Day 161 - Happy Easter!!

Just a quick post today, not much to say because it was a rest day - no workout, no ECSS. Suzette and I went to church this morning and have been relaxing today, just finished Easter dinner and looking forward to meeting up for the big workout and the big summit meeting tomorrow. Meanwhile, the rest of the NY4 are hanging out together and watching a show today but I wanted to be home for Easter so we are missing that event. Easter has always been very meaningful to me so I couldn't be away from church and family today. Thus a rest day, but we are also recharging the batteries for tomorrow's killer workout with Tom. I can just hear him saying to us the "pick a weight you can do 12 with, now do 15" quote so maybe I'll have to tell him some lighter weights now that the secret is out... ;) Just kidding!!! I am more excited about the summit meeting, though, honestly, because it was so good to talk to everyone yesterday and tomorrow will be even more interesting and exciting. And tomorrow is reveal day for our NY4 last 30 days so that's a little nerve-wracking, but there's nothing more I can do now except have good nutrition the rest of the day and hope my cumulative work shows off. So tomorrow is the last day of Mission 3, can't believe it's already over!! The next mission will be a change from what I have been doing so far so I'll post that info in a little while. I'll catch you all later on - update as soon as I have some "declassified" info!

Day 160 - Live from ECSS (Day 1)

Well everyone it is finally here! ECSS has begun and is better than we could have planned! To backtrack, yesterday I spent the day preparing for the weekend and cleaning the house so I could focus totally on ECSS the rest of the days. I had lunch with Jeff and then went down to Baltimore to pick up Suzette from the airport. Everything worked with perfect timing and we hit it off right away. After returning from the airport, it was right back out to my nephew's birthday party. That was interesting, trying to explain how I knew Suzette and what we were doing this weekend to my family who doesn't really get the whole 'Shredder Lifestyle'. It's hard to explain to the uninitiated. But I had a chance to visit with everyone, avoided eating birthday cake, but did have a little ice cream cup because it was only 100 calories. Then it was back home to relax a little, talk some more, and watch a movie.
Fast forward to today. Jedi woke me up bright and early and although I tried to get extra sleep it wasn't happening so come 8 am I was ready to do my workout. Suzette was up as well so we decided to get in our fat loss circuit (part 2-aka legs, shoulders, triceps) workout. It was cool having someone else to work out with for a change. We had a fabulous workout and then filled up on some lovely protein aka spinach omelets. Afterwards, Suzette got a massage and I spent a little time with Jeff, then we both got ready to get on the road! We left at 1:45 and would have gotten there just about 4pm except that there was some bad traffic right as we got into the city and then we almost got into the Holland tunnel which would have put us WAY off track so I had to cut across 5 or so lanes of traffic and almost gave Suzette a heart attack. Then we were all adrenaline rushed the rest of the drive. My GPS seemed like it was taking us in circles, but we got where we were supposed to be right on time.
So then the good stuff really starts. And unfortunately, since it was a Shredder Council only meeting, I cannot divulge what was discussed over dinner but suffice it to say it was exciting and will be implemented more in the days to come. The actual Summit meeting isn't until Monday so that's when the really intense idea exchange will be, but so far things have just been so out of this world, I can't image how great it will be then. Seeing everyone for real just put a wonderful new layer on the relationship we have built with each other over the last 150 or so days. It was, as Adam would say, such a "spin-out"! :) So more to come, stay tuned for lots of exciting reports from the Summit, and I'll leave you with this first Official Council photo!
P.S. HAPPY DAY 500 ADAM!!! THANKS FOR SHARING IT WITH US!!

Day 158 - Yay workout

Man it was so good to be able to work out today! Plus I think it helped banish the last effects of this cold away as I don't feel it at all now! Still was low carb today so the energy was waning a little for the workout, but otherwise it was good. Upper body fat loss circuit so lower body circuit is tomorrow and then I get to pick up Suzette from the airport!!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!!
Still wish I had more shredding I could do before Monday but it's not enough time to get to where I really want to be before seeing the other shredders. Oh, well, I'm still a work in progress...don't have 500 days under my belt like Adam but still I wasn't working as hard as he was that's for sure. Need to get more focused on that in the months to come before summer is here!! Good news is that my husband and his brother are on board for the next round of shredding (here at home at least) so they will be my guinea pigs for being somewhat of a (rookie!) fat loss coach myself. We will all be going on the Precision Nutrition plan for the next mission. My husband did not do well on BFFM and I think it's because he needs a lot less carbs. However, he also doesn't like a 'low carb diet' per se because of the limited food choices and the lack of energy. So PN looks like hopefully a happy medium because they limit carbs and time them specifically, but do not cut them out radically and there is still a lot of food variety. I am also interested in it because it feels more lifestyle based and involves making the change to constant eating habits that will allow you to lose weight and then maintain it when you are ready without being on a 'diet'. I know that some cringe at the idea of counting portions and food types rather than calories but it isn't really one or the other, it is choosing foods that, based on the fact that they are whole foods and not manufactured, can only have so many calories and those are nutritious calories, not empty ones. And then balancing the different types of food so that in reality you are "watching" calories because you can only have so much of each thing. That's probably not a good explanation, but suffice it to say that at this stage of the game, my husband needs something that he can follow rules for, not have to specifically chart everything and count it, and I am close enough to my goal to have the luxury of seeing if it works and then changing it if I don't see results. In fact, the program expects you to track results very closely and then change things based on that. So we're giving it a try. Also, my brother-in-law needs to gain muscle (he's tall and thin) so it will be interesting to have someone who is a hard-gainer around. It will be a learning experience for me for sure and I find this kind of stuff very interesting. I was going to be a personal trainer at one time but never finished the school for it so this kind of feels like having some clients. The only think I don't like about PN specifically is that they do not include any workouts with it. Not that there's not tons to choose from all over the place, but it would have been interesting to see what they recommend to go with the eating side. As it is, on their forum they have some workouts, just not in the original book, so I'm going to be checking those out as well.
So, I gotta go, the dog's acting up. Talk to some of you here soon, and some of you I will see in a few days. WOO HOO!!

Day 157 - Recovering...

Thanks to everyone who wished me better health - I think I am coming out of it now and am planning on being back in the game totally by tomorrow. I have to get some workouts in, I really need the extra energy I get from them. And I have a lot of catching up to do - Tom's gonna kick my butt come Monday!! Otherwise, I have been sticking to low carb this week so my nutrition has been excellent even though I have felt like eating everything in sight. I get like that when I don't feel well. Some people don't feel like eating anything, I'm the total opposite. Anyway, I'm going to get to bed to recover some more but wanted to check in and update you on my status...talk to you all soon! Here's to a better day tomorrow!
P.S. Can't believe ECSS is nearly here! Adam's in the US!! (again!)

Day 155 - Hit a snag

Well tonight will be short even though I haven't posted for a few days...it seems that I have picked up the bug that is going around and have not felt up to par in several days. Today was not good either, didn't work out again. It's killing me to be skipping workouts so close to ECSS but I just don't have the energy. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Nutrition has been okay. Weekend was not too good but was totally compliant today so at least I have that going for me. Just trying to keep this sickness from getting me totally down. Be back soon...