So, I decided to stop double charting...

So, I basically decided to stop logging my activities and calories here and on my iPhone edibles app.  I've been working out 5-6 days a week for at least 30 minutes a day for about 6 weeks now.  It's hard to know what kind of progress I've actually made because I didn't do any pre-measurements or weights or anything.  I did go to the Dr. a month before I started all this and weighed in at 136lbs.  Which for the record is 6lbs above my ideal body weight (IBW).  My progress so far has been great, I have more energy than I've had in a long time, and I feel wonderful.  The only physical change I've noticed so far is that the narrowest part of my waist has shrunk slightly, otherwise no real remarkable changes.  I've been doing a combination of my Dance off the inches hip hop video, my Carmen Electra striptease video, my belly dance fat burn video, and a combination of eliptical, recumbent bike, and treadmill (fast walking around 4.5 mph) for cardio.  Also, the videos encompass some sculpting moves as well.  Plus a wide array of free weight, toning, conditioning exercises.

Well, as swimsuit season approaches I decided I want to get a little more serious about seeing results.  I had Richard buy a scale last night, I weigh 131 lbs.  Today I did day one of my Fitness Magazine Bikini Body workout, about 25 minutes of cardio interval conditioning.  They claim 3 days a week for 4 weeks to an improved bikini body, so we'll see!  I took some measurements and pictures in my bikini so we can see in four weeks if there are any results. 

Narrowest Point (under rib cage)=28.5"
Waist=31"
Hips (love handles)=35.5"
Middle Bicep (not flexed)=12.25"
Thigh (jiggly inner area)=22"

Weight=131lbs
% Body Fat=24%
%TBW=56%
BMI=21.1
per http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

See ya in a month!

Week 4- We survived Snowpocalypse 2010!

This was a wild weather week for us here in the nation's capital... If you read my last post, you know we got about 8 inches of snow last Saturday and spent the entire weekend safely tucked away in our apartment.  Then Wednesday we got another 3 inches... But this was the day that the "severe weather warning" was issued for Friday and Saturday.  Thursday, I decided it would be a good idea to go to the grocery store since we only had one more meal to make (bad idea #1)... Unfortunately the entire CITY had the same thought.  My grocery store is pretty small, with a tiny parking lot in the basement of a big office building, so when I arrived at 8:05 Thursday evening I had to wait 10 minutes to get a parking spot...but I pressed on (bad idea #2) So I got into the store, saw the lines and decided I'd come too far now (bad idea #3).  I was only able to get about 1/2 of the food on my list.  They had no chickn, no milk (i had to get vanilla soy, which is not bad to say make french toast or oatmeal), all the produce was rotten, I bought the last pound of ground beef, I thought it was the end of the world.  The lines went down the frozen food aisles all the way to the back of the store, I needed some frozen veggies for my veggie soup and people wouldn't even move to let me get into the cases so I just had to get in that line.  So, I was slightly perturbed by the time I got home, I vowed never to go to the store again.  Richard's response "By never, you mean until like next week?" However, friday and saturday I sure was glad I had plenty of food, because I definately didn't want to leave my apt.  Moving on...

Friday morning they upgraded the storm warning to a "BLIZZARD" warning!  It started snowing about 11:30 but it was 35 degrees so it wasn't sticking yet.  I didn't have class until 1:15 on friday so at 12:30 as the snow was getting much thicker (so I thought at the time), but class wasn't cancelled. Richard got home right before I left.  Luckily my friend Nicole (from North Dakota) came and picked me up so I didn't have to walk or drive in the snow. However, once we got to campus, they cancelled class 15 minutes before it was supposed to start.  Thanks G-town, really helpful!  So we stuck around and did a little studying, and again thanks to Nicole had some delicious cake!  (yes, I'm still counting calories, I ate a piece of cake and a bowl of pasta in the same day and still met my caloric goal of 1800)  I got home about 3:00 just as the snow was starting to stick.  About 10:00 is when it actually turned into a blizzard, and we decided to go out in it and I made my first snow angel (of my adult life).  By the time we woke up Saturday, we had 2 feet of snow outside, and it continued to snow until 8pm.  Needless to say, Richard and I spent our second weekend in a row inside our apartment.  Thanks to my trip to the store we have eaten really good through all this... Friday we made sausage rosemary pizza, for breakfast Saturday we had nutella and banana french toast, then homemade vegetable soup and corn bread for dinner, made a little snow ice cream for dessert (sounds a lot better than it actually is). 

Sunday we decided to go play in the snow....but it was terribly cold (16 degrees).  But we did jump out of our window into the thick fluffy snow and play for a few minutes, but then I was really freezing and our neighbors were taking our picture which was kinda creepy.  On the plus side SNOW DAY TOMORROW!

In addition to the weather and associated drama Richard met Lauren and her brother Sean this week when we went to Eat Bar wednesday night.  I am organizing a kickball team which is alot more work than I would have ever anticipated.  School is starting to rev up too, I have my first exam next week in pharmacology, so everyone say a little prayer for me Thursday at 9am (8am Central). Now I'm blogging during the super bowl, pretty exciting!  That's All Folks! 

Day 13

Workout: 10 minute warmup on the treadmill-50 cal
                30 minute elliptical run-300 cal
                5 minute treadmill cool down-25 cal
                Walk to Clarendon and back-85 cal

Total 435 calorie output with exercise

I ate 1511 calories with 6+ servings of fruits and veggies.  Today, was an overall very successful day.

Day 12

Saturday...the weekends are always harder, but today was pretty good.  I did my hip hop dance video today, eventhough I feel like death...burned about 325 calories.

The food/drink was a bit of a fail...I had 1900 calories (5 glasses of wine).  However, I did make my fruit and veggie goal with 6 servings, 4 of which were veggies.  Not a fabulous success, but it was dinner at Sara and Tom's so we had a feast with glasses never dry.

Day 11

Today, Richard arrived to DC and I am getting sick so I took the day off of exercise, on the plus side we took a walk to Clarendon and back...85 calories.

I ate 1734 calories today...including 2 glasses of wine, 2 beers, and gelato.  I am very proud of this!  On the downside, these special treats replaced my usual intake of fruits and veggies...I only got 3 veggies.  Better luck tomorrow!

Day 10

Today, I did my belly dance video.  I started with the 30 minute sculpting moves for beginners, then 30 minute fat burning.  I burned approximately 125 calories the first 30 minutes and about 200 the second, for a grand total of 325 calories and an hour long workout.  Then later this evening I walked to La Tasca and back over 1.5 miles burning approximately 100 additional calories, which is good since I ate and drank so much...

I ate approximately 2,000 calories today including 6 fruits/veggies and 4 glasses of 200 calorie sangria.  Not too bad for drinking.  I only went 200 calories over my goal and I burned about 425 calories today, so I am happy with that.  My goal is everything in moderation and to restrict myself from nothing I love!

Day 9

Today is day 9!  I shook the workout up a bit today with a fitness class at school.  I participated in a Zumba class.  It's a Latin/Hip-hop fusion intense cardio workout, it was great fun, and terribly intense.  So far it's the most intense workout I've had, I checked several websites and determined that it burns anywhere from 350-750 calories depending on the intensity and your fitness level.  I estimated that I burned around 450.  Prior to the Zumba class as a nice warm-up I shot baskets for 30 minutes to burn an additional 140calories.  Total output=590!  That's a victory...

Calories in 1628 (second day in a row...that's odd).

Unfortunately I only ate 3 fruits and veggies today...we'll try harder tomorrow!

Day 8

My workout today consisted of 35 minutes on the eliptical with an increased resistance to 3 (previously at 1), as a warm up I walked home from Rosslyn (.9 mile), and my cool-down was 10 minutes on the recumbent bike.  I burned about 410 calories.

I maintained my diet and goals today!  I ate 1,628 calories (goal=1800).  I also ate 6 servings of fruits and veggies.  DONE!

Day 7-Day of Rest

So today is day 7, one week, of my new healthy lifestyle.  I did good on the calorie count again today, 1450 calories in, plus about 6 servings of fruit and veggies today.  So, I'm glad that I've been able to stay well under my calorie goals the last two days, especially since I went over the previous three days. 

Today was my first day off from exercising, I was very sore and needed a repreive.  I just went on an mile long walk down to whole foods and back.

Day 6

REDEMPTION...My only physical activity today was my new hip hop video, but WHEW!  I bought Dance Off the Inches Hip Hop Party it is a 45 minute dance video, and it is intense.  I googled Hip Hop calorie counts I came up with it should be around 325 calories burned with this video, but that 50 minutes is 350 calories, and 1 hour is 415...So maybe I should just replay a few minutes so that I can stretch it to an hour.

Caloric intake today so far at 9:00 is 797 with three veggies and a fruit under my belt... I even ate some oatmeal today, it was delicious.  I saw an Ellie Kruger clip on some cherry oatmeal and it looked kind of fabulous so I tried it out.  I took some plain oatmeal (100calories), added 3/4 cup of 2% milk (97calories), then added 1/4 cup dried cherries (120 calories), plus a tablespoon of jam (45 calories). So for 362 calories you get a serving of fruit, dairy, and whole grain, it was delicious and the jam sweetened it without sugar.  I guess I'll try to eat one more fruit or veggie and I'll meet my daily goal.

Day 5

TOTAL FAILURE again with the drinking...So I didn't even calculate all of my calories yesterday because I was too busy, but before dinner I had eaten 430 calories.  Then I had a big dinner where I consumed 850 calories, but all very healthy, even got in a full serving of fruit with dessert.  Got a total of 4 servings of fruit and veggies just in this one meal.  Plus I drank about 3 glasses of wine during dinner at around 80 calories each...240 calories...THEN I went out and had 5 screwdrivers OUCH!  That did me in!  So they probably have around 200 calories per drink so...1000 extra calories...At least I danced for like an hour at the bar.
Calorie Intake from food=1280
Calorie Intake from alcohol=1240
Grand total=2520

Third day in a row I've consumed greater than 2000 calories....

I did exercise today so that's good, and even if I suck at caloric intake I'm feeling great working out daily!  Today I did Carmen Electra's Striptease video and it was great I am already sore, I figure it probably burned around 250 calories in 53 minutes.  This is all I did today until I went dancing...  From what I can tell an hour of dancing burns somewhere from 250-350 calories... (at least I burned off one drink).

Day 4 Friday=Failure

Today also started out great.  I got up at 9:00 did a little studying, then headed to the gym for my workout right away.  I was pretty sore from my weights yesterday, so I decided to take it easy today.  I did the eliptical for 40 minutes, bumped it up by 5 minutes, and burned 350 calories, plus another 50 calories on my 10 minute treadmill cool down.  Then later in the day I burned another 125 calories walking around Georgetown.

So far the workout's haven't been too difficult, it's the eating my calories that's the hard part...especially when going out and when drinking.

I ate 2,372 calories today.  I also only ate 4 servings of fruits and veggies.  I was doing great before dinner.  I went to a bar with some friends after class, and I was ready for dinner.  Unfortunately, we were at a BBQ restaurant and I hate BBQ sauce!  So, I had about 3 choices...I chose Chicken and Waffles with Fries, but I shared it 1/2 and 1/2 with Lauren.  But I estimated it was about a 1300calorie meal anyway...  So, I would say better luck tomorrow but I have plans to go out and drink so that probably won't happen.  My goal is to find some low cal drinks I like...

Day 3

So...

Started out pretty good.  Had a great workout, a warm up on the cybex, followed by at least 45 minutes of weight lifting, we have about 14 Life Fitness machines I did 3 reps of 10 on all of these machines.  This included hip abduction, adduction, shoulder press, fly, chest press, biceps, triceps, abs, leg press, quads, hams and more!  Followed by 15 minutes of vigorous hoop shooting!  So, 1 hour and 10 minutes followed by a 1 mile walk home, Total Calories Burned=470.  This is 40 calories more than yesterday, not too shabby...for day 3.

Unfortunately things started to go south when I went out with the friends.  I had 4 glasses of sangria at around 200 calories each...that kinda sunk the diet.  But it is my persuasion that you have to allow for some fun, even if it is a few calories too many.  If I had skipped the sangria I would have come in right at 1800 calories, even eating dinner out, instead I came in at 2600.  On the upside I did eat all my fruits and veggies for the day, and I did work out!  Well, we'll try to get back on track tomorrow.

I have decided on a few exercise goals today...
1. Lose 5 lbs
2. Tone up (everything)
3. Lose the lovehandles/Lose muffintop over my jeans

If I have goals should I have a timeline?  Maybe, by the 4th of July.

Day 2

Alright, well I'm a little sore after day 2, but I decided to try to work out at a different time today.  I was so tired all day yesterday after getting up so early, so today I decided to workout after school, I worked out from 4-5pm today.  Before I worked out I walked a mile home to start.  Then I started my workout with a 5 minute warm up on the eliptical, followed by 30 minutes at higher speed after some stretching, then a 10 minute cool down on the treadmill, some side bends and some squats to round it out.  I burned approximately 430 calories in my workout today.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow. 

The only problem with my current workout plan is that I haven't set any goals yet or taken any type of "before" measures...Hmmm, something to think about.

Additionally today I downloaded an app called Edibles to my iPhone, so I can keep a food and exercise journal.  It's also nice because it keeps a calorie count, which I've never done before.  Here are my diet goals:
1. Eat 5 fruits and/or vegetables a day
2. 1800 calories a day

So, I met my two diet goals today...
Caloric intake 1488

Day 1 was Yesterday

Monday night I had some friends over for dinner (Nicole and Lauren), and we began discussing our weight, lack of exercise, stress, and poor eating habits (all of those things that make us fat, not that I'm calling either of them fat).  Lauren began to divulge her plan to combat the fat and I got inspired.  I have significantly grown around the midsection over the last year and my pants seem to be shrinking every day.

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

So, Lauren's motivation my pants are getting tight and I'm a broke student I can't afford a new wardrobe, so I better get fit.  She has been getting up at 5am to work out before school in the mornings, and has tried to start eating healthy.  So I decided to follow suite.  It all started today, I got up at 6am and had my first workout.  I rode the eliptical for 30 minutes, not too bad for day 1. 

The plan is if we're all committed to this we can hold each other accountable and help motivate each other...So here we go!!!