Holy crap, I'm going to weigh 12 lbs by September!!

Not lose 12 lbs...WEIGH 12 lbs!  I love tennis too much!  My tennis pal and I have to force ourselves to stop after 2 hours.  We played through spotty rain today and only stopped then because the court got too slippery to play safely, and I slipped and scuffed up my shin.  I was exhausted and exuberant and wanted push on for another 3 hours.  I ate 1319 calories today, and burned 925 simply having fun w/ my friend.  This rocks!!  I want to do this every single day, but I can't eat enough to compensate for it.  I'll just wither away and die.  Plus, I already bought a beautiful vintage wedding dress and had it fitted, and I weighed about 155 then.  I either have to limit the tennis or get one of those camel packs and fill it with maple syrup to keep sipping from while I play.  Or I'll need to have the dress re-fitted (which will be a real bitch since it was a total reconstruction with material taken from some places and sewn into others by a vintage clothing specialist.  Oy!!  She's gonna kill me!)

In all likelihood,  I'll stay too busy to play tennis more than twice a week.  This week though -it's twice!  Plus I'm planning to get a good strenuous hike in over the long weekend.  Ha!  It's so odd that I'm suddenly finding myself thinking of ways to healthfully increase my calorie intake...just enough to keep fueling great workouts.

Your Daily Summary

806

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1200	1319	- 925	394

It's the usual time of night that I pop in a workout DVD.  I really, really want to right now.  I am stopping myself b/c that seems a little nuts after 2 hrs of tennis just a few hours ago, and a sore morning after last night's workout.  Plus, I should get to sleep earlier.  I've been saying that for many weeks but haven't really put in the effort to make that change.

I think I'm just crazy-motivated right now.  Gotta make up for last week, and I'm so psyched for June and summertime and wedding planning and the pool being open and the fact that my legs feel so much more muscular than they did this winter.  Damn, that's a good feeling!!!

OK - going to bed.  Hope to read through all you RFSC members' blogs tomorrow when it's slow at work.

Motivation pic for today - (how cool is this chick?!)

RFSC Week 6 complete. Doing great! Feeling GREAT!

My week 6 goals were:

Weight Loss:   .8 lbs  (I'm certain I did - probably more.  Weigh in is Tues morning and I'm psyched!)

NSV:  PRE-PLAN MEALS!  Try a quinoa recipe, cut more bread from diet.  Yes, I pre-planned almost all my meals.  I love MyFitPal and how after I work out bfast, lunch and snacks, I can sit at my desk mid-afternoon and play around with dinner ideas and see how they impact my nutritional and calorie totals for the day, keeping in mind what workout mood I'm in and how many calories I'm likely to burn off.  MyFitPal is really enabling me to feel in control of things.  

Haven't made quinoa yet, but I did decrease my bread intake a bit this week, with some effort and clever pre-planning.

Fitness:   Keep mixing it up -  strength and cardio, indoors and outdoors, lots of variety.  Play tennis and hike this week.  I planned twice to hike, but the weather didn't cooperate.  My workouts were all varied this week though - just the way I like it.  I'm adding more strength work in w/ the cardio.

GOALS FOR WEEK 7:
Weight Loss - .8 lb again.  144 by next Tuesday's weigh in.  
NSV/Nutrition: Keep pre-planning meals and come up with some new salad concoctions.  I came up with an excellent one this past week - romaine lettuce, grilled chicken pieces, halved grape tomatoes, corn, black beans, lots of cilantro, lime juice, tsp of e.v.o.o. and some shredded cheddar.  No bread needed.  EX-CELL-ENT!  
Fitness: Still at 14 push ups, max.  I'd like to get to 16 this week.  

Yesterday's report:

Your Daily Summary

529

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	1511	- 830	681

Exercise:  An hour and 10 min of tennis, and a few hours walking in the city.


Today's report:

Your Daily Summary

65

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	1486	-341	1145

Exercise:  Jillian Michaels Buns & Thighs level 2

Motivation:

Day 59 - I am having a blast!

I love this challenge. I love the feedback, advice, encouragement and experiences everyone's sharing.  I love my new workout gear - clothes, HRM, heavier dumbbells... I love my new eating habits.  I love FINALLY having a good understanding of how I'm eating (from myfitnesspal) w/ the carbs/protein/fat balance.  Never paid attention to that before.  And I really love the changes I'm seeing in my body while I workout.  I see my waist is smaller.  I see my quads are more defined.  I see my biceps more defined.  Yes, it's taking awhile and I wish I could speed it up, but it's happening steadily and surely and I know I'm in control, and that feels best of all.

I've got the very beginning of a migraine tonight, which should develop into a bigger one by tomorrow, which means it's the time of month when I'm most bloated and weigh the most.  Considering I was very happy with my progress before, I'm even more psyched for a few more days to pass and to see an even more dramatic fast slim down.

I ate some incredibly delicious stuff today, including this thrown together concoction for lunch:
a strip of whole wheat naan topped w/ 1/4 C. shredded fresh mozzerella, freshly halved & roasted cherry tomatoes, chopped artichoke hearts, fresh basil, and (after this photo was taken) crumbled up dried/fried hot peppers in olive oil.

Then for dinner, this YUMMY salad from Trader Joe's.  Look at those ingredients!  It came with the carrot ginger dressing that they put on salads in sushi restaurants.  I LOVE THAT STUFF!!  However, it's very high calorie and fat, so I had to limit it to 1/3 of the serving they provided...which means I have leftovers for 2 more salads now. :)

(Almost done...if I'm gonna take a photo, it's now or never.)

Today's report:  I'm over my calories for the 1st time.  However, I'm extremely pleased that today I came closest to my recommended portions of carbs/protein/fat since I started tracking.
Exercise was Crunch Fitness - Step & Sweat w/ 8" step, and Firm 5 Day Abs.

Your Daily Summary

-30

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	1600	- 360	1240

My new workout DVD: Tae Bo Ripped Extreme

Man, having my new HRM has me all kinds of psyched to keep trying out different workouts and compare calorie burns!  I'm kinda bummed I can't handle more than 1 per day.  The new Tae Bo is GREAT!!!  Fun and challenging.  Hard enough that I have room for improvement, but not so hard that I'm discouraged.  I see Billy Blanks has changed things up since the old Tae Bo, and is using some of the same moves (esp stretches) as Shaun T/Insanity.  Is there no such thing as copyrights w/ exercise moves?

Today's report:

184

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	1559	- 533	1026

*You've earned 533 extra calories from exercise today WORKOUT:  Tae Bo Ripped Extreme - 1 hour. (Used 5 lb dumbells for as long as I could, then switched to 3 lb.)

Put the pizza down and walk away!

I ate so well all day, but picked up pizza for for dinner for me, my parents and my daughter.  Ordered a whole wheat w/ garlic and eggplant.  They messed up and it wasn't whole wheat.  I ate 2 pcs and was happy.  Slightly over my points, but my workout would take care of that.  Sat there thinking of a 3rd piece...spent a good 4-5 min debating it and *should have* just gotten up and left the table, rather than sitting there looking at the dried fried hot peppers topping that make the pizza so much better than great.  And I thought of my flex points.  And I thought of my workouts.  And I thought of my motivational pics.  And I thought of the eggplant and cheese.  And I thought of my waist, and the scale, and my cute bikini awaiting summertime....  I had decided NO, and I was telling myself I chose wisely and should leave the room now.  But no - I took a 3rd piece.  It was a small one, but still...it's pizzeria pizza.  Just not a good choice.

So now I'm doing the Insanity workout this evening.  By far my hardest workout.  I actually freakin hate it.  BUT, I do really love that exhausted, totally worn out feeling when I'm done.  That's pretty great, I must say.  Tae Bo comes sorta close - like a little more than halfway there.

So - today I ate 36 pts
Exercise:  Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit (-5 pts)
TOTAL:  31 pts  (9 flex pts)
(I wonder if perhaps I'm over-estimating my workouts.  I've been considering Tae Bo high intensity, but it's not compared to Insanity.  So if Insanity is High Intensity, 40 min, 150 lbs - that's 5 pts.
Tae Bo is 15 min longer, but not as intense - 55 min high intensity, 7 pts.  No way can Insanity be burning less than Tae Bo, even if it is shorter.  No way.

I'm taking all my workouts down a point.  It can't hurt to underestimate them, and I have to leave room in the intensity scale for this insane Insanity stuff.  :)  The worst that can happen, if I'm wrong but follow this anyway, is I'll lose more fat.  Not a bad deal.

Day 34 - dessert doesn't count if broken in pieces, right?

I ate horribly today.  Gotta admit it and move on.  A ring ding.  Half a raspberry rugalach (half b/c I'm eating wisely, of course.  duh.)  An inch sq. of coffee cake.  1/4 slice of banana bread.  A butter cookie.  (A whole one b/c I figured by that point "eh, who the hell am I kidding?")

Yes, I dipped into everything that was presented to me today.  Some at home, some at my friends' house, all gathered around the table full of snacks...which I should NOT have been sitting at!!  Ugh.

My points aren't excessive today, despite all this, because my migraine got so bad this evening that I was too nauseous to eat any dinner.

Today I ate 27 pts
Exercise:  The Crunch Step & Sweat, and Firm 5 Day Abs
TOTAL: 22 pts

MOTIVATION!

One more day til weekly weigh in.  Am I still under 150?  I have 8 flex points left still.  According to WW, I should lose weight this week.  But too many of those points were crappy points.  Let's see now what that means to my progress.

Day 28 - 4th week complete

This wasn't a great week.   I didn't eat as well as I had been, because - quite frankly - seeing the scale barely budging wasn't great incentive. My friend pointed out today that I should chill out on the dramatic expectations each week since I'm not actually overweight and my body doesn't need any drastic adjustment.  A slow loss is probably best for me.

I have consumed all of my weekly flex points this week, for the 1st time.  If I calculate my points without factoring in activity point credits, I realllllllly overate this week, and a significant portion of that was junk. Man, does the junk food add up fast!!  I eat well all day and end up under 22 pts.  I have one bad meal or stupid snack and I'm suddenly halfway through my week's flex points!  

Honestly, I am not expecting a loss this week.  I'm expecting a small gain.  I'm ready, and I will try my best not to be too discouraged.  It's one week, and this is an ongoing process.

Today I ate 26.5 pts
Exercise: Crunch Step & Sweat w/ 10" step; Firm 5 Day Abs  (-5pts)
TOTAL:  21.5 pts




For the week:
Ate 211.5 pts   (allotted 189 w/ daily 22 and 35 flex pts)
Exercise/Burned off:  29 pts


Regardless of my progress on losing weight this week, I have to mention that I've increased my stamina and can do all the floor work (leg & butt toning reps) at the end of Tae Bo without collapsing and ending the workout.  I go right to the end, and my energy during those last exercises is a lot better than it was a few weeks ago.  That feels great!! I'm definitely getting stronger, but I don't see much change in the cellulite...yet.   Once I burn the cellulite off, I think I'll have great muscle tone eager to see the light of day.

MOTIVATING

Does my metabolism need a nap?

I'm not getting enough sleep.  I exercise late at night, go to bed around 12:30 - 1 am (a few times recently even later  than that), and then get up at 6:45am to get my daughter off to school.  After dinner tonight I got cumfy on my bed, propping up some pillows and getting a magazine I'd fallen asleep reading last night before I got through 2 paragraphs.  I not only dozed off, but I slept hard for 3 1/2 hours!   Geez, I was tired!!!  I've got to start exercising earlier and getting to bed by 10:30 - 11.  I just love my late nights and hate to give them up.  >sigh<   Can't really start tonight either, since I just woke up from a looooong nap.  I hate to say it, but - I'll start tomorrow.  Really!  I will!

What I've found online about it indicates that not getting enough sleep affects hormones which affect metabolism.  Some experts say stuff about being tired and therefore reaching for junk food to get your energy up, or not having energy to exercise.  To that I say DUH.  That's not sleep deprivation causing weight gain.  That's poor diet and exercise causing it - no news there.  But research discussed in other (more helpful) articles specifies hormones that are affected by sleep deprivation, and how they affect our bodies.  It could explain why I had such a great week on paper (points-wise), yet only lost .2 lb during my 2nd week.

Day 10, and still revved up

I'm really psyched to be doing this.  I wish I could steal a glimpse of my results on the last day of Feb.  I'm on my way to the grocery store to stock up on kashi, black beans, celery, berries, fruit, cottage cheese and if I can find some vanilla protein powder, I'm going to give smoothies a shot this week.

Time to post another motivation pic:

PM update:  Love the protein smoothie recipe I got from The Firm Express fitness guide (came with my workout CD set.)  I made it for the 1st time today - vanilla peanut butter flavor.  Great!!

Today: ate 22 pts
Workout: The Firm:Turbocharge - Cardio & Sculpt w/ 8 lb dumbells, and Firm Abs  (-3 pts)
TOTAL:  19 pts  

Day 2: A decision, plain and simple.

It's really amazing and pretty simple to lose sight of the fact that it's my decision - plain and simple - to get into great shape or not.  I keep reminding myself of this.  All I have to do is want it enough to act accordingly.  There's no mystery formula involved - just consume fewer calories than I burn, and it's a scientific certainty that I'll lose weight.  If I choose those calorie sources well, I'll look and feel good, which will in turn fuel better workouts, which will in turn burn more calories.  I make this decision - or not - a few times a day, every day.  There's no excuse for not looking and feeling the way I want to look and feel.  It's an awful feeling standing in front of your closet in the morning trying to choose an outfit that will cover problem areas, rather than choose something I love that will accentuate my figure, showing curves AND a flat belly.  I've been there before.  It really rocks, and absolutely makes not being there feel a lot worse.


Today:  ate 24 pts
Workout: Crunch Step & Sweat, Firm 5 Day Abs (-5 pts)
Total: 19 pts

THIS  SAYS  IT  ALL !