Starting Again

I realize it has been over a year since my last post. In that time I continued to lose weight, then gained weight, then lost weight. The typical cycle that we all struggle with. I also wore the dress and looked pretty damn good in it. The wedding was fabulous and I even managed not to fall down the aisle in the 4" wedges I wore. Great event, great dress (still have it and WILL wear again sometime), great friends and even better memories.

But I found myself creeping back up in the weight department. I did really well this past summer and dropped about 20 pounds with the help of some friends who participated in a 90 day weight loss challenge. It was great, we worked out, we tracked our food and once a week we got together for "family dinners" that were healthy and absolutely delicious. Then of course life gets busy and going to the gym and cooking dinner at home takes a back seat to the demands of work, family, socializing, and sleep.

So, here I am again getting back on track to losing weight. This time I am on this journey with my best friend, Bret. He and I are roommates, gym buddies, kitchen mates, and most importantly each other's cheerleader/motivator/ass-kicker. We have decided that we would both like to eat healthier, feel healthier and look healthier. My mad kitchen skills mixed with his mad gym skills are the perfect combination.

We were recently talking about documenting our journey and losses as a way to keep a journal and hold ourselves accountable. That conversation brought this blog back to life. I'll be covering Monday posts and Bret will cover Friday posts. Although I'm sure we'll have a few thrown in as we think of fun stuff to share.

To start things off, here are the numbers we are beginning with:
Bret
Weight: 230.2
Calf: 16"
Thigh: 24"
Hips: 46.25"
Waist: 42.25"
Chest: 42.5"
Arms: 15"

Becca
Weight: 304.6

Calf: 18"
Thigh: 35"
Hips: 58.5"
Waist: 55"
Chest: 18.5"
Arms: 16"

Watch as our numbers drop! More on Friday

Week 2

So this will be a light one. This past week's weather was really great for outdoor activity so Sarah and I took advantage of it. We walked for an hour and half twice last week and got to see new parts of the village. It was great, the walking was easy! Not because we were meandering, but because we were just chatting the whole time and enjoying the new scenery. But we were still a little out of breath because of the pace and the small hills we encountered along the way.

The first walk took us close to a nearby village and along part of the river that runs on the outskirts of my village. It was beautiful and now I know I should bring along my camera next time we go out. Our second walk had a duel purpose-one to exercise, but also to run some errands around the village (i.e. ATM and grocery shopping for that night's dinner). We took the long way down to the valley where our ATM is located then wound our way through one of the neighborhoods that neither she nor I had been in before. It was a whole new set of Moldovan's staring at the weird Americans and their heavy backpacks/bags.

I also did some of my cheesy and wonderful strengthening videos throughout the week, but not as often as I should have. They are easy to do so I really should be doing them everyday. But laziness gets the better of me especially when the weather is gloomy.

I knew the weekend would be a little bit of a set back to losing weight because a group of volunteers were in the capital city to celebrate my friend's birthday. But I made sure to do as much walking all over the city as possible and watch the portions when I was able to. Overall it was fairly successful for me, but I'm not gonna lie-I loved,enjoyed and ate every morsel of the yummy Pad Thai I had at her birthday dinner. And of course, there was a lot of beer consumed over the weekend. But it was a celebration and not my norm.

I still haven't started on the Couch to 5K. I endeavor to begin this week (as I have said each week since downloading the podcast haha).

While talking with my site mates we decided that the best way to measure our weight loss (and yes, I said "our" because they are joining me in exercising and losing weight) is to take our measurements. So in the next post I will let you all know where I am right now and will start using that as a measure of my weight loss once a month. I'll still weigh myself, but that's a little trickier for me since I don't always have access to a scale. Plus, with exercise comes muscle building and since muscles weigh more than fat, I don't want to rely solely on pounds as my measurement of loss.

That's it for week 2.