Losing Weight is Hard

Hi, all!

So, my fitness evaluation needed to be rescheduled for Tuesday. I know it is only a few days away, but I am a little bummed out that I was not able to find out my results. Oh well, that means I have a few more days to work hard. And let me tell you, I have been working incredibly hard. According to my scale at home, I have lost 12.2 pounds in a month. We'll have to see what the scale at the gym says on Tuesday. Either way, I know that I have made progress because I stuck to my nutritional goals 22 out of 32 days. I am sort of ashamed that in March I had 10 days where I either did not count calories, binged, or just went over. Even though I am ashamed of that, it also shows just how hard I worked the other days out of the month. Consistently I saw my weight dropping, that is a fact because on March 7th, I weighed in at 330 pounds and this morning the scale told me 317.8. The results are real.

Losing weight it hard, I will not deny that at all. If it were just an easy thing to do, I would not have topped the scale at 330 pounds, and I would have been able to keep off the 50 pounds I lost before. It is hard, plain and simple. There are days where I do not want to eat healthily, where I would rather just binge on all of my comfort foods. Or have a big bowl of pasta, a whole bag of chips, a huge bowl of ice cream. Or just a bunch of unhealthy but delicious foods from a fast food restaurant. There is nothing wrong with having pasta, chips, ice cream or fast food. Moderation is the key. To be honest, though, there have been days where I have said, 'Screw it,' I'm going to make a big plate of nachos or eat a big bowl of ice cream. Not to mention that some days I do not want to work out and sometimes I don't. This week I worked out all seven days because I wanted to. But other weeks I only work out 4 or 5 times, sometimes less than that because I just don't have the energy for it. The point is, I'm not perfect 100 percentage of the time. It just so happens that this was an excellent week for me. I ate 3,921 calories under my weekly goal. I worked out for a total of 299 minutes. And had a total calorie burn between food and exercise of 9619. If you don't know, that is 2.75 pounds for the week. Some days in March I did not do well at all, but I still was down 6.2 lbs.

Here's what I want you to get from this long drabble, you don't always have to be perfect! Some days will be bad and some good. Some weeks you will lose 2 pounds, and somewhere you will gain them back. Have more good days than bad. Eat all the foods you love in moderation or find healthier replacements that you love even more. Just stick with it, and the results will come. Slow and steady wins the race.

It is finally the weekend. I am still trying to get used to working again. My job may not be all day at this point but I am still trying to get used to being busier. It will get better when I am in my actual work schedule and not my training schedule. This varying schedule is weird but I will be into my actual schedule within the next few weeks. It will be nice to get my first paycheck on Friday though. My next one will be even better though, so I am excited about May 1st.  

New Month, New Beginning

Hi, all!

Happy Friday! How are you all doing today? It's May 1st, which means a new month is upon us. Today is a clean slate, what are we going to do to make it count? There are so many things that we can accomplish this month if we put our minds to it. I shared my goals a few days ago, what are your goals for the month?

Yesterday I had another good day and I ended April on a positive note, which I'm so happy about. According to my records, I was 1041 calories under my goal (for the last 4 days of April), I had almost 1100 calories burned and 201 fitness minutes in those 4 days as well. :) I'm proud of myself for staying on track these four days because it hasn't been without hardships. Sometimes I think I need to eat more in the evening, even after I've had my snack, but I work through it and realize that I don't need it. It's especially gratifying when I talk myself out of eating some that is not necessary (like some nachos or something like that). Often in the evenings, I'm craving some sort of carb, usually chips, and I know that is not something I need. There is nothing wrong with eating chips from time to time, but in the evening, I'd eat way too many of them, so I try to avoid them. It'll be much nicer when I'm living on my own again and I won't even keep those kinds of things around.

Tonight my mom, two youngest nieces and I are going out for Chinese tonight, so it'll be tougher to keep on track today, but I'm determined to stay on track. I've already determined what I'm eating (some delicious chicken and broccoli) and I've added it to my nutrition tracker. This is how my life is going to be, there will be times that go out for Chinese or Italian or whatever else. I will eat it and enjoy it, but I'll make sure that it fits into my day.

Oh, and I just wanted to share something that I find amazing. The shirt I'm wearing today is one that I bought on Saturday. When I was trying it on, I thought it looked nice, but it was just another shirt. Today it is more than simply a new shirt, I feel more confident in it. The reason for that is that I'm working out and eating better again. I feel better about myself when I'm working out and eating properly and I think it shows. I'm more confident about myself when I'm doing well. It's an amazing feeling, I love having more confidence.

My best friend is going to be here starting on Sunday afternoon/evening and she'll be here until the following Saturday afternoon. I'm so excited to have her here, especially since I've graduated. Her sister is getting married a week from today and my best friend is the maid of honor. I can't wait for the wedding, it'll be an amazing time with a family that I've known since I was 7. Plus, I'll be able to hang out with my best friend a few times during the week that she's home. Anyways, I'm off. I hope that you all have an amazing day and an amazing beginning of the month. Until next time!

~Sara~ 

Weekly Fitness Goals

Hi all!

How are you on this Wednesday? Personally, I can't really complain. Staying busy with my homework, I'm focusing on my final paper and presentation today. Things will calm down a bit after this week and won't really get crazy again until about a month from now. I love taking my classes the way they are now but it really stinks that the final of one class and week one of the next class fall into the same week.

I am absolutely adoring the fact that I'm back into a healthier nutrition and fitness routine. When I started out, my walking was really light, not wanting to hurt my back while it's still healing. Now, my back is still healing, but I am trying to be more efficient with my workouts. I was logging a bunch of fitness minutes (900+ in 2 weeks), which is great, but my calorie burn was quite low for that many minutes. My legs were getting extremely fatigued because of the amount of minutes I was logging. So now, I am trying to have a higher calorie burn in fewer minutes. Currently, my goal is to burn 300 calories/workout and around 45 minutes a day (225 minutes/week). Sticking with that goal and my nutritional goals will help me lose 1 lb a week.

Time to get back to my final. I hope you all have a wonderful day and evening. Until next time!

~Sara~