Friday, August 19, 2011

Starting the Weekend Off Right!

You saw me complaining on Thursday about my gain at the Weight Watchers meeting on Wednesday evening.  Well, even though I don't count that weigh in as my official weigh in, it still hurt.

Friday's are my official weigh in days.  They have been for years.  Yes, years.  I've been a WW member for years folks (even though I'm 27, I've been doing it off and on since high school!).  So today is Friday.  Today was my weigh in.  Today I lost 1 pound!

I'm proud of myself for this.  Now, my scale is slightly different from that of the WW scale so it's not comparing apples to apples.  Still, I'm just happy to have a loss of a pound.  If all I ever drop is a pound a week for a year, then that's 52 pounds gone at the end of a year and I'd be VERY okay with that! 

I also wanted to share some updates on the 2 challenges I'm doing with some lovely ladies over at the Priorfatgirl.com.

The first challenge is the New Rules of Lifting for Women.  I just started my first week on this challenge, and so far so good!  Even though I'm a member at Gold's, I wanted to do these workouts in the comfort of my living room before I take my inexperienced and insecure booty to the gym to do them in front of the Meat Heads.  Even though I'd have Joel by my side the whole time, and he says he even feels insecure, I'm just not ready yet.  But I will be soon!  Did I mention Joel is doing this with me?  That is one reason why I love Joel so much.  He's not afraid that this book is specifically titled "for Women".  After all, the author states that women are fully capable of lifting the same amount of weight as men do (or something to that effect).  We've done 2 workouts so far and have gotten great results.  Great = sore.  Sore = muscle building.  Muscle building = success.  Go us!

The second challenge is the Beck Diet Solution.  This isn't actually a diet, it's simply a cognitive behavioral therapy book that helps you become aware of your behaviors with food.  Each day you are asked to focus on one behavioral aspect.  For example, so far this week we've been asked to do the following:
The supplies for the Beck challenge: post it's, 3x5 index cards, a notebook (not pictured) and the book itself.  Things not needed: the Halloween cat (also known as Charles).

1. Write down the advantages of losing weight.  This is clearly a subjective assignment.  What do you think are advantages for you for losing weight?

2. Pick 2 reasonable diets. I've struggled with identifying a second diet.  My first pick is Weight Watchers.  I'm struggling between simple calorie counting, the Biggest Loser diet, or this one I've been reading about from Elle at the Priorfatgirl, call the Cinch diet.  Any ideas?  I'm a very picky eater so not a lot of eating plans work for me.

3. Eat sitting down.  Self explanatory.  The idea is that you're not shoving food in your mouth while you're making it.  Only enjoy eating the food when sitting down, which if you're sitting down it probably means the meal is ready to be eaten in its entirety, not just in bits and pieces while you're preparing it.  I actually don't struggle with this at all (unless I'm baking cookies!).

4. Give yourself credit.  Were you able to resist the offer of take out from your favorite Korean restaurant when your boyfriend texted you saying he could easily swing buy and bring that home for dinner?  Yes, I was!  Well, I'm just gonna go ahead and pat myself on the back then Miss Thang.

5. Eat slowly and mindfully.  If you're inhaling your food, chances are you're not really enjoying it and savoring the taste.  Not only that, but you may find yourself hungry an hour later because you practically swallowed that turkey breast roast whole in t-minus 5 minutes!  Try to have a sit down meal at your dinner table, without the TV on or without the computer sitting in front of you.  The gist is to minimize the distractions while eating.  Dr. Beck gives tips for those who have small children that need tending to during/after you as the parent have finished your meal. Again, not something I struggle with but it's still good to be mindful of it anyhow.
I'm really enjoying both of these challenges so far.  If you are participating in either of these challenges, or have participated, how did they work for you?

Best wishes to everyone for a lovely weekend! :)

4 comments:

  1. Hi Hilary,

    First off, awesome job on working out with weights! That is very cool that you've got a partner to do it with as well... And yes, I watched a documentary that simple stated a pound of muscle is a pound of muscle, whether on a man, or a woman. The only reason men are generally stronger than women is that men have more muscle, but if you took a man and a women with the same amount of muscle mass, the would generally be the same strength.

    Also, don't forget that muscle actually weighs more than fat, so while you are working out, it can definitely mean you're burning more calories as you build more muscle (a great long term gain), but it can also mean you might actually be putting on a bit of (very healthy muscle) weight... So sometimes when working out with weights, the scale isn't the best indicator, but in the long term, you are going to see great results!!!

    Finally, you mentioned something about a second diet... Now, I must say I haven't read the following book, BUT I have checked out their philosophy page, and it really rings true for me what they are saying... I'm thinking of picking up this book, so thought I'd pass it along...

    http://www.intuitiveeating.org/content/what-intuitive-eating

    I'm very curious to see/hear about your results, stick with it and you'll be seeing some amazing changes I'm sure...

    And don't worry about the meatheads, they are just as afraid of you as you are of them ;)
    Ryan

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  2. Yay on the loss!! Any movement in that direction is a good thing!!

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  3. Hey! I am a new reader! Sounds like you are working on some awesome challenges!

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  4. YAY for a full pound lost! That is awesome.

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