Weekly Goals

It's Monday, and that means that it's time to evaluate last weeks goals and to set new goals for this week.

Last week's goals were:

1. Eat between 1200-1400 calories
2. Exercise 5-6 times a week
3. Try 2 new workouts
4. Eat a home cooked dinner at least 4 times

This week, like the previous week, I accomplished all my goals except eating between 1200-1400 calories a day. However Tuesday of last week I decided that I should eat around 1500 calories. I read on several different websites that eating too few calories would slow your metabolism down. They all said to eat at least 1200 calories, I figured if 1200 was the bear minimum then to be on the safe side I would eat 1500. So after I set my new goal of 1500 calories a day, I mostly stuck to it. There were several days that I went over...

That brings us to this week which I plan to use focus on eating 1500 calories. I'll still go to the gym 5-6 times a week, eat at least 4 home cooked meals and try new exercises. But I really want to be able to eat between 1400-1500 calories and be satisfied. This means I'll have to eat more of the foods which are low in calories and filling...meaning... I have to eat more fiber rich vegetables. Since I started this new way of eating I haven't eaten many vegetables. I've added fruit to my diet. But I haven't really made eating vegetables a habit. Most of my dinners and lunches have consisted of a meat item paired with rice. So my goal this week is to eat a serving of vegetables with at least 8 of my lunches and dinners.

Daily Journal:

I ate 1450 calories today. I scorched 700 calories while doing the elliptical machine and running on the treadmill.

P.S. I actually did the at home workout yesterday after my blog. I did about 45 minutes to an hour of lunges, push ups, crunches, leg lifts and so on.

Any Given Sunday

There's not a whole lot to report today. I didn't make it to they gym, however I'll still reach my workout goal by going to the gym on Monday. And it's still early today, so I'm thinking around 8pm I'll do a resistance workout by doing push-ups, lunges, crunches and any other exercise that I can do at home.

Daily Journal:
Today I ate abour 1450 calories.

Business As Usual

My back is feeling a lot better today. I made a good decision when I decided not to go to the gym yesterday. I really want to win the bet, but it's not worth it to injure myself. But today I was back in the gym and it was business as usual. I wanted to take it slow to test out my back to ensure I was really ready to be back in the gym. I started off with the elliptical because it's a low impact exercise...and it's my go to exercise. My back felt like normal so I stopped worrying. While on the elliptical machine, I watched the infomercial for P90X. P90X is an exercise program which claims that within 90 days a person can drastically change their body's muscle tone by trying a new exercise routine every other week or so. They call it "muscle confusion" and the goal is to not allow the body to reach a plateau. So I decided that I would try a different exercise because I've been doing an hour on the elliptical machine 4-5 times a week for the last three weeks. I jumped rope for 15 minutes and then I did 15 minutes of stair climbing on the StairMaster. If you are like me and you haven't jumped rope since you were a kid, you should know that jumping rope is a good cardiovascular workout. 15 minutes of jumping rope had sweat pouring off of me. My plan is to jump rope and do the StairMaster several times a week.

Daily Journal:
I ate 1550 calories and I burned 580, on the eliptical machine, jumping rope and climbing stairs.

Weight Loss Winners!

Today's Weight Loss Winner is funnyman, Seth Rogan. Seth Rogan, made a name for himself by playing the lovable overweight loser. However to tackle the roll as The Green Hornet, it was necessary to lose weight. Rogan worked out with celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak and within nine months he lost over 30lbs. Rogan's new movie, The Green Hornet opens today, until you go see it, check out some before and after pictures.

Daily Journal:
I ate about 1300 calories today. I took a break from the gym today because I tweaked my lower back. To avoid making it worse I just decided to rest. Tomorrow I'll just do the eliptical machine, walk and back stretches.

Shaking it up again.

Today I did a class at my gym that they call "Gravity". Basically it's resistance training on an inclined machine. The steeper the incline, the greater percentage of your body weight that you lift while doing squats, arm curls, crunches and any other exercise the instructor can think of. Three hours after finishing the class and I am sore and my arms still feel like spaghetti. I can't wait to go again! I actually like the sore feeling, it's just a reminder that I'm getting a good work out.

Today's workout counts as the second new exercise that I have tried this week and therefore I reached my goal of trying two new workouts.

Daily Journal:
I ate about 1450 calories. I burned about 150 in the gravity class, and 330 on the elliptical.

Switching It Up

I had one of those afternoons where I was dreading the gym. As of late I had been getting to the gym around 5:10. However today I stayed at work late, I was mostly just avoiding the inevitable... the hour and 6 minute routine that I do on the elliptical. The thought of it was just too boring to bear. But I had an epiphany when I got to the gym. Why don't I take my own advice and do a different routine to make things more interesting. Instead of doing a whole hour on the elliptical, I decided to do the StairMaster, elliptical and treadmill. The StairMaster is tough, and that's partly the reason why I never do it. However after my weekend hike, I felt like the StairMaster will prepare me better for the next hike. I haven't run on the treadmill in a while either. For some unknown reason to me I've been avoiding doing a really strenuous run. So today I faced my unknown fear and just did it. I actually had a good time at the gym today. Both the StairMaster and treadmill were difficult enough to feel new and exciting. Plus I get to count today's workout as half way to my goal of trying 2 different exercises this week.

Daily Journal:
I ate about 1420 calories today. I burned 600 calories on the StairMaster, elliptical and treadmill.

The Weekly Weigh-In

Sometimes the scale just doesn't budge. No matter how much you work out and how well you eat, sometimes the number on the scale just doesn't go down. I kept this in mind during today's weigh in. I knew before the weigh in that I had been bloated for a few days, so I wasn't expecting to lose any weight. And sure enough... I only lost .2lbs. I'm not discouraged because my clothes are starting to feel looser, so I know that I am losing weight. I've been through this before, once a month my weight goes up about 2lbs due to water weight. In a few days when I lose the water weight, I'll post an update about on the percent of weight I've lost since the beginning of the competition.

No-one on my team lost a great amount of weight this week. The first week we lost 12.10% of our weight. This week we only lost 2.5% of our weight. I'm hoping that my team stays positive and realizes that sometimes it takes a few days or weeks before your hard work shows up on the scale.

We haven't received the results from all the other teams yet. I have a feeling that most teams didn't lose as much as they had the first week. I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

Daily Journal:
I ate 1300 calories. At the gym, I burned 670 calories in an hour and six minutes on the elliptical machine. Today was my upper body workout, and I spent about 20 minutes lifting weights. Later at home, I played Dance Central and burned another 100 calories.

Weekly Goals

It's Monday again and that means that it's time to assess last weeks goals and set new goals for this week.

Last week my goals were:
1. Eat a home cooked dinner 4 to 5 times
2. Exercise 5 to 6 times this week.
3. Lose 2lbs this week
4. Eat between 1200 - 1400 calories a day.

I achieved my first goal by eating exactly 4 home cooked dinner last week. I cooked chicken with rice, salmon with rice and pork chops with rice. I think I eat too much rice, so this week I'll have to add in more vegetables. In addition to having 4 home cooked dinners I also had leftovers which I had for lunch several times last week. I also accomplished my second goal of exercising 5 to 6 times that week by doing 5 workouts last week. I think I really benefitted from having this goal. As I said in my blog last week, there were a few days where I didn't want to go to the gym. But since I knew that I had set this goal and posted in my blog I felt obligated to go.
As for my third goal of losing 2lbs, the weigh-in isn't until tomorrow. So I'll let you know how I did. From my calculations of calories in - calories out, I believe I should achieve that goal.
Lastly was my goal of eating between 1200-1400 calories a day. There was only on day last week where I actually stuck to that plan. However it wasn't as if I grossly over eating. On average I was only 100 calories over my goal. If I spend a little extra time planning my meals the day before, I believe I will be able to achieve that goal. With that being said, here are my goals for this week:

1. Eat between 1200-1400 calories
2. Exercise 5-6 times a week
3. Try 2 new workouts
4. Eat a home cooked dinner at least 4 times

Daily Journal:
Today I ate about 1500 calories. I didn't exercise today. Instead I decided to give my sore legs a rest after yesterday's hike.

An Uphill Battle

Today I tried a different workout. My boyfriend and I climbed the Double Peak trail in San Marcos. The trail was very steep on the way up to Double Peak. It's a two mile hike from Discovery Lake to the top of the mountain. It was so steep that those two short miles took us 55 minutes. It was well worth it. Not only did I get an excellent cardio workout and a chance to exercise my leg muscles in a new way, I was also rewarded with the beautiful view from atop the mountain. On a clear day, looking south form the Double Peak Park, you can see all the way to downtown San Diego. To the west, the endless Pacific Ocean. To the east, majestic snow capped Mountains. The hike was a nice break from the gym. I think I'll make this hike a regular weekend workout.

Daily Journal:

I ate about 1800-1900 calories today and I burned just under 600 during the hike. I'll talk more tomorrow about my calorie intake goal.

A Little Inspiration

I came across this blog a few days ago and I'd like to share it. The article is about ordinary people who have lost a great amount of weight and tracked their progress using a blog...just like I'm doing. I like to hear/read about others who have lost weight because it keeps me inspired. I didn't want to go to the gym today, but to get myself motivated I re-read that article and I was ready.

Daily Journal:

I ate about 1450 calories today. Which includes a hot dog and popcorn at the movie theater. I was surprised to see the caloric information posted in the theatre's concession stand. I got the small popcorn which was listed as 350 calories. The large was 980 calories. Normally I add butter to the popcorn, but I decided to forgo the butter and it was just as good.

I burned 660 on the elliptical machine.