Real Pushups...Conquered!

I hopped on my scale yesterday morning with a feeling of pleasant anticipation.  I knew I'd drop since the gain from last week was at least partially based on ttotm.  And lo and behold, down to 166 pounds!!  Woot!  That's a 3.6 pound drop from last week and a 1.6 pound drop from the week before.  Excellent.  It's always so nice when the hard work pays off.  And remember, this is with my chocolate egg mistakes.  You don't have to be perfect to lose weight.  In fact, I would suggest if you ARE being perfect than you are at risk for gaining it all back.  Figuring out how to live in the real world, eating mistakes and all, is necessary for maintenance.  I am now 7.2 pounds from my mini-goal.  Sweet.  Sweeter than chocolate eggs.

The WW meeting yesterday was about Plan B when you can't do your regular exercise.  This was a lesson I had to learn years back when I was more rigid in my thinking.  I still struggle with it sometimes but for the most part I've learned that there are alternatives to my "routine" if I can't do it for some reason.  Sometimes I'll do a shortened version of my workout, sometimes I'll do something else altogether.  And sometimes I just have to let go and accept that for this day, or this week, I will not meet my goal.   It's the old battle vs the war thing.  I've learned that doing something is better than doing nothing.  Sounds so obvious but it was a tough one for me to learn and internalize.

In January of '08, just a few months after starting exercise, I learned part of this lesson on a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Of course I blogged about it at the time, An Important Lesson @ Golden Gate Bridge, Crissy Field.  The realization that even a walk could burn calories had a profound effect on me and ever since then I have made an effort to not discount "non-exercise" activity that I do outside of the gym.  Wearing a heart rate monitor and seeing the calories burned really helps.  For a while I'd wear it anytime I did anything, a hike with Miguel, a fun bike ride around town.  Now I don't need that reinforcement for social activities but I still wear it at the gym and anytime I'm purposefully "exercising".  

Being back at WW reminds me how much I've learned since starting this journey and how much I like the WW philosophy.  I started WW in 2007 in part because my doctor recommended it.  I'd gone in half-hoping she'd recommend some kind of weight loss surgery.  I wasn't quite heavy enough.  Thank God!  Those surgeries are not the easy fix I thought they were.  I think this is a painful lesson for some, like Carnie Wilson, who just got her second surgery.  Anyway, I'm babbling a bit.  On to the exercise...

I was debating going to the gym since I'd already worked out 4 days in a row.  Friday would make 5. But I actually felt pretty good physically and decided it would be ok.  I went after work and started out with 25 minutes on the upright bike.  Level 7 is still kicking my butt.  After the bike I started in on my chest/shoulders/core routine.

I did pushups first.  I've been doing three sets of 6 "real" pushups and 2 assisted, working toward the goal of three sets of 8 real pushups.  As I was about to start I thought about how I did 10 real pushups at that CrossFit class on Monday, albeit only 1 set.  Maybe it was time to move up to 7 real ones, because three sets is different than one set.  But then I figured, if I can do 7, I can probably do 8.  Ah heck, let's just go for it!  And guess what?  I did it!  I started on this goal of doing three sets of 8 real pushups back in November of last year.  At the time I could do three sets of 3.  And really, it started before then when I worked on lowering the smith machine bar.  It's been a long haul and achieving this goal is a big deal to me.  I can do pushups, really I can!

I forgot to mention that yesterday was our anniversary.  My mom was coming over to watch the kids so Miguel and I could go to dinner.  So I was in a hurry to get home and the rest of my workout was a blur.   I hustled through my weight training and core routine and headed home to change.  We were totally undecided on where to go for dinner but ended up at a place that serves California type fare.  My dinner was:

Pan seared Mahi Mahi on a yummy pile of risotto
Bread and butter
A few bites of Miguel's dinner (steak, french fries, green beans)
Desert was a very creamy bread pudding and ice cream

I also had a vodka soda.  After dinner we went to a bar to play pool and I had another vodka soda.  I tracked it all and, unfortunately I'm only left with 5 "extra" weekly points.  Thank goodness I can earn more through exercise!  I know I can manage.

One last thing, I've started reading "The Beck Diet Solution", very interesting stuff, goes along with a lot of what I practice but I believe will help me take things a step further.  The main thing I'm hoping is the book can help me to do away with these mental battles I have with food.  They are tiresome and I lose half the time anyway.   Gaining freedom from that would would be so cool!

Today is a day off from exercise, though I spent half the day pulling weeds, that's gotta be worth something!  Alright, the kids are up from their naps so I gotta run.