Birthdays & Goals

So, yesterday was my birthday.

After my first week on HMR [when I lost 9lbs!] I decided it was totally smart to set a goal of losing 25lbs in 36 days. Losing 25lbs by my 26th birthday sounded ah-mazing and if I'm being honest-- really, it's only fair. I had after-all given myself 6 months to work towards that goal... but nothing worked so I was forced into that time crunch.

I did not make it. But that's ok.

As of yesterday I've lost 19 lbs on HMR. I think that's pretty ok.

And now for new, public goals.

I have 3 more weigh-ins in the month of July and I'm going to set the bar high [again.] and aim to lose 10 more pounds by my July 30th weigh in.

How am I going to do that?

Stick with the program. 5-6 shakes per day. Try to pre-make puddings as much as possible. If my puddings are made and all I have to do is grab them from the fridge I spend less time in the kitchen and the less time I spend there the waaaaaay better.

I am still having egg whites in the morning and I also added black coffee into the mix. Day 3 of black coffee and it's nowhere near as good as coffee with creamer but hopefully I'll get accustomed to it. My mugs were so lonely. And I think I'm ready to just give up on salsa all together. In the last few weeks I've bought my favorite salsa twice, three times when you count yesterday, and I've made the "pizza" recipe that comes with the program and with every try it's more and more gross. I really miss salty foods but this fake chip/pizza crust idea is not working for me at.all.

I'm also going to try to up my work-outs. The goal in the program is to burn 2000 calories a week. With my current workout schedule with classes at the gym I'm burning WELL over that amount. Practically 2900 a week. I want to try and push myself to burn 3500 a week. 3500 calories is equal to 1lb so I just want to try and lose an "extra" pound a week through exercise alone. And that realistically just means going to the gym a little more than an extra hour a week.

My last goal is more mental/comfort based than it is related to an actual number on the scale. My ultimate ultimate goal is to be comfortable with where I end up, but in that comfort I want to be able to wear dresses when I photograph weddings. Instead of trying to cover myself in as much black to hide my body as possible I would love to be able to wear cute flats and a flowy dress instead of sweating to death in 115 degree summer weddings. Right now I own one dress. One. And I'm forcing myself to wear it once a week-- even out in public-- just to get used to wearing a dress period. The long term goal is to be comfortable wearing a *new* dress for Karen's wedding August 24th the short term goal is to possibly be comfortable enough to wear the dress I already own to my last July wedding on the 27th. I have 17 days to work up to that.

As a recap these are my goals:
1. Lose 10 lbs by July 30th
2. Up my exercise to 3500 calories a week
3. Possibly wear a dress to Jacy's wedding.