GetFitMom's Quest To a Healthy and Curvaceous Bod :-)

[GetFitMom]

I can't believe it! I'm finally joining the journaling clan. I like reading others journals but have drawn a blank about what to say on my own ....but I gotta do this to stay accountable and reach my goals.

Well, I'm on Day 7 of recommitting to Body for Life and things couldn't be better. I have stayed the course with my exercising (3 days cardio, 3 days weight training), kept my eats clean and both my clothes AND the scale are being good to me.

I fit into size 12's this week (last time was in college!) and I'm officially 165. Previously, I was jumping between 168 and 166.4 with LCing and cardio alone.

What's funny is that since adding in oats and fruit along with the weight training my cravings which used to be ground-shaking intense for chocolate have come to an end. I've had NO thoughts of even cheating. I it!

So with week 1 down, I have 11 more weeks to round out my first 12-week challenge to becoming a curvaceous hottie. My goal during these 12 weeks is to get rid of the muffin top on my size 12's, reduce my body fat while toning up, and get into the 150's.

I'm not interested in losing tons of weight but instead transforming my body from an apple to a coca cola bottle

As Bill Philips says,

"If you do nothing but aerobic exercise, your results will not be optimal. Yes, you may lose weight. But your overall shape will stay the same. If you start an aerobic exercise shaped like a pear, the most likely result is you will wind up looking like a smaller pear - which is fine, if that's what you want. But that's not what I call a transformation."

Previously, I was doing very low cal/low carb. As a result, it took me over a month to get my cals and carbs back up which was plain torture during that time. I'm still struggling to get my cals up to an acceptable level but at least it's no less than 1250 per day. I'll post menus and recipes to give people an idea of what I'm eating including my exercise routines. Hopefully, if anyone else is struggling with low cal/low carb you will be able to see that you can move beyond that even if you believe your metabolism is "slow", it can be ramped up for you to lose weight.

BTW, today is my free day. So no posting of menu or exercise. All my meals except for 1 will be clean and I'm not even fretting about it.

Dang, this first post was L-O-N-G.

[Tashi]

You're here Great to see you start journaling and I'm looking forward to reading and keeping up with you.

[GetFitMom]

Thanks Tashi for the welcoming post.

Well, I woke up and got some cardio in this morning at 6:30am. Today supposed to just be lower body weight training but last night my 9-year old who has now caught the exercise bug asked if I could get up early this morning to go walking. This kid NEVER wakes up early. But sure enough he rolled out of bed with no complaints and rode his bike while I walked for 25-min briskly. It was great.

So let me recap about my free day. The cheat meal was fine but I'm glad to be eating clean again today. Because it wasn't an all out full day gone hog wild day I don't think any damage was done but won't be weighing for a couple of days.

With today being a lower body workout later, it will be a higher carb day and tomorrow I'm scaling back to lower carbs. I need to read up on how to properly carb cycle and calorie cycle cause I don't want to get to a point where I hit a plateau. Staying off the scale and keeping up my exercise is keeping me sane though.

My LBWO plan for today using 5/10 lb weights, 6 sets:

Quads - dumbell squats
Hamstring - straight-leg deadlifts
Calves - angled calf raise
Abs - twist crunches, bent-kneee leg raises

Meal Plan:

M1: 1/2 c proatmeal (steel cut oats mixed with whey protein powder), 1/2 bananna
M2: 4 shanny cake muffins (see below - I should be eating 6 instead of 4)
M3 - 2 lc tortillas w scrambled eggbeaters, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions
M4 - choc shake (1 c skim calorie countdown, 2 T. whey protein, 1 T. sf nesquik)
M5 - still trying to decide, maybe a big chicken salad
M6 - 1/2 c cottage cheese w/ sliced strawberries

Shannycakes

This batter makes one meal on Body For Life for a woman.

4 egg whites
1/4 C cottage cheese
1/2 C oats
four packets of Splenda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Blend in a blender until cottage cheese is smooth. Cook on a Pam-sprayed skillet like pancakes and enjoy! You can also make these into muffins by pouring batter halfway into cups of a muffin tin and baking at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Variations:

Banana Shannycakes: Add a 1/2 banana and cut the oatmeal to 1/3 C.
Chocolate Almond Shannycakes: Omit cinnamon and add 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa, two extra packets of Splenda, and 1 tsp almond extract. Increase vanilla by 1/2 tsp.
Apple Pie Shannycakes: Cut oats to 1/3 C, add 1/2 jar of pureed apples (baby food) and add 1/4 tsp of nutmeg
Pumpkin Shannycakes: Add 1/4 C canned pumpkin, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp of ginger and 1/8 tsp of cloves.
Lemon Poppyseed Shannycakes: Add 1 tsp lemon extract and 1 1/2 tsp of poppyseeds. Decrease cinnamon to a dash.
Strawberry Shannycakes: Add 3 Tbsp of nonfat sugar free strawberry jam to batter.

[rchelle]

Good luck on your quest. I look forward to reading your journal and learning more about your plan.

[GetFitMom]

Hey Rchelle,

Your stats are pretty close to mine....except you're taller. LOL I wish was a couple inches taller but I gotta work with what the good Lord gave me.

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Didn't get to do my a.m. walk with my son this morning because it was pouring down rain. We were kinda bummed because this was his first day back to school and the morning walk/bike ride gives us some time to talk one on one while getting energized for the day. Oh well....we always have tomorrow.

My 2 girls also start their fall session at a new academy. The 3 year old is estatic. The 1 year old - we'll see how that goes. She plays the "baby of the family" role well.

I read up on carb/calorie cycling yesterday. So today is lower carb.

My menu for today:

6:30 - proatmeal w/ 1/4 c milk, 2 c coffee w/ cream
9:30 - EAS bar (busy enrolling the girls at school)
12:00 - grilled chicken w/ brocolli/carrots
3:00 protein shake
6:00 huge salad w/ salmon
9:00 cinnamon/splenda cottage cheese

TOTAL: 1248 cals, 153 protein/69 carbs/41 fat (not net carbs) 51/18/31 ratio

Quick note on water: After 96 oz. I usually stop counting but I do drink more than that.

Exercise:

No weight training today

5 min elliptical (warm-up)
20 min step aerobics
5 min stretch
super sets to fatigue -
exercise ball pull-in/exercise ball crunch

[GetFitMom]

Just posting a quick note to self ~

I am absolutely wiped out. My carbs are lower today but not under 50 g. Even so I feel like taking a nap! I haven't had that type of feeling since BFL but used to struggle with it severely before.

Was I born to keep my carbs at 100+ grams?

Right now I'm debating on ditching my 3:00pm shake and having a bowl of protmeal w/ berries. I haven't even exercised yet because I'm so tired. I ate the chicken with brocolli/baby carrots an hour ago but still felt a little hungry afterwards. Therefore I drank 2 cups of water.

Oatmeal or shake??? This is so confusing.

[GetFitMom]

I ate the oatmeal the other day instead of the shake and felt alot better.

Yesterday, I did the elliptical and did UBWO. I had stayed up too late the night before and ended up taking a power nap and felt great afterwards.

I thought I would wake up and see a wonderful number on the scale. But it said I was at 171.8 instead. I'm at a loss because my clothes are fitting just fine. It has to be muscle. I'm just confused as to why last week the scale went down and then this week it's up.

Today is aerobic workout day so I'm hitting the gym. It will be 35 min. on the treadmill and I'll take a look at the machines there to get an idea of how to incorporate them into my weight training days.

I have a home gym with free weights, bench, leg extension/pulldown machine, elliptical, step bench, stability ball and resistance bands. So you can see that I was just plain lazy before by not exercising. I would walk past that wonderful gym everyday and walk to my room to lay down instead. What a waste.

Today's eats:
M1 - proatmeal w/ 1/2 bananna
M2 - ff yogurt w/ 3 sl turkey bacon
M3 - lc tortilla w/ chicken, lettuce, tomato
M4 - shake w/ peach
M5 - salmon salad
M6 - baked apple w/ cottage cheese

[WATCH-ME-SHRINK]

Originally Posted by GetFitMom

I ate the oatmeal the other day instead of the shake and felt alot better.

Yesterday, I did the elliptical and did UBWO. I had stayed up too late the night before and ended up taking a power nap and felt great afterwards.

I thought I would wake up and see a wonderful number on the scale. But it said I was at 171.8 instead. I'm at a loss because my clothes are fitting just fine. It has to be muscle. I'm just confused as to why last week the scale went down and then this week it's up.

Today is aerobic workout day so I'm hitting the gym. It will be 35 min. on the treadmill and I'll take a look at the machines there to get an idea of how to incorporate them into my weight training days.

I have a home gym with free weights, bench, leg extension/pulldown machine, elliptical, step bench, stability ball and resistance bands. So you can see that I was just plain lazy before by not exercising. I would walk past that wonderful gym everyday and walk to my room to lay down instead. What a waste.

Today's eats:
M1 - proatmeal w/ 1/2 bananna
M2 - ff yogurt w/ 3 sl turkey bacon
M3 - lc tortilla w/ chicken, lettuce, tomato
M4 - shake w/ peach
M5 - salmon salad
M6 - baked apple w/ cottage cheese

It will be fine. Don't go too low in calories, and keep your carbs up just slightly...it DOES help with energy levels.

Just checkin in and cheering you on!

[GetFitMom]

Originally Posted by WATCH-ME-SHRINK

It will be fine. Don't go too low in calories, and keep your carbs up just slightly...it DOES help with energy levels.

Just checkin in and cheering you on!

Thanks Twyla! I'm totally committed to exercising with strength training. I want to be skinny and fit not skinny fat.

[GetFitMom]

Well, I vowed that I would not weigh daily but I also have low blood sugar and will admit that I had my first relapse on Saturday at 10:39am. I can remember the exact time because I was so shocked and wanted to know if I had gone past 3 hours without eating. I hadn't. It was only 1.5 hours. So I made a shake and dismissed it. Unfortunately, so far this week I've now had a total of 4 and after I went from 165 to 171.8 my wheels started really spinning. Last night around 11:00pm I ate some cottage cheese because it's known to stick with you most the night and has always given me no problem. (Been eating it at night for months now). Well, around 1 am I started feeling nauseous and knew it was my blood sugar. So I had to find some sf hard candy which helped out. Then I woke up this morning with my face all puffy. So I stepped on the scale again and it said 173! Ummm...no, this ain't gonna work.

Now I'm big enough to admit that I need to re-evaluate what I'm doing here because my health is a priority for me. The weight gain of 5-6 lbs I could say it was from weight training but I'm pushing close to 10 lbs and having blood sugar crashes. I never had this issue before when doing BFL and only gained a couple lbs of weight before I started dropping it on BFL.

Does this mean I'm throwing weight training out the door and going back to strictly cardio? NO WAY! I love feeling the burn and have no doubt that muscle burns more at rest than cardio does. Both have their place in an exercise routine but BFL eating has got to go. I need to lose weight, lower body fat percentage and get toned up. Not gain weight and bulk up.

So starting today I'm cutting out oats and fruit. It's gonna be hard because I love my fruit and could practically put my head in a bucket of oats like a horse and eat them. I'll probably also feel wiped out but I looked up posts from others that weight train and stick with LC. The person who really interested me was Camshog who has lost tons of weight and that lady is getting ripped! She eats LC and said for about 2 months she felt wiped out but pressed on and after that gained energy for her workouts. I also read up on Targeted Ketogenic Diets too which is interesting about LCing but around workouts adding in carbs.

Oh well, meats and veggies for me today. This will be a true journey because I'm trying to find what truly works. I've come too far to give up now. So bear with me while I tweak my eating but I guarantee you I'm gonna lose the weight and like my name says "Get Fit".

My menu:
B - 3 eggs w/ 3 slices turkey bacon, 2 c coffee w/ cream (I'm a grazer so this will last until noon)
L - salad w/ chicken and 2 T. lite dressing
S -
D - salad w/ 2 turkey burgers, 1 T. lite dressing, 1 T. lc ketchup
S -

I'll probably have to go grocery shopping because my snacks I seem to be at a loss for some reason.

Exercise:
LBWO
Abs - Lower Ab Crunch, Bent Knee Hip Raise
Quads - Dumbell Squats
Hamstrings - Straight Deadlifts
Calves - Angled Calf Raise

No cardio today.

[WATCH-ME-SHRINK]

GFM,

Your last post is a HUGE eye opener/observation/revelation.

It sounds like you do have some issues with blood sugar, among other things? Maybe some of those mirror my own issues, not sure yet. But in any event, I plan to keep a very close eye on your progress, meals, workouts, etc.

I've been trying to get the last ten pounds off for longer than I care to say....so downright embarrassing.

I began with Atkins, tried various tweaking, nothing really seemed to help. M/E left me tired and cranky. Upped my carbs from 25ish to around 40ish back in December and began losing again, more energy, etc. Then stalled again in February 2006.

I started BFFM in May, did okay at first (not great like so many others), lost a couple of pounds, seemed to be losing some body fat, leaning out, but then caved mid summer to the heat and such, and didn't stick to WOE plan as well. Gained some lbs.

Got back to doing well again mid late August, then TOM did me in (again), and since then I've been tweaking to death with my macros, and I'm still searching for the magic "combo."

I've just not been able to figure out why I have so much trouble losing weight. I lost some body fat from May through June, but due to my laziness and carelessness this summer, and TOM issues, regained 1% of that body fat back.

It's back to the drawing board for me, but I want to watch you closely and see how you do.

It may be helpful for me in the long run.

I wish you well. I can see you're very determined! I know you can do it!

[GetFitMom]

Twyla -

I have no problem being the human guinea pig. Hopefully, my trials and errors will help someone else to avoid the hurdles that I have to jump.

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Alrighty, I woke up this morning with no puffiness, down 1/2 lb and no blood sugar episodes yesterday.

I didn't feel tired during or after my workout either. It might be because I still have glycogen stored up.

My menu is mainly the same (meat/veggies).

B - veggie omelette
L - chicken salad w/ 2 T. dressing
S - 1 oz nuts (I know )
D - maybe some wings with celery
S - dunno...possibly sf jello

I have to go into the office today from 1-5pm. Oh joy.

So I'll do my cardio this evening which will be step aerobics.

[SunaBee]

Hye Pretty Girl!!!

I just started a thread over here too... I NEVER thought I would. *snicker*

Just wanted to drop in and say hi!!!!

[GetFitMom]

Hi SunaBee! You journaling? Well, I'm just gonna have to go check yours out.

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GOOD MORNING!

I'm down 2 lbs this morning! That brings me to 170.5 which is still 5.5 lbs above my lowest weight but I'll take it. The normal fatigue I usually feel with LCing under 80g carbs has not set in yet and I'm crossing my fingers that this time it will pass me by. I'm averaging 35g carbs (not net) mainly from veggies.

My menu was adjusted a little yesterday (no wings, instead turkey burger w/ salad & celery w/ pb). Totals = 1619 cals 109 fat 32 carbs 121g protein / percentages 63% f/6% c/31% p

Today's eats:

B - 3 fried eggs, 3 c coffee w/ cream/splenda
L - 2 hb eggs w/ salad (lettuce, tomato, cukes), homemade dressing, 1 oz cheese
S - 1 oz almonds
D - grilled chicken thigh w/ broccoli & sliced tomatoes
S - celery dipped in blue cheese, cup of green tea

Totals 1378 cals 109 fat 36 carbs 70 protein / 72% f/7% c/20% p

I'm trying to keep my eating as squeaky clean as possible and focusing on veggies more so than filling in my eating with protein. It's a balancing act because I also have to make sure I eat enough protein so that it's not taken from muscle. The almonds are premeasured (Planters now sells them like that) and the coffee....well, I'm not giving that up.

Exercise today: none - my day off

Today is going to be a beautiful day. So we are starting off going to church, then this afternoon just hanging out. The kids want to find fish to fill the tank and my middle child asked if I could buy them chocolate. I have no clue why she is such a chocoholic (I'll admit it comes from my father's family which passed onto me and now my daughter. My mom could care less about chocolate. Weird.) Anyway, I buy the prewrapped pieces so they think they are getting more. I might just stop by the Godiva store and pick up a dark sf choc. bar for myself.

I also want to look for my long lost but much beloved Tae Bo. I have no idea what I did with it but I feel like I'm missing a really good workout with Billy Blanks. Some people don't like his style but he really knows how to get me motivated to exercise and I look forward to it. His video was the first one I dusted off my video collection after I had my 2nd child and in less than a month I was back to my prepregnancy weight. I love Tae Bo.

Okay, for anyone reading....have a wonderful, relaxing Sunday!

[GetFitMom]

Dear God,

Please don't let this end.

-----------------------

This morning I was at 168.2! That's my weight before indulging in wild oats and tasting forbidden fruits. So now I'm back to where I was before and just pray that this will continue.

I must be in ketosis because I'm struggling to keep my cals up. I find I'm eating more fat than anything else and just threw in the tablespoon of peanut butter and evening snack to get my cals and carbs up some. I'm thinking that my body stopped losing before because it thought it was starving. But that's just a theory. We will see what tomorrow brings.

As for weight training today, I'm working on a split routine which I'll post later Right now it's taking me between 45-60 min to get through the entire UBWO and as a mom of 3, school & church volunteer, and independent contractor every minute has to count. So dividing up the training days will be best for me and maybe even decreasing cardio from 30 min to 20 min 4 x week. Let me think about this some....

Menu:

Brunch - (wasn't hungry until 11am) 3 fried eggs, 3 sl bacon, 3 c coffee w/ cream/splenda, and 1 T. pb

S - 1 oz almonds, 1 oz mozarella

D - huge salad w/ chicken, hb egg, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, 3 T. homemade dressing

S - cuke slices w/ 1T blue cheese, cup green tea w/ cream

Totals 1364 cals/ 115 fat/ 22 carb/ 66 protein; 76% fat, 5% carbs, 19% protein

P.S. Still no fatigue.

[godsbeloved79]

Stopping by to drop off some blessings and encouragement!

[GetFitMom]

Godsbeloved - Thanks for the blessings and encouragement.

Hey, what happened to your picture? You had put a new one up a couple weeks ago that was nice.

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I wasn't able to edit my post yesterday to include a split routine and to be honest, I'm still not fully awake. *yawn* So I'll make it short and sweet this a.m.

Yesterday, ended up doing the same ole UBWO routine. Today is cardio - will do WATP.

Menu is basically the same. B: eggs, bacon, coffee, L: salad w/ meat, D: meat w/ veggie, snacks: almonds, string cheese, possibly T. pb, & green tea

On a bright note, I lost 1.2 lbs which brings me to 167.

I'm not tired because of the WOE but instead I stayed up way too late last night. My youngest is going through wa-wa withdrawals at night. (Wa-wa means her pacifier. ) The first day she just asked about it but last night was the second day and the tears were flowing off and on all night long. It's like she has lost her best friend.

[godsbeloved79]

Originally Posted by GetFitMom

Godsbeloved - Thanks for the blessings and encouragement.

Hey, what happened to your picture? You had put a new one up a couple weeks ago that was nice.

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Hey GFM,

I took that pic down, because I thought it made my lips and nose look HUGE? You are doing a great job , hopefully I can get with the program again.

[GetFitMom]

Originally Posted by godsbeloved79

Hey GFM,

I took that pic down, because I thought it made my lips and nose look HUGE? You are doing a great job , hopefully I can get with the program again.

That's ridiculous! I see you put your photo back up. Good! You look just fine.

I also go through the same mental mindgames with myself. My current photo I almost didn't put up because my face looks so greasy. What's even funnier is my son said "Mom, I don't like that picture. It doesn't look like you." I was sad at first so he pushed me into a mirror and said "See you look much better!". I love that kid. My point is that sometimes the way we perceive ourselves is not the way others see us.

[GetFitMom]

Alrighty....I haven't written in this journal for a couple days so it's time to play catch up.

I'm now down to my all time low since restarting this WOE on April 30th at 200 lbs. This morning I weighed in at 164! I've been doing the Eat Fat, Get Thin WOE and must say that my body is loving it because my 14's that I could still wear are now sagging on my hips. And for the heck of it I thought let's see how the muffin top is looking on my 12's lately. It's almost gone!!! I'm taking the kids to go visit my Dad this weekend and plan on wearing my 12's there. He will be really surprised. The last time I wore a comfortable 12 was in college. In a couple weeks, I'll need to purge my closet of my 14's. Uh oh, I see another reason for a mini-shopping spree soon.

So this weekend I'm relaxing a little but staying strict LC. I'm indulging in 2 slices of deep dish pizza tonight and some full-fat yogurt w/ flax this weekend. Hopefully, the scale won't go up from water weight but if it does I won't freak out because on Monday I'll be cutting those LC yummies out for another 5-6 days.

My menu for today:

B - 2 fried eggs, 3 slice bacon, 2 c coffee w/ splenda/cream
L - salad (lettuce, tomato)w/ 1 hb egg, 3 T. dressing
S - 1 oz almonds
D - 2 slices deep dish pizza, salad w/ 1 T. dressing
S - jello w/ whip cream

Exercise (in case, you thought I had slacked up )

20 min cardio - step aerobics
20 min - Ab/Glute workout

Oh yeah before I forget, yesterday was my DD's 2-year old birthday! We had a wonderful party w/ her friends and she was swimming in gifts. Her PaPa (grandpa) is giving her his gift (more like gifts knowing him) this weekend when we go visit him and he mentioned something about us going on a day trip. As a surprise, I'll wait to tell the kids in the morning as we are getting ready to leave that we're visiting him for the weekend. They'll be excited.

[indogia]

hey sunabee,just called in to send you love and cheers.

you are doing great!

indy
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