Overweight!

I am overweight!  It is a strange thing to be happy about, but anyone who has been obese knows how this feels.  I do not put s whole lot of faith into the BMI scale, but it is still nice to not have that label hanging over me.

I actually hit this milestone on September 4, but I have been seriously busy lately.  We are in the middle of our adoption homestudy.  So much stress!  My individual interview is tonight.  After that we are supposed to have one more meeting with the social worker and then we can start working on matching with children.  We are hoping to have kids in the house by Halloween or Thanksgiving.

I have also been somewhat of a slacker with my P90X because of things to get done with the homestudy, but I've not given up entirely.  I've also started getting ready for a 5K mudrun that I plan to be in on October 29.


Today's weight is 162!

Fitness and Weigh In

The scale has been moving pretty slowly for me lately.  I don't really mind though because I am in this for the long haul and I have improvement and victories that have nothing to do with Mr. Scale.  I am doing things that I never would have imagined I could before I started this journey.  Right now I am going to the gym M/W/F and doing 1 hour of weight lifting (power hour - body pump style class) and 1 hour of zumba.  I am also doing P90X.  I have surprised myself quite a few time lately with the things I am able to do.  First I did double burpees (burpees with 2 push-ups instead of 1), then I surprised myself by adding the jump between burpees, then I discovered that I could do 15 push-ups in a row, then I did the entire Ab workout from P90X (AbRipperX is a non-stop ab workout that totals to about 350 reps total of 11 different ab exercises in about 15 minutes.), then I did quadruple burpees, then I did quintuple burpees.  I couldn't possibly impress myself more than that, right?  Wrong!  Yesterday I did one-arm push-ups!  I did them on my knees, but I busted out 6 of those, alternating arms, 3 on each arm.  Yes, I would like to be able to do them on my toes, but I used to have to do my normal push-ups on my knees too (heck, I used to not be able to do normal push-ups on my knees), and I WILL get to the point that I can do the one-arm push-ups on my toes too.  Can anybody say badass?  I hope so, because that's what I am!

Today's weight: 165.8

Wow!

Today I was in a bad mood because the scale is up 2 pounds from yesterday.  I was feeling like throwing in the towel and having doughnuts and pizza and/or fried pies.  I didn't though.  I ate my normal breakfast.  I got my butt into the car and to the gym.  I came home and had a healthy lunch.  I did my P90X plyometrics.  As I was finishing up I got a call.  I have officially been taken off of my diabetes medication.  I no longer need it.  I have it covered with diet and exercise.  So, take that scale!  I will give a weigh in anyhow though.  Today's weight, 2 pounds and all, is 169.8.

Weigh In and NSV

Today I am 169.2.  Back out of the 170s, woohoo!  At the gym this morning, during power hour, I was able to do the jumps in between the double burpees.  Yep, I am a total rockstar!  Things like that are so much more important to me than the number on the scale.  It's just a number.  What should gravity's action have to do with my happiness with myself?  It's silly.  Yes, I have lost 75.8 pounds.  It is much more important to me that I can do 2 hours of zumba non-stop now when I could barely walk 15 minutes before.  I can do like 100 squats with 45 pounds on my back.  I can do push-ups.  I can do burpees and jump between them. I have lost 50.75 inches total. I have gone down more than 22.4% body fat, not really sure on that one because I didn't check it until about 2 months in and haven't checked it since April (darn broken machine). I have gone down 13.9 BMI points.  I have dropped my glucose levels from diabetic to normal.  I have dropped my cholesterol to healthy numbers.  I have lowered my blood pressure to a healthy score.  All of those things are so much more important to me than a silly number on the scale.

Weigh In and Goals

Today's weight is 170.8.  I have joined a Thanksgiving challenge on 3FC with a goal of 140-160 by T-day.  The 160 is easy enough, but I would really like to hit the 140.  Since lowering my carbs I have been losing an average of 2.2 pounds each week, so that should be achievable.  I have a personal challenge of getting down to a size 6 by Christmas as well.  I am currently in a 10.

Lowered carb

I've gone low (ish) carb.  I went to the doc and got my labs done.  The doc was happy with my numbers, I was not.  They were all within normal ranges, but they were not as good as my last results.  That is not the direction I want to be going in.  My solution to that and to the slow weight loss is to lower my carbs.  I am doing it with percentage, not grams.  I allow the amount of food I take in to vary as needed, so my carb gram count would vary with it.  I am aiming to keep my carbs at or below 40%.  I started this last month and lost 13 pounds in 16 days.  Then I went on vacation and off plan.  I gained 10.6 pounds.  I've been back on plan for 4 days now and have already lost 5.8 of those pounds.

Today's weight: 173.6

Zumba and Weight Lifting Woes

I have become a zumba addict and a weight lifting addict.  I think these are very good addictions and do not plan to try to recover from it.  I recently discovered that I can now wear zumba clothes.  I fit into zumba clothes! Zumba clothes run kinda small, so I was not expecting to be able to fit into them yet.  I bought this outfit as something to work toward.  It is an XL (they go up to XXL).  I'm very happy about being able to wear zumba clothes now, but now I have trouble.  My normal zumba class has been canceled and will probably not resume until June.  With it goes my weight lifting (body pump style) class.  I am annoyed to no end.  The contracting company that pays for the class instructors at the base gym used money that was supposed to be for them to pay for other things (refs for games and such) and now they are out of instructor money until the new contracts start June 1.    We asked the instructor if we could pay her and she said that she was told that if she let us do that she would be breaching her contract.  Excuse me?  They already did that by not paying her, how can they tell her that she can't let us pay her?  I have a place I can go to for zumba, but I will have to pay for classes and it won't be my regular teacher.  I also have the Wii zumba game, but while it is fun, that is really not the same.  Plus, I have no way to replace my weight lifting class. The instructor was sweet enough to give me the CD with the class playlist on it and I can use the weights, but it still won't be the same thing.  I need her!  I'm pissed off and very worried that I will lose some of the progress that I have made.

Running

So I have given up on C25K.  I have not, however, given up on running.  I was hating the C25K and I thought that meant I hated running.  I don't hate running, I just hate being told what to do when it comes to my cardio.  I'm now setting my own goals and just listening to normal music while I orbit the track.  Yesterday I ran all the way around the track for 2 separate laps (laps 2 and 9) in lane 8 which is .2779 mile.  I am running something like half of the time I spend on the track through about lap 10, sometimes I can make it to lap 15 before I am full time walking.  I run 1/4 of the track, then walk 1/4, then run, and so on.  I use the markings on the track to tell me when to run and when to walk.  I will keep working to make it more running and less walking.  I tried C25K several times and never got to the point of being able to complete a lap around the track running.  Just a couple weeks into doing it my own way I can do that.  I am working up to doing a track marathon - that's 94.28 laps in lane 8.  Then eventually, a real marathon.  Then a cute little sticker for my car, lol!

I climbed a mountain!

This is me at the top of Pinnacle Mountain in Little Rock, Arkansas.  

From the top!

A couple years ago I had trouble climbing hills and would have laughed at anyone who suggested I go climb a mountain.  It was terrifying since I am afraid of heights and have vertigo.  However, the challenge was mental, not physical.  Before I don't think I would have been physically capable of doing it.  I did it though, I climbed a friggin mountain, so there!

One of the gorgeous views on the way up the mountain

Gnome House!

It is gorgeous out here!

My husband

Rox on a rock!

Things look tiny from up here

More gorgeousness

But I like off trail!

Climbing

 

My husband in a tree at the top of the mountain.

One of the views from the top.

My husband, Charles, and our friend, Brendon, at the top

Brendon on top of the mountain

Exercise Plan and Weigh In

Ok, so here's what I'm doing:

M,W,F: 

Power Hour - This is 1 hour of weight lifting to the beat of the music.  We use lighter weight than we would use for typical weight lifting because we are doing it to the beat and there are tons of reps.

Zumba - A 1 hour Zumba class which is directly after Power Hour

Tu, Th, Sa:

C25K+ - I am doing the Couch to 5K program (tomorrow is week 3, day 3), but I usually continue on the treadmill after my daily C25K plan is finished until I get to 60 minutes (walking and some running).  I am concentrating on finishing the program this time instead of speed, so right now I am walking at 3mph and running at 4mph

2 days per week:

Personal Trainer - I have hired a personal trainer to teach me how to do weight lifting and other strength training.  This is something I have been wanting to get into, but I didn't want to head into the weight room on my own and end up seriously hurt.  We work out twice a week for an hour at a time.

I am loving my new workout schedule.  I feel strong and energetic.  It is amazing how using energy to exercise gives me more energy.  I am also discovering muscles I had no idea existed and good goddess am I sore sometimes.  I love that too though.  Who would have thought that I would ever enjoy being sore from working out?  Me?  If I were to tell this to the me from a couple years back she would completely laugh in my face!  

I had to buy some lifting gloves for Power Hour since we use a free weight bar and not machines.  I know it is a funny little psychological thing, but putting on those gloves makes me feel like a little strength training beast!  HaHa!  

Now once the scale catches up to all that I am doing, all will be well.  I'm ok with the slowness there though because I have come to a place where I am in it for more than a number on the scale.  Plus, I know that it WILL go down eventually as long as I keep on keepin on.

Current Weigh In:

This mornings weight was 187.4

Ummmm?????

Ok, so I have been really on all month as far as my plan and weight loss work goes.  I have only had one day off from exercise.  I have been doing cardio and strength training.  I even got a personal trainer.  I have had a calorie deficit of 1,000 to 1,500 every single day!  Why then am I 0.2 pound heavier than at the beginning of the month?  Why does the scale keep bouncing around the same couple pounds?  It has actually been since around the middle of last month.  Why? Why? Why?  I know I am doing the right things, why does my scale not cooperate?

I started February at 188.8, today I am 189.  I was 189.4 on January 15, I've been bouncing since then.  What gives?

C25K

So, I have tried the Couch to 5K program before, but never gotten all the way through.  I am pretty sure now that I know why.  I was defining running poorly.  I did not feel I was really running unless I was going fast enough.  Running is a form, not a speed.  I am doing C25K again now, but I am going to force myself to run at 4mph.  I will work on speed later.  Once I can do 20 - 30 minutes at 4mph then I will work on 4.1, then 4.2 and eventually I can run fast, no pressure.

I have these great podcasts that I downloaded here that I am using.  They have a lot better music than some of the ones out there without the cues getting lost in the music like some.

Tomorrow is Week 1, Day 3.  I'm going to be a runner yet!

Buffalo Chicken Spread

I LOVE LOVE LOVE buffalo wings.  They are so incredibly bad for you though.  Today I made myself some "buffalo chicken spread".

4.3 oz. cooked boneless skinless chicken breast (chopped into chunks)
1 Tbsp buffalo sauce (I use Frank's)
1/8 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt (I use Oikos)
1/2 tsp ranch seasoning and salad dressing mix (Hidden Valley)

I put all of that into my magic bullet and turned it on.  I let it go until it was very well blended.  This made 180g of buffalo chicken spread, which for me is 2 servings.  The nutrition info for 1 90g serving is:

Calories - 112
Fat - 2g
Saturated Fat - 1g
Carbohydrate - 2g
Fiber - 0g
Cholesterol - 52mg
Sodium - 349mg
Calcium - 111mg

This is still not a low sodium item by any means, but it is a lot lower than regular buffalo wings.  Blending the sauce into the meat allows you to get the flavor without using so much sauce.  It is also tons healthier in every other way than having buffalo wings.  I put a serving of it on a whole grain sandwich thing with a slice of cheddar and had a side of broccoli with some ranch flavor Wish Bone salad spray for my lunch today.  It was awesome and my lunch totaled out at a tiny 276 calories.

Weigh In Woes

It's Tuesday, so it is my official Body Bugg Weigh In day.  I'm at 190.2.  That is up 2/10 of a pound from last week.  Grrrrrr Period, Grrrrrr salty steak (though you were awesome and pretty much worth it).

Cake!

I learned a new trick.  This idea originally comes from Hungry Girl.  I learned it on 3FC.  You take cake mix and instead of mixing it with the normal items that the directions call for you mix the box of cake mix with 1 can of diet soda.  You can then bake cupcakes so that you have easy portion division.  I tried this for the first time tonight.  I used Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix and diet Code Red Mountain Dew.  This made enough mix for 16 regular size cupcakes of 135 calories each (I used 54g of batter for each).  I suggest using cupcake papers for these because they are so moist they just fall apart.  This would probably not be a good recipe if you were trying to make a cake to decorate or something since it does fall apart.  However, when judging by taste alone this is the BEST red velvet cake I have EVER had!  I didn't use any icing.  It doesn't need it.  It is amazing!  My husband thinks it needs some berries in it.  I'm thinking they'd be better as a side item than IN it.  They aren't really needed, it is awesome as is, but berries are never a bad thing anyhow.