My dress is in!

I got the call last week from the bridal store that my dress has arrived and I'm so excited to see it! I'll try it on for the first time this week and begin alterations the first week of November. It's been a couple of weeks since I started my "prep" and my weight has fluctuated up and down quite a bit, still hovering right around 140lbs, with 137 as my lowest and 142 as my highest. The scale can be thrown off for many reasons including food intake, water and sodium intake, hormone levels, sleep, stress, time of day, and more. That's a lot of things working against you if you're trying to track your progress solely by the scale, and why I highly recommend having other progress trackers like pictures or measurements.

Progress pictures are one of those love/hate relationships. No one likes taking pictures of themselves in close to nothing, baring every roll and dimple on your body, especially when you are at the start of a weight loss journey and probably not feeling completely comfortable with your body, which is why you're doing it in the first place, but you can't get much more real than that. It doesn't mean you have to show those pictures to the world, or should you use them to put yourself down and dwell on your imperfections, but it might be just what you need for a kick in the butt, and when you pull those picture out for comparison months down the road after working your ass off, you'll be glad you have them. Take them and move on to focus on the things that matter: train hard and eat well. They are simply a tool for you to see progress in another way other than the scale, nothing more. Here are my progress pictures taken Saturday 9/30/17 just how my clients are asked to take theirs.

I am on my second week of circuit training. The first week was a little bit of a trial to make sure what I had written on paper worked well in the gym with flow and feel. So far so good. I am liking the faster paced workouts and change in routine. I am definitely sweating my ass off by the end of every workout, which I love, and keeping my heart rate up higher throughout, as expected with circuit style workouts. I do have progressions worked into the program, but I'll have to give it a couple of weeks to see how my body is responding.