Week 4 Update

Officially 1 month into my weight loss challenge, I hereby declare Week 4 the Week of the Heart Rate Monitor!  I finally received my new toy and I had so much fun testing it out all week during my different activities.  It's even waterproof so I was able to wear it swimming.  Here's a photo!

Yes, you're reading that correctly, I burned 643 CALORIES in an hour!!!  That's thanks to the super intense BODYATTACK class I take on Tuesdays at my gym.  Speaking of the gym...

Physical Activity:
-2/23/13: ran on the treadmill for 45 minutes
-2/25/13: swam laps freestyle for 30 minutes, 700 meters total
-2/26/13: BODYATTACK
-2/27/13: walked 2.8 miles in 45 minutes (from work to the gym), then walked on the treadmill at a steep incline for 20 minutes
-3/1/13: Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD, level 1

I used my new heart rate monitor during all those activities, and it's so helpful since it tells me exactly how many calories I burn, what my average heart rate was, what my max heart rate was, and how long I had my heart rate in the right zone for maximum effectiveness.  This is one of the best purchases I could have made, especially for calorie tracking purposes.  

I also had a free fitness assessment at my gym on the 27th.  I met with a trainer and we went over my weight loss goals (which she said are totally doable, yay!), she weighed and measured me, and then we had a short personal training session.  She gave me a lot of useful information and now I can do a lot of the exercises she showed me on my own.  Out of all her measurements, one was my body fat percentage (yikes).  I remember having this done when I was in college and worked at a gym, and when I was 20 years old my body fat percentage was around 22%.  Unfortunately, that number has increased since then, and now I'm at 28%!!!  Apparently a healthy range is between 15-20%.  Because of that, I now have another goal to add to my challenge:  decrease my body fat back down to 22% by the time this challenge is over (there are 11 weeks left).  That means I have to undo 5 years of carelessness in 11 weeks.  I can do this!

Food:
I don't believe food was really an issue during week 4, but my roommate and I decided to throw a party last weekend, which meant that I had to pay attention to my alcohol intake.  During the first few weeks I have been really good about keeping my alcohol consumption to a minimum, since drinking too much is one of the WORST things you can do when trying to lose weight.  It's such a huge factor!  However, I was actually very well behaved at the party.  I let myself indulge with my friends, but I didn't go overboard and kept good track of how many drinks I had.

Cooking:
My new recipe for Week 4 was a Turkey Chili recipe that one of my best friends sent me.  It was such an easy thing to make, it was super healthy, and I had plenty of leftovers to take to work for lunch throughout the week.  

Here it is, burbling away!

I'll post the recipe separately later on, but this was the perfect thing to eat on a chilly (ha ha!) winter evening.  Chili is also super easy to make, since you just throw everything into one pot and let it cook.  

Another of my recent purchases is a Crock Pot, which is another super simple way to cook, so I'm excited to start experimenting with some Crock Pot recipes in the coming weeks.  Stay on the lookout for those!

Weigh-In:
I am pleased to report that my good results have not stopped coming, and after week 4 I lost

1 POUND!!!

That means I've lost 7 pounds so far, and I still have 11 weeks left in my challenge.  Who knows...at this rate maybe I'll lose more than 15 pounds!