Hey Beautiful!
First off, let me admit to you that I ate pizza and chocolate during these two weeks, but I did limit my daily caloric intake to 1,200 calories per day. I began two weeks ago at 210 pounds and today I weighed in at 187 pounds! Let me also tell you that I have serious PCOS, a disease that makes losing weight harder than a right hook from Floyd Mayweather. So how did I do it?
Step one: Motivation.
I have the hardest time motivating myself so to combat that, I got myself a cute water bottle and some adorable new gym clothes. These motivated me to work out and drink water. Drinking water will help you lose water weight and keep you hydrated and happy. I also downloaded Fitocracy and My Fitness Pal on my phone along with some catchy workout music.
Step Two: Counting Calories.
I know, it sounds dreadful and tedious, but with My Fitness Pal, it's really not. The app and also the site show you graphs and statistics that make it easy to know just how much you should eat and how much you have eaten that day. I truly didn't realize how much I was eating until I logged it.
Step Three: Weight Training and Toning.
For weight training I did low weight, high repetition, and high amount of sets. I also only did dumbbell workouts. If you need some you can go to google and search "dumbbell workouts" depending on where you want to gain muscle. No matter the workout, I used 5 pound weights, did 10 repetitions and did 10 sets, so 5x10x10. It is absolutely up to you what you want to do, but this formula builds lean toned muscle, where as high weight and low reps and sets build big muscles. You want to build muscle because muscle is always burning calories even while you're asleep.
Step Four: Cardio, specifically hiits.
I worked out about three times a week, for about an hour each workout. I spent my time on a treadmill doing hiits, aka High Intensity Interval Workouts. Which basically means I wasn't busting my butt the entire time, only really for 5 minutes at a time. I would set the treadmill for 0% incline at 1.5 miles per hour and did that for 5 minutes, then for my second setting I would do 5 more minutes, I would put the incline to 6-10 % and the speed up to 2.0, when that 5 minutes was up, I raised the incline to 10-15% and the speed up to 2.5 mph, after that 5 minutes was over, I lowered it back down to my second setting, then again back down my first, before working my way back up. I repeated my 15 minute cycle the entire hour, adding my slowest pace and incline at the begging and end of my workout for a warm up and cool down ten minutes each. I also ended and began my workout with a ten minute stretch. I lost about 60 calories about every 5 minutes. I would lose around 700 calories every workout. Which is a crazy amount. The weight began to fall right off. My arms got smaller, and my tummy rolls shrank immensely. This was the first time in my life I was successfully losing weight, and it felt amazing. Below is my incline graph from the treadmill after a workout
Step Five: Diet.
So like I said, I have a weakness for pizza and chocolate. But in addition to eating those, I had a homemade smoothie every morning as a meal replacement. The usually contained soy milk, berries, bananas and yogurt. For lunch I would eat some lean protein, grains a starch and a serving of veggies. Then for dinner I usually caved for a small portion of pizza or a burger. If you can go all out and eat healthy, your progress will be much better, but for me, I have HORRIBLE self control.
First off, let me admit to you that I ate pizza and chocolate during these two weeks, but I did limit my daily caloric intake to 1,200 calories per day. I began two weeks ago at 210 pounds and today I weighed in at 187 pounds! Let me also tell you that I have serious PCOS, a disease that makes losing weight harder than a right hook from Floyd Mayweather. So how did I do it?
Step one: Motivation.
I have the hardest time motivating myself so to combat that, I got myself a cute water bottle and some adorable new gym clothes. These motivated me to work out and drink water. Drinking water will help you lose water weight and keep you hydrated and happy. I also downloaded Fitocracy and My Fitness Pal on my phone along with some catchy workout music.
Step Two: Counting Calories.
I know, it sounds dreadful and tedious, but with My Fitness Pal, it's really not. The app and also the site show you graphs and statistics that make it easy to know just how much you should eat and how much you have eaten that day. I truly didn't realize how much I was eating until I logged it.
Step Three: Weight Training and Toning.
For weight training I did low weight, high repetition, and high amount of sets. I also only did dumbbell workouts. If you need some you can go to google and search "dumbbell workouts" depending on where you want to gain muscle. No matter the workout, I used 5 pound weights, did 10 repetitions and did 10 sets, so 5x10x10. It is absolutely up to you what you want to do, but this formula builds lean toned muscle, where as high weight and low reps and sets build big muscles. You want to build muscle because muscle is always burning calories even while you're asleep.
Step Four: Cardio, specifically hiits.
I worked out about three times a week, for about an hour each workout. I spent my time on a treadmill doing hiits, aka High Intensity Interval Workouts. Which basically means I wasn't busting my butt the entire time, only really for 5 minutes at a time. I would set the treadmill for 0% incline at 1.5 miles per hour and did that for 5 minutes, then for my second setting I would do 5 more minutes, I would put the incline to 6-10 % and the speed up to 2.0, when that 5 minutes was up, I raised the incline to 10-15% and the speed up to 2.5 mph, after that 5 minutes was over, I lowered it back down to my second setting, then again back down my first, before working my way back up. I repeated my 15 minute cycle the entire hour, adding my slowest pace and incline at the begging and end of my workout for a warm up and cool down ten minutes each. I also ended and began my workout with a ten minute stretch. I lost about 60 calories about every 5 minutes. I would lose around 700 calories every workout. Which is a crazy amount. The weight began to fall right off. My arms got smaller, and my tummy rolls shrank immensely. This was the first time in my life I was successfully losing weight, and it felt amazing. Below is my incline graph from the treadmill after a workout
Step Five: Diet.
So like I said, I have a weakness for pizza and chocolate. But in addition to eating those, I had a homemade smoothie every morning as a meal replacement. The usually contained soy milk, berries, bananas and yogurt. For lunch I would eat some lean protein, grains a starch and a serving of veggies. Then for dinner I usually caved for a small portion of pizza or a burger. If you can go all out and eat healthy, your progress will be much better, but for me, I have HORRIBLE self control.
Why This Worked.
Doing hiits works because it keeps your body guessing, keeps your heart working and your body from fatiguing. They also aren't agonizing to do. You raise and lower your heart rate and breathing, there fore burning way more calories. I truly hope this works for all you too! And I'll continue to keep this blog updated on my weight loss and my tips. Remember; Motivation, Counting Calories, weight training and hiits! Good luck, I'm gonna hit the gym!
Doing hiits works because it keeps your body guessing, keeps your heart working and your body from fatiguing. They also aren't agonizing to do. You raise and lower your heart rate and breathing, there fore burning way more calories. I truly hope this works for all you too! And I'll continue to keep this blog updated on my weight loss and my tips. Remember; Motivation, Counting Calories, weight training and hiits! Good luck, I'm gonna hit the gym!