What's Your Most Recent NSV

I started walking up the stairs at work in December (6 flights), I concentrate on two steps at a time and getting the right step pattern as on half of each flight has 8 steps and the other 9, then look at what floor I am on and how far I have to go when I am tired. Previously I have been out of breath by the 5th floor or earlier. This morning I found myself on the 7th floor 🙂

I've spent the past couple of months slowly "ramping-up" my weekly exercise from a fairly sedentary lifestyle to gym 3x week, a couple of sports/cardio sessions a week and getting a decent number of steps in every day.

It took a LONG time to work up to that 'cause I'd feel so exhausted for a couple weeks every time I added a new element to the week, so I took that ramping-up slowly.

In the last week, though? It's like a switch flicked and all of a sudden I have SO MUCH ENERGY! Today is a rest day and it's like I am TWITCHING to get a good exercise sesh in. Instead of wanting to flop on the sofa for the day, I'm looking at the dog snoozing away in his bed and thinking about the LOOOOONG walk I'm gonna take him on as soon as I'm done with work.

Having this energy is such an intangible thing- it's not a notch on a belt or anything you can measure. But WOW, does it feel good!

tried on some size 8 pants that have been packed away in my too-small clothes bin, and they zipped and buttoned. Also, currently on the second to last hole left on my belt, and 7 months ago, the belt wouldn't go around my waist. And I can do 5 pushups with proper form. And I can do over 12 burpees without stopping. And I can run an 8:15 min mile. I just signed up and started training for my first obstacle course race.

I fit into some pants I haven't worn in a long time, which was nice, especially after an unexpected weight increase (probably just a day-to-day fluke).

Also, I ate one cherry cordial kiss yesterday. Just one. And didn't need/want any more.

I feel comfortable enough to put a real picture of me as my profile picture instead of a cute cartoon!

I don't know as this is related to my mass; surely it isn't. It may or not even be related to my fitness.

The telemark skis I use are actually some alpine skis with telemark bindings. I bought them slightly used from a friend who upgraded to the newer model of the same ski without even seeing it, and he's also moved to A/T bindings. He's a little bigger than I am, and he's a MUCH stronger skier.

This is, I think, my third season on these skis. When I got them, they were way too much ski for me. I made to, and I got by. Same thing last year, although as the season progressed, I started to feel like I could stay on top of them. Still - they are a little hot.

Well, yesterday was my first day of the season, and I realized about halfway through the day that I never felt like the skis were too much for me. If anything, they should be MORE challenging since I have less mass to drive them, but somehow it just started to feel "right" even from the first couple runs of the day.

I did some training to get ready, but not enough. Legs got a little tired, but I was still able to ski for several hours and sneak in 14 lift rides.

Does this count?

for 16 plus years, I have tried to hide my obese body with baggy clothes. Had to go up to a 3XL t-shirt and busting out of 42 jeans...well, 90 plus lbs lost and lots of cardio and weight training, I'm not hiding it anymore. I've got a lot of work to do but never thought I would get in this good of shape at age 55 and also wearing a L t-shirt and 34 waist.....Just keep on going, it pays off!

So I have this jacket that I love. For the last while... well, our chilly midwinter weather was NOT why I'd been wearing it unzipped, let me say.

This morning I head out the door, chuck on my jacket and.. zip it right up without it feeling even a tiny bit tight.

Been grinning about it all day long 😎😁

My NSV of the day - I put on a pair of pants this morning that always gave me a muffin top. No muffin top today! And for the past week, I've been comfortable enough in my swimsuit to go to the pool and swim laps.

Managing to still lose a little during the holidays and getting back into the swing after the holidays.

I started my journey on 8/19/19. From 8/19/19-11/20/19 I lost 27 lbs. From 11/20/19-1/1/20 I only lost 4 lbs (11/20 was my bday, 11/28 Thanksgiving, 12/4 and 12/13 I had work events with lots of free dinner, 12/20 wife’s birthday, 12/25 Christmas and 1/1 New Years. It was literally a diet busting event every week for a month and a half lol)
Since New Years I’m down another 14lbs for a total of 45. In the past, I would have probably gained from 11/20-1/1 and getting back into it would not have happened. I still logged at the end of the year. I just cut myself some slack and made sure to keep working out (even if it wasn’t as often as before or since)

I had to stop wearing my wedding rings bc they would fall off my finger, past my knuckle, and almost lost them. Finally went to get them resized. One was a 6.5 and one was a 7 (IDK why), and they are being resized to a 5.5!

I am now a "fast walker". When I decided I was going to get serious about losing weight a little over a year ago, I started walking to my office from the parking lot instead of taking a bus (about a mile walk each way). When I started, I kept to the right side of the walking path so others could pass me. I wasn't the fastest walker that's for sure. Now, - 50 lbs later, I am one of the faster walkers & more often than not, I catch up and have to go around people. Also, I don't get winded at all anymore. Even when I feel I'm going at a fast pace and pushing myself to almost a jog. It's a great, healthy feeling!

Today I hit the lowest weight I’ve been in 2.5 years. It kind of makes me sad, just a little. Like, why didn’t I do this before?

Today I dragged my sorry, exhausted (poor night's sleep) self out of bed, brutally woke my son and went to parkrun.

My aim today was to improve on last week's time. I found a run that was along paths (prefer hard paths to grass, which slows me down, especially at the moment when it's so wet as I don't want to fall and end up walking anyway).

Little did I know as to how my plans were going to fall.apart...

First surprise: my son forgot his running shoes. Well, okay, we might have to walk but he could try running and we'd see.

Second surprise: hills. Or rather, one massive hill. First 2.5k - UP the hill. Second half - down the hill. Okay, a little unexpected but not for the first time the "out" has been up and the "back" had been down. Also figured that the aim to beat last week's time was totally unachievable but whatever.

Third surprise: masses of people. An unbelievable number, which was going to make starting tricky as we tend to hide at the back, so go through the start line well after the run has commenced. Adding time.

We start off. Run up the first section of the hill then the slope hits and I have to walk. But as fast as I can. We did overtake a couple of runners, which was interesting as we were walking. Found a couple of other places to run as well but the uphill was mainly walking. Got to the turnaround point, looked at my watch and was SO disappointed.

Back down we go, trying to keep an even pace all the way back. It was somewhat easier than the way up and the funnel wasn't as far away as we'd thought it was going to be. Finished, looked at my watch and was again disappointed as I was certain that we'd missed our goal.

Got home, anxious for the email from parkrun, confirming our times. It eventually arrives and it confirmed that we failed to improve on last week, by over a minute. I was gutted. But DH tried to make it positive by reminding me that it had been a tough run and uphill run. But then I looked at the full list of results and found that the times weren't right as the numbers showing for my son and I weren't the numbers of the tokens we'd been given.

Checked my Garmin. The time did not correspond to the parkrun time. Then I checked Strava. Strava did not match the parkrun time. Strava matched the time I'd clocked at the top of the hill AND the time I thought I had at the end. Strava matched Garmin. So, it appears that the parkrun time was seriously out because . . .


WE BEAT LAST WEEK'S TIME BY TEN SECONDS!!!

And it was the hardest parkrun we've done to date. It really was brutal. My legs were moaning at the end of it, as was my lower back. It was a killer. But, one day, I shall go back and I WILL RUN up that hill.

Next week, I want a flatter parkrun . . . I think that I deserve it, after today's adventure

Bought leggings 4 weeks ago and they are too big in the waist🎉