Another Week Gone.

Well it's that time again.  Finals are creeping up on me and I find myself slacking in the exercise department a little bit.  It's time to whip my motivation into shape again because I could really use the de-stress time!

The mini challenge over the last week was to walk a mile every day.  I blew that out of the water.  I have a pesky little dog that has to be walked 4-10 times a day or she'll pee on my carpet out of spite.  Plus, my "hike" from the visitor parking lot to my biology classes is just over a mile round trip so 3 days I got at least 2 miles in!

This week's challenge is to keep a food journal.  I use SparkPeople.com but I have fallen out of love at the time it consumes to enter everything in correctly.  I decided that I'm just going to hand write everything for this week.

Hoping to find the time and the strength to get in these workouts.  I went from 6 days a week to maybe 2 right now and that's just not going to help me slim down.  Gotta find that motivation and encouragement that I had last month!  I know it's still in me somewhere, but I really need to dig deep to find it!  (along with the motivation to post a little more frequently.  I've fallen behind because I didn't want to advertise me not working out as much as I'd like.)

Wishing all the dietbet contestants luck this time around.  I may not be participating but I'm rooting for you all!  Stay strong and keep your goals in sight!

Final Weigh In.

I've never been more frustrated or proud at the same time.  I was .3lbs short on my dietbet weigh in this morning.  I really thought I could win but it's just not meant to be I guess.  But the bright side to it all is I lost a ton of weight this month and It's slowly coming off.  I think it's time to retire the neat idea of dietbets because my body isn't sloughing it off fast enough and I'm tired of coming close but not hitting it.  I think that may actually be hindering me by stressing my body out.

So thanks for the fun times, and I'll stay vigilant in keeping up with the wed weigh ins on the Shrinking Jeans site but I think it's time to focus on me a little bit more because I know that I can do this.  While I welcome motivation of any sort, I think it's time to take the reigns and see where I can go in the next month.

For the year I'm now down 11 pounds and I am feeling good about myself even though I still view myself overweight.  It is a long process to accept oneself and then and even longer one to love oneself.  I'm taking this journey, learning a ton about myself, my body, and my cooking in the kitchen and I don't regret one step of it.  Through the sweat, tears, frustration, and stress, I could never ask for a better journey so far.

Congrats to everyone, not just those that won their dietbets. :) We stuck with it and that's what matters.

Last chance workout.

Well today was the day where you're supposed to give it your all but I just couldn't find it in me.  School is weighing on my mind with a big test tomorrow but I did manage to get in a decent 45 min workout.  Let's hope it's enough for tomorrow morning's weigh in!

 I had this in my head the whole time I contemplated getting off the elliptical early.

Gonna go hang out in the kitchen and contemplate some healthy dinner rather than the casserole I had planned. (every calorie counts til tomorrow morning!)

Hope everyone did their best this month and even if you didn't get the weight results you wanted, just remember you're up and doing it and that's a big step.

Technical Difficulties.

Goodness it's been a while but this time I have a real reason!  My computer has been out of commission since Friday because of faulty parts.  So I haven't been logged in to update. :)

Tomorrow is my last chance workout for the dietbet with the Shrinking Jeans! I busted my butt today too :)  Did a 45 min workout on my elliptical (doing interval bursts) and then I lifted weights for my arms workout.  I hope to go out with a bang this time, but if I don't, that's ok too!

We recently acquired a new roommate for the next few months and let me tell ya... It's gonna be a challenge eating around him.  All he ever eats is junk food, frozen food, or fast food.  I've decided that most food types that start with F are WAY bad for you.  I need to remember that I'm cooking for me and the boyfriend and he can eat his unhealthy junk all he wants.  It's just a terrible temptation laying around the house.

Here's to Monday being over, to my computer working for now (still using the old parts because I have to return the faulty parts), and to the dietbet coming to an end!

Just don't overdo it :)

Get it Done!

I don't know where my motivation came from today but I managed to squeeze out a 25 min elliptical workout even though I feel like death today.  Just had to get it in I guess :)

Weigh in Wed.

It's that time again, another week gone!  I'm happy to say that I'm down to 185.2lbs which means I've lost 10 pounds this year! :)  I only have 1.1 pound to lose to win my dietbet as well!!

This last weeks mini challenge was to make sure we were getting our 5 servings of fruits and veggies each day.  I'm not surprised to say that I did not succeed in this challenge.  I wish I had tried a bit harder but I knew from the start that I wouldn't make it which in the end probably encouraged me to not care about trying.  The mind... it's a wonderful thing... when you're being positive.

This new week's mini challenge is to cut out trans-fats from our diets.  I am going to try my hardest to watch this one.  Some fun facts about why it's bad for you.

Time to go get my exercise in and look forward to another week and another pound gone! :)

Slackin'

I'm finding it hard to sit down and write about stuff on here.  I don't want to be boring and talk about all the same stuff or point out how much I'm either slacking or not sticking to goals I've set. : /

A couple weeks ago I posted a picture of the 300 ab workout that I said I was going to try and do a couple times a week.  Well, I finally tried it for the first time last night and it kicked my butt.  I was only able to do half of it because my abs just wouldn't have it.  But! It's super intense and I can only imagine the killer abs I could have if I actually stick to it 2-3 times a week!

As for my weights, they are getting some good use!  I am starting to see some arm muscle when I flex. :)  My only problem is that lifting the weights irritates my shoulder and that keeps me from sleeping.  But I'm hoping that by doing safe lifting, I can strengthen the muscles around my shoulder without actually doing shoulder presses.

I must admit that my cardio has taken a nose dive over the last couple of weeks.  I'm not getting my elliptical workout in every day and while it makes me sad, my knees thank me for it.  After all the current hype about the 5k's coming up, it's making me want to run!  I don't know how to go about doing it safely (both knees are injured and have been for years).  It's just really rough on my knees, that's why I love the elliptical so much!  It takes a lot of the pressure off because you're not slamming down into pavement or a treadmill.  But, I might suck it up soon and try the C25K program out there...

And last but not least, my biking has tapered off as well.  School has been a struggle this semester and I feel like my total dedication and focus on exercising might have contributed to some bad test grades, so this second half, I'm still working out, but not as intensely as Jan and Feb.

I guess the good news out of all this is that even though life got tough with things being thrown every which way, I'm still making the effort to better myself.  I'm still working toward that kick ass body.  And!  Side note that will most likely be a post tomorrow, I'm almost down 10 lbs for the year!!!  It's coming off slow and it's being done in a healthy way.  That ensures me that I'm doing what I can and if I keep this up, it will stay off. :)