Tighten Up that Diet!

I am approaching the end of the first month. Thursday will mark 1/3 of the contest complete. I will go in for a weigh in and check up with a personal trainer. I have nailed the workout plan so far. I don't know if it enough, but I feel very accomplished. I definitely see my muscle changing. My diet, however, is not as on point. My scheduled meals (5 a day) are rock solid. I wouldn't change anything there, but the extra snacking on sweets is killing me! I guarantee if I could cut that out I would have dropped lbs by now! The scale is stuck at 142 lbs naked, so no change from the initial weigh in of 148 with clothes. I know I gained muscle, but am not sure if how much weight I really am losing. I know I can do better. The personal trainer will check my body fat at my one month appointment. 

Check in! Week 3

3 week check in...

Lbs lost-0

The picture without the board is the 3 week shot. I feel like I see changes, but it could be the lighting! 

Grrrr....Scale Won't BUDGE!

Well I am in my third week and my scale won't budge! Grrrr! It is time tighten up the diet and increase intensity of my workouts! 

Snowed In

I'm snowed in, but no excuses! My body pump class was canceled, so my workout consisted of shoveling!  I think I burned more calories this morning than I have all week! 

Rewind....The First Hour

The first hour is full of motivation, determination, fear, anxiety, hope and so much more. Here is my first hour.

5'3

30-39 age group

148lbs

30% Body Fat

Only 4% Exercise

When initially thinking about devoting twelve weeks of my life to this challenge, I was overwhelmed. As I started to break it down hour by hour in my head it became a lot less taunting. Yes, the eating would take continuous effort and attention, but exercise is really a very small portion of this in terms of time. Doing the math, if you exercise six days a week for an hour each day, that only equates to less than 4% of the 2016 hours actually working out. Come on, that is totally doable and a lot less intimidating looking at it that way! Best.

Black Hole of 4PM-6PM

I am learning the importance of continuously reevaluating myself and position. Recently I learned that there is something about 4:00-6:00 that I can't control myself. Looking back, anytime that I would eat junk food or begin to veer off my track, it would always seem to be around that time of day. Knowledge it power. I figure, if it is only 2 hours a day that is keeping me from hitting my goals, I think I can manage to fill that time more productively or prepare to avoid bad choices.

My plan is to make 4:00 my outside time with my daughter. After playing outside for 30 mins to an hour I feel clear headed and more grounded, making it easier to not fall into the two hour black hole. It's funny how we have to play games with our minds to keep ourselves on track.

Checking in every week or two and reevaluating is so crucial in my success for this challenge in order to change my life.

Approaching 408 Hours and Nailing It

I am just about 408 hours and 8 million decisions into my challenge. I must say, my good decisions are starting to outweigh the bad, for sure.

I woke up and couldn't walk today. I did my first Muay Thai class Wednesday. I wasn't terribly sore the day after, but the (good) soreness grew. I could not straighten my legs when I got out of bed. My calves were exploding. The pain is a good reminder that I am making progress. The scale is not a good tool at this point.

Today we were hit by the blizzard. My gym was canceled and even if it were opened, there is no way to get there. We have over two feet of snow so far. The me before the challenge would have been defeated by today, snowed in with junk food and no body pump. However, I feel freakin' awesome. It is 6pm and I can say that I nailed. Not only did I run 30 unscheduled minutes yesterday to make up for missing my class, but I ate like a champ. I still have 250 calories left and I have been outside and active shoveling and playing with my family. I feel good.

The tricks that I have learned up to this point are, first and foremost, get in a daily routine. I can't stress this enough. Not long before the challenge, I did not have a routine, at all. That equates to a mess of a life. I made a schedule for exactly how I wanted my day to go, hour by hour. I started setting my alarm for 6:30 and followed the same routine every day. This was KEY to my progress so far. Then I began to build on it.

Another thing that is helping me through, La Croix naturally flavored sparkling water. OMG. I love them. This is my treat. No artificial flavors, zero calories, zero sodium. The flavors also make me think of summer, that always helps.

My Fitness Pal is something that I started using yesterday. I was feeling defeated after a week and a half of hard work and clean eating and the scale did not budge! That is when I started plugging in my food. Yea, I was eating really healthy, but too much! My carbs and fat were too high too! It is so much easier to hit your goals when your eliminate the questionable.

Hour by hour. Some hours are more challenging than others, but for the most part, it is getting much easier to make positive changes.

Time For Change - Challenge Accepted

I accepted the Gold's Gym twelve week body transformation challenge. I have always been drawn towards these challenges because I have been living short of my potential for about thirteen years, physically and mentally. I struggle every day knowing that I am not fully living. It is a terrible feeling knowing that you are so short from a much better life experience, fully convinced that it can be achieved in twelve weeks, and not being able to reach the goal. I have always believed that if I could get myself in good health and feel good about me, that the rest of my life issues would dissolve. Unfortunately, I have been stuck in a depressing cycle of trying and failing, trying and failing. I have tried and failed to get a grip on my life since I was a teenager. I gained weight, fell into a binge eating disorder, was treated for depression and anxiety, lived a half ass life, pushed away friends and family, lost motivation and desire, I could go on and on. I continued to 'live' in a generic sense. I graduated college, got married, had a daughter, bought a house and had many more milestones, but each day I was living I did not feel alive.

It wasn't until I began to recognize that my depressing lifestyle was directly effecting my daughter and my husband that I really had the drive to make a change. Hurting myself was one thing, but when it effected the lives of my family,
negatively, things had to be different. I wouldn't bring them down with me. Hell no. 

So, I signed up for the Gold's Gym Challenge. I started setting my alarm each morning and getting up on the first ring. I started cleaning up my diet, far from perfect, but slowly starting to make better choices. I set a clear plan. Elliptical, 30 min, M-Th, Body Pump - Saturday & Monday, Muay Thai - Wednesdays, and just get active as much as possible. 

I started on January 7th. I got my pictures, weighed in at 148lb, 5'3, 30% body fat. WHAT! Yup, 30% body fat. UGH! So far, I have stuck to the plan. I am feeling stronger, but my pants are still tight! I am strong all day long and I fall short almost every day around 4-6:00. I need to tighten up the diet so I can start seeing and feeling changes. 

Anyway, I named this blog 2016 Hours because there just so happen to be 2016 hour in a year. How fitting. I want to take this challenge hour by hour. Better decisions each hour will get me to my goal.

Here is to the next hour!