So last night I was all excited in posting that I had lost so much in the last week.

Well, I was standing in the kitchen last night looking at my wall calendar where I’m posting my weights and what workouts we’ve been doing and I noticed that I wrote 170.8 last monday. What? Oh my goodness, I’ve only lost 1.8 pounds this week.

I spent ALL day yesterday thinking I had lost 3 1/2. Somehow I still had in my head I was at 172.4. I think the weeks are starting to blurr together in my head.

I’m still happy I’m out of the 170’s and I’ve about hit 10 pounds total lost since January 3rd.

So, scratch what I said about not getting down on myself for not getting more workouts in (cuz that’s when I thought had an awesome weight loss!) I need to BRING IT this week!  I am going to bust my butt working out. LOL

I sincerely apologize to anyone who read my post from last night, I absolutely had NO intentions of lying to anyone.

Well, I can say that I am pretty happy with my weight loss this week. Not only did I lose 3.4 pounds I am now OFFICIALLY out of the 170’s. That feels great. Now I am less than 10 pounds away from being out of the 160’s which I haven’t been in years!

So, the truth. I STILL did not get in enough workouts. We only completed 3 and a half P90X workouts this week. Yes, we did a half. Well, a little more than a half. I don’t know what it was, but one night we both weren’t feeling right. My boyfriend had a headache and I felt exhausted for some reason. Everytime I held myself up on my arms by back burned like mad. So we only did 40 minutes and decided that was enough.

Anyhow, I’m going to quit beating myself up over getting so many workouts in. That’s not helping me by stressing over it. If we get most of them in great, if not that is ok too. I just know in the back of my mind that I would be losing so much more if we did 6 days a week.

I am sticking to meal plans pretty good. Some days we don’t follow it exactly, but even when I don’t I’m still eating good and healthy foods. The plan we are on has us eating lots of proteins and low carbs. I’m surprised at how well I’ve been able to hold myself to it. I think some days I’m not getting enough protein in, but I’m doing my best.

Time seems to be the biggest factor with everything. Both for workouts and preplanning my food for work. When I don’t take all my food with me I usually get myself a bowl of fruit at work and a big salad for lunch. My only weekness with salads is that I LOVE ranch dressing. Did I say LOVE, yes, I can eat ranch with anything. LOL I’m trying to get better about using healthier dressing though, but I splurge every now and then and go for the ranch.

So, that’s week four for us. Technically I don’t really consider it 4 weeks since we haven’t done the program full blown. Normally you would move to phase 2 after the first month, but since we are focusing on weight loss first we are going to stick to phase 1 for awhile.

Hope to share more great news next week. I’m also planning to update my about me page and add a stat page. I’ll post my weight stats for each week as well as add some pictures. I took before pictures, but I’m sure anyone can understand I’m a little embarassed to post them. We’ll take updated pictures this next week so I’ll post them both at the same time.

So I’m not going to lie and say I had a great week. I didn’t do near as good as I had planned. Good news though, I still lost 1.6 pounds. I didn’t quite make it out of the 170’s which was my goal, but I’m sitting at 170.8 right now.

I am still doing well overall on my daily diet and bringing my food with me to work each day. The only thing I splurg on is my coffee. I know I need to cut back on it, but I haven’t yet. We did go out Sunday night for Chinese (my ultimate favorite food!) My boyfriend felt we have been eating good for three weeks we deserved a night out for dinner.

Getting my P90X workouts and 64 oz. water in was still a struggle. This last week I was covering for another coordinator at work so I came in early and worked late each day. That made it hard to get many workouts in because I was pretty tired and a bit stressed out.

We only got in 3 workouts total. I know, that’s terrible. Maybe shooting for 6 times a week is too much for me right now. I think I’m going to consider 5 workouts a week a good week. If I get more in, then awesome.

This week I plan to try and get out of work by 4:00 each day so that we have plenty of time to get our workouts in. I would like to start working out at 4:30 each day so that it is done and then do dinner later. Normally we do dinner and then don’t workout until 8 to 9 PM. I’d much rather get it done earlier than that.

I am happy that I still lost weight though. You can’t complain about 1.6 pounds. That is definitely better than nothing! This week I will definately be out of the 170’s and then some!

So I have good news and some bad for my second week of doing P90X.

I’ll start with the bad:

1)     We only did 4 P90X workouts this last week.

Sunday was Legs & Back . In between the leg workouts they do pull ups. We don’t have a pull up bar set up yet and I’m not sure if we can get one to work in our doorways. I need to figure something out this week.

Monday was Kenpo. Kenpo totally kicked my butt! I get winded really fast, but I think I did a pretty good job keeping up.

Tuesday we did Core Synergistics and  Wednesday was Cardio X.

Thursday nights I run a dart tournament so I don’t really have very much time that day. By the time I get off work I have to run to town and then I don’t usually get home until 11:30 – 12:00. I was thinking that would have to be our rest day. The only problem is that I’m always exhausted on Fridays from staying out so late the night before. I’m lucky to make it through work on Fridays. LOL

Then Saturday we just never got around to it. We did take our dogs for a 40 minute walk that morning, which is better than nothing, but I was pretty disappointed in myself for not getting a workout done.

2)    My other stuggle this week was water.

I don’t know why, but I had a hard time getting in near enough water. I got a 72 OZ bottle that I take to work each day. I took the almost full bottle back home with me several times this last week.

Ok, so on to the GOOD news.

I weighed in yesterday morning and I have lost 2.4 more pounds! Hooray! I am now down to 172.3 from 178.4 in just over 2 weeks. That definitely boosted my motivation. Just think if I actually got in 6 work outs this week and drank all my water.

My goal for this week is to get OUT of the 170’s! That’s 2.3 pounds.

This week I need to plan my time better to ensure I get all of my workouts in. Everyone is busy. I think that is what holds a lot of people back, just fitting in the time to workout.

I’m also going to work harder at drinking a minimum of 64 oz of water each day. If I commit to getting 1/2 my bottle drank by lunch time each day that should help. That way I’m not trying to chug it all before going to bed.

Our diet has us eating flaxseed each day, usually mixed into our protein drinks. It says on the package that it can be mixed into all kinds of things, like cereal, over salads and even for baking. I figured since I was eating it each day I should at least know why and what it is.

Flaxseed comes from the blue flowered flaxseed plant. You can buy it in whole seeds, pre-ground or in the form of oil. From what I have read it seems ground flaxseed is the best. Whole seeds last longer, but you will need to get a grinder. If you don’t grind them up they just run through the body and you don’t get all the benefits from them.

Flaxseed contains calcium, iron, protein and soluble and insoluble fiber. It is a large source of Omega-3 Fatty acids. You have to have Omega-3 in your diet and your body doesn’t make it on it’s own.

What are other the benefits of flaxseed?

• It helps to lower your cholesterol.
• It can reduce the risk of cancers.
• It reduces inflammation.
• It can help with constipation.
• It can helps your skin, nails, hair, eyes and kidneys.
• I also learned that it helps to fill you up faster which explains why it is used in weight loss programs such as ours.

The recommended amount is 2 tablespoons per day. You can add into into almost anything. We have it in our protein shakes each day and I can’t even tell it is there.

You can get it a health stores, online and in some grocery stores, usually in the flour isle. I found it at Costco.

I watched a lot of videos on how people use it and read a few articles.

Here is an article with more information.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/benefits-of-flaxseed

They even give a recipe on how to make Fruity Flaxseed Muffins.

I originally had planned to post after each P90X workout, but really, it would have just been a whole lot of OWWWCH! Whew, my body didn’t know what to think. I felt the soreness coming on just within a few hours of our first workout.

I was limping around for a good 4 days at least. My legs, my arms, my back ….  Don’t get me wrong, I am still a bit sore, but nothing like those first few days. Thank goodness we have the first week done. I was so sore one night I slept on the couch because it was more comfortable to lay down or more cushy anyhow.

I bought a bottle of sport bath bubbles that are supposed to help ease pain. I don’t know that it made much of a difference though. It was nice, but I think baths are always a little relaxing. There is no quick cure to sore muscles other than just waiting it out and continuing the workouts.

It’s so easy to let yourself quit when you get that sore. You think, I’ll just skip today and I’ll feel better tomorrow. I’m happy that we didn’t do that. We did miss a couple days, but that was at the end of the week and now we are two days into our second week.

Good News – I’ve lost 4 pounds. Not a HUGE number, but at the same time it’s not small. When I was doing Jenny Craig I was lucky to lose 1-2 pounds in a week. I’ll post my beginning stats soon so that I can show the progress I’m making.

When we first received the program back in October we started doing the pre-planned menus out of the nutritional guide. Going to the grocery store was an ordeal because there were so many things I needed to get. I have never been much of a cook so my pantry is not that well stocked. Plus there were many items I didn’t even know what they were. I think I had to Google 4-5 different ingredients. Ha Ha. 

Anyhow, we found most of the ingredients and started along on the plan. The food was great, a lot better than I expected. The only problem for us is that each meal took so long to prepare. Plus you eat a LOT of food in this program. Since you are working your body so hard they have you eating quite a bit.

For someone that cooks all the time it would probably be great for them, because it isn’t a plain diet where you are just eating a lot of salads, fruits and veggies. With it taking so long it started getting hard to get everything prepared so that I could take it with me to work in the mornings. Plus it seemed like my whole night was all about making dinner.

Now that we officially started the P90X program I decided I need something a little simpler. I still wanted a pre-made menu, but it needed to be meals that we could prepare quicker. I found on TeamBeachBody.com that you can customize a meal plan. I chose the P90X program, my information (height, weight, etc) and that I wanted to lose weight and that was it. I did this for both Tim and I and the meals are actually a bit easier that in the book. They are still all really good meals, but they seem to be faster for me to put together.

Honestly, I still struggled a bit these last few days, just because I was so sore from starting the program. (Remember, I’m totally out of shape!) So I didn’t do a very good job of getting anything ready in advance. I ended up coming in late to work every day this week. (Good thing they are somewhat flexible.) Next week I think things will go even smoother.

I printed out all 7 days of the plan and taped them up in my kitchen. There’s no question what to eat when it is right there in front of you right?

I know as I move a long in the program, I’ll learn better eating habits and hopefully improve my cooking skills. Having a pre-made menu helps me to learn meals I would never have thought of putting together. If I had to do it on my own I’d be eating oatmeal for breakfast, salad for lunch and then chicken and veggies for dinner. Totally uncreative!

Many people look at the New Year as a good time to start living healthy, going on diets and working out. I read the other day, I think it was on Tony Horton’s Facebook, but I’m not 100% sure, that you should not wait for the new year, you should start NOW.

Right Now, is always the best time to start.

We actually tried back in October, but some things came up (as usual) and then we had family in town for the holidays. I decided it would be best to start after the holidays. That way all of the treats, cookies, chocolate, pies and the rest of the yummy food are gone. People are always bringing in tasty stuff at my work during the holidays. It’s one thing to have just “one”, but can you really have just one??? I don’t have the best willpower when I have to walk past it every time I go the printer.

As I said in my last post, I have tried many programs, but never seem to keep it up. This time is going to be different. I am 31 and if I don’t start making changes now it is just going to get harder and harder. I have gotten to the point where I am exhausted all the time. I barely make it through work and then when I get home all I feel like doing is just going to bed or vegging.

My sister decided to create a healthy life for herself a couple years back. She is in the best shape of her life and she looks GREAT! She loves fitness now. It is a huge part of her life. She has been encouraging me to get started for quite a while now.

My boyfriend, Tim, wants to lose weight as well. We’ve kind of gained the pounds together over the last couple of years. What better time than now since I have a workout and diet partner and I have family I can go to for advice and support.

Tim watched Tony Horton’s infomercial a few times on P90X and really wanted to do it. If he’s willing to do a workout program like that with me I have no objections. I’m there!

… However, what we didn’t realize is that P90X is actually for people already in pretty good shape. Did they mention that in the infomercial? I can’t remember, LOL. Either way, there is no reason we can’t start small and work our way up as we do the program. Each week we’ll get stronger and be able to do more and more.

Now, is the time I’m going to get into the best shape of my life!

Why is it so darn hard to start a fitness program and stick to it?

In October my boyfriend and I bought a new workout program. We started the meal plan a week prior to the workouts. We had a good start and actually, even in that short amount of time I was feeling better.

Then I got sick for about a week and then I had to go out of town for another week. Since I returned in mid-November we haven’t been able to get back on it. I don’t know how many times I went grocery shopping for all this healthy food that ended up rotting in the fridge!

I don’t know how many times in my life I’ll start a weight loss program and then only stick to it with for about 2-3 weeks. I always seem to miss few workouts or eat a few bad things and then get completely discouraged and quit.

I have done Jenny Craig 3 times in the last 15 years. I did the best the first time, but I was young and my Mom was helping me through it. I didn’t fully understand the importance of it then or what being truly healthy was. Then I tried it again when I was 19 and again at 25. Both of those times I quit because I just couldn’t afford the cost of the food each week.

See, programs like Jenny Craig were great for me (if I could have afforded them, lol) because I have no clue when it comes to cooking, let alone cooking healthy. Don’t get me wrong, I can make a good pot of Mac & Cheese, I just have a hard time when it comes to putting things together, how to cook different ways or spicing things up.

My diets are pretty plain since I don’t know much about cooking. It would probably consist of oatmeal, plain salad, plain chicken, plain, plain, plain … blah. You get pretty tired of some foods when you cooking skills are limited. Another reason for my weight loss programs never lasting more than a few weeks.

I’m 31 now, heavier and unhappier than I have ever been. I am tired all of the time. I don’t enjoy going out and I hate getting dressed. It is time to change. I want to have energy again, I want to feel like I look good and I want to pull out all of those clothes I’ve been saving for over 10 years. Ha ha, yes, I don’t get rid of anything.