Another Update

I was scared to weigh myself today, I didn't count calories this weekend and the only exercise I did was walking around stores and trying on clothes.

I ended up losing 2 pounds over the weekend, hooray! So I've lost 21 pounds in 11 weeks keeping my 2 pound a week momentum going. I've lost 33 pounds this year!

On Thursday I start my women's weight lifting class.

My roommate moves in today so I don't get to store all of my healthy food all over the fridge, I've got to be a little more picky about what I buy since the fridge isn't all mine. I had two Healthy Choice meals yesterday since I had a whole bunch in the fridge.

I guess since I lost weight this weekend I did well, I didn't over indulge. We had a catered lunch at work and I filled my plate with salad and a bit of pasta, but I did go all out at Red Lobster.

I guess I'm just learning to eat better and not overindulge.

I haven't been to the gym in over a week so I'm going to get my work out today.

108 to go!

I've done a lot of things since I last posted.

Two days ago, Saturday, my friend and I went on a 3 hour hike (though we spent about 30 minutes having lunch).

Today I went on a bike ride around the university. I haven't ridden my bike for such a long distance in a while and I almost made it completely around the university but the uphill ride made my sides really sore. I was pretty tired but I didn't give up and rode my bike all over until I made it back to my place.

I've been really happy with what I've been doing. It's like I feel weird if I don't work out. I may go for another ride tomorrow if I don't make it to the gym. Since summer school is over the gym closes at 6 which means I have an hour after work to work out and I kind of want to relax before I go to the gym.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy that in the past 9 weeks I've lost almost 20 pounds! If I lose 1 more pound I'll have lost 30 pounds this year.

It's been really hard and I get sleepy due to my low blood sugar but for the first time I feel like I've actually accomplished something. I hope that by next May when I graduate I can look good in my robe and not like I did in my high school picture.

I may also go to Europe during spring break and it would be nice to not be the fat american, haha. Also I want to be comfortable in the plane and not feel like the seat is too small.

I feel good.

Down 5 pounds

So I haven't weighed myself in a little over a week and I decided to do that today just to see how my week of no exercise affected me. It turns out that sticking to a low calorie week helped me lose pounds.

I've been weight lifting to build muscle and it didn't budge the scale much which seems pointless when your goal is to just lose weight. Building muscle has worked out pretty great for me, though 2 months of working out 5 times a week and sometimes six left me feeling kind of crappy because the scale only changed a pound or two throughout the week. I felt a little defeated until clothes that fit really tight started fitting perfectly and my stomach started to get a little smaller and smaller.

Well after thorough research it turns out that muscle weighs more than fat, which I was a bit confused about, I asked myself "wouldn't 5 pounds of muscle weigh as much as 5 pounds of fat?" Well yes and no, muscle retains more water than fat which is why I wasn't losing weight. After a period of time the muscle starts needing less water and the weight starts to drop. Here's a perfect example of this description:

Another good point to weight lifting and building muscle:
If there are two people with the same weight (i.e. 150 pounds) the one with more muscle will burn more calories doing the exact same thing as the person with less muscle, even if it's just sitting on the couch.

I've started reading a pretty awesome book:

I bought it yesterday and I'm already half-way through it. It's pretty inspiring and honest. She lost 186 pounds, that's just amazing. Her goal was to lose 200 pounds so I can lose the pounds I want.

Anyway, this is a weightloss blog, not a diet blog. What my years of dieting have taught me is that diets are things to lose weight and when you've lost a certain amount of weight then when you've given up or lost the weight you want, it ends and you're back to your old eating habits.

I've decided that this is a lifestyle change, it means I have to be strict with that I eat, but if I slip up from time to time (Last week it was a burger, fries and some cake at Jackson's), it's perfectly fine, it's not something that's ended as soon as you slip up. It's not like getting a DWI and having your license suspended, it's more like getting a traffic ticket, you pay the price (feeling guilty, gaining weight, or in my case feeling sick to your stomach).

Since I've decided to make this a lifetime commitment I don't crave food as much as I did before. I had a carton of ice cream in my fridge that my roommate left before she moved out. I noticed it sitting under a pile of frozen chicken breasts a few days after I started my weight loss, after buying two weeks worth of healthy choice meals last Wednesday I decided to throw it out because I didn't really want it and it was just taking up space.

I hardly ever tell myself "NO YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!", if I truly want it, I'll eat it, but in a smaller portion. Last Sunday my mom ordered pizza and I ate two slices and three chicken wings while the old me would have had 5-6 slices and 6 or 7 wings.

I do admit that I count calories like my life depends on it, and in a way it does, but I'm trying a little harder to just wing it and learn to gauge what food I can eat and how much.

This next week I'm going to try really hard to lose weight, I have to buy school clothes next weekend, and I may push it to the week after just to get better fitting clothes.

Anyway, I haven't had my snack today and it's been 3 hours since I last ate. My body is now used to getting food every 3 hours so now my stomach is asking for food. Have a good weekend (to whoever reads this).

My loss so far.