30 Day Challenge - Halfway Measurements

I wasn't going to take my measurements during the 30 Day Challenge, but yesterday I discovered that a pair of pants I had would not stay up without a belt.  I didn't notice because I generally wear a belt in an attempt to keep them in place.  But yesterday when I took them off, I was able to completely slide them off without undoing the fly.

So that prompted me to do measurements....and I discovered that I have no idea exactly where I measured my waist and hips the last time. 

Here are the measurements I got today:

Waist: 34 1/8
Hips: Either 42 7/8 or 43 2/8
Left thigh: 23
Left arm: 14.5 

I'm pretty sure I measured my thigh and possibly my arm in roughly the same place as last time.  But I'm doubting the waist and hips (although it's possible I took the one measurement today in the same place?) So who knows what I'll get at the end of the 30 Day Challenge!

30 Day Challenge Day 17 + Weight Update for April 29

I almost forgot that I was doing a weigh in on Sundays.  So here are today's numbers:

weight: 208.2 lbs
fat percentage: 45.0%
hydration: 37.8%
muscle: 27.1%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2336

Considering my period is expected within the next few days, these aren't too bad!  I also had a birthday party yesterday and ate cake and cheezies, so to weigh the exact same as Thursday is really good! :)

In other news, my knee continues to be okay.  So I just finished the 30 Day Challenge Day 17 workout. I started to feel a little something in it at the very end (the workout was only 13 minutes, so Betty Rocker decided to do a bunch more ab exercises - that was when I started to feel my knee a bit), so now that I'm done I'm icing it again.  But I'm thinking I'm on track for a recovery (while continuing to workout - I was doing squats today and my knee seemed okay!)

Second 30 Day Challenge Break Yesterday

I had to take another break from the 30 Day Challenge yesterday.  On Thursday, I was doing the  Day 15 workout, which was a tabata-style workout (that's where you alternate between two moves, doing one for 20 seconds, breaking for 10, then doing the other for 20 seconds and breaking again for 10, then repeat).  I'm not sure what exactly happened (I suspect that I wasn't doing something properly because I was too worried about the speed involved in going from one move to the next), but suddenly something happened to my knee during a lunge.  I made it through a heavily modified workout, trying to protect my knee.  But the damage was already done.

So as soon as the workout was over, I iced my knee.  I iced it a few more times that day, and took something to keep the swelling down when I went to work that evening (I did okay for the most part, but by the end of my shift I could feel it again).  So I went home and iced my knee again.

Yesterday I swore off activity as much as I could.  I wanted to walk to work in the afternoon, but ended up driving just to try to let my knee recover a bit more.  For the most part, things were okay, but I could still feel that my knee was a bit off.

When I woke up today, it felt better.  So I decided to give the Day 16 workout a try, knowing that it was an active recovery day focussed on stretching.  I got through the stretched okay, but decided to ice my knee again right after the workout because it was feeling a bit off.  Hopefully it'll be okay to do the Day 17 workout tomorrow.

The takeaway of this story is that no matter how fast the workout is, make sure you're doing the moves correctly, even if you have to sacrifice speed - it's no fun damaging something in the name of trying to be healthier! :/

30 Day Challenge Day 15 + Weight Update

So here's a pic of what I look like right now:

And here's my weight:

weight: 208.2 lbs
fat percentage: 45.4%
hydration: 37.5%
muscle: 26.9%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2336

I'm still not seeing much difference yet physically (and I'm sad that according to my scale, my weight and fat percentage has increased slightly while my muscle went down slightly from Sunday). But I know that I am getting stronger - I can hold a plank a little longer than I could two weeks ago.  So that's pretty exciting!

Once I'm finished today's workout (which I will be doing right after finishing this post), I will be halfway through the 30 Day Challenge!  That's really exciting too. :)

Weight Update for April 22

Check this out:

weight: 207.4 lbs
fat percentage: 44.5%
hydration: 38.1%
muscle: 27.3%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2331

That's a 1/2 percentage point less fat than on Thursday!!! :D

30 Day Challenge Day 8 + Weight Update

I made it through the first week of the 30 Day Challenge!

So here's a picture of what I look like right now:

And here's my weight update for the week:

weight: 209.6 lbs
fat percentage: 45.0%
hydration: 37.8%
muscle: 27.0%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2343
I'm not seeing much difference yet, but that's okay - there's still 22 days to go of the challenge!

Weight Update for Apr 15

I wasn't going to weigh myself until later this week, but I was curious what the numbers would be.  I've been working out a little bit every day, but then I ate out on both Friday and Saturday (and Saturday included pizza, cookies, and wine).  So here's where things were at yesterday:

weight: 208.8 lbs
fat percentage: 45.6%
hydration: 37.4%
muscle: 26.8%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2338

So things look very similar to April 10th. That's interesting - I wonder what they would have looked like if I hadn't had the pizza, cookies, and wine night?  Oh well.  On the plus side, my weight hasn't gone up after the pizza, cookies, and wine night so that's alright!

What I was really hoping to see was an increase in muscle percentage and a decrease in fat percentage, but no such luck so far!  Oh well, we'll see how things look later this week when I take my 30 Day Challenge week 1 completed picture!

30 Day Challenge Break Yesterday

So here's what happened...on Day 1, which was a total body workout, I was really feeling the workout in my abs, which was great; I mean, I've fallen off the workout bandwagon, so of course I expected to be feeling things after the first hardcore workout I've done in awhile.

But that night, I remember saying to myself "as long as tomorrow is NOT an ab workout, I'll be fine."  I was hoping for like a leg day.  Or arm day.  So what shows up as the Day 2 workout?  An ab workout!  I did the workout and my abs were screaming by the end.  I did the Day 3 workout the next day, too, which wasn't focussed on abs, but there were a few moves where my abs felt like they were on fire after doing them.  So by the end of that workout, my body felt like it couldn't take anything more.  I made it through work, then went out for dinner with friends.  It was a fun night, but it actually hurt when I laughed, that's how terrible my abs felt.

So yesterday, I consciously made the decision not to workout because I needed to give my abs a break.  I was originally going to get up and do the workout before work.  But decided to sleep a little later instead (which was a good thing - I didn't get to sleep until really late - my cat was full of energy because I hadn't been around all day to play with him, so he was getting into all sorts of things. He finally stopped so I could sleep around 3am!)  I will admit, I felt a bit guilty about skipping the workout later in the day because I had some time after work.  But my abs were still hurting, so I stuck to my commitment of taking a break.

And wow was that a good thing!  I woke up today (after a much better sleep) with a lot less pain in my abs.  So I resumed the 30 Day Challenge; I did the Day 4 workout today, which was yoga (which was perfect to continue letting my abs recover!) I'll continue with the rest of the Challenge from here (just ending a day later than planned).

So remember, if you've got a workout plan, it's okay to modify it if your body is telling me you need to.  There's no rush to the finish line for being healthy! :)

PS with the Day 4 workout video, Betty Rocker also sent a video telling you to Stop Beating Yourself Up. She says pretty much the same thing I just did (although she was more focussed on food - she says to add a No Strings Attached day to your plan because we're human and need to enjoy life while being healthy).

30 Day Challenge - Day 1

So I wasn't planning on taking my measurements, for a before and after comparison.  But today I decided why not?  So here's my starting point:

Waist: 33.5 inches
Hips: 43.5
Left Thigh: 26
Left Arm: 13.5

I'll take them again at the end of the 30 days (I don't want to be doing them weekly - I'll just take a weekly picture).

30 Day Challenge

When I was looking at either Facebook or Instagram a couple of days ago, I came across the 30 Day Challenge by Betty Rocker. If you sign up, she will send you a new fitness video every day for 30 days.  The videos are supposed to be 15 minutes long, and don't need any fitness equipment.

I've been thinking for the last few weeks that I really need to start working out more.  I'm not entirely sure what my problem has been, but I've so far been unable to motivate myself to start.  So after a few days of thought, I decided to sign myself up for the 30 Day Challenge.

Once you sign yourself up, Bree asks you to make a commitment statement and send it back.  Here's the one I filled out:

I Type1Chick, commit to doing this 30-day challenge, starting on April 10, 2018. My goals are to lose some weight , gain some muscle, and feel better about my body and I will ACHIEVE them because I am a ROCKSTAR!

I filled it out quickly, and those were the three goals I came up with.  I probably should have said something about building up a better fitness regiment/making fitness a better part of my life but that's ok.  Having signed up for the challenge in the first place is hopefully going to make that goal a reality. 

On the 30 Day Challenge website, there are a lot of before and after pictures.  So I took this pic of me right now.  

I'm thinking I'll take a pic a week to show my progress. 

Oh, and while I'm here, I might as well give a weight update:

weight: 208.8 lbs
fat percentage: 45.1%
hydration: 37.7%
muscle: 27.0%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2338

The 30 Day Challenge also urges you to sign up for a 30 Day Meal Plan because eating healthy is a large part of sculpting your body.  I decided not to sign up for that, too.  I have a few too many plans to be eating out this week, plus I have a few birthdays that are going to fall within the next 30 days, so I know I won't be able to follow a meal plan very well right now.  I'll just have to try to make healthier choices during the rest of the month (in particular for snacks - I keep craving  something to munch on (like chips) - I'm going to have to get like carrot sticks or something to try to satisfy that craving!

Well, we'll see how this goes. Wish me luck - this new adventure starts tomorrow!

March Fitbit Stats

Oh, it's April.  So that means I now have March Fitbit Stats! 

180,959 steps taken. 31 days tracked, 5,837 average steps.

This is an improvement over the last few years!  Compared to last year, I brought my average up by about 500 steps!  And I've taken 26,704 steps more than last year, and 61,005 more steps than in March 2016!

What was even more exciting: I had my first two weeks where I took 5000+ steps on 5+ days!  I was on track to have a third week, but then I got sick and did nothing over the entire weekend, which was unfortunate.  But still - finally hitting that goal too!

Weight Update for Mar 21 and Apr 6

Just a quick weight update:

Mar 21:
weight: 206.2 lbs
fat percentage: 43.8%
hydration: 38.6%
muscle: 27.7%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2324

and today:

weight: 206.8 lbs
fat percentage: 44.6%
hydration: 38.0%
muscle: 27.2%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2327

Today is the tail end of my period (I wasn't sure if it was over when I weighed myself earlier).