Week 4: Results & Excuses

Oh boy. So much for not having any excuses…


Excuses:

• Relationships are distracting and exhausting at times—not even just romantic ones or ones with the  opposite sex.

• While throwing up may help you lose weight, it’s really dehydrating and leaves you with zero energy.

• Being festive is apparently counterintuitive to fitness and weight-loss


I worked out 4 times this week:

• (1) 1-hour yoga class

• (4) bike rides, for a total of 79 minutes and 14.7 miles


Results: I lost 1 lb this week, making it a grand total of 8 lbs in 4 weeks. I now weigh 161 lbs, and have 22 to go!

I am gaining some traction on this whole weight-loss thing. I received all kinds of encouragement from people this week. One co-worker noticed that I was still sitting at my desk as our yoga class was about to start. She said, “Come on, let’s go! We’ve still got time to make it!” and I went. I probably wouldn’t have if she didn’t say anything to me. I made it in time to get the last available spot in the class, and felt so refreshed and thankful when we were done. Namaste, indeed. Sometimes I need that little extra kick in the butt to get moving.

2 people I hadn’t seen in a while mentioned that I looked really good, and another co-worker said that she noticed that I was losing weight. It’s really motivating to hear that people are noticing what I think I’m the only one who can see. It makes me want to kick it up another couple of notches.

Either the weight-loss or my parting of ways with C. (or both) is affecting my total “energy.” I walked into work one day this week with my hands full—workout bag on one arm, handbag on the other arm, keys in one hand, and building access badge in the other hand. A guy came up from behind to open the door for me to get into the building. I said, “Thanks,” and when I smiled and made eye contact with him, he smiled back, seemed to notice my running shoes hanging out of my workout bag, and proceeded to make small talk with me until I had to turn off to get to my desk. I have always thought that people where I work are not excessively friendly, much less do they want to hold doors or engage in conversation with strangers as they are racing to their desks first thing in the morning. This made me think that maybe it isn’t the people, but perhaps it is me and the energy that I have been putting into the universe lately. I feel as if I can see the gray clouds beginning to break.

I had a few minor set backs this week. I thought I would cozy up with some Chinese food and some chick flicks on Saturday night. Well, the Chinese food did not agree to stay in my stomach, so I had a little bit of a puking episode. This left me weak and tired and dehydrated, but somehow I still felt like waking up Sunday morning for a bike ride.

My daughter’s 10th birthday was this weekend, and there was Chili’s (one of her favorite places) and cake involved. I did OK with dinner—grilled chicken with black beans, but did I mention that there was cake? There’s no denying the chocolate molten lava cake, there’s just more and harder exercise on the other side of eating the chocolate molten lava cake.

My homies have kept me really busy this week, too. It just seemed like there were a lot of dramatic happenings this week. Towards the end of it, when craziness presented itself, I had to just say, “Whatever,” and I kept it moving. I can’t have drama interfering with my goals, right?

This week has been about structure, and my coming weeks will be the same. The kids got back to school and sports practices, and this greatly limits the time that I am able to get my workouts. My plan is to continue to use the gym at work as much as my work schedule will allow. I will also continue to ride the bike, just because I enjoy it so much. Hopefully I can get up a few minutes earlier each morning, so that I can go a little further. I’ve still been a little scared to get out on my rollerblades, but I will challenge myself to try them out this week. I am really excited about being on the verge of hitting the 10 lbs lost mark—I will reward myself with some much-needed new running shoes, and will feel better about starting back to running, the real fat burner.

All in all, it was a good week, but I think that Week 5 will be even better.