Day 43: Dynamic Core:

Shaun T is trying to kill me with this one!  I stayed focused & gave it my best & I am determined to nail this workout!  I want a six pack damnit!

March 30,2014 after week 6

I am really starting to see & feel my body transforming & I feel better than I have in years!  Thank you Shaun T & Focus T25!  I can't wait to see what I look like after week 10!!

Day 41: Upper Focus

First of all I just have to say that I can't believe I am on day 41.  I spent an hour this morning trying on clothes that I haven't been able to wear for years & it felt beyond amazing!  That was more motivation than any words could provide and I am only on day 41!!!  There are plenty more clothes in my closets that are smaller & I am more determined than ever to focus every day & give 110% not only to my workouts but to my nutrition!!!  All I had to do was get off the couch.  If I can do it believe me anyone can do it!!!  Get determined, get moving & get results!  Focus T25!!! 

Day 40: Core Cardio

Done by 6:00 am.  I will either do the 2nd workout after work or tomorrow.  I am sore but soldiering on.  This workout is not easy.  I nailed it the first time but had to modify a bit today which I think is because I am sore from the other workouts this week.

Day 39: Dynamic Core

This shit is hard.  I did my very best.  But this shit is hard!  Shaun T ain't playin  in this workout.  I don't want to talk about it anymore. But I did it!!!!

Day 38: Ript Circuit

I almost nailed it but I just can't do all the push ups yet!  But I will soon!!!!!

Holla!

Day 37: Speed 2.0

I just mailed this work out and when I caught a glimpse of my self in the mirror I started to cry.  I am so proud of myself and I'm starting to look really good. I have a long way to go but I'm doing it! It started with me picking up the phone and calling and ordering T25 and never looking back!  I'm taking my life back and it feels great! If I can do it trust me anybody can do it. But you have to get up off the couch and Focus!  I wasn't really good at taking this picture but I was so proud of myself I wanted to show off my littler belly.

Day 36: Core Cardio

Man was I dreading getting up this morning and having to do this workout because I didn't know how hard it would be. It was hard but oh my god I feel great! I had a baby did 1 possibly doing the last week of alpha again because I missed dose for work out when I was sick and I was a little afraid to move on but I am so glad I didn't because that was an exhilarating workout and I feel great and it's only 6:10 in the morning!  Stay focused for great results is my goal! 

March 23, 2014

After week 5.  My waist and my belly are way smaller than before I starred.  Tomorrow I start Beta and I can't wait!  The time has flew by and I am at the halfway mark.  If I can do it, you can do it!

Day 33: Lower Focus

It is 6:05 am and I am done. Yay!!!  I still have Total Body Focus but I will do that tomorrow.  Have a focused day!

Day 31: Ab Intervals

6:05 am & I am done.  Yay!!! What a great way to start this Hump Day.  Now I just have to stay focused on keeping hydrated & making good nutritional choices the rest of the day.  Happy Hump Day!

Day 30: Total Body Circuit... again... oops:)

Apparently I thought it was Wednesday so I did total body circuit again. No wonder it was hurting so bad I just did it yesterday. Guess I will do ab intervals tomorrow :-) hey at least I worked out!

Day 29: Total Body Circuit

This DVD is quickly becoming my favorite workout. I think that's because it's getting easier for me to do and I don't have to do so much of the modified. It's not even 6 o'clock a.m. On a Monday morning and I've already done my hard work for the day and I feel great. Now let's get this week started!

P is for Plateau

I have been doing this Focus T25 program for exactly four weeks today.  At the end of week two, beginning of week 3, I came down with a wicked case of strep throat.  That threw off my workout schedule, diet and life in general because I basically could not get off of the couch.  Before T25 I would have totally used that illness to eat comfort food before, during and after but I did not do that this time.  I am very proud of myself for not eating a bunch of crap and for getting back into my workouts as soon as possible.  However, I was not able to eat anything and I had a really high fever for 3 days so I did eat popsicles and drank Sprite which threw off my diet since I had not been eating any sugar.

This morning I weighed myself and I have only lost a whopping 1.2 pounds in the last two weeks.  I can definitely feel my body changing so I am not going to let that discourage me.  Instead, I am turning discouragement into determination!  The time for change is now or never and never is unacceptable.  I googled weight plateaus and I found a lot of useful information.  There were many reasons offered up as to why you may be experiencing a plateau.  One of the reasons was diet.  When you first start on your journey to change your body through diet and exercise you are determined and prepared.  The first few weeks it is easy to stick to the changes.  But eventually, you may slip back into some of your old ways.  For me, it was sugar.  I had the popsicles and Sprite when I was sick.  Don't get me wrong, I would do that again in a heartbeat because I was beyond sick.  Today I sat down and had a hard look at what I was eating or doing differently in the last two weeks that I had done in the first two weeks (in which I lost nearly 10 pounds).  One thing I did was to add a breakfast smoothie.  I think that is adding too many carbohydrates.  I decided at the beginning that I have so much weight to lose that my best option is to eat mostly protein.  Since my illness I have occasionally had red meat as a part of dinner which is much more fattening than the usual chicken I have for dinner.  I also have had baby red potatoes as part of my dinner which I don't think that I should have been having.  I decided I needed to go back to the basic foods in the Keep It Real foods and protein recipes that I was following the first two weeks.

The other things that I have found that could be the culprit of my plateau include needing to change up my workout (I am following T25 to the letter so this could not be it) or a possible thyroid or medical problem (I was thoroughly checked by my doctor in the recent past so doubtful this is the issue).

Likely the culprit, as far as I can tell, is my diet so I am going to switch that up.  I may be down but do not count me out!  Stay tuned for the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say:)

Days 27 and 28: Speed 1.0 and Stretch

Yesterday I did  Speed 1.0 and today I did Stretch.  As the weeks go by it always seems like the tapes seem a little different.  I don't know if it's because I can do more of them now without having to modify as much but I can still feel the burn.  Because I missed four days of working out when I had the white death of winter I think I got thrown completely off.  It was almost like I was starting over.  I still feel great though and am not going to let that stop me!  No way!

March 16th, 2014

After week 4. 

Day 26: Ab Intervals

This is Friday so there are two workouts today. There is AB intervals. And also speed 1.0. I workout before work so I only had time to do one of them so I chose AB intervals. I will do the speed 1.0 either tonight or tomorrow. Mana at intervals is hard but I love it because it's making my abs look so much better and getting rid of my big fat belly!

Day 25: Total Body Circuit

From day one of my T25 transformation I definitely started to develop a penchant for some of the workouts and a strong dislike of some of the workouts which was at times making me almost dread those days.  However I kept telling myself I would get better at those workouts (total body circuit was at the top of this list) and it was only 25 minutes.  However, two days ago when I was looking at the workout calendar and discovered that I had to do total body circuit on that day and then again two days after that, I was having some serious negative thoughts.  Looking at myself and feeling how different my clothes feel and knowing how much better I feel already after only a little over 3 weeks it was like a little light bulb went off.  I don't know if you are reading one of my blogs called Ms Sassy Classy or not but I published a post on there a while back titled Turn Discouragement Into Determination.  That post talks about taking things that are negative and discouraging and turning them into something positive through determination.  Right then and there I decided that I was going to stop looking at any workout in any way other than positively.  Instead of dreading my workout this morning I couldn't wait to get out of bed so I could own that workout.  AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I DID.  I owned that workout!  And I felt exhilarated after I was finished.  I listened to Shaun T and when he said to push my hips out at the top of the squats I was giving it all I had.  And when he asks if you are hooking I always crack up so I think this may be my new favorite dvd!  If you are having any negative thoughts or doubts or are thinking of making excuses, just look at your body and think how much more awesome you are going to look and feel in 6 more weeks and get determined and nail it!!!!

I would like to say thank you to Michelle who shared her experience with me yesterday and give her kudos for staying focused and nailing her workouts!  Maybe she will share before and after pics on my blog when she is done:)

Helpful Tip To Curb Snacking

Some days I want to snack more than others days.  Today is one of those days.  A few things I do to trick my brain is I try to drink plenty of water throughout the day.  I am always busy so I find what works best for me is buying bottled water.  I know its not very earth friendly but it is the only way I can make sure I always have water on hand to keep myself hydrated and therefore less likely to snack at work.  At home i have a water filter so I drink from the tap when i am at home.  I also chew lots of Extra sugar free gum.  That helps a lot!  If you have any tips please share!

Day 24: Lower Focus

Its 6:40 a.m. And I am finished with my workout! Today was lower focus and man do I feel great to start my day. Getting ready to have a shake ology shake and get ready for work my hard work is done for the day! Have a great day all :-)

Day 23: Total Body Circuit

I didn't feel like getting out of bed this morning because I stayed up to late last night watching the Bachelor finale... totally not worth it but that's for a different blog!  Anyway... I weighed myself this morning & I weighed in at 153.8.  On the 16th of February, the day before I started Focus T25 I weighed in at 163.9 so I am down a little over 10 pounds!  Can I get a woot woot!!  I just finished my 22nd day... Total Body Circuit.  This workout kicks my butt but I feel awesome when I am finished!  I honestly feel like I have 3 months of results in just 3 weeks.  Awesome sauce!

White Death of Winter

Not that too many people, if anyone, is reading this blog but I thought I should explain why I do not have any pics after my second week of T25 and why I didn't blog for a few days.  On the 1st day of March, which was a Saturday, I got up like usual and did my workout.  Then I had to be at work at 10:00 am.  By the time I was at work for about 15 minutes the white death of winter began to set in.  And by white death you could think that I mean snow... if only!  The white death I was experiencing was far worse.  I had to take my son to the eye doctor at 3 and by the time we got back home I literally could not make it past my chair.  I kept my coat on and I had my son cover me with 3 blankets and I still could not get warm.  My temperature was 102.6 and I was a shivering hot mess.  I could barely swallow but managed to take some Nyquil but no rest ever came.  For a brief moment I thought I would die of dehydration.  I drug myself to the urgent care the next morning as soon as they opened.  I was diagnosed with a nasty case of strep throat.  YUCK!!!  

Before I decided to commit to T25 and to changing my life, if I would get sick I would use that as an excuse to eat comfort food.  Don't get me wrong, the only thing I could eat was popsicles and ice cream and I had my share of Sprite, but all in all I still made really good decisions.  As soon as I was feeling up to it I started my workouts again.  I missed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday but by Wednesday I felt good enough to work out after work.  I did work out on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but by Saturday I was feeling a little iffy again and decided it might be best if I skipped a workout.  My son plays football and they teach them the difference in playing through the pain and knowing when they are injured and need to stop.  I did not want to use my sickness as a crutch so I did not skip the Saturday workout lightly.  I made a decision that I wasn't making excuses or trying to slide by without working out, I was truly not feeling well and needed to rest my body.  Sunday I felt better again and worked out.  I am so proud of myself for making good decisions throughout my sickness of white death.  I felt like I had went over a hurdle and it felt/feels great!  Now I know that I've got this.  I am focused and nothing can stop me now.  Thank you Shaun T and T25!  I am getting my life back and I am loving it!!!!!

If you look good, you feel good!

I was just starting to come down with something last Friday, February 28th so I went upstairs to my room to get some warmer socks.  Low and behold my 14 year old son was in the bathroom at 8:00 pm on a Friday night combing his hair and putting on cologne.  I knew he wasn't going anywhere so I just had to ask him what he was doing.  His reply was "If you look good, you feel good momma!".  He is right.  I have made it a point since that time to not go out of my house without trying to look my best and I can tell you it makes me feel good!  Yesterday I went to Kroger and got into conversations with several random strangers and I am convinced it was because I looked good and felt good and they could sense that.  Normally if I was just going to Kroger for my regular Sunday shopping trip I would wear jeans and a swearshirt, throw my hair back in a ponytail and forego any and all makeup.  And I can assure you that I never have any random person try to strike up a conversation with me (except the one time when a lady approached me and gave me her Mary Kay card... I will just leave that one be although I did have a great idea as to where I could put her card!).   Needless to say my number one son is right again... If you look good, you feel good!!!

March 9th, 2014

After week 3.  I have lost a little over 10 pounds so far and during week 3 I had strep throat and missed 3 days of working out because I wasn't able to get off of my couch and the only thing I could eat was popsicles and I drank Sprite... both of which are full of sugar which I had not been eating since I started this program so I am sure that threw my metabolism for a loop!  Now I am back on track, focused, and ready to tackle the next 7 weeks!  I can not wait to see my results after week 10.