Set my goal weight today....

So today at the WW meeting I set my lifetime weight goal and I am only 3.4 lbs from it!!!! I lost 2 pounds this past week?!?! I had lost .4 the week prior so it averages out to a healthy loss. I still will aim to lose another 10 pounds below my WW goal.

Today I start the Core program. It is tough making the transition. This morning I went for a short walk with the kids and let Elizabeth eat a breakfast bar in the stroller. Well, I grabbed a bar for myself and then realized it definitely is not a core food. So I didn't eat it. When we got back home I made an egg and put it on some 0 point bread with salsa. Then at the meeting today my leader said there is no such thing as 0 point starch or protein. In other words you always have to count a point for them. So my 0 point bread was really a point. Lunch was leftovers which had rice and parmesan on the fish. I only ate about 1/2 a cup of rice (white) and counted points for the parmesan on the fish. Anyway, the transition is going to be tricky. But I will give core a few weeks. I bought the Turnaround cookbook which should help out.

My training session yesterday went well. Brad told me my body composition is really beginning to change.

Yesterday he had me doing one legged squats. They are pretty cool. He had a bench set behind me so when I went down I had to touch my butt on the bench to know I am going deep enough. He got this exercise out of some martial arts book he is reading. I didn't go all the way to the ground as the link shows but maybe one day. It is also interesting to note this exercise is great for improving stride for running. Perhaps it will become a regular exercise for me.

We did one armed dumbbell snatches which I am getting the hang of. Instead of watching myself in the mirror I concentrated on how it felt muscularly and it improved my movement immensely. The key is to get your power from your hips and butt as you come out of the squat to transfer the weight up to an upright row position and to then snatch it up into the air and locking it into place with your lats. If your lats are loose the weight will falter.

A key to handling heavier weights than normal is to keep your entire body active. All muscles should be activated as a strong, stable foundation for the muscle your exercise is actually targetting. Shoulder blades squeezed down, core tight, feet anchored into the ground through your heels. I find with dumbbell deadlifts my grip breaks down before my hamstrings which is what the exercise targets. What this means is I am not anchoring my upper body enough. Shoulders back and down to handle the weight so it isn't being handled by your hands alone. In the past I never really thought about keeping my entire body activated like this. Now I realize the importance of it.

For pullups a tight body makes it easier than a loose body. So squeeze through the lower back, buttocks, and inner thighs to help get up to that bar.

We did some side leg raises for abs. The key here is to not use the hip flexors. Heels should be pointing to the ceiling as much as you can get them and having your foot flexed will help get to the core versus the flexors.

Anyway, those are my exercise notes for today. These are more notes for me so sorry if I bored anyone....