It's May and I'm starting Bootcamp.

Back in the saddle again. For the last few weeks I have been doing exercise routines that I have made up myself and it seems to be working. I am having a hard time breaking through this plateau though. So this month I will be adding an exercise bootcamp 5 days a week to my already daily routine. Now I workout at 6:30 for an hour come home, make breakfast for me and the kids, get them off to school, straighten up the house and then off to bootcamp for another hour of exercise. It is a lot of cardio and agility exercising; agility is something I do not do on my own. So this should work. We will see.

Still Struggling

I am still struggling with getting my food under control since my vacation. I have been off my eating plan for almost 3 weeks. I have not been on a food binge every day all day  but I definitely have not been eating good choices and I have not been eating my 5-6 meals a day or my normal water intake. Each day I am getting better. I made the mistake of buying some sweet snacks for the kids and I have been eating them too. Thank Goodness they are almost gone. I will not be doing that again! Besides my daughter says she needs to get her eating under control too. We both gained a few pounds over vacation. Needless to say my grocery list this week will not include anything unhealthy!

I knew when I went on vacation my diet would suffer and so I have given myself 3 week to get my weight back to normal and my diet back to normal. I decided on 3 weeks because that is when I will be starting my bootcamp. That can not come at a better time! I am having a hard time staying motivated to go to the gym everyday. I think it is because I blew it my last 2 weeks of my challenge and I gained a few pounds back. I am hoping this will change before or when I start bootcamp.

Well off I go to go do some yard work. I am going to go plant all the flowers I bought yesterday. That is a good workout in it's self!

Have a good day!

Challenge 2

This week started my 2nd challenge. I am having a little bit of a hard time getting motivated this time around. I guess the last week of binge eating really got my mindset out of whack.  The good thing I have continued to workout each day. Instead of using a personal trainer this challenge I have decided to come up with my own routines and change up the program a little bit. I will be doing Upper Body Mon & Thurs, Lower Body and Abs Tues & Friday and Cardio and Abs Wed & Sat.

On Friday I tried my new Lower Body & Ab routine and boy did I feel it Saturday! I am excited to start this new routine in full next week. I have come up with some good exercises to start out with. I will make them even harder each month. Now I just have to get my eating back in check. I have not done horribly but I have had a few more free meals than I should. Good thing I have not gained anything but I have to get back to clean eating before I do gain fat weight.

Happy Sunday all!

Challenge 1

My last week of the challenge has not go as planned. Vacation visiting family & friends and my nutrition is off and my workouts are different. The gyms here are different  than what I'm used to. I have just had to make some adjustments with my routine. But even though my nutrition has been off this week, I did not miss any workouts.

We are having a huge 40th birthday party celebration for me this weekend where I will be able to see some fiends I have not seen since grade school. I am doing my best to make the menu with some healthy choices for myself and others who are trying to make better eating habits too, minus the 100 gourmet cupcakes that will be staring at me.

So, my first challenge, I didn't see as many results as anticipated, but I did see results. I lost scale weight, lost inches and body fat. I am happy with that. Do I wish I would have seen more results? Yes. But that will come starting Monday when I start my second challenge. I figured since this week has been off my normal routine I will count this week as my active rest week between challenges so a 11 week challenge in my C1 and a 12 week in my C2.

My second challenge, I will be including a bootcamp class in my first 4 weeks of my C2. I did this class about a year or so ago and had a blast. I think this will help me break through my plateau and give me the extra push and motivation to get through another challenge and some new workout ideas.

To keep me motivated and to have another goal other than losing weight. I will be signing up for a military challenge with some of my friends from my bootcamp class. A military challenge is like a Warrior Dash. It is a 5k-8k with obstacles and lots of mud throughout the run.  I did this 2 years ago, it was my first marathon ever, and this time I want to demolish my previous finish time.

Challenge 2 here I come!

Happy 40th Birthday to me!

Today is my 40th Birthday. Wow! It sounds funny to say "I'm 40" I'm not freaked out about my age because I feel great and I'm in better shape now, than I ever was. It is only going to get better from here. 

One more week to go! Then another challenge after.

Duh!

OK So I had a Duh moment. I figured out why I was craving all that horrible food like ice cream, greasy foods last week. It is because of that wonderful monthly friend that comes to visit. LOL!

Don't laugh! You see, up until the last couple years I had never experienced PMS before, I never had cramps, bloating, mood swings or food cravings. Over the last couple years I have experience some of these symptoms very randomly and not in any sort of pattern. Sometimes I might get slight cramps and nothing else. Other times I may get cravings and moodiness and most of the time nothing.

So this time I was not relating what was going on to being PMS, until this morning. Too bad it had to come in my last 3 weeks of the program.

I still have the rest of this week and next to get back on track.

Have a great Easter!

Week 11

Today is the beginning of week 11. I did an upper body workout today and I felt I needed to make up for last weeks food disasters. So today I upped all my weights by 5lbs and did a few extra reps when my muscles would let me. It felt good. I also have started taking a new supplement BCAA 2200 for lean muscles and recovery. So now my supplements include BCAA 2200, CLA, Green Tea, L-Carnitine. I may add a potassium supplement. I have noticed I have not been getting enough potassium in my food. I may also change up my meal plan for the last 2 weeks for maximum benefit of this program.

Tough Week

Week 10 was hard for me to stay focused. I know this is the last leg of the challenge but I really had a hard time with my nutrition. I had a few free meals during the week most were not too bad and I had 1 that was wow! I didn't realize how many cals, fat etc that meal had until it was too late. I guess we all have those times. The important thing is to get back on track. One good thing is, I did not miss a workout and I did workout hard each time. I will do better next week, week 11.

Week 10

Today is the beginning of week 10! Since I have upped my calorie intake 100 calories, I am feeling much better and I have lost another pound. It is still very strange for me to get through my head you can eat more and still lose weight (eating clean foods). I am excited for the next 3 weeks. I have almost reached my short term goal of 10lbs and 6% body fat and I know it will probably take me almost another challenge to meet my long term goal of total body fat 19% and scale weight around 110 lbs. I plan on sticking with the program even after I meet my long term goal. I will just move into maintenance mode. 

The next challenge I have decided to not use a trainer. I am comfortable with the equipment at the gym and the different exercises that I want to come up with my own workout routines. This is a huge change for me. A year ago, I was so intimidated with all the machines and didn't know where to start and how to work the machines. I was afraid everyone knew I was new to the gym and they were all laughing at me. Now I am comfortable and realize there are a lot of people there who felt the same way as me. But the funny thing is....no one is even paying attention to anyone else unless, you fall off the treadmill or something then everyone is watching and laughing. But other than that they are all just doing their own thing.

I'm Hungry!

I have noticed over the last week I have been more hungry than normal. I thought it was because of the marathon I ran. But after talking to a few other people, my metabolism is running full speed in this point of my challenge and my body needs more calories. So I am adding about 100 more calories to my diet for a week and go from there. I may need more. But here is my latest meal plan starting now until the end of week 10.

6am- Workout 16oz Water

8am Breakfast-4 egg whites & 1 whole egg scrambled with onion, banana peppers, spinach and a slice of 2% milk   cheese on top. With 2 pieces turkey bacon and a banana. 8oz Water

10-11am Snack- Steel Cut Oats with skim milk, 1/2 scoop whey protein, cinnamon and apples. 8oz Water

1-2pm Lunch- Boneless skinless chicken breast, steamed broccoli and brown rice. 16oz Water


3-4pm Snack- Myoplex Lite Bar. 8oz Water


6-6:30pm Dinner- One of the following with 8-16oz Water
                      Protein Sources: Salmon, Chicken, Ground White Meat Turkey and on occasion Steak or Pork
                      Vegetables Steamed: Broccoli, Green Beans, Cauliflower, Carrots or Asparagus
                      Complex Carb: Brown Rice, Pasta, Beans, on occasion Sweet Potatoes or Red Potatoes

8-8:30pm Snack- Tried Cottage Cheese but I couldn't get myself to eat it daily so I am going back to my Plain Greek Yogurt with walnuts and raisins added. 16oz Water


I will update how this works out next week.

Have a good day!

Second day after.

WOW! Today is day 2 after the race. I really had a hard time moving this morning. Today is cardio day too! So I sucked it up and went to the gym. Why do they have the gym on the second floor? Ugh! LOL! I made it slowly up the stairs and onto the bike. I did 10 min warm up on the bike followed by 10 min walk on the treadmill increasing my speed and inline every min. Then I did some ab exercises and then some good ol' stretching! I am feeling better. The stairs are not my friend today!

I almost took the day off to rest but I decided to go for just a light cardio today and loosen up my muscles some. Tomorrow is lower body! I will be soaking tonight and more stretching before then.

I will see how I feel in the morning. I may do another light warm up for a few min before I start my workout. I am starting a new routine tomorrow too. This should be interesting. :) But I am WOMAN, hear me ROAR! LOL!

Have a good day!

8 Week Measurements

Today I did my measurements and I have lost 5 lbs, 2" total and 2% body fat. I am not sure if this is where I should be at this point. But any loss is a gain in my book!

Starting Week 9!

Ok today is the start of week 9. It was supposed to be a lower body workout but....I think I more than did my share yesterday between lower body and cardio. So, I decided to give my legs a rest from the run yesterday and start with upper body. I am also once again making a change to my meal plan. I am taking out the turkey bacon with my eggs and adding in steel cut oatmeal. I don't like oatmeal but I want to maximize my last four weeks. I also will be adding back in a carb at lunch, taking out carb for dinner and switching to cottage cheese for my last meal. This should do the trick!

My First 1/2 Marathon!!!

A sign I saw towards the end.

Start line of the 1/2 Marathon

8 Mile Marker

Me at the 10 mile marker!

Finish Line!


March 18, 2012 I ran my first 1/2 Marathon! I  was averaging 9 min miles at the half way point. Then from miles 6-8 my knees really started hurting me and by mile 10, they were shot. My time dropped dramatically from that point on. But I finished in 2 hours and 52 min. Not great but not bad! I wasn't last either! I even managed to update Facebook as I was running. Boy! Did I get harassed for that! LOL!  The pics above are from my fb updates!

Race packet pick up

    

I picked up my race packet today!

Got my shirt and sticker ready for the race on Sunday.

Shamrock 1/2 Marathon 2012 here I come!