Hello, a quick update, I have 50 more Magic flowers to make before the wake tomorrow.
Food
I've been doing really good with the food. Yesterday for breakfast I had an egg, and two cheese sticks. Lunch was a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with mayo, lettuce, spinach, green peppers and tomatoes from Subway with chips and a Coke. Dinner was a big ass salad, filet mignon and a baked potato.
Today's breakfast was half an apple, two sticks of cheese. Lunch was a tuna sandwich on whole wheat, chips and carrots. Snack was two clementines and dinner is chicken fettuccine alfredo with salad.
Exercise
Yesterday was flexibility. Yay! My butt is so sore from the other day though and today was Legs and Abs which my legs are screaming and on fire right now. But! This was the first time I was able to do ALL the lunges, so yay me!
Goodbye
Thanks for checking in. I should be back to normal blog posts at the end of the week.
Welcome This will probably be a short update, I'm wicked tired and have had a hard time sleeping so far this week. I'm also making flowers out of Magic The Gathering cards for Chris's funeral so I'm wicked busy and have so much to do before Friday. So, quick update inbound.
A sample of aforementioned flowers.
Food
So, yesterday was Kyle's (boyfriend) last day ever at working at Wal-Mart this was a great thing! Here's to a happier and healthier boyfriend! We wanted to celebrate so we went to Famous Dave's BBQ for dinner. I had a salad with ranch, fries, mac and cheese and beef tenderloins. I ate about half so there's more for lunch. On Monday my breakfast was two cheese sticks. Lunch was one egg, caprese salad, two clementines, and an avacado. Dinner was Chicken and Broccoli Pasta bake.
Exercise
Still going on the exercise. Today was Cardio and Upper Body. My whole body is screaming right now, I thought that was going to kill me. Tomorrow is flexibility...yes.....
Goodbye
Updates will become more often and in detail at the end of the week. It's just been a busy and rough time.
Welcome So, it's been a long past five days. I'll go into detail below but this has helped kind of kick me in the ass to get my shit in gear and get going. The Loss of a Friend My group of friends have been friends since middle/high school. There are about ten guys and I'm the only girl that hangs around that has been there since middle/high school. I had a major falling out with them over a bunch of bullshit with them treating my boyfriend like shit with their D&D Weekly meet-up group (he's also part of this batch of friends) and just not being good friends. I hadn't spoken to any of them in about seven months. Late on Wednesday the boyfriend got a call that Chris, one of our friends had passed away. I'm still processing and not sure what to feel seeing as how I was so angry with him (and most of them) for such a long time and I just feel...strange. We've been spending a lot of time together which has been great and very healing. Last night we went through his stuff and distributed it amongst each other which was hard and weird. He has really no family left so it's up to us to plan his wake which has been difficult, but we'll get through.
I googled "Things that make me smile" and this
came up and I found it quite relevant to the Blog.
Why is this relevant to this blog? "Okay, you had a friend die, that sucks, but this is a diet and exercise blog why are you telling us this?" I'm sharing this story because he passed due to complications from obesity. We had noticed him getting heavier and not being able to be as active for years, and while many of us tried to step in and help him he just wouldn't accept it. Like they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. The night they found him they were planning on dragging him to a hospital to get him help but it was too late. This has scared the shit out of me. I am not obese. I'm no where close (I don't think or look like it, but on the BMI scale who knows lol). But I don't want this to be me. Exercise So I haven't been able to stick to my exercise schedule as it's written due to the craziness that's been going on, but I have completed all my exercises I was supposed to for the week. Friday was supposed to be cardio and Saturday was supposed to be flexibility so I just knocked them both out today. I'm tired of my legs being tired lol, but the cardio is getting easier. Food Today I went grocery shopping. I picked up stuff for sandwiches (with whole wheat bread), stuff for breakfast smoothies, snacks and a fuck ton of chicken because it was on sale. I'm still in the process of tweaking my Alton Brown diet plan, although now I'm drinking a smoothie from his Diet show and I'll share the recipe below. It's quite delicious!
Buff Smoothie
Ingredients:
4 ounces plain, low-fat soy milk
4 ounces acai, grape, or pomegranate juice
4 ounces frozen banana
4 ounces frozen strawberries
4 ounces frozen blueberries
4 ounces frozen peaches
Directions:
Before bed combine everything in blender carafe and refrigerate.
In the morning blend.
Drink!
My store was out of peaches so I used Pineapple, pretty tasty and. I also used acai juice.
Welcome Hello! Bet you thought I'd forgotten about this? Things have been a little hectic lately for me to be able to keep updated as much as I would like plus I think I want to change things up a little bit. Food I think my issue with the food has been that I strongly dislike having to eat stuff I don't like (yogurt, sweet potatoes...) when I feel like I don't necessarily eat that bad in the first place. Yes, fast food is my sweet addiction, howver, last week I was struck in the heart (and stomach) by my mistress McDonalds who gave me food poisoning and I would like to not eat there again for many moons. I think that will help me say no to the fast food for awhile. I think I may look up some alternatives for the things I don't like to try and fit it all in. Maybe I'll just try portion control and only home-made meals? No box dinners or processed stuff. I mean honestly, I'm not that bad with food (minus the fast stuff). I love vegetables, fruit, salads and eat them all the time. I don't much care of sweets much, I'm honestly thinking it's the active factor for me. I'm not sure what I want to do on the food front, still trying to figure that out.
If I could have my own personal salad chef I would be so happy.
Exercise I haven't however stopped on the exercise front. I keep forgetting to wear my pedometer (not to mention I drop the damn thing constantly). I need to figure out how to get it in my phone, although that's not very accurate because I don't always carry that with me everywhere. I have stuck with my workout DVD and am now at the point where I do two exercises a day. The cardio and legs are still kicking my ass lol. Today is flexibility and should be great! Goodbye So those are thoughts and where I'm at. Feel free to share your feelings.
Welcome! Hello team! Not much to report, let's just get started! Food! Guys, I've been craving the McDonalds. I can't even begin to tell you. I want those golden, salty crispy fries so damn bad! Anyway, I digress. Breakfast: Watermelon, Strawberries, Cantaloupe Lunch: Spinach Salad (salmon, cranberries, almonds, home made vinaigrette dressing, spinach), Roasted Sweet Potatoes. Dinner: Turkey Spaghetti (freshly made), Garlic Bread Snack: Cheese square, Pumpkin Seeds Water: 50 OZ Other Beverages: Two cups coffee, one cup green tea
So today we took our students to Costco. I tried a whole grain bread with some butter on it that was pretty tasty. I also tried a spinach/artichoke dip that was way too salty and garlicky - took a bite and threw it out. Tonight I'm teaching a friend about eBay and she's making home-made spaghetti which is sure to be delicious!
Exercise
Oh man. I got my ass kicked today. Today was cardio and she was so fast I could barely keep up with the video! I'm also going to have to do cardio day at work so I'll have more room and somewhere to get some traction to be able to do everything. There were some exercises that I couldn't keep my back straight because I was going to lose my traction and fall lol.
Video: Cardio 17 Minutes (Jumping Jacks, Seal Jacks, Cossack Squats, Pec Stretch, YWT, Plank to Pushup, Burpee Jump, Mountain Climbers, Jumping Jack Planks, Squat Lunge, Inch Worm Pushup, T-Plank Rotation, Hip Thrust)
Steps: 8,025
Other Exercise: Half a mile speed walk with Koda husky, Six flights of stairs up and down at friend's apartment.
I have the worst luck with pedometers. Today, as I was getting ready to go down to my friend's apartment I dropped my pedometer and it broke.... again. I put the battery back in and it reset my pedometer. I know I was over 8,000 when I dropped it, so I did awesome with steps today!
Welcome! Hello everyone! Day three is here! Today for work we took the kiddos to the Museum so lots of walking, which was great and fun. They had Dippin' Dots there (my crack) but luckily (unluckily) for me they only had Vanilla and Banana Split flavors. No thank you. Moving on! Food Today was pretty good and I was very conscious of what I was eating and what I was wanting. I'll be having dinner at a friend's house tomorrow while I show her how to set up an eBay store and such so tomorrow may not be as good as today. Breakfast: Pineapple, Watermelon. Lunch: Salad (Romaine, Red Peppers, Carrots, Cucumbers, Cheddar Cheese, White Vinaigrette Dressing), Cheese Cubes, Strawberries, Pineapple, Watermelon Dinner: Baked Sweet Potatoes. Chicken Drumstick (from a rotisserie chicken), Spinach salad (dried cranberries, almonds, and balsamic home-made dressing). Snack: Almonds Water Consumed: 48 OZ Other Beverages: Two cups of coffee, One cup of Green Tea
Hopefully this is easier to read and understand.
So I went ahead and bought some Green Tea because I figured that would be an easy one to knock off the daily list, and it would be dumb to just not do it. I made it, let it cool so I could chug it and it actually wasn't that bad. It's certainly not replacing my coffee, but it was okay for a once a day drink.
\I'm also not a big fan of sweet potatoes. They're too sweet for me, I like my potatoes starchy and Russet-y. So this recipe was really not that bad (I'll post it below) so at least I've got a quick little easy Sweet potato recipe that I can make. I'm wondering if I can cheat two sweet potatoes into my three times a week?
I missed out on the whole grain today, I'm not sure how to get that in my diet everyday. I was thinking pasta? But I can only have that once a week. Rice maybe? I'm not sure on that one.
Baked Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
2 Sweet Potatoes (Peeled and cut into bite size cubes)
2 t Olive Oil
1 T Butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 t Ground Cinnamon
1/4 t Ground Nutmeg
Salt to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut potatoes into cubes and put them in an 8x8 pan. (I had a round pyrex I put mine in).
Melt the butter and pour over the potatoes.
Cover with the spices and oil and stir all together.
Bake 60 minutes, stirring once or twice while in the oven.
So, like I said today we took the students to the museum so there was a lot of walking. So you can imagine my frustration when I check my pedometer around lunch time and I only have 670 steps. What? There's no way! We've walked all over this bottom part of the museum, not to mention shopping earlier today, there's no way. I gave it a few good shakes and it seemed to start working again, I think the drop yesterday just shook some things loose. So, second day in a row we don't get an accurate pedometer reading.
Video: Flexibility (7 Min) Spider Stretch; Pigeon; Spine Low Back Stretch; Rocking Frog; Child's Pose; Cobra; Squat to Stand
Steps: 3,890
Other Exercise: Stairs only today instead of taking escalators.
This felt so amazing...
Today's video work out was Flexibility. Now, I hate Yoga. I hate getting that hot and sweaty when I feel like I'm not doing anything. Give me some weights and make me lift - no problem. Tell me to get into "downward facing dog" and we have issues. However, I can see why they set up this video like they did. It was a very quick stretch/work out today but it made my muscles feel so good, especially my knees/legs which have been killing me since Monday.
Parting Thoughts
That's it! Not much else to see here. Will post back tomorrow!
Welcome Hello! So today is day two of blogging and the exercising. Like I mentioned in my first post I won't really be able to start the diet portion until the 20th since that's when I get paid and I can go get some foods. This post is mainly to document what I did today and to see how I want to set this blog up. Food I felt like I did pretty good today having not really been "on diet" yet. I turned down sweets, which honestly is not too difficult for me, as salt is my seductress. Breakfast: Pineapple, Watermelon, Grapes, Cantaloupe, Pepita Seeds Lunch: Avocado (with lime juice and garlic salt), Broccoli, Carrots, Celery. Dinner: Chipotle Burrito (Tortilla, Steak, Brown Rice, Lettuce, Cheese, Sour cream) Snack: Handful of Pringles (sweet sweet salt) Water Consumed: 32 OZ Other Beverages: 16 OZ Raspberry Lemonade
Not bad for day one and not really starting it yet...
I made a large bottle of water to take to work, my goal is to try and drink it all before the day is up, I had about 4 OZ left when I left, so I'm doing okay on that. My goal is two of those a day. I would consider Chipotle fast food, even though it's probably one of the healthier options so I went ahead and marked it on the chart as eaten.
Exercise
So, my legs are screaming from yesterday. I forgot how much I hate the day after leg day. It's always fun to try and sit down and the pain from your legs erupts out of your mouth in a high pitched squeal. Today was upper body. Easy peasy. I enjoyed the work out and it was done quickly. Tomorrow's is flexibility.
I wore my pedometer today and by the time I left work I had over 4,000 steps, then I dropped it and the battery popped out, erasing everything. When I took it off for the night I had accumilated another 1,500 (give or take). So I think my goal for everyday will be 6,500 steps.
Video: Upper Body - 14 Minutes (Warm up (jumping jacks; seal jacks; pec stretch; y-w-t;). Pushup; row; lateral raises; bicep curls; tricep kickback; repeat all; stretch.)
Steps: 5,500 (give or take)
Any other exercise: Not today.
Upper Body Day was easy - come on abs day!
Parting Thoughts
So far, so good. It's hard to get really started when you can't jump in to all of it right away but so far I'm feeling good and confident. We'll see how we continue!
Welcome Greetings to anyone that may be reading this! This is more a journal for me to keep me motivated, although if my past blog history has anything to prove, it's that I get bored with these quickly. Here's hoping I can keep this one going! The Plan So, I am a huge fan of Alton Brown. For those of you that don't know, you should check out his cooking show Good Eats which is sadly not made anymore, but you can catch reruns as well as a carefully selected batch of episodes. Among those, was his "Live and Let Diet" episode in which he briefly goes through what helped him lose 50 pounds in nine months. Now, I don't consider myself fat. Sure I've gained some weight, mostly from being inactive and eating like shit. I've started to get to the point where I look in the mirror and it's a little too much for me to take. So, that being the case, it's time to fix it. That's the plan.
Food The "diet" that Alton went on that was so successful for him is as follows, he describes it as learning and differentiating between energy-dense and nutrient dense food. Here's the "Must-Eats" and "Never-Eats"
Not bad little chart for MSPaint.
Now, I'm not going into this thinking it'll be easy. The first thing looking at this that is like "Oh shit" is the fast food. I love me some McDonalds. I probably eat fast food two-three times a week. I love it. Fighting off those cravings will be the hardest part for me.
The next challenge I see is in the daily and three times weekly categories; I hate tea and yogurt. Now, I may be able to make some Green Tea, let it cool, and then just do the ol' pinch-your-nose-and-down-the-hatch trick, so I'm not too worried about that one. But I'm going to have to find some sort of substitute for the yogurt. From what I've found so far is cottage cheese, which if it's not in a lasagna I'm not eating it. And sour cream... and I can't imagine eating a cup of sour cream is healthy in anyway. The rest of it I'm excited to take on.
One thing Alton makes unclear however is, is the rest of your menu open? Can you eat whatever else you want, just make sure you eat X every day, Y at least three times a week and avoid Z? I think how I'll approach it, at least at first, is to have all of this in my diet, and also be free to use chicken/seafood for dinners.
Exercise
So, I love working out. I used to go to the gym everyday after work, but then they closed that gym and the closest one to my house from the same company was twenty minutes out of the way home, where as this one was on the way. Due to finances I haven't been able to sign up at a new one yet. For Christmas I received a work out video from WWE Fit.
The smile is inviting, the eyes thrive on pain.
The great thing about this DVD is that it comes with a work out calendar and all workouts have a warm-up and cool down built into it. If all else fails I'll be at least sticking to the work out schedule. I started today and man that "Lower body" exercise almost killed me. I hate leg day. This is going to be fun.
I think I'm also going to wear a pedometer and set a goal of 2,000 steps a day. That may seem low, I'm not sure, I guess I'll see how a regular work day goes and pick a number from there. That should also help me get more active. Plus I have a Husky...there's no excuse.
Goal
Now, I don't know how all this works. I don't know how weight is going to come off, what is "achievable" and what is impossible to achieve. The last time I stepped on a scale which was over a year ago I was at 164 lbs. I'm sure I've probably fluctuated within ten pounds of that. My goal is to be in the 130-135 range. So, how long does it take to lose 34 pounds? Well, assuming it took Alton all of nine months to lose 50, that should be about 5.5 pounds a month, so that would be six months give or take a week to lose my 34 assuming everything goes to plan. So I guess that's my goal. Lose 30-34 pounds in six months. Perfect time for bikini season.
That just means I get to go shopping...
Starting
One of the shit things with my job is I get paid once a month. And it's at the end of the month. So, while I can start the exercising now, I can't go load up on food until the 20th, which is a bummer but I'll try and get in what I can where I can until then. Getting off the couch is a start right? So, the workouts have started, the food will soon be following and we'll see what happens. Feel free to comment, encourage each other, encourage me, or follow along with my diet/exercise on your own!
