That's Insane!!

Most likely you've seen it on television. Shaun T. and his insane workouts. The truth of the matter is, sometimes when you let yourself get to what I've become, the best thing for you is just a little Insanity!!!!!

I'm on my 2nd week of Insanity. The first week, I'll admit, was hell! By this time last week I couldn't move. My muscles were frozen, in pain, and not liking the new hobby I had taken up!!! Last Wednesday night, as I slept, it hurt to roll from one side to the other. My ribs hurt. My hips hurt. My shoulders hurt. It would probably take less time to list what didn't hurt. And that, my friends, was NOTHING physically.

Mentally I was hurting as well. I wondered if I had it in me to do these workouts. Maybe my muscles were telling me something!

Thursday morning I had given in to this attitude that maybe I didn't have it in me. I slept in. I still couldn't move because my muscles ached so much! Fast forward to Friday morning...I somehow managed to muster up enough pride, motivation and courage to get my butt out of bed, put on my clothes, go downstairs and push play on the DVD player!!! And it was soooo worth it!

When I first began this program, which is 6 days a week for 10 weeks, I realized that our weekends are so unpredictable that exercising on Saturdays might not work out. So my Insanity program will go 5 days a week for 12 weeks...no matter how you look at it, it's still 60 days. If I happen to be home on a Saturday I may throw in an exra session.

So after my first week, I have to say I expected to show up at my Weight Watchers meeting a couple of pounds down. Nope! Gained 0.8 pounds! Are you kidding me??!! Okay, that's not what I wanted to say. I was so angry at that scale that I didn't even stay for the meeting. I was out of there and immediately on the phone to my husband, who of course calmed me down and reminded me that this is a process.

Doing a workout like Insanity, I am probably not going to lose weight every time. And no, it's not because muscle weighs more than fat. A pound of muscle is equal to a pound of fat. They're both a pound! Muscle, however, is denser than fat. And as you lose fat, you're replacing it with muscle. What I really should be doing is measuring myself on a weekly basis. How many inches am I losing? How are my clothes fitting? After all, I'm also in this to look good, right? And if I start looking good, but I weigh a little more than I'd like, hopefully it's because I've got the muscles to show for it!!! (No, I don't want to be ripped...I just want proof that under all those love handles there is muscle!)

I still have a lot to work on mentally when it comes to this journey. But I'm on the right path. My life is going to get so much better! I'm excited to see the results on January 18th! Seems like a long ways away, but it's so worth the wait!!!

I knew I could. I knew I could.

So maybe my thought process is a little juvenile these days, but to quote a famous train engine, "I knew I could. I knew I could." YES, I knew I could complete my second 5k and I knew that I could do it better than the first!!

What an awesome experience!!! And what a blessing to be able to experience the Color Run with some of my best friends and my family (minus one awesome little guy who spent the day with Grandma and Papa).

I love the feeling I get when I accomplish a goal. Saturday I had a goal in mind...to finish my second 5k in less time than it took my first 5k. Not only did I do that, but I partnered up with one of my best friends, who accomplished her very first 5k!!! And we did awesome!!!

Here's our awesome team!! Kris, Nicole, Cody, Travis (not in the picture, he was grumpy), Mindy, JC, Emma...and I'm taking the picture! We were Team RGB: Runners Gone Bad - We may be slow, but we're ahead of hue! Get it...hue...Color Run. I know, I know...but my artist friends really thought it was awesome!!!

JC laughed at me when he saw Mindy's and my pictures from the day. "You took pictures at EVERY color station?" Heck yeah, proof that we really did this thing!!!

Honestly, there's no way to describe first of all how much fun the Color Run was. What a great way to raise money for the Children's Variety Club. It's kind of fun to know that while helping yourself be healthier you're also helping the kids. It's a win, win!!!

Second of all, there's no way to describe the feeling I had crossing that finish line, my best friend right in front of me, my family and other amazing friends behind me, and knowing that two lives (actually more I'm sure) were changed. Crossing that finish line was the end of the race, but the beginning of two lives that so much need to be changed for the better.

We are two very awesome people, Mindy Jean, but we need to continue to be awesome for many more years to come. Are you with me??? Thank you for catching the Color Run wave with me and taking it to the very end. Thank you for pushing me to go to the railroad tracks, to the flag pole, to the stop light...thank you!

TEAM RBG: RUNNERS GONE BAD - WE MAY BE SLOW, BUT WE'RE AHEAD OF HUE!!!

The best Jamie I can be!

They say it takes 21 days to form a habit. I read today that while it may take 21 days to remember to perform that habit, it takes at least 30 days to be able to do that habit without even thinking!

I'd like to sit here and tell you that for the next 30 days I'm going to exercise every day, track my food intake, and do every other habit that will help push me towards weight loss success. But guess what, I'm not perfect. And I know that there will be days that I mess up!

See, I think that's my biggest hurdle right now. The fear of messing up! But why? I guess you could say I've always had a fear of failure. I don't want to let people down, including myself. Why when I want something so bad do I continue to have this fear? Especially when before a soccer game I sit there and tell Emma that it's okay to not play perfectly as long as she's continuing to do her best! "Be the best Emma you can be!" Funny how you give your kids all this advice, but when you look down deep inside of yourself, you should be looking in the mirror saying those same words to the human being looking back at you.

For the last week I've busted my butt on the treadmill. But as my Weight Watchers meeting approaches, in my gut I feel that I'm not going to be happy with the numbers on that scale. And it's my own fault. I haven't been tracking, and I'd be happy to give you all the excuses as to why!!!

So here's the deal. I understand that I'm human and I will mess up, but when I do things, I hate doing them half-ass! So here goes...for the next 30 days I'm going to work on forming a very important habit. I'm going to write down every single thing that is going in my mouth, even if it's the snack sized Kit Kat that is one of my guilty pleasures!!! Not tracking has become my downfall, and is the habit that I have GOT to incorporate into my life, no matter how inconvenient it is!!! The one promise I am going to make myself over the next 30 days is to not expect perfection, to get back up when I fall, and to be the best Jamie I can be!!!

Mama Mia, Holy Margarita!!!

If you're anything of a fan of margaritas as I am you'll love this product. And maybe you've already tried it and I am just WAY behind the times!!! I just tried Crystal Light's Margarita flavored drink mix and l-o-v-e-d LOVED it!!

So Crystal Light now has a line of flavored drinks called Mocktails. I haven't tried the Mojito or the Appletini, but if they're anything like the Margarita one, I'm going to love them!

You see, I'm not a big drinker on a daily basis. However, when we are camping, I like to enjoy a margarita or mixed drink here and there. It's really not so much the alcohol factor, as I'm really not a fan of how drinking makes me feel. I really just enjoy the refreshing flavor of an ice cold margarita. This, dear friends, could be the answer.

A girl I work with brought me a packet of the margarita drink mix today, so I went ahead and mixed it up to try. I made it a little weak, but I have to say (and I don't know how they did this), it tastes like a margarita!!! There I have it. 5 calories per 8 oz of water. If you wanted to, I'm sure you could throw in a shot of tequila, but really, why waste the points when you're getting the flavor of a 0 point margarita????

From what I am reading online, though, these are available only for a limited time, so I had better find them and stock up! Cheers my friends...happy mocktailing!!!

TRACK - TRACK - TRACK!!!!!

Well, I challenged the Weight Watchers scale and it won. I gained a pound in the last week. But just because the scale won doesn't mean I lost. I have to be totally honest, at first I felt like someone had just knocked the wind out of me. I was so excited about my mile time yesterday and was ready to face the scale only to be discouraged that I had actually gained!

So I just spent about 20 minutes looking up on the internet "why did I gain weight after working out". There were several articles, all of which I could look at and say, "That's got to be it! That's why the scale was NOT in my favor!!"

You want the real answer? Yes, I had a butt-kicker of a week in the exercise department, and I should be proud of that. Yes, I may have gained some muscle and lost inches that the scale doesn't reflect. But when it boils right down to it, I HAVE to be better about tracking my food intake! It's a necessary part of this journey. Does it suck? Yeah, it does...it really, really does. Tracking what you eat is probably one of the most inconvenient aspects of this journey. But how serious am I about becoming healthy? The most important things you strive for in life are the things you have to work the hardest at to achieve. I'm more serious about this than I have ever been.

So yes, I was discouraged last night and yes, I have things I need to do better. But I'm also making changes every single day that I'm proud of and I want my kids to see that. I'm becoming the good example and the positive influence that my children need in this crazy world. So kudos to me on my mile yesterday...and I will do better!

"No one ever drowned in sweat." - Author Unknown

I love that quote. It makes me smile. No, it really makes me laugh. I had two conversations today with people who simply refuse to sweat! Guess that's the difference between me and them.

I'm not saying that to be rude or to pat myself on the back or say I'm better than anybody else. I'm saying that because in the short amount of time that I've been on this journey, one thing that has become clear as glass is that no matter what it is that you're doing in your life, you are only going to get out of it what you put in to it. It's a choice...plain and simple.

A friend of mine posted a quote on Pinterest earlier today. I have to be honest, I like it...a lot...and thought I'd share. I vow to be the person who can look at this a year from now and not hate it because it's speaking directly to me...as the person eating garbage and sitting on my ass!!!

That being said, the last two days have been defining for me. I know I have a long road ahead of me, and I'll continue to improve beyond where I am right now. But I haven't been able to do a mile in under 16 minutes in my entire lifetime. No joke...when we had those tests at the beginning and end of the school year when I was a kid, it literally took me 20 minutes to do a mile!! I almost never saw improvement...maybe a little because I didn't care, but more because I hated running and I truly sucked at it!!

So yesterday I decided that I needed to improve my mile time. Since I started my 30-second interval program, my very first time was just over 16 minutes, which I was pretty happy about. Each day I saw improvement and pushed myself a little harder. Yesterday I was absolutely ecstatic...my time was 14 minutes, 40 seconds. All I did was increase my running speed my .5 mph. So today I decided to push myself a little more. I kept my running speed the same as yesterday and increased my walking speed by .5 mph. My time...wait for it...13 MINUTES 52 SECONDS!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited???

Guess maybe I can't believe I had it in me. But there it was, hitting me right smack in the forehead...I can do this. Running can be my friend!! As for the title of this posting, thank goodness you can't drown in sweat because today I would have had to call the Coast Guard to come save my butt!!!

Weight Watchers tonight...bring it on scale!!!

Working hard...but smiling more!

So this week I've probably worked harder than I have in the exercise department since I started Weight Watchers in May. In anticipation of actually seeing my progress, I started an exercise log. I'm a list maker, so the actual creation of the log wasn't the hard part. The hard part is me actually using it and being committed to it!!!

So what am I doing? Monday, Tuesday and Thursday are my cardio days. Monday and Tuesday I hit it hard. Based on the coaching of one of my best friend's cross country coach husband, I started doing a 30-second interval training. Walk 30 seconds/run 30 seconds...over and over again. I'd time out a mile, and then I'd finish off my workout by walking another half mile.

This being my first week of this, today was a little rough. I did the 30-second interval training for .6 miles. My calf muscle was on fire. And I'm not talking just the tired pain you get when you're working muscles that haven't been worked in while. I'm talking burning cramp that causes instant tears!! Okay, so it didn't actually cause me to cry, but I got off the treadmill instantly to try to stretch it out. Five minutes later I did climb back on the treadmill, and I finished off my mile at a slow and steady 3 mph pace!

Wednesdays and Fridays are weight lifting days, so for my lungs they are recovery days. For the rest of me, not so much! I don't feel too bad after yesterday's upper body training...we'll see how I feel after tomorrow's lower body training!!!

So after all that work why am I still smiling? Thank the good Lord above, I somehow managed to lose 5.4 pounds in the last two weeks, despite having missed both weeks of attending my Weight Watchers meeting. I'll admit I was pretty anxious to step on the scale. While I continued to exercise and didn't eat anything totally stupid during my 2-week absence (besides the deep fried Snickers bar), I didn't really have the same focus on my journey as I normally do. But that's the past...always moving forward!!!

Approximately 28 pounds down now...my goal is 40 by October 6th, The Color Run. I know I can do it...now it's time to prove it to myself!