Hot 100

Hot 100

Here is the deal. Almost a year ago, I set out to lose 100lbs. I've lost 70 of those 100. Here we are, down to only 100 days left of 2010. Crazy, I know the year has just flown by. So, for the last 100 days of 2010, I am going to work on reaching my goal. It's a lot of weight to lose in 100 days, but I've lost 30lbs in 90 days before, so why not try it again. If I fail short, who cares, as long as if I'm losing, right?.

My goals for the Hot 100 are going to be 3 part:

• Lose the 30 lbs
• Fit into a size 8
  
• Increase my running mileage.
  

So how am I going to do this you ask? Mostly by continuing to do what I'm doing now but focus more on my diet and eating the right things all the time. I've noticed I start cheating little bit here and there and the weight just doesn't come off. I haven't done my official weigh in for 2 weeks. :X Which I think is the longest amount of time since I started this journey.

I can fit into a size 10 now. I'd really like to see a single digit size by the end of the year. Of course anything smaller than a size 8 would be awesome, but unimaginable to me at this point.

Each week, I am going to hold myself accountable with my weekly weigh ins. I'm going to continue to exercise and get in more running time. I'm signing up for several local events including these:

• Princess Promenade Bike Ride
• Riverbank Wine and Cheese Run
  
• Mud Run
• Salmon Duathlon
  
• Holiday Run Copperopolis
  

Not only do I want to start 2010 off at goal weight, in a smaller size, but I want to be able to run a half marathon in the beginning of 2011. It might sound like a big goal, but I'm pretty sure I can do it with some more training. Plus, I'll have the entire year to build on what I can do athletically and increase my time and abilities.

Contest Results

Since my morning workout got cut short and because I was feeling down, I went back to the gym tonight. I haven't done Zumba in a few weeks and I do enjoy the Tuesday night class. I have a lot of gym friends who go at night, probably more than I do during the day. It's nice to see them all and I do miss Zumba even though I know it's not as challenging as my other classes.

I've been doing some thinking today, trying not to beat myself up but figure out what exactly is going on with my weight. Part of it maybe a plateau but I really think I've gotten a little bit more linnet with everything. A little less strict with my workouts - going through the motions instead of poised and focused. A little less strict with my diet - there was absolutely no cheating before and now this weekend I ate a whole pint of Ben and Jerry's. We've gradually been eating out more frequently. All these things would be fine, if I was at my goal weight but let's face it, I'm not. Maintaining this weight is not an option. I've still got a minimum of 40 lbs I want to lose.

The Gold's Gym National Contest winners were announced today. I don't think my gym even officially decided a winner to submit. Every time I asked who won, all they said was we haven't decided yet. :/ I doubt I would have won the national contest regardless, the girl in my age bracket did phenomenal. I'm going to post her picture for motivation. While I lost 30 lbs it says she lost 40. To be honest, I think I look closer to her before picture than her after! Here is to my motivation in the next 12 weeks - What a transformation! WOW!

If you're interested you can view all the contest winners on facebook at this link. Many of the winners look like entirely different people. So amazing what can be done in 12 weeks. I'm proud of my own transformation but still a work in progress.


For the record:

Breakfast - Protein w/ Soy Milk & Banana
Snack - Pistachios
Lunch - Quesadilla (whole wheat tortialla, cheese and chipotle veggie burger patty)
Dinner - Stir Fry w/ rice

Challenge Complete

90 days ago, I started the Gold's Gym know your own strength challenge. I almost backed out because you had to take a before and after photo in a two piece. My body hasn't seen a two piece since 2002, the summer before I had children and I can't say that I really ever want to wear one again. In the last 90 days, I've made numerous changes: eaten a lot healthier and I've exercised hard. As you all know my goal is to lose 100lbs. I'm about half way there. This contest has helped me stay focused when I didn't want to continue. Let's face it, I'm competitive and I went into this contest to win. I want to have the biggest body transformation at my gym and I've put in the work. I think I will be ok if someone else wins because I know I did my best BUT I want to win.

Our local gym only had about 10-15 contestants. Most of them women and only 1 man that I know of. It really wasn't organized that well and until yesterday I didn't even know when my final weigh in was going to be. I only found out because I kept on hounding them. I'm sure there will be contestants who slip through the cracks. I'm glad I participated - my results are great BUT they are only part of my total body transformation that started in October and will continue long after this contest ends. I've been feeling a bit of burn out lately and I'm really glad I am done with the competition. As soon as I finished weighing in I went to Moss Rose Bakery and had the most delicious pastry to celebrate. Don't worry, I will be back on the wagon again because I am totally motivated and am going to continue focusing more on my fitness goals. Here is a copy of my before and after measurements.

Finally Friday

Let me start off by saying, I was extremely tired this morning from my extreme workout. I barely made it to Zumba on time. I was up, I just didn't want to function and it took everything I had to get out the door. I also did some weight lifting with Clare. I focused more on my upper body, my lower body has had a tough week already. I realized that I did both cardio and weights all 5 days this week. Also, since it's week 6 in my competition, I had myself re-measured and did a quick weigh in. I was 4lbs heavier than Tuesday. I'm a little concerned but I know my weight fluctuates a lot during any given day, which is one reason I've been consistent with my weigh ins. Plus, I know when I cheat and weigh myself early - I'm always disappointed. I did have progress in my measurements and the trainer seemed really pleased by the numbers. I told him my goal is to be under 200 by the end of the competition. Totally possible, if I stay on track.

I keep hearing and reading about your caloric deficiencies as it relates to weight loss. I've cut my diet back so much. I honestly, can't see anything else to cut out. I no longer have dairy milk, just soy. I drink just water all day, a diet squirt on occasion. My breakfast is a protein shake and a banana. I eat a salad just about everyday for lunch. Dinner is fairly normal but smaller portions and low carbs over all. I might have a few small but healthy snacks every day. I'm starting to wonder if I am creating too big of a calorie deficit and my body is holding on to the calories? I know there are many times I wait too long to eat and end up getting a major headache or sluggish feeling. It happened again tonight actually. Who knows? I'm probably only thinking this because I weighed more today but it is an idea that is running around in my head...

Week 20

I just counted and I've been working out for the past 20 weeks! WOW! Talk about a milestone! I have big plans for week 20! Weigh in day is tomorrow - I'm hoping for a big loss! -40lbs here I come! I worked hard last week. I made ok (not great food choices) over the weekend. 20 weeks and I haven't hit a plateau! Awesome feeling! I'm just so optimistic about where the next 20 weeks will take me. I'm also officially half way in the Gold's Gym contest! Woo Woo

The nutrition seminar was really informative. Richard went too and my non-vegetable eating husband must have been paying attention. He came home and ate his veggies! AMAZING - I've been trying to convince him to do that for years. We got a ton of sample Nutrilite products and I will soon be selling them - available via a website or personal order. I'm excited about the opportunity to earn extra income and receive a discount on high quality products. I will update more on this as I get more information. I'm hoping this opportunity grows and can help supplement our income so I can stay at home longer with my kids.

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time at my aunts. I love seeing my family. Plus it was nice to see Adrienne in person - you look great! I'm so proud of her for sticking with it! Sunday was such a wet and busy day we didn't get to do anything active but we did eat good. I practiced portion control. My aunt and I woke up early and went to her gym, a YMCA. It was so nice! We did part of a body sculpting class (we were late, big surprise, lol) and went for a walk along a trail in the nearby park. It was such a beautiful day. Sherri - I thought of you today and your gym. Now, I officially have gym envy and I told Richard I wanted to move. Probably not gonna happen- but you can't blame a girl for trying. My best friend also lives near my aunt, so we got to meet up and have girl talk. It was so nice. I felt so blessed this weekend. I even made it back in time for my cardio kick boxing class,which was GREAT! Had a delicious salsa salad for dinner and I'm feeling GREAT!

Goals

Weigh in today - complete success! Weighed in at 221 - lost another 3 lbs. For a total of 37lbs! Wow! 37 lbs! So very motivating! The weight is truly melting off. That is a twelve pound loss since I started the competition! WOW!


My face looks different, less round. I've always had a round face. Mostly because I swear I have no chin, it's something that runs in my family. My mom has no chin, both my sister's have no chin. Well, I shouldn't say we have no chin - my sister barely weighs 120lbs at most has 2 chins due to lack of bone structure in her chin. I have the same problem but with a lot more weight! I just feel so much prettier now that my face is thinning out. It's amazing.


I want to lay out some of my short term goals. A lot of the time, I just go go go without saying what exactly my goals are. I want to start getting even more bang for my gym buck. I've read a lot of inspiring stories and seen women lose consistently 5lbs or more each week. I have good weeks and bad weeks but I think 3 lbs is my average. I want to keep that consistent with not losing even more each week. Two of my short term goals are:

Next week, I want to hit the 40lbs lost mark.
By my next competition weigh in (2-22, I think) be 211 lbs, 20lbs loss documented.
March 21st, run 5k.
End of March under 200 lbs.

In order to reach these goals, I'm going to continue with diet and exercise. I need to make sure my body does not hit a plateau. I will need to be careful with my diet and strong with my fitness routine. Make every work out count. With God's will, I can do this!

The Battle of the scales...

I got up extra early, I'm trying to get a body pump class into my schedule at the gym. Class starts at 8:30, which is fairly early for me. My goal today was to get Mariyn off and ready for school then hit the gym for two classes Body pump and Spin. I got to the gym just before 8:20 and they were already out of tickets! So frustrating. I decided to do an hour of resistance weight training, I stayed for spin. Man my legs are tired. I'm getting in better shape - Cardio is a lot easier for me now. I don't run out of breath like I used to and even when I think I won't make it, I always do. It's an amazing feeling. Perhaps even better than watching the pounds melt away.

Today is weigh in day, normally I weigh in during the evening when I go to Zumba but because I went to the gym this morning, I did a morning weigh in. I weighed myself on the locker room scale, the same one I've been using, and according to it I weigh 222. Only 1 pound less than last week. Very disappointing, especially considering how hard I worked last week. Plus, as you might remember I weighed myself last week on the personal trainer's scale (233.5 last Monday). Last week, the scales were EXACTLY 10 lbs different from eachother. According to that same scale on Friday, I weighed in at 228.5 a 5 pound loss. After using the locker room scale, I weighed in on the personal trainers scale and now I'm 228.2 lbs. So for competition purposes, I lost 5 lbs last week. Not really sure what to think. I know the personal trainers scale is most accurate but - I haven't been tracking my progress all along on it. I wonder if someone adjusted the scale in the locker room and if that is why it's reading the way it is? I mean how can they have such different weight losses? It's enough to drive a girl crazy. To be honest, I like the 5 lbs weight loss (which would take me to 29lbs lost total) and I really feel like I lost 5 lbs this week. Does that count for anything?

Healthy and Delicious

It's Friday! YAY! I made it another week! This week has been a challenge, as you can see, I've calorie counted and I've been working out even harder at the gym. I am doing good with calorie counting and I think I even see a difference. But man how all those veggies can make a girl gassy! :X I'm hoping this is something I adjust to. I've been looking through the Hungry Girl cook book I bought yesterday and I'm impressed. A lot of times, I will get a cook book and a lot of the meals aren't really something I would eat. I can't wait to try out some new recipes. Also, I've noticed hungry girl gives a lot of helpful food advice for those who are like me and LOVE food. I want my food to be both healthy and delicious!

I got to do Zumba this morning, with Adrianna my favorite Zumba instructor. I'm so glad she is back, she's been gone for 6-8 weeks. Class moved slower but it was still a good workout. Then I hit up the resistance weights for about 45 mins to an hour. I'm definitely feeling the burn. Today I was able to do 3 sets of 10 on the intimidator.

While the calorie counting isn't hard, I do feel like all I think about is food right now. I'm not really feeling deprived but it is always on my mind. My next meal, is it time for a snack, how many calories does this have, I wonder what I can make? Sometimes, I doubt I can keep this "diet" up, let's face it. Eating healthy isn't always the easiest thing but being fat is never "easy" but it's sure easy to get there. I am a little worried that if I don't see big results with calorie counting then, I will be disappointed.

Today, I cheated. Yep! I did :X My weigh in days are always on Tuesday. Every time I weigh in on a different day, I am disappointed by my progress. While I was doing the intimidator today I seen the scale by the personal trainers. The same one that I weighed myself on Monday for the contest. So I decided to step on it. Just to see what it said. To see if this is all worth it. I'm not going to share what is said just yet - but I will say I liked what I seen! The personal trainer told me today not to get too focused on the scale and to only weigh in once a week. Which is what I'm pretty much doing already. He was very encouraging about the contest once I told him what the scale said though ;-)

Rich looked into the mirror today and said, "I think your cooking is making me skinner too". I agree, I notice his and Mariyn's tummy looks just a little flatter. I'm logging all my calories in my journal, I'll post them later. Tonight, I am celebrating a friends birthday and going out to dinner with her. I'm determined to make good choices tonight. We're having Japanese food - Torri's one of my favorites!

I will leave you with this a picture of the delicious salad I made for lunch.

Weightless

I know, it's Tuesday the time all my hard work pays off weigh in Tuesday. However today was also the second Tuesday of the month - my mom's in Christ (Mom's Inc) bible study. I love my bible study time. I carry a lot of weight on my shoulders and am struggling with forgiveness. Well, let's face it, I've always struggled with forgiveness but it's been put in my heart that I need to let go. More specifically, I need to forgive Jessica so I am no longer angry, so I no longer hurt, so I can move on and take the weight of my shoulders and become weightless. We've been studying the book of James specifically this week James 1:12-27 and it really just spoke to my heart about the situation I am currently in. It's so easy to be angry at her for the things that she has done to me and my family. I'm tired of being angry and hurt though. I'm tired of her having that control over me. I've been praying that God help me forgive her, and each time I'm almost there something else comes up. I know my pride is getting in the way and that I am not hurting her, my anger is only hurting myself. In our society, when we think of sin - we think of sexual, drugs, alcohol, etc but anger is to a sin. God is love right? Aren't we supposed to love one another? Tonight, I am going to pray for Jessica. I'm going to pray that I forgive her and that this hurt is gone. I know it is God's will that I forgive her and for this I am also waiting...


At Mom's inc the following verse spoke to me

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

I really feel like this speaks to me emotionally with forgiveness and with my weight. I know God will help me reach all my goals.

Now, the moment we've all been waiting for... my weekly weigh in results - 223lbs. 1 pound less than last week. I feel bloated today. I had company this weekend and didn't make as good of choices as I should have. I'm cracking down now though, the contest is on and I want to get under 200lbs before March 31st.

Relativity of Weight

Well, I officially began the Gold's Gym Challenge today! My appointment was at 10 am for weigh in, measurements and picture in a two piece. I ended up taking my picture in a sports bra because the top just didn't cover enough for my liking. I was nervous, boy was I nervous but I did it.

Which leaves me to the topic of this blog. I weigh myself weekly at the gym, every Tuesday in the locker room. I know my home scale isn't at all accurate. So today, I step on a portable scale at the gym with a trainers beside me marking all my measurements. This scale says I weigh 233.4 lbs! I know I didn't gain 10 pounds this week, so one of the scales must be off. :/ Talking to a few of the members, they tell me they believe it's the scale in the locker room. Yikes! That means I weigh even MORE than I think I weigh... But it doesn't mean I haven't lost 23.5 lbs. I am going to continue to use that scale to weigh myself, because it's been the basis of all my measurements thus far. Kinda sucks that it's off but I guess it's all relative anyways. I'm on my way to a total body transformation!

Here is my stats sheet! Sorry - no bikini pic! Trust me you don't want to see it anyways it isn't a pretty sight.

Dunn... Dunn...Dunn

Sound effets (Dunn Dunn Dunn) it's arrived. The dreaded two piece I purchased for the contest at the gym. Part of me can't believe I'm going through with this. I mean who wants to see a fat chick in a two piece. Who ever created this rule has to have some sort of issues, lol. Well, that's what I'm telling myself anyways. The swim suit is cute - it looked great on the model and the color is beautiful. Seeing it on myself, umm not so pretty but that's what I'm entering the contest to change. Honestly, I have to say that although it's bad - it's not AS BAD as I thought it was going to be. Of course, my boobs are too big for the top, but that's nothing new. It's just ONE picture right? I decided to show you a picture of the dreaded two piece just so you can get a visual. I'm not sure if I will be brave enough to post the before picture.



Thursday nights I always do Zumba. Adrianna instructs on Thursdays and I always get a great work out. I can feel it in every muscle of my body. Unfortunately, she's been on vacation and we've had subs for a while now. Tonight Julia subbed. She has subbed once before, when I first started going. I remember her class was so challenging. I couldn't keep up. When I seen her tonight, I knew I was in for it! The energy was great though - and the best part - tonight I was able to keep up and got a GREAT workout. Seemed like everyone enjoyed the class, it was probably the most energetic I've seen the class (as a whole) get. Great work out @ zumba plus cardio with Rich. I really love that he comes to the gym to workout with me. I know it's his way of being supportive - and it makes me work out even harder. I call this time a date. It's the closest thing we've gotten to a real date in a long time. Now only if I can convince him we do not need to go have Cafe Bravo (the best Mexican restaurant I've eaten) after working out... at least I had a salad. :-/

Know your Own Strength Contest

I've been toying around with the idea for a while, but after some encouragement from the gym's manager I've decided to enter the know your own strength contest. I think the challenge will be good for me and make me work just a little bit harder. I've always done well with competitions and it will definitely help me meet and keep my goals. Even if I don't win, I know my body will be better off. I mean that is truly winning anyways, right? But I've convinced myself that I have a good chance at winning and a competition just might give me a bit more motivation.

I finally got all the info and signed up for a official weigh in and before photo time. I'm very nervous about the before photo (and the after). Official contest rules state the before photo must be taken in a two-piece swimsuit. ** GULP** I haven't worn a two-piece since I was a teenager! Not only is my body not in two piece condition BUT the worst part is I have so many stretch marks. My stomach looks like a race track and I am not in the least bit exaggerating.

I really had to think about this competition for a long while. Is it worth it? I know the before photo will be worse than the after. But still even after I achieve my goals, I doubt I will ever wear a two piece again. My skin is just so not normal looking and this is something that no amount of exercise is going to change. I figure though, this condition of the contest is just a hurdle and if I win it will be worth it.


Reasons I can win this contest:

1) I'm not 5, 10 or 15 lbs over weight. So I probably have a lot more weight to loose than the other contestants.

2) I'm already in the routine of making the gym a priority. I go 5 days a week for 1-2 hours at a time.

3) I'm not getting fit as part of a new year's resolution. I'm making a life style change.

4) Motivation, Motivation, Motivation.


Now... off to shop for that plus sized two piece.