Monthly Measurement Check!

Since July 2011, I have been taking my measurements on the last day of every month. It has helped me determine whether I am actually losing weight. With my strength-training causing my weight itself to go up and down, I was finding myself getting discouraged -- until I started measuring myself.

I was down 1.15 inches in the month of February. That brings my total to 16.15 inches total. That is insanity to me.... Almost a foot and a half of fat GONE from my body. I love it!

I also had a great workout this morning. I did the Glad You Came workout from BodyRock. Six exercises, done twice through.

I set my interval timer for 12 rounds of 10 seconds rest interval and 50 seconds work interval. (All exercise descriptions are on the workout's page. Just click the title here: Glad You Came.

Exercise 1: High Knees
Exercise 2: Squat Lunge into a Side Lunge (both legs): 6 // 7
Exercise 3: High Knees
Exercise 4: Monkey Push-Up and Jump: 8 // 8
Exercise 5: High Knees
Exercise 6: Push-Up with V-Plank Jump: 6 // 7

Twelve minutes, and I was super sweaty! I love, love, LOVE BodyRock workouts. Also, on facebook, if you friend Zuzana Light, she does a ZWOW (Zuzana Workout of the Week) that are totally amazing. Check them out if you need some motivation for strength-training!

The plan my nutritionist worked up for me had me eating shrimp tonight with asparagus, but I was just not in a shrimpish kind of mood. So I got some help from Chik-Fil-A in the form of their new grilled nuggets. They are SO GOOD. Love that Chik-Fil-A has options to help me be healthy!

Today's Food:
Breakfast: Fiber One cereal, 1/2 cup of Horizon organic fat-free milk, 1/2 cup blueberries
AM Snack: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 green pepper cut into sticks (and also a fun-sized Snickers)
Lunch: grilled tilapia, a slice of Ezekiel cinnamon-raisin toast, strawberries
PM Snack: cottage cheese, protein drink
Dinner: grilled chicken nuggets, asparagus, strawberries (and there may or may not have been a few handfuls of Cape Cod cheddar and sour cream potato chips).

Now, super excited for tomorrow for many reasons. 1) It's FRIDAY! 2) No workout in morning, so I can sleep in thirty minutes longer! 3) No workout in afternoon, so I don't need to worry about remembering my clothes! 4) Early birthday celebration with the family, where I get to eat baked ziti, cheesy garlic bread, and DIRT cake!

Might be the greatest Friday known to man.

Early Morning Workout and Pizza for Dinner

It's Tuesday, and you know what that means... BIGGEST LOSER! Hopefully, the drama will begin to die down. I miss the old seasons where it was all about conquering weakness, getting in shape, changing lives, and actually losing weight. Now, it's become a middle school popularity contest, where a queen bee pulls the strings on her marionettes to make them dance for her amusement. It's a little frustrating, but I am hopeful!

Had a fabulous workout this morning. Tuesdays are "no run" days, so I cross train. I did the Turn up the Music workout from BodyRock.TV. It was a quick 12 minute high intensity interval challenge. I set my interval time for 12 rounds of two segments - 10 seconds rest interval and 50 seconds max interval. I did six different workouts twice:

1)Walking Push-Up & Knee Jump Tuck -- 4//3
2) Plank Jumps with Weight Ball & Clean & Press -- 4//3
3) Low Jacks and V-Split on a dip station -- 7//9
4) Superman Push-ups -- 7//7
5) Turkish Get-Ups with Weight Ball and Standing Jump -- 7//7
6) Sumo Squat with High Knee and Half Burpee -- 5//4

Only twelve minutes, and I was pouring sweat! It's great for my workouts before work. I can wake up at 5:30, work out, make breakfast, get dressed, and leave for work by 6:50.

I got to snuggle a five-day-old baby today! My friend Julie had her second child, a gorgeous little girl named Ellie, last Thursday. So snuggling her today was super sweet. I love the way babies smell of baby powder and just... love. It's a very unique scent. I was a tried and true baby hog, not giving the baby up until her grandfather protested. I SUPPOSE he deserves to hold his new grandbaby. WHATEVER. :)

I went over today with dinner (a large cheese pizza and garlic knots) and dessert (4 cupcakes from Parkside Bakery, an amazing bakery in Grayson, Georgia). While I did cave and have two pieces of pizza and two garlic knots, I DID refrain from eating ANY of the cupcakes. I feel like I deserve mad praise for that. Cupcakes are my weakness. They're little portable cakes! They are PERFECT!

Today's food:
Breakfast - 3 scrambled eggs with chopped green and red peppers
AM Snack - cottage cheese, green pepper sticks
Lunch: lean ground beef, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, light ranch cup
PM Snack - protein drink, cottage cheese
Dinner - 2 pieces cheese pizza, 2 garlic knots (I'm not even sorry)

Yep... Cupcakes are my weakness. And doughnuts. And mozzarella sticks. And Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos. And wings. And pizza. And Reese's peanut butter ANYTHING.......

Somebody stop me now!

(PS - I totally meant to take a few pictures today to put on the blog to make it more interesting, and I forgot! I will get better... I promise!)

A Weight Loss Journey - Reliable Tracking?

Happy Tuesday! I feel like I have so much free time in the afternoons this week! Because of the half-marathon this past Saturday, I am giving my legs a week off from running, so I won't run again until this next Saturday. It's amazing how much free time I have when I'm not running!

I started to talk about my weight loss journey in the last post. While I do think the numbers on the scale can tell a story, a lot of the time, it is a completely inaccurate story. Take for example, a graph tracking my weight over 10 months:

If you just looked at this graph, you'd say that I keep gaining and losing weight. Which is completely true, but it is still misleading. The real story comes from measuring myself. I whip out the tape measure and measure myself at the end of every single month. It has provided such amazing motivation for me, because unlike my weight, my measurements tell a totally different tale.

I have lost a total of 1/2 inch in each arm, 3.25 inches in my hips, 3 inches in my bust, 3 inches in my waist, and 2.75 inches in each thigh. This is a total loss of 15.75 inches of fat GONE from my body! This is what has allowed me to go from a size 12 jeans to a comfortable size 8.

What has helped the inches? Definitely not the food. It's the exercise! Running has helped, but while running is fabulous cardio and I could never give it up, strength training has made the biggest difference.

I discovered a website called BodyRock TV in July 2011. In this website, Zuzana Light and her then-husband, Freddy, created workouts for people based on the theories of HIIT - high intensity interval training. High intensity interval training just means that you work out really hard for a set period of time, then have a few seconds to let your body relax, then work out again. It's proven to be amazing for weight loss and for strengthening your muscles. An average workout is anywhere from 12-15 minutes, though they have time challenges that can last anywhere from 20 - 40 minutes. I began doing these workouts three days a week, and in addition to the three days per week of running, the inches began to drop.

I LOVE working out. I have learned to love push-ups and burpees and mountain climbers. I have learned to push through 50 seconds of hard work, knowing I can have water and 10 seconds to breathe once the 50 seconds are up. I love how it makes me feel, and I love that it is a great stress-reliever. I especially love that it keeps me in my new jeans! While BodyRock's site has changed slightly, with Zuzana leaving to do her own things, and Freddy bringing in a new face of the site, Lisa-Marie (who has the greatest accent ever, might I add!), I still go to the site and workout, both with old workouts with Zuzana and new workouts with Lisa-Marie.

To give you an example of what the workouts tend to look like, here was today's workout. I did the Bikini Body Beach Ready Total Body Summer Workout, but I altered it slightly from a time challenge to a 12-minute interval training.

I set my interval timer (Seconds Pro, an app on the iPhone) for 12 rounds of 50 seconds high intensity and 10 seconds low intensity. Then, I go through 3 rounds of 4 different exercises, writing down my reps for each time. Then, when I go through the exercises for a second and third time, I try to beat my previous scores.

Exercise 1: 1-2-3 Spider Push-ups (the video on the site explains how to do these exercises)
Round 1: 7
Round 2: 7
Round 3: 8
Exercise 2: 10 Mountain Climbers // Weighted Ball Clean & Press with Back Lunge
Round 1: 3
Round 2: 2.5
Round 3: 3
Exercise 3: Weighted Ball Shoulder Press and Side Kick
Round 1: 13
Round 2: 11
Round 3: 10
Exercise 4: Side Obliques on a Dip Station (You can find a dip station here.
Round 1: 15
Round 2: 18
Round 3: 15

So the moral of the story? Working out may make your weight go up and down, depending upon how fast your body is building muscle and breaking down fat and utilizing carbs and proteins. But the measurements? They do not lie!

Today's food:
Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with chopped red and green peppers
AM Snack: cottage cheese and green pepper sticks
Lunch: 3 ounces ground beef, zucchini sticks, cucumbers, tomatoes, Ken's Light Ranch
PM Snack: protein shake and Pink Lady apple
Dinner: Skinny Taste Salisbury Steak, grape tomatoes, raw baby carrots, roasted zucchini, York peppermint patty
Night Snack: hard-boiled egg, carrots