This is the picture that did it for me. The one that made me realize that I really didn’t like the way I looked. Christmas morning with my boys and all I could see in this picture was how big my arms and stomach and legs looked. [My hair’s pretty gross too, but that’s not the point.] It’s not even that I think I look necessarily huge, I just didn’t realize that this is what I looked like. At all.
On January 2nd, I started a diet. A couple weeks later I joined the gym.
Click here for the previous update.
As of a month ago I had lost 12.something pounds. I posted this on Instagram.
I’m happy to report that 1 month later, as of today, I’ve lost 16.4 pounds. This is not a dramatic weight loss – just averaging a pound a week, but that is fine. I find it a little surprising because my lifestyle has changed quite dramatically since I started all this healthier living business.
I started Couch to 5k, are you familiar? I’ve historically never been a runner. I’ve historically always complained about my crappy knees. But. I’ve recently been sooo inspired by Mommy Boots and her success with this program that the urge to try it was overwhelming. I am currently in the middle of week four. In case you are not familiar, this program is designed to train a non-runner (definition: ME) to run a 5k in just 9 weeks. There are 3 sessions per week and each one is just about 30 minutes. Easy enough to commit to that, right?
To give you a better, but brief rundown, I think Wk 1 starts out alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking. By Wk 4, I’m up to this:
Warm up walk: 5 min
Jog: 3 min
Walk: 90 sec
Jog: 5 min
Walk: 2 min 30 sec
Repeat (minus the 5 minute warm up)
Cool down walk for 5 min
I have been doing the program outside at least 1x a week and inside on the treadmill 2x a week since I started. Not intentionally necessarily, but it’s just worked out that way. Jogging outside is like 54ish times harder than on the treadmill. I hate it during, but I love it afterwards.
My knees do hurt initially, but that kind of goes away once I get into my rhythm. I did day one of week four outside and it was quite a jump from week three so it was rough. REALLY rough. But I completed it. Did it again tonight on the treadmill and it was easy. I’ve already told myself that if I am not able to successfully complete a day, I am going to repeat it until I’m successful. So far, I haven’t had to repeat anything. Which is surprising since that 60 seconds of jogging the first week nearly killed me. Or so I thought.
This month’s major milestone: I fit into my “skinny jeans” that I quickly outgrew about a year ago when I stopped nursing Dexter. Woo!! Getting back into them has been a goal since I started on this journey. I did it and here’s the proof!
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| Disregard the dorky pose, fake smile, and wet hair. |
So despite the fact that the numbers are not changing rapidly on the scale, I feel MUCH better. I desperately need to buy some new clothes. I notice that I care more about how I look. I’m wearing make-up. Getting my eyebrows done again. Dressing (a little) cuter despite my limited wardrobe (the picture above is not intended to depict that). Contemplating a new hairstyle.
I’m proud of myself for challenging my brain and my body with this jogging madness, and I have so much more energy than I can remember having in recent years. I’ve been known to bust out 50 jumping jacks in the bathroom at work. I’m still sticking with My Fitness Pal, logging everything I eat and all of my workouts. It seems like a lot of work at first, but it really just takes a few seconds here and there and is kind of addictive! Not to mention sooo motivating. Come join and be a pal if you haven’t already!
xo,
~C~