Going Bananas for Bananas!

As I was reading Laura’s post last night about watching her weight for her upcoming wedding (FYI, it’s the same day as ours), got me thinking about my own weight loss goals and the progress that I am not really making.  A while back I thought about whether or not to count calories, and was determined to just eat healthy and exercise to lose weight.  This worked for a while (add in a dog for bonus activity) and I have actually lost about 8 pounds since January.  However, my weight has been stagnant, hovering between 157 and 160 depending on the day, for the past few months.  So with Laura as inspiration, I signed up for Weight Watchers Online.  I know that this could be a hotly debated topic, but I decided that I needed a bit more accountability that the blog was not giving me (or I wasn’t giving myself).  Plus, I’ve had success on WW in the past (read about it here).

So I signed up this morning, and went to look at my daily points target.  I was very taken aback when my old points target of about 22 was suddenly 29, with 49 flex weekly points.   WTF?!!?  Oh yeah, they change their plan in December and this was a BIG change.  For those who followed WW before, the old “points” system was based on calories with less points if a food was rich in fiber and more points if the food was high in fat.  Now, the points are calculated using protein, fat, carbs, and fiber.  I think that this is probably a good move (and of course it doesn’t hurt that the formula is a bit more mysterious, like the BCS football rankings, and therefore more proprietary).

BUT WAIT . . . THE BEST PART!!  I went to input my banana to learn that MOST FRUITS ARE NOW FREE!!  WHOA!!  They are encouraging WWers to eat fruits and veggies and not 100 calorie packs!  OH BOY!  I told Matt that I was going to go bananas for more bananas!

Anyway, so starting today, back on WW; starting weight: 161.2lbs.

ACTIVITY POINTS!

When embracing a healthier lifestyle, why not go full throttle and hit up the gym (like you had been planning on this morning, but a bad night’s sleep didn’t help).  Now it’s no secret that I am not a cardio person.  I would rather lift all day long, than do a bunch of cardio.  As a result, my cardio health is not stellar.  So this workout from my trainer last week was a killer!:

• 40 seconds of each activity; 20 seconds of rest
• Pushups (yup 40 seconds of push-ups!  If you aren’t doing them from your knees sometime during Round 2, you are fitter than I!)
• Squat walk
• Buttkicks
• Flutterkicks
• Single arm bent over rows (keeping arms bent up) (10 lb dumbbells)
• Calf raises
• Mountain Climbers
• Plank
• Wall sit bicep curls (10 lb dumbbells)
• Tricep kickbacks (8 lb dumbbells)
• Baby lunges
• Crunches w/ 15 lb dumbbell
• repeat 2-3 X

Yeah, same thing happened tonight as last week.  I did the first round pretty well.  The second round goes well until the mountain climbers and plank.  I then absolutely cannot do the bicep curls.  My heart is beating so fast.  For those who don’t know what mountain climbers are:

Seriously, just killer!  And then a plank after that!?!  I DIED!!  I DIED!!  So after resting for what seemed like forever (I was actually laying, bent over the smelly table where people get stretched out), I went back to it and completed round 2.  For my third round, I decided to cut the mountain climbers and did much better.

I really need to get better at cardio!  Do you prefer weight lifting or cardio?

All of my training workouts mix up both, which is what you should be doing for optimum calorie burn and cardiovascular workout, but I could probably do more cardio by itself to help me to keep up.