It's that time again...

Time for check in! Then off to take a test. I have one more next week and then hopefully things will be back to normal. I'm really glad I locked myself into blogging only one day a week, because lately I haven't been doing much more than that.

Anyhoo, so first I posted a couple days ago saying I may have made it to my first goal (losing 10 lbs by Valentine's Day)... to follow-up, I did, but I chose to eat some not-so-goodness for the holiday, so I'm not counting it since the weight rebounded up so easy. It was just barely there. Instead, I'm making it official with this week's weigh-in (since I was happily staring at the same number yesterday). Having said that:

Total loss this week: -2 lbs.

I'm not at all upset about making it official three days late. Those numbers I came up with were just guidelines, so that fact that I've been busy as all get out lately and I can still stay relatively close to those guidelines makes me happy.

Other things that make me happy: The pain I'm feeling in my abs. I'm all about training the abs, and I try to do it regularly, but gah, for some reason I have the weakest dang muscles. Which is extra annoying because I didn't used to. The other problem, besides struggling through every ab workout, was that afterwards I didn't feel like it was all that good of a workout. My muscles just really weren't feeling sore.

However, every 30 days I mix up my whole schedule (do exercises on different days, and then change the individual exercises up somehow, maybe throw something new in there... you get the point) and for some reason, wow I'm feeling them now!!! I don't know if it's because of the change (my whole body has been pretty sore) or if there's something else going on there, but I'm really feeling it. Everywhere. I'm happy with that, though. That must mean I'm finally making a break through in that department, which is long overdue!

Anyhoo, let's get on with the goals:

1. Lose 15 lbs
   Coming along! 10 down, five to go, and, what, three weeks left? It'll be close! I average 1.5 pounds per week and I'm half a pound behind, so I just need to have two normal weeks and one kick-ass week where I lose an extra half pound and I'll be good. :)

2. Ride the 35-mile bike loop near my house.
   I'm officially taking this goal off. I was really worried about how not-ready I was going to be for the 5k coming up in a week and a half (for the newbies, the bike goal was on hold because I randomly decided to train for a 5k), so I pushed it back for a couple weeks. Which works out really well, because first I get two more weeks of training, and second, this one is St. Patrick's Day themed! And my boyfriend and I love us some St. Patty's Day - we have costumes and everything. So, we're going to wear versions of our costumes to run in. I'm so excited! Anyhoo, because the Perfect 10 is only a 10 week challenge, that means this will be off the list, but I still plan to work on it once I get my first 5k in.

3. Walk/Jog 2+ hours per week.
   This is coming along swimmingly. I'm actually thinking of adding some more walking in between my training days.

4. Complete the first two phases of CLX.
   Again, swimmingly. I've been working on the second phase (for those who don't know, CLX is a weight-training based program by Chalene Johnson), and as I mentioned before, my muscles are feeling it! I love muscle soreness.

5. Learn about and apply nutrition to my life more fully.
   Yes! I love my class more and more. I won't do it with this post since it's already long, but in the next day or two I'm going to get on here with the info about one of my assignments, which I think is extremely helpful. Especially because everyone assumes they need a multivitamin, when in reality taking one could be toxic for some of us (I am, I found out, in the "potentially toxic" group). I'll put more info on this soon, though. And I'm not down on the multivitamin; just as I definitely don't need it, some people definitely do. A few months ago I definitely did. That's why I think this is a good thing for people to do, because it'll help you figure out which category you're in.

6. Make a weekly meal plan and stick to it.
   I did good this week! Things didn't go off plan too much, which is glorious.

7. Log what I eat 5+ days per week.
   I'm a slacker on this one. But I've brought my log book out and have put it front and center so that when I eat, I'll see it and remember, "Oh yeah, I need to log my food."

8. Go to bed before midnight 5+ days per week.
   Ay yi yi. Well, I will tell you last night was the closest I had come all week (asleep before 1). I've been thinking lately that it's kind of embarassing for me to post this each week, since each week I fail and some of you are probably wondering what's the problem. Well, I don't know. That's the best answer I have for you. When you've been doing something the same way for as many years as I have (even when I was younger I couldn't get to sleep early - my parents would have me go to bed and I would lay in bed and stare at the stars until they faded... because back then I had glow in the dark stars on my ceiling), I guess it's tough to quit. I think, though, that I might set a reminder alarm on my phone for, like, 11 or something so I can finish up what I'm doing and get into bed, because I lose track of time like it's nobody's business. I'll report back next week how that works for me... :)



Something you didn't know about me... well, here's something only my boyfriend and my parents know. Not because I'm hiding it, but because it's random. I recently got a prescription for glasses for the first time in my life (got it just before my 29th birthday). The thing is, I only need to wear them when my eyes are tired. I have near-perfect vision, but it turns out I have an astigmatism in one eye (which is why it's near-perfect and not perfect). For those who don't know, astigmatism is generally present from birth and a minor one (such as mine) won't require correction, which I'm guessing is why it was never noticed or at least not mentioned before (I can still read every line of the eye chart without glasses). But I knew there was something funky with my eye on days it was tired (how did I figure this out? Taking a DMV vision test when I was tired. Greeeeeaaaat....), so I described it to my doctor and we were able to figure it out. The glasses don't make much of a difference with the sight, but they do make a difference with how tired my eye feels. Normally, when I'd wake up with tired eyes, I'd have to take a mid-afternoon nap, not because I was particularly tired or needed it, but because my eye had been working overtime and needed to close for a while. Now, though, I just put on my glasses until it perks up and I'm fine. Weird, huh? I thought about it because I'm wearing them right now.