Trying a Group Weight Loss Program!

So..... despite all the effort, the scale hasn't moved.  And, of course, there was that eye-opening body composition analysis last week that actually said that I've got a whole lot more fat to lose!

So..... last week, I joined a 10-week weight loss program that includes a huge focus on nutrition counseling.  Plus, it does weight loss right by giving out a prize for the person who loses the greatest percentage of body fat over the next 8 weeks.  Not just weight--body fat.  I've been in the program for a week, and the first step was journaling everything. I can already see the difference in the way I'm eating. Because I have to journal everything, I'm not pecking at everything in sight while I cook.  Also, I'm a lot more aware of the fruits and vegetables that I should be eating every day and am pushing myself to get all my fruits and veggies in. The result is that I've focused on what I should be eating, rather than what I shouldn't be eating. I've taken a view that I can eat whatever I want--as long as I first eat what I'm supposed to eat. The result is that I eat all my healthy stuff happily, and then don't crave any junk anyway. 

The first week officially ends tomorrow and I'm going to get weighed to see how I've done.  That's part of the reason that I haven't blogged my weight this week--I'm going to see how I do tomorrow!

Finding time to exercise when..,,,

My little 2 yr old has been sick this past week and so I haven't been able to go to the gym, which has been making me cranky! So, today, as she napped, I managed to pound out about 2 miles at a  5mph pace on my treadmill and also get in some resistance workout time in before she woke up. It felt awesome!

Dressing up

So, today, I bought a belly dancing skirt to the Bollywood dance class that I go to on Friday. Yes, I know, I know, Bollywood and belly dancing are two different forms of dancing, but still--it felt fun to dress up.

Which brings me to the point of this post: have fun dressing up when you go to the gym!   It's important to both take pride in the way you look and to find ways to make a workout a little more fun. Why not do both by varying your work-out clothes a little in a fun and creative way? 

Front of the class!

So... I remember walking in to my first fitness class at my gym months ago. It was a hip-hop dance-based class, and I was dressed worse than anyone else there, and couldn't keep up with any of the moves. But, I loved the music and always wanted to learn some of the moves, so I kept at it, though I would always hide at the back, somewhere. 

Fast forward 3 months and today, I actually felt confident enough to go to the front of the class! Woohoo! Which goes to show you--don't get discouraged by your first cracks at fitness! It WILL get better. 

Insanity!!!

I took my first "insanity" class in Tuesday, and.... Wow! It really did feel a little insane while I was in the class. If you've never done it before, it's a series of not-very-complex calisthenic exercises that you do at full intensity for short bursts of time, interspersed with even shorter bursts of rests. At the end of it, I felt spent! But when I walked outside, the birds all seemed to chirp a little more, the sun seemed to shine brighter, and I realized--I was actually experiencing a workout high. And that actually made it worth the workout!

A smile for the day

So, this has absolutely nothing to do with working out, but I thought I'd capture some of the quirkier things that come out of my toddlers' mouths. 

My 2.5 year old reading the Alphabet: "L, M, N.....zero......P". 

Eye Opening Body Composition Analysis

Omg 

I just had the most eye opening experience today. My gym was running free body composition analysis tests, and yours truly signed up.

I have a body fat percentage of 34%, and according to the printout, could stand to lose about 21 lbs of body fat. Yikes. And this is after I've told you that I've gotten smaller even though the scale hasn't moved. I shudder to think of what my fat percentage would have been before I started going to the gym !

New Year, New You, Not So New Resolution?

Well, I blogged yesterday about getting older and wiser about fitness, but necessarily lighter.  Well, last night, after a great (and, according to my kids, mandatory!) birthday celebration, I felt a little......blah.  Really--I only got a 5 pound weight loss last year after everything that I had tried (a walking half-marathon with a group, joining a gym, blogging....)? 

The thought was very demotivating.  :(.  I mean, double :(.  

But then, I walked into my gym's bollywood class today.  Being the first class of the new year, there were a number of new ladies in the class, which brought back memories of what it felt like for me when I was new (about 3 months ago).  I knew absolutely no-one.  I felt out of place because I was wearing a hastily put-together outfit of an old running t-shirt and sweats. My core was so shot that I looked like a bad-postured-droopy mess in the mirror.  I bumbled through half the steps, sometimes going the wrong way and bumping into the poor schmuckette who was beside me. (Digression:  Yes, I know schmuckette isn't a word, but shouldn't it be????).  Well, I stuck it out, and here, 3 months later, I've gotten to know a few people and instructors at the class, got myself better work-out clothes (and am even buying a belly dancing skirt!) feel like I've gotten improved posture because of classes like this one, and (most importantly for the poor schmuckette,) I can follow the routines more comfortably than before. 

So, progress was made after all. 

Take THAT, weighing scale. :P

Another year older, another year fitter

So, I'm turning 35 today. Eeeep! Feels so old. I almost don't feel like celebrating--I know I can't stop the inevitable, but I sure don't have to acknowledge it! 

Looking back on the past year, I can be happy about a few things. I didn't lose as much weight as I wanted to (I've lost about 5 pounds), but as I mentioned, I have gotten smaller, and I am definitely, in a fitness sense, in a better place. 

Maybe it's because my birthday kind of coincides with the new year, but I always make birthday resolutions. I've resolved for this next year to seek help when I need it--in all aspects of life. When talking about weight loss, I think I might benefit from a supervised weight loss program that my gym offers, so I've signed myself up. At this point, I'm going to the gym at least 5 days a week, but I suspect I'm consuming more calories than a thinner me would need. So, I'm going to a program that includes food journaling and supervised group journal discussions. 

I resolve to try and make the best of it. 

Update on this week's resolution--Drinking 8 glasses of water a day

Earlier this week, I resolved to drink 8 glasses of water every day.  Well, I have been doing so, and I noticed that I physically feel better during the workouts to the extent that I don't need to stop and drink water on a regular basis like I used to.  I might actually even start to say that I might not need my energy bar prior to workout (gasp!). 

Scale hasn't moved.....but looking thinner!

Today was a great day! Why? Because a very 'honest' friend, one who hadn't seen me in nearly 4 months, told me I was looking a lot thinner. 

Woohoo!!!

Now, I know I've been whining about how that darn scale hasn't been moving, but, thinking about it now, I have gone down at least two jean sizes since I started blogging (and at least one jean size since my BMI has stagnated around its present mark).

Which brings me to my point--be cautious about measuring your success with a weighing scale (cheesy pun intended!).  If you are working out on a regular basis (as I have been--still going to the gym at least 5 days a week!), then there is a strong possibility that you will trade fat for muscle.  Pound for pound, fat takes up more space than muscle, so, even if you see no movement on the scale (or in some cases, movement in the up direction!), this fat-for-muscle trade can make you look smaller.

Yay! 

So, if you're looking for motivation (specifically, motivation to keep working out when you feel like working out is pointless), look to more than one factor to judge your progress.  Sometimes, you can be getting smaller without a change in the weight scale.

Shedding your weight loss foibles-- A Toxic relationship with food--pt 1

When you think of a bad relationship with food, you often think of cases like anorexia and bulemia--where the relationship involves hating food to the point of not eating at all.
However, the truth is that overeating is also a sign of a bad relationship with food.   Over-eating, in my case (and I'm sure in many other cases out there!) often means that food has become a sort of compensatory mechanism in dealing with emotions such as stress or depression. Human beings, like all creatures on this earth, are built to eat to survive. Food intake is meant to be for nutritive value.  But when you start to see food as an emotional cure for stress or even boredom, that could lead to overeating in our stress-filled society, and of course, overeating can lead to weight issues, and all the health problems associated with it.  Thus, eating to alleviate an emotional response such as stress or boredom can ultimately be just as damaging to the body as starving to alleviate an emotional response such as low self worth.

Overeating for emotional reasons can be due to a number of different factors. Primary among these is that food is often associated with happy memories--special occasions are often celebrated with food (yours truly had THREE Christmas meals during the Holidays!), and food or cooking is often used as an expression of love or caring (think birthday cake or Valentine's day chocolates).  Thus, when under stress, humans look to the most readily available trigger of these happy memories--food--in an effort to alleviate stress. Unfortunately, of course, when there's a lot to be stressed out about in life, eating when stressed can mean eating all the time. 

Challenge of the Week!

So, continuing on last week's tradition of creating a realistic challenge of the week: this week's challenge is making my vegetables mandatory. 

According to every food guide out there, we should be getting about 5-7 servings of veggies a day, and most of us fall far short. So, here's to getting more veggies in. 

New Year, New Resolution......

Well, it's that time of the year again.  The time when everyone and their pet goldfish makes a resolution to...... lose weight. 

Well, that's been my resolution for months now, so I'm not going to make that resolution.  So, I will duly resolve to......blog everyday.   Or at least contribute a few minutes to a blog article everyday.  Just so I stay motivated.  Oh, and while I'm at it, I will resolve to adopt a good habit every week--on a revolving basis.

That's right.  I resolve to revolve.

I'd like to say I'd like to drop all my weight loss foibles and shed weight, but I figure at this point, I know myself well enough to not be able to change all bad habits all at once.  So I am going to try to focus on a different good habit every week and see how it goes. 

So, this week's good habit that I will try to work on:  drink 8 glasses of water a day (a glass being either 8oz or 250ml).   Let's see how it goes. 

Oh and by the way--I stepped on the scale today and noticed.....no change in BMI.   Though I did actually lose half a pound... during the bleepin' HOLIDAYS! Yay!  Let's see what that means in the post-eating season.