I think the scale might have something against me. Change this week was minimal but at least it was in the right direction. I’m down just .2 pounds from where I was last week. That’s 193.8 for those keeping score at home. At Weight Watchers they tell you that even though the scale didn’t move down, as long as it didn’t move up, you’re doing something right. It’s true that if I wasn’t paying attention to my diet and doing all this exercise I would probably be reporting a weight gain, so I’m going to be glad about my “progress” this week in the weight department.
However, I did have two significant gains this week. The first is in the area of exercise. I started a weight workout last week and am having a ball with it. It feels incredible to actually be using these dormant old muscles. I heard a few moans and groans, but I got them moving! I’m doing a three day cycle. Day one is chest, biceps and triceps. Day two is abs, thighs, and calves. Day three is upper back, lower back, and shoulders. I was sore initially but no soreness at all after the first round. Is that normal? Because I was expecting to be sore after every workout. I am stretching a lot though, after my workouts. That feels great too.
I am also kicking up my cardio workout so that my heart rate is between 130 and 145 throughout my workout. In the past I was lucky to see 110. I’ve had mixed success with this. Some days I can go 24 minutes at this rate, and other days I’m exhausted and out of breath after just 12 minutes. I expected a little more consistency, but perhaps it’s a function of what I eat or drink the night before a workout or the morning of.
The second significant gain I made this week was in the area of conscious eating. I remember one day last week I decided to just wait until I was hungry before eating. I know that might seem like a no-brainer to some of ya’ll, but that’s a big one for me. So I had a banana for breakfast at 9am after my workout. Then I waited. And waited. For lunch I cracked open a can of black bean soup and ate all of it. That was around noon. Then I waited until I felt hungry again, which happened around 4pm. This time I had some leftover sloppy joes (18g of protein on a whole grain bun), and a side of carrots. And then … and then … nothing. I wasn’t hungry at my usual dinner time (around 8pm) so I didn’t eat. Steve was scarfing down a huge salad, some brazil nuts, and olives while we watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica. I took the road less travelled and just drank a glass of water. We stayed up extra late to watch just one more episode which took us to about 10:30pm. That’s when I ran into a problem. Hunger. Argh! I was finally hungry but I didn’t want to eat, not right before bed! I was starving actually. Steve convinced me to go to bed hungry saying it would allow my body to burn some fat since it didn’t have that shot of glucose. I checked my blood sugar and it was at 95 (that’s very low for me), and I had some misgivings about going to bed when my blood sugar was low. I wondered if I would wake up the next morning or just slip into a coma.
I woke hungry, but didn’t eat. I went to the gym. Possibly a mistake. But I’m still alive. When I got home and checked my weight I figured I’d be down at least a pound, but alas, I was actually up. This is why I think my scale has something against me. How does a person eat like 800 calories in a day and wake up the next morning weighing more than she did when she went to bed? I’m in the Bizarro universe I tell ya.
But I persevere. As long as I’m still learning and as long as I’m making progress I will not fear the final outcome. I’m definitely going to continue this conscious eating thing and only eat when I actually feel hungry. I’ve successfully gone to bed a couple of days this week with 4pm being my last meal of the day. Let’s see where that gets me in another week.
In the meantime, I’m going to keep stepping up my workouts and increasing my weights and cardio program. How did your week go? And how has your scale been treating you? Mine’s in the doghouse.
