Day 5, 6, and 7....the Cleanse is over!

Yes...the cleanse is over. Yesterday was my last day and I couldn't be any happier. In fact, as soon as I finish typing this post I am making me a big delicious bowl of oatmeal with blueberries. I never thought  I would miss oatmeal this much. So a couple of things have happened since I started the cleanse. I have eliminated a fair amount of internal debris and I know this because the cleanse did everything it was supposed to do on a daily basis (wink, wink). I have flatter abdominals, I feel lighter, and I weight less. As for having more energy, that's a negative. I think when you have an infant the energy thing is futile. I honestly don't think my energy stores will replenish until all three of my sons are in college. During this cleanse I had to contest with another sort of monkey wrench which is a lack of energy to work out. The last day I officially worked out was on Saturday, day 3 of the cleanse. This week, I have gone 4 days without doing much more than a little weight lifting. on Day 5 and 6 I was really zapped for energy because of the constant running around trying to get things done around my house as I catered to Jonathan while trying to avoid the kitchen. All and all the cleanse did work out well. My main meals over days 5, 6 and 7 were grapefruits for breakfast, a  mid morning snack of walnuts and almonds (always one ounce), and salad greens for lunch and dinner. I did throw in a bit of grilled chicken on day 5 but not on day 6 or 7. My body really needed the protein as that was the day I did some weight lifting.

So where do I go from here? Now the diet plan comes back into the mix. I don't want to use the word diet as a negative here because it's rather positive. The word diet often implies restriction but that is not the case, nothing  for me is restricted, I mean no one is holding me hostage here. Some things I am choosing not eat, well a lot of things...and that is what a diet should be, a choice to refrain not restrict. With that being said, I have been keeping artificial and granulated  sugars at bay for the last seven days and I don't necessarily want to go back to them by having diet sodas, candy, or even things like pop tarts. It's important to choose carbohydrates that are without artificial sweeteners and/or granulated sugars (refined sugar) which are things like whole grains. So what would be best are things like brown rice, whole wheat pasta, a slice or two of whole bread maybe once a week. Proteins for me will be things like egg whites, grilled chicken, fish about three times a week and occasionally some turkey products like lunch meat (lunch meat is processed and heavy on the sodium so use sparingly). Fats should be unsaturated to low saturation so that means olive oil or safflower oil based dressings and maybe an ounce or two of cheese every so often. This means things like pizza can be consumed in small portions maybe once every two weeks. Oh yeah and the fruits and vegetables carbs are a must have. I should return back to 4-5 days of exercise with a menu plan like this. Now if everything goes well I should make my weight goal or come close to it by mid to late April!  Coming up I have a couple of special events that I have to watch out for. My niece and nephew (Ish family) and my son Elias all have birthday parties coming soon so there will be cake. I will give myself permission to have a piece at each event and to let that be my one dessert all week as I exercise my way towards that day. That's the only way to avoid guilt while you are on a diet...plan ahead and give yourself permission to indulge or eat what you like, but again it must be measured as to not over indulge. Well with thoughts of cake fresh in my mind, that oatmeal is now calling my name. I'm going to go tear it down. Be well to whomever is reading....

The Weigh In - Day 1, Week 1

Today is actually Day 2, I originally planned to write this blog yesterday but I had laptop issues and I didn't feel like using my iphone to do it either. Okay, so yesterday (Sunday) was my official kick off  day for the B.A.B.E program. RD has chosen to be my Babe buddy and work along side of me for as long as it takes for us to shed our extra weight. RD met me at my fitness studio ( shameless plug ~ http://www.thewellloft.com/) around 2:30 pm so we could weigh each other in and take our measurements. We also took full body before pictures at a snapping point of a 360 degree turn around.

The B.A.B.E program follows a calorie counting nutritional plan of whole foods (divided in specific parts of carbs, healthy fats, and lean protein) and an exercise plan of 5-6 weekly workouts incorporating a total fitness regimen of utilizing strength, endurance and flexibility training.

The following are my beginning stats (Sunday, 1/23/11)

Height -  5.5'
Weight - 164 lbs  (goal weight 135-140)
Chest -   36
Waist -   28
Hips -    44  freaking inches!!!
Thigh -   22
Arm -    11.5
Body Fat - 34.%
BMI -    27.3

Okay here is the formula for me to determine my daily calorie intake for me to lose weight.
Based on my weight 164 x 10 = 1,640 (resting metabolic rate)x 1.8 (activity level) = 2,952 - 1000 = 1,800
This tells me I can eat between 1,500-1,800 calories a day and lose 2 lbs a week.
RD's calculations based on her numbers is in the same range.

Our plan is to weigh in every Sunday at 3:00pm. We will take our body measurements again after 4 weeks. If successful we should be dropping between 8-10 lbs by 2/20.

164 lbs

Bust 36 inches

Hips 44 inches (egads!)

Waist 28 inches



Taking before pictures...ugly but priceless!



The Workout Report 1/21



Planet Fitness

Whew...this report is being posted a little later than I would have liked. I have been a busy Mommy all day with some work related things running around with Jonathan in the cold, but at least we didn't get a bunch of snow making it that much harder to get around. Anywho (I hate when people say anywho don't you?) here is the previous night's workout report performed with RD at Planet Fitness.  Hmmm Planet Fitness...that's a whole other blog which I will write about at another time. Also is it wrong that I just finished eating a lemon meringue pie from Chic-fil-A? I mean everything else I got from there was healthy (well maybe not the waffle fries) but the grilled chicken sandwich was! Also, please note that I officially start my weight loss exercise regimen professionally this Sunday 1/23. Anywho here's the report: 

Start- 8:30 pm

Endurance Training:
 45 minutes

RD did her run walk combination on the treadmill
3.8 mph to walk for 2 minutes and 4.4 mph to jog for 3 minutes. Cycling through this for 45 minutes

My endurance workout was all on the elliptical. I started at a level of 2 then progressed every 4 minutes until I reached level 10. At 10 minutes left to go I put the elliptical on reverse mode and really worked my quads.
That felt great! It burned but it felt awesome.

After a water break we proceed to cable machines for a leg workout.

I told RD to first use all the muscles of the legs on the leg press. This is to warm all of the muscles up against a load at one time. At the leg press she did the following:

Leg Press
3 sets of 15 reps (I told her that 15 reps was our magic leg number for the night) with 30 seconds of rest in between sets.

• I told RD by using the leg press machine as our first exercise we would be warming all of the leg muscles up at one time working against a load. The leg and hip muscles are the gluteous, the quadriceps, and the hamstrings. 

Leg Extension (Quads)
3 sets of 10 reps 30 seconds of rest in between sets.

• RD was inwardly screaming last night because at the top of the movement when you extend your legs it really burn by the time you get to that 6-7th rep. She did a real good job of holding in that scream with her poker face.

Leg Curls (Hamstrings)
3 sets of 15 reps, 30 seconds of rest in between.

Then we performed 3 burn-out sets for all of the muscles of the legs and the glutes.

Front Lunges
10 reps each leg and then 5 reps alternating with no rest.
(we probably could have done it twice but I wasn't trying to push)

Smith Machine Squats
2 sets of 15 squats with no barbell plates (bar only)
30 sec rest in between

Leg Curl
2 sets of 20 reps

Mat Abs

3 sets of 10 crunches
3 sets of knee raises with crunch isolation 10 reps
2 sets of clam shells 10 reps
2 sets of oblique crossovers (ankle over opposite hip) 10 reps
full crossover moving knees set of 10.

Back Extensions
Cobra stretch 5 x's
Superman modified (no arms) with single leg raise 5x each leg
Superman modified (no arms) 5x with double leg raises

Cool Down Stretch
Quad stretch side lying
Single leg hamstring stretch on back
Inner thigh butterfly stretch seated

Finished 10:30pm


Any questions?

Motherhood is a gift.

Jennifer Hudson

Motherhood is a gift...oh yes it is! It is a gift of bodily destruction and emotional mayhem. In fact I received a different gift each time I gave birth. Let me run down my gift list. The first gift I received was 14 years ago from my first born A.R. (I'm using his initials to spare him the embarrassment of Mom-teenager association) his gift was just what a 23 year old first time mother would want. A set of saggy deflated boobs! I knew with my teabag titties  (as my friend Robin would refer to them) that I would be destined to a life of push up bras and chicken cutlet looking replacement prostheses. Feeling like I was having a mid life crisis, I made a decision do what any American 23 year old woman that is totally immersed in her body would do, I went under the knife. I traded in my less than A size tea bags titties for a pair of full C size teardrop boobies (that's what they actually called my implants teardrop's). Thinking I had permanently dodged a body bullet I thought it was safe enough to enter into mommy hood again. 5 1/2 years later I gave birth to my darling middle child Elias Lewis. At 10 lbs 5 ounces at birth Elias Lewis gave me the instant gift of abdominal stretchmarks. Ahhh...what thoughtfulness on his behalf. Another gift for me to treasure and again show off! I left the hospital with my stomach looking like a road map of peaks and valleys made up of loose skin and underlying muscle indentations. The fix so I thought, in this situation would be to buy and use a host of body butters. I tried cocoa butter, shea butter, almond butter and I hate to admit even a little crisco. Nothing worked to eliminate these ugly tiger stripes however, over time they did diminish and at 28 years old I felt like I was already ancient enough to not care as much. I figured I keep these battle scars and live a life of one piece swim suits with the occasional tankini (thank God for tankini's).  On to present day, which is eight years later to the birth of my sweet Jonathan. My gratis gift baby or so I thought. I never thought I would have to incur anymore body inflictions but I did. Little Jonathan Xavier gave me my greatest mommy body gift so far. I am now the proud recipient of wider hips. Yay me!!!  I already had wide enough hips to begin with...do I really need more to contend with? I guess so because now 2 months later I am still wearing my maternity jeans! I can't fit into my size 6 skinny jeans, boot cut jeans or even my old reliable jeggings! So now the reasonble fix would be to buy a new pair of jeans in a different size right? Heck no! I'm embarrassed to admit but I don't want to buy double the size I was before the baby. I feel it would be some sort of commitment to buy a pair of size 12 jeans. No offense to all you size twelver's out there but I have a closet full of size six's that miss my body and my body misses them! I just secretly hope we can one day build a relationship again (sigh). All of this wondering just leaves me with one thought... When did I trade places with Jennifer Hudson?

Piece of Pizza or Peace of Mind? (pt. I)

Last night I received the following text message from my husband and baby Daddy, Ish. The text message simply asked "Do you wanna pick up something to eat or do you want me to order something?" This message was sent to me at 7:41 pm. However, by the time I finished teaching my last class and then wrapping up a client personal training session it was 8:45pm. I noticed the time and then I panicked! I knew since I did not respond to his text that Ish got take out. I also knew I would be going home hungry after my workout. Not good, so off to the gym I went arriving about 9:00pm. My gym partner in crime I'll call her "R.D." met me in the lobby and we proceeded to make a lose plan of attack. I told her we should both do endurance training for 40 minutes and then meet by the free weights for strength training. We did that and by the time we wrapped up everything with an awesome ab burn and stretch it was 11:00pm and I was starving! At home, I knew there could possibly be a smorgasbord of fast food awaiting my arrival. Could Ish have ordered a greasy quart of Chinese rice, or maybe some cheese whiz cheese steaks, could it possibly be Popeye's or KFC, both of which are two of his favorite "restaurants" (as he calls them). Whatever it was I was going to be ready. I planned to go home and march right upstairs without even a glance towards the kitchen. Yeah that's it... that'll work.  I  arrived home after my two hour workout with R.D. and there it was... a 16' pepperoni pizza innocently sitting there on the dining room table. It looked like it had made itself at home waiting for me, on the table without any regard for me having to lose 20 lbs by the end of March.  Now I don't normally eat cold pizza or even pepperoni pizza for that matter it was just the notion of it being available for immediate consumption that was watering my palate. I mean it was cold for goodness sake why would I want cold pizza??? There was however a solution for that...the toaster oven! The toaster oven is quick and it heats things up crisp. Plus, no one would know...not even R.D. I don't have to tell her. In fact, I just worked out for two hours and I'm officially starting  my nutritional plan next Sunday AND this is just a prep week. This could be my last slice of pizza for awhile. I had to think quick for I had a decision to make... should I choose a piece of pizza or a peace of mind??? End of Part I...


A picture of last night's culprit

 

Diminishing the Baby Weight!

Welcome...today is the start of the journaling process of me losing my baby weight. Let me briefly tell you my back story...

I recently gave birth to my third baby boy on November 13th 2010. His name is Jonathan Xavier Adames and he is healthy and abundantly happy! I couldn't be more thrilled to be a mother of an infant again but I am less thrilled to have to work hard at getting my body back after delivery. Now that I am older and it is two months later I am realizing just how tough it is to pick everything back up again. I mean this figuratively and literally. Some days I struggle just to get out of bed and dressed in the morning. All due to a lack of sleep from doing the mommy feeding duty all night. Ugg! Some days it feels like I can't even think about a workout no less perform one and this is coming from a personal trainer! Anyway, as I spare the normal details of early motherhood I digress to the mission at hand. I need to lose 20 lbs in order to look they way I used to (see blog picture). I actually want to look better than that!!! I currently weight 163lbs ( last time I checked) and 135-140 lbs is my goal weight. Okay so I know that is more than 20 lbs...but I need to meet small goals to accomplish the bigger one at hand. My plan for today is to record all of my meals. I will be eating three main meals and two smaller snacks. I will eat my dinner no later than 8pm and I will commit to completing my endurance workout with a bit of my Pilates based strength training routine after I teach the Springboard Pilates and Fit Boxing classes at my studio tonight. I will check back in tomorrow to tell you what happened! Until then here's a picture of Jonathan: