Day 32

I am on Day 32 of my 100 days of exercise goal. 32 days straight of exercising for at least 30 minutes a day. I think that's damn good, if I say so myself. I am doing a variety of exercises at the moment and I think I may even be a bit addicted to it. For instance, today I went for a bike ride (nearly 9.5 miles) and then completed a work-out DVD later. Yesterday I did a workout DVD, of strength training, in the morning and 3.5 miles on the treadmill at an incline in the evening. The day before that I did 45 minutes of weight lifting and an hour of walking/jogging on the treadmill at gym. Crazy, huh? But, I seem to really enjoy exercising at the moment. I love how I can move my body rather easily. One day hubby and I walked with the kids to the park and I jumped on the monkey bars. He was like "no way you can swing all the way across" but I did! It was hard and it felt awkward and my arms felt like they were going to fall off, but I did make it across. Only, it bugged me that my back didn't feel strong enough and that my abs were still a bit too weak. I felt like I was only able to control my body a little bit, nothing like when I was a kid. I know that all things get more difficult as we get older, but I decided that I wanted to get into good enough shape that I could easily swing across the monkey bars. It has definitely spurred me on with the strength training. Anyway, it totally helps to have a gym buddy too.

Plateau? Or What?

It's been a while since I've blogged! But, not because I've been off the wagon. In fact, I've been doing really well, with both eating and exercising. I still eat more than I'd like some days, but I'm usually a good 250 to 500 below what I've burned. And I'm exercising every day, without fail, for between 30 and 120 minutes. Some days I'm burning 500 to 600 calories. I've been strength training too. And walking/jogging at least 20 miles a week. So, I've been doing crazy well.

So, what's the problem? Well...I've hardly lost any weight! I'm down a pound in the last few weeks. I should easily have lost 3 to 6 pounds. I should be below 140! But, I'm just floating along, not really seeing any weight changes. My clothes aren't looser. I feel like I'm running in place, faster and faster, and getting no where.

So, I know it's only been a few weeks. And I know that I should be building muscle. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm not tracking my calories correctly. Maybe I'm burning a lot less calories than I think.

I really don't know.

So, I've decided NOT to jump on the scale for the next two weeks. The scales are put up in the laundry room out of reach. I also bought a tape measure. I'm going to measure myself and then not weigh myself or check my measurements again for two weeks. And keep my calories down, but not too far down. And keep exercising. And I SHOULD see results. If not, I'm going to the doctor! :)