Men invented "girly push-ups" to keep women weak!

That's exactly what MOH Sam said to me as I was about to start doing "girly push-ups" (aka push-ups on your knees instead of in a full push-up/plank position on your toes) this past Saturday.  Mind you, he had already put me through the ringer with a killer Plyometric workout, and he didn't just want me doing normal push-ups, he wanted me to be doing push-ups while balancing on a bosu ball:

Source

Yeah, well, I managed to do 3 real, good form push-ups.  That pretty much sucks.  And you know what, I've been complaining about not feeling like my upper body is getting any stronger even though I workout all the time.  Maybe it's because I'm cheating myself (using lighter weights then I should, doing girl push-ups instead of regular ones, etc.).  So now I'm determined to get better.  Not at bosu ball push-ups (mainly because I don't have a bosu ball at home) but at regular push-ups.

So, I'm going to start the Hundred Push Up Training Program this evening:

Source

Basically this is a 6 week program that *supposedly* by the end of 6 weeks of doing their push up workouts 3 times a week (each week is outlined for you on the site) you'll be able to do 100 real push-ups consecutively.  Tonight I'll do the "Initial Test" to see where I'm at, and we'll go from there.  I'll be sure to let you all know how the initial test goes, although I'm sure it won't be pretty as I've gotten pretty damn used to doing "girly push-ups."

Anyone want to start the program with me?  I'm not gonna lie, I could definitely use the support...

A Day in the Life of My Digestive System

One of the cool parts of having been on Weight Watchers and tracking quite diligently is that I can look back in my little diary and see everything I've eaten in the past few months!  During the week my diet has become pretty standardized.  But, since I've reached goal, I've been having trouble stopping losing weight.  This is a problem; I dropped significantly below what Weight Watchers considered a "healthy" weight for my height even though I wasn't trying to.  This past weekend, I'm pretty sure what I did in order to increase my weight should be considered cheating; I binged the night before (cheeseburger, french fries, movie theater popcorn, candy, Icee) and although I usually don't eat or drink anything before my weigh-in, I ate my parfait, drank my coffee and drank 2 bottles of water.  I also tried to not go to the bathroom.  I ended up weighing in at 131.2, which is still technically below what they consider "healthy" but only by .8 pounds, so it was an improvement.

So, I talked to my leader about what I could do to stop my weight loss (and explained to her that cutting out any exercise just wasn't an option for me, I feel and look great, and I'm not giving that up).  She went over my food diary and recommended that I up the amount of Kashi in my parfait from 1/2 cup to 1 cup and I add something to my lunch.

Well, here is a day in the life of my digestive system (and I'll be sure to note what is new to my "maintenance plan"):

• Coffee: Any brand coffee with 1 tbsp of creamer - 1 point
• I have one cup of coffee a day.  Apart from that I basically just drink water.  I have no problem sacrificing a point to have yummy coffee by adding a tablespoon of chocolate creamer to it.
• Breakfast: Yummy Yummy Parfait - 4 points
• Today I tried upping the amount of Granola and it was gross, I'm never doing that again. I'll have to find somewhere else in my day to squeeze in a few extra points.
• This is the ideal breakfast.  There's dairy and fiber in the greek yogurt, all the goodness of the fruit you add, and Kashi is an excellent source not only of fiber, but also protein.  It fills you up and tastes delicious.
• Mid-morning snack: Fruit Salad - 0 points
• Usually between 2 and 3 cups mixed of grapes, a kind of melon, and berries.  I nibble on it throughout the morning and fruit is free!
• Lunch: Lean Cuisine - anywhere from 4 to 8 points
• I try to stick to the "Spa Cuisine" line because that uses whole wheat pasta, etc. and less sodium, but sometimes I can't turn down the "Comfort Cuisine" line.  I really just love lean cuisines.  They're cheap, they're easy, and personally I think they're delicious!
• Lunch Addition***: Boca Burger - 4 points total
• My first shot at an addition to my lunch seems to be successful.  I brought a boca burger to heat up in the microwave and a Pepperidge Farm Deli Flat to put it on.  More specifically I had the mushroomy Boca Burger on a 7-Grain deli flat (each of those are 2 points).  I realize not everyone will like this, but I thought it was delicious.  It was also not the first time I had a veggie burger, so it may be an acquired taste.  Don't yell at me if you try it and hate it.
• Afternoon snack: Wheat Thins and Laughing Cow Cheese - 3 points
• I bring 8 wheat thins and 1 wedge of cheese to work for a snack every day.  I prefer the "Fiber Selects Garden Vegetable" wheat thins and the "Mozzarella, Sun Dried Tomato & Basil" laughing cow.
• Dinner:  Any recipe from Weight Watchers eTools - I aim for around 10 points
• I have yet to find a recipe that I don't like on eTools.  I plan out what I'm going to make on Sunday before we go grocery shopping and it actually makes my whole week just easier.  My fiance also LOVES the weight watchers recipes.  He loves even more that I'm constantly making new things.
• Dessert: Weight Watchers Ice Cream - 4 points
• My absolute favorite is the ice cream sandwich with mint ice cream in it.  I love them.  I don't know what I would do without them.  The fiance IS NOT allowed to touch them...because they're mine.  If you haven't tried these yet, I totally recommend you do.

This new addition to my daily menu has made my already hectic mornings a little crazier, but I'm sure soon enough it'll just become a habit like everything else I do to get ready.

This is of course just an "average" day.  Sometimes we'll go out for lunch or dinner and if I go over my points I just use some of my weeklies.  If I workout really hard I try to drink a Muscle Milk Light to use up some of my Activity Points unless I know there's something I'll be using them for later in the week.

So, have you found that your eating habits have become almost a routine after joining Weight Watchers?  Do you have any tips on how I could add more (healthy) points to my breakfast or lunch?

Introducing Man-of-Honor Sam...

Sam and I met my Sophomore year at college when the new gym on campus opened and we both worked there part time.  We both worked the closing shift on Friday nights, and as you can imagine there weren't very many college students working out on Friday nights so the Friday night crew had lots of fun.  I think it's safe to say we didn't start regularly hanging out outside of work until I turned 21, but that may be a lie (it's all a blur).  Needless to say, he's my best friend and I can't imagine my life, never mind my wedding, without him.

In the time that I've known Sam he has given up on his graduate degree because working at the gym rekindled his love for fitness and he is now what I call a "fitness professional."  He teaches aerobics classes, he does personal training, Sam's life = fitness!  And yesterday I got to workout with him.

Let me preface this by saying I'm very sore today.  Workout DVDs are great and all, but they don't compare to someone looking at you and saying "if you're gonna throw up, go throw up, if not, let's get back to work."  And yes, I did almost throw up, I came very, very close to throwing up because Sam had me doing plyometrics.  And as Sam reminded me after I almost threw up, "plyo makes professional football players throw-up" so it was completely justified that I was working myself that hard.

Anyways, he had me do 8 different exercise.  First I did each for 90 seconds with a like 45 second break in between.  Then I did each for 60 seconds with like 30 second break in between.  And then I did each for 20 seconds without a break in between at all (this is much harder then it sounds).  Then, because almost throwing up wasn't enough, he had me do push-ups and pull-ups and squat presses.

First exercise: Chest Pass

This was done with a 10 pound medicine ball.  You just throw it, from your chest, at the trampoline, and although you shouldn't really "catch" it as it comes back, you should just cradle it and push it back to the trampoline again.

Exercise 2: Stepping and Jumping on a Box (I don't actually remember what this was called, but it sucked)

For this you just step up onto the box with foot one, then jump to switch feet on the box, and land with foot 2 on the box and repeat.

Exercise 3: Kettlebell Swing

This was done with a 20 pound kettlebell.  You start squatting with the kettlebell between your legs, then use your whole body to swing it above your head and stop with it above your head, then swing it back between your legs.

Exercise 4: Jump and Flop like a Fish (again, I don't remember exactly what this is called, but the name I gave it is quite descriptive)

You jump up in the air and go straight to the ground and lay completely down letting your arms slap the ground behind you then get up and do it again.  Flop like a fish...  Oh, and your arms should stay above you the whole time in between jumping and slapping the ground, don't put them in front of you.

Exercise 5: Medicine Ball Throwing Sit Up

For this we used a 6 pound medicine ball and you basically did a sit up keeping the medicine ball above your head, then when you were sitting you threw the medicine ball against the ground and caught it as it bounced back up and started again.

Exercise 6: Kettlebell Side Taps

For these I stood on a Bosu ball with a 12 pound kettlebell and twisted from one side to the other bending over to tap the kettlebell against either side of the base of the bosu.  These sucked because you really needed to balance well, but they didn't make me want to throw up, which was nice.

Exercise 7: Death (yes, that's what I'm calling this, second runner up for name would be vomit)

All you have to do for this one is jump up on the box with both feet landing flat on the top, then step down.  But this is the one that nearly made me vomit.  It is not fun.  And not easy.  But hey, if it were easy to workout everyone would be in perfect shape, right?

Exercise 8: Overhead Toss

For this we used a 10 pound medicine ball and just threw it as high in the air as we could and then caught it.  You don't have to squat or anything, but you can bend your knees to help throw/catch it.  I was afraid I was going to break my nose, but don't worry I didn't.  And you have to be careful to use both arms equally, don't favor one side or the other, keep it in the middle.

So there you have it, my killer plyometric workout.  I know not everyone will have access to all this equipment, but if you do, try the workout sometime!  It's a killer, but if Sam says it'll help me get Kelly Rippa arms, Gwen Stefani abs, and Pussycat Doll legs, I believe him.

PS - all of these are personal photos.  I really enjoyed getting to use the "Continuous Motion" setting on my new camera.  I did not enjoy sorting through the ba-jillion pictures it took to decide which ones to use.  And Sam was my model for two reasons.  One, by the time I remembered I wanted to take pictures for the blog, I was half dead and there was no way anyone was photographing me.  And two, Sam has better form then I do (yeah, he's a fitness professional) so I figured it would be better for him to demonstrate.

Anyone else have a really good workout this weekend?

My favorite edible part of my day!

Yummy Yummy Parfait:

All you need to make yummy yummy parfait (which happens to be 4 PointsPlus for Weight Watchers) is fat free greek yogurt, fruit, and granola.  My favorites are:

Fage Fat Free Greek Yogurt

• Banana
• A mix of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries



Kashi GoLEAN Crunch! Honey Almond Flax

And all you have to do is layer 1/2 cup of the yogurt, approximately 1/2 cup of the berries (though adding more or less won't affect the points value because fruit is FREE), half the banana (any more then that and there's too much banana), and half a cup of the granola!  Et voila:

Personal Photo

Then you mush it all together and get:

Personal Photo

AND IT IS DELICIOUS!!!!

I eat this almost every single day.  Usually not Sundays, but that's because on Sunday's I usually make breakfast for the fi and I.

Try it, lemme know if you love it as much as I do!!!

My Hectic Mornings

So, I didn't work out last night, and thus have nothing to share with you fitness wise.  I didn't work on any wedding stuff either (big surprise there) so nothing to share with you wedding wise.  I did go to puppy class, but I'm disappointed with my youngest (Tyson) so I don't really want to talk about the dogs.  Instead, you all get to read about the crazy that is my weekday mornings...

Fi and I get up around the same time (6 am) I roll around in bed trying to wake up while he goes and feeds the dogs.  And luckily I shower at night and he showers in the morning because we only have one bathroom!  By the time he gets in the shower I roll out of bed and go to brush my teeth, floss, swish, wash my face.  Some days I'm really awesome about doing my hair really well, other days I'm not so awesome.  Today I was not so awesome, but that's just because I'm getting my hair cut during my lunch today (praise Buddha - my roots are outrageous right now), so why would I do my hair just to have it done for me in a few hours???

Then I get dressed, do the make up thing, and mosey down to the kitchen and this is when my morning gets exciting.  At this point I have not had my cup of coffee yet (I like to enjoy it on my way to work, not suck it down at home) so I have to be very careful to not forget anything.  Because if I do forget to do one of the next few things, I end up having a very bad day because I don't like to f*ck with my routine.

• I create my parfait (I'll totally give you the "recipe" for this later, because it is my favorite edible part of my day).  This takes between 5 and 7 minutes.
• I make my fruit salad.  This takes like 2 minutes and will be eaten throughout the morning:

Yummy Yummy fruit - personal photo

• I put all that stuff away.
• I get 8 crackers and put them in a sandwich baggy.  These are part of my afternoon snack.



These are my favorite

• I grab a wedge of laughing cow cheese from the fridge.



Seriously if you like cheese and you haven't tried this stuff, you should...

• I grab my lean cuisine
• I get a bottle of water out of the cabinet, open it and go take my pills out of my old lady pill box.  Not my vitamins, my meds, but that's a different post for a different day.
• I then gather up the parfait, fruit salad, crackers, cheese, lean cuisine, and bottle of water and put it in my reusable grocery bag along with my work shoes for that day.  I cannot express to you in words how depressing it is to get to work and realize I forgot one of those things.  It throws my entire life out of balance.

I am lucky enough to have the sweetest fiance ever who makes my coffee and puts the one tablespoon of creamer that I like in it so once I have my life packed up (and I remember to put my weight watchers power pack into my work bag - I can live without it, but it makes for a very cranky day) my routine continues...

• Put on boots
• Put on scarf
• Put on hat (this is much easier during the warm months)
• Put on coat
• Put ipod and phone in right coat pocket
• Put keys and ID (which has my bus pass attached to it) in my left pocket
• Double check everything is in the appropriate pocket
• Triple check everything is in the appropriate pocket (seriously - these are things I CANNOT live without)

Then we crate the dogs and head out to the garage.  On lovely mornings such as this one we have to shovel (booooooo) but at least we have a garage and don't need to clean off the car.

Fi works down in Station Square (it's a really weird touristy mall {stores such as "The Sock Shop"} that also happens to have like 7 stories of offices there) so I drive down with him (and drink my coffee) then we part ways and say goodbye and give a quick kiss at the exact same spot every day and I walk through the weird mall out to the T station on the other side.  I could just take the bus down to work in the morning, but a) I like the peaceful time with my fi and b) the T is much more reliable then a bus.

So then I take the T into downtown and go to work and that's where I am now.  I am justifying blogging while at work by saying that I've done the work of like 5 people all week, I'm allowed to spare a half hour and write a blog entry!!!

Fi thinks it's amazing that it is very rare for me to forget any of those steps in my morning, because he can barely remember to grab his lunch that he packed the night before out of the fridge.  But, I'm a creature of habit, and this routine works for me!

Do you have a morning routine?  Is it as scheduled as mine is?  Does it ruin your entire day if your morning doesn't go the way you want it to (because seriously, it's nearly impossible to bounce back from a bad morning experience for me)?

Happy Friday!!!

It really did turn my pee neon color!!!

So, I've been working out quite a bit.  And despite the fact that I'm only 22, I swear I have the body of an 80 year old lady.  I'm almost positive eventually I'll have arthritis, I have chronic back problems, my hips can literally pop out of their sockets....you get the picture.

Well, working out quite a bit has made my joints angry.  Everything pops or creaks or explodes while I'm working out.  Yes, I warm up.  Yes, I stretch.  No, I'm not working harder then I should.  I just have an old lady body.

So I figured there's probably a vitamin or supplement out there that could help me.  Currently, I'm only taking a multi-vitamin for "healthy hair, skin, and nails" and I'm not opposed to switching it up.  Seeing that I live in Pittsburgh, I surfed on over to gnc.com and started researching (GNC is based out of Pittsburgh in case you didn't know). 

Best case scenario...I would find something that supposedly improves my joints, helps my hair/skin/and nails, and does not have caffeine or the like in it (I do not need something else keeping me up at night).  And yatzee, I found this one:

(found on gnc.com)

I read reviews like it was my job.  Most people seemed to like it.  Some of the biggest complaints were:

1. It gives you fishy burps
1. I don't really care - it wouldn't be the first (or the last) time my burp tastes like fish
2. It upset your stomach
1. Well, I'll have to try it out to see
3. It turns your pee a neon color
1. Seriously?  First of all, is that really a bad thing...is it hurting you to have a different color pee?  Does this even actually occur?
4. It's expensive
1. This is something I'm willing to spend money on - I really don't want to have old lady joints.

So, this morning after I got off the T I headed over to one of the many GNCs that are downtown and guess what...it's on sale!  It's a sign from the heavens, I am meant to be on this vitapak (as they call it).  So obviously I bought 2 boxes (what, it was buy one get one 50% off!) and headed to work.

I eat my breakfast (yummyyummy parfait) at work, so after I finished I took down all 8 of those suckers (yes, there are 8 pills you have to take every day).  An hour or so passes, no upset stomach...no fishy burps.  Seems like this really was made for me!  Well, about 20 minutes ago I went to the bathroom and guess what MY PEE REALLY IS NEON COLORED!!!!

Now, this is by no means a deal breaker, and I'll get back to you all on whether I think it actually does anything, but I just found it really hilarious that my pee is neon colored.  I was almost tempted to take a picture, then decided that would be weird.

In case you aren't a member of the Hive...Part 3

What Worked for Me Part 2 - My Weight Watchers Advice!

So, the first segment of what worked for me was all about my fitness routine!  And I told fi about the great response that I was getting from the hive based off that post (and how great it made me feel) and he reminded me that I was working out just as hard, if not harder, before I joined weight watchers with no results.  So, I want to give my little bit of advice for people joining (or current members of) Weight Watchers!

Obviously they give you the plan.  And the more you embrace the changes that the plan requires of you the better results you will see.  I've said this before, and I'll say it again, I had a complete diet overhaul when I started.  What I mean is I basically changed everything I was eating.  I didn't just change the portion size of what I was eating before, I became a million times healthier.

A tip I have since Points Plus has started - prep all your fruits and veggies that you buy the day you buy them.  I actually put mine in those green tupperwares that supposedly keep produce fresh longer.  When you get home from work/school/the gym the last thing you want to be doing is cutting up a melon.  If you take care of it ahead of time it's a lot easier to snack healthy.

And finally I will walk you through what I like to call my Weight Watchers Power Pack.  I decided I needed to have all the tools available to me wherever I was when the plan changed and I could no longer just look at the nutritional facts and get a general sense of what the points value would be.  So I literally carry this around with me almost everywhere:

I got the green faux-crock bag from Marshall's.  It actually came in this whole laptop bag kit that I now use as my laptop bag for work.  The lime green looks pretty sweet with my dark purple jacket, I'm not gonna lie!

My lovely little green bag also happened to have loops on either side of the zipper that I was able to attach my 10% goal key chain (you get this when you hit your 10% goal if you go to meetings) and then I put my Goal Star (you get this when you hit your ultimate goal) on the keyring.  Eventually I'll get the Key (which you get when you maintain your goal for 6 weeks and are officially a lifetime member) and my Stay and Succeed (which you get after attending 16 meetings) on the key ring as well.

This is everything that I keep inside my lovely green weight watchers kit.  In my opinion, the Dining Out Companion and the Complete Food Companion are A MUST for any weight watcher!  Dining out has a bunch of chain restaurants and the points values for their menus and complete food companion has the points values for ANYTHING YOU CAN IMAGINE!  The pocket guide they give you at your first meeting and will go over it with you at your first meeting.  The points plus calculator you also have to buy, but is really useful if you have the nutrition facts and need to find out the points value.  You plug in the protein, fiber, carbs, and fat and it tells you how many points it is!  It can also be used as a regular calculator.  I have 4 colored pens because I love color coding.  I keep a copy of my before and after pictures in there for motivation (before I met goal it was just a copy of my before pictures).  And although you can buy a food diary from Weight Watchers, I just got a little notebook from Walmart to use so I could use it my way...

I am a young person (22), I use the internet for everything, I have a smart phone, but I still feel like actually writing what I eat down works better for me then using e-tools to track my points each day.  I like being able to hold this in my hand and flip through it if I need to check something.  Green is the date, pink is the number of weekly points I have left, purple is how many Activity Points I have left and I use purple to input my exercise, blue is the food I eat.  I add up everything that I eat and I total that at the bottom, if it is over my daily points allowance I adjust my weeklies/activity points the next day.  Oh yeah, on weigh in day, since I won't have any Activity Points accumulated yet (they reset each week) I put my weight for that week in that spot in purple.
And finally...

I had extra save the dates, and since my initial motivation to join was the wedding, I glued one on the back of my notebook as a constant reminder of why I was doing this.

So, just like "What Worked for Me" part one, that is a TON of information, and I'm sure I missed something along the way.  If you have any questions/suggestions feel free to add to them!

*All personal photos*

In case you aren't a member of the Hive...Part 2!

What worked for me...

First of all, I tried to workout at least 4 times a week.  Sometimes life got in the way (for instance, when Fi's Grandfather died) but I really tried my best to get 4 workouts in.  There was more then one week where I did some form of exercise every day, although I wasn't killing myself everyday!  You have to give your body time to heal in between hard workouts!  I workout anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half.  Usually though, my workouts are about 45 minutes.
A normal week for me went like this:

• Sunday - resistance training
• Monday - easy/short day (who wants to workout on Mondays???)
• Tuesday - resistance training
• Wednesday - hardcore cardio
• Thursday - resistance training
• Friday - I didn't always workout on Fridays, when I did, it was whatever I was in the mood for, generally cardio
• Saturday - off, but I like to do some yoga before going to my meeting to get my blood flowing a little bit.  I'm a fan of Kundalini yoga, I find it relaxing (I don't really consider it to be "exercise" though)

These are the supplies that I have:

• Yoga mat
• Hand weights - 1, 3, 5, and 8 pound sets
• Kettlebells - 5 and 10 pound (I would like to invest in a 20 pound as well)
• Resistance Bands, but I don't use them much
• Mini Balance Ball, but I don't use this much

These are the DVDs that I have:

• Cardio
  • I have 3 Insanity workouts that I got from a friend of mine
    • These really are insane - this is usually my killer cardio workout for the week.  The whole system is pretty pricey though (and super intense) so personally I wouldn't buy it, but if someone wants to give you a few for free, I wouldn't turn them down either!
  • Jillian Michael's "Banish Fat Boost Metabolism"
    • I can't say I love it, but I think if you didn't want to buy that many DVDs it would be great to get this and No More Trouble Zones and rotate between the two
  • Amy Bento: Kickbox Xtreme Workout 
    • This DVD is tough, not just because the workout is hard, but the choreography is really quick.  If you don't have a history of dance or something similar, I would not recommend this DVD, I think it could be frustrating.  But if you have experience with complex choreography or kickboxing, it is really fun!
• Resistance
  • Jillian Michael's "No More Trouble Zones"
    • I love this workout, especially the ab circuit.  I attribute my absurdly defined obliques to this DVD
  • Jari Love: Get Extremely Ripped!
    • Another DVD that I love.  Jari is kind of obnoxious, but I was doing Jillian DVDs like every day, and if I heard "Don't phone it in" (anyone who does a Jillian workout regularly can probably relate, lol) one more time I was going to lose my mind, so I decided to get a DVD with a different trainer.  This workout is KILLER
  • Power Body: Kettlebell Bootcamp with Angie Miller (kettle bell)
    • Mleh - don't really recommend it.  It is a good workout, but it's kind of boring and the trainer has this cheesy smile plastered on her face the ENTIRE workout
  • Amy Bento: Kettlebell Dynamics
    • This is a much better kettlebell DVD.  And I really like the music in it, which helps make it more interesting.
• Combo
  • Jillian Michael's "30 Day Shred"
    • If you haven't heard about this, you must live under a rock, lol.  I like it for if I don't have the motivation to do a full workout but want to squeeze something in.  I wouldn't do it for 30 days straight like you're supposed to though.
• Yoga
  • Yoga Quick Fixes - Ana Brett & Ravi Singh
    • LOVE THIS!  If you've never done Kundalini though, research it a bit before taking the plunge to buy the DVD.  Kundalini focuses a lot on meditation and breathing, which is why I really don't consider this "exercise", more of "me time" haha.
• Pilates
  • Stott Pilates with Flex Bands - got from Marshalls, can't remember what it's actually called to give you a link
    • I rarely use this, it is super boring.  That's what I get for buying a workout DVD at Marshalls though.
  • Stott Pilates with Mini Balance Ball - again, I got it at Marshall's
    • Again, super boring

I also bought myself a few more DVDs (Merry Christmas to Me) that I'm still waiting to receive, and I'll let you all know if I like them after I try them.  They are:

• Kundalini Yoga Cardio, Stretch, & Strengthen - ALL LEVELS - Ana Brett and Ravi Singh
• The Firm: Get Chisel'd
• 10 Minute Solution: 5 Day Get Fit Mix
• 10 Minute Solution: Knockout Body Workout Kit w/Weighted Gloves (2009)

I also sometimes watch fitness videos on demand through Netflix.  Last night I did a half hour of pilates from the 10 minute solution pilates video which was available on Netflix and I really liked the Ab segment.

A great place to find workout equipment is Marshall's and TJ Maxx - that's where I got my kettlebells for a STEAL!

Okay, so that's a TON of information, and I'm sure I missed something along the way.  If you have any questions, just ask!

And, just as an FYI, you DO NOT need to invest in this many DVDs.  You don't need to spend a lot of money in order to get a good exercise regimen in place, I just have workout ADD so the more options I have the more likely I am to workout!

And I'll wrap this up with a little inspirational quote:
No matter who you are, no matter what you do,
you absolutely, positively do have the power to change.
-Bill Phillips

Happy exercising!

In case you aren't a fellow member of the hive...Part 1

Like I said, for now I'm sticking to fitness/healthy lifestyle.  When I get out of my little wedding slump, I can almost promise you it will be all DIY all the time, haha.

But, in case you are not a weddingbee member (though I doubt it) I'm going to take some of my posts from the Bee and throw them here.  The bottom line is, I am damn proud of my self for the healthy lifestyle changes that I've undergone and I want to scream it from a mountain top!

Part 1 = GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL

After 8 weeks on weight watchers (I know it wasn't that long) I reached my goal weight of 132 pounds.  It really has been a life changing experience for me...I feel so much lighter, and more awake, and just plain healthier.  Wednesday I ran 6.5 miles for the first time since high school!

My leader thinks I should apply to be a leader, and I think I might.  I really feel great, and I've been able to say I'm proud of what I've accomplished for the first time in a long time.  And I think this might be the first time ever I feel comfortable in my own skin.

Before Pictures (weighing in at 147.2):

My journey went as follows:
10/23 - 147.2
10/30 - 142.8
11/6 - 139.2
11/13 - 139.6 (that was the week fi's grandfather died, I don't know how I didn't gain more then that!)
11/20 - 136.2
11/27 - 135
12/4 - 132.2 (so close, but not quite there, this is when I got my 10% though!)
12/11 - 132 exactly!

And drum roll please....weighing in at 132 pounds:

And I just can't help myself....

So there you have it, the transformation of MandaMack!

*All personal photos*

I'm a bad bad blogger...

Honestly, I suck at blogging. I do. I didn't even realize I had followers, never mind comments (thanks you guys!!!) I blame weddingbee for my inability to blog regularly; I get everything I need to get out there!

And seriously, the prospect of trying to recap everything I've already done kind of makes me want to gag. I'm currently coming out of a wedding slump. At first I loved planning...I was born to do it! Now I just feeling like I'm writing checks, feeling poor, and counting down the days to my honeymoon.

The only reason why I even logged on was because I was considering starting a new blog about fitness/healthy lifestyle (mind you at one point I wanted to start a blog about my dogs, haha) and then I noticed I had followers, which was AWESOME!

So, 9 . 10 . 11 Bride might just undergo a name change and makeover and just be about my life (which includes dogs, weddings, and fitness/healthy living). If there's anything from my last post that you were just dying to read about either leave a comment (I still can't believe people actually read this, haha) or go look at my Weddingbee profile...I promise it's all there.

For now though, to save my sanity and prevent me from calling off my wedding and eloping, I'm sticking to chatting about fitness/healthy living, because that's where my head is at. I'm banking on the fact that my head will get back into wedding stuff, because I have A LOT of stuff to do, but if it doesn't at least I have a really pretty dress and rockin' venue! (hehehehe)