Belly Fat Blues

I am getting to the point in my weight loss that toning up is becoming my main focus, well that and losing this darn belly fat! I do realize that I have lost several inches in my belly, but that is the area that I seem to be losing the slowest. I have been doing a lot of research this about belly fat, and I have come to the conclusion that the gym alone is not going to do it for me. I currently eat pretty darn well, and I always stay within my calories. However, after much research I have realized that I need to cut the sugar down to practically none, at least until I am happy with my tummy. Let me just say, when I am talking about sugar I am not talking about candy bars and ice cream. I cut that stuff out a long time ago. I do however eat lots of fruit, and I do enjoy a bowl of honey nut cheerios a couple of times per week. I need to cut these things out for now and focus on the types of foods that are going to help me shed the pooch. Those foods are going to be good carbs, protein, and good fats. I stress that "good" before carbs and fats because I still have to choose items that are very low in sugar. I need to be consuming foods that are low on the glycemic index, which would be foods that are rated 55 or less. If you have questions about the glycemic index I urge you to do some research, but I will give you a quick rundown. The glycemic index is ultimately used for people with diabetes. They have to have things that are low in sugar or else they risk spiking their blood sugar. The glycemic index gives each food a number, and if a food has a number of 55 or less that means it is very low in sugar. Like I said this particular diet is intended for people with diabetes, but it is also great for people who are trying to fight belly fat in particular. Trust me when I say that I will not be cutting out fruit for ever, and I probably won't be cutting it out completely even now. I love fruit, and it is very good for you so this is just a temporary thing. I looked through the glycemic index and made a list of breakfast and lunch ideas. I normally take a frozen dinner for lunch, but since I can't control the ingredients that are used in store bought meals, I made my own this week. I cooked up all of my meals for the week tonight and packaged them for each day. I have about a 3 oz serving of protein (mostly chicken), some type of legume (chickpeas or black eyed peas), and a vegetable (green pepper). I am looking forward to my lunches this week, because I know exactly what is inside them. I am really hoping that with this new way of eating along with adding ab focused exercises that I can get rid of this belly fat once and for all!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah

Vacation Victory

As I mentioned in my last post, I just got back from vacation. I went into this vacation with LOTS of preparation, since vacation binging is what got me off track last year. As a quick refresher, last January I had started losing weight, by March I had lost right at 20 lbs which is also right around the time that we were heading out of town for a weekend with friends. I wanted to be able to enjoy the weekend, so I decided to throw the rule book out for three days. How much damage could I possibly do in three days right? Well, I enjoyed my weekend and did not restrict myself in any way. The only problem was, when I got home I never picked the rulebook back up. I gave up, and over the course of the next twelve months I gained every pound back. On March 22, 2013 I hit my "rock bottom" when my husband and I were grocery shopping. I was picking up a 35 lb bucket of cat litter and when I went to swing the bucket into the cart, I pinched the fat from my stomach against the cart. It hurt physically, but it hurt so much more mentally. Every pound I had gained in the past 5 years felt like it was sitting on my shoulders. I had enough, and I went home and started my blog that night. That was 150 days ago today, and I have yet to "fall off the wagon". I have not given myself one cheat day to throw out the rulebook. I have not exceeded my calorie count a single day in 150 days. That is a huge accomplishment for me, and I knew that I wash't going to give up on that in order to throw out the rulebook on this vacation. So as I said, I went into this vacation with lots of preparation, and that is what I want to talk about today. We were driving from Tennessee to Michigan which takes around 10 hours. On a 10 hour road trip, you are bound to encounter some fast food. So about a week before we left, I went to every fast food website I could think of and studied their nutritional guides. I found at least 3 options at each restaurant, and made a list on my phone for each one. That way, I knew that wherever we went, I had a game plan going in. Obviously fast food is not ideal, but from time to time there will be no other option. It is best to know exactly what you are going to be getting before you get there, so that you are not playing a guessing game. That was the first way that I prepared, and the second was by planning my workouts. I packed plenty of workout gear, and I worked out 6 days out of the 7 that we were there, which is normal for me because I take one rest day every week. On Saturday, even though we were in the car for 10 hours, as soon as we got there I changed into my workout gear and did Insanity. I alternated Insanity and Couch to 5K every other day, and used Tuesday as my rest day since that was our busiest day. On Wednesday I asked Brandon's cousin Heather if she would mind going for a run with me. Heather is very athletic, she was on the Michigan State rowing team for four years, and she just accepted a position as a head coach of a local high school volleyball team. She of course agreed to go with me, even though I told her that I was still running in intervals. We ran and walked in intervals to a state park that was a mile from where we were staying. I hated feeling like I was holding Heather back, even though she did absolutely nothing to make me feel that way, it was all in my head. I decided that I was going to run the whole way back, and I did! Having a partner there kept me going, and I ran the whole mile back. I wasn't sure if I would make it, but I did. It just lets you know what your body can do when you let your mind get out of the way.

Maintaining weight on vacation is difficult, but I decided I wanted to up the difficulty level and actually lose weight while we were on our trip. I weighed myself the morning that we left and I weighed 173.8. I worked really hard while we were gone, and it paid off because when we got home I weighed in at 172.8. I lost exactly one pound, and I am proud of that! I don't to give you the wrong idea and make you think that you can't enjoy vacation. I enjoyed a s'more by the campfire, and treated myself to frozen yogurt twice. On the days that I enjoyed a treat, I just made sure that I left room for that in my calories. Anyway, I am sure that I am boring you by now but I hope that these tips are helpful if you are going on vacation soon. Plan ahead for unavoidable fast food and plan your workouts!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah

Weigh In Number 6!

I'm back! I hadn't intentionally taken a break from blogging, but we have had a wedding and vacation and it just sort of happened. I had intended to blog during vacation to let you know I stayed on track, but my there is no internet at my father-in-law's house so that did not happen. I will be doing a blogpost later this week going over what I did on vacation in order to still lose weight. That is right...I still lost a pound even while I was on vacation, but I will go over that in detail later this week. Now, it is weigh in and measurements time! Last time I weighed in at 180.0 lbs, and this morning I weighed in at 172.4 lbs. That is a 7.6 lb loss since my last weigh in, and that brings my total weight loss to 47 lbs. I am so close to that 50 lb mark! I am sure that I will reach that by my next weigh in! Now on to the measurements.


                             Starting                              Last Weigh In                                      Current


Thighs:                   28                                              23                                                      22


Arms:                    14.5                                    L-12 R-12.25                                     L-11.5 R-12


Neck:                     13.5                                          12.25                                                   12


Belly:                      40                                              35                                                      34


Waist:                   35.5                                            29                                                       29


Chest:                    43                                              38                                                       37


Hips:                     44                                               39                                                      37.5


Butt:                     47                                              40.5                                                     40


                            Inches This Weigh In: 7              Total Inches: 59.5

I miss calculated my inches last weigh in because I was only calculating for one thigh, but these calculations are correct.  I have lost 59.5 inches over my whole body! That is a lot of inches. I am pleased with the 7 inches that I got for this weigh in as well. I know that since I don't have as much left to lose that the numbers in these weigh ins are going to start being smaller. I will take these big numbers as long as I can!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah

Goodbye Shin Splints!

Sorry for the lack of blogging activity this week. The main thing that I wanted to talk about was my new compression sleeves, but in order to give a legitimate opinion I wanted to run in them a couple of times first. At first, I was not so sure. The first time I ran in them I felt like my shins hurt worse than they ever had. However, normally after a run my shins kill me for hours and I have to ice them at night. When I took the compression sleeves off that night, my shins felt fine. I decided to give them another try since my shins felt so much better after my workout the first time. Each time I ran with them I had less and less pain, and zero pain afterwards. I did couch to 5k week 3 - day one today, and I can honestly say that I had ZERO pain in my shins. It is so nice to be able to run without the pain constantly begging me to stop. Now when I run, I can concentrate on running and keeping my breath, and building my stamina. I am finding that there are not many things that can compare to the high you feel after a good run. I feel so much adrenaline and such a sense of productivity when I am finished.

I am still doing Insanity as well. This week is my recovery week, so I am doing the Core Cardio and Balance video all week. I am enjoying the lighter pace this week, but I know that next week starts the Max Interval Training. I am mentally trying to prepare myself for that as I write this. I have been wearing my compression sleeves for my Insanity workouts as well, and I can notice a huge difference during the jumping portions. I could not have picked a better time either, since I have a feeling that the next 30 days of Insanity are going to kick my butt enough as it is! If you have had any issues whatsoever with shin splints, I highly recommend that you order a pair of compression sleeves. Give it a couple of tries before you rule them out. I have included a picture of the particular sleeves that I purchased. I am not affiliated with the company in any way, but their prices were the most reasonable that I found. Check them out if you like!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah