Struggles and Gains

I've talked a bit about this before, but I thought it may be worth revisiting. Ever since university I've struggled with my weight. I know I can pin point it to my fall work term after second year. I was working in Rocky Mountain House, AB which is a pretty small town. I know I was frequenting fast food establishments on a very regular basis and that was when I learned that my metabolism just wasn't what it used to be. I lost some of the weight before leaving school, but then once I started working it became a struggle again. I was probably at my heaviest in the spring of 2006. Around that time I started to keep track of my weight and had a little notebook that I wrote my measurements down in, all in the name of tracking progress. The scale has gone down and come back up, but for the first time in a long time I think those days of yo-yoing are over. Last night as I was getting ready to head to the gym I was curious to see just what the difference is. Twenty pounds and many inches later, here's the difference:

March 2006

October 2008

Much better glasses now too, wouldn't you say? Anyhow, it is still a work in progress, but I know a big part of the change has been incorporating swimming and biking in to the mix. And nutrition...that is definitely still a work in progress...

Otherwise, last night it was off the Y. I'm not sure what has happened to me. Despite the weather being not too bad outside I opted for the treadmill to get my 30 min run in. I had weights to do afterwards and somehow it seemed like it would all get done quicker if I just ran on the tready. Seriously though...I hate the treadmill and last night was just not a good run. My shins were hurting so I tried to dial back the pace a bit but that didn't help either. And I was just watching the clock, watching the minutes tick down to 30. I finally paused the treadmill to stretch my lower legs out and it was like a major revelation, finally my legs felt good to go! I bumped the speed back up. When I hit 30 min I was just short of 3 mi and I really wanted to get 3 mi done so I kept at it. Afterwards I took a spin around the weight floor, got some core work in and called it a night.