Monday, June 30, 2014

Dirty 32

Soooo. I'm 5 lbs up from Friday.

I fully celebrated my 32nd birthday.

So I'm starting a new program: Les Mills Combat. 21 Day fix didn't leave me excited to work out.


So now on to dinner plans!

~ Katie

Friday, June 27, 2014

A Good Trend

I'll admit that I didn't work out last night or the night before.

However, I've been paying attention to what I put in my mouth lately. So there's that?

One of the metrics I keep track of is not just my daily weight, but also a trend which is the average of the surrounding 7 weights. This helps to take away some of the chatter.


The pink in the background is my weight at home, and that purple is the moving average.

For reference, here are some milestones plotted on top.


As you can see, even when I was doing really well at losing weight swiftly, I had quite a bit of chatter and yo-yo weigh-ins. So much so that the moving average was even pretty chattery.

Now look at the section after the honeymoon. The trend is smooth. There isn't as much deviation from the trend, either. Nearly every weigh-in lies on the trend. This is a very good sign. It means that I'm making consistent changes and that I'm making sustainable changes.

So I'll stick with it.

~Katie

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Dirty 30

Well, that was the easiest Dirty 30 has been since I started doing the 21 Day Fix workouts! I was able to keep my legs straight during the leg lowers & keep my lower back against the ground.


In fact, something that I wasn't looking to gain from 21 Day Fix is something that I have been noticing more & more: my flexibility is increasing! I can touch my toes. I can almost touch my nose to my knees, too. 

Part of me is wanting to jump on to a new program already & get Chalene's new PiYo program in order to keep increasing strength & flexibility, but I'm going to wait another couple months & use it as a reward for myself. I just have to figure out what my goal will be. X amount of days without missing a workout? X amount of inches lost? What do you think?

~Katie

Also, if you are interested in PiYo, it's on sale right now for $140 for the challenge pack, which comes with Shakeology, which is a huge deal! Shakeology alone is $129 for a month's supply. Check it out. http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/piyo-workout.do

You can order through my Beachbody coach page, if you're interested.


Monday, June 23, 2014

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Woot

Lower Fix: Busted!


Yay! Now I need to make sure to work out tomorrow so I don't have to deal with the soreness.

~Katie

Again, and Again, and Again, and Again, and Again!

Workout update: I did Upper Fix last night and went for a walk with James, hung out with friends, and went grocery shopping.

Recently, I downloaded the Timehop App. I have been active on social media for a while now and so my feed is pretty filled out for the past 5 years. I must say that some of it is rather eye-opening. I'm in a better place, emotionally, than I have been for a very very long time. I'm much more even-keeled since meeting James. My completely out-of-control years are behind me, and I'm glad I'm no longer in that place.

And as much as things change, my tweets from 5 years ago could be tweeted today.

I was working on a personal project to #shapeupmylife. I was working out, budgeting, and cleaning & organizing my apartment.

I was unhappy with my weight and appearance, my spending habits, and my inability to keep a clean home. 5 years later, and I'm still working on those things. So maybe not "still", I'm again working on those things because I let myself go over the intervening 5 years and the emotional roller-coaster I was on didn't help things at all.

This was what I looked like 5 years ago today.
I only wish that I could fit into those pants! I miss those shoes!

And at that point in time, I didn't like myself. I was trying to lose weight. I was trying to love myself more. I was trying to change myself and be a clean, organized person.

So really, trying to do the same thing I'm doing now.

As much as things change, they stay the same.

I could think of it as failure. I could see this and say that I didn't achieve my goals 5 years ago, as evidenced by what I'm still trying to do now. I could rail against how much I've let my physical self go, and that I still struggle with keeping a clean and organized home.

But what I've come to realize is that I would be so much worse off right now if I didn't have the drive to improve myself and my living situation. I'm better mentally now than I was then in many aspects. I continue to work on improving my health. Where would I be if I just gave up? What would have happened if I just let myself continue to spiral out of control?

So I'm happy with repeating history, especially when that history is working on taking control of my life and treating myself with the love and respect I deserve.

~Katie

Monday, June 16, 2014

Another One Bites the Dust

The weekend is done.

We worked out Saturday morning.

We drove out to San Antonio to see James's mom since she was there for a conference, and it's rare that she's within 3 hours of us. We planned mostly healthy snacks for the drive so that we weren't tempted to stop at Buccee's for gobs of candy.

We walked all over the riverwalk.

We had an indulgent dinner with margaritas the size of our heads.

We watched the light show on the cathedral.

We went out for late night ice cream.

The next day we ate breakfast, went to check out some things in town, went shopping, went to lunch at a brew pub, and then did some more shopping, and then headed home.

We stopped at Buccee's.

We were on the road for around 6 hours. The drive is normally 3 hours. I snacked. A lot.

So my goal of making good food/bev decisions on a weekend was not met.

But I'm not as high as I was after last weekend, so that's at least some benefit?

Working out continues tonight.

~Katie

Friday, June 13, 2014

Good Morning!


Acheivement Unlocked: morning workout



As much as my normal self wanted to throw my goal of getting in a morning workout out the door this morning, my mind & body had other ideas. As soon as James' alarm went off, my body started waking up. I went to beush my teeth during his workout & still fought to go back to sleep in bed. And then I realized that I was too awake to sleep and that it was time to do my workout and that I'd be perfectly on schedule. So I did.

I even managed to sort laundry, because all of my workout capris are in the laundry, I was left with my tennis skort to workout. Not ideal, but it gets the job done.

Now it's time to get my shower & Shakeology on. Plus, I have to make my lunch to bring to my weight watchers meeting.

Hopefully I actually dropped some weight this week & didn't pack it on. I've been mostly on plan.

~Katie

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Cardio-oh!

Cardio Fix was this evening's workout. Tomorrow is Dirty 30.


And yes, I did the whole thing. The entire workout. I used some mods, but pushed myself to work past them.

Now I can have a relaxing evening?

I'm considering doing a review of some of the sportsbras that I own and perhaps ordering one or two new ones that interest me (panache and freya to be specific) since I never see too many reviews of sportsbras for this of us blessed with the mammary glands of a fertility goddess.

Is this something anyone would be interested in?

~Katie

P.S. Don't forget, that if you are ever interested in trying out any of the Beachbody programs, please consider ordering through me. There's a 30-90 day return period for most programs & for Shakeology where you can return any product used if it doesn't suit your needs or if you just plain don't like it. 

Also, If you're in town (Houston) and would like to borrow either TurboFire or ChaLEAN Extreme from me, I'll lend them out for 30 days, since I'm working through 21-Day Fix right now.

Pilates

My working out got highjacked this week. By myself.

I had my reasons.

1. I was really achey (muscles, hormones, brain)
2. I really just wanted to curl up into a ball and feel comfort
3. So I did

By yesterday, I finally felt energized enough to do the Pilates Fix workout.

It is so weird to do a workout in the living room while my husband sits on the couch and watches and I have 3 pets trying to get up in my business because they equate floor time with play time. It's weird. But it's also what you have to do when you workout after work and you live in 982 square feet with a husband, a dog, and two cats. It also has opposing effects on me. Sometimes, it really bugs me to be watched during my workout. I feel like I'm being critiqued, even though I know he's probably not watching intently, and he's in there because that's where the couch is and where he keeps his computer. Sometimes, it makes me want to do my workout better so that he can't rag on me for giving up in the middle of a move, and push myself to do better pushups because I'm still struggling with them after nearly a year and a half of working on them.

But I digress.

I did Pilates Fix. It was on the slate for last Saturday. I had never that program even once since I started on the 21 Day Fix workouts. Why? Because it scares me. I've worked on strength and cardio for a long time and I haven't really done pilates since I was in graduate school and was in better shape and about 30 pounds thinner. Plus, I was still in pain from Friday's workout. And my abs are not that strong. After stopping singing in choir, I've noticed a marked decrease in my fitness. Is the universe trying to tell me something? Is it time to suck it up and join the 9 am choir (which means being at the church, 35 minutes away, at 8 am on Sundays) so that I can have that fellowship back & workout back? I'll give that some thought.

Anyways, I did the whole thing. I did have to modify the planks, and I got allergy spots from being on the carpet (dog, cat, and wool allergies combined!), but I did it.

And tonight, I will do the next workout. I think it's Dirty 30.

I also weigh in at Weight Watchers, and we have an activity in the evening, so I plan on working out in the morning. This is huge. By the time my first alarm usually goes off at 6:30 am, James has done his workout and is showering. This means that I need to wake up before 6:30 am so that I can brush my teeth before he needs to shower and then get my workout in because waiting to brush my teeth until after he's finished showering doesn't leave me enough time to workout and shower and all. I hear all the alarms, and I respond to all the alarms, but I go back to bed every time. I wake up when his alarm goes off at 4 am. I get his phone from the kitchen and then get mine and bring them into the bedroom, wake him up and go back to bed. My alarm usually goes off at 6:30 am, but I then snooze it until 7 or 7:30 am when I finally start getting up the gumption to get out of bed. I like my 7+ hours of sleep every night. I don't operate well with less.

So I will get my sleep and get my workout and then I will have a good weigh in tomorrow, right?

~Katie

Monday, June 9, 2014

Proof is in the Pudding

I only wish I had pudding to look forward to today!

But I did my mile jog. By the end, I was feeling more like I could walk without looking like my back was strapped to a board.

Then I did some deep stretches, and a few interval exercises like mountain climbers and side shuffles, then more stretching.

Hopefully this limbered me up enough to rock the Pilates workout this evening before girls night.


I can do this. I just need to quit quitting.

~Katie

I Get Knocked Down

Rather, I knock myself down.

I was pretty good all week. I ate 85% well. I exercised. I was at it.

And then the weekend came. I actually did pretty well on Friday night out. Not too many extras, and a healthy salad for dinner.

Saturday was where I took a turn for the worse. My leg workout on Friday combined with salsa dancing Friday night left my quads & booty screaming. I didn't want to make breakfast, so I convinced James it was a great idea to go to Downhouse for brunch. Then went shopping and then to celebrate a birthday with a friend at our favorite beer bar. 3 pints and 5 hours later, we were back home and made the time-honored decision to order pizza for a late dinner. We watched movies and gorged, and no, I didn't get my workout in.

Sunday, we went to brunch with mom for her birthday, and then had plans to really get things done at home. Which ended up just being a TV marathon, and ordering pasta for dinner. However, there were only calories in one of my drinks that day. The kicker is that I still didn't make any effort to clean the house, do a workout, or really do anything other than be a couch potato.

And that pound I lost over the past week was packed right back on. I know, it's just a pound. But pounds add up, and habits add up.

I let myself be sore and that soreness intensified because I didn't do my workouts.

So I need to make changes.

- I started going back to Weight Watchers meetings last Friday (which made me feel bad for gaining weight, but you do what you have to)
- I am starting tracking again today
- I'm determined to do my workouts each day
- I am determined to do my chores each day

Because nothing will change unless I make that change.

(PS I did all the leftover weekend dishes this morning & started the day with Shakeology & packed my lunch & lunchtime workout clothes. Even if I jog just a mile, it should help get the lactic acid out of my muscles and then I can do the Pilates workout this evening)

Friday, June 6, 2014

Booty Bustin!

I decided to just go through the programs in order, despite skipping a couple days. So rather than skipping over workouts, I'm actually getting them all.

Before the wedding and between wedding and honeymoon, I was only doing 3 of the 21 day fix workouts regularly: Total Body Cardio, Cardio, and Dirty 30. I'd done Upper Fix, but the only time I did a leg day, I subbed the Barre Legs workout. So today was my first time doing Lower Fix.

And boy howdy!

This booty is busted!

Pardon for all of the animal hair. It happens when you have a yellow lab mix & 2 cats.


Time to get cooled off, showered, and start getting ready for a salsa dancing date night with a good friend and our husbands!

~Katie

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Thursday

So, it's Thursday.

I've kept with the eating program 85% so far. There have been a couple slips each day, but I didn't let a slip keep me from sticking to the rest of the day.

Notably, I have had a single beer (and no other alcoholic beverage) since Sunday night. I've been making an effort to stick to it by having non-diet but still nearly zero-calorie drinks in the evening. We're using the soda stream a lot to make sparkling water. I also made these ice-sticks with mint and raspberries in them that add a bit of pizzazz to it!


Otherwise, we'll have herbal tisanes to round out the night.

This evening, I did the upper fix workout, which sadly is only my second workout of the week. I really need to focus more on getting them in every day. 

Tomorrow, I go to my first weight watchers meeting since before the wedding. I'm sure it will be an interesting experience, seeing as I'm up about 8 pounds since then. Well, not going to meetings regularly has that effect on me, and I just need to accept that and stick to it.

So onward! 

~Katie

Monday, June 2, 2014

Back at it

See, I did my workout!

Total body cardio kicked my booty, but not as badly as it did the first time!


~Katie

Honeymoon, Honeymoon, Honeymoon

To say that I left my honeymoon fat & happy would be an understatement!

I had such a great time!
I ate ALL THE FOODS!
I drank ALL THE BEVERAGES!
and
I SAT ON MY DUFF!

I gained about 5 pounds over the course of the week, after having gained 5 pounds since the wedding.

I don't regret a thing.

I was fairly active when not sitting on my duff and plowing through about 5 books.
Stairs, there were a bajillion stairs every day. At least 4 flights of stairs led up to our room from the reception area, where all of our meals were. And we went back and forth a few times a day.
Swimming, every time we went to the beach, we did some swimming. We spent a day snorkelling. We also swam in the hotel pool.
Hills, so much walking up and down hills! It was great to get to new views, and to get to another zipline place, and to find the taxi. This was the mountainous region of St. Lucia and we certainly kept our glutes engaged.

And now that the month of honeymooning & celebrating is over, we are both eating on the 21 day fix plan. The party is over, now it's time to get back in shape and treat my body right!

~Katie