It's been a while since I updated the cold hard facts about my progress, and I wanted to say a couple thoughts about it before I start posting statistics or pictures.
First of all, when I started this journey, I originally committed to only 30 days (1 month). I thought I retained a pretty accurate library of information in my head of what I needed to do, how to do it, and what to expect. I thought in one month's time of dieting, I would loose a boat-load of weight and be right back on my merry way of partying and happy hour-ing with my friends.
You read these success stories of mildly obese individuals who loose 14 lbs in one month, 30 lbs in 3 months, 100 lbs in 6... and you say to yourself, "Self, all we have is 5-10 lbs to drop. This should be a piece of cake."
So one month goes by and you see no results. You lose maybe 2-4 lbs, but you know it's just excess water and waste, and very little fat because everything still fits the same. 2 months go by, you weigh the same, you feel like you look the same in the mirror, but you do notice clothes fitting a little more appropriately. 3 months go by and the scale moves another 3-5lbs, clothes are noticeably looser, but you still see so many problem areas and that's when you realize this is going to take a long while.
But that's the beauty of it - so many people don't want to start this journey because they are aware of what they will have to sacrifice, and they can't seem to get past the pain of that. Nobody realizes that this quiet transformation takes place during the beginning. The first month is brutal, because you haven't trained your body and mind to experience enjoyment any differently. People think that the feelings of deprivation and constant temptation and lack of fulfillment last forever. BUT THEY DON'T! It goes away, because your body and mind change. You think that the reality you live in now, with the cravings and the fulfillment you currently get from snacking on unhealthy food, is permanent, but it's not. Your reality can be changed if you force it to. It's a willful choice in the beginning to struggle through the change, but once you are no longer dependant on sugars, your taste buds have adjusted to different types of food, your body adjusts and starts giving incredibly positive responses to what you're feeding it (increased energy, sensational feelings of happiness and well-being, shiny skin/hair/nails, increased libido, the list goes on!), it is no longer a current you are fighting against to avoid those temptations; you feel completely free and normal and those temptations and cravings are more or less completely gone. After that first month or two, you no longer have that sweet tooth, temptations aren't tempting any more because you find you don't need or crave those foods you once clung to, and you move forward just as any other noraml person would.
I thought I would tough it out through one month to achieve the body I wanted and then I could go back to my reality. But instead what has occured is so far greater than that; I have created a new reality for myself. A new path, full of new adventures and dreams and all these things I thought were out of my reach and reserved solely for a special breed of weird person who didn't like "good tasting food" or who had the energy to wake up early and train like a beast. "I can't do that," I'd say to myself. "I need my sleep. And I'm so tired after work. And I have so much to do."
The truth of the matter is that we are all tired, and all busy, and all have incredibly packed schedules, but thats not the point - the point is to want it bad enough that you MAKE the time, no matter the cost, because you have committed to a dream and want to achieve it.
I commited to one month, and I just finished my fourth. But instead of looking back and saying, "Holy hell this has been a long road, when is it gonna be over?!!?" I say to myself, "J*sus H... it's only been 4 months and look at the progress I've made..... can you imagine what kind of results I'll see in after the 5th month?? The 6th?? By the end of the year????" There is no longer a desperation for it to be over; rather, there is an organic eagerness for it to continue. THAT is the difference. And it isn't because I am a special breed of weird person who has some genetic predisposition to being an athlete - I am a common person - one of 6 billion in the world - who, just like all the other success stories you see and read about, decided to make the ultimate stand. I'm just a girl who has had a dream for a very long while and has decided that she wants to achieve it. Simply put. So everything that I have had to sacrifice - forgoing favorite foods and booze; going to bed at 10pm on a Saturday night so that I can wake up at 5am the next morning to workout; giving up sleeping in entirely, for that matter - has not actually been a sacrifice at all, but rather just a trade. That's another thing you learn on this journey - it's not like you are just piling up your favorite things on a pyre and watching them burn... you don't "lose" anything by committing to a strict diet and exercise regimen. You may have to give some things up, but you get SO MUCH IN RETURN. You are trading in one thing, for something better. At the end of the day, what you are receiving is so much more valuable and fun and fulfilling and enjoyable than what you are giving up.
So, with all of that said, here are some updates before I go into the statistics:
Photos from May 13th (top / end of week 15) and May 5th (bottom / end of Week 14)
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| May 13, 2012 - end of Week 15. |
I've decided to take weekly photos to start tracking progress. I should have done this ages ago, but I didn't have the heart to do it because I didn't believe I was capable of it. But better late than never! Now that I know I can do it, these progress photos are nothing more than capturing evidence of a time in my life that I expect to disappear very rapidly :)
This past Sunday, I decided to celebrate the end of my 4th month of diet and exercise with a giant boost into the next month - I did a 2-a-day workout. And not just ANY 2-a-day; I played 5 hours of volleyball, drank a protein shake, and then went on a 4-mile beach run. It was significantly taxing, but it felt so good; I felt so strong. There is something very beautiful about pushing your body into complete exhaustion. Food tastes better, showers feel more amazing, and plopping down on the couch in cozy PJs has got to be close to pure euphoria :)
After my run I went to the gym to shower and change cuz I had to run errands and didn't have the energy to drive all the way home. Usually I use the Virgin Mobile "Heart Center" at my gym on every other Monday to take my weight, body fat % and blood pressure readings, but I decided that I wanted to see where I was on Sunday after all my workouts, just out of curiosity. Mind you, I'm aware that I sweat a lot throughout the day but I was hydrating like a camel so I'm fairly certain I wasn't too water-weight low when I took this reading:
The last time I weighed myself (2 weeks ago), I was 139.8lbs. I theorized that 2 lbs of the weight loss seen here, could be attributed to water loss. I stood there staring at the screen though and couldn't believe my eyes... I was finally at my goal weight, but I still have 2 more months of leaning out to go before I want to start cutting! To say I was beyond-myself-thrilled at these results is a COMPLETE understatement! I kind of had the feeling that I was on the cusp of some very rapid changes now that I was getting my body fat % down. And on that note, I have mentioned this in prior blog entries, but it's worth saying again: I do not actually have only a 14.5% body fat composition. This machine using the infrared bicep measuring method, and my extremeties (arms and legs) are MUCH more toned than the rest of my body. If my midsection was as toned as my biceps, I'd look like an olympian haha. They say this machine can have up to a 4% reading inaccuracy, and I'd say that 18-19% body fat sounds more appropriate for me. Maybe more, I don't know. But I take the reading relatively; when I started out, the bicep reading said I was 20.7% body fat, I believe. So relatively speaking, I have cut out a lot of fat in my body, regardless of what the REAL reading actually is :)
Because I was sure that my reading on Sunday was a bit biased by my extensive cardio load that day, I went ahead and measured myself again the following day, and here was what I got:
And as I suspected, I was 2 lbs up from the day prior. But that isn't to discount the fact that I was 2 lbs down from my last real Monday reading!! The results keep on coming!!!
Now I'll go through the sequence of progress photos. I feel like a narcisist posting all of these, but after all, this blog is a sort of diary for me to track my progress, and so I'm storing all of my photos from this journey in my blog to keep them all in one place. Apologies therefore in advance if this is overkill, but I want evidence to look back on and share with people in the future who were just like me starting out, to prove that it can be done!!
I spared no expense at making the goofiest faces possible. People take themselves too seriously these days :D
Beginning of the Month progress photos - May 18, 2012 (near the end of Week 16):
More progress photos - May 21, 2012 (Beginning of Week 17):
For the record, I nearly flipped out when I took these photos - I wasn't going to take them, except that I was cleaning house (yes, in my awesome yellow stripped tube-top and purple leopard-printed pants. What can I say, I have awesome taste in fashion ;D ) and I happened to see my reflection and noticed the definition of the very top abdominals starting to come through just below my tube-top. I couldn't believe my eyes.... I knew the lighting helped, but I have never in my life seen that occur in my body, and it was a bit of a spiritual and slightly terrifying moment actually, when I realized I really was making things happen. I felt incredibly powerful, and somewhat scared of with the realization of what I am actually achieving. I was awe-inspired!
So there you have it! End of Month 4 / beginning of Month 5 progress photos. I am going to stay strong and continue on my leaning out phase till the end of Month 6. I'll post progress photos every two weeks. I am finally starting to see the results I naïvely assumed it would only take me 30 days to achieve, but I couldn't be happier that it has taken this long. My life is surely never going to be the same :)
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