Week 3

Progress! I am currently down a total of 5lbs. Yay! I have to be honest though I didn't work out much this week after I tried HIIT, like almost nothing besides walking around town. Really bad I know and I have tons of excuses but I'm trying to challenge myself in March to really pick things up and get below 200 for my birthday. I have awesome new heels that need a new birthday dress...and I really want to feel good going out with my friends. I'll also try and keep updating more on here about my food habits and more workout routines from the awesome bf. But for now here is the week's progress!

More about Fruit and Veggie Smoothies

After posting this, I got a message from someone saying that after they would think that it'd be really easy to go back to your old diet. And I agree, it would be really difficult. I have to say personally I'm not doing all fruit/veggies for 60 days. I am Irish and Italian people, I refuse to ever give up my beer and pasta, I'd rather be fat and happy-just saying. But I am really focusing on having it less and in more moderation. Changing from creamy pasta sauces to more tomato based, and from regular noodles to whole wheat. I  think moderation is the key to what I'm working on and it's also why I know this weight loss is going to take a lot longer, but I think that will make it easier to keep of and keep my self from bingeing. So I've been having the fruit and veggie smoothies in the morning then my regular meals but still making those healthier. It's been great, I feel a lot better and it has been a lot easier to tell when I'm full.

Another note- I have to warn you because I didn't warn my friend...If you aren't used to having this many fruits and veggies in such a concentrated amount-like the smoothies- they will, uhm, clear out your system. Just a warning. Sorry to get really personal there.

Week 2

Apparently weighing myself today I have gained back two pounds. very discouraging. But I want to get my own scale (not at the gym) so I can have a more consistent reading. However, I have lost two inches off of my biceps, 1 off my calves, half off my hips and 3 off my waist in a week-1 week! I know I tend to fluctuate with my weight more in the beginning while I'm still gaining muscle so I'm not super stressed out about it.

It really bothers me that this says I've only tracked one day lol. It doesn't like it if you don't do it consecutively. I don't track the abs I do at home however and obviously I didn't go once. It's strange. As you can see my graph is a little off now. But not too bad. I can still get this! 

Week 1

One week down. I changed my food and weight tracker to My Plate on Livestrong.com and it's working really well. I decided to go ahead and get the "gold" membership, just because I really want to look at the nutrient values and really track what is going on. I was able to put in measurements for my waist, hips, thighs, neck, and biceps. I'm really hoping to see a change. According to this my color intake should be between 1,149-1,462 calories a day, much different then what I had and what I had been reading. Kind of a restarting but thats fine after really watching my eating habits for a week and I can keep going. I've also decided I will keep tracking what I'm eating personally but instead of posting that here everyday I will once a week with a short update on how I feel about the week. I'll try to post more workouts and recipes as well.
Today is also my first weigh in (meant to be yesterday but I was out of town having an amazing Valentine's day! where I also ate way too much).

4lbs!

Ah yeah baby! That's double the my goal. I'm excited, after two weeks of working out I gained almost 10lbs which was upsetting, but I knew I was building muscle. It's exciting to see that I'm losing weight, and people are starting to comment. I'm really excited for this year and I'm feeling really confident finally. 

Also here is my weekly progress for yall!
*Also, I went from 30 reps to 40 in my circuit today. Feels so good to sweat.

Day 7

I did alright on eating today but I wasn't able to work out. I was working on a Valentine's surprise and getting ready for an early drive to Eugene. But here is my food log for the day, I think I want to start eating more sushi and eggs at home. I'm going to start looking for good recipes to post on here, I'd love if anyone who reads could suggest some! 

Day 6

I added two exercises to my regular circuit. One is for my inner thighs- I lay on my side and do one legged scissor kicks, switch to the other side an repeat. I do another for my glutes- while on my hands and knees, I left one leg back and up as straight and high as possible, then the other side. I do these in sets of 10 following with my ab workout numbers and will increase next week. My lower quads are killing me today, especially above my right inner knee. I think that I may have hurt it playing frisbee yesterday, just twisted it wrong. I was favoring it because my left knee was bothering me from pushing it working out during the morning. I guess it'll get a good rest though since I can't go to the gym tomorrow as well. I'll try and find some more at home workouts I can do and post.

I changed my tracking site-again, I apologize. But here you can track my progress on the lower right side of my blog, and I kept having to go look up food calories on this site anyway. Its much better, My Plate from Livestrong.com. It is the best I've found so far. My calorie goal has also changed to 1500 to try and convince myself to eat better and really push myself. Let's see how this next week goes with this!

Day 5

Thank god I did a hard workout yesterday morning because there was a birthday party. Woo baby. But I still am in the green and that is my goal, I was pretty good about limiting myself on the sweets last night, I just had a few too many fruity drinks but it was worth it. I did go over the calories I wanted to consume, but it's not like I have parties all the time and there's a reason I work out and eat healthier most of the time so I can still go out and have cake with friends and celebrate. I also finally found a way to fit my journal onto the screen so I can screen print. Much easier. 

So when I screen shot this, it tells you a ridiculous amount of information, sorry, but I figure most of you only glance at it any way and It's helpful for me to keep track.

I did 30 minutes on the elliptical in the morning, doesn't sound like much but I really pushed, best time on my mile yet. Then I did my regular ab circuit. I'm starting to be less sore! It's a nice feeling. Also played frisbee for a good hour, workin' on some skills. But really I'm terrible haha. I'd love to play more.

Day 4

I did pretty well today until right now, its girls night which means candy and girly drinks. But otherwise my day wasn't so bad. It would be even better except we forgot the gym closes early so we weren't able to go. Today will be my break day and I'll work extra hard by myself Monday when Karen has class all day.

Kellogg Special K cereal with Berries+Skim Milk 197 calories
Lemon water 48 oz 10 calories
Potato Soup 253 calories
Rice and Stir Fry Veggies 298 calories
Pita chips and pesto 213 calories
Lemonade/Ice Tea/Honey Drink 283 calories
Red Vines 280 calories

No working out, I know terrible, but again I'm using the excuse that it is girl's night.

71 in the green today, at least I'm still in the green!

Day 3

I started out really well today, drank a ton of lemon water this morning, had a good breakfast and my lunch was some potato soup I'd made last week from the freezer. And I was planning on having a salad for dinner but I forgot we were going to a friends so I had stew, which put me over more than I wanted on calories. That and their daughter had made her first cake and was very proud so I had a small piece. Still I did alright and we hit the gym after. Shorter workout today. I did 20 minutes of cardio, still my heart rate is too fast, abdominal machine, lifted some arm weights, and my favorite, adductions and abductions. I just finished my regular ab circuit, 30 reps and I'm pretty sore today. My arms feel good!

Bartlett Pear 58 calories

Lemon Water 15 calories

Pita Chips 46 calories

Potato Soup 169 calories

Apples 2, 95 calories

Beef Stew 540 calories

Sourdough Roll 73 calories

Salad w light Vinagrette 24 calories

Trader Joe's Vanilla Cake 310 calories-not too sure on this+frosting
76 ounces of water, damn baby

I came out with 602 422 calories in the green today. And some very sore shoulders.

After working out I was still hungry, and after 3 cups of chamomile tea I made a light casadilla. I caved but my body isn't used to cutting back so much, and I'm still in the green. Still getting better.

Day 2

The site I was using is already broken, yay! I found another site to keep track but its all weird so instead of a screenshot I'll just type it up. Boy am I lazy.

I did pretty bad today considering that I didn't get up until 12:30, pathetic I know. I still kept under my limit but I really shouldn't have had that much for such a short day. Karen made us some delicious smoothies this afternoon (my morning). Banana, frozen mangos, and coconut milk. We bought some orange juice today so we can use less milk since it has so many calories. We went on a store run today as well and loaded up on a ton of veggies and fruit, super awesome. For dinner I made us veggie melt sandwiches; avocados, tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms and onions, and pepper jack cheese. Also fantastic, but I could've easily just done with half of that sandwich as I'm way too full now and I haven't had nearly enough water today. Also I used white sourdough bread, big slices. It's just the bread that we have and I'd like to use it up before getting more whole wheat.

1 banana 105 calories
1 Banana Mango smoothie 525 calories
Pita chips 137 calories
Veggie Melt Sandwhich 575 calories
Godiva Chocolate 105 calories
Tums 20 calories
Chamomile Tea 0 calories
Apparently I've developed acid reflux after working out-disgusting and uncomfortable.
48 oz of water today-getting better

As for my workout I did my ab circuit before the gym. Then did the stairs for 20 minutes and drenched in sweat, but I'm trying to keep my heart rate lower in the 60-70% range which is so much harder for me than I expected. I though on the stairs especially I'd be able to keep it down but I was still averaging around 150 bpm. Then I switch to the bike for 15 minutes, averaged 140bpm. I think tomorrow I will just do the actual treadmill which i usually hate but walk on an incline to try and get my heart rate between 120-130bpm. I then did 60 abdominals with 65lbs, 40 adductions (personal favorite) with 100 lbs, and 30 pectoral flys with 55lbs. It was pretty good and I'm more sweaty than usual. Nice right?

Karen and I had an extreme craving for fro-yo afterwards but time saved us and everything was closed. Thats a good thing. But I have a feeling we will probably treat ourselves to some soon, it is our favorite to get.

My total calories today

Consumed Calories: 1,467
Burned Calories: 569

This site doesn't show you the calories you burn on your average activities, but it comes up with 802 calories burned today. A bit less than yesterday but we had some calorie loaded sandwiches and smoothies today. I'll change the smoothie tomorrow with orange juice and less coconut milk.

Ab Goal

This week I've been doing an ab circuit that follows:

• 10 crunches
• 10 crunches to the left, left leg on right knee
• 10 crunches to the right, right leg on the left knee
• 10 leg lifts, lift legs held together vertically, lower till just above the ground and repeat-don't let them touch the ground!
• 10 scissor kicks, bring apart legs together until the right overlaps the left, again until the left overlaps the right-this is one kick and again don't let your feet touch the ground
• 10 pushups-a good pushup not only strengthens your arms and legs but if done correctly tightens your stomach. Right now I'm still on my knees not my toes for my pushups but still holding my arms, legs, and stomach tight until I can do a full pushup.

I repeat this 3 times to get 30 of each. It's my goal to do this every morning and every night, and next Tuesday I will start doing it 4x, the week after that 5x and so on. It's my goal not to just lose the weight and get skinny but to be fit and build muscle. For today I've just finished a full triple circuit and will do another after the gym tonight!

The leg lift

Thank you Cosmopolitan for the pics

Day 1

I did pretty well with my calorie goal today, even with a piece of chocolate and a Starbucks mocha. This morning I did 30 minutes of heavy cardio,  I love the elliptical. Karen (who I will mention often since we are gym buddies and roommates) and I were planning on going again tonight but ran out of time went back to the gym, with just 30 minutes till closing, and biked another 7 miles. Booyah, level 15, feel the burn.

Personally I love the idea of a 24 gym so I can workout during my crazy 3am energy burst. But getting enough sleep and a regular pattern is another goal of mine. I'm attaching a screenshot of my food and the calories from my day, it also includes the calories I burned. This site automatically figures the calories you use each day just from typical movement throughout the day on top of your workout you enter. In the negative today, 816 1066 calories burned.