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Great job, Kim! I know what you mean about tender shoulders, though. Lean Circuit 2 is the shoulder workout during the Lean month. It even hurt to sleep on mine last night. lol

We'll wait till this weekend to get Judy's measurements, and I'll hunt down Dawn and see if she's going to post her end of the month measurements, too. Then we'll figure out who the winner is!

Regardless of who wins or not, though, I want to say that you've all done a great job with sticking to the program. You may not be seeing the results you were hoping to after a month, but the bottom line is that regardless of the numbers, you are doing the BEST thing you can do for your health and for being a great role model for your families! You are all winners in my book!

I had a great day today myself. I haven't been posted yet about what I have found out recently about exercise and eating right. As some of you know, I've been grousing for a few months now that my weight and measurements just aren't moving. I have been ramping up the workouts and hitting them harder than ever, and burning more calories than ever, but nothing seems to be working. I posted on the Nutrition board here, where Beachbody has experts who moderate it and answer all of the questions. I was told I needed to increase my calories. So I did, up to 2000, but instead of seeing my weight start to drop again, it went up two pounds and my body fat went up even more! ACK! So I posted there again, trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

What has been happening is that because I was burning so many calories, and not eating right, my body was producing more of the hormone cortisol that it should. Cortisol is a hormone that our bodies need, but when we are under stress, it produces even more. This causes water retention, fat retention and almost worst of all, catabolism, which means my body is eating away at the muscles for energy, the muscles I've been working so hard to get nice and strong! Another side effect of too much cortisol (and a sign of stress) is that my chin area has been breaking out like crazy. I have always had problems during PMS time with bad hormonal breakouts, but ever since I've started eating right and exercising, I haven't had as many. But my face has been exploding the past two weeks, and I couldn't figure out why, until the Advice Staff told me that cortisol was my problem. I did some research, and lo and behold, breakouts are also associated with it.

So, I'm working really hard to keep my calorie intake up to around 2000 or so calories. My face is calming down now, so that's a good sign. I'm not going to weigh myself for a few days yet, so I can't say for sure what's happening there, but I'm feeling better overall about things.

So the moral of the story is, when your metabolism is kicked into high gear, and your working out hard, make sure you eat enough. If you don't, it throws a monkey wrench into all of your hard work!

Oh, and today I ran for 3.34 miles and did Extreme Abs. Felt great!

I've been sick the last few days, so my exercises have been pretty non-existant, haven't done my ce since Tuesday.
On a positive note though, I did have some encouragement today. I took my girls shopping. I usually wear about a 10-12 for pants/shorts, so when I went to try on a pair of shorts, I figured I'd start with a 12 - better to have to go get a smaller size than a bigger one, right? Anyway, instead of a 10 or 12, I ended up in an 8. I also ended up in a smaller size shirt than usual. Now who knows, it may have been a store that sizes things different than what I'm used to, but after being disappointd with the numbers earlier this week, dropping a size definitely made my day!

BTW- for those debating about getting one of these workout videos, DO IT NOW!!! LOL i am telling you, if I had done them all along I would be where I want to be weight wise already! With what I was doing before (elliptical-1 hour a day and a misc video - 40 minutes a day) I was at a standstill and could not loose anything but felt as if I was doing something. Now, when I do my CE videos I am truly seeing results! I LOVE that! That is what is going to make me get back to work now that I have my life semi-back.
Dawn

Woo-hoooo! We're back, and looking better than ever! Got lots more exploring to do to check out the new digs, though!

I will spend some time today checking everyone's stats and will get back to you with our winner! Thanks for playing everyone! You all did great!

Okay, I didn't get this done yesterday. I'm not sure if I'll get it done today or tomorrow either. We're on our last day of vacation, so I hope to spend a lot of time outside exploring the area a bit more. And then we drive home tomorrow. So if not today, then definitely Sunday. Just wanted to let you know what I haven't forgotten you all!

We have been in the Berkshires this week, and while we have had a couple of total relaxation days, we've also had a couple of hit it hard days. They have an 11 mile bike trail here, so we brought our bikes and did the round trip twice, 22 miles altogether. That felt great! Then on another day we hiked up and back the highest peak in the the state, Mt. Greylock (in Mass.). That was about 7 miles of moderate, strenuous and aggressive trails. I was having trouble walking the next day. My booty was not at all happy with me! Today we'll just be walking alot, so nothing extreme. But I plan to take lots of photos again.

I've been uploading my photos from the trip on Facebook, if you want to check them out over there. You can find me there as Jan Hicks! Surprise, surprise!

Have a great day everyone!

Jan

Well, Alex did work out with me yesterday but he needs more cardio. I did Burn 1 yesterday. He also said, "She was just too nice" He is used to his football trainers who yell all the time in the gym. Oh well. He did say that it looks like it would be perfect for me. LOL

Today is elliptical and burn itoff. I may throw some abs in, we will see.
Dawn

Hey Dawn!

You just do what you can and don't worry about the rest. Some days are better than others, right!

I had to laugh at Alex's comment, about Chalene being too nice. He would probably like Tony's beat 'em up style in P90X.

I have been seriously slacking in getting in here and figuring out who won the May contest. My only excuse is that this is the first week of summer vacation, and I'm still working out my new routine. It is on my list for tomorrow, though, so expect an announcement then.

I'm also having to figure out when the best time is to exercise. I am finding that if I don't get up and do it before the day starts, it's not going to happen. It didn't happen today at all. With boys and running around and more boys and lunches and snacks, and oh yeah, trying to get work done somewhere in there, too...well, my days are just feeling downright chaotic right now. But hopefully by the end of this first week I'll have a better feel for things.

Anyway, hope you all are doing great!

TTYT!

Jan

Saw ya in WOWY this morning Jan!!! WHOO HOO!!
Don't know how but I did...lot's of adjustments with this new makeover ..ooo got a smiley to stay!!! Haven't been able to do that!
See ya soon!

First, let me start by saying you all did a wonderful job! You have all seen decreases this month, and that is a wonderful thing. But do you want to know what's even more wonderful??? The fact that you are doing the right thing for your health, each and every day. The fact that you are exercising and eating right every day, improving your cardiovascular health, improving the health of your entire body, is more important that what the numbers say! It really is. Believe me, I know we want those numbers to change, too. I'm as much a slave to that as you are. But most of the time I also feel good just knowing I am doing the right thing for my body. What I'm trying to say is that I'm not going to give up and quit because I don't like what the scale is telling me, or I don't like the fact that I'm not losing as fast as I want. The bottom line is I'm healthy, and that's saying an awful lot in today's world when you look around you!

Anyway! We have a winner!! DAWN! You absolutely rocked this month! WOW! What an impressive job you're doing with ChaLEAN Extreme! I am so proud of you, girlfriend!

So head on over to the boutique and pick out your prize, valued $25 or below. Then you can send me an email via this here new fancy system we've got here! Hopefully you can figure out how! LOL. If not, let me know and I'll help. So send me an email with your choice and your addy.

Congratulations Dawn! And congratulations to all who took part! You all rock!

Jan

I was wondering how you were doing, Sheri! You got quiet on us! Glad to see you're getting back into it.

I love changing from one phase to the next. Just when you start to get a bit bored with a routine, it's time to change and challenge yourself all over again.