Found at out weigh-in that I've lost another 3.2 lbs! Yes!! Even after fair week and eating mexican two times...

Progress!

Ok. Just in case I (and all you avid readers out there) didn't know, I am making progress toward better health and fitness. Yay! This evening, Erica and I both had fitness assessments with my old personal trainer, Kim. I love these assessments more and more as the months go by. I've had one about every 2 months since last September. So, anyhow...here's the overall picture in a nice mathematical format. It's kind of embarrassing to admit my "before" state but perhaps I can encourage someone...?

Last September, I was at a whopping 41.7% body fat. I was officially considered "obese." As of this evening, I have 28.1% body fat. That falls in the "Moderate" % body fat range. At this point I'm striving to go down another 5% or so to be in the "Good" range. That seems pretty attainable, as I went from 33% to 28% since the end of May...perhaps by the end of September or something I'll be in that range. Overall, I've lost 29 lbs according to their scale - that includes a loss of 35.3 lbs of fat and a gain of 6.3 lbs of muscle.

With the skinfold test: I lost 9 mm of fat hanging on my tricep, 27 mm of fat around my waist, and 20 mm of fat on my quad, the top of my leg...

Other stats: My cardiovascular fitness has improved from "Poor" to "Fair", my bicep strength has gone up from "Poor" to "Average," as I can lift 18 more lbs with my biceps. I can now do 17 more pushups in a minute than I could 10 months ago. I can also bench press 36 more lbs than 10 months ago. My flexibility remains "Good" (yes, that's all I had back then...).

My body age was 30 in Sept and is now 24, which is my actual age. So, I'm really pleased with that. The trainer says that I can attain a body age of 18, so I guess I'll keep striving for that!

Anyhow, I am really pleased with the results I'm seeing. It doesn't happen overnight, but then again, I didn't gain 60 extra lbs overnight either. :) That happened over the course of about 6 or 7 years... I'm just happy that I am making changes that I believe will stay with me for years to come. I have integrated new habits of exercise and healthy eating into my life . Over the past 10 months, I've worked out at least 2 times a week all but about 3 weeks. That is so much better than any other year in my life. I am so encouraged after this assessment to just keep at it. About 20 more lbs to go and I will be at a healthy weight. Yes!

Bad news

Well, here's my contrary wind for the week... Weighed in today and gained 3.4 lbs. Ouch. Different scale than last week so don't know if that had something to do with it or what. Oh well. It was not an "official" WW weigh-in b/c it is in between 12 week sessions, but I still feel pretty bummed. I will just have to be determined this week to NOT give in to cravings, bad choices, etc., etc. :( The past couple weeks I haven't been journaling what I'm eating and I think that might have something to do with this big gain too. I just kept getting more and more lax. Big mistake. Back to journaling and focusing now.....

The weight loss continues...

Had weigh-in at lunch today. Lost another 1.2 lbs this past week, even though I was on vacation eating carbs, cookies, and then Chinese, loaded fries and Mexican food once I returned to Indy... That's a total loss of 23.2 lbs on WW, about 29 lbs altogether since Christmas... Woohoo! I am just so excited! I feel like I really know how much food my body needs now to continue a slow and steady weight loss. For the first time in my whole life probably I feel good about the way that I look and most of all, I feel like I have control over how I look...