Monday, January 6, 2014

Happy 2014!!

Okay, so I've started a 6-week challenge and have come up with some goals that I wanted to post here as well. Since I don't have the time to type up different posts for each site, I'll just be copying information between posts so all the info is everywhere :-)

Main Quest: Get my health back. I love being active - running, CrossFit, lifting, kettlebells, boxing/kickboxing, dance (I'm a former Zumba instructor)....you get the idea....if its active, I enjoy it. Well in July 2013, I hyperextended my knee in a boxing class and had to stop my level of intensity for the past 6 months. No running, no jumping, no dancing and (almost) no walking. I tried modifying my workouts but because I was used to higher intensity, I didn't feel like I was getting anything out of it. This was absolutely devastating to me. I let my eating get out of control over the holidays and now I feel like a chunky munky. My knee is still improving, so I've gotta take things slow - but overall I need to get my diet & fitness back in line

Supporting Quests: I've come up with a few supporting quests to help me get things rolling.

1. Get Moving More (at least 2 miles a day): Since I am still recovering from my knee injury, I've gotta take things slow but I work a desk job, so I need to get more movement in my days. I figure this 2 miles can either be walking, running, jogging or any combination of the above. I will track the time it takes me to complete the 2 miles each day and the max pace I was able to reach - this is just so I can track progress made over the next 6 weeks and ultimately over the coming year

2. Get My Nutrition in Line: ultimately, eating out is expensive and not beneficial to my goals....so prepping food in advance & packing lunches is gonna be key to my success  :pirate: I really don't eat a lot of processed junk, I love fruits, veggies, fish & chicken - so I just need to get my butt in gear and prep my food so that I always have healthy options without having to eat out. As far as drinks go, I only drink tea, water & sparkling water. I've already cut sodas & sugary drinks out of my diet in 2013, so keeping that up is part of the plan

3. Start a Solid Lifting Plan: this one is easy - with the cardio that I'm doing in Quest 1 and the nutrition I'm doing in Quest 2, I need some strength training. I'm looking at a few different lifting plans right now, but will post workouts once I start them (which will probably be January 6th). I have a membership to an MMA gym as well as a full Olympic gym at home so I'll have access to free weights no matter where I am.


SINCE TODAY IS DAY ONE - here's today's post as well: 
My weekend was totally crazy. The hubby and I set out to make sure the garage was ready for me to start lifting today (since that's where my bench & rack are) and it turned into an entire weekend of "we will NOT be hoarders!"...not just in the garage....but in the whole house!

We went through boxes of stuff we haven't seen in months, took over 200 pounds of stuff (cardboard boxes, etc) to the local dump, a truck-full of stuff to Goodwill and we're STILL working on everything. Now we're mainly in the cleanup phase though so hopefully we'll be done sometime this week. So - needless to say....I got a lot of "functional" strength stuff done this weekend but I didn't have time for much else. There was lots of lifting boxes, climbing ladders, cleaning, etc - so my calorie burns were up there (and I have a lot of mystery bruises) but I didn't get my 2 miles in either day. I'm planning on doing 3 miles for 4 days this week to make up for it. 

So - all that being said...we are still working on getting the house perfect and the bench & rack still aren't quite ready for me to start lifting BUT I'm not going to let that derail me. If I'm not able to organize everything this afternoon, I will knock out kettlebell workouts until I am able to get the rack set up. I have kettlebells of various sizes so I can definitely give myself a good workout with those if I'm not able to use the rack just yet. Its important for me to have a clean & un-cluttered house, so if I need to take this week to do that with my hubby, then I can start the lifting plan next week. Either way, the goals of "moving more, eating better & lifting consistently" are going to be met....plus I'll have a clean house....I totally see all the perks here  :highly_amused:

Also, since I had to be at work by 6am, I didn't have time to take new progress pics and measurements this morning before work, so I'm going to be using the measurements & pics that I took last week. They're scary (and I'm totally a pale, white girl) but it will make the progress & changing that much sweeter when I see changes  :joyous:

So this is me - as of last week. I gained some pudge because of my knee injury in July as well as other medical issues that happened at the end of 2013 (I was bedridden for about 4 days right before Christmas so I'm still trying to recover from that) Since dropping some water weight, my midsection is already looking better so I'm anxious to see what happens in the next few weeks. 

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Measurements:
Neck: 14.5 inches
Shoulders: 43 Inches
Bust: 44 Inches
Chest (under bust): 38 Inches
Waist: 39 Inches
Belly Button: 41.5 Inches
Hips: 47 Inches
Upper Thigh (right/left): 28 inches
Mid Thigh (right/left): 25 inches
Mid Calf (right/left): 17 inches
Bicep (right/left): 14.4 inches
Forearm (right/left) 12.25 inches
Wrist: 7.25
Current Jean Size: 12

Honestly - I'm not going to post my weight and BF% and its changes until the very end of the challenge. I really want to focus on measurement changes and how my body is feeling overall and really not focus on the number on a scale.