Transformation Thursday - #3

3 weeks in a row! I'm on a roll!  And boy do I have a whole lotta bunch of non-scale victories to share with you!

This week went pretty well. I manage to keep my eating under control and not overindulge too much. We did have a graduation party to attend, and of course there was cake, and of course I ate some. But I knew I had eaten really well leading up to that point in the day so I didn't feel too guilty about it. And we did eat out once this weekend....and I may have had a delicious cheeseburger and some fries. *sigh* I'm not gonna lie, I'm a cheeseburger gal. And I married a cheeseburger guy. That meal, I felt horribly guilty about. I knew that in just one sitting I probably consumed well over my daily allowed calories. That's a bit depressing. But I didn't let it keep me down for too long. I'm starting to recognize that weekends are my weakest points. We're on the go a lot, and I'm not always prepared to eat healthy while we're out. And my brain and tummy seem to think we're on some wild vacation so we can party it up! I just need to remember that while it's okay to have a treat once in a while, it needs to be done in moderation and with my end goal in mind. The weeks are flying by, and I don't want one day to ruin my scale moment at the end of the week. It's just not worth it.

In addition to making healthier eating choices most of the time this week, I also got in some pretty spectacular workouts! On Saturday, my mama and I completed an 18-mile charity bike ride. That's the farthest we've ridden so far in our biking journeys together, and It. Was. AWESOME! There was an option to ride the loop once or twice more, and we both thought that once more (on another day) would be totally doable. We're ready for a challenge, and Michigan has some amazing bike routes to help us accomplish that. So the bike ride went great. We finished in good time, 1 hour and 33 minutes for 18 miles of riding – not too bad! And then we picked up our ride packets and prepared to head home. Did I mention this was a “Cupcake Cruise”? Yeah. The lady that put this ride together had mini cupcakes donated from the local cupcake shop, and we receive a box with six pretty little cupcakes inside. I truly had no intention of eating them, I was going to let my kiddos and hubby have at them when I got home. So mama and I put our cupcake boxes in plastic bags and got ready to leave. Then it happened. The thing I've been dreading since I first started riding. The thing that freaked me out more than anything else about cycling. I fell off my bike.

My Jake (bike) and I are just starting our relationship together, and I'm still a little wobbly on those skinnier tires. But I also have these funky shoes that some cyclist wear called clips. They sort of look like a cleat on the bottom. And my pedals are designed to clip inside the bottom of my shoe. I set my foot on the pedal, and my shoe snaps on so I'm attached to my bike. Cool right?

 

 

Now when I got these shoes and pedals with my bike a few weeks ago I practiced clipping in and clipping out over and over again on a trainer in the bike shop so I'd get comfortable with the process. But I forgot to ask what happens if I lose my balance and start to fall. Will my shoes just disengage? Is there an emergency eject button somewhere? I should have asked. Well, let me tell you what happened in this scenario. I had a bag of cupcakes on my handle bars, and one foot clipped in to my pedal. I raised myself up on the seat and pushed off to get going. My handle bars twisted, I could feel the fall coming, I tried to move my foot to catch myself but I wasn't even thinking about clipping out, and before I could even think, I fell. And I landed on my cupcakes. And then laid on the ground laughing and making sure I didn't break anything while my mom rushed over to make sure I was okay. Thankfully, no broken bones. Just some smashed cupcakes and a few bruises. Not my most graceful moment, but I'm thankful we were sort of away from the starting line at that point and it wasn't witnessed by a bunch of biker folks or my pride would been bruised along with my legs. I told my mom at the time that I could feel the fall coming and knew there was nothing I could do to stop it, so in those milliseconds leading up to the fall, you just have to embrace it. Embrace the fall, say Oh Crap!, and hope and pray you don't break anything!

I fit in a few more fall-less rides throughout the week as well as some ab workouts with Jillian Michaels. Jillian is kicking my butt guys. I'm huffing and puffing through those workouts, but my muscles don't seem to feel it until the next day. I've woke up sore every morning for the past three days. And I love it! I know I'm getting stronger and healthier and my muscles are waking up. I'm really starting to enjoy fitness, which is something I never thought I'd say.

Alright, so that's how my diet and exercise went this week. Better than last week. Always improving! Now for the digits. Here's my numbers from this week:

 

Calories Burned: 6,472 (goal of 1,520 per week)

Exercise Minutes: 597 minutes (goal of 240 minutes per week)

Pounds Lost This Week: 2

New Weight: 170.2
Total Pounds Lost: 21.8

Victory!!!  I'm learning that I just need to trust in the process and quit weighing myself every day.  The scale is going in to hiding for a week!  And I am killin' it with the exercise!  I LOVE it!  Smashing my calorie burn and exercise minute goals.  Even if the scale doesn't like me some weeks, I am not gonna stop because this exercise high is enough to carry me through 'til Christmas!  With that said, I have to encourage you, if you are reading this and you want to start exercising but you don't know where to start, just get out there and get moving.  Take a walk.  My fav, go for a bike ride!  Get some sunshine on your shoulders, and try to move your body.  It's hard at first, but once you get a few days behind you you're going to start to feel your energy perk.  And then pretty soon you're going to start to crave those endorphins, and you might just surprise yourself like me and enjoy exercising!  There you have it.  Challenge issued.  Get moving!

See ya next week peeps!