Don't Starve Yourself

Here is some food for thought.. Or food for yourself actually. My husband and I did a diet/exercise regime when we lived in Los Alamos for the summer. My husband would bike the 4 miles roundtrip to work and I would hit the gym at least twice a day and figure out new and healthy/diet recipes. After losing weight successfully for awhile, I hit the plateau and I got bummed. I worked my butt off. I dieted, I exercised, I drank nothing but water, I cut out sugar, carbs..EVERYTHING. But nothing worked. My lowest weight that I hit that summer was 172 lbs.

Anyway, I heard that women usually need to consume about 1200 calories a day if they want to lose weight. Men it was 1800+. I want to say I heard it from the Biggest Loser, which is a great motivational show for those that need a jumpstart. So this was the calorie intake that I was following before/when I hit my plateau. Well, after doing some more research, I've come to find out that it's important to figure out your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate).

I found out that my BMR is 1674.55 calories. What is the BMR? Well, it means the calories that you burn if you were to stay in bed ALL DAY. So in just one day, I burn over 1600+ calories. I was shocked! According to my previous diet, I did not eat enough calories a day! What happens is that if you limit your body on the number of calories, your body will go into starvation mode. And this starvation mode is something that everyone tries to trick their body out of. Once your body hits that, it does not want to lose weight and it retains as much body fat as possible.

As gender counts for many things, BMR is not an exception. Here is the formula:
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

So the moral of the story is that you shouldn't starve yourself. You won't lose the weight in a healthy way.

Day 2 - Plyometrics

So I'm a little ashamed of myself. I set a goal and I can't even get through the entire second day. I only made it half way mainly because I worked myself so hard and my legs were so dead, I could hardly make it. Plus, I have to admit.. My pride got in the way.

Plyometrics is full body intense workout. Tony says at the beginning of the DVD that it is THE hardest workout of the series and he was not kidding!! After the first 10 minutes, I thought my legs were going to fall off. My pride got in the way because I work out in the apartment complex gym. And I choose to workout in the evening, when I'm done with my homework and my son is in bed. So I have the whole "little" gym to myself to do whatever I want. Sometimes I watch DVDs on my laptop while I'm working out and this was is where I do P90X. I mainly do it there because there is a lot of intense jumping and what not, and I live in a second floor apartment. Well, I don't want to make my neighbors more mad at me already. Ha ha! Well, I'm going to try again next week. I'm just going to remember to keep pushing pause.

Day 1 - Chest & Back

Well P90X has officially commenced! It has been a  late start mainly due to a head cold, but now I'm ready to dive into this. I have a real goal set up and a real reward. I don't want anything standing in my way, and the only person I have to blame for any of it is myself.

Anyway, Day 1 was TOUGH. I haven't done a real push-up since high school, when I was lifting weights and swimming every single day. And now, I'm so incredibly sore. I know I won't be able to lift my son in the morning. I enjoyed being able to write down what I've done and that way I'll keep progress of what I've done. I just need to make sure to keep a clean diet and stay motivated.

Here is my Day 1 picture:

 

Weight: 189 lbs

Measurements:

Neck = 15"

Waist = 42"

Wrist = 6"

Hips = 44"

Body Fat = 36.36%

BMI = 29.6

BMR = 1674.55

I hope to a weight update at least once a week and a photo update every 10 days. Here I go! Going to keep pressing play!

My Challenge

My personal challenge is to stick to a program, specifically the P90X program. I'll write about my workout each day and how I managed through it. This will be one of the hardest things to do in my life. But I plan to give 150%. I need to be accountable, and I'm relying on this blog to do so. Also, I may do a P90X/Insanity Hybrid. Details on that later. Anyway, I should go off to bed. Day 0 pictures will be posted tomorrow!

Reason #1

Everyone has their reasons for wanting to lose weight, and every week I plan on sharing at least one to keep the motivation in my mind as to why I'm doing this. Well, we'll go for the regular reason, my health. There are many listed risks out there that are linked to being over weight. Diabetes 2, losing your libido, cancer, stress.. The list goes on and on. One of the things that scared me and that I should have thought of was pregnancy complications. Granted, I have a beautiful son and I wouldn't change him for the world. Thank God he was born without complications, and I had a risk-free pregnancy. But even still, as a mom, these things worry a person. So here's to health!

Getting started

I don't feel like I have a lot of control in life. Sure, I take care of my household, my son, my husband, my homework.. But these are all things that I know I should do. My weight is never on that list and it really should be. I know people say this every New Year's Eve, but I feel like I need to take control of my body. I have goals, I have a plan.. Now I just need to follow it through. I once heard that exercising should come naturally as eating. Well, I love to eat, so now, I should learn to love to exercise.