Working my butt off...hopefully :)

So I just started the Alli Diet two weeks ago, I've been doing Pilates, and I've lost 7 pounds. Great progress...only it's not good enough. I feel week, I still don't have any energy, and my freakin' joints hurt! I don't just want to lose weight; I want to feel strong and healthy too.

My husband won't do the Pilates with me, so I dug the P90X stuff out of the storage room. My husband had bought this workout program over a year ago. He got into the second week and kinda just dropped out of it due to excess stress at work. We are both doing it this time. We are using the bands instead of weights or chin up bars at this point. I need to buy a new band though. I got a "light" resistance band that is supposed to be good for beginners and moderately active people. It felt like there was almost no resistance at all! I am not strong by any means, so this kind of surprised me.

This morning we did the first work out, after the oldest girl got on the bus to head to Pre-School. The one for today was the chest and back workout. What it is, is basically a routine of different pull ups and push ups. There are twelve exercises (and yes, they are all variations of pull ups and push ups (military push ups, decline push ups, dive-bomber push ups, back flys, wide, narrow, and everywhere in between pull ups, front and back hand grips, and some others)). No kidding about it, this was an intense workout. Oh, I forgot to mention, after you are done with all twelve of those exercises, you go back through and repeat the whole thing! I'm not going to lie, I am a little bit tired and sore. lol After the 60 minutes worth of the Chest and Back workout is the Ab Ripper X workout, which adds another 30 minutes. No joke, the name of the ab routine is pretty accurate. Thank goodness I won't have to do it tomorrow, because my abs (or where my abs will be :( ) are really sore!

I did better than I thought with keeping up with the workout (actually quite comparable to my husband), which pleased me. I managed to do 3 push ups, then had to resort to girl push ups for the rest. By the end of work out though, I couldn't do even a girl push up. I would go to lower myself into it and end up on the floor, lol I totally got my ass whipped. I really had a HUGE feeling of accomplishment when the whole thing was done. I feel crazy for it, but I actually am looking forward to getting up early for tomorrow's workout. Tomorrow is plyometrics, which is basically jumps and lunges (and jump lunges ;). I will not be "ripped" in 90 days like promised, because I am NOT already at an ideal weight. The program is meant (ideally) for people who are at a healthy weight and want to get in really good shape and bulk up (for men) or lean out (for women). My idea with this is that I was not getting much as far as muscle building (which burns fat like a bitch) and this workout should melt it off my body faster than the Pilates would.

I am going for the longer leaner look, and hubby is aiming for the bulk up with big muscles. I do really like that by adjusting weights and reps that he can get a workout suited for him and I can get one suited for me at the same time. It is kinda fun to do it together too. When I feel cheesy and awkward, all I have to do is look over at him ;)

One challenge for me is adding more protein and carbs to my diet. On the Alli diet I had a hard time pushing 1500 calories a day and I never got up to the 1800 I was supposed to eat for my weight bracket. I just can't eat that many healthy foods to get the calories (one whopper would do it, but that isn't exactly healthy calories). Tonight instead of one small chicken fajita, I had two (whole wheat wrap, low fat sour cream, and salsa helped make it pretty low in fat).

The food has always been a big deal for me. I get addicted to fast food, Italian food, Mexican food, and ice cream of course ;) If I can get through a few weeks of no fast food, then it seems like I stop craving it so much. When I had been on my good run and lost the 35 lbs before, I had french fries towards the end of it, and almost threw up. The amount of salt that was on the fries tasted more like I put a handful of salt in my mouth. The sweet things are what I have the most trouble resisting. I finally decided that fruit wasn't cutting it for me, and when I want something sweet now I just have a serving of fat free frozen yogurt. I need to get away from the pop (soda in other parts of the US). I was able to at least switch from regular to diet. I don't like the idea of artificial sweeteners, but at least now I don't notice the aftertaste so much. I try to drink lots of water and some iced teas. The crystal light teas and the Lipton teas that are single serving sizes (the kind that comes in a powder that is portioned for bottled water) have been really great for me. I don't use bottled water though, instead I have a water bottle that I fill out of the fridge dispenser since it's filtered. The bottled water is super convenient, but expensive and not so great for the planet.

I have been taking the Alli pills for two weeks, and during that time I have been eating really healthy. I am pretty much over the cravings for fat and salt. I am feeling confident that this time I will be able to drop more than just 10 pounds. Those 35 pounds that I lost during the first part of the year felt awesome to be rid of. I have 50 lbs to go until I am at my goal of 150 lbs, and I can't imagine how great it will feel to be rid of those 50 lbs.

150 is my "realistic" weight that I set for myself (being 5'8" that was pretty near the middle for healthy weight for a woman with average bone structure (according to Dr. Phil's diet book (which has helped me get past the emotional eating even though I don't use the nutrition plan exactly))). In high school I weighed in at 128. I have grown up since then and have had two children, so I realise that I most likely won't get back down to that. I am planing on getting to a point where I feel so great and am so fit that the scale doesn't matter to me at all anymore.

Holy crap! I did not realize that it was so late! It is no longer Wednesday, as it is past midnight. I gotta go to bed so I can even get up and do my work out.