I Lost a Car Tire!

That's how much weight I have lost so far... 20 lbs! Which equals a car tire, according to this awesome list below I came across online. It helps you get a better idea on how much you really are losing!

What have YOU lost?

1 pound = a Guinea Pig 
1.5 pounds = a dozen Krispy Kreme glazed donuts 
2 pounds = a rack of baby back ribs 
3 pounds = an average human brain 
4 pounds = an ostrich egg 
5 pounds = a Chihuahua 
6 pounds = a human’s skin 
7.5 pounds = an average newborn 
8 pounds = a human head 
10 pounds= chemical additives an American consumes each year 
11 pounds = an average housecat 
12 pounds = a Bald Eagle 
15 pounds = 10 dozen large eggs 
16 pounds = a sperm whale’s brain 
20 pounds = an automobile tire 
23 pounds = amount of pizza an average American eats in a year 
24 pounds = a 3-gallon tub of super premium ice cream 
25 pounds = an average 2 year old 
30 pounds = amount of cheese an average American eats in a year 
33 pounds = a cinder block 
36 pounds = a mid-size microwave 
40 pounds = a 5-gallon bottle of water or an average human leg 
44 pounds = an elephant’s heart 
50 pounds = a small bale of hay 
55 pounds = a 5000 BTU air conditioner 
60 pounds = an elephant’s penis (yep, weights more than his heart!) 
66 pounds = fats and oils an average American eats in a year 
70 pounds = an Irish Setter 
77 pounds = a gold brick 
80 pounds = the World’s Largest Ball of Tape 
90 pounds = a newborn calf 
100 pounds = a 2 month old horse 
111 pounds = red meat an average American eats in a year 
117 pounds = an average fashion model (and she’s 5’11”) 
118 pounds = the complete Encyclopedia Britannica 
120 pounds = amount of trash you throw away in a month 
130 pounds = a newborn giraffe 
138 pounds = potatoes an average American eats in a year 
140 pounds = refined sugar an average American eats in a year 
144 pounds = an average adult woman (and she’s 5’4”) 
150 pounds = the complete Oxford English Dictionary 
187 pounds = an average adult man 
200 pounds = 2 Bloodhounds 
235 pounds = Arnold Schwarzenegger 
300 pounds = an average football lineman 
400 pounds = a Welsh pony 

I think this is a great way to motivate and inspire people to stay strong. My goal is to lose a mid-size microwave in total :)

TL;DR: Don't Give Up!!!!!

Eating healthy is an arduous, expensive, annoying process. It's so much easier to grab a back of chips and curb your hunger that way. But I also realized the way you feel after eating a healthy meal or snack is much better. You don't feel sick, or too full or guilty. You feel satisified, energized and healthy... Not to mention the reward in the long run... Not being bloated, losing inches around your waist, having better skin, fitting in clothes easily, feeling sexy in underwear... Those things are far better than not caring about what you eat. I know, because I have experienced all these things. I don't miss eating a lot. I learned to know when I am satisfied and keep within my calorie limits. When I do eat a lot, I just feel sick and bloated. It's not a pleasant feeling.

Here is what I have been doing.. On the days I work, I eat a yogurt for breakfast, and sometimes a banana. But mostly just a yogurt. Then for lunch, a have a Lean Cuisine or a low calorie lunch, because on the nights I work, me and my husband go for easy dinners such as Pizza or hot dogs, which are usually high in calories, and everything else, so I try to keep at a very low calorie intake throughout the day.

The days I don't work, I have a nice breakfast consisting of eggs, and maybe some other meat like Turkey bacon or a bagle. Depending the time I wake up, I'll skip lunch and have a fruit, or have a low calorie lunch. Those days I can control my dinner better, because I cook then, so I make sure to cook brocolli, and something healthier, like grilled chicken. I also pay attention to the fat, sugar, carb and sodium contents of the foods I eat, so I try to go for healthier alternatives. For instance, I really like tacos. But I decided to make them with Turkey ground beed and a low sodium Taco mix instead of regular ground beef and regular taco seasoning. Or even if I go to McDonald's (because trust me, my husband will want to go to McDonald's and use his puppy eyes for me to gog with him), I will have a smaller burger and medium fries, and drink water instead of a large meal with a Coke.  I feel like those little changes really make a difference.

Little by little, you learn the healthy things you like and make them part of your routine. I also learned that it is impossible to cut off foods you love completely (at least for me). I tried the Paleo diet, the keto, and even fasting, but what has worked for me was keep count of my calorie intake, and every once in a while eat the things I like, in moderation. Maybe if I did cut off carbs or sugar completely, I would be losing weight more quickly, but why lose weight quickly, if I know I won't be able to stay off these things forever? Just so that when I eat them again, I gain all the weight back? I rather lose the weight slowly, and make it a permanent loss, and still eat the things I like.

Plus, it's not easy to be on a diet when you are married to someone who is not. You feel tempted to eat the same things he does, and you also don't want to cook only healthy things if he won't eat it. Therefore I end up having more junk food than I would like to, but I still try to compensate with eating healthy during other days or other times. I still want to be able to go to a restaurant with him or fast food every now and then, and be normal, rather than obsess with every little thing I eat, thus making it an unpleasant experience for him. I found that the secret is, have everything in moderation, know your calories, and your limits. If you pig out one day, make sure you stay in line during the week.

Finally, water, water, water!! I try to drink at least 2 liters a day.

As far as activities go, let me start by saying, once again, that on April 7th, the day I decided to start this whole thing, I was nowhere near an active person. I didn't walk, run, or even lifted as much as a feather. I was really sedentary. All I did was go home, watch TV and eat, and then clean the apartment the days I was off. I started the c25k program on April 17th and I remember how tired I was from running up some hills near my apartment for 30 seconds straight. My lungs were in pain, my back hurt like hell, I did NOT enjoy it at all. Last week, I ran around those same hills, for 25 minutes straight. The only reason I stopped, was because I was getting late for my eye doctor appointment and had to get ready. But I have done 5k's and even ran 4 miles once.

I started crossfit the same week. I remember my whole body was hurting just from doing overhead squats with PVC pipes and body weight squats. Now I can do the work outs just like everyone else, and even did a barbell back squat with 75lbs on my shoulder. I didn't even shake. I have been seeing improvement little by little, on the amount of weight I can lift, reps I can do, distance I can run, etc. It just feels great to be able to do the same things the strong girls are doing. I'm one of the strong girls now! :) I try to go to my crossfit classes 3 times a week, and run at least once. 

So now you ask, what has all this done for me?

I have lost 16 pounds in about 4 months. I have gone down 2 sizes of clothing (from 12 to 8). My work pants are all too big. I can wear anything in my closet and look great. It's so funny how, on a daily basis, it doesn't seem like I'm losing weight according to scale, because it feels like I'm always on a Plateau. At first, I plateaud between 155 and 158, then I plateaud between 148 and 153, and now I am at 143 and 145. But when I look back, I went from 160 to 143! So, when they say your body is just getting re-adjusted, I really believe it. So now, when I weigh myself everyday and I see either 144 or 145, I know it's just temporary. Plus, my pants keep getting baggier and baggier, so either they are getting larger or I am getting smaller :)

SO basically, no matter how long I plateau or how many times I might feel weak or fall, as long as I don't give up, I see results eventually!

I think the most rewarding aspect of all this, is having people look at you and be inspired by your changes. Since I started this whole thing, 3 women I know joined crossfit and/or started running. Even my husband started running! People are always commenting on how much weight I lost and how good I look, and that is the best feeling in the world.

I haven't reached my goal yet, but I am more than halfway there, and damn, it feels good.

3 Months Progress

It's been a while since I have posted here. It was becoming more of a chore than anything, and I wanted this blog to be about my experience and journey, rather than a daily diary. So I decided not to post about all of my work outs here, since I have already been doing that on Fitocracy. If you are interested in following my work outs, you will need to join the site and follow through my profile. I will keep posting here anytime I want to share an experience or an interesting fact though, or even if I want to talk about a work out I did, but I just didn't want this to feel like a chore.

Anyway, it's been about 3 months since I started doing Crossfit. I have loved every second of it, even if I felt horrible or hated it during the workout, I never regreted it. I always love coming home all sweaty and feeling sore the next day. I also have been noticing progress in the amount of push-ups I can do, weights I can lift, burpees I can do, etc. I'm definitely getting stronger!

I haven't been running as much as I would like, but I'm still on for that 5k in October. I definitely want to be able to run a Marathon next year. I was running every week, and then I stopped for two weeks, so this Monday when I went running, it was definitely hard and my pace was slower. I figured I need to keep running at least once a week.

So, all this hard workout is finally paying off! I found out this week that I went down 2 sizes of clothing. Even thought I haven't gone past 146lbs, my clothes are definitely getting bigger and bigger and my waist smaller.

Here is my progress in measurements:

Bust: 40" - 37" ( 3 inches lost! )
Waist: 33" - 29" ( 2 inches lost!! )
High Hip: 40" - 35" ( 5 inches lost!!! )
Low Hip - 42" - 40" ( 2 inches lost! )
Thighs - 24" - 23" ( 1 inch lost :/ )

So yeah, I lost 5 inches around my belly button!! No wonder my clothes are fitting better :) I figured it was time to take some Before and After pictures. And here they are:

My "tight" jeans 

And there you have it! My goal now is just to keep at it and keep growing muscle and getting stronger. As far as size, I think if I lose one more size I will be happy. So maybe I don't have to go all the way down to 135lbs. Maybe just a couple more will be enough.

Anyway, thanks for reading!!!

THAT was HARD!

So today I went for my first class at the new gym.

Here's a picture of what it looks like:

I love the fact i is air conditioned and much closer to my house. It's much more organized and girly too (it's a girls only Crossfit), which I love! :)

We also have stationary bikes where we can do our warm ups, and a big field where we can run on on the back, but we haven't gone on it because of the heat this week.

So here is what we had to do:

Strength: weighted planks
Conditioning:
1-10
Db thrusters, burpees
2-20
Medball twists
In between each round jumprope 100singles


This was waaay harder than I thought. I felt nauseous afterwards because I was so tired. But it nothing that a Gatorade couldn't fix. 


Total calories lost: 488!

Update on "Plateau: What to Do??"

So, on June 21st, I had spoken about a Plateau and the things I decided to try to get out of it. They were a Waist Trimmer Belt, Fat burner and Hoodia pills and Intermittent Fasting. I tried all of them, and as far as Intermittent Fasting, I only tried it once and got so sick that I decided not to do it anything.

But here is what I have to say about the belt and the pills, 2 weeks later:

1- Waist Trimmer Belt (Update)

So I tried the Danskin Womens Fitness Waist Trimmer Belt . This is probably the thing that worked the most. It made me lose almost 2 inches around my waist on the week I wore it during my workouts and definitely made me sweat a lot around my belly. BUT, there is a big BUT! After doing some research, I realized that was mostly water weight, since sweating does not burn fat. So basically, I did lose a lot of water weight around my belly, but it's nothing that will be gone forever. Water weight comes and goes.

Conclusion:

It is a great tool if you are trying to get rid of inches around your weight for a special occasion, but for long term weight loss, it is not that efficient.

 

2- Combo ACAI Fat Burn #3 and Hoodia Ultra 2000 (Update)

Okay, so I took them religiously for about 7 days, and really didn't notice any decrease in appetite or weight loss.  After about 7 days I kind of gave up and decided to just stick to healthy eating. The only thing I did notice was the caffeine from the Hoodia kick in.

 

Conclusion:

I can't say, maybe you need to take it longer for it to work. But didn't really do anything for me.

*****

So, in sum, I shouldn't have wasted my money on those things. What I did try that worked, was adding more fiber to my breakfast and considerably reducing my sodium, fat and sugar intake. I'm finally getting out of my Plateau and back to 148 from 150.

For the first time, I'm getting compliments from people I rarely talk to about my weight loss. It is starting to become noticeable!

I guess the lesson I learned from this is be patient, be healthy, and good things will follow.

Another 5k

So I decided to go out for a run again this evening, and try to do a 5k in a shorter time. Turns out I was EXHAUSTED and I could not beat my time. I only ran for 2.8 miles in 30 minutes, and my pace was 10:33, about 10 seconds more than last time. I don't know what it was, but those last 10 minutes were the hardest..especially the last 2 minutes, they took forever to end! But I was determined to run for 30 minutes, no matter if I did a 5k or not.

Maybe it was the heat, or my muscles, or the food I ate... All I know is I'm proud that I at least went out there and tried today :)

At Home WOD

So my Crossfit gym is changing locations and my work schedule is also changing. Because of that, Sunday's class was cancelled and I wasn't going to be able to go before Thursday, which is when I will have off again. I didn't want to spend a week without crossfit, so I decided to do an at home workout. I went to Walmart this morning and bought a 40lb vynil dumbbell kit. I decided to incorporate it in my workout today. Here is what I did

10 rounds:
10 Dumbbell Squats (15lb dbs)
5 push-ups (3 of 10 rounds I did 40 bycicle situps instead because my arms were sore)
10 situps

I also did 1 minute of Plank hold and some tricep extension exercises with a 3lb weight, for toning.
It was def a good workout. I feel like I did as much work as I would if I had had crossfit today.

I can't wait to go to the new gym though!! :)