One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I haven’t been as diligent with my training and diet as of late. Which probably makes sense as to why I have gained some of the weight I lost last month. I’m upset at myself for this as I was really seeing a lot of progress. In some ways, it doesn’t surprise me as I have been seeing my parents quite a bit lately. When I see them, it usually means eating more food. Specifically white rice. Generally, I have given up on white rice as I have found my body to be very sensitive to carbs. But, when I am at my parents place it is hard to say no. I eat my food without complaint and be the dutifully good daughter. I also have not been working out as much as I like to. I was aiming to work out 3X week of cardio (2 hours each) and an additional 2X week of strength training with interval training on the treadmill (1/2 on treadmill and 1 1/2 of strength training). This would be in addition to the 2 practices a week I have with my dragon boat team. So far, I have made it to the gym once or twice a week. Mostly one session of cardio and the other strength training. As I mentioned in a previous post, I weigh myself every time before I workout at the gym. Before I hit the treadmill and again after my entire workout. I’m disappointed to say that I’ve jumped back up to around 130 lbs. Sometimes it’s 129 or 128 lbs depending on how hydrated I am. I find that if I am very dehydrated I weigh more which is an interesting thing. Oh, and less 1.6 lbs since I leave my runners on when I weigh myself (I’m too lazy to take them off). It is strange though that my body itself doesn’t look like I have gained weight. I think I still look fine or at least relatively fit. In fact, I think I may have decreased more body fat by another percent. But I’ll have to reconfirm that again at the gym. On a side note, I noticed last weekend that Coach SM had a roster of paddlers that were paddling on Saturday. That was nothing out of the ordinary. What was interesting was that he had assigned weights next to each paddler! Coach SM said it was an educated guess. Someone saw the list and was surprised to see it and said even her husband doesn’t even know how much she weighs. For me, I was a little surprised as he put me down as weighing less than my actual weight. Of course, it would have been pretty close if I hadn’t gained any weight. I don’t want to be thin as a rack as personally I think it’s unappealing to be that thin (as well as have a host of other problems). But at the same time, I want to be able to lose more weight and also fit into some of the clothes I had before. My goal is to be healthy and athletic. I want to optimize my body to it’s highest potential for athletic purposes. Which means, losing weight, increasing power, increasing endurance level and decreasing body fat. Some days, it feels like taking one step forward and taking two steps back. Parry Sound is my next regatta. (It’s next weekend and should be really nice. We’ll be racing in Georgian Bay which is exciting as the water will be fantastic. As well, I hear there are going to be some decent teams so competition should be good). Although the regatta I should really be looking forward to is Montreal. That’s the next one after Parry Sound. It’s not just that it’s a fun regatta with lots of partying. For me, it’s all about the racing. There’s lots of racing as it’s a 2 day regatta. The first year I did Montreal I raced a lot and I also lost a lot of weight. I’m hoping it will be like that this year. Last year, I went with the corporate team and I barely raced at all. OK, I’m exagerrating. I did race a lot in “general”. But nowhere near as much as I did in my first year of dragon boating. I’m not giving up just yet. I WILL lose the weight I gained back and then some. The year is not over yet so I still have time to meet my goal.