Kettletell.com

Have you ever noticed that as soon as you set an ambitious goal, obstacles appear?

My hurdle occurred on Day #1 of my Isagenix cleanse this month, in the form of a kid’s bean burrito.

You may be thinking to yourself, “That’s not that hard to say ‘no’ to!” Unless you’re me and you haven’t eaten solid food in 2 days.

Add to that the challenge of living in a household where you come home to dessert baking in the oven or delivered to the door from a loving friend, and you’ve just entered a minefield. Anywhere I step, I’m running into something that could blow this cleanse out of the water:  fresh baked banana mufffins, Hawaiian food, a bean burrito.  Check it out:

Well, at least I stuck with the original plan, avoided the kalua pig (my downfall last time), had a laugh with my sister about all the food in the house, and moved on.

Sometimes, I just need a minute to review, renegotiate and recommit to my goal.

How about you? What are you taking on and what’s been challenging you? Leave me a reply below!

Aloha, kettlecousins!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a 20+ person party at our house – and that was just the immediate family! I hope that this past weekend was joyous for you as well, and that you embraced the spirit of gratitude, whether you are in the United States or not.

I definitely indulged in family, fun and food. I had stopped counting calories along the way, and unfortunately, it shows:

In this month that I haven’t been training at FitPro, I steadily lost the gains (or gained back the losses?) I had over a month ago! Talk about disappointing.

I can’t give up– I just can’t!

I’ve found a new training partner, and also renewed my joy for walking up mountains.

I also got a kelty carrier for my toddler to join me and see the world from outside of a stroller.

My holiday job has me on my feet for 6 – 8 hours a day, away from the computer, cell phone and other time wasters. This holiday season, I’ve also decided to give up diet soda, and drink plain, refreshing H2O.

My workout partner challenged me to hit 179.0 pounds by Christmas. It’s an ambitious goal. I started to reaffirm myself, and the latest quote I have posted in my room is:

“179 pounds tastes better than any dessert!”

I don’t think dessert in general is horrible, and I’m not a fan of deprivation (obviously).

Since I love desserts so much, including a recent affair with pumpkin-themed sweets, I decided that I will focus on making a clear choice to eat dessert, or any other sugary food choice.

I can allow myself to consciously choose to eat a sweet, rather than having it and pretending I didn’t by not counting it. I just need to factor it in with the other food I’ve eaten, and  weigh it out.

If I’m just having a craving (or an emotional desire to eat a particular thing rather than a physical need for it) I can focus on the success I will achieve by working through it. If I just can’t pass on the dessert, I’ll have a small amount, and count it.

Each food choice, big and small, has affected my weight. Combine that with a total lack of kettlebell training in the four weeks preceding this one, and I’m disheartened, but not surprised at the results.

I could go on and on about what I haven’t done that’s led me to this point, but instead, I’ll make a list of what I can do now that will propel me towards my goal:

• Kettlebell training, minimum 20 minutes, five times a week before work
• Cardio with Kai in the kelty carrier, five times a week when I get home from work
• A salad a day (or other mix of healthful vegetables)
• Daily multivitamin
• 8 glasses of water a day
• Pause and think before I choose to eat a sweet
• Track everything on the blackberry

That about covers it. If I can manage to do even 70% of what’s on this list, I’ll see good results. If I do everything on this list– consistently– I’ll see great results.

Who else is with me? Leave me a comment! Mahalo!

Before you start asking questions, like, “What product did you use?” or “You’re not anorexic, are you?,” let me clean the slate. I had the stomach flu.*

Okay, according to a friend of mine, there’s no such thing as the “stomach flu.” Whatever it was, late Monday night / Tuesday morning, there I was hunched over the bathroom sink.

You know how I’ve been counting calories, both taken in and burned? Well, on Monday, I probably expended about 3,000 calories. I worked about 8 hours moving some pretty heavy stuff.

Before I got sick, I ingested about 2,600 calories, mostly carbs. So, all in all, not a bad day.  Until around 12:30am. When I got rid of probably about 900 calories.

Let me just say, I’ve developed a food aversion to caesar salad now. Throwing up romaine lettuce is not fun. (That may have been a little bit too much information.)

Just want to keep you posted on what is definitely an adventure — thanks for joining me! Please comment below. I look forward to hearing your horror stories, too!

* kettletell.com does not promote getting the stomach flu, or regurgitating food, as a means of losing weight.

Folks, I’m on a quest. I’m looking for the magic balance between food taken in and energy expended that will equal pounds and inches shed.

If you recall, last week Tuesdaay my trainer challenged me to lose a minimum of one pound every week. (I’m assuming, that is, until I hit one of my goals!) He’s threatened — I mean, motivated — us with an extra dollar added permanently to our session rate. I don’t like paying late fees, bank fees and parking tickets, so this is actually a good technique!

I started using a food diary and have meticulously entered everything in into it. This weekend, I’m looking up my favorite places, such as Yogurtland, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and, yes, McDonald’s grilled chipotle bbq snack wrap (no cheese) and entering all of the nutritional info.

According to the website, at a sedentary level of activity, my calorie intake should be 1900 kcals per day in order to lose one pound a week. At a moderate level of activity, my calorie intake should be 2200 kcals a day to lose one pound a week.

There’s also an “exercise diary,” where I can log in my activity and number of minutes. Unfortunately, there’s no “kettlebells” in the options. Kettlebell workouts are part weight lifting, but not 100%.

To solve this problem, I’m just using the “weight lifting” category and foregoing any rewards from the extra work done in my kettlebell workouts.

The same issue is occurring in my food diary. What if, for example, I put a cup of food down but don’t end up finishing it? Or I share with my son? Oh well. Again, it’s better to over-estimate my consumption and under-estimate my activity at this point in the game.

Here’s how everything’s looking so far (Tuesday and Wednesday were erased):

I have tracked my food issues down to the snacks I’m choosing. Yesterday, I went to a potluck, and tried to pick the healthiest options… which still left me feeling hungry and over in calories. The solution? Bring my own healthy food with me!

I’ve been staying up pretty late, too! What does that mean? I’m hungry at, oh, midnight. I’ve never been a midnight snacker, but lately, I’ve been dipping into these World Gourmet Veggie Garden Straws, 2 servings at a time. Sabotage!

I guess a trip to the store and pre-packing my snacks in appropriate portions will help.

Here are my actual stats for the week:

I’ve never been happier to weigh 191.2 pounds! Wheeeeeeee!

Thanks for visiting!

More video blogs will be posted here, and on you tube soon. Leave me a comment. : )

I’ve been politely questioned, rudely asked, and even teased about my weight. None of that really made a difference in terms of motivating me to get healthy, in fact, it may have had the opposite effect.

My trainer is taking a different approach — a financial consequence.

Liz and I have agreed. If we don’t come in weighing one pound less consistently every week, our hourly rate will increase by a dollar… permanently!

A pound is a comfortable goal. I’m confident I won’t go into the poor house, and can maintain weight loss of a pound a week. Two pounds a week, however, is my actual goal.

My exercise plan can certainly be improved since I have not been consistent in that regard. Some weeks I’ve had 5 workouts, and most weeks, just three. So, that can be easily fixed.

Healthy eating has not been a priority for me in weeks. Now, this is a touchy area for me. In my word, I say I want to eat healthy, but in deed, I’m not. My healthy integrity has gone out the door!

I’ve recommitted to eating well, one day at a time. I like my food journal on my phone, even if I don’t like its name. I’m always going to be a nerd, so I like seeing the calculations.

Here’s the part that takes real commitment, though– measuring everything– and I mean EVERYTHING I put in my mouth!

Here’s a few examples:

Coffee with 1 tbsp creamer

Examining the Nutrition Facts on Every Single Item

Note to self: a cup of spaghetti is not enough for a cup of sauce

Once I have everything entered in my journal, I’ll be able to recall it without trouble. This week, I find myself spending a lot of time looking up and then entering stats for things like “Organic Veggie Straws” and “BBQ Chicken.”

I’m also keeping track of my workouts on the exercise journal. Does anyone out there know how many kcals are burned in a 30 minute kettlebell workout? I don’t want to use the “weight lifting” stats, because that just doesn’t seem to capture the entire workout.

That just about sums it up. (Get it? SUMS it up? Aw, forget it.) Of course, I’d love to hear from you… it keeps me motivated! Please leave a comment below in the “reply” box. I look forward to reading it!

Mahalo!