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.