Tough decisions...

I feel so good about today -- and about how motivated I have been lately period! I really am sticking to this, I'm dedicated to my nutrition and eating more often which at first was challenging. Trying to make sure to eat 6x a day isn't easy!

Today was my Biggest Loser weigh in. I did well, her scale reflected my weight loss more or less. I went there around 10:40am so by that point I already had breakfast and drank water etc.. so it only showed a 3lb loss on her scale. I did feel a bit defeated because it sort of made me feel like that 5lbs was taken away.
I spoke to my friend about this and my frustration with the challenge. I didn't lose anything up until this point and the competition is only going till February 2nd. I am not a quitter but she did tell me that if it is something that is going to derail me and take away my motivation to keep going then maybe I should bow out. I am considering it. I know I won't win first prize, I haven't been giving it my all the entire time (the competition started back in November) there are a few ladies who have been just going full steam -- those are the ones who deserve it.

I just struggle with this notion because giving up now to me feels like quitting but yet I know my friend is right, it is pulling me down. I am doing toning and weigh training too which muscle does weigh heavier then fat, so I am focusing on the inches being lost not really the pounds within my workouts, as well as training for the 5K race. I know there are some people who probably are more focused on the pounds for the competition and will only be doing cardio and clean eating for the weight loss.
I'm not an overly competitive person, yes the money would be nice but at the same time I want to be proportionate and I really want to be smaller, the scale doesn't matter at the end of the day. If I can fit into a size 10 at 170lbs or 180lbs what difference does it make?? It's how I look that matters and honestly the money isn't really something that is motivating me, my grand prize is not being fat. So really why am I in this competition??

Some days I do regret signing up at all because I don't really feel like it did a whole lot for me, except for making me feel like I am not alone -- I am not the only person who struggles with emotional eating, and stress eating and temptation. I am not the only person who struggles with being over weight. Which has made me feel a bit better but at the same time what really kicked me into high gear was my friend and neighbor. She keeps me motivated. She encourages me and lifts me up. She challenges me to push myself harder.

Anyway it's definitely a decision I am needing to chew over some more...

I was able to work out with Joelene tonight which was nice. She is such a trooper, I was not expecting it at all. She texted me a workout and I was just asking her about some of the movements and she offered to be my personal trainer tonight instead of my personal trainer/work out buddy. So over I went and to my surprise she was going to do the workouts too!

She put together this amazing workout!
Cardio
3 Burpees
10 Butt Kicks
10  Side Hops (feet together)
10 Mountain Climbers

Main Workout
3 burpees
10 lunges (left leg)
10 butt kicks
10 lunges (right leg)
3 burpees
5 wall push-ups
10 butt kicks
10 cross over punches (with weights in hand)
10 side hops
15 sec plank
10 mountain clumbers
10 shoulder press (with weights)

Then we ended with the same cardio as above. When we finished this workout she asked me if I felt up to doing another round and left it completely in my court. Half of my brain said NO! STOP NOW! but the other half was saying PUSH YOURSELF! YOU CAN DO IT! So I decided to go forward with one more round, I am so glad that I did. Don't get me wrong I was out of breath and sweating but I wasn't dripping with sweat. To me that is my tell tale. If sweat is literally not pouring off my face then I didn't push myself hard enough, it isn't enough to be glistening with sweat and out of breath, you have to push yourself. Make it count.

Also during the workout she originally had the cross over punches with weights and the shoulder press with weights as just an arms move but I remember Miss Jillian Michaels always says you have to work legs in with arms, the big muscles in with the little muscles because arms don't burn enough calories on their own. Seriously she is a broken record about this in almost all of her videos, those of you who have done her workouts, you know what I am talking about. So it is permanently engrained in my head. So I squatted down during all the moves that were only required to be just arms, and so did she. We modified it together. Making small changes to make for a more challenging workout.

After the second round of that we finished with the AB challenge which today was: 15 crunches, 15 leg raises and a 25 second plank. I didn't find it as hard to hold the plank that long tonight as I did last night which is weird because I did still do a total of 18 burpees, plus a 30 second plank (altogether) and the mountain climbers, and the push ups... I really worked my arms and legs tonight so you'd think it would have been more difficult, I guess this is a sign that I am getting stronger.

Sorry I don't have any neat recipes to share today. It was a fairly average day in terms of eating, I still ate super healthy but nothing spectacular. Had a fruit parfait in the morning (the nutella one I think I already shared), then had a banana for my mid-morning snack, a veggie wrap (which by the way I am totally addicted to! and so is my son) for lunch which basically has a couple thin pieces of cheese, mustard, cucumber, red pepper, green pepper, onion and spinach leaves and I had a bowl of cottage cheese with that. For my afternoon snack I had 2 cups of plain jane popcorn, no butter, no salt just the popcorn and left over turkey soup for supper. See nothing fancy.

I am going to have a smoothie for my late night snack after I finish this blog which is already running a bit longer then intended. I do want to say that Joelene made this incredible smoothie for us after our workout using vanilla protein powder, milk and frozen blueberries and ice. It was great! Left me wanting more :)

Tonight I think I will make myself a green smoothie, might have to take a peak at my vitamix smoothie recipe book. Definitely need to use up some of my spinach, and an avocado. Maybe I'll blog about that tomorrow.

Have a good night all!