Down 9 Pounds...Holding Until Monday

My first DietBet challenge has come to an end.  The goal was to lose 4% of my body weight in 4 weeks.  Mission accomplished.  I lost 9 pounds...so about .5 more pounds than I needed to lose.  But, it came down to the wire and required running about 3 miles in the Florida humidity on the day of weigh-in to make that happen.  Oh, and 7 days straight of just cardio prior to that.  WHICH, included a workout at the gym in a long-sleeved tshirt.  I have no idea how people do it.  It's not uncommon for Heather to workout in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.  But after just 13 minutes on the ARC, I WAS ON FIRE!

And I still had 47 more minutes to go.  I was looking around in panic thinking: I'm not going to make it.  I am burning up.  It's hotter than 1000 hells under this shirt.  Someone help me.  Can I take my shirt off and not get kicked out of Planet Fitness?

I made it.  But just barely.

That shit is no joke.

So here is my before and my after.  Heather could have told me to flip my bangs back in the after.

So, to keep myself motivated, I started another DietBet challenge for August 31st.  Same rules, same $35.  I figure if I am going to try and keep losing, I might as well make some money for doing it.  If you want to play or read about the challenge, the "team" name is Lovehandle Losers.  Or you can click here.

To celebrate my victory, my Rachel came over for some adult coloring book time and WINE.  It was wonderful.  I bought the coloring books from Amazon and had an assortment of coloring vehicles, such as crayons, pencils, and markers.  We colored and chatted and drank for almost 3 hours and didn't even finish one sheet!

And finally, we added some workout stuff to our garage last summer, and I have completed our home gym with three mirrors from Target.  I often go to Planet Fitness while Heather works out at home...one because I workout harder at the gym bc people are watching and I want to be impressive, and 2...I really like looking at myself when I am lifting (except when I am doing overhead tricep extension and my batwings are flying around willy nilly).  So now that I have mirrors at home, I can workout with more intention...

which usually involves twerking or other butt moves.

Diet Bet: Beginning Week Two

Official Weigh In (Sunday July 26th): 196.2
Monday Weigh In (Monday, July 27th): 193
Monday Weigh In (Monday, Aug 3rd): 194

Technically, for official purposes, I am down a couple of pounds.  But from Monday to Monday, I actually gained a pound.

FML.

But, if I am being honest with myself (which is sometimes hard to do when you aren't losing like you dream about), I know what I need to do.

Although I did several two-a-days, upped my cardio, drank my water, only had 12 ounces of soda, and didn't drink any alcohol all week...I WAS too liberal with my snack allowances and there were a couple other tweaks I could make.

Such as:

My protein shake breakfasts last week were made with 2% milk, blueberries, and 2 tbs peanut butter.  That can end up being a pretty high calorie, although delicious and and pretty nutritious, breakfast.  So this week I switched out my 2% milk for unsweetened almond milk, saving me roughly 90 calories there, and I cut out the peanut butter....saving me nearly 250 calories on top of my 90.

I have a wonderful coworker that keeps a desk drawer full of wonderful candy...which includes reeses peanut butter eggs.  I like to pretend if I just have one or two (they are the small ones okay?!) that those calories don't really count.

but...THEY DO.  So, none of that this week.

I bought some healthy snacks to have on hand instead of the cheetos another coworker gave me last week.

I am keeping up my water intake, adding 40-60 minutes of cardio in the afternoon on mornings where I just lift.

I will get there.

Like always though, when you make changes that you think are going to show results on the scale, and the results don't come instantly, you can get a little grumpy. But I am in good spirits.  I mean...what is my other option? Quit?  Uh no.  I am going to lose my 4% this month.

For realz.

And to stay motivated, I like to look at pictures when my body was at my (according to me) optimal size.  I'm not sure of my weight here, although this was before my new boobies (see that gapping in the right boob/bra area).  I would guess I am around 170.  But those are size 8 skinny jeans from the Loft...and I want to fit into them again.

Happy Thursday friends!

HIIT Training

This is how it goes in my relationship.  I am very wise.  I do KNOW somethings about working out & fitness that didn't come from Heather.  SO, when I share such things with Heather...like a certain new "move" when we are lifting, or a new idea on how to train...EVEN if I site my sources...she usually just says:

"mmhmm.  Yeah".

She pretends to hear me, but she doesn't hear me.

AND THEN...if something is challenging for her...let's say a single-leg deadlift (bc she has the balance of a blind rhino), then AUTOMATICALLY that move is "stupid" or "pointless".

but...

BUT...

Give it a few months and she will read something or watch something that is saying EXACTLY what I said months prior and then all of a sudden....

IT'S THE BEST IDEA EVER.

The best idea ever I say.

And SHE thinks it was HER idea!

I tell you.

This is my life.

And if I try to say..."um...do you remember when I told you that?"...there is no recollection of that.

ANYWAYS, so the current thing she is set on is HIIT training.  High Interval Intensity Training.  In a tiny nutshell, it's intense bursts of energy and movement, followed by a tiny, less intense move to let your heartrate come down, and then repeat.  Studies are showing that you can achieve the same amount of calorie burn and heart health (some say MORE actually) than sustained lower intensity cardio. So you can do HIIT training for 30 minutes versus the treadmill for 60.

The problem with HIIT training is that I kinda hate things that are high intensity.  My body is not made for such things.  But today we sprinted.  SPRINTED?  I prepped Heather, as if she didn't already know, that my sprinting was going to look vastly different than her sprinting.

I feel very physically challenged when my brain tries to tell my stubby legs to move fast.  It happens for literally maybe, 2 seconds.  And our sprints probably only last 15 seconds...but at the end of those 15 seconds it is probably tragic.  Heavy-footed. Eyes partially closed.  Panting like a bulldog in July.

But when it's over...you do feel good.  Kinda.  Minus the hamstrings and lungs...everything was alright.  At least we are only do this twice a week.

Now, to share some other goings-on with you...

Almost two weekends ago we went to my parent's houseboat in Scottsboro.  They live on the Tennessee River...and this was our view for our workout.  We ran those stadium stairs up and down...50 times...for a total of 100 flights.  It took a little over an hour.  We would do sets of 5 up and downs and then do 2 body weight exercises (pushups, abs, tricep dips, etc).  It was a really great workout.

 Then it was time for my niece and brother to arrive.  I drank preeeetttty much from 11am until I had to put myself to bed at around 1030pm.  This excessive drinking has made it easier for me to abstain from drinking during this DietBet challenge.

 This is how you know HEATHER is drunk.  She sits on people and lets them touch her.  Kaity is often the recipient of such love.

 Before the day got started, Heather and I took out the little boat.  It took us about 452 selfies to get this picture...and I still got the damn boat shelf in the bottom corner!