Sorry I've been MIA!

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. I was pretty annoyed with the fitness company I've been with in regards to issues with my booking a trainer and the like. My first training session didn't happen as it turned out the girl had quit.. got no word from the company or the trainer about her quitting and on top of that she'd double booked.


I was placed with a new trainer who gave me a few new exercises, however, they're supposed to fill out a 3 day workout card for you so you can follow the workout on your own and she only filled out one day :-(


Anyway, I got things worked out on day three and one of the owners worked out with me. Suffice to say I was dead the next day, hahah. Then I proceeded to get really sick. I've been down with a stomach issue since Saturday and haven't been able to go to the gym.


I will post back with some of the exercises that kick my butt and how to so them. Anyways, last time I weighed myself I was 141.5 

13 Days at the Gym!

Happy Tuesday Ladies and Gents! :-)


I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a great start to the week. I love Tuesdays. I feel like it's Wednesday today for some reason.


The scale said 143 today. Woo! 


I went to a group Spinning class last night. Oh my goodness. I am definitely not a fan of bikes but I really wanted to try this because I've heard great things about how it makes you feel and how many calories you burn over 45 minutes. Ladies, Gents, I was DRIPPING sweat! These ladies in the class were CRAZY! 


I had a lot of fun despite being a bit discouraged that I was WAY behind everyone and couldn't always do what the instructor was shouting for. 


The class was held in a rather small room with about 20-30 stationary bikes. The lights were kept off and it was rather chilly in the room when I first got in (thank goodness for that or I'd probably have passed out from being too hot). The instructor was really great and helped me set up the bike. When I was first pedaling with them and standing up on the bike it was really difficult. I don't think I had my positioning correct so it was REALLY burning a lot in the tops of my thighs so I sat quite a bit. However, toward the end of the class I finally got my positioning right and it was AWESOME!


I thought I was going to be dead in my legs today but I'm not.. i don't know if this is because I wasn't doing it right or running has helped out my stamina. Anyways, I will definitely be trying this again. Maybe next Monday :-)


I ran outside on Sunday for a 3.5 and got it down in 35 minutes. I'm going to start doing two days running outside to train for a 5k (3.5 miles) in May.


If anyone else lives in the North Shore you should look into this walk/run. 
NEPC Cool Kids 5k


This race is to raise money for the New England Pediatric Care
New England Pediatric Care


There is an option to walk or run and there is a raffle, food, and music after the race finishes. I've done this (walking) the past two years and it is just incredible. Everyone is just really amazing and friendly. If you are interested in running (or walking!) the NEPC Cool Kids 5k link will take you to a page where you can register. 


If you are interested in donating you can follow the link below :-) Please let me know if you decide to go as I would LOVE to meet any of you
Donate to NEPC

Thanks so much for reading my blog!!
NEPC Cool Kids 5k

Late Update

Sorry I didn't post on Tuesday!


My weigh-in was 143.5. I'm down 1/2 a pound, lol. I had quite a few treats this week that I probably shouldn't have... 4 cookies! :-( Chocolate is seriously my weakness.


I WAS eating those calcium chews in a chocolate flavor but they've become disgusting to me. I'm still forcing myself to eat them because I use Depo Provera as a birth control and it's been proven to deplete calcium in women's bones and I'm not a big milk drinker. I don't want to have any kind of bone related illness when I'm older so I'm trying to prevent that. Anyone have any suggestions?


My trainer canceled on Tuesday.. it made me really disappointed but I've still been going to the gym. My running has gone up to 3 miles on the treadmill in 26 minutes. That's about 8 minutes a mile. I WAS at 10 minutes so that's cool :-) I've dropped 2 minutes!


I discovered an AWESOME way to do squats... that I'm sure you've all heard of, lol, but I'm going to share anyway.


Using one of those big bouncy balls between your back and the wall.. just above the small of your back. You lean against that with your feet slightly out so that you ARE actually balancing against the ball and then you slowly roll down into a sitting position where your thighs and butt are parallel to the floor and then slowly slide back up. 


I think I've been doing squats ALL wrong since this has totally killed my thighs with like 20 less squats. I have an exaggerated curve to my back that this has alleviated. 

Happy Tuesday!

According to my scale today (after my breakfast) I weigh 144 lbs. 


Woo! I love that I've been staying under 150, even after I've cheated on my healthy eating :-( Hehe.


My breakfast is usually a bowl of Oats & More (Market Basket brand) with a banana or an apple and coffee... or quaker oats instant oatmeal and coffee.


For lunch I usually make a sandwich (not a huge carb eater but can't say no to bread.. and wheat thins!) and snack on some carrots (good crunch factor). Sometimes I will go with eggs and make a 2 egg omelet with a bit of grated cheddar and black olives.


Dinner varies but I eat a lot of pork, chicken, and lean hamburg with corn, or spinach, or green beans, or broccoli. 


For my weightloss I've been trying to stick between 1200-1500 calories a day depending on how much I work out. If I don't work out than I try to stick close to 1200. To count my calories I use the iPhone application My Fitness Pal, however, they have a website you can use as well... you can track your calories and your exercise.. although at times it can be a guess-timation if the database doesn't have the exact food you've eaten. It was annoying to try and add in my Insanity workouts..


I got a gym membership today and I am super excited but also a little nervous. I feel like it may be hard for me to keep going to the gym on my own (none of my friends wanted to join). However, the gym I joined is one of the ONLY ones I was able to find that have group exercises like... after 10am, haha. I think going to a few group exercises a week will keep me motivated to go to the gym even though I am on my own.


On the treadmill it took me about 30 mins to run 3 miles. However, when I'm outside my time is a few minutes faster. Weird, huh? So, today I ran 3 miles and did some floor workouts like sit ups, push ups, and various plank work. I'm trying to decide what to do on certain days.. I know it will be important to keep my workout one that varies from day-to-day so I don't get bored and my weight loss doesn't plateau. 


Some tips I wanted to give to you guys:

• STRETCH!! I cannot stress this enough... You should warm up for about 5 minutes (more if you're a beginner) before you begin any vigorous exercise. Following your warm up you should stretch. When you're stretching make sure you are not straining, do not force a stretch too far (don't try and do a split if you can't... or touch the floor between your feet if you can't). Hold a stretch to the point where you can feel the pull in your muscle and then keep it there. As you progress in your exercise you will become more flexible. Also, do not BOUNCE when you are stretching.

• FORM!! This is another big one. When you are performing an exercise you need to make sure you are performing it correctly. If you are lunging make sure that your back leg is straight and your front knee does NOT go past your toe. At first this may take you a while to get down... that is not a big deal. Before you try to pound out 100 lunges or something make sure you are doing them right. Not only could you injure yourself but more likely than not you are not getting the benefit of the exercise by performing it badly.

• If you are someone that is trying to loose weight and you are strength training (lifting weights) than you should be working with low pound weights and high repetitions. This means 3-5 pound weights and no less than 15 repetitions. If you work with heavy weights you are going to bulk up your muscles.. and muscle weighs more than fat so you could actually see the scale telling you higher numbers and this could lead to you getting discouraged.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post :-) Have a great week!

I cheated!

Happy Tuesday!

I weighed myself this morning and was 146.5. I had pizza and drinks on Sunday so I wasn't surprised to learn that I hadn't lost any weight. I also only ran 2 days this week because I caught a bit of a cold and felt like I was getting shin splints.

Be careful for those runners out there that are just getting started... make sure you warm up well and stretch stretch stretch!! Muscles are so much more prone to injury in cold weather. I felt it was best for me to take a break and make sure I wasn't injured than to push myself just to make sure I was meeting my goal. Sometimes things happen :-(

I'm feeling a little bad about my pizza and drinks and that I gained back a pound but I'm not going to let that interfere with me continuing to exercise... or to make me feel bad about myself!! Bah!

It's 22 degrees here (feels like 10) today so I will be doing Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance in the house.

If anyone has tried this or wants to but is intimidated... don't be!! You can modify a lot of the exercises for beginning levels and just slow it down if, at first, it is too fast-paced for you. That's what I do for a lot of the jumping and push-ups. I'm just not that strong yet... but I make sure that I stay moving and try my hardest.

Have a great week everyone!! I will definitely be back with a post next Tuesday but there may be another one this week :-)

Update for 2011

Hello Ladies (and gents, maybe?)


I know it has been a long time since I posted last and I've said this before... and also said I was going to try and post more... and yet here we are again, haha. 


This was originally going to be a blog about my weightloss journey... I thought that if I started writing about it online and got some followers I would be more inclined to continue with exercising, eating right.. and I could loose weight and keep it off. But I didn't. I am such a classic case of the yo-yo dieter. I go a couple weeks, maybe even a month.. where I eat well and exercise on the regular... then I drop off of it be it for stress in my work life (or lack of work life) or trouble with my knees or something... just an excuse. Also, if I see I've lost a couple pounds then for some reason I am more inclined to eat a cookie.. or several spoonfulls of ice cream. It doesn't even matter if I don't have these things in my house... I go buy them.


Does anyone else do this? I feel like I'm probably not the only one... I'm so one of those people that eats their feelings too... or eats when they're bored.


For 2011 I vowed to myself that I would exercise at LEAST 3 days a week... for the most part I've done this and it's been great! I've only lost about 4 pounds but it's been off this whole time so... that's sweet. 


I haven't set any serious weightloss goals... like 2 pounds a week or whatever because I feel like it'd make me depressed if I didn't achieve that and then I'd eat and GAIN weight.


I've also still been dealing with unemployment. It sucks so bad. I'm on year number 2... gawd. Just writing that makes me feel so awful. I know in this also I'm not alone but it's hard not to feel that way when you're surrounded by people who HAVE jobs, haha. Also, in all that time I only had like 3 interviews. That's nuts right?!


Ugh. So, pretty much nothing has changed over here since my last post. Lol. Sad but true. Still loving makeup.... still with the same guy (and we're still living together)... still trying to remain positive that I'll find a job and be able to pay my bills with said job AND hopefully put SOMETHING away in the bank. I got my taxes done and was pleasantly surprised to learn that I WILL get a bit of return even though I've been unemployed. That's nice. 


Anyway, I will be posting (hopefully) weekly and giving you guys updates on what I've been doing, both makeup, life, and exercise wise. I will be doing weekly weigh ins (on Tuesdays) so the posts will either be done Tuesday or Wednesday, even though it's Friday right now. Hahah. My last weigh in put me at 145.5 and I am roughly 5'1".  I've also been using my wii fit and it has given me a BMI (body mass index) of like 26... last time I was on it it was 28... both are overweight according to it.. for like my height and age and stuff, however, the recommended weight is 116 and I just don't think I will EVER weigh that... and I don't think I really want to. My ideal weight right now is 130. So, I have about 15 pounds to loose. :-(


I'm using Fitness Pal on my iPhone (and on the website) to track my calories... the calories that I eat and the calories that I burn while exercising. It's a little tough to do that when I do the Insanity workouts but they are mostly cardio and calisthenics (push ups, etc.) so I just type that in.


If anyone is interested in joining me on this that would be so great! You could leave comments to the posts on how you've done for the week... etc. If you all have a similar blog feel free to link to me and I will try and read every one and comment as well.