Posts Tagged ‘weight’
General update
Posted on: August 8, 2013
Well, I’m coming up on being on phentermine for a week now. I’ve lost about 7 pounds. That’s honestly a little too quick for me, so I’m going to start taking a half dose everyday. It has seriously curbed my appetite, which is good and bad. I don’t snack at all anymore, which is good. But I also have next to no appetite so I’m not eating enough at each meal either. That latter reason is more of the reason I’m going to drop the dosage to half.
I still haven’t made it into a gym and to be completely honest I doubt I will go to the gym before school starts. On a plus side though, UTSA has a great weight room!!! I’m looking forward to getting back in there! I have set up a little fitness area in my bedroom that include a yoga mat, resistance bands, two different size stability balls, a Pilates circle, two jump ropes, numerous DVDs, and my foam roller. I’ve been getting some sort of workout in a few days a week, but nothing like I was before. I can already see and feel a difference in my body from not lifting, and it sucks. At this point though, something is better than nothing, and since I can’t really attack my workouts like I want to, I’ve put a lot of focus on my nutrition and making sure I’m eating as clean as I can.
In other news:
1. A coral snake decided to join my daughters and I yesterday morning while we were enjoying the morning outside. For those of you who don’t know what a coral snake is, it’s venomous. It’s often mistaken for the king snake because they are patterned similarly. Red, yellow and black rings. Thank god I remembered the old rhyme! “If red touches yellow, you’re a dead fellow. If red touches black, it’s a friend of jack.” Animal control wasn’t able to get it out of its hiding spot, so I’m still in no rush to go in our backyard.
2. The goob is all signed up for kindergarten. Where have the last almost SIX YEARS gone?!
3. Link will be coming home soon. Not super soon, but the countdown has started!
New Book
Posted on: May 7, 2013
I very rarely buy books at full price anymore thanks to wonderful stores like Half Price Books and trusty Amazon. Today, on a whim, Link and I decided to head over to Books-A-Million to peruse their overpriced selections. We both have a kindle reader of some sort or another (I have a paperwhite and he has an iPad), but some times it’s just nice to hold a physical book.
My meandering lead me over to the cook books and fitness/health sections (surprise surprise). I found this book.
I figured with everything I’ve been going through, some motivational stories might do me some good. I’m planning to read a few tonight. I’ll give you guys a little review once I’m done 🙂
Most recent workout
Posted on: April 28, 2013
First and foremost: LINK IS HOME!!! His two week “vacation” started this morning, so I was crazy getting the house and kids ready, which is more or less the reason I haven’t posted much in the past week (ish).
Now, onto blog business. A quick update with my “no scale” challenge. It’s been hard. Honestly. I hate not knowing how much I weigh. At one point, a couple of weeks ago, Nick wanted to get my stats, so I found out then what my weight was, and seriously, it was like getting taking a huge breath after you’ve been underwater to that point just before you know you might want to consider coming up for air. I haven’t looked since though. I’m starting to feel the “itch” though. LOL May 4th is the day my scale comes back out. One more week.
On Friday Nick decided it was a good day to work my entire back half. Wow. Lots of dead lifts. Lots and lots of dead lifts. I was actually able to do 185 pounds, whereas last week I could only do 165 pounds. 20 pound difference in a week? I’ll take it! I try to tell myself those are the numbers that matter, even if it doesn’t sink in every time.
We also did some ab work on the TRX. It’s a great training area/device/contraption/torture device if you can find the right form. Some of the exercises are a bit hard to find the right form, at least for me they are, but I think that’s what I’m going to start working on because I really do like how it works.
I’ve included a couple of pictures that Nick took while I was working with cables and while on the TRX.
—Take care of your body, it’s the only one you have!
Weight challenge
Posted on: April 20, 2013
I’m sure y’all have figured out that I really like lifting weights now. Well, while Link is off in LaLa land, he and his buddies created a weightlifting challenge of sorts. They have a reward system but I honestly can’t remember how it’s set up. The events are dead lift, squat and bench press. To get the lowest reward, their combined weight has to reach 500 pounds, the second reward is 800 pounds, and the top reward is for a combine weight of 1000 pounds. Crazy right?! I asked him what the standards were for women since there are women over there too (I’m all about EO)! He said he thinks the numbers are 300, 400 and 600 pounds.
I don’t have any idea what possessed me to tell Nick about this challenge but I did. The immediate effect I had after seeing his reaction was “uh oh!” Of course we wanted me to do it! I was thinking okay, I know I can get the 300 pound mark, but the others are way too far off… at least for now. Nick, being the awesome trainer that he is, said we’re gonna skip right over that 300 mark, and shoot straight for 400. I told him he was crazy! I started thinking either he’s seriously overestimating my ability, or I’m seriously underestimating them. We planned to go through it this past Friday. Well, between the squat and the deadlift, I was 325. So maybe I was underestimating myself a bit… The bench press proved to be really hard for me though.
during the warm up… 45’s on each side
There is apparently a proper way to do a bench press that quite literally engages all your muscles, not just your chest. It was a very awkward feeling, and he thinks that is the reason I didn’t lift more. I lifted 65 pounds. Here is an article that explains “proper” form.
I was really surprised at my weights! And we didn’t do the math until after we were done to figure out exactly where I was. Also, the chest press wasn’t my max because I was able to do six reps, as well as the squat, which I did three of. After he did his max calculations, he said that it would technically be 407 pounds. So, I actually lifted 390 pounds but maxed out at 407 pounds! I’ll take it! These are the measurements that really matter. Not just how much I weigh! There are so many other indicators to put my focus on to measure my health and fitness.
Nick warned me I’d be sore. He didn’t lie. Today I had a long run planned but once I woke up this morning I realized very quickly there would be no running. Today was definitely taken as a rest day! I will get my run in tomorrow morning!
Idle hands
Posted on: April 17, 2013
seem to quickly find little yummies just hanging out, asking to be eaten!
I have been meaning to write this particular entry for quite a while now. I am notorious for late-night snacking. Sweet. Salty. Crunchy. Creamy. It never seemed to be anything in particular. It was definitely a habit I made. While I was pregnant with my second daughter, I would eat a bowl of cereal every night right before bed. And I’m not talking a little bowl. I’m thinking the bowls were easily two servings worth. That little habit I formed followed me into my non-preggers time. Quite annoying if I do say so myself.
Over the winter (2012-2013) I really picked up an old craft that I learned when I was a child. Crocheting. I found a super cute pattern for an owl hat and decided I’d make one for all of us. They went super quickly and once my husband (who from here on out shall be referred to as Link) received his hat downrange, people actually starting asking if I could make them some. That they’d pay me! Well, hey!!! Why not?!
Besides finding out that I really do enjoy crocheting, I have found a “side effect.” Losing weight! Haha, yes. I do most of my crocheting after my kiddos go down for the night since I more or less get lost in my projects. And since I was getting lost, I was thinking about the little yummies that wanted to be eaten. It took me a while to make the connection, but once I did, I knew I had to keep it up.
Eventually the weather started getting warmer, so the orders stopped coming in… and the little yummies have started calling again. I see the pattern happening already. Luckily, I know that I just need to get some yarn on my hook and just crochet! Who would have thought that simply preoccupying your mind with something other than food would work so well? I surely didn’t. I am so happy for it though.
Do you have a something to preoccupy yourself? Do you read (something besides my blog of course)? Do you do a craft of some sort? Are you a super cleaner? (<—-definitely not me lol) They say variety is the spice of life, so hit me up!
Another well-paid for workout
Posted on: April 10, 2013
Nick has done it again. I swear, he gets a kick out of torturing me, and I love him for it! Here’s how today went:
I saw him finishing up with his earlier appointment, so I let him know he could find me warming up on the treadmill. Not even 1 minute later he comes over laughing at me, telling me to get off. There was my first big indicator that today I was going to sweat… a lot! I could see it in his eyes! LOL
He hands me a jump rope and off I start. Today was a “go until you lose your rhythm (mess up) and well do one exercise”. So in between my “mess ups” we took care of the prehab stuff. He made me focus considerably more by putting half a foam roller on my back so I would isolate the right muscles/joints without shifting. The supine bridge was intensified by doing them one legged on the bosu, and we did another prehab called the “reach, roll, and raise” (or something like that). It focuses on the mid-back.
Then we go into the “heavy” stuff. It started with a kettle ball exercise that I can only describe because I have no idea what it’s called. It’s double-armed, and you swing them until they’re almost parallel to the ground then you use your traps and lats to “punch” them back. I know that’s a horrible description but I have no idea how else to describe the motion. LOL Then onto dead lifts, morning glories, inverted rows, presses and donkey kicks all on the smith machine except for the first two. There was huge progress made from last time I tried inverted rows. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty awesome (tired) afterwards.
Once the heavy was done we moved back to our starting area and did some ab and endurance training. This was the circuit I had to complete as many times as I could in 15 minutes. Donkey kicks, fire hydrants, plank (on elbows), alternating side planks (holding for 1-2 secs each time) for 10 reps, wall sit for 30 seconds, then upright rows. The wall sits damn near killed me!! I hated them in the army and I hate them just as much now! After all of that was done, then I had 20 minutes of cardio.
So yes, I sweat my a$$ off today, and it felt awesome. I have noticed when I’ve gotten in a great training, I am so much more apt to keep the momentum going into my dietary needs. Granted, today was Boston Market Wednesday, I still behaved so much better than I think I would have normally, and I still made nutritious decisions without totally depriving myself. All in all, a good day!
If not for the skinny jeans... 