Measurable Success

Hi! So, keeping up with my blogging seems to have failed, but I thought I'd do an update on my weight loss goals for any out there who have been keeping track. I'll try to do a post on my other goals, too, but honestly, the weight loss thing kinda took over my life, big time.

First off, let me just say that weight loss is REALLY HARD. It's not something you just work on when you think of it, or you won't get anywhere.  In all honesty, I did really great until May, and then everything fell apart.  I had no motivation, and my weight had kind of hit a plateau. Fortunately, I walked everywhere this summer, pushing 2 kids in a stroller. So I managed to have only a slight gain over the summer (about 3 lbs.) even though I totally fell off the wagon.  I found a little motivation back when school started (change in schedule is always a good time to re-group). I started counting calories again, but I had a terrible time finding a time to work out that worked in our family schedule.

The middle of October I started as a guinea pig for the NWC Kinesiology class, which meant I got a free (though inexperienced) personal trainer for 6 weeks. Besides the immediate benefit of forced motivation, it also gave me a lot of other ways to track how I was doing.  The training was a combination of weight and cardio training, and included a lot of circuit training, and medicine ball and plate workouts.  This was great, because I hate endurance cardio, and was really afraid my trainer was going to make me run for an hour.  He never did.  Over a 6 week training period, here's how I improved:

~Maximum Single Rep Lift (i.e. the absolute most weight you can lift one time)
    -bench: start, 65 lb. end, 75 lb.
    -squat: start 140 lb. end, 165 lb.

~Muscular Endurance (how many you can complete in 1 minute)
   - sit-ups: start, 10 (not one of these was a full sit up, more like half crunches. ouch.) end, 42 full sit-ups
   - push-ups: start, 19. End, 29

~Weight Lost: 8 lb (including 2 during Thanksgiving week!)

Here's a few less- measurable things that happened over my 6 weeks of training: my warm up every session was running laps plus active stretching.  Starting out I could not run a lap and a half without stopping to walk, but yesterday at my final session I ran 4 laps with no problem. My cool down every session was 5 minutes on the elliptical. My first session I barely made it through the 5 minutes and honestly fell off of the machine afterwards, but yesterday I could not only do the 5 minutes, but also the 3 minute cool down afterward, and felt like I was just hitting my stride at 5 minutes and could have kept going a while longer.  I plan to go to the gym sometime this week to test how far I can go both running and on the elliptical.

My goal for December is to maintain my current weight and activity level.  The thought of losing over the holidays is intimidating, and I'd rather not set myself up for failure. So I'm calling it and saying these are my final numbers for the year: Total weight lost: goal: 25 lbs, actual: 28 lbs. Inches lost: bust: 4 inches, waist: 10 inches, waist at belly button: 7 inches, hips: 11 inches. I lost a total of 3 pant sizes (size 18 to size 12).

If you'd like to know more about exactly what I changed this year, feel free to leave a comment or email me or something.  :)