In addition to... Don't look DOWN!!

I wanted to add that a good way to keep track of your progress of your loss would be a fat analyzer or a fat tester scale.
When I got discouraged from not seeing numbers but KNEW I was working my little (and I can say little because its literally the only little think on my body) hiney off so HAD to be losing SOMETHING I went and got a scale that not only told me my weight but also my fat percentage, water percentage, bone mass percentage and muscle percentage... it works by sending some little shock through your body (that you can not feel) and somehow can gather your information that way. It's really nice to know where your weight is distributed through out your body and is a great way to stay encourage through those tough patches.
Now I had a scale before that told me my body mass index count and told me how many calories I would have to eat to maintain my weight and that scale could be good also but if you don't see a number in weight change then your bmi won't change so it get discouraging. You can also get just a hand held fat tester with out it being a scale. Which would also be a good idea.

So I just thought I would add that in to my last post because this percentage scale has saved me from becoming unhealthy again. It's a really good thing and totally worth the money if not seeing a weight loss number discourages you.

Don't look DOWN!!!

So I've made it 30 days
NO cheats
NO quits
NO breaks
Just healthy living for a 30 day straight period.

I've lost 24 pounds
( but I haven't lost in a couple days and I think its due to my 'aunt flo' visiting at the moment. Lol.)

That is awesome for me and it has been hard obviously at times but overall its been pretty easy sailing.

I've come across a small issue that I would like to talk about to warn you guys and stress the IMPORTANCE of taking care of and listening to your body.
So for the past week I've notice myself getting a little light headed at times and a couple days ago I actually passed out after standing up to quickly. My cousin is a diabetic , so she knows quiet a bit about blood sugar and what not and although she is not a doctor I trust her knowledge. so I told her about this issue I was having and explained to her that I eat lunch at 230 and then I do not have the time to eat again until 830 at night after I go workout. She informed me that it is very very likely that my sugar is low and urged me to eat something in between (as well as drinking PLENTY of fluids) so I started to eat a protein bar around 500 on my way to the gym and not only do I feel better but I've notice myself feeling more energy during my workouts. So with that being said I strongly strongly recommend not going more then 4 hours (especially if working out) with out either a small meal or a small snack. It can become very scary in not knowing what is wrong but just listen to your body and treat it well.

Alright now that I have that out of the way let me get down to the fun stuff!!!!

My life the past week and a half has been pretty crazy. Working out and eating wise.
Like I posted last week I have now uped my carb intake and lowered my protein in take but I plan on switching it back by next week again to boost my metabolism yet again.(hopefully)
Last week I had some pretty good motivation and I ended up doing an hour on the elliptical and burning 619calories!!!
Amazing, right?!
Now I HAVE to go not less then an hour and on saturdays I go twice a day for an hour-70minutes each time so that can be good but can be bad also.
Remember I'm also doing p90x in the mornings so its pretty exhausting but at the end of the day feels amazing to know I actually burnt xx many calories.
The scale is looking pretty also :)

So, you might ask 'how do you stay on the elliptical for a full hour, and burn so many calories?!'
Welp , first is motivation! Find it. What gets you driving? It can be for yourselfs health , for your children, for your friends, for your spouse, for a trip, for a spa day, for whatever it is just find it! That is going to be the first thing you need to recognize.
Why are you working out?
Why are you becoming a healthier YOU?
answer it and keep that answer in your head!
While working out set a goal
'I'm gonna do the elliptical for 70minutes on level 12'
DO IT!!!! PUSH FOR IT!!!!
Keep water near by, be sure when you start your water bottle is FULL.
Chewing gum for me is helpful, for one it gets my mind off of the pain and for two it keeps my mouth refreshed longer.
Music, music, music!!! Just listen to music.
BREATHE!!!!!!!!!! Take nice long Deep breaths. This is going to help you push through the pain and most of the time you'll be so focused on your breath that you won't notice the pain
DO NOT LOOK DOWN!!! I know your hurting and I know you just want your time to be done but its nothing but disappointment and discouragement looking down at the timer so DON'T DO IT! if you must bring a towel and cover up the timer. So just work out, work out, work out!!! Feel the burn, push through it. Before you know it, you've done 60 minutes of your workout and you feel amazing that you did so, the next day notch things up a little and (now you know you can do 60minutes so it'll be cake from now on) set the level a little higher.
My first day doing an hour I did the elliptical set at a level 1-15 and speed 3.0-5.5, I now set my elliptical at level 11-15 speeds 2.8-6.1 and for 70minutes.



Lately I have not had much time to sit in the suna because I have a time limit with taking my daughter to the daycare in the gym so I've just been doing the elliptical and my p90x in the morning.
So pretty good work I would say.

I touched a little on my goals last time but I would like to share what exactly my goals are.
I feel like goals are important and everyone should have them.

I want to lose a total of 71 pounds so this is how I will be breaking them down...

27 pounds down- spa day
19 pounds down- mani/pedi day (most people on this one would say 'really , that's a reward for completing your goal' yes, it is because I'm a parent who does not get the luxury of having a spouse or loved one to watch my child so I can go do my girly things and never get to have a babysitter to go out and leave the home often, so with this I will be sure to have a sitter so I can make myself look pretty and feel amazing.')
15 pounds lost- professional pictures of kayedin and myself (I have not done professional photos of her and I yet, due to embarrassment of my fat)
Last 10 pounds- take kayedin to Disney world/universal studios!!! (This is important to me because I know she will love it so much no matter what her age is ( but I expect she'll be 2 1/2 almost 3) as I loved it when I went and have fond memories of the time there and would really like to do things like this with my daughter..)

I am sure that this is going to take a lot longer then I really anticipate but I am going to keep pushing further and stronger.
I will not give up, but I must say holidays will be a challenge for me but I'm up for that challenge. I do plan on eating what my family has cooked for the meals but doing portion approach AND still jumping back into my active and healthy life style after those days.(Easter coming up is going to be my first encounter with this, wish me luck)
I'm sure most people would ask 'why not just go ahead and do the whole portion approach thing in life anyways?' Well, for me its not that easy. I view the 'portion approach' probably different then most. To me its a failure for myself at my size right now. Only because I know I could not have that control forever and not only that but right now I NEED to lose fat. Portion approach you can eat anything (in my views, which is why I don't do it right now) and its basically calorie counting which when I'm down to a safe and comfortable fat mass then sure that may be a good option for me but I don't have the time to fool around and only calorie count or use portion control. I need to know what's going in my body and be aware. When you are in a obese or extreme over weight situation like I am then you NEED to THINK about what's going into your body.( in my opinion) Calories are not the problem. bad fat, bad sugar, cholesterol, simple bad carbs, and high sodium. So I've mentioned my meal plans so you have an idea on what I'm eating. There are no simple carbs at all only complex carbs (so the whole wheat/grains...etc.) I have no added sugar only natural sugar found in the fruits and veggies, I only have the good fats that come from olive oil, fish or nuts. The cholesterol is basically non existent but yes, there is still some in my diet ,and I have very low sodium intake. All very good things and essential to a person as overweight as I am. I'm not saying this should be lived by 24/7 but it should be considered when you are at the obese and overweight levels such as myself.
Whoa, a lot of ranting. I do want to add that although I abide by this (and it is extremely easy once getting a hang of the 'good' vs 'bad' options) like I said earlier I do and will plan on eating holiday foods with my family. Last summer I took holidays away from myself and I ended up quiting and gaining everything back. So this time I plan on just eating with family STILL GOING TO THE GYM but jumping back into eating and living healthy. It's NOT just a diet, its a way of living and I've said that before. This 'diet' really teaches you the way you and everyone no matter the size should be eating.(with the obvious holiday and occasional treat).... the healthy way of living.

That's it?!? Really?!?!

Day 20 with a 17 pound weight loss.

I should be so happy and grateful that I'm down 17 pounds. I am, but at the same time ,GAH LEE why didn't I hit a bigger number?!!

So I have been stuck sitting on this crazy stump for 11 days now. My body is not letting me loss any weight whatsoever and to me that's totally discouraging and disheartened! This is why.

So my last blog I mentioned how I started going to the gym and running/jogging on the treadmill during the day, right? Well I still go to the gym at night but instead of doing the treadmill during the day I have started the p90x dvds and have been doing them since last Thursday!! I thought for sure I would jump the stump I've been sitting on but no luck for me. I have even switched up my eating and now eat more carbs less protein.( 2 carbs vs.1 and 4-5 protein vs.6) so its not much but I thought that would jump kick something? I took a day off of working out on Sunday to see if maybe my body just needed a break to rest and catch up, but nada, I got NOTHING.

I will say as much as this is discouraging and not very motivating I am still doing great. Like I said I took Sunday off from working out but yesterday I jumped right back into the gym and p90x work out scene and that felt great. I'm just proud that I could take a day off but yet still get back into it the next day.
Go me!?!?

So like I've said I've changed some things up a bit in hopes of continuing my weight loss. So this is now what I am doing...

Monday thru Friday -
-P90x workouts in the mornings
-Eating a carb in the morning before workout such as
:whole wheat muffin
3oz turkey ham
Slice of swiss cheese.
4egg whites
& yogurt, fruit

I am now forcing myself to actually eat the full meal instead of saving the fruit and yogurt for later because I really feel I need those extra calories to get my metabolism up.

-lunch
Chicken
Asparagus
-Snack on the way to the gym (string cheese)
-gym= ATLEAST 30 minutes total on all equipment. I normally will do the elliptical and the bike. Then to the suna for a good 8-15 minutes to keep my heart rate up longer and then tanning :)
-dinner
Turkey/chicken meatloaf or a turkey burger (no bun)
Asparagus or broccoli
Brown rice or pinto beans
- bed time snack-
Rice cakes.
Saturday
The same minus the p90x dvds and I go an extra 30-60 minutes to the gym

Sunday
Rest day from work outs.

So you can see it is a little different from before and I plan on switching up my food here in another week or so. I need to keep my body guessing or else ill never see results.

I am also going to be investing in a tape measure so I can start measuring my body, because I am convinced that I am gaining muscle and losing fat but since muscle weights more then fat, then I am not actually seeing the numbers on the scale. So, I will measure every couple of weeks or once a month to get a better result on fat loss/muscle gain.

Until then I am going to keep up the hard work I am doing. I am not going to give up. I just know that no matter how long I stay on this stump that I am going to get stronger and will be able to run more miles or do more reps to get me past these points.

I don't think I have talked about goals before in any blogs but I would like to say that I would like to get down for my short term goal 10 more pounds by the end of march. I will then have 4-5 more short goals but then my long term comfortable goal is 50 pounds and I would love to achieve this with in 6months but hoping (not realistic) for 3-4 months end of may beginning of June.

My cousin just got engaged and is getting married by august so this would be perfect to get down 50pounds by then but I will say that, this is a little nerve racking for me. Last summer when I was on this diet my friend whomever wedding I was in was Hm September and I thought the same thing " it will be nice to be down xx lbs (amount of weight) by the wedding but then I had to by the dress get it hemmed and then after that I figured I shouldn't gain or lose weight because if the dress won't fit and I don't have time to get it taken in then I'm screwed so I quit and I totally don't want to be like that this time. I am not going to stop because I am in a wedding I will just have to deal and get my dressed taken in quickly. If that is the case.

So you guys remember even when things come to a Stop just keep on pushing.
Keep moving and being healthy. I am and I still feel great no matter what my numbers say or how discouraged I am.

Drink your water, chew your gum, eat your healthy 6 meals a day and move your body!!!!

See ya' next week folks.