C25K Week 4 - Complete

"That's not sweat. It's your fat cells crying".

I read that statement today and loved it! I thought I'd share it with you all out in Blog World. My fat cells must've really been sad yesterday. I decided to do my full hour of cardio on the treadmill. Aside from the fact that I got there in time for the start of Law & Order, I ended up on a treadmill next to a really nice and inspirational couple that lost 160lbs between the two of them in the last 3 months. Needless to say, I was very interested in what they had to share. They both brought pictures of their "fat selves" with them and placed them over top of the display as they walked. I think that's a cool reminder of why they should continue walking. I may have to borrow that idea. LOL

Back to the run... Week 4 was tough but well worth it. I grew confidence being able to run the 3 and 5 min. sprints without stopping. I also noticed that the 30 min. goes a lot quicker when you're running intervals are longer. I'm still finishing up at just around 2 miles in 30 min but I know that will improve once time goes on. I could probably do a lot better if I'd completely quit smoking. I'm down to 2-3 cigarettes per day now so that's a start. (Hey, don't judge me. LOL).

After the run I decided to do the "Hills" program on the treadmill. I finished up in just under 4 miles in 60min. Not too bad but I hope to do more tomorrow. I decided to take a day off today to get some rest, sleep and relaxation done. I've been feeling really disappointed lately as I don't see how I'm going to be able to loose much weight before October 16th but reason with myself that at least I'm becoming more fit so it's worth it and every little bit counts.

I'm still in the race hanging in there. I'm working hard and doing my best to make my "fat cells cry" every chance I get.

C25K - Week 4, Day 1

Hi Everyone... I know it's been a while since I've posted. I've been really busy. I'm still going to the gym and trying my best to get a handle on my eating habits. I've been doing pretty well with that lately too. In fact, I'm probably going to have a pre-wiegh-in this weekend before we take my mother out to dinner for her birthday and then again on Monday to see if my one meal of bliss negatively affects me.

The Couch to 5K program starts out pretty slowly and progressively builds your stamina and confidence. I think that's why this program is so successful. I believe that a person could definitely go from being a couch potato to running a 5K (or 30 min. non-stop) if they follow the program.  And if the program advances too fast for you, you could always repeat a week until you're ready to move on.

Week 4, Day 1 - was the first day that I had to literally force myself to keep going. The recovery periods are short and the running periods are much longer than the 1min spurts in the beginning. This week, we have to run in 3 and 5 min. intervals with very short recovery periods. I generally try to get on a treadmill near a runner in hopes that their energy will be contagious. LOL

The program also encourages trainees not to skip ahead or run everyday. You know me... I'm hard headed so I like to knock out my 3 workouts back to back. I would love to finish this 5K in 30-40 min. So I'm trying to build the stamina now and then spend the rest of my time working on speed. I'm up to jogging at a 4.0 on the treadmill but see I need to go a lot faster than that to run a 10min mile. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. By this time next week, I'd like to at least run a 14min mile which would be a huge improvement from my 16 minute "molasses mile" I run now.

I typically spend an hour per day in the gym 4 days per week. I do the run and then walk on high incline as fast as I can (without holding) on for 15 min. The other 15 minutes are usually spent on the random treadmill cycle, the arc machine or the elliptical. It really all depends on what's still hurting when I finish the run. SMH...

Oh yeah, I made huge progress on Wednesday. I did 2 miles on the treadmill and then did 6 miles on the bike - all within 60 minutes. I couldn't believe my eyes. So yall know my new found goal is 10 miles now, right? LOL

Weigh In :(

Sometimes I wish I didn't post this blog to my Facebook Wall. There's a lot of things I would love to write about..... Let me rephrase that: there are a lot of people I would like to write about but out of respect for them, I'm not going to go there. Maybe I'll start another blog and only let a select few know it exists. ha ha ha (in my evil villain voice). I know... I know. That's not nice but that's how I feel right now.

Now back to the regularly scheduled blog program

I changed "my week" to begin on Mondays. I weighed in this morning and I wasn't happy at all. The Wii reflected a +2 weight increase. I've been busting my tail. I expected to see a -2 if anything. No way did I expect to gain. Everyone (including my 12 year old daughter) keeps telling me that the Wii's are often off so I'll probably wander off at some point today and weigh myself on one of the scales in our medical office.

Lastly, my husband decided to help out more with the kids so that I could go to the gym for an hour everyday after work. Woohoo!!! Nice, right? So let's see how many consecutive days I can actually do this C25K and how well I'll make out.

Sometimes You Need a Little Push...

Deciding to start getting fit and living a healthier lifestyle is not easy. It's not easy to drag your butt out of bed, run on a treadmill, do a workout video, go for a run or even deny yourself your favorite foods in order to reach your goal. Sometimes the journey becomes boring. You loose hope. You think there's no point and at times you feel like no one else values your struggles. But every once in a while along the journey, you come across a passerby that gives you a little nudge to keep pressing forward.

My sister challenged me to join her in a 5K for breast cancer. The run is on October 2nd so I have (had) exactly 10 weeks to complete the 9 week program and get running. I'll have to admit I'm excited and scared at the same time. The furthest I've ever run non-stop was 1.5 miles but I wouldn't exactly call that running. It was more of a jog. So, instead of doing my old routine which was running until I felt that I was about to pass out, I decided to try the Couch to 5K running program.

The C25K program is super easy to follow and makes running a 5K seem totally doable even in less than the amount of time the program calls for. So I've decided to repeat week one which consists of alternating walking 90 sec. with running 60 sec. I felt like I was going to nearly pass out on the treadmill. I'm thinking that I may need to give running outdoors another shot. All it took was a couple of bad shin splints for me and that was it. I vowed to only run on a treadmill unless it was race day. But I think I may be pushing myself a little too hard on the treadmill focusing on calories burned, speed and time. I'm thinking I may need to just use the C25K app (which I downloaded for my phone from the Droid Market) and just run and not worry about the numbers.  The program will time you and blow a whistle when its time to alternate.I also concluded that it may be time to quit my secret cigarette habit.  Smoking+obesity+running = disaster. Don't judge me... (smh).


Oh, I'm still doing Insanity too. I got a little bored with it so I decided to run 3 days and do Insanity for 3 days. That way I shouldn't get too tired of either for a little while. I am a little worried about the toll the two will take on my knees.


I've also decided to change my "my week". I'm finding it difficult to switch my meal plans and exercise routines up on Tuesdays so I'm going to start "my week" off on Mondays. Last week's weigh in reaped a total of 1lb lost.


I'm not pleased but a pound lost is better than a pound gained any day. So I'll take that. I'll work harder next week and hope that the running combined with Insanity will reap better results. I'm thinking of switching to My version of the Atkins Diet for the next two weeks and see if I can't loose 7 pounds to reach an even 210. We'll see. God, I wish I didn't bore so quickly.

Week 3 Weigh In

Well... somewhere around my first post, I said that I wanted to do Insanity for 28 consecutive days because that's how long it supposedly takes to form a habit. I formed my habit. I work out religiously everyday even when I don't feel like it. Today marks day 21 with only 7 more days to go until I officially form my "habit". I did get sick last week and had to take two "unauthorized" days off but I got right back on track and made up for it by even working out twice on some days. While I don't see too many physical changes, I can tell you that I am already in a lot better shape than I was in when I started. I'm able to workout longer and harder and feel myself growing stronger everyday! (Woo-hoo!)

I'm not pleased with this week's weigh in but I can say I  honestly feel like I've lost some inches. I bought this grey pencil skirt last year and only wore it once because my butt stood out just as far behind me as my belly did in front of me. Then there was the issue of the pouch and the long split up the front and I just couldn't bring myself to wear it again. Well, I wore the skirt today. I'm still round in the center but it doesn't look as bad as it did before. In fact, it keep rises up because there's too much room in the waistline. Here's a pic:

Hopefully some day soon I'll be posting another pic in this last minute outfit with it falling off me. Hey, a girl can dream. Right?

This week I decided to go back to eating "real food" for breakfast instead of the Special K. I also opted to stop eating the white bread on sandwiches for lunch.

This morning I had sausage links, scrambled eggs with cheese on wheat toast for breakfast. For lunch I'll have a salad with some sliced baked turkey breast. I'll have sugar-free jello for snacks and all the water I can stand. I'm not sure what I'll have for dinner yet but I'm sure it will be healthy. My husband joined me in the weight loss journey less than 6 months ago and he's already dropped 50 lbs. (That is SO unfair!!! but I'm happy for him).

As far as exercise goes, I will continue Insanity for the rest of the week. Next Tuesday, instead of doing the "Recovery Week" Core Cardio & Balance, I think I'll do Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred. I had good results with that workout before so we'll see what happens. that will be my "recovery". I'm not sure if I'll immediately return to Insanity or if I'll start training for the 5K in early October. My sister talked me into running and we're both going to do the Couch to 5 K program. I'll probably do that and alternate Insanity every other day. But again, we'll see...


Oh... I didn't tell you guys how much I lost this week. ONE FREAKING POUND! Can you believe it? I worked so hard. I ate right and worked my tail off but I didn't manage to loose the 4 lbs I was shooting for this week. I guess this is normal. Usually weeks 3 and 5 are rough (according to Biggest Looser). So I'll continue to work hard. I will celebrate this single pound loss because it could have very well been one gained.

Set Back or Set Up?

I'm pissed off.

I've been working really hard this week. I've done all of my workouts and even an extra one yesterday (for two in one day), I haven't had any beef (even though steak is one of my favorite foods) and I didn't have as many "grown up drinks" as I normally would have or would have liked to yet I got on the scale today and saw that my weight loss was exactly 0 lbs.

The official weekly weigh in isn't until Tuesday but I expected to have lost at least 2 lbs since this past Tuesday by now. WTF!!!

So then I ask myself: "Is this a set back or a set up?"

Will I allow one bad week to cause me to turn back to my old ways? Will I throw in the towel and reason that there is no use and that I am destined to be a fat girl for life? Will I still be overly attentive to any blemish on my face because I feel that's the only attractive part of my body left?

OR will I use this 0 lb weight loss as a propeller to push myself to another level? Will I learn from this and workout harder and/or longer and eliminate anything that is not nutritionally necessary from my diet? Will I remember that being healthy is not a destination but rather a life-long process? What will I do?

The way I see it is I can either sulk in my saltiness (bitterness) and binge eat another 3 lbs on by tomorrow or I can rejoice in the fact that I have not gained anymore weight. I can either be upset that I didn't reach my supper aggressive goal of 4 lbs this week or I can be happy that I am on my way to a healthier happier me.

Basically, it's all about how I/you/we choose to look at things. There are a couple of bible verses that come to mind which I find comfort, encouragement and strength in right now and I'd like to share one of them with you all. I do/did have another blog where I posted daily meditations so I'm not going to duplicate that effort on this blog. However, I find that whatever is in us is bound to come out. Good or bad. And right now, this is what's on the inside encouraging me to go forth on the outside.

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. (Galatians 6:9)

Insanity in Tripple Digit Weather

The thermometer on my car said 104 degrees yesterday. If anyone knows anything about me they know that I absolutely detest the heat! I don't know if its because I'm carrying around this extra "insulation" or if something really happened to me after I turned 25 that just made heat unbearable to me. I'm one of those people you see walking around in the dead of winter with a light jacket on and if you catch me on the right day, you may even find my windows cracked. I don't even store my fans away for the winter. Instead, I use them all year long. (By the way, God bless whomever invented the fan and air conditioner!)

So can you imagine me, the "Hater of Heat" working out in triple-digit weather? I couldn't neither but I did it. I don't keep any fans or air conditioners in my basement because it gets a little dusty and I'd hate to have that blowing around and get my bronchitis acting up so I figure I'd rather be a little hot than unable to breathe. The only thing I hadn't planned for was for the temperature to get so hot. This is like the 4th or 5th day of a heat wave. We (Philadelphians) do not do very well with the heat. I once visited Las Vegas in July and I was sure I was going to die. The weather lately has really starting reminding me of that.

It would have been very easy for me to just take the day off and chalk it up as a "rest day" but I couldn't. I told you guys yesterday that my goal was to loose 4lbs by next Tuesday and I'm sticking to it. In fact, if my body permits, I plan on working out twice on Saturday and Sunday just to see if it will put me any closer to my goals. Even if I were to only loose 2 lbs a week, I'd still reach my goal of being at most 199 lbs by my vow renewal on October 16th. I just don't want to get too close to the date and then have to try some crazy fad diet to get there. I'd rather work my tail off right now while I have ample time than to risk not meeting my goal at all or even worse - gaining more freaking weight.

Tonight  I plan to do more of the Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance workout. I like this one. It starts out a little easier than some of the other ones but as soon as you get comfortable and thinking "oh, is that all?", Shaun T. starts pumping you up to go even harder. I really have to admit I dig his style. He is my second fitness professional second only to Jillian Micheal's. If anything out of the norm happens during tonight's workout, I'll be sure to keep you guys posted.

I sort of liked working out in the scorching heat because I was literally dripping pools of sweat. Insanity is the only exercise program I've ever done that feels so effective. Right now I'm wondering if the extra temperature caused me to burn more calories. We may be on to something here. LOL

Please, please, please...be sure to stay hydrated, know your limits and don't hurt yourselves. Just because the temperature is high does not mean we can't workout, it just means we have to be more careful in doing so.