Finally reached my temporary goal weight.

I hit my first goal weight:  170lbs.  I am so excited to have hit my first milestone, and am planning on starting on my next 10lbs immediately.  I'm staying at 1200 calories a day, of course, but my workouts are going to be more intense I'm hoping, and I'm planning on starting some serious yoga and working on my flexibility and arm toning as well.  I have been doing a lot of strength training with weights and been sticking to my diet 100%.  I feel like I have come so far, and in the past three and a half weeks have worked so hard.  (:  In three and a half weeks, I have lost 18lbs! 

I didn't expect to get here so soon, but now that I have, I have hope that if I can stick with it I will be to my final goal within a matter of a few months.  c:

Another day, another pound lost!

I have had 3 16 oz glasses of water today and did my FitnessBlender work out at around noon.  c:  I have had breakfast and lunch, combined calorie intake at around 500 calories total.  I am going to try and keep my dinner light too, and have a small snack around 2:30pm.  I feel a lot better, physically, I even can feel that I have lost weight and am getting fitter.  It is really nice and I already feel a lot better about myself than I was feeling. 

So I found a great site for workouts...

It is called FitnessBlender and is mainly made up of High Intensity Workouts.  They are actually fun.  c:  I have been doing 2 of the FitnessBlender HIITs a day, one at morning and one at night.   I have lost one pound so far!  And I have still been counting calories, of course.  What can I say?  Stick with it long term and it works!  :D  I didn't reach my mini goal of reaching 170 by Sunday due to my period coming on and me having to fight the bloating for a few days, because water retention is a REALLY big problem for me during that time of the month, BUT, it is over now and I'm back on track with my weight loss right where I'm supposed to be.  So hopefully I will reach my mini goal by Thursday. 

Problem Areas

I am really hoping to work on problem areas...  I want to work on toning up my arms, my thighs, calves, and stomach.  I also want to work on my flexibility and endurance, because I am working on getting my fitness level up to the point that I can do the FitnessBlender 1000 calorie burn work out.  I really want to be able to do that, but there are things I need to work on first, before I can start doing that. 

Went grocery shopping a little bit...

c:  Got me some veggies and healthy stuffs, didn't get much though because we didn't have much money...  Hoping to get some more tonight since he got paid today and is getting off work pretty early.  I'm wanting to get some protein bars.  :D  I'm also hoping to tone up my arms some more today, after I get the house work done. 

I just realized I forgot to post Day 9 up, I think, so here it is:

Breakfast:  225 calories
Lunch:  146 calories
Snacks:  182 calories
Dinner:  380 calories

Exercise:  Walked 6 miles at a 4.0 mph speed, burned 516 calories.

Day 10: 
Breakfast:  225 calories
Lunch:  330 calories
Snacks:  0 calories
Dinner:  200 calories

Exercise:  3 Minutes of vigorous push ups:  30 calories burned
Walking 3.5mph speed for 35 minutes:  176 calories burned

Squat Jumps!

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Schools, physical fitness, and diet.

So a big issue in today's society is obesity in children, physical fitness, and diet.  I've noticed a lot more schools hopping on board with special diet plans and exercise routines in physical fitness/gym/exercising classes in school being a mandatory program that each child needs to graduate.  While I definitely agree, it is great they are providing a healthier environment for these kids to receive their education in, I think it should be to a certain extent--because often schools are over stepping their boundaries to some extent, when it comes to food.  Obviously, they shouldn't be offering a bunch of junk to the kids there, and it is fine that they don't.  I'm not complaining because they won't throw the kids a cookie.  HOWEVER, they started this when I was in high school, around about, and one thing I noticed was them forcing certain obese students to eat a special diet.  Based off of their school ID number, they would have certain trays of food prepared for certain children.  THAT is what I see as over stepping their boundaries...  Because they didn't obtain permission or consent from the child's parents before implementing said special diets.

I understand the intention here is to have a healthier generation of kids, but they still need to make sure these kids even want to be on a diet, or that their parents and doctors even want them to be on a diet.  I know a girl who had something called something or another heart valve prolapse or something like that, and it basically meant she had to eat a certain way and exercise only so much, because excessive exercise would hurt her.  They put her on a special diet plan and exercise plan in gym, and I distinctly remember this girl having a lot of health issues afterwards...  She ended up being pulled out of school because she was so exhausted all of the time, due to the combination of an actually lethal heart condition with too much heavy exercise.   I feel like my school stepped over their boundaries in this instance, and caused her more heartache and difficulties than if she had never been on a diet or exercised in the first place.  But you know what amazed me even more?  Not one complaint or concern was raised by her parents.

Shouldn't it be our role as parents to step in and monitor these things?  Parents, come on!  Do not let the state and schools take away all of your power as your child's parent.  It is YOUR job to make important decisions concerning your child's health and well-being, not solely their educators or state.  You know why?  Because no matter what they learn at school, you are their primary educator and care giver, and are supposed to act as such.  So why are we letting the state and schools take so much power away from us when it concerns our children?  Our flesh and blood.  They don't always know what is best.   As their parents, you are wired to know when something is wrong with your child and something needs to be done about it.  That doesn't change just because they are no longer infants...  They just communicate it in different ways as they get older.  Pay attention, and don't let schools be the parents.