Journey Update

Well my poor blog has been neglected for some time now and several people have asked me for a blog update and a few others have asked me what I'm doing to lose weight, so I figured it was time for a post....

Let's see... I left off in November 2011 and things were going great.  Unfortunately, mid-late November my weight loss journey had to be put on a temporary hold due to medical issues.  During this time I was unable to exercise and became extremely stressed.  I gained about 12 lbs back....  This is as far as I'll go into details, but I'm totally fine, nothing to worry about it, and I was once again cleared for exercise in January 2012.

So.... January 2012 I started fresh on a "mini journey" to get back to where I was in November.  The first part of January I was still unable to workout, so I just got back on my normal diet schedule, which I've changed up a bit.  Diet wise I like to count calories of course, and also watch fat, sodium, and sugar, BUT I did some research and also began monitoring my carbs.  I already knew that too much sugar had a large impact on my ability to lose weight, but upon talking to a few people who also have hypothyroidism I learned that many of them watch carbs altogether (sugar included).  I tweaked my diet to include carbs in moderation at the end of January and have had great success so far.  I still eat SOME carbs, but I try to monitor my intake and eat whole grains.  Also, I'm not JUST doing a "low carb" diet.  A lot of people on Atkins etc. ONLY watch crabs and don't look at anything else they're eating.  Yes bacon is low in carbs, but if you eat a pound of bacon for breakfast....you still ate a pound of bacon LOL Eggs too.  Eggs are a freebie on a carb diet, but one whole egg is damn near 100 calories, not to mention the cholesterol.  Yikes.  So, I monitor my carbs, but I still eat healthy foods and balanced meals, and like I said, I love it so far.

And to monitor all this I use MyFitnessPal (link on side bar or click here).  I've mentioned this site before, but since some have asked what I'm doing I thought I'd put it in again.  It's an amazing site and is super simple to use.  You make a username/profile, enter your stats and goals, and it tells you how many calories to eat and tracks everything (including exercise) for you, so you know where you're at each day.  There is also an MFP in the Android Market which makes it super easy to use from you phone too.  Aside from having your own profile, you can also had friends and MFP will keep them updated for you whenever you track your food, exercise, or weigh in, which really keeps you motivated.  If anyone is using MFP or starts using it now, my username is Chris_bee05, so go to members, look me up, and add me.

And lastly, as far as workouts go, I've added yet another workout DVD to my ever growing collection...




Workout DVDs... LOL

 Latest addition.... Jillian Michaels EXTREME Shed and Shred.  Yeah.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this.  I thought the 30 Day Shred was hard.  Psht. Please. 

I believe this is the newest of her DVDs and it is a 70+ minute workout when done in full.  There is a 7 minute warm up and 7 minute cool down, and the full workout can be split into two levels.  Level 1 being approximately 20 minutes (without warm up/cool down) and Level 2 being an additional 40 minutes (again without warm up/cool down), so when done in its entirety about a 70 minute workout.

Now I like to write like I know what I'm talking about, but in fact, I have yet to finish the entire workout.  I've been doing it for about a week and only tried to do the full thing just yesterday.  I think I was about 10 minutes from the end when I skipped to the cool down.  I was beat to shit. LOL  But I've definitely made progress with it.  As you can see in my pic I have 3lb and 8lb weights.  Part of the "modifications" in this workout is to just not use weights.  Still have to do the moves, just don't use weights.  Nice modification huh? LOL  Hey, but it makes me push, so it's a good thing.  Anyway, yesterday I used the 8 lbs weights the majority of the time (before I was only using the 3lb-ers) AND I was able to add weights to some of the moves I was previously doing without weights.  Not bad for a weeks worth of having the DVD. :)



Me today! (Aug 2011 - Feb 2012)

 And thankfully, as of last week, I can say that I am finally back to where I left off in November.  I have lost all the weight I gained back (and them some, but y official "weigh in" isn't until tomorrow, so we'll see....)  I've updated "Stats" page at the top to reflect my journey over the last  few months if anyone wants to get an idea of my weights over the last 5-6 weeks, and I of course added my new pic to my "Photo Gallery".

I have big, big plans and goals for this year and I plan to hit (maybe even surpass) my goal weight.  At first I saw the gain as a huge set back (which in a way it was), but if anything I'm more committed than ever because gaining those few pounds back made me realize just how far I've come and exactly what I stand to lose.  :)

And now....if you proceed to the NEXT blog, I have a new series I'd like to introduce....