Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Weightloss Journey

Hello Friends, I know it's been a while. It's been a busy June for me, but things seem to be slowing down for July (that is until I find out whether this one case is going to trial in two weeks, then it might get busier).

In case you were wondering - I had a fabulous vacation to Mexico. I know I promised a post about it - and I'll post about it after this post with lots of photos (yes a month after I returned, but the memories are still fun!).

Weightloss. Well, back in January, I went to a doc appointment, and was weighed (as usual) and was horribly shocked when I was told my weight. I mean, when did that happen? Then I thought back over the past year and a half of working, and eating out at lunch almost everyday, and the lack of working out, and knew the answer. I had put on 18 lbs since the end of law school. 18. After recovering from the shock of the scale, that evening I vowed I would not let myself gain any more weight. See, I could tell something was awry - my work clothes were tight, even the work clothes that I had bought a size bigger were tight. And I definitely could not fit into the 6 pairs of designer jeans that I stared at longingly in my closet. Something had to be done:

Weight Watchers. I got back on the WW bandwagon. The next day I signed back up (after a failed attempt a year earlier). I found this time around I was better at keeping track of the points, and adjusting my eating habits to fit the points system, and I realized I felt better eating healhier and opting for a salad at lunch rather than the usual fries or chips (not baked chips, let's not deceive ourselves, they aren't as good as the regular kind). And it was a rude awakening, realizing the amount of calories I was consuming.

Running. I posted about this a while ago, but I joined a running club. It was a half marathon - 5/1 training program. And it start out slow, which was what this running hater needed. I got into it. It felt good to be running 3 - 4 times a week, and the results started to show. My endurance picked up. I didn't actually ever run a half marathon after this training session. But in May, I started another half marathon training, and did sign up for a half - to be run in November in SA! And this time around I'm running the whole thing, not that anything is wrong with 5/1 because it does work, but I decided that I needed to give a shot at running straight through. So far its going well. I'm up to 3.5 miles straight of running, which, 6 months ago I would have laughed if you told me I could do that. On Saturday, I will be running my first 4 miles straight and I'm excited to see if I can do it!

A combo of the two above things has led to a weight loss since January of 20 lbs! I know what you are thinking, its taken 6 months to get back down 20 lbs, but it took 1 1/2 years to put it on, so I"ll take it. I'm so excited about the weight loss, and it has encouraged me to continue to eat healthy and to continue working out on a daily basis. Its amazing what that can do if you just stick to it. And, my work clothes fit again, and are a little baggy, and those 6 pairs of designer jeans, yea I can fit into all of them. Its a nice feeling.