Shape stats

Yesterday I went and had my monthly body composition evaluation and measurements of some of my many and varied parts at the gym. I really had no idea what would be revealed given my, er, inconsistent sticking to my food plan (translate: too frequent binges); but I was hopeful nonetheless because I've been much more on track than off, and my exercising has stayed pretty steady. I'm delighted to report that things are looking good!

The body composition involves stepping on that complex computer disguised as a scale (I described last month) that can somehow interpret from the molecules of one's bare feet what amount of said human is water, fat and lean (sounds like the Jack Sprat nursery rhyme) along with other data that escapes me at the moment. Interestingly, if one gets on this same machine wearing socks, it just spits out your weight. I don't get how this Tanita scale works, but yesterday it had the power to make my day. Is that a little eating disordered or what?!

First, I lost 3 pounds from 4 weeks ago; and more important I was under 200 for the first time on this scale. It always is about 3 pounds higher than my home scale and I was 198.2 on that yesterday morning. At 3 yesterday afternoon on the Tanita, I was 198.5. Not exactly a lightweight, but I was utterly surprised and delighted. The other readings were improved as well, with the exception that I haven't added any lean muscle mass due to the fact that I haven't been able to do upper body strength training b/c of an achy elbow and bicep. The measurements were good too. Last month where I'd either added a half inch at waist and stayed the same at the mmidline, both had decreased by an inch and a half! I feel newly inspired and motivated to keep going.

My last tidbit is that I've been doing exercise ball crunches and other abdominal exercises for a couple of months and haven't really felt much soreness during or later. Also, I'm aware that my low back seems to involuntarily tense and do some of the ab work, which is not good and contributes to occasional back spasms. I've attributed this to the total lack of tone of my abs from 3 pregnancies and 25 years of being fat. But I'm beginning to feel my abs and related minor soreness after a workout. It seems there really are some muscles under the very large spare tire(s) of fat below my waist, and they are definitely strengthening. The trainer told me abs are a part of the body with which MANY women lose "touch" and awareness; but with consistent training - they evidence themselves nicely!

So good news at the gym. I haven't mentioned yet that in November, hubby and I are travelling to the Domincan Republic to visit our daughter who's in the Peace Corps. I told the trainer I'd love to lose another 8 pounds before we go (November 2nd), and the trainer said that was realistic and doable with hard work and consistency. So the goal: weigh 190 lbs when we leave. If I can figure out how some of you techno-marvel bloggers do the weight countdowns on your sidebars, I'm going to do it. I finally figured out the picture uploading, so there's no stopping me now!