Tuesday Coffee Chat

There is no Tuesday Coffee Chat this week. The host Leslie's father had a couple of strokes this past week and with his health issues and her family's spring break, she is taking the week off.

Since my kids will say later today, "Where is your Tuesday Coffee Chat?", I will go ahead and do some chatting anyway.

Let's talk weight loss ... or getting in shape ... or whatever.

I am attempting them both and have been since the beginning of the year. I have pretty consistently exercised 4-5 days a week doing TaeBo and/or walking and running. I have been charting my foods on MyFitnessPal. I am working hard to get fit and to lose a few pounds.

The trouble is .. it's a lot harder when you are 40-something than when you are 30-something, or even younger! In these 3 full months I have lost 5 pounds. I am happy with that number. But, dang, it's hard to take pounds off the scale! I know that part of it is that my body wants to be the weight it is, possibly to take care of my brittle bones as I get older. Are you curious how much I weigh? Right now I weigh 131 pounds. I am 5'6". I would like to be a very fit 125 pounds. I think that's doable. It just takes a lot of work!!

We are going on a Caribbean vacation in May to witness Kyndal and Collin's symbolic wedding ceremony on the beach in Cozumel, Mexico. On that vacation I would like to look smoking hot for my husband! So I am doing some extra work toward that goal.

Kyndal and I started the 21 Day Fix yesterday. The plan is to do the dvd workouts, in the recommended order, Monday through Friday. It will take us just over a month to complete them. In addition to that we are getting hardcore dedicated to posting our foods on MyFitnessPal. My goal is to eat just over 1200 calories a day and burn off just over 200 calories a day in my workouts. That would have me at 1000 net calories a day, and all healthy foods! I am also going to be running 3 days a week doing my Couch to 5K schedule so I am ready to run the 5K with Brynne on May 2nd. I am hoping to run on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday or Sunday.

The 21 Day Fix program comes with a nutritional program, as well. But after just one day of using it I believe that it is a little too restrictive in caloric intake for someone working out at the level I plan to work out. I feel like, for me, eating less than 1200 calories a day is not healthy. I am going to use the little portion control containers to help me with that, and Brynne really likes using them to help her with proper portions when she eats. But I am not going to follow their general plan. I think it would be okay for someone who is wanting to lose a lot of weight quickly and needs more accountability. But I am pretty diligent about what and how much I eat and in what portions and I don't want to lose weight quickly. I would rather slowly lose weight by lifestyle change instead of true dieting.

So the bottom line is that I am going to continue with my current eating plan and step up my workouts, at least for the next month. I took before photos ... brace yourself ... and did all of my measurements. I am excited to see if there are any physical changes after completing the program and whether I have lost weight and/or inches.

Oh, and my reward for completing the exercise portion of the program is a Double Cheeseburger with everything from DQ when ours opens back up for the Spring. That incentive is all I need to stick with the program.

So, wish me luck! Hopefully my After photo collage shows some improvement in the mid-section.