We're SHRINKING... Shrinking....

...shrinking.

And it's about time!

Nicole, John & I joined 24 Hour Fitness. All three of us have 10 sessions with a personal trainer. And, all three of us are on "calorie" plans. It has been an amazing couple of weeks.

John meets with his personal trainer - or as John calls him, his personal terrorist in the early morning before work, usually 5:00ish (NUTS!!!). He has been kicking John's butt! My poor husband comes home unable to move at times. There were two days when just watching John get off the couch was more amusing than watching TV. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to do his next session - but, Scott, his PT, had plans for John's upper body that day. So, his arms hurt as much as his legs.

Nicole's personal trainer is Bizzie. His name is actually Mike - one of the 4 Mike's they have working there, so, his assigned 'work' name is Bizzie. Bizzie is a PT and a body builder & Nicole said he is very nice & even nicer to look at. Which is good, cuz, eye candy is probably the only sweet she is allowed to have.

I am the only one working with a woman. Christina is a 24 Hour Fitness weight loss success story - turned trainer. She hit her 100 lb weight loss mark 2 years ago. From what I heard, she is a Kick box maniac! I meet with her 2x a week and she puts me through the wringer.

Part of our membership included the 24 Hour Fitness Body Bugg. AMAZING. It a handy little device that is worn on the upper right arm. ..."bodybugg takes the guesswork out of weight loss by monitoring your calorie expenditure and consumption using the most sophisticated consumer body monitoring capabilities available on the market today. You always know when you need to move more or eat less. In studies comparing calorie expenditure measurements from the bodybugg device to calorie expenditure measurements in a metabolic chamber (the "gold standard" of calorie expenditure measurement), the bodybugg achieved average accuracy rates of 92%.

• it's easy- just manage your average daily caloric deficit number.
• it's flexible- eat what you want when you want. workout on your own terms.
• it's personal- no more guessing. you determine how many calories you want to burn to reach your goal.

It measures

1. accelerometer
2. heat flux
3. galvanic skin response
4. skin temperature..."
   

And comes with an online program that allows allows us to "program" in our goals, and in return we get a personalized nutrition & exercise plan. We just have to log in the food we ate and it charts our calories burned, calories consumed, our nutrition percentages for the day, steps taken for the day. Here's a my calorie screen shot for today.




This is the nutrition screen.













You can see everything I've eaten today. I enter in the food, it logs all the nutrients and charts it for me. The line graph shows me my daily average of nutrients - the black line is my target. I had too much fiber today and not enough anything else...

The pie chart on the side tells me where my calories came from.

It's been interesting to see the changes in the house too. We have not been out to eat in WEEKS. For us - that is an amazing feat in and of itself. We are all cautious about what we buy and when & how much we eat. John called me on his way home tonight - I asked him what he wanted for dinner - His typical response a few weeks ago would have been: "Meat loaf or chili, or chicken salad(mayo heaven)...". Today, his response was, I don't care as long as it high in fiber & protein & low in fat. We had roasted chicken breast with spaghetti squash with a homemade diced tomato & zucchini sauce topping.

So, how are we all doing with our goals so far? In a week & 1/2, I have lost 4 lbs & John has discovered muscles he didn't know he had. Nicole has lost weight too - I don't know how much. I know she is under a certain ### that I don't think she would want posted on the blog - suffice it to say, she too is SHRINKING....

So - next time all you Non-Pacific Northwest peeps see the Palmer/Santos family, we should all be a lot smaller!!