Back at It!

I’m back…but I guess I never really left. The past 3 weeks have been beyond hectic. I always tell people to take care of themselves first and then others, but I don’t always practice what I preach!

Work has been crazy, my husband’s schedule has forced me to change my daily routine, and I have just been drowning. I managed to keep up with my workouts, with significantly less enthusiasm, but haven’t been very good with my food and gained 2 pounds.

But this is life, right? Things happen. Life gets crazy. Just because I had a tough 3 weeks doesn’t mean I’m going to throw in the towel and call it a loss!! Instead I’m looking back at the past 3 weeks and learning some good lessons.

1. Switching up my workout is good. – I love ChaLEAN Extreme but it is really time to move on. I’ve been doing a CLX/Insanity hybrid and have found myself looking forward to the Insanity workouts more than CLX. So as of today I’m switching it up to a P90X/Insanity hybrid and couldn’t be more excited for a change!

2. Dairy really is bad for me. – Since I’m lactose intolerant I avoid dairy as much as possible but can usually tolerate one night a week with a little cheese (Fridays we order in Mexican). However, one day a week truly is my limit. I tried to add a little more cheese this week and have felt absolutely awful.

3. I’m not ready to stop tracking food. – I really believed I was ready!!! I eat the SAME things every week day…true…but I don’t eat the same things every week night! My portions got bigger quickly and I ignored the problem. And seriously, what is my problem anyway??? Tracking only takes a couple of minutes a day!

4. Soda is bad. – I know this is a fact. My endocrinologist told me aspartame is the worst thing, next to soy, I can ingest with my thyroid issues. But this week when I was stressed I found myself sneaking a few diet sodas. I felt bloated and drinking soda definitely makes me eat more throughout the day. BAD, BAD, BAD!!!!

5. Falling off the wagon is OK…as long as you jump back on! – Having little slip ups is expected. But in the past I’ve slipped up and then just threw in the towel on the whole diet, workout, project, etc. This time I’m assessing the situation, evaluating what went wrong, making positive changes, and starting all over again.

 

Back on Track!!!

Finally I seem to be back on track!!! I’m really loving Insanity and that is helping me to stay motivated and to make better food choices. I’m still having trouble with evening snacking but I’m doing much better than I was a week ago. So what did the scale do this week?? I lost 1.5 pounds and I’m now over half way to my weight loss goals. WOO HOO!!!!

I Must Be Crazy!!!!

I need to switch up my workouts. I love the strength training workouts in ChaLEAN Extreme, they are the best workouts I’ve ever done, but I’m getting tired of the cardio and feel like I need to really step it up for these last 60 days. My first 30 days I did really well with my diet and I really pushed it during workouts. This second 30 day period I still pushed hard on my workouts, but as the month continued I found myself being a bit lax with my food choices. I think that adding additional cardio will really help plus a different workout will get me excited again.
After much consideration I’ve decided on a hybrid for these last 2 CLX Circuits. ChaLEAN Extreme and….

 

Insanity!!!

The Honeymoon is Over

I seem to be stuck in a little bit of a diet rut. I’m doing great with my workouts but am slacking with the food. Unfortunately, the scale is showing the results of this. I haven’t gained any weight, but I’m not losing very quickly. Previously my weekly losses were around 1-2 pounds and this week I lost .2. Huge difference!

I’m not making excuses, but I’m very busy! I work full time, teach part time, am studying for the ACE Personal Trainer Exam, and have a family who I like to spend time with. I was doing a great job of jugging all of these parts of my life, but things have been extremely hectic at my full time job over the past couple weeks and it seems to have thrown everything else off course.

So…as of today I’m back on track. I’ve been considering no longer tracking my food, but I think that was my way of not having to face my evening snacking. So I’m back to tracking, back to holding myself accountable, and back to working on my goals.

Push Circuit – Complete!!!

I am thrilled to be finished with the Push Circuit of CLX! I started Lean today and YIKES, it was tough!!! It should be a great month and I expect huge results.

Below are my results so far and a current pic vs my starting pic. I still can’t believe the huge results I’ve seen in just 60 days!

Chest – 1.687

Waist: -1.625

Hips:  -1.75

Right Thigh:  -.125

Left Thigh:  -2.125

Right Upper Arm:  -.5

Left Upper Arm:  -.875

Weight:  -8 pounds

 

 

Weight, weight, go away…

I try to only weigh in on Thursdays. Sticking with one day a week keeps me consistent but more importantly it keeps me from obsessing over my weight all week. Every single week since I’ve started SparkPeople I’ve had a loss on Thursday to celebrate. The losses have been even bigger since I started ChaLEAN Extreme!

But today, I gained .2 pounds. I immediately got defensive and wanted to blame something. I bet my thyroid medication needs to be adjusted, I hit a plateau, this isn’t fair. I really did work out hard this week so something must be wrong.

Then I looked at the awesome SparkPeople nutritional reports. Oops, I went over on calories 3 of the 4 days in this past week!!! For this first time in several months I ate quite a bit of junk – pizza, chips, and candy. Why? Well, I tried to adjust my food a bit and it backfired. I need chocolate every day (yes, it is a NEED) and I usually have a chocolate Shakeology at work, mid-afternoon. Over the past week I tried to change it to having the drink at home in the evenings. Looking back, all my “cheats” were mid-afternoon. In fact the bad food was all within 3 hours of when I had previously been having my drink!

I guess that explains the weight gain! Thanks SparkPeople for keeping me accountable!!

 

ChaLEAN Extreme Facebook Group

For those of you who love ChaLEAN Extreme, my friend Paige and I started a new Facebook group for CLX lovers. Check it out!

http://on.fb.me/jfkIQN

 

The Story of a House

 

My husband bought our house with one of his buddies before we started dating. Neither of the guys had been in a serious relationship for years and thought it would be smarter to own rather than pay rent forever. As soon as they bought the house we met (again) and started dating. Imagine that!!! We were married a year later and his buddy was married 7 months after us. We ended up staying in the house and buying out his friend with the intention of staying just a couple of years and moving on. The house is a bi-level with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room upstairs and a full basement with another bedroom, bathroom, family room, and a large laundry/storage room. It was built in the early 70s and pretty outdated. It is in an interesting neighborhood mixed with well maintained houses and some that aren’t so well maintained. We don’t have a community pool or HOA and our neighbors are all working class families, most much older than we are. We thought this starter home would be perfect for a couple of years and then we would move on, most definitely making a bunch of money on the sale (yes, we were naive).

First we painted the entire interior of  house and then we added hardwood floors through the basement. After doing a few additional projects each year including planting trees, painting the exterior, replacing light fixture, interior doors,  remodeling a bathroom, growing a garden, planting flowers, new appliances, etc, etc we realized we had somehow become attached to this house. Our trees are maturing and doing an awesome job of blocking our backyard from the view of neighbors. We’ve made changes we like and really made the house our own and we started considering staying in the house long-term. Once our daughter arrived we realized we would outgrow the house when we have a second child someday. This is tough for us, especially since we are both people who have lived in a LOT of houses in our lives. I’ve lived in our current house for 4 years and that is the longest I’ve lived in any one house since I was 16 years old. I don’t want to move, I don’t want to change addresses. I just want to keep working on our remodeling projects and by the time we remodel every single room in the house (not too far off) the house will be perfect! Oh yeah, except for not having enough space…

So we’ve decided to build on. Our plan is to build an addition over our garage next summer. Our house doesn’t have a master so we will build a master bedroom/bathroom over the garage, which will be on the same floor as the two existing upstairs bedrooms. So when we have a second child we’ll all be on one floor and still retain our guest bedroom downstairs. It’s exciting and scary thinking that once we build on we’ll pretty much out-price our house in the neighborhood. Even if we decide to sell down the road we’ll never come close to recouping the money we’ve put in. Scary, but exciting. Today, as I swiped the credit card to pay for new flooring for our kitchen and living room, I realized this starter house has truly become our forever home and that is a really great feeling.

Studying for the ACE Personal Trainer Exam

I started studying for the ACE Personal Trainer Exam this week with the hopes of taking my test the first week of October. It’s been a LONG time since I took anatomy and I started feeling a little overwhelmed the first day of studying. I started with Ace’s Essentials of Exercise Sciences for Fitness Professionals and thought it would be really easy to blow through the first chapter…not so much!

So I’ve been reading and I made flashcards to study on the bus (along with the provided flashcards) but thing that has helped me the most is doing anatomy games online. Click here for my favorite muscle game. These little games are awesome and there are a ton of different versions around for bones, digestive system, heart, nervous system, etc. Anatomy Arcade is another cool site. These games are fun and make studying anatomy much more fun!

Vacation Aftermath

Last week I was on vacation in Memphis and I had a great time. When I left my house I had really good intentions of working out every day and making healthy meal choices. I’m proud to say I did well on half of my goals! I worked out every day in my hotel room, which is something I always promise to do but never actually do. I didn’t fall behind on my workout schedule and it was actually really easy to get up a little early, pop in my ChaLEAN Extreme DVD, and work out using bands. It was great!

Now for the food choices I made…well…not so good! I did OK the first couple days and then we went out to Beale Street and had WAY too many drinks. Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast and I’m glad I let loose and enjoyed my vacation, but one slip up with calories led to many slip ups. I had a Weight Watchers leader once ask me if I spilled a little milk on the floor I wouldn’t respond by dumping the whole jug, right? Correct! So why is it that when I slip a little bit on food I consider the whole plan trashed and I just go nuts???? OK I’m exaggerating a little bit, I wasn’t THAT terrible, but I did make some unhealthy food choices. I had muffins, delicious fried cheese wantons, pizza, and even drank a couple of bottles of Coke (I gave up soda several months ago). However, I also made a few good food choices. I brought my Magic Bullet along and mixed up a Shakeology in my hotel room every day except one. Funny thing, the day I skipped the Shakeology I was craving chocolate so badly I ate a giant chocolate bar!!!!!!

So what was the final verdict? How bad did my vacation impact my weight? I actually lost a pound!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t believe it. Chalene is right, building muscle revs up your metabolism and mine must be in overdrive! I kept up with the workouts, had my Shakeology, and my body knew how to handle a few days of food splurging. Now I’m back on track and it’s like I never missed a beat.