Tuesday, December 31, 2013

No More "New" Resolutions?

As the last day of 2013 comes to close, I realized that for once I wouldn't be spending the greater portion of my night thinking of resolutions that I may actually be able to stick to. Instead, I will continue with the resolution I made for New Year's 2013.

My resolution for this year, is to continue on my weight loss journey, which I started on January 2, 2013 (read my first post on this blog, declaring 2013 as my year of change here).

For the greater part of my weight loss journey this year (2013), I was successful in the sense that I felt better about myself and I started to notice some non-scale victories. I tried not to focus on the scale, but I will admit that there were times when I let the numbers on the scale define my mood or my approach to the next steps on this journey.

I tried some new exercises and ventured away from some. It took me nearly a whole year to convince my knees that they could hold up and do a proper squat and lunge, but I was finally able to do some. I also mastered the plank for longer than 15 seconds, which is a victory for me.

I can't stop there and I refuse to stop there.

I declared 2013 as my year of change, but 2013 was just my warm up; 2014 will be my year. I will graduate from college in May and my goal is to be down another 15 pounds by then. By August, I hope to be down another 9 pounds (24 total at 3 pounds per month). By December, I hope to be down another 16 (40 total at 3 pounds per month).

Looking at my progress this year, I know that going forward, I need to stay focused by keeping my goal(s) in mind and accepting the fact that this journey brings a lot of highs and lows along the way. If I don't meet my monthly goal, I cannot dwell on that, instead I have to move forward. I have to understand that it is okay to treat myself to foods that may be considered "cheat meals" but only in moderation.

2013 was just my stepping stone, I am ready to move forward on this journey and see what 2014 has in store for me.

Monday, December 16, 2013

An Extensive Update

When I started blogging at the beginning of the year, I told myself that I would use this space to chronicle my journey. That included the good, bad and in between. For awhile, I was a 'daily' blogger. Then I started having trouble finding topics to discuss, so I became an 'every other day' blogger. Then time caught up with me and I quickly became a 'once a week' blogger. Finally, the semester hit like bag a bricks and I became a 'no longer have the energy to post' blogger.

Although the semester is finally over, I still feel physically drained. It's almost as if someone has run over me with their vehicle several times and I cannot pull myself off of the pavement.

My workouts have become nonexistent in a way. If I can get myself to pull up Nike Training Club and actually workout, I know it will be a good day (or in my case, a good night since that is when I tend to workout). The only problem, I have to get myself to actually get my weights and tablet so I can workout. I am not sure why it takes me so long to "get in the mood" to workout because I know that once I am done, my mind is finally clear, I feel good and I know that I am getting back into my workout groove.

Then there comes the issue of eating. The night before Thanksgiving, I ended up catching some type of cold (or perhaps it was a sinus infection, I am not quite sure), something that hasn't happened in nearly two years. On Thanksgiving, I literally felt like I was down for the count. I stayed medicated around the clock, but food and exercise were the last things on my mind. Five days and numerous boxes of medication later (they were never full boxes, I just cleaned up my medicine cabinet) my voice decided it wanted to get weak and my nasal congestion decided it wanted to get worse. Unfortunately for me, I had two presentations back to back. One where I had to take a break from my 3 minute portion to cough as loud as I possibly could and the other where it felt like I was straining for the entire room to hear me.

My voice eventually got stronger and my nasal congestion decided to linger around for another week but during this entire ordeal, my appetite decide it wanted to leave. In the span of a week, I lost 1.2 pounds from not eating proper meals. Any other time I would have rejoiced to see that loss but I knew I was doing damage to my body because I didn't feel like eating.

I have since gained that 1.2 pounds back (plus some) which I never thought I would be happy about but I am because I finally had an appetite again.

Fast forward to today, where I have not worked out once since December began, constantly feel hungry (although it seems that I eat all day long, I must be eating the wrong things) and feel like I have no energy. Therefore, starting tomorrow evening, I am giving myself a week to get back to working out and eating properly so by the time Christmas rolls around, I am back to my old self.

I have no excuse why I can't or won't be successful this week. I have new training cables, plenty of free weights, open space and MyFitnessPal which equals a recipe for success. I owe myself this Christmas gift because I have come too far on this journey to turn around.