Let's Give Them Something To Blog About.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, kids of all ages (assuming you CAN and WANT to read this). TODAY...I went back to the gym.

This gym is much less eventful than the last. There were very few people and it is significantly smaller than my last gym. I think that's why I like it more. 

Anyway, I was pretty nervous on my (very short) drive to the gym. It's been a while since I have gone and I was going to be doing something that was new to me.Well fairly new. My old trainer (remember, Diablo?)showed me how to do these workouts before but I had never done them on my own. GULP! I sucked it up and gave myself a pep talk. It mostly consisted of, "Grow up Mel. No one is going to be looking at you or laughing at you." 

My new workout routine is much shorter than the routine I used to do but still tough. I use mostly free weights now and things like push ups and planks (HATE, HATE, HATE, did I mention HATE? Planks!). I do all this in a circuit. I like that because it gives me no time to talk myself into skipping one of the movements.

I finished my strength and did a little bit of cardio to close out the workout. I did 10 minutes at a brisk pace with an incline. I know what you are thinking, "Mel, you ran 5k, why only 10 minutes". It's probably due to laziness to be honest. I do want to start it slow. Last time, I dove right in and gave it my all and hit a plateau very quickly. I don't want to do that again. I don't want to wear myself out or get burnt out on the workout. I've decided that I am going to start at 10 minutes and add some time each week to my cardio. Also, cardio is not my main concern with this new workout. Strength is. My main focus is going to be on toning. We shall see how well this works. I am doing this as part of a "program" type thing. I joined the Nerd Fitness Academy for women. Based on some of the posts I have read on their forums, a lot of women have achieved AMAZING success. 

Aside from working out, I am also doing more with my meals. Yesterday, I did my first Sunday Meal Prep. I cooked several meals and portioned them out so that I had lunch and dinner for the entire week. All I have to do each day is grab a container, warm it up, and enjoy!

Lunch today, Shrimp Lettuce Wraps.YUM!

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Another Day. Another Dollar.

So far Tina and I are both doing well in the competition. She let me know this morning that she was down 1 pound and that would be $1 towards her winning. I congratulated her on her success. I also informed her that I was down 2 lbs, so it would be HER paying ME!

It's really great though, that we are both having success at this. I hope we both have GREAT success at the end of this competition, regardless of who the winner is. Really, how can we be upset at losing when that is the goal? HA! To win, we have to lose! I love it.

Here is Tina's drawing from yesterday. Looks like she felt much better!

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The Biggest Loser! ~ Sister Edition

With my parent's vow renewal right around the corner, my sister and I decided to have a little friendly sisterly competition. Whoever can loose the most weight by March 25th is the winner. The loser has to pay the winner $1.00 for every pound that the winner lost.

I think this will be great incentive for both of us. Win or lose, hopefully we will both walk away from this a little healthier and slimmer.

Yesterday morning we weighed ourselves and sent each other a photo of the scale reading. The competition has begun!

Day 1 (Yesterday): I had a pretty good day. I started the day with a much needed cup of coffee. I had a 2 egg ham and cheese omelet for brunch and a small bowl of chili for dinner. I think I had a pretty successful day.
I'm not completely sure how Tina's day went but she did send me a couple of pictures to give me a small idea.

Today has started off good. I had a ham and egg scramble for breakfast. This afternoon I am going to Anytime Fitness to sign Matt and I up for a year membership. Ready to get back into working out!

I am really liking the idea of this competition with my sister. I think it will put a fun spin on us achieving our goals. And really..who wouldn't want to mop the floor with their sibling? It's only the second day, anyone (me) can win this!

I don't want my sister to not succeed in this, I just want to win ha! Good Luck, Tina! I'm bringing my A game...want a cheeseburger? <3

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It hurts so good.

Monday I began my new workout routine thanks to the Nerd Fitness Academy. Yesterday, I felt pretty good. I woke up with no pain and no soreness, which is always a plus. I spent the day building legos with my son and relaxing.

Later in the evening, Matt and I began renovating our daughters room. I was fine in the beginning. Half way through we took a break for dinner. That is when I began feeling the soreness. After dinner, I went back to work on the rest of the room. That is when I began to feel the pain. I finally finished and got the kids into bed. I decided to lay in bed while I waited for my friend to show up (I was babysitting her daughter). I attempted to crawl into bed and could barely do it. My entire body hurt. Once I got into bed, I couldn't even move to get comfortable without hurting. Even the slightest movement hurt like all craziness.

This morning, I felt a little better. I was still sore but definitely not as bad as last night. I had my morning coffee and then began my workout. It was a little tougher today but I made it through. Afterwards, I took a shower and got dressed. Today it wasn't sweats or pajamas. I put on my jeans and a nice shirt. It made me realize something. I feel so much better mentally. I may not have seen any physical results yet but I just feel better about myself. So, despite the pain, I feel great to be working out again. Here is to Friday's workout *raises water bottle*.

The hardest part of this whole thing is the food. I want to indulge in all of the things that I shouldn't eat. I want donuts, cake, cookies, chocolate, ice-cream, all of those "not so healthy for you" foods. But even more so, I want to live a long and healthy life for my kids. I want to see them grow up. I want to be in their lives and see what kind of adults they will be. I want to meet my grand children and see them grow as well.
I know there is still plenty of time for that kind of talk. ;)

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NERD ALERT! NERD ALERT!

A while back my husband found Nerd Fitness. It has a bunch of information about getting healthy and fit the right way. We learned about eating Paleo from that site. Friday, my husband sent me an email with a link from the site and asked me to read it. It was about a weight loss academy for women; Nerd Fitness Academy: Rebel Women. I figured I would go ahead and give it a read. The more I read, the more excited I got. My itch to workout came back (finally). It looked fun, so I signed up. I am officially a Rebel. It is a 6 week academy (you can do it longer if you want) that teaches you how to get healthy and fit by eating clean and toning (not bulking).

There are 2 different memberships that you can get.

The Apprentice Class ($59): You’ll receive the Philosophy course, the Nutrition course, the Exercise course, demonstrations of every exercise in HD, and every workout for every situation.  Over 50,000 words of content, 100+ exercise demonstrations, and 15 workout routines: enough to last you until the end of time.

The Master Class ($99): You’ll receive everything above, along with access to the Academy only Message Boards, recipes, the meal plans, the grocery shopping cheat sheet, all of the interviews, the 6-week “Get me ready quick” workout plans, Live Q&As, and the road warrior workout and nutrition plans.

I’m not going to tell you it will be easy - that you can keep “eating the same foods you love!” while not exercising and still achieve the results you want.

That would make me a liar, liar, pants on fire.

And If there’s one thing I hate, it’s pants on fire.

What I will tell you, is that if you give us your trust and effort for six weeks, I have no doubt in my mind that you see will significant progress and feel like you are moving rapidly down the path towards the life you’ve always wanted.

And not just physically. If you’re not healthy on the inside and happy, then no amount of weight loss can fix that.  So we’re going to focus on finding that balance for you. And we’re going to win. Because I don’t like losing.

In fact, I’m so confident, this course is going to come with a LIFETIME, 100% money back guarantee.

I opted for the Master Class. I like the idea of being involved with a community of other women (exclusively women) who are going through the same thing.  It also comes with a complete (clean) meal plan and grocery list. Which, I love. One of the hardest things for me was figuring out what was healthy to eat and how to cook it so it wasn't just plain old chicken breast every night. You gotta like what you are eating.

The women's academy is mostly run by Staci. Her story is very eye opening. It put a lot of myths to bed about lifting and bulking.

Now that I have shared that with you, I guess I will say...I'M BACK BABY!
I spent the weekend reading over the lessons and learning lots of new things. There is definitely a lot of useful information about getting healthy.
Today, I did my first workout. It wasn't "Diablo training session" brutal. But it was...well, a WORKout. I didn't want to say tough, but let's get real, if it's a good workout, it's going to be tough. I loved it. It made me realize that I miss working out. I spent over a year, going to the gym 5 days a week and felt great every day that I went. Then I fell back into old habits and started feeling miserable again. I've been sluggish, hungry, tired, bored and lazy. I don't like the way that felt. Even worse, my bra was getting tight again and I hate the way that feels even more!

I'm looking forward to my next workout!

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