100 pound milestone!

Current Weight: 232.5
Total weight loss = 100.5 pounds!

WOW, I did it - I lost 100 pounds. It feels so good to know that I went from my heaviest weight and lowest point mentally to this amazing feeling in my life now. Now, I am by no means finished here! I'm not even in wonderland yet (in the 100 pounds range). I have work to do, and I have to keep it at a slow and steady pace. My primary goal at the moment is not to lose a huge amount of weight actually - I am in the process of trying to get pregnant you see, and my body needs to learn to maintain now in order to be ready for a 9 month change! I'm so exhilarated to have reached this goal before becoming pregnant, and feel so ready to take on the next phase.

Here are some of my goals to keep me going every day...
I will keep exercising like a mad-woman!
I won't over-indulge in food and junk!
I will keep a healthy and low budget meal plan for my family.
I won't over-eat due to stress!
I will find outlets for my emotions!
I won't forget to stretch!
I will run a 5K in 2012!
I won't let pain get in my way!
I will love myself!
I won't criticize myself if I make a mistake!
I will keep on fighting!

Photo of Me (on the left) and my Workout Buddy Candice

Here are some of the ways I hope to keep going in my exercise...
The gym: I of course don't see any reason I'd ever give up my passion for exercise, and that passion is strong when it comes to my group classes. Zumba, Body Combat, and Body Pump are 3 of the main ways I burn calories and keep my body moving for an hour or more each day!

Everyday life: I have a 3 year old, so let's face it I'm always on my feet! I take walks, many, many walks to the park, the library, or just around our town. I work in the yard, chase the dog, and kick a ball around! We go hiking, or trail walking often. Special days include trips to the Zoo or OMSI, or any other amazing children's activities we have in our great Pacific NW! We love farmer's markets, and work in our church gardens. I'm always cleaning something in our house, climbing the stairs, or just plan scrubbing! I rarely stop, and that's all before I make it the gym in the evening!

The Future: I hope to be pregnant soon, and that comes with complications to weight loss and extreme exercise. Of course with a normal pregnancy you can do just about the same routine as before, but as many of you know I won't be having a normal pregnancy. Due to my previous pregnancy I will be watched very closely, as well as have a low impact rule applied to me for exercise. My plan already includes adding in water Zumba once a week, and with my increased weight loss since the doc since last saw me I'm hoping I will be able to keep up on a moderate level of Body pump (weight lifting) and some Zumba and Combat. If all else fails, I'll just sit on a bike, walk on a treadmill, and use the elliptical as much as I can to keep active and healthy!

BRING ON THE NEXT STEP OF WEIGHT LOSS!

Body Pump!

I am loving Body Pump. I am in my 2nd week of taking the class, and already feeling the difference in my muscles. Why did it take me so long to take this class? I can feel the confidence building as I go along as well during the class, and love the challenge that it brings upon me. Now to just find the time to get it in more often!

I am still taking by other 2 classes, body combat and Zumba, and are enjoying them just as much. I do feel less of a challenge with them though, and am glad to have found a new level for my workouts. Also, my toe and foot pain has been pretty high lately, so I have not been doing any running between classes, and am hoping for that to level out soon so I can begin back on my running challenge of running a whole mile without stopping.

Body Pump Review

Yesterday I took, for the first time Body Pump, a 60-minute workout that works all major muscles groups by using weight room exercise like squats, presses, lifts and curls all instructed to music. The instructor that was scheduled to teach was out with a sore muscle, so I did not get the current Body Pump release for my first day. I think that was okay though for a beginner, seeing as the sub said he hadn’t taught in a year and was doing some easier routines. Overall my thoughts on the class were positive, but still intimidating.

As I walked in I did not recognize any of the people in the class, like I do in my other group classes. That first off was pretty intimidating, especially since none of them offered a hello or an encouraging or helpful word my way. I finally asked the instructor what to do, since everyone else seemed to have already set up their weights. Not being familiar with my skill level like many of the other trainers in the gym he set me up with 2.5 and 5 pound weights to start off with, gave me some general instruction on the class, and though I’ve taken a mini lesson on the class from another instructor I didn’t get the weight instructions very well. After the warm-up the daycare attendant came in to get me, because my lovely daughter needed a diaper change (don’t ask about this story, just gets worse). By the time I got back my head was unfocused and not in the class anymore. I had to go for the next 40 minutes wondering if Jon was picking up Julia on time, if she was crying because I left her again, and all the other complications that go along with having a child in daycare while you workout!! Needless to say I just didn’t get the whole experience from the class, but I kept on going with it anyways. By the time we’d done our 3rd set of squats my thighs were burning and my shoulders were screaming! I knew I had done the right thing by taking this class.

My plan to take the class once a week probably won’t be a good one, seeing as that gives my body to long to recover from the lifting, so I will be going back in on Thursday to get more torture done to my body. As for this morning my entire body is sore and tight, and I will need some serious stretching. On a side note, I was clumsy while walking during the evening around town with the family, and slightly fell off a curb. I ended up twisting my big toe that is already injured, so not only is my body sore, but my toe is bruised and doesn’t want me to put all my weight down onto it. Great!! I’ll just keep on keeping on though!

Experimenting in Group Exercising

So, I've found myself in a plateau with my weight lose and inches lost in my body. I workout like a mad women - 6 days a week, 90-120 minutes a day! I've also been battling with a knee problem, and should have it looked at one of these days. But, needless to say this isn't going to stop me. I have decided that I am not getting enough motivation to do my weight training on my own, and at the same time finding myself bored with the same routine. So, to keep myself from not sticking to this thought and not running with it I am declaring to you, my readers, that I am going to take a Body Pump Class next week.

So, what is Body Pump? Body pump is a barbell weight training class that strengthens your entire body. The class is a 60-minute workout that challenges all your major muscle groups by using the best weight-room exercises like squats, presses, lifts and curls. The class is a lot like Body Combat with weights - a structured routine to music and motivating instructors. Now, I have been told time and again by the trainers at my gym that this is THE class to take for weight lose and weight training, but I've been scared to take it for numerous reasons.

My main fear is pain and inability to accomplish the class. I had the same fear when I began Body combat, and here I am conquering that class into the 2nd launch now. I've also been intimidated by the instructors, so after getting to know some of them and realize that they once were beginners too I'm feeling more confident in my abilities. The main problem though is the time of the class - Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30 - 5:30 or Monday Wednesday at 6:30 - 7:30. Now, the first class is doable, except for I have to take Julia to the daycare (cost) and the second one is during Zumba, so Tuesday or Thursday it is!

My plan will have to change now though. I will have to change my workout schedule to fit my family needs. If I take a 4:30 class then I can't stay to workout after because 2 out of 3 of us are going to need dinner. If I take this class, I might not be able to do my 6:30 Body Combat class either. So, these are all concerns, but I'm going to go after this class and see what kind of results I see from it.

Workout Plan for Week of May 8 -
Sunday - Mother's Day - no workout
Monday - 6:00 - 8:00 - Calisthenics & Zumba
Tuesday - 4:30 - 5:30 - Body Pump & evening walk with family
Wednesday - 6:30 - 8:30 - Zumba & Abs
Thursday - 6:30 - 8:00 - Body Combat & Elliptical
Friday - 5:00 - 7:00 - Zumba & Calisthenics
Saturday - Long quick pace walk during the day

Group Exercise Classes

I absolutely love my group classes that I take 5 days a week now! I couldn’t say enough about them if someone asked me for a recommendation. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays I take Zumba, and we all know how awesomely fun that is. And, if you don’t you better get your butt in gear and find out! Here is my review of Zumba from the first time I took it. On Tuesday and Thursday I take Body Combat, which is a high intensity cardio kick-boxing class! Yes, I said kick-boxing, and yes I can now kick your butt if you test me. Both these classes work some of the same areas of the body, but for the most part I get different results from the two classes.

So, what does my body combat class give me? The class uses several areas of martial arts, including karate, boxing, and muay thai (among others) to give a crazy workout that has fast pace music and about 7 tracks followed by an abs workout. In the class we strike, punch, lunge, side kick, and even squats. Of course there’s a lot more to it then just those, and the hour goes by so much faster then just using a machine for the same length of time. The instructors are also so amazing. I usually have the same instructors for the class, but occasionally we get a sub and they always work you in a slightly different way – which is great! This class has empowered me work hard, push through pain, and focus on my workout.

I am into almost 5 months of Zumba classes, and love it more ever day. I can’t say enough about what a great time I have in this class. I’ve made some great friends from the class, and have learned to shake my booty at the same time. Zumba is so much fun, and really works out the entire body. I think I lost most of my weight recently in my core because of Zumba, with its amazing rumba and Latin inspirited dance movies I get a whole body workout in an hour. In a week I will do a 2 hour Zumba party at the gym and can’t wait to dance the night away!

I will post some videos later on of each class for examples of the workouts!

Zumba!

Zumba was amazingly fun last night and challenging at the same time. If you don’t know what Zumba is then you are missing out. A fitness class choreographed around Latin inspired music and dance moves, Zumba is high intensity and easy to do (once you get the steps down). Some of the moves can be very exotic at times, and for the mostly house wives and moms in the class last night I can say that everyone was bust’n out their best moves. I myself was very thankful for the dance lessons I took with my husband before our wedding, where we learned many of the same dance steps that are utilized into Zumba. Overall, a great workout, with a great instructor, and an unintimidating group of people made for a great experience I will go back for again.

The class itself was an hour long and filled with about 50 people – an overwhelming portion of women of course with a couple of scattered men into the mix. The instructor was high energy and kept the pace at a steady; moderate level of difficulty, which I really liked. I’ve had aerobic-like classes before where it starts out super easy and you get over confident, and then all of a sudden the music changes and it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done! Nope, not this time. Of course there were times where I had to stop and watch her steps, but never did I feel that I was lacking in ability. There were a lot of side stepping, bouncing, arm movements up and down, and squatting. I was very impressed with how much of a full body workout this class is going to be. A full hour of high intensity cardio is just so thrilling to experience, especially when most of my days consisted of cleaning house, cooking food, whipping poppy butts, or sitting around playing with toys with my daughter! Don’t get me wrong, I love almost all of the activities (sans the poppy butt), but a full hour of time where I had to focus on nothing else but moving my body in the right ways really helped to clear my mind and focus my energy again.

So, what are the results from this class? Well, I looked up at Sparkpeople how many calories I may have burned and they had posted that there is no way to adequately calculate how many actual calories are being burned and there is no scientific study done to tell how many are being burned in Zumba. So, I hit the search engine on Google and ended up at ehow.com where they have posted this.
"Zumba workouts can vary in intensity, and calorie burn depends on an individual's weight, fitness level and muscle composition. During an hour long session you can burn anywhere from 500 to 800 calories. On average, a 150-lb. person can expect to burn 536 calories during an hour of Zumba. "
So, since I am not an average sized person I really have no clue how many calories I burned last night in Zumba class, but I can tell you this – I sweat like crazy when I workout hard and I went home with a wet head of hair and wet t-shirt. Zumba is an exhilarating, fast paced, total body workout and exactly what I was looking for!

A New Year = New Goals

Alright people, let’s hear it for 2010 and start off fresh with 2011. I’ve been making it to the gym this past week several times now, and have really missed it. With working part time during the holidays and all the other events going on I had no time left over for myself, let alone the gym. I am back in full force and will start a new adventure soon with The Biggest Loser Contest at my gym. This week I will register for the contest and the following week I will do my weigh in and body composition test. The results and winners are judged on highest % of weight loss and/or highest % of body fat lost in both a men and women's category. So, there will be 2 chances for me to win. I sure wish I had a financial sponsor for this, but I will have to lay down $99 for this whole thing. If I win, there’s no lose for me really, but it will put a burden on our finances this month. Jon and I are prepared to work around that. So, here’s a quick run down of my current weight, some thoughts on goals and workouts, and for the next week I will be re-posting some of my favorite posts from 2010 and then we will get into the contest!

My current weight is 266.6 and I can certainly tell you I am not excited about that number, but I am glad to see that by only indulging myself once in awhile during the past month I did alright about not gaining weight. My goals are large and will need a lot of focus from me to accomplish, but with some accountability partners (you readers), my family, and my drive I will do it!

Goal 1: Compete in the Biggest Loser contest at my gym. I would really like to put win as part of the goal, but would need to really size up the competition first. The contest runs into March, so this will be a good long term focus for me.

Goal 2: Complete 30 day Challenge on EA Active Wii Fit game. I started this again to see how well I do now that have lost weight and have a full year of exercise in my system. When I started this journey, the EA Active was all I had to get me started. I felt like it gave me a great starting point then, and it will give me another avenue of exercise this time around too. I began on the 1st and will finish the challenge in 30 days. The program consists of 2 days on and 1 day off of exercise, so some days I will do the Wii and the gym depending on what’s going on. So far I have really enjoyed the muscles that are being worked again – I had mostly been focusing on cardio lately and not strength building, so this is a nice variation to my workouts.

Goal 3: Zumba class! My gym is now offering Zumba fitness classes and I am interested in seeing how this class works. A lot of my friends have been working out with Zumba for awhile and have seen great results with it. They also say it’s challenging at first, but very rewarding and fun at the same time. The class is offered at 6:30-7:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays, so this will correspond with a lot of things and I will have to work out lives around trying to go to this class.

Goal 4: Lose 30 pounds by April 1! Wow, that’s a deadline that is looming close. I’m only giving myself 3 whole months to shed the weight. Why you ask, well that would be a couple of weeks after the biggest loser contest, but I really just want to have a deadline. I don’t want to keep telling people around spring time or early summer. It doesn’t give me a sense of urgency or keep me on track if I just throw out a time period that is ambiguous. So, that’s 10 pounds a month or 2.5 pounds a week. I can so do that!

Goal 5: Keep a daily food log, sometimes counting calories, but without obsessing over it. Last year at this time I began a head first focus on counting my calories, and it took up a good portion of time to calculate, input, and keep track of all the calories going in me. So, I’ve made my own little journal and will write down what I’m eating and the calories if I know them. If I can see when and what I am eating in front of me I think I will have a better perspective on anything that could be hampering my weight loss.

So, there are the goals and the hard work ahead of me. I hope you will continue to join me on my journey and send encouragement my way. I will do that same for your journeys and help lead you onto a new and healthy path for your life. Happy New Year and I mean it, make it a happy one!

Weigh In (sorry it's late)

Weight: 284.6

Total Weight Loss: 23.7



I have lost -2.8 pounds this week and a total of 23.7 since January 1. I feel like I worked so hard this past week and that only a 2.8 loss is somewhat disappointing. I know that I should be grateful for any negative numbers and like Jon was telling me last night, I should be even more grateful for not gaining weight. When I look back at the times I have lost a significant amount of weight it’s always been a torturous amount of time, and never a quick result. I’m sure I gave up several times during that process as well, but in the end I looked the way I wanted to and was happy about it. The only thing I want to change about that is the end result – NOT PUTTING IT BACK ON. So, slow and steady wins the race, and I’m going to have to remember that every week when all I’m getting are low numbers.

As for last week’s challenge, I didn’t quite make it. But, that’s okay. I went to the gym every day, except Thursday and Saturday, but did workout at home those days. Thursday I did the Wii fit exercises, and Saturday I took a long walk in the evening sun. Both were only light/moderate exercising where as I have been doing very vigorous workouts at the gym. So, since I focused so much on my exercising last week I think I’m going to tone it down a tad bit, and focus on the whole picture – calories in and calories out. My fitness challenge though is will continue, because I seem to work really well when I have something to work towards.

I found a great recourse for challenges on sparkpeople.com (where I count my calories and my workout calories burned). So this is a challenge from the stand point that we are in a plateau and need to change things up to get our body back into burn mode. This week's challenge is to incorporate one new cardio activity into your routine, 1-2 times per week. If you already do cardio 4-5 times a week, this activity could replace one or two of your regular workouts. If you currently do cardio 2-3 times per week, consider adding an extra day or two with something new. Think about the activities you like to do and pick something that you enjoy. For example, if walking is your primary form of cardio, try adding biking or swimming to your routine. Adding something totally different can really shake things up and help you start to see results again.

I started doing this cardio activity a little but last week some, but I was so tired from the Spinning class I took that I wasn’t really getting much out of it. Spinning and yoga were my new cardio activities last week, but I think the spinning is a little out of my league and time constraints right now, so I will pick that back up once I get some more endurance in me. So, I am going to start using the rowing machine more often this week. I see contestants on The Biggest Loser use this a lot and get great results with it, and when I did use it I felt a lot of muscles being used and my heart rate got going pretty good too.

Alright, post what new cardio activity you are going to include in your workout this week and let me know how it’s working out for you.

Spinning Class Day 1

I took the spinning class last night all by myself! The best part about it was that it wasn't filled with skinny girls, but ladies just like me! They all were new to spinning and gave me a lot of tips and encouragement. The entire time I thought I was going throw up though and my lungs burned! As I was getting ready to write this I was reading another blog and she had recently participated in her first spinning class to. I came home as sore as I've ever felt, then had to jump right into baby time - bath, bottle, and bedtime. Life doesn't stop even if you want to, right?