McFatty Monday Week IV: A

I've been very good to my body over the past four weeks, and as my reward I lost 7 pounds!!

Last weeks' gyming was my best so far; I made it to four boxing classes, one of which was really 60 minutes of intense circuit training--I think we put on our boxing gloves only once. Instead of pounding the bags, we pushup'd, sprinted, hopped, shadow boxed, and squatted through 12 stations (twice!) until we were beat. It was invigorating, and fondly reminded me of my boot camp style workouts circa freshman year of college. Those were the BEST!

Roscoe's sleep was a little less predictable this week as he's been fighting a cold, so at the end of every boxing class I ended up rushing through my strength training sessions in order to race home. Moving forward, I think I'll leave the house early and lift the half hour before my boxing class, that way I can leave right after the class ends and make it home before Roscoe needs to nurse.

Surprisingly, eating a diet void of added sugar did not involve the suffering I had imagined. In part, I was really motivated by the anticipation of the BIG weigh-in, but I also quenched my sweet tooth with individual servings of Whole Foods brand unsweetened applesauce--applesauce? you say. Yes. applesauce. and sprinkled with cinnamon they were a suitable substitute for dessert. As an added bonus, not wasting any points on extraneous empty foods allowed me to meet my third goal of the week, which was to not eat any of the points I earned through exercise.

In addition to the weight I've lost so far, I have also lost almost 9 inches--most of which came from my stomach and hips. Seriously, I went down two pant sizes (one benefit to being only 5 feet tall) and I now have only 3 pounds left to lose before I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight! On the fitness front there has been tremendous improvement all around, but for now I'll just share that I increased the number of full pushups I can complete in one minute from 9 (PATHETIC!!) to 24 (not as pathetic!)--I'm working my way back up to the 36+ that I used to be able to crank out.

I feel like I've finally found a nice routine that's realistic and not overly demanding. Physically, I'm ready to increase my cardio workouts to four times a week but I may defer the goal another month--considering Andy's work schedule, Roscoe's sleep routine, and our collective social calendar, the logistics involved may still be too ambitious. If the weather were warmer, I would make my fourth workout a run, but for now I can only hope to squeeze in an extra day when possible. I'm definitely ready to incorporate more challenging moves into my strength training routine--so that will get an overhaul for the upcoming week. I'm also committing to three boxing sessions, three weight sessions, and to not eating my exercise points!

I'm hopeful that this week (or next) I will cross the pregnancy weight threshold and be able to move on to my larger weight loss goal of reaching 135 lbs.

I really liked the way that it felt not to focus on the scale for the past 4 weeks (way less pressure!). So, here's to the next four weeks of feeding myself well, and bein' up in the gym just workin' on my fitness!

This week's score: A

Cardio: A+

Strength Training: B+

Weight Watchers: A

Oh, and Blair's on a roll too, check her out!