ok, I am now back to the weight I was at last year. which is 119 Lbs. I was trying do watch what I eat most of the time and do some "extra" physical activity (on top of what I've always been doing) almost everyday. So far the progress has been good.

It's been ages since I wrote in here. I had a dramatic spring and had to deal with a major health crisis followed by a depression. Which caused so much weakness in me and brought me 8 extra pounds!

Here I am now, back home since 2 days ago... strong willed to get back to my previous weight (115 Lbs). In the past 2 days since I got home, I have been watching better what I eat, I have planned to jog every morning and today I jogged for 15 mins around the house while it was pouring. The key is to not to be tempted to stay up late (my hubby is a night owl!) and therefore being able to get up early for jogging before it gets too hot.

Wish me luck!

I have been quite good this week. Did all my planned workouts/dance classes except for one belly dancing class which got canceled. I was watching what I was having and I discovered something cool and that is:

 Anar's Tofu receipe is such a cool thing. I made it last night. 2 slice of Tofu makes me full for hours and hours. It's low in cal and a rich source of protein so it's great after my noon weight training class as a perfect lunch! and it's so easy to prep.

I also baked some sweet potatos as side dish and that was the perfect mate for the tofu!

yummmmmmm!

Well I obviously couldn't stay on my 115 Lbs. and I am 116Lbs. this week! I can blame part of it on coninsiding with my period and the fact that I feel so bloated but it's partly for not watching carefully! No one is to blame but myself!

I went to a bunch of social gathering as an out of town friend was visiting and we eneded up sharing tapas (mostly not light on fat, carbs, etc) and had 1/4 glass of wine (instead of the usual 2 glasses). I also felt hungry more often than the weeks before.

I am going to watch a bit better and see if I can lose this unwanted pound by next week!

I am pleased to announce that I finally reached my weight goal!! My whole journey was on losing 5 pounds and it took forever.

I have been active and watching what I eat before I start this journey, and that is why it took a lot longer for me to lose this last 5 pounds.

I think the key factors for me to get out of my long plateau and lose weight were:

- Taking ABT sculpting class. I used to weight training and do a lot of leg exercise (i.e. lunges, squads, etc) but the ABT is 45 minutes of intensive leg workout and we end up with about 250-300 repetitions of a combination of leg exercises in 45 minutes. Well there'll be 4-5 days of extreme leg soreness afterwards as well, but the result is pretty significant.

- Logging everything into the food/workout/sleep template that Anar has introduced. I gave up logging after a while as I thought I learned what I should have and now I can keep up, but to my own surprise I was eating a lot more when I was not logging my food intake!!

- Resisting some desserts and having cooked lentil some nights as dinner. Lentils are loaded with protein and fiber.

- Having at least 2 types of fruit (one of each) everyday and staying away from the office vending machines.

I hope I can maintain this weight. I workout almost 10 hours a week. So the key thing for me was even watching more my food. This week I have a flu and my appetite is quite low (almost none), so I think there'll be a challenge once I gained my appetite next week!!

I am happy!

Ok, after not logging what I eat and what I do for almost 3-4 weeks and messing my healthy habbits up, I decided to get back on track as of this week and log whatever I eat/do as before.

Obviously I have gained some weight as a result of this but it is not as bad as I thought it would be. I have gained 0.8 pounds since the last time I weighted myself.

I took an ABT Sculpting class, which focuses on Abs, Buttocks, and Thighs. It was very difficult endurance-wise but it was quite good. I could hardly feel my legs afterwards and they were so shaky. So I decided to skip my noon circuit class although I could have done only the upper body exercises but that's not good to skip 3/4 of the moves in circuit.

For the evening, I went to my chiropractor's core training class. It's free of charge for his patients and it's very good. I used to go hiking on Monday evenings but because of this class I moved the hiking to Thursdays. Well, I used to go to Belly dancing class on Thursdays but we lost our studio and until we find another one my Thursdays freed up. Once that starts again I guess I will have to move the weekly hikes to Wednesdays and skip my other core class in the pole dancing studio. Sounds complicated? 

I am kind of proud of myself for this week! Even if I don't lose a gram on the scale, I'd still feel proud.

I  was so sore/tired yesterday (due to soreness from Monday's circuit, the hike, and the chiropractor's adjustments), before I even start the lunch time circuit. I, however, pushed hard at the circuit and although I was totally exhausted before the boot camp class, I still showed up and worked my butt off in that hard-core class!

Also after 9 months of total lack of motivation about pole dancing and not touching the pole for such a long time, I started to try new moves, although it hurts... soooo much!! I just have to be persistent and patient with it!

I read Anar's last post about her running for 15 miles (24 Km) and had tears in my eyes. I am so inspired by her and her dedication to her goals is only one out of many things about her that inspires me.  I wish she knew how proud of her I am. I would never forget her journey to complete this long exhausting run.

I tried harder at today's circuit. I did add extra 5 Lbs weight to my regular weight machines, and I performed my squats one-legged! I picked 16 Lbs weights on my new lifted lunges and did half of my ball-squats one-legged.

I am also going to hike this evening after work and I hope I can finish the trail faster than last time.

I am going to dedicate my tonight's hike to Anar and her influence in my life!

P.S. I just got back from the hike. I finished it 2 minutes faster than the last time (86 minutes), but I could have been faster if my glutes were not so sore due to the extra hard circuit workout I did during lunch hour. The 3rd quarter of this trail is the steepest and the hardest part of it, thinking of Anar's dedication yesterday, made me stronger to keep up my pace.

Monday was a holiday in our province, and I decided to give myself that day off working out. So no lunch time circuit training and no evening hiking! It is not bad every now and then to give your body a break and start the next workout with a lot more energy!

P.S. I was happier on the scale this morning!

Although I noticed that I have gained weight since my holidays ended and I got back to work (must be the sit-in job that I have), I pushed myself to go hiking (Grouse Grind) with TC last night after work. It was rainy/misty and all the rocks were wet and slippery! My goal was to finish the hike in 105 minutes, but we finished it in 96 minutes instead despite our very slow pace!

Then we headed down with the skyride and went to an italian pizzeria, I had 2 slices of my medium thin crust pizza and then we went to watch "knocked up" in the movie theatre. It was a real lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng day! but felt quite good and there was no exhaustion or soreness after all!

I feel good that I did it!