Actions Speak Louder than Words

What a month this has been! What a week this has been! What a day this has been!

I said last month "I'm back" and I sure have been.. I thought I'd let my weight and workouts do the talking for me though. I didn't want to justify or excuse myself each week if I didn't go out there and try something really intense and then report back. So my report is in...a month of some crucial workouts have put me in this wonderful spot today.

Since the half, I had gained almost 15 lbs from a lack of cardio and clean eating. It's amazing how easy and how quick you can let hard work slip away. I liken it to the public school teacher saying 'it's more difficult to maintain an A than it is to get to one." Well said, Teacher, well said.


In an effort to get right back on track, I set out to crush the gym with weight lifting and embark down the path of bike riding for cardio in addition to a couple runs here and there. What I realized about running is that I have a pattern of doing a big race and then burning out. I want to stop this habit by integrating different cardio routines in the mix so that after a race, I still have other cardio goals to reach for that prohibit me from halting the program. Adding the cycling to the mix, I was able to get my husband on board with cardio as well as earn a partner to make the tough miles go by quicker. In the past month, we have pedaled more than 100 miles together and it feels great. This is my "What a month" moment.

Me and my fitness bucket list after the 20 miler!

Back in March, I recommended that everyone reading this or wanting to get fit should make a fitness bucket list with goals both short and long term. Remember?! As I have been on this journey, there have been quite a few mini-milestones met along the way (first was being able to run a mile w/o stopping, months later it became to run a half, fit into size 8 pants, etc.). Well, this past weekend, I accomplished a goal on the list: to bike 20 miles again. I say again because a long time ago, while I was living in Germany, I got stranded in the night with no taxis available and it was far too late to call my parents to have them get me. So I borrowed a bike from a friend and rode through the night and managed to get home at dawn. I later calculated that I rode 20 cold, lonely and scary miles to get home. I wanted to do it again but not out of necessity and definitely under better circumstances. My husband set out the course and we ended up riding all through the Marine Corps base, Quantico, for 20 hilly miles. If anyone knows Virginia topography, then you know it's impossible to have a flat course for any given distance over 3 miles. There were a few doozies along the way, but we didn't stop and I accomplished my goal!

On the back of the piece of paper/goal, I wrote a reward. 20 miles on a bike equated to a massage and what luck I had as my best friend (from high school-ironic, right?!) came into town that afternoon and gave me a massage (she is a masseuse)! So achieving this goal is where the "What a week" comes into play.

Onto my "What a day" moment: I have been weighing myself off and on this month. After seeing those numbers from my last recorded weigh in, I was feeling pretty stupid for letting myself gain weight so noncommittally that I knew I needed to push it out and get back to where I should've been and back on the right path. You know the funny thing? I KNEW I was going down the rabbit hole and I still didn't stop myself...how horrible is that? I guess we all have times where we just have an 'eh, forget it' but it NEVER, EVER feels like the right thing to do and is ALWAYS laced with regret (Thanksgiving dinner, holiday parties, Xmas meals...regretful feelings of overeating ring a bell, anyone?). My success this month was in my weigh-in today. I'm going to show you my last published weigh in on my blog and then my weigh in
today.

May 24:

Weight: 164.4 (down 43.4 total)

Percent of Body Fat: 36% (down 8.3 %)

BMI: 27 (-7.2 pts)

Water Weight: 46.7% (up 6.7%)

Weeks to Meet Goal: 29

TODAY:

Weight: 169.2

Percent Body Fat: 37.3%

BMI: 27.8

Water Weight: 45.7%

What I see is a great mini-success. I am just a few pounds shy of where I was a couple months ago, my body fat percentage is off my points and I, in general, feel fantastic. "What a day" this morning was when 7.6 lbs were shed from my body in response to my hard work for the month. I was thrilled and motivated to, as Dory would say, 'just keep swimming.'

Looking to next week, I hope to post more positive news with negative numbers. I also intend to sign up for a couple races before Christmas and I look forward to continuing on this positive path!

Love w/ all my bum,
CH