Weekly Weigh In: A Look Back

Hey guys! I'm doing my weigh-in early this week because I'm first travelling to my mom's house, where I will be spending the next month, and then leaving on Saturday for my big trip to Spain. It's getting pretty intense now. I got an email from the regional government's press secretary, asking us to be available for interviews....eek!! I'm so glad I bought that new suit and will be lookin' stylish!

So... drumroll please... I lost 3.2 pounds this week! I can't believe I am 2.4 pounds away from reaching my 50 pound goal!!!!! How awesome is that? I can't believe that it is a real possibility that when I come back from my month away, I could be in the 170s!!! I haven't seen those numbers since maybe sophomore year in college, which was when I really started gaining weight. That's my goal. I'd love to be 175 by the end of August, which is when I will be going to another professional conference, although I'll be seeing all my friends and faculty from grad school, when I was in the 230s. A few people saw me when I was in the 190s back in March, but I can't wait to see my dissertation chair and his reaction when he sees me in the 170s. I haven't seen him since last April, when I was at my heaviest. I can't wait!!!!

Another thing I realized is that I've been blogging for the past six months! I can't believe this is something that not only did I stick with, but it's definitely benefited me positively. I've made some online friends that are so supportive of my weight loss and are going through the same thing as me... that's invaluable. And I'm so glad to involve my IRL friends and family in my weight loss journey. Since January,

1) I've had 9099 visitors to my site (actually this is inaccurate, because I added my counter later, but still!!)
2) I've lost 26 pounds :)
3) My BMI has dropped 5.4 points.
4) This is my 130th post.
5) I've gone from a size 18 to a size 14!
6) I've become an exercise lover and a gym buff.
7) I made it through my first plateau and am still on track.
8) I started the C25K, with dying through a sixty second run.... and am now running for a solid 25 minutes straight!
9) I lost 5.5 inches in my chest, 2.25 inches in my arms, 4.5 inches in my waist, 6 inches in my hips, and 3.5 inches in my thighs... woot!
10) I've actually stuck with this weight loss journey for six months straight. Six months of exercising and watching my diet. This is the first time I've ever done something like this and stuck with it. And I couldn't have done it without y'all. Thanks for being there for me.

Here's to another six months, and another 26 or so pounds :) See you when I get back from Spain!

HYC Tuesday Update: Van Halen Edition

According to the scale, I'm moving downward again. Woot! I'm very excited about this. It's been really hard to stay on track with my eating and exercise since I've been so busy at work.

So, Van Halen... I finished reading Valerie Bertinelli's autobiography "Losing It" last night. What an amazing story. This was a woman who when the scales went over 115 pounds, she thought she was fat. What was really interesting was the reaction to her as she climbed the scales into the 160s and 170s. She is a strong woman (although, in reading the story, I'm amazed she stayed with Eddie Van Halen for 20 years!) and I'm glad that she put her story out there. It was very informational and in the last 20 pages, informative about Jenny Craig. Jenny isn't all that different from how I eat in my every day life... watching my calorie intake instead of eating food that has been planned out for me.

And... all I wanted while reading this book was to listen to some Van Halen. So, I loaded a bunch of Van Halen songs on my Ipod Shuffle and went to the gym last night. Sammy and Diamond Dave helped me punch out a 25 minute run last night. The last seven minutes were so tough, and I listened to two of my favorite VH songs "Panama" (Great tempo for running) and "Hot for Teacher". I'm a professor, so that is one of my feel good songs about myself. I know, how mysogynist, when I claim to be a feminist, but would that song be any less degrading if the Pussycat Dolls sang it? I don't care, I love it. And it got me through my 25 minute run, and I was very happy with that!

A Love Letter To Myself

Dear Kiki,

It's been a tough week for you. I know that all you've really wanted to do was order pizza, Chinese, and Taco Bell (mmm... chalupas) all week while you've been writing that crappy paper, but you didn't. You cooked turkey BLTs or PBJs (do you really cook those?) and stuck to your diet. And even though it wasn't perfect, you lost weight this week. I've enclosed some pictures that I took of you wearing the same dress on different days. The older ones were from February when you hit 200 pounds. I took these new ones earlier today. Even though you are about 15 pounds less, I think you can really tell that all that hard work in the gym is paying off. You look fabulous!

I think that sometimes you just need a hug and a reminder about all the good work you've done. You've come so far. Don't let a little plateau keep you from moving forward! Keep up the good work :)

Love ya,

Kiki

PS. Look at how you need to hold your dress in the back for us to see your shape! Doesn't it feel good when dresses that used to fit just right are now too big??

PPS. Look how much your face has slimmed down!! BTW, sorry I took that picture of you with no makeup on. You look fabulous anyway!!

It's My "official" Day of No Work

So, no blogging. But I did make this chicken marsala recipe, so I suggest you try it. WW readers: there's even nutritional info! Hope you're having a good Saturday!

Weekly Weigh In: Eh

I lost 0.4 pounds this week. Earlier in the week, my weight loss was lower, but I was wondering when that friendly little monthly bloat was going to kick in. Seriously, at this point, whatever. I've been running full throttle since Monday, and even though I've stuck as closely as I could to my plan, diet AND exercise wise, stress makes me do things. Stress makes me eat. I full admit to a late night chomp down around midnight last night. I finished the first draft of my paper for Spain and I don't know if I turned to food as a stress release or as a little congratulatory gesture, but I did, and I shouldn't have. What I should have done was crawl into bed, and because of my eating, I didn't get to bed until 1AM, which is the latest I've gone to bed on a weeknight in a long while.

I call a week like this one of my "lawyer" weeks. I had considered becoming a lawyer ($$) but I couldn't justify working 80 or 90 hour weeks. This week, I've easy worked 10 or 11 hour days. It really does suck, and I know that I made the right decision by going into academics. Seriously, I have about six or seven weeks a semester where it gets this bad, and then the rest of the time, it's a regular 40-50 hour work week. What's nice is that I'm going to a colleague's house for dinner tonight (these are fun people, so it won't be stuffy at all). Plans for tomorrow: Sleep as late as I possibly can :) Then I get to stress over potential revisions when I get my paper back from those that volunteered to read it. Yay. I think I'll at least have one day to myself before the stress returns.

Challenging Myself

Yesterday was one of my full throttle days again. At work by 10, took an Italian test (which I aced!), spent the whole afternoon here working on my paper, had to return my tv cable box to the office on the outskirts of town (what's the point of having more than 30 channels if you don't have the time to watch them?), went to the gym for two hours (I've become one of *those* people, but man, are my triceps sore today from upping my weights on them), came home, ate dinner, watched an episode of Frasier, and then worked on my paper until 11PM when I finally said, enough is enough and went to bed. I'm back hard at work on my paper... but I'm taking a few minutes break.

The other night I was talking to my mom, and she confessed how much she weighed in at. Huh. I was really surprised. So, I stepped up to the plate and challenged her, and in turn, challenged myself. I want her to walk the Philadelphia Half-Marathon with me in November. It's 13.1 miles, and we both have a week's vacation starting the day after the marathon, which will give us some recovery time. She participated in the 2006 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer, and walked all 60 miles over the course of a three day period. However, since then, she's really not kept up with her walking. My mom is getting older, and I want her to be active and healthy rather than falling into that easy trap of not exercising. So, while I'm home in July, we're going to start our training, taking walks in the evening, and getting her on the course for training on her own once I come back to the Sticks.

Have any of you walked a marathon or a half-marathon? Any advice?

The Chicken Lady

I grew up in a special city in Eastern Pennsylvania. Every August, we have a HUGE music festival come to town for ten days, and the biggest attraction (other than the hasbeens that come to give concerts) are the polka tents, where you can find this lady "strutting" her stuff. She's the Chicken Lady. No! I mean that literally! She walks around the festival, dressed like a chicken (see her outfit?), dancing polka with people, and.... leading the chicken dance. You know it! da da dada dada da, da da dada dada da, da da dada dada da *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* You've totally done it at weddings.

Now, I find myself doing the chicken dance a lot in my bathroom, without really meaning to do it. It mainly comes from me, standing in my bra in front of the mirror moving my arms around to see how much of my arm fat (aka my chicken wings) flap. I have to admit that my arms have gotten alot slimmer than where they were two years ago. However, I'd much rather be looking like this woman than looking like the Chicken Lady:

I've been trying to get there... really amped up the attention that I'm paying to my triceps. Now, I know I'll never look like Madonna. But I'd much rather have my arms leaning closer to hers, than the wings of the Chicken Lady!! And I think my workouts have been working. My tricep does feel a lot stronger than they used to. Maybe I can convince Justin Timberlake to come over and help me with my workouts....