Week One Update

The first week of my “50 in 52” complete and I’m not displeased with the results.  Having this blog has stopped me from repeating more than one self-destructing behavior.

Here is a brief recap of the 5 goals I had set for this week, accompanied by the results

Goal #1 was to walk 14 miles a week and this week I walked 12.5, a shortage of 1 ½ miles.  The weather factored into how much walking I could do this week, although I am certainly not using the heat as an excuse.  I know I can do much better this upcoming week.

Goal #2 was to workout 4 times a week; 2 upper body workouts and 2 lower body. This is a goal that I exceeded because I am beginning to remember the wonderful feeling of working out and lifting hard.  I worked my upper body three times and the lower body twice. 

Goal #3 was to keep a food diary each day of the week, and I met this goal.  I’ve been as accurate as I can, and think I’ve done a fairly good job.

Goal #4 was to drink 3-4 litres of water a day, or 21-28 litres in a week.  I drank 17 litres this week but should have done much, much more.  I’m trying to evaluate why I drink so little, perhaps it is because I am drinking so much coffee throughout the day.

Goal #5 was to kick the McDonalds Diet Coke habit, and I was entirely successful in this aspect.  Not one Diet Coke this week.   Apparently it takes 21 days to make or break a habit, so I’ve got two more weeks to go till I can consider myself cured.

My weight dropped 1.4 pounds from 184 to 182.6 lbs.  My waist stayed at 40.5 inches.  The pounds of bodyfat that I carry around stayed the same, but my percentage of bodyfat increased slightly from 36.4 to 36.6.  This doesn’t concern me because that number can fluctuate daily. 

Although I said in a previous post that this motivational method has been unsuccessful in the past, I changed it up a little and then did it anyway.  I went through old issues of Oxygen magazines and took the pictures that inspired me and made a collage out of them and placed it on the fridge.  The difference this time is that I not only put the pictures up, I also wrote down why each particular picture appealed to me.  My favorite picture is from an ad, and I can’t remember what is being advertised.  It is a black and white picture of a woman staring face-on into the camera with a very determined look on her face.  She is obviously in very good shape, and the print beside the picture says simply “I’m not done yet.”  For some reason that picture and those words speak volumes to me.

In the past 3 years while I’ve been watching the number on the scale climb, I’ve tried several times to lose the weight and start working out again, but have never been motivated enough to stick with it long enough to see any major results.  This lack of motivation bothered me because when I was training with a trainer for a figure competition, I was incredibly motivated!  Since that time I have never been able to recreate that level of motivation again. 

This time something feels different, as if someone flicked a switch inside me. Perhaps its having this blog, or perhaps its just the right time for me to kick my butt back into shape again.  I’m able to keep my hands off of Kev’s leftovers; able to turn down desert at a family gathering, and, for the first time in years, I was able to limit myself to one tablespoon of peanut butter!!!

In the coming week, I will work on the same goals as last week, as the goals that I set out were for four weeks.  However I’d like to add a twist to one of the goals; instead of just keeping a food diary, I will also keep track of the number of calories that I’m taking in, just to get an idea of where I’m at in terms of how much I’m eating.