Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Lessons Learned: #3? Update where I have been

Hey Everyone!

I am so sorry that I haven't blogged lately, I think it has almost been 2 weeks since I last posted something. Honestly, I have no idea how long it has been because I don't keep track of days. But I have missed you all and I will be reading your blogs and catching up with everything that is going on. I feel so out of the loop. I have been really, really, really, really, really, moody lately. I am still blaming it on the new bc pills. I think the estrogen levels in that pills are too high for me because I have turned into an angry black woman, and I think you all know that stereotype. I am so angry I am snapping at the air. Like I sit in my room being pissed at the world! What the heck? Seriously, I am pissed because my walls are white and my bed sheets are green! (Green is my favourite colour by the way). On top of that my craving are out of control and TOM will be visiting this week and yeah I could complain for days but I won't. I said all that, to say I didn't blog because I didn't want to share my misery.

What has been going on besides that? I am still doing Turbo Fire. I am on week 6 or 7 (oops I can't remember I have to check my calender) I am so pleased with my progress. I have gained some weight but I am still under 200lbs but just barely. I am around 198lbs now I know some of that is water weight and some of that is from horrible snacking. I had set a goal to in the 180s by the end of this month and I won't make that but it is ok, because I am still happy with the progress that I am making. I am way more physically fit! My cardio is improving, I am gaining upper body strength! I can do push ups yall! I could not do push ups at the beginning of this year. I had no upper body strength but I do now. Granted I can only do five full push ups but it is still progress! Don't hate me cause I can do five instead of zero!...lol I will probably talk more about this in another post though. This is about lessons learned. These are things that I have learned over time... 

  1. It is important to have non scale goals! I should reword that to say non scale goals should have top priority!: I say this because there are a number of things that can affect your weight. For example, meds, stress, lack of sleep, muscle formation and if you only rely on the scale you will get discouraged! You will probably want to give up when the number on the scale goes up. But if you are achieving non scale goals even when the scale does show gain you will less likely be affected by it. The only thing that is keeping me dedicated to working out is that my body is changing for the better! And my challenge is focusing on physical fitness. I am definitely improving as far as that is concerned and even when I feel fat I am still happy. 
  2. Do not measure your success (or lack there of) on someone else's progress. I am assuming that we all read blogs (blonde moment?) Sometimes, we see other people making huge progress while they struggle and we may get a bit competitive (jealous?) that that person is losing weight while we are still struggling. Don't worry about the other person. Stay focused on yourself. This journey is about you and you alone. Some people are extremely lucky and they seem to go to sleep fat and wake up skinny ( I remember when I was one of those persons ;)) Different circumstances = different experiences, just do what works for you and be happy with the progress that you are making. Even if it seems like you are losing slowly.  
  3. Plan workouts/food in advance: Do not just wing it. Know exactly what you want to eat for the day, write it down and stick to it. If however, you give into temptation, forgive yourself and move on! Whenever I don't plan my workouts I don't do it. Of course my workouts are planned for me already but I still have to write down what I want to achieve. 
  4. Push through your workouts: Unless you are light headed. you have cramps/physical pain, your heart is beating too rapidly, or you feel like you are going to vomit, there is absolutely no reason for you to stop exercising just because you feel "tired". If you want to see progress, you have to push yourself beyond what you think is you max Now I am not saying you should kill yourself while exercising. I am just saying sometimes I get this voice in my head while I am exercising that discourages me. It says to me let's stop because it is too hot! Or it would say, I don't feel like exercising today, I am getting tired. We can do this later, DO NOT LISTEN TO THAT VOICE! That is probably the same voice that tells you to buy the chocolate bar or that tub of ice cream. If you ignore that voice you will feel 50times better once you are done with your workout than if you quit early. 
  5. If you do exercise DVDs, keep track of how much time is left before you are done: If you are doing a 20min work out session and you make it to 10mins you can make it to the end. Most workout dvds leave the last 5mins for cool down so if you can make it half way you can make it to the end. This kind of ties into my previous point. This is especially if you only feel tired and only if there are no other signs of exhaustion.
  6. Finally if you need to take a short break take your break and drink some water then get back into it. The important thing is that you get it done. It doesn't matter how long you take. Next time you just take a shorter break until you get to the point that you don't need breaks anymore. 
This time around my lessons learned focused on exercising because that has been my focus lately. I love to exercise. It is a struggle for me to start, but once I get into it I truly enjoy the sweating and all that comes along with it. I did Fire Ez 55 today and 30mins through I wanted to give up but I said to myself if you can do 30mins you can finish and I finished and I decided that I would write this  blog post. I am going to probably do hip hop abs or maybe Fire 45 once I finished this post or maybe both who knows? I burned 412 calories with Fire Ez 55 which is impressive because when I did it for the very first time I only burned 250 calories. Up until today my record high was 380. I think that 412 calories in 55 mins is way cool :D I have never burned that much in one workout! I am almost tempted to do that again. But I am not that crazy! That workout is a killer it is no joke...lol 

Anyways I hope everyone is doing great. I promise I will make posts more frequently. I have an update on roaccutane, I have an update on my fitness challenge. I want to do a book review (maybe) We will see what comes up!

Thanks for reading!

3 comments:

  1. Great post and advice!!!! Im a new reader! Thank you for the support on my blog!

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  2. Hey Hyla, I love reading your blog you always have some interesting and informative posts thanks for reading :D

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  3. I just found your blog, so glad that i did! That is all fantastic advice!

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