littleissa

Thanks guys, your encouragement means so much!! Thanksgiving wasn't nearly as rough as I thought it would be. Being 500 miles from our family, we do Friendsgiving with our Army friends (who have become our family up here), where we are the only ones eating Paleo or watching what we're eating. While we didn't eat strictly Paleo on Thursday, we made sure to eat a large Paleo breakfast (eggs, bacon, veggies) to fill us up so we were less likely to binge at lunch time. I made mashed sweet potatoes, along with my great-grandmother's recipes for pumpkin pie and bread. Since we only eat those 2 foods twice a year (Thanksgiving and Christmas), and it's a family tradition for those foods, I went ahead and let myself have a small slice of each. I also enjoyed turkey, deviled eggs, pork tenderloin, green beans, my mashed sweet potatoes, and a couple bites of stuffing just for kicks and giggles. I actually ended up eating a fairly small meal overall, which was a first. I think really watching my portions has effected my desire to eat large meals, and I find myself eating smaller meals as the day goes on (breakfast is larger, with a medium-sized lunch and a smaller dinner). Thankfully, I feel pretty okay about how much I ate and don't think it's going to effect the scale as much as I'd anticipated this week. Yesterday was spent Christmas shopping with my pedometer, and I got a lot more walking in yesterday than I'd expected! Also, my husband noticed this week that my stomach is looking a little flatter and I've had a couple people notice my face is thinning out. I know my face is the first place to show weight loss or weight gain, but to hear my hubby tell me my stomach is looking flatter and that he's proud of me for how well I'm doing and how I'm not giving up is such a confidence boost for me! We've also set some "prizes" for my goals: when I drop one more pant size, he's going to buy me any choice of t-shirt from www.burpeessuck.com and when I hit my goal weight he's going shopping at Victoria's Secret because I'll FINALLY be able to fit into their sexy stuff!! I can tell that he's happy that I've finally taken some action to my constant complaining about weight, and it makes me so much more determined to see us both excited about my weight loss Hope all of my US friends celebrated a happy (and somewhat healthy!) Thanksgiving!

Jumped on the scale this morning for my weekly weigh-in and I've officially hit the 10lbs down mark! I've been really watching what I eat and my portions (portion control was a huge area lacking in my life pre-challenge), and of course working out, which has apparently been enough! Down one pant size and 10lbs - woohoo!!! I'm 1/5 of the weight loss to my overall goal (a healthy 140 with muscle) and down 1 pant size (my quest for this challenge is 2 pant sizes) and I feel SO encouraged to keep going!

Good gravy, I'm terrible at this updating thing! I promise I've been better at staying on top of my challenge than I have at staying on top of posting updates As of this past Saturday, I'm down one pant size! Friday night we went out to dinner and to see Catching Fire (ah-may-zing!) and I had to put a belt on to keep my pants up. For the record, I hate belts, and the last time I put this particular belt on was in August and I had to put it on the very last hole just to get it to fit. This time, I had it on the third hole in, so I knew it was time to try different pants. Saturday morning I pulled out a pair of jeans that was a size smaller than I normally wear and they fit just fine! Woo hoo! Just to make sure that I hadn't pulled out a pair that had stretched out, I put on 2 more pairs of the smaller size and they fit, too! I can't even tell you the number of happy dances I did around the house lol This is aboslutely the first time I've truly felt confident that I can do this. My husband said he's never seen me so confident and excited about losing weight, and he's never seen me keep at it for this long. I can't even tell you the pride that I feel right now, and it's amazing!

Glad the Zumba video worked out for you! And yeah, I had to take a couple days off from squats (kept doing everything else, though) because my legs were very Jell-Oie and cramping despite the massive amount of water I was taking in. Back at it today, though!!

Yay! Can you link me to your Paleo board? I'd love to follow it!

I miss bread in my morning routine a lot. I loved toast with my eggs, pancakes and waffles, and bagels with cream cheese! We try to eat about 80/20 Paleo, with the 20 typically being dairy or tortillas. The lunges in the BBW is KILLING me too, so you're not alone! My legs feel like Jell-O on a regular basis, especially my frammies (Frammy: the front part of your hamstrings - also known as hammies - that are commonly called your quads unless you live in my world). Make sure you're getting enough water after doing BBW or else you may wake up in the middle of the night with the worst charlie horse cramp of your life! And unfortunately, I'm speaking from experience... don't give up though! I do raw spinach, or if it's added into an omelette, but I'd never considered cooking the veggies in the bacon grease. And brussel sprouts in bacon grease sounds incredible!! Got a link to a recipe I can check out? I love all of these ideas! Like I said, we're about 80/20 Paleo with the 20 being dairy and tortillas. And wine. Gosh I love wine. But the ideas you gave me here are definitely some good breakfast ideas I'm going to try! Thanks Thank goodness tomorrow is payday, aka grocery day!

Hey guys! Hope everyone's had a good first few days Sorry I've been MIA around here this week - finishing up my last week of grad school for the semester so needless to say it's been a little chaotic around here! I'm doing pretty well so far, though. As of Tuesday morning, I was down another 2 pounds (sorry to my Metric-lovin' friends, I have no clue how many kg that is lol). I've been doing my Beginner's Body Weights and StrongLifts this week, and I can definitely tell I'm gettin stronger because my pushups are geting slightly better! Fitting veggies in for lunch and dinner is easy, but I'm such a "breakfast food is what's for breakfast and nothing else" kind of girl, which has made mixing veggies in at breakfast a little tougher. I'll throw peppers and onions in my eggs, but beyond that I'm struggling. Any good recipes out there for breakfast veggie items (I hate avocados, sorry guys!). You guys all seem to be rockin' it so much this week, and I LOVE it!! Team Avalanche is pretty much the bee's knees, in case you didn't know

That's what I'm hoping. I've always carried a "happy weight" of about 40lbs more than my healthy weight, so I'm hoping if I can drop the weight pre-baby, then hopefully my post-baby "happy weight" will be closer to my healthy weight and I won't have to struggle with losing quite so much. And if you figure out the secret to loving squats, please pass it on to me!!

SQUAAAAATS Ugh, I am determined to have a good booty after this challenge, but man these squats are killing me! Normally Monday is my Zumba day but with travelling for our anniversary and the Zumba gym being closed, I opted to do a Beginner's Body Weight workout instead. Tuesday is my normal BBW day. Today my legs feel like Jell-O....but it's going to be soooo worth it! Thankful that today is an upperbody day for sure!

Good luck! I love that you're a writer and that it's part of your life quest! Don't mind my ignorance, but what is the SCA?

Glad to hear you're joining the rebellion for this challenge! You may want to think about the main quest (goal) you're trying to achieve during this challenge and two or three smaller things you're going to do to make sure you're on track to reach your quest. We'd love to all be able to support you along the way! Good luck!!!

You are AWESOME, SammyShark! You've got your motivation in the right spot, and signing up for a 5K in three weeks is a big goal but it seems like you've got your head and your heart in the right place to make it! You rock! Also, the teacher in me LOVES your grading system! lol

I never took advantage of the free classes (zumba, cycling, etc) when I was in college, and once I graduated and finally wanted to take advantage of them, I was too broke to do anything about it, so I totally feel ya there! I'm thankful that I live on an Army post that offers classes for free to spouces of soldiers, so I don't have to worry about cost. But there are some GREAT videos you can watch online, everything from beginners up through Zumba experts. I recommend checking out Linda Edler, who has some great Zumba videos on Youtube. Her beginners videos are great because they don't move so fast that you can't catch on, although I've found that even if I get a little lost, I just try my best until she changes to a move that I can catch on to. But definitely explore the other Zumba videos available on Youtube and have fun with it!! Here's her beginner's Zumba workout #1: Edit: I had no idea this would embed the video...so I guess, enjoy!!

Alright, so yesterday was day 1 of the challenge, although I have been watching what I eat and doing the Beginners Body Weight and StrongLifts programs for just about a week now. In the past week I've dropped 2 pounds (probably would have been more, but hubby and I went away this past weekend for our anniversary and enjoyed some delicious food on our trip that wasn't exactly clean...), putting me at a total of 8 pounds lost in a month. While I know I'm going to put on weight as I'm lifting, I also know that with how much I have to lose I know that I'll be dropping weight for at least a little while. I'm happy to be down another 2 lbs, and now I'm only 2 lbs away from my first weight loss goal (lose 10lbs)! I can honestly say I see small differences when I wear certain shirts, my friends have noticed that my face is thinner, and while I may not feel thinnner yet, I definitely feel healthier. I'm only weighing myself once a week (Tuesday mornings when I first wake up), which is a big change to how I've done it in the past. Before, I would either not weight myself at all, and when I couldn't see/feel a difference after a couple weeks I would give up. On the other extreme, I've weighed myself every day, sometimes more than once a day, and then I obsess over the little, natural fluxes in my weight and that's just not healthy. This once a week thing has kept me super motivated because I can see the changes on the scale even if I can't see them in the mirror, but it's not so much that I'm obsessing over every change on the scale and every thing I eat/do. This is the healthiest I've felt when losing weight, and that's why I think it's going to be the first one that I actually stick to and make as a life change. Feeling motivated, and I'm loving it!

Happy first day of the challenge! You've got some awesome goals, although it sounds like you're a beast to begin with. I really like your ego lifting goal, too - way to keep yourself in check What books are you reading now, since you're trying to do 2 a month? Good luck!!

Hi Bearsquad! Sounds like you had a good first day of the challenge. I wish I had a bike where I live because biking was always a great way for me to get cardio in when I was younger, although living in Northern New York with the winter coming I'm sure a bike wouldn't be much use anyway lol! Just wanted to say hi and wish you a happy day 1 of the challenge!

You are amazing! You've done so much so far, and you're an inspiration Good luck with your goals, especially your personal goal. I feel like the personal life goals are just as important as the fitness and nutrition goals - gotta be a well-rounded person, ya know?! Also, I love your grading system for your goals. I might just have to work that into my goals!

Thanks so much! Good luck to you, too!

This is the BEST way (and only way, in my opinion) to eat them!

I have so much respect for the guys who show up to my zumba classes, just because I know it's not a "guy thing" and can probably be overwhelming (dang, it's overwhelming for me and I did dance classes for 12 years!) so more power to you!! I started reading Jodie Picoult's "Lone Wolf" which I'm really liking so far. I don't know what my second book will be yet - any recommendations?

From what I can tell, we just keep each other accountable to staying on track to meeting our goals during this challenge, spread the encouragement and support to our group members, and basically develop a Justice League of Awesomeness.

Ooo Oooo Ooo count me in! I'm all about having some accountabilibuddies to keep me going through this challenge, plus put my awesome ability to support and encourage others to good use!

Bahaha! I mean, as much as I looooove to read about curriculum planning and student assessments, I feel like there has to be more to read out there that makes me actually not want to jump off a bridge lol! And pass those recipes along! I'll warn you - avocado is not really my friend But any other recipes I'd love to try!