Transformation Tuesday/Update

Hello guys, just cheching in to fill you in on my progress. Today is day 20 of P90X and I am proud to say that I have not missed one workout in almost 3 weeks and that's AMAZING to me considering how much I slack concerning exercise. I have noticed a few "non-scale" victories as I am adamant about not weighing myself until the start of phase 2. I have been hearing that the scale could budge slightly or even increase as the body puts on new muscle. I have let the scale derail me too many times so I am preparing myself not to see much change come day 30. I don't notice the changes in my body yet but I do notice in the way my clothes are fitting. My coat is back to fitting comfortably; it had gotten to a point where I couldn't even bend down while wearing it or even wear anything thick underneath it. I'm still in my size 16 work pants (up from a 14 and borderline needed a 18!) but I am now back to being able to wear tights underneath them again so the 14's shouldn't be too far off. Also, pushups used to be my least favorite exercise and I could barely do even one. In three weeks time, I am completing a lot more than that and I've upgraded from doing many of them on my knees like a girly-girl (lol) to doing them the standard way, on my toes. I am very excited about what's to come. My diet WAS greatly on point but over the weekend I have slacked a little but not too bad. Grocery shopping is definitely in my near future. School starts today but I am focused so I don't plan to let that hinder me at all. The workouts are long but not so long that you can't make time for them. I'm excited to take my 30 day progress pics.

Transformation Tuesday

Lately I've been perusing P90X forums to stay motivated and gauge what my progress COULD be like if I remained diligent with the workouts and my eating habits. I came across that left me in awe.

 As you can see, the greatest part of his transformation took place during phase 2 (I'm only a little over a week away from it and I'm beyond excited!). He stated that he followed the nutrition plans and macros and what not but I will continue to do what works best for me and that's 1 serving of carb, 1 fruit and the rest are meat and veggies. Maybe once I start to see drastic changes I might want to go harder on the nutrition aspect but right now it would be too much and I don't want to discourage myself. I'm hoping to see at least a little change between day 1 and 30 but even if it's hard to notice, my clothes say otherwise so for now, I'm cool with that.

Transformation Tuesdays

First off, I attempted to make this post YESTERDAY but for some reason the picture import wasn't working...Google/blogger need to get they life

Hey guys, sorry I've been gone a few weeks. That usually means I'm not as on point or dedicated as I should be but I am happy to report that it's NOT the case this time. I'm on day 7 of P90X and while I am sore, I'm LOVING it!. The program isn't as hard as I (or a lot of ppl) make it out to be. YES, the workouts are over an hour long BUT the time flies when you're doing strength training...Plyo (and cardio and kenpo) are a whole other story! An hour of that will have ANYBODY looking at the counter, pleading with it to hit the last 3 minutes for the cool-down lol. Today is my rest day and I am SOOOO glad it is! EVERY part of my body hurts but it's a good pain because I know it's changing. I have been following two of their nutrition guidlines; having ONE serving of carbs a day and ONE fruit a day. The rest is protein and veggies and so far so good. I was craving crabsticks with french fries slathered in tartar sauce and ketchup so that was gonna be my treat meal but my bae really wants to take me out because I deserve it so we're going to Cheeseburger in Paradise. I've never been there but if I give up my cravings for that cheeseburger in paradise I hope it's worth it lol. Anyways, on to the transformations.

New Years EVOLUTION

I once heard that resolutions are made to be broken and for that reason, I don't resolve to do anything. I do have goals for the year that'll try my hardest to stick to. As I get older, I realize more and more how precious time is and I don't want to waste any more of it. THIS will be the year I reach my goal weight and I can attest to that. I first started my weight loss journey on January 16, 2009...MY HOW TIME FLIES!!!! I must've gained and lost over 150lbs in that time frame but one thing I am proud of is I haven't gained back ALL or even half of the original 87 that I've loss and for that I am thankful. I started this journey wanting to lose HALF my body weight but over time I realized that while I can make that weight with excruciating hard work and dedication, but it would be ridiculously hard/damn near impossible to maintain. I've settled on getting down to 161 which is roughly 70 pounds away. I hope to reach that goal by mid-June.

Other goals I have for the year are to learn Spanish and to FINALLY finish my manuscript.

Here's to finally getting it right in 2013!!!

6 Months Equal 2 Rounds

Lately I've been inspired to resume the Beach Body program "P90x". Given that the program is 3 months long and there's 6 months until summer, I figure I'll do 2 rounds to ensure I reach my goal by that time. I'm not sure about the nutrtion aspect of it, it's too complicated and having a break from school, I'm just not willing to do the "homework" That being said, I'll just stick to my high protein, low carb eating plan. I'm looking at before and afters on beach body's website to gain some added motivation and the funny thing is, A LOT of the B&A's in my thinspiration folder are from the Beach Body Website (BONUS)!; here are my faves...

Transformation Tuesday/Friday update

So apparently it's neither tuesday nor friday but because I missed those updates I figured I'd play catch-up.

Transformation Tuesday

She lost 140 pounds through weight loss surgery. I normally like to promote natural methods of weightloss but this pic is truly inspiring. I added a "natural" before and after (whatever that means) cause there's just something more inspiring about doing it on your own...

Weight update

So friday I did weigh in as planned and I didn't report it because it was newsworthy...I know, I know, I said I'd post anyway so here it is. 3 days after my start date, I was down 3 pounds. So you could imagine my surprise when I stepped on the scale on weigh-in day 2 pounds heavier than what I weighed 4 days before but 1 pound less than when I started. NO, I did not cheat but I may have been guilty of undereating but that always happen when I low carb, I simply don't have an appetite. Anywho, I keep trying to do the scale thing for you guys but it seriously does more harm than good and Idk when I'mma learn my lesson smh. Just as soon as it started, my weight updates are over until I can learn not to let its numbers effect. I will instead update my week as a grading system (just thought of this). I will give myself a letter grade or even a score of 1-10 for my performance during the week. My grade will depend on whether or not my diet remained on point and the amount of times I exercised. I will also give myself different extra credit tasks throughout each week such as drinking more water, being more diligent in taking my vitamins and whatever else will help me reach my goals faster. That's about it for now...

If you're like me, this ^ message is important---XOXO Bella D.

P.S-This was me in Miami last year...I had no gurdle and I was at my lowest weight EVER. THIS pic reminds me of what I've done AND what I can do. I will continue to strive for this and then surpass it...

A Rude Awakening...

I haven't been weighing myself because my scale has been giving me problems. Even before I stepped on it, it would read 4.2lbs. It doesn't do that EVERY time, but enough to make me concerned that I wouldn't be getting the accurate weight. Since I couldn't afford a new scale, I bit the bullet and used it anyway because I needed to know my protein diet/restart weight and weight is used to formulate the number of grams of protein I'm allowed to have a day.

I've been more than a little hesitant to post my current weight for several reasons...I don't look like I'm the weight I am and I don't want people to know lol. I'm so far from my lowest weight that it's embarrassing and I HATE seeing the number on the scale so why do I want to be reminded by my blog?

Anywho, I realized that until I am completely honest with myself, I will NOT be successful and if I am, it won't last. 

So this morning I stepped on the scale (it didn't immediately jump to 4.2 which was a good sign) it read 231.2!!! Doing Insanity in august I was 208-211! Ugh, no one to blame but myself but it was just the reality check that I needed to whip my ass back into shape!

Now that I knew my weight, I was able to find my body fat percentage with a formula they have in my "Protein Power" book. I was also able to determine that I'm pear shaped (I've known that for years, they just scientifically confirmed it).

So here it is...my statistics...

Start Weight-290
Lowest Weight-203 (sigh, so close to ONEderland)
Current Weight-231 (Grrrr)
Goal Weight 1-199 (I don't ever remember seeing a 1 leading my weight...seriously)
Goal Weight 2-180 (I will be content at this weight but it isn't my DREAM weight or my HAPPY weight)
Ultimate Goal Weight- 160 (H-A-P-P-Y!)

So, there you have...I would absolutely HATE posting that I gained so I REALLY need to get my sh*t together!!!! Mind you, almost HALF my body is made of F-A-T!!!! I'm 44% body fat....no, No, NO! I won't accept that...It also has a formula that tells you how much of your weight is FAT and how much is LEAN body tissue. I've determined with the formula 101.7lbs of my weight come from FAT (ugh) and 129.5lbs come from LEAN body tissue. The book has ALSO helped me determine an ideal body weight range that is not only recommended, but ATTAINABLE which is between 161-175 pounds. (I haven't even read the whole thing but I swear I LOVE this book lol)

While looking up protein power acceptable recipes for some variety, I discovered the protein soup diet. I believe it's just something to jumpstart weightloss before you begin the real "diet". They recommend doing it for a week or two and since I'm desperate to get out of the 230's AND I'm dealing with time constraints due to school and don't have much time to cook I think I'll do it for two weeks. (I'll post the article and recipe if you guys request it)

I also downloaded an app called "Libra Pro", it's a weight tracker. It allows you to input your weight and height (obviously) but it also asks your goals. After putting my starting weight, I put my goal weight (180lbs) and then it asked my diet plan which included daily calorie goal and weight loss goal per week. After doing the math and determining that I needed to lose 3.2lbs a week to lose 50lbs by April, I plugged that number into the app. The app then suggested that I needed to eat 1600 calories a day to reach that goal and it also gave me a date which was 3/28/13! Right on schedule!

Here's a screenshot of the app

Whew, that post was a LOT of work lol. I'll do progress updates EVERY Friday, good or bad.

50 in 4...

I found I work better when I have SET goals with a deadline. With that being said, I've set my sights on fifty pounds...by April. I know, sounds a lil extreme but it's not IMPOSSIBLE. I did the math and it translates to roughly 12.5lbs a month which is 3.2lbs a week. Healthy weight loss is 1-2lbs a week but I know I'm not doing anything extreme so I'm not too concerned. When I first started low carbing, I lost 50lbs my first 4 months WITHOUT exercise. I know that it was because I was doing something different that my body wasn't used to that enabled me to lose so much so fast but to level the playing field, I plan to step up my exercise regimen. I usually focus too much on cardio and not enough on strength training but my research has lead me to learn that my focus needs to be strength training AND cardio intervals. My scale sucks at life so it's kinda hard to gage where I'm truly starting. I just spent 60 bucks at Walmart on groceries alone so my broke a*s was NOT buying a scale lol. I do plan to get one that measures water weight, bone density, body fat percentage and all that jazz in the near future. I may even request it as a Christmas gift (ha! just got that idea as I was typing). I haven't officially started my high protein way of eating as I have yet to determine the grams of protein I'm allowed per day because of my faulty scale (your weight is one of the determining factors) but I'm anxious to get started. I'm already watching my carbs so I will just use the weight my broken scale tells me I am until I get my new one.

My 20% needs more structure and focus!