What I've Been Up To & Weigh In #2

So, I restarted my weight loss journey last week and here we are and nothing has changed.

I gave into temptation. I lost motivation. I stopped caring.

I am in a one track mind frame and although my head and my heart both want to lose weight, get in shape and be all around a healthier person, my head and my heart are both also focused on something much more exciting.

We are buying a house!!!

It's happening very fast and it's all a little stressful, but so rewarding and I absolutely cannot wait until escrow closes on June 2nd. I have been waiting until certain things happened before posting pictures of the house or really allowing myself to get too excited just in case, but after a good inspection and being approved I am happy to present what will soon be our home...

At this point in the journey we are doing a lot of this:

I have also been doing some shopping for some furniture we are going to need as well as some decorating items we may not need but will look nice. I know that it is all going to come together perfectly. I cannot wait to post before/after pictures and to make it ours.

I've also been doing some crafting in order to make it more "us". I made the following today: 

And I've been thinking of doing this for awhile, but finally got around to starting the process. It's not complete yet, but Patrick will be finishing it up before we move so that it can go up in our room. I took the window that we used as our seating chart at our wedding, enlarged to poster size our favorite picture from our wedding and put the two together:

 

Well, that's what's going on in my personal life. As for weight loss...

Starting weight: 183.2

Current weight: 182

Height: 5'9"
Healthy weight range: 125.3-169.3
Goal weight: 160
Healthy BMI range: 18.5-25
Starting BMI: 27.8
Current BMI: 26.9
Starting body fat %: 29.4%
Current body fat%: 27.8%

I'm happy with the loss the week, however it definitely does not reflect my eating or exercise. I'm not sure that I earned the 1.2 pound loss and I do not intend to make what happened this past week the norm for me. I now eventually it will catch up..

I'm not going to pretend to make excuses for what happened this week. I had no self control at all and I'm actually pretty embarrassed by it. But that's the beauty of weigh in day. I'm cleaning the slate and looking at this week as a week to improve myself instead of worry about what happened last week.

It's going to be a good week too. A lot going on.

Weigh In #1

It's time to refresh my weight loss history and attempt this again with a brand new start. There will be no looking back, only forward from this point on.

 

But in all seriousness..

I'm taking it slow and steady at first, focusing mainly on the good healthy guidelines set forth by Weight Watchers. I will be tracking, running, drinking 6+ glasses of water, eating more fruits & veggies, eating more protein, choosing whole grains and taking a multi-vitamin. I am not making weekly goals at this point other than to consistently track, make healthy choices and eat smaller portions.

I have a tendency to focus on too much at once and I just end up stopping everything at once because it gets too overwhelming. I need to start with the basics and add a little at a time when I start to get the hang of things.

I mentioned before the things that I'm going to start with. I can't quite running because of my streak (and my love for it), but I am going to focus more on what I eat than on strength training right now. I think that will help with seeing success on the scale before I start working on toning.

I'm tired of starting over. I'm tired of not seeing success. I know that I can do this, but that's the thing.. I have to actual do it. I have to put in the work in order to see the results and I'm just not putting my all into it because it's too easy to be lazy and to give into temptation. I'm done trying to make this work, I'm ready to just do it already.

Starting weight: 183.2

Height: 5'9"
Healthy weight range: 125.3-169.3
Goal weight: 160
Healthy BMI range: 18.5-25
Current BMI: 27.8
Current body fat %: 29.4%

Starting measurements as of 5/1/14
Bust- 40
Waist- 34
Hips- 44
L thigh- 23.5
R thigh- 23.5

L arm- 12.25
R arm- 12.75

Starting pictures as of 5/1/14
Front

Side

Side

Back

I'm going to put my all into it. I want to be able to stop starting over. I want to reach my goal. I know I can and I truly don't know what's been preventing me. I am a self saboteur, but at what point do I allow myself to just let it happen without sabotaging myself or going to one extreme or the other. I can sit here and make excuses or I can get up and make it happen.

A New Tool to Measure Progress

I recently got back on the scale after a bit of a break. The type of break where I needed to separate myself completely by removing it from the apartment. My weekly weigh-ins went from once a week to daily to multiple times a day. My moods were based on what I weighed. I felt happy and proud at good weigh-ins, sad and frustrated at bad weigh-ins. My entire self worth and view of myself was wrapped up in a number.

In order for me to improve my relationship with the scale I needed to first improve my relationship with myself. In a 6 month period of time I learned that I am not a number and that my weight does not define who I am as a person. I am a continuing work in progress, but I am learning to accept who I am as I am right now, while still working on improving my physical body. I am not basing my self worth on what my outside appearance looks like. 

Yes, I am trying to lose weight, but I am doing it for so many better reasons than before. Yes, I am trying to tone my body, but again it is for better reasons. I am doing this for my health, to be a better role model for my children, to be a better runner... It's not all entirely vanity based anymore and I believe that is why I am seeing more success this go around and why I am sticking with it.

After learning that the scale was not necessarily the enemy I decided that it was time to start tracking my progress again, but this time I wanted to use multiple tools to measure my progress. And so I have been. I find that it helps to use these tools because if one doesn't change or increases there can still be progress with others. As of right now I use the following:

Runkeeper and my own mileage log- daily

Scale- weekly

BMI- weekly

Measurements- every other week

Progress Photo- once a month

and the newest tool: Body Fat %- once a month

I decided to buy myself a body fat monitor because I wanted to track the progress I will be making in getting rid of fat and building muscle. Granted, I'm not expecting to be ripped and have an insanely small amount of body fat, but I do hope to start tracking and watching that number change. 

Today was a good day overall. Not just because I received the monitor in the mail, but also because I was able to make a lot of progress with my mileage goal. I got in two walks today at work and a run after work. I really like seeing that number increase and seeing the progress at the end of each day. 

I am definitely a visual person and I will do whatever it takes to keep me motivated. Tomorrow will also mark day 75 of my running streak and I am so close to my next mini goal I can taste it! Who would have thought that I would actually stick to something for so long. I either must be enjoying it or am really stubborn and want to prove that I can do it.. Maybe a little of both.