Day 81 - That's what I get

Soreness....didn't work out for 10 days and I am feeling it today! I cut out some of my sets today on my workout because it was late and I had not eaten anything and I know from experience that if I try to push that I feel like crap so I just did 4 sets of each insted of 7 so I got around to all the body parts before I had to eat. Anyway, I feel SOOOOOOO much better about things now that I am back on my routine, but tomorrow is already a rest day and I don't want to lose my momentum so I think I start my pushup challenge then so I am still doing something. Haven't done the test at my best yet so I don't know what I can do, but my goal is 30 so I can say that I can do as many as Adam :) Don't want people thinking I'm some sissy girl. Just kidding, but really, I hope I can do that many. And I'll do a video of it since I got....wait for it...a new video camera for Christmas!! Woo hoo!! It has a hard drive so I can just pull the stuff off of it and put it on the computer quick. Hopefully. In theory :) I am so excited about messing with it, though, I haven't gotten much of a chance to record anything since Christmas so it will be fun. Santa was really good to me this year. I got some other cool fitness-related stuff but I'll save that for talking about tomorrow because I'm a little pressed for time today. I almost forgot to send the pics to Adam for the weekly accountability and then realized that I didn't have to have them in until midnight tonight, not noon. Oh, well, nothing wrong with being early, it was just funny because I really was worried about them being late! But no worries. My first day switching over to BFFM was good, my ratios were very good but I only had 5 out of 6 meals and was under in total calories as a result. But not hungry so I'll keep working on that. Today was a late start, too, so I only have in 1 meal so far and will at most get in 5 today. But for women, that's okay, the only reason I was aiming for 6 was because I usually have a protein shake directly after my workout before I get ready for the day, then breakfast, and I was going to count that as a meal, but I haven't been able to fit that in lately. I'm going to work on it, because I do want the extra protein. Also, I ordered the egg whites from egg whites international the other day so they should get here in a week or so. I am excited about that because my husband does not eat eggs so it's tough to get protein in for him in the morning, but supposedly you can put these in milk and they are tasteless so that would be excellent to do for him. Plus, it would be easier for me, too, because the protein shake that I have is almost gone and the taste is getting a little tiresome. I bought chocolate to change it up but it's pretty bad. So you can put the egg whites in anything and I would be able to do that easily. So that's the plan once they get here. Anyone have any experience with them? It was a company recommended by Nick Nilsson so I'm finally giving it a try after thinking about it forever. That's pretty much the update for me.
As far as Jeff (my husband) goes, he will not be blogging his journey, he didn't even let me take before pictures, but I did do his measurements so that will be good. I'm not even really sure he realizes that I put all of my pics up on the web. He doesn't go to the blog or anything, not that I'm keeping it from him, he just doesn't really ask about it. So anyway, I'll just blog for him and say he did well on his first day. Six meals a day is tough for him to do, he only had 5 yesterday but that's still good. He usually has 2 or 3 and a VERY slow metabolism so I want him to eat more often to speed that up so it's something he's working on. Right now he feels like it's too much food but I think he's just so used to eating junk that has no nutritional value that good food fills him up more. But I just give him his menu every day and he does what he can. And he lifted weights for about 1/2 hr yesterday, starting slow because he hasn't done that for while and doesn't want to overdo it, so he's doing a little every day. Although this morning he did say he thought he hurt his arm but hopefully that's short-lived. So that's his story, just wanted to put some of his journey out there too (what I know of it) in case he wants to see where he came from in a year when he's all buff. ;)
I'll put up my pics later on today, but didn't want to skip any more posts. Thanks for all the comments, guys, it's so great to be back in action with all of you. The next few months will be so exciting! I'm sure it will be here before we know it, and as an added bonus, it will make the winter go by quicker (not a fan of the cold!). So I'll see you all soon!

Day 80 - AAAAHHHHH

Okay so it's the New Year - great excuse to get myself back into the swing of my daily accountability. It's only been 10 days since my last post, but it feels like forever! My routine is so messed up now, I can't believe it. I have been doing okay in my program for the last few weeks, basically maintaining, but not going to go into it, just picking back up from here.
Can't believe I only have 20 days left until the end of Mission 2 (100 days). From what it looks like now, my goals will be way off, but I am still glad to be where I am now, and I am so much further along than if I had waited until the new year to start, right? So I'll make the best of these next 20 days and then move on to the big mission 4 where I get ready to meet Adam, Tom, and the East Coast Shredders! Yikes!
So I am picking up on round 2 of MS - did my first workout for that today and it was great. I also decided to do the push up challenge after I saw what was going on with the shreddersphere but I had already done my chest workout for the day so my results are probably less than what I can really do, but I did 20. We do all kinds of pushups for Jujitsu and I have to be the one pushing everybody else to do more so I am usually setting the example. After what we do in class, regular flat-handed pushups are much easier. But I can still only do so many right in a row so I am going for the challenge. I'll just have to work it in with my regular workouts.
I have also decided to make a change in my nutrition, mainly because my husband has decided to start losing weight (YAY!). So we are both doing the BFFM plan at a 20% caloric reduction for 3 days and maintenance level calories for 1 day, with one reward meal per week. I kind of am a little unhappy about counting calories again but once I get the basics menus down it shouldn't be that bad. Plus it will better prepare me for eating "regularly" since the low carb/low fat alternation is only for weight loss and not for life. I'm excited to be trying something new, although I have done it before. Hopefully I will get the same (or better) results as I was with the MS nutrition or else I will be going back to it. We'll see. I haven't done my measurements in a week but I'm just going to wait for my regular Monday checkup and see what my progress has been since I stopped posting.
As far as workouts go, I am continuing the MS workouts because I really like them, and Jeff has his own workouts that he wants to do so I'm not messing with him on that one. If he's not seeing the results he wants, I'll have some things to suggest but for now anything is better than nothing as far as I'm concerned and he has done this before too so it's not like he'll be hurting himself. My only concern is that he's a cardio-hater like I am so I don't know that he'll be getting enough calorie burning going on but he's going to give it a shot and see what he comes up with.
So, anyway, it's good to be back. I have missed checking up on everyone and did a little of that earlier, but I still have so much to read! Hope everyone is well, glad to see some new shredders with us, and Happy New Year to all! See you tomorrow!
Here are today's pictures:

Day 68 - Work Party!

Still having trouble getting the daily blogging going but wanted to make sure I didn't get caught not putting anything up since it was a beast to do all at once last time. So I'm just going to do my post for Friday:
Anyway, I just finished up Round 1 of MS today and I wasn't really too good about food for the last two days but not overly crazy and today was supposed to be a reward meal anyway. It was more like a reward DAY but I've learned that I can get by with that as long as I don't mind slower results. And for right now, that has to be the compromise because it is just too tough during the holidays to give up everything at all of the parties and such. I made a conscious decision not to beat myself up about it and get things back together afterwards so I am fine. It's only a few days and I can easily recover from that.
My workout was strange today, though, I was doing fine and then got really tired about halfway through, so I stopped. It was actually my workout from the day before because I've been a day behind for about 4 days now since I took an extra rest day last week. So I just gave up my rest day today and tried to do the workout but it was not good. Still haven't figured out why, unless it's that I'm not getting enough protein, which is possible because I haven't been having my shakes most days. So I had one, felt better, and moved on.
Otherwise, I have been feeling pretty good. A lot of people are sick around me and I haven't gotten anything from them yet (praying that continues...) so that's good news. Everything else from daily life kind of seems like it's on hold with the holidays so I hope things snap back once it's all over. Hope everyone is well, I'll talk to you all soon!

Day 66 - I'm alive!!

Feeling really good today, can you tell?






Okay, before you read on, if you want to catch up on on my progress, go all the way down to day 54 (the end of mission one) to see my final pics, then check each day working up to today (especially day 64 - good results!)...just pics and measurements, but you get the idea...see you in a few minutes...

So, here's a video just to get things started back on track...


That's all for now, it took forever to edit all those pictures and get them situated. Thanks again to everyone who commented during the week to check up on and motivate me. It helped keep me on track since I wasn't able to see everyone else's progress which usually keeps me going! Be back tomorrow with some actual thoughts...and here's today's pics:

Day 65 - 12/18/07

Here's today's pics:

Day 64 - 12/17/07

Weekend was too busy, didn't get a chance to take pics. Here are my updated stats and pics for today, though:

Weight: 154 lbs (loss of 2# this week, 2# in M2, 12# overall)
Bicep: 11.5" (loss of 0" this week, 0" in M2, 1" overall)
Chest: 35.5" (loss of 0" this week, 0" in M2, 1" overall)
Waist: 28.5" (loss of .5" this week, .5" in M2, 2.5" overall)
Stomach: 31.5" (loss of 1" this week, 1" in M2, 3" overall)
Hips: 38.25" (loss of .75" this week, .75" in M2, 2.75" overall)
Butt: 41.25" (loss of .5" this week, .5" in M2, 2.25" overall)
Thigh: 25" (loss of .5" this week, .5" in M2, 3" overall)
Total inches: loss of 3.25" this week, 3.25" in M2, 15.5" overall

I think it shows a lot of loss in some areas because those were the ones that showed gains last week which was probably just bloat from overkill on the bad food and so quickly lost. If you compare the measurements to the week before, the losses are more consistent so I still think they are accurate. I also reached my Mission 1 goal of 15" lost, just one week late! So I am definitely back on track and happy that way! Here's the pics, what do you think, any change?

Day 61 - 12/14/07

Here's today's pics:

Day 60 - 12/13/07

Here's today's pics:

Day 59 - 12/12/07

Here's today's pics:

Day 58 - 12/11/07

Here's today's photos:

Day 57 - Day 1 of Mission 2

So here are my end of Mission 1 / Beginning of Mission 2 measurements:

Weight: 156 lbs (GAIN of 1# this week, loss of 10# overall)
Bicep: 11.5" (loss of 0" this week, 1" overall)
Chest: 35.5" (GAIN of .5" this week, loss of 1" overall)
Waist: 29" (loss of 0" this week, 2" overall)
Stomach: 32.5" (GAIN of .5" this week, loss of 2" overall)
Hips: 39" (GAIN of .25" this week, loss of 2" overall)
Butt: 41.75" (GAIN of .25" this week, loss of 1.75" overall)
Thigh: 25.25" (loss of 0" this week, 2.5" overall)
Total inches: GAIN of 1.5" this week, loss of 12.25" overall

So I have definitely gained some (however, my measurements aren't always totally accurate, I'm sure) but to be honest, after 10 days of eating pretty much whatever I felt like and only exercising twice (I skipped my last 2 workouts), I can't really be upset. I think this goes to show that my metabolism has sped up because I only gained one pound over all that time, plus having to skip some of the last days of the regular program as well due to injury and such. So I am happy with my results overall, it would have been nice to at least maintain my highest losses from day 43, but still not bad for basically two weeks "off". And really, it was hard to be off that long, I am really excited to get back on plan and working out regularly - obviously I will feel much better when I am moving forward in my goals rather than staying the same or going backwards!
I have posted my new goals at the top of the page so if you stop by, keep me on track! For this mission, I am also going to do comparison pics every day instead of just weekly, to keep up the accountability, as well as going along with whatever accountability method Adam decides that we are going to do when we reset the clock for Group Shred 2. Gotta go workout now - see you later!

Okay here are my Day 1 pics...new mission, new suit, so here goes nothing... :)

Day 56 - End of Mission 1

So, to recap, here are my original goals for Mission 1:
1) Continue to treat myself well mentally and physically, focusing on the joy of the journey.
2) See muscle definition in my photos (namely arms and stomach).
3) Achieve weight of 150 pounds, putting my total loss at 16 lbs.
4) Lose 15 total inches anywhere on the body.
5) Increase the amount of weight I can lift in all workouts of the Level 1 MS program.

I would have to say I achieved 60% of that, but it feels like a lot more. There are many more immeasurable aspects of this process. I have been treating myself better for sure, and I am happy about being able to start to see some muscle definition, though it is small, and I was able to increase the amount of weight I was lifting from the beginning until now. However, the fact that I didn't make it to 150 lbs or 15 inches really doesn't bother me much. It would have been nice, sure, but my pictures are so much better and I still lost 10# overall and 3.3% body fat. My beginning and ending stats look like this (according to the MS calculator, not actual measurements)
Day 1: 23% body fat - 38 lbs fat, 128 lbs lean
Day 56: 19.7% body fat - 31 lbs fat, 125 lbs lean
So I did lose 7 out of the 10 lbs in fat. Again, it would have been nice to preserve all of the lean tissue, but I'm just starting out here so I'm not going to worry about all that just yet. I want to get to my goal weight and body fat %, then I'll worry about more specifics of building lean mass and all.
So anyway, it's the end of the first Mission and I'm looking forward to the next, that's for sure. I believe with the experience of this one under my belt, I will improve much more over this mission's stats during my next mission. Here's to the next 54 days!

Here are my final mission 1 pics - I still laugh every time I see my day 1 pics - I was so miserable then but looking back now the look on my face is just funny!

NYC Pics

Here are my favorite pics from my NY trip:

This is my sister, my mom, and me on the bus...


This is me and my sister (hint: it was cold! Plus I'm a nut with a silly hat)


This is me at FAO Schwartz with a huge stuffed spider. Nice face. Like I said, I'm a nut...


The whole gang that went. Think it was cold?


Ha ha ha well we had a good time and I just thought I'd share a little of that with all of you!

Day 55 - Happy Birthday to me!

Well here it is, my birthday and, though I did not reach my full list of goals, I absolutely look and feel better, and have a different mindset about food and my body, and those are the best presents I can give myself. The mind has to change before the body, so the body is still under construction, but I am continuing to make progress and am certainly looking better than I did on Day 1.
Last night we went out to Hibachi for my birthday so I went a little overboard there, but I know now that one meal isn't going to kill me, even a few meals off track, and it's the attitude that I am still further than I was and that this is a lifestyle that keeps me going and eating well MOST days. You can't beat yourself up for every little slip up, or have the attitude of "ruining my diet" because that's all wrong. And that is one of the most important things I've learned. On my 30th birthday next year, I want to be in such good shape I won't even recognize myself. I want today's picture to remind me of "before". I want to continue to love the journey. I will do all of that. I am becoming what my mind can envision now, one good decision at a time, and one less time I beat myself up for "cheating". This is my life. I eat well, I exercise, I enjoy both. I listen to what my body tells me - when I'm full, when I'm sore, when I'm tired - and decide when to ignore it. It's all part of the game, and if we don't live for the process, what are we doing every day? Waiting for some perfect ending to some statistical goal? It will never happen. Because during the journey, we change and our perception of the results change. And I believe that most people are naturally achievers, if given the right set of motivators, so we have to continue to have goals to live happily. Therefore, we always want to be in the process of creating our next achievement, raising our standards, because if we don't, we are at the end of our journey and what's there? Nothing I want to see for a very long time. So enjoy every day, because life is just a series of minutes, hours, days, months, years, and before you know it, you've wished your life away waiting to get somewhere when all you have is today. Right now. Live with purpose, on purpose, and in the moment. Otherwise, it will pass you by.
So today my birthday present is THE PRESENT - letting go of the past and the future, remembering that, as much as I want to achieve as I go through life, I can only affect what I do right now and the only way to get where I want to go is make the right decisions now and be happy with every one.

Day 54 - Almost there!

Well I am just typing a little now, I'll be back with more later, but I just wanted to say I can't believe I am almost at the end of Mission 1! I have been feeling rather weird lately - hard to explain but maybe it's just because I have been in recovery phase and not working as hard. I keep thinking I am gaining weight but the scale is still good so I guess we'll see for sure with my Mission 1 final measurements and such but even still something feels off.
On a good note, my husband said today that he wants to start working out now, before the holidays (he was going to wait until January before) because he is really unhappy about how he looks. I know that doesn't sound good that he is unhappy, but as we all know that's the first step to a physique transformation, being tired of looking the way that you do. So I was happy. I offered that I was starting Mission 2 on Monday and he could start it with me, but he said that he was just going to do some workouts now and concentrate more on food in January. Which is fine, at least he wants to do something. I just hope he goes about it right. He has a tendency to be all gung ho and then get really sore or even hurt so he has to take time off (or worse, work through the pain) and then ends up really hurt or quitting. So hoping for the best. We'll see, I'll keep you updated.
Yesterday in NYC was really cool (literally and figuratively), I'll post some pics from it later on today. Talk to you guys later!

Day 53 - In NYC

Just a quick one - going to NYC for the day to window shop, eat, and see the Rockettes Christmas Show. I'll have to take a pic somewhere so I can do a redemption photo come Spring maybe. Talk to you all soon!

Day 51 - Better than I thought

So here's the weigh/measure data I took this morning:

Weight: 155 lbs (loss of 0# this week, 11# overall)
Bicep: 11.5" (loss of 0" this week, 1" overall)
Chest: 35" (loss of 0" this week, 1.5" overall)
Waist: 29" (loss of 0" this week, 2" overall)
Stomach: 32" (loss of .5" this week, 2.5" overall)
Hips: 38.75" (loss of 0" this week, 2.25" overall)
Butt: 41.5" (loss of 0" this week, 2" overall)
Thigh: 25.25" (loss of 0" this week, 2.5" overall)
Total inches lost: .5" this week, 13.75" overall

After all of that...whatever...over the weekend, I was finally back to my weight of last week this morning and I even lost a 1/2 inch around my stomach. Not sure how that happened, but my other measurements were pretty much the same so at least I didn't gain. That was my main goal after my "lapse". So yay me for even losing a little around the stomach. I have to go for now since I have a busy day and need to get in my workout, but I'll be back around later on tonight to post my comparison pics and check up on your blogs again after Jujitsu. See ya!

Day 50 - The big halfway

Well, everyone, here I am a the halfway point of my 100 day mega-mission. If I didn't have pictures, I wouldn't have believed it but there it is. I was supposed to do a set of measurements today but wanted to give myself just one more day to get over my binge of the weekend so I am breaking with the Monday tradition just this once. When I weighed myself this morning, I just couldn't take measuring as well. I know, I know, it's not about the numbers but what can I say, it's a girl thing. I am still getting over how disappointed I am in myself for the weekend and I don't want to make it worse. So glad that overall I am in a good place mentally, though, because in the "old days" that whole episode would be a great excuse to ignore all my progress so far and quit. So not doing that, for sure, and still taking pics, but still want to see at least the same numbers as last week. We'll see. I have only one week left on my mission 1 and want it to be a good one.
I think what I found out is that I still don't yet know what "normal" eating is, because that is what I am supposed to be doing on the recovery phase of MS but hell if I can tell what that is for me, because normal is not defined enough for me. My "normal" eating is what got me overweight to begin with. So I need some kind of focus for that, and I think that's what happened this weekend. I wanted to have some things that I did not have over the past 40-some days and didn't have any actual guidelines to follow, so I just went all out. Granted, I know that that was not what normal eating was supposed to be, it's hard to explain, I just still need to follow some sort of outline to keep me on track for now. I'm not yet to the lifestyle changed part yet - working on it, though.
Today I did well so far. I did my workout that I was supposed to do yesterday and still didn't feel well enough for, but today there was nothing stopping me. I am having a little trouble finding exercises I can do for my lower body since squats and lunges are what hurt me to begin with, so I just did extensions and did a fake seated calf raise thing with my barbell and a pillow across my thighs. Weird but at least I didn't hurt my neck anymore. I am thinking of making one of those quad blasters for myself because I don't know what else I can do and I need to have more weight for my lower body. We'll see. As far as eating goes, I had a fairly low fat day so far, and that's what I have decided that my guideline will be for my "normal" eating. Not as low fat as the MS low fat days, but low enough to keep me in a good place calorie-wise. Haven't exactly delineated what that is yet, obviously, but that's the plan because I need something to concentrate on. But with being back to exercising I think I will be better all around, there's something about skipping exercise that makes me eat worse for some reason. Dumb. But I am so excited about the possible East Coast Shred Summit and need that long distance goal to get where I want to be in my next mission (after the 100 days). For now, I still have plenty of time left to get where I want to be now, although Mission 1 will be a little behind, but I am way better off then when I started so I am not upset about it that's for sure. So that's the latest on me, I have to go check on all of you now since I have been horribly absent. I feel like I've missed so much! :) Here's today's pics, come back tomorrow for the comparison pics and the numbers!

Day 48 - Yuck!

Well today will be short because, to be honest, I feel like crap. I have got to get healed up and start exercising again because that just adds to this feeling. But the real problem was my impromptu party I had with my husband and brothers-in-law because one of them got a new job. It started out as just lunch and since I am in the "recovery" stage I thought I would go ahead and have something to eat that I haven't in forever - chicken fingers and fries. I was fine with that but then after we hung out for a while after lunch, we decided to go out and play some pool. At a bar. So then I had some Smirnoff Ices. It was weird - I know I shouldn't have had them and I have really not been into alcohol lately but I don't know, I was kind of in a "throw caution to the wind and binge" kind of mood for some reason. Whatever it was, I ended up having 4-5 drinks, then topped it off with two slices of pizza and 3 shots. OUCH! So I have felt totally nasty ever since. Having not drank in a while, I thought that it would hit me pretty hard, but it didn't, so I just kept on drinking and that was so dumb. It totally wrecked my stomach putting all that junk in there. At least I didn't throw up but man I almost wish I had because then I would have gotten rid of some of that junk. But anyway, I have just been recovering today and tomrorrow hopefully I'll be back to normal. Plus tomorrow I'm supposed to start lifting again so if I can do that pain free I will be excited and that will get me back to feeling good I am sure. Don't know why I did all that to myself, though, but at least I know that it's not worth it that's for sure. In case I didn't already know. Well, I'm gonna go to bed early tonight and start fresh tomorrow. Catch up with everyone soon!