Let's Play Catch Up!

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks.  I had the intention but time just got away from me.  To catch you all up, here we go...

Last Saturday, my weight stayed exactly the same as it has for the previous two weeks.  Blah.  But always better than a gain!  My workouts hadn't been there because I was not able to go to the gym due to the weather and/or school closures. 

I was supposed to have met with my HyVee dietitian on Wednesday, February 5, but she canceled due to the blowing/drifting snow.  We rescheduled for Wednesday, February 12.

On Monday, February 10, I met with my Biggest Loser group for the first time.  It was kind of hard because the meeting wasn't until 7:30p.  I usually get done working out around 6:30 or so and head home, so I had to stick around for another hour, and then attend the meeting.  It made for a VERY exhausting day, and I will have those for the next several weeks.  BUT - I am ready to make that sacrifice.  I have chosen to do so to better my health for myself and my loved ones.  I'm not complaining.

Our first meeting consisted of going over the "rules" and what we could expect.  Basically, if we miss a Monday meeting, we are disqualified.  That kind of worries me, but hopefully the weather will cooperate and I won't have to choose between my health goals and my safety (safety will always win).  We were assigned a personal trainer and will meet with him twice a week.  There is also a nutrition coach that we will meet with 3x throughout the competition.  I did ask her if I should suspend my HyVee meetings for the duration, but she encouraged me to continue.  I didn't want conflicting info, but she said since she is still a student, she would only support what HyVee lady (Jennifer) tells me.  Some Mondays we will have group exercise, sometimes we will have speakers.  Whoever loses the most percentage of weight, inches, etc. will be crowned the winner, with prizes still being determined.  While my competitive side wants to win, my logical side is in this more for the experience, support, and knowledge I can gain.  This is set up for students, and although I AM a student, I'm sure they would prefer a full-time student wins.  That doesn't mean I'm going to roll over and LET them win, though!  haha

On Tuesday, I met with my trainer, Justin, for the first time for my fitness assessment.  First, I had to go get weighed.  Then he took my blood pressure in both arms (it was good), my resting pulse, measurements, etc.  Then I did a 3 minute step test.  I was worried my knee wouldn't let me do it, but it was fine.  He played a beat on a metronome and I just had to step, step, step, step with each beat.  Very easy, but I was a little out of breath by the end.  He then took my elevated pulse.  Next, I laid on a mat and had to do crunches.  My fingers had to start at one piece of tape on the mat, and when I "crunched" my fingers had to touch another piece of tape.  I had to do those until I couldn't any longer.  I started and kept going...and going...and going...until he finally told me to stop.  I had done 60.  He consulted a chart was amazed/impressed.  He said it only went up to 40, so I was "off the charts."  I could tell he didn't expect that out of a overweight, middle-aged mom.  HA! 

I wasn't done surprising him, though.  The final part of the assessment was doing push ups.  I had to do as many as I could in 1 minute.  I knew I wouldn't be so great at this because I've lost so much upper body strength.  I was able to do 20.  He consulted his chart and announced that that was "above average."  He was pleased/surprised with that, too.

I had a couple more surprises for him though.  We talked about my goals and what I liked to do in the gym.  He was very excited when I told him that the deadlift was my very favorite lift in the world.  He was also happy to know that I had experience with lots of different weight lifting techniques/moves, which gives him more time to WORK me, than to have to teach me how to do things.  We discussed the knee issues and I promised him that if something hurt in a bad way, I would tell him and not try to play the hero.  We will be meeting on Tuesdays/Thursdays for my workouts.  I can't wait!

Wednesday was Lincoln's birthday and the University was closed.  I didn't want to waste my day off doing nothing, so I went to Macomb any way and met with Jennifer, did a workout, and met with Emily, the nutrition coach.  I turned in a 2-week food diary to Jennifer and she was overall pleased with what I'm eating.  She had a few suggestions for me to try and I've done exactly what she's asked.  One of them was cutting down my Diet Dew consumption.  I have one in the morning and one in the evening.  My other drinks are water.  So we cut the evening Dew.  Because I still wanted a carbonated drink, she showed me some sparkling waters.  I tried them and they weren't bad.  I expressed a concern about switching one chemical-laden drink for another, but she reassured me that the sparkling water was ok, and the chemicals in it were better than in Dew.  Eventually, perhaps I will completely rid myself of soda.  We shall see.

Another suggestion was to replace some of my whole eggs that I have for breakfast with egg substitute.  I've done it, but I'm not entirely embracing it yet.  We also talked about snacks and how it IS ok to have a healthy snack if I am hungry between meals.  I have plenty of ammo in my desk/fridge at work, so I'm good to go there.  I just need to take the time to actually EAT them. 

I had also taken the time to plan out all of our evening meals this week.  Something I've gotten lazy about doing.  All in all, last week I worked really hard in the gym and in the kitchen.  I was really excited to step on the scale yesterday morning to see how much all of this work had paid off.  I was absolutely crushed to see I had gained 3 pounds.  I'm not going to lie, I cried.  My spirit was broken and I felt so betrayed by my body.  I did what I was supposed to do and it didn't work.  My inner spoiled child wanted to throw in the towel, eat whatever I wanted and gain a bunch of weight, and then go have gastric bypass (I would qualify if my BMI were a little higher - right now I do not qualify because I have no co-existing conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.).  Thankfully, my inner adult did not allow that to happen.  I sent a couple of rant emails to my trusted friends, and talked to my husband about it.  He was as puzzled as me.  We have no idea, but I'm going to continue putting one foot in front of the other and continuing on my journey.  Yesterday was a dark day, I'll admit, but it's going to be ok. 

I was the weight recorder for our TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) group in town for 11 years, and I would always tell the people I weighed to not let that number define them or control their emotions.  I needed to listen to my own advice yesterday, but it's very hard when you feel like you've done everything right and you're met with failure.  And it's super frustrating knowing that there are people who can say, "I quit drinking Pepsi for a week and I lost 10 lbs!"  or "I worked out for 10 minutes this week, ate at Burger King every day, and I still lost 5 lbs!"  Ughhhhhh...I want to punch those people.  I'm sorry, but I do!  By just typing the words "Pepsi" and "Burger King" I probably gained 6 lbs. 

This will be another busy week with Biggest Loser meeting tomorrow night, training on Tuesday and Thursday, plus regular workouts on the other days, and somewhere in there I need to do homework.  It will be worth it in the end.  I'M READY!