Renewed

Last week I made a whole set of changes in my life that ultimately I think will benefit me in terms of my energy levels, happiness and productivity in terms of my MCATs studying. I cut back on my volunteering hours (I only volunteer Monday mornings, Tuesdays and Fridays) and have only been working two-three days during the week.

In terms of weight loss--I haven't lost and I haven't gained. This week's weight reading was 163.4lbs, which is the same as it has been these past two weeks. Anyways I do have a renewed sense of determination in terms of getting to where I've always wanted to be in terms of my health and fitness goals. I believe that to ultimately get to your weight loss goals, you have a graph that looks as follows:
There is not a steady or linear downward graph, but rather a graph with plateaus and even in some cases small gains along the way. And I am in one of those plateaus. It's like the phase change diagram for water, where water stays between each phase (be it water, ice or steam) for a range of temperatures before it switches to a whole new phase. I am stuck in this 161-164lb phase and will have to make renewed efforts to get the graph to start moving down again. Which brings me to one of my goals that I shall seriously implement these upcoming months:

Operation: BECOME an ATHLETE.


I love Serena Williams body. It's curvaceous but yet so strong and meaty and muscular. She looks like an amazonian woman, with thick thighs and strong arms. She doesn't by any means look skinny or weak. She looks capable. Everything I want to be in terms of an athlete.

Too often, I have shied away from certain exercises/sabotaged my efforts believing that my unathletic ability was tied into the idea that I would be the fat out-of-shape girl for the rest of my life. Me-an athlete?! The idea was laughable. But I know that I am my biggest hurdle. I can be whomever I want, and athlete is certainly included within my repertoire. I am incredibly strong and have a lot of mental discipline when I want to be in focus. I have the legs, the stamina and the cardiovascular system all built into making this happen. And I don't believe for a second that I couldn't just spend 10-15 minutes a day making this happen. The key to making this goal happen is consistency and self-belief that I CAN DO IT. And so this is my goal for the year, and for the rest of my life. I would like to be able to run 2miles at a time without that number seeming daunting. I want to do triathlons and races (5Ks and 10Ks alike) and become IN-SHAPE. And that's what I want to do more than anything. Use my body as the capable, able instrument it is. This morning I woke up at 6:50am, got on the treadmil by 7:15 and ran until 7:30. Now I know for many of you this is laughable, but I RAN. without stopping. For over 1 mile. Like 1.25 miles. Which is more than I've done in a year and the endurance is what I need to harvest more than anything. The speed will come. It's endurance I need to grow.

In other things, I need to start doing MCATs tests. I have been studying the material and it is just not helping me. I am a results-based learner and I need to do exams and improve my score to actually feel like I'm learning. So that's what I'm going to start doing.

I have been doing self-sabotaging things and will stop those immediately. I have to go back to timed eating--not calorie counting restrictively, but eating things every 3 or so hours to make sure I don't binge and don't let myself get too hungry. I am eating tons of veggies and fruits and LOVING IT.

I am SOO EXCITED THAT SPRING IS HERE. I love summer and spring and any time I can breathe outside without seeing physical condensation.
Here' s a view outside my window. It's absolutely beautiful to wake up to this every morning:

P.s. Thanks for the comments on the pictures I posted. You guys sure know how to make this blogging thing worth it :D