carbs

New favorite place to shop

Maybe this post ought to be titled “I love lucy.”

Not that Lucy, although Lucille Ball was one funny lady. Does any TV station air reruns of “I Love Lucy”? I watched them when I was growing up. Yes, they were reruns at the time. I’m not quite that old, even if some days I feel like it.

When I was in Scottsdale for my writer’s conference in April, I couldn’t leave town without hitting the high-falutin’ Fashion Square Mall. It was right down the street from the conference hotel, after all.

I’m glad I took the time to stop, because I finally had a chance to set foot inside an Anthropologie store. Sadly, I found it too rich for my blood. Things were super-cute, but also cost a lot more than I was willing to pay. $18 is too much to pay for a kitchen towel, no matter how brightly colored it is.

But across the aisle from Anthropologie, lucy beckoned to me with its adorable workout gear in vibrant colors. I wandered in the store and immediately fell in love. The clerk was super-helpful and knowledgeable about the brand. Better yet, she didn’t look at me like I didn’t belong there. No “what’s a chubby chick like you doing in a store that sells fitness apparel?” vibe from her.

She brought me a bunch of different items to try on, including several pairs of pants and fitness skirts. I had some cash that didn’t get spent at the conference, so I treated myself to a skirt (with built-in shorts) that was on sale.

I’m not sure if it’s this Walkabout II Skort — it sure doesn’t look like that on me.

Walkabout II or not, I love it. I’ve already worn it several times and run it through the washer and dryer. I want to buy one in every color available.

My desire to wear my new skort all the time isn’t surprising. The lucy philosophy (according to the company’s website):

Yoga. Training. Running. Explore. Whatever activity you choose, lucy wants you to look good and feel good. We believe fitness should be stylish so we design workout clothes — yoga pants and yoga tops, sports bras, running apparel, hoodies, skirts and dresses — to support your active lifestyle. Women live in lucy all day long. We make workout clothes with your whole life in mind.

Too bad I wasn’t able to spend a little less cash at the conference. I’d also have loved to pick up a pair of these pants, the Lucy Everyday Pant II. They fit beautifully in a large (not extra large!). Unfortunately they’re not exactly cheap — one of the hazards of shopping at the most expensive mall in the state, I suppose.

So I made a deal with myself. Those pants are going to be my reward after I lose 10 more pounds. That’ll be a total of 50 pounds gone, definitely deserving of a reward, right?

That’s what I thought.

Hopefully, having something fun to look forward to will make me work that much harder to take off the weight.

That’s the plan, anyway. Tuesday was the first day in a while that I used the Atkins app on my iPhone to track everything I ate: 22 Net Carbs in all.

Why does it never cease to amaze me that I feel fuller longer on fewer carbs? You think I’d have learned that by now.

I also completed W2D3 of the C25K program Tuesday morning. A good night’s sleep did improve my attitude — a little. I still wasn’t fired up about doing it, though.

No matter. I did it anyway … and by the time I got through the first interval or two, I felt great. I finished strong, with an extra several minutes of walking just to hit a total of 100 vertical feet climbed. (The roommate’s treadmill counts that kind of thing.)

Here’s what my workout looked like:

Right direction

Thank goodness the scale is still going in the right direction.

That’s right — I’m down another pound this week, even though I’m spending vacation at the Boyfriend’s and not hitting the veggie carbs as hard as “New Atkins for a New You” recommends.

In fact, my scale success without so many vegetables makes me wonder if I should permanently go back to the diet as written in “Atkins New Diet Revolution.” After all, that is the plan I followed when I lost 100+ pounds the first time. And it’s not like it’s bereft of veggies — I ate plenty of salads, green beans and zucchini.

So far, since restarting Atkins in May 2011, I’ve lost 39.4 pounds. While I’m glad they’re gone, that’s not the rate of loss I’d like to see. In October 2004, after being on the old Atkins plan for a year, I’d lost 100-ish pounds.

Sure, I’m a few years older now, so my metabolism is probably slower. But THAT much slower? I don’t think so.

Food for thought, my friends. Food for thought.

 

Bang-up weigh-in

After several weeks of little to no downward momentum, I’m pleased to report a loss today.

That’s right — I’m down 4.4 pounds.

Yeah, my body’s finally correcting for my little carb binge at the writer’s conference. That, and maybe the C25K workouts are helping … although I’ve only done two so far. It’s probably just getting back on track and drinking enough water to float a dinghy.

If only I could lose that much every week, I’d be at my goal in no time.