My Own Worst Enemy

I have no idea what is going on with me this week. I wrote down my weekly goals, identical to the ones I had last week, in hopes that I would continue on the right path. For some reason, this week is getting off to a rocky start.

I tried to squeeze in my workout yesterday because the only way that I will see results is to do the work. I stopped my workout early because I did have a deadline to meet. I told myself that I would double up my workouts today in hopes to take care of yesterday and today. Unfortunately, my Polar FT7 was not on the same page that I was. I had to restart my HRM at least 3 times because it would not register my heart rate.

Each time I paused my workout, reset my watch, started my watch and started my workout. A minute later, I had the same problem. It got to be so frustrating that I stopped my workout and vowed that I would continue tomorrow, especially since each day I completed at least 20 minutes of the workout I was doing.

Time is working against me, my workload is getting heavier and the deadlines keep coming. I am losing my appetite for a lot of foods, which means I eat things because I have to get the calories in and a lot of times they are not the healthiest things. By the time I start eating, I no longer want all of the meal and only eat half of it.

Maybe it is because I have so much on my plate that my mind is not staying focused on one activity. I am vowing that tomorrow I will restart my week and really buckle down to follow and reach my goals. I have come too far to turn around now and this journey is something I knew was going to be rough. I would reach plateaus, I would gain, I would lose, I would have cravings, I would lose taste for foods and so on.

Hopefully, tomorrow will change things because it is a new day and I have so much to look forward to on this journey. I like losing weight and in order to continue doing that, I have to stay focused and make time for what needs to be done.

I want to leave on a quote that explains what is going on with me at the moment. I am my own worst enemy and I need to stop that.

"As long as man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Softball Shorts

I had a non-scale victory a week ago that I meant to post on Twitter but never got around to doing so. I played varsity softball for 4 years and when playing softball your uniform can be anything from sweat pants to baseball style pants to hot pants.

We had these old dusty baseball style uniforms, I am convinced they were baseball uniforms because we looked just like the boys. The following year we raised money to get ourselves some new uniforms. We eventually upgraded to mesh shorts (we were supposed to wear hot pants that year, but those of us who were plus sized, my friend and I, were strongly against that and subsequently the team did not wear those hot pants) then baseball style pants which flattered the female physique.

My non-scale victory came when I tried on my mesh shorts a week ago and they fit me and didn't ride up my thighs! I didn't even realize when I put them on that they were actually comfortable until I started walking around and realized that they were no longer riding up.

You can imagine it was horrible running bases when your shorts were riding up. I always had to do a slight jiggle when I reached the base or lunge forward as I was taking my lead so it didn't look my shorts were forming a triangle shape with my thighs. This happens to me on a regular basis when I tend to wear shorts, but not anymore.

Whenever I have a non-scale victory it lets me know that I am still playing the game and that I am well on my way to winning. It takes time and patience but reaching a goal is attainable. I tell myself that because I am still working towards reaching my goal. These non-scale victories just serve as more motivation to keep doing what I am doing.

Weekly Goals

After a fun filled birthday weekend (also known as a weekend of no calorie counting) it is time for me to get back on track and focus on the weeks ahead of me. Last week was successful and I was able to finish an entire week of working out and am looking forward to crossing off another week. Friday I start doubling up on my workouts and I must admit that I am a little apprehensive about that but I know I can do it if I put my mind to it (especially since Relay for Life is the next day and my schedule is going to be packed on Friday). At this point, I have no excuses because excuses don't get results.

My goals for this week are:

• Exercising - this proved successful last week and I hope that it will prove successful this week. Thanks to my schedule, I plan to make my exercise very productive this week.
• Maximize water intake - last week was okay but it could have been better. The main thing is that I am getting more water into my system and that is what I need to focus on. 
• Limit the amounts of sweets eaten - ironically I lasted the entire weekend on one piece of birthday cake which is a record for me. I plan on limiting my sweets for the week, similar to last week.
• Logging everything - this weekend was a break from recording calories and it seems that on the weekends when I don't record anything, I lose weight during the week. I am not sure if that makes much sense, but it just happens like that. 

Looking at my goals this week, they are identical to the ones from last week. I was successful last week and as long as I drop at least a few ounces this week, I should be fine. My goal is to always drop at least a pound but when I don't set a specific goal, I tend to do better.

I am just excited to see what this week brings. 

Weigh In Day

My weigh in today has just made my birthday even more special. According to the LoseIt! and the scales I am down another 1.2 pounds from the last time I weighed in!! This just shows me that when I really buckle down and focus on what is in front of me I can get the ball rolling again and the numbers will keep coming down. For this month my ultimate goal is to drop 5 pounds. Not sure how reasonable that is, but as long as I lose something I will be happy.

Total loss for this week: 1.2 pounds
Total loss for the month: 1.2 pounds 
Total loss since the start of this journey: 17.2 pounds

Since I was already thrilled with the numbers on my scale, I decided to see if there were any changes in my measurements.

Since today is the first Saturday in June, these measurements will serve as my end of May measurements as well as beginning of June measurements.

Neck - 14 1/2
Bust - 45
Chest - 41
Waist - 43
Hips - 50 1/2
Thighs - 26
Calves - 16
Upper Arm - 14
Forearm - 11

Overall I lost inches in my neck, waist, hips and thighs which is pretty good for me.

Since today is my birthday, I have vowed that I will not focus on the calories consumed but will focus on the good time that is scheduled with my family today. Since I am not counting calories, that probably means that today will count as my cheat day and the second one I have had on this journey.

Either way, thanks to my hard work this week, my day is already off to an amazing start.