Month 1- Finished

Ok, I've gotta admit to mixed feelings on this. On one hand, HOLY COW!!!! I lost SIX POUNDS in one month. For me, that is huge. I've never lost that much in a month unless a hospital visit was involved. I was, and am, so proud of that loss. This is also the least I've weighed in a couple years, so I'm very excited about that as well.

On the other hand, part of me was a little disappointed that I wasn't in the top three. I never had any expectations to be first, or even second place. But I thought maybe I could squeeze in for third. Without seeing any other percentages than the top three, I will say that I was less than a pound from being in third place. That's pretty darn close. When I started this competition, I didn't really expect to ever place in the top three. Definitely not first place for any of the months. But, when I weighed in this morning and saw such a great number, I'll admit to being a bit hopeful that maybe a bronze was in my future. So, yeah. I am disappointed.

Maybe that is one of my problems- that I never really *expect* to have good weight loss results. I think positive thinking really does make a difference. My latest diet effort has been going since around Dec. 20. I've lost a total of 14 lbs since then. Six of those have been this month. I was stuck for most of April and May at one weight. I think I've finally pushed past that plateau and will start losing again. I wonder if maybe our bodies get comfortable at certain weights, and we have to really fight to get past them. I remember weighing 144-145 for a long time, and that's where I got stuck in April, then gained a couple lbs on vacation, and didn't lose them. I don't really remember weighing anywhere from 137-143 for any length of time, so I'm hoping maybe I'll drop through there pretty quickly.

I think making myself spread my calories through the day and eating most of my exercise calories has helped. I've definitely felt more satisfied and full and fulfilled.

PMS and weight loss

Do you find that you gain weight just before or during AF time?

I've found that I tend to gain 2-4 lbs right around that time of the month. It's really frustrating when I'm actively trying to lose weight. I feel like I'm being so good, and suddenly my weight creeps up, and there's nothing I can do about it. Being already hormonally crabby doesn't help my mind set either.

One big problem I think I'm going to have with this competition is that I'm set to be in that pre-period bloat right around each weigh in. I know that it's going to frustrate me that when I do my "official" weigh in, I'm going to be 2-4 lbs heavier than I was a couple days earlier. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for that. In general, I try to avoid weighing myself during that time because I know it will upset me, and it sometimes will sabotage me.

One thing I've wondered about is on Biggest Loser- those girls seem to lose weight every week, and don't seem to struggle with the PMS weight gain. Or maybe they do?

I'd love to spend a whole week at the Biggest Loser campus during a competition, just to see how things REALLY are, before all the editing. I'd love to see what their real workout schedule is like, how food prep really goes, how much they educating they do with the contestants about eating/food prep. They don't seem to show much of that.

Attempted murder!

There was a mass attempted murder at the gym today. Or, I learned a new swear word.

Tabata.

I showed up at the gym this morning, expecting my usual body pump class. I knew the instructor was in Cancun, and she would have a sub. But, I thought it would be more of the same. Oh, how wrong I was.

I knew this particular instructor who was subbing had a reputation for being really, really tough, but I've never actually worked with her. My first hint was when she had people put away any 3 lb weights because nobody needs that. Huh. Maybe we'll do fewer sets with heavier weights?

No. No no no no no no no no.

&^^$#%^%&^*&%*^&

She said she wanted this workout to be the toughest one we did all month. I can't speak for the others, but it certainly was for me.

I sweated during this class like I haven't in a weights class. Ever. My heart rate was definitely up. It definitely felt like I was getting cardio in as well. It felt a lot more effective than traditional weights, or even cardio, because I didn't hate it like I hate running.

After I got home and could move my arms again, I did some research on Tabata, and was really impressed with what I read. They've found that people who do the high intervals increased their aerobic AND anaerobic capacities significantly more than those who just did moderate cardio. I think I'm definitely going to try and incorporate this into my workouts more.

I've heard interval training is really good for me, but never did it more than one or two workouts. But, my intervals were nothing like this, so maybe that was the difference.

Another Goal

So, my goals for this contest are twofold. The first, obviously, is weight loss.

The second is to get even more fit than I already am. I've signed up to do the Dirty Dash on September 17, which is a 10k race with obstacles. Why is it called the the "dirty" dash? Well, because the whole think takes place in the mud.

If that isn't daunting enough, I'm running with a team. So, if I'm slow and out of shape, I not only let myself down, but I let a bunch of my friends down. I need to be able to run 10k without struggling at all, and make sure I can do it with lots of hills, as the course is very hilly. The obstacles look fun. I am a little afraid of just how challenging it's going to be, but I think it'll be an absolute blast IF I have prepared myself physically for it.

I think I'll put a ticker on my page to count down to the race.

Starvation Mode- Myth or Reality?

The first week of the competition went great for me. I was psyched that I actually saw progress, and it was really great progress for me. I decided to take it up a notch further- I worked out even harder and longer. I was very very careful to keep my calories to around 1150-1400 a day, but mostly around 1150-1200. According to MyFitnessPal, I should be having around 1200 calories a day to lose weight. If I exercise, it gave me more, but I noticed that if I exercise, it gave me more to burn. If I didn't use it, it predicted faster weight loss. Awesome.

I was devastated to watch my weight creep back up each day. I worked even harder. It continued to climb. I didn't cheat at all. It still climbed.

Friday night, I grumbled about it to my husband, who went on about starvation mode, and he thought that was my problem. He told me he thought I should be using every single calorie budgeted to me, even the extra exercise calories. Then bragged about he gets twice as many calories as me. Meany.

Yesterday, I didn't go totally crazy, but I'm sure I went over on my calories by several hundred. It was awesome. I did feel a little uncomfortably full at the end of the day.

This morning, I was down .8 from yesterday.

This whole "starvation mode" in a way makes sense, but it also doesn't. It seems like it should be a simple math equation- if I burn 1500 calories a day just by existing, and if I only eat 1100 calories, I should lose weight, right? I can also see the body learning to conserve calories as a survival technique, but even so, it should draw from the abundant fat stores, right?

Apparently not.

So, this week, I'm going to make sure that I don't go below 1200 calories on a non-exercise day, and eat half of the exercise calories earned. We'll see how this goes.

Feeling down

I started the day on a high note. I set my alarm and actually attended a 5:30am kickboxing class. I grumbled the whole time, and I'm sleepy now, but I was proud of myself for doing it.

My weight was down from last week when we did the weigh in, and considering AF started today, I thought that was pretty awesome. I was feeling good that I'm about 10 lbs away from not being overweight anymore.

Then.

A friend tagged a picture of me on facebook from Saturday. I look fat in it. Not chubby, fat. And, to make matters worse, I'm eating, which, I'm sorry, but NOBODY looks good when caught on camera with a mouth full of food. Nobody. See evidence piece #1: Katie Price. A gorgeous young woman, but this is not a good photgraph.


Even when I weighed 100 lbs, I had chubby cheeks and a double chin. I don't expect that to go away unless I go get lipo or something, but it's still awful to see evidence.

Now, I'm seriously contemplating untagging myself so I can pretend I never saw the picture. Gah.

Saturday

Saturdays really are probably the toughest day of the week, diet wise. I volunteer in my gym's day care every other Saturday; that way, I get free daycare for my kids the rest of the time. When I go in, if it's not too busy, I can work out for 30 minutes. Sometimes my partner isn't there, so that's not possible.

After daycare, I rush to a standing lunch date with my mom, grandma and sisters. We go to some local fast food place, which one varies from week to week. It's a fun time, but since I got MyFitnessPal, it's been slightly traumatic to discover just how many calories these Saturday lunches contain. I thought I was making fairly healthy choices, and I was. For fast food. I knew that fast food is much worse than regular food, but it had never quite clicked with me. MFP says I can have 1200 calories a day, and most value meals are more than that.

Sometimes, we'll go home afterwards and cook there. Sometimes we'll get together with friends, which means a restaurant meal. I'm a notoriously picky eater, and hate fish. It seems like the healthy choices on the menu are fish. Yuck! Now that I can see calorie/fat counts prior to ordering, it helps guide my choices, but eating out for two meals in a day pretty much sends me way overbudget on my calories for the day.

Yesterday, I was really, really good. Because we were helping my grandmother build a shed, there was no lunch out. We had sandwiches at grandma's house. We were supposed to go out to dinner with friends, but they flaked on us, so we got a rotisserie chicken, which is pretty healthy.

What I struggle with is lifestyle. I don't think I'm willing to give up my Saturday lunch with the girls. It's been a tradition ever since I remember, and I love getting together with family. It seems like too much of a burden to expect one person to cook, and going out for lunch once a week doesn't seem like it should be nixed. I'm all about balance in life- I need to LIVE. If I can't find joy and be happy with my lifestyle, I won't keep it up. This, like my occasional can of mountain dew, makes me happy. It's not worth the sacrifice to keep it up. So, how to make it work in a healthy lifestyle? I think I should continue to check fat/calories in each meal and make appropriate choices- find the healthier things on the menu. Drink water instead of a soda (usually really easy, as I don't care for most soda). Don't eat the entire portion. Go for a run in the evening to counteract some of those calories.