Day 69

Today is day 69. Tomorrow marks the end of week 10 on the fast! Thats a LONG time. Which means we only have like 5 or 6 weeks left! I am super excited yet anxious at the same time. It is going to be weird to eat food again! I just hope I don’t get sick from the shock of it!

Anyway, the past few days have been pretty good. The only weird thing is that it is that time of the month again and I am probably going to have a ‘meh’ weigh-in tomorrow. Oh well. I’m prepared for it! :-) I had my second weigh-in with my trainer yesterday morning. He wanted the weigh-ins to be on Mondays but since I started on a Wednesday I got 2 weigh-ins in less than a week. Points that came up were (1) I weighed exactly the same on both days (2) my weight of muscle was 120 on day 1 but 121.6 on day two whcih means I gained a pound of muscle (3) my body fat % went down 0.6%, and (4) my water levels were low. Real low. So this motivates me to continue training because although the total weight didn’t move, my muscle and fat numbers did. I lost body fat!!!! That means a lot. I do however have to increase my water intake though and I will start that now.

So after seeing such interesting numbers on the scale I decided to go see how much the scale was online because I wanted one just like it! It was SUPER motivating!!!! But then I found out that it was on sale – for $399!!!! UM – NO!!!!! LOL! No way! hahaha! I told my husband and he said we could look into investing in one for later when he gets back from overseas but STILL I don’t think I really will make that a priority. $400??? For a SCALE? My trainer can justify it since that’s his business – he needs something like that but I guess I will be popping over to the fitness studio whenever I want to know my weight lol!

Anyway, weigh-in is tomorrow. As long as I don’t gain I’ll be happy! :-)

Day 64

Today was good. I was super sore from my personal training session yesterday morning. I am happy that I have started training again though.

Anyway, the day was pretty uneventful. I drank my shakes and had a bar after work. I am actually beginning to LIKE the flavor of the bars. I never thought I’d say that but I really do look forward to them! :-)

Anyway, hope all is well with everyone else! :-)

Days 62 & 63

These past couple of days have been great! Updates:

Day 62 was uneventful. I had some disappointing news at work, nothing major, but I needed a hug from my hubby and I couldn’t have one. I was obviously disappointed but I’m ok. I just miss him a lot. Stayed on plan. Went to Zumba in the evening. Typical day.

Day 63
I finally got my weigh-in and I lost 7.8 for the total 2 week period so that’s about an average of 3.9 lbs per week. Not bad! I have obviously met my 30 pound loss goal and then some! :-) I’m excited.

I had a personal trainer last year around the summer and I have 20 workouts that I didn’t use up so I decided to start my training again. I met with my trainer at 5:45 this morning and he kicked my butt!!!! I love the studio. I should post pics at some point. It is a torture chamber lol! Just kidding!!! Custom Fitness is amazing and I am excited to be working out with my trainer Hugo again! :-)

Overall, I had a great day! Hope you all are having just as great days! :-)

WHOA! Days 50 – 61

That’s a lot of days to skip. Wow. Sorry. I’ve been so busy!

Let’s see…in summary I have stuck to my product the entire time as well as kept up my working out. I will elaborate on the working out in a second. First I would like t share my big challenge. I had a challenging last minute business trip last Monday morning where I had to make arrangements to leave on Tuesday through Friday morning. Problem was that I normally get my product for the week on Wednesday. Bummer. Plus I couldnt reach anyone at Kaiser and I probably would not have been able to pick it up in time so what did I end up doing? Well, thanks for asking lol! While waiting at the airport, I researched “Optifast for sale, Orange County” and after going through many search results I found a place an hour and a half way from where I would be. I called, they confirmed that they had the Opti800 and I picked up what I needed. It was a little over priced but I didn’t need the full 42. I had some left over from when I either purchased extra or couldn’t consume all 42 (back during my first week when I threw up from being on product…) so that took care of that issue. Next issue was that I would miss the weigh-in. I didn’t really know how I felt about that. I mean, I love my group meetings, I love my friends there, I love the motivation that I get from seeing my results AND talking to my friends so I was scared about not being motivated enough to resist the Starbucks at the airport or the See’s candy that I usually get on my return flight but I worried for nothing! It all went well. Got back home perfectly intact with no horrors to report! :-)

I was able to work out while I was gone. I actually decided that since there would be no Zumba classes or tennis for me for much of the week I would start training for my upcoming 5K. So I downloaded a C25K app on my phone and began running. I started on Tuesday. It alternates 1 minute of jogging with 1.5 minutes of walking for Week 1. I hit a mile by 16.10 minutes in. Not bad considering all the walking that I was doing PLUS 5 minutes of that was a warm-up of walking so I’m not too worried about my time or pace as of right now. Hopefully I can tighten all that up before race day in August. On day 2, I hit my mile at 15.40 minutes in. That’s a 30 second improvement! I can’t wait to see where I’m at at the end of the whole 8 week program!!!

The weekend was good. Laid back. I went and FINALLY got my reward mani-pedi and wax. I waited this long because once I start getting them it becomes a regular thing and I was kind of trying to wait until further in to my weight loss to start keeping up with stuff like that. I spend most of my time outside of work in gross workout clothes or pajamas. Anyway, I ‘m glad to be back. Glad that I made it through the trip. Glad that I’ve started running again and I’m just glad to be alive. Thinking about the tragedy in Boston makes me want to keep running for myself of course but for those who can’t anymore. I’m dedicating my 5K on August 3rd to them….

On a lighter, too much information note, I had bought a bra back in early March but it was racerback with the clasp in the front and it just fit really weirdly. This morning I decided on a cute blouse to wear to work but the bad part was that the shirt is very sheer so all my undergarments had to be black. My other black bras were in the laundry so I went into the bag where I had put the bra and receipt with every intention of taking it back and put it on and…it fit perfectly!!! Yay!!!! :-) So yeah, tmi…progress…call it what you want!!!!

Anyway, thanks for reading. I will try to do better with my blog.

Day 49 – Update

Well, well, well… Great day all around. I’m sleepy so this will be short. All my crazy hard work paid off this week and I am proud to say that I had a great day and an event greater weigh-in. I lost 5.4 pounds tonight. Yay!!!!!!!! I’m so happy, proud, relieved, grateful…all that. I set a goal and achieved it. Hopefully this only motivates me to keep it up. This whole program can be super intense but it’s victories like these that make it worthwhile.

I know I’ve mentioned my “cohort-mates” before but I’m grateful for the 2 that I’ve bonded with the most. We challenge each other, motivate each other, commiserate with each other and are just there for each other. I was scared that I wouldn’t have adequate support once my hubby left but that is all behind me now. I have them, I have y’all and I still have hubby’s support regardless of how many miles are between us.

Anyway, it’s late. Im going to update my stats and go to bed. 

Nite!

Day 49 – Mini-Post

Today is weigh-in day. I am super excited. I am sitting here at work blogging and counting down until it is 4:15 so I can make my way over to Kaiser. 4 more hours (and 10 minutes). I have a good feeling about this week. No time-of-the month to throw me off. No emotional ups and downs with sleep deprivation like last week. I am shooting for at LEAST 4 pounds. Will I be disappointed if I’m wrong? Honestly, a little….but as long as I lose greater than 1 pound this week, I will be SUPER grateful!!!!

Oh – before I go, I wanted to call myself out on not following through with something. I had committed to doing the arms exercises that I started about a week ago for 2 weeks and monitoring my progress. Well I did not follow through. I am a little disappointed with myself considering that if I had stuck to it I would have been halfway done with the 2 week committment by now. I will promise to start this up again tonight and I am going to put a reminder on my iPhone to remind me. I need to do it for myself and for my arms sake. :-) A little motivation is that I will be auditioning at California Family Fitness in exactly 2 weeks so sexier arms means extra confidence right??? Right! :-)

I will be back later to post an update! :-)

To all my fellow Optifasters – good job and good luck!!!

Day 48

Today was a good day. I was kind of sad this morning so I decided to stay home from work. I guess I should say I “changed my mind” about going to work. :-) I say that because I was dressed – brown slacks (that I haven’t been able to fit in a while – YAY), army green top and black sweater – and I was already in my car about to get on the freeway when I started thinking about my husband, how much I miss him and that I really wanted to talk to him uninhibited because I had updates on things that I wanted to share. He has a way to send online sms messages to my cell and I can send them back which is awesome, and he uses that to let me know when he is about to call, or that he misses me, wants me to listen to/view something online, etc. Anyway, I know I can’t talk that freely at work since the walls have ears so I just went home. I’m a pretty private person and even just updates about the Optifast Program or weight loss are personal and not something I would like to share with ALL of my office mates. As soon as I got home I sent him an SMS telling him he could reach me on the landline or cell and that I wouldn’t be at work all day. Within the hour he called on ooVoo which is a video chat platform and we had a good talk. It was good to see him on video too. I felt better and I had a really good relaxing day at home.

Had all my shakes today. Drank quite a bit of water. Speaking of water. I mistakenly bought a case of Nestle Pure Life Splash Lemon flavored water. You’re probably like how do you mistakenly do that? WELL lol, I shop at the Commissary (which in English is the military grocery store – its less expensive, they have a CRAZY selection meaning anything you ever had will probably be found here and if not they order it, they have CRAZY sales – I went in once and they had Red Baron pizzas on sale for 99 cents regularly like $7 and another time RockStars were on sale for 99 cents regular $4, AND they have no taxes except for the standard California tax on sodas and bottled items like water, soda, beer I think, etc.). Anyway, when you go towards the checkout at the McClellan AFB Commissary you have to make your way through this strategically placed maze that has all the things you probably forgot like candies, cookies, cereal….lots of promo items…and cases of water! Well, I saw this 32 pack of water for $3.99 so I jumped on it. When I got home I put some in the fridge and didn’t think about them until I was walking out the door the morning of my Zumba training so I grabbed a few and threw them in one of my bags. Later on, I was thirsty after our first set of dancing so I grabbed one, sipped it  and tasted a faint sweet lemony taste which was shocking – I thought the water had gone bad – but refreshing. Since then I cannot get enough of this water! I have one here right now. 2 in my workout bags. One on my nightstand lol. I’m addicted. See how deprived my tastebuds must be?

If my husband ever reads this he will for sure be thinking to himself, “there she goes with her long a$$ stories”! LOL! Yes I know, it takes me forever to get to the point/punchline sometimes but it’s just because I like for everyone to know the back story lol!!!!! :-)

Anyway, I think I should be done for now. Oh wait – I worked out last night. I went to Zumba (cardio dance) with the instructor who is super intense. She has her own programs now in a studio where she rents (not sure if I mentioned that) and I had a great workout. I was more aware of my moves in the mirror and very impressed with myself if I may say so. I think its the knowledge and awareness that comes with being an instructor. All the steps seem different now and I can appreciate them more.

Ok, that’s all for the day!!!! I’m done. Hope you enjoyed it!

Have a great night!

Day 47

Today was a good day. Stayed on my diet. Hit the gym as promised for an hour – Zumba. I was low/medium impact tonight just because I want to take it easy on my knee. We danced all day yesterday at Zumba training so I just don’t want to over do it. Don’t get me wrong – there’s no pain (unless you count the residual twinge I feel EVERY TIME I go up the stairs at home). I just want to be proactive.

I feel funny when I say “stayed on my diet” as if there is a possibility that I could have strayed. Which, I guess there is since anything is possible but I know I wouldn’t because all I have to do is think about the money I have put into this or how I would feel afterwards OR even how I would feel knowing that I had to be true to all my supporters and fess up and all that keeps me very compliant. :-) I am happy that it is easy for me because I know it isn’t for others. Some people quit. Some people cheat regularly. I actually know someone who does – but I will keep that info confidential. Rules. :-)

Anyway, I’m feeling good today. Sleepy, but good. I think I will be able to catch up on my sleep this weekend since I have very little planned.

Have a wonderful day! :-)

Day 46 – Zumba Instructor!!! Yeah, that’s me!

I did it! I got my Zumba Instructor Basic 1 license! I spent the whole day over an hour and a half away getting trained with other like-minded people. I made a few new friends, lots of contacts and I had a BLAST!!! I am completely drained but wanted to at least write something.

On another note, today is my 4-year wedding anniversary and my other half is thousands of miles away on deployment. I miss him a lot but honestly I am SO glad that I scheduled the Zumba training today because it has kept me distracted on this super-sentimnetal day…! ! Anyway at least we got to talk and video chat briefly.

I’m DRAINED! Got to go to bed so that I can get up on time tomorrow.

Till later!

Days 44 & 45

Day 44
Great day. I did workout last night. Great diet day. Can’t wait to be back on real food again though… Got to chat with my husband multiple times today so I’m a happy camper.

Day 45
Today was a decent day. Worked out a little bit. I might need to start making myself go to bed because I have been so busy during the day but I haven’t been making myself go to bed on time. I think it will help me overall… Have a great day!

Day 43

Today was good. I was super duper motivated (can you tell???) and I got a lot done. I was busy all day up until about 7:45pm. After I got home and relaxed for a few minutes, I decided to make my workout for the day a home workout. I put on my gym clothes and perfected a routine for my upcoming Zumba auditon and then I did arms. I used 2 lb weights and did 15 tricep kickbacks, 30 pilates presses, 15 bicep curls, 15 chest flys, and 15 cross shoulder extensions. THEN I repeated this twice. Once I was done with all that, I did bicep curls until failure. Failure was 30 super quick reps. So all in all it was a good workout. Super light weight. I will start doing this every night for the next two weeks and monitor my progress.

Diet-wise, I did great. Everything was on schedule. I’m really glad I have bars this week. They are filling and they make me think I ate something amazing. :-)

Anyway, stay focused everyone and enjoy the rest of the week!!! :-)

Super Duper Motivated

I just feel so motivated. I know it is probably more of a coping mechanism than anything else but I am going to enjoy the ride haha!:-)

I paid for my Zumba license workshop and I am proud to announce that all day on Sunday I will be spending time with a group of like-minded people getting my Zumba license. All day meaning I will leave my house at 6am and return at about 9pm. But it will be well worth it. I am so excited. Before I went to sleep last night I came up with a playlist for my first class (and at one point I got out of bed and went through some new choreography for one song that I just had to do at the moment – did I say I was obsessive???) but then I went back to bed. Anyway, I am excited and can’t wait to see where this mini-journey takes me.

I plan on doing a mini workout like I did yesterday tonight since I have a full day today and won’t be able to make it to Zumba. I think 20 minutes on the bike, 5 on the rowing machine and maybe 5 spent doing lateral pull downs should be enough. I will get in a full hour of cardio for sure tomorrow.

Anyway, good luck everyone! :-)

Update: Days 36 – 42

Hey y’all! I missed a bunch of days so I am going to play catch up now. I have to do better than this and I will considering the fact that blogging here and keeping in touch with everyone motivates me beyond anything else. So here goes!

Day 36
Today I went on my business trip. Perfect presentation but pretty hectic day. I MADE it though!!! I kind of screwed up my intake schedule but I was ok. I binged on shakes once I got home lol.

Day 37
Lazy day. Didn’t go to work. Hung out with my husband. When he went to out-process on base for the upcoming deployment I went to a Zumba class.

Speaking of Zumba – with the possibility of an overseas PCS (Permanent Change of Station) in the next year or so, I have decided to get my Zumba license. I have been thinking about this for a while. A couple of years really. More so during these past few weeks when I learned that it was a huge possibility that a base overseas is in our future. Zumba is portable so I can do it anywhere. You may also remember in the very beginning, back in February, I posted that my dance instructor (initially Zumba but then switched to “Cardio Dance” for licensing reasons) was leaving California Family Fitness. Well, I, on a whim submitted an application to the gym for a Group Fitness Instructor opening since I have the Certification for it (had it since last September). SO – longer story short (:-)) I got a call back asking me to come in for an audition. I agreed and chose April 24th as my audition date. That gives me time to get my Zumba license and prepare choreography for the 30 minute routine. I am very excited (and scared) about the audition. Its intense… I will be leading a class of the fitness directors so it has to be good.

Anyway, I stuck to the diet of course and had a pretty good day!

Day 38
My husband took me to a park and we laid in the grass for hours just talking, napping and cuddling. We had a nice time. We had chosen this day to celebrate our 4th anniversary since it is on April 7th but his deployment starts on April 1st so he won’t be here… It was one of the best days ever. Simple. Fun. Sweet. For the evening, we went to the Lakers game. Just like we did on the evening of our wedding day. It was a great game, we had a great time and I didn’t even miss the pizza and beer that I normally would’ve gotten.

All in all, I had a great day.

Day 39
Today we watched a movie and just hung out at home all day. My husband was busy packing up all his last-minute items. I’m telling you, the bags he had were SO heavy. I couldn’t even lift one halfway off the ground and I’m a strong girl! God Bless him! He has to carry those bags all the way to the stupid desert. Anyway, hopefully he will ship some stuff home like he did at the end of the last deployment because thats a LOT of stuff!!!!!

I stuck to the plan. Didn’t work out since it was Easter. Happy Easter everyone!!!!! :-)

Day 40
Today is where the madness begins. Don’t worry I stayed on plan – I’ve never gone off BUT I stayed up all day yesterday, all night last night and all day today. I was up for over 36 hours straight and this is where I believe my weight-loss took a beating. I have read (as I’m sure we all have) about sleep being very important if you’re trying to lose weight. I have listened to that a little but never more seriously than I am listening to that advice now. I was up all morning with hubby – took him to the airport, cried my eyes out all day and then finally fell asleep when he called to tell me his first few flights were out of the way and that he was checking in to his hotel. I drank my shakes on auto-pilot and didn’t do much really… This was a BLAH day. Thank God that Cesar Chavez day is celebrated in Cali because I was off work today…

Day 41
Today was ok. Again on auto-pilot. I am going to have to re-adjust to life since things will be different now. I did stay busy at work today. I volunteered for some extra projects to fill in the next several days so I don’t think I will have that much idle time for about 3 weeks or so which is definitely what I need.

I stayed on product and that’s about it. No gym. No work-out. Nada.

Day 42
Well, what do you know? As expected, I had a low number today – 0.4 pounds for a total of 22.8 pounds so far. I DO NOT feel bad about this at all. I expected it. I have had no sleep and I have been off my usual schedule. I DO however predict at least 5 pounds next week. I already know it will happen so that’s my motivation right now. Unfortunately, or fortunately – depending on how you look at it – I know my body VERY well. The stress and the water weight from my period usually has me gaining weight so I consider the fact that I didn’t gain to be an AMAZING thing. I know they’re just numbers but when you are as obsessive as I am and you are paying such close attention to your weight as I am right now (and have been for the past 6 months or so) it truly becomes psychological. You might KNOW that you weight-trained this week and gained muscle OR you’re on your period now and are retaining water OR you wore a heavier outfit to weigh-in OR you drank a lot of water before your weigh-in OR whatever it might be BUT it it is hard to get past the number. For this I would just suggest that we all take it for what it is and then set ourselves up to completely obliterate that scale next week. That’s all you can do. And that’s what I am going to do. I typically never work out on Wednesdays but today I decided to hit the gym every day, drink all my required H20 and stick strictly to my intake schedule. I did 4 miles on the bike as fast as I could (15 minutes) and then I did 5 minutes on the rowing machine. Not much but still, compared to last Wednesday its better than nothing right???

A couple of my friends in my cohort just decided that this past week was an all around blah week and decided to go balls to the wall this week. We’ll see what that looks like next Wednesday but I am SUPER motivated right now!!!!
Here’s to better numbers next week! Good luck to us all!!!! :-)