Oh how sweet it is...

For the last month I have struggled with my weight loss.  In September I only lost 6 pounds for a 6 month total of 86 pounds.  Now don't get me wrong 86 pounds is really great, but when I was used to losing anywhere from 10-20 pounds a month I knew that something was off.  So I set down and started thinking about what has changed in my life over the last month.  I was still eating the same amount of calories, but I was working out twice as much as I was before.  In my mind I thought that I would lose more, but that is not how it works.  If you are working out more you need to add calories in order to continue your weight lose or at least in my case that is how things worked out.  When your body goes into starvation mode you will stop losing.  I was not putting enough fuel in my fire and my body was holding onto as much as I put in and I slowed down on my weight loss. 

This really did not make much sense to me, but I thought well I could either eat more or workout less.  After about a minute I decided that I would go back to how I was working out before because I don't want to add to my calories.  This week when I did the recumbent bike I went for 45 minutes on the bike and I burned 400 calories instead of an hour and 20 min and burning 800 calories.  I also slowed my speed down a little so that I would be able to go further longer and not take as many breaks.  When I did the strength training I only did one round instead of 2, but I don't think it will hurt me to do that twice when I do my strength training.  Now you have to keep in mind that everybody is different but for me this seemed to work.  As of today, Wednesday October 12, 2011 I have lost another 7 pounds for a 6 month and one week total of 93 pounds!!!! I think I am onto something and I will continue my workouts and calories the way I did before and see how things go.

It's extremely important to not give up when the numbers are not what you want them to be.  I will be honest and tell you that there were times when I thought I was going to lose my mind but there was no way thing I was going to give up.  Eating healthy and exercising is a part of my life now and I hope that will never change.  There will be times when I hit a plateau (which to me is a dirty word lol) or I might even gain, but if I keep changing my exercise and eat the right foods and get good calories then I should be able to keep up my weight loss.  It really is just a game every week to see if the work that I put into myself will have a good outcome or not.  And I love to win!! :-)

Stunk in a Funk

(This was done 2 weeks ago but I forgot to post)

There are times when we all feel like we are stuck in a funk.  And by funk I mean we don't feel like working out, we don't feel like watching what we eat, and we know we should do better.  For me the last month I have been in a funk.  I still do my 5 workouts a week, but I don't do as much as I did before and I have not been working out on the bike like I did in the beginning.  I know for sure that last weekend I didn't eat things that I shouldn't but I had more than I should have and I know if I lose anything tomorrow it will not be much.  I made up my mind that I have to find something to get my mind in body back on track.  So the last couple of days I have been doing the workout bike and watching what I eat.  Last night I did not feel like doing what I usually do on the bike, which is burn 700 calories, so I told myself that I had to get up early the next morning and finish the workout.  And I did it!  Last week before my last workout before my weigh-in I did 2 rounds of my strength training.  I feel so much better once I get my workouts done and I know what works good for me. 

The second part of my motivation is a little thing I like to call the "Wedding Dress" motivator.  I'm not trying to say that I'm getting married anytime soon, but one day if I get married I want to look good in my wedding dress!  Growing up I never envisioned myself in a wedding dress because I never wanted to be a big bride.  So I went and bought a wedding magazine and cut out 18-20 dresses that I thought were pretty enough to cut out and put on a poster board to put next to my workout bike.  This way I can move it where I want it and if I have a date comes over to the house then he won't get freaked out by the wedding dress pictures hanging on the wall :-)  I will not know until I get married what kind of dress will look good on me, but if I work on myself now it will make it easier later on.  We all have to find our own motivators no matter if it's to get in a pretty wedding dress, have a baby, get healthy, or to be thinner than your best friend haha it important to see what is most important and go with it! 

One thing that is something that I have not been able to do in a really long time is jog.  Last Friday Betsy and I went on a walk and the temperature was pretty cold, so I thought why not try to jog a little.  I would count to 20 while I jogged and then do another 20 and then walk for a little bit.  We did this off and on and I felt great!  I know that I have to be careful of my knees so I don't want to push it, but 84 pounds ago I would not have been able to jog as much as I did and I really enjoyed the workout.  I need to start trying out new workouts but the bad thing is it's starting to get cold so walking/jogging will have to wait until spring.  I can only imagine how much easier it will be when the time comes :-)