Day 104 - Not much to say...

Well wanted to make a quick post to say that things are going well, had my reward meal tonight so feeling good! Have been working lately on getting my Jujitsu class a place to practice again so that's taken up a lot of my time and still trying to figure when I am going to work in my extra cardio. Actually I am behind anyway because I didn't do my workout today but really I'm not worried because I continue to feel good and make this a part of my life instead of a "program" so it's all good. I'll fit it in tomorrow and keep trucking along. I have pics to put up too but not right now, so I'll be back later...

Day 102 - A pint low

So I gave blood this morning after my workout, had to time it right so I wasn't missing any workouts since I can't do strenuous activity for 24 hours. Last time I messed myself all up but it's good now. Tomorrow is HIIT only and reward meal day so it will work out well. As I said in my day 101 post, I have decided that I want to incorporate steady state cardio into my routine to get some better, faster results. After looking at what Tom V has to say about it, I decided that I want to shoot for 30-45 min 5-6 days a week. That might be negotiable depending on time and the way the HIIT workouts are scheduled in MS. As I have said in the past, I am a cardio hater, especially steady state, but I really think it is necessary for me to get as lean as I want to. Also, that is what I was doing when I got down to 17% bf before, so I know that it works for me. But then I had a gym to work out in, and I usually did elliptical, which is pretty much the only machine I can stand and still my feet fall asleep on that one. I don't know what it is but I don't like it. But I don't have an elliptical at home, won't be buying one either, so I am going to have to use my tae-bo DVDs and hope that will be interesting enough to keep me going. I think so. And they are pretty hard so I think that my heart rate will be high enough to qualify. Have to get a new battery for my heart rate monitor, though, because I like using it and then I can be sure that I am in my target zone and not wasting my time. The only thing left to decide is when I am going to fit that in. My weight training usually takes 45-60 min in the morning and that is usually the only time I have to work out. If I try to fit something in later on in the day, it doesn't usually happen. Plus in the evening I usually have something going on away from the house so I don't know what I can do about fitting it in, I just know that I need and want to do it to reach my goals. I'll have to take a look at my schedule and get back to you about the decision on that one. I also lowered my calorie levels because (DUH) I have lost weight and have not recalculated since the beginning so my TDEE was lower. So I have that fixed now. I don't think I was eating too much anyway because honestly I rarely hit my daily intake anyway, I was always under.
Still slowly but surely creeping toward putting my accountability log into action as well, I know it seems crazy that I have it all set up but I just am not in a place to do everything on it just yet. I am getting closer and I will be all-out when I do get it going, so that will be soon. Promise. I know I know, I should just start but I am somewhat of a perfectionist and I hate starting something before it's all set up, that's why I didn't get it going the first time I wrote about it, so I'm just going to allow myself to be that way for this for now and I will get it all going and then work on the perfectionism thing. One at a time :) So I don't think all of this makes much sense, but I am feeling a little fuzzy today anyway so maybe I'll be better tomorrow.
I also wanted to say thank you to all of you who have been commenting on my posts - I have not been too good about commenting back lately but I do appreciate and really look forward to hearing from all of you so THANKS! I'll be better at responding to them individually from now on. I can barely keep up with all of this, I have no idea how Adam does all he does...Anyway, off to check up on everyone now, talk to you soon! Here's my pics:

Day 101 - Mission 3 Pics

Just pics today...new goals are at the top of the page and I think I am going to start doing some steady state cardio because I was looking at everyone's discussion about it and at BFFM so I think I need to do it to reach my goals. More on that later. Oh, also here is my pushup video from this week - only did 35 so a little disappointed at that but still aiming for 70 by ECSS!! I am still also not going down as far as I would like to, I notice in the video and then it doesn't seem like I do it the rest of the week. Who knows, I'll work on it. Maybe I'm just a cheater! Those last few were pretty crappy. Oh, well I'm still working on it! My dog stars in this one, too, he was very interested in the camera...anyway, here's all of that...

Day 100 - Pictures!

Okay so here are my Mission 2 comparison pics next to my Total Mission pics over the 100 days. I have looked at them too much (feeling your pain Christy!) and I have got to stop so let me know what you all see because I am still disappointed in my lower body. My top half and my bottom half are like two different people! And still not seeing the muscle definition I would like to. Still a work in progress, obviously...

Day 100 - The journey continues...

Okay, here's the harsh truth:
Weight: 152 lbs (loss of 1# this week, loss of 4# in M2, 14# overall)
Omron bf: 25.1% (loss of 0% this week)
MS bf: 18.4% (loss of 1.3% in M2, 4.7% overall)
I am a little concerned about the body fat tests being the same as last week because I lost a pound but yesterday was all fruit so that probably has something to do with it...

Bicep: 11.25" (loss of 0" this week, .5" in M2, 1.5" overall)
Chest: 35" (loss of .25" this week, .5" in M2, 1.5" overall)
Waist: 28.25" (loss of 0" this week, .75" in M2, 2.75" overall)
Stomach: 31" (loss of .25" this week, 1.5" in M2, 3.5" overall)
Hips: 37.75" (loss of .25" this week, 1.25" in M2, 3.25" overall)
Butt: 41" (loss of 0" this week, .75" in M2, 2.5" overall)
Thigh: 25" (loss of 0" this week, .5" in M2, 3" overall)
Total inches: loss of .75" this week, 5.75" in M2, 18" overall

Here were my Mission 2 Goals:
1) Continue to treat myself well mentally and physically, focusing on the joy of the journey. I did alright on this one, got caught up in the numbers some and gave up a little some days, still having mental games so still needs work.
2) See muscle definition and fat loss difference in my photos from day 57-day 100. I'll let you guys be the judge of that when I put up my pics
3) Achieve weight of 140 pounds, putting my total loss at 26 lbs. Still have 12 lbs to go to this goal, so I was way under, but I did continue to lose and did not gain during the holidays so compared to other years it was great.
4) Lose 25 total inches anywhere on the body. Still have 7 inches to go on this one but, again, the numbers are going down, just slowly, and if I would have been totally focused it would have happened so I'll just keep it going at a better pace.
5) Achieve body fat of 17% or less. This one was a little ambitious to start with, I am 8% higher than that but when I get down to 140, I should be close.
6) Increase the amount of weight I can lift in all workouts of the MS program. I did do this one, though it's hard to track because of the number of different exercises and set/rep counts in the program, but I know I am stronger because of the pushups as well!
7) Fit into my 30" jeans and one of my size 6 dresses. Not there yet, gotta keep working at it, but I did fit into some of my size 6 pants the other day (they were stretchy so more forgiving) and I can remember when I was really bulging out of them so there's improvement, just not enough!

So basically, I have continued to lose a little at a time but I am a little frustrated at the slow pace. I know it is my own fault because of my on-and-off compliance, so I just have to realize that if I were to totally (or at least 95%) stick to my plan, I would probably see faster results. Right now, I see my two biggest issues as: I am taking too many rest days and I am not usually planning my food intake for the weekends. Although I still feel that I make good decisions, it is hard to tell when you aren't counting everything up so I need to do that instead of guessing.
I'll be back later with my goals for the next mission, my pushup video, and my pics so until then have a great day!

Day 99 - Prepare to celebrate

Well it's the last day of my big mission and of mission 2. Tomorrow I will do my final measure / weigh-in to see what my stats for the first 100 days are. I am both excited and nervous because I don't think I did as well as I could have. But as with everything, it's a work in progress. I haven't taken pictures for a few days so I could have a reveal tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. I have been doing well with my program with the exception of the fact that I worked my legs so hard two days ago that I have barely been able to walk since then. I tried to do my workout Saturday and could only get through part of it because I felt so dizzy and the since then I have been so sore it has been a struggle. But hey I guess that means I was really pushing myself, huh? Anyway, hopefully by tomorrow I will be able to work out. I need to do some cardio and that just hasn't been an option for a few days. Also, today was an all-fruit day so no workout to conserve muscle loss. I also skipped the pushup challenge because of this so I'll have that for tomorrow as well. I did well with the fruit except that I did have some salad for dinner but it was still all carbs, no protein and a tiny bit of fat in the dressing but otherwise fine. Man I hope my stats tomorrow are good. I didn't have that great of a weekend but I had hoped that the all-fruit today would balance that out. I guess I'll see then. Well, I'm going to check on everyone so I'll be back tomorrow with the breaking news!