Thirty days of ME!

I came across this post on another blog and thought I'd give it a try! The idea is to give you a better idea of who I am, outside of my weight loss journey in the next 30 days. Since tomorrow is December 1st, I figured it would be a great way to round out my year! Below is the list of challenge questions.

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Your favorite song.

The weekly check in 11/29/10

This week I am up 1 pound from last week, scale reads 173.6. This is totally fine with me. I wasn't able to get in all of my workouts due to the YMCA being closed from snow. I still feel like I had a very successful week. I am still battling a cold and my workouts were noticeably more difficult than usual.

I was able to get in a great sweat session before I went to spend time with my family on Thankgiving. As planned, I did not overindulge. A little bit of this...a little bit of that...and I was satisfied!

After leaving my cousin's 30th birthday party and a few cocktails later, I was starving! I heard a Sourdough Jack @ Jack in the Box calling my name at 2 am Sunday morning lol! I havent made a late night pit stop for fast food in well over a year! To be honest it felt good to enjoy my burger and lay down tipsy lol! An indulgence like this every once in awhile is a luxury I've afforded myself from all of my hard work.

This for me was another great week!

I am....Sasha Fierce lol!!!

This is my party dress from last night. My honey told me I looked like Sasha Fierce after he saw the pictures lol! I like to glam up and go out every once in awhile. When I do go out it's a transformation and my new smaller body makes it SO much more fun!!

Seriously?? I'm wearing a size 10!!!!

I went to the mall today to buy the finishing touches for the outfit I'm wearing tonight, a cousin is hosting his 30th birthday bash! In the last couple of weeks my size 12's have been getting looser. I am always reluctant about buying the next size down because I don't know if they're really going to fit. Well I brought three pairs of jeans and a dress (all size 10) in the dressing room to try on and guess what???? They all fit!!! I couldn't believe it!! I felt so sexy and happy all at the same time.

I keep working and pushing myself to go to the next level. I honestly thought I'd be cool with making it into a size 12 and staying there, but now I realize I'm past that and I'm not finished! I don't know if I'll stay in a 10 or make it to an 8, I just know I'm well on my way to claiming my new and improved self! I'll post pics of my party outfit later :-)!

How I feel this morning "Mary J. Blige - Just Fine"

This morning I woke up with this song on my heart. I am a HUGE Mary fan and her music always seems to offset whatever mood I'm in. I'm loving who I am...just fine!

The weekly check in 11/22/10

I'm checking in today because yesterday I wasn't feeling well. I didn't complete my morning workout and walked out the front door to the beginning of snow fall. My plan was to get my workout done when I made it home, no such luck!! It took me three hours to get home (due to Seattle's first winter storm) and it normally takes me twenty minutes to get home!

To make matters worse, I live on a steep hill and my car cannot make it up the hill. So I parked at the grocery store at the bottom of the hill and walked the rest of the way home. Needless to say when I finally made it inside I was too cold and too agitated to do anything but eat dinner and go to bed!

Anyhoo, I stepped on the scale this morning and I'm at 172.6! This is down 1.2 pounds from last Monday. I'm glad the scale is still moving down! I just might make it to 170 by next Monday! I wasn't able to complete all of the workouts I schuled but I still worked out 6 days last week at least once a day. Food was on point again as well. I did eat out at one of my favorite restaurants (Joey's) on Sunday.

Even with Thanksgiving being this week my determination to lose weight will not rest. I will not partake in the gluttony that is "Thanksgiving." I don't let holidays derail all of my hard work. I've worked too damn hard to let myself just fall completely off the wagon. I enjoy what I like in total moderation. This way I don't feel deprived. I also don't bring home leftovers. Tempation is a bitch when you know you LOVE baked mac n cheese and you have an entire plate of it in the fridge lol!

With all of that said I had another great week! I'm planning for this week to be even better in spite of the nasty weather surrounding Seattle! I'm pissed that I'm missing my beloved Spin class tonight but I'll get over it :-)

Climbing into my old pants lol!

These are a pair of size 22 wide leg Venezia jeans that I wore last year. I liked the wide leg, but these jeans at one point were super snug around the waist! As you can see not only I can fit my entire body in one of the pant legs...my daughter's were both able to climb in with me lol!!!

Again, another pair of old work slacks...size 20...fitting in one leg! These pants are being held for illustration purposes only!  

BLOG NAME CHANGE!!!

I've decided to change the name of my blog! My own name is lovely but I wanted to change things up a bit! My new name Phyt (Fit), Phat (Hot) and Phyne (Fine..Sexy)! This is an accurate description of me as of right now. I feel amazing on the inside and out. I'm sharing my world with others and making strides at becoming a better woman everyday. What's not to love about that?

Updated progress pictures 11/2010

A year ago my body looked like this! Even for me it's hard to believe but I'm glad I took the pictures. Everyone has a starting point. I didn't know my own strength, I didn't know I had the ability to transform both mentally and physically. I am not finished but I am that much closer!

The weekly check in 11/15/10

It’s time once again for my weekly weigh in!! As of yesterday I am down 2.4 pounds from last Monday putting me at 173.8! My workouts have been crazy tough but well worth it, the payoff is soooooo sweeeet! As far as food goes, I did fairly well and stayed within my points most days. I normally have 3-7 activity points available everyday except Wednesday (rest day) so that makes things easier. I know for a fact my flex points were taken up by the pesky Halloween candy that is still lingering around my house! I took the liberty of locking up the remainder of it in the trunk of my car! I have to do what I have to do, my kids don’t need all of that candy but I do give them (and myself) treats!

 

I am attempting to add more pictures of myself and my day-to-day comings and goings on my posts. At some point I’ll create a video about my journey. I enjoy viewing and reading about others on the same path to wellness. This blog is about continuing to step outside of my comfort zone. I am creating an entirely new comfort zone for myself and it feels good!

 

 

TGIF!!!!

Finally Friday!!! Yay!!! I don’t have any major plans this weekend outside of my workouts, starting my holiday cards (I am designing them), and maybe a little shopping. My girls are spending the weekend with their father so this eqauls rest & relaxation for me!

On my menu today:

Breakfast- Spicy Mexican Scramble @ Blue Water Taco (7), Bacon 2 slices (2.5)…I always eat this breakfast on payday Friday!

Lunch- Subway 6” turkey sub w/ veggies & honey mustard (5), Granola Bar (2)

Snack- Pear (1), Almonds 12 (2)

Dinner- Baked eggplant ½ w/ chicken tomato sauce (4)

Snack- Popcorn large bag (3)

Total points allowed: 23

Total points used: 26.5

Activity points: 5

Net: +1.5

H20- 112 ounces

Tea w/ Splenda & lemon- 16 ounces (0)

Workouts:

(AM) Turbo Fire (55 EZ class)

(PM) Turbo Fire (HIIT 15 class), Turbo Fire (Stretch 10 class)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!! I’m looking forward to lounging in my PJ’s and getting cozy on my couch! Hopefully I’ll score a cute pair of size 10 skinny jeans when I do venture outside the house! Oh yeah and my girls need new coats…where are my priorities???!!! Focused on jeans (wink)! *__*

               

Yes, I know he loves me!!

So I said I wouldn’t tell anyone but this is too funny not to share! My honey has a job that keeps him tied to a boat for seven days straight while he’s at work. He’s been making strides at eating healthier and working out to lose a few pounds but his options at work are somewhat limited. Anyhoo, I always ask him what he’s ate and what he plans to eat for the remainder of the day. One day a week ago I asked him and he told me he was getting ready to get his walk on, but he was going to eat two hot dogs after he finished. He knows I think hot dogs are pretty disgusting but I’m fair when it comes to the trade off. I told him if he wanted to eat those two hot dogs, then he must walk a mile for each one lol! Oh and that white bread he planned to wrap around them, that was going to cost him another quarter mile! It’s not my fault the grocery order got messed up and they only had white bread, no wheat! The other option would be wrapping his cajun turkey lunch meat in lettuce and adding mustard! He chose the two and a quarter miles, insisting his “all male” coworkers would laugh a little too hard if they caught him eating his lunch meat wrapped in lettuce lol! He cussed and fussed but he did it!

I’m not in any way form or fashion trying to insult his manhood, I just want him to be healthy. A little fire has been lit under his butt by my own progress AND my baby Mimi called him “chunky” the other day! She told him he needs to do Turbo Fire and Spinning with mommy J. We plan to be partners and teammates for life so that means we have to work together to keep each other on track. He thinks I’m a bit fanatic when it comes to eating healthy but he’s from New Orleans..his love for food was instilled at birth. If I didn’t care, all of the sausage, cheese grits, hot dogs, BBQ Cheetos..etc. wouldn’t make me flynch. He knows I love him and need him hanging out with me when we get old and our kids are living their own lives. I know he loves me because he’s making a conscious effort to change his eating habits and exercise more. This makes me happy!          

Sweater dress!

I've been wanting a sweater dress since fall hit but I wanted to wait until I was able to buy a size 10 (medium). I found this cute little number at Ross right along with several others that I fell in love with! As much as I'd like to buy a new sweater dress every couple of weeks, it's just not a practical clothing item for Houston. Until I find something equally as cute suitable for the southern climate...I'll just love all over this!

The weekly check in 11/8/10

Yesterday I did my weekly wiegh in and I was at 176.2. I am having the hardest time keeping the scale on the other side of 175! I know from excessively weighing myself that each day the scale will show a different number based on what you’ve consumed. I don’t recommend weighing yourself daily if you are just starting out, but for me it helps me to stay focused and work harder. When you are starting a weight loss journey, the ups and downs of the scale is enough to drive you crazy!    

 

Last week went well, except for the Halloween candy I just couldn’t stop myself from snacking on…PMS sends me on these binges! I recognize the patterns and I don’t let myself get carried away. I don’t always want to write down the candy I eat so I just enjoy it in that moment and move on. I can justify my candy breakdown by the amount and intensity of my workouts. I worked my body hard last week, the soreness in my legs from weight training last Thursday had me doing a duck walk for two days straight! I guess that just goes to show that I haven’t given my legs a good strength workout in a long time, it’s been forever since I’ve felt that much soreness. I’ve read about overtraining and I don’t want to fall into that trap but I’m really loving the new shape of my body.

 

Each week is a new challenge for me. There is something to be said about living a day-to-day life, losing wieght and changing your lifestyle. In order to be successful at it, you still have to live your life and overcome challenges as they arise. This is one of the reasons why I dislike “The Biggest Loser” but that’s for another post! I think it gives people an unrealistic view of normal, healthy weight loss. Like I said, this is for another post lol!               

 

My skin is taking a beating :-(

So I'm talking to my honey on Skype today and he notices that my skin is breaking out. Men tend to notice those sorts of things for some reason? He thinks it's from the way I wear my hair but I don't use a lot of products on my hair, I know it's from the profuse amounts of sweat attributed to working out. I have sensitive, oily skin so it's hard to prevent breakouts. When I started exercising I would barely break a sweat, now 5 minutes into my Turbo Fire routines and I'm dripping! I'm trying to find a way to soothe my skin without a harsh regimen. I'm never going to stop working out so I've got to find the right combination of products. The things that worked before aren't cutting it anymore. I guess I just have one more thing to add to my "to do" list. I can't have my honey pointing out every new blemish he notices lol! I am sharing this because things change with our bodies when we start working out, sometimes not so great things. I just have to find a way to manage all of the changes. My skin is important so I've got to take care of that too!

100 pounds down!!! I did it!!!

I made a guarantee that I would reach my 100 pounds down mark by Monday, November 1st but that didn't happen. But you know what? I worked my ass of this week and I hit it today!!! I am ecstatic and very proud of what I've accomplished! This hasn't been easy for me and I'll never make light of the hard work it took and will continue to take. This journey is something that I live, think, breathe etc...every single day. I don't take long breaks, I'm always mindful of my actions. If I don't get my exercise in, I always think about the missed opportunity to change the number on the scale.

Eating right and working out has become my lifestyle. I'm not doing anything that will ultimately jeopardize me reaching my goal. In order for me to stay on track I cannot go back to my old ways. I have to keep writing about it, talking to others and continue to find ways to push myself. 2011 just might be even better than 2010!

On this day last year, November 5, 2009, I got serious about my workouts. Ironically, exactly 1 year later I'm 100 pounds lighter!

20 things I love about losing 100 pounds!

1. I no longer have to shop in the women’s plus size department, I can try on clothes and not feel irritated, frustrated or embarrassed about how I look in them.
2. The jaw dropping stares and compliments I get from people that haven’t seen me in awhile.
3. The pressure and stiffness in my knees has completely vanished.
4. Being able to comfortably fit into an airplane seat AND letting the tray table down all of the way without it resting on my thighs.
5. Feeling stronger, sexier, healthier and more conscious about the way in which I treat my body.
6. Being able to push myself hard and know that I’m not going to die from exercise.
7. My friends, family and others telling me that I’ve inspired them to make changes and get active.
8. Knowing that I’ve accomplished something amazing on my own without a fad diet, personal trainer, surgery, or daily gym trek.
9. Feeling like now I can do anything I set my mind to.
10. Hearing people tell me that I look really young now! That’s a huge ego boost, I’ll take younger versus older as far as looks go any day!
11. I have tons of energy although I still like to sleep on my lazy days J.
12. My feet don’t swell anymore!
13. I feel beautiful again on the inside and out.
14. I’ve found a new passion in health and fitness.
15. I don’t mind being in photos anymore.
16. My sense of self has returned and I am happy with the woman I am right now.
17. I don’t have a fear of trying new physical activities. Before I felt like my weight held me back in a lot of ways because the pressure on my knees prohibited me from even making an attempt.
18. I have the ability to talk to others (who want to lose or get healthy) about my struggles and successes and let them know I’ve been where they are and that it CAN be done with hard work and dedication.
19. My daughter’s, my honey, my family, my friend’s and my coworkers are so very proud of me!
20. My life is no longer controlled by my size or my weight, my life is now controlled by the choices I make and the actions I take to uphold my healthy lifestyle!

What a difference a year makes!

My workouts have been killer this week! Spinning kicked my ass on Tuesday night, yet I can’t wait to go back for more on Saturday morning! My inner and outer thighs are screaming for a nice long stretch with a hot bath to follow! I’ve never done the Turbo Fire Stretch 40 DVD because I generally don’t spend more than 10 minutes doing an extended stretch. Thanks to my new spinning addiction, I certainly realize the importance of having more flexibility in my joints!

 

The plan is to starting integrating the 40 minute stretch into my routine at least once a week. My two spin classes per week, HIIT workouts and weights are requiring me to improve my flexibility. I am not trying to injure myself and have to take a seat on the sidelines, no ma’am, I’m in this game to WIN! Tomorrow marks one full year on a serious exercise regiment without any serious injury (thank the Lord). It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already, where does the time go? This time last year is when I really got serious about changing my body. This is when I decided I was not going to live an unhealthy lifestyle any longer. I am glad that I decided to make the changes. Nothing tastes as good as I feel right now!

 

If you haven’t already done this I urge you to sit down and have a serious conversation with yourself. It’s not enough to say “I want to lose weight.” You must create a plan of action to support that statement. My plan of action a year ago was this; I will exercise 3-4 times per week for 30 minutes and I will count points on Weight Watchers. As my body got stronger, I increased my exercise. Now I’m up to 6 days per week, 1-2 hours per day! What a difference a year makes!            

 

Yesterday was a great day!

Yesterday was a GREAT day for my food intake and workouts! As of yesterday I decided to go back to tracking points with Weight Watchers. I have bounced back and forth with this on numeral occasions but finally realize that this is the most effective system for me for food tracking. My daily alloted points number is 23. I had an additional 8 activity points from my two workouts. I only ended up using 3 points from my activity allotment so I had a net 5 points left over for the day. I also drank my goal 96 ounces of water.

 

I had a split workout and completed Turbo Fire 45 in the morning and 40 minutes of Ultimate Tae Bo in the evening. I haven’t done my Ultimate Tae Bo DVD since May or June…I think?? It’s been so long I really don’t remember! My metabolism must have been running out of control while I was asleep because when I woke up this morning I was sweating like crazy! This is a very good thing in my book and it put a smile on my face! My workouts for today will be:

 

Turbo Fire HIIT 20 (AM)

Zumba Abs (AM)

Upper body strength training (PM)

Spinning 60 minutes (PM)

 

I live for Wednesday’s lol! This is the only rest day I take and tomorrow I’m thinking about doing Turbo Fire 40 minute Stretch routine and taking a long hot bath!  

 

       

 

Team Lean Suite up and running!

My Team Lean Suite forum is up and running!! Yay!! I am super excited about this! I’ve been playing around with the concept for quite some time so to see it come to life is a blessing! My friends and family that are participating are showing enthusiasm too which is very necessary for success. I’ve found out for myself personally that working with a group of likeminded individuals helped me to stay motivated. It held me accountable to the goals I had set for myself.

 

Everyone has to start somewhere. It doesn’t matter where you begin (or pick back up) as long as you have a goal in place. The details of your goal can be worked out along the way, as your thoughts about where you want to be may change. The key is to set your goal! You can’t plan a trip to a place that you’ve never been without knowing how you’re going to get there. Having a constant source of motivation is helpful but the core of your motivation has to come from within. You have to decide how important reaching your goal is to you. Start reading food labels. If you take a look at exactly what you’re putting in your body, you’ll begin to change your mind about eating OR drinking it! The purpose of this group is to change your entire idea about living healthy. It’s not just about exercising or eating right, it’s about the lifestyle change.

 

This is going to be a fun and exciting group! I can’t wait to really get things cracking! I’m still working towards reaching my own goal and even after I do I’ll still be coaching and cheering everyone else along! I also understand that keeping it off once it’s gone can sometimes be an even greater challenge. I’m up for it…are you??