The Switch-up (and My Weekly Weigh-in)

Why, hello there. I gained .8 pounds this week. I worked out more last week than I did the previous three weeks, and I ate just the same (on point with the exception of two days), so I don’t know what gives. I did notice that my foot is swelling a bit and so perhaps it was just a slight water weight gain. I was down a pound already on my home scale this morning. Now that I’ve lost a decent amount of weight, I’m noticing things about my body that I never realized before. For instance, my foot, which used to be swollen non-stop, now only swells around the week or two leading up to my period. I don’t like to talk, or read, about periods on platforms like this (blogs, Facebook, etc.). I find it uncouth. But weight loss, as I’m finding, is really affected by it. I will leave it at that.

I’ve also been inadvertently watching my sodium intake. I cut back on my turkey kielbasa consumption (don’t even get me started, kids. I will devour anything with “turkey kielbasa” in the title) and other sodium-heavy foods in the past few weeks. Not intentionally, it just happened that way.  However, last week I ate some kielbasa and also had that Aldi’s soup for lunch several days. Store bought soup, as we all know, is full of sodium. I think those two inclusions in my diet also contributed to my weight gain.

I have been toying around with trying to go a week with eating nothing but natural foods – no packaged foods, no mixes, no preservatives – just veggies, fresh meat, and items made from scratch. Since starting WW I’ve cut back on those types of foods considerably, but I haven’t eliminated them completely. It would take a lot of planning and attention for the first attempt and I just don’t have the energy or time to do it quite yet. But I think of it often. Once things slow down, if they ever slow down, I will try it out. Hopefully winter will offer some extra down time, but I don’t think it will. I’m teaching a few classes in January and taking a semester-long class, so my life will be very hectic trying to juggle those things in addition to work. But it’s worth it, I think.

I have one more official WW meeting and then it’s just me and eTools. I’m kind of excited about it, actually. It will save me some money and I think time I’ve spent in meetings so far has laid a pretty good foundation for my healthier lifestyle. My exercise routine is also going to be all haphazard for the next four months as well. I have class on M, W, F, so I won’t get to do Kettlebell anymore. Boo! And the gym director, Lara, is also starting a weight lifting class on Wednesdays that I’ll miss, too. Double boo! But I have a plan in the works that would allow me to keep up with all the progress I made (I managed to do a 1-minute-long plank yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!! More about that later):

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 30 minutes weight lifting, 30 minutes cardio (all at work)

Wednesday: Kettlebell at home

Thursday: spinning (at work)

Friday: Rest or YMCA workout

Saturday: Rest or YMCA workout

Sunday: 45 minutes cardio at YMCA

How’s that for planning? Now, let’s revisit this plank sitch. When I started doing Kettlebell, I could hold a plank position for about 7 seconds. No exaggeration there, folks. Seven seconds. Then we got out of the habit of doing planks for a while. I noticed that my back was hurting from doing the Turkish Getups so I talked to Lara about it. She told me to practice my planks instead while everyone else was doing the getups. So I did. The first week I managed 17 seconds. Hey, not bad since I was shaking at 7 seconds before. Then last week I did 25 seconds. So in one week I added 8 seconds to my stamina. Then yesterday, I held a plank for the full minute! I am such a winner sometimes! Lara had us do another round of 1-minute planks, and I could only do 10-second bursts at a time, but I was pretty excited that I held out on that first one.

So that is why I don’t want to give up Kettlebell. It’s such a fantastic workout. I know I could just do planks on my own, but there’s so much more to it than that. The whole workout is just a great packaged exercise. I’m afraid I won’t push myself as hard if I do it at home (never been good with at-home exercises), but I haven’t tried to work out at home since I started WW. I know my drive and toleration for exercise has increased, so I’m crossing my fingers that this works out. Cross your fingers with me, will ya?

In fashion news, I’m wearing a shirt I bought in London four years ago. It was super duper tight then (because they don’t sell larger sizes in London since everyone is stick-thin) and now it fits! It’s about time too because it’s the cutest print. Here’s a close-up of it:

  

I hope everyone is ready and excited for Christmas. I know I am! My tree is filled with presents underneath and it glows so perfectly in the dusky hours after work. I asked for a new scale for Christmas, one that weighs in 2-ounce increments instead of ½-pound increments, so hopefully I’ll be able to start my solo weigh-ins on that if I get it. Again, fingers crossed.

Have a safe and fantastic holiday and don’t forget to hug.

Weight loss this week: +.8 pounds

Total weight loss: 36.2 pounds

P.S. I switched up my blog design again. I try to keep the background pictures health-focuses (veggies, people running, you know). I thought this picture was quite perfect because it's winter and there is a bike leaning against a street pole in the picture. Only when I loaded it, my blog covered up the bike. Bummer. But it's there, I promise.