Weekly weigh-in and a rest week!

Official weight @ 4/7/13: 190.2 lbs

I forgot to weigh-in on Friday morning, ate a bunch of junk (read: sodium) during the day, and then came in at 190.8 Saturday morning. Saturday I drank more water, but followed it with cheese friends a lot of beer Saturday night – but reflected a half pound difference Sunday morning which is what is reflected here. I think all of this “gain” was nothing more than water-weight. I also did my final “bonus” workout for NROLFW Saturday morning and my muscles were mucho sore so I know I was definitely still retaining water on top of the sodium/beer overload.

I haven’t redone measurements officially yet. I will do that at the end of this week before starting Stage 2 next Monday, BUT after reflecting a 1.5 lb gain on the scale I decided to just measure my waist to make myself feel a little better… and even with the sodium bloat going on, my waist showed a 1” loss! Super excited about that.

I also had a major NSV this weekend – I bought a pair of Gap “boyfriend” jeans… wait for it… in a size 14!! I add the “boyfriend” in there because this particular style is a little looser than their standard boot-cut jean – but it still made me feel HELLA good. I’m also noticing a major difference in my face and my arms are slimmer/shapelier, as well. No chicken wing jiggle!

So this week is my rest week from lifting before moving into Stage 2 of New Rules. My goal was to stay active with some HIIT, yoga, walks, etc. That’s all well and good. So Monday night I did an HIIT workout from FitnessBlender.com (LOVE THIS SITE!!!)… it was only 15 minutes. Then I did a 5 minute cool-down, which mostly consisted of walking around my house. It was sooooo borrrrrriiiinnnnggggg. I hate cardio so much, and this was especially boring because I had invited Mike to do it with me (thinking it would relieve some of his stress from work – it didn’t – more on this in a minute)… so instead of popping in some earbuds and queuing up my “Workout time!” playlist, I just watched the video for the workout and jumped around a lot.. in silence.. while my husband secretly shot me hate-looks… and then quit halfway through because it “wasn’t helping”.

Mike has been so supremely stressed out for about a month now. It’s really taking a strain on our relationship - not in that we are growing apart but more that we get almost no time together even though we are both home at the same times. He’s usually up in our home office working, while I’m downstairs taking care of the normal every day household chores. Even though my workload at home has increased (while work at the office is not really decreasing in any way yet), I feel like I’ve maintained ridiculously well. I’m finding that I’m more organized, more motivated, and a little harder on myself when it comes to making sure I get chores done. I find I am rarely accepting the “I don’t wanna” from myself anymore – this is both good and bad. Good because a lot of the time when I get a case of the I-don’t-wanna’s it is completely unwarranted and someone should just kick my butt and make me empty the damn dishwasher and clean the kitchen. Bad because I think I’m starting to take it a step too far and not allowing myself enough sit-down-and-relax time. This will eventually catch up with me and probably lead me into a downward spiral of tears and it’s-not-fair’s. I’m going to try to center a little bit and plan in some downtime for myself…  after all, it’s occasionally okay to let the dishes wait. I just have to keep telling myself my husband won’t have to work like this forever, and I’ll eventually have my partner back in all aspects of life, from hang-out buddy to chore sharer.

Speaking of my sudden propensity for organization and planning - some other NSV’s for this month so far: I successfully planned dinners for 2 weeks, as well as planned lunches for James for this week. A different something every day so he doesn’t get bored! I’m pretty proud of myself. Now… if only I could get my own breakfast situation in order. Some days I do really well and make the time to make a homemade egg mcmuffin (sans ham), and other days I’m scrambling out the door barely remembering to grab a yogurt. One thing at a time, though, right? I’ve also been making a conscious effort to run at least one load of laundry a day so I can stay caught up. I’ve been pretty successful with this, although there have been one or two days where it hasn’t gotten done. That’s okay.

I came to the realization the other day that I may actually be accepting the fact that I’m a Real Live Adult now. Not only accepting, but enjoying. I feel like I’m finally coming into my own a little bit and feeling comfortable not only in my body, but also in who I am as a person. I don’t find myself caring quite as much about what other people think of me – or even whether or not they like me. I’m happy with myself. I think I always thought I was happy with myself in the past, but this is so much more real. Seems like a strange way to put it, I guess, but it’s the best way I can describe it.

Tonight I’m headed over to a friend’s for Girls Night where there will be much chips and dips to partake in (not to mention drinks!), but I’m not really going to stress on tracking calories. This will definitely be a splurge day, and I’m looking forward to filling it with guacamole, taquitos, and salsa! YUM!! Those things are mostly healthy, right? ;)