Drum Roll Please! 198.8

GUESS WHAT?!?! this is what I saw when I weighed myself this morning. I know I haven't been blogging.. but I still have been striving towards my goals... this was such a HUGE goal for me.. and I can't remember the last time I was under 200lbs.. but I think it was probably about 6th grade! that's pretty amazing! I was excited.. but honestly forgot about it until around lunch when I again thought "wow" and then thought.. "huh I don't really feel any different" like I expected that the world would change or I'd suddenly be the most breath taking woman in the world LOL. regardless 90.2lbs total weight loss is a big number.. and something I'm proud of-- only 23.8lbs more until my goal weight of 175lbs.. where I'll assess if I want to continue to lose weight or simply be happy where I'm at there :o) thanks for sharing in the good news of this big day with me :o)

P.S. I never realized how "fat" my feet look-- I have a wide foot and apparently my toes are spreading and getting twisty.. lol here's to almost being 30!

223.2 - The Battle Continues

I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Christmas/ New Year. It's time to get serious again about blogging-- as I have been serious about weight loss again for about a month.

For Christmas I asked for a new scale-- this one is supposed to keep track of your body fat % and your water % as well as your weight. I've come to find out that the body fat % and water weight are actually not very accurate. Imagine my shock when just after Christmas I jumped on the scale to see that I weighed 228.8lbs a nearly 14 lb gain over my lowest weight last year.. AND that my body fat is 42% and my water is 40%-- as these past 4 weeks have gone by my body fat and water weight have stayed in the same 5% weight with the body fat and water % inversely proportionate to one another. SO I took a test @ the gym and it turns out my body fat is only 26.6% (sigh of relief)-- which still technically puts me in the obese category-- but much closer to "overweight" than the scale is reflecting.

So with that being said.. I'm in 2 biggest loser contests-- one at work where there is a 1st and 2nd place winner-- 1st place recieves $165 and second place $110-- I'm currently in 2nd place. The bigger contest I'm in is at the YMCA where there is only one winner-- to the tune of $575-- I would LOVE to win both-- but our second weigh in isn't until next week @ the half way mark.

This brings me to a little bit of frustration. I have hired a personal trainer (YAY!! I've never had one before) and have worked out with her 3 times (we're meeting twice a week) and on my own I'm hitting the gym every day-- I do cardio for 35 minutes - 2 hours/ day (and when I meet with my trainer I'm with her for an hour + at least 35 minutes of cardio on my own). It's very frustrating that after almost 4 full weeks I'm only down 5.6 lbs.

I am using a new program on my iphone (which incidentally you can also use online if you don't have a phone with applications) called "My fitness pal" it's soooooo much better than the old program I was using, lose it! where it simply didn't have enough food brands stored. My fitness pal is great because I think I've only come across one item of food that wasn't in there in the 4 weeks I've been using it. It also allows you to record your cardio/ workouts AND gives you a break down of your nutritional facts (along with goals of how much of what you should be eating) . All in all it's a great program.... BUT my beef with it is because I work a desk job.. it told me I should only be eating 1300 calories / day-- BUT I wans't losing any weight that way so I concluded on my own (and with a little research) that I should be eating at least 1560 calories/ day to lose weight (Jillian Michaels says your current weight X 7-10)-- so by this calculation the minimum calories I should be eating right now to lose weight would be 1562.4 and the max 2232. So right now I'm getting in about 1600 calories/ day and burning about 300- 900 calories / day at the gym. I've only been on this higher calorie diet for 3 days and I've lost .4 lbs in that time.


So that's where I'm at right now! How are you guys doing on your weight loss? Have you worked with a trainer before? What kind of results did you see? How are you figuring out your calorie intake?

90 in 09 Challenge- 259.5

I've been listening to my favorite radio station, KLOVE and kept hearing about Big Daddy Weave's goal to lose 90lb in 09. He's been documenting his journey of weight loss online and you can join him in the challenge. Basically the challenge consists of 3 daily commitments.

1) Nutrition: Recognizing that the purpose of foods I eat is to provide my body with the fuel it needs, I commit to make choices that are nutritious and appropriate in portion size.

2) Exercise: Realizing the positive impact that exercise has on my overall well being, I will spend a total of 20 - 30 minutes each day engaged in physical activity.

3)Worship: Believing that true overall health encompasses spiritual growth which comes from spending time with God, I choose to set aside time each day to be solely devoted to Him.

While admit that this is going to be challenging (especially #2) I have committed to joining in the challenge! If you too would like to join simply visit the website and sign up! They will be sending out weekly support info and the website is updated almost daily with the progress of Mike Weaver. They promise to provide helpful tips along the way as well! It seems like a simple challenge but there is a lot of commitment involved!

Today I went to the gym and really woke myself up about how half- assed my workouts have been as of late-- so I ended up on the treadmill for 70 minutes burning 630 calories and also did some weights on my thighs--- I need to start kicking it into high gear. I'm now more than ever considering hiring a personal trainer-- it just makes me nervous I guess. I mean I've already been able to loose quite a bit on my own... but I think the added support and techniques will probably help me to arrive at my goal much sooner.

Back at it --259

Ok-- so I'm up to 259 today-- but I'm not stressed-- my floor is now 257.5-- what I mean by that is that I'm not an expert by any means on weight loss or fitness etc-- but keeping track of my weight on a daily basis has given me some insight on when to worry and when not to worry. I know my body-- what I know is that I hit an all time low number and my weight pops up-- it's like a ball hitting the floor and bouncing. I know my weight on a daily basis will fluctuate up to 5 lbs from that floor-- and it's normally a steady climb over a couple days before I will see the floor again. The ball normally bounces twice before it drops lower. Everyone's different and that's why I encourage you to decode your own body and weight loss.

I'm feeling MUCH better today (I can actually breathe through my nose now!!!) So after work and going to the store I hit up the gym... since I'm still under the weather and have been away from exercising for a few days I decided to take it slow--- treadmill for 35 minutes-- I only inclined during the last 10 minutes and kept a pace of about 3.8-- I didn't do any weights afterward. -- I imagine I will be feeling even better tomorrow and hit it harder at the gym then!

In the mean time I need some advice-- I'm having an issue dropping weight on my lower stomach ( this is partially do to limitations I have in exercising because I have herniated discs on both L4 and L5 that really prevents me from doing anything laying on my back ie sit ups or circles with my legs etc that target lower abs) . I also am wanting to try and target my back fat-- I'm not even sure if there is an exercise for that?

I've been seriously considering hiring a personal trainer just for the purpose of showing me how to target those areas without hurting myself-- but money is tight and so is my time-- any tips are much appreciated!!!