Today is Day 5 of Hammer and Chisel and I have to be honest, I feel GOOD. Yesterday was a rest day and it was painful. It is crazy. A couple years ago, I dreaded having to workout and now, I dread not working out. I know rest days are important, so I stuck to the plan. Pretty proud of myself because I worked from home the last two days and I stuck to my meal plan 100%. I added in 1 red each day because the plan tells you to add in a red and/or a green when you feel hungry. But, I measured every little thing I ate and I only ate things that were approved on my meal plan.

I weighed in again this morning at 148.3 pounds, same as yesterday – which I am happy about. I think it is safe to say my bloat is completely gone. I feel lean and I am noticing some muscle growth too in my arms, buns and my abs. One thing that I really think is helping my body lean out is water. Water is something I have always underestimated. I hate having to constantly go to the bathroom, so it is easy for me to skip over. The last 5 days, I have drank 100 ounces or more each day. My skin seems to be clearer, I feel less tired in the mornings and I definitely feel lean! 

Tonight is my first real temptation since starting Hammer and Chisel. We are having our Christmas celebration with my family and then with Tom’s family tomorrow. Holiday get togethers usually always include lots of food and wine. When I am with people and around a spread of appetizers with a glass of wine in my hand – nothing good comes of it. It is almost guaranteed that I will over eat and make poor decisions. I usually always go with a plan, but I usually always find a reason to not follow the plan. Sometimes, I get really frustrated that I even have to follow a plan. Like – why can’t I be one of those people who can eat and drink whatever they want and still look amazing?! I love my healthy lifestyle, don’t get me wrong. But, sometimes it gets old and I wish it wasn’t something I had to do in order to maintain my weight. As I was thinking this earlier this week, I reminded myself that I am not doing this JUST to lose weight. I am doing this to be confident in the way I look, to be able to wear whatever I want, to live a healthy life, to set a healthy example and to be in control over my food addiction. That is why I am doing this. Plus, those people who can eat and drink whatever they want, even if they don’t appear overweight, it doesn’t mean they are healthy on the inside!

I refuse to let those frustrating feelings make me feel the need to go off track this weekend. I worked so hard all week, kicked butt with my workouts, drank a ton of water and didn’t go off plan once. I owe it to myself to stay on track so I can feel good come Monday morning. I used to let the peer pressure from others – whether it be friends, family, coworkers, etc, get to me. I would give in to please THEM and then the next day, it was ME who felt guilty and pissed off. So, I will never let the feeling of pleasing others convince me to go off track because they aren’t the ones who have to deal with the aftermath of trying to get back on track after a cheat. 

I am switching my meal plan around today so I can take a salad to my get together tonight. I wanted something that was quick, easy and didn’t have to be reheated. 

Today’s Meal Plan – 1,200-1,400 calorie bracket

• Before workout: energize preworkout (free)

• After workout: recover post workout shake (free)

• Breakfast: two over easy eggs with a gluten free waffle (1 red, 1 yellow)

• Snack: banana (2 purples)

• Lunch: chicken marinated in peanut sauce vinaigrette (trader joes), brown rice, broccoli (1 red, 1 tsp, 1 yellow, 1 green)

• Snack: vegan strawberry shakeology (1 red)

• Dinner: salad mix with chicken, toasted almonds and sweet onion citrus vinaigrette (2 greens, 1 red, 1 blue, 1 orange)

• Before bed: recharge vanilla shake and a tsp of peanut butter (free, 1 tsp)

I am doing way too well to get off track tonight. I cannot wait to blog through the weekend and check in with you on Monday gushing about how incredible I did over the weekend – and maybe even telling you about some more weight loss!

Jess

Here we are, made it to day 4! Woke up feeling incredibly lean and in control – what an incredible feeling. I weighed in today at 148.3 pounds! I had to step on the scale a few times before I believed it! That is 5 pounds down since Monday…and it is only Thursday!

Today is my rest day. I won’t lie, I hate having a rest day in the middle of the week. I vowed to follow this plan 100%, so I am not going to changed the workouts around to have a rest day on the weekend. This just means I get to sleep in one day during the week now. Can’t complain about that!

Today, I meal prepped for this weekend. I have two family get togethers this weekend for Christmas. I always hate this, not because I hate seeing family, but because I feel so much temptation. Food, wine, bigger portions, you name it! I debated for a while on what to do. I normally would use this as an excuse to have two cheat nights, but not this time. I have busted my butt all week during my workouts, resisted all cravings and have been 100% on track. I am not willing to throw that away over pleasing others to eat their food. My solution? Bring my own food.

Yes, I am aware this could come off as rude, but I have to stick to what is best for myself. Going off plan out of guilt is not a good enough reason because at the end of the day, I would be the one feeling guilty for going off plan…not anyone else. So, tomorrow, I will be having chicken, broccoli and brown rice for lunch and then packing my usual lunch for dinner with me. I am packing the salad instead because I can eat it cold and it doesn’t have to be heated. 

I have never been more determined in my life and I am ready to have a wildly successful weekend. I am really looking forward to my workout tomorrow too. These rest days aren’t easy when you want to make progress! But, I am reminding myself that my body needs the rest!

Today is day 3 of Hammer and Chisel for me. Woke up feeling so much better than I have the last few days. Still carrying some bloat with me, but much less than the previous days. I know I said I wouldn’t weigh myself until the weekend, but I couldn’t resist. There are days when I know the scale will discourage me, days where I feel like I may use the scale as an excuse to cheat and then other days where I know that no matter what the scale says, I am going to still feel motivated and awesome. Today was one of those days where I knew I felt in control and very motivated, so I weighed in. 150.4 pounds which means I am down 2.9 pounds since Monday. I know I didn’t lose 2.9 pounds of fat and that a lot of this is my bloat and water weight. Either way, I am a happy camper!

Yesterday was successful. I had an awesome workout and really pushed myself. I stuck to my meal plan throughout the day, but I would be completely lying if I said I felt satisfied. Both with breakfast and lunch, they tasted amazing, but I never felt full. I felt like I had a lingering hungry feeling. You know what a lingering hungry feeling does to me? Makes me HANGRY and gives me some wild cravings. I swear I was day dreaming of cheese during my commute home. I made the executive decision to add food into my meal plan. I knew if I didn’t, 8 pm would roll around and I would have my head in the tortilla chip bag. No bueno! So, I added an egg to my dinner and extra broccoli. I didn’t go wild adding in food. I made a controlled choice to add in protein and greens until I felt satisfied. 

This morning, I woke up feeling so much better. I felt lean, in control and I didn’t feel like I was dying of starvation. Think it was a good call to add in food. The goal of this meal plan is for me to eat clean and to eat the right portions of each food group. It is not to feel crappy and to be hungry. If you are following this plan and you feel starving, carefully add in food. The program even tells you to do so! Think we get so caught up in wanting to follow a plan 100% (which is great), but we then forget to listen to our bodies. If your body is telling you to fuel it, then listen to it. Add in some protein and some greens. 

Today, I did Iso Chisel Strength. I really like this workout, mainly because although it really challenges me physically, it almost challenges me even more mentally. Each exercise, you do 10 reps, then hold for 10 seconds, and then repeat that two more times for a total of 30 reps and a total of holding the move for 30 seconds. Those 10 second holds are where this workout becomes more mental for me. My mind quits SO much quicker than my body does. My body can do the workouts just fine, it is my mind that tries to quit earlier. I followed the workout with 10 minute Chisel Abs and burned a total of 446 calories. I worked from home today, so I was really proud that I got my workout in before I had to start work! 

I am keeping my meal plan the same today. Drank my post workout shake after my workout, then I had two eggs and a gluten free waffle for breakfast. My snack today was a banana and followed it with lunch which was a salad with chicken, toasted almonds and sweet onion vinaigrette. Afternoon snack is shakeology. Dinner tonight is going to be grilled chicken, marinated in Trader Joe’s Spicy peanut sauce vinaigrette. Our sides will be sweet potato chips and broccoli. Then of course, drinking my Recharge shake before bed tonight. Wasn’t crazy about this shake the first time I drank it, but I have decided this shake tastes better to me when I stir it with water rather than shake it. Seems like it is less bubbly to me!

So here we are. December 3rd, 2015. The New Year is right around the corner.

Three years ago, I used December as an excuse to eat like crap and relax…and wait for the New Year to get back on track. I would spend the month over eating and over drinking which always led to even more weight gain. Now that I am three years into my journey, I hate the idea of waiting for the New Year to make a change. Did you know Americans gain on average of 10-12 pounds during the holidays? Then come January, people find this spurt of motivation and set out to lose weight. The gyms get packed, people go crazy over dieting and losing weight – yet it never lasts long. Weight loss can’t just be a New Year’s resolution, it has to be a way of life – a choice you make every day of the year, regardless of which month or holiday it is.

I am three years into my journey and down 70 pounds. I didn’t lose this weight and keep it off just because of a New Year’s resolution. I did it because I value my health and my confidence. Every single day for the past three years, I have made the choice to continue on and make this a lifestyle. I refuse to spend an entire month gorging myself with food and then working to lose it next month. It makes no sense.

This month, I will be following the Hammer and Chisel program. It is a 60 Day Beachbody program with Autumn and Sagi that is going to help me build more muscle and get shredded. So, while everyone else is packing on the pounds, I will be shedding them and getting in the best shape of my life. I refuse to sabotage myself this month. This program means workouts and a meal plan. Is it going to be easy during the holidays? Absolutely not. But, it is a choice I am making and I know I can do it.

I plan to blog my way through this program so I can share my experience and also keep myself accountable. Hopefully you will follow my journey!

Would you rather…

See a specific number on the scale OR fit in a certain size?

For the longest time I thought scale = size. Thought If I could just be a certain weight, then I would finally be a size 4. I know I am not alone here when I say that I used to define myself by what the scale told me. If I was up a pound – then I was pissed, fat, discouraged, depressed and wanted to quit. Yet – if I was down a pound – then I was happy, on top of the world, excited and lean. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? The fluctuation of a POUND or two could either make me feel like I was a cow or it could make me feel incredible.

WHY do we do this?? Why do we put so much value in a stupid number?!

If I have learned anything on my journey, it is that your weight does not mean a thing. Yes, I still get caught up in the number every now and then. But when I really think about it, the scale says nothing about me.

It doesn’t tell me how pretty I am.
It doesn’t tell me how fit I am.
It doesn’t tell me how much muscle I have.
It doesn’t tell me if I am healthy.
It doesn’t tell me my self-worth.
It doesn’t tell me how successful I am.

I used to think I had to be 130 in order to be in shape and healthy. That if I wasn’t that specific number, then I was not good enough. I would let the scale determine if I was going to quit or not. And when the scale didn’t change by 10+ pounds in a week, I thought this whole healthy lifestyle thing was a joke.

And, here I am today. Weighing in at 148 lbs and in the BEST shape of my entire life. I wear a size 4 comfortably and my shirts are an XS. I highly doubt too many people hear 148 pounds and think fit and healthy. Most people don’t associate a number higher than 140 with healthy and fit. My journey has taught me that the scale means nothing. People can be 120 pounds and be more UNHEALTHY than someone who weighs 170 pounds.

Define your success on how you feel. If you feel incredible, don’t let the fluctuation on the scale make you feel otherwise. Don’t give it that power over you. If the scale has too much power over you, then stop weighing yourself. Put your scale in your trunk. Give it to a friend. Tell your husband to hide it…and only bring it out when you know that you will continue to feel amazing no matter what the number reads.

Let your clothes, pictures, mood and measurements define your success…not a dumb number.