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.04.17.08.

weight: 129.2 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 28.5%

workout:
kickball

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.16.08.

no good

i knew on monday that i had done something to my knee. tuesday morning i was somewhat sore for most of the day. as of this morning (wednesday) i am limping around and my left knee is visibly swollen. not sure what i'm going to do about the game tomorrow except take some aleve, wear my knee brace, and suck it up.

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

weight: 128.4 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 28.5%

workout:
eliptical - 15 min
full body - 45 min
treadmill - 15 min

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.15.08.

weight: 130.4 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 28.5%

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.14.08.

harsh reality

this weekend i got a body composition test done at the gym, using their equipment. they have the handheld model that i have been looking at getting and according to those results, i am at around 24% body fat right now, which is the very edge of normal. that was my first goal. so everything from here out is gravy.

unfortunately, we did some math and found that i really only have another 5 or 6 lbs of fat to lose. being at just 130 right now, and considering that i'm likely to put on more muscle mass on my way to losing the fat, it looks like i don't really have a shot of losing much more weight than i have already. 130 may be it for me. i was hoping to reach 120 but in order to do that, i'm going to have to lose muscle mass.

it's somewhat disheartening news, but also good news. i'm glad to know that i'm moving in the right direction, and making significant progress. it also confirms my desire to get one of those handheld body fat testers.

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

weight: 130.4 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 28%

workout:
cross-trainer - 15 min
lower body - 30 min
treadmill - 30 min

weight: 132 lbs (6:30 pm)
body fat: 24%

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.12.08.

weight: 130.6 lbs (9 am)
body fat: 27.5%

re-tested at gym
weight: 132 lbs
body fat: 24.5%

workout:
eliptical - 45 min

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.11.08.

weight: 129.6 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 29% :(

workout:
cross-trainer - 20 min
upper body - 20 min
treadmill - 20 min

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.10.08.

breakthrough

this morning the scale read 129.8 lbs.

it's exciting, for sure. but since it's so close to 130 (it took the scale a couple seconds to decide whether it wanted to say 129.8 or 130) i'll still say i'm at 130 lbs. it's just good to know that i'm THAT close. half a pound more and i could have claimed 129. hopefully by the end of next week i'll be there.

but more than that, my body fat was at 28%.

i know i've been putting on muscle, so i don't expect the weight to go down too rapidly. but the body fat has been hovering between 28.5% and 29% for the last few weeks. granted the fat reads higher in the morning because it relies on water in the body to get an accurate reading and you get dehydrated over night. but still. my morning reading there should be around 25% or 26%, which will put my "real" body fat at around 21% which is right where i should be.

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

weight: 129.8 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 28%

workout:
kickball

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.09.08.

weight: 131.4 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 29%

workout:
eliptical - 15 min
full body - 45 min
treadmill - 20 min

weight: 130.8 lbs (8 pm)
body fat: 25%

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.08.08.

misinformation

on about half of the weight machines at my gym, the weights are not actually marked with their weight increments. instead, every other weight is marked with an even number (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.) essentially just telling you how many weights you're lifting, not the number of pounds.

i have asked a couple trainers what it meant, and how many pounds each was worth, and i couldn't get a straight answer. the general consensus is that they assumed each one was worth 10 lbs, but they weren't totally certain. unfortunately not all machines use the same size weight, so i'm really starting to think that while some may be 10 lbs each, some others may be 15 lbs each.

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

weight: 130.8 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 29%

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.07.08.

weight: 131.4 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 29.5%

workout:
cross-trainer - 10 min
lower body - 30 min
treadmill - 30 min

weight: 132 lbs (8 pm)
body fat: 25%

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

you will suffer

saturday morning i went to the gym first thing in the morning. then i went clothes shopping. i didn't eat anything until nearly 1 in the afternoon, at which point it was cheese, crackers, and pizza rolls. right there i got more than my entire day's worth of fat, and almost my entire allotment of calories. but then we had dinner at bryan's dad's house and i had 1/4 of a rotisserie chicken, including skin, fat and all (omg it was so good), plus homemade mashed potatoes (with the skins! yum!), green beans and rolls. i had a couple gallons of water, but i knew even that wouldn't make up for it.

sunday i started the day off with pancakes and bacon. that right there should have been enough to tide me over for the day, but a few hours later we hit up starbucks where i got a caramel spiced apple cider. then we headed over to a local restaurant where i had a double cheeseburger and entirely too many french fries. i chugged as much water as i could, but by 7 pm i was hungry again. i had an apple to tide me over, knowing that i really didn't need to eat any more, but had to have something to keep my metabolism up.

by the time i went to bed last night i was dreading this morning's weigh-in. i was expecting to have put on about 5 lbs, and be completely swollen from retaining water after all the salt i had eaten.

and yet, this morning i was only a pound and a half heavier than when i got up friday morning (only .2 of a pound heavier than saturday morning), and in fact a little on the dehydrated side, with my water at only 49% (i should be near 55%, though most mornings i'm only at 50%).

i still plan to work extra hard at the gym tonight to make up for the damage i did over the weekend, but it looks like i won't have to be quite as hard on myself as i was expecting. yay for metabolism...

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.05.08.

weight: 131.2 lbs (8 am)
body fat: 28.5%

workout:
eliptical - 20 min
treadmill - 20 min

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.04.08.

curious changes

i've been doing my best to eat healthy lately. lots of dairy, fresh fruits, whole grains, and water. when i went grocery shopping last week i found a cheddar cheese flavored cup 'o' noodles. it looked interesting so i got one and had it for lunch today.

my body is now in revolt for having force fed it such high sodium junk food. i fully expect to be sick for the remainder of the afternoon.

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

seeing results

as of this morning i am about 1/4" away from being able to say i have a 26" waist. i'm just a hair over 26.5". i could tug on the tape measure and lie, or suck it in and pretend, but really if i can reasonably get to just under that half inch mark, i can claim i have a 26" waist. same with my butt. i'm almost down to where i can claim it's at 39". hips haven't gone down from 35", and thighs are still at 23", but i'm starting to see results in places.

also, today is the third day in a row that the scale has read 130 lbs. in racing if you make a record time, they make you repeat it to prove it wasn't a fluke. since i seem to be holding steady at that weight, i feel pretty safe in saying that i now weigh 130 lbs. hopefully in the next week or so, i'll break in to the 120's. that would be pretty exciting. i'll try to get a picture of the scale when it happens.

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

weight: 130 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 29%

workout:
cross-trainer - 10 min
upper body - 20 min

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.03.08.

do it right

i did a bit of research today, and found that while i'm testing at the right time of day, i'm not necessarily testing the right way.

the problem is that the more water you have in your body, the lower your body fat will read, and vice versa. the body tends to get dehydrated overnight, so there's less water in the morning, causing the fat to read high. the same is the reason the fat reads lower in the afternoon: because the body is better hydrated.

one site suggested that i still get a reading in the morning, but after having a glass of water. so i'm thinking maybe i'll get a little handheld tester that i can keep at my desk, and get the reading first thing when i get to work. at that point i still will not have eaten, but my metabolism will have kicked in, and it will give me a chance to drink some water and get it into my system.

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

weight: 130.6 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 29%

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.02.08.

weight: 130.4 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 28.5%

workout:
full body - 40 min
treadmill - 10 min

weight: 131.2 lbs (8 pm)
body fat: 25%

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

.04.01.08.

i don't know anymore

i know i'm supposed to use the scale at the same time every day, under the same conditions, meaning that first thing in the morning is ideal. but every morning i weigh myself and over two months now i have seen no real progress.

and yet, if i weigh myself in the afternoons, it's telling me i'm up to 5% less body fat than it said when i got up that morning. yesterday i got up and it said 28.5% body fat, but when i weighed again after my workout, it said 23.5% body fat. that's a huge difference!

bryan says he's seen a change already. he says he can tell i've lost fat, especially in my legs, and he's starting to see more muscle definition. i think my abs look a little better, but we never took "Before" pictures so i have nothing to compare to.

guess i'll just keep doing what i'm doing and hope some day there's a measurable difference.

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at  

weight: 132.0 lbs (7 am)
body fat: 29.5%

weight: 131.8 lbs (9 pm)
body fat: 24.5%

Posted by Miss Shigatsu at