9/26 = FIVE weeks until Halloween

We now officially have five weeks left until Halloween. If any of you are doing your own Hot for Halloween (H4H) challenge, this means we still have time to lose 5 more pounds in a healthy way. Simply crunching the numbers, 1 pound = 3500 calories. So if you reduce your caloric intake by just 500 calories each day, for 7 days, that is 1 pound lost in 1 week. Sounds easier than actually done, I know, but if you're serious about getting fit I think its important to lay out how to reach your goals. At least for me it is, I need to see my plan in writing.

Still on hyper intense mode of eating healthy and working out. And so far its working for me, yaaaay I lost 1 pound this week!!!

Another thing I did for myself is to get a personal trainer on Fit Orbit. They give you meal plans and exercises every day, based on your fitness goals. Mine started Fri 9/25 and so far I like it, but I'm still getting used to logging everything in their website. I signed up for a 6 month package and I hope it helps me stay focused. I think it will.

Goals are:

• Deficit of 500-700 calories each day
• NO alcohol, cheese or fastfood! (1 glass of wine is ok)
  
• Stick to raw, fresh vegetables as much as possible
  
• Workout 5-7 days a week, 30 minutes minimum each day (Mon & Wed are the days I can skip)
  
• Increase water intake (I learned drinking more water helps you lose more weight)
• Also, NO sugars

DRINK YOUR WATER!!!! This is my buddy Contigo, I take her wherever I go.

Is anyone else challenging themselves? How's it going?

2 Fit Tips I learned this week

I've always been pretty interested in fitness and nutrition, and I feel like I have a decent knowledge foundation on the subjects. But its always fun to learn new things! This week I actually learned 2 new things that I didn't know before and I think are pretty important (b/c they're opposite of what I thought) so I wanted to share.

1. I was watching the 'Week Two' episode of Biggest Loser (heart that show!) and Jillian said something that made me rewind and replay. Basically what she said is that your body needs protein within 30 minutes of working out. Reason is that your muscles are broken down while exercising and they need the protein right after to start building them back fast.
2. My FitOrbit trainer said that when your body is hungry, it will ALWAYS start breaking down your muscle, and not fat. I was okay with being hungry for a while b/c I thought it was burning fat, so whats the harm right? WRONG. If you are hungry, your body eats your muscle, not your fat.!

So boys and girls, what did we learn this week? Don't let yourself be hungry. Drink a lil protein shake after you workout. Easy peasy.

Happy Friday!!

Today's iPod playlist for the gym

I don't know about anyone else, but for me, having loud thumping music in my ears whilst working out is a must. I'm usually looking for new music to inspire me to work harder and like to look at what other peeps have on their gym playlists. You never know what you'll find. Here's some of my go-to winners from this week:

* Beep – The Pussycat Dolls

* Boom Boom Pow – Black Eyed Peas

* Culo – Pitbull

* Don’t Cha – The Pussycat Dolls

* Go Girl – Pitbull

* I Kissed a Girl – Katy Perry

* I Wear My Stunna Shades – Federation

* I Would Walk 500 Miles – Less Than Jake

* Maneater – Nelly Furtado

* Not a Stain On Me – Big Tuck & Fat Bastard

* Poison – Bel Biv DeVoe

* The Way You Make Me Feel – Michael Jackson

* You’re a Jerk – New Boyz

What do you listen to while working out?

“Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes”

My cousin Jamie is getting married in Tennessee this October and one of boyfriend's best buds is getting married in Virginia in November. For my cousins wedding, I'm not in the wedding party or anything but all of the family that will be in town is invited to everything. For the VA wedding, boyfriend is a groomsman which makes me...loverface to a groomsman?

Translation: 5 'events' in 2 months = 5 new dresses for ChuChu!!!

And since we finally know what home we're buying (and how much down payment we need) I was able to do some shopping. All sales, of course! I was able to buy 3 dresses from JCrew.com (on super sale) & 3 dresses from my local Forever 21 (already super cheap).

I love how JCrew does their packaging, so careful and clean. Below, the green dress, is the one I will wear to my cousins wedding in Oct.

I will be wearing the Zigi Soho Gloria Satin Platform Sandal in black, from DSW, and carrying this handbag, also in black and from DSW.

For her bridal luncheon I think I'm going to wear this floral number from F21. I love the open back. Or I might wear the blue one from J Crew, with yellow shoes I wore to Del Mar opening day.

I also need to decide on something for the rehearsal dinner in which the bride will be wearing a blue cocktail dress. And then there is the rehearsal dinner in Nov, along with the wedding and reception. These are the other dresses I bought, but haven't exactly decided which I'm wearing for what occasion.

 

 

 

 

What do you guys think, any ideas? I don't think that I can properly wear this white/black one above since they're both weddings. So that leaves the pink and the gray. I've got a couple others in the closet I might need to pull out for this.

I'm not wearing a bra

Okay, I am, but it doesn't feel like it. Long story short, boyfriend forced me to go bra shopping, which I did. After picking up every bra in Victoria's Secret that I might like, I went in the dressing room and tried all 7 of them on. Only 2 of them looked right. 1 was a regular bra and 1 was a sports bra so I got them both.

Turns out what I was buying was their new Biofit bra and I had no idea. I just picked what fit best. $45 and I chose the light pink. What I love about this bra is that it feels like I'm not wearing one. That also happens to be what I hate about it thus far. Reason being is that I'm sooo used to that feeling, I think it'll take some time to get used to. But so far so good (I've worn it twice).

And then here's the cute lil sports bra I got for about $20 on sale.

Does anyone else have one of these? What do you think of it?

Weeks 11-15 of Mission: FitBitch

This is a follow-up post to my 'Weeks 1-10 of Mission: FitBitch'. My Start Weight is shown as 'X', aka the-most-ive-ever-weighed-in-my-entire-life.

I've been tracking my weight and here are my results for weeks 11-15:

Week11: X-3, or, I lost 1 pound since Week10
Week12: X-3, or, I weigh the same as in Week11
Week13: X-4, or, yay I lost 1 pound since Week12
Week14: X-4
Week15: X-4, still the same same same

So what that means is that since I started tracking my weight and habits, I've lost 4 pounds overall. Not bad, but not great, which is ok since its still all lost weight and not gained. Plus, the last day of Week15 is when I kicked the workout routine into high gear, so hopefully the next update (on Sat 9/26) will start showing quicker results.

Is anyone else tracking their weight/fitness/eating routines?

9/19 = SIX weeks until Halloween

I just realized that it is exactly 6 weeks until Halloween, which for me means super crunch time on getting fit. I was surfing around on the blogs and YouTube, looking for fitness peeps to follow for motivation and I came across kelanjo19 video on joining the Hot for Halloween (H4H) fitness challenge. Her video explains where it came from (the siegster) and so Ive decided to semi jump on the bandwagon. I wont be making any videos but these people have inspired me to make sure I'm fit by Halloween 10/31/09. 

I want to be able to wear this bee costume. I'm not sure that I would actually wear something this small out in public, but I want to at least have the body to decide for myself! I'm tired of choosing the clothes I wear based on how best to cover my fat (yes, I just admitted that).

The next few weeks will be hyper intense mode on eating healthy and working out. I plan to post my progress every Saturday.

Goals are:

• Deficit of 500-700 calories each day
• NO alcohol, cheese or fastfood! (1 glass of wine is ok)
  
• Stick to raw, fresh vegetables as much as possible
  
• Workout 5-7 days a week, 30 minutes minimum each day (Mon & Wed are the days I can skip)
  
• Increase water intake