Carbs WILL slow you down

Today I got an unexpected nutrition lesson.

I've been trying to focus on losing weight the entire month of July by exercising and counting calories. While i don't eliminate any food, counting calories has indirectly reduced how much carbohydrates I consume simply because their calorie content is high.

Today I went out for lunch with my coworkers and I ordered a 1/2 roasted chicken and some mashed potatoes. I took a bite, didn't like it (sugar in chicken? wtf?) and opted to get a chicken sandwich and some fries.

Normally, I'm not a fan of french fries but these were good. I ate the fries AND the sandwich which came on a very thick bun. I didn't really mind because even though it was high calorie, i wasn't really planning on eating anything else.

This was at noon. At 3.30 pm it was a struggle to stay awake. I drank some coffee in an attempt to stay alert at work. It didn't help. I got home from work at 6.30 and I was still very sleepy. I fought it for a bit and then gave in an took a nap. I woke up at 7.30 to go to zumba and it was a big struggle. Luckily, I convinced myself to go and that finally woke me up a bit. Throughout the class, I kept having to burp and that's when it hit me that i was STILL digesting the food I ate almost 8 hours ago!

That's crazy. If I eat a tuna sandwich on wheat bread, in 3 hours it's out of my system. This is something I'm going to research further. It makes sense how if you eat a lot of "bad" food you feel sluggish and not motivated to exercise.

If I hadn't been in the habit of working out, I probably wouldn't have forced myself to go because I was so tired.

I just feel...heavy. Talk about an incentive to eat light.

Anyone else notice something similar?

Monday Morning weigh-in

193.

Down 1.4 lbs. It totally doesn't seem worth it for all the time I have been logging at the gym. It also annoys me that I was 191.8 on Friday. I wish I had taken measurements when i started because this is not really encouraging. For the whole month I lost about 3.5 lbs. And I worked out 3 times a day for half of that.

Blegh.

This can't all be about building muscle. I hope August is better. I'm tired of trying to get into the 180s.

Sometimes you just have to skip a day

I've been working out HARD. Maybe too hard. Who knows? All I know is that I have been tired and felt like my body needed time to rest. Yesterday was the first time in the week I only had to work out once a day. It was refreshing not to go to the gym after work. This morning I woke up for body pump and I was just.not.feeling.it.

I wanted to sleep. So I did. I feel MUCH better now. The good thing is, the habit is so in me that I feel bad about skipping it so I'll go in the evening. I still think that 24 hours of rest will be great for my body. Next month I'll adjust my schedule a bit and see if that will shift the lbs.

As much as I like going down in inches, it would be nice to be under 190 Someday...And maybe even weigh something normal.

Couch to 5K - Week 2.

Just a quick note to say I'm about to do week 2 of the C25K. I'm a little nervous because week 1 was pretty easy for me to complete and I'm not so sure how I will do with these slightly longer runs! Weighed in this morning. Still the same as yesterday :(. Will try to not check till at least Friday. I'll be back to update


#UPDATE: I survived it. The last 2 runs were not as inspired as the first ones but I did them without any problem. My right achilles tendon hurts though so have to look into taking care of that. I sprained my ankle 2 months ago (in ZUMBA!) so hopefully this is not a side effect. I didn't expect the 2 minute walk so that was a nice bonus and definitely let me recover.

Disappointed

194.2

up 0.6 pounds. Yet I worked pretty much everyday. In fact, on most days 3 times a day. Additionally, i was under my cals most days. Maybe I needed to eat more? Maybe this is a week of muscle building? Maybe travelling caused me to retain water?

It's annoying coz I know at some point in the week I was 190.4. It's like my body doesn't want to break 190.

Anyway, I'm still proud I accomplished my exercise goals. I came back home yesterday and was super tired but I still got in my couch to 5 k run. Week 1 completed!

Also, I saw pictures of myself from this weekend and at least I LOOK skinnier. i just have to trust that the weight will follow. So I'm looking for a big drop in the next 2 weeks or so.

Off to body pump now. Bikram is over so it's just twice a day from now on.

Bikram - It IS mostly water

Most of you know I was close to 190 last week. I did about 3 or 4 days of bikram yoga and a couple days of zumba. I was also too tired to eat much. Aaaanyway, I went away for the weekend, and ate a little more than usual (i knew this was going to happen so I tried to be under my calories for the week). Ended up about 600 over for the week and weighed in on Tuesday at 193.6.

So, a 1 pound loss. Which shows me that most of the weight I lost was water from Bikram.

BUT.

I am happy!! The bridesmaid dress still fits (didnt imagine the inches lost) AND my period came the day after weigh-in so I'm pretty sure there was some retention going on.

Anyway, today I went to the mall to try some size 10 dresses as motivation (since my BM dress can no longer serve that purpose) and some of them fit! Clearly I've lost some inches - yaay. I am sticking to my exercise regime. I have only missed 2 workouts so far (and I have multiple scheduled a day so I'm not too bothered about it) AND I also completed day 2 of couch25K.

Bikram is over after today (living social deal expires) and it is way too expensive for me to keep going. So unless another deal comes up in a different studio, it's just couch25K, Zumba and Body pump for me.


Remember, hard work is not EASY. We all know that but yet we don't.

IT FITS!

I just wanted to take a moment to say, the bridesmaids dress I wanted to fit into by AUGUST fits already! Damn. It's onnly been a week and i've only lost 5 or so pounds... I guess bikram really does change your body shape. I thought it would take a while because it wasn't zipping around the mid-section/chest area and that's like the last place I usually lose weight.

Anyway, now I have to find another goal so I don't slack off. I'm kind of sad I never even got around to taking pictures of the dress.

Discipline

It is not the ability to make plans and draw up schedules and do it when convenient. It is the ability to do it when you REALLY don't feel like it. I am working on this as it is not a strength of mine.

Currently don't feel like going to bikram as I am slightly naseous and just not in the mood. But just talked myself into going because,

1. I have done 3 days straight, I'd like to do all 4.
2. I will be glad I did 2morow
3. I made a plan I want to stick to
4. Fit people and celebs are not in good hsape because they do it when they have time or in the mood. They have nice bodies because they put in work and work is not always fun.
5. I was 190.4 this morning.. it would be great to be under 190 by monday.
6. I am going away this weekend and it will be full of food and no exercise (planned that way) so I might as well get my exercise in now.

Okay, those are 6 great reasons. I will stop typing and head to class.

Planning works - Part 2

I know it's not groundbreaking news but today I weighed 190.2. So planning definitely works!! I planned out my exercise for the whole month...but not my eating. I'm tracking my food though.

And I HAVE been doing 2 classes a day - bikram and zumba. So part of that weightloss is probably a little water from the bikram. My zumba class is also not a typical one, it's pretty high impact.

Well, I'm loving this...and I'm ready to meet a goal for once. All I can say is that you have to be ready to be comfortable never being full and sometimes being a little hungry. 1450 is not a lot of calories.

Planning works

Well I'm about 6 days or so into my plan. I made an exercise schedule for the rest of the month and so far I've been sticking to it. I am basically doing bikram yoga and zumba every evening till today and then body pump on friday.

I hope to be able to add couch to 5k training next week as hopefully my ankle will be able to take it. I twisted it in zumba about 5 wks ago and I've been unable to exercise till this week.

Bikram has definitely helped it a lot. My goal is to be 191 next monday so hopefully I'll stay on plan and make it.

Focus

It's sad the number of bloggers who make posts declaring "THIS IS IT". Sigh, I won't do  that now but I am ready to make serious progress. I dipped under 190 for a brief second but I'm back at my new "comfy" weight - 193-195.

I have a wedding in roughly 7 weeks and I want to weigh 175 (plus fit into my bm dress). I weighed 193.4 this morning so that means losing 18.4 lbs in 57 days. I started out at 196.4 on July 1st so I've lost 3lbs so far....

I'm going to call this 21.4 in 63 days.... Hmm maybe 22 in 2 (months) is catchier :) Will create a progress bar on the side to track.

I will post some pictures of the dress in a new post. The only good think is I am still in size 12s (although some of the smaller cut ones are a bit small).

So many of my friends are getting married and having babies... I want to be uber-sexy at least once before i get to that stage dammit!

Anyway, if anyone is still reading, I will try to be more frequent!