Category: Fitness

My gym was closed for a week around Labor Day so I’m a little late on reporting the last two weeks! I’m down 7.4 lbs and 1.1%body fat.

I’m not totally thrilled with the numbers but I think its because I’m not drinking enough water. This week I’m going to focus on drinking way more water and see how the fat percentage changes next week. I also cheated a tiny bit on Labor Day. So that didn’t help!

In other news, I’ve been hooked on protein pancakes! 1/4 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup dry oatmeal, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix it all up in the blender, cook and top with berries! I even threw a banana in there one day and put a super thin layer of peanut butter on top. Yummy!

I’m 1/3 of the way finished the shred! I’m really loving this food plan, it feels like I could do it forever…which is obviously the point. I miss my friends in the class I typically take (shout out to 6:30am!!) but I always enjoy lifting once I’m doing it. Another goal this week is 4 sessions of cardio. I completed one this morning. I’ve got to get creative with all the babes around but I’m committed.

Check back next week!

Every time I do one of these challenges at WSA Fitness I get hooked on new yummy food that I find. This shred is no exception, luckily! I’m definitely one who loves the whole cauliflower craze. I’ll never eat regular rice again. I stumbled upon this Cauliflower Gnocchi in the frozen food section at Trader Joes and I love it! It is SUPER low carb and is really yummy with meat sauce on top.

The second thing I found are these cooked, peeled, beets with no added ingredients. I linked them onto Amazon but they are SO MUCH CHEEPER at Costco. They just didn’t have them online. It comes in a box of I think three of these packages and each package has 4-5 whole beets. I know beets are one of those foods that are pretty polarizing. There is no in between. I LOVE beets. These have been a great addition to lots of my meals. I love that they’re ready. For whatever reason I eat way more veggies if I don’t have to roast them constantly. So between these and raw bell peppers I’ve been eating tons of veggies.

This week I’ve really noticed my posture improving! I’m sore every day from lifting but I can definitely feel myself getting stronger. Super exciting!

So far I’ve lost:

4.2 lbs

.8% body fat.

I’ve completed my first week of the shred at my gym, WSA Fitness!

This challenge is a little bit different because its specific to my needs. So the food is what my body needs to reach my goals. I’m super excited about that! This first week I lost 3 lbs and .3% body fat. Not a huge amount but definitely moving in the right direction.

One of the things I wanted to really focus on this time around was to try to work through some discipline issues so I don’t just gain the weight back. It’s so frustrating to start over! Its much easier to stay on course vs. restarting. I was on a leadership retreat for my church last weekend and felt led to look up discipline in the Bible. I had no idea that self control would be the topic of the sermon on Sunday!

Here are some things I found:

2 Timothy 1:7 “For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline”.

Titus 1:8 (this is in reference to leaders) “Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined”

One of the things that kept coming to mind as I read these and other verses was that not only am I called to be self-disciplined, but I’m called to not be enslaved to anything. In Matthew 6 the Bible talks bout how we cannot serve two masters. I believe it. The amount of time I think about food, what I’ll eat next. Or how often I don’t want to spend money but end up at Starbucks getting an iced coffee. Again.  Or the amount of time I think about what I’ll wear, or be disappointed if I don’t look the way I want in it. I’m enslaved.

So heres to 11 more weeks! I’ve been sore from all the lifting but super happy to be back at it consistently.

If you’ve been following along on my blog for the last year(ish) this is my third fitness challenge through my gym, WSA Fitness. I’m so excited to be starting today!

This challenge is twelve weeks instead of the normal six and it’s more tailored specifically to my goals. They also got a super fancy scale that tells you all of these percentages and I’m so excited for a more accurate picture!

One of the big differences this time around that I hope will help me to stay consistent after the challenge is reading some about why I stress eat.

My sister is on her 15th day in the hospital and it’s how I’m coping and have been coping a lot the last two years after her brain injury. I need to break the habit!

So here’s where you come in! Are there any books or blogs that you love that speak to this? Anything about stress eating, food discipline, making super clean foods that my kids will eat which is a major issue. Send them my way!

I’ll be updating once a week for the next twelve weeks about how it’s going and hopefully things I’m learning! I hope you’ll join me!

Time to go eat fruit!

If you have no clue what I’m talking about I did a six week lifting challenge with a ketogenic diet. AND ITS OVERRR!

So I have some thoughts. It definitely makes you more lean. I will say this is not the most dramatic diet for a post baby body. My initial six week challenge diet from last summer caused me to lose way more weight. This next level challenge definitely made me stronger and leaner and I AM super excited about that.

I will absolutely reintroduce healthy carbs into my diet. Like today. But I will try my hardest to stay away from the processed junk. I ate everything I wanted on Easter and felt HORRIBLE for three days. Clearly it doesn’t make my body happy and I should listen.

So here are the results!

Weight loss: 6.4 lbs

Body fat percentage: 3%

Total inches lost: 8

If you want to have a fun before and after pic, check out WSA Fitness in Towson. It’s seriously changed my life.

This week was tricky! I’ve been doing a six week challenge at the gym. We had a few days of snow that I couldn’t make it to the gym. I ended up going twice in ten hours to get it all in and my body was sore! I made it in to the chiropractor late this week so my hips are feeling a lot better, thankfully!

At this point the meal plan is easy peasy. I dyed Easter eggs with the family last night so I’m set for breakfasts this week!

So total I’ve lost 6 lbs and 7 inches! It’s working!

Im half way done! Hooray! Click here to start from the very beginning!

Everything is going well but that darn weight is staying put. This is some hard core unschooling I’m working through. ESPECIALLY with weight lifting, you can’t gauge success by numbers on the scale. Its all about body fat, and inches. My body has no idea whats going on. It is totally confused and I’m trying to chill out about it all.

So this week my favorite snack was this.

One cup of Trader Joe’s fat free plain Greek yogurt. This is my favorite brand by far. Mix that with a tablespoon of peanut butter and a splash of stevia. It tastes like the filling of peanut butter pie! Super yummy!

This week my total weight loss is 4 lbs, 7 inches, and 1.5%body fat. Getting somewhere!

One day this week I can have 60g of carbs! Woohoo!

Hey Peeps! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here.

I have completed week two of the 6 week transformation at my gym, WSA fitness. This week was definitely easier! The food is getting easier to plan, I’m not missing carbs as much, and I feel better. Not as sluggish.

My favorite recipe this week was salsa chicken. I put 1 lb. of chicken in a crockpot with a jar of salsa on high for 4 hours. Then I split it into four containers, threw it over cauliflower rice and topped it with an avocado. It was delicious!

I also did some yummy lettuce wrapped tacos but those are pretty self-explanatory.

On to the good stuff. The workouts were a tiny bit easier this week, they went faster since I was used to the movements. It has been hard for me to get in the 35 minutes of cardio 3x a week in addition to lifting for an hour four times a week but I’m doing it.

The weight definitely isn’t “falling off” but I am getting stronger and leaner. My friend Ryan lost 10 pounds the first week and that gave me rage. But its not a competition. (Says anyone who is not winning).

This week my total weight loss is 3 lbs and I’ve lost 5 inches and 1% body fat. I’m ready for week 3!

Let me be honest. I was hangry. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, check this post.

This week was rough. It was quite an adjustment to having no carbs. mostly for the fruit but a little bit because I am a snack addict.

I love weight training! I really like doing new things and although I’ve lifted some throughout this whole crossfit-ish gym membership its been fun to learn new things. I also like it because I feel like growing up I never thought of lifting being a thing that girls did, unless they were body builders. It just seems so hard core! I want to be like that!

I have also confirmed with myself in my mind that I don’t like being pushed but it definitely keeps me from progressing as much as I should. Thats why its good to have gym friends! They push you in funny/sarcastic/mocking ways and then you feel like you may die but at least you’re with friends!

I will say that I have felt this week like new muscles were transplanted into my body that I have never noticed before in my life. I only know this because they hurt really badly! I knew I had something called a hamstring, but in all of my working out and squats and wall balls, I’ve only ever had my quads hurt. Not now! It is allllll hamstrings. I could barely put my emergency brake on in my car.

I hear that this coming week will be a lot easier with food. I wouldn’t say I’ve been hungry, just not satisfied. Im eating enough foods but I like to feel full after a meal and I wouldn’t say that is happening a whole lot.

This week I have lost 2 pounds and 2 inches! Yay me!

I signed up again! You may remember that late last summer I joined a local gym called WSA fitness and started a six week challenge. I lost 15.3 lbs and a 3.5 percent body fat!

The holidays were mean to me and forced cookies into my mouth so I gained a few (7) of those lbs back. So as of Monday I’ll be starting another 6 week transformation. This time using a ketogenic diet along with a exercise plan created by my gym!

I can’t wait! I’m going shopping today to get all of the foods (minus carbs, wahh!) and I’ll start meal prepping. I’m going to post once a week until I weigh out!