Progress Post

Last week was a little disappointing as far as progress goes because I got a cold and I think that made me not progress.  However, I did take some after pics.  

First of all, I don't wear bikinis.  There was one year where I thought I would try it out and it just wasn't for me.  I'm self conscious about my belly and about modesty (especially around people I know).  I love tankinis though.  

I had these tankini bottoms in my drawer.  The 'before" pictures are in a black sports bra.  The "after" (more like "current") pictures are with a bikini top I just bought at Target.  I'll probably only use it for before/after pics and to lay out.   

These before/afters are not from after I had Sophie until now.  They are from when I started with my trainer last month and last Saturday.

My stats are:
137 lbs
14.9% body fat
120 lbs of muscle

For the competition I need to cut about 7% more body fat.  Therefore, I am starting two-a-day cardio training.  That's two forty-five minute sessions, six days a week.  The awesome thing is that my heart rate has to be around 152 the whole time.  Gah!

But it will be worth it!  Great things are often hard to get.

I decided to go darker with my hair so when it is time for the competition I don't look totally fake with platinum hair, spray tan, and oiled body.  I'll show you the after pic soon.

5 Must-Do's for a Healthy Lifestyle

Happy Monday!  

I had an awesome weekend.  We went to a parade and rodeo with my family.  I can usually handle one rodeo per year and this was it.  

Sophie's first sucker.

Morgan cooling off.

I thought this "float" in the parade was awesome.  It is for a gym and they had people weight lifting on it.

I had a friend ask me (on Instagram @losscausekelli) for my top 5 must-do things to start a healthy lifestyle change.  I thought it was worthy of a blog post for anyone else wondering how to start and succeed.  

And here's my list of must-do's:

1. Have a goal.  Weight, size, race, etc.

2. Measure your body in a few ways so you can see numbers going down when the scale doesn't.  I took some string and measured around my waist, legs and arms.  I cut the string that length and now I can see how many inches I have lost.  

Check your starting weight and check once a week.

And go to a gym and get your body fat checked.  Do this once a month (or week if you want).  

3. Have a plan.  

What are you going to eat every day for every meal?  Write it down.  Prepare the meals or make sure you have the ingredients the day before.  This seems like a big feat, but it works.  Even if you eat the same thing every day (like I do), plan it.  If you are going to have a treat, plan it -- i.e. birthdays, holidays, Saturdays, etc.  Don't deprive yourself but don't just munch on things.  

Keep meal replacement bars or shakes in your car/purse in case you unexpectedly get stuck away from home.  

Be excited for the treat you have planned.  I find that once a week on Saturdays is great because I look forward to it all week (I'm not doing that now but when I'm not training for a show that's what I do).

Remember that "he who fails to plan plans to fail" (or whatever that quote is).  I should be a motivational speaker.  :)

4.  Don't let people/commercials/media/etc make you think that carbs and fat are bad!  They are good.  Eat well rounded meals with carbs, protein and fat.  But also remember that calories are what matter when you are losing weight.  

5.  Have someone to be accountable to.  If you can hire a trainer, I recommend it.  Generally if you have a monetary investment in something you will use it more effectively.  I can get my weight down on my own but having a trainer really helps me stay on track 100% of the time.  I don't want to disappoint (or waste my money).  

If you can't or don't want to hire a trainer, get a friend (specifically one who is reaching his/her fitness goals) to be the one you tell where you're at at once a week.  

These are the first five things that came to my mind.  

Now I'll leave you with a shameless selfie...

How Do You Get Through Cardio?

Are you guys following your favorite blogs on Bloglovin yet?  I just signed up today.  I probably will never check it because I just go to those blogs anyway, but if you want to know when new posts are up  that is a great way.

And of course this blog would be on your "favorites" list, right?!  So you should know that you can find it at Bloglovin and I think my blog # is 8083927.  Or you can just click the icon to the right (top) and do it the easy way.

Today on the blog... How Do You Get Through Cardio?

My trainer is having me do 45 minutes of cardio 2 times and 35 minutes of intervals 3 times this week.  The 45 minutes is at 65% of my max heart rate and the time starts once my heart rate gets there.  So it's really like 50 minutes.  Same with the intervals except I get to 65% then go as hard as I can as long as I can, then let my heart rate drop back down to 65%.

This week I have been doing the Stair Master.  This is one of my favorite cardio machines because it gets my heart rate up quickly and it is hard.  And I sweat like a maniac.  But it's not my fave for intervals.  Have you ever tried to run on one?  Like at max speed (20) for 30 seconds or a minute?  I tripped a bunch of times.  Luckily I never fell.

I bring either a book or my iPad (to watch a show) to pass cardio time.  I love it.  It's the one time of day where nobody is all, "mo-om!" or "wipe my bum," or "you're ruining my day!"  Those things make me laugh, but this is just relaxing, for lack of a better word.

Yesterday my gym moved all of the equipment to a different location.  In the picture below I am standing by the weights and all the cardio equipment is upstairs overlooking the weight room.  You can see the glass railing that goes to the top of the spin bikes.  Well it goes about to where you stand on the Stair Master so today I didn't dare use my iPad because for sure it would have been the day it fell 30 feet and shattered.

That's my cardio talk for the week.  

And here's a close-out Shade shirt that I bought a few days ago.  Loving it!  It's on clearance for $12 here.  I'm in a medium.  Got both colors.

Randomness from the 4th

It was such a full and good week for me and my family last week.  My husband's siblings were all in town from all over the country so we got together a lot.  

Family Pictures

 

Fireworks

Last week I did 45 minutes of cardio once I got to my target HR range (65%).  That was 5 days a week. I lifted 5 days a week as well.  I've been doing 1-2 muscle groups per day so I get every one during the week.

It's all about lighting.

I always wear my Brady Bands to keep my hair out of my face.  They rock.

Our Brady Bands

The biggest part of getting ready for a competition (at least bikini) is the food.  It all has to be clean.  Unless you count the Crystal Light packets or Splenda that I use once in a while, it's 100% clean.  No treats.

BBQ Veggies

Patriotic 2nd Breakfast

I know it's not for most people, but I'm seeing results so quickly that it is worth it to me.

When I started training for the show almost 4 weeks ago I was at 20-23% body fat.  I'm now around 16%.  I have a long way to go for the competition but I feel great.  And I feel like I look good.

Last week I didn't lose any weight.  I'm still at 139.4 lbs.  But I did lose a little over 1% body fat.  That means that I lost fat and gained muscle.  And that's the whole point!!!  It's not about the number on the scale.

What I Think About Cleanses

Here's another post where I tell you what I think about something.  And today's "something" is the ever popular "cleanse."

Bunk!

So you want to rid your body of toxins?  Well, so do your liver and kidneys.  In fact, that's what they're there for.  That's what they've been doing for your entire life.

Do you cleanse to lose weight?  Awesome.  Losing weight from a cleanse is mostly water weight.  So if you lose 10 pounds in a week or two it's probably water with a little muscle and fat.  So your body fat percentage probably doesn't decrease.  You are just smaller fat with less water but as soon as you eat normally again, you'll gain it back.

Is your cleanse to jump-start your diet?  That's fine.  If you need that mental jump-start, go for it.

One problem is that when people do cleanses, they generally cut out important fiber and protein, which is not good for the body.

I saw on the Today Show (and we all know that's like a legit scientific informant) that there is no scientific evidence that cleanses work, but there is a lot of money to be made in the industry.

I guess the point of this is to let you know that if you feel like you should be doing a cleanse because everyone else is, don't worry about it!  Eat a well rounded, healthy diet and you will be all cleaned out without the financial, emotional, and hunger costs.

And now I'd like to start your week off with a little perspective.  I bought this cute workout outfit last year in China while I was pregnant so I wasn't really able to try it on and see how it fit.  I just looked for what looked like my size.  Well, it finally fits.

Look at the size!  Hahaha!  I'm really big for a Chinese person.