Fitness Challenge

I realize it appears I have fallen off the grid, but actually it is quite the opposite. I have been doing an online fitness challenge with some of my relatives, and it has been a great experience. I have learned a lot, and it has helped boost my weight loss. Basically there are 10 teams and each team tries to accumulate as many points as they can during the eight week challenge. You earn points each week by doing certain things. Such as you get 5 points for every day you exercise for 30 minutes for up to five days, but you can earn 7 points if you exercise for 45 minutes. Being the competitive person that I am, I had to up my exercise time to get the 7 points. You get 2 points for drinking 64 ounces of water each day. You earn 5 points a day for everyday you don't eat sugar. You do get to have sugar one day a week as a free day. You get 2 points for each day you don't eat after 9pm. You get 1 point for being in touch with a member of your team each day. You also get 3 points if you eat five fruits and veggies each day, but you can earn 5 points if three of those are veggies. Then there is an extra challenge given each week. One week we were only supposed to eat food we had made from scratch, so no canned soup, frozen lasagnas or frozen pizzas, etc. Another week we had to sit down to dinner at least five times that week and have a family meal. We generally do this anyway, but sometimes life gets busy and we don't, so it was good to be focused on that. Another week we had to track everything we ate and the calories and report it to a member of our team. We used www.myfitnesspal.com to do this. I love that site!! This week we are only to not eat more than the daily recommended grains for our age group. Also, we are supposed to make sure that at least half of of the grains we eat that day, within our recommended limit, are whole grains. This has by far been the most challenging weekly challenge for me. I am definitely a grain eater. Think about all the food we eat that has grains; cereal, bread, tortillas, corn bread, pasta...oh, the pasta. I am really good about staying within my daily calories, but it includes eating some sort of grain at almost every meal. For someone my age, I am only supposed to eat 6 oz. of grains a day, and 3 oz. of that should be whole grains. I can easily eat 10 oz. of cooked pasta for lunch. I haven't been very successful this week on this particular part of the challenge, but today is going to be different. We had a really good Sacrament meeting yesterday, and one of the speakers was sharing a story of one of the Apostle's mothers. She was going through cancer back in the 1950's and going through a radical treatment. The speaker thought it was radiation treatments. Well this mother called her mother in deep distress at the thought of having to endure 16 more of these treatments. She told her mom that she just didn't think she could do 16 more treatments. Her mother's response was, "Can you survive one more day?" Her reply was quietly, "Yes, I can survive one more day." Her mom told her that was all she needed to do, survive one more day, and then one more day. I know that my situation does not nearly compare, and it may seem I am taking her situation lightly, but I am not. It left a deep impression on me as to what I can and cannot do or endure. When I am circuit training and think I cannot possible continue for another 30 seconds or even 5 seconds, I just dig deeper. It has taught me that I need to look at the smaller picture sometimes. I have been looking at the whole week and thinking, what on earth am I going to eat for the next week, if I can only eat 6 oz. of grain the whole day. Not at each meal mind you, the whole day. I need to just look one meal and one day at a time, and I will figure it out.

Well, enough about my fitness challenge. I had some success before this challenge started with losing weight, but this challenge has definitely got it moving a lot faster, and has helped get my mindset on track to make the rest of the journey. Here are my current stats:

Weight lost this last week: 2.8 lbs.
Total Weight Lost: 26.8 lbs.
Weight still to Lose: 88.2 lbs.

I feel that now I only have 88 pounds more to lose, it seems like it is getting to be much closer to a possibility in my head, that I might actually make it.

Current Goal #1: To lose 5.2 more pounds before the end of the challenge, which is in 13 more days.

Current Goal #2: To lose 14.2 pounds by March 30th

I set this goal on February 24th, which gives me five weeks to complete it. I will definitely need to stay focused to make it to my goal.

Stuck on Step

I really enjoy several types of exercise, but for some reason, I am stuck on my Kathy Smith Step Aerobics. I think that I know it has proven to get the results I am looking for...a good cardio workout and weight loss. Yes, I do realize that I can get these results with other exercises, but when morning comes and it is time to exercise, I can get it done quickly with a good 25 minute step aerobics workout and be done for the day. I think I like that too. When I haven't exercised for a long time, it is definitely my go-to exercise, because I can start and a lower intensity and move my way as my body gets more fit. But, now that I have been exercising since the end of October, and faithfully I have been doing my step aerobics every morning Monday through Friday. I know that I need to change it up to give some of my other muscles a chance to develop, and afterall, I definitely need some serious toning :)