It’s about time I started these again! I’ve been putting it off because of the shame of the weight I’ve gained back. Speaking of, we have a new geeky reference for my slip-ups. Joining the Oregon Trail wagon bursting into flames I present to you, the Shame Nun from Game of Thrones!
Now that that’s out of the way and I’ve faced the music (because of the bell, get it?!?!) Let’s begin this recap of my current status.
Looking at the picture, while I’ve definitely gained back, it’s nice to know that you can still visually see a difference between the original picture last January and now. So not all my hard work was reversed, thankfully. Here’s the status of everything else.
Overall – I feel really good. My body is showing signs similar to how I felt when I had success last year. My love handles feel less dense, for lack of a better definition. Many of the trainers at Orange Theory are now different than last year, they’ve gotten to witness my recovery and restart of the journey. I’ve gotten to the fitness level where they feel comfortable pushing me and sometimes giving me crap when I suck at things, which I like! I’m taking things much slower than last year with hopes that it will be more sustainable this time around.
The ankle/achilles – there was a cog in the chain dating back to almost a year ago! First plantar fasciitis, then the achilles, then the ankle, then everything again. I think the root of all these problems has actually been my calves the whole time. They were what cramped up during the 5k, and they’re all part of the chain, I may have been compensating this whole time.
I know I’ve said this in the past, but simply resting will only get the injury healed up to a certain point. Once I begin testing it out and conservatively worked it out, I’m happy to say that it’s about 95% healed. So work it out so it’ll grow stronger, but not too hard to you aggravate it, and make sure to stretch a TON and keep it loose!
Workouts – Referring to my trusty spreadsheet I started where I track all the numbers Orange Theory gives us after each workout, along with notes I write of what weights I used and how I felt, things are looking positive here. Since the beginning of the year my average calories burned per workout dropped by 20 calories, my average heart rate dropped 2 beats per minute, my time spent in the higher heart rate zones dropped a couple minutes.
However, my “base pace” speed increased by 0.5 mph, and “push pace” and “all out” have increased a full mph! Lower heart rate but better performance, that means my heart is healthier! My speed is about where it was a year ago, however I weigh more now, so those leg muscles must be pretty strong. Once I lose some weight so there’s less pressure on the legs, that’s going to be a force to be reckoned with!
Particularly, these past few workouts have been very tough, but I’ve felt great and extremely proud of my accomplishment. Tying back with the first point, a lot of me is just happy that I can go for it without worrying about re-injuring myself.
Nutrition – Always my sticking point. I haven’t been as good as I would like with cooking, but my choices have been better. Been eating steel cut oats in the morning, have nuts to snack on while at work, been buying more fruit. Not surprising, this is the area that needs the most improvement, so I feel I will focus on that the most. Especially in the next couple weeks with the Night Nation Run sneaking up in 2 1/2 weeks!
My current weight: 290
Total lost since Jan 2015: 10.6