2 more weeks

Sorry haven't posted, but its been a hectic few days around here with Max starting up his "school" and the end of the month.

Went to my first and probably only Saturday workout with the program group - Krav Maga. I have wanted to try this for years, so stashed the boy with his dad and went. Boy did it kick my ass! Great workout, but lots of hitting, kneeing, and moving. They would have us hit a pad for about 30 secs and then tell us to do 3 pushups and get back up again. Very cross training oriented, but loved it. Unfortunately, my arms suffered the rest of the weekend for it.

Then came Monday. They changed our workout again and this time its all arms. Isn't that great! My weekend workout kills my arms and then a day later, I am trying to do bench presses and push ups at our workout. Well, no one ever said having fabulous arms would be easy (although I secretly was hoping that was the case). Garrett suffered as well, so at least I'm not alone in my pain. I guess I wasn't grunting enough or something on the squat deadlifts of the kettle balls we were doing, as one of the trainers moved me up to the largest kettle ball for that exercise. Not that I don't like being a buff momma, but not sure I need bigger thighs after this experience, muscle or not! We shall see how tomorrow's workout treats us.

Regarding my weigh in on Friday, I think it was a fluke. I am still weighing less and less on the scale at our house, so I don't think I really gained weight. Now, I don't think I lost more than a pound, but at least I am still loosing. Most likely I did put on muscle weight, but at least I didn't put on 4lbs of it.

Bummed

Well I gained weight this week. About 3.5lbs - nice. My muscle mass continues to increase, but that doesn't mean I feel good about gaining weight - not really the point of this endeavor. I have even been eating better this week, oh well. Garrett lost another 5lbs, which is awesome, I just wish I could lose weight as well. Going to call the nutrition guy to see what he says. In the mean time, my stats for this week are below.

Changes

Well our Wednesday workout was interesting. They tossed it up by including about 10 minutes at the end of sprinting. Woohoo. I definitely got my wish for more cardio there, but my shins are killing me today. Must make a note to do some shin stretches tomorrow before working out.

Garrett and I went for our walk today to get in our cardio and he just can't get a good heart workout if he stays at my pace. Such is the tribulations of having a husband  who is a whole foot taller than you. I just can't keep up with him at his fast speed by walking, no matter how fast I go. They don't want us jogging, so I went ahead and did some sprints to try and keep up. In the end, we worked it out by him walking an extra 15 min without me so he could go at whatever speed he needed to. Anyone else with this issue that has suggestions?

On another more annoying note, they are moving our weigh in time again! Now we can either weigh in tomorrow or on Saturday at the optional workout. For the past 2 weeks we have been weighing in on Sunday morning before services. I know it doesn't make a difference in the overall weight lost and  I know they are bending over backwards for us to make time for these things, I just hate inconsistency. Now I won't know exactly how different my weight this week is from my weight last week. Sigh.

Well here's hoping my weight at 6:30am is better than it is at 9am. I'll let you guys know tomorrow.

4:15 am

We had to wake up at 4:15 am this morning in order to get to our workout in Westlake at 5:30am. They bumped us up 30 minutes since school started this week. Sigh. I love the weight loss, but this 4 something am stuff is kicking my butt. I will miss the structured workouts when we finish this journey, but I will not miss the early ams.

I have a feeling that they will be changing our workout again next week since we are getting better at this set. As long as that weight keeps coming off, they can do whatever they want!

Weigh in Day

We weighed in today and I lost 4lbs this week. Garrett lost about 8. I am proud of both of us for sticking to this and losing the weight. Garrett keeps waiting to hit his plateau. He has lost 22lbs since we started (I have lost 8lbs). If I hit my plateau at this little amount of weight loss that would be depressing, but we would work through it.

Had a great workout on Friday. I think the temp was up a little in the weight room, so everyone was sweating bullets. It was like Bikram yoga. The nice thing was that due to the hotter room, I really didn't strain any muscles - which is always a risk with my attitude. Still doing well on the diet and Garrett is still being very good at following his. We'll see how next week treats us.

Feel the power

I can feel myself getting stronger each time we do the workout and that is awesome. Even though I am not losing weight as quickly as Garrett (surprise, surprise), I am inspired by at least knowing I am exercising and getting healthier in that regard. I keep telling myself that as long as I keep that up and keep on the meal plan that I am bound to lose weight eventually. We will see if that thought process pans out.

Ding Ding Ding

So I started my period last night (TMI), so I'm thinking that may be why I didn't lose any weight last week. Lets hope its that and not that my body is just so in love with its fat that it can't bear to part with it.

Our workout this morning kicked both our asses. They tossed up all of our strength training and moved to the core. Fortunately, we really need to work on this area. Unfortunately, we are both really weak in this area, so much pain and suffering ensued. Lots of arm workouts as well, so no bueno for my one area of strength. I was going to say that arms and abs were my weak areas, but then I realized it may be easier to just say that my quads are my strong suite since I really don't have a plethora of strong areas to highlight. Good news is we are working out muscles that really need it and that is great for our long term goals.

3rd Weigh In

We had our 3rd weigh in today and they changed the time again. At around 9:30am, Garrett had lost 8 lbs and I didn't lose any. I'm not really disappointed by this. I know I am gaining muscle mass and as long as I am eating healthier and working out, I figure the weight loss will come. Its probably this 'easy like Sunday morning' attitude that got me in this predicament to begin with, but whatever, it is what it is. Of course, I would love to lose 4lbs every week, but if I don't, I'm not going to go cry about it. The main goal is to make a sustainable life change, so maybe next week I will see more weight loss.Perhaps I am starting my period, maybe it was the Taco Bell, maybe I just wasn't going to lose any weight this week no matter what. Me trying to figure out why something happened that I won't be able to answer isn't going to get me anywhere, so I'm not wasting my time with that. I'm not paying attention to any of the numbers outside of the weight and BMI on these since everything else seems to be a big variable. Exercise and eating healthy are both good for me, so my health won't be any worse at the end of this 6 weeks and that is good enough for me.

Taco Bell

Well the teething 2 yr old who just got immunizations was enough to push me over into Taco Bell last night. I'm sure I could have summoned the willpower to resist, but honestly, I'm glad I didn't. I had been craving a burrito for a few days and now that I had one, its not my every waking thought. I guess we will see tomorrow if Taco Bell was enough to ruin all my hard work this week. If it was, then at least I'll know it was my own damn fault. Not sorry about it either way.

Do you think this beer will ruin everything?

I am having a beer. Its been a banner f*ckin day today and I just don't care about this diet thing right now, so I am going to have a beer. I figure I'm lucky I haven't broken down and gone to get Mexican food yet. I am entering it into my food diary though, because I don't feel guilty about having one. If it keeps me from going completely crazy, then its worth it. We'll see if one beer is enough to accomplish such a lofty goal.

Groin + Workout

I think I posted that I pulled my groin on Monday's workout and today was my first workout since (skipped cardio on Tuesday). I did fine. Kept myself in check and didn't do anything that felt like it was hurting me, and I kept on schedule - so hooray! Diet is going fine, still feel like I am eating all day, but whatever.Fell about 100 calories short yesterday, but at least I spaced my meals out a little better. I realized once I had eaten dinner that I hadn't logged my lunch into the software. This lead to the realization that I had actually not eaten lunch, since I took a nap with Max. So had to make that up with a 2nd dinner, but such is the life of a mom. If eating this many calories gets me results, I am fine with it. If not, well we will cross that bridge when and if we get there. Max did much better than he has been doing when I dropped him off at mom & dad's this morning- hopefully he is getting more used to the morning drop-offs. Going to do cardio tomorrow since my groin is feeling much better today, although not going to push it.

Food Diary 2010 Style

I (like most normal people I know) despise tracking everything I eat everyday, so I normally just guess at my caloric intake. Unfortunately, I suck at getting it close to correct, so we have started tracking our food. Since we are paying for the nutrition component of this program we get to use this cool program called Vitabot. It is an internet based vitamin and calorie tracker and it is pretty cool. If I need more of something in my diet (say Potassium for example) it will make suggestions of what I should eat. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a way to just buy access to their internet based program, seems they only sell it to nutritionists and personal trainers. I'll keep on my quest though and maybe I can find it before the 6 weeks is over. So, yesterday Garrett and I both tracked our meals. It is damn hard for me to eat the 2064-2264 calories they are recommending I eat.The number is so high since I am still breastfeeding Max. (They want Garrett to eat 2900, so at least I'm not in his shoes.) As long as I keep losing weight, I'm not going to fight them on that, but it is very difficult to eat that much since normally I eat somewhere between 1500 - 1800. In any case, we will see how much weight we drop this week while adhering to this caloric intake and tracking what we eat. There is a screenshot of my day yesterday below. On the report card the 'up' arrows mean I got too much of something and the 'down' arrows mean I should have gotten more. As you can see I completely scrambled at the end to squeeze in calories, but at least I didn't go grab Taco Bell to do the trick!

Weigh in

We had our 1st weigh in since our baseline and Garrett and I both lost weight. I lost four lbs and Garrett lost five. More than either of us thought we would in a week. I don't expect it to be a trend, but hopefully we will at least continue to drop lbs each week, even if not so much. I guess some of the contestants weren't happy with the amount they lost, so they are going to start offering the 'special water' for free (you know the no peer reviewed scientific evidence water) and then re-assess everyone's diets that didn't make progress. This will be Garrett and I's first whole week on the meal plan, so we will see how that affects our weight loss next week.

On another note, we started our 2nd week of workouts this morning. They promised more cardio, but I haven't really seen it yet. I suppose since they are increasing our weights and that makes us work harder, that we are getting more cardio, but I was hoping for more of a typical aerobics or running or something. We will see if that ever changes. I did manage to push myself a little too hard today on the Turkish Get Ups (e.g. Simone's least favorite workout) and strained my groin muscle. Don't think the damage is too bad and hopefully will be fine with some ice and stretching. Just may take it a little easier on Wednesday - we will see where I am at that point.

Made it through a week of workouts

Our final structured workout was on Friday and we made it! I celebrated by going out and lounging at the lake today, although I did get in some cardio by swimming around the boat several times and treading water the whole time we were in the water. All in all, I feel great when I am working out, although getting up at that hour is a royal pain due to my nighttime work schedule.

On another note, I have decided not to attend the services. I just can't justify it in my mind. Its not me and although part of me wants to give them a chance, nothing they can do in those services is going to change my core belief structure. I will go to the final one as required, but otherwise I am going to respectfully abstain.

Notes on the diet portion of this journey. I am fully committed to altering my diet to get the amount of protein, fats, etc they would like me to have. What I am not fully committed to is the blood type diet they would like us to be on. It reeks of fad and there just aren't enough clinical trials or reviewed scientific evidence for me to feel comfortable doing it. We are going to go grocery shopping today and stock up on everything we need for the upcoming week to really get this accomplished. Below is my diet guideline. I have found some sources online re amounts of protein in veggies and nuts so that I don't have to do meat or protein powder at every meal. I will be lacking in some, but will make up for it in other meals. Not optimal, but the best I can do.

1) Have when u wake up
-.75 of a scoop of egg protein n water
- 1 small piece of fruit
-1/3 of a cup of oats (measure dry)
-1 tablespoon of almond butter

2) 3 hrs later
-3.5 oz's of protein (see your list for options
-.5 a cup of carbs (brown rice or 3 oz's of a sweet potato)

3) 4 oz's of lean protein
-large salad w fat free dressing

4)
-3.5 oz's of protein
-.5 a cup of carbs (25 grams)
Or a large piece of fruit

5)
-.75 scoop of protein n water
-1 medium piece of fruit
-.3 of a cup of oats or 1 rice cake

6)
-3.5 oz's of lean protein
-.5 a cup of brown rice
-1 cup of broccoli or 8 asparagus spears

1 gallon of water daily

Overwhelmed

Probably just PMSing, but feeling very overwhelmed about this entire process today. I know its not going to be easy, after all we are making a complete life change, but knowing that doesn't make it any easier to cope with. How are we gonig to afford to work out after this? How am I going to find the time to do all this nutrition stuff? How do I integrate all of our nutritional needs as family into all of our meals? How are we going to do this once the support is gone? Sigh. I am forcing myself to take this process one day at a time, but that is how I am feeling today. I'm not going to give up and neither is Garrett and for now, we are just going to go on and just do it and I'll worry about all the rest of the details as they come up. I know we can do this, its just a matter of figuring it all out. So for now, I am going to spend a good portion of today trying to plan out all our meals for the upcoming week. Hopefully, that will put all of this into perspective and I will start to feel this burdon lift. Bitch, excuses, complain - just getting that out of my system and letting them all wash away.

2nd Workout Day

Everything was much smoother today and less time was spent explaining form, so the class ended on time (mostly). I got a much better workout today and actually broke a sweat. I don't know if its going to change as we move forward in this program, but I feel like I could really use more of an aerobic workout. We've been focusing a lot on strength training, which I absolutely need, but I would love more of an aerobic aspect. I think a big issue is time - we only have an hour. Within that hour we have to warm up, strength train, and whatever else. Hopefully as we get better at doing the warm up faster the aeorbic will be incorporated. In any case, my arms still feel like jelly and my legs aren't far behind. I talk w/ the nutritionist regarding my eating plan today. I am hopefull he can somehow incorporate Max and Garrett into mine as there is no way I am making 3 different meals for every meal. Not only is it unecessary, but its not sustainable and that is my ultimate goal with this - to make a lifelong change. If its not sustainable, that won't happen.

Nutrition

Just a quick note, we are doing the main workouts on MWF, so the other days are off days for structured workouts. On those days we are supposed to do 30 minute brisk walks, so that's what we did today. Both Garrett and I are sore in our legs from all the various squats from Monday, so the walk helped out with that a bit.

Now that that is out of the way, we talked to the nutritionist today and should have our meal plans all set up by tomorrow night. Really excited about this aspect since I feel that I eat fairly healthy, but Garrett could use some help. No real fault of his own due to his insane working schedule, but if the nutrition guy can teach Garrett how to eat well regardless of his schedule, that will be a great thing.

What I'm not too excited about is that we are going to have to pay to get this service. Don't get me wrong, I am fine with paying for people who are working hard to help me, but I was under the impression that this contest wasn't going to cost me any money. Now granted, we could forgo this aspect and not have to pay anything, but I don't feel that we would get as much out of this experience if we did. I just don't like being surprised with additional costs. Everyone else involved is either volunteering their time or being paid by the church, but I guess that deal just didn't work for the amount of work this guy will supposedly be doing for us. Presumably we will be talking with this guy several times a day, have personalized meal plans, and will be going shopping with us for food. We'll see how it all works out. If we can learn how to eat better and afford to do that, it will be worth the money. I'll update you more tomorrow about how all the meal plans work out.

** Update - The trainers emailed everyone to let them know that purchasing the nutrition plan wasn't mandatory, so I must not have been the only person who was 'confused' by this.

First workout

Well this morning was our first workout. Had to wake up around 4:45am which normally isn't a time that I even know exists. Granted, Max usually wakes up and crawls into our bed to breastfeed around 4am, but I don't usually stir till around 7am (looking around wondering how my boob got out of my shirt and into my son's mouth). Needless to say, Max was none to pleased about loosing out the majority of his morning feeding and then being dropped off at Grandma & Grandpas, but he is going to be 2 years old next Thursday, so I'm pretty sure he isn't going to suffer too much from the loss (at least not nutritionally). Had to drive around in the dark for a bit before we located Westlake Stadium where the workout room is. I know where the high school is, but I guess the stadium is behind that and for whatever reason, I thought it was across the street from the school. Oh well.

Today's workout was essentially a big learn-to-do-all-the-moves class, so I have a feeling it will run a little more smoothly next week. Still, I broke a sweat and managed not to hurt myself, so in my mind it was a success. Garrett almost fell over on one move, but luckily he didn't hurt himself either and I think he got a little better work out than I did. I was purposefully holding myself back as my personality is such that I will push myself to injury without a 2nd thought on the matter and injuring myself this early in the game won't do me much good towards becoming the 'biggest loser'.

The session was supposed to last from 6-7am, but since there were no clocks anywhere, I think it could have easily run to 8am if someone hadn't mentioned the time to the trainers. Again, I think this will be something that will smooth out in the upcoming weeks - and then it will be over. Not sore yet, although my legs did feel a little like jelly when we left around 7:30. I'll let everyone know how I feel tomorrow morning. :) Came home and made an egg scramble with onions, mushrooms, sausage, and cheese. Who knows how healthy that was, but it sure was tastey and I got in a serving or more of veggies, which is always a plus. Planning on a meal of crockpot tamales for supper (subsituting in Rotel and Jiffy corn muffin mix since I really don't feel that Jiffy's recipe can be improved upon) and maybe some salad and a sandwhich for lunch. We will see what our nutritionist has to say when I call him later this afternoon. I figure at least I didn't eat CocoKrispies for breakfast, so that has to count for something.

First Weigh In

Ok, in support of this program, I am going to be brutally honest about my weight with the world. I feel like my awesome personality completely overcomes any physical flaws I may have, so I'm ok with this. (big ego anyone? - I joked to Garrett that we are going to be unbearable if we get super hot) This disclaimer added, my starting stats are below.

There is a lot of info on here, but essentially end game = I'm fat. No real news here. (If you want to find out what all the fun acronyms mean, you can get some info here ). I do know that in order to be close to the % fat I should be at to be healthy, I need to lose about 65 lbs. Not thinking that will happen in 6 weeks, but maybe I can get a good start! If all goes as planned, my read-outs will be better each week. I'm definitely happy I don't own one of these scales, my regular digital scale is depressing enough.

Orientation

After services, all 50 contestants had to go to an orientation. Lots of meeting people and finding out the specifics of the program, but the general theme was 'I am so proud of you and excited to help'. I have never taken praise comfortably, so what this meant is that today, I was uncomfortable for about 5 hours (2 hours of church + 3 hours of meeting). Now granted, it wasn't like the Family Guy episode I was picturing the meeting might be like, but it was just a lot more love and support from strangers than I feel comfortable with.

I wasn't expecting them to yell at me and tell me I was fat, but I also wasn't expecting so many people I don't know to be overly supportive of me loosing weight. I understand support is a big component of life change or of getting through tough times. Believe me, I get this, I do it for a living. It just was unsettling for me in this case. It seemed fake. I don't doubt the people's character or that they truly are this supportive and excited for us, it just isn't how I operate. Perhaps its just because I don't put loosing weight on the same level of support need with cancer or death of a loved one - maybe I should.

I think the real issue is that its just not my personality and not how I support people. I'm the person who gives honest opinions. Not mean, just honest. If you ask me if those jeans make you look fat, I'm gonna tell you. If my cancer patients ask me what their odds are, I'm going to tell them. I am a big beliver in realistic hope, and this just didn't seem realistic enough for my taste. I have a feeling that the more realistic support will come in the next 6 weeks, but the happy happiness of today just wasn't my typical version of support.

I'm willing to try anything though and the training and support staff are all professional, so I'm going to go on the belief that they know best. Its only 6 weeks after all!

Church

I don't go to church. I wasn't brought up going to church, and typically if I am in a church there is a wedding or funeral going on. Nothing against church, just isn't who I am right now and don't know if I ever will be a churchgoer. I believe in some greater power or powers, but I have a hard time believing that there is only one right belief. How would you know yours was right? What makes one more right than another? Since I don't have these answers I have always chosen to just leave religion be. All that being said, a church is the main sponsor of this challenge, so I went to their services today.

Since I don't attend church, I have no real idea how much like other churches in our area their services were, but it was definitely not like any service I have ever been too. Lots of big screens, singing with a band, and preaching. I felt like I was in a really well orchestrated Christian karaoke. I don't mean that to be insulting, that's just what it felt like to me. Didn't really feel like my cup of tea, but to each their own. As part of the challenge, they are asking that we attend services each Sunday. Now this would only be 6 services, but just not sure I can do this aspect. I could attend with an open mind and try and get something out of the services, but it sorta feels like cheating or betraying my true beliefs by going and standing along with people who actually are committed to this faith. Now the whole program is free, so perhaps I owe it to them to make an attempt to attend their services? I'm sure there are all sorts of people that attend church and get nothing out of it. People go to all sorts of events they aren't interested in out of obligations or what they feel are obligations.

So, we will see what I decide to do on this aspect of the program. I can't decide if I feel like a poser, or if I owe it to the sponsors to at least give them a chance to preach to me. I am committed to making a spiritual change to accept working out and eating better as part of my life. I am fully behind letting go of guilt and other psychological fun stuff, but I haven't decided if this change includes me giving religion a try. Right now I just am not convinced. We will see were I am next Sunday.