The Challenge

I have been wanting to work on getting into shape lately and my employer just started up a new fitness program called The Challenge.  Basically everyone who wants to participate signs up and they weigh you in.  They wanted to focus on BMI, but it's just calculated from your height and weight, and you can't really change your height so it's just another way of tracking your weight.  The contest goes until April and you just have them check your weight every week or so.  In the end there are prizes, but they didn't really specify how they are deciding the categories. 

I really want to keep at exercising and trying to cut back on eating junk food, so I'm periodically going to post about my progress to give myself the incentive to stick with it.  It's called accountability!

So it's confession time:
My starting BMI is 25.6, which just puts me in the overweight category.  My goal is to get down into the normal range, but ultimately to feel better and have more strength and energy.  I feel like BMI is hard for me because I have a big boned frame and I think I would probably always be at the upper end of the BMI scale categories because of it.  It would be nice if there was some way to account for frame size.

A side consideration is at my last physical the doctor also recommended that if I plan to have another baby in the future that I should drop some weight.  We are not in a big hurry for that, but it is our goal for the future.  Although I have to admit that unlike most, having Austin actually made me lose weight.  My pre-pregnancy weight was 170, which was way too much and makes me sick to think I got that lazy and big!  I got up to just under 200 at the end of my pregnancy.  I pretty much came home from the hospital back at 170, and with breastfeeding got down to 140.  At that point I looked really skinny and people were worried about me.  Since I stopped breastfeeding I have been inching back up and am currently at 154.  I would ultimately like to be back down around 145. 

I have to be careful about what I do for exercise because I was is a bad car accident when I was 11 that knocked out my PCL in my right knee.  All through middle and high school I participated in sports as part of my rehab, not knowing I was missing that ligament until my senior year.  I was on swim team and was kicking with paddles when I felt a huge pop in my knee.  I went to an orthopedic surgeon who had me get an MRI to see that the ligament was gone.  Going all that time with my knee out of alignment tore up everything in there so the week after I graduated they scoped it and removed all the cartilage and meniscus. So basically I am not supposed to run or do any high impact activities. 


This week I started to work out. With the new schedule I talked about in my previous post I am able to workout in the afternoon while Austin naps.  On Monday I rode our exercise bicycle for 20 minutes.  Wednesday I did two pilates workouts from The Carribean Workout video.  Yesterday I attended a class through my work to do a TRX workout.  It is a strange workout, they call it suspension training, where you lean against ropes and use your body weight for resistance, and it's kind of like pilates in that it doesn't feel like you are doing a whole lot, but your body aches afterward.  Today I did a 3 mile power walk. 

I am also trying to cut back on snacking, and trying to eat healthier.  I love Mountain Dew and Coke, but am trying to limit my pop consumption and instead limiting myself to 1 cup of coffee, ice tea sweetened with Splenda, skim milk, and of course water.  I also try to buy things that are low-fat or no-fat, especially now that Austin is over 2 and no longer needs the extra fat. 

I hope that my rambling about this doesn't scare anyone away.  I will label any post about this as "The Challenge" so you can skip it if you are not interested, but I think by updating on here it will hold me accountable and I will reach my goal.