Weigh in Strength

First lets start with it’s weigh in Day!!!  It was a great day with a 2.8 pound loss.  That put me at 59.8…but I am rounding up to say 60 pounds lost!!  I am very excited.  That puts me at 204.  I am so close to Onederland!! 

Happy Dance Happy Dance Happy Dance Happy Dance Happy Dance Happy Dance Happy Dance Happy Dance

My keys to success this week were:

• I have tracked my food each day since the 21st of March!
• I have worked out 10 of the last 11 days…Tuesday I did 2 workouts (4am and 5pm).  This morning I again was up at 430 to workout.  I knew I couldn’t attend bootcamp tonight and wasn’t sure if I would get a workout in after the kids went to bed …And no I haven't.  They are calling for Snow again so hubby is going to work at 1130 so he had to be in bed early. 
• I have been really strict about getting my water consumption up

I want to talk about strength training.  I told you in the past when I lost weight (that I didn’t keep off) I did it with cardio only. I didn’t know how to build strength and honestly I just wanted to get smaller.

I didn’t understand that muscles need more calories in a day to work therefore burning more.  I didn’t understand that weight training was as affective of a workout as a cardio blast.

I get it now.  I noticed the change in my shape and the way my clothes fit.  I am the same weight but a size smaller thanks to weigh training.  Thanks to my HRM I can all see even more. 

Monday and Wednesday we did nasty strength training workouts at bootcamp.  I burned 670-680 in both sessions.  Monday my heart rate was in the target zone for 50 minutes and Wednesday 41 minutes.  Tuesday was cardio.  The kind of cardio that you can not talk afterwards.  That you just want a nap to recover.  I burned 570 calories with my heart rate in the target zone.

The weird thing is that the actual time I was doing the workout was about the same time.. but my heart rate stayed elevated longer after the strength training.

 Here is a great article from Rachel Cosgrove on it. 

Here is the you tube video from bootcamp that he posted today. 

Have a great night.

Applesauce, Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

 

I took the challenge this month to try to feed my kids a better breakfast, things that do not come from a package.  My kids love muffins and loved a similar muffin I made from my nutrition plan.  I based this on a recipe from the Eat-clean Diet cookbook by Tosca Reno.  So here is my version:

1 cup of dry oatmeal

1 cup of unsweetened homemade applesauce

1/2 cup of skim, fat free or almond milk (i am realizing now i added a full cup - no wonder it wasnt as thick as expected)

2 egg whites, beaten

2 Tbsp + 1 tsp canola oil

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup of blueberries

1) preheat oven 375 be sure to spray your muffin liners as there is very little fat in this.

2) Combine first 5 items in a medium bowl.  In another bowl mix the dry ingredients including berries.  Add wet ingredients and mix until combined.

3) Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and back.  Full size muffins will take 15-20minutes and mini muffins took about 12 minutes.

Everyone seemed to enjoy them, even David stole one!!

Focused and on track ..Maybe its overdrive

I want so badly to get to ONEDERLAND that I am focused. 

• I have tracked my food everyday since Monday. 
• I have stayed in my zone calories
• I have had only 1 night that I binged at night.
• I have worked out every day since the 20th (other than last Wednesday)
• I have drank so much water I could float to bootcamp

After all that last Friday I had lost a pound.  The unofficial scale this morning at 445am showed another 1.8 lost.  Add to seeing that number with my husbands new schedule = INSPIRATION!

Yeah that’s right at 445am today I got on the treadmill for a quick mile run then after work I attended bootcamp.  Last nights bootcamp was all strength but my heart rate was elevated over 50 minutes allowing me to burn 680 calories.  Todays 17 minutes of hardcore metabolic training had me in my target zone for over 30 minutes, allowing me to burn about 560 calories.  I love bootcamp!

I plan tomorrow to get up and do the same thing and hopefully Thursday.  My husband thinks I am nuts.  He thinks I am overdrive and there is no chance I can maintain this schedule. I just want to give myself a boost.

What do you think???

I had plans to run a 5K this weekend but the weather is going to be nasty cold, possible snow, windy.  Instead I am going to do the double-header bonus session at bootcamp.

Weigh in, workout and family additions!

I was down a pound!  Not bad since I was up so much on Monday!  I have made it to day 5 of tracking my food! thank you thank you!! And last night I did not binge. SWEET!

I went to happy hour tonight! not the happy hour you were thinking about.  Bootcamp happy hour.  It was metabolic training night. Yeah dog! 40seconds of work 20 seconds of rest:

• Frog Squat jump (Leg burn out…ouch )
• Partner Squat thrust
• Medball Smashers (Yeah stress therapy)
• Lateral squat jumps
• Kettlebell High swing

We did 4 rounds of each station before moving to the next.  we did get a minute between stations.  I was sweating like a pig. 

High swing was my last station. I had my lifting gloves on but I was too sweaty.  For some god forsaking reason, I went with the red KB I think its like 30-35 pounds (in my post here I have a video of me doing it and I think with a purple or green KB).  During the 2nd round on my 2nd swing my left hand lost its grip on the KB.  The KB started falling back toward my head but my right hand held on.  I had such pain in my wrist afterwards.  But I finished the rest of the rounds I went down to green KB for them. 

I never turned my HRM on until the last round of Squat thrust.  But from then on I burned 519 Calories.  I figure today was at least a 650+ calorie burn!

On Facebook I posted:  Our family is growing!!!

No I am not preggers!  we are getting chickens. We were not suppose to get them till April but they are coming tomorrow all 20 of them.  So while it snowed this week and its been only a high of 32, we are getting chickens! ugh!  I am excited to get our own eggs!  Emma will love them and so will tyler.  The last 2 years we have raised pheasants.  I really wished it would warm up so I could start my garden…I have major spring fever!

Mommy Math

I weigh in tomorrow.  I am hoping for good numbers but prepared for whatever .  Today is day 4 of tracking my food.  I have been doing well will my food intake since Mondays eye opening food fest!  Last night I fell down a bit.  I thought I was finally in control of my binging at night.  My darling daughter did not want to sleep last night.  While I was waiting for the dog to come in from a potty break so I could finally go to bed I rummaged in the kitchen (it was 2am).  I found an Oreo and then peanut butter so being an accountant..I added them together!! So lets do the math:

Oreo + Peanut butter = Happy overtired mommy

but the math doesn’t stop there:

Happy overtired mommy + reality check of the 300 calories eat =

MOODY Mommy

Grr anger. frustration.  My husband was plowing snow so that’s why I was the one up all night.  Yes we got another 4inches of snow last night, it thankfully melted today.  Monday David's schedule changes back to normal hours.  I am hoping that means I will be have more working out time!  Well off to read all your blogs!

food, food, too much food

I finally started writing down my food…yeah I know, how many weeks later. So guess what I figured out by 1pm today.

I AM EATING TOO MUCH. 

I was at 1,076 by 1pm…and that was with me eating cautiously.  So I am revamping my food for the rest of the week.  I need to keep going with properly tracking my food.

Sorry for the short post but its 10pm and General hospital is on.  I did just watch the end of dancing with the stars and loved the following line from Kristie Alley:

“if someone told me to haul ass I would  need to take two trips.”

LOL Love it.

Quick update

Yesterday I again didn’t use my food journal.  I am trying to do it now for today.  But we had bfast at a pancake breakfast fundraise. I don’t know exactly how much I ate of everything but I am doing to a good estimate.

I love my new HRM.  I wore it to happy hour bootcamp last night.  we did our normal warm up and stretch and then 10 minute High KB swing alternating burpees.  Afterwards it was 2 minute core burn then we rolled out on the foam roller.  I looked at my HRM and in that short time I was at 538 calories!!!  I look forward to using it on a crazy 20 minute high intensity workout.

Like this one that was a few week ago:

In the first scene I am in the back row in white shirt using the KB.  In the 2nd scene I am struggling with the med ball at the end of the workout.

WI and HRM

I am so ready for April.  Then I go back on a normal weigh schedule.  I have tomorrow of so I had to weigh in today (6 days vs 7).  I lost the .6 that I had gained last week.  I was happy but kind of frustrated because I wanted more.  About 2 hours later I discovered it was that TOM. (Sorry if that’s TMI).  Anyway that made me feel better but I had already eaten a frustration cupcake.  I didn’t make the best food choice today…I ate so many freaking pretzels and I lacked on my water consumption.  As a result today is going in the books as off the wagon.  Tomorrow will be game time again.

I have still been eating late at night but I am going to work on that this week.  And I know I keep saying it but I need to start my food journal again.  My am I fighting myself?  I am dying to get to 199.9 yet I am self sabotaging.  Focus Kristen.  I keep trying to focus on the physical non-scale changes I mentioned in this post.

This week I broke down a purchased a heart rate monitor.  I wanted to know what I was burn compared to A) that stupid meter on my T’Mill and B) to what I eat each day.

I ordered from amazon  the Timex T5G971 Sports personal heart rate monitor watch (with a band)

Last night was the first time I used it.  I worked out for 30 minutes on the T’mill do a 1 minute intervals of 4mph then 6 mph.  The meter on the Tmill said I had burned 349 calories and that my heart rate was never over 89.  However, according to my HRM I burned 628 calories!  That is amazing if its true.  It also showed my high heart rate of 179 and the averaged was 128. 

I  hope to test this out at bootcamp, as I have no idea what we burn in one session.  I wore it the other day but we were doing Kettlebell thrusters where the KB sits on the back of your wrist, right where the watch would sit. 

well off to watch Mondays episode of Heavy.

Weight loss vs. Getting Fit

Pop quiz for you…which Kristen weighted less:

2008 - May	2011- March

so what did you guess.. 2008 or 2011?  The answer is later in this post! ( I have to keep you interested!)

In 2008 I lost about 50 pounds from Jan-June.  I stopped eating junk, and a lot of carbs and about 5 times a week a walked on my t’mill.  I would jog a bit but it was mostly speed walking.  I didn’t do anything to increase my strength.  I simply lost weight.

In 2010-2011 I changed everything.  No processed foods, more fruits and veggies, more active.  my workouts are interval training, high intensity!  its cardio, its strength training and more!  I have gained so much strength – this week I did 45 pushups from the toes..I couldn’t even do that in high school.  Last weekend I ran 3 miles in 33 minutes and honestly I have had worse workouts (burpee ladder 20-1).  56 pounds and from a size 20-12 on average.

So do you want the answer to the quiz?  Guess what I weight about the same within about 3 pounds of each other..Seriously. 

I feel the difference is in 2008 I loss weight and in 2010-2011 I am getting fit and healthy.  If I ate like I did in 2008 I would drop more on the scale but its so easy to gain back that way.  I need to keep doing it the right way.

Lets look at those photos again:

Then	Now

So to sum it up…if you are feeling great, losing weigh/inches and succeed on physical achievements then enjoy it.  Don’t let a metal object with number that sits on a cold bath room floor define your level of success.  Step back and look at the whole photo.

*As a side note, I am sorry the mirror was not cleaned before photos were taken but emma loves to give the mirror baby kisses.  And dang it the rest of the house was clean..it’s a give and take in my life!

binge

What a week.  Saturday I ran my first 5K and I rewarded myself with subway some kind of granola bar that tasted way too good. I am pretty sure it was loaded with crap.  Then for dinner we ordered from the pizza shop – I had a buffalo grilled chicken wrap (so that it 1% healthy) and then we had ice cream.  Sunday my eating was fair but Monday morning we woke up to 17” of snow.  I made the kids pancakes, I ate 2 myself, but the kids didn’t really eat theirs.  While cleaning up I finished their pancake bring me to a total of 4 pancakes.  oink!  I ended up snacking all day and did not do any officially workout other then the 1.5 hour snow shoveling I did.

My three bootcamp workouts (Tuesday-Thursday) were primarily strength training no real cardio sessions.  So while I was telling myself I was undoing the weekend at night I was binge eating.  about 9-11pm I would eat uncontrollably.  I knew I shouldn't but it didn’t stop me from having some peanut butter (okay 2 spoonful's) and some oreos and whatever else I could find.  I would bet I consumed 400 calories totally undoing my workout.

Now I know I shouldn’t eat like that and I know how to make a better decision but something happened.  It was like I didn’t even have control.  I would practically fall asleep here in the living room. So I would go to bed, as I was turning off the light powerful food voice would take over my body.  I was thinking no don’t do this but my hands still fed me.  How do I stop this?  go to bed earlier?  what?

Anyhow I weigh in this morning and I was up .6…blahh  Now onto next week.

Food Challenge (with a side of my input)

My Friend Jenny (Click here to visit her rockin’ Blog) has always been an inspiration. She was a stay at home mom raising 2 great kids.  She has the best craft ideas, besides being darn good in the garden.  Her, along with her hubby and kids, even raise bees!  Not too long ago she went back to college and is almost done with her degree!  Now she is finishing up school before starting “her dream Job”.  Jenny has been like family to me for years!  I love to collaborate with her but usually I am stealing ideas from her because she is that cool! 

Today she posted that she is taking a food challenge:

<a href="http://notdabblinginnormal.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/lets-get-real-food-challenge-starts-today/"><img src="http://notdabblinginnormal.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/real_food_challenge_small1.png" alt="" title="real_food_challenge_small" width="252" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4992" /></a>

Jenny has a crazy drive to and from college each day and with just being a mom, wife, student, employee and more she doesn’t have time too cook.  She is using this challenge to change that.

So I have to be like Jenny.  I, like many of us, have crazy days.  But I have found planning out my dinners 2 weeks in advance (more on this later) have helped me to put good food on the table.  However, I have one area that I am not good at….Breakfast.

My breakfasts are fine, Whole wheat waffles, egg white omelets, Oatmeal, but the kids are not.  Sugar filled cereal (like choc cheerios) , or I heat up frozen french toast sticks from a box.  Then of course there’s the pop tarts and mini muffins from a bag.

So I am challenging myself!  I am starting off small for March. At least 2 times a week I will make my kids a good breakfast.  Nothing processed, preserved or packaged.

Now quickly about my dinners.  I have every payday off, so that is the day I do my grocery shopping for 2 weeks.  Thursday night, while watching Grey’s, I write out my menu:

Sunday	Mac N Cheese, salad green beans
Monday	leftovers
Tuesday	Chicken with goat cheese, brown rice and veg
Wednesday	Steak, sweet potatoes
Thursday	Fish, broccoli and cottage cheese
Friday	Mex. Chicken
Saturday	Shrimp Pasta
Sunday	Kabobs and salad
Monday	Tacos
Tuesday	Meatloaf wax beans
Wednesday	Fish and Broccoli
Thursday	Chicken tenderloins, brown rice and corn

This saves me so much time.  I can write my shopping list from the menu.  that way I am not standing at the butcher counter trying to pick out things for the week, or standing in front of the freezer each night saying “what should we eat? what do you want with that?”. 

I keep the list on the freezer door.  tonight I looked at Monday and Tuesdays items.  Leftovers for tomorrow – yes that is easy. Tuesday is chicken so I took the chicken out of the freezer.  Monday night I will prep it,  I will get as much done as possible so that David only needs to bake it on Tuesday afternoon.  Basically I cook tonight for tomorrow.  IT WORKS FOR US!

One benefit we also have is our garden, we collected so much food this summer we are still enjoying our bounty. but I am going to be out of beans and broccoli after this week.  Still I have canned sauce from our tomatoes to put on  pasta if we run into a jam and don’t have time to cook.

Since I am still losing weight, knowing what I will be eating for dinner helps me to plan out the rest of the days food!  Its all about being organized.

5K DONE

I am so excited! I just finished my 5K a few hours ago!  Ok so technically the were calling it a 3 mile.  Some paperwork was stating 5K other 3mile. I will need to google map it but either way:

I FINISHED IN 33:19!!!

I was suppose to run with my GF Lisa, but her uncle had a heart attack and she was at the hospital with her family.  How ironic since it was America’s greatest heart run and walk??  The event raised 1.1M from our small little middle income area.  I raised $195.00!!
I was worried at first about running alone not having anyone to push me.   But I have gotten myself this far I could do this:

I wrote on my hand with eyeliner “you’ve got this” and “263”.  My trainer Steve tells us that all the time.  You’ve got this you can finish, turn your mind off.  The 263 was to remind me of where I started and how far I have come.

That was my before photo, just incase I didn’t finish.  Another good thing about our event, I was never more than 3 miles from the hospital!!!  Safety feature!! lol
The 3 mile run course is not the same as the 3 mile walk.  The Run course is all up hill.  there are a few down hill moments but you are constantly going up some sort of incline.
The worst was heart break hill.  I wish I could find a photo of it for you but at the moment I can not find anything on the internet. or than this article:
http://www.uticaod.com/news/x2096602326/New-York-Mills-hill-hardly-heartbreaking
I used my MP3 player to set my pace. I wouldn’t let myself walk until I had listened to the 1st three songs – figuring that would put me past the 1st mile. I walked quickly and had a drink of water before running to the base of heartbreak hill.  I pushed myself up the first part of the hill.  then it levels out for a moment during some S turns before you climb part 2.  My legs were burning.  This part I did a combo of running and walking.
The final part is burrstone road and then into the college.  Burrstone road has 2 more hills besides its stead grade up.  I ran to the top of the first hill then walked for a moment.  My legs were on fire.  Then I ran to the top of the second hill, I had a quick walk and water before finishing the final leg without stopping.
I caught my husband unexpectedly and this was the photo he was able to get:

I was so glad to finish! And so hungry!  They had for us water, granola bars, bananas, oranges, apples.  Then if you went to the gym they had subway, greek yogurt and more.

Like I said I was hungry and not stopping eating while taking photos!  After my banana I did take a photo with tyler who was there to cheer me on!

My husband left the camera on video while he ran to the finish line.  Its kind of like my post race interview its really funny but long…I hope I can upload it!!

I am so glad I ran this event!  Right now I am going to chill in my PJs.  Its funny that you can be so hot from running and so cold from 40 air at the same time!!

WI, measures, and emotions

Weigh In:  I weigh in this morning and I was down .8 to 207.8.  All that hard work for .8

Measurements:

	Feb 4th	Mar 4th	Change
Neck	14	13.5	-.5
Chest	42	41	-1
Waist	36.25	35.5	-.75
Hips	43.5	44.75	1.25
Thighs	24	23.75	-.25
Calves	17.5	16.5	-1
Biceps	14	14	0

Frustration: I am annoyed I worked hard this week and I really wanted a pound at least.  I need to lose 1.6 to win my $$ back at work but I am really focused  on 199.9.  Additionally I had this goal of getting to 180 by memorial day.  I really expected more from my measurements too,  down 2.25 inches.  Is that good or bad amount of inches lost? what do you all think?

I felt I did good with my food intake or than last Friday.  I did eat a lot of pretzels while in meetings (Grr) and I don’t think that helped me any.  Plus I wasn’t great about my water.  I kicked up my workouts but not my water, I have been having some major headaches too.  I am going to change my protein drink back to the kind I use to use.  Also, Food journal time – I have been slacking on that.

Stress: Time management is still stressing me. I need an extra 3 hours a day.  Cleaning my house has been the loser in the To do list.  Work stress has not been helping either.  Of course that leads to bad food choices and I probably did eat thing that I didn’t add into my calorie count.

fear/anxiety: Saturday is my 5K and the weather in upstate NY…Rain/Snow mix in the 40s.  GREAT!!!  Last week I worked out Sun –Sat.  I took this Sunday off and today.  I have been still feeling back pain from Hell week at bootcamp.  I think I need to take tomorrow off too but I don’t want to go that long without working out.  I don’t know what to do. Or what I should eat tomorrow.  do I increase my carbs? Protein?  Ahhhhh what was I thinking?

I am watching the I used to be fat reunion, and the girl that inspired me to run a 5K is now doing 3 more.  Trainer Joey is hot, I still like seeing him!!

GOALS:  First: to successfully finish the race on Saturday in a reasonable time.  March Goals:  By my 31 March weigh in:  I would like to lose another 8 pounds and be better about my water!