Going in with a Smile

This week I decided to not do a weight review. I honestly didn’t go to my Weight Watchers meeting last night either and I planned to not weigh myself this week. The main reason I am doing this is because of the horrible relationship I have with the scale, and I wanted to go into the wedding dress shopping with a smile. I tend to take the number and twist it in my head no matter what it says. If it says I lost, I give myself more justification to splurge a little. If it goes the other direction and shows a gain, I usually just beat myself up and swear to myself to do better the following week. This then leads into me feeling guilty about everything that goes in my mouth and it is just not a good thing. I am not breaking up with the scale permanently, I really do believe that keeping an eye on your weight is a good way to stay on track with your goals. This new scale might change my mind when I am not doing Weight Watchers

The Zero Scale.

I really like the concept of not seeing an actual number on the scale.

Non-Scale Victory!

I was at the gym last night and have a serious NSV; while I was looking at myself in the mirror doing body pump I noticed some muscle definition in my shoulders and arms. I tried to not stare at myself the whole time but hey when your sexy it’s hard 😉 Then as body pump went on I was doing side planks and saw what looked like the starting of a baby 4 pack in my upper abs. I was like whoa! Seriously?? When I went home I realized that it might have just been my angle and the way I was laying but hey I will take anything that looks like abs!

So now I am still beaming over the progress I saw from all my hard work the past few months. I could care less what the evil mean scale says anyways, I am going into wedding dress shopping with a smile 🙂

What are your thoughts on the scale?

I personally have always had a love hate relationship with it, as I said above. But I am not sure that I can truly give it up.

New Goals for November

Wow it is hard to believe that October is already over! Especially since I didn’t drink most of the month, I swear it was going to take forever hehe. November is upon us and I am ready  for to take on this month! before we talk to much about goals lets see my super cute Mad Men style Halloween outfit for Saturday’s party.

Aww didn’t I look totally Mad Men style? It took me forever to get my hair even that big, I learned from my researching that for the fabulous “Joan hair” they use false hair, I guess I can’t fake fake hair!

Now that you are all jealous of my first Halloween where I wasn’t super slutty, lets look at how this month went as far as my goals are concerned.

October Goals!

• lose 3-4 pounds– Well since I had that big drop at the beginning of the month I have been able to  keep it off! I was hoping to have a little more but I will take what I got. My final WI for this month is on Thursday so we will see what the scale says. I am hoping for the best, but this weekend was a little crazy with food.
  
• strength train 2 days a week with my running training– I have been doing body pump at my gym 1 time a week and also doing yoga 1 time a week pretty steadily so win!
  
• relax and enjoy life even if it means not losing weight that week– This goal is always something I seem to forget, but I did good this whole month weight wise, and relaxing is something I did without trying much because I was fighting the nasty cold Jason had (that counts right?).
  
• cook 1 dinner a week– Lets just say this happened. I have been cooking a lot more since I am meal planning more.
  
• Don’t worry about what happened yesterday, focus on today– this is something that I will forever have to work on. I stress so easily about everything! I am working on it lets just call it a WIP (work in Progress).
  

Overall I am really impressed with my results. I even had a few people tell me they can tell I am working hard on my fitness and food, and it is showing in my body. I feel really confident this week with my body and what it is capable of. Well since I kicked major ass on my October goals lets shoot for the stars in November.

November Goals

• Lose 2 pounds by December 1st
• Finish my  book (seriously!)
• Make sure to get 2 days of non running in a week (spin/yoga/body pump)
• Meal plan every week

I think these are very attainable goals. Since last month I pretty much completed all my goals with flying colors, I am going to keep on keeping on! This month is going to be nuts with training for the Half Marathon in Vegas and Visiting my sister in Oregon, but I am ready for the challenge. I also joined the Pile on the Miles challenge to help keep me in check. Now if only I could make my legs not ache I would be set! Oh well, At least I already did my run for the day.

My first Bikram Experience

There are two words that can describe my first experience with Bikram yoga, Life Changing. Now I may be jumping the gun just a little bit with this one but honestly I feel so refreshed and energized today after doing my first last last night and I feel like a changed woman.
Lets back up for a second and talk about my history with Yoga in general. I first fell in love with yoga back when I was going to Cabrillo, tho community college in Santa Cruz. It was one of my elective classes and I did it 2 times a week for 2 of those years. The first was in the gym, a huge basketball court above me with close to 100 students all getting their fix of Hatha Yoga. This was a good start and when my second year at Cabrillo came I signed up for a class that was downtown in the vets hall. It was kind of loud since it was right downtown but it was peaceful all the same. I had first started doing yoga because I had heard it was great for your back and I had a lot of back pain from various car accidents. When I moved back home to the SF bay I couldn’t find the time for yoga. I was commuting to school and the classes at SFSU were at bad times and it didn’t seem to work out. I had also just recently met my BF (now Fiance) and I was trying to spend as much time with him as I could. Lets not forget that for a poor starving(Not really I wish!) college student yoga studio’s are expensive.
Sorry where were we? Oh yes so I basically stopped doing yoga as much then not at all and found fitness in other places. If some of you are thinking, why Aly why can’t you do yoga at home? Yes, yes I could but I really love the feel of a community and doing classes. I can run on my own but doing Yoga just felt like I needed lots of people.
Back to last night, My running/fitness buddy asked if I was interested in trying Bikram yoga and buying a month unlimited to try out because there was a deal online. I quickly bought the deal because I have been meaning to try it and having someone else to endure the torture with me was just too good to pass up. After trying to plan for weeks we were set on going last night to the late class, starting at 8:15.
Now this class is 90 minutes, just like any traditional Bikram Yoga class, and did the basic 29 positions with breathing exercises. When I first went in I was worried because I do have issues with headaches and heat always seems to trigger it or make it worse. I was doing good for the first hour or so, granted I was sweating so profusely that when I did a forward bend a river of perspiration was flowing into my nose and mouth(super sexy right?), But I was feeling good. My body was warming up and the poses were good. When I hit the 60 minute mark and we did some back poses I could feel my head pounding and I just felt like I might pass out. I calmed down and drank some water and have now realized I need to make sure I eat enough and have some sort of electrolyte drink instead of just water during or before or after the class. I tried to lie down after the 90 minutes and all I wanted to do was get out of that hot room!
I went home and made sure to have a snack and lots of water. I was lying away in bed thinking what a rush and my body was still so warm. I finally fell asleep, probably some time around midnight, then when I woke up I felt amazing. I was able to get up easily and have felt energized all day. My neck is a little sore I think from being in awkward positions or not knowing what to do but all in all I feel soo good. I am definitely going back for more torture! Next time I will try to at least take a picture of the funny studio that is on top of a building.
New Bikram Addict in the making over here ❤