11.18.11: The Measure of Success

I finally took measurements today.

The last time I'm pretty sure I was:
Bust- 39
Chest- 35.5
Waist- 30.5
Hips- 44.5
Thighs- 27

Today?
Bust- 37
Chest- 33.5
Waist- 29.5
Hips- 44
Thighs- 26

Weight at original inches- appx. 180
Weight at new inches- appx. 170

Looking up clothing sizes, apparently my chest/waist measurements are perfectly in ratio to be a 10. My hips? Still at a 14 in most sizes.

Also, I've been running. In fact, in October, I ran typically 2 times, maybe 3 times a week. Intervals were my plan of choice. I wanted to be able to comfortably run a 10 minute mile by the end of the month, which I would say I was mostly successful at achieving.

My new goal? Be able to run 5 miles by the end of the year. Which, honestly, I think is perfectly attainable. This is my 2 mile week. Already at a 5 mph pace, the 2 miles is easy. EASY. It was rough on Wednesday when I tried to do a 5 mph for the first mile and then 6 mph for the second. I mean, I completed it. But I felt absolutely wretched. I think today I'll try and find middle ground in running 5.5 mph for the 2nd half.

Next week I go up to 2.5 miles. And then each subsequent week, I will be adding one half mile. So, I'm anxious to see how this goes.

I'm proud that along with the exercising, I've been trying to strike a better balance between the junk food that's so convenient and the healthy food I need to be eating. I'm seeing a LOT more fruits and vegetables in my diet. Of course, I've always eaten a lot more turkey and chicken meat, so lean proteins aren't really a problem for me. I think the biggest issue is just the little things that add up for me: Buying a bag of funyuns at work for my afternoon snack because I forgot to bring a bag of carrots or an apple, craving a soda and grabbing a Sprite at the vending machine.

Which, brings me to sodas. Even after this summer's episode in the hospital, I still haven't completely cut out cokes. It's one of those things, I realize that I need to do it. And actually, I've been doing a lot better. A typical week means 2-3 cans worth of coke. Before the summer? I had gotten up to 7-15 worth in a week I'd say. So, obviously, there's improvement. Haha...

Oddly enough, I think that the new multivitamin I've been taking the last week has really helped. My cravings are almost non-existant. This is likely because it's a women's one-a-day geared toward boosting metabolism... it has caffeine. So, getting that 70 mg of caffeine (which is twice the caffeine content of one can of coke) really helps. The only day I've had a craving was when I forgot to take my vitamin until about 2 hours after I normally take it. By that time, I had already made a trip to the vending machines... Oops.

Anyway, speaking of the summer, I've been working really hard to drink more water like they said. I would say an average day, I go through a half gallon. Which is perfect! That's my 8 cups (8 ounces) that I need.

My next big task I face is making sure I keep up with my exercise and find a good time to do it. Lately, I've been going late at night, which when I just need 30 min, it's do-able. But as my workout time increases? Still working on this scheduling puzzle... My other thing is I need to make sure I'm sleeping. I feel like I would do better if I was getting 9 hours. Instead, I average 7-8. Which, to most, wouldn't be a bad amount. I just wish it was better.

So, this ended up being a rather long update that pretty much no one will read. But that's OK. My blog's more like a public journal for my personal records anyway...

:D