Still shrinking, I promise!

Wow, how did I go almost a month without blogging? Maybe because my whole routine has changed and my eating went down the drain there for a minute so I didn't feel like confessing my rekindled love for pizza to you guys. oops. =P SO here's a status report

I am still plateaued at JUST SHY of -80 lbs. I'm really frustrated but trying to be patient. I'm trying to stay more focused on what my body can do and not how much it weighs. I'm still progressing pretty well on my lifting, which is really rewarding about 90% of the time. I had a rough workout Saturday that I was just not feeling and got really discouraged. I felt better with a solid workout Monday and a new bench press PR today! Bench press is one of the hardest lifts for me. Part of it is the fear factor of having a heavy bar positioned above my body instead of on my shoulders or on the ground. But also I just really struggle with upper body strength in general. I've never trained or developed any kind of arm strength prior to this journey, whereas strong legs were a given with 13+ years of soccer. I feel like the opposite of one of those curl bros that never seems to have a leg day.

This has never been my problem

Also in lifting news, my favorite group in Fitocracy is having a group challenge that's basically like a mini power-lifting meet. So out of 152 girls in the challenge, I'm 39th! I'm pretty happy with that considering I'm still relatively new to lifting. Although I've pretty much reached the end of my "beginner gains", so now I'm actually going to have to focus a little more on how I'm training if I really want to make gains and have this be more than a means to an end. Well, I am really enjoying it and I do want to take it more seriously. There are a number of lifting programs I've been reading about so eventually I need to pick one and do it. The Olympic lifts are part of most of them so that'll be something new. I've been dabbling with a snatch progression but haven't gotten very far with it because my back and shoulders aren't really powerful enough yet for a "power" move. *sigh* anywho...

I'm back on a good IF schedule, I got off of it for a while which might've led to a few pound back-slide that I had along with ALL THE CARBS. haha. I really love them. And it's not like I'm trying to do a super low carb diet or anything, but if I ate everything I wanted to, I would definitely be out of balance. haha. Despite my stall in weight, I've still been shrinking! Those size 12s I got from Old Navy are almost too big! =D When I hit -80 I'll post my progression but I'll post a new picture on my facebook page soon! =) If you're following me on there you saw the picture of me in a tank top that was too small in college is now indecently huge on me. haha.

I am really sad because one of the choirs I'm in changed its rehearsals to Tuesday nights. So, I'm gonna have to start missing my Zumba class I've been going to since January! =( AND since my Yoga class is Wednesday mornings at my boyfriend's gym, I'll also be missing THAT for the foreseeable future. The start of rehearsals kind of snuck up on me so I haven't come up with a good contingency plan yet. I need to find another cardio class, if not another Zumba class. I've tried several yoga classes and haven't had any real success with any of them, so I need to figure that one out, too. I've done yoga by myself every once in a while so I'll hopefully be able to take myself through some "practice"s on my own until I can find a suitable replacement. I've also done my own Zumba before when I needed cardio and wasn't able to make it to a class. I would just go in the empty classroom and dance by myself to my workout music, which is all upbeat and mostly dance music anyway. haha. So yeah, trying to figure out my workouts!! Hopefully my next post WILL be progress pictures, or at least deeper than this update has been. haha. Thanks for reading, guys! 

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! =)

Crazy Schedule Meets Crazy Yogi

The last week went by so quickly and my routine is so off because of this upcoming concert that I actually stopped and said "Oh, today is Wednesday...I need to blog". haha. I can't decide if I have nothing to say or too much to say.

My regular routine has been smashed to little bits, but I'm coping surprisingly well. haha. With my boyfriend, Will, being gone and my added rehearsals for the choir I'm singing with until Sunday I am just trying to make sure I'm going to the gym- but my class schedule is completely different. Theoretically LA fitness has very similar class schedules so that you can always go to a specific class at a specific time at almost any gym. Well, except my gym doesn't have yoga at the same time as Will's gym. So I tried the yoga class at my gym and I knew it wasn't going to be anywhere near as cool as my regular class but I went in with an open mind. I'm glad I had prepared myself because it was really different. It started out and I was afraid it was going to be more "restorative" yoga but then after like 15 minutes of basic stretching we started doing all these balance things and I was like, uuuuuuh...crap. I balanced on my head/shoulder, one foot and my butt bone. I use the term "balance" loosely of course. =) So that was Friday, and I talked to the teacher afterwards because I was curious what her kind of Yoga was called. She said it was Hatha. She also said some things that almost rubbed me the wrong way, but I dismissed it because Yogis are supposed to be super chill, so maybe she wasn't as judgmental as she sounded.

I decided to give her class another try because lets be honest, balance isn't my strong suit so that could only make me better. Class was mostly the same and I was a little better at standing on one foot, and a little worse at balancing on my round squat-enhanced butt. Well after Sunday's class I spoke to her again, and this time she definitely said things that put me off. Some of her advice was good, but she definitely frowned upon my weight lifting; made a comment that suggesting that I wasn't treating my body right. She also told me that if I did yoga enough that I wouldn't need to lift anymore. ...Um, you're making the assumption that that is a goal of mine? After I already told you I'd been lifting much longer than I've been doing yoga? I dunno, it was very strange for her to say that to somebody who told her they had only been doing yoga for about 2 and a half months. I was talking to her because I was curious about her specific discipline, not because I wanted to adopt it as my own right now, forevermore. *sigh* Anyway, so I don't think I will be going to her class again. I would on Friday, but I think I'm going to go back out to the other gym so I can take Will's brother to work out. I think he's been slacking in our absence so I need to go crack the whip! =P

I really miss Zumba. Like really really. I went 2 weeks ago and not since and I want to DANCE and be silly and burn calories! But, there is a bootcamp at my gym on Saturday and there is a Zumba portion at the end so I am definitely looking forward to that!! I missed the May bootcamp...and maybe the April one? I can't remember. But I'm definitely going this Saturday early afternoon so if we're friends "IRL" please text me if you want to go, I'm allowed to bring friends. =)

Well, I was going to talk to y'all about my new adventures in intermittent fasting, but I think it will have to wait. I started Monday so maybe I should wait til next week to really write about it. BUT I will tell y'all that another thing about my schedule being different is weighing on a different scale. Every time I would weigh myself on the scale at home it would be 1-3 pounds different than Will's scale. And i'm not talking about normal through the day variations. I mean one time I tested it and weighed myself right before I left, and then right when I got home and it was 2 pounds different. So I just decided I wasn't going to weigh myself until after he gets home in a couple weeks. Well, it's kinda driving me crazy but it's also kinda nice. I know I've lost weight so I'm just going to be content in the feeling that my clothes are getting looser and I've been picking up progressively heavier things. I got on the scale today and saw a number 4 pounds lighter than what I saw last week so I'm just gonna keep it in mind but not officially log it in MFP or anything.

Today was chest day and it was awful and wonderful at the same time. Upper body workouts are usually like that for me. I feel so weak because my arms are nowhere near as strong as my legs. But I would rather be like that than like the guys that are curling 80lb dumbbells but then can only quarter squat 135 lbs. *sigh* But I AM making improvements which is, after all, the whole point. I am slowly but surely becoming a better(and smaller) version of myself. =)

Measure Twice and Cut Once? Something Like That...

Well this is going to be the biggest progress post I've had in quite a while!! As of this weekend I have officially lost 65lbs from my starting weight! So Saturday I celebrated at the gym by taking this picture:

Not the most flattering...

That's a 65# dumbbell and it was actually harder to pick up than I expected it to be. Saturday I set ALL KINDS of personal bests, some of which I might not attempt again for a while. That's because Will is gone for Navy training for 3 weeks so we had our own kind of going away party in which I maxed out on bench press, squat and dead lift just because he won't be here to spot me for a while. I also did bad ass on the leg press and I squatted that dumbbell for 2 sets of 5. I was tired from barbell squatting more than I weigh, though, so I probably could have done more if I had started out with those. After a short rest though, I went and leg pressed more than TWICE what I weigh. I hadn't done leg presses for probably 3 weeks just because I was doing so many squats and didn't want to tire myself out. It was like my legs were like "oh great you're letting us push the weight up from beneath instead of above? Let's go!" Saturday was nuts!

So that was the huge gains from the completed squat challenge. It's more noticeable than my pictures which I forgot to get Will to take them before he left so it's on a different camera in a different place by a different photographer...lol. So pretty much the opposite of a good before and after picture, but here we go:

In this month, I only lost 5 pounds on the scale but doubled my leg strength

So, while the improvements aren't super visible in these pictures, my legs are SO much stronger and smooth and hard to the touch. You can kind of tell that they're smoother but only if you look really hard. I don't know if you can tell that my clothes are looser. My butt has also never been "saggy" really to begin with so there wasn't a whole lot of lifting to be done...lol. But yes, the stats on this are way more exciting than the pictures. =D  And you know, being less jiggly in the thigh area is a definite improvement. =P

So now for my measurements! I'm never really sure how to give these, but this works as well as anything:
Negative inches from 03/27/2013[Total since 10/14/2011]
Neck: 0.75 [0]
Chest: 2 [6.5]
Shoulders: 2 [4]
Waist: 0.75 [6.5]
Hips: 2 [8.5]
Biceps(R+L): 2.25 [11.25]
Thighs(R+L): 3.25 [8.75]
Calves(R+L): 2.25 [7.25]
Total inches lost: 15.25[52.75]

So, let me make a few quick comments on these numbers!! First, in 10 weeks I've lost more than a foot off of my circumference. In 61ish weeks I've lost more than 4 feet. BUT, I would like to point out that in those 10 weeks I've only lost 16 lbs but 3.2% body fat. In those 61ish weeks I've lost 46lbs and 8.5% body fat. So the big difference in the past 10 weeks is that I've been trying to be more conscious of the amount of protein I'm eating and trying to eat what I'm guesstimating to be 1g per pound of lean body mass, which is what is recommended for increased muscle growth. Ok hold on, I'm about to get really nerdy. So, since that change I've lost 34.7% of the weight, but 37.6% of the body fat% and only 28.9% of the inches. SO basically what that means is that my body composition has been changing a lot in the last 2 months.

This is why I tell people to take lots of measurements! If I went strictly by my weight or BMI, I wouldn't be getting the full story. The fact that my per week weight loss has slowed but my strength gains have gone through the roof and my fat loss% has increased as I have increased my protein% intake is clearly pointing to the fact that I am gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time and at changing speeds. Although, to be completely honest, I'm not entirely sure how accurate my bf% from today was, and I might retake it Friday morning and get back to you. It was the same as it was when a checked it after the first week of the squat challenge and I KNOW I've gained muscle since then and lost weight. So yeah, I could write a whole post (and people have) about how inaccurate bf% calculations are in general. There are tons of different ways to do it and they err anywhere from 2-6% sooo yeah. Another topic all together.

The point is, documenting things is important if you want to stay on track. Looking at the squat challenge pictures alone is kinda disappointing until you realize that the amount of weight I could lift pretty much DOUBLED and it gained me a lot of muscle and lost me a few inches overall. So, the next step from here? I'm currently doing a plank challenge, which I tried to start in May but then got too busy with all the squats. I want to start a strength training program and I'm looking at a few but haven't picked one yet. I'm still trying to decide from here what route I want to take to my final destination of "fit and healthy". What will get me there the fastest? Is that a route my vehicle can handle? Is it the safest? Will I like the view? What shape will I be in when I get there? The journey is as important as the destination so I'm doing my research along the way and trying to figure out what is the safest and most effective route. Each new check point has more and more information and resources so I have a lot of reading to do! Next week I might share some of it with y'all if you want. =) But in the meantime, congrats to all of those that finished the squat challenge!! And good luck to everyone on your next fitness endeavor! 

How Many Grapefruits Equals a Sun Bear?

First item to report: bro-free Yoga. haha. I like to believe that people will stick to things, but I guess it wasn't for them. Yoga was much needed today as this is the penultimate day of the squat challenge. Need to do 240 squats today! I feel like somebody beat me in the back of the thighs with a baseball bat. Or maybe a tire iron. Not sure. But in any case it feels awful and is all from my new personal best on the romanian deadlift Monday. So it's an even trade, really. haha. Anyway, I haven't finished my squats for today yet, but I WILL before I submit this blog because sometimes the thought of letting myself and YOU down is what keeps me going. People pleaser to the death of me, I know. =) My yoga instructor is a goddess because she took us through extra hamstring stretches before and after the workout because I mentioned I was gonna be on the struggle bus with anything that required hamstring strength/stability. haha.

Next thing on the agenda- this is the best thing I've seen today:

Someone posted it on fitocracy in one of the groups and someone said that we all start with a koala bear, which weighs around 25lbs. lol. There's also a lighter weight version with cats:

So these are really funny because I like putting weight into real world perspective so much, but I hadn't actually stopped to think about the weight I was lifting, only the weight I was losing. In the Fitocracy weight loss group one girl said when she did squats with dumbbells she would think "I used to walk around with this much extra weight all day!" So I've decided for my next big milestone picture, I'm gonna try to take it at the gym with a big dumbbell of how much I've lost. =D (I'll have to be sneaky because I don't think my gym allows pictures...I know they don't allow video.)

There is so much inspirational stuff I've found that I just don't know what to share with you guys(because if I shared it all it would be really overwhelming). I'm realizing more and more how much I've changed and transformed both inside and out. Keeping this blog has really helped me keep track of myself and I like going back to read the old ones sometimes. The most important thing I think I can tell someone is set goals! Long term crazy sounding ones that just MIGHT be achievable and short term and medium(?) term goals for the days/weeks/months. Like I've said before "I need to lose 100 pounds" sounds a lot more intimidating than "I need to lose 2lbs a week". And don't make all your goals weight related! Improvement in any area is improvement and usually more reliable than the scale. Being able to walk up the 4 flights of stairs in the parking garage without losing my breath is a lot more useful than saying I've lost X amount of weight.

But, since that is what my blog is about...as of today I've lost 64 lbs overall! haha Next week y'all will get before and afters from my squat challenge! I'm excited to see them myself, because I can feel the difference in my leg strength and how toned by quads are, but the only difference I've been SUPER aware of is my knee definition, which is strange but wonderful. My knees never really hurt me, thank God, but I have noticed that they are getting really tired the last week after I get to like, 150+ squats. So I am glad that I am almost done. But yeah, a month ago I wouldn't have known that I could do 250 squats. Now I know that I can squat a lynx on top of a sun bear. =D

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. 

The Fitness Bug and Squat Butt

Guys, I feel like I need to re-write the lyrics to Usher's "You got it bad" or something. I've been reading and doing and loving so much stuff lately. Today was the first day of the 30-day squat challenge and I banged out those 50 pretty easy.

Easy-peasy...until next week. lol

I have to say thanks to Leah for turning me on to the squat challenge, and thanks to Lauren for introducing me to Fitocracy. My facebook news feed(when I get past posts about engagements, weddings, husbands and babies) is full of people being healthy! I have so many friends doing good things and I am so proud of all of you!! Lauren, Leah, Caitlin V, Sue, Linda, Anne Marie, PJ, Kayli, Rebecca and everyone else posting about exercise and goals and success, y'all are awesome! Keep it up, don't take your eyes off the prize! And don't forget to leave a comment if you're doing the challenge with me/us!

Today was such a great day at the gym. Finding this new community to connect to on Fitocracy which is so supportive of the workout aspect has been a breath of fresh air. I love MFP for the accountability and I'm definitely still using that, but the weight training is in its own section and doesn't log calories so it just makes your journal look cluttered because each set is its own line. It's more of just a note to keep track of the weight for your own benefit. On Fitocracy its centered on the WORK you're putting in and the people are already so supportive! Part of it is that the site automatically puts you in groups when you list your interests. So it put me in some groups like "Lady Lifters" and "No Barbie Weights Here" lol. It is really nice to see other women doing weights WAY heavier than I am and being way smaller than I am and know that if I keep going in the direction I'm going I can get there. It's been over a week and a half since I lifted anything and I didn't realize how much I missed it!

After reading so much and being so inspired I'm pretty much going to do the opposite of what I was planning. I was going to cool it on the heavy weights and focus more on a medium weight with more reps. I think I'm going to just train harder but focus more on free weights. I'm still kind of uncomfortable in the testosterone fest that is the free weight corner but if I can just get over it and act like I belong there maybe I can prove that I do. My main problem is that about half of the guys aren't there to train, they are there to show off or help their friend show off. I was trying to go grab some dumbbells and this guy was perched on the rack right over the 5 pound weights watching his friend do something fancy on one of those half-ball platform things. Now, I wasn't going to use the 5 pound weights, but anyone who did would certainly be intimidated by this jerkface. I did have to get close enough to him that he noticed he might POSSIBLY be in the way and got up and apologized unconvincingly. I think I chose to ignore him because I had my headphones on. As does anyone who is actually doing work(have you heard the music in the gym?). Anyway, the point is- it is hard to carve yourself a place in that corner of the gym if you don't have a Y chromosome. Not because it's difficult to lift, because that is implied and that's why you do it, but because if it is the least bit crowded it is almost impossible to avoid douchebags who are trying to prove their own worth in the most obnoxious and obvious way possible. I am more impressed by the guy silently slamming out 15 reps of his own weight on bench press than the guys taking up a squat rack alternating sets of 8 not-squats every 5 minutes with much to-do and grunting.

I'm sorry, I know I complain about these various and sundry asshats every few posts after I've had to encounter them but it is really coming to be my pet peeve. It's so distracting! Will tells me to ignore them, and I'm getting better at it, but I don't turn my music loud enough to drown everything out because my ears are too sensitive for that and I actually make myself aware of the people around me in case they get too close to me or something becomes unsafe. All that aside, I added 10 pounds to my deadlift and did 5 sets of overhead dumb bell presses in preparation for eventually doing a barbell overhead press which is apparently a big deal in the fitness world. haha I also added 5 pounds to the seated dip machine, bringing me to 56% of my body weight. Yay!

That is also because I'm continuing to lose weight[fat]: I did my bf% today and I'm down 3.2% from the end of March!! Basically this tells me that although the scale says I've lost 10 pounds in 5 weeks I've actually lost 11.3 pounds of fat! This is why you can't go on the scale alone, guys and gals. Your weight is only PART of the equation! So even though my thighs continue to stay solidly at a size 16 even if my waist is closer to a 14, I will do my squats for the rest of this month and forever. Though I think I will only do my lifting squats on actual leg days. I know I'm not gonna get huge or anything[despite every female's instinct] but It's still a concern that my thighs and not my waist will keep me from sizing down in pants. But if that's the price I have to pay for a toned lower half that looks better and better every week in shorts, than I'll have to be okay with that. 

Fat Marissa comes out to play, but Skinny Marissa is here to stay!

So I let fat Marissa come out to play Saturday at a drunken wedding and I didn't lock her back up until Monday afternoon. haha. Seriously though taking 3 days in a row off working out and letting myself eat whatever I wanted resulted in gaining like 4 pounds! So, small step back but it's good to know how quickly I can undo so much of my hard work. Also, I don't think I've mentioned that I have gallstones.

So, for roughly the last year I've been having bouts of nausea and back pain after eating super fatty foods, especially dairy fat. I found out it was gallstones last summer but the attacks are so infrequent I don't want to do surgery. Anyway, I've pretty much cut dairy fat out of my diet as much as possible. I'm lactose-intolerant anyway so it wasn't THAT hard. Especially when I know that eating queso might result in hours of agony. So  every 3 weeks we have a patient that comes in and brings donuts. Fat Marissa was ALMOST back in her cage but she slipped back out for a 2nd donut, which resulted in me getting sick halfway through choir practice and laying in bed for hours. So, yeah. Don't get gallstones. It sucks.

Even with the residual soreness, I got back on it hard last night with Zumba and then gave myself a mini spin class. I haven't been able to make it to spin in a couple weeks and the gyms have gotten new bikes so I went and played on one for a while. It was great! The new bikes count your calories burned and how fast you're peddling and how far you've gone, so cool! The sauna at the gym has been messed up lately so the heat I've come to savor after a hard workout was about 60 degrees less[a mere 120, lol] than it usually is and I was sad. Something about that intense heat relaxing all those muscles you just punished is really relaxing once you get used to it. If you're doing hard work outs and your gym has a sauna, I definitely recommend trying it. Though as accounted by my post roughly a year ago, saunas can get awkward fairly quickly. Now I walk in empty-handed in my socks and If i'm by myself I take off my shirt and lay on top of it, which is also apparently socially acceptable. I also like to use my exercise towel to cover my face. Serves dual purpose of  being able to ignore everyone else, and protecting my lungs from the super-hot air.

Anywho, I promised y'all pictures and pictures you shall have. Again, this is what I've pretty much established as my "before" picture:

April 2010

And this is my April 2013 picture:

April 2013

Sorority pose in full effect, y'all. It's pretty much permanent and I can't really help it. haha Fairly certain 2 of those grapefruits came from my chin. =) I was back on campus and tried taking a picture in that exact spot from 3 years ago, but everything has grown so much and it was muddy and I didn't want to make Will get his dress shoes dirty sooo yeah that was a fail. haha. Maybe I'll try again later, I'm sure I'll be back on campus for another wedding eventually.

This is a really random post but I guess that's what I get for skipping a week and getting sick and having lots to say. I apologize! I might actually do another post Friday because I want to talk about how I'm going to make changes to my current workout routine. Not Zumba or Yoga though, because I'm still loving those. Did Yoga again today and was shocked to be in the top performing half of the class. We had a lot of beginners[like i'm not?] and this one girl was totally unaware of her body and what "straight line" meant. The instructor was trying to help her so she didn't hurt herself but then she gave up when she realized that it was a lost short-term cause. It was gonna take a personal training session in a mirrored box to get her aware of what she was doing.

There was also a fairly obese woman that came in late and only participated in about half the class. I was impressed with the instructor and how she gave her personal attention[without disrupting class] and had her just do some ab work when we were doing stuff that she wasn't flexible enough to do. She just watched a good bit of what we were doing and I talked to her after class and she said she'd be back next week and I assured her I would as well. My Zumba friend that I've been missing was back last night, too! She'd been gone for like a month and she said she was in a car accident! I'm glad she's back and feeling better. We were both moving slowly last night because she was still recovering from that and I was still recovering from my gallbladder attack. I like making friends at the gym, even though Will thinks I talk too much. =) I think if you're gonna be doing the same class with people every week for the foreseeable future you should at least get on a smile-and-wave basis with them. haha

Thanks for reading, guys! Sorry about slacking last week, I will definitely post Friday about my upcoming slim-down regimen change. haha

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. 

The numbers are IN!

Got my measurements done today! I think I've successfully punched through that plateau. OVERALL I've lost 38 inches from my first measurements in October of 2011, which was roughly a year after I started losing weight. I really wish I had measured myself at my worst so I would know how far I've come. From my measurements since I started this blog, I've lost 6 inches total. They turned out about how I thought they would, which is good and bad. I've shrunk a lot in my torso, but my extremities are all the same, except for my calves which are actually bigger. But lets be honest, I'm not too upset that my soccer legs are reshaping themselves.

Because that's the thing, my legs and arms are obviously more muscular than last time, but for the most part they're almost exactly the same size. BUT they are, for once, symmetrical. Isn't that a thing, that people think you're more beautiful when you're more symmetrical? Well, sad news for that, 80% of people have one side of their bodies longer than the other. haha. When I first started only my calves were the same, my biceps and thighs were an inch different. Soo yeah. If we ignore the inches from my neck/arms/legs...

Negative inches from 01/2012
Chest: 1.5"
Shoulders: 0.5"
Waist: 1.5"
Hips: 2.75"
Total from torso: -6.25"

Most of this is back fat. Like really, my boobs are still the same size they were but I have less fat on my back. Also, I think it is safe to say I have literally danced my ass off with Zumba. The squats I'm doing make my glutes bigger and Zumba shakes all the fat off. I was telling Nichole that it's really frustrating when my waist and hips shrink faster than my thighs because then it's really hard to find pants that fit right. I'm 6/6.5" smaller in my waist/hips than in 2011. That's half a foot! So crazy.

So, hopefully by next week I will have met my goal and be officially 50, yes FIFTY, pounds down from the very start. I have a special post planned for that milestone so get excited! =) Thank you again, everyone, for all of your support! It means a lot and keeps me going when times get rough! And now so does this picture, which I will leave you with, that my friend Holly posted.

Plateaus and Legs

Y'all, these last few weeks have been ROUGH! I've been working hard, eating pretty well, under my calorie goals and I hadn't seen any real change on the scale. I went to a "fat-burning bootcamp" last Saturday and I weighed like 3 pounds more the next morning. Even if you're telling yourself "Muscle weighs more than fat" and even if your boyfriend is telling you [unsolicited] that your thighs, arms and waist are looking smaller; a girl can't help but plead with the scale to cooperate and get on board with everything else!

So last night Will had lots of homework, and I was exhausted from a long day so we ended up not going to the gym. And, to make the night even more guilt-ridden, we had fried chicken for dinner(which I haven't had in months). I was under my calories but over in fat, saturated fat and sodium. To make it even more lazy-feeling I slept in this morning. So I stepped on the scale this morning thinking that it would be the same numbers I've been looking at for the last 2 weeks. To my surprise I had lost almost 3 pounds! So, as of today I have lost 46 pounds from my start. I'm hoping that means my body is going to get back on track. I was pretty consistently losing 2 lbs a week for a while so I want to get back to that. I know your body will do everything on its own time but gosh it's annoying!

In other news, today was a leg day. I stopped doing the hip abductor/adductor machine a couple weeks ago and started doing plie squats with a dumbbell and some pilates moves for thighs. I also started doing full squats, because apparently Will and I weren't doing them exactly right. You're supposed to go all the way down where your thighs are parallel to the floor, but I wasn't doing it that far down before. At first I had lowered my weight but now it's back up to higher than it was before. So I started doing them free-weight on the 45lb bar and it's not as hard as I thought it would be.

Have I every told y'all how freaked out I was when I started doing squats? I had to start at a really low weight(like 60lbs lol) and work my way up. It wasn't that I couldn't do more weight physically but mentally I had to get over it. I really don't like things touching my neck, and I guess it's just the really constricted feeling of literally having all that weight on your shoulders. Like one wrong move and you're going to crush something or decapitate yourself. I mean, it's not gonna happen but in my mind I was one wrong move away from a horrific death. Lol. But I'm over that now and squatting like a champ-in-training. =) Today I upped it to 115 lbs after my first set at 105. I'm still doing leg presses at 180 but last week I did 5 x 10 so this week I did 4 x 12.

My normal routine used to be 3 sets of 15 reps for everything but I started trying to do higher weights at 5 x 10. This may have something to do with my "plateau"? I'm probably gaining muscle faster than I'm losing fat. I'm pretty sure I've talked about the muscle/fat relationship before but I really need everyone to see this picture again even if you've seen it before.

This is what you're working towards. Getting rid of that gross looking bumpy fat and trying to get more of that lean pretty looking muscle. So if you're working hard and getting on the scale and seeing that the numbers are staying the same, then that's okay. You just have to reprogram your[most likely female] brain to focus on your other successes: adding more weight on a challenging machine/exercise, being able to run longer or faster, or having more room in your clothes. All those "NSV". You HAVE TO stay positive, focused and motivated; because on this journey, it's a lot easier to give up then it is to stick with it. 

Run, Gorda, Run!

GUYS! HOLY CRAP! Can I please tell you what just happened? Well other than me accidentally eating a surprisingly fattening sandwich....We'll come back to this. More importantly, tonight I DID 3 MILES in TWENTY THREE MINUTES AND NINE SECONDS. That averages out to 7:43 a mile....I am just blown away. I feel like I need to write an acceptance speech or something because it's like the elliptical has rewarded me for hard work with a time warp or something. One of my friends recently posted she wanted to  average 8:30 for 3 consecutive miles and I thought "Wow, I'm gonna try that next time" and then kinda surprised myself that I had the same time goal as a thin girl who I know goes running in her neighborhood all the time.

I somehow did my first mile in 7:30. I slowed down considerably after that, but I picked it back up because I wanted my next mile to be between 8-8:30. So then as I was getting closer I just kept the pace up and finished in 7:51. I slowed down again and decided if I could do 2 under 8:00 then I could get the 3rd one under 9:00 for sure(even though 2 months ago I was happy with a 10 minute mile). So with the combination of some good music and my boyfriend going twice as fast next to me, I managed to finish the 3rd mile in 7:48. Wow. I am seriously, sitting here like triple checking my math because this is still hard to believe. I dunno what my body figured out on my birthday, but it's continuing to improve on it. Maybe one thing that has helped me get better is that I used to also have to keep an eye on my heart rate. I have a feeling that all that Zumba helps more than I realize because I used to push myself until I had to slow down to get my heart rate down, but I haven't had to do that since I really started up again on the elliptical. That's exciting, I didn't think about that until right now. =)

So ok, let me try to break this down into some helpful advice. When you're on your chosen form of cardio, whether it be the elliptical, treadmill, crossfit, or maybe even on a real track: Pay attention to your time and speed. Sure you'll get good results if you think "I'm just gonna go on here and give it my best and work my butt off". But if you have a specific goal in mind, it will help. So like tonight, I knew that 8 mph would be a 7:30 minute mile so I was shooting to keep my mph as close to 8 whenever possible. Sometimes it dipped down to 6, sometimes it went up to 9, but I tried to keep it in the high 7s, low 8s depending on the resistance I was getting(I have it set to random, which is basically uneven rolling hills). Now if you don't have a mph display on your machine or you're doing your mileage outside, you're gonna have to do math in your head and gauge your pace. "I just did that quarter mile in 3:00 so if I keep this pace I'm set to do a 12 minute mile" or whatever. Again, all about being self aware and knowing what you need to do to get what you want.

Believe it or not, I had already met a goal before I even got upstairs. Today was the first day I ever "Maxed out" on something. Today was a chest day (Have I explained this? Maybe this will be my next post.) and I have recently added bench presses into my routine. Again, last time I was doing them with the bar alone so I would get glances from the free-weight beefcakes varying from amused to offended. Because we didn't have any time constraints, the gym was relatively empty, and we were both working chest: I told Will I wanted to try to max out my bench press. So, I wasn't really sure where to start, so I started with a 25 on each side which is 95lbs total. I actually managed to do 2 of them! So, we agreed that I could safely say I maxed out at 100. haha. I switched up my usual routine of 3 sets of 15 and did 5 sets of 8. Bench press is a lot easier with a spotter who you know can lift you much less the puny-in-comparison bar you're lifting. So I did 5x8 at 75 pounds, which is obviously 30# more than I was willing to do by myself. I have a feeling my chest is going to be very sore tomorrow because I then proceeded to do my normal chest day minus the incline press I usually do.

Ok this is getting longer than I thought so 2 quick things: I need to not get the Tuna sub from subway again unless I do Zumba on Fridays. The footlong Tuna on wheat with cheese is 1,470 calories!!! 93.6 grams of fat!!! I mean, it's also 48 grams of protein but goodness! I was so surprised when I started trying to put it into my calorie counter. So even with a 700+ calorie workout I'm over my calorie goal for today. So, BEWARE! Next Friday I'll have to plan ahead and get some healthy fish or make my own Tuna because damn, that's not gonna work. Second thing is that I'm doing the aqua bootcamp tomorrow with Will! So that will be exciting, I'm sure. Except that I'm 95% sure I can't wear my heart rate monitor in the pool so I won't know exactly how many calories I'm burning. Hmm, guess I'll have to see what MFP can come up with for me. Well, that's all for tonight, guys. Again, thanks so much for all the encouragement and sharing your stories with me! I really appreciate it and enjoy hearing about how hard work pays off for others, too!

Gooooooooooooool [The goal-setting post]

So this post is brought to you by: Progress! When I was using my calorie counter app, It informed me that if every day were like Friday and Saturday, I could lose 22 pounds in 5 weeks. Now, this is about 4.5 pounds a week, which is INCREDIBLE. In all senses of the word, because I didn't really believe it. SO, I apologize in advance if this gets tedious, but y'all stick with me because I think a lot of us need to think about things a little differently.

I'm gonna come out and say it: I want to lose another 100 pounds. This may sound crazy to you skinny people, but all of you fluffy kids out there can imagine where I'm coming from. I'm currently down 30-32 pounds from my "start" weight, which took me 16 months to lose and a year to keep off. I lost my focus and this summer I un-did a big chunk of my hard weight loss. I managed not to undo my muscle gain, which is an important distinction. So weight-wise I'm essentially where I was at this point last year, but I've got my best work out buddy back and we're both focused and ready to keep working.The thing I've got going for me that I didn't last year is that I've felt what 10 more pounds lighter feels like. I know that with just another couple months at this pace I could potentially be down to shopping consistently in regular stores by this summer. Last year that was my goal and I missed it because of lots of things going on with work and family and my boyfriend coming home. But this year I am more focused and determined than I have ever been. And I have a plan, a clear laid out set of goals. If I can stay on this track I'm on, I'll show you what I am capable of.

So here goes the micro-goal setting and meeting that you have to do within the bigger picture to stay on track. I have lost around 10-12 pounds in 5-6 weeks, that is just at my 2 pounds a week which is my goal on the calorie counter. Now the way I went hard this week puts me at 4.5 pounds a week. So let's be realistic and say that If I continue to work hard and eat well, I could potentially lose 15 pounds every 6 weeks, about 2.5 pounds a week. When you break it down into bite-sized pieces, it becomes a lot more conceivable. "I need to lose 100 pounds" well...yeah...but when you say it like that it sounds IMPOSSIBLE. But if I lose 15 pounds every 6 weeks for the rest of the year, I will have lost 115 pounds by 2014. I could even think that if I stayed on pace I wouldn't even have to lose weight during the holidays I would just have to maintain that last 6 weeks of the year. Happy Holidays! You've transformed yourself and now you can take pictures for Christmas cards to re-introduce yourself to all your friends! lol. Did that idea just cross my mind? It absolutely did.

Now, I know as I lose fat the weight will not be quite so "easy" to sluff off. I know this. I know it's going to be hard, even excruciating, the closer I get. But when I lay it out in such clear terms "Marissa, all you have to do is be under your calorie goal and keep working out and eating lean protein" it makes it a lot less stressful. I have to constantly be thinking about why I'm doing this. It's not just to be able to shop at H&M or eventually buy a wedding dress with only 1 digit in the size. It's so that 20, 30, 40 years down the road I won't be worried about checking my blood sugar every day or injecting myself with insulin. About getting out of breath playing with my kids and grandkids. Worried about what the possible side effects of this medication or that medication are, or how they interact, or how much my prescriptions are a month.You have to do what you can with the cards that you're dealt in life. My genetic deck isn't so hot but my cards can for the most part be trumped by diet and exercise. With a low BMI and a healthy diet, science suggests that I can keep everything I'm at increased risk for at a good distance. But you know what else you can keep with a low BMI and a healthy diet? Single-digit-sized clothing. And that's pretty encouraging, too. 

Mexican Standoff-ish

Y'all...The end of the week was INTENSE! Wednesday I tried a new exercise that I have been putting off: The dead-lift. This is the last weighted exercise I've really been avoiding that I've finally tried. I get scared of things that require me to go to the male show-off corner of the gym...aka the free weights area. There's always some sweaty guy who's giving himself the "who's your daddy" face in the mirror while he pumps excessive amounts of weight. And there may or may not be a grunting sound track. And you never want to get too close to him in the off chance that you will impair his view of himself in the mirror and incite his ['roid] rage. ...

Anyway, needless to say the free weight section of the gym is VERY intimidating because most people that frequent this area are like 10% body fat or less. I try not to think "wow, i'm technically 300-400% fatter than you"...because really these thoughts don't help when you're sticking your big Mexican butt out to do the exercise. Because that's what you have to do for dead-lifts. I specifically did the "stiff leg dead-lifts" because they're supposedly the preferred version for women. I watched a video of an extremely cut woman do them with the correct form so you should youtube it if you're interested. Anyway, the stiff leg version works your hamstrings more than the regular ones, but it's almost a whole body workout. So I did 3 sets of 15 with just the 45lb bar. Now, 45 pounds is a lot for the female first attempt at these, but in the free weight section you look STUPID doing anything with just the bar. Everyone else has heavy weights on both ends of a bar doing much more complicated movements than my tiny simple looking stiff leg dead-lift motion. So once again my advice is IGNORE ALL THE SKINNY MUSCLED PEOPLE. Seriously. Your eye is drawn to them because that's what half of them want, but don't do it unless you're looking specifically for correct form(which may also be a mistake in some cases).

So my adventure Wednesday in the free-weight section went surprisingly well. Until I realized Thursday morning that dead-lifts were evil. My hamstrings were so sore and tight I was constantly looking awkward in the downtime at work trying to bend over and stretch them. And my forearm flexors were sore and I was so confused at first until I realized that gripping the bar must've actually been a new and strenuous workout for me. I guess that's the muscle you focus on if you want to be a Ninja Warrior. In any case, Thursday I did 3.31 miles in 30 minutes on the elliptical and a good ab workout. I was debating taking the day off because I was so sore, but I really wanted to go to the bootcamp my gym was having on Saturday and I thought Friday would be the more prudent day to take off. It turned out to be a good choice, all the elliptical kept my hamstrings from getting too stiff and I just did a lot of stretching on Friday.

Saturday came and I was so pumped but nervous for bootcamp. Pumped because I knew that it was gonna be a brutal assault on all the fat in my body and I was going to burn a ton of calories, nervous because...well, the same reasons. lol. Mostly because at the bootcamp last month(which was my first one and I burned 1600ish calories in about 2 hours) I had 2 friends there so I felt a lot more comfortable. This time I was only going to know one of the trainers and maybe some people I recognized from spin classes and stuff. And it's only mildly encouraging that the one person there you're familiar with is the one that's making you want to cry out in pain and anguish. lol Okay it wasn't THAT bad. Overall it was a lot better than the first one. I've come a long way in a month, it seems. The jump squats and step presses and all the "sculpt" stuff was easier than it was last time, although not to say that it was easy in any acceptable sense of the word. The hardest part of the whole 2.5 hours was the compound abs. Now, I'm pretty good at ab stuff for a fat girl, if we're being honest. That is to say that if we're doing a set of 20 of a specific ab group that's moderately difficult I can hang. And if all we're doing is a series of single-target ab sets, I'm your girl. But you throw a compound ab at me and 5 in I'm doing whatever modification you offer to make it possible to complete my set of 20. I don't understand! It's starting to really frustrate me and it's something that I'm just gonna have to work harder on.  Those are times when you have to really come at the exercise head on and say "Okay only one of us is gonna win and it's not gonna be you".

My favorite part of the bootcamp was Zumba(surprise!). If they put anything else at the end I'd be screwed. We'd already been working out for an hour and 45 minutes when we started Zumba. 105 minutes BEFORE starting 30 minutes of straight cardio dancing. My stamina has DEFINITELY gotten better. It's funny because yesterday I was like "GROSS I haven't smelled this bad since my soccer days" but that's probably because I haven't pushed myself that hard for that long since those days of old. I was doing Zumba thinking "God, please don't let these people smell me over themselves". lol. So after I did an extra song with only like 4-5 other crazy people after everyone else had left, I got in the sauna. It felt so good to stretch out and relax all those muscles that I just worked out so hard. According to my heart rate monitor that got stopped for a few minutes somewhere between compound abs and burpees(which I also suck at but it's ok because very few people are good at those) I worked out for 2:34 hours and burned 1817 calories. Oh and the best part was this morning I weighed myself and I've lost 10 pounds in the last 5-6 weeks. =D I'm on track with what I want to do, and most likely my next post will be about goal setting. Next week there is an "Aqua Bootcamp" which I'm interested in so I will definitely keep y'all posted on that. Thanks for all of you reading and all your comments and facebook encouragements and everything. It really means a lot to me! Y'all make it easier for me to write this knowing it is actually helping some of you with your own trials and tribulations. =) Let's do this, people!

Masochist Mindset

So much I want to tell you guys! Today I wanted to talk about the pure change in mindset I've had since this whole..."transformation", I guess, started. I've talked about the different ways you have to trick yourself into doing stuff, especially eating healthier, but I really want to explore this thought process of forcing yourself to go to the gym or work out at all. Now, as I've mentioned before, being successful in changing your way of doing things really depends on how well you know yourself. I KNOW I'm not gonna eat just a salad for lunch, as much as I may want it to work out or as much as I know it will benefit my life, it's just not something I am capable of. It's on my maybe-one-day-when-I'm-skinny list.

I used to tell my boyfriend "I do NOT want to work out on days that I work". This is a big problem for most people I think that work during the day and you're thinking "Jeez, I have to either get up early to go to the gym and then come home and shower and THEN go to work." Or the even more dreaded "I have to go straight to the gym and change there and then work out and then come home and shower and THEN make dinner and eat and go to bed". Well, if you think of it this way it's never going to happen. And this is why for so long I never worked out. My mindset was "I'd rather have that 1-2 hours to practice/do homework/do anything but work out". You really have to kick yourself in the butt. I like to think of this as distinguishing your habits from your capabilities. So, I've really taken the last couple months to focus on this, especially because my work schedule changed slightly at work, and this is what I've figured out. 

I am not capable of working out before work. It's not possible, I start at 7am and work 10 hour days- not happening. It is okay to let yourself off the hook as long as you make yourself do something else. But then we come back to the "I don't want to work out on days that I work". Well, that's a habit that I'd like to have, but it's not letting myself live up to my capabilities. I am capable of working out on days that I work, I've done it before- it just sucks. So, this is where you have to force yourself to do something that you know is going to suck, but will make you better. I made my boyfriend a deal- I will work out on workdays but it has to be a class or something where I don't have to decide what I have to do. For those of you doing your own thing without a trainer, this is more than half the battle. So since the start of the year with my schedule change I've been doing Zumba or another class that doesn't require me to do anything but go with the flow. Because I figured this out about myself, we've been going to the gym pretty much every work day. I'm making things easier for myself in a really masochistic way, so I'm more likely to go along with it. 

Man last week there was a day that I just did NOT want to go to the gym. It wasn't even really that I didn't want to work out, I just physically didn't want to have to get dressed, go to the gym and be there. My boyfriend almost literally had to drag me to the gym. He grabbed my hand and I let him pull me upright from my cozy napping cocoon on the bed and told me to put my workout clothes on because we were going to the gym. So I'm yawning all the way in the car and I get there and I'm just grumpy but I do my workout anyway AND I clock in 2 miles in 17:33. I left feeling completely different than when I walked in. I was energized and in a good mood and felt really good about myself. Those are the times you have to think of when you're laying in your comfortable bed or couch or wherever and don't want to go. You have to remind yourself "You will feel awesome when you walk out of there. You will be so proud of yourself if you go and so disappointed at yourself if you stay here and nap." Because let's be honest- we have all picked a nap over working out. And I'm not saying I'm never going to pick the nap again, I'm just not going to make a habit of it. 

Baby You Can Be My Motivation

After a few months and 15 pounds, I was feeling pretty good. The pilates took my curves(read:rolls) and turned it into a true hour glass that I could be proud of and was noticeable. My 24th birthday(a year ago today) rolled around and I was happy that all of my friends commented on my new and improved figure. My work in college on learning how to accept a compliment was tested on a physical level and passed. [mostly unrelated to my weight, I think, it has always been hard for me to accept compliments gracefully.] this positive experience only boosted my drive, and generally prepared me for the next destination in this adventure.

Now I guess I should take a second and explain a bit for those who don't know. At this point I had also been on an online dating site for close to a year. I joined because I didnt know how else to meet single, attractive, successful, straight men. Now if you haven't tried it you can laugh all you want, but working in a women's clothing store wasnt exactly a good place to meet bachelors. Anyway, I had gone on several dates, talked to LOTS of guys, and nothing had really worked out. I wasn't exactly giving up, but I was starting to think maybe all these computer engineers and grad students weren't what I needed. I was messaging a couple different guys, when one of them really started to interest me. So, I gave him my phone number after a week, which was completely out of my pattern and decided "what the hell, I'll invite him out with me and my friends". He seemed normal even if he wasn't quite my norm, he was super hot, and what did I have to lose? Well, as you may have already guessed, absolutely nothing. He is now my boyfriend of 11 months and the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Think I'm being a mushy girl? Let me explain. After we started dating I found out that he used to be 60ish lbs heavier and 4 sizes bigger. He was a living embodiment of my ultimate goal: From cute and cuddly to stone cold sexy. It was as if God said "ok, I see you have done what you can for yourself, let me give you your reward in the form of everything you ever needed in a partner". Will was EXACTLY what I needed at exactly the right time. Instead of becoming complacent with where I was, I had living proof that eating right and hard work could transform you into whatever you were willing to work toward.

The best part was that apart from being completely supportive, he was completely apathetic. For any male readers let me explain: the worst thing a guy could do is comment on your health or eating habits in any way that could be construed as "you need to lose weight". Will already liked me for who I was, so I was free to push myself to be better without any sort of pressure from him. This was amazing to me. How easy would it have been for him to push me like he was still pushing himself? Apparently it never crossed his mind.

It was actually close to 3 months before we actually started working out together. This may sound strange but he never offered and I never asked. Probably something to do with how disgusting I always felt after I worked out and I didn't want my boyfriend to see me like that. Finally one day we finally worked out together, and it was another beautiful beginning. We motivated eachother and pushed each other to do more. I actually started to look forward to working out, instead of being another chore on my to-do list. It brought us closer and propelled us each through another plateau. I discovered that one of the best motivators can be a work out buddy to keep you accountable.