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

Thin vs Fit

Well, I'm officially a Fifties girl now. I saw weights in the fifties all week, and on my official weigh in day I registered 59.7, not bad after a day off yesterday and eating Barnacle Bill's and cheescake for lunch for my Dad's birthday! It was a somewhat surprising 1.5 kg loss for the week. Last week's weigh in saw me at 61.2 and I thought I was lucky it wasn't more as I didn't eat particulary well in my week of holidays after the big race. But I had been hovering around this weight for a few weeks before this and eating well, and it just reinforced for me that consistency of diet wins at the end of the day. I've also decided that my job is very good for weight loss - I have no time to eat!!! NO temptations to snack on undesirable foods - I am way too busy and tied down in meetings so it just can't happen.

Thin vs fit - I've had some new insights regarding this. At a family dinner on Sunday night I found out that my sister-in-law and I weigh exactly the same - 59 kilos. But she is a bit taller than me (not hard!) I reckon about 8 - 10 cms. So in my head I was processing this and thought - well this means she must be thinner than me. But I looked at her, and then reviewed the picture of me I had in my head and thought - I could have sworn I looked thinner than her - but obviously I must be wrong. It is really hard to be objective about the way you look - so I asked my husband the same question on the way home. And guess what - he thought I looked slimmer too. But how can this be you ask? As I did myself? The only explanation I can come up with is "muscle". I have spent the last 10 months exercising intensely and have definitely built muscle: I can see it in the mirror, in the photos from the City/Bay - even the kids have commented on it, and we all know muscle weighs more than fat. So whilst we weigh the same, I think my body must be more compact from the muscle and showing a slimmer shape. How cool is that! But there was more that occured to me about this. I spent quite a while reading "Oxygen" (fitness mag for women), and what I realised was that I prefer these mags to slimming ones, because they show a fitter healthier looking body shape - one'es with rounded shaped shoulders and athletic looking thighs - and I love this look. I've always hated my saddle bag thighs and yearned for those sleek stick thin ones - at least I thought i did. But now I realsie I'd much prefer to have athletic looking solid thighs - and thats definitely achievable. I think I may just learn to love my thighs afterall! It just reiterated to me that I am no longer looking for slimmer and slimmer versions of myself - I want to look fit and athletic, toned and not fat - all quite different from skinny! I think the female stars of the world have got it all wrong. Instead of starving themselves to be thinner and look more glamorous in their evening gowns, they should be exercising more to accentuate a curvy toned body - now that would look fab - and what guy doesn't love curves!

Well its only 4 weeks now until the anniversary of my weight loss journey, and I am determined to reach goal by then, so my posts will probably focus more on weight than fitness over the next few weeks, then it will be full on fat loss (changing my body composition/building muscle).
BTW - I ran 8 kms this am, then turned around and ran back down the street to buy a morning drink (just because I can!). And then, as it was such a beautiful day and I wanted to head out again, I went off to the gym and rowed 1km, cycled 5 kms and did my weights - just because I can!!! What a beautiful life!