Weigh In Number One

I honestly thought that I would be a bit more excited while writing this post, and don't get me wrong I am super happy to see 5lbs less on the scale. I am not bummed with the number. I am just bummed with my effort. I feel like so far I have been doing this by dipping my toe in cold water and slowly wading in to get acclimated to the temperature instead of just jumping into the deep end. Over this last three weeks I feel like I have lost and gained back the same 3 lbs over and over again. I would be really dedicated with my diet during the week and then splurge a little on the weekends but the problem is that every weekend I feel like I have been undoing the progress that I have made all week. Other than a few walks I have not been working out at all and I just know that overall I could be doing so much better. I thought that starting this blog back would be the magic missing puzzle piece that I needed to get myself motivated again. The blog was and is a great tool for accountability for me and it is a great outlet to express how I am feeling, but I feel like I romanticized it a bit and attributed all my previous success to the blog. The blog is not the reason that I was successful last time. I was successful last time because I dug deep and did the work. I feel like I am there now. I am in a brand new headspace and I finally feel like I am ready to take this on for the right reasons and I am excited to see the weigh in three weeks from now to see what my progress looks like when I am really trying.

My husband has a strange work schedule so that has left me with a lot of excuses to skip out on getting back in the gym. I know that I can work out at home, but there is just something about getting in the gym that really lights a fire under my butt. So we have a new plan. We are going to sit down together every Sunday and look at his schedule for the following week and I am going to plan out and schedule my workouts. That way I will have a plan to know which days I will be going to the gym in the morning before work and which days I will be going once Harrison goes to bed. I am actually going to be writing down my workouts in my calendar to help me stick to them. 

To be honest with you, the workouts for me are not as much about the weight loss as they are about how they make me feel. I am so much more motivated to stick to my diet when I am working out and it honestly just makes me feel so good and I have so much more energy when I am making time to get to the gym. My anxiety is so much better when I am working out as well and I always feel much more clear mentally when I am pushing my body and elevating my heart rate. 

I hope that you will stick with me because I have a feeling, this is about to get GOOD!

Time to rein it in!

So I have to admit that the "not eating so restricted" thing has been fun, but enough is enough. I had told myself that maintaining my weight would be so easy compared to losing the weight. I would just eat well most of the time and splurge from time to time. The thing is, for me in particular if I am not setting specific restrictions, I end up splurging WAY too much. I am ashamed to say that I have gained seven pounds back and I have GOT to rein this in before that number gets any higher. I have decided that I am going to allow myself one splurge meal per week and one splurge dessert per week. If I plan my splurges than I know that I have to eat well the rest of the time, no excuses. It is too easy to eat badly today and say, "oh well, I'll eat better tomorrow." The problem with that is, tomorrow rolls around and I say the same thing again. Before you know it, seven tomorrows have gone by and you still haven't "done better". 

I am going to do things a little differently this time, in that I am not going to set a goal weight. I am actually not going to pay attention to the number on the scale at all. I am going to put all of my focus into what I want my body to look like, because in the end that is what really matters. People who have super toned bodies do strength training, and they usually weigh a lot more than what you would think. Muscle, as we all know weighs more than fat and therefore negates what the scale says. As a woman in particular it is kind of scary to throw the scale out the window, but also very freeing. I am obviously not going to actually get rid of my scale, but I am going to let the way my body looks determine my goals verses a magical number. 

Let's see how this goes, I look forward to keeping you updated! If you want to check out one of my favorite fitness youtubers, I encourage you to. She explains things much more efficiently than me. Here's the link!

http://youtu.be/tEoc-E_I8HY

Thanks for reading!

Sarah