So Far

So this is week 4 of the Pound Plunge. The first 2 weeks were disappointing, in that I worked really hard, however there were no changes. Week 1 of South Beach had just too much meat, and well I couldn't stomach it, quite literaly, I couldn't keep anything down for 4 days. So I moved onto phase 2, which adds other protien alternatives as well as some complex carbs and have been doing pretty well. In week 3 I finally lost 1 lb and 1/2 inch from each thigh and upper arm for a total of 2 inches lost. I was very excited about the 2 inches gone, however after talking to my my swim instructer (I am now calling her Atilla the Ann) we were a bit down about not losing anything from my considerable stomach. So we upped the ab work. When you are the only one in the class, you basically have everything catered to you personally, so basically for now I have a personal trainer. Wow, Ann went to the weight machines and then came back into the pool, finding exercises that worked the muscles in a spacific way. We started out with 10 ab exercises at 1 minute each. As of yesterday(the pool gets a bolus of chemicals on Thurday mornings so no class) we had dropped 2 of the exercises and I am now up to 4 minutes on each of the other 8. Well it paid off!! This week I lost 1.6 pounds, and 1/2 inch from my waist and my hips, along with another 1/4 inch off of each arm and thigh for a total of another 2 inches. Pretty much I am having fun, however along around 6pm each night, the achy muscles kick in. I am reminded of signs in our basement that my dad put up when I was growing up--NO PAIN, NO GAIN. Well I am feeling the pain, so there had better be gain!! No, this is working far better than I thought. Being part of a team helps tons. This is the fist time in 5 years that I have stepped on a scale and had the number go down. I don't care that it is tiny and I am not losing as fast as my other team mates, all that matters is that it is going down instead of up.