Wednesday, January 27, 2010

1 Week Down - 9 to Go

Day one - Wednesday - January 20, 2010

I would just like to say that I'm so glad that I have a support team because already it challenged me to begin strong. I woke up this morning when my alarm sounded at 6 am. My first thought was absolute confusion - then I remembered, I needed to get up and work out.

So today I worked out on my Wii Active from 6:30 to 7:10 am. I figured the easiest way to stick to it would be to do their 30 Day Challenge. So, I started on Day one - I only did a light intensity work-out because I'm seriously out of shape. They had me doing all sorts of stuff today. I started off running, did some squats, boxing, inline skating (my least favorite of all!!!), and some strength training on the arms and then repeated - though in a slightly different order. It told me I burned 117 calories. Since I'm definitely not a morning person I thought that was pretty good for before 7 am. I finished my morning workout by doing some more arm exercises - this time using a "game" called Helix that is also on my Wii. Basically, you follow this stick figure on the screen and whatever it does you follow the motions. Excellent work out for the arms - though I always keep beat with my legs, so it ends up being a full body work out too.

While I was at work, I decided to actually take the breaks I'm allotted (though I rarely ever use). So, my morning break was a brisk 10 minute walk. Then after I ate lunch, I got in another brisk 10 minute walk. The afternoon turned out to be really bright and sunny - so I decided to take a 20 minute brisk walk. Fortunately, some of my co-workers also felt the need to get some blood pumping so I was joined on 2 out of my 3 walks at work, which makes it a little more enjoyable.

As far as eating goes, I took Dani Joy's advice and printed out the food diary. I think that is going to be super helpful! My focus is to try and eat healthier foods, more fruits and veggies and of course count my calorie intake. Overall, I would say it was a pretty good starter day. Hopefully tomorrow will be equally as profitable.

Oh, and I was able to get my measurements in today. At this point in my Fitness Journey, I'm keeping those numbers to myself though.

Day 2 - Thursday - January 21, 2010

I'm glad I started off so well yesterday because today didn't turn out quite so well. My alarm clock was once again set for 6 am and it even went off then. Since I hate getting up when my alarm immediately sounds, I decided to get up the second time it went off. That's where the problem happened, my alarm didn't go off a second time. I woke up at 6:30 and realized that since I wasn't getting up til then there was no way I'd be able to get my Wii Active Day 2 work out in. So, I went back to sleep telling myself I'd at least walk at work and then work-out in the evening.

Well, walking at work didn't happen either. While I'm sure some people would not have found the temperatures that chilly (I live just north of Pittsburgh, PA by the way), it was incredibly windy and cold here today. So, out went that idea as well.

Ok, so that was all of the bad news. I'm happy to report that I did well on what I ate today and this evening when I got home from work I worked out from 6:30pm to 7:20pm. I'm only counting it as 2 points because some of the transitioning on the Wii Active takes a little bit of time here and there and I wanted to make sure I didn't include that.


Day 3 - Friday - January 22, 2010
Well today has been a day of great encouragement to me. But let me tell you what I did to work out today and then I'll tell you the encouraging part.
I walked a total of 40 minutes at work using break/lunch time. The Wii Active has you work out 2 or 3 days and then take a rest day, so today was a rest day. I didn't want to not workout and lose the momentum right at the beginning, so I decided to make up my own custom challenge.

My legs and lower body have really been feeling the workout, so I worked out my upper body instead. I worked out for 35 minutes on my Wii Active boxing and "playing" tennis. Then, the remaining 5 minutes I used my Ab Wheel (will write more about this awesome exercise tool at a later date). So, today I was able to get in a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Now to the encouraging part... Before I started to workout on the Wii Active. I weighed myself on my WiiFit (which is how I had done my initial weigh-in for this challenge). I really didn't expect to lose anything at all, if anything I was expecting it to show that I had gained some weight because my initial weigh in was early in the morning and this weigh-in was in the evening (usually I weigh more at night than the morning). However, I decided that since getting up early just isn't me, I'd better switch my weigh-in time sooner rather than later. So, I weighed in and found out that already since Wednesday morning, I've already lost 1.8 lbs. I was super excited!!!

After I worked out, I decided to take some measurements just to see if there was any change there. Guess what!!! There was change in almost every category, I even double-checked because I couldn't believe it.

My bust, waist, hips, and left thigh are all 1/2 in smaller. My chest and right thigh are an inch smaller. And then my right arm is 1/4 in smaller. So the only thing that stayed the same was my left arm. I'm so super pumped right now because I really didn't expect to see any results this quickly, let alone these. So, if I did my math correctly that is already 4 1/4 inches lost. Yay for me!!!


Day 4 - Saturday - January 23, 2010

Normally if there is a day that I do well on Fitness - that day is Saturday. I didn't do horribly, but I didn't do tremendously either.

See right now my life is crazy, crazy busy (as I'm sure most of yours are). I currently work for a company that does a lot of work for The Salvation Army. My technical job title is Data Management Specialist. This essentially means that I have about 8 Salvation Army clients that I input their donor's gifts into their database. As I'm sure many of you know Christmas time is pretty much the Salvation Army's busiest season (or at least that is when most people think of The Salvation Army). So, since the week of Thanksgiving, I've been required to do tons of overtime. The Christmas rush starts to dwindle, but then all sorts of people give at the very end of the year to get their tax breaks. So, it goes from Christmas to getting all previous years gifts in and then usually it is over and my life returns to normal. Well, this year my life is far from normal because Haiti has had multiple earthquakes. I'm seriously not complaining because I know I'm so blessed to be far from all of the destruction that has gone on there. So, why am I saying all of this...because for the past two months Saturday's are just the same as every other day of the week (so are Sundays - except for the little bit of time to go to church). Needless to say, getting up to work some more leaves me very little time to do any lengthy work-outs on Saturdays as well.

So, tonight after I worked for my job for several hours, I was able to get in 40 minutes on my Wii Active. I was really hoping it would be more than that, but that was all I could manage.

On the flip-side, I've been doing really well with keeping my calorie content low and eating foods that are healthy for me. So, I guess I can be pleased with that. I was also pleased to see that my loss of 1.8 lbs was not a fluke, but entirely real.

Day 5 - Sunday - January 24, 2010

My day of rest!!!

Day 6 - Monday - January 25, 2010

It was rainy today, so I was not able to go walking on my breaks. I technically could have, but it would have been a little wet. (Guess I'm not totally dedicated after all). :)

I did, however, get an hour work out done on my Wii. I worked out for 35 minutes using Wii Active which I did all sorts of leg excercises (i.e. lunges, running, lunges, running, squats, running, etc) I think you get the picture. Then, I got another 25 minutes in using Helix (the game that is just supposed to work out your arms, but for me is a full body exercise). I was just having so much fun that I didn't stop until my husband came down and told me that it was time to go to bed (in his defense, it was after 10pm by this time).

Day 7 - Tuesday - January 26, 2010 (My mom's birthday!)

Today was a pretty good day for me. Not only did I get 30 minutes in walking on breaks at work today, but I also got 30 minutes of workout in using a mix of my Wii Active and Helix games. I must confess, I did lose it today and yell at my Active Trainer (who is just a computer program). My husband informed me that if I keep yelling at her, I will lose my privileges on that game. :) She told me ahead of time that I would be working on my upper body and then preceded to give me all sorts of lower body workouts to do. My lower body had pretty much had it, since yesterday was all lower body to. Finally the last 5 workouts of 18 were upper body. She lied. :)

Clearly it is getting late, so I apologize for the craziness of this last part of the post. I will get my updates on measurements and weight tomorrow.

Ok, so here is the update for the week:

Bust: 1 inch lost
Chest: 1 inch lost
Waist: 1/2 inch lost
Hips: 1 1/2 inch lost
Right thigh: 1 inch lost
Left thigh: 1 inch lost
Right arm: 1/2 inch lost
Left arm: 1/2 inch lost

Total inches lost: 7 inches!!!
Total lbs lost: 3 lbs!!!

I'm very pleased with the progress for this week and hope next week will be just as profitable!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

My goodness! this is dedication, discipline and excitment all in one! I am soooo sooo excited for you! You keep this up, you will be hitting your goals for sure!

For a first week, I say you did incredible! PTL!

Yippeee!!

I like the way you did your daily journal. I will pray you will be able to keep on Springing into shape this way.

We are here for you,
Dani Joy

Siberia said...

Good job Carrie! Keep it up and you will see that fat melting away. I'm proud of you! Let's see who does better, you and me on this challenge, or mom and Lynnette on their own.

Love you!

Tami

Ketty said...

Ok Carrie, only one week down and you have lost a few inches, great for you.

Keep going little by little, keep crunching and watching what you eat, thay´s the key. :-)

ketty

Joy said...

Hi Carrie,
All I can say is hurray for you! The results are so motivating and that is what is going to help you to see that the effort is worth it : )
Love,
Joy

Sarah K said...

Congratulations! Way to go! You are doing great! I love your weekly journal.