The cardio was not challenging at all. Now I understand how those skinny chicks can bounce around with a smile on their faces during the entire workout.

I used 5 lb dumb bells for the weight session, which was a pretty good work out. My upper body is really weak, so this burned my arms – especially triceps.

The abs workout was ok, but Jillian Michaels prepared me for that.

Overall, this DVD was way too slow and did nothing for me. I wasn’t even tired when it ended. I guess after completing The 30 Day Shred, I need something more advanced now. *shrug* Oh well, I won’t be doing this workout anymore.

Miles: n/a
Time: 41:40
Pace: n/a
Calories Burned: 103
HR: 85 avg, 122 high

—————————————————-

Breakfast: oatmeal + banana

Lunch: tuna salad w/ peppers & onions stuffed in a whole wheat pita, carrots and hummus, and grapes

Afternoon Snack: 2 graham cracker squares

Pre-run fuel: n/a

Post-run fuel: n/a

Dinner: 1.5 cup of chicken & sausage gumbo w/ mixed veggies

How was Day 1 for you? Food, exercise, anything exciting?

Without further ado, here’s the complete list of weight lost challenge participants with our starting weight and final September weight loss goal.

• You guys are fun-tee! Everyone had something to say about their own feet. LOL!

• Of the 50 participants, 76% reported a starting weight. Thank you!!  Now why in the world did the other 24% fall off already? We just began. *smh*

• Of the 38 participants who reported a starting weight, 92% verified their weight with a picture.  Thank you, thank you!!  Y’all are in it to win it, huh? LOL!  By the way, an unverified starting weight will be recorded for the challenge but is not eligible for any prizes.

• Some of you said you were afraid to step on the scale to face reality and even more afraid to share the number with me. First of all, I applaud you for being brave.  This tells me you are sincere about wanting to improve your health & fitness.  This also reminds me of a person who is drowning in debt.  When they finally decide to get their head out the sand, they start by listing all of their accounts and adding up the outstanding balances.  The resulting number is a rude awakening.  Yes, the results are bad. But no, it’s not the end of the world and it’s not too late to improve.  So good for you for taking the first step!  There’s no turning back now. You MUST do this! You CAN do this!

• If you emailed me your weight picture, I noted your starting weight as “private” in the round up unless 1) you gave me permission to share it or 2) you already shared the number in a comment on the blog.  If you are noted as private but want your weight included in the list, just let me know and I will include it in the next roundup.

• If you notice an error in the roundup list, let me know via email and I’ll fix it.

• If you send me an email, and your email address isn’t the same as your online name, please tell me who you are. Unless we’re real friends or tweet everyday, I don’t know you man!

• For our Sunday weigh ins, I may ask you all to report in the comment section only. It was too much work searching and pulling data from comments, twitter @single ma, twitter hashtag #punkmyplateau, and email.  Then I had to write a post. Man I was ty-ad!

• Someone asked me “why so many rules and no exceptions?” HINT: I am 1 person tracking 50 people. You are 1 person reporting information for 1 person. If you’re committed, the rules are simple.  That is all. :-)

Ok, now back to the challenge…

I. am. psyched! Y’all are some competitive folks too. LOL!  I’ve seen your comments around the blogosphere [link to this post] and twitter [follow me @singlema and use hashtag #punkmyplateau].  But I hate to break it to ya dah’lins.  My plan is to punk my plateau and win this challenge myself so I won’t have to spend $100. LOL!  What?  I know we’ve been talking about health & fitness lately, but I hope you didn’t forget the title of this site IS Fabulous Financials.  HA HA  I aint trying to lose MY money man!  Nosiree!  There’s always a method to my madness ’cause all I do is win, win, win no matter WHAT!

Good luck and have a HEALTHY week!

Let’s get it!

[standing on the scale, weight 144.8, BMI 26.5]

Well there you go.  Ya girl weighs 144.8 lbs, which means I’m 9.8 lbs away from my happy (healthy BMI) weight.  Aaaaah shucks now, it’s time to Punk My Plateau!  By the way, if your scale doesn’t calculate your BMI, you can estimate it here.

YOUR Starting Weigh In

REMINDER: All starting weigh in reports need to be submitted no later than 9pm ET tonight. For a recap of how to submit and other deets, review the challenge details.

Participant Q&A

I’ll try to include this section at least once per week.  Since today is Day 1, I thought this question was timely and should be answered today.  Someone asked via email:

Question: What exercise regime did you do when you first started working out?

Answer: I did the Couch to 5k Program. You can read about my experience on this blog by searching c25k.

My Mini Goal for This Week

To accomplish my overall weight loss goal of losing 6 lbs by 30 September 2010, I plan to set mini goals each week.  For this short week, between today and the next weigh in on Sunday, my goal for this week is to lose 1 lb .  To accomplish this, here’s my plan for the rest of the week.

Fitness

• Wed – The Firm DVD (cardio, weights, and abs)
• Thu – interval training, run 3 miles on the dreadmill between 5.0 and 5.5mph
• Fri – rest day
• Sat – run 2-3 miles or 40 minutes on the beach
• Sun – run 2-3 miles or 40 minutes on the beach

I ran intervals last night at an average pace of 11:12 min/mi. My personal best to date. Woot!

Food

Breakfast is always oatmeal + banana, cheerios + banana, whole wheat bagel thin with low fat cream cheese or all natural peanut butter + banana, or assorted fruit.  Lunch is always leftovers from dinner or a sandwich + fruit.  Dinner will be as follows:

• Wed – chicken-sausage gumbo w/ vegetables
• Thu – leftovers
• Fri – arugula salad w/ steak and vegetables
• Sat – restaurant selection
• Sun – restaurant selection

I’m going to the beach this weekend, so I will be dining out quite a bit.  Yes, I planned this weight loss challenge to start right before an extended weekend vacation.  Shocked?  Don’t be.  Weight loss doesn’t mean you have to restrict yourself from the pleasures of life.  In my opinion, all foods are ok in moderation once you are “mentally” committed to losing weight.  You will realize that you are mentally committed when:

1. You no longer blame limited time, circumstance, other people or things for your inability to change your lifestyle to lose the weight.
2. You accept responsibility for the choices you make that affect your weight loss efforts.
3. You make conscious decisions about what to eat and the choices are “usually” healthy.
4. You learn to say no more often than yes to dessert or something you previously enjoyed eating/drinking that wasn’t good for you.
5. You are aware when you’ve made a bad food decision and you are aware that you have the power to continue eating, have one piece, or throw it away.
6. You know that one bad choice doesn’t ruin all of your previous efforts. Eating one piece of cake will not derail an entire week of healthy eating and exercise.
7. You workout, even when you don’t want to.
8. You refuse to quit.

I am committed! Are you?

By the way, we have over 50 – yes FIFTY – participants with a combined weight loss goal of 391 lbs.  Woot!  There were over 70 responses, but some didn’t make the cut for various reasons.  I will share the complete list of participants in our roundup tomorrow and include our goal and starting weight (only for those who publicly report).  I. am. so. excited!

I was on twitter last night and said “wonder how many will still be around on Sept 30?”  Right now, we have the excitement of college freshman, but statistics tell us that so few of our classmates make it to graduation day.  I hope and pray that all of you will remain committed until the very end.  Besides, if you let ME win the challenge, then I get to keep my money. Ha!

Now report those starting weights! Let’s get it!

I appreciate all of you for your support and participation in the Punk My Plateau Weight Loss Challenge.  I hope you are excited, motivated, and committed until the very end.  I promise, I will be and I intend to share my ups and downs.  By the way, my goal is to lose 1.5 lb per week for a total of 6 lbs.  Here’s a list of all participants and our goals:

Based on everyone who commented before 10pm last night, we have 30 participants so far who have committed to losing between 5 and 10 pounds in the month of September.  Our combined weight loss goal is over 200 lbs! Woo Hoo!  But there’s still time for more people to join us.  If interested, you have until 6pm today to leave a comment in yesterday’s post so I can track and add you to the list.

Beginning Weight

We will have our first weigh in tomorrow, 1 September 2010, and I will take a picture of my starting weight while standing on the scale.  For accountability purposes, I will upload the picture to the blog with my post tomorrow.  You are not required to take a picture of your starting weight while standing on the scale, but if you want to be held accountable (and eligible for any prizes), transparency is a necessary evil.  If you take a picture, please share it in one of these ways:

• post the picture on your blog and link to your post in the comments tomorrow
• upload the picture online and link to it in the comments tomorrow
• upload the picture online and link to it on twitter tomorrow (use hashtag #punkmyplateau or tweet me @singlema so I can see it)
• email the picture to me privately (singlema AT gmail DOT com – picture will not be shared)

I will track everyone who has a “verified” starting weight for prize eligibility.  If you choose not to take a picture, please state your starting weight in the comments tomorrow. If you are uncomfortable sharing your weight, that’s ok, just make sure you weigh in for your own benefit.

Weekly Weigh In

Our weekly weigh in will be every Sunday: 9/5, 9/12, 9/19, and 9/26.  No weekly picture is required.  I will share my loss (or gain) on the blog and twitter.  I will need you to share your loss (or gain) in the post comments for that day OR on twitter using hashtag #punkmyplateau OR tweet me @singlema OR email me. This is required of everyone so I can track you for the week.

Ending Weight

We will have our final weigh in on Thursday, 30 September 2010.  I will close out the challenge with a picture of my final weight while standing on the scale.  Again, you are not required to take a picture of your final weight while standing on the scale, but if you want to be held accountable (and eligible for any prizes), transparency is a necessary evil.  You may share the final picture (or weight) using the same options above.

Timely Weigh In Submissions

All weigh in results should be submitted no later than 9pm ET on the due date so I can prepare the round up post for the next day.  I understand the need for flexibility, but my schedule can not accommodate everyone.  If your submission is late, I will accept it, but it may or may not be included in the round up results and will NOT be eligible for any prizes.  Now what’s the fun in that? Be on time folks!

Prize

I’ve decided to make this challenge a little more interesting by offering a prize.  Whoever loses the most weight (proven with start and final weight pictures) will win a $100 gift card to Target or Wal-Mart.  If there is a tie, the $100 gift card will be divided.  And if I’m feeling extra generous, I might give away weekly prizes too. Yay for surprises as motivation!! Eligible winners must be US residents with a US mailing address only.  Apologies to all my international readers.

Ready, Get Set…

Aight peeps, tomorrow is Day 1.  Are you pumped yet?  Good!  Spread the word about the challenge.  If you blog about it, link to this post.  If you tweet about it, use hashtag #punkmyplateau or tweet me @singlema.  Share it on FB and tell all your friends!

Let’s Go!

Aight peeps, I need some motivation and support.  Ya girl is down to the last 10 lbs between me and my happy (healthy BMI) weight and these suckers are holding on for dear life.  For the past several weeks, my weight loss has yo-yo’d: lose 2, gain 1, lose 1, gain .5 – you get the picture.  The net effect?  A mere -2.8 lb loss in July and -1.4 lb loss in August.  These are the smallest monthly losses I’ve seen since I began my new lifestyle back in late December.  So I think it’s safe to conclude that my body has adjusted to the lower calories, healthier food, and improved fitness.  In other words, I’ve reached the infamous weight loss plateau.

Now it’s time to shake things up!  I need to do something to make my body think I’m not trying to lose weight anymore.  I need to change my workouts, increase the intensity, and/or change my diet.  I’m committed to doing whatever is healthy and necessary because I’ve come too far to stop now.  Besides, I have three reasons that I’m determined to reach my happy weight:

1. After all these years of abusing my body, I owe it to myself.
2. When I began this journey, my goal was to reach my happy weight by end of year, but my stretch goal is end of summer/early fall.  I will not fail!
3. My 2nd 5k is on October 2nd.  Since my 1st 5k on June 4th, I’ve improved my time by over 5 minutes. If I were at a healthy weight, I could probably improve it a little more and achieve the first 3 of the 30 in my 30s goals.

Hence the challenge idea!  A good challenge always keeps me focused and motivated.  To accomplish the above, I plan to do the following for the entire month of September:

• Workout 5-6x per week. This will include running at least 3x, weight/strength training 2x, and swim lessons 1x.  The run days will consist of two 2-3 mile intervals between 5.0-5.5mph to improve speed and one 3+ mile run with hills to improve endurance.

• Continue my healthier eating habits but only incorporate what I know I can/will continue after the weight is gone.  Also, commit to improving one specific area each week for that entire week.  I will also cycle calories based on my workout intensity (i.e. strength training and intervals = higher calories).

• For accountability, blog everyday, share my weekly workout and meal plans, share my workout results, and tweet about my progress and weigh ins.

So far, my most successful months were January (-13.4 lbs when I first began) and May (-8 lbs when training for my 1st race).  I want September to join the ranks of success.  If you’ve been working to improve your health & fitness lately, why not join in and help me Punk My Plateau!

The challenge will begin this Wednesday, 1 September 2010, and end on Thursday, 30 September 2010.  Who can lose the most weight?  Who will have the most non-scale victories?  Who will achieve their September goals?  Who will break through the annoying plateau?!?!  If you’re interested in participating, leave a comment no later than 6pm Tuesday, 31 August, and tell me how much weight you plan to lose in September.

P.S. Prizes may or may not be rewarded, although I did surprise the most committed participants at the end of my last challenge in May. :-)

Who’s with me? Let’s get it!