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weight loss

Ultimate Workout Playlist

The first thing I had to do when we got our home gym was create a new playlist of music for working out. On a typical day I will get on the treadmill and walk for about 10 – 15 minutes to warm up my muscles so my playlist begins with a few slower songs that I am just loving right now. Then I move on to working out on our trainer (Inspire FT1) doing my core and arms one day and then the next day would be core and legs for about 40 minutes to an hour. I have begun to work in short bursts of running on the treadmill or a couple of intense minutes on the elliptical in between weight training. I’ve read this type of working out, some what like circuit training, is a real effective way to lose fat. We will see I guess!

Here are my favorite songs to workout to right now:

Here is the running playlist that I posted last summer if you are interested.

February 19, 2013 by Candi

weight loss

Non-romantic Valentine’s gift

Ken and I worked out on our home gym for the first time today and I loved it! Ken thinks we overdid it, but I can’t help it…when I work out I want to feel it burn. I guess you could say the Inspire FT1 was our Valentine’s Day gift to one another. We always seem to do that – whenever we make big purchases around holidays or birthdays we’ll always say that it’s for that special day. Almost like it’s our secret way of justifying the purchase in the first place. I mean really, how romantic- a home gym for Valentine’s Day? Nothing like saying “No chocolate for you this Valentine’s Day, you need to work out instead!” Seriously though, no disappointment here – I love it!

Thanks to everyone who tried to help us out by liking our Facebook page earlier this week. We were hoping to partner with Nutrisystem where we would receive their food plan in exchange for writing blog posts and making videos about our experience with their products. We didn’t get selected though based on my low “social media” stats – which is referring to our Facebook fan page and Twitter. I knew this was going to be an issue and it’s okay. My blog isn’t a place of advertising, giveaways, or sponsored reviews – all those cool things that draw in subscribers and followers by the thousands. What’s disappointing is I really believe in the product and think it would help Ken and I reach our weight loss goals, where as many of the bloggers that they are working with have never once written about weight loss or fitness prior to them being sponsored by Nutrisystem. I understand though that they have parameters that they need to go by and we are not at that level. They didn’t seem to care that my YouTube channel is doing well and growing by the day either, which is unfortunate because Nutrisystem doesn’t have a very big presence on YouTube yet. I did give some thought to the whole situation because they did say I can reapply later when my stats are higher. What I’ve realized from the whole thing is that I blog for fun because I like writing and sharing things with everyone whether real life friends or virtual friends and while I could put some effort into making my blog just like the thousands of others, it’s just not who I am. I don’t want my blog to be work, I have a job thank you! Anyways, this just confirms my decision to focus on my YouTube channel because that is what I enjoy the most and just see where that takes us.

Daily Nuggets

–> A neighbor, a friend of Chase’s, just came over and said how he seen my videos on YouTube – where I was talking about losing weight. Too funny!

–> My poor baby Tori…she lets Karli do just about anything to her. She loves the attention!

–> I meant to post a video yesterday but with Wednesday being Valentine’s Day I didn’t film anything. I did post two videos earlier this week though. A yummy Cinnamon cheesecake recipe and our rendition of the Harlem Shake – Michigan Family Style if you haven’t seen those yet. Our Harlem Shake video actually made it on The Today Show – check out that video here.

Happy Weekend everyone!

February 15, 2013 by Candi

weight loss

Conversations with Candi ~ Fitness & Pimples

Since I haven’t made my favorite makeup/beauty products video I thought I would at least update you guys on what is taking me so long! Along with some exciting news…we made a big purchase today. We bought the INSPIRE FT1 home gym! Can’t wait to get started on some strength training, fat burning and muscle building.

February 7, 2013 by Candi

weight loss

Video #5 of Can Fat People do the Insanity Workout – Final Thoughts

Some sort of miracle occurred and I was able to get the iMac running long enough this morning to save the videos files I had made. I thought I had saved the actual iMovie file and I had borrowed my neighbors MacBook to try and extract the video, but I didn’t save it correctly. My only option was to use Windows Movie Maker, which OMG- come on Windows, you can do better than this. It’s time to change this software up a bit, don’t you think? You can’t do any type of fancy picture-in-picture or edit the voiceovers or anything extra. At least I am able to share my latest video. Just ignore that it looks like the coloring is from the 1970’s. Pretend it’s just the retro version or something.

So yea, here are all mclosing remarks on the series – Can Fat People do the Insanity Workout? It’s the end of the series, at least for now, I may try to start it back up again in a month or so. First I plan on getting on the treadmill and elliptical and build some endurance back up again. Starting over stinks, but I’m not getting any results by doing nothing that is for sure.

I have created 4 more videos in this series-
See all of the videos in the playlist here at YouTube. Thanks for watching :)
Subscribe for future weight loss and fitness videos and blog posts!

Daily Nuggets

–> Dropped off the iMac at the shop, only $75 for them to install the hard drive + the cost of the hard drive. Totally worth it.

–> The first DLC maps come out for Black Ops II on January 29th! Woo hoo! Even though I hardly every play and still don’t know my way around the current maps. Maybe I should make some gaming videos on how NOT to play, because I’m not that great. My KD is like .60 or something like that.

–> FYI – I write all of my blog posts and such very late at night and set them up to post in the morning and then I share on Facebook whenever I get around to it during the day. I DO WORK during the day despite what some may think!

January 11, 2013 by Candi

weight loss

Video #4 of Can Fat People do the Insanity Workout Series – Restarting Month Two

After a mini break from doing Insanity I have restarted Month Two of the program. It could have been worse, I could have given up completely, but I didn’t! I’m back on track and I’m working hard at doing my workout every day again. It hasn’t been easy with the kids all busy with evening activities. I used to work until like 4 and then do my workout. But now I have to be showered and ready to go to cheer or football by like 5 most days. Twelve more days and the kids are back in school and it will be even easier to keep at a routine. I’m going to run 3 mornings a week when we drop Chase and Karli off at school, eat breakfast and then do Insanity probably around noon. The days I’m not running I’m doing to do Insanity first thing in the morning. Obviously I am not going to make my original goal of losing 70 pounds by my 40th Birthday which is next month beings I have only lost 25 so far this year. But honestly, it doesn’t matter to me. I am just going to keep doing what I am doing and hopefully by November I will look hot enough to wear the thong bikini I just bought for Cancun. KIDDING!!! :-)

Updated in January 2013:
Since this post I have created 4 more videos in this series-
See all of the videos in the playlist here at YouTube. Thanks for watching :)
Subscribe for future weight loss and fitness videos and blog posts!

August 23, 2012 by Candi

weight loss

Getting my groove back

I started writing about how crazy this month has been and after about 3 paragraphs of how I can’t seem to stay focused and stick to my daily goals I decided to just forget the past and move forward. No one really cares to hear all my excuses, hence the perfect graphic below. I thought of making a video too, but again, who cares to hear about the negative? So fast forward through all the BS and starting fresh with today I am getting myself back on track. So with that being said I am going to force myself to push through the stress of each day and I am restarting Month Two of Insanity tomorrow. Luckily I didn’t gain any weight back over the past couple of weeks. I need to get back to the point where the exercise makes me feel better and I feel as though my day isn’t complete until I have done something to raise my heart rate!

I am also going to get back into planning a menu for each week because we have been spending obscene amounts of money on groceries and eating out. It tends to get even worse this time of year with football and cheer as well as school starting back up in a couple of weeks. We are actually doing better than we did last year in regards to a monthly average, but we are still spending almost twice as much on food than we are our mortgage! And then you add the fact that I need to lose weight just makes me more angry with myself for not being better about our food budget. I actually read some websites that amaze me, like this family of 6 eating on a $100 a week budget! I don’t necessarily think I am going to cut our budget that low, especially not immediately, but it is certainly some good advice and a good place to start. This gal spends even less, but she doesn’t have growing teenage boys in her house either. I also bookmarked CouponMom because I am slightly interested in saving more with coupons. I tried getting into coupons a couple of years ago, but I failed miserably. I won’t spend hours a week trying to save with coupons, but if I can go to CouponMom and look up local deals after I plan my meals, I may be more likely to make time for that. Some of these menu planning sites try to grocery shop for their dinner meals for one month all at once. I am going to just shop for two weeks at a time to start out with and see how that goes. I first have to go “grocery shopping in my kitchen” to plan this weeks menu. I will let you know how it goes and possibly share my menu plans and grocery costs with you as well.

(p.s. I say this every year so there is no surprise when I say…I am so ready for the kids to go back to school and get a normal schedule going again. I can’t wait to start running in the mornings again!)

August 19, 2012 by Candi

weight loss

Video #3 of Can Fat People do the Insanity workout series

Update #3 on the video series… today I tell you about my results and opinions on the first month of the Insanity Program. I talk about the workouts that are included in the first month – Plyometric Cardio Circuit, Core Cardio and Balance, Cardio Power and Resistance, Cardio Abs and Pure Cardio. I’ve enjoyed the first month so far. I would have hoped my results included more weight loss for as hard as I am working out, but I am trying hard to be patient and have faith! Second month starts Monday, I hear it’s much harder…Yikes!

August 5, 2012 by Candi

blog, weight loss

I’m (almost) a Runner

I have developed a pretty bad habit of staying up really late and then sleeping in the next day. In a way I don’t really think it’s that big of a deal since I am awake the same amount of hours per day regardless of the time I get up. Well that is what I am telling myself anyways. Today was no exception. After waking up and cuddling in bed with Karli, Ken, and the pups for awhile I think it was almost 11am when I rolled out of bed.

I came downstairs and cleaned up the kitchen and then played with the dogs for a bit. It felt great to not have a darn thing to do today. Sure I could clean the half inch of dust off my family room tables or carry the clean clothes upstairs, but nah… I deserve a break, right?

Finally I thought that it was time to get up and make a plan for the day. I wasn’t in the mood to do the Insanity workout today. I had already decided that I was going to take today off and do the workout Sunday instead. So while Ken was on the elliptical I jumped on the treadmill for a bit. I ended up running/walking a mile and then I hopped on the elliptical when Ken was done. I found this really awesome app called BeatBurn Elliptical Trainer and it was amazing! You can customize the app with your height and weight as well as coordinate with the resistance settings on your elliptical. I tell you what, the app was great because it pushed me to up the resistance way more than I normally would. It seemed to push me just enough too… it wasn’t impossible, but a really hard workout. It plays music to go along with the speed you are to maintain and it really does help. I had choose the intermediate level and I burned just under 500 calories in 30 minutes.

So then I had this burst of energy or some sort of crazy notion that I was going to get back on the treadmill and push myself to run as long as I could. I was only running at a 4.5 mile per hour pace so I wasn’t pushing myself real hard since I was going for distance, not speed. About 5 minutes in of running I got this feeling of ease come over me. Finally I had that feeling that runners talk about, where it feels good and you feel like you could go on and on and on. I had a good rhythm going and I continued to stare at the same thing across the room and I kept focusing on positive thoughts. When I felt like I was getting out of breath I just took a deep breath so I could to fill my lungs with fresh oxygen. (Got that tip from Shaun T, holla!) Once I reached the half mile mark I felt great and truly thought I could make it one mile with no problem at all. I felt fine, no pains and my breathing was manageable. Right about when I got to .67 of the mile I had to slow down. I had ran 10 minutes without stopping and once I had seen that I made a jerk reaction to slow down. Honestly I don’t think I gave my brain enough time to talk myself out of slowing down. I slowed down for only 1 minute and then started running again. I managed to run the rest of the mile, it felt great! Of course when I was done I was mad at myself for not pushing myself harder, but it was a huge accomplishment. I haven’t ran for that long (without stopping) since high school. I am certain that I will be running a mile nonstop in no time!!

July 21, 2012 by Candi

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