The good news: I have most definitely stuck with my workouts. I have not missed a single one. I have switched days on a few, but I have not missed one at all. Yeah, baby!!

The not-as-good news: (because it’s not necessarily BAD) my diet has been less than great. Not bad by any means… if terrible, mc’ds, taco bell, fried chicken every day is a 0 and broiled chicken and broccoli every day is a 10, I’ve been around 7 or 8. So- mostly good stuff with the occasional less-than-good thing thrown in. And maybe my portions of ‘good stuff’ have been too large every now and then.. but you know what, I’m HUNGRY. Have you seen those workouts? They’re hard! But anyway. Food.

That’s always my problem. Dude.. food is good! It just is. And since I haven’t been eating really junky stuff, I don’t feel too bad about not being perfect there. And since I’ve been so faithful with my workouts, I feel even less bad about the diet thing.

AND?

I’ve lost….

• 3 inches off my waist
• 2 inches off my hips
• Half an inch off each of my thighs

So that makes me feel still less bad about my eating because obviously, if you can sneak a chocolate chip cookie every now and then and still lose inches like that, something is going right. The measurements of my biceps have stayed the same but I am really getting a lot of muscle tone there. It’s actually visible! So that’s pretty cool. Weight wise, still not much loss, last I checked- and I’m PMSing so I’m not going to check til that beast is past. (You’re welcome for that TMI moment.) I know that it’s just that I’ve lost fat and gained muscle- and muscle weighs more than fat- so I’m totally fine with whatever the scale has to say right now. The tape measure speaks volumes.

So! I’ve been able to take my friend’s advice so far and not weigh myself. Trying to see how long I can hold out on that. I did measure myself, however, and I’ve lost 2 inches off my waist. Woo hoo!!!

So, other than that, not much to report. Trying to work more protein into my diet and cut back a bit on the complex carbs- (but I can’t cut them all the way because my body just doesn’t like that.. that’s something I’ve learned from doing all the stupid crash diets in the past.) Also, water! Urgh. Having trouble with that.. probably because it’s hard to drink cold water when it’s cold out! I haven’t missed or skipped a single workout yet, so I’ve been patting myself on the back over that.

As far as the workouts becoming easier- which is something I’d worried about- that doesn’t really happen. Instead, you adjust and you bring it harder. At least, that’s what’s been happening to me. My jumps are higher, my weights are heavier, I do more reps, I hold yoga poses longer,  etc. So the workouts are still intense. I like them. And I’m actually looking forward to next week. Following the p90x Lean schedule, you do the same routine for three weeks (different video every day of the week) and the first three weeks have four cardio days and two toning days each, one day of rest. Next week is all cardio. Five days of it plus two rest days. (Yoga counts as cardio because.. well. You do it, you’ll see.) Then for the following three weeks, I’m back to a 4 cardio/2 toning/1 rest schedule, then another week of all cardio.. and so on.

The reason for changing it up so much is to create ‘muscle confusion’. Which doesn’t mean you’re going to say enigmatic, vague things to your muscles until they cry. The idea is that you change your exercises because the body has a tendency to get used to doing the same movements over and over again and they start to become gradually less effective- and that’s generally when you hit a plateau. And as all dieters/exercisers know, plateaus are a bitch. So the theory here is that if you continue to change it up, you’re going to continue to see results.

I am almost through week two!

For the last 2 days, my motivation has been super low and I’m not sure why. A little slump? The weather (it’s been grey and gloomy)? I don’t know what it was, but I had a really hard time motivating on Wednesday and Thursday. But I sucked up and did my workouts anyway. I was glad I did, it’s so much easier to give up. It takes.. guts? I guess? To keep going when you really don’t want to. And it wore me out, I’m not gonna lie. Especially yesterday- it was yoga and an hour and a half of hard work on a day that you already don’t feel like doing anything is hard. I’m still glad I did it though, and I seem to feel much more motivated today. I actually didn’t dread putting on my workout clothes and popping that DVD in. I guess I just needed to work past that little hump.

Also, my diet the past couple of days hasn’t been as tight as it should have been. Not that it was terrible but, especially yesterday- I didn’t plan ahead and I was just too wiped out to put a lot of effort into it, so I ate easy things which are not always the healthiest. Still though, I didn’t do terrible. However- my mom (who is a certified personal trainer) mentioned that this tired slump may be a sign I’m not getting enough protein. So today, I’m aiming to eat a bit more protein and see if that keeps my energy level up a bit.

One other thing to note: I took some pictures today, to compare to my ‘before’ pictures because my weight loss hasn’t been very significant yet- I haven’t lost any more beyond that initial 5 lbs. I thought I was maybe seeing a difference in the mirror but I wasn’t sure if that was real or just me having high hopes. So I wore the same clothes and posed the same ways and I can totally tell. But it’s just a slight difference yet, so I hesitate to post the photos. Maybe at 20 or 30 days. I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m just delighted that I can actually SEE progress already at 12 days in. That really helps spark the motivation, too. And I know that the lack of weight loss thing has a lot to do with the building of muscles and in a few weeks, tables are going to turn and the scale is going to reflect that. It’s hard to be patient sometimes!

I didn’t blog yesterday because I didn’t have a whole lot to say other than I LOVED the Yoga. Yes, it was hard. It was intense. I mean, I’ve done quite a bit of yoga in my life and that was by far the most intense yoga workout I’ve ever done. But it also felt amazing. My muscles felt so much more supple & flexible after that workout! I have quite a ways to go before I’m at the level of the video, with the length of holds and the balance and such but I think that’s the workout I will wind up looking forward to the most. Also, diet-wise, I did excellent yesterday. Go, me!

So today was legs & back and ab ripper x. The legs & back was a great workout. I had my game face on today and did all of the reps. It does include pull-ups and I am nowhere near strong enough yet for those- between the ab control you need and the strain on the pectorals, I think it’s best if I strengthen both things first. No one wants to bust a boob doing a pull-up, right?). My BFF’s husband did loan me his pull-up bar but I think I’m going to let that wait for a few weeks til I build my muscles up. So instead, as advised on the video, I used a resistance band. I looped it through the handle bars of my treadmill (which is sitting, folded up, against the wall looking lonely.) & sat on the floor to do my back work. That worked just fine. I definitely felt the burn. Plus, I love how easily adjustable the tension is- if it’s too easy, you move your hands. Simple!

And now let’s talk about ab ripper. Remember last time when I could only do half of the video? I got all the way through it today. YES! I didn’t do the full amount of reps on most things, but I worked til exhaustion on each one, without straining anything. And it was hard. But I did it! And? I can do a real sit-up now. In fact, I did 10 in a row. I kick so much ass.

Today my goal is to drink more water than yesterday. I don’t really keep track of how much I drink, I just base my hydration on the color of my pee. Sorry, that might be gross but it’s a fact… it’s just easier to go “Oh, hey, my pee is yellow, I need more water” or “My pee is clear, I’m on the right track!” than to count ounces of water and try and remember to add them each time I go for a refill, etc. Anyway- yesterday, my pee was more yellow than I like to see so today, my goal is to guzzle water all day.

Also.. I weighed in today- 3 days early. Yeah, I’m impatient! So?
I LOST 5 POUNDS!! Already. On day 5. Totally doing my happy dance!

SO! To sum it up: Everything is going amazingly. I feel great. I needed this.