Airlia keeps it simple

[Airlia]

My last challenge fell apart because I tried to take on too much at once, so this time my motto is:

...s...i...m...p...l...i...c...i...t...y...

Epic Health Quest:
Maintain body weight between 117-123lbs while reducing fat, gaining muscle, and becoming passionate about fitness

Health Quests:
Q1: heart health - do cardio (elliptical) 3+ days/week (5 STA)
Q2: muscles - work on strength 3+ days/week (5 STR)
Q3: post here for motivation 2+ times/week (3 CON)

Life Quest:
Don't give up - if things get crazy, just slow down and do the next right thing (2 WIS)

[Airlia]

Starting stats:
Avg Wt for previous week - 119.2 (BMI ~21)
Actual starting wt - 118.2
Fat - 27.2% (32.2 lbs)
Muscle - 29.4% (34.8 lbs) <--- more muscle than fat!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!!! Next goal is over 30% muscle
Measurements (bust, waist, hips) 34, 26.5, 35 <---- would like this eventually to be 34, 24, 34

Ending stats:
Ending wt - 121
Fat - 28.9 (34.9 lbs)
Muscle - 28.6 (34.6) <-- I may not have gained muscle but I'm pretty sure I didn't lose any either, so I'm assuming this is still skewed a bit by water weight)
Measurements (bust, waist, hips) 34, 27, 35 <-- same here - still bloated


Weekly status:
---------------------------
Week 1 Summary - Grade: A-

Cardio - 4/3 - pass
Strength - 6/3 - pass
Stretch & balance - 3/0 - not graded
Post - 4/2 - pass
Don't give up - pass
Mini-Challenge - Yes
Avg weight - 119.5

Overall I felt good about how I did in week 1. I kept up with my personal challenges, exceeded my goals, and did the mini-challenge. The only thing I didn't do well on is that I ate too much sugar and salty fast foods. Not part of my listed quests, but still part of my overall quest for better health. The scale also went up a bit (average of maybe 1/2 lb for the week) and while I'd like to believe that's strictly a result of muscle work, when I eat that much sugar and junk I have to assume at least some of the scale increase is due to poor choices. Still - feels good to be back to doing the right things and I'll work on improving my diet next week.

---------------------------
Week 2 Summary: Grade: C+

Cardio - 3/3 pass
Strength - 3/3 pass
Stretch & balance - 3/0 not graded
Post - 2/2 pass
Don't give up - pass
Mini-Challenge - N
Avg weight 119.8

The middle of the week things got a little crazy around here with a sick mother, injured cat, and next year's state required homeschool learning plans due, (plus the usual teaching, remodeling, managing the household, etc.) I slacked off a little, then came to my senses and forced myself to breath, and do the next right thing which meant working out after Bible and before anything else. Overall I feel like I accomplished my minimum exercise goals, I posted twice and came to read a couple of other times. My eating was improved - still pbly too much sugar but better on the salt and more water. I gave myself a C+ - I did the minimum and when I got stressed I didn't quit. Now I just have to keep re-motivating myself and stay engaged one day at a time.

---------------------------

Week 3 Summary: Grade: B
Cardio - 3/3 - pass
Strength - 3/3 - pass
Stretch & balance - 3/0 not graded
Post - 3/2 - pass
Don't give up - pass
Mini-Challenge - Y
Avg weight - 119.9 (pre-vacation)

---------------------------

MID-POINT SUMMARY:
Overall I feel like I'm doing well. I'm sticking to my goals even when I don't feel like it, and, aside from my weekend of gluttony, I'm doing what it takes to maintain my weight while increasing muscle. Still need to cut down on sugar, but that's something to be dealt with in a different challenge. Just reminding myself (again and again) in hopes that I'll eventually be willing. Before the weekend I was feeling strong and determined. Now I just need to not let one bad weekend derail me. Back at it!!

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Week 4 Grade: C
Cardio - 4/3
Strength - 4/3
Stretch & balance - 2/0 not graded
Post - 3/2
Don't give up - pass
Mini-Challenge - no
Avg weight: 120.7 (vacation and other poor choices)

Summary: Eating too much junk and workouts have been low energy / just the minimum, but at least I'm hanging in there are doing something instead of just letting my weight continue to rise, which is what I've done in the past when I started gaining again after a large loss. I totally attribute the motivation to keep on working at it to NF! I managed to work off some of the damage done by the vacation, and I am feeling stronger and more fit. Baby steps in the right direction. Only two weeks left. I'm going to get back to my starting weight by the end of the challenge.

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Week 5 Summary: Grade: C
Cardio - 3/3
Strength - 3/3
Stretch & balance - 0/0 not graded
Post - 3/2
Don't give up - yes
Mini-Challenge - no
Avg weight: 120.3 - slowly coming down

Overall, I felt like I did only the minimum this week, but at least I did something. Even if I'm not totally killing it every week, I'm glad I'm not quitting. Can't believe next week is the last week! So glad I found this place to keep me focused.

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Week 6 Grade: C
Cardio - 4/3
Strength - 4/3
Stretch & balance - 0/0 not graded
Post - 1/2
Don't give up - yes
Mini-Challenge - no
Avg weight 121

Week 6 & final summary: This week was a little different as I had a colonoscopy on Friday so I focused on eating light all week, & had liquid only on Thursday. I figured that would also help my weight come down. I did my basic workouts, then to keep myself busy and not think about food I spent a lot of time outside working on the fence and other yard work. It was hot (low 80s F) and I got a bit sunburned. I don't know if it was the heat, sunburn, or the procedure (or a bit of all of these things), but I started retaining water badly - by Saturday my weight had swollen to just over 125 lbs (from 120.6 a few days before) and I felt like a water balloon about to pop. UGH! So I've been waiting for the water weight to go down before I did my final weight. It's still about 121 today, but I went ahead and did my weigh and measure. If it's significantly lower tomorrow I might come back and update my final numbers.

As for grading my overall fitness goals for this challenge - I feel like I started out fairly strong and had some weeks where I did better than others. Overall I'd give myself a B-. I'm glad I didn't give up, but I could have been more consistent and pushed myself harder, esp. in the strength area. Still - I didn't quit even when my weight went up or when I got busy or when I ate poorly. I kept coming back and getting back to it. That's a huge accomplishment for me. With that in mind, here are my self-awarded points:

Epic Health Quest:
Maintain body weight between 117-123lbs while reducing fat, gaining muscle, and becoming passionate about fitness - well, according to my stats my fat is slightly up, my muscle is slightly down, and my weight for two days was over 123, but I'm attributing that to edema related to sunburn and/or the colonoscopy and consider this challenge, overall, a success.

Health Quests:
Q1: heart health - do cardio (elliptical) 3+ days/week (5 STA) - succeeded every week +5 STA
Q2: muscles - work on strength 3+ days/week (5 STR) - succeeded every week +5 STR
Q3: post here for motivation 2+ times/week (3 CON) - succeeded all but the last week, and some weeks were well over 2x per week. +2 CON

Life Quest:
Don't give up - if things get crazy, just slow down and do the next right thing (2 WIS) - success +2 WIS

Mini-challenge week #3: 1 DEX

[Quarkle]

My last challenge fell arpart too, for the same reason. Good luck this time round!

[Elastigirl]

Glad you are back. Also glad you simplified it. Challenges need to be able to work when life gets crazy, because face it, life really is crazy a bunch of the time.

[Lilith]

Good luck with the upcoming challenge!

[lucky fire dragon]

Beautiful. Glad to see you back again

[Airlia]

Hi, felt good to get a really good workout for the first time in a 2-3 weeks! In the past after I've lost a significant amount of weight like (I did Aug-Jan) once I allow myself to "take a break" from working out, I always have a really hard time getting back into the workout routine. That's usually followed by letting my eating habits slowly deteriorate back to what it was that caused me to gain weight to begin with. So glad I found this place! I really want to get motivated to get back on track.

So today:

Incline push-ups 3x10xBW

Squats 3x10xBW

Reverse Crunches 3x10xBW

Cardio - 25 min elliptical

Stretching & balancing - not today

Got a flat tire in after I dropped my girls off for their co-op classes. I still had my snow tires on, so I got to go back to my house, lift 3 "summer tires" into the car, take them to Costco and buy 4 new tires, then when I got home I got to lift the snow tires out of the car and put them away. Extra workout - yea

Hope you all had a great day!

[Blaze]

Great goals for your challenge this time around.

 

I'm also simplifying after derailing last time around, with a heavy focus on minimizing stress that's cropped up.

Good luck with your goals!

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Welcome back!!!  Keep it simple and CRUSH IT!

[Airlia]

Thanks everyone for the "Welcome Back". Good to be back!!

For the mini-challenge I decided to see how many "standard" floor push-ups I really can do. I managed 3 sets of 5, although it took me more than 1 min - still it was WAY more than I thought I could do!! WOOT WOOT!!

I also remembered to do my starting stats today and posted them in the second post on the thread - I now have more muscle than fat - another WOOT!

Feeling good today.

[Companion]

I'm all for the KISS method!    Looks like you are set up for success!

 

[hybrid756]

Duh... I was still looking for your old username, even though you've been posting in my thread! *headslap*

 

I fully support the simplifying everything strategy. After I completely bottled my first challenge and stopped posting for a few weeks, I came back with an unchallenge (Chris-Tien Jinn's idea, and a very good one!). It made the world of difference. I bet this goes great for you

 

Subbed

[Elastigirl]

Congrats on the pushups!

[Airlia]

Thanks Companion, Hybrid756, and Elastigirl.

Couple of Loooooong days. Today I spent hours and hours grouting my new kitchen backsplash. Turns out grouting is really hard work!! Who knew.

But back to the topic of fitness....

Wed:

Elliptical - 35 min

pushups - 3x5xBW

stretching & balancing

Thu:

pushups 3x5xBW

lunges 3x20xbw

Reverse Crunches 3x10xBW

Cardio - 15 min elliptical

Stretching & balancing

[Lilith]

Looks like you're doing great!

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Looking good!!!  Yeap, fixing stuff around the house ... and yardwork ...... are often great workouts.  Double benefits for the win!!!

[Airlia]

Friday workout only consisted of housework and a bit of strength work. Today will be about the same - yard work, house remodel work, and a bit of strength work. Happy Weekend everyone!!

[Companion]

Enjoy! Sometimes puttering about (cleaning, etc) is practically meditation for me.

[Airlia]

Hi there - updated my tracking (second post) and did my summary for week 1 (copied below so you don't have to go looking for it). Still pretty busy with house remodel stuff, but getting closer to being done!!

Today's BW workout:

Cardio 35 min, 330 cal

pushups 3x5

squats 2x10

lunges 2x10

reverse curls 1x20

warrior 2 + stretches

Week 1 Summary - Grade:

Cardio - 4/6 - pass

Strength - 6/6 - pass

Stretch & balance - 3/6 - not graded

Post - 4/6 - pass

Mini-Challenge - Yes

Overall I felt good about how I did in week 1. I kept up with my personal challenges, exceeded my goals, and did the mini-challenge. The only thing I didn't do well on is that I ate too much sugar and salty fast foods. Not part of my listed quests, but still part of my overall quest for better health. The scale also went up a bit (average of maybe 1/2 lb for the week) and while I'd like to believe that's strictly a result of muscle work, when I eat that much sugar and junk I have to assume at least some of the scale increase is due to poor choices. Still - feels good to be back to doing the right things and I'll work on improving my diet next week.

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Salty foods can affect the scale, if you retain water, which is another good reason to avoid them!!

 

Nice job on week 1 - let the good times roll!!

[Airlia]

Thank Chris-Tien, I really appreciate your encouragement!

 

Friday's BW workout:

Cardio 25 min, 180 cal

pushups 3x5

squats 2x10

lunges 2x10

reverse crunches 1x20

warrior 2 + stretches

 

My summary for the week:

The middle of the week things got a little crazy around here with a sick mother, injured cat, and next year's state required homeschool learning plans due, (plus the usual teaching, remodeling, managing the household, etc.) I slacked off a little, then came to my senses and forced myself to breath, and do the next right thing which meant working out after Bible and before anything else. Overall I feel like I accomplished my minimum exercise goals, I posted twice and came to read a couple of other times. My eating was improved - still pbly too much sugar but better on the salt and more water. I gave myself a C+ - I did the minimum and when I got stressed I didn't quit. Now I just have to keep re-motivating myself and stay engaged one day at a time.

Cardio - 3/3 pass

Strength - 3/3 pass

Stretch & balance - 3/0 not graded

Post - 2/2 pass

Don't give up - pass

Mini-Challenge - N

Avg weight 119.5 (down 0.5 from last week's sugar_&_salt_fest)

[Elastigirl]

Great job at focusing even when you got stressed and making sure you had time for Bible and then working out. You have to have your lessons plans in now for the entire next year- ok that would have totally stressed me out. I always planned during the summer.

[Airlia]

Great job at focusing even when you got stressed and making sure you had time for Bible and then working out. You have to have your lessons plans in now for the entire next year- ok that would have totally stressed me out. I always planned during the summer.

Not the detailed plans - just the curriculum we'll be using for the core subjects, and a general idea of the plan like "12-15 lessons per month". It's selecting curriculum this far in advance that stresses me out. Not that we can't change our minds but it complicates things. So trying to pick what we're going to use for high school biology, 8th grade language arts, deciding whether to move on to geometry or take advanced algebra first, and looking for materials that provide more integrated learning opportunities. The reporting and testing requirements have gotten insane even just in the last two years! I love homeschooling the girls but there are times I wonder whether it's worth it to be involved in the parent partnership through the public school system - but my girls love the classes they offer (mostly art and such) so I guess that makes it worth it.

[Airlia]

So after spending a bit of time in the morning getting caught up on here, I helped my daughters finish painting their new loft - it's a room over the detached garage that DH used to use for his "man cave" but he moved his stuff to another locale and we're fixing it up for a teen hang-out room. Got the painting done and curtains hung. Carpet gets cleaned next week then it will be ready for them to move in their stuff (TV, foosball, games, etc.).  They are over the moon excited!  After that we went bowling.  I'm horrible, but we've decided to participate in the Kids Bowl Free thing for the summer so hopefully I'll improve before summer's over! 

[Elastigirl]

Not the detailed plans - just the curriculum we'll be using for the core subjects, and a general idea of the plan like "12-15 lessons per month". It's selecting curriculum this far in advance that stresses me out. Not that we can't change our minds but it complicates things. So trying to pick what we're going to use for high school biology, 8th grade language arts, deciding whether to move on to geometry or take advanced algebra first, and looking for materials that provide more integrated learning opportunities. The reporting and testing requirements have gotten insane even just in the last two years! I love homeschooling the girls but there are times I wonder whether it's worth it to be involved in the parent partnership through the public school system - but my girls love the classes they offer (mostly art and such) so I guess that makes it worth it.

AH, I can see why that is stressful, but at least it is just the general plan. And it might help the problem of having September arrive and going "Wait it's September already and I don't have any plans made for school" not that I  know anything about that ....

 

 

The loft sounds very cool!