Hula Hooping Works!

Obviously the title gave it away.  I've just spent exactly one month hula hooping at least 15-30 minutes a day.  I just couldn't wait to take my measurements today. And guess what? There is a noticeable difference!

Here are my stats from January 20th:

Height: 5'3
Weight: 154.0 lbs
Body Fat Percentage: no idea
Muscle Percentage: no idea
BMI: 27.3
Waist (at belly button): 31 in. (down from 32)
Waist (bellow belly button, aka, my pooch): 34 inches (down from 35.7)
Hips: 42 in (down from 42.5)
Chest: 35 in.
Thighs: no idea (will post later)
Arms: no idea (will post later)

Here are my stats now:

Height: 5'3
Weight: Fluctuates between 154 and 156...I'll claim 154.
Body Fat Percentage: no idea
Muscle Percentage: no idea
BMI: 27.3
Waist (at belly button): 30.5 in (down from 31 in.
Waist (bellow belly button, aka, my pooch): 33.5 inches (down from 34)
Hips: 41 in. (down from 42)
Chest: 35 in.
Thighs: 24.5
Arms: 11.5

So the results are a half inch loss off my waist and pooch.  This has given me a noticeable and definitive hourglass looking figure that I'm feeling right now.  Since I decided to start powerlifting, I have been advised by my husband to wear compression shirts.  These are tight, form-fitting shirts that do just as their name implies.  He advises buying a size smaller than you can wear.  So I bought a cute pink one from TJMaxx and wore it on Monday to the gym.  I have a great silhouette now (thanks hula hooping!) that was kind of hard for me to appreciate with the life being squeezed out of me.

Well I did notice the stares.  Maybe I had been getting them before and just hadn't noticed but folks just weren't hiding it this go around.  They usually stare at my husband and hey, I don't blame them there, the man looks like he was chiseled from stone.  But me?  It was mostly the women which made me even more uncomfortable.  Anyway I was getting my tricep kickback on at the gym, minding my own business, when a trainer I had seen off and on from time to time approached me. She flexed and said, "Wow you look great and toned. I can tell you lost over the months. Keep it up!" She proceeded to tell me it falls off the top before you see it on the legs and hips.  She high fived my husband who couldn't resist adding, "She can't help but to get straight working out with me." They laugh and she went on her way.  I hadn't even realized folks were paying attention.

I won't lie.  I was feeling:

  

A lot of the looks/stares just made me feel very uncomfortable.  I'm going to wear the compression shirts with a looser shirt over them to ward off the lookie loos.  It is most distracting. 

I have taken continual pictures throughout especially of my ab area to mark my progress.  I now have a new phone.  Guess where all those old pictures are?  So progress pictures will have to wait until I stop being lazy and save the images off the old phone.   My new phone is one I love dearly already.  A Moto X!  I got to customize it so it is raspberry (pretty much pink) with a black face and silver highlights with my name written on the back.  It greets me in Swahili when I turn it on and my wonderful husband bought me a clear cover to showcase it.  Well the cover isn't 100% clear, more like a clear frost but it gets the job done without covering up my customizations.  With a flick of the wrist I can activate the camera, it has a super fast processor and 16 gigs of space (with an additional 50 gigs in the google cloud).  I'm officially in love and highly recommend this phone.  My husband got the Samsung 4 which does have a much prettier and clearer display and better camera (13 gigs to my 10 gigs) but I still prefer mine.  Many, many more pictures to come.

It's Worth It

No truer words have ever been written.  Sometimes you just have to remind yourself.

Day 25 of the pull up/push up challenge.  I'm doing 15 pushups, this time with the proper form.  Proper form sucks.  I've had to break them back down again.  I do 5, rest 20 seconds, do 5, etc.  What my hubby does that drives me nuts is he waits until I have done my full arm routine with bicep curls, hammer curls, tricep kickbacks, etc., then he tells me to bust out some pushups and pullups.  My form may be perfect now but my arms are screaming.  Pullups...I can do 2 full ones still but they are not easy.  I'm still working on pullups his way.  I can hold myself up 8 seconds and slowly lower myself...he makes me do them overhand instead of underhand which is HARD.

Everything he makes me do is hard.  But ultimately it is worth it.  I want to be stronger and to preserve myself for the future.  For this I have to stay with it and do it right.  I want to buy weightlifting gloves but he says no.  My wrist keep moving out of the right position on the benchpress...he says he would rather I get accustomed to doing them right without assistance because ultimately the glove isn't going to help in consistently doing it right without it.  Now he thinks I'm going to do the benchpress competitively but he has another thought coming.  Squats are my bag. 

I went shopping for some gear this weekend...Kmart had this crazy sale on workout shirts.  I picked up a medium but the hubs stopped me.  "Get a small," he says.  I look at him like he is nuts because I haven't been a small in eons.  I got it anyway because hey, I can always return it, right?  It fit perfectly.  I love my silhouette now.  When I started out I was so lumpy and misshapen it was disheartening to look in the mirror, let alone wear clothing that fit close.  This was a serious confidence booster for me. 

I saw a young lady I hadn't seen in awhile (since December) at the local natural food store.  I had told her about my fitness aspirations at that time (with only 6 pounds lost).  She was stunned when she saw me (13 pounds down).  I showed her my comparison picture from August until mid January and she pointed out something I hadn't noticed:  I was even thinner than the picture I took mid-January!  When I went home I immediately took some pictures to compare and yes, indeed, I look smaller now even though the scale hasn't moved for the past week or so.  I will have to give it to hula hooping.  There is an evident visual difference in my upper and lower abs between January 20th and February 8th. Also something else I noticed is that my upper arms are much tighter.  I guess that came from holding my arms up while hula-hooping.  I can't wait to take my measurements on the 21st.  Even if there isn't a change, visually things just seem much tighter.

My husband did measure my calves for comparison with his.  It's a shame...our calves are the SAME SIZE!  15 inches.  I'm 5'3" with 15 inch calf muscles.  I've always had big legs (my husband calls them cheerleader legs) but for crying out loud.  I measured them around the beginning of the year and they were 14.5".  They grew a half an inch in a month!  Darn squats and calf raises.  In my quest for muscle, I am well in the running for She-Hulk legs.  I knew that was going to be a consequence of focusing on squatting...my legs have always been more muscular and larger in proportion to my body.  So much so that a classmate back in high school swore up and down that despite my petite figure then I was going to be overweight when I was older because my legs were so big.  What a mean thing to say to someone (now that I think about it).  Anyway I am going to keep an eye on that.

On the bright side, I no longer have cankles so I guess you have to take the good with the good (but huge).

Decisions, Decisions...

I had a rather difficult decision to make.  One of my resolutions was to run a 5k.  I am also interested in powerlifting (squats).  I didn't mention that before?  Well, I am.  Although my dearest powerlifting hubby can do both distance and powerlifting he advises sprinting to compliment powerlifting.  I decided to go with powerlifting and forgo my 5k aspirations.  I did download C25k on my kindle and got through day one (2 miles woohoo, happy dance!).  I still wasn't tired (but I was done).  It will have to wait.  He wants me to train a good six months minimum before even thinking about a competition.

I want to set a record in South Carolina...none exist in squats in any weight class.  My weight class would be the 148 lb division same as my husband's.  He holds SC records (bench press), American records and world powerlifting records.  He is really strong.  Personally I'm on the fence about deadlifts and the benchpress is out.  Back in 2011, I could benchpress 65 and I was pretty darn proud of that.  I don't really have an interest in benchpressing though.  I guess I will have to try a deadlift to ultimately make a decision about it.

The most I had gotten to when I had decided to start squatting back in 2011 was 105 pounds.  My biggest challenge wasn't squatting...it was balancing the weight on my shoulders so that would more than likely be the case now.  Right now I do weighted squats 3 sets of 15 with a 30 pound barbell and lunges (I don't count I go partial length of the weight-room--about 20 feet) for 4 passes) with 20 pounds.  To be honest this is easy but I just haven't told the hubs that yet...he already said everything I do from now on regarding powerlifting solely (squats, deadlift, bench) will have to be with the 45 pound bar and up.

I can't wait for the day I bust through the testosterone ceiling of the weight room and make the big muscled men cry.

Okay it is 8 days later (Day 19) and I'm not really challenging myself to do more than 10 push ups.  The hubs wants me to work on adding more.  I'll start that tomorrow.

Another reason I slowed down is that I got this bad cramp in my right shoulder...apparently I was doing my pushups with incorrect form.  It was a slight movement off but enough to aggravate my shoulder.  I was advised to rest it and haven't done pushups since Saturday but I think it is fine now.  Back on the horn tomorrow.  In another week I hope to be up to 15 pushups.

On January 29th it snowed here in South Carolina.  Yeah...2 whole inches of misery from the sky.  Not a snow fan here.  That's why I live in the South.  So whenever there is a chance of snow here EVERYTHING shuts down.  There was a lot of preparation here so by the time the snow came everyone was safe and sound.  We averted the craziness that was Atlanta, thanks to their politician's poor planning and preparation (but that's a whole other blog post).  Anywho, what can you do when school is out, you're trapped inside due to iced over roads (the entire Midlands has only 9 snow plows that were focused more on the interstates) with hyper kids?  You hula hoop of course!  I finally learned how to hula hoop and have done it every day since!

I have a 2 pound hoop I bought from Kohl's.  After the first day, my obliques and abs hurt something fierce.  They were red and throbbing.  Now I don't feel the pain at all.  I can hoop in both directions but I'm not good enough to keep it up with the kiddos yet.  Either way I hope I see results off my middle because of it.  My next hoop up is going to be the 3 pounder.