Watching my weight

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As many of you know, I have another blog called Running to Nowhere where I kept track of my running as I trained for 2 half-marathons this past year. This blog was really for me to log my miles and keep track of my progress: so far this year I've run 647 miles! I was hoping to get to 700 by the end of the year, but I've been enjoying getting back into other forms of working out plus, it's too cold to run outside! I am very proud for even reaching 647 and will see if I can get even more miles for 2011!

Diva Half Marathon: October 2010

I really have gained a love for running over the past few years that I never EVER thought I would gain. I was the girl in elementary school who walked the mile run because running was for crazy people. I came in last every year clocking in more than 12.5 minutes for one mile. Yea, I was that girl. Unfortunately, despite running more this year than I ever have in my life, I have still been slowly gaining weight over the course of the year. What's up with that?? Running is great, but it's not everything. I lost some muscle mass in my arms and abs that I'm trying to get back now. Yes, maybe I gained some pounds from leg muscle I developed from running but sadly I look at myself, and I see that I'm gaining weight. My jeans don't fit as well, and I'm slowly losing confidence in myself. It's my own fault because I often tell myself "You ran 5 miles today...you can eat this chocolate cake!" While that may have worked for me in the past, it's clearly not working for me anymore in my old age..hehe. I don't want to be someone who works out SO I can eat whatever I want. I want to be someone who actually looks like I go to the gym 5 days a week AND watches what she eats. I had a bit of a revelation about this 2 weeks ago when my trainer at the gym announced incredulously "You know..you actually are really fit!" He meant it as a compliment, and I was flattered, but what hit me was his surprise...I am fit and I work hard....but you wouldn't know it to look at me.

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Tweet What You Eat
A few weeks ago, I signed up for tweetwhatyoueat.com. This was really cool because all you had to do was send a direct tweet to your tweetwhatyoueat homepage and it would log all the food you ate plus calories for the day. It was super easy and I was obsessed with it at first, but I quickly got tired trying to figure out the calories of everything I was eating. I also couldn't decide on a set number of calories I wanted to consume in a day. How many do I get if I work out? Is it different if I did mostly cardio as opposed to weight training, or the same? I would do great all day, then go home to make dinner and have no clue how many calories my meal was, so I just wouldn't log it. I needed a different method.

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Weight Watchers After gaining 10 pounds my freshman year of college, I started working out for the first time in my life and doing Weight Watchers on my own that summer. Over 3 months I lost about 10 pounds...and then lost another 10 throughout my sophomore year of college. I maintained that weight pretty steadily throughout college. It actually was pretty easy because I literally was obsessed with Wagner's amazing salad bar and mainly stuck to that or a chicken sandwich every day. (Chris marvels how I can eat the same thing every day and not get tired of it). But I am now 8 pounds heavier today than I was when I graduated, and it's time to get back on track. I want to stress, I am only interested in losing 8-10 pounds. This is about stopping a weight gain trend before it becomes unmanageable, as much as it is about feeling good on my wedding day. 

So starting this past week, I have been keeping daily logs of my Weight Watchers points. Keeping track of these points is so much easier now than it was 6 years ago because it's so easy to find the point values through a google search! If you're wondering how many points something is, chances are someone else wondered at one point too, and chances are, they posted it to their website or blog. There are online weight watchers point calculators, and so much packaging even has the point values printed right on them. I get 20 points a day and have not felt like it's been hard to stick to that at all. This is only my 4th day of doing it...but for some reason, this feels different and I feel extra motivated this time. With the Holidays and my dress fitting approaching....it's time. No, it's past time.  The real test will be keeping track of points over the weekend because that's always when I go off track.

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Working Out
In addition to keeping track of my points, I have recently really stepped up my work-out regime. I have been working out 5-6 days a week. I was doing this before with my running schedule...but like I said, I'm doing more of a combination of things now. I go to the gym before work Mon-Thurs, and lately I've been doing a workout DVD at home on the weekends or I'll go to the gym by my house if I feel up to it. I signed up for a small group total body conditioning session at the gym every Thursday before work. I am 1 of 3 people in the group, and we go through a total body conditioning routine over the course of an hour with a trainer. It's just like one on one...but cheaper! It's really great, and I'm learning some new ways to work out. Since I've gotten back into my weight training about 4 or 5 weeks ago, I'm finally starting to see some results and I feel great about it.

So why am I talking about all this? I will be writing more about my work-outs and Weight Watchers journey on this blog. I won't obsess over it, and I won't make it the core subject of Saying "I do". But since the wedding is my main motivating factor right now, it's important to include my progress- not to mention, hold me accountable. If you're lucky, and I feel good enough about my progress, I'll post some before and after pictures. But, the "before" pictures are hitting a little too close to home right now to post!

If you've got some great weight watchers, or work out secrets to help me jump start reaching my goal...please let me know about it!