Staying busy

I've been at a standstill the last couple of weeks with my weight loss. I am still down 20 pounds but I have just been stuck. I know this happens to a lot of people when they are trying to lose weight and this is the point when most people give up but I am determined to lose more so this week I stepped up my workout.

So needless to say I was busy this week. Next week my mom and uncle will be in town visiting so I won't be able to workout as much. I am still going to try to squeeze in sometime at the gym here and there.


I didn't really eat the greatest this week. Which probably counteracted all of my working out. The cafeteria at work was having Mexican food this week and it was really good. Wednesday I had taco salad and Thursday I had two soft tacos. Friday morning I had eggs, bacon, turkey sausage, and a biscuit from the cafeteria for breakfast and Thursday and Friday night I had pizza. Wow, when I list it out that sounds like a lot of junk. I had been eating vegetable soup everyday for lunch for the last week or two but after I had it Monday and Tuesday this week I couldn't stand to eat anymore.


I am down a pant size (as I posted on Facebook) which is really exciting. I just hope I will begin losing weight again. I am remaining optimist. If I keep up the hard work I'm sure to lose more.


*Find a Zumba class near you http://www.zumba.com/en-US/parties/search/

First week at the gym

I finished out my 6 weeks of boot camp last week. I have to admit I was kind of sad on my last day. I had finally started to talk to some people and actually started enjoying the workout. Unfortunately boot camp cost $99 per month with a one year commitment or $199 per month without the commitment. That is a bit steep for my price range. Luckily because of my super awesome employer I get a membership at 24 hour fitness for $24.99 per month. They have work out classes 7 days a week and a lap pool, sauna, jacuzzi, running track, locker rooms, and tons of workout equipment so even though I will miss boot camp I am getting more bang for my buck at the gym.

On Monday I got up at 4:50 am like I did everyday for boot camp and went to the gym (which is right next door to where I went for boot camp, a little confusing that early in the morning). They have a Monday morning boot camp class. We did some running and some other cardio and ab workouts. It wasn't too bad.

On Tuesday I went to the 5:30 pm step class. Wow was that one tough! For one thing I tried to be super tough and use the regular step that wasn't adjustable. About half way through class I was regretting that decision. I had planned to do that step class from 5:30 - 6:30 and then stay for Zumba from 6:30 - 7:30 but after the step class I was exhausted and I went home.

On Wednesday they had a 5:30 am Cardio Mix class. It was pretty good. It was a mixture of step and weights and we did a lot of leg and ab workouts that day (my ab muscles are still sore). It was a really good workout and I am excited to go back to that one. I got ready for work at the gym that morning instead of driving back home. I was happy to find that they had shower stalls rather than the giant wall of open shows like in middle and high school. They even had a little changing room in with the lockers. It was pretty decent and cut close to 20 minutes off of my travel time in the morning.

Today I didn't go at all. They had an evening step class and cycling class but I was running late leaving work and I knew I would never make it on time. I know, I know, that's how the excuses to not go to the gym begin but I am going in the morning. They don't have any classes tomorrow morning but I'm going to go and try using some of the fancy machinery and then swim some laps before work.

Saturday they have an 8:30 am Zumba, a 9:30 am Cycling, 9:45 am Body Pump, and 10:30 am Yoga so I plan to try to go to at least one of those or Sundays 1:00 pm Kickboxing, maybe both if I get up enough motivation. I do find that if I work out on the weekend I tend to get more done the rest of the weekend.

It is hard getting this new routine down. I had really gotten use to getting up every morning at 4:50 and going to boot camp, then driving home, getting ready, and going to work but I think the gym will be good. I will get more variety and that will keep me from getting bored.

As far as my dieting I didn't do so well this week. Sunday I met Ken for his lunch break from work and we had to go somewhere close and somewhat fast so we went to Arby's. I had a junior roast beef sandwich. I also had some pizza this week so neither of those meals were especially healthy. I am up 2 pounds but I am going to keep working hard and trying to eat better. I am still proud of the strides I have made. I feel a lot better when I am eating better and working out. I even had some ladies at work comment on how bagging some of my work clothes are getting on me. They asked me what I was doing and I told them about my 5:30 am boot camp. They just laughed.

8% down and another 8% to go

I finished my 5th week of boot camp. One more week left and I will be done with my 6 weeks. As crazy as this sounds I am actually going to miss it a little. Even though I still hate getting up at 5:30 am and I REALLY hate running I have gotten into a routing.


On Wednesday I finally had a weigh in. It was my first one since I had started boot camp. I mean I had been weighing myself at home on and off  but they weigh and measure us using the Jackson/Pollock 3 caliper method. When they weighed me I was up 3 pounds from where I had been but after the measurement I found out that I had lost 8% body fat. I have another 8% to go to put me in the "Acceptable" body fat range. Even though I knew I was losing weight because my clothes were getting looser it was nice to see the numbers to confirm it.


I felt a little better this morning because I weighed myself and I lost the 3 pounds I was up and another 3 pounds giving me a total weight lose of 23 pounds. I was actually surprised that I lost anything at all this week because I had a bagel for dinner the other night. I also made some brownies for Ken last night and I ate one. The surprising thing about it was I had a very different reaction to the sugar than I usually do. Before I started exercising and eating better I ate a lot of sugar and it made me really tired. After I ate the brownie last night I was on a sugar high. I couldn't sleep. I ended up staying awake until 2 am because of it. I had a stomach ache this morning to and I vowed not to eat any more of them.


Sometimes it is really hard to go without certain things. I really like cake (but who doesn't right?) but I found an interesting recipe for a Paleo cake. I decided to try making it today. Here is the recipe in case you are interested:


Banana Paleo Chocolate Cake


Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of oil (coconut preferrably) or unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 cup of honey (not recommended – rather – use really really really ripe bananas!)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup almond meal/flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3 bananas mashed

Prepare:

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Mix oil (honey if using) and eggs in a large bowl until light an d fluffy.
3. Add almond meal, cocoa powder and bananas
4. Mix well.
5. Line a cake tin with baking paper and pour in banana mixture
6. Bake for somewhere between 25 and 45 minutes, or until the toothpick test comes out clean!
7. Store the cake in the refrigerator.  Good served with fruite  and/or a little almond butter, or with Frosting recipe below!

 Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dark chocolate (73%)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil or better yet, coconut butter
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt

Prepare:

1. In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate and coconut oil/butter
2. Stir in honey, vanilla and salt
3. Place frostin gin freezer for 15 minutes to chill and thicken
4. Remove from freezer and whip frosting with a hand blender until it’s thick and fluffy
5. Frost over cake, cookies or cupcakes!

I just tried a piece and it was pretty good. It's a little rich because of the dark chocolate icing. I only used about half the frosting too. The cake is a little grainy due to the almond flour but all in all it was pretty good and will curb any cake cravings.

Ouch!

Well, I'm on my fourth week of boot camp. Last week we had Monday off for Labor Day so I thought I would make up for it over the weekend. I decided to try out 24-hour Fitness since they offer a free 3 day trial and I get a discount through work

On Saturday I went to a Yoga class. It was great! It was a good workout and I liked the balancing and breathing aspects of it. On Sunday I went to a kickboxing class. The instructor was a lady in either her late 50s or early 60s. I couldn't believe what a tough workout it was. I could barely keep up. I was honestly pretty ashamed that this lady was in considerably better shape then me.

After working out Sunday I went home and worked in the yard for 3 hours. I raked and picked up sticks and pine cones. Our lawnmower broke a while back and we've been paying a guy to come and mow for us. He stopped showing up 3 weeks ago. After I raked for awhile I decided to attempt mowing with our non-motorized lawnmower (not one of my finer purchases). It took me 45 minutes to mow 1/4 of the backyard. At this point I gave up.

I went and bought a new lawnmower later that evening.

I felt pretty rough the rest of the evening. I think I might have over done it. It was 90+ degrees out that day. I really thought about skipping boot camp Monday morning but I forced myself out of bed. I went again this morning too but my right leg has really been hurting all day. I think I might have pulled a muscle. I'm hoping it feels better in the morning. I really don't want to miss a day. I only have 2 more weeks left after this week. I am happy to report though that I'm down 3 more pounds. Woo-Hoo!

Hopefully I can keep this pace up and lose another 20.

Go me!

Wow, I've been a huge slacker with the blogging lately. I've been going to boot camp every morning at 5:30 am... yeah AM... so I've been going to sleep around 9 pm. Since I usually don't get home until 5 pm and then make dinner and then that leaves me just a few hours to send with hubby. So needless to say it's limited my blogging time. I thought I would check in today because I weighed myself Tuesday after boot camp and I've lost 7 pounds since I started giving me a total weight loss of 17 pounds over the last month. Go me!

I signed up for 6 weeks of boot camp and Friday I will be at the half way point so I've started thinking about what I will be doing after my 6 weeks is up. I wouldn't mind continuing boot camp but it's pretty expensive; however, I get a discount to 24 Hour fitness through work. They have 5:30 am classes twice a week and 5:30 pm classes 3 days a week in addition to the rest of the gym and a pool so I think I'm going to give this a try after my boot camp time is up.

Dieting... how's that been going you ask? Well, okay. I've been trying to limit the amount of breads, rice, cereal, and pastas I've been eating. I have still been allowing myself a few cheat meals a week. For example I had pizza for dinner tonight but I had chicken and broccoli for lunch and an apple and peanut butter for breakfast. I am trying to work towards no bread and pasta. I figure as long as I keep trying and don't go completely off the rails I'm still doing okay. I do feel significantly better than I did a month ago when I was still eating crap food all of the time.

I have actually noticed something some what interesting. I was having some pain in my ankle for months and once I stopped eating bread and pasta I noticed the pain going away. I don't know if it's because of the weight loss or the lack of gluten. I've heard some people can have slight intolerance to gluten which can cause joint pain and other symptoms. Whatever it is I have been feeling pretty good. Well, I just thought I would give a quick update since I was excited about my small success.

One long day

Today was possibly the longest day. I woke up at 4:50 am to go to boot camp. Actually let me back up. I went to bed Sunday night at 10 pm so that I could get up early. Around midnight I woke up feeling like I had overslept. I woke up again at 4 am again thinking that I had overslept. At 4:50 I finally dragged my butt out of bed.

I got ready and left the house around 5:11. I was worried that I would be late but I forgot that there's no traffic that early. Who else is crazy enough to be out at that time. I made it there with 8 minutes to spare.

We started out with weights, jogged around the block (I did more walking than jogging), lots and lots of push ups (which I'm also terrible at), more weights, more push ups. By the end of the hour I was wiped out and really sweaty. I rushed home and got around and made it to work by 7:30.

This began the longest part of my day. It was just one of those days at work. Ugh. I finally left around 5:30. I got home and started dinner; Turkey Cheddar brats (no bun) and baked asparagus with oil olive. I had a blueberry banana Greek yogurt smoothie for dessert. Delicious!

I'm winding down now and about to go to bed though I wish I could stay up later because going to bed means I'm closer to boot camp in the morning. I probably shouldn't be dreading it already but I'm really sore and it's just the first day. Well tomorrow is another day.

I'm still here

Sorry that I've been such a slacker the last week. I know it's been over a week since I blogged last. I did fairly well this week being back on regular foods. I went out to eat twice this week and both times I got a salad (no croutons). I've been making some delicious fruit smoothies with either Greek yogurt or almond milk. Pretty tasty! I bought some spinach chicken burgers from Whole Foods so I had those for dinner this week (no bun). Overall I would say that I've done pretty good. I did have some pizza on Friday night and Saturday afternoon but I limited the amount I ate and we always use Turkey pepperoni and veggies on it so I didn't feel too bad.

I went to my boot camp registration this week. I figured it would be a one on one registration but instead there were 4 other ladies there and 1 guy. Nothing like getting weighed and measured in front of strangers for the old self esteem. They are a little stricter than I thought they would be about class times. They really want you to sign up for a specific time with little deviation so I signed up for the 5:30 am class. Yikes! I really hope I'm going to be able to get my butt out of bed that early 5 days a week for the next 6 weeks. It's really the best time for me because I can get it out of the way and then get ready and hopefully be to work by 8 am. If I find that it's not working out as well maybe they will let me switch to 5:30 pm although then I will have to fight traffic to get over there.

I read the Paleo Diet book by Loren Cordain today. It's rare for me to sit down and read an entire book in one day but it was a quick read and I think I'm going to give it a try. After attempting juicing it shouldn't be quite as rigid. They offer 3 levels. Level 1 allows 3 open meals a week. Level 2 allows 2 open meals a week and Level 3 allows 1 open meal a week. They suggest level 2 or 3 if you are looking to lose weight. I think I'm going to start with level 2 so that I can still have some dairy now and then. If you're interested in finding out more about Paleo I stumbled across this blog which also links to several others on the subject.

They weighed me at the boot camp registration and I'm only 2 pounds down from where I started on August 1. I guess it's better than nothing. I have been walking on my treadmill for at least a half an hour everyday for the last two weeks (though I've gotten a little lacks this weekend). I have noticed that my clothes are fitting looser so I'm trying not to feel too discouraged. In fact yesterday I put on a pair of jeans that had been a little tight and they were loose so I felt pretty good about that. I still have a ways to go but I've already made significant improvements in what I'm putting in my body so I try not to let the numbers get me down.

I will try to write tomorrow evening to share my first morning of boot camp experience. It should be interesting.