Xtina

Bravo.. You kicked butt. Keep up the good work!!

I think you've done great in this challenge. Your knitting skills put mine to shame. It's been a pleasure losing weight with you. Can't wait to hear about your final results!

6lbs is good progress. Bravo to you and good luck in the homestretch! Thanks for leading the Weight Loss Squad, Part II!!

Below, the post I wrote on Day 1 of this challenge. Final results are indicated in BLUE! For those of you who missed it, I gave my background in my introductory post, which you can find here. For me, this challenge is about starting to lose my "break-up" weight (hence the "fresh start") and continuing with the strength training routine that I started back in August. More specifically, I want to start losing the 18lbs of sad weight that I've gained in the past few months, and I want to get hot for the beach vacation I have planned in December. If that's not motivation, I don't know what is. So here we go... Fitness goals 1. The focus of the next six weeks has to be diet/weight loss for me. The primary goal is to lose 5lbs in the next six weeks. The game plan is as follows: ***Week 1 - Phase out carbs; limit junk food (the goal for week one is intentionally vague, as I'm home in the US and am not quite ready to avoid my mom's cooking/real Mexican food for the sake of the challenge. But I do think I can begin cutting back on carbs and avoiding desserts); wine with dinner is allowed ***Week 2-6 - Time to get serious. The goal is to be mostly Paleo (I suck at math, so I'll avoid giving percentages). For me "mostly" Paleo means Paleo with the following exceptions: 1 serving of dairy on non-lifting days, 2 servings of dairy on lifting days (need my post-workout shake with cottage cheese :-)); up to 7 glasses of wine over the course of the week; two squares of dark chocolate in moments of intense cravings (limited to one craving per day; to be avoided whenever possible); processed meats are allowed (if i try to go with only non-processed meats, this will not happen) This is a really ambitious goal for me, but I'm at the point where I need to be ambitious and aggressive with this stupid break-up weight. Well, this was just a fail. I quickly found that i didn't like doing Paleo and so I shifted to restricted calories. And it worked for the first half of the challenge. I got down to 146lbs from 151.2. But over the last two weeks, I just kind of got lost, both in terms of my challenge goals and life in general. I know I have a problem with emotional eating, and it resurfaced. So I end the challenge down 3 pounds. 50% of my goal. I am really not happy about this. 2. Log all food/drink consumed. I do this semi-decently now, but I would like to do it even better. Boo... another goal that I didnt find useful and gave up on quite quickly. I found it quite burdensome, especially given how often I have to eat out for client meetings. Hard to control/count calories. Even though I dropped this goal quite early, I see the value in calorie tracking, and I'm working to find a system that works better for me. 3. 3x lifting/week + 2x cardio/week. At the risk of being super cocky, I think I have goal three in the bag. But goal 1 is super-ambitious, so bear with me. Yay! I nailed this one. I really do love working out, so this goal was ok. I'm still not seeing all the glorious results that were promised to me when I began strength training, but I shall continue for at least a couple more months. Life goal 1. I would like to push myself to meet new friends, so the goal is to attend one event/social outing per week where I am unlikely to know anyone . ((my decision to include wine as part of my "paleo" diet suddenly makes sense :-))) I'm still relatively new to my adopted city of Brussels and need to expand my social circle beyond the people I met when I first arrived. There are always a million events going on, and I need to actually make the effort to attend these things. This goal was kind of a success too. I haven't written about this element of my goal, but I have averaged one "random" event per week--quiz nights, a book launch, a movie night at the home of a new acquaintance.... I'm pleased with the outcome of this one. I can't say I've built any lasting connections, but it's good to put myself out there "Fail" goal I play on a field hockey team, but I have never mastered the art of the strong, long hit. I'm always afraid to even try hitting in a game because I'm afraid of a massive airball. So my "fail" goal is to score a goal with a strong hit. In order to achieve that, I will focus on practicing my hits during weekly trainings and I will hit balls at the goal during games, even when I would rather push the ball or pass the ball. I really don't think I will succeed at this goal (esp. since I only have four games during this challenge), but if the point of a "fail" goal is to take risks and try things you've avoided due to fear, then this is a noble goal. I will practice my hits and work to use my hits in games. And if I actually succeed at this "fail" goal, you *know* I will be bragging about it FOREVER. I did score in my game yesterday, but it was not with a strong hit. I have definitely tried to take more risks in taking hits in games/trainings over the past few weeks, but I'm not there yet. It's such an important skill for field hockey, so I hope I'll get there soon! In positive news, we won our game 3-2 yesterday. You might even say I scored the winning goal :-). The last time we played that team in September, we lost 8-0. Overall lessons: 1) I am very grateful for this forum and the Weight Loss Squad, Part II. Great source of support, even if I was a little less active in my posting during the 2nd half of the challenge 2) I know what works for me when it comes to losing weight.... I know that limiting my calories during the week, eating well with a few splurges on the weekend and minimizing alcohol consumption can work for me. 3) My brief try at paleo confirmed that I am not a person who can cut things out of my diet completely. 4) I know where I'm likely to go off track in weight loss. I know that once I lose a few pounds, I start to relax and allow myself more splurges and suddenly, i "find" the lost weight.I know that when I'm lonely, I eat.I know that even if I don't lose weight, I look ok and I am a healthy weight. I often use this as an excuse to go off my diet.I know that while I look ok and am a healthy weight now, I can look and feel so much better than I do. The extra weight I'm carrying is "sad weight", and I will feel better emotionally and physically when I lose it.5) Knowing my pitfalls means I can overcome them. 6) Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good... I sometimes get discouraged from food tracking when I don't have the precise nutritional information for something I'm eating. But it's a useful tool, and sometimes guesstimates are good enough. 7) Alcohol is hard to avoid, but I can cut back. Being tipsy is fun. Being hot is more fun :-) Thanks again to all of you who checked in with me throughout this challenge. I wish I had better results to report, but I will keep learning, adjusting and losing. Til next time!

hi all... i kind of disappeared a bit, but here i am again. I've been all over the place for about a week and a half. not sure where i stand now in terms of weight loss, but other goals are going ok. anyways, just wanted to say a quick hi and to let you know not to count me out!! Good luck to all on the last week. I'm off to the gym

It's amazing how hard it can be to stay focused for weeks at a time (even six weeks, which should be a relatively short period of time. somehow it feels long). I've been sucking the past week as well, but I'm back on the bandwagon as of yesterday. Trying to keep my eye on the prize. hopefully you can do the same. Good luck!!

You're doing so well! This week, I will push you to change your bank. That seems to be the only goal you're struggling with, and if you can avoid candy, you can change banks. Go show that bank who's boss!!

I also suffered from a bad week 3. feeling ready to re-focus this week. I'm up early today to go to early morning spin class. Getting the day off to the right start!

Oh, cacodaemonia... I'm embarrassed that you check-in at this moment because, unfortunately, i have mostly bad news to report. This past week was not good for me. I think it started because I made a diet exception here and there, and suddenly, any little craving was ok. I spent the weekend in Paris, and to be honest, I didn't even try to make good eating decisions. And I drank. And my workouts were not really up-to-par. But there is some good news. I weighed myself today, and I'm 146.4 lbs. I have trust issues with the scale and kind of don't believe that number's real, but that is what the scale said. If it is true, then I'm only 1.5lbs from my goal weight for this challenge. That is good. The other good bit of info for me is that I was at the gym tonight, and a trainer came up to me and started asking me all about my program. He was super excited to see a girl lifting heavy, and he asked if I would accept a free session with him to show him what I'm working on while he corrects my form and answers my questions. Kind of random, but I accept it. So.... I'm doing pretty miserably at my specific goals, but I do seem to be making progress towards my overall, number one goal. I can accept that. In the meantime, I plan to re-focus this week. I'm no longer going to do paleo, but i will limit myself to 1500 calories per day. Which means I will become more strict on my food-tracking goal. I'm also ready to get back to my normal workout routine. I kicked it off today with a spin class with my spin guru (he's been out of town for a month... I missed him so much). I also did my weights.

Don't be discouraged! You are taking the steps to make changes, and you're already seeing results. Bravo on 4lbs in one week! That's gotta feel good!

chica, i'm in the same place mentally as you. i'm hoping to push through the rut/feelings of demoralization, but i'm not sure where i'm going to find the energy. in the meantime, i'm cheering you on. you can do this!!

I did enjoy it! Fortunately, my client makes one of my favorite candy bars :-) For the record, my "bad xtina" reference was meant light-heartedly. i am not beating myself up for eating chocolate. as bskelhorn says, that's part of the job of schmoozing the client, and eating chocolatey things is normal from time to time :-)

i did not succeed at my client's office. i ate carbs and chocolate. bad xtina.

today i spend all day at a client office. that client is a chocolate maker. which means there will be bowls of bite-size delights everywhere. i'm going to try to go all day without touching the candy. wish me luck!!

Today's weigh-in = 147.18! Should we have a set day for reporting our weights? Otherwise, I'll just keep updating whenever I've been on a scale.