Well, it's been awhile!

I haven't posted in a very, very long time. I thought maybe if I get back to it I'll be more inspired to work out on a regular basis. Oh, I haven't fallen off the wagon, don't worry!

So many things have happened in my life in the
last few years! I called off my wedding, got a new job and moved into a place of my own. I met someone new, fell madly in love and I'm getting married next June! This has both its ups and downs. At first it was great, my new job basically has me walking 6 miles a day on average but the hours are weird and I'm yoo tired to go to the gym as often because of it. The new guy and I were both pretty athletic when we met but it slowly tapered off into eating pizza and watching Netflix with beer every night. This caused me to gain almost 20 pounds in the first year of our relationship! I've recently gotten back on track and have been dieting and have dropped down to..get this...150! That means I've lost a total of 100 pounds since I moved to Texas in 2009. I wasn't keeping track of it at the time but the scale omce actually said 250. I managed to get back down to 220ish when I started this whole thing.

Now, my issue is that okay, I'm 100 pounds down but since this was from diet (and walking) I've lost much of my muscle tone. I need that back! Perhaps this will help motivate me to suck it up after a day at work and hit the gym! And stop drinking so much damn beer. But mostly the gym!

Okay, okay I suck at updating.

I bought a nice, fancy new scale! I was very excited about it. It tells my body fat %, BMI, water % and weight. Once I stepped on it I was no longer excited. Then I was sad. The weight was lower than I expected but the fat % was HIGH. This made me a sad, sad panda.

So, naturally the only solution was to fall off the wagon and eat myself crazy for a week, right? No? Damn, that's what I did. I supposed in comparison to a "normal" person what I ate wasn't so bad. It involved a lot of beer, frozen yogurt and fajitas (not a lot of those, just once). I still felt guilty as hell and kicked it up a notch at the gym. I guess it worked because this week I'm down .5% fat.

I also discovered an interesting show on Netflix called Heavy. I watched one episode right before I went to the gym and just kept thinking about how I not only never want to be that big but also about how I want to help people in that situation. One of the ladies on the show said something interesting. "No one wants a personal trainer who hasn't been fat." It's really true. No one can understand the pain and the actual feeling of being trapped in that body better than someone who has lived it. I hope when I'm done with this journey I can start a new one. One of inspiring people and using my success to show people that it IS possible and it CAN be done with a bit of hard work and dedication. I'm still in that phase now where people look at me skeptically when I say I can train. I'm only about 10 pounds overweight now but it's just enough to make people think twice when I tell them about my weight loss. I feel like if I just man up for a couple of week and eat right 100% of the time and do high intensity workouts I can get there! I can't wait to squeeze my booty into a size 6! :)

Mood: excited
Weight: 155

Weight Watchers and Milestones!

I've started Weight Watchers this week and I've already seen results! I've been having a terrible time counting calories, trying different diets and I finally got sick of it and decided to take a friend's advice and give WW a shot. I know several people who have had huge success on it and it seems far more realistic than anything else. I tried it once before (when I was stick thin) and it was too hard to calculate the calories and points. That was probably 8 years ago and smart phones are awesome. I simply downloaded an app for mine, figured out my daily points (29, adding in 6 for the days I work out and 49 weekly cheat points) and I enter the fat, carbs, fiber and protein from everything I eat and it does it for me! So far, I have had all of my points each day and been full, satisfied and still had tons of energy for my workout (Jillian Michaels is still kicking my ass). I'm saving my 49 points for beer and pizza tomorrow. :)

The best part...I've lost 2 lbs this week!! That puts me at 155, which was my original "healthy" goal. Of course I still would like to get to about 145 but I'm really happy that I finally got to this point. Even when I was thin, I can honestly say this is the healthiest I have ever felt in my life.


I also found that I had progress pictures exactly one year apart! Check it out:

Over the Plateau!

Finally! After being stuck at roughly the same weight and size for several months, I'm over it! The Jillian Michaels workout is awesome, but the diet was really hard to stick to. I'm still following the basic guidelines but I've modified it to suit my schedule and tastes a bit more. I cut out alcohol for the past two weeks and have been watching EVERYTHING that I eat. I guess going this hardcore was what my body needed because it's working!

I am having an issue with exhaustion, however. I don't believe it's the fault of the diet or the workout. Both are incredibly healthy and I was doing fine up until the last few days. It's over 100 degrees here in Dallas constantly and the water starts to taste like dirt when it's so hot. Which sucks because all I drink is water. I've been using a lot of Crystal Light to mask the taste (and bottled water is just wasteful in my opinion). At home it's fine because I have a Brita filter. My problem comes in at work, where I have to pay for bottles of water and tap water is free. I generally drink 10+ glasses of water a day but now it's probably more like 5 (with some Crystal Light). Crystal Light uses aspartame, which is a known diuretic. I think my problems are mainly due to that and the fact that it's 100 FREAKING DEGREES OUTSIDE ALL THE TIME. I'm going to try powering through the taste of worms and dirt to fix this so I can get back to giving my workouts my all!

I also went shopping for some new pants the other day and fit into a size 9 in juniors! I was shocked! That means I'm officially smaller than I was in high school (but not as small as I was in college).

30 Days!

Well, I just got back from vacation in Chicago for two weeks and I feel like an addict that relapsed. There's so much good food up there! I had Portillo's hot dogs, Algonquin Sub Shop subs (the best in the world), Lou Malnati's. Ugh it was all so good! I feel like I've gained 60 lbs. back. In reality, it was maybe half a pound. I managed to exercise a few days while I was there but it rained too much for me to really get a lot in. I walked 9 miles on two different days. It was pretty relaxing, I put on my audio book and took a 9 mile stroll through the woods on a nature trail.

I tried on my wedding dress while I was up there and it fit better than last time I wore it. However, it's not good enough! I want it to be a size smaller so I can feel good and do a size exchange. Sooo the only thing to do is to lose more weight!

I'm going to start the Jillian Michaels "Making the Cut" diet and exercise plan for 30 days. It's designed to help lose the last 10-20 lbs, which is about all I have left. I hope. Of course, I'll reevaluate once I get to my goal (145lbs.) and see how I feel. I'm excited but I think it's really going to suck. No alcohol and no sugar for 30 days. I like alcohol. And sugar. I'll post updates as I go through it and see if I recommend it once I'm done. For now...wish me luck!

Goals, goals, goals!

So many important goals were hit this week! First off, I decided to go shopping for shorts. This in itself is a milestone in my life since I generally refuse to wear them. Not only do I think they are uncomfortable, but they show off my cottage cheese hamhocks a bit too much. Unfortunately, I live in Dallas and it's 120 degrees outside in summer (or feels like it anyway) and I can't get away with jeans much longer. I went to Old Navy and tried on several pairs of shorts (size 10 like my jeans have been) and they fit pretty well. On a whim, I decided to pick up a pair of 8 jeans to see if they fit. When I first started losing weight, my goal was an 8. Lo and behold...they fit. Perfectly. You can imagine that my first instinct was to take a picture.

In addition to that, my trainer and I have decided to start our own independent training business. She has been training me from the time we started working together to be a trainer and now I actually have BUSINESS CARDS. Yeah, it's official. I know what I'm doing and I'm going to get other people in shape. I'll be getting certified in August when the next community college session starts. So, if you live in the Dallas area and would like a personal trainer...here I am! I'm taking clients right away. :D

I'd still like to continue losing weight and size since my weight is still high. It's mostly muscle mass now but I have a bit of fat left that needs to shrink. My NEW goal is a size 6 and around 17% body fat. I know I can do it!

More Advanced Fat Burning Cardio!

Here is what I have been doing the last week, with awesome results!

First, I set the incline to 1% on the treadmill to simulate outdoor difficulty.
5 minute warmup walk
90 seconds of running (moderate pace)
30 seconds of sprinting (as fast as I can maintain)
repeat 10x for a total of 20 minutes
Then, I set the speed to 3.5mph and incline 5%.
Walk 5 minutes 
For the next 25 minutes, I drop the speed by .1 and raise the incline by 1% every 5 minutes

I've been doing this 3x a week, with the stairclimber and elliptical on the fat burner setting the other 2 days.