andrea62’s BodyBlog

I have been eating clean for about 2 weeks now and I am feeling great.  I am about to start the new 12 week challenge as part of the 40+ group challenge.  I have made it my goal to go 100% with it for the whole 12 weeks.

This means to continue to eat clean and in fact to learn more about nutrition as I am doing so. I also am going to put all of the gym components together, the cardio, lifting, circuit training and give it 100% every time.  I will be setting specific goals within the next few days to plan how I will achieve what I set out to do and be successful while doing so.

I am feeling very motivated and I want to prove to myself that I can achieve incredible things when I put everything together and stay consistent.  I have tended to sabotage myself in the past by not following through and then telling myself "it is because …." or some other lame ass excuse instead of accepting responsibility for my own lack of belief in myself.

Stay tuned for specific goals to come soon.

Wow, 8 weeks has come and gone and for once I am happy with my results.  Not that I feel like I am finished but I am happy with the progress I made during the 40+ body challenge.  I learned that I can eat very healthy and that doing so really does make a huge difference.

… you go through life thinking you should be at a certain weight or a certain dress size and that by a certain age you can look a certain way.  Others (usually fat out of shape people) tell you that you look great and you revel in the fact that you are the doing the things you do at 48.  You go to the gym every day, you enter your first triathlon at age 48, you lift, bike, swim and run and then you see a photo of yourself in all of your "glory".  Not just any photo but a photo you have been planning on taking.  A photo you have anticipated but not with enthusiasm.  That was me today as I finally took my "before" pic for the eight week challenge for the 40+ group.  I knew i would not like it, but i didn’t know i would hate it and feel sick to my stomach after I saw them.  I had broken my weight plateau earlier in the week and I was feeling a little cocky with myself.  I would look in the mirror and "suck’ it in on a daily basis I had myself convinceed that that I am looking pretty good.  Most of us on this site are probably at least average in our appearance compared to other 40 something people we know.  We (i mean "I") get complacent with that plateau breaker, i miss a cardio work out or two.  I have that chocolate covered strawberry (or 6) and this is how mediocrity settles into my daily life.  I don’t want to settle for mediocrity with my body anymore.  I am pretty mad at myself right now and these photos are the wake up call i have needed.  I still feel like puking because i am so angry and disapointed with myself.  I needed it though and I welcome the feelings that have been awakened inside of me. I had been thinking that taking the photos was something that would help me to be more accountable.  Putting yourself out there for others to see is not a comfortable feeling and i have totally felt that through and through today. A picture truly is worth a thousand words.

My main goal is "to lose 12lbs of fat" other goals to coincide with the fat loss would be to lose inches from my waist, back and arms.  I am very top heavy with large boobs and a broad back and then i have pretty narrow hips so i really need to get some symmetry and the first step is to lose at least the 12 pounds of fat. Since my legs and hips are pretty lean I am assuming i will gain some of that symmetry by losing the fat off the top half of my body including my waist and abs.

Under the layer of fat I believe that I have a reasonable amount of muscle development and will make that part of my next set of goals to work on that.

I am not sure how lean I can get in my upper body because of genetics so any comments, suggestions are appreciated and welcomed. I will be posting my "before" (for the challenge) pictures this weekend.

Wow, what a weekend.  It started with me planning Friday night that I would get my "before" pics taken Sat morning so I could post them on here to begin my new challenge with the 40+ group.  However, Friday night my 16 year old son fell from 10′ backwards landing on both wrists (thankfully saving his back and noggin) but breaking his left arm and both wrists.  His left wrist was grossly deformed looking and so we spent the night in the ER.  He is doing ok but unable to do much for himself. He is in pain and it looks like he will need to get surgery this week so he has become the priority at home right now.

Hoping to get those pics on here this week though - within the next day or so. My goal is to lose between 10-12 pounds of fat - especially the ugly layer over my abs and the fat on my upper back and arms.  i have a lot of muscle waiting to show if i can lose the fat that covers them. with that much weight lost it should put me at about 15-17% bf.  Week one here i come - yahoo.  I will post measurements, weight and all that other good stuff today. i would tell myself "break a leg" but probably not a good idea under the circumstances :0)

I just spent about 50 minutes at the track today, doing intervals. This week my main goal is to get in 5 days of cardio along with the 5 days of weight training. My triathlon is in about 4 weeks and i start doing some swim lessons (so I won’t drown - lol) this week. I hope to just improve my abilities a little so that I am not wasting a lot of energy in the water.  I am not too concerned about the biking and the run but I need to try putting them all together and see how that feels.

Today is the start of the return of my enthusiasm - sidetracked by a lack of progress (or not as much as I anticipated)  and spring break in FL.  I did a 5k preview run for the tri I will be doing in May and I did better than I thought I would.  We had a 35-45 mph wind blowing and so of course it helped when behind me but slowed me down when running against it.  I did it in 32.5 which for me in this phase of my training is very good. Plus I improved by 1:18 from running it 2 wwks prior.

This coming week I will be trying a brick with doing the 12 mile bike ride and then the 5k run right after the other.  I also start swimming lessons in April to improve my swimming techiniqe (as opposed to thrashing in the water an getting nowhere very fast).  My next big goal this week is the "tour de Phoenix" bike ride on Saturday.  I decided to go for the 72 mile loop as opposed to the 26 mile.  I know I can do the 26 mile easily but the 72 is a challenge so - I am confident I can do it though.

I have also upped my weight training to 5 days a week with Kris and he has been pushing me quite a bit more - which is great. I tend to wimp out without someone standing there pushing me through stuff.  At the gym they are starting a 90 day challenge so I signed up for that.  I could (will) earn a free year of personal training.  Watch for my results on that one.

Then there is the eating - either I don’t eat enough or I eat too much.  I am trying to eat clean and I do very well most of the time but something is missing and I am not sure what it is as I still hang onto the weight. My body composition has changed over the last year and it is an amazing difference but I need to get rid of 15-20lbs of fat still.  I see all of the muscle development under the fat - just waiting to shine.

I probably need to plan ahead for a week at a time - anyone have suggestions on this?  I love bodybuilding.com and the inspiration, encouragement and assistance I get from people on here - love it.

After feeling frustration with my lack of progress and after evaluating what I am doing and eating I have decided to step back and come up with a foundation for my dietry goals.  I have decided that I will work on increasing my fluid intake and try and drink the recommended gallon of water per day. Second I will concentrate on getting a meal in every three hours instead of not doing so just because I dont feel hungry.  I do think my biggest problem is not eating enough each day.  So those seem easy to concentrate on and I will see how it goes. I have also been doing Tabeta work outs the past couple of days and those are kicking my ass.  Thanks for the encouragement to those that have made comments, this site really is great in that respect and it has helped me greatly - so Thank you.

……thats what I need to do.  I felt discouraged this weekend not seeing any changes in my weight. Then yesterday was my husbands birthday with family over for dinner.  I then burned the chili (dont ask!) so we had to have pizza at the last minute. So yes I ate pizza and then carrot cake.  Today I didnt do a whole lot better so I am trying to get focused again.  I did go to the gym this evening and had a great cardio session.  Tomorrow I will have to work harder - I am committed.

…..about my non existent weight loss in the last week. I am encouraged by the great people on here that you can lean on when things are not going so smooth.  I went to the gym and did a leg workout, did 3 sets of leg presses with 165lbs on their and felt good about that.  Today is my husbands bithday so we have family coming over tonight - so I have a busy day and better get going.