This challenge went by in a flash but I am proud to say that Team Unstoppable rocked it! I missed last week's update but I will put the numbers in this post. The last two weeks have been busy as usual. I finished up TF/CE and entered the Beachbody Million Dollar body contest (pls. cross your fingers that I make it to the voting round). After that I took a few days off of working out. They were not planned, I was just too tired and my feet hurt too much at the end of those days to get a workout in. I got back into it on Sunday and became a Yogi again :-). I went to Bikram on Sunday, then did Zumba on Monday, and yesterday was a rest day. Today I did Hip Hop Yoga and Zumba. I love getting out of the house for workouts after a six month long program at home. The weather is also becoming warmer so that make it even nicer. The only disappointment so far is that I planned to start running last week and that hasn't happened because I am still having shin pain. I decided to take it easy for a while rather than risk aggravating my old stress fractures.
My eating is still so-so. My appetite has been weird and I've been eating outside the house more often because I haven't made time to cook. I need to get back on track in this area. The only other notable thing I can think of is that I have been extremely achy these past few weeks. Between muscle soreness, tiredness and bone pain, I was hurting much more than usual. I had another foam roller session a few days ago so hopefully all this pain will go away soon.
Okay now for the numbers:
Beginning of Challenge: 199
Week 5: 194.2 (+ .8 from previous week, probably due to stress)
Week 6: 193.0 (-1.2 from previous week)
Total for the challenge: -6.0 lbs!!
Woo-hoo! I think this is the most I've lost in a Shrinking Jeans Challenge so far. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, my teammate Kristy also did an awesome job. She lost over 10 lbs! Way to go Team Unstoppable!!
Where has time gone? This challenge is almost over! I missed last week's update because I had a major final exam on the brain. Now that that's over I am enjoying a little rest and relaxation. So, what's new?
-Well first, I didn't exercise for most of the last week (all except yesterday actually). First I was tired and then I didn't feel up to it. This doesn't really happen very often but maybe it was my body telling me to take it easy. I was having some shin pain and I knew I needed to get new shoes. I got that taken care of on Monday and jumped back into it yesterday.
-My eating habits were so-so. As usual, they could be better. What I've been eating hasn't been too bad but I need to include more veges. The sugar reduction for Lent is also going okay. I had ice cream from Coldstone and chocolate in the last couple of days (blame it on the hormones), and two sugary coffee drinks during exam week but overall I haven't been going too crazy with the sugar. By the way, the sugar in that ice cream messed me up so bad, I became sooooo tired after eating it and swore I was running a temperature. I won't be doing that again any time soon.
-I still need to get back on track with breakfast but now it's more because of laziness rather than being busy.
Let's have a look at the numbers:
Beginning of Challenge: 199
Week 3: 194.8 (-2 from previous week)
Week 4: 193.8 (-1)
Total: -5.2
Edited to add* - How could I forget to mention? Team Unstoppable kicked major booty last week and made our debut on the Leaderboard at position 8. Check it out!
I began writing this post yesterday but didn't get around to posting it so here it is:
What's new for this week?
-I am in the final month of the TurboFire/Chalean Extreme hybrid program. This program served me well as my winter workout plan but I am ready for it to be over. I began writing my review of it and I will share it along with progress pics when I am done.
-I decided to drastically reduce my sugar for lent (I say drastically reduce because I still get sugar from fruits and I use it in my tea/coffee.). This is something that I really needed to work on and so I decided to make it my sacrifice during this season. It has been a little challenging but I feel like I can already see and feel the difference it is making. I passed up desert over the weekend at dinner but on Tuesday I gave in and had a small piece of a cookie. I think I will also cut down with alcohol as well but I haven't really been drinking much these days anyway.
-Challenges: I skipped breakfast a few times this week - partly because I was not hungry and partly because I was busy working on something or the other. I was also exhausted by the time the weekend rolled around and losing an hour on Sunday did not help. I also still haven't found the time or energy to begin the push-ups challenge so I think I might postpone it until after finished with TF/CE because those workouts have push-ups in them already.
Overall this was a good week. I am even happier today because my major focus this week is to clear my To Do list and it is dwindling slowly but surely! Here are last week's numbers:
Last week- 199
This week- 196.8
Total for Challenge- -2.2
The Spring In2 Action challenge is on it's way! Meet Team Unstoppable!!! You can check out my buddy for the challenge Kristy here. We are both ready to get 'er done.
The first week is already over and I've barely had time to figure out what I should be doing for the challenge. You blame it on the two programs I was planning, one last Saturday and one tomorrow. My eating was not on point this past week because that tends to happen when I get really busy. Cooking is one of the first things to go when time is limited. I didn't eat as much fast food but I did eat out a few times and Saturday was muffin, pizza and wings day. My water intake has also been slowing slipping from my 8-9 glasses/ day. I really need to figure out new strategies to combat these issues since me being busy won't go away any time soon. On the other hand, I got in all of my workouts except Friday and Saturday when my body and feet would not comply because I was on them most of the day running around.
I am participating in the 100 Push ups Challenge however I am starting the workouts this week. I did push ups in my regular workouts and was able to do a full set of 8 this week (my starting number was 6). My goal for this challenge is to lose 6 lbs over the six weeks (1lb/week).
Starting weight: 199
Last week: 199
Today: 199.2
Total: +.2
The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of me trying to keep up with my life. What's new? As I am writing this post, I should really be studying for an exam that I have tomorrow morning. Anyhow, the Power of One Challenge ended last week so I though I'd give a recap and post my numbers for the last three weeks.
Beginning of Challenge: 205
Week 6 (2/9)- 202.2 (200.8 the following day)
Week 7 (2/16)- 203.6 (202.2 the following day)
Week 8 (2/23)- 200.6 (199.4 the following day)
Total loss during the challenge: -4.4
In the Week 5 Recap I weighed in at 201.6 so I had a gain the following two weeks but was still able to have a final weight close to my goal for the challenge (<200). My exercise regimen was pretty consistent but my eating was probably what caused these fluctuations. I also posted my weight on the morning after the weight in because interestingly enough it is always a lot lower??? I am not sure why this is the case but it might have to do with the fact that Wednesdays are my rest days and I am usually pretty sore or tired by Tuesday night. Maybe the recovery day helps with decreasing inflammation etc.?
Overall I really enjoyed this challenge. I missed getting to know new people since it was about the power of one person, but I got to know myself a lot better. My weight fluctuated a heck of a lot, running as high as 208 in the beginning and below 200 toward the end of the challenge. I've become a better planner and while it is still a work in progress, I've made strides in planning my meals and activities for the day and week. I also became very familiar with working out to muscle failure. I didn't comment on the February monthly project before now but for me this month it was the push-ups that did it. I hated doing push-ups before however, this month of Chalean Extreme gave me the gift of push-ups. I did them until I ended up on the ground in a slump. The upside? I can do at least eight perfect push-ups on my toes baby!
So the really good news is that the Spring Into Action Challenge begins tomorrow - and there's even a push-up challenge included! Are you in?
I hope everyone is staying safe and warm if you're experiencing this kind of weather. I am using the day to catch up on my To Do list and relax a little. Now for the recap...
Starting weight- 205
Last week's weight- 202.2
Today's weight- 201.6
Total- -3.4
Another loss this week! I am not complaining especially since I ate everything under the sun in the last week -including polishing off a box of Wheat Thins in two days. I barely cooked at home last week so my salt intake was through the roof!
On the exercise front, things went well. I finished up my third month of TurboFire/Chalean Extreme on Sunday and this week is a recovery week. I used that as an opportunity to get in a Zumba and an Ashtanga Yoga class at the gym on Monday and a treadmill interval workout yesterday. The gym was jam packed on Monday. There were at least sixty people in that Zumba class and barely any room to do the moves. When this explosion happened? I saw one of my classsmates there and while we were chatting he reminded me that being in the healthcare industry, we should be happy that this many people are making an effort to be healthier rather than complain about how hot, funky and full the gym had become. Point taken. It was my first Ashtanga Yoga classs and it was good but Bikram has already stolen my heart :-). Hope one day I will be able to bust out that head stand though. Well, I'm off to make some chili. Yeah for comfort food!
A day late... actually more like three. I just wanted to share how last week's weigh in went. I lost 2.4 lbs making it a total of 2.8 lbs down for the challenge. Yeah!!! Tomorrow is my last day of month three in the TurboFire/Chalean Extreme hybrid and those HIIT workouts are no joke! Last week I mostly cooked and ate at home so I was able to limit the amount of processed food in my diet. This week is a totally different story (more on that in this week's update). This week's project is to be the CEO of your life and plan your week out. My exercise plan is easy because I am following a schedule but I didn't plan meals for this week. Since it's time for grocery shopping, I am gonna go ahead and plan my meals for next week before I go shopping. I am also trying to be strategic and see how much I can save on groceries by shopping in my kitchen cupboards first and also clipping coupons. I am not much of a short term planner so hopefully this goes well :-)
Another week had flown by oh so quickly. Things have been pretty busy around here these days hence my missing last week's recap but I have been keeping up with my workouts and trying to stay on track with my eating. Last week I weighed in up 1.2 lbs from the previous week and up a total of 1.8 for the challenge. This week, thankfully, things have normalized a little and I am down 2.2 lbs from last week and 0.4 from my starting weight. Last Monday, I am not sure what possessed me to take home left over pizza from a meeting at school and in true self saboteur fashion I began craving it right before bed Tuesday night (the night before weighing in!). I caved in and had not one, but two slices. That might have something to do with those number for last week. Lesson learned. Someone else can take the leftover pizza in the future.
This week's Monday project was the same as last week's which is to write down your goals. I actually did this on New Year's Eve so I will finish up that post and share them when I get a chance. In other news, chocolate came back into my life after a brief hiatus. Life just wasn't the same without my post workout lowfat chocolate milk. I also went back to Bikram on Monday and it was as good as the first time. I left feeling rejuvenated. Today is rest day and as usual, it is well needed because I am sore!
Happy New Year! This week was pretty much uneventful- more of a getting back in the groove week. When I returned home on Saturday and hopped on my scale at home, I was 3.8 or so pounds higher than my Wednesday weigh in number from last week. I immediately began to fight the bloating from holiday eating by drinking lots and lots of water and cleaning up my diet. I got in my first TurboFire workout yesterday evening and weighed in today only .6 lbs heavier than last week. I was prepared for the higher number on the scale when I came home because I tend to weigh more on my scale at home than on others.
One lesson I did learn last Friday is that a fast food powered run = a bad run (for me). I had some chicken selects from McDonalds on part one of my trip home then went for a run an hour or so later. Oh lord! Indigestion plus the combination of little over a week of relative inactivity---> me struggling to keep going for the entire 35 minutes. It reminded me that there is a reason why athletes eat clean - seems to work out better.
I will be doing the Weekly Project for this week which is to write a letter to my "current self" from my "future self" in January 2012. In the letter I will detail my accomplishments and anything else that I would like my current self to know then tuck it away to read next January. I think this is a good way to set the tone of your upcoming year (we all know the power of positive thinking). Will be back with a post on my New Year goals in the near future :-).
First of all, Happy Holidays! I hope everyone has a Merry Chrismahanukwanza and a Happy New Year when it begins.
Lazy blogger... yeah, that's me! There has been a lot of chillaxing around here in the past week and a half.
Since my last post I cut all my hair off (Hello TWA :-). Yeah, I ran out of patience.), had a run in with this...
Spin Bike
...on my born day morning, endured three to four days of pain after (hmm I must have lost all cushioning in that area!), and cussed out one of my bffs for not providing adequate warning about said encounter.
The Holiday Hoedown Challenge ended last Wednesday. Our team continued to rock the exercise minutes but we were not the biggest losers. I weighed in with a 3lb gain in the finale because honestly, it was my birthday week and all bets were off! It started off a slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and then had some of this...
Goat cheese and Apple Salad
Sweet Potato Fries
And continued with some of this...
Who needs cake when you can have this?
Baileys in Chocolate Shot cups
Yummies and...
Chocolate Fondue
Plus many more unphotographed indiscretions ;-). Good food, good friends, good times (and awesome gifts :-)). I thoroughly enjoyed the three day celebration! Thanks to all who participated/made it possible!
In addition to all that bday eating, there was "OMG, real Jamaican food (from Brooklyn)" eating and "10+ hours of driving in one weekend" eating and we won't mention "Christmas traditions" eating (that darn rum cake!). Oh yeah, no exercise either. I did get in a good (40 min or so) run on the Y's indoor track when I came to my senses woke up from many hours of post bday recovery slumber. I've been taking it easy since then and enjoying the holidays with my family so that means a hiatus from TurboFire and Chalean Extreme. To be honest, I think my body really needed it. I'll be back at it next week and restarting month three.
The Power of One- A new challenge started over at the Sisterhood and since I really enjoyed the last one, I will be participating in this one as well. The first weigh in was today and (somewhat) surprisingly I weighed in 3lbs lower than my final weight for the Holiday Hoedown Challenge. Our first challenge is to outline our healthy living goals for the challenge (which is 8 weeks long) and the New Year.
Here's my short list:
Run, run, run (a 5K and possibly a 10K... giving the Half Marathon the side eye). --I am excited about this goal because my shin situation put a damper on my running start this year but I discovered that I love running so here's to an injury free spring, summer and fall!
Be consistent with eating healthier and drinking a minimum of 64 ounces of water/day.
Lose the remaining weight and get to my goal weight!
Do more Bikram Yoga-- I love it!
Finally, I love it when I find a blogger who inspires me to step up my game. Check out these amazing ladies:
This post is kinda late but I guess better late than never :-). I am sooo tired. I finished my last exam for the semester today and then went to catch up with the Christmas shopping that I've been missing out on. This week was full of exam stress and such but I fit in the TurboFire/Chalean workouts. I planned to do Spin as my new class but the frigid weather/ snow/ exam stress didn't permit. Anyhow here's the breakdown...
Wednesday- rest
Thursday- 47 (Strength and stretch)
Friday- 55 (Cardio and Abs)
Saturday- 48 (Strength and stretch)
Sunday- 65 (Cardio and Abs)
Monday- 30 (HIIT and stretch)
Tuesday- 55 (Cardio and Abs)
Total mins - 300
Weight down 2.6 from last week- 4.4lbs total for the challenge
This week sure went by fast and there are only two more weeks left in the challenge. Our team, the lovely Winter Warriors has been in the Top 5 for exercise minutes for the past two weeks. Yay us! The non-fitness goal for this week was to write three things that we will do to stay on track this month. Here are my three and how I've been doing with them:
1. Be diligent about and track my food and water intake -so far so good.
2. Eat a snack before attending holiday parties so I eat less of the not so good for you stuff - didn't work out for a party I went to last week but all in all I did pretty good and practiced some restraint at the evil desert table :-).
3. Try to keep my stress level reasonable (it's finals time) by being proactive - hmmm, working on this one.
The fitness challenge continued with tracking exercise minutes and they also encouraged us to try something new. I posted the follow as my goal for this area:
"I have been putting off Bikram Yoga for a while now. I think it's time..." Well, mission accomplished!"
My exercise minutes for the week with the usual side commentary:
Wednesday- rest
Thursday- 46 (strength and stretch)
Friday- 70- (Cardio, Abs, Yoga)
Saturday- 0- (had an exam in the morning and a holiday party in the evening)
Sunday- 45 (strength and stretch)
Monday- 112 (Cardio, Abs, strength, stretch) <-- making up Saturday's workout
Tuesday- 145 (BIKRAM! and Cardio and Abs) <--- sooo tired by the end of the cardio workout, my body doesn't like me very much right now.
Total for the week- 418 <--- WOW... bring on the rest day!
Weigh In- down 2.8 from last week (the 1.8 I gained over Thanksgiving weekend and then some!)
After yesterday's overzealous exercise session, my body is doing some serious complaining. But all in all it was another good week! And I earned this from my teammate.... Isn't she awesome?
The holiday season is officially upon us. Last week I took the party on the road :-) to visit my family for Thanksgiving. I was a little unsure about how it would go in terms of keeping up with my workout schedule and limiting excessive food consumption. On Thanksgiving day I ate a little bit of everything and I made most of the sides so I was able to control fat and sugar content. What I didn't do so well with was that I ate out much, much more than I expected to. I bought groceries so I could have food in the house but didn't even touch most of it. On the workout front, after rearranging my workout schedule a bit, I managed to get all the TurboFire and Chalean Extreme workouts in. I took resistance bands with me to do the strength training (you have that option in Chalean Extreme). My little cousins (ages 6 and 8) had a lot of fun working out with me at home. We shared lots of hi-fives. I also did an hour of Zumba with my two older cousins and a family friend on Saturday morning. The class was led by Sistah Anyango of FLYY Fitness in the Hartford area and I must say it was hands down the best Zumba class I've been to so far. It even had reggae mixed in. Here's the workout breakdown for the week:
Wednesday- rest
Thursday- 0-
Friday- 90- strength, intervals, abs, stretch
Saturday- 60 mins- Zumba (with the family- loads of fun)
Sunday- 45- strength and stretch <---- after 6 hr drive!
Monday- 100- strength, abs, cardio <----- Damage control!!
Tuesday- 73 mins- cardio and abs
Total- 368
As I mentioned in my last post, I brought my water jug with me because this week's non-fitness challenge was to drink water. I will be doing this for Christmas as well. I am sure I look weird traveling around with a water pitcher but oh well, it gets the job done. I actually feel like I made improvements in the water drinking department this week. I refilled my pitcher at least one each day. It holds 7 cups and I think this was my average/ day this week. Saturday was probably the only day that I came close to drinking one half my weight in ounces.
Last week I picked up Marianne Williamson's book A Course in Weight Loss after seeing it on Oprah. I am on Lesson 11. I have only been reading the lessons, not doing the things that require physical action (rituals- hmm, working on that). So far I love it. It has helped me to identify the roots of my overeating and give more thought to the reasons behind why I gained the weight that I am working on losing in the first place. Great read.
Week 1 of the challenge is a wrap. This week I logged 372 minutes of exercise. This was the breakdown:
Wednesday- Rest
Thursday- 80 mins
Friday- 56 mins
Saturday- 80 mins
Sunday- 55 mins
Monday- 45 mins
Tuesday- 56 mins
I basically stuck to the TurboFire/Chalean Extreme hybrid plan and I added in two extra cardio workouts. One was a makeup Turbo Fire workout from the previous week and the other was a 30 min. run. Overall it was a good week. I felt like I was making up for the damage from the previous week where I ate out like three or four times and had A LOT of baked goods (Hello Brownies!). I lost about a pound this week which is also good.
Week 2 will continue with logging exercise minutes as the Fitness Challenge and the Non-Fitness Challenge is to drink half your weight in water daily. I really need to work on my water intake so I am loving this challenge. One of my fellow Winter Warriors shared that she puts out the total amount of water she wants to consume for the day in a pitcher and then makes sure that it is empty by the end of the day. I like that idea and might try that. I even brought my own PUR pitcher along while visiting family for Thanksgiving! It's THAT serious! Also, I think this challenge is well timed because if you're filled up with water, it will make it much harder to overeat during the holidays. Bring it on Week 2!
The Holiday Hoedown at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans starts today!! I am on the Winter Warriors Team. For this challenge we will have both fitness and non-fitness challenges. The fitness challenge for this week is to log as many exercise minutes as possible. The non- fitness challenge is to write down our goals. Here are mine:
Fitness challenge: Currently doing TurboFire/ Chalean Extreme Hybrid so I will be following that workout plan. I am in my second month of it. It's between 30-70 minutes per day 6 days a week.
Non-fitness challenge: For calories I do a diary of everything I eat and also add portion sizes if I overate. I may add in actually counting the calories if time permits. For now I just estimate and add a 200 calorie catch all for anything I may miss or underestimate. I would also like to get up to drinking 64 ounces of water per day. I currently do about 48 on average.
Fitness goal for the entire challenge: Lose 10lbs. Wear size 12 jeans. (I wore a size 12 dress this past weekend though!)
The challenge ends on December 22. You can find more info about it here.
This post is kinda late but I guess better late than never :-). I am sooo tired. I finished my last exam for the semester today and then went to catch up with the Christmas shopping that I've been missing out on. This week was full of exam stress and such but I fit in the TurboFire/Chalean workouts. I planned to do Spin as my new class but the frigid weather/ snow/ exam stress didn't permit. Anyhow here's the breakdown...
Wednesday- rest
Thursday- 47 (Strength and stretch)
Friday- 55 (Cardio and Abs)
Saturday- 48 (Strength and stretch)
Sunday- 65 (Cardio and Abs)
Monday- 30 (HIIT and stretch)
Tuesday- 55 (Cardio and Abs)
Total mins - 300
Weight down 2.6 from last week- 4.4lbs total for the challenge