I think it's time I take my weight-loss focus away from pounds and start focusing on non-scale victories, inches lost, goals accomplished, etc... I am 15 pounds away from what my ultimate goal was back in February when I started this journey, and the pounds are coming off slower and slower these days. Granted my beer consumption has gone up these days, but I'm sure that has no affect on my weight loss ;) I am one of those people that weighs myself daily - I know some people are 100% against this, but it totally keeps me in check! I only take my loss from Monday - Monday as my 'official weigh-ins' but I like to see where I am at each day. I know weight can fluctuate a huge amount from day to day, so I try not to get too discouraged when the scale creeps up a couple of pounds. I feel like I have been losing and gaining the same 5 pounds over and over and over for the past 6-8 weeks, but I go back and look at my weigh-in chart (I track my weight everyday in an app on my phone called 'Simple Weigh-in') I realize that I have lost about 8 pounds in the last 2 months. This is just another reason that I like to track my weight daily, I love having all the data, seeing the graphs, seeing the progress I've made.
While I try not to get discouraged with what the scale says, I would be lying to you if I said I didn't get discouraged with what the scale says. I know that there is so much more to this than what the number on the scale says. Back in September when I did the BodPod I found out that my body fat percentage was 28.6%, which is in the 'moderately lean' category - which was a GIANT shock to me!! I can only imagine that that number has improved during this class - I can't wait to see what my percentage is after 8 weeks of the class, maybe that will be motivation to keep up strength training on my own.
During the last 6 weeks that I have been doing my strength training class through work I have only lost about 4 pounds, but I know that the inches are falling off! I wore a newer pair of jeans today that have fit me pretty snug in the past, but they are falling off of me today! They feel huge in the waist, thighs and butt - that's pretty concrete evidence that I'm losing inches! And while I LOVE that my newer jeans are falling off of me, I can't afford to keep buying new clothes! Maybe I need to switch my whole wardrobe to spandex? Yeah? That would be pretty awesome, right? And if everything I wore were spandex I'm sure that I would get more than a couple of months use out of them.. seems pretty genius to me.
With all of that said, here are some things that I am going to try to shift my focus on:
Inches lost - I know that I have some measurements from back in April - I am going to compare my current data with these old measurements and see how many inches I have lost and then continue tracking.
Strength - I am going to start tracking how many push-ups and crunches I can do, as well as try to do a plank a day and time myself and keep a log of it.
Running - my running has improved SO MUCH in the past 6 or 7 weeks. I have been very consistent with running 3-4 times a week, and I can totally tell that it's paying off! My average pace has gone from 12:30/mile to right around 10:00/mile - that's a huge improvement! Current goal is to be able to run a full 5k without walking - this has been a goal of mine for, well, I don't know, 3 years... haha, time to get this one crossed off the list! The next 5k is the Turkey Day 5k - exactly one month from today. If I can keep up on my training, I've got this!
Clothes - seeing how differently my clothes fit from week to week is a huge motivator! Granted I hate losing a favorite pair of jeans, but if that means I can buy a new pair in a smaller size, so be it!
Weight - while I am going to try to not focus on this number... I have it in the back of my mind that I am 12 pounds away from a "normal" weight by BMI standards. I know that BMI is not really the most accurate thing to go by, but that fact that I am this close to being NORMAL is huge to me - I have never, ever, ever been in a "normal" weight range - so this will be a huge accomplishment for me!
This is where I am going to put my focus - expect lots of charts and graphs from me in the future...they're coming!
Monday, October 22, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Back At It...
I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again - I NEED TO START BLOGGING MORE!!
I need to use this as a place to keep you updated on what is going on in Kara and Macy's life. Ok, I'll be honest - I use it as my scrapbook/baby book/memory log for the girls, so I need to keep it updated so that in 10 years I can remember the first food Macy ate, her first words, when she took her first steps, how Kara's first day of preschool went, when Kara lost her first tooth. Am I the only parent out there that doesn't have scrapbooks or memory books for my kids? Please say no so that I don't feel like such a horrible parent!! :)
Let's start with the girls - Kara has started going to preschool at Sonshine Preschool at Rose of Sharon Lutheran church. We are lucky enough that our daycare provider will drive Kara to and from preschool. If we didn't have that option, Kara wouldn't be going! I don't know how any working parents can work around preschool and half-day kindergarten schedules, it's ridiculous! Anyway, she is absolutely loving preschool and is learning so much! Pretty soon she will be smarter than Joe and I combined. They are starting the year off by learning colors and in the next week or two they will start learning numbers, and then move on to learning letters. They practice writing their names everyday and Kara can now write her name all by herself, granted the letters aren't in the correct order, but she's getting there! :)
Macy is our happy little chunker! She started crawling just after 7 months and quickly learned how to pull herself up onto everything. We have to constantly keep an eye on her to prevent her from eating everything off the floor or hurting herself! She is quite a handful at times! She has started waving, blowing kisses, clapping and giving high fives in the last month or so. I still cannot believe that she will be 1 in just 2 months!! She says bye-bye, momma, dadda, tries to say clap - I'm still waiting for her first real word, Kara's was pinetree - I'm hoping Macy has a good first word like that! She has taken a few steps in the last week and I think she will be walking very soon, and then we are really in trouble! She also has this new obsession with licking things, particularly the floors, but she'll lick pretty much anything. At her 9 month appt she weighed in at 20 pounds 6 ounces and was 28.5 inches - she's about the same size at 9 months as Kara was at 1 year! She's got 2 cute lil teeth so far, but with the way she's been acting lately I'm guessing that a few more are working their way through.
Back in June when I last blogged, I was at 38.4 pounds lost - since then I have lost another 17.6 pounds for a total loss of 56 pounds, total of 73 since Macy was born!! The last 6 weeks or so I have been fluctuating up and down the same 5 pounds. Which I mostly blame on my beer consumption on the weekends :)
I just finished week 4 of an 8 week group strength training class that is offered through work. If I go to at least 13 of the 16 classes I get fully reimbursed. Here is the structure of the class:
First 20-25 minutes is a circuit of 12 exercises. 8 of the exercises are weight machines - chest press, shoulder press, tricep extensions, lat pulldown, leg press, leg curl, bicep curls and calf raises - the other 4 in the circuit are considered 'the line' these are cardio exercises that change up every week, but have included things like burpees, jumping squats, jump onto a bosu, things like that...
The next 15 minutes we do different exercises each week, which include - planks, up and down planks, planks on a bosu, push ups, crunches, squats with shoulder press, supermans, and all sorts of core work, but I don't know what those exercises are called.
Then the last 5 minutes we do stretches and use foam rollers to roll out our tight, sore muscles.
I am really enjoying this class, and I will be so sad when it's over! Another cool thing about this class is we did a pre-fitness assessment and bod pod assessment and will get to do them again at the end of the 8 weeks to measure our progress. The fitness assessment includes doing as many push ups and crunches as you can, one time maximum leg press, one time maximum chest press and a flexibility test. The bod pod uses air displacement to accurately measure muscle mass vs. fat mass - it was pretty cool! My body fat was measured at 28.6% which is in the 'moderately lean' category - this totally blew me away!! I for sure thought I would be in the 'excess fat' category! I'm super excited to do it again at the end of the 8 weeks and see how much progress I have made!
Things I'm happy about with my weight loss:
I need to use this as a place to keep you updated on what is going on in Kara and Macy's life. Ok, I'll be honest - I use it as my scrapbook/baby book/memory log for the girls, so I need to keep it updated so that in 10 years I can remember the first food Macy ate, her first words, when she took her first steps, how Kara's first day of preschool went, when Kara lost her first tooth. Am I the only parent out there that doesn't have scrapbooks or memory books for my kids? Please say no so that I don't feel like such a horrible parent!! :)
Let's start with the girls - Kara has started going to preschool at Sonshine Preschool at Rose of Sharon Lutheran church. We are lucky enough that our daycare provider will drive Kara to and from preschool. If we didn't have that option, Kara wouldn't be going! I don't know how any working parents can work around preschool and half-day kindergarten schedules, it's ridiculous! Anyway, she is absolutely loving preschool and is learning so much! Pretty soon she will be smarter than Joe and I combined. They are starting the year off by learning colors and in the next week or two they will start learning numbers, and then move on to learning letters. They practice writing their names everyday and Kara can now write her name all by herself, granted the letters aren't in the correct order, but she's getting there! :)
Kara also had a birthday back in August that we haven't talked about yet. In true Kara fashion, she wanted a Lightning McQueen (the red car from the movie Cars) birthday party, and the only thing she asked for was a Lightning McQueen Power Wheel. Let's just say that she got what she wanted!
Macy is our happy little chunker! She started crawling just after 7 months and quickly learned how to pull herself up onto everything. We have to constantly keep an eye on her to prevent her from eating everything off the floor or hurting herself! She is quite a handful at times! She has started waving, blowing kisses, clapping and giving high fives in the last month or so. I still cannot believe that she will be 1 in just 2 months!! She says bye-bye, momma, dadda, tries to say clap - I'm still waiting for her first real word, Kara's was pinetree - I'm hoping Macy has a good first word like that! She has taken a few steps in the last week and I think she will be walking very soon, and then we are really in trouble! She also has this new obsession with licking things, particularly the floors, but she'll lick pretty much anything. At her 9 month appt she weighed in at 20 pounds 6 ounces and was 28.5 inches - she's about the same size at 9 months as Kara was at 1 year! She's got 2 cute lil teeth so far, but with the way she's been acting lately I'm guessing that a few more are working their way through.
Joe and I ran (I'm using the term ran VERY loosely here) Joe's first 5k on July 15th. We did The Color Run - they throw this powdered color on you at each kilometer and by the end you are covered in color, it was a great time! The running part was not so great. It was about 98 degrees out that morning, I felt super dehydrated and just couldn't run. Every time we reached one of the color stations things came to a complete halt. Overall I think our time was about 41 minutes, but that's not important, all that matters is that we had fun!
A shot from afar of one of the color throws that happened every 15 minutes at the finish line.
Do you love the hand print I left on Joe's back?
Most of the crew - Me, Joe, Meghan, Emily and Christina - not pictured Roger, Riana, Megan and Ian
After our first, and hopefully not last, 5k together
Here's what 73 pounds lost in less than 10 months looks like - and trust me, if I can do it you can too!
I just finished week 4 of an 8 week group strength training class that is offered through work. If I go to at least 13 of the 16 classes I get fully reimbursed. Here is the structure of the class:
First 20-25 minutes is a circuit of 12 exercises. 8 of the exercises are weight machines - chest press, shoulder press, tricep extensions, lat pulldown, leg press, leg curl, bicep curls and calf raises - the other 4 in the circuit are considered 'the line' these are cardio exercises that change up every week, but have included things like burpees, jumping squats, jump onto a bosu, things like that...
The next 15 minutes we do different exercises each week, which include - planks, up and down planks, planks on a bosu, push ups, crunches, squats with shoulder press, supermans, and all sorts of core work, but I don't know what those exercises are called.
Then the last 5 minutes we do stretches and use foam rollers to roll out our tight, sore muscles.
I am really enjoying this class, and I will be so sad when it's over! Another cool thing about this class is we did a pre-fitness assessment and bod pod assessment and will get to do them again at the end of the 8 weeks to measure our progress. The fitness assessment includes doing as many push ups and crunches as you can, one time maximum leg press, one time maximum chest press and a flexibility test. The bod pod uses air displacement to accurately measure muscle mass vs. fat mass - it was pretty cool! My body fat was measured at 28.6% which is in the 'moderately lean' category - this totally blew me away!! I for sure thought I would be in the 'excess fat' category! I'm super excited to do it again at the end of the 8 weeks and see how much progress I have made!
Things I'm happy about with my weight loss:
- I weigh 20 pounds less than I did BEFORE I was pregnant with Macy (and remember that I gained 51 pounds while pregnant and she is not even 10 months old)
- The weight on my driver's license is more than 20 pounds higher than my current weight!!
- I'm 10 pounds less than the lowest weight I ever got after I had Kara (and I was only at that weight for about 1 week!)
- I wear a size smaller pants than I did before I got pregnant with Macy - since February I have gone from a size 20 to a size 11!
- I feel like I am finally making progress with running
Speaking of running - I ran two other 5ks since my last post - the Big Gay Race to support Minnesota United For All Families - VOTE NO!!! - and the MMRF 5k to support Joe's aunt who has Multiple Myleoma. Both of these 5ks were in the same weekend, and both were PRs for me. The Big Gay Race I finished in about 35:30 and the MMRF 5k was just over 33 mins! Wooohoo!! I track all my running on dailymile and runkeeper - be my friend if you are on either of those sites!
Alright, I must go to bed now. Thanks for reading, I promise to update more frequently :)
Friday, June 22, 2012
A Little Bit Of Everything...
Here's some pics from along the way:
Hugely Pregnant:
Right After Macy was Born:
January 2012:
April 2012:
End of April 2012:
Mother's Day 2012:
June 2012 (back down to pre-pregnancy weight, 6 months post-baby!):
My ultimate goal is to lose about 30 more pounds... we'll see if that changes as I get closer to my goal!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Now let's talk about Joe... Joe turned 30 on June 3rd, and of course I planned a fantastic birthday celebration for him! Joe and I both love beer, so we had a day full of beer. We started off at 11:00 in the morning and went to Steel Toe Brewing in St. Louis Park - they only sell growlers right now, but they also had samples - we both really liked their beers! Next stop was Flat Earth Brewing in St. Paul.
Here we are enjoying some samples at Flat Earth:
Next stop was Liftbridge in Stillwater, they have a tap room here, so we hung out for a bit and enjoyed some pints of beer.
Back in the car again (thanks to Jerry and Becky for being out DDs!)
Next we went to Fulton Brewing in Minneapolis, they also have a tap room, we hung out here for quite a while. Their beers were delicicous!
After Fulton we headed to Republic Bar in Minneapolis. They have a huge selection of craft beers on tap. A bunch of our friends also met us at the restaurant to celebrate Joe's birthday.. we had a great time there!
And I of course ordered him a Surly Coffee Bender Cheesecake, it was AMAZING!
After Republic we went to Harriet Brewing, which is also in Minneapolis. We hung out at Harriet until about 11:30 - they have a tap room and also had a band playing.
I think I did a pretty good job of making Joe's 30th birthday a memorable one.... I turn 30 next April, he better have something amazing planned for me :)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Now let's talk about the girls a bit. My little Macy-kins is 6 months old! At her 6 month appt she weight 17 pounds 7 ounces and was 27.5 inches long.. she is a big girl! She is wearing 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. Kara was always a little peanut, so it's kinda fun having a little chunker! She has finally figured out how to roll over and is sitting almost completely by herself. She is such a little joy, so cheerful and smiley all the time!
It's so hard to believe that she has gone from this:
To this:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And last but not least, Kara... at about 7:00 this morning I got a text from Joe with this picture:
And I was laughing hysterically!! Apparently last night Kara decided she wanted to be Spiderman! When I was putting her to bed last night she kept looking for her red marker, I said, Kara it's bedtime, go to sleep, we will find your marker in the morning, well, she obviously found it... haha! She also said that she didn't want Macy to sleep in her room last night, she obviously had this all planned out! Never a dull moment in our house :)
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Week 12: Proud of Myself
- After taking a year off from running while pregnant, I completed my first 5k
- Ran for 25 mins and 2 miles without a walk break - this is huge because on the Couch 2 5k plan I got stuck on the week that I had to run 20 mins straight
- Not once during the race did I think - this sucks, why am I doing this, I hate running - I think this is my biggest accomplishment, cause I ALWAYS think those things while running
- This was my first 5k running solo - and I managed to keep myself motivated
- I finished in 38:22, which is right in line with what I was running 1-2 years ago (goal was to finish in under 40)
- I wanted to be down 25# by race day - I met that goal!
- Since the beginning of February (12.5 weeks) I have lost 25 pounds
- Since I had Macy in December I have lost 42 of the 51 pounds that I gained during pregnancy
- My pre-pregnancy clothes are slowly starting to fit me again, I am guessing that in about 1 more month they will all fit!!
Here's a very unflattering picture of me in January right before I started counting calories and exercising:
And a picture from April 21st - 12 weeks after the previous picture (look how big Macy has gotten!)
I still have a long way to go, but I'm very pleased with how far I have come in 12 weeks! Hoping to be down a total of 50 pounds in about 13 more weeks!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Week 8
I have started blog posts the last 2 weeks, but never got them completed, so this will have to serve as a recap for the past two weeks. Today is the start of week 8 and I am down 15 pounds, a total of 33 from my pregnancy weight! Back in February I had made a goal to be down 20 pounds by my birthday, my birthday is 2 weeks away and I have 5 pounds left to lose... I can do it!!
I had some issues the beginning of March with horrible shin and calf pain, so I took a few days off from running to rest. On the 7th I went to the Running Room to get fitted for new running shoes and I found out I need stability shoes. It was amazing how much different walking around the store felt in these shoes compared to my old running shoes. The following Friday morning I tried out my running shoes and quickly realized they were way too narrow and short for my feet! My feet felt completely squished and my toes were hitting the front of the shoe as I tried to run, and again my shins and calves were killing me, so this wasn't exactly a successful trip to the gym. Over the weekend I went back to the running room hoping to exchange for a size up and a wide width. They had either a wide width in the same size, or a size up but not wide... so I opted to go for the size up.
I read a lot about shin splints and one thing I kept reading over and over was to slower your pace if you are new to running. With the combination of my new shoes and a slower pace, I am happy to report that my shins have no longer been causing me pain. I slowed my walking pace to a 3.0 and my running pace to 5.0. With these slower paces I have been able to run all my intervals of the C25K program without wanting to die. Speaking of C25K, I have completed week 5, day 2. Every time the running intervals get longer I think that I won't be able to do it, but every time I have completed every single interval without stopping!! The real test will be tomorrow when I have to run 20 mins straight! I know it's all in my mind, so if I think I can do it, I will be able to do it!
Joe went back to work last Monday, which means that Macy had her first day of daycare, and both girls are in daycare full-time now. The reality of how broke we are is going to be setting in pretty quick. Macy has just started crying, more like screaming bloody murder, when anyone other than Mom or Dad are holding her, so we were a little nervous about how she would do at daycare. But she did great, didn't have too many crying episodes, and even smiled for them a bit! Kara also had a great week at daycare last week. She is normally full of meltdowns - meltdowns over anything and everything. She had one rough day, other than that she did great - was even pretty great at home!
This week was a big week for Kara too, we went and looked at a preschool for her to start at next fall. The preschool is through Beth's (our daycare provider) church. Beth will transport the kids to and from preschool, so it's really our only option as most preschool schedules are not accommodating to working parent's schedules. Kara was very excited, and loved the room she would be in. We have signed her up for a 4-day a week class that is a kindergarten readiness program. It's hard to believe that she will be old enough for preschool this fall and kindergarten next fall!!
We have also been working on re-decorating our bedroom. We have had the same red and grey walls, comforter, everything for about 7 years. It was time for a change. I really wanted to brighten up our room, and I think I accomplished it!
And a couple of after shots - the color we chose is called Extra Virgin Olive Oil - it's really hard to capture the color accurately in a photo:
I had some issues the beginning of March with horrible shin and calf pain, so I took a few days off from running to rest. On the 7th I went to the Running Room to get fitted for new running shoes and I found out I need stability shoes. It was amazing how much different walking around the store felt in these shoes compared to my old running shoes. The following Friday morning I tried out my running shoes and quickly realized they were way too narrow and short for my feet! My feet felt completely squished and my toes were hitting the front of the shoe as I tried to run, and again my shins and calves were killing me, so this wasn't exactly a successful trip to the gym. Over the weekend I went back to the running room hoping to exchange for a size up and a wide width. They had either a wide width in the same size, or a size up but not wide... so I opted to go for the size up.
I read a lot about shin splints and one thing I kept reading over and over was to slower your pace if you are new to running. With the combination of my new shoes and a slower pace, I am happy to report that my shins have no longer been causing me pain. I slowed my walking pace to a 3.0 and my running pace to 5.0. With these slower paces I have been able to run all my intervals of the C25K program without wanting to die. Speaking of C25K, I have completed week 5, day 2. Every time the running intervals get longer I think that I won't be able to do it, but every time I have completed every single interval without stopping!! The real test will be tomorrow when I have to run 20 mins straight! I know it's all in my mind, so if I think I can do it, I will be able to do it!
Joe went back to work last Monday, which means that Macy had her first day of daycare, and both girls are in daycare full-time now. The reality of how broke we are is going to be setting in pretty quick. Macy has just started crying, more like screaming bloody murder, when anyone other than Mom or Dad are holding her, so we were a little nervous about how she would do at daycare. But she did great, didn't have too many crying episodes, and even smiled for them a bit! Kara also had a great week at daycare last week. She is normally full of meltdowns - meltdowns over anything and everything. She had one rough day, other than that she did great - was even pretty great at home!
Macy wiped out after her first day of daycare:
This week was a big week for Kara too, we went and looked at a preschool for her to start at next fall. The preschool is through Beth's (our daycare provider) church. Beth will transport the kids to and from preschool, so it's really our only option as most preschool schedules are not accommodating to working parent's schedules. Kara was very excited, and loved the room she would be in. We have signed her up for a 4-day a week class that is a kindergarten readiness program. It's hard to believe that she will be old enough for preschool this fall and kindergarten next fall!!
And a shot of Kara riding her bike, her favorite thing to do:
Here is a before shot:
Primer on the walls:
And a couple of after shots - the color we chose is called Extra Virgin Olive Oil - it's really hard to capture the color accurately in a photo:
And here is our amazing new bedding in our room:
We also bought a funky little Ikea chair to put in the corner to have a little reading nook. I don't have any pics of that yet though.
That's all for now, I better post this before it never gets posted! Hopefully I'll be back soon with an update on how I do with my 20 minute run!
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