This is my GOAL

I have decided to use Myfitnesspal.com website to assist me in my weight loss goals.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/home

I used Self.com to find my “Happy Weight” – a realistic goal for my weight loss challenge.

Apparently my “Happy Weight” is 145.2.

The ABS Diet Quick Start Plan

For when I start my diet

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/absdiet/free-abs-diet-workout-and-meal-plan

Flat belly Video

Flat-belly bonus

Use these three bonus moves to tone your tummy in just minutes—or combine them with the other supereffective moves in the SELF Challenge to firm up all over.

 

http://www.self.com/fitness/workouts/2009/04/flat-belly-bonus-video?mbid=yahoo

 

Get Amazing Abs Article and Work Out

Get Amazing Abs (and Tone All Over) at Any Age

SELF.com

By Lucy Danziger, SELF Editor-in-Chief - Posted on Fri, Jul 24, 2009, 12:02 am PDT

by Lucy Danziger, SELF Editor-in-Chief a Yahoo! Health Expert for Women's Health

Slim thighs are nice. Trim, taut arms are great, too. But there's nothing like feeling your abs get firmer, flatter and so toned you can't wait to wear a two-piece--particularly now that it's high beach season. Hello, hot weather!

The good news: You don't have to employ a celebrity trainer or be 18 to have a waistline worth baring. The secret to a getting a trim belly--not to mention fit from head to toe--is tailoring your workouts according to your birthday. (Not that anyone will guess how old you are, once you start exercising consistently.)

Science shows that frequent sweat sessions can actually help you be forever young: When researchers studied the lifestyle habits and DNA of 2,400 twins, they found that regular exercisers had longer telomeres, tags at the ends of chromosomes that shorten with age, than their couch potato counterparts. In fact, as little as 30 minutes of activity daily resulted in telomeres that looked 10 years younger.

Follow the age-specific advice below and then try the get-lean routine. (Watch a full demo now at Self.com.) You'll be slimmer, more youthful and ab-fabulous in no time.

In your 20s: You're energetic and resilient, so it's the perfect time to make fitness a key component in your life. The following moves will help you sculpt sexy muscles and build bone, which is crucial for warding off osteoporosis in the future. Try using heavier weights than you're used to (doing the final rep should be challenging) and adding a third weekly session when time allows.

In your 30s: Reality check--there's a natural 5 percent dip in metabolism during this decade. But you can still be a lean fat-burning machine by doing the moves below. They will build muscle, which will naturally rev your metabolism so you torch more calories even in your sleep, as well as bolster core strength and maintain agility.

In your 40s and beyond: Sexy curves you have. Now you want to stay firm and injury-free. These shapers will help you boost your backside (an area which may naturally lose muscle as you age) and tone all over. To increase your flex appeal and decrease your overall injury risk, add a weekly yoga class or regular stretching to this routine.

The plan: No matter what your age, grab a set of 3- to 10-pound weights and complete two sets of each move twice a week on nonconsecutive days. Add 30 to 60 minutes of brisk cardio most days to slim and tone even faster.

MOVE 1: Sumo squat
Stand with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart. Hold one weight in both hands directly overhead. Squat low and swing weight between legs and then forward, lifting it overhead, as you return to standing. Do 12 reps.

MOVE 2: Dragonfly
Start on all fours, a weight in each hand. Extend left leg behind you in line with body; extend right arm out to side at shoulder level. Keeping left leg lifted, curl weight toward chest. Straighten arm for one rep. Do 12 reps. Switch sides; repeat.

MOVE 3: Sidestepper
Stand with feet hip-width apart, toes out, a weight in each hand in front of thighs. Lunge to left side as you draw arms toward chest, elbows bent. Push off left foot and lower weights to return to start. Repeat on right for one rep. Do 12 reps.

MOVE 4: Gorgeous get-up
Kneel with a weight in each hand, arms overhead, palms in. Bring left leg forward, knee bent, thigh parallel to ground. Push off ball of foot to stand. Return to kneeling. Switch legs; repeat for one rep. Do 12 reps.

MOVE 5: Back attack
Lie facedown with legs pressed together; reach behind back, interlace fingers and draw shoulder blades together. Lift chest off ground as you kick heels toward butt with control three times for one rep. Return to start. Do 10 reps.

MOVE 6: Do-si-do
Stand with feet hip-width apart, a weight in each hand. Balance on left leg, knees soft, then lunge forward with right leg as you curl weights toward chest. Push off right foot to return to one-leg balance. Do 12 reps. Switch sides; repeat.

MOVE 7: T-rrific toner
Stand with feet hip-width apart, a weight in each hand, arms extended at shoulder level. Lift right leg back and lower torso forward until body forms a T, arms straight toward ground, palms in. Return to start. Do 12 reps. Switch sides; repeat.

MOVE 8: Turbo twist
Sit with legs out in front, knees bent. Hold one weight in both hands at chest level; lean back at a 45-degree angle. Maintain position as you contract abs and twist torso to right, then left for one rep. Do 12 reps.

MOVE 9: Bridge buffer
Lie faceup with knees bent, feet flat, a weight in each hand, elbows bent. Lift hips as high as possible; raise left leg off ground in line with hips as you extend weights in line with shoulders. Keeping hips raised, lower left foot and arms. Switch legs for one rep. Do 12 reps.

Get more amazing fitness tips and motivation advice from TV's top trainer and SELF contributor Jillian Michaels for free. And for three supereffective waistline cinchers, click on over to this how-to video

 

 

 

ABS Diet Article - from Men's Health

The Abs Diet Exercise Plan

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96% of users found this article helpful.

By David Zinczenko, Men's Health

If you want to find your abs, you have to burn the fat. Eating right is critical, and by following the nutrition principles of the Abs Diet and centering your meals around the Abs Diet Powerfoods, you'll lose fat pretty effortlessly. But to maximize your weight loss and turn your fat into muscle, you need an exercise plan. Exercise will not only make you healthier; it'll make you lose weight faster. It'll make you stronger. Most important, it'll make your body turn fat into muscle — by converting energy that's stored in fat into energy that feeds muscle.

The Abs Diet Workout Principles
Having worked at Men's Health for more than 10 years, I know all the latest trends in exercise, but I also scour the latest and most credible scientific research measuring the effectiveness of various workout plans. With that knowledge, I've constructed the exercise portion of the plan to help you burn fat at the highest levels possible in the least amount of time.

I know you don't have time to spend hours a day exercising, so I want you to get the most out of every workout. And I know that flexibility and convenience are the keys to formulating a plan you can stick to, so I've created a workout you can do in your local gym — or in your living room. This plan allows you to keep your workouts short and focused, while still keeping you on target for your ultimate goal. Pound for pound, it's the best workout possible for finding your abs. These are the workout principles.

Focus on Your Diet First
The first 2 weeks of exercise are optional. If you already exercise regularly, you can jump right into theAbs Diet Workout, and you should, because you'll burn even more fat than with the Abs Diet alone. But if you're a beginner or you haven't exercised in a long time, take the first 2 weeks to adjust to yournew eating planbefore starting the workout. If you're champing at the bit to begin maximizing your weight loss, start getting in the exercise habit by walking briskly for up to 30 minutes a day.

Focus on Muscles
I used to work with a guy who was about 30 pounds overweight. He decided he'd enter a race as motivation to help him lose weight. He ran 6 days a week and followed his running program religiously, but he didn't lose a pound. Sure, he was able to run farther than he ever had, but his body stayed the same. Why? First, because he still based his diet around pizza, pasta, and wings, and second, because steady-state cardiovascular exercise doesn't burn fat the way strength training does. (Incidentally, when the same guy went on the Abs Diet and started a weight-lifting program, he lost nearly 20 pounds in less than 2 months.)

Your muscles are hungry little suckers, and in order to keep themselves well nourished, they want to churn and burn those calories you're ingesting. So the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn — in the gym, on the job, even in bed. This program focuses on working your large muscle groups — your legs, chest, back, and shoulders — because that's where you can build the most muscle in the least amount of time. Plus, when you work your larger muscles, you fire up your metabolism by creating a longer calorie afterburn — one that can last right up to your very next workout!

Think about the small fraction of time you spend exercising. Even if you work out four or five times a day for an hour at a time, that's nothing compared to the amount of time you're not exercising every day. So in order to gain the most metabolic benefit, you want to maximize the calories you're burning when you're not working out.

Focus on spending less time in the gym. The Abs Diet Workout employs two simple concepts to maximize muscle growth and fat-burning and minimize the time you spend exercising.

Circuit Training
This term refers to the practice of performing different exercises one right after another. For example, we'll have you do a set of leg exercises followed immediately by a set of an upper-body exercise, until you do 8 to 10 different exercises in a row. There are two reasonscircuit trainingworks. First, by keeping you moving and cutting down the rest periods between exercises, circuit training keeps your heart rate elevated throughout your training session, maximizing your fat burn while providing tremendous cardiovascular fitness benefits. Second, circuit training keeps your workout short — you won't waste time resting between sets of an exercise, which means you can get on with the rest of your busy life.

Compound Exercises
Another key part of the strength-training program is compound exercises, that is, exercises that call into play multiple muscle groups rather than just focusing on one. For example, with theAbs Diet Workout, we don't want you to exercise your chest, and then your shoulders, and then your triceps, and then your forearms. We want you to hit many different muscles at the same time and then get out of the gym. One study showed that you can put on 6 pounds of muscle and lose 15 pounds of fat in 6 weeks by following an exercise program that employs the compound exercises found in the Abs Diet Workout. What's even better is that those subjects followed an exercise plan for only 20 minutes three times a week.

Not only do compound exercises make your workout more fun and more challenging, they will also increase the demands on your muscles — even though you're not actually doing more work. (For instance, the squat hits a whopping 256 muscles with just one movement!)

Greater muscle demand triggers your body to produce more human growth hormone — a potent fat burner.

If the only weight you've ever picked up is around your gut and not in the gym, don't worry that you're not familiar with working with weights. You can start by lifting any amount of weight that you're comfortable with — whether it's a pair of light dumbbells or a couple of cans of beans. Even if you start small, you'll grow stronger, start to build muscle, and keep your metabolism revved. As you progress, you'll build and burn more.

Focus on Intensity
Time and time again, research has shown that higher-intensity workouts promote weight loss better than steady-state activities.

The Abs Diet Workout recommends that you add one simple interval workout per week to complement your strength training. These are workouts of traditional cardiovascular exercise (running, swimming, biking) in which you alternate between periods of high intensity and periods of rest.

If You Don't Already Exercise
The best part about the 6-week Abs Diet Workout is that, for the first 2 weeks at least, you don't actually have to exercise. If you're not doing anything right now, it's not critical that you start immediately. Instead, I want you to concentrate on acclimating your body and your schedule to the Abs Diet.

On the other hand, why wait to fire up your fat-burning mechanisms? If you want to start a light strength-training program, do this workout three times a week: Alternate between three sets of pushups and three sets of squats with no weight. Both exercises use your body weight as resistance and will get your body accustomed to a strength-training program. Do 8 to 10 repetitions of pushups, followed by 15 to 20 repetitions of squats. When that becomes too easy, increase the repetitions of pushups, and hold on to some form of weight — light dumbbells are best — while doing squats. This light workout, especially in combination with 30 minutes of brisk walking, will really fire up your fat burners.

If You're Already in the Exercise Habit
Maybe you lift weights once or twice a week. Maybe you jog a few miles every morning. Maybe you're favored to win the gold in the decathlon this summer. No matter what your workout is now, you're probably going to build more muscle, and burn more fat, if you switch to the Abs Diet Workout.

Even if your current exercise program has been working well for you, experts agree that mixing up your workout every month or so is the best way to maximize your results. That's because gains in strength and overall fitness come from challenging your body to perform in ways it's not used to. Performing the same workout over and over again doesn't train your body to reach its potential; it just trains your body to be really, really good at performing that one workout. So I want you to consider switching your current workout over to the Abs Diet Workout, at least for a few weeks. I guarantee the results you'll see will be astounding.

The Abs Diet Workout: Suggested Weekly Schedule
You can mix and match the different workouts to meet your lifestyle needs. When you construct your schedule, make sure to:

·  Leave at least 48 hours between weight workouts of the same body parts. Your muscles need time to recover and repair themselves after a workout.

·  Take 1 day each week to rest with no formal exercise.

·  Warm up for 5 minutes before starting to exercise, either through a light jog, riding on a stationary bike, jumping rope, or doing slow jumping jacks.

The three components of your weekly schedule include:

1. Strength training: Three times a week. These are total-body workouts with one workout that puts extra emphasis on your legs.

2. Additional cardiovascular exercise: Optional, on non-strength-training days. Examples are cycling, running, swimming, walking, and using cardio machines. An interval workout is recommended for 1 day a week, and light cardiovascular exercise like walking is recommended for 2 of your 3 off days.

3. Abs exercises: Twice a week. I recommend doing them before your strength training or interval workouts.

Read More About It
If you want to become an Abs Diet expert get the book!

·  Almost 300 pages of cutting edge research

·  50 exercise illustrations

·  Advanced ab exercises

·  Dozens of recipes for quick and delicious meals

·  Read the success stories from those who transformed their bodies and their lives The Abs Diet maintenance plan to take you well past the first 6 weeks

·  Read the truth about low-carb diets

·  Extra nutrition advice, tons of tips and fun and inspirational stories from Men's Health Editor-in-Chief David Zinczenko

Last Updated: 12/04/2006 13:00:37

 

 

 

6/11/09

6/11/09
This morning I had a good intention to have a small bowel of rice krispies cereal with a banana. After pouring my cereal in the bowel and cutting the banana up in it I realized I threw the left over milk out yesterday since it was dated 2 days ago and out on the counter for who knows how long.
So, while feeding Leah I attempted to eat the dry cereal with the balance. I managed to eat all the banana (giving 1 piece to Lily), and some cereal. It left me hungry for more. When I got to work today I decided to microwave a Jose Ole Breakfast Burrito since I was still hungry. I successfully consumed 270 calories and 10 grms of fat more then needed due to not having milk for my cereal.
Now, 2 ½ hours later I find myself hungry for lunch. I am eating left over cheese tortellini from last nights dinner and 1 piece of bread.
I am sure before I leave work today I will have ate my 100 calorie little Debbie nutty bar.

I have plans to walk around Missouri Botanical Garden today after work if it is still nice out.

By the way - I did good with dessert last night. I had jello with a little lite cool whip!

Daily Dieting Journal

Yesterday I begin the diet. 2 days ago my baby Leah turned 3 months old. While pumping I looked at myself in the mirror and decided this is it. I don’t want this weight to stay with me. I want to tone up and loose the weight. I want to be more in shape then before I had her. Well, with yesterday’s meals of McDonalds at lunch and Jack In The Box for dinner, it became painstakingly clear to me that I was going to get nowhere fast with eating like a teenager. So, today I have decided to turn the leaf, or whatever they call it. I’m not doing Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Slim Fast, or anything like that. I am purely going to watch my portions and food choices, and exercise when I can…which isn’t much with a 3 month old to tend to, a house to clean and keep clean and an almost full time job. But, no excuses. An excuse is a crutch that only the illiterate use. My goal is to keep track of my food choices and the amount of activity in my day.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
For breakfast I had nothing. Not a great choice, but I was out of time after breastfeeding Leah, getting myself ready for work, getting her ready to leave, getting her bottles for the day ready, and getting out the door.
About 11ish I had a tapioca pudding cup, around 12 I had an apple, and somewhere in between then and 3pm I had 2 pretzel rods and some ice tea. The challenge will be making a good choice for a snack when I get home this afternoon before dinner, and watching my portions at dinner. Rick also just brought M&M Ice Cream sandwiches home the other night…so dessert will be another challenge.