60 day ab results

Here are my 60 day ab results from doing p90x. I can really feel it now! Day 30 I could see the fat melting away but now I am really starting to love my stomach and there hasn't been a "drastic" weight loss. I can't wait to see what day 90 will look like!

30 days of abs

Yesterday I started my way to 30 days of abs. I plan on working on my abs 15 minutes each night. I will incorporate p90x's ab ripper x, insanity's insane abs, and a few other things of my own. 

I plan to update daily with which workouts I will be doing. I hope some of you can join me! I will also do a before and after shot of my "abs". 

Yesterday was Day 1 and here is the workout 

1) In and Outs: 25 reps

2) Bicycles: in seated position 25 reps forward and backward for a total of 50

3) Crunchy Frog: 25 reps

4) Cross Leg/ Wide Leg Sit-Ups: 25 reps

5) Fifer Scissors: 25 reps

6) Hip Rock And Raise: 25 reps

7) Pulse Ups: 25 reps

8) V-Up/Roll Up: 25 reps

9) Oblique V-Ups: right side 25 reps & left side 25 reps

10) Leg Climbs: 25 reps

11) Mason Twist: 40 reps

more progress

This is a dirty mirror pic. Literally. No, it's not my dirty mirror. Yes, I do take pictures like this at other peoples houses LOL!

I have no idea how many inches I've lost but I can tell it's quite a few. My love handles are slowly but surely disappearing. I just need to tackle my lower belly now.

brag post!

This here is a brag post. Finally. A good post. These are my guns. Okay, not really. This is the first time I ever have some kind of definition in my arms. I usually have big flabby butter arms. I can see definition now!!!! P90x is awesome. I will have nice arms for this summer. No more hiding in cardigans and long sleeves!

fat face

When I get fat, so does my face. If I gain ten pounds five will go to my arms and belly and the other five will go directly to my face. Seriously. I get big puffy cheeks when I gain weight and I hate it. This is one of the reasons I like to maintain a healthy diet, and stay thin, so that my face doesn't look like I've eaten two cheeseburgers.

Between these two pictures there is a 7 pound difference. SEVEN POUND! WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE ALL 7 ARE IN MY FACE??!?!

I know the picture isn't the greatest comparison but I'm sure you can tell. I was 148.8 on the left (or more) and 141.2 on the right. You can see my eyes look bigger and my cheeks look smaller. It's ridiculous but I wanted to share my almost number 1 reason for staying thin!

month two

Since starting month two this Monday things have been interesting. 
Here are the boring parts:

Day 1 which was Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, was hard. Just like it was hard in month one. I felt defeated and frustrated. I felt like I wasn't doing the moves right and I couldn't do them all the way anyway. The next day I was sore, so sore, and that my friends is a good thing. I was working hard and sweating through it and I felt it. 

Month two is so different, I haven't even completed one week and I'm hooked. I feel like this is such a great program because I don't feel entirely exhausted and defeated at the end. I'm learning so much about my body and seeing immense toning in areas I'd never seen before. My arms are starting to look so much better. I usually had big, fat, flabby arms and now I can actually see muscle and it's so motivating! 

My eating habits have stayed on board. I am not following the eating plan exactly but I still maintain a very healthy diet, one which I plan on sharing with you more frequently! 

side by side

Here are a few side by side comparsion pictures. The flash and position of the shirt don't exactly help but here's a 5 lb weight-loss.

30 day results

Ah! 30 days later into p90x and... HERE ARE THE RESULTS!

I weighed in at 148.8 lbs

and now... DUN DUN DUN!!!!

I weight 143.8 lbs! 

I am officially down 5 whole pounds!

 I didn't think it would be such a big deal but it is! 

I feel that in the pictures I can't see much of a difference but I sure can tell in my face, which obviously isn't pictured here LOL. I can definetly tell in my arms when I flex but I failed at flexing in pictures. It isn't a huge AMAZING difference but I feel like I've lost quite a few inches over all. I feel that I can see it in my side picture and under my arms when I have them up in the pictures. I can tell that I'm toning a lot as well. This has been a good journey and I can't wait to see what month two has in store for me. If you pay close attention to detail you can see that overall I'm shrinking a little, losing inches over all :) 

exposed- the not so fab

I can't believe I'm doing this! I feel like these pictures are horrible but, it is what it is.
This is Day 1 of p90x.

The stats:

• 5'6''
• 145.8
• size 6 

These pants and this shirt are so tight it's overwhelmingly unflattering. I cringe when I see these pictures but it's the most accurate way I thought of getting a good before picture. As you will see, my arms, belly, shoulders, and back, need the most work. 

Day 1 p90x

Today I completed day 1 of p90x: Chest and Back. My initial reaction was: Wow this sure is different from Insanity. I wasn't sweating as much, my heart wasn't racing, and I didn't feel like I Was going to die :) I liked it, but then I didn't because I feel like if I don't want to quit then I'm not working hard enough. I wanted to stop the video because I was discouraged that I couldn't do most of the workouts. I'm very weak with my upper body, I can't even do a single proper push up. I just try my hardest and keep going. Everything was push ups, pull ups, and some weight exercises. I kept thinking to myself, "You're not doing this right, you're just wasting your time". I wanted to quit, but I didn't. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm a beginner. I won't do it 100% like they do, maybe I'm at 10% but in a few weeks I'll be at 25% and that is better than 10... right?

The biggest problem areas that I have with my body, are my upper body and my midsection. I have a good amount of flab on my belly, chubby arms, and back fat! I hope to have that disappear by the end of this journey.

Also, I'm really far behind on my eating for today! I've only had breakfast: the omelet and it was great. Right now I'm munching on the "soy nuts"- I bought them at Target and they're salted and roasted. A little weird but okay to eat.

p90x

I've started my new journey! Instead of doing Cross Fit I decided to go with p90x. Why? Because I'm cheap :) and it's cold in Chicago. I don't want to leave the house 2-3 times a day, I can do p90x in the comfort of my own home.

Let's start with the basics:
I am going to try really hard to follow the meal plan. I think it won't always workout for me but I will try and replace their meals with some healthy meals of my own. I went shopping this weekend for month 1, I missed maybe 10 items that I need to get back to. I spent $77, it seems steep but I had to buy things like wine, and oil. Those are the items that really jacked that bill up. I'd honestly never bought so many green things at once.

This morning I made the mushroom scramble ( i believe that's the name), and it was fast, easy, and delicious. I'm skipping their lunch and having my own protein shake.

This will take a lot of preparation, following the meal plan, but I think it will be worth it. MY biggest downfall when I workout is my eating habits. I do okay most of the week and then fail by the weekend. If a holiday comes up, I just eat junk all week. That's why my results are so slow and sometimes I even gain weight :( I'm hoping that with p90x this isn't the case! Wish me luck. I hope to have the patience to prepare all these meals, find good replacements for the times I can't cook, and be able to resist the temptation of fatty fast food around me everyday!

New Beginnings

I haven't always enjoyed fitness or eating healthy, but now it's a huge part of my life. I've lost weight in a healthy manner and have managed to keep it off for two years, with a pregnancy in between. This journey has been a complete lifestyle change and it hasn't been easy, but I love it. I've gone from a very loose size 13 to a loose size 5. It's made a big difference in everyday life.

I told myself I wanted to lose weight because finding what to wear everyday was such a struggle and it almost always ruined my day. I know this may seem vain but it was just so hard to be comfortable in my own skin. All I wanted was to wake up and not have to worry about how tight my pants were, whether my shirt needed to be very loose to offset my tight pants, or If I had a clean extra large sweater to hide under. I wanted to wake up and throw on whatever I wanted and just feel comfortable.

To be honest, I felt pretty as a size 13 but I wasn't comfortable. I felt like I needed to wear more makeup, have prettier hair, or nicer clothes to feel beautiful. I felt like I was "pretty" but getting ready for the day was still hard. I didn't like being 20 and 182 lbs, I just kept thinking to myself, how much more weight am I going to gain by the time I'm 21? I wasn't always a size 13, I was more like a 9 (or 10) all through high-school. I started gaining weight when I married my husband. I was in love and life was just pure bliss! We constantly ate out and snacked through the night, which made me start packing on the pounds. In just six short months I gained 20 pounds!!! I needed to change my eating habits AND start working out. Before then, I never worked out, I was very lazy. I was too intimidated to go to the gym, so I started working out in our leasing office "gym". They had one elliptical and one treadmill, I started off slow with 15-20 minutes on the elliptical. After a few months I'd do two hours on just those two machines, after losing some weight I joined a gym and never looked back! I had a very strict diet and it helped so much, but this is where my next journey begins. I've done insanity twice over and I'm getting ready to change my diet again and give crossfit a try. I hope to share my progress with you and encourage at least one person in a positive way.