Day 3!!

Day 3 of 7 in my Post-Thanksgiving Marathon!!!

Workout... AWESOME!!!
Food... Not so great!

Wasn't really feeling it in the morning, but still got in 5 miles on the bike, 2 miles on the elliptical, and 1 1/2 walking the track!! When I don't have a training session or Power Hour/Turbo Kick (On Saturday mornings), I really just use the morning time to get moving.. If it wasn't for that, I'd be chilling at TJ's house not burning many calories!!

Night time is really where its at! Power Hour with James tonight was a great workout... Not much cardio.. but loads of strength!! It feels like we've been doing tons of cardio all the time! It was kinda nice to take a break and work on some strength training, even tho my muscles are sore now! Then I got my sweat on in Turbo Kick!!

Overall, I will have burned over 4500 calories for the day..I won't know the exact number til midnight! And that just wont happen tonight, cause I've got Power Hour in the morning! You know you spend a lot of time at the gym when one of the trainers complains that she hasn't seen you lately! (Because she hasn't been there).. So I promised Maggie I would make it to the morning Power Hour... Its sooo early!

With the next 8 days off, I'm going to work on my food intake! Lots to do with that! Going to try ANYTHING that will help me eat healthy, but not take a ton of time to prep... cause if I leave anything to the morning, I usually end up running out of time before I have to leave for work!!

Here's to making Day 4 better!!

Day 2!!

Day 2 of my Post-Thanksgiving Marathon is in the books!!!

Power Hour in the morning focused mainly on strength by using the resistance bands and LOTS of push ups!! Oh.. and would it even be a PH with Dorian if we didn't do flutter kicks?!?

Finished up my workout day with some ass kicking Travis style! OMG... I know I say this all the time, but he might have tried to kill us today! Between running, jumping rope, and lifting weights, it was a killer workout! I thought at one point my chest muscles were just going to rip off my body!!

Today was my official weigh in day and I was DOWN 2 pounds from last week!! FINALLY.. Got thru a holiday without gaining weight! Watch out! Of course, Thanksgiving dinner wasn't nearly as good while I was eating just turkey and cous cous... but being closer to my goal weight feels so much better than Cheesy potatoes and green bean casserole taste!

Day 3 is coming up fast! On the workout itinerary is AM - Various Cardio.. and PM - Power Hour and Turbo Kick!! Let's see how many calories I can burn tomorrow!!!

Post-Thanksgiving Marathon!

So its the week after Thanksgiving! Now, I didn't splurge, but it does mean that there are only 5 more weeks till the end of 2010! So I've decided to institute a Post-Thanksgiving Marathon... But not in the 26.2 mile sense.. More like an event with greater than normal, length or duration or requiring exceptional endurance (Yeah, that's the definition out the dictionary)

The plan is between Trainings, Power Hour, and Turbo Kick, I'll have something to do at the gym everyday this week! (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday... I'll have multiple things to do!) I've got my meals planned out, so I have no option to eat crap! And I'm making a commitment to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night!

This is the week that I've been needing for a while! Burning some crazy calories, eating the best foods for my body, and relaxing enough so I don't get hurt!!

Started out this week with a CRAZY workout with Travis today... I was sweating like.. Uhhh.. Ummm... A really sweaty person?!? Let's just say it was a great workout!! I burned 780 calories in the hour I was with him!!

And even tho I said I wouldn't be going to Power Hour tomorrow morning at 5:45am... I think I will!! That will give me two awesome calorie burning workouts on Monday too!! YAY!

Thankful!

This Thanksgiving I have a lot to be thankful for, especially in my weight loss journey! Here are just a few of the many thank yous!!!

To my AMAZING trainers!
You push me farther than I ever thought I could go and you believe in me more than I believe in myself sometimes. To my current trainers: Travis, Dorian and James.. and to my past trainers: Kendel, Amanda, Ryan, Amber and Maggie!
THANK YOU!

To my Gymmies!
You guys make me look forward to going to the gym everyday! If people realized how much fun we had, working out would be a lot more popular! To the crazy old people in the mornings, my Biggest Loser girls, my Power Hour crew and my Turbo Kick family!
THANK YOU!

To all my friends!
You support and encourage me all the time and I'm very grateful! I love all the e-mails, messages and texts I get to tell me how proud I am making you. I hope I can continue to make you proud!

THANK YOU


THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
For everything you do for me! I love you all!

Opening up!

Sorry guys..

I seem to have slacked a bit on the "writing a new blog every day in November"... But I haven't slacked elsewhere!! I'm still losing weight!! YAY!! Up to 136lbs down... (That would be 314)

Its funny to me how open I am about this stuff!! Before, I would have NEVER told me weight, or my measurements, or my clothing size to ANYONE!! Heck, I didn't tell my size to my best friend for a VERY long time!

But now that its constantly changing for the better, I don't mind it at all!! I proudly tell everyone who asks that I've lost 136lbs so far! I have definitely become more open on lots of stuff...


Now its time to get that up to 150!! I'm getting SO close! I need to get back to a SUPER strict diet! I feel like I'm ALWAYS writing this on here.. but I'll do it for a couple days.. then have an OPPS day... A day where I don't feel like planning anything out, so I just fly by the seat of my pants, and just hope that everything is going ok!

With so much time off in December, I am going to try to come up with a system to put together meals and options to make it easier for myself! Maybe that includes making everything on Sunday and freezing it.. or simple options for fast and easy meal preparation!

Any ideas are more than welcome!!

1/4 Mile!!!

Great Food Day... Great Workout Day!!! GREAT DAY IN GENERAL!

When I started, the track was for walking!
During Biggest Loser, I started jogging the straights, walking the curves.
During Power Hour, I ran a full lap around the track for the first time!!
TODAY, training with Travis, I ran two full laps around the track for the first time!

That's a 1/4 of a mile people!! Soo happy about that one! My head told me I couldn't do it.. Travis told me I HAD to do it! And after I did it, I wondered if I could keep going..

Its a great feeling to accomplish something I never thought would be possible! Next on my radar is to get past these freaking 300's... I don't know when the last time I weighed under 300... All I know is I never want to see a 3 infront of my weight again!

I'll weigh in tomorrow and see how far I've got to go!!

No plans..

My day has been a classic example of what NOT to do!! Not so much in the exercise department, cause I totally rocked that out! But more in area of food!

Last night, I just didn't feel like doing any planning for today, so I went to bed!! Waking up this morning, I didn't want to think.. so I grabbed an apple, oatmeal, and a nature valley granola bar!

Yeah.. That would be an OK start to the day.. Too bad that was all I had planned out!! I ended up eating the apple and oatmeal (With flax and agave nectar) for a pre-workout meal...

My problem lies after that.. The fact that I skipped lunch in favor of a nap.. and then my next pre-workout meal consisted of a pop-tart and an energy drink! Round out my dinner with cottage cheese and a sweet potato...

WOW!! No balance what-so-ever!!! Also, I don't believe I hit my calorie intake for the day either! So tomorrow will be different! I've got a plan working.. I'm getting up early to make sure everything is ready to go!!

One day won't kill me.. It's when I get lazy and start stringing those days together that I get off course!! Let's get moving in the right direction again! Tomorrow is a new day!

SUCCESS IS MY ONLY OPTION!!!

Long time no see!!!

I love when I see people that I haven't seen in a long time!!

Today, I saw my friend Eric, whom I haven't seen since last October when his team played in Peoria!! It made me smile when he noticed such a big difference in my size!

Photo comparison!!2009
2010


Looking good, feeling good!! (By the way, I just had to get new jeans.. cause my last pair were too big!! YAY for another size down!)

Thinking.....

I got to thinking about the timing of this whole journey tonight!

Why didn't I do this earlier??... Why did it take me nearly 25 years to realize that I need to take control of my health and lose this weight?!? I just wish that I would have thought of this earlier! For some reason, today I feel like I've wasted so much of my life!

I can't thank my gymmies enough for always being there for me!

Stretch me out!!

You always hear that you need to stretch out when you are done working out.. And I fully agree!!

After my 5K, I did not stretch, and my muscles tightened up and were sore for a couple days! Not a good feeling!

I make sure to stretch out after all my workouts! And whenever its an option, I make my trainer Travis stretch me out! It feels awesome to get your muscles stretched for you!


Travis torturing.. errr.. I mean, stretching my quads!!

So make sure you stretch out after your work outs! All your muscles... legs, arms, shoulders, back, hips... All of it!!

OPPSS!!!

Well... we've got two fails going on right now!

#1.. Somehow on a Friday night in which I was doing basically NOTHING, I break my blog writing streak at 11 days! Opps, Sorry guys! And that was one of my goals too.. THAT SUCKS!

#2.. I also completely failed the Vegan thing! My problem is, even some stuff labeled as "soy" or "veggie" products still have casein or whey protein in it!! BOOOOO!! So for the past 3 days, I've been completely Vegetarian.. But not Vegan!! I think if just work on getting more veggies into my diet and not so much processed crap, I'll be good!


Now onto my complete successes!!!

Power Hour was great this morning! I burned 930 calories during it!! That's a record for Power Hour! And it was ridiculously simple! Since it was only Margie and I, we both put on boxing gloves, and one of us would box, while the other one ran a lap... when that person got back, the one boxing would head out! We did that for an hour.. 930 calories!!! WOOP WOOP!

Oh and get this... While we were boxing, Dorian has me punching all over the place and then he puts it on his chest and says punch... Umm ok! So I did it.. then he puts it on his face and says punch... Oh my! So I did it, and he told me to "Punch hard, don't be afraid"... You don't have to tell me that twice! So I did! And I maybe punched him in the eye!!! Not hard enough for a black eye.. but maybe next time :-)



Bahahaha! I had to take a picture.. Its like my trophy.. or something like that!

Then I went and burned another 960 calories during Turbo Kick!! 1890 calories burned during JUST the gym portion of my day!! All in all, it was an AWESOME workout day!! I ended up burning 5,131 calories! WOOP WOOP!

Skipping my off day tomorrow in favor of some training with Travis!! Gotta burn those calories!!

Switching it up!

I've come to the decision to try to go Vegan for 2 weeks! It is going to be VERY hard! I can live without meat... But I do love eggs, cheese, yogurt, milk! Lots of good things made from yummy animals! But, I know it will be really good for me, and a really good challenge!

Today was going pretty well, until I had some goldfish for a snack!! Shoot, they are made with cheddar! Opps! That's what I get when I work with children!

But today my meals looked like this?

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with agave nectar, ground flax seeds, and raspberries!

Pre-workout snack:
Mango Smoothie (Kinda high in calories.. but over 3 servings of fruit in the bottle)

Lunch:
Avocado + Tomato Sandwich (Made with whole grain bread)
Cucumber slices
Goldfish

Pre-workout snack:
Oatmeal Squares (My favorite cereal)

Dinner:
Protein shake (Would have had more, but ran out of calories + needed high protein)

So overall, not terrible! Although, I guess my protein shake had animal protein in it.. but it was made with almond milk! I'm going to have to start getting creative to get all my protein in and not have to turn to protein shakes!

Totals today...
5188 calories burned
1822 calories consumed
3366 calorie deficit

WOOP WOOP!

Come on Baby, make it hurt so good!

Hurt so good
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don't feel like it should
You make it hurt so good


Between the cardio I did on my own this morning, and Travis' attempt to make my arms fall off, I am just beyond sore!

I started off the day with getting in a mile at 15:19!! YAY! So excited with how close I am getting to 15 minutes!! WOOP WOOP!

Then came training tonight... Travis always asks how we're feeling, if anything is sore.. Well, my usual answer is I'm good! Today, that was NOT what he wanted to hear! So his decision... MAKE IT HURT!

We did an hour of JUST biceps and shoulders... From 6 minutes straight of bicep curls (With 17.5lbs weights).. to dragging Travis around on a rope doing shoulder presses... We did it all.. and it hurts!!

Everything hurts... It doesn't help that my sciatica decided to flair up tonight! BOO! And there's no rest for the weary! I've got 2 trainings, 2 Power Hours, and 2 Turbo Kicks before I get my rest day on Sunday!! Here's to Sunday getting here quickly!

Back in the game!

After 4 days off, I was so ready to get back to the gym today! The rest was great for my body! I felt great waking up this morning... but let me tell ya, I feel it again tonight!

I started out the day ready to hit the gym hard... Then I got there and realized that A LOT of my stamina was gone! All I wanted to do was sit on the bike and ride it out for a while...




Although I did get off my bike and jump on the elliptical for 40 minutes!


THANK GOD for Power Hour and Turbo Kick!!! I finally perked up for those and got a good calorie burn in! In fact, I burned over 4700 calories today! WOOP WOOP!

It was hard to take that long off of the gym! But it's even harder going back! I didn't feel 100%! It's crazy how fast you can lose your stamina! I was huffing and puffing just jogging around the track once! But hopefully, I'll be able to grab it back quickly! Tomorrow morning I'm hitting it hard, no matter WHAT! I've gotta take responsibility for my own calorie burn outside of trainings, Power Hours, and Turbo Kicks!

Please Don't Stop The Music!!

Music is part of my life... especially at the gym! It's what gets me going when nothing else can! It's my way to escape the reality that I'm on a treadmill and not actually running anywhere!

And of course, my favorite thing to do at the gym, TURBO KICK, is all about the music! I can hear a song on the radio and instantly my arms and legs start to punch and kick and go thru the Turbo routine that matches that song!

I don't think I could get thru running in general without my song playlist!

Here's my list of songs that gets me thru running and other random workouts:

Blah Blah Blah - Ke$ha
Bottoms Up - Trey Songz
F**k You! - Cee Lo Green (Not for my younger followers)
Shots - LMFAO and Lil Jon
Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble
Shut It Down - Pitbull
Drop It Low - Ester Dean and Chris Brown
Please Don't Stop the Music - DJ Dizzy
Whip My Hair - Willow Smith
Bulletproof - La Roux
Fly Like A G6 - Far East Movement
Fancy - Drake
Carry Out - Timbaland Ft. Justin Timberlake
Turn My Swag On - Soulja Boy Tell 'Em
All I Do Is Win - DJ Khaled

Yeah yeah... so Michael Buble snuck in there! It's a little bit upbeat, and it makes me happy! So I can run to it! But I'm the kind of girl that can listen to slow stuff and still be ok! (But not while running!)

If you find the right stuff to listen to, it will be able to lift your mood and energy!

Its a new week!!

I've got a super busy week coming up!! Well, I guess not that much busier than most weeks, but a couple extra things make it crazy!

So I've gotta have PLANS to not get off track!! Food plans (Every meal, every drink, every calorie!!) Workout plans (Hitting it hard in the mornings, Trainings, Power Hours, and of course, TURBO KICK!)

No cheat meals this week! I basically had 2 this weekend!

Tomorrow is another mandated rest day! I'm going a little stir crazy waiting for some gym time! But I know my body will love me for taking one more day!! BUT WATCH OUT TUESDAY... It's gonna be a sweaty mess!!!

Will run for Chocolate!!

I ran my first race today at the Hot Chocolate 5K in Chicago, IL! It was a LOT of fun! It was actually my first time running outside... I'm very much an in the gym, on the treadmill kind of girl! So, I was shooting for 17 minute mile pace, thinking that was a safe bet!

The race started out COLD!!! Temps were in the low 30s pretty much the whole race with the sun just showing up over the buildings by the 7:40 start! Luckily there wasn't much in the wind category (THANK GOD!)!!

We started pretty far back since it was broken up into pace per mile (Although, we just stopped walking thru the crowd around 13 min miles!) I think the most frustrating part of the whole race happened before we even started! The first people to finish the 5K were coming into the finish line before we were even close to the start line... Awesome! Made me feel GREAT! But I know I wasn't really racing anyone, just pushing myself as fast as I could go!

So when I finally reached the start line, we started running for a little bit... My muscles seemed to be FROZEN! They just did NOT want to move very fast! Whenever the road was at any decline, we made sure to run... or I'd just pick a start and stop point and run as fast as I could between the two points!

The race course was BEAUTIFUL!! We walked right around Soldier field, around the back side of Shedd Aquarium and up the shore of Lake Michigan and back into Grant Park for the finish line! I really could have slowed down and enjoyed the scenery, but I was on a mission.

I don't think I realized how fast I went until a little after I finished! I forgot to look at what time I crossed the start line, so I wasn't 100% sure what my pace was, except I knew I did about 17 minutes between miles 1-2 and 2-3! But when I got past the finish line, I remembered that my "finish" song had yet to start playing on my iPod! "All I do is Win" - DJ Khaled is possibly the best finishing song ever!! This just meant that I ran faster than the 55min long play list that I made!! YAY!

Official race results have me as the 11,837th person, 8,829th female, and 2,105th female ages 25-29 to cross the finish line!! But more importantly to me, I finished in 51:36 for a 16:37 minute/mile pace!

Gotta keep working to bring down my pace, but I think that was an OK start to what I can only hope is a good racing career! Thanks to everyone who was supporting me via texts and Facebook! It means a lot to know there are so many people out there wanting the best for me!

The day has come!!!

Well.. It's really tomorrow! But today, I leave for Chicago to run in the Hot Chocolate 15K/5K! 3.1 miles!! I'm hoping to be at 17 min miles or less! But we'll see how my body reacts to the conditions! Its supposed to be a crisp 30 degrees at race time!

WISH ME LUCK!! My next post will be after the race!!

Rest?!? What's that?

I know they say you should take at least 1 day of rest per week.... But I used to find that very hard! When I had Turbo Kick 5 days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday) and Power Hour or training Monday-Saturday... I very rarely took a day off! Sure my body didn't love me all the time, but I got thru it!

Now with Turbo Kick down to 4 days, no more Sunday classes :-( , I have begun to take Sundays off... but even now, my body seems to need more!

SO, with my first EVER race this Saturday (The Hot Chocolate 5K in Chicago), I decided to take Thursday afternoon-Monday off! The only exercise I will be doing is my 5K!

It's weird to think about NOT going into the gym at all! Its almost like I need it to feel normal! (Ok.. this is sounding more and more like the gym is a drug.. hahaha)

But for tomorrow, I'll focus on rest and preparing mentally for my 5K... and then its all about relaxing on Sunday and Monday! Yeah, I'll miss the gym and all my favorite gymmies, but they'll be there when I get back! This is SUSIE TIME!!

Its just one of those days!!

Yeah.. Today was just one of those days!! One of those days where I don't feel like doing anything, tho I know I need to!

A very sleepy morning turned into a great workout then a very sleepy afternoon and then SOMEHOW, another great workout!

Got in my 5K this morning (plus an extra 1/4 mile)! I'm still not sure where my motivation came from, cause all I could think about while warming up on the bike, was that I did NOT want to be there! BUT.. I got on the treadmill.. Ran a bunch.. and got my mile down to 15:48! WOOP WOOP! Finished the rest and had a 1/4 mile cool down!

Then the night time workout started with a great training session with Travis followed by a KILLER Turbo Kick (Round #42) with Amanda!! LOVE IT!

All said and done, I'll have burned over 5800 calories for today! And I feel every last one of them! I love how no matter what you mood going into a workout, you ALWAYS come out feeling soo much better.. and for today, so much more awake!

Push It Good!

It's amazing to me how much I DON'T push myself! I am usually on my own in the mornings (Unless I go to AM Power Hour or have a training session) and most of the time I just don't feel like being there. But I know I need to burn calories early on to set the tone for the day!

Being totally truthful tho, the only time I really get pushed is with my trainers! I've come to so many milestones with them!!

James + Ryan (My BL trainers) - My first trainers.. started jogging!
Kendel - My first personal trainer!! Lost a TON of inches while training with her!
Amanda - 1,200 then 1,300 calorie Turbo Kicks!!!
Travis - Pushed me further and further on the treadmill! Ran @ 5.5 MPH!
Dorian - Jogged all the way around the track for the first time!!

Those aren't my only milestones, nor are those the only trainers I've worked with (Amber and Maggie are two other major ones!).. But those are the milestones that I'm certainly proud of, and am fairly certain I wouldn't have reached without the extra push and motivation from my AWESOME trainers!! Love them all!

And because of their pushing, I have started to do the same thing for myself! I've got off my bike (Which I do still love) and got on to the treadmill and ran! I like to do 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking! I used to brag about being able to do a mile in 26 minutes when I first started at the gym! Today I got it done in 16:30!! I was so happy! I pushed myself to run at 5.0 for a while (Since Travis pushed me to do it before)! I'm really loving shaving time off my mile!

Saturday is my first race EVER! The Hot Chocolate 5K in Chicago, IL! I will try my best to push myself just like my trainers push me!!

Recommitted!!

To my friends and followers..

I'm sorry for not keeping you guys up to date! October was a crazy month. As hectic was my life already was, hockey started and my life got busier! I kept eating crappy and making excuses to myself why I wasn't seeing smaller numbers when I would step on the scale!

So on October 13th, I weighed in (@ 331) and decided to NOT step on the scale again til Nov. 1st! I changed my eating habits (well... like 90%) and kept up my exercising! Because of lots of stuff going on this weekend, I ended up weighing myself this Saturday and I was amazed when I saw 320!!! 11 lbs in 2 1/2 weeks! I'm very happy about that!

So now I'm down 130lbs! But its still just the start! That's not even 1/2 of my weight that I want to lose! But I'm recommitting myself to several things in order to get there!


#1: I'm recommitting myself to this blog. I let it just sit here while I was having troubles, which is when I should have been using it more! Your comments always bring me lots of motivation and pride in what I'm doing and I appreciate it more than you guys know! You'll have a new blog EVERY DAY in November, even if its just to tell you how my food intake was that day!

#2: Pre-New Years Resolutions.... Amanda and I were chatting tonight and decided that we need to get hard core again! And that means making a pre-new years resolution! I WILL be under 290 by 2011! That's 2 months to lose at least 30 lbs! And that will INCLUDE the following:

A: NO SODA (Not even diet)
B: NO FAST FOOD (Except for occasionally Subway)
C: Eating out will be FEW and FAR between
D: Any Cheat meals MUST fit into my calorie consumption for that day.
E: Push myself in all my exercising (Especially in the mornings when I do my own thing)

And that my friends, is how I'm going to get it done! LOTS AND LOTS of hard work and commitment to a healthy life style!


HERE WE GO AGAIN!!