Day 48 through 50: Rachael 2.0 .. and Other Updates

I got my hair cut today. It was desperately needed. Wanna see? Of course you do.



I really like it.

Also, I got a new scale. Finally a good one that (hopefully) won't go all wackadoodle on me. I'm taking her for the maiden voyage tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, it's Husband and my anniversary! SEVEN WHOLE YEARS OF WEDDED BLISS. I feel so lucky to be married to my best friend. Life is good.

We are going out to dinner to celebrate tomorrow night. Should be interesting as it is not a Cheat Day for me, so I'll have to really order carefully. Good practice for me I think. The Plan continues very well and I certainly don't want to throw a wrench into the works.

I didn't get my usual Cheat Day yesterday because I'm doubling up for my birthday weekend coming up. Normally I would not want to double up but under the circumstances, it just can't be helped. But I have decided that I am honestly going to try to just eat as healthy as I can, and while I do plan to have birthday treats, I hope to enjoy them in moderation.

Oddly, I haven't really missed Cheat Day this week. I thought about it a few times during the day yesterday, but some part of me seemed almost relieved to just have another good ol' day on The Plan. Makes me wonder if I should change Cheat Day to a bi-weekly or even monthly thing. I'm really going to have to think about this.

Anyway, off to bed for me. An early morning run awaits. 'Night!

Day 35: 10 Pounds Lighter

Yup, as the title of this post suggests, I have officially lost 10 pounds as of this morning. Hooray!

Had another great run tonight. Yin yoga tomorrow.

I'm glad that The Plan seems to be working because I have been so hungry all day. I guess some days are just "hungry days", aren't they?

10 down, about 30 to go...

Day 30, 31 & 32: One Monthiversary!

I have officially been on The Plan now for ONE WHOLE MONTH. And you know what? It's working!

I have lost 9 pounds and a few inches. Not bad! I am feeling not only leaner, fitter, healthier, smaller... but also really proud of myself.

I don't expect that I'll keep losing at this rate, I just don't think it's possible. But as long as I'm moving in the general downward direction, I'll be happy. Actually, truth be told, this losing weight thing has not been that hard. Sure, I've had my good and bad days but all in all, I'm not finding it that challenging. (Of course, now that I've typed this and had this thought in my head, I'll probably start struggling from here on out...haha)

The things that have helped keep me going strong so far are:

1. Having a well stocked kitchen with lots of healthy groceries.

2. The ease of having some great calorie counting and tracking software (the Lean Me app for my iPhone).

3. Oatmeal.

4. 100-calorie snack packs.

5. Fruit! Veggies! Spices!

6. An encouraging family.

7. Hot yoga.

8. Cheat Days.

9. Water.

10. The feeling of my clothing getting looser and looser.

Some challenges that I've noticed so far include:

1. Evenings after Baby Girl goes to bed. I start wanting sweets. Bad.

2. The fact that being pregnant has left me with a small amount of loose skin under my belly button. I don't think it will ever snap back. It's not terrible or anything, but it does bug me and the more I lose weight, the looser the skin seems. Considering plastic surgery when all is said and done. Crazy?

3. Being a mum. Don't get me wrong, I LOOOOOOVE being a mum. My daughter is my whole world. But it does make for a wonky exercise schedule because I have to workout around Baby Girl's schedule and sometimes that's not so straightforward.

4. Lack of exercise video for me to do while Baby Girl naps. See #3 above. Working on fixing this today.

5. The fact that my pans are stainless steel and not non-stick. I'm actually really picky about my cookware and prefer stainless steel above all else. And I don't believe in using Teflon anyway. But a stainless steel pan does not make it easy to prepare food without using oil.

6. A blister that I got on my heel recently. It sucks! And I wish I could say that I got it from some sort of intense physical activity but no, it was from wearing a new pair of shoes. It made it kind of painful to run for about 2 weeks. (But I still ran. Yay me!)

7. Never feeling really satisfied on Cheat Days. I had another questionable one yesterday. I'm not sure what's going on but I think that's another post.

8. Wanting. Let's face it. It's hard to avoid seeing, smelling and craving all the glorious foods out there in the world when one is on a diet. I am constantly wanting. It's no fun passing up delicious and readily available items when they are so desired. I just buttered a waffle for my daughter. Drool.

9. Cooking items with many ingredients. Like vegetable chili. Sure, it's easy, healthy, and delicious, but trying to figure out the calorie counts for a zillion ingredients, and then figuring out the per-serving count is confusing and time consuming. I admit that it's prevented me from attempting dishes that would probably be wonderful additions to my diet. Math is not my forte.

10. Patience. While it's true that the weight is coming offer faster than I thought it would and I am doing very well indeed, I am still fully aware that there is every likelihood that I will be on The Plan for at least another 6 months or so. That's a long time to be in a caloric deficit. And I haven't even begun to think about maintaining my weight loss. I will probably be counting calories for at least another year an a half. That seems daunting.

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Life is good, The Plan is working. I am happy with my progress so far but I still have a long way to go.

I will be posting some 1 month progress pics tonight. Stay tuned!