Wednesday , August 20th

I felt like it was time for another photo progression photo. I'm very optimistic with the way things are going weighloss wise. I'm super close to where I was back in 2012! The difference this time is I feel like my body is a lot more lean than last time. In 2012 I focused a lot more on my diet and some workouts. This year I am waaay more focused on fitness. Seriously though, 3 to four hours a week of circuit training and weight training!? Peace of fucking cake!   On the weekends I tend to add in running or walking a couple of miles. This time around has been so much fun! It helps that my husband works out too. He's always been a skinny dude, with a very fast metabolism. This year he's put on close to 30 lbs of muscle and fat. What's weird is pretty soon we are going to meet up in weight. He's currently 180 something  and I'm close to 199. I'm interested to see what we look like at the same weight. Haha. Freaky.

August 20th 2014   -  July 7th 2014

He'll probably get mad that I posted this. Lol. First pic is in 2012 and the second one is in Early July this year!

stomach virus? no big deal!

So I've been having an issue with a weak stomach/ stomach virus since last week. I haven't been able to exercise properly since then and it has a bit frustrating.  I have, how ever been able to eat good.

I slipped back into eating not as healthy but staying within my calorie limit.  I switched back to eating clean and smaller portions. I feel better, and hopefully soon I will be well enough to get back into working out. I miss running and lifting.

But I am super close to my first private goal and my first over all goal!

And here's some food porn:

 Last month I bought a 1-month gym membership on groupon. In a way I felt the gym membership was distracting me from my workout routine. Its a tiny gym and there were a ton of machine hogs. No problem, I made the best of my time there by running on the treadmill.

Well, yesterday was my last day at the gym and I was a bit sad because I really loved running on that treadmill. So today I decided that I should start running at the park. I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do. I am really optimistic that adding the running twice a week to my circuit training and light weight training is going to awesome. Lol.

i am really happy with the way my weightloss progress is coming along. so far my legs are toning up nicely and my arms are starting to look better. in fact with my previous workout routine never toned my upper body and legs like this time around. 

Improvements.... Yay!

Getting a gym membership has been the best investment my husband and I have ever made. My energy and mood has been a lot better. The endorphin rush I get is pretty addictive. This is seriously what I have been lacking from my home work outs. When I jump on the weight machines, I find myself pushing myself harder and harder. Under a week of hitting the gym, I have lost 3 lbs.

From being “hefty”, my joints were stiff. When I would go for runs in the park, my knees always felt funny. Even doing squats at home my knees felt crazy. Since I have been doing leg work outs I feel 100 times better.  I also don’t get fatigued when I go for long walks anymore. I know this is TMI, but even my love life has improved a lot. I won’t go into details, but I am very happy with the improvements on my behalf. Lol.

My eating habits have changed, yet again. I’m not as hungry as I used to be, not craving meat as much, and I have decided to cut alcohol completely out. I am starting to think I should cut dairy out. Also have been thinking about going vegetarian, but my stomach really can’t handle a lot of soy products.

I have started to take pictures of my torso, but I am utterly terrified to post the pictures right now. I have a picture from 2010 and the change is huge, but I think I am going to wait a few months before I actually post the pictures. Since I have using the tanning bed in the gym, my stretch marks on my stomach don’t look as bad. I can cope with having stretch marks all my life, but it would be nice if they didn’t look as bad. I have stretch marks on top of my old stretch marks. I seriously cannot believe I let myself get as big as I was. I hope I never let myself get that bad anymore.

|| Gym Time ||

Soooooooooo, I finally got my gym membership Monday. Yesterday was the first day, and it was overwhelming at first. There are so many machines and so many possibilities. It seriously feels like I am starting this weight loss journey all over again.  I guess I would consider this the second chapter in the weight loss story. Seems like everything I did before this was to prepare me for harder workouts.

The gym membership came at the right time. I quit my job at the Gap, due to soaring gas prices. I have been feeling pretty useless and restless at home. Also my birthday had just passed and I used my birthday an excuse to eat awful. Lol. It was worth it….. to a point. I normally don’t consume sugary coffee drinks, drink a lot of beer or eat pizza. My body instantly got addicted to the sugar. I find myself craving sugar all day. I haven’t given in since my birthday, which is good.

Yesterday’s first trip to the gym was amazing. I did a little bit of everything to get the hang out how the machines work.  After experimenting with the weight machines I focused roughly over 40 minutes to cardio and an hour on upper body work outs. I am glad that my endurance has gone up. 75 lbs ago I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with any work out and felt embarrassed. I probably wouldn’t have gone back. Lol. But I am grateful that I have worked so hard on my body. Now it’s time to work even harder.

My arms felt like putty yesterday after the work out. Thankfully my arms don’t feel as bad as I anticipated. I feel like I can do a little upper body work outs today. Though I should just do a little so I can let my muscles heal properly. I am going to focus on getting as much cardio in and then work on my legs.

My new short term goal is to lose 20 lbs by the end of May. The new long term goal for the year is to have a total of 40 pounds gone.  This feels like an overall realistic goal. I am only 25 lbs away from meeting my all time goal of losing 100 pounds. 2012

My Experience With Weight Training

I know when people think of weight training, they think of super huge body builders.  Weight training is the use of resistance methods like free weights, weight machines, resistance bands, or a person's own weight to build muscles and strength. Power lifting tends to focus on how much weight a person can lift at one time. Some women worry that they will bulk up if they start weight training. This is false, because women do not have enough testosterone in their body.  If you lift weights day after day for hours at a time then you'll start to bulk up.

I have been lifting a little bit of weights for 3 weeks already. So far my upper body has toned up pretty good. The body fat seems like it is starting to melt away. It’s pretty awesome. I have lost maybe two inches from each upper arm and maybe one inch from my chest area.  It really feels good to see that I am starting to notice a difference in my body.  Since I've been gaining muscle, i haven't lost any weight. I've been hovering around the same weight for 3 weeks now.

10 pound dumbbell

 The benefits for weight training are:

• ·         Strengthens bones in women
• ·         Helps you raise your metabolism
• ·         Helps you with your endurance and makes you stronger
• ·         The more muscle you have the more calories you burn
• ·         Increased lean muscle mass
• ·         Helps prevent injury
• ·         Improves your balance
• ·         Improves your coordination
• ·         Boosts your self-esteem
• ·         Decreased risk of coronary disease

What i use: Gold's gym curl bar with 25lbs and 2 10lbs dumbbells