Life Style Lift

This Blog is dedicated to my goal to change my life. In this blog you will read of my trials, triumphs and tests into improving the quality of my life and that of my family's life. It will start out with basic things, things I have influence over and will move on to more intricate changes. This blog will read like a diary, one of my goals is to update it daily, noting a small change I have made or maintained during that day.

From food to fitness, spending money to saving money, setting goals and achieving goals, and everything in between. Stay tuned to see how my Lifestyle Lift pays off!!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Last week!!

OMG I can hardly believe it, I have one week left in my six weeks to a new you. Do I feel like a new me, well I feel more like the old me then I have in a very long time.  There are definitely some changes that I still have to work on but some of the changes have come very easily and I am enjoying incorporating them into my life and into my families healthy living.

So next Monday I go for my final weigh in and measurements, so that is when I will post my final results and then I will hopefully have some links to send you to see my video interview or some first time pictures with last week pictures.  It's going to be exciting.

I can give you these results though. I am definitely feeling a change in my body at this point.  I have more energy, I am not as tired as I was.  I still like my sleep and can still go to bed early but if I stay up an extra hour or two I am not a walking zombie the next day.  I feel healthier and I am not getting sick even though everyone around me is catching every cold and virus that is floating in this environment.  My clothes are fitting better, I even wore a pair of guess jeans I bought back when my dad was still alive in the hospital yesterday that I hadn't been able to put on since I bought them because I had gained weight after he passed away and I gained more weight because then I got pregnant.  Now two years later I am getting back down.  Next stop is to get back into the pants I bought when my dad was in making his big mistake 8 months prior to his death. 

I hope you are all looking forward to my results as much as I am.  Soon maybe I will be comfortable posting bikini pictures too!!! lol

Saturday, February 12, 2011

New results

I have now officially lost 11 pounds, and a total of 11 inches!!!  I am so excited about this turn of events.  There are two weeks left in my program and I need to work extra hard to lose those last 9 pounds to reach my goal and then I will be half way to my long term goal. 

I was a skeptic, I will readily admit that, I didn't think the diet component would be that big of a deal, but apparently it is.  So after struggling with it for a bit, I have adopted it into my new routine and things are going well.  I still would like to indulge every once in awhile and have some tasty treats, but I am refraining for now because I want to win the competition but also because I am determined to see this through.  My treat after the six weeks will be a night out to have a decadent dessert.

But I will keep up with the food plan and the diet plan.  I think that will definitely help, but I will have to adopt some extra workouts to do at home if I do not win this competition to work out with a personal trainer.  I can always continue to sign up with the group classes, but I think in April for sure I want to be working out hard core for April, May and June so that I can be in my best shape and learn to maintain my weight, because that's going to be my next big challenge. 

I have lost weight in the past, but it's keeping that weight off and down with which I struggle.  I mean I can't even blame everything on the pregnancy, I gained a bunch of weight before I got pregnant and then my eating when I was pregnant didn't help matters.  So the next habit I must teach myself is moderation and not doing things in excess.

Any ideas how to do that??

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

UPDATE!!!

As many of you have read (I think it's only two or three people but hey it's a start I guess) I had begun a six week workout session with a personal trainer at One to 1 fitness.  This six week program is designed to help you loss weight by changing eating habits and doing some amazing workouts.  I know if my trainer reads this it may go to his head, but I vowed to be honest in my blogs and the workouts are hard, but I am able to push myself through them and I am seeing results.

When I had my initial consultation I was asked to give a short intreview in a camera to tell everyone why I signed up and what my goals were for the six week program.  I told everyone that I had signed up because I wanted to lead a healthier life and I wanted to have a healthier body and lifestyle.  My goal for the six week program was to lose 20 pounds.  It seems like a lot of weight, and I will admit that it is but it was half of all the weight I essentially want to lose by June.  By June I hope to be down to my ideal weight and then I will spend June to August and further on maintaining that weight.  They also asked me to identify my biggest obstacle in my weightloss journey.  That was easy, it's my eating habits, the snacking and junk food that I would eat. 

I have had quite the wake up call to the food I am ingesting.  I enjoyed those Fibre One bars, and cereal bars and those things, but they are not that healthy for you.  I have survived kicking sugar out of my diet, and I haven't had many cravings for sugar,  there have been a few, but I have been able to distract myself from eating anything that is high in sugar.  I thought it would be hard, especially with two children at home and a husband, or soon to be husband that was not necessarily interested in changing his diet plans. He still likes junk food, chocolate milk and his beer.   I have not been drinking anything since this started, and I may have a night or two where I drink and stuff, but I am going to be very conscious of my decisions.  Everything in moderation and really some things should be limited.

I really thought I would struggle more with eating, and there are a few times when I do struggle, but the biggest change that has happened, well the two big changes that have happened have made things easier than I expected.  The first change was cutting the processed sugar from my diet, that's all those corn syrups, fructose, glucose sugars that are manufactured and not really healthy for you.  I have supplemented in Splenda for those times when I have to have a sweetener on a product to be able to ingest it.  I tried to eat oatmeal a few times without sugar and I thought I was going to choke on it, I could barely swallow it, it just did not taste good.  But they have brown sugar splenda now so that makes things much better.  The other change has been the cutting back of prepackaged food.  I don't eat very many frozen meals or frozen meat products anymore.  We eat more fresh prepared food that is homemade.  It's been a big change because we were completely a family of convenience.  The funny thing is, when we make a meal from scratch it really only takes an average of 20 minutes longer to prepare and then we have so many leftovers afterwards for lunches and stuff that it is very much worth those extra 20 minutes. 

So now here is the update on my results at the half way mark of my six week journey.  I am down 9 pounds from when I first weighed in at One to 1.  I have lost 6+ inches since starting with them.  Those inches have come from my chest (2), waist (3) and glutes (1).  So there have been some definite gains from this program. 

Last night I didn't want to go, I wasn't feeling well, but I dragged my butt down there and I did my work out, it was worth it! I am glad I did it and I felt better when I got home, so now for the next 3 weeks I am making a goal to be more diligent to my meal plans and to actually work out more then the 3 times a week with the group class.  I will let you know more results as I find them!!!