True to my word, I kicked it up a notch this week.  Here was the schedule:

Monday: Hike with roommate
Tuesday: 40 minute intervals of running and walking, two sets upper body weights, crunches
Wednesday: Walk at lunch (I think?)
Thursday: 45 minute intervals, 1 set of weights for each muscle group (upper + lower) and abs
Friday: No real exercise, but kept food intake light.
Saturday: As soon as I finish this, I’m going to go do 30 minutes of kickboxing.

Food wasn’t super terrible this week, except for Sunday.  I had a tough day on Sunday, and had a tuna melt for lunch (with a salad) and a burger, fries and a coke for dinner.  Most of the week though, I had the same menu, which I’d prepared for in advance:

Breakfast: Egg Cup with red bell pepper, zucchini, sauteed mushrooms and a negligible amount of parmesan cheese + a yogurt.
Lunch: Turkey and provolone with greens, red bell pepper, on sprouted whole wheat bread with sugar snap peas on the side.
Snacks: pistachios, oranges, sugar snap peas, Kashi protein bars

Dinner was kind of all over the map.  On Monday, I accidentally skipped it entirely.  On Tuesday, it was stir-fry with tofu, on Wednesday it was a grilled chicken quesadilla, Thursday was pasta, and last night was sushi.  Some of that was decent in terms of calories, some… not.

Also, true to my word, I cut back on the alcohol.  I had a maximum of two drinks and alternated nights.  This could still get better, but I’m not sweating it for now.

Has it made a difference? Well, that’s tough to tell?  My weight hasn’t gone down at all, which surprised me.  It’s possible that I actually spiked on tuna melt day, so I have indeed lost some.  One of my friends also suggested that adding weight training to my exercise might mean that I’ve increased muscle, which is denser than fat, so while I haven’t seen a shift on the scale, that it might not be an accurate measurement.  I think from now on, I’ll start measuring myself so I have that as a tool too.

I have noticed that my clothes have started to fit a wee bit better.

So I think that might be something.  I also got a haircut this week, which has made me feel really good about myself.  I regularly blow dry and straight iron my hair, but this week, I told the stylist I wanted to try going with my natural wavy curly bed head beach hair mess.  I actually really like it.  I totally have a frickin’ MANE, but it kinda works for me, you know?

I feel like I’m coming into my own with this challenge.  I might not be losing a buttload of weight, but whatever.  That’s not what this is about for me.  I keep trying to assign it a numerical value so that I know if I’ve “passed” or if I’ve “failed”, but really, sticking it out and getting healthier is the only win here.  And I’m doing that.  It doesn’t matter what the scale says; I already feel better; brighter, more solid, convinced of my own health and that I’m getting back into a state of wellness.   And that counts for a hell of a lot.

Height: Still a stunning 5’2″, Weight: 177, Bust: 37″, Waist: 35″, Hips: 45″ (Hip to Waist Ratio is 0.77, which is apparently pretty healthy)