Week 1: Monday Morning Checkin (aka how'm I goin' with those goals, hmmmm?)

Image courtesy of the Stock Exchange

Righty. So. I went with the lazy day option yesterday, and proceeded to sit around the house in my PJs and just... chill. Reading. Sleeping. And way too much CSI Miami, which I had fun ripping to shreds. Not what you'd call a productive day, but I mostly enjoyed it.

Today it's time to check in on how I went with my weekly goals last week.

Eating-wise, I was pretty good. I tracked my food every day.  And healthy-eating-wise, it was reasonably good too - not great, especially over the weekend, but I'm happy with it overall. 

Exercise-wise, I did a little more than my goal 40km (43km), and just slightly under my goal calorie burn (2,463 instead of 2,500).

Running-wise, I did pretty good. From the week before, where I was trying HARD to manage my 3 sets of "run 13 min, walk 1, run 1, walk 1" for W2.1 of Bridge to 10k and not always succeeding, I did two running sessions in a row where I managed that. And then I moved onto my W2.2, which is 3 sets of Run 14, walk 2. And I managed that.  So that counts as a definite win.

And the weigh-in?  82.7kg (181.9lb), which is 0.3kg up from last week.  Possible reasons include a/ hormones (hello period!), b/ a wee bit too much sodium over the weekend, c/ the vagaries of my body doing what it needs to do in the timeframe it needs to do it in, or d/ any combination of the above.


So. Triumphs of the week?  Definitely the running - I'm pleased with that. And the compliment at the picnic was nice, if not something I can claim as something I did myself.

And stuff I'd like to do differently, or try out this coming week?  Keeping a watch on my sodium next weekend would be good.  Plus, actually *doing* one or two of the fitness DVDs I bought myself - for at least 2 exercise sessions this week. Because seriously? They're doing me no frickin' good at all by just sitting on my desk in their wrappers!

Other than those two things, I just want to keep focussing on the food-tracking, the generally healthy eating, and the exercising. Beyond those three simple basics, I'll aim to keep letting my body look after what it wants to happen weight-wise.

Woohoooo! Let's call this one "restarting as I mean to go on", shall we?

 Image courtesy of The Stock Exchange

 

I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me when I got back from my run this morning.  You see, Tuesday has become my weekly weigh-in day; and I was hoping, given all the exercise and being sensible with my eating that I've been doing, that I might have lost another couple of hundred grams (half a pound, if you're American).

Apparently, I did better than that. 1.1kg down. In a week. I can't quite describe just how awesome this makes me feel.  So I'm now sitting on 82.4kg (181ish lb), which is the first time I've been under 83kg since... sometime around 2005-2006. So I'm pretty proud and pleased with myself.

But you know, that's not ALL I'm proud of. I'm also proud:

• ... that I'm keeping in mind that really, this is just one step in a journey that I fully intend to last for the rest of my life. Yes, I'll probably blow out calorie-wise sometimes. In fact, no, not probably - definitely. It's going to happen. But I'm remembering that I'm in this for the long-haul, and that it's what I do every day that's important, not the occasional lapse.

• ... that what I've accomplished over the past week has happened WITHOUT any restricting myself foodwise. Have I been tracking my intake? Yes, absolutely, and I want to do a post later this week on the method I'm using. Have I been saying "no" to goodies that I'd kinda, sorta like to be saying "yes" to? Yeah, I totally have.  But my whole aim has been to look at what my body seems to need to maintain my current weight, and then just have very slightly less than that (I'm aiming to go about 100-150 calories under maintenance), while still getting all the nutrients I need to stay healthy and feel good.  Any energy deficit beyond that has come from exercise that I'm doing, not to "lose weight" but because I enjoy doing it. THAT feels like a long-term strategy to me.

• ... that this marks over a year of a journey I started last September at 93kg, and not once during that time have I gone back to the destructive dieting habits of my sleeping "beast in the dark" (the name I give my borderline eating disorder tendencies - if you're interested in why, check out this entry I wrote back in 2005).  I don't have the words to describe what a huge achievement that feels for me - to be honest, next to this, losing 1kg in a week just pales.

So yes. This is me, Starfire, celebrating my little butt off for what I've managed to achieve this week.  Not every week's going to go like this - I know that full well - but that just makes it even more important to celebrate the times that it does.

Hope everyone out there is have just as awesome a week!

Take care



Starfire