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!! :)

Fitocracy = Awesome Motivating Tool!

I wish I had joined this site earlier... I am so addicted to it now!! So much that I have been slacking posting here, because I am so busy posting my workouts there and accumulating points!

Fitocracy is a Fitness Social Network, where you can log your workouts and interact with other users. You gain points for each workout you add, as well as unlock achievements and complete quests. There are several groups you can become part of, depending on your interests. There is always someone giving you "props" for workouts that you do and they are always eager to answer any questions you have.
The community is wonderful and there is a lot of support in there.

In one week, I reached level 7 and accumulated 4,175 points!

Some days I even do a couple of random Planks just to get some more points added to my day. lol

I definitely recommend it for anyone trying to get fit, healthy and wanting motivation. If you are competitive, this is definitely going to motivate you!

My FIRST 4 mile Run!

After a stressful day at work, I knew I couldn't just go home and sit and do nothing. I knew I had to go out and run, but I wanted to try something different. So I decided to run longer. I decided I would go all the way from my place to my brother's place, which is exactly 4 miles apart, including some very steep hills.

It was 90 degrees out, even though it was around 8:30pm, but I went anyway.

I decided to go with a slower pace, because I knew if I tried to do it fast, I wouldn't be able to do it because of the heat, the distance and also because I had a little pain in my thigh which I think I got from wearing high heels yesterday.

So I went, and ran all the way there, no walking!! The most difficult part was towards the end. There is a very steep hill near my brother's house, but luckily, my brother who is am ultra-marathon barefoot runner, met me halfway and helped me push through that hill. If it wasn't for him, I would probably have started walking right there.

So yeah, I ran 4 miles with no walking today! It was agreat achievement, even though it wasn't as fast as I have been running, but nonetheless, it was a personal record broken.