Hah! New Challenges!

The family get together was nice today. It was nice to see people I saw a few weeks ago. I'm getting to know my extended family a little better. The weather was gorgeous and the food wasn't too heavy! I made a delicious veggie lasagna that was around 250 cals per serving! I had prolly half a serving and it was delicious! I don't even like regular lasagna!

I was kind of disappointed G didn't say anything about how I looked other than my dress was nice without being prompted. She told me a few times she really liked my dress (it's new, it was $12.5 on clearance at target and its like a cute, short floral summer dress). Then finally later M goes, does she look like she's lost any weight and G goes "Yeah yeah I can tell." Which pretty much means she didn't really notice. Le sigh.

It also just kind of makes me want to work harder so in the future it's like BAM! I'm awesome and fab!

Speaking of awesome and fab, after the walk tonight (and a tad bit of running), I came back and C was doing a Self Magazine workout video on the wii. She did "Bikini Ready Fast." It looked rather interesting. Glamorous girls on the beach working out with a constant stream of chatter to guide you through the workout. It looked like a refreshing change from Richard's "hug yourself" and "don't ever give up" mantra. I watched C finish up the workout and she said she could really feel it. She mentioned there were other Self workouts on Netflix so I decided I might check it out.

I debated on doing the "Slim and Sleek, Fast!" or the "Your Best Butt, Fast!" I want to work on getting slim but as everyone knows, I have a nice round butt. I finally asked M and she said the Butt one.

I watched the intro the to video and it sounded really exciting. Kickboxing?! I LOVE kicking stuff around campus: signs, trashcans, bins, buildings. Yoga? I love Yoga on the WiiFit and I just bought a beginners Yoga Dvd to try out doing a more smooth Yoga routine. Dance Moves? Hello! I love doing the Richard dances. I was really stoked to do the workout!

Warm-up: The warm up was nice and decent. Lots of walking and easy steps. It got my heart going and the constant reminder to think about my butt muscles made me really THINK and FEEL them working during my exercise.

Kickboxing: This was awesome! You start out with small moves and slowly add them together to move into fab kickboxing quick steps/kicks. I worked up a sweat and really jammed out during this portion. In terms of thinking/feeling butt muscles, I didn't do so well during most of this portion. I think I was too busy focusing on the moves still to really start honing in on the muscles working and tensing to firm that area.

Weights: This section was killer. I had to stop and just walk for a bit. Seriously. I'm not the best at lunges and squats. Fat thighs and weakish knees doesn't add up. Normally I could push myself through and finish it anyway, I'm a very determined gal, but after storming through Kickboxing, I just wasn't ready for the intense squats, pulses, and jumps this section entails. I will definitely try to work myself up to ace-ing this section.

Dance moves: This bit was good. I really could feel, think, and work my butt muscles during this section. It's like taking basic dance moves and slowing them down for maximum butt workout. I really enjoyed this. I could feel the workout here and it was good!

Yoga: This was AMAZING! I really loved the Yoga section! Like I mentioned before, I enjoy doing the Yoga poses on the Wiifit but I have a hard time trying to keep my stupid balance in the bubble or between the lines. I knew I wanted to look into some Yoga outside of that but I still haven't yet. This section really showed me how much I need to get into Yoga! The moves were very fluid and controlled. I could feel my body using my butt muscles in each movement to hold and strengthen my poses. I really felt like a got a good workout here! My only complaint was that I sweated so much during the previous sections that during the Downward Facing Dog, sweat kept running in my eyes. Eww.


Cool-Down: This was a great section. My heart had already cooled down some from doing the slow dance moves and then the Yoga and slower breathing. This section really focused on stretching out the muscles you used and I could feel it! I kept going "Oh oh oh!" during the stretches, it was rather obscene. Lol!

Overall Impression: I loved this video! I will definitely do it again! I think this week I will alternate nights of Richard Simmons and this video just to see how my butt muscles get worked (and to see if it helps with the losing weight!). It's a much more intense workout than Richard so I feel alternating them will really help to work my body.

Like I mentioned before, we haven't been doing Richard so I haven't lost any weight this week. I'm still sitting around 210-214. I really want to weigh 209 or less because then I won't be in the obese category anymore!

The new goals for the upcoming week:
-Walk every day, Run every other day or more
- Richard video every other night
- "Your Best Butt, Fast!" video every other night
- 50 crunches a day
- 15 arm curls with the 10 lb weight, a day
- Eat 400-500 calorie meals, focus especially on cutting back when eating out
- Limit number of snacks (no extras!) and keep calories under 150 per snack!!

Wow it's a lot of work! But I've been kind of slack lately so I need to work extra hard to keep up the weight loss and not let myself get into a rut. It's hard to stay motivated when the scale isn't moving.

I will try to be more accountable about my goals. Every Saturday night, I will start doing a recap of how well I accomplished my goals for the week. I'm hoping this will give me the much needed kick in the pants to jump start more weight loss!

I've rambled enough for tonight. G'night fabulous people!