The 160s Club

I've officially been a member of the 160's club for almost a week now. I saw the scale drop to 169.4 lbs last Friday and it's down to 168.8 lbs as of today. I honestly don't remember EVER seeing a 160's number on the scale before. And according to my mom, I now weigh what I did when I started high school. I was 14 and not even full height yet!!! I was also wearing a size 14 and now I'm a 12 and shrinking.

It's a pretty nice club to be a member of. The confidence that comes with membership has been the biggest improvement. I feel so much better about how I look, I never see myself in the mirror and think "ugh, I'm still overweight" or "look how huge my thighs still are" but I think "hey, I've come SUCH a long way and I look awesome". Having a positive attitude makes such a huge difference. At my friend's party on Friday night, I wasn't afraid at all to flirt with or talk to whoever I wanted, and I wasn't thinking in the back of my head if I looked good or not. I KNEW I looked good. I feel like all this contributes to my lack of a boyfriend in college. I just never had the guts to go for it with anyone. If a guy made the first move I was ok, but I'm sick of playing second fiddle. If I want to make a move, I'm going for it. Worst that can happens is that they're not interested and I move on. 

I'm looking forward to being in the 150's club by the end of the summer (Labor Day is my goal to hit 160), and wearing a size 10. I already have one pair of jeans in a 10 but they were a bit snug when I bought them. That was 4th of July though, I should give them a try now. I've been doing Chalean Extreme for a week now as well, so I'm really hoping that it helps with getting to my next goal. I'm starting to think that 140 might not be my stopping point. It's my goal right now, and puts me at a healthy BMI, but maybe I can do more. I want to see what my doctor thinks when I go in August (and shock the scrubs off them with 50 pounds lost by then). Until then, 140 it is and I'm completely thrilled with every pound I lose on the way.

Things I Didn't Do 30 Pounds Ago

 I've been thinking of how different things are than they were 30 pounds (or 45 pounds) ago and it's amazing how many changes there are! Mental, appearance, fitness, everything is different! My best guy friend saw me for the first time since Memorial Day last night and he was AMAZED how different I look from just losing 10 more pounds. So I've come up with a list of things I didn't or couldn't do 30 pounds ago (45 if I'm counting all the way from the beginning of this in August 2009) that I can do now that I'm 169.4 lbs.

• Run a mile on the treadmill without stopping (heck, running on the treadmill at ALL is a huge accomplishment compared to old me)
• Do an hour long Zumba class without getting winded or tired
• Walk up 2 flights of stairs without being out of breath at the top
• Fit into size 10 jeans! (they're still a bit snug)
• Fit into size 12 clothes! My current size and I've never worn less than a 14 before
• Wear size small and medium tops
• WEAR A BIKINI! That is probably one of the most exciting things. I'm not afraid to go to the pool in it, even though I still have more weight to lose
• Do the entire 30 Day Shred workout without stopping or wanting to throw up... I tried to do it back when I weighed 215 pounds and I couldn't even finish and I was STILL sore!
• Buy clothes in pretty much any store that I want
• Wear tight tops and jeans without looking horrible
• Wear mini skirts
• Go up to a guy at a bar and talk to him with confidence instead of being too shy to even say hello
• Have my little sister pick me up (she's strong, but she wasn't strong enough before I lost weight)
• Walk around at the pool in a swimsuit and not constantly think that people are staring at me (for bad reasons). I'm fine with them staring because I'm hot :P
• Actually consider myself hot... haha
• Walk down the ice cream aisle in Safeway and only get low fat froyo or skinny cow ice cream
• Order something healthy off a restaurant menu instead of giving into temptation to order the cream-covered, calorie filled, fried option
• Drink responsibly and stick to rum and diet cokes 90% of the time
• Dance on a dancefloor at the bar without being self-conscious
• Feel comfortable in my own skin!!!!

That's a really long list.. and I'm sure there are tons more that I'm not thinking of. Feel free to share your own "Things I Couldn't Do Before I Lost X Pounds"! Seeing other success is motivation to continue with my own. My next step is another 30 pounds to be a healthy weight for the first time ever, and to run 5k.

Some Musings On The Opposite Sex

As much as I hate to admit it, there is one major reason that is driving why I want to be healthier and lose weight. Guys. I can tell myself all I want that their opinion doesn't matter, I don't need their acceptance, and I don't care what guys think of me or if they're attracted to me. But I do!! I honestly do, and I think every girl does to some degree.

Before you think I'm shallow or something, I really did start this journey because I wasn't happy with myself, for many many reasons, and that I was out of excuses for why I was the way I was. I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin, and I think that negativity projected to my luck with guys. I have plenty of guy friends, I'm a girl in engineering so it's inevitable. However, most of those guys friends aren't friends by my choice. Yes, I was attracted to them, and no, they weren't into me, at least not enough to date me outright (friends with benefits is a whole other story... one that I'm not going to bore you all with). I had one guy tell me I'm a better friend that girlfriend, another said he'll hook up with me but wasn't interesting in dating. It takes a toll on the self esteem. I'm not saying I didn't have any luck, just none with finding someone to date. 

So now fast forward to today, one of my guy friends is super excited for me, can't wait to see me to see how much smaller I've gotten since the last time we saw each other, and is really encouraging. He's a great wingman... haha. Then there's the other friend. Who has once again started hitting on me, and I know the fact that I'm smaller has a big role in that. Now THAT is shallow... haha. But this weekend I realized that my own confidence has to come first, no matter what a guy thinks. I talked to guys at the bar on Friday and Saturday night, no problem. I was confident, I was joking around, I wasn't afraid to tell them I'm an engineer (yes, that scares off guys pretty fast sometimes). And I was confident dancing (thanks Zumba) and had success there. So losing weight has really helped my confidence, and it hasn't hurt that guys have noticed and paid more attention to me. I'm hoping to find the right guy somewhere, DC bars are a decent place to start, but fixing me first has been the major step towards that.

So the moral of the story, yes guys go for the skinnier girls, but they also like the confident ones. So even if I'm not the smallest girl at the bar, as long as I look and feel good, I'm going for it! Next time, I want a phone number... haha. Baby steps...

Chalean Extreme: My Next Adventure!

I've done the 30 Day Shred, will very nice results so far (lost about 10 pounds over the 6 weeks I did it regularly and several inches total) but now I'm bored. I've been reading a lot of different options from everyone's suggestions and I think I've settled on starting Chalean Extreme on Monday. I definitely need to add some weight training and if muscle burns fat, that'll help get rid of the 30 pounds I have to go.

I've done the weight training with the Shred, but I've never just done weight training alone before. I'm thinking that I'll see what calorie burn I end up with on the weight training days of the schedule, and if I want to work in some cardio I'll use my EA sports active or something for 15 minutes to get the heart rate up. And I'm still going to keep up with going to the gym twice a week to run intervals and use the bike and elliptical (so that's lots of cardio). It definitely seems that the way to losing more weight is to built up muscle, so I guess I'll start there. I'd rather end up a really toned 140-145 lbs than a flabby 130. My little sister is 130, same height as me, and looks amazing! from all the muscle she has.

Anyway, I'll be starting Monday and it's gonna be an adventure. I'm gonna adjust the schedule a bit to shift the rest days to Tues and Thurs instead of Sun and Tues, that way I maintain my gym schedule. Hopefully I can handle what Chalean throws at me, I skimmed the workouts last night and it'll be a challenge, but I'm willing to give it a try. I'll have to retake measurements and a few pictures on Monday so I have a starting point to compare to at the end.

In other news, I'm 1.4 lbs away from my first major goal of losing 30 pounds and officially being out of the obese category and into the overweight category! I can't wait to see the day when the scale says 169. I was talking to my mom and when I started high school I was almost 170... good lordy! And I definitely didn't workout so I'm sure I look a lot better now than I did then. Crazy how much I can change things in just a few months, I've reversed YEARS of not taking care of my body. It's great to finally have it back again and feel confident about it. I'm going out to the bars in DC tonight with my high school best friends, first time I've really gone out in over a month. I'll be test driving some hot new clothes and a skinnier me. Let's hope I end up with at least one phone number by the end of the weekend... lol.

I'm Shrinking!

My shopping trips in the past few weeks have been more awesome than usually, it seems I've dropped another size and then some. I've been wearing size 14 pants and size L or XL shirts. But  I tried on size 12 Gap jeans yesterday and they fit! And I bought a size 12 skirt from Old Navy and J.Crew! I finally got some new tank tops from the Gap, they're fitted so I got two in XL and two in L, but I was wearing an XXL before. And the craziest thing was that I got a size SMALL top in Michael Kors! It was a bit of a flowy top, but the size small looked good. And even crazier, I got size 10 jeans from Tommy Hilfiger!!! SIZE 10!!!! I've never even worn a 12 before, so when the size 10 fit, I nearly died.  They're a bit snug, but they'll fit great in a few weeks  The bikini was super exciting, but all these smaller clothes are just as awesome. I had a fun shopping trip at the outlet mall. I just need to slow my spending on clothes a bit, my monthly budget is half gone already... lol. But for $150, I ended up with 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of denim shorts, 4 Gap tank tops, 1 skirts from J.Crew, 1 top from J.Crew, and 1 top from Michael Kors. I'm happy :)