Weigh-in Wednesday + goal update

Starting weight: 176.4 lbs.

Last week weight:  126.4

Current weight:  126.0

Current loss: -0.4
TOTAL LOSS:  -50.4

Super surprised because it was a tough week!  No exercise with lots of high calorie days... maybe my body needed the rest and extra calories?

RFSC: Week 9 goals (!!!!)

Week 9 Goals

First thing, let me take you back two months ago when I first set my RFSC goals: 

NSV Goal

• Success story.  The other week I was talking to Anthony and told him that one of my NSV goals is to be featured on the "Wall of Success" at our gym.  The catch is I don't wanna ask to be a feature, I wanna be asked... big difference.

MISSION  FREAKING  ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!  This past week, Trainer L asked me to be a success story for the gym wall!  He asked me to write up a short paragraph about my journey and include a starting, middle, and current picture.  I literally finished it about an hour ago and sent it off to him just in time for my gym's grand reopening later this week.  Let's just say that between this and my weigh-in with Trainer L, I was in such an emotional state earlier this week... in a good way, of course.

Second thing, remember the exciting/secret news I had mentioned here?  Well, I just got back home from a two-day intensive personal trainer certification workshop and exam!!!  Yup, I'm going to be a personal trainer (once I pass a couple more certifications and get first-aid/CPR recertified).  I already went on a first interview at my gym and just need to schedule the second interview once I become certified.  I'm so excited... scared like hell... but still excited!!  So this is the reason why I need to really step up my nutrition... doesn't look good to be a chubby personal trainer.

Exercise Goal 

• Keep on going.  Continue my current 12-week exercise program, which will take me into the middle of May. 

• Sun:  arms and abs + HIIT
• Mon:  OFF
• Tues:  full-body weight training + cardio
• Wed: chest, shoulders and abs + plyo
• Thur: hammies, glutes, calves
• Fri:  back, bi's, and abs + HIIT
• Sat:  shoulders, tri's and calves + plyo

Nutrition Goal

• Clean, clean, clean!  My #1 priority for the next 10 weeks is to really focus on and dial in my nutrition.  Clean, whole foods to support my body and intense workouts.  Last two weeks and I plan to make them the BEST two weeks of this challenge.
• Increase healthy fats.  Definitely need to add more "smart fats" to my diet: salmon, avocado, nuts, olive oil, flaxseeds, coconut oil, etc. Cutting back on the healthy fats a bit since I'm in major fat-loss mode right now.  Still taking my fish oil and flaxseed oil, cooking with coconut oil, and eating a whole egg a day, but will eliminate whole avocados/fatty cuts of meat until mid-June.
• New eats = happy tummy.  Making it a goal to try one new recipe a week.  Nutrition can get pretty boring if you eat the same things over and over, so finding 10 new (hopefully yummy) recipes to add to my rotation will do me good.  Going to try this recipe for dinner tonight.

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Week 8 recap

Yup, this week sucked with exercise BUT I purposely took off.  Getting over a cold, body feeling run down, and having to study for my personal trainer certification kept me out of the gym (and out of work for a day).  I'm ready to hit it hard in Week 9!


Exercise Goal 

• Keep on going.  Continue my current 12-week exercise program, which will take me into the middle of May. 

• Sun:  arms and abs + HIIT
• Mon:  OFF
• Tues:  full-body weight training + cardio
• Wed: OFF
• Thur: OFF
• Fri:  OFF
• Sat:  OFF

Nutrition Goal

• Clean, clean, clean!  My #1 priority for the next 10 weeks is to really focus on and dial in my nutrition.  Clean, whole foods to support my body and intense workouts.  With my new fitness goal, clean eating has to be a priority or else what's the point?  Nutrition makes up 80% of the equation to get us the body we want.
• Increase healthy fats.  Definitely need to add more "smart fats" to my diet: salmon, avocado, nuts, olive oil, flaxseeds, coconut oil, etc. Are avocados out of season?  Can't seem to find any that don't break the bank to buy ($5 for one?! SERIOUSLY?!)
• New eats = happy tummy.  Making it a goal to try one new recipe a week.  Nutrition can get pretty boring if you eat the same things over and over, so finding 10 new (hopefully yummy) recipes to add to my rotation will do me good.  Tried out this recipe for slow cooker chicken fajitas and it was... okay.  I'm not a bell pepper person and the bell pepper taste was a little too much for me.  Minus that, it would have been REALLY good!  Easy fix for next time so I'll be keeping this recipe in my rotation.

Weigh-in Wednesday: AHHHHH man!

First of all, I'm loving all the guesses on my exciting news (best guess: Olympic torch runner)!  Just a couple more hints:

• If everything works out, I'll need a whole new wardrobe (not weight-loss related)
• I'll be paying it forward
• And no, I'm not getting married.  Let's not rush into things, now.

On to the weigh-in...

Starting weight: 176.4 lbs.

Last week weight:  127.0

Current weight:  126.4

Current loss:  -0.6
TOTAL LOSS:  -50.0

A regular happy face doesn't even cut it...

...even this one barley contains how I feel.

(source)

WOOT WOOT!!!  Hit the 50lbs. mark on the dot!!  I was so excited when I weighed in with Trainer L, that I actually started to choke up and got a little teary eyed.  Kinda weird for Trainer L to see me get like that since normally he's used to seeing my heavy squatting face:

(source)

My thoughts on hitting this tremendous milestone:

• This journey takes time.  I decided to lose the weight for good back in September of 2008... almost four years later and I'm down 50 lbs.  Many people can lose that amount of weight in less than a year, but this is MY journey and I did what worked for ME.
• Anyone who said losing weight is easy is a F*@$^% liar! Period!
• Every set back I had or mistake I made came with a valuable lesson learned.  Don't let these stand in your way of anything.
• Ice cream and pizza will always be a part of my life so it's just something I need to work around.  No big deal since I'm still moving in the right direction.
•  Reaching goals and milestones are AWESOME, but it doesn't end your journey.  You need to reevaluate where you are and strive to improve yourself for the rest of your life.  It's a lifestyle change... not an "only-till-I-lose-30-pounds" change.
• Health and fitness are no longer just things I do... it's now a part of who I am (another hint for my exciting news).
• I've still got a lot more work to do but I'm so excited about doing it!

RFSC: Week 8 goals

Week 8 Goals

Have some exciting news that may change the course of my fitness journey.  In fact, it may change my life.  But I can't talk about it just yet (sorry for the tease).

With this news, comes motivation for me to really kick things up into high gear, especially when it comes to my diet.  Fat loss needs to be my main priority for the next several weeks.  Any guesses to why that might be?!

Exercise Goal 

• Keep on going.  Continue my current 12-week exercise program, which will take me into the middle of May. 

• Sun:  arms and abs + HIIT
• Mon:  OFF
• Tues:  full-body weight training + cardio
• Wed: chest, shoulders and abs + plyo
• Thur: hammies, glutes, calves
• Fri:  back, bi's, and abs + HIIT
• Sat:  shoulders, tri's and calves + plyo

Nutrition Goal

• Clean, clean, clean!  My #1 priority for the next 10 weeks is to really focus on and dial in my nutrition.  Clean, whole foods to support my body and intense workouts.  With my new fitness goal, clean eating has to be a priority or else what's the point?  Nutrition makes up 80% of the equation to get us the body we want.
• Increase healthy fats.  Definitely need to add more "smart fats" to my diet: salmon, avocado, nuts, olive oil, flaxseeds, coconut oil, etc. Are avocados out of season?  Can't seem to find any that don't break the bank to buy ($5 for one?! SERIOUSLY?!)
• New eats = happy tummy.  Making it a goal to try one new recipe a week.  Nutrition can get pretty boring if you eat the same things over and over, so finding 10 new (hopefully yummy) recipes to add to my rotation will do me good.  No recipe planned yet but I have to get on track with my meal planning this week so I'm sure I'll need a recipe by Tuesday night.

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Week 7 recap

Besides failing to plan my meals this week, week 7 was pretty stellar.  Got in all my trainings despite being sick a couple of days and my lifts are really improving.  When I look at the weights I was lifting in the beginning of my 12-week program, it's amazing!

Getting excited to finish up the last couple of weeks on the program!


Exercise Goal 

• Keep on going.  Continue my current 12-week exercise program, which will take me into the middle of May. 

• Sun:  arms and abs + HIIT
• Mon:  OFF
• Tues:  full-body weight training + cardio
• Wed: chest, shoulders and abs + plyo
• Thur: hammies, glutes, calves
• Fri:  back, bi's, and abs + HIIT
• Sat:  shoulders, tri's and calves + plyo

Nutrition Goal

• Clean, clean, clean!  My #1 priority for the next 10 weeks is to really focus on and dial in my nutrition.  Clean, whole foods to support my body and intense workouts.  I failed to plan so my nutrition kinda failed too.  Calories still kept in check, but they came from bad sources: Chinese food, fried egg roll, desserts, pizza, Mexican food, ice cream.  FAIL!
• Increase healthy fats.  Definitely need to add more "smart fats" to my diet: salmon, avocado, nuts, olive oil, flaxseeds, coconut oil, etc. Going good with these.  My biggest problem is remembering to take my fish oil during lunch... breakfast and dinner I got it down, but just can't remember during the middle of the day.
• New eats = happy tummy.  Making it a goal to try one new recipe a week.  Nutrition can get pretty boring if you eat the same things over and over, so finding 10 new (hopefully yummy) recipes to add to my rotation will do me good.  I did try a new recipe this week and it was yummy.  Totally not healthy but it was my dad's birthday so a birthday cake cheesecake was in order.  =)  No picts, but it was totally worth the extra calories.

Saturday Sweat Session: Booty time!

You know I love working my lower body but the muscles on the back of my lower body (glutes, hammies and calves) tend to get neglected.  Time to change that with a modified workout from the LiveFit program.

Each color-coded set of exercises are to be done as a superset (or tripleset in the case of the last three exercises).  This means you want to do one set of each exercise (two exercises in a row), rest a minute or two, then do the second set of each pair of exercises.  Rest, and repeat for three sets.

For example, you would do one set of seated leg curls immediately followed by 20 jump squats.  That's one set.  Rest a minute.  Repeat with seated leg curls followed by jump squats.  That's the second set.  Rest.  Again, seated leg curls followed by jump squats.  Third set is finished and you're done with the first superset.

Move on to the next pair of exercises.  ENJOY!!