Those Last Few Pounds

Day 1 - 153 FAB intensity interval run + fast

2012-02-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

So today is going great so far, although it's been rough mentally. I'm feeling lots of annoying emotions that make me want to be mad for dumb reasons...and of course, I want to EAT! It's 3:30...I really want to fast until tomorrow morning but I think I shouldn't for the sake of making sure my milk supply stays intact. 20 1/2 hours fasted now...

Today is GORGEOUS outside so that made my first run a little easier...brought back so many good memories of running last summer! I did a 5 minute powerwalk warmup, then 15 minutes of intervals and then sat down for 5 minutes, then 10 minutes of slow running (that was hard, after the HIIT!) and then slowly walked for 3-4 minutes. It felt great! I'm gonna be sore tomorrow.

I am officially 24 hours free of SUGAR! Yay! I am going to break my fast tonight with a delicious salad and also have a beer for milk supply. Hopefully that'll tide me over til tomorrow.

New Plans & Goals for March 1st

2012-02-02T10:56:00.000-08:00

First, stats:

Weight - 153 pounds
Waist - 36 1/8
Under Pooch - 37 2/8
Butt - 41 2/8
Thigh - 21
Calf - 15 2/8
Bicep - 11 7/8
Chest - 38
Ribcage - 34 2/8

I'm so excited to write all these numbers down! I'm a numbers person and love to watch the numbers go DOWN. My goals by March 1st:

1. My maternity size Small pants (8 underwear) will be too big - they'll fall down so much that it's super annoying and I HAVE to get new pants/underwear.

2. I no longer feel like I have a hangover every morning because I ate too much chocolate and crappy food esp late at night.

3. I feel energetic and rejuvenated, not lethargic.

4. Lose the puffy look.

5. Lose 10 pounds - weigh in at 143 on March 1st.

6. My black sweatshirt feels looser.

Nutrition plan:

ESE on Mondays and Thursdays, doing 36 hours if possible (except a beer)!!
1500 calories on all other days, to make a total of 7800 for the week.
Plant based, no meat, little sugar.

Goals for March 22-April 30

2011-03-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

I was just reading back on my goals for March 2010. It's a little bit depressing that I am in the EXACT SAME PLACE as I was last year at this time! Ugh! But I have seen some new alltime bests in the past year, such as 10 pushups in a row, and a 28.5" waist, and also wearing a size 00/01 jeans and rocking them! As well as, seeing 114 on the scale. I also got to wear that aqua shirt and rocked it as well, with no rolls -- yay!

So here are my goals for April.

1. Reach 110 pounds by doing the Master Cleanse. I just want to see the number on the scale!!! But not to look SKINNY, thin, and gaunt, I want to look lean and strong!

2. Fit back into and actually look good in Bret's favorite jeans of mine, size 1 with the back flap pockets by Tyte.

3. Body fat of 19.0%!! I've never seen that before...and I think I can do that with the cleanse.

4. Maintain consciousness of what I am eating while I am on vacation in Arizona, SO THAT by the end of April I have maintained a weight of 115. We are coming home on the 18th so that means, if I can maintain 115 for the next 12 days I can probably maintain it for-eva!!

5. 3 workouts EVERY SINGLE WEEK. I know I can do this!!! And I mean, starting TO-morrow. I HAVE TO or else I am going to be that skinny lame looking person I don't want to be, at such a low weight.

6. Be able to wear all my fave outfits again - the long dark gray skirt, the stretchy dressy black skirt, the white blouse I wear for rental cooking. In fact, I want that blouse to be TOO BIG in the stomach again. I was there once, I can get there again! And I want my tshirts like the brown Mexico spring break one, not to be uncomfortably too tight around the armpits, bleh. That means I've gained UPPER BACK FAT, ugh ugh ugh!!!

7. I want to be able to feel my pelvic bones again when I lie down on my back.

8. My new black belt, I want to be on the THIRD notch. Currently I am on the very first notch.

9. Waist measurement of, dare I dare to dream? 27.5"! I've seen it once, very briefly 4 months ago, and then never again. I know I am currently over 30"...ugh.

21-Day Master Cleanse Journey starts tomorrow!

2011-03-22T00:02:00.000-07:00

I'm excited! Tomorrow starts a 21-day master cleanse for me. The reason it's 31 days is because in exactly 23 days, we are going to Arizona for five days! I don't have a ton of weight to lose this time, but it's definitely been creeping up there and most of my clothes don't fit like they used to. I am now about 1 full size bigger than my smallest I've ever been. Or at least, I used to wear my size 1 jeans just fine and now I'm getting up there in about a size 3/5. I desperately need to 1) stop the derailing of my weight loss journey and 2) cleanse out all this crap I've been eating. Plus, of course, feel great for our trip!

I plan to be on the Master Cleanse through the end of Monday of the week we leave (we're leaving on Thursday), giving me a solid 2 1/2 days to introduce food back into my system. I plan to do OJ on Tuesday, then soups/salad on Wed, then take it easy on Thursday (probably fast the first half of the day while we're on the plane, etc) and then take it easy the rest of the trip but still enjoy myself.

Some beginning stats, and goals.

Current weight: 129.2 tonight! We'll see what I weigh in the morning. (O.M.G ouch, haven't weighed this much in almost a year!!)
Current BodyFat: 25.1%

Measurements to come later today.

Goals:Weight ~ I would love to reach 110 pounds, which is the ideal, recommended weight for someone who is my height at 5'2". That means a weight loss of 19 pounds which I think is totally doable on the MC for 21 days, since I'm pretty sure a good 3 pounds of it is water weight.

I am planning to settle in at a good solid 115 pounds once all is said and done, meaning once I've gotten food back into my system. Then I will work to lose the last 5 pounds and reach my ideal VI eventually, which for me is a 23" waist being the naturally small person that I am.

Wish me luck tomorrow!!!

PS DH & I are both trying to hit it hard to get in shape and lose those last few pounds before our trip. If I do this for 3 weeks, I get to keep $100 as "reward money" to spend however I like from our tax returns! Yay! And so does he ----- so ---- here's hoping we both reach our goals. =)

Venus Index - 117 and 21.3% BF

2010-11-24T10:44:00.001-08:00

Hello my friends! I haven't gotten on here in a awhile, because I've been busy over at the Venus Index private forum writing on my blog there. I suppose I *could* cut/paste those posts but...nah, too much work. =)

I'll check in here every once in a while though, because it's nice to have references to check back and see the progress and what did/didn't work.

So! I am in love. I found Fitness Black Book a year ago and ever since have been able to catapult my weight loss/fitness journey to places I only ever dreamed of, and most certainly was never able to attain before.

From there, I found The Adonis Index which is a program exclusively for men, but just about everything they had to say rang true for me. For instance, I listened to a podcast from them talking about just how many calories I actually need to lose fast. Turns out, much lower than what most fitness guru's are touting these days.

Listening to that completely changed my view on things, and also led me to Eat Stop Eat, which is the most awesome invention EVER. I truly believe that my progress is about.....80% a result of starting that program. The reason why, is it freed my thinking so that now I am able to skip meals with ease, kind of like I'm navigating through life dodging this meal, and that one - and as a result my calorie count is much lower for the WEEK.

Know what that means? Yep! I get to eat yummy treats quite often, actually! THIS is huge for me. Because it does NOT include cheat days - those became binge days for me and it was extremely hard to stop "cold turkey" for the next 6 days.

Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself. I heard a whisper one day in the early spring of 2010 that Adonis was going to create a workout plan for women. Ooooh I was so excited! I LOVE how the creators, Brad Pilon and John Barban, have 2 rules: eat low calorie and workout regularly. That's it!

They say that everyone has a golden ratio that is determined by their height vs. hips vs. shoulders vs. waist. It's like this triangle shape from shoulders to hips that in conjunction with each other, creates the "perfect" body shape that 99% of women are.

For someone like me, 5'2", the golden measurement for my waist is 23.6". Venus debuted on November 4th and I snatched it up like a child waiting for candy at a phenomenal price of $39.95 - half off.

So - I have now completed 2 weeks and am SOLD. Truly, completely, wonderfully, sold. I LOVE it.

The workouts - I actually look forward to them! That is huge for me, as I was getting into this awful rut where I would dread them so much that it would actually ruin my week.

And cardio! My dear friends, I do not have to do cardio any more. I DO add in one HIIT run usually on the weekends because I love the feeling, I love expanding my lungs and the endorphins. But it is not part of the plan so I get to CHOOSE if I want to or not. LOVE that!!!

So I do a 45 minute workout M/W/F. My allotted calories for each day are 1180 so I get to have a "bank" of 8260 per week. The beauty of it is that I can do ESE one day, and eat only 300 calories for dinner. That means the NEXT day if I want to, I can actually have a normal 1180 day PLUS I can have all the calories (880) that I didn't use up the previous day. Can you say ICE CREAM anyone?!!! With fudge AND peanut butter? And STILL lose weight?

Wooo freakin' hoo!!!!! I am loving it. LOVING it because there is so much freedom! YES it suck to fast but honestly, I am getting so used to it - I just keep busy and also enjoy planning a wonderful dinner and ENJOY it so much.

The other thing I love is that when I have worked hard to fast all day except dinner for the past two days so I can enjoy a night out with DH, I find that I am not wanting to binge. I am really conscious of the calories I am taking in and don't want to ruin my hard work. It is MUCH different than cheating/binging and then the next day determining to "fix" it by being super good, then just kind of losing steam...blah blah blah. That's the story of my life.

The other thing, the TOTAL freedom, is that I can eat however I want. Yesterday I decided to do an OJ cleanse during the day - I'm starting to crave that again, it's this time of year! So I had a huge plate of cooked veggies for dinner, a tiny piece of toast, and a 100-calorie ice cream sandwich. I plan to do the same today - the OJ is so delicious.

I am sticking to vegetarian, I have no desire for meat so that's great! I don't do as much greens as I would like - green smoothies ARE good but there is just so much other food I would rather have than that! I do usually have a big spinach salad every night for dinner though.

Results are in!

123 pounds - 117 pounds
23.2% BF - 21.3% BF
29.6" waist - 28.2" waist

Can't argue with those results - especially the fact that I am eating low calorie AND losing body fat, NOT muscle. Gotta' love it! I'll post 4 week results on here probably as well.

Day 5 - It's Working!!!!

2010-10-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

I am excited to be at this place in my life again. Where my alarm goes off and what makes me jump out of bed is the fact that the scale might just be down because I did GREAT on eating & exercise yesterday!

Sure enough, this morning I weighed in at 120.8 and my body fat registered at 22.9%. I started at 122 lbs and BF of 23.6% so this is GREAT news and awesome progress!

Granted, I believe most of this is water weight - but it's still good to see because anything lower than that is true progress.

Also, my belt was feeling really loose yesterday and I thought maybe it was because I was laying down in bed taking a nap. I could literally take my fist and put it between my stomach and my belt. This morning it still felt loose, but not enough to cinch it up the extra 3/4" to the next loophole - that looked just too tight like a corset or something, lol. So I poked a hole with a kitchen knife and wa-lah, perfection. I love it when my belt gets loose - that is a sign of true progress!

Yesterday was my fasting day and I did pretty well - I am not going to try for perfection this time around, but in GENERAL I did well. No sugar, no dairy, no meat - and no processed food except for 5 Doritoes. No, not perfect but what the heck?? I would have eaten 30 doritoes before, so this is GOOD, my friends!

I woke up from my nap just SUPER hungry - and duh, I know this is part of fasting sometimes (it comes and goes) but I ended up having homemade Rye bread with half an avocado, half a tomato, sprinkled with pepper and a little salt. VERY VERY good compared to previous days when my "snack" would have been a mountain of ice cream topped with peanut butter and chocolate. Yikes!!

For dinner I had a big salad topped with 8 rye bread homemade croutons (basically just the bread soaked in a little EVOO and broiled), then maybe 1/2 cup of herb potatoes and 2 stalks of asparagus. I did not eat ANYTHING ELSE the rest of the night, even though I was so so so sorely tempted to.

I even went into the kitchen thinking to just have like 10 tortilla chips to eat slowly with my movie, but nope! Just didn't appeal to me THAT much, and I am so glad I didn't because the scale this morning was worth it.

So Karen, do you want to "officially" weigh on Wednesday mornings? So that we can track our progress on paper, so to speak - even though I weigh every day just for the fun of it. But the REAL and logged weight/BF% will be registered on Wednesday mornings and put in the sidebar of my blog. I was thinking this might be better than Monday - which IS the day I started, but I think you started on Wednesday, right? Plus, my logic is that since we're having 2 free meals on the weekend, we want all that to be out of our system by the time we officially weigh. LMK what you think.

I haven't gotten my before pictures taken yet. =( I tried to take them myself but the way my camera sits, in order to get the right picture, it keeps falling down before I can get on the other side to let it flash. Maybe one of the kids can take it for me.

Have a great day!!!

PS Just finished my Turbulence Training Female Bodyscuplting workout "A" and I do alternate days of assisted chinups & pullups - reps of 5, done 2x with rest in between. My goal by the end of the 4 weeks of doing this particular program, is to do them ALL unassisted. Today I was able to do one chinup perfectly with NO ASSISTANCE!! I know that might be lame to some of you (lol) but for me it is awesome!! So I did one by myself, then the next 4 with a chair. For the next set of reps I *almost* did the first one but I didn't quite get my chin up to the bar.

So.

Next Wednesday is when I do Chinups again and my goal is to do the first rep unassisted. Goals are SO fun because they keep you motivated - can't wait!1

Day 2 - Christmas Challenge

2010-10-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

I am SO excited to be back! It's been a struggle....but I HAVE maintained these past few months that my blog has been private so I am happy with that. But it's really hard not having any inspiration or a goal to work towards. Like, I worked really hard for summer so I would feel better about myself - and now that fall is here and clothes can hide quite a bit...there's no reason for me to keep on, you know?

So yesterday I realized that Christmas was exactly 2 months away! And I remembered that last year I successfully ate healthy, excercised, AND lost weight all through the Christmas season. I had a goal weight for Christmas and it was fun to try to get there by Christmas - I did it, too! Fun times!

Right now my MAIN goal is to be down to 20% body fat by Christmas Day. And that, my dear friends, is not going to be accomplished by eating all manner of fatty sweets (cookies, cake, donuts, banana bread, ice cream...duh duh duh) like I have been lately.

I'm finding out that a person can very well maintain, but muscle? It's a use it or lose it type of thing. I refuse to become that flabby skinny-fat person that I worked so hard to get rid of.

Today has gone well so far!! And I am really excited too because I have a new challenge partner! My friend Karen B is going to be doing it with me - she is going to lose 10 pounds by Christmas, and I will be losing 3% body fat (since I'm already at my goal weight of 120 pounds and just need to tone up).

This morning I woke up excited to do my workout because I LOOOOOVE doing cardio. I really do. I think it's because I get to crank up my favorite music and I enjoy it so much. I get the hard stuff over with, HIIT for 17 minutes after warming up for 5 minutes. Then, I get to dance! I love it - dance my heart away with 2lb dumbbells in my hands to the beat of whatever songs Pandora chooses to play - I love the anticipation of wondering which of my favorite songs is coming next.

But anyway, after I dropped the kids off at school my motivation kind of went down the drain.

The banana bread was staring me in the face and I was hungry!

But then I thought of Karen who was waiting for me to email her about "the plan" and who I really want to not let down. And I needed to drink water, which helped a ton! I got my workout in and loved it - now I'm done and I love THAT, too. =)

I'm excited to eat CLEAN the rest of the day! My plan so far:

Pre-breakfast: Juice of beets, carrots, and apples.
Breakfast: oatmeal w/blueberries
Lunch: Big Banana Blueberry Apple Green Smoothie OR humongous salad
Dinner: Leftover veggies, humongous salad, and maybe garlic potatoes

Can't wait to weigh tomorrow!!!

Day 1: Beginning of new things...and the End of old things.

2010-10-11T12:24:00.001-07:00

I decided that for now, I am not going to do drastic diets. Meaning drastic plans like all green smoothies, or a rigid exercise plan that is quite frankly, TOO OVERWHELMING for me to continue more than 2-3 days.

I was reading back in this blog to where I successfully started losing weight from my plateau at 140-143 after I had my baby last summer. What, I thought, was it that made it successful for me? Why did I stick to it?

I realized a few things, and a huge one is that I was able to tweak LITTLE things that became habits for me, and were incorporated into my lifestyle FOR MANY MONTHS. Not just a 7-week green smoothie fast, or a hard-core 21-day exercise/diet regime.

I've also seen, and this is hard for me to admit BUT it does need to be faced because it is a reality for me: my spiritual life suffers when I don't maintain discipline in my exercise and diet life. When I "decide" to eat something I shouldn't, and eat alot of it, it's like immediately I get into this mindset of "who cares" and don't want to do ANYTHING. Read: lazy.

So I really want to pick myself up, give myself a good shake, and continue doing the things that CREATE goodness in myself and in my own opinion of myself. Read: discipline.

So what worked for me before? Here it is - and this plan is pretty much exclusively from www.thefitnessblackbook.com where I gleaned the most valuable information I've ever read (and worked!) to get lean and healthy.

M-W-F Strength Training - Fit Yummy Mummy (Or TacFit if I feel like I'm getting bored)
T-TH-S Cardio 15 HIIT + 5 rest + 20 mod
Monday - Fast (to help compensate for extra calories on weekend)
Thursday - Fast (to help compensate for extra calories on weekend)
T-W-F - 1100 calories approx, plant food based.
Weekend - plant food based + 2 cheat meals
Meals eaten approx. 11am - 3pm - 6pm, no food after 7pm unless raw.

Breakfast - usually oatmeal
Lunch - green smoothie (make this in the morning so I can grab & eat on my way to get the kids from school)
Dinner - something deliciously made from plants - NO BREAD!!!!!!!!! It causes bloating!!!!!

So I'm excited about this new plan, going ahead. I am really hoping that by not following a certain plan (that is someone else's and does not work for me) I won't freak out and eat lots and lots of ice cream or something.

I'm looking forward to lots of soups and yummy salads this winter!

TacFit Commando, Day 15

2010-08-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I hit the halfway mark in my first Recruit Mission of TacFit Commando! It was a cool milestone to hit - I only have 13 days left now.

I am at Macleay and have established a nice routine so far, in the 2 days we've been here. I start my workout at 7am, and go in an empty dorm room to do it. Afterwards I go for a nice run around the loop. On my no & low intensity days, I jog 3 1/2 times around the loop, then powerwalk the rest of the day. Moderate and high intensity days, jog 2x around, then powerwalk around.

I LOVE this because it is purely for my own enjoyment and peace of mind that I am going jogging. The crisp morning country air is absolutely glorious - early in the morning with the early sun shining and the sprinklers going on. The grass is so green and the flowers are vibrant - I have used this time to pray for my children one by one, and then for whatever else God brings to mind. It has established a really really nice start to my day and I'm already trying to figure out how I can do this at home too.

The other thing is that when I wake up before the kids do, I can exercise, shower, and get their cereal ready all before they are up. That way when they do wake up, I am refreshed and ready to handle whatever God brings my way for the day. I find that especially here at conference, when I sleep in - it is really hard for me to be warm and good to them in the morning when I am sooooo tired and just want nothing more than to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

As far as TacFit Commando goes, I'm still liking it alot. It fits in really well with my lifestyle and is not so hard that I'm absolutely dreading it. It's so short, yet I find that my heartrate is up and pounding pretty good during the high intensity days. I am definitely feeling stronger and LOVE that - I get such endorphins from feeling lean and strong, and loving the way that I look.

My stomach continues to be a source of annoyance for me, the pooch just is THERE. My upper abs are more defined still, despite not eating so great on and off. Today I am hoping to go to Costco to stock up on watermelon and bananas, continuing to have fruit & salad as the main source of my food.

Self Sabotage

2010-08-03T16:35:00.001-07:00

I'm really going to work on this. I have been working on it alot lately, actually, and doing really well. There have been at least 3 nights in the past week where I really REALLY wanted to go by Roth's and get an apple fritter and sour cream donut. And maybe some chocolate, or ice cream, or CAKE - and just eat my heart out while watching a good movie or reading a magazine.

But I feel like I am really focused right now - I have been able to say no do to watermelon, thank the LORD for watermelon!

Today, though, I saw someone who knows I work out on a regular basis and has told me in the past that I look great - fine - and don't need to lose more weight. That person didn't say a word about the way I look, and I know I look different than when he/she last saw me.

So it got my mind to thinking that maybe that person didn't want to say it, but they think I am too skinny. That I am looking boney.....ugh.

Then of course my next inclination is to give myself permission to EAT UP! So today I did so great, I had watermelon for breakfast and lunch, and then I wanted a snack with my movie so I got a baggie of nacho chips - maybe 10 chips - and was going to enjoy them slowly.

But...they just didn't taste that good. So I gave them to Marie. But I still felt that pull to eat something more...so I had a whole muffin from WinCo, half chocolate and half blueberry. Then alot more chips.

Now I feel gross, literally, and as soon as that junk food hit my system I started kind of flipping out at the kids for dumb things. Like my adrenaline is going and my body is spazzing.

I'm also bummed because I really want to see that 21.6% or lower BF number on the scale tomorrow morning. So I am officially going to work on not self sabotaging myself. I'll still to the plan, which is a YUMMY planned treat on Wednesday night and Saturday night - but not to overdue it. The rest of the days just calmly eat my normal food which consists of alot of watermelons. Hee hee

Wish me luck - tomorrow we head out to Macleay for 12 days - no scale. And it's hard to eat watermelon there because I always eat it in front of the computer while the kids play. But that's OK - I'll still eat it there, just try to anyway.

TacFit Commando, Day 12

2010-08-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

Ooooooh I am so so so close to my alltime low! This morning I weighed in at 117.2 and 21.8% body fat. My alltime low is 116.8 pounds and 21.6% body fat, which was on XFLD. Funny and wierd thing is, my abs are more defined now than they were then??? I wonder what's up with that.

I know if I can be 100% today I will be down just that much further tomorrow. But it's also a fine line - I feel like I'm bordering on being too skinny now. I wanna keep some meat on me, y'know? =)

Review of TacFit

2010-08-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me what I thought of TacFit - she went through XFLD with me. Here's what I wrote to her:

I am LOVING it so so much!!!! Way better than Xtreme Fat Loss for sure, and I am getting much better results too. I followed XFLD to a "T" and was pretty disappointed. Those workouts were long and hard, and so was the eating - really hard for me to adapt to, even the cheat days.

I liken TacFit to XFLD though, because of how different and extreme it is as well. Yet - so simple! So simple that I kind of wonder if it's actually going to work and then poof, there you go - the proof is in the mirror for sure.

Here's the thing - I have had a really hard time with eating. I am on day 11 (I think?) of TacFit and for the first 4 days I had a really hard time staying away from bad food. As in, 2 donuts each day. Yikes! And more .... like chips and stuff. I'd eat maybe 50% plant based, then junk. Ugh.

Anyway, I shaped up and EVEN with eating like that, on day 10 I had lost 3 lbs and went from 22.9% to 22.0% BF. I am stoked about those results, but most of all, that my upper abs are definitely more defined. It's super fun - now I am totally motivated by these results and LOVE the way I'm eating - plant based, mostly raw, except for 1-2 times per week where I eat something yummy for a few hours. Last night I split an order of veggie thai stirfry with brown rice, had a mixed drink, and a donut. Also some crackers.

Oh, and I'm also still doing 24-hour fasting 2x per week - usually it ends up being more like 20 hours, lol, but I just do the best I can.

Anyways, I love the workouts. Two of the days are stretching yoga style, and two days are intense workouts. They last just 30 minutes and are Tabata style doing 6 exercises, 8x each for 20s with a 10s rest in between, and 1 min. rest between each exercise. They KICK MY BUTT but I am concentrating so hard on getting the form right (bodyweight style) that it goes by pretty fast.

The ONLY complaint I have is that ... okay, well 2 complaints. I don't have an interval timer so I need my laptop so I can have the workout running and stop/start when he says to. That is not convenient when, for instance, we're going to summer camp starting tomorrow...and I plan to do my workout in a field early in the morning.

Second complaint - the workouts are SO intense that I have to look inward for strength and the "umph" to keep going that I am NOT able to workout with the kids around. That is a first for me, even with XFLD. So I have to get up early and I HATE DOING THAT! LOL waaaah, poor me. But only the intense workout days - yoga I can do with them around no prob.

So, there you have it. My official "review". ROFL. Ask me again when the first 28-day course is finished and see if I still like it! =)

TacFit Commando, Day 8 - Breakthrough and BEST ABS YET!

2010-07-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

I am soooo excited today!!! NEW GAINS! I have only been doing TacFit for 8 days, and I am definitely feeling STRONGER, more defined, more lubricated/flexible - I LOVE IT!!!!

Interesting too, to see my scores so far. On my moderate/high intensity days my scores have been like this:

Mod Intensity - 36
High Intensity - 39
Mod Intensity - 44
High Intensity - 48

Really fun to see it advancing like that!! "40" is passing the class - I am not allowed to "graduate" to Level B of Recruit until I reach a score of 40. So - yay! When my 28 days are up, I get to go on to level B. Can't wait!

As you know, I've been struggling in the food department BUT slowly but surely, pulling myself up by my bootstraps. It's been just as grueling as ANY workout, I'm telling you. It takes some serious guts to reach deep down into my inner self and just say NO. No. I am not going to eat that. TOO BAD.

So 4 days ago, day 4, I had my last sugar. Two days ago, day 6, I did pretty well, eating plant based except for 1.5 corndogs and a small bag of chips + a sprinkle of parm. cheese. I know, not ideal - but it's a work in progress.

YESTERDAY was the most awesome day yet! I ate mostly watermelon, with the addition of about 2 cups of cherries. Then I made homemade corn tortillas and had maybe 5 of those including one with 1/4 cup of pinto beans. It felt weird eating them like I wasn't eating something authorized but I'm pretty sure it's OK - it's just made out of corn flour and water.

Last night was the main battle - I am so excited that I DID IT! I said no. I was driving with Grace & Jack after getting their haircut; Elmina was babysitting the kids at home.

I talked myself about 90% into stoppping at Roth's and getting an apple fritter, a cream cheese donut, and something else - maybe ice cream, or KitKats. Rachel was going to spend the night at Mom's, and Bret was gone overnight for work.

This scenario creates THE perfect, most ideal setting for happily munching away on junk food and watching a favorite show without interruptions. Probably hands down, one of my most favorite things to do.

BUT GUESS WHAT?!! Because I have said no to sugar, and I'm pretty sure ONLY because of that, I found that I would be JUST AS HAPPY eating watermelon. I am so excited about this, I feel like I've tapped into a real key to keeping cravings and binges at bay.

So that's what I did - I chowed down on watermelon until I was so saturated with natural sugars that I felt like I was on a high - it was SO good and SO fulfilling and SO cool to know I stayed in control.

That means I can do it again!

This morning, my flexed abs were more defined than I have ever seen them. Of course my goal is to have defined abs without having to flex, and I know I will get there at this rate! A really cool thing to see - I wanted to take a picture but my room is not picture ready. =(

I'm excited as well, because I started my period yesterday. Today I am having cramps and I have been more bloated the past few days....but I ALSO weighed in at the exact same as when I started, 119.4 and 22.5% BF. Does that mean my weight/BF will go down in the next few days? Time will tell!

It's going to be really busy - today I am fasting which is nice because I am cramping so don't really feel like eating, and I know I desperately need the calorie deficit to catapult me to the next level.

We are going to Becky & Chad's at 3pm and I haven't seen either of them (or Deb) in a long time. I've sort of been thinking it'd be cool to see if any of them notice a difference in how I look. Then of course, family week starts which means lots of pool time.

I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate tacfit into being at macleay.....hmmmm....

TacFit Commando, Day 7

2010-07-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Did my moderate intensity, hard workout today. Dare I say I am beginning to love it? This is the 3rd time I have done it, and I am truly loving the beginning and end music, for sure. It seemed to fly by today, even when I got up at 6am to do it (couldn't sleep). I really pushed myself with the pushups too.

But my eating is still struggling. Thank GOD I got all the sugar out of the house. I would have scarfed down so much of it by now. But yesterday and I today I had corndogs. -=( So gross, but they are yummy when I'm eating them!

So today I had:

1/2 watermelon
veggie fajitas from Baja fresh with 5 small corn tortillas and a small bag of chips
1 1/2 corn dog

I guess that's not really so bad, huh? But it sure feels like it. Probably just cuz the majority of it was eaten between 4-7pm.

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day and I plan to make corn tortillas and eat my beans with them ... plus lots of watermelon, cherries, and grapes/blueberries. I'm totally craving watermelon again - I should try a mono watermelon day. I totally should!

I can't believe that tomorrow is day 8! But I also know that I'm not really going to be seeing any results until I get my eating under control. I think it is slowly but surely coming around, so hopefully I'll get those 4-pack abs soon enough!

Honestly, part of it is rebellion. I don't want to have to diet, I HATE dieting and I LOVE food. Really, really love it. But obviously can't indulge in my favorite apple fritters and cream cheese bars if I honestly and truly want flat abs. Not to mention the pregnancy skin going away as well as lower body fat.

TacFit Commando, Day 5

2010-07-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today I got up again early to do my workout, no intensity. It was really refreshing and I felt BETTER than I did when I did the workout before. But I think it's because on day 1 last time, I did both day 1 AND day 2's workout. Ha ha!

TOmorrow is a harder workout but not all that hard, not compared to the next day's. OR the next day's.

Eating went well today, I think. I was 100% on my plan - but my plan varied today because I had a date with DH.

I had potato spinach curry for breakfast, from a microwave meal so not THAT good for me, but the ingredients seemed pretty healthy so it was ok in my book. I had 3 bananas for lunch, and then we went to McGrath's for dinner where I had 2 small pieces of bread, 2/3 of a salmon fillet, 3/4 cup of rice pilaf, some green beans, and a small salad. Also a mixed drink. Then we walked downtown and got another drink.

I skipped on dessert, even though we had a $5 off coupon!! Woohoo! I think it was the pool that did it last night, I really felt like my stomach was distended and didn't look like it has before. But also, I weighed 119 this morning! So I've dropped a pound, weird huh?! I would have NEVER thought, by the way I ate the first 3 days of TacFit. That was cool and spurred me on to be 100% today.

I resisted eating chips when I got home just "because I'd already had some "bad" food" and am going to go to bed soon.

Tomorrow definitely going to get some watermelon. I'm finding that with sugar out of my system, watermelon is starting to be appealing again!

TacFit Commando, Day 4

2010-07-24T20:44:00.001-07:00

Wouldn't it be SO cool if TacFit is what I've been searching for, for like, forever? I think I found it with Fit Yummy Mummy, it comes very close to being fun for me PLUS getting results - a new workout every 4 weeks, can't really beat that!

But TacFit is...something different. Something special. I can't quite put my finger on WHY exactly I am so drawn to it, except that I have always admired the physique and capabilities of the action hero babes in movies - and if there ever was a workout for that, this is it. GI Jane, to be exact, is what Scott Sonnan called it.

Anyway, today was day 4 which means the INTENSE part was high. It definitely was harder than yesterday. Partly because I realized my form was not very close to perfect at all - so I had to really concentrate and of course, then it was harder. But also I was sore...but it felt really good to get it done! I got up at 6:30 again to complete it before the garage sale.

Tomorrow is no intensity, which is basically like a yoga type workout. Which I love, because I've wanted to get into yoga for like FOREVER but haven't because I was afraid of my should dislocating. A few of the exercises make me worried that it might but I am taking it REALLY slow and adapting it if I feel like it's just too close to slipping out of joint.

FOOD WAS SPOT ON TODAY~!!!!!!!!! I am so so so happy about this. I can't even tell you. It is a HUGE milestone for me since not one day has gone by that I have been 100% in like, 2 weeks straight. Most of those days were spent seriously binging. As in, eating more than I even wanted or felt comfortable eating just because I wanted to keep on eating - it was YUMMY whatever I was eating.

Today I had 1/3 of a watermelon, 2 separate servings of 1 cup of oatmeal with blueberries & raisins, and about 3 cups of blueberries. Lots of water, but it was also really hot today so I could have definitely had more.

My stomach is SO big. Totally bloated. Ugh. I don't have as much upper ab definition as I did before, for sure, and here we are headed into family week in exactly ONE WEEK.

IF I can keep myself strictly on this plan including fasting on Monday and Thursday, I think I can get back down to where I was in one week. The fact that I was able to say "no" today gives me more power - if I said no today, I certainly can say no again tomorrow!

TacFit Commando, Day 3

2010-07-23T21:57:00.001-07:00

I love how time flies - it's so awesome to be able to say that I am almost done with my first 4-day cycle of being a Recruit! Today was my "moderate" intensity workout - which I'm actually a little bit confused by, because tomorrow is the EXACT same workout but it's labeled "high" intensity.

Maybe it'll be harder because I'm sore? But in the manual he says this is so that I can become more in tune with my body and figure out exactly how to make it moderate vs. high intensity. Hmmmmm. I'm way more comfortable just doing whatever amount of reps they tell me to do! Not used to this more new age type stuff of "listening to your inner whatever".

I was QUITE proud of myself for getting up at 6:30 this morning, despite THREE of the kids (not one of them was the baby, either!) waking me up at least 5 times in the night. I woke up and did my workout - it was challenging but not too hard. I loved it, actually!

Eating wise, ugh. Didn't do so well. I mean, I DID do pretty well - I did fast except for 2 crackers before I stopped myself, and continued on fasting until 6pm. Then I had a big huge serving of watermelon, sooo yummy.

But I made cheese pizza for the kids, something that is really hard for me to resist lately. I ended up having 3 pieces. Waaah! But that's all - I am really proud of myself ALSO, for not having any sugar! Hurray! That is a big victory, really.

Tomorrow I am hoping to continue eating plant based - probably bananas, oatmeal, and watermelon with a salad, maybe, for dinner if my greens are not too bad.

I also wanted to report that I had TONS of energy today. Like wow, I did so so so so much! I was basically on my feet the entire day doing the garage sale from 8-5, with small snatches of sitting down here and there. In the midst of that busy-ness, I managed to clean alot of the garage and sweep it, as well as setting up ALOT of garage sale things, organizing, etc.

Then I came in to the house to face a big fat mess, which is what happens when you leave 7 children to fend for themselves while you're out "playing" garage sale. =) I had lots of fun, I loved it, but I didn't so much love the mess.

But I still had energy to clean the main part of the house - vacuumed, did the dishes/cleaned the kitchen, put away 2 baskets of laundry and folded a load of towels. I sorted a bunch of clothes to sell tomorrow. Now the house looks wonderful, as does the garage. Love that!

TacFit Commando, Day 2

2010-07-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

Today I did not weigh myself - I ate those bagels yesterday so I didn't even want to have that whole thing be an issue.

I did my workout today, and realized that yesterday I actually did a DOUBLE low intensity workout! LOL. I did the no intensity AND the low intensity combined. No wonder it seemed a little longer than the promised 18 min.

So today I just did the low intensity and it was fun. Some of the parts were kind of ho hum, not very hard, but other parts were challenging and I actually had to give up before the timer because my legs were burning SO bad. However, I did do better on some exercises than yesterday, even! So that was cool - but I think it is probably just because I knew the exercises better since I had done them once already, and I knew what to expect.

Tomorrow is my 3rd workout and it is going to be pretty challenging. I am planning to get up at 6:30am to start it, and it'll be nice to do it out in the living room with everyone in the house asleep. As opposed to in my bedroom which is kind of dark, and with interruptions every 5 minutes or so.

Today my eating was not on plan to say the least. Want to know what I ate? Here it is, in a nutshell:

1 small bite of cake - sample in the store
5 mini chocolate covered creme filled donuts - equal to about 2 1/2 normal size
About 3 cups of a tv dinner - curry, potato, spinach, rice
2/3 gallon of peanut butter chocolate ice cream (seriously)
1/2 cup of hot fudge

This is the way I have been eating! For several days - just so so so much sugar, so much fat, so much...it's like I'm determined to sabotage myself.

Very weird. I don't think I've had such a hard time with food in quite a while, like this.

Nonetheless, tomorrow I would LOVE to fast but I'm not going to set myself up for failure. I will fast as normal on Monday.

I am going to plan for moderation, yet GOOD and healthy like I used to eat every single day. Watermelon OR bananas for breakfast, oatmeal for lunch, and salad/potatoes/asparagus for dinner.

The ice cream and hot fudge have been poured into the trash.

New day tomorrow!

TacFit Commando, Day 1

2010-07-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

Start of TacFit Commando.

Weight: 120.6
Body Fat: 22.9%

Upper arm: 10.2"
Bust: 31.8"
Waist: 28.9"
Pooch 32"
Butt: 35.1"
Thighs: 18.2"

My workout today was the low intensity, basically movements that loosen up your body and also stretch it. I can already feel it tonight in my butt and in my back. I'm looking forward to doing it again tomorrow because it's always hardest the first time, and easier the second time.

My eating is suffering. In fact, I have been struggling for quite some time in that area and have eaten 2 donuts + alot of other bad things, sometimes even 3x per week! Yet my measurements remain the same, and my weight too. All I can think of is that my metabolism is revved up, which is a good thing.

Today I ate on plan until 3pm when I had some bagels and that continued until about 9pm. I think I probably had 4 bagels total, including some mozzerella cheese and parmesan. Yesterday I threw away the rest of the chocolate chips and the ice cream so there was absolutely nothing that tempted me. Yet I was practically going crazy tonight trying to find something, ANYTHING, that would curb my chocolate/sugar cravings.

So I suppose my victory today, one that I have not accomplished in the past 5 days, is I did not have any sugar today.

Tomorrow my goal is to fast until 5-6pm, and then eat something previously made or planned, such as a big salad or potatoes or watermelon.

Struggling BUT Not Giving Up!

2010-06-10T10:50:00.001-07:00

My life is taking different turns and I am scaling back the intensity of my focus on abs. It's possible that I might quit blogging altogether but I doubt it - I may not check in every day but when the bug to type hits me, like today, I'll probably do so. =)

Ever since my last post on Tuesday afternoon I have struggled. The green smoothies that I made did not contain enough bananas and I got too hungry - so I ate some cookies, and some other stuff that night. The next day, day 4, was supposed to be a normal eating day and I botched it again by eating LOTS of cookies, chips, etc...in the morning. Then I ate really well from the afternoon on, having some watermelon before bed.

TODAY -- I was so determined to do well! It was fast day. Then I caved and had some watermelon. Then about 8 cookies and some chips.

But now here it is, 11am.

I can say who cares, throw in the towel, and give up.

OR I can continue on doing my fast day for the next 24 hours until breakfast tomorrow. I thought about how I am the type of person who always likes to say, "Tomorrow I will start." So I get this false sense of freedom and go hog wild with food for the rest of the day.

When the next day comes, the hog wild freedom thing is still in my head and it is very hard to come crashing down to reality that yes, THIS is the day I promised to be good.

So I'm breaking through that and starting right NOW - to fast.

I had an awesome kick-butt HIIT session this morning. I got to go running since my darling daughter woke me up at 5:45 and I couldn't go back to sleep. DH was leaving at 8am so I just decided at 6:15 to get up and do my HIIT -- otherwise I would have had to do the HIIT here at home after the kids went to school. Which is fine, but I was kind of dreading the 20 min. cardio afterwards. Just so boring I guess. So that felt GREAT - and I'm not going to give in to feelings of oh man, I botched it.

That's OK. Live and learn, get back on the horse and do it right this time. Eat Stop Eat only requires 2 24hr fasts per week and I can easily do it now, instead.

I'm feeling good about my new outlook on life, my release from being so concentrated on abs. Yes, I would love abs for my vacation in July but at the same time, I don't want my whole life to be about that. I don't want to have a bad day just because I ate some bad food this morning - or because I looked in the mirror and I think my abs are doing nothing.

Trying to remember to just eat clean, live life, and let my workouts work their magic - but not thinking about it 24-7 like surfing blogs, reading emails, and letting myself obsesse about it. My family needs me to be more of a Mom than that.

I plan on clocking in here tonight to say that I DID IT and I am super happy to have persevered. =) C ya then!

12am
I didn't fast. Waaah! I tried though, I really did. But instead I basically went all out and had a MAJOR cheat day. Grrrr. I'm not even feeling the love for tomorrow either - usually after a cheat day I'm like tomorrow I am sooooo doing this!

So, I don't know what tomorrow will bring but I'm not going to feel like a failure, sorry, I'm just not.

In faith I say that tomorrow will be a normal eating day for me with watermelon, oatmeal, and vegan dinner. I also have to prepare for a garage sale on Saturday, ugh. I am SO tempted to not do it, but the kids are looking forward to selling their little things. Oh well, even if it's really lame, at least the kids will remember it.

121.2 + 23.0% - Green Smoothie Day

2010-06-08T08:53:00.001-07:00

9am
Very happy to see a little more progress on my journey! I figure that as long as I stay the same or less, it's great. I mean, even a little gain is fine too, I will probably expect that sometimes, especially after planned indulgence nights. =)

I am really feeling yesterday's workout in my abs, shoulders, and arms. Feels great to be sore, feels like I am ALIVE!! =) I'm looking forward to tomorrow's workout and seeing if it is as challenging as some of yesterday's moves were.

Today is green smoothie day and I must confess that I am not very excited about that. I don't know why, because looking back all I remember about green smoothies is that they make me feel GOOD and they actually ARE good - it's just not something I look forward to like watermelon or oatmeal.

But that combined with today being REST DAY - yay! - makes it a nice day to look forward to. It feels very weird not to have to work out - I don't think I've ever actually "planned" a rest day during the week before. I've taken days off plenty of times, but I always felt kind of guilty and it was always a last minute decision. So it feels good to have it planned.

I'm also excited about the fact that I AM getting so much green smoothies today - it is such an awesome way to get that glow and healthy sheen on your skin. I know because I did it all summer long 2 years ago - one big 64oz green smoothie per day - and I loved the way I looked. It's just hard to get back into that pattern again, I guess.

Today I've decided I'm going to be cleaning alot - which I don't really feel like right now, I'd rather take the time I usually workout to watch a movie, lol - and I know once I get going it's going to be awesome to have a clean house.

I plan to clean both bathrooms, and all 3 bedrooms, as well as keep the house clean and tidy. I have about 2 1/2 hours to get that done, so...better get to work!

12pm
I just wanted to come on here real quick and say that combining a green smoothie day with no workout with a CLEANING day is pure genius!!! I have been so busy this morning, having fun seeing the results of my hard work ---- the 2 bedrooms that our 7 kids reside in are neat and tidy, I love it! Of course deep cleaning is another story, but they look like a normal person's room should now. =)

My point is, though, that I have enjoyed VERY MUCH taking 20 minutes in the morning to make a 140oz green smoothie made of simply spinach, apples, bananas, peaches, and strawberries - and then putting them in the fridge to last me most of the day. Whenever I get hungry I reach for one and drink it down in a few minutes and on I go. Usually when I eat, I sit at the computer and that always distracts me and there goes half an hour.

So I am LOVING the time! And I have tomorrow night's indulgence to look forward to....I still don't know what I'm going to have. I think I may be changing that a bit because I am sort of following Holly Rigby's 3-week transformation and she did NOT eat exclusively supportive fat loss foods (no meat, dairy, sugar, or wheat).

Her PI's were pizza, chocolate pie, cheesecake - eaten in MODERATION but still enjoyed. And by moderation I mean, not 3-4 pieces of cake. Or 13 Oreo's. Or 1/4 gallon of ice cream in one day smothered in peanut butter and fudge each time.

I'm still going to ask her about it, what exactly her guidelines for PI's are - and then I'll start planning. At this point I still feel like like having Thai food with brown rice, stir fried veggies. And then maybe some type of peanut butter chocolate using the all natural peanut butter and maybe agave mixed with raw cocoa to make kind of like a mousse or something. I think the main points of PI's are to 1) give me an "out" from the restrictive diet and 2) let my body know that today is a higher calorie day so it's OK to release the fat; I am not starving.

Gotta' continue on with tidying up the rest of the house now - you know how it goes, it's always that when you spend a good amount of time cleaning something that normally does not get cleaned in your routine, then your routine suffers. LOL! So my kitchen currently needs some help, as does the living & family rooms. They still have jammies and underwear scattered around from the kids getting dressed for school this morning.

Toodles ~!

121.6 + 23.2% BF - 3 Meal Day

2010-06-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

Very excited again today! I am down 2 lbs from yesterday, and 1/2 BF% from yesterday too - which I know isn't accurate, probably just from water weight or whatever, but to see the numbers going down? Is awesome.

I'm excited to be able to have watermelon today, excited to have OATMEAL today, yummo, and then to make a delicious dinner tonight with a yummy salad. I also bought a ton of sugar snap peas yesterday, and will enjoy those with my movie during naptime if it's too cold to lay in the sun.

I'm pretty sore from jogging 1 1/2 miles yesterday after my HIIT at Bush Park. But oh, how I love jogging instead of powerwalking for my mod cardio!!! LOVE it. I could feel my muscles working so much harder, it is NOT as boring, and afterwards, last night, I was pretty sore - same with this morning. I did also do pretty steep hills compared to what I'm used to for HIIT but that's all part of it - I want to push myself HARD during these next 4 weeks.

This feels so right.

So much more right than XFLD did. It didn't feel right either psychologically or in my body to eat so much protein, as well as to pig out SO much during cheat day. Or to workout every single day. It just felt like overkill in that way, because of what I've learned from FYM about how little you really need to workout if your nutrition is in line - and I felt like my nutrition really wasn't. That was frusterating. It felt unnatural to go so long with BM's - and it feels wonderful now to have a BM 2-3 times per day.

I LOVE the idea of 2 cheat meals so that it gives me 2 days per week to have something yummy and out of the ordinary, and not a whole entire day where I feel sick.

I am excited because of Holly at FYM and how she transformed herself so quickly in just 3 weeks using just about the same as what I'm doing - only difference is I'm adding in more cardio, eating only plant based, and doing Eat Stop Eat.

I am facing reluctance to do my workout this morning - I'm tired from a night of being woken up several times from the kids. But I'm going to go for it now, I'll be back later most likely. =)

11pm
Well, today went fantabulous! I don't know where I got this iron will of steel, but I am definitely going to ride THIS wave, once again, while it's here!

Today I ate perfectly on plan. Woohoo! I had 5 cups or so of watermelon for breakfast at about noon - I basically eat until I can feel my body saying "no more".

Then I had maybe...a cup of sugar snap peas at around 2pm, and then at 4pm I had a delicious, very much looked forward to, bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and raisins, cinnamon, honey, and vanilla. I make it with water so it's kind of thick, then eat it like that with no additional liquid - thick and warm and yummy, almost like oatmeal raisin cookie dough. The frozen blueberries melt in the warmth and also help cool it down; just too, too good. And I was pretty full for a while after that! It would have been uncomfortable to eat more, and I only had 3/4 cup (measured uncooked) and 3/4 cup of blueberries.

For dinner I made a mexican casserole which consisted of layers of corn tortillas, refried beans, salsa, corn, green onions, orange/red peppers, cilantro -- served over a bed of about 2 cups of lettuce. I would have allowed myself to have second serving but I was pretty full after eating about 1 cup's worth, not counting the lettuce. I got hungry later while we were watching a movie, made sure to drink lots of water, and had about 2 more cups of sugar snap peas.

I felt wonderful when I fell asleep, enjoying the lack of that full, uncomfortable and gross feeling I've had lately while eating junk food (ice cream, chocolate, cookies) right before bed.

Today my training called for Fit Yummy Mummy's June workout "A" and it is a bodyweight only workout. I enjoyed not having to constantly run back into the garage for different weights - I think it would be perfect for summer conference just to do in dorm room. The end called for side plank to full plank exercises and I did 24 of them - wow, they were hard!

All in all, it was a perfect day on the Summer Conference Fat Blast Program!

Summer Conference 4-Week Fat Blast

2010-06-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

My brand new plan - in the works!

I've struggled to hang in there with the food, and it hasn't been easy this week. I've been spot on with my workouts, but I felt like I needed a direction to go - not just to aimlessly kind of workout, eat healthy. Cheat days, fast days, rest days...it was all kind of just up in the air.

So - I am now officially doing my new plan. I am VERY excited about this, and I really feel like it is *my time*. I have pulled myself out of the slump and am on the verge of really and truly attaining my goal.

What changed?

Well, I got the idea that maybe I could get a vegan personal trainer to train me as if I were going to do a figure & fitness competition. I looked around and found one guy that came highly recommended, for $899/12 weeks!! WOW. Then I found another alternative, a woman, who does vegan training but does not have experience with competing...but who looks awesome and I would love to look like her, so she knows her stuff. $199/12 weeks for her. Which is doable, and I did email asking her if she would maybe do a $66/4 weeks type of payment plan. Haven't heard back yet, though.

After sleeping on it, there was something that was still bothering me. I just don't agree with how trainers push protein so much AND how they push the whole 5-6 meals a day thing. That just doesn't jive with what I have come to believe through many hours of research and studying, as well as my lifestyle. I would have to buy all sorts of vegan protein powders, etc...as well as prepare lots of meals.

So then the golden thought came: why not be my *own* personal trainer? Obviously I've tried to put together a plan for myself before, but I never thought of it as being my own trainer, of really taking time to write it all out, print out the pages and workouts, and basically follow the outline of how XFLD did it - only it would be my OWN plan. What works for ME, and I would answer to myself - and be my own guinea pig.

So I spent all day Saturday working on it, and Sunday I started with day 1. I am SO excited. It gives me direction, and I am 99% positive this is going to be the IT way for me to get those flat abs before, well, Summer Conference! =) Thus, the title: Summer Conference 4-Week Fat Blast.

It's a combination of everything I have learned, both what has worked for me in the past and what I believe will work in the future. I'm adding in 30 minutes of moderate cardio on my 3 weight training days which is kind of what XFLD did too. I am doing 2 days of Eat Stop Eat, and 1 day of green smoothies only. I have 2 planned indulgence meals, but here's the difference: the food I eat will SUPPORT fat loss. Isn't that cool?

Foods to be completely eliminated until I am done with the program are meat, dairy, sugar, and wheat. So the things I can have for my PI meals are Thai food, peanut butter with raw cocoa & agave, most mexican food, more fat than I'm normally allowed (avocado chocolate pudding - YUM!), stuff like that. So I am going to retrain my brain to look forward to THESE things and keep everything else - OUT of my brain.

Yesterday was my fast day, on a Sunday. I found it to be the PERFECT day! I am not as tempted to eat junk when DH is home, and it was also delicious to be able to run at Bush Park doing my HIIT up and down the big hill and then jogging for 20 minutes of mod cardio. It was a challenge to prepare dinner for my family and not be able to eat it, but that was only because I wasn't able to run until dinner time and I wanted to run in a fasted state. My salad was ready for me when I got home and it was really good, mango-strawberry-avocado-onion.

My new plan goes like this (all foods plant based):

Sunday - Eat Stop Eat, HIIT + 20m mod cardio
Monday - 1100 calorie low fat, circuits + 30m mod cardio
Tuesday - Green smoothie day, rest from exercise
Wednesday - 1100 calorie low fat + PI, circuits + 30m cardio
Thursday -Eat Stop Eat, HIIT + 20m mod cardio
Friday - 1100 calorie low fat, circuits + 30m mod cardio
Saturday - 1100 calorie low fat + PI, HIIT + 20m mod cardio

This plan is extremely doable for me, thanks in part to XFLD which made additional cardio seem normal (and fun, like jumping on the trampoline or taking a walk with the kids), and it feels like a breeze NOT to be doing circuits every single day. The days when I have *just* cardio seem so easy, lol. And I get a complete rest day from training - awesome!

Very excited and I am going to stick with this, I just know it.

123.4, 23.7% BF

2010-06-04T09:00:00.001-07:00

Glad to see my weight going down even though I had those cookies and bread yesterday. But I doubt it'll go down again tomorrow, if I give in today. So I'm going to be strong. Only 2% BF and 7 lbs to go until I'm back at my ending XFLD weight!

Today I am fighting tooth and nail to do my workout and to fast until dinner. I took a sleeping pill last night so I could sleep with my toothache and I am definitely still sleepy from that this morning. It's 9am and all I want to do is go lie down and take a nap!

I considered stuffing my face with the rest of the chocolate chip cookies I made yesterday, there's about 5 of them in the container left. Or watermelon. It's not like I'm hungry, it's just that I want to sleep and since I can't (kids are up), I want to eat! And NOT work out.

But I pulled myself up out of bed (where I collapsed after bringing the kids to school) and got out my laptop, and took a look at my workout for today. It's a new one, and pretty easy - at least, only 2 circuits long...probably half the time it usually took me to do my XLFD workouts!

So, I am excited about getting that DONE and then looking forward to my nap this afternoon.

Fasting, I am really determined to do this today. When I am tempted to break my fast and just EAT already, I am going to push myself to hold out just for another hour. Because as each hour goes by it gets easier because dinner is all that much closer!

11am
Going well so far! I am really determined to complete this fast day today. I feel like if I can get over this hump of not being able to fast, once I know I CAN do it, then the rest of the days will be easier.

I'm enjoying regular BM's again! I hated being so constipated on the high protein diet of XFLD. Although I have to say that I really loved the shakes and might incorporate 1 each day into my diet. We'll see...I have so little calories to work with, 1100 per day, that it's hard to give up any one of my meals (watermelon, oatmeal, vegan dinner) for that.

124.8, 24.1% BF - 3 lbs down!

2010-06-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

As a result of not eating after 7pm yesterday combined with eating on plan 2/3 of the day, I was down THREE pounds this morning. I know I can get back down to 120 pretty quickly, especially if I am good today - it's just getting back to that 121.5% body fat that is going to be tough. My goal is to be under 120 lbs and 22% BF by my next official weigh-in on Wednesday.

But doable! I can do this.

Today is my fasting day - but instead I am just going to allow myself all the watermelon I want to have. That way it'll be like a mono watermelon day and hopefully will clean me out and also cut down on the calories.

I really really REALLY don't feel like doing HIIT cardio right now...but I am anyway. off I goooooooooooooooooooo........

5:30pm
Okay, REALITY CHECK.

I can't do watermelon only. It doesn't work like that.

Fasting, for me, has to be F-A-S-T-I-N-G. Not mono meals. Because when I'm fasting, it's that I simply cannot put anything in my mouth. Period. There are no exceptions, and that is how I am able to maintain my will of steel throughout the day.

Today I did fantastic until 3:30 when I ate like, 10 breakfast chocolate chip cookies and 2 slices of homemade white bread. I feel bloated and my stomach is big and stretching my shirt, the one that has been too big for me, for a long time.

So I've decided that I AM going to fast, and it's going to be from right now until tomorrow's dinner. That's just the way it HAS to be. Otherwise I am seriously going to gain all of my weight back, and it'll happen in a FLASH. Like in a matter of 2 weeks I could easily be tipping the scale at 135.

I simply cannot let that happen. Summer Conference for me has been a milestone that I have looked forward to and FOUGHT FOR, ever since November. I wanted to not be embarrassed at the pool - I wanted to feel good about myself and know that I worked hard and here I am finally on this day that has been a goal day for me.

I did do my workout today, I jumped on the trampoline HIIT style for 15 minutes - 1 minute of jumping high and hard, and then 30 seconds of walking around the edge. Then I jumped for 20 more minutes with Jack and Marie, taking turns jumping with them on my back. So I figure I did pretty well with cardio today. It's just the eating that needs to be gotten back into control.

I'll post more when I'm ready for bed after a successful evening.

127 + 25% BF

2010-06-02T10:22:00.000-07:00

I am very optimistic and excited about starting my new plan today! But wow, what a VERY sobering reality check on the scale this morning. I weighed in at 127.8 and 25.1% Body Fat. THAT, my friends, is what SIX DAYS OF EATING CRAP will do to you! Make you gain 11 lbs and 4% body fat, that's what! And I even worked out once and did an HIIT hard run once. Goes to show...diet is KING.

Which also makes me worried about taking vacation sometime down the road - I guess I always assumed I could diet hard and get a killer body and then go on vacation and blow my diet bigtime without losing the physique. Guess not. Oh well - we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to get back down to at least 118 by this time next week if I am 100% on plan. So I'm not that worried...although it was pretty disheartening to see that number on the scale.

Not just that, but also to see the blubber coming right back on my tummy almost immediately. My pants are also tight, throughout the legs and everything. Dang! Guess I have to keep a pretty tight reign on this whole eating thing.

I'm realizing that cheat days are very dangerous for me. I can't do cheat days. Not ever. But I CAN do cheat meals, or even cheat half days - which are find too! I just *always* have to keep the mindset of MODERATION in the back of my mind. The cheat days on XFLD encourage you to binge - but for me, I can't do that and still keep a healthy mindset. I've worked so hard to keep moderation in the picture, I have to never go down that whole binge day route again.

Anyway! I just finished my very first Fit Yummy Mummy workout in a whole month - it was delightful, delicious, and oh, so easy compared to XFLD! But don't get me wrong, it wasn't *easy* - I strained to complete the reps and I can feel the pump definitely now that I'm done. I LOVE this new May workout and am excited to continue it for 4 weeks to see some great results.

But I know that diet is king here. Really. I have an excellent muscle base - all I need, actually. It's just the fat that wants to cover it up that is my enemy. And it comes on so, so quickly. Well, I guess that's what eating half a cake per day will do to you, ROFL. Actually it's not funny. I am not very happy with myself that I did that.

But ah well. Shrug. That's in the past.

Today we are out of watermelon, so my plan is to have juiced OJ for breakfast, oatmeal for lunch, and then salad/potatoes/asparagus for dinner. I think DH might be going out for dinner with Nate so it'll be just me - I might make enough for tomorrow night too.

Tomorrow is HIIT and fasting day - that'll be nice and really help get that body fat/weight down. I'm not even going to say *if* I can do it - I KNOW I can. If I can fast for 36 hours on XFLD then I can DEFINITELY do just 24 hours on Eat Stop Eat!

Looking forward to the future!!!!

10pm
Today I did MUCH better than normal, but not perfect at all either. I did great by eating watermelon for breakfast, oatmeal for lunch, and then when dinner came around I kind of slacked and didn't make anything until 6pm since Bret wasn't coming home for dinner.

I had a delicious dinner planned for myself, and would have LOVED to eat it - but my wisdom tooth started hurting and I had to get the kids their dinner...so by the time I was done with that, theirs looked so good........I had the remains of 2 of the kids' that they didn't want. Basically about 2 cups of lasagna and 4 pieces of garlic bread.

Then I thought WHATEVER who cares and had 2 big pieces of cake and a handful of chocolate chips.

THEN I thought - OMG, no. NO. I am not going to do this. I am not going to just keep on eating because I want to, because who cares, tonight will be a "free" night.

Nope. So I stopped right then and there. And it was still before 7pm! Yay! So that was a victory for me, not to eat after 7pm; that hasn't happened for one whole week.

The Eve of a New Era - & goals for June

2010-05-31T23:46:00.001-07:00

Wednesday starts my new plan - I am excited!! I just have to keep on remembering that DIET IS MOST OF THE WORK. So Wednesday will be my normal watermelon-oatmeal-salad-vegandinner routine, complete with not eating after 7pm. I am excited because I love all those foods and as long as I can resist the munchies during naptime AND after dinner I should be fine!

I will officially weigh every Wednesday and measure every other Wednesday.

I have some goals for June, to be accomplished by July 1st in time for MACLEAY FAMILY WEEK at the pool with all my friends!!!!:

1. Reach 19% body fat (even 19.9% will do!!!)
2. Reach 27" waist (even 27.9" will do!!!)
3. Be able to wear my 2 creme fitted skirts with NO muffin top.
4. Visibly less cellulite on upper back thighs
5. Extra crease under buns - SMOOTHED OUT
6. Upper abs visible 2-pack
7. Wishful thinking: pucker of skin around belly button - smoother. Right now it looks like a shriveled up prune and sags over the top of my belly button (this was 3 months ago but it looks pretty similar still)

Today should be interesting....start of a new era

2010-05-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

121.6 lbs - 23.2% BF this morning.

So during the last 3 weeks I've had to recondition my thinking into the extreme category. Workouts EVERY day, no exceptions, in the morning. It's really really really weird right now to be on the computer and not preparing myself mentally and physically to go do my 55 min. HARD workout.

Part of me wants to go do it.

Part of me feels like, is scared that, if I don't - I'm going to lose all the muscle I've worked so hard to gain. It's a scary feeling. I've worked really hard for this!

Then, there is the food side of it. Last night I let myself have a cheat evening and enjoyed it, even having a big bowl of hot fudge ice cream with peanut butter at 11pm at night! And suffered for it with a bit tummy ache for the next hour, and didn't sleep until 2am, but - that's OK, I thought, hopefully it's out of my system.

Only, it's not.

I find that this morning I am restless and want to have something to look forward to tonight, especially with Rachel gone for the weekend (usually she wants me to do things with her at night) so I have some "free" time. I want to have something yummy to look forward to.

And all of a sudden, it's not enough that I get to eat whatever I want that is plant based. Before I thought this would be heaven. Now that I *can* - all of a sudden I don't want to.

Ha ha - goes to show, it's SO all mental!

But anyway, my plan is to, when I am hungry, indulge in watermelon and continue on throughout the day eating a variation of watermelon, fresh squeezed OJ, fruit green smoothie, and salad with strawberries, mango's, and a little bit of avo.

I only have to remember that I am taking pictures of myself on MONDAY - in order to keep myself on the straight & narrow. I really, really, really want to have "after" pictures to post - so that I can see the results for myself.

My plan today is simple. Wait until I'm hungry (most likely around 10am or so) and then eat mostly raw food today - until 7pm. I'll stop eating then like I normally would before, and if I really get super hungry I'll have something light, like watermelon or OJ.

No counting ANYTHING today - should be nice! Oh, and I'm going to get a movie for tonight, I think, to look forward to and watch while eating my watermelon or delicious fruit green salad.

Extreme Fat Loss Diet Pictures Coming Soon!

2010-05-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow and Sunday I plan on being very careful with what I eat, so that on Monday morning I can take my "after" pictures. I should have taken them yesterday morning before I started my cheat day, but that's okay - I still look pretty much the same. I'm confident that if I eat plant based, low fat I'll be just as ripped as I was yesterday.

That's a great incentive to eat on plan for the next 2 days -- and possibly do my HIIT tomorrow too. This post is just to remind myself. =)

The End of my Extreme Fat Loss Diet Journey

2010-05-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

Well, friends - I am here to say that my time has come. I successfully completed 4 cycles at 20 complete days in the program and I am very proud of my accomplishment! I don't feel like I am quitting early, honestly - I feel like I reached the place where I could say "this has been worth it", rather then quitting in frustration and discust that I had wasted my time & money.

On the contrary, I am EVER SO GRATEFUL for everything I learned and ALL that I accomplished, wow, I feel like it was such a lifechanging turn of events for me. I am going to keep everything I got for this program and DEFINITELY will return to it, with some modifications of course. I most likely will never do the protein again - I will do only plant based if I do it again. To see if the results are the same (I believe they will be) and to see if I lose even more (I think I would).

I will probably do it again, possibly even in July. We have a family vacation the first week in July and then another one for 2 weeks in the beginning of August. So it would be perfect timing to start it the day after our July vacation and continue on until the August vacation. Hmmmm...exciting possibilities!

So for now - today I did the workout, and I fasted until 4pm. That was when I decided that I needed to be done. I just didn't have the desire to continue on - I think part of me feels like I am getting too lean and I am a little afraid of what I look like now.

Who is this new me? Am I happy with how I look? Or am I doomed to nitpick every tiny little imperfection for the rest of my life? How ripped do I want to be, and will I never be satisfied until I attain a look that is completely unrealistic for a normal person (let alone someone with a stretchy looking tummy from 7 kids)? Therefore NEVER becoming satisfied?

Anyway, and regardless of where my journey continues to take me - I am excited because.............tomorrow I get to eat fruit!!! I have two 1/2 big watermelons that have been sitting in my garage just waiting to be eaten. I plan to eat at least one entire watermelon myself tomorrow. Hee hee! And also orange juice...one of my meals will be fresh squeezed OJ.

Oh, how my body has missed fresh juicy sweet fruit! I also have lots of bananas and lots of greens....just begging for a delicious fruit smoothie. Yum. I am anticipating that tomorrow it will be fairly easy to stay on plant based - and hopefully all raw, kind of just to recoup and get better from this sickness, because I have been deprived of it for 3 weeks now.

My plan for a fairly relaxed, yet healthy, Memorial Day weekend:

Saturday - plant based, mostly raw, no eating after 7pm (maybe HIIT run?)
Sunday - plant based, mostly raw, no eating after 7pm
Monday - Eat Stop Eat, fast until DH & I go on a date at about 4pm.

My goal is to maintain my new weight of 116 and 21.6% body fat. I know it's going to be a fight to get back down there, since I had a cheat day yesterday and basically a cheat evening tonight (but did fast today, so that has to count for something, hopefully). But I also know I can do it, especially with ESE and eating plant based, low fat.

Tuesday starts my NEW plan for the rest of June. It also happens to be the 1st of the month - handy, huh?! =)

Mon - ESE + 45 min. circuit training (fityummymummy.com)
Tues - low cal plant based, 15 min HIIT + 20 min. mod cardio
Wed - low cal plant based + 45 min. circuit training
Thurs - ESE + HIIT + mod cardio
Fri - low cal plant based + 45 min. circuit training
Sat - plant based + cheat meal, optional HIIT + mod cardio
Sun - plant based + optional cheat meal - rest day

My goal for June is to stay below 120 lbs and reach 20% body fat - and as always, I work towards a 27" waist. If I can do that, then I will be very happy. I don't want to have to work that hard this summer, that's what all my hard work has been for, so I can feel great and enjoy my summer without being consumed by working out.

If I feel like it, if I want to, I may do another XFLD in July and see if I can't kick that body fat into the 19th percentile. But judging by how my arms look NOW at 21% - I don't really like how skinny they are looking - almost like pure muscle, and that is just too muscular for me. I want to be toned but still have the womanly curves, you know?

That's another thing - my boobs are disappearing and I truly do mean disappearing. My tummy is pretty flat and honestly when I look in the mirror, they are flat as a pancake and look to measure about the same as my stomach does. Only a padded bra makes me look like a female! Truly sad. But - oh well, I've paid a good price; seven sweet souls is a very good price!

Looking forward to the future!

Cycle 5, Day 2 - Fast Day

2010-05-28T10:39:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I just did my whole Lactic Acid #2 workout. YAY ME!! I seriously had my doubts as to whether I would be able to pull it off this morning. Having taken off the past 2 days' workouts because I was sick as a dog, I had scary visions of skipping today's, and then kind of just piddling out the last cycle.

But what really got me to pull myself up by my bootstraps and do this workout is the results I got yesterday. Seeing that I ended up losing 2 lbs and 1/2% body fat in just 5 days EVEN THOUGH I had a humongous cheat day and sodium up the kazoo on shake day which made my weight SIX POUNDS heavier the next day....really was a boost in my confidence on this program.

I keep thinking - okay, so I messed up on that dumb shake day by eating a muffin and a half from Costco (seriously - that is about 800 calories, people!!!!!!!) plus lots of high sodium soup and I still got great results! Great for me, anyway.

What kind of results am I going to get this week?

Because I sure as HECK am going to do it TO THE LETTER as much as I possible can.

But today is especially important and I know that, because it is a big fat burning day. If I can do a workout in the morning AND the HIIT/30m cardio tonight WHILE FASTING I know this could very well be the key to my seeing that 4-pack in 5 more days. I can almost see it when I flex while breathing all the air out of my lungs and tilting my pelvis forward - kind of a fun "sneak peek". =)

It is a relief not to have to eat today, being so sick - that is what I would normally do anyway while being sick to let my body cleanse out the toxins it's trying to - so it's nice to be able to do that today.

One thing I REALLY am excited about, is that I weighed in today at 121 lbs! That is a huge gigantic FIRST for me - I have never weighed that low after a cheat day. To me that just confirms that I HAVE lost weight and I DID see that 116 number on the scale - it's real! So weird. Especially after seeing the 126 lb number after my last cheat day.

Cycle 5, Day 1 - Cheat Day, ALLTIME LOW!!!

2010-05-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

Super super super happy to step on the scale today and see that SURPRISE --- 116.8 pounds and 21.6% body fat!!!! Both of those are alltime lows for me, although the body fat is just .1% lower than my lowest, which was 21.7%. But that was a whole 2 months ago and I haven't been able to get it down that low since.

Yay for the Extreme Fat Loss Diet! Thank you for helping me get back on track!

Today I felt even worse than yesterday, oh man, I felt awful. My head was in a baloon and my nose was under so much pressure and constantly dripping. My eyes felt hot and I felt like I had a fever quite a bit; just wanted to MELT into my bed and close my eyes.

Unfortunately, didn't get much opportunity to do that, though. =) Rachel stayed home half the morning and James stayed home all day - so I did end up skipping my workout. I felt it was for the best, and probably would have done it if I didn't feel so sick.

I did enjoy my cheat day but felt really kind of bad to be eating so badly when I was so sick - it went against every grain of knowledge I've attained these past 4 years on caring for my body and how to get well. Honestly, I have not been this sick in years, which tells me something right there too.

I have never ever been on such a high protein diet for so many consecutive days since I started eating raw. I think my body is just simply rebelling - all calorie deficit, leptin levels, etc aside - my body simply does not like the unhealthy food I am feeding it.

But I'm so stubborn, I don't know - will it be to my detriment? I really want to see what this program will do for me, and sometimes I just want to be like other people, you know? Be like normal bodybuilding people instead of always critiquing things and how healthy they are for me. I know that plant based is healthiest for ME - so it's been really hard to tell myself "no" to watermelon and "no" to fresh squeezed OJ when in the past, these things have been my entire diet for months and months and years - and I have never looked/felt better (as far as HEALTH goes, not fat goes).

Anyway! So today I didn't spend much money on food which was really a relief - I was starting to think that gosh, these cheat days add like $30 a day onto my budget, lol! I kicked around the idea of going to get donuts in the morning but I felt so crappy I just wanted to stay home.

So I enjoyed a nice serving of watermelon in the morning, then had some pistachio nuts, and during the course of the day other things. I had a big bowl of my spicy high-sodium gypsy soup with all the sweet potatoes in it, and 1 1/2 bagels to dip in the juice; yum. I had 2 servings of molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, and then a 3rd later at night with just vanilla ice cream, reese's crumbled on top, fudge, and peanut butter. I had a big bowl of parmesan popcorn.

Oh, and the only thing I actually bought - a large order of Burger King fries w/fry sauce (wasn't that good). I was tempted to get a Whopper w/cheese, no pickle no onion - my FAVORITE in my past life, lol, but really wasn't all THAT hungry and honestly, there were other things I wanted to eat in a little while and I knew that would fill me up for a good long time. And it's a HUGE leap for me to eat meat, I really didn't want to do that especially being sick so - I didn't. Glad I didn't.

I also had 3 or so chocolates....bleh. Being sick really isn't that fun for cheat days - you can't taste things as well, not nearly as well, and your appetite just isn't there much.

Oh well - it served it's purpose.

Cycle 4, Day 5 - Protein Day & I'm sick...ugh

2010-05-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

10am
Yesterday went so well, 100% on plan, I'm so happy with that. I love doing the HIIT kettlebell swings because I can really feel it for the rest of the day and especially when I wake up the next morning. I love that feeling of being sore, I THRIVE on it - because it tells me that I'm changing my body! When I'm not sore it feels like I didn't have a very hard workout. Probably not true, but still - I use it for motivation.

As you know, I've had a trying time in the weight department, even seeing a number as high as 126 before I went to bed one night. It was the combination of a MAJOR cheat day and then all that high sodium soup on my shake day PLUS the chocolate muffin and a half. I've heard that those have like 550 calories EACH in them. Oh man, major goof on my part.

I am happy to say, though, that this morning I am down again to 119.4 and 22.5% body fat. If I am 100% on plan today I should see at least the same numbers as last week, 118 and 22.0% body fat.

On another note, I am horridly sick today! ugh! It started last night at about 7pm and got worse throughout the night, I kept waking up. This morning I am aching and have no energy...feel like my head is in a balloon.

So I made the decision not to do my lactic acid workout today. I'm bummed because I really wanted to do this program to a T until the end - but on the other hand, I feel like I am very strong and muscular enough now, lol - so it's probably okay. But I do realize that the workouts create a very strong cardio workout as well as sweating buckets, getting the heartrate up, etc - so it's my loss. =(

I do plan to do the mod cardio today, though - probably a 30 minute powerwalk will feel good on my cold. I kind of wish I could fast today, or just drink OJ all day or something - but I really want to follow this program to the letter as much as possible through the end. Just to say that I DID IT and here are my results.

10pm
See? 12 hours has gone by, BAM, just like that. Crazy how fast time flies. I tell myself ALL the time that time is going to go by - might as well stay on plan while it flies by instead of making it draaaag by going off plan, lol!

Anyway, I have some cool news. I am starting my good 'ol TOM today. Complete with some cramps, bloating, etc. I've wondered why my stomach seemed depressingly bigger lately, and that is why.

The cool thing is, I stood on the scale tonight and it was at 120 lbs and 22.7% body fat! That means, almost guaranteed, that tomorrow I am going to be back down to 118 and 22.0% body fat OR MAYBE LESS. Who knows??? I can't wait!

I'm thinking about getting up an hour earlier to do my workout before the kids go to school. So that I can eat more, lol. Enjoy the day more - get the kids off to school and know that the whole day stretches before me with no workout to get done. I know I had decided to skip cheat day workouts, but since I skipped today's I really feel like I need to do tomorrow's.

And that's okay - I haven't done Density #1 in a really long time so it should be fun and new for me again.

Problem with that, is that I always weigh and record my body fat, everything - at around 9am after I drop the kids off at school. It is my motivation to strip and change into my workout clothes, after I weigh. But if I do my workout and of course drink lots of water, shower, etc - will that impact the scale?

I know I can weigh before I workout, but the scale is ALWAYS down one more pound if I weigh at 6am and then again at 9am. Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions. Of course I could theoretically do my workout WITHOUT drinking water, but that is kind of like torturing myself for nothing. For what, a number?

So I don't know, I guess we'll see. OR I could just do my workout after I bring the kids to school like normal.

I'll let you know how it turned out! Going to bed now. Toodles!

Cycle 4, Day 4 - Mod Carb Day, NO MORE SOUP!

2010-05-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

I am doing so well today! But I'm a little worried, I just realized that my TOM is coming up on the 28th. That is REALLY bad timing because I have a feeling it's going to mess with my final results!

But I *think* it'll be okay because my plan is this:

May 30 - end of program
June 1 - cheat day
June 2 - fast until dinner
June 3 - low fat 1100 cal. plant based

So I think June 4th will most likely be the day that I actually measure and log in my "end of program" weight. Also because I will have taken a few days off from resistance training and let any swelling go down a bit.

On to the next thing - OMG my weight this morning! It is CRAZY - I weighed in at 23.9% body fat and 122 pounds! What the heck??? There is no way just the muffin would do that.

I'm thinking maybe the soup that I made, with 6 chicken buillion cubes, had way too much sodium. I also included 1.5 tsp of salt and didn't even think about that - I ate about 2/3 of the soup yesterday. Grrrrr. So it must be water retention; no more soup for me! I'm hoping that 36 hours from now, when I weigh in for my cycle 4 results, the water retention will be gone. Here's hoping! I at least want to be where I was before, at 118.2 lbs and 22.0% BF. Anything is better than weighing in MORE than that. Aaack!

Workout went fantastic today, I was running out of time because I procrastinated too long, so I had to do my workout without any breaks. It kicked my butt! My face was so beet red and sweat was trickling down my face. It felt AWESOME especially after my goof up yesterday. Today is ON PLAN, baby! I also did my HIIT by doing 15 lb weights instead of kettle balls, swings. 1 min on, 30 sec off, for 15 min. Ouch in the bum area, but now I'm done for the day and CAN'T WAIT to get tomorrow finished so I can enjoy my last real cheat day of the program on Thursday.

Cycle 4, Day 3 - Shake Day - Darn those chocolate muffins!

2010-05-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

I woke up so hungry and dreaming of the delicious shakes I was going to have today! I went last night to get some almond butter at the store (freshly ground through their machine that you do yourself) to make with my chocolate protein shakes instead of pbutter - I was really looking forward to that.

Only problem is, I can't have those protein + fat shakes until my last two of the day. Waaaah! But that's okay, I really enjoyed having a combination of bananas, strawberries, and blueberries with vanilla protein powder.

I had also made a delicious veggie soup last night in the crockpot - called Gypsy Soup, with a curry theme. It includes sweet potatoes which give it a yummy taste, but I was only planning to spoon out the veggies and maybe have some sweet potatoes for my cheat day. So I had that in between just about every shake and it was delicious!

I got my workout done just fine, and realized that it was the last time I'm ever going to do that particular one on this program. Waaah! Should I be sad or happy? I don't know! It felt weird to think, "Ok, I'm going to mark it down that next time I should try xx pounds instead" and then realize that oh, there's not going to be a next time. Bittersweet.

I also decided to start getting in more greens, since I've had a problem with no bowl movements at all for 2-3 days at a time on this program. I filled the blender with 1.5 cups of water, one stevia scoop, and 3 big handfuls of spinach. It doesn't taste that good, but coming from someone who juiced wheatgrass every morning, it's definitely tolerable and the stevia takes the edge off. I had that twice today.

Around the end of naptime I was hungry and my next shake wasn't for another hour. We still had some chocolate chocolate chunk muffins from the food box on Saturday left (for the kids, of course!) and oh man, they looked so so so so so good. So I threw caution to the wind and had ONE AND A HALF.

OMG can you believe that? I could NOT believe it after I was done. It was really good though. =)

So that kind of threw me into a mood - I was going back and forth. Should I fast the rest of the night? Should I just keep eating junk, as in, oh well I screwed it up for today already? But I kept thinking about how I don't have very many days left, and if I really want to see ANY more results I cannot afford to mess up the 5-day cycle, since that is where the magic lies. So in that way, the strict 5-day plan really helped me stay on track this time. But, what to do? Redo my shake day tomorrow?

I was also TRULY bummed because I had eaten those right before my first, very much anticipated, chocolate peanut butter shake. I knew that if anything, I had definitely gone over my calories for the day already and shouldn't have ANY more food.

But when I get into that mindset it's just way too hard to "Fast" the rest of the day. I had a big shake of greens and water so that helped. Then I jumped on the trampolean with the kids for 30 min. cardio which helped ALOT with being hungry. I also had another bowl of my soup. Then at about 9pm I watched a movie with DD10 and decided to just enjoy one of my PP with peanut butter "shakes" only with no water, more like as a pudding.

It was delicious and I felt okay about the day - I really really didn't want to extend my next free day one more day by redoing the shake day. Went to be at about 11:15, looking forward to my mod cardio day.

Cycle 4, Day 2 - Fast Day

2010-05-25T14:32:00.000-07:00

Today I felt like I had no energy, but when I pushed myself, I did just fine. I did my workout while DH slept and the children kind of just played - but I really don't like working out when they're all here. I guess I better get used to it, though, since school will be out soon.

Anyway, I got dressed to go to church by myself (youth conference) and after that, went shopping for bedding for the master bedroom. I spent a good 2 hours in the mall, ugh, got soooo tired of standing. Plus I kept feeling weak and usually I just chug the water when that happens, but I couldn't since 1) I'd have to pee every 10 min and that is just not doable in a big mall, and 2) I didn't have access to more water anyways.

So I came home at about 3pm feeling quite weary, but determined to get in my HIIT and 30 min. of cardio. However, it was POURING rain, all day, like the drenching buckets of rain type. I just didn't have the heart to go running. Not in a cold, raining drenched way.

I also didn't want to do HIIT with all the kids, THAT is pretty much impossible because I can't stop very well when I'm breathing so hard, to take care of their needs (teasing, wiping bottoms, food needs, etc). I can do it during naptime, but naptime was over.

So I went to Bush Park where DH always runs and had a really good workout running up the stairs of the bleachers and walking back down. I did it in 15 minutes, 62 stairs up then down, about 14 times. It was a great workout and I loved that I was working my butt, but it didn't make me breath as hard as when I sprint. That's OK though, I love keeping my body guessing.

After that I went on a 30 minute powerwalk, through the gorgeous paths they have there in the park. It truly was a glorious experience (and didn't rain on me once, yay!) and I will definitely be going back there especially when our nice weather days begin.

Funny thing, an older man walking his dog said as I was passing him, "Don't tell me you got that fit just by powerwalking, cuz I ain't buyin' it!" I laughed and told him no, I'd just finished running up & down the stairs over there, then kept on walking. It was cool though, to get that feedback from a stranger.

When I got home the house badly needed a mom/wife's touch - so I spent the next three hours STRAIGHT cleaning and making meals, putting kids to bed, etc. Wow, I was sooo tired and felt so weak but I just kept pressing on and got alot done. DH commented that my walk must've done me some good - lol - but honestly it just felt like I was forcing myself to do what had to be done and I didn't dare sit down or I would collapse.

I slept really well that night!

Cycle 4, Day 1 - Cheat Day & overdid it.

2010-05-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

This was a WONDERFUL day, super fun except for the fact that I basically felt sick all. day. long. I went in the morning to get a fresh baked donut at Roth's and....couldn't choose! So I bought 3 of my favorite kinds: cream cheese bar, apple fritter, and bulgarian cream.

I wasn't intending to eat them all, I PROMISE you!! I was thinking that I would cut them in half and share them with the kids, like little bit sized pieces. Oh how they would love it and it would be so fun!

And then, I came home and sat down at the computer and pulled out my first one: cream cheese. Still warm, doughy, just absolutely melt in your mouth GOOD. I could not, and did not want to in the least, stop eating it. LOL.

Of course I was not full after one donut. So I pulled out the bulgarian cream and ooooooh it was super good too! I ate it in one delicious finger licking minute.

I was feeling a bit ... well, kind of weird at this point. Major sugar coming into the bloodstream for one, and two donuts does make the tummy a little full esp. after the protein depletion day. So I decided to have just half of the apple fritter - and gosh, those things are HEAVY! Crazy.

Anyway, yeah, you guessed it - I ate the whole thing.

Now the problem is, I had bought a TON of stuff the previous night at Walmart for my cheat day. I hadn't really counted on having those donuts.

So after about an hour, I ate some more food and proceeded to basically eat carbs, fat, and sugar for the rest of the day. I had one bean & cheese (big) burrito, and I had spinach dip with chips, and then also a small bowl of something else that was healthy-ish and resembled a normal meal, but other than that it was all-out bingeness. Wow. I made brownies and ate a bunch of them. I made a concoction of a chocolate molten cake with dripping hot fudge and Snickers ice cream (super good, but need plain vanilla next time; too sweet). I had 2-3 chocolates. I had a chocolate chip muffin.

I skipped my workout today and felt that this was okay - it was my second skipped workout in the program so not too bad, really, I don't think. And I read that Craig Ballantyne advises to take one day off every 5 days, so I didn't feel too bad. Plus, cheat day is way more fun without having to workout!

I paid for this day, though. Three separate times I woke up drenched in sweat and feeling like surely I was going to throw up. I ran to the bathroom and sat there in the dark, alternating between sitting on the toilet because I felt like I was going to explode (never did ANY movement, so weird!) and kneeling before the toilet gagging as I almost puked.

THREE. SEPARATE. TIMES.

Talk about tweaking my Leptin levels! Geez.

So I have a plan for my next cheat day. It is my very last official one on the program, isn't that sad?

Anyway, I still plan to eat whatever I want, but this time I am not going to go shopping beforehand. I still have some yummy things I'm keeping for my next cheat day on hand, but I'm just going to go with the flow and enjoy a relaxing day of fun eating instead of feeling like I have to get in ALL the things I've been craving. You know? I just plain had too much sugary stuff, too.

I am also debating whether to workout or not. It's going to be on a Thursday, which is the ideal day for me to workout since my kids are in school, NOT on a Saturday like my last 2 cheat days have been. So - hmmm. Guess we'll see how it goes.

Life after XFLD

2010-05-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

IS there life after Extreme Fat Loss Diet? J/K - but it sure does seem like I'm wrapped up in this, though! One thing is for sure, ANYTHING I eat after this diet is going to taste absolutely delicious and feel like cheating! Same goes for the workouts, I will never complain about a workout being too hard again. I don't think anything can beat the intensity of this Extreme program.

I thought I'd write down my plan so I don't have like a million cheat days in a row afterwards and ruin all my hard work (yes it has happened before!!):

My plan is to have a cheat day on day 26 which will be Tuesday the 1st of June, (but with no workout) since I am going to need that to help me get through that last cycle. Also, the leptin levels will need to be brought up again so my body is primed to lose. And, of course to celebrate!! I did it!!! (10 days to go!)

The next day, Wednesday, I will fast just like I do on XFLD because I think that is a great way to get rid of alot of the toxins, overload, etc. I also plan on doing an HIIT session for 15 min + 20 minutes of moderate cardio to help things move and encourage fat loss. But no circuit training.

Then I will continue to eat mostly fruits & veggies, plant based cooked for dinner perhaps - wayyyyy less protein than I've been having. I am going to definitely go back to no overt protein after this. It is my firm believe that I get enough protein in the food that I eat (especially fresh fruit & veggies), much less than is believed to be needed to maintain muscle. Whew! I'll be glad to get off the whole protein regime for sure.

I am going to give my body a good rest from the hard workouts, but continue with HIIT - so I'll do something like this:

Tuesday - cheat day
Wednesday - fast day + HIIT and mod cardio
Thurs - plant based, mostly fruit & salads (watermelon!!!!!!!)
Fri - plant based, mostly fruit & salads

Saturday will begin my plan as outlined below. That gives me a good solid 6 days of rest from direct circuit training. I'm looking forward to it!

I will be mostly at maintenance after the XFLD so will most likely go back to what I was doing that worked well:

Mon - ESE + 45 min. circuit training (fityummymummy.com)
Tues - low cal plant based, HIIT + mod cardio
Wed - low cal plant based + 45 min. circuit training
Thurs - ESE + HIIT + mod cardio
Fri - low cal plant based + 45 min. circuit training
Sat - plant based + cheat meal, optional HIIT + mod cardio
Sat - plant based + optional cheat meal - rest day

I plan on eating lots of fresh fruits & veggies this summer!! I may possibly do one more round of XFLD after 4 weeks - I really want to see that 4-pack.
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Cycle 3, Day 5 - Protein Day

2010-05-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

8:40am
It's wonderful to be able to say that this is day FIFTEEN - wow, I can hardly believe it. And tomorrow is the most looked forward to, most treasured, most coveted CHEAT DAY. I hate that word, lol, it should be called FREE DAY in my opinion. I like that so much better!

Weighed in once again at 118.4 and 22.2% body fat, on the nose. Which is cool considering the fact that I had alot of food yesterday and NO bowel movements! I have to say I'm excited to go on a mostly raw fruit cleanse when I'm done with this program just to get all this heavy food out of my system that my body is not used to. Being mostly raw and then plant based for the past 4 years - I'm not used to this heavier, dense feeling in my stomach/body all the time. Fast days are really nice for that reason.

One thing is strange, my measurements haven't moved really. Just a tiny "maybe" increment here or there. My main desire is for my waist to go down, since that is my problem area from having seven full term pregnancies in 10 years. It seems that I am able to get down to about 28.5" when I eat clean for a good 4 days or more, but as soon as I eat junk (even on cheat day) I go back to 30". It bounces back and forth that way over and over, never getting down further than 28.5". I would love to see 27.0" at the end of this challenge but I really kind of doubt it since nothing has moved so far? But maybe the fat shift mostly happens at the end, I don't know.

So apparently my knee is fussing at me. I tweaked it somehow about 5 days ago on the trampolean - I have a history of dislocating my knee (but like 15 years ago) so it is weaker, but I haven't had problems with it in years. And, haven't jumped on a trampolean in years. =)

It seemed to be okay though, and then I jumped again - and then yesterday I decided to do dumbbell swings for my HIIT cardio. I loved it! Really loved it, and can feel my bum is sore today. Only thing is, it requires bending down almost into a squat position (which never burned for me, how can that be? I must have done like 200 squats with a 15 lb weight! Must've been the swinging that made it easier, more natural and fluid-like of a motion) quickly. My knee REALLY didn't like that.

So there was some actual pain, which increased and of course I'm that dumb determined person who fights through the pain. Anyway, it got worse about halfway through, and then bam, was gone. Weird, huh? It was stiff throughout the day, then I cleaned my kids' room on my hands and knees digging around for stuff under their bed, sorting the shoes, etc - and after that it was really tender. I iced it last night 20 min on/20 min off 3x while watching The Traveler's Wife (weird movie) and this morning again I really don't know how my workout is going to go.

I'm doing the Lactic Acid Workout #1 which includes these potentially problematic exercises:

Overhead Bulgarian Split Squat (I think I hate these with every fibre of my being!)
Depth Jumps to Jump Squats
Mountain Jumpers
Bodyweight Squat

We'll see. I'm wondering what to do for mod cardio today? Normally I would jump on the trampolean but it's raining and I'm concerned for my knee. It's fine if I do it alone but with the kids jumping it's easy to tweak it because I can never brace for a jump coming from them. Maybe powerwalking....

4PM
My knee did absolutely stellar during the workout! I was so glad, I was worried about it. It still kind of aches and there is one place where if I touch it, it's tender - so weird. So apparently I won't be doing anymore kettle swings anytime soon, but that's ok - I have other ways to get my HIIT done. I've been thinking that maybe it'd be fun to go to a school with bleachers on Sunday to do my HIIT. Run up, walk down for 15 minutes.

Today I am feeling really weak and lethargic. Like my body is just begging me to go lay down. When I get up to go do something I am really sore and every part of me feels achy. I know I'm not getting sick, it's not in my head at all, thankfully. It would really be awful to have a cold (and not taste? horrors!) for my cheat day! But it's more like I need to start cleaning the house and getting dinner on and I have no desire to. My legs feel like they've had the workout of the year, like they're still shaky and trembling 6 hours after my workout.

I guess that's a good thing?

Anyway, all day I've been dreaming of all the things I am going to have tomorrow. I'm still debating whether I want to do a workout or not. We're going to a parade tomorrow that starts at 10:30 and my friend is going to pick up a couple of the kids early to go save a place for us. But that still means I'll have 5 little ones to get ready and get there by that time - including a workout and shower. And it's supposed to be my day to sleep in...waaaah!

Yeah, looking it over - Density Workout #2 - I think I will go ahead and do it. Besides, I'll feel like I really and truly earned the cheat day that way.

There's just 2 circuits for each workout set, 3 workout sets total. The exercises themselves are not that hard - and I haven't done them in a long time since my last cheat day I did Density Workout #1. It'll be interesting to see if I can beat my weights on any of the exercises. So basically if I get up at 7:30am to enjoy a yummy breakfast (which means I get to sleep in for a half hour longer than normal) I will be done by 9:00pm (giving myself a little extra time for kiddo interruptions, since they'll all be home as opposed to normally being in school when I workout).

So for tomorrow! I think I will have the following:

Breakfast - definitely will run to Roth's and get a fresh cream cheese donut and an apple fritter, and then

Other things I really want to eat: ice cream with peanut butter, peanut butter m&m's, triple chocolate chunk brownies (make a batch), and I'll add more as I think of it.

Cycle 3, Day 4 - Mod Carb Day, NEW RESULTS!!

2010-05-20T08:54:00.001-07:00

If there ever was a perfect day on this diet, it was yesterday. I had decided to redo shake day and mod carb day, since I botched it pretty good with the diet on those days. I am VERY happy with my decision still - although I have to admit that a part of me wistfully wishes I'd kept on plan so that TODAY could be my cheat day like it was supposed to be. Waaah! Poor me. =)

But anyway, yesterday was shake day and I did my workout perfectly while listening to the audio question/answer session that occured on Tuesday (available only for those who purchased on the first day XFLD came out). That was a nice, different way to do it since I usually have blaring music. The quiet was actually nice!

All day I was 100% on target with my shakes - I made 3 strawberry banana vanilla protein powder shakes and used lots of ice, kind of thick, and ate it in a bowl like mousse. Yum! I froze my peanut butter chocolate shake for the 4th shake and ate it like ice cream - not as good as I thought. For my last shake, and this was SCRUMPTIOUS, I mixed in about 2T. of cold water with one scoop of chocolate PP and 2.5 T. of natural peanut butter. Very thick, like pancake batter and it took me a while to eat. Oh, was that ever delicious! Totally perfect way to end the day.

Then I still had my 30 minute mod cardio to do, so I jumped on our 10' trampolean with DD10. It was fun, and a great way to spend time with her - she loved it and was so open and friendly after that instead of her usual moody/disrespectful self. I'm thinking this will be done much more often and it works perfectly with the program - AND I don't have to wait for DH to be home which is an added bonus (usually he watches the kids while I go for a powerwalk).

So - want to hear the awesome, WAY cool results for today? My previous stats were 120 and 22.7% body fat - I seemed to be stuck at that number, even to the point of getting to 120.ZERO for crying out loud!

Well today, they moved! I am officially at 22.2% body fat and 118.4 pounds! Yay! Now, for all intents and purposes - I have never been lower than 118 (well, since before I got married and never even thought or cared about it - those were the days, lol!). And I have never been lower than 21.7% body fat.

My goal with this program is to get to 18% body fat. I don't care what I weigh at all, unless of course it dips down to like 105 or something really low like that - I don't want to look like a skeleton. But I doubt I will, since this program packs on some extreme muscle - it's awesome!

Flavia mentioned in the audio that at around the end of the 2nd cycle they started seeing some great results and that kept them going. For me, I didn't see that. So I suppose it's far to say that for me, results that made me HAPPY started around the mid-end of cycle 3.

I'm off to do my dynamic workout, but first, a delicious bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and chocolate protein powder while I read up on the newest activity on XFLD Facebook Wall. Yum & Fun!

Cycle 3, Day 3 - Shake Day, Doing a few days over...

2010-05-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

Weigh in - 121.0, 23.4% BF

Someone on the wall at Facebook said that if you mess up a day, to redo it. That makes total sense to me because like right now, I ate alot of cheat stuff last night and feel like having another full-blown cheat day tomorrow would be wrong. I don't feel like I earned it, and thus wouldn't enjoy it much (wondering all day if it was going to pile on the pounds since I'd basically had two cheat days in the 5-day cycle).

So I decided that since I messed up on shake day AND mod carb day, I am going to redo my shake day. Complete with workouts and everything. Which is fine cuz I actually skipped my workout on shake day - so I haven't done that particular workout recently. So my new cheat day will be on Saturday which I'm a little bummed about because I really wanted to have my cheat day during the week (stay at home mom, I get to eat all day, fun!) but that's OKAY! It's not about cheat days, it's about results. And now I am going to work hard to get results.

That also gives me two more days on the program which I'm happy about - I was feeling a bit sad today because I only have 10 more days left in the program and haven't seen much in the way of results. So now I have 12 after today - much better. My last day will also now be June 1st! Which is cool because that was my goal to get down to 18% body fat. At the rate I'm going I won't reach it, but I have full faith that things will/can accelerate if I work hard on the program.

Bum Thoughts...

2010-05-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

I just had to share that, I am happy to report that my goal of lifting and reshaping my bum has just about been realized. It's been one of those things I've always wanted, to have a bubble butt as they call it - something my genetics don't really lend themselves to.

I am proud to say that after 6 months of working hard 3x per week on FitYummyMummy, Turbulence Training, and Xtreme Fat Loss Diet workouts (all circuit, I might add!) I am finally realizing my dream! Yay! I had no idea it would take this long, but there is a definite change and for that I am super happy about.

The only thing is, my pants fit me weird. Ha ha! Go figure. I have a pair of shorts that I wore 2 summers ago when I was at my thinnest, before I got pregnant with baby #7 who is now 10 months old. I remember they fit great, but were maybe a tad bit loose in the butt.

Now those same shorts are too loose in the waist, but are too tight in the bum! Isn't that funny? My bum definitely has a lift at the top, so there is this nice tight wedgie thing going on in the back of my shorts. Hee hee! Then I bought a cute pair of Unionbay capris yesterday size 3, that fit like a glove. But when I wore them in front of the mirror at home, I could see it again plain as day: the wedgie. Same with my jeans, they fit really well but it's like they're too tight in the back.

Good grief! I never though I'd have that problem! Hopefully not all bottoms are made equal and I can find a pair of a brand of shorts/capris/jeans that will fit okay. Or maybe I just need to go a size up? I don't know. But just thought I'd share - oh, the joys of reshaping the physique! LOL

Cycle 3, Day 4 - Mod Carb Day, The Scale MOVED!!

2010-05-18T08:35:00.001-07:00

8am
I was so, SO excited last night to step on the scale and see that it read 120.8!!! Never have I seen that at night - because I know in the morning it'll be down. Considering the fact that yesterday morning I weighed in at 120.2 AND had chips, chocolate, and ice cream.....I was completely shocked.

So of course I jumped out of bed this morning, eager to weigh and sure enough - 119.2 and 22.3% body fat. Woooohoooo! I have been stuck at that 120 number for 2 cycles, and the body fat hasn't budged past 22.7% for a long time. I'm excited, and just hope that I can keep it there until my official weigh-in day on Thursday.

I'm off to eat some pre-workout watermelon and will start my dynamic #1 workout.

8pm
Today has been so up and down. I wish it had gone well, but argh! I am having a hard time going back and forth between what worked for me BEFORE (plant based, NO overt protein) and NOW (tons and tons of protein, way way more than I'm used to and not very much results).

So I had watermelon until noon, then some chips, and then sat down and calculated it all out: I had used up ALL my carbs for the day, and for the rest of the day I could only have 3 small protein shakes with peanut butter. Ugh. The part of me that HATES being put in a box screamed out at that - NO FAIR!!! So I proceeded to, yes, have a shake and then about 6pm decided the heck with it. I skipped my HIIT workout AND proceeded to have alot of mini m&m's, 1.5 cups of diced herbed potatoes, and a bowl of ice cream with peanut butter.

I was embarrassed afterwards, still am, and thinking why do I do this to myself? Why even vary on this plan? Why not just go with it ONE HUNDRED PERCENT as it is written, even though I think I know more about this or that than the author as far as nutrition for ME goes - who cares? Just do it as it's written, for crying out loud.

So that is going to be my goal now. For the next 10 days, and yep - I ONLY have ten days left, I am really sad about this, I am going to go full speed 100% as it is written.

I'm left in a quandry as to what to do about my cheat day, just 2 days from now. I had some bad stuff yesterday, and now today (even more) and ..... ??? But I think the smart thing for me to do is just continue on as planned. And perhaps tone it down if I can without feeling restricted, on cheat day. Tomorrow is protein depletion day and I plan to give it my all.

Cycle 3, Day 3 - Shake Day, I messed up

2010-05-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

First, the scale reported at 120.TWO this morning and 22.7% BF. I've never seen a weight that low - it is soooo close to the one hundred teens! I honestly don't know what my "goal" weight is - I guess my body fat will decide that. All I can go with is how I look, and reportedly my abs will show when my body fat is low enough. I know that Flavia who is my heigth at 5'2" was 114 when she started (!!!) and ended at 108. Those numbers are so tiny for a girl like me who has been in the 150 range pretty much all of her life. I'm still kind of shocked that I'm staying at 120, crazy!

I decided, after my last post, to continue on. The part of wondering if maybe the last part of this will be magical for me made me decide to. I remember when I was doing Body For Life, way back when, and it was a 12 week program. Of course you immediately want to see results, so by 4 weeks I was getting quite discouraged. Not much in the way of progress except obviously toning UNDER the layer of flab!

Then I reached weeks 6, 7. Some obvious change, but nothing like others had seen! So frustrating! But then....I was told, just wait until weeks 8-12. You will see, magical things happen then! And they did, the picture I posted as my 'after' was not exactly what I had hoped for, I didn't have a 6-pack or anything, but my body looked pretty much great. Nicely rounded and curvy in the right places, some tone apparent.

So anyway, the moral of that story is I'm going to stick it out. Especially, ESPECIALLY since there is now a support community on Facebook!!!! I am so, so so excited about that. It's been super nice already to read what everyone is going through, AND I learned something really valuable: that I am doing the protein day COMPLETELY wrong.

The point of the protein only day is to deplete my body of everything except protein. Well, I was eating 14 whole eggs for my protein - which contain alot of fat. Joel says (I found out today) that 5 grams of fat is OK and I was having 58! Holy moly! So I was going into cheat day with my cup "full" so to speak and thus it was running over with whatever it is that is NOT supposed to be there, lol, which in turn spilled into my fast day, etc. So I'm excited to see how this goes for the next THREE cycles. Yes, I still have three protein days left. Yay! Maybe this'll do the trick.

Today I totally messed up, though. I had a really rough night with DS2 who has had a fever for the past 2 days or so - and croupy cough. I was up basically every hour and felt kind of bleary in the morning. Then he just wanted me to hold him all day, AND I got the email about the facebook link so I spent all day today pretty much holding him and reading, and posting.

But it really threw me off my game, deciding not to workout today. It will be nice to get a break, to see how I can do in tomorrow's workout (see if I'm stronger and more rested) but since I'm so used to working out every single day with no exception, I felt really lazy. And hungry!!!! Shakes were just not cutting it.

So I caved and had a good handful of tortilla chips, and then a handful of chocolate chips - which were WAY too sweet and I couldn't even finish them. Weird, they used to be my "cheat" food during my previous diet and never were too sweet, not sickeningly like that. THEN I had a bowl of ice cream with peanut butter.

So - I've decided to fast the rest of the night and start fresh tomorrow with vegetable juicing in the morning, my workout, and then a mod carb day full of delicious foods tomorrow. Then protein day, then cheat day!

9pm
I had a fun workout tonight that I wanted to share. We recently got a trampolean, and I haven't been on it yet for exercise but I decided to do my 30 minutes of moderate cardio on there instead of going for a walk. I don't have any device to listen to music with, and my feet hurt when I powerwalk for more than 10 minutes.

So for 30 minutes I jumped on there with the kids and they had tons of fun - thought I was exclusively playing with them, lol. Works for me! I made sure to keep moving and towards the end I was definitely overheated and my legs were getting tired. I think I may have tweaked my left knee, hopefully not, tomorrow will tell. It's nice, though, to get creative with my workouts so I don't get bored. I'm thinking of maybe doing my HIIT on there tomorrow - shouldn't be too hard, right? Jump hard and high for 20 seconds, then kind of bounce around slow motion running on each leg for 40 seconds, then repeat 12-15 times? I think it's a great leg workout. We'll see.

Possibly Changing Course...Maybe.

2010-05-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

So I've been doing alot of thinking, as I get close to day 12 (tomorrow) which is halfway to the end of the goal, 25 days. I am wavering between two things.

First, I am halfway and have seen about zero results. I honestly got WAY better results when I actually stuck to my own thing that worked for me, when I DID it, that is. Basically plant based, fast 2x per week 'til dinner, workouts 5-6x per week, one or two cheat meals, not eating after 7pm.

It's just that for the past 3 weeks BEFORE I started the XFLD I was totally off course and could not make it through even one fast day, was eating all kinds of cheat stuff at all hours, even late at night, etc. Ugh.

Second, maybe if I stick to this - maybe just maybe, the fat will start melting off in the last 3 cycles. But will it really? Am I kidding myself?

Hmmmm.

So I was doing some thinking tonight, and sort of had a revelation.

My body has had a really hard time with all the protein. All the eggs, all the protein powder, and very little fruit and very little greens. Even though I know this is a fat loss program and HAS WORKED for many people - I wonder if my body is a bit different since I have been raw for 3 years, then plant based for the past 6 months? My bowel movements are slow and hard to come by, and I miss the easy, quick BM's I've had up until now.

I am very appreciative, though, of how HARDCORE this program has been with it's schedule. How absolutely rigid, yet forgiving when I need it the most (cheat day) and then I am ready to start again.

I think this type of thinking is going to really help me get across the finish line to where I need to be, because I've become used to it. I like how every day is something different, how it forces me to focus on that one thing.

I might give it one more cycle. Finish out this 3rd cycle until Thursday (Cycle 4, day 1) and see what the scale says. For now, I just stepped on the scale and it said 126. Granted, that is after a full and very awful cheat day, but on my last cheat day at night - it said 125. So I don't know.

And seriously, I mean - c'mon, TWO pounds? And like, .7% body fat? In ELEVEN days of hardcore dieting & training? It's supposed to be extreme. And I know I'll gain that two pounds and body fat back in a FLASH, and I mean a flash. It's just water weight to me.

The only thing is that I am indeed getting more sculpted, I can't deny it - but is that just due to the workouts?

Which brings me to another question.

What if......

What if....I were to combine the best of both worlds? If I were to combine the hardcore workouts WITH eating plant based WITH fasting WITH shake days WITH cheat days?

Forget the whole protein thing, which seems to be holding my body back and I never needed before. I don't need to get more sculpted, honestly. I feel like I have enough muscle now - what I need to do is maintain and lose body fat.

Hmmmm....

I'm thinking that my next 3 cycles would look like this:

Saturday - density workout + cheat day
Sunday - fast day + LA workout + HIIT + 30 min. cardio
Monday - 1100 cal. green smoothie day + strength workout + 30 min. cardio
Tuesday - 1100 cal. plant based + dynamic workout + HIIT
Wednesday - 1100 cal. plant based + lactic acid + 30 min. cardio
Thursday - density workout + cheat day

Do you think it would work? I am so tempted to just try it, for one cycle, and see how it goes. I actually think I am going to do it. The only dumb thing would be that all the protein supplements I've bought are going to not be used. Waaah. Maybe I can sell them.....? The unopened ones, anyway.

I would get in two 36 hour fast days per week, and on the plant based days it could be cooked or raw, but I would keep track of the calories and be able to - yay! - eat all the watermelon or OJ I want, big huge salads, etc.

The cheat days should still work because the whole point is to trick my body into not thinking I'm starving - which is important to do every 5th day. I'd be getting exactly the same amount of calories, yet not going so stir crazy and having no real plan like before.

The only thing I'm nervous about is that some days, all that keeps me going is knowing that this program WILL work if I just keep at it. If I just follow it to a "T". It might be too easy to derail and fall off the wagon. But maybe that won't happen if I know I can have a cheat day? But what might actually keep me going is seeing the scale go down (esp in body fat) like it did way back when I got down to 21% when I was following plant based.

I also wonder if I should do a "noon to 7" cheat day. I actually think that is more reasonable since I am used to not eating 'til noon, and since I'd still pack calories in anyways. I don't know, maybe.

I would continue to workout in this insane way but only until the 25 days are up, and then I would revert to this schedule of resistance 3x per week and cardio 3x per week with one complete rest day, which would be Saturday:

Saturday - no workout + cheat day afternoon/evening
Sunday - fast day + HIIT + 20 min. cardio
Monday - 1100 cal. green smoothie day + 40 min. workout
Tuesday - 1100 cal. plant based + HIIT + 20 min. cardio
Wednesday - 1100 cal. plant based + 40 min. workout
Thursday - fast day + HIIT + 20 min. cardio
Friday - 1100 cal. plant based + 40 min. workout

OR I could continue the 5-day trend which would be like this:

Saturday - no workout + cheat day afternoon/evening
Sunday - fast day + HIIT + 20 min. cardio
Monday - 1100 cal. green smoothie day + 40 min. workout
Tuesday - 1100 cal. plant based + HIIT + 20 min. cardio
Wednesday - 1100 cal. plant based + 40 min. workout
Thursday - no workout + cheat day afternoon/evening
rinse, repeat - only it'd be different days each time.

So basically getting in 2 HIIT and 2 40 min. workouts per 5 day cycle. Better run, I'm going to mull this over as I go to sleep tonight. Honestly I think the weekly 7-day schedule works better for my lifestyle in the long run, but only if I can handle waiting one whole week for a free day. I think having it land on different days keeps me on my toes and makes it more exciting and less "omg I have to wait allllll the way until Saturday to have xxx and xx!" As opposed to wow, my fast day is over and in just 3 more days I get another free day! That's been really motivating for me.

Especially if I see more ab definition coming out! Wouldn't that be a trip????

Cycle 3, Day 1 - Cheat Day - Wooohooo!!!

2010-05-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

Today I found another blog! Yay! I've been looking everywhere. Anyway, she is another "less to lose" and reported a loss of 3 lbs and 1" at the end of her first 5-day cycle. BUT she wrote this, which is basically what *I* think is happening to me too:

I sort of already see a weird sort of shifting taking place in physique – sort of a re-shaping and defining thing happening (which it better be after all these strength training sessions).

So, I am hesitant to be disappointed with my numbers that I have achieved so far on the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet because when you manipulate fat AND muscle, you just have to look in the mirror for true results. Nothing else matters.

So that was awesome for me to read because it helps rev me up for more workouts, knowing that what I'm doing is not in vain - it's shifting everything around for an even better look.

Cycle 2, Day 4 - Mod Carb Day & getting discouraged/tired

2010-05-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

4pm
Ooooooh boy, if I thought yesterday was tough - today is REALLY hard. It's been rough. Harder with eating, certainly, but really frustrating with the workout. I am finding in the #2 range of workouts that some of the certain exercises are not included in his "how to" book and I have NO IDEA what they are!

I need to be able to watch them, then do them. So there I am shaking with adrenaline pumping, ready to DO THE WORKOUT ALREADY and I can't find the dumb exercise on YouTube. I can barely even type in the words. Grrr. So that was really hard and I HATED my workout this morning because of it.

Then today I was so behind on everything I didn't even eat ANYTHING until noon, when I juiced my veggies. Which isn't supposed to even count in my daily total, so I had my first real meal at 1pm. Not really ideal, I suppose.

So far I've had 2 meals within 3 hours of each other and I am already hungry for the 3rd now, an hour later. Which is okay except I really don't feel like making up a big salad with all the stuff I was supposed to have. I'm thinking now I'm just going to grab some stuff and maybe make like scrambled eggs or something.

Tomorrow is my high protein day and I don't have enough eggs....grrr. Everything is just kind of going down in the dumps today.

For the first time ever, I feel like having some of my old standby, tortilla chips and a handful or two of chocolate chips. But I KNOW if I do that I am going to just have the most wretched rest of the day EVER. And I really don't want to go through that.

So I finally found a blog of someone who is doing this and is on day 4 - he is the owner of a website and has a forum ALL ABOUT this diet!! OMG! You don't even know how badly I want to be communicating with others via a forum, to read about their hard times and good times and most of all to be encouraged to KEEP ON GOING by those who are doing it as hardcore as me. He is only offering it for those who purchase the book through him and I am not about to pay the $97 price just for a forum, lol. I've emailed him asking if I can still be a member, pretty please??? I hope he does, but in the meantime I am still scouring the web - there's gotta' be a free one somewhere, somehow. I feel like I'm on really thin ice here.

I have to be honest and say that I think my rear end DOES look better - I really think it does. And my abs, still, look better. Like the skin is thinner - but mostly on the upper sides. The scale is refusing to budge and is at 120.6 and 22.7% body fat again today. I know I'm only supposed to go by what the scale/body fat says on the 5th day ONLY but that's just 48 hours away. Can there really be all THAT much difference?

I feel like I'm busting my butt for nothing but...when I take a step back and look at what I am really doing, like holy moly a TON of workouts ---- only one day in the cycle I do just one workout ---- and eating SO, so clean....there's got to be something that gives, especially with the cheat day thrown in.

Sigh....even my clothes fit exactly the same. Like, EXACTLY. I tried on a dress that I bought a few weeks ago that is a Gap size 2 and to wear it, I need to drop just a little upper back fat.

Nope. Fits me exactly the same.

I do wonder, though, if maybe some of it is swelling? Cuz I know with TTapp, that's what they said - not to measure yourself for like 2 days after you are done with your 2-week bootcamp because by then the swelling will have gone down.

5pm
I just wanted to get on here and say I am NOT going to sabotage myself by giving in to eating sweets. I am determined to continue with my day by making dinner, cleaning, doing HIIT sprints, taking a shower, then going to bed. TOMORROW will be my very last day before my cheat day and I know I can make it.

Here's to a SUCCESSFUL Cycle 2!!!!!

Cycle 2, Day 3 - Shake Day

2010-05-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

Well well, here we are again. I love how fast time flies when I'm on a specific eating/exercise plan AND I'M STICKING TO IT (key) - because time really does fly in my life, regardless of whether I'm eating good or not.

This morning I was at 120.4 and 22.7% body fat. This is the lowest I've seen on this diet (I was there last week, I think on protein day of cycle 1) and I would love to see those numbers drop a bit by Saturday. Hopefully they will! Being in the teens again (plus one hundred, of course!) would be just crazy.

My body is feeling lean and mean - I am loving it! But honestly, I don't think it is any better than it has been in the past when I was being faithful to eat well and exercise, with the exception of my upper/side abs; I think they're a teeny bit more defined. My waist is at 28.5 about, right now, which is great - I've been there before too, though. Never seen 27" in any form since, well, maybe since I was 18, lol. Certainly never after I started having children.

This morning it is 10am and I haven't worked out yet - not because I've been lazy, but because it's been a busy morning with the kids going late to school and Rachel home from being sick. 2 kids were soaked through their diapers so the younger three got baths, etc. Then I needed to make my juiced veggies so that took a bit.

Now I'm sitting here in my workout clothes, about to muster up the energy (feeling a bit weak from just having broken my 36 hour fast!) to do my workout. Those workouts are hard, but honestly I do enjoy how mixed up and new they are, every day.

That's another thing - I love working out every single day. It establishes a routine for me and I feel like I've accomplished something. Not having a rest day is hard sometimes but I love how it forces me to be disciplined.

Off I go........! (and I am REALLY, really looking forward to having some delicious shakes today!!!!)

Cycle 2, Day 2 - Fast Day

2010-05-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

1pm
WOW I can't believe I'm already posting on my second fast day! This is too cool, I am just loving this program. I do find it kind of stressful trying to get in all my workouts, but so far if I plan carefully I've been able to do them. It seems like I've had more obstacles than normal, what with conference and then a doctor's appointment this morning and two more next week.

It's funny, I always hated having a routine and now that I've gotten into one, I love it so much that I get stressed out when I have to deviate from it. Whatever, I'm so weird. lol.

Today so far, once again, fasting has been easy peasy. Having 3 workouts just helps SO much, because I am honestly not hungry, almost to the point of feeling ill, when I do my workouts - and quite a while afterwards too. So it's really nice but I am looking forward to my shakes tomorrow since I got the vanilla protein powder in the mail. They are SO yummy with fruit! Can't wait.

This morning I weighed in at 124 and 24% body weight. Ha ha! That was pretty dumb of me to weigh myself but I wanted to anyway, just for hoots. I know the real test of time doesn't come until Saturday which is cheat day and my next official weigh in. I also need to remember that I *am* already pretty lean so I can't expect monumental results.

However, I do have to say that I am definitely expecting to have a 4-pack when this program is done. So if that doesn't happen....waaah....I'll have to wait 4 weeks and then do it again.

Cycle 2, Day 1 - Cheat Day

2010-05-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

Weigh in: 120.8, 22.9% body fat.

Today went well. It's nice to see the 22% range again - although I have no idea why it jumped a full percentage like that. It was pretty steadily hovering around 21.7-22.4% and then all of a sudden jumped to 23-24%. Weird, and makes me not trust my scale as much - but then, I'm always saying I don't trust it anyway since I know it's not accurate for BF anyway. Oh well.

I had kind of a stressful day, because I had two trips out with the kids that took longer than I'd hoped, and I knew I needed to do my workout during naptime. That's why I hate working out any other time during the day than in the morning, because it's like it's looking over me constantly and I'm afraid I'm going to just say forget it.

Which almost happened! That's another thing, LIFE happens. My DH called me to say his mom is having heart problems and her doctor recommended that she go to the ER - scary! Instead she is really interested in straightening up her diet and going plant based, so we had her over for dinner and then watched the DVD called "Eating" with her. So my house was pretty messy, we got home 1.5 hours later than normal for lunch since we went to Walmart, my oldest DD was home from school due to feeling sick, and man, I was feeling the pressure!

I told myself that I actually wasn't going to be able to work out today. I was getting really stressed out and started snapping at the kids and getting irritated at dumber things than normal.

It was my cheat day, you know? It was supposed to be all perfect and awesome and I'd been looking forward to eating my treats and here it was turning out to be really stressful. So I sat down to watch my movie with my lunch, and about 15 minutes into it (after having decided to skip the workout today) I looked at the clock, and I just knew I had to do it. I still had enough time before I had to get the boys at school to do it.

So I buckled down and did it, ouch, hard workout again. I'm still sore from yesterday's BIG workout day - which, incidentally, is almost exactly what tomorrow is going to be like. I can't believe it, tomorrow will be seven days in a row that I will have worked out, and some of those days I worked out twice, even THREE times!

Dang.

I better see some serious results coming up in this next cycle. I know I will, though, and I'm really excited about it.

Currently I have a stomach full of popcorn and ice cream and I feel so fat. LOL! I guess that's why it's good to have a day like this, because I sure am revved and READY to have a full fasting day tomorrow, complete with three workouts. My plan is to do the workout in the morning from 9:30-10:30 after an earlier than normal morning bringing DS to the dentist, then HIIT from 12-12:20, then powerwalk with 4 kids in the stroller for 30 minutes from 3-3:30.

Can't wait to continue on in my journey!

It is now almost 11:30, how does it get so late, so fast?

Cycle 1, Day 5 - Protein Day

2010-05-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my Dad came over to deliver my Mother's Day gift early (a trampolene for the kids - WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!) and set it up, which was just so out of this world NICE of him! My gosh!

But the reason I'm telling you that is because it was smack in the middle of spring conference and I had a very narrow window of time to do what I needed to do before I headed back to the conference for dinner. I was planning to put the kids down for a nap, lie in the sun for an hour, HIIT for 30 minutes, shower for 15, then make 2 salads for the rest of the day, and then run to the produce store. So having him come eliminated my ability to lie in the sun AND do my workout.

But no worries, I knew I could just make it up today. Fortunately I had already finished the most important part, the actual strength training workout, because that is really hard to "make up" later in the day when all the children are around.

Today I had another HARD workout - it was Lactic Acid day, and those one legged, weighted squats just seriously KILL me. I HATE them. I even put off my workout and was cleaning the kitchen, for crying out loud, instead of starting it. Gaah!

But I finally did, amidst crying and teasing kids - I only had two (Jack 2 and Marie 4) but still, they seemed to be bent on helping me NOT workout in peace today.

Other than that, today has gone well. GORGEOUS day, I felt fabulous - and had ALOT of food to eat. I made eggs with lots of veggies, 15 of them, for 3 of my meals and then chocolate protein pancakes for the other 2 of my meals. I only ended up eating 4 of those meals - I HATE eating when I'm not that hungry. At least, not healthy food. lol. I seem to pack it away just fine when it's junk food, go figure.

Since I missed yesterday's HIIT and today called for 30 minutes of moderate cardio, I combined them into one evening workout by doing HIIT for 20 minutes, resting for 5 minutes, and then 30 minutes of cardio. Of course the weather took a turn for the worse and decided to do the whole sheets of rain and LOTS of wind thing - I hate that. But then, I love it at the same time because I feel so refreshed afterwards!

I sure am stiff though, my body is rebelling against the hard workout (especially legs) this morning, and then another hour of more sprinting/running/powerwalking.

But that's okay because.......tomorrow is CHEAT DAY!!!!!!! Wooo freakin' whoo!!

The funny thing is, though, I am just being so hardcore about this plan that I honestly and in all reality AM NOT CRAVING ANYTHING. I am not letting myself. But the reason? Is most likely because I know I get to have whatever I want tomorrow. And a ton of it, even ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I love the freedom, and can't wait.

Tomorrow I need to go to Walmart to get some things like diapers, formula, lightbulbs, etc. Do you know how many times I've gone to Walmart and had to "turn a deaf ear" to all the things crying out to me to just BUY THEM already? And eat them?? Like, the entire carton, or whatever it is - as soon as I got in the car?

So we'll see what calls to me tomorrow. And I'm excited to see what the scale says tomorrow morning, my "official" weigh-in day since I will have completed one full cycle. This morning the scale was up just a teeny bit, to 120.6 and 23.4% body fat. Weird, but I guess not so weird, since the day before was just shakes and yesterday was my first "real" food day since cheat day. =)

Oh, ow. I just got up after having sat here for 15 minutes writing this and ouch. My booty is sore. Yay! Grrr. Awesome! Ouch. LOL

BTW, my stomach looks leaner in the mirror. It feels like my pooch is not so saggy like it's getting smaller. Also my "gills" as I call them, are more defined...part of my abs, I don't know what they're called.

Cycle 1, Day 4 - Mod Carb Day

2010-05-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to an even leaner feeling body and a weigh-in of 120.4 and 22.7% body fat. Yay! I am not that concerned about my weight anymore, since hearing Flavia and Vince's audio interview where she said she was 5'2" and weighed 114 when she started and 108 when she finished. If I can end up somewhere between 110 and 115 I think that'll be okay, as long as I am able to gain lean muscle and then create that illusion they sometimes talk about with guys, that it LOOKS like you weigh more than you do, when you have the muscle density showing in the perfect proportions for YOU.

I'm off to do my workout, Dynamic #1, then head to the spring conference, then will be back in the afternoon for the baby's naps + my HIIT workout, then to catch some rays. Today it is supposed to be 70 with no clouds - a first for this spring/summer!

"The third day is the hardest...." Cycle 1, Day 3 - Shake Day

2010-05-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

Weighed in at 121 lbs, 23.0% body fat.

I remember reading that when I was trying to do the T-Tapp 2 week bootcamp. Basically you did this intense, INSANE workout that was 45 minutes long, the kind that has you sweating 5 minutes into the program and at 30 minutes, POSITIVE that you are not going to make it through. Ugh. I hated that workout and could never do it for that many days in a row.

But anyway, I remember them saying over and over that if you can make it past day 3, you'll do okay. Day 3 of doing a workout without any rest is when your body is the most sore, and the most crying out for you to S.T.O.P and rest already.

So that's how I felt today. It actually wasn't so bad when I was doing my 50 minute workout in the morning - I enjoyed that because once again (one of my fave things about Xtreme Fat Loss Diet!) it was a brand new workout so it was FUN to do! But I noticed that as the day wore on, it was harder to feel the energy. I just wanted to rest, my feet were hurting, etc.

I guess it was a busy day too, but I did get to lay in the sun for an hour. I mean that should have rested me up a bit, right? After that, though, I plowed through a brutal walk to school & back pushing 4 of my kids ages 5,4,2, and 9 months in the double stroller. Yep, packed 'em all in and pushed my little heart out as I power walked as fast as I could - sometimes uphill (but just really slight, although enough that I could feel it) and with several corners that were challenging on my arms to navigate.

That was really hard, I was breathing pretty good and at one point had to tell my daughter to stop talking to me because it was too hard to push and walk so fast AND talk at the same time.

It was harder than yesterday as far as eating goes - I really wanted a salad today, but I stuck with the shake plan 100%. I did juice my veggies in the morning on an empty stomach before my workout - I didn't feel that it hindered my workout at all, so I'll probably do that from now on just so I can get it into my body as I really want the nutrients it provides. I also added 2 handfuls of greens to 2 of my shakes which was great! Couldn't even tell they were there - shakes consisted of 1 scoop of chocolate whey protein powder, 3/4 banana, 3 large strawberries, vanilla extract, 1 scoop of stevia, and water. Yummy! Really, really delicious.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to enjoying eggs with salsa and tobasco! My favorite, and also fresh squeezed OJ. I also get oatmeal with chocolate protein powder, that should be yummy. And a BIIIIIG salad with boiled eggs and tuna, should be interesting (!!) but I also get to include my fave homemade vinegar EVOO agave salad dressing so it should be good.

Well, it's 9:20 and I wanted to watch a show of Flash Forward before bed - I'm much more conscious of my sleep these days, as I know this is the only chance my body gets to truly rest from exercise since I'm going at it HARD every day. Tomorrow is another brand new workout + HIIT in the afternoon. I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being hardcore, it is SO me. =) Day 4, here I come!

Extreme Fat Loss Diet - Cycle 1, Day 2 - Fast Day

2010-05-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

Today has been so incredible, I am just so excited about this new program! And there are SO many things about it that I love, like the fact that there is only 23 days left. And that my next cheat day is on Monday, and Thursday is almost over. So, SO fun. I can't wait to see results!!

On the other hand, I am working very hard for those results. Wow. I have never in my life done 3 workouts in one day. C-razy but I love it. I LOVE being hardcore about things, and it fits so perfectly into the way *I* think because for instance, yesterday I ate so much junk food and food that I normally NEVER eat. Except meat.

Today I am fasting and it has not been hard at all. I think it is partly because I'm so gung ho about this and really believe it's going to work if I stick to it. But the other part is that I just really truly was not hungry until about noon, due to eating so much yesterday, even though my last food was at 6pm.

The other thing that really has helped is that I did a hard workout this morning, the best in a LONG time for about 45 minutes. That always takes away my appetite. Then I did 20 minutes of HIIT cardio which again, took away my appetite. I lasted really well all day and then after dinner (was barely even tempted by dinner) I was in unknown territory since I have never fasted one whole day with just water before. I went for a walk with 3-4 kids in the stroller for my 30 minutes of cardio and again, that helped to keep my hunger at bay. Now it is after 10pm and I am feeling mildly hungry, but not any big deal.

I had enough energy all day and I feel fantastic - knowing that I have completed day 2 and knowing that today was *key* to my success in losing fat. My scale needs a new battery so that has been nice, cuz I'm not tempted to weigh. My plan is to weigh ONLY on the morning of my cheat day. I don't know if I can stick to that, but I sure am going to try!

Tomorrow is my first shake day, and my first day in almost 4 years of having that much protein in one day. I'm a little afraid of how my body is going to react, but I really want to give this program a good, honest try and tweak it as little as possible.

My first tweak though, will be juiced veggies tomorrow after my workout. I think I can really only benefit from that, so it should be OK. I am allowed unlimited veggies, after all, it's just the 1.5 apples I add to it that would throw it off if anything did, but gosh, how much healthier can you get than an apple? =)

My Current Plan

2010-05-03T09:59:00.000-07:00

So today has not gone so well. I go through these periods of time where I feel like I look fine, great, in the mirror and I don't really need to crack the whip on myself quite so hard. So yesterday was one such day.

I weighed in at 123, 23.7% body fat.

I started the day with my juiced veggies, then had bananas up until 5pm. Then I had one small roll with meat/cheese/lettuce that James didn't eat and left in the car when I dropped them off at activity club. I went to Value Village and shopped, and was wearing some loose khaki pants - Banana Republic size 2 and they were LOOSE! Like a whole size loose.

I left there and went to Kmart and bought a big bag of Peanut Butter M&M's, and ate 2/3 of the bag on the way home, picked up some pad cashew nut w/brown rice from Thai Beer, and split it with Bret. This morning I started the day by finishing the rest of the candy and then having oatmeal - which is fine, the oatmeal, anyway.

Except for the fact that I skipped my workout. And was planning to fast today. And had my first meal at 9am which means I'm adding in an extra meal today since I normally don't even eat anything until at least 11am-12pm.

But that's okay, what's done is done and I can't change that. However, I can change the future - specifically, what I do for the rest of today.

YES I am just so excited to start the Extreme Fat Loss Program. So it's hard for me to stay focused on what I am doing right now. But I need to, otherwise and ESPECIALLY if for some reason I have to wait another week to start it, I'm going to be in a world of hurt if I "take a week off". I'll have to work backwards to fix all the damage I did in that week, and I don't want to do that!

Also, this Friday is the spring conference and I want to feel good for that.

So I'm going to go back to what I was doing, to what REALLY worked for me before when I was losing body fat - but with a couple of adaptions.

I am going to eat low calorie but add in more raw food. My diet will look like this:

Workout - take a shower - then juiced veggies at approx. 10:30.
11:45 - watermelon or OJ or bananas or green smoothie, ie raw food
3:30 - oatmeal OR raw food
6:00 - big green salad, cooked dinner or raw food
7:00 pm - no food after this unless raw food

My goal here is little to no overt fats - no avo, only 1 T. of EVOO per day. I think that should maybe help with the whole fat overload thing I was getting

Mondays and Thursdays I will fast until dinner.
Workouts - M/W/F circuit training, T/TH/S HIIT Cardio

That's what I am going to do until I can start the Extreme Fat Loss Program. Today I am going to continue on and fast for 24 hours, from now until tomorrow after my workout when I'll have the juiced veggies. Oh, actually, I plan to have juiced veggies tonight after dinner so I get that in (for my skin) and since I'm not used to fasting through dinner.

Toodles!

Extreme Fat Loss Diet System - SO excited!!!

2010-05-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is THE day - the day when the Extreme Fat Loss Diet System is going to be launched. I am so excited about this, I can't even tell you. I think it is something I've been looking for, for a long time.

Joal Marion is one of "those" people who advocates the not normal things, like fasting and well, doing things that normal body builders would consider to be extreme. Which I LOVE because that is the kind of person I am - I'll push myself to the limits when I am excited about something and willing to get down and get my hands dirty, just do what it takes.

Usually, anyway. Like with the Master Cleanse, and with fasting.

This program incorporates all the things I believe in like low calorie, fasting, cheat days, hard workouts - it's a 25 day program and goes in 5 day cycles with something different every day. BIG plus for me, since I get bored really easily.

I know I can do it, I'm just a little worried about the protein - one days is called a Protein-Only Depletion day. That tells me it is protein only, obviously, and I REFUSE to eat meat. It just is not an option. So I'm thinking IF I really do have to eat that much protein, I will get by on hopefully organic farm fed eggs and protein powder. I think that's possible for that one day - and I also am open to eating tuna if I have to. But bleh, hopefully not. Maybe even salmon, maybe...it's just kind of gross when I cook it for some reason.

One of the days is a shake only day - which is awesome! I am excited, the only thing is I'll probably have to buy the shakes online which means they'll take a week or so to get here, which means I'll have to wait (waaaah!) to start the program.

As you can imagine, I am CHOMPING at the bit to try this. I love the idea of a cheat day, then a FULL fast day - that'll be interesting. It's fasting the entire day, as far as I know - which means from day 1 night until day 3 morning. I can totally do it, I think if everything pans out I'll be able to breeze through this, especially since it is only 25 days.

The other thing, of course, is price. We don't know how much it's going to be, but Joel promises that it's going to be affordable. But - aaack! According to who? He's already got like 3,000 comments on his blog where he told people to write why they want his system and he'll give away some for free to whoever wins his drawing. That's some SERIOUS cash if 3,000 people buy it at ANY price! So I'm thinking that wow, if he's used to that kind of cash? Then ouch, an affordable price for him might be like $149.99 with "payments" or something.

I've determined that I can spend no more than $50 on it. Because I also have to buy the shakes, and possibly (but hopefully not, I have most everything I need for a home gym except for kettlebells) some workout equipment. I only have $50 blow money but we get paid on the 10th so then I'll have $100 if I save my previous $50.

Juicing = clear skin!

2010-05-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

I was successfully pretty raw for about a week, BUT my body fat went up! How crazy is that? I ended up getting back down to 121 lbs but my body fat went up into the 23% and has stayed there ever since, even teetering on the verge of 24%. I am totally puzzled by that because I thought for sure that would make my body fat % go down pretty fast.

Weird??!!

So that kind of deflated me - lame, I know.

But the awesome thing is --- my face has cleared up about 75%! This is a GOOD thing. I had more acne than I EVER have, wow, I couldn't believe it. On my forehead, nose, chin, even my cheeks.

So I started juicing every morning, last Tuesday morning. So I did it 6 days in a row and haven't yet today, the 7th day. Every morning I have (as per "Your Right to be Beautiful" book by Tonya Zavasta):

3 stalks of celery
1 giant apple + 1 medium apple
1/2 cup sized chunk of beets
2 medium carrots
1.5 cucumbers

It makes 32oz and I drink it in the morning on an empty stomach, typically after I've done my workout - abou 30/45 min. afterwards. Then I proceed with my day. I LOVE it because while it is NOT something I crave, having a goal (clear skin) has motivated me to do this in the morning.

That sets me on a nice, easy path to being 100% raw because the next thing I eat, if raw, is my 2nd meal of raw and then half the day has passed. I've been having either OJ for my 2nd meal or a delicious salad with mango/strawberries/avocado/lettuce/onions/nutritional yeast and then topped with my salad dressing of EVOO, vinegar (red wine or balsamic), and honey.

The only thing I can think of for body fat is MAYBE the added fat? I've been having one small avocado with 1T. of EVOO each day. But still, it is so weird that my body fat goes down really fast when I just have low calorie vegan cooked for a few days in a row.

?????

This is it. I am going 30 days raw, starting tomorrow!

2010-04-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

I decided tonight, that that's enough. No more going back and forth between cooked vegan and raw, no more eating all the food that is bad for me in that "who cares" attitude. I'm so tired of it, and it is OLD. NEWS. Yesterday.

So my enthusiasm is coming purely from my heart at this moment, since my brain keeps trying to tell me that I've tried it before and have not been able to do it.

I don't care about that.

I am going to do this.

Tomorrow's plan is to fast all day long. No food at night for dinner either.

Which I know will be hard, but I also know I can do it.

Totally.

Sunday morning starts fresh with a green smoothie or fresh squeezed OJ - and bananas in the afternoon. My plan is to *always* have green smoothies in the fridge, no exceptions. That way I can always grab them if I want/need to - and I would also like to have at least 64oz of green smoothie per day.

I am going to stop listening to podcasts of things having to do with nutrition and only listen to those things talking about working out that will help me.

I am going to start hanging out at rawfoodtalk and other raw forums MOSTLY so that I get my inspiration from that.

What am I looking for?

***Lower body fat - preferrably 16-18%.
***Glowing, healthy skin
***4-pack abs
***No more acne
***Less celullite
***Tighter Skin, especially on my tummy and thighs

But mostly, the glow and the overall feeling of happy awesomeness. I've felt it before, and I am going to grab onto that

30 days, baby. 30 days and I know I'm going to accomplish ALL of my goals above! By June 1st, by my goal to be fit for summer.

My goal is to see what exactly I can accomplish on raw while working out hard like I have been for the past 6 months. I am in new territory! I am excited!

I can't wait!

Wow, talk about MOTIVATING!!! My Pictures!!

2010-04-19T15:50:00.001-07:00

Okay so you know I've basically botched things in the past 2 weeks, right? I found some pictures I took on APRIL 6th, seriously the SIXTH. And they look so good. Not, at all, what I look like now. Isn't that crazy? Crazy what 2% body fat and 5 pounds will do to you. But it's also kind of comforting to know that it takes about a week to start seeing changes in my body if I'm eating badly. So I *can* go on vacation and have a good time, sometime down the road!

But, back to the post....I want to share some pictures! These will hopefully inspire me in the future too. You can see the work that needs to happen with the skin on my stomach...but there is some tone showing through, too! Yay!

Um, er, now I just need to get BACK to there again - which is actually really helping me today. I have a goal, a vision once again!

There is this BEAST inside of me...5 lb gain in 2 weeks!

2010-04-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

And I am wrestling with it, with all my might! I feel like I am almost, almost overcome this time. It has been enormously hard to get back to where I was before, Oh my gosh. I can't believe how very very HARD it has been! It's like I have to claw and scrape my way back up from this deep hole I fell into. It is oh, so easy to fall into it but takes practically a miracle to get back up.

Today was supposed to be my first day of green smoothies. Oh but I did want this to be THE day that I kicked that beast HARD!! And I did pretty well, all things considering. I had 64oz of green smoothie + four small bananas up until we got home from the Brunstad Feast. Then I had two pieces of cake from James' birthday cake, and a big plate of rice & veggies. Then also, a baggy of chocolate chips.

And that's all she wrote, folks. That's it. That's the END of my story of binging and eating just because I am mad at myself for, well, eating in the first place!

I am excited to say that the rest of tonight will be fasting for me, as it is after 7pm now. I don't know what my calorie count was today but I DO know that I ate about 75% better than I have been eating in prior days, even weeks. And the fact that I don't eat after 7pm, if I can do it, will be a miracle in itself.

Today I weighed in at 125. That is a FIVE POUND GAIN in two weeks.

Time to turn back the clocks, time to crawl back to the start of the race and begin again.

You can read my progress in my green smoothie blog here. See you in 10 days when I am either finished with my green smoothies or continuing on!!

I will do this, I will do this, I WILL DO THIS

2010-04-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

I just read in an old post of mine, that it is just a matter of will. I'm really struggling right now with two separate identities inside me - one that wants this very much and is willing to do whatever it takes (which actually is not really all that bad! Enjoyable, actually). The other feels like this is something that is too important to me, so much so that it is becoming an idol so to speak, and taking away from my relationship with God. So I don't know what to do - I sabatoge myself thinking that I need to relax and take it easier, not be so up tight and so FOCUSED - the other part of me, wants to be focused.

Aaargh! Either way tomorrow = success for me.

I'm Excited!

2010-04-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

About the future, that is. I feel like I've made many a plan, and wavered from them all drastically in the past couple of weeks. I feel it, though. I can feel that I'm going to start over.

Starting at 1pm today, I am going to fast for the rest of the day. And I am also going to fast until tomorrow, until dinner. I just am. Nothing else to it - but I am planning to have dinner early, around 5:30 so that I will be able to plan and get James' party ready for 7pm.

I'm also going to start counting weeks again, only start over. I have exactly 12 weeks until summer conference family week starts. That makes it simple! I started a brand new workout TODAY for April, Fit Yummy Mummy. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Feels great, worked some muscles hard including my tush and legs.

So for the next 8 weeks I am going to continue on with my normal plan of fasting twice per week, eating low calorie on the other days plus one or two fun planned meals on the weekend. That's the plan! It's what works for me, and what I'm going to do.

Gotta' get it together

2010-04-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

I have so many grand ideas and plans that I want to do, then I just go and botch it all. Why do I do that? I was doing so well a few weeks ago. Now I am struggling with all. my. might. just to hang on to what I have. No progressing forward, just hanging on here in the present.

Yesterday was 100% on plan, and as a result I dropped a pound. Today was on plan until 5pm when I ate a handful of chocolate chips and some tortilla chips. Then, 2 pieces of fresh baked white bread that were smelling so divine I couldn't stand it. I then vowed that would be it for the rest of the day; those calories would be my "dinner" and I would fast the rest of the day.

Then I took three of the kids shopping, crazy shopping - food that had to be bought tonight, as there is no other night to do it until Friday. DH didn't come home until late so we didn't leave until 7:30, and arrived at Costco at 7:40; they close at 8:30. Aaagh! I was so stressed because I knew we had to go to Value Village to return about $50 worth of stuff and THEY closed at 9pm. Then after that, WinCo to do more tedious shopping (buying bulk candy for Friday night/lunches which takes alot of time). I knew I was going to hit a wall and be so, so tired and not be able to handle it.

Anyway, it was okay - I could have done better with the kids, I kind of just gritted my teeth and bore with them, telling them quite often to calm down and stop being so crazy. At least they weren't fighting though.

Got home at 10:10 and had them in bed by 10:30, then realized I was famished. I'd made a rice stirfry for Bret's dinner and there was a small bag in the fridge. So I had some, and then realized how hungry I was! I had some asparagas, then some potatoes...telling myself that it was OK that I was eating this late at night because at LEAST it was plant based, whole foods.

Then I just kind of flipped out. Decided who cares, I want to vedge in front of the computer and chow down, I had a hard night and I don't care!

I DON'T CARE!

Kind of like a tantrum, lol!

So I had four chocolate chunk cookies, 3 mint melts, and 4 lemon sugar cookies. I am so mad at myself right now. I'm sitting on the red chair with my feet up and leaning backwards a bit so my stomach is MAJORLY looking tubby. As in, no ab definition what-so-ever.

I tell myself that tomorrow is another day, that I have to keep going.

And that's true. "Success is determined by how you handle setbacks" has been my motto. And that's my motto again - I will wake up and do my new April workout, it's a fun one! Should be fun to do, with my music playing gaily in the background. Then, concentrate on enjoying my oatmeal for breakfast and lunch - and Bret will be gone tomorrow, so maybe I'll make up some more stirfry + a salad for dinner.

I have to do this! I have to. For myself, for my goals, for what I really really want to do. May is around the corner and I'll never forgive myself if I give it kind of a half-baked effort.

100% tomorrow, nothing less!! I WON'T BE SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!

Review of March & Dreams and Goals for April/May

2010-04-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

I know I'm late, REALLY late in the game to be writing this down, but the first half of this month has been pretty rough so I feel like I need the motivation. I have fought hard to just maintain, and have barely, BARELY done that. Thank goodness my weight is still pretty stable, I have been eating alot of bad things. Yikes!

But I feel like I've gotten a handle on it - yesterday was absolutely PERFECT with a bang-on hard workout that left me sore and fasting until dinner where I had a big salad, potatoes, and asparagas. Water for the rest of the night.

So I've reviewed my hopes & dreams for March and I *did* hit some of them. Some of them are no longer important goals to me, and some of them I did not hit. Here is my revised and new goals to be accomplished in the next 6 weeks, so basically the rest of April and all of May.

1. My goal for March was to reach 19% body fat. That was not attained, but I did get down to 21.7% on March 31st! My goal for April is to reach 20% body fat. In May, I hope to reach 18% body fat.

2. My goal in March was to reach 120 pounds, and that was attained!! On March 31st, no less, I weighed 120.6. Yay! My goal for April and from now on, is to maintain this weight. I weighed in at 121 this morning so I'm pretty sure this won't be too hard.

3. My lower back fat. I would love love LOVE to get rid of those love handles in the back! I believe that can and will be accomplished when I reach my lower body fat percentage goal of 18% in May. So I guess this is a May goal, lol.

4. Cellulite on bum and back thighs - may you thin out and visibly appear better in April & May. I am going to take Alfalfa faithfully this this time, which is a natural diaretic and helps with cellulite. I have also recently noticed more cellulite on my upper legs in the fron when I do curtsy lunges and Mountain Climbers. Toned and tight skin there is my goal!

5. Acne. Still seeing the bumps on my face, neck by my ears, and upper back. THIS is annoying. Seriously. I plan to implement watermelon into my diet just as soon as it appears in the store at a decent price - and eat that for breakfast instead of oatmeal. I will probably have oatmeal for lunch, but I hope to increase my fruits/veggies intake with summer. So - clear this up in April & May!

6. Still have that Mommy apron flap of skin on my lower tummy. At the biggest part, I can pinch 1.5" of fat/skin. I plan to skin brush every day and take Alfalfa, as well as working hard to get that body fat down. I'd love to see that shrink to 1" of pinchable skin/fat when I am standing. I would like to accomplish this by the end of May. This goes along with needing my whole body's skin to tighten up a bit, mostly on the lower half of my body (including stomach). I have alot of stretched out skin on my upper legs - I am hoping this will tighten by the end of May.

7. Abs! I want more ab definition, which I know will come with lower body fat, which in turn comes from more whole foods and less overall calories. Less, less, less cheats!! By the end of May I would love to have a 4-pack on my upper abs.

8. In March, I wanted to fit into a size 4 comfortably. I accomplished that! I bought a pair of size 3/4 jeans and wear them quite often. They look and feel great! The black pair of slacks I can now button closed nicely, but they do create a bit of a muffin top and the butt is a little tight. The butt part I don't mind at ALL, I've wanted a perky butt for like, forever, but I would love to see that muffin top disappear in May.

9. ....which brings me to, my waits! In March & the beginning of April, I saw a 28.75" waist. My goal by the end of May is to have a 27" waist. This will mean that my stomach will have gone down a bit, hurray! In March, I wanted my current belt to be loose on it's last hole. That was accomplished!! I had to poke a new hole, and that is what I am currently wearing. Time for a new belt!

I'm looking forward to sticking to my eating plan of 3x per day from noon until 7pm, whole foods only and a couple of cheats on the weekend. Naptime is HARD for me, very hard, as I crave little snacks like chocolate chips and salty tortilla chips. And when I wake up, I'm ravenous as a bear. But with determination I can do this! The results will be so worth it, summer is commmmmmmmming!!

Forcing myself back on plan

2010-04-10T22:54:00.001-07:00

I'm having a hard time staying on plan for eating. REALLY hard time. I have been eating all raw until about 3pm yesterday and 5:30 today, and then I crash HARD. Tonight I was stuffing a donut, cake, chips & salsa, down my throat just to EAT something. Aaack!

So today I went shopping and got $60 worth of fruits & veggies WITH the intent to eat it this week and eat mostly raw. I LOVE the way my body looks, and can't wait to change it for the better! And Michelle comes in ONE WEEK and I really want to look good for her!

So my plan is to eat ALL RAW tomorrow. I know I can do it! It's going to be a challenge because Sundays are usually my day to eat off plan, and I usually get a chocolate molten cake at Apple bee's with ice cream.

But not tomorrow.

Tomorrow I need to sit up and take notice of how my eating has gone off plan for an ENTIRE WEEK and this is a really, really bad thing.

Good news is, I weighed in at 121.0 this morning so I've got a handle on my weight. But the body fat is up - it was at 22.0%. So my goal is to eat 100% raw tomorrow and this is what I'm going to do:

OJ for breakfast - 10am before the meeting.
Bananas for lunch - 12:00 or on the way home from Macleay
Maybe go for a run during naptime? Or, take a nap. =)
Fruit Smoothie at 3pm
Big green salad at 6pm + bananas
Before bed - coconut water

My goal is to get to 21% body fat on Monday, even if it's 21.9%, I don't care. I just want to see that number again! The thing I have to keep reminding myself of is that I will drop body fat SIGNIFICANTLY if I can just stay 100% low fat raw. I want to do this!!!!!!!!1

FUTURE VACATION BODY PLAN

2010-04-07T09:31:00.001-07:00

So assuming I am at 19% body fat, AND also depending on where I am with my physique by then, here is my rough draft vacation body blueprint:

Get Body Fat Tested First
June 2nd - June 30th

EXERCISE

Monday - Workout A + HIIT + Dance
Tuesday - HIIT + Dance
Wednesday - Workout B + HIIT + Dance
Thursday - HIIT + Dance
Friday - Workout A + HIIT + Dance
Saturday - HIIT + 20 min. Powerwalk
Sunday - Break

FOOD ~ 1100 Calories Goal

1 Gallon of water per day
Breakfast - Fruit
Snack - Fruit
Lunch - Fruit or Green Smoothie
Dinner - Big salad + Entree, No eating after dinner except for fruit/veg, though.

Monday/Thursday Fast
Saturday OR Sunday allow 1 cheat meal

MY NEW MAINTENANCE PLAN

2010-04-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

I've been doing alot of thinking, and re-reading the Vacation Body Blueprint ebook by Fitness Black Book. He talks alot about when you are within 5-10 pounds of your goal weight, to maintain that lean look and then when you're 3-5 weeks out from your vacation, hit it hard to get to that ultimately lean and fit look by the time you go on vacation.

But if you hit it hard too long, then you will lose steam and peeter out by the time your vacation "hit it hard" 3-5 week window arrives.

So for me, I believe I am there now. I am at that place where I honestly don't need to gain anymore muscle, or I'll look too much like a guy. I am a certain body type (can't remember what it's called) that gains muscle fairly easily, I always have been that way. I tend to be more lean and toned, but not as curvy which is okay, I guess. I would prefer to be more curvy, but I have to work with what I have.

After a few days of eating clean I have been able to stay at 120, 21% body fat, until I eat higher calorie again. I think to look exceptional, I need to get down to at least 18% body fat, and possibly around 115 pounds. I think I can reach that body fat goal if I work really hard, and I plan to do that for the last 4 weeks before my "vacation" which for me, is family week at Macleay and being at the pool every day.

Since I don't need to gain more muscle, but rather maintain, for the next 8 weeks I am going to scale back to just two circuit workouts, and 2-4 cardio workouts, depending on what I want to do. The main thing is to eat clean to get that body fat down, so I'll continue eating whole foods, lower calorie, with two fasting days per week. I find that if start to slack off on working out my day doesn't go very well, so I am thinking to drop down on the circuit training but probably continue with the cardio since I really enjoy it and truly miss it when I make myself not do it.

So to recap:

Next EIGHT weeks - April 7th - June 1st.

EXERCISE

Monday - Warmup + HIIT + Dance
Tuesday - Workout A
Wednesday - optional Warmup + HIIT + Dance
Thursday - Workout B
Friday - Warmup + HIIT + Dance
Saturday - optional Warmup + HIIT + 20 min. Powerwalk
Sunday - Break

FOOD ~ 1200-1300 Calories Goal

Breakfast - Oatmeal, OJ, or Fruit
Snack - Small amount of whatever - yay!
Lunch - Oatmeal, OJ, or Fruit
Dinner - Big salad + Entree No eating after dinner, though.

Monday/Thursday Fast
Saturday/Sunday allow 1 cheat meal each

What do you think?!! I'm excited! If I can keep my eating clean, I will be able to do this! Then when I am 4 weeks away from family week, I will switch up to a new program that incorporates more strictness, but still not too strict that I'm going crazy.

My secret hope is that I will continue to get lean to the point where I have seen even more progress and I won't have to be as strict when the time comes to buckle down. Slow & steady wins the race, is what I'm aiming for.

MY GOAL is to be at a consistent 19% body fat by May 26th. That's only 2% away from where I am now, 21%, so I think it's pretty doable. I also plan to get my body fat tested hopefully next week so I know exactly where I am at since my body fat scale isn't all that accurate. I'll get it tested again on June 1st so I know where I'm at.

New Experiment: "free" weekend + "100%" week?

2010-04-04T23:28:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm. So this is my newest thing. For the whole week last week, I got down to 120 and stayed there while being 100% on my workout AND eating from Monday until Thursday afternoon. I started "slipping" per say and gradually started eating off plan until about Saturday afternoon while we were at Macleay, I had some of the soup and bread for lunch. After that I ate more junk which included Blueberry Pie and ice cream, french fries, nachos, Easter chocolate, etc! Wow.

Then today, Sunday, I ate mostly bad...I had some bananas and a salad, and also fish/rice/broccoli for dinner but in between that, I had alot of chocolate, chips & salsa, and a chocolate molten cake with ice cream. YUMMY!

However. I am ready for a new week and plan on doing my workout in the morning, just 30 minutes, and then fasting until dinner. I don't know what we'll have but I'm thinking probably a big salad, roasted veggies, and the orange raisin quinoa. But I think this time I'll half the recipe so that there's just enough for dinner and Bret's lunch the next day. Because quinoa is MAJORLY high in calories and I will seriously eat it ALOT which will screw up my whole low calorie goal.

So last week, I faltered when it came to my Thursday fasting day. I just couldn't go through with such a low calorie day when I had done a fasting day on Monday, and a low calorie day on BOTH Tuesday and Wednesday (which did bring about some pretty great results, I have to say! I lost 3 pounds + almost 1% body fat!).

So my new strategy is going to be this:

Monday ---- fast
Tuesday ---- low calorie whole foods
Wednesday ---- higher calorie whole foods
Thursday ---- fast
Friday ----- low calorie whole foods
Saturday ----- low calorie whole foods (wedding feast - bring bananas)
Sunday ~ more of a free day probably from about 3pm - 7pm.

So my strategy is to have 2 low calorie days, then a higher calorie day, then FAST. Because it seems like it's easier for me to fast when I have had a higher calorie day previously. We'll see.

It's still hard for me knowing that Bret said my face is getting too thin, that I look better with a bit of a fuller face. It's just confusing because I know I need to lose some fat in *some* places still. Yet others, like my face, I need to gain a bit - and to lose more would not be good!

I found myself self conscious this weekend at Macleay, wondering if people look at me and secretly think I am starting to look like a skeleton in my face and think I am going way overboard.

Bret felt bad telling me that, I could tell, because he doesn't want to take the wind out of my sails. And I really, truly do appreciate his feedback!! Because I know he only has my best interest in mind. It's just frustrating not knowing what to do, how to fix this problem, per say.

One thing is for sure, though - I love how my abs are feeling and LOVE feeling so strong. Even if I maintain at 120 for the rest of my life I would love that. And I think that possibly my stomach will fix itself once the skin isn't so saggy, you know? Maybe that's one of the bigger problems anyway.

Ah well, I still have 12 weeks until family week at Summer Conference which is the deadline to achieve my goal physique. We'll see!

Week 5, Day 2 - 120.2 + 21.6% BF

2010-04-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Woohoo, I'm getting down there! This whole week I have been SUPER good with eating, from Monday until now. That means three entire days, and today is my fasting day so with careful planning I will finish up my 4th day victoriously. I'm so excited!

I am starting to see the *beginnings* of abs on the top, which is where it starts. the skin is starting to get thinner, i.e the fat is shifting or melting away. There is still a thin layer of fat covering my upper abs but underneath, they are rock hard and bigger than I've ever felt them. Even Bret commented on it when he hugged me this morning.

Last night was so, so awesome. Bret found out last minute that he was supposed to take a contractor and his wife to the Blazer game, so he asked if I would come. Scrambled to get a babysitter, but had enough time to straighten my long hair, which looks so silky and flowing when I do that! And I wore my heeled buckle knee high boots with skinny jeans, a nice flowing but fitted burgundy shirt coupled with a big thick belt around my waist. I felt fabulous, but almost a little *too* much like I was showing off my figure. Bret said it looked fine, though, but it certainly looked trendy and chic. Fun!

The dancers and cheerleaders were SO fascinating for me! Always before I would look at them with a mixture of wistfulness and envy - oh to look like that! THEN my life would be perfect, right? Ha ha yeah right.

But anyway, I noticed something. There were two groups - one was dancers on the floor and the other were cheerleaders who mostly stood on these guys' hands and on each other, forming like a pyramid type thing.

The dancers, most of them were soft and not toned at all. Good figures, yes, but fleshly if that makes sense? Some had cellulite on their legs and their butts were all bouncy and not toned. Bret told me that I was skinnier than any of them - he meant it as a compliment, meaning I am more fit than them.

The cheerleaders, ooooooh the inspiration! These girls were MUCH tinier than the other ones, and definitely toned throughout their entire body. They didn't have ripped abs, but pretty close, or close enough - what I would be HAPPY with, anyway! They did amazing stunts like standing ONE LEGGED on a guys hand, and holding out their other leg straight up in the air. That is super hard to do!

I enjoyed watching them very much, and being inspired. But at the same time, no longer wishing I could look like them and feeling so fat and ugly next to them. This time I felt like I could almost jump right in and be one of them! Almost! Except for my baby belly fat and the problem area in the back - just a little more fat to lose and I am there.

I also did FABULOUS with my eating! But only because the wrong food never presented itself. We were in a rush and left at 5:45 in a scramble so I just brought two bunches of bananas with us, of which Bret & I ate for our dinner except for four of them. We ate four each. That kept me pretty full until 9:30 when we were done, at which point I was getting pretty hungry so I had two more bananas in the car. Did NOT eat anything else the rest of the night, but drank a bunch of water.

Stepped on the scale right before bed last night at it was at 122.2 - yay! I would love to be right at 120 for the rest of spring and not top over 125 the whole summer. Now if only I could get my body fat to go down without my weight to go down, that would be a whole nother story. I know it can be done, just never really SEEN it done, you know?

I'm off to do more cardio.........c ya!

Week 5, Day 1 - 120.6 + 21.7% BF!

2010-03-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

WOW WOW WOW I can't believe it, I'm in new territory! Weighing in at 120 and 21% body fat -- woot!

K but here's the thing. Last night DH told me he thinks my face is getting too thin, too gaunt looking. He said for ME personally, I look better with a little bit fuller/softer face. The way my bone structure is, the sculpted look isn't as attractive as a fuller face is.

So hmmmm. That is good feedback to get for sure - BUT what to do, what to do? I definitely do not have the sculpted abs look that I am shooting for. I still have quite the tummy pooch that sticks out - to be fair, much better than before, but still there. And my back fat just above my butt, which makes my butt look kind of flat, is still there. Grrr.

If I quit trying to lose fat now, I will never see my abs. But if I keep on going in the same direction, am I going to end up being at 115 and STILL not seeing abs? Still high in body fat, yet looking like a skeleton in my face?

I am SO not one to "settle" for less than my goal. But I also don't want to be this bony, unattractive wife, for sure! Not really sure what to do, but Bret suggested that I keep on trying to loose the pooch, then maybe eat more to soften up my face. He doesn't think the weight will come back to my stomach if I gain a little after I lose it, but I do. I think it'll come right back first, where it left off last.

Either way, I'm still working hard - I'm about to go do a double workout with circuit training and cardio since I took a break from working out yesterday and skipped my cardio to do it today.

The other thing is, my scale I KNOW is not right as far as how much body fat I have. I'm thinking of getting myself tested at a gym so I can know my true body fat. But on the other hand, there really isn't a point if I can't see my abs anyway, because to me that is a TRUE indication of how much body fat I have.

On the other hand. I have had 7 kids in 10 years so....perhaps I have MORE fat there than the normal, average person and thus the whole low body fat to see abs thing wouldn't really apply?

Guess we'll find out; it's kind of fun to be my own experiment, lol.

Oooooh so,so close!

2010-03-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

I was really good yesterday. I kicked butt on my workout, and fasted until 6pm. My dinner consisted of a big plate full of spinach and topped with cucumbers, avocado, strawberries, raisins, nutritional yeast, walnuts, and onions. Dressing was my normal 1T. each of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and honey.

Then I had about 1 cup of roasted herb potatoes and 6 spears of roasted asparagas. That was all good, until I tasted the Amish bread I had made, with cinnamon and vanilla this time. OH YUM! Really, really good - kind of like a cinnamon roll flavor, but very light and spongy. So I had a slice of that bread. Shouldn't have, and afterwards my stomach was totally bloated, bleh. I really would love to stay away from wheat as much as possible.

Which shouldn't be that hard - actually, the only wheat I have is bread, unless of course I'm cheating.

So anyway, as a RESULT of eating so well and working out yesterday - I weighed in at 122.3 AND 22.3% body fat! Woooooohooo! But, I HAVE been here before and I usually botch it so the next day I'm up, or the same.

Today though, I am so bound and determined!!!! I really, really, really want to see a change this week in my stats so I can show more progress.

But I am making progress, I really am, already. It's really slow but definitely noticeable when you look at it over the long run. Not so much in how I look but in the measurements and the weekly weigh-in/body fat. It's so cool! I can tell I'm getting down to the last few pounds that I need to lose because it's going so slow.

My waist is down in measurements too, which is the biggest problem area for me. I measured in at just a tad bit over 29" around my waist this morning. I think I'm actually going to reach some of my March goals after all!

Hang in there, Sherah --- DON'T MUNCH!!!!!!!

Free Days - Saturday Night OR Sunday

2010-03-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking that what I'm going to do is really try this week to be 100% ON TRACK all week, then on Saturday night (if we have a date) I'll eat what I've been craving (lately it's been chocolate fudge cake with ice cream). Or on Sunday I'll do the same - maybe even both, as long as I don't eat large quantities.

But the main thing I really want to focus on is week nights being 100%. Which means low calorie including 2 fast days, and only plant based foods. Lots of greens and lower fat, as well as not eating after 7pm. And I also naturally don't eat breakfast until noon since I work out every day. So that works out well, I eat 3 meals but they're just within 7 hours of each other.

I'm soooooooooo excited for this week, I don't know why! I just feel like I'm always fine tuning my plan and my body is just kind of evolving by itself without any stressing about it on my part. What I'm doing is WORKING and I love it!!!!!!!1

Week 5, Day 6 - 123 + 22.9% BF - So excited for this week!

2010-03-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

I love, love, love a brand new week! I love Mondays.

Today started out with those normal thoughts that try to come as soon as I wake up: let's just skip the workout today. LOL. It was my hardest one, the one that includes 12 Burpees immediately followed by 8 one legged squats, and repeat that THREE TIMES before you take a rest. OMG. I love to HATE that workout. =)

But, now I'm done - finished by the grit of my teeth, it was hard. I am dying. My arms feel like they're noodles and my legs too, I have a feeling that a nap is going to be MOST welcome this afternoon.

So, yesterday I went shopping at Value Village which seems to be my routine day to go since all the things I bought there LAST Sunday that didn't work for Bret had to be returned within 7 days. And you can't just get your money back, it has to be an exchange so I enjoyed (VERY much!) 2 whole hours to shop.

Thank you, Bret! It was super nice to have that time of relaxing shopping after the whole week of swimming lessons every day and having the kids home for spring break.

But my point is, that I decided to finally get some new jeans since the two pairs I have and wear over & over are size 5 and pretty loose. Loose enough that they gap in the back under my belt, just above my butt and looks kind of funny.

I found a nice stretchy pair in size 3/4 made by Delia*s and I love them! But since the waist is more fitting than my previous pair, all of a sudden my belt really does not fit. It's on the last hole and so...I just made another hole! Now they fit better BUT do create a bit more of a muffin top.

SO. The reason why I'm so excited about this week is because, I am very optimistic that if I can do it, if I can be 100% this week, by Easter Conference on Friday they should fit me pretty well. I love that! I love that I can predict pretty accurately what will happen IF I EAT WELL.

Today Bret & I are both fasting - he tried it last week and it worked great for him, and his run was better than normal. Go figure! So since he is doing it, that is totally motivating for me and I know I'm going to do great today, 100% fasting until dinner. He does it so effortlessly it seems like, the eating part I mean, so I get inspired to do the same.

I also got three skirts - and two of them are just a tiny bit too small in the waist. They're pretty summery anyway, so I'm hoping that I can lose a bit of this spare tire around my waist and they'll fit - they're really cute. I just love going shopping there, because the clothes are so cheap and these days, I find alot since I'm in the small tiny sizes.

I'm off to do some housework - I love life today!

122.0 + 22.3% BF

2010-03-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I weighed myself at noon after having gone running and no water in my body yet - and I was at 122.0 and 22.3% body fat! That weight is a first for me, oh I was so so close to 121! It's cool to see progress, for sure. =)

I Love Sundays!!! Fitness Obsession and & Loving Where I Am Right Now!

2010-03-28T08:02:00.001-07:00

It is 8am and we have a meeting today at 11am, but the kids woke me up early and here I am. I just love this feeling! I love knowing that today is my day off of working out - no drive to exercise, just to enjoy the day knowing that I worked out SIX DAYS IN A ROW this week.

And the thing is, I love it! I love knowing I worked HARD this week and actually deserve a break; not once did I slack and/or miss a workout. The other thing is, having a fit body is almost becoming secondary to me....I just love the feeling of working out. Or rather, knowing that I did - having the satisfaction of knowing and realizing that I "worked for my food" so to speak. I deserve a day of rest. I deserve to eat. I know that sounds weird, but it is so the opposite of the couch potato I used to be that I am just amazed!

Yesterday I worked at the Rose Garden with Bret and ate in moderation like a skinny person. I think this is the person I'm becoming. I'm working hard at not obsessing about the way I look, but just enjoying how I look NOW and working consciously to eat healthy according to what I know (plant based, no meat/dairy/processed food and easy on the sugar) but not to push push push for hard and heavy goals. It's been really relaxing doing it this way.

So yesterday I fasted until 2pm when Bret & I got Baja Fresh veggie fajitas, of which I ate about half of it. Then I had about a cup of yakisoba noodles at the RG, and then 2 of the bite size cream cheese filled pretzels we were selling cuz the lady said we could eat up the extras. Then when we got home I sort of broke my own rule of not eating after 7pm cuz I was pretty hungry and could feel a headache coming on from being so tired, it was 11:30. So I finished my fajitas, had about 1/4 cup of baby m&m's and about 3/4 cup of pineapple, cold and fresh from the fridge.

I did have the munchies and thought about getting something else like popcorn but in moderation, I told myself no, and enjoyed a very good night's sleep because my stomach was not all heavy.

I am loving the place where I am right now - I feel like my body is slowly getting sculpted, but it *is* getting there, I am seeing subtle yet definite changes as each week goes by. I still have 9 weeks or so left until June 1st, and I may kick it up a notch in May. But for now it is really nice just to kind of relax a bit, yet not too much, and see the changes coming especially from working hard on exercising, eating clean for the most part, and fast twice per week. It's like it's happening without too much effort from me, or at least not much *uncomfortable* effort; I am becoming that person I've always wished to be.

I also think that part of it comes from my really awesome talk with Jen. I am so happy to finally sort of have a handle on why it is I was getting so much unrest in the spirit about the way I look and what I am striving after. I feel like I've gotten clarity on the fact that there is a spirit that is trying to get into the young moms especially in the church, one that is solely focused on looking like her or her, and is obsessed with fitness/having a good body. A way of thinking that goes directly against God because it promotes something that is highly esteemed among men, and thus an abomination to Him!

I hate that spirit! The one that wants to look better than the others, and also to get honor from them because of how I look! I am desperately in need over a bigger hatred for this and I feel like I've received faith and power to fight against it as never before. I want to enjoy how I look for ME and enjoy the feeling of knowing I am not overweight anymore, enjoy wearing clothes and very much, looking good for Bret. But oh, that spirit of pride that comes with it? I hate that so, so much.

I am excited for new days and a new spirit that is not weighed down in heaviness over something that I need to give up. Each day, is a new day to dig out more of this in my heart! And I cannot wait for summer. =)

Motivated!! Week 5, Day 2: Spring Break

2010-03-25T21:29:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to say that I am motivated today, to up the ante, so to speak. Today was my fasting day and I did fantastically great up until 4pm when I decided to eat. Bret didn't come home for dinner so I just didn't have the umph to prepare a meal for just me AND for the kids.

Bad idea. So today altogether I had:

1/2 cup of trail mix (salty nuts, raisins, and chocolate chips)
Too many chips & mango salsa
small handful of peanuts
2 1/2 slices of homemade bread with raspberry jam
15 Hershey's Kisses

Boo! ALL Bad food choices and no fruits/veggies except for the raisins. Darn it. But I console myself with the fact that this is all I had today, so...maybe my calories will still be less overall than what I would have normally eaten for an entire day. But they're really bad calories, so I don't know if that counts or not.

Anyway! Tomorrow I plan to do my workout in the morning, then eat as follows:

1st Meal 1:00 - Oatmeal
2nd Meal 3:30 - Green Smoothie
3rd Meal 6:00 - Big green salad, roasted asparagus, plant based cooked vegan

This morning I weighed in at 123 and 22.7% body fat. I was bummed cuz I thought I'd weighed this last week, but when I compared, I was at 124 and 23% last week! So yay for me, that is great to see progress finally. Tomorrow morning I would love to see the same, 123 and 22% BF - but on Saturday, drop that down to 122 and maybe 22.5% body fat. Sunday, maybe 122 and 22.3% body fat. So Wednesday is the last day of the month, and my goal is to be 21% body fat by then, hopefully reaching an alltime low of 120lbs. Here's hoping!

My original goal was 19% by the end of March but that is not going to happen, obviously. Just not enough discipline in EATING on my part, darn it. Although I have to say that I think Eat Stop Eat has been my absolute saving grace in this area. No matter how much I screw up, the fact that I only have 600 calories or so two times per week, is really really helpful in the calorie count for the week.

Working out, though, has gone FANTASTIC and because of that I have actually seen a difference in my body - I am starting to see peeks of my upper and side abs. I don't allow myself to miss workouts hardly ever because I am afraid of the self loathing that comes with that. I hate it, knowing I was too lazy and that's why I didn't do my workout. Now if only I could have that same self discipline with eating!

I don't know...it's all a work in progress. I find that whenever I want to eat exclusively raw I always end up freaking out and eating really bad things like chocolate, chips, bread, and lots of it. when I go the more medium plant based cooked route, I seem to do better because I really do enjoy and look forward to the oatmeal, to the cooked vegan meal after eating a big salad for dinner. And I also lose faster that way.

It's just the glow, that healthy glowing look that I miss from when I ate almost all raw. I think that'll be easier though, when watermelon comes out - I'll be able to have watermelon for breakfast every single day! Hopefully, anyway.

This spring break week with all the kids at home has turned out to be rather enjoyable. I have established a good schedule and enjoyed the routine of getting up early each morning to workout before the kids get up. Tomorrow is my last day - but it was nice to see that it IS possible to do this so when summer comes, hopefully I can do the same. Especially since it'll be alot hotter in the day so much better to do it in the morning.

Eyes burning, stomach telling me it was STOOOOOPID to eat that chocolate, and legs pleading to be put to rest...I better go to bed. Almost 10pm, and two kids still up...

I'll do it "Later"

2010-03-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this strategy lately and I think it's working for me. Like today, I am fasting. But I keep thinking how GOOD this or that food would taste, and how maybe I should just fast half the day instead, or declare this to be an all-out free day. Funny how your brain makes it seem so normal, such a good idea, then you examine it for what it is and it's like what?!? Why would I do that? LOL

But anyway, something that has really been working for me lately is to tell myself that if I really really want this or that, I can have it but not right now. Maybe tonight, or mostly, tomorrow.

It's awesome! Like I would LOVE to have some chocolate chip cookies, just chow down on like 20 of them, lol. But if I actually took the time to MAKE those cookies, by the time I was done cooking them there is a very good chance I would have talked myself out of eating them. So that's why so much of the time I want something RIGHT NOW, this very second, when I feel like going off my diet. It's a frenzied sort of mind - and if I take the time to just calm down and think about it, 9x out of 10, I don't end up eating it.

Interesting.

So, 10 weeks out.

2010-03-23T19:46:00.001-07:00

I kind of feel like starting over, since my blog is going private. Should I? I don't know. Maybe I will, if I feel like it. That's going to be the weird thing, knowing that no-one is reading my blog except me! How weird is that? It'll be kind of like an online diary I suppose, but it's hard to get into the mode of writing just for ME, knowing that there will be no comments and also, that I can write ANYTHING I want. Well, almost anything - I'm also aware that blogs can be hacked, that whatever you write online is not exactly 100% private no matter what. But still.

I've been having a really hard time staying focused the past few days. Actually, ever since our date on Friday night. Yikes! That's 5 whole days of eating off plan.

So, starting tomorrow, I am going to switch over to this being week 1. I think I just need a new start, a new countdown. And 10 weeks is perfect, right? When I am on the last day, it'll be exactly June 1st. Wayyyy cool!

I'm thinking that I will step away from cyberspace for exactly 4 weeks. So on April 21st I will open my blog again to just those people who have requested it, and/or I feel comfortable with, and will have made a humongous amount of progress. That is going to be my motivation - a "coming out" so to speak. I'll be able to post my before/afters and it'll be a fun goal to work towards. And just 4 weeks away!

I'm again reminded of Holly progress in JUST 3 weeks of no cheating except for 2 planned indulgences - that is going to be my goal as well.

So, here's the thing.

I want to start getting back into green smoothies. And I would love to try to eat all raw up until dinner time, with just the entree being cooked since we have a big green salad every night. I am going to make up my green smoothie for tomorrow, TONIGHT! And try to do that every night so it's there in the fridge for the grabbing.

FOCUS: on how GREAT I am going to feel and how QUICKLY my body fat is going to melt off. And possibly eliminate acne? That'd be awesome.

My goals for the end of March will still be visited, and possibly attained?? but I am not going to count on all of them being completed, since I only have 8 more days until that day.

So to recap: All low-fat raw until dinner + salad, including a green smoothie. Mostly I'll probably have OJ, bananas, etc. Calories I don't think I'm going to count for right now, although I might if I'm curious. I just want to eat until full and see where it takes me, like I used to before. I'm torn between raw fooders saying you have to get enough calories on raw and The Adonis Effect saying that it takes low calorie to lose weight (and has been working for me). But it's super hard to go low calorie, and I've been losing that fight lately so...we'll see how this goes.

I still plan to do Eat. Stop. Eat. We'll see where that takes me, too!

Wooohooo! I am excited for a new day and a new 4-weeks. Yay!

My Blog is Going Private...

2010-03-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

After talking with another blogger and realizing that more people read this than I probably know (who know me personally as well) - I've decided to go private. I'm also thinking this might give me more freedom to post what I'd really like to say sometimes, since I'll know exactly who is reading it.

For now, I'm going to keep it completely private just for myself to view. In time I'll probably get bored with that, lol, so if you'd like to be invited when that time comes, just leave a comment and I'll send you an invite when that time comes.

For now ~ cheerio and I wish you ALL the best of success in your weight loss journey! And for those of you who I am an avid follower of your blog, I'll still post comments cuz, well, I love reading blogs. =)

I'll keep this public for a few more days, then do the switch.

New Challenge for this Week

2010-03-21T23:55:00.001-07:00

I've been able to consistently stay at 122 and 22% body fat for the past 3 days, even though I ate off plan (but always maintained that light, not heavy feeling in my stomach by eating less of whatever I ate). I think I pushed my luck a little too much today by having veggie fajitas for lunch, and chocolate cake + salsa/chips + chocolate chips the rest of the day. ha! Duh.

Reason is, though, NOT that this is an excuse but I woke up feeling all crampy and basically awful from TOM....so I guess that's why I got the triple chocolate meltdown.

But anyway, I'm challenging myself this week to working out & eating 100% on plan so that I can look forward to a reward meal on a date with DH this coming Saturday after we do our church fundraiser together. We like to combine volunteering with a fun date afterwards - works really well as long as we can find a sitter. =)

Monday - workout A + cardio (makeup cardio for missing it on Sunday) DID THIS!!
Tuesday - cardio
Wednesday - Workout B
Thursday - cardio
Friday - Workout A
Saturday - rest day + date night
Sunday - cardio

Date Night!

2010-03-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

I took the kids out garage sale-ing this afternoon. I texted DH to tell him what we were doing, and also that we were getting a movie & pizza for tonight. He responded by saying how cool, for us??? So I texted him back and said no, for the kids - but WE were going to go to the big city to spend the weekend, just he & I. =)

I wish!

Well - hey, it'd been a stressful day so I kind of felt like it was needed/deserved, you know?

He texted back to say oh man, don't even tempt me with that! Then I suggested takeout since we were getting the kids pizza .... and he said he didn't really care what we did, he just wished he could spend some time with and be alone with me. (No, that THAT type of alone - get your head out of the gutter, people! LOL j/k)

Aw.....I mean seriously, how could you resist a DH that texts you that??

So I got my sister to come over and we headed off to the big city! Not for the weekend, but the night is the next best thing.

Remember how I said I was going to watch for emotional eating after the stressful event of my son disappearing and a police officer showing up at my door?

Yeah, that one.

I'm happy to say that I did pretty awesome tonight as far as that goes. The main thing is I did NOT eat until full - we went to a gorgeous restaurant but oh my GOSH the menu!! It was so .... so weird! Seriously tell me if you understand what half of this stuff is! (?????) When I asked her about the Crispy Flat Bread, she said it had pig jowl on it. Er....

Asiago Arancini, Sicilian Tomato Jam
Crispy Flat Bread, Quincale, Pears, Teleme Cheese
Sweet Briar Farms Braised Pork Cheek, Chickpeas, Pancetta, Crispy Onions
Warm Quince, Adelle Cheese, Saba, Crostini
Crudo Beets, Sheep’s Milk Ricotta, Mint
Grilled Baby Octopus, Lemon, Fennel, Cucumber
Manila Clams, Linguica Sausage, Chili Flake
Oysters, Lovejoy Cocktail Sauce

But the atmosphere, it was absolutely amazing - on the river (ha ha, I just wrote "IN" the river - small typo, there!), with dim lighting by candles that I LOVED and lovely clinking of glasses and couples talking in hushed tones. Yeah, the works.

I was looking for my normal salmon/rice/veggies I usually order at restaurants like this, but it was all weird stuff a vegetarian wouldn't really want to eat. =)

I had 3-4 slices of foccacia bread, a medium salad, and a few bites of a chocolate truffle type dessert. The bread I wasn't so happy about, but I had about 600 calories so far to eat that day so a moderate amount, and I was on a date so...didn't eat in excess, but not tiny amounts either. But very proud of my salad & few bites of truffle. =) I also had some type of fancy shmancy drink, Pomegranate something - not used to that, left a bit dizzy. LOL

We restaurant hopped over to more of a casual restaurant and got another salad there (what is it with salads? Totally craving them lately!) along with a second drink called a Cosmo. It was okay, didn't really like it - but it was fun to drink with DH and laugh together about everything & anything. We really had an excellent time walking along the shops and laughing about how fast we were walking and how funny that must look. But it felt good to powerwalk and MOVE!

My point in this whole post, though, is that I came home feeling light and not heavy - my stomach was not protruding, I felt pretty much great! I felt good about my choices - while not low calorie, I did not have heavy foods like pasta or meat, and very little dessert (score). And I enjoyed myself....like skinny people do. =)

I did it! 122 lbs and 22% body fat today

2010-03-19T12:37:00.001-07:00

I am always amazed when I really, truly and genuinely give it 100% to watch my body transform so quickly. But mind you, giving it 100% for ME means that there are many tweaks and little things I do that I have found over time work for me. Like skin brushing, not eating after 7pm, low calorie, no sugar/meat/dairy/processed food, fasting 2x week, 110% resistance training, HIIT + 20 min. moderate cardio, planks, plus more I probably am not remembering.

Last night was fun going to bed JUST because I knew when I got up, I would see pretty good results on the scale. And I was right! I weighed in at 122.4 and 22.7% body fat.

Sunshine Mama, I thought of you because you seem to also be pretty well in tune with your body to just "know" it's going to be up/down the next day. =) It's nice to know!

Today so far has been spot on with eating and exercise - ooooh boy was that resistance training EVER HARD today!! I was doing Workout B of my new plan started on Wednesday, and my whole body was trembling when I was done. It felt fantastic!

That was followed by a very scary episode involving my 2 year old DS getting out of the gate (left open by who???? Everyone says "not me") in the backyard and wondering down the street in his pajamas! By the time I realized he was missing, a lady had found him crying down the street and called 911.

So how scary is it to 1) realize your son is missing and 2) find him, only to have a police officer show up at your door not 3 minutes later?

Trust me. It's really, really scary.

I feel like my heart is still in my throat and am thinking all sorts of thoughts ..... and crying. It's rough. I can't think of the "what if's" though - I can just hug him tight and then, give it to God and rest securely knowing that HE IS IN CONTROL and He loves my children way more than I do.

Another aspect of this is emotional eating which...I am not tempted to right now, but the day is not over and tonight DH and I are going to talk about some different ways we can make it safer for the little ones around the house as summer gets closer. Doors get left open far too much with little ones who don't realize the importance, the MAJOR and life threatening importance, so we're going to figure out what to do.

Oh, and the back gate?

It's getting a permanent lock on it.

I Said No

2010-03-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

Today I was 100% ON TRACK and it feels so good to know that! I said no to many things, including mango salsa w/chips, chocolate chip m&m cookies, parmesan butter popcorn, and chocolate.

I DID, however, say "yes" to the most delicious salad! A huge mound of greens covering my entire plate like a mountain, and topped with one whole carrot shredded, one whole stalk of celery sliced, a generous amount of nutritional yeast sprinkled on top, 20 raisins, 2 walnut meats crumbled, and my homemade dressing of balsamic vinaigrette, honey, and EVOO. So, so so good.

I also had about a cup of leftover rosemary roasted potatoes, and 5 good sized roasted garlic brussel sprouts. Ahhhhh, life is good.

I'm finding that sometimes it helps to simply remove myself from the kitchen. Occupy my mind with something else and that does the trick.

Today was not my scheduled fasting day, but I ended up fasting anyway until dinner like I normally do. Some days it just flows that way and is actually quite easy, so I decided to go with it and do it today instead of tomorrow.

I think that, having the kids home is going to be a good thing for me! Which I am glad to find out, because I have never been able to stick to any type of schedule in the summer when they are all home. It's just WAY too easy to sleep in, you know?

But next week we are going to swimming lessons at 10:15, the classes start. Which means we have to START getting ready much, much earlier than that - especially to get the kids to the sitter and pick up my niece to go with us.

So that all means that, I'm going to have to get up early ON MY OWN for five days in a row next week. What I mean by on my own, is that I am accountable only to myself. There is no deadline to get the kids up and off to school, so the ONLY reason I'll be getting up early is to go do my workout.

I know I'll do it, though - I have suffered through way too many days of being lazy with working out and I HATE that feeling. Absolutely despise feeling low about myself for such a dumb reason. It really affects how the day goes for me, it's amazing.

I'm off to bed and looking forward to weighing in tomorrow - I reached 122 last week and 22% body fat and I know I can do it again, maybe (possibly?) tomorrow!

Ahhhhh Laying in the Sun.....

2010-03-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today I welcomed the glorious season of soaking up that Vitamin D in my backyard. I love, love, LOVE the sun and cannot wait each and every spring to get some rays. My love affair continues all summer long!

I have been blessed with olive-tendency skin thanks to my polish and indian descent mixed in with some Dutch for good measure. =) So I tan easily and rarely burn, especially if I am careful not to overdue it in the beginning of the season. Today I did 15 minutes on my back, and 15 on my stomach. Not too much, but it was soooo nice!

Today I tested the waters and sure enough, we ARE a full month ahead on the whole spring thing, like the "experts" have said. Normally I can't lie in the sun until mid April; it's just too cold and pretty miserable laying there with goosebumps.

Today the forecast was sunny and 61, but it definitely felt at least 70 in the sun. Woot! And tomorrow's forecast is 68 so I'm going to hit the lawnchair for a second time tomorrow. I can see on my back that I've got a tan line from today so...hurray! So, so so yummy; I love you, delicious sun!

I also have been dying to get a tan already! I love the way my skin looks and feels when it is tan, and clothes look so much better with tanned skin. It looks so healthy and gives off that vibrant glow of health that I am looking for. Oh summer, summer, I can't wait for you to come visit!

Accountability

2010-03-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

Accountability: I am thankful for it.

I had an awesome day today. Spot on with a hard workout, and excellent 100% eating.

Until about 6:00 when I got the call from DH to say that he wouldn't be home until late working. Which of itself is not a problem, it's how I take things that is the problem, right?

So it was hard for me to face the evening alone with the kids and I was starting to really struggle with not eating these yummy smelling/looking chocolate chip m&m cookies I'd made with the kids at about 4pm. I'd said no, congratulated myself, and moved on, but...they were sitting there. You know how it is. And I'm the Mom, with no-one around to see me eating them, or to tell me no.

When you're the Mom, you get to eat whatever you want just like you always vowed you would when growing up! LOL.

The evening was really stressful. Ugh. I'm glad to have this day over with a new one starting tomorrow.

And I ate, oh, I don't know - honestly probably about 15 cookies.

I know. Time for brutal honesty on the world, wide web.

I was totally stuffing my face in between finding 3 kids ages 2,3,5 locked in the bathroom and the 2 year old trying to take a bath WITH his sleeper on. And everyone else all wet and, yeah, had already been told multiple times to brush their teeth and get into bed. Being irritated with myself for eating the dumb cookies and also with everyone else for just being normal kids.

But - tomorrow is a new day, a cardio HIIT day and all the kids are home on spring break. So that will be another challenge in and of itself but regardless, I will be eating on plan and doing my cardio.

I am going to plan my weekly routine and post it on here again; that helped me out VERY much last week. Following your example, Sunshine Mama, posting the food I eat puts it all out there for everyone to see: the good, the bad, the VERY good, and the VERY bad. =)

One thing I was reading today on the Fit Yummy Mummy site was, when you're tempted to quit or give in/give up (even for the day!) to think about it this way:

IF, and I mean if, I did not give in....if I stayed 100%....where would I be in one week? Where do I think I could be? What weight would I be at, what body fat would I be at?

Holly shares specifically here:

What If?

What if you pushed through this incredible feeling of discomfort - the discomfort that comes from choosing to NOT take the easy way out.....the discomfort that come from the Thought and Time needed for Planning Ahead...

Where will you be next week if you CHOOSE to KEEP Working at this?????

For me visualizing it is a HUGE help, thus the fun beach fitness pictures I've been posting lately. They really give me a visual picture of a happy, calm place with someone who is fit...someday that'll be me!

And yes, oh my gosh YES YES YES it is so so so super hard. It's really, really hard sometimes. Lots of the time. But the end results, knowing that despite ALL the ups & downs, all the date nights, weekend retreats at church, all the nighttime munchy attacks, all the times I did NOT give in...will be worth it.

So, totally worth it. When I can look in the mirror and not just that, but FEEL my body moving in such a way that it never has before - when I feel fit and healthy and I don't feel all the blubber jiggling when I jump up & down.

Wow. That'll be so amazing. So anyway, I'm signing off for tonight and will check back in tomorrow with that eating plan.

Week 3, Day 1 - 124

2010-03-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm still recovering from the time change and a couple of hard eating days on Sunday & Monday. I did VERY well at the retreat - ate 100% raw until Saturday night when I had a small filet of salmon, some rice, and was doing so great! After that it went downhill because I chose to have a large piece of chocolate mousse oreo pie. It wasn't that good, though - I don't really like that type of thing, it tastes like I'm eating all frosting laden with butter. But I ate it anyway and that put me in the wrong frame of mind. So I had a bunch more snacks later that night.

I did, however, go running on hills doing my HIIT both mornings in the country which was FREAKIN COLD but felt super, super good. I did pretty well most of Sunday but then indulged in a quite a bit of no food that evening. I pack on the weight FAST when I eat junk food at night, I mean like mega fast. So it's good that I have been able to settle back into my routine of not eating after 7pm; I believe it is my saving grace, lol!

Yesterday was my fasting day which went 100% on plan, so glad for that! I looked forward to my yummy dinner and enjoyed it VERY much. I was able to stave off the munchies successfully and drank water until 11pm when I finally went to sleep.

Has the time change tweaked anyone else out? Oh my gosh, I have felt like all my workouts are done in the water or something, ever since we changed the clock. Running was HARD on Sunday morning, Monday morning I woke up in such a fog I declared it a rest day and let all the kids stay home from school. Yesterday's HIIT jump roping, burpees, jumping jacks - I was exhausted afterwards. Finally today's workout went well, so I think we're finally adjusting over here.

Speaking of today's workout - I'm starting a new one!! For the next 4 weeks I'll be doing Fit Yummy Mummy's March workout which is even more kick butt than February's. I am doing Curtsey Lunges - ever done those? They feel awesome on the fanny...=)

Onward & upward, soldier!

Losing Fat

2010-03-16T15:58:00.000-07:00

I thought this was really simple and straightforward, from Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training, whose workout program I follow (he's the co-author of Fit Yummy Mummy).

Everyday I get so many weird/extreme/complex/technical fat loss questions…and the thing is, I don’t know anything about what you just asked me, but I just don’t see how it would change what you need to do.

To lose fat, you must:

Eat fewer calories than you need, avoid processed foods, do intervals, and resistance training.

That’s pretty much it. What could possibly change?

I also read a quote he included in his newsletter this week that says: "Everything you do either takes you closer to or further from your goals. Just remember that in everything you do this week. "

Just what I needed to hear today, as it is 4pm and I am fasting and it's been a tempting day. Do I want this? Do I really, really want this?

Cuz...summer is coming pretty darn soon. I need to focus, really focus, and do what needs to be done.

That being said, I am really looking forward to dinner tonight of salad with nutritional yeast (OMG I am soooooo hooked on this lately!!!!), along with Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts and delicious Balsamic Roasted Red Potatoes. Yum, yum!

I always seem to do more cooking on fasting days...hmmm...I wonder why? (grin) The only thing I've stopped doing is (sob) my homemade whole wheat rolls. Those are definitely NOT going to help me reach my abs goal.

Ugh, it never fails

2010-03-12T16:32:00.000-08:00

Whenever I get on here and say how well I've been doing, well, pride goes before a fall. Seriously, almost every time! That's honestly partly why I didn't post before now, grrrr.

So yeah, having the kids all home today has been less than easy, but what did I expect? I need to figure out how to roll with the punches and still keep my schedule for the day. I'm not complaining, this is my life and I love it! And an excellent test run for SUMMER which I am always longing for, yet need to prepare for, since obviously it'll be MANY days in a row with all of them at home.

So what happened, exactly? Well, I got up from my nap completely RAVENOUS like usual, I'm always super hungry right at 3:00 when I get up, for some reason. So I ate like 2 1/2 cups of quinoa. Which is not on the menu for today (green smoothie was) and that is like.....oh my GOSH. Holy SMOKES! I just had 1500 calories worth of food in that 2 1/2 cups! Okay, that's depressing.

Cuz after that I had about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, semi-sweet. Uh, 400 calories. Then about 1/2 cup of tortilla chips. 78, not bad, except for all the salt!

I'm so tempted to just fast the rest of the day, but then, THEN I know I'm going to be hugely and sorely tempted by the snacks at retreat tonight.

Ugh.

Okay, well, we've all been there, done that, right? Tomorrow I'm going to kill it on cardio - not that that'll really make up for it or anything - and be on plan as much as possible. I really really REALLY don't want to be back up to 125 or 126 on Monday morning's weigh in.

Maybe I should just consider this to be my indulgence for the week?

Hmmm...that's an idea.

Anyway, I'm off to do some work...figure I'd better get the house in decent order for DH while he babysits this weekend.

Week 2, Day 3: 122 - Oatmeal is so Yummy!

2010-03-12T12:54:00.000-08:00

Isn't this picture just absolutely delicious? I love my oatmeal with frozen blueberries but I can't wait to try it with freshly picked blueberries from the farm.

I just have to say that I love my oatmeal. I have evolved to the point where I now eat it with no milk at all, it's kind of like blueberry crisp consistency now. Ooooh I wonder how it'd taste after it's been broiled a bit? Yum. But mostly, I love how I feel afterwards. I feel like I've given my body a big warm hug. I just feel so good, with warm food in my tummy. I don't know, I guess it goes well with the cold rainy weather outside. =)

I know that eating only fruit, vegetables, & greens is the ultimate most perfect plan for ME - but it's also the hardest one. I just love food so, so much. I love how I eat right now, but I also am looking forward to switching up watermelon for my oatmeal in about a month or so, which means I will be almost all raw. And fairly easily too - I'm excited about this!

I've been so inspired by my detailed meal & workout plan. But mostly just knowing it's up on the blog for all the world to see has forced me to stick to it so that I won't be embarrassed. There is NO REASON why I can't do exactly as I've outlined, and I want to do it so - I've been able to be 100% on plan, 2 1/2 days in a row. Which is really great for me. I'm talking NO snacking on little things here & there like a few bites of bagel, a few chocolate chips, a bite of cookie, a few tortilla chips. It's been HARD, but I've done it and I feel amazing especially just for myself, just knowing that I've been on plan.

It's strange though, how immediate the results are when I put into action eating 3 meals of real plant based food until I am pleasantly full and happy. I eat fairly low fat meals, and low calorie + working out faithfully to my max in a fasted state to burn fat at it's max. It's amazing but SO immediate that I often wonder if it's for real! Apparently it is cuz I've been able to keep the weight off that I've lost up until now. But I truly was amazed when I stepped on the scale to read 122.2 this morning, and 22.4% body fat.

Tonight I head off to a weekend retreat where all meals are included in the cost and will be right there, in my face. But honestly, those don't usually tempt me unless I'm really hungry, and I plan to combat that with a nice filling green smoothie kept in the fridge in the dining hall that I can just grab and start drinking. When I'm full of green smoothie, ALL food loses it appeal bigtime.

I don't have a hard & fast rule for myself that I absolutely cannot have some snacks at night - those are going to be the most tempting. Actually, I do: moderation. I think it might be fine to have a donut hole or two, a couple of crackers with cheese. But not a whole entire plate to just mindlessly eat because that's what everyone else is doing, sitting at tables and chatting. My water bottle is going to be my best friend - that is what I can mindlessly drink while sitting there. =)

Today's workout was a challenge because ALL the kids are home. Usually I just have the baby who is sleeping, and the two kids ages 2 & 3 who play or twirl around on the computer chair while I exercise & play the rythm music loudly. They love it!

But the older ones ages 10, 8, 7, and 5 were home and you know how it is - someone, somewhere, is usually teasing someone else, so they come running to me crying about it. So there were a few times where I was smack in the middle of HIIT jumping jacks and so out of breath and absolutely not able to stop or I wouldn't get back on the wagon. So I had to ignore them for a bit, which turned out fine - it's actually kind of funny how all of a sudden it's actually not that big of an emergency after all. =) I mean obviously if someone was truly hurt I would drop everything and run, but you can usually tell if it's just an annoying sibling problem.

I won't have my laptop this weekend so I'll check back in on Sunday afternoon. Sunday night is my scheduled indulgence and I may or may not use it, we'll see. I'm not going to be able to weigh myself either which is hard when I am oh, so close to that 121 pound mark that I have not seen yet on this journey. Bye for now!

11 Weeks Out Tomorrow...& My Detailed Plan

2010-03-09T15:36:00.000-08:00

11 weeks until summer...and I need to button up my diet BIG TIME. I know without a shadow of a doubt, this is why I have not budged from 23.4% body fat in the last 4 weeks. I only have 3 weeks left to see that change to 19% as is my goal by April 1st.

So without further ado, here is my whole next week's meals all planned out + the workouts. I really want to do this 100%, complete with one "planned" yummy meal. Called a planned indulgence. =) It's not going to be a lame handful of chocolate chips, either, or some plain tortilla chips, or all those other things that I seem to be able to justify here or there. It's going to be something delishioso that I've been wishing for!

Wednesday ~ 15 m. Workout A w/15 HIIT + 20 min aerobic dance
1st Meal - 3/4 cup b4 cooked oatmeal w/blueberries, cinnamon, honey, and raisins.
2nd Meal - Green smoothie with 3/4 pound of greens + fruit OR salad
3rd Meal - Big spinach salad + small portion (eating until full) of low fat vegan dinner.

Thursday ~ 15 m. HIIT jump rope/jumping jacks + 20 min aerobic dance
1st Meal - fasting
2nd Meal - fasting
3rd Meal - Big spinach salad + small portion (eating until full) of low fat vegan dinner.

Friday ~ 15 m. Workout B w/15 HIIT jump rope/jumping jacks + 20 min aerobic dance
1st Meal - 3/4 cup b4 cooked oatmeal w/blueberries, cinnamon, honey, and raisins.
2nd Meal - Green smoothie with 3/4 pound of greens + fruit OR salad
3rd Meal - Big spinach salad + small portion (eating until full) of low fat vegan dinner.

(Saturday & Sunday I will be at a retreat with momof9 where we will be eating 100% raw together in order to get the most out of it and feel gooooooood! Woot!)

Saturday ~ 15 HIIT Running + 20 min power walking
1st Meal - fresh squeezed OJ
2nd Meal - green smoothie
3rd Meal - big salad

Sunday ~ 15 HIIT Running + 20 min power walking
1st Meal - fresh squeezed OJ
2nd Meal - green smoothie
3rd Meal - Big spinach salad + PLANNED INDULGENCE (Molten Chocolate Cake...maybe!).

Monday ~ 15 m. Workout A w/15 HIIT jump rope/jumping jacks + 20 min aerobic dance
1st Meal - fasting
2nd Meal - fasting
3rd Meal - Big spinach salad + small portion (eating until full) of low fat vegan dinner.

Tuesday ~ Rest Day
1st Meal - 3/4 cup b4 cooked oatmeal w/blueberries, cinnamon, honey, and raisins.
2nd Meal - Green smoothie with 3/4 pound of greens + fruit OR salad
3rd Meal - Big spinach salad + small portion (eating until full) of low fat vegan dinner.

3 WEEK WEIGH IN and I start a brand new 4-week circuit workout on Wednesday the 17th!!

Crisis Averted

2010-03-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

This morning was filled with issues regarding preteens and certain core issues in life that need to be addressed, so my workout did not happen. I usually wait until after I exercise to eat because I have no appetite before or during but since it was delayed, I got famished! Plus, the issues we were dealing with...

...I started getting urges to stuff my face with bagels, or blueberry muffins, or any chocolate I could find in the house (chocolate chips, how lame is that?! ha ha!).

Instead, I literally and calmly forced myself to walk over to the drawer and take out the pan, put my oatmeal in it, and start cooking. As soon as the smell reached my nose I was instantly GLAD and happy that I had done that - I do love my oatmeal, it's just all that other stuff was calling me.

I am now happily and sufficiently full and VERY VERY VERY glad I did not give in! Today MUST be a clean 100% eating day or I will see no drop in the scale for tomorrow. The scale read 125.0 at 23.2% body fat this morning. I would love to report 123 lbs and 22.9% body fat tomorrow for my weekly weigh in!!

Here's hoping. =)

Our Trip to the Desert (and some pics!)

2010-03-08T13:07:00.000-08:00

DH & I got invited to go with some friends to the "desert" part of our state for the weekend. We had SUCH a good time! I mean really, probably one of the best times we've ever had. Just amazing.

I got a chance to implement some of the lifestyle changes I have decided to adopt and it was fun to see how I can still have LOTS of fun, live life, and yet not be the same as I was before.

For the first time in our entire marriage, we made it a priority to get up early and go running. Wow. This in itself is like, 100% opposite of what we always considered a vacation to be. Working out and/or exercising has never been fun for DH OR me, and therefore considered to be absolutely um, no way, for vacationing.

But we have talked about it often in the past few months. Talked about the difference between sleeping in until 11am and feeling sluggish, eating all our meals out and feeling sluggish because of heavy foods, and just feeling overall lazy and doing nothing all weekend. Which of itself is FINE, really, because that is what vacationing used to mean to us and it is what made us happy and able to say that we had a great time.

But....what if a person were to, say, get up earlier than normal - not EARLY early, but early "er". Say, 9-ish. And go running along the river trail, in the sparkling sun and gorgeous scenery...refreshing air rushing into your lungs. To HIIT/Powerwalk for four miles up and down hills and then end with a relaxing time of yoga stretching together. Then to lay on the grass in the warm sun and talk about anything and everything, enjoying the first glimpse of spring AND the lack of kiddos to worry about. =)

Then to shower and dress, and have a lovely breakfast of sparkling green smoothie with fresh greens, apples, oranges, and bananas. Simple but divine and oh, so clean and refreshing!

Especially when compared to the alternative which could possibly entail, a heavy breakfast of pancakes, sausage, syrup, & eggs.

I'm telling you, it is the most incredible feeling and so, SO energizing!!! We did this same routine both Saturday morning and Sunday morning.

Except though, I have to give this one disclaimer that the trail was not your average run of the mill straight boring trail. It was up and down hill with just about every step - mostly uphill. To get down to the river you had to follow a zig-zag pretty steep trail and then of course, go back up once it ended. My crazy DH actually ran up AND down the trail both days - whew!

So my disclaimer is that, while it WAS energizing and the most amazing feeling ever, afterwards I was pretty stiff & sore from the actual WORKOUT that it was. It was definitely more than just cardio, I have to say!

On Saturday we also went for a 2-mile hike in a state park involving rock cliffs with a river winding around the base. It, too, was a big climb both down & up and was another extra workout. I didn't realize it was going to be quite the lengthy hike complete with all the climbing and such, so I wore a cozy sweater with black corduroy pants and chunky heeled boots. Can you say HOT and sweaty?!! Ha ha!

My other 3 companions all had on sensible shoes, shorts, tshirts....yeah. But that's okay - it was actually pretty cold in the shade so it worked out ok, I just felt kind of um, overdressed.

A few more Pictures ~

All day I just had a green smoothie and then munched on bananas - we had agreed that due to budget constraints, we would have a late breakfast, snack, then go out to dinner & a movie on Saturday night.

That evening we all dressed up and it was so fun! You would've never guessed that between the two couples we had 9 kids. =) We went to a nice restaurant and it felt so rewarding to know that I had eaten very well all day and could now have a delicious meal and truly enjoy it with NO GUILT.

I ordered a scrumptious salmon, rice, and veggies - with a cranberry pear salad on the side that I split with DH. They had the most delicious bread which I had five smallish pieces - it was seriously, so so good. All warm and crusty and served with green onion butter.

And then, yes then, I ordered a Molten Chocolate Cake with warm fudge and vanilla bean ice-cream, and ate it all myself. Hee hee...this girl LOVES her some good food!

Ha ha! But still, this was MY meal that I had looked forward to and anticipated by eating less and very healthy during the day. I felt like...this is life! This is how I want to live. To be able to enjoy and indulge on occasion, and slip right back into my healthy lifestyle when those occasions are finished. What fun!

Surprisingly, I felt really good afterwards. Still light, happy - my stomach was fine. I think it was because of the salmon & rice - I always feel great after eating that. But who knows - all I can say is I got a taste of what my life COULD be like, to stay healthy and fit - while still having the best of both worlds.

And I liked it. =)

Sunday I ate a green smoothie for breakfast, Ceaser salad, salmon, and crusty parmesan bread for lunch - and by this time I wasn't feeling as great. The salad was drenched in dressing - and for this girl who is used to light vinaigrette dressing it was just too, too much. For dinner I had 2 dark chocolates, alot of chips, salsa, and beans - and one veggie fajita.

After that my body was screaming at me to KNOCK IT OFF with the eating out already, so....the rest of the night I just drank water.

Here I am back home and in my routine, although I did decide to take today as my "off" day to recuperate from working out 5 days in a row - two of which were pretty hard HIIT sessions. Or at least, not what my body was used to.

I weighed in at 126 this morning so that's 2 pounds gained over the weekend, but I am not worried - I know some of it is water retention from the chips I had for dinner last night. Today is my fasting day which works out perfectly, and my goal is to eat CLEAN this week.

Oh, but how I enjoyed my meal Saturday night!!!!! =)

First 12 Weeks - My Results!

2010-03-03T22:17:00.000-08:00

I finished my first 12 weeks yesterday. It felt incredibly exhilarating to think back and realize that wow, I stuck to my routine for 12 whole weeks!! I rarely missed a workout and as a result I can FEEL my body as I move. It feels amazing.

I still have a nice layer of fat to get rid of, thus the current 23.4% body fat. But I am excited for the next 12 weeks!

Here are some of the changes from my first 12 weeks:

1. Weight - 21 pounds released! 143 to 122.

2. Body Fat - I started tracking it at Week 5. 26% to 23% in the last 7 weeks.

3. On the 2nd day of my journey, I wrote:

I am so happy that I am now finished with day two of my newly motivated workout/eating lifestyle. I'm glad, because I had this mental image of myself in my head and wow - what I saw in those pictures does NOT match. It's like I think I'm in the 120's instead of the 140's. Oh, the difference 20 pounds is going to make! I can't wait! Good BYE lumpy body!!

So happy to say that....I REACHED THIS GOAL!!!

4. Clothes - My size 7 (28) jeans were tight on me when I started out. I now fit a size 5 comfortably, almost too loose around the waist. I wore a size Medium in Old Navy tops - and can fit into some size XS's these days.

5. Measurements! Drumroll...total of 18.75" lost.

Biceps: 11" ~ 10.6"
Chest: 36" ~ 32.5"
Waist: 34" ~ 29.5"
Panty Line: 35.5" ~ 32.75"
Hips/Butt: 39" ~ 36.5"
Thighs: 21" ~ 19.5"
Calves: 14.75" ~ 14"

That's all I can think of now - I'll try to get some comparison pictures up - those are the most telling of all! =)

Week 1, Day 1 - 124: Endorphins Through the Roof!!

2010-03-03T13:22:00.000-08:00

Today starts a brand new set of 12 weeks for me. Three months from now, I will be in the best shape of my life and it will be SUMMER!!! I woke up today so completely motivated and in tune with where I'm going and how to get there. I love that feeling.

And my workout, OH MY GOSH. I don't even know how I existed before I started working out. How did I ever go without it? Today I pushed myself farther than I ever have to date, including picking up a pair of 30 pound weights to do squats with. It was actually an accident, I remembered that I used them for deadlifts on Monday so I just did my squats with them. Wow, they were alot harder - and I was wondering why they felt like such a challenge when it was my "normal" weight.

Ha ha - I looked at the paper and it said I always use 25 lb weights. Too funny, but of course I couldn't just stop and wimp out, using 25 lb weights for the next 2 sets. No way! I pounded through the next 24 squats and afterwards the exhilaration JUST from knowing I'd done that, was totally and completely worth it. Plus, I hate squats. HATE them. Because there is such a burn that occurs - like my body is shaking and screaming that I am insane - to stop stop stop because it hurts hurts hurts. (but not injury hurt, just plain ol muscles groaning discomfort)

After my 40 minute workout, the music was playing and I just wanted to MOVE my body. So I thought why not - and I did HIIT on top of my workout. It was ALOT different, I was already tired to begin with so that made it extra hard, but in my mind, extra successful! I killed it, totally, pushing to my MAX and beyond - trying to jump high on my jumping jacks. I can't even explain how good it feels to be in shape. THIS is why I am doing this, because it just feels phenomenal to crank out 160 jump rope bounces per minute, then go right into jumping jacks for a minute (60) and then back to jump roping for 30 seconds, then rest for 30 seconds.

Yeah, I was dying but it feels so awesome. Then afterwards I did my normal rest for 5 minutes and then moderate cardio - aerobic dance - for 20 minutes. The music was totally inspiring and GREAT and I felt like I could have done that for way longer than 20 minutes. I felt exhilarated, so energized, and could clearly feel the endorphins rushing through my body in a way that I don't normally, when I do HIIT on a separate day.

So, yeah, great start to my new 12 weeks. I am also hoping to eat just fruits & vegetables today...started with the juice of 12 small oranges, then added the pulp to 1 lb of spinach, 3 cups of water, 2 bananas, and 1 apple to make up the rest of my meals for the day. And maybe more, like bananas, if I'm hungry later.

ps does anyone know how to change the color on the header by my title? I'm sooooo tired of green and can't figure it out!

Dreams & Goals for March

2010-03-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

1. I reached 22.5% on February 26th. In March I am going to shoot for the stars and reach 19.9% body fat. It's all about eating...I know I can do it!

2. Pushups - I want to be able to do 15 pushups in a row, in March. My current best is 8 in a row.

3. Reach 120 pounds and hold there, possibly going down to 118 which is my absolute low.

4. My lower back fat. I would love love LOVE to get rid of those love handles in the back! I believe that can and will be accomplished when I reach my lower body fat percentage goal of 19%. (Sunshine Mama, can't wait to hear your body fat tips!!)

5. Cellulite on bum and back thighs - may you thin out and visibly appear better in March. I am going to take Alfalfa this whole month which is a natural diaretic and helps with cellulite.

6. I am going to KICK IT in the chest this month. At the end of March, I would love to see more chest definition since my poor chest has, ahem, seen better days (7 nursing babies in 10 years has taken it's toll, I'm afraid).

7. Acne - I want it gone, gone, gone! That is why I am doing 1 lb of greens per day. At the end of March, I would love to see clear, bump-free skin on my face and back/neck. This will ONLY be achieved by a clean diet - remind myself!

8. Still have that Mommy apron flap of skin on my lower tummy. At the biggest part, I can pinch 1.5" of fat/skin. I plan to skin brush every day and take Alfalfa, as well as working hard to get that body fat down. I'd love to see that shrink to 1" of pinchable skin/fat when I am standing.

9. Clothes - I would love to fit into a comfortable and slightly loose size 4 - particularly, my size 3/4 black slacks that I currently cannot button closed. This is a size I'd like to stay at, however. (Weird to be saying that! =) I wore a size 2 in jeans last summer and that was when I was not working out (I remember my butt in particular was pretty flat) so I'm thinking/hoping with muscle added, a size 4 is my perfect size.

ALSO - I'd like to be able to wear this long sleeved, size M junior stretchy aqua thermal shirt without feeling like a fit wannabe with rolls in unseemly places. PICTURES in person, to come if I hit this goal! I would also like to have to get a new belt!

10. Last but not least - I would love to see a waist measurement of 28" even. I've never, ever measured that on my waist.

MARCH, HERE I COME!

PS this has really really helped me in my motivation. I highly recommend it - spelling out specific goals is FUN, gives you a very clear hope and vision for the future and if I keep it realistic (important!!!!), is fun to see it actually happen!!

Reflections on February

2010-03-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

I've been down on myself the past few days because my weight and body fat are staying exactly the same. But no wonder, duh, I haven't been doing good on my eating AT ALL.

Anyway - I just revisited my February goals and Oh my gosh, I am so surprised!! I totally surpassed almost all of them! These were my February goals, and here is how I came out (actual results in italics):

1. By February 28th, I want to be able to do 5 pullups, and 20 pushups in a row. I can currently do 1 unassisted pullup and 6 real pushups.

I decided not to do the 100 pushups challenge after all, and instead focus on my current circuit training and work it HARD. So this goal was changed mid month, not for lack of being able to do it, but to reach for something else.

2. I reached 128 pounds in January, and my goal is to be 124 pounds by the end of February which will SURPASS my original overall goal of 125. I reached 122 lbs in February! Wow!

3. In January, I was able to fit into my size 5 jeans and the last button hole of my belt, but there is NO wiggle room in the jeans and that last button hole is just a teensy tad bit too tight. For February, I would like those same jeans to be looser and more of a comfortable fit, and have to get a new belt because the last button hole is TOO LOOSE! How cool would that be?

My size 5 jeans are almost too loose now! And I wear the last belt hole all the time with room to spare. Although, it is a comfortable fit and there is no need to get a new belt just yet.

4. In January I have not been able to get out of the 30's regarding measurement in my waist, around the belly button. I seem to be stuck at 30.75". My goal is to be 29.75" around my waist by the end of February. Waist measurement on Feb. 25th was 29.5"!!!

5. Body fat! As of the end of January, I am currently at 24%. I would love to be at 22% body fat by Feb. 28, even if it's just 22.9%. I know the SECRET to a toned body that looks great, is low body fat. I can't wait to see more definition! I reached 22.5% body fat on Feb. 26th!

6. My goal in eating for February, is to replace one meal each day with low fat raw food (fresh fruits, veggies, or greens). This is going to be the hardest thing , since I love my cooked food since starting the low fat plant based way of eating. Fasting 2x per week really makes me appreciate and enjoy the days I do get to eat. I feel sometimes like I am "wasting" one of my allotted 3 meals per day when I have bananas or oranges or a green smoothie. My goal then, is to change this mindset to visualize that body fat going down faster, and the weight falling off faster, with each raw only meal I have.

This was a very hard goal to reach, but when I implemented 1 pound of greens per day, that was taken care of. I didn't do it as much in February as I would like, but as of Feb 23rd I began to have green smoothies for lunch - greens, bananas, and fruit.

12 Weeks Out 'til Summer!

2010-03-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

Do you guys realize, we only have 12 weeks until June 1st!??? I know that's not technically "THE" first day of summer, but to me - June 1st signals the beginning of regular, non-stop days of hot summer sunshine. Aaaaaahhhh! I can't wait.

For me, my goal is to be fit by summer time. To look like I've always dreamed I would/could, but never EVER have gotten there. Now, I have 12 weeks. That IS enough time for a complete transformation. At least, that is considered enough time by most fitness experts to get into phenomenal shape especially if you are down to the last 5 pounds like I am.

Question is.

Can I do it? Actually and more accurately, WILL I do it? I know I can. But it's a question of will.

I've been having a hard time since Saturday and YES Sunshine Mama I am sooooooo in agreement with you that it is next to IMPOSSIBLE just to have that one treat! I ate badly 1/2 of the day on Saturday, 1 meal on Sunday, GREAT yesterday but the scale did NOT move so today, I had a big fat muffin, a big bowl of popcorn, and a handful of chocolate chips.

I'm feeling alot of pressure this week, I REALLY wanted it to be a low calorie week so I could enjoy some good food this weekend with my friends while we go on a mini vacation. To get money to do that, I'm selling stuff on Ebay like mad and I have seriously, NO time to do that. My life is strictly regimented into tiny pieces of time that I have to get x or x done - and if I don't adhere to that, everything kind of falls apart. Mostly cuz whatever I do is quickly undone by many little hands so if I'm not doing it over & over routinely, it gets crazy messy very quickly. Tereza, you know what I mean, right? =)

So I have to pack all my kids and write out their schedules and get them delivered to 5 different homes on Friday by 4pm. And our taxes need to be sent in to our tax guy by Friday which means I have to calculate all the ins & outs of my online business selling/teaching about Ebay. Bleh. Fun times.

So when I think about all these things I have to do and in addition, I need to eat low calorie.....I just kind of, flip out. I don't want to. And find it amazing how no matter how good we have it - there is always something to complain about it!

So, complain no more will I. After eating all that stuff this morning, I'm going to work harder. Not look back at my failures and waaaah cry about it. Just look at how it has been, face it square on, then turn around and go in the other direction. The rest of my day can be spot on with food. It can!

Oh, I also wanted to say that I have been doing AWESOME with my 1lb of greens per day. Well, almost awesome. The past 2 days I have only managed 1/2 a pound but I still consider that to be a victory considering the fact that I have often gone many days in the past with no greens at all.

Goals

2010-02-27T23:45:00.000-08:00

So this next weekend we are going away for two whole nights without the kiddos! I am super excited...we're going with a couple of good friends of ours, also minus their kids.

After having gotten a "planned indulgent night" under my belt, I am revved and ready to take this next week by storm! And have a super fun weekend feeling fit and able to indulge in some yummies again in 7 days to compensate for a low calorie week. Which, hopefully, in turn will continue to keep my body guessing when I go from low cal to high calorie for a couple of days.

So, my goals for the next week:

Stay on plan with no cheats. That means low calorie until Friday - and continuing on with my one pound of greens per day, and fasting 24 hours on Monday and Thursday. Eating only planned low fat, plant based whole foods which will mostly include oatmeal, OJ, green smoothies, and salad. And, eating until full and between the hours of 11:45am and 7pm. Getting in 6 workouts as well, pushing it to my max with each workout.

I fully expect my weight to be at 125 tomorrow from eating lots of stuff, so my estimated weight goals are:

Sun - 125 23.4% BF Actual was: 125, 23.4%
Mon - 123 22.9% Actual was: 125, 23.4%
Tues - 122 Actual was: 125, 23.4%
Wed - 122 22.5% BF
Thurs - 121
Fri - 121 + 22.0% body fat

Those are my hopes, anyway! The weight doesn't matter so much to me, as the body fat. Of course, I would LOVE to reach 21% but I doubt that is going to happen since it was back up to 23% this morning after having eaten some cake last night.

I'm Debating....

2010-02-26T09:15:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow DH & I are going on a date. I have been thinking of, and planning to, indulge in some type of molten chocolate cake that is warm and yummy, with gooey hot fudge and ice cream on the side that melts into swirling chocolate goodness. Mmmmm.

But on the other hand.....I'm doing so well with my eating these past few days! It seems like every time I do this, I eat really well for 3 days about, then I eat something fattening and sugary and it takes me about 2-3 days to get back down to where I was. The result is not that much weight loss on weigh in day, but the day AFTER that, I drop. Rinse, repeat.

But I am realizing that, as much as I wish I could be like the Amazon woman who has all self control and just sees her goal and goes for it 100% and attains it in like, record time?

I'm not that woman.

I can't be or I'll go crazy. So this is going to be a planned indulgence that will be delicious and I'll enjoy it, then go right back to my normal boring day. But wait! It's not boring - oatmeal, to me, is not boring. I love it sooo much. You try fasting for 24 hours and then tell me that warm oatmeal with walnut milk, cinnamon, honey, raisins, and frozen blueberries doesn't sound like the most awesome breakfast in the world! =)

Looking forward to my cake tomorrow! And today, I will be on plan.

Week 11, Day 3: 122

2010-02-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

Another alltime low for me, since I started this journey. I've decided to change my goal to 118, which is my absolute alltime low that I can EVER remember. The only actual number I remember from my younger years was telling the guy at the DMV that I weighed 110 when I was 17 and got my license.

I didn't even really care how much I weighed when I got married at 21 - I never really thought about it. That is SO weird for me to think about. Obviously I was a true blue "skinny person" back then without 8 pregnancies under my belt and all the hormone changing and crazy stuff/hip widening, etc that happens to your body.

I will never be that person again, the one who doesn't have to think about it, but I sure have that ability to become fit & healthy no matter what my body has been through! I love that it is in my control to do so, and not something that is an "oh well, that's what life has given me, so make lemonade out of lemons" sort of thing. I don't have to be overweight or even skinny and a couch potato (unhealthy) if I don't choose to.

My body fat came in today at a solid 22.5%! My ultimate goal is 18% body fat, and I am really making great strides, considering that when I started tracking it 6 weeks ago, I was at 26%. 4% in 6 weeks is GREAT considering I haven't been super solid on eating.

I keep hearing Sunshine Mama saying that she lost 4% in 4 weeks (I think?) by cutting out all processed food, white flour, and sugar. I'm experiencing the same - but I'm also doing pretty low calorie. For the past 3 days I have had one pound of greens, and then eaten some plant based cooked - mostly oatmeal, potatoes, quinoa, cooked veggies. You know, the good stuff. =) And I have seen a dramatic loss in fat AND weight. Aaaaah if only I could keep this up!

But it's not sane to do so. Honestly, it's hard. Yesterday I fasted until 5:45pm at which time I had two pieces of homemade white bread. I strongly considered abandoning all plans of eating a pound of greens and consuming large portions of muffins, popcorn, bread! But I thought about my desire to be acne free, and to see what 3 solid weeks on one pound of greens does to my body. I can't be 100% raw, but I think this is the next best thing!

So instead, after eating the bread, I weighed a pound of greens on my scale. Holy moly, it's such an intimidating amount of greens! Not so bad when they're smashed into a gallon zip lock back, but yikes - humongous when fluffed up on a plate! I sprinkled just a few cherry tomatoes, cucumber pieces, grated carrot, raisins, and nutritional yeast on top - trying not to get too much or I'd be too full to eat the greens themselves. I added some oil/vinegar/honey dressing and chowed down.

I did it, I had to wait about an hour before I could finish the next big container full, and after that had about 7oz of fresh squeezed OJ. But my stomach was uncomfortable with all that food since it was eaten at 8:45 and I'm not used to eating after 7pm. I LOVE going to bed and waking up with an empty stomach, feels just so good.

I've concluded that stuffing my face with salad is not such a good idea; it makes for wanting to upchuck. LOL So smoothies are going to be in my future from now on, and I think on my fasting days I'll just have a smoothie in the midday just to get the greens in. The point of fasting days is to have a low calorie day and that works into that plan just fine since spinach is really not that high calorie at all.