Happy Thursday! -- Size 38 ... WHOA

What's up everyone? Did about 12-13 miles on my bike tonight on high intensity, so feeling good!

Guess what, I'm back on the losing side! I lost about 1.2 pounds this week. 


Last week 255
This week 253.8

I have some family visiting in town this week so I wasn't able to get my full update in last night, but I wanted to give a quick update and share this Article I found that is really interesting. 

Here's the link if you want to read the whole thing ....  but I found these tips really useful.  

From Bob Harper's Article , "Here are my best suggestions:

1) Improve the quality of your sleep. New research shows that those getting 7-9 hours of sleep are less likely to be overweight. Sleep improves blood sugar regulation, reduces stress hormones, and balances out hunger/fullness hormones (leptin, ghrelin). Are you getting good sleeps? If not, is there anything that you can change that would help?

2) Increase and/or preserve muscle mass. The only way to push your metabolism back up is to gain muscle mass. The only way to gain muscle (or improve your ratio of fat to lean muscle) is to engage in strength training week (a goal of 2 times per week isn't enough because often, you'll only get 1 of those in).

3) Be very selective with type of carbs. Choose lean protein, lots of veggies (cooked and salads), and stick with higher fiber carbs (brown rice, high fiber cereal, high fiber bread, beans, and fruits). You could experiment with replacing 1-2 of your carb servings each day with veggies and protein.

4) Practice stress reduction. There is evidence that lower stress levels are associated with lower body weight. Regular exercise, hobbies, yoga, meditation, breaks at work, getting sunshine, etc. all help you lower stress level, balance hormones, sleep better, and be able to make healthier choices.

5) Revisit your eating. Are you writing things down or are you guess-timating? In fact, You may not be eating enough and under-eating can actually undermine weight loss as your body goes into starvation mode.

6) Revisit your exercise program. You body adapts to your exercise program which means that you burn fewer calories doing the same thing. You may need to increase the intensity."

It's a funny coincidence because these are all things that I found when I was doing research on getting over a plateau. 

Anyways, this first week of plateau fighting has been going pretty well , but not as well as I'd like. I'm going out this weekend to get small set of weights to do some strength training. I'd honestly rather do that then join a gym, just because I don't want to waste time driving somewhere 3 nights a week.  


On a brighter note I bought my first pair of size 38 shorts this week! It felt really amazing to buy a size since I haven't worn since High School. Also, the t-shirt I'm wearing while I'm typing this is from a family trip to the Outer Banks, also when I was about 15-16 yrs old. 
So good things happening.

Thanks again to all of you for your wonderful encouraging notes, texts, messages, posts , etc. 


Thanks to my Mom for sending me this quote for the week :-)


"By Perseverance, the snail reached the Ark." - Charles Spurgeon

8 Months Down !!!

To quote Will Rodgers, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." 


The last 8 months have been life-changing for me. At my highest weight I for sure weighed over 300 pounds. The highest I ever actually saw on a scale was around 307. After that I didn't weigh-in for a longgggg time. When I started tracking this back on July 21, 2011, I was sitting at 294. 

These pictures are from around that weight... 

So, on 7/21/11, I decided to get healthy once and for all and started my journey towards weight loss and a lifestyle change. Needless to say there have been many ups and downs. And this is one case where you want as many downs as possible. 

And now, sitting at a weight of 255, and over FIFTY pounds lighter... things are starting to look alot differently. I've had to throw out shirts, shorts, pants,  you name it lol. It's been a crazy feeling on putting on a XL shirt instead of squeezing into a XXL or ordering a XXXL shirt online. Amazing feeling. I'm at the last notch on my belt now as well. I think it's about time to by size 38 pants! 

Also, a  couple weeks ago I had a big accomplishment , in running my first ever 5k at the Gasparilla Event! 

BUT......

The last 3-6 weeks have been really challenging for me, because my body has just hit a serious plateau. I think this made my mind also hit a plateau. I found myself getting frustrated not seeing that bottom line on the scale change. I mean really frustrated , and really discouraged. I almost felt like I hadn't lost any weight at all. Very hard to explain.

So I started to have slip-ups here and there , and being less and less careful with my day to day planning. Don't get me wrong, I haven't been slamming Big Mac's and fried chicken every day, but I think a plateau is a mental game as well. And  today I have a plan to snap out of it! 

I actually was able to watch "Biggest Loser" last night for about an hour, and I got some really great tips and pointers. Sometimes I hate that show, because you aren't losing weight as fast as they are, but I'll be honest it also has lots of great tips, and pointers. I realized that I've got into a bit of complacency. While I love being 50 pounds lighter...255 is not my goal weight. I'd like to get down to the 200-210 range eventually, and I believe that is realistic, healthy , and attainable.  

Some things have to change...again...so I'm cranking out a new plan to help push my body and mind over this plateau. 

Short term Goal. Lose 12-15 more pounds by the time we go to Hawaii on 7/1/12  

Long term Goal. Get down to 200-210 pounds. 

Exercise:
I'm going to begin interval and strength training along with my running and biking aerobic exercise. By now, running just isn't having the same effect on my body, and I need to shock the system by mixing it up. My intensity with these needs to increase. I'm actually hitting the gym with a couple friends Saturday morning to learn some new workout ideas.

Food: 

Plan, Plan, Plan. Count, Count, Count.

I'm going to begin looking at all my total intake again throughout the day. 1,500 - 1,700 calories per day again. More fiber and more protein in the mix. I'll keep you posted on how this goes. 

Mind: 

More Sleep. Smarter Workout and Food planning. Not letting slow-downs get me down and discouraged. Stay positive and keep moving forward! 

I'm hoping this plan will help me get back in the swing of things and back on the LOSING team. I appreciate so much everyone's help and support. I love hearing from you! 

I LOVE this quote -- “Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson