[OdemPones]

Hi everybody!

I am entering the challenge and starting a log for support and to help track my progress. I'm a 20 year old female and have decided to make a much-needed change to my unhealthy and sedentary lifestyle.

My entire life I have been lethargic, overweight, and depressed. As a kid I loved sports and was active in them (esp. soccer), but I always seemed to be the "token fat girl"- the slowest, the benchwarmer. In high school, I quit playing sports. I was a heavy drinker and extremely addicted to food- I would sometimes drive across town to go to a restaurant, because I was scared someone I know would see how much I ate. I let food control my life.

I had already made the descision to take control of my health and have been using PN for the past couple of months with great success so far (lost 15 lbs). This challenge, coinciding with my 20th birthday, could not have come at a better time. After 20 years it's time to make a change, and I am so excited about the prospects! I'm even trying out for my college's soccer team this fall! I am motivated and inspired to compete in this challenge, and I wish everybody the best of luck!

Starting Stats:

Height 5'8"
Weight 205
BF 38%

Girth Measurements (cm):
Neck 30
Shoulder 105
Biceps 34
calf 40
Chest 108
waist 107
Thigh 68

Bench: 95 3RM, 13 reps at 75%
Squat: 180 1RM, 11 at 75%
Deadlift: 180 1RM 12 at 75%

Vertical Jump: 18"
Box Jump: 28 in
Long Jump 6'1"
Standing Triple Jump 17'5"


Pictures to come!

[sap2275]

Good for you Becca. Way to take charge, and more importantly, take action. Making this decision at your age will no doubt continue to pay benefits the rest of your life. I wish you the very best of luck. Keep working hard.

[OdemPones]

Thanks a lot, I appreciate the support! Best of luck to you too.

Todays Workout:

-20 minute warm up consisting of jogging, accelerations, and mobility exercises.

-10minutes of Walking lunges followed by 5 minutes of jogging.
Repeated two more times for a total of 30 minutes of walking lunges!

-10 Minute cool down including stretching.

The diet I am currently following is the kick start diet from the challenge tips section.

I'll work on getting my pictures up sometime today.

-Becca

[OdemPones]

Pictures Attached

[kwmma]

Way to go Becca! So proud of you for making the change NOW, instead of later. Lots of us decided to use kids as an excuse to continue poor fitness habits. :) Congrats on your success so far!

K...

[triciam]

Good luck! I can't even imagine pounding out all those lunges? Can you walk?

[aluschka]

Hey Becca

Welcome to the PN Challenge. Good to hear you are so excited. Well don't wait girl..go for it

Ciao

[OdemPones]

Whew, so, third day of the kick-start diet. It's going pretty well, the only difficulty I'm really having is getting enough meals throughout the day. I had to go five hours without eating the other night, because I had to stay a few hours later at work and I had only brought enough food to cover 2 eating opportunities. I'm lucky to have a job where I can eat anytime I need, though!

I'm definitely not feeling tempted too much. I was always a bit of a carb-addict, but I'm not really craving carbs yet. Even though I was really lightheaded and grumpy during yesterday's workout! Hopefully today's is better.

The only source of temptation is I went on a huge grocery shop the morning before I read about the kick-start diet, and bought tons of tomatoes, avocados, carrots, bananas, yogurt, berries... all stuff that is no longer OK. So that was a waste of money- luckily, I have a couple of housemates that will eat it all eventually.

Today's workout:
Dynamic Warm Up
Bench: I'm trying to beat my old record of 95 3rm
3 sets of Lat Pulldowns Supersetted with Band Pull-Aparts
3 Sets of Triceps Supersetted with Biceps
55yd Sprints with 30 seconds rest in between. 10-20 sprints based on how I'm feeling.

I'll just do abs during all the rest periods between the weights.

I would say that the only real problem I'm experiencing so far is my hours at work. I get home at 1 am or later most nights. Before I took this case, I was in the good habit of early to bed, early to rise. Now I don't get to bed until 2 or 3. When I get sleep, it's really disturbed by work anxiety and the heat (no air-conditioning and one dinky fan). This is something I need to get under control, because it's just not possible to achieve optimal success with poor sleep.

Side note: Does anybody have a good technique for ridding a house of fruit flies?

[OdemPones]

My workout went well today and I PR'd on every exercise despite being on the low carb, energy depleting, kick start plan :). I managed to get 100 lbs for 3 on the bench press.

[OdemPones]

One of the first things I'm going to do after this is all over (of course, it's never going to be OVER over, I just mean after the official contest ends) is buy a new swimming suit to take my after photos in. The elastic is all worn out on my current one, it barely fits as is, and hopefully by the end of the contest it'll just be falling right off of me. I might have the confidence to go for an actual bikini for the first time ever (That's a tankini in the pictures, I just hiked it up to get a good before shot).

So, my work schedule got all screwed up and I work noon to midnight shifts today and tomorrow. It didn't matter today, because it's a cardio only day (45 minutes on the elliptical at 120-140 heart rate). But, tomorrow it'll be tough because my workout is loooong. I suppose the responsible thing to would be get off the computer and go to bed, so I can get up early for my workout.

Tomorrow's workout

Dynamic warmup

Sprints- 8 for ten yards, 5 for 15, 3 for 20, all with a flying start.

10 sets of 10 box jumps, at about 24 in.

5 sets of 8 squats at 135 lbs with 2-3 min rest between sets.

Abs and lower back