Non-Scale Victories Linkup April 25, 2013

Hello!

It's time for my favorite post of the week, Non-Scale Victories with Katie and Lex!  And this week, I have lots to share with you!

1)  I started serious strength training.  I've been doing a lot of research lately on different things I can do to not only lose weight but to start toning and gaining some more muscle definition; apparently hours and hours of cardio is NOT the answer.  If there was a tiara for Cardio Queen, I would own it.  I spend SO much time doing cardio as well as watching every calorie that goes in and out for so long,  and I've been just slowly losing...and many weeks, losing nothing at all.  It's SO frustrating.  So, I took to the Internet to do some research and what I found was pretty eye opening.  Well, for me anyway.  Cardio alone will not melt the pounds away.  We need to incorporate more strength training into our routines AS WELL AS, limit cardio time.  I'm not saying not to attend your favorite Zumba class because believe me, no one is going to take that away from me.  But on days when you aren't doing cardio, do some strength training.  This could include something like Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred or kettlebell training.  Just add some muscle-building into your routines.  Now, I know you could go online and find an article supporting any type of subject you could imagine...but for me, I've been at a standstill for awhile now, and I'm going to try to see where this strength training thing goes.  I learned that even resting muscle helps to burn calories.  Here's a few articles I found on limiting cardio or including aerobic AND strength training:

http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/8-cardio-myths-are-making-you-fat

If you have a bit more time and like graphs and math equations:  http://www.precisionnutrition.com/rr-cardio-vs-weights

2)  After doing my research, and the feeling I had after an amazing run last week, I'm putting my scale to rest.  No more weighing every week.  I'm not even going to weigh every other week.  I am making a commitment to only weigh once a month.  And that might even change if I continue to see results.  One takeaway from the second article above is that scale weight is NOT precise:  Weight is not fat mass.  Check out this photo below from that article:

I am so sick and tired of the scale dictating my emotions.  I LOVE the feeling I have after a great workout and the excitement of smaller clothes, and I want to feel that good all the time...which leads me to NSV #3...

3)   I went shopping and I'm officially in the next smaller size - 16!  Since about Fall and through Winter, I've been stuck between 18 & 16, which in the big scheme of life is great...but NOT fun when you need new clothes!  I also took my measurements which I haven't done in almost a year and the difference was pretty profound!  I have lost a total of 13.25" off various parts of my body since June of 2012...guess where the biggest loss came from?  My girls!!  How frustrating is that??  I did NOT need to lose from that area, one bit!  Another cool part of this is that it was super cool last week and my Hubs had a sweatshirt in his truck so I grabbed it and not only was it loose, I could zip it up!  THAT hasn't happened in 18 years...just sayin'.

4)  My last NSV happened just yesterday.  I had a Dr's appointment which was a followup to labs we did a few weeks ago and everything stayed about the same as last year.  Which is good according to him, but bad according to me.  I had hoped that I was doing so well that I could be off the cholesterol medicine altogether.  My cholesterol levels were good, though...they went down where they were supposed to and my good cholesterol went up, but it wasn't what I wanted to hear.  I almost cried actually and I think he could tell because he all of a sudden came to stand right in front of me and said, “Jenn, you are MY success story…do you know that?  I tell people about you.  What you have done to change your life is amazing and you need to know that.  We cannot help genetics, and it sucks that you were dealt this little bump, but you are on your way and you can’t even spend one more minute thinking of this.  I DO think that if everything keeps going the way it is, this time next year, we will be having a different conversation.  Everything that you are doing to get healthy is working!  I am not concerned one bit and you shouldn't be either.”  So that made me feel much better...He even suggested that I write a book.  Funny, but I don't see that happening.

So there, you have it, my NSVs for the week.  Not a bad week!