Monday, July 31, 2006

Whoa

I knew it was coming... This 'whoosh' of weight loss that always comes after I've been stalled for a little while. Plus the whole PMS bloat that I could feel, and yet, I wasn't really mentally prepared to get on the scale this morning and have it say 181...

I've never ever ever lost weight this consistently before. Heck, doing BFL a few years back it took me over 18 weeks to get to this point... This time around? I've not even gotten used to one 'decade' and I'm having to adjust to a new one. What's really weird is that I've gotten to this weight before, but never with this much muscle. The size, shape, and 'feel' of my arms and shoulders where the fat is starting to get REALLY thin completely fascinates me. I keep having to stop myself from stroking my upper arms when I'm wearing a tank top and/or flexing everytime I come near any reflective surface.

And today I saw my face in the mirror and went... who IS that person?! In the past 18 years I've only gotten to this weight a few times and it's like I'm starting to become someone completely foreign. And I LIKE it! lol I can't wait to see what changes happen next. Especially the next 10 lbs when I REALLY get into new territory. You have to remember that I was 165 when I graduated High school and 9 months later I was 175 after having my first baby... I haven't seen that weight again for more then a day or so over the past 18 years.

And through it all... I'm still kicking butt on the weights, and swimming/running/biking further and faster every week! I just LOVE it!

I have to admit that it's the cardio that's making the biggest difference for me. I've found that the weeks I get my cardio in I drop, the weeks I don't, I stall. (unless there are other factors involved like PMS etc.) AND to that end being a 'tri' athlete has made getting the cardio in all the easier. Why? cause I can make up workouts.

Before when I was only running (or only walking) If I missed a 30 minute run it was REALLY hard to make that up and run for an hour the next day. I just didn't have it in me. Now? I miss a 40 minute bike ride, I have no problem making it up after a 30 minute swim.

Oh, and food... foods been great! Saturday I planned my 'splurge meal'. I was really craving pizza. And while at the store I noticed my FAVORITE pizza crust (bobli) came in whole wheat! I figured, why not try to make my splurge as healthy as I could. I happened to have developed my tastes as to where I like whole wheat as much as the white stuff... so I bought it. I then picked up 'part skim' motzerella, and while searching for pepperoni found 'turkey pepperoni' that was much lower fat the the 'normal' kind. And then, to top off the 'meal' I knew I wanted something chocolate! Now, a chocolate splurge has to be planned carefully because if I'm not careful a splurge could become a binge... I needed something GOOD that would leave me feel as if I had had the 'real deal' and not cheated myself, but that would be laying around the house for the rest of the week tempting me with 'just one more bite'. The answer? 3 musketeers bar. That thing was so sweet and chocolately that it even had chocoholic like me going 'I don't think I want this last bite'. AND in a stroke a genius.. I ate the chocolate FIRST. Why is that a good thing? Because the taste of the pizza (something I knew I wouldn't overeat) wiped the taste of the chocolate out of my mouth and kept me from thinking about it for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, I was right back on plan - no cravings AND a pound down. Have I mentioned that I love the leanness lifestyle?

Oh! I've a BIG party planned on Saturday the 12th with a bunch of my girlfriends... Coach said I could go out and eat and drink whatever I wanted PROVIDED I was 181 the day before... Guess what? I think I'm going to reach that goal!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

The first fitting.

 

You all get the first look! This is the 'mock-up' of my wedding dress. The real thing will be made out of green silk with purple threads running through it... The fabric is AMAZING!

He's the best part. I had my measurments done on June 27th. As you may be aware, I've lost a few pounds since then. (over 10 lbs). So, today She puts the skirt on me and was a little confused when the side overlapped by about two inches. The she said, "have you been losing weight?" I said "yeah - some". She stood there for a minute and said... "Uh, I would say a LOT"

When we tried on the corsett she laced it up as tight as it would go with no problem. There's supposed to be a GAP! hehehe. She looked me over, asked how much more weight I was going to lose then said... well we're going to take three inches out of the corset then. THREE INCHES! OMG I have motivation to hold to my word to lose the weight now cause I'll need to for my dress to fit!

Anyway - I'll post photos of the real thing once I get to that point... more fun ahead!

(PS - sorry about the poor picture quality - my friend was taking the photo and didn't know how to work my camera.) Posted by Picasa

Friday, July 21, 2006

The extent of my insanity.


Yellow Rose
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
If you had told me a few years ago that I would be hitting the gym at 8:00PM and blithely telling my honey, “I’ll be about two hours,” I would have told you that you were smokin’ crack. But, that’s exactly what I did last night. I was late leaving work and hadn’t done my workout that morning so, it was off to the gym I went. Now, the original plan was that I would do my weight workout in the morning and all the cardio type stuff at night, BUT because, as I said I had slept in I was going to have to do the workouts back to back. Now, here is where the REAL insane part comes in… yesterday was leg day. So my workout looked like this:

Squats: 215 x 9 / 210 x 8 / 215 x 12
Leg Curls: (leg press was supposed to be second but both machines were full): 145 x 9/140x8/145x12
Leg Press: 510 x 9/500x8/525 x 12
Still Leg Dead Lifts: 170 x 9 / 165 x 8 / 170 x 7

One thing I would like to note. Guys, when a girl walks in and loads 170 lbs on the squat bar, don’t stop, stand with your hands on your hips and STARE as she goes to un rack it as if you are just WAITING for her to fail or fall over. It’s just not cool.

Anyway – after killing myself on legs AND hitting a personal best on almost every exercise (I’ve done 550 for 10 on the leg press before) I wandered over the to the treadmill and ran at 5MPR for 20 minutes… THEN I changed and hit the pool for freestyle laps for 15 minutes and 3 minutes of treading water, one of which I did with hands out of the water (egg beaters). Needless to say there was one TIRED Shawn walking out of the gym last night. The worse part was when I went to bed it was so hot and I was so tired and achy that I couldn’t sleep. I finally dropped into a deep sleep at 3:00AM. BLEH!

But, I’m going to go to the gym after work tonight, hit my back workout and ride the bike for 40 minutes. I think I like this tri-athlete training I have something new and fun to look forward to every day!

Oh, and I found another negative about losing weight. Last night while laying on my side with my knees together I had to shift position because the bones of my knees were pressed together and it was uncomfortable. I woke up going... what the heck!? When did I get boney knees? Heh.

Oh and one more insane thing. I've actually agreed to bring my scale with me to England so I can weigh in...

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

I just had to update.

As I've said I've had some trouble with clothes being too big. some things I just bought are falling off me now. So, since every time I try to clip my phone to my pants I have to run around holding onto them I desided to do a little shopping. There's a Dress Barn right next door so I hopped over there after dropping my Visa application to the UK in the mail. Wow was that a great experience! EVERY size 14 pair of pants or skirt FIT! And I walked out of there with a nice pair of size 12 that... you guessed it FIT!

One other note:

I've been a little surpried at my insisity. Yeah yeah boot camp had a lot to do with the last five weeks being so good but seriously, the week it was over I took the break I allowed myself and I was right back in it. And with none of the usual 'fudging' that I tend to do. You know, two splurge meals instead of one... hitting 1400 calories instead of 1300 EVERY day... Two or Three cups of veggies instead of Four. Nope - the next day I was right back in it. I've trying to figure out why.

Yeah the coach had something to do with it. He warned me 'No backsliding'. But without having my goals set in front of me I could have easily gone back to 'good enough'. Then I realized something today. For once I'm not happy with 'average'. Hitting size 14 hasn't made me look around and say, "I'm average sized now, why can't I eat 'normal' again?" Nope... What's changed this? muscle. I've been working my butt off in the weight room for a while now and now, now that I've dropped 20 lbs I'm starting to really see the fruits of my labor! And frankly, I can't wait to see more. I can't wait until I can take off my jacket and people see my arms and go.. Oh my god! I already get that in the gym when I'm lifting but I would like that in everyday life too. I'm loving that every day I find a new muscle a new 'dent' a new shadow where one wasn't before. THAT - THAT has gotten me excited about being not average, not 'normal', but extraordinary! And let me tell you, my fire is stoked.

One problem...


pigeon point lighthouse
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
I've found one flaw with this program I'm currently on... I can't keep myself in clothes! hah :) Down to 187.8 today (yay!) that's right I'm almost at 20 lbs lost. It simply boggles my mind to think about it...

Better yet, I rocked another workout today. I lifted 105... on the shoulder press! Whoop whoop! Lat raises I'm up to 30 lb dumbbells. I promise you that I'm going to get some photos while doing some of these excercises because my upper body just rocks! Ok..so there's TONS of room for improvement (about 60 lbs worth at least) but it just looks so cool and muscly when I do those two excercises that I can't help but impress myself.. heheheh.

Other then that, things are sailing along. I'm eating perfectly, and getting my workouts in. And I started something new (yeah yeah, what's new?) I... am training for a sprint triathalon. Yeah, I'm too late in the season to be ready this year, but I have one picked out for next year. I figured it was the easiest way to not get bored with my workouts is to have THREE things I was working on and trying to improve (plus my weights). We'll see how it goes :) So last night I did 35 minutes on the bike (12.2 Miles) and then ran for 20 minutes at 5MPR. I'm still so stoked at being able to maintain a pace like that! It's a real big deal for me to be able to run at 5MPR after struggling for so long.

So that's my update! Happy Wednesday all!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

A week of PBs


Intensity
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
You may be wondering what I’ve been up to the past few days. After hitting my goal I had to take a deep breath and gather myself. It was hard work and the last few days were monstrous! I celebrated by have a ‘splurge’ that was good for the mind. I was prepared for the jump in weight and didn’t let it freak me out. I also spent the evening trying on every piece of clothing I owned (just about). I celebrated the ones that fit, the ones that ‘almost’ fit, and celebrated the ones that were too big. I put on and zipped up the ‘party’ dress that made me cry at Christmas because it wouldn’t fit. I showed it the fiancé and he said, “Uh that’s almost too big”. As a moment of triumph I put all but two pairs of my size 16 jeans in the charity box. One pair I kept because it’s part of the ‘set’ of six pairs of jeans a bought a while back from size 6 to size 16. When I started this journey the sixteen’s barely fit... now I wear the fourteen’s. The other pair is the largest pair of jeans I’ve owened I’m going to keep those as my ‘jewel’ to remind myself of where I ‘could’ be should I choose to forget what I’ve learned.

What’s been the BEST though? Is that I have ROCKED the gym this week! I cannot tell you the number of personal bests I’ve hit.

Yesterday while doing legs I did:

Squats: 160 x 9 (plus the bar so that’s 205lbs!)/160 x 9 and 170 x 8 (Yes that’s 225 folks..yippy)

Leg Press: 510 x 9/510x9/520 x 8 WHOOP!

Leg Curls: 135 x 9/135 x 9/ 140 x 9

And then…

Stiff Legged Dead Lift: 120 x 9 (yes – that’s right with the bar I was doing 165)/120 x 9/120 x9

I remember not long ago I was struggling to do 110 on dead lifts and now I’m doing 120!! OMG!

It doesn’t stop there though… today we did chest.

Started with Incline Press: 60 x 9 (again with the bar that’s 105 lbs.. on the INCLINE!) 60 x 9/60 x 9

The we did dumbbell press: (are you ready for this?) 55 x 9/55 x9/55x9 I wanted to jump up and down and scream when I finished I set a goal earlier this year to press 50 lbs for 10 and now I’ve blown that away and I’m pushing 55lb dumbbells around!

Last was the Barbell Press… Now my record for this was 95 lbs (plus the bar) but that was doing this exercise first. I didn’t break that record today but heck it was my third chest exercise but I DID do 85 x 9(total weight 130lbs)/85 x 9/90 x 8

I walked out of the gym on cloud nine!

And to top it all off I went out to run (outside yay!) on the track tonight. I set myself a goal of running a 12 minute mile and made it! Not just once but I kept running after the first mile and made it through the second in under 12 minutes too! Yeah .. I ran 5 MPR for two miles straight! That IS a personal best for me… what a week!

As for my weight... today it’s 189.8 I’m still working off that splurge but it was so worth it!

I should be getting my ‘year plan’ from the coach soon. I’m really excited about the changes I’ve seen and the changes that are ahead for me.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

D-Day


In Bloom
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
Yes - today was my last wiegh in. This past week has been SO STRESSFULL! My period came at the wrong time, stalled my weight loss (which was going fabulously thank you very much) and put me on 'full alert' this last week. that meant I stepped it up with the cardio (ran more and faster) and kept it really clean eating trying to stuff as many veggies in and dropping some of my 'starchy' carbs.

I started this phase of bootcamp on 6/6 at 201.7. It was a big deal for me just to be at 201 since I had been struggling to get below even 204 for almost a year....

Five weeks later I am 188.7 ... That's right, I made my goal. I lost 13 pounds in 5 weeks!

A part of me wants to celebrate, but the rest of me doesn't want to lose this focus. In just over six weeks I'm leaving for England to get married. I want to look better then I ever have before. I'll be talking to my coach to figure out what's next but I'm sure his advice will align with my goals. Here's to continued success for ALL of you!

Me? I'm going to have a hamburger tonight for dinner...

Monday, July 10, 2006

Almost there


Red Thistle - 2
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
I've added greens veggies to almost every meal and I'm drinking about a gallon of water. I've upped the intesity of my cardio as much as I can handle and?.... I'm down to 189.8 this morning! only .2 to go to meet my goal tomorrow! I'm finally starting to belive myself when I say "I can do this!" What's funny is even though I've had to fight really hard this last week - I'm ready to set agressive goals for the next five weeks because I've got a wedding to look forward to. I would like to be below 180 when we leave for London.

Anyway - I'm still hanging in there not feeling good yet mainly because... I'm exhausted! lol

Saturday, July 8, 2006

Still Waiting for the Fat Fairy


Daisy - 1
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
I don't have good news yet - other then I haven't given up. today's weight 191.5 - still trying to get below 190! I did have some really excellent victories though..

Last night I got on the home treadmill and on a whim hooked it up to the computer. I used ifit to program my treadmill and let it go. What was funny was that my #1 requirement was that the program be 60 minutes long... but when I looked through the programs that they had that ran 60 minutes... they all were WAY fast. finally I selected one with a max speed of 6MPR and figured when it got too fast I would just slow it down.

Here's the cool part, it never got too fast! I ran for 5 MPR for 10 minutes, ran 5 MPR at 3% incline for 5 minutes and ran at 6MPR at 1.5% incline for five minutes as well! in 60 minutes I went over 4.5 miles. Yes, I'm aware that's an average pace of over 13 minute mile but that included my warm-up and cool down, and frankly I've never ran that pace for that long in my life!! I guess all those months of slogging along doing my intervals when I was 205lbs has paid off. Running at 191 is MUCH easier :)

Hit the gym today too. I did both my chest and my back workout. I really nailed the back workout... upped weights on almost every lift. It felt fantastic. I actually did 130lbs on the seated row! For chest I did 80 lbs (plus the 45 lb bar) for 8 reps. Now I know I have a higher number on my side bar as my 'personal best' but you have to realize that I'm currently doing flat bench as my THIRD chest excercise. Inclines and dumbbbell presses come first.

Oh - and I'm wearing size 14.. no problem! That's TWO, count 'em TWO sizes I've gone down so far. Now if I can just get the scale to give me some 'love' my world will be complete ;)

And No - I'm not willing to 'cheat' just to get my money back. If I'm going to hit my goal it will be fair and square. with hard work, clean eating and excercise. And when I hit my goal on Tuesday morning, and I get my $250 back... I'm going to go out and celebrate!

Friday, July 7, 2006

Frustrated


I'm Glad
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
"Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get
ahead of ourselves to break our own records, to outstrip our
yesterday by our today."

*Stewart B Johnson

I'm frustrated and trying really hard to not get down on myself. I'm stuck! Stuck at 191.X since 6/30 ... I'm over 2 lbs over where I need to be on Tuesday to 'graduate' boot camp and not lose the $250 I 'leveraged' against my goal. Now my brain is starting to play really rotten tapes. "See, you never reach your goals when you set them" "You can't do this. You worked so hard for nothing..." blah blah blah. I need to stop this sort of thinking... hell I'm GOING TO stop this sort of thinking. 189.6 here I come! There's no hoping or praying or crossing my fingers that's going to get me there. I need to eat CLEAN.. squeeky clean and excercise excercise excercise.

Thursday, July 6, 2006

No Limits


The North Coast
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
"It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits
of our abilities do not exist."

*Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I struggled this weekend. I wanted JUNKFOOD! But, I didn't give in. I stuck to my plan 100%. My weight is FINALLY down from the PMS thing women do every month. Now to get below 190 before next tuesday!

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Dangers


The Tree on the Hill
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
"Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in
facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart
to conquer it."

Rabindranath Tagore

Sunday, July 2, 2006

Road blocks


Yum!
Originally uploaded by Part Time Mom.
After days of progress I finally hit a wall. With PMS in full swing I'm not surprised. What's been worse though is that my brain is starting to betray me. Mentally I've been fighting the urge to rebell against the food. That little food beast that lives in my head has been making a LOT of noise. "Why do I have to eat egg whites?" "I want 'real' cheese!" I've countered every demand but it's left me a little down and depressed. But I never expected this to be easy. It's just that some time the thoght that 'I'm going to have to eat like this forever' gets to me. I'll get through it though. I'm staying strong and focused and my coach is helping a lot. I still want to push for 190 on wednesday. It's doable if I shed this PMS bloat. I hope everyone who's celebrating has a great 4th!