No major life change has happened, but my point of view, focus, determination, and thought process has completely changed. I am stepping out of my comfort zone, I am beginning to be able to visualize the person I will become and the body I will have, I am gaining the control that I so desperately wanted to have over my food choices and impulses- in short: I AM BECOMING THE PERSON GOD CREATED ME TO BE in so many different ways. Not that God wasn't happy or didn't love me at 352lbs but I know that I wasn't glorifying Him with the choices I was making, nor was I a good reflection of a life that has been completely satisfied by Him. More on that another time.
Here are some Highlights & Updates from the last week:
- FOOD: One of the most VITAL keys to my success has been food preparation. Becasue it is hard for me to control myself when eating out (although I still do it quite often) as well as it being expensive, I usually bring my lunch to work every week (M-F). However, because I don't have time in the mornings to cook and pack a lunch everyday, I do ALL of my food prep and packing on Sundays. Luckily, I don't have a hard time eating the same thing for lunch everyday, but if I don't like what I'm eating then it becomes difficult to do that week in and week out- so, I usually try and cook a brand new lunch recipe at least every other week. Some common lunch reoccurences: Turkey Chili, Tuna or Chicken Salad Sandwhiches, or Pasta; and this past week PIZZA joined the ranks of my lunch favorites! The pic above is the pizza I made this past week and it was seriously the BEST thing I have EVER made- I could prob eat it for lunch every day for the rest of the month! I used: Trader Joe's rustic ciabbata pizza crust, Trader Joe's basil marinara spaghetti sauce, reduced fat part skim mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, spinach, red onion, garlic, and chicken. So. freaking. delicious. Next time I make it I will be more careful to calculate the exact nutritional info but if I had to guess, I believe for 2 slices it was about 350 calories and with 4 servings coming out of each pizza, I'm good for lunch for almost the entire week! You all will be seeing more pizza creations from me in the future, no doubt. Anyone have any good recipe suggestions that are easy to make & pack for the week in advance?
- My weigh in this week was pretty much exactly what I expected: At last week's weigh in I had a 7lb loss so my goal for this week was pretty much to just maintain that loss (something that is hard for me to do for some reason); however, I was able to do just that and weighed in at 270lbs this Thursday. My goal for next week's weigh in? A 2lb loss, total loss of 84lbs, at 268lbs.
- One of my goals for the month of February was to check out a group fitness class- this is something I've wanted to do for a while for a couple of reasons: 1) I can feel myself beginning to get a bit bored with doing 45 min on the elliptical 4x's a week and was in need of some variety, 2) I don't want my body to get used to using the same muscles at the same amount of resistance, and 3) I am ALL about not allowing fear to keep me from doing ANYTHING and working out with a group of people who may be more fit than I am and might judge me if I'm not able to keep up w/the class is pretty scary to me. WELL...this past Wednesday I had my first group fitness class experience through my local YMCA and I attended Zumba. Prior to going I had heard really good things about the class from some co-workers (mostly that it was fun and a really good workout) and it seemed to be the least intimidating option; when I arrived I was suprised to see that I was one of the 5 people there under the age of 50, which immediately calmed my nerves but made me suspicious about how much of a good workout I would actually be getting. My final evaluation? While it was a nice break from the old elliptical, there were numerous times throughout the class that I found myself wondering why I was finding it so easy and if I was wasting my precious workout time. I had to constantly make the moves more challenging and continue marching while everyone else took water breaks after every song, but when I checked my calorie burn on my heart rate monitor, it did show I had burned 592 calories in the 50 minute class session AND my butt and legs are freaking killing me- perhaps it was a better workout than I thought! In the end, I probably will be attending the class on more of a bi-weekly basis than weekly (for variety), I am glad that I went and proud of myself for not allowing fear to hold me back from something I had no reason to be afraid of. My next step of kicking fear in the face? Spin. I am by no means confident in my ability to even make it through a class but I am going to try. I'm hoping that it will have the challenging aspect that I'm looking for and that I may end up being passionate about it. I'm not gonna lie- I'm truly nervous about it, but that's not gonna stop me. I plan to take my first class next week if not this weekend. What has your experience with Zumba been? Did you like or dislike it? Also, should I be afraid to try spinning?
Have a good weekend :)