Fit Friday

***Warning....long, long, long post***

In search for a witty title I figured Friday would be a great place to start documenting my fitness journey.  I don't want to say weight loss, because as that is a definite bonus, my real goal here is to get fit and healthy.

Before I start, I must put in a disclaimer.  I am NOT a nutritionist or a personal trainer.  This post is meant as a personal record for myself, however, if I can help out one person in their journey as well, then great.  This is my plan, what I am trying, be it right or wrong.  If you are here to judge, please keep moving; however, if you have suggestions for exercises I can try or recipes I might like, then by all means I would love to hear them.

The Beginning:
A little background.  I am 41 years young, 5'7" and have always carried around extra weight. I was athletic growing up so I was able to keep my weight in check, but that changed during college and my early 20s.  I joined Weight Watchers in the late 90s and lost quite a bit of my college weight.  I was also in the Air National Guard so I needed to maintain my weight but I was always pushing the max limit.  My exercise was pretty limited to my yearly run.

In 1998 I was at my thinnest of my adult life when I got married.  I was able to maintain that weight and then became pregnant with my first child.  I gained 86 pounds with her (yes, 86) because well, I was eating for 2.  I think I lost about 20 pounds between my first and second child.  I only gained 13 with my son, but still....I was severely overweight. I tried fad diets and rejoined Weight Watchers.  I exercised occasionally.  I was on WW for about 4 years and lost and gained the same 10 pounds....not their fault, mine, I had no will power, no control over what I put in my mouth.  Every time I cheated I would eat out of control for the rest of the day and try again the next...it was a viscous cycle.  At my heaviest I weighed somewhere around 225 pounds, that was in 2011.  I was miserable and needed to take control. 

On April , 2011 I walked into the Key Hypnosis for my first session.  That decision changed my life.  I haven't stepped on the scale since but what I can tell you is that I went from a tight 18 to a 10 by just changing the way I ate.  I started exercising more and the changes in my body (not only the weight loss but the way it looked and felt) became noticeable.

Fast Forward to November 2013:
I was still in a size 10 and felt great.  I was working out, ran my first 5K in March of 2013 and was loving being 40.  I hadn't been off the Key program and got a bit too confident and started taking liberties in the way I ate.  Which is fine, the Key program is designed for you to be able to eat on maintenance, it isn't a diet but a lifestyle change.  (In short weight loss is meat and veggies, you start to add foods in during maintenance); however, I took too many liberties and started going back to the way I was eating pre Key....bad idea.  I was able to quickly squash that but since I started working full time I had a hard time managing everything at home and exercising, so while I was still a 10...I started to become a tight 10 and frankly felt like a stuffed sausage. 

When summer rolled around I no longer fit in my shorts from last summer....ok, back on the exercise train...I had come this far, there was no going back.  I had pretty much lost my endurance for running and needed to start building that back up.  I started running each morning and going back to the gym 3-4 times a week.  I also started eating right again.  (I won't go into the Key program in too much detail because there is a lot of reasoning and background to it.  It is very close to Paleo though.  I will share recipes and plan on posting my menu on Mondays).

Where I am Today & Fit Friday:
Things have started getting busy around here prepping for back to school and with football, fall ball and field hockey starting up.  My morning runs are continuing but I had to get creative in my workout schedule, which is what brought me to Fit Friday in the first place.  I made a 30 day calendar of daily workouts (with Sundays off).  I plan on incorporating challenges found on Pinterest, my runs and other things.  I need this to be doable for my time constraints and the fact that I probably won't be able to get to the gym all that often so I need to be able to work out in my home with minimal equipment.  I also need this to be something that I will do and that I can increase each month.

My plan is to post a recap of the week on Fridays with the workout for the following week.  My weekly workouts will consist of a run (that I try to do Mon-Sat), a few challenges (following the challenge schedule) and a HIIT workout 3x/week (I will post the ones that I did that week on Friday).  Please remember, this is just what I am doing (and hope will work).  Sunday will be a rest day.  Obviously weight loss is an added benefit but I don't weigh myself.  I go by how my clothes feel and how I look.  I am taking measurements and will post those once a month as well. If you are on your own journey, I would love for you to join in on Fridays and let me know how your week went as well.

This month I am doing a squat and plank challenge and throwing in some push ups and dips to help build my upper body strength.

Week 1 - Walk/Run (1/4w, 1/4r, 1/4w, 1/2r, 1/4w, 1/4r, 1/4w)

Monday - 15 squats, 20 second plank
Tuesday - 25 squats, 20 second plank
Wednesday - 40 squats, 30 second plank
Thursday - 30 squats, 30 second plank, 10 push ups, 5 dips
Friday - 40 second plank
Saturday - 30 squats, 45 second plank, 12 push ups, 7 dips

This is the week I am in and I feel great.  I have accomplished everything so far with the exception of the run on Thursday as I went to a Red Sox game Wed night and getting home at 2 am does not make a productive morning.

Here is the plan for next week:

Week 2 - Walk/Run ((1/4w, 1/4r, 1/4w, 3/4r, 1/4w, 1/4r, 1/4w)

Monday - 45 squats, 45 second plank, 14 pushups x2, 9 dips x2
Tuesday - 25 squats, 1 minute plank, 10 pushups x2, 5 dips x2
Wednesday - 25 squats, 1 minute plank, 16 pushups x2, 11 dips x2
Thursday - 1 minute plank
Friday - 60 squats, 1 1/2 minute plank, 18 push upsx2, 13 dips x2
Saturday - 20 squats, 1 1/2 minute plank, 10 push ups x2, 5 dips x2

HIIT 3x/week

I used the 30 day plank challenge from www.shrinkingjeans.net (the one from 12/2013 but sadly can't find the original post) and cut the number of squats in 1/2 (I know my own body....I'm on Friday of week 1 and sore). 

I apparently deleted the plank challenge from my photo stream so I apologize that I can't give credit where it is due.

For accountability my measurements at the beginning: 

Waist 40"
Hips 43 1/2"
Bust 41 1/2"
Arm 11 1/2"
Thigh 21 1/2"

Would love to hear your thoughts and any links to great challenges or at home workouts I can try.

Tracy





 

   

hello, hello...

hello, hello...is this thing on?  is there anybody there? 

I won't apologize for being a bad blogger because, well I never was a good one in the first place.  I haven't been around my little home on the web in 9 months (wow!), because well, life has been super busy. Super, duper busy...

I haven't been scrapbooking : (  I haven't been keeping up with Project Life : ( and well, I haven't tackled any of the 50,000 items on my To Do list.  : ( : (

I have however taken my state licensing exam and became a certified teacher.  I  was lucky enough to have my own classroom as a long term sub from January - June, and will be starting as an 8th grade ELA teacher in just a few short weeks.  Honestly this is my dream job.  Between studying, working and spending time with my family there really wasn't room for much else.

I do miss blogging (and don't worry I have carved out enough time during the week to read my fav blogs!)  It gave me a chance to write and to share, if only for my personal record (and my family members who check in from time to time). 

I have some grand plans (don't I always) and one of them is to start blogging again, if only once a month instead of once a year!  I want this to be a record of my journey as a first year teacher, and I still plan to share other things as well...part of my grand plan is also to restart Project Life and get a few projects done around the house (the master bedroom has had the paint samples narrowed down from 20 to 2!) I also want to start documenting my journey to getting fit (to hold me accountable).  So stay tuned....there are great things to come...promise.

If you are still following along...I would love to hear from you in the comments below.

Tracy