back on track

I’ve been slacking so terribly recently, and I’m starting to get on my own nerves. I can blame a lot of things, and I’ve tried, but deep down inside I know I’m just being extra lazy lately and I honestly don’t know why or how. I haven’t legitimately worked out in nearly a week. I’ve been staying up late, eating before bed, and sleeping until noon. I get up in the morning and eat fast food before work then fast food for dinner.

                Why am I doing this to myself? I’m well aware of the damage it’s causing, I’m well aware that I’m pushing myself backwards down a path that was treacherous to climb up in the first place. Why am I allowing myself to ultimately destroy my progress and let myself down?

                I’ve had my little break. It’s finished. I’m getting back on track and I’m losing more weight. I can’t be content with having lost forty pounds. That was not my goal. I’m not happy yet with my body weight. I need to lose more so I can feel happy and be healthy as was my original goal. I’m still at least sixty pounds overweight and that weight isn’t going to lose itself. It didn’t gain itself, I did this to myself, so I have to do the work to change for the better.

Ø  Stick rigidly to sleeping schedule: Bedtime-2 AM, Wake Up-10 AM

Ø  Stick rigidly to eating schedule: Breakfast-10AM, Lunch-2PM, Snack-6PM, Dinner-9PM

Ø  Workout twice a day. Every day. Off days, Saturday OR Sunday.

Ø  Eat at least three salads a week. No fast food. No soda. No excessive sweets. Make all meals at home. Only eat one portion per meal.

I have to get back into the swing of doing all of these things. I’m only letting myself down. I’ve come so far, there’s no need to backtrack and lose the momentum I have built. So here I go, I’m stepping back out more assuredly, and I’m taking back my victory and pressing on to reach my weight loss goal by the end of the year!

Thinspiration Version 2.0

As I've said before, I don't believe in the term "thinspiration", especially when it applies to using stick-thin models and actors as a weight loss goal. Imagining your body to transform into someone else's body is a fruitless endeavor. You can never reach that goal, because your body is built differently than someone you may be idolizing. Your calves may not be as long as theirs, or your hips may not be the same width, and so on. So using photos of someone else's body is not the way to go to get inspired about losing weight...

Something I like to use instead is clothing! It sounds simple, but let me explain. I daydream, all the time, about outfits and ensembles I would love to wear. But when I go to the stores, I can't find articles I want in the sections of the stores that house the clothes I can fit into. I gaze longingly at the sections of the store that hold the cute outfits and clothing that I yearn to wear, and wish it would magically appear in the bigger sized sections. However... now that I've started my journey to being happier and healthier, and losing a lot of weight along the way, I'm starting to see those sections of the store as attainable goals! I could be shopping in those sections, buying those cute clothes I've always been drooling over, before I know it!

So I'm going to post some personal clothing inspiration for losing weight. I want to feel confident and happy enough in my body that I can wear these outfits, and be able to shop in the sections of the stores where such outfits are sold. I'm well on my way and soon enough I'll be there!!!

Officially Forty Pounds, GONE.

Drumroll, please...

Since April of this year, I have lost 40 pounds. My start weight was 283. Today, I weigh 243.

-confetti-

Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred: Day One

I first encountered Jillian Michaels on Level Two of my Biggest Loser Cardio Max DVD. I liked her exercises of choice, and they always kick my butt. Lots of butt kicks involved, so take that last sentence quite literally... I've never owned one of her solo DVDs, and so I bought 30 Day Shred because I liked her segments in my Biggest Loser DVDs and I saw nothing but rave reviews for the 30 Day Shred.

I'm heading to Florida in 30 days, so hopefully... the boast on the front of the DVD comes true: "Lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days!" I'd love to be twenty pounds thinner, and more than halfway to this year's weight loss goal by mid-August. I'd be going on vacation slimmer and trimmer, and also back to school in a smaller, healthier, and more fit body. That will be excellent and I am thrilled with the DVD so far.

There are three workouts on the DVD, denoted by level of intensity. Today was my first day with the DVD, so naturally, I started with Level One. Each level is a twenty minute workout which includes a two minute warm-up, three sets of 3-2-1 Strength, then Cardio, then Ab circuits, and then a two minute cool-down.

The circuits are hard enough to be challenging, and I love that you move on to the next exercise before getting tired of the one you're doing, but then revisit that exercise before the circuit is complete. Let me explain: each circuit consists of three minutes of Strength exercises, two minutes of Cardio exercises, and one minute of Ab exercises. Jillian keeps you motivated and moving through the exercises so you never feel like you're doing too many squats or not enough. It's just the right amount, and by moving from exercise to exercise fluidly and quickly, I never got bored.

(You may think it's hard to get bored in only twenty minutes, but trust me, I've done enough workout DVDs that you very well can get bored with an exercise in that amount of time.)

I like Jillian's attitude, she's hard on you, but as she repeats throughout the DVD, she's promising results that would take you hours and hours in the gym pounding a treadmill, in twenty minutes a day. She doesn't allow you to take breaks, because she wants to get the most out of you in the twenty minutes she has you there to work out. I like that! I like that I'm kept intensely exercising for the whole twenty minutes, and I'm not feeling worn or too tired because she keeps me moving so quickly from exercise to exercise. At one point, during a set of jumping jacks, she says that there are no modifiers for the jumping jacks because she gets 400 pound people to do jumping jacks. That made my arms and legs fly even faster because I weigh half of that and am only twenty-two years old, so I knew I could do it, and it pushed me to stop half-assing the jumping jacks as my lazy body was trying to do, and push harder!

I'm very excited about this DVD, I think it will kick start my exercising back into high gear and will also push me past my weight loss plateau to lose my next twenty pounds!

naughty neglecting

Wow, I have completely neglected this blog and that saddens me because I really intended to map my progress, my emotions, my drives, any failures, etc. of my journey to happiness and healthiness. But it seems that now that exercising daily and eating better are more or less routine, I find it hard to blog about these processes.

However, I have started making video blogs on Youtube again, a past time I gave up when I could no longer stand how I looked on camera. But now I'm back at it and although I'm not as regular at it as I had intended, I am enjoying making the videos and interacting with the people who watch them and comment on them. Some of them describe my methods of weight loss, so feel free to drop by my Youtube channel for more hints and tricks and to physically see weight loss happening before your very eyes. :D

http://www.youtube.com/GinaKnoxville

In other news, I have some quick comparison photos I took last night that I can share with you:

This illustrates how that purple shirt fit me back in April of this year, and how that same shirt fits me now. You can see how long it is now that my boobs and tummy are smaller. And yes, I realize the khaki pants in the more recent picture are really baggy, but when I bought those, I actually had a proficient muffin top when I wore them, and although the legs were baggy they weren't THAT baggy. I wish I had taken pictures of me wearing those pants when I first bought them early this year.

Here are comparison shots of how my workout clothes fit me back in April and how they fit me now. You can see the drastic change in the size of my thighs and the muscles of my calves. Also, my butt is more muscular and lifted, and notice in the recent pics how I'm pulling the shirt tight, whereas in April, it hung loosely around me and was meeting my body. Now I have to pull it taut to get the same effect. Also, the shoulders of the shirt are halfway down my arm as opposed to resting on my shoulder like they did back in April.

So I'm keeping up the good work! Some new tactics I am going to try are fitting a salad into every week, if not a few times a week, and I'm going to do Jillian Micheal's Thirty Day Shred DVD series, and I'm doing a beginner belly dancing class. I'll be sure to update with the progress!

Youtubage

So I've decided to take my happiness and healthiness journey to Youtube. I'm doing a Video a Day in July (VADJ, lol) and doing daily video blogs. A majority of them will be pertaining to my weight loss journey and my goal of becoming happier and healthier. Check it out if you want!

http://www.youtube.com/GinaKnoxville

I'm keeping up the great work, and my weight loss tally is up to 37 pounds! Got quite a few to go, but I'll get there.