The Results Are In...

Erika & I did our final measurements for our 2-4-8-10 Challenge this morning, final weigh in is tomorrow. Until the Around the World Challenge last year I had never paid that much attention to measurements... but this is really eye opening for me.

14 1/2 inches lost!

My waist said adios to 4 inches & my hips gave away 5 inches (2 1/4" just in the last four weeks!). And my thighs that never give an inch somehow shed 3". And of course, the girls had to give their share as well (though I would've been really happy for them reject the idea).

Here are pics from Day 1 & from today... 12 weeks later.

Now that the final pics have been taken, these pants are officially retired! They are just too big... darn it, lol. Its a tiny bit bittersweet because they are my favorite workout pants, but I'll be more than happy to shop for a new favorite pair!

If you comment regularly, you probably know that I try to respond to comments via email. And if you've commented recently, you probably know I'm way behind on this little aspect of blogging. I swear its all the extra time I'm spending at the gym sapping the strength from my typing fingers & turning my brain to mush. I'll get caught up... eventually.

I want to extend a warm welcome to all of my new followers! I'm so happy you've decided to join me & I look forward to your comments. :)

If you're following me & I'm not following you, please leave me your link so I can add you.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

1/3 Point in Around the World!

This is it... the Around the World Challenge is officially at the 1/3 point. I can't believe how quickly it is going. So how am I doing? Circuit sets I am a little ahead of the game on... The bike I am about 11 miles ahead of where I needed to be by today... The elliptical I am exactly at the 1/3 mark; this is awesome for me because last year its what I was so far behind on that I ended up at the gym for so many hours on Mother's Day. That's where the happy news ends. :( I only have 470 floors of the 800ish I needed on the StairMaster. I'm about 30 sets short of where I needed to be on core sets. And the treadmill and free weights I have made no progress on; the treadmill I'm sort of saving for the second half of the challenge & the free weights I'm procrastinating on because of my sore shoulder. I'm feeling pretty comfortable with my progress so far. Its definitely going to require adding some additional time to my workouts or going twice a day... but I will do it!

Anyone remember the little challenge I was doing with my friend? The 2-4-8-10 Challenge. Well tomorrow is our final measurement day & Tuesday the last weigh in day for it... have to wait & see how it goes. I know we both fell miserably short on hitting the numbers for the gym stuff... which I'm really disappointed about for myself. But I will redeem myself with Around the World.

On the food front, I let the husband bring a pizza into the house tonight. I ate two pieces that were super delicious... and about 600 calories. But considering I'd only had about 300 calories before that & I've only had 60 calories since... I think it'll be okay.

Okay, I think I've bored you with probably the most boring post I've ever written (and hopefully the most boring I ever will, lol) long enough... I'm gonna get some sleep before the fun of tomorrow begins. I promise I have more interesting things to write about tomorrow... like the fact that I'm leaving!

Hmmm... if I dream about a big plate of nachos will it make me gain weight? :)

I Ran!!!!

Not very fast. Not very long. But I did indeed run on the treadmill at the gym last night... for two whole minutes. Ok, I know its not very much, but considering I've NEVER even walked any faster than maybe 3.4 on the treadmill I was pleased with myself. What made me do this? I don't know... perhaps it was Keelie's post over at Real Fat. She ran an entire 5K on the treadmill and I was thinking of her as I lugged my tush onto the treadmill (if you haven't noticed by now, I HATE the treadmill). There I was walking away, trying to convince myself I wasn't bored to death, and slowly increasing my speed... finally when I hit 3.8 I decided "lets see if I can actually run on this thing without falling flat on my face." Weird thing, I actually felt more comfortable running than I ever have walking on it. Now I think its going to be my new gym game, to try to add a minute (or however long I can last) each time I run on the treadmill. That's how I tricked myself into going from 35 to over 100 floors on the StairMaster. :-)

I found out last night that the gym is starting the Around the World Challenge early... two whole weeks early. This morning, I went back, signed up & paid the fee. I'm the first to sign up!!! I don't know whether I'm happy about it starting early or not... it definitely presents some challenges and adds more stress to my already packed schedule. But on the bright side, I won't be at the gym for eight hours finishing it up on Mother's Day this year. My Mom will thank them profusely when she hears... lol.

The challenge was highly rewarding for me last year because I'd never done any sort of physical challenge before. But, there was one problem that I'm hoping to find a solution for this year: I was spending sooooo much time at the gym that I ended up eating a lot fast food meals and other less than healthy things. Much of my hard work at the gym failed to be maximized because of this.

This time around, I'm really trying to plan ahead because I want to see the full effect of the challenge - physically & mentally. So I need a little help... What are some quick, easy meal & snack ideas?




On a final note: A big thank you to Crystal at Fitness Journal for mentioning my 2-4-8-10 Challenge on her blog today. :-)

Around the World & 2-4-8-10 Challenges

Before I get into the details of the challenges... I'm a bit perplexed, but the scale LOVED me this morning. I was sure that after the weekend of indulging I would be lucky not to gain (ok, I was really prepared to gain a hefty sum if I'm being brutally honest). But, according to the scale I was down 2.6 pounds from last week. I'm really pleased with the number and it makes me feel even more hopeful that's its possible to go enjoy a weekend from time to time, as long as its planned for in advance. :-)

Around the World Fitness Challenge

About a month after I started going to the gym, I saw a sign for the Around the World Fitness Challenge. Looking over the requirements, I was thinking to myself "there is no way I could do all that," but I wanted to do it nonetheless. The way it was set up, you could choose to do just part of it & I figured I'd pick & choose. Then a couple weeks into it someone (who shall remain nameless) said something about the whole thing being a stupid idea. It should be known that I don't take comments like that very well... so from that day forward I set out to complete the entire challenge.

The challenge requirements were:

• The Frequent Flier Challenge: 30 hours of workout time logged at the gym


• North America Challenge: 330 sets on Circuit machines


• South America Challenge: 276 sets of Core Strength


• Australia Challenge: 378 sets on Free Weights


• Asia Challenge: 48 miles on elliptical or Arc trainer


• Europe Challenge: 150 miles on bike


• Africa Challenge: 38 miles on treadmill or rower


• Antarctica Challenge: 2,100 floors on the StairMaster

There was a six week time period to complete everything. It took me until the very last day of the challenge, Mother's Day, to get it finished.... I spent just shy of eight hours in the gym that day (I credit Toby Keith & George Strait for keeping me going, their movies were on tv).... but I DID IT!!!!

For the girl who avoided gym class like the plague in school, this was a MAJOR accomplishment. At awards presentation, I won a gift certificate to a local spa... hmmm... maybe I should think about redeeming that one day soon.

The 2-4-8-10 Challenge

When things settled down from the holidays, my friend & I were looking for something to get us back to our gym routines... so we came up with a modified version of the Around the World Challenge... which we named the 2-4-8-10 Challenge. Basically the two (2) of us working for (4) size eight (8) in 2010 (10). We set 12 weeks for the time frame (so it will end when the gym's official Around the World Challenge starts) & multiplied the numbers from the Around the World Challenge by 1.75. My thought with this was that it would help me gear up for the gym's challenge & get my butt to the gym when I might skip otherwise.

We chose rewards for if we were half way to completion by the six week mark & then one for if we complete everything by the end of the 12 weeks. For six weeks, the reward was a trip to an upscale movie theater. For 12 weeks, its shopping for a new outfit at Westlake Center in Seattle (any excuse to shop in the city lol) The six week mark has passed and neither of us were halfway there. Some stuff happened in her personal life that got her off track & my needing to be there to support her got me off track too. I just finished reviewing how much I have left to do (in 5 weeks) and its remotely possible IF I make substantial time for the gym. Bottom line: I know, without a doubt, I'm getting to the gym more than I would have without the challenge & I will be better prepared for the gym's challenge than I was last year... so that's something.

As of today this is what I have left:

Elliptical - 78 miles

Bike- 130 miles

Treadmill- 59.3

StairMaster- 3,135

Circuit Sets- 421

Core Sets- 368

Free Weight Sets- 637

4 weeks, 5 days remaining... Can I do this?????

We will see....

The Turtle Way...

Meaning slow, but surely, I'm going to get where I need to be. There is NO try here, I will get there. Period, end of story. Still trying to get back on track from the weekend, I took some steps toward getting there today.

First, I figured out exactly what I need to do on a daily basis at the gym to complete the first phase of the "2-4-8-10 Challenge" I'm doing with my friend. I can't believe I haven't talked about that on here yet... we patterned our challenge after the one I did at the gym last year & gave ourselves 12 weeks to do crazy things like almost 4,000 floors on the StairMaster. I'll write about it in detail tomorrow, but we're down to the final five weeks & I still have a LONG way to go.

Then, I set about meal planning for the coming week (starting tomorrow). I still have one day left to figure out. Once I get it all done, I'll post my plan for the week, so you can all hold me accountable to stick with it. I already know we have a special dinner tomorrow & Friday night, so those are factored in.

Though I have eaten way more than I should have today, its all been from the healthy things I stocked the house with. Don't know why I'm so stinkin hungry today. I got in a little over an hour at the gym, split between bike & treadmill. Have I mentioned how much I HATE the treadmill? Oddly enough, it didn't bother me soooo much today. But, for some unexplained reason, my hamstrings are killing me. They were hurting before I went to the gym & by the time I left they both had this sort of numb, but burning at the same time sensation. Planning to go soak in a hot bath & hope they feel better in the morning.

Tomorrow is scale day... I'm prepared for a less than happy outcome after the weekend & I'm ok with that. Scale peeking Friday morning showed I was on the right track & I'll be right back on it as of tomorrow morning... still hoping its not tooooooo terrible though.

That bath is calling me... oh no, inanimate objects are talking to me? I may be in real trouble here. :-)