Day 0: Welcome to the Blog

Hi all,

So for those of you who are my friends on MySpace or Facebook, you know I like to blog every now and again. Because of that, I didn't want to clutter up my personal life blogs and my fitness blogs and have a new update popping up every day. So I decided this blog is going to be my personal fitness blog only page.

I plan on updating this blog every day with a daily recap of my health and fitness adn where I am. Since Sunday is my off day, I plan on using that day to go over weekly goals and recap the previous week. On Mondays, I plan to take and upload weekly pictures and give a progress update.

So the purpose of this blog is to hold myself accountable. If I inspire someone or help someone along the way, awesome. If no one reads this blog, I'm ok with that too.

I also wanted to take today to give a little bit of my previous fitness/health background and go over what I plan to do for the next year :)

I have had issues with my weight forever. I have always been overweight and I am sick of it. I actually do know a good amount about health and fitness, because I would research it while growing up to now. I have found, me just sitting down with a plan, is my most effective way to lose weight. I have tried so many different tactics under the sun, but I haven't ever really stuck to anything up until this past year, kinda.

So in 2005, I realized I hit my biggest weight yet. I started going to Weight Watchers and exercising. Now I'm not going to bash Weight Watchers. If it works for you, that is great and you should keep up with it. I did lose about 30lbs on WW. However, I ended up gaining 28lbs back. I personally didn't learn what I needed to beyond weight control and that fiber is really important to take into consideration. Counting points was the the lifestyle I wanted to live. All that taught me is that I can eat anything I want as long as it's in my daily points for the day. Now, looking back, I understand and get that you should be eating other things as well (that is why I had switched to the Core Plan), but I still didn't make the lifestyle change I needed to.

In the second half 2007, I decided I wanted to run a half marathon. I figured it would be a great way for me to lose weight and for me to give running a shot. Well, that didn't pan out so well. However, I did learn how to run and that jogging is a great form of exercise. This also pushed me over the edge to finally get in shape.

January 6, 2008 I decided I needed to start working out and really make a life style change. I started keeping a food journal and starting working out fairly regularly. By June I dropped close to 50lbs and I hit a plateau. I struggled with the plateau/gave up until October 2008. I had dropped a few pounds for a wedding I was in (and ended up being down 52lbs). I was going to keep everything going until my life and the holidays got in the way. I have ended up gaining back almost 20lbs from my lowest point in October (18lbs to be exact). So instead of being down almost 50lbs, I am now only down around 35 and that upsets me. I swore I would never let myself get back to the way I was, so I'm doing something about this again.

I have known for a couple of weeks now that I would start up my diet again on January 5, 2009 (best to start on a Monday, I say), but I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and what my goals would be. Here is my layout of my plans for the almost half a year :)

Abs Diet for Women- 6 Weeks.
This diet is very realistic and probably one of the most healthy I have ever decided to try. It focuses on my weight training and ab work and also incorporates real food. Crazy idea! Essentially, I'll be eating more protein and fiber than I used to and weight training. Weight training is wonderful because you'll actually gain muscle and muscle helps burn more calories and rasies the metabloism. As far as the workout goes, Abs, Weight Training Circuits, and 3 days of cardio. However cardio is 3-45 minutes 2 days and then interval training for about an hour on the 3rd day. Essentially I'll be doing Full Body Lifting and Abs on Monday and Wednesday; full body lifting, with emphasis on legs on Fridays, 30-45 mins of Cardio on Tuesday and Thursday and finally Saturday will be Abs and Interval Training.
Jillian Michaels, Winning by Losing- 12 Weeks.
Essentially Jillian's first book is much like the Abs Diet. She does incoprorate more cardio though and you are working out a little bit longer. She has almost identical meals beliefs (but she does have you figure out if you're a Fast, Slow, or balanced oxiderizer to have you eat foods to the best advantage). Her circuits are actually longer and more intense (they include one minute bursts of cardio). Jillian splits your lifting and had one full day of cardio. With Jillian, I'll be lifting on Monday and Tuesday. Off Wednesday. Lifting Thursday and Friday. Cardio for an hour on Saturday. Sunday off.
Jillian Michaels, Making the Cut- 30 Days.
My guess is, after 18 weeks of being pretty darn hardcore, I should be close to only needing to lose another 10-20lbs. This is exactly what this workout is about. Jillian pumps up her last book and just makes it more extreme. That is the basic jist.
A Mix of the work outs- For Life.
I'm hoping by the end of those 22 weeks, that I'll be at my goals. I don't know if that will realistically happen, but I'm hoping so (I'll get to my goals in a little bit). At this point, I want to keep weight training and start doing more cardio. By this point, it SHOULD be nice out (I am in Colorado, so ya never know) and I will hopefully be able to start jogging outside again. I figure, if I'm not at my goals by this point, I'm just going to start the cycle over again.

GOALS
Everyone needs to have long and short term goals. I really like how Jillian breaks them down in her book, so I will be doing that here, and posting my new goals each month and/or week.

Ultimate Goals
I want to lose 45 pounds
I want to have 18% Body Fat
I want to wear a size 6
I want to run a half marathon

January Goals
I want to lose 10lbs
I will only eat out once a week.
I will get my ass to the gym, and if not the b/c of weather, I will work out at home.

Week 1 Goals
Get to the gym (or work out from home if need be) all 6 days.
Not to over do it this week, so I won't burn myself out.
I will lose 2lbs.
I will blog my updates every day.

Tomorrow, be on the look out for my Week 1 picture and quite possibly my starting measurements.