jjfit’s BodyBlog

I need help.  I am tired of my workout music and I need to transform my butt:

So, anyone who happens to read this could you please tell me:
1) you favorite song to train to (I love almost all types of music)
2) your favorite booty building exercise.

I appreciate any help.

I’m in. I’m totally in. Oh yeah, I am back too. I did go slightly MIA for a few days. I had a spontaneous trip to Croatia. I did start my challenge and I am super excited to become bootylicious.

Ok, let’s start with the Last Man Standing Challenge. I don’t know if my plan really fits into this, so you be the judge.

What do I eat? About 6 months ago I got turned on to Eat-Stop-Eat through the Turbulence Training website. I was thinking another fad. But I read the promo, listened to the creator’s podcast and then bought the book. The premise is incorporating intermittent fasting into your eating plan. Basically you fast for 24 hours 1-2 times a week and it is the equivalent of being on a diet to lose fat, only you are not dieting everyday. I think of it as Power Dieting. You never truly go a day without eating. I found that fasting from 1pm to 1pm works great. No, I don’t get headaches or experience really uncomfortable hunger. At first I did feel hungry from time to time, but nothing that doesn’t subside in 20 minutes. It also frees up the day to get stuff done. But here is the cool part, it also means you can have treats or cheats (whatever you call it) incorporated into your plan and still lose fat. It works. I won’t bore you with the science, but I found the info to make sense and as you can see, I am not losing muscle in the process. For more info you can check it out at: www.eatstopeat.com

Baby Got Back Challenge: Time to get serious on my a$$. I hit my goal on the abs challenge and now I am going to put the intensity on my booty. What do I want? Well, let’s call it rearranging what I got. Lift, shape and build. I would like to take off an inch or two, but that is not crucial. I want the thing off my legs and I would like to be able to run down the beach in a thong, if I so desired. And no, I wouldn’t do that or wear a thong, even if I was thong worthy…cause I think those things are the equivalent of Speedos on men.

And now the cring-y part. I have to get some photos going to document the process. I will tackle that later today. I am catching up on my team mates, so I will be visiting your blogs are giving y’all a friendly kick in the a$$.

Finished.  I completed the Fight the Fluff Challenge.  My goal, ab definition.  I did it.  I actually have ab definition.  I would never have thought this possible.  Now I want to say something to rationalize it and in a way put myself down, but I am not going to do that.  That kind of belief takes away from achieving goals.  And I learned something.  I can get the body I want.

What I learned:

1)      Consistency.  It won’t always be perfect, but I can get back on track and still make progress.  I went on vacation and ate off plan and I still achieved my goal because I resumed my diet and I stayed active.  All or nothing does not work for me.

2)      Support and Supporting my fellow Challengers:  HUGE. I live in a small village in Austria.  I am not joking when I say it is just like the Sound of Music.  I live amongst farmers.  The fitness trend has not made it to my neck of the woods.  That’s OK.  I get other things out of living here.  I buy my eggs, chicken, milk, cheese and veggies from my neighbors and it is all organic.  Although I may not have a gym close by or a workout partner, I have those things and I am grateful.  I count on support from bodyspace and the great people I have made friends (yes, online) with in this challenge.  It has kept me on the path.  Helping and cheering on others also makes me be a witness to my own advice.

3)      I have what it takes.  We all do.  I can achieve the body of my dreams even, at 44.  I am having fun doing it.  I love what fitness has given me.  The gift translates into every aspect of my life.

So I am ready for the next challenge.  Thank you for making this possible and I look forward to doing another one with the original gang and meeting some new fellow fitness freaks.

jj

PS.  my final pic is in my progress gallery

Which one of these doesn’t belong?  If you picked Abs, you are correct.

Recap of my 5th week of the FTF Challenge: 
My friends in Munich called and asked for some help.  They are opening a French restaurant in 2 weeks.  Painting, cleaning, moving stuff.  Sure, why not?  Munich is fun and I figure it will be physically challenging as well.  I rather get my workout helping someone, than just hitting the iron.  So off I went with protein powder, nuts, apples, and good intentions.  I was put to work immediatly.  And I was correct, this was hard labor that began at 7am and ended at 7 or 8pm.  I was really good for the first 2 days.  I even got up at 5am to do some Turbulence Training in the guest room.  I righteously fought off the pastries (French) delivered every morning.  The new espresso machine was another story, caffeine heaven.  I am talking about full cream capuccinos with sugar. I won’t skimp on coffee.

Fast forward to Day 3.  Too tired to do my TT in the guest room.  Too tired at night to prepare food for the next day.  If I remembered to bring the protein powder I thought I was doing great.  Too many capuccinos and you guessed it…the pastries started to call my name.  It started out pretty innocuous with the giant, soft preztels (Bavarian-style) for breakfast and a luke warm water-only protein shake.  That went to the way-side by Day 4.  Then lunch was ordered in from the Italian place across the street.  Don’t ask.  And by 8pm, we were starving, tired and thirsty for, you guessed it….pint (litre, really) sized beers from the beer garden followed by dinner…and let me say this, Bavarians do not skimp on the stick-to-you-ribs fare.  Yup, I did it.  I ate all that stuff, long stretches between meals and lots of coffee instead of water.

The last morning I was stuffing a chocolate croissant in my mouth as I said goodbye and headed to the train station.

What happened?  Where was my resolve?  Where are my abs?  As I sat on the train for the next 5 hours feeling the fluff and TOM snuggled up right there with me, I thought what is the plan here?  It is so easy to fall back into bad habits…literally takes me a few days to get my mind going in that direction.  But, no way.  I am going to get back on that track.  I spent the last 4 months really making some progress and I will not let that slip away.  So I drank some water and prayed for some motivation and by the time I got home, I was cool.

I am on board for another week and I will do another challenge and hopefully there is enough appetite for a group thing.
So, here I am, Monday morning.  I have had a few days of clean eating, drinking my water and busting out the HIIT workouts and I am back to where I was when I left for Munich.  Which by the way, I was very proud of.  So I learned a lot. 
The greatest lesson I have learned is being consistent, getting back on track.  It will not always be perfect eating and training.  I am 44.  I am not looking to compete.  I want to look hot in a bikini and enjoy a glass of wine and a chocolate croissant once in awhile.  I have finally learned balance and patience.  Plus I think I offset some of the dietary damage with the long hours of labor.  So it was a lot of bloat and TOM.  Normally I would have taken this as a green light for totally blowing it and why not just eat what I want, because I will never get where I want to be.  Stinkin’ thinkin’…I can have the body I want.

Thanks for the support FTFers and bodyspace friends.  Even though I pushed your support out the window and went with the beer drinking, pastry-eating herd mentality, I couldn’t have had the success I have had in the last 4 months with you.

So what is next?…I am thinking Baby Got Back Challange.  BGB
 yes, I know it looks the same as my last progress pic, but after Munich, I consider this progress regardless.

That would mean Friday Fluff-update.  I have lots of good news:

1) I got back into the fitness zone post-vaca and that makes me happy.  Sometimes it can be challenging resuming the clean lifestyle after 2 short weeks of not so clean.  Although, I didn’t go crazy with the vacation food, so that helps.  It was the perfect balance.  No stress, lots of activities, healthy choices and the occasional indulgence so I felt like I was really on vacation. 
Vacation+Diet= No Fun.

2) My week was totally on with the training and nutrition.  I can only imagine what I could accomplish if I was this diligent every week…I am working on it.

3) Numbers are down.  Weight is the same.  I just have to be OK with this.  It bugs me just a little bit, because I would love to be in the 130’s, but if my numbers are down and I am wearing a size 4 skirt, I am not going to complain.  How can I fit in a size 4 and still weigh 144 pounds?  Nuts.

Measurements:
                      
     Week 1    Week 5
Waist 1" above BB- 29           27
Waist @ BB-          29           28
Waist 4"below BB-  35          32.5
Weight- holding stready at 144

OK, I feel good about this progress.  One more week and it is the dreaded TOM, so I don’t think it is going to get better than this for me…but a girl can hope.  My abs are slightly visible.  I do want to throw in that this is not my problem area and generally responds the fastest to my efforts.  But I usually only have a flat stomach, so seeing my abs is so COOL!

I really want to attack my final frontier…the BOOTY!  But I will finish this challenge.  Thanks to the whole FTF crew.  You should know that this support has helped me more than anything else.   Let’s bring it next week!

         
HOW could I forget?  Happy 4th of July!!!