No self-discipline.

I realized something the past few days. I have no self-discipline when it comes to sugar. Well, let me re-phrase that. I have no self-discipline when I'm "allowing" myself to eat sugar "sparingly". I'm seriously out of control. I was off sugar until Valentine's Day. I did awesome. It was all mental for me. It wasn't a temptation because I knew what my limitations were. It wasn't hard to pass up the brownies at the Relief Society activity because I knew before I went that I wasn't having any. (Just like you learn in church...you make up your mind BEFORE HAND and it's not that hard.) I have, however, been back "ON" sugar for a total of 3 days. So far I have eaten....get ready for this.... 4 sugar cookies, 3 chocolate truffles, 2 pieces of carmel cake, 1 red velvet cupcake, 1/2 of an ice-cream sundae and plenty of spatula licks of cake batter. Does anybody else see a problem with this??? I thought, for sure I would be fine to go back to having sugar "sparingly". Afterall, I had gone 1 1/2 months without it and did just fine. Boy was I wrong. I must be an all or nothing kind of girl. I tell ya though, I have been feeling SO SICK the past few days. It wasn't hard to decide to go off again. I think there needs to be a happy medium though. So I decided this time, I'll take it week by week. That way, when I go back "ON" I won't overkill like I did this time. So, I am making a point to say, I will have NO SUGAR until Next Wednesday night at New Beginnings. Then...I'll take it another week from there. Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it with all this Valentine's chocolate around. (Eventhough, I desperately tried to pawn it off on my Young Women tonight!)

Look!!!

I'M SO EXCITED! I have wanted a treadmill for years and we were finally able to buy one using our tax return! I don't like to exercise, which has been one of my biggest struggles, but I love to run when I get the chance. We used to have a gym membership and getting on the treadmill was my favorite. But we haven't had a membership in a while so I would run outside when I could. But if it was too cold or too hot, it made it hard. Now, I can run whenever I want. :D

This is really going to help me feel better about myself and improve appearance. I've worked out twice already, 40 minutes each. It feels good doing something you love! Below are my pictures you challenged us to post Cami. It's one thing to see yourself in the mirror but it's another to show other people what you look like. More motivation though right?! (FYI The reason my head is cut off is because I don't post personal pictures on the internet, but you get the idea. :) Good luck this week girls! (Cami, how's the elliptical working for you?)

My Turn

These are scary pictures, but Cami, I am taking the challenge to post before pictures. Hopefully my after pictures will look a lot better.

I took the Body Fat % test and found myself at 29%. Not bad, but could be a lot better, which I am working on it.

As for the 7 day detox I did, I gained 7 pounds. So I stopped and went back to what I was doing before. I also picked up the book Cinch! and LOVE IT!! I have been on the 5 day fast track and it has been so easy and I have so much energy, besides having 3 sick kids. On Thursday, I start the 25 day program of it.

I have been doing P90X every morning and on M/W been going to gym and running/walking on the treadmill for 1 hour. On T/Th mornings I go to our Ward bldg and workout with a group of ladies, the workouts are hard, but great.

My goals this week:

Continue to workout and follow Cinch!

Drink lots of water

Picture my end goal

Think positive

Have a great week everyone!!

A few websites...

Sorry, I'm probably getting annoying by posting so much lately, but I found a few websites I thought I'd share with you. The first is the Home Body fat test... (if you want to see what you are). Like I said before, I ended up being 26% body fat with this test, which seemed more accurate then the 35% at the gym on their scale.

www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home-body-fat-test-2774-143.html

The other is to do a Metabolic typing test.

www.naturalhealthyellowpages.com/metabolic/self_test.html

I've been doing some research on a few things, health related, and have found some interesting facts. Both online, different places, and I've talked to my brother a lot (Who has a degree in Exercise Science, and worked as a Manager for Personal Training at Gold's Gym for quite awhile.) He is now going to PA school, but I emailed him a few days ago, and he sent me some good information. First, he said to find out my "metabolic type" so I know what kind of foods to eat more of. (protein or carbs). A lot of time this is just a trial and error thing, but I am going to start off by doing what my test results said, and go from there. I also learned that I am probably not eating ENOUGH food. Crazy huh?! I've been working out a TON and have been cutting calories, which has probably been doing more harm than good. Apparently, if you aren't eating enough calories, your body will go into "Starvation Mode". (This is when your body holds onto all the fat in your body becuase it thinks it might be starving, so it won't let break down any of the fats you are trying to get rid of!) Interesting huh? Now....this doesn't mean I need to pig out, but instead of counting calories I should be more interested in eating the RIGHT kinds of foods (raw nuts, whole eggs, 1-ingredient foods such as fruits, sweet potatoes, veggies, meat, etc), and cutting out the bad kinds of foods, ( pasta's,-even whole wheat pastas and bread aren't great for you,- processed foods/ packaged snacks, *granola bars are one of my weaknesses*, health bars, crackers, sugar, vegetable/canola oils, margarine, substitute butters, etc.).

Anyway, I'm going to stick with my test results this week, and try to follow it a little better (with the food guidelines) and we'll see how I do! Good luck this week girls!

BEFORE:

Okay girls. It's time to be brave. I'm going to go out on a limb here and try something I've never done before. "Before and After" pictures. I'm getting so frustrated with the scale, so I thought I'd try another way to "track my progress". Of course, the pictures you see today will be the "BEFORE" pictures. You'll have to check back in a month or two to see the "after". I just thought this might be good so I can actually "SEE" if there are any changes in the way I look. Afterall, pictures don't lie!

I actually took a few more pictures in a sports bra and shorts that are "For my eyes only!" I think I'll be able to tell a bigger difference with those, but for the blog's sake, I thought I'd post a few of the others that were a little more modest.

Okay..no laughing!

I like to call this one the BUM shot.


Look at those flabby arms...ugh...I mean muscles!

Belly shot...
Front on belly and thighs...

Okay, I challenge all of you to do it too, and see if you can tell a difference in a month! If you want to post it, that's great! If not, I understand. (Especially, since this is not a private blog.) But....I think it's a great idea to keep us all motivated!

Oh, and ps... I found a website to check your OWN Body fat (just google home body fat test), and I came up with 26% body fat. Not 35%. Hopefully, that was more accurate then before!

Here again

Sorry I haven't been here the last little while. I have been swamped with so many things for work, church, and home that I haven't had much time to do anything else. So I'm back with an update. Things haven't gone very well. The weight I lost, I put back on because I've been stressed. It felt so good to lose what I did and now I feel worse for putting it back on. But I'm not going to give up. Although, I've been doing some thinking. I wonder if I'm taking things TOO easy to start off with. Maybe I should be more aggressive? Anyway, here are my goals for this week, we'll see how it goes.

*Fill up and drink my water bottle 3x
*Go to bed before 10:30pm
*Exercise while watching TV at least 4x
*No eating after 7pm
*No buying sweets

Rolydia, how is your raw food diet going? Cami, did you get a personal trainer at the gym or are you doing it yourself? Good luck ladies!

Lab Results...

I've got a lot of work to do. Here are the basic results of my lab tests from the gym. If you don't care to look...I don't blame ya.

Blood pressure: 114/54 Normal. (this was good.)

Cardiovascular: 36.2

These numbers probably mean nothing to you, but 36.2 was in the Moderate range. under 26 is Very Low. 26-30 was Low. 31-35 is Fair. 36-40 is Moderate. 41-44 is Good. 45-49 is Very Good. Over 49 is Elite.) So...I didn't do too bad there, but I kind of expected it to be higher with how much I exercise. I guess I'll be stepping my cardio workouts up a notch or two.

Strength: 51 (lbs)...this was for biceps.... (I was in the Average range) 0-25 =Poor, 26-38=Fair, 39-58=Average, 59-75=Good, and over 75=Excellent. So...once again I'm average. Not good, but not bad either.

Flexibility: 17.2 (inches) Here's my time to shine......so....on the scale, I'm finally in the excellent range. However, flexibility is the one category that doesn't probably matter too much anyway. Oh well, though. I was excited. Anything over 16.7 inches is Excellent.

Body composition: 35% body fat. Not good at all!!!! I'm so frustrated with this. Anything over 30 is High.......My first goal is to get UNDER 30%!!!!!! Wish me luck!

Oh...one more thing.....My "Body Age" is 29, eventhough I'm actually only 26. I guess that's what having 3 babies does to ya! The "obtainable Body age" for me would be 19, so I guess I have to work on that too. I guess that they get this from totalling all the results together somehow. Kind of interesting.