Ahhh Monday

We had a good weekend. Ended up taking off Friday night and spend the weekend in Reno. Not because we're gamblers (spent a total of $20 on the slot machines and that was it) but because we wanted to get out of town and spend some time together. It was nice - just a little hard to live up to our honeymoon :)

I've been a little manic about my goals of late. Getting all on fire and charging forward and then dropping into the dolldrums and moaning about how much I've backslid while eating a slice of pizza to console myself :). Friday I was sorting through pictures and ran into my progress photos from last Thanksgiving. Boy did THAT depress me... then motivated me (told you I've been manic). I realized that I WANT MY MUSCLES BACK!! I had a big long talk with my honey. We set some new goals and some new stratagies. I reminded him that when I was making progress we made it to the gym NO MATTER WHAT. We whent on Saturdays, Sundays, afterwork - whatever it took to get the workouts in. I flat out told him that in order for me to see 'that body' again I'll need to be just as dedicated. He agreed. He's been frustrated with his own physique and realizes that it's going to take some hard work at the gym to see the results he wants as well. it was a nice to both be on the same page again.

So - Here's the new workout schedule.

Monday: Legs and Dance Class
Tuesday: Chest and 5K training run
Wednesday: Back and 20 min HIIT (probably bike)
Thursday: Shoulders, Triceps and 5k training run
Friday: Biceps, Abs and 20 min HIIT
Saturday: Core work, 5K training and last 20 min HIIT
Sunday: Rest (and I think I'll need it)

We'll do that for four weeks and see how it goes

Nutrition is 1400 cals per day with a 'loose' goal of C/P/F = 35%/45%/20%

Again this is for four weeks

Tonight after class I'm going to take measurments and photos. This is for real :)

And, to get myself out of bed in the mornings, I've now set up our annoying, loud (God I hate it) alarm clock and put it in the bathroom. It's so loud that it wakes me up in our room - and I have to get up, turn on a light and go into the bathroom to turn it off. Really hard to sleep through that! :)

I'm also working through the book 100 days of weight loss. I like it so far - I'll try and remember to review it when I'm finished. As I've said before I'm beyond believing that any program, any book or any anything is going to be a magic bullet for weight loss. It's going to be me - making it work, making the choices, walking the walk, living the lifestyle. That's not to say I don't still read books, check out programs and stuff like that. I learn new ideas and statagies with everyone I read and I believe every little scrap of information and motivation help. But in the end it comes down to me doing what I know is right.

One thing I've been telling myself of late that seems to be helping out a little is, when faced with a food choice instead of simply saying "I can't have that" I tell myself "I can't have that and lose wieght" that way I'm setting myself up with the idea that if I do choose to eat something - I'm chosing to stay where I'm at and not lose weight. So far it's done wonders for my attitude. It doesn't mean I make the "right" choice every time, but I'm certainly not fooling myself about what I'm doing, and when I choose for loss it keeps me focus on how that choice is bringing me closer to my goals and not on how 'deprived' I am. (poor me) :)

More baby steps towards lasting change - I really do believe.

So - today got off to a GREAT start. I was thrust out of bed by the annoying alarm clock in the bathroom and quickly dressed and was ready to hit the gym. Too bad it was 4:10 and the gym doesn't open until 5:00 on Mondays! :)

I had a nice hot breakfast, made a water bottle, checked that I had everything, snuggled with my honey for a few minutes on the couch, checked that I had everything (yeah had time to check twice) and finally left and made it to the gym.

As I said above it was leg day. Because it's been so long since we have had decent weight workout I had to really play with the numbers and figure out what I can lift currently. Trust me, it wasn't good :|


Squats: 165 x 6 x 3
Leg Press: 435 x 6 - 435 x 15 (need to raise the weight on this one)
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 130 x 6 x 2
Standing Calf: 180 x 8 x 3
Seated Calf: 90 x 8 - 125 x 8

I've a long way to go to be back in the shape I was, but I'm willing to do the work, and ready to see the results.

Another week in the bag

Well, the long weekend didn't go exactly as planned. It wasn't too bad either.

On Saturday my sweetheart and I walked down to the gym, had an amazing workout and then walked home. It was so nice!

We spent all day on Sunday walking around the scottish highland games. We watched the "Heavy Games" once again. They wern't nearly as exciting without Shannon Hartnett competing but still fun to watch. Shannon was there though and I was once again completely impressed and inspired.

Granted, she's MUCH bigger then I would want to be (and possably 'enhanced') but she does look amazing! and she does make me LONG to get my muscles back!

Food wise things wern't perfect, but much better then weekends before. Unfortunatly it's also that 'hormonal' time of the month and my body is holding onto every ounce of water it can - BLEH!

Since monday my eating has been spot on! Because of TTOM though I've yet to drop any weight. Well, and probably the fact that I haven't made it to the gym once this week either! I've just been completely exhausted all week, and I can't figure out why. Even after 8 hours of sleep I'm struggling to pull myself out of bed. I'm really at a loss as to what to do. I'm certainly going to hit the gym on Saturday. Sunday though is my 1 year anniversary and I plan on spending it having a great time with my sweetheart.

Anyway - not much else to report here. plodding along, feeling a flicker of drive now and then and then falling back into a bleek black mood. I know if I stick with it I'll find my stride once more. I just wish it would come sooner rather then later.

Quickupdate before the long weekend

Things are going GREAT!

Not perfect, but I'm really pleased with my progress. I'll try to recap on Sunday but for now know I'm pleased with the way things have gone.

Had my second RT workout yesterday and again I'm aching from Head to toe. It's kind of nice :)

The biggest news is that I now have ANOTHER bit of motivation.

October 10th we're taking off to spend a few days in cancun mexico! Every day includes swimming and sunning so anything I can do to make wearing a bathing suit a bit less painfull will be top of mind for me. I've downloaded a bunch of pictures of Cancun and I'm going to print them and post them around my house and office. I've also have them popping up on my computer as my screen saver. Maybe I'll even hang my bathing suit on my fridge! lol

I just know I'm really excited about spending a few days in the sun and surf with my hubby and helping him to celebate his 40th birthday.

Alright - I'm outta here - going to enjoy a three day weekend yay!!

Day 3

Hey Shane...

I didn't really mention the program because I'm beyond thinking there's a magic pill. That there's one program that's going to 'make it all happen when everything else has failed'. One program may make getting fit a little 'faster' or one might be less complex then another, but in the end none 0f them do anything if I don't stick to it.

I've also found that the 'shelf-life' for any program (even if it's working) for me is about 18 weeks. So my focus right now is a nutritionally and scientifically sound program and follow it for a set period of time. The program I am using right now is "Afterburn" by Alwyn Casgrove. http://www.afterburntraining.com/

Is it 'magical'? no Does it have some sound principals? yes

After two days though I have figured out that tracking my food so closely (down to the micronutriants) was really stressing me out. Although I have a lot more time on my hands then I used to, I don't have a LOT of time and spending so much time out of my day thinking about food does me no good what so ever. So, I've modified my food plan a bit. Let's see if I can explain my stratagy.

I'm still working toward my 1450 calories a day 5 meals a day
that gives me 290 calories per meal
What I don't want to stress about is the micronutriants, but still want to make sure I'm getting enough protien and I'm keeping my fat intake to a moderate level. So I've taken some of the concepts of BFL and applied them...sorta :)

In my mind I've placed 'most' foods into a catagory: Protien, Carb or Fat

Bread - Carb
Fruit - Carb

Chicken - Protien

etc

Then I made an 'executive' decision that 60% of my calories should come from a 'protien' and 40% from a carb. So - when I plan a meal I pick a protien and eat about 175 calories of it, and pick a carb and eat 115 calories of it. "But what about fats?" you say. Well, as long as between the two of them, they don't have more then 6 grams of fat.. I'm good.

As for the 'types' of foods I eat. I'm not grabbing 115 calories worth of chocolate chip cookies and calling it a 'carb'. I know better then to delude myself that way. I try to keep my selections to whole grains, raw fruits and pleanty of veggies. For this I try to go back to the LL program. Eating 'unprocced' (as in not from a package) foods as much as possable, avoiding 'fast foods', Eating one servinging of fresh fruit a day, eating at least four cups of veggies and at least three different 'kinds' a day.

As long as I continue to lose weight this way, I'll continue to eat this way. I'll let you know when I have to modify it.

As for the mental (and most important) side of things. Honestly, I'm still struggling. By the end of the day I feel exhausted from telling myself "No, you can't have that!". Maybe the first thing I need to do is figure out what I'm going to tell myself "You can't have that" may be half the issue. But still, having to say "No" (what feels like) hundreds of times a day really wears me out. When I think about it, I realize that it's just my 'adictive voice', my 'brat' my 'feast beast' that's talking. I also realize that the more I say 'no' and mean it, the less I'll have to listen to the little winer. I'm not going around hungry. I'm not depriving myself. I'll get through this, I know I will. For me, the first two weeks are usually the hardest - when I get through these, things will settle down, a lot.

As for excercise... I'm not too happy with myself there. When we got home last night it was 91 degrees. So I talked myself out of going for a run. After dinner, then going to the store to pick up lunch stuff, then cleaning the kitchen, making lunch etc. I sat down for a few minutes and before I knew it, it was midnight. *sigh*. So not only did I not run last night, but I missed my 4:00am wake up call and didn't make it to the gym this morning.. bleh. I thought that only having three 'gym' days a week would make things easier - but here I am in the first week, already missing workouts. The positive side is that with only three 'workouts' planned a week I can easily make one up. the only 'rule' is that I don't do RT on consecutive days. So tomorrow I'll do RT and push the last workout to Saturday.

Anyway - I'm hanging in there - still dropping the initial weight which is a nice way to start a program.

Thanks to those of you who are checking up on me!

Day 2

I have to say - I had kind of forgotten what a pain in the butt counting calories is. bleh! Oh well in a few days I'll have my meals all tuned up and then it'll be no worries. I didn't get my meals completely planned for today. I had dance class last night and didn't get home until 10:00PM. I have to say, after the killer morning workout we did - and then 1.5 hours of bumping and grinding (in class) I was completely worn out! I hit the bed the moment I got home. As for the rest of my goals yeseterday:

Food - I was a little short. As I said, I got home really late and completely exhausted. I didn't get a fifth meal in. So I finished the day at 1153 Cals 103C/122P/29F. Yes, that's pretty low, but I wasn't hungry at any point of the day, and I didn't wake up starving this morning either. I think my body is still processing the food from the weekend :)

Excercise - Hit my RT first thing in the morning and had an excellent time at dance class, burning a few extra calories.

Water - 1 gallon + (I have a 1.5 litre water bottle that I filled up and drank 3 times - plus the water I drank during my morning workout. I think I more then nailed that goal)

And the goals for today?

1450 Calories 129gC/161gP/32gF
1 gallon of water
20 min HIIT Cardio (already done)
2 mile Steady State Run (this is my 5k training run planning it for when I get home)
a soak in the hot tub (I honestly ache from head to toe!)

Have tomorrow's meals planned out before the eod today

And that's it - for the numbers

Mentally, I'm doing ok. There's a lot of other things I need to do to sew up my motivation.

Create my 'why'
Create a vision
Set some leverage

I've got some things in place now.

I've got a 5K on 10/7 - the goal, of course, is to finish, and to do it faster then last time, but that'll require some training on my part. I've got to get those evening runs in! Plus I already know how much easier it is to run when I weigh less.

Halloween is always a big deal for my friends and I. My goal is to be back below 180 by then. Although I won't be wearing the 'sexy' costume I had hoped to be wearing this year - I will be a lot happier below 180 then above it!

The next big deal is Thanksgiving. I've set myself a goal of 174 before thanksgiving. If I reach that goal then I'll allow myself to eat whatever I want that day. Total FREE day.

Lastly is the final goal of this 16 weeks - 170 just in time for Christmas.

I've also started a list of 'rewards' for myself. Simple things like a manicure/pedicure. And more elaborite things like a sewing machine - so that I can make myself clothes that fit as I get thinnner.

Weekly I've told myself that if I reach my goal for monday 'early' in the week then That day I'm allowed 1 splurge.

Oh! - and one 'long term' motivation I've created for myself: I've signed up for Jenny Hendershott's Phat Camp in Feb. When I exicute my plan (the way I know I can) I'll be in the low 160's when I go to Camp! That's really exciting to me.

I'll continue to post these kinds of things when I come across them. It helps to make them into a 'real' commiment when I do.

For now, have a great day everyone!

One more goal

For today - that is to be much more orginized tomorrow.

meal planning will be done! :)

Starting a new program today!

That's right - I got my new book in the mail and I'm jumping right in :)

So - I start a 16 week phase today.

The biggest difference here is in the workout. I'm doing super sets for weights, and High Intensity Interval training for cardio. Weight workouts are three days a week and HIIT is three days a week.

This is a BIG difference for me, but it's kind of exciting and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

I got through day one of my workout today. Though it nearly killed both my husband and I :)

Set 1:

{Squats: 20 x 105 & T-pushups: 8(each side)} x 3

Set 2:

{Step-ups: 20 (each side) & DB Shoulder Press 20 x 20} x 3

Set 3:


{SHELC (supine hip extension with leg curl ) x 20 & Swiss Ball Crunches x 20} x 2

The T-push up is a regular push up, but at the end you end up in a variation of a 'plank' position.









I can't to full pushups right now - so I did them from the knees, but managed the "T" part ok.


SHELC is a swiss ball excercise like this:






My Hamstrings were cramping by the end of the first set - wow!!

The scary thing is that I have dance class tonight and my legs at the moment are so tired that I could hardly walk down the stairs!

This is going to be a fun 16 weeks!

And now onto the most important thing - my goals:

In 16 weeks I will weigh 170 lbs.

I will be able to do at least 10 pushups

I will be able to wear all the clothes in my closet

To achieve this I'm going to set goals for every 4 weeks (of course the program's set up in 4 weeks blocks as well)

Goals for this four weeks are:

about 1450 cals/day: 129g carbs/161g prot/32g fat

five meals per day
1 gallon (or 128 oz) of water/day
three days resistance training
three days HIIT cardio

And - I think that's it for now :)

So the goals for today are:

1450 Cal :129/161/32
1 gallon water
and RT

So far today I'm 1 for 3 :)

three days in a row!

yep - hit the gym three days in a row... And for the past two I've managed to get up and get myself ready even though my husband was being a 'lay-a-bed'. I told him this morning that I've got a new 'attitude'. It used to be (due partially to our driving situation), that if he didn't feel like getting out of bed when the alarm went off, that I would go back to sleep too. But for the past two days when I've heard that little voice say "He's not waking up - he must be too tired - I guess we'll sleep in today" The '0ther' me countered with, "Well YOU'RE awake (not really awake but awake enough to argue with myself I guess :)) so you may as well get up and get yourself dressed - if he's too tired to go to the gym you'll just have to go by yourself. And you know what? Once I'm up he gets up and gets ready too. What would normally happen is that I would use him as an excuse to sleep in, and he would use me. Now I'm eliminating that thinking and it's been great!

Tonight I'm goin out dancing with friends. That's two hours at least of hard (but fun) cardio to look forward too. the only challenge while going out dancing to to make sure I don't drink. I've already decided nothing but water! My stomach's been a little upset the past few days so that should be an easy sell to both my friends and the little moster that tempts me to live in the moment instead of focus on my goals.

I've also set myself a curfew. It's normal for me to stay out MUCH too late when we go out dancing because we're just having so much fun - but tonight I'm going to leave at a reasonable hour so that I can rest up and hit the gym in the morning. Thursdays are my favorite day anyway - Chest! whoop!

Still gathering my focus, choosing a plan etc. I've got some materials coming in the mail that I think are next 'program'. I'm going to do it for 16 weeks. set some goals - put some leverage in place. All the 'good stuff'. I'll probably even take progress pictures *gulp*.

looking forward to it all!

Nother Week!

ahhh, another week! Things are going well - not perfect but well. Still trying to get into a rythum. A few positives since last week. 1) we got our key fob so that we actually have access to the pool and fitness center at our new apartments! That means when we have a day like last Wednesday where we get up - drive to the gym and find out that thier early guy didn't show up and the gym is closed until 6:00AM (gah!) we'll have an alternative. 2) I started dance class!! whoo hoo! My friend and I signed up for Burlesquercise! (don't know what that is? check out the website http://www.bombshellbetty.net/burlesquercise.html) six weeks of dancing our tails off - and skimpy costumes - nothing like the idea of others seeing in your skivies to make it easy to pass up the chocolate bar. :)

Other then that not much to note. Still taking a day at a time. I've slowly been building up momentum and motivation. Although I'm not doing BFL I've been listening to Bill Phillip's BFL audio book and that's starting to get me pumped up. I've really just spent the past few weeks, 'winging it'. hitting my workouts when I could, but not setting goals for # of minutes or anything like that. Eating 'good' (so subjective) but not counting calories or using any other method of diet 'control'. While I know doing this I'm capable of losing fat (and weight) it'll hardly bring me the stunning results that could be called a 'transformation'.

So, I've got a few ideas I'm working on. when I've got my goals etc put together I'll be posting them. Until then - I'm still hitting the gym and eating healthy :) dropping a lb or two along the way.

I'll update soon!

Almost Forgot

193.1 today... finally dropping a little of the 'hormonal' weight that's been visiting.

Still going strong

Had my second boxing class last night. Big plus - I made it through AGAIN and this time didn't feel as if I was going to upchuck at any point! yay!

Food perfect yesterday and has been so far today. Hit the gym for weight lifting again this morning so that's two days in a row for this week. A GREAT start.

Plan is to do a bit of running tonight. I signed myself up for a 5K in about 8 weeks so I'll need to push in order to be in shape by then. the goal is to finish faster then last time... that should be no problem since I took it at pretty much a snail's pace last time.

One thing to note: I finally feel 'caught-up' enough to pay attention to my website again! http://www.boddyfitness.com so those of you who asked for accounts :) you've been approved! Anyone else who wants to join, feel free.

Also - I'm going to revive the 'change your mind' challenge. I actually am really excited about the VAST number of tools I've found recently to help with the mental aspect of the whole food/fitness thing. It would be fun to get to share with anyone!

alright - need to run - so much to do and so little time!

It's Monday Again

and I'm posting :)

The week went pretty well. We're still trying to move into our new house/out of our old house so things are still a bit caotic, but better then before. I made it the the gym 3 days - which was less then my goal, but still better then the 0 days I've been making it for a while.

I made it to boxing on Monday night - I REALLY liked it, even though it kicked my butt - big time. I ached from head to toe for days. In fact my legs hurt as much as any 'heavy' workout I've done. I'm going again tonight.

Food was better then what's been the satus quo, but not as good as I would like. We were still eating out a lot because I didn't have the kitchen/food all settled at the new house yet. But we're set this week. In fact the fridge and freezer are STUFFED full. I've found this wonderful website that email's me weekly dinner suggestions w/a shopping list. I tried it out on Sunday and so far I'm really happy. Take a look if you're interested http://www.savingdinner.com/ I also purchases one of thier '5 for the feezer' sets.- http://www.savingdinner.com/about/dinner_freezer_recipes.html , puchased all the food and chopped, mixed and put five chicken dishes in the freezer last night. It was really satisfying to know I've got food ready to go and even though they are all chicken dishes - they are each differnt enough that it should keep things interestine. After a while my hubby and I get tired of my 'uninspired' dry fried chicken w/a little italian seasoning on it. :)

So - stats today are.. weight 195.9 - better then last week, but I've still got a long way to go to get to my 'fighting' weight. One thing about our new house, it has a LOT of mirrors. So I'm constantly reminded how far I let things slide back and I'm doubly inspired to get what I had BACK!!

I'm going to shoot for at least two posts this week!

So Much has Changed

This time it's for reals!

Oh my what a year! It's been a bumpy ride. But, after this weekend I finally feel like I've made some sense of it all.

So, recently two really big things have happend:

1) My husband got a new job - He was miserable at the old place, and it was really effecting our home life. But, there wasn't much we could do about it at the time. Well, an opportunity came up and he went for it, and my prayers were answered - he got it. The best part about the job is that we now both work in the same city. That means we commute together, or we can stay late together and all kind of 'together' type benefits. PLUS he now makes more money which is always a big help. (Oh and I finally got the raise to go along with my promotion - so a double wammy).

2) We moved!!!! I've been waiting to do this for about 6 years now. Granted, we didn't get to move to exactly where I wanted to, but we did make a HUGE move for us. There's several benefits to this change. 1- I've cut my 4 hour commute to less then 2... yes, I've added two hours to my day! whoop!! 2 - we are now less then a mile from the gym. This means that I can pop over for a workout any ol' time. At our old place it was at least a 30-45 minute drive to get to the gym and that meant any trip there turned into a 3 hour endever. Now we (or even just I) can pop over anytime we like and get a quick workout in. OR if we perfer we can workout at the onsite gym. 3 - we are 1 mile from public transit. What a huge benefit this will turn out to be. This means that my husband and I arn't tied to each other's schedule. If I want to take a class after work (like the boxing class I'm going to tonight) I can. And I'm not rushed thinking he's stuck waiting for me. and Vice Versa. 4 - there's a pool onsite. Heated year round. I'm going to be able to add swimming back into my schedule and again without it being a big pain in our necks.

So as you can see - I'm ready to start on the next big push in my journey. If anyone's still with me out there, I'm back. I've got some lost ground to make up, but, I've got more tools in my toolbox then ever. It's going to be a GREAT year.

Today's weight: 198.5 (I know I know - terrible!)

Today's workout:

Close Grip Cable Pull Down: 20 x 80 lbs x 3
Bent Over Barbell Rows: 20 x 45 lb bar x 2
Hyper-Extensions: 20 x 0lbs x 2
Barbell Wrist Curls: 20 x 35 lb bar x 2
Dumbbell Wrist Curls: 20 x 25 x 1

1 Hour Cardio Boxing

Food:

Breakfast: English Muffin, Egg and Banana
Lunch: Spinich Salad w/Turkey (No dressing) and garbanzo beans, Pineapple
Snack: Greek Yogurt w/Strawberries and grapenuts
Dinner: Spinich Salad w/'taco' turkey meat and 're-fried' black beans

Water:

3 Quarts (sounds like I'm a car!)
(I've had my one soda for a day - cut back my diet pepsi starting last week)

see you all tomorrow morning!

Slightly Larger Update

Ok – here we go!

Honestly, I’m not really sure where to start. I guess you don’t need to know every up and down over the past few months but let me just summarize by saying.. it’s been busy ;) Clean up after my father-in-law passed away was a little messier then we expected. Work has been busy busy busy busy, and life in general a little overwhelming at times.

But – this is a blog about my weightloss journey so I’ll focus on that because honestly – life happens. It always does and it’s how I handle the ups as well as the downs that’s going to make a difference in my lifelong goals – not WHAT those ups and downs actually are.

So, as many of you know, I’ve struggled with food for a long time now. I have been overweight my entire adult life and then some. Not long ago it became apparent to me that what ‘diet’ I was on wasn’t going to make much of a difference for me. I had to change my mind to change my body. I did a great deal of that last year. Dave and the Leanness Lifestyle taught me so much! But – I started listening to my ‘feast beast’ let him talk me into the ‘just one won’t hurt’ mentality. Of course I quickly fell into old habits. I felt so helpless, hopeless and out of control. I would pull myself together for a day or two and then slide right back again. While eating too much food doesn’t have the same effect on your body as drinking too much alcohol I’m guessing that the bad feeling of not being the boss of your own actions is very similar. In the end I gained back 15 lbs.

Step by step though, I drug myself back to the right frame of mind. Rather then give up I searched for even more tools to add to my arsenal. Adding to everything Leanness lifestyle taught me as well as other plans/diets I have been on I’ve dropped 10 of the 15 lbs I gained. And it feels GOOD. And mentally - I'm on fire!

So – I’m back and frankly really excited to share some new ‘stuff’ I’ve learned and have been doing. Learning to change my mindset about food… I haven’t ‘made it’ but I would still like to pass some of this on to other people. I’ve been working with one of the people I work with and he’s lost 15 lbs! So I know these tools can help more then just me

So I have a proposal. I would like some of you (and heck invite some friends) to take a little journey with me. I know, I know the last thing you probably need is yet another challenge and another web site to log into, but 1-you would be doing me a HUGE favor and 2-You might gain some new skills/tools to use in your transformation journey as well! The website is www.boddyfitness.com

If you want to join please sign up – I want to ‘start’ June 8th (Start on a Friday!? – yep)

I’m not going to write diet plans, or workouts. What I will be doing is posting challenges, lessons and tips and asking you to follow along and give feedback. The website will give you a place to write a diet journal, post in a forum and even set up a gallery if you like. As part of the challenge I’m asking that you participate by answering the challenges and lessons in the provided Blog – otherwise, no other site participation is required.

Think about it – ask me questions if you like – log in and just follow along if you dare ;)

I'm here

Life for the past few months has been totally overwhelming! But I think we're through the worse of it. I've a lot to catch you up on if you care at all :) (I'm not sure that even I do.. lol.. and I lived it!) Some personal let downs and some really exciting stuff to look forward to.

I'll post a BIG update tomorrow but I want to tease you with this. I'm thinking of 'sponsoring' a little challenge at my new website. I'm so excited about the ideas I have! Please let me know if you would be interested in joining.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who's checked in on me! as I said - I'll fill in the blanks tomorrow but I'll have you know I appreciate each and every comment. Just know that I'm back - and not just STARTING to take action but already IN action.

got to go to bed...

Wow - so many people who checked up on me recently... You are all WONDERFUL!!!

So - what's up with me. Well as you may have gathered I've struggled a little in this new year. For no 'real' reason I just couldn't seem to get my head in the game. My 'why' just didn't seem to have any teeth in it. And I certainly couldn't seem to get a handle on 'why now'. Top this off with the fact that last month I got a promotion and was suddenly finding myself working 45 - 50 hours a week PLUS my four hour a day communte and needless to say non-essential internet time has been at a premium.

That's not to say that it's been all bad. I've managed to 'tread water' but I haven't had the focus, drive and progress that I would like to have and that frustrates me. The scary thing is that I have 7 weeks until my sprint triathalon and haven't trained nearly as much as I would like. *sigh*

But! Last week I put together a new plan. I completely revamped my resistance training. The plan I built for myself was taking me 1.5 hours a day! So.. I scaled way back. AND I'm doing cardio FIRST to make sure I get my triathalon training in. It was working. I had found new motivation (I suspect I was overtraining) and I had made it to the gym 3 days per my plan.

then Thursday we got the news that my father in law passed away... so the last four days has been dealing with all of that.

But I'm back now - although on my own. My honey is going to be down taking care of his mom for the next few weeks. It does make it easier for me in one way because I can work out at night guilt free. No one is waiting for me at home :) but it means I have to drag my own butt out of bed in the morning if I want to work out early :

So - I'm going to try to be better on keeping you up to date on my training etc. I know that history proves that posting here helps keep me focused.

Now.. for some 'shouts'.

ausomm - I don't pay for LL by the month. I signed up for a year long program. It's not cheep but it's been worth it so far :) If you want to check it out though - you can try it free for one month.

Anonymous #1 - thank you so much for your comment! seeing things like that just makes my heart so happy. congrats on your progress and I'm glad you found a bit of inspiration here. Keep up the fantastic work and in all honesty you've passed me by! I would love to hear how you're feeling in your 'new body'.

Evelyne - thanks for kicking me in the pants - I need to update here and I'm glad to know there are folks still checking on me.

Anonymous #2 - don't know if you're the same person but thank you too for kicking me and getting me back blogging. I need this.

and so... I haven't worked out yet to day but I plan to get some cardio in when I get home tonight. Food had been good today - stayed on plan - ate some veggies and had my fruit so I'm good there. I'm going to get up early and hit the gym tomorrow so expect an update with some new 'lifting' numbers :) They may not be spectaular as I've lost my workout partner and my spotter but I'll push as best I can.

Thanks again to all of you!! End of April I'm going to post some progress pictures and I want to have something to show you :)

Not much to report

Really just plugging along here - no big problems but no big victories either. Just doing what needs to be done.

I'm really struggling to get my cardio done. I'm just finding it dull and unexciting - 5 minutes in and I'm already bored. I can't change much up right now because my sprint tri-athalon is only 12 weeks away. I'm investigating ways to 'spice' things up a bit. Some sort of excercise 'reward' for getting my trathalon training done. My ideas so far are boxing classes, dance lessions or something like that. Still working on it :)

Feelin' Good

Feeling Really Really good today, for a variety of reasons.

1) the sun was shining today for a little while and I actually went outside in a short sleaved shirt for the first time in over a month... mmm a little ray of sunshine goes a long way to uplift your mood.

2) I got the the gym in the MORNING! I never thought I would say this but MAN it's nice to get up at 4:00AM lol! I've certainly learned that starting my day with a workout does wonders for my overall well being.

3) TWO compliments in three days.

Saturday while working out with my honey, I noticed this man using the bench next to us was watching and by his body language WANTED us to notice. I thought maybe he wanted one of us to 'spot' him and after my experiance on Tuesday I wan't about to leave a fellow lifter 'hanging'. So I turned toward him and smiled giving him an opening to ask. He suprised me though and instead of asking for help, he said, "I used to come in here in the mornings and I saw you two here." I nodded and opened my mouth to explain why we had been missing all week, when he went ahead, "You two have made a LOT of progress. You look GREAT! You make a great team, keep up the good work." I think my smile got bigger with every comment and I acknowledged with a 'thank you' every time. I think that's the first time at the gym that someone's asknowledged my progress to my face and certainly they've said something to me about my husbands (which I'm proud of as well). Let me tell you it put a LOT of UMPH into the rest of our workout having heard that.

Then today I went to visit a client that I haven't seen in MONTHS... Pretty much since before the wedding in September. While I know I've made some progress since then I don't feel it was as much as the progress they SAW me making before I left for my honeymoon. Either I've changed more since then then I remember, or they were remembering how I looked when we started the project (back last January) because three of the people I met with were nearly open mouthed when they saw me. One gentleman (who is not what I would call an outspoken indivitual) leaned over to me when our meeting was over and whispered... Have you lost weight? I happily told him yes. They other two were much more vocal about it, exclaiming how good I looked. It was a nice shot in the arm to hear from people who don't know I've actually been working to notice the changes.

So that's about it - plugging along here looking forward to getting into new and exciting territory. While January got off to a rough start I'm expecting all kinds of amazing things in Febuary :)

I was looking in the mirror today and trying to figure out what I'm going to look like with 10 more lbs gone... that kind of visual doesn't come easily for me but I do know it's going to be exciting to see!

Hard Week

This is one of those hard weeks for me. My honey is working long hours and can't make it to the gym. That means I need to go on my own. It's funny how much easier it is to step into a crowd of people (for me at least) when you know you've got your best friend at your side. Last night I knew I was going to have to face the 'night' crowd at a gym full of 20 something gym bunnies, meat heads and resolutioners with a few 'regular' folks (like us) thrown in. I dislike the gym at night even with my honey there, facing that crowd alone took a lot of fortitude.

When I got there it was exactly what I had expected. THRONGS of people there. The posers were posing the gym bunnies walking around with only 1/2 thier gym clothes on and the resolutioners wandering around looking lost and doing way more weight then they should. Ok maybe I'm being a little harsh but it was really crowded and frustrating. The worse part was I was having to do a chest workout without my workout partner.

So, I got through dumbbell incline presses at a lowered weight, and I did incline dumbbell presses just fine. Barbell flat presses though I started to get a little nervious - I really wanted to hit the chest hard but I have this real fear not finishing a rep and getting stuck under the bar. So I start looking around to grab someone to spot me. There are six guys doing chest press around me... do you think a single one would make eye contact? Noooooo.... I finally have stand directly in front of a guy and wave my hand in front of his face! He spots me for one set (and does a good job) then runs away! So I have to chase down a SECOND guy for a second set. BAH! I'm not hitting on you I just want a spot - stop acting like I'm going to bite you for god's sake.

So - that was my night. I have to go back and do arms tonight - wish me luck!

---- other then that, everything's going well.

Happy Day!

My training materials have arrived! OMG I have a LOT of stuff to read but it's been a pleasure so far.

The weekend went great - I finished up my training for the week and now have TWO weeks of making every single weight workout... I like that . Feels like things are back on track.

I wanted to share a new 'concoction' I discovered... this makes two 'meals' for me - you'll have to play with it to fit it into you're own plan...

1 cup fat free cottage cheese (trust me - I won't put spoon to cottage cheese normally but really love this!)
1 cup fat free vanilla yogurt (You can use plain too but may have to add more flavoring)
1 cup stawberries, washed, destemmed and cut in half
vanilla extract and splenda (or sweetener of choice) to taist.

dump all in the blender and whip until smooth. You can drink this like a extra thick shake or eat with a spoon. A really yummy way to get my 1 cup serving of fruit in a day.

2006 in Review

2006 was actually a great year - I lost about 39 lbs of fat all told and 4 inches off my waist...

What I really like seeing is how far I've come from what I believe is just about my 'biggest' ever... Here's progress from about July 2005 to now

And how have my muscles grown?

Oh my!

I can't believe it's been almost a month. The holidays really take a bite out of you... then then new Year has been just crazy!

So, where to start... Christmas was fine. Spent time with the kids and generally relaxed the week between Christmas and New Year. Got back to work on Jan 2 and handn't been here long before I got a call from my honey that things wern't looking good for his father (who is critically ill). So we left work and flew (well drove)the three hundred miles to go be with him. We spent the whole week at my in-laws. Thankfully my father-in-law pulled through, unfortunatly, my fitness program didn't. But hey sometimes 'life happens' and you need to put your own stuff on the backburner for a week to focus on someone else for a while.

So back home now and the past week and a half has been a whirlwind of catching up at work and at home as well as putting into place many of my 'new year' plans.

As for fitness goals - I haven't really come up with an extensive list. I know THIS is the year I reach my goal of 130lbs. There's no way I can fail because I have coach Greenwalt (from Leanness Lifestyle) with me every step of the way. Other things I want to accomplish this year: I want to really work on my flexablity, two things I want to do this year is be able to do the splits and a backbend (from standing). I also want to run my first sprint tri-athalon (already signed up for it). Oh yeah and be able to do pull-ups.

Other goals I've got right now that are kind of fitness related is... I've sent in my money and I'm starting training to become certified as a personal trainer. I can't tell you how excited I am about this! Just more motivation to get to my goal and get a body that's a living testimate to what my 'services' will offer. I've also started work on the website that I'll offer to all my clients including a 'community' area. I want to specialize in people looking to make a weight loss 'trasformation' as well as those who are 'begining' weight lifters (Like my son or even my husband last year). I plan to offer more then just training programs or even diet plans but education, motivation and support (that's where the website comes in). I want to work with the WHOLE person. Ummm... yeah, I'm a little excited. I'll move on now.. lol

I still haven't gone back and figured out how I did on last year's goals - it's on my 'todo' list I swear! :)

Oh and we've moved into the 'heavy' phase of our periodization program...I've been stunning myself with the amount of weight I've been lifting! It's so much fun!

Monday was chest day and my 'best set' for each excercise was:

Dumbbell Incline Press: 50lbs x 9
Barbell Flat Press: 150 x 9
Barbell Decline Press: 95 x 12

Cable Crunches: 120 x 9

Today was Biceps and Froearms: (best sets)

Barbell Standing Curl: 75 x 9
Dumbbell Alt Standing Curl: 30 x 11 (yes! I'm curling 30lb dumbbells now - whoop!!)
Cable Two Arm Curl: 75 x 9
Barbell Wrist Curls: 65 x 12

I think, this is going to be a really good year! :)