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| A horse big enough for me! |
Snackers and I find ourselves in stadium seating quite often, usually for concerts etc. Usually I've become accustomed to my butt being just a smidge too wide for the narrow seats that they use in most stadiums here as they try to cram as many people in as possible so I've worked out a system of sliding into a seat horizontally and living with the pinching feeling of the seat's arm-rests on the tops of my hips. However, about half-way through the event yesterday I realized that I was sitting quite comfortably in stadium seats. No special way to ease in, no pinching.
It seems embarrassing now but it still feels like a victory none-the-less. As promised here are some horsey pictures from the weekend. Above is me with a bronze statue of Benny Binion, one of the early founders of Las Vegas and the man who brought equestrian events to the desert.
Above right: one of the horses in the event (we had awesome seats) as she awaits the results of the judging. We had her pegged as the winner in her class and I just couldn't take my eyes off of her but I guess we're not Arabian experts because, as it turns out, she didn't even place. She was easily one of the most beautiful horses I've ever seen in person, even if this isn't the best picture of her. Below is another random horse from the competition. They run these horses around a lot to show movement and speed so getting good pictures of any of them was surprisingly harder than you might think.Food:
7 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Healthy Choice lunch
2 panini sandwiches
1 serving pickles and pb
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,237
Activity: Nothing big. Went to softball, watched the games, cheered, came home and played with the new kitten. Today was my day off I suppose.
What a great victory--sitting in the stands!!! I love when they come totally unannounced. For me that is cooler than the ones I am anticipating and waiting for! Way to go!
ReplyDeleteOne thing H and I have observed is that whenever you work/exercise harder than normal and the next day you feel really sore like you did, you can expect little to no progress in terms of immediate weight-loss.
ReplyDeleteThe reason is that when you push yourself hard enough, you cause your muscle fibers to tear, water-loss that's stored inside of your muscles is depleted, and energy stored inside your muscles (glycogen) is also lost.
You would think, naturally, that all this "loss" would translate to a reduction in bodyweight -- and it does, long-term. But in the short-run (several days to a week, depending on how much you worked yourself) it doesn't. The reason is that your body is now kicked into working overtime pumping water back into your muscles, pumping the carbs and protein and fats you eat back into your muscles (converting it to glycogen), and repairing the torn muscle-fibers by creating new muscle-fibers. New fibers, although tiny in proportion, add weight (but keep in mind, they'll serve you in the future by burning more calories).
All of this activity results in several days or more of what can best be described as "water retention".
If you work out hard like that, follow it up with 2 solid but healthy meals 2 hours apart (the first one starting no more than 1 hour after your workout), and spend the next week doing very light but long exercise (like an hour's walk a day) coupled with eating very strict, you'll be likely to see a big drop in a week to 10 days.
But if you immediately follow it up every day or two with grueling workouts (or even just hard ones) you'll have a tendency to eat more (to keep your energy levels up) and you'll retain your water-weight much longer -- none of that is bad, it just means that the losses are going to be seen at a slower-rate even though you feel you are killing yourself.
At least that's been our experience.
uhhhhh what is the kittehs name and where are the PICTURES?????
ReplyDeleteIsn't it fun to suddenly realize something like, "hey I fit in this seat!!" Lots more of those moments to come for you. I get that 1.5 isn't what you were hoping for, but that is so good, and so much gooder, ( I couldn't resist) than 0 or up 1.5!! Significant steps in the right direction all add up.
ReplyDeleteA - I couldn't agree more. It's those little things about being fat that I've subconsciously accepted and then one day realize that I don't have to accept anymore that really bring it home. The numbers and the clothes are all wonderful but when I jogged for the first time, and when I stood on my feet for two hours without feeling like my bones were going to shatter, and when I actually ran up a flight of stairs ... those things are when you stop after the fact and think "HOLY CRAP! I'M AWESOME!" :)
ReplyDeleteBrandon: Everything you said makes absolute 100% perfect sense. In fact you've mentioned those before which is why, on thursday or friday of last week I told myself "I'm going to work out but take it easy so I won't have a bunch of swelling/water weight on monday morning" or something along those lines. But then Sunday was just too much fun to take it easy. BUT ... that said ... you're right that it's still a good thing in the long run it just makes progress ~seem~ slower because of the rebuilding. And I can't deny that having a day like Sunday where I am completely exhausted and almost falling over but didn't feel like I was "working-out" once the entire day ... those are AWESOME! I wish every day could be like that. We desk-jockeys sure make it hard on ourselves don't we? ;)
Swan: We named him late last night and his name and pictures will be revealed in tonight's post. Oooooh and he's a cutey patootey too!
Bren: You're right! 1.5 is groovy and I should stop being such a wet blanket. I was stoked about the 1.5 but you know how sometimes we set a bar for ourselves. I need to just stop doing that because things like that can cause frustration and a sense of hopelessness and I need to stay away from those feelings. I should go to the scale every week without expectations (other than expecting a loss of some measure) so that I can learn to be satisfied with success. I've always been my own absolute worst critic though. Sitting in the stadium seats made me realize another major milestone that I can look forward to. Snackers got me two pairs of high heels for my birthday last year but I can't stand to wear them for more than an hour so I never put them on to go anywhere because I'm too heavy. I can't wait for the day that I can wear heels out to dinner and maybe a show or something and not be limping back to the car half-way through the evening to change into flip-flops LOL