The Spirit of the Inferno?

I did not make it to the grocery store yesterday. I did not make my meals for the week. So I'm going to stick with the spirit of the 5-Day inferno rather than the letter. 

I've cut the sweetener out of my green tea. I had Shakeology for breakfast.

I forgot to have my snack, but lunch today is catered, I'm aiming for 350 calories since I missed the 100 calorie snack & the lunch today was slated as a 250 calorie tuna salad.

I will have my apple for afternoon snack & aim for a steamed chicken dinner at the office.

Then tonight, when I get home, it's fire 55.

~Katie

Tracking Update July

The day for picture-taking has come!

Okay, so I wasn't as jazzed about it as it seems. I woke up and weighed in, and did not like what I saw, so I did my workout for the day and then weighed in a bit closer to what I was expecting.

I've been stress-eating a lot this week, and last night curled up on the couch with James and marathon watched The IT Crowd for the entire evening. I made a healthy dinner for us and then ruined it with gummy bears.

But that's neither here nor there.

I can see the small amounts of progress I've made this month. I'm finding that TurboFire is trimming my waistline A LOT! Right at my bellybutton is where it's trimming, and the upper haunches. For Beachbody tracking, the waist is measured horizontally around the bellybutton rather than at the smallest part of your torso. This just gives it a consistent position, because your bellybutton never moves. But what I'm noticing is that as my belly trims up, it does so unevenly. I'm slimming right around the bellybutton, but right below it, on the lower abdomen, it's trimming at a slower rate. I do think it's still trimming up, but with the uneven rates, it makes my lower abdomen pooch out further and it does weird things to how I view myself.  Rationally, I know what is happening, the lower abdomen on women does retain more fat, and it's stubborn fat. It's there to be a cushion for pregnancy (whether one it pregnant or not). But emotionally, seeing it pooch out feels like it's getting bigger, when really, it's just getting smaller at a slower rate.

My hips and lower abdomen are the slowest region for slimming down. I really want to wear my new jeans, but I don't want muffin top. I can button and zip them, but they're too tight, still.

Without further ado, here's the photographic evidence. Every time I get frustrated with my progress, or feel that it's just not worth it, I like to have the photos to show myself just how far I've come, and what a difference I've made.

I'll be shopping for the 5 Day Inferno tomorrow and updating through the week as to my progress!

~Katie

The Perfect Time

The other day, when talking with a friend who was lamenting that he was waiting for the perfect time for something and that things just kept getting in the way, I realized something.

There is no perfect time.

But every time is the right time.

There is no perfect time to buy a house.
There is no perfect time to have kids.
There is no perfect time to start a life with someone else.
There is no perfect time to start that exercise program.
There is no perfect time to take a risk on a business.

But every time is the right time, if it's something you want to do.

If you wait for the perfect time, it will never happen. Life will always get in the way. Life will throw you curveballs and jump up and squash your chances if you wait for the perfect time.

But the right time, the right time is always there for the making.

And the right time will probably only look perfect in retrospect.

~Katie

A Wee Bit of Pre-Tracking

I will be honest, I haven't done my workout in a few days.

And I haven't be great about what I eat & drink.

BUT! I do always have in the back of my head, what trade-offs I'm taking and what my ultimate goal is.

Today was supposed to be my tracking day, but I just didn't have the energy this morning to get up, do my workout, shower, and take photos, take measurements, compile the photos, and then get ready for work.

I am a bit bloated from spending all last night at the brewery sweating my tush off in the heat and making sales, and having some beers. Oh, Gingerbread stout on nitro, you are a happy, happy memory. So are you, Champagne Blonde!

I didn't have food truck fare, I waited until I got home to have 3 eggs and salsa. I'm rather proud of myself for that, even though the food truck fare looked & smelled divine, I didn't have time to take away from my booth duty.

I was loading & unloading my car, standing at the booth, and mingling. So I wasn't sedentary, but I wasn't really that active.

Anyways, that's all to say that this morning, I was feeling a slight bit bloated, and I was a touch hungover/tired.  So I forwent all of the photo taking (you'll get that update tomorrow).

I did, however, take measurements, which I'll retake tomorrow, as well.

I was pleasantly surprised!

My waist has gone down a half inch in the past month. This is after the 2.75 inches during my 13 day challenge in June. TurboFire has been great at whittling my waist & haunches!

My chest is the same, but my hips have gone down a half inch!

I'm wondering if the bra that I wear for the measurements is affecting the chest measurements. It's lace, and has no structure. I chose it rather than a soft cup bra since those have structure.  But what I noticed is that I am now wearing my 36DD bra rather than my 36DDD bras for the past week, so I know my boobs have shrunk, but my measurement hasn't.  Whatever, I'm wearing a smaller bra, and I don't have boob overspill, so I'll take it!

I still have a couple inches in my hips before I can wear my new jeans.

And must plan groceries for next week's Inferno.

See you tomorrow with photos!

~Katie

Really now?

Let's recap:
Last week I:

Was stressed out & got little sleep
Caved to the candy man
Did not get in enough work outs
Ate whatever I wanted

Lost weight.

This week I:
Am still stressed, but am getting enough sleep
Am not caving to the candy man
Am getting in pretty serious workouts
Am eating within my points and making decisions based on the protein/carb/fat ratios

Maintaining 169.9 lbs (about 1 & a half pounds heavier than last week)

This is frustrating.

I'm guessing that my body is trying to tell me that I need more calories, or it will just chipmunk, since last week I lowered activity and upped caloric intake and lost weight. Then, when I returned to working out, and returned to watching what I eat, my body said NOPE!!

Today, I need to get this in hand. My weekly weigh in is tomorrow and I'd like to have lost rather than just maintained. I was only .4 lbs away from my next 5 lbs celebration.

I have already determined that I am doing the TurboFire 5 Day Inferno next week, starting on Monday.

This gives me M-F to really just whip into shape before going up to Nova Scotia and to San Francisco.

It means having planned and scheduled meals, during a time that I will be working a lot, oh, and hour+ long workouts each day.

But it means that I'll be kickstarting my metabolism and being prepared for the day/week. Sunday will be the shopping and cooking day and then I'll just have everything portioned out for myself Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and 2 snacks.  No beer :( But I'll get over that. I think I can still have green tea without sweetener.

We'll see. I just have to plan. It will be a good time to do it, and then I can do a different schedule on vacation and get back to the real program when I return. Right now, I'm on week 13. However, I'm really doing week 12 since last week was low on the workouts. So, next week, is the 5 Day inferno, then I'm going to adapt Week 13 so that I can travel with it more easily & boomerang into week 14 when I get back from vacation.

Okay, This means that I'll be finishing up during the last week of September. EEK!

What will I do after that?

~Katie

Fire 60

Last night, I upped the ante. I've been on & off on doing my workouts (as noted) and this past weekend, I decided to do Fire 60, which was assigned earlier in the week & I missed it. 

Well, I really liked it. The music is good. The workout is good.

It's broken up into 3 20-minute sessions (vaguely) broken up by fire drills.

Warm up

Cardio left & right lead

Fire drill twice

Cardio left & right lead

Fire drill twice

Finale cardio left & right lead

Cool down

Unlike the main programs, there is no "new to class" that breaks everything down. You just have to jump in & use what you've learned through the main program of TurboFire. Fire 60 is part of the advanced pack, so this makes sense.

For me, I think just jumping in, figuring it out, and not taking breaks in between sets helped me stay on target.  The first time I did it, I had to convince myself to not take a long break (or stop) after the fire drills.

Last night, I felt like I needed intense so I subbed Fire 60 for my workout again.

 

See how excited I am? How did that happen? Well, I decided to fire up the music. That means that the music is in the foreground & Chalene's instructions are rather faintly in the background. Normally, I don't fire up the music. I like hearing the cues & the advice.  But last night, I lost myself in it. The music helped me work out some rhythm issues on some of the moves.

I may have to keep with that trend.

I track on Friday.

And on Thursday, I have a big BeerSox at the brewery event. Eek!

I will have to either work out double, really keep a handle on the special brews, or (more likely) delay tracking until Saturday and fit in an extra hard workout on both Friday & Saturday.

~Katie

Finally

I feel like I can finally be secure in my cross of the 170 lbs threshold.

I've been toying with it for the past couple of weeks. Or months.

No, really. There's a reason why I started to look at my 7 day trend. I would touch 170 & get happy, then bounce back. The past few weeks, I've been under 170, over 170, but steadily heading into the always under 170 realm. I just need to keep this up.

I dropped 5 pounds in 1 month: March. The next 5 pounds have taken 4 months.

It could be disheartening, but I have a goal. And I will make it. It may be slow, it may not really be steady, but it is.

If I track my food & beverage, and get in my workouts each day, I am successful.

So I just have to keep at it. One day or even one week shouldn't keep me from cranking back into the plan.

It works. Slowly, but it works.

~ Katie