Monday: 2055 calories

3 dance workouts today - 766, 454 and 835 calories burned (the 835 is my highest for a 60 minute class!) - so we're at 2055 for the week!

I overdid it a little today because I know it'll be a challenge to get a class in each day for the rest of the week - but I'm going to try!

New goal for the week: 7000 calories burned

Trying something different - I'm only weighing myself on Wednesdays (the day I always record my weight, back from the ol' Weight Watchers weigh-ins). So instead of focusing on my weight, I'm focusing on something I can actually impact: exercise. I joined 24 Hour Fitness last week, and made it to several classes.

This week, my goal is to burn 7,000 calories in classes (according to my heart rate monitor). Of course, if you do the basic math, that *should* result in a two pound weight loss, too (3500 calories = 1 pound). I'm going to also go back to tracking what I eat in sparkpeople.com - I'm sure my calories consumed have been out of whack lately.

Today is Monday, and I've gone to two classes this morning already! ;) 766 in one and 454 in another - 1,220 to start! Woo!

Augh!

I'm such a bad blogger - sorry! I have gotten just so very frustrated with my lack of weight loss. I don't want to update the numbers on the side of my blog here, but safe to say, I'm at my highest weight in 4 years. And I'm hosting a weekend-long party at my house in a couple days, so that number will undoubtedly edge higher. This month was tough with a lot of time visiting relatives out of state, which threw off my workouts and of course the food was not-so-healthy.

August is the month of weight loss, right? Ahem.

Still working out - doing Zumba or other dance classes several times a week. Did a great pilates class today and will go to another at that studio next week. Trying to use my weights at home twice a week as well. I need to figure out good leg-muscle-building exercises, too. I plan to join my local 24 Hour Fitness early next month and then spend a lot of time there. ;) Diet is going to get strict again after this weekend.

Hope all of you out in blog-land are doing well. Say hi some time. ;)

Workin' it out

I made twelve days in a row of hitting up Zumba workouts - go me! On day 13, I took a water fitness class instead, and then yesterday I went for a long walk. Today, I hit up a combo Zumba/kickboxing class that was very fast-paced (my heart rate monitor was sky-high).

I'm loving the Zumba classes and such, but my 30-day trial membership is coming to a close. If anyone out there in blogger-land knows of a way to get a discounted membership to Club One, I'd love to hear it! ;) It kills me that it's so much more expensive than all the other local gyms - there's a deal at Costco for 24 Hour Fitness for $12.50 a month! Are you kidding me?! Even Bally's is under $30. Club One is $90. Ouch. I really want to join, but I can't swing that pricing with my unemployment status. Glarghen.

Working out all that much has got to be good, somehow - even though my weight isn't budging. Grrrr. I'm going to try to cut out wheat for the week and see how it helps things.

still keepin' on

Tiny goal #1 was only met for a day. ;) Oy. My weight, why do you hate me! Good news is that today, a week later, I'm only up 0.6 pounds from there - it had been 3 pounds at one point this weekend.

I was indeed ridiculously sore from that weight class last Wednesday - it hurt like hell to move on Thursday... Friday... Saturday... ;) I did make it the "gentle yoga" class on Thursday which was a good stretch, but then I spent a half hour on a treadmill at a steep incline, because apparently I hate myself. I did my zumba/water fitness combo on Friday and that felt good, even though I lumbered through both of those classes with less grace than normal. ;)

Monday, I did zumba, yesterday I did pilates and then zumba, and today, guess what I'll be doing tonight? ;) Zumba! I am digging it. I'm hoping to catch another zumba tomorrow, and then my zumba/water fitness combo on Friday (a full zumba class then I quickly change into my bathing suit and take a water fitness class).

Hopefully the weight will start to come off with all this cardio! ;)

First tiny goal met!

Last week I posted two goals:

First tiny goal: get back to the weight I was on 5/1: 3.8 pounds less than today
Second tiny goal: get back to the weight I was on my birthday: 8.4 pounds less than 5/1

Well, today I hit that first tiny goal! HOORAY! It's just a start (a small little start), but a start nonetheless. I have some weight-loss-challenges coming up this weekend - dinner out on Friday, birthday party on Saturday, another dinner out on Sunday... aie.

Today I slept in pretty late and then dragged myself out to a new-to-me-fitness class:

Club Power is a FULL BODY plate-loaded conditioning class with consistent choreography that is simple and fun combined with energizing music. It is a high intensity group strength-training program that uses 5-minute increments with pre-determined sets and repetitions for each muscle group.

This class completely and thoroughly kicked my butt. I have no clue how I'm going to move any muscles tomorrow (should I bring breakfast to my bed tonight to be safe?) ;) So very many squats and lunges and a crapload of arm/shoulder work. Ow. And it was so weird to be doing squats and exercises with weights while listening to pop music. I liked it, but I thought I was going to die. ;) Burned 536 calories, and barely walked down the stairs out of the exercise room - my legs were jelly!

I'm hoping to go to a "gentle yoga" class tomorrow, if I can move!

EA Sports Active 2 revisited

Took the weekend off since my neck was bothering me (oh, so that's why I don't usually do a lot of high impact workouts...), but today I got back into the swing of things and worked out at home. I started off with about a half hour with the Gold's Gym Cardio Dance Wii game (I still need to review that!), with my new best friend, my heart rate monitor. Great workout and it got me motivated to try EA Sports Active 2 again...

So with my heart rate monitor on (chest strap and big ol' wrist display), I strap on the EA wrist sensor (their HRM) and the leg strap and got going. I did a mix of activities and sadly, my heart rate monitor said I burned a lot less calories than the game said. I was curious about this, and did a single 10 minute step workout. I had been disappointed when I first got this game because the calorie count on the step workouts were much lower than in the first game. Well...

they're quite inflated from my heart rate monitor on this second game, which means the first game was *wildly* inaccurate on this. For the 10 minute workout, EA Sports said I burned 113 calories. My heart rate monitor said 86 calories. Both have the same weight/height/sex information, and both showed the same heart rate during the workouts. Inflating the calorie burn by over 30% is really, really disheartening. I am very disappointed in this, especially since I thought I was burning significantly more calories in this game than I really was...

Woo momentum!

I did make it out on Wednesday to sign up for the 30-day membership at my local gym, and then did a water fitness class. It was surprisingly more intense than the classes I took before my wedding - which is good! Unfortunately I had really beat up my arms & shoulders in pilates the day before, so yesterday was a day of pain. ;)

Today, I woke up early and met my friend for a morning Zumba class - and then I went straight from there to a water fitness class. According to my new heart rate monitor, I burned 684 calories in the Zumba class, and then during the water fitness class, I burned another 478 calories. Not bad for finishing before noon! ;)

Let's see how long this lasts. ;)

Well, that hasn't exactly worked as planned...

So, erm, yeah... at my highest weight in 4 years. Eight pounds gained in the past two weeks alone. What. The. $(#(@#**!

My motivation is out the window. It's ridiculous. A friend suggested I join her for a Zumba class last week, so I did that and it was fun (though my knees were sore and my calves were on fire for a few days!). I'm hoping to join her for another class this week. I'm actually going to try to get my butt out the door to go join my local gym (and a water fitness class in an hour), but gee, it's so much easier to just sit here on my couch and whine on blogger...

Wish something would click and my body would understand that this weight has got to go!

First tiny goal: get back to the weight I was on 5/1: 3.8 pounds less than today

Second tiny goal: get back to the weight I was on my birthday: 8.4 pounds less than 5/1

and then we'll worry about the additional 56 pounds I need to lose...

A new start

Wow, it's been awhile...

Today I lost my job. While that sucks (ok, it really sucks!), I'm trying to look for the silver lining here. I really have no excuse to not get my health in order now. I've got a Groupon for a local gym that I hope to redeem next week - I might take a day or two and go to the beach to just unwind. My diet? No excuses - time to eat healthy 90% of the time instead of 20% ;)

I'm not going to stress out about being unemployed - I will eventually find another job, but for now, I really need to put my health and well-being into focus.

Here's to losing a job and gaining my health!

Quiet start to the new year

So, 2010 was a disaster when it came to weight loss - gained 20+ pounds over the year. Oops. I also only hit 3 million steps instead of the 3.65 million I should've hit if I had kept my 10,000 steps a day. Coincidence? I think not.

In 2011, I'm working to keep that 10,000 steps a day - and so far, I'm behind, of course. ;) But I'm much closer than I was last year at this time.

I've also stopped using that EA Sports Active game because it got annoying with the controls not responding correctly often. I'm getting back into the Walk Away the Pounds videos, and also sometimes using the Gold's Gym Cardio game for the Wii (review on that coming someday).

I feel like I'm talking to no one here on this blog, so my apologies for not posting for awhile. Maybe I can get more active on here, too ;)

Holiday weight explosion

Ugh... too many holiday commitments that I can't get out of, and too many holiday cookies around to tempt me... I am hoping to get out of December at the weight I entered into it!

How are you coping with all the eating out and sweets around you? I have so little willpower and I'm always hungry, too - despite eating my usual protein- and fiber-heavy foods.

EA Active 2 - Calories burned dramatically less than More Workouts

Has anyone else encountered this yet? (I'm using the Wii without the Balance Board turned on - and yes, the BB is not enabled in the settings)

I was religious about doing the step aerobics on More Workouts - and I'd burn at least 150 calories per 10 minute segment. In particular, doing any step repeater would burn almost one full calorie per step (3 kicks = almost 1 calorie).

On Active 2, I'm lucky if I burn 100 calories in a 10 minute segment. The step repeaters burn about .2 calories instead of .8-1.0. It's dramatic. Today I got frustrated and stopped moving, and the calorie counter kept on moving (slowly but still went up). I took off the heart rate monitor in case it was based on that, and the calorie counter still moved as though I was doing the exercise.

I'm so frustrated - this was my favorite component of More Workouts and it's so inaccurate in Active 2... I was elated to not be smacking myself with the cord from the nunchuk, but I am unhappy about the calorie burned issues!

Luna Bar Lemon Zest

I needed a bar today since I knew I would need to eat while on the go. I picked up this Luna Bar yesterday to give it a try. If you're not familiar with Luna, it's "the whole nutrition bar for women", and also 70% organic.

I wanted something that wasn't chocolate (I know, a shocker!) so I went with this flavor. Unfortunately... and this is coming from someone who loves lemons... this is an 11 on the lemon-o-meter. It truly is like eating a ton of lemon zest wrapped around a bunch of soy crisps. Even after finishing it and then chugging a bunch of water, I still sit here with lemon zest flavor permeating my mouth. Fooey.

I'm also not thrilled about the 2 grams of saturated fat - why?! I should've spotted that before I bought this :(

Nutrition Facts

Calories 180

Total Fat 5 g

Saturated Fat 2 g

Trans Fat 0

Cholesterol 0

Sodium 115 mg

Carb 27 g

Fiber 3 g

Sugars 18g

Protein 9g

Bodybugg or Gruve or some other gadget to track activity?

Hi there internets!

I really want to track my activity levels better - I would LOVE a way to track my actual calories burned throughout the day and when I'm working out.

I bought a fitbit last year - and I returned it :( It was completely unreliable on the one thing I could measure for certain - my sleep - so I didn't trust it at all on its other readings. I was heartbroken.

I like the idea of the Bodybugg, but I don't want to wear a big bulky strap around my upper arm and call attention to myself like that. (And it's really expensive!) The Gruve sounds interesting too, but also pricey - but no armband!

I also generally fear the idea of a chest-strap heart-rate monitor, as I don't even like the pressure of my bra on my chest. ;)

Any ideas? What do you use (or what would use if money was no object)?

EA Sports Active 2 day 2

So.... today did not go so well with the new EA Sports Active 2. I wasn't allowed to do the next day of the 9 week challenge - you can't do the next workout on a previously-designated rest day. Suck. My schedule is so unpredictable, and on the previous games, I was always allowed to skip a rest day to keep on going. Not cool at all.

I did a trainer-generated full-body workout instead, and I got very frustrated. It felt like the leg sensor just wasn't working. I was doing "foot fires" and it didn't register a SINGLE move. It's like doing a squat and then running super-fast in place. Not one bleepin' motion registered. I yelled many obscenities at the tv today, I must admit. I had to skip a bunch of exercises and felt so frustrated by the end.

So I decided to try a 10 minute step aerobics workout. I love the step on the More Workouts game - been doing it a bunch - and usually I burn 160 calories in the 10 minutes on that previous game. The new game has a bunch more moves in the step workout, which is great! Also some boxing moves in there. Aaaaand... I burned only 105 calories in the 10 minutes. Why did I burn 1/3 less calories even though I was moving SO much more? I was watching the calorie count and it just crawled so slowly, it was ridiculous.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. I was definitely reminded today how much I hate the trainer's nagging when a motion doesn't register correctly - and also why I was just doing step and boxing at the end with the previous game. ;)

Total with the 2 workouts today:
33 minutes
254 calories
0.8 km
121 average heart rate
157 max heart rate

EA Sports Active 2 - New game!

SO EXCITED!! Thanks to the wonderful folks at EA, I received a copy of the new EA Sports Active 2 game yesterday! I've posted a lot in the past about their two previous games and have been very anxious to get into this new game.

Big changes with this one - first of all, it's available for all three platforms, not just the Wii. Each version has some differences, but for me, the Wii is still very convenient (and I liked that I could import my stats from the previous two games into here).

The biggest change of all - NO MORE NUNCHUK NEEDED!!! Seriously, I cannot express how much this improves the whole experience here. I was constantly smacking myself during many of the exercises on the previous games, because you needed to have motion sensors in each hand and the only option was to use the nunchuk. This time around, they've added a separate leg sensor (replacing the old nunchuk holder) and also a heart-rate monitor (replacing the need to hold a second sensor - the nunchuk - in your left hand). I'm excited about the heart rate monitor feature of course, but simply delighted to never need that darned nunchuk again for this game. ;)

I'll be posting about this more as I get into the game more, of course. Today I started the three week "Cardio Kick Start" but frankly, it was too beginner for me (even on medium intensity). It was only 15 minutes long, and I want to do more than that. So... time to switch challenges!

I started "The 9 Week Program" on medium intensity. Since I had just finished the other workout, I skipped the stretches and jumped right in. Tons of new exercises (and much prettier backgrounds too!), and overall much quicker loading. No longer do you need to press the "A" key twice between exercises, it just starts loading the next one when you finish the current one. Nice. Unfortunately, since you can go some time without touching the remote, you can get interrupted mid-exercise because the remote shuts off. DOH. So I try to remember to just grab the remote and press "A" between each exercise anyway. ;)

I'll try to review more of the individual exercises as I get a chance. Another big improvement here is the integration with the web - I can view a lot of my stats and goals and other details on their web site! Sweet! Nice graphs show me my calorie burn and heart rate from each individual exercise, too. Very nice.

Total with the 2 workouts today:

37 minutes

280 calories

4 km

111 average heart rate

162 max heart rate

I created a workout group on their community site if you'd like to join: group name "loseit" and password "weight"

Let me know what you think!

Hungry Girl pumpkin brownies

I remember reading this recipe aaaaages ago on Hungry Girl's web site - pumpkin brownies. Basically, you take a can of pumpkin and dump it into a box of cake mix, bake and eat. You don't add anything else to the batter, so it's ridiculously thick. I had a ton of pumpkin from my garden this year, so I used pureed pumpkin instead of a can. I used a triple chocolate cake mix, and made the brownies in muffin cups. When I tasted the raw batter, I was bummed that I could pick out the pumpkin flavor. After baking though... no pumpkin! Sweet!

These aren't as brownie-like as I had hoped - definitely cakey. Fresh out of the oven, they're really good, but it is hard to limit yourself to one (or two...). Curious how they'll taste tomorrow!

Each cupcake is roughly 180 calories, so 2 of them is way more than I should have for a snack. Maybe if I had made them as mini-muffins... no, I'd still want to eat a dozen of 'em. ;)

Still doing the EA workouts several mornings a week - hoping the weight will eventually come down.

Soup giveaway winner!

Congrats to Amy on winning the Progresso soup giveaway! Enjoy your prizes :)

Hope everyone out there is doing well - I'm feeling lonely here in blogland so comment to let me know someone is reading here! :)

EA Sports Active More Workouts - trophies?

Do you play the EA Sports Active More Workouts game? If so, how are you doing on the trophies? I'm so excited that I've earned all but two of them - working out with a buddy and running all the trails. I can't figure out how to get that running all the trails though - I've done two of the six week challenges (on medium and then high intensity), but still this trophy eludes me.

Got back into the swing of things with a ~38 minute workout on it this morning - 10 minutes step A, cardio boxing, 10 minutes step B, cardio boxing again, then 10 minutes step C. Lovely start to my day. ;)