End of Week 7: Holding Steady!

Strong and Steady!

My favorite swim top with my favorite lounging around pants.



Stats:

Starting Weight: 79.5 kg
Weight loss week 7: 75.9 kg
Total Weight Loss: -4.4 kg

Summary Week7:

It's been a very busy week, as usual. The weather has been mostly hot and summery, and work has been action-packed. I was able to change my work schedule so that I can start getting more sleep, but I have to start staying later one day a week to cover a gap left by a colleague who suddenly departed. My work schedule is still extreme, but I've been able to organize my time and my energy better. That translates to better sleep, more fitness time, and a more positive outlook. Plus, my sister's awesome husband was in town for work, and we got to spend a day visiting and playing tourist, which was totally uplifting. All in all, I'm feeling energized and optimistic, and looking forward to the next two weeks.

Feeling triumphant after jogging to the top of the hill to get a better view of the Olympic Park in Munich.

Highlights:

The boss finally understood my cries for more support and fewer hours, and we actually got a replacement part-time employee this week to take some of my duties. I started training her, and by Friday, she was already doing her whole job on her own without supervision. That left me with more time for my other core duties, and it was a great relief. Also, the boss told me to come in an hour and a half later in the mornings, which made more time for sleep, personal maintenance, and chores at home. On top of that, I was SOOOO happy to see family from home and have a day to just enjoy the beautiful summer and fascinating sights of our community here. I got in lots of time with the bicycle and walking, and one good weight training workout at the gym.

What was hard this week:

Emotional eating and mood management have been hard. I've been feeling very moody and anxious, and I've found myself eating more sweets and bread. I have a hard time with anger and frustration, and these emotions can easily trigger an emotional eating episode. I've found myself thinking negatively about my body and weight and sometimes engaging in negative self-talk.

Goals for week 8:

Plan and pack foods for the day.
3x cardio, 3x weights.
Daily walking and/or cycling.
Focus on good stress management and sleep management.
Have fun!

Visuals from week 7:

Healthy noms: organic whole wheat pasta with green beans, broccoli, bell pepper, and veggie protein meal. Made with extra cayenne and black pepper for a spicy kick.

This isn't the best lighting for showing muscle development in the back, but I'm pretty happy with the changes in my back muscles. The shape is starting to come together.

Start week 7: Current Stats and Modified Goal

Stats Update and Modified Goal for Weeks 7 - 10:

Keepin it real. This is hard, y'all!

Stats:

Starting weight: 79.5 kg

Current weight: 76.5 kg

Total lost: -3.0 kg

Initial goal: -10 kg in 10 weeks

*In order to respect my body's need for more rest and a more gentle pace, I have decided to modify my goal. This means that I have more time for much needed sleep, and more energy to meet the demands of a challenging time in my life. ...This is still a very ambitious and challenging goal, and it will still take a lot of work! But I feel very happy with this modified goal, and very confident that I can make it happen!

MODIFIED GOAL: -6 kg total in 10 weeks! That means 3 more kg in 3 more weeks!

Fun photos to kick off week 7:

It's funny to do these shameless selfie updates. ...I'm actually very self conscious about showing these pics, but they're to help illustrate and document my journey. No photo can truly show our state of health or wellness, nor can words truly speak to the complexity of our human journey to a more empowered life. But I am sharing my story and my photos in hopes that I can somehow help bring hope and encouragement to others.

See?! I've got some muscles and shape under there! A few fumbled weeks of training and crummy eating don't wreck the WHOLE FITNESS TRAIN! 

...still fighting the burnout...

End of Week 6: Not much progress, but I'm still here! 

"What's a blog? Can I chew on it or chase it around?"

Brief update:

I'm still here. Yes, I'm still trudging my way through the rough days of too much work, stress, conflicting priorities, personal issues. You know, modern life, really. But in an intense form. I'm over my head in so many ways, and I am frustrated that I can't just DO IT ALL and BE IT ALL all the time. But bear with me, I'm still fighting for my big comeback and strong finish, haha. (That's my specialty!)

Letting Go of "Perfect" and Asking for Help:

I'm trying to give myself permission to make mistakes, make messes, make noise, ask for help. It's amazingly hard to admit that I actually NEED HELP sometimes, and EVEN HARDER to actually ask for that help in an effective way. I am terrified to show my weaknesses, and even more terrified to lean on others... (What if I lean too hard and they decide I'm too much of a hassle? What if they really WANT to help, but they're not strong enough to catch me when I fall down? What if the only one who can ultimately help me is ME?)

Doggie says he'll help me to relax and unwind more. He knows that the key to stress management is lots of play and naps and quality time with his family and friends.

Learning to ask for and get help when we need it is an ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILL that I am not so good at. I find it embarrassing and awkward to ask others for support. I am always glad to give help to others, to listen when they're sad or stressed or emotionally vulnerable. But when it comes to me, I HATE feeling like a big black hole. I HATE that I need to ask for help from other people.

But this is the real trick: the most successful people in the world didn't get to the top of their game ALONE! They did it by creating and nurturing incredible networks of brilliant helpers and problem solvers. If I want to WIN at anything in life, I need to build the lifestyle that makes winning a natural outcome of my daily practices... That means, BUILD A TEAM to support my goals in life. This includes fitness goals, as well as all other areas of my life.

A true friend is a treasure indeed! <3

Goals for week 7:

• Make gym time a priority.
• Delegate and/or delay other tasks/projects.
• Reduce the number of choices I have to make in the day.
• Take very good care of my emotions and my body.

Back to WORK! (End of Week 5)

OK: Brief check-in after an unplanned PAUSE in my fitness challenge. 

Girl, you'd better WORK!

SICK:

...I was sick for about a week with a cold, and even though the cold symptoms are gone, I'm still feeling run-down two weeks later. I've been hitting BURNOUT, so I made the smart choice to back off of my strenuous physical activity and just take it very easy for as long as it takes to get back to feeling healthy and energetic.

BURNOUT:

I'm feeling MUCH BETTER after a little two week pause in the program. I am starting to feel a little more motivated to workout and I'm not feeling so grumpy and moody. BURNOUT is when our bodies are trying to tell our minds that it's time to STOP. Too much work, too much stress, too much activity, too much wear-and-tear on the body, too much emotional stress-- it all adds up, and the body starts to give us some pretty serious signals that it needs a little more TLC and rest to handle these demands.

RECOVERY:

For me, that means backing off of the cardio and weights and switching to long, slow, mellow activities (relaxing bike rides and walks in the park). It also means relaxing my diet (ie, eating what I FEEL like for a few days, even if it means that my weight will go up on the scale... It's about RECOVERY and BALANCE, not about restriction at this point.) I am trying to focus on understanding my moods and signals better, giving myself permission to FEEL the FEELINGS, FOLLOW my IMPULSES, EXPRESS my EMOTIONS, and HAVE A LITTLE FUN.

WEIGHT GAIN? (NO PROB):

...Naturally, I'm anxious about the scale (ugh, always that darned scale), and I am quite certain that the weight loss part of my fitness goal has taken a big leap in the wrong direction. But I'm less concerned about the numbers than about my HEALTH, HAPPINESS, and WELL-BEING. Sometimes weight goes up and sometimes it goes down and sometimes it isn't a good indicator of our health and balance as a person. 

Kisses! Hang in there, it's gonna get better!

MOVING FORWARD:

Goals for weeks 6-10: 

• Get back to "blue cooler bag" eating (ie, pack meals for the day, and if it's not in the bag, don't eat it).
• Daily fitness activity: put my stress and difficult emotions into ACTION and don't just let stress build up or turn into mindless eating.
• Weight loss goal: focus on 0.5 to 1 kg per week (SLOW IT DOWN, GET IT RIGHT!)
• FOCUS = HEALTHY and HAPPY and FIT!