Day 217 (day 7 / week 31)

Today I am just so exhausted. My hubby set the alarm for 5:30 and I thought I was awake, but I guess not, because I fell back asleep. Yesterday after I got home I felt exhausted and it was hot, so I assumed it was from going from heat to AC to heat to AC for the majority of the day.

This morning I was too tired to walk. I procrastinated until my hubby left for work, and then gave myself a mini pep talk to go exercise. I put on The Firm, Cardio Sculpt and got about 1/2 way through it (31 minutes, 287 calories). I was just so tired that when the Monkey Boy came in from waking up, I welcomed the break and never finished the video.

I am so tired today and I think I just realized why. The last 2 days with eating have been out of whack. I think yesterday did it for me. It was supposed to be an up day, on the calorie cycling, but it ended up being a down day too... it was just one of those days. I didn't think it would matter but I guess it does, because I just feel really tired (it's amazing how our bodies respond properly to lack of food when you start to live healthier than before).

Anyway I am just going to make sure I eat more today, and make today an up day and get back on track with exercise tomorrow after a good night's sleep.

I can't believe the week is almost over. Make today count! I'll be excited to get outside tomorrow as it's only supposed to be 95 for the high. Today should get up to 107 like the past few days.

UPDATE: Since I changed my background, have any of you had any problems seeing my posts? Please let me know if any problems have popped up since I changed things. I'm trying to do some trouble shooting. Thank you!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 209 (day 6 / week 30)

Wanna hear something amazing? Since I started getting outside and trying to jog, I have walked, jogged and/or skipped 89 miles! I think it's been in the last 2 months...I can't remember when I started taking things outside. This is another thing that proves to me that small goals turn into something big. My goal is to walk 2 miles a day. Two+ miles a day turned into 89 miles! Sweet! I can do 2 miles pretty easily now, so I do it on most days, if not more. Some days I walk 4-5 miles. Anyway seeing a bunch of days go by to make such a big number is so inspiring to me and such a blessing. This is what I mean by "make it count!" I couldn't say that I had walked 89 miles, if I didn't get out there everyday and try to make it count. I have a new goal of walking the distance across the United States. How cool would that be, to say that I walked the distance acrossed the US in xx amount of time. I don't know how long that will take me, but I am tracking it on this site:

http://exercise.lbl.gov/index.html

It shows me pictures along the way lol. I am 7.38 mi to Ashland, VA, Hanover County.



It just amazes me that I can say that I have walked 89 miles! In my not so new running shoes! At the rate that I am going at, I am going to have to retire these bad boys soon (I read somewhere to replace your shoes after 200-300 miles).

Anyway, I got up early today, and didn't go walk (go figure). It was almost 90F degrees by 6:15am and I was not about to head out. The first thing I thought was, "Awe man! Now I am going to have to get up even EARLIER to beat the heat!" Typing this right now (it's 110F btw), I kind of chuckled to myself and thought, "Oh well, I'm gonna have to do it anyway!" lol...the downside of going back to work.

Today is another (non)rest day. I didn't really plan for that, but it just turned out that way and continues to turn out that way. I can do that. So can you :). Just don't let it turn into another day followed by another day! Up until this resolution, that had always been my problem (I'd lose momentum). Today I did 20 minutes of exercise, The Firm, Cardio Sculpt. I am still in my exercise clothes because...well because I am a nerd. Part of me is itching to do more and part of me wants to just stop at 20 minutes. I keep telling myself that I will do more when the Monkey Boy goes down for a nap, but it's the middle of the afternoon, and he is showing no sign of sleepiness--he's probably not going to take a nap. Besides, when was the last time that I exercised for only 20 minutes?? It's been a long time. I think I am turning into a workaholic with exercise. If I let it, exercise will consume me the entire day--thinking about it, tracking it, reading about it... Anyway I should probably just leave it at that. :) I think I will :).

I hope you all have a good day! If it's raining in your neck of the woods, do something inside! Sparkpeople has a ton of free videos...yes absolutely FREE! I am thinking about doing the 15 minute ab video (See, there I go again!). Looks fun!

Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 205 (day 2 / week 30)

Today I did a lot. I wanted to make up for my busy past couple of days. Boy, did I make up for it.

I went for my usual 2 mile walk this morning (31 minutes, 456 calories) and then got in a little Done Girl dancing (still had my Walkman on) and put on The Firm Cardio Sculpt. It is hard to follow along listening to good music, did you know that? lol I got in only about 20 minutes before the Monkey Boy woke up and came in. He was in a good mood but I could see a glimmer of moodiness in his eyes, so I just stopped and went and snuggled with him (gotta pick and choose those battles now).

After a few hours of really nothing, I decided to go for a walk--my modified 1/2 city block, which is 4.16 miles in 80 minutes 1763 calories. Let me tell you this was a bad idea. Good in theory, but just a bad idea all around. I won't be walking this late in the day again, when it is hot like this.

For those of you that don't know, I live in Las Vegas, NV. It gets hot here. It's not so hot today as it has been (it's been close to 110 and some days ++ for the past week), but it was still hot, 92-93F when I was out there and that is pretty hot to exercise in (the high today is supposed to be 96F). I was about 1/2 way into this walk with the Monkey Boy and I felt like I was going to die. My HRM said my HR was over 150, and so that confirmed my theory that you exercise harder in the heat, and which is why I burned so many more calories today (almost 1800 in 80 minutes!! That's crazy!). I sweated more today, than I have in a long time. It was dripping down my arms, face and neck and even my feet are soggy (so gross, TMI, I know--sorry lol).


Even the Monkey Boy was all sweaty, so I guess it's fitting to have him in the picture (such a ham). This isn't a great picture, but this is us after the walk--it's really hard to tell just how red and sweaty I was (it's late, but here ya go Jen!). Side note: the shirt I'm wearing is a shirt that my hubby and I got at a Scion convention when we lived in Washington about 2.5 years ago. At the time, it was the largest shirt they had (an XL), and I couldn't fit into it. It was too small for me. Now it's REALLY big on me. Closet victory! Woo hoo!

Funny story--the Quickfire Challenges I did yesterday, were actually today's QFCs but posted early! lol. Yesterday's QFCs were actually butt kicks--like Jillian Michaels makes us do in the 30 Day Shred, and computer crunches. I don't think I am going to do anything more for the day.

I think I deserve a treat for all of the work I put in today. I think a No Sugar Added Fudgsicle with only 40 calories sounds perfect! Woo hoo! ....*drool*

Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.

PS. I am going to be testing out backgrounds in the next few days. My favorite is a little gloomy looking, but represents my journey (not the gloominess)... there is a path and it's peaceful looking and there is a reflection of the mountains in the water. My blog reflects my journey (the path) and is a reflection of who I am at this point in my life (the reflection). I should have it up shortly, if the coding isn't still cooky.

Day 199 (day 3 / week 29)

Today I started off feeling a little discouraged because I didn't get up early enough to walk outside (6:30am)...it was already 90 degrees by the time I wanted to get out of the house and the weather channel is predicting a high of 114F today! I know that if I don't exercise earlier rather than later, especially on a hot day, I struggle with it. Not a fan of heat--I'm one of those people that would rather be cold than hot (I grew up in the mountains). Anyway, before letting the procrastination fog rolled over, I went and did something. The Firm's Cardio Sculpt (60 minutes), which I welcomed, because my legs are no longer sore, and this was an indicator for me (yaay!).

I also did and extra 25 minutes of miscellaneous circuit training: concentration curls, triceps extensions, lateral raises (?) and my Quickfire Challenge for the day, squat thrusts. I did 2 sets of 10 regular squat thrusts and 3 sets of 10 modified squat thrusts using my fanny lifter. The other QFC for today is to walk fast for 10-15 minutes, every 2-3 hours, 3-5 times a day. I am not going to do this one--it's too hot outside.

Off to bake a sugar free carrot cake for my hubby's grandmother's birthday (it's today!). Happy birthday Gram!

Make today count! If you are doing that outside, don't forget about sunblock!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 186 (day 4 / week 27)

I went into my workout today with the idea in the back of my mind that I wanted it to be a (non)rest day. I told myself that I would do 30 minutes and then turn it off whenever I wanted after that.

When 30 minutes rolled around I thought to myself, "I like this segment, I'll stop when it's over," but then I ended up liking the segment after that too. Long story short, I did the entire video. My (non)rest day, turned into a regular day lol.

I'm really glad that I like The Firm's Body Sculpt with The Fanny Lifter. I find myself getting bored easily with my video workouts so it's nice to find one that I actually like to do. I go into my workout thinking "I'm gonna slack off" or "I'm gonna make it a rest day" and I do the whole thing, and I do it as well as I can. Who does that? Sure as heck not me! At least not the old me. I can remember at the beginning of my journey, doing Slim in 6, and not wanting to workout that day, and not giving it my best. This workout makes me want to do it better. In fact, today I burned 200 more calories than I normally do during this 60 minute workout, because I was trying to do it better (I burned 702 calories according to my HRM). I kept thinking about how I can do this and how I'm getting stronger and that people are actually noticing, and that most importantly I can notice it now. Such a blessing. So much of my daily hard work is paying off. There is nothing more rewarding than that...except for when my son comes and gives me a kiss in the middle of working out and says in his gibberish toddler voice, "love you mama." That is a blessing. He did this today, my sweet Monkey Boy.

Oma and Opa (my hubby's grandparents) are arriving today, from Texas. They are in the process of moving here and we are so excited. They have been on the road for 3 or 4 days and I am so excited to see them. My son has been asking for Oma and Opa since they last visited 2 months ago. They were here for only a few days, but he remembers. He has such a freakish memory, it's funny. He asks for Oma every single time we go to see Nana and Papa (my hubby's parents). He ALWAYS remembers things and we are always saying, "how on earth did he remember that?" Kids are great.

Hope you all have a great day. Make it count! It's worth it, and I promise if you are struggling right now with that (whether it's worth it or not), it will pay off in the long run. I promise, if you are consistant.

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 185 (day 3 / week 27)

I had big hopes for today's workout, but I just couldn't do it all. I decided to stop before I started hating it, cause I have to come back and do it again tomorrow.

The plan:
The Firm, Cardio Sculpt w/ Fanny Lifter (60 mins)
The Firm, Body Sculpt w/ Fanny Lifter (45 mins)

What I actually did:
The Firm, Cardio Sculpt w/ Fanny Lifter, 60 minutes, 504 calories burned
The Firm, Body Sculpt w/ Fanny Lifter, 10 minutes, 79 calories burned (lol).

I wanted to do the extra minutes for my official state team on Sparkpeople (Nevada). We realized that we only rank 38/50 in Spark America minutes (all of the minutes/exercise we put into sparkpeople goes into "Spark America minutes"). I think I am already doing a lot of cardio per day--heck, per week, so I am not going to give myself a hard time about it. I wanted to do more today, because I only did 40 minutes yesterday, instead of what I originally planned on.

All good. :)

Off to take a shower and eat something. Hope you have a great 4th of July, if you are from the US. If you're not, I hope you have a great weekend and get pleanty of rest! (I always talk about "go, go, go" but rest is just as important :)).

See you tomorrow ;)

I can do this. I am a star.

day 182 (day 7 / week 26)

Today I wanted to go for a walk. It's about 7:15am as I type this, and it's almost 90 degrees outside, and getting warmer. My hubby says it might rain, but that probably won't affect the heat much. It's still going to be another scorcher today (not like yesterday at 108 though...*whew!*). That being said, I flaked out on my walk and did The Firm, Cardio Sculpt instead, because it's fun. Can you tell that I was excited?

(err der)

Same ol' same ol'. I'm not bored with it yet, which is good, but I am finding myself able to keep up much better now. This is HUGE considering when I first got this workout, I called my sister (during the w/o lol) to give her mad props for being able to keep up w/ the chirography. Man I couldn't keep up at all, I remember thinking it was just nutty. I hope I see some great results from this video! I can see potential! :).

Today's quickfire is to shadow box. I am going to incorporate this with another daily team goal (from the Done Being a Fat Girl group) that I have been forgetting to do--the "Done Girl Dance" lol. Everyday they want us to do this dance for 15 minutes. I guess it's like the happy dance??? Lol. So for the quickfire it says:

*You can move around a room and pretend to fight an imaginary opponent, which involves "dancing" around the room, throwing combinations of punches and ducking and avoiding imaginary punches.

*Or you can work on different punching combinations while staying mostly stationary.

Try to QuickFire Box for 5 minutes spaced out 3-5 times during your day. Set a timer/watch. Try not to make contact ~ Sayin!

So I am going to do the Done Girl Dance in place of the "dancing" part lol and shadow box at the same time lol. This is going to be interesting and I'm sure the Monkey Boy will LOVE this. Turnin' up the music and doing the Squidward butt dance :) Do the Bartman! Everybody shake it from side to side! I keep forgetting to do this Done Girl dance, so now is the perfect time to start up. lol.

I have to say that I was a little nervous about today being the first and doing my measurements, but I'm over it (especially since I did them already lol). It could have been a lot worse, considering that I weighed myself last week and saw that I had gained 5lbs. All in all I am happy and as Loree mentioned yesterday, I am not stopping anytime soon, so this can only get better!

Yesterday I changed my calories burned on sparkpeople to better represent the calories I burn on my power walks since my new discovery (1400+ calories), giving me a new calorie range of 1650-2000 (to eat). Yesterday I didn't even scratch that surface with 1300 at best. Oh well, will try again today! If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. I have been watching my salt intake as well and have been staying under 2500mg of sodium daily (in the 1000-1500 range) which surprisingly took very little effort (*whew*). All of these things that I am doing, are lifestyle changes. When I am done with whatever goals I have, with exercise, this won't change. These things are important to me, to stay healthy. I'm not just gonna go gnaw on a salt lick once Jan 1 rolls back around (ok maybe I will, you caught me! ;)).

Ok, here we go!

My measurements:

Measurements: (day 182 / 152 / day 10) (- "/# lost in current month)

Wt: 195.2 / 194.6 / 215 (+0.60#) (total lost 19.8#)
Chest: 37.75" / 39" / 43.75"(-1.25") (total lost -6")
Waist: 33" / 34.75" / 41.5" (-1.75") (total lost -8.5")
Hips: 42.5" / 44" / 47.75" (-1.5") (total lost -5.25")
Neck: 13" / 13" / 14.25" (-0") (total lost -1.25")
Under bust: 33" / 33" / 36.75" (-0") (total lost -3.75")
1" below belly button: 40.5" / 40.75" / 47.5" (-0.25") (total lost -7")
below my bottom (above my thigh): 39.5" / 39.5" / 44" (-0") (total lost -4.50")
R Thigh: 19" / 19.5" / 27" (-0.5") (total lost -8")
L Thigh: 19.5" / 19.5" / 27.5" (-0") (total lost -8")
R Calf: 14.25" / 13.25" / 14.5" (+1") (total lost -0.25")
L Calf: 14.5" / 14" / 14" (+0.5") (total lost -.5")
R upper Arm: 11" / 10.75" / 14" (+0.25") (total lost -3")
L upper Arm: 11.5" / 11" / 13.5" (+0.5") (total lost -2")
R wrist: 5.75" / 5.75" / 6.25" (-0") (total lost -0.5")
L wrist: 5.75" / 5.75" / 6.25" (-0") (total lost -0.5")

Jan 2009

Feb 2009

March 2009

April 1, 2009

May 1, 2009

June 1, 2009

July 1, 2009

Not much of a difference, but I expected this. In June I lost 5.25 inches (gaining 2.25 inches) and gained 0.60 lbs, which I am totally happy with, considering when I weighted myself stupidly last week, I weighed 199 (pretty good comeback from that!). Not too happy seeing green in there, but it could have been worse and some of it makes sense.

For the majority of June I did the 30 Day Shred, and Jillian has us do A LOT of jumping, so that would affect the calves, and she has us do a lot of arm work as well. All in all I am happy and as Loree mentioned yesterday, I am not stopping anytime soon, so this can only get better!

My bodyfat percentage did go up from last month as well, but this might have to do w/ the fact that I probably wasn't eating enough. Surprisingly, I don't really care about this. I know this will take time for me to work on, especially considering that I haven't figured out exactly how much I should be eating quite yet. Still playing with it. The walk that I have been tracking 1400+ calories burned on, isn't the longest walk that I go on, and this month I walked a lot. I will test this theory and see what changes for next month (pretty fascinating to be able to compare numbers and such!).

Anyway I hope you all have a great day! Gonna go do some booty shaking and shadow boxing!

Make today count! You can start new :) it's the beginning of an entire month!

I can do this. I am a star.

day 181 (day 6 / week 26)

I am quite confused. I really thought today was Monday. *scratches head*. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it's actually Tuesday. lol. Oh well, such is life when you are a stay at home mom.

I had an EXCELLENT workout today. I did The Firm, Cardio Sculpt with my Fanny Lifter again. In 60 minutes, I burned 531 calories (SP told me that with low impact step aerobics I would have burned 649). Anyway, on Sunday (I think) I remember thinking, "She's trying to kill us," during the 2nd go around on the fanny lifter, and I found myself thinking it again today, and I laughed out loud, because I remembered saying it previously in the same exact spot. I thought I was having a bad day or something, but nope, I think Allie is really trying to kill us haha! I picture these little horns underneath her princess pony :).


You can see a 7 minute clip of this workout here. Notice the stepford wives smiles that they give during the intro. My hubby and I watch the intro, just for a good laugh. So funny (no offense to them--I'm sure they laugh at it too)! In all seriousness, I really like these ladies. Allie is a great "master trainer" and I am glad to have this video. She gives us a great workout :) (I'm totally just kidding/teasing about the horns and the smiles).

We do this portion near the end, where we are laying our torsos on the fanny lifter and doing leg work...man, I love this! It reminds me of the evil leg lift/kick things on Slim in 6, but these are better, because...it's not as long, so it doesn't feel like torture lol. You can see a small clip of this during the intro to that 7 minute clip. She has us put a 3lb weight in the crease behind our knee. Great workout!

I hope you all have a great Tuesday. Sheesh, I still can't believe it's Tuesday...

Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.

UPDATE: I calculated my calories burned for a week (3x walking/4x The Firm=6180/week) and changed my calories burned in sparkpeople, and it increased my food! My new range is 1650-2000 daily. Much better than just 1200...I just hope I can actually eat that much and that I will actually see a result! Yaay!

day 178 (day 3 / week 26)

Today I did The Firm 3-in-1 Cardio Sculpt. I did the whole thing this time (yaay) and burned 573 calories in 60 minutes. I also will be doing 10 sets of 10 push ups throughout the day instead of all at one time, to spike the metabolism. They can be full on push ups, modified push ups (on the knees) or wall push ups, like from the other day. I am going to do a combo of all 3.

The other day I entered the 36 minutes I did of The Firm into my fitness tracker on SP, and it said that I burned 390 calories (today at the 36 min mark it said I burned 379). It really cracks me up that it grossly under estimates my walking (by like 900 calories), but over estimates my cardio videos (not by much though so that's good). Every one's bodies are different, and react differently to different workouts so I guess that makes sense. So glad this HRM calculates calories burned.

I really like this The Firm workout. It is a complete, total body workout with a warm up and cool down. I had sweat dripping down my face (that never happens!)! It was a GREAT workout, and I like how her (Allie DelRio Pointer's) circuits move along quickly, so you don't really have a chance to get bored. I was able to keep up much better this time, and am getting the hang of her choreography. The leg segment at the end is killer, but I like it :). I don't still feel all pumped afterward, and I actually have energy right now, unlike when I do the 30DS. After the 30 Day Shred, I feel exhausted.

I think I am going to re-do that calorie calculation formula, and account for my walks. I am going to commit to 3 days of my walks a week, and 4 days of these aerobic video's for the calculation. It seems about right. I'm curious to see if those numbers will change at all.

I am kind of mad at myself for not doing the 30DS yesterday, cause I had a 25 day streak going on that I threw out the window lol. Oh well lol. I may or may not do it this afternoon when we get back from my mother's house. We'll see :).

Have a great weekend! Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.

day 176 (day 1 / week 26)

Today I did a 2 parter--one of which I couldn't do before, and sat collecting dust for a good 1.5 years or so. The other an old regular.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it but when we lived in Sparks (Reno), NV, when we first moved there (beginning of 2008), we fell in love with this Longs (drugstore) that was within walking distance to our apartment. We found all sorts of stuff 75%-90% off. I found "The Firm, Body Sculpting System, 3-in-1 workout with the 3-in-1 platform for $40 --it was like 75% off and a last chance item, which meant they didn't want it at all and weren't going to be restocking it. I brought it home, tried it and about died. I was super fat and it was hard to follow, so I kept the platforms out (now my kitchen stools lol) and packed everything away. Today I did "Cardio Sculpt" which is 55 minutes of 1/2 cardio 1/2 body sculpting. I was only able to get in 36 minutes, because The Monkey Boy decided to sit on the platform every time I stepped off of it (very frustrating). He thought it was a game. I did not. (lol). I ended it and went and played with him for a while.

It's almost 3pm as I am typing this, and he still hasn't gone down for his nap. I anticipated this, so I decided to throw in the good'ol 30 Day Shred, Level 3 (day 25--woo hoo! almost done!), and see if I could get through the entire thing w/out him bothering me too much. By this time, I had figured out my HRM, so I used it to see how many calories I burned for the session. 330 calories for 30 minutes. On Sparkpeople, when I enter this (circuit training/30 minutes) it tells me I burn 370 calories, so not much of a difference, but I bet it adds up. I'm glad I figured this thing out. The best part was that my son didn't bug me so much. His favorite show Caillou came on as he was starting to bother me, so he found something else to occupy his mind with (he LOVES Caillou).

Ok, now not to confuse anyone, but I am going to rewind back to the beginning of my day, before any of this...

Rewind....

Today was a better day. A light bulb came over my head this morning, and I realized that I need to distract my brain from thinking of exercise, while I am exercising or about to. This was a problem I had from the get go, and is one of the reasons why I created this blog--I knew I wouldn't exercise, to exercise, but to post something on my blog (so silly, but true). So realizing this, I decided to break out an old/new toy and learn how to use it properly, so that I can distract myself while I am exercising. It worked. It worked great!

There are a couple reliable ways to distract myself from exercise--a new workout and an ulterior motive. I did both. One will last a lot longer than the other :).

I don't remember when, but at some point this year, I bought a new HRM. This one has more bells and whistles than my previous heart rate monitor, and I bought this one because it calculates calories burned. I have been thinking the past few days, "what if SP is overestimating my calories burned?" I would probably gain weight. Today I dusted off the 100+ page manual and learned how to use it, so that I could see if Sparkpeople was overestimating my calories burned.

Maybe this will explain the above 3rd paragraph.

My thoughts are very unorganized today, as you can see. So I did a total of 66 minutes today and used functions in my heart rate monitor that I had never used before :). I also did a new workout that I had never done because I wasn't strong enough to do it before! Yaay! I hope the HRM helps me with the remaining last 5 days of the 30DS. Focusing on my HR being elevated, distracts from being annoyed/bored/tired with the workout :). Yaay :).

Today was a much better day :). I am excited to do The Firm again tomorrow, with my HRM to see how many calories I burn during that. I hope I can do the entire thing this time. Gotta start earlier though! (doh!).

I hope you all have a good one. I can't believe it's almost Friday again! Gees! Time flies by fast!

Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.