A Picture Is Worth....

Ok, so I'm in the room cleaning up and I find a pair of pants that I haven't been able to wear since 2012.  So I decide to try them on and guess what?  They fit!  Perfectly.  Hey, don't just take my word for it:

As a bonus, here is a progress picture from January 2014 at 159 pounds wearing size 12 pants:

Down a total of 17 pounds from my heaviest at 167 pounds!  These pants are a size 10!  Five more pounds and I'll be completely happy.  Those arms are looking good too.  I could afford to lose a little bit of for the abs as well but overall I'm happy for now.

Remember the Give It 100?  Ok it's been roughly 60 some odd days and I can do 25 pushups and 3 pull ups!  Total of 30 before I'm through and 5 pull ups before my arms say no more. The real ones too.  Progress!

I finally made it to a Zumba class last Thursday.  It was a lot of fun and requires a lot of endurance and very little inhibitions for dancing in public. I have both. I just neglected to bring a towel and water which had me drinking over a gallon for the rest of the night and first thing in the morning. Lesson learned.  I've never sweated that much. I'll probably do it once monthly so it doesn't take away from my weight training.

Feeling Good, Getting Strong

Somehow my crafting blog became my fitness blog.  Go figure.  I am still crocheting and knitting but have yet to actually master the art of completing.  Projects have either been left undone or frogged.  I did put together two 1000 piece puzzles and pinned a bunch of stuff on Pinterest so I was a bit creative...somewhat.  So, yeah.

I got an upper respiratory infection from my youngest around the 26th of February.  Misery.  The kids all caught it and recovered after a day.  I caught it and was sick for a week, even missed a few days of work.  Hubby caught it and it knocked him down too.

THEN because life wasn't eventful enough, the alternator in the car died and left me stranded on the one day the temperature dropped from 60 to 30 in a 15 minute span and left me waiting an hour for a tow truck.  Why do alternators give NO WARNINGS whatsoever?  Things just stop working.  I'm driving along.  It's pouring rain and the windshield wipers stop working.  I try calling my husband to fuss him out but he doesn't answer.  Then I noticed the lights on the dash were dim and after a quick test of the interior lights, I knew the battery was dying.  I quickly turned into a Dollar General parking lot and cut the engine which was apparently a smart move, not letting the battery completely die.  I've had a dying alternator before so I knew the signs.  It was rainy and cold but the tow truck driver was nice and pretty darn cool.

The rain finally cleared up over the weekend...heavenly seventy degree weather!  Could it be that spring is finally here?  I certainly hope so because my muscles aren't feeling the temperature rollercoaster South Carolina's been on the past couple of weeks.  Speaking of muscles...

I've decided to put my powerlifting aspirations on hold temporarily.  Why?  I would rather have muscle definition.  I'm strong but nothing about my physique screams it.  I want defined arms and legs, especially arms.  They are slender now but where is my Michelle Obama muscle definition?  Nonexistent.  So my husband is changing up my routine to that of a body builder although I am still doing some of the powerlifting development routines. 

So I got back on the bench today.  I can bench press the bar ten times with perfect form.  It isn't wobbly or falling to the side.  Not the 45 pound bar.  The 50 pound bar.  I don't know what happened but somehow I got stronger.  While enthused, I wish it would bring muscle definition.  I upped my cardio and will go to a Zumba class on Thursday.  I'm writing it here to make sure it gets done.  So far I haven't been able to do them for the following reasons:  snow, illness and injury.  Yep, I aggravated a groin muscle (irritating) last week, I was sick the week before that, and it snowed and shut down South Carolina the week before that.  If something happens this week, I'll take that as a sign to leave Zumba alone. 

That is all...well not quite.  I did try an Arabic Bellydance Fat Burn Cardio workout yesterday (all four parts on YouTube).  I haven't tried those since I first started working out in October/November.  They were torturous then.  I have a bit more endurance but they are still hard to do.  Worked up a crazy sweat.  Got up this morning and was a bit confused as to why my calves were so darn sore.  Then I remembered.  That workout is no joke so I may do that twice weekly as my cardio in case Zumba doesn't work out.

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. 

Push-Ups

This is Day 11 of the pull-ups/push-ups challenge.  So, I can do 10 pushups in a row baby!  Can't tell me nothing.

I'm on my way to 25 in a row push-ups!  By summer I will have arms and shoulders like one of my favorite fitness inspirations:

Photo by Reuters/Landov

That's the plan at least.  My shoulders are soft and round now and nowhere near the shapeliness they had when I was in my early 20s.  I could do up to 30 back then (in sets of 10) and I could do pull-ups.  I am getting better and better with the pull-ups.  My husband has put the bar up higher and I can actually hold myself within an inch of the bar for six seconds now.  I do 3 reps of those.

My middle is whittling away.  I won't do any more measurements until February 24, 2014.  Hopefully I will see some inch difference.  I feel the difference already.  The weather has been cold but I cannot let that deter me from my fitness goals.

The hubs has a pretty good collection of resistance bands that I want to use eventually.  I am overall happy with my progress...the thing is my waist is pretty much where I want it to be (give or take an inch or so) while everything else (muffintop) isn't moving as fast.  I think the Russian Twists would help especially using the resistance bands.


*********************************

So digging back through my archives I came across this little ditty from 2010.

  Yes, this is me.  I weighed about 135 pounds, which in my opinion is way too small for me.  Look at my clavicle sticking out! I don't want to be this small again.  Anyway, that isn't why I posted this.  See the top I'm wearing?  That is the Blissful top from The Happy Hooker (2006).  I made some changes to the pattern...I connected the back so this is a full shirt.  I made it from Bernat Satin Sport yarn and was really really proud of myself.  I couldn't fit into that thing for anything these days but that is besides the point.  I am making it again!  This time I decided to use Pink Bamboo thread yarn (size 10) which makes for a lot of modifications.  It's just really beautiful and something I want to aim to wear come summer when I hit the beach.

Graze Box Review

Maybe you've seen the Facebook ad for them, popping up in your feed incessantly because one of your friends liked the page.  Maybe you looked at the NatureBox and the all-seeing Google and Facebook collaborated and popped like searches in your feed.  Maybe you've never heard of Graze at all.  Well, now you're in luck.  I have heard of Graze and have received my (free!) box in the mail yesterday.

 Here is the Graze box.  It fits in the mail box...fairly smallish.  I placed the CD there for a comparison.  Well I received an interesting assortment. I will review them all individually.

Dark Rocky Road
Ingredients: 

pecan

dark chocolate buttons (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural vanilla) 50% Cacao

cranberries (cranberries, sugar, sunflower oil)

My Thoughts:  I'm not a dark chocolate fan so that aside, these were really good.  I'd recommend them, even if I only ate the cranberry and pecans.  The inner packaging says they have a best by date of April 1, 2014.  It isn't more or less good than the nut mixes I buy locally especially since I take care to avoid dark chocolate.  Like I said I would recommend them but for my money I would have to take a pass.

Chili and Lime Pistachios
Ingredients:
pistachios, salt, natural chili and lime flavors

My Thoughts:  LOVE THEM!  These are absolutely delicious!  The chili and lime compliment the flavor of the pistachios perfectly.  I would have been happy with an entire box filled with them.  It is going to be hard to go back to Wonderful's plain salted pistachios (I can't find the cracked pepper ones anymore).  I HIGHLY recommend these.

Bonnie Wee Oatbakes
Ingredients:

cheese and chive oatbakes (55%) (oatmeal (64%) , cheese powder (8%) (suitable for vegetarians), olive oil, salt, chives (contains gluten)

red onion marmalade (45%):  (red onions (52%), white wine vinegar, muscovado sugar, sugar, balsamic vinegar, black pepper)

My Thoughts: Disgusting!  Okay, that's being a bit overly critical.  They weren't that bad.  I did somewhat like the red onion marmalade.  I absolutely abhorred the cheese and chive oatbakes.  They were bland with little flavor.  The best part about eating them was the red onion marmalade.  After one, I was satisfied not to try any more.  I don't think I would recommend this.  One of my coworker's loved it while everyone else agreed with me, so I would have to say it is an acquired taste.  

Summer Berry Flapjack

Ingredients:

rolled oats (41%)

margarine (vegetable oils, water, salt)

demerera sugar

golden syrup

infused cranberries (11%) (sugar, cranberries, natural strawberry flavor, natural raspberry flavor, citric acid, sunflower oil, elderberry juice concentrate)

cranberries (sugar, cranberries, sunflower oil) (contains gluten)  

My Thoughts:  Delicious!  Unfortunately they had a no-no ingredient of mine that I didn't realize until after I partook in one of them:  margarine.  I avoid vegetable oil mixtures like the plague and was disappointed that they couldn't find another type of oil (olive, coconut, sunflower, etc) to cook with.  After reading that ingredient I couldn't bring myself to eat more.  If you aren't particular about eating margarine, then I would highly recommend them because they are absolutely divine!

Now here is the big question.  Would I order these again?  Since we are able to go on the site and pick and choose what we like or don't like and trash the things we never want to receive again, I would say yes, I would order again with a box tailored to my own preferences.  The only thing I absolutely didn't like was the oatbakes.  Everything else was pretty damn good. 

Beware!  SHAMELESS PLUG 

If you would like to try a Graze box for FREE....By all means go HERE and enter friendcode:  VD7QTMDCP.

It's free so you have nothing to lose!  My advice is to go through, look at the ingredients and pick and choose what you wouldn't mind receiving prior to having the box shipped.  You can't decide exactly what you want in it but you can come very close to getting what you want.