Getting to the Dance...

It is officially one of my favorite times of year... March Madness! This year's tournament has been full of big upsets & nail bitting games. VCU is the 2011 Cinderella team & they just advanced to the Elite 8 for the first time in their school's history which is pretty exciting. BYU was also fun to watch especially Jimmer Fredette & it was kind sad when they got eliminated Thursday night. Luckily, 2 of my Final 4 teams are still going strong... UNC & Kansas. UNC is my team so I'm always happy to see them do well. Today it gets down to the Final 4 so I'm crossing my fingers!

This week was weigh in week so naturally I was a nervous wreck all day Tuesday. I don't know why I get so crazed about weigh in, but that number on the scale messes with my head so bad, but our culture is obsessed with numbers & females are just conditioned to think in the case of weight less is always better hence my panic. Here are the results with last month's in parenthesis...

Weight: 152 (153)
Hips: 39 (40)
Waist: 30 (31.5)
R Thigh: 21 (21)
R arm: 10 3/4 (10 3/4)
Shoulders: 39 (39)
Body Fat: 27.4% (27.6%)

That's 2.5 inches & another pound this month for a grand total of 9.5 inches & almost 16 pounds since October! I was definitely feeling pretty good after that, but I can't lie, I would have liked a little more loss on the weight. Joe reminded me that now is when it's going to start to get hard because I don't have that much more to lose, but for my own personal comfort, I would prefer to be no more than 148. Maybe that's a bit of a reach, but I'm gonna give it a go. Just to show how much has changed since the end of the summer check this out...

End of summer 2010

March 2011 w/Stella

I guess I don't really notice the difference because I'm looking at myself, but just looking at these 2 pictures was a huge lift for me. People have started referring to me as "skinny" which I have to say almost makes me feel uncomfortable. That adjective isn't one I'd ever use to describe me. Someone else said that I've gotten "tiny" & I was like, "No way." There is nothing "tiny" about me. I'm a 5'7" girl that wears a size 10 shoe so tiny just isn't me. I think it can be hard to feel comfortable in your own body, but I'm trying to get there... 

So Joe thought it would be a good idea to focus on core this week & I should've known that was going to be a problem. However, what I ended up getting was a plyometrics work out! AWFUL! I had to jump onto a platform and squat down & do that for a minute, girl push ups with my hand on a sand bag ball & as I go down had to push the ball to the other hand for a minute, one handed swings with a medicine ball for 30 seconds each, jumps side to side & touching my foot to the sandbag ball for a minute & last but not least the inch worm (Not to be confused with the dance move). You start standing straight up & then walk your hands all the way out so that you're in a push up position & then walk your feet to your hands & repeat. HORRIBLE. 

I've had some rough lifting work outs a.k.a. "the man work out", but this work out actually made me want to cry because I was so upset that he would make me do that. I am not training for a sport so as far as I'm concerned my speed & agility are not high on my list. Sure that kind of work out burns a lot of calories but I was really annoyed that I had to do that. My goal is to sculpt my body & be fit, not be able to jump side to side really fast to impress the soccer scouts. Hopefully next week, he will get back to lifting. 

Food has been good lately. I'm trying to inject some more protein into my diet, which is kinda challenging with Lent. I would like to say that I have cooked fish 2 out of the 3 Fridays... that's right I cooked it. I hate it, but I cooked it. We had swordfish this week, which I have to say is the fish I tolerate the best. Lunch on Fridays is tough because I don't want to just eat carbs, so this week I settled on a salad and some Greek yogurt. I know there are only 3 more Fridays to go, but it's not easy when you aren't a fish fan. 

Well, I've got a busy couple of weeks ahead. I've gotta try to make it through school in one piece & then I will have 3 glorious months of not having to report to Seton Hall woo hoo!! And next week baseball season officially gets under way, which is the best part of spring! Did my fantasy baseball draft last night & I need a serious bounce back year so cross your fingers I get off to a good start! 

Until next time... 

Marisa

Take You Back...

Happy Hump Day to all! This week is spring break for many college/graduate students. How am I spending my spring break you ask? Oh why I am staying in New Jersey waiting on the massive rain storms that are supposed to hit & flood the area over the next 3 days & working. I LOVE not having to drive to school, but since I can't be on a tropical island drinking really high calorie fruity drinks while getting a tan I'm just going to pretend that I'm on a beach somewhere really amazing. 

I spent most of the weekend cleaning out my computer room so that the rug could get ripped out & while doing that I stumbled upon lots of stuff that has been collecting dust on shelves and in drawers. Some of what I found was old pictures & all I could think of was, "Why did I think it was okay to go around looking like that?" In the last edition I mentioned about being a chubby kid... well here it is...

Yeah that's 4 year old Marisa...

Sometimes it's really hard to look back on how I used to be because I'd like to just kick myself for letting things get so out of control. I can't help but think maybe it wouldn't be such a challenge right now if I had started taking better care of myself younger? Grammar school & middle school were pretty bad, but those pictures are deep in the archives so this is the next best thing. Ready for another one... 

And it just kept going... me at 21

But I think all we can do as people is try to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. Maybe the constant battle is a reminder of why I don't want to repeat any of those mistakes? I have to have some kind of reason to justify all of this pain, right? Ha! 

Okay so onto the work out routine... I think Joe gets such a kick out of the "man work out" that he enjoys making modified "man work outs" now. My first exercise was climbing up onto this squat machine with shoulder rests and weights on the sides and I was up on a platform. I should've known that was a bad sign... that lead to hammer curls/shoulder presses, chest press laying down on a bench w/my feet elevated, the DREADED unassisted bench dips, assisted reverse grip pull-ups, lunges with a 10 pound weight that I had to rotate every time I took a step, finished with  supermans/bananas. If you don't know about supermans/bananas they are incredibly challenging core exercises that I'm sure some man came up with just to torture women with. When it was time to start another set, Joe kept referring to it as "going back into the gauntlet" & I couldn't help but laugh because the gauntlet is EXACTLY what it felt like! I was totally spent when I left there, but at the same time I felt really accomplished. Sure, I feel beat up all the time, but I'm proud that I can make it through these difficult work outs. 

I'm in such a different place now than I was even five years ago... I want to challenge myself & I'll deal with pain because I know it's necessary. So I'll sit with an ice pack on my shoulder like a pitcher that just threw 8 awesome innings & keep going. I'm also really focused with my food right now & that helps a lot. However, now that Lent has set in, I'm up for even more of a challenge because fish & I aren't friends & I obviously can't eat pizza/pasta THAT much. I think I'm going to have to (gasp) cook the occasional swordfish over the next 6 weeks or so. I can tolerate that, but man do I hate cooking fish! I'm gonna try not to think about it for the time being... 

Well, my bed is screaming my name right now so I'm gonna try to fall asleep before midnight. These weeks just keep flying by & they're all starting to blur together. One more picture before I go... 

26...healthier & wiser :) 

Until next time... 

Marisa

How Winning Is Done...

It's hard to believe I'm actually 26! It was an a good weekend of celebrating & I just want to thank everyone that came out to celebrate & to those who couldn't be there you were missed! Also, all the Facebook messages, texts & calls also really made my day which may sound lame, but it really did.

Ok so birthday celebrations aside, everything has been really busy, but before anything else, I must report on the weigh in and measurements from last week as I promised... The previous month's results are in parenthesis.

Weight: 152.5 (154)
Hips: 40 (40 3/4)
R Thigh: 21 1/2 (21)
R arm: 10 3/4 (11)
Waist: 31.5 (31.5)
Body Fat: 27.6% (27.6%)

That's 2 more inches down & almost 2 more pounds for a grand total of about 7 inches & 14 pounds since October! Joe was happy with my results & I have to say it's nice to see that all the hard work is paying off. I would've liked a little change in the waist & body fat, but Joe told me not to get hung up on that. Good results are good results. Still, that doesn't mean the work outs slow down. My biggest challenge that night was doing a girl push up & with one hand on the ground & one hand on a ball filled with sand and as I pushed up i had to shoot the ball over to my other hand before going down again. UGH. While the weight lifting and core exercises cause the most pain, for me, cardio is the biggest torture.

It really is a struggle to get myself to stay on the treadmill for at least 15 minutes especially on the days that I don't lift, because I just find it unfulfilling. Although, the other day I had the pleasure of watching Jake Gyllenhaal in "The Prince of Persia" while I walked at an incline so that was a very nice distraction that made the time go fast, but on the whole it's awful.

Last night, we did a modified "man work out" which was just about as challenging as the man work out... bench press on an incline, single leg presses, arm flections kneeling on one leg on a cable machine,  dead lifts with a curl, tricep extension with a barbell over my head while laying on a bench with my feet raised & the final one... squatting all the way down to the ground so my butt was on a bosu ball while holding a medicine ball, extending over the back, coming up all the way and throwing the ball back to Joe. I really wanted to know if he had something against me. Almost every muscle hurts today... but no pain no gain, right?

During my cardio last night, I noticed a girl about 4 treadmills down from me... she must've been about 10 and I saw her walk in with a woman I'm presuming was her mom. The girl reminded me of a younger version of myself. She was a little chunky and I'm guessing she was trying to get a head start on a weight problem no doubt other people had pointed out to her. I can remember being that age, being told I was chunky and wanting so much to not be. I tried different things... I would go for walks around my neighborhood, or ride my bike, & then for one Christmas I asked for the Fast Track (it was a machine that you powered yourself by sliding your legs back and forth on somewhat of a slope... but like many kids, after awhile I got bored or distracted and my weight loss path got lost. The real problem was my head wasn't in the right place. How could it be? I was a kid & I didn't think about how much harder it would be to lose weight as I got older. I guess a part of me felt like it would just go away on it's own. Part of me would love to go back in time & tell that little girl not to worry and that it would all work out when I was ready. Since it's impossible to go back, all I can do is keep moving forward.

Well, it's about time I call it a night... the Yankees have started playing spring training games & that means that spring really is creeping up so there's no time to slow down! Back to the gym Friday & Saturday. Hopefully next post I'll have some updated pictures to share. Until next time...

Marisa