Saturday, January 31, 2015

The 'effed up standards of Hollywood

 Okay so tonight after I had gotten done with my Insanity Max:30 workout of Friday Night Fights, I was feeling really good about myself for pushing through and not maxing out until 11:03, that is until I stepped on the scale and realized that my week off has really pushed me back again.  But it was a good wake up call and it made me realize that I was falling off the bandwagon so to speak. Time to go back to utilizing my apps to log my food and make sure I push myself more, use my free time to go for walks (going to have to start out with small ones but still).
 Anyways, the other reason for tonight's post other than my update, after I saw the scale and came to get ready to write a new post I saw a post from one of my favorite radio stations 102.7 KIIS FM on facebook and I'll give you the link right here http://www.kiisfm.com/photos/main/slimmed-down-celebs-266623/23618907/#/0/23618907 but I was completely flabbergasted when I saw who they featured in this. The post is called, "28 Slimmed down Celebs" so I'm thinking, "Oh they're featuring celebrities that had struggled in the past with weight and over came it" and it was, BUT some of the women they feature where at healthy weights before their "slim down". Also the caption for this slideshow was "See who went from fat to fab, I would not EVER consider some of those women to ever be "fat", curvy yes but still healthy!

For example that's what they said about Miranda Lambert
 These are the pictures they used for Miranda, let me just say I would kill for her "fat" body. She's a healthy weight in that picture, just because she's not a skinny "heroin chic" weight doesn't mean she's not attractive or that she's "fat". The only real differences in these pictures is her posture is different, her hair is cut, she's obviously wearing a better bra and she's more toned. 
Raven Simone is an actual badass with her badassery
 Raven always struggled with her weight, I remember watching her on Disney Channel on "That's so Raven" but I never thought about her curvy figure, I just always thought she was amazing because her character fought for the right to have great clothes for plus size models and in one episode even fought to model an outfit of her's in a runway show rather than use the smaller model who was chosen.  She is one of the only female celebrities that they used that I could agree did an amazing job with kicking ass and losing the weight she wanted to lose,  no surgery or anything that happens in Hollywood these days, just badass natural weight loss. She is what I aspire to be like because she is amazing. she did the work for herself not for anyone else, and the results where amazing, on top of that Raven has always been honest and laid it all out there. 
 This is why I am set on not thinking I have to be Hollywood standards of skinny, because let's face it Hollywood is ridiculous.  Anyways my mom has become a "Beach Body Coach"! so if you have any questions about the Insanity Max:30 workouts, or the Shakeology drinks or anything else you can find her profile here! http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.beachbodycoach.com%2Fscienceesl&h=bAQHtxRb1

Until next time lovelies 

Monday, January 26, 2015

Recovering from my butt pains& finding inspiration

   So last Monday I was going downstairs and I slipped and fell, and when I say fell I also mean to say I bounced down the stairs in the process. Thus hurting my tailbone and for the first day a lot of other parts as well.  For the first two days I couldn't sit comfortably and barely could walk and don't think I even attempted to bend over.  Now a week later I can sit and whatnot, still have a hard time bending because of the pressure on my tailbone when I do but I was able to start back doing Insanity Max30: tonight.  I maxed out at 6:04 because of my luck it was cardio night and was holding on okay until they started the spider lunges.  

http://youtu.be/vCMOt_8ZSg4
  To give you an idea of what the spider lunges are I put a you tube link and a diagram of the exercise haha, basically my tailbone wasn't having it. But atleast I'm back at doing the Insanity Max30: videos after recovering this week. 

  Another thing to mention is losing track of doing my calorie counting, very bad, I know but I'm going to restart it tomorrow because it is helping me track what I am and am not doing to help with my journey. But on the plus side I still have not had any soda! Almost a month since my last soda, and yes I do see the sodas and think of how refreshing it would be but I know that quitting is much better for me.  

  Also today Buzzfeed featured an article on Tess Holliday! She is a badass plus size model who is absolutely beautiful.
This is Tess
  She's gaining (more) attention because she was signed with a major modeling agency, MiLk Model Management who found her because of her Instagram. #effyourbeautystandards has taken off and I personally love it, it inspires women to love themselves no matter what size they are. One of the girls featured in the article says, “Pretty for a big girl… Nah, I’m just pretty. #effyourbeautystandards”. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that I'm pretty for a big girl, it's slightly insulting when it's put like that. I'm not doing this path so I can be stick skinny, believe it or not I like my curves when I'm wearing something flattering, I'm doing this path to be more healthy and be able to always look in the mirror and be happy with what I'm wearing and I don't have to be a size 0 to do that.  Tess has passed a major hurtle in the world of fashion by getting signed, and it's going to press forward a major movement that will hopefully bring more options in flattering clothing to the plus size world. Before you think to yourself about how she isn't trying to do anything or she's not living healthy at all and whatnot, she actually works out with a trainer four times a week, and either way she promotes loving yourself and that is more than enough. 

  If you want to know more about Tess and her amazingness here is her Tumblr: http://tessmunster.tumblr.com/ 
Website: http://www.tessmunster.com/
Blog: http://theplussizelife.blogspot.com/ 
Instagram: @tessholliday 

Until next time lovelies 

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Insanity Max:30 Update

 Today was day 4 of doing this. Ow. It took everything in me not to stop until I finally did with my mom and sister. Let me put it into a bit of a perspective,

This is Shaun T.

 Shaun T gets cussed out almost every time I work out to his videos because the man is evil, very good at what he does, but evil. Shaun T will be super encouraging and let's face it he's not bad to look at when you're wishing to throw things at him so he doesn't make you do more stuff.

I mean come on, look at that face...aaannnndddd the body, also the body haha. 
(It is really too bad that he's not attracted to women, sad day for the women of the world.)

 Anyways that is what I deal with when I'm doing these videos, that and my mom and sister's "encouragement" haha. While I follow the modified version (and sometimes modify it further) it is really hard to focus on my rhythm when my little brother is on the verge of getting slapped in the face when I'm trying to do open chest jacks. So far I have avoided smacking him so that's some progress haha.

 Luckily and amazingly my times are getting better.
Day one: 6:36
Day two:7:14
Day three: 8:55
Day four: 15:31

 With as exhausted as I am right now I do not have full belief that I will do nearly as well tomorrow as I did tonight but I have to keep a (upbeat) attitude, and try not to curse out Shaun T too much haha. Anyways I should prepare for sleep!
Until next time lovelies

Monday, January 12, 2015

Just a quickie post about "Insanity Max:30"

SO tonight was my first time doing the "Insanity Max:30" workout with my mom and sister. I'll basically put it that it is insane. The object is to go as hard as you can for as long as you can and when you can't go any longer you take note of when you "maxed out". The maxed out time is reference for your improvement and the whole workout goes on for 60 days. Also after your workout you're supposed to take a mirror picture and weigh yourself for more references after the 60 days is done. I didn't do the picture because my dear mother wouldn't let me change before the workout so I was still in my pajamas during the workout. Horrible idea really not to change because of two things that move around a lot (I should have been wearing my sports bra for that) aaannndddd I didn't have my ankle wrap on either which is why I think I had a really hard time with some of the feet movements.
Regardless I maxed out at 6:36 and I (reluctantly) weighed in mostly for myself to know what was going on and learned I've lost 6lbs since starting my journey two weeks ago. I know it's not a heck of a lot but hey it puts me on track for the weight I want to lose. It's also been about two weeks since I've had a soda and I actually am already feeling the effects from nit having it. Yes I've needed (or felt like I needed it) the caffeine boost several times but the gnawing craving for it is gone.
Anyways time for sleep, I'm going to the gym in the morning while my sister takes my brother to school and then off to work a little bit later.
Until next time lovelies

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Snacks snacks snacks and apps!

 Alright so no gym today, I ended up staying late at work and by the time I left my ankle was killing me so I will just have to get up early tomorrow and go.  On another note however I got snacks at Walmart today!
 One thing I got was Veggie straws! I have had these before and they're really good, plus they have a low calorie count which is good considering I'm trying to keep track of my calorie intake.  They are all natural with no preservatives added with apparently 30% less fat than the "leading potato chip". I don't know what potato chip that is but hey at least these are healthier and yummy as well.  I bought the 6 pack so it will hold me over for a little while, or at least I hope so haha.

 I actually got two kinds of vegetable chips today as it turns out, these are not as good as the veggie straws but I was at work when I bought these so I could have a snack since I did not eat lunch before I left for work. A serving of these is 1/2 a cup and its a 130 calories in the serving, since work was really busy I only ever got to eat maybe five pieces haha, but they will come in handy as well.

 So last night I also put two new apps on my phone, one "Lose it!" and "7 Minute Workout". I already had the app for my Fitbit and for "MapMyWalk" so these two will help with my journey as far as keeping track and remembering to log my meals.
  So the "Lose It!" app is really cool as a way to keep track, based on the amount of weight I want to lose overall and the amount I want to "lose per week" it calculates a calorie amount each day that I budget to be able to eat. It shows it as making sure to exercise to burn more calories than in-taking calories, I log what I eat and certain things it actually has in it's system so it's easier to log.  I can scan the bar-code of a product and if the system can recognize it then it pops up with a page to log how many servings eaten and what calorie count it is and then ta-da! it's added. Also I can log my exercise throughout the day. To log my working activities I used my Fitbit to tell me how many calories I had burned and used that to log the exercise that way.

Now this app is really cool too, sometimes getting to the gym can be difficult with errands, work, life in general. So this will help me get in an extra workout and will explain it to me on how to do each workout so I am not confused or not really getting any progress from it because of my not doing it correctly.

That's it for now then, tomorrow I will probably go to Zumba at my gym but it wasn't been decided on yet haha.
 Until next time lovelies.