Weigh in Day #32

I swear, this battle with my scale is going to drive me freakin' crazy. 32 Weeks and 19 lbs. That is an average of .6 lbs each week. That's bullshit! And....no movement in the past 3 weeks. Again! AGAIN!. Deja vous. I've been through this before. Last time, I blamed it on stress and I think I was pretty accurate to do so. Last week, I attempted the same. Stress has been prevalent in my life in the past couple few weeks so obviously it's an easy target right? Wrong! I'm managing my stress really well this last week and still the stupid scale hasn't budged. It did tease me a bit yesterday by teetering between 160.0 and 160.4 before finally resting on the 160.4.

The truth of what I think is happening? Well, I think it's probably a combination of 3 things. See if you can guess what they are....

1. Stress
2. Quality of my calories
3. Period time

If I've learned anything about my body in this past 32 weeks, I've learned that she is NOT forgiving. Not forgiving if I stress out for one day. Not forgiving if I eat a couple slices of pizza. Not forgiving if I skip a workout. She's a hardass is what she is! And bless her for that! She keeps me on my toes for sure. Nothing comes easy. Sometimes that really gets me frustrated when I see people do next to nothing and show a 3lb loss in one week when I spend hours in the gym and meticulously count every calorie to get what seems like nothing for it. I know I'm doing the right things and I know I'm doing it all in the right ways and I know I'm going to have lasting results and all the happy shit but it's still really frustrating at times.

The truth is I hate having to work harder than everyone else for less result ALL THE TIME. Sometimes, I'd just like to have things happen for me without having to fight so damn hard for it all the time. Just a little break, every once in a while. That's all. I don't want a silver platter delivery service or anything, just a little break. Some good luck to fall in my lap.


Dear Universe,
Do you think you could give me a little break every once in a while? Some ideas for you in case you feel so obliged to accomodate: 1. Send me a huge check in the mail. Once that's totally legit with no silly strings attached or a return address from Nigeria. Or, perhaps a new job that pays me twice as much as I make now. Either is fine with me. 2. Send someone to offer to buy my house for more than it's worth. Again, no scams please. 3. Have a little chat with my scale and let her know that she's really starting to piss me off and it would be wonderful of her to cooperate with me from now on.

Yours Truly,
Salina



You know, I looked at my tracking spreadsheet and guess what I found:

From April 4th to May 1st, I had a total calorie deficit of 19,317 calories. My weight actually stayed exactly the same for 3 weeks in a row. Then it dropped by about 4lbs all at once. And since then, my calorie deficit has been 10,998 calories but my weight has actually net increased by .6 lbs.

Makes me wonder if 4lbs will just miraculously fall off next week at weigh in, aye?

The good  news in all of this is that I also did my measurements. Those are showing some progress even if the scale isn't. I lost everywhere except my chest and my abs. Hmmmmm....wonder why. Period time maybe.

Moving forward, I'm just going to keep trying to manage my stress and chill out. I'm also paying much closer attention to the quality of calories instead of just the count. Hopefully, that should do the trick.

Weigh in Day #28

Yesterday's weigh in was less tha stellar. I'm trying not to get down on myself though because I'm pretty sure it is not a reflection of what I've been doing but rather a reflection of the hormonal retardation that is that time of the month.

Last week:  162
This week:  163.2

I worked out 6 days this week. 3 days of weight training and ab work. 2 days of racquetball. 1 day of tennis. 2 days of jumping rope. 2 days of elliptical. 1 day of roller skating.

I know...the math doesn't work. That's because on most days I did multiple things.

Stress level last week was relatively low too.

Whatever, I'm writing it off as period time and when it's all over, I'm looking forward to finally breaking through that 160 mark. I can smell it. It smells like that sweet scent you get a little hint of while involved in a heated conversation and it stops you in mid sentence. You just can't possibly speak another word for fear of missing the opportunity to smell whatever it was that tickled that little spot in your brain that says "ooooo, what was that?". You sniff and sniff and sniff searching for that sweetness again, almost to the point of making yourself light headed. 

Here's my prediction: I predict that next weigh in day will show me a beautiful number. I'm thinking it'll look something like 159.8.

I measured again too. I got a couple small changes from last time.

13.5    Neck - same
13       Arm - up .5
35.5    Ribs - down .5
34       Waist - same
36       Abdomen - down .5
40       Hip - same
24       Thigh - same
14.75  Calf - same

Weigh in Day #23

Hi All. I know I was MIA all last week. It was a crazy week. I had my dreaded ACSM Certified Personal Trainer exam scheduled on Friday so I was cramming for it all week because I so brilliantly procrastinated enough to get myself into a bit of a jam. I am happy to report though that I got through the material just in time and took the exam and I'm finally done with it. Thank god that's over.

Oh, and I PASSED. I PASSED. I PASSED. WooHooo! I PASSED!

And you had doubts? Shame shame. Okay, maybe it was me that had the doubts. I did. I'll admit it. Self study has never been a strong point for me, NEVER. I procrastinated on the studying because I just felt like I didn't understand anything I was reading and it wasn't getting any easier as I made my way through the material. It seemed to be at the level of a pre-med student and I had never seen any of those terms before in my life. Well, apparently it stuck in my brain without my knowledge or awareness because I PASSED.

You know what this means right? You get it? I'm now a Certified Personal Trainer through the American College of Sports Medicine. What what? Oh ya. That's right. It's true. I speak the truth.

Next step?

PUNK ROPE...Seattle, Seatle....Punk Rope. Seattle is the home of oh so many rock legends and Punk Rope is the fitness craze that celebrates said legends with some good ole fashioned sweaty fun. (Not that kind of sweaty fun, get your minds outta the gutter...Pervs). Charmed I'm sure. So nice to meet you.

Where to start? I've got a whole list of ideas rockin' and rollin' right here in my pocket. You want a hint? Just a little one? Okay, I'll give you a tiny little hint because I just love you all so much.
Y....M.....C.....A? Maybe. Roller Derby? Maybe. Seattle music scene? Maybe.

This weekend was alive with all kinds of fun and interesting developments in the life of Salina. Sorry...third person irritates me. I have no idea why I just did it. It'll never happen again, cross my heart. (too much coffee)

ACSM
Punk Rope
Derby (secrets)
Gardening adventures
Family stuff
Another new book - Grapes of Wrath (loving it)
Weekend getaway planning
Guitar lesson
Grocery shopping - am I the only person on the planet that enjoys grocery shopping?
Golfing
Oh...and weigh in day. Duh!

Okay so lets talk about weigh in day for a moment shall we? I'm really not feeling very fond of weigh in day lately. Actually I'm beginning to think that weigh in day might just have a little chip on the shoulder or secret grudge. I really don't appreciate the attitude problem, that's for sure.

Last week: 163.6
This week: 163.6

Seriously? Yes! How rude.

My calorie deficit totaled 4,400 this last week. I ate pretty damn good if I do say so myself and I was definitely active. So what's the problem? Why the sticky scale?

My thought is STRESS. In past years, my body has shown a lack of willingness to weather stressful times with grace. Oh I could tell you some stories about how I have failed miserably to deal with stress appropriately. I won't bore you with the gory details though. Perhaps I will share them with you in a different post. Would you like that?

Well, since the scale was not being a friend to me this weekend, I decided it was time to pull out the measuring tape and see what I could see. Wanna know what I saw?

In light of this occassion, I felt it necessary to add another tab to my tracking spreadsheet just to see how my measurements and weight have changed over time. Ready?

How ya like that? I like it a lot. I'm down in every area. Just a note on the "waist" measurement: That is the measurement of the smallest part of your midsection above the belly button whereas the "abdomen" measurement is directly over the belly button.

I'm down a total of 11.25 inches and 15.8 lbs. If that's not something to celebrate then I don't know what is. The scale will catch up eventually but as you can see, it doesn't always tell the truth about what is happening with my body.

This just in...

After trying on some of my old clothes this weekend, I decided to try on more clothes today. I dug into the summer clothes and a couple sweaters that were hiding in the bottom of my drawers. I can wear the sweaters but I think I'll wait for a couple weeks because I don't like to feel them hugging my midsection at all. I can wear a tshirt I bought a few years ago, a very cute one that still had the tags on it. Yay! I can wear all the new tank tops I bought a few years ago too. I tried on my shorts, 4 pairs that I wasn't able to wear. The result: 1 fits perfectly, 1 goes on but there's some serious muffin top lovin' happening so they'll wait a bit, 1 is almost there but not quite, and 1 is not even close yet. The good news here is that I will totally have new summer clothes when summer gets here. I'm going clothes shopping for free. Weeee!

Then I decided that it's about time to measure myself again because last time I did it was about a month ago. See...

Current measurements:
13.5   Neck (down 1/2inch)
13      Arm (down 1/2inch)
36      Rib Cage (down 1/2inch)
38      Waist (same)
41      Hip (same)
24.25 Thigh (up 1/4inch)
15      Calf (same)

Some progress... :)

Weigh In Day #12

Down 3 lbs. Yaaaaa!

Last week: 169.4 lbs
This week: 166.4 lbs

I knew it was just a temporary glitch in the system. WoooooHooooo!

And I did my measurements again too. Here's where they stand now.

October 18th Measurements:

37 Rib Cage
39 Waist
45 Hip
25 Thigh

November 22nd Measurements:
36 1/4 Rib Cage
38 Waist
42 Hip
24 Thigh

January 3rd Measurements:
14  Neck
13 1/2 Upper Arm
36 1/2  Rib Cage
38  Waist
41  Hip
24  Thigh
15  Calf

So it looks like things are either staying the same or going down. That's good considering that I was 170.6 lbs on November 22nd. I'm really only 4 lbs lighter now so the movement is good in the measurements.

Crazy how big of a difference the diet makes. Nutritionists and personal trainers and doctors alike all say that weight loss is 80% nutrition and 20% activity. I think my experience in the past 2 weeks demonstrates that perfectly. As much as we'd love to think that we can all eat whatever we want as long as we exercise regularly, I think it's a false hope. Yes I must exercise. I've resigned to that for the rest of my life. And I'm actually looking forward to it. I use to feel like the healthy food was a challenge because I was restricting certain foods and had all kinds of silly rules I imposed on myself. I no longer have those silly rules and I no longer restrict anything. I can have whatever I want. I just know that my choices will show up on my ass and I want a nice ass so I better feed it properly. And I feel 100 times better when I'm eating clean than if I choose to eat out at a restaurant or stuff my face with crappy food.

I've been eating organic for a couple months now and I have to say that I'm loving it. Yes it's a little more expensive. But holey crap does it taste better? Oh ya. I'm a total food snob and I've just kicked my snobbery up to the next level. You haven't had real chicken until you've had an organic free range chicken. The texture, the flavor is something out of this world. It's natural. It's not pumped with chemicals and not fed Satan's corn to fatten it up. Free range, organic chickens are heaven. Organic grass fed beef. Who knew beef could taste so good? Nothing like it. I recently tried some organic pork. I got a tough cut from the farmer's market the other week and was not excited to try it. It was a leg steak for crying out loud. Those are like tire rubber usually. OMG! Yes it was a little tough compared to the good ole tenderloin but the flavor was that of pure pork. I'd never actually tasted pork before having that. It was scrumptious.

Added bonus to eating organic is I'm actually taking control of not just what I put in my body but the quality of it as well. I'm not allowing mass industry to decide what is and is not considered healthy for me. I'm doing it myself. I hold higher standards than they do anyway. It feels really good to meet the people that raise the animals, and grow the vegetables that I eat. I like knowing what kind of people they are. I'd rather give my money to good people than horrible tyrants without faces. It's really rewarding to participate in the local agricultural industry and it ain't so bad on the hips neither.

Here are some great resources if you'd like to find out about your own local natural foods industry:
Local Harvest
Eat Well Guide
Eat Wild

I'm not paid or encouraged to share this information with you in any way. It's just something that I found and use and love. I hope you take a few to explore them.

Weigh in Day #6

October 11th, I weighed 179.4 with 39.9% body fat.

October 18th Measurements:
37 Rib Cage
39 Waist
45 Hip
25 Thigh

November 22nd Measurements:
36 1/4 Rib Cage
38 Waist
42 Hip
24 Thigh

Weight is 170.6 with 38.4% body fat.

I had a fight with my scale again this morning. Last week it seemed fine, but today again, it's acting up and I just don't understand why it has a problem with me every other week. I did my Sunday morning routine as I always do. I stepped on and it showed me 170.2. On and off a few times...170.2. On again and 171.6. What? Stupid machine. One and off again a couple more times. Same response. One last chance here SCALE, step on, 170.6. Seriously, now I'm thinking it's purposely taunting me.

So rather than falling victim to it's little games and destroying it right then and there, I decided I'd take the middle road. I feel fairly confident that my choices and actions over the past two weeks would definitely return the 170.2 I originally got from it. And I'm also pretty darn sure that the 171.6 is just not right at all. That would mean that I've only lost .4 lbs over the past 2 weeks with over an 8,000 calorie deficit. Weight loss is really just simple math and I know that 1 lb is made up of 3,500 calories. Therefore, 8,000 calories would have burned at least 2 lbs. So, I'll go with the 170.6 number this week with confidence and peace in my heart, no disdain for my icky little scale.

I will be replacing it shortly though. I don't think it's unreliable services will be needed for much longer.

P.S. Don't buy a Health-O-Meter digital scale. POS!

P.S.S. I'm really not angry with my scale, this is meant to be tongue in cheek so no need to question my attitude problem here. I'm actually very very excited with my progress and especially with how I'm feeling, happiness wise. Seriously happier than I can remember ever being.