Work does pay off!

I've learned so much since I started losing weight. I've learned to love myself, motivate myself, encourage other, lead by example, have basic health, and the list goes on and on. I think the best thing I have learned though is that no matter what, I have to keep pushing. I have to never give up no matter what it is that breaks me down, it could be school, family, work, anything. I have to push through the pit falls to get what I want.

Starting this journey I could barely run 1/4 of a mile without dying, now I can run over three miles and still have enough energy to lift weights! Before I wasn't able to do girl push-ups, now I can do a few sets of regular push-up (granted some aren't so pretty but I can still do em!:P). When I first started I had medical conditions, PCOS, I was at  high risk of diabetes, had constant knee and back pain, now PCOS is gone, there is no sign of diabetes in my future and the only reason my knees hurt is because of the weather change!

There are so many more changes that I can't even list because there are too many. I have grown into a stronger person, physically and mentally. My confidence has taken a 180 and I love myself! It feels so amazing to say that.

The struggles have been hard but I have pushed through all the pain to reach a goal. All the physical trials have led me to now, this quarter of school, I guess you could say the straight away of my weight loss.

Soo...

Over the last month and a half my weight had plateaued. I was a gym junkie, health freak that wasn't seeing results on the scale! Boy was that disappointing, but after getting help from my nutritionist and focusing more on my life as a whole I have been starting to see a change in the scale! GOOD CHANGES! I've been lifting weights, taking a cycling class, doing yoga and INSANITY. All that hard work is starting to show! This last week I reached a point in my weight loss journey that truly amazed me, I finally reached the 100 lb weight loss marker. I have lost 100 lbs!

I remember thinking back when I had lost 30 lbs telling myself "man it's going to be awesome when you lose 100 lbs!" Let me tell you, it feels way better than I imagined The way I look at life is completely different. More than just my weight has changed and THAT is what amazes me.

I pushed through my plateau, I pushed through every hard workout, I pushed past the people that didn't believe in me and showed them I still could.

The moment I stepped on the scale and saw 180 lbs was the moment I realized all my hard work was worth it. Every workout that I wanted to give up during and every time I decided to not give in to my temptation of bad food payed off. It feels so good to know that it really does work if you keep going and don't give up!

So with that said, I have 20 more lbs to lose. I wanna lose it by my birthday (Jan 15). Let me tell you, I'm going to work my butt off to see 160 on the scale the day before I leave for Vegas. But, don't get me wrong, if I don't reach my goal by Vegas, I know without a doubt in my mind that when I step on the plane I will be 100% confident with the work I did to reach whatever goal I'll be at. I never leave the gym or kitchen regretting anything, that's why I'm so confident that where ever I am, I know I will have worked hard for it.

I hope you guys are inspired to lead a happy healthy life! That's what matters.

Thank you for following my journey, I have 20 more lbs. I'm gunna keep pushin to reach it! WOOT!

Week 5 of 10 WK Challenge

Hey guys, I'm half way done! 5 weeks down, and 5 to go. I'm happy to say that when I wake up in the morning I am becoming more and more happy with what my stomach is looking like. I've noticed it's the little changes I need to celebrate, it makes life a whole lot easier! 

Start

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

I get to weigh in next week, so I'll tell you guys how much I've lost! As long as I'm working hard and not regretting my workouts or the food I'm eating, I'm growing to be happy with the results. Don't get me wrong though, I for sure what to reach my goal weight by my birthday. I believe I still can, just gotta keep pushin. 

Till next week, learn to love your body and have a piece of fruit! :) 

Week 1 of 10 WK Challenge

Here to week two ladies and gentlemen. I increased my cardio, and calories. I'm happy with the results I see. I've been bloated this week so, weight loss is only at one lb. Ugh. Next week should be better, I'll push hard this week.

Start
 

After Week 1
 

I'll try and think of some recipes to post for you guys.

Till next time, keep pushing and celebrate the little changes.

Carbs and CALORIES

Hello again guys! It's been a great few weeks! Well, other than the fact that I've only lost 2 lbs in 2 weeks. A pound is a pound though, yay!

Today I've decided to explain possibly why I have only lost 2 lbs in 2 weeks. Too few carbs + too few calories= not a skinnier Kirsti.

I've increased my exercise regimen so much that the 1300-1400 calories I've been eating isn't fueling my body and is causing it to store all my food. Hence, no weight loss. It's quite frustrating, I've been leaving the gym dripping wet is sweat and it's not reflecting on the scale. So after the second week of disappointment, I took matters into my own hands and ask my trainer and nutrition teach (who's a registered dietitian) WHAT'S UP?! Okay, i didn't do it like that, but I really was wondering what was going on with my body.

My trainer first told me that I needed to increased my calories up to 1800 or even 2000! Let me tell you, that scared me so much! I've gone the last year eating less than 1500 calories, and to eat 2000, wow that's almost heart attack status. ( my thoughts were, "what if I start to gain weight?!") I asked my nutrition teacher what he thought and he said I need to think of my body as if I were an athlete, because I workout like I am. (Talk about confidence boost, I'm an athlete now) So, I've slowly increased my calories to 1600-1700 on light days and on intense days, I'm eating 1900-2000. I need to trust their knowledge and experience. I'll tell you guys if that helps or not on the next weigh in.

While I'm not eating enough calories my carb intake is way too low. I know that I need to eat on the lower end of the daily recommended carb amount because it's better for my body but it was way too low for how much exercise I do. Before talking to my teacher I was eating 100-120 grams of carbs a day, well, my body needs at least 150-170 a day. No wonder I was having headaches! Carbs fuel my body, which helps me burn calories.

So after every workout I need to eat carbs and protein. (PB sandwich, yum!) While I need to eat 150 or so grams of carbs 130 of them need to be eaten before my afternoon snack. Hello to carb loading before 2 pm.

Here are some good foods for carbs:
Oatmeal, of course
Whole grain bread
brown rice
Wheat tortilla
Fruit
Peanuts
BEANS- really good source of fiber.

To reach my 130 carbs in the morning I eat oatmeal, bread, rice, fruit, peanut butter. And for after my afternoon snack, for dinner I have beans, and veggies.

I know this was kinda a boring post but for some people they might be working out really hard, but depriving there body of fuel. You're not gunna lose weight if you don't fuel your body properly. Learn from my mistake and drop the pounds. :)

Side note: The detailed information referring to my daily caloric intake, and recommended carb intake are for me, please look at this post to determine the amount of calories you should eat. And the recommended amount of carb intake for a person is 46-65% of your daily calories. Please talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before considering anything less.

Till next time enjoy the good carbs and leave the gym with no regrets.

10 Week challenge

Alright ladies and gentlemen, I'm gunna get personal with you. REAL personal. But I think at this point in the game I need to lay it all on the line. As you can tell by my handy little short term goal tracker to the left of your screen. :) I am currently 186 lbs, 6 lbs away from losing 100 lbs! I want to be completely open with you guys as I lose the last 26 lbs. How am I going to do that you ask? Well, I'm going to show you what I look like, with just a sports bra and running shorts. Kinda sounds crazy to me, but it's what I gotta do.

 I'm not ashamed of what my body currently looks like. I've worked hard to have it look this way. I've lost 94 lbs, that's almost a whole adult human! That's not saying it's easy for me to post this, it's still quite reveling and very personal. I hope me being open with you guys helps you push harder and motivates you to want to reach your goal.

The reason for taking this photo in the first place is because I've started a 10 week challenge with someone on Instagram. I'm posting a photo every week till Christmas to show my results as I work hard and push myself. I'm going to continue to eat healthy and workout daily. My goal is to be down to 165 by the end of the 10 weeks.

If you have an instagram account follow me! kmcwold is the add. If you want to do the challenge just post your photo weekly and tag #illreachmygoal so we can motivate and inspire each other to keep pushing to reach our goals.

Till next time, push hard and drink lots of water! :D

Busy busy busy

Hello hello ladies and gentlemen! So I know it's been about a month since I posted something, but let me tell you a lot has happened in the last month and I've been super busy. I moved back to Washington for school, started school and am currently waiting to move from my grandparents into a friend's place. One of the biggest reason there has been no new posts is because, my grandparents have no Internet. Yes, I'm living without connection to the rest of the world. CRAZY. Hah.

OR

 

 

Anyway, I want to get you guys caught up. Like I said a lot has happened. Let me start with my first disappointment/ reality. I came home and weighed myself on my scale, and wadduya know the scale said 195! I was sooo confused and disappointed. How could one scale say 195 and the other say 180?! That's a 15 lb difference, not a few pounds. So, I decided that my scale is junk. When I got to school I weighed myself on the DIGITAL scale (normally the most accurate) and I was 191. Better than 195 but not as good as 180. So I'm going to be basing my weight off of the scale at the gym, and ditch my scale at home. (I might do a post later about how digital is better than analog.)

Something else new is I got a trainer! Yes! I'm very excited and super stoked. I'll be seeing them once a week until the end of the quarter. Side note related to my consultation earlier this week, my trainer tested me to see what my physical capabilities are(push-ups, lunges, squats, planks) and I was astounded with my results. I did 12 push ups, I worked super hard for the last 2 and did a 2 minute plank! It was awesome! In January I was only able to do a 45 second plank!  (I'll keep you posted on how the visits go.)

 

 

Next, mainly a large part of why I got a trainer is because I'm going to Las Vegas for my birthday! I wanna be at my goal weight when I go, this is my new motivation! I'm turning 21 so I might as well spend it in Vegas, right? That gives me 3 months to lost 28 lbs.

I think this might be the last thing that's new for me, I'm starting to train for a 10K. The race is Dec. 15th in Seattle. Ill post how that training is going too.

There's a lot to tell you this quarter, I'll try to post as often as I can. It will become more regular when I move and actually have Internet!

Till then, work hard, it's the only way you're gunna get the body you want! :)

Exercie exercise exercise

Hello beautiful people! I am excited about this post. I'm really excited about any post because it means I get to help you change your life. :) Today is a post following my post The Good Foods but it's going to focus on..... working out. The variety of workout you can do to burn calories is endless, so I'm not going to be telling you what exercises to do. I'm going to give you resources so you can choose what you kind of exercise suites your personality. I'm going to share what I've done from the beginning, all the different places I have found random exercises and routines.What I can remember, that is.  WARNING: this list may be long. Hah.

Couch to 5K: I still use this app to this day. I really like it. Starting out I was not able to even think of running for 5 minutes... I was dying after about 30 seconds. With this app I can now run a few miles. It trains based on interval training. Ex: run 2 minutes, walk 3 minutes working you up to running an entire 5K. This app is what made me love running. Not only does it help you get off the couch, but in 8 weeks you'll be able to run your first 5K. Let me tell you running across the finish line of your first 5K is the most amazing feeling, it's indescribable.

Next: For a while I did a variation of my own collection of workouts, and surprisingly I still have the list on my iPhone, LUCKY YOU. :)

Home workout: You'll need hand weights.... and eventually ankle weights.

I did 12 reps of each exercise and repeated the workout 3 times. It's important to do three times.

Bicep Curls
Side Lifts

Back Lifts

Then bend arms to a 90% angle.

Overhead Lifts

Push Ups- Remember to keep your hands below your shoulders and if you need to you can rest your knees on the ground.
Leg back lift

Fire Hydrant

Side ankle raise

30 crunches- Any form of crunch works, just remember not to hold the back of your head.
jumping squat- Focus on getting your legs to be as close to a 90% angle as possible, and your knee behind your ankle.
calf raises- If you don't have stairs no worry, just hold some weights in your hands and lift your heels off the ground.

I did this every other day of the week and when it was no challenging for me to finish my rep count I would ad a couple pounds to my weights. But if it's too challenging to finish the rep count (the right form is being altered) move to the next workout, but repeat to complete the three cycles.

Another App I found was Nike Training

This app IS AWESOME. You can choose what you want to work on, and really gets your sweating. I love it. It has a count down timer  for the entire workout and a count down timer for each exercise.

Okay people, one of my best friends for probably my first 30 lbs was.... the bike. The STATIONARY bike. Oh, if you walked into my house around 8 pm you would see me riding furiously on a bike watching TV and trying to talk with my mom. That last bit didn't work to well but lets just say I was dripping wet every night, I worked for my shower. :)

Yep it's an old school looking one, just like this. At first I hated those moving arms, but then I realized that it was an upper arm workout and I fell in love with it. :)

I did all these exercises till I went to school and after that I started going to the gym where I fell in love with a few pieces of exercise equipment, consisting of:



Tread Mill

Rowing Machine

Bosu Ball (great for squats)

 

 

Weight Balls

 





Right now I'm doing the insanity program and am almost done with it.

 

Here is what I have mostly done. While I have listed all this for you, I want you to know that any form of activity is good. Bike riding, hiking, swimming, dancing... anything is great. So, get out and move.

 

Have any questions, leave a comment. :)

 

Adios

How to set a long term goal

I've been inspired to write a new post. An old friend of mine recently asked me to help her get the ball rolling on her weight loss journey. I was more than glad to, I was actually really really excited I could help someone first hand. Anyway, while I've been pouring all my secrets, tricks, and beginning step on her it made me think "I should share this with everyone. Make a post!" Its the hardest to get started, so I wanna make it as easy as possible.

Courtesy of google

First, I'll go back to my first post on this blog, to get started you have to have the motivation to want to lose weight.

Second, Determine your BMI (Body Mass Index). Which is based on current weight and height. This is to determine what your weight should be. (Goal weight)

Third, Calculate your caloric needs to maintain weight. So that later you can adjust to lose weight. I got this formula from the INSANITY program.

For woman: 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - ( 4.7 x age in years)

For men: 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

This equation is based on the Harris Benedict Equation

Fourth, Now that you know how much calories your body needs to maintain your weight you need to determine how many calories to eat based on how often/hard you workout. Take the number you received from the third section and multiply by your level of exercise below.

From my iPhone

After calculating this number this is the amount of calories you have to eat to maintain your weight while working out. So to lose weight you want to subtract 500-700 calories from your final calculation. That 500-700 calories is equivalent to 1-1.5 lbs a week of weight lost.

Fifth, Based on your BMI and the amount of weight you lose a week you are now able to calculate a long term weight loss goal. Just divide the amount of weight you want to lose by how much you will lose a week and in that many weeks you will reach your goal weight.

EX: To lose 45 lbs at 1.5 lbs a week March 16th is when the goal will be met. (45/1.5= 30) Add 30 weeks from the current date.

I know that losing 1.5 lbs a week sounds like so little but, it's better to reach a goal early than late. I know that far too well. :) You can subtract more calories depending on how your body is responding to the amount of calories you are eating, just never go below 1200 calories. Personally I would never go below 1500 because I workout daily and my body needs the extra calories for energy.

So, now that you have an idea of when you are going to reach your goal weight, and how many calories you need to eat you need to know how to divide them up.

Eat at least 5 times a day; 3 meals and 2 snacks.

EX: For someone who needs to eat 1800 calories a day 400 calories for a meal and 300 calories for snacks OR 500 for meals and 130 for snacks.

A little tip I have to go along with this post is:

Make sure you eat after working out, some lean protein like skinless boneless chicken breast, beef, pork, fish (just remember to remove the fat), whey protein shake, protein bar. Complex carbs are okay too. You want to eat protein to rebuild your muscles up and re-energize your body. Also watch how much sugar is in the protein powder or bar. You want it as low as possible.

I think that's all for now. Have question leave a comment. :)