Lisa's Lost

Well, finally received my photo of crossing the finish line - so I have digiscrapped it and here it is for you to see. Its not a very glamorous or flattering photo, but I like it for a couple of reasons. If you can enlarge it you will see that I have muscle definition in not only my arms, but also my legs, and I'm very proud of that. Didn't know I had so much "boob movement", and the ear growths are attractive (headphones) but ahh well - who cares, at least it shows me being athletic and achieving - and I'm happy with that! I will have to post a photo soon showing a much more glamorous side of my new bod - to balance this one out! BTW I bought a slinky red evening dress the other day - I have absolutely nowhere to wear it - but it was size 10, fitted beautifully and only $35! To me it was symbolic of what I have achieved, so I bought it. It will be there ready for any occasion that might arise, rather than panicking when being invited out somewhere formal that I have nothing to wear! I also thought I might surprise my husband with it. Perhaps when I reach goal we can go out for a romantic evening for two, and I can don the dress then.

Speaking of weight - yes I am still losing but very slowly. About 300gms a week now. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly - despite teh fact that I exercise for 1 - 2 hrs/day, my lower weight and increased fitness mean that I burn much fewer calories - about 300/hr instead of 500 -600. Plus I have applied my low heart rate training to all areas of exercise, which has meant giving up higher level cardio (combat, step etc) and have replaced them with more Body Balance/yoga/pump (plus lower level cardio on the bike/rower). I am also really starting to focus on building muscle. I am obsessed with all the fitness mags, and am working towards a clean diet with heaps of protein, and am now taking protein supplements. The more I build muscle of course, the slower the weight loss.
I'm actually a bit perplexed by my current body fat status - getting different messages. My scales tell me I am still at 39% body fat - which puts me in the obese category! GRRHHH. I have cheap skin calipers at home - and they suggest body fat is around 30% - one of the gym instructors said he would guess at about 30% - but what I really need to do is go in and get it tested for real. Otherwise its really hard to see what improvement I am making.

Either way I definitely need to strip more fat - particularly around the tummy - cause guess what I can under the last layer of fat......the makings of a six pack! Yep - you heard it - a six pack. I have been doing abs exercises almost daily now for almost a year - so something should be happening there! I have been able to see the vertical definition of the rectus abdominus muscles for some time, but yesterday I proudly showed off to hubby that if I tense my abdominals - you can see two pairs of curved horizontal lines at the top of my abs! Of course you can't see them normally cause there's too much fat - but they are defintely there! I read that you need to get your body fat down to about 20% to be able to see them - so I am aiming for that.

Running is still happening and going ok - will fill you in more about that next time.

Cheers