Heathe Trim Update: The End of Week 3

Quick update on the Healthe Trim front. As of Sunday, 5/15, I've lost exactly 10 pounds (to the tenth of the pound even). I exercise daily (or at least 5 times a week), eat pretty much what I want, get full quickly and . . . here we are. It's odd, because the first week I lost 4.6 lbs. Then, by mid-2nd-week, I'd gained back 2 lbs. By the end of the 2nd week, I'd lost only 1 lb. overall. Then, at the end of the 3rd week (this past Sunday), I was down 10. Pretty happy about how that all worked out --- 10 lbs. in 3 weeks. Here's to keeping this pace!

HT Update - Week 1

Quick update here on the healthe trim front. I biked on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday this past week for 45 minutes to an hour each time. Took the healthe trim as directed, and it's true --- it makes a person feel full much faster than normal. Now I'm adjusting and trying to get used to taking less food in the first place and packing smaller lunches. I still eat the same foods I always have, just less of them, and I drink the same insane amount of water I always have. Easy-peasy.

I lost 4.6 pounds between Sunday morning last week and this morning. If I can keep this pace, or even lose 3 lbs. a week, my summer body is going to make me happy.

On to week 2 now. It's not hard, but wish me luck anyway!

Stickin' With It

While I haven't been diligent about blogging about my biking every week (like at the beginning of the year), I'm still sticking with the biking thing and keeping track of the time/miles I rack up every day. I try to make it on at least once every day; some weeks are more productive than others, but overall I'm uber proud of myself. I never stick with exercise this long! With that being said, I'm not losing a ton of weight really quickly, but it's slowly coming off. Again, I think the thing is to stick with it. Here's a summary of the year in general so far.

For the month of January, I biked 804.56 miles over 48 hours, 10 minutes. This breaks down to an average of 25.95 miles per day over 48 minutes.

For the month of February, I biked 490.57 miles over 32 hours, 48 minutes. Wow, looks like I totally slacked from January, but still, it breaks down to 17.52 miles per day on average, and an average of 32 minutes per day.

They say (yes, the ubiquitous 'they', which is always different depending on who you're talking to) a person should exercise 45-60 minutes a day 5 days a week, so I don't think I'm doing too poorly. If I were to listen to the commercial on TV telling parents to make children exercise 60 minutes a day, everyday, I'd feel bad. But I'll just ignore them. Plus there's the confusing talk about eating back calories after exercising so a person's metabolism doesn't slow down too much and go into starvation mode . . . . to heck with it all. I'm exercising at least 5 days a week, I'm eating healthy (ok, relatively) and I'm happy. 'Nuff said.

Exercise Recap

For the past 2 weeks, I've slacked as far as documenting how I've been doing on our recumbent bike. While no huge changes in weight have been made, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve for the next few weeks to help bring the scale down a bit. Wish me luck with that!

For the week of Sunday, 1/31/11 through Saturday, 2/5/11, I biked a total of 8 hours, 30 minutes, totaling 142.56 miles.

For the week of Sunday, 2/6/11 through Saturday, 2/12/11, I biked 4 hours, 11 minutes equaling 69.95 miles.

Not my best two weeks thus far by any stretch, but I'm ok with that. I still got some time on the bike, which is better than none, right? As for this week, I already took Sunday off and slacked a little (but still biked twice) yesterday, so I'll have to be diligent about putting in some time for the next few days. With nothing on my agenda, it shouldn't be hard. Thank goodness for Food Network, Top Chef, SATC and Real Housewives ---- at least I have something good to watch while I'm biking!

165.4 Miles

This week, I managed to get in 5 decent days of biking. This amounted to 9 hours, 34 minutes, and 165.40 miles. While my weight has held steady for the past 2 weeks, I haven't gained and feel much better than when I don't exercise.

So far for 2011, I've biked 43 hours, 41 minutes, and 727.86 miles. *pats self on back*

168.81 Miles

This past week was decent for biking, although I took Friday and Saturday off. From Jan. 16th through Jan. 22nd, I biked a total of 10 hours, equaling 168.81 miles. Not as high as the prior 2 weeks, but I'm alright with that.

Year-to-date, I've biked 34 hours and 7 minutes, equaling 563 miles total. Sweet!

195.25 Miles

This week, even with being totally sick on Thursday and not really getting off the couch, I managed to bike 195.25 miles over 11 hours, 52 minutes. Not too shabby I'd say. 

2011 total so far: 394.19 miles over 24 hours, 7 minutes. Sweet!

198.94 Miles!

Wow, I'm even impressed with myself this week.

Starting December 1st, I vowed to bike on our recumbent bike at least once a day, if not more. I was good about this goal until we headed home to Wisco for vacay in mid-December. My family's house and the hotel we stayed in both had work out equipment, but I felt that my time was much better spent with my family and Buppy. Plus, I wasn't eating horribly so I wasn't too concerned. Lucky me, I didn't gain a single pound during the generally dreaded Thanksgiving through Christmas time frame. Woot! Again lucky me, because I don't really care for sweets/desserts. Plus, I've resisted the urge to purchase any potato chips since December 1st; they're totally my downfall. I had a few while in Wisco over Christmas, but nothing that concerned me. Heck, now it's just fun to walk down the aisle at the grocery store and let my will power take over. I don't even get the urge to snack on them anymore, and now reach for oranges, Asian pears, apples, etc. for snacks instead. Ok, so I get the urge once in awhile, but who doesn't!?!

For the week beginning January 2nd through today, January 8th, I spent 12.25 hours on our bike in the living room and biked a total of 198.94 miles. Very proud of myself for that. *pats self on back* And since I really started this goal back on December 1st, this just proves that I can, in fact, stick with an exercise regimen. Helps that I'm unemployed right now, and I know that once I go back to work it'll be harder to fit the time in, but I'm happy that I haven't been like some people I know. I've had friends who were unemployed or who worked 20+/- hours a week who constantly talked about exercise but never did anything about it. What more perfect time to get my butt in gear? There isn't one, so here I am.

I was working out with weights in December to help strength train, and will pick back up with that this coming week. Time to tone, tone, tone too!

Other than that, I'm simply enjoying my time in the kitchen, chatting with family scattered across the country (my mom made it to Alaska where she's teaching this Spring!) and catching up with friends via emails and phone calls. Oh, and searching for the perfect job. I have no doubt it'll come to me in time. I've also begun looking at curriculum at several grad schools, but haven't found any degrees/courses of study that pique my interest at this point. Not to say that I'll give up, but I'm still not convinced that grad school is for me. We'll see.

Hope everyone is enjoying their new year thus far!

Exerci . . . I'm Tired

This is my 100th post on this blog; just thought I'd mention that. Hmmm, doesn't feel like a huge milestone for me as some bloggers make it out to be, so that's enough discussion about it.

So about this whole exercise thing. I've actually been really good lately and am on week 3 of biking on the recumbent bike at least 5 days a week. I started out at 10 miles a night, so with the addition of the cool down period, it was about 500 calories. I'm now up to 700 calories a night [which is about 14-15 miles] because of some stupid article I read that said the way to lose 1 lb. per week is to burn an extra 500 calories a day. Their example showed that you could cut your calorie intake by 200 and burn an extra 300 as a way to go about things, but I don't really count calories enough to do this.

I'm sad to say the scale has not tipped in my favor in the 2.5 weeks I've been doing this. I gave up potato chips for Lent [and most snacky foods like this, including Doritos, Cheetos, etc.], but it's just not budging. I must admit though, I do feel a little sexier. Who knows why. I think it's all in my head. But as much as I wanted to go home last night, have a drink and go to bed, I forced myself to get on that bike. And then I negotiated with myself the whole time, telling myself I could quit at 500 calories, but really, once you've hit that 500 mark, you might as well go all the way [so I told myself].

It's hard to stay motivated, but I've seen pictures recently of myself that aren't as flattering as I'd like them to be. That, and this bod ain't gonna see a bikini this summer if I don't tone up a little! I also started lifting free weights to tone up my arms, so I'll give it a month and see what happens. Just gotta stay motivated......