Wed Weigh In!

*insert dramatic theme music!*

It's here ladies and gents, the day we all dread until we see that number on the scale.  The day we take a peek to see how we're progressing with all the changes we're making each and every day.  Wednesday Weigh In!  I look forward to this day even when it's not during Shrinking Jeans challenges.  It's on a neutral day for me in my life and that makes it easier to jump on that scale.

I must say, I'm shocked at my progress.  To the point of asking myself if I'm really getting enough nutrition each day considering how much I'm burning.  These results are a product of calorie counting, walking at least 2 miles 5 days a week, the squat/pushup challenge, pushups every hour, as well as the boot camp.  I'm sore and exhausted every day but it's paying off!  That being said, *drumroll*

I couldn't have asked for a better result in a week!  I hope to keep up the hard work and continue to see the number shrink!

It's been a crazy week.  Taking care of blog posts, walking every day, starting the boot camp, taking sisterhood shots, and keeping up with the mini challenges!  I barely have time to get in some sleep!   *bless any of you with children...*  I love doing this, I love posting about all of my changes and things I learn.  I think it's awesome that I have the time and dedication to share on so many different social medias.  And I feel blessed to have so many of you reading this right now!  Thank you for your support!

The remainder of the week, I will be needing the above photo to stay on track!  It's been a rough but amazing 8 days and I'm looking forward to moving from "action" to "maintenance" in the future!  Working out isn't a chore, I've come to love and appreciate what it brings for me.  Lower stress, better strength, more dedication, perseverance, love for myself (I'm slowly learning to more and more), and much much more!

I hope each one of you can find something or some things that excite you and motivate you to get up and go every day!  Movement is the key, if you can get that down in some way, shape or form, you're golden.  :)

Time to Get Crackin'

Well it's day 5 and it's nearing that time where people get frustrated and start dabbling in the thought of giving up.  This is where we need to dig deep!!  There's no need to spend more time thinking about working out than actually working out!  Even if it's 5 mins a day, at least you're up, you're active!  Get moving!  Try something new, make mini challenges like the Boot Camp calendar, or just add something to it like crunches!  There are a million things we can do to be active.  It's about finding the right workout for you.  What will keep you going.

I'm looking forward to the first full week of the new year.  I will be starting the 6 week boot camp tomorrow with 2 friends.  I have been going strong on my calendar workouts.  And I have been logging my calories every day!  That's a lot more than I've put forth in a long time even when I do workout on a semi-regular basis. :)  To keep myself accountable, I made a checklist of daily things that need to happen.  I will save these so I can look back and see where my strengths are versus my weaknesses!  I will also write a little something on the back of each week talking about the ups and downs.

Thinking of adding this little gem to my squats for the calendar challenge too!  Just to make things a little harder!

I went against my "don't peek at the scale" rules and weighed myself this morning.  I know I know, it's not always about the number, but man it was good to see the change!  I'm down 5 pounds in 5 days!  I've been busting my butt with workouts, eating at home instead of eating out, and making sure my snacks are healthy and not useless junk food!

There's no quick or easy way to get through this journey.  Sticking with it is the number one best thing anyone can do for themselves.  Through thick and thin we can all do this!

I'm going to be looking for some yoga classes here pretty soon.  I really like my dvd's but I much rather have an instructor in person!  That will be what I do on the off days from the boot camp.  I'm really looking forward to working on that challenge to awaken some muscles that I didn't know existed. :)

Stay strong and remember you're doing this for you! 

Post Jan 1st High.

Admit it, you are all so excited to the point of being antsy about getting down and dirty with your new goals!  I know I am.  It's all I could think about all day at work!!!  I was so excited I knocked out my bootcamp calendar workout at 4am this morning!  All in all it's been a great start to the year!

I want to thank all you wonderful people for visiting first off!  I got over 150 hits on my blog JUST YESTERDAY!  That's sooooo amazing and I'm grateful for the encouragement and feedback!!  It just inspires me to write more and that will help fulfill one of my goals I've set for myself!

 My Day 2 Goals picture for the Sisterhood Shots! *entails the bootcamp calendar,

my memory jar, the workout jar, 5k training, learning yoga, my bikini body, losing 10% of my weight

and letting the world know that I will. I will do it.

Time to lay out my day!  3:45am comes around and that pesky alarm starts blaring ignore the fact that this is the 3rd alarm of my morning and it's time to get up.  I decide today is just not a makeup day so instead of wasting all that time on my face, I knocked out my bootcamp calendar squats *with 10lb weights again*.  Good start!  I slowly mosey toward my car.  My hip injury *apparently a normal upset to the hip joints and flexors for beginners* is flaring up after the 5k I ran yesterday....  But at that point I've stretched it out 4 times since the end of my race.

Work was normal as always.  Boring with just a dash of concentration.  I'm a pharmacy tech at a mail in pharmacy which means I sit at a desk working on a computer all day.  To break up the stagnant lifestyle, what do I do?!  Why my pushups goal of course!  5 pushups every hour as long as I'm at work.  I kicked that daily goal in the BUTT!

As for my walking, I managed to get in my normal average of 2 miles with my bestie.  Not really shooting to increase our distance.  I'd like to keep my hip pain to a minimum so just getting up and outside is enough for me!  Plus it goes toward my goal of walking 5 days a week!

After work, I went out with my besties and we didn't make the most amazing choices with food.  That being said, I learned last year that if you overly restrict your diet, you will be an unhappy miserable person.  It's a combo of baby steps and splurging on what you like every once in a while!  BUT because of our food and drink choices, I decided that my 2 mile walk wasn't enough to cover those calories.  So I plopped down in front of the boob tube!  That's right!  Tried out a new YOGA dvd!  Had you fooled didn't I?!  I was unable to finish the whole sequence due to a lack of muscle, the hip pain, and some wrist issues, but the point is I started.  And I loved this one!  The instructor really knows what it means to be a beginner.  I can already feel the burn in all the right places from what I was able to do.  I will be looking to join local yoga classes if I can find some near work.  I much rather a real person to a screen!  Also looking forward to sharing my Sisterhood Shot for tomorrow!!!!

I hope everyone had an amazing Thursday.  It's so inspiring to see so many people connect through the Facebook group!  I am really looking forward to the next 7.5 weeks with all of you!  I have finally got my Endomondo linked up to MyFitnessPal and will be soon sharing my user names along with my Twitter page on the right side of my blog for anyone interested in following/adding/commenting/supporting/looking for motivation!  Look forward to tomorrow and remember every day is a new one!

New Years Weight Loss Boot Camp

Well for once I'm proud to say that this ISN'T day 1 or a new beginning.  For those of you that are just starting out, I'm super proud of you!  I've been fairly active over the last 3 months so I'm nearing the "maintenance" stage of fitness rather than action.  That being said, I'm really excited to join the Shrinking Jeans community again for yet another challenge to kick off the new year.  This year they're doing 2 Dietbets as well as a slew of mini challenges, goals, and a 6 week Bootcamp that is like a HIIT workout.

In this post, I'm going to be doing our first challenge for the week.  Outlining my goals as well as explaining how I'm going to achieve them.  They had the same challenge in Jan 2013 (link goes to my goal list from that challenge) and I really enjoyed laying it all out but in all honesty I didn't really stick to most of the stuff I talked about.  This year will be a tad different.  I'm choosing goals that are more refined and important in my journey now that I've dabbled in different things for a year.

Long Term Goals:

• I want to feel good enough about myself to wear a bathing suit again.
• I want to be comfortable in my own skin and with my image.

• I am pre-diabetic (and both of my parents have diabetes) and it is recommended that in order to maintain it and stay healthy, I need to lose 10% of my body weight.  This one is really important to me.  I will not put an actual number on a weight to achieve or how much to lose.  I want to get HEALTHY, so I don't need to get caught up in obsessing over numbers.
• I want to run a 5k from start to finish.  This is a long term goal because of the hip issues I developed in my C25K training.  It's going to be a long process but one I'm willing to reach for.
• I want to earn more money this year than I did last year in my workout jar.  I ended 2013 with $140.  Anything over that will be an improvement and any money in that jar from now til Dec 31st will be an accomplishment.  I also took the suggestion to make a Healthy Memories Jar that will hold my weigh ins along with the date it was taken.

• Last but not least, I will be picking yoga back up slowly.  I dabbled in it last year and ended up with a kitchen injury that took me out of the game for a couple of months.  So I'd like to take another stab at it.  I want it in my life for so many reasons.  It promotes health, it's great for flexibility, it's an amazing de-stressor.  I look forward to all I can learn from yoga this year.

Short Term for January:

•  By the end of Jan I want to be able to do real pushups.  I currently do girly ones on my knees due to the weak flabby arms I have.  I currently do 5 pushups every hour at work.  I will increase how many I do an hour each week!
• I want to walk 5 days a week if not more.  I don't care about distance as long as I'm up on my feet.  I again and currently walking at work with my bestie.  We walk for one 15 min break and through our whole 30 min lunch.  We are currently averaging 2 miles a day and I love having that time at work!  I have a desk job and it's really necessary to put in the extra time to offset the 8 hours of sitting.
• I will be my own motivation for the Weight Loss Bootcamp!  In encouraging my friends to do it, that will ensure that I complete this 6 week challenge!  It's important that I do it start to finish!  I will be starting it next Monday because I don't like picking up weekly stuff mid-week.
• Last but not least, eating.  Now that school is over, I have more time in the kitchen.  That means more meals at home, less eating out.  That also means picking back up on my Recipe Blog!!!  This goal is to eat at home at least 5 nights a week to not only eat healthy but to save some money!  I even made a menu calendar to keep me accountable :)

Resources to achieve all of this!

• I have MyFitnessPal.  This one will be difficult for me to maintain.  I find it too tedious to enter in my personal recipes.  But I'm going to try my best!
• My Fitbit Force will be here in the next couple of weeks.  This can be used to set goals and it tracks active time, steps taken, sleep cycles, etc.  I can't wait!
• For my walking, I use the app Endomondo.  I really like it because it has a slew of different activities you can track.  It also syncs with MyFitnessPal AND my Fitbit!  I highly recommend it if you don't already have loyalties to an app.
• And of course, last but NEVER least, I am a part of the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans community.  I have been so grateful toward them and all the motivation they've given me over the last year.  I look forward to another year of success with them!

I started the year off by doing a virtual 5k for Multiple Sclerosis!  It was supposed to be done in December, but hey!  I got it done!  I walked it with my boyfriend and we had a really nice time. :)

 

I also knocked out the bootcamp calendar workout today.  I added 10lb weights to make it a little tougher on myself.  Plus if I've learned anything from Jillian Michaels, it's that working out is best done in pairs to work out several muscle groups at once. :)  

And last but not least, I posted my weight along with my first #sisterhoodshots photo first thing this morning.  

I wish everyone participating luck and I encourage those of you reading to look into it if you're not doing anything for motivation!

A Little Reflection

So like any normal human being, I'm going to touch on some highlights of my year as it winds down quickly.  I'm not the type of person that judges their life progress year by year, but it IS good to reflect on lessons, memories, progress, and life overall.

One of the first things I started up in January was my workout jar.  I rewarded myself with a dollar every time I got in a workout of 30 mins or more.  I had hoped to make a bit more, but considering all the hiccups I ran into this year I don't think I did too shabby.

I ended up earning $140 for the entire year up to today.  That means I worked out on 38% of the days this year!  That's a lot more than I could have hoped!  Now that it's all counted up, I can spend it on whatever I want or I can choose to just add to the jar through 2014.  I chose to splurge on myself and will be getting the Fitbit Force delivered to me in the next couple of weeks!

I can't wait to get it and try it out!  My walking buddy was given a Fitbit as well for Christmas so I'm itching to get mine so we can compare daily activity!  The remainder of my money will be kept in the jar to add to 2014's earnings.  I believe I will continue my same deal.  $1 for every workout over 30 mins and something I added in September is I will earn $5 for every 5k I walk or run. :)

 Susan G. Komen 5k

Ugly Sweater Run 5k

The other thing I did through out the year was I worked on my Motivation Board on Pinterest!   That was one of the mini challenges or suggestions of some sort from the Shrinking Jeans.  I love adding to it as I happen to come across workout plans or quotes that move me in some way!  I felt it was a great boost to my "feel good" senses.  I highly recommend everyone make one and add to it as things catch your eye!

My year came with stress like any sane or not so sane person.  I fell victim to them rather than fighting through them and while I can proudly say I did as much as I did, I cannot proudly say I did my best or gave it my all.  But I'm choosing to focus on the first part.  I did accomplish a lot this year.  My knowledge of fitness and health has grown immensely!  I will forever be grateful for the knowledge gained and look forward to adding more to it!

I am ending the year with more weight on than I started the year off with.  It's due to a lot of factors, none of which deserve to be written down as an excuse.  I know what happened and I know I'm trying and that's all that matters.  It's a health journey, not just a weight loss journey.  I do hope to see some changes in my body this coming year as I buckle down now that I don't have school stealing my focus on my off time! :) It's just important to remember that everything worth while takes time and effort.  I'm willing to put in the time.

This next year I'm hoping to go about things a little bit different, maybe a little stronger, a little tougher on myself.  Looking back on my Jan. posts, I feel like I just didn't have the hang of things yet.  But as the year went by, I got more comfortable in my skin, in my blogging, in sharing what needs to be shared, in motivating.  I hope I can continue doing these things, and learn to do it all even better!

Thank you to all that read my blog.  I certainly write for myself but I write for others too.  I feel blessed to be considered motivation for anyone!  I hope to expand my readers a bit more in 2014 as well so if anyone feels the urge to share, by all means please do!

2014 will be kicked off with the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans weight loss boot camp.  I will not be participating in the dietbets as they tend to stress me out more than they help but I will be doing the weigh ins, the challenges, the projects, etc.  I look forward to seeing old and new names and faces as we all take 2014 head on by force!  I also HIGHLY recommend following these awesome ladies because they have a lot to share and they are amazing supporters!

And my last words of blog wisdom for 2013 to push us forward into 2014 will be:

Playing Catch Up! November and December!

Well it's not QUITE 2014 but since I had the spare time I figured I'd pick back up on my blogging.  A TON has happened in the last month and a half and with finals and graduation, I just didn't have the time to even think about blogger even existing!  So here we go!

At the end of November, Zach and I walked the Ugly Sweater Run 5k with a bunch of friends.  It was REALLY cold and overcast all day but we had a blast.  We ended up going out to lunch afterwards and then everyone went their separate ways, but those few hours together meant a lot.  It was such an awesome experience to have a lot of love and support there.  Two of our friends, Sean and Lisa, actually run 5k's and half marathons, so they ran and waited for us at the finish line which was pretty cool too.  They joined back up with us and went across the finish line again.  Here are some pictures from that:

 Working on our Ugly Sweaters!

 Zach actually decorated his own!

 Mine, front and back

 Here's the group! Left to Right: Lisa, Sean, Zach, Me, Amy, Hada, and Scott right up front.

 Getting toasty by the fire!  So many photo op's here!

Amy and Hada had headbands on so they pinned their hats on their back like bunny tails!

 The starting line with some random guy who shorted out the whole system.  The inflatable start line even started to deflate!  Good thing they got it back up and running quickly!

 Another photo op that caused a traffic jam.

 My tree in action! *sporting my Active Accessories Pouch that I LOVE!*

 At this photo op, they even had a snow blower for the pictures!

 Finish line pics!

Lisa and Sean had finished the race like 30 mins before this shot so I made them take the picture of us : /  Wish we had gotten them in here too!

Now on to why I've been such a slacker!  My college graduation!  It's been 7 years of ups, downs, and everything else but I finally made it!!!  Finals and the looming senioritis are what benched my time for blogging.  Here are a few graduation pics :)

 I was the last to walk the stage for my College (Criminology and Criminal Justice)

 Family above and my friends who came below :)

Zach and I :)

Now that we have that out of the way!  The last thought I have to share is that I had to take a step back from all my crazy walking.  I was trying to walk minimum 3 miles a day 3-5 times a week if I could.  Well that backfired horribly around the end of November.  I developed severe hip pains that I just could not stretch out.  So I took a few weeks to let the flare die down.  I've now started walking with my bestie Amy at work!  We walk during our first 15 min break and then we walk during our 30 min lunch as well.  We're currently averaging just less than 2 miles a day between both walks :)  It's not quite enough but it's a start back into the walking world.  I'm looking forward to doing more 5k's but I think I'll be walking them for quite some time until I can get a handle on this hip situation. : /

 Amy and I rocking out in our Ugly Sweaters at Work!!!

Well I think that's the short and sweet of it.  In the next few days I'll be jumping back into the regular swing of things to kickstart 2014 off right.  I'll tally how much money I earned in 2013 with my money jar (which I used to buy a Fitbit Force!!!)  And I'll get cracking on Jan 1st goals and look back at my letter to myself from last January!  Hope everyone had a great year!  Mine wasn't AS productive as I wanted it to be, but I was still active for at least a 1/3 of the year! :)