The low carb week proved to be good for me as I recorded a 2.2 weight loss this week. I have also shed one inch of my waist and two inches of my hips since my starting measurements were taken February 25. 

After reading so many labels this past week to check the amount of carbohydrates in foods before eating, I can see that before this challenge had I been eating way too many. Because of the success I had with the low carb, I will continue to reduce my intake of carbohydrates.  

I earned 30 of a possible 35 points for the nutrition challenge. As for the fitness challenge, I earned at total of 48 points (24 points for walking 24 miles and another 24 for attending four cardio classes). 

However, because I didn’t turn them in to my team captain by 2 p.m. on Sunday, they weren’t added my team’s weekly total.  

During my first week of walking 4 miles a day on the treadmill, I became winded and exhausted and quite ready to get off.  By Friday of this week (March 8), I noticed I was less tired after my 4 miles and was able to extend my walk to 4.5 miles. 

So I am starting to feel some of the benefits of what I have been doing over the last couple of weeks. Another benefit that I have noticed is that I am getting a better night’s sleep. A real plus when I have been doing some form of exercise for an hour a day, seven days a week. 

Before our cross training class Friday, March 7 some of us enjoyed a 10-minute pre-workout massage provided by Kristina Phillips and Bill Burleson, who are training to be sports massage therapists. The purpose of the massage according to Phillips was to “get muscles geared up and warmed up before your workout.” 

It was pretty relaxing, too! I wanted to get back in line and do it again. 

Our new exercise/fitness challenge is interval training. “Interval training is a type of physical training that involves bursts of high-intensity work interspersed with periods of recovery,” Coach Lisa Hall said. “The high-intensity periods are typically at or close to near-maximum exertion, while the recovery periods may involve either complete rest or activity of lower intensity.” 

Here are a just a few of the examples that Hall gave us: walk one minute, jog two minutes, run two minutes; 50 jump rope, 10 push-ups, 10 lunges, 200 meter run.

The food challenge for Week 3 will be:  no grains (wheat, rye, barley, millet, oats, corn, rice, sprouted grains, 2 points per day; drink 50 ounces of water each day (2 points per day); and no high fructose corn syrup, no hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated (2 points per day). HFCS is an ingredient found in most processed food. We will have to keep reading labels to find these ingredients.

Hall comes up with these different challenges. “I have learned that most people have no idea about the quality of foods they are consuming. If it says healthy, low fat, no sugar, or all natural, then they believe it must be good for them. 

“By having them look for certain ingredients, they learn on their own if the foods they are consuming are actually as good as they say they are. Also, in my experience, I have seen many of my participants see a difference and feel better when they eliminate/reduce one or all of these ingredients sugar, dairy, grains.”