I am SELFISH!!!!!

Selfish is sort of a bad word no days. It’s a jab you throw at people who aren’t doing something that will benefit you in the end. It an insult you use when putting down an enemy. All together it’s just a very bad word and no one wants it to be used to describe them!

The average American is awake for 16-18 hours a day. Within those 16-18 hours they are getting  their family up in the morning, feeding  them, getting the dressed, taking kids to school, going into work, solving problems for a boss for 8+ hours, leaving work to go get the kids from school/daycare, getting home, cooking, bathes, and finally bed! To me when you stop and think of it, when do we even have time to be selfish? We are taking care of everyone else around us and not stopping to put ourselves 1^st. Yes, I will agree that our kids are VERY important to us and we need to take care of them and make money to do so… but if you don’t care of yourself, how can you take care of them for the long haul?

                I have the luxury right now that I was able to rearrange my schedule so that I can have an hour or 2 of ME (selfish) time!!! I now work 7am – 4pm, go pick Caleb up from daycare and go straight to the gym. The gym is my selfish time; it’s where I go to escape and to think. It’s okay to be selfish sometimes, because if you aren’t going to take care of yourself, then who is going to do it for you?

                If you still feel guilty that you just got off work and you are putting your child in daycare at the gym for one more hour while you workout, just think of it as you are adding years onto your life. The more you work out, the healthier you become; the healthier you are, the more years you add to your life! So think of this “selfish” time as a gift to your children later on in life. They won’t remember the 1 hour a day extra they are in the gym daycare when they are 50 years old, but they will remember how long they had their parents in their lives because they were healthy! You are also giving them the gift of being healthy, because you are teaching them to be “selfish” and to start a routine of going to the gym daily…!

       So my advice for the day: BE MORE SLEFISH!!!!!

Muscle Soreness

I have been working out a lot here lately and haven’t been getting sore. Not too worried about it because I am still losing weight and inches and every workout I am breaking a sweat to the point I could fill up a water bottle, so I know I am pushing myself. So, you know me and I believe that “google” is the answer to everything in life, so I googled it!!! And this is an article that I came across and wanted to share with my blog followers!

http://www.intense-workout.com/muscle_soreness.html

Muscle soreness is not, I repeat, is NOT an indicator of a good workout. Sore muscles the day after does not mean you had an effective workout or productive workout or a results-causing workout. Therefore, NOT being sore the day after doesn't mean your workout was bad, or ineffective, or unproductive, or useless. As far as effectiveness, muscle soreness means nothing.

So then, what's the deal? How come you only get sore some times and not others? How come you used to get sore every time, but now you hardly ever do? Well, it's all pretty simple. Muscle soreness usually occurs when you make your muscles do something that they just aren't used to doing. For example, when you first started working out, that was very likely when you experienced the most soreness. Forget the next day... you were probably sore for the entire next week! But then as your body gradually gets more accustomed to what you're doing, your body gradually experiences less and less muscle soreness until it reaches the point where you are barely sore or even not sore at all anymore the day(s) after a workout.

****So don’t worry if you aren’t sore after a workout as long as you know in your heart of hearts that you pushed yourself 110% and left your blood, sweat and tears out there on the floor! For me, I am going to start worrying about not being sore, the week I stop seeing results and hit a plateau.

Everybody and every BODY is different!

To keep the fat clothes or to not keep the fat clothes? That is the question….

Fat clothes - a pair of pants (probably something with elastic) that you keep shoved in the back of your closet or dresser JUST INCASE you eat too much or go off the deep in and don’t work out for a couple of days or more.

The other day a friend of mine was talking about how she keeps a few outfits a size bigger so that if she gains weight she has a set of clothes to fall back on. I got to thinking about this and to me it seems a bit crazy! Every time I go down a size in clothes (since I got serious about my weight loss) I clean out my closet and donate my “big” clothes. To me, keeping your fat clothes in your closet is kind of like saying “hey, it’s okay if you put on a couple of pounds and slack for awhile!” I think the fat clothes are just hindering you from getting to where you wanna be as quickly as you want to get there. If you know you have a net to fall back on, you are more likely to fall back sooner and stay there longer. If you do not have fat clothes waiting for you in your closet, you are more likely to push yourself harder because you don’t want your new and current size to get tight on you.

If you are constantly going down a size and you don’t want to keep donating your clothes because you can’t afford to buy new ones, maybe try a “Swag Party”!!! Get all your girlfriends together and tell them to clean out their closet and bring all their clothes that are too big or too small that they don’t want anymore. Host a party at your house and put all the clothes in piles according to size and each person can go through the piles and find “new” clothes! This way you’re getting rid of your fat clothes and you are getting new clothes in exchange! I think I might be hosting one of these soon, so keep an eye out for an invite!!!

NOW… ON YOUR MARK… GET SET…. GO CLEAN OUT YOUR CLOSET!!!!

The Challenge!

I am very open about my weight, it’s just a number and if my number is going to change how you feel about me then I really don’t care to have you in my life anyways! That being said… I have officially lost 80 lbs! I started this journey at 265 and yesterday I weighed in with Lo at 185!!! After we weighed, Lo told me that next weigh in (Wednesday, February 2, 2011) she would love for me to lose 5lbs. The challenge has been set, but if you really know me then you know I am a one upper when it comes to setting goals for myself so I see her 5 pounds and raise her 1 pound!!!

Challenge: Lose 6 pounds in 14 days

I am a nerd and sat down last night and figured out all my workouts and meals and how many calories I would have to burn in order to make this happen!!!!

Workouts:

Thursday 1/20 – Train with Lo

Friday 1/21 – Elliptical 1 hour; Cardio Dance Party 1 hour

Saturday 1/22 – Burn for Bikini’s 2 hour class

Sunday 1/23 – Cycle 1 hour; Running Program 30 minutes

Monday 1/24 – Train with Lo

Tuesday 1/25 – Cardio Dance Party 45 minutes; Ab class 15 minutes

-          Caleb spends the night with Val

Wednesday 1/26 – AM: Running program 30 minutes & Elliptical 30 minutes. PM: Train with Lo

Thursday 1/27 – Train with Lo

-          Caleb spends the night with Val

Friday 1/28 – AM: Running program 30 minutes. PM: Elliptical 1 hour; Cardio Dance Party 1 hour

Saturday 1/29 – AM: Elliptical 1 hour. PM: Running Program 1 hour

Sunday 1/30 - Cycle 1 hour; Running Program 30 minutes

Monday 1/31 – Train with Lo

Tuesday 2/1 - Cardio Dance Party 45 minutes; Ab class 15 minutes

-          Caleb spends the night with Val

****Wednesday 2/2 - AM: Running program 30 minutes & Elliptical 30 minutes. PM: WEIGH IN!!!

1 pound = 3500 calories * 6 pounds I want to lose = 21,000 calories to burn. 21,000 / 14 days to burn those calories = 1500 calories needs to be negative in my backwards bank account every day!

I am going to stick to a meal plan on 1500 - 1700 calories a day (depending on my workout that day) and then with my Basal Metabolic Rate being around 1500 – 1700 a day, I should reach this goal of losing 6 pounds in 14 days! Basically my BMR and my meals are cancelling each other out and I am going to have to burn 1500 calories a day at the gym… I so got this!

Thanks for reading my ramblings!