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Another good couple of weeks...

I was out of town the Friday before last through Monday, so this was the soonest that I could do another body composition. It has been a crazy last couple of weeks. I flew back to California for a short visit. One of my friends was getting married, and I was one of the bridesmaids. The ceremony was great. She had some beautiful colors and decorations. All of the bridesmaids wore kimonos, which were beautiful, however, it was an outdoor wedding. The high for that day was 105, so we were burning up. =) You all should be very proud of me...I passed on the wedding cake, which was very hard. I also was able to sneak in a jog while I was in town. My parents have this great jogging/biking trail near their place. Here's a snapshot of me in my kimono, from the wedding ceremony.

I loved how my hair was done up for the wedding...

And I know it can be silly in Japanese culture to wear ohashi (chopsticks) in one's hair, but I couldn't pass on these...it looked so cute. =) This photo was taken later in the evening, so I think between the heat and sweating, it got a little messy.

Walking down the isle...

The bride and her father...Bekah is one of my closest friends. We've been close since junior high. She and her fiance (now hubby) had been dating for 7 years. So it's about time!

Oh, and I guess I should post my stats for the week too =)

Saturday: 10/03 /09
Weight: 164.9 (down 6 lbs. WOOHOO!)
Body Fat: 30.38% (down 1.04%)
Fat weight: 50.10 lbs (down 3.59)
LBM: 114.8 lbs (down 2.41)
Chest: 11.5 mm (down 1.5 mm)
Midaxilla (below armpit): 18 mm (down 2 mm)
Abdomen: 34.5 mm (down 1.5 mm)
Suprailiac (diag. fold abv. hip bone): 25 mm (down 2 mm)
Thigh: 42 mm (same)
Subscapular (below shoulder blade): 18 mm (same)
Tricep: 19 mm (down 1 mm)

All in all, I had another good week. I did notice that I lost a little more lean body mass this week. Although, I did hear that is normal to lose a little bit of muscle mass on any fat loss program. So I'm still keeping an eye on things. If my lean body mass losses start to exceed my body fat losses, then I will go ahead and increase my calories.
It's nice to have my clothes start fitting a little more loose.

Had a great week!

This past week was great. My workouts were good and I had some results with the body composition this week.
I did my body composition last week and had the following stats:

Saturday: 9/12 /09
Weight: 174.4
Body Fat: 31.92% (EEK!)
LBM: 118.72 lbs
Chest: 12 mm
Midaxilla (below armpit): 19 mm
Abdomen: 35 mm
Suprailiac (diag. fold abv. hip bone): 28.5 mm
Thigh: 42.5 mm
Subscapular (below shoulder blade): 20.5 mm
Tricep: 22.5 mm

Today, I did my stats again:

Saturday: 9/19 /09
Weight: 170.9 (down 3.5 lbs. WOOHOO!)
Body Fat: 31.42% (down .5%)
LBM: 117.21 lbs
Chest: 13 mm
Midaxilla (below armpit): 20 mm
Abdomen: 36 mm
Suprailiac (diag. fold abv. hip bone): 27 mm (down 1.5 mm)
Thigh: 42 mm (down .5 mm)
Subscapular (below shoulder blade): 18 mm (down 2.5mm)
Tricep: 20 mm (down 2.5 mm)

I might be retaining a little bit of water, because a couple of the pinches were higher this week...or there could have been some slight error on the caliper reading...I don't know. However, overall I'm pretty pleased with the results. I did notice that my LBM dropped by 1.06 lbs. I'm not going to worry too much about that at this point. My primary goal right now is to lose body fat, so I may lose a tiny bit of my muscle mass (which I plan to put back on). Another reason could be that it was my dreadful TOM during the 9/12/09 measurement and some of that could have been water weight. If my LBM continues to drop I will go ahead and increase my calories.

Today was a pretty good day. I took advantage of the cooler weather and took the workout outdoors. I had a nice jog. Every once in a while I just need to get outside for a workout. =)

I hope you all have had a great week. Thank you once again for all of the words of encouragement. It really helped keep me motivated this week.

The Last Straw

Well, I'm finally back and blogging again. It's safe to say that I've kind of let myself go. It's been a vicious cycle with missing workout days, not logging my meals consistently, and overall just feeling really down in the dumps. I think I've reached the point where I just need to say enough is enough. It's time to get back into a consistent routine.

I'm weighing in these days at 173...which is a HUGE difference from my last post. The most frustrating part was when my husband and I had to go buy me more clothes for work, because I only fit into 1 pair of my work pants. I had all summer off from teaching to fall into bad habits.

So now, I'm trying to find them motivation to start again.

My goals for the rest of this week are as follows:

1. Go to the gym or workout the remainder of this week (Wednesday through Saturday), with Sunday off.
2. I'd also like to do a body composition on Saturday to get my starting stats. I've been putting this part off for the last couple weeks, because I've been afraid to see the numbers.
3. Log all of my meals.

So, I'm beginning again. Wish me luck.

Week 2 Body Composition

Well, not really huge progress this week. I lost .5mm on both my chest and my tricep area. This could be one of two things: a tiny increase in lean body mass, or it could be my water weight fluctuating.

Saturday: 2/7/09
Weight: 154.6
Body Fat: 24.71% (lost .06%)
LBM: 116.41 lbs (gained .12 lbs lbm)
Chest: 8.5 mm (lost .5mm)
Midaxilla (below armpit): 12 mm
Abdomen: 24.5 mm
Suprailiac (diag. fold abv. hip bone): 19.5 mm (gained .5mm)
Thigh: 30 mm
Subscapular (below shoulder blade): 14.5 mm
Tricep: 18.5 mm (lost .5mm)

I missed a couple days at the gym last week. One was because of a staff development meeting and the other was because I had to take my cats to the vet on Friday. To top it off, my husband and I went to dinner on Saturday and I had a couple drinks (alcohol)...which were definitely not on my diet. I definitely need to be a little more strict with things this week.

So my goals for this week are as follows:

1. Drink more water
2. Sneak in a Saturday AM workout session
3. Tighten up the reighns a bit more on Saturday (one healthy cheat meal; i.e. pita pizza with turkey pepperoni)
4. Have a more substantial decrease in body fat.

Week 1: Just Checking In...

So, I figured it was time to do my body composition again. It's been a while since I've done it and to be honest, I was avoiding it like the plague. I knew that I had put on some weight during the holiday season and I just couldn't drag myself to do the pinches. I knew that if I did, then I would see the numbers and it would be true...I had gained.
And now I'm officially over it and ready to start a new challenge. I'm using my little sisters wedding, which is coming up in about 7 weeks, to help keep me motivated and get back on track.
Here are my starting stats from Saturday:

Weight: 154.6
Body Fat: 24.78%
LBM: 116.29 lbs
Chest: 9 mm
Midaxilla (below armpit): 12 mm
Abdomen: 24.5 mm
Suprailiac (diag. fold abv. hip bone): 19 mm
Thigh: 30 mm
Subscapular (below shoulder blade): 14.5 mm
Tricep: 19 mm

This week I'll be doing chest/back with 25 mins HIIT (Mon.), 45 mins cardio (Tues.), hams/glutes/calves with 25 mins HIIT (Wed.), 45 mins cardio (Thurs.), biceps/triceps with 35 mins HIIT (Fri.), 45 mins cardio (Sat.), and REST (Sun.).

I'll be following meal plan #1. After my body comp next weekend, I'll have a better idea of whether or not anything with my meal plan needs to be changed.

Week 3: Body Composition

I'm posting my body comp a little late. We lost power when Ike hit and power was just finally restored; it was out for a week. Our place weathered the storm fine and everyone was safe. The morning of Ike, I had my husband help me with my body composition. I just wrote all my pinches and measurements on a scrap piece of paper. Here's my body comp from 9/12/08:

Weight: 144.8 (lost 6.6 pounds)
Body Fat: 21.43%
LBM: 113.77 lbs
Chest: 7 mm
Midaxilla (below armpit): 9.0 mm (lost 1.5mm)
Abdomen: 22 mm (same)
Suprailiac (diag. fold abv. hip bone): 16 mm (lost 2mm)
Thigh: 27 mm (gained .5mm)
Subscapular (below shoulder blade): 12.5 mm (lost 1mm)
Tricep: 13 mm (lost 3mm)

A lot of the weight that I lost was probably water weight. So I'm not sure if I actually lost muscle mass or if it was just water retention. So, I'll be continuing the same meal plan through this next week. If I still am losing muscle mass then I will either increase my calories or decrease the amount of cardio that I am doing.

I don't have any data for this week (week 4). The diet was pretty lousy with not having power. My husband and I were limited on what we could eat that was healthy until some of the grocery stores opened back up. I'm looking forwarding to starting up my meal plan again and cleaning the diet back up.