Weekly Wrap Up

 

This is where the Zumba "Magic" happens

 Last week was pretty lackluster as I really didn't do much.  After Wednesday's Zumba fiasco, I  decided I would work weights back into my "routine" but needless to say, I didn't pick up any weights at all.  I did however, attend Zumba on Saturday and it was a workout.   It more than made up for Wednesday and I left out of there feeling like I had been in a war.   The class was packed and when I say Packed...I mean PACKED!  People could barely fit in the room and when I looked back, I saw people literally pressed up against the door and the walls.   I'm always early so as long as I get a spot, I'm good.

 A girl in the class told me it was jam packed  last Monday as well,  Not just the class but the entire gym. She said she couldn't even get in the door  for the class and all the machines were taken.  I thought about going  last Monday too and am so glad I didn't  because I can't do the "waiting for machines to work out" thing.

Anyway, I absolutely love this instructor.  She has a mixture of music from  Merengue to Hiphop,  and she is extremely energetic and personable.  When the class was over,  some one, who had taken the class with her for several months now,  asked  us to stick around while she presented the instructor with a trophy for being so good.  It was thoughtful and the instructor was very appreciative.  Unfortunately she only teaches one day and week but I think they should really think about adding her into the rotation more often.  She is that good and the best thing about the class is that you leave feeling like you really had a workout.  One full hour of Zumba with no offical breaks.  Hmmph..just thinking about it  gets me winded.  lol


Next up is the eating....I still haven't tidied up my diet YET. My mom had a birthday and I cooked dinner.....Steak, Lobster( which, by the way, was phenomenal) baked potato,  garlic bread and asparagus spears (in lieu of a salad out of pure laziness.) It was so much food that I could not finish my steak or my potato(which I trashed)... but I will be finishing that steak later.....TRUST!

Had I been thinking, I would have taken a photo of the finished meal..after all, it was my first time ever cooking lobster myself and man..that lobster still has my mouth watering.  Anyway, I'm still working on my eating but I will get it right  sooner, rather than later.....Oh,  I also stocked up on my favorite...BLACKBERRIES!!!  I  bought 24 packs at 50 cents each. You can't beat that!  Can you say WINNING!!!!!

                                              Blackberry Score!!  Notice 2 packs are missing..yummy

Getting it right,

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Weekly Wrap Up

I had a pretty good week workout wise.  I'm sure that I've mentioned this before but I am a pretty competitive person and I entered a challenge that began on Jan 3.  You can either use your Garmin heart rate monitor, Body Media Fit, Fit Bit,  Run  Keeper or whatever activity tracker you have  to track  your activity.

The challenge consists of a maximum of 420 points total for the 7 days of the challenge. The winners will be chosen from  two groups of people, those who earned 360 points and above and  those who earned at least 100 points.

Let me tell you I worked my butt off for those points..  I would either go to the gym and come home then upload and see how many points I had.  If I  hadn't reach my allotted daily points of 60, I would have to get up and get moving again  until I reached 60, which usually took me a little over 2 hours  or 17,000 steps to reach.  The day that I didn't get to the gym was the most difficult.  I was trying to fit in activity anywhere I could but I was literally up at 10.00 pm moving about trying to get my points up.
 Sunday was also difficult as that is usually my rest day...I didn't  reach my max points for that day but  in the end I did reach 364 points out of a maximim of 420 which is pretty dayum good for me.

I entered another challenge again for this week that  starts Tuesday but decided not to participate as I want to get back to weight training.  For these last few months( as sporadic as it may have been) I've been focusing all of my attention on cardio.  With the BMF( Body Media Fit or in my case, Go Wear Fit)..it doesn't really calculate activity from weight lifting so I had to focus on cardio for the challenge in order to meet my goals and I didn't want to do that again this week.

I found that I really pushed myself to get those points and my workout was the better for it.  I don't think I'm that disciplined to push myself outside of a competitive environment but I'm working on it.

I haven't been watching what I eat in the sense that I am not denying myself anything.   I know that in order for my weight to move in the direction that I want it to move, I have to change my eating habits.  I just have to ease myself int it...I find that I'm good until dinner.

Normally, throughout the day, I will have an egg white omelet with mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, cheese and  occasionally onions. I'll snack on blackberries when I get a craving.  For lunch, I'll  have a Lean Cuisine or sometimes if I'm not really hungry ( I'll just have the berries)  pretty healthy meals but dinner is when I will have whatever, fried chicken, pasta with sauce, yessss.....even fast food.  I guess I have to work on my dinner time habits and focus on cooking more.

I also need to work on tracking what I eat.  With the availability of apps, keeping track of virtually anything is so easy to do and I have a million apps( for my phone and computer both) that I use  but I need to be consistent.  I just find it too time consuming to track my food intake accurately.  To get the food, weigh it on the food scale then write it down so I can enter it into an app just takes too much time.  I have done it but never for an entire day as I usually forget to weigh something or I don't really pay attention to the portion size of something  that I ate and then my tracking is off for that day.

I have to find some type of way to to track my calories in an easy, accurate way and then I'm sure I'll start to see the pounds drop.



Getting it right,

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Weekly recap

 So far so good.  Last week went surprisingly well.  I managed to work out  4 days this week.  I can't remember whether or not I worked out on Monday so I'm going with four.


I mainly used the Precor machine and the treadmill.  I mentioned my dizzy spells and "lightheadedness" so I didn't push myself too hard.  I kept it rather light and only did about 35 minutes on the machines but I still managed to work up a  pretty good sweat.

                            The Precor machine                                       I even worked up a sweat



As far as my eating goes, that was a total bust..not because I went overboard but because I didn't track my meals nor did I limit myself  as far as the types of food that I was eating go.

Really, I find that to be the hardest thing for me.  I KNOW  that I need to change my diet in order to have the kind of successful weight loss that I am determined to have,  I just can't seem to stick with this diet or "lifestyle" change  mentality as it pertains to my eating.

I really do not eat a lot, sometimes only 2 meals ( if you can call a boiled egg and a few slices of turkey breast a meal) a day.  I should just track what I eat in a normal day and then  come up with a plan from there.  We'll see.


This week, I plan to add in weight training.  I know that this is crucial to my losing weight and I really actually prefer weight training to cardio.  I have quite a few weightlifting workouts that I can do at home as well as the option to use the machines at the gym.  We'll see how it goes but the plan is to alternate cardio days with weight training days in sort of a Body for Life style set-up.

I also plan to work on my water intake.  I normally drink a lot of water but switched to orange juice in an attempt to get over this cold.  Now I need to get my taste buds re-acclimated to the taste ( or lack there of) of water again, so I'm going to drink at least 64 oz. a day this week.

I'm also going to try to keep track of an entire day's food intake for at least 2 days which I think is a pretty lofty goal for me.  Tracking really isn't so much the problem as is getting the accurate amounts of what I'm eating.  I have a digital food scale that is great but I'm not always able to weigh every morsel that comes into contact with my mouth.

Say I have a few chips here and there (I know, I know I should not be eating chips but it's my reality) or a bowl of home made soup from my mother...   there is no way to possibly log the amount accurately and that is the crux of my problem.    I can guess as to the amounts but then is that really an accurate depiction of my calories.  le sigh...   I'll get there!







Getting it right,

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I was Down, But I'm Not Out

Last week I was a little down because I missed 5 days of working out in a row.    It really only boiled down to 3 days missed since I do allow myself 2 days off if I choose to take it.  I was just so busy this past weekend with it being Michael Jackson's Birthday and all  (Yes, I'm that kind of fan) so I was In Merrillville Indiana where the fanvention was held as well as Gary, Indiana at 2300 Jackson Street. I had a fabulous time and while my eating was okay( actually I may have eaten a little less than I would have had I been home) I couldn't or didn't find the time to workout.

 This is a new month so I have already gotten my workout in for the day.  I'm still deciding whether or not to try to make up the missed workout(I'm just really concerned about getting in my leg day workout as the others that were missed consisted of cardio)  I'll work on it and maybe fit it in when I have an extra shot of adrenaline to spare.

Anyway, it seems as if I am gaining and losing the same pound or two so not much weight loss yet.  I really am beginning to see that I won't be as successful as I like without totally revamping my diet.  I just don't know if I can do that yet.  Everyone always says the secret to weight loss is calories in versus calories out and if that is the case where does "Clean" eating fit in?  I would like to think that it's that simple but it doesn't appear to be.  I just know that I will not be able to cut things out of my diet completely.  As I mentioned once or twice I am so not a fan of depriving myself.  I'll stick it out for a little while and see how it's working for me and decide what to do from there.
Anyway, a little update on what's been happening on the weight loss/working out front.

Getting it right,

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