Hi everyone! Long time, no talk. I feel like I'm emerging from the wilderness, I've been gone for what feels like an eternity. For the last month or so I've been spending every waking hour I'm not working trying to get ready for this annual Christmas party I throw. It takes tons of work & planning, but I love doing it because I get to see people I don't see all year. I took 4 days off from work this week just to cook, clean, & get the house ready. You know how it goes, all of a sudden you notice walls that need to be touched up with paint, or baseboards that need to be cleaned. The list just grows. Well, finally the party was yesterday. It went off great. We had about 50 people & luckily all seemed happy with the day, even the kids. Needless to say I'm exhausted today, but I finally feel like I can start to concentrate on my own stuff.
I've gone back & read everyone's posts from the last time I checked in. Welcome to the new members: HikingBelle, HoneyBeeM, MeridaLove, Keels, & Verleniahall! It also looks like there's been a lot of progress with all of your goals. Congratulations to all! I did read a few that seemed to be expressing some frustration. If you'll allow me, I'll share a few tips I've picked up over my journey in the last few months that seem to work for me.
1. Drink a ton of water. Forget the 8 glasses of water a day rule. You need way more than that. Personally I drink between 104-120 oz a day. This helps with not only weight, but blood pressure. If you can't stomach that much plain water, get the tiny bottles of flavorings you can squeeze in. Add just a light squeeze so it is flavored water instead of turning it in to a full-blown sugar drink. It makes a difference.
2. It is ok to weigh yourself. We're all human & want to see results right away, especially after we've done a really hard few days of workouts. For a while I was weighing myself everyday & sometimes 2x a day.
Silly, I know, but you can get caught up in it. As long as you make a promise to yourself that whatever you see on the scale you don't get angry at. Instead of anger, turn the reaction into motivation to push that much harder to see the difference. It does work. Don't get hung up on only weighing yourself once a week or month. Weight fluctuates in some people up to 4-5lbs A DAY! It all depends on the time of day you weighed yourself compared to the last time, time of month (period), if you've had a recent bowel movement, how much water you are retaining, etc. That fluctuation is normal, however frustrating. That's why I was weighing so much, I could see if I was getting consistent numbers or if I was just having a moment of extra build-up. If my number isn't where I wanted it to be, then I used that as my correction trigger to make healthier food choices that day & make a point to exercise more. Most times within a few days that number went back to where it was.
3. Exercise is important...more than you think. I've been hitting plateau's on & off this year. What I'm finding after talking with my doctor a few times is that variety is the key. Basically, pick an exercise & amount that is your "standard" for cardio exercise. This will be the "if I don't do anything else today, I must do this as part of my day, everyday." For me, that is walking 10,000 steps a day (which by the way it the minimum recommended by the American Heart Assoc.). Regardless of how busy I am, 10K is my goal I must achieve. Now, that's not to say I don't have the occasional day where I find myself at 8K & need to go to sleep. I do, but I also make sure that I do over 10K each day & push on a different day to get a high # to make up for the low day, but it must be within that same week (Mon-Sun). Once you've established your standard cardio, introduce some kind of exercise that is weight bearing. This could be anything from going to a gym & doing the machines, to just plain getting on the floor for pushups. Whatever it is, pick an exercise that works maybe 3 different muscle groups: 1 for arms, 1 for legs, butt, abs, back, etc. Do those 3 muscle group exercises 3x a week for 30 mins total. Do this every week for 1 month. You may not see a difference in the scale at the end of the month, but at the end of the month, pick 3 different weight-bearing exercises, & do those 3x a week for the next month. At the end of month 2, you should start to see a difference in the scale. What I've learned is when you hit a plateau, it is time to change your exercise. Muscles get used to the same exercises so they no longer respond as well to build & burn the weight. You need to switch up your weight bearing exercises every few months to change it up for your muscles. The exercise won't be the same thing over & over that just becomes too easy so they work harder to adjust. Now, another thing you can try to add in is additional weight. When you switch to a set of exercises you've done before, you can change the weight on the machine to just slightly higher, which will also help to awaken the muscles.
I hope this helps some of you. These are the big 3 I try to keep to.
For me, because of all this party stuff, I haven't been to the gym in a month or so. Not ideal, but like I said I've committed to a minimum cardio everyday so I'm getting that in even though I haven't been able to breathe I'm so busy. That being said, I had been holding at my 22/40lbs loss for a few months now. After this week, & pretty much not eating yesterday at all until about 8pm, the scale this morning reads 24/40lbs. We'll see if it holds, but for now I'm happy someone is taking pity on me after all I've been through this week.
I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!
I've updated the stats post on the 1st page. Please check to make sure I have your stats correct. There are a few of the new people that I wasn't sure what the goal & progress was, so please let me know.
