Only 4 weeks left! (kind of)

Time continues on, and things are still going well. 'Week 8' was dubbed the week 8 miracle, and while I didn't see a 'miracle' I had a more significant weight drop than I have had any other week... went from 191.9 - 188.3 in one week - which is pretty good! But again, this program isn't about the scale - its about your measurements, and putting muscle on, and taking fat off. But there to, I've been a little frustrated... I haven't lost any off my stomach for a couple of weeks, but this week it finally budged. I know I am still succeeding... whats happening is I am strengthening my core, and putting on muscle, while losing fat, and believe me - I'd much rather have muscle :) Here are my measurements from week 1 - to week 8, and I have my pics posted on my 'Candice Ekberg' Facebook page.
Day 1 - Day 56 (end week 8)
wt - 198 - 188.3
chest - 40.5 - 38.5'
waist - 41.5 - 40'
hips - 46 - 43.75
thigh - 26.5 - 26.5 (I'm attributing that to muscle memory... they used to be really squishy, but much firmer now :)

I was more controlled on my free day - I really miss cereal - so I just had a big bowl of Cinnamon life for breakfast, some Doritos for lunch, and then took Quin to the local hamburger joint for dinner, and had a grilled chicken sandwich and shared some fries and a small shake with the kids. Didn't feel to bad after, but still not great.
I've been reading more about peoples past success, and it seems to me that no matter what, if you follow the program, you will have success, but to achieve the results like you see in many of the pics, you may need to do more than one challenge. And many past champions did a lot of extras, like not really taking a free day, but a free meal, doing extra cardio, modifying weights, taking supplements. But everyone is unique, so the basic concepts will work for all. Just fine tune it to your needs - if you feel like you need to do extra cardio, go for it, just keep it in a moderate range - you don't want to burn out! I know I personally, for the last 4 weeks, am going to focus on eating more protein than carbs, which is recommended for more fat loss. But overall, I am still feeling great, love being sore, an am happy with the results. And with this being said, I know me and my little bro already plan on dong a second and possibly a third challenge! Good times! Our second challenge will probably start the first or second week in April for anyone interested in joining us! (They say take a week or 2 of active rest between challenges). Keep up the good work everyone!

week 8... already???

Time sure is flying! week 7 was good to go, and today marks the beginning of week 8... the supposed 'miracle' week. We'll see! My measurements were pretty much the same as last week, except I'm now down to 190! Thats a total of 8 lbs lost! I've gotten into the rhythm of things, and it almost just comes natural. My body just tells me when its time to eat, or when I'm thirsty. The problem is I need to listen to it better. :) the hardest thing has been getting the 6th meal in. I sometimes let too much time go between meals, and before I know it, its bed time, and I've only gotten 4 or 5 meals in. Ive been trying to write my meals and times down and it seems to help some, but I've got work to do.
My free day was good... I feel like crap the whole day, not worth it, but the one thing I do like is being able to just eat a big meal and not have to worry about eating for awhile. I'm officially done nursing and have started taking green tea (capsule form) and CLA - conjugated linoleic acid - a healthy fatty acid that supposedly helps increase lean muscle mass, which in turn helps burn body fat, more specifically stomach fat. green tea is an anti oxidant that is also a proven thermogenic which can help increase metabolism. I plan on taking photos again at the end of the week and am excited to see what happens. :)

Week 6 over - 1/2 way done!!!!

I've made it 1/2 way now.... can't believe it! I haven't seen the numbers I was hoping to see by this point, but I've been reading a lot, that for women, things don't really start kicking into over drive until about week 8-9. They refer to it as "the miracle week," so here's to hoping! My measurements are as follows...
Dec 28... Feb 7...
Waist 41.5 -- 40.5
Hips 46 -- 44.25
Chest 40.5 -- 38.5
Thigh 26.6 -- 26.25
Weight 198 -- 191.9

So the numbers are all going down, so I can't complain. And I'm losing a lot through my top 1/2, but it's the bottom 1/2 that is slower, but at the same time, I can feel muscle where before, it was just fat. I'd much rather have the muscle :)

The workouts are still going good! I haven't missed any, and have been changing it up and am sore again. The biggest prob as of late is that I have stopped nursing, and that takes time for your body to adjust. I'm still feeling the effects of that. But now that I am done nursing, I am starting to use supplements. Green tea, which is a great anti-oxidant, and energy booster, and am going to start CLA - conjugated Linoleic acid, which is an ammino acid, that supposedly helps increase lean muscle mass, which in turns, helps burn more fat, more specifically - stomach fat. I'll let ya know how that goes! Well today is my free day, so I'm going to go enjoy! I hope you all are doing well, and please don't hesitate to ask any questions!