Ericka: The Results Are In!! (8.7.13)

Sorry I skipped out on the last couple of postings, but I was not feeling well. I don't think coconut water is for me. I added it to my smoothie Monday morning, and had to leave work early to get in bed. It's either the coconut water or the dairy that did me in. The jury is still out. Clearly I didn't workout Monday, which sucks, because I was looking forward to my evening Tabata class. Chris got me a Sprite, orange juice, and Pho to settle my stomach. I went back to work Tuesday thinking I felt better, and even went to my lunch time Tabata class. However, 5 minutes into class I almost tossed my cookies, which is weird since I skipped breakfast out of an abundance of caution and I hadn't had lunch yet. I fought through it to finish the class.

Yesterday marked the last official day of our 1st 30 days challenge. Although we have elected to abstain from carbs one extra day so that our cheat days can fall on the days we are out of town this week, we are going to give you our results now since it's the official end of the 30 days period.

This morning I weighed in 7.5 pounds lighter than I started! That's almost an average of 2 pounds of weight loss per week! That brings my total weight loss thus far up to 16.7 pounds. My scale also computes BMI and Body Fat Percentage based on height, weight, and sex. I shaved off .7% off of my body fat percentage and 1.3. points off of my BMI.

As for my measurements (NC= No Change  L=Lost  G=Gained):

1. R. Upper Arm- L .5in                     L. Upper Arm- L .5in  
2. R. Forearm- L .25in                       L. Forearm- L .5in
3. Chest- L .5in
4. Bust- L 2 in
5. Midriff- L 2.5 in
6. Waist- L 3.5in
7. Abdomen- L 2in
8. Hips- L 2.5in
9. Arse- L3 in
10. R. Upper Thigh- L 2in                      L. Upper Thigh- L 1in
11. R. Mid Thigh- L 1in                          L. Mid Thigh- L .5in
12. R. Lower Thigh- L .5in                     L. Lower Thigh- L 1in
13. R. Knee- NC                                   L. Knee- L .5in
14. R. Calf- L 1in                                   L. Calf- L .5in
15. R. Ankle- NC                                  L.Ankle- L .5in

(Sorry I haven't filled in the measurements yet, but I will update it as soon as I get a tailor sewing tape measure. I had one, well 2 actually, but somebody called himself tidying up, and that somebody now doesn't know where he put them. We are replacing the tape today, and I will update the blog with the results.)

Updated: It feels great to see my results on paper. I'm addicted to my scale (sounds like I need a ditch the scale challenge), so I knew I was losing weight, and I could feel the difference in my clothes. But putting it on paper confirmed it. The results in black & white are keeping me motivated.

No Carbs: A

I did pretty well with this challenge other than the bite of cake and the pho I had to settle my stomach on Monday. I didn't cut out all carbs, but I did cut out the particularly starchy ones like potatoes, rice, bread and pasta. Carbs, especially white carbs, need to be eaten in moderation. I think I've learned that from this challenge. 

300 Minutes/5 Hours of Exercise/Week: A+

I spanked this goal out of the park! I picked 300 minutes, because I read somewhere that's the amount of time you need to put in to lose a significant amount of weight. I used a mixture high intensity interval training, jogging, gym classes, dancing, biking, weight lifting and walking to keep it fun. Doing the same things over and over again gets tedious and boring plus changing it up gets better results. I know myself, and if I did the same thing over and over again, I would have fallen off. Also by counting down the minutes vs the hours, I felt like the task was more manageable. I think working out has become a habit for me. I've been doing it for 6 weeks straight. This morning I got up, did a 4 minute dance warm-up, followed by C25K walk/jog (28.5 minutes + the 5.5 minutes it took me to get home) and concluded with a 10 minute workout. I am going to put that in the bucket for this week. Adding those minutes to the 45 minutes I spent in Tabata on Tuesday and I have a total of 93 minutes for the week thus far. My goal is to get in the other 207 minutes by Sunday. It may be tough since I'll be out of town, but I am going to make it a priority. 

A Meal Together Every Day:  C

Definitely some room for improvement here. Perhaps doing this every day with a child was a bit of a high order, but we definitely slacked in that department. We did substitute this type of quality time by getting quality time in other weighs, such as going on date nights, and exercising together, but that was not the challenge. We have to do better in that department. Family meal time is the most important part of the day for couples and their children. It's the time where we discuss our day and make plans. Although Deuce can't fully participate yet, he is learning from observation. This challenge will definitely be an ongoing challenge.

Now What?

So how do I plan on incorporating what I've learned from the challenges into my every day life? I am going to strive to get at least 300 minutes of exercise in every week, I am going to drop the carbs at dinner time unless it's a night out/special occasion, and I am going to work on making time for QT with the hubby.

After today, I have 3 cheat days. The goal is to not undue all my hard work by going H.A.M. on my 3 cheat days. It's going to be tough since I'll be eating out a lot in H-Town, but I don't want to start the next challenge weighing in more than what I weighed today. 

The next challenge starts Sunday August 11th so stayed tuned,

E