Reaping the rewards!

I have to admit, I am really enjoying reaping the rewards of all of the hard work I've put into my weight loss journey.  I had a few great rewarding moments this week and I'm so happy with how I'm doing.

Reward #1:
I made it up the Old Yale Road Hill!  This is a pretty steep hill  with an elevation gain of 99 meters, that is by the park I go to all the time.  I've started up the hill a couple of times back in February and March and ended up turning around and coming back down.  Not this week.  This week, I rocked it!  I owned that hill, not only by making it to the top for the turn around down, but I was able to keep my pace consistent as well!  An average moving pace of 12:18 when going up hill, with the dog along, is pretty good in my books!  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/370483885

Mid way up the hill, it goes around the bed at the top left.

Towards the top coming back down.

Heading for the bottom!

Reward #2
I had the pleasure of volunteering for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation's Don't Forget to Check program which launched on College campuses this week.  They are doing pop up yoga sessions while promoting breast health to students between 18-25 (www.dontforgettocheck.ca ) In the email I got advising of the time and place and what to wear, there was a note that a volunteer shirt would be provided.  I've never fit a volunteer shirt before(except for the triathlon), so I emailed Amanda to ask her what color the shirts were so that I could at least try to match the other volunteers on site.  I wore the brightest pink shirt I had and headed up to the University to meet up with everyone else.  Amanda handed me a shirt and told me to at least try it on, she thought it would fit.  Well low and behold, slap your friend, it fit!  I was so happy it fit, as was Amanda.  She told me she wanted to see this great reward on my blog, so Amanda, here it is, just for you :)  I didn't think to get a picture and it's too late right now to wake my awesome husband up to ask him to take one so I'll have to add it in later on. :)

Reward #3
Fitting into an arena seat!  I know a couple of weeks ago, I was thrilled to fit in the seats at BC Place for the White Caps game.  Tonight I took my mom to see Celtic Thunder at the AESC here in town.  The last time I was there it was for a hockey game, I was cramped in the seat and felt like I was wedged in there.  There wasn't any extra room and I was highly uncomfortable.  I was a little apprehensive, hoping for a better result today....well hot diggity darn, wouldn't you know it, I had room to spare!   I was so happy to be in a public place, and not feel like I was encroaching on the people beside me.  It was fabulous.  For once I was able to sit back, and enjoy the show, without trying to make myself seem smaller.  It was fabulous!

Mom and I at Celtic Thunder

I know I'm going to love continuing to reap the rewards of my hard work!

Bouncing Back

I had a very challenging week this week, I took it back to basics, weighing and measuring everything, recording every BLT (Bite, Lick, Taste) and I put in a lot of activity.  I went back to doing my intervals and I hoped for the best when it came to weigh in on Friday morning.

I was glad to be at my regular WW meeting.  It felt good to see my usual leader and the great assistant's that weigh everyone in.  When I got up to the scale my leader mentioned that he missed me last week.  I explained that I was off but I went to the meeting at home and I had gained over 3 pounds and it didn't make any sense to me.

The first thing he asked was did I do something different activity wise.  I told him that I had my 5km race on Monday and on Thursday we had gone on a 6km hike.  He nodded and said that the gain made sense then.  My leg muscles were probably holding onto water as I had used them so much and used them doing things I don't normally do.  He smiled and said that I would probably have a decent loss this week and he was ready when ever I wanted to stand on the scale.

I was nervous getting on, because I really did want to believe that it had been water weight and that everything would bounce back into place.   Well bounce back it did, with a resounding 7.8 pound loss!  Not only did I make up for the two weeks of gains but I lost a little extra just for good measure!  I was so happy to see that number move back down, and my total weight loss go up to 63.8 pounds.  I was so relieved!

This morning I took Angus for our usual Saturday morning walk.  Some days he isn't in the mood to walk, and other days he is.  I did my intervals earlier this week without him and I wasn't planning to do any intervals today.  However, Angus had other plans this morning.  He was in the mood to trot along and that's just what he did.

Angus leading the way.

Usually when we're walking on the country road he's right beside me or a little bit behind me but today he was out in front most of the way.  I don't know what got into him but we ended up doing intervals as I was walking so quickly to keep up with him.

Intervals along the country road

It was great to do the intervals and we did fairly well.  Angus had a little bit of an issue with the people picking blueberries along side of us at one of the farms.  He seemed to feel the need to bark at all of them as we passed them row upon row.  For some reason, he can't seem to walk/run and bark at the same time.  Once we got past the farm it was full speed ahead again.

It was a great morning for a walk, and we did our 3.25km walk in 40 odd minutes. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/341822286  I think that was pretty good considering we had to stop for a couple of street lights along the way.  I've misplaced my heart rate monitor somewhere in the house.  We've searched high and low and can't find it so I've been judging my walks based on my pace.  Today our moving pace was 11:54 per minute, our best pace during intervals was a 7:35km pace.  Pretty good I think.  I wish I had set my Garmin up for intervals before we left, but as I said it wasn't on the agenda today.  I may set it for intervals tomorrow morning, just to see if Angus is in a cooperative mood or not.
 

Rough Week....

For an unknown reason, this past week was a really rough week.  It was bad in all sorts of ways.  I didn't get my steps in, I didn't do my workouts.  I didn't get my walks in each day.  I took the skytrain instead of walking to work 3 days.

I don't know what was with me this week but it wasn't a good week in so many different ways.   It didn't help that it was also a hungry week.  I seemed to be constantly hungry this week and although I tried to stay within my daily points, at the end of the week I had used more than 20 of my weekly bonus points.  I have never used them in the past.

I only earned 38 activity points instead of the usual 60-70.

It all added up today and clubbed me over the head with a gain.

Not a little gain like it was a month ago, but a major gain.

I gained 2.4 pounds in a week.

2.4 pounds!  I am back to having lost under 60 pounds, and I was so proud of hitting that 60 pound mark.  I'm now at 59 pounds lost.  2.4 pounds doesn't seem like much but to me it is huge.

I will not let this get me down though.  I will not let this side track me.  I will not let this be an excuse to binge.

I am in control.  Me.  The person I want to be is in control and I will get over this hurdle.

I have a poster up in my office, and the words on it were never more true than they are today.

"Of course it's hard!  It's supposed to be hard.  If it was easy, everyone would do it"

Losing weight is hard.  I've had it too easy for too long, but no more.  I will get the upper hand and I will succeed!