113.4

Officially down 4 pounds for the last month.  Yay!

I'm trying out maintenance this week for the very first time.  Instead of giving myself an extra 4 points per day I'm starting with 2.  So 22 points for today.

But I've already spent 10 flex points from eating heavenly tofu pad thai, 4 stars.  So good.

Totals

Totals for the week on Holiday AP Challenge:

Sunday - 3

Monday - 0

Tuesday - 4

Wednesday - 4

Thursday - 3

Friday - 4

Saturday - 4

Total = 22 AP's

I'm feeling pretty good about the total this week.  It's the same as last week but it's still something to be proud of.  I know in January, when this is all over, I will go back to 30 minute workouts a few times a week.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Goals

Oh boy, yesterday didn't go over too well.  We went to Chinese food last night and got sweet and sour chicken and honey walnut prawns.  Mike and I split the two plates and I took less than half of the chicken.  Luckily I had most of my flex points left for the week so I'm totally OP, but I still wonder how much I'm going to gain from all that food!  But it was soooo good.  Then I went home and had spumonti wine with a couple small snacks.  Does anyone else get the munchies when they drink alcohol?

So far for AP's I've earned 15 not including today.  I still want to get in 3 or 4 today and the same for tomorrow.  If I have the time, why not?

Oh yeah, goals for next week.  This week I did pretty well with exercise when I really didn't want to go.  Especially on the snow days.  Next week I think I will just keep doing the same thing, but work on learning to properly maintain. 

This is going to take at least a month to get the hang of.  You have to experiment with what works for your body.  They say to add 4 flex points per day but since I am very nervous about that I will start by adding 2 per day.  If I stll lose weight, then I will up it to 3 and keep going up from there if necessary.

Plus I think I will work on eating all of my 35 flex points for maintenance purposes.  There are many weeks where I do not us all or even most of them.

Comments

Thank you all for your comments.  I think I have an idea of what I want to do.  Murph-s (my Holiday AP Challenge buddy) has a GREAT idea!  I will find out what my body fat percentage is and work on that.  Even though I'm only 113 or whatever (scale said 113.4 this morning) I still have extra fat in places around my body that can be reduced and I can add muscle for sure.  The only muscles I've ever really worked is my arms, and you can't even tell by looking.

To answer a question or two, I am a size 0 at Express for sure but when I was in New York and Co. I was a size 2 jeans (and I don't think they are getting loose) so it all depends on where I shop.

I've never seen anything smaller than a 0 but I also think it's possible that some places may have vanity sizing.  I remember when I was 108 pounds four years ago and I was a size 2, as far as I could tell.  I remember because my mom bought me a ton of clothes before I went off to college and she spent so much money that she said, "You better not gain any weight back!"  Naturally I started gaining immediately after moving away.

When I started losing weight last year I wore a tight size 16 for pants.  I was about to get ready for the 18's and that was scary because that was the biggest I'd ever been.

And thank you all for your comments!  They keep me going!!!  I love the support everyone gives on EP.

Leanne

112?

Stepped on the scale this morning and saw 112.7.  What?  So that's 2.3 pounds since Monday?  I'd say that's pretty cool but I've honestly been expecting to stay the same lately or have a slight gain so this is kind of strange.  I've been using slightly more flex than usual per day and every morning when I step on the scale this week it's like I've lost half a pound.

The other thing is that, this morning when I was putting on my new size 0 khakis, they felt a bit loose.  I am wearing a belt with my size 0 pants!  I never thought that would happen.  Whatever the scale says at WW on Monday, it looks like maintenance is officially in order.  Maybe I'm working out too much?  I upped my routine every day to about 45 minutes on the elliptical but that sounds reasonable to me.  What do you think?

Snow

School is 2 hours late today, and I found out when I was about 10 minutes away from my building.  That's what I get for leaving home at 5:30am!  Now I'm sitting here with another hour left before we get down to business. 

I wish I could just go to sleep for a while but I'm not a napper.  Last night Boeing was pretty loud so it took me an hour to get to sleep and I usually take about 5 minutes.

I will be going to WW today but I won't WI until next week.  The scale said 115.0 this morning so there's some good news, especially after Thanksgiving and fried rice!

Fried Rice

I went out to Bellevue Square today with my friend Min, her friend and another mutual friend from college.  Min had never been to Bellevue before so she was loving the scene.  It is really beautiful in that mall. 

I got a good deal of Christmas shopping done, too!  I'm so excited about some of the things I got for my sister.  There's this store called Fireworks and it has all kinds of really cool odds and ends.  I found some colorful hand-painted salt and pepper shakers that she's going to love.  They remind me of the animation from "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" when he's singing "The Origin of Love" with the people who were stuck together... For those who may know the movie.

We stopped off for lunch/dinner at PF Chang's and I ordered chicken fried rice.  What is wrong with me?!  I had 10 flexies left (if I'm lucky) and I ate quite a bit of it.  I'm just glad my friends helped eat the rest of it because the plate was HUGE.  Man, I'm feeling guilty.  I did exercise and earn 4 AP's today to make up for some of the pain.

Thanksgiving

So far:

Mon. - Nothing

Tues. - 4 AP's

Wed. - 4 AP's

Thurs. - 3 AP's

Today - 4 AP's

Total:  15 AP's

I will probably work out tomorrow and possibly Sunday but we'll see.  I haven't been feeling very well lately and I think it's because of TOM coming up this weekend.  I don't usually notice a change in mood or overall wellness but it's really bothering me this time for some reason.

Mike impulsively bought an X-Box 360 the other day so that has been fun to see.  He bought me this cute game called Viva Pinata where you get to create a little garden where these adorable little creatures come out and interact with each other.  I haven't played it yet but that's in store for later tonight!

Tomorrow my friend Min is coming up and we're going out to Seattle for some shopping!  I really don't have the money but it's a good opportunity for Christmas shopping and spending time with my friend who I rarely get to see.

Oh yes, Thanksgiving.  I went to town on the food, that's for sure.  A little bit of everything here and there really adds up!  Luckily I haven't gone over in points for the week.  I did have pumpkin pie AND apple crisp with ice cream!!!  And lots of green bean casserole, which is my absolute favorite Thanksgiving dish.

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving!

Challenge

The challenge is here!  6 weeks of getting serious now.  Well, not toooo serious. hehe

I joined the holiday challenge and my partner and I have to earn 30-35 AP's a week (together).  So 15-17.5 AP's a week for me.  I usually earn about 3 per day, 5 days a week so I think I can do this. 

I raised the bar on how long I work out, where not long ago I had actually lowered the bar to 30 minutes a day.  Now it's back up to 45 minutes, we will see if I go crazy with that!  I've been so unmotivated lately.  Stupid weather.  At least this challenge will keep me motivated throughout the entire holiday season.

New Photo

I added one new photo that was taken last night before a special event.  Mike works for Bluenile.com and we went to their Christmas party at Safeco field.  I ate my heart out! lol

I had some deep fried eggrolls filled with meat, chicken with ricotta cheese and gravy over rice pilaf...  But my favorite part was the chocolate mousse that they served in little plastic Mariner's hats.  I've never had mousse before and it was the most amazing thing I've ever eaten.  When they gave it to us I thought it was ice cream at first.  Then I realized they were serving it to 250 people and it wasn't melting.

After getting home at 9:30 we changed out of our formalwear and ran out to see Borat.  Wow it was silly.  It was funny, though!  I topped off the night with a whole theater bag of Sour Patch Kids, finishing off all of my flex points for the week.

So it looks like Yahoo Photos has updated their site.  I did some organizing.  Here is the photo album with my most recent picture as well as all the ones leading up to now:

My Weight Loss Photo Album

Feel free to comment on the pics or just browse.  There are other albums as well if you want to check them out.