The ambassador program has come to an end. However my journey to get healthy does not stop here. Thanks to the awesome tools provided by OmronFitness I will be able to continue exercising and keeping track of everything from weight, calories, to BMI.

With the support of the Mamavation community I will be able to continue having the accountability I need. I am already signed up for the virtual 5k that Mamavation is going to held on 03/09/13

I am really happy to report that this week I lost 3.5 pounds for a grand total of 32 pounds for the challenge.

Do not forget to come and join us on the twitter party, where you can win awesome tools to make your weight loss easier.

Who: Omron Fitness & Mamavation
When: Wednesday, February 20th
Time: 8-10pm EST (5-7pm PST)
Hashtag: #iheartOmron 
Theme: Workout SMARTER instead of longer

Giveaways during the party
HR-500U Heart rate monitor retails for $149.99 (2 winners)
HJ-323U Connected pedometer retails at $49.99 (2 winners)
510W scale retails for $79.99 (2 winners)

To RSVP for the party and more information visit Mamavation

So, 2013 is the year for me to become healthier. I am doing things that I had never though about before.

So, I am not only losing weight, but I am changing the way I do things. I am exercising, I am eating healthier and I am involving my family on the changes.

I am challenging myself to try new things and do more fun things. So when I heard about the color me rad 5k, I was very interested.

Not only this is going to be my first official 5k, but also it is going to be a really fun one. 

In this race, you start the day with a white t-shirt and end up all full of color. It is for all ages, so I am motivating my son to race with me. It is a very fun way to get active

I will be doing the one in Los Angeles on 05/15/13, but you can check the website to see if there are races near your hometown.

Not only the races are fun but they sponsor a local non-profit organization as well. In California this year they are donating to the Special Olympics of Southern California.

Disclosure: i was provided with a free ticket for the race, but all opinions are my own.

This week I have been so busy. My son's birthday party, work, pretty much life. I was proud at the party I did not have cake and eat the salad I had made. The party was really fun. My son was sick but he still enjoyed it. 
The cool thing about the party is that it was full of running and physical activity and not only the kids but the parents participating. Talk about changing our live style.

Happy to tell you that this week I lost 3.8 pounds for a total of 28.5 since starting the challenge.

I want to remind you about the twitter party where you can win the awesome tools that I got to help me with this challenge

Who: Omron Fitness & Mamavation
When: Wednesday, February 20th
Time: 8-10pm EST (5-7pm PST)
Hashtag: #iheartOmron
Theme: Workout SMARTER instead of longer

Giveaways during the party
HR-500U Heart rate monitor retails for $149.99 (2 winners)
HJ-323U Connected pedometer retails at $49.99 (2 winners)
510W scale retails for $79.99 (2 winners)

To RSVP for the party and more information visit Mamavation

This is the official last week of our ambassador program, although we still will have a great twitter party to celebrate all the great things that happened to the 25 bloggers that were on this journey. However my efforts will not stop here, because this challenge was just the jump start for me. I still have more weight to lose and I will be continue with my healthy leaving and exercise plan.

I got the last tool that Omon Fitness is providing us. The Strapless Heart Rate Monitor (HR-500U) which works wonders and the best part is that since it is strapless, you just need to wear the monitor on your wrist with no more straps on your chest and also tracks pace, distance and calories burned during my walks.

Bob Greene, Oprah's personal trainer, recommends using a heart rate monitor to help you get in the zone

Now for my results let's start with the before and after pictures

Now let's talk inches

 I am very happy to report that this week I lost 4.7 pounds for a total of 24.7 since applying to become an #IheartOmron ambassador.

I am super grateful for this opportunity. I want to thank the Mamavation Community for their support and Omron Fitness for the awesome tools that have facilitated my progress. I also want to tell you that I am goal is to continue using the tools because I am doing this challenge to become healthier. And it is happening. I have a great non-scale victory to report: I used to hate exercising and now I look forward to that time of the day.

Twitter Party
Now, I have awesome news for all of you my readers. You will have the opportunity to win some of the great tools I have been using during a twitter party. Here it is the information for the twitter party

Who: Omron Fitness & Mamavation
When: Wednesday, February 20th
Time: 8-10pm EST (5-7pm PST)
Hashtag: #iheartOmron 
Theme: Workout SMARTER instead of longer

Giveaways during the party
HR-500U Heart rate monitor retails for $149.99 (2 winners)
HJ-323U Connected pedometer retails at $49.99 (2 winners)
510W scale retails for $79.99 (2 winners)

To RSVP for the party and more information visit Mamavation 

I can believe we are starting our 3 week. This challenge has been so great and I am so proud of all the ladies that are doing it with me. I think most of us have been sick, so it has been hard, but we are still going strong and that makes me very happy.

I have been walking every day and I am reaching my goal of at least 10,000 steps a day. I am tracking my steps using my Omron Fitness Tri-Axis USB Pedometer (HJ-323U). I love this pedometer because it does so much more than tell me how many steps do I have each day. The Pedometer keeps track of aerobic steps, steps per minute, and even the calories burned. At the end of the day I connect the pedometer using the USB to my computer and it uploads all the information to Omronfitness.com and there in the dashboard you can see your daily and weekly progress and even challenge yourself to achieve a best personal step count. This pedometer is very accurate and counts strides, so you will not get false readings while riding in a bumpy car.

I am also very happy with my new Omron 510W Scale. I love that the scale can measure not only the BMI, but also the body fat percentage, the visceral fat and the skeletal muscle percentage. 

As for my progress on the scale, I lost 5 pounds this week for a total of 20 pounds since starting this challenge

I can tell you it feels great to put on your clothes and they are loose on me. But the best part is when I see people and they tell me I look great and they can tell I am losing the weight and getting healthier.

For this week my goal is to continue walking and drink more water. I sometimes get really busy at work and forget to drink as much water as I want to. 

We are also going to be modifying our workouts and so you can follow along by downloading the PFD file.

I will be extra busy for the next couple of weeks, I am going to be preparing everything for my son’s birthday party, but I will find that time to work out, because I can see the results now.

How are you staying active?

Week 1 is done and I started very strong and ended slow because I got sick.  I am having a lot of fun with the challenge and besides the workouts I am still walking after work.

It takes lots of will power to complete a challenge like this one. I have to get up earlier than normal to complete the workouts designed by the awesome @mrbookieboo and then I go to work. Then I come home, revise my son's homework and out to the street I go again to walk. 

I have to thank my husband for his help with the chores in the house. I think that he is happy that I am losing the weight, so he has been helping with dishes, dinner and small things. That allows me more time to go out on my walks. 

Towards the end of the week I found myself feeling really weak and without energy. I got sick. I was diagnosed with pneumonia and it hurts when I breath. So I had to slow down and rest. I did modified versions of the workouts however I did not go for my walk. 

It is kind of funny because before I used to hate to workout and now I miss my walks, but I had to take some time to recover to finish this great opportunity strong. Today I can say I feel much better and I think I am ready to back to almost normal.

I am happy to report that I lost 5 pounds this week for a total of 15 pounds since applying to be an #IheartOmron ambassador.

For this week I want to get creative with my meals and I want to get back into the routine of walking and doing the workouts. I am also challenging myself to drink more water. 

How are you staying active this week?

This week is the official first week of the #IheartOmron #Mamavation challenge. Which means that all the 25 ambassadors (I am one of them) will start their healthy eating plan and exercise routine. 

I got the products from @OmronFitness and I can tell you so far I am really impressed with both the scale and the pedometer. Let me tell you a little bit about them:

Omron HBF-510W Full Body Composition Monitor with Scale
Since I opened the box I knew I was going to love the product. It comes with the batteries, so I do not have to start looking for them all over the house. The scales is very accurate and allows you to monitor the Body Fat Percentage and the Body Mass Index. It also keeps track of 4 profiles which is perfect for my family.

HJ-323U USB Pedometer
I am in love with the pedometer. It is so light that the first day I was checking that I had not lost it, which I think is perfect because it does not bother me on the waist. I also love that is a USB that connects with a dashboard to be able to keep track of the activity, calories burned and see the weight loss progress. And it comes with a screwdriver too.

 Waist: 41 1/2 inches                                Hips: 48 1/2 inches                                  Thighs: 27 1/2 inches

Last week I lost 5 pounds for a total of 10 pounds since I applied to be an #iheartOmron ambassador.

If you want to join my journey please follow me on twitter as @monicazyoung and instragram too, because I will be tweeting and posting pictures about my food and workouts.

I am also sharing the workouts designed by the awesome @mrbookieboo so you can complete them at home too. The workouts are on a PDF form for you to download and follow along. I am planning on continue walking my 5 miles a day as well

As for nutrition, I will be following the Low Glycemic Index plan. You can find more information about it on the link. Here is also my shopping list for you to follow along.

I want to invite you to watch this video about our challenge, a word of inspiration to keep us moving:

Well, I made it! I am now a #iheartOmron Fitness Ambassador.

What a huge responsibility, but I am so happy about it. I really needed something like this on my life. I have been trying to lose weight like for forever, so this is my chance of doing it and getting tools to do it the right way.

I have been yo-yo dieting for long time. I grew up overweight and I have lost the pounds and gained them back and more over and over, and over...

The main reason for my weight gain is that I am an emotional eater. I eat when I am sad, I eat when I am stressed out. The other reason is that I really never liked to exercise. However just recently I have decided that I needed a change. I was really close to a weight that was the weight limit for me. You know that number you say I will never let myself to weight that much. Well I almost got there. So I decided that day that I was going to start walking and changing my diet.

Here it is another chance to accomplish what I have tried for years. With this challenge I have the support of a great group: Mamavation and I have the tools that OmronFitness will be providing me and the other 24 bloggers chosen for this challenge.

We are going to be provided with HJ-323U connected pedometer and the new 510W scale for help us keep track our activity and weight. Also and the end of the challenge they are going to give us the new Strapless Heart Rate Monitor (HR-500U)

I want to invite your to follow my weight loss journey with this amazing tools and support system. I will be sharing my workouts and food plan, so maybe you want to join me and we can lose weight together. 

So far since my application date I have lost 5 pounds with walking  5 miles a day (and that was during the holidays). I cannot wait to see the results at the end of this challenge with all the accountability I am going to have.

Congratulations to all the other ambassadors!

Follow the #IheartOmron and #mamavation on twitter so you can see how we are doing!
Also please follow our sponsor at @OmronFitness and @Mamavation

I do not know if you have heard about this app. I found it while looking for an iphone app that served as a pedometer. I am in love with it. Not only you can track your miles, but as you walk, run or bike you will be donating to the charity of your choice.

Charity Miles is a free app that empowers you to earn money and raise awareness for charities by walking, running or biking.

You can find it on the iphone app store

No sé si ya has escuchado acerca de esta app. Yo la encontré cuando andaba buscando apps para el teléfono que me sirvieran como podómetro para contar las millas que camino diario. Y estoy encantada con la app. No solo te sirve como podómetro sino que al caminar, correr o montar en la bici, puedes donar las millas a una organización benéfica de tu gusto.

La puedes encontrar en la tienda de app para el iphone

Disclosure: I was not compensated to write this post, I just wanted to share a cool app that I found.

I want to congratulate the Mamavation Moms for their journey and their success with the weight loss.  It does take a lot to make the changes and all of them really inspire the rest of us.

My week was very stressful at work. And stress makes it harder for me to keep in track. So I  did started my planner and was doing good and by the end of the week when things got bad at work, I dropped the planner. I could not seriously concentrate.

I practiced a lot of Taekwondo with my son to help me prepare for his Blue belt. That was awesome and I am going to workout with him to help him with flexibility. We also need to dance for his coordination so that should be fun.

We started a bad cold yesterday. As I am writing this, my son is snuggling on the bed with me with a very stuffy nose and I had a bad sinus headache. The medicine and fluids are out and I see a day of light cleaning and resting today.

The weather is changing to colder and that makes it harder for me to get out and walk. I am using the elliptical for cardio. Maybe that and the dancing will help me keep active.

Until next week ladies...







“This post is sponsored by Lilly’s Sweets and hosted by Mamavation – a community dedicated to obesity prevention & weight loss for women and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway” at the bottom of your post.”