Day Eighty, and dusting off my goals.

Hi everyone.

I was all set to write last night, but Steve had this monster homework stuff he had to do, and I had to shudder through another night without technology.  Whew, that withdrawal is a bitch!  I have my BFL journal here beside me, and I haven't peeked yet or anything, but I'm going to share with you what my goals were for this twelve-week segment of weight removal. 

Ooooh, I'm a little nervous...what the heck did I write (thumbing through pages)....

Goal #1:  I will lose 15 pounds of fat!

Yay, I actually have accomplished this one, so far, that is.  As long as I stay on my game with eating, then I will be happy to say this has occurred for me.  I realized that, even though I may exercise and lift weights and run and be active, the weight doesn't budge unless I am mindful of what I put in my mouth.  A bummer, but true.

Goal #2:  I will gain 5 pounds of muscle!

Um, I don't know about you guys, but how the heck do you know when you've gained muscle?  Seriously, there is no BMI or anything for this.  I will make an educated guess that this goal has been met, though, since I can do so much more now that I used to be able to.  I have very slight muscle definition on my arms and my legs actually look pretty decent, versus before this twelve-week segment when I had the muscle definition of Gumby.

Well...aside from the bellbottom cankles thing, I wouldn't mind having that guy's waist.  Anyhooo....

Goal #3:  I will be able to do 20 pushups in a row!

Uh.  Um.  Ok.  I am not going to drop onto the carpet right this second and try this.  I will try it this week for my Upper Body workout, though, and let you know what happens.  I am wishing that I had put myself down for the girly modified pushups, though.  Think I can make a little wiggle room on the type of pushup I can do?

Goal #4:  I will increase my body strength by 10%!

Boy, do I have a problem with excessive exclamation point use or what!  Seriously!  So, let me thumb back to my first weights workout....

For chest exercises, my heaviest weights I could use were 7.5 pounders.  For shoulders, 7.5 pounds and it was too heavy (I still remember the burn).  Back was 10 pounds, and triceps were 10 pounds, as were the biceps.  Lately I work out with 15 pound weights for the biceps.  I can do twelve bench dips easily for my triceps workout (and I'm pretty sure I weight more than 10 pounds).  My back I can rock with 20 pound weights, and my shoulders are in the 12-15 pound range.  So, on average, my ability to lift increased by a fair bit.  I can lift about double what I used to be able to lift.  My lower body has definitely increased in strength as well.  I think I may have exceeded the 10% mark.  On average, since I can lift about double what I used to be able to do, (uck, math attack), wouldn't that mean I have increased my strength by double...so, like 100%?  Seriously help me out here, folks, is that right? 

Why yes...that is me.  Just kidding!

Goal #5:  I will feed my family in the BFL way and inspire Steve to do BFL with me!

I think I can say that I have definitely improved the type of eating my family and I were engaging in.  We are far from perfectly healthy eaters, but the way we cook and eat is improving.  Olive oil is used around the house quite a bit (good old healthy monosaturated fat that it is).  Salmon is a semi-regular meal.  We use real butter rather than the tubs and gallons of the fake margarine stuff, and real sugar, too, just not as much.  I don't sling as much butter and cream sauce stuff around as I used to, and we use many more vegetables and healthy protein choices.  We all very much like lentils now, thanks in part to BFL. 

Have I inspired Steve to do BFL?  Maybe not, or at least not today.  He is awfully busy, and I do offer healthy food choices around the house, most of the time.  I take the time to care for myself, and I feel good about that, and I am happy and willing to give Steve the time he might want to do things for himself to, be it working out or other stuff.  However, as a surprise, my boss at work wanted to thumb through my copy of BFL for Women, and my coworker also just borrowed that copy that I only just got back from my boss!  It's making the rounds at my job, and people ask me about BFL all the time.  It is nice to talk about this program, since I find it to be simple and very effective, and it totally works for.  I get out of it what I put into it.  Go figure.  And that has been a really nice thing, seeing other people get interested in getting fit and in shape.  I have a running partner for the Reindeer Run in December, and she and I are very interested in doing another run after that, and possibly one before it.  I never had such a thing in common with other people before, and it's a pretty cool thing. 

As far as today goes, remember on Monday, when I told you I pushed it hard and worked out really hard so I had jelly legs?  I still have jelly legs.  In fact, it is only slightly less excruciating to go up and down stairs than it was yesterday.  I was completely unable to run on Tuesday since I could barely walk, and today slipped by without my Upper Body Workout.  Ugh--I plan to do it tomorrow and also pick up the Aerobics Solution workout as well.  Playing a little catch up, and a valuable lesson learned:  don't push it too hard! 

Tomorrow I will tell you what was on my "wish list."  I'll see you then.