I don’t know about you but I love to dance! Four years ago in August I was at my sister’s reception and she had the most awesome Portland wedding Dj! His name was Shawn Whittemore and he kept us dancing all night long. In fact it was that night that I met my now…soon to be husband! Thank goodness Shawn kept the party going all night long so that I could dance my heart out!
Dancing is a great form of exercise. You can burn an average of 300 calories an hour if you are consistent with it! Also when you are dancing you don’t really feel like you are working out - but guess what you are. Which in my opinion is why dancing is one of my favorite exercises. It is a lot of fun and it burns extra calories.
Another great thing about dancing is you can do it anywhere! From wedding receptions to dance clubs if you are moving you are dancing. I love to dance. One of the reasons is because I love to be creative and with dancing you can be as creative as you want to be!
One of my favorite places to dance is at weddings. The next wedding I am going to is my own and I will be sure to dance the night away!
All right so I have 40 days until my wedding. It is go time like never before! My plan is to:
1. Drink lots of water everyday 80-100 oz a day
2. Workout at least 5-6 days a week - Burning at least 400-500 calories a workout 
3. Eat a healthy as possible
4. Stick to a low sodium diet
5. Stay away from alcohol except for the bachelorette party
6. Be consistent and stay with in my calorie limits (according to Making the Cut)
I feel like if I stick to this plan I should be looking and feeling my best on my wedding day. For my workouts I am doing the Making The Cut workout again and I am also doing 20 minutes of cardio at the end of each workout for a total workout time of 50min-60min a day. With 30-40 minutes of strength training and 20-30 minutes of cardio I am burning an average of 400 calories a workout. Which if one pound of fat = 3500 calories I am easily burning that amount in 1 week. I would like to loose 2 pounds a week so 8 pounds in one month then I will be at my goal weight for the wedding! It is going to take a lot of hard work and discipline but I know if I put my mind to it - I can do it!
I will keep you all posted, as I get closer to the date! Wish me luck!
Well I did it! I finished 30 days of Making the Cut. I was sure to take before and after photos and also take before and after measurements. After 30 days of intense workouts and diet I lost 5lbs. Now I know that does not sound like much - but for someone that is 5′2 it is defiantly an improvement. I could also see a huge difference in the photos and measurements. I lost at least 2 inches in all the main areas.
Now that I am finished I still have 6 weeks until the wedding! I have a few ideas of what I want to do in the last 6 weeks. One idea is to do Making the cut one more time - but this time do the circuits twice instead of just once. I started doing this for the first couple of days and it tough! Now I am thinking about only doing the circuit once again but the second time around making sure to do the 15 minutes of cardio at the end.
I also recently invested in the Polar F6. It is a heart rate monitor - I got it because I was curious how many calories I was burning with all this exercise. To my disappointment I am burning a lot fewer calories then I thought 
I might not be using the device correctly so I am going to try changing it up a little to see if I get a more accurate reading.
I will keep you all posted on the next 6 weeks!
Well I have made it this far and I am feeling pretty good! My tight jeans are getting looser and the diet is not too hard to follow. I have to admit I am not following the exact eating plan - It is just too expensive to buy all that food. I do eat all the recommended meals just not in the exact order that is suggested. I plan on doing the program twice. The second time around I will be a lot stricter.
So far I am pretty pleased with the program. When it comes to exercise days you have the choice to do each circuit once or twice. For my first month I am only doing each circuit once (which for now is plenty!). I think the next time around I will bump it up to 2 circuits. The food is pretty tasty especially when you get into the chicken artichoke salads and avocado and mango chicken salads. I don’t think you can go wrong with either of these combinations.
I have my second weigh in since starting 2 weeks ago tomorrow. I did have some major cheat days this week - I hate to admit. What else is a bride to do cake tasting and food tasting is in the job description! Hopefully it won’t affect my results too much this week.
If it does I am not going to get too discouraged. I just have to stay on track and I know I will get the results I want!
So I started making the Cut on Monday. This book is great for anyone who is really serious about loosing the last 10-20lbs. So far I have learned that I am a balanced oxidizer. Which means I should be eating a ratio of 40% carbohydrates, 30% fat and 30% protein.
The workouts are super challenging and the meal plan is even a little hard to stick too. I am doing my best with both of these aspects. Today is day 3, which in the book is a day off Trust me I need a day off! My legs are so sore and my knees hurt to bend!
I have a little more then 2 months before the wedding and I want to look and feel my absolute best! I started a few months a head of time because with every new routine it takes time and learning to get the best results. With the circuit training it is hard to do because I am still learning all of the proper moves.
I will say I am glad that I started with the 30 day Shred. It really prepared me for this book. I suggest to anyone who is thinking about doing Making the Cut to start with the 30 day Shred first and then after you have completed that move on to it.
Good Luck! I will keep you posted of my progress ☺
I want to be in the best shape of my life for my wedding, who doesn’t? About a month ago I started training with Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred workout. The 30-day Shred workout is pretty tough! Today I am exactly at the half way point! I am 15 days in and I already notice my body feeling tighter and seeing positive changes!
I just purchased “Making the Cut” also by Jillian Michaels. My plan is to prepare myself for “Making the Cut” by doing the 30 day Shred first and then moving into “Making the Cut.” When I started working out consistently (about a 1/2 month ago) I was not in the best shape. I had about 10lbs to loose and I was only working out a few times a week and at a medium to low intensity and I was not eating very healthy.
Currently I am happy to report I am watching what I eat and I have already lost 2lbs!
The next step of my training program is to move into “Making the cut” it is also a 30 program but it has specific diet and nutrition instructions to stick too. The 30-day Shred is only a workout plan and does not include a nutrition plan. I am really excited to see the results from first doing the Shred and then moving into “Making the Cut” - I will keep you all posted!
Usually I write about all of my outdoor activities…but today I am going to write about an indoor activity that I just started. Since my wedding is only 4 months away it is time to get serious about exercise and nutrition. I have been running every other day but I am not seeing that good of results. So I have decided to step it up before the big day!
I am adding a workout video into my routine called The 30 day Shred. Now this is no ordinary work out video - this video’s main goal is to get you shredded and in 30 days! They challenge you to do the workout 30 days straight. It has 3 different levels to it. For the first 10 days you are supposed to do level one, then the next 10 days level 2 and the last 10 days you go to level 3.
Now I am only on day 2 of level one and I can tell I am going to get some good results from this video! I took all of my measurements this morning and weighed myself so I have a good idea of how I started this program.
I will keep you all posted on how I do! I am very excited to see some good results!
On Sunday March 15th I participated in my first community run. There were four people in our group my fiancé, my sister, a good friend of the family and myself. Our day started pretty early my fiancé and I got up at 6:45am and had to be out the door by 7am. When we got downtown the streets were packed with runners. It was amazing to see how many runners there are in Portland!
We got there about 5 minutes before it was our time to run. We all four lined up with hundreds of other people and as soon as the horn blew we were off! Our group chose to run the 5k. I must say the 5k races is a perfect distance for my very first time running in a community setting. About half way through the run I started to get a really bad side ache and had to walk a little, the good news is for the most part are whole group stuck together! We each took our turn where we needed a little bit of walking time, but we all crossed the finish line together, which in my opinion was the best part!
My wedding is 4 and half months away and I really want to stay focused! I am currently training for a half marathon in June. I do not know how I would do with a half marathon but I am willing to give it a try. My training will start tomorrow. I will keep you posted on how my training goes!
Have you ever had an injured toe? I never knew how valuable my toe was until I recently sprained and bruised it! The first question you are probably wondering is how do you sprain and bruise a toe? Well the way I hurt my toe I am sure could happen to anyone!
My fiancé and I had some friends over for dinner and I was putting away the left over food. When I opened the refrigerator a thick glass bottle that was on the very top of our refrigerator dropped and fell directly on my second toe.
Let me tell you is very painful to bruise and sprain a toe! The next day I could hardly walk and I had to keep it elevated and iced all day! My toe turned purple and was more swollen then I have ever seen it.
The pain, swelling and coloring lasted for a few days. After the first rough couple of days I started to feel more comfortable and was able to move around more. It has been two weeks tomorrow since the accident and I am still in pain! I have not been able to run yet and the race is right around the corner
With the Shamrock run only being a month away it is very important to stay consistent with my training. I have been running 3 miles a day 3 times a week and I am getting very comfortable with this pace. My goal was to run the 8k for the Shamrock run but I am starting to think that a 5k might be a better idea for my first run.
You have to remember that I started running back in November so it has only been right around 4 months since I started training. I was doing really well with my best run being 4 miles at a pace of 9 minutes a mile, but I took about a week off and it really through my running schedule off. When I tried to run again after taking the time off I could hardly do my regular 3 miles. Since struggling I am really trying to not take any significant length of time off again.
I am excited for my run tonight because I think that I am finally getting back to the pace I was at before I took the time off. Hopefully my fiancé will go to the gym as well. Sometimes I have to drag him kicking and screaming and other times he is happy to go.