Slow and Steady

Monday, July 5, 2010

Monday Motivation: What's next? SOWL

S-O...WHAT? Yeah, I know Some Other Workout List? Nice, but no. Summer of Watermelon Lemonade, does sound delicious, but again no. Last one, Stout or Wheat Lager? Actually, SOWL is Summer of Weight Loss, a challenge/event being put on by Kerri HERE. Since 31 Days to 31 is over and I was in search of a new challenge, this is great. This is focused on weight loss using whatever method the participant wants to use and officially ends on 9/22 with summer. The leader is going to do Weight Watchers on her own and I am choosing to continue my calorie conscious effort that I started with my 31 Days challenge. 


A not so mini-weight history
Truth be told I originally started this blog and kept it private (save for my husband) as a way to stay motivated to lose weight. I had my measurements on here and everything. When I took my blog public I erased it all because I was too embarrassed. In high school and most of college I was a basketball player. I ate what I wanted and worked out 3+ times a day. My fastest mile in college (1998) was 6:31 and now it's an even 10 minutes. My lowest weight in college when I was my fittest/quickest/muscliest self was 171. This is the highest end of healthy/borderline overweight. This is how I know that the darn BMI chart is not for me. I do not have an average sized body, you can't look at that chart and say for certain overweight because I do not believe it would have been feasible for me to get under 171 pounds as a college Division 1 Basketball player. Sure I ate like crap, but I also worked out 3 + times a day at a rigorous rate. Maybe 2-5 lbs. less, but not more and that would have been living off rabbit food. But I digress. 

The second I quit basketball and focused on school the pounds came on strong, worse than the freshman 15. In 1999 as a junior I weighed 171 as a 5th year senior graduating in 2002 I had topped off at 222 pounds. Even as I write this I have no idea how I let that happen to me...ahem, how I did that to myself. From 2002 to 2004 I was focused on getting my Master's degree, working full time and coaching basketball. I strongly believe "running the floor" with my basketball girls helped me shed the weight and I slowly came down from a size 16/18 to an 8. A little too low I know. I leveled off around a size 10/12, graduated and started my first and current grown up job, bought a house and got married. 2004 was jam packed! FYI-first jobs and grown up mile stones are like the freshman year of college and the weight came on accordingly. 

In my first 6-months at my current job (in 2004) I put on 10+ pounds. This job took me to Baltimore in March of 2005. I was in a fellowship program and other fellows were looking for an activity to do since we'd be there for St. Patty's day. I had never been a runner, never run a race, but somehow I suggested we do the local St. Patty's day 5K....and that is how I started running.

For fun I looked back at my old weight watchers card from 2005 and my lowest weight was 185 and I held it for exactly 1 week, that was the year I started running. In 2006 I ran my first and only marathon and race day I believe I weighed about 187. Then in 2007 I had my first baby and my weight maxed out at about mid-high 220's. I got back down to 193 in 2008 and in 2009 I had my second baby and again my weight maxed out at about the mid-high 220's. So that brings us to this year 2010. 

This year has been a mild challenge. I was fairly fit throughout both pregnancies and the pounds came off pretty easily. In January of this year I was at 200 pounds just 2 months post pregnancy and felt pretty confident things were going well, I ran my first 10K post baby and it was great! I started weight watchers, big flop. Then in March my weight climbed to 214, YUCK! At my last doctor's visit April 21st I weighed 207. From April 21st to May 31st I lost 8 pounds on my own. I think alot of this had to do with not eating after 8:00PM and the by product of being more conscientious about my food intake. May 31st I started using the Loseit App on my iPhone and went down from 199 to 193 as of June 26th. I am ecstatic that things are going so well and I am positive that this new challenge is just what I need to keep the momentum going.


Here are my measurements, I used the same website Kerri used for this whole challenge. Check it out  HERE. I was planning to add before and after pictures, but that'll have to wait. 


Current weight 193 (size 14 as of June 26th) 
Goal 180 (this is a pretty lofty goal so any loss is great or at least a comfortable fit into a size 10/12). 
Weigh in days are Tuesdays


Bust: Too big, still nursing, nothing I can do about them
Chest: 35
Waist: 37
Hips: 42 1/2
Midway (my version): 41 big roll below the belly button, 40 right at the belly button and 38 1/2 at the roll above the belly button  I am about 8 month post delivery of my perfect baby girl and would love to lose the not so perfect post baby pudge/rolls
Thighs: 24 each
Knees:
L 15 3/4 R 16
Left calf: 15 1/4
Right calf: 15 1/2
Right upper arm: 12"
Left upper arm: 12"



Thankful Three

  1. For hot Sleepy Time Tea
  2. For a short 4 day week ahead
  3. For being able to put this all out there and not feel the tiniest bit embarrassed

4 comments:

abbi said...

Good luck with the challenge! I have a somewhat similar weight background. I was at my highest 6 months into my first post-college job. And, somewhere along there, I changed my ways of thinking and started exercising and eating right.

Christi said...

Good luck with your latest challenge! I think you will do great and I really look forward to hearing about it!

Kerrie said...

I loved reading your weight history. Sounds familiar. I think I put on about 50 pounds my first year in the real world.

Robyn said...

Good luck! So glad we're all in this challenge together. I still haven't done my measurements, eek.