Thursday, June 20, 2013

Update

It's been awhile since I've written a post.  It's the usual reasons... things got busy at work, life got in the way, I don't have much to say, yadda yadda yadda.

Well, the first update is that the scale is stuck.  I've been bouncing from 170-174 for longer than I'd care to remember.  However, the good news is that I'm still losing inches.  My belly flap is still shrinking (hooray!), and I'm toning up in general.  But it sure is annoying to not see the numbers on the scale reflect that!

I completely understand women who are skinny fat, and weigh 120 and start lifting and then gain to 135 but look smaller.  Totally, completely, get why that happens, because those girls didn't have much fat to lose.  But I don't get why I still have plenty of fat to lose, but I can't get the scale to go down.  I guess it seems like yes, I gained 5 pounds of muscle (for example), so I must have lost 5 pounds of fat, since the scale stayed the same but my pants got bigger, but I have so much fat to lose, why isn't there a deficit?

 I know the main reason that the scale is stuck is that I've been totally slacking on my cardio.  My sister and I are casually training for a 10k, and I'm training for an Olympic Tri, so I have plenty of cardio to be doing.  But it seems like every time my sister and I plan to run, her baby needs to eat or it rains.  I swear, we have had the rainiest evenings lately.  It's almost like it rains just in our vicinity, and just enough to make it too gross to run!

The only other big news that I have is that I cleaned out my closet.  I mean, as things have gotten too big, I've thrown them aside.  But I went through EVERYTHING.  The swimsuit drawer, the coat closet, all of it. I posted it all in some resale groups,  and have been trying to make some money off of it.

Oh, and I guess the last big thing is that I treated myself at Athleta.  My plan was to go on a spree when I hit the 100 pound mark.  But, I had to go buy a swimsuit to start Tri training, and since I was there... Well.  Three hundred and fifty bucks later, I had a new suit.  And a few other things that found their way into my bag.  Crazy how that happens.  But, I came home, took out the suit, handed the rest to Hubs, and told him not to give it back to me until I hit the 100 pound mark.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Whole 30 recap

So, I promised a Whole 30 recap.  It's late, so I don't know how detailed I will get, but here goes.

Everything that they promised would happen, happened.  My sleep improved, I felt less bloated, I stopped getting "hangry," I felt less bloated, had clearer skin, lost some weight, was able to lift heavier in the gym (after an initial dip in strength)...  It was pretty amazing. 

I didn't even do the program the "right" way, since I'm still not done reading the book (it's been a busy month!!).  And I'm still looking forward to realllly doing it in July, AND Husband is on board to do it with me.  HOORAY.

So, the drawbacks:  it's craycray expensive to buy high quality meat. And it's extremely alarming to read labels and deeply regret everything that you've fed to your child for the past two years.  And it's hard to eat out.  And reintroducing food is a pain.  Like, literally.  I ate some white rice today and I feel like I might die right now.  My face is super broken out, but that could easily be from sunscreen, since we've been outside so much recently.  The sugar detox SUCKED big time, I thought I was going to vom at my desk on Day 8.  And I missed ketchup (all of that naked meat!) and PowerAde Zero way more than I realized I would.  And I felt like I thought about food all the time, since I was always trying to figure out what to avoid in the break room (everything), or had to remember to pack a lunch, or try not to eat a snack.

But, the basic recap is that I loved doing it.  I felt amazing, I looked rockin (everyone started commenting on how thin I looked in the final week), win-win.  I fully intend to be one of those "90% paleo" type people for the next month, and then do another hardcore round of Whole30, and then back to Paleo for the long term.  So long as it works with my Tri training.  I think if I can keep the protein intake high, I will be okay.  Maybe I'll be Paleo + protein shakes + ketchup. :)

I know what you really want to see, though are the pictures.  So here you go.

After
Before



After
Before






The biggest change that I see is in my "Dunlop" belly (that flab that's dunlopped over my swimsuit bottoms) and right below my boobs.


I really wasn't trying to make goofy faces or stand strangely in the Before shots.  I felt awkward and was trying not to laugh.  And in the after, I was grinning, of course.  It looks like I'm trying to thrust my boobs out in the after pics, cause Husband kept telling me to move my hand.  So here's another "after" with my shoulders forward, but my hand is blocking my belly improvement.




Anyway.  I lost 7 pounds in the first 15 days.  And then I hung out there until my birthday weekend, when I put 5 back on.  And then lost 2 by the end.  So a net loss of 4 pounds, for someone who wasn't being terribly strict.  I think this is a great long term plan for maintaining, but it's not conducive for me to do while still trying to lose weight.  Because I end up eating too much fruit and not enough protein.  So I either need to change that, or do something else to lose the last 10 pounds, and then come back to this. 

I am SUPER thrilled with how much of my lower belly that I lost, since that flap is my next goal.  HOORAY.