lovejones596’s BodyBlog

So Saturday I spent most of the day goofing around on instyle.com site playing with different hair styles and apparently, I’ve gotten a couple of other people to do the same. (see previous blog) It is a fun site to play with and it does help you figure out what color hair would work best on you. I know this… I could NEVER be a blonde! After blogging I started to play with my face in photoshop, duping my right eye flipping it to my left, made my nose smaller, etc. It was a lot of fun seeing how different I could look. Boy 2 saw me on the screen and asked who it was and I told him it was me… he said "No it’s not mama!"

Anyways, didn’t get much done Saturday except for 6 loads of laundry. They sit in my dining room waiting to be folded and put away. I wonder if I will get to them today. I’m meeting with a client in a couple of minutes about a website and have a couple small jobs to finish up, so we’ll just have to see

BTW - weighed myself this morning and lost 2.5 lbs from last week! It’s starting, the transformation is starting (I hope). Not going to jump up and down quite yet. Will see if it continues.

Have a grand day all.

Admittedly, I don’t want to do any house work today. I am currently doing laundry and I did supervise my boys vacuuming, but I still need to clean the bathroom, put away last week’s laundry, clean my bedroom and do some freelance work. But here I am writing a blog about procrastinating… I am very good at that. For the past hour I’ve been goofing around on the instyle website playing with hairstyles. (www.instyle.com/hair) You can import a photo of yourself and apply different celebrity hairstyles. Very fun! Below you’ll see my Jessica Alba inspired do and my JLo inspired do. I look very dorky, but it was fun! So enjoy. And if you have time, go to the instyle site and play around for yourself.

Happy Saturday!

Do you remember those long car rides as a kid, when there were no portable dvd players or tv’s with vcrs. When kids didn’t have to sit in car seats (ok, I’m dating myself) and there was nothing to do in the car except maybe bug a sibling or be bugged by one? Sheer impatience to just get there! It could be a 20 minute car ride that seemed like forever. That is how I feel now. 12 weeks out of my life is really like a 5 minute car ride… but I’m really to the point that I am done! Still waiting for my fairy godmother to show up with her wand and sprinkle me with sculpting dust!!!! I’m tired of getting up at 5 to go to the gym! I am tired of eggs, oatmeal, chicken, rice, sweet potato and protein bars! I am tired of waking up each morning in hopes that while I slept that the fat melted away or came out in my morning pee (when you drink a gallon of water… you pee a ton in the a.m… actually, when you try to catch up in the pm to drink a gallon of water you pee a lot in the morning). I’m tired! I know that I need to keep moving forward… and I will. I am determined to finish these 12 weeks. This will be the first time I’ve ever completed something like this. I’ve done a 10 day cleanse/fast 3 times! People were amazed that I was able to do that… that was only 10 DAYS! This is freakin’ 84 days! I just want to finish and do something else.

In my misery, I had 2 slices of pizza with black olives. It tasted so good. At least the first one. Half way through the second one I wasn’t enjoying it so much… and since I was taught not to waste food, I finished it. Bad habit I know. So today is my cheat day instead of Sunday. I will have to eat super clean on Sunday. Maybe I’ll have a little chocolate later or some carmel popcorn since it’s now my cheat day. I don’t know. This sucks!

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day. My husband is out of town so I’m home with the kids and don’t know if I will be able to make it to the gym to do my cardio (gotta find a sitter). I’ll try to do it at home on my husband’s bike (he has it on a trainer, but I hate riding it). We’ll see.

That’s enough complaining for now. You all have a nice night.

E

Feeling slimmer, not sure if anything is happening. Upped my water intake to a gallon a day (that is hard to do) and I folded and started a fat burner. Started on Tuesday, still haven’t done full dosage. Julofthenile gave me her remaining lipo6x. Only enough to go 10 days at full dosage. I may just take half for the remaining of the challenge. Let my body do what it needs to do and the fat burner can just help it along. Not sure yet.

Now that the end is near, I started using Jergens "Natural Glow". I am of olive complexion but my torso has not seen a ray of sun since my mid twenties… when I had a body I was proud enough to wear a bikini, even then I didn’t wear them often. I’ve basically had a farmers tan for the last 15 years. I’m hoping that this summer I can sport one, at least a couple of times. I feel too exposed wearing them! Anyways, back to why I am using the lotion. Olive skin with no sun is still very pasty looking. I have to make sure I look good for the after pictures. I’ve used the lotion for 2 days now and am noticing some change in my complexion. Very natural looking. Only problem is that it smells! Not sure if anyone else can smell it, but I catch a wif of it every once in a while and it drives me batty. I applied some on Tuesday night before going to bed and Wednesday morning when I went to the gym I couldn’t figure out where the smell was coming from. It almost has a faint… well, a faint urine smell. The night before, my middle son had an accident in bed so I thought somehow it got on me and I missed getting it off me. WRONG! It was the lotion. Putting it on it doesn’t smell too bad. Having it on… must have something to do with my skin chemistry maybe. We’ll see how it goes.

Today was another cardio day… upped my speed again and did (on my last interval) 30 seconds at 9 mph and the last 90 sec. at 9.5 mph. Waahoo. I felt sick after, but I did it.

Tomorrow is upper body, hope to get to the gym a second time to do some more cardio (no intervals, just a steady pace). Saturday my husband is away the whole day so not sure I’ll be able to make it to the gym. Will see if I can get a sitter.

That’s it for now, week 10 just around the corner. The end is near!

E

Ok - I posted some progress pics. I did a good job cropping so they look better than they really are. I have my before pics that I took for the BFL challenge that I will not post until I have my afters. Those I think are absolutely horrible. I guess what makes them bad is that I am in a bathing suit exposing EVERYTHING!

I am now on week 9, day 2. Did cardio today and once again upped my speed. This time I went 9 mph for 40 seconds (this is on my last interval) and for the last 20 seconds I cranked it up to 9.5. I was in a full out sprint, up on my toes! What is funny, or sad actually, is that that was my race pace for the mile. I can only stand 20 seconds now but before I would run that pace for a mile! Getting older and fatter does suck.

Thinking about starting a fat burner for the last few weeks. Will see.

Have a great day yal!

Just wanted to document this:
Friday was legs
Quads: BB squats—115 for 12, 125 for 10, 135 for 8, 145 for 6 (no spot, last time I had a spot) and 135 for 12 (not sure how that works, I was shakin’ the first set I did 135 and it was only 8, now this set I can do 12… can anyone explain?) Superset last set of squats with iso-leg extensions, 17.5 lbs (or 35#) for 12 (these burned!!! OUCH!)

Hamstrings: Deadlift cable with rope (AKA crack a walnut) 90 for 12, 95 for 10, 100 for 8, 110 for 6, 100 for 12 superset with leg curls at 90 for 12. If you are not familiar with this one, you start by attaching the rope to the bottom ring. With you back facing the weights, grab the rope between your legs and take a few steps forward. Start position: shoulders back, chest out, abs tight with a slight lean forward, rope ends (the balls) are in your croch… you look like you have a pair ladies. lol. Position two: keeping you head up, looking forward, bend down with a flat back (don’t let your shoulders roll), letting the rope go though you legs. Go down as far as you can. Go back to start position keeping a flat back. It got its name because you are squeezing your but very tight… cracking a walnut.

Abs: Roman chair and ball crunch with medicine ball until fatigue.

Today was cardio: first interval at minutes 5 at 7 mph for 1 minute, 2nd at 10 minutes at 7.5 mph for 1 minute, 3rd at 14 minutes at 8 mph for 1 minute, last started at 18 minutes at 7.0, 18:30 up to 7.5, at 19 minutes ran at 9 mph for 1 minute…. boy was I huffing! Had Julofthenile next to me cheering me on. Thanks Jul!

That’s it for now. Everyone have a wonderful Easter and if it’s your cheat/earn day ENJOY!

This is more like a whine session, so I will just begin my whining.

Whine, whine, whine, blah, blah, blah, more whining, blah, yada, yada, yada. Read previous entries to know what I am discouraged about. blah, blah, blah.

Ok. I’m done.

On a happier note, on my last cardio day (Tuesday) I did 9 mph for 45 seconds… The longest I did previous was 25 seconds. 45 was more of an accident. I couldn’t get the darn treadmill to accept my entry to slow it down! I would press 5 enter, but I was bouncing so much it wouldn’t take it. So 20 seconds later (which seemed like eternity) I was able to slow down. Apparently, I haven’t been pushing myself enough. This morning I did it on purpose, ran 9 mph for 45 seconds. Saturday, my next cardio day, I will go for a minute. I must say, I haven’t sweat like this in a long time. It felt good.

Nearing the end of week 8 and I plan on adding more cardio. If I can make it to the gym 2x on my weight days, I will do cardio the second time I go in. So tempted to do a fat burner, but really want to see what my body will do. My biggest fear is that I will shed fat everywhere but my stomach, which is my biggest problem area. Was talking to AmyRose yesterday and discussed how our days are determined on how our stomachs look. We could be having a completely horrible hair day, but if our stomach looks good, we’re golden. Pretty pathetic. We could go from a decently flat stomach (haven’t had a completely flat stomach since my 20’s) to a "when are you due?" stomach with in hours. Not even, minutes! As soon as I put anything to my lips, clean or not, my stomach increases in size to at least 3 months. The ab area is the only body part that this happens to. Not many hips will expand immediately after having breakfast (we may think it does, but really!) Ok, I’m whining again.

So, week 8 is almost done. Looking forward to the following weeks. I can see the little light at the end of the tunnel. End of challenge here I come!!

Everyone, have a wonderful first day of spring!!!

Elisa

Two thirds the way done!!! only 4 more weeks left. I can’t wait to see what is in store for my body. If after these 12 weeks I’m still the same, I will go into a MAJOR depression. That’s my back up plan… to just be depressed. BUT I see changes in my body so I know that the next few weeks it will change even more!

Yesterday was my cheat day. I learned from Julofthenile to just cheat. It was my in-laws 50th anniversary dinner so I started out good. Had a salad with chicken and feta with whatever dressing came with. Also had a spinach dip with these great crackers, 3 glasses of wine, cake and ice cream and coffee with french vanilla creamer. YUM! Earlier in the day I was good. Figured I would save it all for the evening. Next cheat, I may go for a burger and fries or something… or maybe I’ll save that for when I am done.

I have to admit that I am tired of oatmeal, eggs, chicken, tuna fish, and brown rice. I really need to find some new recipes. Any suggestions on some of your favorites?

Well, gotta get child 1 off the bus. Everyone have a grand day.

E

Can you tell I’m happy!!!

Ok, this morning I had a date with a pair of fat calipers. I got the the gym at 5:15, went to the locker room to weigh myself… at 140 which brings me down 5 lbs. Warmed up for about 6 minutes while I waited for Juls to show up (she has the calipers…  ok, it’s the 1 pinch type of calipers, but that is all I have to measure with so…). She gets in and we head to the locker room again. She pinches… 24%, I tell her to do it again, the same. And again, still the same. I’ve gone down 3.3% since 2/22! I didn’t take it when I started and I really wish that I did. We did the calipers last November/December sometime and I know that I dropped from then (back in February). This time I know for sure that I have gone down WHOOPIE!

Today was a good workout. Did upper body. Next week when I do upper, I should be able to increase my weights  a little. I’m kinda on a high due to Wednesday’s leg workout (squat 145) and now the body fat. WHOOPIE!

OK - that’s it for now. Yal have a good day

I’m more than half way through this challenge with no real visible results (ok to me, others have made comments, but for me when I look in the mirror, not much has changed). 4HimKim made a comment about being a smaller fat self. That’s where I am at right now. I lost a little here and a little there.

One HUGE thing is that I squatted 145!!!! for 6!!!! and then did 135 (which was my previous high) for 12!!!!!! I was grunting and swearing after every squat, but I got through it. I couldn’t feel my legs. I knew they where under me because something was holding me up… not well, I was leaning. I started at 115 for 12, then 125 for 10, 135 for 8, 145 for 6 then 135 for 12 again. I am amazed and proud of myself. Even though the fat is still on me, I am DEFINITELY getting stronger. Yesterday, during cardio, I did 20 seconds at 9 mph during my last interval. I also increased my "slow/rest" speed to 5.5 mph. I’m getting stronger and faster.

Well, that’s it for now. Eating clean still. Planning on cutting back on my calorie intake as I get closer to the end. Tempted to take a fat burner but I really want to see what happens to my body if I don’t. I started taking CLA a couple of weeks ago, but this past week or so I haven’t been consistent with it. I suck when it comes to taking pills. I usually suffer through headaches and other ailments.

Have a great day all. May it be a shining happy day (even if it is snowing here).