Melt It Off Monday and A New Do!

Last week was a bit of a struggle.  I had far too many meals out.  I was out of town for work Mon-Wed and then had dinner with friends twice, and Jim and I ate out a couple of times this weekend.  Even though I made the best choices I could, it's never easy to lose weight in that type of environment.  That said, I pretty much stuck to salads and chicken, etc. and didn't do too bad.  When I first weighed myself Thursday morning when I got back from my trip I was pretty disappointed to see a 3 pound gain!  Yikes. I tried to remind myself it was probably just water retention from the flight and it slowly went away over the next few days.

Overall for the week I gained .4 ounces, so I consider that maintenance.  The good news is I have really been focused on what I am putting in my body.  I have totally eliminated soda for the last two weeks and this past week I also cut out my delicious Archer Farms coffee drinks and Zero water to get rid of the artificial sweetener.  I am back to regular coffee with a little stevia and half and half.  I can't do black coffee, I wish I could.  So I'm drinking one coffee in the morning and water the rest of the day - with some occasional milk.

I had 12 WONDERFUL ladies join me in this Melt it Off Challenge!  So far they are all doing great and are super supportive.  Keep up the hard work!  This week our Biggest Losers are Deb Tris and Go A Little Faster Mama.  They each lost 4 pounds last week!  That's awesome!

This will be another challenging week for me.  I should do good through most of the week, but Saturday is my Birthday and there will be cake!!  Oh yes, there will be cake.  There will also be a half marathon....should make up for some of the cake.  Then I'm off to LA for a couple of days to visit my sister.  So....traveling again!

Last Week By the Numbers:

Swim: .72 (1 swim) - not a great swim week
Bike:  46.9 Miles
Run:  16.4 Miles
Cross Train:  1 Hour Strength Training (1 Jillian Michaels DVD and 1 Hotel Band Workout)

Total Hours - 8:49

On another note, I've had my hair pretty long for the last 3 or 4 years.  I decided last minute before my hair appointment on Friday that I wanted something different.  So, I decided to whack off about 4 inches and layer it!  It wasn't easy, but I like it.  It's so much more manageable.  Curly hair can be a total tangle factory...and the less you have of it, the less tangles, it's kind of nice.  So here are some befores and afters.

Straight Hair - Left (before); Right (after)....fresh from the salon

Curly - Left (before); Right (after)

And Just for fun....Left is my niece Ashley - Right is same pic of me.  Everyone says we look alike and now we kinda have the same hair.  Ashley just cut her bangs a few weeks ago, and then I cut my hair short.