Losing is so hard to do!

I may be just feeling down this morning. Pup is sick, lack of sleep, sore all over, stressed out from work. But as I reflect on when I started this journey back in October of last year (with a 3 day a week bootcamp) and look at the scale this morning, I can’t help but feel disgusted.

I struggled this morning on whether I should have gone on my morning jog, thinking that eh, it’s not really going to make a difference. I lost an inch or two over all, some half points on hips, waist and thighs. The scales haven’t given me glowing praise over weight lost (6 lbs for 6 months of work). And while it’s nice to be able to wear those “loose” size 6 jeans, some days it feels like I’m trapped in a girdle and can’t breathe or walk right

Within those little achievements lie the truths we hide from ourselves.

“The scale doesn’t lie.” Sure, it can be miscalibrated, but in the end, that’s my weight on the dial or meter, and the number tells me how hard I’ve worked or effort I’ve put in. Which is to say, very little. I’d be seeing better improvement if I would only control my portion sizes!

“A few inches here and there.” Ok, it’s really time to just cut out the unhealthy fats and sugars. Time to move up a band color and push my strength training to the next level. And hey, why not do a few pushups and crunches in the evening to quiet down those hunger pangs?

“Loose size 6 jeans?” Am I kidding myself. There’s a pair of “real” size 6 jeans hanging in the closet that I kill myself just trying to walk around in. Put that on and any illusions I have are gone. Seriously, I need to put 110% into this.

For a 5’2″ 40-yr-old gal like me, is 120lbs even achievable? Am I compromising too much if I went with 125, 130 or 135?

Time to break out the motivational quotes…

 “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” – William Shakespeare

 “We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do.” -Samuel Smiles

 “Our greatest glory consist not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” -Oliver Goldsmith

  “It is the want of diligence, rather than the want of means, that causes most failures.” -Alfred Mercier

 “Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right.” -Aldous Huxley

 “The virtue lies in the struggle, not in the prize.” -Richard Monckton Milnes

 “It is not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 “Who aims at excellence will be above mediocrity; who aims at mediocrity will be far short of it.” -Burmese Saying

 “Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than before.” -Polybius

 “In everything the ends well defined are the secret of durable success.” -Victor Cousins

 “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt

 “Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb but how well you bounce.” -Vivian Komori

 “There is no victory at bargain basement prices.” -Dwight Eisenhower

 “Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it.  The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” -Earl Nightingale

 “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

I’m sure there are plenty more I can add to this…but these will have to do for now. 

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And yet more March buds and blooms part deux

More new bloomers!

3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (1) 3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (2) 3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (3) 3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (4) 3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (5) 3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (6) 3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (7) 3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (8) 3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (9) 3/14/2012 March Buds and Blooms pt 2 (10)

Ballerina white gaura in the purple bed (these have yet to be divided), standard purple oxalis, a surprise viola in the blue bed (returning from last year, another shot of the 3rd camellia, Thalia narcissus in full bloom and bud, azalea Autumn Embers (the newest shrub), green oxalis triangularis, and of course Bella purple lavender stoechas.

Recalibration

Welcome to week 11 of my Peak Body Transformation subscription. I’m now working out 5:15a to 6:00a, an hour earlier than my previous session. Technically it’s supposed to be an alumni class, but we still have several newbies enrolled in this class.

Ever since the time change, it’s been dark going to and from class. And unfortunately, that’s also deterred me from my morning jogs and dog walks. This of course puts a time crunch on me, making me late for work. I was hoping to reverse this 10-wk trend, but looks like I need a hard reboot to get my schedule aligned correctly. Hope to get this all worked out soon; I dislike exercising after work and I can already tell the mosquitoes will be populous this year.

My scale broke this morning. It finally had enough of my too-frequent weigh ins and croaked. This prompted an early morning trip to Walmart to pick up a new scale. I took home a Healthometer which is a body fat meter and scale. It also calculates BMI, hydration level, and daily caloric intake and stores measurements for up to 4 user profiles. Lastly, it allows users to set a goal weight and calculates in weeks how long it will take to reach. (FYI, it told me that to reach my goal weight of 130lbs, it would take 18 weeks at roughly 1600 DCI.)

Since I had long suspected that my previous Sharper Image digital scale was inaccurate, I was glad to see that this new Healthometer was closer in measurement to the scale at the gym and at the doctor’s office. It read my body fat % consistent with the Omron body fat meter used by my gym. Though I’m sad to see that I am once again over 145 (and once heavier than I thought I was), at least I will be more comfortable knowing my true weight from now on. Now how long will this scale last?

So my little MFP ticker will need some recalibration. Goodbye, 144; hello, 147 (again).

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