Where Did We Leave Off??

Hello folks!! I'm back from my vaca, still have my head cold, and am trying to get back into the grind of things. So lets do a bit of a recap and catch up!

So the end of February brought on a NASTY head cold that even though I was doing nothing but sleeping and working and not doing my best watching my food I somehow lost 3.4lbs and weighed in at 138.6. I wasn't going to the question the weirdness of that loss because I was pumped to have that in time for my vaca!

So then I spent a week in Cali. LOVED IT!!!!! Now I'm not a huge fan of sticking to the rules when on vacation. It's basically do what I want and eat what I want because its vacation and who cares. So I enjoyed a couple frozen butter beers at Universal Studious and ate up some yummy In-N-Out and had no regrets. Came home and weighed myself this Sunday and gained 3. I have no feelings on this. Loose 3, gain 3.....I'm even in my books.

So then this week started and I was all set to be on track......except for still not feeling 100% AAAAND dealing with jet leg AND daylight saving at the same time. So far my workouts are getting done (although lacking a bit of energy) and my food....that's another story. Honestly, it COULD be worse. Buuuuuuut...it basically became a"eat all the shit out of the house" week. I've been eating spaghetti all week, ate Jimmy Johns, enjoyed a soda and so on and so on. I'm hoping my workouts will help me at least not gain this week, but oh well if I do. I always have next week to fix it.

My workouts though are going awesome so far! I am starting a Chalean Extreme and Piyo Hybrid workout. I wanted to get back into lifting some weights and wasn't wanting to give up yoga so I combined. I made this lil calendar to help track my workouts....

I have no yet mapped out my workouts but my plan is so far to do Piyo Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I will then do the Burn/Push/Lean circuits of the workout on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Sunday will be a rest day. I plan on sticking with the Chalean Extreme calendar of have 4 weeks of the Burn Phase, 4 of the Push Phase, and 4 of the Lean Phase. I feel like not mapping out all 3 months worth helps keep it flexible so if my days need to be switched around they can. Still undecided if I want to schedule out each week before it happens or just leave it up to me to fill it in as I go. I may just feel this out. So far this week I've been doing pretty good at getting myself to dothe workouts without having a schedule. Monday I did the Upper Piyo workout, Tuesday was Burn Circuit 1, Tonight will be the Lower Piyo, and tomorrow will be Burn Circuit 3. I'm basicly swapping the cardio days of Chalean Extreme with Piyo. So this makes the Chalean Extreme portion SUPER easy to follow. My only issue is figuring out what workouts I should do in what order for the Piyo portion. I'm thinking I'll try to do the Core workout once a week and then leave the two other days up in the air. I might just do the one I want to do, might toss them in a hat and pull them out, maybe follow the Piyo schedule.....I'll let you know what I end up with.

Weekly Update

This weekend was weigh in day and measurement day! I weighed in and took measurements on Saturday instead of Sunday due to my birthday being Saturday. I had plans to eat nothing but junk food all day and felt this would alter what my true weight would be. I came in at 142. My measurements where basically all the same as last month. The only one that showed a difference was my stomach area. To be honest....once again....this was all to be expected.

My headache from hitting my head continued until Wednesday when it started to dull down. Woke up Thursday feeling SO MUCH better, went to bed with a bit of a sore throat, woke up Friday sick as a dog. And sick as a dog I have remained. I can only imagine what all the pain pills and now sinus medications I'm pumping into my body is doing my weight and measurements. I'm not sure the last time I've been this sick. I'm pretty positive this is nothing more then a head cold/sinus infection but I've been laying around on my couch all weekend.  A week from now I will be happily on vacation so my main goal this week is to get myself feeling better. I don't care what my weight is next weekend as long as I'm feeling better. I have a game plan for when I get back from my vacation and I will jump back on board then. Until then, feel better, have a fun trip, and maybe squeeze in some yoga if I can.

Why I'm Not Upset

I told you yesterday that I gained 3lbs last week. I'm here to tell you that not only did I gain 3lbs, but I'm not upset about it. Why? Well, to be honest, I was expecting a bit of a gain. I wasn't expecting that big of a gain but, all things considered, its not to bad. Here are reasons why I was expecting a weight gain:

Reason 1: I was doing a new workout. 21 Day Fix is quite the change from nice and flowy yoga I've been sticking to. I figured my muscles were a bit sore off and on all week and that can lead to a bit of a gain. So I was prepared for the scale to not budge much and maybe go in the wrong direction. My first time doing Insanity I did the short xbox versions....I think I nearly lost a pound. But it got my body ready for the next time I did and lost 10lbs.

Reason 2: My food. Even though I was doing ok with my food I had a few days early on that were a bit questionable and the events at the end of the week didn't help it any at all. I ended up ignoring my fruits and veggies and I've learned in the last couple months that those are HUGE to my weight loss success. I just need to keep finding ways to involve fruits and veggies.

Reason 3: I hit my head. I'm not saying its the conclusions fault I gained BUUUT.....I did take some pain killers which can make you retain water. I also stopped carrying about my food in take a LOT more then I should of. I don't really recall what we ate on Friday night but I can tell you Saturday wasn't the best. I'm pretty sure fruits and veggies hardly existed this weekend and I felt my body backing up and getting upset with me. That of course showed up on the scale.

So add those reasons up, and combine them with the shit ton of NSVs I felt like I was having last week and it equals into one giant "Look at all the f*cks I give" towards the 3lb gain. I would be stupid to not expect my body weight to fluctuate, its part of life. Loosing weight has more to it then looking good, its about feeling confident. I haven't felt as thin and wonderful as I was feeling all last week in a long time. I couldn't care less what that number said if I'm feeling that comfy in my body. Now....that's not saying I'm not going to keep making improvements. Yes I love my body and yes I want it to change more! I see nothing wrong with that as long as I'm maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

So if you want me to still be honest....I'm probably not going to see a big drop this week....might even see a gain again. I'm bracing myself for that. I've been taking more meds then I would like, Didn't correct my horrible eating habits until Tuesday, and just started working out by doing yoga yesterday and today. I did the 21 Day Fix Yoga yesterday. It was perfect for testing the waters. It was a nice easy yoga that helped me stretch out. I pushed it a bit today and did the 21 Day Fix Extreme Yoga....one of my fav yogas. It felt so good to try and move into the more advanced moves and I think it's also helping my soreness I'm still dealing with from hitting my head.

My Birthday is this Saturday. I LOOOOVE treating myself to junk food to celebrate my Birthday. You only get so many days a year to throw all your food care out the window and this is one of them for me. I will be weighing myself Saturday morning because I'm sure I'll be super bloated and loaded with junk on Sunday morning and I don't see the point in punishing myself THAT bad by seeing that number. So weight and measurements for the week and month will be done a day early. I was going to try to be super healthy last weekend and all this week to make ups or the binge feast that is about to happen but......life had other plans for me.

I am also happy to report that my headache that has been a pretty nasty one since hitting my head on Friday has FINALY dulled down.....A LOT!!! I was taking 2 pills a day from the dr to help with the pain and I was able to reduce it to just 1 today and I don't feel the need to take any pm headache stuff to help me sleep off the pain tonight. The more I look back at hitting my head and all the issues it has caused me this week, the more shocked I am that I have no marks from it! No bump, no scratch, not even a tiny bruise!!! Just one nasty headache.

What's Up Doc

So Saturday's headache did not go away. In fact it turns out I had a concussion this weekend. Working out Friday was probably not the best idea. Going full steam ahead cleaning my guest room Saturday morning was probably also a bad idea. Woke up Sunday and even though I was feeling a bit better (not thinking as slowly) my headache was killing me. I couldn't tell if it was just a non stop headache due to my date with the corner of the wall or it was going to go downhill and turn into a migraine. I called the teladoc (because its free) and he said it defiantly sounded like I dealt with a concussion but he was unable to prescribe me any pain stuff that was stronger then what I had already tried. So a trip the walk in clinic it was where my hubby and I probably got exposed to the flu by a few people. She checked me over, was impressed I didn't have a single bump or bruise on my head after telling her how hard I hit the wall, and prescribed me some pills and gave me a shot in the butt. I spent the rest of the day Sunday sleeping on the couch, cuddling my pups, and reading a bit of Harry Pottery until Walking Dead time. The dr told me that I was probably going to be dealing with this "headache" for a few days since its just a load of soreness due to force of the hit.

Monday was a bit rough and I wish I could of taken the day off work to rest up a bit more. Defiantly no working out for me. Then today I woke up FINALY feeling my head pain dull down a bit....thank god. Not enough to want to jump right back into working out, but enough that I allowed myself to do some Yoga. My Body was so happy with me! Get some blood flowing in these muscles. I've NEVER been so upset about not being able to work out as I have been these past few days. I'm hoping a little stretching from the yoga might speed this up a bit and I'm feeling positive that I'll be feeling great within a few days. I also plan on visiting the chiro Friday or Saturday since I'm sore I've messed some things up.

My weigh in on Sunday was 141 lbs. Up 3.4. I'm being 100% honest when I say I'm not upset with this at all, honestly I even saw it coming a bit. I think I'll talk about that more tomorrow since I probably won't be doing much more then Yoga and cleaning the house in the next few days.

Wednesday-Saturday.

My husband being home this week has thrown off my sit down time to blog. So lets catch up! I am still successfully doing 21 Day Fix. Here are the workouts I've not blogged about:

Wednesday - Lower Fix
Thursday - Pilates Fix
Friday - Cardio Fix

I enjoyed Lower Fix WAY better then Fix Extreme lol.  I will never ever ever complain about a small handful of squats and lunges again! I also purchased a knee brace after doing some internet reading. Its defiantly helping me knee out a little bit.

Pilates Fix....of course I Loved it. It had some tough moves but I can talk more about theses workouts next since I will be relating them. I even pushed through a sinus headache to get this one done. At times it seemed to be a good idea, at others it was a bad idea.

Then there was Cardio Fix.....I am just not a HUGE Cardio Fan. I took a lot of breaks and even did some modifying. It also didn't help that I SLAMMED my head into the wall earlier that night. I was letting the dogs inside and the corner of the wall meet the top of my head. It hurt SO SO SO Bad. I hit it so hard that my teeth where sore because they bashed into each other so hard. I nearly didn't get Cardio Fix in because of the non stopping dull head pain but I figured if I kept an eye on myself it would all workout ok.

I nearly have week 1 of the 21 Day Fix in the bag! I just need to do the Dirty 30 today and Yoga Fix tomorrow. I think the 21 Day Fix is mainly weights so my love for weights and yoga should make these next two days a breeze. Just hopping this dull headache will go away or dull down even more. I had some stuff I wanted to get done around the house so I'm hoping a mid morning nap will fix me up.....a little bit.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Woke up today feeling great....which turned into a tiny bit of soreness by noon, which then morphed into a tiny bit more soreness. On the plus side it was no where NEAR the soreness from 21 Day Fix Extreme and on the extra plus side, my legs hurt and it was upper body fix today! WAHOO!!!

I really enjoyed 21 Day Fix Upper Body Fix. It used weights and was a lot more arm focus and not arms + squats and lunges like 21 Day Fix Extreme was. This made it easier to push through it. It had you use "light weights" and "heavy weights" so I used 3lbs and 5lbs. Some of the moves I think I could of easily of upped the 5lbs but since you do 5 moves, then repeat, then 5 more movies, then repeat it made me unsure of just how far I could push my arm. I'll know tomorrow if I'm able to up the weights next week or not :)

Food was a littler rougher then normal today but I think I did my best staying on track. We had soup at work today. I did my best to keep my serving side low, cut the bread bowl in half, and tried SO HARD to not snack on crackers all day. Since tonight was Valentine's it meant time to break out some chinesse food with my hubby <3. We normally order take out to avoid the crowds but since I'm on WWs this year I found a pretty dang tasty low point meal I could cook up and we enjoyed a side of Lean Cuisine spring rolls. Was super yummy and left me feeling less guilty then if I had over stuffed on the real deal. We also treated ourselves to some Halo Top ice cream. Did I go over my daily points? Yes I did, but that's what weekly points are for.

Monday

It's Monday! I actually enjoy Monday's. Weekends can be a bit rough when it comes to eating but a nice day at work means a nice routine meal. Monday's are also good times to start new workout programs....which I did today lol.

I started 21 Day Fix today. I took a look at the calendar and realized I have three weeks before I leave for a California vacation. I won't workout while I'm on vacation so I thought it was a little silly to start something only to have a week long break that might hamper results. So as I took a long hard look at my calendar I realized 3 weeks.....21 Days.....THIS WAS PERFECT!!!!! I already learned the hard way I am NOT extreme enough for 21 Day Fix Extreme so I decide on starting the normal 21 Day Fix. Today was Total Body Cardio. My body just isn't in shape for Cardio!!! It had 4 rounds where you did two moves two times for 1 minute per move each time you did it. Some moves where rough making it 20 seconds let alone 60 but I think most of them I pushed through to do at least 40 seconds. One of my fav things about starting new workout programs is seeing how rough it is to start and how easy it will become. Cant' wait until week 3 to see how bad my cardio is.

I wanted to share with you some of the food I eat. The pic today is of my meals I've had today. I did not take pictures of my snacks.

I'm not a big breakfast person. It's also hard doing weight watchers when you are already a low weight. I have 30 daily points to use and those points can go FAST when you eat a big breakfast. So for breakfast I try to keep it light and one of the ways I do that is by drinking some type of shake mix. Right now I'm LOVING Vega. This one is 3 smart points and I mix it in unsweetened almond Milk so it comes to a total of 4 points for breakfast.

I'm a creature of habit so my lunch at work typical is the same thing every. single. day. That is, until I get sick of it and switch it up. I recently switched from a turkey sandwich to a tuna salad sandwich. I kind of unsandwhiched my sandwich. It makes me feel like I eat more when I eat two slices instead of making it into one. I grab the low cal Sara Lee bread to help with my points. I also started making zero point veggie soup. It's an awesome way to get some veggies into your diet. Add in a little fruit and my lunch came to 3 smart points.

This is a VERY low point lunch and to make up for that I enjoy a few snacks. Today I munched on some pretzel sticks, an orange, and a banana before coming home. Then I came home to my all time favorite pre workout snack. I reward myself for working out before I even do it lol hey it works for me! I enjoy a light multigrain muffin toasted with some cookie butter on it.....a very very very little bit of cookie butter. This snack comes to 5 Smart Points and is only a treat I enjoy before working out. It helps knock off the after work hunger I have and helps me push through until I finish to have dinner. Love it love it love it!!! So far my snacks have equaled 7 points today.

Tonight for dinner I tried a new recipe. My hubby travels a lot which makes it super easy to eat healthy. He is home this week so I decided to search for some new recipes to try. I stumbled onto a recipe for a Layered Chicken Enchilada Bake.....BOY WAS IT AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The website said it was 8 servings and 8 smart points per serving. I don't know how I did it (used a different cheese I think) but I was able to shave a point off. I also changed it to 6 servings when I entered it into the Weight Watcher recipe builder and it turned out to be decent 9 smart points. I felt like the serving would be way to small if it was for 8 so upping to 6 helped me get a larger portion and made my tummy super happy. I also paired it with a small salad with a tiny bit of dressing and some tired cranberries for 2 smart points. So dinner came in to 11 Smart Points.

If you are counting that means I have 5 smart points to play around with tonight. I have a couple sweet things that are low points laying around the house to help with my sweet tooth. I also have some black berries in my fridge just dying to get inside my belly. So many options and I'm not sure how, if I even will, spend my last 5 smart points. My supper was pretty filling but I will probably have a light snack to help get the hunger off until morning.

layered-chicken-enchilada-bake.html  Here is the link for the Layered Chicken Enchilada Bake. IT WAS AMAZING! I HIGHLY recommend it!!! I used Reduced Fat Kraft Cheese and think that is how I was able to shave a point off but I'm not sure. I'm going to play around with the recipe in the future and maybe add some black olives or serve it with some sour cream. Yum Yum Yum! It's not often I cook healthy and get such a home run with the hubby like I did with this.

Weigh In Day!

Talk about one stressful week! I was on call for work, my dog had surgery, and I did my very best to stay on track with eating and working out because I was .9 lbs away from saying "I LOST 15LBS!!!!!". That less then 1 pound made me want to be extra careful with everything I did, but it just didn't happen that way.

Eating - Not to bad!!! I ate to much pizza on Sunday but I'm trying this new thing where Sundays are my 100% cheat days and I don't track anything. There where also chocolate cookies involved on Sunday. One of the days at work we went out to eat for lunch and I had pancakes so I just made sure to eat light stuff for dinner to balance it out. Did my very best to get my fruits and veggies in and by time Saturday rolled around I was able to have a couple more splurges because I had done so well with Weight Watchers all week.

Working out - HORRIBLE!!!!! I managed to work out on Wednesday when my dog came home from surgery and it ended there. It's been really stressful watching her recover. Turns out when they have a surgery that involves their bladder it leads to them either not being able to hold it OR acting like they can't go. It has been breaking my heart into a million pieces to watch her act 100% fine and then acting like its hurting to potty. She is doing LOADS better today so fingers crossed, next week will be better for me lol. I get headaches pretty easily and one of my triggers is stress. So stressing over my dog made it to hard to muster up the energy to push through a headache and slam out a good workout.

I woke up this morning and was all types of nervous to step on the scale. I get nervous anytime I step on a scale just because of the way it can toy with your emotions. Today was extra nerve wracking. What if I really hadn't been eating as well as I thought I had been trying. What if not counting the points for weight watchers on Sunday was a bad bad idea. What if not working out ruined it for me? What if that dumb pizza + pancake + non-workout made me loose .5 instead of .9 lbs. I would be happy with a half pound loss, but when all you need is to loose a pound to say you lost 15 total......that pound gets a little personal. So I took a deep breath, stepped on the scale, stood up straight, and closed my eyes. I looked down and had to step on the scale 2 more times to make sure it wasn't lying to me. I lost! I lost my 1lb.....and then some! My scale looked back up at me proudly showing "137.6".  That is a weekly weight loss of 2.4 lbs for a total of (drum roll please) 16.5 LBS!!!!!!!!! I kicked that 15 lbs in the butt lol. I pulled out the paperwork from when I did Insanity and the lowest weight on that was 138. That folks, puts my back in post Insanity weight range and 10lbs away from the weight I was at in my mid 20s. I GOT THIS! I am now hitting the point where in the past the scale gets stuck so I'm excited to see what I can do. And also excited to see if I can keep it off!

I also wanted to share a picture with everyone that I took this week.

This is a black belt that I have worn for a long time. I put it on this week because I wanted a skinny black belt instead of the chunky one I normally wear. Although this is my go to black belt, I haven't put it in on some time. In this picture the belt is the latched at the lowest hole on it. WOW! Not only is it on the lowest hole and that big (and un usable with my jeans) but where my fingers are is the 2nd to last hole. The 2nd to last hole is the hole I have been battling to drop down from for a long time. Anytime I would move down from it to the last whole I would be "bloated" or "have the wrong jeans on" or just "feeling fat" and need to go to the 2nd to last hole. Guess I got rid of that bloated feeling for good :). Really excited to have something REALLY show what my 15....or should I say 16.5 pound loss looks like.

Not Today....Just Kidding!!!!

WOW, what a close call. I was SOOO CLOSE to talking myself out of working out today. So close that I even was 100% for sure not working out this week! I had to wake up a tad bit earlier then normal to drop my little Lola off for surgery this morning and was going to come home and prep the house for her to come back tomorrow. I also figured she might just want to cuddle tomorrow and me working out would be no fun for her. I got home and told myself "NO!". I even distracted myself by vacuuming and doing some carpet cleaning but even after all that....I pushed myself and got my workout done!!!

I'm basically starting over with Plyo....seems to be my theme since I've started to blog. Hopefully I can push past the first week this time. The way things fell and the soreness in some of my muscles, starting over this week just seemed to fit right. So I did Lower Body today. love me some good stretchy leg workouts!!! Feeling great after getting the workout done, and it helped that it was a tiny lil 20 minute workout.

One of the fun thing with getting in shape is to be able to see and feel your progress. The wonderful, constant Down Dog in most yoga type workouts I do have allowed me to stare at my thighs....a lot. I can't tell you at what point it happened but one day I was chilling in down dog, looked at my thighs, and was like "wow! they got smaller!". That was a while ago and from time to time while taking a few breaths in Down Dog I'm able to look at my thighs and be proud, or impressed, or ready to push harder because of them. I had one of those moments again today. I don't even recall what they looked like back in August, I just know they look so much better and leaner today. I'm pretty dang proud of that. Another thing is the ability to go lower in squats and lunges. Not just go lower, but go lower with more ease. You can think "oh I can Lunge all Day".....but you can't. You'll do a workout that wants you to do a lot of them and it'll KILL the next day (been there, done that). Once you start doing those large numbers though you can really feel it. Its a hard to explain feeling but you can just tell. You sense your self going further into a move and with more ease, more strength, more structure then before. These are the things that help keep me motivated.

This is a picture of Lola and I riding to the vet on Saturday for her X-ray. I dropped her of this morning before work and wanted to cry as I drove away. This is her 4th time staying the night at the vet due to a surgery. 1st time she got fixed, 2nd time was her ACL, 3rd time was her other ACL, and now the bladder stone removal. The vet called after the surgery and said it all went well and the are sending the stone off to get tested. We should get results in a week to see what might of caused it and then we kind of go on from there. I'm ready to pick her up and bring her home tomorrow but until then I'll give our other dog Graham lots and lots and lots and lots of cuddles! (even though he's not being to cuddly tonight lol)

Life!

Sorry for the lack of posts.....not that I'm seeing anyone reading this lol. Life got busy. Not the busy busy type of busy where you can't set down, but the stressful kind of busy. So let me catch you up by each day.

Thursday: Was feeling great after starting Beachbody's Plyo and the upgrade in fruits and veggies in my diet. Long story short I should of worked out BEFORE going out to eat but thought I could eat Mexican and workout afterwards. Nope. The chimichanga in my tummy didn't feel doing a down dog and I wasn't going to force it. Friday is the Plyo rest day so I figured I would just swap them.

Friday: Not even sure what my excuse was that night....but I didn't workout. Hahaha looking back I have NO IDEA what I even did on Friday....but I did not workout. My gameplay was to do double up workouts on Saturday.

Saturday: Took my lil fur baby to get an Xray bright in early in the AM. We noticed blood in her urine the weekend before and her urine test from earlier in the week had come back clean. So we ran her in for the Xray and there was a BIG OL STONE in her. So she is going in on Tuesday for Surgery to get that removed and we will find out what may have caused it. I did manage to push through the stress and tiredness of the day and got Plyo Sweat done. I debated doing both Sweat and Lower Body but decided since Sunday was Upper Body that I would add on Lower Body with it.

Sunday: WEIGH IN DAY!!!!! Woke up and stepped on the scale and I Was 140 EXACTLY! No .8 no .4 not even a .1....140.0!!!! That's a loss of 3.2lbs for a TOTAL loss of 14.1! I'M SO CLOSE TO 15lbs GONE!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!! I started weight watchers back up this week and stuck to it and pushed myself during my workouts. PAID OFF!!!! The 3.2 is a rather large number but I'm sure its to the slow gain I had in January and the lack of eating healthy. I upped my veggies and fruits in my diet BIG time. In fact, I overbought fruits so that way I would have to eat them before it all went bad. AND IT PAID OFF!!!!

And then Sunday went slightly downhill lol. We had a healthy breakfast that filled us up until afternoon. We being my hubby and I. So after seeing the time I had a REALLY great idea of "lets get pizza from Papa Murphy's!!!". Something about the Take and Bake makes it feel healthier in my life lol. So we got the pizza with the idea of eating it for a late late lunch and then eating it later for super. Then....I also purchased Lego Dimensions. AWESOME Game....which also meant no working out lol. I have incredibly sore back of my legs from PUSHING it on Saturday so I was ok with that.  The best part....I hardly have any guilt. I want to be able to be healthy and still have fun in life and that's what I did.

Fast Forward to today and the backs of my legs are KILLING me. I'm currently waiting for my salmon to bake in the oven and am hoping that will help balance out the pizza overkill last night. I had a drs appointment today so I brought up the weird knee pop and bruise thing. Long story short he felt my knee and told me I have a wiggly knee cap. The popping was due to it shifting slightly out of place an then back in.....which could of happened if I did a lot of squats (thanks 21 day fix extreme....eye roll). So he just told me to work on strengthening my quad muscle and it should help my knee cap stay in place and move properly instead of being wiggly. I kind of enjoy my wiggly knee cap because one of my dogs has one as well lol. I am also taking the night off again. The back of my legs hurt and Lego Dimensions is calling me name!

I'm really excited to push through this week! I'm going to watch my food the best I can and try to stay on track with my workouts. Fingers crossed that on Sunday I'll be able to say I'm down 15lbs since August! WOOHOO!!!!!

I'm Back!

Sometimes in life you just need to take a little break, regroup, and come backing swinging. So that's what I did.

Sunday came and I weighed in...another very small weight gain. Which makes 4 weeks in a row of "very small weight gains". This wouldn't be frustrating if at some point it had gone back down or been the same. So then I took my monthly measurements and even though I was up 3lbs from the time I took measurements in Dec some off the numbers where smaller! What a friendly reminder to not trust the number on the scale as much!! Mainly my lower half slimmed down a hair more....so all those painful leg days due to never ending squats and lunges seemed to have paid off at least lol.

One of the big things with Sunday was I used it to be my First of 2017 and also used it as a time to compare with when I started in August. So I not only took measurements but I took pics. I'm down 10lbs...which could of been slightly more if not for my holiday never ending slight gains lol. Here are my August to Jan pics and measurements (don't mind the lil private part that happened when I merged two photos together on my little man)...

How am I feeling after seeing this.....well, to be honest, I could be feeling better. It's frustrating because I have pretty much the same before and after pics from a year or so ago...which means I've been here, done this, and gained it all back. THIS IS THE LAST TIME!!! I will NEVER see 150 on the scale AGAIN! I have made this promise to myself over and over again since leaving it behind. I also thought I would see bigger changes in the before and after pics. I also know that we are hardest on ourselves so I'm hoping the world will see better changes then me. It does make me feel better to see the changes I do see. My stomach has defiantly shrunk in and the way my clothes fit because of that is enough to satisfy me! And these small changes make me want to push on. I want to make more small changes, and then even more! and at some point my pictures will show a big change! My next big decision is when to take pics again. Do I give it a certain date to do it again and if so what date, or do I wait to loose 10lbs and then take pics again to show what a difference those 10lbs made? For now I'm just going to feel that answer out. My biggest focus is to get out of this "i've lost 10ish lbs" range and make it a different number.

Another cool thing about my pics from Sunday is they are also working as before pics for my 2nd try at Piyo. Yes, I did switch my mind on what workout I want to do....AGAIN! I opted to switch to Piyo because it's something I've done before, would be easy on my  knee, and I know I enjoy it. I've done Piyo before but never fully finished it because I came down with a cold and my schedule got busy. I am ready now though! Day 1 was a fundamental day (or something like that) and was the slowest, most boring thing in my life because I already had the basic knowledge of what a warrior and up dog pose was. So I opted to skip that yesterday and gave myself a rest day. I started up today Define: Lower Body. Piyo has a Define workout for your upper and lower body. The first week or so you mainly do it. Its a nice easy flow workout to help you learn what you are getting yourself into. Then it slowly rotates them out and brings you on to bigger and better things, er, different and tougher workouts. Define gives you nice flowly stretch and also breaks a tiny sweat. It also helps since its 20 minutes long. I really enjoy the first week of piyo. I feel like the simplicty off it allows me to  grow more motivated into starting a new program. This helps increase the odds of me sticking with it.

I also restarted (for the millionth time this month) weight watchers. I keep restarting, doing good for a day or so, then BLOWING it one day and not getting back to it after blowing it. I set myself up for success this week by grabbing tons of extra fruits to have around the house. No more digging around for snacks. Now I'm grabbing something healthy. I'm hoping this will all pay off and on Sunday my scale will finally start heading south again.

A Few Days Off

I've decided to take a few days off. I went to the chiro on Friday and got adjusted and he took at my knee. He said my knee looked and felt fine. He also said my back was pretty out of whack when he adjusted it and that could of contributed to my knee issues. I was pretty sore last night (which sometimes happens after a good chiro visit for me). Today my knee has still be feeling a tiny bit odd. I've been trying to take it easy but we also had new appliances delivered today. I have a dr appointment already set up for the 6th so if my knee is still bugging me I'll bring it up then. Until then I'm just going to take it easy, probably stick to yoga and other low impact workouts, and see what happens.

Not My Month

So apparently January is not my month this year. Long story short I may have messed my knee up, my back seems a bit messed up, and I have a REALLY bad headache today soooo.....I didn't workout yesterday and I'm going to chill out and eat pizza rolls tonight.

Long version of the story. Over the weekend I was trying to show off and do do the wheel pose while my hubby was upstairs, he was going to walk down and be like "oh your so silly". I went to lift and something popped in my knee. Not my knee pooped, something IN it popped. So i laid on the floor a bit thinking "hmmm...not good i'm assuming" but then nothing hurt so I didn't think much off it. Fast forward to Tuesday night. While doing Yoga I kept brushing against my knee and it would hurt. The kind of hurt you get when you push on a bruise. Not recalling running into anything I was sure to check it out later on. To my surprise, there was a huge bruise on the side of my knee! So I wake up Wednesday, still sore in my back...the kind of sore that is making me question if a chiro visit is needed or not. And then my knee starts feeling weird. So after some Facebook and googling I decided its best to not push things to hard on my knee....JUST incase. I have a dr visit already set up on feb 6th for other things so worse case scenrio I take it easy and its still bugging me I bring it up to him, Well it also snowed on Wednesday. Heavy, wet, disgusting snow. Another short version of a story...I had our snow blower, I had to do some shoveling, there was a bit of a slip that almost had me face planting on our snowy drive way, and it all ended with me ugly crying in our garage because my husband isn't home to do this stuff for me. So I of course HAD to have  glass of wine last night before bed. And by glass of wine I mean a coffee mug because my wine glasses weren't clean. I was super careful with the amount I poured in the mug and enjoyed it while taking a hot bath and then falling asleep to some Harry Potter reading. I woke up with a killer headache. Not sure if its the wine, the soreness, the weather, or all of the above mixed together but this headache is not the kind that goes away. It has lasted all day and is only being dulled by anything I've taken for it. So here I am enjoying pizza rolls, sipping on gatorade, and probably going to bed super early. I do have a chiro appointment set up for tomorrow so hopefully he fixes me up and I can get down to business again!

My Body Hates Me

"Do cardio, it won't make you as sore" I thought. "A dance workout will be easy as pie" I also thought. Apparently, I was wrong. I can tell you the EXACT move that hurt my back. It was some "trip" move that involved a small bounce on one leg while kicking the other front and back. I think this move was the 3rd move you learned so it repeated again, and again, and again! To the point I started modifying it because I just grew tired of trying to kick my leg so fast. I enjoyed a soak in my tub with a bath bomb and a glass of wine and went to bed with a slightly tight feeling back. I should of been surprised when I woke up with one of the sorest backs I think I have ever had!!

I woke, rubbed on some icy hot, and went to work. I tried myself to keep it loose all day but it was of no use. My lower back was a ball of tightness that would shoot pains out at the slightest moves. Not the "I'm going to die" type of pains, but the "ow, I worked out yesterday" pain. So, I once again, had a bit of thinking on what to do. I had a good think while driving home with my heated seat warming my back nicely. My mind was fighting off the idea of a rest day, wondering if I should push on, or figure something else out. I landed on figure something else out. I landed on Yoga. I just can't stay away from Yoga! I love the stretch it gives, the flexibility it gives, the strength it gives, and the peacefulness it gives! So I have opted on doing Cize every other day and fitting in Yoga on the in between days. The cardio from Cize should help me slim down while the Yoga should help keep my loose. I'm also hoping to not loose some of the gains I've made in yoga. I want to keep the flexibility I've got. I also am hoping to work on my balance. I thought my balance was pretty good but it I keep finding myself wiggling and falling over. On the plus side, working on my balance will also work on my core :) .

I'm getting excited and nervous as this week slowly creeps by. I will be weighing in, measuring, AND taking photos on Sunday. I can't wait to see where I am at. Where I am compared to this past fall and where I am starting 2017 at. This will be the year I don't give up and continue to see changes. Can't wait to compare December 2017 pics with the ones I will be taking this weekend.

Day 1 Cize - Crazy 8s

I wasn't feeling to motivated today. Not sure if the winter weather that is coming tomorrow is triggering my headache or what but it slowly crept on late this afternoon. I've also been insanely hungry lately (which isn't helping my weight watchers). So I came home and ate a plate of spaghetti. I didn't even bother trying to track it. I feel better about it since my mom canned the sauce herself (and its the best sauce in the world, hands down!). Of course you can't workout on an empty stomach so I rested up with two episode of Game of Thrones then made myself get up and change.

I have never been so pumped about my decision to switch things up!!! I didn't come to that conclusion until the cool down but, at least I came to it! I much prefer dancing and bouncing around to doing burpies and plank type cardio moves. I'm DRIPPING with sweat on the keyboard as I type (unless your my husband, then I am NOT dripping on your keyboard as I type...ok only a few drops fell). I feel my blood moving and my whole body feels like it got a workout not just my thighs and butt lol.

Crazy 8s defiantly wasn't the most interesting dance video I've ever done, but it got the job done. I feel like Zumba OWNS the market on dance videos and its just too hard to compare anything to it. In Crazy 8s you learn 8 different dance moves. That part was fine. The part I disliked was you would learn move 1,  do it a handful of times, learn move 2 and do it a handful of times, then put it together. Then learn move 3, do it a few times, then start from the top, Then learn 4 and...well you get the point. It got a bit repetitive. The beginning seemed to drag a bit but by time you where on move 8 the 30 mins seemed to have slipped by quite fast. After practicing the moves all together you "Cize it up!" and do all the moves together 3 times with a break in between each time. It was actually fun when you where able to just do the moves all together. I was really getting the hang of it. Sometimes I get the feet work down and then you throw in a hand move and it throws me off a bit. I feel like after doing this video another time or two I'll have it down.

I debated restarting up some yoga instead of cardio today. My headaches, and some body aches, where REALLY pushing me in that direction. I would like to focus on burning some fat off my body though so I PUSHED myself to stick to my plan to do some cardio. Not positive I'll complete the Cize program (fyi if it says Size anywhere in here its the laptop autocorrecting, not me typing it wrong!). I've been finding myself getting bored with workouts faster then normal lately so.......we'll see what happens. I'll give this one a go, hopefully see some gains from it, and switch when I feel like switching.

Have fun with working out. That is my tip! If it becomes a chore or gets boring then you won't be successful. There are so many different types of exercise out there if you just keep trying you WILL find something you love! The hardest part is starting sometimes. Nike NAILED it when they said "Just Do It". It's 100% true, you have to JUST DO IT!!!! Start small if you have to. Set small goals. Starting  new program and it seems to tough, try something else. There is no shame in not finishing something. Look at me, 1....or should I say 2...weeks into 21 Day Fix Extreme and I felt I wasn't 100% ready for it. I would LOVE to try that workout again, but for now I'm sticking to a little less squat and lunge and a little more throw my hands up in the air. Just think how amazing I'm going to feel when I'm able to do the 21 Day Fix Extreme and not take rest days in between each workout! Right there my folks, will be a NSV for me.

Weigh In Day & a Touch of Reevaluating.

Every Sunday I weigh myself. Today I weighed in at 142.5lbs. Not to shabby considering I started tracking my weight via Weight Watchers on 8/28 and came in at 154.1. My only issue is that I started January at 141.3. I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW, I've hardly gained a lb over the past 4 weeks. But when you want to see a smaller number, its frustrating! At one point int he past I was down to 139 after doing a round of Insanity so I know its doable to go lower....infact I've seen a picture of me YEARS ago weighing somewhere int he upper 120s. My goal was to loose a bit of weight for my birthday at the end of February but at this point I would like to see mid 130s. My hubby kindly pointed out that my weight not going down may also have to do with gaining muscle. I won't doubt this, but I still want a smaller number.

Since I've been stuck around the same weight for a month now, it's time to reevaluate things. My eating is BETTER this month then it has been in the past but.....it's clearly only better enough to maintain. Which, this is GREAT knowledge. Knowing I can maintain my weight makes me feel confident about loosing and keeping it off! BUT, I'm not at the point I want to be at to start maintaining. SOOOO....I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY need to do better with my eating and being a loosing weight frame of mind. I say this as I'm cooking a HUGE pot of spaghetti and my hubby is bring home some cheesy garlic bread lol.

I'm also going to start switching up my workouts. Don't get my wrong, I'm enjoying 21 Day Fix Extreme. I am LOVING the strength it is giving me and I feel like I can see some toning happening in my body. With that being said, I want to workout more during the week. I can't be stuck sitting out a day or two because things are hurting to much. So, I'm going to start up Cize on Beachbody on Demand. When I was debating what workout to start up a couple weeks ago I was hoping to do something with a bit ore cardio so I could burn off some fat around my stomach area. I'm hoping Cize will help me out with that. I also feel like not doing 1 million and 1 squats and lunges each day will help me be able to squeeze in more then a few workouts each week. Another downside of being SO SORE is that things aren't getting done around my house. We are prepping for a bit of a kitchen remodel in the near near near future so I need to be spending time at home working on some stuff inside of being stuck on the couch unable to bend down.

So I'm going to enjoy my big pot of spaghetti and garlic bread, maybe play some video games and/or binge a bit of Netflix, and finish off my Sunday being excited to start fresh tomorrow!

Week 1 Done + a Side of Wheel Pose :)

After a long day at work + a work meeting + going out to eat to celebrate someone's Birthday =  I was ready to come home and skip my workout. Legs are of course still a little sore but I couldn't pass up a yoga workout. I was a bit worried since it was called Yoga Extreme so I did a quick look over some reviews and watched a decent youtube review that helped to confirm it would be a nice stretchy yoga not some EXTREME squat lunge thing.

MY LEGS ARE SO HAPPY WITH ME!!!!! They needed this stretch and the flowing motions, my back need it, and my arms enjoyed it. I all around LOVED this yoga workout! It flowed non stop, I didn't feel like I was holding poses for to long, and the tougher poses  had different versions of it showing you the basic to the advanced way to hold them. If you are new to yoga and doing this workout, don't get flustered! Once you learn the flows and names it will get easier to do!

Not only did I really enjoy this workout, I even learned a couple new moves. One move I thought I was already doing a pretty advanced version of it....but guess again!! I did find crow pose to be an odd one to put in there since modifying it doesn't seem to easy to do. Crow pose is defiantly one I want to be working on though. I enjoyed the challenge this video allowed IF you wanted to challenge yourself. Speaking of challenges, this is the first yoga video I've done that had me do the wheel pose and I'm SO SO SO SO SO happy to say that I was able to get myself into the pose AND hold it!!!!! I wasn't able to hold it for the whole time but I did it for a good chunk of it!

One of my fav things about yoga is the challenge of learning and being able to do new poses. Some poses you can see it and be like "ta-da, I can do this one! It's so easy!" and other ones you can try to do it, not quite get it, then practice and practice and work on other things to help you be able to do it. Wheel pose has been that pose for me! Let me share my wheel pose story with you.

A few months ago I was super getting into yoga. Like all my other workouts, I do it at home. I had to learn how to do the poses on my own and always have a fear that I'm learning something wrong. So I posted on Facebook asking if anyone would like to go to a yoga class with me. Katie if you are reading this, THANK YOU for being the person to step up and go with me! I throughly enjoyed the class! It was neat to do it in person with other people and having an instructor to help you. I enjoyed being told I was doing something correctly and ways I could challenge myself when a pose was to easy for me. That is where the wheel pose came in. We were doing a bridge pose when the instructor walked up and asked if I could do a wheel pose. I said "i don't know" when in my head I was screaming "HELL NO!". I have little to no arm strength! It's something I keep trying to work on but see little improvement. I was fine with doing bridge pose but allowed him to help me pop up into wheel pose. I would of fallen on my face and butt at the same time if he hadn't held me in position. I made it my mission to learn wheel pose after that class.

What better way to track your progress then taking pictures! I set my camera up and snapped a pic. The first pic, the orange shirt on the top, is from 11/7. The pink top shirt photo is from 11/27. Sometime passed and on 12/19 I set my camera up and attempted a wheel pose and the words "HOLY FUCK!" popped out of my mouth as I, with less effort then I had ever impagned, popped up into the pose way further then I had excited and held it for a tiny tiny bit.....that is the bottom pink shirt picture. My husband had a good laugh at my excitement. I hadn't really tried wheel pose since then and the few times I have I REALLY struggled lifting myself with my arms. So when Yoga Extreme was putting me into bridge pose I had a feel deep down I knew what was coming next. So she Autumn said "wheel pose" and I got in position and BAM! Up I went and I was so excited that I was HOLDING the position!!!!! Its an odd position to be in if your not use to it and my back is still gaining flexibility so I didn't push it and hold it to long. That and last time I was in it I struggled getting out so I didn't wait for my arms to give out or lock up lol. So OF COURSE after the workout was done I grabbed my camera and snapped a pic! Little bits of improvement but defiantly improvement there! My back is more flexible, my arms are stronger, and the fact that I can hold it for a handful of seconds without dying is amazing to me!

I guess we can call the Wheel Pose my NSV for the Day....heck even the week and maybe the month lol.

Dirty 30 Extreme.....Day....I kinda lost track lol

Since I've been adding in rest days I'm loosing track of what "day" I am on. Either way, today was Dirty 30 Extreme....which means Yoga Extreme and then I FINALY get to repeat all these wonderful squats and lunges. Can you FEEL my excitement seeping out of my fingers into my keyboard and onto your screen!?!?! HAHAHA!

Today was rough. I've been having sinus issues for awhile now and am awaiting a dr appointment in early February to rebring it up to him. So until then I am dealing with sinus pressure and headaches. Somedays they aren't there, other days I can fix it, and other days they are just part of my day and nothing will help it. Today was the later. By time I got home from work I was STARVING! I normally have a pre workout snack of an english muffin (light) with some cookie butter on it (num num num). I was TOOOOO hungry for that so I decided to eat dinner, let it settle an watch some TV, then do my workout before getting ready for bed. This idea can back fire easily. My tummy does not like being full when I'm working out, I can easily loose motivation, and if I'm REALLY lucky my headaches will get worse an I'll end up going straight to bed. To help my tummy issues I made sure today didn't involve a ton of jumping or ab workouts and was sure to eat light-ish. To help with the motivation I had changed into my workout clothes while dinner was in the oven. To help my headache I took some sinus meds and some headache meds and crossed my fingers. None of these 100% worked but I still managed to force myself into the workout.

If it hadn't been for the nonstop squats and lunges in this workout series I would of LOVED Dirty 30 Extreme. It was RIGHT up my alley. It involved weights in all the moves (love love love using weights), no jumping (YAHOO!!!), and not so much cardio....all thought all the squats and lunges get your heart pumping and the sweat dripping. My only complaint is you do each move for a full minute which got a bit boring for me. I'll be excited to do this workout again to see if I still feel the same way. This workout also used your balance a bit by having 1 legged squats and also some lunge move that involved balancing while doing a hammer curl. Not sure if it's because I'm a bit tired today or my sinus acting up but my balance was a bit rough when doing the moves the first round, but the second round got a bit better. My legs still being slightly sore isn't helping anything that involves 1 leg. I don't feel like I remember what its like to NOT have sore legs at this point lol. I also enjoy the amount of workout my arms got today. It even had a push-up with an arm row move that was tough but being able to do push ups not on my knees is a goal I hope to do by the end of this year. My only complaint with today was the bonus move was RIDIC! I understand this workout is EXTREME and therefor is pushing you to the limits but HOLY COW a plank crunch with a weight.......I don't think I even did one and hardly was able to do it without the weight! I'm sure someday I'll be able to do this one and when that day comes you can just call me Haylie EXTREME Duben.

Also, sometimes workout can help my headaches.....that is not the case tonight. So am going to soak in the tub then head to bed. Good night folks.

Resting Again

I spent all day trying to decide if I should rest day it or not today. I would have my self 100% convinced that I was going to go straight into Day 6 today....and then I would have to use the restrooms and my legs would remind me why a rest day might be needed. I googled and found someone that listed out the moves in Day 6 Dirty 30 of 21 Day Fit Extreme and......for real why so many squats and lunges!?!?!?! So at one point, while using the rest room, my legs said "hey lady, give us a rest!". So rest I did. Ate a healthish dinner, watched some tv, and now I'm going go soak in the tub and do some reading before bed.

I thought I would take today's rest day to explain my process, or whatever it should be called. It is important to track your not only your weight but your body. Things can change even if the scale isn't showing it. So, months and months and months ago I took before photos. I never fully finished the program I was doing at the time so I never took after photos. I am going to use the month of January to take my after photos and also have a "first of the year" photo to reflect back on. Fingers crossed this is the year the healthy lifestyle plan actually sticks full time and not just part time. SO I'm in the process of figuring out just what day to take the photos on. Also debating if I should do monthly photos or spread them out more. I also measure my body weekly. I've been doing it for a few months. It helps to see where the numbers are moving on your body when they start shifting on the scale. I'm proud to say I have lost some inches here and there and will be showing those number to you in the future :).  I also, very religiously, weigh myself once a week. It's typical every Sunday morning but sometimes vacations or holidays will pop up and I will weigh myself a day or so early, or late. I'm not going to cram a Christmas turkey into my stomach and weigh myself the next day. So in that situation I weighed myself a day early....same thing will probably happen on my Birthday as I plan to splurge on many many many bad for me foods that day.

When I start doing bad with my  eating and working out that tends to be the time I stop stepping on the scale. I know the number won't be good so why do it. Then things REALLY slip, i loose a bit of control, then I step on and the number is high again. NOT THIS YEAR!!!!!!! I am going to weigh myself in EVER Sundays...infact I will share my weighs in with you. So why not get caught up for the year...

1/1/17 - 141.3
1/8/17 - 141.6
1/15/17 - 142.2

As you can tell I have been slacking lately. I hardly gained a full pound in three weeks though so I like to consider that maintaining. I'm doing WAY better with my eating so far this week and am hoping this 21 Day Fix Extreme will help shove that number down. I'm not considered with the 1lb gain at all for the simple fact that I started this Journey at the end of August weighing 154.1lbs. It's been fun to watch what a bad weekend and being a bit backed up looks like compared to a bad week that doesn't drop right off in a weeks time. (that bad week was also my hubby and I's road trip vacation so I didn't care at all).  T here is always ups, and always downs. I just try to learn from the moments when my scale goes up so I can change it around and not make it a down moment for my confidence that I am gaining.

I made the picture below a handful of days ago for fun. I was excited to see what my doughnuts looked like on my legs after loosing the weight. Really happy and impressed with what I see and can't wait to keep making improvements. The first pic is from sometime in August 2016 and the second pic is from this month, January 2017.

Day 5

Feeling sore and lacking motivation I somehow was able to push play on Cardio Extreme today. UGH!!!! I'm feeling pretty awesome about finishing it, but we'll see if I feel the same tomorrow lol. I debated not doing this workout due to the soreness still in my legs and butt. I figured it would either be worse from working out OR it would help it feel better.

Whoever created 21 Day Fix Extreme REALLY loves there squats and lunges. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was pretty surprised by the non stop squats and lunges. Since the workouts are suppose to be done without a break I'm surprised that leg day, which was nothing but squats and lunges, was followed by a Cardio workout that was basically all squats and lunges. On the plus side, I'm going to have an amazing ass and some sexy thighs to match it when this is all done. This workout was like the rest. There were four rounds that had 3 move that you did twice. One of the moves was this fun plank move that made you kick your butt and kind of run in place while planking. I also followed the modifier a LOT during this workout. More then I think I EVER have!

I'm not a HUGE fan of 21 Day Fix Extreme but I can totally see this one happening again in my future. It's not hard, yet not easy. Its helping my endurance and from the amount of soreness I'm experience its helping my muscles as well. Excited to see where I'll be in the next few weeks. I'm curious what 21 Day Fix would of been like and if my body would be reacting differently to it. BUT...I'm not regretting my decision to do 21 Day Fix Extreme as a way to push myself. I think after I've finished this workout I'll jump onto CIZE. A little dance cardio sounds fun. I also need to find a way to squeeze some yoga back into my life. I miss it and love the stretching and flexibility it gives my body.

If I'm not sore tomorrow I will be moving to Day 6, Dirty 30.....but I'm going to guess that my booty and legs will need a little break. hahahaha oh my poor poor lil legs.

Day 3, Day 4, Rest :)

I am enjoying a lovely, lazy, rest day and eating a bow full of pizza rolls. I love pizza and I REALLY love pizza rolls. I tried to restart weight watchers this week and long story short I had a bit of a fail that all made sense today. So tomorrow I restarts and tonight I fest on pizza rolls and Halo Top ice cream.

Friday was Day 3 of 21 Day Fix Extreme. Pilates Extreme! I actually really enjoy pilates and was looking forward to this workout. I have never been near tears in frustration like I  was with this workout. it involved resistance bands, something i'm not use to using while doing pilates. It was frustrating, hard to figure out, and my ankles got pinched 1 to many times. Part way through it my husband and I noticed the band I was using was red and the ones everyone on tv had where pink. It hadn't donned on me to research the band, I just assumed since mine came with a beachbody workout it would be the same. So since I had been so crippled by the resistance band I did some researching later that night and discovered the pink ones fro beachbody are 15lb resistance, the red are 30lb. SOOOOOO.....i learned my lesson about researching what I need and ordered the pink one and the 20lb magenta one. I got them off eBay so hopefully they ship soon.  Eventhough I found day 3 pilates to be the worst struggle ever, it was my own fault. I'm excited to try that workout again with the lighter resistance bands.

I decided on doing Day 4 on Saturday. I opted to not do a rest day between Day 3 and 4 for a few reasons. 1.) I would rather be super sore on Sunday then on Monday. 2.) I wasn't sore after doing pilates...maybe a bit tender but defiantly not sore. 3.) Day 4 is Lower Body Extreme. I'm a bit of a pansy when it comes to sore legs so Saturday I hammered it out...kind of. I'm not extreme enough to hammer out an extreme workout. Lower Body Extreme was basically a few rounds of 3 moves that was 30 seconds of the move as a weighted move then 30 seconds as a plyo move. 1 move would be a squat, the other 2 where lunges, 1 for each side. I have never squated and lunged so much in my life...mixed with my dislike of plyo. I sweated, I struggled a bit, and I took many breaks knowing how sore my legs had already been earlier in the week. Really though it wasn't the worst workout in my life and I'm FEELING it today. Sorest my butt has ever been in my LIFE. Like the WHOLE butt is sore, not just one little part. It's a whole butt load of soreness.

Day 5 is Cardio Extreme. I feel like I could of pushed through the sore butt today and got it done but other things happened that made workout sound not so fun. One of my fav things from these workouts so far is the things that are hurting the next day are the things I want to work on. It's not the type of hurt where "oh no i did something wrong" it's the type of sore where you know it means good things......maybe a bit more sore then I would like but if sore legs mean nice looking legs then give me some sore legs. My legs, butt, and abs should look amazeballs after "21" days.

Day 3....uhm...nope.

Today I took an unscheduled rest day and enjoyed Harry Pottery and The Prisoner of Azkaban. I've seen all of the movies and am now reading through the books. I just finished the third book last night and thought I would enjoy the movie tonight while laying on the couch secretly whining about my sore arms.

This week I started Beachbody's 21 Day Fix Extreme. I recently purchased Beachbody on Demand. I splurged and got it for a full year and jumped on to get the full access. Because of this I will probably be doing mainly Beachbody workouts for the year to get my money's worth. I knew I wanted to started a new program on Monday. I'm hoping to loose another 10lbs (or as close to as possible) by my birthday. My birthday February 25th....over a month away. I'm not sure 10lbs is doable but I know I can get close if I keep an eye on my food and work hard at my workouts. With these 10lbs in mind I was trying to decided between 21 Day Fix, 21 Day Fix Extreme, and Cize. As badly as I wanted to do Cize I thought a nice short 21 day program might work best to get me out of Yoga mode. I opted for 21 Day Fix Extreme thinking I would be pushing myself harder.........I am killing myself hahaha.

I love Yoga, love love love! I've dabbled it here and there but recently have fallen for it. It helped me shed off some weight and I'm loving the flexibility I'm gaining with it. As much as I'm loving Yoga right now I know I need to switch it up. I need to show my body I'm meaning business here......and then I'll go back to Yoga.

So Monday was Day 1, Piyo Extreme. I'm not a huge fan of Piyo. I don't really like cardio and I'm not a big fan of constantly jumping around. But it's only once a week for the next three weeks so I put my big girl pants on and did it. I didn't feel like it was to tough but it did make me feel out of shape. I was taking a ton of lil mini breaks when it wasn't time to break and found myself stopping moves before I should off. I ended the workout thinking I should of pushed myself harder. That was a lie. My legs did that fun thing on Tuesday where you wake up feeling fine and gradually get more sore as the day goes by. My hubby wanted to go see a movie on Tuesday night and my legs where SO SORE by time it was done I opted to just go to bed and make it a rest day. Wednesday I was still a little sore but Day 2 is Upper Fix extreme so I figured my slightly sore legs would be safe. I was much happier with Day 2. It used weights and I LOVE weights. I pushed myself but also took it easy as I didn't want sore arms AND sore legs on Thursday. I was really feeling the workout in my arms when I finished but went to bed feeling pretty alright, in fact I even woke up today not feeling anything except a tiny dull pain still in my legs (ugh legs, why are you so weak!!!). So I go to work, excited for Day 3 because its Pilates Extreme and I love me some pilates! My arms....well more so that muscle on the upper edge of your chest that you use a lot when you move your arms.....it did that fun thing where it got a little sore, then more sore, then A LOT sore through out the day.

So I decided this afternoon that for the first 7 "days", aka workouts, I will do 1 day workout, 1 day rest. This should give my body some time to get use to the change of workouts. I'm hoping to avoid hurting myself AND the dreaded burn out. The 21 Day Fix Extreme does have a yoga day, but doesn't have a rest day. I'm a tad bit worried with as sore as I'm getting that if I plowed through these workouts that I'll burn out and not finish the program. If I happen to do a workout and feel like doing the next one the next day with no rest then of course I will do it, but i'm not going to fear inserting a rest day into the calendar.

Me Me Me

Everything has to start somewhere, so why not start with me. I'll keep this short and simple and maybe in the future I can let you know more.

My names Haylie. I live in Iowa. I have a hubby and 2 dogs. I, like most people, have had my ups and downs with my weight and how I feel about my body. One day I'm fine, the next I'm not. I've had a few moments of "this is the highest its ever been and I won't let it be this high again!" followed by some weight loose and then followed by some weight gain that made me even heavier! A few months ago I noticed my clothes not fitting at all, the scale was the heaviest it has ever been, and I was done. I made some changes, lost some weight, and for the first time have been able to stay on track!

I'm starting this blog as a place to post my thoughts and opinions. I also find it semi irritating that when I try to find reviews on workouts I just find people trying to sell me things. I'm not here to do that. Sometimes I take pills and supplements, sometimes I diet, and sometimes I stick to a workout routine or workouts by a certain person.  Sometimes I don't stick to anything at all. I have a large collection of workout DVDs and basement has weights and a treadmill. Currently I'm doing Weight Watchers (my personal fav) and using Beach Body On Demand to find some great workouts. I'll share more on all that later.

I'm a real person. Some days I just want  to play video games and eat junk food....so I do. I love pizza, I love wine, and I love other things that are bad for me. Somedays I'm just not up to working out so I skip it and other days I feel like I REALLY nailed the workout. I love yoga and enjoy workouts that use weights. I hate push-ups, plyo, and most cardio....but will suck it up and do em when I have to.

I like to keep things real, and thats what I'm going to do on this blog. I hope you enjoy.