Week Eight

Can't believe the last two posts or so I totally forgot a cartoon! What fun is weight loss without a little comedy geez!

Monday Workout - No PT because of Presidents day so I did some sprint intervals on the treadmill for 2 miles.

Tuesday Workout- I went to an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING HYPER FUN KICK MY BUTT Zumba class! Loved it! Holy guacomole it felt like I was sprinting for an hour but I had a blast and such a good workout.

Wednesday Workout- So guess who set her alarm for 6am instead of 5am??? ME! Ugh...Frusteration! I missed PT and then slept in a bit...ah geez. So I did Jillian Michael's 30 day shred and a 1 mile sprint interval.

Thursday Workout- I went to my first spinning class! I LOVED IT! My butt bones are a little bruised I may need to get some padded shorts or something but it was and AWESOME workout.

Friday Workout- PT was at Sugarhouse Park. We were partnered up and we each went separate ways and then when we reached the starting point we turned around and ran around the park again. It's around 3 1/2-4 miles. On my second time around one of the Sergeant Major Johnson (My Military Science Instructor who's been in the Army forever and thinks the PT test is too easy) ran with me and pushed me to my limits holy chicken I literally thought I was going to pass out or throw up I was dying but I'm so happy I pushed myself.

I did not work out on Saturday. I know I know FAIL. I worked a 9.5 hour shift at work that day and I was exhausted. I feel guilty about not doing something  but I can't go back now so better planning and commitment this week. 

This week seemed a little difficult for me I had a lot of "munchie" moments which are killers when it comes to weight loss. Each time I tried to hurry and grab an apple, banana, orange or something or a piece of gum. Someday's were better than others.

Also in my nutrition book I read that if you want to lose weight you have to work out at least 60 minutes a day. I normally do 30-45ish I guess sometimes more. This week I tried to make sure I was getting in a full 60 minutes.

Also, the end of the semester PT test is April 6th. That is 7 weeks away so I need to kick some serious butt! There is no reason why I shouldn't weigh less than 165 and be able to pass my pushups, situps, and 2 mile run. Thought it was getting intense but it's only just begun! 




Recap of this week:
How many days I worked out: 5-6
Weight Loss: 0 (but thats ok!)
Final Weigh In: 167.5

Doing some thinking...

Not super happy about what has evolved from my thinking but I'm thinking about maybe not doing the Utah Valley Marathon. I know I know but hear me out. I have a lot going on and I always always always try to do absolutely everything. The half marathon training wasn't quite as demanding whereas the marathon training I'm supposed to be running 15-20 miles in a few weeks. Scares me a little because I have a lot going on right now. I have school and work and I'm trying to pass my PT test so I can contract and get my scholarship. So I'm thinking but haven't fully decided yet or not about doing the Utah Valley Half Marathon because 1- less intense training plan 2- 10 week training plan vs. 16 week training plan and 3- I've done a half before. And then what I would do is run a marathon in the fall sometime and I would have basically the summer to train for it since I'm probably not going to school over the summer. 
On the same type of note such a freaking bummer. Remember the whole Zumba certification thing. Yup, the class sold out before I could register for it. That really stinks but maybe its meant to be right? They opened up another one but it is when I have the Fall Training Exercise for the ROTC and they also have one in St. George at the end of March that Ben and I are maybe considering it but not sure yet. 

Week Seven

Days I worked out this week- 5

Weight Loss - 1lb.

Total Weight - 167.5

Monday Workout - For PT we did some hills by Westminster. We would run down the hill and then sprint back up do some push-ups or cherry pickers ( balance on your butt and switch hands side to side) and then run to the next hill run down it and then run backwards back up it. We did that 6 times.
Tuesday Workout - (They have non required PT on Tues and Thurs but its hard to drive all the way up there 5 days a week but I went so I could get some ideas for workouts.) So Tuesday I went to PT and we did Satan's hill which is up by the University of Utah. It is hell but I hope to conquer it one day. Great workout though!
Wednesday Workout - For PT we did 16 flights of stairs twice and then some push-ups and sit-ups. Stairs are a killer.
Thursday Workout- Show up to PT. The lieutenant  in charge asked if anyone had already done "the stairs" this week. I said yes we did them twice the day before. He said OK well now you are going to do them 4 times today. Eye yi yi. I did it though. And then... oh yes not over yet...we did 15 push-ups and then held the push-up position for a minute and then 15 push-ups with our legs up on the bench and then held the push-up position for a minute again. AND THEN... we did 10 minute abs which is basically where you do a different ab workout every minute for the 10 minutes.
Friday Workout- We got into buddy teams and then we had to do 100 push-ups between the 2 of us, 150 sit-ups between the 2 of us and then each run/sprint 4 laps. 


As far as eating I did really good almost all week and then Sunday was kinda a killer. We always have a family dinner and this week it was my brother Jason's birthday so everyone was over and there was cake and cookies and bread-sticks ( I love bread) and lasagna and licorice and taffy. I did pretty good though I just tried to control my portion size if anything. It definitely helped that I had such killer workouts this week as well though.


I'm so happy because its working. I'm not going on a diet I'm just going by what they've said for years. Less intake (food) More output (exercise).

Week Six

Monday Workout PT Test - 2 mile run, push-ups, sit-ups

Tuesday Workout - Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Week 1, talk about kicking my butt! Mix of cardio, strength training and abs.

Wednesday Workout- For PT we did circuit training for 45 min. 1 min at each station 10 second break between each one.

1. Medicine Ball Squats. Hold ball squat throw ball against wall and catch coming back to squat position.
2. Wall Sits. Hands grasped in front of you not on your hips or thighs as low as you can.
3. Crunches
4. Lunges
5. Dip push-ups. Put your hands on a yoga block or something stable a few inches of the ground and then do push-ups as far down as you can go.
6. Plank

7. Burpees. My fav!

8. Swimmer. Lay on your stomach Same leg as arm reach both of the ground and then switch. Careful

if you do it on hard floor it can bruise your hips if you don't have a mat or something.

9. Back Dips. It's hard to explain these ones. Heres the position and just use your arms to move your

body up and down.

10.Jump rope. It's a classic.

Just keep rotating through the exercises until times up!

Thursday Workout - Zumba, Stretching, and ROTC lab which is always a workout walking around doing battle drills and such. We were running up and down hills this week up at the key hole which is right by Red Butte Gardens. It was a lot of fun though too.
Friday Workout - Running/Jogging at Sugarhouse Park for PT. We go 2 times around normally which is about 3-3.5 miles.
I did pretty well on eating this week. In my nutrition class we did a "fast food assignment" where we figured all the calories in a meal that we would normally get from our favorite fast food restaurant and then we were supposed to find something healthier to eat instead. Pretty much the whole class put down they would get a salad instead of their favorite thing. My teacher made a great point. She said we go get fast food for a reason. We don't go get fast food to get a salad so how realistic is that change going to be. The key is smaller portion sizes. Everyone biggie sizes EVERYTHING. Ben and I went to Arby's one night and I ordered the kids meal. I still got the roast beef sandwich and the curly fries but in a much smaller portion size and believe it or not it was the PERFECT portion size for me. It filled me up.
However, I did something not so great this week. I had diet dr. pepper a few times. Towards the end of the week I was so burned out and I didn't have any of my crystal light energies on me so I broke down. Terrible. I went for the diet because it has zero calories but it still has carbonation and it's still not great for you. I'll be fine this week though I promise!
I found this awesome website thanks to my nutrition class of course. It's called nutri calc plus and it tells you not only the calories you consume but all the other nutrients and what you should be consuming. You can add in foods if they are not in the system and the best part is you can add in recipes. So you put in the recipe and put in how many servings it makes and it tells you the nutrition facts for the recipe. LOVE IT!
Don't know if I've mentioned it all *wink,wink* but I absolutely love my nutrition class I am taking this semester. It is so interesting. I know I'm all over the place but one of the big things for me with this weight loss fiasco I'm on is to prove you don't need to "diet" or absolutely take anything out that you love to lose weight. Yes you can do the fad diets and lose a bunch of pounds or maybe not lose anything but at the end of the day have you made any life changes? Are you exercising more? After the fad diet did you go back to your normal eating habits? I just see so many people that lose weight on these things and then are back on another fad diet a few months later. Don't get me wrong I am tempted still to do something like the HCG. I keep telling myself if I do the HCG and suck it up for 30-45 days and eat only 500 calories and give my self drops or shots THEN I'll be happy. But I don't think I will. This journey that I am on right now needs to be a lifestyle change. I need to come to grips with my challenges with food and working out and find something that works for me that I can continue to do for pretty much the rest of my life. Saying that... I understand I am not always going to lose weight each week and yes it's frustrating I know I"m not going to lose a pound a day. But hopefully and it it hasn't so far feel like I'm on a diet or depriving myself of things I love. I love to workout. I love the feeling I get from it. It is hard some days to work it in to my busy schedule but I feel so much better when I do. Same with eating. I love certain foods that are not great for me but I'm also not just going to give them up. I either need smaller portions of them and in moderation or find a healthy alternative that I love just as much if not more.
Enough of that for today sorry to get off on that here is the final summary of this weeks weigh loss and exercise:

In Summary days of workout this week- 5:6
Weight Loss: 1.5lbs
Final Weigh in: 169.5

Week Five

This week has been a pretty dang good week. I had awesome workouts 6-6 days this week and I ate fairly healthy even with superbowl weekend and all. I did not gain nor lose a pound this week which I can live with.I think what really saved me was how much water I drank. I try to drink at least 8 glasses a day if not more.I also have still been trying to add more fruits and veggies into my diet. Also, something else that has helped me I always allow myself one small treat a day that way I don't feel like I'm neglecting my sugar/sweet tooth. I mixed up my workouts this week with running, zumba and I started the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred video as well. I think its always good to mix it up so your muscles are being worked in different ways and areas.

So I bet everyone is wondering what happened with the PT test. I just barely finished taking it actually. Surprise! I did 17 push-ups and 43 sit-ups and a 21:05 run thanks to my dad for pacing me and motivating me and the ROTC cadets for the motivation. I am 1:35 min away from passing and I need to do 10 more sit-ups. I've never not passed my sit-ups though so I don't know what happened there. I am so close though! I am planning on being there within about 2 weeks. I know I can do this and it is so exciting.

This instead of That

I took this out of my nutrition book and found it very helpful.

If you usually eat this             Try this instead                                Why?

White Bread                              Whole Wheat Bread                  More fiber

Sugary Breakfast Cereal          Low sugar high fiber cereal       More fiber

                                                            With fresh fruit                               

Cheeseburger with   Turkey Burger and Baked Beans   less saturated fat

Fries                                                                                                less cholesterol

                                                                                                       More Fiber

Potato Salad                        Three bean salad                             more fiber

Doughnuts                            Bran muffin/bagel w/                     more fiber

                                                 Light cream cheese                         less fat

Boiled vegetables    Steamed vegetables                       higher nutrient

                                                                                                              Density

Whole Milk                         low fat of fat free milk                   less saturated fat

                                                                                                             Fewer calories

                                                                                                                More calcium

Ice Cream        Sherbert or frozen yogurt      less saturated fat

                                                                             Fewer calories

Cookies                           popcorn                                         fewer calories

Chips                                pretzels                                              less fat

Fiber is amazing for so many reasons. Women need to have at least 25grams of fiber per day and Men 38. Be careful though especially if you aren’t eating a lot of fiber already because fiber can do crazy things…just saying. Oh and stay hydrated at all times.