August Photos!

At first I thought I was looking worse, but the more I look at it, the better it is. Also, just as before, May is on the left and August is on the right. I decided to do May instead of June because I wasn't sure there'd be enough difference, and I haven't been having much weight success so far. I'll probably do it on a three month rotation. That'll show progress better.

Dark marks are the burns

It looks bad, but if you look, you can see more space between my stomach and the top of my bikini. My face looks slimmer too, though it could just be the angle. Success!

My hand and arm look thinner.My butt looks a little bigger, which is always good in my opinion. It's a little hard to tell because the lighting is so different, but it looks like my rib fat is going away though.

My back is looking more muscular! I think the back fat is really getting better. Plus, my butt is a little more...smile shaped than a straight line. The bat wings seem to be about the same though. Oh well. My waist looks a bit narrower and defined though. I think I'm really making progress. I think with the lighting, it made things look worse than they are. Plus I have delts!

More good news? I was able to tie my bikini top tighter and it doesn't look any worse. I'm feeling much better about things now. I'm not going to start measuring my body fat and posting my weight each month. Hopefully that will be encouraging.

Weight: 202.6
Body fat percentage: 35%

Scale Addiction

I've heard people talk about obsessing over weighing themselves and how "addictive" the scale is.

Apparently I've been doing it wrong for years!

I never understood this. I liked to weigh myself every day, but it wasn't a big deal to me. Now that I have a new scale, I totally understand. There's a big difference between squinting at a 1980s analog scale and a digital scale. Now that I can see every increment of change, every ounce leaving my body, I understand.

Hopefully it doesn't become a real problem, but so far I've woken up very pleased each morning to see I've lost another pound and a half. With my old scale it was hard to see anything less than a four pound loss, plus the inconsistency issues made it very upsetting. I'm hoping being able to see this daily change will help motivate me.

Measurement Monday: July 7th, 2014

I've done really well this week, and my numbers prove it!
Abdomen: 44 (-.25)
Waist: 34 (-.25)
Bust: 44 (+.5)
Chest: 37 (-.25)
Hip: 46.5 (0)
Left Arm: 14.25 (0)
Left Forearm: 11 (+.25)
Left Calf: 16.25 (+.125)
Left Thigh: 27.5 (0)
Right Arm: 14.5 (0)
Right Forearm: 10.75 (0)
Right Calf: 16.25 (0)
Right Thigh: 27.5 (-.25)
Neck: 14.5 (0)
Current Weight: ? pounds (?)
Inches lost: -.125
Running total: -2.54 inches,? pounds

Okay, so I didn't lose as many inches as I wanted, but nearly all my numbers went down. I don't know what's going on with my bust measurement, by the way. It's been all over the place (and seems to be growing?!). As for my weight? Well, I threw out my scale! Okay, no it wasn't some ephiphany that I'm more than a number on the scale, it was because my old scale was giving very inconsistent readings (195, 162, 187 all back to back!), and I wanted a new scale as a reward for sticking to it. Plus, I'm confident I'm officially in the 190s to stay. No more blips into the land of 200. So I bought a super cool solar powered digital scale! It's supposed to be here between the 10th and 15th. If we're lucky it'll be here before next Monday. My goal this week? Not be above 196 whenever I get my scale. Oh, and don't eat like crap.

It's Time for The Talk

Oh, no, not that talk. The supplement talk. Now, I've been having a certain problem recently...

Supplements are huge in the weightlifting community, but I've always been a firm believer that it's far better to get our nutrients naturally. Well, that's a great theory, but on a restricted Keto diet, it's tough. Seriously, do you know how hard it is to get fiber in when you don't eat any grains?! Well, good news!

By taking supplements, I've not only cured my constipation (which was getting to be pretty uncomfortable), but I feel much better and my weight loss has increased! Whoo!

So what am I taking? 2 fiber pills (per directions on the bottle), 2 magnesium citrate pills (again per the instructions) and 2 cranberry pills. Why? Well, the fiber should be obvious. The magnesium also helps with that. The citrate form is one of the most absorbable form, and what I'd recommend grabbing. It's known that ketoers often are low on magnesium and potassium. The cranberry pills are because I was fighting off a UTI. The bottle says two at every meal (three times per day). I did so while I was having symptoms, but since that has subsided, I'm down to just the two in the morning. They are great for a lot of reasons.