Week 13: Busting Through the Plateau

This past week has been awesome. I weighted in on Tuesday and finally felt amazing because I had lost two pounds. I felt on top of the world and that was mainly because not only did I lose two pounds, but I also broke through the plateau that has been plaguing me for the past six weeks. I am officially done with plateau city and ready to move on.

What worked: I would have to say that not sitting on my butt anymore was the biggest contributing factor to my weight loss. It was the first week that I worked out three times in almost two months. Then this week, I worked out five more times. I think that I'm on a roll and ready to lose more weight.This was also the first week that I went well over my goal of 40 activity points per week. I think having a new workout partner definitely helps, especially since we are at the gym together about four days a week.

What else worked: New running shoes. What more could a girl recommitted to exercising need, but a new pair of workout shoes. They are light, comfortable, and black, white and grey with purple accents. They are great to put on and run around in and even better when at the gym on the treadmill or working out doing lots of stairs and squats with my lovely personal trainer.

What worked the most: My cousin, who is about six or seven years younger than I am, announced that she is pregnant and expecting in June. I am so very thrilled for her and her wonderful husband of almost two years and think that it is a great thing for them. On the flip side though, since I am the oldest great-grandchild, I wanted to be first, but alas my medical problems have stopped or halted that from happening anytime soon. This encouraged me to get the weight off quicker so that a bundle of joy of my own will happen sooner rather than later.

I weigh-in in two days and for the first time in a long time, I'm actually excited about it.

Total Lost: 17 pounds
Mini Goal: 8 pounds between end of September and Thanksgiving - down 2 pounds so far

Week 12: To Much Going On

Since I moved my blog here and have stopped being paid for it, I feel less motivated to write about my weight loss journey. In fact, my husband had to remind me that it had been over a week since I have written about what is going on in my life. Since I finished my grading, wrote my essay for graduate school, and have packed my bags for work tomorrow, I realize that I have enough time to sit and organize my thoughts.

For two weeks now I have maintained my weight and this disturbs me. I have not had a plateau that has lasted this long yet, in fact I have been playing with the same two pounds for the past six weeks. This is very unlike me and I need to get back on track. Part of the problem is the fact that I am only really working out once a week with my personal trainer. My life has gotten too hectic trying to balance everything to the point that the first thing I stopped doing was taking time out to take a long walk or go to the gym. This has recently changed. My next door neighbor joined Total Woman, the same gym I have a membership too, and asked me to work out with her. We have worked out twice this weekend and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I missed having a work out partner and it is great being able to share my knowledge about exercise with someone else. Because of this increase in activity, I have earned 34 activity points this week, which is just 6 shy of my weekly goal that I have never hit.

The other interference has been an over abundance of social activities. There was a bachelorette party, a wedding, and a trip to Disneyland all within the past two weeks all while working, keeping up on grading, and trying to stay on track with graduate school. I think my life is very busy, but thankfully I have a couple of calm weeks before me. I need this calm time to hopefully be able to refocus and get back on track.

Wish me luck on the scale this week. I will let you know how I do on Tuesday.

Coming soon - How to Eat Healthy at Disneyland.

Week 11: New Beginnings

As you have already noticed, I have moved my weight loss blog to a different site. The site that I was working for has lost its funding, but I still wanted to be able to write about my experiences and share them with others. I know that I have a great number of followers and supporters and I am very thankful for that. This just means that I had to find a new place to write, so here we are.

This week I had to learn how to deal with a special event while being on a "diet", but I didn't necessarily do a great job. The event was a friends bachelorette party that lasted most of the day. We started as a group of 12 loud girls at Medieval Times in Buena Park, CA. Our knight was the black and white knight and he was super cute. While there we feasted on bread, tomato bisque, half a chicken, ribs, potato wedges, and a mini apple pie. I ate most of it and didn't look back. Once the show was over and several of our voices were almost lost due to too much screaming, we moved on to a tavern for happy hour drinks. At the tavern I ordered a Midori sour, which was the first sip of alcohol that I have had in months. Then we went back to a friend's house for more alcohol and lots of treats which included a lot of sugar filled and fattening foods. It was a great night, but one that I paid for when it came time for the scale.  The good news though is that I didn't gain anything, but the bad news is that I didn't lose any weight either.

Here we are almost a week later and I'm ready to encounter the next half of the special event, the wedding. Tomorrow, two of my friends tie the knot and I have to navigate the food while still trying to enjoy the event. Since I, like so many other people associate most social events with food, it is rather difficult for me to avoid it. I preordered the filet mignon, which is usually on the healthier side when it comes to cuts of beef, so that will not be the problem. My problem occurs when the lovely couple cuts their wedding cake and they begin to pass the lovely slices of cake around the room. Cake is one of my trigger foods, but there is only one way I can avoid a wedding cake. If it has a fondant frosting then I am safe, but if it is a creamy delicious frosting then I am screwed. The good thing is that dancing will happen, even if my husband feels that he doesn't have to participate. The dancing will help to even out the single slice of cake. Wish me luck.

The great thing about having a new blog of my own is that I can write whenever I want to rather than just once a week. Hopefully this means that I will share my thoughts, pictures, and recipes about weight loss more often. Have a great weekend.