Busy-Belated Weight Day (of the Week Sept. 18)

I have been soo busy. Walking and taking buses to school makes me more tired, and takes longer, too! Bad news for blog. Awesome news for thighs, calves, and overall inches! Scale? Forget da scale; it lies! I've added muscle and lost MATTER.

• Weight: 126.5 (which actually went down a tad mid-week)
• My stomach feels smaller, looks better (with those hawk eyes), and is less ... um, let's say, "solid fat-ty."
  
• But the biggest change is all the hard, toned muscles I have from walking while carrying a really heavy school bag.
• Walking in skirts is a lot better. It no longer chafes!
• I cheated and measured, unofficially. I'm down about an inch everywhere (since Sept. 1st)!

The downsides:

• I have actually been not eating as well and NOT exercising, aside from my daily activity. So when I get rides, again, I'll have to step it back up, which is hard to do.
• I'm exhausted and in pain (sometimes, & only in pain today, actually)! Sure, all I have to do is feel my hard tone, and I'm happy, but it's difficult to keep this going.
• I don't really have money for cabs for when this IS too much.
  

I am totally on top of my work, at least. All I can say is, wish me well, because I am forced to do this for school. I want (and love) the results, but I have to keep this lifestyle going, for now. Maybe I can accept that carpooling offer from my friend, soon.

How is this good news for you? Grab some stuff and shove it into a backpack (maybe stuff you need?), go walking for 30 minutes a day (you can break it up!), and you can get these results (and cheat on your diet :-x [noooo]).

Trimmer, Firmer Thighs

On Weight Day, I was 1/2 lb under. But there was definitely a loss of fat and gain of muscle for my inner thighs. They feel less ... touchy. ;-) To the touch, they feel a little firmer and less chunk-of-fat :-) even on the big flab spot!

It was because of a lot of walking due to school, so I'm really hoping to keep it-and step it-up. I might walk along the long strip of beach, today!

Heavier and Lighter

I have been skipping the food journal completely, but not skipping out on my diet. I needed a break from focusing on this online weight loss world, but not from weight loss. I was just feeling bad about "gaining pounds." But I lost 1/2 or 1 pound since that gaining-last-week. And I've been doing some muscle-gain exercise.

Pants have been either falling off, needing a belt, or both. (My favorite/black-wash jeans fit me above my belly button now (bad for fashion, good re: stomach loss) and thennn they just slide right down. :-P) And shirts just fit and look better! My stomach seems smaller.

I am back to saying that scales are evil. They really are - for everyone - aren't we all building a little muscle? It can be difficult, though, because sometimes we seem fat to ourselves, and can't see or feel the improvement, but that's when we see results on the scale. Then we turn into scale whores. It's not good.

Today was my first day of school and I took the bus to get there. I walked to the bus, to get between buildings, then to the bookstore (after getting the Financial Aid voucher) and lugged the heaviest pile of books/supplies shopping around, and then two bags and my school tote to the station and back home from the bus.

Yes, I am taking more classes this term--fully full time. It's a huge, heavy, 5-day-week load with lots of reading, hard teachers, writing (yay), waking up wicked early (ee), hanging out with friends (wahoo), car-pooling with friends--therefore waking up even earlier (hmm) (I got to upgrade my activity status to "seated work with some movement") ... and a big structured life. I need that change, as much as I missed, and missed out on, summer fun--I was in a car accident and struck homebound. My August turned me into a lazy sloth. THIS is great! --- I just hope I can keep the time to eat right, exercise, and maybe even journal and log?

So, yes, I started a hopeful semester with a great day. And um, yeah, then I celebrated with a huge snack "lunch." The bad thing about food that tastes so good (Lays 0 Trans Fat Real Sour Cream & Onion Chips) is that one tends to overeat them. I bought them because the ingredients, and even the calories, checked out fine. Aaaaaaaand they're so damned good. I feel like I need to go walk more, though, ha ha, still yet more, to make up for it.

Technorati Tags: weight loss, first day of school, strength training, diet journal, food journal.

My New 10 Minute Strength Train

It may not last for the ideal amount of time, but my new 10-minute Strength Train(ish) workout is an improvement on my recent exercising.

It consists of these steps, in whatever order I feel like at the time. (I have to keep it going and not get too tired before it's over. I always have to break one area before working it, again.)

• Thigh master (thighs) (50 reps)
  
• Arm flub (back of arm) lifts w/ weights (about 25)
  
• Modified push-ups (20-30)
• Hand-and-feet*-weighted jacknifes (10-30)
  
• Side-to-side crunches (15-30)
  
• Hand-weighted sit-ups (10-25)
• (Always last, it knocks me out) Jumping jacks (40-50)

Sometimes I add in other thigh master things. My weights are 2 lbers, I'm sure I could move up to more weight, now. Hmm. (* My feet are weighed by my school tote with books.)

I'm working up to doing it every day, and also doing it up to three times per day. When I'm able to do more work on one muscle group right after the other, I can do more exercises, and for longer.

Yesterday, I shopped at the mall for 5 hours. Yippee. I also bought a wristlet to carry my very important inhaler and cell phone to take on walks, so I really want to go on walks, a lot. This Labor Day weekend is going to be beautiful, but I still have to wait for early evening to have a cooler temperature.

Hopefully, by Sunday, I'll have lost one of the pounds (or 1 1/2) I gained back this week. Next week, I should get below that.

Body Chart August 1st

A very depressing body lost chart. I didn't want to do this.

Body Part	Start	Now	Loss	Total
Chest	36	36	0	0
Waist	33	30.25	+.25	- 2
Hips/Belly	36	35.5	-.5	-.5
Butt/Upper Thigh	43	40	0	- 3
Thigh	24	23.5	+.25	- .5
Lower Thigh	16	17	+1	+1
Upper Arm	?	10.25
			+1	- 5
Weight	Start	Now	Lost	Total
Weight	132.5	125.5	-7 (+2)	- 7