I've Moved... to FitSize30

After a long long long respite, I've returned to the blogosphere but made a fresh start at: http://fitsize30.blogspot.com/

Please follow me :) 

I'm back!

I returned from my trip to the middle east 2 weeks ago but it's taken me that long to get my head back into my normal life, so I apologize for the long break in blogging!

So you must be curious how it was, right? It was WONDERFUL.

Let's just start with the amazing scenery:

Then there were the amazing lessons I learned.  I will elaborate further but here's the preliminary list for now:

1. Let go of judgments.  Rarely are they accurate or useful.
2. Let go of the past.  You don't need to perfect your mistakes or reconcile all your regrets.  The future is what matters. Focus on that.  
3. Embrace change.  Change is not easy but it is, more often than not, good for the soul.
4. Be thankful everyday.  You don't need to compare yourself to someone else who has less or is in a more difficult situation, to appreciate your life.  Choose to appreciate your life and choose not to dwell in the negative. 
5. Plan but live every moment diligently.  Plans are great, but they only get you so far.  You don't attain respect or a sense of accomplishment from what you plan to do, but rather, what you actually get done. 

More to come...

Israel!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately... I'm in Israel!  I'm here in for about 2 weeks- traveling all over the Holy Land before taking 4 days in Paris as the tail end of our vacation.  I'm sure I'll have a huge photo post afterwards but until then, thank you for your patience!

Weigh-In for Weight Loss to Win $!

About one week ago, I hadn't lost any weight despite my dedicated exercise and relatively good diet and was still hovering around 134.6-134.8 lbs.  I had a goal to lose at least ~3 lbs this months, and get down to 131, but when I saw Sarah's DietBet Challenge (http://dietbet.com/sarahfit), I jumped on the bandwagon.  It's only a $30 commitment and if you lose 4% of your body weight you earn money! Do it!

Exam Over, Now Fingers Crossed

On Friday morning, I took a very important exam.  Important because well.. it will determine by graduation date.  Yea, that important.  There was a lot of pressure on this exam so I studied hard but I didn't feel too good about it when I got there.  There were a few chemical names I didn't recognize which threw me off but the instructor knows how well  acquainted I am with the material otherwise, so I am praying that will really count for enough to allow me to pass.  I know there are a lot more tragedies and sadness in the world, but I would appreciate a tiny little prayer for me :)

Since the exam, I've been super lazy and super busy all at the same time.  After the test, I went home to indulge a little food-wise then took a >1 hr hike with my brother and dog, after which we just relaxed around the house.  On Saturday morning, I cleaned up and went to the gym for a 20 min cardio session before a 90 minute vinyasa yoga class.  I wanted to get in some more exercise but I had a lunch appointment so I rushed outta there.  My friends and I went to Upstairs on the Square in the lovely Harvard Square area of Cambridge, MA.  It was the perfect place for a lovely weather lunch- would totally recommend it!  Food- it was alright, but I regret not getting the burger!

The rest of that afternoon was filled with tooooo much food that we couldn't really do much, and we just food-coma-ed out in front of the television (food network is so addictive!).  However, I'm feeling the urge to get back in the gym and burn off those extra calories and sugar grams (lots of pastries yesterday!) so we'll head in for a serious workout session at around 8.  The rest of the day will be a visit into the city to walk the doggy before making a trip to see an old family friend.  By the end of the trip, it'll probably close to 5 and time to return home to prepare for the week (groceries, laundry, house cleaning, etc)!  Busy Sunday - Gotta love it!

Step-Wise Process of Losing Weight

The pursuit of weight loss is such an individual pursuit- not only in the individual-motivation sense, but also in the unique physiological response-sense.  What I mean is- equal and sufficient assuming motivation between two people, the same approach may work very well for one person while having no effect on the other.  Of course, there are factors that undoubtedly affect each person's physical response, including age, stress-level, diet history, medical condition, and so forth.  It can be so easy to become frustrated because these are not factors you can readily control or change. Moreover, weight loss takes time and that means patience- which can be the biggest hurdle in this pursuit.

I've been hitting the gym everyday, burning at least 500 calories every trip, and consuming on average ~1500-1600 calories per day (which is terrific for the holiday season!), for the past 12 days and I haven't seen the number on the scale budge. Not one bit.  Frustrating!

So, I did a realistic self-assessment this morning, and I came to admit to myself that I have been undercounting some of my more caloric indulgences and I've certainly been pretty stressed.  Both unhelpful to weight loss!  On the other hand, the good thing is I've noticed some trimming down with my body toning up and become less soft.

Now that the holiday season is over and work is back on the table, I have fewer holiday indulgence excuses and it's time to cut the empty calories.  Stress is hard to banish but the exercise has definitely alleviated it to a good degree.  Since I have a diet-roller-coaster history, I don't want to severely restrict my calories, only to pig out later on.  I'm aiming for a 4 pound per month weight loss which is very realistic as far as weight loss goes.  Moreover, I'm only 5'2" so my RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) is only 1288 calories/day.  Even though I exercise off 500 calories/day, if I consume 1288 calories, then I will only lose 1 lb/week, since 3500 calories burnt = 1 lb lost.  (Btw you can calculate your RMR too at http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php)  1288 calories isn't a lot to work with but definitely not impossible.  The distribution looks something like:

Breakfast ~300 calories
AM Snack ~150 calories
Lunch ~300 calories
PM Snack ~150 calories
Dinner ~300 calories
Dessert ~ 88 calories

So I'm going to try to keep myself accountable by logging my progress here (per the expert advice by Tina of Carrots' N' Cake), starting today and as far as I can through my holiday in Israel and Paris in a few weeks.

Starting today:

5am 1 Fiber One English muffin with sugar free jam and a mug of coffee ~150 cal
(Workout)
7:30am Green smoothie: 1 frozen banana, 2/3 bag spinach, 1 cup almond milk ~200 cal
9am 1 Sweet potato ~100 cal
12pm 1 Wrap with cheese, spinach, shredded carrots, cucumbers, black bean salsa ~300 cal
3pm 1 Yogurt with 1/2 cup Fiber cereal ~150 cal
6pm Salad with tuna, cheese, black bean salsa, tomatoes ~300 cal &
Dessert: Yogurt with sugar free jam ~88 cal

It's not a small amount of food.  Although the menu is much less greesy-delicious than the holiday foods I've been enjoying the past few weeks, it will be a lot more helpful for my energy levels and weight loss goals!

Happy new year friends!!!