chickeebaby’s BodyBlog

Started July 28th and today is September 7th! Nakey I weigh 137.0 (I weigh myself each morning) but by 2:30pm when I got measured I was 139.0 fed and fully clothed. Based on 139.0 I have lost 11 pounds of fat and gained 10 pounds of muscle!

Lesson learned while working out: When the scale doesn’t budge don’t freak!
My goal was to lose 10-15 pounds and gain muscle back. DONE! I have mainly done cardio (30-60 minute workouts typically 5 days a week and occasional 15-30 minute free weight workouts). *If anyone wants the specifics on diet/workouts it is all logged in an Excel file hubby maintains with extreme detail (yes those naughty splurges, too!) He typically spikes a high caloric deficit day every few days while I stay pretty consistent with occasional spike. I once read to keep about a 500 caloric deficit for a healthy weight loss. I range about that but with occasional spike days (those 60 minute cardio days). We track % Fat, Carb and Protein each day as well. I use GNC Mega Woman Vitamin shake vanilla (90 calories) each morning and use GNC Wheybolic Extreme 60 vanilla for extra protein (max of 3 scoops a day using a 1 G/pound of body weight calculation). PS: I LOVE MY PROTEIN SHAKE…look forward to it after my work out! It tastes like vanilla icing! (licks lips…salty from workout but then that sugar sweet vanilla). I snack on turkey logs, jerky, almonds, almond butter. I eat at least 3 servings of almond butter daily with high fiber/flax bread (1 slice and 14 g of the butter). I don’t add salt to anything, I don’t cook with butter (Pam if I have it), I eat way more fish than I ever did (love flounder), cut down on fruits, increased protein and watch my carb intake…of course I rarely ever eat junk food, eat at fat food restaurants, stopped eating beloved chinese food take out and pretty much weigh everything and write it down. Hubby and I analyze where we stand for the day to decide if we can push it and have more food/snack. I was bummed tonight b/c I am at my 500 deficit (a little below) so couldn’t have my almond butter snack. Poo hiss moan groan stomp pout! Hubby recently started tracking our water intake (he needs 2.5 gal/day and I think I am around 1.5 gal/day). I never have been good at drinking fluids. He has seen a huge difference with his weight loss drinking his 2.5 gal though. Forget sleeping at night though due to all the bathroom visits. His sodium is always in the red for the day. He was told to eat bananas (potassium). Sodium/Potassium pump! He is sloshing around tonight cuz we are both in red for sodium today! I don’t freak b/c it is water weight!
I talked with Alex at the gym today (always so sweet) and I am in the high fitness tier (15-21% body fat). I asked him what it would take to be 15% pound’age wise. He said 134 give or take. So this is my new goal…forget the 130 weight…I’m shooting for 134 with more that fat exchanged for more muscle! Based on afternoon weight this means 5 pounds to go!
FYI I started this as hubby fitness support. I really enjoy fitness and looking good so when he started to notice results so quickly it made me work harder (why waste a second of my work out). I must say I started with a left wrist injury, had a full week of downtime (no gym time) due to feeling sick/fatigued and even have had a few splurges along the way (big one for Labor Day!).

Hmmm what do I splurge on? How about haha ALMOND BUTTER (OMG I love that stuff chunky style). I still share a naughty berry (M&M) with hubby every so often (still have the original bag and still not gone). Little Debbie Nutty bars rock and once I had one with my morning coffee (hubby looked at me jealous but he had one tonight and I was the sad puppy dog without calorie allowance to have one).

I am catered all the time at my office and it is so hard to abstain from enjoying along with everyone else. I just learned to take small portion of this or that (bigger than a bite but smaller than a portion). We go out with a group and I only eat 1/2 my meal and save the other 1/2 for the next day. OK OK big splurge was hotel breakfast buffet and Golden Corral chowing over Labor Day weekend (I did cardio hard for 65 minutes at the hotel one morning!) Of course LAYING AROUND in the sun on Virginia beach wasn’t much of a caloric burn but I danced at the music festival and body surfed with the girls. Awesome waves related to tropical storm Hannah.

Having naughty misbehaved children is good for the working out b/c I run away and take it out on myself/the treadmill! One child had everything in his room removed tonight for extreme disobedience and disrespect. He had been given warning after warning.

Hubby and I are painting (a beautiful pinot noir red) in the kitchen. I love spending time with him. Tomorrow the kids have school and hubby works so I will keep up the painting moving to the living room and vaulted ceilings. Good arm workout!

If I am BRAVE enough I will go weed the yard again (rain brought new weeds). The day after weeding is usually a waste b/c weeding is hard work and I pay for it the next day regardless of the water or caloric intake.

Ok time to hit the hay with the sexy man I married. Ciao!

Chickee…baby!

New photos asap but I’m not done yet…15% body fat goal! The btody measurements are old (pre-workout). Need to have repeated soon!

Wow I can’t believe how long it took me to get back into the swing of things again. After that last blog entry I just continued to be ill for a solid week. I was nauseated all the time (NO NOT PREGNANT-ha) and had no energy. Hubby kept to schedule morning and evening and I felt so bad to drop out of our "together time." He even asked me if I just wasn’t into it anymore. That was sooooo not what was going on. I really was ill not being lazy or losing interest. Things were just getting really good. I never did get remeasure and heck if I felt like taking photos but now I am back.

Sunday is photo day. I will also try to get to the gym for the remeasure. Today I weighed 137.5 so I was pleased since I hadn’t been to the gym in more than a week then we celebrated Labor Day weekend at Virginia Beach. It was a major PIG OUT at Golden Corral  although I tried to keep it healthy…no fried foods, not much sugary foods and drank lots of water. The hotel breakfast buffets were awesome and I actually got the hotel gym for a major workout one morning (believe it or not!).

FYI 20 years after my mother said I couldn’t go to a Billy Idol concert with friends in high school I got to go….To my amazement Billy Idol has ABS and he put on a fabulous show (more of a rock concert than even Bon Jovi gave in Amsterdam!). I will try to post a beach photo from that weekend.

I’m impressed with hubby’s ongoing motivation. He started out near 250 pounds and is down to 231. He swears by the need for massive water intake (like 2 gal a day for his size).

As for fitness level that has certainly improved. I now find myself at incline 15.0 doing 4.8 mph or 12.0 at 6.0. The headset bluetooth with music has been so motivating to keep my workouts fun and focused. I had someone say I looked like I was having fun almost dancing during the last 15 minutes. Music is a passion of mine!

OK enough rambling. I’m tired and excited to be back. Hopefully I’m not too far behind where I should have been. Regardless I am back on track!

Chickee

Didn’t get to the gym today…not feeling well. GI bug! I was nauseated all day! Nothing seemed to be moving but I did try to eat and drink throughout the day. Will see how I feel in the morning and perhaps get measured. HOT DAY didn’t help either. I miss cool Colorado! Did get those photos done though for both hubby and myself. Post as soon as possible.

Green blah faced Chickee

Gut don’t fail me now!

Well good morning everyone (not that anyone but Magonaga and myself read this-ha)! Today is the day(trumpets blow in triumph). Today is 4 weeks out from when I  started working out with hubby. This was truly support of hubby’s efforts but in the meanwhile my body is returning, his eyes are getting wider and we are finding this new "couple" activity fun although expensive (his supplements of 2-2.5 gm protein/pound of body wt! I use 1 gm).

I got on the scale today and I am 138.0!!! Let me hear a WOO WOO! Later today I will get the entire remeasure (my second).

As mentioned earlier in blogging I am not interested in getting all "dude’ed" out since I love being a woman (although there is less curves on top these days. Hate when that happens!).

Simply put I worked hard during my early adult life at being the best woman, nurse, wife, mother, friend I could be. I lived for others. I found myself disillusioned and even deceived. I thought I had it all and "thought" I was really happy. I was still that great woman, nurse, wife, mother and friend but just not unappreciated and no one seem to care about what I "needed". It took an affect on my overall self-worth and health.

In due time I became less self-sacrificial and started doing things that individually made me happy. I admit I still struggle seeking my happinesses in making others happy. I got lazy, inactive, enjoyed eating out, looked forward to socializing events, hung out with Magonaga watching movies or having him read to me (Love love THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH, MISTS OF AVALON) and I lost my muscle tone. BUT… as the scale went up from 136 (pre-Magonaga) to 148 (post-Magonaga) my self-esteem returned and I found myself truly happy and it was time to get back in shape! Time to shed those "mourning" pounds once and for good and move forward.  

Someone once told me it takes 5 years to recover from divorce. It was a tough 4 years (a failed marriage after 16 years together, trusting someone in a new relationship, moving out of state with the children away from the home I designed, my family and old friends, having to change jobs (loved my job of 7 years), having unappreciative, spoiled and labor intensive children (I realize divorce affects children, too…but they wanted us to move) and placing ultimate trust in another to be a "wife" again. 

I am a typical Colorado girl! I’m low maintanence and live for Levis and a tank top. I just didn’t understand what happened to my marriage/family/life and why we weren’t worth the effort to keep. (Alcohol does this to families!) I remained the best person I could be and we divorce amicably. He is one of my closest "friends" and stays in our guest room when flying to visit the kids. Crazy eh? 

I heard the best revenge (if seeking any) is living well. Grins! I’m not quite the fit 136.0 I was but I have my self esteem back, no regrets and will become even more fit than ever. I am who I am because of my experiences. Now if we can just get the kids to stop bickering with one another (ages 10.5, 10.5 and 13.5), stop whining about chores (or stop making messes!) and stop complaining about how hard their spoiled little lives are we would have it all! We’re hoping for that payout on all our investments in 10 years!

Chickee

I just could not do much after yet another day of weeding yesterday (almost done though!). Summer heat/drought conditions in NC have had an affect on our large front yard. It is no wonder so many are overweight in this state due to that awful summer heat and humidity. Thank goodness for air conditioned gyms. It truly is easy to lay inside an a/c home!  I really believe my exhaustion is from the heat vs the physical activity. When I would go to the pool during some of the hottest days of summer the very next day I would be wasted. I would even try to remain in the protection of the big shade umbrellas. Ugh heat!

Seriously…I am so glad I did not have to work today. I didn’t even get dressed until I HAD to. Hubby planned a nice dinner out for us with co-workers and it was all I could do to shower and dress to go out. I didn’t even have energy to go to the gym with hubby this morning but little did I know how wasted the day would be. I tried to eat wisely knowing we would be eating out. I assumed I needed more calories. Ha! Instead of having a deficit I actually was over in calories by like 800 due to 1/2 filet mignon, french bread, margarine and 1/2 mashed potatoes and Rocky Mtn CHOCOLATES. Was doing great until ROCKY MTN chocolates!   *Felt awesome the next day (fri) when enjoyed the other 1/2 of my dinner from this night and yet came in 932 deficit (no rocky mtn chocolates though!).

Smiling remembering the evening of treats!

BOY DID I SLEEP IN! Boy oh boy am I sore from the up and down squatting weeding yesterday. It rained (we were soaked) and it was a very cool day so the 3 kids and I killed thousands of crabgrass using a tool and ripping them up by roots (fertilizer in the spring didn’t do the trick). I asked them if they were sore and they said yup. Guess what we are doing today?

They are happy to help today knowing there is a reward (got DQ earlier in week as pre-reward and we were simply waiting for cool day) later today for their hard work.

Funny enough the 11 year old girl next door offered to help b/c she has nothing better to do. Go for it girlie!

Today is our off day (from working out) and thankfully! I hope I can get out of bed in the morning to go work out with hubby let alone work all day after another day of WEEDING. I give credit to all those people that work long hard hours and still get to the gym! BRAVO!

OH noticed something I don’t like on my body…I’m losing my breasts! My bra is stretched where it used to be and OMG and there is a significant difference! Hubby smiled and laughed. I suppose he is excited I might consider implants! *Just a thought for now. Anyone out there who has been through this negative side of body fat loss message me. Thank goodoness for enhanced bras! HA!  

Chickee

WOW! THUS WHY THE SCALE WASN’T CHANGING! Trainers interested in what hubby and I are doing so must be doing something right!

Tomorrow is my day to sleep in…we’ll see how that goes but suuuuuuuure looking forward to it.

Last two days no weights just cardio (60 minutes). Today did some HIIT (high intensity interval training). I absolutely dislike (kinder way of putting it!) to run. Hubby and I both having more difficulty keeping target HR on treadmill so added this to help keep HR up. When motivated enough and ready I turn down incline from 15.0 to 10.0 and turn 4.0 mph to 6.0 and run for a minute. I have to pretend I am running in the Rocky Mountains to keep me going! After ONE WHOLE minute I turn it back to the 15.0/4.0. The next time I move it 9.0/6.0 then 8.5/6.2 then 8.0/6.5 etc. I play with it. I might do a total of 6-10 of these in 30-60 minutes and I usually wait until closer to the end of the work out (last 15 of 30 minutes or last 30 of 60).

Hubby’s reaction to the change is great! I never wanted to wear the sports "bra" without a tank b/c I felt undressed but hubby really liked the look so wore my workout pants and the "bra." I will tell you that it made me work that much harder knowing I was partly "undressed" at the gym. Ha! There is no HIDING anything when dressing this way.

Excited to be 21.5% closer to my 18% goal. I look at everyone’s profiles/especially those with progress pictures…if you all (didn’t say ya’ll although wanted to) can do it so can we. Magonaga thought of putting up a thread for COUPLE transformations. This is definitely "couple time" allowing us to get away from kiddo whining and mess making even if for 1.5 hr (drive time included) a day. Hubby likes to go twice a day…do you blame him!?

Thanks to all those keeping us motivated and we are seeing the results. Hubby’s photos don’t show the progress he has made due to direct lighting but put some shadowed light and I can see the definition coming through! 

DETERMINATION is his middle name!

Kiss kiss,

Chickee  

Happy Sunday!!! I got to sleep in…well kinda. My body clock still gets me up at 4ish, hubby’s alarm at 6 (I was the only one to get up to turn it off) and then hubby closed our playful cat in the bedroom with me so I had to get up and open the door throw pillows at her around 7am to scram. She is so cute but it WAS my day to SLEEP IN!

My energy finally picked up mid week! I still haven’t had time to get my ipod…maybe today. I am on highest incline and nearly highest mph on treadmill my entire 30 minutes. Took nearly 30 minutes to get to my target rate of 146! PS: I hate to actually run but adding that into my 30 minutes at the end in intervals to get my HR up.

I’ve had about 1/2 week of weight lifting now after cardio. I was a bit lost around the machines. Still not sure the difference behind barbells and dumbells. (2 hand vs 1 hand holding?) The machines have instructions on them and when hubby helps my form I feel I work out the best.

There is this machine with thick ropes with wood balls attached to the end of the ropes to work arms/shoulders. Hubby had to laugh when he asked if I wanted to try. I asked, "You want me on my knees holding both balls?" So we can’t help to enjoy that machine now.

This week I will post the weights of my various exercises. Off the top of my head I do:

Leg presses: 4-5 sets of 15 @ 210 with last set at 250.

Let extenders: 3 sets @ 110.

Ab crunch machine: 3 sets @ 130.

Bent over dumbell rows: 1 set each 17.5, 21.5 and 25.

Bicept curls 3 sets 25

I love the exercise ball to balance on top of to strengthen my inner core (abs). I then balance putting my arms extended out to the sides bilat. to get another form of balance. Great shot for arm definition.

Hubby and I took photos again this morning (OUr Sunday shoot) and to assess my progress after 2 weeks of working out. We will post the photos later today. I will get my 2 week pinch test by the same trainer pre-workout today (body fat %/measurements).

 We are keeping detailed nutritional info as well as work out data so if wanted request. Last night we had our first "cheats" fabulous lunch (mine-stuffed founder *320 calories/140 (16 g) from fat* his- stuffed salmon *440 calories/240 (26g) from fat) and dinner (both of us-stuffed chicken breast *230 cal/70 (8g) from fat) but kept calories intact although fat content was higher than usual and thus showed in final daily %. TOTAL FAT %: mine-397cal/45g=33%  his-544cal/68g=34% This is by far the highest we have had to date since working out. I felt like I had eaten out at a fine restaurant and was very satisified!

Today is family day and we had a nice breakfast with the kids. We had egg whites (1 yolk) and turkey bacon (each strip 25 cal/2.5 (1.5g) from fat) and my last cheat (hubby didn’t have any since he had toast) was having 1/2 serving (56g) of the pre-packaged baked cinnamon apples (*75 cal/10 (1g) from fat - 17g carbs and yikes 16g from SUGAR)! *Sorry Houseshaka-I just hadta!  

Back to the gym after digesting! Then the girls and I will have a party to attend where there will be snacks, drinking and chips. I will remember I HAD BAKED APPLES and that was spoiling enough!  

Chickee  

Today is the first day I did not get up (and stay up) at 4:20 am to go to the gym with hubby. I will go later today or tonight when he has class. I have not missed one day of at least 1-35 minute cardio since I’ve started. Usually we go twice a day. I will make it up tonight but needed the rest this morning.

I had no energy yesterday. Hubby researched "thermo" something which has to do with how many calories it takes to burn so much weight in carbs, fats and protein. He is working that into our nutrition spreadsheet and it shows that I did not have enough calories the day before let alone with that added in. I felt the affect yesterday. We also haven’t been getting proper amt of sleep. We have three kids and it is still light out when we want to go to bed. (9pm). We are all in need of the school year to start again!!!

I am going to start taking music (loud) with me to the gym to boost my energy. Music has always runs through my veins. It is the life blood in me so I guess I need to start a supplement of music while working out now to not get bored.

Couldn’t find the USB cable to download those 8/3/08 (1 week progress photos). I will post now. This Sunday will be remeasure time by trainer at gym (not using a trainer though other than this).

Chickee

I’m sure many have said, "Was sure fun putting on but stinks taking off!" I’m not so sure it was all that fun anymore. I do look at food differently (fuel vs recreational/social). I ask myself, "Is it worth it?"

It is tough getting up at 4 something each morning. I am just not that early of a morning person but the benefit is that we are done working out the rest of the day by 6:30am while so many still are in beds asleep. I do prefer the afternoon/evening work outs when I am more alive and ready to hit it hard.

Enjoying the vitamins and protein shakes. Hubby said the circles around my under eyes are gone and it is a noticeable change. I had been taking the kids chewables vs anything made for adult women. I don’t over endulge (love them!) with the protein shakes if I eat enough during the day. Hubby made a fantastic tool to use to monitor nutritional intake. We are using a 1 g/ body wt for me (I finally did research and this is appropriate). I have yet to have him make the file larger so that it can be read.

Time to post those 1 week photos.

Chickee