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.

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

Killer Arm Workout.. Uhh, Yea!

So I'm always looking for new exercises I can add to my workout routine or even a whole routine I could try. I'm starting to notice that my legs are getting a lot more toned then my upper body so I looked for a good mix of exercises that would work my arms. Let me tell you... I found it. My arms are soo soo sore today. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE feeling sore. It means I did something right! Soreness is a good thing. One place I seem to find many different exercises or even workout tips is Pinterest. I'm ALWAYS looking for effective exercise information. The "Health and Fitness" category has become my new best friend. (Follow me if you want: Kirsti's Pinterest )

Anyway back to my arms being sore. I found a link on pinterest with a caption reading "top 10 moves for killer arms". Okay they probably aren't the TOP 10 but, let me tell you from what I'm feeling today they're somewhere up there.

For the workout you'll need:

Courtesy of my iPhone- sorry for the quality. :P

• Dumbbells
• Chair
• Workout ball

If you don't have a workout ball don't fret you can put your feet on the edge of a couch or even the chair instead. Don't have dumbbells you can make weights at home. Either put water, sand, rocks, flour, pretty much whatever in 2 gallon or half gallon milk containers. It all depends on how heavy you want them to be. OR you can even put cans in a plastic bag, to the desired weight you want. Just make sure, either way you do it, they weight the same. You don't want to work one arm more than the other.

What are the exercises?
Finally after all this chit chat let's get down to business. The workout should be done three times with 30-45 second rests in between each circuit, depending on how out of breath you are.

• Dumbbell curl- 8 left arm, 8 right arm, 8 both arms. I always try to keep my elbows at my sides and do the reps counting to 3 as I finish. (moving the weight away from my body)
• Forarm plank-The classic plank position. Elbows on the floor, back straight. Hold for 20 seconds and repeat 3 times.
• Chair dips- (these were killer for me, but it's totally worth it in the end) 8 reps. I try and keep my knees straight and bend my arms to a 90 degree angle
• Balanced Core Strengthening- I like to think of it as superman, with one foot on the ground. Act like your flying through the air balancing with one foot on the ground. Keep your arms by your ears though. 8 reps alternating legs holding for 8 seconds.
• The Cobra- Lay on the floor with your hands on each side of your chest. Lift your chest off the ground and hold for 2 seconds. I did 8 of these.
• Pullover with dumbbell- I did 10 of these
• Push up on a ball- I did 10 but remember to keep good form.
• Hover rotation- This is basically doing a plank on each side of your body, back, left side, right side, front. I held them for 8 seconds each and did two of each.
• Traveling Power Squat- start in a squat position, jump in the air while simultaneously lifting a dumbbell over your head with both arms. I did as many as I could for 30 seconds.

REPEAT 3 times! I know it's hard once you get done with the second, but if you push yourself you'll see results. It's so much sweeter in the end when you know how hard you worked. ALSO, remember to eat some lean meat or protein when you get done. If you want to gain muscle you have to feed your muscles, it's crucial. I normally have a chicken breast/thigh or half a scoop of protein powder in 1 cup of milk or water.

Here is where I found the workout it shows you how to do each move in a video.