Challenge Issued

In the past 2 days I've had a few challenges issued to me, not sure whether I'll be able to accept them or not.



The people who have issued the challenge haven't worded it as a challenge, but believe me, if I choose to accept this challenge, that's EXACTLY what it's going to be.

Challenge # 1: Don't keep track of my mileage when riding my bike or running this next year.

I have kept track of how many miles I've ran this year & how many miles I've biked this year. I have it on an Excel spreadsheet and everything. I even have weather I ran on a treadmill or if I biked outside or on a spinning bike, etc.

If you haven't guessed it yet, I have OCD! Now, I don't have OCD where you have to flip a light switch 7 times before leaving a room, but I do catch myself washing my hands alot, etc. But, we could go off on that on another post. Lol.

One of my friends on Twitter who has done many Ironman's says that you should really ride or run for your heart rate and intensity and not necessarily mileage. I mean, go ahead & keep track of your mileage for that particular ride or run, but don't add up your mileage. In the long run (no pun intended), do those miles really matter?

It honestly gives me a little bit of anxiety thinking about not keeping track of my mileage. I look at how many miles & calories I've burned this year and to me it's an achievement, you know?

I did ride my bike on the bike trainer last night for 1 hour without knowiing mileage. I didn't know the mileage because my bike computer wasn't working & I don't have a heart rate monitor right now. Yes, it does kind of bug me that I don't know how many miles I went or how many calories I burned.

Challenge # 2: Throw out my bathroom scale.

This week has been a VERY rough week. I started out the week being sick. I felt like I had a cold, so I took a couple of days off from working out & started with the cold meds. When I don't workout I seem to lose all sense of self control. Then take in to consideration, I've been having major anxiety with my job lately. When I have major anxiety, the one thing I want to do is eat. All I've done all week is eat, eat, eat!!! I've eaten everything in site!!! It hasn't been good.

I can tell I've gained weight. I usually step on the scale every Saturday morning after my workout & morning shower & weigh myself. I've been doing this for 3 years. After I weigh in, I put that number on an Excel spreadsheet & calculate how much weight I've lost to date, etc.

I posted on Twitter today something to the effect that I'd gained ALOT of weight this week from eating crap because of anxiety and other factors and I'm gonna have to work hard next week and jump back on the band wagon and get this weight off. BananaBuzzbomb replied saying "Don't let that crap get to you. You're better than that!" Then she told me to throw out my scale. I need to stop looking at myself as a number.

Now, here's the difficult part. When I first started my weight loss and triathlon journey, I set a goal weight of 150 lbs. As I continue to workout, I've learned that is not a realistic goal. Why? Because I'm gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. So, size wise, I could be the same size as someone else who weighs 150 lbs, but I don't think I'll EVER see that # on the scale. I'm ok with that. What I'm not ok with, is seeing the # in the 170's. To me, that is just not good enough.

I'm scared to death of being 280 lbs again. It scares the bejesus out of me. Even when I gain 2 or 3 lbs, I feel like I'm 280 lbs again. Another friend on Twitter joined the conversation and when I told them that I'm scared of being overweight again, they told me "You will never be that size again. Ever. Weight will fluctuate at time. Focus on training, performance, not a number." THAT is my goal.

Honestly though, it scares the shit outta me to throw out my scale. I honestly don't know if I can do it. I haven't decided if I will weigh myself tomorrow or not to see how much weight I've gained this week. If I do decide to weigh myself, I need to promise myself not to get upset about it. I know that on Monday I will jump back on the band wagon and I will be working out twice a day.

Do you wanna try & join me in these challenges?

Down 5.2 Lbs

The week of Easter was not a good week. It was a very emotionally exhausting week, so working out and eating healthy went right out the window. In that one week, I gained ALOT of weight.

Well, last week, I jumped back on the band wagon and worked out every day. I worked out hard too. There was only one day that I didn't go swimming and one day that I didn't bike and run. I was physically exhausted.

But, even without that working out, I'm happy to say that I lost 5.2 lbs this week! I'm so excited! I can't wait to workout again this week and see how much weight I can lose this week.

I want to get back to the weight I was before Christmas. I want my weight to be back in the medium 160's.

No Self Control

Wow! This week I gained 14 lbs! I don't think I've gained that much weight in a LONG time. I expected it though.

The first 2 weeks after Christmas are EXTREMELY busy at my job. For example, I clocked 61 hours this last week. But because I work such looooooooong days I don't have time to go to the gym at night and I get such little sleep (avg of 4 hours a night, if that) that I'm so thoroughly exhausted in the mornings from working long hours that I can barely get my ass out of bed to get to the gym in the mornings.

To top it all off, during these 2 weeks, my co-workers make it a "treat week" at work where everybody has to bring a treat one day. They've tried to make it healthy so that every day a different person brings either something salty, sweet, or healthy; however, their version of healthy & my version of healthy are 2 different things. Lol. I guess I gotta give them props for trying, right?

But, it seems that when I don't go to the gym, I have a hard time with self control. I really need to work on that. I'm definitely going to be working and focusing on that this year, 'cause this next Christmas, I don't wanna gain 14 lbs in one week.

However, one plus is, even though I've gained 14 lbs, I can still fit in my smallest pair of jeans! Granted, they're a little snug, but I can still zip & button without having to suck in my stomach or lie on the bed! Woot woot!

Another thing that added to the equation of gaining so much weight is I broke up with my boyfriend during the week, which caused major anxiety and depression; therefore I got the munchies SUPER bad.

So, starting tomorrow, it's back to the gym to gain back some muscle and drop these 14 lbs I just gained. No matter how tired I am, I've got to get my butt outta bed at 4:30 a.m. and go workout. No if's, and's or but's about it.

I hope my personal trainer isn't disappointed in me.

Weight Loss Progress

My last post talked about how I was scared about changing my workout regimen and stuff like that, because I still have about 11 lbs I want to lose, to reach my goal weight of 150.

I'm pleased to announce that after my first week of BJ writing my workouts for me, I lost 0.6 lbs. Now granted, I wouldn't be surprised if I lost more weight than that, but since BJ has me doing so many weights, I'm building muscle and since muscle weighs more than fat, I wouldn't be surprised to see the number go up on the scale.

We shall see how it goes again this week.

Riddle Me This

Riddle me this. Normally when I weigh myself on Saturday's I wait until after my workout and then I weigh myself. Well, this last Saturday I decided to weigh myself before my workout. I weighed myself and it said I weighed in at 165.6, which is a 4.6 lb weight gain than the previous week.

I was really discouraged and frustrated, but headed to the gym any ways. I ran 8.0 miles on the treadmill at the gym and burned approx. 1100 calories.

I came home and right before stepping in to the shower I decided to weigh myself again and it said I weighed in at 161.6 lbs...a 4 lb weight loss than 1.5 hours earlier. What?!?!?! How? I don't get it.

I guess it's not for me to get.