Je suis de retour!
Wow, it's been awhile since I logged in here! That's just the product of being way too busy and taking on more responsibilities this year than I had last year...
I have some good news, and some bad news.
Starting off with the good news: fear not! I am still cooking. Every week. What I am not still doing is losing more weight. I've hovered at about the same weight (which, fortunately, is only one pound over my lowest achievement) because I'm still exercising like a fiend, but ...
Here's the bad news: I can't seem to limit the quantity of junk food going into my mouth (couple that with Halloween candy on every corner at work and at my boyfriend's and I can't say no...). So, the classic problem at hand remains the same: although what I eat is 90% healthy, I have a tendency to eat too much of the other 10%, which is why my weight has remained stagnant. Although I haven't gained since last I logged, I'm still feeling awfully discouraged that I can't seem to make more progress. Why? I have too many moments where I throw my self-control out the window, often with the argument of "I've worked my butt off today, and I've eaten well, and I deserve a treat as a late-night reward before I go to bed." Sadly, I often have trouble limiting the portion size of said treat. (Boo, Kemmie. Boo!)
But here is some more good news: I just had a doctor's appointment this week. Here are my stats: although I am 5 pounds heavier than I was when I first moved here, my blood pressure is still low and my doctor told me that I have such an "athletic"-looking physique that she would have guessed I was 20 pounds thinner just by looking at me! (Hot-damn, that made me feel pretty good!) She said that ideally, with my height, I might wanna weigh 10-15 pounds less, but she told me that I shouldn't sweat it too much because I am doing all the right things the majority of the time. And, some of that weight gain could also be muscle, in my core and in my legs: when first I moved here, I was pushing 90 pound weights on my lower body and using a 5 pound weight for my core exercises. Now, I'm pumping 165 pounds on my lower body, and 30 pounds on my core! Folks, I'm gonna have to attribute my newly-attained sleek physique to weight training. I never thought I would say it, because I did just cardio for most of my life and was happy with it, but wondered why my body shape never really fundamentally changed. It's all in the weight training. I do it three times a week for 45 minutes, coupled with 45 - 60 minutes of various cardio exercises that are low impact to protect my leg (elliptical, bike, uphill walking). I have moved up to level 10 on the elliptical and the bike from level 8, and on the treadmill, I'm pushing as high as a level 15.0 incline from a meager 2.0 incline!
SO: for those of you that knew me before my skiing accident in Norway in 2007, I take huge pride in telling you that I am significantly stronger - stronger than I ever would have imagined - than before it even happened. I am counting my blessings and thanking Norwegian medicine every day for it, because I honestly never thought I would ever be able to get to where I am today.
Maybe things aren't so bad as I make them out to be... maybe this is the reason I need to be blogging still. Not just to keep myself accountable for my failures, but also to celebrate all my successes which, in my opinion, seem to be outweighing my failures at this point.
I think today calls for another inspirational trip to Whole Foods. I haven't been in two months. Time to compose the next grocery list and the next week's meals... and the best part about these meals? They're French meals!
A table!
Yours in French culinary awesomeness,
K
