A truly life enhancing 100 days!

So many variables can affect the outcome of this challenge that it was truly a shock to hear your name called with "1st. place winner" in the same sentence! Awesome to share the spot with James! 

Over the weeks of this thing, my wonderful trainer kept asking, "where do you want to be at the end of all this?" and I just said, "I want to win this thing,  I don't know why, I'm not really a competitive person, but I just really want to win!" And she would say OK, we're going to do it! But as we all kept seeing Paul B. shrinking before our eyes in the nutrition class,  I thought maybe 2nd or 3rd would be OK, and I kind of got a little down about it. And my husband just constantly said to me, that all of us are winners already!  Just making the changes in our lives and feeling so much healthier and energetic makes us all winners!!!!!
Thank-you to all of the organizers of this program.
Traci and Mindy and my wonderful trainer Daniell!  And every one else involved. 
I will never forget how awful that 1st 12 minutes was.... I don't want to ever want to feel that way again!
But most of all I will never forget how great I felt when I made it through a full 30 minutes on the elliptical.  (now I'm up to 40!)

My Dr. has been telling me for a long time that if I would just loose 10-15 lbs it could make a huge difference in my diabetes and over all health...but I really don't think I could grasp that, without going through this and experiencing such drastic changes for myself.

In 100 days watching everything I ate and working up to 1 1/2 hours 6 days a week and a gallon of sweat this is what my results were...

Total Cholesterol  was  320  now  192  (-128)
HDL  was 27  now   36  (+14)
Triglycerides  were  545  now   92  (-453)
Chol/HDL  was  11.9  now 5.3  (-6.6)
Glucose   was 169   now  114   (-55)
Blood Pressure   was   102/69  now   118/76
Pulse   was  79   now  68
% Body fat  was  35.3%   now   31.4%   (-8.5%)
Waist   down      8.5"
Weight down     31 lbs

Thanks again to everyone involved and to all the participants!  You're all amazing! 

Hope to see ya in the gym from time to time!

Ready set go!

These lyrics have become very inspirational for me, so I hope they bring you hope to carry on...

Little Change of the heart,
Little light in the dark.
Little hope that you just might find your way out of here.
Cuz you've been hiding for days,
wasted  and wasting away.
But I got a little hope today, you'll face your fears.
Yeah, I know it's not easy. 
I know that it's hard.
Follow the lights to the city.
Get up and go!
Take a chance and be Strong, or you could spend you're whole life holding on.
Don't look back , just go.
Take a breath, move on.
You could spend you're whole life holding on, your could spend you're whole life holding on.
Believe the tunnel can end.
Believe your body can mend.
Yeah, I know you can make it through, cuz I believe in you.
So lets go put up a fight, lets go make everything right.
Go on and take a shot.
Go give it all you've got.
Oh yeah, I know it's not easy, I know that it's hard.
I know that it's not always pretty.
Get up and go!
Take a chance and be strong, or you could spend your whole life holding on, you could spend your whole life holding on.
Don't want to wake up to the telephone ring.
Are you sitting down? I need to tell you something.
Enough is enough.
You can stop waiting to breath.
And don't wait up for me.
Get up and to!
Take a chance and be strong, or you could spend your whole life holding on, you could spend your whole life holding on.
Don't spend your whole life holding on.
Get up.....

Beautiful song by,
Go
by:
Boys like girls

What a Journey!

This has truly been an amazing ride! The pounds melting (sweating literally) away! Inches gone, good riddance! Looking forward to the next 100 days-- and the next after that!

It's all about the "play list"!

So after about 10 weeks, 40-50 hours of listening to the same play list, I decided to start putting together a new one.  But first I need to pay tribute to the tunes that have inspired, pushed, and brought me to my knees at times. Which, I can now get back up!

So I start off with 30 minutes on the elliptical...
Love Shack- The B-52's-- It's best to begin everything with some 'Love'....
Then we move on to, All the single ladies-Beyonce---It's all about the "booty!
Next is,  Only the Good Die Young-Billy Joel---It helps you to get your-bad  @%# on!
Then we have-Old Time Rock 'n' Roll--Bob Seger--- Tom Cruze in his tighty whiteys-Inspirational!
On to--I Feel the Earth Move--Carol King---You have to get your butt moving, to move the earth!
Mid-Life Chrysler--Collin Raye---It reminds me how much my husband loves me, with a great beat!
Then we have,  Sugar---Def Leopard---Hot, Sticky, Sweet,  The hot is from the sweat dripping off my face, causing the stickiness, and the Sweet reminds us it's OK to pour sugar ON you, just not IN you!
This brings me to the last 5 minutes, which are Killer...American Idiot---Green Day---I'm the Idiot for letting myself get this way! and the song just gets angry and helps me make it to the 30 Minutes!  Then we have the 2 minute Cool Down!  You Can Leave Your Hat On---Joe Cocker-- A hot sexy Striptease, Now that's some Inspiration!!!!

I started with only being able to do 12 minutes on the elliptical, and I really thought that these people are  trying to kill me.... My heart felt like it would explode, How could this possibly be healthy for my heart! Just walking up the 3rd floor to work would take 5-7 minutes to recover from. Now I sometimes, (for fun!) hike up to the 7th floor, that's tough but it's getting easier! Another song further down on my play list is
Gimme 3 Steps--Lynard Skynyrd---Step one-- Start somewhere.  Step two---Plan! Make time!  Step 3--Just do it!
Other Songs are:
Kiss a Girl---Keith Urban
Rock n Roll Jesus--Kid Rock - Awesome!
Mama Mia--Merile Streep--Amazing and fun!
Unskinny Bop--Poison---Skinny-Skinny-Skinny!
Your Momma Don't Dance--Poison---Maybe she did, but didn't let us see.  I hope she did!
Life is a Highway---Rascal Flatts---It's definitely a journey!
Do ya Think I'm sexy?--Rod Stewart---I'm getting my sexy on!
Satisfaction-Rolling Stones--- The inches falling off are very Satisfying!
Can't get enough of you baby!--Smash Mouth---Fun- Fun- Fun!
I Like It,  I Love It!--Tim Mcgraw---I love it!
I Kissed a Girl--Katie Perry--A little bit of naughty!
Better than This--Brad Paisley---When you think it can't get any better, it does!

Awsome Week!

The most amazing event of the week is not about food or how well my workouts were,  It was all about the new little bundle of "pink" that joined our family. My Baby had a baby, early Tuesday morning. It was so incredible to be there with her at that special moment---Unforgettable!
That is exactly why this challenge is such an incredible opportunity. When this baby is 25,  I'll be 75. I actually used to think and came to accept the 'fact', that I probably wouldn't ever get that 'old' and I was actually OK with that! Well not now.  It's a whole new ball game!
I just turned 50 yesterday, and I feel better than I have in 8 years. So here's to the 50's!  GAME ON!!!

Bring it on week 5!

Great work outs with Daniell! I'm so glad she's there to push me, and always makes me feel good about the progress I feel I've made. When I go to the Rec. Center on my own I find myself pushing harder, as if she is there saying,  'you can do it' just 30 more seconds! And I get it done! It's a great feeling! I'm looking forward to this week and the opportunity to amaze myself!  It's going to be a good one! 

 I'm just going to stay out of the kitchen! LOL!

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done? I Think Not...

As I was driving home from one of my work outs, I thought, This is the hardest thing I've ever done.  Then I went through the common things that are hard in life, like giving birth to my first born with no medication. (Why I felt I had to do that or what it would prove, I may never know.) Or going on the "Subway Hike," the summer I was turning 40,  (9 hours and 15 min. of *^%&*%^! and incredible beauty!). But as I've given it a little more thought, harder still may be, dying too young of something SOOOO stupid, like being over weight and all that comes with that baggage... A little sweat (well maybe allot!).. and some better choices, doesn't seam so bad.

Ruff Start with First Week on Vacation!

I worked out with Tracy and Daniell on Monday!  It was great! I was so worried about going, but I felt very comfortable and encouraged by them both. I'm looking forward to tomorrow for another great session. It's been a tough week to keep up with the food log and dealing with alot of  food on the go, but small changes, I think, like cutting back on serving size, planning ahead, and having good things on hand will be a great thing for me to improve on, and drinking lots of water!  Looking forward to learning more information on nutrition in the morning! Need  alot of help with food choices!