Alicia’s Journey To Better Health

I started a new exercise program yesterday and I’m really enjoying it. I’m following Bill Belfert’s program, Bare Minimum, with my own exercises. I workout at home so I’m using Joyce Vedral’s exercises from the Definition program, because all I need is dumbbells. Yesterday was weight training and today was cardio.

Note: The diet is going very well. I think it is because it is so easy to follow. I’m 4lbs down in 2 weeks!

Well I’m getting close to the end of phase one of my plan which will be on Jan 4th. I have finally gotten my diet under control and to my surprise I’ve lost 4lbs! I can’t wait to start phase two which will be getting in workouts 4-5 days a week. I don’t exactly know why, but I enjoy working out, so this part should be a little easier. I’m going to use a plan that worked for me before. I had lost 25lbs of fat using this program before my life went cazy and I stopped eating right and working out. I’m going to use a new cardio program that I read about the other day with my program. If I can lose an average of one to two pounds a week that will be 20-40lbs gone by my goal date and that will be just fine with me! My goal is to drop a few dress sizes by my brother’s wedding in June, so 20-40lbs will do it. I have to say that I’m very happy with the support that I have received from everyone here, so thanks everyone! Also, if I don’t get in another blog before the new year, Happy New Year, and Good Luck!

I get very hungry at night about an hour or two before bedtime. I often feel that I could eat a whole other meal. I’ve tried to distract myself, I’ve tried a low calorie protein shake but nothing seems to help. I’m not sure what to do. It is very frustrating because I follow a healthy diet all day then I fall off it at night. I also find that sometimes I wake up at 2 AM and have the same problem. If anyone has suggestions please let me know. Thanks everyone!

Everybody is noticing that I’m losing weight! I think I must be losing more fat than I thought. The scale has only moved about 2lbs, but my friends and family say it looks like much more! I guess I must be gaining muscle weight and that is why the scale says only 2lbs. I guess maybe I should get some calipers so I can have a more accurate reading of my fat loss. I’m really excited that people can see the difference. My clothes are fitting better and I can see some muscle definition in my shoulders! I have always wanted shapely shoulders.

Note: The diet is going well today, and I plan to do lower body weight training and some cardio.

After being sick and taking a day off for my birthday, I’m finally back on track. I did my weight training but was too tired to do cardio. It’s been three weeks so I didn’t expect to be able to do the cardio and weights on the same day. I might try to get it in later today. The diet is going pretty well. I have added 200 calories to my diet because I’ve been very hungry even though I’m eating every 3 hours. I’m not sure if this is a good idea. I would love to know what others think about the calorie change. I’m 5 foot 4inches and 182lbs. With the calorie change I’m getting in about 1600 calories a day, which is still a big change considering I used to eat over 2300.

My trainer said it was ok to go off my diet and skip a workout for my birthday this past Friday. It has taken 2 days to get back on track with my diet and I’m going to try and workout today. This is a surprise for me because I usually can’t get back on track for weeks after stopping everything. I’m not sure what is causing me to get back to things so quickly. The only thing I can think of is that I’ve made a positive change somewhere and I’m more determined to reach my goals than ever. 

One of my goals is to drop a couple of dress sizes before my brother’s wedding in June. I really want my brother, who is very supportive of my goals, to be proud of the way I look walking down the isle in a bridesmaid dress. He is supportive of my goal to be healthy too, because he is concerned about the heart condition that I was born with. My doctor said if I lose the weight and eat healthy I should be able to avoid any type of surgery.

I may not have a whole lot of progress yet, but it is not easy to change your lifestyle. I have to say that I’m proud of what I’ve done so far and I’m going to keep pushing forward!

It is my birthday, so yes I will have a piece of cake! I will follow my diet for every meal and I’ll will probably workout. Everyone at home is telling me to eat what I want and take a day off from exercising. My problem with that is, I have an image in my head of what I want to look like plus I want to be healthy. I feel that if I stop the diet and don’t workout today I will fall into that, "oh, I’ll just pick up where I left off tomorrow." thing which is very hard for me to do. I have goals that are important to me and I want to reach them. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

I have read that if you do something consistently for a month it will become a habbit. I plan to follow my diet very strickly for 30 days. I will still workout but I’m going to focus on my diet because that is the most difficult part of my transformation. Once the diet becomes a habbit, which sould be 1/4/08, I will then start my next goal.  My next goal will then be to form the habbit of working out for a minimum of four days a week. Once that becomes a habbit I should have no trouble reaching my long-term goal.

I have added some whole grain carbs to my diet and they seem to be helping keep me full. I’ve done well with my diet in the past 48 hours which is a record for me! I really like the waffels with peanut butter.

I plan to do the upper body Definition workout and some cardio. I’m going to try to start doing my workouts in the morning.

Today I am going to do the lower body Definition weight workout. I have read that you shouldn’t do cardio after lower body weight training, is it true?