Thursday, June 12, 2014

Transformation Thursday - #4

Welcome to the 4th installment of Transformation Thursday!
 
This week has been a whirlwind! My 5-year old daughter had her last soccer game of the season, a kindergarten end-of-year program, and her last day of school this week. We've been busy! But I haven't let that keep me from adhering to my goals. I can honestly say this is the first time in a while that I tracked all of my food choices with 100% honesty for the entire week, and I stayed within my calorie goals. Yippee! Tracking has been tremendously helpful for me. Knowing what I'm putting in my body, as well as how many calories I'm burning, has really helped me stay on track. I've mentioned it before, but I use My Fitness Pal to keep track of my health goals. It's a free, online tracking program and there's a mobile app too. I use both, and the mobile app has been a lifesaver when we're out to a restaurant and I don't have immediate access to their nutrition information. The nutrition database is loaded with just about every food choice imaginable so you'll always be able to track your nutrition. Find me on My Fitness Pal (username: CLivingston722), and we can encourage each other to stay on track!
 
I realized last week that I was getting on the scale too much. I was weighing myself every morning, and sometimes getting discouraged when I would see the scale move up from the day before. Especially if I had burned major calories and stayed within my nutritional calorie goals. So I decided last week that I would put the scale away and only weigh myself once a week. I had to hide the scale, folks. I had to put that baby someplace totally inconvenient to me so I wouldn't be tempted to step on it. And I'm happy to say, it worked!! I haven't stepped on the scale at all this week until this morning. That's been huge for me! It's been so nice not to worry about what the numbers are going to say. I know I'm eating well and exercising, and this week that's all that has mattered to me.
 
As for exercising, that's been going great too! I've been trying to fit in some form of physical activity at least 5 days a week. Even if it's just going for a walk or doing an exercise video. Anything is better than sitting on my butt! I managed to get in a few killer bike rides. Last Thursday I covered 21.5 miles with my Jake and biked a total of 1 hour and 44 minutes. Yes! Some nights I was just short on time, so I shortened my rides and focused on speed instead of distance. I was able to get my average speed up to 15.8 mph – that's the fastest I've EVER averaged! That's some major non-scale victory for me! With this week being so busy, there were a few days that posed a challenge for me to fit in some exercise. On those days, I tried to break out the hand weights and work on my arms or get out my mat for a few minutes and do some ab work. I may not have gotten any cardio in, but strength training is just as important. Need muscle to burn that fat! And for the first time I'm starting to desire to see some muscle definition on my body. I long to be strong!
 
All in all, it was a pretty fantastic week! My non-scale challenges were all met: I stayed on track with my nutrition goals, I exceeded the number of minutes I set for myself as an exercise goal, I tracked my nutrition and exercise for the whole week on MFP, AND I managed to stay off the scale! So now that I've stayed away from the scale all week, I want to know what all this hard work has earned me in the digits department, don't you?! Here goes, my numbers for the week...
 
Calories Burned: 3,897 (goal of 1,520 per week)
Exercise Minutes: 356 minutes (goal of 250 minutes per week)
Pounds Lost This Week: 3.6
New Weight: 166.6
Total Pounds Lost: 25.4
You may notice that my goals keep changing. I'm trying to find the goals that are right for me – a challenge for my body, but not so challenging that it's unattainable. Please bear with me while I fine tune my goals.
 
Scale Victory!!! Oh my goodness! I am SO HAPPY with those numbers! I have not see a weight lower than 167 in a very, very long time. Yay! And now I'm 3.1 pounds away from being half-way to my goal weight. It's not about the numbers, but it sure feels good when the scale agrees with all the hard work I've put in throughout the week. Thanks for all the reads and support and encouragement from the friends who keep the kind words and thoughts flowing! Until next week folks!

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