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Updated August 6th, 2010 10 Minute Mile So coming up is the 2nd Annual SSD K9 5K (which is 3 miles) and last year when I ran this race I was running a 13 minute mile so of course this year I want to beat that! Since that race last year I have become faster doing a 10 minute 30 second to an 11 minute mile comfortably which I am super proud of, I totally thought I would be stuck at a 12 or 13 minute mile because anything faster used to feel so hard and awful!! The past few weeks I have been trying to get to a 10 minute mile comfortably because I really want to finish this race in like 30 minutes. It has been HARD! Some days I will do my first mile at 9 minutes 39 seconds so I am soooo pooped when I start the next mile that I slow down to 10 minute 30 seconds! That leaves me with the 3rd at about a 10 minute pace and I should reach the goal….fingers crossed but I am nervous about it! On a side note if you like running outside like I do and you get pretty sweaty and you like to have a recovery drink, I am so happy to have found out and you may already know this, Gatorade no longer uses high fructose corn syrup!!! I love to take a glass and fill it half way with the Gatorade, lemon lime flavor and half with water, yummy and helps to replenish those electrolytes! Okay so I hope to see you out at the SSD K9 run, below is all the info so you can get signed up, you can even make it a family day with the kids race or a day with your doggie, there is a 1 mile dog walk! The money goes to a GREAT cause and you will be making your body happy by getting it moving! The Sacramento Sheriff K9 Association is proud to host the 2nd Annual SSD K9 5k Run/Walk. This year proceeds benefit our retired K9 partners. · 5K - $25.00 (No Dogs) · 1 mile Walk $20.00 (With Dogs) · ¼ mile Kids’ Fun Run (5 yrs & under) · ½ mile Kids’ Fun Run (6-9 yr olds) · ½ mile Kids’ Fun Run (10-12 yr olds) Registration Closing Date Go to www.ssdk9.com/events to register!!! ----
June 25th, 2010 New Goals! Almost a year ago I begin this Fitness Journey and my main goal was to finally adopt a Healthy active lifestyle. This is something I had never done and I was SO tired of the yo yo and the back and forth, I wanted to put an end to that once and for all. So my MAIN goal was to learn how to be consistent with healthy eating and exercise, to have it become second nature to have it become something that is 100 percent a part of my life and not just something I do so my pants fit better! Now along the way I also wanted to lose some weight and for a short time I started to obsess at what the scale said and how much I must lose..thank god I got off that crazy train! For me that was my insane eating disorder background trying to make a comeback in my life, anyone who has had an eating disorder knows that it is always waiting in the wings hoping to make a comeback…. fortunately I won that battle! For the first time since age 7, I no longer obsess over the scale…do you know how freeing that is!!!!??? Yes health is important to me but it took me a long time to learn and realize that the scale is not the only number that determines whether I am healthy or not so this was also a HUGE goal for me to hit this past year. So I thought now what?? I have achieved my original goals so I need to make some new ones! Here they are for me to share with you! · Since I enjoy exercise now, finally! I will now challenge myself, not letting it become easy, once an exercise becomes easy I will know it’s time to up the ante…this is what my Body Bugg has been helpful with, it shows each time I exercise how much I have burned so the next time I know to make that number higher. · Body fat, body fat, body fat…get my percentage down and build lean muscle mass, this is not easy and it takes time but too much fat on the body is so not good for you and as I get older muscle becomes even more important to have. There are a million ways to measure body fat, I work out at Guiding Fitness so I will be using their gadget that they have but Tim the guy I train with now, Kacie is on Maternity leave, says measurements are another great way to show fat loss. I will keep you posted! Happy Fitness! ----
May 28th, 2010 Finally Got the High!
So you know that high you hear some people talk about that they get from exercise well I always thought why the frick can’t I get that!!!??? Sure after I would exercise I would feel great but during it it would be like a tortuous suckfest!! But I was told you can actually feel the high during the act of exercising, that was so foreign to me! Until now! 10 months later of consistent exercise I now finally know the high they have been talking about…you do actually get it while you are working out…I have to say I never thought this would happen I just figured I would continue to be one of those folks that dreaded working out but would do it cause I knew that afterwards I would feel great and its good for me…man this high thing while working out is a whole nether world! I find myself pushing harder during my workouts even though it’s hard and I am sweating this euphoria starts to happen…lol…lol…lol… so weird and I am just digging doing it! Here is the other super strange thing, once I am done, I feel beat and exhausted but once that wears off I think hummmmm maybe I can exercise some more! Okay well I am not that crazy…. although I did find myself doing jumping jacks yesterday while watching Oprah even though earlier that day I had already done a hill workout, just felt like I had more in me to give! Does this last??? I freaken hope so! ----
May 21st, 2010 Damn Hill!! I have just a little bit of a bitch fest right now! Ughhhhhh so there is this hill that my friend Lisa and I have been trying to tackle and it is a son of a bitch! It’s one of those things that I don’t want to go and do but I have to because I want to be able to do it and once I do it I feel great…. its maddening sometimes! So at first we tried running all the way up the hill and just about died! Then we decided we would sprint from one post to another and then walk to the next post and then sprint to the next and so on…so far so good although we can only go up and down twice and we really want to make it 4 times, that is the goal right now and for sure harder than it sounds…the ultimate will be running up the hill 4 times non stop, however my friends that is a looooong way down the road, holy shit just thinking about it makes me puke a little in my mouth!! I will keep you posted on our progress with this freaken challenging hill! ----
May 14th, 2010 Eating Right, when you don’t feel right!!!! Unless you have an immune system like Rob’s you are bound to get sick at some point during the year….blah…..boooo! So I have been a little under the weather and although comfort foods are tempting during this time I decided to keep it healthy!! Here is what I have been living off of….. Suzies Crackers…so freaken good! And look you can pronounce all 4 ingredients, nothing artificial just goodness! How fantastic are all the ingrediants in this soup?!!! Wait what is that again all food you can pronounce and you know what the hell it is, no mile long list that makes up this soup just pure real food! Dude I am telling you it is super good too! Got to have my bubbly water when my tummy is upset and thank God no sodium in this stuff, I have been getting enough with the soup and crackers! I don’t want to puff up! I got so tired of eating crackers, that I switched to munching on Kashi Autumn Wheat cereal which was soothing like crackers just something different with ingredients I could still be proud of!! So can’t wait to eat a sandwich without my stomach doing summersalts! Have a happy healthy day! ----
May 7th, 2010 Body Bugg LOVEN my Body Bugg! I have been wanting one of these things ever since I saw them being used on The Biggest Loser and finally I came across one at a super good price..yahooooo! If you aren’t familiar with this gadget, you strap it around your upper arm once you wake up and it keeps track of the calories you are burning, compared to the calories you are consuming…perfect right! Calories in and calories out is what we are told is the simple process of weight loss, just hard to do! So this little piece of magic shows you throughout the day if you have burned enough calories, however it still is up to you to burn more if needed so it only works if you do the work, this gadget only lets you know where you stand for the day. The only bummer so far with this thing is that you wear it around your upper arm so if you aren’t wearing long sleeves it shows and isn’t the most attractive thing with your outfit!! But who cares right..Not sure I will wear it everywhere all the time but enough to help with my fitness journey! Once you log into the body bugg site it calculates according to your goals how many calories you should be eating and burning and at the end of the day you for sure want a deficit which means you have burned more than you ate..as you can see I am supposed to be burning at least 2250 calories and eating 1250 in calories, so far burning the calories doesn’t seem to be a problem, its eating only 1250 in calories that is the problem!! Just as I have always known I work out just fine it’s the eating part I really have to continue being aware of!
---- April 30th, 2010 Rain or Shine! The 6 week Summer Fit Club at Guiding Fitness officially started this past Saturday and since Lisa and I have to do 5 to 6 days of cardio a week during this time there are no excuses including the weather!! Thought I would share with you some photos from our day out walking/running up a killer ass hill and it started to pour rain, as you will see in the photos it started out pretty sunny and then bammo here came the rain! But we had to get the cardio in regardless….trust me we wanted to stop but shit we have to be able to commit to our exercise schedule for the next 6 weeks no matter what! Hope you enjoy the photos….
---- April 23rd, 2010 Give me Chocolate!!!! Aren’t premenstrual cravings the best! Chocolate and something salty and you are in heaven! Last week finally the scale went down, yahoooooo! This week so don’t think that will be the case I for sure have been giving into my chocolate cravings and cardio is the last thing I have wanted to do! The great thing I have learned over these many months is not to beat myself up about it, yeah so for a week I got a little lazy, instead of wallowing in it I will just get back to my normal routine and move forward, when you beat yourself up it only keeps you from moving onward to what needs to be done. Getting excited for the 6 week Summer fit club going on at Guiding Fitness starting this Saturday, my partner for this Lisa and I went over our game plan with one of the trainers and holy shit we are going be working our asses off! During the 6 weeks we will be doing 2 – 3 days strength training and 5 – 6 days of cardio and our calories also need to kept in check, but it will totally be fun to see what we can accomplish in that time frame. Obviously working out this much may not be realistic for long term, it’s more realistic to have a happy medium, but hey every once in awhile it’s good to mix things up! You can follow Lisa and I along this will be our schedule from Saturday April 24th – Saturday June 5th ….. Monday’s – Strength training plus Cardio. Cardio will be Sprinting. Tuesday’s – Cardio, jogging mixed with fast running Wednesday’s – Cardio, jogging mixed with fast running Thursday’s – Strength training plus cardio. Cardio will be Sprinting Friday’s – Cardio, jogging mixed with fast running Saturday’s – Arms and Abs plus Cardio. Cardio will be Hills!! Walking, jogging up hills. Sunday’s – Off…REST!!!!! As you can see the schedule is 6 days of cardio and we are shooting for 5 – 6 so some weeks may be 5 and not 6. So don’t feel like you have to do 6 every week…
Happy Healthy Training!! ----
April 16th, 2010 6 week Summer Fit Club So at Guiding Fitness where I train 2 days a week, they are doing this 6 week Summer Fit Club from April 24th – June 5th, to keep all us gals motivated! Perfect timing since I have been hitting the awesome plateau… we each get paired in 2’s, I am partnered up with my close friend Lisa (she is the wife of John who owns JLC Construction, that you hear Rob and I speak so highly of) and for 6 weeks her and I will keep each other motivated and accountable. We all have to do measurements, before and after photos, yahoo with the photos, body fat percentage and of course do weekly weigh ins. Having a time frame of like 6 weeks is really helpful in wanting to up your game, there is like this urgency to get the job done!
Teaming up with a friend or a co worker is just the thing to help you meet your goals, when you have someone to meet up with you are more likely to actually do the workout, opposed to just you saying I will work out tomorrow morning then the morning comes and your bed is so comfy that you say I will do it later today and then you are too tired! But if you have someone to do your work outs with you have to get of bed to meet them, or do it later in the day with them regardless of you being tired. You could also get a weight loss challenge started at your job, each person can put some money in, and the person who loses the highest percentage of weight wins all the money, this is the time of year when we all start saying shit it’s gonna get hot soon and that means no more bulky sweaters to hide the body!!
Of course health is the most important but wearing a cute pair of shorts or skirt when it’s hot outside is pretty fun also!! ----
April 9th, 2010 Goal Setting Sometimes we forget to keep setting goals as we lose weight or are trying to get fit. Initially we will say my goal is to lose weight or get fit so I am going to eat better and exercise more. While that may work in the beginning, just like life plans if we don’t keep setting goals we may start to lose track and get off track of what it is we want to accomplish with our health. At Guiding Fitness this is one of the many things I really like, the continued goal setting. And depending on where you are in your get fit journey your goals will go accordingly to that. And the key I have learned is to be specific, don’t just say I am going to do more cardio, actually come up with how much more, for example 4 days a week for 45 minutes each time and schedule it just like you would a meeting. Here are some more examples to help get you started with your fitness goal setting…… 1. Be able to run 3 miles by…(put in a specific date) and what you are going to do to make that happen, join a running group, ask a friend who runs how to accomplish this or research on the web how to get started running…etc….. 2. Walk for 30 minutes each night after dinner 3. Train to run a 10k 4. Eat vegetables with lunch and dinner 5. Jump rope while watching TV 6. Lose 1 -2 pounds a week with diet and exercise by eating a well balanced diet and doing cardio 5 days a week for example 7. Strength train 2 times a week 8. Join a yoga or spin class 9. Drink more water and less soda 10. Cook more home cooked meals instead of going out to eat, getting fast food or having food delivered, cook at home at least 5 of the 7 days Whatever your fitness goals are be sure to mark them on a calendar just like you would schedule a business lunch, your kids baseball game, an oil change for the car etc…., you are just as important and deserve to take some time for yourself to become more healthy, you will not only feel better and have more energy you will be even better than you are now for those that need you! ----
March 26th, 2010 Shorter but Higher Life gets busy for us all and when that happens the one area that usually suffers are our workouts…we just don’t have time to get in 30 minutes or more and so therefore we do nothing! For years Fitness guru Bill Phillips has pushed the 20 minute aerobics solution and other fitness buffs agree that getting in a higher intensity workout in a short amount of time is very beneficial to one’s weight loss and or health goals....so even if you are busy you can get in 20 minutes right?? The answer is yes!!
Okay so pick your cardio…running, biking, jump roping, walking…whatever your favorite cardio is and then you just follow the Plan pictured above. Remember a level 5 Intensity level is one that feels comfortable to you, it’s a warmup….then the intensity level goes up from there…level 6 for minute 3, level 7 for minute 4, level 8 for minute 5 and level 9 for minute 6, then you go down to level 6 for one minute and then repeat…Levels basically mean the level at which you are pushing yourself…to one person a level 6 could be running and someone else it could mean a fast walk, the most important thing is that whatever your levels are you are pushing yourself a little harder with each one, you should be pooped out by the time the 20 minutes is up..I gotta mention this can be pretty intense so if you are not used to working out please check with your doctor first before doing a high intensity cardio workout!! Have a fun fitness day! ---- March 19th, 2010 APRIL! Shit okay I think I will start to weigh myself again in April…kinda scared about it but I do understand that is truly the payoff for those of you who are following my Fitness Journey!! Although I was SUPER happy this week when I went to my closet and a pair of my True Religion jeans that I haven’t been able to wear in a SUPER long time fit! I about shit my pants I was so happy, they are so cute so I think I have been losing fat and inches as opposed to weight right now which does happen I hear… Anyone run in the Shamrock Half Marathon this past weekend??? Yahoo for me I did! I actually did the Relay so I ran 7.1 miles and my running partner did the last 6 miles a bunch of girls from Guiding Fitness ran in this race it was so much fun!..and I actually surprised myself because usually I have to walk and job but I only walked for like 30 seconds when I got some water to drink so I jogged the whole 7 miles! But wait there’s more….I usually run a 12 minute mile, well on Sunday I ran the first 3 miles doing a 10 minute mile and then the next 2 miles I did 11 minute miles and then the last 2 miles at about 11:30 and 11:45 minute miles..that is a BIG deal for me! As you can see as the miles went on I did get slower cause I was getting pooped, maybe I should have started out slower and finished faster, well next time that will be the plan either way I am very proud of myself…see ladies there are many ways to keep track of your progress….someone out there lost 3 pounds this week but can’t run 7 miles…but I can;) Happy Fitness! ---- March 12th, 2010 The Right Reasons As women we go thru life wanting to lose weight for all the wrong reasons it seems. Girls are taught from a very young age that looks are what define us as females. Now I am sure the adults in our lives didn’t mean to send us that message but none the less that is what we learned. When were little girls we were told how pretty our dress is, how cute our shoes are, what beautiful hair we have, how pretty our eyes are while boys were told how smart, clever, funny and creative they are. While all that may have been true, the focus for girls was almost always about our looks and not our capabilities. So naturally as we grow up we believe what we look like defines us and we are all too happy to let those around us validate those thoughts. We size ourselves up to other females believing that if we are not as pretty or skinny than we don’t matter as much as they do, and every fat crack that a man makes toward a female we either join in and think it’s funny or we get the message that if we don’t look a certain way men won’t want us. Freaken ridiculous what we allow. Should a woman care about her appearance? YES, but for HER and not some standard that is placed on her. We should be the best we can with what the lord has given us. Not try and look like someone else or be someone else, just be the best YOU. There will always be jackasses out there judging your size and more times than not they themselves don’t have the ‘perfect’ body either. Appearance it’s just one part of the female puzzle… your abilities, your sense of self, your intelligence, your heart, your passion, your strength and your talents also make you who you are. We were not put on this earth to simply be gawked at! Getting fit and healthy doesn’t mean you have to be a certain size or weight, it means being fit and healthy for YOUR size. Not what society says a woman’s size should be and not the size of some Hollywood starlet or the size of one of your thinnest friends, YOUR size, YOUR individual size…PERIOD. If this fitness journey has taught me anything it’s been to accept my size, to be at peace with what my body is all about and to block out the judgments because unfortunately ladies people will always judge a females body size and you can either give them that power or put the power where it belongs, within you! So what’s the plan again gals…… To eat healthy a majority of the time and to get our fitness in not to look a certain way but for HEALTH! Badoop! ---- March 5th, 2010 INCHES LOST!!! Yahoooooo inches lost! Took this week off from the scale and I won’t be weighing in today either! Too much obsessing has been going on with that freaken scale and I refuse to go backwards mentally when it comes to getting healthy! If you have hit a plateau and you are stressing too much on the scale I highly recommend you change your focus for a few weeks and get back to the basics of health, you know being proud of yourself for eating healthy, getting in some exercise, gaining muscle.. the shit that is also important!! So anyway I checked my chest and hip measurements and I have lost a total of 2 ½ inches off my chest and 3 ½ inches off my hips…love it! this is why I can fit into a lot of my jeans now, because inches have come off my hips and also the reason I don’t have as much fat back! Don’t forget measurement ladies when you are checking out your progress, the scale doesn’t say it all you know! Guiding Fitness where I work out a couple of times a week actually has REALLY good prices for as low as $22 a session for personal training!! If you work out with a friend it’s $11 a session for personal training!! They have helped A LOT of women lose weight and a lot of them at a faster rate than me!! Reason I bring this up is because a big part of the health puzzle is weight training, so damn good for us women to have muscles, I am not talking big body builder muscles, unless of course you want that! I am talking about being toned, nothing worse than losing weight and you aren’t toned instead your skinny and saggy..gross! I know having a personal trainer may not be in your budget but that is no excuse not to get started so I have come across a really cool book that can help you get going…
Muscle and Fitness Hers Presents..A Woman’s Guide to Weight Training So cool how the book lays out work out programs and schedules and explains how to do each, that can be the most confusing part, What to do!! The book is really good at explaining doing full body workouts or breaking up the muscle groups and what each one is and what exercise to do for each…hope this helps on your fitness journey! ---
February 26th, 2010 LAXATIVES!!! Okay so for a moment I actually thought about buying laxatives to get the scale to go down since the scale is still not budging! Anyone who has had an eating disorder knows that is a BIG red flag and when you have that kind of thought you know you are starting to obsess over the scale and if you don’t nip those kind of thoughts in the ass you will start to do all the tricks you know work but are SUPER unhealthy for you. So I took a step back and said “really Dawn, laxatives…oh hell no we ain’t going there!” those days are long gone but I know it’s time to take a step away from the scale for a week and this isn’t what the Fitness Challenge was supposed to be about, it’s about overall health and freaking out about the scale is what I used to do and I really wanted to do things differently this time which I will continue to do. So what the scale is stuck whoop de doo, I am not gonna be pressured to make it move, I am going about this the right way this time and if the right way for me means slow progress on the scale than so be it. I will continue to eat healthy because it’s good for me, I will continue to work out because it’s good for me and the scale will move when the scale moves. I am wearing pajama bottoms that used to be super tight, can we say muffin top, and now they are not tight and no more muffin top with them, my muscles are stronger and I can jog/walk 8 miles and not pass out from it, when I work out at Guiding Fitness the trainers there can push me until I think I am gonna puke and I can take it without whining. Remember ladies we need to look at the whole picture and not just the scale sure I won’t lie it’s nice when the scale goes down but there is more to the fitness puzzle than just the scale! ---- February 19th, 2010 Maybe Today!!??? Fridays are weigh in days and at this point I have no idea how the scale will look today! This week I have pumped up my cardio, 3 days doing 90 minutes each time and 1 day running/walking 8 miles and have kept my calories between 1200-1300. Mentally this is the most peaceful and comfortable I have been with my body, however while I didn’t have a certain number in mind to weigh, I didn’t think I would stop where I am right now, so I will just keep moving forward and hopefully the scale will follow eventually!! Thought I would share with you my food journal from this week….and remember even when the scale isn’t moving you are still being good to your body by eating right and moving your booty!!
---- February 12th, 2010 AWWW CRAP! Yep it’s official I have hit a plateau, boooooooooo! Only one thing you can do ladies when you hit a plateau and that is push yourself more during cardio, sounds fun huh!! So here is what I am supposed to do now with my cardio, when I reach that point where I don’t think I have anymore to give, I need to push beyond that and give more, that is the extra push I will need to get off this plateau. Think back to that first day you started working out for the first time or the first time in a very long time and how hard that workout was, well of course if you continue working out consistently you won’t have a day that feels like the first but you will still have to find ways to challenge your body or you will just get comfortable and comfortable means plateau!
Kacie has been more than just a trainer she has been like a therapist, in just a short time she has helped to undue literally a lifetime of how I used to look at food and exercise and for me it has felt so freeing it was like awesome I am done, I have finally reached that point that I didn’t think was possible because my thinking and habits had been with me forever and it was like a huge weight had been lifted, I didn’t feel like this prisoner anymore when it came to food and exercise, what a relief it has been. Well while I was enjoying my new realizations I forgot to really push myself during cardio, hence the plateau I have hit!!
If you find yourself hitting a plateau start asking yourself and be honest, are you eating too much, are you eating too little, do you need to switch up your workout routine, are you just not working out, or are you not working out hard enough??? Only you know the answer, be honest with yourself so you can fix it….Remember it’s supposed to be hard, we have to continue to challenge our bodies or they just get comfortable…and that is the challenge now to keep challenging myself during cardio…..I will keep you posted!!!! ----
February 5th, 2010 Pulled Muscles SUCK! Awesome I am loven my pulled muscle in my back, it feels great! I mean I just barely got over the pulled muscle in my leg and then bammo I was doing push ups on a stability ball, slipped and almost fell on my face and used my right arm and right side of back to keep my face from hitting the concrete…good times! And of course I didn’t realize at the time I pulled a muscle so I just keep working out making it worse, jeez! So the chiropractor says it will take a few weeks at least for it to completely heal, which you want a pulled muscle to always completely heal otherwise you will just keep tearing it..blah blah pain in my ass! So in the meantime while I am waiting for this puppy to heal I can still run just not push it and I can do lower body workouts but I can’t do any upper body weight lifting, man just when I was really liking my arms damn it!! ----
January 29th, 2010 WEIGH-IN So last Friday when I weighed in the scale was the same even after 3 days of food and drinking celebrations for my birthday which for me is well pretty good, however today is weigh in day and if the scale is not down I will have officially hit a plateau!! Which by the way happens during weight loss and means I will have to ramp it up a bit by making my cardio more intense and doing more of it…oh joy!! I came across this article from WebMD that might be helpful to you if you are in the plateau world right now!! So I thought I would of course share it with you…. --- The first step is to stop focusing on the bathroom scale. Often a change in the scale reflects the pounds of body fluid you lose and gain every day rather than how much fat you've lost or gained. Also, because muscle weighs more than fat, you can lose inches of fat without losing weight. So if you can't rely on the scale to tell you how you're doing week to week, what can you count on? Many experts recommend a measuring tape or a tight pair of jeans. But don't go to extremes. Don't keep trying on those jeans or measuring yourself every week. Instead, check your progress once every four weeks and chart the results. This will give you a better idea of how you're doing, and will help keep you from getting frustrated at not seeing dramatic weekly improvements. Losing weight requires exercise or controlled caloric intake -- and optimally a combination of both. In order to lose one pound of fat, you must burn about 3,500 calories. For most people this process takes at least three to seven days; experts consider one to two pounds a week a reasonable target. In any weight-loss program, exercise is a crucial part of the formula. If you've stopped losing weight, it may be time to start exercising more or increase your workout intensity. Here are several ways you can alter your training routine to push you past the plateau: - Add variety. If you've been walking, try cycling or swimming. - Increase the intensity of your cardiovascular or aerobic exercise by adding short bursts of higher-intensity movement, such as sprinting. These intervals should last 30 to 60 seconds and be followed by less intense exercise for two or three times the length of the burst. Start by adding one or two of these intervals to your routine, then increase the number as you improve your conditioning. - Work out with a friend or a personal trainer. This may motivate you to pick up your pace. A strict exercise regimen is crucial in a weight-loss program, but the fat won't come off if you're hitting the potato chip aisle on a regular basis. Here are simple dietary changes you can make to help you lose the fat. - Increase your water intake. Drink a glass before you treat yourself to a second helping or an unnecessary snack. This helps you feel fuller. - Eat foods that are high in fiber; they, too, help fill you up (the body doesn't digest fiber). - Re-evaluate your eating habits. Make sure you're controlling portion sizes and making low-fat choices. (And my favorite part of this article……. ) In the end, you should view hitting a plateau as a good thing. Why? It means your body has less fat to lose, which explains why the weight isn't coming off as readily. And remember: It's best to lose weight slowly and sensibly so you can make changes that you'll keep for life. So this must obviously mean I have less fat to lose…right?? Right!
January 22nd, 2010 SHAMROCK’n HALF MARATHON AND RELAY No no no I am not running a half marathon, hell no, no thank you! I have had to be honest with myself that I truly have no desire to run long distances ever again! I ran 1 Marathon (26.2 miles) and 1 Half Marathon (13.1 miles) and once for each was enough for me in this lifetime!! Having a goal to run 3 – 7 miles is good for me. Which brings me to the Shamrock’n Half Marathon and Relay, I will be running in the Relay which means the most I will have to run is 7 miles, that is doable and enjoyable anymore than that for me is pure torture! A bunch of us girls from the studio I work out at Guiding Fitness have decided to participate in this half marathon and I am teamed up with another gal so I will run half of the half and she will run the other half.
Friday January 15th, 2010 WORK OUT WHILE YOU WATCH TV!
---- Friday January 8th, 2010 YES…1 POUND GAINED = SUCCESS!!! First off since it is the new year weight loss is a goal of many!! So I wanted to remind you all that the studio I work out at Guiding Fitness is offering Webcam Training! That’s right you can work out with the trainers at Guiding Fitness from your home, your office, backyard, dorm..etc… pricing starts at like $12 a month, wow! With the economy the way it is and so many of you wanting to lose weight but the budget is tight I just had to tell you about this!! You can check out more info at www.livewebcamfitness.com/ ---- Friday December 18th, 2009 ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!
----- Friday December 11th, 2009 Keeping The Weight Off During The Holidays
----- Friday, December 4th, 2009 FITTING BACK IN SOME OF MY JEANS!
So originally I thought I had ate my way out of 10 pair of my favorite jeans, but when I looked more in my closet I spotted 2 more that didn’t fit and that sucked ass! But 20 pounds lost later I can now fit into 4 of those 12 pair!! It will be awhile until I can fit in the other 8 pair, I have at least 25 more pounds to lose before those jeans will be put back on, but that’s okay cause I will get there! And the goal is 44 pounds more total so by then I will just need new pairs of jeans, now that’s motivation! Us gals have some piece of clothing we want to fit back into so take those pants, skirt or bathing suit and hang it up where you can see it to remind you of your goal, so when you get tempted to be lazy and not workout let that piece of clothing motivate you! Speaking of which I need to get my ass up right now and get in some cardio…..burn that fat…feel the burn….work it work it!! -----
Friday, November 20th, 2009 INSTANT BUTTONS GONE!!!!! So it took losing 19 pounds for me to finally get rid of my Instant Buttons! If you have no idea what Instant Buttons are be glad you haven’t gained that much weight before!!! Instant Buttons are put on your favorite jeans that no longer button because well the belly has expanded so you put the Instant Button closer to your pants button hole so you can squeeze into those jeans that you haven’t completely grown out of!!! Can I say freeeeeeedom to have taken those puppys off! Now if I use them it will only be because I need a new button… Here’s what they look like if you don’t know what they are.
Here is a GREAT workout that I got from Fitness Magazine years ago but now I finally want and can do it! Use this workout over the Thanksgiving weekend and it will help you burn those unwanted calories!!!
In the column that says RPE, that just means Rated Perceived Exertion which is rated on a scale from 1 – 10, 1 being easiest and 10 hardest..this is individual based on your cardiovascular abilities, fitness gurus say when using the RPE you should take in account feelings of shortness of breath as well as how tired you feel in your legs and overall…honestly I just ignore this column I just pay attention to the RPH/INCLINE that alone kicks my ass and naturally works my RPE….Have fun and keep moving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ----- Friday November 13th, 2009 KEEP MY ASS MOVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s officially Holiday season…which means the time of year all of us trying to get fit blow it!!!!!!! Well not this year girls, come on let’s keep moving! Not saying we can’t enjoy Thanksgiving and all the treats during Christmas buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut we NEED to keep exercising, hey I am determined to still lose weight during the holidays but one things for sure you can maintain your weight as long as you keep your butt moving and continue to sweat! ----- Friday November 6th, 2009 SOME YUMMY LIQUIDS!!!!!!! 17 weeks and 17 pounds lost!!!!!!!! I am trying for 47 pounds more to lose just not sure if my body will go there! That’s the key listening to your body cause sometimes we have unrealistic expectations of what our body should weigh and I am learning and realizing that it’s not just the scale it’s a combination of the scale, your fitness level, body fat and overall health. So I will just keep plugging along with my fitness routine and eating healthy the majority of the time and we will see what happens!
----- Friday, October 30th, 2009 “DIET” BOOKS TO KEEP So I put Diet in quotes because well diets suck ass and most don’t work..lifestyle changes toward health and fitness are what work and keep us from yo-yo-ing…So as I was going thru my diet book drawer, you know all the diet books we buy throughout the years hoping finally this is ‘the one’ that will work! Holy shit I had a stack of these puppies and decided only to keep 2 of them…they were funny enough the 2 I really didn’t pay attention to because they focused too much on true health both mental and physical and I wasn’t quite ready for that…..then…now I am…so hopefully these books are something you are ready for, if not now maybe in the future…
See I do buy things on sale, hell yeah 30 percent off! If you watch Oprah you know who Dr. Oz is, if not he is an amazing Doctor who wants us all to forget all the crap we have bought into with diets and instead focus on true health this book will challenge your beliefs about diets plus you will learn more about the human body that you never thought you wanted to know but is actually pretty interesting! Do I agree with everything in this book..no some of it is too much from a doctors perspective and if you know me I am also about alternative medicine so some of the mumbo jumbo from the medical world is just that to me mumbo jumbo!…but overall a lot of great insight with how the body works.
Okay so this one is a doozie! Get the tissue out and be ready to do some deeeeeeep digging into yourself to overcome your food, weight and body issues. When I was in therapy for my eating disorder this was a book that was given to me and I was told open it when you are ready and go thru it at your own pace…this is a workbook and it really gets down to the nitty gritty so it may take you some time to deal with the questions or even want to face some of the questions, if you not ready for the workbook part no problem the workbook is also full of in-depth information and moving personal stories. ----- Friday October 23rd, 2009 THE SCALE AND PROGRESS Let’s face it the scale can be frustrating when trying to get fit, you have weeks that the scale goes down then you have a week where it either stays the same or maybe even goes up a bit..ughhhhhhh! Which is why we shouldn’t become a slave to the scale this kind of shit is bound to happen and there are numerous reasons…too much salt the day before you weighed, your premenstrual, you are in the process of gaining muscle which weighs more than fat, hell you could have drank too much water before you got on the scale the list goes on and on. While we don’t want to obsess we also want to see the scale go down more often than not so here are a few things that may help…. ----- Friday October 16th, 2009 BYE BYE BYE SIZE 14!!! So a few blogs ago I shared that in my closet you will find many sizes! From size 6 to size 14…. Happy to report that my size 14’s are now too big! Little by little they were fitting a little less snug until one day I put them on and they were officially giving me the saggy butt!! So it’s so long to them and the hard work continues and we will see what size my body says it’s most healthy in, I would like to get back to size 6 but most importantly I want to be fit. Please please know that I am not saying that a size 14 is bad there are plenty of beautiful women that are naturally that size!
So with this last go around of me gaining weight I actually got up to a size I hadn’t been before, size 14 so I had to go out and buy a few pair of levi’s jeans... boy when nothing in my closet would fit that’s when I really knew I had let myself go!!
Here I am this week saying my bye bye’s to these stack of jeans!!
Bagged up and ready to be given away, they are super comfy and cute jeans so I know someone will love them!!
Friday October 9th, 2009 -- TIPS FOR TEMPTATION!! Can’t believe I actually lost weight this week on weigh in day which is on Wednesday’s…because of my f-ing pulled muscle I still have not been able to run, I was amazed that the scale was down 1 pound for a total of 16 pounds…
Friday October 2nd, 2009 -- UGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH INJURIES!!!!! Yahoooooooooooooo 15 pounds down! But boooooooooooooooo I have had a torn muscle in my leg for a week! Super sucks cause I can’t run until it is healed, shit 2 months ago if Kacie would have said I couldn’t run because of an injury I would have been jumping for joy, but as crazy as it sounds now I look forward to running!! So until I can get back to my running schedule, I have been doing lots of abs, strength training and really paying attention to what I eat. So I thought I would share with you a few things that are easy and fast to make that will also fill you up and taste yummo!! Dressing
Friday September 25th, 2009 -- FOOD JOURNAL So we are about 11 weeks into my fitness journey and I am 13 pounds lighter!!!! I have about 41 pounds more to go to get to a healthy weight and then maybe 15 pounds more to reach an ideal weight!! However this just isn’t about weight loss for me it’s about doing this once and for all the right way and truly making it a lifestyle. Remember fast and quick weight loss is NOT healthy, I know we all want the easy fast way and that’s why we end up yo-yo-ing, we need to stop that shit damn it!!
Friday September 18th, 2009 -- WORKOUT SCHEDULE Thought I would share my workout routine with you, it has changed a little bit, meaning there is more CARDIO now, lots more!! Strength training of course is very important but cardio really helps to get the fat off!! The past couple of months my cardio has been I would say low intensity, I was really just learning how to enjoy cardio as opposed to just doing it cause I had to!! Remember the goal for me this time is to actually adopt the fitness lifestyle. So now that I have reached the point where I look forward to cardio, my trainer Kacie has had me up the intensity. So here is my current workout schedule….
Friday September 11th, 2009 --
Wowzers Measurements!!!! I am done a little bit, as long as the numbers keep going down I am going in the right direction. We will keep you posted in about 8 to 12 weeks on my next measurements. ****HOW TO TAKE MEASUREMENTS***** Okay ladies if you want to take your measurements, a few important things to keep in mind…. TAPE MEASURE - When measuring, make sure the tape measure is loose, don't tighten it to get a smaller number... THAT'S CHEATING!!!
Friday September 4th, 2009 - 8 WEEK FITNESS TEST!
I was most proud of my improvement with push ups!! Dude I could barley do them it used to be painful and the first test I did 8 and then I whipped out 22 this time!! Aw aw awesome! I actually love push ups now, crazy I know!! Here are a few photos from the fitness test day, no photos of me doing push up but the video footage of this will be coming soon on our members website and you can see me whip them out!!
As a promotion, Guiding Fitness is now conducting a contest to find 5 people that are ready and willing to do what is necessary to change their life!! Our 1st and 2nd Place Winners get 3 sessions a week for free until they reach their goal!! Our 3rd, 4th and 5th place winners receive our best training packages for over 50% off!! This could be YOUR opportunity of a lifetime! Go to their website to at www.guidingfitness.com
Friday August 21st, 2009 - Damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn what a week it has been! My trainer Kacie has been out of town but she left me with workouts to do on my own, that’s right I don’t get to take the week off I still have to get my lifting exercises in!!! So before she left we did a workout together that I really thought I was going to vomit! Sweat dripping down my face and feeling the burn in my muscles is a regular occurrence with her workouts and I usually don’t mind that part…but the run she did with me afterwards…really was that necessary????!! This is where the vomit comes in, I could feel it in my mouth!! This was no leisurely jog, this was a full on run for 2 miles, with sprinting apart of it all…that was my favorite cause I could feel the flab doing a jiggle while I was in and out of consciousness…f.u.n!!
Friday, August 14th, 2009 - Its been 6 weeks now that I have been training with Kacie and so far the biggest thing I notice is how I feel. I feel so much better than the first day. Shit that first day I couldn’t even make it thru the whole workout, I could barely do 2 push ups, not kidding it was really painful! Now I LOVE push ups!! And I make it thru my workouts, yes sore and sweaty but I make it thru without feeling like I am going to pass out! I have lost some weight, (if you want to keep track of my progress with the scale check out our members website) and some of my clothes are not as snug. Not really looking to be a particular size, the many sizes I have been are size 6 thru size 14. Right now I am a 14 and 12.. NOT saying that those sizes are big but for my bone structure and height not healthy for me, there are plenty of women out there that are healthy at those sizes. My body may go back to a 6 or shit it may be healthy at a 10, whatever, it’s all about the fitness and health this time.
Also here are 10 pair of my jeans that I can’t fit into anymore!! Hmmmmmm maybe a sign that I was in denial!! Let’s see 2 pair don’t fit, those must have gone thru the hot cycle of the dryer, wait now 5 pair don’t fit, oh must be that time of month….holy crap 10 don’t fit, yeppers Dawn you have gained weight!!!
--- Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 -
Kacie-Jo Bryant's Fitness Philosophy |
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