Week 3 Report: Rough week. Still moving forward.

Week 3 finished. Hard week at work, but staying strong.

Here's my attempt at "confident and happy face."

Stats:

Starting weight: 79.5 kg

Current weight: 75.5 kg

Week 3 lost: -0.5 kg

Total lost: -4 kg

Highlights:

Week 3 Summary: I'll keep this week's update pretty simple because I'm trying to keep my "extra work" to a minimum at the moment. I've been pulling lots of extra hours and taking on more responsibilities at my full-time job, and my coworker has been out due to illness. I am afraid I feel some cold symptoms coming on, so I'm playing it safe and taking a mellow, warm, indoor rest-day. My diet has been great this week, and I'm feeling overall energetic and healthy and steady. Even though my weight-loss on the scale was only 0.5 kg, I am very happy with the progress I'm making. I'm building up a bit of my muscle mass, so that's a very positive number, and I can see and feel the difference in my clothes and appearance. The BEST part of rebuilding a fitness lifestyle is that I FEEL so much better about myself and my abilities. I am starting to feel more like my ideal self: STRONG, CAPABLE, CONFIDENT, and WORTHY. It's easy to let my own needs and goals come last, but when I make it a point to take very good care of myself, I feel better and I can DO MORE in all areas of my life. The problem with selflessness is that we break down, and then we can't work at our fullest potential in any area of our lives. To offset the intensity at work, and try to stave off a probable cold virus, this weekend was all about naps and silly 1990's Kung Fu movies and light reading.

Thoughts: I'm focusing on building-up my CONFIDENCE and SELF-WORTH. Those words are easy to say, but it's so hard to really stand strong and know my own value. I believe strongly that the path to a truly meaningful and valuable life is through building HAPPINESS and DIGNITY for self and others. This comes through the difficult work of understanding ourselves and the REALITY of our lives, and working through the messy bits until we can create a LASTING PEACE. This is the opposite of being "weak" or "soft"; it's the exquisitely sensitive work of honoring our values and our vulnerabilities and not letting anything dismiss our damage us in the process of building ourselves STRONG. So often, I find myself pounding away at my work, ignoring my own stress or signals of physical or emotional pain. I can fight until I break, but I'm learning that being FIT is not about breaking myself. Being FIT is about BUILDING an UNBREAKABLE SPIRIT and a LIFE that supports our DREAMS and GOALS.  

"When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time."
Saint Francis de Sales

Stuff that was hard for me this week:

Work-Life Balance: Simply put, I WORK TOO MUCH! I need to find ways to balance my time, and maybe reduce my private clients. This is hard, because I LOVE MY CLIENTS! But I need to put my health in focus, and that means setting limits.

Healthy noms: lowfat stirfried veggies with tofu, and a snack with cucumbers and green olives.
I always make sure I have water and a bit of chewing gum around in case I need a fresh taste. Sometimes the drive to "munch" is just to have a different flavor or feeling in the mouth. 

Goals for next week:

• Workouts: cardio 3x medium-to-high intensity; daily long walks; strength 2x 
• Nutrition: packing foods for the day and using protein supplements (It's WORKING!)
• Work-Life Balance: reduce overtime at work ("Light and quick" work)
• Time/Routine: get at least 6 hours of sleep a night.
• Weight-loss goal for week 3: 1 kg

Visuals for the week:

Faking it at figure poses.

My beloved Bianchi! This beast and I have done thousands of kilometers of travel together. Waiting for the train for a light ride in the countryside.

Chilly summer weather. Rocking my home colors! (Go, Seahawks!)