Results of my 7 week challenge

If you have been reading my blog, you would have known that I challenged myself to a 7 week challenge that  lead up to my birthday.  This challenge included me eating as clean as possible along with working out 6 days/week.  Here is the full story if you would like to catch up regarding the 7 week challenge.

I just reread it myself and I love the fact that I seemed so confident, yet unsure if I would really be able to achieve this thing. Well I'm here to report to you that I finished it, and I would say I definitely succeeded. I started off doing Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 DVD every morning during the week. That was a challenge within itself.  I would get up at 5am and head downstairs to workout in my townhouse. There were so many days that I just didn't feel like doing it. I was tired or super sore, but I pressed on! I had to do a lot of self-encouraging. Eventually, I started to continue to blog about my weekly progress and with the support and motivating words of all of you, I would find a new breath of energy to keep going.

So let's get down to it! I said I would post a progress pic, good or bad, so here it is!!

I posted this same picture on Facebook and Instagram with a caption that said something along the lines of I started working out and eating clean 7 weeks ago. I think there was a little confusion with this statement though.  The top picture was taken on December 15, 2012.  The bottom picture was taken on February 22, 2013.  Technically the pictures were taken 10 weeks apart.  I had always been working out.  As you can read from the post that started all of this, I was logging two hours at a time in the gym on a fairly consistent basis for 2 months. I have also always been the type to exercise at last 3 times/week here and there. I would sometimes get on my exercise grind hard, then fall off the wagon for a few weeks, then get back to it. Either way, my stomach has always been my biggest problem area so the top picture is pretty accurate for how I used to look on a regular basis. The shorts I'm wearing were given to me by a friend who had lost a lot of weight and couldn't fit them anymore. When she gave them to me, I told her "uhh these are way too small!" She told me to keep them and let them be "goal" shorts and to let them motivate me.  

On January 7, 2013, I finally started coupling my workouts WITH a healthier diet. These two things together have made this transformation so powerful!! And I'm not done yet! I am very pleased with my results, but I'm going for the gusto! I want more definition in my body so I am working on building muscle! So here are my 7 week challenge results! I'm learning more and more every day about clean eating and I'm so excited to see what kind of results I'll have by this time next year.

Here are a few words of encouragement for you: although 7 weeks doesn't seem like a long time, progress is truly a slow process!! Throughout this challenge, there were days when I would get so discouraged. I was taking pictures of myself almost every day!! I had to finally tell myself to stop because when I didn't feel like I saw enough of a change, I felt like I wasn't getting any results at all. People at work would ask me if I was losing weight, and that felt good, but I wanted to see more results faster! Oh how impatient us humans can be. Seeing these pictures lined up together definitely shows I've come a long way, but when you're looking at pictures of yourself every day and they all start to look the same, you feel like it's not happening fast enough.

I am committing myself to this lifestyle and along the way, I'm very passionate about helping other people! People have reached out to me and I have done my best to help them as much as I can. Here are some other things that might be encouraging to you:

1. I've been at this "I want to lose weight and have a defined body" for years. It's not going to happen until you decide "I'm ready to make changes and I'll do whatever it takes to get it"! I didn't just wake up one day and say I want to be healthier and have a better body and all of a sudden I started eating healthy food all the time. A lot of the foods I eat I used to not want to eat AT ALL!! I didn't like the taste, had no idea how to prepare it, or just had no idea what it was in general. This is a continuous process (lifestyle) and you will learn so much along the way if you're open to educating yourself about what works and doesn't work for your body.

2. Slow and steady wins the race. Now I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I strongly advice you to stay away from anything that promises results in "x" amount of days/weeks/months etc. This is a lifestyle change so the results will come if you stay consistent. I must admit, I've been very tempted to try different things that I've seen on Instagram, tv, heard about through the grapevine, etc., but I have also decided that I have to do stuff that will last me a lifetime. No more working out hard core because I'm going to the beach next month, no more eating right just to fit into a dress for a wedding I'm in, no more "special occasion" weight loss motivation for me! I told myself this, "if you can't do it consistently for 10 years, then don't do it now".  Now this is for me...so you don't have to take this on for yourself. But what I mean is, if I know I can't afford to take diet pills for the next 10 years to lose weight and keep it off, then I'm not taking them now. If I can't afford to take a line of cleansing/detox products consistently just to lose weight, then I'm not going to do it now. Now you might be saying "well what's wrong with doing these things to get a jump start on weight loss"? You're right, it's nothing wrong with it, but for me, I'm trying to get in the habit of doing this for myself and doing it consistently in a way that I can maintain and always stick with it. Old fashion good clean diets and exercise is something I know I can stick with.

3. Listen to your body and pay attention to it. When you're working out, push yourself, but don't push it until you get injured. That's no bueno! If something doesn't feel right, listen to your body and chill out.  Take some time and then get right back to it. And also remember, you can go as hard as you want in the gym, but if your diet is poor, then you're cancelling out all of your efforts! You can't out exercise a bad diet so no need to go hard, injure yourself, then on top of that eat a bad diet....you'll be right back at the start in no time. *thumbs down*

4. Be careful who you're taking advice from. I noticed that when I first started doing this, I was following a lot of people on Instagram who I viewed as really healthy and fit! I then started to notice that these people were taking all kinds of supplements and I just couldn't keep up with what I should be taking too. It then dawned on me that some of these people were body builders and were preparing for competitions.  I am not trying to be a body builder, I'm just trying to get healthy and fit. I then realized, I don't need to try to keep up with them because we have two different goals. I had to find out what was right for me and stop trying to keep up with the Buff Betty's and Bob's out there! Educating yourself on a lifestyle change can be super overwhelming! There are so many books out there, trainers giving advice, people giving advice, etc. so it's like what should you do?? Kind of like with Dr. Oz..it's like if you followed all of his advice (which I'm sure there is some great advice he's giving), it'd be almost impossible to keep up! I know that's how I feel every time I watch his show! 

5. If you fall off the wagon, just remember, there's always tomorrow to get back on! Every day isn't going to be perfect and there will be weeks when you feel like you are getting nowhere, but just keep going! The  key is consistency!!  Anybody who's successful at this will tell you, they kept going and that's when real results started to show and stay!! 

I am looking forward to sharing with you all more results to come and to keep blogging about this road to being fit for life!! 

...Stay tuned... 

The goal is to be fit, not skinny and that's a big dag gone difference!

Today was a very important day for me!! I was so excited, I could barely sleep!! Today I finished Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30 DVD!! Like I said in an earlier post, I have had this DVD for at least 2 years and I've never finished the whole thing! I'm very proud of myself and I'm even more excited about the results that I'm seeing!

Here is a picture of me on the day that I joined the gym on the left and a picture of me from this morning on the right.

I've never been really "big" per se, but I am definitely loving the results I'm seeing here! Now let me be clear, my results are not all attributed to doing Ripped in 30! The picture on the left is from October 31, 2012 and the right is from today, Feb 1, 2013.  Clearly that is longer than 30 days.  The first two months after I joined the gym, I was still eating relatively all that I wanted to eat.  I was doing better with food choices, but I still enjoyed a cupcake here and there and I still drank alcohol whenever I pleased.  I read food labels, but mainly the nutrition label and I would glance at the ingredients just to see how long the list was.  After I started eating clean, I started to slim down! 

My goal is to be fit and ripped...not skinny and there's a big dag gone difference between the two! As for right now, I appear to be much thinner, but I have a lot more work to go! I want to get stronger and I want to get leaner.  The biggest "problem" area on my body has always been my stomach.  I am truly trying to tone that up more and hopefully will see some abs shining through! Since it's only been a month of clean eating, I'm excited to see what I'll look like this summer! 

10 things to know about me and my journey:

1. I'm doing this all the natural way....clean diet and exercise

2. I'm not taking any type of pills to achieve results.  The only supplements I take are: protein shakes (mine just consist of protein powder and water), fish oil, and calcium with iron. I don't use the protein shakes as meal replacements.  

3. I'm not on a diet.  In the realms of clean eating, I eat what I want! This is a lifestyle change...diets usually last for a little bit of time then you're right back to your old eating habits. I used to have a huge sweet tooth, so I've been getting my sweet tooth satisfied through various foods that are considered "clean". Fruit has probably been my biggest form of satisfaction! I eat a piece of fruit with almost every meal.  

4. I work out 6 days/week.

5. I'm not starving myself at all. In fact, I got so excited about buying food last month that I would have preferred to buy groceries over spending my money on anything else. 

6. I eat 5-6 times/day.  I also eat ever 2-3 hours.  Before I started all of this, I called myself eating 5-6 times/day, but I found out that I was actually snacking pretty much all day! I was eating like every hour! 

7. I drink a gallon of water every day! Staying hydrated is very important! When I first started, I had a hard time getting the whole thing down. Not that I didn't like water, but it was just difficult to drink a whole gallon.  I started pacing myself too because getting up all night long to use the bathroom was annoying. Bed pan please!!!! 

8. I stopped drinking alcohol! Yes...that's right...gone! I will admit that I did have a glass of red wine while out with friends.  Basically if I do decide to drink, it'll probably just be red wine.  The empty calories and the dehydration were counterproductive to achieving my goals.  

9. I stopped eating fast food! The last time I had fast food was when I was in the airport flying home from Memphis (January 4th was the exact date).  I always prepare food to take with me from now on because I have to be prepared or else I'll resort to eating fast food due to the fact that I'm starving and desperate.  Again, counterproductive to my goals.

10. Progress is slow, but consistency wins all the time!!! If you're in the process of trying to reach your fitness goals, keep going, stay consistent, and progress will come!! Stay motivated and encouraged!! 

Week 3....DONE!!!

I'm so excited that it's Friday and on top of that WEEK 3 IS DONE!!! This week has been a pretty good workout week.  It's been a short work week due to inclement weather, so this has given me an opportunity to be fully rested and ready to tackle my daily workouts! Although I haven't had to go to work yesterday or today, I still got up early to complete my Ripped in 30 morning workout!

This week, Jillian was coming for the quads!! She targets the same muscle groups because she finds this to be highly effective.  I agree, I'm looking rather snazzy and I'm pleased with the results of sticking to this workout AND eating clean! I will admit, I have dreaded the week 3 workouts because it's really hard getting down low doing some of the moves she came up with.  I'm 5'11 so being really tall and having to do all this quad work can be very challenging! All in all, I pushed through and I'm so proud to say I DID IT!!!

This week I also downloaded an app to my phone called "Lose It".  Apparently it's highly similar to the "My Fitness Pal" (MFP) app.  I used to have MFP before, but I deleted it because I didn't feel like logging the foods I was eating.  Lose It has a convenient feature where you can scan the barcode on your food packages and the app will automatically figure out all the nutritional information! Sweeet!!!! I've been having a really good time with this feature! According to friends, MFP also has this feature, so either app will work if you're interested in logging what you're eating to hold you accountable!

Weight progress for the week: I weighed myself earlier this week and I am down to 184.5!!! That takes me down to a whopping 11.5 pounds lost since I started working out at the end of October (I was 196.0). These pounds are logged at my gym which I go to around 3-4pm every day.  Now my scale at home (I weigh myself first thing in the morning, naked) said I was 181 pounds.  As the week has progressed, I have hopped on the home scale and the numbers have seemed to increase a tad (roughly to about 183).  Now this kind of made me nervous because I know it's not what I'm eating that's causing me to gain.  I've been sticking to a very clean diet, so what's going on here?? I'm guessing it's muscle gain and I'm ok with that.

Some of my goals are to make my glutes bigger and more round, and to tone and rip my entire body! With that being said, I know I'm going to put on muscle weight.  If I want the glutes to get bigger, I'm going to have to squat and do Romanian dead lifts with a heavier weight. Heavier weight obviously equals me gaining weight.  To keep my sanity, I have decided that I'm not going to focus too much on what the scale is saying (even though I will continue to weigh myself at least once/week and log that number), and start focusing mainly on how my clothes are fitting.

Thus far, none of my clothes are to small (other than a few items that had BEEN too small ages ago) and the majority of them are actually getting to be too big and frompy! I have a few items that I consider "goal" clothes and I am proud to say I have 2 dresses that were way too small (one didn't even zip) and now they fit!! I wore one of them to a birthday party back in November and the dress was SO TIGHT that I could barely sit down!!! I struggled with getting it zipped and even considered just wearing it unzipped and having my friend help me once I got to the party (oh the things we go through to be "cute").  I finally got it on my own, but it was quite uncomfortable! I plan to wear this dress tomorrow to a function I'm going to and I'll take pics and post!! The other dress still has the tag on it, but it's definitely ready to be worn if I so desire!

Yay for progress!!! Week 4 is coming up and Jillian is calling it "the mother of all workouts"!! I'm a little nervous, but Jillian gets the job done and I'm up for the challenge!

Happy Friday to you all! Enjoy your weekend and be safe!! :)

Week 2....DONE!

Today marks the end of week 2 of Ripped in 30! I must admit, this week was very challenging.  Aside from forcing myself out of bed at 5:00am to get downstairs to work out, Jillian also used A LOT of moves that really focus on the shoulders.  Moves that involve you to be in a plank some kind of way (plank jacks, mountain climbers, crow push ups, rows, pendulum lunges with serving biceps, etc.).  I gave it all that I could and I got through it! At the end of each work out, I told myself "YOU DID IT!!"  This really helped me feel motivated to do it again the next day.

I am proud to say that I have been noticing results both in the way my clothes are fitting and in what the scale is saying!!! Here is a picture I took of myself in the beginning of the week.

I bought these pants probably last year some time and they're a size 14 from New York and Company.  Now most women pride their selves on being able to go down a size or 2 at NY&Co due to it "running big".  Not really the case for me. I'm a solid 12/14 there depending on the cut.  I don't get any free-bee lower sizes  here. I bought them in a 14 because the 12's were a little too tight (at the time) and they rose up a little so I got the 14 for more wiggle room and to make them longer.  I put these on and I was SWIMMING in them!!! I had to wear a belt with them (which by the way, I never wear a belt with my dress pants).  Most of the time I certainly don't even need a belt. So here is a little progress.  I'm also proud to announce that I'm down 10 lbs since I started working out at the end of October.  I didn't start eating clean until January, although I was trying to be good about what I was eating in November and December. Remember Thanksgiving and Christmas, holiday feasts, tons of sweets and treats also accompanied me throughout those months. I definitely went up and down give or take a pound or two during the first two months, but mainly tried to stay on track because I was doing a challenge at my gym that challenged you to stay within 2 lbs of your original weight beginning with November 1st all the way to December 31st. So being held accountable for the weight, definitely helped keep me on track. 

Now if you're wondering "what is she doing and how much weight is she really trying to lose". I'll tell you! My goal is not to be "skinny". I want to be RIPPED!! I want to have defined, visible, lean muscles.  That is the ultimate goal! Looking good with clothes on is all fine and dandy, but looking good naked is when you know you've made it! At the end of my journey with Ripped in 30, I'll be sure to post a progression pic from the beginning to the last day.  

Stay tuned! 

Week 1...done!

For the next 7 weeks (well now 6 weeks), I am challenging myself to work out AND eat clean to accustom myself to changing my lifestyle, but also to get physically ready for my 29th birthday.  The birthday part is a bonus, but I am seriously trying to make lifestyle changes to being more healthy.

Week one was completed today!!!!

Ok so this is what's been going on.  I bought a Jillian Michael's DVD called Ripped in 30 almost 2 years ago.  The program basically has four weeks of exercises that recommends you commit to doing 5-6 days/week and following Jillian's suggested meal plan and at the end of 30 days, you're supposed to be able to see visual and dramatic results and changes to your body! Well I'm not sure if it's supposed to be dramatic, but Jillian says "if you follow this DVD and meal plan, at the end of these 30 days, you're going to thank me".  Either way, like I said, I've had the DVD for almost 2 years and in those 2 years,  I have started and stopped and started and stopped this DVD over and over again. I've never did the full 30 day program and I certainly have never followed the meal plan.  The farthest I've gotten was completing week one for at least 4 days/week of exercise.  

Now I will say the DVD is challenging.  Jillian's programs are definitely not a walk in the park by any means! As she says "you don't buy a Jillian Michael's DVD and think it's going to be easy".  I would say I haven't finished the program because I usually divert my attention to one of the other many workout DVDs that I own, or I just give up on regular exercise all together.  

This time, I am truly trying to stick to this commitment. And now that I've shared this with all of you, I'm going to let you guys hold me accountable and I'm going to do it! 

I've been doing the DVD every morning this week around the 5 o'clock AM hour! Some mornings I have tried to talk myself out of getting out of bed telling myself it's ok if I don't do it today because I'll just workout in the afternoon after work at the gym.  I've also been cold in the morning and much warmer under my covers. Thursday morning, I was so incredibly sore that I almost convinced myself that I should just take the day off because it'd be better for my body that way.  A lot of self-talk occurred this week regarding doing this workout.  This morning when I woke up, it was unusually warm in my house so I had no problem springing out of bed to head downstairs to get to work. After I finished, I just thought to myself, I DID IT!!! I was so excited that I accomplished working out every morning this week as I said I would commit to doing.  

I've also been eating very clean this week! I have found lots of great recipes and food ideas on several websites! Some of my favorites that I've found is The Gracious Pantry, recipe.com, The Eat Clean Diet. and of course good ol' Pinterest is always a winner for looking for recipes.  I actually found out about the Gracious Pantry on Pinterest.  One thing I've learned is that anyone who has a nice body that they had to work at (meaning it's not just genetically a nice body) will tell you, it's not just about working out, it's what you're eating too. One week of eating clean has totally changed my life! I went to a faculty meeting Thursday and there were all kinds of cookies and sweets that I usually crave and am weak not to eat them, but I didn't even want them after doing such a great job eating clean throughout the week. 

I feel amazing and I'm so excited about this new lifestyle! I will be honest...there is one downfall....

Eating clean is E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E!!!!!!!!!!!!!  In the first week, I've already spent over $100 on food!!!  I think I got a little too excited and did not consider that this clean food which is mostly produce will not last me longer than a week.  Right now, I'm on a mission to figure out how I'm going to make it through the rest of the month and how am I going to do it "clean".  I know that I cannot afford to spend $100/week on groceries, but I don't want to go back to eating anything just because it's cheap.  I've been thinking of some creative things I can do so stay tuned for that.  I'll post how my first month of eating clean went at the end of this month.  

I also plan to post progress pics! The one I took this morning looked pretty good, but there is a lot more work to go! I can't wait to see what kind of progression I will have at the end of this month and then at the end of the 7 weeks!! Stay tuned.....