February

  Small successes get me excited.  Today I put on these pants that I could barely button up in October, but as you can see I have plenty of room in them now.  You can't tell but they are baggy in the butt and legs too.  I'm not bragging though, because only minutes before this picture, when I was naked, I was bawling over how flabby my belly is.  Ups and downs.  My life is a virtual roller coaster sometimes.  But this makes me very happy.  I bought these pants 2 years ago when I was working with a personal trainer.  At that time I was about the same weight, but these pants were not this loose.  Also I was on a "diet" then, now I am just living a healthy lifestyle.  I honestly love it!  Since I am doing this 12 week challenge, I have been counting calories just to have a bit of a road map to help me figure out how much fat/protein/carbs that I'm getting and to ensure that I eat enough.  I am using an app called fitness pal, but you can also find it on your computer at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/.  I love the app because I can scan in the food label and presto, there it is.

I am going to mix things up a little bit in February.  I am not seeing the kind of muscle definition that I have been hoping for, so I need to shock my body a little bit.  I found this program on the Body Building website: 30 days to a 6 pack.  I will be doing 6 days of cardio, 4 of these days I will also be lifting heavy like I have been doing, but I will split the workouts.  I will be doing cardio in the morning and lifting in the evening.  The idea is to keep your metabolism burning all day.  I'm not sure if I am going to like this routine.  When I trained for the Ragnar, I was doing 2 cardio sessions one day a week and it got tiring.  The only difference is that I can lift pretty much anytime at home and not work up too much of a sweat, so I won't have to shower and redo makeup and hair again.  I will try it out this week and then report back.

As for eating this month, I'm probably not going to change things up too much.  As I stated above, I'm counting calories right now as a guide.  I am not that concerned about getting the exact calories, I just eat when I'm hungry.  I have noticed that I am still getting too many sugars.  These come from fruits mainly, even though I only have about 2 servings per day.  I do need to stay away from clean treats too because I still have very little self control with anything sweet (I ate 1/2 a batch of protein ball yesterday).  I also need to focus on greens, greens, and more greens.