NSV time!

For those who may not be familiar with the term, NSV is an acronym that means "Non-scale victory". An NSV is basically something that shows you what kind of progress you are makin, progress that might not be reflected in the numbers on the scale.

Moved down a notch on your belt? That's a non-scale victory.

Ran a block without getting winded? Did a full sit up? Those are non scale victories.

Finally saw your feet for the first time in years? NSV baby!

NSV's are an important thing to recognize and celebrate, because let's face it.. Sometimes those numbers on the scale don't move fast enough for our liking. But that doesn't mean we aren't making progress. No ma'am.

I celebrated a big NSV this week. Previously I spoke of pants and my wear vs my no-wear drawer. Well, this past Saturday, lacking something to wear for a night out, I decided to venture into the no-wear drawer and to my delight, after losing about 9 lbs, I have moved two more pairs into the "wear" drawer, including one pair that at one time were my very favorite pair. I was so happy I ran out to the living to dance around and show off to Guy For Whom I Have Not Come Up With A Good Blog Alias™

I had intended to show a progress pic, and even had the eldest child take a blurry, head-cut-off photo with the iPad but it occurs to me that I still am unable to upload pics to Blogger. I'll tell you what, though, if you follow me on Twitter, I'll go ahead and post it there. Sound like a plan? K.

Back on track again... So far, so good.

It has been a good week, it has.

After my post last week about kicking my own ass, I did just that. I got back to using my myfitnesspal tracker, and I have been tracking the shit out of my food intake.. Last night I had two pretzels while I made my lunch, and I marked it down.

I'm also back to making sure to drink lots of water. I have to pee constantly, which means lots of time spent away from my desk, running to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. I've lost most of the weight I gained back over the last three or four weeks, which is awesome.

This week for exercise I had an hour and a half kickboxing class, have played three hours of Just Dance 2, and have walked for 2 hours and 20 minutes. I'm really I feeling back on track this week. It's been helpful that the weather has been gorgeous and unseasonably warm for march in the snow belt. I can't help but want to constantly be outside, doing stuff.

Feeling motivated! I love it!

Night-time snacking or "I really need a hobby"

Oh my dear, it's been 40 posts already? Coincidentally, today also marks my dearest and onliest sister's fortieth birthday, so all in all it's a day of milestones.

I must confess, I've not been doing well. To make an obscure cultural reference that may or may not have come from South Park, "I Rack Disciprine!"

It's terrible. Not tracking, not really exercising. I still go to kickboxing on the regular, but the dance nights and the walks have definitely waned.

And I'm snacking at night again, which is a problem. I dunno, I guess I'm bored. I'm generally pretty good during the day at work, and I'm pretty good when people are around, but by myself with nothing to do it's all graze, graze, graze. It's not even like I don't have anything to do... I could blog, play my guitar... Hell, I could paint. I have at least three paintings started that i haven't touched in ages. These are all things that keep my hands busy, but I find at night I'm too tired to get up the motivation to do these things, but still too wound up after getting the girls to bed to just go the hell to bed and thus avoid the snack-trap.

I'm not even snacking for pleasure or because i'm still hungry after dinner. More just for something to do. Bugger. I've made a wee bit of progress that I don't want to lose but dammit, I need some motivation back. Summer is coming and I'd like to be back in all my summery clothes. The Warrior Dash is a scant four months away and I need to train and be in at least half-decent shape for that.

I need to kick my own ass is what I need. I've been kicking my ass at work to get more done, I've been kicking my ass at home to keep my house clean (this is day four of it being tidy!) now I need to kick my ass to keep motivated with my food tracking and workouts.

Any suggestions?

My Thighs Hate Me Today

Hoo boy.

So, I was sick last week, so Monday night marked my first night back at kick-boxing in over a week.  I am paying for it now.  My thighs are still screaming at me today.  Our instructor, a fun and enthusiastic woman with what I suspect is a vaguely sadistic streak, had us doing all manner of high kicks and lunges.  Freakin' lunges.  And I get to go back tonight.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm in pain, but I love it.  Years ago, I couldn't have done what I do now.

Back when I started on the first leg of my journey, I realized that to get this to work I was going to have to, you know.. get active.  I've never been real fond of that whole moving around and being active thing, having always been drawn to more sedentary pursuits such as reading, tv watching and sleep.

I started slow.  I'd take walks everyday on my break.  I'd park at the far end of the parking when I shopped.  I took the stairs in my apartment building, especially on laundry day.  Four or five trips up and down a flight of stairs carrying a hamper definitely felt like a workout.

Walking gets boring, so I decided I needed to up the ante.  I had joined gyms in the past but always found them boring.  I needed something that didn't feel like work.. something I could do that would be fun but also force me to be active.

I joined a women's softball team.  This year will mark my fifth season.

Later I took 3-4 months of belly-dancing lessons.  Unfortunately, they are no longer offered in the area as my instructor had to give up teaching due to a slipped disc.  Sad.  I enjoyed the dance class because it taught me a lot about how my own body moves and taught me that, various imperfections and all, my body is sexy and can move with grace.  I used to come home from those classes feeling very sensual and relaxed and kind of in lust with myself.

Roughly a year and a half ago, wanting something more challenging, I went to a kick-boxing open house.  The first class killed me, but I felt like such a bad-ass that I scrounged the money together and signed up for a three month course.  The first few weeks, dead in the middle of July, were rough.  I whined and bitched and moaned through each class and limped my way up the stairs to work the next day.  But I kept going back.

When I started, I could struggle my way through maybe 5-6 from-the-knee push-ups.  Since then I have done thousands upon thousands of push-ups (or so it seems!).  I've gone from being close to tears after 20 crunches, to being able (with great effort) to struggle through close to fifty straight push-ups.  I've also learned I can take a round-house kick to the face and not cry.  And I can punch, kick and spin my way through a 20-move combination barely missing a beat.

I've learned to appreciate how it feels to sweat, to work my body to its limit.  So I'll go tonight, even though my muscles are still cursing me, and I'll bitch, and moan and shoot Jill dirty looks when she calls out "15 Burpees!" with a smile.  And I'll come home tired but feeling good that I haven't given up.  It still has to be fun, though.  If I'm not having fun, I can't be arsed to take the pain (and by pain I mean the good pain...I don't want to injure myself).  If you're struggling for a way to be more active, find your fun and as you progress you may want to try new things.  Being active doesn't need to be work, and if it doesn't feel like work, you may be more inclined to stick with it.

I'm all Chuck Norris n' shit.