The Rest Of The Story

We were at camp for a week. So I thought the walking back and forth to the dining hall would be great excersize. And it was don't get me wrong. My calves have absolutely no fat on them. But it was severely unbalanced by the camp food. And entire week of nothing but carbs and carbs and more carbs.

So I do need to get back on the workout cycle. But summer is a horrible time for me. I spend so much time chasing the kids that I really don't get a good workout in.

I'll keep you posted.

The Day Is Done

Today were weigh-ins the 28 days are over. Here are the numbers. Just begining and the end. Nothing else matters really.

Height: 62"-- 62"
Weight: 210 lbs --201.25 lbs
Neck: 15.75" -- 15.5"
Shoulders: 46.25"-- 46"
Chest-Upper: 43.5"-- 42"
Chest-Lower: 46.5"-- 44.5"
Waist-at Navel: 48.25"-- 43"
Waist-at Largest: 51.5"-- 49.5"
Hips-at Largest: 50.5"-- 47"
Upper Arm- L: 15.5"-- 14"
Upper Arm- R: 15.5"-- 14.5"
Upper Leg- L: 26.5"-- 21.5"
Upper Leg- R: 27.75"-- 22"
Lower Leg-L: 15.5"-- 15.75"
Lower Leg-R: 16.25"-- 16"
BodyFat %: 42.6%-- 35.9%

Ok so some of the biggest losers were in the waist, thighs, and bodyfat %. I still didn't get below 200lbs but I'm ok with that. Especially after Matt mentioned that I took off 19lbs of fat. I'm not sure how that math works out but it does.

Bathing Suit Shopping!

Well I did find the one thing that is more terrifing than putting my weight and photos online... Swimsuit shopping! (Cue: Scary music) But considering the fact that we're taking the boys to an amusment park on Wednesday and there's a water park there and there is no way that Matt can take both boys in at once... I need a bathing suit that isn't a maternity suit.

So I braved Walmart. Still the only place to shop around here. And tried on litteraly EVERY bathing suit in my size and a couple that weren't. Let me just give you a tip. This is not the time and place to delude yourself into thinking that you can fit into that smaller size. The humiliation of that is so much worse than actually just sucking it up, grabing the right size and then cutting out the tag at home.

Then I snuck in pictures of myself with my camera phone and got advice from the one person that I know will not feed me malarkey... Matt, my husband. So between really bad pictures of swimsuits and a ton of text messaging we finally settled on a suit. It's more of a swim dress (whatever that is) But it has all of the tricks. It sucks it in where it needs to. It misdirects the eye to other locations (to hopefully the person next to me) and then it covers up every thing that can't always get shaved or liposuctioned. Short of becoming a hologram of someone else's body it's done all it can. The rest is up to me!

Week 3 Day 21 Weigh In

Well I can honestly say this is probably the lowest point. Right now I'm just ready to be done with this whole thing. I'm gonna stick it out but if tomorrow was the last day I'd be ok with it. I have made minimal progress. Still on the upside more than I've ever done on any diet or excersize plan. But if you're looking for a miracle.... it doesn't exsist.

Height: 62"-- 62"-- 62" --- 62"

Weight: 210 lbs --204.5 lbs -- 203lbs ---201.75 lbs

Neck: 15.75" --16"-- 16"--- 15.5"

Shoulders: 46.25"-- 44.5"-- 46.34" --- 46"

Chest-Upper: 43.5"-- 42"-- 42"--- 42"

Chest-Lower: 46.5"-- 45.25"-- 46" ---45.75"

Waist-at Navel: 48.25"-- 48"-- 45.5" ---45"

Waist-at Largest: 51.5"-- 50"-- 50" --- 49.75"

Hips-at Largest: 50.5"-- 48.25"-- 47.5" --- 47"

Upper Arm- L: 15.5"-- 14.5"-- 14.5" --- 14.5"

Upper Arm- R: 15.5"-- 14.75"-- 14.5" --- 15"

Upper Leg- L: 26.5"-- 22.5"-- 21.5" ---22"

Upper Leg- R: 27.75"-- 22.75"-- 22.5" --- 22"

Lower Leg-L: 15.5"-- 15.75"-- 15.5" ---15.5"

Lower Leg-R: 16.25"-- 16.50"--15.5" --- 15.5"

BodyFat %: 42.6%-- 37.2%-- 36.7% --- 36.3%

So as you can see. Not enough change to even post about. I'm forcing myself to write this, just so that other people will know. How this diet works for women of my size and shape.

We had Chinese food tonight. Only decent was the only comment that can be made about it. All of the good stuff we weren't allowed to have. And my son (the one that is allergic to eggs) wouldn't leave me alone long enough to eat my egg drop soup.

Grocery shopping was torture... I thought I'd hit the produce section up. The smells of the fresh fruits were amazing! And I could have none of it. The whole grocery store was filled with food I can't eat. And we're making cakes for church on sunday. Do you know how hard it is to make a cake without sneaking any of the icing? You have to wash your hands BEFORE you get to lick them... not after! It's so not fair!

Can you tell I'm just whining? I'll be better tomorrow.

If You Can... Lift It!

Workouts: My workouts consist of 3 days a week of heavy training plus 30 min of cardio. Then 2 days a week I do yoga.

So Monday is leg day (Matt makes these workouts and he's EVIL about them)
Squats: 3 reps of 10 each. @ 95lbs
Deadlifts: 3 reps of 5 each @ 135lbs
Hipsled: 3 x's 10 @ 180 lbs
Leg Extensions: 3 x's 10 @ 50lbs

Ab Exercise: Weighted Crunches 2 x's 15 @ 25lbs

CARDIO:
5 min of speed bag ( watch Million Dollar Baby and it's the thing that looks like a head attached to a board above her)
5 min of heavy bag (that's those big bags filled with sand attached to the ceiling)
10 min of elliptical
10 of treadmill

Tues:
60+ min of yoga class

Wed:
Bench Press: 3 x's 10 @ 70lbs
Incline Flys: 3 x's 10 @ 10lbs (I really need to go up to 15lbs but I'm lazy)
Rope Pressdowns: 3x's 10 @25lbs
Pullovers: 3 x's 10 @25lbs
Curls 3 x's 10 @ 40lbs

Ab Exercises: Weighted leg raises

Cardio:
Same as Monday

Thurs:
60+ min of yoga

Friday:
I can't remember Friday's workout off the top of my head but it's similar to the rest of the week. If you're still interested I can type it out.

Cardio:
Same as Monday

I'm Tired Of Eating Dinner!

Oh the Drama! I had made a beautiful crock pot chicken recipe today. Put a couple of chicken breasts in a crock pot with a sauce made out of a couple of scoops of OJ concentrate, some spices (like pepper, dill, basil, parsley, garlic, hot sauce.... whatever else comes to hand) and then pour over the chicken. I added some water so that all of it would be covered without adding calories. Then popped it on low and let it go all day. YUM! So I paired that with a salad and some cut up bell peppers and then I made some deviled eggs. (yeah it's a naughty diet that allows deviled eggs)

Well dinner time came and I ate the eggs first (my favorite) then the chicken. I had to eat the chicken fast because Evan was noshing from my plate. (should have made more chicken) then the bell peppers. Then the salad. Yeah I'm not one of those people that takes one bite of each thing every time around the plate. Sorry it just ain't happening. Normally I eat the salad first, but I've been a little salad-ed out. (I know...that's not a word) And the lettuce today was more than a little bitter. Even drowned in salad dressing (I need the fat in my diet) So I mentioned to Matt that did I really have to eat the salad? I was getting FULL? And he almost fell out of his chair laughing at me.

UHM let me get this straight... you're allowed to eat one meal a day and you want to cut it short because you're full? Well I'm also a little tired of eating. OH you should have heard the laugh! He now is positive that I'm a dork (before he was only mostly sure)

We've also been having a problem with Evan raiding the fridge. Egged on by his brother. This isn't the first time it's happened. But the last time I did manage to get some video of it. I turned my back today and one brother got out the apple juice and the other one was pouring it out into cups. On to the couch!!! YUMMY

When In Doubt Adjust

This weekend was crazy! Yes, I know that technically the weekend is not over... but since Matt works weekends I don't really consider weekends like a normal person would. This week the weekend started at Thursday and ended Saturday afternoon. We went to our Synod Assembly. It's a gathering of all of the Lutheran Pastors and 2 representatives from their church in the area. There was a lot of drama that I will not go into because that's not me and my personality. I really dislike confrontation!

But the parts that I will mention. Every year I put together (with a team) the breakfast for the spouses of pastors. It's called Spouses of Servants. (don't ask, really long boring story) and since there are both Women and Men in the group of all ages it's really tough to provide entertainment that will speak to everyone. This year we hosted a drum circle that my churches Parish Nursing program has. I was so proud to be a part of my church! Those ladies did a phenomenal job! Here's the video of the pictures that I put together since I didn't get near enough video to do it justice.

On the drive down (Thursday afternoon) since we didn't have any place to plug in the blender in my car and didn't have the time to stop and find anywhere... We modified our diet. Instead of having a shake for lunch we stopped at Sheetz (local gas chain in the PA region) and picked up a Chef Salad for me and a Chicken Salad for Matt. Now I know those of you who don't have Sheetz in your area are shaking your heads wondering why in the world would I choose a gas station to pick up food? It's really good food! And it's all made to order that's why I got it with double meat and eggs and cheese added on. So that I could be sure that we got our 8 ozs of protein. No worries at least 8ozs, maybe more. Then we had shakes for dinner and continued on our diet.

Then on Friday a group of us normally go out to Ci Ci's Pizza Buffet for lunch since it's fast and we only get an hour. They provide a lunch at the assembly but it's really expensive and not worth it. Besides we don't get to the "big city" of Altoona very often. But this year we had decided to have a (semi) healthy lunch instead of our lunch shake and since carbs are a no no we convinced everyone that maybe we should go to Ponderosa instead. YUM they had a decent salad bar and I ordered the chicken breast. Matt had the steak and really wasn't impressed. But the meats on the salad bar were tasty so we enjoyed ourselves. Then had my mid afternoon shake and then went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner El Campasino I ordered the taco salad and Matt got the fajita salad... Which we kept to our diet by not eating the tortilla bowl. And then skipped our evening shake.

Saturday was very similar to Thursday since we were travelling back at around lunch time. Had our meal at lunch instead of dinner and continued the diet like normal.

What I'm really trying to get at is that life doesn't have to stop just because you're on a diet. I did have to forgo eating breakfast with the spouses... but I had coffee instead and kept busy by talking about my diet. So don't think that you have to chain yourself to your house for the next 28 days to lose weight. It can be done. If you are flexible. But the real test will be steping on the scale next week. I'll keep you posted.

Day 14 Weigh In

I weighed in today because we won't be here this weekend. Church stuff, synod assembly. But because I won't be here tomorrow to weigh in.... I did it today.

There's not too much change. "They" (who ever they are) say that the biggest change weeks are weeks 1 and 3 but we'll see. Week 1 numbers are in red. Week 2 in black and week 3 in blue

Height: 62"-- 62"-- 62"

Weight: 210 lbs --204.5 lbs-- 203lbs -1.5lbs

Neck: 15.75" --16"-- 16"

Shoulders: 46.25"-- 44.5"-- 46.34" can't explain this.

Chest-Upper: 43.5"-- 42"-- 42"

Chest-Lower: 46.5"-- 45.25"-- 46"

Waist-at Navel: 48.25"-- 48"-- 45.5"

Waist-at Largest: 51.5"-- 50"-- 50"

Hips-at Largest: 50.5"-- 48.25"-- 47.5"

Upper Arm- L: 15.5"-- 14.5"-- 14.5"

Upper Arm- R: 15.5"-- 14.75"-- 14.5"

Upper Leg- L: 26.5"-- 22.5"-- 21.5"

Upper Leg- R: 27.75"-- 22.75"-- 22.5"

Lower Leg-L: 15.5"-- 15.75"-- 15.5"

Lower Leg-R: 16.25"-- 16.50"--15.5"

Ankle- L: 8.5"-- 9.5"-- 9.25"

Ankle- R: 8.5"-- 9.5"-- 9.25"

BodyFat %: 42.6%-- 37.2%-- 36.7%

So I went up in a couple of areas... but for the most part I either stayed steady or lost. I did lose 1/2% of body fat and 1 1/2lbs of weight... so I'll count it as a success.

Sorry no pictures... I'm on the road right now.

Answering Questions

Happy Anniversary to us!! We celebrated 8 yrs together by clinking our shake glasses.

This is just gonna be a general post. I dislike posting in the comments section (I do it but I don't like it) It's too much like fluffing out my own feathers... especially since I can't reply directly TO someone I just have to hope that they slog through (all 5 or 6) comments to get to the one related to them and their question.

So to begin... my favorite flavors? Hmmm When we first started I ordered the sample pack and rated each one with my favorite flavors and we ordered from that list.

Likes were: Extreme Milk Choc, Rocky Road, Banana Cream. & Strawberry Banana. We also ordered Cookies & Cream and Vanilla. IF you HAVE to get just one flavor get Vanilla because you can always add a scoop of cocoa powder to it and some instant coffee and make mocha!

Flavors I did not like: Delicious Strawberry (not), Double Rich Choc, Vanilla (plain, I have to have something in it) Orange Cream (nasty nasty nasty, tasted like children's Motrin)

Flavors I was on the fence about: Root Beer Float (I was OK with it, Matt hated it), tropical punch (not as bad as I thought it was gonna be) Choc Mint, French Vanilla (liked it but didn't want more vanilla), Mocha Cappuccino (good but I can make my own).

Fiber: Don't skip the fiber. If you do, you will spend more time on the potty than you do with your own children! Just make it a habit keep the fiber pills with the powder. Just trust me on this one! Learn from my mistakes.

Fish oil: this is for fat. Everyone needs fat. Everyone is trying to get rid of fat so this seems counter-intuitive... but it's not. Fish oil is the good fat that helps with brain function. You will need this. It also helps to cushion your joints and makes you not feel so stiff when you work out.

Workouts: Again essential, you can not skip this step. You still have to work to get rid of the weight. This is the next step to get rid of the weight. No work= no reward there's no way around this step.

Being out side the parameters: I am technically outside the parameters for this diet. If you weigh below 125 I don't know if you should do this diet (my rule of thumb would be to check your body fat percentage, if over 25% check with your doctor). If you weigh over 200 lbs (for women) then you still will get benefit out of this diet. Check my numbers. But as with all diet/weight loss programs run it past your doctor first! I do not want to be liable for something happening to one of my friends.

Side Effects: There is no such thing as a free lunch. EVER! Something has to give and this time it will be you. I've noticed that I'm not as strong as I was before the diet. This is because of the low carbs. Carbs give you energy, no carbs means no energy. But this is a good thing (or that's what I'm telling myself) since I'm not burning my carbs from the previous day and yet I'm still moving around guess where the energy to run is coming from? If you guessed my fat belly then you win the prize! But I'm also getting more tired during the day. But I'm still having to push through it because... no energy expended= no loss. So I've banned myself from my couch during most of this exercise... knowing that if I sit there I'll never get up.

Side Effects 2: Temper, temper, temper! I've found that my fuse is so much shorter now. I asked Matt and he said he's experiencing the same thing. Which is totally scary because he never loses his temper. So I've had to really watch out for this and not take my diet out on my kids. They don't deserve that. The husband however is totally fair game! (joke)

I hope this helps to answer some of your questions. But I'll keep going on... so keep those questions coming! Oh and I love comments too. That just makes my day! (Thanks Mara for most of my comments)

Wanna join the insanity?

MAN ON THE BOARD!!! MAN ON THE BOARD!!! MAN ON THE BOARD!!!

Hello there.

This is the other half of the equation. I'm the Husband of Kim, the task master of the task at hand, the mixer of shakes, and the fellow who's playing Clyde to this Bonnie lass.

My name is Matt :)

Kim has said that she's been asked by a few individuals (who shall remain nameless in an attempt to keep their families and friends from further questioning their sanity) how they too can undertake their own 28 days. Kim, in turn, turned to me and asked me how they could have four weeks of fun for their very own.

So, here it is.

I figured out that the cost for everything per individual for the shakes and suppliments is APPROXIMATELY (will vary a bit from person to person and brand to brand) $170. $156 was for shakes (our total cost divided by the 3 people who are doing the 28) and a few big bottles of psyllium husk and fish oil. There's alo the m.o.d. (meal of the day), but hey, you're on your own for that.

First things first: you'll need to figure out your calories based on your weight and age. Since this is based on a diet that already has a handy-dandy calculator for that equation, I use the numbers from this: http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_program/sports_body_training_diet_velocity/velocity_diet_Program_30?vdietNavTop

Once you've got your auto-generated numbers, you're ready to get to work. You'll need the following:

4 shakes a day on non-workout days + 1 meal (one extra shake per day made with milk for workout days, post workout), 6 grams of fish oil spread out throughout the day, a multi vitamin, and some fiber (2 psyllium husk caps with each shake, some fiber chews, ground milled flax seed, etc) and lots of water. A little personal blender is nice too as you'll be drinking most of your food for the next 4 weeks. You'll have to figure out the calories and whatnot for each shake and meal, or if you need help with it message Kim here and I'll work 'em out for you.

Btw, no carbs, no sugar, no skipping meals, no missing shakes, no cheating. The more you stick to this motto, the better your results will be

An example of the days will look like this (this is for a 180 lb, 30 year old woman) :

Calories
non-workout days: 1,485
Workout days: 1,815
Protein grams
non-workout days: 220
workout days: 246
Fat grams
non-workout days: 42
workout days: 42
Carb grams
62
113
Fiber grams
27
27

That's roughly 2 scoops of protein powder per shake 4x a day plus a meal of 8 oz chicken/turkey/lean beef/lean pork, a large salad, 2 tbs dressing, and 1 cup green veggies. Shakes are mixed with water and ice. If you can't stomach that some can still do the diet with 1% milk (not great, but it works for some) at a ratio of 8oz 1% milk and 1 scoop per shake to replace the 2 scooper with water.

Shakes and meals should be fairly evenly spaced (3 hours seems to work most days). If you get really hungry in-between shakes, you can have half of the next shake early. You should always end the day with one of the shakes. Don't make the last feeding a meal, or you won't stop eating!

Otherwise, 3 weight lifting days a week with 30-60 seconds rest between sets. Try to start off with the workout on the site that I linked above. If that's too weird/hard, lemme know. Also,

45 minutes of low intensity activity (walking@ 3.5-4 mph, house cleaning, mowing) every day.

Don't go jogging to make this "better". You'll just burn muscle. Keep it simple, frequent, and steady. It's only 28 days.

Now, weigh and measure yourself the day before you begin to get a base line. measure

Neck:

shoulders,

Chest @ nipple line

right bicep

forearm

rib cage

waist @ belly button

waist @ largest

hips

right thigh midway between knee and hip

right calf

ankle (for a base line of your bone size)

Weigh-in and measure again every 7 days in the morning after going to the restroom but before your shower/ingesting anything. Take pictures every 7 days too from front, sides, and back. Don't suck in the gut, don't stick things out, don't flex...just relax.

Drink at least 64 oz of water a day and shoot for 1 gallon (128 oz) a day.

Finally, TELL EVERYBODY THAT YOU'RE DOING THIS FOR 28 Days!!!! The more others know, the more accountable you are, the higher the price of quitting! If it gets hard, post here. If it's working great, post here. etc. etc.

Good luck crazy people and welcome: we love company :)

+Matt