Losin' Again

If you keep an eye on my traineo, you'll see that I am back up to 17 lbs lost (from 23 lbs lost at the end of the contest). Within 3 days of the end of the contest, I had gained back 6 lbs. Then by the end of that first "off" week, I was up 2 more pounds. The last 2 lbs I can blame on not eating very well at all because I was on vacation. But the first few days that I gained 6 lbs, aside from not eating great (but not super-bad either) on the day that the contest ended, I actually ate very well (according to Weight Watchers) and did some pretty intense working out. Although not everyone else who did the low-carb thing gained their weight back as intensely as I did, I'm sure that having lost 5 lbs in 3 days with low-carb is what did it for me. I wasn't surprised though so I'm not too disappointed.

Now, I'm back on track with the losin' again, but this time I'm doing it the right way for me. I started the week back up at 163, and I'm on my way to losing 2 lbs this week. I'm ready to lose the rest of my weight slow and steady so that it doesn't come right back as soon as I try to start maintaining.

Also, I did manage to get on the tanita to do my body composition analysis last Wednesday. My scale at home said I was up to 161 by then, but according to the tanita, I was at 159. My improvements put a HUGE smile on my face, and the trainer was pretty happy for me too. Over the 2 months from the first time that I took the measurements to 1 week ago (10/09/08, to be exact), here are the results:

• Weight: 176.5 lbs to 159.0 lbs!
• BMI: 27.6 to 24.9 (below 25 is "normal weight" for my height of 5' 7")
• Fat %: 36.7 to 29.7 (using "standard" body type)
• Fat Mass: 65 lbs to 47 lbs (18 lbs!  More than the 17.5 lbs that I lost total!)
• Fat Free Mass: 111.5 lbs to 112.0 lbs (gained .5 lbs in muscle, but that doesn't include the fat that I lost that turned into muscle too.  A month before, my FFM was down to 109 lbs. so I've gained at least 3 lbs of muscle in just one month!)
• Total Body Water: 46% to 51.5% (This stat is used to make sure that you're staying properly hydrated and that your numbers aren't off due to dehydration.  My target hydration levels are 45% - 60% so while I was still within range in the beginning, I was at the lower end, but at the end I was perfectly in the middle!)

As I said, these numbers made me VERY happy!  I'm kinda glad that I didn't take them on the day that the contest ended, so that when I get down to 155 again, I can continue to see the improvements rather than comparing it to what was just a temporary number that I got down to in order to win the contest.

Also, my box-a-metrics class... I LOVE it!  The classes are on Monday and Wednesday nights. The trainer is a personal trainer at the gym, but he's also a boxing trainer.  The class is his own "recipe" of boxing-training activities to tone, strengthen, and give us some cardio at the same time.  The students in the class are just me and another girl.  We do quite a bit with the medicine ball, lots of jumping (rope, over things, back and forth, etc.), lots of push-up type things, a variety of crunches, and quite a few partner-type things.  We have short rests in between activities, but for the most part it's "Go! Go! Go!" the whole time. The first day we didn't put on boxing gloves, but since then we've gotten to punch quite a bit!  I LOVE it!  It's funny how uncoordinated I am, even with boxing though.  Apparently the jump-roping that I do is "schoolyard" jumping, so the trainer has gotten quite a few laughs out of trying to teach me to jump rope like a boxer.  Also, with how exhausted I get punching for just 1 minute, I definitely have a new appreciation for boxers and understand why they're so freakin' ripped! I like the format of having 2 people in the class because it opens up a bunch of options for partner-type workouts (for example, doing push-ups head to head and slapping hands in between each push-up), and with how competitive I am, having someone else to try to keep up with and beat keeps me going at a good pace. I'm really happy with this class so far, and am sad that it's already half way over (I'm 2 weeks in to the 4 week course)! :(