Empress2k’s BodyBlog

I’ve gained 16 lbs since my last entry 8 months ago… and that’s not muscle..:(  I cannot even use pregnancy as a excuse.  Been there, done that - four times. So.. what is my excuse?  I stopped shopping for clothes and lost track of my waist line.  Long behold, I went from low size 4 to full size 8.  It didn’t help that my husband hasn’t been critiquing me either.  So here I am all blown up and nothing to wear with full closet of cute Summer clothes.  The conclusion - I better get my butt moving and do it fast.  Just ordered the Figure Book which supposed to have a very structured plan how to come from point Z to point A.  God speed!

I finally gathered up the courage and after fasting on distilled water for almost 24 hours, a light dinner and then a night of fasting, I weighed myself this morning…  144.4 lbs.  Only roughly 3 lbs more then what I was back in July.  Not too bad.  Certainly better then I expected.  Now… If I can lose 10 lbs in the next 34 days, I will be quite happy with myself.

Ouch!  I am 5 weeks (26 days) away from my 40s Birth Day and what have I done…. not much, except for gaining some of the weight back.  Life has been extremely stressful the last couple of month which made it very difficult for me to focus on my goal.  Yes, there is still a little hope.  Starting tomorrow I am going on a 2 day water fast to kick my cold and get rid of some of the excess weight.  I will weigh myself on Monday (don’t want to do it till then, too depressing..:) )and make a point to lose at least 8 lbs before my birthday.  Considering that I still have 5 weeks, it doesn’t sound unreasonable.  I will also start working out again comes Monday..:)

The game is on!  I missed my boot camp work out this morning.  Kind of hard to get up at 4:30 am when you went to bed at 1:00 am.   I almost decided to postpone my starting date till Monday, but then I realized that there was no reason for that since I’ve been working out at a boot camp for 14 weekes now, so the only thing I am radically changing is my diet.  So here I am eating my whole-wheat toasted bagel with 2 egg-whites and drinking coffee.  Biggest change in my diet?  I am cutting out dairy, except for a little bit in my coffee, and no more grain made carbs after 3 pm.  I will stay on this system for the next 4 weeks, before additing another modification.  I will allow myself to have 1 cheat meal per week, just to through my body off and keep it guessing.

As for my work out, I can catch up in the afternoon when i get home and work out with Jillian Michaels 30-day Shred video.  In fact may be I should do that video for the first 30 day of the challenge in addition to the boot camp, just to see where it’s going to get me. 

On that note, bellow is my work out schedule for the next 28 days - till the end of my boot camp session# 3.  This will insure that I am getting full 2 hourse of training per day.

Week One:

Monday:

5:30 - an hour of Extreme Boot Camp

11:30 - 20 mins of cardio with 20 min Upper body Weight Training

18:00 - 20 min Jillian Michael’s 30 min Shred

Tuesday:

5:30 - an hour of Extreme Boot Camp

11:30 - 30 mins of cardio

18:00 - 20 min Jillian Michael’s 30 min Shred

Wednesday:

5:30 - an hour of Extreme Boot Camp

11:30 - 20 mins of cardio with 20 min Lower body Weight Training

18:00 - 20 min Jillian Michael’s 30 min Shred

Thursday:

5:30 - an hour of Extreme Boot Camp

11:30 - 30 mins of cardio

18:00 - 20 min Jillian Michael’s 30 min Shred

Friday:

5:30 - an hour of Extreme Boot Camp

11:30 - 20 mins of cardio with 20 min Upper body Weight Training

18:00 - 20 min Jillian Michael’s 30 min Shred

Saturday:

4 - 5.2 mile jog/hike

Sunday

Free Day

I also planned to take my before picture at our studio today, but with me waking up so late, that had to be rescheduled.  I will get it done on Monday for sure.  Body-for-Life recommends having pictures done professionally and that is exactly what I am going to do.  I will however take my measurements today.

That is all for now. Stay tuned.

Initially I was thinking about starting today, but then as I woke up late for my boot camp work out this moring, I realized that I should wait until the New Moon/Solar Eclipse on the 1st of August.  Yet, I am still going to prepare myself by watching my protein and fat intake and not eating after 7 pm.  plus drinking more water.  I am pretty happy with my results of the last 14 weeks, it’s time to double up on my effort.  Needless to say, I know I will reach my goal of losing 25 lbs this time.  Many people think I am crazy to be losing this much, but to be honest event though I wear size 4 close, I still weigh 140 lbs with 25% of body fat.  Hence I can afford to lose 25 lbs and will look better then ever.  I will fast Wend Night through Friday Morning to get my correct weight recorded and from that point on the following will be my program for the first 4 weeks:

Boot Camp - 5 days a week - one hour

Weightlifting - 4 times per week - 30 - 45 min

Additional Cardio -  5 days per week -20 mins

Hiking - 1 day per week - 4 - 5.2 mils

After that, I will take a look at the results and make any neccessary changes

DIET:

Focus will be on counting fat and protein.  I will consume at least 75 grams of protein and no more then 30 grams of fat per day. 

I will not consume any carbs such as (bread, brown rice and pasta) after 3 pm. 

I will still eat some fruit but in a very moderate quality to avoid insulin spikes. 

I will also fast weekly for 33 hours. 

I will allow myself to have one cheat meal per week.

That’s it for now.

I am surprisingly not interested in cheating on my diet.  I did have half a dark chocolate chip cookie with my coffee this morning, but it really didn’t give me all that much pleasure.

This morning I did the Abs cycling workout with a total of 5 exercise cycling 2x.  It made me feel good.  I think this week I will work on alternating Abs workouts with Full Body days:

Sat - Abs

Sun - OFF

Mon - Resistance and weights: Legs and Butt, Chest, Back, Shoulder, Triceps, Biceps
Tue - Abs and cardio

Wed - Resistance and weights: Legs and Butt, Chest, Back, Shoulder, Triceps, Biceps
Thur - Abs and cardio

Fri - Resistance and weights: Legs and Butt, Chest, Back, Shoulder, Triceps, Biceps

Sat - testing in for my 2nd Boot Camp with 1 mile run

Sun - Off

Today was the last day of my first 6 weeks.  I am now on a down time for 6 weeks before I start all over again for another 6 weeks.  So here’s my results in improvement:

I lost 9 lbs, a total of 20.1 inches and run a mile in 10 min (6 weeks ago it was 12.46 mins).  I am very proud of myself and will work even harder to bit these results in the next round…:)

I’ve messed up a little over the weekend with my food.  Not the whole time and not really eating aweful things, just eating some sweets and some potatoe chips (the good kind though..:) Never the less I am back on track.  With only 2.5 weeks to go, I really need to start cranking.  Not knowing how much I weigh or my measurements make it a bit difficult in terms of feeling my small victories, but I’ve given a promise to my trainers not to look and I will keep it that way.  Look forward to the last day when all the measurements will be taken..:)

I felt great during my AM boot camp session.  Yes, my right quad is on fire due to my lower body weight training yesterday, but hey it’s worth it.  Breaking down your work out deffinately makes your body keep going all day.  Plus I think the 17 mins of yoga last night really helped.  Tonight I will bring it up to full 30 min about an hour before I go to bed.  I feel my body thanking me already and it’s only being 2,5 weeks.

Just read an article on bodybuilding.com about Madonna and how she stays in such a good tape.  So here’s my analisis of her system and my newly equired system.

 Madonna works out 2 hours (in 3 sessions) a day 6 days a week.   So far, I’ve been working out 1 hr and 30 mins.  1 hr boot camp and 30 mins of weights or cardio.  I will add a 30-min yoga session in the evening to catch up with her.  Hopefully in 10 years when I get to be her age I could look as good…:)

Madonna eats microbiotic diet.  To my amazement I realized that I too it the same way, except I cut out carbs after 3, but that is a temporary measure.  I also have an occasional piece of goat chees.  Apparently this cheese is the only kind consumed by the raw food followers, so I think I am ok.

It feels good to know that I am doing something right!