! You're going to make it in under 40!!!!" WOW! What a rush of adrenaline. I finished in 63rd place, in 39:15. I was so so so so happy! I made my goal! 

(((the difference in our faces makes me laugh so hard!)))

Fast forward 14 months and here we are today! I've accomplished one of my long-term goals. I just got home from finishing my second 5K and had a blast! I got to run it with another friend, Katie (it was her first race!!!), and a few ladies from work. 

What are my feelings? Wow. I'm feeling so different in comparison to last year. I feel faster. Stronger. I've got more endurance. Probably more motivation. I've lost stinking 25lbs since then too, which is crazy inspiring. There's no way I'd want to run today's race with two- ten pound dumbbells in my hands. That weight is shed and lost forever. 

While I didn't make my goal time today, I'm still really happy I competed. My final time was 33:16, knocking off 6 minutes from last year I would have liked to finish in under 30 minutes, but I honestly didn't do great on my first mile. There were probably 300 people competing, and I couldn't run my normal pace in the beginning. But, nevertheless, I'm proud to say that I finished the race, and want to give all praise to the Lord. He has blessed me with wonderful encouragers in my life and I couldn't be more thankful!

Shoulda Known...

....that my time was here and I would start craving.
....that I'd let myself give in if I kept inviting temptation.
....that he'd give in, too.
....that I'd feel bloated.
....that it would drag me down and make me feel fat.
....that it would stop me from accomplishing my weekly goals.
....that it wouldn't be satisfying after the fact.
....that I'd regret it.

First Day Ever

The past 5 days have unusually been much easier than normal when it comes to my nutritional goals. In fact, today was the first day ever that I've had trouble reaching my required caloric intake! Healthy food is so satisfying.

Here's a few pics of what I've been eating:

I was inspired by my friends Amber and Lydia to make this tasty dish! I threw together the following: 

Shredded chicken

Avecado

Grape tomatoes

Corn

Black beans

A spoon full of salsa

And it was so nice to have a healthy, satisfying dinner! 

This product has been my source of protein for the last month or two. My friend Magdalen sells Arbonne products- which I've come to love. This is THE BEST protein powder I've tried, made from 3 key ingredients- rice, pea, and cranberry extracts. It's super smooth and one serving has 20g of protein. Let me know if you'd like to order! 

Goals #1: Review.

I thought that maybe a step to making new goals would be to review my old ones...

Short-term goals:

• Make weekly goals and share with Lydia to help me stay accountable-Well, I certainly share goals with Lyd, but now on a weekly basis. In fact, I'm not sure I have short-term weekly goals that change each week. 
• Weigh 235 by mid-June-Didn't happen, but I'm close- the lowest I've weighed is 243. 
• Find cardio exercises that I enjoy (possibly biking outdoors, zumba, yoga, or hiking) CHA CHING! Yes, I indeed accomplished this. I love trail runs and yoga! 
• Bike to work as often as possible- Yeah.... not so much. The doc's don't really love a sweaty receptionist. 
• Bike to NFPT as often as possible As much as possible. Well, yes, when I had the chance, I think I did. 
• Journal my journey on blogger at least once a week- Yes, on average, I think this was accomplished! And might I add that I enjoy it. Looking back is a certain motivation for me. 
• Work on curbing/decreasing my food intake by: eating more raw veggies, juicing, portion control, and controlling special occasion meals (that last one is my vice....) I do eat more veggies (thanks to hummus), and my appetite has curbed immensely. Pretty excited about that. 
• Research & study! The more I know, the easier it is for me to say no! Yes! I love to continue to study and research. 

Goals with Lydia:

• Push and stretch me beyond what I think my capabilities are Heck yes. 
• Find exercises that target areas of my body that need focus. Yes. 
• Learn more about food from her (and her influence's) perspective. Yes! Thanks for being willing to share!
• Keep me accountable to my goals (for both workouts and diet). Sure thing. Never be afraid to ask me!

Long-term goals:

• Reach my target weight by June of 2013 (means an average weight loss of 1 1/2 lbs per week!) Well, my average weight loss per week was 1.25, which is good, but not my goal. BUT. I'm trying not to focus so much. More later on this. 
• Compete in a race? Well, not yet. But this was long-term for a reason! 
• Find an enjoyable cardio workout during the winter (swimming indoors?) Winter's just around the corner. 
• Find a work-out buddy for accountability and encouragement. I think I've found many! I have an accountability group online, and I really do feel blessed to have so many people around me who care. A huge thanks to Amy, Courtney, Amber, Lydia, Hope, Steffen, Mom and Pa, and my sweet in-laws! 
• Possibly go gluten-free? Welp...

Week 20!

Feeling better already! I took 2.5 weeks off (well, the last week I was on vaca and kinda did some cardio stuff) and I feel like I'm now back on schedule. I'm now doing a different kind of routine-- instead of the low-weight-high-rep ratio, I'm doing the high-weight-low-rep ratio. Kinda intimidated me to dive into, but after the first week I am definitely on board! It's nice to feel that shock to my muscles again.

I also have to reset my goals...but I'm kinda drawing a blank. I want them to be specific, yet attainable. One goal that I've already set and met is that I now have a membership at the Purdue rec center as of today! I think that will really help me to accomplish my cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Lately it's just been too blasted hot to get outside, and even if I have motivation, I don't think it's actually safe to step out in that heat. At 2:30 today when I got off work, it was 109 degrees!

Crazy that 20 weeks have gone by......

Ketchup

I'm not really sure if there's a definite reason as to why I haven't been updating this blog for the past month. I had a lot of time to think about what I should post, but I guess I never felt motivated to do so. There weren't any drastic improvements during the month of June or really even any days where I felt like I was doing my absolute best to accomplish my goals here. Admittedly, I think a huge part of that was because I wasn't seeing any results on the scale every day. (Funny how those last two sentences are so heavily cause & effect!) 

For most of us, when we don't see results, we slowly start moving back to where we started... looking for some satisfaction. We tell ourselves that we deserve to cheat for the weekend, because we've worked so hard and it won't really make a difference anyways. I listened to voices come back and tell me that I'll always be overweight and could never be health, and that it's all my fault. I slowly started eating for pleasure instead of fuel for my body. UH! This makes me angry just typing this! But this is good... I mean, sucks that I have to continually go through this, but it's good that I'm realizing the pain and dedication it is to set myself apart from what America thinks is a clean-eating, healthy person. (I have this huge picture of Jared from Subway in my head.) Looking back, I realize that I have a greater desire to become healthy with each year that goes by. And even now, month to month, I can see the affects of what I've been learning. In fact, I have a specific, first-hand encounter! Read on. 

From February to the end of May, according to my results, I had lost 20lbs of fat and gained 1.5 lb of muscle. Cool. At that measurement in May, my trainer told me I should up my caloric intake as well as my daily dose of protein. I took heed to her suggestion (Sounded great! More food!) but was kinda unsure on how my body would react. 

Well, by mid-June, it was time to once again do some calculations with my weight loss. In just a few weeks, I gained EIGHT pounds of muscle!!! How crazy! I also brought my total weight loss up to 25lbs as well. I am now 1/3 of the way to my goal weight! This was perfect timing for me to find out this news, because like I said earlier, I wasn't seeing any change on the scale, and was really starting to lose motivation.

So, here are some pictures that I took about 3 weeks ago. The physical difference is encouraging, and certainly a motivation to never go back!