V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, That's the Shrinking Battle Cry!

...lol. I dunno, I need to go to bed. So many NSVs lately! Sorry I'm a COMPLETE failure at blogging lately, but I have mostly been succeeding in real life. =) I'll give y'all a quick update and then maybe talk about calorie restrictions.

I've been sticking pretty good with IF, maybe a few days not quite the fast I was looking for. I also recalculated my calorie intake which I will talk about more in depth later. For the last 2 weeks I haven't been losing the 2 lbs/week I was maintaining prior to that. I actually was kinda stuck in a rut, and had been stuck at the same number on the scale for almost 2 weeks. I was gonna give my recalculation a week or 2 to settle so I was about to have to go back to the drawing board. Happy to say when I weighed in a few days ago, I was down FOUR pounds! So, still averaging 2 lbs a week. =D On track to reach a HUGE goal before Labor day! Also hopefully going to be able to finally share my progress pics! I'm 78lbs down now and I was planning on the big reveal at -80 lbs. So hopefully by next week! =D

I'm really excited guys. REALLY, really excited! I've had so many compliments lately, it's really spurring me on to keep going. Some highlights are:
-Will putting his hand on my stomach at the movie theater while I was standing and he was sitting and asking "Are you sucking your stomach in? It's so flat!"
- People at church telling me how great I look
- My old trainer Nichole telling me I'm getting some great curves and complimenting me on my progress.
- A patient today asking me "Have you...How much weight have you lost?" She hasn't been in since March, and we started seeing her in December, so I've lost about 50 lbs since we started seeing her. I looked at her chart "Well, since I saw you last...about 35 lbs?" Her mouth almost fell open she looked so shocked. She was so sweet and supportive it really made my day. It'll be a couple months until she comes back and she said "Well, keep it up!" I told her hopefully the next time I saw her I'd be skinny for real. haha

One of the biggest victories from this past weekend was that I went to Lane Bryant this weekend and pretty much confirmed that I can no longer shop there. The tops/dresses are sized 14/16 and were too big, the underwear sized 14/16 probably could've fit for the next couple weeks but I didn't want to waste money on that. And I couldn't even find a pair of 14 shorts to try on, and the 16s are way too big. So yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!! Officially out of plus sized stores. This is a HUGE victory for me. Probably one of the biggest so far in this long winding road. I tried on a bunch of clothes from the big bag o' 14s [I got from a friend a while ago] and pretty much everything fits except the Eddie Bauer size 14s. The Levi's size 14s fit perfectly so I'm calling that official. lol.

So, this is a huge benchmark for me, and i'm really stinking excited to have finally made it. This is officially the smallest I have ever been in my adult life. I might have been a 14/16 my freshman year of high school, but nothing near this toned and lean. In another month or 2 I'm gonna have to sit down and really do my research and evaluate where I want to go with this last leg of weight-loss. I've learned so much but feel like I have so much more knowledge I could chase after. In my next post I'm gonna talk about the different things I've considered so far how I've readjusted every few months. Thanks, once again, to EVERYONE on this long crazy journey. I hope y'all have enjoyed reading about it and continue to root me on! =)

Why my pants sag off? I'm working my ass off!

Paraphrasing a Kanye line there that has always made me laugh. Finally took some new pictures today!

Woot!

Went to Old Navy today because they were having a sale and, of course, because none of my clothes really fit. I'm down another 2 lbs this week still going strong on IF so I think this is working for me! haha. If anyone has some size 12s they want to donate to a good cause, I'll be there soon! These are a 12 from Old Navy which really means that I'm probably pretty solidly in a 14 at most stores possibly a 16 where they run small. This is a medium top, too. Today was the first time I've ever experienced the frustration of the average-sized girl. There were no mediums/14-12s left in the colors I wanted!! So, this is what I ended up with, which I do like. I'm gonna wear it to a Rangers game this upcoming week! =)

So in honor of the summer, here is a look at the last 3 summers in comparison to this one. I'm so glad I've discovered lifting heavy and more recently IF. I've made much better progress in the last 6 months than I have in the last 3 years! haha.

Sizes 2x/24, 2x/22, 1x/18 and M/12 respectively 

Maybe over the summer I'll do a monthly progression from where I've been since December, which is when I really started back up again. Luckily between being in a sorority and recently actually trying to document my progress, I've got a LOT of pictures from the past several years. =) I've got some progress pics planned to debut in August that I'm pretty excited to see where they are. =D

Still slightly bummed about all this subcutaneous fat/ "loose skin" on my upper arms and thighs but it's shrinking too just at a much slower rate. I've been doing lots of random stuff to get it to tighten up and I think it's working to some degree. I just want to wear tank tops and be able to flaunt my newly discovered biceps and shoulders and shorts to show off my squat-strengthened legs! *sigh* I'll get there, I know. I dunno why I'm all of a sudden impatient now, I guess because I have been making such substantial progress lately, I feel like I should have more to show for it than bingo arms and saggy inner thigh cellulite. =P

So...what's new? I got back to all of my classes this week! I forgot if I said that last time but I went to my normal Tuesday Zumba and Wednesday yoga. Felt sooooo good! I was actually sore from yoga until yesterday! We did a lot of twists so my obliques were really angry afterwards. haha. I did back/shoulders yesterday and legs today. I would usually do chest/arms today but my shoulders were SO SORE that I had to switch because I didn't think I was gonna be able to do anything. haha. My low back was still a little sore today so my squatting didn't go as well as it normally does. I did get some satisfaction that the skinny guy in the rack next to me was deadlifting less than I can, but by the end he was probably lifting more than I am as far as percentage of body weight so I gave him a break. =) I still felt really strong even with my sore back.

I really love lifting weights. Y'all might be tired of hearing it, sorry. It's hard to explain the sense of accomplishment of lifting something heavier than you did last time if you don't already understand it. It's just such a tangible measure of strength. I had 135lbs across my back, a 45lb bar and two 45lb plates, and thought "This is a lot lighter than I thought it was gonna be". As my warm up/deloading weight. 2 months ago I wasn't near maxing out at that and I wouldn't have DREAMED that would be this easy for me. I've gotten to the point on some lifts where my grip strength or accessory muscle strength is limiting my actual lifts.  I need to get my back stronger so I can squat more, and I need to get my grip stronger so I can dead lift more. And I need to actually focus on form and technique for bench press. I swear it's the red-headed step child of my workouts. haha. I'll get to it soon! I'm sure I will be posting a triumphant blog when I start making big gains in my bench press. =) Sorry about the spotty updates recently, I've been getting back on my normal schedule now that Will is home. I've been keeping my facebook page pretty well updated though, if you're on facebook(ha) and want to follow that. =) As always, thanks for all the sweet words and encouragement! 

IF you give a girl some coffee...

So I'll be double posting this week to make up for missing last week, get excited! Depending on my schedule, Wednesday might be a progress pics post! =) Just got down to a size 14 bermuda short! My legs are all bruised from deadlifts so I'm trying to wait for them to fade before I show off my legs. haha. If you like pictures, I am occasionally posting some here that don't make it to the blog, so you can check that out. As of last week I am down 70lbs from my starting weight and pretty soon I will be ready to announce to the world exactly how fat I used to be. haha. I had to get pretty far away from it before I would even hint at it on Fitocracy but now I'm in a place where I'm happy with my progress and find that hard numbers are more appealing especially when those smaller numbers seem SO impossible when you feel SO fat. So yeah, coming-out-party of sorts TBA. =D

So I said I'd talk about IF [Intermittent Fasting] this post and I will GLADLY tell you about it. I also feel like at this point in my blog since I'm starting to get people reading that I don't actually know in real life, I feel obligated to let y'all know that I share all this information as stuff I have found to be helpful for me in my fitness journey, and do not claim to be any kind of expert in anything. I can only share what I've read and let you know what's working for me. Now, if you're not familiar with the concept, this is a really comprehensive overview of the science behind fasting and intermittent fasting. Basically, if you don't eat for an extended amount of time, your body responds by increasing fat oxidation, i.e. burning fat. And this is the fat that really likes you and wants to stay with you forever, the "stubborn fat". The fat that is currently ruining[read: hiding] my would-be-beautiful arms and legs. *sigh* So the optimal fat burning window I read (I think on leangains) is over 16hrs fasted. Anything over I think 8 hrs is elevated from "normal".

So since June 10th I have been doing a 16/8 split of fasting and eating. That is to say, from (roughly) 7pm to 11am I am fasting. I try to finish eating dinner by 7 and I don't eat again until lunch around 11. It's really been fairly simple. I got kinda hungry the first week, but not exceptionally so because I've never been a huge breakfast person. For a while a few months ago I was forcing myself to eat breakfast mostly because "you should" and not really because I was hungry. I found that it made it harder to stick under my calorie goal not only because I was having an extra 300ish calories first thing in the morning, but also because by lunch time I was SO HUNGRY that it made it harder to be happy with my deficit-sized meal. Now, I got to add back in something that I had cut out for a long while- coffee. It was kind of necessary when I was weening myself of caffeine and Dr. Pepper that I kick coffee as well. My poor body just craved the caffeine and I still had such a sweet tooth that after all the stuff I put in my coffee, it was calorically almost as bad as the full calorie can of DP! Now I can put a tablespoon (25 calories) of fat free flavored creamer in my coffee and It tastes just fine!

The beautiful thing about coffee/caffeine is that it is an appetite suppressant and fat-burning-motivator in one. I don't want to say "fat-burner" because I don't think the caffeine really helps burn the fat as much as it helps kick start the fat burning process. But also, because coffee is a viable substitute for breakfast, it helps you think you've already eaten and you shouldn't be hungry. And also, I just really missed coffee so this is all kinds of win for me. =) Most people who follow some form of IF usually use coffee or tea to get through their fasting periods. Drinking lots of water is also important but as I've stated in the past, that's never been a problem for me so I just keep up my good hydration habits. So, coffee for breakfast, lunch for lunch, dinner for dinner, water alll day. Stop eating after dinner. Simple.

I remember reading people commenting about IF that it was hard to get in their calories and should they be eating more and blah blah blah. I'd had some days where I had been really good- too good, you could argue- and been pretty far under my calorie goal. But I couldn't imagine having to get advice on how to eat more. What? Who are you? What is your life like? Can I have this problem? Well, I kind of did towards the end of the first week. I just wasn't hungry or didn't have enough time to fit everything in during my 8 hours of allotted eating time[the term is "feeding window" but it makes me think of zoo animals or something so I don't like using that term. lol]. I figured out that if I just added a snack that I would be okay. I actually went over my calorie goal a few times and I still managed to lose 4 lbs in the last 2 weeks. I had been losing 2 lbs pretty consistently there for a while, but over the last month or two, it had slowed to about a pound a week. This has kick started my weight loss back to where it was and I think is exactly what I needed to get me back on track to getting to where I want to be by the end of this calendar year.

Another thing to note about why IF works in a strictly calorie restriction vein- I think a lot of people experience this "falling of the wagon" happening at night. Having a sweet craving an hr or 2 after dinner, wanting to munch on something while watching a movie or being on your computer. The kind of mindless eating that can really inhibit weight loss seems to happen the most at night. So if you cut out the munchies, which you should do anyway, and then happen not to eat breakfast the next day (hello, 8am classes- we used to always skip breakfast) you've probably already done your 16 hour fast without any real effort or elaborate planning. Now you have your whole days worth of calories to eat in the time you'd usually eat 2 meals. See how much "extra" food banking those calories bought you. You've earned yourself a cookie. 

Will Squat for Shorts

Halfway through the squat challenge!! I did 140 squats today! If you're interested you can click here to see how I did them(and the rest of my work outs!). =D I'm feeling great. My legs are getting STRONG. Like, When I touch my thighs they are hard even when I'm not flexing. It's a really strange feeling.

You know what else is a strange feeling? Realizing that when you're standing up, sucking in doesn't really do anything. Like, the middle part of my stomach tightened up and came in a bit, but it didn't really do much. And when I actually thought about it, I couldn't remember the last time I had sucked in. Of course I also can't remember the last time I wasn't considered "obese" or "morbidly obese" by any method of measurement. Now I think by my body fat I'm a lot closer to just being "overweight" but there's lots of different definitions out there. All I know is I'm THISCLOSE to being in a size 14 which I don't remember ever wearing in the last decade of my life so I'm pretty sinking excited. Although with all these squats my quads won't be able to fit but I guess that's what shorts are for!

I've never been excited to wear shorts in my life. Like, fat girls DREAD short season. Thighs are jiggly, knees are ugly, and everything is pale because you never let anyone see them if you can help it, even Mother Nature. Now I have this pair I got from Old Navy that I'm excited to put on every time. Not the hottest legs ever, but probably my best looking legs since like freshman year of high school. haha OH! Will and I took new bluebonnet pictures! I dunno if I mentioned this last week. Here are a few that show off my progress.

 [Sorry for how gag-worthy these are, we really can't help it sometimes...]

So yay! These were a few weekends ago now but these are my new favorite shorts which I am un-apologetically wearing all the time because a) I don't want to buy another pair because b) I hopefully will need a smaller size in a few weeks. A really, really good problem to have. These are the shortest non-athletic shorts I've worn in a WHILE so yay for better legs and confidence! =) Who's still with me on the squat challenge? I have a before picture that I will post once I have an after picture to go with it. And then y'all can see how defined my knees are getting and you'll want to do it, too! ;) I'm already making a list of goals for June. Joining Fitocracy has given me so many resources and ideas for my workouts and how and why and WHAT to do in the gym. If you need advice or ideas or motivation I would definitely recommend it! =) Click on my link and go and join and friend me and you can see in detail how I'm kicking my own butt into short-shape. 

It MAY Workout

So, I'm trying to figure out if fitness as a lifestyle is addictive, or if I might just have a slightly addictive personality anyway and this is my new addiction. Maybe it's both. It's like the more you try, the more you want to try. I was actually really sad I didn't get to go to the gym today. We re-arranged Will's room because he got a new TV so I spent most of the afternoon vacuuming the floor with a hand vac and helping move furniture. lol. I burned a good amount of calories just not the way I wanted to do it.

I think the more I teach my body, the more it wants to learn. It's like my brain usually is, a black hole of curiosity. "Oh, I like this, what else can we do?" I picked up Yoga MUCH faster than I expected but enjoy it just as much as I thought I would. I want to try belly dancing and get back into pilates and like a dozen other things that I've seen or heard of and want to know more. I'm a completely new person, unafraid of these "skinny girl" things even if I might be slightly apprehensive at first. 

I want to do this 30-day squat challenge I heard of on facebook. I think I need to alter(for now) my approach to strength training. I've been following the advice of my boyfriend, who has his own significant weight loss story that he achieved just by reading body building forums. But this approach, obviously, is mostly about weight-lifting and muscle gain. It has worked so far because the muscle I have gained has helped melt the fat on top of it. But now that I have a pretty strong base to work off of, I really want to focus on slimming down and keeping that muscle toned. 

It's like when you see those pictures of "Half their size!" and you're like "How was that beautiful skinny person hiding in that big fat person?". I can see the skinny person under there now. Before it took a LOT of imagination, but now I can clearly see her in there under that fat and extra skin. I want to let her free!! So, here's my new work out plan for the month of May: 

-On May 1st I'm going to start the 30-day squat challenge. I would LOVE if any of y'all want to do it with me! I got the idea from my friend and I wish I had started it with her. 

-Protein shake for breakfast every day. My goal is to really up my protein intake so I can maintain as much muscle as possible. Because...

-Cardio at every work out. Right now I let myself slack on cardio to like once or twice a week outside my classes. No more. I will do cardio every time I walk through those doors.

These are my main goals. I want to keep slimming down but at this point my muscles are growing enough that it's making my legs look bulky. But I'm down to a 16 pant and a L top so I'm pretty happy lately. I posted a picture from today on my facebook page if you didn't see it. NSV for real with my boyfriend telling me "You look like you don't have a stomach, you look fantastic!" haha. These are the things that keep me going! 

Everybody Loves a Top 10 List!

aka the NSV post inspired by a huge victory on the scale. haha.

First, I just have to do this. So here is a different picture of the fat vs muscle density difference.

Grapefruits and Tangerines

So here is the representation of my 50+ pound victory so far.

50 lbs of fat = space of 30 grapefruits

I've lost over 30 grapefruits worth of fat. lol. That's pretty awesome. At my next big mark I'll go fill a basket with grapefruit or something. lol I dunno if Walmart would appreciate that.

SO, here are the Top 10 Non-Scale Victories associated with my big scale victory

10. Having officially completed two 5Ks and actually WANTING to run more.

9. Feeling full without finishing a meal. It's amazing how much your stomach shrinks when it doesn't have all those grapefruits up there encouraging it. haha

8. Doing a mile on the elliptical in 7:08. I have essentially cut my mile in HALF[not in real life, unfortunately] on the elliptical from where I started.

7. Being down 4 sizes from where I was. Size 24 pant to size 16. Almost able to shop at ITG stores!

6. Leg pressing more than I weigh and doing more than half my weight on the seated dip. How soon is too soon to strap myself into that thing? lol

5. My boyfriend's jackets being too big on me. I dunno about the rest of you fat girls, but I always wanted to be that girl wearing my boyfriends too-big letter jacket. Goal achieved.

4. Being able to touch my elbows to my knees when doing bicycle crunches. You have no idea how much this always bothered and shamed me before and now I have to be careful not to bruise my legs with my elbows.

3. Talking to women at the gym after classes and seeing their faces when I mention how much I've lost.

2. Being able to do compound abs! Such a huge victory for me!! Oh, and being able to hold a plank for over a minute! Big time, y'all.

1. Going to the doctor and hearing nothing but "You look great!", "Wow!", "I am SO proud of you." and "Keep it up!"

I still have a long way to go but I am one HUGE step closer to being where I want to be! Thanks to EVERYONE for all the love, support and endless encouragement! I also feel the need to "shout out" to Kacee aka Butterbean4283 for keeping me accountable on MFP and achieving her own 50lb weight loss! Yay! Guys, this is possible! I'm not the only one doing it and YOU can do it, too! I honestly have the "If I can do it, anyone can!" attitude about this. You just have to find your motivation. 

Gym Juggernaut

Y'all... I cannot even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed Zumba class. I knew I would, but I didn't realize I was gonna have so much fun! Especially because 2 of the songs we danced to were straight off my workout station. I burned close to 1,200 calories in that hr class and I enjoyed every minute of it. After that I actually had a pretty positive sauna experience. Haha. It was more crowded but all the women in there were normal->big and chatty so until they left it was ok, then I got to lay down and it helped, I think. I actually strained my left lat[timus dorsi] so instead of training with josh we just talked while he showed me some stretches.

They must've helped bc I felt better enough today to go to my hour group training and burn 800 calories with Nichole. =) I kinda wimped out on these pike things she wanted us to do at the very end bc any way I did them my back was yelling at me. Haha. But it was a fun circuit training thing where we went in a rotation and did all sorts of stuff. The hardest for me was probably the jump roping. I was really good at the beginning but as I got more and more tired the harder and harder it got. Haha. My favorite was this weird ab thing I've never done before but I really liked. ...I just tried to explain it but I kept having to delete it bc it didn't make sense. Lol. Maybe I'll draw you a picture later. I think I'm gonna add it into my ab sets next week. =)

Speaking of next week- I'm gonna be hitting it hard again(I've gone to the gym 5 days in a row this week!). I'm planning on going to spin Monday, an hr with josh on Tuesday, spin Wednesday, and Zumba on Thursday. Bc week after that will be time for measurements again!! I WILL be down to a 14 by the beginning of this summer. It will happen, I am determined. I'm not ready for a bikini yet or anything, still too much back-fat-roll and thigh jiggle, but I'm slowly but surely getting there. Hmm, you might not have wanted to know the specifics on that, sorry. Lol. The main thing is, I will be down to a size where they SELL bikinis, even if I shouldn't be wearing one yet. Lol.

You know what else I shouldn't be wearing? These red soccer shorts I've been living in for the last like, 8 years. They're way too big but because they're also a tad on the short side, they're starting to be inappropriate for public wear. At least if I'm doing ab stuff where lifting my legs is involved bc my thighs are small enough now where the leg holes are way too big. Haha. More TMI for those of you I don't know as well, but there it is. Lol. So favorite red shorts are officially retired for gym use! Yay! This means I need to go find a pair that actually FITS me! Such a novel concept. Lol. Now where's the closest adidas outlet?

Bye Bye Miss American Thigh

Traveling for work has been nuts! But I'm home this week and so is my sister for spring break. I'm proud of her, she's lost like 10 lbs since the beginning of the semester. =) we've been doing some of her paleo diet, which is essentially an Atkins-ish diet that has some science behind it. If I knew how to do links I'd give you a few, but you can go search "paleo diet" and I'm sure you'll find lots of interesting stuff. Anyway, Monday and Tuesday I followed her diet, yesterday not so much. Lol. And tonight we're going to have another paleo recipe- carb free pizza. The crust is going to be made out of cauliflower, eggs and cheese. I'm excited to give this a try. The mashed cauliflower I made Tuesday was pretty delicious. But I did make them "loaded" with cheese and bacon to make them more dad-friendly. Lol. Anything is good with cheese and bacon, you don't even need your inner fat kid to tell you that.

Oh I meant to tell y'all, I made Josh re-do my measurements last week and they came out much better. Overall I'm down -1.75 inches from the last measurements. I'm up in the neck, chest, shoulders and calves, I'm exactly the same in the waist and I'm down in arms and thighs. I'd actually lost an inch and a half each in my thighs which made me pretty determined to keep going to spin class. Which is why yesterday I went to 2 classes in a row. "why would you do that?" because I'm crazy apparently. I was so worn out. AND I forgot to wear my heart monitor so idk how many calories I burned. I'm guesstimating somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200. I did the Pilates class with Cynthia for an hour before I did an hour of spin. Luckily in spin 2 of my friends were there so we were all in a row cutting up keeping eachother going. The music Nichole picked also helped a lot. I mean between usher and drake how could I stop? Lol. But the hardest part was the climb set to "American Pie". Aka it lasted as long as the song. I thought I was gonna die! An 8 minute climb?! Usually they're not even half that long. But hey, I did it and I lived to tell the tale.

After all that craziness yesterday I ate (lean cuisine steamed asiago tortellini. Find it! It was amazing!!) and passed out before I went shopping with my sister and 2 of my chronically skinny friends. The long-standing plan was for them to teach me to shop as the skinny do, but since I'm still a solid 16 I was a little apprehensive. So we went to about 3 different department stores and we couldn't find ANYTHING. They were more discouraged than I was, because that is what I'm used to. I told them this is why I've never shopped at department stores, because I tried it once when I was a teenager and decided it wasn't worth the time and hassle and heartache. So after we gave up on that angle I took them to Ross and showed them how I usually do it. "it's ok, we're gonna go in there, I'm gonna find 2-3 dresses that I actually like that are actually in my price range, and then I'll pick the best one. It'll take like 15 minutes." Apparently this boggled their skinny girl minds, because this is exactly how it went down and they seemed shocked. Lol. So I found a cute dress for the wedding this weekend and if I can figure out how I'll post some before/during pics next week.

Tour de Pants

Y'all.... I am so proud of myself. I got myself out of bed, somehow, and went to a spin class BY MYSELF. As in I knew that I wouldn't know anyone there- not even the instructor. This is a new level of dedication for me. Lol this is my 3rd week to go to spin class and I'm really enjoying them. They are getting progressively easier(read:less excrutiating) to get through. Today was a different instructor so I can't tell how much of that was different styles or increase in stamina. I'm gonna say it was both. =) I don't have a whole lot to talk about, just some observations and thoughts I'd like to share since you seem to be interested. Haha.

So remember last time when I told you not to compare yourself to other people in terms of pace? Well spin class is a really good example of that. If you've never been crazy enough to go to a spin cycling class, let me briefly overview. You walk in and see a wide variety of people. You've got the girl in her I-live-here matching outfit, the person in the bike shorts and cycling shoes with legs that have more muscles showing than should be humanly possible, then you have the person who is probably like you- normal looking. So you choose the bike furthest from the mirrors that you can still see the instructor and you notice about 5 different ways to adjust things. Luckily you have a good instructor that takes pity on you and shows you how to adjust the bike so you don't kill your knees or your back. You find that you're not gonna make an easy get away if you wimp out bc your shoes are now strapped in for maximum safety. So you start cycling as you're on your 2nd and 3rd thoughts about giving this a try and class finally starts. For the next hour you have a very enthusiastic instructor telling you exactly where and how much it should be hurting if you're doing it right. 15 mins in you start planning you escape to see exactly how awkward it would be... Gym mascot mom might judge you, but rippling legs probably wont have hard feelings. But after 30 mins you realize you just MIGHT be able to do this. You may not be merely glistening like the pros, but you're still peddling. It's all downhill from there. Well, probably not. You probably have to do at least one more climb at at least an 85% resistance before you can peel yourself off of your bike seat and stretch your tired muscles. You assess the damage and realize that despite waddling everywhere for the next day or two, you're actually invigorated. You just did cardio for an HOUR. How awesome is that?

Pretty awesome. Which is why I'm considering going back tomorrow. But I'm concerned it'll have me limping this wknd and that's not ok. Lol. I'm not ashamed to say I definitely wore 2 pairs of underwear the last 2 times and that seems to help a lot. Haha. I'm working out of town this wk so my afternoon training isn't an option and I need to keep up my calorie burning. I'm actually kinda frustrated bc I've been the same weight for the last 2 wks even though I've been working out A LOT and eating pretty well. It's probably just muscle gain bc I feel like I can see a difference in my legs for sure, but it's still annoying. Just one of those plateaus I've gotta grit my teeth and get thru.

So yeah, soccer calves are making their return! Minus that creepy muscle right below my knee that soccer players always have. Haha. Let's talk about something else annoying. My clown pants. Lol now I'm really glad that I've lost all this weight, but the downside is that NONE OF MY CLOTHES FIT. Everytime I do laundry now I'm like taking a census of what's ok to wear and what's just so big that I can't get away with it anymore. I'm afraid one of my customers is going to tell me to watch what not to wear so I can learn how clothes are supposed to fit. I just need to bite the bullet and buy a couple more pairs of work pants that don't make it so painfully obvious that I used to be so much bigger. I just dont want to waste money on clothes that aren't going to fit me in a couple months. I think I'll just go to goodwill. Or do I have any friends that have 16/18 dress pants that are too big for them now? We should organize a clothes swap. Haha. How awesome would that be? Almost as awesome as burning 900 calories in an hour.

What else? It's HARD to be healthy. And expensive. I'd much rather have a 99cent cheeseburger than grilled chicken whatever. You know what's good tho? The grilled chicken wrap at sonic. If you have good healthy finds at fast food places, you should leave them in the comments!!