Beachbody Fast

Well, I am on day two of Beachbody's 2-day fast. I am certainly counting down the minutes till bedtime so I don't have to think about food. Why is it that when u can't eat, THAT'S the time you will think about it, fantasize about it, dream about it, and salivate constantly over it??!!
Today wasn't as bad because I was at work so I was busy. But yesterday was bad. It was raining (which always makes me want to bake) so I was dreaming about my new infamous cookies that I love baking (and eating). But, thanks to a phone call from Jen, to boost my resolve, I did hold strong and I haven't cheated at all. My stomach already feels shrunken, but this morning my weight was the same. We'll see what it is tomorrow, and maybe I can wear my favorite purple shorts to the gym tomorrow ???? That would be nice. I think they are my 'favorite' only because they are elusive- ha ha.

sore and happy

Oh I am so sore. I think its a culmination of working arms/back/shoulders for 3 days in a row. I am so sore. But you know, it feels good in a sick sort of way. Although it is also making me tired and I'd love to curl up and take a nap right now. I just might, however, I really want to go get my nails done-they are all chipped and cracking off so they are certainly overdue for a fill. I joined my friend Chris at his gym today for a spin class. My first ever. It was great but certainly hard. I was sweating all over the machine and myself. Then afterwards the same teacher (who was very good and motivating) was teaching pump so we went to that too. Problem was even though I take pump classes every week at my gym, she does more reps than my instructors, so for the first 20 minutes or so I had my weight too heavy...I'm feeling it now! I need a massage!!!!!! ooohhh, that would feel so good. I wish that was on my agenda today, but its not. Before class started we went into what is called the Cinema Cardio room. It had a huge movie screen with a movie playing in the dark and rows of treadmills and ellipticals. I ran on that for almost a mile. It was really cool. Since its dark and u are watching the movie, u pretty much forget that u are working out, and its awesome. No distractions with anything around u (bc its dark and u can't see!) I loved it. His gym is REALLY cool. Clean. New. Hip. Lots of classes and equipment. All in all, very awesome! I wish my gym was like this. However, I LOVE my instructors and my gym buddies so I could never switch gyms unless we all switched together (ha ha) instructors too. And since that isn't likely to happen, my lifetime membership at my gym will just continue. It just goes to show u that the people really make an experience great for you. Even though my gym is dirty and old, I love my peeps there, so I won't leave. I did enjoy my experience though at this new gym. Certainly a great workout. Honestly, though, I think the main reason I am so sore and tired is a culmination of the last 3 days, NOT just from today. So kuddos to everyone involved in giving me great workouts this week! woohoo!

feeling great, going strong

I am still in a great place mentally. Very focused, which thus makes me workout really well. I am having excellent workouts-enjoying every minute and pushing myself on every exercise. Eating good but not beating myself up over imperfect choices (such as a bacon/cheddar baked potato at lunch with the gym girls today, and fried catfish and hushpuppies at the fish shack for dinner tonight). I know those aren't lo-cal meals, but I'm ok since I know I'm eating great 90% of the time and working out like I used to. Ran (I repeat Ran---I haven't run before the gym in a LOOOONNNGG time) before going to the gym today, then ran (yes, ran) again before class. I haven't done that in a long time either because I've fallen into a trap of saying I want to 'conserve my energy for Shelley's class'. Screw it! I'm going all out before, during , and after, because like my friend Jen says "if you're gonna take the time to work out u might as well make it count!" She's right, why waste the time not giving it your all. If you're there, give it all you've got. That's what I'm doing again. I'm excited. I'll keep u updated on this fun and exciting journey and hopefully my weightloss which will result in pictures of some of my favorite clothes that I haven't worn in 2years.

I'm BAAACKKK! yahoo!

I guess I need to give u some history before I can share my great news of my comeback, so here goes...

Last Friday, I cried myself to sleep.

After having a very unsuccessful time of trying on all my summer shorts and capris, that did NOT fit! Very upsetting. I've been fooling myself that everything was ok with my fitness level and weight because those jeans I bought this winter still fit, albeit a bit tighter, but they still fit, so I was fooling myself that I wasn't gaining weight and all was ok. Well, its not ok. All my other jeans, that are a bit smaller don't fit at all, so I have to wake up from this delusion and face the facts that I am gaining weight because I am eating crap. Too many sugary snacks, ice cream, and cookies. I still work out, but not as intensely as I used to during the great year of 2007 ( my awesome year when I got to 135 pounds and was NOT on a diet, it was simply that I ate good food and not crap, and worked out like a maniac).

So that did it. I got mad. I only see REAL results when I get mad. I haven't been mad lately because as you've seen from my previous posts I've been pretty happy just coasting. Sure I wanted to lose a few pounds but I wasn't upset enough about it (because those expensive jeans still fit) in order to make any serious effort. My husband is right, I'm a yo-yo in my fitness regime and therefore a yo-yo in my weight. Nothing extreme like 100 pounds, but within 15 pounds either way. Doesn't sound like too much when u watch Biggest Loser, but for me 5 pounds is a jean size, so 15 is actually pretty significant. Its the difference between wearing clothes in my closet, or not even fitting in them because they are so disgustingly tight its pathetic. I personally hate it when my pants get so tight in the thighs that there is a little 'window' u can see through right at your crotch (because my inner thighs are sticking out and thus touching) ugh! yuck! I HATE that! Other people probably have other areas that bother them more, but since I gain weight in my thighs and butt first, those are the areas that piss me off when I see them grow. So as u can tell, I am MAD! And fortunately, that means good things for me...

Saturday I woke up and I made a change. A change in attitude. A change in my mind. A definate new motivation. So, I say... I'MMMMM BBAAAACCCKKKKK!!!!!!!!

The following is my intake and cal burn for the last few days. (u can scroll quick if u don't care-its sort of just for me to keep me accountable. I didn't look up all the cal counts on the foods yet, and I may not. When I did that in the past it became a bit too controlled. I just want to make wise choices to put good things in my mouth, and when I do make a decision to eat something unhealthy I want to do it in moderation so that there is no regret.)

Sat:
880 calories burned: fun run, treadmill run, AMT
2 cups cheerios/skim milk
1 C strawberries
2 slices english muffin bread (YUM) with 1T butter (about 240cal combined)
3 carrots
2 small croissant turkey,sprouts,pickle,1slice salami sandwiches (I know,croissants are the worst bread choice, but I really like them).
dinner out:3 C tabouli
5 grilled shrimp
2 fried shrimp
1 baked potatoe with chives,cheese,& butter

Sun.
423 calories used on bike and short run, plus did 30minutes with the weighted hula hoop
1C cheerios w/ skim milk
banana
1 C raspberries
2 sandwiches(like yesterday)
1C tabouli (brought some home from the restaurant)
2 grape tomatoes
1 string cheese
1/2 cinn roll (100 cal)--I nibbled on the girls' that I made them-shouldn't have-wasn't worth it.
1 t butter
2C spagetti squash w/salt/pepper

Monday
540 calories used on treadmill and AMT
1C cheerios w/skim milk
banana
1C tabouli
1/2C strawberries
1 mini snickers(after I ate it I craved more sugar-yuck, so I ate more berries instead :)
4 hard boiled egg whites
2C grapes
porkloin/roasted
6 carrots
1 potato with butter and salt/roasted

Tues:
1250 calories on AMT and gym classes, plus digging in yard to make garden
1C cheerios with milk
2 bananas
2C strawberries
2 sloppy joes
salad + olive garden italian dressing(big cal on the dressing, but this is the only dressing that I use a lot of, usually I just eat my salads without dressing)
apple
2 oranges
3 celery
15 cheese crackers(organic) 130cal (this was my snack/treat bc I was starting to crave something, so I counted out the serving size of 15 crackers instead of eating the whole bag which I have been known to do in the past.)

So there you have it. Not 100% perfect (fried shrimp, dressing, butter), but lots of really good healthy stuff (egg whites, fruits and veggies). I wanted to have zero sugary snacks for at least 3 days straight to break the craving that sugar does in your body, I caved with the snickers and the bites of cinn roll, but I don't feel bad, its still pretty good and I made wise choices to go for the berries when I wanted sweet things, and maintained portion control on my cracker snack. So I feel I am doing good and headed on the right path. If I stay motivated (and mad ha ha) my eating habits will change (like they did before) and I'll only desire the good food, and the mozzerella sticks and ice cream won't even be tempting me anymore. That's my goal, to get back to a complete change in food intake. I know exercise is important, but as anyone who works out a lot like me knows... what really dictates your body shape and size is what u put into it. That is my main goal to focus on that. I did have great gym workouts and I feel the intensity returning to my workouts, so that is good too.

By the way, I don't think I mentioned it, but when I was trying on the clothes that were too tight I got on the scale afterwards and sure enough I had gained 5 pounds and was now at 150-ugh that makes me mad!!!!!
After 3 days of refocusing my food intake to healthy things I am already back to 145. Now my goal is to work towards my 2007 weight of 135 again. Help me on my journey, will ya? :)

An egg-ucation

I'm posting this on my workout/fitness site because it relates to health. This post is about eggs, and its an egg education :)
While driving about 3 miles from my house the other day on a road I've never recalled being on before, I saw an "eggery". That's a place that sells eggs. Chickens in the hen house and fresh eggs. I stopped in a few days later to check it out. I normally buy organic or omega eggs, or at least brown/cage free eggs. I rotate my purchases because the organic and omega's are pretty expensive ($2.50-$3.50 a dozen if I remember right). So I check this place out and sure enough, I can buy my eggs here, fresh from the chickens for only $2 a dozen. For me that's deal, but if you normally buy the regular ones (I think about $1 dozen) this might not be a bargain, but its still good and healthy :) The lady was explaining to me that the eggs in the store are already about 3 months old before they get to the shelves, so when u buy these fresh eggs u can keep them for 4-5 months without going bad. wow! As eggs sit they get air in them, so hers being only a few days old have no air and feel heavier. The yolk stands up firmer and when fried the white stays in a circle instead of spreading all out (from the air). Its true I came home and tried it, sure enough she was right. She did say however, that if you are going to hard boil fresh eggs u should wait about 10 days so they DO get some air in them which will make them easier to peel. Interesting, eh? I never knew any of this stuff! So there you have it, a new egg-ucation! And if you live near me, I'll tell you where she is if you are interested in buying fresh eggs too :)

Academy vs Sports Authority

Ok, you know I've found some good deals on my favorite running shoes at Sports Authority since I have posted about it. However, I found out Asics was discontinuing that line and that is why they were cheaper, and soon EVERYBODY had them cheap too. But I will admit S.Auth was the first, so at least they still had my size.
However, as far as shopping in the stores goes... Academy can't be beat! I was reminded of this today and I decided to give them a shout out because I'm sick of S.Authorities lack of REAL sale prices. Academy ALWAYS has great clearance racks (virtually the only place I shop) and I can get stuff anywhere from $2.99-$19.99. Well, I was at Sports Authority today and they had about EIGHT clearance racks. They had really good stuff on them too (great Nike and Adidas and even some Under Armour stuff, plus the black pants I love)...BUT they weren't priced as clearance. How can a "clearance" item still be $50!!!???? gimme a break! Not to mention, half the stuff they had on clearance (for $50 mind you), Academy had had on clearance SIX MONTHS AGO for $10-$20! For pete's sake S.Authority! If you want to stay in business lower your prices sooner to clear out the old stuff. The stuff was so old, yet they were still at prices as if it had just hit the sales floor. Insane. Made me mad too, because I'm getting excited seeing all this stuff, but then super deflated when I realized it was just marked down a little, not a true CLEARANCE price markdown.

So there you have it, if u want a good deal go to Academy and shop their clearance racks, you'll actually get clearance prices there :)

chicken pot pie

This is the chicken pot pie I made for dinner the other night. It used to be a real easy recipe with canned soup and frozen veggies and cooked chicken. But Dan said he thought it would be better with fresh chopped veggies, so here is what I did and how it broke down calorie wise...

It does take 2 frozen/thawed pie crusts (I guess u could not use the bottom one and save 1048 calories from the whole entree, which would save 262 calories on a 1/4 portion (pretty significant I guess). I didn't do this though, maybe next time?? I filled it with chopped/shredded cooked chicken -about 2-3 cups I guess. It was 3 tenders and one breast. I added about 1 cup frozen peas. 2 cans crm potatoe soup. pepper and thyme (1/2 tsp each). one half cup milk. Now instead of using a bag of frozen veggies , I peeled and thinly sliced carrots (1 cup) and celery (half cup), then I steamed them both before I put them in the pie, just so they would be sure to be fully cooked. After u dump everything in the bottom pie crust u turn the other pie crust upside down and put it on top and crimp the edges to make a top. put slices in in, cook it on 375 for 40 minutes and waallaa, your pie! I figured out that the whole pie as I made it (with 2 crusts) is 2467 calories. So 1/4 would be 616.75 calories, or if you're really hungry 1/3 of the pie would be 822 calories. Remember you could change this to 354 or 560 if u only used one crust instead of 2. Maybe I'll try that next time.

I know this wasn't a really clear recipe since I didn't list it out nice and neat, and there are no step by step photos, but I kinda wanted to share it just because it looked so pretty with the heart :) And since I didn't use a whole bag of frozen veggies this is the first time I made it where it didn't overflow, so it looks much prettier this way. ha ha. (as always, with about 10-15 min left on the timer, I put tin foil on the edges to prevent burning of the pie crust). Let me know what u think.

its negative...

That means... I am not pregnant. I took an (expired pregnancy test) to confirm, and then was doubly confirmed a few hours later with my cycle. This news is fine, however, it just means I need to kick it in gear in the workout department, because my stomach shouldn't look like this if I'm not preggers! I hope its just a culmination of too much carrot cake and banana bread, and I hope its NOT a sign of things to come with my metabolism or hormones changing because I am on the verge of turning 40! Time for some crunches I guess... and a lot less unhealthy food!

Belly bulge

I've probably mentioned this before, but if not, here's the skinny... when I gain weight it goes to my butt and thighs first. Consequently that is the last place I lose it too (bummer). I usually never gain weight in my stomach. Before kiddos I had a natural 6-pack without ever really having to work at it. Just good genes I guess-I'm certainly not complaining about that area (I will ALWAYS complain about my butt and thighs though ha ha). After kiddos though, I've had to make an effort to do more ab work to keep my tummy relatively flat. Welllllll, for some reason I've noticed that my belly these past 5-7 days is bulging out, as if I was 3-4 months pregnant! I'm not sure what the deal is, but it is boggling me and driving me crazy. On the one hand, it looks like a baby bump, so I get sweet thoughts about it, but then I remember there is no way I could be pregnant, so there is no reason for me to have a bump like this. Except ... that maybe I've been eating too much food! Yikes! I've got to get this bump under control, because that's just crazy. My youngest daughter even told me today that it looks like I have a baby belly! crazy.

queso update

By the way, if you recall I promised to give up restaurant queso and chips for a year. I made it through Feb, but in March I did eat them one time. It was during the week when I was sick and feeling weak if I didn't have food fast, so when we got to the restaurant I was already at that point and just began eating them mainly so that I wouldn't throw up before my meal arrived. My stomach was all messed up. So yea, its a bit of a cop out but its still only one time in three months so I'm going to keep trying to maintain this for the next 9 months and we'll see what happens. If nothing else, at least I'm decreasing the amount of chips and queso I eat and THAT'S got to be good for my waistline regardless. :)

getting back in the groove

Finally recovered from my cold, sinus infection, allergies, etc. so I am feeling GOOD again- yippee! That is until I went to class yesterday and Jen about KILLED the muscles in my hamstrings (which by the way were already sore from Tues, since besides last thursday is the only real workout I've had in about 3 weeks (!yikes!). The weather has begun to turn warm here, which means that the mornings are absolutely BEAUTIFUL! A little chill, but just right for walking or running or biking....so, I am re-motivated to get out there and get going! I even pulled out our bike rack and I'm going to try to install it on my car so I can transport the bikes easier to the turnpike trail to go riding. This year W should be able to ride along with me (or I can run as she rides), instead of my pulling her in the bike cart like I've had to do in the past. Since I don't have to bring the bike cart, I think I can use the rack and it'll be easier to transport everything, which means hopefully I'll do it more often :) Anyone locally want to go with me?

Got my Garmin out again and used it on a short run last weekend with the dog. I love that thing! It is so amazing and cool to know your speed, calories burned, etc while running outside. Helps with motivation too :)