Checking In, Resolutions, and January's Goal

I've been unable to log in the past few weeks between house sitting in the middle of nowhere and rebuilding our new home! I may disappear again, but I thought I'd let everyone know how things are going:

5 Bites: Not going well. I'm firmly in the realm of Intuitive Eating right now. Between holiday eating, a bachelorette party, having no kitchen due to the move and construction, and lots of alcohol, I haven't been able to maintain 5 Bites and my happiness. On the other hand, I've done a great job of listening to my body and limiting my portions to the range between what my body needs for fuel and what I want emotionally.

Weight: 189.4! Whoo! Through intuitive eating and happy portion control, I've broken 190. This is a really big deal, as I don't know the last time I was below 190. Perhaps my high school graduation?

Body Fat: 29.6%, At the beginning of November I was at 31.3%. Almost 2% during the biggest eating months of the year isn't too shabby in my book.

Weight-related Resolution: Get down to 150. It's a lot of weight to lose, and if it doesn't happen, I won't be heartbroken, but I like having a goal to work towards. I'll be very angry with myself if I'm not down to 175 by the end of the year.  I spent most of this year gaining weight as I experimented with different diets and have spent the last few months finally losing all that dieting weight. This year will be different. I'll lose weight the whole year, instead of gaining and playing catch up. I simply need to lose 1.3 pounds per month to get below 175. At that rate I could do 5 Bites one weekend a month and just work hard to maintain with Intuitive Eating the remainder of the time and hit my goal.

Blog-related Resolution: I'd like to get back in to posting a bit more often, both on Ditch the Excuses and on Homesteading in the Dust (my blog about homesteading in Southern Arizona). In addition, I think I'd like to start setting monthly weight loss goals. The November Challenge was great and very motivating, though a little stressful.

January's Goal: I want to be at 185 by the end of January. I lost almost 8 pounds in November, so 4.4 pounds in January should be more than reasonable.

As construction (most of which I'm doing myself) is still underway, I probably won't be checking in again until mid January.

November Challenge

I'm part of a November Challenge with a 5 Bites group on Facebook. The main goal is to lose 25 pounds in November. While that would be amazing (I'd weigh less than I did when I graduated high school almost 4 years ago), there's something about losing that much weight in a month that my mind says isn't healthy. Perhaps it's the years of "slow and steady weight loss is longer lasting" stuck in my head, I realize that that isn't true, and there's a ton of research to back it up, but I'm still leary. Plus, Thanksgiving and my birthday happen in November. I love food, obviously, and want to be able to enjoy family events.

I drank yesterday, so my weight went up this morning. I was at 198 when I weighed in, though I know if it weren't for the booze I'd likely be at 194. Taking in to account the bloating from the alcohol, I'm going to commit to this challenge. I want to weigh 173 by December 1st. Along with my weekly weigh ins, I'll be posting how much more weight I have to lose.

An End in Sight?

I love math.

Trust me, this is actually funny.

I also realize I don't have any real concrete goals. I want to have abs, I want to fit in to a size 6, etc
are great, don't get me wrong, but maybe I'll do better with goals with deadlines. My monthly goals are now going to change. Each month, I want to lose 5% of my body weight. Seems reasonable enough given that it's recommended to lose up to 8% per month. What does this mean? Tentatively, I'll be at my "goal" weight by March (135 pounds) if my monthly weight loss follows a linear pattern. Of course, losing weight isn't linear, but 5% is 5% and each month is a chance to start fresh. Currently, my goal is to be 192 pounds by the end of July. I woke up weighing 199 and change. It's gonna be tough to lose 7 pounds in the next two weeks, but I'm hoping since I've been working out things will pick up.

Wish me luck!

Still No July Photos?

Yeah, you may have noticed I'm now a full week late in posting my beginning of the month photo. I swear it's not due to procrastination or laziness. It's my photographer's fault. He's been sleeping in a lot.

A Belated Evaluation of May's Goals

Today I realized I had set the goal of being able to touch my toes by the end of May. Hah. That didn't happen.

My doc has said no weightlifting, no crunches, no cardio, and no yoga. Apparently I'm one step above bed rest, which is infuriating given that I'm not having any pain from my abdominal tear. Whatever. I'm being re-evaluated on the 22nd, so hopefully I will have a clean bill of health and be able to go back to the gym.

Speaking of the gym, I don't think you understand just how much I miss it. I recently joined Fitocracy (a cool fitness based social network which I will be reviewing once I get more use out of it), which has only made me more anxious to return. It's just frustrating knowing that while some people get hurt doing something typically understood as dangerous (skateboarding, mountain biking, etc), I get injured at the gym.

It's frustrating and I'm really starting to lose motivation. I know that diet is 80% of your fitness, but it feels like I'm wasting my time without being able to lift.

My Down Dog Progress

tle of this post is misleading. I am not making very much progress, but I learned that it's actually a fairly difficult pose to master.
PopSugar has a guide that I'm following. Apparently it's better to bend your knees than bend your back.
I also found a handy picture that shows I was doing pretty much everything wrong:

Picture from Yoga by Candace at her website.

Maybe by the time I figure out down dog I'll be able to touch my toes?

Maybe I'll Become a Yogi?

In my last post, I mentioned that in lieu of running I was going to be taking up yoga instead. I originally thought it was going to be a pretty easy workout compared to heavy lifting.
I was so wrong.
Yesterday I did some research and decided to run through this beginners workout:

I held each pose for five deep breaths and ran through it twice. It wasn't too taxing, but I could tell how limited my core strength is (due in part to an injury that I'm recovering from), and how inflexible I am. It's pathetic. I have never been able to touch my toes.
Today I found a very informative article from PopSugar claiming that their yoga sequence that would get me my "best bikini body". While I don't believe that doing just that yoga sequence would get me a "bikini body", it seemed rigorous enough. I was two poses in when I realized I needed to stick with beginner poses.
I decides this sequence might be more my speed:

I've realized that not only can I not touch my toes, my down dog looks more like the London Bridge. New goal for this month: master down dog. How hard can it be?