Wedding Weight.....

I promised to “weigh in” on my own challenge with the pounds and fitness as a whole. The last 6 months have been wild and wonderful- just like West Virginia, the state I got married in. I ran in a marathon. I assembled a world-class team of nutrition experts and exercise physiologists. I logged my food and tracked my exercise. I learned about my body and what it can and “has a harder time” doing via metabolic testing.

I lost pounds and inches. The wedding came and I looked and felt great!

Now, the honeymoon is in the distant past (more than 6 weeks in the past) and you ask, “How are you doing?” Great! I’m doing great!

I don’t have the numbers to tell you about- because I don’t own a scale. But my clothes continue to feel loose and comfortable on me.

The Pros: I still eat really well. I am 90% vegetarian. (Full disclosure here folks, where else can you get that today?) I graze. I eat every 2-3 hours. My meals are smaller, very healthful (for the most part) and fill me up. I love my new style of eating. We visit the farmers markets twice a week for fresh ingredients to cook with. We now eat at home 95% of the week. We used to eat out 75% of the time!

The Cons: I picked up a new client which has really challenged my schedule. Given I shut down at 5 PM to have my “honey time” with my new husband- my gym time has been cut out. I was going to the gym 4-5 times a week for at least 45 minutes and now I don’t go.

The beauty of this dilemma is that it mirrors that of what I hear from others who are challenging their unfit ways.

Here is my advice for how to manage without the gym:

Ø Are you taking 1 hour a day for yourself? (Reading, exercising, meditating, painting, …) Make sure you do. You will not be helpful to anyone if you aren’t good to yourself first.
Ø Walk more. I have now added two hours of walking into my weekly schedule. I walk to and from errands, clients, etc… Plus, I still walk the dogs (perhaps a little more diligently now).
Ø Log your food. Each bite. Make sure you know how much you are eating (fat grams, cholesterol, calories, servings, etc…)
Ø Eat better. Choose fresh ingredients you feel good about.
Ø Cook more. Don’t allow anyone to put your pounds on for you. Choose your guilty pleasures carefully- yourself. Limit salt. Limit quantities. You see where I’m going.
Ø Educate those you love. Make this a lifestyle everyone wants to be a part of. Celebrate every pound lost and every inch that’s disappeared! Enjoy tasting your food for once, not just swallowing it!
Ø Work on your home. Gardening and home chores are good exercise. Learn to love going up and down the steps- carrying things!
Ø Keep a journal. Note how you feel, what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Ø Commit to yourself! Look at photos of you then and now. Describe how you feel/felt. Imagine how you want to describe yourself and how you feel. Do it now. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.

I hope this helps you. I’m not proud of not getting to the gym. But, I’m not allowing that to be an excuse to override my hard work either. I’m not going to be over 200 pounds ever again. I’ve committed that to me!

173.2...177...175 ???

There is truth to numbers. Yet, don't let the numbers run you. If no one famous said that yet, let it be said by me now.

Let's talk numbers first.
The other day, perhaps Friday, I weighed myself out of curiosity. The digital scale said 173. Fabulous. This morning it said 177. Not so fabulous. I went back to the scale a little while ago to get my water weight and other measurements via the digital scale. It said 175 and then gave me an error code for the other measurements. So, I will weigh myself at the gym and get new batteries for my scale. What ever the numbers say, I feel awesome!

Why do I feel awesome when the numbers aren't budging?
Its simple. I've reclaimed my life. I'm still hitting the gym at least 5 days a week for one hour each time. I do cardio and strength training. I'm hoping to add some yoga in there this week. And, I've severely modified my eating habits. I'm finally taking full responsibility for everything that goes in my mouth, thus into my body.

Since I last blogged about my weight...
The first week I was good about going to the gym but my food intake was still in need of serious overhaul. The second week I was plagued with a slight injury but very motivated to get back in the gym and get my nutrition on board.

Near the end of the second week I read Skinny Bitch, the book. (Which I recommend with a few caveats. Its not for the faint of heart. It promotes a strictly vegan lifestyle and tells you a million reasons why you should do so. Its for those who are serious about reclaiming their lives and willing to make equally serious changes to their lifestyle.) For me, that book revolutionized my eating habits and thoughts about food. I've been a vegetarian before so it wasn't that far off from what I was used to, although it was years ago. Since reading it, I have maintained a vegan diet with only a few episodes of feta cheese on two of my meals outside the house. I am not opposed to having fish at least once per week- so I doubt I'll stick to a strict vegan diet but I like many of the other vegan choices and believe it will make up at least 75% of my eating habits.

I considered Nutrisystem until I read Skinny Bitch. And, my partner wasn't on board with Nutrisystem- which I would have wanted had I gone with it. He convinced me that we should just make better choices and prepare for meals to cook at home. In hindsight, I wouldn't have been satisfied with Nutrisystem after reading Skinny Bitch. I'm much happier with my current choices.

I added a food log to my outlook notes. I note everything that I eat or drink (outside water- which I drink plenty of anyhow).

I enlisted the help of a professional, Patty Dietz, an exercise physiologist, to give me a FREE one month membership of online health guidance and advice based on my personal needs. If you want to reach Patty please email me.

I can't tell you how good I feel. I think making the food choices that I've made have allowed me to feel better instantly. I was grocery shopping for my new lifestyle last night and enjoying so much of it. I read each label and put it down if it had too much sodium (I had high blood pressure years ago when my weight was higher), too many calories, too much fat in proportion to the calories, not enough nutrition, and if I didn't like any of the ingredients. I feel great about what what went in my cart, my car, my home and ultimately will go into my body.

And, I love going to the gym. The best feeling is when you are in bed and you stretch and you feel a muscle you haven't felt so prominently in ages!

I'm optimistic that the numbers will catch up with how I feel in the weeks to come. I'm not worried. I'm just going to stick to my new food lifestyle and my gym routines. And, I'm going to keep feeling great!

Let me know how you are doing!