Holly Sue - Plateau?

So yesterday I was doing a little upper-body workout with Jess, and at one point he said to me, "Dude, I'm really proud of what you accomplished in your race on Saturday, but you are really being a wuss today." It was true. I normally do 3 sets of 20 bench presses with two 20-lb dumbbells. Yesterday I was struggling to do it with 15 lb dumbbells. (Yes, yes we use dumbbells instead of a bar because it uses more muscles groups.) Weak - sauce.

I showed up to my workout with my food log only 1/2 filled out. I was complaining to him that I hated filling it out because it's getting tedious. For 2 weeks now I've shown up with only 1/2 of the weeks' meals completed. Jess emphatically informed me (and for anyone who meets him, you'll know what a spazzed out Jess is like) that when a person stops logging their nutrition, they've taken their first step to a plateau; that is, no more progress.



I've added an image of Ayers Rock here just for the sake of a visual. Pretty techy, huh?

So as I was struggling my way through the workout, and thinking about what Jess had said about a plateau, I suddenly realized something: I didn't care if I plateaued!! AHHH!! NOOOOOO!! Wait, I mentioned this in my last post, didn't I? About how, since I've weighed around 175 for the past 5 years, I find it totally weird to even imagine myself any lighter than that. I mean, think about it, the last time I weighed in the 160's I was like 19 - a teenager. How could I possibly try to get back down to a teen weight?

I told this to Jess and he nearly died. I told him, because it was the safest way for me to not use it as an excuse, right? I'll tell you the truth - I was already plateau-ing. In my mind I've been using the excuse of doing so well up until this point, and the excuse that my race went well, to justify "taking a week off." I'm admitting it here folks ... I was making up excuses to settle at 175.

So yesterday I recommitted. I've changed the way I'm logging my food so it won't seem so tedious. (I have a really simple day planner that I'm just going to write short notes in, instead of preparing an excel sheet that I have to update constantly.) I'm mixing it up! Recommitted - back to total focus on my goal.

I'm officially a size 12 now. I started out as a tight 14, then got to a nice 14, and now 14s just look baggy and kinda gross. Today I'm wearing a pair of "skinny" jeans that are a size 12 and they're fitting perfectly. I don't even have my love handles hanging over the waist (my sister calls this the muffin-top look.) It's a great fit.

But I'm thinking to myself ... what am I going to do when I get smaller ... I don't own any size 10 clothes ... ?!?!?!?

Here's some pictures at my tri by the way.













This one is a great shot of my gluteus maximus:














And lastly my run picture, which I'm not super fond of, but will post for the sake of posterity:

Running Stairs!

So yesterday was my first day of having Tuesdays and Thursdays off. It is going to help me out a ton! I am still working a lot, which takes away from my workout time, but now with these two days off I can go to the gym or track. Yesterday I went to the track with my friend and we were video taped running stairs and going around the track. It's pretty amazing how tired I can get so quickly. I have noticed a huge difference in muscle mass since starting back working out! It's amazing what a little effort can do. So I'm pretty jealous of Holly having all of her measurements. I think I will go take them within the next week and post them. I'm not sure what I have lost in inches yet so today is as good a day as any to start those measurements! I will get those posted so we can watch not only the weight go down, but also the inches! Have a wonderful day! ~~>Crabby

Holly Sue - RACE!

Ok, so woops. Haven't posted in a long time. I think about it all the time, so I don't know what took me like 10 days.

Here's the scoop! At my 6-week appointment last week I weighed in at 175. That's a 19.5 lb drop in 6 weeks. Yahoo! I haven't weighed below 170 since I was like 19, so I'm just a couple of lbs away from that. Who knows, that was a week ago so I may already be there!

Also, we measured my body! I'm going to type below what I measured on day 1, and what I measured at the end of 6 weeks:
..........Date: 7/10.........8/20..........Loss
Neck..........34.5 cm........33 cm.........1.5 cm = 0.59 inches
Shoulders......126 cm.......117 cm...........9 cm = 3.54 inches
Chest..........104 cm........97 cm...........7 cm = 2.76 inches
Waist...........86 cm......78.5 cm.........7.5 cm = 2.95 inches
Hips...........120 cm.......112 cm...........8 cm = 3.15 inches
Thigh...........72 cm........66 cm...........6 cm = 2.36 inches
Calf............40 cm........37 cm...........3 cm = 1.18 inches
Bicep (unflex)..36 cm........32 cm...........4 cm = 1.57 inches
Bicep (flexed)..33 cm......31.5 cm.........1.5 cm = 0.59 inches

So that's a total loss using those 9 measurements of 47.5 cm, or 18.7 inches, or 2 inches per spot on my body. Not bad, eh?!?!?



That's the progress report.

This week I've been bored with eating well again. That's pretty bad, I know. I've been keeping a pretty intense record of everything I eat and when, and this past week I haven't been tracking almost at all, because it feels tedious. I just want to live life normally, and it's hard after 6 weeks to want to be all hard-core about it.

I did the Jordanelle triathlon on Saturday (under my sister Sunny Jo Lawrence's name - which is against the rules so SHHHHH don't tell). I took 3rd place in the Athena division, which means women over 150 lbs. There were 17 women in the division, and I took 3rd. Yahoo! The 1st and 2nd place winners both finished 10 minutes ahead of me, which is a HUGE gap, lol. Next year I'll take first ... that is, if I still weigh over 150 lbs. Hmmm....

The swim was 800 meters, or 1/2 mile. It took me 25 minutes. The bike was a 20k or about 14 miles and took me 49 mins. The 5k or 3 mile run took me 30 minutes. My overall time, including transitions was 1 hour 50 minutes. We'll post pictures as soon as my sister sends them over to me. It was SO MUCH FUN!

Yesterday we had a picnic in the park, me and one of my sisters and her family. We bought a watermelon, and when we weighed it at the cash register, it was a 20 lb watermelon. I handed it to my sister and said, "Feel how heavy this is? See how BIG it is? This is EXACTLY how much weight I've lost." Folks, it was one big, heavy watermelon. I thank God that I'm not carrying that weight around anymore.

Umm...so I think that's about it. I'm feeling fine, kind of tired still, but that may be because my landlord keeps turning off the A/C and it's still really hot. I still love food. And I love being the President of the "Holly Sue and Her Relationship With Food Committee." I've gotta thank O3 for bringing such a kickin' opportunity into my life. The lifestyle that comes with using the Fixx and Form products matching my body's needs perfectly.

Oh, and one more thing ... wait a minute ... what was it? Um ... oh yah! My sister-in-law brought over a bunch of clothes that her neighbor was getting rid of and we were going through them. Now, when we started this thing, I was SQUEEZING into size 14 pants. Well, I tried on a size 10 skirt from Old Navy. I could fit in on my body and over my hips, zipped up and everything. I'm not claiming it looked good. It looked pretty tight lol. BUT the point is that I fit it onto my body. I'm saving the skirt (also because it's flourescent green and how cool is that?) and I'll try it on in another 3-4 weeks. I'll take a picture if it's smoking hot :D

Ok that's all!

Getting Stronger!!

So I went hiking this past weekend and it was pretty tough! I'm not going to lie. I struggled a lot of the way. It was up a mountain so that may be some of the reason. We went up the mountain to a cave and did a tour. Luckily for me it wasn't too hot. I was excited because I was able to do it and recover quite quickly. Today (tuesday) I am almost fully back to normal. I also had a workout last night with Jess and that went really well. We did arms and abs (no fun haha). My arms are starting to feel really really good. I can tell i'm gaining muscle and because of my eating habits, gaining muscle instead of fat is much much better!
Speaking of eating, I'm doing pretty dang good at it. With the fixx in the morning and the form in the afternoon it's going amazing. I keep the form at my desk at work since that is where I am eating. It really is helpful to have everything I need in a little baggy haha! Well everything is going well so far. I weigh in tomorrow and fingers crossed, I think I lost more!! ~~>Crabby

Holly Sue - Detox ... yuck

Ew I have been feeling like garbage these past few days. I have been feeling sick sick sick, but not sick. Runny nose, stuffy sinuses, headaches, nausea, super tired all the time ... just yucky. At first I thought it was allergies, but it feels different. As I talked to Jess about it he pointed out to me that I weigh less now than I have in 4 or 5 years - the toxins that I'm realising as my body is burning fat have been sitting all yucky in my body for years.

This is funny though. I told Jess about my mess-ups with eating this week and he was pretty upset. He thought it would be a good idea to weigh again this week and just see how badly my beer, buffalo wings, and onion rings, oh and pizza, messed up my flow. Last week I was at 180.5. Oh, and by the way, I didn't work out for 4 days this week. It was bad. SO! We weighed me in....

176.5 - lol I'd lost 4 more pounds. So now I'm at 18 down ... in 5 weeks. Ye - haw!

I don't feel like writing more because I gotta blow my nose :D

Ahhh Yeah!!

So I'm pretty excited about things. I worked out HARD on Monday. It was pretty tough, but that's what I needed. My eating has been pretty good, typical ups and downs like expected. Like Holly, I've been really craving certain foods. For me I crave Wendy's food haha. I will say, I've stayed away. I just moved a bike up into my room and rode for about an hour and a half yesterday. It's so much nicer to have a bike in my room. I've found that I like to watch sports, and with the Olympics in full swing, I can sit down on my bike and ride my life away haha. It passes time much easier than staring at a wall at the gym. I'm working on finding a place to swim during the winter. It's so nice to swim and get a good workout in without feeling all sweaty!! Plus, with my knees and back not being in the best shape, swimming takes all the pressure off of them but I'm still BURNING CALORIES!! I weighed in today and I'm down 14.5 lbs so that makes me pretty happy considering the week I had to take off because of my back!! Now as long as I can keep from being injured I'll be golden!! Here we go....~~Crabby

Holly Sue - Must ... eat ... hamburger ...

These past two days have been weird, weird ... WEIRD! Just becuase I'm craving lots of food, and especially in the evenings, and when I do eat it isn't very satisfying. My body seems like it won't stop triggering the "hungry" button until I give it what it's craving.

A few weeks ago Jess told me that when I feel serious cravings come on, to be sure and NOT act on them - because the cravings are a sign of my body detoxing. If I feed the cravings, the detox is ineffective. At the time, when he told me it didn't matter. But man oh man, these past few days have been a struggle.

First of all, I went out with some friends to celebrate 8/8/8. Jess has told me that beers are the worst form of alcohol, as far as calories, carbs, and general nutrition go. So I haven't had a beer since I started the study. But, at the celebration, in the evening (when I'm supposed to avoid starchy carbs) I had a few beers. And then I had a buffalo wing and an onion ring. I'm wondering if eating those things made me begin to crave nonsense.

The next day my family had a meeting for a charity we run. I had been in a hurry all day, and needed to eat my next meal, but didn't because I would be late for the meeting. There was pizza there, and I had 3 slices. Pizza isn't that big of a deal, except I was already at my fat limit for the day (so I shouldn't have eaten cheese) and it was at 7 PM that I ate it (so I shouldn't have been eating starches).

THEN ... the next day, all I wanted was a hamburger for lunch. I stopped by my sister's house, this was Sunday, and her husband was barbequeing burgers for the kids. I decided not to have one, because I was "going to go home and make myself a nice, healthy wrap..." But the minute I got in my car, all I could think about was a $1 double-cheeseburger from McDonalds. On my way home I took the longest route possible that passed the highest number of burger joints. I kept talking myself out of it, and then deciding to just do it, then talking myself out of it, etc. Finally, I settled for a chicken sandwich at Carl's Jr. with no sauce. It was a close substitute. But my next meal that day (I made a veggie/tofu stir-fry) seemed almost tasteless to me. After I ate it I didn't feel like I'd eaten at all. I just wanted a nice, heavy meal - full of starches and carbs ... yum yum yum. Ha ha. A little form pill added to that meal at least shut my grumbly tummy up and I stayed on track the rest of the night.

So, who knows? Since my last meeting with Jess I've felt really confident, and I'm thinking I've been feeling a little over-confident. I don't have any instructions to change my nutrition at all, but I'm constantly saying to myself, "Well, I've been doing so well, that just ________ won't hurt!" Dah! Also, now that I'm into the 170's, which is a 10-lb range I've been in since I was 20, I get this thought in my head that I've done "good enough" and that I can stop now. No! I want to get FIT, not just part way!

That, my friends, is my total confession. Ha ha. My clothes are fitting WAY better though, I even wore a pair of jeans this week that I'd retired about a year-and-a-half ago because I'd gotten too big for them. They fit me comfortably! (I even got compliments - woot woot) So, I got really brave and tried on another pair of "skinny" pants. They were a no-go. Lol. Next time, next time.

I'm back and ready to go!!

So as you probably have noticed, I had been out for about a week. I was having some back problems (which are weight related of course) but now i'm back and ready to get rid of the weight. Tonight I have a training with Jess. Tomorrow I'm moving in a stationary bike so that I can work out when I'm watching T.V.!!! I am soooo excited for that.
Last week on Friday I got the chance to get some video and pictures taken of my progress. That is really what keeps me driving. The people I know that are watching and cheering me on!
I can't wait to get weighed in again. The last time I weighed in was the day before they took the scale from work for maintenence. I'm hoping it will be back shortly. If not, I will go into a gym that has the equipment to weigh me. Soon I won't even have to worry about whether a scale will weigh me or not!! I'm so excited for that. Ok, well I'll let you know how my workout goes tonight!
~~>Crabby

Holly Sue - end of week 4, down 14 lbs! Woot!

So I weighed on Tuesday and was down another 5 lbs in 2 weeks. My weight was 180.5. It would have been cool to have dropped into the 170's, but I accept being 0.6 lbs away from that. Yahoo! Down 14 lbs!

Jess was a little nervous about me getting on the scale, because he doesn't like weighing so often. But we've discussed how I've been eating and he says that I'm on a perfect track. It is getting easier and easier. I talked to him about what I've been eating when I go out to eat, and so far I've been making great choices. Yahoo! It's really liberating to know that what I'm doing is working, and that I'm not "trying" anymore. I'm just doing it! I know exaclty what to do, I know that it is working and that my body is happy with the changes I've made, and now it's just a matter of keeping on!

One of the coolest things about this is that I've never lost any weight in my life, and so the idea of losing weight or whatever always seemed really daunting, because it was a huge mystery to me. It's like I've solved the mystery and now I know, for the rest of my life, what simple little things I can do that will keep me fit and healthy forever. No wondering if it will actually work, because I know it does. No trying out new fad diets or whatever, because I know what works. If for some reason I ever gain weight back (like if I have a baby for example), I know exactly what to do to bring myself back into health. It's so simple: eat small, regular meals; avoid starches in the evening; never go more than a few hours without food; keep track of how many fats I eat each day and stay within a reasonable limit; serve myself small portions. The end! That's all it takes.

So yahoo! I'm 1/3 of the way to my goal of losing about 50lbs, and I'm exactly 1/3 of the way through the 90-day trial. Right on track!

Holly Sue - Moving is fun

So I moved yesterday. I own basically nothing, so the whole process, including cleaning took only about 14 hours. I kept losing track of time, though, and forgetting to eat. Arg! The worst thing I could do right now is lose by body's trust that I will feed it regularly.

I'm assuming, now, that there will be some adjustments to my lifestyle slightly because of my new living situation. Previously, I was living with my boyfriend in a condo. Now, I'm renting a room from a friend of mine in her GIGANTIC house. LOL. Sharing a kitchen with her may be a little weird at first. But I'm always up for a challenge, right?

My work schedule is changing a little this month too. I'm working more hours, and I've taken on several new responsibilities. Time to REV it all up I suppose.

But I'm feeling great, eating is great. Pretty much everyone in my life has begun commenting on how I'm looking thinner. I haven't weighed in 2 weeks, but probably will tomorrow.

I'm also getting really creative and efficient with my cooking. I used to manage an Asian restaurant, so I know the recipe for lettuce wraps by heart. Well, by making a few alterations here and there in the recipe, I have a fat-free, meat-free, carb-free version of the wraps that everyone loves. All veggies and tofu. Yum yum yum. Even my Dad liked them, and that's comparable to saying that Paul Bunyon liked them. Ha ha - just kidding.

Oh, and I have some sad news. I went to register for the Jordanelle triathlon too late - it was full. I have some friends that are signed up that may not want to do it, so I'm considering sneaking and doing it under their names. It's against the rules. But don't worry, I don't cheat with my eating like I do with my racing. Ha ha ha ha. Just kidding. So Yuba tri is only like 2 weeks after and I'll probably do that instead.

I owe Rick lettuce wraps probably.

So I'm off to bed. My workout buddy has been out of town for a few days and she got back tonight, so I'll probably get to start working out with her again. Yahoo. (She now lives next door to me). Oh, and for the record, her husband, my brother-in-law JAMES LAWRENCE, just rocked his first full Ironman in California. He completed in 11 hours, 10 minutes. YEEEEHAW!

Ironman.

Iron.

Man.

Crazy week!!

So as you can see, it's taken me a while to get back on and blog again. I will say this, it was an Up and Down week for me. There were a couple super easy days and a couple really hard days this past week. The hardest part for me has been the staying in control of my eating part. The working out for me, comes natural. I like to work out, i like to be outdoors so that's not tough. On saturday I had an all day Volleyball tournament and then yesterday a couple friends and I went hiking for several hours. The sad thing is how my body is handling things. My back is very very sore and If I don't start figuring out what this is, it could mess me up. I really feel that losing weight is soooo Important for me right now in order to become more healthy. I'm afraid that if I don't do this now, i will be miserable for the rest of my life. I don't want this to be a pity post, because it's not. I'm just venting!
On a positive note, i'm still able to do things that a lot of people my size can not do. I will weigh in either today or tomorrow and let you know how that goes. Sorry for the short post but i'll jump back on when i get some free time.~~>Crabby