Your Not-So-Typical Before/After Post

Ugh. I'll cut to the chase- ever since I got back from my friend's wedding, I've been letting myself slack. I certainly haven't given up, or even come close... I just think I lost a little motivation for two reasons:

1: I'm pretty certain I'll no longer make my goal of under 200 by January 1st
2: I no longer have a huge event (a wedding) to tone for.

So, in an effort to be honest with myself and accountable to you who are reading this, I'm going to do some before and afters... comparing my habits now to last month's habits.

Before: Didn't eat one candy from the stash at work.
After: I'll let myself have about 5 or 6 a day. Those stupid "minis" add up.

Before: Cardio three times a week, lifting twice a week
After: Cardio twice a week, lifting maybe once....

Before: Sweets three times a week
After: Sweets every day

Before: No bread, hardly any flour products
After: Just ordered grilled chicken linguini from OCharley's, and I had a roll. I also have been eating some toast or something every once in a while.

Before: Lots of water
After: Some water, lots of coffee

Before: No eating after dinner
After: Snack after dinner if I can't help myself

Before: Big, healthy breakfast
After: Maybe a McMuffin?

I'm not making huge changes that completely throw away what I've accomplished, but all those little changes or exceptions are not allowing me to lose any substantial weight this month. Check out my weight log for the last 30 days. Can't get past 216, and it's pretty obvious why.

November 2011: Before & Afters

I finally took some more before/after pictures, and had another cool moment to go along with it..... 

Tonight I carried that jug in from our van and thought, hey! I should....

Yes, I weighed it.

Any guesses? 

44.8 lbs! 

Never again do I want to carry that jug around all day. 

I decided to snap a picture (remember my last a-ha picture with the 20lb dumbbell??) of that milestone weight loss that I've finally jumped over- 50lbs!

I Want to Remember

Today a friend's little 10 year old boy saw me today and whispered to his mom, "Wow! She has lost a lot of weight!"

Inspiring.

Be Excited.

I have another friend who's inspired me and her story is coming soon!

Changes

Wowzah.
It's been a while, but I feel even closer to my goal than ever before! I'm a mere 18lbs away from my 2012 goal- under 200lbs! I couldn't be more motivated.
Since I broke off the training with Lydia, I've developed some healthy habits of my own, of which I think are really helping me kick it in gear.

Breakdown:

• As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not eating bread. I'll have the occasional small taste of something, but I'm specifically cutting out as much of gluten as possible. In the month of October, I made it through the end with only eating bread twice. Piece of cake. (Ha, figuratively!) Of course at times I wanted it, but it was really much easier than I thought it would be. 
• I've been working out about 4-5 times per week- and included in that, I'm lifting about 1-2 times, but I'm mainly focusing on low-impact cardio machines to help me burn calories. I really enjoy the rowing machine and this elliptical-like machine. I can do some high intensity at night and wake up the next morning without my heels or knees hurting. That's huge! 
• I found that the high intensity:low intensity intervals on the cardio machines produce the best results in weight loss. It's like doing sprint/jog intervals--without the impact on my joints! For example, tonight I did the elliptical as follows: 1 minute of the machines highest settings and then 1 minute of a mid-range setting, repeating for 30 minutes. I burned 500 calories, and my heart rate averaged around 155 the whole time. 
• I'm really noticing the difference in my appearance. I actually didn't even recognize myself in the mirror at Macy's one night. I mean, I was looking right at myself, but I still have a different mental picture of what I look like. Exciting stuff!
• I'm trying to eat my heavy foods before 6 or 7pm. And by heavy I mean meats and other healthy fats. 
• I won't go into much detail, but I've noticed a difference in my digestive tract.
• At night, I'm trying to focus more on how I feel. Do I feel tight? bloated? light? energized? exhausted? And then I ask myself why? Did I exercise? eat bad? eat good? After recognizing this, I let myself get on the scale and normally have a pretty good idea of the numbers that will appear. 
• It seems normal, but my body weight throughout the day does not fluctuate as much as it did earlier. In May, my weight would fluctuate about 4 lbs from morning to night, gaining as the time goes by. Today, my weight has fluctuated about 1.5lbs from this morning to 8pm. Interesting. 

This is what works for me. Everyone's different, and we all have different motivators. I'm so blessed to have the opportunities available to work towards a life goal of mine, and I couldn't be more excited.