Amazing how perception works…

So I skipped boxing last Wednesday because of my upper back and neck hurting.  Then dance class didn’t make me sweat at all since we were figuring out our lines.  We only practiced our routine maybe 3-4 times.  Then, I was out-of-town for the weekend and ate out most of the time.  Mind you, I did try to eat well despite it being restaurant food.  Needless to say, I was not feeling that great about myself at all at the beginning of this week.  Plus, that time of the month makes you feel like your 200 lbs!  So on Monday, when I was at boxing, I told N. about how fat I felt and how my arms felt soft.  She laughed at me and told me that it was all in my head.  Then again, I was wearing a t-shirt (I normally wear a tank top) and the sleeve cut me at a less flattering part of my arm.  I worked out really hard that night, convinced I was going to gain weight if I didn’t put effort into keeping it up.  Then I taught boxercise on Tuesday and left all sweaty (yay!).  Boxing again on Wednesday felt completely different – I felt strong again, I wore my tank top and made an effort to look at my arms to see if Monday’s vision of myself was indeed a disillusion caused by hormones.  Well, I have to say that it was all in my head.  I read an article in a magazine where a woman had taken pictures of herself each day and wrote about how she felt about her body.  The funny thing is, despite feeling fat on some days, the picture never changed.  It was all in her head.  It’s amazing how that can happen. 

I found this interesting article about the opposite problem: women who believe they are slim, but they are in fact obese.  Check it out!

http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2009/09/body-image-do-certain-people-m.html

On the road to recovery

It’s been a hectic week work-wise.  With report cards around the corner, it’s easy to let working out go by the wayside.  I had to forgo my Wednesday boxing class so I could finish up my report cards.  Then, on Thursday, my hip hop class was cancelled since my teacher was in SJ for a dance competition.  Starting to feel a little guilty for a lack of working out, I made up for it on Friday.  I ended up going to boxing.  It was a pretty good workout and I was satisfied with it. 

It wasn’t too hard getting back into the routine after taking a week off.  I have to say that I made a conscious effort to listen to my body and know when to stop.  On Monday, I was feeling dizzy and weak at boxing, so I decided to leave early.  I was feeling much better on Tuesday to teach the boxercise class.  I see how it could be easy to stop working out and because I’m aware of this pitfall, it makes me work harder to stay on track. 

One thing that I’m still enjoying is going shopping.  I went this weekend and now I can confidently grab a size small and be sure that it’ll fit.  It took some time to adapt, but I now know what size to look for.  I tried on a dress this weekend that I thought might make me look fat, but after trying it on, I have to say it looked hot!  I put it on hold and went back today to buy it – I just couldn’t resist.  It’s my reward for keeping at it.  My one year “anniversary” is coming up (December 29th) and let me tell you, I’ll be celebrating it!  Hopefully by wearing that dress to some party!!!

I have to say that keeping a food journal has certainly kept me on track this year.  In fact, I bought my 3rd one yesterday.  It makes a difference when you write everything down.  It makes you accountable for what you put in your mouth.  People who tell me they couldn’t bother writing everything down make me wonder if they’re truly serious about losing weight.  When you want something really bad, you have to take the necessary steps to reach your goal.  Now that I’ve gone from 143 lbs to 118 lbs, I’m not making excuses for it anymore.  I’m done with making people who haven’t reached their goal bad because I’ve reached mine.  I worked hard for it and I’m going to feel good about my accomplishment and I’m not downplaying it anymore.

Here’s a final thought: when you get sick, you need to listen to your body.  It’s telling you to slow down.  But remember, you do have to get back on the “workout horse” as soon as you’re feeling better.  Don’t let a small setback get in the way of your goal.

Sick again!

Just as things were going well, I get sick again!  Well, I can blame someone for making me sick – my boxing coach sneezed on me last week!  Haha!  I’m still working out, since it’s only a stuffy nose.  Speaking of which, N. and I decided that we will each take turns teaching the boxercise class.  It was becoming too much for us, since we both train aside from boxing and boxercise.  Plus, I don’t have to rush to my hip hop class – since some weeks it’s right after boxercise and other weeks it’s later.  I can relax and not rush around.

Great news this week!  I’ve lost more inches without even trying! 

Bust – now: 33”                         before: 38″

Waist – now: 25.5”                  before: 31.5″

Hips – now: 34”                        before: 39.5″

That’s a total of 16.5 inches total since the end of December 2008!

I have to say that I’m not exactly excited about losing another inch off my chest.  It’s starting to make me feel bad!  I actually had to get rid of approximately 8 bras that I’ve hardly worn and had to buy new ones (with lots of padding).  I just want the bust mesurement I had before I started losing weight!  It’s certainly a hot topic of conversation among the female boxers at the club.  Because of our physique, we’ve lost the bust we had before we started boxing.  Some are talking surgery, some are  just padding their bras.  I guess it’s the sad price we pay for being athletic!

Birthday!!!

So yesterday was my birthday… I allowed myself to have more than one cheat day this week.  It was also a challenge, since on Wednesday, I had a meeting at the board office and they served Chinese for lunch.  What I noticed this week is that I’ve been struggling with knowing my limits.  I was starting to revert back to my old ways and the fact that I’ve acknowledged it is the key to getting back on track.  For example, on Wednesday, instead of just having one plate, I went back for seconds.  I did pay for that though by feeling very sick and uncomfortable for the rest of the afternoon.  However, the boxing workout that night was brutal and exactly what I needed.  It was a reality check for me that I need to be more conscious of what I eat because it makes my workouts hell!  On Thursday, I was still not feeling well…  but I managed to make it to boxercise and my hip hop class that night.  I took it easy for the boxercise class, but was feeling so much better by 9pm for hip hop.  Then on Friday, I went out to eat for my birthday with N. and managed to ration my food – I ate half and brought the other half home.  Same with my delicious cheesecake.  I ate the other half for my birthday breakfast!  Like I said, I don’t usually do that, but I did make an exception for my big day.  And of course, yesterday was one of my good friends’ wedding day, so we had some good food and a couple of drinks.  It’s back on track after that!  I’m really excited to eat some turkey today at my aunt’s house – but I will be mindful of what I put in my mouth.  Lucky for me, boxing is still on tomorrow despite it being a holiday.  Working out is the only thing that makes me feel good!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  Enjoy your turkey, but remember you don’t have to pig out to enjoy a good meal!

What a week!

I have to say that I am extremely proud of myself this week!  I was hardcore in my workouts and I ate well this week.  I woke up on Monday morning to take a look in the mirror and I was excited to be able to see some definition in my abs – the top and bottom!  This really motivated me to give it my all this week.

Monday – boxing: 2 hours

Tuesday – boxercise: 1 hour 30 min.

Wednesday – boxing: 2 hours

Thursday – boxercise: approx. 1 hour of working out;  sparring with N. : 15 min.; Hip hop dance: 1 hour

Friday – dance: 1 hour 30 min.

That’s almost 10 hours of working out this week!  Plus, I ate well. 

I have to say how anxious I was to start hip hop this week.  I signed up for the advanced class (as recommended by a dance teacher).  When I got there, the room was filled with 19-20 year olds (minus the 4 women).  It’s very fast-paced, but I was up for the challenge.  The most exciting part is that my teacher made it to the top 200 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada (yes, this current season)!  She’s extremely good and I’ve learned so much already!  The funny part about it was that during the warmup, we had to do some abs and some of the young girls were quitting because they couldn’t do anymore, while I kept going!  It felt great! 

So yesterday, N. and I went out to eat and I tell ya, I had the best cheesecake!  I’ve been craving the stuff and figured it was time for a cheat day.  You have to have one every now and again -  everyone does!

Fighting pneumonia

This week was so much better than last week.  I was finally able to get back to boxing after a 12 day absence of workouts.  It was challenging, and I was definitely sore for the next two days, but it was worth it!  I was back into my good eating habits and felt almost 100%.  However, my goal this week is to get more sleep.  It has been an exhausting week, since I had no energy to plan what I was going to do with my new class.  It was all in my head, but that’s only because I spent most of Sunday working and was too tired to plan for the week like I usually do.  Because of this and working on my SPR (an extra job I’ve taken over at work), my stress levels were rising.  It’s very important to manage stress levels, especially when you’re trying to recover from being sick.  My brother and I had this conversation yesterday at the boxing training camp we went to – when you don’t get enough sleep, or your stress levels are high, then your immune system goes down, making you susceptible to getting sick and if you stress your body with too much exercise or not enough sleep, you’re not going to get recover as quickly as if you got enough rest.  Case in point yesterday, when I was attempting the training camp’s “exhaustion workout”, I knew I had to stop because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before and I’m still recovering from pneumonia.  My lungs couldn’t take all of the cardio that I was imposing on it, so I had to stop.  My brother stressed that if I continued, I would prolong my recovery.  It’s important to listen to your body, especially when you’ve been sick.  If you don’t, it’s just going to take longer to get better.  You need to take care of yourself because no one else will do it.

A setback :(

It started with my skin being sore.  Sore to the point I couldn’t stand my clothes rubbing against my skin.  Then the chills came.  The next night, I broke out into a sweat while sleeping.  I was soaked!  The following day, I woke up wheezing.  No, I don’t have asthma.  And I don’t smoke either.  I knew it could only be one thing – the beginning of either bronchitis or pneumonia.  Of course, this had to occur the day before the first day of school.  Being the crazy teacher I am, I still went.  What was I going to do?  Call for a supply teacher on the first day?  That’s ridiculous.  So I went.  Coughing and all.  Chills and all.  I have to say that the only way I survived those two days was because of liquid Advil!  Needless to say, I didn’t go to boxing Monday night and I didn’t teach boxercise on Tuesday night (working late on Tuesday – first day was a 12 hour one – and they wonder why we get the summer off!).  Wednesday, I worked until 6:30 pm (last one there!) and decided enough was enough.  I made my way to the ER.  Luckily, there weren’t many people and things rolled pretty quickly.  Until I was told I would have to get X-Rays.  After that, the doctor showed me an xray of my lungs and pointed out that it was indeed pneumonia.  I had to lay on a stretcher for about an hour and a half, while they took 2 blood samples (just in case it was H1N1), then they inserted and IV into my arm to hydrate me and give me antibiotics.  I have to go again tonight for another fix of antibiotics thru IV.  They kept the site for the IV in my right arm (not fun when you’re right-handed).  Let’s just say that that’s the worse part of my whole experience so far.  It’s a challenge to type this, as I can feel the needle if I move my hand a certain way.  Needless to say, I’m off work until Monday and cannot exercise.  It’s killing me!  It funny how much we take our health for granted.  I guess the purpose for getting sick is to appreciate the days when you feel strong and healthy.  Being told to take it easy is actually hard, when I’m so used to being on the go.  I guess it’s my body’s way of telling me to slow down!

I’m going to ask the doctor tonight when I can resume my physical activities and hopefully he tells me soon!  I think this is the longest I haven’t exercised since I started my weight loss journey (yes, including my dental surgery)!  Luckily, I haven’t been eating that much since I have no appetite and trying to cook something with a needle in your arm is not that easy.  Fingers crossed that this doesn’t last too long!

Updated slide show of my weight loss progress

First time sparring

Monday was the night.  My first time sparring – headgear, mouth guard and all!  Before I started sparring, my coach J. had me in the ring to warm up with the mitts.  I’ve had lots of practice with them, so the punches weren’t new to me.  However, now that I’ve got that down pat, there are many other things I need to learn and work on: strategies to use when in the ring, positioning (correct stance) and learning the lingo.  After going to boxing for 2 years, I was comfortable with the routine and what was expected.  Now that I’ve gone into the ring, there’s a lot of new things coming at me.  Once again, I feel like a beginner, just as I did two summers ago.  I’m very eager to learn and improve.  Listening to your coach is key.  You can’t be close-minded, stubborn and a know-it-all if you want to be a good boxer.  You have to take the constructive criticism and learn from it.  I am the student and J. is the teacher.  As of now, the only person that I’ve sparred with is J.  I’ve been in the ring twice this week.  It’s amazing how I discovered new muscles in my back and shoulder blades by using them differently in the ring - I’ve been sore this week in place I didn’t know existed!  So, in a couple of weeks, I’m going to be a part of our club’s sparring show against N.  She’s been in a few matches and is a very good boxer.  The sparring show is just for fun though – a show for the public to enjoy.  N. promised she would take it easy on me and we would practice together.  Can’t wait!!!

I love new challenges and this is definitely one of them!

Back to the grind

I start working again tomorrow.  Summer vacation is over, the air is crisp and the back to school commercials are all over TV.  So sad, yet exciting to get back to a routine of sorts.  This week, I get to register for hip hop again, which I’m psyched to get back into!  So my workout schedule will include 2-3 days of boxing (or one day of running), 2 days of teaching boxercise and one day of dance.  My goal is to workout 5 days a week.  My eating habits are going to be a lot better too now that I’m going back to work.  Fitting in regular snacks was a challenge this summer and it’s going to be a lot easier during the school year thanks to snack time.  I’ll have less time to go out for lunch (once a week only, compared to 2-3 times a week sometimes this summer).  Plus, I’ll be saving some money from the lack of time to go to the mall for some shopping! 

The best thing for a good workout schedule is exactly that – making the time for it.  If you don’t schedule a workout in, it’ll never become a priority.  And making working out/eating right a priority is important if you want to lose weight or maintain it.