Calories Shouldn't Count on Your Birthday!

So, I'm sure you can guess my birthday was recent due to the title of this post. Yes, I turned 26 years OLD yesterday. Ok, I'm not that old but I am definitely feeling grown up. I let myself off the wagon a little and I know my next weigh in is going to pay the price for it. This past Saturday I went to Dave & Busters with my friends and had a million shots and some mixed drinks. Yesterday, I let myself have chocolate and candy for lunch. Then we had mexican food for dinner . I also got a mixed drink at dinner. I left the restaurant feeling more full than I have since I started my new lifestyle. It felt disgusting. I felt like I weighed 50 pounds more than when I entered the place. I felt like I was getting more stretch marks. I only ate half my food, but my goodness,  those plates are huge! I had yogurt for breakfast today and ate the other half of my dinner from last night for lunch and feel extremely full again. Tonight isn't going to be much better calorie wise because my Fiance is making me cupcakes and ice cream for my birthday! At least I know that I can control the portion size of dessert and I'll probably have salad for dinner so I don't do too much damage today. It sucks knowing that these few days will most likely end up in a gain this week. It's super disappointing because I have been doing so well. I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much though because I did get some exercise in. On Saturday night before I went out, I squeezed in a workout that burned 546 calories. Then on Monday I burned 667 calories. I know that will help a little and I am still better off than I used to be without exercising.

Looking back, I wouldn't take those calories back if  I could because I had a really good time and I can make up for it next week. Just gotta keep going. No stopping this time. No giving up and falling back into bad habits. Just suck it up, cut your losses, and move on!

Phases of Fitness

One of the biggest challenges of starting to workout again after being a sedentary couch potato with a desk job for many years is that your heart can't do what your body and mind can. I would actually call this phase two of getting back into shape. Let me explain: 

Phase 1) When I originally bought Zumba for my Wii I weighed about 10-15 pounds more than I do now (between 196-201 lbs) and even though my mind somewhat wanted to get into shape, my body and heart really struggled. I would do the easiest 20 minute Zumba and my feet would be killing me and my calves would ache so bad the next day. At first I figured it was just because I had new shoes and I needed to break them in. After having this happen multiple times I got frustrated and I didn't want my feet to hurt anymore so I tried doing it barefoot. What do you know? That hurt my feet too. Not only did my feet hurt, but my heart was pounding out of my chest, and I felt like it was just way too hard for someone like me. This was a few years ago and since my mind was only partially committed, I gave up and stopped doing Zumba. I figured I would need to lose a little weight before I could workout.

So as far as my personal journey goes, there was a long period of time between Phase one and Phase Two. Phase one could be broken down as my Mind was only partially committed, my Body "couldn't" do what I needed it to and it ached too much afterwards, my Heart held me back from being able to keep up.

Phase 2) This time when I decided that I need to workout in order to meet my weight loss goals my Mind was in it 100%. I calculated how many calories I would need to burn exercising every week in order to not have to sacrifice by in-taking too few calories that I would feel restricted and give up on my new diet. I had a game plan that made complete sense to me and I had to workout in order to eat the amount that  I wanted to. I started Zumba Fitness Coreand I enjoyed it. My feet only hurt a little because I had already lost a little bit of weight. I was sore the next day and I still couldn't keep up with the zumba lady on the screen, but I did my best. Since I needed an accurate way to track how many calories I was burning, I bought a Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor
. After using it the first time, I realized that I was pushing myself way too hard and going over my max heart rate trying to keep up with the zumba wii lady. I told myself " that's alright, that computer graphic is fit and you need to modify it to work for you". The heart rate monitor has become a very valuable tool for me. It lets me know when to slow down a little and when I need to try harder. It gives me valuable information that keeps me going. I also pick individual songs that I like on Zumba now and take short water breaks between each song. Picking individual songs helps me workout longer because I have no idea how long I've been working out and I don't look at my watch. I wait until I feel like it's been a long time and then I check my calories burned and determine if it's a good time to stop or not. Oh, and by the way, my feet don't hurt at all anymore, even after 2 hours of Zumba with the same shoes!

I would say Phase 2 would be broken down as my Mind was completely committed, my Body was being pushed to the limit and could now do things I used to say it could not, my Heart is getting stronger every time I work out. 

Even though I feel like my heart is holding me back sometimes, it's not my heart's fault. I let it just sit there and flutter lightly for a few years and now I am putting it in overdrive. I've started taking Omega -3's and I know it will get stronger with more cardio. I have to say that I think it's very interesting how your mind can be one of the biggest determining factors of whether your weight loss journey will be successful or not. Nothing has really changed between Phase 1 and Phase 2 except for my Mind set and commitment to getting it done this time.