Yes, But I'm Still Cute

Wow, had my first totally random comment yesterday from a complete stranger. Thanks "J"! If you're still reading, I'm curious about how you found my blog, and judging from your use of kilos as a measurement, are you from Great Britain or Canada? I kind of think it's cool, though, to have people I don't know comment on this blog. Weight loss is definitely one of those things that benefits from a lot of input and support from other people.


As wretched as those beginning swimsuit pictures are, I still feel like I could say something positive - I may be a fat little budda, but I'm a cute fat little budda, so there. And I also like my face in this picture, for some reason, even though my expression is a little goofy.

Some good things to say about my body: I like my eye color (hazel), my hair color (kind of a dark blond/light brown with subtle variations in color), the shape of my calves (they're still too big, but I think they will look good when the extra weight comes off), and just the overall shape of my body. Yep, it's still too huge, obviously, but just like my calves, I think it's going to look great when I reach my goal. And I like the shape of my feet. While they are annoyingly difficult to fit because they are wide (there are so many cute shoes I can't buy because my feet are wide, and weight loss is not going to fix that, RATS!!!), I still like the shape of them, and my toes. And I am blessed with good skin. I rarely wear makeup, mostly because I hate the feel of it on my face, but also because I don't have to. Amen.

Speaking of which, what is my goal, really? I know I want to be smaller, and to be in good shape, physically, but do I have a goal weight? At this point, I'd like to weigh about 150 pounds, but even in college, it seemed like I couldn't get it under 155, so I guess we'll see what happens. And frankly, being a size 10 sounds great! I know it's not a six 6, or a size 2, like so many people with dieting successes seem to be showcasing (how in the world do people do that and still stand up straight without passing out?!), but I think it would be really awesome shopping for, and fitting into, a size 10. Being in the size 20's for most of my adult life makes being a size 10 sound heavenly.

Weighed 222.5 again at the rec center. I weigh myself with my clothes and shoes on, just because I want to be able to just pop on the scales whenever I'm there, and not worry about getting undressed just to weigh myself for an accurate base of comparison with other days.

What I ate today -
Breakfast - 32 oz. water during/after workout, 1 piece mini banana bread, 1/3 cup dry Malt-o-Meal (add 1 cup water) cooked with frozen strawberries and blueberries, 2 Tbsp sliced almonds, 8 oz. 1% milk
Lunch - 2 or 3 pieces of mini banana bread, 8 oz. 1% milk, a Very Veggie Burrito (1 whole wheat tortilla, stir-fried chicken breast, stir-fried onions, stir-fried bell peppers, stir-fried tomatillos, fresh tomatoes, green onions, shredded cabbage, fat-free sour cream). Then I had (gasp!) some Rocky Road ice cream, but at least I kept the portion small, around 1/2 to 3/4 cup. I figured if I was going to have some, I could at least keep the portion small.
Dinner - about 3 cups of a fruit smoothie. I used 1% milk, and frozen mixed fruit (strawberries, mango, pineapple, peaches), plus I added some wheat germ.

Funny this is, I felt kind of piggy this afternoon, but I look at it now, and really, I did a good job. When dinner rolled around, I just wasn't hungry. A lot of food sounded interesting, but I knew I could easily get by without eating much of anything.

Exercise - I wanted to swim today, but the pool wasn't open until noon, so I just did the elliptical, but I tried to keep it challenging by alternating frontwards and backwards strokes, and by pumping up the resistance level. I did the PRECOR Elliptical EFX 556, 30 minutes, 17 minutes at resistance #6, and 13 minutes at resistance #8. It was 2.39 miles, 3648 strides, and 386.8 calories. I know this may not be scientifically exact for my own personal body, but holy cow! I burned nearly 400 calories in one 1/2 hour exercise! Funny thing. I can always go faster & harder the second half of my workout than the first half. I think I'm better at endurance than speed.

I took about an hour nap in the afternoon, after lunch. I bet it killed some of the calorie burning. Oh, well, maybe my body needed it for something else.

Also, I didn't really work out in the evening, but I did work up a sweat going up and down the stairs constantly, with cleaning the house and bossing/helping the kids with various things, while trying to squeeze in work on clearing out my beading supplies.