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!

Day 95 - STEAK!

We had a reward meal tonight for my father-in-law's birthday so I had steak for dinner. Yum yum. Ate too much, now feel like crap. That was dumb. But anyway, needed to get that out of the way for my last 5 days before the big milestone. Trying to decide if I should cover up for a few days until the "reveal" on day 100 like Adam does but don't know if it would make that much of a difference only 5 days away. Maybe, haven't decided yet.
In case you are wondering, I have kind of been off the accountability log (obviously) while trying to get some other things together in my life. I am still using it as a daily guideline, just not counting points as of yet but hopefully by the beginning of next week I'll be on daily checkups. Sorry I've been so flaky, just trying to work some things out.
Anyway, I'm going to just leave you with my pictures that will be the week 12 pics for the Group Shred as well so hope you all are impressed with them :). Talk to you soon!

Day 94 - Lots of life

We have this expression in Mary Kay that when something is going on with someone that is stressful or time consuming, they "have a lot of life going on", because really, we are always just going from one high stress or time intensive event to another, and those events are what makes up life. Granted, some things are worse than others of course, you can have "more life than usual", but overall, it's just a reminder that no matter what, we don't really have an excuse not to get going or continue on in our goals, because if we let events get in the way, life will pass by and we will run out of time to reach our full potential.
On the first of the year, I turned my daily calendar over to a quote that I have left up ever since. It says "Make every day count. Make every hour count. Make every minute count. And don't stop until you have exercised your full potential, realizing your impossible dream and fulfilling your total destiny to become the person that you, and only you, are capable of being." So this reminds me that, no matter what comes up, it isn't important enough to give up on, or even put a hold on, my dreams for, because every minute you let go by that is not in pursuit of your destiny is a minute of life exchanged for mediocrity and disappointment down the road.
So no more excuses, no more "treading water". The daily crises, to do lists, and wishy-washsy feelings that drag me away from my true desires are not important enough to exchange my life for. Evey day away from the pursuit of goals is a day wasted. Don't get me wrong, you have to have balance, but that simply means that your goal for the day is to rest or have fun, and you still are reaching your goal. I am talking about days where you get to the end and say "what in the world did I do all day?" I have had WAY too many of those lately, and over the past year really. I have told myself I'm "in a rut" but that's really an excuse for not getting my butt in gear. I don't know what happened and I'm tired or trying to figure it out. What's gone is gone and I have to start NOW making my life into what I want it to be.
I worked yesterday on my affirmations for all of my life goals and I am putting together pictures to represent each of them so I can look at them when I do my daily AVP (which I have not been doing well on, incidentally). I know I'm not always going to be 100% on making the day count but I have to try. Hell, I think I'd be happy with 50% right now because I'm at about -10% lately. I feel like every day I'm digging myself in a bigger hole, with the exception being my eating & fitness. It's the one bright spot that has kept me going, really, so I thank all of you out there supporting me because I probably would have given up a long time ago had it not been for this group and then who knows where I'd be? Unhappy and fat. At least I'm unhappy and thinner :) That's a joke, I'm not really unhappy in the overall sense of the word, I am just unhappy with my progress versus my potential. I know I can do so much more.
Is my life good now? Of course, I have a lot going for me. Could it be better? Exponentially. I really believe that. I know in my heart that life would be out of this world if I just applied myself and got into action on all my goals. I think that is the only way to measure ourselves anyway, by looking at what we COULD be doing, because everyone is different, and if you know that you are doing the best you can and it isn't as much as someone else, so what? You are being the best YOU that you can be, and that's all that matters. But if you know you have more inside you, why not use it, what are you saving it for? Life's too short for regrets and if I were to die tomorrow, I'd have tons of them.
I've always tried to live with no regrets, no questions about what if, because that's a terrible way to live, but I have gotten into this mode of being scared to take even a single step toward what I say I want. But thinking about it, I'd rather try, give it my best, and fail, than never try at all and never know if I could have succeeded. It's like that old "loved and lost" saying except for me it's better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. Plus you never really fail if you keep trying, and that's where I am now.
I don't consider myself a failure because I have not given up. I have learned a lot. I know what I should NOT do. So I just need to get to work on what I SHOULD do. I have to take one single step. That's all. I can't do it all at once - I can't even look at it all at once becuase it is really daunting, but one little step will get me ever so slightly closer to the goal. One step, one decision, one minute, one hour, one day at a time. Don't stop. Keep going. As the quote says on my desktop, "It's not the mountain that we conquer, but ourselves."
Thanks for your patience during my rant. Have a great day everyone!
PS Pushup challenge was tough today becuase I already did my chest exercises but I made it!
PPS One week to go! Here's my pics for today and I finally got my other pics up from the last few days so scroll down to day 91 and later to check them out. Hilarious poses! Monday's pushup video also at end...

Day 93 - Pics only

Also here's my belated clothing challenge picture (nice face, huh?):

Day 92 - The home stretch

Here's the good news:
Weight: 153 lbs (loss of 2# this week, loss of 3# in M2, 13# overall)
Omron bf: 25% (loss of 1% this week) - just started using this last week
MS bf: 18.3% (loss of 1.4% in M2, 4.8% overall)

Bicep: 11.25" (loss of 0" this week, .5" in M2, 1.5" overall)
Chest: 35.25" (loss of 0" this week, .25" in M2, 1.25" overall)
Waist: 28.25" (loss of 0" this week, .75" in M2, 2.75" overall)
Stomach: 31.25" (loss of .25" this week, 1.25" in M2, 3.25" overall)
Hips: 38" (loss of 0" this week, 1" in M2, 3" overall)
Butt: 41" (loss of .25" this week, .75" in M2, 2.5" overall)
Thigh: 25" (loss of 0" this week, .5" in M2, 3" overall)
Total inches: loss of .5" this week, 5" in M2, 17.25" overall

I am happy with this because I am still losing, however it has slowed down significantly from the beginning of this journey. That's to be expected, I am just impatient :) I've only lost 3 lbs this mission so far, but I have definitely been less disciplined than I was and this mission was also over the holidays. So I'm not going to dwell on it, it is funny, though, how one week I won't lose inches in an area and then the next week I will in that area but not in the one I lost in the prior week. Does that make any sense? Basically, it seems like a 2 week schedule that my body gets around to losing at least a quarter inch on all of the areas I measure. I guess if I had more sensitive measuring devices, it may not seem that way, but for now this is working and I just have to pay attention to trends, not single numbers on particular days. That's why I am using the MS bf calculator just to see the trend since the beginning of the mission since I didn't have the Omron then, but I'm using the Omron to check my change from one week to the next, since it is more sensitive. So it says I lost 1% bf this week, which means all 2 lbs were fat and I actually gained a tiny bit (.05#) of muscle. That is so cool. I like seeing that I am doing the right things and not losing lean mass.
Of course, the MS calculator says that since the beginning I have lost 2.5# of lean so I don't know if I should be concerned about that or not. I know I want to keep that number as small as possible, but what's the tolerance here when you are losing? Anybody know?
Anyway, enough of that boring talk...have to get on to my workout and pushup challenge! More later....
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Okay got really pressed for time so only did the pushups for now, hoping to fit in the rest of my workout later on today. I have a video but don't have time to edit it right now (same with my pics - that's why yesterday's aren't up, had some technical difficulties yesterday and haven't worked them out yet) Anyway, I did 33 pushups, an improvement of 6 over last week! Wow! I think that is amazing to have that much of a jump after only one week. I know I couldn't have pushed out another one past 27 last week because I was really trying for 30 and could not get there. Then this week I did 33 and might have still had a few in me, but I didn't want to go too bad on form and I still had the regular weekly series of 5 sets to do and I did them all as well. I did rest a little longer than the 1 min suggested, but at any rate it is still cool! 70 by ECSS here I come!
TTFN!

Day 91 - Three months in!

Well here it is day 91 and I can't believe it has been that long. I say that at every milestone I think but I am really just blown away that so much has happened and it really hasn't been that long. Sorry about my bad attitude the other day, it carried over until the end of the day Friday and yesterday was pretty busy, as well as trying to work on some business issues, so anyway I'm here and doing well. Thanks to all my well wishers, it's great to have a community of people who care even when you are just having a bad day. I'm not going to do the AL for the weekend, I was way off track due to the above issues, but I have been pretty good for overall daily calories and still doing my workouts, so I hope that the fact that I wasn't really tracking or planning food, just trying to make the best choices at the time, doesn't hurt my weekly stats check tomorrow. I would really like it if I was still at least a pound down because I was 2 lbs down earlier in the week (granted, that was after the all fruit day, but still...) And my cardio for yesterday was not the planned HIIT, it was Jujitsu, but it was a really intense class for 1-1/2 hrs so I know I got in good cardio. And I have the bruises to prove it (you'll probably be able to see them in tomorrow's pics). :)
So tomorrow's a new day....trying to forget about the Colt's loss this afternoon and move on to the more pressing issues of life but it's hard :( Anyway, I will be doing the pushup challenge week 2 tomorrow and seeing if I can beat my previous best of 27. Then I have my regular workout and all the other daily tasks on my AL. This week's going to be a busy one so I'm really going to have to concentrate. Plus I only have 9 days left until my day 100 so I want to be really really tight on my accountability until that time to see how close I am to my original goals and set my goals for the next mission (most important one - meeting Adam, the Shredder Council, and Tom V!) So attached are my pics from Friday, both my regular ones and some poses since some of the other shredders were showing off their goods and I didn't want to be left out. ;) So welcome to the gun show...

Day 88 - Blah blah blah

I'm in a really crappy mood right now so I'm not going to say much, maybe I'll be back on later when I cool off to do my daily accountability but as of right now it isn't looking so hot. Did well with workout and food, though.
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Sorry about the negativity, having a domestic dispute.....anyway, did want to do my AL anyway:
1) Sleep: Minimum (1) I didn't sleep well and got up at 6:30, going to bed on time hopefully, though.
2) AVP: Minimum (1) Did it all twice today and worked a little on my pictures to go with my visualizations but still need to remember to do it more
3) Nutrition: Target (2) I had six meals but lowfat ice cream was my last meal so that wasn't really planned (stress eating!) but I was still within 5% of my ratios
4) Workout: Target (2) I did skip one round out of 4 on my quads for Muscle Rounds but I just didn't have the stamina for it probably due to the all fruit day yesterday. I did remember to have protein before the workout, though, so I was able to do everything else.
5) Prospect: Minimum (1) This is from Christy (THANK YOU) because she saw my post yesterday and gave me some awesome advice. Still need to do much more of this
6) IPAs: Target (2) Worked my accounting consulting again and made $100.
7) Vitamins: Target (2) Had my vitamins and protein shake this morning.
8) Water: Minimum (1) Got in 64 oz so better than yesterday but still need to improve on this.
9) Project: None (0) Didn't work on the DVD at all.
10) Accountability: Target (2) Sent my weekly pic to Adam, posted today's pics, and this is my AL so that's good. Didn't see everyone's blog but I'll do so tomorrow afternoon.
So the total for today is 14, only one more than yesterday, not happy about that. Thought I was going to do better than that, but this is a work in progress (obviously).
Grand total points = 27
I made a list of some rewards I would like to be able to redeem and after today I already used up some of them so here's the list:
150 pts = massage/spa service
150 = get car detailed
100 = get house cleaned
100 = $100 personal purchase
50 = manicure/pedicure
50 = pay off $50 of debt/put $50 in savings
40 = go out to movies
25 = buy new book/resource
20 = 1 hr video game/TV
I know some of those may sound weird to you but they are all motivating things for me so that's why I picked them. I'll add more if I think of some later. But for today, while I was stewing in my pissedoffedness (hey that's a word!) I played a computer game to get my mind off of things so I'm going to redeem 20 of my total toward that. Wasn't really a reward, but it did help adjust my attitude so it was worth it. So I only have 7 left now until tomorrow :)
Speaking of tomorrow, it is reward meal day (lunch w/ Jeff, although right now it doesn't feel real rewarding but by tomorrow I'm sure I'll be fine) so we are going to Red Lobster. Feeling like seafood. And after that we usually have a relaxing day but I need to do some prospecting and work on the DVD because I have not been getting any points for those yet! So I'll work it all out somewhere. Anyway, that's all for now, talk to you all later!!
Here's my pics:

Day 87 - Rest & Fruit day

Okay well I have been so busy this week I have not done all the daily accountability I wanted to do so I have that finally all set up today since I am not doing a workout. Well, actually I did do a workout, the pushup challenge, but that didn't take that long and I count that as extra anyway. It was only day 2 for me so I'm going to withhold the results of the count until it's been one week (next Monday). Stay tuned to see if I can do more than my original 27!
So here is a picture of my accountability log (AL) and the description behind what I am doing. Sorry it is small, you'll have to click on it to read it, but I could not figure out another way to get it up here on Blogger from Excel (not much of an html person, any help would be appreciated!). I have 10 major daily actions that I have determined will allow me to achieve my physical, mental, spiritual, financial, career, and household goals. I'm doing everything together here, not just the physical part. The reason I did it the way I did was because I was reading suggestions from Jack Canfield's "Success Principles" and it talks about setting goals in an MTO fashion - minimum, target, and outrageous. It is a new way to look at tracking things so I thought that I would try it out since my past attempts at just setting daily goals and trying for them have not been good. So I'll start giving myself a point total every day and eventually I will be redeeming them for rewards I decide for myself. I haven't gotten that list together yet, but I'll be doing it soon and then I'll put it up here too. I'll also be determining what my highest priority household project will be and the time frame I expect to complete it in, as well as my other ultimate goals, just so they are documented.

Today I am doing all fruit so nutrition will be easy to track. I have decided that that is the one thing I am going to retain from the MS nutrition for now because I really think it helps "reset" my system. So I'll be having an all fruit day every 12th day of BFFM. Besides that, the schedule is Sat-Mon low calorie, Tue maintenance calories (refeed), Wed-Thr low calorie, Fri maintenance calories & reward meal. We'll see how that goes for me and Jeff. I'll be posting more later on, have to catch up on my picture editing and of course will be giving the AL total for the day, but for now I have to get to work! Talk to you all soon!
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Okay, so today was kind of a slow start on the AL. It was already partway through the day when I worked it all out so I knew I was going to miss a few anyway, but even later on I was not really prepared to complete everything. So here's what it looks like for today:
1) Sleep: Target (2) I did get up at 6am and I am going to bed right after I'm done with this.
2) AVP: None (0) Not good...still working on my visualizations but I do have my affirmation memorized so I could have done that but didn't.
3) Nutrition: Outrageous (3) Giving myself that because it was all fruit day and I stuck to it all day, though I am ready for some protein come tomorrow morning!
4) Workout: Target (2) It was a planned rest day and I did my pushup challenge but only completed the minimum number.
5) Prospect: None (0) Didn't even try - ran out of day but that's an excuse because I could have gone out after dinner but did not. Must get better at pushing myself to do this because it is the lifeline of my business.
6) IPAs: Target (2) Worked my accounting consulting and made $100 so it was good.
7) Vitamins: Minimum (1) Actually I forgot to take them until seeing this but I am getting them right now! So this helps remind me - yay!
8) Water: Minimum (1) Barely got in 32 oz, I guess with all the fruit I just didn't get thirsty. I have a serious headache right now, though, so it's either from not eating enough or not drinking enough water.
9) Project: None (0) Did start the list of projects I want to work on, though, and chose what I was going to work on, so at least I've got that taken care of. What I'm doing is that I have to finish the DVD I am making of the cruise we went on this summer and make copies for everybody that went. Yeah, that's how much of a procrastinator I am: been 7 months! So that's the highest priority right now and it should take 6-8 hrs to complete.
10) Accountability: Target (2) Got all the past pictures edited, finished up today's post and checked out most of the other blogs earlier today, just didn't do any commenting (sorry!)
So the total for today is 13, barely above minimum, so that's not acceptable for today. Will be able to focus more on it tomorrow with a plan in place, so I'm aiming for a much better showing tomorrow.
Before I sign off, here's the pics, and I also put the last few days of pics in their respective posts. Not sure how much of a difference I am seeing this mission, my stomach is flatter but I don't know of anywhere else I can see. But I'm my own worst critic I know so maybe you guys will see something...

Day 86 - Something extra

Hey the dojo where I sometimes practice Jujitsu has a website up that has a video of my first place waza from last July's tournament. Check it out! It's pretty small and not a real professional recording, but still neat. You can tell it's me because...well, I'm the girl, though my hair was longer then. There aren't any other women who are black belts at this particular event. Just thought it was cool to have something showing me in action :)

Nothing else today except my pictures:

Day 85 - All about the stats

So let's start with the measurements:

Weight: 155 lbs (GAIN of 1# this week, loss of 1# in M2, 11# overall)
Bicep: 11.25" (loss of .5" this week, .5" in M2, 1.5" overall)
Chest: 35.25" (loss of .25" this week, .25" in M2, 1.25" overall)
Waist: 28.25" (loss of .25" this week, .75" in M2, 2.75" overall)
Stomach: 31.5" (loss of 0" this week, 1" in M2, 3" overall)
Hips: 38" (loss of .25" this week, 1" in M2, 3" overall)
Butt: 41.25" (loss of 0" this week, .5" in M2, 2.25" overall)
Thigh: 25" (loss of 0" this week, .5" in M2, 3" overall)
Total inches: loss of 1.25" this week, 4.5" in M2, 16.75" overall

As far as bf% goes, I got an Omron BIA Scale for Christmas and just started using it. So I don't have a baseline on it from day 1 so here's where the results get confusing. It came in at 26% today, which sounds high to me, but I'll see what it looks like in the coming weeks to see if I really believe it or not. When I was 17% bf, I had someone else measuring me with an electronic caliper at a gym so I know that was way more accurate than anything I am doing here. And according to the calculator in MS, I started with 23% bf. So it definitely is lower than reality, but if I go with the trend, today it said I was 17.9%, meaning that I have lost just over 5% bf, and 10.5 of the 11# I have lost were fat, only losing .5# of lean mass over the last 12 wks. That's pretty impressive I think! So I am going to continue to use this calculation as well as the Omron and just see what I come up. Although I didn't lose weight this week, I still lost inches, so I am chalking that up to muscle gain (hopefully!) and continuing on, more strict on myself, from today.

Next topic: The Pushup Challenge!
Today was my first official workout for the pushup challenge so I am a little behind everyone else, but my starting count (27) puts me in the third column of week 3 (following the 100 pushups plan) As a side note, Suzette was talking about how the women don't seem to go down as far as the men on their form, and I have a few answers/theories about that. First of all, I didn't go down as far as I usually do in the video. I guess I was just concentrating on getting a lot in and making the video so much, that my form suffered a little. However, usually I start the "up" movement when the fronts of my thighs touch the floor, not when my chest does (which is supposedly correct form) so I still don't go as far as the men. A couple of reasons for that, personally: first of all, I have bad shoulders. I am very careful about what I do to them so I try not to extend them too much beyond 90 degrees. Second, this sounds weird, but I have done pushups in my Jujitsu class for 14 years now and we wear a gi in there, which is loose, so when the front of it hits the floor, that's when I go up, so I have inadvertently trained myself to not go all the way down. And third, yes, women are just not as strong, in the upper body especially. Hate to admit it, but it's a fact of life when it comes to biology and average strength. However, the more often we practice exercises like the pushup, the better we'll get, Suzette, so I say just do what you can for now, be happy that we are able to do more than most of the female population, and just keep working toward those goals so we'll end up better :) Okay side note over. I did well on the pushups until the last series - I rested 3 min before to try to work up enough energy to do at least 25 on the last set and I still couldn't make it. I only did 20 but I will keep working at it :) Then I did my regular workout - light/heavy lactic acid training on the legs and then I was totally wiped. In a good way :) So all I have tomorrow is HIIT and abs so that will be exciting!
For my nutrition today, I didn't track it exactly but I did well except that I only had 4 meals. I also have ran out of some of the things I was eating every day since Jeff is eating them now too, and they go quicker. So I need to make a run to the store tomorrow to stock up and get both of us back to total tracking. Then I will feel better knowing EXACTLY where we are. But I am confident that we are doing well enough as far as calories go at least, which is the most important part for now.

I was going to post my new Goals / Accountability List today but I'm afraid I'll have to give you all a rain check on that - it has gotten late and one of the things I have committed to do is wake up on time and to do that I have to go to sleep on time. And I'm already 1/2 hr later than what I was really aiming for, so I'll sign off for now and have more on that subject tomorrow, as well as my pics that I am behind on posting. Talk to everyone soon!

Day 84 - Has it been 12 weeks?

WOW. I can't believe it has been that long already. I'll have my 12 week stats up tomorrow to mark this milestone - I usually do my measurements on Monday morning so I thought I would wait until then. As far as this weekend has gone, I have done okay...I missed my workout yesterday because I had a meeting in the morning and then just never made time the rest of the day to do it. That's why I plan to work out in the morning because if I don't do it then, I usually don't do it at all. Nutrition-wise, I did okay. There was breakfast at the meeting so I didn't do very well then, but the rest of the day was good so I think I was still under for calories, just not in good ratios. Today was kind of the same story - went places I couldn't control the food, so just tried to make okay decisions and think I did okay. I did work out this morning, too, so I think everything was okay. It's so much easier to stay home and make my own food, though, then I know what I am eating. It's just really anti-social. I guess I'll see the results tomorrow when I do my weigh/measure. It's been a while since I did measurements, before Christmas, so I'm excited to see where I am. That may change once I see them :) But it's only really been half a week since I got back on a program so I'm not sweating it, it's just that it would be nice if I had some good results to show for my 12th week.
Otherwise, this weekend I have been doing a lot of planning and goal setting to decide what I want to do and how I'm going to do it in several areas of my life. Since I have been happy with my progress in this physique transformation so far, I have been trying to find a way to translate that to other goals I have yet to achieve. How do I duplicate the accountability that I have found here that has helped me so much? I'm not totally sure how, but I do have more of a plan now as to what I want to do daily to achieve my goals. I also know that I have to take responsibility for achieving everything that I want instead of the fearful attitude that I have had as of late in certain areas. So I am holding myself accountable for completing certain things every day like some of you other shredders out there, only I'm making the list of things in all aspects of my life. I'm giving myself a point for each thing I complete each day, hoping that will keep me more on track. I'll post the list up tomorrow with my stats, since tomorrow is the first day I am starting this. More on this later, gotta go for now.

Day 82 - Drop and give me....

So that's my starting count for pushups. Sorry if I Americanized the counting too much for those Japan-dwellers out there, that's what we use in Jujitsu but I've only ever heard Americans pronounce them so they may be off :)
Anyway, I'll just let the video pretty much be it for today, I've got a lot going on, but things are going well and I am so happy to be back in my regular routine. Looking at my pics, I know I could have made so much more progress by now if I had not taken off that time, but that's in the past and I am moving forward. Still trying to decide if I should adjust my Mission 2 goals now or just wait for Mission 3. Any thoughts on that? I don't want it to be negative to change them but I just think at this point they are unrealistic. I'll think some more on it. Anyway, today is rest day and reward meal day. Jeff and I decided that Friday's lunch will be the reward meal of the week because he only works half a day on Fridays and we usually go out to lunch because it is less crowded and cheaper than dinner. So I said we could keep doing it but I would have to pick out what he was eating, unless he wanted that to be his one meal, and he chose it to be the reward meal. I know it's only been 3 days but this week is funky anyway. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. As far as I go, I'm not sure that I will really eat anything too bad because I am trying to make up for lost time anyway, and although I know you need to get a break every once in a while, I think I can wait until next Friday. So we'll see. I guess it depends where we go for lunch.
So hope you like the video and I'll catch up with you all later. Have a great Friday!
PS Here is another one of my christmas presents from Jeff and here are my daily pics: