Week 22: My Health and Weight Loss Journey to Get Fit and Lose Weight!

Welcome to week 22 of my Health and Weight Loss Journey! Here is a link to last weeks post if you'd like to check it out.

I have interesting results again this week.

I only managed to workout one day this week (I know, bad!) and it was just a short walk but I lost a few pounds.... Go figure. Everytime I workout all week, I gain weight but I don't lose any fat, and on the weeks that I hardly workout at all, I lose weight and my fat stays the same as well.

Come to think of it, I have been trying to eat more protein but I've been having trouble getting in the amount of protein that I should be eating. I'm trying to get in 40 grams per meal, but it's next to impossible for me as I'm not much of a meat eater at all and I cannot eat soy. I have not been counting carbs or calories, just been trying to reach my 40 grams of protein per meal.

If you want a great resource where you can get your macros calculated for you, check out this website https://jenheward.com/macro-calculator/. It's really easy to use and get your everything calculated based on your input. You just put in your info and it will tell you how many carbs, protein and fat you should have per day/per meal and how many calories you should be having as well. This is also based on your goal, whether it's to lose weight, gain muscle, or maintain. I really recommend that you check out this site. It's easy to use and it could be the reason that I've lost 2.5 pounds this week when I only went for a walk one day!

As I mentioned, I've just been trying to increase my protein at each meal and haven't changed anything else yet. I like to take baby steps. I have never counted calories before, nor do I want to. This is why I have only been trying to count the amount of protein that I'm having at each meal so far. I'll continue this way and see if I continue to lose. If not, I will attempt to count carbs etc.

I really want to join a gym. Not for the cardio machines, I can do that at home. I want to use the weight equipment and see some big changes. There are a few new gyms around me that are only $10 per month. But, I am hesitant as I know that there is a good possibility that I will stop going, as many people do who join gyms. I've belonged to gyms in the past and gone for a while and then stopped, so I'm trying to be realistic with myself.

Here are my workouts for the week:

Day 1- 

Day 2- 32 minute walk

Day 3-

Day 4-

Day 5- 

Day 6- 

Day 7- 

Weigh in :

Weight: Lost 2.5 pounds! :D

Fat: no change

Note: Last week I worked out 6 out of 7 days and I gained 2 pounds and had no change in body fat!

Let me know what you're doing to stay in shape in the comments.

See you next week!

Week 21: My Health and Weight Loss Journey to Get Fit and Lose Weight!

Welcome to week 21 of my Health & Weight Loss Journey! Here is a link to last weeks post if you'd like to check it out.

I forgot to weigh in Friday morning so I did this morning and I'm perplexed once again at the results.

Everytime I take time off from working out I lose weight. And, everytime I workout faithfully, I gain weight but the fat percentage stays the same. So, it's not like I am gaining muscle and losing fat. Maybe one of my readers who has some knowledge in this area can explain this to me. I just don't get it!

I worked out 6 out of 7 days this week. I did a mix of walking, my regular weight routine (posted below), and a workout DVD.

+ 15 reverse lunges, 15 reverse angled lunges + 15 walking lunges

Above weight routine is done with 8 lb weights

I also continue to use the Pedometer App (pictured above)

Here's what I did this week...

Here are my workouts for the week:

Day 1- 10 minutes on stepper / weight routine

Day 2- 35 minute walk

Day 3- 32 minute walk / weight routine

Day 4- 43 minute walk

Day 5- 10 minutes on stepper / weight routine

Day 6- 20 minute walk / No More Trouble Zones DVD: 10 minute whole body / 10 minute stretch

Day 7- no workout

Weigh in :

Weight: gained 2 pounds!

Fat: no change

This is getting really frustrating- not seeing any results. I am tempted to drop everything and just do yoga. This happened to me in the past, where I gained weight while sweating my but off doing Turbo Jam everyday for months, only to gain weight and fat. I gave up and did yoga and started to lose weight right away. Maybe that's what my body wants. I'll have to try to incorporate more yoga back into my routine and see what happens. But, I don't want to give up lifting weights as I want to build muscle since we tend to lose that as we get older.

Let me know in the comments what you are doing to stay in shape!

See you next week!

Week 19: My Health and Weight Loss Journey to Get Fit and Lose Weight!

So, I decided that this week I would do a test and not workout at all and see what happens.. okay okay, not really. I actually wasn't able to find either the time or the energy to workout at all this week... not even one day! But, the results on the scale were interesting considering I didn't workout at all! Normally the scale doesn't budge no matter how hard I workout and lift weights. Although the changes on the scale this week are minor, they are still changes and have me perplexed.. does my body prefer that I don't workout and lift weights?

Here is a link to last weeks post if you'd like to check it out.

Since I don't have any daily exercises to report, let's get straight to the results from this mornings weigh in.

Weight: down .5lbs
Fat: down 1%

See you next week when hopefully I'll have much more to report.

Week 18: My Health and Weight Loss Journey to Get Fit and Lose Weight!

Between the crazy summer heat this week and a migraine, it's been a bit of a struggle to workout this week. But, I did manage to get in a few workouts despite these challenges.  Here is a link to last weeks post if you'd like to check it out.

I mixed it up this week and used my stepper, walked, and continued with my customized weight routine (chart below).

I also continue to use the pedometer app when I walk (pictured in the main photo).

Personalized Workout Chart

+ 15 reverse lunges, 15, reverse angled lunges, and 15 walking lunges.

I am still using 8lb weights for the above weight routine.

Here are my workouts for the week:

Day 1- 

Day 2- Weight routine above 

Day 3- 35-minute walk

Day 4- 

Day 5- 30-minute stepper + weight routine above

Day 6- 

Day 7-

Weigh in :

Weight: no change

Fat: no change

I only worked out 3 out of 5 days this week, but it's better than nothing considering the incredible heat during the week. 

Again, we see no change in my weight or fat percentage. 

I was trying to think if there is anything that I have changed since I gained approximately 10 pounds over the last 2 years. The only thing I could think of was that I used to eat nuts daily but I had stopped over the last couple of years. That could be the key as I know that nuts are supposed to help with weight loss, particularly almonds, but I kind of lost my taste for them. I will be trying to eat some nuts daily and see if it makes a difference. This will be an interesting test, and since I'm documenting everything, we will definitely be able to see if incorporating nuts back into my diet makes any difference.

Let me know in the comments what you are doing this summer to stay in shape.

See you next week!

Week 13: My Health and Weight Loss Journey to Get Fit and Lose Weight!

I'm a day late with this post as I forgot to weigh in on Friday morning so I decided to wait until today so I could have an accurate weigh in for the week.

As always, here is a link to last weeks post.

This week, I've continued with my walks and my custom weight routine (chart below).

Plus, I discovered an awesome app that I'm going to share with you!

I came across this really awesome app called "Pedometer." It tells me everything I want to know about my walks, including distance, time, steps, and more. And, it doesn't require the internet to work! Here is a link to it if you are interested in checking it out.

Here you can see that the Pedometer app shows the date, how many steps, calories burned, time, miles, and how fast you were going.

I just discovered the app so I'm still learning about how to use it and what else it can do. I've only used it for the last 2 days so far and the first day I forgot to turn it on until a few minutes into my walk.. hence why it shows my time of only 23:56 minutes when I really walked for almost 30 minutes.

I'm still using my custom workout chart that I created, so I'll share it again in this post.

I do this weight routine every other day after I walk using 8lb weights

My intentions are to do yoga on the days that I don't do the weight routine ( I just haven't made the time yet).

*Note: I have added 15 reverse lunges & 15 reverse angled lunges

Here are my workouts for the week:

Day 1- 

Day 2- 25 min walk + 8 lb weight routine

Day 3-  25 min walk

Day 4- 

Day 5- 

Day 6-  25 min walk + 8 lb weight routine

Day 7-  25 min walk 

Weigh in :

Weight: Lost 2 lbs

Fat: Gained 2%

I exercised 4 out of 7 days. I want to keep up with the walks but broke my pelvis in 2 places many years ago and it aches really badly if I speed walk too much or run. It's really been acting up a lot this week which is why I had so many rest days.

I also think I need a new scale. I know that it's fairly accurate but I highly doubt it's exact as my weight just keeps going up and down every week as well as my fat percentage, in ways that don't make sense. I may invest in a new scale.

Let me know what you're doing to stay in shape this summer!

See you next week!

Week 8: My Health and Weight Loss Journey to Get Fit and Lose Weight!

I wasn't able to keep up with my workouts again this week as I am still dealing with what the Dr's are calling injuries from a previous workout. If you saw my last post (linked here) you already know about this. Also, here is a link to the original post where I started this journey if you'd like to check it out.

This doesn't mean I am stopping this journey by any means, so I keep planning on doing updates every week. 

This week I did some gentle yoga, I used the yoga DVD pictured above as they are very gentle routines and mainly made up of stretching exercises. 

I also started doing something I've done for years- I do 2 minutes of squats once a day while I brush my teeth. This is my way of multi-tasking. I have done it for years but had stopped doing it and forgot about it for a while. But, because of my injuries, I am trying to find little ways to get a bit of any type of exercise in that isn't strenuous. I really want to heal and get back to being fully functional without worry of making my injuries worse.

See you next week! Hopefully with some better news.

Amy

xoxo

Week 6: My Health and Weight Loss Journey to Get Fit and Lose Weight!

Hopefully, this will be my quickest post ever. Not that I don't love blogging! I just want to get this post up for you.. maybe no one is even reading it.. lol

I may not be online very much for a while. Unfortunately, I'm sick and out of commission for now.

Here is last weeks post on my get fit journey in case you missed it. And, here is the link to the first post on this journey.

Here are my workouts for the week:

Day 1- Intentional day of rest for my body
Day 2- Jackie Warner Personal Training DVD - 40 minute Power Circuit Training (Very sore after this workout, and not in a good way. Hence the yoga the next day)
Day 3- Kundalini Yoga, Solar Power DVD - 50 minute Solar Power workout
Day 4- Sick and out of commission
Day 5- "
Day 6- "
Day 7- "

On day 2, I wanted to switch up my workouts so I didn't get bored. So, I broke out another Jackie Warner DVD, her Personal Training DVD. I was very low in energy that day and didn't feel like working out at all. But, I figured that once I got started, I'd get into it, but that didn't happen this time. I must have had horrible form from my severe lack of energy. As a result, I ended up very sore all over, and not that "sore in a good way" after a good workout. I was so sore that I decided to do some yoga. So, I decided to do some Kundalini yoga. I haven't done this type of yoga in at least a year.

My lesson here is that if I don't feel like working out and don't have the energy that day, I may try to do the workout but if I'm still not feeling it, it's better to stop than have improper form and end up with injuries.

Weight- down .5lbs (unfortunately, it's probably from being sick and not from working out)
Body fat- no change

I can't wait to be feeling better and getting back to work and blogging and such. Not to mention working out!

See you soon!

Amy

xoxo

Week 5: My Health and Weight Loss Journey to Get Fit and Lose Weight!

This is week 5 of my lose weight and get fit journey. Here is the link to the original post.

If you saw last weeks post (linked here), you know that my Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 DVD broke. So, this week I decided to use my One-On-One Training with Jackie DVD.

The One-On-One Training with Jackie DVD is also an HIIT (high-intensity interval training) style workout- alternating weights with cardio.

The DVD has 3 workouts on it: 

• upper body (20 min)
• lower body (20 min)
• core (20 min) 

20 minutes seems like a lot for just a core workout but I just do a portion of it, at least for now.

Jackie spends one minute on each exercise so you really get to workout each muscle group.

This week I used 5 lbs weights for all upper and lower body workouts.

I love that each workout is only 20 minutes, so it's really hard to find an excuse to NOT do it! And, I can feel that I'm really working my muscles which I love!

This DVD is much more simple in its exercises than the Jillian Michael's one and I find I'm enjoying it a lot more.

I wasn't great with my diet, though. I even had ice cream a few nights this week, just cause I'm a rebel like that! haha

I'm never going to be one to deprive myself when it comes to food. I wont starve myself. I do my best to eat healthy foods but I'm still going to enjoy small amounts of ice cream and such.

This week I feel changes happening to my body. I don't see them yet, but I can feel them. I feel muscles forming and that is enough to keep me going.

Here are the workouts I did this week:
(Note: I used the One-On-One with Jackie DVD for all 7 days this week)

Day 1- Upper Body - 20 min
Day 2- Lower Body- 20 min + Core- 7 min
Day 3- Upper Body - 20 min
Day 4- Lower Body - 20 min
Day 5- Upper Body - 20 min + 50 crunches + 50 reverse crunches
Day 6- Lower Body - 20 min + Core - 10 min
Day 7- Upper Body - 20 min

I weighed in on Friday morning as usual. Here are my results:

Weight: no change
Body fat: no change

Whaaat!?!?

I was really hoping/expecting to see some results on the scale since I really can feel my body changing now and I worked out every single day. But, I can feel those muscles building. So, I don't care what the scale says at this point. When you feel your body changing, that's motivation enough!

Do you know of any great at home workout DVD's that are short in length but work? Please leave a comment below!

Amy

xoxo