Day 18 & 19 - Excellent weigh in and Stretchy jeans rule!

Saturday was day 18 of the 30 day Shred.. and it was my first full week of the new Weight Watchers plan!  I'm ecstatic to report that I'm down 5.5 pounds!  Woohooo!  YAY zero point fruit!  It's making my snacking life way more easy!

Sunday was a busy soup making day, spent on my feet cooking to huge pots of low point veggie soup, so I didn't get around to the Shredding.

Monday was day 19 of the 30 day Shred as well as 3km of walking on the treadmill...

Shred on!!!

p.s. Stretchy jeans are awesome, but they can be evil... put regular jeans on today and kept waiting for them to relax LOL

Day 17 - TGIF and day before weigh in

Day 17 and still plugging away at it... the workout is not getting boring yet... I'm still not an expert at it... but jeez, I'm getting sick of hearing the same "chit chat" over and over :S  Don't know the workout well enough to turn off the sound.. but it's quite tempting LOL

I'm happy it's Friday, it's been a challenging week.  First week officially on weight watchers and I had a two day course with lunch provided.  I also had many temptations, but I'm happy to report that I resisted the majority of them.... and those that I gave into.. I measured out and counted the points in my tracker.

I'm very nervous about the weigh in because I ate all my points every day (35) AND I ate almost all of my weekly flex points.  That's a lot more calories than I'd been letting myself have before..... I didn't eat any of my activity points.  I earned 26 points!  That's almost 2 points per day :)  Sweet!

Anyway... I'm still SUPER NERVOUS!  I really want to have a loss... it would suck if my first week was 0.2 loss or even a gain! *gasp* perish the thought!!!  Positive thoughts.  Loss, Loss, Loss, Loss

*must wear lightest pants I own*  hahaha

Stay tuned!

Day 15 and 16 - The Shred continues....

Still continuing the Shred challenge and really liking how it makes me feel.

Dare I jinx myself and claim that the workouts are starting to make me feel "Toit like a Toiger" or "tight like a Tiger" for those of you that haven't seen the Austin Powers movie Goldmember :P

So yeah, feeling tighter... stronger, less body parts jiggling like jell-O.  Don't get me wrong, the whole body still jiggles... but it feels like the jello-O is getting tighter from the inside... I know, not a great description, and might possibly make you queasy if you think about it too much :P

I'm also feeling less out of breath when I run.... mind you i'm not running fast lately, but the runs are starting to feel easier... MAN, what a difference from the beginning when Alex and I started running!  I remember not being able to run for more than a minute... and that minute felt really long!

Ahhh the bad old days... good times.... good times...

Day 12, 13 & 14 - Skipped 2 days!

Shred Day 12 was on Friday, Saturday was busy with outings & errands, Sunday I was sick, but Monday I did Day 13 and today I did Day 14.... Shred on sweet Shredder, Shred on!

Still not sure how the weight will pan out, but I have neat chart that shows how much my inches have dropped... which I will reveal after the 30 days are done...

Stay tuned!

Day 11 - Super Shreddie!

Ok, my titles are lame LOL

Anywho, it's day eleven, I'm still Shredding and I'm pretty positive about it....weight-wise, not sure there will be a benefit, but measurement-wise I bet there will be some measurable differences.  They differences may not be visible, but I took before pics, so we'll take a looksee at the end of the 30 days.... embarrassing photos, but people tell me it's great to look back and take stock of how much progress has been made.

Stay tuned folks!

Day 10 - Holy Shreddies Batman!

I can't believe I've lasted a whole 10 days!  20 days to go :D

I almost missed today's Shred because I wasn't feeling well last night and woke up a bit late this morning.... but I managed to get my Shred on after work today.  Yay-me

Day 9 - Shredding the apple!

I may gripe and moan about the lack of movement on the scale, but I'm thankful for the inches lost.  They aren't quite noticeable yet, but it's getting there.  I think by the time the 30 days roll by I will have made major strides forwards an actual core!  Woohoo!

It's exhausting working out everyday when you're not used to it.  I've been working out for over a year several times a week, but that was just running, no strength training or core exercise.  It was great to get my running in gear and to help maintain my weight, but it wasn't enough to help me loose.  Now with the 20 mins every morning that has a bit of cardio, strength training and core work I can build on that with my running and work my way towards some actual weight loss *fingers crossed*.

I had all the best intentions last week to re-add running, but it didn't happen.... i was wiped out.  So I'll add it back maybe this week, but absolutely for sure next week.

I am planning to go join weight watchers tomorrow night (if everything goes according to plan) so I'm excited about all the new information I'll be getting....it'll be like Christmas in weight watchers land!  I'm also gathering all the old WW stuff I have so that I can pack it up and send it to my parents.  They said they are interested in giving it a try.  At the very least it would help them with portion control and healthy eating.

Well I'm off... wiped out... that is me... and my back is sore... time to let my body get some rest.

Later Shreddies!

Day 7 and 8 - Shreddernutter

Still Shredding.... Shredded through the weekend and it looks like I'm down a few inches, but the scale isn't moving consistently in the right direction.... bleh... however, it's not going to stop me from completing my 30 day challenge.  I'm going to wait until the end of the 30 day challenge before I post any final numbers, measurements or even my before and after pics.. not that I think the pics will show much :P

Getting kind of sick of loosing during the week and gaining it back on the weekend just because I slept in and ate  majority of my points later in the day than a regular weekday.

It might require some creative sleeping arrangements on my part :P

Keep on keepin' on!

Day six - Ener-Shreddy-bunny :D

Day 6 of the 30 day Shred and all is well in the world of Shred.  No muscle pain, extra endurance is building up and I'm sure I've lost an inch or two just after one week.  Sweet!

Added bonus is that I'm sleeping really really well these days LOL  I don't think I move at all during the night...the other bonus is the feeling of extra energy.  Normally on a Friday night I just want to lounge around and rest after a long hard week, but last night after a bit of a break after supper I cleaned half my house.  Saturday morning I got up, did day six of the Shred and then cleaned the other half of my house.  I think I've done more cleaning in these last 24 hours than I've done in the last 12 months hahaha

Live is good in Shred-land :)

Day five - Shred-O-matic!!!!

Day 5 of the Shred.  Still going strong, no tenderness at all now... yay!  Still sucking wind and modifying some of the jumping jacks, but I know I'm slowly getting better.

Friday, official weigh-in day after 5 days doing the 30 day Shred.  From one Friday to the next I'm UP 0.2, however the silver lining that you guys haven't seen from the blogosphere is that I really am back down... What?  Yeah... weekends I usually gain right?  So this is how the week went:

Friday Jan 7th = 241.6
Saturday Jan 8th = Didn't weigh.. too busy lounging around ....
Sunday Jan 9th =  Didn't weigh... too busy pigging out....
Monday Jan 10th = 243.6  (+2) - Day one of Shred
Tuesday Jan 11th = 242.4 (-1.2) - Day two of Shred
Wednesday Jan 12th = 240.2 (-1.2) - Day three of Shred
Thursday Jan 13th = 240.6 (+0.4) - Day four of Shred
Friday Jan 14th = 241.8 (+1.2) - Day five of Shred

You may think I'm upset, that I want to give it all up and just lounge around and eat chips.... No, not at all!  *Surprise!*

I am quite pleased that my weight is only 0.2 pounds up from last Friday because this is my time of the month.  Normally I could have gained 3 to 5 lbs on top of the 243.6 pounds that I weighed on Monday.

To me the big challenge is going to be Shredding through this weekend AND sticking to my points because Monday will be the first full week of doing the Shred.  I may not see a weight difference by Monday, but I'm hoping that the daily workouts will show some progress in my body measurements :)

Keep on shredding:  Shredding bad habits and shredding through your workouts!

Day four - Shred-O-rific :D

The tenderness has almost totally disappeared and that impresses me because I'm just starting my T.O.M. and that usually means about a 5lb gain, sore body, really tired, want to eat chocolate/chips, and I only went up 0.4.  I was tired, but I had a fair amount of energy compared to other months, didn't go for the junk food... YAY for me!  I'm hoping my weight will go down a wee bit more as it's the official weigh in day tomorrow morning.

Still staying within my 25 food points and I've done so since Monday.... but the bigger challenge is coming and that would be the much anticipated, look forward too, but scale dreading weekend. :P

Time to hit the treadmill... talk to you later!

Day 3 of the Shred-tastic journey

Things were even less "tender" today, barely felt my arms at all unless I stretched them out and my upper abs were barely a butterfly twinge.  I'm really liking the short early morning workout... gets it out of the way and if I don't have time in the evening to do anything, at least I know I did something in the morning.

I really should do more in the evening, but I did groceries tonight, so there went at least 1.5 hours off my night.  Plus I just got the latest WW magazine and the New complete WW cookbook... so I'm kinda like a crow in a jewelery store distracted by all the shiny stuff  "CAW, CAW!"

Tomorrow John is going skiing after work, so I will treat myself to a run on the treadmill.  It'll be short, but it will be fun to get back on my rubber highway.... besides, I've got to dust the poor girl off after one month plus of ignoring her!!!  *gasp*  That's the longest I've been away from running since I started... blows my mind. :)

My weight is coming down, not sure about inches, but I'll weigh in on Friday (as usual) and maybe there will be a  good result after only 5 workouts completed. :)

Shredding with the oldie... (I'm the oldie)

Day 2 of the 30 day Shred challenge that I'm inflicting upon myself :)  I was a bit tender today, mostly upper body because I'm a road warrior and my legs are in pretty good shape dragging this big carcass around.  I was also a bit tender in my upper abs and obliques because my stomach "keg" is a slight indication that I have a mostly crappy core LOL  Rotten to the core baby!

The tenderness is kind of welcome... it makes me feel like I'm doing something good for myself.  We went to the movies after work and it helped me avoid the temptation of getting popcorn, or going out for dinner afterwards.  The tenderness reminded me that "Hey, do you really want to keep feeling sore body parts?  Because if you keep going out to eat or eating above your daily points, you're adding more day to the end of the hard part of working out... do you really want to do that????"   So I skipped the popcorn, and we ate at home.  Baby steps and yay for small victories.

I've read a lot of reviews online and looked at before & after results of the 30 day Shred and I hope that I don't lose momentum or get bored like several people mentioned online.  I don't expect that I will see huge results, but I'm hoping that the Shred will help me in the long run because it has the strength training component that I hate to do in the gym.  At least Jillian makes it more fun.  Standing or sitting there and pumping iron while counting reps on a machine bores me to tears!  She gets you to do bicep curls while you do lunges... multi-tasking!  Love it!  Plus you can't beat the 20 minutes.  Fits in nicely in the morning before my morning shower.

We will have to see how I deal with it on the weekends...

Stay tuned!

Day one... Check!

The spare room/craft room has been reorganized with a nice big piece of floor space for me to Shred it up!

Well day one of the 30 day Shred challenge can be scratched off the calendar :)

Right now I feel good, and happy i was able to accomplish the early morning workout.  What worries me is the second day.  Mondays are rough as a general rule because I always have a hard time falling asleep on Sunday night... so last night my light went out at 1am... BEEP BEEP the alarm went off at 5am and I got up right away without hitting snooze, however, tomorrow will be a different story, more of a challenge.

If I can hit the treadmill after work while supper is cooking I might be able to tire myself out early and get to bed super early.

On Sunday I cooked up a big batch of soup, some chicken breasts and some whole wheat pasta.  I have the soup, chicken and post of the pasta portioned out for the week.  The extra pasta is in a large container and I can measure some out for supper if I have points left :)

Stay tuned!

Hey Everybody!!!!! Happy New Year and all that jazz :D

I feel like I've been away forever!

The holidays with my family were great.  We had an awesome time, lots of laughs, lots of good food, lots of junk food, but somehow I still managed to go for a 5km walk almost everyday I was there.  I think that the walking was the magic ingredient because I managed to loose over 3.5 pounds while I was away.... I weighed 243 on December 16th and  and when I came back on December 30th I weighed 239.4.  Unfortunately, the time between December 30th and today was filled with pretty much the same kind of eating, but no walking... up went the weight again to 243.6 by Jan 4th, but it's not like I don't know why :P  In the end by the time this morning rolled around I had gone back down to 241.6.  It's not where I want to be, but it's better than 243.6

I'm not the type of person that likes to make resolutions... in fact I always resolve to not make any... and I accomplish that every year hehehe  What I do like about starting a new year is the feeling of renewal, second chances and a sort of renewed vigor when it comes to fitness and nutrition.

So I may not make resolutions, but I do make lots of plans.  I was originally hoping to run the 10km in May, but I haven't trained well enough or lost any weight, so I'm going to switch that to the 5km race in May, AND I am aiming to beat my personal best time of 44 minutes and 44 seconds.  I feel that goal is very achievable.

I also plan to take advantage of my gym membership and go to some Zumba classes or Cardio kick boxing with Alex.

I also plan to rearrange my workout areas (yes, i have more than one area LOL) to make my life a bit easier in the deep dark cold Canadian mornings.  I want to try and do the 30 day Shred challenge with my Jillian Michaels DVD.  I've done it twice, and was able to complete the workouts, which is sad.  So I started thinking about what is stopping me from working out early in the morning... other than it being crazy early.  I believe it's the fact that I was set up in the living room near my treadmill.  I dislike the DVD setup that requires me to mess around with a switch box to go between TV, Cable Box and DVD.  Dunno about you, but that early in the morning I'm not coordinated enough to be able to figure that out easily.  So, in my craft room/spare room/junk room upstairs I have a tiny TV with a DVD player.  It's closer to our bedroom, there will be more floor space once I do some re-arranging and the media setup is dead easy.

I'm hoping that along with the 30 days of Shred and the regular running 3 or 4 times a week that I will feel like I'm accomplishing some great new habits.

And the biggest plan of all is to go and join Weight Watchers, go to the weekly meetings and learn as much as possible about better eating habits.  Doing weight watchers on my own has helped me change my eating habits a lot, but I think need to re-learn everything because of the new plan, and I'd rather do it through my local meetings.  I don't regret doing the points program on my own because my body has definitely changed along with inches lost and a better eating plan, but I want to start out fresh and re-focus..


Keep yer fingers crossed for me!!!