Around Here

Matt and around 60/70 Young Life associate men began today what is being called "Chubbiest Loser". These boys are all vying for the rights of chubbiest loser in the next three and half months.

I am not permitted to post the before picture nor the before weight.
But let's just say it looked something like this:

I kid. I kid.

He is not nearly that big.
But like most people who "meet" with people for a living, nearly every meeting is over a meal or has food somehow involved in it.
So he has a little extra "padding" these days. Who doesn't?

So he, and by he, I mean WE are doing this chubbiest loser project.
It should be something worth reporting on. If nothing else, to share the highs and lows of detoxing from the extra 3500 calories a day that we have been consuming over Christmas.

Already, its only Day 1 and we are STARVING and we have been eating all day long.
Just none of the food involves butter, peanut butter, chocolate chips, powdered sugar or icing. It has been a sad day. Except that we have worked out, eaten a healthy breakfast, vegetables, almonds, hummus, cottage cheese and WATER.

So this is the plan:
Drop soda.
Add exercise. Daily.
Walk Ranger. Daily.
Drink lots of water. Daily.
No more chips. Maybe pretzels if we are desperate. (potatoes make you  more hungry after you eat them and leave you feeling less full. Drop the chips!)
If hungry, grab a handful of nuts or baggie of veggies.
Eat at home. No more eating out for dinner.

First weigh in is in two weeks.
The best part about doing this? You don't really want to sit around if you have nothing to eat.
We are getting stuff done!
Cleaned out the garage.
Laundry is done.
Met some people for work.
Dog is walked.
We have lots of more energy! Who knows how long this is going to last? PRAY FOR US! Join us.

I have started a pin board on pinterest with lots of recipes and inspiration to get you started:
Biggest Loser on Pinterest

Holiday Crunch

During the period from Thanksgiving until Christmas, our YMCA had a promotion called "Holiday Crunch". Basically, get 15 workouts in between the two dates and you get a free t-shirt.

Did I need another t-shirt? No. Did I need a motivator during the biggest eat fest of the year? Absolutely.

So I managed to do it. If you are doing the math, that is a workout pretty much every other day for 30 days. It was pretty hard to make happen, but I was determined and I actually finished up in time to leave for Christmas EARLY, so I worked EXTRA hard. You don't get extra gold stars or anything for that, but I thought I would point it out since this is my blog.

I picked up my shirt this week at the Y and I have to say, I was mightily disappointed. It is really ugly and not a fun shirt at all like I had anticipated. Once again, not because I need another shirt, but if you are GOING to give me a shirt; let's make it one that I will actually wear ok?

But that has given me the push to once again begin publishing songs of the week to add to your ipod or whatever mp3 player you might have to use when working out. Also, I am going to give you some idea of what I do when I work out so that it might help you to change up your routine. I have no idea if this might be helpful or not, but seeing as it is the New Year and some might be the resolving type-perhaps this could help things out.

New Classes to try at your gym:
Spinning-this class is a hard one, But you can adjust to whatever level you want and NO ONE will know it. They usually play fun music and it will kick your butt whenever you don't feel like thinking.

ZUMBA-I have just started going to Zumba and I have had a blast. Typically I hate aerobics classes because I don't feel like they give me much of a workout. I would rather run or something. But this is fun stress reliever and instead of cooling down, I will exit early and go run a mile on the treadmill just to go over the top. It is fun to dance for an hour and learn something new. Every person that reads this blog would have fun at Zumba. I know it.

New/Old Songs of the Week:
November Rain-Guns N Roses: This song is nine minutes long! Start out your run with this song and increase your speed on the treadmill as the beat of the song increases. By the end of the song, you will be flying along, nine minutes into your run AND probably have a mile under your belt already.

Pour Some Sugar on Me-Def Leopard This is a great song to follow up with November Rain to keep the tempo going.

So What-P!NK This song is super cheesy, but it does rock and it'll get your butt moving on the treadmill. Especially if you know P!NK story with her husband/ex-husband.


Push It-Salt-N-Pepa: I know you just laughed out loud. But since I know every word to this song from a cheerleading dance in the fifth grade AND it says the word PUSH IT over and over and over again right about the point when you would rather hit the clear/end button on the treadmill, it will buy you another three and half minutes.

The goal for the week? Get three workouts in by next Saturday.
Can you do it? Do you even want to? Post your thoughts here.

Please note, that ain't my picture. But's pretty funny. It came from the Daily Mail in the UK.