FAT - 1, Me - 0

Who would have thought that posting quite possibly the worst pictures of myself in a bathing suit wouldn't be enough to make me hit the rock bottom I was hoping to?!?
I don't quite get it either.
I got a ton of messages and crazy amounts of support from complete strangers and loved ones, but apparently none of that mattered because I still fell off the wagon...again.  Andy says that if I update my blog twice a week with what I am doing and eating, that it will help me get back on track.
I am still down 5 of the 6 pounds that I had lost last time, but I am back to not eating frequently enough and not going to the gym.
I haven't taken any measurements, so I will include those in the next update (which will not be 2 months from now...)
I honestly don't even have much to write about this time around so I am keeping this one short.

Until next time...

Don't quit your day job!

Sorry I am not good about updating every day!



I have decided that I am going to "weigh in" and take measurements every Sunday.  I will make myself crazy by weighing in every day, as your weight can fluctuate (especially as a female with our wonderful menstrual cycle!)

That being said, I plan on updating more than just on Sundays.  Be prepared for a lot of crap that has nothing to do with losing weight!

Yesterday it was an amazingly gorgeous day!  My friend, Ashley, and I took Mason to the park and we walked a few miles and had a nice picnic and laid in the sun.  It was wonderful!  I can't wait for spring to be in full swing.  No more of this crappy cold.  As for the summer, that could wait, lol.  I really hate the heat and I am totally not ready for bathing suit season!  We do have a vacation planned to The Outer Banks, NC for the end of July though, so I am looking forward to that, and it helps me stay in check with my diet because I plan on being in a bathing suit the entire time we are there!

The diet has been going really well.  I think that I am going to start writing down everything that I am eating throughout the day though.  I find myself having trouble recalling exactly what I ate and what time I ate it.  I know that makes me sound so dumb...but I swear, I am not.  I just get my eating times confused with the times that Mason ate, and then I think I need to eat when I don't and my kid is starving!  So tomorrow, I am starting a food diary!

On a lighter note, Sunday, while shopping in Target with Andy and Mason, I actually smiled while walking by the bathing suits (more specifically the bikinis)!  I smiled because I can't wait to come shopping for a bikini.
In my first blog, I was so unsure about this whole process...I didn't have a set diet plan.  I didn't have a set work-out plan.  I just knew that I was making it public because Andy recommended that I do so.  I also expressed in my first blog about wanting my rock bottom to be right now.  I didn't want to get any fatter before I hit rock bottom.  I was sick of being fat NOW!   

Before all of this, I expected rock bottom to be something like seeing a picture, or not fitting on an amusement ride or in a booth at a restaurant.
Putting all this out there to the public made me hit a rock bottom, but not the one I was expecting.  I still fit in restaurant booths and I am not getting turned down at amusement parks, but I am being held accountable by strangers.  I am getting messages about how I have inspired people.  I get inquiries of what I am doing and how I got the guts to put all this out there.  My rock bottom is the thought of disappointing all of the people who take the time out to message me every day to see how I am doing.  My rock bottom is the thought of people continuing to check my update-less blog.  My rock bottom is not being able to pull through all of this and not actually end up any type of inspiration to anyone.  My rock bottom is knowing that I am going to see Jamie Eason at the Arnold Classic 2011 and not looking my best.
This is never the rock bottom that I would have expected.  I am grateful to have this rock bottom instead of a "can I please sit at that table because my fat butt won't fit in that booth" rock bottom.
Thank you for continuing to check up on me.
Thank you for calling me an inspiration (and I hope to continue to inspire you and others).
Thank you for all your support and encouraging messages and comments.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you.

The results are in...

drum roll, please!
After my 3 days cleanse/prep, I lost a total of 6 pounds and 5.5 inches!!!
I am so excited!  Definitely a great jump start to my diet, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  It wasn't hard to cut out carbs for 3 days...it was hard to cut out carbs, and dairy, and coffee!  I am a coffee ADDICT!  And I could have drank coffee during these three days, but I couldn't use sugar or cream, so I figured there was not point!

By the end of the day yesterday, the idea of putting salad and chicken in my mouth was making me want to vomit.  I ended up just having ground turkey for dinner because I couldn't bring myself to stomach anything else. The first day was easy because I was excited to have a plan and to be doing something.  Day 2 was a little tougher but I had lost 1 pound since day 1, so I knew it was working.  Then day 3 came, and I was pumped because I had lost 4 more pounds, but by the end of the day, I didn't even want to say the word 'salad'.
I know I am making it sounds terrible...it wasn't that bad.  And I do think it was a great jump start and would totally recommend it.  I also think it makes it easier for when you get to add carbs back in....it's like a treat!

My biggest obstacle with this (or any) diet is my sweet tooth!  I love chocolate.  Actually, not just chocolate, but anything sweet!  Chocolate, candy, ice cream, cake, pie, whatever!  If it's bad for you and contains sugar than odds are that I like it.  
All that being said, I hope that I found the solution to my problem...Detour Bars!  They are a really great tasting protein bar that I found at BJ's Wholesale ($20 for a box of 24).  They taste like a Snickers bar!  They have 170 calories, 5 grams of fat, 17 grams of carbs, and 15 grams of protein.
I use these as a snack in between meals or as an after dinner/before bedtime snack (that's always when I crave sweets the most).

No gym today.  I am also trying to start a custom cake business (High Stakes Cakes) and I had orders for this weekend and my gym is only open until 7pm.  Gym tomorrow morning (after breakfast...I don't get a good workout when I haven't had a meal).

And to add to this great weekend, the Phillies home opener was yesterday, where they rallied back in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Astros 5-4 and just beat the Astros again 9-4 with my boy, Cliff Lee, pitching!

"Life is good today"

P.S. if anyone is interested in the cleanse program or program that I am on now, I can post it or email it to you, just let me know!

Running On Empty...

...or so it feels that way.
My 8 month old son, Mason, has a "virus" which has had him running a fever therefore not sleeping...it's terrible. I say "virus" because I am convinced that's the doctors way of telling you that they don't have a clue what's wrong with your kid....it's so frustrating.  I am so spoiled (blessed/lucky) because Mason (who is my first, and probably only) is such a good baby.  He is happy all the time, almost never cries, and has always slept really well.  So this whole unhappy, crying, non-sleeping baby thing is new to me...and I must admit, I have not been handling it well at all.

His "virus" is such bad timing because yesterday was such an amazing day!
It started off extremely nerve racking!  I could not believe that I was about to post pictures of myself in a bathing suit on the internet and that I was going to tell all my friends "Hey, I'm fat!"  I tagged Jamie Eason in the post because she had posted that "inspiration" album and I wanted all of my friends to be able to see the album too.  I was floored when I saw that Jamie mentioned me in her status update!  Then rolled in all the positive comments...then the friend requests...then more positive comments!  Yesterday was absolutely one of the greatest days of my life!  I was so pumped!  I ate good food all day, I went for a two hour walk with a friend, then hit up Planet Fitness and had a great work-out!
I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am to Jamie for putting me out there like that...without her doing that, I never would have gotten the response that I did.  It was scary to put it out there, but the response and support that I now have made it all worth it!

A lot of people asked me about what my nutrition and fitness plans were and, honestly, until I "met" Tameka yesterday, I had no set plans at all!  But she sent me over a great nutrition plan that I started today.
The first three days are a "prep".  Basically, dark green veggies, protein, two eggs, two oranges, tons of water, and NO CARBS!  Sounds terrible, lol, but it's only three days!  I will be singing a different tune tomorrow when I am going through carb withdrawal with a headache craving a Rita's Gelati!  Lol.

Rita's Gelatis!!!

Tameka shared with me that she lost seven pounds and seven inches after just these three days, so I am pretty excited and I plan on telling myself that every time I want to shove bread in my mouth!
She also sent me over a plan for after these next three days.  Doesn't seem too hard...basically just balancing everything.  I will post more details about it once I get there.
(I can forward the exact meal plan that was sent to me, just ask!)

As for my fitness plans, I don't have a set schedule with that either.
I know that I want to be at the gym five days a week and I want to do yoga on the sixth day.  I plan on doing yoga at home watching Yoga X (from P90X).  When I am at the gym, I basically do one exercise for each muscle group. One set of ten with light weight to warm up.  Then I do three sets of ten (my third set with enough weight that I can barely get out ten).  I do the leg press, seated leg curls, chest, lat pull downs, seated rows, shoulder press, tricep press, bicep curls, and glutes.  I also do the ab machine but I do five sets of twenty.
Tomorrow when I am at the gym, I will write down how much weight I am using so I can be more detailed.

I really do enjoy my time at the gym.  I used to hate being there because I always felt so self conscious.  But something that Andy told me that really helps is "I am there because I want to make myself better which is what everyone else is doing there too...some are further along in the process than I am, some are newer than me, but we are all there trying to be better."
It also helps that my gym, Planet Fitness, is the "judgement free zone"!
Lol.


Now...time to recharge.  Hopefully Mason sleeps through the night!
Goodnight!

Ugh...here goes nothing.

I posted this on Facebook as a note. In this note, I tagged fitness model, Jamie Eason. She then posted about it and because of her, I have gotten an overwhelming amount of support. As the friend requests started rolling in, I thought it might be a good idea to make a blog.

I am obviously thrilled about doing this, as you can see by the title, but please, bare with me.

Let me start off with a little background:

It's no secret that I am not a skinny girl and I have always had a battle with my weight and body image. I have started dieting and working out countless times, and give up on the whole program before I get the results that I want. There have even been times when I start to get some great results, and I still give-up on it.

So yesterday, I was looking through a photo album called "inspiration" posted by a fitness model (that I love), Jamie Eason. She had fans send in photos of their transformations, some fat to skinny and some who just had no muscle/tone and who are now very muscular. All of these people got to a point in their lives where they were done living life in that body and wanted to change. I want to make those same changes but never could stick with it, and it made me think, am I not at that rock bottom yet? How much bigger do I need to get before I hit that? How can I make myself hit that right now?! I don't want to get any bigger before finally getting to rock bottom. I want to change NOW. But how do I make this time different than every other time before?

I found that answer in Andy (of course).

He said that if I want this time to be different, than I have to do things differently than I have done before because, obviously, nothing has worked. He suggested making my goals public. Last night, he said "post your weight on facebook every day". I walked out of the room! And I was thinking "No way! How embarassing!"

Then I started thinking...Andy used to be 190lbs (he's 6'5" and he was way to skinny and looked gross) and over the past 4 years, I have watched him take control of his body. He wanted to bulk up, he bulked up. He wanted to trim down, he trimmed down. Anything he puts his mind to, consider it done. I envy that about Andy and wish that I could be more like that.

Well, all that being said, I realized that I would be a fool to not take his advice. I know he wouldn't steer me wrong and that he has my best interest at heart. I trust him and I know he will support me through this...he would support me through anything.

So here it goes:

I will post notes everyday about my progress. Current weight, measurements, gym time, work-outs (and probably feelings because I am female and we can't help but to interject our feelings into everything!)

March 29, 2011

Weight: 170 lbs.

Measurements:

Waist: 42 in.

Hips: 44 in.

Thigh: 26 in.

Biceps: 14 in.

Neck: 14 in.

I am also attaching pictures. Ugh. Yes...pictures. A bathing suit that I have had for years that I want to be able to wear (and look good in) this summer.