Health Heroes!

What does it take to go from a couch potato to a fitness nut? Well, I guess that depends on quite a few factors. For me, I started handling my nutrition and as the weight fell off my energy levels shot up. I started slow, purchasing a Wii for myself and using Just Dance. Then some ladies who follow Jenny Craig along with me encouraged me to try the C25k running program. That was an awesome experience and I was starting to feel the inner fitness nut really crack open... I know, corny.

Then, a tragedy came along. I lost a baby... a part of me I had so longed for and sadly had to say goodbye to much too soon. The motivation I had felt before wasn't quite there anymore. Then I was invited to a hip hop fitness class. Little did I know that it would be in that community where I would find my health heroes.

To Jacque, my first (and dearest) hip hop instructor, I thank you for opening up your class and doing all you can to make all the new people feel like they are somewhat keeping up. A simple left, right, double goes a long way at that first class. You have so much energy and your smile lights up the class.

To BreAnna, thank you for inviting me! Without that invitation I would never have found that class on my own. It took your urging me to push me out of my funk. I was so shy at that first class but little by little I started to open up and join in.

To Jill! You are awesome and you push me to push myself. I feel like we have this friendly competition and we push each other to try more and more. From 6 AM classes, to 2-hour sessions and back to back classes you keep me going. Through the aches and pains and people trying to say we work out too much. We help each other realize when we need rest and you're there to chat and make me laugh.

And of course to Mike Nicholson! You've started an amazing community and I'm so happy to be a part of it. I love learning more and more about your personal story, how you started Mike Nicholson Hip Hop Fitness and how you interweave all your efforts into the larger community. 

You all are my health heroes and I appreciate you so much.

I pray to continue this activity well into my older years. There are so many women, all shapes and sizes that keep coming to classes. When we are willing to join a community we must be willing to share our experiences. I've been reading a link that was shared with me about hip replacements and while I pray I will never need one I do know family members and friends who have gone through the replacement process. I appreciate the American Recall Center for asking me to contribute to their Who Keeps You Healthy Campaign. You can read more here: ARC -- Hip Replacement

The Easter Challenge

I've mentioned before that I am very active on the Jenny Craig forums and we often hold challenges that allow us to set smaller goals and encourage each other along. For our St. Patrick's day challenge I was within two pounds of my goal which I was really proud of.

March 17th through April 20th will be my challenge and I'll update weekly with my progress. I weighed in on March 19th for the start of the challenge at 187.8. I am setting my goal at 179!!!
I also have some non-scale goals:
- Complete c25k through week 7 day 3 (I'm in week 5 right now) but this is weather permitting.
- Go to Hip Hop 4x a week
- Track my whole week of food in advance on myfitnesspal!

I haven't been in the 170's since high school. In order to reach this goal I'm sticking to my calorie goal between 13000-1400. Some events coming up for me during the challenge:

3/14 - 3/16: NYC trip (made it successfully with NO gain... actually a 2+ lb. loss)
3/24: 2 hour Hip Hop class
3/29: Ara's first birthday party (must stay away from cake... I don't love cake but I still will eat it, why?)
3/30: Hosting my first Tastefully Simple party
4/12: My first 5k of the year -- Color Me Rad
EASTER:

I'm sure more things will pop up in between, they always do. Lunches with coworkers, dinners with my family. Some events where I will need to be super careful and other things that will serve to push my further in my weight loss goals. I was following the 365 Day Fit Challenge by Ashley over at Coffe Cake and Cardio I've still been active just about every day but I'm going to challenge myself to instagram it each day! So, instagram friends ... be prepared (@faizayagi)

I encourage you to join me in this Easter Challenge. I'm going to set up a page on Facebook to check in at and let me know how you're doing as well as to update you more on how I'm doing.

The Whoosh Fairy

Saturday's weigh in stunk! I was up on the scale and I faced reality that I wasn't being as disciplined. This week I've been working on staying close to my calorie level and keeping up my workouts (that aspect never dropped out of last week).

Saturday I had two back to back hip hop classes.
Sunday I had hip hop class for one hour.
Monday I went for a jog with my daughter in our neighborhood.
Tuesday one hour hip hop class.

Obviously, I am keeping busy. I've become somewhat addicted to honey almond butter. I bought the single packets and have been using them for breakfast on 2 waffles and then topped with sugar free syrup. It's so filling and sweet and salty. I resolved to not eat out this week but, that did not happen. On a long morning of errands my husband ran us through Arby's. I made it work and I won't lie, it was yummy. I love roast beef and horseradish sauce.

Now that I'm going back to weigh in Wednesdays I was nervous to see where I was at. Well, I was pleasantly surprised:

WOOOO HOOOO!

That would be down 4.8 pounds since Saturday!!! See what staying on track, exercising, getting enough sleep and enough water will do for you? Now, I doubt I'll see this at my weigh in time but I saw it and that's what makes me happy. I know my body fluctuations in and out.

This weekend we're going on a spur of the moment trip to New York City to see my husband's aunt from Niger. I'm really excited! I just need to plan ahead for my car food. I'm thinking Subway will be my BFF. I plan on walking my butt off although my overworked husband doesn't seem to be looking forward to walking all that much.

I will really miss my hip hop classes but I always love a weekend getaway. Getting into the 180's will be even more motivation to stay on point even while in New York.

Weak-ly Weigh In

So at my last weigh in I was surprised to see a loss, right? Well, the gain was just a few days late. It was on the scale in full force 194 lbs... ugh ... up 2.8. No use dwelling on it. There's a ton of factors and you  will always just have to keep pressing on.

Be it that you ate bad OFTEN that week, ran for the first time in over a week leaving with swollen painful muscles, had too much sodium (or ice cream whoops) are nearing your time of the month... etc, etc. There will ALWAYS be reasons but just keeping shrugging off the excuses and thinking of how to better improve yourself.

(That's not us in front of a Chinese restaurant... LOL)

I was stress eating but I could have controlled it. The things that were stressing me out aren't suffering from this weight gain but I am. So, I need to just keep making the best choices FOR ME! I worked out a lot this week and it was awesome. I'm definitely going to be pushing myself more and more. I want to add in some light weights especially to work on my arms. I received my Polar watch on Monday and it's been AWESOME! And my thoughts were confirmed that I was shorting myself calories burned.

This week I got in a 2 hour hip hop class, a 6 AM hip hop class, more hip hop and even an outdoor run! Gosh I missed the sun.

I got out to the store and picked up some new things I wanted to try and even made a good meal for lunch on Friday.

I picked up new salad dressing, horseradish mustard, prepackaged deli meat, sandwich thins and honey almond butter. I can't wait to add some new accents to my meals on my own. 

I am also going back to my Wednesday weigh in. It just felt weird on Saturday so I'll be having a short week.

This week I resolve to:

- not go out to eat this week 

- stay within 1300 calories (not including the unlimited veggies) 

- do hip hop 4x week 

- complete C25K week 5 

- start lifting weights

80 Pounds Down

Well, what a week? Things at work are becoming more steady but the last few days of the week before really left me exhausted and irritated. I stopped figuring out my menu ahead of time and started indulging in the hidden candy stash at work. Then there were the no bake cookies, the peanut butter M&Ms yadda yadda. I ate out too many times and didn't control what I ate. I resigned that this week would fall into the loss column and I'd get a big gain.

Well, I didn't. I still didn't do what I was capable of but I also didn't keep going on the crazy train. I lost 0.6 which puts me at 191.2 (This is my official weekly weigh in) I even managed to see the 180's first thing this morning:

What does that mean? I've lost just over 80 pounds since I started back in September 2012. This picture is terrible quality but it's all I really have.

So, even through the days where I feel like I'm out of control, the fact that I continue to lose weight even during those "bad days" shows that at least I'm learning. I didn't gain and I'm doing enough right to keep things in a downward trend. But this also gives me all the more drive to really make these unhealthy habits the rarity and keep them there. 

Weigh In Weds.... err... Saturday

Pretty much since the beginning of my weight loss journey with Jenny Craig my weigh ins have always been on Wednesdays. I decided to change the day because as office manager I don't always get out right at my lunch time and it was becoming stressful for me. Also, due to my workout schedule I always felt like I was retaining water in muscle soreness the night before my weigh in's. Since moving to Saturday I've been doing well but I've come to the conclusion that I have not been eating enough calories for my much busier exercise schedule.

This week's weight loss was AWESOME!! I was down 2.6 pounds today weighing in at 191.8 pounds

This is actually more exciting to me than hitting onederland the second time. I'm about 5 pounds away from my lowest weight which I hit in June 2013.

This week I was ravenous!!! I was constantly hungry and my normal strategies weren't working. What are my normal strategies to decipher between mental hunger and physical hunger?
1. Drink a 32 oz. mug of water to see if I still fell hungry after
2. Drink some warm broth
3. Eat a string cheese or other low cal. snack to see if my hunger persists
4. Get up and walk around the office and see if I still feel hungry

If I had been at home I would have made some green beans or some other non-starchy veggie to fill the void but these attacks were happening in the middle of my workday. Frankly, I HATE veggies. The ones I have learned to love I only enjoy fresh out of the oven. I'm progressing but it's still hard for me.
I ate this week around 1500/1600 calories a day on average. And that resulted in a much bigger loss than last week when I ate between 1200/1400 calories per day and lost about half a pound. My body was getting thrown into starvation mode and holding onto my weight.

So, I may up my calories on myfitnesspal to 1500. I am nervous about doing it but I think it's what I need. I'm not quite certain that my Up band records my calorie burn as accurately as before. I'm lusting over the polar watch but I don't know enough about them yet. What model would work best for me? Will I wear it and utilize it enough to make it worth the money?... I think so but I'd love to know more so if any of you have one please give me your input.

Maybe I'll put that on my birthday wish list.

C25K Update

I'm back on my training schedule... on what exact schedule I don't know yet... but it felt GREAT to run today. I've been neglecting my c25k for a few reasons.

1) HIP HOP!! It's consuming my exercise life. I like it, I love it, can't get enough of it. The people are great and frankly, it's more fun. My friend Jill wrote me the sweetest card the other day just encouraging me and thanking me for helping to encourage her at the same time. I sat in my car reading it and crying. I was so touched and thankful for meeting these awesome people.

At hip hop in my Color Me Rad 5k shirt!!! Best of both worlds

2) Guilt... not guilt about running but guilt about not spending enough time with Moctar and Henna. Also guilt for always having my parents watch Henna. Yes, I know they love spending time with her but we all have busy schedules. But I also don't want to sacrifice exercising. It's the ultimate stress relief right now and I've come to rely on my daily sessions.

Sometimes Henna goes to hip hop... sometimes Mama then goes crazy... LOL

Who wouldn't want to spend every waking minute with these two??

3) I'd had a horrible cold and was having a hard time breathing through all the congestion.

I was a little nervous going into it today. Week 4 is where the intervals get longer but it was remarkably easy. I didn't look at my phone obsessively trying to figure out how much longer until I could walk. My legs didn't hurt and I wasn't gasping for breath.

Here is my at our hip hop demo tonight:

My 5k is coming up on April 12th. I'm getting more and more excited and scared!! But I'll keep running even if I can only get it in on the weekends. Here is my photo from last October... my first 5k and was the same Color Me Rad that I'll be doing this April. My husband is signed up but I don't know if he'll be able to just due to school to work.