Progress Report

Today's going to be a busy day at work, so I'm trying to get this all up and ready before I leave so I can focus on the presentation I'm giving tonight at a University on what I do at work and what opportunities there are for physicists.

Today was tracking day.

It has been 60 days since I started ChaLEAN Extreme, and 4 weeks since I started Weight Watchers.
The Push Month mostly focused on building muscle, and my legs, butt, and arms definitely benefitted. I can actually do real push-ups, now! I can do at least half of the burpees in Burn It Off without modification. I outlifted my set of weights and needed to go up a notch or two or three.  And I'm planning on starting TurboFire/ChaLEAN hybrid after this next coming month. I think that this was a great program to start with, since I've never focused on building much muscle. The weightlifting progress is a great Non-Scale Goal for me. The slimming will come with more cardio, but the power, and strength can only come from resistance.

I have been busting my buttocks since Monday to make it a successful tracking day. I'm talking taking walks. Going RUNNING, for heaven's sake. And watching every damn thing that I eat and drink since I'm out of weekly points until Friday. Because I wanted to see the results that I feel. Because I feel the results. I know that I'm looking better and slimming down. I'm also building muscle, so some places are actually staying the same pretty much.

The Push month has been good to me, overall.

Here's the photos:

Front View Progress

Side View Progress

Back View Progress
SOON, There won't be any of those rolls at my waist! They are going, going, going, (soon to be) GONE!

Measure it up

 I am quite pleased with this month's progress! Down 6.3 lbs from the last weigh-in! My waist is down 2 inches, too! And that's the waist around the belly button. My natural waist is shrinking, too!

Okay, off to work!
~Katie

Here we go again! Weight Watchers

So a big part of my struggle is with my intake. I've been eschewing tracking because I don't really want to be honest about what I eat and what I drink every day. And I've been shooting myself in the foot. As evidenced by the only slight change I experienced over the past month.

My mom emailed me with an idea. Join Weight Watchers meetings with her for Lent. Commit to going to the meetings and tracking and using the tools for the rest of Lent.

She used to be a leader & weight watchers has been a side part of my life for a very long time. And I have always thought that I could tackle my weight without it. I could "do by self" to quote a two year old me. This past summer, I used the etools to moderate success. I lost 10 pounds or so. Then I fell off the deep end and stopped tracking & ballooned up t20 lbs. So starting again & committing the hour a week (or two hours today) seemed like too much. When I'm already stressed about what I'm eating, how I'm working out, putting in the work at work that I need to, spending social time with loved ones, and investing time in my business, how am I supposed to cope with one more thing?

How am I supposed to add another thing into a bag that's already bursting?

Except then reason stepped in. This is a tool. It is an organizational method to manage a few of those things that I'm handling loose-pack. It gives me a focus for how to plan meals and how to think about things.

So maybe it's one more hour a week. Maybe, just maybe, it will alleviate some of the load. I have promised to follow through, so I will follow through.

~Katie

Push Circuit 1

Well, today was the beginning of a new month of ChaLEAN Extreme. Push Circuit 1 was intense, single-muscle working. It was about 32 minutes long. No squat plus shoulder press or dead-lift plus row. This was all single focused exercises. Tricep. Bicep. Squat. In three ways each.

Since the goal is to fail at 6-8 reps, you go really heavy. I warmed up with 5 lbs, then used 10, 15, & 20 lbs weights for the rest of the exercises. I'm going to try to push to 15, 20, & 25 lbs next week. Most of the exercises I used 10 lbs on, I could have done 10 reps.

PROGRESS!

And many push-ups. Sloooooooow push-ups.

Also, here's a peek into where I workout & my setup in my living room. I'm allergic to the animals & they cuddle on the carpet, so I have to roll out my mat anytime I put knees to floor or I get red allergy spots all over them.

~Katie

Failure

Failure.

What does it mean to you?

In ChaLEAN Extreme, failure is the point at which you've worked your muscle so hard that you are unable to do another rep in form.
This causes your muscle to rebuild through the rest period and grow stronger.

I have been working most of my exercises to failure in 10-12 reps. I have been trying to make sure I try the next weight up for exercises that I did the week before.  If I was using 5 lbs, I'll use 10 lbs. If I was using 10 lbs, I'll use 15 lbs. Sometimes, I realize that I made a mistake and switch back so that I can actually complete more than 5 reps.  This is one of the issues I'm trying to work through. For some of the moves, I am stronger than 5 lbs, even going super slow and flexing the whole time, but I can't go past 5 reps with the 10 lbs. So what can I do to push past that? What can I work through to get up to the weight I know I can tackle? Perseverance.

This morning, I felt like a failure, despite what my body has been telling me, I felt like I had not achieved anything.

So taking a lesson from weightlifting, I'm taking it as a sign that I can get stronger. Still. I am still capable of continuing. I am still capable of succeeding.

I often feel like I've failed at tasks at work or with my business. But maybe I'm just working myself to breaking? I need to work a different "muscle group" and let the one I've failed at rest a tiny bit. Not ignore it and never address it again, just work on something else, focus on another aspect for a little bit. I have lots of balls in the air right now. I need to give them each their due attention for cycling amounts of time. Not work on one at the detriment of others, but work on one until I have worked it as much as I can for the day and then switch to the other.

I can do this. I will take a cue from this. Failure is not the end, it's just the beginning.

~Katie

So Demoralizing

Yeah, so I tracked today. I was feeling so good about it.

Yes, I was a little bloated. But I've been working so hard! I've been feeling better! I've been doing so well! Right? I was going to see results!

Well, here they are, in living color. My still fat ass on the internet. The only benefit is that I don't see as much belly fat hangover. That is the one place that I see improvement.
I gained .7 pounds.
I gained inches or stayed the same almost everywhere.
UGH!!!!
---EDIT---
I wish that the waist measurement was actually at my waist. Instead, it's at my belly button. The place I feel I've changed the most is just under the boobs, on the ribcage and my belly. My haunches haven't really changed, and my thighs have gotten larger, but probably mostly because ChaLEAN Extreme is extreme on the amount of squats you do.

It's difficult to compare the before and after photos because the angle is different and so is the lighting. I decided that the orange/brown look wasn't doing me any favors & realized I had a door where I could get a straight shot.  The height of the camera is the same between the photos, though, as is the way the bikini is tied (as in I haven't been able to untie that knot for YEARS).

Forgot to add the other stats:
Push-ups: James and I did a test last night. I did 3 push-ups on my toes and then 8 on my knees. I didn't time them. I should have. Maybe I'll do that tonight.
Weights I'm using:
Lower Body: 15-20 lbs
Triceps: 5 lbs
Biceps: 10 lbs
Back & shoulders: 10-15 lbs

~Katie
PS I'm still going to continue with this. I'm feeling stronger. So hopefully I can actually shed some inches in the next month.

I'm not happy, but I'm hopeful?

Minor milestone

Today, I had a minor milestone that makes me hopeful for tomorrow's tracking day.

I was able to hook my bra on the middle clasp rather than the last one!

~Katie

Photo is Creative Commons from WikiHow