Triple Crown

This weekend had The Kentucky Derby, which is the first of three races known as the Triple Crown.  Well, I don't really know much about horse racing, but I had my own Triple Crown this week.

1. Closing - We closed our buildings for the summer this weekend.  The event in itself is not so much a challenge in regards to weight loss, but the closing of the dining halls along with the Residence Hall, is.  For at least the last week of school, the dining halls tend to run on "chef's choice."  Basically, they cook whatever they have left to get rid of it before everyone leaves.  The other challenge it presents is that now that they're all closed, I am now on my own for most meals.  I have relied so much on just making healthier choices with the food that's prepared for me, that now I have to learn to completely fend for myself.  But, at least it will give me a head start preparing for not have any ready-made meals over the summer when I go home to visit.

2.  End of the year meals - One of the best (and also worst) things about the end of the year are the interview, transition, and thank you meals.  They're usually dinner, but occasionally lunch, and always at a restaurant.  It's been interesting going through them and trying to make healthier choices at the various places around campus.  Today, specifically, we had lunch at Red Lobster.  Normally, not a major problem since seafood, in general, is reasonably healthy.  The concern was, though, that today was also weigh-in.  I traditionally eat a lighter lunch on Mondays so that I don't have that food sitting in my stomach weighing me down.  I wanted to be able to enjoy myself, but also stick to my plan.  So, I ordered what I wanted, then told myself that I wasn't going to eat it all.  I ate my salad first and didn't eat any of the cheesy biscuits (that was tough).  There's a shrimp special going on right now, so I went with the garlic scampi, breaded shrimp, shrimp alfredo, and broccoli.  I didn't really want the pasta weighing me down, so I knew that's what was getting cut.  I ate the broccoli and garlic scampi - I debated on the breaded, but was still hungry so I went ahead and ate it since I wasn't having the pasta.  The good news was, that I set it aside and took it home for dinner - one less meal to cook!!

3.  Working Out - The end of the year is always a busy time, making sure to get everything done before the students leave.  Between that and all the final meetings, dinners, and such, that doesn't leave much time to fit in a workout.  The last few weeks have not granted me much time to get in activity...and my weight gain last week obviously showed it.  This week, I made it a priority...even with working over the weekend.  Not only did I get in a workout most days, but I also added in some yoga after my dancing.  A great way to relax after a long day and an hour of dancing.  The best day, though, had to be today.  Based on my workouts from the other days, and taking off two days, if I wanted to make my weekly goal of 21,000 sweat points, I was going to have to earn at least 5,000 both today and tomorrow.  To give you an idea what that means, most days I work out for about an hour - 15 songs straight, no stopping, and that gets you about 4,000 sweat points.  So, I knew that I needed to do more than my usual 15.  I hit 20 and was still feeling really good so I thought I'd just keep going.  I finished after 30 songs and ended up earning 7,600 sweat points.  HECK YES!

So far, I have been pretty successful at handling these three challenges this week.  I feel like I've made some good choices, and that was definitely reflected on the scale this week.  What was my reward for making winning choices?  A four pound loss...

Initial weight: 257.2
Week 17: -4.2
Total weight loss: -32.4 lbs
Current weight: 224.8

So my Triple Crown win, came with its own triple...I broke 30 pounds!!  Three bags of potatoes or a small child.