It works if you work it

So, the month of January was full of ups and downs. I had a bit of stress worrying about some tests and let that distract me. I didn't fully feel the pressure of the contests I've entered. (Dude, there's real money on the line. My money.) But over the past week, I've gotten serious, and even learned that moderation can be a part of "getting serious." There was a good-bye lunch for some coworkers where I made a great choice for lunch (442 calories!), but I also couldn't resist the cheese biscuits (I despise wasting food!) and added 330 calories to my otherwise healthy meal. And there was chocolate cake!

But for the rest of the week, I really pulled it out. Logging all my food (not just when it looked pretty on paper!), and generally being serious about stuff. I had two days this week where I walked more than 20,000 steps (yesterday was 25,000), and I've been going to Zumba 2-3 times a week. And so despite a month of the scale going up, then down, then up, then down, then up again, today, I present you with:

Weight: 183.4
Fat: 36.7%
Water: 46.3%
Muscle: 30.4%

So, not just weight loss, but definite fat loss over last time, and even some muscle gain! Woot!

So, it's February 1. I like February. It's a nice, solid month with exactly four weeks in it. Perfect for getting really serious about one's goals. My friend (Hi, C!! Oooh, I should start calling her Hi-C) is on board for this, too. We're talking about losing 10 pounds in February.

I intend to accomplish this through diligent food logging, weight training and starting to run again. I bought a heart-rate monitor, so I can start to determine whether my working out is actually in the most productive (fat-burning) zone. I got a new pair of running shoes this week, and I'm so excited to get started, that I even woke up early (for me) this morning! So....good luck to everyone else with your goals this month!

Whoops!

I stayed away for longer than I intended! Usually that's what I do when I'm falling off the wagon, but that's not the case. I've been steadily going to the gym, walking and eating right (with an exception here and there).

I got a fitbit, and that's really helping a lot. Previously I had been logging all my working out/walking and eating in a paper journal. This worked great for me, being able to see everything in one place, but the fitbit keeps track of most of the fitness stuff, and it's very easy to log food. (My biggest concern was that it was going to take a while, but it keeps track of food you eat regularly, and it's easy to just pick that thing out of that list.)

I mentioned last time that I started back with the running. That was actually the last time I ran, because that hip thing still hasn't resolved. No fun. I actually stopped doing leg workouts, too (although, I might resume these soon), because I'm thinking I overdid it with them, and the the running just made something worse.

So for now, the modified plan is to use the fitbit to log the walking. Anything over 12,500 gives me a free pass on the cardio for the day, and I'll alternate days at the gym, doing arms and legs. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to fold the running back into the mix. Also, the fitbit tracks flights of stairs, so I was up to 35 flights yesterday. Technically, I was tricked...I thought I would get a new badge for 35 flights, and as it turns out, I did not.

I'm hoping to take a super-extended walk this weekend (10 miles) to kind of push myself some, but that may or may not happen.

Oh! I almost forgot...down another 4 pounds for a total of 13. So that's 181. That's pretty exciting. I had actually seen the scale dip down to 178 before Super Bowl Sunday and the cake debacle! (I had two pieces of cake, and about a quarter pound of cheese. Scandalous!)

Monthly check-in

It's been a month since I embarked on this journey, and as of this morning, I am down 9 pounds. I didn't think to do a waist measurement, and after dinner, popcorn and 3 glasses of water, I'm not so sure I'd post an impressive number!

9 pounds is good, and it would be fine if I lost 9 pounds every month. But we know that it doesn't work that way. Usually you start out strong, and your body starts adapting, conserving more calories and making it harder to burn them. 

This is part of the reason I take in 1600 calories a day. I know I could go lower. I think I've read that it's safe to go as low as 1200 a day. But if anything has to give, I'd like it to be the exercise. Basically, I'd rather do more exercise to burn more calories, than to eat less, but have less energy for more exercise. I know that at 1200 a day, I'm not going to be able to work out at the intensity that I want to, and as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather put my focus into building a body that's a fuel burning machine. And if, as expected, I plateau, I'd rather have some leeway to lower the calories down the road. Whereas, if I start at 1200, there's nowhere else to go, except to start starving myself (which I can assure you, ain't happening anytime soon). 

Oh! Today I started back on the couch-to-5k program. Week 1, day 1! This was infinitely easier than the first time I started this program, which was around September of 2010. When I started it back then, I thought I was going to die. I also wasn't doing much in the way of exercise at all at the time. I think I made it through like 3 of the intervals and then walked the rest of the way. I eventually "finished" the program in February of 2011, and ran/walked a 5k. (I had forgotten until 2 weeks before the race that I neglected to take a few things into account. One was the fact that I had done the last 2/3 of the program indoors on a treadmill, and the other was that it was much colder than I had ever run in by the time race day rolled around. So, even though I would have liked to have run the whole thing, I walked a good part of it, and my time was something like 42 minutes.)

Today's set of intervals was great, until about the 5th one, when I began feeling a twinge in my hip. By the last interval, it was feeling really bad. When I got home, I took some Advil and bumped up the glucosamine (yeah, I'm getting old!) I'm hoping it's something temporary, otherwise I'll shelve the running for another time. Ideally, I'd like to be able to run this entire race in May. I mean, come on, running, dogs and wine. What could be better?