Monday Weigh-in

As I mentioned in previous posts, for the 25 Days till Christmas Challenge, I wanted to lose weight and be at 157 pounds by Christmas. I weighed in today, and I was at 159 pounds. Woo hoo! I was at 168-169 at the end of August, so this is some serious progress for me! Here are some triumphs related to this that I'd like to share:

1. I have never been brave enough to weigh in on Monday. In the past, I always pushed this off to Thursday knowing that I had screwed up over the weekend and it wouldn't show a loss. Today, I knew that I had been reasonable over the weekend, getting in my workouts and having controlled splurges. It showed on the scale! This really makes me feel like I've turned a corner and I have made this into a lifestyle, not a diet. I am going to embrace Monday weigh ins from now on!!!
2. I've been doing this on my own! What I mean by that is that I'm not following a plan or some prescribed diet. I'm not counting points, I'm not restricting foods, and I'm not working out like a crazy person. I'm eating what feels right (and journaling... not going to lie, journaling is very important for me) and I'm working out for less than an hour a day. And it's still working!

So I am full confident that I can hit my goals my Christmas. Today, I plan to do another Jillian workout because I'm busy at school until 4:30. After that, it will be getting dark, so I'm not going to do a run today. My last final exam is today though, so I am free until next semester. I'm going to get plenty of rest tonight and then I'm going to get up to run tomorrow. Woo hoo!

Do you want it? Or do you expect it to happen?

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was very nice. Headed home to see my family and had some fabulous quality time with everyone. I didn't work out on Thursday because we went into NYC to watch the parade, but I got in a long walk and some lunges, squats, and abs on Friday. Today I did a 30+ minute interval workout with some Kenpo X moves, biceps, back, and shoulders. It was around 450 calories burned. I'll take it! I'm moving this week so I am now surrounded by a sea of boxes and very little to eat or to exercise with.

Over the last few days, I signed up for a daily motivational e-mail called the PEERtrainer (by Jackie Wicks... you can go here to find it). I came across when I googled the Fat Smash Diet, which is actually one of my favorite ways to eat. It's pretty similar to the way the eating plan is set up for P90X. Anyway, the tip I received in the mail a couple days ago had this:

"One generally gets what the expect, not just what they want."

That has got me thinking... do I expect to reach a goal weight? Or do I want to reach a goal weight? Do I even know what that goal weight is? I think I do well in that I exercise on a regular basis, but I do not do well in that I haven't set concrete goals and I don't actually expect things to happen. I just sort of hope for it... and we all know that doesn't work! I think I feel like exercise is enough, but there's so much more than that! Now, I'm not saying I workout and eat like crazy, but if I put in as much effort with what I eat as with what activity I do, I'd be doing so much better! I'm going to take some time over the next couple days to do a few things that will get me on track:

1. Set a concrete goal weight for myself.
2. Visualize and believe that I can reach that goal.
3. Set up a series of smaller goals that will allow me to work toward the final goal I have set.

I hope it works!

How do you choose your workouts?

I was thinking today as I was choosing my workout that I sometimes have no rhyme or reason to what workout I do. I can definitely see how there could be problems with that approach. Research has shown that people who have a plan to reach their goals are much more likely to reach their goals. That's why fitness experts suggest having concrete goals like:

• I will eat 1600 calories per day this week.
• I will exercise for 45 minutes per day Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
• I will lose 1 pound per week.

You get the picture! For some reason, concrete, quantifiable goals help you reach your goals. If they aren't working, you can always change them, but it really helps to define (and even write down) your goals.

So this brings me to my state of mind recently... I wrote about how busy I've been, and that makes it hard to workout. What I find, during times like this, that putting too much pressure on myself actually makes me crater. So what I've been doing is leaving things completely undefined, and then I can figure out what I'm in the mood for that day. The only thing I've done is committed that I will do some physical activity everyday. That has led me to walking one day, doing a hybrid P90X-Insanity (short) workout, and also doing some true P90X today.

It's working for me, so for now I'll stick with it! I do want to read more about this whole goal setting stuff though because I think that a lot of what holds me back from reaching my goal weight is not setting concrete goals and not actually (deep down) believing I can do it. Hmmm....

Today's workout was legs from P90X... OMG! I haven't done some of this stuff in a while and I can tell! My quads were definitely feeling it, and I have a feeling I'll have a nice little bit of soreness tomorrow. Love that feeling because then I know I worked!