Jenelle keeping the ball going
 

May as well keep on keeping on, I am on a roll after all.

Just throwing my hat into the ring for another Challenge that I intend to finish (and dare I say "place" in).

However at the moment I'm suffering from a lovely winter cold so workouts are nonexistent until I can stop coughing up a lung. I think the grandkid gave it too me or my son, the Marine, who always some some sort of crud from open barrack living - grrr! I did manage some finishers yesterday and it felt great but then I spent all last night coughing :P blah!! No problem though, it's a good time to sit down and create my goals and intentions for the next 3 months. I do plan on seeing some serious abs as well as a rounder, fuller back side just for starters.

See you all soon with all the particulars.

Cheers!!!

www.hellohappygirl.com

Glad to have you back! I'm looking forward to following your continued progress!!!!

Good luck with your goals Jenelle.

Good luck Janelle, and welcome!

Hope you feel better soon so that you can get back in the gym.

My secret is garlic for warding off colds. I throw garlic cloves in their skin in with butter and olive oil whenever I cook beef or chicken, halfway through the cooking process. (The health effects are lost if the garlic is overcooked.) Then I squeeze out the garlic and eat a little bit with each bite. I'll even just swallow a whole cooked clove if I feel like it. (Not right before I teach class though.)

Some say that "immunity starts in the gut."

Welcome back for another round!

Hope the cold clears up quickly. Nothing worse.

Thanks for the tip. I agree about immunity starting in the gut. Ugh!!

Thanks Peter - Your mouth to God's ear lol.

Feeling better but not near 100%, perhaps near 70%. Made it to my "gym" this morning, now this requires a short walk across frozen tundra to the "main" house. Typically this frozen tundra is squishy dirt but thanks to freezing temps and no rain I can almost skate across the yard, this actually makes me happy - no mud!

I haven't had a truly good workout in about 2 weeks so I stepped it back significantly much to my prides chagrin and even then didn't finish a full workout. I was pretty winded, weak and wobbly after 15 minutes of Intermediate A at 1/2 the weight :/

Hopefully this cough/cold is on it's last leg. My poor grandson ended up in the hospital with it on Friday night. They kept him overnight for observation and to keep him in oxygen - he's only 6 months old. Poor baby :(

I've been mentally working on my goals and am coming up short. I'm so used to making a goal with a tangible outcome. Lose 10 pounds, lose x amount of inches on waist, wear a certain clothing size, etc. I've hit those goals, I weigh 145 pounds, I'm wearing a size 6, I don't really want to be smaller just tighter.

Writing a goal of "get more defined" or "tighten my tush" seem so bland and not clear enough for me. I'm toying with goals that are more strength based like x number of pullups or pushups.

I hope that as soon as I start brainstorming that I will come across a goal that excites and ignites me.

In the meantime still hacking up a lung although I think it's getting better ;-)

I'm going to go crawl into my cough syrup now...

Feeling like a wuss but got a modified workout done.

Went back to the Intermediate workouts this week, between the 2 weeks "break" and the cough I'm feeling a bit puny.

So it was intermediate b today. 2 sets of the 1st set, 1 of the 2nd and the finisher. Feeling good and happy to be slowly returning to the land of the living.

Lift on...

Still recovering here but I think I've finally gotten over the hump of this flu - yay!!!

Did 2 of the 4 minute finishers today and boy am I weak and winded. Taking pictures tomorrow and ready to hit this thing hard. Goals and intentions are "almost" ready to be posted.

Happy Sunday everyone!!!

I'm a few days late chiming in, but garlic is my go-to for all illnesses as well. I'm a little more hard core, though :) Just take a fresh clove and smash it, then chop it finely and scoop it into a spoon. With a glass of water, wash it down! No chewing, just swallowing. I do this 2-3 times a day for a few days and it's magical. There's some odor, but I just apologize in advance if I'm near someone (which is good to avoid anyway if you're feeling sick).

Glad you're feeling better!

Wow that is pretty hardcore. I wonder how my tummy would take that. The last time I was sick (Jan 2013), I had an ear infection. I chopped garlic and soaked it in oil then put the garlic oil in my ear. Healed it right up but I did smell funny. Of course I used coconut oil so I hope that helped the smell lol.

Got a pretty decent workout in today. Continuing with Intermediate for now until I'm back up to speed. Completed circuit (1) 3x, circuit (2) 2x and the finisher. I hope that by Wednesday I'll be back up to full workouts even though I'll probably keep the weights lower this week.

Happy Monday y'all!!

You too! I'm glad to hear you're able to start getting those workouts in again!

Get well soon!

Thanks for the well wishes. Each day brings me closer to normal (well as close as I'm gonna get lol).

Pictures and measurements are done. Up a couple of pounds and puffy from a carb induced weekend but I'll be right as rain soon enough and I'm ready to shred the fat and see some muscles popping through.

Hubby decided to enter the contest, surprised me for sure. He kind of lost bet with me. He told me if I got back to looking like I did at a certain point in time he would change his habits (not clearly defined). Well I exceeded that point in time. I guess this is his attempt plus he has a reunion in July.

I haven't decided if this makes my life harder or easier. He's a tall, skinny guy (6'6" and about 195 pounds) and we have completely different goals. All he needs to do is eat more, cut the beer and lift and he'll be awesome (great DNA). He asked me this morning as I was throwing my lunch into my bag "so what should I eat for a snack now?". Huff. I'm an IFer for a reason, so I don't have to think about so many meals a day lol. I'm struggling with the fact that I'll now be planning my meals AND his meals.

I've decided that I will continue to make my food but will make it more in bulk so he has the opportunity to eat it too. If he doesn't then I'm covered hehehe. The biggest thing nutrition wise he needs to do is add a protein shake once a day & replace his bready carbs with protein and veggies. I seriously doubt he'll count calories so...

Lifting will be a problem for him in the lower body region due to his bad knees. He lost a ton of mass when he had knee surgery in 2005 and never regained it.

Anyway...enough about him lol. I need to go through my pics and find the ones I want to use AND then begin shopping for a new bathing suit for my afters (I really need an intervention. I have MANY suits and only use them for before & after pics, it's a sickness for sure!!).

Hi Jenelle
 

Hi there! I just wanted to say that your before and after pictures are AMAZING! I might just print it out and put it on the wine rack as a little motivation to step back!! I hope you're feeling better. Garlic knocks out anything I get. Leslie

On the wine rack - I love it. I manage a winery but luckily wine isn't a trigger for me.

In CA? I lived in Marin County for 5 years.(Novato) I would buy raw milk from a lady that lived in Sonoma. I'd have to drive past on the beautiful vinyards and wineries to get to her house. I miss that place!

I used to live in Santa Barbara but I'm in Oregon now. Who knew it was a budding wine country. The growth has been incredible in the last 4 years, more than doubled.

I LOVE Oregan. We vacationed in Bend. I decided then to put it on my list of places that I could be happy forever. My best friend from highschool lives in Portland. I visited her a few years ago and got 3 days of sunshine in a row. I loved everything about Portland, but would need more sunshine I think. From what I understand, the wine industry in Texas has grown quite a bit. Most people think of beef and petroleum when they hear TX. I have not tried in TX wine yet. Have a great night!

Glad to hear you're feeling better! 'Tis the season, I guess... I had a little one in the hospital for a few days a few days after New Year's; the day he got out was the day I got started on this 12 week transformation! Now my other child (just a week later) is out with strep throat.

Sorry to hear your grandchild was sick, too - I hope that he is over his illness as well!

Hi Jenelle. Thanks for dropping by my thread to say hello. Firstly, a big congratulations on winning the last challenge. And go you for backing up with another!

Have you decided on your program yet? And more importantly, have you decided on a new bathing suit?

Look forward to seeing your goals, and keeping up to date with your progress too!

You're cute ;)

I haven't decided on a suit yet lol.

I'm still thinking programs but since I've been sick I eased back in with the Intermediate program. I "may" jump on the Depletion program in the next couple of days"IF" I decide to do the Extreme Fat Loss diet. I'm still running this through my brain. A 36 hour fast is really, really a long time for me.

Oh My Gosh - I'm HUNGRY!!! I'm rarely hungry before noon but I've been starving this week after training days. Made me realize today that I may be keeping my calories a little too low and it's time to bump them up.

During the last contest I was averaging 1200-1400 most days to support my desired weight loss and then I'd enjoy a free day on top of that. I increased calories over the holidays (have no idea how many lol). I managed to keep my weight within my "normal & comfortable" limits of 143-146 on any given day. While I would still like to lose 10 pounds or so I need to make sure that my calories support my activity level. Time to tweak the program again to find the balance I need.

Interestingly enough I was reading something that made a ton of sense. I can not eat at a deficit all of my life and as I decrease body fat and increase lean muscle my caloric needs change. Lean body mass requires more calories than fat (very loosely paraphrased). With that in mind I will eventually have to get out of "weight loss" mode and into "maintenance" mode.

I've been treating my body at 144 pounds the same way I was treating it at 169 pounds and they are now two different beasts.

Anyway...off to work now.

Oh so I finished Intermediate B today, the whole way through, with increased weights too. Not much of an increase but considering I've been sick and technically should have lost strength I'll take the 10# goblet increase in squats. (Yes I know this probably means I wasn't pushing myself hard enough over the last round but we'll forget that for the moment :))

Intermediate C done - I'm back up to speed (I think).

I'm gonna do something crazy simply becasue TT made it easier. I've owned XFLD for YEARS and always looked at it and put it away. There is NO WAY I'm committing to (TWO) workouts per day, every day, for 25 days. I won't finish it so I never started it. But then...Commander Cool, (Gilbert), directed me the the TT Depletion Workout and those are so much more realistic to follow. So I'm starting the 25 day depletion on the 19th. I have nothing scheduled during those weeks that will hamper my efforts. The "diet" is going to take some effort sine I've never done a 36 hour fast before but the rest should be easy enough, I can eat low and zero carb and while shakes aren't my thing they aren't horrible.

For the workouts I'm going to get poster board and write them all down so I don't have to follow along on a tiny piece of paper - big and on the wall is where they'll live and I can SEE them without wasting time.

My hope is that I'll lose my last 10 pounds through this process then spend the next few weeks just building muscle while maintaining the fat loss. By reading everyone else's experience this may or may not happen. But it's only 25 days, I can't screw things up too badly in that amount of time.

Glad you're diving in! Good luck. Maybe we can have pity parties together while the people around us are eating and we're munching on BCAA pretending we live in a futuristic society and that is how we sustain ourselves in the 23rd century.....

Maybe.

Well it's got to be better than how some people eat...

See you on the flip side - tomorrow cheat day (yay) and Monday....well, it's not a cheat dat.

I wrote my workout posters out today so I can see them, kind of excited but my cough came back (WTF??) Grrrrr

Stay strong and get well!

Day 1 XFLD

TT Depletion workout done and done rather well if I do say so myself. Took a little longer than 2.0 but it's only 4 weeks then I can jump back into something 2.0 based.

Nutrition - well since it's day 1 it's a breeze. Monday and Tuesday will require willpower but I "got" this and it's only 25 days. I've had 3 kids so I've spent quite a bit of time uncomfortable so 4 weeks is a breeze.

Excellent! Good luck tomorrow :) Let me know how it goes. You'll be fine!

XFLD Day 2 - I hope it goes by FAST
 

TT Depletion B done including Hill Sprint (boo) on my spin bike.

I'm unusually sore from yesterdays workout, especially my traps (WTH???) I must have been using my traps for the rear delt raises and not my rear delts. I do tend to pull thing in with my traps so I'll have to watch that. It may be Super Bowl season but I don't want to look like a football player.

Today is a fast day so I hope it goes by super FAST.

Yesterday was Cheat Day, that was a cinch lol.

Fast done
 

Upon waking I finished my first 34 hour fast and ya, it kind of sucked (about 10 hours longer than my usual fasts). I went to bed at 7:30 last night just because - still kind of slept crappy having smoothie dreams and all. Time to grab a shake, get the family up and make breakfast. Yay no BCAAs today :)

pics and measurements
 

So before anyone "looks" remember that I had a few weeks off during Christmas, was sick, didn't have my hair and makeup "done" nor the "tan". I'm a bit fluffier in these beginning photos than I was in my last ending ones - just saying and I have a stupid look in my face - so meh!

Height 5'9"
Weight 146
Bust 39
Waist 29
2" below 33.5
Hips 38
Thigh 22.5
Calf 13.5
Bicep 11.25

XFLD Day 3
 

It's a shake day and for the first time in FOREVER I shoved something down my throat before making the family breakfast, in fact it was before 6:30 am lol. I NEVER feed myself first but I was dreaming of an orange vanilla shake all last night. Oh and I don't like protein shakes lol.

I did TT Depletion Workout C with pretty decent weights. I will evaluate if I need to increase weights but the day after a 34 hour fast didn't seem like a prudent time.

Pretty sore from the A and B workouts though, my hammies are screaming.

That first workout after a fast day is the WORST! Also, it's amazing how one will eat anything if they're hungry enough ;)

Booyah!!!! I remembered that protein shakes don't have to be DRANK, you can make them thick and eat with a spoon. I really, really need to eat with a spoon otherwise I get shake splashed all over my face when it slops!!

OK, life is good now :)

lol! I don't know why I'd never tried protein pudding before. It is absolutely divine. I made a thick one today with chocolate low carb and it had the thickness of icing! I found a recipe for a red velvet cake that's gluten and sugar free, so I might make it and frost with protein icing! Mmmmmm. I digress. Enjoy your moderate carbs tomorrow!

Protein puddings are the BEST. I never drink my protein powder ... mainly because I imagine that's what dirty dish water would taste like. My fave at the moment is chocolate protein powder made into a 'mousse' with water + 2tbsp coconut cream. Delish. Sweets are my guilty pleasure so this is such a treat!

Woo hoo for the end of your first fast day Jenelle.

PS. I like your bathing suit :D!