Reach... It's Not As Bad As It Seems

Hello my amazing readers! I hope you all have been having a great week. It's almost the weekend and I'm a little excited. I have to work tomorrow so it's not as cool, but at least I'm off Saturday and Sunday.

Last Saturday was the Color Run in Baltimore. We ran it with our friends Caitlin and Tim, and Caitlin's brother Collin. It was Charlie's first 5k ever! He was able to run the whole thing in 33 minutes. So proud of him! It was pretty fun. We didn't get too colorfied, even though I definitely tried to! As far as organized goes, it was not. It was packed and the pathways were uneven and confusing. The most annoying part was all the walkers! It's fine if you need to walk, but stay to the right so you're not getting in the way of the people who actually want to run. Geez.

I'm actually signed up for the Color Run at the National Harbor on Sunday too. Not for sure if I'm going yet though. I would be by myself so if the opportunity to work overtime comes up, I might just take that instead. I really don't want to run a race by myself!

After the race on Saturday we went to the Howard County Fire/Police Department vs. Prince George's County Fire Department hockey game. It was a benefit game and all proceeds went to Firefighter Nick Garner. Charlie and him went through the academy together and they are the same age. He developed cancer and has been battling it for awhile now. It was a GREAT turn out at the game. They had tons of raffle prizes and silent auction items. Unfortunately for me, PGFD lost, but I was happy for Charlie. We also won a crossfit package and a white tail deer hunt package so that was cool!

So I've been sticking with my good eating habits and it's really paying off. I've been logging everything and really have cut back on my drinking. Even when I did go out drinking, I didn't eat any bad bar food, so that definitely helps. My workouts have been tough, awesome, and consistent! So far I am at day 21 in a row of working out. I really will feel so guilty if I skip a day, so I will try my best not to, unless I have no choice!

The best part of this blog is that I have two weigh ins to catch up on! I totally forgot to do my weekly weigh in from last week, and then my one from yesterday. I suppose every Wednesday will be my weigh in day. It works out well being in the middle of the week, I think. Here's what I got!

Previous Weight - 155 (5/1)

Next Weigh In - 154.4 (5/8) - 0.6 pounds lost

Current Weight - 152.8 (5/15) - 1.6 pounds lost

Yay! I'm so happy to finally be seeing progress again! I feel like my hard work is paying off and I'm loving it! I can see a difference in my body, the way my clothes fit, and my endurance. Also my guns! I can't believe how strong I'm getting. I never really thought I'd get into lifting but now I love it. I love being a strong girl!

People keep telling me "Don't get too big" but seriously, I'm not going to become some ripped body builder. I just want to have toned arms, nice legs, and abs! I've also had people tell me that I shouldn't lose anymore weight. Really? First of all, no one should be telling me what to do. Second, most people haven't seen me naked! I mean yeah, maybe from pictures I look slim, but under my clothes there are still flaws that I need to work on. I still have love handles and back fat. I can lose more weight and still be ok. I mean, according to my BMI, I'm still in the "overweight" category! Which is crazy, but oh well. I would just love to get to 145 and see how that feels then go from there!

Well, just wanted to update those weigh ins. Time to go do laundry for work!

Crossing my fingers for a good weigh in next week:-)

xoxoxo
Anna

No Alcohol April: The Results

 

Sorry that it took me almost a week to finally post my weigh in! I just got kinda busy with work and working out and I had a few events to attend so I just didn't have the time, but I'm finally getting to it!

As you all know, I gave up alcohol for the month of April as well as the scale. I did not weigh myself until May 1st. It was definitely hard not to wake up and weigh myself every morning because that's what I usually do. But I was so excited to finally get on the scale and see how much I lost! Here's the results!

April 1st - 161.2

May 1st - 155

Weight lost - 6.2 pounds

Yes! Finalllllllly some results! I was so happy to see that number. I'm so much closer to my lowest weight now. And only 10 pounds away from my ultimate goal.

It's hard to say for sure how big of a part the no alcohol played because not only did I cut that out, but I also got extremely strict with counting my calories and had tons of crazy workouts. As you can see from my calendar, I finally started working out at work. That, and really cutting back my portion sizes at work has helped tremendously.  Either way, I'm glad I did it and I think I will continue to cut back on my alcohol.

Thursday night I went to my friend Caitlin's jewelery party and that's where I had my first drink: tequila sangria! I had just a few drinks throughout the night, then we all decided to do shots so naturally I took a shot of tequila. Gross. It was not pleasant! And then crazy old me decided to go to the gym after the party!

I just felt too guilty not to work out. I like keeping my workout streak going. Like towards the end of April, I was on a roll. The only reason I had to skip one day was because I did overtime from 0700-1500 and when I got home I had to immediately get ready for the Caps game, then we didn't get back until almost midnight so I just didn't have time! Of course I was bummed about that, but I suppose I need a break everyone once in awhile.

I discovered a new little gem while I was at work the other day! Monster Muscle. It's an energy drink with protein! I was so excited. I love Monster Ultra Zero so I figured I would like this one, and I do! It tastes good. Now if only I could find it at a 7-11 near me. Lately I've just been drinking tons of protein shakes from the cafe at the gym. I always get either "Ultimate Protein" or "The Body Builder" haha.

So, Saturday was Hero Rush and it was soooo fun! I had a blast. It was similar to Warrior Dash but firefighter inspired obstacles. The whole course was about 4.4 miles and a lot of the running in between was uphill and through mud. I did pretty well running in between all of the obstacles. A few of the steep hills I decided to walk just so I could preserve some of my energy for whatever the next obstacle was going to be.

I enjoyed all of the challenges and in my opinion did awesome at all of them EXCEPT for the rope climb! That part was a pain in the arse! It was a 1 3/4" hose line with knots tied in it and you had to climb up to the top and get onto this platform. Yeah... not so fun. After standing in line for over 20 minutes to do it I had gotten really nervous but I really thought I would have no issues after watching a few other girls go up. Wrong! It was so much harder than it looked and I couldn't get up my first try. I was about to just skip it but then a few of my PGFD team mates asked me to come try it again with them so I did.

I felt like I was doing a little bit better the second time around and I was so close to the top and my arms just couldn't go any longer. I had to use the scaffolding on the sides to help pull myself up. I felt really disappointed in myself because I was really proud at how much I had improved my upper body strength recently but apparently it's still not what I need it to be. I guess the fact that I've never even climbed a rope before also didn't help. What I really need now is to practice the actual act of climbing a rope. I want to be able to do that with no problem. Next year I will do Hero Rush again and I will own that hose line!

The rest of the race was great and a few of us finished together as a team. We hung out for awhile afterwards at a picnic table. Just talking, drinking and eating some food. It was kind of chilly out that day, but the sun was shining bright and it felt so good on my skin that I didn't really think much of it. Well, later on when I got home I realized that I had gotten really burned! My face, arms and thighs are like lobsters! Oops!

So I think I decided I'm just going to stick with weekly weigh ins from now on, just to try and kick my scale habit. It gets on my nerves to see my weight fluctuate so much so I'll try to just do once a week and then only update when I have a loss:-)

Well, time to get ready for Total Conditioning class at the gym. It's my favorite! Then I think it's going to be a relaxing lazy day on the couch! Thanks to all those who supported my alcohol free month. It was tough, but I did it!:-) Thank you for following me and inspiring me every day to keep doin what I'm doin!

Love,

Anna