Sugar and Thighs and everything Wise

So, I had a really fabulous day. I did a REALLY intense leg work out today but a milestone one, for sure. I did 5 sets of 10 on squats and leg press. I "leveled up" on both, I guess you could say. I've been slowly adding 5-10 pounds a time on both and today I got to 90 lbs(1 big 45 plate on each side) and 180 lbs (2 big 45 plates on each side) on the leg press. I usually do 3 sets of 15 with less weight but today I felt like really pushing myself. I was pleasantly surprised at how not-quite-as-hard-as-I-thought it was. Definitely still pushed myself harder than usual, which needs to become my new "usual". THEN I went into the dark aerobics room(a group of gym rats had taken over the ab mats, giving me a good excuse to hide) and did some inner thigh exercises. I did a couple sets of some Pilates moves and then 3 sets of these altered squats with a weight that are supposed to work your inner thighs more. THEN I had myself a mini Zumba session. So yes, lots of fun. haha I basically put myself through a mini bootcamp. I need to check if they're having another one of those at my gym this weekend.

The New Norm

I've been needing to push myself harder because I have not lost any weight in the last week. It's weird because this March 1st I was exactly where I was last March 1st as far as weight and body fat%. This is good and bad. Good because that means I've come a long way in the last 2 months to undo everything I undid the 6 months before that. Bad because I essentially wasted a year. But I'm trying hard not to think about that. I've learned a lot in the last year about myself and my body and how it reacts and what it needs. And I've come a long way stamina and strength-wise. And I still haven't gotten anyone to do my measurements so I dunno if I'm exactly back where I was size-wise. I dunno, I keep going back and forth on that. But part of what is annoying me is that this was where I plateaued last year and I never got over it so now I'm gonna have to switch it up to get over it this time. Not exactly sure what I need to change but hopefully I'll figure it out. 

Looking back one of the biggest differences is my stamina, and I can't help but wonder if part of that is that I don't drink carbonated drinks anymore. I remember during soccer season when I played varsity I would cut sodas out for 3-4 months of the year because our coach suggested it. It always made my body feel better and I could keep up better. And I'm fairly certain I've mentioned it before, but: drinking water is the most important part of a healthy lifestyle. Yesterday on facebook I saw this picture and it really illustrates what I've tried explaining to people in the past. 

So for your viewing pleasure: Rethink your drink. 

This is a picture of the drinks and below the amount of SUGAR in each drink. Now, I'm not even gonna get into what all this sugar can do to you, the difference between natural sugar and added sugar blah blah blah. I just want to point this out solely from a weight-loss perspective. A 20 oz bottle of Dr pepper has 250 calories and 62 grams of sugar. So, say you normally have 2 of those in a day- That's 500 calories and 124g of sugar. [That's like 3 cookies or something] So say you manage to be under your calorie limit for the day drinking all those calories and you're still losing weight, great. Cut out just ONE of those sodas a day? You'll lose an extra 3.5 pounds in 5 weeks. Cut out both of them? 5 pounds. So in that scenario you could lose A POUND A WEEK just from cutting out sodas. This isn't to mention what replacing that soda with water will do for your body. I remember in the past I could lose 5 pounds in a week just by replacing soda with water. (Lent, anyone?) Trust me, you make the switch and your kidneys will be thanking you. 

Now I say "just", but I too was once a Dr. Pepper fiend. I transferred to diet dp and then I kicked it completely. I haven't had a soda in two months. I tried having one for the caffeine like 2 weeks into the new year and I felt awful! So yup, I slowly dwindled and as of this year I'm pretty much carbonation free. The doctor I work for claims that in the next 10 years we're going to find out all kinds of awful things sodas do to you like when they started actually researching what cigarettes do. The thing is, used properly, caffeine itself can do good things for your body. I've been wanting to do a post on caffeine and one on artificial sweeteners but I haven't done the research I need to to be able to talk about it like I want. I think it's important to know what you're putting into your body. It's one of the key shifts your brain has to make for this lifestyle change to really stick. You have to go from "this tastes good" to "this is good for me", and they don't always have to be mutually exclusive. When you start giving your body the right building blocks instead of complete crap for it to work with, it will reward you, I PROMISE! Not getting kidney stones from too many sodas is probably it's first "Thank You". You're welcome.