five weeks of fat loss

oh my god, is that an ab I see? It's probably just gas.  

thanksgiving success

I made it through the first holiday challenge with relative success. I stuck to my plan and ate what I should. I did have one cheat day, and I'll fess up to it. On Saturday I hiked skyline(good) with a cute boy(better) and then had a pork chop and 3 beers(not good). What's a girl to do? I love hiking and eating and beer (and the cute boy has all sorts of potential). They just go hand in hand for me. Oh crap maybe half of a baked potato too. Ok, no maybe about it. But today I ran my 6 miles and did my leg workout and core circuit. So, I'm back on track. I felt great running. I am going to bump everything up this week to 6.2 starting pace. I figure if I just slowly creep the numbers up, maybe my lungs won't notice that my legs are going faster. trickery.

progress

208.0
204.4
199.2
197.0

 Happy Thanksgiving!

super sets super suck

Holy cow, super sets kill me. Darin has me working out in super sets, which is doing two exercises of opposing muscles back to back, with minimal rest. Now, I thought it was supposed to be working the same muscle groups back to back to be called a super set. But for my purposes at this time- it is not. I used to like lower body days and dread upper body days. Now it is kind of a crap shoot. They both are exhausting. The only good thing about upper body days is that my legs get a bit of a rest in the evening, making the next mornings jog a bit easier. I'm up to running the first 20 minutes at 6.1, the next 20 at 6.2 and then I go in five minute intervals 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, and for the last five minutes I go up every minute. So by the end I am literally dying. But I'm learning to run fast. I hope. Darin said two of my cardio's need to be high intensity. I feel that everything I do is high intensity, so I'm having a hard time deciding which two to label as such. I'm guessing, Gina's spin class on Friday is high intensity and then that leaves my Saturday skate skiing? or daily 6 miles? I'm not sure.

I'm having some picture difficulties. I'm ready to post some progress pictures, but this darn thing won't let me. I'll keep working on it.  I've officially been on "the diet" for 20 days. I've lost weight, inches, and body fat. Yay! Turns out, I was in denial about the actual amount of exercise I was doing, and about the amount of calories I was putting in my mouth. I am finding the diet the easiest part to stick to. It is very regimented and I thrive on structure. And I'm getting results. So, super sets may super suck, but as long as the numbers and fat keep dropping, I can handle it. schweat on my friends.

book it.

July 9th, 2011 in St. Louis, MO I am going to enter the figure competition. I've got 32 weeks to turn into a corvette. I'm working hard and eating right. I've finally broke past 199.2. Thank goodness, that was a long haul. I haven't really told Darin that I want to do a show. I think I'll tell him at our next meeting. For now I have three weeks of workouts to get through, stick to my diet through the holidays, and keep schweating the pounds away.

stuck on 199.2

I have been stuck on 199.2 for five days. I know this will pass, but I'm working my butt off and would like to see the numbers drop. Who wouldn't right? And don't come at me with muscle weighs more than fat. I know all that crap. But five days?! Come on. I don't know how I could go down to fewer calories. Crap, I should probably ask Darin. The last time I asked him if I should eat before or after my morning workout and I really wanted him to say before. The only time of day I'm hungry is when I wake up, but I'm really hungry. I'm not waking up because my alarm clock is going off, I'm waking up because I'm hungry. I'm not sure if that's normal, or ok, but I'm going to deal with it for now. So of course the answer that Darin gave me is that it is way better to eat after you workout. Dangit. It felt like he took my birthday away. But I have complied whole heartily with his recommendations.  The new work out plan has me doing super sets, which I think are going to super suck. But hopefully I get some killer results in this two or three week chunk of time like I did in the first two. I'm proud of my small accomplishment. Already people have been commenting on my looks, asking if I'm loosing weight, saying I've leaned out. Not gonna lie. I LOVE that.

I'm average!

After two weeks of following the diet and working out like a mad man- sticking to Darin's plan- I have lost 2.8% body fat. Bringing me to 25% body fat. This may not seem like a reason to celebrate for most people, but I've always been in the obese column on height/weight charts so when I found out that my starting body fat was only above average fat I felt pretty good. Now that I'm down to 25% fat I fall into the average fat range. Just barely, but hey, I'm average! The workouts have been going really good. I'm nervous about the changes that Darin made for me, but I'm sure after a couple time I'll have the hang of the new exercises down pat. I've been running 6 days a week and I can even tell that I'm getting faster on the treadmill. Another small victory: I'm running 60 minutes at 6.2 mph and am not terribly winded or struggling. I'm going to keep slowly creeping that number up. Can you imagine ever being  able to sustain 7mph for 60 minutes. I can't. But I'm going to keep trying.
The scale hasn't budged in four days. I'm stuck on 199.2. Which is far too close to 200 for my comfort. I would really like to see a drop in numbers here soon. But I realize muscle weighs more....blah, blah, blah. So , yes of course I'd rather be dense and compact than fat and big, but can't the numbers go down just a lil. I'm busting my butt here. At first the scale was going down like crazy. I want that to happen again. I'm just palying the waiting game with my body, I know here any day there will be a big drop in numbers. I just have to hang in there. And I think I can. I think I'm going to be good at this.

go big or go home

I've decided if I'm going to do this, I'm going to go all out and do it with 100% intensity. That's how I roll. I've been sticking to the diet. The only time I'm hungry is in the morning and late at night if I stay up too late. But with as busy as my schedule has been I've been going to be pretty early, so that hasn't really been a problem. Working out alone is going ok. I've come up with some questions and am waiting to hear back from Darin on them. What have I been up to? I'm running 5 days a week in the morning for 60 minutes. Then I go to school and work all day. Then I head back to the gym to lift weights. I'm lifting 6 days a week. I'm definitely stronger in the lower body, but goodness, by the end of the lunges my legs are shaking. I feel like such a dork on upper body days shoulder pressing my 12 pound dumbells, but even that is a challenge for me. So I can suck up my pride and bust out 3 sets of 15. I mean shoot, I'm already the arm wrestling gold medalist of the hippy olympics. So I shouldn't be ashamed of my upper body strength.  I am down to 204.4 pounds. That's a loss of 3.6 pounds this week  and a grand total of 11.6 pounds. Gotta keep those numbers dropping. Is it wrong that I'm actually looking forward to the fat test next Thursday? I took more pictures, eventually I'll post them. I feel like I can see a difference, but I'm totally biased. The most shocking is the picture of my backside. JESUS, my ass is huge. When did that happen? So it'll be fun to watch that shrink and tighten. I just wish it'd hurry up.

I need a plan.

So after two dates with Darin he has devised a plan for me. Now I'm on my own to follow this plan for two weeks. I'm going to be lifting 4 times a week and doing cardio 5 times a week. That is not counting any additional cardio on the weekend adventures. And I'm sticking to the diet.  My legs have been super sore, I'm not sure from what (working out, hiking, running).  Last night I did an upper body workout. I had to wait until 8:30 at night to squeeze it in. I was painting faces like crazy at the Mt. View Carnival.
I took the dreaded fat test. It was honestly not too bad. Darin was super nice about it, and it could have been worse. I mean he could have just grabbed my gut or the inside of my thighs. Ugh. But there were three pinch points. 1.) back of my upper arm 2.) one inch above hip bone and 3.) the top of my thigh. Turns out I'm 27.8% fat. Which is pretty high, but not as bad as I thought it'd be. The good news is I'm not obese, I'm not even overfat, I'm just above average.  So, now I have a starting point to work off of. I would like to get down to 17% body fat to be considered lean. And I think dropping ten percent is a pretty realistic goal. We'll see how this goes.
The diet continues to be the easiest part. I'm eating all the time. I can't believe this is working. I've lost some weight already, I'll post exactly how much on Tuesday.

metabolism, start your engine!

I have been on "the diet" for two days now. So far its the best thing about working out. I feel like I'm eating all the time. I'm eating 6 meals a day. The theory is to eat several small meals a day to get my metabolism revved up. However, meal is a strong word for what I'm having. I'm taking in 1200 calories at most, which I know is pretty restricted, but I honestly feel more full now than when I was eating who knows how many calories and only eating two meals a day. I have it all planned out so that I have three meals with 300 calories and three snacks with 100 calories each. I'm aiming for high protein, low fat and no complex carbs after 15:00. I've been able to keep the carbs at 100g a day. But holy hell is that a challenge. I am a carbaholic and would love to eat nothing but carbs. And carbs sneak in to the weirdest foods. Who knew there were carbs in fruit? That was news to me. But I'm just a chubby girl, giving this body building world an honest attempt.
Darin and I did a few tests on Tuesday. He said I have really strong legs. I kind of fell in love with him at that moment. A few kind words and my heart melts. Now if only this fat would melt. I took -before- measurements and can't believe my ass has gotten this big, I had to check and see if I was using centimeters on the measuring tape. Unfortunately I wasn't. Rats.