So a good friend pointed out that I hadn't posted in a long time...wow, so sorry! :) It has been quite a busy month, but one with lots of progress in the health and head area, so lets get right down to it.
I'm not sure how public I made this at the time, but let me just share that when I arrived home from the 2 week work trip/vacation to Disney, I climbed on the scale and it said I weighed 196.6. Yep, I'm being completely serious here. I was hovering around 185 still when I left home...so that is an over 11 pound gain in a little over 2 weeks.
WHO gains 11 pounds in 2 weeks? THIS GIRL!
Seriously, I was bummed. And I literally felt rotten; all the way home from Archer I was nauseous and felt bloated. 25 oreo truffles at new years will do that for you. Yep, a 2 week food hangover.
I sort of went completely and totally off plan. It started with being sick and in a hurry to get out of town for the 2 week period and all the craziness that goes along with both of those things. I had "debugged" myself (i.e. removed my body bugg) for a week or so before leaving town as I felt I needed a break from the guy wagging his finger at me and accusing me of sneaking oreos. Then we were traveling and it was easier while not tracking my food at all to just forget about tracking it. And eat very strange, untrackable things. Like cheesecake. Cinnamon rolls. Coffee mixed with a packet of hot cocoa and tons of hazelnut creamer. And ice cream...twice in one day.
Picture a full slide to the bottom of mud mountain, then it erupted and I was buried.
That's how I felt. What was I to do? I'm hoping to be an inspiration to people! To one day be known as a "fit" blogger. I had it figured out, didn't I? What the heck? How in the world do I explain myself?
Let me skip quickly to how this horror story ends, then we'll discuss what I learned; I just can't bear all this negativity. Two days after that terrible weigh in of truth, I was down 4 pounds. A week later, I was down 11 pounds total. How? By literally just going back to eating mostly clean and tracking my food and activity. Sigh. Um. It works.
Freaking duh.
So my realizations from that slip up, slide down, then sprint back to the top:
1) I'm not perfect, or even close. Well, that was obvious to begin with, but I've prided myself in being real with you all and while it took me a few weeks to let you see the ugly that really happened, you need to know that its not about perfection. If it was, I would never have made it this far. While not proud of my behavior, I learned from it; and maybe my honesty will help you learn something too.
2) Eating badly = feeling badly. Now, this isn't just emotionally. Of course, I felt guilt while eating some of those foods at first; then I felt justified, then, when the crumbs were all that was left, I felt sick. Like, literally, physically sick. I haven't felt that way in a long time. Bloated, and just blah. I don't want to feel like that intentionally ever again.
3) When I don't exercise intentionally, I don't eat well intentionally. This I've said before, many times, when I'm not active, I don't eat as well. It's that direct link between food and exercise; where I see food as fuel when I'm actually using it as such. Now, we walked a million miles at Disney. Imagine how much I would have gained had I been sedentary!?!? You can actually see some of the bloat in my disney pictures. I'll have to post one for you.
4) The story doesn't end until I (or YOU) decide its over. Every failed diet, every out of control holiday season, every messed up eating plan, every poor decision, yes, these things add up. But our diets don't fail us, we fail ourselves. Just because I had a bad few meals, that led to a bad few days, that led to a bad few weeks that led to an 11 pound weight gain...doesn't mean I give up and don't look back. I picked myself up, dusted off, took some metamucil to clean out my bogged down system, and got my tail back in gear.
5) Eating well = feeling well. Um, yeah. I felt like a new person just a few days later, once I had begun detoxing - and all I did to detox was add my green tea back in and begin eating mostly clean again (meaning mostly whole foods, not much processed, etc.). I feel incredible right now.
In workout news, I began a new Zumba class this week, right down the street from where I work. I was attending a great class in my town for over a year, but it is coming to an end soon (or at least my favorite instructor won't be there) so I decided I needed a change. Some of my co-workers have attended Courtney's studio and recommended her classes. Last week, I packed my bag and gave it a try. I had heard her classes were large (I'm used to maybe 15-20 people) so I was a bit intimidated.
The room was huge, they had just moved to a new space, but it quickly filled up. Easily 50 or more people there. I wondered how we would hear her. Nevermind that, she is loud enough to hear over the music. :) And crazy energetic. The first song started and it was like a song I knew but on speed! WHOA! I was so sweaty at the end I had to remove my shirt and replace it with my long sleeved warmup shirt. Everyone was having a great time, shouting out, singing along, it was hard, painful and crazy fast but WHAT A WORKOUT!
I had run that morning so my legs were really tired by the end, but I felt great.
Wednesday I tried out Zumba Toning. She has these toning sticks that are like weights but have sand in them. I thought maybe it would be slower than the Monday's class, given its toning. WRONG. Zumba Toning at Court's studio is like crazy fast Zumba WITH WEIGHTS. Yikes! By the end I could not lift my arms, and the Zumba sticks I used were only 2.5 pounds each (I typically use 10 pound weights for free weight work).
Tomorrow I'm going to purchase a punch card and put Zumba with Courtney on my schedule for 2x/week officially. It takes me less than 5 mins to get there, and not only was it fun, it was an incredible workout.
I'm also running every other day or so. I'm working with a friend who is training for her first 5k, she is on week 3 of the program and we meet a few times a week to run. On the other days I was running a bit less, like intervals or just 2-2.5 miles. New shoes and making sure my foot was ok, as well has having lost some serious conditioning during my hiatus from my healthy lifestyle. I finally ran 5k this morning and felt great. Slower than before, but I'll get faster again. With time. :)
I have noticed my body shrinking again. I'm already down to 183 something and my goal was 185 by month end. I'm excited that I should blow that goal out of the water and then need to readjust the rest of my monthly goals! I tried on my size 10 jeans I've been saving and sure enough, both pairs fit. They are still more snug than I'd like to wear out, but they fit! I cannot remember the last time I was a size 10. I believe it was high school.
I'm very excited about my new routine, and I think my body has somehow shifted into serious fat burning mode; I'm taking FULL advantage of it until the next plateau.
Hope your January and your goals for the year are also off to a good start!
~Clara
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