You're only one workout away from a good mood =)

Tuesday's boot camp was lovely=) It was the first night at the new building.. which is amazing! I felt amazing after the work-out. I always wish that the workouts would last longer no matter how exhausted I am. There is not a clock in the new building which I absolutely love!! It's so nice to be able to just get completely lost in the workout rather than worrying about how much time we have left. When I go to the gym during my lunch time on week days I am constantly looking over at the clock between every exercise to make sure I am back on time. I feel like working out should be the ultimate "me time"!

Anyway, after boot camp we took a group photo to document the first session in the new place =)

Look at all of those guns ;) I'm a work in progress! I love that my arms are no longer a blob of disgustingness! Speaking of.. I decided to look at old pictures of myself recently and try to pinpoint when I was at my largest to compare.. and oh my god.. just take a look at this gem.. =P

Seriously?!?! I canNOT believe I ever looked like that =/ My arm looks like it has cellulite?!? I didn't even know that was possible! I will never ever EVER go back down that road. It makes me sad to even think that I was ever so unhealthy and careless!

But anywayyyyys.. on to Saturday! Saturday's bootcamp was tough. There was a lot of "surprises" between the stations.. like running around the building and burpees! The workout felt amazing, but I felt like I was very out of shape. =( Steph incorporated more weights, so it was different than all of the past whiteboard workouts that I have done. By the time I got to the dumbbell bench press I was so exhausted that I could barely put up 20s... which I can usually do a lot of without a problem. There was a barbell overhead squat type thing two stations after that and it hurt to even hold it above my head. It felt like my legs were going to collapse under me when I attempted to squat with it. Also, my core needs some serious work! Pikes on a ball.... not so much!

I will master it! There is an exercise ball at work that I keep meaning to bring home! It shall be in my bedroom by tomorrow! Once I master this I will attempt to capture a picture of myself doing it! It's much harder than it looks =/

Steph has been posting quite a bit about calorie intake and weight loss plateaus. Part of what she said is:

" ...if you're currently at a fat loss plateau (your fat loss has stalled for more than 2 weeks), then you need to give your body the opposite and feed it MORE calories. What's gotten you where you are today, is not what's going to help you get to your next goal. 

Plateauing is your body's natural way of telling you that it's comfortable at this new set point and it doesn't want to change. The best way to force it to change is to give it an extreme contrast. If you were eating at 1,200 calories for several months and body fat was falling off, but now you're stalled, increase your calorie consumption by 400-700 calories (depending on what your MFP diary suggests). If you're still losing body fat every week, then continue doing what you're doing. You're only going to increase calories if you've plateaued.

Yes, you'll probably feel like you're eating a lot and you may even feel stuffed. This is normal and your goal is to make the body adjust, thus causing it to let go of stored body fat once again. I'm NOT suggesting that you binge out on junk food, I'm suggesting that you increase your consumption of healthy fats (a very simple way to increase calories and satisfy your MFP caloric requirements for the day). Use flax oil/seeds, olive oil, a few servings of almond butter or natural peanut butter. Don't be afraid of fat. I realize this is a difficult concept to wrap you're mind around, but it works."

Difficult to wrap my head around is right!! I trust her though so I am trying to take every little piece of advice and information that she gives and incorporate it into my life! She said that we need to not leave any calories in the green on MFP at the end of the day. I was finding myself leaving up to 600 calories there and feeling good about it. I have not weighed myself since the jeans challenge began, but before that I was stuck at 117 for what seems like forever. I do not remember the last time the number on the scale was different. So, this weekend I did a pretty good job at getting all of my calories in. I am still having a little bit of a hard time keeping the percentages at 40% carbs, 30% fats, and 30% protein! I need to educate myself and learn what falls into which category while I am planning out my daily meals! I spent quite a bit of time on pinterest today finding new recipes to incorporate into the next few weeks! I need to go grocery shopping within the next few days and my goal is to have a list of all new and healthy food!! I have more motivation than ever and I love trying new things to improve myself! =) 

Here is the photo from Saturday's bootcamp session... the last of the first week at the new place! 

My biceps are feeling the burn from this past week. Tomorrow I will make my legs equally sore! 

And finally... my favorite motivational find of the week. 

Procrastination makes me forget things.

I really need to start posting after every boot camp rather than at the end of the week! All night I have been trying to remember the details of Tuesday's session & I'm not having much luck. I know that we split into two different groups and one group rotated through stations while the others had exercises listed on a white board to do! At the end we ran back and forth (from fence to fence) for about 5-10 minutes! It was nice to get outside and end the night with a little big of running!! 

Saturday we split into three groups (one upper body, one legs, one abs)! It was pretty rough! The rules have changed to 20 burpees for every person who is late, but it was replaced with five sprints from fence to fence for the day! Only one person was late.. thank Jesus! I had a very difficult time with the leg portion of this work out! It was pretty brutal! It was toe touches, sprints, lunges, jump squats, split jump squats, and burpees!

I have been getting the hang of the My Fitness Pal thing. It is hard to keep my percentages within my pie chart.. but I am getting better! Today I feel gross and blah though so I am going to make this short. 

I'm sure boot camp tomorrow night will lift my spirits so I will post then! =) 

xox.

The moment of truth. . . (prepare yourself!)

I've been to bootcamp twice since my last post! I had to take a week off because of the Polar Force 13 exercise bullshit at work... So this past Tuesday (the 9th) and Saturday (the 13th) were my bootcamp days for the week! On Tuesday Steph did my measurements for me before we started... *gasp*

The results were..

right arm: 9 1/2 in.

right thigh: 16 3/4 in. 

waist: 25 in.

hips: 34 1/4 in. 

weight: 117 lbs.

body fat: 25.7%

The suggested goal within eight weeks is to decrease to 20-21% body fat! Steph said that what I measured at is in the healthy range... but I guess I never thought that I was really obese or unhealthy or anything crazy?! I just know that I can be more fit than I am right now! So.. I have been going back and forth on whether I wanted to add "progress photos" to this blog or not. I have come to the conclusion that if you are reading this right now it is not because you hate me or what to judge me... and if it is well than you suck! =) But I'm assuming if you are on my blog you are rooting for me and are interested in my journey toward fitness.... so here they are.. =)

They aren't the best quality, but there they are! =)

Tuesday at boot camp we had "buddy day"! We got paired up and had a list of exercises to perform and while we were doing each for one minute our buddy counted and recorded how many we were able to do! At the end we all counted up our total number and the top guy and top girl each earned a free bootcamp session (Steph is awesome!). I didn't win.. but I was pretty pleased with my number! I ended at 366. I think there were 13 exercises total which included things like jumping rope, kettlebell swings, some crazy toe touch on the bosu ball, some trx stuff, squat stuff with a medicine ball and dumbbells, burpees... and some other fun stuff! =) I felt really good after that workout! I was sore, but not so sore that I couldn't even walk like the first boot camp I went to! Oh yes.. I can't forget to mention the 45 burpees we did during the warm up for a lady named Laurie's birthday! She is on vacation somewhere tropical and beautiful, but she told Steph that she was doing her birthday burpees there and she wanted everyone to do them at boot camp for her too! (Thanks Laurie! ;) ) I can't wait to make everyone do 23 burpees in June ;)
Saturday we did stations.! Around halfway through I got that terrible dizzy/shaky/tunnel-vision/about-to-pass-out feeling =/ I went and sat down for the minute I was suppose to be running in the band and drank a shit ton of water while I tried to compose myself. I think that the lack of hydration and the heat in the building just took a toll on me for a brief moment! I went to my next station and Lela and Steph came and asked if I was alright and I was starting to feel better already, but Lela said she would open the big garage door to let some air in for me! (Thanks Lela!) I felt perfect again and continued on with my sweaty workout! The battle ropes above the head while squatting thing is torturous! I don't even know why! Squats normally don't bug me and I don't think that the rope is even that heavy! Both times I have done them they are kicked my ass though! Maybe because holding the weight in that position is new to me?!? I'm used to just squatting with dumbbells or a bar! I also learned that I have a weak lower back.=( When I was at one of the TRX stations in a bridge position I thought I was going to die! I could barely hold my ass off the ground after a few seconds! Oh well.. another goal I need to work toward!
I felt amazing when I was leaving boot camp, so I came home and went for my first outdoor run of the year! =) It may have been a bit early.. by the time I got home my shoes and pants were filled with mud and soaking wet! It was a little chilly, but it felt great! I don't know how far I ran.. I try not to pay attention to distance because I get fixated on it and if I set a specific distance when I head out for a run it is like I convince myself that I have to stop at that point even if my body says to keep going. It was probably between two and three miles?!
Today I am sore! All of last night I felt perfectly fine and kept telling myself that I should have pushed harder, because I wasn't feeling it. Newsflash this morning! My hamstrings and my triceps are feeling it the most! I love being sore =D Especially in my tris since those need a whole lot of work!
So the Figarelle Fitness clan is doing a transformation challenge, but I joined after it started so I'm not involved in it =( I think that I am going to ask for some details on it though and just silently participate.. or full force jump in and just forget about the fact that I am six weeks behind in points =) Anyway.. this weekend they got a new bonus challenge! For the rest of the time (until May 30th) they are not to weigh themselves at all!!! Steph asked them to focus on how their clothes are fitting them rather than numbers on the scale. She said to dig out a pair of jeans that they haven't been able to fit in for awhile. If they don't have any they are to go buy the sexiest pair they can find in the size that they want to fit into! Each week they have to post a photo of themselves in those jeans!! I absolutely adore this challenge! This inspired me to try on my "dream" pants this morning!! I got them on my 18th birthday when I was at my absolute smallest! I brought them back to Alaska with me after my last time going home because I decided that they would be my motivation! Here is a photo of me wearing them back then...

(I'm on the right.. my friend Amanda is on the left<3) I know this doesn't show the jeans that well... but I could bend down without exploding out of them and everything =) So here is the photo of me with them on this morning... =)

Woah!!! I was pretty shocked and impressed!! I tried these on in January and my muffin top was hanging out all over the place and I could hardly button them!! I still have a little bit of a love handle.. but I could actually wear these comfortably now! So now I am trying to decide if I should just keep using these as my progress/motivation jeans or go buy a new pair that is smaller! I suppose I will decide by the end of the week. I am so so happy that Figarelle Fitness has given me my motivation back and pulled me out of a rut!
My eating habits have been pretty good.. I'm still practically drowning myself in water every day and peeing like a race horse! I can't seem to break my addiction to s'mores though =P I literally eat a s'more almost every day. It actually was every day until recently... but I am trying!! It's 10:50 p.m. and I'm still going strong without one today! hah. I am going to do some research and try to make a meal plan for the rest of the month tomorrow! I want to start incorporating healthy things that I have been scared to try in the past! I will update my my successfulness with that one =)
Alright.. until next time.!
xox.

What better way to hold myself accountable than to document my progress... here's to fitness! =)

Today I have decided that I will blog about my journey to a better me. It is exactly four months until my wedding day and I want to look and feel better than I ever have before! Savier deserves the very best of me and I fully intend on giving him exactly that. =)

Before my six month deployment that started in October of 2011 I was heavier and lazier and just plain shittier than ever. I think I spent 80% of my time drunk which led me to smoke a lot of cigarettes and eat a lot of McDonalds and Taco Bell. I recognized that I was going in a bad direction and I went on Jenny Craig, but after a few months I realized that it just wasn't for me or my lifestyle. I was living with people who liked to have a BBQ with massive amounts of alcohol every weekend and I missed that while I was sitting on the sidelines with my little tray of shitty Jenny Craig food. I quit smoking two months before I deployed and decided that I would get really serious when I got to the desert. I don't know exactly what I weighed when I left Alaska, but I recall seeing the number 145 at some point around this time! 

I started running a lot during my time in the desert and I started doing a lot of research on fitness and supplements. My goal was to be able to do 25 pushups by the time I left because I could barely do 3 when I got there! My supervisor and LT held me accountable for that goal and we all did pushups all of the time at work. I had a PT test on March 26, 2011 a few weeks before I was scheduled to come home. I ran a 13:36 mile (I think that was my official time?! Im probably a few seconds off), did 50 sit-ups in one minute, and did 36 pushups! I exceeded my goal! I also weighed in at 117 pounds with a 28" waist! It felt g-l-o-r-i-o-u-s!!!!

Fast forward to now (one year later)!!

My PT test was on March 15. I got a 94.8%! That is the best I have ever done. I ran my mile and a half in 13:35, maxed out my sit-ups at 55, and did 43 push ups! I weighed in at 115 pounds with a 26" waist. Go me go! So, I go to the gym almost every day at lunch, go on the weekends.. blahblahblah. I found a love for the weight room. But a few weeks ago I started loosing motivation and was bored with my "routine". I saw that Lindsay had "checked-in" to Figarelle's Fitness Boot Camp on Facebook one night and I decided to creep a little and see what she was up to! It looked like exactly the kind of thing I was looking for! I wanted a group activity, I wanted change, I wanted excitement, I wanted help, and I wanted to be held accountable! Linsday hooked me up with some information and after emailing Steph, the owner of Figarelle's Fitness, I was invited to come to a boot camp session for free to see if it really was the right program for me before making a commitment. In the original "contact us" email on her website it stated that they don't work with people without specific goals and asked for five.. I probably wrote something very crazy, because I wasn't expecting that, but I will try to remember them and post them at the end of this!

March 26th I went to my first class and immediately felt like I was exactly where I belonged! It was tough as hell! I thought I was going to die. I considered myself to be in decent shape before, but holy hell! I LITERALLY could barely walk for three days after. My calves were so sore I didn't know what to do with myself! Steph asked how I was feeling the day after class and I told her I felt like I had been beaten with a bag of bricks... but it really actually felt worse than that I think! She told me to drink 3-4 liters of water per day, get plenty of protein, get plenty of sleep, and use a foam roller if I had one. So, I listened. I bought a foam roller and I love it! I think that I have increased my bathroom breaks throughout the day by about 80% because of the crazy amount of water I have been drinking. 

Well, I did what any sane person would do.. I went back to class the following Saturday and wrote a check for enough sessions to last me the rest of the time I am in Alaska (about 95 days)! Saturday's session was amazing also! Steph and Lela are awesome! I did thinks that I have never done before and did a terrible job at some.. but I still did it.. and I can only get better from here! I leave there feeling completely satisfied with myself no matter how much I think about the fact that I can't freaking seem to balance after lifting one arm and the opposite leg from a position on all fours.

yeah... thats harder than it looks!!! Anyway.. I can't go to boot camp this week because of the stupid exercise going on at work, but I will be back next Tuesday and I can't wait! My soreness went away and I went to the gym to try to get it back, but it's just not the same! haha. yes.. I know I said I was dying.. but being sore is the greatest pain! Tuesday I will go in early to get my official beginning measurements and "before" photos and all that good stuff. I took my own and measured myself.. but we wont go with those! By my final session I have a few goals...

1. Get rid of that disgusting wing.. aka, arm flab that takes away from my developing bicep ;)

2. I would prefer if my thighs wouldn't touch like they do.. thats the thing I hate about myself the most.

3. My calves. They have always been my weak point and now I know just how weak! bleck. I wanna fix those!

4. Abs. I told Savier that I wanted abs by our wedding. Even just slightly!?! oh this one will be hard!!

5. Endurance. I want to be able to run five miles again without even thinking twice about it! I get out of breath easily.. and it makes me feel like a fat out of shape heffer when I start huffing and puffing after a few minutes!!
6. I need to do AT LEAST one pull up. I have never done one in my life!!

...I probably have a lot more.. but this is long enough for now! I will post about my progress and exciting boot camp stories as it all happens! 

I can't wait to be a healthier and more fit me!

=)