A Jiggly Chick Loses Weight

[Cross-posted on My Silly Life]

This was the first time I've done an organized ride. We tried to do the WABA ride several years ago, but it was cancelled by damage from Hurricane Isabel. Each year since then we have had some conflict with the ride. I was excited that this year's ride worked out for us...excited and a little nervous. I'm not exactly the fastest rider on the planet, so one of my biggest fears was that we'd get "swept up" before finishing the ride. I knew I could do the 19 miles – that's actually a couple miles short of what our long ride should be this weekend for our training schedule...I'm just not as fast as many other riders.

I wasn't certain about the weather, since I'd woken up a couple times in the night to hear downpours and thunder. We got up at 5:30 and checked the weather reports – one said 10% chance of rain until about 11AM when it would go up to 40-50%; another site said 90% chance for rain going up to 100% at 11AM. Hmmmm....they could not have been more different. We decided to at least head downtown, and if it was raining hard, we could always bail.

We had to be on the first Metro train out of the station in the morning so we could check in at registration. I'd been hoping to be one of the first riders out, but the 7AM train didn't get us into DC until about 7:40. We checked in at the Registration at Freedom Plaza downtown and got going on the ride a bit before 8AM.

The route brought us right by the White House.

Then we went into Georgetown along the Whitehurst Freeway. It's a little sad that this freeway is usually occupied by cars with drivers who probably don't enjoy the view, because it was quite lovely. From there we crossed the Key Bridge and hopped onto the GW parkway. Part of the Parkway was closed off for the ride. It started drizzling a bit on this stretch of the ride, but it wasn't bad. The route was a bit of a bear, though, because it was uphill, it seemed, for about 1.5 miles. Coming back down? Fun!

The next stop was a trip around the Iwo Jima memorial.

Then it was on to the Air Force Memorial. It was a huge uphill trip from the main road up, but worth it for the view. It was also my first time at this memorial.

From there it was just a few miles to the finish in Crystal City. And I didn't get "swept up"! We arrived around 10:30AM, so 2.5 hours for 19 miles, photos, and a pit stop. Mostly I had fun – the only questionable part was that uphill on the GW Parkway, but hey, it's in the bank, right?

You can see the rest of my pics from the ride here: Bike DC

This week: -3 lbs
Spring Fling Challenge: -18 lbs
Overall: -33 lbs

I haven't been good about blogging the last couple weeks, but I have been checking in over at The 'Hood with my G4 girls. I've been struggling a bit since Easter, but managing to maintain the previous two weeks. Finally this week I'm down!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still struggling, but my husband and I are making sure to get in our biking for the half-century training (if you're on Dailymile, friend me!). I think that regular exercise, where I'm actually tracking my heart rate and pushing myself, is really helping, even when my food intake isn't where I'd like it to be.

No matter the final outcome of the leaderboard, I'm really proud of my team. We all had struggles throughout this challenge - from emotional/personal struggles completely unrelated to weight-loss, to exercise struggles, to health struggles. And no matter what, we all came through - maybe not losing weight each week, but coming back and trying again, which, frankly, is more important than what the scale says every week.

Congrats to all of my G4 girls! And congrats to all of the other Spring Fling teams - looking at the leaderboard, everyone in the challenge is kicking some ass!

This week: -2 lbs
Spring Fling Challenge: -15 lbs
Overall: -30 lbs

Holy moly! Do you see that badge?? Do you? It's the 30-lb badge! Last August I was sooooooo close to that badge, but couldn't quite get there, so I'm totally proud of myself for making it this time.

I'm a little mad at myself this week, though, because I didn't make great choices, especially Sunday through yesterday. I think the thing that saved me is my biking. I'm now biking Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday (see previous post for the upcoming schedule!). Discovered that on the real bike my heart rate is much, much higher than when I train on the stationary - even though on the stationary I think I'm pushing myself (and feel like I'm going to die if I push any harder). Of course, this made me push harder on the stationary bike Monday, so hopefully I can keep pushing myself.

Goals for this week? Get back in gear with tracking my calories...that kinda dropped off when I started making back choices on Sunday. Then just keep biking, sticking to the training schedule I posted as closely as I can.

Okay, I'm making it public so everyone can keep me honest. Here's my first stab at a training schedule for our training for a half-century ride in September. This is based on a much shorter schedule for a century. The Wednesday ride should push our speed/pace faster than the target for our final ride. The other rides should be at our target speed/pace.

This week: -0 lbs
Spring Fling Challenge: -10 lbs
Overall: -25 lbs

Well, I maintained. I suppose that's better than the alternative. I'm actually happy to have maintained, given I was traveling from last Wednesday through Sunday. But, I'm unhappy at how derailed I get after returning home from traveling...

This should come as no surprise, but I've found that travel always messes up whatever groove I was in beforehand. I was doing fairly well exercising, recording what I ate, making better choices, and staying within my recommended calorie range each day. On travel, all of that fell apart...except maybe the exercise, but it was mainly walking around, and was done out of necessity, not because I was making a concerted effort to "go and exercise".

I think part of the problem is that travel just makes me tired. I'm not in my regular routine, I'm not sleeping particularly well, and things are just unfamiliar. Plus, this was a trip to a conference, where I was expected to interact with a lot of people. Don't get me wrong...I like people, in general. But I'm very much an introvert, and I find it exhausting to interact with people, especially people I don't know. So, when I got home on Sunday, I slept - napped 2.5 hours in the afternoon, then a full 10 hours Sunday night, and was still tired - so tired I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.

I'm feeling back to normal now (at least mostly), so I'm now working to get myself back in the groove. I MUST get on the stationary bike tonight. And, I'll be on the real bike this weekend if the weather cooperates.

My goals for the week are simple - get back to tracking calories, make better choices, and get back to biking.

This week: -3 lbs (-4 lbs since last blog post)
Spring Fling Challenge: -10 lbs (!!)
Overall: -25 lbs

w00t! I earned back the 25 lb badge!! Yay me!

This has been a pretty good week...I've gotten on the stationary bike several times this week, though I have given up shredding. As it turns out, the 30-day shred just makes me hate exercise. So, a new goal is to come up with a weight-training plan/routine that I can do that will help both with my weight-loss goals and with my biking goals.

Eating-wise I'm doing okay. I'm still keeping track of my eating and calories with FatSecret (and their app on my Droid). I only went over my calories one day this week; otherwise, I've been staying well below my calories for the day. I think the next thing to work on is getting healthier things in my diet. I've been doing some of that already – I've been having far more salads that previously. However, I always struggle getting fruit into my life. Since spring and summer are coming, this will get easier – I love berries. Fall and winter fruits are just not my thing, so I'll have to work on that.

Okay, this is my first Monday Project, so I'm going to start at the beginning of the projects and try to catch up (though this might take a few weeks!!). The first project was Project "Me" – a chance to look at what's worked/not worked in the past, goals for moving forward and reflecting on both of these.

I'm not sure how much to write here, but I have been thinking about these questions throughout the week.

One of my big issues has always been exercise. I *know* that my weight-loss and goals of getting healthier only work well when I work exercise into my life. In fact, they go best when I have some form of weight or resistance training. Fitting into my schedule has always been the problem. Last year I tried getting up before work to do a 20-30 minute workout – this entailed setting the alarm for 5AM and getting up at the first alarm (no snoozing). I managed to do this for nearly 6 months...but it was a fight every.single.time. I figured it would get easier over time, but it was a constant fight. It also meant that I had to start getting to bed no later than 9PM – in bed, lights out ideally by 9:30, no later than 10PM. I ended up basically quitting exercise as of October/November last year. I just couldn't face 5AM.

So, I've gone back to exercising in the evenings, after work. When I get home, I change into my exercise clothes, and head downstairs. One of the reasons I got away from evening exercise was that my husband now works later. When he got home relatively early, I would go exercise when I got home, he would start cooking dinner when he got home, and usually dinner would be ready about the time I was done showering. Now with him getting home later, I feel like I need to get dinner going, so we're not eating at 7 or 8 PM. However, he's making an effort to get home a little earlier, and he wants to support my efforts to exercise, so we're making it work. And its a lot easier than getting up early.

Another thing about exercise – I'm a biker, and I do much better biking when I have a clear goal for that season's biking. I push harder when I have a goal I'm working toward. SO, my husband and I have decided to train for a half-century ride this year. It's a little scary, since we've only ever done a 30-mile ride twice (maybe 3-times), and when we did, it took everything out of us for that weekend. On the other hand, it means that we're going to push this biking season; and we're setting up a training schedule, and with both of us on board, we'll be pushing each other (prodding when necessary!).

Eating-wise...that's a bit harder. I'm still figuring out what works there, though I seem to do best when I'm not on a formal plan – instead, I just need to be constantly aware of what I'm eating and why. I'm a little embarrassed to say that in the past several years, the best I did was when I was following Dr. Phil's plan...I may need to resurrect my copy of that book and go through it again.

This week: -6 lbs (!!!)
Overall (since Jan 2009): -21 lbs

Holy crap! This just goes to show that my body is not happy with my behavior of late -- it WANTED to get rid of some extra weight. Didn't think I'd manage 6 pounds, though. Yay me!

So, I set up an app on my Droid where I can count calories and keep track of all my food intake. It's called Calorie Counter (yes, very clever name), and it's connected with a website called FatSecret. I have to say I'm digging it so far - it's come up with a recommended daily calorie intake based on my current weight and my weight-loss goals. I can search for foods by name or brand or restaurant, but I can also scan a barcode to see if it's in the database already. I know that it's going to get old after a while, but so far I'm enjoying it...plus it gives me an excuse to play with my phone a little more. I was really good this week, and kept track of everything...even those donuts I mentioned yesterday.

I also started shredding with the Sisterhood on Monday, so I'm starting to get in regular exercise. I took before pictures, but they will NOT be seen by anyone but me (and my husband, since he took the pictures)...at least not until I have an after to compare them to.

Plans for this week include continuing to record my food, and keep my calorie intake within the RDI calculated by FatSecret. I'm not yet ready to declare that I must eat better foods, though have already noticed that the requirement to record everything seems to help at least some of the time. I'll continue shredding with the Sisters. I am on travel Thursday through Sunday, so this week will be a bit more of a challenge than last, so if I can at least maintain my weight, I'll be happy (though, am hoping to continue losing!!)

How'd you do this week?

This is my first time posting on true confessions Tuesday...we'll see how good it feels to get this off my chest!

• I had donuts this weekend...yes, that's plural. And they were yummy, and I'd do it again. Still managed to stay in my calorie goal on Friday and Sunday...went a bit over on Saturday (the day of the donuts...sounds like a horror flick!).
• I really, really, really, really don't want to do the 30-shred. I AM doing it, mind you, but dreading each day's workout and dreading 30 days of it. I've been sad pretty much since the beginning of the year, so am hoping that doing things like 30-day shred, or biking training, will help bring me out of this.
• Truth be told, I don't want to do ANY exercise, so 30-day shred is a kick in the pants.
• I'm not even trying to not drink too much Diet Coke anymore.
• I wanted to eat the entire box of dark chocolate that arrived yesterday from the Shrinking Jeans giveaway (but I didn't...just had a few miniatures, and recorded them in my food diary).

I think that's it...anyone else?

Okay, I've taken my starting weight for the Spring Fling Challenge. I'm not proud of where I am -- have slipped from my last Sisterhood weigh-in last summer, going from nearly 30-lbs lost to only 15 lbs overall. Sigh.

But, that's why I'm back. I'm here to get back into it, lose those "slide-back" pounds and then keep going. And, I've got an awesome team to do it with - Team G, G4, or the Gorgeous Girls Gettin' Goin'!

So this challenge is 8-weeks long, and will include the 30-day shred. Part of me is excited about signing on to the 30-day shred again, and part of me is thinking, crap, no, stop. The one problem I found with the shred last time around was that it was just too relentless -- afterwards I honestly resented exercise for a while. Fortunately it was spring last year, and I had biking to fall back to, so I didn't quit exercising, just shredding. The other thing I'm worried about is that I'm traveling a couple times in March for work, so it will be hard to get the shredding in then, unless I just bring the DVD and do it without the weights...or do it with light weights, such as bottled water.

Anyway, I'm starting out a little slowly with my goals. I seem to work best with a couple of realistic and do-able goals that will set me up for success. So, this week my main goal is to record everything I eat in a food diary. I'm not going to make statements about what or when or how I eat, just make sure that EVERYTHING is in the diary. Of course, this will probably have the benefit that I won't eat something if I don't want to put it in the diary, but also I won't technically be denying myself...

That's actually it for goals. I'd like to get on the exercise bike a couple times, and maybe do an EA Sports workout or two, but those will be bonuses.