Slow & Steady Wins the Race…. I WILL Rock This, Week 3 Results

So the last time I had time to write about the #IWillRockThis weight loss challenge I was in 16th place out of 33rd. Right where I was aiming to be considering the birthday week circumstances. Last week I was able to jump up to 5th place, and this week I am sitting pretty in 3rd place!! This waking up at 5am to fit a workout into my schedule for the day seems to be working so far! 😉 Give me another 2 weeks or so and I should be (*finger, toes, eyes, legs, arms, and whatever else crossed!*) in 1st place and hope to stay there til the end of this on July 1st!!

Needless to say I am very motivated to keep going after seeing this weeks results this afternoon. 1st place is very well in reach for me. Here are the current standings. 🙂 Congrats to all the ladies so far! This has been a great group of woman to be in this challenge with!!

HDufour 8.31%

CCBerry 7.45%

E.M. 7.01%    <——- THAT’S ME!!!!!!

L P 5.63%

K B 5.58%

S B 5.32%

JCross 5.15%

L H P 4.58%

MS 3.93%

N S 3.80%

JS 3.61%

M Saharic 3.41%

A Bo 3.11%

J DeV 3.01%

N C 2.53%

The Rehan Family Blog – Ali 2.50%

N L 2.44%

C West 2.26%

D Pratt 2.01%

J Ferrara 1.98%

R L Goddard 1.79%

S C 1.63%

J H G 1.45%

K T K 1.31%

E Vee 0.98%

W N 0.79%

K Z Gs 0.75%

J W 0.65%

K A 0.59%

A O  0.49%

E F  0.48%

T J 0.10%

M B N 0.00%

I’ve been hitting up the Trader Joe’s nearby to fill up on all sorts of tasty salads for lunch and other low-calorie snacks. This combined with making it to the gym almost everyday and trying to drink more water and stay away from soda is what has helped me out so far. Hoping for another 6 weeks of smooth sailing to inch my way to the top. 🙂 Any other tips or suggestions is always welcome as I’m always open to new ideas on how to achieve my goals faster and to mix things up a bit!!!

The Survival of Birthday Week, I Will Rock This Challenege. End of Week 1.

Ok, so I made it! Alive. In one piece, without gaining any weight during the week of ultimate eating out (well sort of) for my birthday! I even lost a little bit of weight.

Yesterday was weigh in day. The results were posted up for week one, and I’m NOT in last place after all that birthday food and eating out! I am about in the middle of the pack, 16th place out of 33. So considering I was waking up at the crack of dawn to work out anywhere from 60-90 minutes to make up for the birthday activities, and not eating as healthy as I would be normally, I am happy with being in the middle and not too far away from striking distance to make a leap towards the top of the pack.

So far so good with the no soda thing! I’ve been only drinking water, with the exception of one Pop Rock Margarita from Panama Joe’s and one Tickle Me Pink Martini off of the “Skinny” menu at Flemings. Now, I just need to stay away from the eating out part!! That part is NOT as easy!! If I do need to eat out somewhere though, it will be somewhere that has healthy choices, with low-calorie items! I was able to have some very healthy choices while I was out celebrating birthdays this week though, I have some pics below of the healthy goodies I was able to find!! 🙂

On my birthday I woke up bright and early at 5am for a 90 minute workout so that I’d be ready to leave by 7:45am for Glen Ivy!

Arriving at Glen Ivy!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a handful of the many beautiful pics that were taken

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Group pic of us as we were getting ready to leave this paradise! From left to right: Danielle, Erin (myself), Melody, and Leilani

Then it was off to Panama Joe’s to celebrate birthdays with dinner and drinks (well, A drink for me).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary with the famous Pop Rock Margarita!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My ONE and only Pop Rock Margarita I had for my birthday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jamie and  Jennifer celebrating with us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melody’s birthday is the day after mine, so we were celebrating both of our birthdays! Thanks Mary for the super cute bears! FRIENDS FOREVER for sure!! <3 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My birthday cupcake from Deanna (Thanks!!). Not too bad right? Pretty healthy considering the size of it… so I wouldn’t gain a pound just from having one!

Here are a couple of pics of some of the healthy options I was able to find while eating out at different places to celebrate my birthday with different people.

 

 

 

 

On my actual birthday, we had lunch at Glen Ivy Hot Springs at Cafe Sole. I had this grilled salmon salad. It was HUGE!

 

 

 

 

 

I went to dinner with my mother on Saturday to this place called Brown Rice, in Cypress, Ca. They had a “Healthy” section and I ordered the Steamed Veggies and Shrimp. I was pleasantly surprised at how filling and tasty it was.

A million thanks to everyone that came out to celebrate with me for my many birthday adventures!! We also celebrated Melody’s birthday at the Cheesecake Factory on Friday (where I had my main course off of the new skinnylicous menu, but I did have a piece of vanilla bean birthday cheesecake! I just HAD to!!). I also had a birthday breakfast on Sunday with my father at the Katella Deli and a birthday dinner that same NIGHT at Flemings with a friend for their Sunday Prime Rib special!!  UGGG So as you can see I am SUPER lucky to have made it through the past week without gaining another 100 pounds!!

I need to start making up for last week and kick it up A LOT so I can get back in this thing! Anyone advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I’ll take any words of wisdom I can get to win this thing!!

OH! But I think I found this magic potion that helps you shed off the pounds pretty easily…. get this.. It’s called WATER!!!  I need to drink a lot more of it!!  😉

Where There’s a Will There’s a Way, Right?? Hour 1 of Day 1 of IWRT

Ok, so I went ahead and did it. I entered this Challenge sponsored by one of my fellow So Cal Lady bloggers. Go check it out; Wendy Will Blog— I Will Rock This Challenge.  I don’t know if my current job situation enticed me to want to do this (since work is beyond slow due to all the budget cuts in education lately among other things), or the fact that I have quite a few weddings, my grandparents 65th wedding anniversary parties to go to, and the summer just coming up in general and I would love to lose like a gazillion pounds, or my competitive spirit since I know this is something I could do well in, if I really decide to put the effort into it. I think it is a combination of all of these things together that pushed me over the edge to take the plunge and go for it.  This challenge started just over an hour ago on May 1st. It ends on July 1st.

I just finished (or am just finishing now I SHOULD say) my last soda I plan on having until this is over, or possibly longer. So HA! Yeah, we’ll see how that goes, right? I plan on drinking a LOT more water, and exercising more (hoping this challenge will give me more motivation to do so, instead of making an excuse not to get out and go to the gym or get outside) I usually have been going to the gym at least 3 days a week,  but would like to be going at least 5 now. Going out for less  Happy Hours and dinners will also help, I always make my own lunches for the most part, so that’s not an issue. Cutting back on the Starbucks would probably be ideal too I am thinking…. I’ve done this before, losing weight, so I know it is possible! I just need to find enough things to keep myself busy with.

One problem though…. this would all be PERFECT if it weren’t for my birthday being THIS THURSDAY on the 3rd! (See post below about all the TASTY YUMMY DELICOUSNESS you can get for your birthday MONTH) Plus how can I say no to all the happy hours and dinners with friends when it’s for my own BIRTHDAY? Looks like I will have to say no to a lot of the birthday goodies, but will still have a few things to go out and celebrate or opt for any healthy options there might be on the menu. I DO have to have one Pop Rock Margarita though!! Otherwise…. I WILL stick to just water!!! And CAKE! How can you say no to a piece of your own birthday cake, especially if its cheesecake? Seems pretty rude to me, if you refuse to take a piece of your own cake… 😉

I have to weigh in sometime today… So.Not.Looking.Forward.To.That 😛 If I don’t end up working today, I think I will spend the day at the gym. Get a head start on working off all those calories I will probably gain from any birthday festivities going on this next week. If I can just make it to May 7th, then I think I’ll be ok. Will take the whole not eating out part more seriously then replaced by much healthier options… 😉

Only 61 more days and 22 1/4 hours left to go… But who’s keeping track of that… Certainly NOT ME! 😉