Day 21--Again

I may get a little personal here, so please bear with me.  Not that any of you were wondering about it, but I wanted to post what I have learned as I've been trying Jillian Michaels "Making the Cut" 30 day program.

Since I've had the time--(Yeah Summer!) I decided to go through the 30 day workout twice, hence the title of this post.  So here are my results & other random things I feel like sharing:

1.  I have lost about 10 pounds +/-.  It's hard to know for sure because I've realized that my weight fluctuates throughout the day.  One day it was as much as a 4 pound difference between the morning and the evening.

2.  Which leads me to my second point--if you plan to participate in any kind of program like this make sure you use various modalities of measuring progress.  What I mean is take your measurements: upper arm, waist, hips, upper thigh, calf.  Also, if possible find out your resting heart rate, blood pressure, & body fat percentage.  Did I do any of these?  NO!  Which is crazy because I know all of this and I have the tools to do it.  Oh Well.

3.  All of my clothes fit again!! Hurray!  I thought about taking a picture, but I'm sure I'm the only one who really cares if I can pull my waistband out a little.  I'm just excited because at the beginning of June I couldn't even get my pants over my hips.  It is exciting to see my progress in that way.  This also means that any hint of chest that I had is completely gone. *BIG SIGH*  Oh well, what else is new.  (Is it wrong/vain/selfish/ungrateful to want implants sometimes?)

4.  Probably the biggest thing for me was not only literally training my body through exercise, but nutritional training.  I always just assumed I was fine and didn't need to worry too much about what I ate, as long as it was pretty healthy.  I NEVER counted calories or even cared about how much I consumed.  However, when I was well underway the first time around on this 30 day program I, like everyone else, wanted to start seeing some changes.  I felt discouraged.  So after doing a little more research and calculating my Basal Metabolic Rate, I realized that I was eating close to 3000 calories a day!  I don't know about you but that was shocking to me!  So I knew that I needed to eat fewer calories.  What I had to train myself to do was make food choices that would give me the "most bang for my buck."  I didn't want to deprive myself, or constantly feel hungry.  I made sure that I ate some form of protein (yogurt, peanut butter, lean meat, nuts, etc.) with every meal and snack.  I also started to look at serving sizes.  If possible I would check the nutrition information label and find out how much 1 serving actually was.  

Can I just say, one serving is a lot smaller that what I was eating.  At first it was discouraging--but then I just ate a little slower; chewed a little more and soon I noticed that one serving really was enough as long as it was combined with more veggies and a little protein.  

It was hard overcoming my eating habits.  You know, when the kids have gone to bed and it's time to pull out the "Parent's dessert", etc.  I never (and still never) really worry about what time of day I eat a little something.  I just traded some of my usual favorites with a better choice.  I'm still human people! I still eat chocolate cookies smeared in peanut butter.  I just don't eat as many or as often.

For example we usually bought the Nature Valley Sweet & Salty "granola" bars at Costco.  I mean who can argue with a delicious snack that everyone likes and a huge box is pretty affordable?!  I mean peanuts are a good source of protein, right?  When I started to really look at the nutrition label however, I discovered that of the 24 INGREDIENTS (Ok, it's a granola bar, I bake enough to know that it doesn't take 24 ingredients to make one); At least 6 of those ingredients are to make it sweeter--including High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Say what you want to about HFCS, but as for me and my house we try to avoid it.  So once we had finished our last box I haven't and will not buy those again.  Instead I stock up on pistachios, Lara Bars, beef jerky, string cheese, nonfat greek yogurt, etc. 

If I sound totally weird right now--well I guess I am.  All I know is that I feel better.  I have more strength and stamina and I am full on less calories than before.

If you decide to look into Jillian Michaels' book and program please note that you will need some equipment.  She obviously put it together with a gym membership in mind.  I don't have a gym membership, but over the years we have accumulated enough equipment and knowledge that I can get creative and complete all of the exercises.  I don't have a treadmill, so for the times she wants you to do a 1 min. run, I just run a loop around our townhome complex.  I figure it's better than nothing.  Do what you want with this information--heck if you've read this far into this post I thank you.  I just felt like I should post some kind of conclusion since I put this out there at the beginning of the summer.

Some of you may be wondering what will happen to all of this once school starts.  I've been thinking about that too since I will not be able to stick to such a regimen.  I've purchased Jillian Michaels' "Ripped in 30" DVD.  She has 4 different workouts that are approximately 20 min. long (not counting warm-up/cool down).  All you need is a couple of hand weights.  Each workout consists of 3?4? (I'm not sure, I've only done it once) circuits of 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of Cardio, and 1 minute of Abs.  She has two other people with her, one showing modifications and one showing you more advanced versions.  It's pretty awesome and I definitely recommend it.  Kelly has been doing this a few times a week.  I'm really hopeful that it will allow me the opportunity to workout once my schedule gets crazy busy.

So, that's that.  It's been a great summer.  I'm grateful for a healthy, strong body and the opportunity I've had to do this program.