Running Day 1

I use the term “running” very loosely considering it was more like a very slow jog.  Back in the day (early 20′s), I could run 5 miles a day at 6 mph.  My cool down was a brisk walk at 4 mph.

Yesterday I was “running” at 4.2 mph.  Oh how the mighty have fallen.  I know that seems kind of downer, but trust me, yesterday was pretty monumental for me.  I actually STARTED my workout with a runner’s high, and it was a great warm-up for the 25 minutes on the elliptical I did after.  It left me a pretty sweaty mess:

And that folks is an award-winning zit right there.

What I Felt Like During the run

To my lungs the run felt effortless.  In fact, I was barely breathing when I was done with the 6 minute intervals of walking and running.  I was kind of surprised.  On the second minute of running I decided to kick it up a notch and upped it to 4.5.  My lungs felt fine and I still was not getting my heart rate up very much, but then my left knee started to get a dull pinch in it so I put it back down to a 4.  The pain was in my left knee, which is strange because usually there is a small pain in my right leg (the leg I fell on, and injured myself with when I was 21).

The only thing I can say is that I am still very overweight and for right now listening to my body is best.  If I have to keep the pace lower so that my aches and pains subside I will do just that.  The weight will start to come off, and my lungs and body will sync up perfectly, I have no doubt.  I will not quit this running program just because I can’t go as fast as I want to go.  It will come with time.

On the Diet Front

For the first time in a week and a half I have seen a loss on the scale.  I changed a few things in my diet and I think it has made a difference.  I’ve added some more protein and I think it has been the missing puzzle piece.  I’ve started eating chicken and eggs again (mostly egg whites).  It seems like it’s the only way I can get my protein high enough without going over on my  carbs and calories.

I truly believe that there is no one way for people to eat.  I think that many people thrive in different kind of diets, and you have to pick the one for you.  Even on the weeks that I was eating perfectly I was not seeing losses, and felt like I was depriving myself of foods that could help me in my weight loss, and now I can say that I have honestly done something long enough to see how it affects my body, and adding meat back into my diet has not affected my energy levels at all.  Which is great!

So there you have it.  My first day running, although a little frustrating, was a success!  The thing that keeps me going is knowing that I will improve.  I have nowhere to go but up!

 

Baptism By Fire

I am happy to report that I have crossed off one of my goals for the week yesterday.  Get over myself and go to the church exercise group.  Done and done!  I am so excited to be apart of these fun activities and it is going to be a great way for Hanna and I to get out of the house on daily basis.

It was a bit of a baptism by fire.  We were running a little late and so I rushed in the church last minute and hoped that they hadn’t started yet, which they hadn’t.  After a few introductions I let Hanna run off to play with the other kids and looked at the TV screen which read P90X.  P90X!?!?!  I fully admit, I was scared.  Especially since I had just met these people and I wanted to make a good first impression.

I sucked it up and decided that I was going to give it my best, and it was comforting to know that there were other girls who were questioning their capabilities as well.

I had a future plan that once I hit around 220 I would do a program like P90X (but I was more wanting to do Insanity).  I guess now was as good as any to see what my future self would be getting into.

My thoughts?  I liked it!  I could modify the moves pretty easily (it was the Plyometrics DVD so there was a LOT of jumping) and by about 30 minutes in I was sweating up a storm.  When I looked at how many calories I had burned on my Bodybugg it was around 500 which is the same as what I would have burned at the gym.

It was almost exactly like a group fitness class that I would have taken at the gym, but more laid back (considering that our kids were playing all around us and had to be tended to periodically).

This morning we played basketball, and let me mention that I have not played an actual basketball game since I was in my teens.  There were a few good girls and a few like me that were just happy to be moving.  Although I will say that I felt my competitiveness coming out (which doesn’t happen very often).  I was frustrated that I was missing baskets, and had to keep reminding myself that when I missed to say “shoot”  instead of $h!T (we were in a church after all).

At first I thought maybe I should just skip Tuesday’s and not play b-ball, but the other side of my head was saying, “don’t you want to get better and school some of those girls?”.  It’s funny how I think I’m not competitive, until I actually get into a situation that calls for it.  I keep telling myself it is a friendly game ;)

Are you competitive?

When is the last time you played a competitive sport?

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?

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!
PPS. Body Bugg got shipped yesterday and I should have it by Friday!!!
  • Which do you prefer: Cardio or Weightlifting?
  • What’s your favorite weightlifting move or cardio exercise?

I Like My Routine

Sweat it Out:
5 min. Arc Trainer
5 min. Elliptical
40 min.  Different Elliptical

I cannot say enough how HUGE of a creature of habit I am, and very particular about what my habit is done on.  I belong to Gold’s Gym, and I am blessed to be able to have a travel pass so that I can use the gym they have 2 blocks from my mom’s house.  This morning I woke up at 7 and put my gym clothes on first thing so that I could go get my workout in and not have to worry about it the rest of my day.

I got to the gym and this is the first time that I didn’t have trouble getting in with my travel pass.  The stars were aligning and it was meant to be.  Little did I know that when I got into the cardio area, it would turn into a story of Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears, or in my case Goldie Locks and the 3 horrible Ellipticals.  This gym had NOT ONE of the cardio machines that were in my home gym, which I thought was strange considering they are the same kind of gym.

I started on the Arc Trainer, because I use to love that machine.  I couldn’t keep the beat with my music and the movement felt very foreign and did not flow right.  I jumped off of that machine and then tried an elliptical.  This machine was on its last leg and made grinding noises when it started moving.  By the third machine I was thinking to myself “you know, it was really hard to get here this morning considering I am on vacation, and I better be able to work this third machine or I might just throw in the towel”.  The third machine in no way compared to my home gym elliptical, but I needed to move to start my day, and so I powered through 40 minutes of jostling and back fat shaking all over the place, just so i could feel good about going to all-you-can-eat-sushi tonight.

I will admit that I had a better day because I started it with a workout (even if it was a crappy one).  After I got ready we decided to go shopping and spent 2 HOURS walking around the mall.  I did find a great pair of jeans (because my current fave’s now have holes in the crotch), but couldn’t bring myslef to buy anything else because I know that I will lose more weight and they won’t fit after a while.  This mentality is a great money saver, but I”ll just end up spending it all at Nordstrom at the MAC counter (oh, how I love you MAC!).

I ended the day with over 13,000 steps on my pedometer, and my goal was 10,000 so I am on a roll!  So far this vacation has been pretty manageable,  and I am just hoping that I can keep it up!

  • Do you like to shop?  I like to shop, but not for very long.  2 Hours seemed like a LONG time in the mall and I was definitely ready for a nap when we cane home!
  • What would you buy if money wasn’t an issue?  Lots of shoes, handbags, & makeup!

Perfection Challenge: Day 2 Stat’s

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 1 Hour

I have still been having foot pain these last few days so today I changed up my footwear and wore my Nike Free’s to the gym today.  I like the feeling of how light they are on my feet, almost like they’re not there at all.  And guess what?  No pain.  Hallelujah!  I have a really high arch, and I think the minimal footwear really helped my achy foot out.  One day I would love to try the Five FInger Vibrams.  I am anxious to see the difference in my feet, but I won’t try them until I start doing more treadmill work, which will have to wait until I lose a little more weight.

Here is how the day rounded out:

I could have eaten a few more fruits and veggies, but I don’t eat anything after 8, so I will have to be more mindful of this tomorrow!  I hope everyone is having a fabulous Tuesday!

Curiosity Killed the Cat…

Sweat it Our:
1 Hour Elliptical

Today was the first official workout that I felt like I was going to throw up on the way home.  I was a little panicked thinking that I had nothing to puke in and would just have to do it all over the steering wheel.  Lucky me, I have a horrible gag reflex and only throw up if my life is in danger like food poisoning.  I haven’t had the flu since 6th grade.  Stomach of steel over here.

Another fabulous thing about today’s workout is that I increased my resistance and completely zoned out the entire hour.  I worked harder than ever and didn’t even notice, I was so deep in thought.  What was I in thought about you ask?  Oh, you didn’t ask?  Well I’m telling you anyway!

Let me start with saying that I Love the Weight Watchers plan, and I love the way the point system works, but the last few days I’ve been wondering if I eat ALL of my WW points plus how many calories am I ACTUALLY taking in?  Before I started Weight Watchers, I used the Livestrong website. They have a program called The Daily Plate, and it’s awesome. It has the caloric information for almost every food imaginable. My only gripe with WW is when I go to enter in my food, the particular item is almost never in their database and I have to enter every food myself manually, and sometimes when I go to put it in again, it has lost the information so I have to enter it AGAIN! Kind of Frustrating.  If you are calorie counting, I HIGHLY recommend using The Daily Plate.  You can even make nifty nutritional labels for your meals.  Anyway, it’s awesome.

Moving on.  Today I decided I would answer the question of “How many calories am I actually consuming?”.  I took all the foods that I ate yesterday and put them into my account on The Daily Plate and I found some interesting information:

Did I really eat  162 grams of protein?!  To see the actual nutritional breakdown is interesting to me, and puts a LOT of things into perspective.  Like I am eating too much salt and my cholesterol is pretty high for the day.  I should probably cut back on the eggs a little!

When I had Gestational Diabetes, my nutritionist told me that I needed to keep my protein, fat, and carbs in balance so that my blood sugar stayed stable.  Looking at this pie chart tells me that my carbohydrate intake was a little high yesterday.  Could it have been the 3 LARGE peaches I ate yesterday?  Little sidenote:  when entering in my peaches to The Daily Plate I found out that I ate 532 calories in peaches alone yesterday!  Say what?!

After doing this little experiment I found out that each Weight Watchers point was about 54 calories.  The other thing I found is that I need to do a little extra work when it comes to tracking my food.  The nutritional breakdown really put a lot of things into perspective for me and there are area’s that I need to cut back on.  Let’s remember I’m in this to be healthy not thin, and although staying within my alloted points will help me fit into skinny jeans, it won’t help me live longer and that is the ultimate goal here.

Anything you’ve been enlightened with lately?

BTW:  This is my 100th Post!  Yay me!

Friend Making Monday: Creating Change

Sweat it Out:
45 Minutes Weights
45 Minutes Elliptical

First off, I signed up for my second event at Golds Gym this morning……The Eight Week Challenge!  I let them take my weight, measurements, and a picture of me just in my sports bra (yikes)!  I have a pretty big advantage in this challenge considering that I have a lot of weight to lose and a lot of progress to make.  I think this is going to be a great motivator for the upcoming weeks!  Here is what today’s workout looked like:

  • Wide-grip deadlift from box: 60 Pounds
  • Bulgarian Split Squat: 25 Pound Plate
  • Underhand-grip lat pulldown: 80 Pounds
  • Reverse lunge from box w/forward reach: 10 Pounds
  • Dumbbell Prone Cuban Snatch: 10 Pounds
  • Prone Jack Knife: 2 sets of 15
  • Reverse Crunch: 2 sets of 10
  • Prone Cobra: 2 sets for 60 seconds
I’m thinking that I’m going to add one more set to each of these exercises.  I feel like I can’t add anymore weight, but I don’t feel like I’m working some of these movements.  I will try starting Wednesday and we’ll see how it pans out.
Friend Making Monday: Creating Change
I’m so glad that Kenlie at All the Weigh had a fun change for this weeks FMM.  One reason that I am excited about it is, like her, I too am doing the Weight Watchers program and Aug. 28th-October 15th they are doing the Lose For Good Challenge to help fight against hunger.  Each week at our weigh ins they ask us to donate non-perishable items in whatever quantity we choose.  So this week instead of having getting to know you questions and the regular FMM post, Kenlie has asked us to get involved with this program and to give whatever we can.  Weight Watchers will be donating up to 1 million dollars to the Lose for Good campaign.  To read more about this campaign you can go to  Kenlie’s site, or you can check out the details at the Weight Watchers website.
As I have mentioned in the past, my little family is on a tight food budget.  I plan on donating as many pounds as I lose through October 15th.  After this weeks weigh in I will donate canned goods in the amount of what I have lost.  I’m excited to be able to give back to my community and I hope that you will be able to join me!
Stay tuned!  Still one post left in the day (how do 3 posts a day bloggers do it!).  I am on my second day of perfection and it is looking great!  I won’t be posting this often everyday, but I didn’t want you all to get bored reading a LONG @ss post!
Do you do anything to benefit your community?

Fire it Up!

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 1 hour

What better way to gear up for the holiday’s than to start a couple of challenges for the fall!  I always work better if I have a goal to shoot for in my head and a group challenge is just what I need to keep my head straight!  I’ve decided to join in on a couple of events that will keep me focused and striving towards my ultimate weight loss goals.

Event #1:  The Golds Gym 8 Week Challenge!

Source

The challenge begins on Monday September 19th and goes for 8 weeks.  That’s right around Thanksgiving, just in time for Turkey and Pie!  To put your mind (and mine) at ease I plan on tracking all of the food I eat for Thanksgiving.  It will really put things in perspective.  The 1st place winner will receive a 2 night stay at the Wine Country Inn.  I don’t drink alcohol (wine), but a getaway (even if its close to home) would be fun for me and the hub’s.

Event #2: Fire Up For Fall!

This is a challenge put on by Weight Wars and created by Amy.  I got the information from Dom’s blog and she worded it so well I just pasted it here!

The premise is as follows:

  • You set yourself 5 or more goals to work towards over the 10 weeks of the challenge.
  • Every weekend you get an email Rebecca, it has some questions on it to post and answer on your blog on Monday.
  • Each week we also post a positive picture to lift everyone’s spirits and sum up the positive parts of our week.
  • Then you pop over to Weight Wars and link up at the bottom of my weekly post so everybody can meet you, and you can meet everyone else.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, I invite you to join me!  The challenge starts on Monday, September 19th so sign up now.

 

So now I have 2 fun upcoming events and new challenges.  We all know how much I love goals and so I am excited to get started!

What is a challenge that you will give yourself for Fall?

Don’t have one?  Get one started!

Few Things Friday

Sweat it Out:
5 Minute Elliptical Warm-up
45 Minutes Weights

Few Things Friday

1.  I get a lower back pain about every 3 months.  I think it has something to do with my womanly parts.  I usually panic that I have hurt myself something fierce, but the last time I told myself to remember that it happens often.  I remembered today.  I went to the gym and did my weightlifting workout and my back started spazzing out.  I skipped my cardio and headed home.  I went to the gym way too late today and lost my motivation after my back started hurting.  Last time it hurt I did some stretching to help it out, and instead hurt my calf muscle somehow.  I would go tot he Dr., but it’s kind of hard when you have no Health Insurance.  I’m sure everything is fine and this will be like every other time and it will be healed after about 4 days.  Thank goodness I only have cardio to do tomorrow and then a rest day.

Let me stress that I did not hurt my back because of weightlifting.  It is the same stupid pain I get 2 weeks after flo leaves.  It’s funny how she comes once a month, and then it takes you 3 weeks to recover.

2. I made a pot of chicken noodle soup on Wednesday and had some for lunch today.  With the Fall weather speedily approaching, I can’t help but want to stay home, cuddle with my little girl, and eat soups. I LOVE soup weather, and I have some fun recipes that I’ve been waiting to try.  Dustin got called into work for the remainder of the week, and so I’m on my own.  We ALMOST  got to have a date night.  This will be his 4th weekend working.  Boo.

3. I got crafty last night and stole an idea from Janetha over at Meals and Moves.  I made myself a Motivational Journal.  I mainly use the blog to keep track of my workouts and such, but I thought this idea was so great I had to make one for myself.  I bought a plain-looking journal at Wal-mart, got some old fitness, and food magazines together and made a motivational collage with words and pictures from the magazine.  Then I used Clear Contact paper to laminate the outside so nothing would come off.  Here is how it turned out:

Front

Back

The photo in the middle on the front is of me when I was working at Dillards.  Dustin and I had just started dating and it is one of my favorite photo’s of myself, and one of the few.  I always feel motivation from it when I see how healthy and happy I was at that time.

I made this journal to motivate me, but also to track my food, workouts, and thoughts.  Of course, I don’t share every thought and feeling on the blog (that would be boring) and I’m trying to use this as a tool to find out triggers for eating and thoughts that are to personal to share.

4. I’m reading the book “Room”.  Its apart of the PBFingers Bookclub.

I am having a hard time putting this book down, it is such a great read!  And yes, that is a crocheted book mark that my Gramma made me, thank you very much.

5. I’m about to drink my 3rd Nalgene for the day.  Lately, I have not been getting quite enough water.  I went to this website and found out I should be drinking 153 oz. of water a day.  HOLY CRAP!  You are supposed to take into account that some of your water intake comes from the foods you eat.  I’m pretty sure I ate at least 10 oz. of water just in my soup.  Looks like I better get crackin.  If I’m not drinking the water, I’m peeing it out.

So that’s what my day has looked like, how about you?

Today’s workout was Day 3, Phase 2, Workout A:

  • Front Squat/Push Press 30 Pounds 2 sets of 10
  • Step-up 40 pounds 2 sets of 10
  • Dumbbell one-point row 30 pounds 2 sets of 10
  • Static Lunge-rear foot elevated 30 pounds 2  sets of 10
  • Push-up Body Weight
  • Plank Modified to knees, 2 holds for 60 seconds
  • Cable Horizontal Wood Chop 60 Pounds
Now I’m off to heat my back and take some Ibuprofen.
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