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!