Scale say whaat?

Hey guys! I am happy to report that I worked out Friday morning at the hotel. Haha =) the weather has been BEAUTIFUL lately. =) so Sunday instead of going to the gym I did like 2-3 hrs of yard work. Mostly weeding and sawing. My hamstrings are STILL a little sore. And they will be tomorrow, too, because I went to spin class this morning bc I finally had the day off. =) well, I did get to work out yesterday before work, and there's an interesting story there.

So yesterday when I went to the gym, it was peak morning time (which I HATE) so I couldn't get on the row of ellipticals that I usually do. So I get on one of the other ones that has completely different programs and I fool with it trying to find one like the one I usually use (calorie burner). I finally found something inferior but similar to what I'm used to doing, picked a random level and took off. Well it was a lower resistance level than I'm used to because I ran a mile in 10:30 which I'm fairly certain I have never done in my LIFE. I was looking at this display telling me I was running 6 mph and thinking "I think this means I should up the resistance...but I don't want to..." lol after I finished the mile I upped it and found my much more familiar 5 mph pace but I was really excited for myself. Haha.

So one of the things about getting in shape is that you have to constantly play mind games with yourself. Well, at least I do, but maybe I'm crazy. Or maybe it's because I'm a girl. But those are mostly the same, let's be honest. Haha. Anyway, today before spin, we re-did my measurements. I was pretty excited bc even though outwardly there wasn't a whole lot of difference from a month ago, my muscles were slightly more prominent, especially in my legs, so i knew my bf%(how much of my fatness is actually fat) had to be lower. So Carlos is measuring me and all of them are coming out larger and I'm starting to FREAK. OUT. Like I told y'all, I had actually gained weight the last couple of weeks but then I started losing it again so that usually indicates increase in muscle. I wasn't TOO concerned. Today I was +1 pound but then I started being +1...2..4 inches. And the self doubt and internal argument and freaking out began. "wtf is happening?!" "calm down crazy, it's muscle" "but my neck is bigger!! Why is my neck bigger?!" "I dunno, why is it?" "omg I'm such a fat failure!!" etcetcetc. Lol. Don't worry, I didn't have a meltdown in the gym. Very male Carlos saved the body fat % to last so my very female brain was stopped just short of that meltdown.

The good news is that I'm actually down 6 lbs in fat (finally under the triple digit mark, actually) and up 7 lbs in muscle. Soooo that means I'm 19 lbs lighter than I was in October, but I've lost 25 lbs of fat since then. =) I wish I had my starting fat % from a year and a half ago. It's probably close to like 50%. I feel so much stronger than that point. And I'm aiming for 18% body fat, FYI, which is considered healthy. Carlos said I should be ultimately aiming for 12% "lean toned". Lol. we'll see how long it takes me to get to "healthy" before I start thinking about having a movie star body. Right now I'll be happy when this summer I'm down to a large instead of a 2x.

So that's where I am right now. Today's been pretty good. I came home and scrambled some eggs in some semblance of a huevos-rancheros-turkey-omelette-bowl thing. Whatever. It tasted good and it was protein packed. I felt like actually eating my protein instead of drinking it. Haha. Although I did get some protein samples I'm excited to try in a care package from one of my pledge sisters. =D I've decided it's my first official piece of "fan mail". Lol. The main thing I wanted to cover in this post was that it may look on the scale like a plateau, and maybe in your clothes, but if it's muscle gain at the same time as fat loss, it will not FEEL like a plateau. My resting heart rate is down, my endurance is up, and I'm stronger than I was. Who cares what the scale says? (well, I still do...a little)

PS: go google image "5 lbs of fat". Right now.