Couch to 5k: Week 2: Day 1

Today started off good, with lots of potential. But then I got a little carried away...

I went over to Alicia's house to pick her up around 9am, then we drove to Lake Artemesia, which is in my old neighborhood, Berwyn Heights.

We walked around the lake twice, which was a total of about 2 miles. We also did a little jogging in between as well.

It was amazing out! The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze! What a beautiful day.

We shouldn't have done this but... we went to Sardi's!! Ughhh! Why is food so tempting? Why does Sardi's have to be so delicious?! We left with bellies full of guilt!! But I promised I would make it up to myself later. Plus, I had only had a 90 calorie special-k bar so far, so I was starving!

After lunch, I dropped her off at her house. Jo and I were supposed to go around the lake too, but she's sick and not to mention it started pouring down rain!! So we decided to skip!

I went over to my parent's house on the way home just to visit. Had a blast as usual. My sisters are so funny! I love the fact that Roch got 2 Maxim magazines in the mail while I was there and that she started quoting dirty things from it!! lol! Making my mom uncomfortable is so funny!:P

I had a few snacks around the house here and there, but nothing too bad.

When I got home I decided to do week 2:  day 1 of the couch 2 5k workout! It was TOUGH. Now it goes...
5 minute warm up
90 seconds jogging
2 minutes walking
repeat that for 20 minutes
5 minute cool down

It's crazy that adding an extra 30 seconds to the running makes it so much harder! I would always be looking forward to the walking part lol. I finished though, and it felt good!
29 minutes
1.6 miles
5.0% incline
3.0mph - 4.1mph
270 calories burned

After doing that I tried to write this blog, but ended up passing out so fast! I just saved it and am finishing it now that I woke up like 2 hours later!

Oh! Totally forgot to tell you all! I'm currently in FIRST PLACE for the biggest loser competition!! Yessss!!! So happy!:)

Anyways... I have to go to a mandatory training class for work tomorrow, but at least I get to see all my girls from work!:)

Shout out to my sister Rayna! Thanks for reading:) Hope this one wasn't too boring for you;)

Goodnight!

Anna

A Very McGuilty Weekend...

Yes, I'm feeling very, very guilty!

I saved updating my blog for today because I had a bit of a busy weekend, so I figured I'd just tell you all about it today.

Friday morning when I got off work, I met up with my friend Alicia and we went for a nice walk/jog at Sligo Creek Trail over in PG County. If you've never been, you should definitely go! There's lots of beautiful houses over there, and the whole trail goes along a creek. It's really nice!
It was sprinkling out when we went, which actually made it kind of nice. We got hot, and the rain cooled us off:)

We parked close to New Hampshire Ave. and did 2 miles along the path. Mostly walking and some 1-5 minute jogging intervals in between. It's pretty tough after working a 12 hour shift!
I'm not sure how much farther the path went, but we got pretty far, even past Washington Adventist Hospital, and then turned around. It was nice!!

Later that night I went out with Matt & Phebe to Outback Steakhouse. I stayed under my calories for the most part! I got the Atlantic Salmon with Veggies, a House Salad with Ranch Dressing, had 1/3 of the bread with butter. Then at the end, I did splurge a little! We all shared the new dessert they have, Strawberry Waffle Shortcake! Mmm, it was yummy!! I don't know the calorie content though, so I just ignored that... Haha.  I would definitely recommend it though, to share of course!!

During the weekend, I can't disclose which day in particular, but some drinking went down and some BAD eating!!! The weekend smorgasbord included a club sandwich, 1 chicken tender with honey mustard, 3 white Russians, 1 orange cream sickle (it's a drink), 1 blueberry vodka with sprite, 1 tic tac shot, 1 fourloko, 3 pickles, 12 chicken mcnuggets, 1 bite of a big mac, 1 medium fry, and a couple sips of Dr. Pepper!!! Yeah, REALLY BAD! I felt so bad afterwards, mentally and physically! The bar food was bad enough, but to add McDonald's onto that? Yeah, really bad! I feel like I let myself and my followers down... but I am going to make up for it, I promise! I already did yesterday by doing Couch 2 5k Week 1: day 3. Which felt great! Burned 270 calories. Which means it's time to move on to week 2! Hope it's not too much harder.

I had to get that off my chest and be honest with everyone!! But at least you all know I'm not perfect!! I'm human too, and sometimes I mess up. But I'll try not to let that happen again any time soon! lol!

Today I am going to stay under my calories and I'm supposed to go running/walking with Alicia again, and my sister in-law Jo as well. But I'm not sure how this rain is going to be, so that might get cancelled. I will do the treadmill and possibly a workout dvd instead if that's the case!

I really need to crack down these next 4 days! I definitely don't want to gain at my next weigh in! That would not be good!

If anyone reading this really wants some motivation to lose weight, get MyFitnessPal!!! Seriously, it's so awesome! It's a really easy app, and I just got on it on the computer for the first time today and it's even better! You can update your profile and get a ticker to show your weight loss. There's tons of people to chat with, blogs to read, forums to check out. Just give it a try, it's free!!!

I think I might go to Target or Wal-mart today to get some new workout clothes! I just need a couple things, but if I go to Target, it might end up bad... lol!

I'm posting a picture of my calendar to show you how I log my workouts and what not....

As you can see, on the left side is my starting weight (and Charlie's) and under that is times I've weighed in at home, but my scale is about 1.2 pounds less than the scale at work, so it's different. Sorry my handwriting sucks, so you probably can't really see what I wrote. But as you can see I do something almost EVERY DAY. Yes, Valentine's weekend was an epic fail! lol.

It's almost time for a new month though, so just wanted to show you all this!

That's all for now. I'll post later if I have anything good!

Anna

The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For... Week 7 Weigh In

I know you all have been anxiously awaiting my weekly weigh in. I tried to keep you all busy with the other stuff I did during the week, but we all know this is the best part! So let's get to it!

First off, today I did 1/2 a mile on the treadmill in 10 minutes. 1/4 was walking at 3.0mph on a 5% incline. The other 1/4 mile was jogging at 4.2mph on a 5% incline. All together I burned 100 calories. Not too bad:) I'm starting to enjoy running! Weird...

Anyway, my last weigh in was...

218.4

That was 1 week ago exactly.
Today it's... (drum roll please...)

212.2!!!!!

Yay! I am so happy and relieved!! I tried my hardest this week to exercise as much as possible. Even with being sick and going out to eat (twice) I still managed to lose 6.2 POUNDS! I'm ecstatic right now!!:) Ahhhhhhh!:)

That brings my total weight loss to 19.2 Pounds! Which is the reason I put the picture of the shoes in this blog. Charlie and I decided, since he's so proud of me (hehe) that for every 10 pounds I lose, I get some sort of reward. Since I already passed 10 pounds and didn't get anything, we decided to start at the 20 pound mark. So when I lose 0.8 more pounds, I get a new pair of shoes! I'm thinking of these... ASICS GT 2150 Stability Running Shoes . I got them for my sister for Christmas, and she LOVES them, so I might give them a try too!:)

I'm not positive what my rewards are for 30 and 40 pounds, but for 50 pounds I get a tattoo! YES! I love my husband! He is so supportive of me. Even though he thought I was beautiful already, it's really nice to hear the compliments he's giving me lately on how much slimmer I look! Thanks Charlie... I love you!<3

And thank you to everyone else who has been encouraging me and complimenting me. I truly appreciate it and it really helps! Plus, I love to hear that people read this blog. It gives me more reasons to try even harder every day! I can't let my fans down... gotta win this competition!! Hahha:)

Till next time!

Anna

Couch to 5k: Week 1, Day 2

Ok, so today was good and bad. I got home from work around 8am and talked with Charlie for a little bit. We slept till 3pm! Haha:) It felt great. When I woke up though, I felt like CRAP!:( I was so stuffy and I felt like I couldn't breathe! Ugh.

We came upstairs, watched some tv. I tried to Neti Pot unsuccessfully at first, but then the second time around it worked. It felt awesome! Blowing my nose afterwards was heaven:) Ahhh! lol:)

It was 5pm and I hadn't eaten since 4am at work. All I had was Light tuna fish, strawberry banana yogurt, and sugar free jello (160 cals) so I was starving!
But first, we needed to go to my parents house to switch out their car for the blazer since my dad FINALLY fixed the problem!:)

We got there and chit chatted with my dad about what was wrong with the car (too complicated to explain) then my dad said he was hungry, so we decided to go out to eat!

I was excited as usual because I love going out to eat, BUT, I have to weigh in tomorrow!!!:( Anyways, we still went lol.
We went to this place called "Sardi's Pollo A La Brasa" DELICIOUS! I've been twice before. I love it. It's almost like Chipotle, but more authentic. First you pick what kind and size of chicken you want. I got 1/4 white meat. Then you can pick two sides to go along with it. I got white rice with black beans, and fried plantains! Mmm!!! My favorite are the fried plantains, but they're probably so bad for me! Oh well. I only had 160 calories the whole day, so I figured I could splurge. Note: that is not my actual meal in the picture, just something I Googled lol:)

After we left we stopped by Corridor Liquors on the way home because Charlie was in the mood for drinking! I got these cute little Kahlua Vanilla White Russian drinks! Mmm, I'm drinking one as I write this! Probably not the best for me...

But... You know me, I HAD to make up for it!! Oh, I forgot to add that before we went to my parents house, we took Chief on a 20 minute power walk:)
Right before I started writing this blog I did the Couch to 5k day 2 workout, which is the same as day 1. Also, I forgot to mention that on Monday when I did it, I actually did it wrong by accident. I thought it was 20 minutes for the whole workout, but it's actually 30 minutes. So I was 10 minutes short. Today I did it right though, AND THEN SOME! lol;)

Here's how it went...

5 minute brisk walk warm-up
60 seconds jogging*
90 seconds walking*
*repeat for 20 minutes
5 minute walking cool down

I finished the whole thing and then I was only a little ways away from reaching 1.5 miles, so I decided that I would RUN till I reached 1.5 miles, and here's what I did!

Yup! 1.66 miles, 31 minutes and 28 seconds, I was doing between 3.0mph and 4.0mph, 5% incline, and burned 286 calories! Yahoooo!!:) I felt great afterwards!!! I'm so bad at running, so that was really an accomplishment to do all that walking/jogging and then go on and do even more than I had to! I was proud of myself:)

Hopefully that made a little dent in the huge amount of food I ate! lol:) Cross your fingers that I have a good weigh in tomorrow!! I'll update as soon as I find out the number:)

Thanks for following me loves!:)

Anna

Naughty & Nice

Today was very... stressful? I think that's a good word to describe it.

I woke up and did...

1500
Time - 11 minutes
Speed - 2.8mph
Incline - 10%
Distance - 1/2 mile
Cals Burned - 110

After that, I had some lunch which was Light tuna fish and sugar free strawberry jello, a total of 80 calories. I wasn't that hungry!

Later, Charlie and I went to Petsmart to get some food for Chief. Then to my parents house to pick up their car, since my dad is fixing mine and I need a way to get to work tomorrow!:)

When we were back home, eating dinner (Lean Cuisine = 210 cals), and watching tv, Charlie suddenly says "Where's my ring?!?!" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were freaking out!!! I couldn't remember the last time I saw him wearing it, and he couldn't remember taking it off or anything like that. So our search started!
We retraced his steps, looking ALL OVER the house. I texted Roch and asked her to look at their house since we were there for a little while. Charlie checked the car, the sink, etc. etc. He had also stopped at the grocery store on his way home, so he went back there and looked around. No luck.
I was in the living room when he knocks on the door pointing to his ring! YAY!!! And guess where he found it...

In the recycling bin outside!!!!!

His ring is a tad loose on him, so he claims that while he was breaking down a cardboard box outside it must've fell off into the recycling bin. AHHH!! How scary!:(

He felt really guilty, so I told him that because I was so in shock, I needed a little treat! Haha... hence the picture of the pie:) My FAVORITE dessert ever is the Hershey Sundae Pie from Burger King! So delicious!
We drove to BK and got one for each of us:) Amazingly, I looked up the calories for the pie and it was only 310! I just happened to have 800 calories left for the day!! Yes!!:) So I very much enjoyed that pie!

Of course I felt slightly guilty afterwards, so I worked out. First, I did the Jillian Michael's Target Your Trouble Zones DVD for 15 minutes (160 cals). It felt so much harder because I haven't done it in probably a week or so. Then, Charlie suggested I do this program called "Couch to 5k" (C25K)
Basically it's designed to make you go from a couch potato to doing a 5k in 9 weeks. Apparently it's online, but I downloaded the (free) app on my phone and it's pretty neat. You could do it running outdoors or on the treadmill. I did the treadmill.

I selected "Week 1, Day 1"
Press start, then it starts counting down...
5:00 minute brisk walk warm up.
90 seconds walking
60 seconds jogging
repeating the walking/jogging for 20 minutes...
5 minute walking cool down.
Total = 30 minutes
(195 cals burned)

Pretty simple, but it was kind of tough! I did like it though. I feel like I can definitely improve my running with it.
What the app actually does is notify you with a little "chime" when it's time to switch between walking and jogging. You can also play music while using the app! I'd suggest it! Especially cuz it's free, and you don't need anything to do it! Just some will power;)

Overall a decent day. I'm just sad I have to go back to work tomorrow:( But at least for only 1 day!:)

Thanks for reading!

Anna

P.S. - Drank 6 cups of water!;) And my total mileage for the day was 1.5 miles!

Unhappy Tummy

Ok, first off let me tell you, Pepto Bismol is DISGUSTING! Yuck! But, I hope it works! Hahaha:)

Today started off fine. I had a bowl of Progresso Light Chicken Noodle (140 cals) and a light Cottage Cheese Snack (90 cals) and lots of water! Then I did some walking/running on the treadmill...

1500
Time - 21 minutes
Speed - 2.2-4.0
Distance - 1 mile
Incline - 10%
Cals Burned - 222

Later, Charlie and I got ready to go over to his parents' for dinner. We took Chief and headed on over.
For dinner we had... Baked potato with butter, cheese and sour cream (expired, but Charlie said it tasted fine... lol), steak, and green bean casserole. I should have skipped dessert, but instead I had some chocolate cake with moosetracks ice cream. UGH! Delicious, but my stomach was NOT HAPPY with me soon after!!:( I guess it's been used to good, healthy meals and tonight I was not good to it!!:(

So now I am laying in bed feeling pretty crappy. Charlie gave me some Pepto Bismol to try and it's so nasty... ughhh!

Well, I'm sure no one really wants to here all these details lol. Just thought I'd share:)
I feel pretty bad about eating so crappy tonight, but hopefully I didn't go too far over my calories. I didn't eat anything other than the soup, cottage cheese, and dinner at his parents. So hopefully I didn't gain 10 pounds!
Gotta get in a hardcore workout tomorrow!! I'm still waiting for this cold to fully go away!

Goodnight...

Anna

Sushi

I love sushi! And it's good for you! Well, most of it.
Today Phebe picked me up, because my dad is fixing my car and Charlie was at work, and we went to the tattoo shop. On our way we got to see tons of smoke columns coming from the brush fires in Laurel/Beltsville. It was chaos in PG county today with all the fires. Getting to the tattoo shop was fine, coming back was another story!

We met up with Roch at the shop and hung out there for a little bit. I got the tattoos on my back traced so that Dee can figure out where to add more stuff to it, then we all set up appointments:) Mine is set for March 22nd! The day after my birthday! Yay:) I can't wait!

After we left, we met up at Hanami, my favorite sushi place. I researched Boston roll calories and the majority of websites said 35 calories per roll, which is awesome. So I got two orders of rolls (6 pieces per order) and a green salad which I just guesstimated at 100 calories.

12 Boston rolls = 420 calories
green salad = 100 calories
total = 520

Not too bad for a meal! I usually stay around 400 calories per meal, so that was good for going out to eat:)

I used the treadmill twice today!

1100
Time - 5 minutes
Speed - 4.0 (jogging)
Incline - 1.5%
Cals Burned - 50
Distance - 1/4 mile
(An accomplishment for me, I can barely run!)

2200
Time - 12 minutes
Speed - 2.8mph(walking)
Incline - 10%
Cals Burned - 110
Distance - 1/2 mile

Not that great, but I'm still getting over my cold so I couldn't do too much:/ Hopefully tomorrow I can really get in a good workout!!

That's all I have for today!

Anna

Something new!

Yep! I got a treadmill!:) I'm so excited! My parents got a treadmill about 5 years ago and only used it a little. It sat in the house collecting A LOT of dust, so I decided to ask my mom if I could "borrow" it. So tonight we went over there and got it!
Even though I'm still sick, I just had to take it for a test run! I walked/ran for 1 mile, in 20 minutes. Burning 153 calories, yay! I needed to do some sort of exercise because I was feeling really guilty.

I've still been eating good. Stayed under my calories today. I do need to work on my water though. It's tough! One thing that helps me is to drink bottled water. I know it's not great for the environment, but it's easy because I know I'm getting 2 cups of water with each bottle. Plus, I will refill mine from the filtered water, so I don't feel as bad:)

I've been thinking about making a weekly menu, or something along those lines. That way it's easier to shop for groceries and what not. But I'm not the best cook, so I dunno! lol. I need to work on trying healthy recipes. It's just tough to figure out the amount of calories in everything.

In other news, I'm going to get a new tattoo soon! I know I have a lot already, but I can't help it. They are really addictive! And to be honest, I would LOVE to be covered in tattoos! If only my job would allow it... lol:) But, I can tattoo what doesn't show, so that's what I'll do:) Right now I'm seeing what we can come up with to start filling in more of my back! Can't wait! Thank you tax money:)

I think my goal for this week will be to walk/run at least 1 mile every day, along with my Jillian Michael's DVD's. Not sure which to do first... Probably the dvd's because they make me really tired, so then I can sorta just chill on the treadmill for awhile lol. I don't know if that makes sense, but we'll see.
I'm really hoping for a good weigh in next week, since this last one kind of brought me down. I'm gonna try really hard!

Update ya later!:)

Anna

Week 6 Weigh In

Ok... so I'm kind of disappointed:(

Previous weigh in - 219.2
Current weight - 218.4

Ughh!! I guess I can't complain, at least I didn't gain. But I'm annoyed because the scale at home, right before I left, said 215.8. And it's usually only off by 1.2 pounds so... I dunno!
Anyways, I'm gonna try not to let it get me down.

I didn't do my workout today because I'm sick now!!!:( So I definitely wasn't feeling it. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and be able to do some kind of exercise, but we'll see...

Ok, that's all I have for now...

Anna

Shred

Even though I was SO tired and did not want to get up extra early to do the Shred, I did it!!
I finished the whole dvd too:) The only part that gets me every time is the first circuit of cardio! Jumping jacks, jump rope, jumping jacks, jump rope... for a total of 2 minutes. But it feels like forever! I know cardio is the best though, I just wish it would get easier!!

Oh, by the way... I walk up the steps from P3 (parking garage) to the 1st floor EVERY TIME. Hoping to one day make it all the way to the 6th floor, but that's gonna take some time lol:) I also go down the steps every time I leave work... hey, every little bit helps!:)

I'm loving all the support from my Facebook friends, work friends, family, everyone! Thank you all!:)

11 hours to go...

Anna



My favorite DVD :)



Sharing some pics...

Just wanted to share a few shots I took yesterday...

This is a typical meal for me. Lean cuisine, string cheese, jello, grapefruit juice, and water. Total Cals =  410.

LOL... how the freezer always looks now! Ignore the Jager... lol

The area of the fridge with all my good snacks:) Always keep these on hand!

So when I came home from work this morning I decided to take Chief for a walk/run. It was good. Only walked for about 20 mins, but got my heart pumping:)

I can't stand how as soon as we get back from a walk, Chief acts like a crazy fool!!! I just took you on a walk psycho!! lol! He's so wild!

Anyways, I have to work tonight too, so I'm gonna get some sleep!

Goodnight...

Anna

First things first...

Hello All!
From the suggestion of my sister in-law Joanne, I am starting this blog! Let me explain why...

I work at Children's Hospital in Washington, DC. Back in December, a few people decided to start a NICU (Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit) Biggest Loser competition. I decided to join in hopes that I'd lose a few pounds. It was $20 to join, and $2 at every weigh in, which happens weekly. There's 6 teams with 7 people on almost all the teams. The team I'm on is "Slimderellas" which is full of some great, motivated people! The competition is 12 weeks long, and at the end of it, the team who loses the biggest percentage of weight will get half the money pot, and the individual who loses the biggest percentage will get the other half! Nice motivation!;)

So let me get the hard part over with... the first weigh in! Ugh. It's so embarrassing to put your weight out there for everyone to see, but if I'm going to keep you all updated on my progress then I guess I have to!

My first weigh in was January 9th. Weight - 231.4:( Wahh!!
Here are my weigh ins since then...
Week 2 - 229.2
Week 3 - 225.6
Week 4 - 221.2
Week 5 - 219.2

Which brings my current weight loss to 12.2 pounds! I am super happy about that!:)

Here's what I've been doing...
First off, I downloaded a (free) app on my DROID called "MyFitnessPal" which is amazing!!!
You start off by entering your starting weight and your goal weight, then how much you want to lose a week. Which it stops at 2 pounds a week, because that's what's "safe." Then every day you can enter what you eat by either searching for it, or scanning the barcode of the item you're eating! It's so easy! And it's full of lots of foods, even things from some restaurants! It will give you a daily limit of how many calories you should be eating, as well as fat, carbs, sugar, etc. My daily calorie limit is 1,440. There is also an option to add exercises you've done, and it will tell you how many calories you burned! Awesome, awesome app! Love it!

So every day I have been staying UNDER my calorie limit, rarely actually reaching it. I have also been exercising EVERY DAY! It's a must! If I don't do it every day, then I will lose my motivation and never do it.
I have been rotating between Jillian Michael's (from The Biggest Loser) DVD's. 30 Day Shred, Target Your Trouble Zones, and Boost Your Metabolism. When I have more time, I also try to walk my dog Chief for about 30 minutes.
The DVD's are great! They're between 30 and 45 minutes each, and really give you a GOOD workout! I love them:)

Food wise, I've been eating lots of the same things every day. It helps me to be consistent. I eat a lot of lean cuisines, light tuna fish, fat free yogurt, light string cheese, fat free cottage cheese, sugar free jello, fruits, vegetables, spinach and strawberry salads with low calorie dressing, and ONLY WATER. No sodas. I do have juice every once in awhile, but only the serving size!
When I go grocery shopping, I ALWAYS check the calories and fat on the back of things now. Most things I get are fat free, sugar free, low calorie or "light."

So far my methods have been working! I just have to keep up with it and hopefully I will reach my goal weight one day! For now, my mini goal weight is to at least get down to 200 pounds.
My true goal weight is 160 pounds, but that will take me AWHILE! lol.

Well, that's all I have for now! I will be weighing in this week, so I will update again with that! Hopefully it's at least 2 pounds!:)
I'll try to update this blog regularly.
If anyone has any questions, just leave a comment!

xoxo,
Anna

Me on October 26th, 2010

Me on February 14, 2011