Accountability Photo #1

Friday, July 24, 2009

Let's be honest, I was far too lazy to put a swimsuit on. But, I did take a photo of myself using my camera's self-timer. I am trying to really push myself to finally lose this last 15 pounds and get into better shape, I feel like Phase 1 of my diet was just ridding myself of junk food, amping up the cardio to drop pounds, etc. and now it's time to get into toning & fitness much more.

(sorry it's so blurry, not on purpose, it's just my self-timer skills are quite sub-par). So hopefully as the weeks go by, these pics will get hotter & hotter :)

Gym-Free Workout, Strength Training Edition

In addition to running, I've been doing strength training in my living room. I have minimal supplies - hand weights & an exercise ball - but that's all you really need. I figure I'll go through what I've been doing, one body part at a time.

Abs -

I've been doing a rotation between three kinds of sit-ups - (1) bicycles, (2) sit ups with my legs straight up in the air (for these, I hold a 5 pound weight with both hands, and bring it up to my ankles, then bring it back behind my head, and keep repeating that), and (3) sit ups with my legs held up like in the 3rd pic (better than doing the same thing but with your feet on the ground). I do 10 of each, then repeat this. If you're doing them right, doing 60 will be plenty and your abs will really feel it.

Also, for a good ab stretch, you can do a "superman" - see the pic below (just without the exercise ball of course) - keep your legs & arms above the ground for 5-10 seconds after your ab set.

Happy ab-work-outing :)

Accountability Photos

I've decided that, in addition to tracking my cals, weight, etc. on Fit Day, I'd try to also focus on other factors - in terms of how I look, inches lost, etc. As part of that, I've decided to do weekly photos of myself. That way I feel like I can really see the things I need to work on, changes in my body, etc. I'm going back and forth on doing these in swimsuit form, as that would obviously show the changes best, but yikes, that's scary.

Either way, I am trying not to be 100% focused on having lost or gained X number of pounds, b/c at the end of the day, no one I walk by on the street nows how much I weigh - it's about how I look and feel, and weight is just one indicator of that.

FitDay Fun

Although Weight Watchers has a lot of cool features, FitDay is almost as cool - and, most importantly, free. And I am thinking on focusing on logging my food there to take lot closer look at how much fat, carbs, protein I am getting, as opposed to just looking at "points" or calories. And also, I can save $17/month, lol.

So, in addition to setting weight loss goal, you can set goals like "no more than 50g of Carbs" or "at least 20g of protein." It even tracks how much you're getting of different vitamins.

And when you do a weight loss goal (I want to be X weight by Y day), it will tell you exactly how you need to change your diet to get to that. And since I am trying to allow myself quite a good amount of time to get to my goal weight, it makes me feel better to see I don't need to be drastically reducing calories or anything. And it takes into account your usual lifestyle to show you how many calories you burn, takes away your "calorie restriction" and tells you how much you can eat per day:

And you can also log your activity on there too, including regular daily activities. I love it! Try it at http://www.fitday.com/.