only half a pound drop from last week - boo!
I'm in the 170s - yeah!!!
Disappointed, yes, but not too worried because I know I did great last week. How do I know??? My new toy - Polar FT7 heart rate monitor. Here it is in all its glory again:
I wore it all week during workouts - kickboxing, body pump, spin. Some of my worst fears did come true....calories burned in MyFitnessPal are definitely inflated! Especially for cardio...for example, according to MFP 1hour of "Kickboxing" should burn 823 calories but per my HRM I only burned 655. MFP is 25% high. But for body pump, MFP is way low. According to MFP, 1 hr "Strength Training" burns 255 calories while my HRM shows 355. I usually do Kickboxing/Body Pump back-to-back so I think it all evens out in the end. But I do really enjoy the instant feedback. I can even wear it swimming. How cool is that? I swam 80 laps on Saturday. The pool at my gym is 25m so 80 laps is 2000meters which is about 1.25miles. Heart rate was consistently 70-75% of max & HRM helped keep me on pace so it only took me about 60 minutes to swim those 80 laps. Love that!
My big bday gift this year is this beauty:
 |
| Feeling so spoiled! |
It is a Specialized Ruby Comp - a *really* nice women's road bike. All carbon fiber, upgraded shifters, fancy tires, etc. This is not a man's bike shrunken down - it's a bike built for women. It feels sooooo comfortable and light.
Of course, there is a backstory here........my husband was not super thrilled at the idea of lapband. He was worried about the surgery, complications, side effects, whether I'd stick with it or fail like every other weight loss attempt, if it was money down the drain, etc, etc, etc. I knew that I could not do this journey without his support - it was critical to me that he be a part of it. Now, we've been together a long time & I've learned how to manage him pretty well. I'm also under no illusions that he knows how to manage me just as well.
So, in order to get his support for this effort, I dangled a little bribe. My husband loves to bike! He rides a ton, has cycled a couple 100-mile races and he loves the Tour de France. He watches every single day of that race. Personally, I think watching paint dry would be more interesting but he loves it. Biking is what he uses to stay in shape & he's spent many years trying to get me more involved. I think he has this vision in his head where the whole family goes out for a long ride through the Colorado mountains. A few years ago, we compromised & I bought a cruiser bike. You know - seat big enough for my big ass, wide handle bars & a wicker basket in front. Very comfy but not built for speed (kinda like me, actually).
I know that one of his dream vacations is to do a bike tour through Europe and even ride a few stages of the Tour de France or ride the Italian Alps. I spent a long time avoiding this possibility because there was no way in hell I was going to squeeze these thighs into some spandex, try to balance on some teeny road bike and strut around Europe next to all those skinny French women. BUT! I did make a deal with him - if he supported me & I got to a certain weight within a certain time then we would go to Europe next summer & do his bike tour.
Flash forward to now....I regularly do spin classes, I followed drs orders, I've lost a ton of weight so far, I'm getting fit & healthy. He also has been super supportive (my personal fav was "I'll eat whatever you cook, hon"). As soon as he saw how serious I was with the lapband he got very excited about our deal. But, first he insisted I needed to train on a real bike. He spent weeks researching bikes before choosing the Ruby for me. This is how it became my big bday gift this year.
We went for a 40-mile ride yesterday. It was amazing. We live just northwest of downtown Denver. Our ride took us west to Golden (where we had lunch), then we cut across the northern 'burbs to the east side of town, through Commerce City and then back downtown to the huge REI. REI to my house is only 2miles but its all up hill - which is harsh after 40miles & wind gusts of 20MPH!
There is a very extensive network of bike trails throughout the region & we were able to do this entire ride without riding on the street. Rather than riding next to speeding cars & breathing in exhaust fumes, I rode along the creek and amongst the trees. I saw ducks and geese, kids playing baseball, folks walking their dogs, old couples strolling and even a few people panning for gold in Clear Creek (seriously). And the entire time I was thinking how lucky I am to live in place like this (that spends money on bike trails) and how lucky I am to be able to do this ride. Like I said - I'm feeling spoiled. Thank you, lapband!
cheers,
chloe
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