I'm a dork.....

I went to the gym this afternoon to pound out my next assignment in the C25K program. It should have been easy. Run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes. I've done it before and I knew I could breeze through it today.

But I didn't. From the very first run my legs felt like lead. My right calf burned from the very first step and it wasn't too long before I looked like her ----->

What the F*ck was going on?!? I was getting so frustrated and so upset with myself that I started thinking maybe I'm not a runner. Maybe I'll never be a runner. On my 4th (out of 5) run I almost totally gave up. I was getting ready to say screw it and start my walk early when I started flipping through the "stats" on the treadmill to see how far I'd gone already. But something other than mileage caught my eye. Elevation!!! I had been running the whole time at a #5 elevation. Hello!?! No wonder my calves were killing me and no wonder I felt almost like I was running backwards! I mean, I'm making progress but I don't think I'm ready to tackle hills just yet!! So I dropped the elevation down to 0 and for the last run I swear I felt like I was running downhill! That last run was a cinch. I wish I had thought to check all of the settings before I started running.

Sadly, this isn't the first time this happened to me. I wonder how many times I have to nearly kill myself before I'll actually remember to check this shit?!?

Checking in....

I need to regroup. The camping trip was fun and as I mentioned, I didn't count a single calorie or log a single workout. It was gawd awful hot there and we drank water by the gallon, but I also let myself indulge in some cans of "Throw Back Mountain Dew". Because we were all sweating so much and losing so much water I also tried to eat more salty foods than I normally do. The food I ate:

Friday:

• Dinner was spaghetti and garlic bread brought from home. Ground beef in the sauce was grass fed beef and the bread was fresh artisan bread from our local market. The butter was pasture butter from Organic Valley. Overall, I was fine with that meal.
• Followed up with a few beers & a margarita made with fresh strawberries.

Saturday:

• Breakfast was pancakes (plain ole' bisquick) and real maple syrup (no flavored HFCS in this family) with bacon (from happy pigs) & fresh fruit. Not too bad. I drank OJ and water
• Lunch was fresh fruit and cut up veggie sticks with local, fresh made ranch dressing (no bottled salad dressings, either). I ate a handful of Doritoes to get some salt and I drank a Mtn Dew and water. I also had a snickerdoodle cookie.
• I made a green smoothie that day and drank two of them. I also had a margarita made with fresh strawberries.
• Dinner was potluck style and I ate a hamburger with all of the fixin's (I did not supply the hamburgers and they were not grassfed beef) including a white bun. Pasta salad (not made my me) and homestyle baked beans (made by me with bacon from happy pigs and organic ketchup) and a fresh fruit salad. Dessert was a few bites of chocolate chip cookie cake. I drank a few beers that night.

Sunday:

• Breakfast was scrambled eggs (organic, but not pastured), bacon & fresh fruit. Green Smoothie on the side.
• Lunch was more fresh fruit & veggies with dip. A handful of pita chips with hummus and again a few Doritoes with Mtn Dew and water.
• We bought the kids popcicles and I indulged in a ChocoTaco. I also had a green smoothie before dinner and another margarita.
• Dinner was potluck style again. Tacos!! Another family brought the taco meat and she used ground turkey, store bought. Meh, what are ya gonna do? Anyway, I had one white tortilla filled with refried beans (from a can), taco meat, mexican rice (from a packaged mix), cheese, tortilla chips & sour cream. Not a single raw item in my taco. This was the beginning of my downfall. I followed it with quite a few beers and a few handfuls of chips. I had one S'more.

Monday:

• I drank a green smoothie at the camp site while we were packing up.
• Breakfast was eaten at a local restaurant and I had two eggs, over medium & biscuits and gravy with a side of sausage. Not the most responsible choice.....
• Another Mtn Dew in the truck for the ride home with more water.
• For dinner we ordered Domino's Pizza (again, not a great choice)

I weighed myself Tuesday morning and the official damage was: 223.2

I wasn't too upset with it, realizing it was probably mostly water weight and that I could get it back off by my weigh in on Monday. I was committed to being back home and counting calories again. I went for a run on Tuesday and completed W2D1 of my C25K program and all was good. Except I couldnt' stop eating. And I wasn't eating good stuff. Yesterday I had a green smoothie for breakfast and DairyQueen for lunch (I know, I know). I had a small bowl of cereal for dinner and after the kids went to bed I dove into a pack of saltine crackers smoothered with Easy Cheese. With a Mtn Dew on the side. I don't even like Easy Cheese. Thankfully there are no Mtn Dew's left and I will not be buying anymore. That was my camping treat and I was sure to buy the throw back ~ made with real sugar and NOT HFCS. As if that makes a huge difference (rolling eyes at myself.....). I was in such a low point yesterday that the thoughts of saying "screw it" entered my mind several times.

Right before bed last night I realized I was severely dehydrated. I drank a huge glass of water and I woke up still parched. I think my cravings and uncontrollable eating is due to some major dehydration.

I weighed myself this morning and I'm down to 221.0. I have to admit, I'm a little shocked! Today I'm 100% back on track. I'm drinking nothing but water and I'm eating lots of raw fruits and veggies. Starting with breakfast:

Peanut Butter Apple Dip:

1 cup honey roasted peanut butter (I buy fresh ground from our local market)
1 cup organic (or homemade) cream cheese
1/2 cup organic (or homemade) vanilla yogurt

Mix thoroughly. Easy Peasy and ssooo yummy on a sweet Fuji apple. According to Livestrong, 1/4 cup of this mixture is 234 calories. It is so filling and I usually can't even eat the full 1/4 cup with one apple. This will keep me going until lunch time.

I'm headed back to the gym today to get my run in. I refuse to give up on my C25K program. I AM A RUNNER. I repeat that to myself over and over while I'm on the treadmill. It will be my reality.

And just to show I mean business, I decided to enter the Legs Love Lunges Challenge over at 5 Miles Past Empty. I'm coming in a week late, but I guess that's better than not coming to the party at all, right? Here's the scoop:
Take a picture of your legs right now (these were taken on Tuesday) and then do lunges three times per week from now (it started Aug 10) until Sept 10 and then take another picture of your legs and see if we can see the difference. Sept 10 just happens to the be Friday before my first official 5K so this is perfect timing for me!
Let's get this party started!!

My knee surgery 8 years ago evidently left my knee cap a little deformed. I just discovered through physical therapy a few months ago that its likely that my knee surgery wasn't even necessary. My problems were simply a symptom of a bigger issue. That made me happy. No really. I love going through agonizing surgery and recovery just for fun.

Camping Recap ~ Take Two

~*~Picture heavy post part deux~*~

Scenery:

The scenery driving through WA state is breath taking. This picture was taken as we were approaching the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

Look at all of that lush green on the side of the mountain.

More gorgeous green ~ it's beautiful.


Notice anything different? Where did the green go? Eastern WA definitely have a different landscape than the one I'm used to!

But it's no less beautiful. Check out those blue skies, baby. I could feel the Vitamin D soaking through my pores!

Food:

Oh the food. There was so much food! This was Saturday night ~ burgers and hot dogs. We did Saturday and Sunday dinners potluck style. I forgot to get a picture Sunday night. Tacos! YUM!

I brought the regular everyday marshmallows. My friend found some that evidently had a steroid problem. Holy Shit!!!!

One of my friends on Facebook thought maybe someone was compensating for something. *snort, giggle, grin*

Yes, we are toasting marshmallows over a propane grill. We were in the desert in 100* weather. Burn ban, baby. Smokey the Bear would have been proud.

That's one helluva S'more you have there, ma'am.

I ate one reasonably sized S'more. Little Dude, on the other hand insisted on having one with the mongo marshmallows.

Open wide, buddy!

Lake:

Whoa, how did these pictures get here? Blogger has been a total pain in my backside today (these two posts are 12 hours in the making!) so I'm not even going to try to move them to where they should be...but the OCD in me is really not happy about this!!

"Daddy, you'll catch me, won't you?"

"Are you sure?"

"Really Really sure?"

"Alrighty, then. Here I gOooooooo!!!"

Camping Recap ~ Take One

~*~WARNING!! Picture heavy post!!~*~

We had so much fun on our camping trip! We woke up bright and early Friday morning, packed up the truck, pulled the kids from their slumber and headed out on our way. It took us approximately 6-7 hours to get there (including a ferry ride and stopping for lunch). About 4 hours into the ride I realized we had left half of the fruit in the fridge and I was in charge of the fruit salad for the group dinner on Saturday. Whoops! Thankfully Eastern Washington has fruits stands about every half mile or so.

The rest of our group arrived at the camp site about an hour after we did and we all headed down to the beach. It was ssssoooo hot, but if you sat in the shade the temps dropped about 30 degrees. It was heaven. I will let my pictures tell the tale:

There really weren't many bugs there except dragon flies, but at night these GINORMOUS beetles came out. You could hear them fly and when the landed it sounded like someone thumped on the gravel. That sucker is about three inches long. YUCK!!

I should never be left alone in front of a mirror with a camera after consuming 4+ beers. Just sayin'

Aaahh, the lake. There are my boys, commiserating about how lake swimming is so much different than the pool.

I promise you my boy is not drowning here. I think he was showing off his free style stroke. I'm not sure.

The scenery was breath taking.

The "tickle monster" made an appearance or two.

And it's just not a camping trip without checking email around a camp fire!!

I survived....

We survived the camping trip. We ended up taking the generator and my blender. Aaaahhhh, bliss. I had a green smoothie everyday!

We're jumping right back into real life today as I scramble to get everything done in order to ship my husband back off to work this evening. I'll write up a real post tonight ~ or maybe tomorrow : )

Holy Shin Splints, Batman!!

Well, it seems as if I will not be running at all this weekend. I'm severely bummed by this fact, but I've been hobbling around all day with what I can only guess is a shin splint in my left leg. It hurts like a be-otch and I don't want to piss my leg off any more as I fully intend to pick back up with the C25K program as soon as we return from our camping trip. Chow, peeps.

Week One Complete

Week One of C25K is complete. Today I felt fantastic. My legs were strong and I felt fast. Unfortunately I forgot to look at the distance I went so I don't know if I actually was fast or not. Oh well, no biggie.

I followed it up with about 45 minutes of strength training. I won't get a work out in at all tomorrow (other then schlepping camping equipment from the truck, setting up the tent and little bit of hiking) so I wanted to end this week strong. I'm still planning to do a run or two while we're camping.

And, in true Jessica fashion ~ I've decided to sign up for a 5K. The date is Sept 12, about 4 weeks before the C25K program is actually complete. The last run on the program before the race is a 5 minute walk, 20 minute run, 5 minute walk. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to complete the full 5K by that point, even if I have to take a walk break or two. Let's hope so because my friend's husband has offered to watch my kids during the race and he said I have 37 minutes to complete the race before he releases the kids into the crowd! Boy, he sure knows how to push me, huh? LOL!!

Have a good weekend folks!

A Little Hiatus....

We're leaving town bright and early Friday morning to go camping here. I can. not. wait. I went on my first camping trip when I was six months old and, until I became a real adult, spent nearly all of my summers camping. It's in my blood.

I doubt I'll have cell service, and even if I do, I haven't figured out how to blog from my phone. This is probably the last you will hear from me until sometime next week.

I'm not only taking a blogging hiatus, but it'll be a hiatus from counting calories as well. I'm confident that I won't pack on the pounds or live in total gluttony, but I just don't want the stress of figuring out all the calories, how much consumed, how much burned, etc....afterall, I use my phone to do all of that for me! We are taking lots of fresh fruit and veggies and I'm even making some green smoothies and freezing them to keep in the cooler to drink in the mornings.

I'm quite certain I'll find some time to do some open water swimming ~ and if I don't die of the heat I may even squeeze a run in a morning or two. Until then.........Cheers!

Couch to 5K

Well, I'm a runner. Sort of. Week 1 Day 1 and Week 1 Day 2 are in the books. Day 1 I totally kicked ass. The runs were sweet and they got faster and faster (I was on a treadmill). I felt great afterwards and did some strength training.

Today was Day 2 and my legs were still a little sluggish from yesterday's weights, but we're heading out of town on Friday and I want to make sure I squeeze all three days in before we leave. My stomach was unsettled as I was heading into the gym (I almost didn't even go), but I drank bucketloads of water and just hopped on the treadmill and thought "I'll just walk...." Well, after my 5 minute warm up I was feeling good so I went ahead and pounded out the full workout. It was rough in spots, but it felt good. Tomorrow is a complete rest day.

Some people have asked how they can do the C25K program without an iPhone (or without staring at their watches). My suggestion would be to either run on a treadmill (if one is available) because the time is right there in front of you and you can time yourself that way. Or, get a sports watch from Walmart (I think mine was around $30 ~ its the Timex Women's Ironman Triathlon). You can set the timer to beep at different intervals. When your watch beeps run, when it beeps again, walk, etc....

My husband began running before the days of iPhones and fancy apps and the such. He ran on the road and ran telephone poles. He ran from one pole to the next, then walked the next two, and then ran to the next, and so on. The point is to just get yourself moving. Run for a little while, walk for a little while.

And believe me when I say ~ if I can do it, so can YOU!!!

Weekly Weigh In

Well, it's that time of week again. The time when I strip down and stepped on that blessed scale and see if the numbers have moved at all. I already posted that I wasn't expecting much of a loss this week and guess what.




The numbers went down. I know, right?!? I was totally prepared for nothing or for even a gain! GASP! So here we go: This week's weight was 219.6. For a loss of .8 from last week and a total loss of 5.4 lbs.
It's not a huge loss, but I'm ok with that. It's the first time I've seen the scale below 220 in at least two years. Maybe more. I'm working out a lot, maybe too much. All week that scale was stuck at 221 and some change (yes, I weigh myself everyday and multiple times per day ~ don't judge). It seems every time I take a rest day from working out that scale jumps down a bit. I dont' know if it's the lactic acid working it's way out of my body or what. As it is right now I typically workout in some form or another six days a week and rest on Sunday. Afterall, Sunday is the 'day of rest', right?
Maybe I'm over analyzing it, maybe I should just shut up and be happy with my losses! Ok, I'm off to the gym to start my C25K program this morning and to start logging my calories for my August Exercise Party. Jump in ~ the linky will be available all week!!

C25K

It begins tomorrow! I've got the C25K App all loaded up into my iPhone along with my workout playlist. Here we go!!

August Exercise Party Goals ~ Week 2

I set some pretty lofty goals last week. I met them, with a total of 5,363 exercise calories burned last week.

• Sunday: 0
• Monday: 467
• Tuesday: 1738
• Wednesday: 783
• Thursday: 886
• Friday: 639
• Saturday: 850

I wanted to clarify that these calories are all exercise calories burned. This does not include the calories burned in my regular day to day life. I do not have a body bug, so I cannot track each and every calorie burned all day. I use Livestrong's The Daily Plate to track approximately how many calories I burn doing various exercises.

It was a lofty goal, but I reached it. I'm not sure I'll be as successful this week as we are going camping this weekend. We'll leave Friday & return Monday (so this post will be a little late next week). I'll be doing my first ever open water swim (we're going to be camping on a lake) and I'm sure there will be lots of walking & hiking and maybe even a run or two squeezed in. I'll track my calories as best as possible.

Cheers!

August Exercise Party

It's time for this week's edition of the August Exercise Party! How did last week go? Did you meet your goals? Link up below to let us know how you did and what your new goals are going to be for the remainder of the month. Let's have fun and cheer each on!! Here's the 411:

• Set yourself an exercise goal
• Blog about your goal (and a link back here would be appreciated).
• Come back here and link to your (specific) blog post.
• Visit the other bloggers that have linked cheer them on.
• Update your blog each Sunday and come back here to link again.

See? Easy Peasy. Let's get this party started, shall we?

It's Bloggy Award Time!!

Jenny over at One Step at a Time nominated me for the Versitle Blogger Award. I'm so touched. I didn't even realize that other people read my blog! I use this as a place to vent about my frustrations, celebrate my successes and to keep a diary of sorts of my journey towards health. I'm humbled that others may find inspiration in my words and experiences. So, thank you Jenny ~ I'm honored.

The Rules: You have to share 7 things about yourself, nominate 15 other blogs that you have recently discovered, and let your nominees know about the awards. Here we go!

1. I am a former Flight Attendent married to a Pilot. Yes, we are a cliche!
2. I am addicted to politics and I'm fairly opinionated about them.
3. I'm doing something I never, ever, in one million years, thought I'd be doing ~ Homeschooling my children.
4. I love to quilt & knit, but rarely have time to do so.
5. I would have six kids if I could get my husband on board with it.
6. I am addicted to Cincinnati Style Chili and my mom sends me cans of it by the case.
7. I plan to celebrate my 40th birthday (four years away) by running a full marathon.

Here is where I'm going to break the rules. I love so many blogs and I don't want to arbitrarily pick 15 of them, so I chose YOU. That's right. YOU are my versitile blogger. So grab that button up above and play along! Oh, and leave a comment here if you do so!

Cheers!

Sigh....

I'm afraid my numbers aren't going to be pretty on Monday. I've stayed within my calories all week ~ but I fell into that trap. The trap I swore I'd never fall into. Actually, I fell into the opposite one. When I first started counting calories, I swore to myself that I wouldn't start eating the synthetic "fake" foods simply to save calories (ie: fat free cheese, "light" this, "sugar free" that, etc...)

Instead, I went the other direction. I've been working out a lot this week to reach my August Excersise Party goals & I've had lots of extra calories available each day. So, I've been letting myself indulge in some rather heavy, salty, (even a little processed) foods. And I feel puffy & bloated because of it.

Bleh.

Tomorrow is my day off from workouts and I intend to eat lots of raw fruits and veggies & hopefully start to detox my body a bit. We'll see what happens on Monday.

Run, baby, Run

*not me*

So remember a while back when I talked about running and pain and shoes and triathlons and all that good stuff? Well, to be perfectly honest, it was great to talk about and I really truly want to be a triathlete some day, but it was so far beyond my comfort zone and beyond my comprehension that I really wasn't sure if I believed it could really happen (hello, run on sentence!). I wanted it. Oh let me tell you how much I wanted it. But wanting something doesn't make it reality. Believing it does. My entire life believing has been my obstacle. I am such a dreamer, but I've never been much of a doer. I can set goals with the best of 'em, but I rarely reach them. Anytime something requires a little bit of work I immediately back off and go find something else about which to dream. I don't think it's because I'm lazy. I think it has more to do with a fear of failure.

This quest for health that I've recently found myself on has felt different from the get go. It's not really a goal, but a habit. I don't know. Maybe that's why it's different in my mind. That, and it doesn't hurt. It doesn't feel like work. I don't feel like I'm failing. So I do my bike several times per week and I get to watch some silly TV shows. I lift a few weights or take a fitness class while my kids are being entertained. I'm seeing the numbers move on the scale and I'm noticing some differences in my body shape but in my mind (and in the mirror), I'm still that fat, out of shape girl. I know it's changing, but it's not a scary change. I'm moving slowly. Slowly enough that I don't really notice the changes ~ or so I thought.

Boy #1 is on the swim team. He's my all grown up kid, but next to the big highschoolers on the team, he's really still just a peanut. These pictures are from his first (and only, so far) swim meet. He was giddy with excitement and I swear pride was oozing from me that day. You would have taken a paper towel and wiped the pride off of my arm. It was thick. I was proud and unapologetic. He loves swim practice and he's so focused and works so hard to reach his goals (he gets that from his father, btw) that he continually amazes his coaches.

*go Peanut, go!*

The swim team is at the pool 5 days a week, but my boy only practices two days. Boy #2 is taking swim lessons right now as he has every intention of following in big brother's foot steps. He occasionally practices with the team before his lessons and he's already impressed the coaches with the speed with which he picked up doing flip turns (I'm not sure I will ever master those things). (There is a point to all of this, I swear).

The swim team is taking the entire month of August off from practicing for various, unimportant reasons. However, we're still up there twice a week for #2's lessons and #1 is having some serious chlorine withdrawls so we decided to swim some laps together the other night while #2 had his lesson.

I'll. Be. Damned. There I was minding my own business swimming along and I looked down at the bottom of the pool and realized the tiles were moving by me much more quickly than they did a few weeks ago when I swam. Could it be? Is it true? Could my workouts in the gym have made me a stronger, and therefore a faster, swimmer? No way!!

Isn't it funny how everything is connected like that? But wait ~ the title of this post is "Run, baby, Run" and I've only talked about swimming.

Today, while at the gym I was feeling pretty good so I decided to take a little walk on the treadmill when I was finished with my bike workout. The walk was feeling good, so I decided to up the speed and little bit and well, look at that: I was jogging. Like for reals! I jogged for a minute and then walked for two. Then I jogged for another minute and walked for two. I did that for 20 minutes and then realized ~ um, I think I just did (almost) the first day of C25K.

And. I. Didn't. Die. In fact, I'd say each running minute was a little easier than the last. By the last one I was in a rhythm and I was feeling good. My foot didn't hurt at all, but the proof will be in the morning when I get out of bed. Will she walk or will she hit the floor? I'll let ya know.

I just may have a runner buried deep within me yet. Suddenly, I believe that my dreams can become my reality.

Also, I was nominated for a bloggy award this afternoon (honestly, I didn't even know anyone read my blog!!). I'll get to that tomorrow.

Cheers, Y'all! (I can say that, I was born in KY) :)

RECIPE ~ BLT Salad

~*~This post is part of the Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays~*~

Also a part of Get Healthy, Cheap's Family Food Fridays

I love a good BLT sandwich. Mmmmm, just thinking about them makes my mouth water. I could eat them all day, everyday. What I don't love about them is all that bread. Occasionally having that bread doesn't bother me, but refined carbs and I don't get along and a BLT sandwich on sprouted Ezekiel bread just ain't the same. Am I wrong? So, what's a bacon loving, carb hating, BLT addict to do? Why put it in a bowl, of course!

The very first step is to find the prettiest bowl in your cupboard. I happen to have a fairly unhealthy addiction to vintage Pyrex so there is no shortage of pretties when I open those cabinet doors.

The next thing you do is to fill up that pretty bowl with some amazing, fresh greens from Saturday's Farmer's Market. Let's face it, once you've eaten a salad fresh from the market, there is no going back. Greens just don't get any better!

Then you need to fry up some bacon. Not just any bacon. As with all of my animal products that I eat and feed my family, I buy the best quality that I can find and afford. Thankfully my husband has a secure job that provides well for our family and affording quality animal products is not an issue for our family. I recongize that not all families are as fortunate as mine, so buy the best you can ~ or simply forgo. I would rather eat vegetarian than eat the meat from the feedlot animals that line the shelves of most grocery stores.

So, what does "high quality" animal meat mean and where can you buy it? I'm lucky, I have a fantastic market close to my house that carries some of the best meat and local produce that one could ask for.

All of the beef I feed my family comes from grass fed/grass finished cows ~ in other words "happy cows". I'm still searching for a good source of happy chickens ~ chickens that are allowed out in the sun and to run around in the grass, pecking at bugs and seeds and pretty much anything else they (naturally) find in the ground. Pigs should be allowed to roam and scavenge freely. I do not, under any circumstances, believe that the animals should be fed a diet rich in grains & corn & antibiotics. (Sidebar ~ did you know that meat labeled as "antibiotic free" only means that there were no antibiotics in their system when they were slaughtered? It DOES NOT mean that they weren't raised on a diet full of synthetic antibiotics up until just a few weeks before slaughter) ~ according to my butcher.

This is why I am not afraid of pork, I am not afraid of red meat, I'm not afraid of the dark meat of a chicken.

Ok, while you're at it, fry up some pork shoulder bacon, too. But you might want to add some drippings back into that pan. They are really lean. You wouldn't want it to stick to your pan, now would you?

Ok, while the bacon (and pork shoulder) are frying up, dice up some tomatoes. Now, this next step is of utmost importance. Seriously, peeps. I mean it. If your knife doesn't match your veggie your salad will be ruined. I know. Who knew? I'm so glad I was given a handful of various colored parring knives for Christmas last year. All this time I had no idea. Our food is so much better now.

Put all ingredients in that pretty bowl and top with the dressing of your choice. I usually just use some mayo thinned with milk or some ranch. Oh ~ and please, please, please don't ruin this amazing salad with some bottled, synthetic, "light" salad dressing. I'll cry. I really will. The ranch that I use is made in that awesome market I mentioned with real ingredients. I know because I asked. : )

August Exercise Party - Goals

I'm hosting an August Exercise Party and I'm going to be the first to list my goals. Here we go:

~*~For the entire month of August I plan to burn 5000 calories per week.~*~

It's an ambitious goal, but I'm up to the challenge. That's an average of 715 calories per day. Phew. My week will run Sunday thru Saturday. Let's get movin'!!

August Exercise Party

I'm starting an August Exersise Challenge. It's not a competition, but a way for us to support one another and to push ourselves to the next level. Here's the 411:

• Set yourself an exercise goal
• Blog about your goal (and a link back here would be appreciated).
• Come back here and link to your (specific) blog post.
• Visit the other bloggers that have linked cheer them on.
• Update your blog each Sunday and come back here to link again.

See? Easy Peasy. Let's get this party started, shall we?

Weekly Weigh In

One day early. I'm posting my weigh in results today instead of tomorrow because it's the first of the month. I log all of my statistics on the first and I thought it would be silly to do it all today and then officially weigh in again tomorrow. So, here we go.

• Starting Weight: 225.2/220.4
• Height: 5'5"/5'5"
• Starting BMI: 37.5 (Obese)/36.7 (Obese)
• Bust measurement: 48"/47"
• Waist measurement: 48"/45.5"
• Hips measurement: 51.5"/49.5"
• Biceps measurement: 12.5"/12.5"
• Thighs measurement: 23.5"/23"
• Body Fat Percentage: 53%/51.4%

Ok, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!!!!

Today's weigh in result was 220.4 lbs. That's a 2 lb. loss from last week. And a 4.8 lb loss total. Things are moving people. Things are moving.

Now, let's talk about inches, shall we? 1" off my Bust, 2.5" off my Waist, 2" off my Hips, and .5" off my Thighs!!! Holy Hell people!! That's a total of 6" off of my body!!!

My body fat percentage has gone down 1.6% and my BMI dropped .8 points. In ONE MONTH!!

I have been able to feel my body changing and these numbers just confirm it.

It's the exercise. These numbers would look drastically different if I hadn't gotten off my ass and started moving.

So, I've been thinking about an exercise challenge. Anyone care to join? It's not a competition and there will be no winners. Just set your goal and blog about it. Add your link to the linky list. We'll all support one another. This challenge will run the entire month of August. I'll blog about it each Sunday and have a linky list for you to update all of us in how you are doing. Let's do this peeps!! (I'll do a seperate blog post about this and add my link in, too) Here we go!!!!!