Life's Tasty Adventures

As I said in my last post, today starts Week 1 of the Life After Bagels Pipes Challenge! I won’t repeat myself so just go back to that post or head over to Morgan’s page for the details!

My upper arms have been my most frustrating trouble spot to not only tone but to lose fat in. It’s like my body just likes to hide all of my fat in my upper arms, thighs and hips and they have just not wanted to budge. So I’m here right now to say to them: “It’s ON!” I’ve been much more determined to get strength training in this year and am tweaking my diet around to jumpstart my metabolism again to get the rest of this weight off. I have a few tricks up my sleeve this year that I hope will help here and this challenge is just the beginning!

To recap on my personal challenge, I decided to the 15 minute upper body portion of Jackie Warners DVD Power Circuit Training three days a week for six weeks. My goal is to increase the weight size on my hand weights by 1-2lbs at the end of the six weeks and my ultimate goal is that this challenge will help me to build in a second day of strength training which is one of my goals for 2011. That being said, I also have a surprise (possibly) for the last two weeks of the challenge that I think will help tremendously in all of those goals! Don’t worry, I shall reveal my plan in due time! *insert evil cackle here*

To start, I promised I would measure my upper arms for a starting measurement and I’ll do it again at the end of the challenge. I can’t guarantee I’ll lose inches as it’s mostly fat that needs to go but you never know! I’ve also taken before photos that I will humble myself to post!

Folks, here are the hamhocks in there original state:

Front

Back

Starting inches on upper arms: 14″

Ending inches on upper arms: TBA

This week I will be doing my workouts: Tuesday after my run, Thursday after class and Saturday as part of my 45 minute Jackie Warner workout.

Please check back next Monday as I recap the week and if you’re joining in on the phone don’t forget to Tweet about your experiences using the hashtag #6weekpipes and join the Life After Bagels Facebook page to chat about it! If I haven’t convinced you yet, on Monday’s if you update on your progress on Morgan’s page she’ll enter you into a contest for a surprise at the end of the challenge!

Do you have a troublesome spot that needs some work? Have you ever done a challenge like the 6 Week Pipes challenge?!

I have flabby arms.

I know I’m not the only one but I dislike them. I’ve worked hard to lose weight and have built up a consistent exercise routine but my arms are just not working with me. However, I know a lot of that is due to the fact that I have yet to build up a consistent strength training routine and losing 85lbs without strength training will not make a person’s arms the smoothest of body parts.

One of my goals for 2011 was to do just that: start a consistent strength training routine. I also declared that I want to lose 4″ in my arms. I decided to start at one day a week, make that consistent and then add a second day, or at least bouts of small sessions once or twice during the week. So far I’ve been quite successful, Saturday’s are my strength training days and I’ve been pretty consistent, only missing one day since I started in January.

As fate would have it, on Saturday Morgan announced to us her newest challenge and I couldn’t help myself, I immediately signed up!

Ladies and gentlemen, starting on Monday, March 21st and for the subsequent six weeks, I will participating in the Life After Bagels “Pipes Challenge”!

The requirement is only to choose a challenge that works the arms that we can design ourselves. Every Monday participants will check in and give updates on how the challenge is going. For more information, please head on over to Morgan’s blog and I hope you join us in getting your arms ripped for summer!

My own personal challenge is do to Jackie Warner’s 15 minute upper body workout from the DVD I just purchased, three days a week. It works chest, shoulders, biceps and triceps. My goal is that, by the end of it, I will have to increase my weight size for the same workout to be as effective. Right now, as I’m a bit of a weakling, I’ve been using 4lb weights and they’ve been perfect for fatiguing my muscles. By the end of the six weeks, I’m hoping to have moved up to 5 or 6lb weights. For fun, I’ll also measure my upper arms at the beginning of the challenge and on the last day of the challenge. Every Monday I will check in here on the blog and let you all know how I did and how I’m feeling.

My ultimate goal is that this challenge will help me to create a second consistent day of strength training in order to achieve my ultimate goal of losing some of the flab in my arms and, of course, getting stronger!

Check back on Monday for my first post, and my first day, of the Pipes Challenge!