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!

Transformation Thursday - #1

I've been neglecting this space and wondering in my mind what I should put here. I bake something and think “Ooh! Maybe I'll blog about that!”, but then I remember that I just saw a blog post about apple pie or chocolate cake, and who's gonna want to read that? I thought about putting my crafty stuff out there; and I may still do that, but for now I want to share with you a story about how my life has changed over the past year and my commitment to keeping it going.

 

A year ago I was sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours a day. Typing away, answering calls, scheduling stuff – trucking logistics, essentially was my job. My job was stressful, in part because I allowed it to stress me out, but also because everyone that called wanted something done right away and I felt the need to provide excellent customer service and make it happen for them. Happy customers, stressed out me. I spent most of those hours sitting in a chair, not moving much except to answer the phone, type something in, or get up to get another cup of coffee. All the while my dear husband was at home caring for our children. We made the decision early on that we wanted one of us to be home with our children while they are young – we didn't want to put them in daycare. It just happened to work out (God's plan!) that my husband would stay home with our little ones for the first 5 years. But we prayed, a lot, for a change so that I could stay home and my husband could find a job that would support our little family.

 

Then, it happened! Out of the blue, our prayers were answered! The timing, the logistics, everything about the situation can be chalked up to nothing but the will of God and His perfect timing. I gave notice, and two weeks my hubby started his new job and I was spending the summer with our babes. This is where the transformation begins!

 

In my new role, I was NOT sitting on my hiney all day. My kiddos were 4 and 2 at the time – you can imagine, there wasn't much sitting happening! We were taking walks and going to the library and the park and practicing soccer and we were on the move! This was a huge change for me. Not just the movement, but the career. Before this time I felt part of my identity was wrapped up in my job. And now I didn't have that. Oddly enough, I didn't feel whole. So in an effort to find some peace and maybe get a little exercise in I decided to start biking. I remember the first night I got on my bike. I thought I'd give it 30 minutes and come back home. 10 minutes from home and I couldn't believe how far away I seemed and how great I felt! So I kept going. That night I ended up biking for an hour and it felt great! So good, that I did it again the next night, and the night after that. I casually told my husband, “I'm pretty sure I'm biking like 3 or 4 miles a night.” He then said, “No, it's gotta be more than that.” Gee – I was pretty happy with 3 or 4, but I thought just for giggles I'd look up my route and see. I was shocked – 10 MILES! Me. Sedentary, overweight, non-active me was biking 10 miles a night! Talk about a confidence boost!

 

Well, from then on I was hooked. I kept going. And all the sudden I knew what those runners were talking about when they'd say “if I don't get a run in I don't feel right”. If I missed a night on my bike, I felt off kilter and couldn't wait to get back on it. Biking was my escape – not that I had anything to run away from. But it just ended up being a quiet time for me to think, or not think. To listen to music that I enjoyed instead of cartoons. To have a chat with God. To enjoy nature. And as it turns out, biking became my means of losing weight.

 

A heavier me on a zoo outing with my little guy

 

As I said, I was sedentary and overweight – in fact, according to my BMI, I was obese. Yikes. 26 years old, and I'm obese. I didn't start biking with the intention of dropping pounds. I had sort of set that aside for a while. But as I started tracking my rides I realized that I was burning major calories! I burned twice as many calories biking as I would walking the same distance. And the best part was, I enjoyed it! In addition to biking, I started keeping track of my nutrition on MyFitnessPal. I logged my meals – everything I put in my mouth went in to my log. And I started to see results. Slowly, but steadily, the weight began to come off. And as I started to see the change and feel more confident in my ability to keep going, I began to set goals for myself. By the end of the summer, I had lost 25 pounds!

 

A smaller me - ready for a ride and feeling great!

 

Then fall and winter came along, and sort of stole my thunder. I didn't gain at all through the end of the year – I was so proud! I maintained my loss, but I also didn't exercise, like, at all. And I probably indulged in a few too many sweets and baked goods. And so, at the beginning of this year, some of the weight started to sneak back on. And again, I found myself feeling lousy and hoping the weather would warm up so I could escape with my bike and start losing again.

 

And so here I am. Thankful for warmer temps and a fantastic new bike. I want to share some numbers with you, for the sake of accountability. It's hard talking about this, because I know I weigh more than I should. But my hope is that by sharing this with you, I'll be inspired to keep going. And who knows, maybe I can inspire someone else to take a ride. All right, here goes...

 

At the beginning of my weight loss journey, at the end of June 2013, I weighed 192 pounds. By the end of December 2013, I had lost 25 pounds bringing my end weight to 167 pounds. Dang, I was proud of myself! I have not seen that number since before kids, and I was fitting in to jean sizes I hadn't seen in years! Then, I hibernated (HA!) and gained 10 pounds. *gasp!* I vowed I would NOT see the 180's again, and so I started trying to eat better and when the weather allowed it, I went outside – walking or riding my bike, when I could. I'm now back down to 174 pounds. Still not my lowest yet, but not my highest either. My ultimate goal is to reach 140 to 135 pounds, but really, I just want to be healthy and feel good in my clothes.

My purdy new ride

 

So there you have it, my digits. The real talk. From the beginning of my journey, I had 52 to 57 pounds to lose, and I've already killed 18 pounds of it! Yes! Now, I need to get back on track. I mentioned above that I got a new bike – she's fab. It's a Kona Jake cyclocross bike. I feel like I joined a club when I got this thing – the first ride out I got the fellow biker wave of acknowledgment and beamed all the way home. I know, I'm a nerd. I've been riding almost every day and trying to incorporate walking and other exercise in as well. I think the warmer weather is finally here to stay in Michigan, so there's no better time for me to start! I'm hoping I can wipe out the rest of these pounds by the end of the year. I don't want to set my bar too high, but I want to challenge myself too.

 

Here's my commitment: I'm going to stay active. I'm going to track my nutrition and exercise (follow me on MyFitnessPal – username Clivingston722). And I'm going to come back here every Thursday and share with you how I did this week. I'll weigh in every Thursday morning and share my digits with you, and hopefully share my victory with you too! I believe I can do this. I KNOW I can. And I'm committing to seeing this through to the end!