An End and a Beginning

My 90 day challenge ended a few days ago. I am pleased with my results. Here is my before and after picture:

Good bye baby belly! I feel a lot better in my clothes, and have had more energy. Now I'm ready to start my next 90 day challenge.

Visalus.com, Wal-mart.com, don't remember :)

Recently, I asked my brother, who is a Crossfit Instructor and does some personal training, what exercises 

would recommend that would strengthen and tone my abs after having a baby. (Currently I still have a little muffin top) He recommended using a Kettlebell. He showed me the 'swing' technique and today I took the plunge and purchased one.                                                                                                                                                                                      

I'm also going to make a commitment to do a minimum of 20 burpees a day. (Maybe more as I get going.)

I love the accountability of setting a goal with a specific end point (90 days). If you want to learn more about the challenge, here's a short video:

 I'd love to have people join me! This is the fastest growing health challenge in the country. Last month 82,000 people started the challenge. What are you waiting for?

90 day challenge update

I am almost 2/3 of the way through my challenge! 34 days left!

 

If you didn't read my first post about what I'm doing, here it is:

                                                                 Joining the Challenge

I'm loving this! I make a shake for breakfast that 23 vitamins and minerals in it and it tastes great. The best part? This is "breakfast dishes":

 

Now that I'm done breastfeeding I can eat chocolate so I've started making a chocolate peanut butter shake. Um.... Pretty much amazing! I just use a little peanut butter powder from the Hy-Vee health food section  and cocoa powder mixed with the shake mix.

I'm doing much better with working out. I have a kickboxing DVD that I've done sporadically, but I've decided to start trying to do it three times a week. I learned a great tip while reading a magazine article this week; "Don't let yourself take shower before you do a work out." This has helped me a lot! I got in the three kickboxing workouts this week on top of my walking.

What about you? What is a tip you have learned that helps you be more disciplining with your eating habits or exercising?

90 day challenge update 8/30

I realized due to vacation and other things I haven't posted an update for a couple weeks!

(If you haven't read my first post about starting a 90 day health challenge, you can read about it here )

Things are still going very well. I haven't lost any more weight, but I feel good about where I'm at and I can tell I'm really toning up. Especially in my stomach, which is where I really wanted to target after having a baby. :)

I'm feeling a lot better about how I look in my clothes and I've started wearing belts at my waist again. I'm back in all my old clothes, some that I didn't even fit in before I had C!. That's a great feeling. I've gone down a size since I started my challenge.

Here's to another great week!

90 day challenge update.

If you didn't see it, check out my first post about why and what I'm doing here.

Well, this week was a bit challenging (haha!) because I had a small group dinner at an Italian restaurant, a rehearsal dinner, a wedding, and my nephews birthday party. Not exactly helpful for someone trying to get healthier and lose weight. I did try to make good choices though, to minimize damage.

Biaggi's:
I opted for a lighter option on the menu; fish w/ cous cous.
For dessert: sorbet. (More low cal than their fabulous bread pudding. A couple of friends got that, so I was able to have a bite of theirs.)
In hindsight I should have just skipped buying dessert for myself.

Rehearsal dinner:
I ate one hamburger in a bun and a hot dog without a bun. ( that saves 80-90 calories.)
I had two cake balls for dessert and passed on the brownies.

Wedding:
I had only one pulled pork sandwich, even though they were small.
I filled half of my plate with a green salad and only ate a small handful of chips.
I did have 1 1/2 cupcakes though. 1 would have probably been fine.

Birthday party:
I tried to fill up on the veggie tray and only have a small handful of chips.
I didn't have any cake.

Even though I made some good choices I was a little nervous to see my results this morning. I was happy to see I lost 1 pound when I hopped on the scale today, and a 1/2" off my waist and hips! Not bad.

As for my exercise goals, I did okay with walking. I maybe went 3 times. The burpees.... let's just say I did less than 40 all week. Definitely room for improvement. :)

I love the convenience of taking a shake for breakfast! It's so fast and really streamlines my morning routine. It also creates only two dishes because we have a rocket blender. So all I have to wash is the cup and lid. Nice.

I've been also trying to have more healthy snack foods on hand. Some of my favorites right now are fresh cherries, cubed watermelon, sunflower seeds, all natural fruit leathers, and low fat wheat thins.

The company that I'm doing the challenge through just rolled out that they are no longer offering 100,000 dollars in prizes (Spa, makeovers, free wardrobes, vacations, cash and product giveaways) now they are offering 10 million dollars in prizes for completing the challenge!!! It also used to be that you had to have a big transformation to have a shot at the prizes, but now they have a family category and also a random lottery pick so there are more chances to win!

I would also say this has helped my energy level. There have been as couple evening where I've thought, "I usually am more tired right now."

Excited to see how this week goes since I'll be eating more "normally."

What about you? What are some good choices you make when you're eating out or have a lot of weddings/parties to attend?

Joining the challenge

A few months ago Hubby and I found out about a company called ViSalus promoting a 90 day challenge to getting healthier. The company makes a protein/ nutrition shake mix that can be used in several different ways to reach different health goals. It can be used to;

-Maintain current weight and build muscle
-Gain weight and build muscle (For professional athletes especially.)
-Lose weight 

Hubby completed his first 90 day challenge a couple weeks ago. He lost 22lb and 5" off his waist. I have a little baby weight that's still hanging on, so I'd like to lose a little weight and also build some muscle.



My Goals:
 
Here are my specific goals;
-Get down to 118 lbs (A few pounds over a healthy weight for my height)
-Lose the baby stomach
-See some ab definition

I will be replacing breakfast with a shake. I also plan to try to (continue) walking 1.5 miles 3-4x a week and start doing 40 burpees a day. The cool thing about the shake mix is that it is a basic sweet cream flavor so you can mix it with anything. I've tried some of Hubby's creations and I know these three will be at the top:

Chocolate Almond milk and peanut butter powder(Peanut butter cup)

Orange juice and vanilla (Orange Julius)

Banana and frozen strawberries

Here are my current measurements and weight: (Gah! I can't believe I'm putting these out there, but I guess it's good for accountability.)

Weight: 124
Hips: 38 inches
Natural Waist: 27 1/2"

I'll post the before picture that I took today when I have the after picture to put with it. :) I'll do updates every so often to let you know how it's going.


Here's a short video that explains the challenge a little more from one of the company's founders.

My ViSalus page is here if you want to check it out.