Day One

Today is the official first day of my Drop 2 Sizes plan. I'm feeling very optimistic!

Funny story: I had a pair of stretch jeans by Seven for all Mankind in mind that were suppppper tight on me about a month ago. I could barely roll them up my legs and they looked lacquered on once buttoned, with a super-sized muffin top. I wanted these to be the pants to use for the challenge, since they seemed at least two sizes too small for me. 

Today, I went to try them on to take pictures (the challenge starts with the idea of putting away the scale and measuring your progress with your goal pair of jeans) and the pair I wanted to be my gauge actually fit REALLY nicely! 

Essentially, I've lost quite a few inches since the first Stage of New Rules of Lifting. It actually kind of makes me sad that I am switching gears but in the end, I know that this program is just as challenging, if not more so! 

So, here are two pictures of me looking completely heinous in a pair of True Religion jeans I used to wear in college. They don't fit up my butt at. All. At all. They are a size 32 but run pretty small and I was generally an 8-10 when I wore these.

I hope to fit into these really nicely very soon. Crossing my fingers!

The eating plan for today is as follows:

8 glasses of water minimum.

Breakfast
1 cup of oatmeal made with 1 cup of 2% milk (I made the oatmeal with water instead and added the milk after)
1 cup of mixed berries (I used strawberries)

Snack:
handful of raw almonds

Lunch:
Green salad with veggies and 5 oz of chicken and balsamic/olive oil

Snack:
Protein shake (will have this after my first workout)

Dinner:
5 oz of fish (can sub for other meat)
3/4 cup brown rice cooked
cup of broccoli

I also have to take a multivitamin, vitamin D pill and an omega-3. I forgot to this morning so hopefully I remember to do it when I get home!

I will agree, it sounds kind of miserable, but we are allowed to have splurges once and awhile and the macros are pretty healthy. I think I overcooked my oatmeal which is skewing my view of life in general today LOL. It was pretty liquid. Bleh! I much prefer slow cooking it to stove top preparation. Will go with the Caphalon magic next time, haha.

Tonight, I'm doing the first strength workout from the book. Should be pretty challenging with 3 sets of each exercise. My biggest challenge will probably be the T stabilization (starting in a push-up and piveting onto two legs with arm in a T-shape). We shall see!

In other news, the weekend was really nice. Saturday I finished up my last workout of New Rules. I will not be doing the "bonus" workouts where I do as many reps as possible at my starting weights for workouts A and B. I guess I could do them on my rest day tomorrow, but I've officially joined the pilates studio and have booked up my days beyond belief. Might regret that later....

I wore my new pair of lightly used Lululemon Run a marathon crops, an Ellie black magic top, and a Lululemon Forme jacket in fresh teal. I was feeling cute! Lolll. 

(These pants have pockets I am in love with. They also feature this sticky stuff at the hips that is supposed to keep your top from creeping up. I think it worked, surprisingly)

 I squatted 85 pounds and it felt amazing. I had backtracked with my step ups to a lower step with higher weights in hand (20 pounds each) but in this new program, I see that I will again be doing step-ups, so hopefully I will be able to pull out that higher step again but keep good form. I also helped out my mom with her program since she will be going through stage one. She loves it so far, which makes me happy.

On Sunday I took a T&A pilates class with the studio owner. Pretty chatty class! I found it hard to concentrate but it was still challenging and I left with a lingering hip soreness but it's all good today. In some ways, the discomfort of Pilates stretches me out and makes me feel much better the day after a workout.

I also took the time to go for a walk after hanging out with my friend Anna. I was just full of energy and still wearing my pilates outfit, so why not.  I ended up racking up a ton of fitbit steps!



I finished out with over 10,000 (after some running in place while making oatmeal LOL) which has not happened in quite awhile. I do want to put some focus on taking a walk/jog whenever possible. It felt good.