Weekly Chart #5 (or #13)

I'm posting my fifth weekly chart, even though this is week number thirteen of tracking.  That means I haven't posted my chart every Sunday more often than I have.  Oh well, we all know what that infamous road is paved with, I guess I'm just contributing my paving stones!  Anyhow, here's my current chart:

I'm 6/10ths of a pound away from my weight goal today.  So that's super exciting.  The one area that I still really need to focus on is my waist size.  I think that perhaps my original goal of 26.5 inches may be a bit of a stretch.  But I still think I'd like to get my waist down to about 28 inches.  So that will be my next big focus once I'm on the maintenance phase of the weight.

My trick to keeping the weight off is going to be weighing myself every day.  That way if I over-indulge one day, I can nip it in the bud and get back on track the next day.  Maintenance won't be as exciting as losing weight has been; but I'll enjoy feeling better all the time!

Almost at the Ultimate Goal

This morning when I stood on the scale it read 126.0.  I'm super excited that I've been able to stick with this and make some real progress.  I just need to lose 1 more pound to hit my goal of 125.  I know that originally I stated my goal was between 125 and 128, but I thought it best to hit the bottom of that goal prior to moving to the maintenance phase.

I still have work to do to get into even better shape, but I've come so far and I look so different than I did 3 months ago.  I like what I see when I look in the mirror.  I don't see perfection yet (heck, I probably never will); but I do see progress and improvement that makes me feel good about myself.

It's been amazing what taking control of this one aspect of my life has done for me.  My work situation is thoroughly insane these days, but I haven't totally gone off the deep end because I had control of this part of my life and have been seeing positive results every day.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to post a chart that will show a weight of 125 pounds!

I've Discovered a Healthier Version of Me

I'm going to try really hard to find the time to post my "weekly" chart this Sunday.  I'm still making good progress, although things have of course started to slow down and get harder.  At first the weight was coming off so fast, practically every morning the scale would have good news.  Now it's remaining stagnant for a longer period of time.  But it is still trending in the right direction.

The really amazing thing is how much my mind-set and my health have changed.  When I first started counting my calories using myfitnesspal I was mortified that I could only have 1200 calories.  I started exercising a lot more just to be able to eat enough.  Now my body has reset and 1200 calories is more than enough most days.  In fact to keep the weight loss going I've pretty much quit using my exercise as a way to get more calories and I've been sticking with just 1200 food calories per day.

But that doesn't mean I've quit exercising.  I'm doing just as much if not more than I was when I needed the added calories.  I really enjoy feeling stronger, and it's amazing the mood improvements I get when I exercise.  It's just a habit now.  Even during my busiest days I always find time for exercise.  Like a day recently when I was traveling for work and wasn't going to have any time for a workout and so I chose not to take the train at the airport and instead walked to my concourse.  It was only 20 minutes, but I found time even that day for something.

One of the tricks that I've been using that's really helping is to play music.  It makes me happy and it makes me want to move.  I finish up my workout with a smile on my face and in a better mood.  Gretchen Rubin recently blogged about how exercise contributes to happiness at The Happiness Project.  BTW:  This is a great blog to read if you're working on choosing happiness in your life.

On another note; I'm going to try to get some rest now.  It is almost 2 AM and I have to get up for the day in less than 3 hours. I did manage to get about 2 hours of sleep tonight before I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.  Work stress.  I've frequently had problems sleeping but over the years have developed so many tricks to help me get back to sleep that I've been doing much better.  But I have a huge deadline looming at work tomorrow and haven't had as much time as I would have liked to work on it because of too many competing priorities.  Does anyone have a job any longer that doesn't expect the work of two people?  I just wish I got the salaries for all of the jobs that I'm doing!  Anyway, off to bed to try to get some sleep.  Lack of sleep definitely doesn't help with health goals!

Choosing to Share

Every winter we spend a weekend in the mountains with my parents and brother and his family.  It's a tradition that we all really look forward to.  We always go snowshoeing while we're there and it's nice after an intense workout like that to go back to the cozy cabin and have a hot lunch.  Over the years I've gotten some amazing pictures of the area that I thought I'd share with my readers.  Please enjoy!