Just so you know!

I've been keeping up with my workouts, but I'm going to start blogging once a week instead of every day because well I've been really busy and it's easier to update once a week with new (hopefully new) measurements, pictures, and the adventures from that week. Pat discovered the other day that the P90x also has a lean body workout that is supposed to be for people that are looking to lose weight, so I'm going to be switching to that one next week. It's a lot more cardio and hopefully will help me to lose the weight a little quicker although I'm not in a huge hurry because I am giving myself a year to lose the amount of weight that I want to. Pat has done awesome with his diet...me, not so much. I had pizza on Tuesday night, we had nothing in the house for the kids to eat for dinner so I asked Declan what he wanted and he said pizza so that's what we got and of course I couldn't resist. Other than that, today I had a small slice of lasagna at Pat's grandparents house and it was SO GOOD! I'm trying to be good but it's getting more and more difficult. Although Pat did buy a new cookbook and I can't wait to try some of the recipes out of it. All the recipes are low calorie, low sugar, and low fat. This lady's goal was to take the foods that people love to eat and make them more healthy. So far we haven't tried anything, but the first thing I'm going to attempt to make (and it's good for you) is orange chicken. I will let you know how it goes and if the recipes are good. The book is called Eat What You Love.

Weight and measurement update!

What I've lost so far:
Pounds: 3.8
waist: 2.75"
Chest: 3.25"
hips: 2"
thighs: 1"
arms and ankle: 0.25"
% body fat: 0.7%

I'm pretty excited to see such a loss in just two weeks! I hope to continue to lose all the extra inches and weight. We splurged yesterday and took a day off (we had the option to take a day off or do stretching) and we had chinese food. It was SOOO good, but we felt so guilty after eating it. We are starting back on our diet today and today is arms and chest as well as the ab ripper X! I am so glad that Pat and I have been doing this together because it's helping both of us stick with it. We are going on week #3 and then next week is stretching I believe and then we move into phase 2. We are 1/2 way finished with phase 1 already!

Days 12 & 13

Well last night was day 12 for our P90x workout and man it hurt but I did good. I was able to keep up with about 90% of the routines at the pace that they were doing them. It was a lot of leg squats, lunges and pull ups. I pushed myself hard and I felt like I was going to lose my dinner but I felt great today (other than being really tired...I didn't do my workout until a little after midnight and then we woke up early to go garage saling). I digress. So I did great on the legs and back portion but once I again I fell short of my goal many times throughout the ab ripper part of the workout, which sucks because that's the part I want to work out the most. The legs, hips and tummy...also that flabby part under my arm...you know what I'm talking about. So I was kind of disappointed that I didn't do as much as I was aiming for, but hey, I have 78 more days of this workout plan, so I have plenty of time to practice, right?! You just wait, come June I am actually going to feel good about putting on a swimming suit!

Day 13...we haven't been home long enough to do todays workout. We went garage saling all morning, then we had some returns to do and we walked around the mall for a little while because it was POURING and then we went to church and then grocery shopping and we came home, I made dinner, we bathed the kids and put them in bed so now, I'm waiting until about 10:30 to start doing my workout so that I hopefully won't hurl. Tonight is Kenpo which is my absolute FAVORITE. It reminds me a lot of cardio kickboxing but it's fun, it's tough and I feel like I had a great workout when I'm finished because I am drenched in sweat. Anyway, I promise I'm going to do my workout tonight!

PS: I've been doing okay with my diet but great with the workouts. I have lost about 3.6 pounds in 2 weeks and I'll do the official weight and measurements tomorrow for you all because I know you guys are just dying to know!

I'm all caught up!

Well sort of. Today instead of doing the Yoga, I decided to do the cardio workout. Pat did it this morning and said it was a great work out so I decided to give it a try and MAN was it hard! I feel great now though. I was going to attempt to do the ab ripper afterwards since I missed it yesterday along with arms and shoulders but I'm whooped. Maybe I'll do it tonight, if not, there's always tomorrow (and it's on tomorrow's agenda).

I am feeling good!!!

Day 10

Well I missed my workout on day 10 (yesterday) so I am supposed to do yoga today and I was supposed to do arms and back yesterday. Originally I was going to do my arm workout while the kids napped and my yoga workout after I get home from work tonight so I could be caught back up but I think instead of doing that I'm going to do the cardio workout today.

To my surprise, even though I have not been doing all that great with my diet, I got on the scale this morning and realized I have lost a total of 3.6 pounds so far!!! I'm excited about that.

Day 9

Today was Plyometrics and I actually made it through the entire workout and get this....without throwing up! I was not able to do all the reps of each exercise but I did make it through the entire 60 minute workout. It was hard and my legs feel like jello but I'm going to continue on. Tomorrow is arms and back.

YIKES

Day 8, we basically are starting all over again with the workouts. We do the same workouts each day of the week for the first three weeks so today was arms and back. I feel like each of my arms weighs 100 pounds. It was a good workout but I am wiped out and ready for bed.

I thought I'd upload some photos from the end of week 1. I am going to try to upload new photos each monday so that I can see my progress or lack there of and so that it keeps pushing me to stick with this even though I want to give up and eat junk and drink soda, I am going to press on. I don't want to continue looking like I do. Did I mention the fact that I look like I'm about 7 months pregnant? :o( It's gonna change

Day of rest

Well today we had the option to either take a day off or do stretching, so we chose to do the stretching to stay with our routine. This made for day number 7 in a row of working out. Today wasn't really a workout but it helped tremendously and I feel great!

I decided that I'm going to weigh and measure myself once a week and since I weight and measured myself last Sunday, that meant that I was due up to do the same today. I have lost 1 pound, 1.5 inches around my waist, 1 inch off my chest, 0.5 inches off of my hips and 0.8% body fat. I know it doesn't seem like much but it's encouraging to see any kind of loss after just one week. I am excited! Tomorrow we start it all over again and I work from 10-3:30 and then I have class from 6-10, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Stay tuned.....

Kenpo X

Today was Kenpo and I have to say that it was BY FAR my FAVORITE. I was able to keep up with the entire workout and I LOVED it! I am exhausted, especially since I was up at 6 am, worked 8 hours, went to church, went shopping and then came home and did my workout. It's now 11:20 pm and I am trying to relax a few mintues before I go take a shower and crash. I was so tired before I did my workout but I'm so glad that I did it anyway.

Pat has lost just about 10 pound this past week and I have lost a whopping 1, but I'm going to change up the diet a little bit to try to follow the P90x diet a little closer instead of the weight watchers and see if that helps. Tomorrow I'm going to measure myself (waist, hips, thigh(s), chest and for me ankle. I know what you're thinking...ankle, really?!?! YES! Ever since I got pregnant with Declan and had preeclampsia, I grew into some cankles (for those of you who don't know what that is, it is where it looks like you have no ankle because your legs get so big that it just goes from your calf right into your food) and haven't been able to get rid of them no matter how hard I try. Okay, it's obvious that I haven't tried too hard in the past, but I'm determined this time.

Since Pat has been doing this with me, it's been great. I love the fact that we're trying to change our lifestyle so that we can be healthier and look and feel better. I can't wait until we're done with these 90 days so that I can compare my before pictures with my after pictures. Even Declan is trying to eat healthy and exercise...he thinks he's Tony Horton (the trainer on our P90x dvds) and tells us if we're not doing it right or reminding us that we need to breathe. What a cute little trainer to have!

Day 5...I feel the burn

Today was tough. It was back and legs. My legs were already sore from doing the workout on Tuesday and then today was a TON of squats and lunges...OWWWW! I didn't do as many as I would have liked but I stuck with it and I didn't have to refund my food either which was a plus. I'm getting a little discouraged in the weight loss department because even though I am working out and I've been doing well and sticking to my points on weight watchers, I'm not losing pounds as quickly as I think I should. So along with all the squats and lunges, we also did a lot of pull ups which are hard for me anyway but I was impressed that I could do a couple more each time today than I could on Monday, so that was good! We also had to do ab ripper again after 50 minutes of intense leg and back workouts we did 15 minutes of ab ripper and I was definitely feeling it today. On some of the exercises today I could feel my back wanting to give me trouble so I had to keep taking breaks even though I felt like endurance wise I could have kept going. I don't want to push it too much because if I hurt my back I won't be able to do any of it. That's it for now.

Tomorrow I work 7am-3:30pm so I won't be able to do my workout until tomorrow night, I will let you know how it goes because I know you're all dying to find out ;)

Yoga aka Day 4

Today was yoga and I thought to myself, oh good a time to relax and relax the sore muscles from the days before. OH NO, it wasn't relaxing at all. In fact, today was much harder than I was anticipating and I was unable to do a lot of the poses. I didn't get discouraged though, I just keep thinking that the next time around will be better. I am still only down one pound, but that's okay, it's only been one week.

Tomorrow is legs, back and ab ripper x. Well just a recap for those of you that didn't read my second day blog, the leg workout (or plyometrics) was the thing that made me throw up so I'm really hoping for a better go-around this time. I was impressed at how much more of the ab ripper I could do on Wednesday compared to Monday, so tomorrow should be even better. I'm definitely feeling all my muscles, but it's a GREAT feeling!

Day 3...going strong!

Today was day three of our work out/diet program! I have been staying on track with the healthy eating and I had to work out tonight after I worked 8 hours today (I should have gotten up early and done it so I could relax tonight). Today we worked our arms and shoulders oh, and the "ab ripper x". I have to say today has been my favorite so far. I was able to do all the arm and shoulder workouts without stopping and with 5 lb weights every time. I'm sure I'm going to be feeling it tomorrow, but for tonight it was worth it! As far as the ab ripper x, I was able to do more reps than I was on Monday and even though I couldn't do as many as the video, I either alternated a little on how I did it to where I could still feel it working my abs. You just wait..when I post my pictures in 90 days, I'm going to have defined abs!

Oh, since Declan has been awake the last couple of days we've been working out, he thinks he needs to work out with us. Tonight we were in Wal-Mart picking up a few things and ran into some friends and Declan dropped down in the middle of the floor and started doing push-ups. He can do about 15! He had a guy cheering him on, it was too funny!

Day 2

Well day 2 is done and I must have pushed my body to its limit because when we were finished I had to refund my food from yesterday. I hate hate hate throwing up, but if this workout gets me into shape, which if I stick with it, it will, I am willing to keep on keeping on. Today we did plyometrics which is mainly leg workouts. Fifty-eight minutes of leg workouts...my legs feel like jello and we only made it through about 3/4 of the workout. I would say that I'm discouraged that we were only able to do 3/4 but I'm not. I figure this was our first time and we did our best, so my goal next time is to be able to finish it. We did workouts such as lunges, jumping, kicking your legs over the back of the chair. It may not sound as tough on here, but if you ever see it or try it, you'd realize that it is WAAAYYY more tough than it sounds.

I'm not sure if it is due to throwing up, weight watchers, P90x or a combination, but I have already lost 1 pound and 0.3% body fat! Woohoo!!! It's only been 2 days and I've been sticking to my weight watchers diet and the workouts, I'm pretty happy!

And we're off

Today was Pat and I's first day of the P90x program. It totally kicked my butt but in a very good way. I feel much better since I've done it. I also started doing weight watchers along with it and so far I've been doing well. I figured since I can't have soda unless it's diet (YUCK) that I would drink crystal lite (they make a fruit punch now) or iced tea with splenda. It's actually been really good so far. I've been eating bagel thins which are 1 point and sandwich thins which are 1 point and I feel like I can still have a satisfying meal with much less bread. Who would have thought? Anyway, my weight loss goal is to be down 50 pounds by March 2011. I want to be healthier and look better and be able to keep up with my kiddos. My mind is set on doing this 90 day challenge, I have known some people that have done it and had amazing results, so I am giving it a whirl. We didn't wake up as early as we wanted to today in order to get the workout done before the kids got up, but Alaina watched a movie on the computer and Declan played quietly in his room while Pat and I did our workout for 1 hour. It really helps that we're doing this together because before when I tried to diet on my own or stick to a workout, it never seemed to work. I am glad that we're doing this together and I am going to keep blogging every day.

Today was pull-ups, push ups and abs. It was incredibly tough but I can already tell that it's waking my muscles up! On the ab workout I was only able to do at most about 5 reps of each of the different workouts...it's extremely difficult. I just keep telling myself it will be worth it and eventually I'll be able to do all reps of each exercise and perhaps surpass the amount that they do.

We had to take pictures of ourselves before we started and WHOA was that a wake up call! I look horrible. We have to take pictures at beginning, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days. Once we are finished with all of it, I will post all the pictures. I know that some of you may not want to see any of those, but it helps keep me on track with my progress. I haven't figured out what our reward will be if we achieve our goal but I want it to be something worth working for!

Easter and days after

Declan quote

I was at school the other night and when I came home Pat told me something Declan had said and I just died laughing. Pat was giving Declan a bath and he said that Declan stood up with his arm out at either side and said "Daddy, is it too early to start talking about my Christmas list?" completely serious, I might add. Pat said he just started laughing and Declan said, "what? Is it too early?" I thought that was too cute not to share.

reaching for the stars

So, I wrote earlier this year that I wanted to lose 50 pounds. Well, I have not done anything in order to accomplish that goal. I will do well for about a month but then I lose focus or my back starts hurting and I give up. Well today was it for me. I was trying on clothes at different stores and the size that I've been wearing since Alaina has been born no longer fit, so I tried the next size up and most of those didn't fit. It was very depressing! Then, while I was sitting in the dressing room with my kids, I bent over to put on my shoes and it seemed that I had an inflatible floatie underneath my shirt....oh wait, that was just my jelly roll! I was so upset that I decided to tell Pat that I am ready to start these P90x dvd's. I have heard of how difficult these dvd's are, but I am ready for the challenge. I am tired of being overweight and using excuses of why I am the size I am. Pat and I have decided to do these together so we'll see how well we do. I will be blogging each day after we do the dvd's given that I can still feel my arms. I hope that I survive through this. I am not setting a weight loss goal or anything like that, my goal through this is that I can keep up with the dvd's and that I feel more healthy and more physically fit. I want to have energy and be able to keep up with my kids while they play. I do have a lot on my plate with school, work, kids and home life, but I'm not going to let myself use that as an excuse any longer. I have known a couple of people that have done these dvd's and they have worked tremendously. I will keep you all updated on my progress!