136.0

My weight today ties my lowest yet, and it shows downward movement from last week, so I'm happy. I really, really want to get my jeans this week! I'm going to knock myself out for a couple of days. (I meant figuratively, but, hmmm, literally holds some appeal -- that would probably work.)

I was pretty good yesterday about what I ate, though I was far from perfect. I had my usual breakfast, and for lunch we went to Wendy's but I got a chicken caesar salad and only stole about five french fries from other people. ;-) For dinner I had chicken-chili stew, which is pretty low-fat; it's pretty much beans, chicken breast, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, salsa, and chili powder, and you use a little olive oil to saute the veggies and chicken. I did put a small amount of cheese on it, though from what I could tell it all stuck to the bottom of my spoon! I had some chips (about eight) with dinner, but then I also had some chips and salsa after dinner (and I didn't count how many, though the bag was running very low so I couldn't eat all that much anyway). During the day I had snacks of almonds, a banana, pistachios, and a few pretzels (but I didn't overdo it). I need to eat more fruit and fewer nuts -- the fruit is more filling and lower calorie, but, oh, the nuts taste yummy!

Daniel and I did 45 minutes on the bikes at the gym. It really loosened up the tension in my legs. I find I barely use my quads at all on the bikes -- I get a great workout in my hamstrings and calves, and those didn't hurt at all after Body Pump even though we used them as much as anything. I knew my arms would get sore from BP, since I don't do much in the way of upper body workouts, but I hadn't paid attention to the quads at all -- the upright bikes would use them more, but I use the recumbent bikes. I don't feel bad for having spent six months focusing on cardio, because I didn't feel like I could get much toning done when I had so much fat over it all, and the cardio has made me stronger overall; even though individual muscles were sore, BP didn't wear me out. But now that I am virtually at my goal I'm planning to shift over -- I'll still do 15-20 minutes of cardio at the gym but I'm going to add in more weight workouts (after my arms recover, ugh; my legs are fine today but my right arm is no better than Sunday), and I'm going to try to get to BP on Saturday mornings fairly consistently (we'll see how long that lasts -- Saturday is my only sleep-in day!!). I am hoping the shift will help me maintain my weight; if I have more muscle it will keep my metabolism more consistent, in theory.