Three Nice Things

1. I skipped swimming yesterday because I was tired and just wanted to go home. I felt like I got a nice break, like when your boss sends you home an hour early just because you work hard and she wants to thank you for that. You know and she knows you'll be back tomorrow, but you enjoy and appreciate the extra bit of time to yourself.

In other words, yesterday was nice but it's a pool day today. And I'm looking forward to it.

2. I'm only 5 pounds down but my pants are starting to fall off my hips. I'm blaming the stretch material of the Gap straight legs, but I do think some of it is the swimming already paying off. It's a nice problem to have.

3. My friend Jessie passed down some of her old clothes (some of which were mine to start with, we pass clothes back and forth as we go down -- or up, in my case -- the scale). She included a cute striped Gap sweater she got from Twice.com, and as an XL it fits nicely already. Yay!

P.S. I am prepping the recipe post for the blackeyed peas salad and Babchi's sauce. Should be up in a couple of days!

Bottom Line Challenge Results

 
(Photos taken at the Jellyfish Exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium this April, by me.)


Yesterday was our weigh-in and measurements for the Bottom Line Challenge.

I recorded 885 minutes of aerobic activity (walking, stairs, more walking, a little dancing around).
My blood pressure went down 4 points.
I lost .6% body fat. 
I lost 6.5 pounds. (I enjoyed my extra-long weekend a little too much, LOL.)
I lost 4.5 inches from my waist, 2.5 inches from my hips, 2 inches from my thighs, 1 inch from my chest.

I wasn't enough to win a t-shirt, but it was enough for me. YES!!!

I came in 3rd on my team for success; Phillip was really motivated and dedicated, and lost 28 pounds, our admin was also fantastic at exercise and lost 11. The other 3 sort of forgot about it mid-challenge. :)

(I am going to do another photo shoot with Phillip at work -- he may let me do a follow-up post on his weight-loss success -- and he proudly informed me that he lost so much the blue sweater is too big on him now. Woohoo!)






Bottom line (ba-dum-bump), I am glad they coerced me into it, petulant attitude and all. As I said to my friends in email, all I really did was get off my dupa a little bit, and ate a whole lot better. And it worked.

I am really glad I didn't take an all-or-nothing approach to the exercise; I was completely daunted by the 30 minutes a day requirement, but instead of just giving up entirely, I did as much as I could. I take the stairs now every day, and it doesn't hurt my knee. I walk further to my car (boy, that asphalt project sure helped!), or I schedule plans on the weekend that involve a lot of walking (Botanic Garden, farmer's market). Like I said in my foodstyle reflections, those little pieces of routine have become habits, and now that it is summer there were will be more walking events (or downtown yoga trips) on the weekends.







My next challenge to myself is to start including more consistent exercise on the weekdays as well. I really, really, really want to swim, and now that my new boss is not a fan of us working so late anymore, I think I might be able to do something after work. Time to start investigating lap times at gyms and pools nearby!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY ME!!!