CDCC Final update

Well the 14 weeks have come to an end.  I think it's been a great challenge and has kept me working towards my goals.  Just knowing I had to weigh in each week stopped me from eating things a couple times.

The book I read was called 100 days of weight loss and was okay.  I learned more from the the first half, but the second half was stuff I already knew and was more common sense to me.  BUT, that is my opinion.  I know we all have different mental states when it comes to food and how we deal with food.  What I may already know, maybe be new to someone else who never thought of it like that.  It's really easy to read though.  I think the biggest thing I took from the book was eating more after I'm full is wasting  the food because my body doesn't need the extra food.  I might as well waste the food by leaving it on the plate instead of ingesting extra calories.

I still struggle with getting in enough water, but I'm trying.  My food intake has been overall good throughout this challenge.  I still have a long ways to go to get to my goal weight so I have to continue to eat well and make good choices.

Now for the pictures:

Before

After

Before

After

Start Weight: 235.8
End Weight: 220
Loss: 15.8 pounds

End CDCC weight

I feel like the skirt fits much better.  When I started the challenge I was afraid if I sat down in the skirt that the zipper would pop.  I no longer feel that way.  I would sit down no problem now.  My stomach is not as prominent as it was in the beginning either.  I think this challenge was definitely a success.  I don't know that I would wear it out just yet.  I would be holding in my stomach all night.  I had to consciously not hold my stomach in when the picture was being taken.  I really would have liked to suck it in so the stomach wouldn't show up in the shirt, but then I wouldn't have been honest with myself or you.  

Congrats to all those who stuck with this challenge whether you struggled, lost, or maintained.  I hope you gained insight into your journey and will continue on.  I thank each and every one of you for your comments and support and I hope I was a support, at times, to you. 

Merry Christmas, stay safe and remember to be good to yourself and your waistline these coming weeks.

CDCC Update Week 13

I managed to get up and run on Thursday and today.  It was about 38-40 degrees. Brrr  I really didn't want to do it, but like always I was glad I did it.  I was making excuses last night as to why I wouldn't run this morning and my husband convinced me to do it.  He was right.  Skipping the running is just a slippery slope into a more sedentary lifestyle which I don't want.

I haven't made the best food choices this week.  I gave in to some cravings. I don't regret it though because I would have just kept craving those foods.  But because of those choices the scale didn't move this week.

Last week: 220.2
This week: 220.2

But I have an awesome NSV for the week.  I have been wanting to try on my wedding dress since I have been losing weight.  I don't remember my size or what I weighed when I got married.  BUT, I tried it on yesterday and IT FIT!  It fit like a glove. I haven't put it on since I got married in 2006. I definitely couldn't have zipped it up at the beginning of this challenge.  I say that means this challenge is a huge success.  Next week I will try on my CDCC outfit and put up the before and after pictures.

I still need to finish up my CDCC book and work on getting more water in.  I hope you all had a great week and make this one even better to finish off this challenge.

CDCC Update Week 12

It's been an uneventful week with exercise.  I had planned to run today, but yesterday I woke up with the beginnings of  a cold.  I don't think it's such a good idea to go out in 48 degrees to run so I'm going to try to get some indoor exercise done today.  Lift some weights, etc. It's times like this that I wish I had a treadmill or gym membership so I could do my run indoors, but I'm not that lucky.  Even with my lack of exercise this week I managed to hold on to my 3.6 pound loss from being sick last weekend.  I even added to it.

Last Week: 220.6
This Week: 220.2
Loss: .4 pounds.

I'm happy with this considering I thought I might gain some back this week.  In fact I was higher during the week, but it's back down today.  I think I've figured out that I weigh the least on the weekend.  My weight goes up middle of the week and back down on the weekend.  It's good to know.

I hope this cold I have is mild and short.  It's starting off mild so hopefully it will stay that way.   My husband came home from work yesterday with body aches and feeling exhausted.  Just walking down the street to the neighbors and back got him winded (this is not a normal thing for him)  It's the perfect time of year for all this and I don't like it.

I didn't get around to decorating the Christmas tree yesterday since the hubby came home sick.  He's not up yet so I don't know how he is today.  Hopefully we will get to the tree this week.

I hope you all have a great week and stay on track through all the holiday craziness that sometimes ensues. 

CDCC Update Week 11

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We all met up at my Aunt's house for a lovely meal and fellowship.  I ate one plate of all the things I wanted and I didn't feel guilty about it.  I did not go back for seconds and I had a small slice of the two pieces.  The guys played a game of risk and there was a puzzle to work on too. We ended the day with a little more time at my moms house.

Friday we slept in and then decided to go do a little shopping.  We didn't leave the house until about 9am so by the time we got to the store it was pretty normal.  No craziness to be had.  We went to Big Lots where we found some packs of batteries for $5 with a $5 mail in rebate so they are going to be free.  Woohoo.  We also found a blow up penguin to go on the lawn for Christmas.  Then we went to Target.  Target was a little busier than normal and there were quite  few people in the electronics section and 2-day bin areas, but other than that nothing special.  We ate some lunch and the rest of the day was lounging around.

But, by the end of the day I started to feel a little off. TMI the rest of this paragraph.  By about 9pm I was sick with flu like symptoms.  I was like that until about 6am. (on and off)  Two times during that time I felt as if I was going to pass out.  It was no fun at all.  I spent all of Saturday on the couch just feeling blah.  Saturday night my son was sick.  It passed pretty quickly in comparison to mine and wasn't as severe, but man it was no fun.


So, after reading that last paragraph you will know why my weight is what it is.

Last week: 224.2
This week: 220.6
Loss this week: 3.6 pounds

I really like seeing the lower number, but to bad it had to come at the price of me feeling bad.  I'm not sure if all of it will keep this week, but we will see.

I haven't tried on my CDCC skirt or shirt yet, but I don't plan on doing it until the end of the challenge.  My water intake hasn't been the greatest the last couple of days.  I did read a little more in my book and I left comments on everyone's blog this past week.

I hope we all finish these last few weeks of the challenge strong because even when the challenge is over we still have work to do and have to keep striving to reach our goals.  Have a great week everyone.

CDCC Update Week 10

Well hello everyone.  I hope you all had a great weekend.  I had a lovely time with my husband at a Church friends home last night and today was Church and lazy time.  It was nice to relax today.

Last week: 224.8
Today: 224.2
Loss of .6 pounds

Slow and steady for me.  I have a feeling I'm going to have to watch myself this week so that on Thursday I can indulge a little.  But I won't go overboard.

I'm not doing the greatest with my water during the weekend, but pretty good during the week.  I didn't catch up with my book yet, but I promise I'll read more this week.  Have a great week everyone.

CDCC Update Week 9

Short and sweet tonight.  I'm not really in the mood to blog tonight.

Last week: 225.6
Today's weight: 224.8
Loss: .8

I'm really happy with that considering earlier in the week I was briefly at 229.  I will get back on the horse this week and hopefully next week it will be a bigger number.

I went to the birthday party yesterday and only had one bite of cake.  It really wasn't that good so it was easy not to eat it. haha

I hope everyone has a great week and I'll try to comment on more of you this week.  I do read everyone's posts, but most of the time it's on my phone and it just takes forever to do any commenting from my phone.

CDCC Update Week 8 and 5k Race Recap

Hello everyone.  Here are my stats:

CDCC start weight: 235.8
Last week weight: 226.4
This week weight: 225.6
Loss this week: .8
Loss so far during CDCC challenge: 10.2 pounds

I'm pretty proud of that.  I hope this next week will be good.  I have indulged a little in the last few days and tomorrow is my birthday so I'll have to step up the exercise some this week.

Speaking of exercise, today was my first official 5k.  It was a nice cold run at about 50 degrees with rain threatening to pour on us.  The first half of the course involved going up a slowly increasing hill which means there was lots of walking for me.   I certainly didn't expect hills and I came along side another racer and she said all she needed to do was finish and I said I just hoped to finish in 45 minutes.  She said that was her goal too.  The second half of the course was getting to go down a gradual downhill.  Yeah for downhill.  That is also where our only water stop was.  The water was super cold and refreshing after doing the hills.  I did a lot of run/walk intervals the rest of the way back. The final sprint section of the finish line was back uphill though so that made for a slower sprint to the finish line. I finished in 42.11.

That is a better time then my Run the Hood Virtual 5k on 10/22 which I completed with a time of 45:42.  It felt good to run with other people. My husband ran his first 10k today and finished with a time of 48:57.  His best 10k time on his own was 52 minutes so he really pushed himself today.

My parents were at the finish line with my kids and even got a video of me coming in to finish the race.  It was really nice to have someone waiting for me.  The rain didn't start up until after we had both finished our races and they were doing the 1st-3rd place trophies for the 5k when decided there was no way either of us got a medal so we left.  You see, they hadn't put up the official race times for the 10k yet so when they finally showed up online this afternoon we found out my husband finished 1st in his age division.  There ended up only being 3 people in his division.  I really hope they mail him the trophy or call him up and see if he wants to come get it.  That would be really cool to have.

I don't really have much else to say since I just did a good update on my book and all.  So have a great week everyone and make good choices.

What have I been up to?

I’ve been pretty absent from this blog in the last couple of weeks.  I guess I just kind of lost the blogging mojo recently.   I haven’t been running as much due to the darkness in the mornings.  That should all change with the time change this weekend.  It should be lighter in the mornings so I can get back to running before work.  My run this past Sunday was pretty good.  I did 35 minutes total and 25 of that was straight running.  Then on Wednesday I did a run after work and it was absolutely awful.  It was like I was back to the begging learning how to run.  I was tired and can honestly say I am a morning runner instead of an evening runner.  I have my first official 5k on Sunday and now the forecast says that it could be raining.  As of right now it says rain likely after 11am which would be a dry race since it starts at 8am, but there is still a few days to go. I am praying that if there is going to be rain on Sunday that it waits until the afternoon/evening to arrive.  I really don’t want to run in the rain.

I have been doing pretty good with my food intake and staying away from most of the Halloween candy.  I have allowed myself one piece after dinner.  I have really wanted more than that, but so far I’m staying in control.  I’m still trying to drink more water.   I just took a few sips as I wrote that sentence.  :-)

I’m a little behind in my book, but some recent ideas are as follows:

Day 33 - Fullness Scale 

0= neutral, not hungry, not full,

+1= satisfied, comfortable, just right

+2= too full – a little uncomfortable

+3= stuffed, miserable

Try to recognize the cues your body is giving you when you are at the +1 and stop eating.  If you get to the +2 remember how you feel for next time and then stop eating before that.  If you learn to recognize the feelings of fullness you will be able to stop overeating.

Day 35 The Eating Pause

When you pause in your eating by taking a deep breath you’re usually at the exact point where you feel satisfied or comfortable.  Stop eating then and don’t go back for more food.  You are probably already at the point of fullness.  If in 20 minutes you are still hungry then go back for more.

Day 41 – Motivation is a Choice

You create motivation through your thoughts and your attitude. You can access it if you want to.  NO one can force you to stay motivated.  You need to work on it and do and say things that will keep you motivated.

Day 43 – Choose To, Not Have To

You need to change your words from have to, to choose to.  I choose to lose weight, I choose to exercise, I choose to clean the house, I choose to eat healthier.  By saying I choose to instead of I have to you are tricking your brain into believing it’s what you want to do and aren’t forcing yourself to do.

And one final one for today:

Day 44 – It’s Not The Right Time

It’s easy to use the phrase it’s not the right time to lose weight or exercise more or eat healthier.  It’s easy to say I’m too busy or I’m going through this in my life right now, but the reality is that there is probably never going to be a right time.  You have to MAKE the time to do it.  How important is it to you to be healthier and feel better?  You will always have things going on in your life, but if you really want to lose weight and eat better than you just need to make the time to do it. 

If Jo at A Well Kept Life can keep at it and stay positive while trying to be there for her brother with a spinal cord injury then do you really have an excuse why you can’t make better food choices while dealing with your own obstacles?  If you work a lot or have to run the kids around to their activities and regularly eat out, just pick the healthiest option available.  Don’t allow yourself to provide excuses for why you can’t do it.  Find ways you can make it happen and achieve your goals.

I’ll be back Sunday with a race recap and CDCC update. 

P.s for those interested,  I’m still in the Shrinkvivor challenge, but since I’m on Exile Island I just didn’t feel like doing an update post.  I did however win the Body Glide giveaway this week  WooHoo for me. 

CDCC Update Week 7

I'm a little ticked off today with my weight.  If you read my blog you will know that on Wednesday I showed a gain for Shrinkvivor.  That gain put me on Exile Island.  I knew that I was feeling bloated and the weight probably wasn't what it would have been otherwise.  So today I weigh and this is what I see:

Last Sunday: 228.8
Wednesday: 229.2
Today: 226.4

That's 2.4 pounds lost for the week and almost 3 since Wednesday. I didn't do mass exercise or eat perfect so what is with this up and down weight loss. I'm happy for the loss, but I'm ticked that I had to show a gain just days ago and be booted off to Exile Island.  I complained about the whole up and down weight thing last week and I guess that is my theme now.  As much as it stinks to go up at least I went back down.  I just need to get over it.

I am still trying to work my water in daily.  It continues to be a challenge. BUT I am doing much better than I used to with the water.

Food has been  decent considering I wen tot a birthday party and a Harvest Day at Church.  Yesterday I went to a girls third birthday party and I didn't eat any cake.  Okay I did take two tiny bites off my sons plate, but I didn't get my own piece.  I was very proud of myself.  Today was Harvest Day after Church and I had my portion, but didn't keep going back for more.  I did have a piece of dessert, but I didn't go back for more and more.  I had to consciously tell myself I didn't need it, I was satisfied and I didn't need any more.

My book is going fine.  I don't read every day, but I'm keeping up with it.  I'll try to post a few of the highlights soon.

Exercise is going well.  I only got in two runs this week.  The whole being dark until after 6am is really messing with my running.  I am looking forward to time change and it being light again in the mornings.  I don't like to go out when it's dark.  I did run this morning.  I ran for 25 minutes straight.  Total of about 35 minutes with the walking before and after.  I still can't believe I can run for that long.  My first official 5k with others is happening on Nov. 6th.  I know I won't run the whole thing without walking, but I'm excited.  My husband will be doing the 10k.  Should be fun.

I hope all of you have a great Halloween tomorrow.  Stay mindful of the amount of Candy you sneak from the kids. haha  Don't go overboard.

CDCC update Week 6

I really hate the up and down weight fluctuations between Wednesday and Sunday.  The two different weigh ins keep me accountable, but they do kind of hurt when I am lower one day than the other.  As is the case again today.

Wednesday I was 228 for Shrinkvivor and today I am 228.8.  However, last Sunday I was 229.2 so it's still a loss of .4 pounds since last Sunday's CDCC weigh in.

I have been doing good with my exercise.  I've even done two 5k's this week.  One was for the Run the Hood Virtual 5K & 10K on Saturday and I did another just by walking my kids to the park and back.  I also ran for 2 miles straight and did 30 minutes of an exercise video.

My food once again has been okay, but there is room for improvement.  My water intake is okay during the week, but lacking on the weekend.  It's so much easier to have my water at my desk at work, but on the weekends I can't just leave it where ever I am sitting because my kids are 1 and 3 and not so great with things just sitting around.  I'm trying though.

I've almost caught up with my challenge book, but a feel so so about it. It just reiterates the same idea with different words.  Some of it is useful, but I find it a little boring.  Luckily it is a daily read book so it's easy to read.

I don't know how the rest of you did this week, but I know there were quite a few struggles the week before. We lost a couple challengers and there were many who gained weight.  I hope this week was better for everyone and if it wasn't please keep pushing on.  Don't let the gains get to you. Keep striving for your goal.  Remember why you want to lose the weight in the first place.  Who or what is your motivation.  Put a picture up on your fridge if you need to.  Just don't give up!

CDCC Week 5 Update and a Breakthrough

This has been a good week.  There were a few less than stellar food choices the last couple days, but nothing extreme.  I am still behind in my book.  It's not hard to read, I just forget about it.  I commented on a few of my fellow challengers blogs this week.  I hope to get to a few more this week.  A few of you are struggling, but for the most part we are doing great.  Keep up the good work everyone.  Keep your motivation in the forefront of your mind whenever you feel weak or off target.

Last weeks weight: 230.6
This weeks weight: 229.2
Loss: 1.4 pounds this week.

The break though this week came in form of running.  On Friday morning I did workout 13.3 of 5k in 100 Days and it involved (3) 11 minute intervals although I only did two of the intervals I still ran for 11 minutes at a time.  I was really proud of myself for running for 11 minutes at a time.  The workout today (14.1) I was to run for (3) 13 minute intervals, well I decided I was going to keep going until I reached a certain spot.  It turns out I ran for almost 20 minutes straight.  I rested for about 2 minutes and then I ran for another 19 minutes.  The distance was about 2.6 miles.  Towards the end I did feel like my legs were going to give up, but I just kept pushing on and telling myself I could do it.  I could run the whole thing.  AND I did.  I can't believe I went from 11 minutes to 19 minutes.  I basically just skipped the whole last week of the 5k in 100 days program.  My next goal would be to run the whole thing without the break.  I really didn't think I would be able to run that long.  So yeah for me!!!  I owe this to Brad Gansberg for this great learn to run program.  If you are the least bit interested in learning to run, I highly recommend his program.  The best part is it was totally free.  If you are a beginner runner skip the whole C25K program because it's just to fast. I tried it so I should know.

Have a good week everyone.

CDCC Week 4 update

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Mine was nice and I feel I got things accomplished this weekend.  However I did eat to much at my parents house last night.  We went over there for dinner and I just over did it.  So today my weigh in is 230.6.  Last weeks weigh in was 233 so that is a loss of 2.4 pounds.  If you have been following my Shrinkvivior posts too that means I'm up .6 pounds from Wednesday, but who's counting.  I'm still down 2.4 from last weeks CDCC weigh in.  So go me!!

I had a non scale victory this week though.  I fit into a smaller size pair of jeans.  Woohoo.  I have one more smaller size one in my closet and I can't wait until I fit into them.

I am doing my best to keep up on my water.  I struggle the most on the weekend.  I am didn't read my book this weekend, but otherwise I'm caught up.

My exercise is going well.  I did Yoga for the first time this week and I did two of my 5k in 100 days workouts.  I actually jogged more than I walked today.  That's another accomplishment for me.  I actually ran for 9 minutes for three of my intervals and the other interval was 8 minutes.  My next run/walk will be 10 minute intervals.  I still can't believe I'm running for that long at one time.

I think I commented on everyone's CDCC update last week and I hope to get to many this week as well.

Shrinkvivor Week 1 and CDCC update

Today is the first weekly update for Shrinkvivor.  Our challenge for the week was to log our exercise minutes.  The team with the most minutes would get the immunity idol for the week and could not be voted off to Exile Island.  I know our group did not win this week because I read a blog from The Voices Within Unleashed and she completed almost as many exercise minutes as my whole tribe combined.  However, she lost less than a pound.  How is that possible??  Maybe next week she will show a huge loss from all the exercise this week.  Anyway, I completed 150 minutes of exercise this week.  It’s not great, but it is what it is.  This week we will have the same exercise minutes challenge.  I am confident this week I will put in more exercise.

The mini challenge last week was to not eat any fast food.  This challenge was a success for me.  Even when I went to the fair I didn’t eat the food.  This week our mini challenge is to get good rest, aiming for at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night.  This isn’t a problem for me.  I do this every day already.  This used to be a problem when my daughter would wake up every night and want to sleep with me, but she has been doing great at night.  Lord, please help this to continue! 

So here is the best news….I lost 4 pounds this week.  WHAT!!!  ME lose 4 pounds in one week.  Crazy, that never happens.  I am lucky to lose up to 1.8 pounds in a week. I was really hesitant about posting this as my loss this week because I’m afraid the scale is being wacky and next week I’ll show a gain.  I mean I weighed on Sunday for CDCC and I was at 233.  Three days later I’m 230.  Weird!  I guess I’m going to have to really stay on my game this week to be sure that there is no gain next week.  I know it’s not required, but I took a picture this week too since I couldn’t believe my loss this week.

The CDCC challenge is going well obviously from my paragraphs above.  I am a little behind on my book 100 Days of Weight Loss, but I’m only 5 days behind right now.  The last few days’ information hasn’t really pertained to me, but it might help someone else. 

Day 14 – Morning affects evening – make sure you are eating breakfast because if you aren’t you are more likely to eat more later in the day and graze throughout and ultimately eat more than if you just started your day right with a good breakfast.

Day 15 – First Two Bites – This chapter states that the first two bites of food will taste the best no matter how many bites you take after that. If you want a brownie take time to savor the first two bites, then decide if you really need the rest of it.  Do the bites taste any better than the first two bites, did it satisfy the craving.  She encourages you to take the first two bites and get rid of the rest. 

Day  17 – Stop Wasting Food – This whole principal is for those who have the mindset that you have to finish all the food on your plate. If you are full part way through your meal you should stop eating.  Your body is satisfied and you don’t need the rest.  You are wasting the rest of the food by eating it because your body doesn’t need it, it’s already satisfied.  If you think you are wasting food when you don’t eat it remind yourself that by eating it you are still wasting it and just adding calories to be stored as fat.

I’m caught up to day20 (I read 7 days today on my lunch break), but I should be at day 25.  I’ll try to remedy that in the next couple of days.

Water consumption is improving a little.  I still struggle with getting at least 8 glasses of water in, but I’m trying.  Each day is a new day and a new chance to stay on the correct path.  I need to remember Mir’s picture of the butterfly(which I posted on the sidebar) and how I have 3 months left to transform this year.  I do WANT to transform as much as possible. 

CDCC update

I did pretty good this week.  I still need to work on drinking more water though.  I have had a slight cold all week and therefore haven't pushed myself.  I hope this next week will be better overall.
Last week: 233.8
This week: 233
.8 pound loss this week.  My scale is kind of sketchy though.  I stepped on it this morning in one spot on the floor and it was like 2 pound less than this, but when I moved the scale this is what is said.  How can that be?? I would rather err on losing less than more and see a gain next time.  So there you have it.  I hope to see more on Wednesday when I weigh in for Shrinkvivor.

Keep up the good work ladies and I hope to get to comment some this week since my new laptop power cord has arrived.

CDCC update

Since my Sunday post was so short I thought I would add some more here for the middle of the week update.  I still don’t have a power cord for my home computer so I have to do this blog post during my break at work.  Anyway,  I haven’t been that great at logging my food on My Fitness Pal.  However, I have been trying to eat better.  There is still room for improvement especially in portion size.  My water intake has been so-so.  I don’t know how some of you drink the amounts you do in one day.  It’s like I need an IV drip to get that much water in.  I’m working on it though.

I'm still doing my 5k in 100 days for my exercise.  It's going well, but I hope to add in some more on the off days.

I have been reading the book called 100 Days of Weight Loss and it’s going well.  A few highlights would be:

Day 2: Interested or Committed?  Are you just interested in losing weight or are you committed.  If you are just interested you can be easily distracted and depend on the scale to move lower all the time.  If you are committed you will do things “no matter what”.  Keep your motivation strong even when you aren’t seeing the results right away.

Day6: Protect Your Program.  If you are going to go out to eat at someone’s house or a gathering and someone asks if you want to eat a non plan food you can respond with “Not just yet; I’m going to wait a little while”.  By saying this to the person they think you will eat later and they will probably never notice you didn’t eat.  Don’t let others force you into eating something you know isn’t part of your plan.

Day 12: Fuel or Filler.  Write down the things you eat and then at the end of the day ask yourself was that food fuel for your body or just a filler.  A filler is a food that tends to add extra calories but provide minimal nutrients.  Try to make sure you are eating foods that fuel your body.

That’s all I have time for.  I hope you all are doing great this week.  If you are struggling reach out to those around you or to your bloggy friends. 

CDCC update

I will be going camping this weekend so I am going to go ahead and post this today so all I have to do on Sunday is link up.  I don’t want to forget and then be out of the challenge.  I did 2 of my 3 scheduled workouts for the week. The third one will be on Sunday while I am camping.  How dedicated am I?! hehe 

My eating and drinking have been great this week.  I finally started reading my challenge book.  I have gotten caught up on the last 6 days in the book and I’m feeling motivated.  My mother is buying the food for our campout, but I told her we are trying to eat healthier and to not bother buying any cookies and such for us.  Camping is notorious for unhealthy snacks.  I am bringing carrots, celery, and nuts for snacking.

And last, but not least I lost 1.8 pounds this week! 

Last week 235.8

This week 234

I hope you all have a great weekend and I’ll be back on Sunday to link up.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I didn't win the Calphalon giveaway.  :-(

Christmas Dress Countdown Challenge 2011 (CDCC)

Today is the start of the Christmas Dress Countdown Challenge 2011.  This challenge will be running for 14 weeks from September 11 through December 18^th.  The goal of the challenge is to lose a dress size by the end of the 14 weeks.

My starting weight is 235.8.

I don’t really go anywhere to warrant a special Christmas dress so instead I have opted to find something in my closet that currently does not fit properly and make it look better on me.  I don’t know the size of this skirt because it doesn’t have a tag.  GRRR.  I was able to shove myself into the skirt to take this picture.

As you can see it does NOT fit well and I would not be wearing it anywhere right now.  My waist looks like a plump sausage in this outfit.  I managed to close the side zipper to take the picture, but I would not sit down for fear of breaking said zipper.  So my goal is to fit into this skirt much better and to be able to sit down in it without fear of ripping anything.  I would also like to reduce the belly so there isn’t a big roll there either.

The book I have chosen is called 100 Days of Weight Loss: The Secret to Being Successful on Any Diet Plan by Linda Spangle.  There are 100 daily reading/thinking activities to make you think about why you do things.  It is the perfect book since this challenge is 99 days.  Each day I will have something to do to work on myself.

It seems like 100 days is my magic number.  I have been working on 5k in 100 Days by Brad Gansberg and now this challenge is just shy of 100 days and the book has 100 days in its title.  It must be the perfect length of time to accomplish things.

Anyway, back to the challenge. 

I have set my caloric level at 1520 which is what My Fitness Pal suggests based on my weight and losing 1.5 pounds a week.  We will start there and see how it goes.  I also want to aim for at least 8 glasses of water a day, but hopefully more like 10 glasses a day.  I find that drinking enough water is hard for me.  I will be using My Fitness Pal to track the calories.

My exercise in the beginning will be a continuation of my 5k in 100 days program which will take me to the middle of October.  Then I may continue my runs with alternating some other form of exercise like bike, workout video etc.

So there you have it; my plan to get me through this challenge and into a smaller size.  I look forward to seeing how the other people do with this challenge.

P.s If you haven't already check out the Calphalon giveaway. Sorry to keep posting this, but I really want to win so I will continue to do so until 9/14.  hehe

Workout 9.2 and a Challenge

I did my Fartlek workout today.  I couldn’t remember what the time frame was for this workout since I watched the video a couple of days ago, but I started out with a 20 minute fast walk.  Then:

a 5 minute my regular pace run (I wanted to set myself up for workout 3 of this week)

walked

2 minute faster pace run

walked

1 minute 30 seconds run with a small portion of that running as fast as I could (I felt like I was going to keel over after the fast running)

walked

4 minute regular pace run

walked some more.   I took a shorter route today and that is what fit into getting me back home.  There were a lot of people out and about this morning so I felt a little insecure doing weird Fartlek stuff. Haha

I will be starting a challenge on Sunday called Christmas Dress Countdown Challenge 2011.  It will run from Sept. 11- Dec. 18^th.  You can check it out here. I’m looking forward to setting my “weight wagon” off down the hill.