It's a rollercoaster

I hate weighing myself!!! I HATE it.... but here's what I have figured out.

Whatever the number on the scale, it does not mean that I look worse for it.  I believe that my weight is up on the scale, but I also believe that it is muscle mass, not fat.  How can I say this?  Well simple, my clothes fit better and I am fitting comfortably into the smaller size now that is definitely on my way to my goal size.  Hopefully things will work out, I just have to stop being so focused on the scale numbers.  And I have to be more diligent with my diet tracking.

Set-backs and achievements

Well I have had a little weight set back, but I am not sure if it's a gaining of fat or lean muscle mass.  I will explain.

Last week was my birthday, so I had a little bit of a indulgence break from my diet plan, seriously, I ate a lot of cupcakes.  Cupcakes with icing, and cream cheese filling.  I felt I deserved a treat, and I do not feel guilty about it.  so my weight went back up and I am trying to figure out why.  Well not really but what is interesting is while I was eating the cupcakes, my weight went down and then stayed the same, but afterwards, like a week later, my weight went up.  So is this a result of adding some fat pounds or a result of building some muscles since I continued to work out, and how can I tell the difference?

I mean my clothes are still fitting the same way, I am not squeezing into any of my pants and the pants that were starting to become loose on me are still loose on me.  So now what does that let me know? 

I am going to say I will meet them in the middle, I may have gained half the weight in unwanted fat pounds, and maybe half the weight is lean muscle mass. 

Next week we get measured then I am on holidays for a week, but I am still going to work out, just have to make sure I go to the gym while I am in Saskatoon, I think I may be able to talk my sister into going with me!!  Or going to for walks with little man, better pack that stroller!!

Bikini Season over wedding Date?!?!

So today I am going swimming with the family again.  Actually Chandler may be opting out to go play badminton, but the rest of us are going swimming.  I forgot to do laundry this week (actually not forgot, neglected would be a better description) so my swimsuit from last week is still not clean so I was forced to try on my dreaded bikinis from before I was pregnant. 

Quaking as I pulled out the four different swimsuits (all bikinis) I laid them on my bed.  I knew two would be tight squeezes and I did not want to go to looking like a sausage to the pool, so I immediately put them back.  I tried on a pair of board shorts, but they gave me that horrible muffin top look and I did not want that at all.  So I took a deep breathe and tried on the other two suits. 

At my skinniest I had a bikini that I had to actually tie into a knot on the top part for it to fit me properly, I tried that one on first.  The bottoms fit nicely, but the top was a little tight, except when I undid the knot it was a little loose so there was no happy medium.  Which left me with my last suit to try.

It was one I had bought at my skinniest, but it was a bit big, so I never got much chance to wear it.  I had high hopes that it would fit without creating extra rolls on my body.  I turned around and faced my dresser mirror and was pleasantly surprised with what I saw reflected back at me.  There was no excess baggage, no extra rolls that aren't normally there.  Actually, I was missing some rolls from the last time I had tried on a bathing suit that was not my maternity bathing suit.  I know so sad. 

So now I have an added incentive to get into shape for this summer, I want to rock it out in a bikini, I want to feel comfortable walking down the beach in just my bikini and know that I look like the hottest chick on the beach.  Well at least in Adrian's eyes and honestly that's already the case but I want the other boys on the beach to be jealous of what Adrian's caught.  ME!!! 

So superficial, but I can't wait!!!  It's going to happen.  I may post a picture later, if I am feeling up for it!!!

The Results are IN!!!

Ok so I am going to provide everyone with my results and explain what my next step is in this process.  I am very excited about all this.

To start though let's go back to where I was 6 weeks ago.  On January 9th, 2009 I had my first weigh in and measuring.  At that point my weight was a whooping 200 pounds, my impedance (resistance) was 502, and my measurements were: Neck 33cm, Shoulders 108 cm, Abdomen1 89cm, abdomen2 102cm, glutes 114cm, right thigh 64cm, chest 96cm, calf 39cm, and bicep 35cm.  My body fat percentage was 37.3% which calculates to a total of 74.3lbs of fat on my body (gross!).  My lean body mass was 124.7 meaning I had a 1.7:1 ratio of lean body mass to fat ratio.  That being said the calculations show that I had 11% excess fat on my body.

My goal was to go down 20lbs.  I didn't quite make that, but I did drop 13lbs in my 6 weeks.  My long term goal is to get down to 169lbs and 26% body fat for a healthy body.  I would even like to drop down to 160 lbs, but that could change based on the muscle I gain which may keep my weight up, so I am not as concerned with the number on the scale as I am with the size of my wedding dress.

So my weight was down ~13lbs( this weight fluctuates during the day, so at the time of my weigh in I was at 191).  my measurements read like this; Neck 33 cm, chest 89cm, abdomen1 81cm, abdomen2 95cm , glutes 108cm, thigh 61 cm, calf and biceps were the same, shoulders 103 cm.  That equals a total of 15 inches lost during the 6 weeks. My body fat percentage is now 31.3% for a total of 61 lbs of fat which means I lost 13.3 lbs of body fat but I did gain 7 lbs of Lean body mass.  So I am now down to 5% excess body fat on my body (yeah). 

So there you have it those are my results and I am very happy with them.  I can now fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes, so I am looking forward to continuing my lifestyle change to fit into those other clothes that I was wearing when I first started dating Adrian.

I plan to continue with One to 1 fitness doing the group work out classes, as I get closer to my wedding date I may look into changing my workouts so that I can work one on one with my trainer just so that I can keep on my path to healthy living.  I am very much enjoying this journey that I have taken, I am so glad that I did and the trainers at One to 1 are amazing.  If you are in Red Deer and looking to make a healthy change, stop in and join my class you won't regret it.  I look forward to sharing more results with you in the future!!!  I will post some pictures soon!!

Last week!!

OMG I can hardly believe it, I have one week left in my six weeks to a new you. Do I feel like a new me, well I feel more like the old me then I have in a very long time.  There are definitely some changes that I still have to work on but some of the changes have come very easily and I am enjoying incorporating them into my life and into my families healthy living.

So next Monday I go for my final weigh in and measurements, so that is when I will post my final results and then I will hopefully have some links to send you to see my video interview or some first time pictures with last week pictures.  It's going to be exciting.

I can give you these results though. I am definitely feeling a change in my body at this point.  I have more energy, I am not as tired as I was.  I still like my sleep and can still go to bed early but if I stay up an extra hour or two I am not a walking zombie the next day.  I feel healthier and I am not getting sick even though everyone around me is catching every cold and virus that is floating in this environment.  My clothes are fitting better, I even wore a pair of guess jeans I bought back when my dad was still alive in the hospital yesterday that I hadn't been able to put on since I bought them because I had gained weight after he passed away and I gained more weight because then I got pregnant.  Now two years later I am getting back down.  Next stop is to get back into the pants I bought when my dad was in making his big mistake 8 months prior to his death. 

I hope you are all looking forward to my results as much as I am.  Soon maybe I will be comfortable posting bikini pictures too!!! lol

New results

I have now officially lost 11 pounds, and a total of 11 inches!!!  I am so excited about this turn of events.  There are two weeks left in my program and I need to work extra hard to lose those last 9 pounds to reach my goal and then I will be half way to my long term goal. 

I was a skeptic, I will readily admit that, I didn't think the diet component would be that big of a deal, but apparently it is.  So after struggling with it for a bit, I have adopted it into my new routine and things are going well.  I still would like to indulge every once in awhile and have some tasty treats, but I am refraining for now because I want to win the competition but also because I am determined to see this through.  My treat after the six weeks will be a night out to have a decadent dessert.

But I will keep up with the food plan and the diet plan.  I think that will definitely help, but I will have to adopt some extra workouts to do at home if I do not win this competition to work out with a personal trainer.  I can always continue to sign up with the group classes, but I think in April for sure I want to be working out hard core for April, May and June so that I can be in my best shape and learn to maintain my weight, because that's going to be my next big challenge. 

I have lost weight in the past, but it's keeping that weight off and down with which I struggle.  I mean I can't even blame everything on the pregnancy, I gained a bunch of weight before I got pregnant and then my eating when I was pregnant didn't help matters.  So the next habit I must teach myself is moderation and not doing things in excess.

Any ideas how to do that??

UPDATE!!!

As many of you have read (I think it's only two or three people but hey it's a start I guess) I had begun a six week workout session with a personal trainer at One to 1 fitness.  This six week program is designed to help you loss weight by changing eating habits and doing some amazing workouts.  I know if my trainer reads this it may go to his head, but I vowed to be honest in my blogs and the workouts are hard, but I am able to push myself through them and I am seeing results.

When I had my initial consultation I was asked to give a short intreview in a camera to tell everyone why I signed up and what my goals were for the six week program.  I told everyone that I had signed up because I wanted to lead a healthier life and I wanted to have a healthier body and lifestyle.  My goal for the six week program was to lose 20 pounds.  It seems like a lot of weight, and I will admit that it is but it was half of all the weight I essentially want to lose by June.  By June I hope to be down to my ideal weight and then I will spend June to August and further on maintaining that weight.  They also asked me to identify my biggest obstacle in my weightloss journey.  That was easy, it's my eating habits, the snacking and junk food that I would eat. 

I have had quite the wake up call to the food I am ingesting.  I enjoyed those Fibre One bars, and cereal bars and those things, but they are not that healthy for you.  I have survived kicking sugar out of my diet, and I haven't had many cravings for sugar,  there have been a few, but I have been able to distract myself from eating anything that is high in sugar.  I thought it would be hard, especially with two children at home and a husband, or soon to be husband that was not necessarily interested in changing his diet plans. He still likes junk food, chocolate milk and his beer.   I have not been drinking anything since this started, and I may have a night or two where I drink and stuff, but I am going to be very conscious of my decisions.  Everything in moderation and really some things should be limited.

I really thought I would struggle more with eating, and there are a few times when I do struggle, but the biggest change that has happened, well the two big changes that have happened have made things easier than I expected.  The first change was cutting the processed sugar from my diet, that's all those corn syrups, fructose, glucose sugars that are manufactured and not really healthy for you.  I have supplemented in Splenda for those times when I have to have a sweetener on a product to be able to ingest it.  I tried to eat oatmeal a few times without sugar and I thought I was going to choke on it, I could barely swallow it, it just did not taste good.  But they have brown sugar splenda now so that makes things much better.  The other change has been the cutting back of prepackaged food.  I don't eat very many frozen meals or frozen meat products anymore.  We eat more fresh prepared food that is homemade.  It's been a big change because we were completely a family of convenience.  The funny thing is, when we make a meal from scratch it really only takes an average of 20 minutes longer to prepare and then we have so many leftovers afterwards for lunches and stuff that it is very much worth those extra 20 minutes. 

So now here is the update on my results at the half way mark of my six week journey.  I am down 9 pounds from when I first weighed in at One to 1.  I have lost 6+ inches since starting with them.  Those inches have come from my chest (2), waist (3) and glutes (1).  So there have been some definite gains from this program. 

Last night I didn't want to go, I wasn't feeling well, but I dragged my butt down there and I did my work out, it was worth it! I am glad I did it and I felt better when I got home, so now for the next 3 weeks I am making a goal to be more diligent to my meal plans and to actually work out more then the 3 times a week with the group class.  I will let you know more results as I find them!!!