Beast Mode

I started writing this post yesterday and today ended up being a completely different feeling so I started the post over.  I started week 4 of Couch to 5K and beasted the first day, however, when running tonight for day 2 I struggled.....a lot.  I had to stop several times to stretch out my calves and hip flexors and actually ended up not being able to run all of one of the 3 minute runs, but then ended up running all of the next 5 minute run....it is all such a mental struggle!!  I pushed through the pain tonight, by seriously praying that God would take the pain out of my legs.  I continued staring at my Weight Loss Goal Milestone sheet and looking at my ultimate goal weight.  In fact, I actually bit the skin on my pointer fingers to make the pain go somewhere else so I would take my mind off of how badly my calves and shins were hurting....call me weird, but it worked and I pushed through and finished the last 5 minute jog!!!

I may have mentioned before but this summer is going to be full of lots of time spent at the beach and by the pool and beast mode is now in session!!!  I HAVE to get this flab under control....it would be nice that my second summer after having a baby, I could actually get in a two-piece and feel comfortable in it!  That is my goal, but I have a long way to go!!!

For those of you that are doing either (or both) of the March challenges, how's it going?  I will be honest.  I haven't worked a lot on my No Scale Challenge measurements (tricep dips, push-ups, etc).  But I have still been working out.  I am also really enjoying the Lean Legs challenge!  

Hope y'all have a happy Friday tomorrow!! 

It's March!!!!

Hey ya'll!  It's March....my birth month....:)  We have already started celebrating my birthday even though it isn't actually until Monday.  When I picked Thomas up from the airport on Thursday, he had gone to The Body Shop while in the Charlotte airport and bought me body butter, body scrub, and shower gel in   Moringa, that is a fruity floral (yes, it is both) smell that is awesome!!

The Body Shop

Then, today he took me to the Outer Banks to go to one of my favorite restaurants, Mama Kwans to get their famous fish tacos, that are OUT.OF.THIS.WORLD!!!!

Mama Kwans

And of course, while we were down there we had to go down to the o-chin!!

Anyway, enough of my day and the spoiling that my hubby does of me.  :)  

Again, it is March!!  That means it is the first day of mine and Laura's No Scale Challenge!  I wrote about it earlier in the week on Tuesday, but just as a refresher: 

The rules for the No Scale Challenge are:

• Weigh yourself ONLY once a month.  If you have too big of a temptation, have someone hide the scale for you.
• Complete these six activities and record your results:
• One mile time
• Plank time in one minute
• Crunches in one minute
• Push ups in one minute (military or on knees)
• Burpees in one minute
• Tricep dips in one minute
• Then, work on improving each of the above mentioned activities at least three times a week.

You can do as little or as much of this as you want.  But, YOU are your only competition in this.  Laura and I are mainly doing this to get rid of our obsession with the scale, but we both wanted other ways to see improvement, besides how our clothes fit.  We want to KNOW that we are getting stronger.  Push yourself!  We are also here if you need some pushing.  ;)  We can and we will do this!

I also, took my body measurements (neck, left and right biceps, bust, waist, hips, left and right thigh, and left and right calf just as a baseline.  Laura's awesome husband made a spreadsheet for us to keep track of all of our measurements and results that you can download from her blog!  (If I was all techy and knew how to put it in my blog I would, but this way you can check out Laura's blog too!)

So, here are all of my measurements for the month of March, and some pictures too!

Neck--14"
Right Bicep--13"
Left Bicep--12 3/4"
Bust--41 1/2"
Waist (at belly button)--39"
Hips (at largest part)--43 1/2"
Right Thigh--24 1/2"
Left Thigh--25 3/4"
Right Calf--17 1/2"
Left Calf--17"

One mile time:  15:53 (treadmill)
Plank time:  01:47:01 
Number of crunches in one minute: 52 (Sit-ups--coming ALL the way up were 35)
Number of push-ups in one minute:  37 (knees)  
Number of burpees in one minute:  13
Number of tricep dips in one minute:  41

Sizes:

Jeans: 14--YES, I am FINALLY in a 14 again!!!  I started this whole thing out in 18's--pushing a 20!!!

Shirts L/XL

I don't wear dresses, so I have NO clue!  I would imagine a 14 or 16....but who knows!  LOL

My final weight, as of this morning, after eating and drinking a cup of coffee was 190.4!!!!!!  WOOHOOO!!!  Total, I have lost 49.6 lbs since having Camden last April!  So exciting and so close to 50 lbs lost!

And, now for some pictures!!!

SIZE 14 Y'ALL!!!

And, this is my motivation wall!  On the paper, I have all of my weight loss goal milestones and rewards for each 10 lbs lost.  :)

Have a fabulous weekend y'all!!

March Challenges

My friend Laura and I are doing a non-scale challenge starting Friday.  We both have an obsession with weighing and want to break free of the feeling that we are defined by the number on the scale...that somehow it tells our worth or something.  Instead, we are going to focus on getting stronger and healthier.  The things we are going to be looking at are:

• One mile time (this is going to be killer for me, but the only way from here is up!!!  I can barely run 1/4 mile now as it is!!)
• Plank time
• Crunches in one minute
• Push-ups in one minute (on knees or military style)
• Burpees in one minute (burpees, I loathe you...and quite frankly am afraid of you since my knee injury!!!)
• Tricep dips in one minute

In addition to the things listed above we are also going to be taking our body measurements monthly. She has decided to weight monthly, but I don't know if I am even going to do that.  My husband hid my scale this past Friday and I haven't once had the desire to go searching for it.  I am loving that as long as I stick to my workout routines and eating properly, the inches and weight are subsequently going to drop.  I can FEEL it!  :)  So, the last number I saw on the scale was 192.4.  I have no idea if I have lost any weight as of right now but I do know that based on clothing alone, things are getting looser!  My favorite pair of pre-preggo jeans....I actually have a little extra room in them, which I didn't have before getting pregnant!  :)  Progress people, progress!!!

Anyway, back to the challenge.  We are going to take our measurements and do our first round of the above mentioned exercises as a baseline.  You are only in a challenge with yourself.....NO ONE ELSE!  Like Laura said, if you can only do one today, try for two tomorrow and so on.  We can do this!!!  Laura's husband is also making a printable sheet to follow along throughout the duration of the challenge as a place for you to keep track of your progress that she will share on Friday and I am going to sweet talk her into letting me use it on my blog too.  :)  

Secondly, each month, the group that I am a part of decides on a challenge to do.  February's was Fab Ab challenge where we have done sit-ups, push-ups, and planks, gradually increasing the time and amount throughout the month.  We started with 10 sit-ups, a 10 second plank, and 4 push-ups.  On Thursday, we will have increased our time and reps to 100 sit-ups, a 2 minute plank, and 25 push-ups.  For March, we are doing Lean Legs March.  I don't know about y'all, but I could definitely use some help in the leg region.  :)  I found this calendar on Pinterest.

Fun, Fit and Fabulous: Lean Legs March Challenge

This calendar is from last year but you can transfer it onto a calendar for this year.  :)  If you click on the link, she gives you demonstrations of all of the different moves, either by video or a picture tutorial.  If you aren't ready to hide the scale just yet, maybe you can join me on this challenge and get Leaner Legs by summertime!  :)

I am very much looking forward to both of these challenges!

Finally Friday!!

It is finally Friday!  Praise the Lord!  This week has been a week from crazy town.  My child has been a hellian this week.  I think he may be teething again and he has been so hard to deal with that on several occasions I have put him in his crib and walked out.  Woooo-saaaaaa, wooooo-saaaaa.  Serenity now, serenity now.  You know, whatever gets you through it.  Something that has made things easier to deal with though is the fact that I can sit down in the mornings, while little man is playing, and do my devotions.  Currently I am going through a devotion on YouVersion (if you don't have this app, you need to get it!!) called She Reads Truth and it is on Phillipians.  I am really enjoying but the other devotion I am doing, I absolutely love!  My aunt got me "Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load" by Jen Hatmaker and it is phenomenal.  From Amazon,here is part of the book description, "Author and speaker Jen Hatmaker takes the words and deeds of Jesus, adds the humor of a young mom's life, and offers messages of grace and encouragement. She shows overburdened moms forty things Jesus doesn't expect them to do on their own.  Covering areas such as worry, marriage, priorities, money, and the trap of comparison, this lively Bible teacher brings Jesus's message alive in a format geared to the short moments moms have that can be allotted to reflection. This is a devotional for the woman inside the mom--the Bible student, the learner, the world-changer."  It is a great devotional and really gets me going in the mornings and lets me know that I am not alone in this things called motherhood.  Happy Friday y'all!  I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

All thoughts and opinions are my own and I was not compensated for my book review!

Ch-ch-ch-changes and hiding the scale

For those of you that know me, you know that what I am about to tell you is a HUGE deal!  First off let me start by saying, I am obsessed with weighing myself.  I weigh myself pretty much everytime after I use the bathroom all throughout the day.  I don't know what my obsession is with it or why I do it, but for some reason I think that if I don't see the number on the scale for a while that I feel like my life is spinning out of control.

I have asked my husband to hide the scale.  I weighed myself yesterday and was 193.6 (up from 192.2 the previous day).  So that is the last number that I am going based on.  I am so consumed by the number on the scale that if it isn't going down, I feel that I am not successful in my efforts, even though I am eating pretty well and working my butt off with exercising.  I have lost inches, but it still frustrates me when the scale doesn't move or moves very very little week to week.  

I am going to try this for a month.  I am going to continue my exercising.  I may actually kick that up a notch and clean up my eating a little bit more.  I really need to get the bad fats, sugar, and caffeine out of my life!!!  Giving up caffeine is also a HUGE deal.  Thank God they still make decaf coffees and teas so if I really have  a hankering, I can drink one of those.  

I will need your help during this next month.  It is going to be tough to let go of some of these things, but I know it is going to be so good for me!  

Happy Thursday y'all!  It's almost Friday and the weekend!!

Suzanne

Getting down to the nitty gritty

I have been having some motivation issues...the lack of motivation, I might add.  I get so confused with how many calories I should be eating.  I feel hungry all the time when I eat 1440 like My Fitness Pal suggests and my weight loss is going soooooo slow.  That discourages me more than anything, but instead of being so consumed with what the number on the scale says, I need to focus on how my clothes are fitting because I am pretty sure I am losing inches.  Because my body fat percentage is so high, I need to change a lot of that fat to muscle before I am going to start seeing much difference but once that happens I will be a fat burning machine!!!  I have been doing a lot of research on my basal metabolic rate (how many calories your body burns just by existing) and what my daily caloric intake should be to lose weight and everything and I think I am eating too few calories so I am going to try upping my calories and I am going to give it 2 weeks or a 5 lb. gain if it doesn't work.  If it doesn't work, I may completely throw the towel in with calorie counting and go back to strict paleo and not worry how many calories are in foods.  It is all so confusing and discouraging sometimes!

I feel like I am giving up on my dream to "be a runner".  I want to enjoy running but all of the pain that I am in makes me feel like it is never going to happen.  I know running is about 90% mental but when my shin/calf is on fire while I am running there is nothing enjoyable about it.  They say to push through the pain but sometimes that is easier said than done.  I don't want to injure myself.  I have been fitted for shoes and recently purchased some compression sleeves but I think I syked (I have no idea how you spell that word!!) myself up and was able to run 1/4 mile without stopping with pretty much no pain.  But then when I tried to do it again a couple days later, I couldn't do it.  I have decided to go back to week 2 on the C25K plan because I can't run a full 3 minutes like week 3 calls for.

I was hoping to be in the 180's by April but with as slow as my weight loss is going I am not sure if I will make it there by then or not.

Some of our really good friends have rented a beach cottage in June and have invited us to go with them so we are getting down to the nitty gritty and I HAVE to kick it into high gear!

Ok, enough of the self-sabotaging.  Carry on with your regular Monday activities!

Suzanne

This girl is on fiyahhh!!!

I really feel like I finally have the hang of this whole diet and exercise thing.  I feel like I am motivated now more than I ever have been and it helps so much to have Thomas doing it with me and us both wanting to be better parents to our little one (although he is growing up too quickly!!!).  

Last week(ish??), I can't really remember when I did it, but I was doing a workout and had pretty much just started.  I was on my reps of burpees and tweaked my right knee.  I ended up buying a knee brace and I now wear it anytime I workout, but I am afraid to do burpees or any type of CrossFit exercises for fear of messing it up again.  I thought for sure when I got ready to look down at my leg that it was going to be all a jumbled up mess and that my knee cap was going to be on the side of my leg...at least that's how it felt.  I laid low for a couple of days but couldn't NOT workout so I ended up just easing my way back in with some walking on the treadmill.

Along with my 5K training  which is going slower than I planned because I am needing to repeat week 3.  (Fat girl can't run 3 minutes straight without feeling like she is going to die!!!), I am doing a February Fab Ab challenge that is planks, sit-ups, and push-ups that increase everyday throughout the month.  We started at a 10 second plank, 10 sit-ups and 4 push-ups.  By the end of the month we should be able to hold a 2 minute plank, 100 sit-ups, and 25 push-ups.  I also decided to attempt to do Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred again because I never finished the first time.  So far, so good!  

I am down another 1.4 lbs bringing my total up to 47 lbs lost!!  So exciting!!!  I just really feel like nothing is stopping me now!  I am doing this for first and foremost, myself, and secondly for my husband and son.  It definitely makes me a better wife and mother all around and keeps me sane when I get a good sweat on!!!

Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend!!!

Suzanne