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Hello everybody! Welcome to Weigh-In Wednesday!

Please go check out my sweet co-host!

Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

If you're new to the link-up, please leave a comment & say hi!

Once again my plan to write more posts in a week has failed. I blink my eyes and it's already Wednesday!  Let's jump to the weigh in, shall we? To my shock and surprise, I'm the same weight as last week. 

Even since I started doing this link up back in May, I have never shared my actual weight. Within the last few months it became apparent that people I know read the blog which further hampered any desire to share my weight.

It just seems super hypocritical to be the host of a "weigh in" and not share this side of myself. Set backs are made dramatically easier when all I do is provide vague details about my weight loss. I'm still participate in a way that is comfortable for me & I think we all know very little is accomplished when we are "comfortable."

A little background. Two weekends ago, after much frustration, I started looking into going back to Weight Watchers. I joined my senior year of high school, eventually losing 20 lbs before going to college (and then I gained it all back plus 40 lbs more). I know it isn't the plan that helps - points or calories, it's all the same to me. I don't really feel that Weight Watchers teaches healthful habits either but one thing I did enjoy was the accountability. Being a poor medical student, my friend and I decided to be each other's accountability since we are both getting married this summer. We weigh in a Saturday mornings now. So if I can share that deeply personal statistic with her, I think I should be doing it here as well. Without further ado...

Yup. That says 211.8. Now the rest of my stats:

Height: 5'8"

SW: 236.2 lb (yikes)

Loss this week: 0.0 lb

Total Loss: 24.8 lb

I hate this. I've started to share my weight more than a handful of times and I always end up deleting it. I feel ashamed. I feel guilty. I feel worthless. - all because of a stupid number. 

You all are now my accountability, too. I know the number isn't the most important thing which is why I share other aspects of my training but I think it's important for me to be honest with myself about how far I still have to go since I am overweight and I do need to lose more.

These feelings came to a head yesterday during my Intro. to Clinical Medicine class. We just started our Cardiovascular block so we're learning a more in-depth cardio physical exam. Two of my friends were having trouble finding my femoral pulse (which is right in that bikini line area). They called one of the docs over who proceeded to say "You have to press harder on people with 'extra tissue.'" Clearly it was a comment that was meant to be instructive, not malicious. But it stuck with me and it brought up a lot of the comments I've heard my whole life "you have a beautiful face but...you could lose X pounds" and a variety of other weight-related comments. 

I know I should be proud of the progress I've made and even if the scale isn't changing as fast as I would like, I should KNOW I'm changing. But then I get wrapped up in the feelings I described above. I just hope one of these days the pride and strength with predominate the doubt and worthlessness. Am I alone here?

A few more updates:

Last night I had my 5th long run for half marathon training. The weather was pretty great - started out at 48 degrees so I didn't have to layer up too much.  The run, on the other hand, was HARD. I haven't run 6 miles since November when I ran my 10K. I wanted to quit. I wanted to give up. 

Usually after about a mile or two, I find my groove. The endophins kick in and I stop feeling and just run. That moment never really came last night...it was a struggle. I haven't been getting all my short runs in lately which is probably the problem. Since the weather is getting better, my goal is to follow my training schedule to a T this week. 

I'm starting to get scared to run more than 6 miles - I've never done this before! Luckily next week is a fall back week where we just run for 40 minutes so I'll have time to get lots of mileage in before the 7 mile doozy!

Whew...so there it is. Enjoy the rest of your week and make it a great one!

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Hello everybody! Welcome to Weigh-In Wednesday!

Please go check out my sweet co-host!

Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

If you're new to the link-up, please leave a comment!

Whoops...got to school today and realized I forgot to post! Sounds like a pretty regular event for me so I'm sure ya'll aren't surprised. Thank you for sticking with me over the past few months - I haven't been as interactive or up-to-date as I should be. I'm slowly getting into a good routine with school so I hope to be more active next semester! 

The weeks are flying by! First, the weigh-in. It's week three of boot camp and I've officially lost the 5 lbs I've be cycling up and down with for the past two months ..hopefully by next week I'll be at a number I haven't seen since before my 21st birthday! (which I will be sharing!) That brings the grand total to 21.4 lbs lost!

In other news, on Monday I had my first "Final Exam" for Scientific Foundations. No more basic science classes (provided I passed...)!!!  We are starting our Hematology systems course which will include EVERYTHING about the blood and associated structures - pathology, histology, physiology, etc. I AM SO EXCITED! I'm ready to put the science I've learned into a clinical context and actually know "doctor things" instead of cell signaling pathways with little to no context. I'm ready to attack this material and kill it because Foundations was a struggle. (More about med school in a future post).

Anyway, last week was pretty much spent like this:

or this.

Can you say "struggle bus?" And now I'm in recovery mode. I took Monday evening off after the exam and now I'm back to the grind! I'm really sad because I'm officially three weeks behind on American Horror Story & The Walking Dead. Also behind on Grey's Anatomy and Scandal...#smh Any idea where I can find AHS or TWD online?

Despite the shambly life I lead, I did manage to get some great workouts in last week - boot camp on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, a couple beautiful runs, and two yoga classes.

This was my long run from last week. This week I need to bust out 5 miles so I know I'll be ready for Thanksgiving! I was super slow that day but I had to do some walking. My left foot has been bothering me lately - I'm thinking extensor tendontitis - mostly my 2nd metatarsal. It usually only bothers me on longer runs - at boot camp I'm typically fine, even during sprints. I'm hoping that with ice and rest, it'll be fine for the race! 

I wish I would've taken pictures of yoga but I went to two classes last week! One of our classmates teaches yoga on Wednesday afternoons (fo free!) which is a great study break and way to relax - a few of the professors and other staff of the med school do it with us! I also tried a yoga studio in downtown Indy with a few classmates on Sunday. Unfortunately the hot yoga class was full so we just did the express un-heated class. I DEFINITELY prefer hot yoga but it was still a great experience and I'll be going back again for sure! 

Eating is probably my biggest obstacle - I try to eat as well as possible but sometimes it gets hard. I feel like when I study, I'm ALWAYS hungry. Plus, I usually look forward to meals because I don't make myself study during meal breaks so I want ALL the food. Haha - I'm in no danger of starving so I need to calm it down.

Homeade Apple Cinnamon Walnut oatmeal!

Salmon and Orzo from Trader Joe's

A treat after the exam! (I didn't eat all the PB cups in one sitting...over three days, don't worry!)

Nothing new to report for Wedding Wednesday - just continuing to work hard and hopefully be ready for dress shopping in a month or so!

Have you ever had foot issues while running?

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It's already Wednesday, my loves! My favorite day of the week(ok, this is so false.) It's my favorite blog day of the week, though!  

Tomorrow is the official end of my Advocare cleanse! Yay! I'm going to "extend" my clean-eating to Friday night which is the Kenny Chesney concert.  I plan on staying very hydrated that night, if you catch my drift. My friend's wedding is on Saturday and I have a date with some of my favorite Bloomington establishments - Nick's, Kilroys, The Tap, maybe some Pizza X cheesy bread. Basically a 48 hours pass for being really, really bad and having an epic time!  Then it's back to the kicking ass and losing pounds on Sunday! I'm not stopping!

My energy is high, I'm feeling really, really good and really motivated to keep going on this journey. For a few weeks I was head conductor of the struggle bus but things are really looking up! 

Not going to share solid numbers with you today. I'm saving that for Friday. I will tell you that I've hit a number I haven't seen in over a year. It's not even about the number for me today.  It's the fact that I've managed to stick with something I put my mind to and that I've reengergized my weight loss.  

I'm gonna say. I'm really proud of myself. Have I been absolutely perfect, amazing, awesome at the cleanse? No. Do I deserve a medal? Probably not. But I proved to myself that this doesn't have to be a horrible, awful experience. I am still able to enjoy life without relying on food to help make it special or memorable. I definitely have a long way to go still and a lot of goals to accomplish but I'm getting there and I'm making solid progress.

For Workout Wednesday, I want to share with you a fun little workout that's a little outside of the box. We have an amazing Nature Center in Cincinnati with miles of trails, community programs, birding, and more! I bought a pass last fall but really didn't start using it until this spring. Now I love it! 

I usually walk/run the trails but sometimes you want to get a complete body workout, too! Here is a workout for when you are walking the trails - maybe you have a nature center or community park near you that you can try it at! Let me know how it goes! (Don't be afraid to bust out some squats on the trail...everyone else wishes they would've thought of it.)