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And So It Begins….

Let’s face it, March wasn’t my month. I am ready to make April the new beginning for the rest of the year. Tomorrow starts the 21 Day Vegan Kick-start, and I am revving to go full speed ahead into the next 3 weeks! I am looking forward to getting back to my lowest weight of 248, and break out of the 240′s if it kills me. These past few weeks I have felt sluggish and heavy. When I get out of bed in the morning I just FEEL like I’m carrying around more weight.

How do I help myself out with a successful week? Planning. Goal making. Executing plan, and following through. Back to the beginning where I had weekly goals, and back to the beginning where I had monthly goals. These thoughts give me comfort that I can get back on track.

Monthly Goals:

Workout 6 times a week. Ahhhh. Remember when I had no issues with this? I am excited to get started on my at home workouts. I will be adding and planning those workouts to my meal planning calendar that I complete every week. Also, I bought an exercise ball, and a yoga mat, so this expands the workouts quite a bit.
Complete the Kick Ass April challenge that is being put on by Shrinking Jeans.

If you want to follow along you go to Shrinking Jeans and print off a copy of this calendar. This is also a challenge extended to us by Dacia, where the Monica’s Birthday Challenge is going on (I’m giving it the good fight, and even though I haven’t been at the top of my game I am still reporting my non-existent weight loss every week. I am hoping that I can catch up in the last 3 weeks of the challenge!).

Finish out the Monica’s Birthday Challenge. Hopefully the 21 day challenge will help me to at least lose a few pounds before the end of this challenge.
Complete the PCRM’s 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. The great thing about this goal is that I have already completed this challenge once and so I know what I am in for. The first challenge helped me to prepare for the second and so I am hoping that the transition isn’t as jarring as the first round was.
Wear my Bodybugg. My poor bodybugg has been sitting in my dresser drawer for the last month. I didn’t want to have to update it, and be reminded of how little I was doing towards my goals. Also, it is now short sleeve season and you can see my BB clearly, which is a little embarrassing (I have to get that out of my head). I tried to wear it on my calf, but it wasn’t accurately counting my calories. I will just have to get over myself and wear it at all times.

I think that is a sufficient amount of goals for the month of April. Not overwhelming, but still challenging.

Weekly Goals:

Successfully Start the PCRM 21 Day Vegan Kick-start.
Meal Plan. When you are eating a plant-based diet planning is crucial! All it takes is a moment to lose everything that you have worked so hard to achieve! Lucky I have a TON of recipes “pinned” on Pinterest, and a lot of recipes that I like the first time around so it is just about picking a weeks worth and I am set.
Workout 6 times this week. Along with a Meal Plan, I should have an exercise plan as well. I will be mapping out my workouts for the week and where I can find them (HULU plus, netflix, or a video of my own).
Drink 100 ounces +. Self explanatory.
Take a walk each day with Hanna. We finally live in a neighborhood that has sidewalks and a walking path. This means that I am going to try to take a walk either in the morning or afternoon with Hanna so we can both get out of the house.
Read something! I use to read at least 2 books a month, but this number has decreased dramatically since having Hanna a year and a half ago. The only times I have a chance to read is during Hanna’s nap time (which is when I usually blog), or after she goes to bed (and then my eyes almost immediately close automatically. With eating plant-based I should have a lot more energy so I have ordered two books off Amazon: Disease Proof your Child, & The 21 Day Weight loss Kick Start. Both of these books are on Veganism and the second is what the kick-start I am starting is about. I will do full reviews of these books as soon as I get them and read them.

Here is to a great beginning to a new week!

3 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on April 1, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, Body Bugg, Challenges, Diet, Goals, Meal Planning, Plant Based Diet, Vegan

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 1, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/01/and-so-it-begins/

Syncing Up

Sweat it Out:
Weights 30 Minutes
Elliptical 45 Minutes

Yesterday was the first day since I bought my Bodybugg in October that I actually synced my calories burned with my calories consumed. I had a great day yesterday, and the scale is showing some results.

I can testify to food journaling and why it needs to be done. My track record in the past was that I stayed on track with calories most of the day until I hit dinner. Dinner is usually when I have meat products and eat the bulk of my food. For example, on Wednesday I made chicken fajitas and my total calories consumed during dinner were 827 calories. That is with using healthy alternatives!

Last night I made a Butternut Squash soup and steamed broccoli, and had strawberries and 2 cuties for dessert. The total calories consumed for last nights dinner were 483. Quite a difference, and I felt like I ate a LOT!

I ended up eating a total of 1547 calories yesterday, which is actually lower than I would have liked, but I felt like I was eating ALL DAY! It just shows how much you can eat when you are filling up on healthy foods. Here is how the day ended according to Bodybugg:

I ended with a deficit of 1757 calories! I am shooting for more like 1800 calories a day, because this morning when I woke up I felt fatigued like I didn’t eat enough yesterday, but I keep it to 1800 calories a day and continue burning like I have been, there should be some serious results in the future.

One more success is that I made a butternut squash soup that my hub’s liked so much, he finished of the ENTIRE pot! I was planning on having some left over for lunch today, but…..oh well.

Butternut Squash Soup
1 small onion chopped
2 celery stalks chopped
handful of baby carrots chopped
2 medium red potatoes cubed
medium butternut squash cubed
32 oz. water
6 Chicken Bouillon cubes

Combine butter, onion, celery, carrots, red potatoes, and butternut squash into pot and cook for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add water and chicken bouillon cubes and simmer for 40 minutes.

Once vegetables are soft, transfer to blender and blend on high until smooth. Transfer back to pot and add salt and pepper to desired taste. I added a lot of pepper because I like it spicy! I also think that you could experiment with other things like adding curry or other spices, if you like that sort of thing.

My husband will eat anything once, so I have to ask him if he would eat it again, and he reluctantly admitted that he LOVED this soup. I think it is because it is healthy and low-calorie that it is hard for him to admit that he like it. I will be working this soup into the meal rotation.

And here are the nutritional stat’s:

Are you a picky eater?

Weights: I don’t know if I can really say that this workout was from NROLFW I modified it so much! I am having a hard time with this phase because some of the moves are awkward and I can’t feel them working anything. Normally I would just add more weight, but then my form is all off. This has been a frustrating phase for me. I only have two more workouts left for this phase and then I can move on. Phase 6 is a lot different from the rest of the phases and I am eager to move on!

Deadlift: 4 sets of 10, 60 pounds
Bent over Row: 4 sets of 4, 60 pounds
Lat Pull down: sets of 8, 80 pounds
Single leg squat: 4 sets of 8
Push-ups: 4 sets of 10
Seated row: 4 sets of 6, 80 pounds
Plank: 4 60 second holds

1 Comment

by Shrinking Carrie on December 30, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Body Bugg, Daily Stats, Dustin, Recipes, The New Rules of Lifting for Women

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on December 30, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/12/30/syncing-up/

Unleash the Beast!

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 1 hour
Attempted Home Foam Rolling

I am happy to say that my sickness is finally under control! I thank my Kombucha for getting me back in the game! Two a day keeps the Dr. away (just my opinion, obviously I am not a medical professional).

This morning I woke up with an itch to get to the gym. I had probably one of the best cardio workouts to date (considering I haven’t done any cardio in 1 and a 1/2 weeks!). I thought I was going to be sluggish and possibly go down a level to work myself back up to where I was before vacation. I did the same level I was doing two weeks ago and I went strong for 60 minutes! I am going to attribute it to eating good for the last 3 days. It is AMAZING what fruits and veggies can do.

My AWESOME hub’s got me my very own 36″ foam roller for Christmas, and so I saved it until I got home to do some stretching. This may be tough because Hanna thought I was playing a game with her and she kept running at me full speed while I was trying to roll. I couldn’t help but laugh, more like rolling on the floor laughing. My kid is a crack up! If I leave the roller on the floor she kicks it around with her feet so it rolls everywhere, she totally melts my heart!

Weigh in:

Starting Weight 282.8 Pounds

Last Weigh in: 264.8 (Ugh! That is so hard to type!)

This Weeks Weight: 260 pounds

Total Loss: 4.8 pounds!

I knew that a LOT of the weight I gained was due to sodium, bowel back-up (I know, TMI, but its the truth), and water retention. I have really focused the last few days on eating low sodium, high fiber foods. I have also not had any sweets. I have finally got to the point where my body is no longer craving sugar and carbs every second of the day. Now I just need to maintain the eats that I have been consuming and I should be golden.

I also put my body bugg on today, and today will be the first day (since I have owned it) that I will be updating my food and seeing the calorie deficit in actuality. I may write a post on it tonight, depending on what’s going on, and if I have time (and don’t fall asleep!).

21 Day Vegan Kickstart Program:

I am so excited to get this challenge going! I have looked up some great recipes that I will be trying out and I have felt so good these last few day without eating so much dairy and meat products.

This challenge starts on January 2 and will include:

starting weight
starting body measurements
progress photo’s
Weigh ins on Mondays
What I ate Wednesday posts

I hope that you will follow along in my progress! I will also be joining in the Gold’s Gym 12 Week Challenge, that starts in January as well. Who know’s, maybe I could win $25,000!

Are you going to be participating in any challenges for the upcoming new year?
Any New Years goals?

9 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on December 29, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, Body Bugg, Challenges, Foam Rolling, PCRM, Sick, Workout

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on December 29, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/12/29/unleash-the-beast/

Stop Me From Going Mental

Sweat it Out (Thursday’s Workout):
45 Minutes Weights
15 Minutes Foam Rolling

I’ll be honest: it took me a couple of days to get over whatever funk happened on Wednesday. I will say that I appreciate my mommy readers so much and the great comments that they left. I’m also thankful for my mom who called me the moment she read my post. It is moments like this that I need to pick up the phone and call someone instead of always trying to handle everything myself. It’s good to have a shoulder to cry on. I feel like I am getting back to semi-normal after having a bit of a freak out. Getting use to motherhood is hard, that has got to be why it is one of the most rewarding jobs.

Since my last post I’ve decided that I need to rearrange a few things. I’ve realized that Hanna still needs a morning nap and it has to be at 9:00 in order for her afternoon nap to pan out. The reason this is tough is because I am a go-to-the-gym-right-when-you-wake-up kind of gal. This last month I have been in the habit of getting up, getting Hanna changed and fed, and then I was out the door and to the gym by 9:00. No time to think or talk myself out of going. Like I have said in the past, I am a MAJOR creature of habit, so going back to this schedule is a bit worrying that I will be able to talk myself out of the gym by the time Hanna wakes up.

Here is my mantra for the rest of this year: I am adaptable, I can do this.

I love my mom. She holds me accountable no matter how crazy it makes me. One of the things she asked me on the phone last night is whether or not I weighed in yesterday (since it was weigh in day, this is not a question she asks me regularly), and how my bodybugg has been going. I had to come clean. Yes, I weighed myself yesterday, and I weighed the same as the week before. Yes, I have been wearing my bodybugg, but I haven’t been tracking my food. As much as I didn’t like it, it made me think. I told her that I would be happy if I maintained this weight during the holidays, and then really focus in the New Year, but I don’t think that would make me happy, it would make me feel a feeling that I really can’t think of, but it definitely wouldn’t be a feeling of happiness.

I am this journey for change, and every year I tell myself that I am so close to the new year it would be easier to just wait until January, but deep down I know I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to get lost in the holidays and forget my goals.

On the Bodybugg front: I love to watch how many calories I am burning while I’m at the gym. Did anybody notice how much cardio I did the other day?! Not that I think that could happen all the time, but I was 200 calories over my burn goal that day, and most of my goals were hit before noon. I can’t complain about that!

I did make some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies yesterday, which I am going to figure out the nutrition facts for (so I can track them) and write a post tomorrow about them. I did make my hub’s take them to work, but he only took one bag. I guess the other’s will be going in the freezer. Out of sight, out of mind.

Okay, now I’m rambling when I should be getting ready for the gym. One day at a time through the Holiday’s, I can do this!

“The New Rules of Lifting for Women”:

Deadlifts: 3 set of 10, 60 pounds
Underhand Lat Pulldown: 3 set of 10, 70 Pounds
Bulgarian Split Squat: 3 Sets of 10, 25 pound plate
Rear lunge with forward reach: 3 sets of 10, 16 pounds
Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 10, 35 pounds
Prone Jack Knife: 3 Sets of 15
Planks: 3 Sets of 60 second holds

Phase 5 starts next week!

2 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on November 18, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Body Bugg, Goals, Holiday, Motivation, The New Rules of Lifting for Women

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on November 18, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/11/18/stop-me-from-going-mental/

New BB Goals!

Sweat it Out (Monday’s Workout):
Weights 45 Minutes
Elliptical 45 Minutes
Foam Rolling 15 Minutes

“The New Rules of Lifting for Women” Day 5, Phase 4, Workout A:

Deadlifts: 3 Sets of 10, 60 pounds
Underhand lat pull: 3 Sets of 10, 70 Pounds
Bulgarian Split Squat: 3 Sets of 10, 25 Pound plate
Static lunge: 3 Sets of 10, 40 pounds
Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 10, 25 pounds
Plank: 3 60 second holds
Prone Jack Knife: 3 sets of 20

24 Days of Thankfulness: I am thankful for my husband’s job (the hubs gets his own day closer to Thanksgiving, although I sure am thankful for him too!). Even if it means he goes from working days, to 3 days of nights. My poor husband

I’m going a little crazy! My husband picked up some overnight shifts at work and he takes my laptop with him to work so he can watch movies (Rough life, I know!) I already knew that I was addicted to my computer, and now that we are reunited I am trying to take advantage of the short amount of time we have together (Dustin works the next 3 days so I will be sans computer). Plus, my hubs is sleeping during the day so I’m trying to be quiet, and the internet is great for that!

Now that I am a Weight Watchers quitter and a Body bugg user, I thought it would be a good time to revise my goals. I have to admit I am a little frustrated with the Body Bugg’s online system. I have the digital display, which is like a wrist watch. It can keep me up to date on my calories burned all day long and I can view them at an instant instead of having to upload the info all the time to my laptop. But it’s not working correctly.

Yesterday, my digital display told me that I burned 3,311. When I uploaded the information to my computer today it told me that I had only burned 1865. Imagine how frustrating it would be to look at one number and then see a significantly different number when you see the information on the screen. The fast is that I KNOW I burned 3311 calories yesterday, but it won’t display my hard work!!!

I sent an email to the tech people and hopefully my hub’s will be able to watch the baby while I sit on the phone with them for another hour. I have also considered using Dustin’s desktop PC to see if that makes any difference. A lot of programs that are originally built for PC’s have problems communicating with Mac’s so we’ll see if it fixes the problems.

Anyway! I thought that with a new program some new goals should be put out for all to see, so here are the new numbers that I am trying to reach daily:

I have my plan set to lose 2 pounds a week
Consume 2100 calories daily
Burn 3100 calories a day
Continue going to the gym 6 times a week. Complete 3 NROLFW workouts 3 days a week, and cardio 6 days a week. Foam roll daily
Drink 100 oz’s of water daily

Dustin has sweetened the pot by saying he will buy me an ipad when I hit 200 pounds. I know that is far away, but I am hoping that I will be close to that by the time my 33rd birthday happens in May of 2012, that is a little over 6 months to lose a little over 50 pounds. Do you think I can do it?

1 Comment

by Shrinking Carrie on November 8, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Body Bugg, Goals, Rewards, The New Rules of Lifting for Women

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on November 8, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/11/08/new-bb-goals/

Cold Sweats

Sweat it Out (Saturday’s Workout):
Elliptical 5 minute warm-up
Weights 45 minutes
Foam Rolling 15 minutes

It’s officially cold in Colorado. I got goose bumps for the first time since I can remember yesterday morning and took a HOT shower. Got on the scale this morning and the number is continually going down, which is always a good thing. If only I could figure out how I was doing it? I haven’t tracked, my workouts have been pretty much the same, and I haven’t left the house (besides the gym) in 4 days (sad, I know). I haven’t felt hungry and I have eaten a LOT of carbs, bread, rice, english muffins etc. I don’t know if my body is still getting rid of the crap I ate a week ago or what, but here’s hoping to it staying this way!

Body Bugg:

I am loving my Body Bugg! Why didn’t I take the plunge sooner? I love that I know it is 90% accurate, and now I know that when I lift weights for an hour I burn around 400 calories. As opposed to the 1000 that livestrong told me (ok, so that’s an exaggeration). I’m not sure how much I’m liking the food tracker on the website, but I can always track on the daily plate and pull the information over. Right now I am writing down everything I eat during the day and recording it at night when I sync my BB to the computer.

I also highly recommend the visual display if you are contemplating a BB. It helps that I can see all of the calories I have burned as easily as checking the time on my watch. It also helps me to know if I have burned enough calories, and if I need to do more activity.

“The New Rules of Lifting for Women” Phase 4, Day 3, Workout A:

I started off the morning with a baby that woke up too early. She was up all night, and I should have known she was getting sick. We got to the gym almost right when the kids club opened (I only took her because I hadn’t figured out she was coming down with something yet) and I decided that since Hanna was being a ornery turkey I would get in my weights and foam rolling and be on my way. Knowing that I wasn’t going to have to do any cardio after my weights, I really took my time and lifted heavier than usual. I started to feel cold sweats and get really uncomfortable. Any time that happens I think I’m going to pass out even though I felt fine everywhere else. I like to feel hot when I sweat, not cold. It feels weird. But I ended up feeling good in the end and I am already stiff. Luckily, I have a husband that gives me free massages and he worked out the knots that formed in my shoulder blades.

This particular workout hasn’t been very strenuous in the past and so I was glad that I could kick it up a notch and really feel the burn! Here is what todays workout looked like:

Squat Push-press: 3 Sets of 8, 40 pound bar
Step up’s: 3 Sets of 10, 40 Pound bar, I usually use the free weights and hold them to my sides, but I have been feeling some back pain with this move. this time I used a 40 pound bar with a neck brace on it and my form improved majorly! Which helped me do more weight. usually I only use the 22 pound bar, big improvement!
Push-ups: 3 sets of 10
Static rear forward lunge: 3 sets of 10, 40 pound bar, same issue as with the step ups. I will be using bars from now on.
One point row: 6 sets of 6, 3 on each arm, 35 Pounds
Horizontal wood chop: 3 Sets of 10, 50 Pounds
Plank: 3 sets of 60 second holds
Foam Rolling, cause it hurts so good.

I’m sure I won’t be able to move tomorrow.

If you have a Body Bugg, how do you like the tracking system for food? After playing with it more today, I am not feeling it. It doesn’t have very much foods in the database and I have to manually enter in a lot of the foods I eat. I think I’ve figured out a simpler way that I will be trying out the next few days.
Do you ever get the cold sweats? I better not be getting sick. That is all I can say about that.

3 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on November 6, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Body Bugg, The New Rules of Lifting for Women

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on November 6, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/11/06/cold-sweats/

Trying Something New!

Sweat it Out (Friday’s Workout):
Elliptical 1 Hour
Foam Rolling 15 Minutes

24 Days of Thankfulness: Today I am thankful for the scale. This morning it finally threw me a bone and showed a good number (for which I will keep secret because I am a little superstitious and I don’t want to jinx it) which helped motivate me to get a killer cardio session in at the gym.

Good News: My Body Bugg arrived today!!! Bad News: I spent an hour on the phone with tech support and a frustrating evening trying to set it up. I haven’t put it on yet, but I am hoping that once it is fully charged I can slap it on my arm and get this party started. I really don’t think I can take any more technical difficulties at this point. Especially with a ornery baby crying in the back ground.

I also got the nifty wrist watch thingy so I don’t have to upload my Bugg every time I want to see how many calories I’ve burned. I haven’t figured out how to sync it to the band yet, but I’m hoping once I get it on my arm it will be a breeze ~~or I will scream.~~

Yesterday’s workout was a scheduled NROLFW workout, but I was stiff, like super stiff. Probably the most stiff I have been with this program. What can I say, I kicked my @$$ on Wednesday and it has seemed to carry through. I will make up the session today to complete my 3 strength training requirements for the week.

As a blogger I try to keep up on the blogs I enjoy to read, and most of them are running blogs (since a marathon is the ultimate goal for me). So when my muscles were stiffer than normal I looked into some ways that I could help out the healing process when I came across foam rolling. I thought in order to foam roll you had to be an awesome runner, or an athlete. But it turns out that anyone can foam roll! After researching how to foam roll correctly (since an injury is the last thing I need right now) I actually saw what a foam roll looked like.

Turns out that little round thing in the middle of the step lifters is a foam roller! And all this time I thought it was keeping the lifts from falling over. Duh. I looked up some You Tube videos to make sure that I had the correct form, and came across this short informative video. The lady made it look so easy!

I am always a little nervous to do something new at the gym so when I decided to try this form of stretching I didn’t want to embarrass myself. The fact was, my legs were KILLING me and I had to do something about it. Luckily my gym has just done some rearranging so that there is more room for abs and stretching so I didn’t have to fight for space.

I started by rolling my hamstrings, and I didn’t know what the fuss was all about. I had heard a few people who said that rolling was painful, but felt good after. I thought maybe I was doing it wrong. Then I flipped over and did my quads. I was making the pain face in no time. Pretty much my eyes started to water after a minute, and I was done for.

Lastly I rolled my IT bands on both legs and that was the same as the quads if not worse, but I did figure out that it was my IT band that I irritated about 6 months ago, so that was good to know.

My legs feel 100% better. I am now in love with foam rolling and since I have access to a roller at my gym, I will be adding it into my workouts. I love finding new things to keep the gym fun and interesting!

Anything you have recently tried to keep your workouts interesting?
Are you tech savvy? Normally yes, when there isn’t something majorly wrong with the settings on my mac.

10 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on November 5, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Body Bugg, Foam Rolling

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on November 5, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/11/05/trying-something-new/

Are You Terrified?

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 1 hour

24 Days of Thankfulness: Today I am thankful for the lulling purr of my furnace. I am NOT thankful that it makes me not want to leave the house!

First off, I am SORE from Wednesday’s NROLFW workout. Every time I go to sit I am reminded of just how hard I worked my legs. I’m thinking I need to learn how to foam roll so I can help with the healing process? Any Suggestions?

Second, I went out to sneak a candy from my deep freeze and saw that my hub’s threw out all the candy. Thank you for saving me from myself! It is pretty obvious that I have a sweet tooth and can’t say no with little pieces of heaven within walking distance.

Third, I’m hoping that this is the last time that you have to hear this, but my Body Bugg should be coming today!!!! I am so excited for my full day of being able to use it on Saturday. Maybe I’ll drag myself to a spin class to test out the calorie burn. I think that would be a sufficient christening, no?

I had a great question in the comments section on My Back Home, Back on Track post:

To be honest, I never even gave a second thought to this question in the beginning. I was excited to get my life back and that is really what fueled my decision to start my blog. I knew that if I went into this thinking I would fail then I would have never taken the plunge.

Fast forward to around week 5 where I started questioning my decision. I was doing a dance, gaining, and losing the same few pounds. I worried about giving up, and losing readership due to no progress. I stressed about making changes in my lifestyle and coping with the fact that this was not temporary. IT WAS FOREVER.

Then I had to have a come to Jesus talk with myself and covered some very important points:

I need to be healthy, FOREVER. You can’t lose the weight and go back to bad habits. It won’t work, it never does.
My life is completely different from past dieting. I have different priorities and different obligations. The time to lose weight is now, while I actually have the time to form new, good habits. i.e. Stay at Home Mom, Time to Plan, Time to exercise without having to get up at the butt-crack of dawn. My focus is to take care of my toddler, husband, and most of all myself. You can’t take proper care of anyone without taking proper care of yourself.
Readership is a wonderful thing, but it is not the only thing. I LOVE the people and friends that I have met in the blogging world, and I love the opportunities that have opened up to me by starting my blog, but I started it to hold myself accountable. I would be lying to you if I told you I never check my stat’s (and so would most bloggers), but one of the reason’s is that I don’t want to fail in front of hundreds of people. A little pressure never hurt anybody, and heaven forbid people actually being able to relate to your situation.
I get scared when I think of negativity in my posts. I am severely overweight. I obviously have some mental issues that tie them together, but it does no good to say “I will be able to lose weight when I figure out how I gained it”. I gained weight because I let my emotions get the best of me. I let negativity bury its way into my head and I get scared when that happens. You won’t lose weight without positivity. At least I know I won’t lose weight without positivity. Do I have a bad day every now and again? Absolutely (Hello! I’ve been eating Halloween candy for the last 3 days!)! But I know that there is always tomorrow. I’m not looking for instant gratification. I’m just looking to move forward and make progress, and I have come far in the last 4 1/2 months. I know this is something that I will never quit striving towards, and for that I have no fear!

I invite you to not be scared! Your loyal readers will still come back if you fall, and remember that tomorrow brings a new day full of opportunity and hope! So to answer your question:

No, I was not terrified because I am full of hope and the opportunity to be my best self for me, for my family, and for you readers, for we should all find hope in each other!

Bloggers: Were you terrified to share your journey? Why or Why not?

PS. To the reader that left me this comment: Thank you for the inspiration for this topic! I loved the reflection that it gave me, and I hope you liked the answer!

7 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on November 4, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in About Me, Awesomeness, Blogging, Body Bugg, Motivation, Positive Self-Talk, Terrified

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on November 4, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/11/04/are-you-terrified/

I’ve Got The Fever…..

Sweat it Out (Wednesday’s Workout):
Weights 45 Minutes
Elliptical 30 Minutes

24 Days of Thankfulness: Today I am thankful that my child sleeps in until 8:00 almost every single day, and sleeps 12 hours a night.

The time has come…….to get on the scale. I ALWAYS give myself a few days after vacation until I weigh myself, and so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I only gained 1.8 pounds. Yes, I am stoked that it wasn’t more and I am still in the 250′s, 257.8 to be exact. I am not kidding when I say that there was one day last week where I ate pizza for 2 meals and chocolate in between. So I will take a 1.8 pound gain with a smile! This also proves that when you lose weight slowly it doesn’t come back as fast. My average of 1.5 pounds a week wasn’t looking so bad after vacation!

This weigh in means it’s time to get back in business, and with a little focus I can actually lose some weight this month! Especially since it is T-minus 2 days until my Body Bugg arrives. Have I mentioned how excited I am? Only a few THOUSAND times!

I’ve got the fever, and I’ve got it bad. On Tuesday, I finally put away all of Hanna’s 3-9 months clothing and packed up all of the bottles, binkies, breast pump, and the last of her being a baby Which has now left me with scorching baby fever. I’m still a young gal of 32 and the hubs and I do plan on trying for one more, but putting all of the baby stuff in storage certainly lit a spark in me.

For those of you who haven’t read any of my posts regarding my labor, it was pretty heinous. This next go around I want to be healthy and ready to have a baby. I’m aiming for no Gestational Diabetes, working out daily, and being mindful of my eating. But before I get pregnant for the second time, there is a little something called Health Insurance that I need to acquire, and in order for me to do that I need to be able to qualify. Which means I need to be a healthy weight since I am a High-risk pregnancy (because of the emergency c-section), and all of Colorado policies are required to include maternity, but I don’t want to pay an arm and a leg.

So for now I need to concentrate on really losing some pounds so that I can make all of the pieces fall together. I’ve decided (obviously) that weigh in day will stay on Thursday. I actually weigh in on Wednesday, but I write my post’s a day before hand (so that my family doesn’t feel neglected, and it works for us). I’m excited to really see some changes these next few months, and I am finally at a point where I am going to be able to tell a difference.

Now onto……

“The New Rules of Lifting for Women” Phase 4, Day 2, Workout B

Dead lift: 3 sets of 10, 60 pounds
Underhand Lat pull: 3 Sets of 10, 70 Pounds
Bulgarian Split Squat: 3 Sets of 10, 25 pound plate
Reverse Lunge off step with Forward Reach: 3 Sets of 10, 16 Pounds
Shoulder Press: 3 Sets of 10, 30 Pounds
Prone Jack Knife: 3 Sets of 20
Reverse Crunch: 3 sets of 10
Plank: 3 Sets of 60 second holds, modified to knees

My legs were JELLY after this lifting session! I could only do 30 minutes on the Elliptical, it was all my legs could handle! But I feel AWESOME!

If you have kids: Did you get baby fever when you put away their baby things?
No kids? Do you ever feel your biological clock ticking?

2 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on November 3, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Body Bugg, Family, Motivation, Parenting, Priority Shift, The New Rules of Lifting for Women

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on November 3, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/11/03/ive-got-the-fever/

I <3 Weightlifting

I just realized after all of the craziness that last week brought, I forgot to do a “The New Rules of Lifting for Women” Phase 3 re-cap! I also regret to inform, but have to admit, I totally had my fair share of Halloween candy yesterday. I could count on both hands how many trick-or-treaters we got, and I am afraid I am going to have to freeze all of our leftover candy, and put it in the deepest depths of my deep freezer in the garage. Hopefully I forget about it.

If you want to read a great article that will make you feel bad for eating Halloween Candy click here. It was eye opening what sugar does to your body!

NROLFW Phase 3!

I loved this phase and think that it is the best thus far. It focused a lot more on the upper body, which was a great switch up from Phase 2 which was mostly legs. the problem I am finding with all of the phases is that when I have a full body move, like the squat and snatch, I can either work my legs really well or my arms, but never both.

The workouts were a lot quicker than phase 2 and found myself finishing up at around the 30 minute mark. Unfortunately, I found out that I missed a whole section of the workout!!! At the end of Workout A there is a whole Body Matrix section with Squats/Jump Squats and Lunges/Split Jump Lunges. I can’t believe I missed that part!

I have already decided that I am going to do the entire program over again once I have finished. I would love to see how far I’ve come, and maybe by then I will be able to do a plank without having to modify it!

Onto Phase 4!

Phase 4, Day 1, Workout A:

This is what Monday’s workout looked like (normally I would post pictures, but I have decided that I need to respect the authors of this book, and instead recommend going to Amazon and purchasing it for cheap!)

Front Squat Push Press: 3 sets of 10, 40 Pounds
Step Up: 3 Sets of 10, 35 Pounds
Dumbbell One-point Row: 3 Sets of 10, 30 Pounds
Static Lunge, Rear Foot Elevated: 3 Sets of 10, 22 Pound bar. My legs finally feel like they are getting stronger, and my form is MUCH better than when I started the program! I love seeing progress!
Push-ups: 3 Sets of 10, Bodyweight modified to knees. The last phase didn’t have any push up reps, so I was excited to see them come back into the mix.
Plank: 3 sets of 60 second holds, modified to knees
Cable Horizontal Wood Chop: 3 Sets of 10, 50 Pounds

After taking the week off from weight lifting last week I was ready to get back to my home gym so that I could rip into Phase 4. These last couple of months while doing this program I have found a love for weights! I use to be a cardio girl all the way, but I am now finding that when you lift with a routine and combine certain moves you can get a sweaty workout while pumping some iron!

PS. I’m hoping to get in a spin class today so wish me luck with motivation!