Shrinking, Toning, and Becoming a Bottomless Pit

Well, it’s been a few days since I’ve written, despite the fact that every one of the past three days I’ve been excited to write a post. Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day!

That aside, I have felt really motivated this week and there are several things I really want to write about!

First and foremost, I have lost 7-8 pounds now, depending on what time of day I weigh myself. I find this amazing because I haven’t been trying to lose weight, it just sort of happened. Being a former ballerina I am no stranger to diets, exercise plans, and hours in the gym but having a performance focus rather than a weight focus is a whole new experience for me and it makes the process much, much easier. Each time I step on the scale and see another pound gone it’s a little surprise gift!

The arms of a triathlete are taking form

In addition (and more importantly to me), my body looks different. My butt has lifted and shrunk, my tummy is tightening, my thighs have firmed, and check out my arms. I wish I had a “before” picture to compare to, but trust me, they looked nothing like this. In addition, I spent a week trying to figure out why my lower body was sinking instead of floating when I float on my back in the ocean before realizing that it’s because all the fat on my legs is gone. Noticing these changes is AWESOME, especially when appearance is not your focus. I would be perfectly happy just to know that I can now run a 5k comfortably without walking - getting skinnier and well-toned is just like icing on the cake.

And speaking of icing on the cake, I have to talk about my eating habits, because they have been another surprise while training. Gone are my cravings for ice cream, burgers, nachos, buffalo wings, candy, and French fries. I haven't lost my appetite -- in fact, I have become the proverbial bottomless pit, consuming massive amounts of food, but the things that I crave are blueberries, kiwis, swiss chard, spinach, and whole grain cereal with ice cold milk. I have allowed my eating to go unhindered and blindly followed my body's cravings, allowing it to guide my consumption, and I have to say that I have never felt so connected to my body's functioning. 

It seems, at least for me, that when I push my body with continual challenges, it pulls itself out of the junk food-conditioning of our lazy, inactive world and remembers how to tell me what it needs. It's kind of fun to watch.

As far as my training goes, I hit my fastest mile time (9:36) and fastest 5k (31:21) yesterday and am feeling really confident. I am now swimming the distance I'll have to swim for the first sprint triathlon with relative ease and comfortably running 5k's, which I have to admit I had doubts about ever happening. The biking is pleasant and each day I ride I enjoy the scenery.

I'm sure that my current motivation and body-connection high can only last so long, and that pretty soon some unforeseen triathlon obstacle will knock me back to earth, but for now I am loving the progress I'm making and how cleansed, efficient, and in-rhythm my body feels. The challenge, the pain, the discomfort, the push is all worth it to feel like this.