Tea...

I've been meaning to post about tea for a while. I know that everyone is aware of the benefits that have been shown to come from drinking green tea... but did you know that ALL REAL TEA (black, white, oolong, green) carries the same benefit. The only reason we heard about green tea is that it was the first to be tested. So if you don't like green tea... NO WORRIES!

Heres a list of recent studies on the benefits of tea!

The greatest benefits have been shown to come from drinking at least 4 cups of tea per day (not a problem for me) and as long as its tea leaves from the camelia plant, it doesn't matter what variety it is. Tea can help lower blood pressure, stimulate digestion, and help you lose weight.

So drink your tea!

Friday Weigh in and September Wrap Up

Scale this morning indicated 176.5 which means I made my goal of 5lbs for the month of September.

I didn't get in nearly as much exercise as I could have, but its nice to think that 5 months after delivering the twins I'm only 6lbs from pre-pregnancy and 16.5 to my year end goal of 160.

According to Fit Day (and their lovely BMI calculator which is rediculously stupid) I am on the cusp between "Severe Overweight" and "Moderate Overweight." Ha! WTFever.

I'm kinda surprised at the scale this morning, especially since I started my period on Tuesday. I don't usualy lose the period bloat until the end of the week, but hey... I'll take it.

School is going. Returning to education is a challenge and I'm stumbling in chemistry. I need to shape up tho as I NEED the A for my application to the Accellerated Nursing Program.

As for my leg workout yesterday, I wanted to try somthing a little different, so I did some combo moves:

All Unweighted:
Sumo Squat + Alternating Front Kick
10 per side x 3 sets.
Side Lunge + Side Leg raise
10 per side x 3 seets.
Calf Raise (on stair) + Hamstring Squeese
10 per side x 3 sets.
Abs on the physio ball (crunches to failure)

It is a very different sensation to do things unweighted... I took shorter breaks between sets tho and had a good elevated HR for the entire workout (about 35 minutes... not very long, but I feel it today).

Hope everyone is well and meeting goals!!

Tuesday Workout

Upper Body:
ChestPress/Fly SS - 10#dbsx15,12,10
Row - 10#dbsx15,15,12
Shoulder Press/Bicep Curl SS - 10#dbsx15,12,10
Tri Press - 15#dbx15,12,12
Abs and stretching

Feeling good and ontrack. Its interesting that yesterday I felt like I was eating CONSTANTLY, could not fill my stomach enough to not be hungry no matter what I ate... and yet... I feel fine today, and the scale didn't even creep up. I guess I needed to eat, eh?

Monday Workout.

So it turns out that all the BS about walking is just that... BS. Walking alone is not enough to get a person fit. It is a great way to start exercising, but if you don't get huffing and puffing for at least a portion of your workout its not gonna get you where you want to go.

Don't believe me? READ THIS

As I read the article, I realized that I had no right to get all "duh" about it because I haven't done ANYTHING to promote my own fitness in easily 3 weeks. So the shoes went on, and my ass went out the door for the first run I've been able to take in 4 months.

Oh good LORD did that feel good!!! 2.5 miles, alternating running and walking with at least 1.5 of it running. I practiced fore-foot running as much as possible, it felt kinda like tip-toeing but it was definitely easier on my heels than typical running.

While I ran I listened to little LS (My iPod) and planned the rest of the weeks workouts. I'll put them under the cut.

October is BACK ON THE WAGON month to prepare for the holidays that are looming... My goal for September was 5lbs lost (I'll check up on that on Saturday) but for October it is going to be hitting at least 4 of my 5 scheduled workouts every week.

Friday Weigh In.

179.

Not surprising really, considering I've been Boozy McDrinksalot this week. (bad stress coping mechanism, I know... I'm done, I swear)

Back on track today and the rest of next week and we'll be seeing the continued 1-1.5 loss per week. OH! And my foot is SO MUCH BETTER after the cortizone shot (tho the flare the day after the shot SUCKED ASS). I may even try to run again before snow flies.

I've been reading articles about fore-foot running... if anyone has info to point me to on this I'd GREATLY appreciate it. I can't continue to distroy my heels with standard heel-toe running, so its time I learned somthing new.

Happy Weekend!!!

My First Exam...

The best part about online testing?

Immediate feedback:

Score
attempt 1 40 / 40 (100.00%)
Overall Grade (highest attempt): 40 / 40 (100.00%)

Class Average
Class Average: 94.00%
Your Score: 100.00%

Friday Weigh In and Comment Spam

Bye Bye 180s.

Today I'm at 179.5... and I hope never (barring another pregnancy) to see 180 on the scale ever again.

In other news, the comment spam is once again filling my inbox with garbage, so I'm closing comments on all entries. I love email tho, and I respond to it all.

Theres got to be a better solution for the fucking spammers, but for now I don't have the time to pursue it... so I'm gonna just keep comments closed. Sorry!

School

Chemistry is a bit remedial... but still a lot to learn.

Anatomy is fascinating, the prof is very good lecturer, but he seems to think the class is (in general) kinda slow... gonna be a lot of memorization tho.

Human Growth and Development is interesting, but getting used to the on-line format is a different.

I'm a student... yay... ;) I mean, I think.

I am overwhelmed some days and completely confident others... I know that I'm providing a good example to the kids, doing my homework, etc... but man... I hate to see my family and home suffering for this.

Overall I think I'll do well this semester... my goal (of course) is all As, and keeping my excercise and diet on track as well... so far so good.

Hunger...

I've been thinking a lot recently about my personal experience of hunger. Being of the education level and socioeconomic class that I am, it is unlikely that I will ever be in a position to be unwillingly hungry. I have spent my life in the company of abundance... not necessarily financial abundance, but I was definitely never without food. Because of this my experience of hunger is incredibly limited. I am familiar with the general sensation of hunger, and I am well aware of how my body processes satiety and even over-indulgence... but I don't know that I REALLY understand what its like, how it feels, to be hungry.

Weight loss "experts" would have you believe that when trying to lose weight you should never allow yourself to feel hungry. Eat before you get hungry, but eat just enough to keep you from that feeling of hunger for another couple of hours. Metabolically this is a good strategy. The prolonged sensation of hunger turns the metabolism down... and reduces your overal caloric expenditure in an effort to conserve in case of true famine. But I think what people do is mis-interpret the idea that "not being hungry" really means "feeling full." These are, unfortunately COMPLETELY different things. The sensation of NOT being hungry is not synonamous with the sensation of being full. Feeling full is really a metabolically disasterous place to be. If you FEEL full you have over consumed and are training your body to be able to consume more than you need on a repeated basis.

In the last few weeks I have been trying to find ways to experience the sensation of hunger without dammaging my metabolism. Its probably not working... but I believe, for me, that its important that I understand the difference between "not hungry" and "full." So to find that place I have been allowing myself to get hungry. Sometimes very hungry... and while this will NEVER replicate TRUE hunger (in a global sense) it is making me MUCH more aware of how much I really need to eat to get to the point of being not hungry. This morning, for breakfast, I ordered scrambled eggs with french-toast and bacon. I was hungry, I was breaking my nightly fast... and yet... to feel full, I ate less than 1/3 of the food I ordered. I started with the eggs, and that alone nearly took the hunger completely away. 1/2 of a piece of french toast and I was no longer hungry. 1 and 1/2 pieces and 4 pieces of bacon remained on my plate. I could have eaten it all, and probably would have gotten to the point of feeling "full." Not wanting to get there, i stopped eating. This was at 8:45a. I am not yet hungry again. Yet, if i had eaten everything... I would probably be hungry again at about the same time I will be, even having only eaten enough to satisfy the hunger.

I don't understand, really, why feeling hunger is such a bad thing. I can understand that often, because we live with such abundance, the feeling of hunger will trigger over-consumption in so many people... but I also believe that there is a marked lack of education in our society about the inner workings of the human body and the difference between eating to the point of not being hungry and eating to the point of feeling full. I never learned anything about this until I decided to do some research on my own... and now I believe that if I never allow myself to feel hungry, I will probably chronically over-eat. I have to FEEL Hunger to know when the sensation has abated... when I've eaten enough to satisfy the sensation and yet NOT gorge and over-stuff my stomach to the point of stretching. I don't know that human beings are EVER supposed to feel "Full." I think if we could change that one perception, alone, the obesity epidemic could be curbed significantly.

Give it a shot... let yourself feel hunger... and let it last 30 minutes to an hour. Feel the sensation, examine it, analyze it and figure out just how minor or intense it is for you. Really listen to your body to hear what it's telling you that it wants... and THEN only eat as much as you need to no longer feel hungry. You'll probably need to eat really slowly to make sure you don't over-eat... or eat past the point of no longer being hungry. How long are you able to keep from being hungry again on that ammount of food? How much difference is there between the ammount you ate to not feel hungry and how much it would take to feel full? I'm going to hazard to guess that the differences in ammounts are profound... but the differences in length of satiety will be quite small.

I guess I'd better do my homework now...

Friday Weigh In.

I haven't been good about recording what I eat, but I can summarize it very easily here:

Breakfast - egg and tea
Snack - cottage cheese and fruit
Lunch - Chicken breast on salad
Snack - 1/2 protein bar
Dinner - protein and veggies (and maybe a little carb, but I've been avoiding it if possible)

Today brought a solid 180 on the scale. I had only hoped to maintain this week as I haven't worked out at all... but this just shows me that dietary discipline is really important in the grand scheme of things.

so... officially 10lbs from pre-pregnancy... and 20 from where I want to be by the end of the year.

Its a good thing. ;)

On Hold

The workout schedule is on hold this week as I determine how being a full-time student is going to affect my daily life.

So far the consensus is... I have time for nothing... ;)

Still eating like a champ tho... so I won't be doing myself any dammage this week... I'll be back as soon as I pull it together and hit the student gym. I'm excited to do a review of it.

Progress

I know I promised... so here they are:

Progress Pictures.

4 weeks post partum and 4 months post partum. Enjoy.

Forgot to mention:

sometimes the whole weight loss thing can be frustrating at best. Having only lost a total of 2.5 lbs this last month really pissed me off... I mean, I wasn't drinking... I followed thru on my workout-goal (3x/week lifting) and I walked and played tennis a lot too... and I don't like being pissed off, so this morning I've been trying to gain some perspective.

On May 1st of this year I weighed about 237lbs.

Today I weigh 181 lbs. So in 4 months, I have lost... 56lbs. Now I can atribute the first 40 of that to babies (6lbs 7oz and 7lbs 1oz) amniotic fluid (lets say7.5lbs) placentas (5lbs) and reduction in blood volume (we'll give that the remaining 14lbs). Which means that in 4 months I've lost at least 16lbs of non-baby weight. Now, considering it took me 2 YEARS to lose 45 lbs the first go-around... 4lbs/mo for 4mo is really not all that bad... and yes it comes in spurts. It always has... that's why doing this exercise for perspective is so important for me. True, i want to step up the action over the next 4 months so I can see 160 again by Dec 31... but that's only 20 lbs away... 5lbs a month... TOTALLY doable.

in fact...

watch me.

;)

Friday Weigh In...

Haven't done this in a while... but the scale is finally reflecting a little of what I know is going on, so here we go:

Friday September 1 - 181.5

I had hoped to be out of the 180s by the end of August. Ah well, these things happen. My last weigh in for July was 184, so... all of 2.5 lbs for the month.

The good thing is that I'm finally starting to plan ahead again. Getting back into the habit of planning is probably the most difficult thing for me. I plan EVERYTHING, so when it comes to my meals and workouts... I'm just sorta... meh about the whole thing. But the pendulum is swinging... and the fat is falling and the muscle is building, and that's all a girl can ask for.