OMG What have I done?!?!?!

Recently I uploaded some pictures from my birthday party in March.  My first thought was, "I really like my new shirt!" Which was followed by a more 'surprising' thought, "but man do I look fat!"  Omg I did not just think that, but unfortunately as I peered at the photo a little more, I realized that it was true.  I had gained weight yet again.

Who's fault is this weight gain, well none other than yours truly, I mean I can't really blame anyone else, I ate the food, I stopped the exercise program, I did all that, no one else, so I am the one who is to blame.  Yup that was me.

I haven't stepped on a scale to see how much I weigh I really don't need the scale to be taunting me as well, I do a good enough job at that as it is already.  But it has definitely lit a fire under my ass, I mean I don't want to be the fat mom, I want to be the healthy has lot's of energy, and hey my mom looks good mom.  I don't expect to have changes over night, I know this is an arduous battle, I have been in this spot before, about 18 months ago actually, and I am here again, so now I know I need to make a change.

I am going to talk to my doctor about it at my next appointment, I mean the weight gain is a little surprising I didn't feel I was being that negligent on my eating habits, maybe a little, but not to this extreme.  So I want to rule out any medical reason for the weight gain, then I am going to "diet".  But not really diet, I am going to track my food intake and I will post weekly results here, to keep me on track.  I don't know who all reads this but I don't want to be eating crap and having you all judge me for it.  And I am going to exercise every day, so when I post my weekly food log, you will also see my weekly exercise log.  And my total earnings that I am going to reward myself with.

So the plan is this, for every day I am within 200 calories +/- my daily caloric intake of 1400 I get $2.  For every day that do at least 30 minutes of cardio exercise I get $1 and for every day that I do 30 minutes of strength toning exercises I get $1.  So I can potentially earn $4 a day.  This will go for 6 weeks.  At the end of 6 weeks we will check our progress and go from there.  This will start tomorrow so tomorrow I will measure and weigh myself then post the results here.  Not the weight, I will just post my % lost after on each weeks update.

Ok here we go 6 weeks to a new me!!!!

Morning Workouts, or Daily Workouts

I find it so difficult to get out of bed on mornings when I don't work, but I know I should, I know I should get up do  quick exercise circuit, but I don't.  I usually laze in bed and then get up, then eat, then play on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest for an hour, then I clean the house, and then I do anything but exercising.  ANYTHING!!  I know this is so bad for me, especially because I am considering saving myself some money by quitting the gym and just getting a family pass at the Collicut for the year.  It's cheaper because Hubby works for the city, so then we can both go.  I know, absolutely KNOW that, hubby would not have half the aches and pains he did if he began working out regularly.  So for 1/2 the price of my gym membership a month, I could take my whole family to one of the City Centers, (Collicut, Rec Center, Dawe) and work out there.  We would also get to go swimming as a family or do lane swimming with other friends.  So the thought of quitting the gym, though it pains me to say it, means that I have to become more motivated at home to stay active and in shape.

The gym has given me some great tools and I am very happy with them.  I am not quitting the gym because I am not happy with my trainer, in fact I would offer my trainer money to come train my hubby and I for one hour a week just to make sure I stay on track.  I am quitting the gym because my family cannot afford the cost anymore, especially if we begin looking into moving away from the city. 

So this is what I have begun in December that I am going to push on my entire house.  (Yes I am that pushy, my 2 y/o will even get involved)  I typed up 14 different quick workouts for us to do in the morning. Some will take 15 minutes others closer to 45.  I am going to print them off and put them onto some Scrapbooking paper then we will put them in a little container.  Each day we will pick one of them to do the next morning, and Hubby and I will for sure do them at some point during the day, then we will pick another one.  We will both get one veto day, or day of rest, but it doesn't have to be the same day.  But when we are working out it has to be the same workout.  If the kids are up they will join us.

Also the days I usually go to the gym we will still go to the gym to workout and we will add another day to that schedule so that we are going to the gym 4 times a week.  I think we will work on cardio mostly, but we will definitely do some strength training too. 

Much to my family's dismay we are going to go be changing some eating habits as well.  Especially my hubby, who still snacks out on chips and goodies all the time.  He is going to be put on my diet and I will be making his lunch and snacks and breakfasts for him and he will eat them..... because I said so with love of course.

I will update my workout cards when I have them done, I need to get pictures for them too, so that we know what we have to do.  But it's going to be so worth it.  I heard awhile ago that a family who works out together stays together.

Dirty Dozen Work Out

This is seriously a hard work out.  We did this workout when my trainer was on holidays.  I think the goal of the substitute trainer was to kill us.  Seriously, we had the most brutal workout. It didn't help that I had been missing a week prior to doing this workout, but I still think it would have been a dirty workout, regardless.  The trainer called it the Dirty Dozen.  I think it was a very appropriate name.

We started with a warm up, whis is a bit unusual, but it wasn't horrible.  We got our heart rates up and warmed up before we went to face death.  The warm up was a collection of cardio activities from jogging, to high knees, to butt kicks, lateral squats and walking lunges.  First of all I have no coordination to do walking lunges I always tip to one side while doing them.  We had practicum students leading the workout and I am probably the worst student to teach.  I rolled my eyes and proceeded through the warmup, only to be faced with a horrible workout on the white board.

The workout looked horrible, and we hadn't even started it yet.  This is how the workout was written
  1. Burpees
   2. TRX Jump squats/ TRX squats ( TRX is the name of the equipment we were using)
   3. KB Swings/ OH press (KB= Kettle Bell/ OH = Over Head Press)
   4. MB Slams (MB+ Medicine Ball)
   5. Bosu push ups ( Bosu are those half balls)

12----->1 then
1------->12

Meaning we had to do these 5 exercises with descending reps, then repeat with ascending.  So we started with 12 burpees, 12 TRX Jump Squats, 12 Kettle Bell Swings, 12 Medicine Ball slams, 12 Bosu Push , then 11 of each then 10 of each and so on and so forth.  When we got down to 1 we started over again at 1 and worked our way back up to 12. 

I made it to the end and back up to 3 reps of each exercise.  Then I died, or wished I had.

We ended the 60 minute workout with ab exercises.  We did a 1/2 tabata or three different Ab workouts.  A tabata is 20 secs of work and 10 secs of rest 8 times. A half tabata is 20 secs of work 10 secs of rest 4 times.  We did Bicycle crunches, the plank and V sit extender. 

I was so sore after this workout!!  But it was a great workout and one that can be altered for at home with little to no equipment.

For example you can do Burpees, Squats, Lunges, tricep dips on a chair, push ups.  Then you can do the tabata as well of ab exercises.  Yup try it let me know what you think!!!

I don't know what day it is of 55

But I am back.  My access to a computer was limited while I was in Saskatchewan, well it wasn't limited I just chose not to access the computer.  And my mother's wifi is so hidden I can't ever find it, so I didn't feel like sitting upstairs at night after they had gone to bed to update my blog.  There it is I was being lazy....

However I did go for a run on Friday, a long run too and on Saturday and Sunday I went for long walks with friends.

Eating not so great, but I am ready for the next 4 weeks to bust my ass in the gym and with my nutrition.  I have a new nutrition plan and I am going to bust my ass to lose these last ten pounds.  Ten pounds and I should be in good form for the wedding, I can even work on losing another 4 pounds while traveling down to the wedding.

I know I can do it and I am going to look amazing for the beach and my wedding!! And for the fall!!  I am not going to be lazy or use any other excuses I am going to do this and I am going to see some amazing results!!!

The Results are in (for me anyways)

Well I had my final weigh in for the six week challenge that I just participated in.  It was a good challenge, the exercise routines were different, the support was great and I had fun.  The only difference was that my trainer no longer looked at my meal plans so I definitely stopped writing down everything I was pass through my lips. 

Therefore, I cheated on my eating a few times.  Ok like two or three times in the last four weeks per week.  Seriously it wasn't a great thing.  But my break down didn't look to bad either.

I lost 7 pounds or weight.  In that weight loss I lost 2% body fat and gained 2% lean muscle.  I ended up losing 8 inches in total from when I started although my mid-measuring said that I had lost even more, but it's just with different people measuring so you have to take the good with the bad. 

I feel good about what I accomplished, and I know I still have some more work to do, but I am enjoying going to the gym.  It's really my only out of the house time I have so I take what I can get.  I am going to continue going to the gym until August for sure, after that I will have to re-evaluate what I am doing since I may not have a job in September and the gym is a little expensive.

However, I am seeing results and I don't feel I am working to exuberantly hard.  Just enough to get my energy up and my weight down.  I am loving it!!!!

The End is Near

So Tuesday is the end of my six week challenge... I know it was supposed to be Wednesday but they moved me and just left me a message about it.  I am not too happy, but I am a little worried.  I don't know that I made the amount of progress I need to win, but I am hoping that I will show a strong finish.  If for nothing else then for myself.  Would the prize help us out, for sure it would, it would help us with our trip and everything, but it won't stop us from going on our trip. 

I know I am down in weight but I am not sure how many more inches I have gone down, I know when Nicole measured me last week I was down quite a bit, but Nicole and Jessica measure differently so it's questionable.  I hope that I can make a strong finish and hopefully win, but if not I am feeling so much better and it will be another two months until we leave for my wedding!!!! 

Omg I am going to look great for my wedding, but still have some toning up to do.  Looks like it will be a busy 8 weeks yet!!!!

30 Day Challenge Day 13

Name an exercise program you have heard of but have never tried that you would like to try and why.

This doesn't really fit into this category because I have tried this program but only once and at a stagette party so I wasn't really working out.  We did Chairtease dancing and I would love to do this as a program for a month. Not only would I be working out but I would be having fun and maybe learning a new skill ;). 

The other one I have heard of is a dance program as well it's called Zumba.  It sounds and looks like fun!!

30 day Challenge Day 8

When do you exercise???

I usually exercise in the afternoon, after work or in the early evening after work. I would love to be exercising in the morning but then I would have to get up in the middle of the night in order to exercise.  Seriously, I get up at 5 or 5:30 to get ready for work so if I were to get up to exercise I would have to be up by 4 and that's just crazy talk. So I have been exercising in the afternoons and early evenings and I will continue to do this.  I will win my Biggest Loser Competitions!!!

30 Day challenger Update

I sit here stuck on how to write this entry.  I will be disclosing some rather personal facts here and that is hard to do.  I am not proud of the facts that I am going to share and because people read this blog I am hesitant to disclose all the figures I recorded today.  But if I can't be honest here then I can't be honest anywhere.  I am not sure who all reads my blog, but if they are not happy with what they see then they can just not read my blog.  I am not doing this because I am in the best shape of my life, so obviously my weight and measurements won't show me as a svelte fitness guru.

So without further ado, here goes.  My weight when I started this challenge 7 days ago was at 195. (gag me the fact that I am close to 200 is enough to make me want to just die of shame, but it is also a good motivator)  Today when I weighed myself I was at 192.  Now that might not seem like much but in 7 days that is 3 pounds lost.  THREE!!! I am excited about that, but I know weight fluctuates so I won't be put off if next time I take my measurements I am not as low in the weight scale as I wish I were.  For my measurements, I did from Bust to ankles.  Bust was 41, Chest was 34 Waist was 35 hips were 43.5 butt was 44, Thighs were 26, calves were 15.5 and my ankles were 10. So not too bad really.  I don't know what I was 7 days ago because I put off measuring myself but now I have a place to make more comparisons.

I also did Jillian Michaels DVD today.  It was a great workout, it was the Fat burning metabolism boost DVD.  I felt like I was going to die, but it is going to become my Bootcamp work out DVD for the evenings from now on.  So here we go, 23 days left what will the final results show??

30 day challenge day 3

What is the start of your fitness challenge. What programs are you using and who is helping you reach your goals?

The start of my fitness challenge is setting goals for myself and making those goals visible to me around my house.  I am still looking for a photo to print off for a visual of what I am trying to reach, but so far no luck. That's what happens when your computer dies out on you.  
 
So I am starting a few 30 Day challenges x2 with a few of my friends.  We are taking 60 days to reach our goal. The winner of the challenge will receive $20 plus their $20 to go towards a new shopping trip to buy a new pair of jeans or some tops.  It's between me and the other person I am just having four of my friends keep me motivated because I want to beat them all.  That way I will get $100 to spend on some new clothes which would be AWESOME!!!
 
So they will help me keep motivated and I am going to get Adrian into this as well.  I am sure that once we start if we work together it will get more comfortable for both of us.  I want to challenge myself.  I need to challenge myself.  And I need to be accountable to myself because really at the end of the day I am the one that will win or lose for myself and it won't affect the other people involved!!!
 
If any one else is interested in keeping motivated by a challenge with me let me know and I can send you the details I am using to help myself out of this weighty mess.