Progress Report!

It's not "Transformation Tuesday", which I just found out is a thing btw, but it is the 5 week mark and the day of the MS Walk and I have pictures to share!

As you may remember back in the blog Cha-Cha-Changes that I started a 5 week long boot camp style fitness program called Kaia FIT. I also promised to use this blog to hold myself accountable for the changes I needed to make. We made some nutritional changes like no longer having vegetable oil or margarine in the house. I have been cooking nearly every night and going heavy on the veggies and less with the grains. I have even managed to get Chris to go for walks with me and scouted out a 2, 3 and 4 mile route that starts and ends at our door. I tried a new class at my gym every day for a week so I could see the ones I want to stick with and which ones I hate. ( I'll take pie and lattes over Pilates any day thank you.) and I have been working on my cardio by setting up new challenges every time I get on the treadmill.  Like last week I put 5 Britney Spears songs on my iPod and hit shuffle. Every time she told me to "Work bitch " I added 1 mile to my speed (3.5 to 4.5) and jogged until the end of the song. This week I made myself run (4.7) every half mile for  at least 1/10th of a mile. So I did run over 1/2 mile and that's a start :) On 4/17 I timed myself for a 5K. I went as fast as I could walk, slowed as I needed to, and my time was 56:26. I was just glad it was under an hour. However, on 4/25 after I set the new challenges, I timed myself again and came in at 53:03! I still do a 17 minute mile but I'm improving every week. My goal is to run at least 1 mile of the 5k I'm signed up for in June.

I took the photos the same way so I could prove to myself that side by side there is a difference. Also, so I could see the different fit of the same item.

and yes, I have since washed  the hand prints off my mirror :)

 The picture on the left was on 4/26, the picture on the right was taken 3/18.

 The final numbers are 220.3 lbs, so 4.5 lbs lost, and 9.75 inches!

I think the big thing that happened was a kind of restructuring. My "weight" loss wasn't huge because I gained muscles but it's definitely noticeable in my mid section. My clothes are starting to fit differently too. As you can see I have had to find clever ways to ties that bikini top on and get it to stay up. I lost 2" off my bust and 3" off my waist so it's too big now. Plus I can pull the bottoms up much higher then I could before. I think that I will actually need a new bikini for summer :)

Speaking of bikinis, I sent in a photo to The Militant Baker on her Facebook page when she asked for photos of women in their bikinis. Jess Baker, aka The Militant Baker, writes a great blog about body love encouraging ALL women to love their bodies. She is a plus size woman and really encourages women to not feel ashamed and to embrace what they have. I know I am fat but I don't think of fat as a bad word. I always figured if the worst thing someone can say about me is that I am fat, then I must be pretty awesome! My fat doesn't make me feel unpretty, other people do. If we can just accept that it is not our job as women to make other people feel comfortable we will all feel better.  As far as bodies go, it should be our job to make ourselves comfortable. I'm not going to wear long sleeves in the heat because I have big arms and I don't want people to see them because they will think I am gross. I'm going to comfortably wear a tank top and if you don't like it you can leave.  See how that works?  We both just made ourselves more comfortable. Anyway, I sent in her a picture and she used it in a post on Facebook. It really made my day.

These ladies might not be for you, but that is my point. It's about them. They feel pretty and sexy and awesome and that doesn't need to be validated by your opinion.

 And I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Well Angelina, if it's so cool to be fat why are you trying to lose weight?" I'm not trying to lose weight to be skinny and look cute in a swimsuit, as far as I'm concerned I already look cute in my swimsuit. But I felt unhealthy. I felt tired. I had no energy. In the last 5 weeks I have reduced the pain in my hip. My plantar fascitis has gone away. I can stay awake past 9 pm. I'm not afraid of dropping things on the floor because I am not afraid of picking them back up. I don't know these other women. I don't know their life or how they feel, I only know mine. So I'm doing what it takes to make myself more comfortable with myself. See how that works?

Today was the day of the Sacramento MS Walk and I have to thank everyone for their support. We raised $540 this year and this year, walking 3.1 miles was breeze.  I bought a new Wonder Woman shirt and the weather held out for us :)

 MS Walk 2014

And since you know I can't resist taking silly picture... Remember that awesome photo from last year? The one where we walked past the chuch that had a great sign and we snapped the picture I want on my tombstone.

Well they had another message up this year. I took offense to it.

Because who has two thumbs and is special? Clearly I'm pretty special :)

-Angelina

Greetings Earthlings!

Greetings fellow Earthlings!

Tuesday was Earth Day and Chris and I decided to celebrate in style by "driving through the mountains in a hybrid car." ( That's a direct quote from Chris by the way.)

But reality is that Chris and I drove to Reno to have dinner.

It was Tuesday and it was 3:00 and it was a beautiful day here in Sac. I really wanted to take our exercising outside so we could see some Earth. Chris decided we should go to Folsom Lake instead of our usual route so we got in our car and headed east on I-80. As our exit approached he convo went something like this:

C: (reading road sign) Reno 126 miles
A: We could be at the Hash House a Go Go by dinner.
C: Yeah but we are not really dressed for Reno.
A: Ummm... it's Reno. You're kidding right?

He had a point. I was wearing a tank top, some stretchy pants, and my running shoes without a stitch of make up on. My hair was in a  Idontwannadomyhairsoiwilljustbraidit disaster. Chris was wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and running shoes. But he was talking to the girl who wore gold sequined gift shop slippers the entire time we were in Reno last time. (That's a whole other story.) But that was good enough because we cruised right past our exit and headed to Reno!

The drive through the Sierras is always beautiful but it's very dry right now. We are having a horrible drought and the snow levels are practically non existent. I wanted to stop and get some pictures and Chris kept exclaiming that it was 36 degrees and I am a crazy woman. A crazy woman who won in the end.

    

Also, these pictures are the first full body ones I have had taken in a while and I was surprised to see the changes in my landscape. But more of that in the next blog.

At this point Chris was rooting around in his car for extra layers. He found some pajama pants. Weird, right?

We also stopped at a vista point overlooking Donner Lake where we saw some beautiful Earth. The above pictures are unedited but I did use some Picasa filters on the ones below.

Not too shabby Earth. Not too shabby at all.

We arrived in Reno at 5:00! Really it's not awful, some people commute that long to the Bay for work everyday. We went to the Sierra Trading Post store right away. That store is awesome for deals on outdoor wear and gear. I clearly needed a shirt. I found a cheap zip up but we also found one of the most horrid items of clothing ever produced. 

Size 42 French Fry Shorts? Is this necessary? 

You may be wondering why would drive so far to eat at a place called Hash House a Go Go. The hash house is one of the places we LOVED when we lived in Las Vegas. They sell "Twisted Farm Food" which is code for " Giant Fucking Portions" and the food goes beyond gimmicky, it's actually delicious. I know I have included them in the blog before and they have been featured on the Food Network. They have location at Harrah's in Reno and I'm so glad it's not any closer.

 

Buttermilk Biscuits with Honey Butter. As I am trying to be "good" I brought mine home and had it for breakfast the next day.

 Chris almost always gets the same thing. The sage fried chicken. This is the Sage Fried Chicken Benedict. I love there aggressive use of Rosemary as a garnish. Plus they also deep fry angel hair pasta as a garnish. It makes a very lovely plating.

I decided to try something new, The Kokomo Sandwich. I have no idea why it is named that. It was a giant portion on meatloaf, tomato paste,  and mozzarella cheese on white bread with a side of pan fried mashed potatoes topped with slices of bacon and grilled cheddar cheese. I died just looking at it. I finished eating it on Thursday and I didn't even eat the bread!

We really weren't prepared for the drive home though. We left at 7:45 and it was snowing when we got to about 5,000 feet. Several of you received texts stating our last known whereabouts in case something happened. The snow wasn't heavy but it was blowing sideways, the roads were icy and we were in the little car. That car isn't built for any kind of adverse driving condition but we obviously made it. We were home at 10pm. 

This more proof that the best thing about Sacramento is that it is 2 hours from everywhere you want to go. Including home if you get on an airplane. Summer is approaching and I hope some of you will consider a visit down here. We could go to the Hash House! But obviously the countryside is beautiful too. This was a successful Earth Day adventure.

Next blog will be about the MS Walk and my 5 week results from Kaia. I also have a 10 day road trip home in May for Mother's Day. I promise I will have more adventure blogs and less exercise blogs in the future :)

-Angelina

The Dunk Tank

Hola, Amigos!

I've been really busy these last few weeks but I wanted to share with you some cool things that have happened.

I promised you guys full disclosure a long time ago about my health battles so here goes....

On the 7th I underwent Hydrostatic Body Fat Testing. I had never even heard about this technology until recently. They are very very adamant about calling it "the gold standard" for body fat testing so I wasn't sure if I was being fed a line or what. I've always been curious about how accurate BMI charts can be so the opportunity to try something that would be very specific to me appealed to me. Basically they weigh you underwater and with technology given to us by aliens they can determine your fat vs. lean mass as well as your basal metabolic rate.

Here's a video of the process:

 It was quick, it was painless, the guys that administered my test made me feel very comfortable and I got a 4 page print out of whats going on with my body as a souvenir.

I was really prepared to find out that I am over 50% body fat. I mean when you go to the doctor anyone over 40% just gets the >40 on their chart and that has been me for a long time. When they weighed me I rang in at 224.8 and since I'm 5'3" here I am thinking that I should weigh 110lbs. ( I blame the media for that by the way. Stupid TV) . But here's the not-so-skinny:

My body fat came in at 41.4%

The weight of my body fat is 93 lbs!

The weight of my my lean mass ( muscles, tissues, organs etc.) is 131.75!

That's fucking awesome!

It may not sound awesome to you, but what that told me is that the person living inside all of this weighs more than 131 lbs! In fact at a healthy body fat level I would probably weigh 150 to 165 lbs. And that is really encouraging when you are starting over 220. To know that you don't have to lose half of yourself really takes some weight off of your shoulders ( now if it would only take some off my hips...)

I got a print out list of how many pounds I need to loose to bring my self down on the BMI scale. And this is pounds of body fat. Not just pounds on a scale. Let's get serious here. What does a scale really weigh? Everything. So never know if what you see dropping on the scale is adipose fat, muscles, or the really big lunch you had. As I said before I have no numerical goal for my scale weight.I just want to see it dropping even a little at a time. I do know that I don't want to loose any muscle. In fact I wouldn't be upset if I gained muscle, I want to gain muscle. Did I tell you I can do a push ups now? Because I can. And that is because I have been gaining muscle.

I will be able to take this test again in August. Which is perfect because it will give me 4 months to work on my muscles, lose some body fat and that 4 month result is what I will really base my success on. Not how much I weigh on a scale, but how much body fat I have lost. The results also included my resting metabolic rate. This was super informative for me because ( and again I blame the media) you get all this info that makes you think that to lose weight you should eat less and exercise more in a severe fashion. It is true to an extent but there is a point where your body kinda stalls because it gets all fight or flight. My body needs 1795 calories a day just to lay around. That's my resting rate. So if I go to Kaia ( burn 700 cal) and then hit the treadmill ( 350 cal) I am burning 2845 calories. To have a healthy weight loss I should eat 2000- 2300 calories that day, not 1400. I will admit that I have been counting calories with my Fitbit and I average 1700-1900 a day. I am finding it hard to eat more than that too simply because Chris and I are eating a lot healthier and vegetables aren't high calorie foods. To quote a fellow Kaia girl:

"It takes a lot of kale to eat 2300 calories a day."

Now for some less exciting news....

On April 8th I had my 6 month appointment with my Neurologist. We had a good visit and he really applauded the changes I have been making. He is happy to hear that I want to lose fat and gain muscles instead of the ever vague "weight".  In my condition the healthier your body is early, the healthier my body will stay long term. And as I am constantly mentally preparing myself for the day when I will be in a wheelchair, I would really like to be in my 60's or never ever as opposed to sooner. As nice as this appointment was I left it with two more prescriptions and now I am up to 3 pills a day, 4 on Saturdays :( I don't even want to tell you what my new med is for.  It's probably pretty common place but it's super embarrassing because I am not elderly. Let's just say I finally have a condition as a result of having MS and thank God it's not Diabetes.

I'm going to save my final inches lost and weight lost next week after I finish my last week of Kaia. My last class is next Saturday and then Sunday I am walking in the MS Walk with my friend Carmody.

You can donate to Team Emerald Exiles here if you are so inclined. We are $400 away from our goal and I have been walking every day to get ready for this. This years MS Walk is going to be kind of a practice for me as I am signed up to do the Women's Fitness Festival 5K in June and I plan on running at least 1 of those miles.

And I'm going to share this picture.
I should hate the way my stomach looks but I love my niece and the memory too much to care. I got to spend my 32nd birthday with my family last week and it was awesome. Haley had a bit of a rough moment and I will always remember what we were talking about right then. It's a big sister thing :)

Get ready for the big blog next week!

Adios!

Three And A Half Inches

I love Kaia FIT!

It's been two weeks and I have attended 7 of the 8 classes. Unfortunately I was only able to go to 1 Yoga class in the last two weeks. Once, it was cancelled and this week I had family in town. I made it to Kaia but the other days were impossible. I think it's acceptable to skip so I can pick my Mom up at the airport and to go to the ocean instead. We did a long walk at Stinson Beach if that counts :) The day class was cancelled Chris and I drove to the Point Reyes Seashore and walked all over too. I think those count as work outs.

Kaia is hard. That being said I highly recommend it. If you have zero discipline, like me, this is a perfect program. Yes, I totally scoffed when I got the initial email that told me what I should and shouldn't eat ( Nine cups of greens a day? Bitch, please) and I would probably have better results if I followed them but I am getting results and I am happy with them.

Kaia FIT (functional intense training) is a women's only program that is not your traditional gym. The classes are either 5 or 6 weeks, 4 or 5 days a week. You can go constantly, which a lot of women do, or you can go one class at a time. I am enrolled in the Core class, 4 days a week for 5 weeks. Every class is something different, we never do the same thing twice. This is great because it keeps us from getting bored and it works all of your muscles. There isn't anything heavier then a 10 lb. kettle bell in the gym. We do an intense workout of squats, push ups, jacks, more squats, sit ups, squats, burpees followed by squats, take a lap, do some squats, run some lines, do more squats oh and did I mention the SQUATS! Sometimes I come home and have to pee and think to myself, " Not another effin squat! But I really have to pee!" But what's a girl to do? (Squats apparently...)

To quote the great Tai from the greatest movie of my generation, Clueless:

I think about the above every time I finish a set of squats. And while my buns don't feel nothing like steel, I do want to keep doing them. I checked and Kaia is offered in Kitsap County if you want to check it out. I was initially hesitant about a women's only program but this program is super motivating. The coaches are motivating and so far the other women are all really supportive of each other. We sweat, we groan, we fart while doing downward facing dog pose, and no one cares. My class has elderly women, obese women, stick thin women, and really buff women and we are all sweaty and laying on the floor together after 60 minutes. Chris is trying to convince me that what we are doing is basically a super feminized, non intimidating version of CrossFit. I'm not so sure. But I will say that who ever invented the Burpee is an asshole.

I have also made a few purchases. The first being a pair of 2 lb. weights. Laugh all you want but if you hold them while doing the dance routines from Just Dance, your arms will want to fall off. Trust me.

I also bought a FitBit. I am loving it because it is keeping me motivated to keep moving. It's like a game I can play with myself. I park a little further away from the store so I can get in more steps and try to get all my lights to light up. I have set my goal at 3 miles, 10,000 steps a day, and 30 active minutes. I like that it monitors my sleep too. I have tracked that I actually sleep better when it rains outside or I listen to my rain app to fall asleep. I thought this was true but this proves it. You can take this girl out of the Northwest but you can't take the Northwest out of this girl :)

The biggest purchase so far was this morning. After hearing such good reviews we finally went to Fleet Feet Sports in downtown Sac and I was fitted for shoes and inserts.  I can't say enough good things about the staff there. Molly was incredibly helpful and explained a lot of things to me. I told her I have plantar fascitis in my right foot and I needed inserts. It's painful to walk on everyday. In the last three weeks since I haven't been working 90% of my hip pain has gone away. Leading me to believe those damn Shoes for Crews have been trying to kill me all along! But my foot is a whole other story. After a bunch of measurements I was fitted into a beautiful new pair of running shoes, inserts that will keep my feet in line, and inserts for my daily shoes.  Sunday is supposed to be my day off from exercising but I couldn't wait to break them in so Chris and I went on a 2 mile walk this afternoon.  Now I have proper footwear for Kaia ( trainers), wogging ( running shoes), and inserts for my daily shoes.  I also have a question for my runner friends, How important are those synthetic running socks? And why do they cost $10 a pair. I'm not even a full on jogger yet so it seems silly to buy them but are they really necessary or is this just part of the fitness money making machine?

My new shoes: Asics Cumulus 16

Also, wogging is a real thing. http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/born-to-run-walk

Tomorrow I start phase two of my plan: Two a day workouts! In additon to Kaia and Yoga class I am going to go to another class offered at CalFit to see what other classes I like. I plan on attending  a Kickboxing, Water Aerobic, Zumba, Balletone, and a Pilates class this week. I will also be adding more miles to my life this week because I have three weeks until the MS Walk.

So... I bet your still wondering what three and a half inches is?

3.5 inches how much smaller I am than I was two weeks ago! It's just a little bit here and there but two of those inches is off my waist :) I haven't weighed myself either. I feel fatter but I also feel stronger. On the first day of Kaia I was doing lame push ups and on Friday my push ups were way better. I also can sustain a downward facing dog pose which on Day One, I was wobbling all over the place. On Friday I was in plank position hopping both legs forward  and backward instead of stepping them forward individually like I did on Day One.  I am noticing all these little differences and feel accomplished. I wonder what I will be able to do when the 5 weeks are over?

I will be doing the MS Walk that's for sure!

Feel free to donate here: Here Support Team Emerald Exiles for the second year!