victory comes in many forms

One thing I need to constantly remind myself of is that the scale is not the true measure of my success. I can find other ways to realize how much progress I am making, even if the scale is inching too slowly in the right direction.

Today I experienced just such a victory. A feeling of strong accomplishment that had absolutely nothing to do with stepping on the scale.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about a Jillian Michaels video that I was borrowing from a friend. I have since purchased my own copy, and I did it in its entirety this afternoon. That in and of itself is a victory, but it's not even the specific one I am referring to in this post.

About 30 minutes into the work-out (it's almost an hour long), there is an exercise on the mat that has proved to be the most difficult part of the video for me. By far. I'm not 100% sure on the actual name of them, but I think they're called walking planks.

Do me a favour and try these out for me right now. I'm serious. Get on the floor in the plank position, but you are resting on your forearms. Now, one side at a time, change from your forearm to a full plank position. And now back down again to your forearms. See how many you can do.

I've only done this video a handful of times over the past few weeks -- but every time I have done it, I have only managed to do about 2 of the walking planks in this form before collapsing onto my knees and doing it "the easy way."

Until today.

I managed to do each repetition in the official position. I didn't count how many reps there actually were (I was too busy grunting my way through them!), but I just know that I did them. Both times. She repeats each cycle, so just when you think you have conquered a circuit, you have to repeat it and do it all over again.

I could not get over how proud I was of myself for pushing through the pain to conquer this particular exercise. I was hurting, that's for sure -- but it was worth it. Because I can feel my body getting stronger. I'm pretty sure I was even glowing for the last 25 minutes of the work-out...okay, maybe that was the sweat. But either way, I was pumped and it left me looking forward to the next time I do the work-out. And the next time. And the next time.

(If you actually tried the walking planks just now -- let me know how you did!)

i think the pressure's getting to me again...

Dang it! I was on track to have an excellent week this week -- in fact, on Monday morning, I was confident that I could even make the 2.4 pounds necessary to hit my 50 pound milestone this week. I was only up 0.4 pounds over the weekend, which is a great achievement in and of itself. So since I didn't have to first battle with a couple of pounds of weekend weight, I figured I could just focus on losing from Friday's weight.

Sigh...that wasn't to be.

I totally messed up on Monday, and it was a struggle for the rest of the week to overcome that awful day. I truly think it's the pressure. I may not have the pressure of the competition on my shoulders -- but the pressure to reach that looming 50 pound milestone is doing me in! And after that, to reach my March 12th goal (my Biggest Loser 3 month post-weigh-in goal, for those of you who forgot), I need to shed another 2.2 pounds.

I still get to report a loss this week though, so I shouldn't be too hard on myself. But it's a small loss of only 0.4 pounds. Not what I was expecting at all. I tell ya though -- after March 12th, no more time-restricted goals for me. No way! I'll still have a goal in mind of what my ideal weight should be, and I will strive very hard to reach it -- but with no specific date in mind. It's too much pressure for me, and while the motivation is a good thing...the stress it induces in me is not.

So...I am at an even 48 pounds as of this morning. Exactly 2 pounds left to go to hit that 50 pound milestone. Will it be next week? Or the week after? Time will tell...

another one (point four) bites the dust

Yup, that's right my friends -- I managed to shed yet another 1.4 pounds this week!! I am sooooo close to that 50 pound mark. To be honest, I was hoping to reach it by next week...but with 2.4 pounds left to go, I'm not holding my breath. Doesn't mean I'm not gonna try though!

So with 47.6 as my total weight lost since June 19th, I head into my weekend as a very happy lady! I gotta say, I'm proud of myself for losing 5.4 pounds in the last 7 weeks since I ended my journey with Biggest Loser. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do on my own...but it turns out, I am doing just fine.

slow & steady

It makes me happy to report yet another loss this week. A loss of 1.2 pounds which means my 45 pound milestone has now turned to 46.2 pounds!

To be honest, I was worried about what this week would bring as far as results. With my birthday being last Friday...well, let's just say I indulged a bit too much over the weekend. I had close to 4 extra pounds on me at the end of the weekend (ouch!) and I worked my butt off all week to get the results that I did.

My goal this weekend is to maintain. That way I can spend the weekdays simply going for a loss, and not have to worry about first getting back to my Friday morning weight. I have been kicking it into higher gear with my work-outs this past week which has made a huge difference for me. A friend borrowed me a Jillian Michael's video for the last couple of weeks (Banish Fat Boost Metabolism) and let me tell you, that is a good video!

A lot of you have heard of (and are doing) her 30-Minute Shred work-out. I myself have only done Level 1 (there are 3 different levels for those of you who are not familiar with the video) and I find I get bored of it too easily. Not bored in that it's too easy -- hardly! -- but I don't know...there's just something about it that I just don't enjoy doing it. Anyway, so I tried this other video and I loved it! In fact, I think it's my most favorite work-out that I have ever done. It's a killer though. It's a 50 minute work-out (instead of the 20 minute Shred ones), and the first time I attempted it, I didn't complete it. I stopped in between to just watch, and then I would jump in again. But the last circuit I didn't even attempt at all; I just stopped altogether.

So yeah, this video has 7 different circuits (all 6 minutes long), as well as a warm up and cool down of course. So after my first attempt at the video, I thought I would go at it from a different angle. I was going to start out with only doing 3 circuits and then slowly start adding circuits as I got stronger. So the 2nd day I did it, I did just that-- the first 3 circuits -- and then stopped. The next day I decided to push myself to do at least 4 circuits. But after the first 4 were done, I felt like I could handle one more. So I did it. Then I felt like I could handle just one more...and by that time there were only 2 circuits left so I figured I should just try to finish it. And I did it!! And I mean I really did it -- like every single exercise! I will admit, I modified 2 or 3 of the moves, but I was extremely proud of myself for pushing myself. I was stronger than I thought I was, and I was determined to make it through the entire video in just 3 attempts.

I did the video a few more times (in its entirety) before returning it to my friend. And now I am on the hunt to get myself a copy! I really encourage those of you who are looking for a new work-out to give this one a try. It's different than the Shred, in that the circuits don't each consist of strength, cardio and abs. The circuits are all mainly aerobic, although there is a circuit working the abs (but no weights at all). It is truly my favorite work-out of all time!

Anyway, so I'm sure that pushing through that work-out several times this week -- along with doubling up my work-outs with some evening jogging-on-the-spot-while-watching-tv -- was a huge contributing factor to my successful weigh-in this week.

For any of you keeping track, that means that I have exactly 6 pounds left to lose to reach my March 12th goal (and only 3.8 pounds left to hit my 50 pound milestone!). I am determined to have another substantial loss next Friday to keep my momentum going!

a birthday present from myself...and my scale

Yes, today is my birthday (31 years young). And earlier in the week, I thought to myself wouldn't it be cool if I could hit that 45 pound mark on my birthday weigh-in? So I worked hard this week -- not only with working out, but with watching what I ate too (finally)! -- and it paid off!

Happy Birthday to ME, because...

Exactly.

I lost 1.4 pounds this week. I can't believe I am a mere 5 pounds away from hitting a total weight loss of 50 pounds! I can just hardly believe it! I hope that now that I am so close to that huge milestone, I will push myself really hard to get there.

time to get down to business

I can't really complain about this morning's weigh-in, as I am down another 0.6 pounds. I'm waiting for those one pound results (and them some), but I suppose in order for me to get those again, I need to make some changes.

It's been pretty easy getting back into the working out routine, but it's the snacking habits that I formed over the Christmas holidays that I'm finding to be tougher to break. Oh, and the Pepsi relapse -- it's become a daily thing for me again. Danger! I stated that for the Biggest Loser's 3 month post weigh-in, I wanted to be down another 10 pounds from where I left off on December 18th. Well, that post weigh-in is a mere 9 weeks away and I still have 8.6 pounds to go. That math is pretty simple -- I need to lose an average of a pound a week for the remaining time in order to achieve (and just s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y surpass) that goal.

Not un-reachable -- not by a long shot. But it does mean that I have to find that dedication that I had up until a few short weeks ago. It's in there somewhere...I just hope it's not too far below the surface!

don't hate me because I'm beautiful still shrinking

It confounds me; it really does. But I managed to come out of the Christmas holidays with a defecit in the weight department. And the kicker? I wasn't even trying. Well, I suppose that's not e-n-t-i-r-e-l-y true. It is true that I only exercised twice in those two weeks. And it is also true that there was maybe only one day that I didn't consume Pepsi. And yes, I indulged in chocolates and slightly bigger portions of all of the family gathering meals...

But I still tried to be careful, if that makes any sense. And I consistently (although not obsessively) kept track of my weight so that I would know immediately if I was going over-board. And shockingly, the scale never reflected that.

One of the most irritating things for me is that I missed last Friday's weigh-in. We were at Les' parents' place from Thursday afternoon to Friday evening, having Christmas there. I weighed myself both Thursday morning before we left, and again Saturday morning, but those weights were so different -- 3 pounds apart (and surprisingly the lighter weight was on Saturday, after the 2 days of Christmas'ing yet again). So I took the average between the 2 weights which unofficially means that I maintained from the previous Friday, being Christmas Day.

So why does this bother me so much? Because not only was it a Friday weigh-in day that I missed...but it was also January 1st. I'm not losing sleep over it or anything -- but it does sort of annoy me that I don't have an official January 1st weight. Especially since the two days surrounding it were so very different. But I will suck it up and get over it...maybe!

Anyway, so all in all, this means (unofficially of course...grrr!) that I lost 0.8 pounds since the end of Biggest Loser Round II. Nothing spectacular, but definitely note-worthy. At one point over the holidays (well, January 2nd exactly), I was down 2.4 pounds -- but since that wasn't actually my Friday's weigh-in weight, I can't officially count that.

This week was back to regular routine, and I couldn't be happier about it. Yes, it was nice to have hubby home for 2 weeks (even though it was an unpaid holiday), and it was magnificent to sleep in almost every morning usually till around 9am (give or take 1/2 an hour!). But when I am out of routine, I just don't function properly. Which is why I didn't work out hardly at all during that time. I got back to my Turbo Jam work-outs this week, and it felt so good to be doing it again. I was glad for that reaction -- that I actually loved exercising after the self-proclaimed break -- rather than have it feel like a chore and wondering if I would get back in the groove.

So...my weight loss goals for 2010? To lose another 20 pounds (give or take), which hopefully translates into me being a size 7. I know it's possible, since I've already gone from busting out of 16's to very nicely fitting a size 10/11.

My running goals for this year (I'll get back to it early spring after our seemingly endless winter finally runs its course) are to run a 5K race in June and a 10K race in September, both here in my small town. I can't tell you how excited I am to get back into running; I miss it desperately.