Sunday, March 21, 2010

85!!!

I hit the big 85 lb. mark this morning! That's like the size of one of one of my tallest boys in my class! :) Chris made some comparison photos today, since I hit that next milestone, and after I came home from shopping he surprised me with this cool video. (it plays music, in case you're at work :)



It is so cool to see the weight just melt off...



The comparison photo shows the changes that have happened, even since 77 pounds, which confirms the fact that I'm still losing inches despite the fact that the scale hasn't gone down much. Chris made a good point--when I first started losing weight, it was probably more of my muscles with a little bit of fat. Now, as I'm building my muscles through exercise, I'm mainly losing fat which is harder to come off. I went running 3 times last week, and Chris is back at it with me. Yesterday, we went for 20 minutes!! We had a 5 min warm up, 20 minutes of jogging, and a 5 minute cool down. What an accomplishment!! The next run tomorrow is back to being a little easier again. The program wants you to really push it, and then ease back a little. We've decided to do The Second Empire 5K on May 2nd. We're on the 6th week of couch to 5K, and once we finish the 9 weeks, we're going to start back at the beginning with the program, but instead of alternating walking/running, we're going to run the whole time and alternate our pace. Chris came up with that idea today, and I thought that sounded good. Not that I'm trying to become really fast necessarily, but it's good to have a program to follow and it keeps us motivated and focused.

My birthday is on Tuesday and I will be 32. As I've been thinking about my birthday last week and where I thought I'd be when I was 32, the thought of children has entered my mind. When I was younger and had just gotten married, I thought I'd have 2 kids by now. In all that I have gone through in this journey over the past 7 months, I am so glad that I will be healthy and ready physically to have kids once it happens. Going through the surgery and everything since then has been life changing, and I think it would have been totally different if I had kids to worry about. So, as I always tell myself, everything happens for a reason and it is obviously God's plan that I went through this first before having kids.

I bought a skirt today at Target in a size 12! It was a little snug, but I bought it knowing it should fit well soon. Well...lots of exciting things this week. :) Yay for spring!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Chugging Along...

I have been doing really well the past few weeks. I enjoyed my track out, just catching up on things, working on stuff at the house, and at the end I even enjoyed my time with Chris while he was recovering from his surgery. It was a much needed break, and I'm glad I had nowhere to go, and not much to do. Sometimes you just need that kind of track out. :) The weather has been beautiful and we're coming into my favorite season--Spring! I love the colors, the flowers blooming, starting to wear pastels and short sleave shirts, and decorating for Easter.

My total weight loss this morning is 84 pounds. So, on the scale I am still showing a bit of a plateau. My weight has been very up and down the past two weeks as I've been going through my cycle. It has been about 45 days since my last one, so despite being very irratic I'm glad it's happening! At my highest, I never really felt the effects of water weight with my cycle, but this time I definitely noticed it.

Even though the scale has been slightly moving, I've noticed so many other positive changes lately. I got my wedding rings resized to a 6.5 from a 9!!!!!! I could not believe that I was able to go that small...when the guy told me he thought that's what it would be I thought, seriously?? But he was right. I also got them soldered together, and it's such a nice feeling to actually have them fit, versus me being afraid they are going to fall off. I am now wearing a size 14, from a 24. I can't tell you how exciting it is to go into all regular stores and be able to fit into everything there. The best is when I take back a pair of pants in a 14 and 16, and the 16 is too big! The last time I wore a size 14 was in high school, my senior year, when I was first dating Chris. I pulled out my favorite St. Mary's sweatshirt, from the Undatettes club I was in. It's so cool to wear a shirt that has the years 94-95 on the back, and have it even be a little big. :) The other exciting clothes news is that I have bought two t-shirts in a size large!! Kelly, Tammy and I went to Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead City last weekend, and I wanted to get a new shirt since I have two other ones in an XL and XXL. Kelly held up a women's cut large to my back and we decided that's the one I would get, because certainly I would be able to wear it in a few weeks when it's warmer out. We got back to the condo and I put it on, and it FIT!!! I can't tell you how excited I was. I don't remember the last time I wore a large t-shirt...it was probably in 5th grade. ;) Then, Chris and I decided to go to the State game in Greensboro, and since my only red shirt right now is a turtleneck I needed a new State shirt. I went to Alummni Hall at Crabtree, and got the cutest State shirt in a large. My problem with t-shirts in the past, is the way that XXL shirts are cut is that there are really long arms (assuming that people who are that size are probably tall) and the shirts themselves are long. Sometimes they looked like a dress on me! I always needed that size for my chest and my stomach, so it ended up looking ridiculous everywhere else. These large shirts seem to fit me everywhere...the arms are the perfect length, and the middles are form fitting but also have enough room. I couldn't be happier that I can wear that size now, and I can't wait to buy a medium next! After I get ready later on, I'll post some pictures with my new shirts. :) I'm waiting to do another comparison picture when I am down 85 pounds, so hopefully that will be this week.

My Couch to 5K program has been going well, and I've even been doing it by myself! Chris wasn't allowed to run for 2 weeks after his surgery, so I've been going alone. I can't believe that I am able to run for 16 minutes now. The last time I went, I completely beat my distance from the time before! I like running with Chris, but there is also something so liberating in going by myself because I am motivated enough to exercise by myself and don't need a buddy there to keep pushing me!! I am pushing myself, where in the past, I used to make a bunch of excuses not to exercise, and just to "take it easy" and not push myself. I would tell myself that at least I was exersizing, and didn't feel the need to "beat" any times or distances. Now I want to challenge myself, and keep getting better.

Despite the fact that the scale hasn't showed much loss lately, I still have so much to celebrate. So, I am confident that as long as I'm doing what I've been told to do, the scale will start catching up to all of the other awesome things I'm seeing. :)